New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-07-25
1864 1865 1866
For the week., st89I,4o8 st06353s 5000 857
Prev reported 92iTi7 9t2 s0,693722 l09l79,lU9
sinnn Iarnar1 eor no An eaa - orn arc a. nes

F?st Fss 'n9 l.sssa ssss SSs s s5ssSss sS SS5 %
Since JAnuary1.. $g7I4940 s34,757,a6o sii8,a55966
The closing quotations for government securi-
ties as follows Registered, 1881, 1094l9l095;
coupon, 1881 l0920l093 fve-twenties registered,
1861, l05GDl054; fivetwenties coupon, 1862, 1861
GDl07; five-twenties coupon, 1864, l05@Ml054 /;
fye.twenties coupon, 1866 105A 5AG01055 ten-forteB
registered, 9S}099; tenfOTties coupon, 9S5 6609 ;
new certificates 100; gold l494; August seven
thirties, l034Ml04 June seven thrties, 10340l04 !;
July seven thirties, l9390l04 June compounds,
1864, llSt@ll3a; July compounds, 1864, ll28
6Jll25 August compounds, 1854 ll21@Il22 +;
October compounds, 1864, l11E@ll12 December
compounds, 1864, ll0t@1l05 May compounds,
1865, l9s@lOSt; August compounds 1865 1863
1853 September compounds, 1865, l06@l0G4
October compounds 1885, l054@106. 57
THE PRESENT HlGH PRrCEs.-The following SEN
sible remarks on high prices and their causes we
transfer to our columns from the Commercial and
Financial Chrouicleuf recent date:
The chief obstacle to the restoration of this
country to its former prosperity, the obstacle
which must be revoked as soon practicable, is
the high rate OF prices upon all the necessares of
life 1t is Of comparatively small account what
colossal fortunes are arnassed what apparent ex-
hbtion Of wealth people may be able to dis
play. When the nation is compelled to pay exor-
bitantly for whatever is eaten and worn it is fast
becoming impoverished. This is precisely the
condition of matters in this country at the present
moment, Food of every kind however abundant
ability Of the majority Of wearers.
We have abundant witness to this on every
hand. Men employed in the various avOeations of
industry find it no easy matter TO make the two
ends meet although wages generally are higher
than ever. They find themselves Obliged to pay
for rents an amount SO exorbitant as to leave little
behind for other necessaries. In the city Of New
York a large proportion OF them have been COM
PEELED to give up their more comfortable homes
for little unwholesome apartments in tenement
houses, where squaor, dirt and nOxious atno-
sphere speedily brutiiesa and degrades the inmates
Luxure5 being out of the question altogether,
cheap liquors become substitute.
We cannot account for present prices by plead
ing q short supply The careful observer has
noticed that the receipts of wheat and -four al
tide-water from the western States during the
present season are largely in excess of what they
were year ago; larger, indeed, than they have
ever been at any former period. Besides the
wheat crop that Is now being gathered Is ample
enough to supply the market for the coming year
and there is no good reason, apparently, why foul
should not be furnished to consumers for six dol
lars a barrel
So too, with manufactured goods. They con
tinue to be held at high prices without apparen
good reason. The supply is large enough to jus
tify the expectation of lower rates; cotton is ia
from being scarce, and the coming crop Will b
sufficiently abundant to warrant handsome re
ductiOn.
But we can perceive no indication of so de
sirablc an event. The high prices are maintafne
almost as if the war still ragged, and gold was
$50, and there was neither the supply of raw ma
terial to be depended upOn or the requisite labo
for its manufacture.
But the very price at which labor is as we hay
seen, necessarily held, will be said by many to b
the cause of the extraordinary cost entailed upo
the necessaries of life. 1t is cause, but evdentl
not the first cause. The farmer is compelled
pay two dollars and more for work which he wa
able to obtain few years ago for one dollar
less; and all his agricultural implements come
him loaded down by similar prices eXacted by til
. mechanics. He cannot, therefore, supply grain
the old prices and be able to carry on his bus
ness The cost of transit to market is enhance
in a similar manner by the increased cost of ham
ling.
Our coal is kept from 50 to Sc per ton too higl
in part because miners wages have increased
That these are facts we will admit. High wagt
are necessarily followed by high prices. Z
is, however, also equally true that high prices al
necessarily followed by high wages and it will /
remembered that wages are not the first to rise
is evident, therefore, that there i cause PACK
this, and operating over the Whole countr
making high wages and high prices equally n
cessity, increasing the cost of transportation al
fostering speculation. In word, the re
difference lies in the fact that our paper dc
lar has been watered until it is worth much lie
than dollar, and on this food of currency pric
float.
the government. Something, we will admit, b
already been done, but the country is beginning
sicken at the SLOW, progress made. speculatio
stimulated by the inflated currency, is again rsir
on its paper wings, and the articles of prime n
cessitY are being bought up and held by the me
that most easily procure the capital. in this ma
ner flour and grain at the principal points in ii
West were raised last fall to price as high almo
as they stood in the city of New York. The banl
lent the money to keep up the market and mai
tain the eXorbitant prices, till in many instane
the grain became heated and injured in Il
warehouses. We are liable to have this repeatt
again this season, and the evil must grow upon
unless efficient measures are soon taken
bring the currency at as early day as possib
to a specie basis
8 This win reduce labor from its nominal to i
Ia equitable value. Every other expense will unde
60 similar transmutatiop. We shall no MOI
III hare nrices of war aud fQmine when the soil