The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-26 00:00:00

WHAT MERCHANTS AND TRADESMEN MUST
DO FOR THEMSELVES, AND THE PUBLIC
FOR BOTH. •

We communicated in our last the unsuccessful result of
the application for aid made to Government and to the
Bank by the deputation from the Royal Bank. Since then
another deputation, accompanied by the Mayor, appointed
to make an appeal to the authorities on behalf of the inte-
rests of the commercial community at large, has had an
interview with the Premier, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, and Mr. Labouchere, the result of which tends only
to satisfy us that these Ministers are determined to adhere
strictly to the provisions of the present law, and to leave
the whole commercial and social fabric of the country
to be prostrated in the dust, as they must inevitably be,
unless some favourable circumstances occur to mitigate
the present pressure. We have been relieved, it is true,
from considerable uneasiness by the assistance afforded by
the bank to Messrs. Littledale and Co. ; and some san-
guine persons have thence drawn rather unwarrantable
conclusions as to the disposition of that body generally
towards the commercial world. In relieving the firm in
question the bank has merely secured to itself an excellent
and legitimate account, which any private or joint-stock
bank would have been glad to have received had it been in
possession of funds in sufficient amount to conduct it
satisfactorily.
All these concurrent circumstances justify us in coming
to the conclusion that we may expect neither aid nor
sympathy in our sufferings from Government, and that,
to use the language of the writer of the city article of the
London Times—almost a semi-official authority—we must
be satisfied " to let things return to their proper channel
—to that steady course of pressure which, during the
whole of the present year, would never have been inter-
rupted but for the bad banking of the Bank, and which
must go on until it has entirely crushed the Railway
mania and these people" (who ?) " know their fate." In
plainer language, we are to submit, for a period not very
intelligibly defined, to a pressure which narrowing the
streams of commerce, and decreasing daily the produc-
tive industry of the country, spreads insolvency and
pauperism over the face of the land. Let us see, then,
what resources we possess to protect ourselves, and those
dependent upon us, from at least the extreme of suffering,
which such an ordeal might involve.
In the first place, it is clear that prudent men will, as
far as possible, avoid entering into new engagements,
beyond the immediate necessities of the time. For exam-
ple, that this country, we are told, was to have become a
kind of store-house for grain and other commodities which
other countries produce beyond their own wants, and
we may shortly expect to see the bread stuffs of the Ameri-
can continent and of Europe pouring into our ports. As,
however, our working population are to be put upon short
commons, and our own harvest has been more than an
average one, we cannot consume those imported bread
stuffs. As little can we afford to advance upon and store
them in our granaries, so long as the banks discount only
such short-dated paper as may be almost regarded as cash ;
and the foreign importer must therefore be told when he
arrives to trip anchor and carry his cargoes to other
markets, whose merchants are more fortunately circum-
stanced. It will be quite as much as is likely to be in
our power if we can receive the produce furnished us by
our colonists, or such imports as are sent in remittance
for British goods, or in which British merchants or the
foreign connections are interested.
We are quite aware that from this process of contrac-
tion much mischief may ensue amongst our working po-
pulation and the small traders in our towns. To some
extent, however, this may be prevented by the establish-
ment of a little confidence amongst ourselves, and for-
bearance one towards another. Let the deposits, which
have been withdrawn from our banks, and are now hoarded
and lying useless in private heads, be restored ; and those
establishments thus enabled to supply the legitimate
wants of the trading community. The extent of the re-
lief which might thus be afforded, it is of course impossi-
ble to estimate very closely. But it is probable that in
Liverpool alone, if such deposits were returned, and the
banks could be assured against the recurrence of the in-
discriminating panic, which has compelled them to hold
in their coffers so large an amount of specie and bank
notes to meet it, something very near a million sterling
might be set free, and the means furnished to a vast num-
ber of perfectly solvent tradesmen to fulfil with their
neighbours their mutual engagements.
Especially, in such a crisis as the present, it ought to
be regarded as a bounden duty by all who are in possession
of the means, to strain every nerve to pay promptly those
whose claims, because of the apparent insignificance of
their amount, and partly from habit and thoughtlessness,
have been accustomed to be postponed. Many an in-
dustrious tradesman, with means sufficient for the conduct
of his business, is, at this moment, at a loss to know
whence the money is to come for the payment of the
next Saturday's wages to his work-people ; and is pre-
meditating a reduction of his 'establishment, or, possibly,
distressing the humbler classes of his customers, rather
than offend, by asking for their long overdue accounts,
those to whom their prompt payment is not an object
worthy of notice. We know of nothing that would diffuse
a greater amount of comfort abroad amongst our indus-
trious working people, and tradesmen, than a prompt
attention at the present time, by the affluent, to the claims
of these classes upon their sympathy.

STATE OF BUSINESS IN LIVERPOOL

YESTERDAY.

The gloom and anxiety which hunt over our commer-
cial community during the greater part of last week, ap-
peared towards the close to be decreasing ; and the ac-
counts from Manchester, in particular, were of a decidedly
more favourable character on Saturday. The official an-
nouncement yesterday of the stoppage of the North and
South Wales Bank, which we have noticed elsewhere,
once more revived the feeling of uneasiness amongst com-
mercial classes ; for, although the Bank in question is
not one which has a very large business in Liverpool,.ex-
cept amongst tradesmen connected with the Principality,
the slightest thing suffices to check confidence,.at a time
like the present. The announcement of the failure
of the Union Bank of Calcutta has also added to
the prevailing panic ; and until the bearing of that failure,
and of the stoppage of the firm of Scott, Bell, and Co., of
London, upon our community is more fully ascertained,
it is scarcely prudent to speculate upon the contingencies
which may ensue.
In the meantime the small amount of business which
was transacted yesterday was done on most unfavourable
terms for the sellers. Our usual correspondent writes of
the cotton market as follows :
"•CorroN MARKET, GET. 25.—A good demand for
cotton to-day, but only in small parcels; consumers have
no confidence even in present rates being maintained, and
are not anxious buyers. 2,500 bales sold at last week's
prices. Holders meet the market freely, and submit to a
daily loss of about £7,000 in money."
The feeling amongst our corn merchants yesterday was
affected in some measure by the suspension of the North
and South Wales Bank ; but the principal circumstance
which induced a tendency to submit to • easier terms was
the circumstance of most of the advices from the country
markets bringing notice of declining rates. Of course
Monday is not a day in which much actual business is
done ; but the tone of the trade on that day frequently
affords a very fair criterion, from which to judge of the
feeling of the market at its opening.
We are not in a position to announce any definito in-
formation as to the Royal Bank or the Liverpool Banking
Company. The latter still keeps open for the transaction
of all business except the payment of checks ; and the
Directors of the Royal are still hopeful of procuring sup-
plies sufficient to enable them again to open their doors.