ANNUAL STATEMENT OF THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF NEW ORLEANS FOR THE

YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 1, 1853.

Our supplies of Western produce, with the exception of pork, beef, &c., have fallen short of last year; but of our two leading Southern staples, cotton and sugar, the product has been greater than in any previous year, these two articles alone having furnished a portion of our season's business exceeding eighty-three millions of dollars in value.

And while the generally favorable result of the year just closed is matter of congratulation, it is also satisfactory to remark that the indications would seem to be auspicious for the season now entered upon. True, it is quite too early to estimate, with any approach to accuracy, the probable extent of the crops of our leading staples; but whatever their extent may be the facilities for their disposal are likely to be of a very satisfactory character. The ship-builders of the North are busily engaged in extending the means of transportation to other markets, and the facilities for effecting exchange negotiations, (an important consideration,) must be materially augmented through the operations of the new banking institutions which have sprung into existence under the provisions of the Free Banking Law, passed at the last session of our State Legislature. With abundant crops and remunerating prices, (which may reasonably be hoped for,) we shall have the basis of an extended general trade, and our city's advancement, aided by the noble works of internal improvement now in progress, will present a ratio more in harmony than the past has been with its pre-eminent advantages of position.

The value of products received from the interior since 1st September, 1852, is $1342,33,735, against $108,051,708 last year, showing an increase in the value of our Commerce with the interior since 1842, of $88,517,690, or nearly two hundred per cent. It has been usual with us to give, in this connection, the value of merchandise exported, as shown by the records of the Custom-house, but we have not been able to obtain the necessary data this season. The operations of the Branch Mint at this place show a further material falling off, the total deposits of gold and silver for the year ended July 31st, 1853, being $4,485,866, against $603,650 last year, and $9,107,922 the year before. Of the gold, there was from California $2,384,377, against $5,821,695 from the same source last year, and $8,152,878 the year before. The coinage in the same period has been 531,500 pieces gold, value $2,515,000, and 2,302,000 pieces silver, value $312,000. Total pieces, 2,833.500; total value, $2,357,000. Of the silver coinage, 1,836,000 pieces, (value $290,000,) were of the “New Emission,” viz.: 80,000 half dollars, 580,000 quarter dollars, 930,000 dimes, 240,000 half dimes.

COTTON. The season has closed upon the largest cotton crop ever produced in the United States, and this notwithstanding a slight falling off in the receipts at the Atlantic ports, Mobile, and Florida, as compared with last season, the great bulk of the increase being in the receipts at this port. This increase of production, however, has happily been met by a corresponding increase of demand, and we are enabled to congratulate our planters upon having realized a better average for their crops than was obtained even for the shorter product of last year; thus increasing their aggregate income in a very large amount. We shall briefly refer to some of the leading features of the market's progress, and shall introduce some tabular statements, which we think will be found interesting to parties connected with the cotton trade.

The first bale of the new crop reached market on the 2d August, which was eight days later than the first receipt of the previous year; but, notwithstanding this tardiness of the first arrival, the receipts of new crop up to the 1st September summed up 5,077 bales, which was the largest amount received up to the same period since 1846. The first few bales, as usual, brought fancy prices, but the market rapidly ran down to a parity with the old crop; and on the 1st September the quotations were 10 a 10 cents for good middling to middling fair, the sales up to that time having been about 2,500 bales, and principally of those

grades, though there were some parcels of good and fine on the market, the early receipts having presented a considerably higher average than the first arrivals of the year previous. As the stock accumulated the prices yielded somewhat, but, as a general remark, they were quite well maintained under the influence of a good demand, until the latter part of November and the early part of December, when the unusually large receipts, together with high freights, a lack of tonnage, inadequate shipping facilities, and adverse accounts from abroad, bore heavily upon the market, and a material decline took place, especially in the low and middling grades, our quotations on the 15th December being for low middling 7 a 74, middling 7 a 8, good middling 8§ a 84, &c., &c. This was the lowest point of the season, but the depression was only momentary, as the market almost immediately rallied, under the influence of unexpectedly favorable advices from Europe. There was also a period of depression, attended with great irregularity in the prices of the lower grades, in the early part of Febru ary; but, on the whole, the season, though not characterized by that remarkable degree of steadiness which formed the market's peculiar feature last year, has, nevertheless, we should suppose, been satisfactory in its results, at least to the planter, though the merchant has frequently been subjected to much perplexity and annoyance from the indequate facilities heretofore provided for effecting deliveries.

