COMMERC ,- :.

STATE OF THE TRADING WORLD.

IN looking round on the various branches of trade, the great charteter- istic is a complaint of stagnation. Every dealer, from the importer ind original manufacturer, to the retailer who supplies the last consumer, is sure to dwell upon this as the peculiar feature of the time. If inquiry be carried further on, to the cause, it is found, not in any deficiency of consumption ; the official reports testify that the produce imported, the manufactures exported, and the commodities consumed at home, are all large beyond precedent. The slackness which is complained of may perhaps be traced to the want of speculation, and the multiplied channels through which the fa- brication and distribution of merchandise take place.

In Colonial produce, the stock of the great article of Sugar, just pre- vious to the arrival of the new crop, has rarely been so low; yet the price could not be sustained, and British plantation has receded near 10 per cent. in low qualities since the beginning of the year. The new sugars are now arriving freely. The supplies from the Mauritius have been this year unprecedentedly large, being near 200,000 bags, about double the last year, and fourfold the preceding year.

Coffee was never so low in price, never so extensively consumed, and the trade never so dull. In the last six months 3300 tons have been de- livered for home use; in the same periods, in 1827, the quantity was 3600 tons ; in 1826, it was 2500 tons.

The Corn-market is very languid ; and the much-contested corn-law, which is atlast passed, is likely to remain a dead letter, owing to the low price of home grain andithe consequently high duties attaching to foreign. ?dr. Jacob, who, from his official means of information and experience, may be considered the first authority, has estimated the stock of wheat I on hand to meet the next harvest to be smaller than in any of the last I twelve years—only some three weeks' consumption—yet the market I prices indicate no doubt among the dealers of the sufficiency to serve all necessities.

In another great article, tallow, the stock of foreign is, at this moment,

not more than 8900 casks, not the sixth of what it was a few years ago, at this season, and a little above a fortnight's consumption. Yet the price has fallen till Petersburgh, which was in Feb. 44s. 6c1. is now only 36s. 6d. The consumers, who never required larger supplies, await confidently the arrivals from the Baltic, now near at hand.

Among the principal raw materials of our manufactures, Cotton has been raised near 20 per cent. since the beginning of the year, by the force I of speculation founded on the small crop in the United States. However real this fact (the export thence is expected to be 200,000 bags less than I last year), the supply from the Brazils, East Indies, and Egypt, must re- place this deficiency ; and the stock in the kingdom is 488,070 bags at the end of June ; more than the preceding year, which Was 445,000 ; and 1826, which was 460,000 bags. The prices have every appearance of giving way again, which will be aided by the panic and pecuniary pressure existing, according to the last letters, in the United States.

In the Wool-market, considerable business is transacting, and the lower kinds, which were not long ago scarcely saleable, can now he disposed of at somewhat improved prices. The attempt making throin.di a Committee of the House of Lords to raise the duty on Foreign wool from Id. to 3d. per pound, is likely to end in nothing more beneficial than a most huge hook of evidence, now forthcoming; a monument, at least, of the dili- gence of the agricultural Lords, and almost as little likely as a monument to be examined inside.

Silk is one of the articles best sustained in value, owing to the mode- rate supply from Bengal this spring, and which consists almost entirely of the, property of the East India Company, whose management, it is said, has been perfectly successful in driving all private competitors from that branch).

The metallic productions of the country were never so low. Iron is 71. 108. per ton in bars shipped in Wales. Tin in bars, 73s. in Cornwall. Lead is about 171. Copper appears yet to support its value.

In Dyeing materials, indigo is the most considerable ; and in conse-

quence of the great crop in Bengal the last year, is in great abundance in the market ; and the India Company's sale, on the 15th instant, is ex- pected to extend to 10,000 chests : and to go off at prices about half those of a year ago, and lower than have been seen since 1820. An attempt was made during the spring to raise the price of saltpetre, founded on the war in Tot-key; but this has been ineffectual, though aided by a very mo- derate stock, and the price has sunk again to the peace value of 23s. per ton.

Among the overflowing bounties of Nature, may be reckoned the pro-

duce of the olive tree, the last year, throughout the South of Europe. Olive oil can now be bought here of the dealer for half-a-crown the old gallon. This is one-third of what was the regular price a few years back along the whole shores of the Mediterranean to the poor consumers, to whom it is there one of the first necessaries and blessings ; mixing with all fabrics, an ingredient in every meal, a light in darkness—applied exter- nally a sure preservative against infection, and internally a panacea for- a]] disorders.

These notices will suffice for the general views here intended of the position of the trading world. The experienced decline in prices confines the several classes of fabricants and distributors of commodities to serve the great consumption of the country with measured caution.

We anticipate little change frorff this state of things for months to . come ; abundance and steady supply of demand. We apprehend no bursts of extravagance, notwithstanding the abundance of unemployed capital ; nor of pressure, notwithstanding the withdrawal in April of notes under

5/. We incline to suspect the latter may now be in operation, and be a cause of the low price of many home productions, metals and grain, especially the former. It is in the mining districts, and some remoter agricultural counties, that these small notes chiefly remain ; and in those quarters the commodities must be realized to purchase the gold which is to be substituted for the notes. This is partial and local ; and it is at present premature in the execution : but the bankers, the movers in the change, may perhaps proceed precipitately, as was the case in 1819 with the Bank of England under similar circumstances. Still, with the existing plentiful resources for so inconsiderable a conversion, it cannot but be brought about successfully, with this haste, in a great measure even before the legal time.