( 600.) Se es 
MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. 
THE bankruptcies of laft month have been more numerous than in proportion to the- ex. 
tent and riiks of the trade of this country, if it were not under confiderable temporary 
difadvantages. }:nterprize is checked by the range of French ufurpation on the Continent, 
by the rapacity of the French exaétions, by the impoverifment of the Dutch, by the infe- 
curity of a great part of Germany, by the alarm of war to the very heart of Rufiia, by the 
dangers ot Portueal and Spain, and by the predominancy of the French power in Italy. The 
ufual inclemency of the feafon puts our Baltictrade at a paufe for fome months ; and, the 
fear of invafion, though never deep, and though now na longer acknowledged, has, how- 
ever, not yet ceafed to be felt in its effects, to diminifh mercantile confidence, and to diforder 
the courle of commercial correfpondence. . 
The internal trade of this country, -at the fame. time, languifhes in fome degree, fo far as 
it refpects the fupply of the conveniencies and luxuries, rather than the abfulute. neceflaries, 
of life. . People iubtraét, almoft every where, fomething from their luxuries, or even com- 
forts, on account of the prelfure of the taxes, and the decreafe in the orders of foreign 
trade.. A little for almoft every one, becoining a great deal tor the whole community, pro- 
duces a diminution in the demands for home conlumption fiom the manufacturer and 
the merchant. Hence the complaint, fo general wis the thopkeepers in every great 
town, that trade is dead ; that their d: uly fales are much fimaller than formerly; that they 
find it difficult to difpofe of their goods for ready money, and ftill_ more difficult to obtain 
ayment for what they have once given out upon credit. 
Belides, in the prefent, as in all times of war, there is an increafe in the confumption of 
the effential neceflaries of {ubiittence, and a confequent rife in their prices, difconraging to 
manufacturing and commercial undertakings, and tending to difable:us trom meeting, with 
advantage, tle competition in fereign markets. Butchers’ meat is, notwithitanding the late 
abundant produce of almoft all articles for the nourifhment of cattle, exceflively dear. 
Wheat and fiour are at prices, comparatively with the produce, very high. Coals are 
(though the navigation between Newcaftle and Londcn be not, either by ftorms or hoftile 
eruizers, juft now very perilous, ) yet fo extremely dear, that a poor family can fearce know 
the comiort, of a go id fire once a week. Oats. and the other coarfer grains, are far fram 
cheap. Above 25,000 quarters of oats were laft week imported from the Continent into the ~ 
ort of London: but iuch a fuppiy, however often repeated, is very {mall in comparifon 
with the predigious and conftaut confumption of hortes’ food. Sugar, now, in faét, a ne- 
ecflary, (and one of the mot falutary neceflaries) of fubfiftence, isto the rétail-cuftomer in 
internal trade, alfo dear. Porter, when of proper ftrength and age, fo excellent a beverage 
tor the labourer, is, by the impofts levied on it and on malt, now fo poor a ftuff, that a 
working man thinks it often neceflary to fwallow, immediately after his beer, a glafs of poi- 
fonous gin, to hinder the former from doing him harm! 
the difficulty of the want of gold and filver for the change of notes, in retail-trade, em- 
barraifes bufinefs, and even impedes the cireulatien of. paper- money, more than is eafily to 
be imagined. If all the mifchiets to trade from every inftance of inconvenience by fcarcity 
of filver-money, were taken in an eftinate together, we fhould certainly find, that, merely by | 
this fmall matter, the lofs to Great Britain and Ireland is not lets than 1Cool. a- -day. 
Yet there are not wanting many encouraging appearances in the prefent condition of the 
trade of this country. The total produce of the taxes for 1803, has been no lefs than 
£-50,804,011 2s. 6id. fterling, a produce remarkably ‘exceeding that of former years. If 
thefe taxes had prefied too feverely upon the fprings of wealth and induftry, it is impoilible 
that they fhould have been paid—impofiible that they fhould not have dimimithed, in their 
produce, much under the produce of fornier years. “They are levied chiefly upon the con- 
fumption of the country, on its labour and produce, and upon the transferrence of commo- 
dities—zot upon mere inert wealth. And they could not, then, have given fo much more, 
if trade, manulactures, domefic comforts, and general produce, had been, in the whole, and. 
in every branch, Giminifhed. ‘ 
The prices of all public ftocks have rifen in the courfe of laf month. - The 3 per cents are 
between 56 and 57. Exchequer Bills are m eager demand: and, in general, as to the trade 
in money, there is abundance of the article in the market, if not for the ufes of trade, yet 
to be Jaid out in the purchate of Government Seci.rities. ) 
The following account of the notes iffued by the Bank of England, or in circulation on. 
its credit at certain remarkable periods in 1805, evinces that body to have contmued its ac-. 
conmodations to Government and trade, without any prodigal abufe of its liberty, to make 
yayments in p aper money. 
Amountot Bank of Ex naland Notes of £.5 each, and apwards, including, Bank Pott-bills, 
payable Seven Days aiter Sight. 
Ls fhe 1St./ot,Jone.o-U 2... - (R639. se £ 19,847,540. 
A Stay Ok ORME OE OS ke | ae 13,013,180. 
Tat, OLANPTLGDEL 2 a 1203, ES I Safe"? 0 12,570,500. 
Zotd.. oe movember. . .T805,.. 2. Uy awe ae nie tor SO eae 
Amount 
