Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-04-05
SelRrtea Misteanr.
Financial Crash.

That the United States is oVertradlng is
beyond question, and that, if this state of
things continues, a collapse, financial crl-
sis, compared with which those of 81 and
'57 will have been but breeze, must me-
cessarily ensue, is equally true. Up to the
end of November last, the value of the dry
goods alone imported into the single port of
New York, from the beginning of the year,
we see stated, was SSl, 1861 900, against
S7O,O3l,000 the previous year in the same
period. While the imports have steadily
increased, the volume Of exports of domes-
tic products has as steadily dimlnished.-
The people, instead of retrenching and
economizing, are thus steadily building up
an additional debt, that must be paid; a
debt that will tax them for the next thirty
or forty years.
ga wise man foreseeth the evil and
hideth himself" and all prudent business
men should now take in sail and endeaVor
to reach safely harbor. The Secretary of
the United States Treasury in his able re-
port. warned the country that disaster was
ahead. We had hoped that Congress would
have listened to Mr.. McCulloch's advice
and suggestion; but it appears that that
body is not in accord with him, and refuses
to listen to his comprehensive financial
schemes
We doubt if, since the days of Mr.. Ham,
iton, tie United States has had so able a
fuancer as the present Secretary. We have
little hope that his plan for the contraction
of the currency, funding the floating debt,
and gradual but sure and safe resumption
of specie payments, will be put in operation
at the close Of the present fiscal year. 1t
will evidently require two good crops of
cotton, ere we can hope for resumption of
specie payments And is there any pros.
pect that we shall soon have that hope real
ized7 From all quarters of the South, the
tidings are that the negroes are working
but indifferently, and that the planters will
not have their sanguine hopes of large crops
grat6ed. We all know how it is here, in
Virginia If then, the cotton is not made,
the imports must be paid for in Government
securities, and those securities must be sent
abroad as gold. What they will bring will
depend upon the estimate in which our
ability to pay the enormous debt overhang.
ing US is held in Europe Already euor-
nous quantities are held abroad, which, if
sent home for sale and realization, would
ruin US. We cannot tell what would be
the possible effect upon the securities thus
held when the currency becomes par; for
they were mostly sold at one-third less than
their face One thing, however, is very
certaiu-that, from present appearances,
there is little hope for an early contraction
of the currency and the resumption of Spe-
Gle payments. Certainly the South, with
her system of labor destroyed and her pres
ent unsettled condition, can do but little In
averting the impending disaster. Our con-
diiion; is far different from what it would
have been had the Southern States been
i brought back into the Union in different
way and by different means. We can do
scarcely anything as matters stand, aud as
it seems determined they shall stand, to aid
the North If the North, iRstead of prac-
ticiug retrenchment and economy, both
public and private, goes on in the career of
extravaganza, importing at the rate of
s4OO, ,000,0 900 a year, all of which has to be
paid for in gold the crash must come with
terrible effect. Prudent, wise reduction of
expenses and Legislation might lessen the
force of the blow, but we fear we cannot
escape it altogether. This seems to be the
general impression among the best Informed
and most intelligent business circles at the
North, and they accordingly setting their
houses in order We warn our people of
it. There must be a settlement, and we
might as we'll look facts and figures in the
face, no matter how disagreea6le such in
vestigatious aud disclosures may be to US.
The Federal debt alope-thc war debt is
in round numbers IS, 200, 900, 900 and up.
wards, and the municipal Indebtedness Of
the Northern States is estimated at $780,
100000. With this burden hanging over
the people, and the additional Indebtedness
that is being accumulated month after
month by the prodigality incident to the
initiation produced by the war, the prospect,
commercially and financially, is not fat.
tcring one. As far as We are concerned,
we will not feel it SO heavily when the tor
nado does come, for we are already pros
trate -Richmond Times