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

the year which we are just com-
nee over a few of its most impor-

iew of comparing the antici-

at its commence-
s experienced. The first article
,ration in such a notice is that of
hich may be regarded as the
of this port and district. We corn-
-a the year with a stock unusually reduced in
iantity, being only 545,790 bales in the entire
n, against 1,055,270 bales at the commence-
it of the preceding year. Of these quantities
held in Liverpool at the commencement of 1846,
5.480 bales, and at the corresponding period of
-les. Along with this diminu-
_ prospect of a short crop
merica, which was estimated to produce from
' - 0 000.000 bales, but which onlyreached

nt. with Of

vhich we set out

rich claims our atte
COTTO

kingdo

WOOL, V

are had th

)0,000 bales. The import into the United King-
-1 in the year up to the commencement of 1847
20 bales against 1,856,860 bales
pantities, Liverpool received

was only

Of these

Yainst 1,650,826 in 1845.
With an active demand for manufactured goods
or home and foreign consumption, we should long
ro have seen our mills brought to a stand, from
tof the raw material to work up. Cir-
conspired together to prevent
er supplied some of our
—we may say most of them ; and
wand was limited by the pressure upon
lulation, caused by the high
The manufacturer was thus

4 bales

cumstar

h an issue

n mark

)we•
e ha

it home de

ns or o

e of provisions
d not only to

in price which would otherwise have
Short time of working was exten-
d to ; and the weekly average con-
mp tion of the year was thus reduced to 22,000
les, against 30,7

consumption of raw

ie same

nate advanc

n pla

50 bales per week in the year
_eceding ; which, wiih an average importation
uring 1847, would have produced an accumulation

_
of stock to the extent of nearly
actual stock, how
' - --'

_ ,50,000 bales, The
zr,with which we closed the year,
only 452,000 Dales; and it is therefore very clear
that had the spinners worked at the average rate
of 1846, we should some time ago have been with-

hus been created between
eculator on the one hand, and the
has been productive of ruinous

*,on to wo on with
ich has

The conte,

Anner on the oti

losses to the forme
the prices of

On the.3rd December, 1846,
middling and fair" bowed cotton
s 51d. to 71d. per lb., or from 21d. to 3d. per lb.
me period of the preceding
past year the highest rates

er the prices of the
ar. In January of
;re obtair

.
mt in the following months, up
) August, the tendency of the market was towards
decline, although the utmost pertinacity was used
__y the holders to sustain full rates. After August,
however, it became evident that the manufacturers
could not proceed without a large reduction ; and
from this period up to November prices receded,
until, at the end of that month, a fall of 22d. per lb.

_ . iling boweds and Orleans
being 4d. to 4d. for the former, and 4d. to 41d.

Durin

the past month there has

been a rally in favour of the holders of id. to id.
per lb. on the ordinary and middling qualities of
American, other descriptions remaining unaffected.
The loss to which importers and speculators have
bad to submit during the latter part of the year
cannot be put down at less than three or four
pounds per bale; or, upon an average weekly con-
sumption of 22,000 bales, the aggregate sacrifice
of the trade, allowing for the reduced price at which
the more recent importations have been purchased,
cannot have been much less than £50,000 per week,
which will account for a large portion of the com-
mercial disasters which have befallen our com-
munity. _ _ _

It must not be imagined that the loss in this
de has fallen altogether, or even mainly upon
-ntile class. The spinner, the manu-
arer, and the operative have alike had to endure
(ere suffering and loss. By a calculation made by
,ne writer of the annual circular of Messrs. Dufay,
Collins, and Co., of Manchester, we find that the

e merca

total estimated value of the cotton goods manu-
factured in 1847, is set down £32,467,000 against
£42,482,298 in 1846, and £45,729,088 in 1845.
Deducting the cost of the raw material used in the
three years, we have the sums to be distributed in
the three years, as interest on capital, profit to the
spinner and manufacturer, and wages, as follows,
viz., in 1845, £34,927,719; in 1846, £30,018,518 ;
and in 1847, only £20,798,686, The cotton manu-
facturing community have, therefore, been sufferers
in 1847 to the extent of over nine millions as com-
pared with their receipts for labour and employ-
-1 in 1846. and fourteen millions as

'mot of capit

compared With their receipts in 1845.
The condition in which our producing and in-
dustrial classes have been placed during the past
year is further shown from an analysis contained
in the same circular of the mode in which our
cotton manufactures have been distributed during
the past as compared with former years. In 1845
we exported in yarns 25.89 per cent. of the total
manufacture ; in 1846, 29.98 per cent.; and in
1847, 30.79 per cent. We exported of goods in
1845, 41.88 per cent. ; in 1846, 40.85 per cent.;
and in 1847, 49.49 per cent. We had, therefore,
left for home consumption 32.23 per cent. in 1845 ;
2R.26 per cent. in 1846 ; and in 1847, only 20.41
per cent., being a falling off of nearly 12 per cent.
in the last year, as compared with 1845, in
a production reduced to less than two-thirds of
its average amount. Our exports during the past
year have been less than those of the previous one
by 40,355,069 lbs. of cotton yarn. and 122,079,938
yards of plain calico, with other articles in the
same proportion. But for the large increase which
has taken place in our exports to America, a much
larger deficiency would have been exhibited.
THE CORN TRADE.—This disastrous state of
things, however, has by no means been confined to
the cotton trade. In the early part of the year we
had become large importers of foreign grain ; and,
from July, 1846, to November, 1847, we find that we
had entered for consumption, of grain of all kinds,
15,751,650 quarters, the amount paid for which
is probably not an exaggerated one, if set down at
thirty millions sterling. Of this commodity the
prices have fluctuated very greatly, wheat having,
at one time of the year been close upon 120 s. per
quarter, which is, at the present period, not sale-
able at above one-half that rate. At the com-
mencement of this period of excessive importation,
it is indisputable that immense profits were made
by importers and speculators ; but, so far as the
Liverpool trade is concerned, we believe it would