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MONTHLY FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ARTICLE.

THERE is a fair business doing in New
York for the season of the year, which
is usually a very dull one, soon after
the closing of the Erie Canal. The
amount of produce received during the
past year, by that great channel of
communication, has been exceedingly
large, swelling the revenue of the
State to an unprecedented extent. The
amount of merchandise going West,
has been less than in former years, be-
cause, notwithstanding the great quan-
tity of agricultural produce sent to
market, the remains of former indebt-

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edness, as well as the low rates at which it has sold, have prevented great quantities of returns, in the shape of goods, from being made, more especially as the operation of the existing tariff has, in the restricted state of the currency, powerfully diminished the external trade revenue of the external trade of the country, both imports and exports. The following is a table of the receipts of produce at tide water on the Hudson river, the tolls of the New York canals, and the price of flour in each year at the close of navigation:

Tolls.

$1,593,997
1,753,392

2,011,528

1,743,480 2,067,399

This displays a great increase in agricultural productions, but the trade of the city of New York, the great centre of the whole trade of the country, presents a far different aspect. Its im

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IMPORTS AND EXPORTS AND BANK MOVEMENT OF NEW YORK.

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This gives an accurate view of the trade and banking movement of New York, up to the close of the year 1843, from official sources. The imports and exports are those for the years ending September 30th, and the banking movement is that as reported at the close of each period. In the year 1834, the trade of the city began to increase, and rose 60 per cent. in 1836. The circulation and deposits also swelled 50 per cent. The increase of imports in those years was undoubtedly a consequence of the large loans of the banks. The deposits in our banks were mostly but another form of the loans. The proceeds of notes discounted, were passed to the

52,386,467
61,534,129 11,502,789

27,389,160

credit of the customer of the bank, and were, for the most part, checked out in favor of some other institution, in the consummation of large transactions, without actually employing money of any description in the operation. The large imports produced by extended bank liabilities, were sold into the interior on long dated paper, all based on bank credits, which were destroyed in the revulsion of 1837.

The large imports of the year 1836 were sold, for the most part, on paper having eight, twelve, and eighteen months to run, payable at different banks in the interior. Those long notes formed the mass of paper discounted by the banks, and, when in the

spring of 1838, the banks in this city found it necessary to resume their payments, without the concurrent action of those of the South, a great loss was incurred by the depreciation of the irredeemable Southern bank paper, in which the notes were payable, as compared with that of New York. Finally, as the work of reform extended South, insolvency was fastened upon individuals, companies, corporations, and even States. The whole resulted in diminishing the assets of our banks, and sweeping away the property of many who considered themselves wealthy. The effect of that revulsion spent itself in the year 1840, when the aggregate trade of the city was at a lower point than at any period during the series of years embraced in the above table. The banks had recovered themselves, and were again in a position to favor the movement of business based upon short credit.

Those banks which had been involved in the long renewable paper, gradually collected the best portions of it, and their capitals became more active. Some institutions, too deeply involved, ceased to exist; and others reduced their capitals by the amount of their losses. In the meantime, under the new banking law, several new banks, with large cash capitals, were created, and the aggregate bank capital was raised from $37,000,000 in 1836, to $43,000,000 in 1843. This increased capital, and increased activity of old capital, all confined itself to employment in short strictly commercial paper. The quantity of this latter afloat was immensely reduced by the decline in business, growing out of the fact that the imports of the country were confined to its cash means of purchase, thus reducing the quantity of merchandise which changed hands, and the amount of paper created in proportion to the quantity of merchandise interchanged. The reduction in the commerce of New York, it appears, was, from 1836 to 1843, about one half, or $70,000,000. The increase of bank capital, with the reduced means of employing it, necessarily caused the idle means in the shape of specie and deposits, to swell immensely. The latter no longer represents merely a credit form of the loans, a decrease of which would be accompanied with a diminished line of discounts, but it is actual

cash, deposited for safety, for want of employment. Private capitalists underbid the banks, and the rate of money continues at 3 to 4 per cent., without much prospect of a speedy improvement. In this state of affairs, the sound public stocks have been sought as an investment; and institutions with a collective capital of $43,000,000, have near $12,000,000 invested in public securities, including the stocks pledged with the comptroller, under the provisions of the new law. They also have near $4,000,000, loaned upon stocks, as collateral security, and $12,000,000 in specie. These facts, with the low rates of interest, are fearfully corroborative of the decline in commerce.

