Chapter XVI (4)

What a dolt was I to credit
All these wild free-trading schemes!
Cobden’s calico predictions,
Porter’s importation dreams!
For I loathed the mean alliance,
Even when I chose to wheel
In the wake of him who led us,
Pinning foolish faith to Peel.
Was I mad, to place my honour
In this most disgusting fix?
Half the world was rather crazy
In the days of Forty-six.
O the happy times of premiums!
O the balmy touch of scrip!
Would that I had sold my bargains
Ere they had me on the hip!
Every day a new allotment
Promised shining heaps of gold;
Every day the mounting market
Swelled my hopes a hundredfold.
I remember old Sir Robert,
With his shirt-sleeves rolled on high,
Lust of speculation gleaming
In his gray and greedy eye;
Turning sods with silver shovel,
Celebrating that event
With a speech on competition
At the opening of the Trent.
I have dined with royal Hudson,
And may dine again, perhaps,
Should another exaltation
Follow on this drear collapse.
All had drunk the wine of gambling,
All had quaffed the share champagne,
Wisdom’s warnings were rejected,
Prudence preached to us in vain.
Madness, frenzy, lust of riches,
Reigned within the minds of all,
That, we thought, must answer Peter
Which had served the turn of Paul.
If, by scorning honest labour,
Men made fortunes in a trice,
What might be the luck of Britain,
Casting with Free-traders’ dice?

I am strongly of opinion—
Looking to my country’s good—
That I’ve stuck by him of Tamworth
Rather longer than I should.
As concerning next election,
I’ve received some pregnant hints,
Both from country correspondents,
And the leading public prints.
Cultivation’s at a discount,
Rents are very slowly paid:
Some aver that sly Sir Robert
Has contrived to coin his spade;
Neither is there much progression
In the wool and cotton trade.

What the deuce would men be after?
If those fellows had their will,
England would be straight converted
To a monstrous cotton-mill.
Everywhere would ghastly chimneys
Vomit forth their odious mist,
Settling, like the breath of Satan,
O’er this island of the blest;
When the only occupation
Would be spinning yarn and twist!
Spin away, my brave compatriots!
Spin as largely as you can;
Who shall dare to set a limit
To the sale of shirts for man?
Whilst the raw material’s granted,
Spin away with might and main;
Use the time that’s still vouchsafed you,
For it may not come again.
There’s a smartish kind of notion
Running in the Yankees’ head,
That they need not be indebted
To your kindness for their thread.
In the meanwhile go for cheapness,
Smite the farmers hip and thigh—
Making honest people bankrupt
Is the way to make them buy.
Starve the masses of the nation,
Drive them all into the mills;
Clear the plains and sweep the valleys,
Desolate the Highland hills.
Let the rough hard-fisted yeoman,
All too clumsy for the loom,
Migrate to the western prairies,
Where for labour still there’s room.
Let the peasant and the cottar
Quit the useless plough and spade—
Built for them are costly mansions,
Raised for them are rates in aid.
To the workhouse let them gather,
Or by theft attain the jail;
Honesty has bread and water,
Crime is fed on beef and ale.
O the glorious consummation
Of this truly Christian scheme,
Such as never saint or prophet
Witnessed in ecstatic dream!
Wasted fields and crowded cities,
Swarming streets and desert downs,
All the light of life concentred
In the focus of the towns!
Yea, exult, ye foes of England!
In the downfall of the race
That of yore, in fiery combat,
Met your fathers face to face:
For the pride of lusty manhood,
And the giant Saxon frame,
Never more shall be embattled
In the coming fields of fame;
Shrunken sinews, sallow faces,
Twisted limbs, and factory scars—
These shall mark your next opponents
In the European wars.
Not such yeomen as with Alfred
Won their freedom long ago—
Such as on the plain of Crecy
Triumphed o’er a worthy foe—
Such as drove invasion backward,
Have their homes in Britain now!

This at least our sons may utter,
Blushing for their fathers’ shame—
Brain me with a billy-roller,
If I longer play this game,
Either for the crimp of Tamworth,
Or his first lieutenant, Graham!
No, by Jove! I will not suffer
Degradation of the kind—
What care I for Johnny Russell,
With his hungry host behind?
Let them blunder on insanely,
Digging holes within the sand,
Thinking, like the stupid ostrich,
To escape the hunter’s hand.
Let them shirk the facts before them,
Comforting themselves the while,
That their Economic asses
Can the public ear beguile.
Lord! to hear the blockheads braying,
Spite of proof before their eyes—
“I assure the house,” quoth Wilson,
“Wheat must very shortly rise.
It was so-and-so at Dantzic
More than twenty years ago;
Therefore wait a little longer—
’Twill be up again, I know.”
Jolly Villiers, on the other
Hand, with exultation vows,
More than one-and-ninety millions
Have been plundered from the ploughs;
And he hopes before another
Year shall run its destined course,
To congratulate the public
That affairs are worse and worse.
I, for one, am sick and weary
Of these everlasting prigs;
Quite disgusted with the shuffling
Of the miserable Whigs;
With their impudent averments,
And their flagrant thimblerigs!

Hark, the midnight chimes! I fancy
The palaver’s nearly over:
For to-night let Johnny Russell
And his colleagues rest in clover.
But, upon the next occasion,
When there’s talk about a tax,
Whether it shall weigh on foreign
Or on native British backs,
Master Tufnell must excuse me,
If I seek another lobby
Than the one that’s now frequented
By my former chief, Sir Bobby!

