IMPORTS INTO THE PORT OF NEW-YORK. 1845. 1846. 1847. 1848. January. Duty goods...$5,581.641 $4,847,864 $5,498,682 $9,104.108 Free. February. Duty goods. .4,230,091 478,443 480,829 37.011 Free.. $40,670,186 $43,904,560 $59,077,695 $54,339,717 The imports of the port of New-York are usually two-thirds of the whole Union; but the proportion this year is rather larger than last, because the cheap textile fabrics, having lost their usual markets in England and on the continent, have found sales here on consignment, through commission houses. The amount of dutiable imports received at the port of New-York for the three months ending the 6th July, was $16,386,580. Of these, dry goods reached near six and a half millions, as indicated in the following table, showing the weekly imports under general heads: IMPORTATION OF DRY GOODS-PORT OF NEW-YORK. The manufactures of silk bear a very considerable proportion to the whole amount. being at least one-third. These goods are mostly of French origin, and have been purchased very cheaply during the late disturbances in France. In Lyons, goods have been sacrificed for very low prices for cash, hard money, and the stocks thus purchased by our dealers will probably advance in value by reason of the non-production resulting from continued political instability. The fall season for sale of goods opens later than usual, yet many buyers from the south and west are in town. The large auction sales which usually indicate the character of the trade about opening, have been well attended, and although prices were lower than the demands of private dealers, there was, under spirited bidding, an improvement from first sales. 1848.] The collections on former purchases are less easily made, and there are now symptoms that the fall in prices of produce, and the unfavorable state of the export trade, is beginning to be felt by those dealers whose credits were more liberal than prudent. In the present aspect of affairs abroad, there are few factors here or at the south disposed to advance on produce, and if they do, their acceptances do not readily command cash. Hence a large resource from which to discharge city debts is cut off from the country. The low prices at which goods have been sold, have involved both foreign and domestic Those that were sustained by the former do not materially producers in serious losses. affect our commission importers, who for the most part are as yet easy in finances. Those domestic manufacturers who have sold at low prices for long notes, on which they are now obliged to raise the money at 1 a 14 per cent. per month, are suffering, and one considerable house in Boston went down under this adverse state of things during the week. The real difficulty is the paralyzation of the export trade of the country, through the untoward state of affairs in Europe. The operation is to make unavailable the active capital of dealers. Large operators are anxious for large cash balances in proportion to their engagements, which they are not disposed to extend, and those possessed of produce which last year was promptly available, find now great difficulty in realizing upon it. This state of affairs is likely to bear with increasing pressure upon our market. The leading features of many of the Banks that have made returns to the end of June, are as follows: FEATURES OF SEVERAL OF THE LEADING BANKS OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY, 1848. Loans. Bank of Missouri.. Circulation. $2.281,712 $2,445,741 $2,119,500 Specie. Deposits. $1,639,880 Bank of Kentucky. 4.250,804 1,380,529 2,395,292 676,107. Northern Bank, do.. ..3,573.306 937,664 1,798,243 664,022 Banks of Louisiana.. .7,010,616 7,205,135 4,770,275 7,648,599 Do. South Carolina...5,832,475 358,111 1,967.783 1,617.533 Bank of Charleston... ..2.589,527 389,739 753,510 344,597 Ohio Banks... 12.724,030 2,681,473 8,005,212 4.767.803 Banks of New-York. .72,318,986 6,751,338 20,718,825 27,650,591 Do. Connecticut.. .13,424,653 517,700 4,891,265 1,994,589 $124,006,106 $22,667,430 $47,419.905 $47.001,732 It is remarkable in relation to these south-western Banks, that the aggregate amount of specie on hand is nearly equal to the circulation. In order to observe the change which has been produced in the four first mentioned Banks, we may compare the specie and circulation now with the same items of the same Banks in January, 1839: The supply of "currency" has actually been decreased in the great valley of the Mississippi by the operation of these Banks. Yet the Sub-Treasury, specie clause and all, has been in operation eighteen months. What a comment is this upon the world of declamation and senseless theories expended upon the supposed operation of the specie clause. This indicates a sound state of affairs in the great valley of the Mississippi. The Northern and Atlantic states show a considerably larger proportion of circulating credits, particularly in the state of Ohio. 66 It has ever been a mistaken idea to suppose that the extension of Bank loans