Full text of The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review : August 1869, Vol. LXI, No. II

View original document

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

I T 1 1 P,

MERCHANTS’

M A GAZI NE

5? A N E *

COMMERCIAL!

A U G U S T ,

|R E V 1 E W

1809.

OUR IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.
We cannot sympathize with the disposition shown in some quarters to
underrate the importance of our foreign trade returns, as an index o f th e
balance of accounts between our own and foreign countries. The trade
statistics of the country are now placed in charge of a special bureau, and
appear to be compiled with the greatest attainable accuracy. It is true,
the official returns necessarily omit some items of importance in our
account with foreign nations; such,for instance, as the movement in bonds
and other securities, the arrivals of gold by immigrants, and the amounts
taken out by travelers to Europe, the interest payable upon foreign caj iial
employed here and the ocean freights upon our importations. Our com
parative ignorance o f ihese items, however, affords no reason for rejecting
inlormation upon the more important movements which constitute fourfifths of our whole transactions with other nations.
Some weeks ago, we took occasion to indicate that, while our imports
were gaining largely, there was an- important decrease in our exports.
This tendency toward an adverse trade balance was continued up to about
the close of May ; when our exports were enlarged by free shipments o f
breadstuffs and our imports began to exhibit a moderate decline. Returns
just issued by Mr. Francis A . Walker, in charge *of the Bureau of
1

[August,

OUR IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

Statistics, enable us now to form a close approximate estimate of the
course of the foreign trade for the first nine months of the past fiscal year,
i. e., from July 1, 1868, to March 31, 1869.
W e present the following statements, compiled from the official returns)
including specie in both the imports and exports, the exports being
reduced to gold value in the Government statement so as to compare upon
even terms with the imports, which are always entered in specie values :
( 1 . ) IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF THE UNITED

STATES'

(SPECIE

INCLUDED) FOR THE NINE

MONTHS ENDING MARCH 3 1 , 18*59.

July,
Ang.,
t-ept.,
Oct.,

1863..........................................
“ ...........................................
“ ...........................................
“ ...........................................

Nov., “

.......................................

Imports.
$35,819 916
34,539,797
34,526,775
32,297,545

Imports.
Pec., 1868 ......................................... S31.flUQ.l7ft
|Jan.,1869
................................... . . . .
l Feb., “
35,173,726
I March, “

28,903,550 I

Total imports—nine months
/----- Exports—-Gold value— ,
Dom. exports,
Re-exports,
produce and
merchandise
gold.
and gold.
$1,640,670
1,755.685
1,520,042
l,f58,378
1,033.807
1,642,707
.......
27,655,515
1,232,610
2,227,540
.
.
24,182,837
8,308,024

July, 1868...............................
Aug., “ ...............................
Sept.,
...............................
Oct., “ ...............................
Nov., “ ...............................
Dec., “ ........................... J a n ., 1869..................................

Deb., “ ...............................
March, “ ...............................
Totals—nine months.
Add re-exports.....................

$15,919,463

Total exports—gold value..

Later reports bring the movement down to the close of April. The
imports for that month, aie stated at $52,176,828, and the exports at
$42,607,341 in mixed currency, while the re-exports are given at
$2,980,351, principally in gold value. Reducing the exports for this
month to gold value we should have the following as the trade movement
for the ten months ending April 30, 1869 :
(2.)

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF UNITED STATES FOR TEN MONTHS ENDING AP RIL

SO, 1869

Im ports, specie included.
For nine months ending Mtrch 31, 1869......................................................... ...............
For month of April, 1869...................................................................................................

$303,59S,503
52,176 828

Total imports—tea months.....................................................................................

$356,775,331

Exports and re-exports, specie includid.
For nine months ending March 31,1SG9.................. .......................................................
For month of April, 1869 ..................................................................................................

$243,858,154
35,905,000

Total exports—ten months.....................................................................................

$279,763,154

(3 .)

RECAPITULATION.

Total imports for the ten months................................................................................ ..
Total exports for the ten months........................ - .........................................................
Excess of imports, gold value......................................................

$156,775,331
279,763,154

....................

$77,012,177

4. Im port and Exposts f o r ten months ending A p r il 30, 1S6S.
Imports, specie included, gold value.........................................................................—
Exports, specie inc tided, gold value................................................................................

$304,306,000
304,995,009

Excess o f expor-s, gold value...................................

........................................

$6S9,00

1869]

OUR IMPORTS AND EXPORTS,

The statistical results here presented are not such as could have been
desired ; and but for the large increase in the imports at our own port
and a proportionate decrease in the exports both of produce and specie,
for some months past, we should have been disposed to question the accu
racy o f the official returns. It appears that while the imports for the ten
months have reached 8356,700,000, the exports have been only 8279.,
700,000, showing an adverse balance, upon the trading account, o f
$77,000,000 in gold.
This result is the more remarkable from the fact that the period covers
the export of nearly our whole surplus of cotton, which this year realized
very high prices, and the shipments o f which, for nine months out o f the
ten, amounted to 497,500,000 pounds. In nearly every other article of
export there has been a material decrease, the net result being that, for
the ten months, the exports are $25,232,000 in gold value less than for
the same period o f last year; while, on the other hand, the imports for the
same period, are $52,469,000 higher. The trade movement for the cor
responding months of 1867-8 shows an almost even balance, the exports,
as will be seen from table 4, being $689,000 in excess of the imports.
There are, however, other items which require to be added to the debtor
side of the account. Our interest account has now become a weighty one.
It is very generally estimated that over $900,000,000 of United States
bonds are now held in Europe; on which the annual interest amounts to
about $55,000,000 in gold; while, upon other miscellaneous stocks and
bonds held abroad, the interest and dividends cannot amount to less than
$10,000,000 in gold, making a total of interest payments to Europe, o f
$65,000,000 per annum. Adding the proportion o f this item, say $52,000,000 for the ten months, to the adverse commercial balance, we are
found to stand debtor to other countries about $129,000,000 on the ten
mouths’ transactions. The freight account upon our imports and exports
is by no means unimportant, as two thirds o f our trade is done in foreign
bottoms; but this is an item too indefinite to admit o f estimate.
The main contribution toward the liquidation of this balance consists of
shipments of securities. As, however, there is no other record of these
remittances than such as exists in the private accounts of the shippers, it is
impossible to present any accurate statement of this movement. W e have
taken some pains to ascertain the views of prominent foreign bankers upon
the amount of this item, and as those firms are accustomed to compare
estimates, their opinions possess considerable weight, and may be regarded
as very nearly correct. The average estimate of these parties does not
exceed $100,000,009, for, the ten months under review representing about
$72,500,000 in gold. This, too, probably is an extreme estimate ; and it
is proper to remark that it exceeds the figures suggested by firms who
have sent out a large proportion of the whole exports o f securities.

OUR IMPORT3 AND EXPORTS.

[Augitti,

Seme allowances should be made for the fact that a eertain amount of
our imports are consigned here on foreign account, and that the remit
tances against such consignments, after allowing for losses and charges
are sometimes considerably below the value at which the goods were
entered at the Custom House. But, on the other hand, it is to be con ■
sidered that, in some cases, the amount realized upon this class of impor
tations exceeds their invoiced value; and, indeed, it is reasonable to sup
pose that the consignments would not be continued from year to year were
there not, upon the average, a profit to the consignors. Nor is it to be
overlooked that there is a certain extent of under-invoicing importations,
in order to reduce the aggregate duties upon them ; in which cases, the
remittances exceed the value entered at the Custom House. But again
on the other hand, there is an average profit upon our consignments of
products to other countries, which may be taken as setting off the profits
upon foreign consignments to our own ports. Upon the whole, then, it
would appear that the only items really necessary to be taken into the
account are the imports and exports of produce and specie, the indebted
ness accruing in the way of interest upon foreign capital invested here,
and the shipments of securities. Aboye, we have presented the figure
representing each o f these items; and, if the estimate of the exports o
securities can be accepted as approximating the truth, it would follow that,
at the close of the ten months, there was a net balance against the coun
try o f about $60,000,000 in gold. This may seem a very undesirable,
not to say dangerous, condition of accounts. It is not, however, the first
time, within the last four or five years, that we have found ourselves in
such a position. For the first two years after the close of the war, our
imports ran constantly very largely in excess of our exports; yet we then
found it practicable to settle our balances by remittances of securities.
Assuming that the European money markets are open to receive our
bonds to as large an extent as during late years of over trading, there
would seem to be nothing in this adverse balance to cause immediate
uneasiness. Under the circumstances, however, it is impossible not to
feel some solicitude as to the present disposition of European capitalists
to increase their investments in our securities. The latest advices from
Frankfort represent a reaction as having set in upon the Continental
Bourses from the late speculative excitement, and that the markets are well
supplied with our bonds; how far this may prove to be temporary,
remains to be seen. During the remaining two months o f the fiscal year
it is likely that this adverse balance will be decreased somewhat through
ilcreased exports of breadsluffs, as our imports are now on a reduced scale-

1869.]

