The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-07 00:00:00

VENING EDITION.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

..—...ar,—

(WED.NESTJAI' EVENING.)
CHRONICLE.--Tl-.e near settlement of the Ciiina
question following 'ch.)? e upon the heels of the settlern-nt
of the Syrian qu est.ron, together with the surrender of
Post Mohammed. -and the submission of the Belooche2s,
i.rougeht by the overland mail, have produced very general
satisfaction, 'And given a renewed impulse to the English
Funds.

The st`Atempt that the Emperor of China has agreed
to ray '.3,000,0-00/., as an indemnity for the opium seized,
andL for the expenses of the expedition, has been much
lo )ked to; but the mere exp•ense of the expedition and in-
d malty of the opium are trifles in comparison with the
extension which the trada and commerce of Great Britain
may derive from the completion of a treaty with the
Celestial Empire. The subject is too vast and extensive
for us to discuss, but the results are likely to be mo-
mentous in the annals of civilization, and must present
themselves in a. forcible manner to the minds of all.
What a noble field for British enterprise do we perceive
in contemp)Ating the demand for British manufactures,
which wceuld tie produced by throwing open the markets
of Chin.—the supply of three hundred millions of 5)015 1
`V-.shirt the last few years (Mr. M'Gregor says) the
cce,isualption of British cotton has diminished to the extent
~Af one-hall in all the Rhenish States, and the eorhurap•
ttiion is now supplied by the print manufacturers of Berlin,
'estphalia, and Ssxony, and also by some very large ma-
nufacturers established in Wirtemberg and in the great
Duchy of Baden, and also by the Swiss manufacturers.
When the spring season advances, and the northern ports
re-open, we shall be able to judge how far the recent re-
strictive action of the Bank en the circulation hes, b)
forcing down prices, tended to improve the export trade.
We cannot, however, expect that, under our existing sys.
tern of prohibitory and protective duties, the continental
trade will again resume its former importance. 'We must
look to our colonies, and the immense undeveloped regions
of the East, for the means of compensation.
Tao accounts of the Revenue for the year are mere en-
couraging than was generally expected, and the feeling
runs strongly in favour of the prosperity of 1841, as corn
pared with its predecessor. Tie new year has certainly
an auspicious beginning.
Advice!, from Rio Janeiro of the 29ch of October have
been received ; the price of Stock had advanced to 77,
and the Exchange was 33 to 33i.