increases the amount or lowers the price of money. The operation of banking is always by contraries. The Banks issue their promissory notes, and instead of paying, they receive an making money interest on what they borrow. What they call lending money, or abundant," is, in fact and in truth, creating an obligation to be paid to them (the medium of payment depending on themselves,) which enhances the demand for money at its maturity. Hence it is uniformly the case, that money becomes scarce, and the rate of interest advances, precisely in proportion as banks increase their loans. This is particularly the case when the currency is full, or in other words, on a level with that of other countries. At such a time, when the institutions push out their promises on notes discounted, they immediately cause an export of money in return for goods sold here. The portion of the currency exported, is the specie, of course. This diminishes the amount of money in a three-fold manner, leaving the same amount of obligations to be paid, with the less amount of money. The payers of these notes find it difficult to get money, and they clamor for the creation of what is in fact a further demand for money by the discount of more notes. The discounts of the New-York banks are $73,000,000; their circulation is $21,000,000, thrown out by the discount of notes; the specie is $7,000,000. The discounts have been reduced $10,000,000 since November, and this has lessened the demand for money. Of the $73,000,000, probably $60,000,000 falls due in 60 days, or $1,000,000 per day. The $20,000,000 in circulation is supposed equal to the payments, because if $1,000,000 is paid in to-day, the same amount will probably be paid out. Now in case of adverse exchanges, $5,000,000 of bills may be returned for specie. This would reduce the money afloat to $15,000,000, and the banks being alarmed, would cease to pay out the whole of the $1,000,000 which daily is paid in. Hence, in the lapse of a week, half the remainder would be paid into the banks for notes, leaving say $8,000,000 of circulation to meet $53,000,000 of notes falling due. Numerous failures are thus produced, and perhaps a stoppage of the banks, because their lending money was, in fact, only receiving obligations to pay them money which did not exist. In the stock market, this operation is called a "corner," and is formed thus:-An association pitches upon some stock, quietly get possession of all the shares, at the same time other parties, not knowing the fact, are induced to sell them large quantities "short"—that is, they sell the stock before they have got it. When these contracts come to be fulfilled, the stock is not to be had, and ruin to the sellers is inevitable. Some years since, a case of this kind occurred in Morris Canal, and those who were to receive the stock measured their demands for the contracts only by the wealth of the seller-sometimes demanding half his property. The process of banking in paper money is exactly similar. The banks are the creators of the paper, and offer it cheap, until they have induced half the community to engage to deliver them certain sums of money on a certain day; when that day arrives, the money is not to be had. The makers of the notes are "cornered," and many merchants have been known to give half a large property to meet their contracts. The only difference between the paper "money corner" and the "stock corner," is, that the former is slow and insidious in its operation, and involves half the community before they discover they are “short." In countries where promises are not taken as money, these robberies are never known. The operation of political affairs in France upon the course of trade is made evident in the official returns of the indirect taxes for six months, ending with June, as follows: The large decrease in June arose from the paralysis that overtook business in that month in consequence of the insurrection. From the trade returns it appears that quantities of all raw materials for manufactures taken for consumption, have fallen off immensely, as follows: IMPORTS INTO FRANCE FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDING WITH JUNE. The prostration of all industrial employments is great and general, and the proportion of decrease was greatest in the month of June. On the other hand, while this great de crease of production has taken place, the exports of French products have considerably increased, as in the case of brandy, of which 94,000 hectolitres were exported in 1847, and 134,000 in 1848. Woven fabrics have also been sold to an extent greater than the production; and while the bounty on exports has been sufficient to clear the shelves of warehouses and stocks of manufacturers, it does not appear to have encouraged production. The result has been that France has sold the proceeds of a great quantity of labor, for a small amount of money. Her capital has rewarded her laborers for the gains of foreigners. By these means, the money which the United