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Leader (1850-1860), 13th November 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1232, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      OEDER OF COMMEECIAL TOPICS . In treating commercial , as in treating all affairs , order is necessary ; we propose now , therefore , to state the order in which the matters placed in this part of our paper will be treated . We tliink this the more necessary , from the undue prominence which is too often given to subjects of minor importance . Money , for example , is only the instrument of exchange , or for Conducting one part of the general business . However useful , however convenient , it is not indispensable , and in the early stages of society as well as in the latest , while barter was yet

      the practice , and wherever business is now completed by means of credit exclusively—by which , in fact , innumerable transactions are carried on—money is not used . Because this useful measure of value , however , has been in some sort monopolised , and always regulated by Government , and because it is common to the whole society , it has been elevated in the public consideration far above the exchange of commoditiesy and the production of them , to which it only contributes . Without them none of us

      could " exist , without exchanging them existence would be very circumscribed and barbarous , and consequently production which is promoted by exchange , and exchange which money subserves , are both much more important than money , and the former is indispensable for all . On the same principle we observe that banking , which is only one mode of dealing with money and keeping accounts , or one of many means of diffusing the use _ of capital through different species of industry , is placed above the aits it subserves . Because it is a new art

      comparatively ; because those who carry it on are , as the rule , necessarily men who have acquired and deserve the confidence of society , and are generally wealthy or reputed to be so ; and because Government has taJcen the regulation of this business on itself , and lias established national or other banks , banking is treated as of much more importance than the businesses of the merchant , manufacturer , and retail trader , to the success of the meanest of which it at best only contributes .

      Pkoducxion , to sustain consumption and keep alive the individual and the race , being indispensable , and exchange , money , banking , credit , &c , being all only convenient helps to this great end , stands first for consideration , and should for ever be kept before the public in the most prominent position . Accordingly , the markets for food and drink , and especially the corn market , the market for raw

      materials , for manufactures , &c , will be placed foremost in our arrangements . On the more or less quantity of food depends the number of the people ; on the more or less quantity of commodities produced , the amount of all exchanges , the number of merchants , bankers , and others , depends , with the amount , of all real business ; . and production , therefore , at all times demands the serious and first attention , of those who would understand or treat of commercial matters .

      The prices of corn and cattle , of cotton , of flax , &c . &c , indicate the relative abundance or scarcity of these commodities , and , by being closely watched , guide the merchant and the banker in many matters of . business very remote from the things themselves . 3 ? or example , the consumption of rice in Europe within the last few years has been closely connected with its rye harvests ; these , therefore , influenced and determined the importation of rice from Asia , and could but have influenced the advances which prudent bankers in Bremexi , Hamburg , and London , would make to merchants dealing in this somewhat

      hazardous commodity . To quote another illustration } in 1857 there was no such abundance of corn , cotton , flax , and other food aud raw materials as necessarily to increase to a vast extent the exchange of commodities , and , accordingly , when bills by dealers in tallow were multiplied three or fourfold more than usual , bankers might have known , or at least suspected , thai the documents did not represent genuine sales , and should have made'them deoline , as some prudent bankers did , to lend their moans to keep up and increase a fictitious and false system , of trading . Tims prices in the produco markets avo an index to a vast quantity of business besides immediate purchases , and probably they are

      an index to more business than any other similar facts . Although a gfreat deal is said about the import of the precious metals and the influence of variations in the quantity of money on prices , we must ask our readers to remember that gold and silver , or gold or silver , are the current money and measure of value throughout the commercial world , and that the present rapidity of communication of one part with another tends to keep them at all times everywhere equally diffused , and about of equal value . Notwithstanding the late and everrenewed discoveries of large supplies of gold , this

      there dealt in , but the vast amount of property in . vested in all kinds of joint-stock enterprises that at once promote present production and provide for future production . Enterprising men now look to leading members of the Stock-Exchange for aid and assistance in raising funds for all new undertakings Without exaggerating the utility of this function more than any other help to production , we recognise its importance , and shall always take care to make its action known .

      and silver are to be obtained only in very limited quantities , and always far below the wants of society . The consequence is , that the two metals have for ages preserved a relation of value to one another very little variable , and ha ve preserved in general a very fixed relation to the value of all other commodities . The price of wheat is at all times affected infinitely more by the goodness or badness of the harvest than by any change in the quantity and value of money . In truth , the comparative fixedness of the value of gold is one of the most remarkable circumstances in economical history . Within a century Europe and the United States

      have been successively inundated with , paper money as a substitute for gold or silver , but instead of this increase of money debasing the gold , the paper has been debased , and the gold has remained nearly fixed in value iu relation to all the wealth of society , testifying , like a voice from Heaven , against the folly and the rascality of the governments which forced paper into circulation . No increase of paperpromises to pay a specific amount of the precious metals on demand can ever affect prices , i ' or they will be regulated by the intrinsic Value of the metals , for which the paper can be always exchanged ; and therefore we conclude that prices arc

      veiy rarely , if ever , really affected by any possible changes in the value of money , and may in the main always be regarded as an index ta the more or less plentifulness of commodities . Money , banking , the Stock Exchange , are all , with railways and shipping , subordinate to production , and will be so treated in our columns . They are all of great and growing importance . We learn , as we come to comprehend the real phenomena of society- —which are other terms for population , its motives and pursuits- —that more social evil results from , slight derangements in these and other great businesses than from all which legislation docs or can

