The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-18 00:00:00

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CHAMBER OF

COMMERCE.

Manchester Monday Trening.
The annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce took
place this day, and was rather numerously attended. 3..8;
Smith, Esq., the president of the chamber, filled the chair.
A very lengthy report was presented from the board Of
directors, of which the most important portions are sub-
joined. It entered into a detailed statement of the steps
taken by the directors in reference to the following subjects :
—Equalization of the duties on sugar and coffee; the duty on
raw cotton ; the Manchester and. Birmingham extension
railway ; timber duties ; the penny postage ; steam commu-
nication with India via the Red Sea; cultivation of cotton in
India ; Mexico ; the Prussian League ; and the interruption
of the trade with China. It then proceeded—.•
" The board have just glanced at the principal subjects
which have occupied their attention during the past year,—
a year that will long be remembered for the extreme difficul-
ties and losses sustained by the capitalists of this aistrict, as
well as for the privations and sufferings endured by great
numbers of the industrious classes. The combined evils re-
sulting from a fluctuating scale of duties upon foreign corn,
in first enhancing the price of food in the home market, and
then causing a contraction of the currency in the sodden pay-
ment for a supply of grain from abroad, have, during the
past year, inflicted upon the entire trading and industrious
communities, a vast amount of embarrassment,- loss, and
misery. In the midst of the distress brought upon us by
the operation of an to wise and unjust law, it affords some
consolation to observe the great progress which sound com-
mercial views have made in the public mind. When, a
little above twelve mouths ago, a majority of this chamber
publicly declared its hostility to the principle of imposing
a tax upon the necessary food of the people, many persons
were found who were opposed to any change whatever in the
present law ; but, although differences may exist as to the ex-
tent of alteration necessary, the experience of the past year
has forced, upon every enlightened and reflecting mind,
the conviction that the present Corn.law must be repealed.
The great and rapid change of opinion which has taken place
upon this subject may, doubtless, in a great measure be at-
tributed to the persevering efforts that have been Made to
rouse and enlighten the public mind upon this momentous
question ; and the board have seen with satisfaction that the
public spirit and intelligence of its inhabitants have raised
Manchester to the foremost rank among the hundreds •of
towns which have united to effect the abolition of one of the
most unjust and destructive laws :ever passed by the legisla-
ture of any country.
" The board have purposely delayed the calling of a gene-
ral meeting of the members of the chamber, to take into
consideration the propriety of petitioning parliament for
the repeal of the corn-laws, thinking it expedient to wait till after
the late all-engrossing public demonstrations in Manchester.
in favour of the same object, had taken place. They feel it,
however, to be a paramount duty to give to the members an
opportunity, at least once in each session of parliament, to
petition for a repeal of this law, and they recommend their
successors to take the earliest opportunity of calling a special
general meeting of the chamber for this object.-
" The present juncture calls for increased exertion on the
part of this chamber to emancipate our council from the
fetters with which its energies are hound. The tariff of the
German league will shortly undergo a revision ; and upon the
policy pursued by our government previously to 1842, frith'
reference to the import duties upon the productions of Ger-
many, will depond whether we shall regain the rich- and
extensive markets of central Europe for our manufactures,
or whether they shall be for ever closed against us. it is
expected that the' tariff of the United States will come under
discussion in that country in the course of next year. A
vast population has grown up in the interior states of the
union, whose surplus production consists of corn and other'
articles of food, their voice will go far to determine the cha,
racter of the future commercial intercourse between America
and this country. If wisdom direct our proceedings; we
shall adopt'such a policy in regard to import duties upon the
natural productions of the United States, as will secure to
us increasing commerce with the people of that important
country. The Brazilian treaty expires in about two 3ears,
and the government of Brazil has already given notice that
it will not consent to its renewal, and unless our diserimi-
nating duties, which operate as a prohibition against the ins.-
portation of the coffee and sugar of that country be -relaied,
we shall probably be excluded from that important market.
Remembering that our exports of cotton goods to the Brazils
exceed in amount those scut to any other country, it Will be
seen that this is a subject of vast importance to the trading
interests of this district.

" Whilst still suffering a continuance of the long-pro-
tracted prostration of our manufacturing industry, it becomes
a matter of the deepest importance to inquire how we are to
create such a demand for our productions abroad as shall
give the means of subsistence to this industrious community,
and supply a profitable field of employment for our capital.
‘.‘ It ought not,to, be concealed, that most of the prosperity
which we enjoyed in 1836, and the few previous years, was
caused by an increase of credits, the offspring of an unnatu-
ral extension of banking and currency operations here and
in America. Our manufactures were, in consequence, sent
to the United States in far greater quantities than its people,
under the existing law, which restricts the interchanges be-
tween the two countries, either required or could pay for ;
and when an end was put to the system of credit, out of
which this excessive importation into America arose, it was
found that a very large amount of British goods was held
there in stock, whilst, at the same time, a great increase of
the manufactures of this country had, from the same causes,
been going on. Our merchants bad also glutted almost eve-
ry distant market with their shipments. The excessive bank-
ing operations, in which this over-trading originated, are
obviously not likely to be soon repeated, nor is it desirable
that they should. The inquiry is therefore forced upon 14s,
where shall we find other and more legitimate channels for
an outlet for our manufactures ?
"The board have given the most anxious consideration to
this question, and they have arrived at the unanimous con-
viction, that, nothing but the removal of those legislative re-
strictions by which our commerce is impeded—nothing, in
short, but the carrying out in practice that principle of free
trade which has, for nearly twenty years, been theoretically
only the rule of our commercial policy, can impart to this
district a solid and durable prosperity."
After some further proceedings, thanks were then voted to
the Directors for their services of the past year, and to the
Chairman, and the meeting broke up.