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In the year 1841, the state of affairs was in the ascendant, showing positive symptoms of a rapid recovery. Unfortunately, however, in that year began to be felt the ill-effects of the revolution of 1840. Party faction had seized upon the commercial laws, as a means of forwarding partizan interests, and a tariff was imposed upon a large amount of goods before free. The effect of that law we entered into in detail in a former number. At the succeeding session the level of duties was raised from 20 per cent. to 35 per cent., and the results are evinced above in a deeline of $10,000,000 in the imports of New York, in the year 1843, and of $31,000,000 as compared with 1841. The whole presents a most unfortunate state of business in a city numbering not far from 350,000 inhabitants, whose welfare depends upon the exercise of their own capital and skill, in pursuits calculated to turn both to the best advantage. The government undertakes first to destroy the present business with the view to compel them, at great loss of time and money, to withdraw capital from commerce and employ it in manufacturing, under the assumption that the country will be benefited by the movement.

The revenues of the Federal government, which were made the pretext for the high rates imposed, have greatly suffered under the destruction of commerce which has resulted from those duties. The customs, although now almost the only source of revenue, and averaging near 36 per cent. on the dutiable goods imported, have fallen to an almost unprecedentedly low amount,

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leaving a deficiency of near $10,000,000 of government bankruptcy on the one per annum in the means of meeting hand, or direct taxation upon the the expenditures of the Treasury. other. The consequence is that the national debt is rapidly on the increase, having risen in two years from about $5,000,000 to over $26,000,000; and this sum has not been appropriated for extraordinary expenses in time of war or other public disaster, but to make good the ordinary economical expenses of the Treasury, in time of profound peace and of great general public wealth. This is a most unheard of state of affairs, and has grown out of the fact that the revenue, derivable from indirect taxation upon consumable goods, has been wickedly sacrificed to party purposes, leaving only the alternative

The annual Message of the Chief Magistrate represents the ordinary revenue of the current year at $18,000,000, and the expenditure at $23000,000, making a deficit of $5,000,000 irrespective of the interest and expenses of the public debt. Thus the third year has elapsed since the alleged extravagance of the government in and previous to the year 1840, was made the pretext for calling an extra session of Congress in order to put the finances on a permanent footing. The country has been kept, during that period, in a constant state of uneasiness, and the results are as follows:

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These are the receipts and expenditures without including the amount of the public debt, which has swollen to quite a respectable sum. Wherein is the reform? During a year in which the tariff has been raised from 20 to 35 per cent., the revenue has diminished near 10 per cent. The revision of the tariff "to replenish the revenue" has only reduced the commerce of the country 20 per cent., and resulted in an increased debt. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury is very lengthy and very much involved. It admits, however, a deficit of $8,500,000 in the means to meet the current expenses of the Government up to the 30th June, 1841, in addition to a renewal, because of the want of means

to pay, of the loan of $5,672,986, due on the 1st January, 1845. To provide for this $8,500,000 the Secretary proposes to reduce expenses and to increase the revenue.

