The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

z condition

so that the progressive im-
first three quarters of the

'ger stocks of cotton

known to possess at any former

months more than sufficient for their annual

That the general prosperity of trade should not have
enhanced the value of the raw material in a greater degree,
may be accounted for by the heavy crop of 1844, and the

onsequent accumulation of stock in this country; more-

over, the

'ewe to se

he handsome profit on irnporta-
o bring the cotton freely on the

tions, was an induce me

market, so that t

xtensxc

ecula- tion, of

which there were some during the year, passed away
without giving any material impulse to prices."

The same influential firm account, in part, for
this feature in the trade in the same way as we have
done several times, when remarking in the columns
of the Liverpool Standard upon the inordinate spe-
culations in railway shares, which we viewed as
a timely safety valve, provided to check, and,
at the worst, more harmless in its results than
would have been the application :of the surplus ca-
pital of the manufacturing community to an enor-
mous extension of their means of producing manu-
factured fabrics.

" It is fortunate," they say. " for those engaged in the
cotton trade that the abundance of unemployed capital
obtained vent in the multitude of new schemes to which
the difficulty of finding profitable investment gave rise;
had this new channel not been opened, there is little
doubt that all sorts of produce would have become the
objects of speculation, and more disastrous results have
ensued, by causing distress amongst the labouring com-
munity, than is likely to follow the unprecedented extra-
vagance of the recent railway bubb!es, the failure of
which is more immediately felt by the middle classes."
Another circumstance which checked an advance
in the raw material was the fact of the crop ex-
ceeding in amount the general anticipations. The
American crop, variously estimated at the com-
mencement of the year 2,100,000 and 2,200,000
bales, is now found to be (we take the figures
from the circular of Messrs. Heywood and Mac-
Viccar) 2,394,500 bales, exclusive of 26,000 bales
from Texas. The same firm, from whose cir-
cular we first quoted, thus wind up their account of
the year, and state their opinions of the prospects
of the present:—

" The partial failure of the harvest and the injurious
effects of the railway mania in deranging the operations of

the money market, having given a severe check during
the last two or three months to the prosperity of the
cotton trade, consumers, during that period, have been
working up their stocks of cotton, and it is now calculated
that the quantity on hand in the country does not exceed
that held at the same periA last year. Almost all the
old mills, which had been for some time standing, being
k again, several new ones erected, and the con-
): power still extending, there is a considerable in-
ton ler the year ; it is estimated at
weekly consun,p-
'he present year it

157,781 bale
tion of 1844,

as 27,326

y be us

erect in with pros-

mraging perhaps than the last,
for despondency. Our unusually
n, and the certainty of a good crop
secured in A 5 eric.,, are sufficient
-ate prices dnring the next twelve
;co, in the political horizon seem to
ispersing, and although we may have to

months ; the elou.'
be gradually
contend a

ist the effect of a scarcity of agricultural pro-
it is to be hoped that this will in some decree b
Llizd by lrb

.1 measures about to

be intr. duced duriu

ng parliamentary

inners during the

year may be estimated by the fact mentioned in
Messrs. Heywood and MacViccar's circular, that
at one time of the year they were realizing fro:n 2d.
to 3d. per lb !
Another rapidly rising trade in Liverpool, whose
prosperity may fairly be stated to form a fair index
of that of important masses of the community is
the wool trade. We give the state of this trade
from Messrs. Gartside and Co.'s annual circular :

" From the commencement of the year until the month
of October we experienced a good demand for all de-
scriptions of wool ; since that period very little has been
done. The extent of railway speculation during the
earlier part of the year and its subsequent effects, the
supposed failure in the potato crop, the changes in tl,e
ministry, and the probabil;ties of an American war, have
all tended to destroy confidence, and have caused the
woollen manufacturers to reduce their consumption of
the raw material, and they are in many cases working
short time.

Our imports this year into Liverpool exceed by 24,318
bales the quantity received in 1844 ; the present stock also
shows a considerable increase upon that on hand at the
end of last year, though not in so great a proportion, and
that increase is principally in Alpaca and Peruvian.
The quantity of wool imported into England from the
Australian and South African colonies reaches about
1.11,000 bales, of which only 6060 bales have come to this
market; this is to be the more regretted, when we con-
sider that a larger quantity was received here eight years
ago, and the growth in the meanwhile has more than
doubled.

We are now receiving considerable supplies of fine
wool from the United States. As we stated in our cir-
cular of the 28th ultimo, the quality and working pro-
perties of these descriptions are not yet known, and buyers
only take them to a limited extent, consequently what has
hitherto been done in them cannot be taken as a fair
criterion of value when they become properly known.
Should the Government of the United States reduce their
import duties on woollen manufactures, we may look for
an improved business with that country next year.
On comparing the list of prices with that of this period
est year, we find on the whole very little alteration.
&Though the rates obtained in the highest point of the
market during the spring and summer have not in general