FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. THE money market, during the month, has been exceedingly well supplied with funds; and, although at times attempts were made mostly by the banks to advance the rates, they failed, through the promptness with which the loans were replaced from private sources. In almost every case where outstanding loans were notified of higher rates, they were paid up with money procured at a less figure. This has been the case, although at New-York nearly $3,250,000 were absorbed in the month of January into the Government Treasury for duties, and gold accumulated to the extent of $10,000,000 at the mint, through the inadequacy of the establishment to perform its duties. It is not alone the abundance of mere money (specie and bank notes) which causes capital to be apparently so cheap, but it is the ample supply of natural wealth which comes down in payment of goods consumed, continually cancelling obligations, and throwing money back into the reservoirs whence it issued. It is also the case that a large amount of capital has of late reached this country from Europe, in exchange for evidences of debt, public and corporate, while in the last ten years there has been no increase of government obligations. The following table, carefully compiled from the official sources of each state, shows the amount of the state debts nearest to January, 1851, with the annual interest payable by the states, the revenues and expenditures, and the taxable valuations for 1850: DEBTS OF THE SEVERAL STATES, SHOWING THE DIRECT AND THE CONTINGENT DEBT. ALSO, THE ANNUAL RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES-WITH THE LAST VALUATIONS: Absolute Debt. Contingent. ..878250 Massachus'ts..1085500 N. Hampshire............. Rhode Island....41000 New-York...22530802 Interest paid, Receipts. Total. Expenditure. Valuation, 1850. :....878250 :...66000..525688..604726.100157573 .4049564: ...5135064 ...58888 :..540658..601604 ..109728:...90000: .24842.....24842 3000 ..125374 ..109872 .71183: 80818 .299878329 80820114 .850: ..80000: 75000.104851805 Maine.. Vermont.. ..58036 .2464 Connecticut. ...33112: ....33112 ....37000 .1214282..767962 ..826720 .724874293 .2200 ..128583 ..125542 2004714.4438131 .4265329 -469860270 ..690866.1213104.1209310 .96000 ..140000 .191281081 S. Carolina....2061292: ...2061292 ..120000 ..600292 ..531864: 280017813 MASSACHUSETTS.-The direct debt is mostly for deficient government revenues; the indirect, for loan of credit to rail-roads. NEW-YORK.-Direct debt is for canals and rail-road credits assumed; the indirect, for credits loaned to rail-roads. The revenue and expenses do not include those of the canals. VIRGINIA indirect debt, is mostly for credits loaned to public works. NORTH CAROLINA debt, is a credit loaned to the Gaston Rail-road assumed by the state; the indirect, is a similar credit, not yet fallen upon the state. FLORIDA debt, is for bonds loaned to broken banks; and the contingent debt is accu. mulating interest. ALABAMA debt, is the unredeemed credit loaned to the state banks; and the indirect, other liabilities connected with the institution. MISSISSIPPI Debt. Direct, is for bonds loaned to the Planters' Bank; the indirect, the fraudulent bonds of the Union Bank. LOUISIANA. The direct debt is for loans for state purposes; the indirect, the bonds loaned to banks. TEXAS.-The debt is the face for which the state is liable. The nominal amount of the debt is $12,322,443. A new loan for $200,000 was authorized. ARKANSAS debt, is the bonds loaned to the banks; and there may be accumulated interest in addition. MICHIGAN debt, is the balance of bonds now outstanding. INDIANA AND ILLINOIS direct debts, are those for which the state is liable. The contingent, is the debt to be liquidated only by the state canals, and their property in the hands of trustees for that purpose. MISSOURI, is the old debt. There are now two projects before the Legislature of that state. One to authorize the Pacific Rail-road, capital $4,500,000; and the Hannibal and St. Joseph's Rail-road, capital $4,500,000-making together $9,000.000; of which, twothirds, or $6,000,000, is to be raised by state credit. This last bill has become a law. Although a large portion of this amount has gone abroad within a few years, and the accumulation of capital in this country has been immense, the disposition has, up to this time, been to curtail public credits. Missouri is the first state which has resumed the old policy; and she has done this, by chartering a railroad, and authorizing a loan of the state credit to the amount of $3,000,000 for its construction. This fact is an additional evidence that governments never learn by experience. As long as the state patronized rail-roads in New-York, they did not progress. But the expenditures of private capital in the state now reach $60,769,797, and the roads are all profitable. Very many of the western cities have adopted this plan of loaning credit, and it will prove injurious to their interests. The amount of capital going into rail-roads all over the country is immense, and also into banks. Illinois will require $20,000,000 for rail roads. Aud a bill to authorize a general banking law having passed the Legislature, is to be submitted to the people for approval. In New-York, the multiplication of banks is very rapid, and will not fall short of an increase of $10,000,000 for the present year. In New-England, the increase is also very great. This state of affairs tends to promote an extension of credits in making sales, and to revive those long credits which led to the disasters of former years, and which caused a suspension of all the banks, in the words of Mr. Biddle, "until next crop." As if those who had, by