CONTENTS OF NO. IV., VOL. XXII. NUMBER IV' ·ART. ARTICLES. PAGE. I. THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILWAY. BY EDMUND Dwight, Esq., of New York. 371 11. COMMERCIAL SKETCHES WITH PEN AND PENCIL.-GARVIN MASON BELL, Esq., BANK Manager and AUTHOR OF THE "PHILOSOPHY OF JOINT-STOCK BANKS", 377 III. THE EFFECT OF COMMERCE IN ABOLISHING RESTRICTIONS UPON THE TRANSFER OF PROPERTY. By the Hon. BENJAMIN F. PORTER, of the Charleston (S. C.) Bar 385 IV. THE ANATOMY AND PHILOSOPHY OF BANKING...... ...... 389 393 393 V. THE PRODUCTION OF SALT IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. VI. BANKRUPTCY-BANKING. Letter to the Editor, by G. B., of New York.. VII. CURRENCY-INTEREST-PRODUCTION. Letter to the Editor by J. S. R., of Mass.... 404 VIII. FREE TRADE vs. PROTECTIVE TARIFFS: OR, STRICTURES UPON THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR 1849, RELATING TO COMMERCE. BY RICHARD SULLEY, Esq., of New York.... IX. EXTENSION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST... 406 413 MERCANTILE LAW CASES. Comstock's Report of Cases in the Court of Appeals... 415 416 COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRATED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Money-California Gold Products-Russian Gold Products-Absence of Speculation-Political aspects-English Finances-Consumption of Food-Exports and Imports-Accumulation of Capital-Accumulation of Capital in New York-Houses and Stores Built-Absorption of CapitalExpensive Stores-Employment of Capital-Should be Productive-Example-Ease of the Markets-Cause of-New Banks-New Jersey Bank Bill--Synopsis-Capital in Boston-Railroad Stockholders-Banks of Five Cities Comparative-Money more Abundant in New YorkCompetition for Western Trade-Canal Tolls-Change of Trade Routes-Mr. Barton of Buffalo. 417 VOL. XXII.-NO. IV. 24 COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. PAGE Foreign Imports into St. Louis in 1849 ...... Leading Articles of Produce, (Average price, etc.,) received at St. Louis in 1848 and 1849.. Export of Molasses from Cuba in 1849.. Exports and Imports of Matanzas in 1849.. Prices of Cotton Wool at Liverpool at the Close of each Week of 1849.. 425 426 427 428 428 429 431 432 432 433 433 COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States and the Emperor of Austria.... 436 New Swiss Tariff... Articles of Association of the Baltimore Board of Trade.. Classification of Seeds and Roots in the Tariff of 1846: a Treasury Circular.. Of Change of Tare on Rice, adopted by the New York Grocers.... Of Shipments to Chagres and Panama: a Treasury Circular... JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. The Revenue of France in 1849..... Condition of the Banks of the State of New York, December 29th, 1849. Banks and Banking Capital of Rhode Island....... Debt and Finances of the State of Texas....... 441 443 444 445 Dividends of Boston Banks in each year from 1840 to 1849, inclusive.. The Banker-The Objects of Banking-London and Westminster Bank.. Finances of Boston-Remarkable Incident in Banking... JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. Manufacturing Establishments of Rhode Island-names, kind of goods. &c... "Culture and Manufacture of Cotton:" an error corrected.. Gutta Percha: and its Uses.. The Pig-Iron Trade of Scotland. Exhibition at the Central Hall, Leipzig, of German Manufactures 446 447 447 448 449 450 451 451 451 452 455 456 457 458 459 460 Ship-Building in New York in 1849-Black Coal vs. Yellow Gold.. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Statistics of Railroads in Massachusetts and adjoining States, embracing the Western, Boston and Worcester, Boston and Maine, Eastern, Boston and Providence, Vermont and Worcester, Boston and Lowell, Nashua and Lowell, New Bedford, Taunton Branch, Fitchburg, Old Colony, Connecticut River, and Fall River Railroads... Dinsmore's American Railway Guide.......... Canal Business of Cincinnati and Toledo (from 1845 to 1848) compared.. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Vessels bound to the Thames and Medway........... Shoals, Rocks, Islands, and Dangers, not laid down in Charts.. 461 462 463-467 467 468 470 470 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. APRIL, 185 0. Art. I. THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILWAY. Ir is the fate of all great enterprises to pass through a long period of depression. Placed by their very magnitude beyond the compass of a few, they call for a combination of opinions and of powers that can only result from a general confidence in their success. But the larger the undertaking the more remote the results, and therefore the severer the trial of faith, so that it rarely, if ever, happens that such works are borne on by an unwavering common sentiment to their consummation. The first steps are easy. "C'est le premier pas qui coute" is not the rule here. The originality of a bold conception strikes all minds; the grand results are pictured to delighted and believing eyes; enthusiasm is aroused; strong and sanguine spirits begin the work. For awhile all goes on bravely