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474 THE LEADER [JSTo. 472, April 9, 1859...
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CO MM ERG I A L.
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AUSTRALIA AND INDIA. In 1858, the value ...
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MONEY MARKET & STOCK EXCHANGE
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Friday Evening. Money is in good demand,...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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474 The Leader [Jsto. 472, April 9, 1859...
474 THE LEADER [ JSTo . 472 , April 9 , 1859 ,
Co Mm Erg I A L.
CO MM ERG I A L .
Australia And India. In 1858, The Value ...
AUSTRALIA AND INDIA . In 1858 , the value of the exports of British , 'manufactures-and produce to Australia , was 10 , 464 , 198 J . This was exclusive of goods of foreign produce and manufacture exported ^ -which may be put down at 1 , 500 , 000 / . more . The value of our imports from those colonies was 5 , 255 , 687 / ., exclusive of gold , and the value of the gold inipoi'ted was 9 , 066 , 289 / . With some vacillations , our trade with these colonies is increasing , and becoming more important from year to year . They stand eighth on the list of countries with which we trade for the value of their imports , and third on the
wool , and we receive wool from Australia- —perhaps we may hereafter receive cotton— -and to both countries we send back their raw materials wrought into various kinds of cloth . For the many commodities which Australia thus derives , immediately or mediately , directly or indirectly , from India , her chief means of payment is gold . To stop the export of gold from Australia to India seems , therefore , a ¦ cruel injustice to both colonies , and doing wrong to both is an equally cruel injustice to Great Britain itself . It resembles that colonial system which formerly prevailed , and which actually forbade the colonies to trade with one another , or with foreign countries , except through the mother country , making it necessary , before a hogshead of Jamaica sugar could [ reach North America , that it must be brought to * England .
There is , in truth , no positive prohibition to export Aiistralian gold to India , but there exists in India a - regulation which virtually amounts to such a prohibition . Already inhabited by very opulent classes , and increasing very fast in wealth , India requires , and , in fact , can only be prevented from having a gold currency by a positive regulation ; Such a currency , too , has been in existence . Now , the chief use of gold is as currency , and to prohibit it , to be used for this purpose is virtually to prohibit it from being imported into the country where'it-cannot-be used as money . This , however , is done by the Government of India . It was done by the East India Company , and it is continued by the present Administration ^ By the Government the people of India are forbidden to
use gold as money ; and , therefore * it cannot be imported , except in very small quantities for ornaments . We stop not to inquire into the reasons of the prohibition . Politicians never want reasons for doing wrong .. ~\\ e may say , however , that the principle reason for continuing the regulation is a false expectation that a fall in the value of gold will occur , and a kind of prudery of honesty which does not always animate politicians , that the fall , were gold to be employed as money , would do inj ustice to the holders of a debt contracted in silver . Caring nothing , however , for the reasons of this strange prohibition , we only wish to direct the attention of our readers to some of the consequences . The prohibition is utterly false in principle , as false as would be a prohibition to a people as they advanced in civilisation to substitute wheaten bread for oat or
duty paid all the cost . Such consequences of these absurd fiscal regulations happily gotrid of { hem in the end , but we now find similar consequences cropping out of our Mint regulations . To seiidearwoes this round-about course was only an occasional experiment , but mint regulations , worse than discriminating duties , compel a , continual seiitlinrr of Australian gold to England , to buy silver to sind to India ? A greater waste of "labour and property could riot well be devised ; but the men who
devised it—though it is condemed alike by science and experience—claim obedience and reverence as the benefactors of mankind . When such contrasts between then- demands on our respect and theresults of their acts are continually forced on our notice , that-they ' . should fall in our esteem can surprise nobody . The wonder is , that after such innumerable exposures of inefficiency and blunder , statesmen can lif t up their heads unabashed , and as boldly d emand our confidence as if they had never been detected in a single error .
One of the consequences of all such regulations is , that they create sinister interests and rally around them , as supporter . * , liirgebodies of men , who * imagine that they and society would be mortally injured by abolishing them . Besides , all the officers of the Mints in the two countries , who have a great love for things as they are , and regard every demand for change and * improvement as an insult , the bullion merchants who lire engaged in making the double exchange ; the bill brokers , who get a commission on the greater number of pieces of paper they have to negotiate ; the bankers , who , in England , Australia , and India , are connected with exchange ^ operations , and the carriers , who get the longer and t . lie double freights , and all the connexions of these persons , have an
interest in continuing ^ tins absurd prohibition . All regulations and restrictions require a staff to carry them into effect , and the more they are- multiplied the greater is the number of persons we have to reward for inflicting them on us . Moreover , whenever they affect trade , or any of the ordinary business of life , many persons must adapt their conduct to them and carry on their business in subservience to them . Their habits are formed on-a faulty model . This gives a long life to all such errors , and makes men fight . almost to death , as now in ( France and heretofore in England , for monopolies which science demonstrates to be injurious to society . 'Error and restrictions , therefore , cannot be put down too soon , and if they can be prevented froai coming into existence , so much the . better .
