FLUCTUATIONS IN PRICES.

MR. TOOKE, an English writer on matters pertaining to political economy, has published during the present year a work on the prices of 1848 and 1856. From this work we extract a summary of the changes in prices since the discoveries of gold in California and Australia, as follows:

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE PRICES OF COMMODITIES AND STATE OF TRADE, 1848-56.

Without attempting to include in a summary of conclusions all the inferences which arise from the survey and narrative now concluded, I present the following statements as setting forth those results which are best established and most important, viz. :

That as regards the great articles of import, such as colonial and tropical produce and commodities, largely employed in this country as raw materials of manufacture, the course of prices during the nine years, 1848-56, may be described in general terms as follows, viz. :-During 1848 and 1849 there was a general and, in several important instances, a strong tendency to lower prices; that in 1850, partly in consequence of larger consumption and partly in consequence of actual or apprehended failures of supply, prices sensibly and, in some cases, materially advanced; that in 1851 there was again an extensive and severe decline, attributable almost wholly to excess of supply; that in 1852 there was a manifest tendency towards recovery; that in the first nine months of 1853 the upward tendency of the previous year reached its highest point, establishing and maintaining for nine months a range of prices considerably higher than had prevailed for a long period; that from the autumn of 1853 to the close of 1854, there was a sensible reaction from the previous high rates, except as regards some of the articles immediately affected by operations, or the Commissariat consumption of the war; and that in 1855 and 1856 the markets were quiet and firm, exhibiting only such fluctuations as arose out of ordinary changes in supply and demand. In a future part I shall inquire how far the fluctuations of prices now referred to were connected with the influx of the new gold.

That the first effects of the California discoveries of 1848 were felt in this country in 1850 and 1851, and manifested themselves in the increased demand for British and foreign articles suitable for the export trade to the United States; that the same effects were still more sensibly felt in the course of 1852; that in 1853 the consumption of British goods in California and the United States generally, had become so large and rapid as to counteract almost entirely, as regards this country, any prejudicial effect upon the balance of trade of the vast imports of grain rendered necessary by the serious failure in these islands of the harvest of 1853; that the same large American demand for British exports continued through 1854 and 1855, and had prevailed through 1856, interrupted but casually by the extensive failures and discredit which prevailed in the United States and California during portions of the years 1854 and 1855; and that, as the general result of the trade between this country and the United States since 1850, the absorption of British exports either in California itself or in those regions of the North American continent to which the supplies of California gold are chiefly sent in the first instance, has increased so rapidly as to render necessary a constant and large transmission of the precious metals from America to this country. That the effects of the Australian discoveries of the summer of 1851 were felt in this country in a striking manner early in the following year, (1852 ;) manifesting themselves in a sudden and large expansion of the stream of emigration from these islands, and in a sudden and large expansion in the shipment of nearly all descriptions of commodities; that the demand for ships hence arising, could not, in the then condition of the mercantile marine, be readily supplied; and the consequence was an enormous increase of the rates of freight, and a demand for new ships, so urgent, that considerably higher wages were at once conceded in all the ship-building trades; that the same urgent demands for Australia con

tinued in the early part of 1853, were considerably moderated in 1854, still more reduced in 1855, but in 1856 were again marked by considerable activity.

That the movement for higher wages successfully commenced in the autumn of 1852; in the ship-building trades became almost universal in the first half of 1853, and previous to September in that year, had led to a very general addition of from 12 to 20 per cent to the wages current in 1851; but that the effect of the bad harvest of 1853, the war of 1854-5, and the glut of the Australian markets, was to produce a considerable reaction from this advance, especially in the factory districts.

That the first and immediate effect of the high prices of colonial and other imported articles in 1852 and 1853, and of the high prices and large demand for manufactured goods in the same years, was to occasion vigorous efforts and a large expenditure of capital with a view to opening up new fields of supply, and creating extended means of production; and that it is principally to the operation of these causes that the steady and frequently declining course of prices since 1853 is to be attributed.

That as far as trustworthy evidence can be obtained, there are no facts in the experience of the last nine years which justify the conclusion that in this country the fluctuations of prices, the course of trade, or the increased demand for goods arising out of the large exports to America and Australia, were immediately preceded by or connected with changes in the amount of the aggregate outsending circulation of bank notes. In other words, all the evidence available to us points distinctly and uniformly to the conclusion that the fluctuation of the bank note circulation were determined and regulated by the consequences flowing from previous applications of capital and credit in particular nodes.

That further, in a great number of specific instances, it can be shown conclusively that fluctuations of price of the most important kind, and in the largest markets of the country, took place either without the occurrence of any change whatever in the bank note circulation, or contemporaneously with the occurrence of a change the precise opposite of that which, on a priori grounds, or on the grounds on which the currency theory is built, would have been expected to precede or accompany the particular alteration in the markets.