,HERALD.—The important news contained in the
Overland Mail from India, communicated to-day in the
Merging Retold by extraordinary express from Marseilles,
imparted. as might be expected. an immediate impulse to
Home Stocks, the effect of which might perhaps have been
still greater but fur the uesetisfactory exhibit of the quar-
terly ruturne of revenue made public this morning.
'1 he meeting of Portuguese bondholders to-day was the
most numerously and respectably attended which was ever
itnessed perhaps cn any similar occasion, and altogether
tee feeling, as the proceedings and resolutions, were abet-
f;" thee of the most unanimous, manly, and decided cite-
eelieSer. It is nut necessary to particularize what fell from
she speakers further than to remark that Mr. Tasker, the
gentleman in the chair, went into and directed the whole
usiness with a right-minded earnestness such as seldom
Arti•-• been seen before, and which, followed up vigorously
either by himself and fellow members of the committee,
ee all its consequences, will go farther to obtain re-
dress for past damage and grievance, and security for future
eTood faith than all the memorials ever presented to this
etovernment, negotiations with that of Portugal, or appli-
cations to and remonstrances with contractors, which have
been imagined, tried, and hitherto resulted in smoke.
But in the sense of the general good much more important
eensequences must follow. For the immoral and most
:iniquitous system of loan-jobbing will come in such case to
ne sifted to its core, and some of the body of loan contrac-
tors might find themselves perhaps not exactly on the bed
of roses, that is of loan premiums by the million, which
they may now be dreaming of. It is not enough that loan-
jobbing be legislated against and the public protected for
the future against the system of loan plunder to which they
neve so long been left a free prey, but that the past
should be raked into, and for the sake of justice public
examples made of delinquents whenever and in whatever
staeion found.
The morality of foreign loans or of stock-jobbing need
not now be discussed, for it may be admitted that the surplus
capital, or industrial accumulations, of a foreign country
may be applied with advantage in loans to foreign coun-
tries, where the obligations of common honesty arc under-
stood, and adequate securities in the shape of public reve-
nues or property are made patent and assigned, when a
higher rate of remuneration can be procured than similar
investments in home stocks would yield, or when no other
advantageous modes of employing surplus capital can be
conveniently met with at home. For example, when
money can be profitably loaned on substantial foreign
twenty to pay 6 or 7 per cent. interest, whilst Console
only yield a return at the rate of 31, it is no disadvantage
to the community, but the reverse, whilst it is a posi
live gain to the individual, to make his investment in
the foreign loan. Ile makes a clear surplus profit
upon his capital of !4 or 31 per cent. beyond what the
British Funds would render, whilst so much more
annual income flowing in to the individual is so much
annual addition to the money stock of the community
at large, inasmuch as the public fortune, so far as money
capital, is made up of a mass of individual mites, or capi-
tals, great or small. The 2e per cent. surplus of interest
profit thus made and regularly remitted by the foreign
debtor will, in a given number of years, repay the amount
of the original capital lent, to the lender, who then re-
mains in the fortunate position of having been in receipt
of the whole of the ee per cent., which he could only have
received from the British funds, of regaining the amount
of his capital lent by the accumulation of the 21 per cent.
surplus interest profits within a certain period, and finally
the supplementary advantage afterwards, unless paid off at
par, of the original capital still out and bearing interest so
much beyond what could be obtained at home. It is re-
ported of a certain wealthy individual, whose stake in Bra-
zilian funds is nu doubt more considerable than that of any
other person here or in Brazil either, that by this process
the capital originielly invested in these funds has been re-
turned to him twice over ; that is, by the ex-difference
in excess of interest received beyond what he could
have obtained by the employment of the same amount
of capital in British stocks. Thus his original invest-
ments of one, two, or three, or more, hundred thousand
pounds have in amount been paid back to him in surplus
interests alone beyond what would have been yielded by
the British funds, leaving hint still with the same original
end larger interests performing the same operation over
again within a period of equal duration. If the surplus in-
terest received were to be forthwith laid out in the same
manner as the capital, the amount of profit would of course
be materially enlarged. In the example cited, it is fair to
say, that, as understood, the investments in Brazilian stock
many years ago were at considerably lower than present
rtes, and to a large extent in stock of the domestic debt
*bearing a higher rate of interest.
This is the fair and justifiable side of the foreign
loan system, and may suffice for explanation that no
'algae or ignorant prejudice is entertained against a
.ystem honestly understood which adds to the income
net of course the substantial wealth of the country.
To the Bank of England, when real capital only is
nt out thus, and not credit, that is bill drawing. re-
eivring, and paper accommodation finessed in either ;vays
which some of the loan contractors are quite at home
about), to the Bank in such case no damage can accrue
by the sudden abstraction of masses of bullion, because,
when real surplus capital, and not credit, is lent, it never
can be of more than moderate amount. When twenty
millions, for example, arc loaned oat to foreign States
evithin one year, it is clear the operations arc based on
credit and bill-drawing, because there can be no such real
excess of industrial accumulation or unemployed capital
existing in the country. The loan-jobber in taking the
contracts therefore is erculatieg upon futurity and the
easiness of credit. By that credit abroad and at home,
and by exchange combinations founded on aibitrations of
exchange, he can manage to procure funds, that is bullion,
to the value of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps minim's,
without in reality being in advanee of one pound of send
money himself far a long period, for the round of ex-
changes, or bill accommodation, may be gone over again,
if not ae'aineand again, should no money crisis intervene.
Whilst the Bank by the regular incomings of large inte-
rests on foreign loans punctually paid, is regularly placed
in receipt of bullion funds, because such interests would
generally be paid in bullion, or in the equivalent, by pre-
venting bullion being drawn away for payment of balances
cf trade abroad.
But the care is matcrialty different in respect of foreign
loans where no interest is paid by faithless or
unfortunate
etates. The capital is sunk irretrievably, whilst at the
stale time not one sue/do of interest is receivable. Add to
principal thus wrecked, and interest unpaid, the compound
interest which equitably may be surcharged to show loss as
wdl as profit, and the amount of actual loss to the coun-
try is incalculable upon this description of insolvent
foreign debt.
It will hardly be credited, but the tact, as
stated by Mr. Tasker,
may be assumed to be approxi-
mately correct, that the amount of capital lent to the non-
paying foreign states, with the simple interest accruing
iskteed, ascends to about one hundred millions sterling, sunk
and lost, that is yielding no returns or interest, except re-
eeetly so tar as the unfortunate state of Mexico, which
gave a signal example of good faith under its present Go.
%eminent, and Chile, which unwillingly has been forced
inZo a Conti lerniSe. Observe that these one hundred mil-
l:cies (eeteeighth of the wewie national debt of Great
Britain), thus sunk and lost, are exclusive of any addition
tor compound interest whatever. Such are the loan bene-
fits conferred upon this country by the Governments of
Spain and Portugal.
In the meantime whilst the bondholders have been beg-
gared, and Spain and Portugal themselves prejudiced be
eesssea of money easily obtained and profligately squandered
or appropriated by successive Ministries, loan contreetees
have grown into unwieldy fortunes from' nothing. Their
refits may he reckoned by millions, and Aladdin's lamp
hich with proper strokes gave out gold, silver and prese-
t. us stones in heaps, was, in comparison with stock -job
bieg, but as a farthing rushlight. It may be supposed
these people rat, mighty risks, and that realising rnill:ons
of profit they made advances out of their own particular
capitals by tens of millions sterling to the state Contract-
e;; !cane. Nothing of the sort—net a sou of their own,
end the man who dines in Sr. James's Park with Duke
Humphrey, is quite as well qualified to loan millions, in
respect of previous advances made and therefore risk run,
as many of those people regularly practising in the loan
trade. The money for the leaes is furnished, not by the
- e n:rector, but by the credulousb pub
rea,on, and indeed it happens not untrequently, that the
ests:tour should eold a single bond. An ungreas,:d new
ed in the hand of a contractor three months after an
°sue of a loan would be quite a noveleY•
The subject may be resumed, for it is one of public
interest to unfold and trace the windings of the lone-jl6-
';:ng system.

TIMES.—The accounts from India and China have
had a marked effect on the value of Government secu-
rities, and appear to have brought a class of purchasers
into the market who were kept out of stock by the direct-
ening aspect of afftirs in that quarter, and who never ex-
pected so speedy a termination of hostilities. The advance