Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express at KellyGang 17/5/1879 (2)
Eitorial
trade in Victoria is generally in a very bad condition, a glance at the fist of insolvencies which appear day after day will, we think, be a sufficient proof, and when we take into consideration the fact that in many cases the liabilities amount to something enormous with but little assets for creditors, we can arrive at only one conclusion, which is, that trade here is carried on upon a very loose, and unsatisfactory basis. A few days since we were informed by a commercial traveller of many yeas experienced that he had never known business so bad and money so hard to get as has been the case for the past few months; the large whole sale houses in all branches were over stocked, and with in most cases large consignments to arrive, were therefore forcing trade, the outcome of which is that an unsafe and unsatisfactory state of affairs is the result. Small traders buy on paper alone, and a system of renewals has been established throughout the colony, so that sooner or later, what with heavy interest and a declining demand for their goods, men with little or limited capital become simply; working machines for the large houses their paper becomes more and more risky, and sooner or later they must succumb to circumstances, for it is simply impossible, without some extraordinary revival (of which there seems at present not the slightest prospect), that trade can be carried on much longer on such a footing, in itself an unsound one, for should not a speedy re-action take place the banks must curtail their accommodation to large firms, and these in their turn have no alternative but to put the screw on, which simply means in many cases, ruin.
The stoppage of the bank in Melbourne this week we fear is but the forerunner of many heavy failures yet to come, for reckless and unsafe trading has but one result, and that is failure.
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