I. AN EXPOSITION OF THE CRISIS OF 1857. The Crisis a hopeful Event-The "Sick Man" will get better if he has Constitution enough-No fatal Lesions in Agri- culture, Manufactures, Railroads, or Commerce-The American House sound, but the Partners in Debt to each other-Sketch of the Growth and Prosperity of the Partners -Public Opinion as to the Source of it-The Financial Partner, with general Appro- bation, introduces the same Principle into his Department, and issues Paper Money, and Outstrips the others-Complicity of the State with the Financial Partner-The System is Unequal, but the other Partners think it all right, and Mortgage their Pro- perty more deeply-A Principle settled: "The more Debt, the more Money"-Money both very Plenty and very Scarce, and proposed Reforms-Statement of Account be- tween the Partners-Notice of Settlement-How received - Why objectionable--Its disastrous Effects, and the ostensible Reasons for giving it-Sketch of the Financial Partner strengthening his position-Extent of it -Consequences to the rest of the House-They sue for Relief, and in vain-Abstract Rights limited by Terms of Part- nership-The Right and Wrong of the Case-The Collision-General Protest Day- ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS—WINE Definition-Characteristics-Tartar-Non-acidity Sugar-Natural Ferment-Aroma-Must-Antiquity and Varieties - Wine of the Scriptures-The Jewish Wine-Wines of Cana in-Wines of the Romans, Grecians, V. THE CENSUS SYSTEMS OF CIVILIZED NATIONS. Their great Importance, History, and general Adoption-How conducted in different Nations -Suggestions for Improvement-Difficulties in Obtaining correct Censuses-Special Arrangements for Statistics of Agriculture and Manufactures-Beneficial results of Complete Censuses. By FRANKLIN B. HOUGH, A. M., M. D., Superintendent of the Census of the State of VI. OLD FOGYDOM IN TRADE AND COMMERCE. BY BEN CASSEDAY, Esq., Editor VII. WHY MERCHANTS ARE LIABLE TO FAIL IN BUSINESS.. VIII. THE LAW MERCHANT. No. XII. LIMITATIONS. By ABBOTT BROTHERS, Coun- Resume of Financial Affairs - Resumption of Specie Payments in New York and most of New England-Redemption of Country Money-Effects of the Resumption-Continued Move- ment towards Liquidation-The influence of the Financial Pressure upon those engaged in Trade-Prospect of a Nation al Bankrupt Law - The Small Note Currency-The State of the Money Market The News from Abroad-Prospect of increased Immigration-The Gold Re- ceipts and Coinage - The Banking Movement-linports and Exports at the Port of New York for the Month of November- ash Revenue at New York--Exports of Domestic Produce- New York Cotton Market. By CHARLES W. FREDERICKSON, Broker, New York. 80 Pamphlets on the Currency and Banking Suggestions for a New System of Banking, By Mr. E. B. BISHOP, of Louisiana. Valuation, Taxation, and Finances of San Francisco.. Act in relation to Savings Banks in the State of New York JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. Finances of the United States-Report of the Secretary of the Treasury. STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE. Prices of Eleven Articles for Forty Years. By DAVID M. BALFOUR. Esq., of Boston. Imports and Exports of the U. S from 1789 to 1857. By DAVID M. BALFOUR, Esq., of Boston.. Consumption of Tea, Sugar, and Coffee in the United Kingdom Prices of Breadstuffs in New York for Ten Years Imports and Exports of Provisions at Cincinnati for Twelve Years.... Exports of Provisions from the United States to Great Britain from 1851 to 1857. Trade and Production of British India. Commerce of Smyrna, Turkey, in 1856.-Coasting Trade of France.. Treaty between the United States and the Shah of Persia. Importation of Foreign Spirits into Costa Rica Tariff of Morocco.-Tonnage Duties in Chili.-Importation of Spirits into Newfoundland.. Free Importation of Cereals into France.-American Vessels going into French Ports... Decrease in the Depth of Water on George's Bank, Mass...... Magnetic Variation near Boston.-Beacon Range Light at Sapelo. Ga.. Light-ship off the Blackwater Bank, Coast of Ireland, St. George's Channel. The New England Mutual Life Insurance Company-Fourteenth Annual Report of the Direct- ors to the Members, at the Annual Meeting, December, 14, 1857 Statistics of the United States Postal Service in 1857-Number and increase of Post-offices- Transportation Statistics-Revenue and Expenditures-Ocean Steamship and Foreign Mail Arrangements-City Posts--Express Agents on Railroads-N. York and N. Orleans Route- Overland Mail to California--Postal Delivery and Sub Post-offices in the City of N. Y.... 110-113 RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Receipts and Working Expenses of Railroads in England and Wales.... Steamship Navigation of the Upper Mississippi-Arrivals at St. Paul, 1844–1857 JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART. Spinning Seed Cotton into Yarn on Plantations- G. G. Henry's Invention Gold in the Form of Malleable Sponge.