New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-01


ton is being developed by the multiplication
of Railroads. These are rendering absurd
and impracticable the old methods Of buy
ing. When Michigan was a fortnight's
journey away, and Missouri about month
the Detroit or St. Louis merchant replen-
ished his stock twice year, while the re-
tailers of the interior of either State came
to the seaboard not oftener than every
Spring. All that is now antiquated. The
country retailer who bought FIVE thousand
dollars worth of goods at once, and no
more for SIX months, now buys more goods
in year, but far less on any one occasion.
OF course, he has no such necessity or ex-
cuse for running in debt as he previously
had. When he bought to last his town.
ship six months, he might fairly ask credit
for part Of the purchase; bat since he
buys for a month or two at farthest, he
ought to be able to pay as he buys. So,
consequently, with our Importers and job
bers. The City needs no such stocks of
Goods in Spring and Fall as it once did,
though it requires and disPoses of more in
the course of the year. 1t ought to pay
and receive pay on the transfer OF the
Goods. No country or section should buy
more than it can pay for; and, with such
facilities Of transit as now are and
soon will be afforded, no part of our
country should buy faster than it can pay.
The facility of buying now and paying at
some future day is seeming convenience
but a real injury to nine-tenths of those
who accept it. If no trader or consumer
could obtain an article of merchandise I'M
til ready to pay for it, the general welfare
would be sensibly promoted. Credit is an
excellent thing in its place; the able should
extend and the needy accept it; but the
merchants ledger is no place for it. If
every farmer accustomed to buy on credit
were constrained to mortgage his farm or
stock for money, and Herewith to buy the
goods he wants, store bills would be far
shorter than now. The great majority OF
buyers on credit in effect do mortgage their
possessions thereby, but seldom realize
the fact till required to pay. Mr.. Presi-
dent" said John Randolph once, apropO,
to nothing in one of his rambling congress
sional harangues, have found the
philosophers stone 1t consists of four
short English words-'Pay as you co."
Last, not least, among the influences
which are cOnspiring to revolutionize the
course of Trade is the vast expansion of
Advertising. The thing itself is by no
means novel-men in business always did
advertise, even before newspapers existed.
The Astor House is a gigantic advertise
ment; Stewards store is another; and so of
many structures, which would have cost
less than they did but for the reliance on
imposing architecture to attract attention
and custom. But the facility of displaying
an invention, a stock of goods, new route
VI UClOlO VIC AAAOlN 0ObA'S 0AN ~heSA
prising of fifteen millions of people by
simple announcement in journal, is a nov
city, the offspring of power-presses, rail
roads, &c. A few years since, three thou
sand was a large newspaper CALCULATIONS
now thirty thousand is not an extraordinary
one, and aggregates of fifty, sixty and
seventy thousand exist. Some branches
of business may seem not to need the facil-
tiles which such calculations afford others
cannot do without them. These, too, are
aiding to produce and hasten the inevitable
concentration of Trade on the basis of small
profits, large sales and cash payments.
And so, by one means and another, observed
or unregarded, the Trade Revolution
moves steadily on. The next step forward
will be to Town or County Associations, to
buy and sell only by wholesale, retailing
to each associate as he shall require at cost
price. But this can wait a while, though
attempts looking toward it have already
commenced, and are destined to increase.
A PRINTING-PREss NEEDED-Very great i'm
proyements on the Power Printing Press have
been made from time to time through the last