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Leader (1850-1860), 31st December 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20, the abolition of every similar, restrict...

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      X424 The Leader [Jsto, 510 Dec 31, 1859.

      X 424 THE LEADER [ JSto , 510 Dec 31 , 1859 .

      Commercial. —>

      COMMERCIAL . —>

      The Abolition Of Every Similar, Restrict...

      the abolition of every similar , restrictive law ; and that the interests which still maintain such laws , supposing them to be beneficial , are as completely in error as were the agriculturists ., They maintained an odious monopoly for years against the claims of hunger and the voice of justice , and all that time they arrested agricultural improvement and deeply injured themselves . Now , turning to the exports of our own produce , the declared value was in eleven months of 1857 . 1858 . 1859 . £ 115 , 007 , 190 £ 100 , 555 , 502 £ 119 , 613 , 185 . And in the eleventh month of the same years , £ S , 2 S 5 , 815 £ 9 , 976 , 430 £ 10 , 858 , 001 . The monthly rates of increase is therefore greater now than in either of the previous years ; whence , we niay conclude that the total value of our exports in 1859 will be considerably above—say . £ 7 , 000 , 000— -the value of the total exports of 1857 , £ 122 , 066 , 107 , the largest of any previous year . The tonnage of the vessels cleared outward with cargoes , however , in eleven months of 1859 , 9580 , 101 , was less than the tonnage cleared in 1857 in the same period , 9 , 699 , 532 , but more than cleared in 1858—9 , 286 , 610 . It was in the early months of 1857 that more tonnage was employed in the export trade than in the latter . By the end of the year they may be equal . In November . 1859 , the British tonnage cleared outwards was 435 , 720 , in 1857 , 427 , 640 . Besides the import and export trade there is a trade in foreign and colonial merchandise exported , and a trade in transshipping goods which are not entered as imported . ' We possess no accounts of the value of-these two branches" of trade for this year . Supposing , however , that they equal those of last year , and taking the value then for the value now , adding also to the declared value of our imports to the end of October , . £ 11 , 500 , 000 for each of the remaining months , to make up the total value of the imports , and adding the value of the precious metals imported in November , and of goods exported in November , to make up for the whole year , we shall have the following statistical summary of the value of our trade iu

      PROGRESS OF TRADE IN 1859 . AT the close of the year it is desirable to give a brief view of our trade . We have the official accounts as yet only for eleven months , but we know from daily and weekly reports that trade has continued to be throughout December similar to what it was in the previous part of the year . As compared to 1858 the imports , of oxen , calves , bones , brimstone , cocoa , wheat , flour , maise , guano , goats-hair , copper ore , palm and olive oil , potatoes , bacon and hams , lard , rice , clover , seed , thrown-silk , cloves , pepper , molasses , tea , are the

      chief articles of which the quantities have diminished . All the other principal articles have been imported in excess of 1858 . Amongst the important articles deficient in 1859 are guano , rice , and tea all of which , in 1858 were in excess of 1857 , —and the decline , therefore , in 1859 only restores the balance . Though grain and flour , have been imported in less quantities , it is from a similar cause . They" had been imported in excess , considering all circumstances , in 1858 , and the price has been comparatively low all through the

      present year . Coffee , sugar * tallow and timber , wines and spirits , cotton , wool , silk , flax , hemp and hides , are all in excess iu 1858 . The tonnage of the vessels entered with cargoes is , at least , 400 , 000 more in 1859 than in 1858 , justifying the opinion that our imports in this year have , on the whole , been steadily on the increase , and are greater in quantity than in any former year . Comparing them by value we have the official accounts only for ten months , in which period they were ,

