The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-03-25
Financial Crash.

oiueA!S 10 pe.yOuO question:, anu
that, if this state of things continues,
collapse, financial crisis, com
pared with which those of '37 and
ST will have been but breeze, must
necessarily ensue, is equally true. Up
to the end of November last, the
value of the dry goods alone import
ed into the single port of New York,
from the beginning of the year, we
see stated, was $S1, 1856, 900, against
$40, OBJ, 900 the previous year in the
same period. While the imports have
steadily increased, the volume of ex-
ports of domestic products has as
steadily diminished. The people, in
stead of retrenching and economizing,
are thus steadily building up an addi-
tional debt, that must be paid; debt
that will tax them for the next thirty
or forty years.
GA wise man foreseeth the evil and
hideth himself and all prudent bnsi-
ness men should now take in sail and
endeavor to reach safely harbor.
The Secretary of the United States
Treasury, in his able report, warned
the country that disaster was ahead.
We had hoped that Congress would
have listened to Mr.. McCulloch's ad-
vice and suggestion; but it appears
that body is not in accord with him,
and refuses to listen to his compre-
hensive financial schemes.
We doubt if, since the days Of Mr..
Hamilton, the United States has had
so able a financier as the present Sec
retary. We have little hope that his
plan for the contraction of the cur
rency, funding the floating debt, and
q gradual but sure and safe resump-
ton OF specie payments, will be put
in operation at the close of the pre-
sent fiscal year. 1t will evidently re-
quire two good crops of cotton, ere
we can hope for resumption OF spe-
Gle payments. And is there any pros
pect that we shall soon have that hope
realized? From all quarters of the
South, the tidings are, that the ne
groes are working but indifferently,
and that the planters will not have
their sanguine hopes of large crops
gratified. 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, aud
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
overhanging us is held in Europe.
Already enormous quantities are held
abroad, which, if sent home for sale
and realization, would ruin us. We
cannot tell what would be the posi-
BILE 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 certain-that, from
present appearances, there is little
hope for an early contraction of the
currency and resumption of specie
payments. Certainly the South, with
her system of labor destroyed and
her present unsettled condition, can
do but little in averting the impend-
ing disaster. Our condition is far
| different from what it would have
been had the Southern States been
brought back into the Union in O
different way and by different means.
We can do scarcely anything as mat
ters stand, and as itseems determined
they shall stand, to aid the North. If
the North, instead of practicing re-
trenchment and economy, both public
and private, goes on in the career of
extravaganza, importing at the rate of
$4O0, 900, 900 Il year, all Of which has
to be paid for in gold, the crash must
come with terrible effect. Prudent,
wise reduction of expenses and legis-
lation 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 busi-
ness circles at the North, and they
are accordingly setting their houses in
order. We warn our people of it.
There must be settlement, and we
might as well look facts and figures in
the face, no matter how disagreeable
such investigations and disclosures
may be to us. The Federal debt
alone-the war debt is in round num-
bers So, 600, 100000 and upwards, and
the municipal Indebtedness of the
Northern States is estimated at $40,
100000. With this burden hanging
over the people, and the additional
Indebtedness that is being accumu-
lated month after month by the prodi-
gality incident to the initiation pro-
duced by the war, the prospect, COM
mercially and financially, is not a