THE FUTURE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

THE FUTURE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.
BY B. F . NOURSE.*
PAST ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH FROM THE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

During the ten years 1851-1860, the crops produced in the cotton
growing States, (cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, &c.,) not consumed at home,
left a surplus of proceeds from sales amounting to about $1,200,000,000,
an average o f $120,000,000 per year, which, less the amount required
to be expended beyond their borders for the comforts or luxuries o f life,
should have been so much added to the reproductive capital within those
States. I f one-half only was thus required, the other half, or $60,000,000 per year, should have been put to profitable use.
Throughout the Southern States some internal improvement was in
progress, chiefly in the form o f railroads. In some States, as in Georgia,
these works had been largely extended. Cheaply built and economically
operated) they generally proved to be profitable investments, capable o f
rapidly repaying the loans incurred for their construction, which in many
cases covered a great part o f the cost.
A large amount o f banking capital was well employed, but this, when
not owned abroad, 'was chiefly the product o f the commisions and other
charges upon the produce o f the country, and not to any considerable
extent drawn from the accumulating capital o f planters.
The capital which had built the few cotton and other factories and the
machine shops had also accrued chiefly from charges upon the produc
tions o f the country. What, then, was done with the $60,000,000 or
whatever other sum represented the true annual gains o f agriculture in
these States ? The statistics o f population show pretty clearly that a
great part of it was expended in importing slaves from other States.f
PRESENT AND FUTURE INCREASE OF WEALTH IN COTTON STATES.

When considering this subject in its economical aspect only, special
effects bearing upon individuals or classes are to be disregarded for the
general results affecting the whole community.
Population is wealth. Money sent from Alabama to Virginia to in
crease the laboring power o f Alabama, even by importing slaves at
$2,000 each, added in some degree to the wealth o f that State. But if
laborers o f equal productive power could have been introduced without
expending any thing for them, the capital expended in the other case
would have been saved, and the community would have gained its use
in some other form of productive power, as in tools, machinery or ani
* This is taken from advanced sheets of Mr. Nourse’ s report on cotton, as Commissioner
to the Paris Univ rsal Exposition.
t See Atkinson’ s “ Ch un Cotton by Free Labor,” page 30, anl D qBow’ s Analysis of the
Census of 1850 quoted in the former.

THE FUTURE PROBUCTZON OF COTTON.

YAuyust,

mal labor, with which to supplement and increase the value o f manual
labor. T o the whole people, or the State, that is just the difference, in
the investment, between importing a slave and importing a free laborer
o f equal capacity. There are other differences to the State, scarcely less
important in an economical view, all in favor o f the free laborer. W hat
ever the cotton-producing States expended for slaves above the cost o f
importing an equal amount o f free-labor power was twice lost to the
community.
Reckoning the slaves in the cotton States prior to 1861 at 3,000,000f
in number, o f the average nominal value of $500, equal to 1,000,000
full hands, at $1,500 each, we had an investment o f $1,500,000,000 ; and
to replenish this force a large sum, much needed for other uses, was
anuually drawn from the gains o f those States.
If, in 1860, the people, by unamious consent, had declared emanci
pation o f all those slaves, whether with or without compensation to those
who had owned their service, there would have been neither loss nor
gain to the community, except as the change might increase or dimin
ish the effciency o f labor or the cost of its maintainence. There
would have been no “ annhiilation o f property,” for the whole labor
power would have remained as before, only it would have changed own
ers.
Precisely so stands the effect o f the decree o f emancipation, made as
an act o f war, with this difference, however, that the laborers o f both
races were sadly reduced and demoralized by the incidents o f the war
which wrought the change. The same laboring force still exists, with
the exception mentioned, and except, also, that the sudden and violent
change in relations between capital and labor render further time and
experience necessary to make it fully effective.
W hile it is indisputably true that free labor is always cheaper than
slave labor, when each is under its most favorable conditions, the dem
onstration o f that truth needs more favorable circumstances than were
found in the years 1866,1867. The prejudices o f those who must use it
were arrayed against it. Scarcity o f food and o f other necessaries o f life
followed an exhausting war. The sufferings o f the very poor o f both
raees were alleviated by government rations and by private beneficence;
but planters were compelled to supply all the wants o f themselves and
their laborers, while breadstuffs were at very high prices, and imple
ments, farming animals, and their subsistence w-ere equally scarce and
dear. A t first the freedmen were not disposed to work for hire-—
demanded excessive wages, and after excepting them, too often rendered
poor service- The crops of both cotton and grain failed, more or less,
in both those years throughout the South. In some cases there was

1869]

THE FUTURE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

failure to fulfill contracts on the part o f the employer, from disability or
other causes, while the “ shares o f the crop” which had been accepted by
the freedmen as wholly or in part o f lieu o f wages, often resulted in
“ nothing but loss” leaving the freedmen destitute and the planter in a
condition not much better.
It was not untill 1868, the third season o f the free labor experiment,
that it became generally successful in its operation and results. Then
improvement appeared, and the harvest, abundantly supylyingthe peo
p l e with cheap food, leaves a surplus stored up for the future. The
profit arising from the sale of the exportable productions o f the same
season will amount to $250,000,000 ; and a reasonable forecast o f the
future sees a promise o f equal gain in some o f the succeeding years, the
increase of quantity compensating for any reduction o f price.
The annual gain, be it $50,000,000, or $250,000,000, is no longer to be
wasted in the purchase o f labor, when as good, or better, will be obtained
without purchase; yet the capital must be employed, and will seek
investment. F or some years very little will be needed in opening fresh
lands, of which there is already too much open for the labor applicable
to it. After meetiug the demands o f agriculture it will seek other
profitable nses, as in banking, railroads, manufactures, machine-shops,
and the other active employments which capital finds for itself. Prom
inent among the improvements, that o f reconstructing the levees and
reclaiming the most fertile o f cotton and cane lands should be one o f the
first, and, rightly conducted, one o f the most profitable for the employ
ment o f money.
OPPORTUNITY FOR COTTON SPINNING.

Proximity to cotton fields abundance o f water power and of building
materials in healthy localities, as well as o f fuel, both wood and coal,
and cheap labor, not suitable for the field, begging employment, all in
dicate the advantages and certainty o f rapidly extending works for the
manufacture o f cotton in the cotton-growing States, especially for the
spinning and export o f coarse yarns.
WANT OF LABORERS.

Now that capital is returning into the cotton States, the great want
there will be labor, a better use of what they have and more o f it, to
extend their profitable agricultural business, yet carry forward the other
works which will be required. So far, the prevailing conditions in the
South have not been attractive to immigrants. P oor crops, dear food,
destitution o f the common laborer, and these evils too often aggravated
by disorder and violence, were reported during the years 1866 and 1867.
The prospenty o f 1863 stands in marked contrast to the adversities

THE FUTURE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

[A u g u st,

o f the two years preceeding. A similar prosperity repeated in succeed
ing years untill it shall be regarded as the rule and not the exeption,
supported by assurance o f peace and safety, will turn the tide o f emi
gration freely from the northern States and from Europe to the cotton
growing States. During the present year the Pacific railroad has
been completed and opened, a highw ayby which the Chinese and other
coolies or Asiatic laborers may reach the cotton fields of the United
States. They are industrious, frugal, quiet, and numerous.
The people o f the South, who are to be the immediate beneficiaries o^
rapidly increasing wealth, will become large consumers o f the production
o f other States and other countries, and in that capacity will contribute
scarcely less than as producers to the general welfare, the extension o f
trade and the payment o f the national debt.
LARGE PLANTATIONS MUST GIVE PLACE TO SMALL COTTON FARMS.

It seems to be conceded in the South that the large plantation system
must generally be abandoned, in the culture o f cotton, for small holdings
o f land more thoroughly worked under the direction o f the proprietors.
This will favor a more general industry, more numerous proprietary
interests requiring personal care, better ecqnomies, and a constantly
improving agriculture, which will preserve the fresh lands in good fertil
ity and restore those which have been over-cropped.
In cotton growing as in market gardening, or in any other tillage o f
the soil, it pays better to keep a small body o f land (just enough for a
full and fair use o f the labor that can be applied to it) under high culture
by thorough working and the use o f fertilizers, than to half cultivate a
larger area with the same or any inadequate force.
Since the war, experiments made to ascertain how much cotton can be
produced npon a single acre, have exhibited remarkable and gratifying
results. W hen made with “ spade culture'’ stirring the soil deeply and
often, after enriching it with guano and phosphates, the product has been
very large. In one case, reported upon what seems to be good authority,
the product o f one acre was fo u r bales, or over 1,600 pounds o f clean
cotton. In past times one bale to the acre has been regarded as a fair
crop, and two bales a very large one on the very richest lands, while half
a bale, or about 250 pounds, was for many years a satisfactory result in
Georgia and the Carolinas, where the lands were badly worn. The story
o f 1,600 pounds seems almost incredible,* yet it is no more in excess
o f ordinary products than were some remarkable root crops,— ruta-bagas
and mangle wurtzels— that have been obtained by the same process o f
* “ Mr. D---------lia* eyes to observe, and reports exact’y what he sees. He tells me that he
know-* several insta1ces where double the usual crops have been made on small patches, an d
one case where a man raised four bales of cot’ on on one a°re of ground, the whole acre culti
vated by hand, no mule needed, nor ass either.” —F x ract from Letter.

