The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-15 00:00:00

THE COTTON CRISIS

I The state of our Cotton Market during the past week
has shown most convincingly the fact, noticed by us last
week, that the spinners and manufacturers are com-
pletely in the power of the capitalists, by whom the bulk
' of the cotton at present in the kingdom is held. The sales
of this important raw material for the week, up to Friday,
were close upon 123,000 bales, or nearly five times the
week's consumption. A large portion of this has of course
gone into the hands of speculators, at a further advance
of from Id. to W. per pound ; and of course a profit must
be paid upon it to such speculators, to induce them to
relax their hold. And, in the meantime, what is the po-
sition of the manufacturer who works up this raw mate-
rial ? What is the position of the poor worker at the
spindle and the loom ? Every account which we receive
from the manufacturing districts assures us that the spin-
ner is without orders, and the operative about to be made
the scapegoat. Failures in prospect are freely spoken of.
as the consequence of carrying on mills and keeping ma-
chinery in operation. Can mills be closed ? Can machi-
nery be kept idle without depreciation? Can bills be met
without returns coming round at their ordinary rate?
They cannot. We are playing—speculators and spinners
mutually—a very hazardous game. The former are get-
ting up an artificial price of the raw commodity ; and the
latter are manufacturing it without the hope of selling it
at a profit. The poor operative is the shuttlecock, which
either party can let down when he chooses, and which one
of them must let down by and by.
Yet there is a remedy for the present state of things,
although, strange to say, the party most interested—the
consumer of cotton—cannot be brought to see the pru-
dence of its adoption. The passing, ultimately, of a ten
hours' bill, every body acknowledges to be a " great fact."
All the sophi:•try and all the selfishness of manufacturing
philosophy cannot get rid of this fact. Children of both
sexes, and wives and mothers, shall not be ground into
calico. The world's fiat has gone forth ; and it must be
respected. The manufacturer himself would gladly work
short time ; but he has always some neighbour or rival,
fortunate in the possession of orders, who will not sail
with the stream. The manufacturers of Blackburn have
recently been working short time ; but the manufacturers
of other localities refuse to follow the example, and
Blackburn is about to return to the usual hours of work-
ing. Ashton would economise its consumption; but Sta-
lvbridge will not. And so it is with most other localities.
Every consideration of his present position assures the
spinner that he is consuming an article which will not
afford him a remuneration for his capital and labour ; that
he is promoting a speculation, devised for the purpose of
profiting from his unprepared and necessitous condition ;
yet these men cannot—will not—see that legislation can
relieve them, and, at the same time, confer a vast boon
upon the labouring community. A ten hours' bill just
now would arrest the designs of speculators. It would
render the present estimated stock of cotton amply suffi-
cient to keep all the British factories going and the ope-
ratives in profitable employment. The manufacturing
interest, however, cannot forego the chance, presented to
him under the present law, of overworking his poor slaves
in times of excited trade. He will, however, have to be
forced into submission to the demands of the times,
which call loudly for justice and protection to the
workers—the sinews—from whose exertion the wealth of
our country is created.
Since the above was written, the Great Western has
arrived with New York dates to the 26th ultimo. Our
cotton circular of Saturday and yesterday, we give here :

COTTON MARKET, SATURDAY NIGHT

The hourly expectation of the Great Western gave a peculiar
feature to an already excited cotton market—parties buying or
sellitur, according to their own feelings as to the probable tenor
of her accounts. This caused a very irregular market ; and
although 20,000 bales changed bands, it was at prices both
above and below the rates current on Friday. Operations were
continued to a late hour ; and the steamer being telegraphed
only added fuel to the fire ; and so late as eight o'clock, the
News-room was crowded with anxious expectants for the news
—commercial rather than political.

MONDAY NIGHT,

Buying commenced most furiously on the part of those who
had seen the accounts, ;4, -L and then „'s per lb. advance
has been paid, and 45,000 bales changed hands-30,000 to 35,000
of them on speculation, and buyers inufh more eager than sel-
lers. The advance in three weeks may now be quoted at
2(1. per lb.
It has been remarked that no speculation on short crop has
taken place in the States ; on the contrary, the accounts show
great dulness prevailing in the New York market, in the face of
diminished arrivals in the shipping ports. All the recklessness
here is on the strength of a light stock in the port, and the
knowledge on the part of buyers that such stock is daily get-
ting into fewer hands.

To show in what light this state of things is regarded
here, we may direct attention to a paragraph in another
column, in which it is announced that the extensive mills
at the North Shore will work only eight hours a day, until
the market for the raw material assumes a more settled
state.