The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-26 00:00:00

THE LUERPOia STANDARD.

THE DEPRECIATION IN k.AILWAY SHARES.

" What is the matter with the railways ?" has been the
exclamation of everybody who, during the past fortnight,
has taken up a share-list or a newspaper. Down, down,
down every day, until, " non vi, sed scepe eadendo,"
unfortunate shareholders were beginning to fear that their
property was about to disappear altogether—locomotives,
carriages, tunnels and all. It is not the new schemes,
either, which have suffered so fearful a collapse, but the
old and dividend-paying lines—the property of the Had-
sons and other kings of the rail—undertakings in which
are invested the savings of many a toilsome lite, and whose
prosperity forms the only dependence of thousands of
families. How is this ? we ask ourselves ; and we are at
a loss for a reply.
Unfounded panic, we should imagine, it cannot be which
brought down our London and North-Western shares to
£lO5 to £lO7 ; Midlands to £Bl ; Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire to £4B ; and other similar lines to a like
depreciation. Neither is it in the power of all the
" bears" which the Stock Exchange could furnish to
create such a result. There must be substantial ground
somewhere for so rapid and so fearful a decline; and we
imagine that it must arise from a suspicion on the part of
the public that some of these giant concerns have over-
estimated their strength, and made improvident purchases
and guarantees. Branch lines may be turning out dear;
preference shares may interfere with the dividends upon
old shares ; and ten per cent. guarantees arc inconvenient
things. In addition to the influence of such impressions
upon the public mind, it may be that trades•people, mer-
chants, manufacturers, and others, are feeling that their
spare capital would fructify quite as well if em'aloyed in
their respective businesses ; that, in fact, its amount has
been over-estimated, and that some people have been
considering themselves A 1 at their bankers' rather too
soon.

We feel confidence, however, that alarm on the subject
of the soundness of concerns such as those which have
suffered the greatest depreciation, is a little silly. They
may not just now be in a position to pay the same large
dividends which they have been in the habit of doing,
partly because their nett earnings have to be spread over
a larger capital. Their traffic may not be so much per
mile as before, because they have had added to them new
miles—branches and extensions—the traffic of which is
not as yet fully developed. They ,have had to add to
their stock of carriues, locomotives, &c. ; to improve
their stations, and provide increased accommodation for
the public. But all this will come round in a very short
time, and we shall again see railways amongst the most
favoured investments of the country.
By the bye, when people give us statistics of the de-
cline from the highest point to the lowest, they omit the
most important consideration that the high price included,
and indeed was grounded upon, the right of the holders
of original shares to allotments of half shares, quarters,
&e., or to a participation in new schemes, all of which
were, at the time they were brought forward, eagerly
taken up at premiums.