1869]

THE FUTURE PRODUCTION OF COTTON.

spade culture. Improvement by better farming, to get more cotton from
less land, is practicable, and should be sought as the method o f true
economy, saving in labor, in manure, and all other outlay, yet increasing
the income.
RESTORATION OF WORN SOILS---- MINERAL AND ORGANIC MANURES.

The value o f the calcareous and phosphatic marls, found in various
parts o f the country, for fertilizing and renovating impoverished soils,
has long been known. They were freely used in the older portion o f the
^cotton-growing States with beneficial effects. During the few years
prior to 1861 some importations were made at the South o f various
commercial fertilizers, guanos, ground bones, and certain nitrates, phos
phates, and super phosphates, some very good and some having very little
value. The importation and use o f these artificial manures had been
greatly extended just before the war. The really valuable among them
such as the true guanos and superphospates, had a marked effect in the
increase and better quality o f the cotton produced, and this was as appa
rent on the light and much worn lands o f the Carolinas and Georgia as
upon the heavier and fresher lands further west.
THE SO^TII CAROLINA PHOSPHATES.

Since the war, a discovery o f exceeding value to the agriculture of the
whole country, and especially to the cotton culture, has been made in
the “ native bone phosphate,” vast beds o f which have been found lying
all along the coast o f South Carolina and on the Sea Islands; but crop
ping out and most easily accessible along the banks of the Ashley and
Cooper rivers. Richer in these phosphates than any other natural deposits
yet discovered, these beds lie just beneath the supersoil, at the very door
way into the cotton-growing country. A description o f them and o f the
circumstances leading to their discovery will be found in the Appendix
C, in a letter from Dr. N. A . Pratt, whose researches, aided by others,
have opened up a treasure whose value cannot now be measured.
This store o f phosphates, thus prepared in nature’s laboratory and laid up
until the day o f special need, contains just the chemical properties W'anted
for the cotton plant, and which the cotton seed had been abstracting from
the soil. So long as cotton seed was returned to the soil upon which it
was grown the deterioration o f the land was slow, for the fibre of cotton
took but little from it.* But cotton seed had acquired a commercial
*3. L. Goodnle, Esq.. Secre ary of he Board of Agriculture in Maine, a writer upon agri
cultural chemistry, writes thu : “ I can conceive of no reason why cotton culture should not
he less exhaustive than lh*t of any other agricultural crop with which I am acquainted.
L4ok at i t ; 1 he pfo 'net desired i* merely cellu'ose or woody fibre. In th s form it possesses
a market va'ue of, we will say, $100 per >ere, hut to re'urn to the soil it is of no more manurial va'ue than so much sawdust or wood in any other fo m, consequently it may be exported
with impunity. Besi e sth s there is a side product of seed which draws heavi y upon ihe
soi1; but fhis may be uti ized and all of value to the soi be reiurned to it. T e seed maybe
d?corticaled, and the oil expressed and ’■old with no 1 ss of ash constituents from the soil.
The cake remaining possesses both feeding and manu i d value in a high degree. Ground to
meal and fed in connection with corn fodder and annual grasses, (if no more permanent

THE FUTURE PRODRCTION OF. COTTON.

|August,

value for the oil to be expressed from it, and for the rich food for cattle
and sheep, which was found in the “ cake” from which the oil had been
expressed. It could no longer be carted back upon the land as a manure.
The land, already worn by many years o f improvident cropping, having
this further loss, rapidly failed. Some portion o f the needed restoring
and fertilizing remedies could have been found in the artificial super
phosphates and guanos o f commerce, but these had become almost inac
cessible. Often badly adulterated, and year by year advancing in price
as the demand outran the supply o f the good articles, while many o f the^
planting people had become unable to buy them, except in very insuf
ficient quantities, there was a great and urgent need o f something to
replace the cotton seed, and restore to the soil those chief ingredients
indispensable to the production o f a good cotton crop— phosphoric acid,
or soluble phosphates. In this emergency came the discovery o f those
natural deposits.
Already too much space has been given to the effort to report faithfully
the condition o f the cotton culture o f the United States, at the close o f the
year 1868; especially to exhibit the wonderful change from its condition
one year previous, and from all the circumstances to draw a fair state
ment o f the promise o f the future for this greit interest.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS---- SELECTIONS OF SEED, ETC.

It might be useful, did space permit, to notice in detail other move,
ments in progress for the improvement o f cotton culture, prominent
among which would stand the valuable experiments in “ improvement by
selection o f seed” from year to year, always guided by rules which define
the object sought— in cotton, spinning qualities, such as length, strength,
fineness, and the cohering together o f the fibres ; rapid growth and early
maturity o f the plant, and a habit o f yielding well. Intelligent men are
engaged in these efforts in various parts o f the South, and o f their results
attained there are good reports from Georgia, Mississsippi, and Arkansas.
One new kind o f cotton, the “ Peeler,” originating in Mississippi, is
already in market, and bears a price 25 or 30 per cent higher than any
other green seed, cotton o f the same grade, because o f its superior staple.
grasses can be crown with improved msnagem nt,) it can be converted into meit and ma
nure. and thus fertility be main ained or e-en increased
“ Phosph itic and alkaline const tuents ex'stin decorticate! and cotton seed in large propor
tion. its ash ie abundant, being not leys than 7 # or 8 p-»rts in ICO, and of this ash £9 per
cent is phosphoric acid, chiefly in com’ ination vith potasla a 'ittle with magnesia, and a
very little wi h 1 me. Thus a ton of cotton eecd cake—that is. of seed with the hulls taken
off and the oil pressed out contains abr ut 60 pounds of phosphoric acid, which in a soluble
form, as phosphate of potash, and with its combined alkali, cannot he deemed woith less
than 10 cents per pound—I think it sh ul l he rated higher, hut s a y ............ ................... $6 00
“ i he same cake contains
per cent of nitrogen, say 130 pounds to the ton, and
this, rating it at what is paid lor it in Peruvian guauo, s^y 17 cents per pound,
amounts to ..................................................................... ..................................................................... 22 10
“ 8o we hive as the manurial value of one tin of decerticited cotton seed cake, at
least........................................................................... ..................................................................... $2$ 10
“ It is well to b?ar in mind that the larger part of this (when th cake is fed to stock) would
pass away io the liquid excreta, and unless the urine was absorbed or somehow sa ed, unthiner like this value would be real zed. In 1he 1 ght of these facts it is easv to see how wide
a difference may be occasioned by the loss of the seed on the one hand and its use on the
other.”

1869]

m a n u f a c t u r in g - a t

the

so u th .

MANUFACTURING AT TIIE SOUTH.
A t the South Carolina State Agricultural Convention, held at Columoia*
April 28th and 29th, 18G9, Col. J. B. Palmer was requested to give some
information to the Convention relative to manufacturing at the South.
In response, Col. Palmer read the following very interesting paper,
which he had prepared on the subject.
The advantages possessed by the South over the North in manufactur
ing cotton, may be stated briefly, to b e :
1. An abundance o f unoccupied water power in every Southern State.
2. A mild climate. Fire, for heating purposes, is only necessary for
from one to three months in the year. Resinous heart-pine wood can be
procured at very low rates. W e pay for such wood delivered within
one mile o f our factory, only $1 per cord, and our total expense for fuel
for, say two and one-half months in the year, is but one-tenth o f one cent
per pound, when charged to the manufactures o f those months, while in
the North it is about one cent per pound on the manufactures o f at least
five months in the year.
3. W ages are, and must continue to be, comparatively low. The
mildness o f the climate, the abundance o f lumber, and the cheapness o f
land, enables manufacturers to provide their operatives with inexpensive
but comfortable houses and large garden plats. The country being an
agricultural one, we must soon be able to produce our provisions, while
the manufacturing districts o f the North must always depend upon the
distant W est, and, to some extent, upon the South for theirs.
4. Operatives. Northern men, acting as superintendents o f Southern
mills, admit the superiority o f our factory hands, who are remarkably
frugal and industrious, and who are easily controlled.
5. Freights are lower on yarns and cloths than on lint cotton. There
has been a time, within the last three years, when a bale o f cotton o f 450
pounds, worth, say $90, paid a freight, from Charleston to New York or
Philadelphia, o f $2 50 per bale, which would be 2.77 per cent on value ;
while that cotton, made into a bale o f 400 pounds o f No 20 yarn, worth,
say, $136, paid only 60 cents per bale, or 44-100 per cent on value— a
difference in favor o f yarns o f 2^ per cent. The Southern manufacturer
saves the freight on bagging, rope and other waste. This waste can be
manufactured into paper at the South more cheaply than at the North,
and is, consequently, more valuable here than there. Reclamation on
false packed or damaged cotton is easy and direct, and we save the bur
densome Northern charges for storage, brokerage, ect.
I support these positions b y the following statement o f actual cost o f
manufacturing at Saluda Qotton Mills, as shown b y our books. It
must be recollected that we have employed in the manufacture o f N o 20

MANUFACTURING AT THS SOUTH.

