The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-23 00:00:00

THE STOCKS.

Grand Canal Company, 35; Mining Company of Ireland,
for account, 141; Cork, Blackrock, and Passage, 121 ;
Dublin and Belfast Junction, 42; Dublin and Drogheda
Guaranteed 5 per Cent., 26; Great Southern and Western,
laon3deLximdievr.ia,
;ditstope4r pceernCtepntr.efP.re4fB.., 97 ex int. ; wat

STATE OF TRADE.

(From the Birmingham Journal of Saturday.)

The principal characteristic of the trade of the town for
the last six weeks is the alternating aspect which it has
presented; in the course of that brief period there have
been indications of a return to a more healthy state of
things than has prevailed during the year, with intermitting

stages of languor checking progress. At the present moment
business is exactly in that condition ; we cannot say that
there has been any retrograde Movement since we wrote

last week, but we doubt very much whether any advance
has been made, or whether the home trade has been quite

as good as it was at the commencement of a week age. It
is not improbable that for some time the commerce of the

country will exhibit appearances of much of the same com-
plexion as it has done of late; and that we have yet some
time to wait here business assumes its natural state.
In this very exceptional state of business it is most diffi-
cult to give an exact idea of the condition of trade in the
town generally; its condition at the present time is so
thoroughly exceptional in every respect in almost all the
leading branches, and the remark applies so completely to
factors as well as merchants, that it would be almost im-

possible to cite a special instance in which an improvement
bad taken place which might not meet with a contradiction,
and for both there would be equal foundation. As regards
manufacturers, a good many have been busy during the last

,
fortnight or three weeks upon special orders, whilst others
in the same trades have been slack, scarcely sufficient orders
on the books to keep the workpeople employed. The factors
are in much the same condition ; in the agricultural dis-
tricts, notwithstanding the circumstance of the markets
being thinly attended, trade is unquestionably looking up;
the shopkeepers are evincing a disposition to make up
assortments of goods of which they are almost out of stock ;
and although they make their orders one-half or perhaps
one-third what they usually are, even for articles of the
smallest value, these are a great help as trade now is, and
are sufficient to enable the manufacturers to work on.
The factors who take the northern counties and Scotland
are not doing so well. The orders sent home are still small,
and credit has been so greatly shaken in Glasgow that some
time will yet elapse before such progress is made towards re-
covery that any very decisive improvement can be expected.
With respect to Yorkshire and Lancashire, the evidence is
such as to encourage the hope that it will be maintained ;
the population is more fully employed, and the shopkeepers
generally in those districts report that the prospects of
trade are more encouraging. Such Is the tenor of the
advices received here in the course of the week, and they
arc corroborated by the order-sheets sent home, which are
undoubtedly better filled.
The foreign trade is subject to much the same inequality
as is that of this country. Such of the merchants as confine
their operations almost exclusively to a particular branch of
the export trade are doing only a very moderate amount of
business, orders being smaller than they have been for the
last few years, whilst all the foreign buyers who have been
here lately have been restricting their operations as much
es psseible. The merchants who do a more general tilde
are doing a better business than they have been for
several months. The accounts from South America have
not been of a very encouraging character for some time;
hut lately there has been a fair sprinkling of orders in hand
for those markets, and the latest advices rather tend to show
that monetary concerns in that quarter ore becoming easier.
The long credit which it is necessary to give is the only
drawback on this branch of the export trade, which has of
late years very much expanded, and has, in fact, become
one of the most important auxiliaries of our foreign trade.
The accounts from Australia report very little change in the
condition of the trade in that quarter; business appears to
have been rather more active, but it is not safe to resume
shipments at present, except of such articles as are specially
ordered ; upon abstinence in this respect very much depends
the restoration of the trade of the colony, so far as its
imports are concerned, to something like a healthy condi-
tion. The commercial advices by the East India mail
report trade to be dull, with little prospect of a movement
at present. The accounts are pretty much the same in this
respect from Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras; at the latter
especially trade was languid, and business concerns were
not altogether in a satisfactory state.
In the continental trade there has been very little
change for some time past ; upon the whole, it is dull, and
the symptoms of improvement are not such as to be very
encouraging. The Russian trade is still an exception to
this; again, in the course of the last few days, ordcts from

that quarter have been received here, and it is stated that
others to a considerable amount may be expected before the
season closes. The American trade is still only moderate;
the orders received here are small, and are likely to be so this
year. The commercial advises from New York describe a
slight increase of activity in the demand for imported gocdQ,
hut generally business of all kinds continued to show great
dulness.