The reduction of expenses is to be effected chiefly by abolishing customhouses in districts where "they have ceased to be useful," probably by a decline of commerce. On the other hand the revenue is to be increased by raising the taxes on some articles and imposing new ones on others. The Secretary specifies glass, iron, coal and sugar, as articles on which the duties are "too high for revenue purposes," yet he is not prepared to advise a reduction. He then proposes the following new duties:

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Tonnage duty, 6 cents per ton each entry

' on fishing and coasting vessels, 6 cents per ton per annum Transit duty on merchandise in case of per centage retained on drawbacks,

This is a formidable list of duties to be imposed upon commerce in addition to those already borne by that branch of industry. The honorable Secretary intimates that these duties are borne

VOL. XIV.—NO. LXVII.

7

230,000

equally by all the people, and that it is the best means of collecting a necessary revenue. He does not show, however, that that revenue is necessary. He admits that the imposts upon im

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portant articles are so "protective" as
to have injured the revenue, and his
new taxes are proposed to repair that
injury instead of removing the cause.
A remarkable feature in his reasoning
is, that the duties proposed to be levied
were repealed in 1832—

"In pursuance of the recommendation

of the President, which was made, as he
stated, in consequence of the national
debt being extinguished, and the revenue
being abundant for the public service."

Here, then, is the singular fact de-
veloped, that from 1832 down to 1840,
$39,082,690 of the old stock debt had
been paid off, and the government had
gone through the disasters consequent
upon the revulsion of 1837, having met
all its engagements, and leaving but a
floating debt of $4,500,000 Treasury
notes, under a descending scale of
duties according to the Compromise
Act. During the last three years, a
debt of $30,000,000 has been created
by revenue deficiencies, and the Secre-
tary pleads the existence of that debt
as a reason for returning to burdens
imposed to pay a war debt! while he
recommends a continuance of those
prohibitions which caused the deficits.
The debt has been created by squan-
dering the resources of the government
for party purposes, and the Treasury
Note scheme of the Secretary, with the
Government Bank plan of the chief
magistrate, point clearly to the method
by which it is designed to get out of
the difficulty. A tariff comparatively
low, working upon a specie currency,
operates as a prohibition, because
prices remain steady at their specie
values, and the full difference in price
is made up by the cost of transportation
and the duties imposed. If by large
issues of paper money, prices are rais-
ed 50 per cent., that action of paper
money nullifies the operation of the
tariff in restricting trade. The high
duties cease to check imports, but they
bring large revenues into the Treasury.
Now the Secretary and the Govern-
ment adhere to the high duties, at the
same time the chief magistrate pro-
poses an issue of $15,000,000 of gov-
ernment paper money, and the Secre-
tary proposes that the $14,000,000 to
be paid above the estimated receipts in
the next eighteen months, shall be met
by the issue, as a currency, of Treasu-
ry notes without interest, and converti-

ble into coin, or to be funded in a Government stock, at the option of the Secretary. Should both or one of these projects be adopted, $15,000,000 of paper money passed into the market through the Government creditors, in the course of twelve months, would powerfully affect prices, more especially while the banks show a tendency So far as a rise in prices is induced, by to expand, and values generally to rise.

so much will the effect of the tariff be diminished; imports will increase and the revenue become enormous. If under the present law an import of $100,000,000 dutiable goods can be induced by the operation of paper credits, the customs will swell to $35,000,000 per annum. On the other hand, if the spirit of the compromise act had been carried out, a legitimate importation of $100,000,000 would have given the treasury $20,000,000, sufficient to meet all its demands.

The treasury notes of the Secretary are most deceptive in their nature on their face they purport to be payable in twelve months, on their back they are endorsed that they will be purchased at certain places, yet the Secretary with great naïveté exposes this trap as follows:

is endorsed on them, distinct from the "The notice that they will be purchased, body of the notes, so that, if any extraordinary emergency should occur to produce any difficulty in their purchase, or, for any other reason it should be deemed expedient, the endorsement may be omitted, and the notes permitted to circulate without interest, or they may be altered to specify a rate.”