[A u g u st,

yarn only 4,000 spindles (Jenks ring travelers.) O f course, a greater
number of spindles, or the production o f yarns o f a lower number, would
ensure a less cost per pound;
Labor— Superintendent .3 7 ; carding .58; spinning .76 ; reeling . 7 5 . . . . 2 44 cts.
E epair-L abor and material (machinery nearly n e w ) ...............................
.22 “
Packing, bundling, Ac., labor and materials ..........................................................55 “
General Expenses— W atch.13; hauling.82; findings .2 7 ; o il. 15; sala
ries .64 ; miscellaneous .66............................................................................ 2 00 “
Total per pou n d........................................ ................................................. 5.24 “
A dd— Loss by waste (450 lbs. cotton costing $90 making but 400 lb9. of
yarn) .................................................. ............................................................. 2 50 “
10 per cent for wear and tear of machinery, chaaged to production, per
p o u n d . . . . - " " ...................................... .
.............................. .............. 1,26 “
Total cost o f manufacturing cotton, worth 20c. per p o u n d ......................... 9 "0 “
Freights to New York or Philadelphia 65 ; insurance . 1 5 . . . . . ............
.80 “
Cost colt; n per p o u n d ...................................... .............................................. 20.00 “
Total c c B t per pound of Southern yarn (140. 20) delivered in New Y o r k ..
The very lowest estimates I have seen of the c o s t o f manufactu ing at the
North places cost of labor, repair, packing, and general expenses at, per
pound..............................................................................................................
Loss by waste (cotton at 20c in Columbia would he 22Je. in Now York ;
450 lbs. cotton would cost $101 25, and would make 400 lbs. yarn)..
10 per cent, for wear an I tear machinery........................................................
Total cost of manufacturing in the North........................................................
Add cost of c o t t o n ................................... .........................................................

29.80 “
10 24 “
2 81
1 26
14 31
22 50

“
“
“
“

Cost of No 20 yarns manufactured at the N orth.
................................... 36 °1 “
Showing a difference in favor of the South of, per pound
...................
7 01 “
Both using the same qua ity of cotton.
Deduct comnrsions, cartage, A c ....................................................................... 2 01 “
.And we have a net profit to the Southern manufacturer, provided he sells
at the cost of Northern productions........................................ .................... 5.00 “

A manufacturer o f cotton yarns from Manchester, England, after look
ing at our books, told me that we manufactured cheaper than they did,
by about the difference in Yalue o f currency and gold. That is to say,
that the
Cost of labor, repairs, picking and general expenses was with them, gold.
Add fir difference in value of gold and currency............................. ............
And we have in currency ......................................................
.............
Estimating cotton in Liverpool at 24c. and the waste (450 lbs. cotton,
worth $ U 8, making 400 lbs. yam, would b e .................................................
Wear and tear o f machinery.............................................................................

5.24 cts.
1.15 “
6.99 “
3 O') ‘
9.99 “
1.26 “

11.25 “
Add cost o f c o tto n ................. ...................................................................... ..... 24 00 “
And we have, as cost of No 20 yarn manufactured in England................... 35.25 “
Costs of Scu iern yarns, as heretofore shown
..........
29.00 •ts.
Freight and .yhurance.....................................................
1.50 “
Cost of Southern yarns delivered in England.........................
Difference in favor o f Southern y a rn s........................................ ......................

80.50
4 75

1869]

MANUFACTURING- AT THE SOUTH.

But no estimate is made o f the brokerage, &c., in Liverpool, or o f the
freights and charges on the cotton from Liverpool to Manchester. Southern
ja m s could be shipped to the continent o f E uropeat about the same
rates as to Liverpool, while English yarns would have to pay freight
from Manchester to the continent. These additional charges on the cost
o f English yarns being considered, I think it would be quite fair to infer
from the foregoing that we could send our yarns to Europe, and, selling
them at the cost of producing English yarns, derive a net profit of at
least five cents per pound.
In support of the figures I have given, and the conclusions I have drawn
from them, I mention the fact that at no time within the last three years
would we have been unable to command from our Northern commision
houses (had we chosen to ask for them) advances beyond the total cost
o f our yarns. Can any Northern or English manufacturer say this?
Estimating the average crop o f cotton at 2,500,000, bales o f 450 pounds
each, and the price here at 20 cents, and we have as the amount received
by the South, $225,000,000. Manufacture this cotton into yarns, and
sell at cost o f Northern or English production, and we have, after deduct
ing all foreign charges (net price per pound 34 cents), $340,000,000 j.
and for waste, which would be worth for paper stock, if manufactured at
the South, $2 per bale, $5,000,000— $345,000,000; showing a gain to
the South o f $120,000,000; and if we estimate for a receipt o f say 3 cents
per pound over cost o f foreign manufacture (and our experience would
more than justify it), we have a further gain o f $30,000,000. In all
$150,000,0000.
The average production o f yarns last year throughout the United Stateswas, per spindle, 62.17 pounds; the average number o f yarn manufact
ured, 2 7 f ; the total number o f spindles was about 6,048,240; o f these
the Northern States had 5,848,477, and the Southern States only 199,772,
The average number o f yarn manufactured at the North was 2 7 pro.
duction per spindle, 59,57. The average number o f yam manufactured
at the South was 1 2 i; production per spindle, 140.37.
These figures are based upon the reports made to the National A sso
ciation o f Cotton Manufacturers and Planters. It is probable that many
o f the smaller mills in the South were not reported. My calculation is
based upon an average production per spindle (ring traveler) o f 87
pounds, and average number 20. To spin 2,500,000, bales would
require 11,494,253- spindles. The calculation will vary, according to
kind o f spinning done and machines used. 11,494,253 spindles would
give employment to 250,000 hands— principally females, from ten years
of age up, and small boys. The average wages- o f operatives(big and

MANUFACTURING AT THE SOUTH.

[August,

little) in our mill is $142 82 each per annum, which would give as the
gross amount paid for wages per annum,'nearly $36,000,000. And that,
too, paid for labor that would nearly all o f it not only be otherwise un
employed in adding to the wealth of the country, but be a positive
burthen upon the country.
W here weaving is done, the number o f operatives and amount of
wages paid will of course be much more.
It must not be supposed that, because these figures show that it would
require about twice the number o f spindles now run in the North to spin
up our entire cotton crop at home, that the amount o f capital required
would be double that invested in cotton manufactures in the North,
and therefore beyond our reach; for but a comparatively small amount
o f Northern capital is invested iu spinning. The most o f it is in weaving,
dyeing, printing, bleaching, &c. Spinning is comparatively simple, and
complications commence where saving begins.
It must be evident to every business man, that all our cotton will,
sooner or later, be manufactured here, at the place o f its production. If
done now, by association o f planters and other Southern people, additional
wealth is secured to ourselves and to our children : if deterred, Northern
capital and energy will inevitably occupy the field.
It seems to me entirely practicable for the planters o f the cotton-grow
ing districts, all over the South to combine together, in joint stock asso
ciations, and erect cotton mills o f sufficient capacity to spin up their crops.
N o doubt, if this suggestion were acted upon at once, and all our cotton
made into yarn, and thrown upon the Northern market, the supply would
exceed the demand, and loss, at first, would ensue. M y proposition is
to ship direct to the continent of Europe, as well as to the North. It
would take us but little time to drive other yarns from the market. The
process o f approaching the spinning o f our entire crop would be gradual,
and would keep pace with the gradual withdrawal o f our competitors.
The arguments in favor o f spinning will apply with equal force in
favor o f weaving. I have, however, confined m y suggestions and calcu
lations fo spinning, because it is more simple, and requires less capital;
and is, therefore, more likely to be generally adopted at an early day.
To show the practicability o f this plan, I submit an estimate for a
cotton mill with 4,080 spindles, ring traveling frames ;
Number o f square feet o f flooring, 10,200; amount of N o 20 yarns
manufactured for spindle, 87 pounds. Total amount o f No 20 yarns
manufactured in mill, 354,960 pounds. Cost o f first class machinery,
with all the latest improvements, v iz .: One large cylinder cotton opener,
English; one 3 cylinder opener, 1 beater, English; 1 double lap machine;
10 self-stripping 36 inch cards, with 2 R. W . heads, troughs and belts;

THE RECENT BREADSTUITS MOVEMENT.

