COMMERCIAL.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 665, 7 August 1876, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

The Customs revenue collected on Friday was as follows :

Messrs Clifford and Eoper report on their usual weekly sale, August sth, as follows Cows, springers, £9 5s to £l3 10s; in profit, £5 10s to £7; calves, 5s 6d to 10s. A considerable number of very desirable cows, both springers and milch, were yarded, and sales effected at good prices. Pigs, small stores. 3s 6d to 9s ; stores, 10s to 23s ; fat pigs, 30s to 35s ; sows, 50s. Small supply, and and demand active at above quotations. Poultry, per pair—Fowls, 2s to Is (Id ; ducks,Os Gd to 7s Gd; geese, 8s to 8s Cd; turkeys, Os 6d. The line weather brought a good attendance, and the market has been more active in consequence. THE WOOL TKADE. The following extracts from the annual report of Messrs Hclmuth, Schwartz and Co, will be read with interest in the present state of the market: — The past year, like its immediate predecessor, has been unsatisfactory to the woollen industry, Once more a steady decline has characterised the market for the combers' and spinners’ produce, the value of which appears almost independent of the price of the raw material. When the hitter recedes it is indeed always a signal for tops and yarns receding likewise; but when it rises, no corresponding improvement follows in the value of manufactures, which, on the contrary, often answer with a fresh decline. The cause of this protracted anomaly has often and justly been traced to the undue expansion of business which followed the close of the late war; and it is indeed only by reverting to that period that an explanation of the course of the market can be found. The woollen industry at that time, in common with other trades, experienced a sudden development wholly disproportionate to the actual requirements, large as these latter were; An artificial want of raw material, independent of actual consumption, was thus created, and a ruinous amount of competition introduced into the industry. Had a large decrease in the supply of the raw material taken place simultaneously, leaving wool at a moderate value, the situation might by virtue of the cheaper price have become less strained, but the production of woo), which in former years had expanded rapidly, became almost stationary at that juncture, and prices rose to a high level in consequence. On one point alone the industry has throughout been fortunately situated, and that is in the exceedingly favorable inllucnee fashion has exercised on the consumption of woollen materials. Had this been othorwise.it is difficult to [see how all the new machinery could have been employed, or, if worked, to what proportion the stocks of goods must have accumulated. The trade may thus be briefly described as suffering during the past three years from weakness, consequent upon too sudden growth, and the past year In particular, as only reproducing in very similar features the experiences of 1871 and 1873. Again do wc see a large consumption of woollen goods, though not disposing of any excessive supplies of wool, yet able to impose its own terms on an overgrown industry : a strong fall in the value of tops and yarns, by the side of hut a moderate decline in the price of the raw material, and lastly, numerous, and not always small, failures in consequence of unremunerative business. The tendency of things under such abnormal conditions is naturally towards agradual readjustment, and the past year is net altogether wanting in signs of amelioration. It is true the long expected recovery of business in Germany has not made much progress (the injuries inflicted by the crisis prove as lasting there as they did in this country after 1866); neither has the trade in America witnessed anything better than short, temporary spurts, witii invariable speedy relapses, hut some branches of the wooden trade, and notably that of manufactures made from the commoner classes of clothing wool, have enjoyed a fair amount of prosperity in more or less all European countries. The injurious start which the industry had of real requirements in 1872, is gradually lessened by the natural growth of the consumption, and if the fall in the price of the raw material has been insufficient for the manufacturer, it must nevertheless tend in the long run to restore the trade to a more normal and healthy condition. Money.—The Bank rate stood at 6 per cent at the beginning of 1875, but was rapidly lowered in the course of January, and remained very easy throughout the whole year, fluctuating mostly between 2, 2J, and 31 per cent. For a short period in autumn it was raised to 4 per cent, owing to a stronger demand for gold for the Continent, but subsequently fell again to 3 per cent. The average rate of the Bank of England was 3 2-10 per cent, against 3 7-10 per cent in 1874, and 4 8-10 per cent in 1873 ; the corresponding figures of the Bank of France being 4 per cent, against 4 3-10 and 5 15-100 per cent. The maximum amount of bullion in the Bank of England was £20,393,892 on the 18th August, and the minimum £20,752,957 on tile 10th February. Prices.