The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-07-21

functions 70 enter 1nto 0e unuu1teo neSQ OF
shaving and brokerage with the usursrs Of Wan
street, it is 10 If Wy to become public
nuisance. It is wei known that our merchants,
with their. usual vouchers, have, a late,
often failed Of securing o loan from bank,
of few thous nd dollars, when Wall street
broker has stepped in and obtaiAed without
difficulty an accommodation to the extent Of
one or two hundred Thousand ppou such COLA
teral securities as New Haven, Harlem, Yer
mont Central and other stocks. The merchant,
thus driven to the broker for relief, secures it
at the avn hop At the easy rate Of some two
per cent per month. This Is not, Utmost cases,
however, a agreeable as tie banking interest
of seven per cent per anlun, and il only sub
mitted TO from urgent necessity. The inference
cannot be avoided that the bank is in collusion
with the broker, and that the spoils Of the
usurious interest extorted by the latter are
divided between them.
This system of modern banking may be ex-
ceedin. ly profitable to the institutions and
brokers concerned for the time but when the
mercantile community are in tight pinch,
and Wall street is under stampede, it is q
sy stem admirably adapted to break down the
merchant, and to involve all other departments
OF business and fnanciering, bankers and brokers
included, in the general wreck This repre-
hensible practice Of sending the merchant to
the broker to be accommodated with the paper
Of the bank upon usury, may be pursued from
spirit of avarice; but its origin is doubtless the
| fear Of the merchant and Of the notes Of his
country dealers The merchant may be, and
we apprehend will prove to be, in some cases,
insolvent, before the debts Of the last years
| excuses are lquidated, either here or in the
interior; but joint stock system Of blood
| sucking between banks and brokers will only
aggravate the evil The merchant cannot long
be at the mercy of the broker without involy-
ing the banks and brokers in the consequences
together with all other classes of the commu-
nifty.
10 sum up: We regard the great reduction
Of imports this year, not as prudent curtail-
ment to meet the excuses Of last year, but as
conclusive that Of the last years importations
large surplus remains over, and that the sales
Of last year afford neither the cash nor the ere
dit for large importations We must also con-
clude that the extravagant expenditures and
fashionable iummeries, follies and crimes re-
sulting from excessive estimates of the quick
returns Of last years invoices, viii fall short
in many cases. The futter and the tremor in
Wall street from day to daythe Schuyler dis
coveries--the fleeing of the merchant between
bankers and brokers--the comparative CONNER
cial stagnation--the European wharf.-the preya-
lenee of the cholera, and the universal suspi-
cion that storm is brewing--all indicate some
impending financial revolntinr, is'-~ H-~.--e
1887.
A carnival is one thing. but the bill Of ex-
penses is another. Having sown rich har-
voc. Cor shvrisrs ana auctloneers, we must not
be surprised, when the field is ripening, at the
approach Of the reapere. A usurious conspi-
racy Of banks and brokers can only exist upon
the verge Of another epoch Of explosions and
failures, and swindling bankruptcies, and worth
less shinplastcrs.