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^OMMEEGIAL. — — < • ¦ : — ¦ ' • ¦
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^ OMMEEGIAL . — — < ¦ : — ¦ ' ¦
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PROGRESS OF TRADE IN . A T 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 s 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 impoi'ted 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 arid hides , are all in excess in 1858 . The tonnage of the vessels entered with cargoes is , at least , 400 , 000 more in 1 S 59 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—1 S 57 . 1858 . 1859 . ¦ £ 123 , 451 , 221 £ 100 , 114 , 577 £ 112 , 592 , 143 In value , therefore , the imports in . ten months of this year exceeded those of 1858 by £ 6 , 477 , 506 , 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 yalue , 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 gener ally 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 largo 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 ainco 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 , seventh 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 agr iculturists use this article , and they , therefore , under free trade , can afford to pay about i £ 4 , O 0 O , OOQ a-year for this foreign manure , and reap large 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 interest lms Benefited by the abolition of the ? abominable Corn-law , and no Interest more than tne agricultural . May we not , therefore , mfev that every interest would bo benefited by
the abolition of every similar restrictive law ; and that the interests which still maintain such laws , supposing them to be beneficial , ai'e . 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 . ' 1850 . £ 115 , 007 , 190 £ 100 i 555 , 50 « £ 110 , 013 , 185 . And in the eleventh month of the same years , £ S , 2 S 5 , S 1 j £ 0 , 976 , 436 £ 10 , S 5 S , 001 . The monthly rates of increase is therefore greater now than in either of the previous years ; whence , we may conclude that the total value of our exports in 1859 will he 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 jvith 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 ^ SS ^ O , in 1857 , 427 , 640 . Besides the import arid 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 Noverriber , to make up for the whole year , we shall have the following statistical summary of tlio value of our trade in 1859 : — IMPORTS . Goods £ 135 , 592 , 113 Precious metals 37 , 728 , < H 9 EXPORTS . Our Produce 130 , 400 , 000 Foreign and Colonial Merchandise 22 , 708 , 702 Precious metals 30 ^ 520 , 040 Transshipments 4 , 493 , 041 Total 307 , 039 , 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 £ 5 9 , 325 , 438 , gives us the sum of £ 318 , 214 , 433 as the value of the property which came into and went out of the country in tl ^ e ycar 1859 . When . we add to this the value of our shipping , averaging it at £ 10 per ton , £ 43 , 200 , 0 , 00 , we shall have an approximate estimate of the magnitude of the mercantile wealth which Great Britain has in one year floating on the ocean . . . Quite infP pnrormity with these facts the consumption of every imported article paying du , ty has _ been greater in 1859 than in 1858 , except groin , including vice and flour , nops , wool , fruits , molasses , and tallow . The Government , therefore , has found its advantage in the prosperit y of the people , and would 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 thai * before—a reason for the revision of taxation . If it considered the interest of the people paramount tb the payment of Government official ? , which we dcv&would haVo found , as we find , in the same fact , an unanswerable reason for abolishing taxation . A time will come , we presume , now that it i t * admitted that the Government exists only for the people , when their interests will not bo sacrificed to the supposed necessity of providing it with an immense revenue at the cost of their lives . Money has throughout the year boon easy , and the rate of interest lias not suffered any great alterations . In other words , capital and credit
and enterprise have all been fairly adjusted . There has been no dashing enterprise—no exuberant credit , 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 prosperity which has run most rapidly in the manufacturing districts , and has there left behind it a larger than usual deposit of profit . Agriculture has nourished as well as manufacturers . Of all our great interests , onlytheshipowners ^ -r-not the shi pping interests , not tne 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
suffer 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 the 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 i < rnor . inf , 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 fields 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 industry , at once fvee and enlig htened , it owes Undoubt
nothing to the wise rule of any wise man . - edly it . is more populous , more wealthy , ami 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 be certain it would , could the meddling men who impede the nation by their help only attain the conviction that the taxation necessary to thoirrlubour Inverts industry , checks the increusc of knowledge , and stifles life .
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ITuiday Evenxno . — Money Is in demviiJ , as it always is at the close of the year , but it is expected that the demand will bo only temporary , ami will cea , se on the payment of the dividends . Thero is no alteration in the terms of the market , though no bills are negotiated under the Bank of England rate . Gold , however , is going abroad more than comes in ,
and the Bank has lost aomo this week . AflUirs on the Continent , too , continue coinplioatml , so tlitvt nobody can answer from week to week what tnivy occur . Nothing was known hero of tho rumour put into circulation by a woat-end journal , of a clnvn go in tho French ministry , and nothing butotamlng such an event was found in tho tologrimis ir ° i » Furls . All eyes are necouBarMy turned to M » m capital aud | tho coming Congress . It Js tfQn ° nuv supposed that affairs there are becoming more ww
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1424 THE LEADER [ No . 510 Dec 31 , 1859 .
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MONEY MARKET & STOCK EXCHANGE
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1859, page 1424, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2327/page/20/
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