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Title: Heft „London 1868“. V. The Economist 1867, Januar–Mai
Description: Marx’ Exzerpte aus dem „Economist“ vom 5. Januar bis 25. Mai 1867, im Heft „London. 1868.“.
Author: Karl Marx
Date: 1868
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1868%20Heft%20%E2%80%9ELondon%201868%E2%80%9C.%20V.%20The%20Economist%201867%2C%20Januar%E2%80%93Mai
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*Nach der Handschrift, MEGAdigital (MEGA² IV/19).[^lic] [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1868%20Cuaderno%20%C2%ABLondon%201868%C2%BB.%20V.%20The%20Economist%20de%201867%2C%20enero-mayo)*

## Jahrgang 1867.

### January 5, 1867. N. 1219.

#### Proposals Made for sharing profits between Masters and Workmen

Notice issued by Fox, Head, et Co, of Newport Rolling Mills, Middlesborough-on-Tees (Oct. 1866), with a view to prevent further disputes with their workpeople. Diese works employ about 120 men, when in full activity. The principles:

1) To pay to all the men the full ordinary wages of the district for the several kinds of work, and for the number of hours usual in the district. 2) To prohibit any workman from belonging to any Trades Union, and so long as he is employed at Newport. 3) the firm to have a first lien on the net profits of each year to *the extent of 10%* p.a. as compensation for interest and risk of capital. 4) The surplus of net profits (if any) beyond 10% per annum to be divided equally between the firm and the workmen – the payment to the workmen being calculated as an uniform percentage on the amount of actual earnings of each during the year, in order that the bonus to each man may be determined by his own skill etc. The bonus to be paid to workmen who may have worked for the firm even for part only of the year. 5) Arrangements to be made under the Amended Partnership Act of 1865 for enabling the men to invest their savings in the business at rates of interest depending on profits. 6) The full and absolute control of the business to remain with the firm; and the certificate of a public accountant to be final, and without appeal, as regards the profits and distributions of each year.

Many kinds of trade, and notably the iron trade, have cycles of good and bad years. For long periods a large concern has to be kept in motion at rates which just pay expenses and leave no profit at all. Then comes a spurt of demand, and large profits are made in a short time.

#### Ownership of Landed Property in England.

The *selling price of land* is too high to tempt the small capitalist, unless under special circumstances. In his view land does not pay. If he is to let it to a farmer, he cannot expect a return at the best of more than 3%, and if he is to cultivate it himself, he will have to furnish additional money, with great chance of getting no return at all. Under this persuasion he puts his savings in funds, railway shares, bonds, or mortgages etc. Daher is so little competition for moderate quantities of land, farms of 100 to 200 acres, only fit for cultivation. Wenn for building purposes etc, the small capitalist becomes an eager purchaser. Daher auch *constant diminution of proprietors* holding small quantities of land for purposes of cultivation. The price offered for them is too tempting to be declined. The free holder of 20 acres, who has supported himself and family in a state of great penury, by farming it himself, is offered for it 1000 to 1200l. which, if employed in trade, when added to what may be considered his salary, will double or triple his income. Again take the freeholder of a higher class, who, f.i., owns a farm of 100 acres, and has a capital besides of, say £1000 employed in its cultivation. His total income can hardly exceed 300l. p. annum, 150l. for rent, and 150l. for profit of capital. Bettered his position if he sells his farm for from 4,500 to 5000l., and withdraws the floating capital. He will then possess in money from 5,500 to 6000l., and, if experienced in agriculture, *take a larger farm* from a neighbouring estate, certainly double, and perhaps, his income. … The *break between the labourer and the large farmer* or his bailiff in what are called *improved districts*, the *South of Scotland* f.i., is far too great.

* * *

### January 12, 1867. N. 1220.

#### Foreign Trade.

The *East India Company* , the *Russian Company* , and the *Turkey Company* , in old times, divided much of our foreign trade between them. According to the then received doctrines, the scattered ships of unconnected traders had no business in distant foreign seas.

#### Master and Servant.

A poor man who is accused of an offence cannot employ the same counsel, cannot have the same facilities of collecting evidence, cannot have his case put before the court as a rich man could. For these very reasons the law ought to favour the poor rather than the rich. It ought not to presume on the necessary disadvantages of a man’s position to impose fresh burdens upon him. It has done this in the case of master and servant. It has widened the gulf between capital and labour by attempting to give capital the command over labour. It has viewed the relation between employer and employed as if the first entered into a light civil contract, while the second bound himself by a penal bond. It has given the first a summary mode of redress, while it has thrown the second on his own resources. Summary punishments are the most effectual. Penalties which must be levied by civil process are comparatively seldom exacted, introduce doubt, delay, technical objections, increase costs and obstruct justice.

Many instances of the injustice, caused by this inequal legislation, may be found in a *recent blue book bearing the same title as the article*. Firstly, the servant who refuses to work is taken, mostly in handcuffs, before the magistrate. By the English system of criminal procedure, he cannot be heard in his own defence. The magistrate who tries him is generally a master. The law gives, besides, the magistrate *no option*. If the master presses for a conviction he is entitled to have it, and we read of a case in Scotland where a master refused to take a man back but insisted on his being imprisoned. The man pretended that the master had virtually broken the contract by putting him to work which he was not legally bound to do. This case does not stand alone. In the blue book … an instance of men being refused their wages on the usual pay-day, and yet being compelled to work by criminal proceedings. We have a peculiar case of men being discharged for refusing to work night and day, being then apprehended under a warrant, and, on an acquittal, being unable to recover damages either for their discharge or their false imprisonment. In some trades the master may discharge on a month’s notice, but the servant who leaves on a month’s notice may be sent to prison. At certain steel works, „when a man is engaged, he is supplied with a code of rules, the notice to leave being 7 or 14 days’ notice.“ But the manager, instead of giving this notice to the men, „posts a notice on the wall to say that all those who belong to Unions are to leave at a certain date. The men want the same notice as he would require.“ In the Wolverhampton district it is the custom to enter into contract *for a year*, and the contract stipulates that the master may discharge his workmen at a month’s notice, but that the workmen must give 6 months’ notice. „A workman binds himself for 12 months to his employer“, says a witness from the Potteries, „and the employer undertakes to find him work for that period; but when the workmen sought to force from the employer the full amount of work, he never could obtain it, and the master could force from the workmen his 12 months’ employment.“ When the men know that there are *some 10 000 prosecutors annually under the Master and the Servant Act* , when they think that the magistrates before whom those cases are tried are mostly employers, when they see the justice of peace and the employer conferring in an ale house together before the trial, and returning to the ale house together after the trial, they may be excused for combining against their masters and the law which supports their masters.

The committee recommends that *all cases* should be publicly tried before two or more magistrates, *or* a *stipendiary magistrate*, the procedure to be by summons instead of warrant, the punishment fine instead of imprisonment.

#### A territorial Magnate.

Aus recently published number of the *Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal*, nämlich Prize Essay on the *„Farming of Leicestershire“*. Der essayist says: „That to the *native excellence rather than to any pains bestowed on their* (the pastures) *improvement,* is Leicestershire *indebted for her surpassing fertility, and for the high rental – probably the highest of any county in the kingdom – received by her landowners.*“ The *Duke of Rutland’s estates* extends to  1/16 of the whole county. The estate comprises 39,000 acres, of which about ½ is *strong loam and clay* (the pastures of surpassing natural fertility), of which the Vale of Belvoir, on the lias, forms the chief part, about 5000 acres beyond Leicester being composed of strong marl and gravel. The remaining half being about equally between white and red „creach“ (soil) upon the colite and marlstone formations. The farms vary from 50 to 750 acres; the more general size is from 200 to 400, the portions in grass and arable being about equal. All the ducal tenantry hold their farms from year to year. They have no formal agreement, but a sort of a ukase or „memorandum is printed on the backs of the rental receipts given when rent payments are made.“ This memorandum commences as follows: „Take notice – that the following are the conditions upon which you rent or hold the land in your occupation under His Grace the Duke of Rutland.“ Unter diesen provisions: „5) no trees growing on the premises will be permitted to be lopped or in any wise injured. 6) On your quitting the premises all the manure will be considered as belonging thereto, and will not be suffered to be removed therefrom or allowed for. 7) the game and right of sporting on such lands is (common English would be ‚are‘) reserved to His Grace.“ It is also said the tenants „are *further!* protected by a liberal schedule of allowances, as tenant-right for purchased manure“, though how such a schedule can co-exist with the 6th condition, would puzzle the acumen of legal interpreters of the contract should any litigation arise thereupon. Kömmt hinzu the *political* influence such a territorial magnate can wield, by the agency of a subservient tenantry.

#### The National Debt.

*Returns of the Revenue* for year ending *Sept. 30, 1866* was *68,460,142l.* , wovon 41,876,000£., almost⅔ of the entire revenue, raised by *Customs and Excise*, fallen fast ganz auf beer, chicory, cocoa, coffee, corn, malt, sago, spirits, sugar, tapioca, tea, tobacco and wines. Those taxes act as a *property* tax of 15 to 20% on all that a poor workman has; *9,356,000l. stamps*, affect especially all traders, from small shopkeeper to the merchant who draws bills, also bankrupts and litigants; *3,422,000l Assessed Taxes*, not  1/12 of customs and excise, fall besonders auf die wealthy classes; *5,595,000l Property tax*. The land pays hiervon ridiculously little; *4,365,000l. Postoffice*; und 3,846,142l. von den *Crownlands*.

* * *

### 19 January, 1867. N. 1221.

#### The Danger of mixing up Acceptances and Deposits in the Banking Accounts.

Suppose the *liabilities* of a Bank, viz. deposits and acceptances together, have, at 31st Dec. 1866, fallen off, say 3,000,000l., as compared with June, 1866. The Bank may have shortened sail, and reduced its acceptances, or lost public confidence, so that public has reduced its deposits. While the accounts are put together no human being can tell which. The chairman of one bank has defended the combination of these distinct liabilities, upon the ground that it was not desirable, that the source of the bank’s profit should be revealed.

#### Letters of Creed and Williams on the danger of foreign competition in the iron trade and the subsidiary branches of industry.

