The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-07-03 00:00:00

THE COTTON TRADE.

• From a Corriipondent.) • . .
The cotton manufactures of this country have now
become of such vital importance to the general trade of
the empire, and furnish employment to sticb an immense
body of the population, that we hope to be excused if at
this moment we devote a space in our columns and call
the attention of our readers to the consideration of a
subject so interesting to many of them, and so important
to the community at large.
It has been obvious, for several years past, that the
consumption of this staple has outstripped the production,
and that we have had not only here, but throughout
Europe, gradually decreasing stocks, with consequently
enhanced price&
The subjoined table will, at a glance, confirm this, as
far as our own country is concerned
Years. 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831- 1832 1833 1831
Import.. 821 582 891 750 747 871 903 902 930 951
Consump 467 511 .675 732 745 83.2 858 891 88) 919
Export.. 73 95 69 64 118 33 75 67 68 87-
Stocks.. 446 422 572 526 410 415 385 330 309 216
Average
pine of 61 6i 5i 611 6. 61 81 81
noweds.

These quantities it will be perceived are all given to
the nearest thousand, which is sufficiently accurate for
our present purpose. The estimates of the stocks in the
kingdom at the close of each year include those supposed
to be held by dealers and spinners as well as those in the
ports, and although the former must always be a mere
matter of opinion, yet the close observation and attention
to the subject of the extensive and intelligent brokers
whose tables we have taken the liberty of quoting, lead
us to the conviction that no very important mistake can
have been made.

The overwhelming importation of 1825, which was
821,000 packages, against 540 the year immediately pre-
ceding, drove prices from an average quotation of 11;sid.
cloWn to 61d. for Boweds; and such was the effect ou the
great mass of persons engaged in the cotton trade that
an average quotation of 9d. for Boweds was considered
as a thing almost impossible : prices accordingly remained
at an average quotation of bid. for Boweds from 1828 to
1832 inclusive, although from 1823 to 1832 inclusive,
(with the exception of one year, 18300 the import never
equalled the consumption and export. In 183.3 and 34 the
smallness of the stocks, as compared with the consump-
tion, began to excite more attention, and prices gradually
advanced to 81d. e 84d. for these two years.

Notwithstanding the great encouragement held out to
the cotton growers, by the considerably enhanced prices,
it is obvious that the consumption is increasing at a much
more rapid pace than the production ; and it becoines a
matter not of local, but of national importance, to look
forward to the probable state of this great staple manu-
facture of our country fur the coming year. •
It will be sufficient for our present purpose (which is
simply to direct public attention to the subject,) to confine
our observations to the supply of the raw material from
the United States of America, which constitutes rather
more than five .sixths of the consumption.
Up to the latest dates,, eceived in New York on the
Bth June, from the various shipping ports, including
Macon, Augusta, and Hamburg, th! receipts since Ist
October, 1834, including stocks then remaining on hand,
were something under 1,150,000 bales, which were thus
disposed of :
To Great Britain 532,000 bales.
Continent
Home Consumption
On hand 220,000

1,150,000

There remained to come forward from the country
100,000 bales, to make up the estimate of the crop, now
generally adOpted. of 1,250,000 bales. These, added
to the stocks on hand as above, give an aggregate of
320,000 bales, which will probably be distributed as fol-
lows :

To the continent of Europe 70,000 bales
Spinners in the United States 50,000
Stocks remaining nu hand in the U. S. ...10,000

-Leaving for Great Britain 1(10,0(X)
Which, with 532,000 already. exported, .will make foi
the year a total of 692,000 bales. This estimate =The
affected, but only in a slight degree, by the greater or
less quantity of the ensuing crop, Which may be shipped
from the rnited States subsequent to the Ist October.
and arrive here before the Ist January, as compared
with the corresponding period in 1834; but we may
venture to take 700,000 bales as the maximum of the
import, against 733,090 in. 1336, difference ..... 33,000
Last year's consumption exceeded the supply by. 14,000
This year's consumption we think will be admitted

generally to exceed that of last by 500 bags per
week

Increased export

. 7,000

The supply therefore of 700,000 bales will be...,80,000
bales short of the consumption and export of the present
year, leaving in the ports and in the hands of the trade
abiont-801000-kkalas of American cotton to meet the _
de-
mantis of the ensuing year.
Let us now inquire how this demand is to be supplied.
Every pOsSible inducement has been held out for the last
two years to increase the growth of cotton•in the United
States ; we may therefore fairly assume that the growing
crops, under favourable circumstances, will exceed the
last. We will make a large allowance, and say for
1835, 1,350,000 bales. The consumption in the United
States and on the continent has notoriously been in-
creasing in a more rapid manner than even that of Great
Britain, and as they require '.better qualities, and pay
higher prices than we do, we may fairly
For the United States, for 1836 250,000
The continent of Europe
Leaving for Great Britain 760,000 bales.

The consumption of 1831 was 747.000 -bales.
Add increase as above in 1835
Increased export as above

Giving 780,000 bales
as the requirements of 1835.
Taking the demands of 1836 at only the same as 1835,
we thus find that we shall still be 20,000 bales deficient,
with as large.a crop as can well be imagined under the
most favourable circumstances. How then shall we stand
with an injured, or even an average crop? We may be
told that the high prices will diminish the consumption.
As yet we see no proof of this. Spinners, if we are not
misinformed, have not been able to deliver their yarr.s
fast enough to supply the demand; and this continues
to be the case up to the Present hour. In the years
1816, 1817, and 1818, we had boweds on the average at
20d. Ift lb., although the'import and consumption stood
relatively thus:-
1816. 1817. 1818.
Import 369 479..• ...669
Consumption ....337 407 422
And it was only by the overwhelming pressure of an
import of 432,000 bales of East India cotton; in 1818 and
1819, that boweds were driven down to Ind. and 11Ad.
in , 1819 and 1820 respectively. For our domestic con-
sumption nothing can be substituted for cotton goods at
prices far beyond our actual rates, and when we look at
the boundless fields which are thrown open to our com-
merce in China and the Indian Archipelago, we have the
strongest grounds for believing that the demand for the
cotton manufactures of Great Britain will continue to
increase faster than machinery can be got ready to pro-
duce them.

We consider it a suhject of national importance that
measures should be adopted to secure, at all times, an
abundant supply Of this grand staple of our manufactures,
and that millions of our fellow-subjects should not be
left dependant for employment and subsistence upon the
favourable harvests of our transatlantic friends; or the
continuance of our commercial or political relations with
their government.