The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-10-07
nh, p,ess,re and the Panic.


49, -
M. u.esSure and the Panic.
.r,,nes ara evidently growing better There Is
,ro,,er amonnt If money It is true. but there is
aoyY confidence We observe that every where the
nron,ptness with which the early payments in
october have been met by the mercantile com
munity has excited alike admiration and surprise
In New York it is especially the case. The Herald
says
saturday was a very hard day in the money
market. aud our merchants went through wonder-
fully Every one had prepsred for II and was it",
dy for the emergency Nc large iaiin't "'". ih r.
mercantile classes was reported an" ''r ""'! ~
aster of Importance the suspension 81 '"'
house of Clark Dodge & Co. stock aud SA'"""ke
brokers Il looks to Us now as th"nSh tt a 49, 80,
was over rs though We had "caiheft" '"e . n'"s.
dangerous and difficult point ana "ei' "N0' '''''e
In comparatively smooth wafer
u,,r felcgraph dispatch from Cincinnsti,pubilshed
,os,erlav announced that the heavy payments had
bceu made and that the opinion was that the crisis
there passed
uero As we have already stated, payments
met as pr,mptly "a usual, and we hear of no unu-
sual delinquency any where in Virginia. Every
body wonders that every body else got through SO
we'll and that there were no more failures. The
whole truth is. that there was a great deal OF
FANIc added to the pressure, and that the country
Is not half bad off people under the Temporal
~ excitement that prevailed imagined it was
There was no good reason for that panic, as we
believe, and as the course of events thus far has
proved What may be the character of the next
financial developments, we cannot Of course fore
tell; but we have every reason to hope that the
worst has come, and that gradually confidence will
regain possession Of the public mind aud business
be restored to its prosperous and active career.
We say gr1duaRy-yet it may be suddenly. The
pressure may go rs suddenly as it came. The coun-
try is in a better condition than il was at any of
the former money crises of this &c injury There is
more money-the banking insti buttons, owing TO
the rapid and easy intercourse between all the COM
mercial places, have been kept more sol-ent aud
better fortified by the restriction of their circula
ton within prudent limits The vast supplies of
gold from California have replenshed and increased
the basis of banking, in spite Of the heavy drain by
expectation to meet foreign indebtedness-the COM
rnercial classes never sounder rs has been
abundantly proved-the productive resources Of
our country have Increased more rapidly even
than the popuaton-and our staples command
high prices. Then why should We long continue
oppressed by the excitement growing out of the
embarrassments Of stock operations?
The pressure was directly caused by the immense
investments in Railroad stocks and bonds, and in
western lands Thus money was withdrawn from
commerce, and disturbance ocCasioned. As there
was really not enough money to absorb so large an
amount Of stocks in unproductye roads and sup
DIV SO heavy demand for railroad loans, revusion
naturally followed and those stocks and bonds have
fallen possibly low enough to represent in value
something like the aggregate sum the country might
have conveniently spared in that direction. They
offered in the market at very low ratcs-spec
ulators tempted, by high calculations upon
dividends suddenly to follow from the anticips
ted great increase population and Of trade in the
lanSs traversed by the roads and rushed madly ill.,
to the purchase of the securities offered TO hemse.
curitics which, although they may in many in
turn out very valuable, could not b. forti
fled by actual dividends, or other unloubtci proofs
Of success in time to save their purchasers from
loss, in case they were forced to sell. This they
had to do. as they overShot the mark and had not
the means to hold. The consequent sudden decliu-
of stocks swept the spectators.
Thus began the pressure. and thus it might have
ended. but that money disturbance must affect
to some degree, all avocationS needing loans for
their operations. Confidence was OF course dis
turhed, AMI money became scaICer. Nevertheless,
fud that the merchants aud manufacturers
were not the orignaturs OF the disturbance. they
are only involved indirectly and partially, for the
want If the ordinary facilities w9ch they had Ell
joyed. They yet preserve their credit. and but few
have succumbed 10 the storm, for which they axe
not responsible.
That confidence VIII BE- restored. without any
wiIe--p read ruin. we have doubt. How long It
may be before the period OF tins restoration. we
cannot say but feel that II cannot be long deferred
On this point, the new Iork Herald says:
There REASONS for believing that the present
season of calamiIrs VIII be bfIeirr than any tor
mer similar period. Railroads. steamers and tc.-
graphs have actually condensed time: We live a
year III thirty days. old style: crowd into
week movements and events which occupied the
last generation at least month. Merchants at
New Orleans learns OF the sns pension of their cor
respondents here the same day. aud enabled 70
act, one way the other, without the loss OF many
h,uTs, and advise the same before the DAY il out
Shippers III " York obtain a settlement from Their
bankers III London III II days. Formerly these
operations consumed months, during all which the
rerulslon dragged It's slow length along. Now we
economist three-fpurths OF the time spent in wait
ing. Hence, though the present CONFUSION must
naturally be more extensive IN its ELECTS than auy
former one owing TO the prodigiou. extension Of
our commerce, and the infinitely increased area of
mercantile credit and financial expansion which is
exposed 10 the STORM ii l. Rot Unreasonable to eX
pect that 1t may be much sovneT ended than former
accidents Of the Kind and that the country NAV
recover from the effects III an unusually short he
rIod