Year: 1862

The stay law has prevented any compul
sorry payment of debts, and with many peo
pie the idea seems to prevail that any effor'
to pay is unnecessary; but the stay law i:
only a temporary expedient, and will prob
ably be repealed at the next session of the
Legislature. There was not much neces
sity for its enactment, and the necessity fol
its continuance grows less and less every
day. The expenditures of the Governmen,
for the prosecution of the war, being dis
bursed almost entirely among our own peo
gle, have filled the channels of circulation
the currency has become redundant, and
there never has been q time when money
could be more easily obtained on loan, OF
when all species of property bore so high a
price 1t is this very redundancy which
has caused the much talked of depreciation
of Confederate money-it is not distrust
of the solvency Of the Government, but
that there is more in circulation than the
calls of trade require, and the same cause
operates with the scarcity caused by the
blockade in producing the present uuexam.
pied prices of all kinds of goods.


Every season inflated currency is certain
to be followed by revulsion, as the histo
ry of all commercial crisis teaches Ono
extreme follows another in the financial as
surely as in the physical world. The sea,
son of high prices will be followed by the
scacon Of low prices. Prudent men take
advantage of the first to prepare for the


last, they sell property or earn money when
it is plenty, to pay their debts and prepare
for the time when it must inevitably be-
come scarce.


The planting community especially ought
to exercise prudent foresight in this mat.
ter. They are not spectators, and changes
of prices are Of not much moment to them
except as to their necessary supplies, and
the one staple which they have for sale,
and, as to that, it may be laid down as an
iudisputable rule that the planter who spec
ulates iu cotton always loses money. Hold
ing for a higher price, when the present
market price is fully and largely remune.
rativc, is nothing but speculation. To
hold, in present circumstances, when cot
ton brings higher price than it has borne
for years, is risk that no farmer, living
beyond the reach of immediate news, ought
to run. The price at present is largely re.
munerativc, and those holding for higher,
stand some danger of having to accept 4
lower The expectations of such may be
founded upon the ideas Of the intervention
Of foreign powers, mediation, &c. Aside
from the frequency with which VIC have
been deceived by such expectations, there
arc still stronger reasons why we should not
depend on that delusivc hope. Suppose
all the benefits expected from mediation
and Intervention are realized, that the ports
are opened-what results? Usually the
whole yearly crop is whole year in going
to market, planters send it forward as it is
got ready or when the means of transporta-
ton becomes suitable, and consumption, in
some degree keeps pace with the continuous
supply. If the ports were opened inmcdi-
atcly our whole crop, Of at least four mil
lion of bales, is ready to be, and will be,
prccipitated upon the European markets.
1t may be that the revival of commerce
may be delayed six months, in which case
half of the growing crop, say at least one
million of bales, will be heapcd upon the
crop now on hand, for expectation. This
immense mass thrown at once, and not
gradually, into the market, must deprcss
prices even below the rcmuneratve point,
though for Il time after the opening of the
ports present prices may be sustained, but
as soon as commerce returns to its regular
channels it is evident they must depreci-
ate.