THE COMMERCIAL YEAR. [From the "Times," January, 1.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 537, 7 June 1851, Page 3

THE COMMERCIAL YEAR. [From the " Times," January, I.]

In commercial history there has never been a year th»t could be reviewed with more satisfaction than 1850. At its commencement the rebound front former confusion hid fully taken place, and there vrai every prospect for happy energy amongst all classes of our popola ion. Its promises, notwithstanding threaten* | ings on the continent, have been realised, and it is impossible to consider its course without a sense of the seal it has set upou England's enlarged and courageous policy. January opened with buoyancy in every market. The bullion in the bank wag nearly half a million in excess of the highest som it had ever leached, and it was still steadily increasing. Money at call was worth only l| per cent. : in the exports of the past year there had been an increase of .£lO, < 00,000, and the quarterly revenue return showed a sum of j£320,960, to be appropriated to the National Debt, and hlso that a saving of expenditure had been effected during the preceding nine months of £3.340,000, On ihe 14th a Russian loan fur £5,500,000, was announced by Barings in a Four-and-a Half per cent. Stock at 93, receivable by instalments ending in July. It came out at 3to 4 premium, and is now 98^. Throughout the month the exposition of 1851 wan anxiously discussed, and happily, in deference to the public opinion, a contract for Messrs Munday to erect the building and to take two-thirds of the profits, was abandoned. Ou the 3lst Parliament opened, and on the Address a decrease was mentioned of 7 per cent. in the number of persons depending on the Poor Laws. In February an emeute in Pans, consequent upon the \ demolition of trees of liberty, caused some little uneasiness, and on the third was announced the blockade of the Greek ports for satisfaction regarding the claims ot Mr. Finlay, M. Pacifko, and others, causing, however, a decline in Consols of not more than a half per cent* On the 21st a tieaty of commerce and navigation with Costa Rica was ratified. The Post Office annually returns, issued at this lime, showed a total of 3d7,5'j0,000 letters delivered in the United Kingdom

in 1849 against 76,000,000 under the old system ten jears previously. At the beginning of March the opening took, place of the Britannia Tubular Bridge across the Menai Straiti. On the 15th the Chancel'or of the Exchequer brought forward his budget. The surplus for the past year, which he had originally estimatrd nt JBlOO 000, was shown to have reached £2,252,000, and bis estimate for the coming year, ending the sth of April, 1851, placed the public income at £52 285,000, and tl c txpenditure at £50.613,582. Half of the expected exceis it was resolved should be applied to a removal of the Excite on bricks and a modification of the Stamp Duties, and half to the reduction of the National Debt ; while the surplus of the past year was to be employed in advances to land owners. These announcements satisfactory n» they were, were followed by heaviness in the funds, owing; to their having been over-anticipated, while the fact that during a quaiter of a century of profound peace we had added 27 millions to our debt, pi evented an appropriation of .£750,000 to its reduction from having due credit for its magnitude. On the 16th a new Danish 5 per cent, loan for £800,000 at 90 was brought forward, a similar amount having been raised in 1849 at 86. The instalments extended to the 14th September, and it ranged upon its issue from 2 to 3 premium. A tax of 5 centimes per cent, on all transfers <>f French rentes, voted by a majority of 168 in the National Assembly caused great distrust anl a considerable fall on the Paris Bourse. The principle was strongly denounced as one of spoliation, and the plan was rejected three months afterwards by a final majority of 24. At the Bank of England meeting on the 21«t, it was resolved to pay a dividend of 4 per cent, for the half year, by taking £582,120 from the rest so as to reduce it to £3,000,000 on the under, standing that it should be kept at that amount. In Paris about this time new uneasiness was occasioned by the triumph of the three Socialist candidates for the National Assembly, Carnot, Viiial, and de Flotte, and in London the funds were affected by a Ministerial crisis on the African naval squadron, which ended however, in favour of the Government by a majoiity of 78, owing to a threat of resignation by Lord Jolm Russell. On the 29th, we had news of the complete re-establishment of friendly relations between England and the Buenos Ayres, while from the United Stales intelligence was received that the Legislature of Mississippi in a Mouse of Assembly built from its proceeds, refused by * mnjority of 49 to 38, with an ample surplus at their disposa', to make