New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-03-08
COurrRRCyAL DISTURBANCES.


British Board Of Trade returns to the close OF
last November, that the quantity OF cotton in-
ported from the United States for eleven
months in 1861, was only SOC, l2s baies less
than 10 1860, while it was l73,0Gj greater
than in the corresponding period OF 1859.
From mos. other cotton.growiDg regions the IN
lux to England has been so greatly stimulated
by extraordinary prices that, Notwithstanding
the cutting off Of the usual American supply,
the stock now held in tho Kingdom ia actually
much larger than the stock on hand ct this
time a year ago. The fact has taken the COM
msrcial aud manufacturing world by surprise,
rs i, directly con,radicts thousand prophetic
theories put forth in England SIX months ago.
Locking at it in connection with the confident
tone assumed by The Manchester Cotton Supply
Eeporter. with reference to o continued supply,
il is impossible To come to spy other c0ncla-
sion than that the British manufacturing in-
,erest has been, for months pat, the victim of
needless apprehension that al! Lancashire
was to become a;agnuut for want Of cotton.
The alarmists Of last year had proved conclu'
sively, on paper, that thu scarcity was TO be-
come visible Us early a. November, AID thai
before that month ended, mills would be closed
By hundreds, and operatives turned adrift by
millions. The widest anticpations OF distress
became the burden Of every leading Journal,
while one branch of the cotton interest was
lavish of its reproaches of some other branch
for having failed TO provide against contin-
gercy which sil had been for years predicting
us certain 10 occur. In the end, this alarm
took the shape OF rise IN price, and az the
popular excitement went down, the price OF
cotton wen. up. But November came and
went, and not one Of the extraordinary horrors
predicted SIX months ago was realized.
So far from cotton being scarcer in England,
ii is actually more abundant there than ut this
time a year ago. The fact realizes the pre-
diction made by manufacturer 10 John
Bright, and by him repeated at public meet
ing last Summer, that though the English
spinners bad several times had quite as gloomy
prospect before them, yet he always observed
tlat somehow or other the cotton invariably
came when it was wanted. The truth most
probably is, that in each crisis the scarcity did
not exist, and that the apprehension Of short
supply was tho offspring OF mere speculative
combination.
At the time Of tho Trent affair." the
possibility Of war and the opening Of the cot
ION ports, suliced to cause rush of cotton on the
market and an inversely -proportionsie chech to
business. Insix business hours. prices fell nearly
four cents per pound, and in two days only
1000 bales could find sale in Liverpool. 81
rapid IA decline in SO short time had mover
been experienced since tho memorable year Of
le25. THUS tho American crop, 20 coveted ~
to be u temptation for undertaking war, was
nevertheless specteg to be feared. Its ar
rival ia Europe would 80 reduce prices rs to
rt.noye the stimulus to the vast efOr. nov De-
iug made IN India 10 supersede II. la iacl'
orders were immediately dispatched to Bonn
bag countermandiDg others previously GEM iof
cotton, while others were reduced m nlHshi-
tudo. These counter orders must have gone
forward principally with reference TO price,
for England cannot afford to pay hIehei
price for Indian than for American cotton and
The rule must be made uniform, thai II the M
ter should fall, so must the former. Quantity
Is very different motter, for England cnnno
have too much. Last year The United State
consumed ,52i balesj Continental Eu
rope, l,7I3,l4i; but England alone con
sun'ed 2,5?3, 300, the total being 5,o@, -5-
bales. We find no authorities who est
mate tho American crop OF last year al
moro than 100000 bales. OF Eugnnd''
whole consumption, 80 per cent. IL Amer