barley cakes . We have mentioned that Australia derives , directly and indirectly , commodities from India , for which she must pay in gold ; but as she cannot pay dix'ectly in gold , she sends the gold to England , whence a portion of it , or its value , finds a way to India in goods or in silver ; Of late years , no doubt partly in consequence of Australia deriving a portion of her necessary supplies from India , silver has been continually sent from Europe to India . We read day by day that the last Australian gold arrived has been taken for the Continent , therewith to buy silver to send to India . Or we read that bars of gold—most probably
Australian gold—have been taken from the Bank to buy silver abroad , for we have none here to spare , to make up the quantity required to bo exported to India , Tims the prohibition to use gold as money in India causes , the gold of Australia to be sent to Europe , therewith to buy silver , to be sent to India instead of that gold going direct from Australia to India . Instead of transmitting the more valuable metal , at a small expense of freight , , the short distance , say 2 i 500 miles to India , we bring it , say 12 , 000 miles to Europe , and send
sllv 0 * at a much larger expense of freight , say , ' 6 > 0 OO wiles to India . There was a time when our ' fiscal regulations induced merchants to ship "Norway timber to Canada , and then import it into England as timber from our colony , our absurd tarnTmakJng it advantageous to send this timber two , loptf sqa voyages , in order to place it in the hands of tho consumer . At that time , too , it was advantageous to ship coffee from Bio 'Janeiro to the Ojijjo of Good Hope , and there to re-ship it and import it' into England as from a possession of tho "GJasfc India Company . Saving a discriminating
list for thes value of our exports to them . They are the germs of a great empire and a vast traffic , . and we ou g ht not , by any regulations , to lay the least impediment in the wav of their greatness . We learn with satisfaction , by the latest accounts from them , which reached us only on Thursday , that they are all in a tolerably flourishing condition . The customs revenue of New South Wales was nearly 10 , 000 / . more in January , 1859 , than January , 1858 ; and in . the same month of 1859 , the quantity of gold dust received by escort , was 19 , 908 ounces , or 14 , 701 ounces more than in January , 1858 . So we are informed from Victoria , the miners have 'begun the year well , and produced 168 , 609 ounces of gold in
January , 1859 , against 157 , 603 ounces m January , 1858 . Isoth the arrivals by escort and the shipments of gold had increased . In thei two first weeks of February , 1859 , the arrivals were 250 , 716 ounces , against 227 , 350 in the same period of 1858 ; and the shipments in the first six weeks of the year were 289 , 273 ounces , against 230 , 273 ounces in the first six weeks of 1859 . New gold fields of fair promise had been opened , some of which were yielding well ; and improvements in the system of washing had enabled the miners to extract larger quantities of gold from equal quantities of earths These colonies , therefore , continue to flourish , and are amongst the most prosperous countries of the world .
Not very far from them , compared to then * distance from us , lies another noble country , even more important to England , at present , for the amount of its trade , than Australia . India is second on the list fbr the value of imports of [ ill the countries with which we trade , and was actually first on the list in 1858 , though this is not the rule ; for generally the United States stand first , for the value of British produce and manufactures exported . Every year , too , of late , our trade with this great country has increased , and increased so rapidly last year as to induce a contemporary , forming Ms opinion by this one
indication , to assert last -week that India , with the exception of the United States , is the most rapidly progressing country in the world . Long peopled , with habits not yet broken through , which Tvould permit the population conntihualiy and rapidly to increase , this must be an exaggeration ; but it is , nevertheless , a fact that the trade between India and Great "Britain ia increasing very fast , and that we have as great an interest in promoting its prosperity , as , in promoting the jirospeinty of Australia . With the welfare of both these countries our welfare is closely united , arid a policy which impedes their prosperity must impede . our , prosperity . Of course , it follows that whatever promotes their trade with one another will be to our advantage , and whatever impedes
their mutual traffic must be our injury . , A slight inspection of the fable , of imports intp tl ^ e two countries wiljl show that Australia may . de ^ rive a largo proportion of its imports , such as coffee ^ tea , sugar , & q ,, direct from India , and a large por * tion of its clothing , is composed of raw materials derived from India . "Both countries being pretty much in tho same latitude , or about equidistant from the equator—though the one lies on the . south , and the other on the north side of the liixe-H-the natural productions or jraw , materials of en , $ s , except as one has been much longer peopled tfran , the other , do not aflord- ^ except as to tho orioles i ^ ready indicated , which all go one waymuch flcjopo for international trofflo . In the natural course of trade we receive from India cotton and
Money Market & Stock Exchange
MONEY MARKET & STOCK EXCHANGE
Friday Evening. Money Is In Good Demand,...
Friday Evening . Money is in good demand , but the supply is large , and the market is , on tho whole , easy . At tho same time , with the Indian loan , the Russian loan , and a further issue of Exchequer bonds hanging over it , it is xuicertain ; ami though tho torms are not altered * lenders are not eager to part with their money . Though the dividends will bo in tho course of payment next week , there is no probability of I' 10 d ° " mand for money lessening to any groat degroo . Tho Bank terms are tlxo usual rate for discount . Notwithstanding the large quantity of silver wluoli is to bo dispatched to India by the next mail--, £ 909 , 000—tho market for silver is flat , and nas ° The funas , whioh have boon dull all tho weok , were excessively flat to-day . The business done was almost nil , and tho closing price of Consols > a 90 ft , * bolow the closing price of yesterday . l » ow is still a want of confidence in tho intentions oi tho sovereigns of tho . Continent , and Count Ciivouia memorandum to our consul bus outmoosureU hopes of peace . Accordingly , the tologranh tii » morning brought a further decline from 1 ' arls 01 Jin tho 3 per cent . Kentds . Our markot , *<*>*** slightly influenced by the picture of a ¦ Bpo ° wgJJJ with a bull account for a largo sxun . Nor la « any probability that the public securities tvill show any liveliness till tho present critical period in tuc political relations of JSurono ia passed . The Russian Joan , it A now stated on good iux ¦ < %
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 9, 1859, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09041859/page/26/
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