Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-01-09
FINANCE AND TRADE.
Estimates Of Expenses Of the Internal
Revenue Department for 1873.
The Question of Refunding the Six Per
Cent. Bonds into Five Per Cent.
The Cotton and Other Trade with En-
gland-Extracts from Yearly
Circular.

WASHINGTON, January S.-The esti-
mate of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, for the expenses of that office
for the next fiscal year, has been sent to
the Committee on Appropriation. The
entire estimate amounts to four million
seven hundred thousand dollars, but of
that amount nearly two and half mil
lions is TO pay gaugers and store
keepers, under the act of June 6, 1872.
William b. Duncan, of the banking
firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., New
York, ana Mr.. Joseph Patterson, senior
member of the banking firm of Patter-
son q Co., Philadelphia, appeared before
the Committee of Ways and Means this
morning in response TO an invitation of
the committee, and expressed their
views on the subject of refunding. the
six per cent. into five per cent. bonds.
Chairman Dawes remarked that the
committee desired to have the views of
gentlemen eminent in financial matters
in the great cities, and who were not
at all identified with the operations of
the so-called syndicate.
The whole subject was gone into at
considerable length, the substance of the
opinions given being that the effect of
operations through the syndicate was to
take United States bonds out of the
hands of small investors, where they had
the greatest permanency, and to put
them in the hands of bankers and bro
kers, and large investors in great finan-
clal centers, where they were liable to be
affected by the frequent fluctuations in
the money market. This Mr.. Dun
can regarded as an evil which
should be avoided, tending, as
it did, in his opinion, to lessen the
popularity of the bonds, and to that ex-
tent depreciate the credit of the govern
ment in the markets of the world.
Both gentlemen conceded to this view,
and also in the opinion that the better
policy would be not to endeavor to force
the market at the present time, but to
wait until the money market is in al
more favorable condition for refunding
the debt at lower rates of interest, and to
let the matter be under the immediate
control of the Treasury Department
without the aid of intermediate parties,
and that the bonds should be uniform in
character, as to the rate Of interest, as
to the period for which they are to run,
which should be long period, and as
to the place where they are to be made
payable, which should be at the Treas
ury of the United States.
kJOCANloAJ 1)OutnCl1 va pACoClI dl IAlC
interview.
LONDON, January S.-Extracts from
the yearly circulars of prominent brOk-
ers, say that the cotton trade was not as
good in 1872 as in previous years, and
that the rates obtained were not even
remunerative. Spinners and manufac-
turers commence the New Year well
under contract. Business for the pres
emf will be mainly influenced bV the
quantity of imports, and the present
scarcity is likely to be tided over with
out any enhancement of prices. AS to
the sugar trade it is stated that the con-
sumption for 1871 by Europe
and the United States was in
creased in 1872 by about two and one
half per cent. 1t is expected that
the new crop viii be at least fourteen
per cent better than the last, while the
stocks are accommodating and deprecia-
ton in prices is certain. In regard 10
the timber trade, it is said that the for
ests which are being cleared for supplies
grow continually further from the sea-
ports, and an enhancement in prices
is probable. The petroleum trade is
in satisfactory condition, and business
il certain to increase. Legislation,
however, is required, as English mer-
chants are allowed to import infiamma-
BILE oils at one hundred and twenty de-
grees while those of the Continent can
import it only at one hundred and ten
degrees. The wool trade is in an un-
satisfactory state. Imports for the first
time in its history have fallen off, and
the deficit has evidently gone to the
United States.