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Leader (1850-1860), 31st July 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 750, TRADE OF SIX MONTHS. TABLES. Wb present ...

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      750 The Leader. [No. 436, Jttly 31, 1858...

      750 THE LEADER . [ No . 436 , Jttly 31 , 1858 .

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      Trade Of Six Months. Tables. Wb Present ...

      TRADE OF SIX MONTHS . TABLES . Wb present our readers almost in extenso—and we trust in an intelligible form—with , the account furnished by "the Board of Trade of the external commerce of the country for the first six months of the year . In repeating month after month these tables , which embrace two years , we shall enable pur readers , by comparing the returns for each month with tlose of the preceding month ,

      to trace the progress of the national trade from month to month , as well as from year to year . Tiie Board publishes accounts of the quantities of duiypaying articles -which are taken into consumption , which—as these tell us nothing of the consumption of articles which pay no duty , whether imported or produced at lome , and are therefore very incomplete , and partial revenue accounts , not accounts of trade at all—cur readers will lose nothing by their being excluded from our pages . We exclude also

      as much too minute for any important purpose the different countries from which we bring or to which we send commodities . This information is extremely interesting after the lapse of a certain time , but the imports or the exports may vary to each country so much from temporary causes from month to month , that it leads to inaccuracy to attend much to returns for short periods , though we shall not fail to . direct the attention of our readers to the course trade generally follows , and

      to any remarkable changes which occur in it even temporarily . The first of . our tables states the total imports in the first six months of 1857 and 1858 . The second states only the quantities of the principal articles of foreign merchandise exported , such as coffee , cotton , wool , & c , which must be deducted from the imports of these articles to ascertain the quantities of them retained for home consumption . The third table gives the declared value of all the products of native

      inustry exported . The fourth and fifth state the cranage and number of vessels which come into nd go out of all the ports of the empire . And the ixth , these three being all extremely brief , records he value of the gold and silver imported and exported in the six months , which oughi p lways to be tdded to the other exports and impwts , to ascerain the total value of the trade of the empire . 3 ! rom this brief introduction to our compilation , we > ass to consider the chief facts in our six months ' rade , which these tables bring to light . And first

      01 our Imposts . —In the first six months of 1858 , as compared to the first six months of 1857 , the imports have declined principally as follows : Animals about 29 per cent ., bristles to one-third , flax 40 per cent ., goat ' s-hair to less than one-third , wet hides-34 per cent ., tanned hides 57 per cent ., raw Bilk 4 , 8 per cent ., thrown silk 46 per cent ., brandy to less , than one-fifth , tallow 22 per cent ., tar to less than one-third , timber 26 per cent ., and wool 10 per cent . Of the following important articles , how-r ever , the imports have increased in 1858 . Coffee

      50 per cent ., wheat 80 per cent ., flour 130 per cent ., cotton 5 per cent ., guano 200 per cent ., hemp 44 per cent ., dry hides 14 per cent ., copper 12 per cent ., oil 22 per cent ., potatoes fivefold , rice 85 pe * cent ., sugar 9 per cent . The differences in the other articles are too small , or the articles themselves are too trivial , to lie worth enumerating . On the whole , considering the great extension of our trade in the early part of 1857 and the convulsion irhten ensused towards the end of the year , the effects of which were particularly felt in the first months of the present year , the falling off in our imports « not so great as might have been expected . Ahw tenda to confirm tie statement that tlie

      convulsion of 1857 was rather an adjustment of accounts between speculating lenders and borrowers than a serious interruption to the actual and necessary business of the world . It was a derangement in the machinery for carrying on trade , not a diminution in trade itself . ' The machinery is still deranged . Its main spring , credit or confidence , is still extremely weak , but the real work to be done

      is not much lessened ; in fact , this is entirely founded on the wants of mankind , which are perpetually increasing . On this real work the improper conduct of a few banks and discount houses , which so exclusively engaged tlie attention of the Bank . Acts Committee , can have little influence , and an increasing quantity is always to be done by the merchants and bankers who have the sagacity to find out the means of doing it .