The following tables, which we have compiled from our records, will present a concise history of the course of the market. A reference to them will show that the extreme fluctuation for the middling cotton has been 24 cents per lb., and that the average price of the season is 9 cents per lb., against 8 cents last year, and 11 cents the year previous. Besides the increase in the number of bales, there proves also to be an increase in the average weight of the bales, which we have ascertained to be 455 lbs., against 438 lbs. last year. This would give an aggregate weight for the portion of the crop received at this port of 757,513,120 lbs.

TABLE SHOWING THE QUOTATIONS FOR LOW MIDDLING TO GOOD MIDDLING COTTON ON THE FIRST OF EACH MONTH WITH THE RATE OF FREIGHT TO LIVERPOOL, AND STERLING BILLS,

TABLE SHOWING THE HIGHEST AND LOWEST POINT IN EACH MONTH, FOR LOW MIDDLING TO

TABLE SHOWING THE PRODUCT OF LOW MIDDLING TO GOOD MIDDLING COTTON, TAKING THE AVERAGE OF EACH ENTIRE YEAR FOR EIGHT YEARS, WITH THE RECEIPTS AT NEW ORLEANS, AND THE TOTAL CROP OF THE UNITED STATES.

The total receipts at the port of New Orleans since 1st September, 1852, from all sources, are 1,664,864 bales. This amount includes 60,875 bales received from Mobile and Florida, and from Texas by sea; and this being deducted, our receipts proper, including 23,995 bales received direct from Montgomery, &c., are shown to be 1,603,989 bales, being an increase of 209,765 bales over the receipts of last year, which were the largest ever known up to that time. The total exports since first September are 1,644,981 bales, of which 922,086 bales were shipped to Great Britain, 211,526 to France, 244,673 to the North and South of Europe, and 266,696 to United States ports. On a comparison of the exports with those of last year there would appear to be an increase of 150,846 bales to Great Britain, 15,272 to France, 35,514 to the North and South of Europe, and of 10,250 bales to United States ports. The total receipts at all the Atlantic and Gulf ports, up to the latest dates received—as shown by our General Cotton Table--are 3,211,172 bales; but the actual crop, when made up to the 1st September by the New York Shipping and Commercial List, with the difference of stocks at Augusta and Hamburg, receipts overland, &c., will probably not be far from 3,220,000 bales; an excess of 205,000 bales over the crop of last year. Thus the largest Cotton crop ever produced in the United States has been disposed of, and at a very favorable average of prices, though besides the material increase of our crop the lower grades of American Cotton have had to con tend with unusual imports into Great Britain from India, the quantity received from that source during the first six months of the present year being 266.603 bales, against 44,019 bales in same period last year. According to the semi-annual Circular of Messrs. Hollingshead, Tetly & Co., Liverpool, which we have been accustomed to take as authority, it would appear that the total supply of Cotton in Great Britain, for the six months ended on the 30th June, 1853, was 2,182,250 bales, against 1,895,963 bales for same period last year, and that of this quantity 1,496,595 bales were American, against 1,470,662 bales last year. The quantity taken for consumption in the same time was 1,040,150 bales, against 1,031,763 bales last year, which shows a slight increase, though in the quantity of American taken there has been a falling off, the respective amounts being 825,412 bales in 1852, and 806,295 bales in 1853. The weekly average consumption in Great Britain, for the first six months of the current year, has been 40,005 bales of all kinds, against 39,683 bales for same period last year, and the stock on hand in the United Kingdom, on the 1st July, 1853, was 986.300 bales, of which 609,100 bales were American. Last year at the same time the total stock was 717,200 bales, of which 553,500 bales were American. We have no data for the consumption of the Continent of Europe for the first six months of the current year, but it is probable that it has somewhat exceeded the ratio of 1852, when the consumption of Europe (other than Great Britain) was put down at 1,181,637 bales for the whole year, distributed as follows: France 476,660 bales, Russia 141,949, Hamburg and Bremen 127,535, Trieste 126,314, Holland and Belgium 145,678, Spain 94,541. Other countries 68,950. The amount taken for consumption in the whole of Europe (including Great Britain) in 1852 is stated at 3,077,712 bales. Add the consumption of the United States in the same period-say 650,000 bales-and we have a grand total, in round numbers, of 3,728,000 bales as the apparent consumption of the year 1852. The supply for 1852 may be stated to have been as follows:-

The ratio of consumption for 1852, as we have already shown, has been somewhat exceeded in Great Britain for the first six months of the current year, and the consumption of the United States for 1853 may be safely put down as 700,000 bales, though not the whole of this quantity will have been taken out of the receipts at the ports.

We append a table which exhibits the import, delivery, stock, etc., in the whole of Great Britain, for the first six months of the current year, ended on the 30th June last, and a comparison with the same period in 1852.