In connection with the American trade we may draw
attention to a very serious difficulty with which the mer-
chants of this town have to contend in the transmission of

goods to the States. The Cunard Steam-packet Company
(possessing one of the finest fleets of boats in the world)
now enjoys almost a monopoly in the conveyance of goods
between this country and America. Since the Collins Com-
pany gave up this line merchants have had to depend upon
the Cunard steamers in all cases where quickness of transit
was essential. Lately, however, they have been subject to
repeated disappointment in thisrespect, and in some instances
the delay has been attended with serious loss. Goods sent to
Liverpool for shipment by one packet are very frequently
left until the next, and in fact there is no longer a certainty
when merchandise sent to Liverpool may be despatched for
New York. The cause of this uncertainty and delay has
been thus explained to us. There is a company in existence
performing the packet service between the port of Havre and
New York ; the Cunard Company look upon this in the
light of a rival concern, and are exerting themselves to get
the goods shipped at Ilavre on to their own boats; witk a
view to secure them, an advantage is offered in the shape of
cheap freights. The Cunard Company are conveying goods
from Havre to New York at £1 per ton ; whilst the charge
from Liverpool to merchants here is D 3 per ton. The com-
pany keep a small steamer plying continually between
Havre and Liverpool ; on its arrival at the latter port the
whole of its freight destined for America is at once put on
board the packet about to sail, and only the small space left
is appropriated to English merchandise. We are informed
that it has been an occurrence not unfrequeut of late that
the freightage of goods from Havre in the Cunard boats has
been so considerable that the company has been compelled
to leave other goods consigned for Ncw York by a particular
packet ; hence the injury sustained by merchants to which
our attention has been called. Of course the Cunard Com-
pany have a perfect right to act as they think fit in this
matter, and as they believe to be consistent with a regard
for their own interests ; but the system is certainly working
adversely for the interests of the merchants and manufac-
turers of this country, who are to a great extent in the
hands of the Cunard Company for obtaining any redress.
The Canada trade continues dull; the shipments of goods
from this quarter this year will be comparatively wiling.
Various causes have operated to check the import trade and
to depress the internal trade of the country. There is
scarcity of money in the colony; produce is not selling at a
price sufficiently remunerative to stimulate trade generally ;
the panic in the United States last year has also operated
adversely for Canada, and the protectionist system adopted
by the Legislature has been sufficiently high to diminish
the customs, and of course to depress the import trade.
The new tariff adopted by the Legislature is less restrictive
than it was originally proposed; instead of raising it 25
pis cent., the duties on manufactured goods, which were
previously 15, the rate has been fixed at 29 per cent., to
which point the scale has risen in a few years from 21j per
cent. The 5 per cent. ad valorem duties include iron,
whether rod, bar, or hoop, nail and spike rod, hoop or tyre
for driving wheels or lecomotives, bent or welded, boiler
plates, railroad bars, rolled plates, plate and angle, or other
iron, shaped or unshaped, when forming part cf an Iron
ship imported in pieces; rivets for ditto; wire, lead in
abcet, locomotive And cogino frames, crank glie°l