TENOR OF THE TRADE CIRCULARS.

_Liverpool, April 19, 1850._

TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.

Sir,—That a period of severe commercial suffering is approaching us, in which the ruinous condition of the agricultural classes will recoil disastrously, not only upon the selfish Free-trade agitators in the manufacturing districts, but also upon the importers of foreign produce, the broker, the factor, the shopkeeper, and the labourers in our towns, has for some months been patent to all who have dispassionately watched the current of events, and been able to draw correct conclusions from what is going on before their eyes. It is not to official tables of exports and imports that such men look as the indices of the nation’s prosperity. They turn rather to _the results_ of these operations, as disclosed in our commercial circulars; to the degree of confidence displayed by bankers in their dealings with their customers, and by merchants in their transactions with each other; to the movements of produce in our leading markets, and to the amount of activity which characterises the internal trade and the consumption of the country. They are guided, too, very materially, by the general feeling of merchants and traders, expressed in their daily communications with each other, on ‘Change, or in the intercourse of private life. Such a mode I propose to employ, in investigating the real condition of the cotton manufacturing districts of the north of England; and the result of this investigation, which I shall now proceed to lay before your readers, will, I fear, dissipate somewhat rudely the dream of prosperity in which her Majesty’s Ministers, and their supporters in Parliament and throughout the country, are just now indulging.

In pursuing such an inquiry, the condition of the port of Liverpool, the great mart of this portion of the kingdom, naturally suggests itself as of prominent interest. In this port, by the result of our vast operations in imported foreign and colonial produce, the actual results of our export trade in manufactures, and the consuming power of the large population which draw their supplies from it, can be tested with considerable fairness. In an article in your last Number, I find a quotation from the monthly circular of Messrs T. and H. Littledale & Co., whom you truly designate as perhaps the greatest brokers in the world. A portion of this I must re-quote, in order to enable your readers the better to appreciate some later observations of these gentlemen. On the 4th of March, Messrs Littledale wrote:—

“_Great complaints are made of the bad state of the country
shopkeepers in the agricultural districts. We have closely questioned
some of our wholesale grocers and tea-dealers, who assure us that
there is no disguising the fact, that such is the case, and that the
general answer received from their travellers is, that ‘they can get
neither money nor orders.’_ The serious falling off in the deliveries
of sugar, coffee, tea, and cocoa, for the two months of this year,
compared with those of the last, but too truly confirms these
complaints, and are perhaps the most alarming features in our present
prospects. As given in Prince’s public prices current of the 1st
inst., they stand as follows:—

1850. 1849. 1848.
Sugar, 37,006 43,408 42,368 tons
Coffee, 3,795,712 4,907,691 pounds
Cocoa, 450,774 558,888
Tea, 5,375,648 5,502,931

The circular of this house, dated the 4th of April, has since been published, in which they confirm their previous statement; and indeed show that the condition of the country, as tested by its consumption of imported produce, is retrograding. We quote the following as their summary:—

“_General Remarks._—Another month of dull spiritless trade, as well in
our produce markets as in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire.
The demand for consumption has somewhat improved from exhaustion of
stocks in the hands of dealers; but we regret to find the deficiency
in deliveries of the principal articles noticed in our circular of
last month (tea excepted) has still further increased, which speaks
ill for the internal state of the country; in fact, _we believe the
small tradesmen and shopkeepers in the rural districts were seldom or
never in a worse position than at the present_.

“Corn has fallen so low in value, that _the farmers, anxious to secure
their rents, are not in a position to pay their tradesmen’s bills; and
we have been assured that, in numberless instances, their Christmas
accounts for last year are still unpaid_. This falls immediately on
the wholesale dealers, from them on the importing merchants, and
eventually, if no revival take place, must act with double force on
the manufacturers in a diminished home trade and in crippled exports,
which latter must ever depend on our power to take the products of
other countries as returns for our manufactures. To what class, then,
are the present ruinous low prices of grain a blessing? We
emphatically say _to none_; indeed it is quite impossible for so large
a portion of the community as that connected with agriculture to be
depressed, and the other portions long to continue prosperous; and
probably the best impulse we could receive, in the present inactive
state of our colonial markets, would be an advance of 5s., to 10s. per
qr., in the price of wheat. There is no doubt, also, that the fearful
depreciation of railway property, which appears a bottomless abyss of
mismanagement and ruin, tells cruelly on the available resources of a
very large proportion of the people, and adds seriously to the
embarrassment of trade.”

In glancing over this circular in detail, we find opposite nearly every important item the words, “has moved off at easier prices,” “is less inquired for,” “is dull,” or some other phrase significant of commercial depression; yet, during the preceding month, the stocks on hand, owing to the prevalence of easterly winds, which had kept a large number of vessels windbound outside the Channel, had received very little augmentation. It must be borne in mind that the dealings of this firm extend over nearly every description of foreign produce—certainly every large one, timber and iron excepted;—and that the money amount of their annual transactions may be reckoned by many millions sterling. Further inquiries amongst other houses enable me to state confidently that, with the exception of a few trifling articles, the mass of the produce, which is pouring into Liverpool, arrives at an unprofitable market. In cotton alone, amongst the leading imports, a small margin of profit may at present be secured, the abundance of unemployed money in the hands of the banks allowing the speculators, for a short crop, to inflate prices. Such a case, however, tells nothing in favour of a sound state of things. The question of most material import is, whether either the foreign demand, or the home consumption, is so urgently requiring supply, as to enable the manufacturer of cotton goods to concede the advanced rates demanded for the staple, by the American grower, or the speculator at home. Present appearances scarcely warrant such an expectation. The following opinion upon the subject, given by a leading firm in the trade, Messrs George Holt & Co., in their circular of the 12th April, expresses the opinion of all except the most sanguine:—

