Star.
London, England, 1811-03-11 00:00:00

rills OF COMMERCIAL C 11211171

they are also felt in a considerable degree in 'some
other branches of trade; hot they have the satisfac-
tion of stating, that from the evidence of a very ex-
tensive and experienced merchant, it does not appear
that they are felt in the woollen trade, to such an ex-
tent as would at all jotify a call upon Parliament for
any extraordinary relief. -
That your Committee are warranted in stating,
that there appeared a general concurrence of opinion
amongst thost of the witnesses who were examined,
as to the expediency of affording Parliamentary re-
lief in the manner in which it was afforded by the
issue of Exchequer Bills in the year 1793, although
there was some difference as to the extent of benefit
which might beexpected to be derived from such re.
lief. And your Committee state it to be their deCded
opinion, that although there are many circumstances
at the present time affecting the stade of trade and
*commercial credit, which make a great difference be-
tween the present period and that of the year 1793 ; '
yet the distress is of such .a nature and extent, as to
make such Parliamentary relief highly expedient and
necessary ; and that at promises to be productive of
extensive and important benefit ; that although in
many caws such aid may not be capable of effectu-
ally relieving the persons to whom it may be applied,
from great losses arising from the state of. car-1
cumstances ; yet by affording them time gradually i
to contract their operations, to call in their means,
to withhold from immediate sale articles which at pre.
tent can fetch only most ruinous prices, arid to -keep
.up the employment of their mach'nery and their work-
men, though upon a very reduced and limited scale r
it will divide and spread the pressure of this distress
over a larger space of time, and enable them to meet
it, with consequences less ruinous to. themselves, and
[ ‘leas destructive to the interests of the community.
That yogi. Contusive, refer to the manner in which
relief was afforded in the year 1793, and have found
that the provisions of that measure which as appears
by the report of the Commissioners appointed on that
occasion, was attended with the happiest effects, and
the most complete success, are embodied in the Act
33 Gee. 111. cap. 29, and the Committee are_of opi.
nion, that similar provisicns should be adopted with
regard to the relief at present proposed ; that the
amount of Exchequer Bills to be issued should not be
less,nor would the Committee recommend that it should
be more, than £6,000,000; and that considering the
probable date of the returns of trade from South Ame-
rica, a greater interval should be given for re-pay-
ment than was allowed in 1793, the Committee being
of opinion, that the tim: for the payment of the first
quarter's instalment should not be earlier than the mid-
dle of January next, and that the remainder of the sum
advanced should be required to be repaid by three
equal payments, from three months to three months,
so that the whole should be discharged in nine months
from the payment of such first instalment.

speet of those goodi, as those sent 111 South Alwerlca ; that site '
considerable house in London connected with this trade, which
stepped or made apause within the last two or three weeks, had
REPORT FROM THE SELECT CONIWITTZIe. sent a great quantity to Cadiz ; and they Informed the witness
that the tshneiblaisst
andaccoturbsa
nett
dntwb a.% that the goods would all be
The Select Committee appointed to enquire intowhich
heir
creditorsmeans :h.
the State of Commercial Credit, and who were direc- be able to make a handsome dividend tothey should
ted to report the same as it should appear to them, bills having gone back on the Manufacturers, they are' depressed
together with their observations thereon, from time in the mean time.
" That there had
_bet ona great fall in the price of the manufao.
to time, to the House, met, and examined a variety
care;
that wits:. n he
tGlasgow, there were some articles of ma-
of witnesses ; and have agreed upon the following nufacture which had left
perhaps 40 or 50 per cent; but he un-
Report ; derstands from communications since that, the fall is greater, be-
Your Committee directed its attention to three cause the distress is become more genet al.
" With respect to the failures which hadhappeted, there are
points ;
—The extent of the difficulties and embarrassments which several houses which will probably pay very large dividends ; and
First indeed there are several of the houses in Glasgow that he alludes
are at present experienced by the trading part of the community.
-a-The causes to which the same should be ascribed; to, which stopped payment, have undertaken to pay their credi-
Secondtors in tannin a certain time ; one who had more than £200,000
and,
Third—The expediency, with a view to the present and future awls out, has undertaken to pay hi! creditors in 3,4, 8, 12, and
interests of the Merchants and Manufacturers, and of the public, le months, and probably he will do it ; but in the mean time, the
•f any assistance being afforded by Parliament. • manufacturers cannot command a shilling of this money ; that the
Ifailure of those houses, before he left Glasgow, had amounted to
Your Committee found, that memorials had been I from one to two millions ; one house (the same to which the wit-
Majesty's Treasury, presented to his towards the hat-ine, alluded before) has failed since that time for sesl9,ooo,they
ter end of the last and the beginning of the present hav"e undertaken to pes yf
a in full.
