In spite of warnings of the dire consequences which will ultimately befall them, the members of the numerous exchanges which have recently conic into being continue their career of wild speculation. No commodity: is free from their operations, and the fever has reached such a pitch that in some cases prices are quoted at which no genuine business can be transacted. China cotton is mentioned as a case in point, the Tungchow variety being quoted at Tls. 28 and at one time as high as Ts. 29. Now when the China staple reaches this figure, spinners promptly turn their attention to imported cotton, and to-day they are finding American much more profitable to use. Obviously then the figure of Ts. 28 is fictitions, and what will be the end of it all? A fair quantity of China cotton is held in godowns, and probably some of it changes ownership at present figures, although we should imagine that that is by no means necessary. The point, how-ver, is that it has been brought here and is not going into consumption as it should. Those in; the cotton trade also point to the fact that it is probably deteriorate ing all the time, a circumstance which obviously is not entering to the calculations of the gamblers. Some day this cotton must he brought out into the market, and then the fat will be in the fire. Tis actual trade value will almost certainly be found to be consider-baby less than the quotations on the riges, and the ultimate holder jis going to have a very bad time. land not only the final. purchaser but all those who have been making forward purchases, for when the true value of the commodity is ascertained, the bottom will fall out! of the market, Tr is not the ruin which will inevitably' overcome so many of the speculators which j worries us; it is the effect which the collapse will have on legitimate business, for, if widespread, it will j affect numbers who have been; engaged in legitimate cc.umercial operations. Lhe government departme: Peking which "has granted registration to these exchanges might be well advised serutipize their character afresh with a view to a reconsideration their existence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.