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

which we are just *com-

over a few of its most impor-
eatures, with a view of comparing the antici-

tions .with whi

out at its commence-
anced. The first article

with t

rich claims our attention in such a notice is that of
COTTON WOOL, which may be regarded as the
Maple of this port and district. We com-
th a stock unusually reduced in

d the yea

0 bales in the en

gainst 1

gdom, _
nt of the
held in Liverpo

-0 bales at the commence-
ear. Of these quantities
1 at commencement of 1846,

5,480 bales, and at the corresponding period of
17, only 438,970 bales. Along with this diminu-
of stock, we had the prospect of a short crop
erica, which was estimated to produce from
)00 to 2,000,000 bales, but which onlyreached
The import into the United King-
, j,ar up to the commencement of 1847
1,243,520 bales against 1,856,860 bales
5. Of these quantities, Liverpool received

10,000 hales

m in th

1846. 1,134,244 bales against 1,650,826 in 1845.
With an active demand for manufactured goods
r home and foreign consumption, we should long
) have seen our mills brought to a stand, from
r want of the raw material to work up. Cir-
ed together to prevent

however, conspi:

tch an issue. We had over supplied some of our
reign markets—we may say most of them ; and
rlome demand was limited by the pressure upon
iulation, caused by the high
The manufacturer was thus
consumption of raw
ie same time, to check the inor-
ace in price which would otherwise have
Short time of working was exten-

of our

3f provisions

not on

3 reduce

;aken place

resorted to ; and the weekly average con-
Con of the year was thus reduced to 22,000
, against 30,750 bales per week in the year

" 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 by 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 our 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 be 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
Irish loan
Importation of foreign corn, in
r
fifteen months, on a sudden Sources of
difficulties
emergency, and before the
trade under the new law had
uu imagined that the loss in this settled into regular channels, 33,000,000
ade has fallen altogether, or even mainly upon Estimated loss by the failures of
Le mercantile class. The spinner, the manu- hemercantileaggregate
firms,atetoamount assumedamot in
o
,ctuter, and the operative have alike had to endure £30,000,000. One-thirdactual
!vere 'ffering and loss. By a calculation made by ' loss thereon
Ie wri of the annual circular of Messrs. Dufay, Falling off in the cotton trade in
rollin and Co., of Manchester, we find that the 1847, compared with 1846, as
1-od value of the cotton goods manu- showntem enbi our
comparative
9,219,862
is set down £32,467,000 against This amount, large as it may appear, particularly to our
846, and £45,729,088 in 1845. more distant friends, is based upon something like sure
cost of the raw material used in the data, and does not by any means include all the losses and
nree years, we have the sums to he distributed in depreciation of property, which have been sustained in
he three years, as interest on capital, profit to the Greatreeia Britain during the
propertylst
and
oyears The loss and de-
onofrail that in.funds,Exche uer-
pinner and manufacturer, and wages, as follows, P
bills, &c. &c., has railway
stimated by some at the enormousq
15, £34,927,719 ; in 1846, £30,018,518 ; sum of £376,868,142 ! ! The loss is, however, in a great
The cotton manu- measure, imaginary ; when times mend the said property
rimunity have, therefore, been sufferers will rise ;as all persons who have such property merely as
J 47 to Lu.. -dent of over nine millions as com-
an investment, and those who are able to hold it will
gradually (with the return of better times) be put in some-
ared with their receipts for labour and employ- thing like the same position as they were in previous to
sent of capital in 1846, and fourteen millions as 1847. The means and patience of the railway shareholders
,ompared with their receipts in 1845. will, we are afraid, be severely tried before that period
The condition in which our producing and in- arrives."
lustrial classes have been placed during the past We cannot, of course, deny the truth of that
further shown from an analysis contained portion of the above statement which refers to the
of the mode in which our prospect of the market value of property gradually
cotton manufactures have been distributed during regaining its former position, or something nearly
the past as compared with former years. In 1845 approaching to it. But we must not lay the flat-
we exported in yarns 25.89 per cent. of the total tering unction to our souls, that this restorative
manufacture ; in 1846, 29.98 per cent.; and in process is likely to be so speedy as is represented by
1847, 30.79 per cent. We exported of goods in the writer of the circular. We have to bear in
1845, 41.88 per cent. ; in 1846, 40.85 per cent.; mind, that at the commencement of the recent
arid in 1847, 49.49 per cent. We had, therefore, crisis we had prices of produce, and securities of
'eft for home consumption 32.23 per cent. in 1845 ; all kinds, inordinately high, owing to the extremely
19.26 per cent. in 1846 ; and in 1847, only 20.41 low rates of interest at which money had been pro 7
,er cent., being a falling off of nearly 12 per cent. curable ; and it is greatly to be doubted whether
the last year, as compared with 1845, in we shall, for some years to come, see investments
- reduced to less than two-thirds of made at the prices which were current two years
Is average amount. Our exports during the past ago. We have just reason to doubt, also, whether,
year have been less than those of the previous one pending the promised return to high prices of such
by 40,355,069 lbs. of cotton yarn. and 122,079,938 property, thousands of individuals by whom it is
yards of plain calico, with other articles in the at present held, will not have to realise at serious
same proportion. But for the large increase which losses. The available capital of our mercantile
has taken place in our exports to America, a much classes has been seriously diminished by the shock
larger deficiency would have been exhibited. which credit has experienced ; and, to place these
THE CORN TRADE.—This disastrous state of classes in a position to resume their ordinary avo-
things, however, has by no means been confined to cations, railway, and other stock, involving calls
the cotton trade. In the eat' part of the year we for additional money, will have to be got rid of at
had become large importers of foreign grain ; and, any sacrifice, and fixed property of every kind will
from Ju1y,1846,t0 November, 1847, we find that we have to be converted into cash. We must get rid
had entered for consumption, of grain of all kinds, of our dead weight, and contract our engagements
15,751,650 quarters, the amount paid for which to the limit of our readily available means ; for we
is- probably not an exaggerated one, if set down at may make up our minds as to the fact, that for
thirty millions sterling. Of this commodity the some years to come mere credit will not be suffi-
prices have fluctuated very greatly, wheat having, cient to enable the community to conduct commer-
at one time of the year been close upon 120 s. per cial operations on anything like a large scale.
quarter, which is, at the present period, not sale- A revival of trade, however, to some extent, in
aNe at above one-half that rate. At the corn- the year upon which we have entered may be safely
mencement of this period of excessive importation, depended upon; but it must be a gradual one.
tis indisputable that immense profits were made Moreover, it must be dependent to a considerable
)3r importers and speculators ; but, so far as the extent upon a removal of the influencing causes of
-3001 trade is concerned, we believe it would our recent sufferings. Few men of substantial