States last year obtained for a small quantity of farm produce, is this year paid out for a large quantity of French products. The operation of bounties on exports is to dissipate the capital of a country. Thus, in France, when the government pays the exporter a bounty, it enables the latter to send goods out of the country at cheap rates; that is, to undersell other nations, or, in other words, to give more French labor for less than that of other countries. To pay this bounty, the government must tax property. Carried to extremes, this operation would ultimately annihilate all the capital in the country. It is, in fact, making capital support labor for the profit of other nations, and it is by this operation that the United States are now measurably getting rich at the expense of France. The accounts from Europe, apart from the political state of affairs, are very interesting, inasmuch as it begins now to be pretty evident that considerable supplies of food will be wanted in Great Britain. It has, of late years, become very apparent that, even when the harvest is of good average, the supply is insufficient to feed the population, and that consequently a failure of the harvest only enhances proportionably the quantity which England must have. It is now the case, that she requires, in years of good harvest, as much as she formerly did in years of disaster. To this must be added the fact, that a great change has taken place in the cultivation of the potato. For a long series of years, the disposition prevailed, both in England and Ireland, to put more land into potatoes and less into grain, because an acre of land would produce food enough in the former shape to feed as many persons as it would require four acres in wheat to support. In Ireland, where multitudes occupied small patches, it was incumbent on them to plant with that which would yield the most food, Arthur Young, Mr. Newenham, Mr. McCulloch, and other great authorities in England, as well as an able statement of Messrs. Berry and Herring in the Report of the Commissioner of Patents at Washington, state that, as food, 4 lbs. of potatoes are equal to 1 lb. of wheat and 14 lbs. of oatmeal. The general average production in England is 9 tons of potatoes per acre, and 28 bushels of wheat at 60 lbs., and of oats 64 bushels, 40 lbs. to the bushel; consequently the product of food per acre is as follows: From this it appears that an acre planted with potatoes will support as many persons as four planted with oats, or three with wheat. The increased population of Ireland, which rose from 6,036,000 in 1812, to 8,179,359 in 1841, was mostly sustained by potatoes, taking patches from grain lands and planting with potatoes. In the English manu facturing districts, the same process enhanced the quantity of cheap food to the operatives, until it was estimated, in 1846, that 3,400,000 acres were planted with potatoes, yielding 30,600,000 tons of food. Of this, 60 per cent, perished by rot, and the cultivation of potatoes was last year abandoned to an extent that required an addition of at least 150,000,000 bushels of grain, to her average harvest. This year double the breadth has been planted, and the disease is rife. Notwithstanding the low prices of the last summer, the imports into England amount to 1,000,000 bushels per week, and by recent advices a considerable advance in prices resulted from wet weather, exciting apprehensions in relation to the crops, as also the re-appearance of the potato rot. The averages of grain have been for a succession of weeks as follows: AVERAGE WEEKLY PRICES OF GRAIN IN ENGLAND. It is to be observed, that prices have ruled higher during the present year thus far, notwithstanding the alleged large supply of both home and foreign grain, and that prices at the present date are higher than in 1846, immediately preceding the great rise in prices, and are now advancing, when, at that period, they were falling. In order to illustrate the actual annual large demand for grain in England, we may take the following return, published by order of the House of Lords, of the quantity of grain of all sorts taken out of bond in the United Kingdom, yearly, for the last 22 years, giving the following totals": The great element of the enormous consumption of last year, at the high prices indicated above, was the railroad expenditure. These continue this year, aided by low prices of grain. The number of persons employed by the companies, is over 380,000 persons, per official reports, and the "calls" for July amounted to £3,885,021, say $20,000,000, being at the rate of an annual expenditure of $250,000,000. With this element of the means of popular consumption, the prospect is now that the demand will be enhanced by damaged harvests; and it will be remembered that the duties come off finally in February, 1849, after which the trade will be free. Under these circumstances it is not improbable that the present will be the lowest year of export of farm produce for many years to come. |