Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-12-08
Finance at Home and Abroad.


Tho ci+v hanks showed on Monday last an
ovcrAoe enacie deposit, for the preceding
week If over twenty-four millions of dollars.
Srcb an amount of specie was never held in
onr hank vaults before; il is PERHAPS more than
1rss held I'm ell the Northern States at the
time of the revulsiuD of 1887. Simultaneous
10 with this snGdler aggregation OF specie IN
the banks we have TO note a steady and uni
yarsoI contraction Of business and general IL
ouidation among the merchants. Though 1t
Is notorious that the banks were ready last
week to discount almost every piece OF paper
that could be had, the loans show falling OFT
canal TO half million or thereabOuts, show
ing that merchants required last week half a
million less accommodation than they had the
week before. II is true that some specie Is
going 10 Europe; but as the cotton bills will
be coming on so freely-in the course Of the
present month-as 10 pay all we owe IN Eu-
rome. that before New Year the specie drain
mnst have fallen below the receipt from Cali
fornia. The present prospect is that our banks
will hold. all winter, not less than twenty
millions Of gold, and that they will have much
smaller demands for accommodation than they
had last year with half IS much specie.
simultaneously with this strange and unu-
sual prospect, we learn from the official re-
turns Of the fiscal year 1867 that during
that wear tile trade Of the United States with
the world did not leave US in debt. True, we
took from foreign countries goods to the
amount of $348, 428, 342, while the aggregate
amount of our produce sold to foreign conn
tries, and of foreign goods re-eXported from
hence. is only 1898 812, 222; showing an ex-
cess Of goods imported over produce exported
of over fifty millions of dollars But this cal
culation does not include our trade in one of
our staples-gold; Of which we sent abroad,
last fiscal year, $50, 1892, receiving only
S12.461, 799; thus leaving enough on the cred
it side to turn the general balance in our IA
vor by over two millions of dollars. Last
fiscal wear the same tables showed balance
of twelve millions in our favor, which may or
may not have been very accurate; but there Is
little doubt Of the accuracy OF the balance
sheet of this year.
1t is a singular fact enough that Great
Britain is the only country of any conse-
Ouence which takes from us more than we
take from her. All other countries sell rs far
more than they buy-France, Spain, the Zoll-
verin, Brazil, Chile, China, &c.,-Great
Britain alone sells us over twelve millions less
than we sell her But for the fact that Great
Britain serves as banker, not only for us, but
for a great many Of our dealers in business,
the exchanges would be all the other way; as
it is, we pay all our China, Brazil, and most
of our Spanish debts by bills on London.
us, in a commercial point of view. We take
from Spain but little less than sixty millions
of dollars of merchandise-Chi,t fly sugars,
molasses, &C. from Cuba and the West In
dies-while she takes from Us but little over
twenty millions of -four, provisions and man
ufactured goods. If Cuta belonged t. US, all
this trade, which would be Occupied before
long, would be part Of our domestic trade.
Our aggregate trade, rs we said, is ia round
Only a few years Hgo one hundred millions Of
imports and eighty millions of exports were
considered enormous. Such has been the
fruit of the steady enterprise of an Industrious
people, and, of late years, the natural cOnse-
quences of the discovery of California and
Australia and Of the addition of their aurif-
erous deposits to the specie of the world
1t is by the way the omission of this con-
sideration from the late report Of the French
Minister of Finance which forms the peculiar
error Of that document. NJ. Magne starts
with the statement that during the year 1857,
the last of the monarchy Of July, the budget
showed deficit of 257, 100000 francs The
budget of 1861, the last ofthe Republic, showed
a similar deficit of 100000 francs. The
budget of 1867 gave a surplus of 10000, 600
francs, and that of 1858 will show a surplus
of 100000. Hence, he argues, the empire
is the thing foI France. M. Megne overlooks
the fact that California and Australia have
added their gold to the worlds stock since the
monarchy of July, and that on the strength
Of this gold credit has been vastly Inflated
trade developed, and stuPendous impulse
given to industry and enterprise throughout
the commercial world. In no country have
the Initiation and new impulse been so strong
ly felt as in France. There, indeed, a new
life has been given to trade and industry; the
face of the cOBntry has been revolution
ized and vigor infused where vigor was neve
felt before But is oil this natural and legiti
mate2 Evidently not. The French initiation
like that of our own railroads, has been
bubble which only needed the prick of a phi
TO collapse; the pin will rot be long wantiu
now. The initiation which buoyed the empir
to it's present prosperity was common to a
the world, though more felt in France tina
elsewhere, and the reaction that is takiu
place here and in England will also be felt i
France with proportionate severity. Wher
will the imperial balance be theL7-N. J
Herald, Dec. 2.