That neither is there any such coincidence between variations in the rate of interest and variations in the markets for produce, as to justify the inference of a direct connection between them in the relation of cause and effect. That the first effect of the gold discoveries on the financial condition of this country, was the remarkable and prolonged depression in the rates of interest and discount, which prevailed during the twelvemonth preceding the spring of 1853; that this effect on the rate of interest was the immediate consequence of an excessive accumulation, principally in the Bank of England, of the early remittances from California and Australia; and that the influence produced by these accumulations on opinion and credit was greatly extended and aggravated by the maintainance at the Bank of England of a rate of discount so low as 2 per cent from April, 1852, to January, 1853.

That the rise of the rate of discount which commenced in January, 1853, and has been maintained during the subsequent three years, is to be traced in its origin and continuance to extended demand for capital for the purpose of new, distant, and costly enterprises, directed either to the construction of public works, to the extension of old and introduction of new processes, or to the exploration of new fields for the supply of commodities, and that so far as we can judge from recent experience, the absorption of capital for these and other objects becomes more rapid and extensive with every year.

That the interruption to the trade of the country occasioned by the Russian war of 1854-5 was comparatively slight, and for four reasons, viz. :—(1,) because the theater of war was in a remote part of the East of Europe; (2,) because the enemy had practically no navy that could molest our commerce; (3.) because the raw materials previously obtained from Russia still continued to arrive through neutral ports, or were readily replaced by imports from India and elsewhere; and (4) lastly, because the invention of the telegraph, the ex

istence of steam, and the enormous resources of our mercantile marine and postal services, enable us to accomplish in a few weeks operations which, at the commencement of the century, would have occupied a long series of months. That further, in addition to, and far more powerful than any of the four causes just enumerated, was the effect of the continued influx of gold during 1854 and 1855-but especially during the latter portion of 1855, in averting from this country and from France, the extreme financial pressure and peril, which, in the absence of that influx, must inevitably have been produced by the necessity of providing large and constant remittances of gold to the seat of war; and must inevitably have placed entirely out of question the maintainance of the restrictions of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and perhaps have even imperiled the maintainance of the Act of 1819.

That during the years 1848 and 1849, and part of 1850, the losses and discredit which fell with crushing force on a large portion of the middle classes involved in the railway expenditure, did, beyond question, produce some important effect in limiting the consumption of commodities.

That, on the other hand, it was a direct consequence of the railway expenditure of the years 1848, 1849, and 1850, that the working classes were provided with fair employment during a period of interrupted trade, and it was also a direct consequence of the cheapness of food, and the low range of general prices which prevailed to the year 1852, that the working classes were able to command, by means of their wages, a larger amount of sustenance and comfort than had been within their reach probably at any former period of the century.

CHARTER AND PRIVILEGES OF THE BANK OF FRANCE.

The imperial decree of Napoleon III., promulgating the new law for the continuance and privileges of the Bank of France, was published in the Paris Moniteur of June 11, 1857, as follows:

ART. 1. The privilege conferred on the bank by the laws of the 24th Germinal. year 11, the 22d of April, 1806, and of the 30th of June, 1840, the term of which could expire on the 31st December, 1867, is prolonged for thirty years, and will not end before the 31st of December, 1897.

ART. 2. The capital of the bank, represented at present by 91,250 shares, will be represented in future by 182,500 shares, of the nominal value of 1,000 francs each, not including the reserve fund.

ART. 3. The 91,250 newly created shares will be exclusively assigned to the holders of the 91,250 shares now existing, and they will have to pay the price of the same, at the rate of 1,100 francs per share, into the coffers of the bank, in quarterly instalments, within the term of one year at the latest, dating from the promulgation of the present law.

The period of the first payment and the conditions on which the shareholders can be permitted to anticipate the further payment will be fixed by a decision of the bank.

ART. 4. The produce of these new shares will be applied, until the completion of the whole amount of 91,250,000 francs, to the formation of the capital determined by the second article, and as regards the surplus, to the augmentation of the reserve fund now existing.

ART. 5. Out of the produce of the said shares a sum of one hundred millions will be paid into the public treasury in the course of 1859, at such periods as shall be agreed upon by the finance minister and the bank.

This sum will be set apart for the diminution of deficits in the treasury.

The finance minister is authorized to cause the insertion in the great book of the public debt of the sum of three per cent rentes necessary for the employment of the said sum of one hundred millions.

A sinking fund equal to one-hundredth of the nominal capital of the said rentes will be added to the dotation of the sinking fund.

The rentes will be transferred to the Bank of France, at the average quotation

of the month preceding each payment, but this price must not be lower than seventy-five francs.

ART. 6. Of the rentes inscribed at the Treasury in the name of the sinking fund stock, and proceeding from the consolidation of the reserve of the sinking fund, there shall be erased from the great book of the public debt a sum equal to that of the rentes created by the preceding article.

The rentes will be definitively canceled as to capital and arrears, dating from the day when the new rentes shall be transferred to the bank.

ART. 7. The faculty accorded to the bank of making advances on French public stock, on French railway shares and debentures, and on debentures of the city of Paris, is extended to the debentures issued by the Credit Concier Company of France.

The general regulations touching the mode of carrying out the preceding paragraph are to be approved by a decree.

ART. 8. The Bank of France, should circumstances require, may arise to above 6 per cent the scale of discounts and the interest on its advances.