any payment on the English loan of 2,000,000 dollars on which (unlike the one thty have repudiated for 5,000,000,) they acknowledge their liability, and have paid nothing for ten years. In April we had to deal with another debtor only a shade more honest than Mississipi. Senor Bravo Murillo, the Finance Minister at Madrid, offered a settlement of the Spanish debt, equivalent to about 10 per cent, of the amount due, which was at once thrown back at him. This month saw the last chapter of the revolutions of 1848 in the return of the Pope to Rome. The Government sustained various minor defeats on financial mutter*, and a proposal for the repeal of the window duties was negatived only by 80 to 77. The Chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward his measure on savings' banks for the appoint* ment of paid treasurers, and a reduction in the limit of accounts from £150 to £100, and in the rate of interest from £3 to £2 155., which was subsequently postponed till next session. Railway shares now readied their heaviest point, and Great Westerns were i done at £46, being £2 per share below any former quotation. A report of the Caledonian line, showing that after an expenditure of nearly £6,000,000 the shareholders, if they were compelled to fulfil all their engagements, would have to sustain a yearly loss of £60,000, added to the depression. From the Cape of Good Hope accounts arrived of the withdrawal of the Neptune and the termination of the contest on the convict question. On the 29th a new six per cent, debenture loan for Canada for £500,000, redeemable in 25 years, was taken chiefly by the London bankers, «t par. In May ttie success of Eugene Sue in a fresh election at Paris, caused a fall in Frrnch Rentes of nearly 3 per cent. On the 10th the settlement of the Greek question was announced, and a few days afterwards the arrangement of the long-pending dispute with Spain, Lord Howden having been appointed Ambassador, was confirmed. At the same time the Mosquito affair had been amicably terminated with the United States, and a treaty agreed upon for the pro* tection of the Ship Canal through Nicaragua. Under these circumstances there was a general tendency to improvement in all the markets, which was suddenly checked however by the retirement of the French Am. baisador in connexion with a misunderstanding on the terms of 1 settlement ot the Greek question. June opened with intelligence of the piratical invasion of Cuba under General Lopez, and of his defeat, and flight fro.m Cardenas. About this period the proceedings of the Dutch Government for putting gold out of circulation began to attract attention. On the 23rd the suspension of the Sunday post deliveries commenced, causing an unparalleled increase of Suuday labour, and instances' of danger and inconvenience to all classes, which forthwith closed the experiment. Ou the 28th the new Ministerial crisis, which had lisen from the adverse majority of 37 in tbe House of L rd« on the foreign policy of the Government, was terminated by a majority of 46 >n their favour in the House of Commons ; and on the 29th the public were startled from every other thou ht by the accident to Sir Robert Peel. The half year opened with Sir Roberl'i death, which took place on the 3rd July, and after that event all the arrangements ot the season were hurried through by common consCn'. On the 6th. the statement of the revenue ot the hrst quarter of the official year showed an increase of £518,104 over tbe corresponding quarter of 1849, the Board of Trade ietum« continued to exhibit a large increase in our exportation, and the Poor Law returns showed a decrease of more than 15 per cent, in the number of adult persons relieved during the preceding six months. The difference with France was concluded, and an intimation was received ol treaty of peace between Prussia and Denmark, negotiated by Great Bnuin. Subsequently these pacific indications were disturbed by a renewed prospect of war in Schleswig-Hols'etn, followed by the battle of Idstedt, in which 70,000 men were engaged, with an aggregate in kilied and wounded of 6000 or 7000. On the 22ut! f news was received of ihe death of General Taylor, and of the consequent acce»« sion of Mr. Fillmore, the ViccPresident ot the United States, to tbe dignity of President. On the 25th, an indignant meeting ot the citizens of London took place in consequence of the abandonment of the Bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities, and the claim of Baron RoihsclnU to take '..in seat in the House of Commons led to a pledge of more vigorous notion on the part of the Government next session. In August the Bank ot France, with £18,000,000 of bullion against £20,000,000 of circulation, resumed specie payments after a suspension of two ytar a and a-half. On the 15th Parliament was prorogued, leaving a vact number of measures uncompleted. On the 26th an eveut took place which for neavly twenty years had been looked forward to by all capuulista as one that