      in—1857 . 1858 . 1859 . £ 123 , 451 , 221 £ 106 , 114 , 577 £ 112 , 592 , 143 In value , therefore , the imports in ten months of this year exceeded those of 1858 by £ 6 , 477 , 566 , and fell short of those of 1857 by . £ 10 , 859 , 078 . That , however , was a year of great inflation , and the highly-estimated value of imports being far above their real value , resulted in great loss and bankruptcy . Remembering the comparative stagnation of the two last months of 1857 , it is probable that at the end of 1859 the value of the imports will almost equal the value in 1857 . Certainly , should it be less , the imports this year will

      exceed those of 1857 in quantity and usefulness . Our supplies of cotton , wool , silk , timber , and gene rally all the articles used in our manufactures , ave been large , and our manufactures , in consequence , have been carried on throughout the year to a great extent , and probably with large profits . It must be further noticed that the total import of the precious metals in eleven months of 1859 was , £ 35 , 528 , 649 , against . £ 26 , 325 , 981 in eleven months of 1858 , and the exports were , in 1859 ,

      £ 33 , 861 , 396 against . £ 16 , 909 , 066 in 1858 . Last year we retained . £ 9 , 416 , 915 of the precious metals —this year only , £ 1 , 667 , 253 . Already in the present year the quantity exported exceeds the quantity exported in the whole of any previous year . In 1857 the total exported was £ 33 , 566 , 968 , but then the country was stripped of the precious metals , and the Bank of England , at one period , had but £ 6 , 500 , 000 in its vaults . Now it has £ 17 , 000 , 000 . The difference between these two sums has since then been recovered , and the

      export is now , notwithstanding , greater than ever it was . The trade in the precious metals is now a great and a growing trade . We have included guano amongst the important articles imported . Our readers will perhaps bo surprised to learn that in the order of value it stood , last year , eeventh in the list of our imports . The articles imported which exceeded it in value , were , cotton , grain and flour , raw silk , sugar , tea , -wool , and then comes guano , £ 4 , 084 , 170 . Only the agriculturists use this article , and they ,

      therefore , under free trade ^ can afford to pay about £ 4 , 000 , 000 a-year for this foreign manure , and reap largo profits and pay increasing rents . Never ¦ was the land better or more extensively cultivated than now ; never did the landowners , as a whole , obtain equal rent , or the farmer equal profit . Every intercut has benefited by tine abolition of tno abominable Corn-law , and no interest more than the agricultural . May we not , therefore , infer that every interest -would be benefited by

      and enterprise have all been fairly adjusted . There has been no dashing enterprise—no exuberant creditj no scarcity of capital , and no such abundance as to make it a burden in the hands of despairing capitalists . The year has been marked throughout by an equable flow of i ^ rosperity which has run most rapidly in the manufacturing districts , and has there left behind it a larger than usual deposit of profit . Agriculture has flourished as well as manufacturers . Of all our great interests , only the shipowners—not the shipping interests , not the outfitters , not the officers , and ; not the seamen , who have all been well employed

      have been suffering . The shipowners in a time of great prosperity grasped at two much ; they got their hands too full , and were blocked up by their own abundance . Their worst time , however , is past , and their complaints are dwindling into nothingness ; The shipping returns to the end of November show that , besides " transports with Government stores , " more British tonnage entered inwards and outwards , both in the foreign and home trade , than ever before . For their sufferings the shipowners have only themselves to blame . Great losses , indeed , have been incurred

      at sea in the year ; but by these the underwriters suiFer more than the shipowners , and for them , it is understood , the year has not been favourable . We cannot say that the schemes borrowed from France ,, the least successful , of great maritime nations , to subject seamen to registration and master mariners to examination , has raised the character of either . Shipwrecks continue to be , proportion considered , as numerous as ever , and seamen have certainly not improved more than the generality of the working classes . If tha schemes have done no other harm than increase

      taxation , they have undoubtedly done no other good than bestow incomes on officials . In spite of the imbecile Ministry which encumbered the nation at the beginning of the year—in spite of the time wasted in getting rid of it—in spite of the groundless fears it engendered by its own fears—in spite of false reports and false alarms , much mistrust and wasteful expenditurein spite of all the impediments which icrnorant , corrupt , and ambitious statesmen have placed in the way—the nation has been , on the whole , uniformly prosperous in 1859 . To suppose that such a vast community as ours , the interests of