#### „Government Notes“ by R. Slater. (Mintnotes) (Bullion notes)

Hat gezeigt, in a pamphlet, *December 1857*, from actual commercial transactions reduced to the scale of one million, that *gold* entered only to about *3% of the whole*, *banknotes* 8%, *bills of exchange* to 53%, *cheques* to 36% of the *actual circulation*. Let the Mint, or some public body, be the recipient of standard gold, and issue its certificates for its value at 3l. 17s. 10½d. per oz. These certificates, or notes against bullion, will circulate over the whole of Europe, without the necessity of exporting bullion. But above all, that bullion will belong to the people in whom the capital of the country is really invested, will be distributed amongst them, and not be concentrated in the hands of the Bank.

* * *

### January 26, 1867. N. 1222.

#### The State of the Money Market.

The natural position of this country is that of an *exporter of bullion*. We are the entrepôt between the mining countries and the monetary countries. The gold of Australia and California, in the main, comes first here, and hence is diffused over Europe and the world. Mere export of bullion daher not to be confounded with a foreign drain of the necessary bullion we require. A certain sum of the precious metals – more or less – is needful for the business of England, and when that sum is trenched upon, we must raise the rate of interest at once and quickly.

Trade is very slack – slacker, perhaps, than ever, for people *must go on for a long interval after a crisis to clear off existing obligations* ; it is not until the ante-crisis liabilities are effaced, that we can truly estimate the effects of such a year as the last. Now we have reached that stage. The demand for capital is falling still more short of the supply than before.

#### Striking etc.

The men should consent to receive payment *part in wages and part in profits* – part as an advance in anticipation of profits, and part when the profits were actually realised; and that the wages or *anticipated portion* should be calculated at such a rate as to leave a balance in the hands of the employers to meet *the workmen’s share of losses* in case losses were incurred. In other words that the men, instead of receiving *the whole* of their share of the profits in advance, should receive only a large instalment of that share. The only difficulty – the workmen could scarcely ever be persuaded to *submit to that preliminary reduction in their fixed wages*. If they desire to have larger profits at the year’s end, they must be content with smaller advances on the faith of those profits during the course of the year.

#### The Farming of Leicestershire. Grass Land.

Leicestershire is the land of the Grazier; its grass land is the great source of its profit. Some of this grass land is, as says *Mr. Moscrop*, the author of the Prize Essay of the Royal Agricultural Society, of surpassing fertility, and *a large part* of its 2nd and 3d class pasture land is very valuable for the dairy and the rearing of store stock. Land produces but little compared with its capacity for production. About ½ the area of the country, containing 522,240 acres, is *under permanent grass*. Was von den grass lands of Leicestershire, and their *management*, gilt von den great grass districts of the *Midland counties*, already the source of so much of our meat supply.

The climate being mild and equable, the rainfall moderate though usually sufficient, and there being *no bogs or mountains*, the Leicestershire farmer occupies a position more favourable than the average of the English counties. The *Eastern division* contains the greater portion of the rich grazing land – consisting mainly of clay loams – varying from stiff to friable. Many of the farms in this division have *no arable land*, others having from ⅙ to ⅓ in arable. *Dairying* is pursued chiefly *on the small farms in the northern portion*, while the great bulk of this division is used for *fattening cattle and sheep*. It is to the natural richness of the pastures „rather than to any extraordinary pains bestowed on their improvement that Leicestershire is indebted for her surpassing fertility“. *The rents received by the landowners are the highest of any county in the kingdom*. Though within the last 20 years – since Repeal of the Cornlaws – much draining has been done, much land yet requires that first and preliminary improvement.

Farms range from 50 to 80 acres, the more general sizes being from 100 to 300. There are, however, *many small holdings ranging from 20 to 70 acres*. The smaller farms are usually occupied by dairy farmers, as their chief product is the wellknown *Stilton Cheese*. Trees und hedge rows bilden a serious incumbrance of the land. The *grazing farms are nearly devoid of farm-buildings*. *Yet these farms let at 3l. and upwards per acre.* Such land will „fatten a bullock, weighing when fat from 50 to 60 imperial stones, and one sheep over 20 lbs per quarter, during the summer months, and in winter will keep from 1 to 1½ sheep per acre. Freedom from the care and complexity of arable cultivation renders these purely grazing farms attractive. Yet they require much attention to render them profitable. Care must be taken to prevent the grass getting too long, and yet the pasture must never be bare, or rapid fattening becomes impossible. Consequently cattle in certain seasons must be bought at whatever cost; and, again, when grass falls short, some of them must be sold even at a disadvantage, or the grass must be supplemented by a liberal use of cake. Once a year the pasture must be grazed bare, or the rough places mown with the scythe. The more general practice to „crop them off during the winter months with Scotch or Welsh runts, termed *‚gnawers‘* “. All this requires watchful attention to keep the pastures sweet and level, and yet have the cattle, including the *gnawers*, in an improving state. The droppings of the cattle are also collected before they have time to rot the grass and ultimately to produce rough herbage which nothing will eat. Meadows, from which hay is taken, are grazed and mown alternately. Here there is great room for improvement, as very little dressing beyond ditch scourings and the clots collected are afforded. The *manure made is most wastefully consumed* for want of farm-buildings.“

*Mr. Moscrop* says: „The scarcity and consequent high price of store stock, together with the many risks of importing disease where all are bought, are tending to a revolution, from mere grazing, so that farms *with a certain proportion of friable arable soil* are regarded much more favourably than formerly, especially if the buildings are suitable, which, however, *is rarely the case*. “

In the *Northern part of the Eastern division* of the country: „About Burrow, and from thence north, some of the pastures are in a much neglected and unimproved state, some fields being covered with ant-hills, to the entire exclusion of all good and nutritious herbage. Drainage is much wanted. Thistles and other noxious weeds abound, and the care and attention bestowed on the grass land in the south of the division is on many farms here totally wanting.“

In the *Western Division of the County* there is a good deal of friable and some heavy arable land. „Seit den letzten 20 Jahren hier progress in the management of the arable land. Dennoch antiquated und obsolete practices yet linger on, but chiefly on the *small farms*; as a rule, the best management is seen on farms of fair size.“ In summing up the account of the grass land, *Mr. Moscrop* says: „There yet remains much land that loudly calls for drainage. There are 1000 of acres of secondrate quality which liberal and judicious manuring would convert into pastures of fair fattening quality. There are 100ds of acres so covered with ant-hills as to be almost worthless. On some farms, hassocks, thistles etc are allowed to run riot. *Much is taken from all the meadow land mown, only a little being returned by few, and nothing by many, the inevitable result of which must be deterioration.* “

#### Manufacturing districts.

*Manchester Jan. 24*. Again Gloomy market for all kinds of yarns and goods. Prices are still against producers. Though short time has been resorted to of late in some districts, stocks must be accumulating rapidly, as the buying has been on the most limited scale. Notwithstanding the limited buying for some time past for the India and China markets, the exports hence continue on a large scale, which shows that many producers are tempted to *consign rather than accept* the unremunerative prices offering in this market.

*Birmingham.* In the foreign department the symptoms of reaction are slight, *the merchants* are *keeping back orders*, and will continue to do so to a certain extent *until much of the indebtedness of long-standing by various foreign markets is renewed*.

*Wolverhampton:* So far the *reduction of prices has given but slight stimulus to the demand for iron*.

* * *

### 2 February 1867. N. 1223.

#### A Curious Effect of the Paper Currency in America. (From the New York Chronicle, financial paper.)

Failures.

|  | Numbers. | Liabilities in all the States. Dollars. | Failures in Northern States only. Numbers. | Dollars. Liabilities in Northern states only. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1857 | 4,932 | 291,750,000$ | 4,257 | 265,818,000 |
| 1858 | 4,225 | 95,749,000 | 3,113 | 73,608,747 |
| 1859 | 3,913 | 64,394,000 | 2,959 | 51,314,000 |
| 1860 | 3,676 | 79,807,000 | 2,733 | 61,739,000 |
| 1861 | 6,993 | 207,510,000 | 5,935 | 188,632,000 |
| 1862 |  |  | 1,652 | 23,049,000 |
| 1863 |  |  | 495 | 7,899,900 |
| 1864 |  |  | 520 | 8,569,000 |
| 1865 |  |  | 530 | 17,625,000 |
| 1866 | 1505 | 53,783,000 | 632 | 47,333,000 |

Das Papiergeld durch seine depreciation takes from the creditor and gives to the debtor. During the war, the failures in the Southern States were not known; but taking the Northern States only, the lubricating influence of the deteriorating currency is wonderfully exemplified in the small amounts of failures in 1862, 63, 64 and 65.

#### Proposed Trades Unions’ Commission.

It would scarcely be possible for any inquiry to show how often the mere existence of Unions have caused masters to raise wages without a strike, or even a quarrel; how often the same fact has prevented them from lowering wages where they would otherwise have been glad of the opportunity; and it is in their *silent* exercises of influence that trade combinations have no doubt effected their greatest benefit. You could discover by investigation, how often overexercise has caused illness; but not practicable to make out, by an investigation, how often moderate exercise has prevented it. Unions, which put the labourers to some extent in the condition of a capitalist, must improve the terms they obtain from capitalists. This power is so great as often to be abused, and to lead the men into wasteful strikes. *But the power itself is an obvious and great good.* Poverty and *inability* to resist disadvantageous offers can never be an advantage to either labourer or capitalist; *for if to either, then to both*; and it is, of course, absurd to assert that a *poor capitalist* who cannot *afford to wait for his market*, is not in a very much inferior position to a rich capitalist who can.

#### Aneline.

The dyers of Lyons and St. Etienne have addressed a petition to the minister of commerce, for a modification in the duties on alcohol, so far as concerns the dyeing trade. The preparation of the colours derived from aneline, „which“, they say, „tends to nothing less *than to dethrone vegetable colours*“, necessitates the *employment of alcohol*; but the Gvt requires the alcohol so used to be „denaturalised“ by the addition of 20% of coal tar, so as to prevent it from being turned to other purposes. This denaturalisation spoils its quality, hence *Swiss* dyers, able to use pure alcohols, are beating the French in the quality of their dyes. The French Alcohol too, though spoiled by the said addition, is taxed heavily, where that of the Swiss pays nothing; consequently, *in price* also, the Swiss defeat them. Whilst in France a kilogramme of light blue costs 445f., it only costs in Switzerland 205f. Nearly one half of the silks of Lyons and St. Etienne are now dyed by aneline.

