Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-12-27
susp ension Of sI;e yortlIeru I.anps.

pension Of specie payments by the Northern Banks.
The following dispa tch was sent to the Western
papers j. A.
NEw YoRK, Dec. The meeting of bank officers
resolved not to suspend specie payment, according
| to the wishes Of the Government.
The Baltimore Nelos Sheet Of the 18Th inst con
tanned the following paragraph:
A telegram from New York this morning an
nounced the suspension of specie payments by the
New York Banks, doubtless with visW to prevent
the sending of funds out Of the country, which was
being done to considerable extent, as the transse-
tlons 10 Exchange there yesterday indicate. - 81
Whatever may be the state OF the case, the Rieh~
mond Examiner regards the suspension as inevita;
ble Northern trade with Europe, says that jour-
nal has gone on during the spring summer and
fall as usual. Instead Of diminishing, it is very
probable that the war ed an increase of
their importations. They have imported articles
german to war as largely as they imported before
those suitable for supplying the Southern market
They owe as large current debt to Europe at this
moment on account Of the seasons importations as
last year they owed on account Of that seasons i'm
portatiOus.
How are these importations to, be paid for Ger
tainy not as formerly, by shipments Of cetton, to-
thirds of their means of liquidation in Europe
They have none of these staples to send. Under
the urgent necessity of proc uring them they fitted
up most costly naval expedition against our
Southern sesboard in the hope and expectation Of
opening port and beng able to ship abroad large
quantities of these articles. But two or three yes
sells of the enterprising Senator SIMMONS will be
sufficient to carry away all they obtain in the Sea
Islands about Port Royal; and the amount of cot
sci zsd will not be sufficient to keep half a dog.
en- New England factories sgoing. To meet and
iouidste their foreign current indebtedness for i'm
ports they will obtain no Southern property at all
They can pay for their foreign there
lore, with nothing but such grain as they may be
able to spare, and specie. Their imports for the
year have doubtless been over three hundred mil
lions of dollar e. ordinarily there were three hun
dred and fifty millions. Their exports of grain
now that they are cut off frum Southern wheat and
-four, must be very email Their surplus for ex-
portation was never large, and the war will cause
a consumption greater than usual, while it has MAJ
terially reduced the production by Withdrawing
laborers from the fields. 1t would be difficult,
without the actual official figures to conjecture the
amount of the Northern expectation ofgrain, under
the new order of things. We doubt if it will ex
coed twenty millions of dollars in value. 1t will be
a most extrsvagsnt allowance to put down the
highest possible maximum at the value OF fifty mil
lions of dollars.
This would leave at least two hundred and fifty
millions of dollars of imports to be paid for in
specie, an amount which would exhaust the Cali
fornia crop, and, sweep out every dollar from the
vaults of their banks AMI the tilIers of their shop
men. Under this state Of things it is impossible
for them to carry on war costing six hundred
millions year with specie currency. The sus
pension of their banks is absolutely necessary to
the preservation of their specie Unless they con.
sent to let a their specie go off in the course of
few months and be left in condition in which OPP
ton would remain to doing the same thing then,
they are obliged to suspend nov. The payment
for their importations have usually been arranged
so as to be met by shipments of cotton, which
commenced in January. Under this course
of business, the time of payment is
just setting in; and, having no cotton to export,
specie must go abroad It will begin at once to go
off, if the merchants csn procure it. The par exs
change between New York and London is about
100. The last sdvices from New York announces
exchange to have arisen to III; showing that the
season for remitta has set in and that the de
mand is so much greater than the supply as to pro
duca premium on London funds of .bout three
per cent. This premium at once sets the current
of specie to flowing out; and the meeting of the
banks to take into consideration the suspension of
specie payments Is designed to prevent the tfiux
The declaration of the London Tines, in October,
that when specie should begin to a9w from New
York, greater panic would be witnessed in the
North than took place at Bull Run, is in fair way
of realization.
The North finds Itself in the condition Of Great
Britain during her mighty contest with NAPOLEON,
when all Europe was at bis back The banks of
the entire British empire suspended specie payment
and did net resume for twenty yeaPs-the entire
period of the war and several years after. Great
Britain fought NAPOLEON with paper money, and it
proved her salvstioD. The condition of the North
in This respect is similar, to9 to that in which the
South found herself st the beginning of these hos
Titles wing large debts to the North, which she
usually paid with her staples the stoppage of trade
would have compelled the liquidation of the entire
with specie and cur banks suspended, /
thereby saving their specie.
Suspension at the North is even more inevitable |
than it was il the case of Great Britain sixty years
ago, and of the South last spring. England could 4
have held on with specie currency if her exports
to the continent had been permitted to 20 on. She
had property enough to pay with, if trade had not
been cut short. II was so also with the South She
had. staples in superabundaucs, with which she
could have settled her accounts With the North if /
trade had but gone on. But with her property
blockadBd and left on her bands she could only /
have made her payments in specie through surrep- |
titioHs channels, if making them at all and the /
banks did wisely to close their specie Vault.
But the North hiss not staples Of its own with .
which to discharge its current debt to Europe. Its
cannot be employed for that purpose
for the reason that Europe sells manufactures, and !
1oes not buy them. Its grain is incommensurate ut
terly with the debt due. 1t must stop specie pay
nent, not because trade with Europe is blockaded /
but because it has not exports to send in quantity
sufficient to discharge It's debts 1t could only pay
1ff nv susDending business and going into liGuida