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well divided. The recent decline in market value has been
well divided. The recent decline in market value has been
more severe now at this moment than they have been for months. Previous to the late depreciation, most of the prominent bull speculators in the street held large blocks, which were likely to come out any moment. They had hypothecated them among all the incorporated concerns, which would loan money at a fair margin, and as soon as these loans were called in, the stocks had to be sold at any price. These sellers are now leaving the market, with the hope of getting back their supplies at lower rates. Whether they will succeed or not in so doing remains to be seen.
There are so many outside operators who think current prices are sufficiently reduced to justify purchasing for a rise, and who believe that the margin is large enough to satisfy any ordinary bull speculator, that the market will not be suffered to drop much lower. The class of operators who come in as purchasers are men who are not governed entirely by the complexion of financial affairs at the present moment, but who look beyond, and see in the future the effect of all the liquidation and contraction now going on so rapidly and so generally. It is impossible for a country so remote from the scene of hostilities in Turkey, so unconnected with the political affairs of the Powers of Europe, and possessing so little sympathy for any of the parties engaged, to be affected any further than a speedy payment of all indebtedness may bring about. In this way the European war has operated unfavorably upon some of our local interests, but we are rapidly extricating ourselves from such entanglements, and must ere long be indifferent spectators of the struggle, unless something turns up whereby we can profit largely by the embarrassments and difficulties of those immediately engaged in the contest.
We have never known before such a universal desire to get out of debt. It pervades every class, and it occupies the attention of every individual, and in every mercantile movement made, that is the object aimed at. Ultimately this must be accomplished, and then our recovery from the losses and disasters of the past year cannot be otherwise than rapid and effective. The sole cause of all our present embarrassments is the recklessness with which we have plunged into debt. All sorts of enterprises have been projected and perfected upon credit. All sorts of extravagance practised, and all sorts of swindling and rascality resorted to to remove the burden from the shoulders of some to put it on to others. The contraction of enormous debts for all kinds of purposes, without the remotest probability of meeting them at maturity, has for years been almost a mania, and the day of settlement has at last come. Fortunately our resources have proved largely available, and liquidation has progressed more favorably than we could have anticipated. California has been an unfailing source of supply to our stock of precious metals, and it has saved us from a revulsion equal to any heretofore experienced. The currency at large has, by the accessions of gold from California, been kept in a sound and healthy condition. It is true that in some sections of the country there have been rapid inflations and sudden collapses, but they have not vitiated the great volume of paper currency, or reduced the amount of coin in circulation. There is a vast amount of gold and silver coin in the hands of the people, and they have not therefore been so much affected by the bank explosions which have recently taken place. The credit system of the country has been and still continues sound and healthy; but it has been too much extended. The process of contraction is in a fair way of being carried on to any extent required, without producing a serious revulsion. In 1837, when there was a general collapse from Maine to Louisiana, we had nothing to fall back upon but an irredeemable paper currency, after the suspension of the banks. We had no California then to give us between three and four millions of dollars per month, to pass into circulation and gradually displace the shinplasters of the day. The entire country was prostrated by a complete annihilation of its resources; and only recovered by wiping out all evidences of indebtedness, by the sponging process of a general bankrupt law. Now, all of our resources are in active and healthy operation. Nearly four millions of dollars are monthly dug from the bowels of the earth, and added at once to our available resources, giving us facilities for liquidating liabilities unknown in the former times of trouble and tribulation.
After the adjournment of the board, the following sales of stocks and bonds were made at auction, by Simeon Draper:
$6,000 Junction Railroad, Ohio 1st mort., int. added.. 81
20 shares Knickerbocker Bank... 21
10 do. United States Life Ins. Co. 6
25 do. Third Avenue Railroad 2
The Metropolitan Insurance Company have declared a semi-annual dividend of four per cent, payable on an' after the 26th inst.
The run on the Trans-Alleghany, the Arlington, the Old Dominion, the Kenawha Banks, and also the Exchange Bank of Selden, Withers and Co., still continues, and each bank is redeeming its notes with these of the others.
The City Bank, and the Merchants' and Mechanics' Bank, of Chicago, have suspended payment.
The banking house of Hiram Johnson, the agent of the Farmers' Joint Stock Bank, at Buffalo, suspended yesterday. The following card relative to the affairs of the bank appears in yesterday's Buffalo papers:
The agency of the Farmers' Joint Stock Bank in this city being unable longer to sustain the protracted run upon this institution, would beg leave to notify all parties interested that the bills of this bank will be fully redeemed in real estate, at fair prices, or otherwise, as parties may agree.
The cashier of the Woodbury Bank has issued the following card:
WOODBURY BANK, Cox's., Nov. 13, 1854.
The Suffolk Bank having refused to redeem for the Woodbury Bank, the public are advised not to make any sacrifice on the bills, as they are redeemed at the counter.
For the week ending Saturday, Nov. 4, there were 53 boats descended the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, carrying 5,224.15 tons of coal, and 163.00 tons of coke. During the same period 6,057.04 tons of coal passed over the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company's railroad, and 6,842 tons over the Mount Savage Company's railroad, making an aggregate from the Frostburg region for the week, of 14,993.04 tons, and for the season of 397,807.17 tons, During the same time 3,474 tons passed over the George's Creek Coal and Iron Company's railroad, and 36.06 tons from the New Creek Company over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Total from the Westernport region for the week 3,510.15 tons, and for the season 157,099; total from the whole coal region 18,503.19 tons for the week, and since the 1st of January last 564,906.17 tons, of which 423,652 tons were transported to market over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and 131,254.17 tons descending the Chesapeake and Ohio canal.
The amount of coal brought down by the Cumberland Coal Company during the week ending November 11, was 7,650 tons, averaging 1,275 per day, which is a considerable increase on the week previous.
The warrants entered at the Treasury department, Washington, on the 11th inst., were:
For the redemption of stock... $107,210 25
For paying other Treasury debts.. 10,744 46
For the customs 25,263 55
Covered into the Treasury from customs 17,907 79
Covered into the Treasury from lands 2,577 39
Cov'd into Treasury from miscellaneous sources 1,684 66
For the War department 223,603 74
For re-paying in the War department 61,715 44
The value of domestic produce exported from Galveston during the month of October, 1854, according to the Custom House returns, was only $149,500.
The following table shows the receipts of flour and
grain at Buffalo for the first eleven days of November.
