New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-11-22

s.verely on the industrial and commercial classes.
Indeed, there is bow raging a regular war between
| the bona fde commerce and industry the specuia-
tive jciDt-sOck companies already at work aud the
newly patched schemes about to be established, all
of them struggling to carry of the floating capital
| of The country. The Toe 'itable result of such
struggle must be the rise of interest, the fall Of
pro6ts in all departments of industry, aud the de-
probation of all sorts of securities, even il there
existed 10 Bank of France nor any drain of bullion
That. apart from ali foreign influences, this press
uIe On the disposabe apital of France must go on
increasing, q glance at the development of the
French railway system sufficiently demonstrates
TIE facts We are about to lay before our readers
are given by the Journal des Chmns ds Fer, which,
like the rest of the press 10 that country, can pub
lsh nothing but what is admitted by the Bonapart-
ist Goyernmen, ise f. On the whole charters have
been granted for an aggregate of 1854 miles OF
railroad, of which only ,S84 miles are completed
and in working order. Consequently there remain
still eco miles now being, or about to De, con-
strucied Nor is this all. The Government is con-
struc'ing the Pyrenean lines, and has ordered the
construction Of new lines between Toulouse and
Bayoune. Agen and Tables, and Mont de Narsau and
Trabestans, liues amounting TO more than 900 miles
France IL in fact DOW constructing even greater
extent Of railroads than she already possesses The
amount of money dsbu sed on her old railroad sys-
TEN is calculated at $500 0O0,000; but then its
construction extended over a protracted period-a
period which saw the rise and fall of three Govern
ments-while the lines now chartered are all to be
completed within six years at the farthest, and to
begin their operations ia the most critical phase OF
the con meTcial cy Gle. The embarrassed companies
harass the Government for leave to raise money
by new emissions of shares and bonds The Gov
ernment comprehending that this would simply
amount to giving leave to further depreciation Of
the old securities in the market attended by in
creased disturbance at the Bourse dares not yield.
On The other hand, the money must be iouni; the
suspension Of the works would not only be bank
ruptcy but revolution.
While the demaUd for capital to start and sus-
tain new enterprises at home is thus kept on the in
crease, the absorption Of French capital by foreign
schemes is by no means abated. Ii is no move ty
that French capitalists have vast obligations to full
gil In Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany, and that
the Credit MobiIer is busy involving them in new
ores at this very moment. Spain particularly is
now adding to the embarrassments of France, as
tie scarcity of silver there has reached such
pitch that manufacturers at Barcelona feel the
greatest difficulty in paying the wages of their
wOrkmeD.
With regard to the Credit MObilier, we haze
already observed that the tendency of that institution
by no means corresponds with its name. It's ten
dency is to fix capital, not to mobilize it, What it
mCtiizes is only the titles of property. The shares
Of the companies started by it are, indeed, of
purely floating nature, but the capital which they
represent is sunk The whole mystery Of the
Credit Mobiier is to allure capital into industrial
enterprises, whe,e it is sunk in order to speculate
On the sale Of the shares created represent that
capital. As lOrg as the Managers of the Credit
Mcbilier able to realize premiums on the irst
emission of new shares, they can, OF course afford
to look with stOical Indifference on the general
pressure of the money market the ultimate fate of
the shareholders and the difficulties Of the working
companies. This explains the curious phenomenon
that while the shares Of the Credit Mob'lier are
continually falling at the Bourse, its action is as
continually extending over Europe.
Beside the general pressure in the money mar
ket, there are other affecting French manu-
features. great number of mills at Lyons are
stopped in consequence of the scarcity and high
price of raw silk. Similar causes are paralyzlng
affairs at NulhOuse and at ROuen. There the high
price of cotton has forcibly enhanced the price of
yarns, while fabrics are difficult Of sale, and man
ufacturers unable to obtain their old terms. The
consequences are, increased suffering aud discon
tent among the workmen-especally at Lyons and
in the south of France-where degree of exas-
peration prevails, only to be compared with tina
which attended the crisis of 1S47.
From the Bourse, railways, commerce and
manufactures, let US now turn TO French agricul-
lure. The newly published Customs Returns of
France reveal the fact that the failure of the last
harvest was far more severe than ayOwed by
the Momieur. Against 270, 146 qaintals of corn
imported in September, 1855, 963 GIG quintals were
imported in September, 1856, being difference of
Cos, 47O quintals above the quantity imported in
Septen Der, 1885, a year of notorious scarcity. 1t
would, however, be mistake to limit to the mum
datitns bad seasons and other natural events the
causes which are evidently at work in Transforming
France from a corresponding to corn-importing
country. Agriculture, never highly developed In
France has positively refrigerated under the present
regime. On the one hand we see taxes constantly
increasing; on the other decreasing labor-great
masses of laborers being drafted from the land tenn
porarily BY war, and permanently by the railway
and other publc Wofks-Nith the progressive with