#### Manufacture of Beetroot sugar.

In the *German States* which formed the Zollverein:

| 1851–2 | 1859–60 | 1864–5 | 1865–66 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,261,372 cwts | 2,915,196 | 3,413,214 | 3,698,825 cwts. |

Owing to the employment of improved processes, and a better cultivation of the root, the quantity of sugar obtained from the beet is gradually increasing. In *1863–4* it was 7½%; in *1864–5*: 8.20, in *1865–6*: 8.55.

| In *Belgium*: | *1863–4:* | 400,620 cwts; | in *1864–5*: 437,896, | und in *1865–6*: 831,037. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Sweden* |  | 217,517; | 230,000; | 300,000 |
| *Holland* |  | 50,000 | 50,000 | 70,000 |
| Dagegen *decreasing in Russia* |  | 1,413,263 | 1,534,505 | 1,000,000 |
| *Austria* |  | 1,169,057 | 1,691,280 | 1,350,000. |

#### Tableau General du Commerce de la France. (issued for 1865.)

|  | Total imports francs. | Taken for consumption. francs |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 2,657,300,000 | 1,897,300,000 |  |
| 1861 | 3,085,400,000 | 2,442,300,000 |  |
| 1862 | 2,899,200,000 | 2,198,600,000 |  |
| 1863 | 3,236,400,000 | 2,426,400,000 |  |
| 1864 | 3,407,400,000 | 2,528,200,000 |  |
| 1865 | 3,527,400,000 | 2,641,800,000 |  |
|  | Total exports. francs | French part thereof. |  |
| 1860 | 3,145,500,000 | 2,277,100,000 |  |
| 1861 | 2,660,200,000 | 1,926,300,000 |  |
| 1862 | 3,049,900,000 | 2,242,700,000 |  |
| 1863 | 3,526,400,000 | 2,642,600,000 |  |
| 1864 | 3,921,200,000 | 2,924,200,000 |  |
| 1865 | 4,086,500,000 | 3,088,400,000 |  |

#### Manufacturing Districts.

*Manchester. Jan. 31.* Large business done in yarns und goods for China und India. Doch producers still complain of prices not paying; consequently, many continued to *consign largely*, *preferring that risk* to selling in this market at a positive loss.

* * *

### 9 February, 1867. N. 1224.

#### Emigration from Ireland. (Communicated by T. E. Cliffe Leslie)

After a loss of ⅖ of its population in 21 years, throughout most of the island the rate of wages is now only 1s. a day; a shilling does not go farther than 6d. did 21 years ago, and the man who earns it might earn 4 or 5sh. or more in America.

What is there in the *diminution of the supply of labour to increase the demand*? What is there in the loss of labour by employers in Ireland, and its gain by employers in America, to equalise the means of payment of both? Irish farmers, f.e. are not enriched by the increasing difficulty of getting hired labour at the very time that their children are leaving them; and the wages fund has been actually diminished in many localities by the disappearance of employers accordingly. The entire organisation of rural districts has been broken up, country towns have lost their customers, the shopkeeper has been driven to follow the farmer and the labourer, and the demand for labour in both country and town has been lessened, not increased, in many cases, by emigration.

That the rise of wages produced by emigration ⦗so far as this has been done⦘ is no proof of prosperity, appears in the fact that it is in the poorest, and not in the most prosperous, parts of the island, that *some kinds of skilled labour are now dearest*, while other kinds are not forthcoming at all. The wages of masons and carpenters are higher in the *West* than in *Antrim or Down*, though the workmen are worse, and *their services little in demand*; building is dearer *in Mayo*, though stone and lime are abundant, than in parts of England where those materials are scarce. It is dearer, *not because there is a great deal of building*, *but because there is very little*; because there is a very limited demand for builders, and, therefore, a very limited supply of them; because few can pay the price of skilled labour; and it is, therefore, *seldom employed*, and hardly to be had. It is only by emptying the labour market, and depriving all but a few rich people of the assistance of labour, that emigration can raise wages considerably, or put a stop to itself, so long as people to emigrate remain. Farmers are not made wealthier or more enterprising by it; it does not create manufactures; on the contrary, *it at once increases the difficulty of production*, and *diminishes the home demand for all articles produced*.

#### The Duke of Rutland’s Estate

gives, wie sein Steward unterrichtet, nur 54,000£ jährliche Rente.

#### The Manufacturing Districts.

*Wolverhampton.* The leading houses are receiving a few more orders from large home buyers, and there are also orders coming, but not to a large extent, from the East Indies, Brazil, and the Un. States, though far short of *sufficient to keep the works fully employed*. The hardware trades are considerably depressed.

* * *

### 16 February. 1867. N. 1225.

#### The Clearing House.

Sir John Lubbock, as honorary Secretary to the London bankers, proposes weekly statistics of the Clearing House. We have no later statistics than *1839*, when certain figures were given to Mr. Babbage.

#### Police Game Preservation.

Schamlosester Act *1862*: *„An Act for the Prevention of Poaching.“* (Sir Baldwin Leighton’s Act). Polizei dadurch in Wildfänger der landlords verwandelt. Dabei voll der most arbitrary Clauses gegen individual liberty etc.

#### Tableau General du Commerce de la France. (bis 1865, published 1867)

Imports into France, including Consumption, Transit und Bonding.

|  | 1863 fcs |  | 1864 fcs | 1865 fcs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 691,800,000 |  | 679,600,000 | 700,200,000 |
| Belgium | 360,700,000 |  | 397,400,000 | 423,500,000 |
| Switzerland | 330,900,000 |  | 344,500,000 | 372,600,000 |
| Italy | 247,200,000 |  | 278,300,000 | 284,400,000 |
| Zollverein | 265,000,000 |  | 286,100,000 | 271,900,000 |
| Turkey | 177,200,000 |  | 166,900,000 | 159,300,000 |
| Russia | 81,800,000 |  | 93,100,000 | 118,000,000 |
| Egypt | 69,100,000 |  | 101,800,000 | 115,700,000 |
| Brazil | 84,600,000 |  | 85,900,000 | 96,100,000 |
| British India | 100,900,000 |  | 117,400,000 | 88,500,000 |
| Algeria | 52,700,000 |  | 76,700,000 | 71,600,000 |
| Spain | 74,900,000 |  | 72,000,000 | 71,500,000 |
| Rio de la Plata | 52,600,000 |  | 41,500,000 | 57,200,000 |
| United States | 92,100,000 | Imports from U. St. were 282,8000f. in 1860 und 393,000,000f. in 1861 | 75,100,000 | 56,200,000 |
| Holland | 55,400,000 |  | 54,000,000 | 54,600,000 |
| Brit. Possessions in Mediterranean | … |  | 12,500,000 | 40,400,000 |
| Brit. Africa | 12,900,000 |  | 13,100,000 | 17,700,000 |
| Brit. America | 3,400,000 |  | 5,700,000 | 3,900.000 |
| Australia | 200,000 |  | … | 100 000 |
| Austria | 21,900,000 |  | 24,600,000 | 27,000,000 |
| Hanse towns | 22,000,000 |  | 31,700,000 | 30,000,000 |
| Mexico | 4,900,000 |  | 6,100,000 | 5,700,000 |

Exports to Foreign Countries (French and foreign Productions on transit)

|  | 1863 fcs | 1864 fcs | 1865 fcs |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 1,039,800,000 | 1,145,000,000 | 1,294,900.000 |  |
| Italy | 354,200,000 | 409,900,000 | 415,900,000 |  |
| Switzerland | 319,400,000 | 359,700,000 | 359,300,000 |  |
| Belgium | 245,300,000 | 257,700,000 | 287,700,000 |  |
| Zollverein | 228,200,000 | 237,000,000 | 235,500,000 |  |
| Spain | 248,700,000 | 266,200,000 | 217,000,000 |  |
| Algeria | 139,300,000 | 131,600,000 | 150,300,000 |  |
| U. States | 107,800,000 | 100,800,000 | 133,400,000 |  |
| Brazil | 81,700,000 | 129,200,000 | 118,900,000 |  |
| Turkey | 118,900,000 | 129,300,000 | 99,800,000 |  |
| Egypt | 47,300,000 | 96,600,000 | 96,200,000 |  |
| Rio de la plata | 44,400,000 | 51,900,000 | 61,900,000 |  |
| Russia | 34,100,000 | 27,400,000 | 29,900,000 |  |
| Holland | 39,800,000 | 40,600,000 | 37,800,000 |  |
| Brit. Mediterranean | … | 20,700,000 | 22,200,000 |  |
| Brit. Africa | 17,200,000 | 16,300,000 | 14,700,000 |  |
| Brit. America | 2,900,000 | 5,300,000 | 3,700,000 |  |
| Australia | 7,300,000 | 5,000,000 | 4,500,000 |  |
| Austria | 11,000,000 | 7,000,000 | 7,400,000 |  |
| Hanse towns | 35,300,000 | 37,700,000 | 45,600,000 |  |
| Mexico | 22,200,000 | 70,700,000 | 70,700,000 |  |

#### Manufacturing towns.

*Manchester Feb. 14.* Business dull. Just enough buying to keep prices steady, and stocks from further accumulating. Goods selling in small lots for immediate wants of buyers. The short time movement does not increase, but manufacturers all complain that they are losing upon every sale they make.

*Bradford:* The failures, in this town and elsewhere, have done much to injure what little confidence remained in the present range in the prices of wool. Transactions few et small. Staplers who must or will sell, have to submit to a further reduction. Prices of yarn are even more irregular and depressed than those of wool. Demands for goods quiet.

*Birmingham.* More favourable than a month ago. Cardinal difference between this and ordinary seasons being that there are few orders on the books beforehand.

*Wolverhampton.* Improved demand for iron, though far from overtaking the means of supply. Tin and copper quiet, in spite of the present low rate of discount, which often leads to large speculative purchases when prices are low.

* * *

### 23 February 1867. N. 1226.

#### Manufacturing Districts.

*Manchester Feb. 21.* Stocks are not pressing heavily on the market, as the short time movement keeps them in a reasonable compass.

*Iron* has moved off slowly. Exporttrade in coals is somewhat active.