      which extend from China to Peru , from Australia to Greenland , which are deeply involved in the longest known and in the newest-discovered parts of the world , should be wholly exempt from calamity is to suppose human nature not liable to suffering . Remembering the bloody Holds of Magenta and Solferino , the shame , defeat , and anarchy of one great State , and the bloody and useless triumph of another , we may esteem ourselves fortunate and favoured . What the nation has gained is the natural result of assiduous inhtenedIt

      dustry , at once free and enlig . owes nothing to the wise rule of any wise man . Undoubtedly it is more populous , more wealthy , and has more useful knowledge on December 31 st than on January 1 st , 1859 . This progress is natural and may be expected—at least , hoped—to continue and increase year by year . We may bo certain it would , could the meddling men who impede the nation by their help only attain tha conviction that the taxation necessary to their labour perverts industry , checks the increase of knowledge * , and stifles life .

      1859 : — IM POUTS . Goods i £ 135 , 502 , 143 l ' recious metals . , 728 , 649 exports . , Our Produce 130 , 400 , 000 Foreign and Colonial Merchandise 22 , 708 , 70 : 2 Precious metals 30 , 520 , 040 TransBhipmcnta 4 , 493 , 041 Total 307 , 539 ^ 871 In this enumeration the value of the precious metals is repeated , and the value of the foreign and colonial merchandise exported is also really expressed in the value of the goods imported , the dedution of these two sums , together . £ 59 , 325 , 438 , gives us the sum pf , £ 318 , 214 , 433 as the value of the property which came into and went out of the country in the year 1859 . When we add to this the value of our shipping , averaging it at . £ 10 per ton , £ 43 , 200 , 000 , we snail have an approximate estimate of the magnitude of the mercantile wealth which Great Britain has in one year floating on the ocean . Quite in- conformity with thGse facts the consumption . pf every imported article paying duty has been greater in 1859 than in 1858 , except grain , including rice and flour , hops , wool , fruits , molasses , and tallow . The Government , therefore , has found its advantage in the prosperity of the people , and wotild be more respected if it appropriated less of their substance to reward its very often useless and sometimes exceedingly obnoxious labours . A Ministerial contemporary has found in the fact that the yield of the Customs revenue is greater , after the reduction of Customs ' duties than before— -a reason for the revision of taxation . If it considered the interest of the people paramount to the payment of Government officials , which we do , it would have found , as wo find , in the same fact , an unanswerable reason for abolishing taxation . A time will come , we presume , now that it is admitted that the Government exists only for the people , when their interests will not be sacrificed to the supposed necessity of providing it with an immense revenue at the cost of their lives . Money has throughout the year been easy , and the rate of interest has not suffered any great alterations . In other words , capital and credit

      Money Market & Stock Exchange.

      MONEY MARKET & STOCK EXCHANGE .

      Fkiday Evening.— Money Is In Dcmanj, As ...

      Fkiday Evening . — Money is in dcmanJ , as it always ia at the close of the year , but it is exacted that the demand will bo only toinparary , will cease on the paymont of the dividends . Thoro is no alteration in the terms of the markut , though no bills are negotiated under the Bank of England rote . Gold , however , is going abroad more than comes in . and the Bank has lost some tins wgelc . AfMrs on the Continent , too , continue complicated , so tliftfc nobody can answer from week to week wluit » nftV occur . Nothing waa known hero of the rumour put into circulation by a west-end journal , of a change in the French ministry , and nothing betokening such an event was found In the telegrams trow Paris . All eyes are necesoarlly turned to u »* capital and | the coming Congress . It Is «» n 0 SJJ uuppoBQd that affairs there are becoming more mw »

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1859, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31121859/page/20/