SA TURD AY, AUG UST 11, 1883. Commerce. •

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 29, 11 August 1883, Page 2

SA TURD AY, AUG UST 11, 1883. Commerce. •

The large quantity of imported material lying: in the hands of merchants in the principal ports of the Colony, and the presumed inability of consumers to reduce it by the ordinary absorbtion, has created such a reeling of alarm in the minds of feme few individuals that such feeling- has spread abroad and has actually entered the breasts, of some of our legislators, y It has been gravely proposed that a commission be appointed by the House to enquire into the causes thereof and report according! v. Whether such a proposal will be carried out we do not know, but if it is the information collected and the deductions made therefrom would be valueless and untrustworthy. We will endeavor, in the limits of a brief article, to give to our readers some idea of the real causes of the market being over stocked and the consequent difficulty of quitting such stock to tinmiddle men or dealers, to be agaiu transmitted by the datter to the consumers. We will take the ca*e of an importer who commences busineswith a nominal capital of say £10,000 and he buys goods from fon igu markets to the full value of this amqunt and sells them at a profit to the middle man on the usual terms as to time of payment. In exchange for his goods he receives acceptancewhich will represent the cost of the goods to him, with his charges ami profits added. '1 hese acceptances are submitted to his banker for discount and in the ordinary course of the bankers' business they are discounted and the proceeds placed to his credit^ The goods hehas sold must be replaced by others and as quickly disposed of until in v a period of less than a year an importer whose capital is only £10,000 niay have outstanding Hab litiesof £100,000, which are apparently covered by the indebtedness of the retail dealers to him, for perhaps double that amount. A period ofcdepression comes when the retail dealer finds he must ask the consumers he has allowed to get into his books to pay up, in| order that he aiav be enabled Jri meet, his acceptances to the importer. The consumer who is largely the dajr laborer or working man, finds that he is suddenly deprived of many luxuries to which b« has accustomed himself during th good times, because the storekeeper will no longer trust him. The storekeeper in his turn is unable to purchase goods from the importer, who; has consequently all the material he had orGered to keep up thi past demand left on his hands.' He bas still to pay his bills to th« foreign merchants, and is suddenly deprived «d the means of doing s6- During th period he 1 has been- in hu>ine«s no rr ak , a lditioh- has been maije |o his capital. He has been dependant/xn his banker to feu pply him witfi^tUe rh°ans to carry jm hjs.expandiug biuVmesfi wh^n it has

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increased beyond the ordimirv limits. Hedo-s not keep in view the hie: 'lfat. the c:i i«--il Mijipl ed liy tho b-mk is on rhe -ir-.-gtlr nt the abiiitv of h.consumer to pay. fmrl that when the consumer ceases to pay his capital i* »one. Another eau-e or weakness is the «eldem n— is-ted temn'ation offered ih pro perou- *itnos lo trade or speculate- our of hi- - legitwiiiito bu ine*s, by land purchases, and other ways too well-known to rr-qu re enumeration. Capital invested thus is never nvailnb'e when a tightness obt.iius iv the money market. He is -also narrow minded in a degree. It seldom 0.-cnrs to him t ' watch the imports ol any other commercial centre than his own. He may know within a iu\v thousandthe value of the stock in hi.- own lown but what the other importers in the Colony are doing he njither knows nor appears to care. V\ hereas he .-houbt keep a record ot every pound weight ot the particular kind of t oodhe deals in thut is imported. Tins is easily to be done as th<> Customs returns :o-e av.u aide at his hand. lo be a rca.lv succes-ful meicliant a man mu-t re y only on himself ai.d his own capital, but the rule in this Colony appear* t.> be t > lean entirely 0.-i the imii'-F. ami wl en they exhibit sigi.s ot impatience a:, the heavy burthens attempted to be placed upon them the quitiiiuncs begin to cry out and blame the batiks lor putting on tbe "screw:' It is not tht! banko that put tho scivw on; it is the trailers themselves. Let them confine their operations wiMiin their means and we would never hear ot so-called commercial depression.