“We can hardly account for this tendency of prices,”—(they had
slightly advanced during the week)—“or lay before our readers any new
circumstances affecting the value of the staple. No doubt confidence
in the shortness of the American crop remains, and probably is on the
increase. We may add also that stocks in spinners’ hands are at a low
ebb. Still _we have, from day to day, discouraging reports from
Manchester as to the state and prospects of a very large part of the
spinning and manufacturing trade. This depression, which has been so
long in existence, must be got rid of, or modified, before we can have
any permanent well-doing in the raw material._”

“Depression so long in existence!” A great majority of the public, with the speech from the Throne, and the prosperity-speeches of movers and seconders of the Address before them, imagined that the cotton districts, at all events, were flourishing!

A later circular of the produce market, published upon the authority of the entire brokers of the port, exhibits the state of the general produce market in even a worse light than that of Messrs Littledale, quoted above. I append it here:—

“LIVERPOOL PRICES CURRENT, IMPORTS, &c. for the week ending _April
12, 1850_. Arranged by a Committee of Brokers.—T. M. MYERS,
_Secretary_.

“SUGAR.—Holders continuing to offer freely, there has been a fair
amount of business, but at rather lower prices; 450 hhds. B. P., of
which 300 were new Barbadoes, sold at 34s. 6d. to 41s., 3500 bags
Bengal at 34s. to 40s., 1600 bags Khaur at 28s. 6d., and 3500 bags
Mauritius at 36s. to 36s. 6d., being a decline of 6d. to 1s. per
cwt.—_Foreign._—180 hhds. Porto Rico, of the new crop, sold at 40s.
per cwt. duty paid; the export demand continues slack, and sales are
only 24 cases, 150 bags and brls. Brazil and 100 boxes
Havanna.—MOLASSES.—The new arrivals coming in have induced holders of
last year’s crop to take much lower prices than have been hitherto
accepted; the sales are 500 puns. Porto Rico at 15s. 6d., 400 Cuba at
15s. 6d. to 16s., and 300 Barbadoes at 15s. per cwt.; the two cargoes
of new Porto Rico, just arrived, have been sent to store, the
importers not being willing to accept the low price offered by the
Trade; the quotations are reduced accordingly.—COFFEE.—The recent
import of Jamaica has been freely offered, and the slight improvement
that existed ten days ago is entirely lost, prices being now as low as
ever. 80 tierces have been sold, at 46s. 9d. to 54s. for low to fine
ordinary, and 62s. to 100s. for low to fine middling—the latter
quotation being 15s. below the rates of January. 100 bags native
Ceylon were sold early in the week at 52s. 6d., but that price is not
now obtainable, the nominal value being about 48s. per cwt.—A small
parcel of Bahia Cocoa sold at 33s. per cwt.—Nothing done in GINGER or
PEPPER, but a small lot of PIMENTO brought 6⅛d. per lb., being an
extreme price.—RICE.—No sales of Carolina; 13,000 bags East brought
7s. 6d. for broken, and 8s. 6d. to 9s. 9d. for low to good white,
being a decline of fully 6d. per cwt.—RUM is difficult of sale, except
at lower prices; the business consists of 200 puns. Demerara, 32 to 37
per cent O. P. at 2s. 2d. to 2s. 4½d. per gallon.”

There is a further decline, it will be seen, in every important article; and the most experienced houses, I find, are at a loss to tell at what point it will stop. It is generally admitted that, but for the accommodation which the large holders can command, there must have been a general crash long ere this, which would have overwhelmed half the mercantile community in ruin. This would have reacted fearfully upon the shopkeepers in the interior of the country, whose credits would have been suddenly stopped, whilst their overdue accounts would necessarily have been sternly exacted. In fact the bulk of this class at present stand upon the verge of an abyss, into which a sudden panic may hurry them at any moment.

It will doubtless be urged that this state of the produce market is only temporary; that importations, having become profitless, will be discontinued, and the supply thus become equal to the demand. This would be the natural course of things under a sound system; but no sign of cessation of imports is at present to be seen; and it is much to be questioned whether any such cessation can take place, without throwing a large portion of our manufacturing population into very serious distress, if not into anarchy and outbreak. If importation of produce is restricted, exportation must be restricted in proportion. The manufacturer has thrown himself into almost total dependence upon the foreign buyer of his wares. With a flourishing home market for manufactures, a glut of produce might be got rid of without difficulty. But the same cause—an inability of the masses to consume—which depresses the prices of produce, now exists equally with respect to the home market for manufactured goods; and to stop production and exports, with a view to enhance the value of the stocks of produce already received in remittance from the foreigner, would add another element to the perplexity in which the nation is plunged. This portion of the subject, however, it is not for me to discuss here. I only refer to it in order to express the opinions which are beginning to be mooted in influential commercial circles.

In order to be enabled to state, as much as possible upon my own knowledge, the extent to which the internal markets of the country are depressed, and the consumption of produce is declining, I have instituted inquiries among some of the leading houses in Liverpool, who send travellers into the country, and the reports given are fully as discouraging as those given by Messrs Littledale, as to the difficulty both of making sales and collecting accounts. From a gentleman connected with a leading firm in the tea trade, I learn that in the country over which their travellers prosecute their business, the orders which they receive are for very limited quantities, and are, in fact, demonstrative of what, in mercantile parlance, is styled “a hand to mouth” business. Excessive caution and want of spirit characterise the feelings of the retail trade everywhere.

