The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-01 00:00:00

THE COTTON- TRADE.

We have great pleasure in laying before our reader
the following copy of the Cotton Brokers' General
Circular for the close of the year 1840 :

There has seldom been a period during which the move-
ments of the cotton-trade have been so much in unison with

ilepreisior: so intense and wide-spreading as to be mistaken
'by some for the first symptoms of the decline and fall of this
branch of national industry,
.had been succeeded by a slow,
but progressive amendment, and for several weeks before the
commencement of the new year, almost every department of
the ootton manufacture had resumed its wonted activity. The
stocks in the ports and the interior, if not very heavy, were
still ample in the face a coming crop, which, according to all
reports from the United States, gave promise of being most
abundant; prices were moderate, compared with what they
had been, and money, though not wanting for all the legiti-
mate purposes of business, was neither then, nor likely to be,
so cheap as to invite extravagant speculation, or to provoke
excessive production.
Such being the poSture of affairs in the month of December,
1839, it required no gift of prophecy to predict that the ap-
proaching year would be one of great plenty, low prices,
large consumption, and small profits. If these results were
pretty accurately foreseen, so have the incidents of the year
been few and uninteresting. The commercial operations in
cotton have in fact been permitted to flow in their natural
channel. The functions of the private trader have ceased to
be invaded and usurped by the American banks, and the in-
tercourse between the two countries being freed from this
pernicious interference, prices on both sides of the water have
found their proper level, to the manifest advantage and secu-
rity of planter, shipper, importer, and consumer.

But the great event of the year is the marvellous increase
in the growth, of cotton in the United States. In order to
exhibit this important fact in its true magnitude and propor-
tions, it is necessary to take a retrospective glance at the
question of crons for several years past. Beginning, then,
with the year 1830, it will be seen that the crop of
1830-31 was 1,038,848 bales. Increase 6} per cent.
1831-32 „ 987,477 ~ Decrease 5
1832-33 „ 1,070,4 M „ Increase 81 „
1833-31 „ 1,205,394 „ ~
PP
1834-35 „ 1,254,328 „ 4
)1 If
1835-3 T „ 1,360,725 „ 81 ~
tt
1836-37 „ 1,422,930 „ „
1837-38 „ 1,801,497 ~ ~ 261 IP
1838-39 „ 1,360,532 „ Decrease 24/ ~
1839-40 „ 2,177,835 „ Increase 60 ~
In examining this statement, the eye will at once rest upon
the sudden and extraordinary increase in the crop of 1837-38,
and again, with an interval of an year only, in that of 1839-40,
which contrasts strongly with the easy and pretty equal stages
by which the production had been advancing for, the seven
preceding years. Various causes, or a combination of them,
may be assigned for these remarkable
mode of culture, an extension of the cultivation, not only in
the old districts, but into latitudes less exposed to frosts and
to variable seasons, and chiefly (especially with reference to
the last crop) the coincidence of a most ffivourable summer,
with an unprecedenteily open winter. But the fact itself,
however brought about, is full of interest to the cotton trade,
as it is destined probably to work important changes, and at
no very distant period.
The new year had scarcely commenced before the appre-
hensions of an overwhelming import were manifested in a
desire to rvaiize existing prices, and by the last week in
January fair qualities of American had fallen -ad per lb. No
change beyond an occasional fluctuation of id per lb occurred
until the beginning of June, when prices experienced a fur-
ther reduction of id per lb, making the decline ld per lb
since the first week of the year. This was the lowest point
of the market ; and it is a circumstance worthy of notice,
that with an import almost unexampled in amount, with an
average stock of 470,000 bales and with money never cheap,
and at times exorbitantly dear, fair Uplands should not have
varied more than id to Id per lb for the six months between
June and November. Steady rather than extensive buying
was the characteristic of the market during this period. The

trade as a body—some from not seeing any adequate induce-
ment to hold stock, and not a few from a necessity imposed
upon them by the state of commercial credit—took little more
than they required for their immediate wants. The business
on speculation, though crippled from the latter cave, was by
no means inconsiderable; but though spread pretty equally
throughout the year, it did not assume a very decided cha-

ractertill towards the middle of August, when the fate of the
harvest was supposed to be no longer doubtful. The market,
however, after a week or two relapsed into its former apathy,
and what with the stringent measures of the Bank for cur-
tailing discounts, and the threatening aspect of political af-
fairs, it was as low perhaps in point of feeling in the latter
end of October and the beginning of November as at any
period of that year.