What shuffling expedients are here resorted to? The government issues notes purporting to be payable in specie. If nobody wants specie, and no demand is made, the endorsement stands good. If the creditors do want specie, the endorsement will be omitted and the rate of interest changed, or the whole converted into a stock! Does any holder of the paper know when all this is to happen? It depends upon the will of the Secretary, and the state of the London money market. credits throughout the commercial world, fluctuate with the movements in Threadneedle street. No nation is independent without a specie currency. All these expedients, shifts, and jobbing transactions, grow out of the original

All:

departure from the spirit of the Constitution in sacrificing the revenues of the government, the commerce of the country, and the welfare of the whole people, to the exclusive privileges granted to the manufacturing class. The high duties and imposts of England are necessary to support a large debt and a costly aristocracy. Those duties are made to yield a revenue only

through the action of the paper system. The fact that those onerous taxes are laid upon the people of England, is made the pretext for imposing them in this country, where their effect is to create a national debt, and build up a manufacturing aristocracy. Already the debt created by commercial restrictions is used as an argument for the increase of taxation.

NEW BOOKS OF THE MONTH.

Letters from Ireland. 1837. By CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. New York: Published by John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, 145 Nassau-st. 1843. 12mo. pp. 351.

The vehemence of the hostility entertained by this good lady and most prolific writer, against all and singular in any degree savoring of Rome, is well enough known to that large class of readers with whom her works circulate with a high degree of popularity. Of course this passion finds ample wherewithal for its indulgence, in the tour from north to south of Ireland of which the observations are recorded in these Letters. Though no peculiar friend of the Pope and of many things Papal, yet we cannot say that we have a polemic taste highly enough wrought, to enjoy, as probably many of our readers may, all the worthy author's extremities of wrath, against "the woman Jezebel," who she laments is suffered to maintain her pernicious ascendency in that benighted island; or if we can enjoy them, it is only in the way of quiet amusement; though mingled with regret that so good a soul should so grievously distress itself-and so unnecessarily. One passage in the book has, we confess, somewhat disturbed this gently smiling equanimity, with which it is easy to peruse all the rest. We allude to her eulogistic account of " that loyal old Protestant soldier, Major Sirr." It appears that he was the possessor of a fine collection of ancient Irish historical relics,-among the rest the frame of an Irish war harp, such as the minstrels of old bore to the battle-field. "It was to me very touching," she writes, "to see the owner of these treasures in the enjoyment of a healthful and vigorous ripeness of years, moving tranquilly among his stores, pointing out and ex

plaining, with all the bland courtesy of a better era of manners, what was worthy of remark; and to remember through what fearful struggles he had passed, manfully braving the fore-front of danger, in defence of that very castle, and of the Protestant faith and name, forty years ago." Now this was the Major Sirr (since deceased, in 1841) who, in the capacity of Town Major of Dublin, at the head of his "Battalion of Informers," at the period of the troubles of '98, so well succeeded in embalming his name in an immortality of infamy, in conjunction with his worthy confrère, Major SandysArcades ambo; of both which worthies, a full account may be found in Madden's recent volumes on the Lives and Times of the United Irishmen. Every one of these articles of antiquity or 'virtu' had on it a spot of innocent blood, which, however, being only Catholic and Irish, escaped the eye of the amiable lady who was thus delighted with their inspection.

We find one more incident worth adverting to. At Gorey, in the County Wicklow, which was the scene of a severe encounter between the rebels and the King's troops, the former, who were victorious, had among their prisoners a little drummer boy, named Hunter, twelve years of age, whom they required still to carry his drum and beat it for them on their march. "But the intrepid child," as our author heard and tells the story, "filled with loyal devotion, exclaimed, 'Never! the drum that has sounded in the King's service shall never be beaten for rebels ;' and instantly leaping upon it, he burst it completely through. Must I add the sequel?"-she continues. roic little fellow was directly put to death, perforated with pikes." This incident, which, if true, is a very fine and touching one, she regards as the origin of Moore's

"The he

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