The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

AIONEY MARKET

A ND
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWO o'CLOCK. shr
The sales of cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at from 9,000 to 10,000 bales, including
2,000 American and 800 Surat taken for export and
on speculation. The market closed firmly, without
change in prices. The sales comprised 150 Per-
nam and Maranham at 6d. to 7d., 400 Egyptian at
6d. to 90., 2,000 Surat at 2id. to 41d., and the
remainder nearly all American. Railway Shares
4
were quiet.
There arrived in the Thames yesterday 67 ships
from abroad, 3 from Ireland, and 8 colliers.
The accounts from Ireland represent the effect
of the recent Liverpool and London failure as
being exceedingly injurious, and as having occa-
sioned a suspension of payments' by several firms
in Dublin and other cities.
The letters and papers by the ship Red Jacket
were mostly delivered this morning, and areas late
,as the beginning of August. The gold market
seems to have been deranged by the competition
among the banks, and of this the bullion dealers
were loudly complaining. One broker gives the
following particulars :
" Gold continues at 41.
" The determination of one of the banks to outbid all
the others is the cause of the gold maintaining its pre-
sent high and unprofitable rate. Several of them are
already feeling that the competition has betrayed them
into paying a higher rate for an article of produce than
what they have either capital to invest in, or a legitimate
outlet for, in the course of their business. In support
of this view of the subject, the following extract
from the great political economist, Adam Smith, con-
veys an admonition appropriate to the present ques-

tion :---
"'Though the principles of the-banking trade may 'gt:
appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of
being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any 12
occasion from those rules in consequence of some flat- 50
tering speculation of extraordinary gain is almost always 16i
extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the bank- 16t
ing company which attempts it.' That the flattering St. 1
gains on the first acts of deviation from their legitimate 1'
banking business are now being converted into certain 4
loss one and all admit, notwithstanding which they still It
persevere. This position of things ought soon to rec- St:
tify itself, after which we may assume that the busi- St.
ness will be allowed to disseminate through its usual 20
channels. 10
"In the South American States the bullion trade is 12:
there carried on by the merchant, who sends his goods St:
up to the mines, and receives in return the dust or bul- 50
lion,—precisely the course pursued here, until the banks 40
stepped in and overturned the usage of the trade by 25
25
grasping at the whole. St.
"As a practical illustration of the effect of the banks 8/2s
keeping up the price of gold and the exchange at pre- St.
sent rates, the following shipments of specie have taken St.
place since these measures were adopted : 50
Shipped (per Customs returns) in May £28,512 25
June 51,533 100
July 199,710 6)
2f

271,755 5O
Add 10 per cent. taken by private hand 27,975 20

£307,730

Number of persons arrived, 2,303
Number that have left, 277