The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-07 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS OF
CANADA.
(From the Toronto Globe.)
The fears which were recently entertained for the com-
mercial and monetary condition of The province are happily,
removed, and there is every prospect of a brisk fall and win-
ter trade. The first cause of this favourable. state of things
is the abundant harvest, with which a benificent Providence
has blest the labours of the husbandman. The advance in.
the price of wheat is also a large element in this posperity.
It is rarely that the cultivator of the soil has both a larger
quantity and an increased price, for when the quantitt. zs
large the price generally falls, and rises with a short produce..
The advance on the price has been occasioned by the deficie-
ency of the crop in Britain, but it of course extends to home
sales, as well as exports, and renders this a very beneficial year
to the farmer. The rise in the price to the domestic consumer,
although very valuable and important to the fanner, is not
so great as to injure seriously. the paying consumers; all the
industrial classes will share in the gain by the additional
sums of money which the farmers will be enabled to spend.
Annuitants and others, not engaged in business, will pay
their part of the advance without any equivalent. As far a*
the home consumption extends, there will be merely an ex-
change from one class of the community to another, with an
increase in the amount of the circulating medium ; but the
grain exported will bring to Canada a clear addition to her
capital of the whole extra produce and extra price upon the
quantity shipped. We do not exaggerate when we estimate
this at 200,0001., a most important addition to a poor country
like Canada. This will aid theconsumers to pay the imports
from the mother country with ease and promptitude. The
advance of about ls. currency a bushel on wheat, beyond
some years past, was required to give a stimulus to the ener-
gies of the Canadian farmer, to extend his eultivation to
other articles, which the British Market will take off, such
as flax and hemp, for which Britain pays several millions
sterling annually to foreign countries, and which she would
readily take from Canada. We know from good authority;
that a farmer in the home district this year cleared 251. per
acre by those articles, and that he intends to have 100 acres.
sown with them for the ensuingyear.
We regard the rise on wheat as more beneficial than• if it
had been very great, for in that case it would have checked
the prosperity of the manufacturing districts of England,
and have diminished the consumption of timber and ashes.
and other articles exported by Canada. It would, besides;
have affected the money-market there, by draining the
specie to the European continent in payment of grain, and
have so alarmed the capitalists, that the railroads contem-
plated in Canada must have been delayed to some future
day. The risk, we trust, of all these untoward events has
passed away. The British crops are not so deficient as to
require very large supplies, but the price is such that *Very
bushel of wheat that Canada can spare will be sent to the
mother country. The railroads of Great Britain are reach-
ing a magnitude that fills the mind with astonishment. A
hundred and fifty millions of capital are embarked, or about
to be embarked on them, and twelve millions sterling must.
be paid for railway travelling, in order to cover the interest
and expenses. The income, we believe, of those finished is
actually yielding about half that sum, and there are no ap-
pearances of a check, although the whole annual Aim is
equal to about one-fourth of the Government taxes; and
this is but one branch of the expense of travelling. The
vast sums required for these undertakings, and the many
millions of stock held and to be paid by British capitalists'
for French railroads would have placed the country in the'
utmost jeopardy, if in addition it had been necessary' to
make great remittances for grain.
But all fears for the next twelve months are now over.
The Bank of England still holds her 15,000,000 or 16,000,000
of specie, the revenue is in an improving state, and the world
is astonished with the exhibition of a nation carrying on her
shoulders a load of debt which would crush all the civilised
world besides. Canada is receiving her share of this pro-
sperity, through the advantages of her preference in export-
ing grain. When the million and a half of expenditure on
public works comes to an end, which will be next year, we
shall have the beginning of the railroad expenditure, which
will more than compensate for the loss. Nothing is so ninth
wanted in addition as a company or companies who will
lower the fare of the steam-boats and take off the tolls, which
in point of fact is placed on our magnificent lakes by the
present odious monopolies.