* * *

### 2 March 1867. N. 1227.

#### Mr. Leeman’s Bill for Regulating the Sale of Bankshares.

To prevent the „bear“ operations on the stock exchange in Bank shares. At the time, when credit was much disturbed, speculators sold, for future delivery, shares in banks on a large scale, which they did not possess – they then propagated bad rumours as to these banks – thus depressed the prices of the shares – they then gained the difference between the comparatively high price at which they sold the shares when the bank credit was good, and the comparatively low price at which they bought, when partly by their own machinations the bankcredit had become bad. Often great profits in this way gained last year. On the shares which, like those of the Agra and Masterman’s bank, went forth at a high premium, and then, by the failure of the bank, fell to be worth less than nothing, the differences were often very large. The dealers in bank shares gained by the *destruction* of the whole bank, and intended so to gain. Leeman’s bill checks this practice by providing that no man shall sell bank shares which he has not got, and requiring, as a guarantee of his having them, that he shall state their „numbers“ in the register when he sells. Nobody could then sell bank shares which he hoped to buy in the market, because he would never know that he could get hold of the particular shares his sale note mentioned … The price of bankshares is, now that the blot is hit and the danger known, *more* depressed by its being known that this kind of property is subject to annihilation by well planned machinations than it would be depressed by the exclusion of bankshares from the speculative market.

#### Board of Trade Returns.

|  | 1864 | 1865 | 1866 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exports: | 160,449,053£. | 165,835,725 | 188,827,785. |
| Exports in December only: | 12,095,437£. | 15,030,088 | 14,914,363. |

Computed value of the principal Articles Imported for 11 months: *1864:* £197,448,426. *1865:* 180,820,357. *1866:* £211,539,785

|  | 1864 | 1865 | 1866 |
|---|---|---|---|
| In November only the imports were | £.16,164,570 | 19,190,403. | 17,841,738. |

### 9 March, 1867. N. 1228.

#### Banque Enquête in France.

*Rouland* (the Governor der Bank, an advocate by profession) said that France, in the 12 or 13 years previous to 1865, exported *5,825,000,000f.* for foreign investments, and that of that sum a dead loss of *1,773,000,000f.* has been sustained. … *M. Chevalier* asked why, when every other commercial enterprise has need of capital for daily operations, the Bank should do without one? M. de Waru (bankdirector) answered, that it is because the Bank possessed the power of issuing paper money, which no other establishment has.

* * *

### 16 March 1867. N. 1229.

#### Emigration from Ireland (Communicated by Leslie)

Die figures der numerischen Reduction der population seit 1848 fail to show the real change, as they do not show what the natural increase would have been. Nevertheless, agricultural wages throughout the greater part of Ireland are still *under 6sh. a week*, deducting Sundays and holidays; in America the rate is 7 dollars a week, and even more in the Eastern states. Where skilled labour (in Ireland) dearest, it is so only because it is so only seldom employed, and hardly to be had. The price of common labour, on the other hand, is still below a shilling a day throughout the year; having risen in some counties from 8 to 9d. for a day’s work to a shilling, with more constant employment it is true. A rise to this extent, it is very clear, will not stop emigration … It is material to observe that these additions ⦗von food etc zu money wages⦘ are most common, and on the most liberal scale, where emigration has *not* reduced the number of the labouring population; and, in the second place, that while such allowances are far from being general throughout the island, a great *rise of prices* must be set off against the *rise in money wages*. In *1848*, the cost of the Irish constabulary was estimated at 35l. 2s. 6d. a man; *1866* the Commission rated it at 51l. 16s. 4d.; a rise of nearly 50%, and prices have risen since then. In many parts of Ireland, the labourer earns 6sh. a week, where his father, or he himself in his youth, earned only 4; but potatoes were then at 2d. a stone, where they are now above 4d; meat was 3d. a pound, where now it is 7d. or more; the labourer’s clothing 10 years ago was from 50 to 100% cheaper than now; and his whiskey was both cheaper and better. His tea alone is considerably cheaper. He can, indeed, now live upon Indian meal, but his diet on that costs a good deal more than it formerly did on potatoes, and he does not like it so well. What is more to the point, he would not have to live upon Indian meal in America. Were it not for remittances from friends in America, it is certain that a great number of the peasants would be little better off than before the famine; I know cases in *several counties where a labourer is positively worse off* than he was then; that is to say, he earns now just what he did then – a shilling a day; for his employer can give no more on account of the scarcity of labour or the dearness of food. … It has been suggested that increased payments for labour may be met on the part of producers by increased charges on commodities, and that a higher cost of production must result in higher prices for the articles produced. Erstens *Foreign Competition* checks this, und: The limit to expenditure is fixed by the means of the buyer, not by the needs of the seller; and consumers are not enabled to pay more for commodities by having to pay more for services. In the case of commodities, as in that of labour, the *equation of demand and supply at a higher price* involves, if other things are unaltered, *a diminution of both demand and supply* – a decrease in the number both of the buyers and of the articles sold.

#### Manufacturing Markets.

*Manchester. March 14.* Wieder very dull week for all kinds of goods and yarns; stocks, consequently, have accumulated, and are pressing on the market with more severity than hitherto. Prices are, therefore, regulated, pretty much by the position of sellers, and when these are anxious to realise, low rates must be accepted; prices, consequently, are very irregular. Several failures of manufacturers show the unprofitable nature of the trade at the present time.

*Birmingham:* No improvement in the trade of this town; the country orders are small for hardware goods generally; as a rule, those given out by the factors are not more than ⅔ what they usually are at this season. Such *slackness as now prevails has not been experienced here for 12 years*.

* * *

### March 23, 1867. N. 1230.

#### Board of Trade Returns.

Board of Trade Returns. Exported in January (Irish and British Produce)

| 1865 | £10,489,339 |
|---|---|
| 1866 | 14,354,748 |
| 1867 | 12,786,842. |

Der computed real value der Principal Articles Imported waren

| 1864 | £.226,161,840 |
|---|---|
| 1865: | £219,393,987 |
| 1866: | £238,714,094. |

In *December only* the *Imports* were: *1864:* 28,609,265; *1865:* 38,930,967; *1866:* 27,174,300

Vergleicht man Export in *January 1867* und *1866*, so bedeutender *Decrease* (1867) in Export of Apparel, Cotton (Yarns und Goods), Earthenware und porcelain, Haberdashery und millinery, Hardware und cutlery, Leather (wrought, shoes und boots) *Linen* (Yarn und manufactures) *Eisen* aller Art (nicht steel), Seidengarn und -manufactures, Wolle (woollen und Worsted stuffs aller Art ⦗nicht woollen and worsted yarn.⦘

* * *

### March 30. 1867. N. 1231.

#### Mr. Torrens’ Bill for Improving the Dwellings of Artisans.

Till now die *„rookeries“* in towns etc can be cleared und inspected, but not pulled down, except by the owner. Torrens proposes, in the interest of public health and working men’s comfort, to enable any magistrate, or municipal council, or vestry, or other local authority with jurisdiction, to compel the landlord to abate the nuisance. The owner of any house, or group of houses, unfit for human habitation may, on a report of the health officer condemning such houses, be summoned before the Grand Jury to explain their condition. If he fails to do so, the Grand Jury may issue an order for the completion of any necessary works, even if they involve the total destruction of the buildings, and on this order the „local authority“ must act. They will order the owner to perform the work, and if he declines or delays, they may tender to him the value of the premises, and *enter into possession of them themselves*. When so entered, *they will be entitled to borrow money from the State*, and with it erect buildings suitable for the labouring classes, paying the interest out of the receipts from the new buildings, or out of a local rate. The local authority is not, however, to keep the buildings, but to sell them within 7 years. The purpose of the Act is, to enable any municipality, or authority like the Metropolitan Board of Works, to *take* at a valuation the „rookeries“ in great cities, and either clear them away or cover them with habitable dwellings for the poor. … Land in towns is limited in quantity – that is, houses too far from business centres are useless to relieve those centres. … The demand may exist, indeed, does exist; but supply is not afforded, because there is no unoccupied space on which to build … There remains … *only force*, and this is applied in the gentlest manner, the landlord not being compelled to sell unless he refuses to protect the public health and morals in the way required of him, and when compelled, receiving the full money value of his property. … For the rest, the Bill, as it stands, is only important in principle. In practice it is too cumbrous to be of very great use. A few very bad fever centres will, no doubt, be swept away; but we shall have to go very much further than this, especially in London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol, before we succeed in securing that great necessity of modern civilisation, the decent and healthy housing of the mass of the people.

* * *

### April 6. 1867. N. 1232.

#### Parliamentary Return in Ireland.

*Purely agricultural holdings:* 608,864. Davon 174,989 valued at £4 or under, 190,877 over 4l. and under 10l., 123,784 at 10l. and under 20l., 83,259 at 20l. and under 50l., 35,595 at 50l. or upwards. *Tenements in the 798 towns of Ireland:* 392 towns (nach Census von 1861) mit population under 500, 280 mit population von 500 to 2000, 82 mit 2000 to 5000, 26 mit 5000 to 10,000, 18 towns mit more than 10,000 inhabitants. The number of town tenements is 272,381, viz. 156,973 valued at 4l. or under, 85,189 at over 4l., und under 20l., 30,219 at 20l. und upwards.

#### Manufacturing Towns. Iron und Coals less active.

*Manchester. 4 April:* Stagnant market, prices continue to droop. The *larger imports of cotton* have caused prices to recede, and buyers in this market, fearing still lower rates in consequence, keep aloof. Stocks, therefore, continue to increase, placing producers in a worse position than before. With many it is a necessity to realise, at very unremunerative rates. *Further failures amongst manufacturers are reported.* We cannot see well how makers, with limited or no means, can go on much longer at the losing rates now current.

### 13 April. 1867. N. 1233.

#### Manufacturing Markets.

*Manchester. April 11.* Very dull market for both yarns and cloth; during the last 3 days very gloomy feeling owing to the generally current opinion now that prices must give way much further, owing to the languid demand for goods and the large supplies of cotton now coming forward. Prices are all lower and very irregular, some few wealthy producers adhering pretty firmly to our quotations; but the bulk are now anxious sellers, owing to their stocks becoming too unwieldy to hold. All anticipate lower prices.

*Birmingham.* Second quarterly meeting (on 11 April) der ironmasters of the Birmingham district. The quantity of finished iron sold was under the average, but there was a certain steady kind of trade doing; and producers seemed less anxious to press for orders than they did last quarter day. A demand for a large quantity of finished iron on account of the East Indies and Australia is said to be certain, contributed to cheerful feeling. *The* market *for pig iron* firmer, a considerable quantity of that class of iron sold to-day at 3l. 10s. per ton for all mine hot blast; cinder pig has sold 2l. 12s. 6d. per ton. We quote pig iron at 1s. 3d. per ton above the price of last quarter day.

