Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-02-10
Signs of Commercial Peril.

Hunts Merchants Magazine for January.
touches briefly upon two or three topics
which at this moment possess more than or
dinary interest. We extract the following
suggestive paragraphs
Our merchants have never enioyed such
uninterrupted prosperity. Breaches of mer.
camille faith, or failure 10 meet commercial
engagements, have been almost unknown.
and thus the profit and loss account exhibits
range OF entries all on the credit side
What next!' is The question asked, or anx-
iously considered on every side. Have we
reached this height of prosperity only to
make our fall more disastrous? Is the course
oi commercial affairs always like the seq
menr Of circle described Ey a child's
swing, and can there be no progress without
corresponding reaction? Has the world
grown no wiser with age than thus 10 toll IN
the hill with the cerialnty that The ground will
all be lost again? These are thoughts which
will come to many during the long evenings
that close in upon the first of The next wear.
There are, il is true, some signs of evil
portent. We regard as the most dangerous
the rapid increase of new banks. The prin-
cipal danger from this source is MOI in the
fact that the expenses of legitimate banking
VIII be greatly increased, while the profits
will only be divided. Nor is il so much in
The healthy expansion which will lie created
by The increased issue of paper money: all
though This is an evil Of great magnitude
The great danger lies n the fact that the
control of the currency ami the direction of
monetary affairs will pass, in a great meas
ure, from The hands OF the judicious and ex-
perlenced into the hands ofa new sci of men,
too little accustomed to such charge. The
new banks are managed, in a great degree.
by new hands, undicipined by former rever-
ses, and uuaccustomed 10 The dangers which
are sure 10 be encountered. Like inexperi-
enced mariners, they will carry TOO much sail
in farweather. and give way 10 TOO sudden
panic when the Storm overtakes lhem.-
A large class of the new banks, too, are orig
mated by borrowers instead of capitalists, and
this will add neither to their caution nor sta
billty.
Another indication OF evil is the rapid for.
maton Of new houses by young and inexpe-
rienced clerks, who ought to be kept under
the control Of wiser heads until they are more
fiji to be trusted to their own siren 9Th. The
requisites for The successful management of
mercantile business are greatly underrated
by majority Of the young men in this coun-
try; and The melancholy disasters with
which our commercial history in the past is
so thickly strewed, seem 10 have no inAu-
ence in lettering The young and adventurous,
from embarking in the same desperate en-
terprlse. And many even OF those wlI0 have
some reason in setting up for themselves
show but little judgment at the very outset
OF their career. They have no patience for
the small beginnings, the slow and sure earn
ings which have laid the foundation of all le-
gitimate success in mercantile pursuits
They lay out their schemes Oh a scale Ol
magnlicence truly dazzling, and their ex>
penses are generally in ratio inverse to their
profits. This multiplication Of mercantile
houses will be one OF the most trying Of
all the assaults upon our prosperity for The
coming year.