      The comparatively little deterioration of our trade is worthy of further illustration . In 1856 the country was very prosperous , and the value of the imports in the first five months of the year was 42 , 313 , 527 / . Now the value of the imports in the first five months of the present year , for which only we yet possess tlie return , is 44 ? , 486 , 621 / ., actually 2 , 173 , 094 / . more than in 1856 . It is , however , 8 , 639 , 18 U . less than the value of the imports in the first five months of 1857 ; but this falling off results more from a decline in the prices than in the quantities of the imports . Thus , in the first week

      of April , 1858 , the price of coffee was 15 per cent ., of wheat 30 per cent ., of flax 4 per cent ., of hemp 12 per cent , of jute 14 per cent ., and of silk nearly 30 per cent , lower than in the corresponding week of 1857 . The price , too , of cotton , linseed , tea , sugar , hides , & c ., has been sensibly and even considerably lower in 1858 than in 1857 , so that the reduction in the value of the imports is more the consequence of our giving less for them to the foreigner than of our obtaining only smaller quantities . As a confirmatory fact , it may be noticed that the tonnage of vessels entering : inwards with

      cargoes in the first six months of 1858 , which is the best criterion of the total quantities imported , was 243 , 098 more than in the first six months of 1857 . To the present time nearly prices have continued to decline , which may help to explain the continued suspension of speculation , which , is never very active when the markets are falling . Now , the bottom seems to be reached ; and should this be the case , we may ' anticipate , a more hopeful feeling in the merchants , greater confidence , and increased activity .

      Our imports of wool—to notice the raw materials of our manufactures—are considerably less in the present than in the past year . But it will be seen , on consulting our second table— - " tlie exports of foreign merchandise "—that tlie export of foreign wool is only 10 , 722 , 104 lbs . in 1858 against 16 , 677 , 335 lbs . in 1857 ; and on consulting our third table , that the declared value of home-grown wool exported was 362 , 125 / . against 466 , 944 / . in 1857 . Tlie quantities were , 5 , 259 , 835 lbs . in 1858 against 6 , 259 , 241 lbs . in 1857 . Though our imports of wool are less , the quantities we retain

      for home consumption in 1858 are upwards of 7 , 000 , 000 lbs . more than in 1857 . Of cotton , our imports are 264 , 797 cwt . more in 1858 than in 1857 , and our exports ai'o 207 , 574 cwt . less , so that we have this year 472 , 371 cwt . more of the raw material , equal to nearly $ per cent , of the total impovts than last year . Of silk , the case is somewhat different . Our exports are greater and our imports less . But in 1857 our imports of silk were no less than 12 , 077 , 931 lbs ., more than double the average of the previous six years , and almost double the largest quantity ever previously imported . Wo can well spare some of our supplies to our continental neighbours , and yet possess plenty for our own manufacturers . The export of silk is only

      31 , 958 lbs . less in 1858 than in 1857 , which , on the total export , 889 , 098 lbs ., is less than 4 per cent . Our neighbours , whose crops of silk have been very short for two years , are not extending very rapidly their manufacture of silk , and the falling off in the cotton and wool exported , required by their manufacturers , is evidence that they continue to suffer cveu more than wo suffer from the convulsion of 1857 . Another subject of this kind on which we must make a remark is leather . Next to our textile fabrics , this ifl the material of ono of our most important industries . In the present year the imports of wet liides and tanned hides havo fallen off considerably , as already noticed . But the export of hides has increased from 63 . 150 cwt . in 3857 ,

