Commercial.
Richmond Markets, Jan. 20, 1862.
The market continues very unsettled in most articles, though there are no important changes since our last.
Stocks are very low, and sales only in limited lots.--Money is still abundant, and Stocks steady.
The variety of shinplaster currency is still amazingly extensive.
Shinplaster makers are so numerous that if they could combine they might be dangerous as a power in the State.
If they could exert as much energy in intrigue as they do in uttering their notes, they could accomplish a great deal.
The style of their small bills is not at all creditable to art, and they are easily counterfeited; but, as has been said, the man who takes the counterfeit may often console himself by the reflection, that the counterfeit is as good as the genuine.
The day must soon come when these issues must disappear — either be redeemed or lost to the holders.
Such a currency cannot long be maintained.
Apples — Very high and scarce; we quote Pippins $10a12 per bbl.; other kinds, $8a10.
Bacon — Stock light and firm at 23 to 25 for hog round; Hams, 23a25 cents per lb.
Butter — Prime, 40 cents; fair, 35 to 37 cents; inferior, 30 cents.
Bread — Navy, 4 ½ cents; Pilot, 5 ½ cents; Water and Soda, 8 cents per lb.
Cement — James River, $2 50a3.00 per bbl.
Coffee — Rio, 75 cents per lb.; supply nearly exhausted.
Candles — Adamantine, 55a60 cents; Tallow, 20a22 cents.
Cotton--9 ¼a10 cents per lb.
Cotton Yarns--28a29 cents and scarce; Candlewick, 50 cents per lb.
Corn — Steady at 85 cents per bushel.
Corn Meal--95 cts. a$1 per bushel.
Cheese — The limited lots of Country Dairy 35 cents per lb.
Dried Fruit--Peaches, unpeeled, $300 to 3.50; Pealed, $5.00; Apples, $1.50 per bushel.
Fertilizers — James River Manipulation guano, $60 per ton; stock small and rapidly reducing.
Mexican guano, $25; Sombrero, $32; Navarra, $27 Stocks exceedingly light.
Feathers — Quiet, at 37 ½ cents per lb.
Flaxseed — Nominal; $1.50.
Flour — We quote Superfine at $6.75; Extra $7.25; Family $8a$8.50; all by the dray load.
Hides — Green, 6 cents; salted, 9 cents; dry, 12a15 cents.
Iron--English refined and American, but a small supply, which is sold in limited quantities at 8 cents per lb.; Swedes, none in market.
Lard — 21a23 cents.
Leather--Upper we quote at $1 per lb., and dull; Harness 68a75 cents per lb; Sole, 60a70 cents, stocks light; calf skins waxed, $48a55 per dozen.
Lime — Mountain unslacked, $2.25a2.50 per bbl.
Molasses — New Orleans, 90a95 cents; golden syrups (Richmond) 85 cents.
Nails — Old Dominion, 9 cents.
Offal (mill)--Bran, 20 cents; shorts, 25 cents. Brownstuffs, 30 cents; shipstuffs, 60 cents.
Oil — Tanners', $1.12a1.50; machine, $1.50a$2 per gallon.
Oats — We quote 75a80 cents per bushel, and scarce.
Rye — 90a$1.10 per bushel.
Sugars — Brown, 12 ½a14 cents per lb.; coffee, 15 ½a19 cents; crushed, 23 to 25 cts.
Salt — We have no quotations.
Stock in first hands exhausted.
Seeds — There are no stocks of clover or timothy.
Soda — Pure 35a37 cents per lb.
tobacco — No sale since Thursday.
We repeat our last quotations: Lugs $2.60a3.50; common leaf $4a5; good leaf $6a7 — no prime offering.
All sold old tobacco.
Tallow — 13a15 cents per lb.
Wheat — We still quote $1.20a1.30 extreme prices for red and white.
Whiskey — Common $1.50 per gallon; better and superior qualities $2a3; old malted (Stearns & Co.) $3.50.
Wool.--Market firm, and arrivals light 90 a 95 cents per pound.