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Leader (1850-1860), 28th January 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 85, A NEW LIGHT. nrrivo when

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    • A NEW LIGHT. nrrivo when
    • DISCOUNT.
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      Untitled Article

      —quite forgetting that every argument which justifies the bondage of the negrd would equally justify their own reduction to that state . The abolition of Slavery * in the ' UiiitedStates is , sooner or later , inevitable ; and the only " question for the slaveholders is , how can it be effected with least loss of property and danger of life to themselves . That is just the question , however , which they obstinately refuse to consider . Their policy is that of the old saying , ascribed to MetteknicH , but in vogue long before his day , " sipres moi le deluge " and with a blindness which may almost be called judicial , they are now doing their best to prevent

      gradual abolition , and make the overthrow of the institution sudden and dangerous . The presence of a number of free negroes by the side of the slaves , which has been held in Maryland , Arkansas , and other States too great a danger to be borne , was really , although probably productive of some slight inconveniences , a safeguard against violent change , iind a promise of an emancipation followed by order and good will . So long as the slave and the free negro—the one working for an owner , and the other enjoying his liberty—were side by side , the slave had a gleam of hope , a prospect of freedom , although distant , before him . He did not feel that an incurable taint attached to his blood ,

      and that the white man was his avowed and irreconcilable enemy . Freedom was a boon , open , even if its avenues were hard to tread , to the slave . It is no longer so . The whites of the South have said to the blacks , "We don ' t regard you as human beings ; we allow no ray of hope to shine upon your race ; you are our servants , and shall '' f or ever be so . " And the blacks will reply by a deadly hatred , which will find its manifestation for a time only in those occasional acts of unmentionable brutality which even now throw a terrible sense of insecurity over the family of the slave-owner , and its final satisfaction in a violent overturn of the whole system of force and fraud to which Southern ' * ' Chivalry" obstinately adheres . ,

      Untitled Article

      When it should have checked , it stimulated the fever , and then blamed the disease it promoted . Between October , 1857 , and July , last year , the rate was successively reduced from 10 to % h per cent . Since then the lowest rate at which the Bank would discount the best mercantile bills not having more than 60 days to run , has continued at 2 ^ - per cent . Last week the Bank raised the rate to 3 per cent . The rate fixed by the Bank does not absolutely gorem the money market , but influences its condition . Much business 13 very often done both below and above this rate , but it may be considered as the central point to which the oscillations oaboth sides tend .

      nPIIE minimum rate of discount at the Bank of England within - * - the last ten years has varied from 2 per cent , in 1852 , to 10 per cent , in October , 1857 . At the latter period there was a commercial crisis ; at the former , political events abroad had checked new or speculative enterprises , and we gather from these figures that 8 per cent * the difference . 'between them , is more than trade can-bear : the profits gained in it generally do not equal this sum , and though it may prosper when it borrows at 2 , it will be bankrupt when it cannot get loans under 10 . Though the Bank rate was at 10 in October , 1857 , six months before , in April , it was at 6 . V ; and then , in the very height of the speculation , the Bank lowered the rate from 6 h to 6 , and to 5 * in July .

      When persons can rarely borrow on the best landed security below 4 & percent ., 2 $ and 3 per cent , does not seem a high rate for bills , which may be dishonoured before they come to maturity . At some periods mercantile bills cannot be discounted at all , or the holders are willing to give 8 or 10 per cent , for money , and cannot ' get it ; at other times they mny get it at IX—it has oven been obtainable for short periods at 1 per cent . ; but the rate of interest on good landed securities rarely varies , in modern times , more than between 4 and 5 , or at most between 3 and 6 per cent . The demand for loans on landed security , and the supply of the money usually devoted to such loans , nro , therefore , at all times , much more equally balanced than the demand and the supply oi money for discount . The former is n permanent investment , and

