The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

attribute the vast

place during
propert'

policy is continued

that the tradesmen of the
vn are in motion, and that a meeting on the
bject is to be called under the auspices of our
rthy chief magistrate. We hope all other towns

.ble movement, wh

a year which has been to those
aged in commercial pursuits one of the most
on record, it may be worth while, for

Istrous

Irish loan .
Importation of foreign corn, in
fifteen months, on a sudden

Estimated loss by the failures of

,
mercantile firms, assumed in

the aggregate_to amount to

£30,000, 000. One-third actual
loss thereon
Falling off in the cotton trade in
1847, compared with 1846, as
shown by our comparative
statement

arrives

epreciation which has taken
the year in nearly every description of

in railway shares; funded, and other
stocks, and even a portion of the losses which have
been sustained in cotton, corn, sugar, and other
merchandize, and of that total want of confidence
which has prostrated so many of our leading com-
mercial firms. Upon this subject the circular of
Messrs. Haywood, M‘Viccar, and Co., of this town,
contains some very valuable remarks :

chief disturbing cause in the cotton market throughout
the year. To examine whether it is right to sacrifice
everything to a principle is a duty which the legislature
of the country is now about to undertake. The import-

consequence that the rocks on which so many have been
shipwrecked should be clearly marked out for the future
guidance of those who hereafter have to sail in such
troubled seas.
" Had the bank law been relaxed in May and a high
rate of interest then fixed, some think much evil would
have been prevented ; others say, that as the price of
uld ilso tend to improve I corn was then very high and 1

rge arrivals were pouring
ld have to he naid for in

;old, the refusal to grant th© assistance asked was a

a deaf ear should have been

turned to all representations throughout September and
the greater Dart of October, is a question we think of
grave
_importance. The times were very different ;—a

hood harrest at home bad reduced the price of wheat
50 per cent below the quotations of May ; prices, in fact,
were lower here than in foreign ports, and consequently
the fear of any additional export of bullion for fresh
purchases of corn need not to have been felt. The want
of confidence naturally following the failures of those
engaged in the corn trade, and the drooping condition of
all other branches of business, were such as might have
been materially counteracted by some relaxation in the
working of the bill, and the minds of people would at least
have been tranquiized. That the progress of such a state
of things should have been allowed to go on, for even a
mnth.or six weeks, when a timely interference, perhaps,

might have obviated a great portion of the mischief, is a
matter only to be accounted for by the obstinacy of those
who sacrifice everything to a theory. To suppose that an
earlier relaxation of the bill, with a high rate of interest
fixed, would have given a stimulus to speculation appears
a fallacy. Distrust prevented many foreign orders from
being executed which would have corrected the exchanges,
and prices were forced down suddenly to a runious extent
both for the raw material and manufactured goods, when,
had a milder system been pursued, the fall would have
been gradual and less overwhelming. Indeed the conse-
quences of the relaxation of the bill when it did take
place, at the eleventh hour, proved incoWestibly, not
only what benefits an earlier suspension would have
realized, but also what uncalled for misery and confisca-
tion it might have prevented."

THE PROSPECTS OF 1848,—Upon this head we
adhere to the view, which we had previously enter-
tained, that we have still a further period of
ing to undergo. The whole fabric of our com-
mercial body is too completely disorganized, and
out of joint, to be restored to health, except after
passing through a process of purgation, under
which it is probable that many parties, at present
far removed above suspicion, are, in all probability,
doomed to sink. We quote a somewhat opposite

opinion, container Ale very able circular of
Messrs. Dufay, Collins, and Co., to which we have
already referred. These gentlemen say—

" It is a notorious fact, that it has taken the country a
long time to right itself after every crisis. Seven years
have been named as having been requisite for that pur-
pose after that of 1825. The present crisis has been more
violent than almost any other; but the effects will be of
comparatively short duration. In 1825, about 120 coun-
try banks failed, and were mostly in a deplorable state of
insolvency. Great distress was caused thereby to the in-
dustrious classes and shopkeepers, amongst whom the
_ _ _ _
notes issued

these banks were circulating. In 1847,
more than double the above number of failures of mer-
cantile firms took place; but the losses fell chiefly upon
the commercial community, leaving the working classes
comparatively untouched. It is, indeed, a question whe-
ther the great fall, which has been caused by the crisis in
all articles of provision, (the bulk of which is consumed
by the working classes,) has not, on the whole, benefitted
rather than injured them.
" When we know, for instance, that rice has been sold
during the crisis for the mere freight which it has cost to
bring it ; when we know that nearly all descriptions of
produce have declined thirty to forty per cent. in price,
and that onr import merchants are now making enormous
sacrifices in disposing thereof, we naturally ask, do these
losses confer no good upon any one ? 'Yes, upon the
working man, who will be enabled thereby to live cheaper
and to pay the debts which he has incurred in previous
years, if, as we anticipate, and now confidently expect,
he will find full employment in 1848. The agricultural
population has not suffered during 1846-7, the very high
prices realised for wheat, &c., in 1846, and during the first
six months of 1847, having afforded to them more than a
compensation for the deficient harvest in 1846. It is no-
torious that there is more money circulating in the agri-
cultural counties now than formerly, a fact which our
bankers here are not only aware of, but have seriously felt
when money was scarce.

