The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-15 00:00:00

MONEY AND CITY NEWS.

(FROM THE MORNING PAPERS Of THIS DAY.)

CHRONI ;LE.—Affairs in general in the English stock
Market present no particular feature, and remain exactly the
same tiA oh Saturday.
Business in shafts Continues unimportant, and not extensive,
se that there is scarcely any alteration to notice in the quota-
tions. Bii'mingharb railway shares (old), left off at
77 to 79 prem.; ditto (new), 24 to 25 prem. ; South-
ampton (old), 44 to 45 per share I ditto (new), 19 to
If' prem. ; Great Western, 13f to 14} prem. ; North Mid-
land, 2 to .1 prem. ; Birmingham and Derby, 9to 8 dis. ;
Leeds and Manchester, /9 to 21 prem. ; Midland Counties,
16 to 15 dis. ; South Eastern 6 to 9 die. ; Brighton, 3 to 2i
dis. ; Blackwall If to dis. ; Croydon, 1:4 to per share ;
ditto (new), 2 to If dis. ; and Greenwich, 16i to 11 pershare.
The only advices this morning beyond the regular daily
mails, arc from Lisbon, where things are represented as going
on satisfactorily. The most important portion of the news is
the spirit of conciliation manifested by all the leading mem-
bers of the Chamber, showing the favourable and desirable
effect produced by the coalition. The Transit steam-vessel,
ashlch is expected to-morrow or Wednesday, will bring the
first vote, which it is said will show a great majority in favour
of Ministers, and set at rest any anticipation of difficulty
being in the way of the present men in office, or of the pro-
gress of national measures. The revenue continues to im-
prove, and is collected in money, a most important change for
the better in the aff%irs of Portugal. Of the 70,0001. received
by the Custom's in November about 3501. only were draw.
backs and ex-paper moneys and which arose from some old
pending transaction. Portugal was everywh( re tranquil.
The prides of the various securities were :—Five per Cent.
paper and metal, 10 to 73 ; Four per Cent. ditto, 56 to 58;
Four per Cent. metallic, 41 to 45; shares in Contanca Corn-
-I:any, 27 per cent. prem. ; and Bank shares of 500 ra., 000
(toners, are quoted at 570 rs., 000 dollars.

HE R LH.—Papers have been received from St. John's,
New Brunswick, to the 16th of December last, from which it
appears that the Governor of Nova Scotia has removed the
restrictions placed upon the sales of Crown lands, by the
direction of the Earl of Durham, late Governor-General, the
completion of the arrangement contemplated by his Excellency
having been interrupted by his return to England.
Commercial advices from Smyrna, to the 16th of December,
state that for the month previous commercial affairs had been
tolerably active. Wheat, owing to the short supply and the
demand which has arisen in the various parts of Europe, more
particularly in England, has been and was still the object of
continued transactions in that market, and many contracts for
immediate delivery were on the point of being effected; the last
prices quoted being 31 a 32 piastres for Ouchac, and 29 to 30 do
fur the other descriptions of Anatolia wheat, all free on board
in the port of Stnyrna: The market was much better stocked
with the productions of Anatolia than it was a month anterior.
Cotton, though the crop was less abundant than was first ima-
gined, was plentiful there in all qualities, and found buyers for
Europe at pricci which, though they appear high, have never-
theless been paid—vit., far Sauboujac 250 piastres, for Kis-
kagaz 230, for Cassaba 228 a 239, and for Kinia 228 piastres.
In other articles of import there had been no change, a few
sales were made daily, and it was hoped that business would
be more active in 1839. The exchanges had been stationary,
which was expected to last for some time, as bills on Europe
were in greater demand than the wants of remittdr2.

Money has been rather more in request in the commercial
circles to-day, and discounts have been effected, even at the
high rate of 4 per cent., on very good paper. On the Stock
Exchange there has also been a much griater demand for
money, arising out of the circumstance, that the arrangement
of the account for the Foreign Market, and the settling for the
opening in the British Funds and other English securities,
takes place so immediately together, the days fixed respec-
tively being, for the 15th inst. in the foreign house, and the
16th inst. in the English market.

The immediate approximation of the settling in the two
markets has induced rather more business in both. The
British have closed firmly, and the Commissioners for the
Savings' Banks have purchased about 3,500/. in Three per
Cents Reduced, at 93g. Some doubts are, however, enter-
tained that a portion of the late purchases which have been
made in their name has been on an account not directly ema-
nating from those establishments, inasmuch as it is doubted
whether, at this season of the year, the deposits could have
accumulated so much as to have allowed fully the sum of
25,000/. per week for so long a period to be withdrawn from
theEe useful institutions for investment in the public funds.
Con?ols left off at 944 a for the opening, and 924 a j ex.
div. The Three-and-a-Half per Cent. Reduced Annuities
are l 00.? a money, and the New Three-and-a- Half per Cents
1001 a ex. div, Bank Stock is 202+ a 203, for money.
India Stock is 256} a 257 money ex. div., and 262 - time.
The premium upon Exchequer Bills is 66 a 68, and on India
Bonds 65.

