[Leech, Harrison and Forwood, Liverpool Cotton & General Merchants] 1864 Annual Circular With Fold-Out Table Showing Cotton Price Fluctuations

18pp, noted as a “Private Circular”, dated inside January 1st 1864. It starts with a financial and commercial retrospect of 1863, noting that the American Civil War had not affected European finances. It states that the great demand for cotton had resulted in production moving to China, India, Egypt and the Levant, as well as large imports of bullion from America and Australia. Leech, Harrison and Forwood were known primarily as Cotton merchants, and the current state of the market is front and centre in the circular, amply assisted by numerical comparative tables. It also goes on to report the markets in Wool, Corn, General Products and Metals - the general products being tea, coffee, seeds, cocoa, hemp, oil, rice etc. 

A fold-out printed table is affixed into the centre and is headed “Table Showing The Weekly Fluctuations in Middling Quality American and Fair Surat Cotton, The Value of 7 LBS. Shirtings Per LB. and Bank Minimum Rate of Discount During the Years 1861, 1862 & 1863”. It shows an apparent steady growth in the price of cotton across the board.

Approx. 150x233mm. (The table folds-out to approx. 680x460mm.). Part of the original thin cord binding has perished so the covers and first sheet (pages 3/4, 13/14) are loose. Small repair to reverse of upper right corner of front cover, other chips and some grime. A rare survivor.