getting goods on credit, consumed a crop in advance, would go a year without consuming at all until they had paid up. It is, however, the case that the resources of the country are vastly greater now than at the date of the former years of speculation. Up to 1835, there may be said to have been but one route to connect the country west of the Alleghanies with the Atlantic slopes, and that was the Erie Canal. There are now four in operation, and still another in course of construction. The following are these lines, with their cost and revenue: Total, five routes.. .1715...... Cost. Revenue, 1850. .7,143,789....2,926,817......420,000....2,506,817 .12,381,824....1,550,555......996,592... ..553,963 -20,323,581....1,063,950......513,412......545,538 .14,669,152........2,896,042....1,005,948....1,890,094 ..7,227,400........1,387,000......800,000......587,000 $61,745,746 $9,724,364 $3,735,952 $6,083,412 810,022 Western (Mass.) R.R....... 150 The revenue of the Erie canal in 1835, the year the Pennsylvania canals were opened, was $1,392,130, and that represented all the tolls collected on western trade. This last year, that trade has paid on the five lines tide-water, a sum greater by $8,410,000, or nearly seven times greater, and if we remember that the tolls tare now very much less than then, we can safely estimate that the trade west of the Alleghanies with the Atlantic slope was ten times greater in 1850 than in 1835. We are also to bear in mind, that a considerable quantity of goods now passing down the lake to Ogdensburg, over lake Champlain to New-York, and over the rail-road to Boston, constituting a new route, and also that the Pennsylvania rail-road, already 174 miles, is about to open still another route to the west. In this glance at means of communication, the merchant at once sees the broad foundation on which a large business now rests, as compared with fifteen years since. If we continue the view into the vast works of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, we shall find, that by means of public works, what may be called the "working surface" of those fertile states, has been increased to a still greater extent; and if our external commerce this year has been large, it has not kept pace with the vast development of our internal intercourse. It has been the case that a general idea of manufacturing distress has gained currency in the community, propagated by protectionist politicians, for party purposes. That many branches of manufactures are depressed, is no doubt true; but this arises from excess of home competition, as in the manufacture of coarse cottons, and pig iron. In woolens, the distress is of an equivocal nature, inasmuch as that it manifests itself in the most active purchases of the raw material at continually rising prices. The deliveries on the great avenues of trade, this year, are greater than ever, as follows: Some of that which was shipped from Buffalo arrived at tide-water; but the demand for wool in the interior of the state has been good, because the amount which arrived on the canals at tide-water last year exceeded the quantity which left Buffalo, by 4,091,000 lbs., and this year by only 3,182,000 lbs. And the woolen factories on the line of the canal declare good dividends. The prices of wool are now, as compared with last year, as follows, in this port : January. Blood. : 44 a 48 39 a Fleece. Merino. 12 a 14 18 a 20 He must be a bold man, who, having an agricultural constituency, should venture to disturb a tariff under which such a deal of prosperity has accrued to wool-growers. Even at these large deliveries and high prices, the manufacturers are eager buyers. Their agents are scouring the country to pick up lots in all directions. A lot of wool sold here this week for 52 cents, from the same grower who obtained for the same stock 45 cents only in the year of inflation, 1836. The woolen dealers, themselves, are astonished at the insatiable demand for wool; but the opening of the domestic spring goods, with their beautiful styles, improved manufacture, and quick sales, removes the wonder. The great prosperity of the wool interest abroad keeping the raw material prevents importation, while the great general prosperity of the country at this moment causes a quick demand for the goods. That the productions of pig iron and coarse cottons has been overdone, admits of but little question; but the remedy is to find a foreign market for the surplus. That can be done, however, only when our manufacturers, depending upon themselves, learn to manufacture as cheaply as rival nations. Gold has now become a national product, and to make it useful to the whole nation it is requisite that it should be coined with facility, and for that purpose a mint is required at the point where it is imported before it spreads itself over the country. At the present moment the gold owners all over the country are paying a tribute of from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 per annum to New-York brokers, because there is no national mint here to furnish coin without cost. The failure of the New-York mint bill in Congress, has, with the reasons given for opposing it by some of the members, been a source of considerable amusement to the interested parties here, on the principle, let those laugh who win." The leading idea of members seems to have been, that to place a mint in New-York would help to aggrandize it—to add to its importance and wealth. Had either of those members consulted any of their constituents connected with California, he would have been greatly surprised to find that it is the want of a mint which enriches New-York at the expense of every constituency in the country. In order to show the practical operation of the matter, I