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1232 THE LEADER. [No/451, November 13,18...
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MERCANTILE.
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ORDER OE COMMERCIAL TOPICS. In treating ...
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IRELAND'S OPPORTUNITY. THE GAL WAV LINE....
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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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1232 The Leader. [No/451, November 13,18...
1232 THE LEADER . [ No / 451 , November 13 , 1858 .
Mercantile.
MERCANTILE .
Order Oe Commercial Topics. In Treating ...
ORDER OE COMMERCIAL TOPICS . In treating commercial , as in treating all affairs , order is necessary ; we propose now , therefore , to state the order in which the matters placed in this part of our paper will be treated . We think this the more necessary , from the undue prominence which is _ tob often given to subjects of minor importance . Money , for example , is only the instrument of exchange , or for conducting one part of the general business . However useful , however convenient , it is not indispensable , and in the early stages of society as well as in the latest , while barter was yet
the practice , and wherever business is now completed by means of credit exclusively—by wliich , in fact , innumerable transactions are carried on—money is not used . Because this useful measure of value , however , has been in some sort monopolised , and always regulated by Government , and because it is common to the whole society , it ; has been elevated in the public consideration above the exchange o commodities , and the production of them , to which it only contributes . Without them none of us could exist , without exchanging them existence would be very circumscribed and barbarous , and
consequently production which is promoted by exchange , and exchange which money subserves , are both much more important than money , and the former is indispensable for all . On the same principle we observe that banking , which is only one mode of dealing with money and keeping accounts , or one of many means of diffusing the use of capital through different species of industry , is placed above tLe arts it subserves . Because it is a new art comparatively ; because those ¦ who carry it ou are , as the rule , necessarily men who have acquired and deserve the confidence of society , and are generally
w ' ealthy or reputed to be so ; and because Government has taken . the regulation of this business on itself , and has established national or other banks , banking is treated as of much more importance than the businesses o the merchant , manufacturer , and retail trader , to the success of the meanest of which it at best only contributes . Production , to sustain consumption and keep alive the individual and the race , being indispensable , and exchange , money , banking , credit , & c , being all only convenient helps to this great end , stands first for consideration , and should for ever be
kept before ike public in the most prominent position . Accordingl y * tbe markets for food and drink , and especially the corn market , the market for raw materials , for manufactures , & c , will be placed foremost in our arrangements . On the more or less quantity of food depends the number of the people ; on the more or less quantity of commodities produced , the amount of all exchanges , the number of merchants , bankers , and others , depends , with the amount of all real business ; ana production , therefore , at all times demands the serious and first attention of those who would understand or treat of commercial matters .
The prices of corn , and cattle , of cotton , of flax ; , & c . & c , indicate the relative abundance or scarcity of these commodities , and , by boing closely watched , guide the merchant and the banker in many matters of business very remote from tbe things themselves . Eor example , the consumption of nqo in Europe within the last few years has been closely connected with its ryo harvests ; these , therefore , influenced and determined the importation of rico from Asia , and could but have influenced the advances which prudent bankers in Bremen , Hamburg , and London , would majce to merchants dealing in this somewhat hazardous commodity . To quote another illustration ; in 1857 there whs no such abundance of corn , cotton , flux , and other food and raw materials as
necessarily to increase to a vast extent the exchange of commodities , and , accordingly , when bills by dealers in tallow were multiplied three or fourfold more than usual , bankers might have known , or at least suspected , that tlio documents did not represent genuine sales , and should have mado them decline , as some prudent bankers did , to lend their mca , ns to keep up and increase a fictitious and false system of trading . Tims prices in the produoc markets arc an index to a vast quantity of business besides immediate purchases , ana probably they are
an index to more business than any other similar facts . . . ¦ - ¦ » Although a great deal is said about the import of the precious metals and the influence of variations in the quantity of money on prices , we must ask our readers to remember that gold and silver , or gold or silver , are tlie current money and measure of value throughout the commercial world , and that the present rapidity of communication of one part with another tends to keep them at all times everywhere equally diffused , and about of equal value . Notwithstanding the late and
everrenewed discoveries of large supplies of gold , this and silver are to be obtained only in very limited quantities , and always far below the wants of society . The consequence is , that the two metals have for ages preserved a relation of value to one another very little variable , and ha ve preserved in general a very fixed relation to the value of all other commodities . The price of wheat is at all times affe cted infinitely more by the goodness or badness of the harvest than by any change in the quantity and value of money . In truth , the comparative fixedness of the value of gold is one of the most
remarkable circumstances iu economical history . Within a century Europe and the United States have been successively inundated with paper money as a substitute for gold or silver , but instead of this increase of money debasing the gold , the paper has been debased , and the gold has remained nearly fixed in value in relation to all the wealth of society , testifying ,, like a voice from Heaven , against the folly- aud the rascality of the governments which forced paper into circulation . No increase of paperpromises to pay a specific amount of tbe precious metals on demand can ever affect prices , for they will be regulated by the intrinsic value of the metals , for which the paper can be always