2 drawing frames and cans; 1 English slubber, 60 spindles; 2 English
jack roving frames, 120 spindles each; 20 ring traveler spinning frames
204 spindles each ; 14 reels, traverse grinder, slide rest, card clothing,
governor, turbine wheel, cotton scales, bundle and bale presses, shafting,
belting, bobbins, transportation, putting up machinery, findings to com .
mence with, &c., &c., $43,000 ; building, including houses for operatives
(estimated by an experienced contractor,) $7,000 ; total, $50,000. Such
a mill will give employment to 87 operatives, and will consume 887
bales cotton, weighing 450 pounds each. Estimated net profits on pro
ductions, if sold at cost o f Northern production, $17,748. No estimate
is made o f the C03t o f water power, as that would depend upon location,
size and nature o f stream.
Finally, with great diffidence, but with equal earnestness, I urge upon
the Convention, and upon the Southern people generally, careful consider
ation o f the facts and figures submitted ; and close with the suggestion,
that houses o f correction for juuenile delinquents, who abound in our
midst, and pennitentiaries for females be established, and that their
inmates, as well as those o f orphan asylums, be employed in cotton
manufacturing. I may state that, by the wise forethought o f the project
ors o f our State Penitentiary, this was, though to a limited extent,
provided for, and I believe la m correot in saying that the convicts now
manufacture nearly, if not all their clothing and bedding.

THE RECENT BREADSTUFFS MOVEMENT.
Our readers will remember that, lsst fall, we expressed the opinion that
a very heavy surplus of grain remained in the hands o f Western farmers
which they would have to realise upon, before next harvest, at lower
prices than were then current. Upon this view, we urged the expediency
of forwarding grain before the close of navigation, as best for the farmer
and the country at large. The event has turned out as we anticipated,
and proved the wisdom of our advice.
The abundant harvest o f last year is succeeded by the prospect of
another year of abundance, not only in the United States, but in many
other grain-growing countries ; and the farmers, under the prospect o f this
new supply, and fearing that the value of their grain may further depre
ciate, are pressing it forward to market. The amount of this surplus
may be judged from the volume of the receipts at the Western grain
centres. The following figures show the arrivals of flour, wheat, corn
and oats, at the ports of .Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toledoj and

TUB RECENT BREADSTUFF® MOVEMENT.

[A u g u s t,

Detroit, from May 1 to June 12, for this and the two next preceding
years:
Flo r, bbls...................... .’......... ..............................................

1869.
632,836

1668.
415,064

1867.
277,768

Wheat, 'bath..........................
6,043,601
Coro, b u sh .................................................................................. 4,167.979
Oats, bush.................................................................................. 2,089,586

3,241,429
8,873,918
1.904,830

1,469.765
5,021,341
1,646,551

Total, bush...........................................................................12,301,166

9,020,177

8,137,647

W e thus find that the receipts o f flour, at the Lake ports, for the week
ending June 12, have been 227,762 bbls in excess of the same period
o f last year, and 365,038 bbls more than in 1867. The aggregate receipts
of wheat, corn and oats, for the same weeks, were 3,280,989 bushels over
those of 1868, and 4,163,519 more than in 1867. Since the prospects
of the new crop became more apparent, the receipts have been especially
heavy, those for the first two weeks of June being very close upon the
arrivals of September last, when the forwarding movement was at its
height. The arrivals of wheat and flour, at the five piincipal lake ports,
for the four weeks ending June 19th, reducing the flour to wheat, were
equal to nearly eight millions bushels of wheat. The following is a state
ment of the receipts at those points for the weeks named :
1868.
Flour, barrels...................... ..............................................................................
230,758
Wheat, bushels................................................................................................... 1,693,937

1869.
458,268
5,664,910

The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser gives the following estimate o f
the quantity of wheat afloat and in store at the close of last week:
Bushels.
Instore at Chicago and Milwaukee 21st.. ................................................................... ....1,200,000
Afloat on 1 akea lor Buffalo and cswego 21st.................................... ......................................1,024,000
Afloat on C-.nal, destined for tide-water...................................................................................1,800 000
In store in New York 21st............................................................................................................ 52?,820
Total........................... ..............................................................................................................5,552,836

not including stocks at Buffalo and Oswego.
The amouot afloat on lakes and canals is about 2,800,000 bushels,
mainly destined for the Hudson.
The natural effect ot this movement would have been to further
depress the prices of breadstuff’s had it not been for the less favorable
accounts with regard to the wheat plant which have lately been received
from England and France. These reports, together with the small stocks
now held in those countries, their light imports and the low prices cur
rent have within the nast two weeks resulted in considerable activity in
breadstuff’s, with an upward movement both here and at Liverpool. This
is furnishing a very convenient and satisfactory outlet for our present
surplus. The immediate effect of this enlarged movement at the West
and towards (he East is quite apparent in its influence upon our money
market; though perhaps not observed to the extent it really deserves.
The Western banks,, especially those of Chicago, have withdrawn large

1809]

feEDEMPTIOtt OF BANK tfOTKS.

amounts of currency from the banks o f this city, the amount received
there from the East, during June, being, according to the Chicago Tribune, $6,1)00,000; and this depletion, occurring concurrently with a demand
for moving the wool crop, with large withdrawals into the Treasury, and
upon an unusually low condition o f the legal tender resources of the
banks, has contributed, in no small degree, to the extreme stringency in
money which has recently prevailed.
The railroads have received their share of benefit from this movement.
As appeared from our last issue, the gross earnings of thirteen principal
Western roads, for the month o f May, were $5,528,000, against $4,973,000
for the same month o f last year; showing an increase o f $555,000, or
about 12 per cent; and, for the current month, the receipts exhibit a still
larger gain. This evidence of an increasing supply of food products is a
gratifying indication of our agricultural growth, the main basis of our
national prosperity. It is calculated to infuse a healthier feeling into our
industries and to promote a sounder condition of general values; while
it also affords a hope that we may ere long be able to assume a position
of greater importance among the grain-producing countries o f the world

REDEMPTION OF BANK NOTES.
W e have often had occasion to defend the National Banking system
against the attacks of persons who exaggerated its defects, and overlooked
the vast benefits which it has conferred, or is capable of conferring in
the financial, industrial and .commercial progress o f the country. In
pleading the cause of the banks, however, we should carefully remember
that the system is by no means perfect, and that much remains to be
done for its improvement. O f this, we have, during the past month, had
a striking proof in the spasms which have invaded the money market, and
in the exorbitant rates of interest which have been paid in W all street.
That these troubles are caused, in part, by movements over which the
banks can exert little direct control, we freely admit. But still neither the
manoeirvers of speculators, the locking up o f greenbacks, the absorption
of currency in the South, the over-rapid conversion of floating capital into
fixed capital, nor the hoarding of money in the Government vaults, would
have produced so profound and convulsive a stringency had the banks kept
themselves strong, and had our currency been elastic and responsive to the
wants of business. It is very evident that the monetary troubles of the
past three months have been due to defects in our financial machinery
rather than to any lack of capital. W hich ever way we look proofs mul
tiply on every side that our people are growing in wealth and in all the
chief conditions of material prosperity. What is wanting, however, is

REDEMPTION OF BANK NOTES.

[ A u ffliS l,

a corresponding elasticity in the financial machinery o f the country.
Speculators and cliquesof capitalists dam up the fertilizing streams of the
national wealth and prevent their flowing equally and freely and gently
over the whole field of the national industry. W e are suffering not
because we cannot produce wealth but because our machinery for dis
tributing that wealth is out o f order, inelastic, and not sufficiently
responsive to the changing pressure upon it and to the varied demands of
different seasons o f the year.
These facts all point to the currency o f the banks as the weakest part
of the National system. When the cliques would make trouble in the loan
market they always attack the currency and their ingenious devices for
locking up currency, and so depleting the current o f the active circu
lation have been often exposed. W h y have no such plans ever been set
in operation in Paris or in London ? The speculators there are as keen,
as bold and as shrewd, and wield larger masses o f capital. W hy do
they never resort to the expedient of locking up currency. The reason is
obvious. The currency of France and of Great Britain is elastic, and
enlarges or contracts with the seasons with the activity of business and
with the greater or less demand for money. Our currency, on the con
trary, remains rigidly fixed in amount all the year round. It consists
first of some four hundred millions o f greenbacks and fractional currency,
the amount of which was not intended to fluctuate, and secondly of national
bank notes, the outstanding amount o f which ought to vary from two
hundred millions as the minimum, to three hundred millions as ihe
extreme amount authorized by law. The issue o f currency is so profitable
to the banks that they try to keep afloat all the law allows. I f the notes
of a bank come back to it they are immediately reissued, and as there
is no effective arrangement for redeeming the bank notes, the whole three
hundred millions are kept constantly afloat, winter and summer, spring
and fall, whether the amount is in excess o f the requirements of the coun
try or not.
Iu no other banking system ever established in Europe or in this coun
try, have private corporations been invested with so much power over the
volume of the currency. T o say that they should not abuse this power,
is nothing to the purpose. The banks are 1,600 independent institutions,
spread over the various States, and anxious each to make large profits for
its shareholders. The issue of currency is one of the most lucrative parts
of the banking business, as it enables the bank to borrow money without
interest. W hile human nature is as it is, every bank will put out and
will keep out all the currency it cam And the only way to make sure
that the volume o f bank notes shall increase when they are needed for
business and shall diminish when the want has passed away, is to make it