will state an actual transaction. By one of the last steamers from Chagres came a passenger, a returned Californian, with $4,000 gold dust, on his way to his home in Mr. Disney's district, Ohio. He applied to certain parties to know what he should do with his gold. "I am," said he, "in a hurry to get to my family, and I want the money as soon as possible." "Very well; you have three modes of proceeding. You can go Philadelphia, deposite your gold, get a certificate, and get it discounted; you can send your gold by a broker to Philadelphia, paying insurance, commission, transportation, &c., &c., get a certificate, and get it discounted here; or you can sell your gold directly to a broker." The gold is worth $18 75 per and the brokers give $16 to $17 per ounce. Our friend had two hundred and twenty-two ounces, and could get $17; consequently, he would lose $222. To deposite it to send to Philadelphia would cost $150, commissions, insurance, &c., and he would then have a certificate which could not be paid under three months-the accumulation of uncoined gold being already $10,000,000 at the mint. This certificate the banks discount, but at full rate, because of the uncertainty of the time of its payment. Three months' discount, at 7 per cent., is $70, which makes the whole cost $220, a little better than to sell to the broker. But, then, it will take a week or ten days' delay to get this completed, and that unce, will cost $20. To go to Philadelphia and complete the operation, and come back, would amount to about the same thing. Finally, the gold was sold at $17 per ounce, and the Ohio man carried home $225 less money than if a mint, adequate to the wants of California, had been here. He would then, on the morning of his arrival, have deposited his dust, taken eagles, and taken passage for home, with $225 more gold in his pocket than actually was the case. The western and southern California adventurers in this way leave $1,500,000 per annum in New-York, and a large class of persons here is becoming wealthy by these contributions. Now, western and southern members, whose constituents are paying these sums, have voted against a mint here on the ground that to establish a mint here at the annual expenditure made for that in Philadelphia, (viz. $56,000 per annum,) and to stop these gold shavings of $1,500,000 per annum, is to benefit New-York. These are some of the practical jokes of legislation. A member of the "Union Safety Committee," who has recently turned out a brilliant equipage on the profits of gold dust, remarked to a friend, that all the free-soilers had voted against a mint in New-York, in order to punish the city for its Union propensities. The difficulty with members is, that they view matters always from the government point of view. They imagine that the appointment of a few paltry officers, at an expense of $56,000 per annum, is of more importance than the levying of a contribution of $1,500,000 per annum upon their constituents, in order to enrich a hundred brokers. New-York must, however, it seems, bear the infliction with resignation. How meekly the several constituencies south and west will bear it, is their look out. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. A TREATISE ON TRIGONOMETRY-PLANE AND SPHERICAL; with its Applications to Navigation and Surveying, Nautical and Practical Astronomy and Geodesy, with Loga rithms, Trigonometrical and Nautical Tables. By the Rev. C. W. Hackley, LL.Ď., Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in Columbia College, New-York. A new, enlarged, and improved edition. G. P. Putuam. 1851. THIS is a text-book which we can heartily recommend, as combining the simplest and clearest exposition of the elements of the science, with a full and precise view of its more profound application; together with its many practical uses to the Navigator, Surveyor, and Astronomer. Instead of the extremely dry and difficult statement of princi ples which the student encounters at the beginning of many other works of the kind, he is led on by gradual and easy steps, to perceive the necessity of trigonometrical solutions, and to comprehend the formulas in which they are embraced; while at the same time a practical character is given to the whole work by the frequent applications of the subjects to interesting problems in astronomy, &c.; and the student is prepared for every thing in the proper analyses, by the valuable collection of formulas in Appendix I., than which one has never been given more complete. Besides stating the elements of Trigonometry in the simplest, and at the same time most comprehensive form, the work has the merit of examining its practical applicatious more fully than any preceding treatise, as will appear from an inspection of its table of contents. The six parts, considering successively Plane Trigonometry, Spherical Trigo nometry and Practical Astronomy, Navigation, Surveying, Nautical Astronomy and Geodesy; elaborate descriptions of the instruments employed in fixed Observatories, and in the field, are given together with the trigonometric method of adjusting them, and the most minute instruction in all the ordinary operations and calculations of practical astronomy. The work contains much which has not appeared in previous treatises, especially in the Appendices II., and the entire part on Geodesy: a systematic treatise, based ou the methods employed upon the Coast Survey of the United States— most timely and valuable. Indeed, Professor Hackley's Treatise appears to have solved the difficult problem of uniting in one work, the simplest elementary instruction with the fullest details for the more advanced student, and practical adaptations to the wants of the Astronomer, Surveyor and Navigator. |