New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-12-26


opening Of the week were al suo5ant, had also de-
clined On Dec T. AID had not recovered. Still all
tssse variations are bounded BY tos narrow lin
its to di,parsse the generally favorable aspect Of
the bullion, stock and security markets. The Lon
don failures occurring rom Dec. 10 Dec. 10 Wefe
indeed, by no means unimportsnt since they reach
the number Of twenty -one, and involve, fIr n'ne
firms only, Liabilities t. the amount OF I'll 300 600
But apart from eight failures belonging TO the Stock
Exchange, the other diss,ters have mainly occurred
in the German and Northern trade. and might,
therefore, be fairly considered a. tho inevitable aud
comparatively chesp discount on the London mar
kei Of the Hamburg and Baltic catastrophe. Tho
important psins up IN which We wish to FIX the at
tention Of our readers, and which is OF vital in
portsnce for this country, is the accelerated a9-
preach Of the crisis in the Eoglhh produce au1
irdus rial markets. What &c have till nov Wit
nemed in Eusland, apart from the commencing dir
trees of the rkir population, and the ressr'c aon
Of productive forces, has in it main features been
nothing but monetary crisis, which con'sss still
more 10 the ineonvertibility OF bills Of e1'haoge
against bank note, than in the inconvertibiity Of
bark notes sssinst gold. Nov the tightening Of
tie terms of credit may certainly affect the produce
and Industrial markets in . serious mAnner, and
may even work them up to an explosion; but, on
the other band, these markets possess movements
Of their OVID, in regard TO which the movement Of
the money market sppesrs not as cause bat as an
tct.
From 1889 to 1912 English industry went through
the most direfal trials, while the money market
was easy ard tie corn msrkst buoyant. In the
year 1850 great Losses were inf cted on the English
produce uarke. while the money market was as lite
afIe cted as Industry. During the Autumns Of 1854,
1855 an 1856, monetary pressure prevailed through
The whole of Eur pe, while industry went on taking
an Unprecedented start and the quo.atoni Of every
kind Of products, raw materials, provisions and
colonial produce, realized prices the standard Of
which was go exceptional as to BE- sscribed to
corresponding depreciation in the value CT gold.
At this very moment it is not the monetary pressure
which keeps down the industrial and produce
mai kets in England but it is the commencing crisis
in those markets that keeps down monetary credit.
What leeds sstray the London monsyarticle writer's
is the thtushte,s comparison OF the crisis Of 1857
with that of Is47. In the latter yesr the general
crisis subsided, indeed, consequent upon the Gus
Der sion of Peel's Act, and tho cessation Of the
imaginary panic it had created Bat why sol
Because the crisis in the produce market, beginning
rs early as May, 1847, had long since burnt itself
out; while tn, manufacturing districts, compare
lively speaking, escaped unscathed, since the sur
pos capital of the n.tion hsd for the most part Ven
invested 10 railways instead of in factories. The
panic If 1917 was the nero London
e,,oous Of a drama whose five acts had been
enacted from May to October, on the whole surface
Of the country, while the monetary pauic Of 1857
h the mere Lombard and Threadneedle street
prologue to drama who,e principal scenes will be
enacted at Manchester, Liverpool and 10 London
t,elf, at Marx lane ard Mincins lane.
To commence with the produce market: its
general feature, whether We take London or Lv-
,rpool, is that, the markets opening with partial
Improvement on Friday, Dec. 4, the advance was
again lost on Saturday, Dec. 8. and unit! the 10th
went gradually but surely down. Sugar, for in
stance, having realized in some qualities rise Of
Is. to 10 3D., had on Dec 9 iunk to point lower
than before Dec 4, the fall in the better qualities
to 3D., and in lower ones to L. per cwt.
IT, same tale may be told Of coffee, tea, dyessufs,
saltpeter, wool, silk, hides, metals, cotton and
breadsiuff.. But how has even this decline
been maintained within its actual bounds The
mere falling Of in the demand for raw materials in
Of the check put upon their use BY
manu- acturers and for other produce in consequence
Of the general restriction of expenditure through
out the country, ought to have lowered the prices
in much greater proportion, even if the supply
hsd remained the same, and even if these desc'ip-
tions of commodity were net violently deprecated
by the action Of the Hamburg and Baltic collapse.
But the supply has not remained the same, nor
diminished bat on the contrary has vastly in-
creased the extraordinary prices of these arti,les
having naturally led to an extraordinary increase in
their production. Thus the London stock Of sugar
exceeded al eady on Dec. 7, by about q. 900 tuna,
that Of tbs corresponding day OF LAST year; rice BY
II, eco tups; coffee by $4,000 tuns and 20 on. Ia
the departments where thedelive'es are stll CON-
parativey small IS in cotton and corr, large quan.
titles are known to be on their way, or to have
C 1me forward at more or le,s defiant date. The
secret Of the comparatively slow fall Of the produce
markets, after the first great and sudden collapse
in general prices is simply that the supply is arti-
fcially depressed to . low esb, holders keeping
their stocks back in the vain hope Of catching, at
the right moment, the occasion OF an increased de-
maid This process, BY dint Of which supplies, as.
routely and relatively large, are converted into small
deliveries could not fail to send prices up low r,
ito indeed for the day and 70 resrct their decline on