railway car, and locomotive axles; piston rods, guide and
slide bars, crank pins, connecting rods, steam-boat and
mill rods. Amongst the 20 per cent. ad valorem duties
are albata and German silver manufactures, cutlery,
polished, of all sorts; glass, fire-arms, leather, plated and
gilded ware of all kinds, spades, shovels, axes, hoes, rakes,
forks, and edge-tools; scythes and snaiths, bolts, nuts, and
washers of iron; spikes, nails, tacks, brads and sprigs, &c.
The trade of the district is improving—slowly, it is true,
but unquestionably there have been symptoms of greater
activity in the manufacturing trades generally In the course
of the week. The state of the iron trade very much re-
sembles that of this town ; it is a fact that whilst some of
he mills and forges are not working more than half time, at
other establishments they have fully six weeks orders on the
books, and this is not confined to one or two firms. For
charcoal iron of the best quality there is a tolerably good
demand; and fer sheets and plates there is unquestionably
more inquiry. An inferior make of iron is very little sought
after, and can find sale only at a very low figure; but upon
the whole the trade is looking more healthy than it has done
since the commencement of the quarter; and as consumers
have apparently greater confidence in prices, it is not im-
probable that such improvement as has been experienced
will he maintained. The orders from •Ameri • the last
packet were less than was expected; MI ew the
fact that the reduction in the price here s n New
York for some time before the America sar price of
pig iron (best mine) is still quoted at :Ai: • t there
have been many sales below that quotation t' 7. the demand
is sufficient to render it improbable that t . ere will be any
additional furnaces in blast at present.
The coal trade has been rather more active during the
last week, chiefly in consequence of parties making arrange-
ments for laying in their winter stock. house coal maintains
its price, but for the commodity used at the works prices
are a'shade lower.

(From the Manchester Guardian of Saturday.)

MANCHESTER, Friday.—The extensive business which
has of late been effected in bundle yarns, from 40's down-
ward (mule and water), appears to be the occasion of a little
slackening just now in the demand, to which, probably, the
absence of spirit in the cotton market may also, in some
degree,'contribute ; but spinners are t.o well situated in
regard to orders to be affected in price by a heaviness in
Liverpool, or by a little backwardness on the part of their
customers, which they clearly see to be only temporary;
and, after all, the sales reach a fair aggregate amount, made
up of parcels, not individually large, but numerous. There
is therefore no sign of diminished strength resulting from
somewhat less of activity in this department. Cop
twist and pincops are quite firm under a steady
demand ; the former fully as hard in price in num-
bers 36 to 40. Throstle warps, from 24's downwards,
are in sufficient request to acquire a bias in favour
of sellers. The spinners of 60's to 80's are doing more, and
seem nsw to have secured an addition of id. per lb. to the
late lowest prices. In finer spinnings the slight symptoms
of coming business which we have latterly noticed are
becoming rather more apparent. In our last report we
stated that there was a little doing in 100's to 126's twofolds
(the compositor made us to say "a little less doing"); and
we may now repeat the statement. Of the lower numbers
of doubled we have to report not less favourably than we
did on Tuesday. There has arisen to-day an increased de-
mand for Indian goods; and some considerable purchases
of 40-inch shirtings, jacconets, and of other articles have
taken place, giving, of course, a further upward bent to
prices. No doubt this is mainly attributable to the gratify-
ing contents of the letters from Bombay, which advise of
very extensive sales to arrive, and at higher prices than
before. In several kinds of printing cloths, shirtings, do-
mestics, T cloths, and long cloths, a steady business con-
tinues to be done. The makers of some descriptions speak
of a certain degree of quietness; and all complain (with too
much reason) of the inadequacy of the prices they are able
to obtain; but the general tendency, at any rate, is in the
right direction.

1.:42 cde luteliigencer of .Saturday.)

There is a good business doing, sad many buyers have
made their pppearance during the week. The evident up-
ward tendency of the wool market has had its effect in
stimulating the demand, but buyers only make up very
modera'e parcels, and are not to be persuaded into pur-
chasing beyond their cautiously prepared lists. All the re-
ports agree that up to the present the demand on the part cf
the retail trade has been less than was expected, and is
attributed to the fact that the great balk of last winter's
stock has been left on the drapers' hands. There is, too, a
general complaint on the part of the latter that their money
comes in very slowly, and they are not in so good a position
to buy as they might be. On the other side, we have in the
agricultural districts the promise of an early and abundant
harvest, and a decided improvement in the labour market
in the manufacturing districts; besides which the amount
of trade done during the last 18 months has been so small
that we may now look forward to a steady improvement.
The wool sales are now drawing towards their close, and
prices are snore than firm. A full proportion has been
taken by Yorkshire buyers, and Bradford bas taken a much
larger quantity than usual.