The profits accruing to the bank from the exercise of this power will be de ducted from the sums yearly divided among the shareholders, and are to be added to the joint-stock fund.

ART. 9. The Bank of France will be allowed to reduce to 50 francs the minimum amount of its notes of issue.

ART. 10. Ten years after the promulgation of the present law the government may require the Bank of France to establish a branch bank in the departments were none exist.

ART. 11. The interest due from the Treasury on its running account will be regulated after the scale fixed by the bank for the discount of paper in the market, but must not exceed 3 per cent.

ART. 12. A regulation of the government will determine, with respect to such shareholders as are incapable of paying the whole or their arrears, what measures shall be requisite for the execution of the present law.

FLOW OF SILVER TO THE EAST.

The Bombay Times of a late date has the following on this subject :

"Immense as was the import of bullion in the last official year, it has already been far exceeded in the nine months only which have elapsed of the current one, and we shall be within the mark if we estimate the quantity of bullion retained this year in the country at £10,000,000 to £12,000,000 sterling. Now, if we take as the starting point for the recent demand of silver the year 1850-51, and compare the average of the last seven years with that of the sixteen preceding, we find that, for the former, we have an annual amount of the precious metals retained in the country of £5,500,000, against an annual accumulation of only £2,000,000 previously. In other words, India is wealthier to-day by nearly forty crores of rupees than she was in 1850 in the precious metals alone, making no account whatever of her increased wealth in landed and personal property, and in public and private works of improvement throughout the vast extent of her territories. The world has never before seen a conquered empire governed with the wisdom and the honesty which characterize the English rule in India. The resources of Scinde and the Punjab beginning to be rapidly developed; the immense demand for produce which the Russian war created in this country; the marvelous growth of our commercial relations with continental Europe, under the enlightened laws which invite all men to deal in our markets on an equal footing; and the growth and prosperity of the cotton trade in the last few years, sufficiently account for the state of matters on which we have to congratulate ourselves. We make no mention of the introduction of railways, for, although in the process of their construction they are enriching masses of the laboring poor, their day of triumph is yet to come, and a glorious one it will assuredly be or India."

OF COMMERCIAL PAPER IN NEW YORK STATE.

We give below a correct copy of the several sections of "an act in relation to commercial paper," passed April 17, 1857, and which, as will be seen by the fourth section, took effect on the 1st of July, 1857 :—

SEC. 1. All bills of exchange or drafts, drawn payable at sight, at any place within this State, shall be deemed due and payable on presentation, without any days of grace being allowed thereon.

SEC. 2. All checks, bills of exchange or drafts, appearing on their face to have been drawn upon any bank or upon any banking association or individual banker, carrying on business under the act to authorize the business of banking, which are on their face payable on any specified day or in any number of days after the date or sight thereof, shall be deemed due and payable on the day mentioned for the payment of the same, without any days of grace being allowed, and it shall not be necessary to protest the same for non-acceptance.

SEC. 3 Whenever the residence or place of business of the indorser of a promissory note, or of the drawer or indorser of a check, draft, or bill of exchange, shall be in the city or town, or whenever the city or town indicated under the indorsement or signature of such indorser or drawer, as his or her place of residence, or whenever in the absence of such indication, the city or town where such indorser or drawer, from the best information obtained by diligent inquiry, is reputed to reside or have a place of business, shall be the same city or town where such promissory note, check, draft, or bill of exchange may be served by depositing them, with the postage thereon prepaid, in the post-office of the city or town where such promissory note, check, draft, or bill of exchange was payable or legally presented tor payment or acceptance, directed to the indorser or drawer, at such city or town.

SEC. 4. This act shall take effect on the first day of July next, but shall not apply to any bills of exchange, checks, drafts, or promissory notes bearing date prior to that time.

SAVINGS BANKS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

A return has just been published in relation to the savings banks of Great Britain. It gives the whole number as 591. The number of officers paid is 620, and unpaid, 1,203. The salaries and allowances of paid officers amount to £85,000. The annual expenses of management to £113,423; the number of accounts remaining open on the 20th of November, 1855, 1,301,422; the total amount owing to depositors on the said 20th of November, 1855, £33,134,525; the total amount invested with the National Debt Commissioners, £33,956,105; the rate of interest paid to depositors, (on the average,) £2 18s. 8d. per cent; the total number of annuities granted from the commencement, 10,602, (£184,217;) the annual number of receipts from depositors in the year ending the 20th of January, 1855, 1,439,724; and the annual number of payments to depositors in the year, 793,000. The average amount of receipts from depositors in the year was £5 2s. 6d., and the average of payments to depositors, £9 13s. 4d.

NOVEL PLEA FOR A BANK NOT REDEEMING BILLS.

In the novel suit brought by the Union Bank of Frenchtown, N. J., against the billholders who demanded payment, it is alleged that the motive for presenting the bills was malicious, and designed to break the bank. What has a debtor got to do with the motive of his creditor in demanding payment when a debt is due, and how can the motive alter the obligation of, or the relations between, the