Some of these parties, he suggests, may have locked up a portion of their capital in railway investments, or perhaps lost it. Still, hand to mouth orders—orders for a week’s instead of a month’s consumption, would tell in the long run, if they served to make up the aggregate of past years. But they do not. The consumption of this necessary article is found to be declining; and the objection of the retail dealer to order as largely as usual is accounted for, in the majority of cases, by the inability of the farming and middle classes to pay their accounts as punctually as heretofore. It must be borne in mind, in treating of the consumption of such an article as tea—and I may include coffee, sugar, &c.—that they frequently form the substitute for the poor man’s meal. When the consumption of tea declines, in times acknowledged to be bad, it is the worst sign of the condition of the community.

Another gentleman connected with an extensive firm in the grocery trade, gives still more discouraging accounts. The travellers of this firm extend their operations over the whole of the Midland Counties and the North of England. Their reports to their employers are most lugubrious. For example, one of them, a few weeks ago, remitted home £120, whereas his accounts due were about £1500. As to sales, these are most difficult to make. Consumption is gradually and rapidly declining. Retail dealers in the country towns complain that the farmers no longer expend the money they have been accustomed to do, when visiting markets; but confine their consumption of food more and more to the products raised upon their own lands. One of the travellers of this firm journeys through the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, in which for many years an extensive trade has been carried on in the curing of bacon and hams. This trade he represents as now almost extinct, or rapidly becoming so—the parties engaged in it being unable to compete with the importers of the low-priced hams and bacon of America. Of this class are the farmers of the country which owns Sir James Graham as their feudal lord, and of whom that distinguished statesman asserted, in the debate on the Address, that they must be in a state of plethoric prosperity, inasmuch as he had never had his rents better paid than at his last rent-day. The worthy baronet forgot to say that rent is the last debt that a tenant farmer will omit to pay, the landlord having a power which overrides the claims of all other creditors. If he could have added that his farmers’ tradesmen’s bills had been equally well paid, he would have imparted some information most gratifying to the community. Neither this house, nor any other that I have conversed with, can see any termination to the present declining state of things. It is becoming admitted, amongst the circles with which their travellers mix, that reductions of rent are wholly unequal to meet the emergency of the present crisis.

It is proper that I should refer to one trade in Liverpool which is most prosperous—in fact, the only prosperous one. This is the trade of the merchants engaged in, and others connected with, the emigration of our fellow-countrymen, to seek a home in foreign lands. The following are the statistics of this trade, kindly furnished me by a gentleman officially connected with the shipping of emigrants from Liverpool:—

Ships. Emigrants.
Emigration in 1847 514 128,447
Do. 1848 519 124,522
Do. 1849 565 146,162

During the present year the emigration has been—

January, 6943 Persons.
February, 8779 „
March, 16,783 „
Cabin emigrants, 705 „

At the present moment, notwithstanding the large increase in the shipping—principally American—provided for the trade, berths, and these at very high prices, are most difficult to be got, unless detention is submitted to. Moreover, a great change has taken place in the kind of persons emigrating. Last year, the same gentleman informs me, four-fifths of the parties emigrating consisted of substantial small farmers from Ireland and elsewhere, and skilled artisans from this country. This year, a very superior class of English farmers are leaving a land which no longer affords them a living in exchange for their honest industry. The quays of Liverpool daily present a scene, which few thinking men can rejoice in, and which the country will have to regret. The aged as well as the mature, mothers with infants at the breast, and stalwart youths and maidens, going from vessel to vessel, to select that particular one whose departure from our shores will cut for ever their connexion with the country which they have loved, and in which they leave behind the graves of their fathers. It is melancholy to think upon the misery there must be amidst all this activity, with the momentary absence of regret for old scenes, and enjoyment of the new ones, into which these poor people find themselves thrown. Yet we cannot but feel satisfied that they are about to be bettered in condition by the change.

The depression complained of, as existing in Liverpool, is by no means confined to the classes immediately connected with the staple commerce of the port, but pervades all classes of the community without exception. The produce of half a world is stored in the warehouses of Liverpool, or floating in her magnificent docks. The capital of her merchants is embarked in every clime, and her shipping crowds every foreign port; yet her industrious population are plunged in suffering and embarrassment, and a portion of them—her labouring classes, pressed down by the influx of pauper competition from the hordes of immigrants from ruined Ireland—are continually upon the verge of actual starvation. It is distressing to witness the shifts to which tradesmen are compelled to resort, from time to time, in order to meet engagements, and to stave off, by sacrifices of their goods, the day of ruin. “Selling off” announcements, under all kinds of pretexts, meet the eye in every direction, and yet tempt in vain. The whole community appear to be economising; and tardily paid bills, and reduced expenditure in the comforts, and even in some of the necessities of life, is the rule, not the exception. The extent to which this is carried, and the suffering existing amongst the middle classes, may be judged of by the fact that it has already affected the incomes of many of the clergy of the town, by diminishing the numbers of their congregations and the yield of pew-rents. In one instance which has been mentioned to me, the income of a clergyman, universally beloved, has been thus cut down from £600 a-year, to little more than half; and this is far from being a solitary case.

