manufacturing capital now requisite for their development. On the other hand, the Virginians occupy a vantage ground in this, that they enter upon their improvements having all the benefit of the experience of other states, as to the best and most economical modes of building railroads and canals, and of avoiding the heavy expenses of experimenting, in which some of the other states have been schooled at so dear a rate; and, besides, Virginia has not to incur the risk of waiting for business to be transacted upon this central work. When the immortal Clinton projected his great canal, not bushel of wheat was ready for transportation upon it, and minds of inferior order ridiculed the idea that such a work would ever be required. The scene is now changed, and while his great canal is pouring wealth into the city of New York, millions of bushels of grain are ready for transportation, and losing half their value for want of an outlet to the Atlantic board. If the statesmen of Virginia, therefore, consult the honor and glory of the Old Dominion, they will lay aside all local feelings, and unite, heart and hand, in the construction of this great work.

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

CROPS AT HOME AND ABROAD EXCHANGES-QUARTERLY IMPORTS INTO NEW YORK, FOR FIVE YEARS-STOCK-MARKET-INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS ON TRADE-ERIE RAILROAD-PRICES OF LEADING STOCKS IN THE NEW YORK MARKET-CREDIT OF THE STATES-LANDS SOLD IN THE SOUTH WESTERN STATES-COTTON CROP OF THE SAME-CAPITAL APPLIED TO BANKING IN THE SOUTHWEST-BANKS OF MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA-ACRES OF LAND SOLD IN THE WESTERN

STATES, SINCE 1833-POLICY OF ENGLAND--IMPORTS OF COFFEE, SUGAR, ETC., IN EUROPE— PRODUCE ENTERED GREAT BRITAIN FOR CONSUMPTION-EXPORTS OF BRITISH MANUFACTURES -BANK OF ENGLAND, ETC., ETC.

WITH no remarkable change, since our last number, in the general features of the business of the United States, financially and commercially, the new crop year is opening, accompanied by an increasing activity in all departments of business, with the most favorable reports of abundant crops in agricultural sections; unless, indeed, in the tobacco crop of Virginia, where a serious deficiency is apprehended-and the foreign markets never promised better for a large and remunerative export of our surplus. The leading feature of the European markets is an unexampled consumption of raw produce and manufactured goods, simultaneous with a most extraordinary speculation in railroad shares, and a continued abundance of money, accompanied by deficient harvests in western Europe and Great Britain. This is a combination of circumstances which, in an eminent degree, promises to benefit the United States, by finding a market for those prolific crops now about pouring into the Atlantic ports. Money continues very plenty; and, with the progress of the exports of the new crops, exchanges are rapidly falling. They have been declining at New Orleans and New York, as compared with last year, and are now some per cent under par. This downward tendency indicates the health of the market, and the small amount of commercial indebtedness outstanding.

The imports of the port of New York, quarterly, for a number of years, ending Sept. 30, have been as follows:

QUARTERLY IMPORTS INTO THE PORT OF NEW YORK.

While business remains in this favorable state, the most remarkable apathy prevails in the stock-market, generally-that is to say, there is no disposition on the part of the public to purchase stocks which yield as good, and in some cases better interest, than can be obtained on bond and mortgage. The great importance of railroads, in all sections of the Union, is universally acknowledged; and their effects in promoting general prosperity and activity in trade, wherever they have been established on any extensive scale, are but too apparent to be either denied or unnoticed. Boston, of all cities in the Union, presents the most marked instance of the benefits conferred by that means of communication. The necessity of similar works to promote the interests of New York, has led to the full completion of the subscription to the stock of the Erie railroad, under the new law; which provides briefly that, upon the subscription of $3,000,000 new stock, and the surrender of the old, to be converted into new, in the proportion of one of new for two of old, the company may issue bonds for $3,000,000 more, making $6,000,000, to complete the road in six years; which, if accomplished, will entitle the company to a release from the $3,000,000 granted it by the state. This subscription is now made up; and the first instalment, of $5 per share, ($150,000,) paid in. In our number for June, 1844, we alluded to the importance of this work, and entered into some detail of the prospective business to be derived from it. All expectations will probably fall far short of the reality, when the noble work is completed; as railroads, as yet, have scarcely begun to be appreciated by the public. A subscription of $1,000,000 to the Providence and Worcester railroad, and of $350,000 to the Oswego and Syracuse railroad, has also been completed in New York; and all these works will be pushed rapidly to completion, as well as the extension of the Harlem road to the Putnam county line, now under contract, and which will make fifty-six miles from the city of New York towards Albany. These are the first subscriptions to new stock that have been completed in this city for many years, and probably form the first steps towards enterprises that may, in some degree, emulate the extensive undertakings of Great Britain and Europe. As yet, however, the stock-market presents a total absence of all speculation. The quantities in the hands of the brokers are very large, and without disposition on the part of the commercial public to invest in them. The prices of the leading stocks compare as follows:

PRICES OF STOCKS IN THE NEW YORK MARket.