and hopefully; but, as excitement dies, the first vision of the finished work grows dim, and moves away into the distant and doubtful future. Difficulties rise and oppose each step of progress; the mountain barriers alone are seen; the world forgets the project, and is otherwise engaged. Then comes the long period of "hope deferred," of unrewarded effort, of cold sympathy, and often of discredit, opposition, and slander: often, too, of sacrifice and failure to the original projectors. But the work goes on; and when, in the hour of its achievement, it comes forth from its oblivion a finished work, the enthusiasm of its inception is renewed, and the "generous public" forgives itself for the coldness of its long neglect in the zeal of its rejoicing. From such a period of darkness the Erie Railroad is just emerging, and its destined goal looms clear and bright on the horizon of the lake. Its completion is no longer doubtful, and the impression of its future prosperity is growing into a settled and general conviction. It is no longer a project, but has become a fact, and is at this moment only second among the great works of the Empire State, and perhaps of the Union. Those who would foretell its success must "speak quick," or they will receive the credit due to the prophets "of the day after." We are somewhat apprehensive of being found among these, while leaving the past, the long history of doubts and embarrassinents, we look at the enterprise as it now stands. And first, all the great facts in which it had its origin remain unchanged, save in the increase of their magnitude with the growth of the country. The commerce of three thousand miles of lake coast, of canals beyond, whose aggregate length is several times that of the Erie, of several hundred miles of railways, of numerous rivers, draining the produce of some of the richest States of the Union, all moves toward its natural destination-the eastern shore of Lake Erie. Here nature's broad and magnificent channels are interrupted. The river which links the great lakes falls over an impassible wall of rock and takes its distant way though a foreign country and toward a frozen clime. Never was human enterprise invited by a richer prize to a larger undertaking. The trade of the lakes, in its infancy when the Erie Railway was begun, has grown to require a tonnage exceeding that of all our foreign commerce! Where, in the history of the world, was ever such a commerce pent in the bosom of a continent, and asking from the ingenuity and the skill of man an outlet to the ocean-the great "exchange" of nations. If Niagara is the first of our natural wonders, it has called forth from American genius her grandest conceptions and her finest triumphs in art-the Suspension bridge, the Erie Canal, and the Erie Railway. Were the Mississippi, with its commerce full-grown, suddenly to lose itself in the earth at Memphis, the opportunity and the demand for artificial channels would hardly equal this. On other railways trade must gradually be developed by the new facilities of transit. The history of the Massachusetts Great Western Railway, which has created and drawn across the mountain ranges of New England a great and profitable business, affords a striking example. Fifteen years since the traveler from Albany to Boston was waked at midnight by the sound of the stage-horn. An hour or more served to gather some half-dozen sleepy companions of the journey, and day-light found them creeping up the hills and looking back over the Valley of the Hudson, with a tedious drive of two days before them. That stage-coach was the representative of the swift and powerful locomotives that now start several times in the day, with their long trains of freight and passenger cars, along that same route, and in less than twelve hours sound the warning of their arrival at Boston. With greater natural obstacles to overcome than the Erie, with higher grades, with a greater cost per mile in its construction, and with a far less important city for its terminus, the Great Western Railway has built up a remunerative business, while its has added millions to the wealth of New England. A still more remarkable instance of a great work creating a commerce, where none existed before, large enough to repay the whole outlay for its construction, is found in the Erie Canal. Twenty-five years ago the farmers of western New York waited for the winter's sleighing to "team" their crops to Albany-their nearest market. When low prices failed to repay the journey of a week for each load, the wheat was left unthrashed, and fed to the cattle. Where, then, were the markets of Ohio and Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and Wisconsin? Where were these States themselves? They were half-wilderness territories. Buffalo was a western village, and Detroit a frontier outpost, and Chicago, Galena, and Toledo were unheard-of names. Summer and winter saw the poor emigrant with his whole household in a hooded waggon, which often served for vehicle, stable, and tavern, moving toilsomely to the distant West. To the question, " Whither |