The result of this state of things is already being felt in a strong reaction, amongst those once the loudest in its advocacy, against the system of Free Trade. Doubts are freely hazarded with respect to the soundness of a policy which has produced such fruit; and the question is upon the lips of numbers,—“Where is the prosperity which was promised to us?” If Mr Cobden or Sir Robert Peel were to present themselves in Liverpool at the present moment, they would have to answer this question, not to the uninquiring crowds who would have cheered their fallacies three years ago, but to men who have reflected deeply, and had deep cause for such reflection. The Right Hon. Baronet, in particular, would perhaps have to reply to another question, and to go a little back in the history of his political life. He would be asked not only, Who had benefited by his Free-trade measures?—a difficult one enough to answer—but what class of the community had been aggrandised _by his currency measures of 1819 and 1844_. To this vital subject the minds of the intelligent mercantile community of Liverpool, of all shades of politics, are being rapidly directed. The Free-trader sees, in the operation of our monetary laws, one leading source of the evil brought upon the country by the carrying out of his favourite measure. He is prepared to acknowledge that Free-trade and a Restricted Currency are incompatible things. And the mercantile body of all political parties still remember the disasters of 1847 and 1848; and the insulting manner in which their prayer, in the October of the previous year, for relief from the unexampled money pressure, which was then prostrating the most extensive and solvent firms, was denied by a flippant and shallow Chancellor of the Exchequer, although at that moment the nation was within a few days of bankruptcy. These things are not forgotten; and, from the impressions which I have been able to form, from a close examination of popular opinion, I should not be surprised to see the influential community of Liverpool throwing politics and party to the winds, and uniting their efforts to procure a relief from the monstrous system which at present withers and strangles in its grasp the industry of England—which tempts us one day, by its lavish kindness, to erect vast structures of commercial enterprise and usefulness; and the next day dashes them into wrecks before our eyes, to be scrambled for by greedy extortioners and selfish usurers.

It is the fear of this power which, to a great extent, is at the present moment paralysing the enterprise of the commercial communities, which would otherwise have succeeded in neutralising a portion at least, but certainly only a portion, of the ruinous effects of Free-trade. A few years ago, no community embarked more largely in those railway investments, so strongly recommended to them by the fosterer of the system, Sir Robert Peel, than the mercantile people of Liverpool. The extent to which such investments were encouraged by the lavish offer of banking facilities to merchants and others, may be judged of by the fact, that the Directors of one Liverpool Bank were, a few weeks ago, compelled to acknowledge to their shareholders, that nearly the whole of their subscribed capital was advanced upon railway stock; and that their Rest, amounting to £100,000, had entirely disappeared. This species of security is now, by the caution with which capitalists act, rendered totally unavailable for the purpose of raising money, when required for legitimate commercial purposes. Hence the timid apprehension with which men, thus situated, regard the accumulation of stocks of produce, for which no remunerative market at present offers itself; and the consumption of which is so obviously on the decline. Hence also the pressure to sell, when they see cargo after cargo pouring in to augment those stocks; the unwillingness to part with funds, for which the shopkeeper and the tradesman are eagerly longing, to enable them to sustain their tottering credit; and that total suspension of all internal enterprise and improvement, which is driving so many thousands of our skilled workmen to other countries, and the labourer to that desolate resort for the very poor—the Union Workhouse. To the attempt to carry out a Free-trade, involving the holding of large stocks of produce and extended operations in foreign markets, with a currency artificially restricted by the last Banking Act of Sir Robert Peel, and further restricted by the caution with which bankers are now conducting their business, since the severe warning inflicted upon them in 1847, is attributable not only the commercial depression already noticed, but also that fearful sacrifice of realised capital, which has taken place from the decline in the saleable value of railway shares, and which, in Liverpool alone, has rendered hundreds of once wealthy men comparatively poor ones, and brought many, in the decline of their days, to a condition lower than that even in which they began the world.

Such is the condition generally of the mercantile community of Liverpool—that port of all others in the kingdom which was most largely to be benefited by the advent of the Free-trade system. From the apex to the base of the social fabric all is uncertainty, fear, and suffering, too intense any longer to be concealed from the most superficial observer; and the crisis has not yet been reached. The reaction has still to come from the manufacturing districts, which, up to within the past few months, in the enjoyment of a moderate amount of activity, caused by a temporary revival of the export demand, are only now beginning to feel the results of the system which, in their selfishness, they invented for their own aggrandisement, at the expense of the industry of the whole empire.

The avowed object of the Free-trader was to stimulate the export trade in cotton goods, which it was always boasted was the most valuable to the manufacturer. So far as regards the quantity of the raw material consumed for the export trade, this is an undisputed fact; but that the amount of skill and labour employed in it is equal to that expended upon goods consumed in the home market is not true. In order to arrive at an idea of the relative value of the two trades, it will be necessary for me to bring before the reader a few figures and authorities. In the excellent _Commercial Glance_, compiled for many years by the late Mr John Burn of Manchester, and now continued by his son, the following statement was given, as the mode in which the cotton spun in 1845 was disposed of. I take that year as being one of great prosperity in the home market, and as showing the state of things antecedent to the introduction of free trade in corn.