-New Uses for the Castor Oil of Commerce.. STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c. Public Lands of the United States-Report for 1857 by the Secretary of the Interior Nurseries in the United States Composition of Milk at Different Times of Day. Hog statistics of Kentucky.-Production of Wine in Wurtemburg. Immigration into Canada from Europe in 1857 The Industrial Population of England,-Population of Holland................. The Decay of the Asiatic Races.. What Becomes of the Bones: their Use and Commercial Value The Banks and the Merchants; or, Taking Care of One's Self in Panic Times Sympathy and Fidelity in the Panic.-The Farmer and the Merchant The Dutchman's Gold in a Panic.-Confidence better than Gold.. Picture of a Chinese Market-Shopkeepers at Play in a Panic The Dutch Banker of Louisville who kept Resuming." Example worthy of Imitation.- hange for a Dollar "Lives of American Merchants." By FREEMAN HUNT, A. M., Editor of Merchants' Magazine. 138 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. JANUARY, 1858. Art. I.-AN EXPOSITION OF THE CRISIS OF 1857. THE CRISIS A HOPEFUL EVENT-THE THE financial troubles of the country need no longer want a proper name. At first, scouted as panic, senseless and causeless, for the full cure of which only a little confidence was needed; then discussed under the name of the pressure, which was tardily admitted to be the fact by the public journals, while large volleys of rhetoric were discharged at the panic, its guilty accessory:-these troubles at length arrived at the dignity and importance of a crisis. The suspension of the banks of New York city, after two months of boast and defiance, during which period they were (according to their own showing) alike impregnable under siege and assault, and bearing aloft the banner on whose ample folds was inscribed the financial honor of the country, ceased to be a dim possibility, but a present and significant fact. Virtually, if not formally, the other banking institutions of the country followed suit, and suspension general, if not total, became the order of the day. I think we may congratulate ourselves and each other that we at length reached a crisis. For a crisis, unlike a panic, has in it elements of hope, and often premonitions of returning health and strength. Our “sick man," the financial system, has been for a long time in unhealthy condition-his bloated form and feverish activity proclaimed that--but of late, like Job, covered from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot with malignant boils slowly progressing to a head, his sufferings have been intense. But, with the crisis, the aching and throbbing malady reached its acme of agony; relief or dissolution must follow. And the constitution of our Young America is by far too firm and springy, for us to think for a moment he is on his last legs. Let us try and learn the facts of his case. In July last, the fears which had been entertained earlier in the year respecting the crops were fairly dispelled, and it became evident that not merely average crops, but abundant plenty, would crown the harvests of the year. An unusual breadth of land had been put under plow and harrow, and the earth was justifying the largest expectations. It was nowhere disputed that never before had the soil been so largely planted, and yielded so bountifully. Whatever else might happen, there could be no lack of bread. Not only enough for our people themselves to eat, but after a careful comparison of figures, from eighty to one hundred millions of dollars' worth to sell to other nations, after the necessary abatements to supply the wants of a rapidly increasing population. The great interest of the country-the agricultural-was safe beyond contingency. How great the values which have been lifted from the soil by the powers of nature, under man's husbandry, since the snows of 1856, will from census returns, and necessary inference from them. appear best In 1850, the annual value of the agricultural products of the country was but a fraction short of $1,300,000,000; the estimate of 1854 was put at $1,600,000,000; and it is believed the figures of the year 1857 reached $2,000,000,000. It is, and was seen to be months ago, a handsome income for a single branch of industry-agriculture. Take another