—The comparative prosperity of the clothing trade, especially in the commoner kind of goods, has been mentioned above, and in harmony therewith, wc have lor the first half of the year a strong market for the corresponding qualities of wool, viz. Cape, inferior Australian scoured, pieces, and locks. The prices for Ihesedescriptions ruled very firmly in the February sales and ro; ; c in the next scries, on the average Ud per lb, reaching in June a decidedly high level. In contrast to this, the group of superfine wools, both combing and clothing, suffered marked depression, owing partly to a change of fashion, and partly to the reduced export trade to America. As for the bulk ot good Australian combing wools, it sold steadily in the first series, and even experienced in May a rise which, though only moderate, was I'-'rdlv warranted by existing circumstances. TnS level of prices being clearly too high for the requirements of the trade, and the ‘supplies of wool proving ample, a general decline, ranging from 7 to 10 per cent, and allecting nearly all descriptions, took place in the August sales, to be still further increased in November in the case of Cape wools. Reviewing the course of the market for the whole year, it appears clear that a moderate downward tendency would have been in consonance with the condition ol the trade. But a wrong estimate of the supplies probably led to a concentration of the competition on the early sales, and brought about a rise in prices, which later on had to give way to a more than correspondingly severe depression. Compared witii a year ago, present prices for fine wool show a decline of about. 6 to 7 per cent, for cross-bred sorts a fall of about 8 to 10 per cent. With reference to the imports they say:—The result for 1875 corresponds with the expectations formed a year ago. There is an increase in the total annual value as compared with 1874, but it docs not reach the proportion of the increase in the imports, the latter being about 7 per cent, the former only 3 per cent. Taking the average value of the ten years, or the moan between the highest and lowest figure—26i d and 15 Jd —we get about 21-Jd. Last year’s value is consequently still Id above the average. Speaking of the supply they say:—The increase is 6 per cent against about 9 per cent the year before. From the River Plate States a marked decrease was expected, and the production of those countries seems in reality to have fallen off by about 25,000 bales, or nearly 10 per cent. But the shipments at the end of 1874. being delayed inconsequence of the revolution in Buenos Ayres, some 12,000 or 1.3,000 bales appear among the imports of 1875, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have figured In the 1874 supply; The Australian surplus is smaller than anticipated, being reduced by increased shipments to America from 68,000 to 48,000 bales. The Cape returns call for no comment. Comparing the imports of 1875 with those of 1865 Viz, 1,123,073 bales against 567,761 hales—tlie production of the colonies and the River Plate States has uesrly doubledWith reference to consumption and export they remark, the imports of 1875 thus show an increase of over 22 million lbs on 1874, but as the exports appear with a still larger increase, viz., about 27 J million lbs, the Home industry is left with a deficit of nearly 5.J million lbs. In 1873, when the import was smaller by 48 million lbs, the Horae consumption, it will be observed, was about the same as in the past year. It is difficult to reconcile these figures with tlie results of practical observation, according to which the proportion of export to import in colonial wools at least, was not larger in 1875 titan in cither of the two preceding years. Adding to the wools bought by the foreign trade in the sales, tlie quantity forwarded abroad direct from tlie ship, the cxpoit is as nearly as possible one half of the import. Ol every 1060 bales colonial wool imported. sno are re-exported, and this proportion has only in exceptional circumstances varied materially during the past ten years. Against 1874 the exports show a fall ot 5i por cent; against 1873, of 13 percent; against 1872,0 f 30 percent. Compared with tile last mentioned year the trade to North America has declined nearly 40 per cent, to Germany over 50 per cent. No bettor illustration can be given of the unsatisfactory state of the trade than is presented in these figures. Stocks.—The stock in London of old wool—independent of new arrivals—was at the end of 1875 about 9500 bales, against 12,000 bales the year before. The principal German markets, Berlin and Breslau. hold 12,000 cwt against 58,000 cwt in 1874. Only of River Plato wools tlie quantity is larger—about 20,000 bales in all European ports against 9500 bales last year—and that, is owing, not to an accumulation of old wool, but to the early arrival of tlie new clip. Taken altogether, stocks must be described as decidedly small in all principal quarters. Prospects.—On a survey of the present position of the article, we find its supply and consumption very nearly balanced. It is as impossible to say that there is too much wool as that there is a lack of It. The value is an average one, but while to the grower it is avowedly rerawraUve, means

to the spinner, at best, the possibility of making both ends meet. Given, therefore, a continuation of the present dull state of trade, the tendency of the value of wool—not in any particular series, but generally—is likely to be downwards, especially if the production should show any tangible increase. A revival of trade, of export to America, and of a speculative demand, would, on the other hand, easily arrest it, and even produce a rise. But though the stagnation of business has lasted long enough to give way to a better state of things, there are as yet but few indications of any early improvement, and under the circumstances, the maintenance of present prices is probably the best that can be expected for the next twelve months.

£ 8. d Spirits 500 a 11 Tea 23 8 0 Sugar 33 13 10 Tobacco 242 2 6 Drapery 31 12 0 Sundries 27 19 6 £8 59 7 9 On Saturday it was— £ S. d. Spirits 243 19 6 9* Ml •• 20 9 (J £S19 8 6