From that time there has been a growing impression that
prices had seen their lowest, and the improvement which had
been gradually taking place in the manufacturing business
seemed to point to the probability and reasonableness of some
advance. Coming upon a market thus, predisposed, it was to
be expected that any accounts in the slightest degree unfa-
vourable to the prospect of the crop would be eagerly pressed
into the service. The reports accordingly received a fort-
night ago of the frosts in some districts, and unpropitious
weather in others, by which the picking had been prema-
turely suspended, have not been without their effect ; and
though the injury is not pretended to be to an extent to awa-
ken any serious apprehensions for the safety of the crop, yet
coupled with other advices of a similar tendency, they go
far to negative the possibility of what the holders had the
most reason to dread—the recurrence of another crop such
as that of last year. Be this as it may, the market has since
worn a more cheerful aspect, and both speculators and the
trade have purchased with more avidity than for mouths past,
at a gradual advance of about id per lb since the movement
began in the second week in December, thus placing the
rites of American cotton on the last day of the year within
id per lb for the middling, and Id per lb for the better qual-
ities, of what they were on the first. Surats, which from the
large quantity imported have played a more important 'part
than ususal, have partaken of the same fluctuations as Ame •
rican, and bear the same relative price at the close as at the
commencement of the year.

For all descriptions of long-stapled cotton this has been a
year of much disappointment. Fair Sea Islands, which
opened at 22d per lb, before the end of January fell' to 16d
per lb, and by the middle of the following month to 13d per
lb ; in a few weeks they rallied again to 141 d per lb, and vi-
brated between that price and 51d per lb for the remainder
tif the year. • Egyptians in the first two months experienced
a reduction of 2d per lb, of which they recovered Id in the
course of the two next ; and during the last three months
they have gained another id per lb. Brazils continued at a
decline of id per lb for several months, and finally settled
down in October at the lowest point, from which they have
never moved, Pernams and Bahias being ld per lb and Ma-
ranlvms lid per lb below what they were at the beginning of
the year. From first totlast, the demand for these descrip-
tions has been extremely languid, owing to the limited wants
of the spinners of the finer numbers of yarn. The stocks on
hand are consequently disproportioned to the consumption,
though the supply has been rather less than more than it was
the previous year. _

For the details of Stocks and Imports, reference is re-
quested to the annexed Tables. The import from the United
States into the kingdom exceeds that of last year by
420,723 bales ; that of Surats is also larger by 83,819 bales,
owing partly to an abundant crop, and partly to the inter-
ruption of the intercourse between India and China, which
has been the means of diverting a portion of the Cotton des-
tined for the latter to this country. The growth of the Bra-
zils appears to be on the decline. the supplies thence having
been diminishing for some years. From Egypt the import
has been the same within three or four thousand bales in ex-
cess of last year's. The stock of all kinds in the ports
amounts to 464,100 bales, being an increase upon the stocks
held at the corresponding period of last year of 198,610
bales. The deliveries to the trade, according to the usual
mode of ascertaining them, have been from Liverpool, Lon-
don and Glasgow 1,285,598 bales, or at the rate of 24,721
bales per week, which quantity may be taken to repre.ent
also the consumption, supposing the stocks in the interior to
be the same as at this time last year. This latter is a point
always difficult of proof; but from the known inability of
many of the spinners to hold stock, and from general in-
quiries, this may be assumed in.the affirmative ; but ad-
mitting that it is some 30,000 bales more, according to the
opinion of many, the difference, in dealing with such large
quantities, cannot materially affect the result. This increase
in the consumption of 3015 bales per week, or 14 per cent.
upon last year s, is the more remarkable as having been ac-
complished without the addition, in any corresponding de-
gree, of new mills or new machinery. The narrow margin
left for profit has led to the introduction of more expeditious
,processes, whilst the cheapness of the raw material has
offered every encouragement for the production of a more
substantial fabric. The demand indeed has been chiefly for
low numbers of yarn and for heavy goods, which for the last
few months at least have found a ready market at home and
abroad. The stocks of goods are believed to be more consi-
derable than those of yarn, the export of the latter having
been, according to " Burn's Commercial Glance," greater
by about 33 per cent. during the first nine months this year
than for the corresponding period last. In goods the ex.
port, as given by the same publication, has been less, but
owing to the variety in the denominations the comparison in
point of weight cannot so readily be made.

