The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

MO IN EY MA it ET

AND
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, Two y'CLoc
The Liverpool cotton market, yesterday, under-
went no particular alteration. The sales amounted
to 7,000 bales, of which 1,000 were taken on specu-
lation. Up:ands brought 51d., Mobile 70., and
Orleans 6d. per lb. Railway Shares closed quietly
at about previous quotations.
There was a very active movement in the tallow
market yesterday afternoon, and prices advanced
rapidly, the trade having suffered their stocks to
become much reduced, and speculators who had
oversold having to buy back.
It is not to corn, tallow, or public securities that
the indefatigable Greeks confine their speculative
attentions. Great disapprobation has arisen in
those quarters where steady trade is more appre-
ciated than the fitful movements of excited mar-
kets, gainful to the lucky capitalist or gambler,
but damaging to the consuming millions. It would
be senseless to join in the hue and cry against that
justifiable application of means which superior judg-
ment or information entitle every man to make ;
but where the prices of any article are unfairly
driven it is high time to enter a protest. We un-
derstand that, through the Greek houses, which
are generally compactand reciprocal in their efforts,
the foreign fruit market has been violently acted
upon this week, the article of raisins having been
forced up as much as 51. per ton, and experienced
parties in the trade assure us that there is no suffi-
cient reason for this advance. It is bad enough
. to have things bought up and monopolised at the
place of growth, but to have them cleared off the
market after their arrival here is both a disappoint-
ment and a privation.
To measure the uigency of a financial difficulty
there is nothing like figures, often decreed and
frequently perverted though they be. In the
leading columns of yesterday's SUrt, it was justly
allowed that the advance in the Bank of England
rate of discount to 5i per cent, was to a certain
extent justified by the provisions of our currency
laws, and in corroboration of this view we have
but to take the balance-sheet of that institution
made up for the week to the 29th ult. ; and which,
we do not hesitate to declare is of such a character
as to excite very lively apprehension, and to re-
mind us of what we witnessed in the memorable
year of panic, when the Order in Council alone
saved the Bank from suspension of payments. We
do not go the length of asserting that we are to
pass to the extreme limits of a similar order, be-
cause, taught by experience, the decisive mea-
sures necessary to arrest the evil will, it may be
hoped, be adopted in good time ; but to suffer banks
or bullion houses to come into the London market
and buy the gold which we shall require ourselves,
but which a law, suited only to the Medes and
Persians, prevents our taking, even at a halfpenny
per ounce beyond the fixed and Parliamentary
value, is to co*rt embarrassment and wholesale
depreciation of property. The favourite crotchet
of forcing an export trade by artificial cheapness,
or, in plainer terms, by levying on home capital
and labour for the advantage of the foreign buyers,
would be more than even impolitic at the present
time, as the various markets abroad have scarcely
recovered from the glut of former years, and ars
but just returning to a healthy condition ; while
it is notorious that our own colonies are still abun-
dantly supplied. But there is scarcely a dissen-
tient voice at this time as to the soundness
of our general trade and its- entire innocence
of having directly or indirectly brought us
to the present crisis. The gold from Australia
was offered to the Bank, but if the Dutch
or Greek dealer bid a higher price for Russia, or
the French merchant for Paris, no law binding our
Bank to an arbitary value will prevent its com-
petitors sweeping off the whole amount. And so
it will be with every succeeding arrival until the
rate of discount overtops the profit on the remit-
tance. What the Bank of France is doing is not
quite such a senseless operation as the Times
would have the public believe, since there are
various contrivances for deferring or graduating
Payments, that may fritter them away, and leave
us minus the gold in the end, by establishing and
substituting in the interim some legitimate com-
mercial or financial indebtedness against us. This
much is certain, that the aggregate wealth of the
country becomes diminished by the process, and
that although capital may be attracted to our
shores by cheap goods and low-priced securities, it
will be at a cost of as many shillings as it need,
under a better system, have been pence in the pound.
Returning to the Bank balance-sheet, it is impos-
sible to credit that for commercial purposes alone
nearly one million five hundred thousand pounds
More was in one week required from this establish-
ment. No, it was the foreign drain that brought
forward such a host of borrowers, not simply in the
shape of bullion exporters, but likewise of alarmed
though non-speculative and sound traders, who
fear to be suddenly deprived of their usual dis-
count facilities, and fear all the more be-
cause they cannot fathom the cause. Time
will show how much longer this can be en-
dured, and the struggle which the Bank itself has
to maintain can scarcely make it greatly enamoured
of the act of ],844. Its rapid loss of notes as well
as bullion in reserve tells its own tale—waut of
means to meet an emergency, and want of confi-
dence to rely upon the vaunted self-acting prin-
ciple, which somehow or other always fails when it
would be most useful. Compared with the pre-
vious week the changes are as follows :

Active circulation
Increase
Bullion
Decrease

£20,172,685
764 250
12,938,928
329,679
3,670,125
Increase 12,918
Public Deposits 8,144,209
Decrease 245,683
Other Deposits
Increase 171,078
Seven-Day and other Bills
Increase.. 1,202
Government Securities 12,125,026
Decrease....
Other Securities 19,915,763
Increase 1,406,485
Notes unemployed 6,195,570
Decrease 1,091,245
Yesterday afternoon there was a further slight
advance in the quotations for bills of exchange
negotiated here upon all the principal continental
cities. Paris, 90 days, was taken at 25 65 to 70,
Hamburg at 13 91 to Frankfort at 119 to
Trieste at 11 30 to 34, and Amsterdam at 12 to
12 4.

Rest

The Marco Polo, from Australia, is now 97 days
out, as she was to leave Melbourne July 21. She
will no doubt bring a considerable amount of gold.
The steamer Africa is off Holyhead.
The shipments of the precious metals during the
week ending Thursday last comprised 58,800
ounces of silver, and 5,080 ounces of gold, all to
the Continent.
The English Funds have this morning been ex-
tremely depressed, and, compared even with the
closing rates of yesterday,which were 87 ito 87k for
Consols, there is a further reduction of tto per
cent. The position of the Bank of England is of
course the main cause of this, and there have been.
large sales, both seal and speculative, by two or
three brokers, one of whom has acted all alone, as
is supposed, for the Bank of England. The price
of Consols for money has been as low as 87 to 81*)
but has since rallied to 87i to 871. The November,ose
prices have been about 87i to 87, and they close
at 87i to 871. Exchequer Bills have continued at
Is. to ss. discount.
In the Foreign Market there has been a further
decline in Turkish Bonds, the 6 per Cents. being
down to 82i. to 831, and the Scrip to 2/ to 21 dis-
count. Mexican have been flatter, and Buenos
Ayres have declined to 53/. Brazilian small stock
is at par. Spanish Threes have been marked 38 to
38±, being full rates, and Dutch 2k per Cents.
have been quoted at 64 to 641.
The following are the nominal prices of foreign
stocks :---Grenada Deferred Bonds, 18 to 20; Mexi-
can, 211 to 214 ; Peruvian Four-and-a-Half per
Cents., 74 to 76 ; ditto Three per Cents., 54 to 56;
Portuguese Four per Cents., 43 to 45 ; Russian
Five per Cents., 97 to 99 ; ditto Four-and-a-Half
per Cents., 85 to 88 ; Spanish New Deferred,
19± to 191; ditto. Three per Cents., 37i to 381 ;
ditto Certificates, 4.t to 4 ; ditto Passive, 4i to
Railway Shares keep their ground better than
might be expected, although certainly 1 to 4 per
cent, down on the average. Lancashire and York-
shire are buoyant, and North-Eastern are higher.
North-Western are steady. Great Western of