*Wolverhampton:* Orders for iron continue far below the capacity of the works, although there is more doing than in the first months of the year.

*Sheffield:* The large iron und steel houses are doing a brisk trade in *Bessemer steel for railway rails* und other purposes. Some of them have also fair orders for railway wheels, springs and buffers. In most other departments business still languid.

* * *

### 20 April. 1867. N. 1234.

#### Report of the Directors of the Bureau of Statistics on Shipbuilding in the Un. States.

In dem Report und in Evidence (inspection of) von McKay, dessen „once famous shipyard was entirely deserted“. Er sagt: „There was no sale for American vessels other than the *small craft employed in the coasting trade*. First-class ships he formerly built and equipped ready for sea for from 65 dollars to 70 dls per ton; now the same vessels would cost 110 dls p. ton; an investment which would afford no profit to the merchants who employed such vessels. The merchants could do better by investing in Gvt. Securities, which yield 6% in gold, on currency investments, and which are exempted from taxation. In the British provinces, the same class of vessels can now be built and equipped ready for sea for 40 dls to 50 dls gold per ton – about half. And this, too, after buying the oak timber in Maryland. If this state of affairs continues a few years longer, the nation would not own a vessel which could be used as a war transport in the event of war. All our cotton-carrying is done by foreign vessels. Our tonnage statistics for the main part comprise vessels engaged in coasting and inland navigation; very few sea-going ships. *Ship-building* at a standstill … The year *1854–5* was the best year of active shipbuilding in the U. St. From *1856*, it declined somewhat during 1857, 1858, and 1859. Then it went up again, until 1861 it touched almost as high a point as in 1854–55. During 1862, it declined again, but not so much as it had during 1857, 1858, and 1859. In 1863, it recovered its former level once more, but soon afterwards sunk down much lower than it sunk in 1857 und 1859, and now in 1866 it was almost at an end.“ As a consequence the *trade of America* is beginning to be carried on in *non-American ships*.

|  | 1860 | 1864 | 1866 |
|---|---|---|---|
| American | 6,165,934 tons | 3,090,948 | 3,383,187 tons |
| Non American | 2,624,005 | 3,741,131 | 4,438,384. |

Falling off der native tonnage by ½, foreign augmented by almost ⅔ … Much American shipping was (during the war) sold to foreigners, and the rest died out, and was not replaced. But nur ganz schwacher increase in American shipping since war. Ein Hauptgrund ist die unequal taxation, die 6% tax upon all the manufactured products of the country. It favours simple industries, and falls heavily on *compound* industries. A *ship* is a far more composite article than an umbrella. The frame of the ship may be cut out and put together in the building yard; but the iron, the yellow metal, the masts, the sails, the spars, the cordage, and much else must all be bought elsewhere; it is what Americans might call *„an assembled article“*. And upon every item so collected, *two* taxes, at least, are paid, one by the seller of whom the shipper buys, and another by the shipbuilder himself. The new taxation of America has, therefore, a most sure tendency to drive capital from a complex manufacture like shipbuilding to simple manufactures which are only charged once, and agriculture which is not charged at all. … In *shipbuilding*, America has only one advantage, *cheap timber*, and with the daily progress of *iron shipbuilding*, this advantage täglich weniger werth, und America has an incurable disadvantage – the scarcity of skilled labour.

To some extent *shipbuilding und ship-owning* lately depressd (wenn auch nicht to the same degree as in U. St.) throughout the world. *Shipowning* is a trade in which a slight excess of supply produces a great depression of price. When a ship, with a crew on board, arrives in Bombay harbour, she must take what freight she can get; she cannot stay there, as the saying is, „eating her head off“, till freights get better. Accordingly, as soon as a greater number of ships come into port than there are pressing goods for, freights rapidly go down, and with them the profits of shipowning. If, on the other hand, there are but few ships in port, and there is an accumulation of goods on the wharf which the owners want to send on at once to a very profitable, but not, perhaps, very steady and lasting market, freights rise with wonderful rapidity, and then the shipowner gains enough to repay him for other seasons of bad demand and depression. *Shipbuilding* is a trade intended to supply shipowners with ships, and as the profits of the latter are intermittent, so also is their demand for new ships.

#### Emigration from Ireland. (communicated by Leslie)

The mere number of emigrants, great as it is, does not give the real state of the case; it is the young and able-bodied who go, the old and infirm who remain, and a great part of the reduced population of Ireland is in its last generation. … The *rise of wages* is in a great measure *nominal*, and represents a *fall* in *the value of money, not a rise in the value of labour*; being accompanied by a rise in general prices, and being due to the importation of gold from the new world, not [to] the exportation to it of labour. Again, in the places in Ireland where *wages are highest*, as f.i. *Belfast, immigration not emigration* has taken places, so the latter cannot have occasioned the rise.

#### Manufacturing Markets.

*Bradford.* Transactions in wool merely to supply the immediate wants of spinners. So small are the stocks of wool in their hands, that they only buy to cover new orders as they receive them.

*Manchester, 18 April:* Prices are steadily declining and, with one or two notable exceptions, almost total cessation of buying. Holders are now anxious sellers, and as the price of cotton has materially declined, they are now compelled to accept very reduced rates for their productions.

* * *

### 27 April. 1867. N. 1235.

#### Bank o. France. (Aus der Enquête etc)

Der Governor der Bank (French) (1856) asked for the suspension of cash payments. Verweigert. *Andouillé,* subgovernor, adds: „It was on *Octobre 5, 1856*, that the Governor and the Subgovernors of the Bank repaired to St. Cloud to demand a suspension of cash payments; there was a discussion in the Council of Ministers and in presence of Caliban upon the measures to be taken; the suspension was abandoned, but it was decided that no bill with more than 2 months to run should be discounted … No application of the kind has been made since the Bank has been invested by the law of *9 June, 1857*, with the power of raising its rate of discount above 6%.“ Während der Examination folgende heitre Diskussion:

*Andeuillé (Subgovernor der Bank of France):* We used to fear that the establishment of branches would have the effect of scattering our reserve, but we have now grounds, derived from experience, for believing that the small branches we have still to create will only feebly augment the circulation, and will feed their own reserve. We begin by sending them 20,000l., and at the end of a certain time they give us an available surplus.

*M. Chevalier:* The current accounts of the whole 54 branches are not nearly enough to make *80,000l.* a branch, for the *whole of them for all the branches is less than 1,200,000l.*

*Andouillé:* I speak of the *reserve*, not of the *deposits*. We have branches which have *not £.400 of deposits*, but from which we derive 80,000 to 120,000l. in coin every year; it is the *payment of bills of exchange* which more than anything else brings coin to our tills.

*The President:* You mean that *independently of the gain by discounts*, there is an *advantageous drainage of coin*?

*Andouillé:* Thus the *branch of Toulouse* where the deposits hardly exceeded 4,000l. give us *800,000l. of coin a year*, which we distribute among other branches. No long description could convey to an Englishman *so true a conception of the beggarliness of French banking*, as these few facts. The Bank of France … is almost the only great distributing machinery for money capital in the country, and its branches with 4,000 on deposit, and its looking to *coin* as a great means of profit, are evidences of utter banking barbarism. … In England, the diffused country banks were enabled for years to live by the *profit of local issue*; they then became *banks of deposit*, receiving shops for capital, and thus, by a series of petty and unnoticed efforts, *they filled London with capital*, and *created the London money market*.

#### The Working of Trades’ Unions.

The Unions secure considerable advantages to the main body of workmen in each trade, they distinctly injure the best workmen in each trade, they diminish in all trades the incentives to rapid and general progress. That *they tend to raise the average level of wages, by depriving the master of his main instrument, the fear of hunger*, is beyond question, and is indeed unquestioned, because, *if they did not, masters would have very little reason to bestir themselves in the matter*. They would not be displeased with a *strike to lower wages*, if such a thing could occur. Up to a certain point this process is beneficial, as *without some resistance of some kind the tendency of employers would be to lower wages to the limit below which life could not be preserved, a point actually reached in some kind of agricultural work*. It seems, also, clear that the Unions always diminish the number of minor strikes … And lastly the *effect of the Union has been to substitute moral force, social compulsion* for *physical force*, compulsion by the pike, and vitriol throwing and fire raising. A strike ordered by a Union is a very bad thing; but it is a better thing than an organisation like that of the Luddites, which years ago kept Nottinghamshire in terror. On the other hand, the Unions crush down special power, activity, and originality in workmen.

We do not see, f.e. how under the Union theory, any general progress is to be made in trade at all. The Union decrees, it may be quite justly, that to lay, say 100 bricks an hour, is good average work. But if the best men were tempted by the free enjoyment of their faculties to do all they could, they might bring up the standard to 200 bricks, and *devise appliances* (what foolery!) enabling inferior hands to keep up to them. The Unions themselves say that it is possible, for they *discourage piecework*, upon the ground *that it tempts men to „overstrain“*, that is (d.h. that is für einen Cityschweinhund, a ~~Citypig like the~~ City sycophant like the *Economist*) tempts them that is *towards perfection*. (*Perfection* as profitproducing machines for the capitalist!)

Mr. Applegarth, the Unions’ best advocate, tried very hard to show that while the *average wage was fixed*, a master might give a specially good hand *any extrapay he liked*. But! (horrible dictum) Mr. Applegarth forgets that *the master’s interest is to make that extrapay as little as possible, and trust to the man’s pride in his work!*

At present, the Union men are subject, at all events, to emulation and competition from non-Union men, but the Executives try to attract *all* of a particular trade, by steady discouragement to outsiders.

The single thing to prevent is intimidation, whether physical, or, if we can reach it, moral. So far from making Unions, or rather leaving Unions illegal corporations, we would give them every opportunity of *legalising* themselves, insisting only that their rules shall be public, and that every member shall be free to depart without fine or other punishment. At present, he loses all back payments.