1869]

PART OP THE GREAT NORTHWEST.

impossible for the banks to keep out their notes in excess. This is easily
to be done. Banking experience has supplied an effective safeguard. It
is the safeguard of metropolitan redemption. Let the banks be compelled
to redeem their notes at the metropolis, where in time of plethora the
notes are sure to accumulate, and we have the best remedy for inelasticity
of the currency, which the nature of the case seems to admit.
An unreasonable opposition has been aroused among some o f the banks,
against any more effective means o f redemption than one in use at present.
W e trust, however, this will pass away. The existing arrangements for
redemption are notoriously imperfect and unsatisfactory. This circum
stance offers a powerful weapon to the enemies of the banking system,
which they are not slow to use. In Congress a large power is known to
be arrayed against the banks. Suiely it is the part of wisdom for these
institutions to correct every abuse, and to strengthen and reform them
selves as much as possible. The banks must show to the country that
they are not a set of speculative institutions, intent on money-making and
greedy of gain, but that they are depositories and trustees of important
powers over the currency of the country, and that they do not receive
the rich endowments of that trust without doing their .best to fulfil its
duties. One of the strongest arguments against the banks would be
deprived of its force and one of the most threatening dangers which await
them in Congress would be removed, if they would voluntarily combine
together this summer and organize some effective scheme for centr.il
redemption. It is a matter for regret that the recent convention in this
city did not give more attention to a reform which is infinitely more for the
true interests of the banks than almost any other topic, which was promi
nently discussed.

A PART OF T1IE GREAT NORTHW EST.
There is a portion o f this country which promises in a few years to yit l 1
to none other, in population, wealth and production. It is a region, how
ever, now comparatively unknown, o f vast extent, of healthful climate and
of large resources. It has for its streams the upper waters of the Missis
sippi, those of the Red River of the North, o f the Assinneboine and o f the
Saskatchawan. It touches the shores of Lake W innipeg; extends far
westward along the borders of the United States and of the New Domin
ion to and beyond the Rocky Mountains. It has Lake Superior for
its Eastern limit. The State of Minnesota, part of Wisconsin, part o f
Dacotah and a broad section of the New Dominion lie within this re
gion. At first thought one would say that this section was far to the

100

PART OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST.

[A u fJU S t,

northward, but a glance at the map shows that while St. Paul is in the
latitude of Venice, the Northern shore o f Lake Superior is in the latitude
of Paris, 200 miles further south than London and 700 miles further
south than St. Petersburg. The summer isothermal line of 70 degrees,
which passes through the wheat-growing regions of Russia and through
Southern France, strikes this continent on Long Island, bends down into
Pennsylvania, skirts the northern limits of Ohio and Indiana, passes from
the foot of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi just north of St. Paul, and
then sweeps up to latitude 52 three and a half degrees north of Paris.
Some of our school misconceptions of geography are corrected bv the prac
tical knowledge we acquire in this day of enterprise and action. It is
under and around this isothermal line that the richest wheat-growing
regions of the United States lie, and it is near this line that the remarka
ble development o f the last few years has been made. For instance, in
1857 Minnesota did not raise breadstuff's sufficient for her own con
sumption. Ten years after her export of wheat was 10,000,000 of bush
els and her production was 14,000,000 bushels. In 1854 she had only
15,000 acres of land under cultivation. Ten years later it was over
1,000,000. In 1860 her population was 172,000. In 1865 it was 250,000. It is estimated now at 450,000. In 1860, Hon. W m. H. Seward,
standing in St. Paul, the centre o f this great “ continental wheat garden,”
speaking of the broad belt extending from Lake Superior to the Pacific,
remarked, “ Here is the place, the central place, where the agriculture of
the richest regions of North America must pour out its tributes to the
whole world.”
The transportation facilities o f this region are mostly as yet only
“ projected.” There is first of all, however, the Mississippi river, which
offers such cheap carriage to the sea. This route may, we think, be
regarded as “ finished.” The agricultural wealth o f Minnesota was
one of the chief inducements for St. Louis to engage in the present sys
tem of grain carriage to New Orleans. Its effort was to secure a share of
that traffic which by several lines of railroad passed across the States of
Wisconsin and Illinois, and so sought an Eastern market, by way of the
Lakes. But Minnesota has designs o f its own, and hopes to do its own
business. It has under way a railroad from St. Paul to Du Lutb, the
head of Lake Superior. This road will be 150 miles in length. A
portion of it is done and the rest will be completed during the present
year, placing Minnesota several hundred miles nearer tide water than
it is now, for the western end of Lake Superior is 240 miles west of Chi
cago, and the distance o f the centre of Minnesota production is much
nearer Lake Superior than Lake Michigan. The navigation o f the two
lakes is practically limited to the same season, for one depends upon

1809]

THE WESTERN GRANARY AND ITS OUTLET.

101

the departure ot the ice from the St. Marie, and the other upon the free
dom of the Straits of Mackinaw. To New York the distance from the
head of Lake Superior is just about the same as from the head of Lake
Michigan. The Northern Pacific Railroad is another improvement, upon
which work is beginning. But this is too indefinite yet to require fur
ther remark. Railroads, east and west lines, are started in the first,
second, fourth and fifth tiers of counties in Minnesota, counting from the
lower line of the State. St. Paul is a railroad centre, and from it diverge
nine or ten roads, all of which are designed to feed the new road to
Lake Superior. There is a road started to Pembina, of which 81
miles are completed. Another is from St. Paul to the head of Red River
navigation, of which GO miles are done and 100 more are contracted
for by the first snow fall. Another runs towards Sioux City, and 90 miles
are done. At Sioux City it will meet a branch of the Union Pacific
road and contend for the traffic of that route. Another runs down the
river to Hastings, and has Chicago for its objective; of this 20 miles
are done. Another road towards Chicago has 50 miles completed. W e
omit mention of some minor routes and projections.
The question naturally arises how is the labor procured for all these
enterprises? The regular emigrants to Minnesota and other Western States
are farmers, agricultural laborers and artisans. They are not “ navvies.”
So laborers for the railroads are sought abroad. They bring them over
by the ship load, and set them to work on the railroads. They settle on
the line, and so, when the road is done, it has a population to support
it. The Minnesota State agent has been to Sweden for his emigrants, be
fore whom he laid the wonders of climate, production, free homesteads,
&c. He brought 900 over with him a few days since , and he promises
that 75,000 Scandinavians will come over during the present year. So the
State grows and develops. So civilization makes its powerful conquests o f
new regions. So the material prosperity o f the whole country is increased
and the national life derives fresh strength. The remote is brought near,
the savage is tamed, and the kindly fruits of the earth are produced in
greater and greater abundance. This little sketch of what one State
is doing is but the repetition of what others have already done, and
the prelude to even gieater enterprises.

TEE W ESTERN GRANARY AND ITS OUTLET.
It is within the memory o f many men now living that the centre o f
the wheat production o f the United States was east o f Lake Erie. In
the earlier part of this century the counties on the Hudson River and
along the Mohawk were large producers o f wheat. Then the Genesee

102

THE WESTERNT GRANARY AND ITS OUTLET.

[August,

Valley came into notice, and for many years was the granary o f the
East. The wheat and flour o f this valley have not yet lost their celeb
rity, despite the competition o f Ohio, St. Louis and California. F or many
years the insect destroyed the crop there, but its productiveness has been
now partially restored, and at no time was there a complete failure.
“ Extra Genesee,” though often merely a name, was still a brand in the
market through all viscissitudes. The Erie Canal opened the way to
the W est and made the farther shores o f the great lakes as accessible
to market as Western New York had been. So the wheat-growing
moved westward to Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Another
impulse was needed. Railroads were built from the Lakes to the M iss
issippi, from the Mississippi to the Missouri and farther W est, and again
the “ granary” receded to the Westward, until to d a y it is found beyond
the M ississippi; and Iowa, Minnesota and California are, in proportion
to population and in the yield to the acre, the greatest wheat-growing
States of the Union. In 1848 and in 1859 the wheat product of several
States was as follows :
1843.
Pennsylvania......................................................................................... bush 15,3*57,691
Ohio...................................... ............................................................................. 14,487,351
New York......................................................................................................... 13,121,498
Illinois...................................................................................................... . . . . 9,414,575
Indiana.................................................. ............................ ........................... 6,214.458
Michigan.............................................................................. ............................ 4,925,889

IS59.
13,042,165
15 \19,047
8 681,1(5
23,837.023
16.848,267
8,336,368

Such were the figures for 1848 and 1859.
But in 1866 a further
change took place. F or instance, Wisconsin, which reports 4,000,000
bushels in 1848 and 15,600,000 in 1859, reports in 1S66 20,307,920
bushels, at a valuation of $33,914,226— a five-fold increase in crop in
18 years and a nine-fold increase in value. Other States named above
present the following aggregates :
Pennsylvania....................................................................................... bush.
Ohio........................................
New Y ork......................................................................................................
Illinois ...........................................................................................................
Indiana............ ..............................................................................................
Michigan.........................................................................................................

