The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-10-26 00:00:00

The affirmative of this

to maintain ; and we shall see what

Usti sp

" The deliveries to the trade from the port of Liverpoc
this year have averaged no less than 37,633 bales weekl

against 31,136 bales last year

bales per week. Now the point to he determined is, whe-
ther the whole, or nearly the whole of this excess has been
consumed ; or whether it has not, to a considerable extent
at least, gone to swell the stocks in the hands of the
spinners and manufacturers. The first question which
presents itself is this. If 6,500 additional bales of cotton
have been worked up intoyarn and cloth, what Las become
of the produce ? If we turn to the accounts of the exports
of cotton manufactures, down to the sth ultimo, we find
that there has been no perceptible change,—an increase of
six millions of pounds of yarn being about balanced by a
decrease of 21,500,000 yards of cloth, Clearly, then,
foreign markets have not taken off the produce of the
6,500 bales of cotton which are supposed to have gone into
consumption. As little are they to be found in the hands
of the producers ; for stocks of goods and yarn were never
lower than at the present time, when almost every spinner
and manufacturer is working to order, and sending his
goods to the buyer as fast as they are produced. There
remains, then, only the consumption at home, by which,
if at all, the supposed excess of production can have been
absorbed. The home trade has certainly been good during
a considerable part of the year; but anybody engaged in it
would scout as an absurdity the notion that it had taken
off an amount of cloth equal to the produce of 6,500 bales
of cotton per week, or of half that quantity. If, then, the
produce of the additional 6,500 bales of cotton delivered
from Liverpool has neither been exported or taken by the
home trade, nor is to be found in the hands of spinners
and manufacturers, a large portion of that excess must
remain unconsumed in the hands of the spinners."
This is not by any means so logical a deduction as the
Guardian supposes ; for in the first three months of the
cotton year of 1851, viz.: up to the Ist of January, prices
ranged very high ; and to economize the stock the manu-
facture of light fabrics was very extensively resorted to ;
and this state of things continued to some extent up to
the close of the year. Hence, it would be no very difficult
matter to export as great a number of yards of cloth in
1851, as in 1852, notwithstanding the disparity between
the supplies of the raw material. But where is the evi-
dence of the Guardian to support this assertion that the
increased purchases of this year are either in the hands of
spinners, or, as our contemporary ingeniously states, of
carriers ? An authority quite as trustworthy as the
Guardian—the October circular of Messrs. Hermann
and Cox, of Lcndon and Liverpool, remarks on this point
" if spinners hold large stocks, invariably large quantities
will be found in the sheds and warehouses of the railway
and canal carriers ; from careful enquiries we find such is
at present not the case, and we have a further proof in
the immediate deliveries of the purchases made by
spinners, they very rarely taking advantage of the 10 days
free warehousing allowed." How this statement bears
out other remarks of the Guardian that spinners have
been buying largely throughout the year in anticipation of
advanced prices, and that they invariably " cover every
contract for the future delivery of yarn by an immediate
purchase of cotton," is not very clear.
With respect to the stocks in the United States and in
Europe, the Guardian admits that he has not the same
opportunities (?) of forming an opinion as he has with
respect to spinners' stocks in this country. Our contem-
porary says :

" The American spinners have taken about 600,000
bales from the ports of that country, being an increase of
about 50 per cent. over their purchases in the preceding
year; but there is no more reason than in the case of the
excess of deliveries from Liverpool, to suppose that that
quantity has been consumed. During the previous year,
when high and manifestly unsafe prices were ruling, they
held only just as much cotton as enabled them to carry on
their business. When prices declined, in consequence of
the ascertained abundance of the crop of 1851, they be-
came large purchasers, and have doubtless, like their
competitors in England and upon the continent of Europe,
kept up their stocks to the present time."
It is perfectly notorious to all candid men connected with
the cotton trade, that the falling off in the consumption
of the raw material, which took place in the United States
in 1851, was occasioned by its high price, the Americans
being manufacturers almost altogether of heavy fabrics,
with which they could not, with cotton at Bd. to 9d. per
lb., con.pete against the fine goods of Europe. That with
comparatively low priced cotton they have extended their
production is much more likely than that an extra stock
is held in the bands of their spinners. The apparent
consumption of the States this year is 11,609 bales per
week, against 7,769 in 1851 ; and we have little doubt that
this is pretty nearly the real consumption. The stock at
the ports was, on the Ist September, only 91,000 bales,
against 128,000 bales the preceding year. France has
consumed 10,062 bales per week in the first eight
months of this year, against 7,882 bales last year ;
and the stock in the ports was only 17,025 hales more
on the Ist September this year than the same date last
year. The rest of Europe has consumed 15,316 bales per
week for the first eight months of this year, against 13,193
bales for the corresponding period of last year. The
stocks were, on the Ist Sept., 1852, 93,677 bales; and in
1801, 80,674. There is nothing beyond mere assumption
to bear out the fact that this increase in the quantity
taken from the ports is attributable to larger stocks than
usual being held in the hands of spinners. The manu.
factures of the North of Europe are principally heavy
fabrics ; and there has, no doubt, been an increased con-
sumption of the raw material.
The total consumption of Europe and the United
States, as shewn by Messrs. Harmann and Cox, has
been this year 76,589 bales per week, against 59,674 in
1851. This consumption requires for a year 3,982,628
bales of cotton, to be supplied to European countries and
the United States from the latter country, the Eastern
and the European markets. The total importation this
year, from all countries, including the quantity retained
for

American consumption, was 3,G77,000, against
3,025,000 bales in 1851. The total stock in America and
Europe was, on the Ist of September 1852, only 914,000
bales, against 1,007,000 bales at the same date of 1851.
We leave it to the good sense of the manufacturing
interest whether this a state of things which ought to be
glossed over by absurd assumptions ; or whether, with
even a greater crop in the United States and elsewere
than last year, and irrespective of speculation, higher
prices of cotton may not be looked for. Manufacturers
themselves, it is well known, have largely increased their
mill power. We have just had the central provinces of
South America opened out to British enterprise. Money
is becoming increasingly abundant; and not only cotton
but every other article of produce is moving gradually
upwards in price. New communities, with largely
increasing consuming power, are being formed in
Australia, and along the whole line of the Pacific ocean.
Undoubtedly it would have been a wise exercise of fore-
sight to have provided earlier for this state of things ;
but the journalist is no friend to the manufacturing com-
munity who attempts to hoodwink them, and bids them
shut their!eyes against the actual facts of their position.
It ought to be borne in mind, too, in dealing with this
question, that the waste, in spinning cotton has been
greater than at any recent period, owing to the increased
quantity of dirt in the cotton, which, to sonic extent, bears
out the suggestions of some parties, that the warehouses
of America have had a more than usual clearing.

DEATH BY BURNING.—A child named Jas. Wright,
4 years of age, died on Friday last from the effects of burn-
ing on the 9:h inst.. his clothes having caught fire during
the temporary absence of his mother.
ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE A CLERGYMAN.—As the
Rev. David Seymour was returning home on Fridavnight
last, in his gig, on the road frcm Clonfert to Lawrence-
town; a gun or pistol was snapped at him. He distinctly
heard the cap exploding, and saw a man in dark-coloured
clothes immediately run off in the fields ; fortunately
the fire-arms did not go off. Mr. Seymour drove as fast
as he could, and reported the outrage to the police at
Lawrencetown.