New Orleans Republican., 1875-10-07

wrought fabric may be prolonged BY
economy. From these two qualities it is
not reasonable that deficiency Of supply
should act At once either in an advance
Of price or in diminished consumption.
Cotton price depends greatly on ability to
purchase This ability may be affected
by war, a famine, or q monetary dis
turbanca, which affects manufactures,
revenues, or wages. There may be casual
textile substitutes. Cotton may be aided
by an admixture of some other material,
or even of an inferior with superior
staple. Perhaps this last economy may
tend to explain why the price of all other
than American cotton has not accom-
panied the decline of that article.
1t must not be forgotten that just when
the holder is anticipating an advance from
the knowledge Of diminished crop, the
miller is working short time, on running
stock, and endeavoring so to use his
capital as to get corner on the holder.
In this the miller often succeeds, and
though the price of cotton may go up,
ultimately, yet the holder may be COM
PEELED to sell, or it may be postponed un-
til another crop is harvested. The holder
thus loses the fruits of bis own Judgment
through the inability of the consumer to
supply his wants, or the superior ability
of the capitalist spinner to break down
the market, and then indemnify himself
by an enhanced profit upon cheapened
raw material
We do not criticise the theories of others
because we have no theory of our own
which will predict prospective price. We
do not think that any one short of Pro-
fessor Tice could foresee the meteoroiogi-
cal fluctuations which occur in the active
and counteracting forces which determine
the market rate of cotton between the
maturity of one crop and the sale of the
last bale TOME spinner. We are thus dis
trustful because there has been in New
Orleans any time for the last half century
class Of dealers in cotton who possessed
every attribute of probity, ability, in
formation and experience in the commerce
of cotton. Very few realized fortunes
from this knowledge. Though most of
them realized fortunes from their atten-
ton to their business as factors,
many who ventured to speculate in
the cotton market lost the whole
gains Of business in the precarious vari-
ations Of this treacherous staple. An
instructive treatise will be found in the
Fifty Years in Two Hemispheres," by
Vincent Nolte, Hamburg merchant, who
was for great many years a cotton factor
in New Orleans. He explains the causes
Of several failures which ruined him, and
incidentally recites the history of an
effort by the State Bank ITO con-
troll the cotton market by the purchase
of immense quantities, which it held to
compel rise in prices This compelled
the spinners and capitalists on the other
side to combine against it, and as result
the bank, as great cotton holder, had to
let go, and sustained an immense loss.
The history of our cotton factorage is but
q repetition of this narrative, and the
cotton gambling on futures of the present
day, although much cheaper system, is
but the same operation which has proved
so ruinously delusive in the past.
The application we would make of
these cautious views is this: The planter
and factor can not foresee the variations Of
price, because, if they could do so, those
who purchase and manufacture would be
endowed with corresponding sagaoity. The
one would thus offset the advantages of
the other. What then is the duty of the
planter and factor Of cotton2 Plainly to
make and sell crop as economically and
as promptly as possible. This saves in.
terest insurance and shrinkage from any
cause. The cotton price will be one year
with another, as good before the middle
of January as afterwards, and if the
planter will apply his cotton money to
stop the interest on ,hie. own debt, if he
owes any, or to lay in supplies when they
are most cheap and abundant, for cash,
he will find at the end of a term of years
that he has received as good returns for
his land and labor as those who have
consulted the wisest of the so-called cotton
prophets. i. 81. a.l..,ss,-,