FOREIGN COMMERCIAL.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 2, 4 June 1864, Page 2

FOREIGN COMMERCIAL.

INDIA. Bombay papers to the 19th of Aprd are to hand. We quote from the Times of India, of that date, as follows : — " Tlie subject of chief interest during the past fortnight has been the Indian Budget, read by Sir C. Trevelyan in the Legislative Council of the Governor- General on the 7th instant. This ex- ' position of tho financial state and prospects of the country is on the whole favorable. Tlie actual revenue for the year 1863-4 was £14,753.000. The actual expenditure was £14, 722,000. There was a deficit on Budget estimate of revenue on opium of £1,150,000. The deficit on entire Budget estimate was £217,700. Tlio estimated revenue for 186-1-65 is £46,160,000. Tlie estimated expenditure is £ 15,340,000. Tlie promised surplus for 1864-5 is £823,000. The estimated cost of the Sittana Expedition and Camp of Exercise was £200,000. The duty on tobacco is reduced from 20 per cent, to 10 per i cent. The import duty on cotton piece goods is j raised from 5 to 7-_ per cent, with adjustment of j value to market rate of day. These are the prin- j cipal features ofthe Budget that have reached us. | Economy is reccommended in view of the income- | tax expiring in July, 1565. The advancement of j the tariff valuations on piece goods and yarns will. \ certainly not commend itself to the approbation of I commercial men. In the case of the great bulk of i siich goods, the valuations are raised from 4-7 to j 129 per cent, in mole twists, 78 per cent, in grey ] shirtings, 75 per cent, in grey long-clothes, and | jeans, 75 to 115 per cent, in water twists, 25 per ! cent, in Turkey red twist, aud 100 per cent, in j orange, red, and other colored twists. The mea- j sure cannot fail to be regarded as retrograde and I impolitic. Import duties, wliich are fundament- j ally wrong in principle, aro wholly indefensible i when levied upon a scale of prices which arc exaggerated by exceptional and most lamentable circumstances ; and which may any day be reduced fifty per cent, by the termination of the American war. The importers of piece goods and yarns know well that for months past tliey have not realized cost price on their goods in India ; and that at this very time tho quotations in Great Britain and in India show a large margin of loss. It is as injurious as it is injudicious to bolster up a surplus at the expense of an industry in such critical circumstances. Sir Charles' surplus will bo more prejudicial to the country than the deficit of his predecessors."