As to the quality of the last crop, the great bulk of it was of a low average, and we had occasion frequently through the season to remark upon the unusually wide difference in price between the lower and better grades, owing to the abundance of the former and the comparative scarcity of the latter. Clean, bright Cottons, with good staple, have generally the advantage in demand, and it proba bly would be to the interest of the planters if more care were observed in the gathering of the crops.

With respect to the growing crop, we have to remark that up to this time the accounts from the interior are, with some exceptions, favorable for a good yield, should the picking season prove propitious. True, the crop is more backward even than last year, and this will render it more liable to serious injury should an early frost ensue, besides retarding the receipts, which are likely to be still further impeded by causes growing out of the prevalence of the epidemic in our midst, as it is altogether probable that the proprietors of steamboats generally will find it difficult, if not impossible, to make their arrangements for entering upon the Cotton trade as promptly as heretofore. And, besides this, the presence of more or less fever at several of the prominent river towns, which are leading shipping points, is likely to deter planters from sending their crops in while their servants would be exposed to disease that might prove fatal. Thus far, it will be seen, the receipts of the new crop show a large deficiency as compared with last year.

The market prospects for the coming crop we conceive to be of a favorable character, for the consumption is likely to be adequate to the absorption of any probable extent of production. This would seem to be evident from the course of the past two years; for within that period we have seen two successive crops -the last the largest ever produced, and the two combined exceeding any two

previous crops by the important amount of nearly a million and a quarter of bales, (the crops of 1851 and 1852 together amount to about 6,240,000 bales)—we have seen these two large crops more readily disposed of than any previous ones, and at prices which not only present a satisfactory average throughout but which show a gradual though steady improvement (with some fluctuations, from collateral causes) until the closing rates for the crop of 1852, are nearly fifty per cent higher than the opening ones for that of 1851. We have already shown that the ratio of consumption in Great Britain, for the first six months of the current year, has exceeded somewhat the ratio of 1852; and should the political questions which now agitate Europe be amicably arranged, and the world remain at peace, such is the general prosperity of the great consuming countries, that a very ample crop is likely to meet a ready market, at satisfactory prices. At the same time the increased facilities for its disposal, to which we have made reference in our opening remarks, will give our own market peculiar advantages, all of which will enure to the advantage of the planter.

The first bale of the new crop was received here on the 9th August, being seven days later than the first receipt of the previous year. It was from Texas, was of good color, and excellent staple, classed middling fair, and sold at the fancy price of 13 cents per lb. No further sale of new crop has come to our knowledge, and the total receipts thus far are only 74 bales, against 5,077 bales to same time last year. At the moment the market is wholly without animation, and the season closes with a stock in factors' hands unsold estimated at 4,000 bales, and at the following nominal quotations :

Inferior

Ordinary to good ordinary

Low middling..
Middling

Good middling.

64 a 8
8 a 91

94 a 10

10 a 10

11 a 11

MIXED COTTON, GINNING, &c. We have repeatedly called the attention of planters to the necessity of more care in the packing of cotton, so that the mixing of different qualities in the same bale may be avoided, and we recur to the subject again with increased earnestness, as the evil is a most vexatious one, and is still constantly complained of, to the great detriment of the trade. Another evil, of a graver character, is loudly complained of, and this is one which it behooves every honest planter and factor to discountenance and expose. We allude to false packing, which some parties are dishonest enough to resort to, with evident view to defraud. In these cases the discovery of the fraud is seldom made until the bales are opened at the manufacturer's mill, in most instances in some foreign country, and then the factors have sent back upon them certificates and reclamations, with their attendant vexations, disputations, and loss. So great has this evil become that we have been specially addressed on the subject by a respectable house at Manchester, England, from whose letter we make the following extract: "You would subserve the interest of many parties if you would call the planters' attention to the injurious practice of false packing of cotton. It has been carried to such an extent this season, particularly in the lower grades, that spinners actually prefer buying East India cotton, as they yield less waste than ordinary cotton of American growth, with the false packing prevailing this season."

We also had occasion in the early part of the season to refer to a very general complaint about the manner in which cotton was ginned. A very large proportion of the early receipts were what is called "napped," which was supposed to result from the cotton being ginned in a damp state, and with too much haste. The result of this was considerable loss to the planter, as many a bale was classed and sold as good middling or middling fair, that but for this defect would have sold as fair or fully fair, at a difference of a cent per pound. We refer to this subject again, as it may be worth the planters' while to guard against a recurrence of the evil the present season.

The following tables, which have explanatory captions, we have compiled from our records, under the impression that they would probably be found interesting to parties engaged in the cotton trade :