Year: 1879



 Those who are yet holding cotton will be assisted very much in their speculations and conjectures of tho future market by perusing carefully and taking into account in their cal culations the state of facts set forth in tue following extract from the monthly cotton circular of Messfs. Smith, Edwards & Co., Liverpool:

 Smith, Edwards < Co, Liverpool, in their monthly cotton circular say;

 1.-The prospects of our market arc narrowed very much to the question whether Manchester can force d0f1 the raw material in spite of it's strong statistical position. We need not repeat what we have already said about the hopeless state of Manches- ter, no relief can be looked for from that side at present, and we must be prepared for long period of feeble | demand from spinners. At the same time the strength of the position is such that it seems doubtful whether prices cln be beaten down materially even during the time of most press ure. The feeling of America is strongly in favor of rise, as eyinccd by their large purchases here and in New York, and if they continue of that mind they may Support our market till such time as the pros pect of autumanl scarity causesfresli speculation. The forces are so even 1 ly balanced It is difficult to form an opinion. Any one conversant main 1 ly with Manchester would expect fall to 5d erelong, but those who look chiefly at figures would probably predict rise to 6d later in the year. The fayorite estimate of the eAm- erican crop IS now 5,l00,000 to 5, 100000 bales; on that basis we shall have about the same supply of cot ton to 1st November as we had last year, and with as small 8 consump- ton we could just get through tho season. From the present appear ance of Manchester 1t does not look as if consumption would be larger, but it is to be observed that large amount of short time must take place to keep US on the level of last year, and if any improvement showed itself in demand so ae to postpone short time, there would be- such evident indications of scarcity as to bring on speculation and a rise in cotton. We can only pass through this year at the present low level of prices in virtue of contin- uance of great depression in trade, and considerable stoppage of spin ming machinery.

 The Bombay crop is turning out very disappointing-receipts at Bom- bay to date are little more than half what they were last year, the Oom- rawuttee crop is late and decidedly short, the Broach crop is said to be good, though later than usual, and the Dhollerah to be poor but rather better than the last one, which was an entire failure. There seems reason to doubt now if the shipments to Europe will be any larger than last year. Evidently the consump tion of the world must be fed almost entirely from American cotton this year. This fact will cause much at tention to be given to the prospects, of next crop; it will be necessary that it be large and early to relieve us from great scarcity in the autumn and should any accident happen to it higher prices would be inevitable. The more we take distant view of the market the stronger it's position seems, but the immediate future has elements of considerable weakness, and it is not unlikely that some little temporary decline may occur during the pressure of spring imports.