The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-13
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

| Trade flags in the metropolis. There
are plenty of would-be buyers, but they
will not purchase goods are abundant,
but merchants cannot sell them. The
uncertainty about the financial future,
especially the fear of low prices, chills
enterprise, checks production, and para.
| lyZes trade. Nor is there any likeli-
hood that matters will mend. Political
excitement runs SO high, and our present
| Congress is SO extreme, ill-tempered, and
| ignorant touching financial matters that
there is no prospect of wise legislative
action on monetary topics for months to
come, if at all.
Indeed. we have lost all hope of any
wise measures being taken to get back to
u sound business baris during the life of
| the present Congress. There is really
but one thing to be done to cure our
| financial disorders, but from that the bust
ness world and thegeneral public shrink
| with horror. The press, which depends
| for its life upon the mercantile cOmmu-
| nifty, does not even dare to discuss this
one cure-all. The day that sees the le-
gal-tender act repealed, will witness the
| beginning of new commercial epoch
starting from a sound foundation but
until that is done, we shall have doubt,
perplexity, financial disorder, and fear
full waste of capital and labor.
The idea of getting back at once to a
specie basis, seems to appall every one
who holds currency or goods 1t is not
q pleasant operation to be deprived at
one blow of One-third of your apparent
wealth, and that is what going back i'm
mediately to specie basis means. So
the prospect is that Congress and the
country will prefer to live in FOOLS para
disc for several years to come, and
founder back to specie basis at infinite
cost, through disordered trade, checked
production, and constantly recurring
panlcs.
The policy of Secretary McCulIoch,
which has been substantially Endorsed
by the American people, is to steadily
contract the currency, until the preen-
back dollar, now worth about 70 cents,
rises to the par of gold. This period of
contraction will probably be about as
long as the period of Initiation, say four
years. There will be this difference,
however. The period Of initiation was
an apparently prosperous season. En-
terprise and production were stimulated
because of the certainty of higher prices.
Hereafter they will be checked because
of the certainty OF lower prices. We
had plenty and prosperity during the
war; we shall have poverty and acute
suffering all the way back to specie pay
ments,
The misery of the present business
situation is that it compels the giving
and following of advice which of itself
is bad advice. We must say to the
manufacturer, Do not produce any
: more than the immediate market will
consume you must limit production
; because prices tend downward To
the merchant we must say, DO not
extend your connections, or give credit,
, or show enterprise. for if you do you
will surely net loss at the end of the
year, And so through all the ramifi-
cations of trade. The cities are gorged
, with inhabitants who cannot be housed
yet no one dare build at present prices
I The farmer will not raise crops, the
: manufacturer dare not produce, nor the
, merchant stock his warehouse or give
rs6or Il GatFeady Sui sGptfaBaGHhiaanff taafi a
mechanics and unsl<illed workmen will
, soon be needy and presently clamorous,
i. discontented and seditious.
2 Secretary McCulIoch is just now pop
: ular. People think be is on the road to
: the heaven of specie payments by short
: and pleasant stages. BY the end of the
l present year he will be execrated, and
t before two years are over he will be
: driven from office amid storm of curses.
. All this will be very unjust, of course
i but there must be a scapegoat for the
L popular cowardce and folly, and he who
] represents it must meet the fury of the
, storm.
Let it be distinctly understood that
Q the source of all our coming woes is our
false measure of value !. there is no cure
for it but specie currency, and the only
r way to get that is an immediate repeal
of the legal tender act. Round Table.