STATEMENT OF THE COTTON SPUN IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND IN 1845, AND OF
THE QUANTITY OF YARN PRODUCED, SHOWING ALSO HOW THE QUANTITY SPUN IN
ENGLAND WAS DISPOSED OF.
Lbs.
Total cotton consumed, in lbs., 555,527,283
Allowed for loss in spinning, 1¾ oz. per lb., 60,760,796
———————————
Total yarn produced in England and Scotland, 494,766,487
Deduct spun in Scotland in 1845, 27,737,022
———————————
Total spun in England in 1845, 467,029,465

Lbs.
Exported in yarn during the year, 131,937,935
Exported in thread do., 2,567,705
Exported in manufactured cotton goods, 302,360,687
Estimated quantity of yarn sent to Scotland and
Ireland, 10,734,859
Exported in mixed manufactures, consumed in
cotton banding, healds, candle and lamp wick,
waddings, socks, calender bowls, paper,
umbrellas, hats, and loss in manufacturing
goods, 31,655,230
Balance left for home consumption and stock,
1st January 87,773,049
————————————
467,029,465
===========

I have the most perfect confidence in the correctness of Mr Burn’s calculations, being personally acquainted with that gentleman, and knowing the excellent sources from which he derives his information, and the care which he devotes to the accuracy of all his facts. The result to which the above statement leads is, that the consumption of raw cotton in goods sold in our home markets is 18·36 per cent only, upon the total quantity of yarn spun in England. This, a superficial observer will say, is a very trivial quantity for our boasted home consumption. Let us see, however, in what stage of manufacture, and in what description of goods, the cotton taken off by foreign markets principally consists. In the first place, 131,937,935 lbs., or 28 per cent of the total cotton spun, was exported, as shown in the table above, in the shape of yarn, an article but one remove from the raw material, and the manufacture of which employs machinery principally, and leaves only a small margin of profit to the country. With respect to the description of goods, in the manufacture of which for the foreign market the remainder of the raw material is consumed, little difficulty is felt by persons acquainted practically with the subject. Mr M‘Culloch, in his _Dictionary of Commerce_, page 456 of the edition of 1847—the latest I have before me—remarks upon the facts as striking, that, notwithstanding the superiority of our machinery, and this branch thus being one in which we most greatly excel our foreign rivals, the proportion of fine to coarse yarns spun has materially decreased; and that, in fact, the actual quantity of fine yarns has decreased, whilst the total consumption of cotton has quadrupled during the last twenty-five years. That the quantity has decreased to this extreme extent may well be doubted, although the cheapening which has taken place in silk and other fabrics during this period has, we know, to a great extent caused the disuse, for home consumption, of many once highly prized articles of the cotton manufacture. We may accept, however, the admission of Mr M‘Culloch, as bearing upon the quality of those goods which are taken off by the foreign trade, and of which the great increase in the manufacture must consist. These are, confessedly, the coarse, heavy fabrics, into the manufacture of which the _minimum_ amount of skill and labour enters. We approach then, from this point, to a view of the comparative value to the country of the home and the export trade in cotton goods. In the same work, Mr M‘Culloch estimates the total annual value of the cotton manufacture of the kingdom at £36,000,000 sterling, of which £10,000,000 is put down for the cost of the raw material, £17,000,000 for wages, and £9,000,000 for profits, wages of superintendence, and cost of machinery, coals, &c. I am a little inclined to believe that this calculation is underdrawn, the leaning of the author being to exaggerate the importance of the export trade, the declared value of which in 1845 was £26,119,231, leaving a little under £10,000,000 as the consumption of the home market, or about two-fifths of the consumption of the foreign. In estimating the value to the country, however, of the home trade, we have a right to take into consideration the fact that the great component material of the goods which we consume at home consists of labour; for, whilst the proportion of the raw material consumed in the home trade was little over one-fifth of that consumed in the foreign, the value of the goods was two-fifths.

Admitting, however, Mr M‘Culloch’s version of the case to be correct, but at the same time bearing in mind the fact of his being a somewhat prejudiced authority, let us apply the figures given to the present condition of the manufacturing interest. The average quantity of cotton taken weekly from Liverpool for consumers’ use, was, from 1st of January to 12th of April 1849, 29,475 bales. It has been this year, up to the same date, 23,176 bales—a falling off of 6299 bales weekly, or a little above a fifth of the preceding year’s importations. Perhaps a portion of this decline in apparent consumption may be accounted for by the fact that the stock in the hands of spinners has, to a considerable extent, been allowed by them to become exhausted, through their unwillingness to pay the advanced prices recently demanded for the raw material. With respect to the prudence of this policy, and its probable effect in still further increasing the embarrassment of affairs, I shall have something to say by and by; at present, the question which presses is—In what market has this decreased consumption occurred? The answer must be—In that market which pays for the greatest amount of labour expended upon the manufacture of cotton goods—in the home market. I have not within my reach the most authentic record of the Cotton Trade, for the period up to which I should desire to extend my inquiries—viz., _Burn’s Commercial Glance_, which is only made up half yearly. I have, however, before me this gentleman’s _Monthly Colonial Circular_, dated March the 18th, in which I observe a considerable increase in the exports of plain calicoes, printed and dyed calicoes, and cotton yarn to the following markets, with a few exceptions, for the first two months of the present year:—Calcutta, Bombay (increase in printed and dyed and in yarn, and small decrease in plain only); Madras (considerable increase in plain and printed and dyed, and small decrease in yarn); Singapore and Manilla (small decrease in printed and dyed and in yarn only); Batavia (large increase in all kinds); Hong Kong and Canton (large increase in plain, and small decline in printed); Shanghae (trade removed to other Chinese ports in which there is a large increase): Australian Colonies (increase in all kinds); Mauritius (stationary); Cape of Good Hope (increase in all); Coast of Africa (decline in all); Jamaica (decrease in plain and increase in printed); Honduras (increase); other West Indian ports (decrease); Cuba and St Thomas (both increase); French West Indies (increase in printed and small decline in plain); Brazils (large increase); Chili and Peru (large decrease); Colombia (decrease); River Plata (considerable decrease); Mexico (increase in plain, and decrease in printed); British North America (season for shipments not commenced); and United States (increase in both printed and plain, and a large business done, the shipments for the two months being upwards of half of the entire quantity exported in 1849.) Compared with the average of the same period of the preceding three years, there is an increase to nearly every market. With respect to the shipments to European markets, I cannot speak with precision as to quantities, from the circumstance, which I have named, of the accounts not having been yet made up. From the monthly return from the Board of Trade, however, it appears that a general increase has taken place in the declared value of cotton manufactures to all markets, the amount being in 1850, £3,264,350 for the two months, against £2,837,300 last year. There is a very trifling decline in the export of yarns. From my own observation, I should augur that the increase has extended over March, to the United States and the markets of the Pacific especially—an unusual stimulus having been given to the consumption of these markets by the Californian discoveries. By the bye, I ought to mention, in connexion with the increase in the declared value of our exports this year, the fact that, owing to the advance in the price of the raw material, the value of goods exported will be rated higher than last year. To some extent, however, the severe winter of this year preventing the early opening of the navigation of the rivers of the north of Europe, as compared with the mild season last year, may be a set-off. The Mediterranean trade, and the operations of the Greek houses, have also been limited by our petty quarrel in this part of Europe.

