The statistical reports of the Board of Trade <Ministry of Trade and Transport> for the five months ending 31 May 1860, which have just been published in London, show only a slight change in British exports, compared with the exports during the first five months of 1859. From £52,337,268 in 1859 they rose in 1860 to £52,783,535, this small surplus being solely due to an increase in May of the current year. What first strikes us when we compare the respective exports during the first five months of 1860 and 1859 is a considerable decrease in British export trade to British East Indies, as may be seen from the following statement:

The principal British articles exported to East India in the five months ending 31 May, inclusive

| | Quantities | | Values | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 1860 |
| | | | (£) | |
| Beer and ale, barrels | 168,355 | 166,461 | 507,308 | 491,609 |
| Cotton, yards | 396,022,733 | 311,163,765 | 4,884,982 | 3,977,289 |
| Cotton yarn, lbs | 17,411,542 | 15,044,812 | 1,002,439 | 903,516 |
| Iron (bars, bolts, rods), tons | 16,851 | 12,194 | 127,678 | 90,954 |
| Iron (cast iron), tons | 12,138 | 4,108 | 132,946 | 42,912 |
| Iron (wrought iron), tons | 11,823 | 10,554 | 188,126 | 195,659 |
| Iron plates and rails, tons | 31,582 | 79,117 | 169,072 | 437,170 |
| Earthenware and porcelain | — | — | 34,530 | 24,039 |
| Haberdashery and millinery | — | — | 83,832 | 42,126 |
| Leather: saddlery and harness | — | — | 16,780 | 15,600 |
| Machinery: steam engines | — | — | 73,087 | 100,846 |
| Other machinery | — | — | 165,899 | 196,928 |
| Tin plates | — | — | 19,127 | 6,441 |
| Total | | | 7,405,808 | 6,529,089 |
| Decrease of exports | | | | 976,719 |

From the above table it appears that the total decrease in the principal exports to East India amounts to about £1,000,000, that it is heaviest in the leading articles (cotton and cotton yarn), and that the only exception being in those things directly connected with railway construction. It should moreover be noted that the trade advices which arrived with the last overseas mail are most unfavourable and point to a glut of the markets, so that consequently the value of the exports, as declared and estimated in England at a price level far above the average, will by no means be realised in India. There can now be no doubt that the Indian trade has been overtaxed. The artificial demand stimulated by the government during the Indian insurrection, the impetus given to trading activity by the ending of the revolutionary disturbances, and the shrinkage of most other markets, a consequence of the general crisis of 1857/58, all these circumstances led to the volume of Indian trade being inflated beyond its natural capacity of absorption. Nevertheless, in accordance with all past experience, the newly arisen prosperity of the market could have sustained the bombardment with cotton goods a few years longer, had it not been for the meddlesome interference of the British government. Mr Wilson, it appears, was expressly sent to Calcutta to unsettle the English-Indian trade by means of clumsy fiscal measures at home, accompanied by the levying of vexatious duties on imports from abroad. Has there ever been witnessed in the whole history of trade such a spectacle as that of the United Kingdom allowing its most important colonial market to be paralysed by arbitrary measures of its own government, whilst at the same time kowtowing to the French Emperor and tolerating his political interventions under the pretext of an apparent reduction of French tariff duties?

Exports to the Australian market, although showing a certain decline in cotton, display on the whole an increase both in quantity and value. However, to arrive at a correct assessment of the present state of the market in the Australian colonies, we should turn from the statistical reports of the Board of Trade to the latest trade news. Reports from Adelaide up to 26 April complain of the continuance of excessive consignments from England and of a general prevalence of speculation, fraud and over-supply. A comprehensive liquidation of insolvent firms, it is said, has become necessary. In Sydney, New South Wales, several bankruptcies have already been declared, involving nine commercial houses with total liabilities of £400,000. Three-quarters of this sum are regarded as definitively irrecoverable, the loss falling on the banks and the English creditors. A list just received of Australian bankruptcies during the last 17 years shows that their number in 1858 was three times as large as in 1857 and that in 1859 a further increase of 50 per cent occurred; in the present year the number of bankruptcies has again risen by about 7 per cent up to mid-April. The liabilities of the firms that became insolvent from 1822 to 1859 amounted in total to £5,981,026, and the assets recorded in the balance sheets came to £3,735,613; but of this latter sum not even 50 per cent were realised.

The considerable decrease in the value, and in most cases also the quantity, of British goods exported to the United States is illustrated by the following extract:

The principal British articles exported to the United States in the five months ending 31 May, inclusive

| | Quantities | | Values | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 1860 |
| | | | (£) | |
| Coal, tons | 68,020 | 106,925 | 67,785 | 66,196 |
| Cotton, yards | 88,441,112 | 84,208,598 | 1,562,918 | 1,491,721 |
| Linen, yards | 25,476,444 | 20,974,699 | 776,780 | 643,676 |
| Pig iron, tons | 37,510 | 21,497 | 106,476 | 62,919 |
| Bars, bolts, rods, tons | 48,063 | 37,824 | 394,426 | 293,294 |
| Wrought iron, tons | 16,024 | 16,488 | 200,576 | 189,854 |
| Iron plates and rails, tons | 12,107 | 4,622 | 61,721 | 24,559 |
| Oil-seed, gallons | 795,808 | 511,602 | 95,154 | 57,230 |
| Silk goods, lbs | 119,719 | 58,836 | 128,133 | 68,866 |
| Woollen and mixed fabrics, yards | 22,697,619 | 18,250,639 | 892,026 | 733,000 |
| Earthenware and porcelain | — | — | 234,492 | 281,532 |
| Haberdashery and millinery | — | — | 719,754 | 637,035 |
| Tin plates | — | — | 524,615 | 464,630 |

France was, of course, the country which might have compensated for the shrinkage of the markets in the East Indies, the Australian colonies and the United States. On closer examination, however, it must be noted that English export trade to France has lost nothing of its traditionally tiny volume. As regards cotton and cotton yarn, Mr Milner Gibson, the President of the Board of Trade, seems to be ashamed of the sorry role he plays and has consequently thought fit to expunge them entirely from the reports. The same applies to linen and linen yarn, as well as silk goods. The value of exports during the respective periods of 1859 and 1860 shows for the current year a decline in thrown silk from £130,260 to £88,441, in silk twist and yarn from £50,520 to £29,643, in machinery from £98,551 to £64,107, and in coal from £253,008 to £206,317, while a certain increase has taken place in the export of iron, copper, wool, woollen and worsted yarns.

The import of French wine has risen, but no more than the import of all other kinds of wine. In conclusion, we may state that the symptoms of shrinking of the principal markets, when viewed in connection with the alarming prospects for the autumn, the heavy demands of the English and other governments on the money market, and the uncertain political state of Europe, seem to predict anything but a happy season for the autumn of 1860.