Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-31
COLUMBUS OHIO WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 81, 1866.
QDblloc .StatlG,sEnlro,a:IIll... N, III.
The Warming RePenIed-The PeO.
pie are Moving too Fast-Renc-
lion MINT Follow.

Il ne WARNING AtepeHteu-Ahek- ne k-eOs
pie are Moving TOO Fast-ReHc-
IIOn NHuSt Follow.
From the London Times, January 19l
We cannot be surprised that the caution
against an undue extension OF trade pro-
ceeding on credit basis, which we lately
addressed to exporters to America, should
be treated In some quarters as wholly un-
necessary. Those who are in the business
are, of course, unwilling that doubt
should be thrown upon the permanency of
its profitableness, and they are sure to find
plenty to back them in the unbelief which
is so grateful to their hopes All sorts of
sinister interpretations of what are, after
all, mere commonplace warnings, can be
hazarded, and political prejudices can be
freely introduced to disturb the considers
tion of a purely economic question. We
shall be very glad, indeed, If our caution
proves unnecessary through more circum-
spectness on the part of our exporting
merchants, and, however unpleasant may
be the character of a false prophet, we are
ready to be persuaded that our vaticina-
tiOns were wholly uncalled for. We must,
however, request that we be confuted with
facts such as those we appealed to in sup
port of our eXhortation to caution. Our
analysis of the American trade was made
on the trade and navigation returns issued
by the Board of Trade, and until their ac-
curacy is disproved by some authority of
equal weight, we must abide by them. 1t
is no doubt easy to allege facts in contra
diction to these returns; men may, with a
pardonable daring, declare that the counter
statement is established" as soon as it is
made; but the world is skeptical, and the
suggestion of an anonymous correspond
ent is not generally accepted as perfect
proof Now, what are the tactsp 1t Is not
denied by any one that since the re-estab-
lishment of peace in America there has been
an enormous increase in the expectation of
commodities to the Union. This was what
was TO be expected. The close of the war
lett the markets absolutely denuded of stock,
and, thanks in great measure to the eX-
aggerated currency within the States, the
prices of goods were fabulously high. Ac-
cordingly, we find that in the month of Oc-
tober, 1865, there was an increase over the
corresponding month of 1864 of more than
two millions in the value of produce export
ed to the Union, the actual figures being
E2,5l0,750 and E496,500 respectively. The
exact increase in the month of November
cannot be stated, because it has not yet been
published by the Board of Trade; but the
total increase in our export trade during
the month was t3,500000, and an analysis
of the principal items given shows that the
| great increase occurred in the trade with
the United States. We need not 90 over
again figures which are within everybody's
reach, and the chief OF which may be found
in our impression of Tuesday; but the con-
cluson is that the excess of the value of
| exports to America in November, 1865, over
November, 1861, was the same as in October,
or two millions sterling. The shipping re-
turns of the port of Liverpool show that
there was a similar increase in December
but this we will leave for the present en-
tirely out of consideration. 1t is enough
that in two months there was an in
crease Of four millions in the value of our
exports to the Union. What is there to
show on the other side? Again we refer
| to the Board of Trade returns, and find that
| in the single article of wheat there was a
falling off in the value of imports from
| the States in the first ten months of the
year of f3097 ,000-a falling off due simp-
| ly to a decline of production in the
| Union and that in the matter of meal
there was falling off of eS75,000. The de-
cline continued in the month of November,
when the importation of wheat from the
States was $4,000 cwt less than 1864; but
this too, we may leave ont of account. We
may neglect in the same way petroleum,
/
| important total, and pass on to bullion and
specie, and we find again from the traffic
| returns that the decline in the value import
ed was f2,300000. II, then, we add togeth-
er the increase in values exported and the
decrease in values imported, we arrive at a
balance of G10,272,000 against the United
States, as compared with the trade of 1864.
| But we are assured that all of this is met
! by the increased value in the cotton import
ed. One nameless authority puts down the
value of the cotton imported from America
within the last year as thirteen millions
another declares that sum to be the value
of cotton sent over to us in the last three
lnonths,and critics, credulous of everything
which tells for themselves, accept those
statements as established. IT they were,
they would be irrelevant; for the question
turns upon the comparison of imported val
ues, and not upon their absolute amounts
upon the difference between 1866 and 1864,
not upon the total ofthe lasttwelve months.
But what is the truth? We refer again to
the Board of Trade returns, and find the
competent value of the cotton imported
from the United States up to October 3lst
to be E2635,000 in 1865, against 81 ,60A000in
1864, an increase of E93l000. The value of
the cotton imported in November has not
been made up; but the excess in quantity
over 1864 was 1886 ,000cwt. which, at twenty
pence per pound (the price in the Liverpool
market has varied from eighteen to twenty
one penee) would be worth about El 800. 600
There is, therefore, to be deducted from the
sum of Gl0,273,000, which we have already
arrived at sum of G2,43l,00 leaving a
balance of little less than eight millions
against the Union. AS to the cotton i'm
ported in December, nobody knows what
its value is; but if we take the excess over
December, 1864; at two millions instead of
a million and halt as in November, we
are probably rating it at its full value; and
as we must, on the other hand, take into
account the excess of exports to the Union
in the same month, which we have seen
reason to value at two millions, the balance
against the Union remains the same, eight
millions as before. This sum agrees, to a
remarkable extent, withthe estimate of our
Philadelphia correspondent, based on the
Custom House returns of the Union, that
the balance on the year against the States
amounted to fifty million dollars. 9q b.r
No one pretends that the whole of this
trade balance of eight millions remains due
from the merchants of New York to the
shippers of our midland and northwestern
counties. A great part must still be in
scribed on the credit and debit sides of their
Il ladnh,-c. hut 5uunh tfn0u haf On