Assuming, however, the actual quantity of cotton consumed by the Export Trade to have been equal to that consumed last year up to this period, and allowing for 40,000 bales, alleged by spinners to have been drawn from their own stocks instead of the Liverpool market, _there will remain a deficiency, as compared with last year, of 5000 bales per week, or 70,000 bales, in the consumption of the raw material manufactured into goods for the Home market_. When it is considered that these goods consist of the finer fabrics, in which the greatest amount of labour is employed, and upon which the largest percentage of profit is realised, whilst those consumed in the foreign markets are sold at the lowest margin of profit, and when exported frequently result in heavy losses to the shipper, the extent of the sacrifice made by the manufacturing community, in their mad adoption of a policy which has destroyed the Home market, may readily be seen.

The correctness of these calculations has been borne out by the general character of the Home Trade during the past four months, in which stagnation, and difficulty in accomplishing sales to consumers and retailers throughout the country, early manifested themselves. In the month of January, strong hopes were entertained, by the majority of the houses engaged in this branch of the business, that the worst of the embarrassment which had so long hung over the cotton manufacturing districts had passed over; and that a wholesome and active trade was before them. The circulars of the month of February, and the reports given week by week in the local journals published in the manufacturing districts, resumed their gloomy statements; and the home demand, it became clear, had returned to its previous lethargic state. From communications entered into with some of the country houses, I have derived intelligence respecting the result of their operations, almost precisely similar to those sent home by the representatives of produce houses as given above. The country buyers who come to the market display an entire want of their accustomed spirit, and buy sparingly an inferior class of goods to those which they have been, in former years, in the habit of consuming. The universal complaint of these parties, and of commercial travellers engaged in the Home Trade, is of declining consumption and ill-paid accounts, especially throughout the purely agricultural districts. One circumstance has tended in some measure to prevent the trade becoming absolutely ruinous—viz., the fact that cotton fabrics are now resorted to by many classes from motives of economy. The farmer’s and the tradesman’s wife and daughters make a fashion of necessity, and substitute printed cotton dresses for more expensive articles. A cotton shirt supplies moderately well the place of a linen one. Articles of elegance and luxury, however, even of this material, are complained of as most difficult of sale. In some of the large towns, a few houses are doing a fair business in heavy fabrics, such as fustians, moleskins, and other articles worn by the artisans and other working classes; and in some fancy goods of the same description for the middle classes. This fact, however, is in a great measure an _exemplar_ of the declining condition of the country generally, the articles in question being worn, in a majority of cases, as substitutes for the more costly woollen fabrics. Moreover, no profit accrues to the manufacturer from these goods, their production at existing rates of the raw material being, on the contrary, attended with absolute loss.

The retail trade in the manufacturing towns themselves, represented as being in such a satisfactory condition, is anything but good, a considerable portion of the population being employed only two or three days in the week, and the whole having been compelled during the past two or three years to submit to reduction of wages, as the price of their boasted boon of Free-trade. This is particularly the case in the districts of Rochdale, (John Bright’s district,) Heywood, Bury, Middleton, &c. The effect of preceding years’ short-time working is still severely felt, last year having been the only one since 1846—when we had the boasted measure of Sir Robert Peel, and the “heavy blow and great discouragement” was inflicted upon British agriculture and our sugar-growing colonies—that the manufacturing population have been fully employed.

Such being the acknowledged condition of the home market for manufactured goods, the question naturally presents itself—what has been the result, so far as profit is concerned, of the operations generally of the manufacturing community during the past four months? In reply to this question, it will be very easy to prove that thus far, in the present year, they have been the reverse of remunerative. The following extract from the circular of Messrs M‘Nair, Greenhow, and Irving, of Manchester—one of the best published, although putting rather the best face upon things—dated the 31st of December last year, will show the prospects with which manufacturers entered upon the present year:—

“MANCHESTER, _Dec. 31, 1849_.