which, wiih an average importation
r 1847. would have produced an accumulation
ent of nearly 45%000 bales, The
ver,with which we closed the year,
52,000 bales ; and it is therefore very clear
s worked at the average rate
we should some, time ago have been with-
Dtton to go-on with. _

f stock to the extl

tual stoc

18 only

;ad the spinn

The contest

vhich has thus been created between

e importer and speculator on the onehand, andthe
inner on the other, has been productive of ruinous
ies to the former. On the 3rd December, 1846,
prices of "middling and fair" bowed cotton
51d. to 74d. per lb., or from 24d. to 3d. per lb.
-ices of the same period of the preceding
7 of the past year the highest rates
obtained; but in the following months, up
-t, the tendency of the market was towards
ne, although the utmost pertinacity was used
holders to sustain full rates. After August,
•came evident that the manufacturers
'eed without a large reduction ; and

er the pr

hi Janua,

) Augu

,wever, it bi

period up to November prices receded,
Ail, at the end of that month, a fall of 22c1. per lb.
Id taken place, middling boweds and Orleans
ping 4-id. to 4-14 d. for the former, and Ord. to 41d.
T the latter. During the past month there has
yen a rally in favour of the holders of id. to Ad.
3r lb. on the ordinary and middling qualities of
merican, other descriptions remaining unaffected.
he loss to which importers and speculators have
ad to submit during the latter part of the year
Innot be put down at less than three or four
ounds per bale; or, upon an average weekly con-
umption of 22,000 bales, the aggregate sacrifice
f the trade, allowing for the reduced price at which
he'more recent importations have been purchased,
arinot have been much less than £50,000 per week,
vhich will account for a large portion of the com-
mercial disasters which have befallen our conk-

le writer

1 estima

ctured in 1847,
0.482.298 in

---,
Deduct

1 the cos

iz., in

Ind in 1847, only £20,798,686,

acturing col

same circ

% production

10,000,000