Morning journal and courier., 1884-11-17
Monday, November 19, 1884.
7. BUSINESS IN ENGLAND.


 This is not the only country in which busi- ness is in an unsatisfactory condition. In England much the game state of affairs pre- vails as exists here, and it may not be un- profitable to notice what is thought of the situation there by the London Spectator. No such situation, it says, has been seen in our time. There have been distresses in par ticular trades, the body of the people have been sorely pinched before, and there have been prognostications of 8 general hquida- tion, but the phenomenon of to-day is new, and the economists do not explain it. There has been bounteous harvest, there is no war on hand, all tho workingmen outside the shipbuilders are fairly comfortable. the total of pauperism is unusually small, distributors are doing we'll the somewhat diminished say ings of the country are still so large that the price of securities is at a normal average and long investments have de clined one-haH per cent. But notwithstanding all this, says the Spectator: Commercial men of all descrip- tions declare that times were never so bad. They are using their capital, they say, with out profit, or at loss which in some trades such as the enormous trade in sugar, now half as great as the wheat trade-rises to ruinous figures. We carrying goods for the whole world, yet shipbuilders declare they are losing huge sums; and the condition of Sunderland appears to place the allegation beyond dispute. We are using every metal with new profusion, iron not excepted; but not one of the mine-owning trades will allow itself to be in healthy condition; and it is certain that the profits on the out-turn of lead, tin, copper and coal are so low that only wealthy or exceptionally well situated mines can be kept going without loss. The world was never so well fed, or so eager for full food, yet the growers and dealers in wheat, the largest of all the trades, assert that the prices do not pay wages, let alone rent, and that every quarter of wheat sold costs some one a direct draft upon his capital. Mincing lane is in u ter despair. It is currently asserted that hnseed is the solitary article upon which profit remains to be obtained, though we sup pose that in spite of the position of the cin- chona trade-which is only kept from ruin by the exertions of those who have lent mon ey on the costly necessity-there must be profit on some drugs and dyes. Tho con- sumption of sugar has reached unheard-of figures, and sugar is wasted almost like salt; yet the dealers in sugar plead ruin, and their staple has fallen one-half, and is purchasabIe at about -fifteenths of the cost of produc- tion under old conditions Rice has followed wheat. The taste for tea increase syeArly, ,and may now be said to have reached the whole population; yet the dealers are constantly failing, and it is alleged that every pound sold wholesale fetehes, apart from the duty, penny pound less than was given for it at the port of shipment. The losses on India produce are so great that old firms are sus- pending transactions rather than sacrifice more money; and the bankers through whose advance business is conducted look on in 8 sort of bewilderment, and examine every warrant offered them as if it had been doc tored. A very little more and trade would stop, the most experienced buyers being ut terly unable to decide where or when the 'tshrinkage of values" to use most useful Americanism, will come to an end.
 The Spectator cannot tell what the matter is any more than the wise men of this coun- try can. It says, however, that the econ- ! omists have misconceived in two respects. They underrate the reluctance of mankind, especially of agriculturists, to abandon pro l ductions in which they alone have experience, 1 in which they have invested much, and about 1 which they entertain conditional hope; and they do not fully perceive the distinction be- l tween the peremptory and the artificial wants of men, Now wants are slow to grow into ! new necessities, and men will only buy food ! and clothes till they are satisfied.