Karl Marx 
British Commerce 
About July 2, 1860 

British Commerce. 

The Board of Trade Returns for the five months ending May 31,1860, which 
have just been issued at London, show but a trifling change in the movement 
of British exports, if compared with the exports during the first five months 
of 1859. 

From £52,337,268, to which they had amounted in 1859, they rose to 
£52,783,535 in 1860—this small surplus being altogether due to an increase 
in the month of May last. 

The first feature that strikes us on comparing the respective exports during 
the first five months of 1860 and 1859, is aconsiderable decline in the British 
export trade to the British East Indies, as will be seen from the following 
statement: 

Principal British Articles Exported to the East Indies 
in the Five Months Ending May 31. 

Quantities. Value. 
1859. 1860. 1859. 1860. 

Beer and ale, barrels. . . . 168355 166,461 £ 507,308 £ 491,609 
Cottons, yards. ......... 396,022,733 311,163,765 4,884,982 3,977,289 
Cotton yarn, Ibs . a. 17,411,542 15,044,812 1,002,439 903,516 
Iron (bar, bolt, rod), tuns . . 16851 12,194 127,678 90,954 
Iron (cast), tans. . . . . . . . 12,138 4,108 132,946 42.912 
Iron (wrought), tuns. . . . . 11823 10,554 188,126 195,659 
Sheets and nails. . . . . . . . 31,582 79,117 169,072 437,170 
Earthen ware and porcelain Pay EON 34,530 24,039 
Haberdashery and millinery whee BEER 83,832 42,126 
Leather-saddlery 
and harness: - - : - : : : l - 16,780 15,00 
Machinery—steam engines . isles Loam 73,087 100,846 
Other kinds. - - : : : - : . : -165,899 196,928 
Tin plates = 19177 6441 

FLORALS os. O E E E E A £7,405,806 £ 6,525,089 
PDEGrEaSE gae i opto cde teas i A a a a Be edi a e a ALN a £ 880,717 

From the above table it appears that the aggregate decrease in the main 
exports to the East Indies amounts to about one million sterling; that it is 
heaviest in the leading articles (cotton and cotton yarns); and that the only 
exception consists of commodities immediately connected with railway 
building. It ought, moreover, to be kept in view that the commercial news 
received by the last Overland Mail is highly unfavorable, and points to an 
overcharged market; so that, consequently, the value of the exports as 
declared in England, and as estimated on a range of prices far beyond the 
average, will by no means be realized in India. Now, there can be no doubt 
that the Indian trade has been overdone. The artificial demand raised by the 
Government during the Indian rebellion; the stimulus given to commercial 
activity by the subsiding of the revolutionary disturbances, and the con- 
traction of most of the other markets of the world, consequent upon the 
general crisis of 1857-58—all these circumstances concurred to swell the bulk 
of the Indian trade beyond its natural capacities. Still, according to all past 
experience, the newfangled prosperity market might have borne the bom- 
bardment by cotton goods for some years longer, but for the sage inter- 
ference of the British Government. Mr. Wilson, it seems, was expressly 
dispatched to Calcutta for the purpose of convulsing the Anglo-Indian trade, 
by the joint operation of clumsy fiscal measures in the interior, and of 
burdensome customs duties levied on imports from abroad. Has ever, in the 
whole history of commerce, such a spectacle been witnessed as that of the 
United Kingdom allowing its most important colonial market to be crippled 
by the spontaneous acts of its own Government, at the very same time that 
it cringes before the French Emperor, and bears with his political en- 
croachments, on the pretext of a factitious alleviation in the French customs 
duties? 
The exports to the Australian market, although they show some decline 
in cottons, exhibit, on the whole, an increase both in quantity and value. 
However, to arrive at a just appreciation of the present state of the markets 
in the Australian Colonies, we ought to turn from the Board-of-Trade returns 
to the last commercial intelligence received. Advices from Adelaide to the 
26th of April, complain of a continuance of excessive shipments from 
England, and a general prevalence of speculation, swindling and overtrading. 
An extensive weeding out, it was said, of insolvent firms had become neces- 
sary. In Sydney, New South Wales, several failures had already taken place, 
including nine houses with an aggregate of liabilities of £400,000, of which 
amount three-fourths was expected to be ultimately deficient, the loss falling 
on the banks and English creditors. From a list just received of Australian 
insolvencies during the last 17 years, it appears that the number in 1858 was 
three times as great as in 1857, and in 1859 there was a further increase of 

50 per cent; and this year, up to the middle of April, the rate had experienced 
a fresh advance of about 7 per cent. The total habihties of failed firms from 
1822 to 1859, were £5,981,026; and the assets, stated in schedules, amount- 
ed to £3,735,613; but of the latter amount, not 50 per cent was ever real- 
ized. 

The considerable decline that has taken place in the value, and in most 
cases, also, in the quantity of the British goods exported to the United States, 
will be illustrated by the following extract: 

Principal Articles Exported to the United States 
in the Five Months Ending May 31. 

Quantities Value 
1859. 1860. 1859. 1860. 
Coals, tuns. . 2.2.2222... 68,020 106,925 £ 67,785 £ 66,1% 
Cotton, yards. .......... 88,441,112 84,208,598 1562.918 1491721 
Linens, yards. . ......... 25,476,444 20,974,699 716,780 643,676 
Pig Iron, tuns. . ......... 37,510 21,497 106476 62,919 
Bar, bolt, rod, tuns. ...... 48,063 37,824 394.426 293,294 
Wrought, tuns. ......... 16,024 16,488 200,576 189,854 
Sheets and nails, tuns. . . . . 12,107 4,622 61,721 24,559 
Seed Oil, gals. |... ..... 795,808 511,602 95,154 57,230 
Silk manufacture, lbs. . . .. 119,719 58,836 128,133 68,866 
Woolens, mixed stuff, 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 
Tinplates............. 524,615 464,630 

France was, of course, the country to make up for the contraction of the 
markets of the East Indies, the Australian Colonies, and the United States. 
However, on a closer examination, the English export trade to France will 
be found to have lost nothing of its traditionally diminutive dimensions. As 
to cottons and twist, Mr. Milner Gibson, the President of the Board of Trade, 
seems to have been ashamed of the sorry figure he cut, and, consequently, 
thought fit to altogether expunge them from the returns. Ditto with linens 
and linen yarns, and silk manufactures. The value ofthe exports during the 
respective epochs of 1859 and 1860, shows a f ailing off for the current year 
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 coals from £253,008 
to £206,317, while some increase has taken place inthe export ofiron, copper, 
wool, woolens, and worsted yarns. 

The import of French wine has increased, butin no greater proportion than 
that of all other descriptions of wine. In conclusion, we may remark thatthe 
symptoms of contraction in the principal markets, if taken together with the 

very distressing harvest prospects, the heavy calls upon the money market 
by the English and other Governments, and the unsettled political state of 
Europe, seem to forebode anything but a prosperous season for the Autumn 
of 1860.