The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1854-09-06
DAILY JOURNAL.
tactical Remarks To Western Pro.
duce Dealer.

ter. We know the author personally. H
is prominent, practical mar, and as capabl
as any other business man of our acquain
lance to .'see through mill stone:"
The Banks OF this city are stronger in re-
sources. compared with liabilities, than any
other banks in the Union, and they are now
doing much u mitigate the financial pressure
among our own merchants, and rendering
the stri0genoy less here than in any Of the
Eastern cities. We have bad,- however q
good many cola psed cases of financial cholera
during the last three months. They have
occurred nearly all among the Commission
Houses, whose habits OF accepting in advance
OF shipments and sales renders their bust IS
most hazardous aud precarIous, and render-
ing them liable to be ''up ser" by any great
fall In prices, or pressure in the money mar
ket. Those who deal in Western produce
are particularly liable to'tbese casuaIties. till
1t has OF late become thing, in course, 10
have an entire change in the men in
TINS line oil business once in three or FIVE
years. here are two or three remarkable
exceptions TO this rule OF houses whose bus
mess has been confined to,Indiana and chiefly
to the Wabash Valley. whey have survived
oil the commercial storms for manv wears.
=
with the progress of time. This singular ia.
tally attending the fate of which in street
Parlance, are called Western Houses, is to
be attributed IN great measure to the policy
of the Western Banks aud Western shippers
The banks provide Eastern exchange with
which To meet all of their liabilities Ii is
the resource on which they rely for specie,
and 10 prevent specie being drawn from their
vaults Their system OF procuring il is TO
buy Bills on New Ofleans, at 90 DAYS on
which they charge one per cent discount and
interest. With the proceeds of these they
! buy in this market bills on the Eastern eli les.
which are often two and three Der cent
discount. These are RENTED 10 New York
and as they mature or discounted for
them, the Western Bank draws its own Bills
at home and sells them TO its customers at
half or one per cent premiums, beside the in.
tterest-egual-with interest-to Is per cent
per annun. The law strictly forbids usurv
and forfeits their charters for charging dl.
rectly more than six per cent interest, vet
they are permitted year after year, To extort
by indirect means, under the denomination of
exchange eighteen, and twenty per cent per
annum. How much the we rid is delul ed by
nam"s and terms. Is the injury to a man
any greater in having eighteen or twenty per
cent OF his ri earnings distracted from his
pocket under the denomination OF interest,
than to have the same amount taken from
his exchange! The vacuum il about the
same In either case. While Banks can &c,
eighteen per cent on bills of exchange they
will have no funds To discount notes on
which they can only tax six per cent inter
est. Every man, therefore, WHO needs a dis
count must make n bill ofexchange, payable
at some distant place, W here perhaps Il VIII
cost him one or two per cent to pay it, in
stead Of making his own note payable at
home where he could meet il at maturity
without Inconvenience or cost. But in or
der To indulge the Bank in the privilege OF
sponging three of four per cent extra in
terest out of him, he has rot To incur the
cost and Inconvenience of placing the funds
TO pay his draft al distant point, where they
are worth more than home-to save the
Bank the trouble and expense of placing
them there herself When his bill natures,
the drawer and payer has to step aside from
mis- regular business and make shipment
of produce to pay the draft: he is forced TO
buy and ship at particular time without re-
carp to prices in either market. Ii he es-
capes loss he is satisfied. The desire of the
Banks to get drafts renders them less careful
OF the security, and the facility with which
Bills are passed, induces a crowd of specula-
tors to become shippers of produce, to whom
the Bank pours out it's notes till its vaults
are exhausted, and the speculators continue
20 buy Till the stream of money is stopt. The
inaiscriminate purchases in the country raise
prices Unfortunately high and tie produce
thus bought is rushed ihto this market, to
meet the bills on which the money to
purchase it was furnished, and creates a
hap -h,,h hoe
accepted the Bills TO save his own name
from dishonor, without regard to prices or the
state Of the market, is forced to sell TO pro-
cure the means of meeting his acceptance.
His exigencies aud anxiety TO realize has a
most disastrous effect, aud causes prices TO
sink to the lowest point, and the market is
often in such state here that few foreign
agents with their hands in their pockets. die
tsse their own terms to the victims OF this
foolish and unnatural course OF rade.--There
will be no remedy for the yearly disasters 10
all involved in the produce trade till the
whole system on which it was done is chang
ed. The produce must be shipped by those
who are able to pay for it at home and wai
<ili it can be sold at advantage, for their re
turns. A shipper had better give eighteen
per cent interest for money at home, than Il
draw for il on produce shipped. As soon Al
it is drawn against, it is out THE shippers
or his factors control 1t goes lortR with
lien on il, that will cost dearly in the end t.
release it from. But let the produce 90 in,
the market unencumbered, and it matters No
whether it be sold to-aay or u week hence
1t is independent of those who buy, aud ca
prescribe its own terms. II need not be fore
ed on the market to depreciate its own valu
or that of like kind in the market. II We
tern meu saw the effects OF their own foil
this course of business would soon be chan,
ed. They annually commit mercantile 81
eide, in what seems to be TO a locker on, p
r riodical insanity. The most efectual mo-
of giving stability to the trade in the gre
plies of the country which ought from
Ia he ha rnlr,,Inr nd n 70 bra