The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-02
Tho state or Affairs in Wall street.

Tho State OF Affairs in Wall Street.
Except in times Of actual panic Wall street
has rarely been in more disturbed and ex-
cited state than it was all last week, and at the
close there was not only no prospect of i'm
provement but the monetary stringency was
more severe than on any previous day, as
late as four o'clock on Saturday afternoon an
eighth per cent commission, in addition to the
legal rate Of interest, having been offered for
loans on government securities until to-day.
It is fallacy to suppose that this condition OF
the money market is due mainly to artificial
Influences, although the withdrawal Of few
millions of greenbacks from the banks by
stockholders has undoubtedly had some
influence in producing it. If we turn to Bos-
ton, to Chicago and, in fact, to all the principal
cities, both East and West, we find the same
stringency everywhere prevailing, while the
and we are now renting TO move the cotton
crop, and the requirements OF the pork crop
promise to still further increase the stringency
In the West, which, as matter of course, will
react upon the money market at this centre.
The highly inflated prices of nearly all the
speculative shares dealt in on the Stock Elk
change, and the vast amounts of these which
Wall street is carrying, have undoubtedly not
little to do in producing the present
critical aspect Of affairs. Speculation in
railway and other stocks has absorbed
80 large portion Of the capital Of the country
that it has become dangerous financial ele-
ment in our midst, and if the present stringency
has the effect Of breaking it down to some ex-
tent it will have exerted salutary effect. To
say that most Of the leading stocks are selling
for at least double their real value is not an
exaggeration of the fact, and it would be pre-
posterous to suppose that these prices can be
much longer supported even by the strong
bull combinations under whose efforts all this
market is source OF constant peril. as in
the event Of the clques becoming dis
organized from any one Of several causes
which might occur panic would be
precipitated at once. Government securi-
ties and some of the State bonds are
the only stocks in Wall street which have
not risen materially with the high tide OF infla-
ton. and therefore they are comparatively
cheap.
The election Of General Grant to the Presi-
dency will doubtless strengthen confidence in
the future of the country; but it will by no
means usher in the millennium of SPECTATORS
BY improving the complexion Of political az
fairs il will be Of advantage to the public
credit but it will tend towards gradual de-
cline of the gold premium and so repress spec
ulation and bring prices nearer 10 specie
paying standard Hence those who have been
calculating to the contrary had better recon
slider the subject. Just now the Treasury il
in . needy condition, and it has
latterly been absorbing about four hun
bred thousand dollars a day in currency
in exchange for gold sold, aud this has not
been without influence in aggravating the pre-
vailing stringency, while the prospect is that
these sales will have to be increased in order
to supply the current necessities of the de-
partment unless the receipts from internal
revenue are augmented. II is fortunate that.
outside of the grain spectators here and i'm the
West the mercantile demand for money il
light, and hence the present crisis in Wal
street il threatening only to the spectators,
who may easily come to grief without affecting
the general interests Of the country