The ablest men would form new and smaller Unions of picked men. Jobs would be undertaken by Associations, which would be, in fact, Competitive Unions. By refusing to recognise the Unions, we shall not extinguish them; but we shall turn them into *illegal combinations* with written, instead of printed laws, and a secret and, therefore, oppressive, system of punishment for secession. That was the direct effect of the laws against combinations, and it would be also in a less degree the effect of placing or leaving them outside the law.

There is *not a State in the world* which, *deprived of the power of coercion*, would not go to pieces, and if we can but destroy that, and we can, *the Unions will divide*. Allow new combinations to start easily, and they will be numerous enough, and competitive enough, to keep up the natural progress of society. Persecute a sect and it holds together, legalise it and it splits and resplits, till its unity is either *null* or a non-oppressive bond.

#### United States. – Evidences of Pressure.

The revenue of 1866 was largely exceptional. The *„Commercial Chronicle“* confesses week after week that the „existing system of taxation is oppressive, and that *the inequality of its pressure* is such that if not speedily revised, political discontent and general suffering may perhaps precipitate changes more radical than safe.“ It says, referring to the *small diminution of the debt* (1867): „Experience has shown us that until our internal taxation is better adjusted and more skilfully distributed, a needless oppression of the productive power of the country would be induced by the attempt to pay off from this source, any considerable account of the public obligations.“

Der *New York correspondent* des *Standard* sagt in letter vom *5 April inst. (1867)*:

„Trade has not been so dull since 1857 as at present. The warehouses are filled with idle dealers, the shops with idle clerks, the streets with idle mechanics. The spring business is already over. The people are wearing their old clothes, drawing on the savings’ banks, and giving another turn to the economical screw. Rents and provisions are enormously high; and although dress goods are cheaper than at the same time last year, the people have no inclination to buy. … The newspaper proprietors, with one exception, are drawing on their capital. The business of the railway Cos. is much smaller than at the corresponding period 1866. The Woollen and Cotton mills are running upon short time, and some of them will soon suspend work altogether. And the clamour of the Gold Room and the Stock exchanges are more furious than ever. Während des war all seemed to thrive. And then came Petrolium, with its immense profits etc.

All this has changed. The Army has disappeared. The 100ds of workshops where army clothes and munitions were manufactured are closed. The working men have used up their savings of paper. To be sure, the *paper dollar is, when compared with the gold dollar, worth more than it was a year ago, but it will buy less than then*. (Was beweist, daß die relative Theurung von 1867 gegen 1866 dem Steigen der Waarenpreise und nicht weiterer depreciation des Paper dollar geschuldet ist.) (Taxes etc der Hauptgrund.)

Take the condition of the ordinary working man, a *Carpenter* f.i. While at work, he receives, if an adept in his business, *3½* dollars a day. Before the war, he thought himself fortunate, if he obtained *1½* dollars a day. But he now pays $6 a week for the Rent of 3 rooms; before the war paid rent of $1.50 or $2 for the same rooms. For *flour* of medium quality, he now pays, if he buys it by the barrel, $12 to $13 per barrel, or $17 to $20 per barrel, if he buys it by the sack or small parcel; before the war, he rarely paid more than $5.50 or $6 for a barrel of flour of the same quality. The *Beef* for his Sunday dinner costs him now 18 cents a pound; in 1860 nur 6 to 10 cents a pound. *Potatoes* now sell for $1 a bushel; before the war, they were dear at 20 cents a bushel. *Mutton* sells in *1867* for *18* cents a lb, *1861* for 5 and 8 cts a lb. *Turkeys and chickens* 1861 für 10 cents a lb, now 30 to 35 cts. *Butter*, *1861*, 15 to 20 cts a lb, *1867*: 30 to 40 cents. *Cheese, 1861:* 6 to 10 cts a lb, *1867*: 22 to 30 cts. *Eggs*, *1861:* 8 to 10 cts a dozen, *1867*: 30 to 35 cts. *Veal*, *1861*, 4 to 7 cts a lb., *1867*: 18 to 23 cts. *Pork*, 1861, 6 to 10 cts a lb., *1867*: 17 to 25 cts. *Bacon*, *1861*, 6 to 8 cts a lb, *1867*, 18 to 20 cts; *Lard*, *1861*, 5 to 7 cts a lb, *1867:* 17 to 25 cts. *Red onions*, *1861*, 40 cts a bushel, in *1867*, $2,25 to $2,40. *Beets*, in *1861*, 25 cents a bushel; in *1867*, $1. *White turnips*, in *1861*, 30 cts a bushel, in *1867*: $1.25 to $1.30. *White cabbages*, in *1861*, 2 to 3 cts a piece, in *1867*, 10 to 12 cents. *Marrow squash,* in *1861*, 10 to 12 cts a piece, in *1867*, 10 cents a lb. *White onions*, in *1861*, 75 cents a bushel, in *1867* $6. *Red cabbages*, in *1861*, 8 to 10 cents a piece, in *1867*, 25 to 30 cts. *Carrots*, in 1861, 20 to 25 cts a bushel, in *1867,* 75 cts to $1. In *fish and shellfish* the advance has been quite as great. *Clothing* costs 3 to 4 × what it did in 1861. A mechanic could lay up money out of $10 a week before the war; he can save nothing now out of $20 a week.

Noch schlechter sind die fixed income Leute dran. Die Arbeiter hatten advance von *100% in wages*, aber nicht so *clerks, agents, reporters* etc. Ein armer *clerk* mit 800$ a year, or a little over $15 a week, must pay at least weekly $4 for his lodging und theures Fressen selbst bei den schlechtesten Restaurants. … Our *Labour market is now greatly overstocked*.“

#### Tenant Right in Ireland. (Communicated)

It is maintained that the tenant’s claim should in all cases be liable to a deduction proportionate to the time which has elapsed since his outlay; otherwise, he would be paid twice over; once from the profits derived from the improvements during his occupancy, and a second time on quitting. If no such deduction were allowed, it would be the interest of the landlord to eject the tenant as soon as the improvements were completed, for he might have to pay as much compensation at the end of a long period of years, without any corresponding benefit.

#### Progress of India (Bluebook just issued. (April 1867) (First) „Statistical Abstract“ of India.)

|  | Area. (□ miles) | Population. (estimated) |
|---|---|---|
| British India | 955,238 | 144,674,615 |
| Native States. | 596,790 | 47,909,199 |
| States under French Gvt. | 188 | 203,887 |
| States under Portuguese Gvt. | 1,066 | 313,262 |
| Total | 1,553,282 | 193,000,963 |

British India.

| Calcutta (population nach Census von January 1866): | 377,924. |
|---|---|
| Bombay (dto Census von Febr. 1864): | 816,562 |
| Madras (administrative report von 1863): | 427,741. |

*1864–5:* 2,747 miles of railway were opened in India, and conveyed 12,826,518 passengers. There were 1421 postoffices; 17,117 schools maintained or aided by Gvt. Average attendance of pupils: 435,898 und Gvt. expenditure upon them 391,277l. *4,473,263l.* expended in the year upon *public works*. *11,736* miles of Gvt. telegraph lines were opened.

##### Commerce in British India.

Import by sea from foreign countries

| Jahr 1840–41: 8,415,940l. *1860–61:* £23,493,716. *1864–65:* 28,150,923l. in addition to 21,363,352l. treasure |
|---|
| 1848–49: Cotton goods imported for 2,222,089l. 1864–5 for 11,035,885l. |

Exports from India.

| 1840–41: l.13,455,584. 1860–61: l.32,970,605. 1864–65: l.68,027,016. This last increase due chiefly dem effect des American war (cotton) |
|---|
| 1859–60: Export of raw cotton from British India l.5,637,624. 1864–5: l.37,573,637. |
| The other chief exports in *1864–5:* *Opium*, 9,911,804l. *Rice:* 5,573,537l. *Seeds:* 1,912,433l. *Indigo:* 1,860,141l. *Jute:* 1,307,844l. The *U. Kingdom* took 7,054,388l. exports in *1840–41* und 46,873,208l. in *1864–65*. Exports of *10,874,652l.* in *1864–5* went to China and Japan, and 2,902,596l. to France. |

*Public debt:* *34,484,997l.* in *1839–40* und *98,477,555l.* in *1864–5*. The *troops employed in British India* 35,604 Europeans und 199,839 natives in *1839–40*, dagegen in *1864–5* … *71,880 Europeans* und *118,315 natives.*

* * *

### May 4, 1867. N. 1236.

#### State of the Money Market. (The Savings and Trade)

Exports for the 3 months ending 31 March: 1866: £46,991,165. *1867:* 42,381,621l. *Diminution:* £.4,609,544

Imports for the 2 months ending 28. February: 1866: £.26,457,723. 1867: 24,281,048. *Diminution* 2,176,675.

These diminutions are small, but a long experience shows that *an augmenting trade* is necessary to a stable money market, and that whenever trade goes down, even ever so little, the value of money is sure to be low. The reason is that *the savings of the country accumulate day by day,* and unless *some new outlet is found for them*, an *accumulation of loanable capital* and a *reduction in the rate of interest* is inevitable. Ferner: now-a-days *bills* are scrutinised with extreme accuracy, with more nervous caution than almost ever before, and consequently the „effectual demand“ is less than usual.

#### The Metropolitan Gas Bill

*Every monopoly* must, as such, be under public regulation, or it may hurt the public. Incomparably the best system in such a case where it can be applied, is that the *State should be itself the producer*. This system has been applied in Manchester and other towns to the supply of gas. The municipality manufactures, and if it manufactures ill its members can be unseated, and others who will do better put in. But at present, in Manchester, it manufactures very well.

* * *

### May 11; 1867. N. 1237.

#### Brighton Railway.

In case of 3 lines (*Surrey and Sussex*, *Chichester and Midhurst*, und *West Sussex Junction Railway* Co.), of which the directors of the London and Brighton or their nominees were themselves directors, they have incurred, on behalf of the Co., liabilities never explained to the proprietors, and which, if explained, would have been repudiated. Ferner: *False Accounts*, speciell Verheimlichung von temporary liabilities.

#### Letter of Sir John Lubbock. d.d. May 9, 1867. Clearing House.

Er giebt, to be continued weekly, the Returns of the *Clearing House*, each day in the week. These returns will be published the same day as those of the B.o.E.

| *1839* Exports were | £53,233,580 | und *The average clearing of 1839*: £18,400,000. |
|---|---|---|
| *1866* | £188,827,785 | und *The Clearing for Week commencing Thursday 2 May und ending Wednesday, 8 May*: *57,024,000*. |

The amount of clearing for 1 May, 1866 was *8,006,000l* . The largest amount which passed through the Clearing House in any one day in 1839 was 6,209,900l. und the smallest was 1,529,700l.

