The New York herald., 1863-05-01
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
YHuasDAY, April so-sP.M.


~-~~>~~-~->>~-->~~~~~-~~
THURSDAY, April So-eP.M.
This being the National Fast Day appointed BY
the President, no business was done in Wall street.
The recent failure of Mr.. J. B. Spence, Of Liver
pool, and the excitement which ensued in both
London and Liverpool, involving decline of 2 .
per cent in the rebel cotton loan, possess more sg
nidcance than Is discerned by superficial obssrv-
ers. This Mr.. Spence was corn and drug specu.
lator, q brother of the Spence who earns salary
as Confederate States Commissioner" by abusing
the United States in the London Times. 1t does
not appear that he was . man Of capital
or standing. To many merchants well &C.
quainted in Liverpool he was unknown.
Yet his failure created an absolute
panic in Liverpool and London. The secret Of
this is simply that all Liverpool, at the present
time, is rotten; that people in England know it.,
and that everybody is expecting, with fear and
trembling, the crash that Is to come. By destroy.
ing the cotton trade the war deprived the Liver
pool merchants Of employment. They hav' since
devoted their capital and their time to all kinds Of
illegtimate adventures, such as blockade running
and the equipment Of pirates. Two hundred and
ninety Liverpool merchants fitted out the Ala
bama. The same men built and equipped the
Florida and the latest British pirate the Japan or
Virginia. The same Liverpool merchants have
covered the ocean with feet of small blockade
runners, large proportion OF which have been
captured by our cruisers. And the same
Liverpool merchants subscribed for and took the
Confederate loan. Now, though it is true that the
equipment Of pirates is calculated in the long run
to secure to Great Britain during the war larger
share of the carrying trade than she has hereto
fore enjoyed yet still it is obvious that this reward
is indefinite, remote and indirect, and that the
money invested in pirates by the merchants of
Liverpool has for the time been lost. So with the
blockade runners. An occasional adventurer may
have made lucky hit with cargo of cotton run
out of Mobile or cargo of firearms run into
Charleston; but every merchant knows that the
business Of blockade running must in the long run
involve more losses than profits. The most
successful Of the blockade runners-Mr. q. Pear
son, of Hull-is in the Bankrupt Court. It needs
no argument to show that money invested in the
so-called Confederate loan Is pretty thoroughly
sunk. It is thus fair to infer that the legitmate
enterprises in which the whole, nearly the WHOLE
Of the Liverpool mercantile community has been
engaged, in connection With the Southern rebels,
during the past year or two, must have proved ex.
uemcly OlBSStIOubs VIC LuIu, on tue Otner mana,
to the comparatively small legitimate trade which
has been transacted at Liverpool during the past
eighteen months, we shall not discover any ground
for believing that has been profitable. On the very
large shipments Of grain. provisions, petroleum,
cotton, tobacco, &C., which have been made from
this country to Liverpool since January, 1862
chiefly on British account, the losses have been
enormous. Single cargoes have lost q fortune.
Every steamer from Mverpo pool now brings back
bills protested. There never has been Q time in
the history Of the trade when produce shipments
were 90 ruinous % they have been Of late. IT.,
then, the merchants Of Liverpool have been en-
gagged for nearly two years, on the one hand, in
illegitimate adventures which have generally re-
suited in total loss and ON the other in legitimate
trade which has proved unusually improbable,
II is fair to conclude that they must ss q whole
be in an unsound fnancisl condition, and Il 10
not surprising that the failure Of even On
obscure speculator like Spence should have
sent thrill Of apprehension through the entire
commercial community Of England. Commercial
crises are the natural consequence Of great wars
The Crimean war WAS the remote but undoubted
cause Of the revulsion of 1857 which first broke out
in New York. There Is reason to believe that our
civil war will in due time be followed by similar
catastrophe and the indications are that the rot
tenness Of the Liverpool community will cause il
to break out there first.
The following ia Q statement Of the earnings Of
thc Chicago and Alton Railroad Company from