The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-11 00:00:00

(_-

z
-

/~-
==~ --~'_

"*"

What a Cotton Monopoly did for Bombay.

It is painful as well as instructive to see the ruin
which has been caused by the diversion of the cotton
trade from its accustomed channel. We would
naturally look for this ruin to the port which lost so
lucrative an export, not to that which gained it.
It is, however, to Bombay and not to New Orleans
we must turn our eyes to behold the full effect of
the disaster, for disaster we cannot help considering
it. For four years Bombay has had almost a mono..
poly in the supply of this staple. For the account
of the present position of the capital of the Western
Presidency we are indebted to the Bombay Times,
July 9. "Although ruin and insolvency," writes
this journal, " are overtaking all the well-known
merchants, and even the capitalists of the island,
yet it is believed that large numbers in the third
or fourth ranks of commerce will escape failure,
and some may be ready to take the places of well-
known but ruined native merchants. Until all
liabilities are ascertained and some degree of con-
fidence is restored, such changes cannot take
place. But it is already remarked that those who
have mainly confined their operations to import
trade, and have avoided excessive speculations,
are in funds and in a sound position." Then
follows a list of financial companies, banking insii-
tutions, and reclamation schemes winding up and
in a state of insolvency ; schemes the shares of
which but a short time ago commanded extravagant
premiums, the possessors being considered objects
of envy. A sudden influx of wealth is rarely of
permanent benefit to a country. It requires strong
heads to withstand the temptation to speculation
thereby fostered. At first all is gain, made with
the greatest ease, requiring no discernment, and but
little credit, given at such times to every one witl
a good coat on his back. Examples of rapid for_
tunes accumulated from nothing become numerous,
and the infection spreads. It is almost irresistible
when Jones sees a stupid fellow like Brown pass
him at one bound in the race of life. Jones can
jump as well as Brown ; so Jones takes the loap
timidly at first, but with increasing confidence, with
almost unhoped-for success. The contagion spreads
until it becomes epidemic, and men and women rush
headlong into the vortex. The means seem to grow as,
dirt in the Augean stable, in threefold the quant4y
it is shovelled out. The legitimate article of barter
which has caused the mania becomes only one of
many roads to wealth suddenly opened out to the
charmed eyes of the frantic crowd. The main body
rush panting after the biggest and most alluring
bubble. Joint-Stock Companies grow apace, and
that promoter who most audaciously calculates on
the gullibility of the multitude meets with the
greatest success. But little more than a year ago
the concoctors of schemes, which would now be
termed insane, held a position of influence far out-
stripping that of the Governor. The big officials
sank into small people. Little officials disappeared
from society ; and officers of the army, who bad
nothing but their pay, could afford meat only twice
a week. The rent of houses went from tens to
hundreds, food became enormously dear, and labour
of all kinds rose in proportion. The change was
magical—society was turned upside down, and
Bombay awoke to a dream of wealth which might
have appeared to a Parsee fire-worshipper as a
scene from the Arabian Nights. It is not an
easy task to extract money from a Hindoo —yet,
in this marvellous transformation, the caution which
makes him consider mother earth as the safest bank
for a deposit, forsook him. The fat baboo, aided
by his wife, who stripped herself of trinkets—the
calculating Parsee—the more reckless Mahom-
medan—were all carried away by the delusion, and
shares in schemes so wild that they will scarcely be
credited when the history of the Bombay Bubble
comes to be told, were scrambled for by the Asiatic
throng with a Babel of Bedlam. At first all went
on charmingly. The illusion was equal in powers
of deception to a mirage, and no warnings of the
journals, and some few wise men who kept
their heads, were strong enough to have a
moment's influence on the reckless speculators.
King Cotton had paid the city a visit, and turned
the people's heads. As the American war drew to-
wards its close, many of the more far-seeing began
to be uneasy, but the vortex was so swift, and the
mass of them were so involved in its whirl, it was
impossible to withdraw. One morning Bombay
awoke to find the American war at an end ; Rich-
mond had been captured by Grant—Lee had sur-
rendered in irretrievable defeat, and the Southern
President was a captive in the hands of the victorious
North. Here was another Arabian Nights' scene.
The water-carrier awoke to find himself Haroun-
al-Raschid, and the pseudo Sultan went to bed;
to awake—the water-carrier ; and the last state of
the poor man was worse than the first. So it was
with Bombay. There was a tremendous bill to pay,
and when the people began to overhaul their means
of liquidating the liabilities, they discovered all was
moonshine. What became of the gigantic sums
shipped into the Presidency from England and Aus-
tralia has not been told; but the city, after awaking
from its dream of wealth, went into a sort of general
liquidation. An after rise in the price of cotton
enabled them till lately to resume business. The
first shock appears, however, to have been too much,
and news of the London panic again prostrates
them. The next time Bombay receives £80,000,000
for cotton she may keep it, and turn it to a better
account. But we most sincerely hope that many a
will be bestowed, before such a sum be g
long year will elapse, and that much pataienatinlapbaoiudr.
—Anglo-American Times.

_~