* * *

### May 18. 1867. N. 1238.

#### Rediscounting.

Many banks, in the great centres of industry, besonders im North, rediscount their bills in London. The amount of such discounts should be stated. Z.B. bei der *Leeds Bank* (diesem swindle) von £.2,650,300 liabilities, at the time when it failed, waren liabilities on endorsements (rediscount) of bills = £1,919,991 about ⅔ of the entire liability of the Bank to the public. Davon estimated 1,000,000 *not* to be paid at maturity.

An agricultural country cannot *safely* employ its own money. A good class of borrowers does not exist there in sufficient numbers to carry off the yearly savings of the district. On the other hand, there are single streets in some large towns where the whole deposits can be lent instantly and safely. No unemployed saving class lives there. *Rediscounts* best mode of bringing the money to the investment. A West country Bank sends its spare money to London, and leaves it with a billbroker; a Lancashire banker sends his bills to London and asks for money on them. That money when he gets it he takes down to Lancashire and discounts again. In this way trade and industry get the supplies they want, and quiet people are able to employ the money they save.

#### Causes of the Existing Depression.

*First:* At the present time, and for the last 9 months: Limitation of demand in almost every direction, and, consequently, falling prices, declining wages, accumulating stocks, debts difficult of collection, pressure on bankers for advances and accommodation, great diminution of the amount of bills in circulation, and exceeding discrimination on the part of dealers in money as regards the class of bills to be admitted by them at all.

*Second:* Enormous collapse on all sides of enterprises, which, during the *Extension Mania* of 1863–5, were in the highest vogue. In this list, Railways occupy the most prominent place.

Up to May, 1866, the nation had been running a career of desperate extravagance, i.e. for 3 or 4 years, it had been *forestalling its savings in hundreds of ways*.

Dissipation of Capital, während der Extension Mania, almost as complete as a war expenditure. The Great Eastern, the London, Chatham and Dover, the North British, the Great Western and the Brighton did, during 1861–6, raise by debentures, preference shares, ordinary stocks, short loans in the open market, advances from bankers and others, scores of millions st., to be invested in extensions which, for the time, and, perhaps, for some years to come, will not yield any net revenue. The money (!) has been sunk in earthworks, bridges, stations, locomotives, rails, sleepers, carriages, trucks, and land, and the people who found the money have now to go without any income from it.

Ebenso a large part of the investments made during 1861–6 in joint stock cos. of all sorts – *banking, finance, docks, ships, mines, buildings, trading, manufacturing*, and the almost endless catalogue of miscellaneous purpose. The state of the Share List and the Liquidations proceeding in Chancery, are sufficient evidence that  9/10 of these cos have failed to make any profit, and, too, incurred losses so great as to extinguish most of the capital.

The prices of Stock Exchange securities, and the range of dealings in them, were kept up by the appearance of continual fresh bodies of purchasers, who brought into that market capital taken and *to be taken* from other employments, present and future. Demand of all kind was stimulated for the same reason, and so were Wages. It was a period of bold, sanguine, and experimental outlay. It was also *a period of ostentatious expenditure*. Large numbers of people seemed to get rich all at once, and, of course, they hastened to show how naturally their habits and tastes could rise with their fortunes. The panic of May, 1866, brought to a sudden end all this artificial prosperity. Ausserdem kam politische Unruhe, German War, Fenians, Cattle Plague, Cholera, dismal and rainy weather. The *disorganisation of the India trade* has extended throughout the last 12 months. The Railway Discredit occupied all the winter, and the strikes, and severe weather, prolonged to the end of April. Dann die preussisch-französischen Quängeleien.

It is quite certain that there has scarcely been any period when debts were so difficult to collect, and when the usual bills drawn by wholesale dealers on the retailers in country towns met with such irregular payment. The draper and grocer sells less because his customers have to meet the calls of some Railway, Banking, Finance, or Trade Co., either in or just out of the Court of Chancery, and hence are compelled to live in smaller houses and reduced style. The tradesman in the manufacturing town cannot pay because his working class supporters *are earning 20% less wages, with uncertain employment*, and are, besides, *in large debt* for goods obtained on credit during some recent strike or lock out.

Deposits and balances in banks are low, because hardly any one has any surplus means or income; and the rate of discount remains low for first-class bills, because but few such are in circulation.

#### The Clearing House Accounts. (communicated by W. Stanley Jevons).

Der Economist wunderte sich last week, daß Clearing House operations nur 3 × grösser in 1866 als in 1839, namentlich auch weil Export trade 3½ grösser seit jener Zeit und the sphere of operations of Clearing House (durch Beitritt der Joint St. Banks, später der B.o.E. etc) sehr enlarged.

Aber in early part of 1839 trade was very much inflated, and prices exceedingly high (higher in general than they have ever since been), and in *March 1839*, the climax of speculation (see *Tooke* ) was reached. The total *amount of bills drawn* (nach *Newmarchs tables of the amount of inland bills 1830–53*) in 1839 > than any previous year in the tables, or any year after *until 1853*. Although the amount drawn in 1840 was but little less, the bill circulation much reduced in 2nd qr. of 1841, und continued low until end of 1844.

On the other hand, in *May* 1867, year of collapse of speculation, which may well by this time have reduced the current amount of transactions. *The comparison of May, 1866* mit *March 1839* daher nicht conclusive.

Ferner: The Clearing House Transactions, including large part of the inland trade of the country, cannot increase as rapidly as the returns of our foreign trade, influenced by a complete reform of the Tariff. I am not aware that the returns of the income tax, corn sales, excise duties, assessed taxes, or any other available data lead us to suppose the increase of inland trade to be at all so rapid as that of our foreign trade. … Lubbocks returns of the operations of his own Bank, *(„Statistical Journal, Sept. 1865“)* show, in actual numbers, that the amount of currency afloat is no measure at all of the amount of transactions accomplished.

* * *

### 25 May, 1867. N. 1239.

#### The State of the Money Market.

*The savings of the country accumulate day by day* (er sagt grade das Gegentheil im folgenden Artikel), and unless there is a daily increase in the channel by which they are to flow out, they will encumber the market und bring down interest; a fortiori mit diminishing foreign trade. Generally, when money is cheap, credit is good. Dieß Jahr das Gegentheil. The railway scandals, the number of private ruins, or semi-ruins, going on all through the country, the disenchantment with old names by the fall der Overends, the alleged complicity of banks mit railway errors, tend to generate distrust. 1864 credit viel besser mit 8% als jezt mit 3. (und diese nur nominal)

#### The Causes of the Existing Depression.

Bankers can only lend to one set of customers the money left with them by another set … Trade is dull, losses heavy and general, and *accumulation almost suspended*.

Since *Sept. 1866*, average *price of wheat* over *60s.*, or 50% beyond the average price of *about 40s.*, which had prevailed *during the 4 years preceeding* ’66. Corn dear all over West Europe. An advance of 20s. per qr on wheat means a home trade crippled in all its ramifications; and if an enhancement almost as serious extends to France and Germany, the effect is a similar falling off in the purchasing power of some of our best foreign customers .

Nach dem influence der harvest, condition des *Cotton Trade*. *It is now ascertained that a large part of the activity of the cotton trade last year was premature and speculative.* Goods were sent to *India*, *Australia*, and elsewhere, *on manufacturers’ account*, and have not been sold, if sold at all, at remunerative prices. In all these markets, therefore, there is more or less dead stock to be cleared off by such demand as may be stipulated by falling prices. Since the close of 1866 the manufacturers have by short time and total cessation of work reduced the production by about ⅕ und daher der price of middling Upland cotton has gone down von about 15d. to under 12d. a lb. The average price of middling Uplands in *1865* was 19d p. lb.; in *1866* 15½ d., or 18% less; the real revival of the cotton industry depends entirely on the re-establishment of a low price of the rawmaterial. The world cannot afford to buy anything like the same *quantity* of goods mit cotton at 19 or 15 or 11d. p. lb, as when at 7 or 6 or 5d. In order to employ fully our people, machinery, mills, warehouses, ships, all the industries set in motion by *a large volume* of export trade, die alten cotton prices nöthig.

The severe regimen of the past 12 months has brought down the *cost of producing* most of the great manufacturing staples of this country not much less than 30%, taking into account the fall in the prices of raw materials, and in the wages of labour.

In times of active prosperity our *weekly* accumulations probably 2 to 3 mill. l. Since May 1866 they have fallen short of that sum.

#### United States. Strikes. Taxation. Local War Taxes.

In *April last addition* to the Federal Debt of 5 Mill. l. St. The increase of debt to be entailed by the Volunteer Bounty Bill of last session will not be less than 20, may reach 40 mill. l. st. Under special arrangements, their will be *two* collections of income tax in the course of the present fiscal year.

