Star.
London, England, 1814-02-07 00:00:00

lIIGTI PRICE (IF COTTON COWS.

The sudden, extraordinary, and at present unac-
counted-for and unaccountable rise in the prices of
Cotton Goods,• seems to have nearly attained its
height, and, like other bubbles ot a similar nature, it
is to be hoped is about to burst.
Since the month of November last, the average
advance on these articles is not less than from +0
a 50 per cent. ; and the question naturally ariies,
What is the cause of all this ? Have the purchasers
for home consumption come simultaneously into the
mai ket, and, bar bqing in extra stocks, created the
rise ? The answ ainly, No; but on the con-
trary, very many h*Wisken advantage of the pre-
sent state of 'things, and have actually cleared their
warehouses at a great' advance.—The next question
is, hare any new chinnels been actually (Ter eJ, either
to the Continent or ekewhere ; and have the old Con-
tinental and ether foreign Merchants come suddenly
into .the market, and by sweeping all before them
caused the rise ? On inquiry at the Custom-houses of
London, Liverpool, and Hull, and on consulting the
bills of entry for the last three months, it will, be
found .that there has been infinitely leis shipments
made than during the three preceding months. If,
then, neither an increased home consumption, an
actual great export, has taken place, bow can the
prodigious rise in Cotton Goods, and particularly in
Collett Twist, be accounted for ? .it is true the im-
porter of cotton wool, finding that the spinner was
realizing about 100 per cent, profit upon his spinning,
very naturally concluded that he might as well par.
take, and advanced his prices accordingly : but what
is the consequence ? Aware that the present prices of
cotton goods are little more than nominal; that of
the actual purchases which have been made during
the last three months every piece is still in the hands'
of the speculators; that the price current of British-
manufactured cotton 'goods, in Amsterdam, Gotten-
burgh, Leipsic, Frankfort, tte. &c. icc. hold, out no
probability that the prices dedianded here can be
realized abroad—aware of all this, the cotton mer-
chant has no confidence that his articles will maintain
their present prices; and the proof is, that merely on
the rumour that the President of the United States
had agreed to open a negociation for Peace, cotton
wool, which sold on the 2d inst. at 3s. 6d. fell imme-
diately to 3s. ; though it must be obvious, that an
immediate negociation could not operate upon the
article, in any important degree, foe some months to
come.—One unfortunate result of this forced and
unnatural state of things is, that the labouring manu-
facturer, believing his employer to be making enor-
mous profits, naturally looks for a participation, and
in consequence such a rise takes place in the price of
labour, as the real demand cannot support ; and where
this rise is resisted, the workmen are nearly in a state
of insurrection, and in some instances have even dic-
tated to their employers the particular kinds of goods
that they (the workmen) would allow them to make,
forbidding them to produce others, upon pain of
having a 4, turn out,' as it is called—which is, leav-
ing their employers in a body, and not only not re-
turning to their work themselves, but preventing any
other workmen from serving them, until their exac-
tions and edicts are submitted to by their masters.—
The real answer, then, seems. to be, that a set of
spinners and speculators have laid their heads toge-
ther for te purpose of presently filling their own
pockets, without either a thought or a care of the
consequences, either to the country or their customers;
and by creating a belief in an extraordinary demand,
which in reality does not exit, have actually obtained
from the smaller manufacturers, who -are not spin-
ners, the preient en"rmous advance. The result, it
is to be feared, will be the tntal absorption of their
capitals, and consequent ruin to themselves and fami-
lies.—The obvious tendency of this attempt to induce
an uncalled-for and unnecessary advance in the staple
article of the commerce of the kingdom is, that the
foreign manufacturer will be encouraged, and enabled
thereby (should it succeed) to compete more effectu-
ally with the British manufacturer, and a rivalry will
be established, more destructive to our commercial
prosperity than even the Continental System itself;'
especially as the raw material, through the agency of
neutrals, will find its way to the Continent at as low
a rate as it can be had here, and the price of laboar
on - the Continent being so greatly below the price of
labour in Great Britain, the result above stated seems
inevitable.

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