would be more critical in its effect upon the funds than any other, but which now failed to produce even the slndow of a fluctuation — the death of the exKin™ Lonis Phillippe. Witlrio two days after this occurrence, at Claremont, England, for a moment was united with France by a link ultimately to prove more effective than the will of Courts, an electric message having been transmitted and printed, on tin; 28tb, by an experimental wire from Dover to Cape Grinez. The harvest at this time was ascertained to be a fair one, although under an average ; business continued sound in every direction, and the accounts from California were steadily assuming a most important character. In Parii these accounts had led to a mania for goldwashing companies, all of which have since exploded. September commenced with general quietness. On the 15th the new Navigation Luws came into operation in Holland. On the 23rd the first column of the Exposition Palace in Hyde-Park was raised. Towards the end of the month confusion commenced in Hesse Cassell with the flight of the Elector to Frankfort, and the wasteful war in Holstein was also revived by an attack on the town of Frederickstadt. In the last quarter of the year the Papal agjression and the gathering and dissolution of the German armies absorbed public attention. It has been a period, nevertheless, of many other important, although lest exciting events.— The arrangement with the leading London houses for the harmonious action of England ond America in the proposed Ship Canal through Nicaragua wat announced on the 14th of October. Subsequently the uucceisful experiments for obtaining chymical products from peat were made known, and aUo the reasonable prospect which had been established of fl« being introduced as a cheap substitute for cotton, so •» further to promote the regeneration of Ireland, and at the same time to relieve our manufacturing population of a long dreaded uncertainty.— With troops, however, in movement on the continent mo c numerous than at the downfall of Napoleon, universal anxiety prevailed, even although the certainty that Englund w A • nbecotup except as she fuffen when others are uupiOi.p«:roin ; was tv <yery rain , At the beginning of November the Bavarian and Austrian fotces entered Ilanau, while those of Prussia occupied ( assel and Eulda, and the order for the mobilization of the entire effective force of Urn Pruasian army after the sudden death of Count Bran(ienburgh caused a fall of 9 per cent, in the funds at Berlin and a proportionate depression in all other markets. During this period gold at Vienna rOfe nominally to 75, and silver to 65 and in the panic orders were issued not only forbidding transactioni in the precious metals unless by authority of tl c government, hut also the sale of copper, on account of the eagerness with which it was sought and hoarded. From Braz 1 advices were received on the sth of a <c rei by the Emperor declaring the slave trade p racy, and on the 9th the Message of the French Pretideut was published, but produced not the slightest effect on the funds. December commenced with assurances of peace consequent upon the Conference between the Ministers ot Prussia and Austria at Olmutz, and a comparative calm was produced which ha« remained unbroken up to the close of the year. A new subject of attention, however, was immediately found in the gold question, and au unprecedented decline in the rate of exchange on Paris, consequent upon sales of bills on that side, under the impression of iv being intended by the Government to put gold out of currency, led to a drain upon the Bank of England, and a iise in their rate of discount da the 26th, from 2\ to 3 per cent. Meanwhile a commission •• wat appointed in Paris to report upon the subject; while in Belgium, contrary to the recommendation of a similar body, a law was passed fixing silver as the only legal tender, and thus adding about £2,000,000 of gold to the £4,000,000 already discarded by Holland The other events of the month were the commence* ment of the Screw Steam line to the Cape on the J6tb ; the attempted adjudication of a Five per Cent French Loan of about £2 000,000 at 93f, but which was deferred to the 3l*t owing to the highest tender being one per cent, below that price ; the acceptance of a freoh arrangement of the Mexican debt, and finally the receipt of the annual Message ot the newPresident of the United State?, with its appeal for highei protective duties, in the face ot an abundant revenue and univerial prosperity. At the same time all our domestic intelligence showed (he full employ of the people, and in every quarter a freedom from complaint, such as to denote to the Government that the new jear will open upon fairer and safer opportunities for all measures