1843 18,542,915 1814 19,034,332 1845 19,525,749 1846 20,017,165 1847 20,508,582 27,748,188 23 12,551,409 19 8,231,000 26 861,596 55 1,877,847 95 29,320,707 78 12,991,902 84 29,941,853 90 8,595,049 10 29,699,967 74 1,213,823 31 28,900,765 36 26,437,403 16 6,719.282 37 24,748,188 23 17,093,794 80 16,750,926 33 38,956,623 38 58,526,349 37 21,256,700 00 *35,425,750 59 *15,249,197 21 Present debt, including the amount to be realized on the 1st of May, 1848, of the loans of 1846, 1847, and 1848, $65,787,008 92. 1848 21,006,000 DEBT OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT TO ENGLAND. By a Parliamentary return just issued, it appears that there is due to the naval department of the English government from the Queen of Spain, for supplies of naval stores, provisions, &c., for the hire of transports, and for the subsistence of the men belonging to the British Legion employed in her service, £11,132 3d. There is also due to the Ordnance department, for arms and ammunition, £553,037, making in the whole a debt of £564,169 3d. * Estimated returns not completed. BRITISH COIN AND BULLION STATISTICS. Amongst the British Parliamentary returns, one relating to the export of bullion from the United Kingdom is very interesting. From this document, prepared by the Inspector General of imports and exports at the custom-house, the following appears to have been the aggregate exports of coin and bullion from the United Kingdom for the years undermentioned: 166,485 34,996 Years. 1837.. 1838.. 1839.. 251,696 405,626 1840. 1841. 17,952 1842. 107,829 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 1847............. 57,700 316,871 13,683 9,363 564,509 28,296 23,979 40,209 11,928 46,643 99,529 38,878 1,005,651 236,896 201,481 285,920 13,354,084 13,640,004 481,431 464,918 12,894,904 13,359,822 657,322 779,257 13,021,226 13,800,483 374,571 471,869 15,496,408 15,968,277 31,635 502,243 14,812,180 15,354,423 117,192 149,832 13,832,956 13,982,788 592,805 553,586 11,809,408 12,362,994 64,188 325,721 13,403,310 13,729,031 58,371 429,458 14,439,174 15,368,632 138,305 237,209 9,380,419 9,617,628 1,242,637 952,955 14,320,824 15,273,779 Of the 1,242,637 ounces of gold and 15,273,779 ounces of silver, thus shown to have been exported in 1847, it appears that 1,005,651 of the gold and 952,955 of the silver was in the coinage of this country, the remainder being foreign. While, however, nearly all the gold exported was British, the silver was almost exclusively foreign, the proportions being as follow: On an analysis of the account, the total amount of specie exported appears to have been shipped to foreign countries in the following proportions:- Gold. Silver. 838,029 Gold. Silver. Oz. 6,569 Oz. 201,108 7,293 560,872 Valuing the above amounts at the mint price of gold and the average price of silver, it would appear that the bullion exported exceeded £10,000,000 sterling, of which sum about half was gold and the remainder silver. From this amount, however, in order to ascertain the nett sum exported, the value of the specie imported must be deducted, but the custom-house returns do not afford any information on the point. The Bank of England returns show that the highest amount of gold and silver held during the year 1847 by that establishment was £14,951,575 on the 2d January; and the lowest amount £8,312,691 on the 23d October; the difference being £6,638,881. This may afford sufficiently correct data to estimate the actual amount of specie exported over the amount received.* COINAGE OF THE BRITISH MINTS IN 1847. According to a Parliamentary return, the total value of the gold coinage in 1847 was £90,029,763, of the silver coinage, £13,573,906, and copper, £243,051. The numbers of the different coins were 16,119 double sovereigns, 81,711,149 sovereigns, 16,572,717 half-sovereigns, 2,319,561 crown pieces, 38,560,098 half-crowns, 119,508,840 shillings, 76,017,875 sixpences, 16,575,200 groats, 88,209 fourpenny pieces, 1,463,308 threepenny pieces, 121,308 twopenny pieces, 271,920 silver pennies, 24,299,500 copper penny pieces, 34,379,520 half-penny pieces, 66,296,832 farthings, and 12,902,400 half-farthings. * Wilmer and Smith's Liverpool Times. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. THE BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD. THE last annual report to the stockholders of the Maine Railroad, made at their annual meeting held September 13th, 1848, exhibits the financial affairs of the company as in a prosperous condition. This road, extending from Boston to Portland, a distance of 111 miles, was opened to travel as far as Andover in 1836, to Dover, N. H., 1841, and to South Berwick in 1843. The capital stock of this company is $3,236,541. The receipts and expenses for the financial year ending June 1, 1848, to which time the accounts of the corporation are made, as per report of the Treasurer, are exhibited in the following table = RECEIPTS. Reserve of account of repairs of engines and cars, June 1, 1841.. Reserved profits, June 1, 1847..... Passenger fares.... Freight..... Mail. Rents........ $34,491 80 16,000 00 347,308 19 187,778 74 6,528 23 4,727 93 This, like all the railroads from Boston, furnishes great facilities to the merchants and business men of the city, as well as to residents in the towns from two to ten miles from Boston. Trains run to and from Medford, a distance of five miles, fourteen times a day; fare, 12 cents; time, fifteen minutes. Season tickets, with privilege of going over the road that distance at pleasure, are sold by the company at $25. Packages of tickets are sold at one-half the usual fare for any place on the route. The following table, furnished by Charles Minot, Esq., the efficient superintendent of the road, gives the places, distances, and rates of fare for single and season tickets:DISTANCES, RATES OF FARE, &c., ON THE BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD. Season tickets. 3 months. 6 months. 12 months. Somerville.... 2 $0 06 $5.50 $10 00 $20 00 Medford 5 0 12 6 87 12.50 25 00 Malden......... 6 87 12 50 25 00 Melrose 8 25 15 00 30 00 Stoneham.. 8 25 15 00 30 00 South Reading.. 35 00 Reading....... 11 00 20 00 40 00 Wilmington..... 13 75 25 00 50 00 Ballardvale 16 50 30.00 60 00 Andover.. 16 50 30 00 60 00 Lawrence..................... 17 87 32 50 65 00 North Andover.. 19 25 35 00 70 00 Bradford... 22 00 40 00 80 00 Haverhill.... 22 00 40 00 80 00 Plaistow.. Newton East Kingston.... Exeter...... South Newmarket.. Newmarket....... Durham....... Dover...... Somersworth South Berwick. North Berwick. Wells...... Kennebunk. Saco.... Scarborough Portland.. On the 1st of July, the Directors of the road reduced the passenger tariff from 2 60-100 to 2 25-100 cents per mile. The receipts for July last fell off from those of the corresponding months of last year, but in August there was a gain over August of last year, another fact in favor of low fares. AMERICAN OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. It is a well known fact that the entire enterprise of ocean steam navigation was but recently in British hands, and conducted by British capital. The following particulars of the progress of this enterprise in the United States are furnished by a correspondent of the Journal of Commerce: The gigantic enterprise in which E. K. Collins is at present engaged, is the most extensive of any of the same character yet undertaken by a single individual in the United States one in which upwards of $2,500,000 are involved. Mr. C. contemplates the construction of five steamers of immense size to ply between this city and Liverpool, and carry the United States mail. Without exception, they will be the largest frame steam vessels ever built. Two of them are now far advanced; one in the yard of William H. Brown, and the other in that of Jacob Bell, and will probably both be launched in November next. Their extreme length is 285 feet, breadth of beam 40 feet, depth of hold 31 feet. They will measure 3,000 tons, or about the same as the Great Britain (iron.) It is intended that they shall be completed in season to make their first trip in the early part of the fall of 1849. In model, they are unlike any steam vessel heretofore built, having more floor and sharper ends. They are also without a cut water, and carry no bowsprit. Their frames are all sided, 12 to 14 inches, and floors 21 inches, moulded, filled in solid to the floor heads, and coaged with locust throughout. Some idea of the extent of this department of naval architecture may be gathered from the following list of steam vessels that have been recently, or are soon to be, built in this city. New York and Savannah...... Charleston packets........ Southerner 1,000 Southampton and Bremen...... Hermann.. 1,805 Howard's New York and New Orleans..... Law's New Orleans and Chagres branch.... Collins' New York and Liverpool line....... Empire City... Two unknown.. Here we have 22 steamships whose aggregate tonnage is about 40,000 tons, and in which is, or is to be, invested a capital exceeding $9,000,000. The traffic returns of French railways for each month of the present year, ending July, 1848, show the effects of the revolutions upon commerce and general trade. The carriage of passengers and goods of every description has very much declined, and of course the receipts have been proportionably small. The number of passengers by all the lines during the month of July was 325,565, against 363,127 at the same period of last year, and against 377,640 in 1846. The receipts had been 997,539 francs during the same month in the present year, against 1,384,032 francs in July, 1847, and 1,354,108 francs in 1846. The total receipts from January to July, inclusive, this year, had been 6,726,293 francs against 8,005,031 francs to the same time last year, and 7,218,137 francs in 1846, for the same period. PASSENGERS ON THE RAILROADS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. A British Parliamentary return shows that the number of passengers carried on the various railways in Great Britain and Ireland, in the half year ending June 30, 1848, was 26,330,492. In the same period 90 persons were killed, and 99 injured by accidents. Of the persons killed, 11 were passengers, 59 servants of companies or contractors, 19 trespassers, and one suicide. NOISE ON RAILROADS PREVENTED. Mr. Grant, one of the engineers on the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad, states that a plan has been devised and carried into effect on that road, to prevent the noise which causes so much annoyance on railroads. The plates in general use are abolished, and the ends of the rails are connected by dowel pins, entering about 1 inches. The cars glide over the rails without any disagreeable jarring or noise. |