year, stating the great embarrassments and distress .'fiat the failur o the export houses certainly arose from
their
having eerie greatly beyend their capital, having exported
which were felt amongst the Manufacturers in the ro.duses weretoaf nargort tbewatierueuxt captalb and sometentiutheund evenerstoo bad large understood many
capital,ofthose
Cotton Trade in Glasgow and Paisley and their vi-
cinity, and praying for public assistance ; that the but being disappointtd in the markets, it was found that they
same were confirmed by the representation of a meet- could not make their returns so quickly as their bills became due;
frig held in the City of London, on the 12th of Fe- there are houses of that descriptiun in Liverpool, and sotae in
Glasgow."
bruary, which sent a deputation to wait upon the B •
Being asked, as to the amount of failures on the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a Copy of the ' present occasion, as compared with those in 1793 ? he
Resolutions adopted at that meeting. These Resold- said, . The proportion of failures will be always some-
bons
your Committee have inserted in the Append , ping
ix '- • •
. , mg in proportion to the extent of the trade, (which
to this Report. • has increased wonderfully sincel793) ; and of course
Your Committee found, by the evidence of the wit.: if, the failures how are to a- mach tarter among has
tresses which they' ex:mined, that those statements 'X •• ,
. , - they were at that period.'
and representations were founded on fact.•
I . Yaur Committee haring given this full extract from
It appeared to your Committitte, that the principal -r
me evidence Of Mr. Garden, have to state, that it wai
part of the distress which was complained of, had in • general, onfirmed by the evidence of Messrs. I..and
arisen out of great and extensive speculations, which : R. Mackerrell, and Mr. Henry Fulton, muslin manu-
comnienced upon the opening of the South American . fac
turetx at Paisley; and that evidence in a bream de
markets in the Brazils and elsewhere, to the adven- •b -
cures of British Merchants. I greestosimilar import was given to the Committee
Robert Peel. With
by Sir regard to the state of the
Mr. GARDEN' the Chairman of the Chamber of 'manufacturers in Lancashire, he stated, that the price
Commerce and Manufacture at Glasgow, said—
, of goods had fallen 40, 50, and in some instances 60
•• That in Glasgow and the neighbourhood the distress began i
among the manufacturing body of the people, and it has pressed per cent. ; that the greatest manufacturers had been
wore severely upon them hitherto than on any other class: that ' obliged to reduce the quantity of their work by one-
it began about the month of October or beginning of November I third, others one-half, and others again had been ob-
bat. The cause of it appeared to him to be this :—that a set of I
lilted to discharge their workmen altogether ;and that
merchants in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow, conceiving teat • .1..,5. ..",
the markets of South America would consume a vast quantity of even ‘""'e which were contioued in employment,
ear manufactures, entered lute a project of very extensive exports * were continued at a very. reduced rate of wages,
to those countries and to the West-India Islands, chiefly intended amounting to not more than one-half of their ordinary
for the Spanish Colonies; these expeditions not meeting a ready .
payment—that under these circumstances, great dis-
market, those exporters have not been able to pay the manufac-
turers, when thetas became due • these bills were therefore re- tress was felt amongst the workmen; and though there
turned upon the manufacturers, Which created a great deal of di.- had not been any failures among the more consider-
trim : many of those houses that were the original causes et the able and best established houses of manufacture in
evil are gone to bankruptcy king ago; but they have created this ' Lancashire, yet that great distress and embarrassment
evil upon the manufacturers of whom they purchase(' the goods:
must already be felt by many, and that some Parlia-
that the manufacturers have their property locked up in bank-'
rapt.' mutes; that part of it will be lost, no doubt, but yet that , mentary assistance would be of most essential advan-
in the course of 9, 19, or li months, a considerable part of the Cage. Your Committee think it right to referto the re-
capital will return to the manufacturers; but while they are de- turns of the export of the Cotton Manufactures in the
prived of it, they go on with the greatest difficulty—many of the followi •
ng years, to spew the state and progress of the
weaker have been broken down: that the manufacturers of goons : ''
who have capitals still feel great distress from this cause, and it jeade in this article of manufacture, up to the period
Is that class of people that it would be desirable to relieve, be. I when this distress began to be so strongly felt. The
cause a httle aid from Government would enable them to go on I official value of cotton manufactures exported from
with their business, though, on a lintitan Beak; but still they ! Great as
Britain, in the year ending sth January, 1808;
would be enabled to retain a certain proportion of their work- .
people or labourers ;
also;whreas, if they get no kind of relief, they • was X9;846,589 ; in the year ending sth January,.