ofprogiess and needful reform than it has been the iortune of any previous Ministry to enjoy. Throughout the year the range of Consols, wlvcli was 10 per cent, in 1848, and 8 per cent, in 1849, bai been only 3f per cent., and it is singular that the closing price to-day is precisely the same as on the Ist of January* In railway shares, owing to the conitaat gambling, the fluctuations have been violent, but the present quotations arc considerably higher than those of a year back. In all kinds of United States securities there has been an improvement, ranging, from 5 to 30 per cent. The Bank bullion on the Ist January was £17,016,163, it touched the highest point it has ever reached on the 23rd of March, when it was £17,279,943, and it is now lower tban at any time during «he year* being £15,359,379. The price of wheat has shown remarkable oteadiness. It was 43s at the beginning, and is now 425. The total importation, although large, has been lett than in 184!). As fur as the returns have been made up' they show 926,265 quarters against 1,287,907 last year, and 2,799,414 cwts. of flour against 3,481,194. Cotton began at 6£«1., touched 6^. (its lowest) on the 28th of March and 8i (its highest] on the 9th of August, and la now Bd. The Board of Trade returns thus far show an increase in our exportation! of .£5,639,558. With regard to the new year, favourable as the hopes were for 1849 and 1850, they are now brighter and more extensive, although the current of events must be less smooth* The period which hag closed upon us has been one of steady welfare buc nut ot active enterprise. There has been an accumulation of strength, rather than an exercise of it. Changis, how* ever, seem to be impending which must disturb all routiue, and call for constant vigilance, The rapidly approaching concourse for the Exposition wll beget a sympathetic activity from one end ot the kingdom to the othir, and the building itself promises to lead to new adap'ations of materials, in the production of which we excel all other countues, that may revolutionize many leading occupations. Again, it any one ot the scientific achievements of the past 12 mon'.hs should conu'im the anticipations of its projector, ihere will be enough to alter some of our mightiest calculation!. If the continent iliail bs united to us by a perpetual means of commun>catiou, which may ultimately be extended even to India; or if the boas which constitute one seventh of Ireland be lound en* liable of yielding riches ; or it flax can be given us as, a cheap and superior substitute for slave-giown cotton, the results in each case would be such as it would be in vain tv limit. Apart from these materials agencies, we have also the piomise of reaping continued frui's from our example of free tiade. The modification of the Russian ta' iff dates from to mo i row, and also

ree navigation with the colonial posscwons of Holland while llieie is every si?n tliat in Amcriran an agitation is about to commence that will end in giving her reople the power to exorcise (heir own judgments as to the markets in which they should buy or sell. The gold question, however, is the one that promises, for the time to have a wider bearing than any other. Its possibilities are not yet appreciated, but the past twelve months have established all thaf was then anticipated with regßtil to California, and another year can scarcely fail to decide its ii.flnirce. But an important feature that should give assurance to ali, whatever other changes naav take place, will be the extension of etcam. The depaiture of the first vessel to the Cape, a fortnight back, will be followed on the 9th of January by the commencement of the new line to Brazil. More powerful vessels are building for the Went Indiei. The competition to New Ymk will reach (he utmost limits of speed and cheap, ness; and nn Irish pnr-Urt station and n railway from Cape Chhso will i educe the Atlantic transit to sx d«y«. Lines arc aliendv plflnried from Charleston to Liberia, (.ml from San Frnneisco to China, and the selection of n route to Aubtrolia can no longer be avoided. With these movement! emigration will assume its true character. Inbtead of our coloniei and new settlements being phiceo of banishment, to be filled up only by the poor, they wi'J attract the classes whose co-operation is essential in the success of all new communities, and who, while extending the best influence of the mother country, will, by their skill and capital, open up pursuits lor all who may desire to follow. In this manner likewise our lies with the United States, with Centra] and South America, and other counlnes, will be extended, and the last half of ihe century will inaugurate an era of intercourse thai may realise in an enduring and practical way the highest of thofle aspirations which during the past few years the political enthusiasts of Europe hare advocated only to retard.