Rumour of the heavy losses met by one of our largest single import and export houses, have been circulating freely during the last few weeks, and although repeated de-niels have been made of thes rumours, the general opinion among business men is that where there is smoke there is fire. This firm is known to have lost considerable sums in South American coffee transactions, when the price of coffee fell rapidly. Losses have also been sustained by many large houses in Cuba, due to the drop in the price of sugar and the subsequent declaration of a moratorium, which has not yet been lifted. A large perfume manufactory recently offered to finance completely shipments of its goods to Cuba merchants, if those merchants would give guarantees of payment immediately after the lifting of the moratorium, but this generous offer was turned down, because the Cuban merchants said that they already have too many outstanding debts, which must. be paid as soon as the end of the moratorium.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.