d., to 31/2d.; middling, 33/4d. to 41/2d.; good and fine,
5d. to 6d. Stripts, 5d. to 7d. Maryland, 31/2d. to 9d. Negrohead and
Cavendish: common and heated, 4d. to 6d.; middling to good, 6d. to
8d. and 9d.; fine, 10d., 12d., 16d.; Barret's none. Columbian, 7d.
to 1s. 8d.; Brazil, 3d. to 6d.; flat, 5d. to 1s. 1d.; Manilla, 7d.
to 2s. 6d.; Havana, 10d. to 5s.; Yara, 11d. to 3s.; Cuba, 9d. to 1s.
1d.; ingars, 3s. to 16s.; cheroots, Manilla, 7s. 6d., nominal;
German and Amersfoort 4d. to 1s. 3d.; stalks, duty paid, 2s. 6d. to
3s. 4d.; smalls, 2s. 9d to 2s.

The shipments to Europe were 76,516 hhds. against 40,652 hhds. the
previous year, and 43,576 hhds. in 1850. The rapidity of sales, the
diminished stocks even now held in first hands, were taken as an
infallible index of the progressive rate of consumption; and of a
truth the quantity of hogsheads received in the principal markets of
Belgium, Holland, Germany, and the North, and as speedily relieved
from the control of the importers, was enough to control even those
who were alive to the existing necessities of Europe, and to give a
color to the rumour of almost inexhaustible consumption.

This extraordinary demand for tobacco on the continent has been
occasioned by three distinct causes; the first of which was the
pressing wants which, for the last two years, were well known to
have existed, and the constant willingness of consumers to act at
the very moderate rates which prevailed some time last spring. The
second was the compulsory purchases by the Austrian Government,
amounting, it is estimated, to 20,000 hhds., by reason that the
discontented Hungarians, for political considerations, abandoned
altogether the cultivation of tobacco, and which deficiency was
obliged to be replaced by American growths. The third cause also had
a political origin: the anticipation of the extension of the
Zollverein or German Customs League to the Kingdoms of Hanover and
Oldenburg, whereby the duties on tobacco in those countries would be
greatly increased, was a natural incentive to the dealers and
manufacturers there to lay in heavy stocks, to reap the benefit
thereon; and these last two causes, therefore, may be viewed in the
light of fortuitous circumstances, which have fostered a speculation
originally founded on the cheapness of money alone.