I S''.0.
in,519,6C0
10,308,854
12,520,406
28,551,491
9,114,562
14,740,639

Value.
$58,01-7.493
25,756,313
33.525,004
55,104,243
21,966,094
37,588,630

Pennsylvania, in the interval from 1859 to 1866, fell o ff; New York,
recovering from the devastations o f the weevil, gained; Ohio fell off
largely, considering her increase in population ; Indiana also produced
less, while Illinois and Michigan increased. Iowa now enters the lists
with a production o f 8,000,000 bushels; California shows a production
in 1866 o f 14,000,000 bushels, having a currency value o f some $20,000,0 0 0 ; Minnesota, which in 1857 imported breadstuff’s, had 10,000,000
bushels for export ten years later and kept 4,000,000 for home consump
tion. Twenty years ago the wheat product o f New York and Pennsyl
vania was four or five bushels per head to the population ; now it is but

1869]

THE WESTERN GRAN A RT AND ITS OUTLET.

103

two or three. O f course these States and their Eastern neighbors
look to these great Western granaries for supplies; and their confi
dence will not be misplaced. Directly west o f Iowa and Missouri, and
within the limits o f Kansas and Nebraska, the wheat region virtually
ends; but it will expand into immense dimensions on the vast areas
o f the Northwest. There will be a granary never to be drawn down.
There is a lesson o f importance to be derived from this statement
we have given. These wheat areas of the East, and in this term we
include all the regions east of the Mississippi, are by no means exhausted.
They need but culture to reach the highest promise they ever gave.
The wheat crop o f New York fell from 13 millions in 1848 to 8 m il
lions in 1859, and rose then to 12 millions in 1866. The prime cause
o f this was the renewal of wheat culture after years and years of dis
ease. The farmers could not contend with the insect and they yielded.
The insect disappeared, and again the fields returned productive crops.
I f land is Irgher in price in these Eastern States, the farmers are nearer
a market and they can compete, to a certain extent, with the W est. In
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, there has been a falling off in the
average yield per acre, showing a careless cultivation, for these wild
lands are yet unexhausted.
A n examination o f the breadstuff’s trade o f Chicago for a series o f
years, also indicates [the growth o f the W est and the tendency o f the
centre o f cereal production in that direction. In 1854 the receipts
o f flour at Chicago were 234,575 bbls., in 1868 they were 2,276,335
(a tenfold increase) and Chicago which, in 1860, manufactured but 282,000 bbls. manufactured last year 747,932. In 1854 the receipts of
wheat were 3 millions o f bushels, and in 1868 they were 15 millions.
Corn grew from 7 millions in 1854 to 25 millions in 1868. Chicago
shipped last year 24,800,000 bushels o f wheat and flour reduced to
wheat. The five lake ports together sent out 53,000,000 bushels, and
it is estimated that 18,000,000 o f bushels went on the railroads.
The promise o f an increased crop this present year is very good.
Illinois has recently suffered so severely from the rains that the corn
crop is considered to be in danger, all other sections o f the country
report good progress and warrant the belief that the avenues o f trans
portation will be crow'ded with the products o f Agriculture. F or the
great granary beyond the Mississippi, of which we have spoken, the
competition o f transporting interests is lively. St. Louis has an agent
in New York to engage a steamship to proceed to that city and bring
a crop o f grain directly to this p o r t; Iowa and Minnesota are pushing
railroads into the interior; Chicago reduces her charge for handling
and storing grain. Freights by rail on competing roads go down and

104

TOLEDO, W ABASH AND WESTERN R AILW AY.

[A u g U S t,

the osrreat battle between the rail and the water route assumes new and
more interesting proportions. Some o f the experiments induced by this
rivalry between different routes are on an extensive scale. This steam
ship from New York to St. Louis and return, involves a long voyage.
It is 3,000 miles o f water against 1,000 by land. It is an ocean voyage,
a gulf passage and a long and sinuous river with all its opposing cur
rents and unknown obstructions. It passes by the Mississippi cities,
whose hopes have been o f “ Direct Trade ” with Europe, and it
has for its St. Louis guarantors the enterprise, and capital and pluck
o f a strong and vigorous city. A s one attempt to solve this problem
o f transportation it is interesting to all observers. The world at large
which takes many million bushels o f wheat, corn and flour from the
United States, and the army o f consumers in the non-producing States
no less than producers are all directly interested, for to them it is a
question o f cheaper food.

TOLEDO, WABASH AND W ESTERN R A ILW AY.
Among western railways this line occupies a route which for directness
between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts is not surpassed. This assertion
applies to its present phy sical relations. W hen the Pike County Rail
road, extending from Naples to Douglasville (opposite Hannibal, Mo.),
now in process o f construction, shall have been completed, the east and
west line will have been materially improved both as to distance and gen
eral directness, insuring additional economi cal means of transacting the
ever increasing business which the progress of events has brought with
in the company’s grasp. The section of the line to be thrown out o f
use by this improvement as a through route (say between Van Gundy’s
and Palmyra) will be utilized as a local carrier for a rich and prosperous
stretch of country. A further improvement of the direct westward line
will be made by cutting off the triangle which, with Palmyra as its apex,
has Hannibal as its latitutidnal basis. In former times the constitu
ents from which the whole route was formed were notoriously unpro
ductive and expensive, but the vast development of the country through
which the aggregate line passes, and the improved connections east
and west already established §or projected, together with the Union
Pacific road now completed, have given to this line an increased impor
tance which a very short period will more clearly develope. These facts,
results and anticipations are in marked contrast with the troubles and
disabilities through which the several roads comprising the company’s
present lines have been forced to pass. Even the titles of the bond issu s,
now part of tha company’s funded debt, speak of frequent disasters and

1869]

105.

TOLEDO, W ABASH AND WESTERN R AILW AY.

reorganization after reorganization in each of the principal roads, until
common sense and experience brought the whole line occupied by the.
existing corporation under a single efficient and co-operative organ
ization.
W e have not space to recount the early history o f the line.
The San
gamon and Morgan Company began their experience the earliest— say
some third o f a century ago, and were succeeded by the Great Western
Company, which built on the east and the west of the original route, so
as to complete a line from the Indiana border to Meredosia, with a
braneh to Naples— both on the Illinois River.
This company failing,
was succeeded by the Great Western Company o f 1859. The roads in
Indiana and Ohio were built by separate companies, which under several
titles, (now consolidated, again separate, and then again united,) had a
very precarious existence. Then came the consolidation of July 1, 1865,
which included two other lines and gave the original roads connection
witn Quincy and Warsaw, both on the Mississippi, and with the great
lines of Missouri and Iowa. A t the time of consolidation the lines w ere
as follow s:
Mile?.
Toledo and Wabssh’ Railroad (Toledo, O., to the Indiana Line)............................................. 242.4
Great Western Railroad of 1859 (Indiana LiLe to .veredosia, &c.) ........................................ 182.4
Qn ncy and Toledo Railroad (Meredosia to Camp Point)......................................................... 84.0
Iilino.s a d s*outhem Iowa Railroad (Clayton to Warsaw)...................................................... 41.2

Total consolidated line................................................................................................... 500.0

About 22 miles of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
(lea-ed) complete the company’s operative lines, making the whole
length of line operated 522 miles. O f this length of road 75.5 miles
are in Ohio and 166.9 in Indiana, the remainder of the total length being
in Illinois. The road is now ironed with rail averaging 60 pounds to
the yard. The guage of the track is 4 feet
inches. The reportdoes not
state the length of second track, sidings, &c.
The amount of motive power and rolling stock operating on the roads
of the company at the close of each o f the three years 1866, 1867 and
1868, inclusive, was as follows :
Locomotive engines. . ...............................
Pa«* n_’<T ani smokin c i s ......................... .
Mail and ba 'gage cars..........................
..
Boxfrei.ht cars................................................
Live r-tock cars................................................ .
Platform cars.....................................................
Coal cars................................. .......................
Cibo iso cars.....................................................
Lumping c a is ..................................................

1866.
102
47
2T
1,040
275
200
150

1867.
105
49
24
1,178
405
243
154
45
30

1868.
105
52
*29
1,077
404
2 $3
148
44
30

O f the engines 47 are coal and 58 wood consumers. There are 104
stations on the roads and 11 engine houses. Upwards of 100 new cars
were built in the company’s shops in 1868, and nearly 400 cars werei
entirely rebuilt or received general repairs.