      to 101 , 741 cwt . in 1858 . At present , therefore , ' ^ supply of the rpr material is not great , but as the price of hides is lower than test year , it seems ade quate to our wants . - " The Expobxs of the products of our native in dustry have declined from 60 , 826 , 381 / . deckr ^ value in 1857 to 53 , 467 , 804 / . in 1858 ~ -are | S of 12 per cent ., whicli , like the deeline in the value of the imports , is also due in part to lower nriceT Compared to 1856 , the declared value of 185 R i * only 500 , 000 / . less , with a probability of its beW greater at the close of the year . The decline in 1858 has affected chiefly apparel and slops , cordae-e caoies

      ana , eartnenware , nsh , haberdashery hardware and cutlery , leather , linen and linen-vain most metals , silks , especially thrown silk and twist * spirits ( the remarkable export of which , to France has now nearly ceased ) , refined sugar , wool and woollen . Several very important articles , however , are exported to a greater extent than last year . Amongst them are beer , coals , cottons ( the value of which exported to China has increased from 486 , 81 c / . in 1857 to 953 , 694 / . in 1858 ) , cotton-yarn , sadlery , machinery of all kinds , seedoil , & c . The decline in our exports , therefore , is by no means general , and the decline being priacipally to the United States and Australia , we may expect a comparative increase in tlie latter mouths of the year .

      It must now be remarked that the declared valueof the exports in the month of June , 1858 ,-wa & only 400 , 000 / , less than in June , 1857 , and June , 1856 ; while the average reduction on the j > revious five naonths -was 1 , 400 , 000 / . per month . The comparative decline , then , which has taken place in the early part of the year lias very much diminished , if it has not entirely ceased , and taking into consideration our large supplies of raw materials , comparative abundance of food , and the gradual restoration of confidence abroad as well as at home , we may expect that the value of our exports in the last months of 1858 will exceed the value in the

      last months of 1857 , and that our total exports in 1858 will not at the end of the year fall far short of the vast exports of 1857 . A significant sign is to be found in the tonnage of shipping entered outwards with cai'goes .. In the month of June , 1858 , it was 51 , 808 more than in the corresponding month of 1857 , though in the six months the tonnage entered outwards was 212 , 428 less than in the six months of 1857 . Our trade , tlen , is again reaching the extent of that year , but it rests now on a sounder basis , with a probability of the superstructure rising continually higher .

      From the United States , notwithstanding the great depreciation of railway property there as here , the result of " cooking accounts" and similar proceedings , the latest news indicates reviving trade . Since January the falling off there in the imports chiefly of European gooas has been full y 50 per cent , as compared to last year , bat of late the stocks on hand have been rapidly declining , and a renewed demand , though not so extensive as in 1856-7 , will arise . There are additional gold discoveries on the Pacific , and no very important decline in the produce of California and Australia . The harvests arc

      generally good ; food promises to he abundant , and money is plentiful and easy . With good security capital can be borrowed on . low terms . Remembering our large imports , so different from the United States , and our increasing exports , the prospects of our trade seem extremely good ; and Mr . Disraeli has , we think , shown much wisdom by relying in . his financial arrangements arid in his argument s on the increasing prosperity of the country . His account , indeed , of the improvements ia the revenue in the first threo weeks of July are quite in accordance with the information we derive from the trado tables , and confirm our belief that increased activity is beginning in trade . "We have as yet not liad , as in 1848 , political convulsions to add to the

      cnlamities of commercial distress and delay the revival of prosperity . Differing from tlie late Secretary of the Treasury , who was less hopeful in a late financial debate than Mr . Disraeli , we think , considering the extent of discredit , tliat tho restoration of confidence has not been slow , and will , ere long , » o complete . That it will never again becomo reckless is too much to hope for ; but just in proportion a * bankers , discount brokers , and merchants rely on their own "watchfulness and sagacity to keep credit within proper bounds , instead of trusting to Acts or Parliament or the interference of the Executive , wo may cjtpcet that confidence will bo well rcgulutcci ana will not bo deceived .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1858, page 750, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_31071858/page/22/