alone are valued at $152,561,975-nearly one-half of the total exports for the year, and, including her possessions, at $195,791,886-nearly two-thirds of the ex. port trade of the United States. France comes next-the amount of exports to that empire was $42,594,933. PRICES OF PRODUCE AND MERCHANDISE AT CINCINNATI. In the Merchants' Magazine for November, 1856, (vol. xxxv., pages 608-609,) we published the average prices of butter, cheese, and coffee, on the last day of each week of the year, commencing with September 5th, 1855, and ending August 27, 1856; and in the December number, (vol. xxxv., pages 748-749,) the average prices of flour, corn, wheat, and rye, for the same time. In the number for January, 1857, (vol. xxxvi., pages 90–91,) we gave the average prices of star candles, lard, oil, and barley; in the number for February will be found the average prices of oats, hay, hemp, and molasses; and in the number for March, (vol. xxxi., pages 363-364,) the average prices of linseed-oil, flaxseed, beef cattle, and sugar. We now conclude the series by giving the average prices of clover-seed and whisky: The following table shows the price of clover-seed at the close of each week during the year, except in those weeks when nothing was done in it : The following table shows the price of whisky at the close of each week dur DISPARITY BETWEEN THE EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF THE SOUTH. The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, in order to stir up the people to place the South in the position she should occupy in her commercial relations to the balance of the Union, gives some facts and figures going to show the disparity of Southern exports and imports as follows: The received maxim in political economy is, that a country is prospering when she exports more than she imports, but this is upon the supposition that her people are making more money than they expend. Such is not the case with the South. The South is a producing and consuming, but not a manufacturing country. She consumes to the amount of her exports; but the exchangeable values she receives in return are either manufactured at the North or in Europe; and received through the medium of Northern commission houses and agents, and by Northern ships. The articles of necessity and use purchased in Europe by our cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice, are brought back to us, not to New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston, the ports from whence these products are shipped, but to Northern ports-to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. The operation is a common one, but to the Southern consumer rather an expensive one, for he is the one that eventually foots the bill. The Northern jobber or distributor buys from the importer, paying him, of course, his profits and the interest for a credit of four or six months; the jobber, in turn, sells to the Southern merchant, receives his superadded profit and interest for eight or twelve months. The producer, who is also the consumer, pays the shop for this complicated and expensive operation. Let us look to the operation of the production and export of the single article of cotton. The value of the cotton grown in the Southern States, in 1855-56, of the 3,527,345 bales, at $45 per bale, amounted to $158,763,025. Of this, we send over to Europe 2,946,291 bales, amounting to the sum of $133,583,095. The balance or difference between the crop and the amount exported, is manufactured mainly at the North. The exports of Southern products during the past year may be set down as follows: Cotton...... Tobacco, (estimated to be the same as last year,). Total....... $133,583,095 14,000,000 6,000,000 $153,583,095 Of this sum, the North, it is estimated, have received a clear profit of not less than 30 per cent. Some fix the amount as high as 33 per cent; but take the former sum, and it will give for one year alone a profit to the North of $45,000,000, of which sum $11,000,000 was paid in freight alone. Of the cotton sent coastwise to the North, we take from Massachusetts alone, in return, in the shape of fabrics for wear, near $36,000,000. We besides get from the North, or through the North, our shoes, our hats, and every other article of clothing. Then again, we look to them for our plantation tools, plows, shovels, spades, hoes, saw and grist mills, cotton-gins, and sugar-grinding and sugar-making machinery. The total exports of the North for the past year were, in round numbers, $120,000,000, including the reshipment of Southern products, against the $153,580,000 exports of Southern products, making a difference in favor of the South of $33,580,000 of exports. Now, to equalize truly our relative position, there should be a corresponding difference in our imports in favor of the South. But how stands the case? We have the official returns before us. For the last four months-June, July, August, and September-the revenue received from customs at the six principal ports in the Union-New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Charleston-amounted to $21,682,000, the three Northern cities receiving of this $20,310,000, and the three Southern cities, $1,372,000. The excess for 1856 over the same period in 1855 is $4,625,000. There was collected the present year over four-fifths of the entire revenue at the port of New York, and last year something over three-fourths. The receipts at the custom-house in New York for the above four months were $16,348,000; at Boston, $2,529,000; and at Philadelphia, $1,439,000; while at New Orleans they were $709,000. And yet New Orleans exports more than New York, and more than the other cities combined. Such are the inequalities in the currents of trade. COMMERCIAL PROGRESS OF CANADA. The table below, compiled from official documents, furnishes a condensed view of the revenue and trade of Canada in 1855 and 1856. In the Merchants' Magazine for March, (vol. xxxvi., page 361,) we published a table showing the comparative commerce of the several ports in the province :CUSTOMS REVENUE OF CANADA FOR 1855-56. This increase has occurred under the new tariff, which abolished the 30 per cent duty, and increased the specific duty on articles of luxury. The total value of goods, of all kinds, imported into the province for the 11 months of 1855, ending the 15th of December, amounted to.. Ditto ditto during the same period of 1856..... $24,471,645 30,613,382 $6,141,737 9,813,717 11,359,757 $1,546,040 JOURNAL OF INSURANCE. FIRE INSURANCE. A minority of a committee of the Common Council of the city of Boston, to whom was referred an order relative to insurance by the city, of losses by fire, submitted a report on the 4th of December, 1856, which contains, in a small compass, so much interesting information on the subject, that we are induced to give place to it in this department of the Merchants' Magazine. The subject is likely to attract considerable attention from the fact that it has already been broached in France by Louis Napoleon, who proposes that the government shall insure all the property of the empire upon nearly the same basis as that laid down in the report of the Boston Committee. It will be seen by this report that the committee recommend that the city of Boston