The herald., 1897-12-03
OFFICE OF THE HERALD.

British trade and navigation returns
for October as compared with 1896 are
copstrued favorably by English statis-
ticians, although the imports. amount
Ing to Gas, ,943, ,763, showed decrease OF
R631, 1877, or 1.6 per cent, and the exports
indicated falling off of e1,40O, 405, or 6.7
per cent as compared with October, 1896
1t must be inferred, therefore, that our
English contemporaries regard the Oc-
tober record of imports as satisfactory
1t showing less than per cent decrease,
relatively favorable showing as COM
, pared with the movement of export busi
ness in that month as compared with q
year ago.
The principal decreases in the October
British import trade were in receipts
Of foodstuffs, tobacco and raw materials
for textile manufactures. More copper,
hewn and sawed wood were purchased,
and receipts of timber from Russia, Swe-
+, den, Norway and, to lesser extent, from
Canada, were also largely augmented,
the Increased value amounting to not
less than G64O,O0O over the like month
last year, and the figures for the first ten
wood alone amounting to nearly $780,,
900, 900, against about $50, 100000 in the
same period of 1896 and little over $780,
O0O,O 900 over the corresponding period of
1S95--a somewhat remarkable degree of
activity in the British timber trade dur
ing the past two years.
The falling off in value Of imported
foodstuffs as compared with october
last year amounted to G727,000; but it is
we'll to point out that wheat was not
responsible for the shrinkage, as British
IMPORTS of that cereal last month We're
valued at nearly $4,000, 900 more than in
October last year, Russia sending more
than double the usual amount, while the
United States and Canada, as is well
known, were heavy shippers. There We're
declines also in values of British receipts
of almost all other kinds of grain, fruit
and sugar, the Shrnkage in the value of
apples imported amounting to the unu-
Bual sum of $i,350,000. Revolutions in
Cuba and the Philippine islands are
given in explanation of the falling off
of about 100000 in the value of tobacco
imported into the United Kingdom last
month. The only other large October
decrease, amounting to about $3,25O, 900,
was In raw materials for textile manu-
factures. Strangely enough, in spite of
the troubles in Lancashire, 1t Is pointed
out that only a very small proportion of
the last named decline was due to the
quantity of cottonimported, but was ow-
ing to the low price of cotton. The London
Financial News adds: "That our man.
ufacturers are getting their raw cotton
cheaper is clearly no matter for regret.
and If cotton be eliminated the decrease
in other raw materials for textile manu-
features is reduced to very small limits"
Before concluding the list of more i'm
portant British importations it is worth
noting that Great Britain has imported
nearly $4,000, 900 worth of American bicy-
cles thus far this year.
The picture of the october export trade
of Great Britain is, as has been inti-
mated, less reassuring. The chief item
of decline as compared with October a
year. ago is in exports of yarns and tex
tiles, about s4OO0,000; for ten months
fully s41, 900, 900. due in large part to the
decline in prices of cotton goods. for
British shipments of cotton yarns, twist
and piece goods in October do not show
any remarkable decrease in quantity.
Some of our British contemporaries ad-
wise a pause in exports of textile ma
chinery so that the British textile in
dustry may be able to postpone for
time the competition that has lately been
making such strides in the far east.
English exports of sewing machines and
of coal were larger last month than in
the like month Of last year, but total
exports for ten months cOntraSted with
1896 showed a falling off in value of
about $50, ,000,00 which perhaps suggests
that the present is hardly the right time
in the United Kingdom for a quarrel be-
tween capital and labor.
One of the recent features of the Sc
curities market is demand for and ad-
vancing prices Of high grade investment
bonds The beginning of this movement,
says Bradstreets, dates some six weeks
back and there is little disagreement as
to the fact that it originated in the large
accumulations of funds in the hands of
corporations and individual investors.
Resulting, as this has done, in excep-
tionally low rates of interest, even dur
ing the period of the year when the crop
movement was expected to attract funds
to the interior and produce a higher level
of rates for money, it has naturally
caused the class in question to turn their
dLttHllOtl " DOIluS. II CttIHUl escape no
tice, however, that the demand thus Gre
ated is rigidly discriminating. Bond
dealers are unanimous in describing it
in such terms. 1t has been confined al
most exclusively to governments, to
municipal obligations and to the high
grade railroad mortgage issues. What
are termed second-rate issues are, it is
declared, as unstable as before the
movement, and any increase in dealings
in securities of such class or in the
low priced issues found in the stock ex-
change list may be ascribed to purely
speculative purchases.
4 4 +
Henry Clews, in his New York letter
of the 9th ult., says: The market for
securities retains the same general feat
ures as we have had to note for recent
weeks; except that the volume of trans
actions has fallen still lower. Outside
. speculative operations have become al,
most insignificant, and transactions are
mainly confined to operations for frac-
tional profits by room traders. There is,
however, a class of conservative oper-
ators who discriminatingiy follow close
ly good features in particular stocks;
which gives certain degree of healthy
interest to the market The purely
speculative stocks. however, are neg
lected.