must be broken down s and the labourers with their families j 19f19, 111,885,805 ; in the year ending 6th January,
must be left without means of subsistence ; that this distress still 1810.'418,616,783 ; and imthe duce quarters ending I
presses very heavily upon them, the export merchants no: being
..10th October, 1810, £12,761,196. •
able to pay the manufacturers for the, goods they have taken: I„, .
that in the course of trade great quantities of goods tram Stet- r •It appeared- to youreormnittee, that there had been Paistey:
Land were sold by agents in London ; those agents gave a tempo- ,no want of a disposition on'the'part of the Bank's in Resolved,
sears, accommodation to the manufacturer, but nothing more, q
j ...eotliltd to give their accommodation ; that they had That this Meeting is strongly impressed with a sense of
when the merchants could not pay those bills which they .11114 liberallyapplied it far wpossible; but that
. as as as
Oven for peck, the bills went. ack upon the manufacturers. . .; was nnfacturing bodies °revery part of this kingdom are se'
" That there is this chain of connection between the =nurse. is impossi. hie they could continue their aid, as vta:
and which threaten the most destructiv
toting body and the upper classes of merchants, the Banks in I they had their capital already locked up in an im- merchant, and to every class
of
manufaosuerercznanser
orb
ee
Scotland having discounted or advanced money upon those bills I
, mouse number of Bills, the payment of which was dent on them.
of the merchants fur the manufacturers; those bills having gone 1 auspandaft. • That this distress, which in the origin was co'
back, the ninufacturers are not able to take them up; the apt- I ',
I I our Committee also found, that great digress was attributable to the imprudently extensive specular'
tc's of the Banks are therefore taken up also, and they are not
able to give the regular accommodation which had been used t felt in a quarter which was' much connected with this disoausts to those new markets in South Amen
entiy been opened, has, in the opinion of thin
to do to their customers. In this situation of things, too, a want I trade, n a naely, amongst the Importers of Produce e •
a certain degree occasioned by circumstances r
of confidence arises in the banks themselves, when they see peo- from the foreign West India bland*, and from South and far more extensive influence and ; such.
pie breaking down around them. they become timid and afraid A •
mertca. will, upon enquiry, be found to justify an ey
of transacting any business ; a want of confidence on the part of '''
That reat parts of the returns for the manufactures the assistance of llyiament, under tin
the banks naturally creates distress among the upper classes of g
Merchants, who are thus deprived of the usual accim odation or
!which were exported to those parts of the world, came Cmum isle'nen of his *sty's Trea"
That the system of warehousing ger
means of negotiation ; that therefore persons who are possessed ' home in sugars and coffee ; which not being entitled
band property have not the same means of obtaining credit ' out payment of duty) having been t
of to sale is the home market, there were no immediate don by the construction of the V
that they usually have had, and very far from it—this want of
confidence In the banks makes them distrustful of every body, means of realizing their value. warehouses, and of similar rote
sad the merchants have felt great inconvenience in consequence. These representations of the distress experienced in Pend* "team, the events w
'lle witness said, he understands that some of the banks at Glas- the trade of the cotton manufacturer and exporter, and two years have tended to mar
sow and in that neighbourhood do little business, they will rather from the want of market for f •
°reign colonial produce, Spanish
the trade not only of the Pee
settlements in So
accumulate their capital, and wait the result of the present situa- .
were also confirmed by respectable merchants and era- quered Colonies of Gus,
ton of things; this want of confidence creates general distress
among very respectable merchants, dens in London ; who also stated, that the embarrass- countries under the din
have been anxious to s•
" 'Diet the intercourse of credit &menthe Merchants them- mints were felt in other branches of trade, not connect- taws and of the Bono
selveawas much broken down by means of these circumstances, , ed with foreign commerce or colonial produce. from these 'insulter
even where the Merchants are solvent. It also appeared to your Committee, that one cause in a short 'pace or
" That there is considerable injury to the Manufacturer, from
being obliged to stop his work ; his machinery gets our of order, which might be considered as connected with and as in amount beyor
bin workmen get dispersed through the country, and he cannot at present aggravating the existing distress, was the . power, wealth
tributed to pr
collect them again, but at considerable trouble and expense; and I extent to which the system of warehousing the goods tae enemy S
when It is understood that his business is stopped, he loses his i of
custom, and when he begins again, it is almost the same as begin- 1 foreigners as well as native merchants, for exports- exportatio:
cling a new business ;It it therefore extremely important that the I Lion, had been carried. On this point, the Committee mription•
Manufacturer should go on, though on a limited scale. I refer to the evidence of Mr. Cock, Commercial and are bee'
" That in his opinion the demand would, in a great measure I Public Agent for the Corporation of Liverpool,and and °
in ~,
came round to them again ; that the home trade and some other General Agent to
the h mere ants of the town, who in. ho'
markets are still open to them ; that he has always seen in his
experience of thirty years, that a glut in a market is followed by formed the Committee, that,
a brisk demand ; for no person will supply the markets or adven- " Since the opening of the West India and London Docks,
Lure at all when they are overstocked ; hence the market becomes Great Britain has, under the provisions of theWarehoming Acts,
exhausted and of course a very good demand arises afterwards. become a free port, into which foreign goods of almost every de-
The markets of South America and the West India islands are scription may be brought and safely deposited, and from whence
overstocked at present, but they will naturally come round, and they may be exported again without payment of Importation du-
the home trade always takes off a certain quantity, so that be had I ties. This country possessing peculiar advantages for foreign
to doubt in six or twelve months this increased demand will do commerce, the consequeoce of such facility to introduce goods
more than take off what is on hand now, or what will be mans- from all parts of the world has been, that the merchants of other
factured in the mean time, which will be a very limited quantity countries, whether neutrals, enemies or alliel, have been eager to
irked. avail themselves of every opportunity of sending their goods hither.
