Year: 1866

| From the New York News.


The prospects for the immediate future
are unfavorable to the presumption that
there will be any reduction in the prices
either Of commodities or coiII. The proph-
estes of persons who possess peculiar facili-
ties for arriving at pretty correct estimate
of future values are very gloomy, and point
most decidedly to their enhancement The
coming crops of both our great agricultural
prOducts-breadstuffs and cotton-will be
far below the average. As we noticed day
or two day ago, it is the opinion Of Mr.. w.
III. LANGLEY, of Ohio, who has taken great
pains to investigate the matter, that the
grain crop will not exceed one-third the av-
erage of former years, and he predicts that
we shall have the highest prices of bread
stufs and many ,other products of the soil
ard necessaries of life, for one or two years,
that we have seen. The cotton crop has
also suffered very severely during the spring,
and the present anticipation are that the
produce will not be more than a million and
a quarter bales, or less than one-fourth the
product of the crop of 1859.


1t is, therefore, evident that we shall have
no grain that we can spare for expectation,
and that our exports of cotton must be bat



of the former we may have to become i'm
porters, if the wants of the people are to be
fully supplied for there will be no old stock
to fall back upon, as, according TO Mr..
LANGLEY's statement, the stock of wheat
and -four in the country is, at the present
time, so nearly exhausted that it cannot last
longer than, if so long as, the arrival of the
time when new wheat will be brought into
the market


The short supply will not only raise the
prices of both the products, but the effect of
the depreciation in the amount of our ex-
ports, caused by the failure in production,
will be to raise prices generally. Importa-
tions of foreign merchandise will continue,
and though probably it will not be as large
as it has been of late, still it will be of
sufficient an amount to cause a heavy drain
upon our supplies of specie and the precious
metals. The foreign merchant will require
an equivalent for the goods lie sends u.s. and
if we cannot pay him in kind, we must do
so in coin. 1t is inevitable, then, that gold
will be required for this purpose, and the
demand for it bids fair to be greater than is
generally admitted.


1t is fallaciOus to suppose that the Euro
pean war will tend TO any large quantity Of





ment in our securities. Should hostilities
become general throughout Germany, it is
more than probable that many of our five
twenties, which have been purchased by the
Germans, will find their way back to the
United States. As our own people too we'll
know the tramp of armies is not beneficial
to the production of the necessaries of life
Germany will have to purchase these abroad
wherewith to feed her army and her people.
She will have to pay in gold, for foreigners
will not take her paper securities. Our own
short supply of grain will preclude us from
sending her any; and consequently we may
expect that sne will send to us for gold in
exchange for the United States securities
which she holds. But some persons may
ask: "Will the German people part with
those securities for the purpose of investing
the proceeds in the obligations of their own
governments, and thus furnish them with
the specie they will need?7 We ali know
that when country is at war, the patriot
ism of its people generally tends to such a
result. Such was the effect, both North and
South, drring our late struggle, and there is
no reason to believe that the Germans will
not be influenced by like patriotic i'm
pulse.


Every thing, then, points to an advance
in prices. The future certainly looks
gloomy, but there is no good in shutting
our eyes to it. We must prepare to meet
the hard times when they arrive. Another
year will have to roll round before We can
hope to view a brighter picture, and to do
so then we must experience more genial
season than has been allotted to Us in the
present year.