*Standard New York Correspondent writes d.d. 7 May* (1867): „The Illinois Legislature, during its late Session, passed a law directing that 8 hours’ labour should be considered a legal day’s work in the State of Illinois in all cases where special contract for a larger or shorter term of service should not be made. The working men of *Chicago* and neighbouring towns at once fell into the error of supposing that this enactment gave to them *a legal right* to demand and obtain a full day’s wages – the payment for 10 hours’ labour for 8 hours’ service. Es kam daher zu riots, forcible closing of workshops; expulsion of those willing to work under the old system; burning of factories and grain elevators. The police forces were strengthened, the military forces called out. So disturbance at an end. *The eight hour law has been proved to be a mere nullity.* *Capital has again won the victory.* *Chicago* is one of our largest inland towns. It commands almost the entire commerce of our great inland lakes. It has a direct trade with Europe. It is the most important railroad centre of the West, the Granary of the Eastern States, if not of Europe. Its population is large, and composed principally of traders, speculators, and labourers. Hence, Chicago affords a fair field for the testing of the 8 hours system. Capital triumphed, as it always must triumph, when opposed to ignorant poverty … *In St. Louis* the working are aggressive, but have not resorted to the extreme measures so foolishly adopted by their fellows of Chicago. They, too, ask for 10 hours’ pay for 8 hours’ labour. They will not get it. They have struck; but *the employers are importing workmen and labourers from the Eastern States, where idleness is now the rule among the working classes*. The States of *Wisconsin*, *Indiana* and *Ohio*, have ‚eight-hour‘ laws; aber die workingmen warten auf die final results of the tests in Illinois and Missouri before asserting their newly granted ‚rights‘. The *New York Legislature*, just before the late adjournment, adopted an ‚eight-hour‘ Act; but the Governor has not signed the Bill. Waits for a favourable opportunity – for that time when the New York workmen shall become aggressive – to show himself the ‚friend of the labourer‘ by attaching his signature to the Act. The politicians have been quick to connect themselves with the *8 hours’ movement* … In *New York*, strikes are still occurring. Yesterday, the shovellers, tool sharpeners, stone cutters, and stair builders struck. Some of the trades try *‚Cooperative industry‘*. A cooperative *‚Housebuilders shop‘* and a cooperative *‚Printing Office‘* have been opened here. The latter have a wellfurnished, though not large, establishment. These printers, about 30 in number, began October last to contribute to a General Fund – each compositor pledged himself to deposit 2 dls. each week in the hands of a treasurer. Certain philantropists, perhaps *speculators*, have helped them along. On Monday last they set up for themselves, having stock and presses valued at about 5,000 dls, and the promise of pecuniary aid to the extent of *20,000 dls* … It is a significant fact that, wherever strikes have occurred in this country, a *large number of incendiary fires* have taken place in the *‚striking‘* neighbourhood. The late strikes in *Manchester, New Hampshire, and Lawrence, Massachusetts*, were *followed by fires of incendiary origin, 2 or 3 mills being destroyed*. During the most exciting days of the strike in *Chicago* – Friday and Saturday – 3 grain elevators and one railway workshop were set on fire and destroyed.“ Dieser Correspondent estimates the *Local War Debt*, (abgesehn von der *Federal Debt* und incurred by individual States, Counties, and Towns) to *300 Mill. l. St*, which added to *the 500 mill. l. St. of Federal debt* makes a total of 800 Mill. l. principal, entailing between 40 and 50 mill. st. p.a. interest. Wahrscheinlich *transfer of the Local debts to the Federal Exchequer*.

Der *Standard Kerl* fährt fort in seinem Brief vom 7 May: „Whatever may be the causes of the movements among the working men of Europe, *the agitation among the working classes in the U. States is due to the increased cost of living produced by the great and growing taxation*. The struggle is not for political advancement, nor for social recognition, for the labourer has as many political privileges as the millionaire, saving only the power to purchase votes; and, *outside of the cities, there are practically no distinctions of class*. *On Dec. 1, 1860,* the debt of *the State of New York* was 34,182,975 dls, and on *Dec. 1, 1866* it was 51,753,082 dls. It has been increased some 10,000,000$ by the legislation of past winter. The debts of the *Counties* and *Towns of New York State* have grown in the same proportion, so that the total *State, County, and Town Debt of New York* certainly not less than 90,000,000$. In *Massachusetts the increase has been greater*; its state and local debt was *in 1860* about 12 Millions $; now it is in round numbers 55 Mill. $, and will soon be increased by 15 Mill. $. *Rhode Island* was free from State Debt in 1860, and her County and Town indebtedness was small; now her *State debt* alone is 3,626,500$. *Vermont* had no State debt in 1860; it is now 1,567,500$. The *State debt* of Connecticut was, in 1860, about 50,000$; now it is something over 10 Mill. *New Hampshire*, in 1860, had State debt of 82,000$, now it is 4,169,818$. In some of the *Western States* the increase has not been so great. *Iowa* statedebt has grown from 322,000$ to 622,000$; in *Missouri* from 23 Mill. $ to about 38 Mill. $; in *Wisconsin* from 1 Mill. $ to 2 Mill. In mehren states the Town und County Debts have increased much faster than the state debts; in other States they include State debts – viz., debts incurred by the States in aid of Counties and Towns have been transferred. The *Municipal Debt* of *New York (City)* about 22 Mill. $. The *County and Town debts* were incurred principally, *in the effort to meet the demand of the Federal Gvt. for troops*. Under the threat of conscription, the people offered *enormous bounties for volunteers*; in some localities as high a sum as 3000$ paid to each *volunteer*. Of course the only method of equalising *this forced loan was by taxation*. It is probable that the Federal Gvt. will in time assume all the debts incurred in carrying on the war – State, County, and Town debts. In fact, Congress has already established a precedent by assuming the war debts of several of the States … Our *working men may strike therefore, and strike till doomsday*; they cannot remove one atom of the burden of taxation. They have a remedy in their hands. All other means of relief exhausted, they, the majority, will surely use it. *That remedy is repudiation.* Just here speaking of the debt and of the working men’s movements, I may cite the opinion of *R. H. Dana* (of *Boston*), who will be recognised in Great Britain as a good authority. He says: *‚The condition of the poorer kind of mechanics is lower than before the war. They are bleeding at every pore. They are falling into the wretched tenement life.‘*“

*Daily News New York Correspondent, d.d. 7 May 1867* says: „The Labour strikes still continue all over the country … *The cause of all the trouble is, of course, the excessive lowness of wages.* *I doubt if in the history of the country wages have ever been so low*, estimated as they ought to be, ⦗*Currency more than ⅓ depreciated*⦘, in food and clothing, and house rent, and not in money. The harvest last year was bad, and daher flour, which usually sells at 9 or 10$ a barrel, has been 18$ throughout the winter, and is now 21. In fact, the dearth so great that the *Northern States have been importing wheat* and the demand has been so great that it has actually paid to send it *from San Francisco round the Cape to New York*. Until the last year or 2 California has never been able to supply her own wants. *The consumption and waste of Cattle during the War has also been severely felt in the markets. Beef and Mutton are double their old price, and show no sign of falling.* The *high tariff* and *heavy internal taxation keep up the price of clothing*. A coat costs more in this country now than a whole suit used to cost 4 years ago. The *abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty with Canada*, which the *protectionists* were able to secure by the aid of the hostility towards the Canadians, bred by their conduct and language during the War, at once *nearly doubled the price of timber*, as the greater portion of the timber to be found in the market *in this part of the country* has for many years been drawn from the great Canadian pine forests. As most houses in America, outside the large cities, are built of wood, this rise has put *almost a stop to house-building*. It is safe to say that it *now costs 3 times as much to construct a house in any material as it did 3 years ago*. Of course, people must have shelter, and the population is growing as rapidly as ever; consequently house-building would go on as of yore at any price, if there were no fear of a fall. Aber keiner glaubt that the present state of things will last, daß vielmehr either on the resumption of cash payments, or at some period not very remote, prices will come back, if not to the old standard, to one very near to it. Consequently, *there is a general reluctance to fix capital in any way that can be possibly avoided*. Men do not like the idea of putting 10,000$ into a thing which in 3 or 4 years may sell for, or yield them interest on, 5000. There has accordingly been *an almost total cessation of housebuilding for the last 3 years*. This is no exaggeration. In the large cities wealthy men, who will be comfortably lodged, and to whom the price of any house is but a trifle, have every year been building themselves a few dozen mansions in each of the great towns; but it is safe to say that the *increase in the number of houses for* *the class of moderate means, or for the working class, have not been  1/20 part so large as the increase of population*. In *New York* the state of things is rather worse than elsewhere; *rents here have more than trebled since 1863*; but *all over the country there is a positive distress for house room*. People of small incomes are compelled to deny themselves all their luxuries, and many of their comforts, in order to keep a roof over their heads; while *the working men are crowded into miserable lodgings, or find themselves forced to choose between absolutely bad food and bad clothing and the surrender of their homesteads* … *During the War*, the excitement, the *steady rise of prices under the expansion of currency*, and *the great demand for labour kept up by the enormous drafts made on the Market by the Army and Gvt. Orders, kept the labouring classes in good spirits*; but they now find themselves down upon what the goldminers call the *hard pan*, and they can think of no mode of relief but a rise in wages. The Manufacturers go to Congress every year, and plead the dearness of labour as a reason for asking for higher protection; this raises prices, and the labourers in their turn go to the manufacturers, and plead the dearness of living as an excuse for asking higher wages, and so on, in one unvarying round. *The manufacturers, of course, find trade extraordinarily dull; there is no demand for anything; and yet prices remain high as ever. Many of the great mills and workshops are kept going merely to keep the operations together, and prevent suffering.* Daher strikes besonders irreasonable und less likely to produce a result than at this moment; and *yet strikes are the order of the day*. There is no trade in which a strike is not raging. The *Trades Unions are not here the perfect organisation as in England*. The country is too large, and the working men are too little of a distinct class, and are largely divided by difference of origin and religion into too many distinct sects, for any Union to secure the wideness of ramification or perfection of discipline secured by those of England. The consequence is that strikes are *partial, isolated, and desultory*; *but they are incessant*. *They are at this moment more general than they have ever been and there is no immediate prospect of their termination.* The 8 hour law, passed by the *Illinois Legislature last winter*, and which has just gone into operation, has thrown the large towns in the State into commotion, and given the *Striking Mania in the West* a violence which it does not display in this part of the world. Absurd this 8 Hours’ Agitation. It was begun by some of the better class of the workmen, believing in its salutary effects on the moral and physical condition of the labourers. *Owing to the enormous profits which the manufacturers were making 2 years ago*, the economical objections to the scheme made little impression on the agitators. They denied that a reduction in the hours of labour would materially diminish production, and maintained that even if it did *it ought not to cause a restriction in wages, as long as capitalists were making, as many of them were, 100%*. All that would happen, if ⅕ were taken off the working hours, would be *that the enormous gains of the employers* would be slightly diminished, while the condition of the whole working class would be greatly improved. The argument drawn from *these large profits* has of course since lost all its force. They have disappeared. The reduction of ⅕ labour would be = reduction of ⅕ production, und daher *an increase of prices*. But, unfortunately, by the time this demonstration of the absurdity of the movement was ready, the *rank and file of the Irish*, and other foreigners, ignorant and bigoted, had entered into it with zeal; politicians had got committed to it, and it has raged on without rhyme or reason, until it has at last got an act passed in Illinois, and has come near doing so in Pennsylvania and some other States.“

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[^lic]: Text nach MEGAdigital (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), MEGA² IV/19, Lizenz CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); der editorische Apparat der MEGA ist nicht wiedergegeben.