pay all losses to her citizens originating from fire, and that the property holders be assessed in the general tax raised for the support of the city :— Contracts of insurance, strictly so called, are of modern invention, and their importance in relation to commerce is scarcely inferior to that of bills of exchange. Every merchant is liable to losses and reverses by the changes of the market; the risks of this description, however, may be calculated upon with some degree of certainty; but those of fire and the perils of the sea cannot be so well estimated, and when they come, in many cases they would bring ruin upon the merchant were it not for the system of insurance, the object of which is to apportion the losses from these disasters among all those whose property is exposed to the same hazards. If, for instance, all persons engaged in trading were to enter into an agreement to contribute for the losses of each other, occasioned by the common casualties, in proportion to the amount they respectively have at risk, each individual would then only run the risk of the proportion of losses occasioned upon the general aggregate of property at risk. To many, such a general combination would be considered complicated and practically inconvenient; consequently, the proper mode, (which has long been in practice in this country and Europe.) of one person, the underwriter, agreeing to take upon himself those risks for a hundred merchants, more or less, for a certain premium on each risk, such person calculating that the premiums on the profitable adventures will compensate him for losses which may occur on those which may be unfortunate. The result accordingly is, that all persons having their property insured in this manner, in effect mutually contribute for each other's losses, by the bargain of each with the common receiver of the contributions of all. With respect to insurance against fire, mathematical nicety on this subject is of little importance, for the amount of experience afforded by the general prevalence of the practice, and the competition which exists among the numerous rival companies, have probably had the effect of adjusting the premium to the average risk with all the accuracy that is practically attainable. The premium charged by the London insurance office, on property of the value of £100, is 1s. 6d. per annum, which corresponds to an average annual loss of nearly one in thirteen hundred; but it is to be observed that the sum which is charged as premium is proved to be sufficient not only to cover the losses, but also to defray the expenses of the establishment, and to afford an adequate interest on the amount of capital laid out or risked by the insurance company. Insurance in London would be much more general, did not governinent impose a tax on the transaction of three shillings per annum on each £100 insured, which is double the amount of premium charged by the insurer. Hence, the govern ment derives from this source the large revenue of between ten and eleven hun dred thousand pounds per annum. The characteristic property of insurance, of whatever nature, is the tendency to reduce to a certain average value the profits or advantages arising from all speculations of the same kind, however great the number may be. The gain which the insurer makes on his successful speculations indemnifies him for the loss he sustains by those which are unsuccessful, and to the insured the result is the same as if they had paid their premiums into a common fund, and agreed to make good to each other their individual losses. The insurers are only the intermediate agents of this supposed association. A mercantile company, employing a very great number of ships, or taking part in a very great number of enterprises, would derive no benefit from insurance. The loss on those which are unsuccessful is compensated by the premiums saved on the whole; in fact the company acts as insurer to itself. On this principle the government neither insures vessels belonging to the navy, or any other property, neither does our city insure any of its property for the same reason. The fact seems to be overlooked that stock, as well as mutual fire insurance companies, are simply associations or partnerships of individuals, to protect each other from losses by fire, which it might be inconvenient for them to bear individually. To accomplish this purpose they become incorporated. The charters, policy, and by-laws constitute their articles of copartnership. The amount of property belonging to citizens of this Commonwealth, insured in stock companies, is not far from two hundred millions of dollars. There are thirty-four offices in the State, of which nineteen are located in Boston. The aggregate amount of capital may be reckoned at seven millions of dollars. The amount of property insured in mutual marine and mutual fire and marine insurance companies, is about one hundred and thirty millions of dollars. This amount is divided among thirteen companies. The number of mutual fire insurance companies incorporated and doing business in this Commonwealth is sixty-four. The amount insured by said companies is about one hundred and ninety millions of dollars. The amount insured in mutual companies exceeds that in either the other modes of insurance. If properly and prudently managed, a mutual company affords the safest and cheapest protection to the insured; for every additional risk increases the security of all, as thereby a premium note is added to the assets of the company; when in a joint-stock company the specific capital remains the same, let the total amount at risk be ever so great. Among the earliest charters granted was the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Boston. This company was incorporated with a perpetual charter, March 2d, 1798, and provides that no policy of insurance shall be made by said corporation, until the sum subscribed by the associates to be insured, shall amount to "two millions of dollars." The charter further required that of the cash premiums received after paying losses and expenses, the sum of ten thousand dollars should be appropriated to a reserved fund. This company has continued with constant success to the present time, and may now be considered the strongest institution of the kind in the Commonwealth. The amount insured by existing policies, in this single institution, is not far from fifteen millions of dollars, more than a fifteenth part of all the insurable property within the city. The gross amount insured by all the offices within the Commonwealth is not far from six hundred and fifty-four millions of dollars. Reference is thus made to the insurance companies within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in particular to those within the city of Boston, in order to show to the citizens that they are never insured against large losses, but only minor ones, that come within the range of their capital at risk, or rather the amount of premiums contributed by the insured, showing conclusively that it is the insured who protect each other from loss, and not the corporations. Annexed is the following table, showing the number of fires per year, the gross amount of losses and insurances, commencing September 1, 1837, and ending September 1, 1856 :— |