“Exactly twelve months ago we represented the transactions of the
closing month as having been almost unprecedented in extent,
considering the season of the year; and to-day we are happy to have in
our power to communicate a pretty similar statement with regard to the
present month, repeating what we have often remarked, that _December_
in ordinary years is generally marked by dulness and inactivity.

“The position of the market, as indicated in our last (monthly)
circular, continued for about ten days afterwards gradually acquiring
greater force and depression, and accompanied with a decline in the
value of many descriptions of cloth and twist. At that period, from a
very prevalent belief that the commencement of the new year would be
characterised by improvement, an active and vigorous demand for export
and the home trade ensued, which has, notwithstanding the interruption
of the holiday season, continued up to the present time, rendering the
stocks of all kinds of light goods, as well as of some numbers of mule
twist, exceedingly light, and placing many manufacturers and spinners
under contract for some time hence.”

Another authority, Messrs Hollinshead, Tetley, & Co., an old-established cotton firm of Liverpool, who are generally in the possession of the best information, remarked upon the prospects of the district in their circular of the first of January as follows:—

“Prospects for the general trade of the country, at least as regards
the principal articles of export, more particularly cotton fabrics,
were perhaps never more promising; and it is evident that the late
disturbing causes, political and social, in Europe and India, with the
effects produced upon other countries, reducing the consumption of
cotton to 22,230 weekly in 1847, and 27,602 in 1848, (previously
upwards of 30,000 bales weekly,) created a vacuum which has not been
filled up by the increased consumption of 30,512 bales weekly in the
present year; indeed it would seem that this large quantity (and it
has been proportionately great in other cotton manufacturing
countries) has only been sufficient to supply the increasing wants of
the world, as we no longer hear of glutted markets, but the report is
of light stocks almost everywhere. And when we take into consideration
the low price of all articles of food, corn particularly, (a
questionable advantage, perhaps, when unnaturally low, if the home
market is to be considered of any value,) the great abundance of
money, its low value, not exceeding, perhaps, 2½ per cent per annum in
the London market, with a larger amount of gold, &c. (£17,000,000) in
the Bank of England than was ever known before, it is evident that a
great stimulus may be given to the trade of the country, and that with
the disfavour shown to railway property it is most likely the usual
effects will follow—viz., extensive speculation and greatly enhanced
prices of all articles of import, and of cotton in particular.”

The whole of the trade circulars, indeed, both from Liverpool and Manchester houses, expressed similar views with respect to the prospects of the present year; and seemed to expect an increase in the aggregate manufactures of the country. In reviewing the actual state of things which has taken place, I would direct your attention particularly to the fact of spinners and manufacturers being “under contract” at this period, as stated in the first circular from which I have quoted. Such contracts could only have been entered upon, consistently with prudence at least, in the anticipation of a continuance of the then existing prices of the raw material, or upon the assurance of a stock already in hand. To a considerable extent spinners did hold stock sufficient for the fulfilment, profitably, of a portion of their contracts, as is shown by the circumstance that they have, since the commencement of the year, worked up about 40,000 bales of cotton more than they have drawn from the Liverpool market. That in the majority of cases, however, the stocks held were only sufficient to complete a portion of the contracts entered into is a fact which is quite beyond dispute; and these parties have consequently been driven into the market to purchase the raw material at the ruling prices of the day. In order to ascertain their position, it will be necessary to trace the relative prices of cotton and of goods during the interval between December 1849 and the present time. Up to the commencement of that month, the prices of the raw material had been gradually rising; and the almost universal complaint of spinners and manufacturers had been of the unwillingness of buyers to pay a proportionate advance upon goods. Thus, on the 1st of June last year, the price of fair bowed cotton was 4¼d. per lb., from which it advanced gradually, owing to reports of a short yield of the crop in America, until on the 1st of January this year it stood at 6⅜d., being an advance of 2⅛d. per lb. The price of best seconds water twist, No. 20 was on the 1st of June 6¾d., and on the 1st of January 8¼d. The price of best second mule, No. 40, was at the same dates respectively 8½d. and 10½d. We had therefore—

Advance upon cotton, . 2⅛d. per lb.
Do. upon yarn, No. 20, 1½d. „
Do. upon yarn, No. 40, 2d. „

This was obviously a losing trade; and it is acknowledged that, during the whole of this period business was only profitably carried on by the fortunate few who had laid in stocks at the low prices. On the 1st of February the highest price was attained, fair bowed cotton being quoted at 6⅞d., with No. 20 yarn at 8¾d., and No. 40 at 11¼d.—being an advance of ½ on the raw material, ½d. on the No. 20 yarn, and ¾d. on No. 40. To counteract the upward tendency of the market, a resort to the working of short time was resolved upon, principally by the spinners of coarse numbers; and the consumption was thus materially reduced, spinners and manufacturers drawing upon their stocks on hand, and thus keeping out of the markets for the raw material. A gradual decline in the price of cotton was the result—goods, however, sharing in the depression; and on the 1st of April fair bowed was quoted at 6⅛d., or ¾d. per lb. lower than in February. No. 20 yarn, the stocks having been reduced by short-time working, had declined only ½d. per lb.; No. 40, however, had fallen to the same extent as cotton. There was therefore no increase of prosperity brought about thus far by the short-time movement, the price of goods remaining at the same unsatisfactory point as compared with the raw material.

At this date, Messrs Robert Barbour and Brother of Manchester, in their monthly circular, speak as follows with respect to the general trade of the cotton manufacturing districts:—