" That if there was no particular glut in the market, from the From Spain (for instance) such goods as have not been imported
time of shipping the goods, till the payment could be commanded on British account, the Spanish merchants have been anxious to
is this country, be should conceive would be twelve or fifteen send here for safety and for sale—the same remark applies to •
months ;it may in some instances be sooner, but, generally spealt. Portugal ;in fact we arc now the exporters of Portugal wines to
ise, he should conceive about that time. In some instances Per that country—while importations from Europe, not the result of
;TAMS have been mach quicker, perhaps by the return of the I a demand for therm have thus been occasioned, the markets of
same ship ; and he mentioned that there have even beets instances South America, both Portuguese and Spanish, have been thrown
of ships returning within four or five months. open to us, and the greatet part of the immense productions of
.
" The usual date of bills given by the merchant to the manta those places (tram which formerly we received but little property ,
factitrer is six or nine months, but in some cases it may be es direct except bullion) now comes to All the warehouses, and for a
toiled to twelve months; in cases where the goods are sold by an time to exhaust the capitals of the merchants of this country.—
aecnt in London, that agent interposes his credit, and gives as Our conquests also have had tie same tendency ;in addition to the
accommodation to the manufacturer sooner, if he requires it, produce of the old British Colonies, we now receive that of Mar- .
It appears by th Report of the Com • • for
nil:stoners
file issue of Exchequer
tinique, Guadaleupe St. Crux, St. '1 homaes, &c. ; the greatest Bills in 1793, to assist com-
taking his chance of payment from the merchant.
" That the distresses were immediately and in the Heat instance . part of the p-educe of St: Domingo also now camel here. From mercial men, that the whole number of applications
mcasinned by the want of payment for those that that were Ten- ' Europe, the importations from places from which the British Sag for loans was 332, and the amount of the e
sumsgnt ap4
dud; but at the same •ime the want of a market is certainly a is excluded, have been immense—these causes co-operating at a plied for, 5e3,855,624—0f th 038 - . ese - wereae
part of the cause. Tim markets of South America having been period when the situation of the United States has prevented their :
and
the amount lent
for a time overstocked, there is no great demand at present ; and ; ships from introducing into Europe that large proportion -of West was on personal securitY
iii 2 015
even though there wore a demand in the present situation of i Indian and South American productions of whirls they would have , . ,000, on deposit of goods- A'187,200, tistal
things, with the want of confidence and the want of credit, it been the carriers, the effects have been more sensibly felt by our d 12,202,200. The whule sum was repaid a conside-
_
world be difficult for this manufacturers to know to wheat to sell I merchants.' rable part before it became due, and the remainder
with safety ; that is chick occasioned by the want of payment Your Committee, upon the whole. think themselves regularly at the stated. periods.
for the goods &old 1 that will in some measure come round la . • •
er will . Justified in stating, that the r
embarrassments and dis- Government on Satnrd • •
the mule of twelve months, and then the manufacturay came to the resolutions:lC
tresses at present experienced are of an extensive nos-1
have his own capital again. Igranting licences generally for exportation without
t seyerely felt amon st
" That teem has been a very considerable supply of this sort lure ; and though they are mos g any restrictions whatever, except that h 'll ••
t eywi not be
of manufactures sett to the peninsula, which was in a great mesa the manufacturers and merchants in those trades allowed to vessels bI . • e onging to the porta of Hantlittrgh,
sure with a view to Omit being sent to the Spanish colonies p-a • .
which !'lave hcen wore particularly specified, yet that, Drecaen, France, and her dependencies. -
that the same failure of Raiment Demised in some degree, la re- . „- ~ . -

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