618 



FARMERS' REGISTER— COMMERCIAL REPORT. 



require funds, he, and the band of capitalists acting 

 in conjunction with him, may fix the standard of 

 our public credit, and elevate or depress it, as may 

 most conduce to his profit and power. He may 

 say to our government, as has been recently said 

 to that of France, you must not march an army to 

 such, or such a frontier ! 



Is such a power in a foreign hand, under foreign 

 influence, not more dangerous than any which is 

 under our own control? 



But if no such potentate shall choose to take our 

 finances, our exchanges and our negotiations 

 under his protection, we shall have, instead of his 

 concentrated action, the diffused one of many hun- 

 dred institutions, each striving to extend the cir- 

 culation of j)aper, unrepresented by specie. Every 

 state, aye, every city, town and village, will have 

 its own special circulating medium, which will 

 vary in value, every mile and every day. 



The traveller will, at each stage of his journey, 

 call at a broker's shop to exchange one rag, which 

 he has carried beyond the orbit of its value, for 

 anoiher which has its centre of circulation on the 

 spot. That which he obtains to pay for his dinner, 

 will be below par at the next stage where he stops 

 to sup. Your readers may trace the effects of 

 such a system, if they are not old enough to have 

 experienced it. The subject need be pressed no 

 further on this occasion. 



If this communication trespasses on matters which 

 you deem not within the proper scope and action 

 of your Register, may not some indulgence be ex- 

 tended to your correspondent in this instance, at a 

 moment when it is impossible to touch on any com- 

 mercial subjects, without adverting to the causes 

 which have so powerful an influence on them? 



Your readers must not ascribe the preceding 

 remarks to any political feeling on the part of the 

 writer, nor consider him as advocating or condemn- 

 ing either party engaged in the present contest — 

 nor as assuming or denying the constitutionality of 

 any charter, or of any proceeding — but simply, as 

 giving to the best of his ability, a hasty view of 

 the present commercial state and prospects of the 

 country. X. 



March 5, 1834. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



3farch 11. 

 Since my last communication was made, the let- 

 ter of which the following is an extract was pub- 

 lished in New York, in the Journal of Commerce 

 of March 7th. It is from Manchester, England, 

 and dated Jan. 26, 1834. The statements furnish 

 some confirmation of my views before presented, 

 and are the more interesting on account of the 

 source and channel from which they are obtained. 



X. 



"The times seem to be sadly out of joint with 

 you ; an immense number of countermand orders 

 have been received by the last two or three ships, 

 and particularly by the Hibernia. In Philadel- 

 phia they appear more alarmed than with you, as 

 parties there have written their agents here not to 

 ship another piece of goods, and to sell any that 

 may be ready for shipment, if it can be done with- 

 out considerable loss. I am in hopes that capital- 

 ists in this country may be induced to invest their 

 funds in America as private bankers ; the subject 



is arresting their attention very much. Mr. , 



mentioned to me that a banker had applied to him 



for his opinion of sending out a large amount of 

 money and establishing a house for that purpose — 

 and I have also understood that the same scheme 

 was in agitation in London. Money here is more 

 plenty now than it has been. Discounts were done 

 in London last week at three per cent." 



From the same paper, March 7th. 



EXCHANGE IN CHINA. 



It is mentioned in the letters from Canton, that 

 bills of exchange drawn by the United States Bank 

 upon their bankers in London, had been sold at the 

 rate of 4s. 4d. per dollar, while there was no sale 

 at all for private bills. The fact is worthy of a 

 moment's consideration, as illustrating the impor- 

 tance of such an institution. The China trade 

 was formerly carried on almost wholly by export- 

 ing silver dollars. But within a few years past, 

 the Chinese, perhaps having satisfied themselves 

 with making silver gods, have turned their atten- 

 tion to articles of more substantial importance. 

 They purchase large quantities of British goods, 

 which renders exchange on London as good to 

 them as dollars and better. But at such a distance 

 and imder the circumstances which exist, it is im- 

 possible to establish private credit firmly enough to 

 sustain so large a business, under all the fluctua- 

 tions of opinion. Generally to be sure, private 

 bills have been negotiated with success, but nothing 

 short of a great national institution has suflicient 

 notoriety and firmness of responsibility to resist 

 the suspicions which occasionally spring up. By 

 means of bills of exchange, our teas and silks from 

 China are paid for by the products of our own soil. 

 For, the bills drawn on London and sold in Canton, 

 are met and paid by funds resulting from sales of 

 cotton and other articles in the ports of Europe. 

 The great expense and risk of exporting specie is 

 saved, and one cause of fluctuations in the money 

 market avoided. A ship sails to Canton for a 

 cargo of great value, and her whole outward cargo 

 consists of three or lour slips of paper, six inches 

 by four. If the whole cargo is lost, every thing 

 is saved. Pirates may capture it, or the fire burn 

 it, still it is safe, and in possession of the rightful 

 owner. 



In the case of the China trade, it is evident that 

 the bills of exchange answer every purpose of 

 specie. The credit is as good as the silver. And 

 the saving of expense enables the people to be fur- 

 nished with teas and other articles of comfort or 

 luxury, much cheaper than they could otherwise 

 be furnished. 



[The foregoing communication treats principally of a subject 

 which is so closely, and to so great an extent, connected with th« 

 interests of the whole agricultural community, that we could not, 

 with either justice or propriety, have excluded it from a Journal 

 devoted to the promotion and maintenance of those interest?. 

 Nevertheless, we would gladly have avoided the necessity of 

 discussing the present " money pressure," because it has been 

 improperly made a party question, and very generally debated 

 upon the ground of one or the other side, subserving the view* 

 of particular individuals in their efforts to acquire, or to retain 

 place and power. But though determined not to permit the 

 Farmers' Register to be connected with party struggles — to be- 

 come involved in the despicable game which is played by " th« 

 madness of the many, for the gain of a few" — still we will not 

 yield our right to discuss any question of political economy, or of 

 general policy, having an important bearing on agricultural in- 

 terests, merely because political partizans have seized on it, to 

 forward their own interested ends, or those of the leaders whom 

 they slavishly follow, and implicitly obey. If every subject was 

 prohibited, thai had b«en used by others to aid party purpose*, It 



