New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-01-02
THE MARKET PRICE OF GOLD.

The slow but persistent expectation OF gold
from New-York to Europe which has been
going on for the last two months and still
continues, is matter to which we have al
ready two or three times called attention. we
refer TO it once moro because it has an I'M
portant bearing on the question of resumption
of specie payments, and is in other respects
deserving of investigation by business men.
The causes which have produced the recent
shipments of specie appear to US to be OF q
permanent character, and to be desuheu W
produce q considerable change in our COM
mercial relations with the rest OF the woriu'
In short, they do not begin and end with inc
maintenance of six per cent discount ia'e
By the Bank of England, as some practical
persons may imagine.
During the ten years from July l, 1865 10
June 3d. 1873, the foreign commerce OF the
United States, as officially returned by the
Bureau of Statistics, resulted in an excess OF
imports of merchandise over exports, valued
in gold, of S1,O4S 100000, or $1O5,OOO,OO0
year. This, however, was only part Oh the
real balance against us during that period.
Goods were undervalued at the custom-houses
and struggled into the country by travellers.
Foreign vessels earned millions in freghts,
and every year added to our Indebtedness
abroad the interest on the debts of
the previous year. Notwithstanding tho
fact that we have exported to foreign countries
tbe round sum of S7OO,0OO,0OO in specie, over
and above the imports, since we turned our
backs on gold and silver in 1862, the tact Is
notorious, and not denied by any one, that we
owe Europe an immense sum, for which our
creditors hold good securities, such as bonds
of the United States, the State OF Massachu-
setts the cities of Boston and New-Y ork, the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and so on. AS
for Erie Railroad shares, Atlantic and Great
Western stocks, Northern Pacific bonds, anu
other stuff of the same sort we do not include
if in this account. The change which
is in process in our foreign trade is briefly
this: Instead of importing at the rate of from
one hundred to one hundred and fifty mil
lions a year more than we export, as we ala
in the so-called prosperous years of paper
money, wo must now, Tor two or three years
at least export more than we import. we
must export not only to pay for our imports
but also to pay the interest on our deDts
There are doubtless among our readers
many individuals who have at some
times lived in excess Of thoir incomes,
and who havo at other times been
OBLIGED to save enough each year to pay off a
portion of their debts BY the latter process
men really grow rich, while by the former
they seem rich, not only to those who MIN
lister to their extravaganza, but frequently to
Themselves. From 1862 to 1873 the United
States. in our opinion, were travelling toward
bonl;ruptcy. vet we fancied VIC were growing
miracuously rich. Now we are working hard
and spending as little as VIC can, and strug-
Cling to save ourselves from insolvency.
We are pursuing the same course that
every man who has risen from pow
erty to wealth by honest practices has been
obliged to follow. We are by no means blind
to the individual suffering which has been
produced by the change in the habits of the
nation. 1t would have been far better had the
course of extravaganza of 1865 to 1879 never
been entered on, but since we cannot recall
the past we must now practice parsimony or
cease to DO solvent nation. Free from dis
grace we can scarcely call ourselves, but as q
nation we have never been unwilling to sub
nit to privation and sacrifice to maintain pub
liz credit and mercantile honor
nations requires that we export more than we
import, or, what amounts to the same thing,
that we pay the interest on what we owe our
foreign creditors. If, in addition to paying
the interest, we wish also to pay portion OF
the principal, we must export q still greater
excess. Now we take the meaning of the
exports of specie and imports Of bonds which
have been in progress for the last two months
to be this: Q) We have elected to pay off
portion of the principal of our debt to Europe,
and the proof of that fact is the importation
of bonds; (2) we have not sufficiently
increased our exports of merchandise to
balance the account, and the proof that we
have not done so is the expectation of specie.
There is abundant proof that the importation
of bonds and other securities from Europe is
not q nero speculative venture. 1t will prOba-
bly, continue for o considerable period. The
savings of the country amount to large
sum. and as those savings are not now IN
vested or rather sunk, in railroad bonds, new
furnaces, mines, factories, and other such UNI
dertakings, large share of them necessarily
take the shape of a repurchase from Europe
of some of the first-class securities which have
been sold there since the war. This is especially
true of United States bonds. OF the exports
of specie it is only necessary to say that they
have been made at a season of the year when
our exports of merchandise are at their highest
and our imports at the lowest. To our appre-
henson they indicate clearly that the premium
on gold is too low. Gold is sent because it
is cheaper than grain and cotton, with which
products we arc much heavier stocked than
we are with gold. What should go to Europe
in settlement of the balances against us
is not gold, but more grain and cot