New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-03-18
wuycy UAY 10 CHINl1

The Suez Canal is fact which commercial
Britons can't get over. 10 be sure hnsi'nu
never wanted il to succeed; but she never wants
any enterprise to succeed unless her capitai Is
IN it, or she expects it to bring the lions snare
of its pounds, shillings, and pence to her door'
1t is not. however, so much on account Of an
unreasoning spite against the French company
that the British press has been bearing the
market with mournful stories OF failure, ever
since the grand opening, as from deep iaid
plan of English capitalists to share IN the
profits, if there are any, and to obtain the con-
troll of the Canal as soon as the shares shali
have been deprecated enough to make an IN
yestrnent in them safe, But the tone OF contempt
with which English journals have been wont
to speak of this great undertaking Is now CIV
ing place to one Of alarm and English capital,
knowing that the entire future OF that Empire
is bound up in preserving commercial ana po-
litcal supremacy in the Indies ana on Asiatlc
waters, is suddenly awaking from iancied &C.
curity to the fact that it may yet hnd rivals
where it least expected them. Among the pos
sibilties already recognized by the British
Press is the transferring of the great CONNER
cial centers from Northern Europe to the Med
iterranean. London, Liverpool, and Southamp-
ton may yet dwindle to third-rate ports. while
Cadiz, MarSeilles. Genoa, Venice, Athens and
COnstantnople, in Europe, Tyre and Smyrna
in Asia. Alexandria and the site of ancient
Carthage in Africa. may yet become the leading
commercial centers of the Eastern Continent.
The latest report from the Suez Canal repre-
scented it In active and successful operation,
with nineteen feet of water 10 the shoalest
a Al Id,
Sea into the great lakes was constantly IN
creasng its depth 80 that at no distant day
the channel is expected to be twenty
feet deep throughout its entire length. This
will enable the largest steamships to pass
through in safety Steamships from England,
loaded with twenty five hundred tuns of coal,
have already passed through the Canal without
delay and so great is tho public confidence IN
the safety of the passage, that nearly humid
red steamships are now under charter 10 En-
gland, India, and China for trade 10y this
route Freights from Calcutta and other In
dian ports to Liverpool and London. via the
Canal, have already declined to Go 10 (Sl7)
per tuD of fifty cubic feet. with few or no
orders in the Indian markets for sail tunnage
at any rate via the old route around the Cape
of Good Hope. Trade circulars, printed in
London in February. say that "All our ship
"pers to and from Calcutta and Bombay are
"availiug themselves Of steam tunnage via
"Suez at moderately low rates, and several
"eligible steam vessels have been taken at
Bombay and Calcutta for Liverpool at E3 10
"per tun.'
1t is now generally conceded that NewYOrk
merchants cannot expect TO do much trade
with the East via San Francisco and over the
Pacific Railroad. The distance from China to
New-York by the Pacific route is $500 miles,
more than one third Of which is by the most
costly mode of transportation-tha of rail-
roads-making the cost of freight more than
500 a tun; while the distance by the
Mediterranean and Suez route is 11,700 miles,
all of which is by seattle cheapest mode
of cOnveyance--and at a cost of not more
than SIG a tun. The .shortest possible
time from Hong Kong and Manila to
New York via the Pacific route is not more
than twenty days less than by the Suez route.
while to all points west of these the Suez route
will be the shorter. The time occupied by
sailing vessels making the passage around the
Cape Of Good Hope is about six months while
freights by that route are not more than So
tun cheaper.
There are now at sea and loading in the
Chinese and Indian ports 1O5 ships bound to
the United States around the Cape OF Good
Hope. These vessels have on board cargOes
valued at about s15,4jO,OO0 and will average
six months on the passage. the cost of freight
being S13 a tun of 40 cubic feet. Had these
goods been sent via the Suez Canal the time
of passage would have been about two months.
and the cost of freight about $40 tun; the
amount of interest saved would have been
S380,2J0, from which, after deducting the in
creased cost of freight, we should have net
saving of $4,000 and this in addition to the
advantage of having the goods delivered four
months earlier than they now will be. and the
gain resulting from the better condition i'll
which they would have arrived. These facts
prove that the best route to the East, for years
to come, will be that via the Suez Canal; and
the question that is now of the greatest in-
pOrta1ce to our merchants is whether they will
adopt this route Immediately, or allow British
merchants to fill our markets with teas and
other Eastern products, which they can offer
months in advance, and at lower rates than our
merchants can afford to import them at as
long as they go the old way to China.
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Two contradictory reports giving positive
information of tho fate of the City of Boston