THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 29
vast injection of capital; and the trade situation which arose
was, in its immediate effects, little different from that which
ordinarily follows lavish borrowing. The total effect, however,
by virtue of the fact that no great permanent liability for
interest remained, was vastly different. The course of this
erisis has been carefully stated by Tooke and Newmarch, after
an exhaustive examination of contemporary trade circulars and
other documents. Their examination, moreover, has a peculiar
interest as being one of the first attempts to outline the pattern,
and to analyse the successive phases of a commercial crisis
along the lines of modern analysis. As a result of their dissection
these writers resolve the whole episode into the following
phases :1
LI. The Period of Excessive Demand, August 1851 to July
1853, characterized by an insufficiency of supplies and
accommodation for the rapidly growing population.
The Period of Transition, July to December, 1853; a
reaction from the former phase, with supply rapidly
overtaking demand and profits and land values falling.
The Crisis Proper, January 1855. The reaction of the
preceding period now ‘became a commercial crisis of the
most severe character. .. . The supplies of every con-
ceivable class of articles had become and continued to
be perfectly overwhelming. For several descriptions of
goods the quotation of regular prices became impossible
.. . the single and absorbing object was to get rid of the
cargoes at any price. Bankruptcies became of daily
occurrence, especially during the last four months of
what was emphatically a year of commercial crisis’
IV. The Period of Revival, February to August, 1855. ‘The
torrent of imports abated and prices began to recover.’
V. The Period of Depression, September to December, 1855.
Following the partial revival there occurred a severe
depression in the labour market. Thousands of immi-
grants had continued to arrive during the commercial
pressure, and at a time when a seriously reduced revenue
had compelled the Colonial Government to suspend no
See Tooke and Newmarch, History of Prices, Appendix XXX, pp. 802 ef seq.
IT