POST.—Further purchases of Consols were made to-day
by the Commissioners for account (as it is said) of the
savings' hanks. These operations are beginning to be viewed
by capitalists and others with some suspicion. They have
now been continued for a very long period, and to so great an
extent, that many persons have an idea that they are not ex-
clusively for the use of the savings' banks, but that the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer must have some concern in them.
The official reports published within the last few days on the
subject of the revenue, show that Government have still an

important deficiency to deal with, and, as it cannot happen but
that extraordinary expenses to a large amount will have been in-
curred for military purposes in Canada and India, it is difficult to
see from what source the needful supplies of money arc to be
obtained, unless it be by means of a loan. The unfunded
debt is already inconveniently large, and a fresh issue of
Exchequer Bills to any great extent does not seem to be
considered likely. A loan might, it is thought, be the most
ready and practicable expedient to have recourse to, and, from
some circumstances that have been noticed in connection with
the purchases to which we have adverted, it has become a
question whether Mr. Spring Rice has not in reality come to
the determination of proposing one on the re-assembling of
Parliament. The investments made by the Commissioners
have been in portions of about six or eight thousand pounds
daily, and not in large amounts; but the sum taken is, upon
the whole, very considerable; and may not these daily trans-
actions upon a small scale have been resorted to, it is asked,
for the purpose of acting upon the market, and of enabling the
Chancellor to come into it to the greatest advantage ? We
merely repeat what has been suggested by others as not im-
probable to be the course the Right Hon. Gentleman will take
in the existing emergency, and without pretending to be
in any way answerable for the impressions that hints of so
equivocal a nature may be calculated to convey. At the same
time we must confess that when the very awkward situation in
which the country is placed, with respect to her financial af-
fairs, is duly considered, they appear to us to be not unworthy
of public attention.

The result of the day's business in Mark lane has been
looked for by commercial men with great interest this after-
noon. It was expected that the late advance in wheat would
induce holders to bring large quantities to market. This does
not, however, turn out to have been the case. Ou the con-
trary, the supplies continue very moderate. Some depression
was observable in English wheat, more especially towards the
close of th,, day; but this has arisen from the bad condition
of the pars offered, rather than from any other cause. In
foreign there was certainly a decline of Is. or 2s. per quarter
on day 's prices.

TIME S.—By letters from New Orleans of the 30th of No-
vember, received by the last packet from New York, it ap-
pears that the operations of the Union Bank of Mississipi in
cotton, to which notice has been already directed, are taking a
most extensive range, and threaten to rival those carried on
through the United States Bank and its agents. This is a
matter of vital interest to the manufacturing districts of this
country, since the effect of these operations is to enhance ar-
tificially the price of cotton, and also, if successful, to reduce
many of our cotton mills to short work, or perhaps even to
compel them for a time to cease working. To make the casa
worse, the portion of the American banking interest thus hos
tilely arrayed against our manufacturing industry is supplied
by us, for the most part, with the capital requisite for the pur-
pose. In the instance of the United States Bank, as was
shown a short time back, more than half of the shares arc held
here, and in that of the Union Bank of Mississippi, which is
becoming its great rival in the trade, the bonds of a new loan
of 5,000,000 dollars, recently taken by Mr. Biddle, are at this
moment selling in our market. So that English money is em-
ployed to assist American banks in making cotton dear, and
crippling that branch of our national trade which is admitted to
be one of the prime sources of its prosperity.
These American banks do not content themselves with
buying up cotton and making large advances to the planters to
enable them to hold back their stocks of the article, but they
employ every kind of artifice to mislead the public and cause
it to be believed that the crop now coming forward of last
year's growth is a very deficient one. That may be so or not,
for the means of judging accurately are not easy of access ;
but, if mistaken in that respect (such is the enormous amount
of the cotton product of the United States), no power of the
banks can ultimately sustain the price, and they must pay th..
penalty of error just as much as any private speculator. This
danger, to which they are exposed, creates a strong induce-
ment to that perversion of the facts rela, ive to the state of the
new crops to which allusion has been made, and their object
will be to get rid of their own stock before the whole truth can
be known in Europe. Thus a double mischief to English in-
terests may arise out of these operations—if the American
banks succeed, the cotton-spinners are punished; if they are
very extensive losers, those who have supplied them with capi-
tal may fall short some day or other of a dividend.
As there is no stopping these operations, however dan-
gerous they may be in principle, even to the banks them-
selves, and directly injurious to the mercantile interest of
both countries, the point to which attention may now be most
usefully directed is to ascertain whether or not the American
cotton crop is, as the emissaries of the banks assume, a defi-
cient one, or whether it is, on the contrary, as many disinte-
rested persons believe, an abundant one. If once the assur-
ance could be created in our manufacturing districts that the
crop is not deficient, they will at once take the proper steps to
embarrass the monopolizers, by putting their mills on short
work, and not accumulating any more stock than they require
for present use, and this is understood to be already the case
with many of the Lancashire manufacturers, who are too
crafty not to distrust the statements of a deficiency which arc
so industriously put into circulation. We shall be gratified to
find that they are in the right, for the sympathies of every
one possessing a spark of English feeling must be on their side,
while bearing uo against this confederacy of American
" ragmen" to oppress and injure them.
in the cntten-growing ,`:',.t.4l;:s of America opinkr,
not at all run in favour of a deficiency in the crop of cotton.
An intelligent merchant of New Orleans, engaged in that
trade, whose letter is now before us, says—" After carefully