MERCANTILE HONOR.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 355, 19 March 1861, Page 4

MERCANTILE HONOR.

1 Nothing like Leather.'

It is to behoped that all Englishmen interested in the trade of their country, and especially those who may be at the outset of a mercantile career, will ponder on the examination now in progress in the Bankiuptcy Court in the case of Streatleild, Laurence, and Co. The revelations made confirm all the worst surmises as to the financiering processes by which the business was of late years carried on, and the lesson conveyed is the old one—that when the accommodation system has once been commenced the final result is merely a question of time. Through the infatuation which this firm seems, in some quarters, to have had the power of inspiring, the present case hap-

pens, in point' of extent, to be one of the most remarkable on record; but the details are almost precisely similar to those of a majority of the cases that were developed at Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during the clearance that took place in 1857f and which would have been more effectual but for the interference of the Government. According to the latest evidence, the profits with which the London house of Streatfeild, Laurence and Co. ha? credited itself during the last ten years have been at the rate of nearly £30,000 per, annum, while those of the London and Liverpool houses combined have recently been estimated at about double that amount. A large proportion of these profits simply consisted of charges of two per cent, commission e*rery four months for the renewal of the fictitious paper manufactured by themselves, and the eleven minor establishments that were their satellites.

The total trade transactions of the two firms at London and Liverpool during the last three years and a-half amounted to £5,377.750. One of the subordinate houses was in that interval supplied with accommodation to the extent of £706.000, while the actual dealings with it in tangible goods would have been represented by £20,000. Happily, it is now admitted that • Mr. Laurence was mistaken1' when he said this was in the usual way oHh^ trade.' The bills, as fast as they were concocted, were arranged in the manner 'in which it was thought they would best go down in the discount world.'

The principal parties to them seem to have formed a kind of club at Messrs. Streatfeilds, where they met to specify their cul rent wants. In order, however, that the bills should not betray the oft-hand nature of their origin, they were '• invariably' drawn for odd money. • The firm, it is added, 'had never taken stock.' Under these circumstances, the two points that most strike the attention are, first, the. enormous extent of misrepresentation that must have been steadily resorted to, unless we are to suppose that the discounters by whom the concern was upheld, and whose manifestations of confidence gave confidence to others, never asked any questions; and next, the process of demoralization that must infallibly have been going on for years, not only among the petty traders who were lend ng themselves to the affair, but also their clerks and all who hadoppor- /- tunities of forming suspicions. The case of Mr. M'undv is a striking instance in this respect. He was paying his way respectably till, in 1857* Mr. Laurence told him he wanted 'to make use of him as an acceptor of a few bills.' In this way he suffersd his name to go out for £25,000, and is now insolvent to that extent. If there is one school of vice more damaging than another, it is that of a secret manufactory of accomodation bills, kept up with all the prestige that in this country attends the existence of great commercial firms.