The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3902, 26 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1875.

The news from Europe is not very exciting. To the general reader, in fact, the items appear trivial. No startling events are detailed, and with the exception of the drain of men in Spain, consequent upon the civil war that has now desolated that country for so long a time, and an insurrection in Turkey, nothing in the way of war excitement is in progress. Other potent influences are disposed of in a single line. “ Discount is 2 per cent. ” is a very significant line, capable of very different interpretations, according to the causes that produce it. In any case it points to the absence of demand for money, either for trade or for speculative purposes, and may either indicate stagnation in Home and foreign trade or distrust of foreign relations. Many causes have latterly combined to create caution. The failure of Sanderson and Co., the discount-book-ing firm, that arose from the ruins of Overend, Gurney, and Co., disclosed a a state of affairs connected with the iron trade that must have created uneasiness as to the soundness of British manufacturing business generally. Notwithstanding’tbe enormous advance in the price of iron, the heavy works .of the Welsh company for years had been carried on at a loss, and, when at last the crisis came, and there was no longer a possibility of tiding over their difficulties, the surprise really is that so few failures took place through a panic that might very naturally have been expected to follow the announcement of their fall. There cun be no doubt whatever that trade disputes between masters and men have tended much to cripple commerce, and to limit the Home as well as the foreign demand. Whenever wages are asked that the prices for the manufactured article will not afford, either the manufacturing firm must-, produce at a loss, or, if they can afford to stand-still, they will cease to work. In either case there is loss; but in the last it is mainly borne by the workmen themselves; the capitalist merely losing interest on his plant and machinery, and so much of his capital as is required for his personal expenses. The commercial phases that Great Britain appears to be going through now are, in some respects, reactionary. Two years ago labor seemed to have it all its own way. The demand for manufactured articles for foreign supply was brisk. Nations in fact appeared to be <£ sorting up ” after the caution and reduction of stock induced by the Franco-German war. v. As a natural result of high I

prices a check came. America first felt it; but it was impossible to stop there. One or twalarge establishments might go down without sensibly affecting the commerce of the world, but the stagnation of a large consuming nation like the United States could not be without widely-diffused effect. It is evident from consideration of these circumstances that the slack demand for money at Home is not merely the consequence of one cause, but of a combination of adverse events that render quite possible the .seeming anomaly of cheap money, and, in regard to certain classes of goods, falling prices. The extensive strikes that have taken place among colliers, agricultural laborers, and other classes of producers, have materially reduced the consuming ability of the Home population ; the stagnation of trade in the United States and the war uneasiness in Europe, have curtailed foreign demand. It would appear, therefore, that the supply of money is so great that even in the face of probable large imports of breadstuffs, there is not much demand for it. So far as the Colonies are concerned, there is no reason to imagine they will be other than favorably affected. Slackness of employment should afford the opportunity of selecting emigrants of the best class, and as on the score of security they present better fields for investment than Europe, there is good reason to believe it is a favorable time for prosecuting sound schemes of both Color;lal and private enterprise.