      do ; in fact , it is only as it affects these businesses that it does either good or harm , for as long as they all flourish all goes well , but when any of them arc deranged all goes ill . To promote them is the chief object of all legislation ; they are all oloscly interwoven one with another , and it never fares ill witli land , shipping , or railways , but bankers , merchants , and stockbrokers , &c , suffer too . In production they and all mankind are'interested , and commerce , or exchange , or communication—call it what you E lease , we call it commerce—is the chain which inds all together . It is usually represented as the link between nations , but it is iorged between

      individuals at homo and abroad , and only connects nations as parts of the great whole of population . Prices in the market s , which guide the operations of dealers , are , in truth , indexes to the wants oi ' mankind , and as London is the centre of commerce , the lieart of the circulation of wealth , the nourish ^ ment of society , the prices of all kinds of commodities in the London markets—corn , capital , securities , spices , &o . —is of universal importance , and they ought all to bo recorded . The reason why the price of stocks or securities of all kinds now

      occupies so large a portion of public nUontion is , that la them , as far as possible , the capital is invested which is not required for production . In modern times they constitute a vast reservoir of power , or legal olaims over future production , on which all who are entitled or oan borrow a titlq can draw to any amount . ' There was a time whon the Stock Exchange was a mere gambling-house on a largo scale ; it still retains too much and too many ofita old features , but it has become the means of raising funds , or applying' in due proportions that vast reservoir ot power to ' futuro enterprises . National debts are no longer tho solo securities

      Untitled Article

      IRELAND'S OPPORTUNITY . THE GAUTAY LINE . [ From a Cor » -espondent . ~ ] The great subject of steam transit and commerce from Ireland to British North America and the United States is now fairly before the public , and is a principal mercantile topic of the day . Politically , it is of no less importance , since it undoubtedly promises , or rather assures , the solution of the great difficulty of British statesmen , —how to make Ireland contented , happy , and prosperous . Could the great O'Connell himself be summoned

      to the earth , and were a prospective of the Galway line placed in his hands , he would pronounce agitation indeed to be dead , not in the exhaustion of famine and the depopulation of his beloved isle , but in the new dawn of hope and prosperity brightening upon his dazzled vision . Looking at what steam transit has effected for the commerce of every nation adopting it—looking at -the European and American highway , which will shortly traverse Ireland ^—considering what has already been done , and what will be done at the single port of Galway alone—we feel assured that Ireland's " opportunity " has arrived , not in England ' s danger , but in her own

      commercial development and greatness . Again , is she not about to be linked by a six days' bond of connexion with the giant provinces which still loyally acknowledge British sway ?—through the vast and fertile territory of abundant resources lying between the north-west of Lake Superior and the gold regions of Columbia , across the magnificent tract stretching from the neglected banks of the noble St . Lawrence to the newly appreciated harbour of Vancouver , the great belt of commerce with China , Japan , and the Eastern Archipelago will unrol itself like a rich carpet patterned with cities , stations , forts , depots , and the emporia of trade . All tills must and will regenerate Ireland , and why should it not ? Geoand socially

      graphically it is her right , morally , , and politically , how great would be the crime to seek to deprive her of it . Nothing , save an interested and short-sighted jealousy , could raise objections to so truly national a blessing , so grand an enterprise . For ourselves we utterly deprecate ttio idea that Englishmen wish anything & «*""» most brilliant success to tho Galway undertaking , whieh v initiates the steam commerce ot ireland with America nnd tho rest of tho world , catholic and Protestant , Englishman and Injimftn * Saxon and Colt , must follow with their far ent aspirations for her safety every steamship chartered from an Irish port , or be traitors to their

      The people of Newfoundland have had the first opportunity afforded them of displaying tlio libenu public spirit and loyal national feeling that exist W our North American colonies . They f ° " v 0 ™ sponded to tho mission with which Lord Bury was charged , by offering a handsome postal s » lbs ' J ™ tho Galwny line . We havo no doubt but that &ovft Scotia and tlie Cnnadas will hasten to f ° « * j ° ! example . Lot tho Homo Govornmeut now show tiiw they arc aware of tho true magnitude ) and » m P ° " Jt : of tho interests at stako . Wo shall not "" peach tno extension of Mr . Cunard ' s subsidy of nearly 200 , 0 Uuj a year provided they show nn eaunl liberality ° " behalf of British and Colonial interests . Yut it mu « bo owned that this lnrgo sum of monoy aoemfl 1111 nnnnrhnnnlv or Anted . finnsiderillC that tllO uai \>» J

      lino had tocontend in Us infancy with that lioweriuj opposition , backed by Liverpool and Now YoiK , _ * speaks well for tho now undertaking that it com " afford to a . tand bo for upon if 8 niorits . « ut J »• Lever , with 300 miles' distunoo , savod on this aiuciu tho Atlantic to the Iriah emigrant , ami wit » tweo days in time sained to tho advices of the nwro »« and tho doapatoli of tho statesman , lias » how ninw eclf no mean rival to Mr . Cunard , with his ajgjj , merit support and patronage and his ^ "S' ^^ uva lino of atenmera . The latter has earned tho honours

      Untitled Article

      1232 THE LEADER . [ 3 Sfo . 451 , November 13 ^ 1858 .

      M E R C A N T I L E.

      M E R C A N T I L E .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 1232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2268/page/24/