exchanged ; and therefore we conclude that prices arc very rarely , if ever , really affected by any possible changes in the value of money , and may in the main always be regarded as an index to the more or less plentifulness of commodities . Money , banking , the Stock Exchange , arc all , with railways and shipping , subordinate to production , and will be so treated in our columns . They are all of great and growing importance . We learn , as we come to comprehend the real phenomena of society—which arc other terms for population , its motives and pursuits—that more social evil results
from slight derangements in these and other great businesses than fromallwhiclilegislationdocsorcau do ; in fact , it is only as it affects these businesses that it does either good or harm , for as long as they all flourish all goes well , but when any of them arc deranged all goes ill . To promote them is the chief object of all legislation ; they arc all closely interwpven one with another , and it never fares ill with laud , shipping , or railways , hut bankers , merchants , and stockbrokers , & c , suffer too . In production they and all mankind arc interested , and commerce , or exchange , or communication—call it what you
p lease , we call it commerce—is the chain which binds all together . It is usually represented as the link between nations , but it is forged between individuals at home and abroad , and only connects nations as parts of the great whole of population . Prices in the markets , which guide the operations of dealers , are , in truth , indexes to the wants of mankind , and as London is the centre of commerce , the heart of the circulation of wealth , the nourishment of society , the prices of all kinds of commodities in the London markets—corn , capital , securities , spices , & o . —is of universal importance , and they ought ull to bo recorded . Tbe reason why
the'jjprico ° » stocks or securities of all kinds now occupies so largo a portion of public attention is , that m them , as far as possible , tho capital is invested whioh is not required for production .. In modern times they constitute a vast reservoir of power , or legal ofaims over future production , on whioh all who apo ontit , led or can borrow a title oan draw to any amount . Tliero was a- time when tho Stook Exchange was a , mere gambling-house on a largq scale ; it still retains too much ana too many of its old foaturos , but it has becomo tho means of raising funds , or applying in duo proportions that vast reservoir ot power to future enterprises . National debts are no longer the solo securities
there dealt in , but tlie vast amount of property in vested in all kinds of joint-stock enterprises that at once promote present production and provide for future production . Enterprising men now look to leading members of the Stock-Exchange for aid and assistance in raising funds for all new undertakings Without exaggerating the utilit y of this function more than any other help to production , we recognise its importance , and shall always take care to make its action known .
Ireland's Opportunity. The Gal Wav Line....
IRELAND'S OPPORTUNITY . THE GAL WAV LINE . [ From a Correspondent . '] The great subject of steam transit and commerce from Ireland to British North America and the United States is now fairly before the public , andia a principal mercantile topic of tlie day . Politically , it is of no less importance , since it undoubtedly promises , or rather assures , the solution of the
great difficulty of British statesmen , —how to make Ireland contented , happy , and prosperous . Could the great O'Connell himself be summoned to the earth , and were a prospective of the Galway line placed in bis hands , he would pronounce agitation indeed to be dead , not in the exhaustion of famine and the depopulation of his beloved isle , but in the new dawn of hope and prosperity brightening upon his dazzled vision . Looking at what steam transit has effected for the commerce of
every nation adopting it—looking at tbe European and American highway , wliich will shortly traverse Ireland—considering what has already been done , and what will be done at the single port of Galway alone—we feel assured that Ireland ' s " opportunity " has arrived , not in England ' s danger , but in her own commercial development and greatness . Again , is she not about to be linked by a six days' bond of connexion ' with the giant provinces which still loyally acknowledge British sway ?—through the vast and fertile territory of abundant resources lying between the north-west of Lake Superior and the gold regions
of Columbia , across the magnificent tract stretching from the neglected banks of the noble St . Lawrence to the newly appreciated harbour of Vancouver , the great belt of commerce with China , Japan , and the Eastern Archipelago will unrol itself like a rich carpet patterned with cities , stations , forts , depots , and the emporia of trade . All this must widwiu regenerate Ireland , and why should it not ? Ueographically it is her light , and morally , socially , and politically , how great would be the crime to seek interested
to deprive her of it . , Nothing , save an and short-sighted jealousy , could raise objections to so truly national a blessing , so grand an enterprise . For ourselves we utterly deprecate tho idea that Englishmen wish anything but the most brilliant success to the Galway undertok ing , which initiates the steam commerce o ! Ireland with America and the rest of the w ^ llvij " tholic and Protestant , Englishman and Irishman , Saxon and Celt , must follow with their ier cnt aspirations for her safety every steamship elm tered from an Irish port , or be traitors to their
Tho people of NewfoundlandI have had ^ " ^ portunity * afforded them of displaying . tho IiMW public spirit and loyal national iechng VA 0 » co Ve our North American colonies . . 1 liey at onoo re sponded to tl . o mission with which ^ rd Buw ™ charged , by oirorinff a handsome pos ; t » l 8 «» 81 $ * tho Galwny line . We have no doubt but that « ov » Scotia and tho Canadas will hasten to follow ^ tneir example . Let the Homo Government »™ * ' ° * S they are aware of tho true magnitude and minor iw of tho interests at stake . Wo shall not "" P ^ M extension of Mr . Cunard ' s subsidy of nearly Wwj a year providod they show an equal "tow" / Bfi behalf of British find Colonial interests . \ c it ni k _ i . ! . „ .. »! ,: „ !„ . „<> aiim nt niOllCV SCeiu » •'
opportunely granted , considering that |» ° " werful line had to contend in Ha infancy w' ^^ VCk " opposition , backed by Liverpool ami Now l f * ' Jd spoaks well for tho now undertaking tlmt > t ^ afford to stand so far upon its m 0 . ' . . S gjab of Lever , with 3 Q 0 miles' distance saved on tius « ^ tho Atlantic to the Iriah emigrant , am » ™™ days iu time galnod to tlio advices of lll ° ! " ?„ o and tho dospatoh of the statesman , liaB shown i self no moan rival to Mr . Ounard , with ¦ " * f tt 35 l *»«* mont support nn < l patronage and his , » ng-w hono urB lino of summon . The latter has earned tho hong
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111858/page/24/
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