All descriptions of stock are, it appears, heavy. The effects of past years of disaster yet lay heavy upon the public mind, and deter capitalists from embarking in securities which have been attended with such terrible reverses. The payment by the state of Pennsylvania of the August interest, produced a much better feeling in the general state of affairs here and in Europe, in relation to public credit generally; and, if it had been unaccompanied by the untoward state of our relations with Mexico, would undoubtedly have led to a renewal of foreign investments in our public securities. These had, however, at the date of our latest advices, been entirely neglected, through the influence of the threatening state of affairs on our Mexican frontier. This is a matter, however, temporary in its influence. The States of America must soon recover their credit. Illinois is already, (unless through the misconduct of the trustees some popular ferment be excited,) in a fair way to redeem her honor. At the coming session of the Indiana legislature, some efficient mode of providing for her difficulties will, it is hoped, be decided upon. The agents of the bondholders have already made propositions. Michigan will resume the dividends on her acknowledged debt on the 1st of January, 1846; and Maryland will, it is to be hoped, make some effort to effect the same object in regard to her obligations, more especially as the stock she holds in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and other property, is rapidly appreciating in value, and improving her revenues. With the resumption of these states, American credit will have become so far restored as again to command the confidence of European capitalists; more especially if some public expression of opinion against any further creations of stock is adopted. The purchase of a portion of the stocks in our markets, on foreign account, would have a prodigious effect upon the market-value of all stocks.

In a former number, we gave a table of the sales of government lands in the new states, down to 1844, showing the proportion in which settlement is going on in each state. We now annex a table of the sales of land in the cotton states, as follows, down to the close of the first six months of 1845:

ACRES OF UNITED STATES LAND SOLD IN THE SOUTHWESTERN STATES, AND COTTON CROP OF THE SAME STATES.

. The large sales of lands, from 1834 to 1837, were under the whip and spur of bank speculations. The large sums of money borrowed on the credit of those states, in London, were mostly applied to the organization of banks whose capitals were composed of mortgages on cotton lands and negroes; among the owners of which, the sums borrowed were loaned, at an interest of, in some cases, as high as 10 per cent. In addition to the large sums borrowed on state faith for these purposes, near $30,000,000 of eastern and New York capital was invested in similar concerns, particularly in Mississippi. All those institutions have failed, because they were more of the nature of loan-offices issuing money, 'han commercial banks. The facility with which they loaned money, caused the extended settlement of lands for cotton cultivation. The lands of the new states are far superior to those of the old Atlantic; and, in those years of speculation, the old planters

of the Atlantic region would parcel a dozen or two negroes as a capital to their sons, to go and commence business in the new states. These would enter lands, and immediately become stockholders in the property banks-that is to say, they mortgaged their negroes and lands to the banks, for money to carry on their planting; the bank receiving the cotton, and controlling the bills. Under these circumstances, a revulsion was inevitable; and the moment that cotton ceased to yield abroad the exorbitant prices advanced on it by the banks at home, (in many cases as high as fifteen cents,) they ceased to be able to make new advances to the planters, and the distress became intolerable and universal. Under this pressure it was, that the clamor for new banks, particularly in Mississippi, led to that issue of state stocks, which so soon led to the deplorable result of repudiation. It will be observed that nearly the whole increase in the production of the cotton has taken place in those states where immense sums of borrowed and subscribed capital poured over a virgin soil of most prolific character, putting in motion the industry of thousands of blacks, drawn from the more sterile soil of the old states. The capital so employed may be summed up nearly as follows:

CAPITAL APPLIED to Banking IN THE SOUTHWEST.

In order the better to particularise the capital so appointed, we will enumerate the banks, with the date of their establishment:

There were some eight or ten other banks, with smaller capitals, all of which was lost. The Louisiana bank capital was as follows:

$24,464,226

BANKS OF LOUISIANA-Continued.

CAPITAL

Names of Banks.

Louisiana State Bank,.

Mechanics' and Traders' Bank,.....................

Merchants' Bank,..

Orleans Bank,.........

Union Bank of Louisiana,.........

Total,.........

$41,510,498 $22,291,346 $6,945,710 $12,272,742

Here was near $30,000,000 procured from New York and London, and put into the cotton banks, which have nearly all failed. Thus, within a period of three years, $55,000,000 of actual money was applied to the cultivation of vast tracts of lands, and doubling the crops between the years 1836 and 1840; since when, the purchase of land in that region has been very small; and, as a consequence, the crop has scarcely increased in those sections. The present year, the crop has, with most favorable weather, been greater than ever; yet, in those states, with the natural increase of slaves, it has only been 100,000 bales greater than in 1840, and it is actually less than in 1843. This is a very pregnant fact, and one which should have its full weight with the trade. It shows that the great movements of 1835-36 have just now produced their maximum results, and that the vastly accelerated production of 1836-40 has just now been overtaken by consumption, which is henceforth likely to keep full pace with production. The planting sections have, therefore, in all probability, a cycle of prosperous years before them. In the new states of the west, however, this does not appear to be the case, in so great a degree. The land sales of the government are there very rapidly swelling in quantities— that is to say, the sales for 1844 and 1845 will be nearly double those of 1841 and 1842. It would appear from the census returns of New York, for 1845, that, as a general thing, the poorer class of farmers are leaving the state of New York, and migrating to the rich lands of the west; where less money and less labor will produce far greater results than in the state of New York.

The sales of land in the western states have been as follows, for a period of years similar to that heretofore mentioned of the cotton states:

ACRES OF LAND SOLD IN THE WESTERN STATES.

Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, are by far the greatest favorites with the immigrants, as appears from the returns. In the latter, particularly, the settlement has been rapid. In addition to these sales, it should be borne in mind that, of the large quantities taken in the years 1835 and 1836, by speculators, considerable sales are now yearly made to settlers; and also that considerable quantities of state lands are being disposed of, for actual settlement. From all these sources, it is probable that the breadth of land brought