department of labor-manufactures. They have been in the main prosperous and growing. Though, in exceptional cases, and for brief periods, falling short of the expectations of proprietors, (when were men's calculations of gain ever fully realized?) the manufacturing interest has been steadily and largely increasing. In 1850, its annual creation of values footed $1,000,000,000, and it is no unreasonable estimate that places them, in 1857, at $1,500,000,000. Thus, in two departments of labor-agriculture and manufactures-there have been produced by the labor and skill of our people $3,500,000,000. But when to this vast sum are added the profits which have been made by our ships, plowing every ocean, bringing and carrying the commerce of the country, and the profits upon our domestic or internal commerce, which together were rated, in 1850, at $1,500,000,000, the annual returns from these three sources alone reaches from five to six thousand millions of dollars. A people whose yearly creation of values is measured by figures of this magnitude ought not to reckon themselves insolvent without a clear demonstration from facts and figures that such is their condi tion. An income like this is large enough to stand some losses, and pay for some improvements upon the farm, without breaking down the proprietor, and sending him into corduroy, and his wife and daughters into home-spun. But improvements had been made upon the farm which complicated the question. Nearly 25,000 miles of railroad had been built, and the money had been partly borrowed. They had cost $825,000,000. In many cases they had paid good dividends upon the stock, and kept up the interest money; in others, not-for they had been pushed boldly in every direction-and the creditors were not now pressing for their pay. Whether they were a 3 or 10 per cent investment for the individual stockholders, there was no doubt the railroad improvements were a remunerative investment for the farin; the country had profited in its increased productiveness vastly in consequence of them. They were no South Sea Bubble -no Credit Mobilier-through which everybody was going to get rich they knew not how-by doing they knew not what-by the simple force of accumulated capital, and whose splendid assets turn out, upon investigation, to be but splendid debts. Whatever shifting valuations may be put upon the stocks by the caprices, or fears, or reckless gambling of Wall-street, the iron highways and the iron steeds remain, and can earn their living, nay, pay for their keeping, and something more, in dragging to the seaboard the heavy granaries of the West Upon these vast highways of commerce and pleasure rest some $80,000,000 of direct railway obligations, and about as much more in State and city obligations, issued for railroad purposes; and this comprises the whole registered FOREIGN indebtedness. We speak not of the whole bonded and floating debt upon the railroads of the United States owned at home-that is another matter. One hundred and sixty millions of dollars upon property which cost eight hundred and twenty-five millions, is no ruinous and hopeless debt. Twenty per cent only of their cost owed for abroad-the balance, of 80 per cent, belonging to the American people. Any one of us, owning a house which cost to build it $5,000, would not regard a mortgage upon it of $1,000 as an alarming indebtedness. What, therefore, as a people, we owe abroad for our railroad system is no fatal affair; much less fit cause for a general downfall. What else do we owe for abroad? Nothing but the account current of our merchants for such importations as their shipments of produce and gold have not already canceled. Put it at $90,000,000-one quarter's purchases, according to last year's figures. Two hundred and fifty millions foreign indebtedness, and five thousand millions profits on agriculture, commerce, and manufactures! Foreign debt, 5 per cent on one year's income-a large part of the debt not yet due! And when to income is added the value of capital which the industry and thrift of former years has produced, that has not been spent, but remains-the farms, the fences, the dwellings, the shops, stores, manufactories, bridges, railroads, steamboats, ships, mines, &c., which constitute some part of the wealth of the country, and rated, exclusive of United States government property, at $18,000,000,000, it becomes no mere flourish of declamation, but just sober truth, that, as a people, not only are we not ruined, but wealthy and prosperous beyond all precedent. The AMERICAN HOUSE is sound undeniably. All this was apparent three months ago; for with the balance sheets |