The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-07-20

| And herewith we thiBk we cannot do better than
to reprint our table of the imports since the be.
| ginning of this year, and comparative state
ment for corresponding weeks in 1857 and 1858:
IMPORTS
Fur geek end. July IT, 1857. 1883. 1859.
e sy
Total ser week; ss,,s, ss4 4,ssI 500 esse go
Since jan Is 3, 1892 ss7 81, 2ls $3.50 1873 o67 2s7
An examination of this table gives the impor-
tant. not to say alarming, intelligence that our
imports for the present year already exceed those
for the first half of 1857, the period of imitation
just previous to the money panic, by seven mil
! lions Of dollars. Between the amount for the
week in 1867 and that which has Just expired,
there is an apparent difference in favor of the pre-
cent year, but that is only an apparent difference
because the amended tariff went into operation
on the fret day ofJuly, 1857, and the merchants
then held back their goods in order to take adj
| vantage of the reduction of duties, thus adding
to the imports for the first three weeks of the new
rates an immense quantity of goods which had
been ordered some time before.
There is still another important fact in
connection with this years imports. Uoder
the old system, the fall business, as far as
the importers are concerned, should have been
finished before this time, as we have now en-
tered upon the third week in July. But, from
careful inquiries, we are induced to believe
that the importing business will be unusually
hand we hear that prices are now falling, and on
the other that the market is to be still further
glutted with foreign goods. A paragraph in the
foreign news Of yesterday gives some clue to
this apparent contradiction Of fact. 1t is stated
that sowing to the great pressure of goods for
shipment to the United States, the Hamburg
American Packet Company have resolved to
send out reserve steamer, in order to furnish
the import trade the additional facilities re-
quired at this period. The steamship Teutonia
will consequently leave Hamburg on the 18th of
July, the Hammonia as an extra boat on the
23d of July, and the Saxonia as usual on the LIST
of August, making three departures from Ham
burg in seventeen days." These goods are I'm.
doubtedly the wares uf German manufacturers
shut out from their usual markets by the war
and sent here on consignment, but whether
for account Of orders here, or consigned
en- speculation, the fact that we shall eventually
have to pay for them remains in force.
The question then arises how are we to pay
for them? Certainly not with breadstuffa No
doubt the crop will be good one, but at the
present Liverpool prices it will not pay for us to
ship cereals to that port. The cotton and to.
bacco crops are provided generally before they
are out of the ground, and therefore we must de-.
pend this year upon gold and must drain the
banks Of specie wherewith to pay for goods that
we don't really want. The West is not yet re.
covered from the effects of the last crisis, and
nothing can be relied upon from thai quarter.
OF gold we have already sent this year thirty.
eight millions of dollars to Europe, and there
are still five months before us. The same rate
of specie export sustained, our supplies would
be exhausted in two months more. It is true
that we did not send last year our whole specie
balance out Of the country, but at the present
rate the surplus and current supply would be
| exhausted before New Years day. The inevita-
BILE result Of these excessive imports is to drain
the metropolis of its specie, to frighten the
| banks into contraction, thereby breaking the
kite-fying importers and disarranging for time
the financial and commercial affairs of the coun-
try. We are now gravitating towards such
state OF things by sending to Europe two mil
lions per week. A temporary revulsion among
the importers, If such thing should happen,
would be in one way advantageous to the coun.
! try at large. Prices would fall to the lowest
| point, and while the importers would be ruined
| the people generally would be benefited.
The operations of our importers just now
| are quite in accordance with their usual system
| Of over doing business. While the country is
steadily and earnestly striving to obliterate the
effects of the revulsion Of 81; while we are
congratulating ourselves upon the fact that peace
reigns in our borders; while Europe is on the
brink of general war, and thrA nations are al
ready engaged in the most sanguinary conflict
known to modern history; while our prospects
for the next year are Of the brightest erder-we
find the same dangerous system Of over importa-
ton resuscitated; and as the laws of trade are
immutable, we should be false to our duty o. a
public journalist did we not say that the same
results, sooner or later, are inevitable
| 1t is not our purpose to enlist among the
croakers or the GROWERS We have every con
fdence and the most abiding faith in the re.
sources of our country, but we fail to see why
they should be overtaxed for the aggranalze-
ment Of foreign manufacturers. We are quite
confident that there are goods enough in the
market now to supply all the Legitimate trade of
the Union, and we urge upon the importers the
| propriety Of taking in sail before the squall
| breaks over their heads.
| TIE SPons-A South CAROLINA EDrToR on