      The totals of these two funds , those destined to be permanently invested , and those to be employed in current business , are continually varying as profit arid saving are great or small , and as tliere are " more or fewer opportunities of employing capital . actively with advantage . Tor these funds , too , the demand is continually varying ; but it varies principally as business varies , because the carrying on of business is essential to the existence of society . Though the rate at which bills are discounted varies continually , and at times to a great . extent . On the whole , however , it is astonishing that the savings of one class should be always fully equal to the wants . of ¦ o ther classes . The figures we have given , 2 and 10 ( the rate of 1 being-entirely exceptional ) , erabrace the extremes for a very long period . Since the peace of 1815 , 4 per cent , has been about the average ; and the habitual variations have been limited to between 2 and G . . The high rate for many months preceding October , 1857 , was the consequence mainly of the impulse given to trade by the gold discoveries . By an infelicitous use of language , which confounds capital with money , money > judged by the rate of discount , was made dear by making it abundant . For the last six months the Bank rate has been 2 £ per cent ., and the rate in the general market has been generally something lower through the whole period . For the same period speculative trade has been almost suspended , and new enter prises have been very few . At present , the people on the Continent and here are recovering from panic . Speculation , to some extent , is growing up , and new enterprises are beginning . AN l ' veh the Bank lowered the rate in July last from 3 to 2 i- per cent ., it possessed bullion to ; the . amount ' . of £ 17 , 941 , 791 ; now it has only JE 15 , S 44 , 498 . At this time last year it had £ 19 , 186 , 269 . It Was not , therefore ; from an influx of bullion that it lowered the rate in July ; but at that time in Lombard Street the rate had fallen for the best bills to 2 J-, and the demand for mercantile accommodation was very slack . Now , besides having parted with £ 2 , 100 , 000 of bullion since July , the demand for mercantile accommodation has become brisk . It has advanced £ 1 , 700 , 000 more on private seennties than then-. Clearly , since then a groat alteration has taken place ; in ' , the . ratio . between the . amount of funds loanable for current business and the demand for them . : This alteration seems likely to increase . The demand of gold for the Continent has latterly become unusually active—a corroborative sign of the increase there of industrial enterprises . Credit is very much less diffused there than here , and to begin new enterprises there requires capital in the shape of the precious metal 3 . The Bank returns tell us that the issue of bank-notes was £ 32 , 855 , 315 at the beginning of last year , against £ 29 , 64 3 * noAV . As business has increased in activity , the issues of the Bank have decreased , because that activity causes gold to be taken away for the Continent . Actually , the business of the country requires £ 2 , 100 , 000 more Bank of England notes now than at this time Last year , and there are issued £ 2 , 200 , 000 less . It is not possible to supply a more conclusive proof of the impropriety of the legislation , which makes the amount of credit money required by our business depend on the demand abroad for bullion . The promised changes in the commercial policy of France cannot fail to stimulate enterprise very much , both abroad and at home . For some time the demand for bullion on the Continent is likely to continue and increase ; most probably , too , enterprise will again go ahead here . It is going ahead in the United States ;—it will go rapidly ahead there when the Emperor ' s programme is known . We shall probably , therefore , see a still further diminution of gold in the Bank /; a further curtailment of its issues ; a greater demand for capital , both abroad and at home ; theve will be a greater discrepancy between tho supply nwl the demand , and a further rise in the rate of discount . The great extension of business in 1 , 857 , though it then went too far , showed tho way hpw to achieve much by small means . The essentials of great trade arc rather co-operating producers in different places and indifferent branches of industry , noting with eonlidonee in one another , than grunt capital , unk'ss the torm be used as synonymous with great skill or U 3 oful instruments ,- —a theoretical principle Which was fully established by tho practices of 1857 . hi I 860 , it will again bo extensively acted on , and probably with more complete suocossj making the trade of 18 ( 50 far surpass that of any previous yonr .

      to it only goes the onpltal not required to carry on the current business of society . The latter is , by its nature , temporary , and to it is devoted tfjo saving which cannot be , or is not required to be , permanently invested . All the balances in the banker ' s hands belonging to his customors j all the spare cash of individuals which they do not like to lock up , nor like to keep idle and unproductive in * their drowors , mny be considered us the discount- fund ; and prudent bunkers usually employ two-thirds of tho money belonging , to their clients in this or som ' o kindred mnimciv For their seourity it is essential that tho bulk of their loans should bo speedily roturnod to thorn ; to look up thoir funds in laud , in manufactures , or mines , h contrwy to the business of banking , and is generally fnfcnl to the banker .

      Untitled Article

      PERIODS continually nrnvo many I » ot 8 jirovmuhiy uHourtaiiH'il , in ¦ tho samo pcionqo , ofr in ditt'orent Boieneox , throw li ^ ht on each otW , evolving soinu gon . ornl truth , tho eptproshion of ' whieli constitute * mi epoch in science . Such an opno ) i seems now jurrivort . Tho National Jicuiaw , treating 1 of tho origin of RpoH < ' « , an « l tbif

      Untitled Article

      Jan . 28 , 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 85

      Untitled Article

      * fralian « r ~ Itovi < lw . No , XTX . " " / trtlol . ' , " JMiwIn ou tho Ori tf ln of the Siiooiod . "

      A New Light. Nrrivo When

      wlion A NEW LIGHT . • ii _• . . _ . ! ... _ .... I '

      Discount.

      DISCOUNT .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 85, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/9/