With respect to the future, upon which some opinion on
this annual occasion is expected, the issue of the last crop
has involved the subject in greater difficulty than usual. So
long as the growth of cotton in America proceeded with the
steady march which characterised it for several years prior to
1837, a period during which the rate of increase was seldom
less than 4 per cent. or more than 8 per cent. per annum,
the supply might be regarded, if not as a fixed quantity, at
least as vibrating between such narrow limits as rendered it
not likely, singly considered, to effect any great or perma-
nent revolution in the standard of prices. But what has
been the experience of the last three years? The first gave
a crop exceeding by no less than 2€4 per cent. that of the
year before, which, be it observed, was larger by 5 per cent.
than any former one the ..rond, though viaited by a long
drought, which materially injured the plant, produced a full
average of the four previous sears, omitting the large crop
of the preceding year ; and the third yielded an increase of
21 per cent. not upon the failing crop which it followed, but
upon that of the year but one before, which, it must be re-
membered, was larger by 261 per cent. than any upon record
up to that time, thus showing an increase in the last crop
of 53 per cent. upon that of the year 1836-37. From
whatever cause arising, (and some, at least, of those men-
tioned in a former part as the most probable ones will
not be considered to be purely accidental), these results
cannot but tend to throw an uncertainty around all calcula-
tions founded on supply, and to unsettle the received notions
as to what are high or low prices ; for, although it be true
that the consumption has been able to cope with an import
greater, into the kingdom, than last year's by 484,000 bales,
without either an extraordinary depression of price or an
inconvenient accumulation of stock, it must not be forgotten
that the crop now under discussion came upon the heels of
one as deficient as the other was superabundant. To put a
case more nearly parallel with the circumstances of the cur-
rent year, it should be asked—what would have been the
state of things at the present moment but for the casualty
which befel the crop of 1837-8? It is difficult to resist the
belief that the stocks on hand would have been larger, and
the prices lower; and if the forthcoming crop is not to fall
short of 1,800,000 bales, (which is admitted, in spite of all
untoward events), the conclusion would seem to be as inevi-
table, that prices cannot on the average much exceed, if at
'all, those of this year. Some allowance must, no doubt,
be made for a reasonable increase in the wants of all the
cotton-consuming countries; but on the other hand, let it be
kept steadily in view, that the first condition of that
increase is a low price. Attempts to reduce to figures quan-
tities so liable to disturbing causes are usually attended with
but little success ; the following statement however is sub-
mitted as a =ere approximation, to be taken for what it is
worth. On the last occasion of a crop of 1,800,000 bales in
1838, this country received 1,123,000 bales. The Continent,
as well as America herself, will require a larger supply than
at the period alluded to, but both have considerably antici-
pated these additional wants by the larger portion they have
either retained or imported of the late crop. The imports,
indeed, of American cotton into the different ports of the
Continent have been more than double what they were last
year, viz. 629,000 bales against 276,000 bales.

- Great Britain may then fairly claim 1,050,000 bales
To this add the import from all other
quarters, estimated to be the same
as this year, say
And the stock now on hand in Liver-
pool, London and Glasgow 464,100

364,000

Deducting what may be taken for ex, 1,878,100
portation 120,000
Gives a total for the service of the year -----1,758,100

The following is a statement of the total amount of im-
ports into the port of Liverpool during 'each month in
the years 1838, 1839, and 1840 respectively :

184.

January :i
53111 46907 111221
Febrtlary .... __ _. _ .
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October . 48171 29126 62814
November 14109 27717 54625
December 37418 41918 46420

Totals

828604

1016510 1414726

The following are the particulars of the stock of
Cotton in the Port of Liverpool, on the 31st of De-
cember, for the last four years :

Descriptions

Sea Island
Stained Ditto
Upland
Alabama and Mobile
New Orleans
Pernambuco and Ceara

Maranham
Bahia and Maceio

Egyptian
Demerara and Berbice,
West India

Carthagena

Peruvian

Smyrna
Surat . .
Madras
Bengal .
Manilla

1460 3220 3550 5180
770 1330 800 310
.5290 . 68860 41210 82950
5760 17640 33660 58830
4970 98050 79140 123900
11780 11720 6810 • 9070

6180 9050 1160 7760
330 8330 1750 5500
13350 5320 11590 20760
710 640 400 349
500 230 610 10,..)0
4690 4640 1000 1130
€3lO 250 1060 6320

810 840 1160 4180
270 700 .. 240
39940 16510 19300 36860
2030 400 1890 1400
2100 580 960 350
180 30 ..

The following table exhibits the comparative prices
of Cotton at the same periods

Descriptions

1839. 1840

d. d. d. d. d. d. d. d.
Sea Island.
Stained Ditto 6 10 7 15 7 14 6 12
Upland 7 9 7 9 51 74 51 7
Alabama and Mobile 61 9 7 9 51 81 5+ 7
New Orleans 7 94 7+ 91 6 81 51 7/
Pernambuco & Ceara 9+ 101 9+ 10+ 9 10+ 8+ 9
Maranham 7l 10 71 91 810 61 81
Bahia and Maceio
Egyptian
Demerara & Berbice 912 10 14 812 8 91
West India 74 10 7 9 7 9 6 71
Car thagena sf 6 54 6 5/ 6 4/ 5
Laguira, &c 6l 8/ 7 81 8+ 9 61 8
Peruvian
Smyrna 7 8 61 7 6 6/
Surat ..
41 6+ 51 61 4/ 6+ 4 5
Madras 44 64 54 6 54 6 44- 4
Bengal 4 5 5+ 6+ 4+ 54 4 4$
Manilla 7+ 8+ • • • • • •

STOCKS IN TIIE PORTS OF LONDON AND GLASGOW,
30TH DECEMBER, 1840.
Descriptions. Loud. Glas.
Atlantic States 13528..
New Orleans
Pernambuco.. .....
~,.. v ..
Bahia, &c. lin ..
Maranham
Smyrna
Egyptian
Demerara and Berbice
West India, &c.
Bourbun
Surat 3l7solßengal
Madras lO5lO

50660 47248

EXPORT OF COTTON WOOL FROM LIVERPOOL, LONDON,
AND GLASGOW, IN THE YEAR 11340, COMPARED WITH
1839 AND 1838.

LIVERPOOL

To Continent of Europe
To Ireland

1840. 1839. 1838.
55347 76192 51633
11610 10086 12357

Totals

66957 86278 63990