" Taking all these circumstances in consideration, we
cannot come to any other conclusion than that the country
will overcome the drawbacks of the two preceding years in
a comparatively short time, should it be blessed, as is ge-
nerally assumed, with an ample supply of food and cotton.
The DIFFICULTIES we have laboured under, and the pro-
bable losses we have sustained in 1846-7, will be apparent
from the following figures :
Invested in railways, in 1846-7,
_ at present unprofitable

£87,885,0001
10,000t000

Sources of

I difficulties

emergency, and before the
trade under the new law had
settled into regular channels, 33,000,000

10,000,000

9,219;862

This amount, large as it may appear, particularly to our
more distant friends, is based upon something like sure
data, and does not by any means include all the losses and
depreciation of property, which have been sustained in
Great Britain during the last two years. The loss and de-
preciation of railway property and that in funds, Exchequer-
bills, &c. &c., has been estimated by some at the enormous
sum of £376,868,1421 ! The loss is, however, in a great
measure, imaginary ; when times mend the said property
will rise ; as all persons who have such property merely as
an investment, and those who are able to hold it will
gradually (with the return of better times) be put in some-
thing like the same position as they were in previous to
1847. The means and patience of the railway shareholders
will, we are afraid, be severely tried before that period

We cannot, of course, deny the truth of that
portion of the above statement which refers to the
prospect of the market value of property gradually
regaining its former position, or something nearly
approaching to it. But we must not lay the flat-
tering unction to our souls, that this restorative
process is likely to be so speedy as is represented by
the writer of the circular. We have to bear in
mind, that at the commencement of the recent
crisis we had prices of produce, and securities of
all kinds, inordinately high, owing to the extremely
law rates of interest at which money had been pro-
curable ; and it is greatly to be doubted whether
we shall, for some years to come, see investments
made at the prices which were current two years
ago. We have just reason to doubt, also, whether,
pending the promised return to high prices of such
property, thousands of individuals by whom it is
at present held, will not have to realise at serious
losses. The available capital of our mercantile
classes has been seriously diminished by the shock
which credit has experienced ; and, to place these
classes in a position to resume their ordinary avo-
cations, railway, and other stock, involving calls
for additional money, will have to be got rid of at
any sacrifice, and fixed property of every kind will
have to be converted into cash. We must get rid

of our dead weight, and contract_our engagements

to the limit of our readily available means for we
may make up our minds as to the fact, that for
some years to come mere credit will not be suffi-
cient to enable the community to conduct commer-
cial operations on anything like a large scale.
A revival of trade, however, to some extent, in
the year upon which we have entered may be safely
depended upon; but it must be a gradual one.
Moreover, it must be dependent to a considerable
extent upon a removal of the influencing causes of
our recent sufferings. Few men of substantial

capital will be willing to incur the hazard of em
barking in any large operations, whilst a monetary
system is in operation, which in an hour, and with-
out permitting the community to place themselves
in a posture of defence, is capable of being con-
verted into an instrumentality of ruin so extensive
as that from which we trust we are about to emerge.
Once more we repeat that the watchwords of all
parties engaged in commercial operations must be
prudence, caution, and a distrust of merely seem-
ing prosperity.

THE noble thoroughfare, Shaw-street, which
runs from the top of Islington to Everton-ter-
race, forming a portion of an almost uninterrupted
line of communication between our north-eastern
and south-eastern outskirts, has for years past been
regarded as one of the finest of our suburban
streets, For its general salubrity and central posi-
tion, it was selected as the site of our Collegiate
Institution ; and three years ago, to protect the
property and character of the street from deteriora-
tion, an arrangement was made with the owner of
the land on its east side, Mr. Shaw, by which the
unbuilt upon space from St. Augustine's Church
to Everton Village was laid out in terraces and
walks, for the use, and, we believe in part, at the
expense of owners and occupiers of the opposite
houses. The land on the west side, not as yet
built upon, was also originally understood to be
secured to the depth of fifty yards for the erection
of houses and offices, &c., on the same scale as
those already in being ; and when the whole should
have been completed, it was fully anticipated that
in Shaw-street we should have the best and hand-
somest thoroughfare in the town, many of the
existing houses having, it is known, cost upwards

of £4,000 in building. -
We regret to find that this anticipation is-likely
to be frustrated, and the street defaced and deprived
of its respectability, by the erection in it of un-
sightly and, we fear, unhealthy courts and terrace
cottages, unless such a depreciation of the existing
y can be prevented by the exertion of its
Already a portion of the back land has