1800.] On the late Embarraſſments at Hamburg. 407

though of the coarſeſt quality, are ſold. AII ſpeculations were made in expeétation of peace, which would reduce the pricesz the goods conſigned from England, upon commiſlion, arrived briſkly. There che preſſure to procure money by bills of two- thirds of the amount of the confignments, held egual pace with the increang dilemma in Hamburg.

After the Bank of England had, in February 1797, ſtopped payment in caſh, the London merchant, in order to procure ready money, had particularly recourſe to bills drawn on foreign conn- triès, and eſpecially on Hamburg; thoſe bills were almoſt all drawn at a ſhort date. This meaſure met with ſo much ſucceſs, that the courſe of exchange got up to 38 florins, and millions were tranſmitted in caſh to London. Laſt winter, how- ever, greatly increaſed this embarraſſment; for, during a period of five months, not a ſhip entered the harbour of Hamburg, while, on the contrary, whole fleets, laden with goods, weré lying in the Britiſh harbours, and which were prevented from ſailing by the early ſetting in of the winter, Bills had been drawn to the amount of the whole, and the firit bills paid in caſh, pre- vious to the arrival of the goods at. the warehouſes of the mer- chants in Hamburg. Under theſe circumſtances, the diſcount roſe to' 12 per cent.; and by the time they were depoſited in tne Warehouſes of the merchants, their profit amounted to no more than one per cent. The price of warehouſing roſe to a degree incompatible with commerce: thus was a ſingle warehouſe hired at the enormous rent of 5000 marks, paid in advance. A great part of the goods coming by ſea were in conſeauence liouſed in Gluckſtadt, Altona, Boxtehude, Haarburg, Lubeck, Lauenburg, and Lunenburg. Meanwhile, the Hamburg merchant had like- wiſe long been deprived of deriving any gain from goods captured’ by Britiſh and French fMips during the courſe of the war, from which reaſon, enterpriſing merchants fil wanted many millions, in order to extricate themſelves from their difMculties.

As long as the different countries paid their reſpeCtive demands at home in caſh, the operations of bills of exchange had their cer= tain deſtination; ſpeculations in money and bills fill continued, but leſs with a view of a conſiderable than of a moderate gain. But now, ſince all the commercial countries(even over wealthy Eng- land not excepted) diſcharged their inland debts with paper-money; ſince the credit of every bank was in amore or leſs tottering ſtatez ſince the governments, by their mandates, endeavour to enforce the value of their paper-money, and carry their point, at leaf for a time; the courſe of exchange at par, which had hitherto ex- iſted, began to waver; the merchant was conſeguently obliged to ſubmit equally to a courſe of exchange upon London, at 38 florins, to which it roſe after the month of February, 1797, as to that of 28 florins, its preſent ſtate. The moſt probable conſequences of the occurrences during the laſt year, will not be of a ſhort duration; for the prices of goods, the falling of which at preſent