106

TOLEDO, W A B A SH AND WESTERN R A IL W A Y.

JA u ffU S t,

The results of operations in the same years and since the consolidation
are shown in the following table:
1865 (6mosL
1866.
1867.
1868.
Passeneer carn’n?9.....................................
$S9t>,(IS2 08 $1,312,846 78 $1,213,525 43 $1,224,681 51
Passe-g<rs carried......................................
306 525
024,378
584,355
...............
Freight earnings............................................$1,020,258 38 $2,200,427 35 $2,364,225 40 $2,542,742 01
Wail earni' g *...............................................
20,000 ( 0
52,000 00
52.000 ( 0
70,412 49
Express earnings
..................................
49,042 10
98,345 17
148,385 52 89,1*:3 97
Miscellaneous earnings...............................
40,846 59
31,700 92
31,017 23 80 207 10
Gross earnings................. .................... $2,033,109 15 $3,717,386 22 $3,809,353 58 $4,013,207 9o

From which deduct expenditures :
Renewal of iron and snperetrHctnreaMaintenance of way and stmctures.......
Maintenance of cars, engints, &c.........
Transportation expenses.............................

$109,017
338,024
1270,837
763,558

30 $ 241,051
t6
624,066
12
£50,005
93 1,889,402

79 $264,912
25
633,491
78
449,409
68 1,439,008

93
20
34
85

$287.004 04
024,579 41
489.389 06
1,488,586 68

Total operat’g expenses...................... $1,487,438 20 $2,811,186 50 $2,786,882 32 $2,889,619 79
Nett income........... .....................................
Nett earnings, per cent...........................

$545,670 89
20.84

$900,199 72 $1,022,471 20 $1,123,583 19
24.39
26.97
28 00

In the fallowing statement are shown the general financial transactions
o f the company as exhibited on the income account since the consoli
dation o f July 1, 1865 :
1865-66.
1867.
1868.
Nett earnings ...................................................... ........... $1,451,870 61 $1,022,471 26 $1,123,533 19
Supplies from old cotnpani.es..........................................
102,548 04 ..............................................
Machinery and tools sold...................... ...................................................
1,810 00 .....................
Hnking fund bonds so d................................................... 1,000,000 00 .............................................
C<-n-obdated mortgage bonds sold.....................
3,410,000 00
615,90000
ill. and 8outh. Iowa~R ilroad..................................................................
22,100 00 ....................
Ba’ance from year to year..........................................................................
273,599 00
491,51282
Total ~ .

*2,554,419 25 $2,730,010 26 $2,230,101 01

Against which amounts are charged as follows:
Construction, &c................................................................
Interes account ..............................................................
Discount and exchange.................. .............................
Toledo and Wabash k .R. Company...............................
1 1. and South Iowa RR. Company...............................
Mew York office.................................................................
Sick'ng fund bonds taken up.................... ..
...........
Balance from year to year............................. .............

$003,974 09
1,328,180 37
2 1,841 28
17,106 03
129,807 97
...............
...............
273,599 00

$143,536
l,oS9.16l
12,8* 0
1,454

53
83
82
98

30,543 28
731,000 00
491,512 82

$303,481 71
1,220,022 53

269 090 00
430,990 77

The financial status of the company at the close of 1866, ’67 and ’ 68,
respectively, is shown in the Treasurer’s general balance sheet, as follows :
1866.
Balance of income account...................
$273,599 00
Gen ral stock, 57,0* 0 share*................
5,700,000 00
Preferred stock, 10,000 shires.............. .................... 1,000,((0 00
Funded debt................................................................... 14,345,(100 00
Coupons due and unpaid.............................................
42,234 75
Overdraft..........................................................................
71,790 53
Equalization account.....................................................
60%726 19
Bills payable .................................
15.500 00
Total........................

1867.
$491,512 82
5,70*1,000 00

1868.
$430,91)0 77
5,70 •,090 00

15,494,000 00
53,250 00

16,000,000 l 0
127,512 50

15,420 00

1,308'66

1,000,'-00 00

1,000,000 0C

$22,113,900 47 $22,754,1S2 82 $23,259,817 27

Per contra : the following charges, viz.:
Road and equipment ........................................... «... $19,850,000 00 $20,999/00 00 $21 551,000 00
Trusties............................................................................. 1,195.000 09
1,195,000 0.0
1,195,000 00
Materials and fuel...........................................................
303,"14 07
268,757 88
237,202 66
Sundry accounts..............................................................
t5.580 43
105,078 88
133,803 10
Equalization account....................................................
700,309 27
34 574 08
34,574 08
Cash............................................................................................. .........
157,171 98
118,077 43

Total

$22,113,900 47 $22,754,182 83 $23,259,817 27

1869]

107

TOLEDO, W ABASH AND WESTERN RAILW AY,

The funded debt of the company, as it stood on the books at the close
o f the fiscal year 1868, is described in the following statement:
Classes of bonds
1st mort., Tol. & HI. RR (75.5 m.) ....................
“
L. Erie, Wa. & St. L. RR (166 9 m )____
“
Gt. West'll HR, east of Decatur..........
“
Gt. West’ n RR, west •f Decatur..........
“
Gt. West’n RR of 1859 (182.4 m.).......
“
Quincy & Tol. RR (34 m.) ....................
“
III. & So. Iowa RR (41.2 m .) ...............
2d mort., Tol. & Wab. REi. (75# m .)................
“
Wabash Sr, WesternRK (166 9 m l... .
“
Gt West’ n RR of 1859 (182.4 m .).......
Equipment, Toledo & Wabash RR ......................
Skg Fund, Tol , W . & West’n RR (500 m.).........
Consols, Tol., W . & West’n RR (50J m .)......... ..

,— Iot.erest— ,
Rate Payable.
7 F . & A.
7 F. & a .
10
. & 0.
7 F. & A.
7 F. & A.
7 M. & N.
7 F. & A.
7 M. & N.
7 M. & N.
7 M. & N .
7 M &N.
7 A . & O.
7 Quart'ly

,— Principal— ,
Amount Due.
$901),000
1890
2,500.0' 0
1890
1.000.
0001878
45,0t 0
1888
1.455.000
1888
500,000
1890
3CO,C00
1882
1.000.
0001878
3,500,090
1871
2,5(0.000
1893
000,! 00
18*3
(called i ' ) 3871
2.700.000
1907

A ll of these issues are payable principal and interest in New York
at the dates above named. The interest on the new consolidated bonds
is payable February, May, August and November.
Four years have nearly passed since the consolidation, during which
the monthly range of the prices of the company’s stocks at the New
York Stock Exchange has been as follows :
RANGE OP THE GENERAL STOCK.

. 40 @40
. 43 @43
. 39 @55
. 40#@43
42 @42
. 31 @40
. 31)4@'«
. 32 @39
. 34 @39
. 36 @35

1866-67.
36)4@40
39 @ 4 7 *
43)4@46)4
44 ©54)4
40 @ 5 5 #
41 @45)4
39 @45)4
38 @42
34 @39
15 @39)4
38 @43
41X @ « X

1867-68.
46)4@53)4
4s)4@>1
39 @49
39 @44)4
38 @ 3 9 #
38#@ 13
48)4@47
45 @4754
46)4@55)4
46 @52
49 @52
46 @ 5 1 #

1808-69.
48)4@ ‘>4)4
49 @ 5 3 #
53)4@64
58X @67
54 @62
53)4@59
59)4@67
63)4 @58
65#@63
63*@7334
73 @78)4
71 @76!4 ‘

. 31 @55

34 @55)4

38)4@5B«

4S)4@78X

1808-09.
69 @73)4
7 > @73
73)4 @78
73)4 @78
70 @ 7 3 #
70 ©70)4
73 @7*
77 @77)4
78 @79
77)4@80
79 @82)4
82 @82
71 @82)4

186M56.
July................
August...........
September___
October...........
November. . . .
December.
January......... .
Febru ry.........
M rch .............
A p ril..............
May ..............
•Ernie................
Year.........

, ___

RANGE OP THE PREFERRED STOCK.

J u 'y ..............
A ugust...........
September . . .
October.........
Nov; mber___
December . . . .
January ___
r ebri.ary....... .
March.............
April..............
M a y ................
June.............
Year.........

1805-56.
. ... . ............ ...........© . . . .

...
. © ....
, 63 @63
. ... @ —
. ....© ...

66 @ !>6
59 @55
61#@65
62 @67
63)4@T0

If67-68.
69)4@72)4
70)4 @71
69 @69
62#@68
63 @82)4
61)4© '1)4
64 @67
68 @74)4
70 @74
70>4@73
69 @69
69 @69

, 60 @68

59 @ 7 5 #

61)4@74

. 60 @64
64 @65
68 @68

1866-67.
6> @61
67«@70
70 @ 7 8 #
73)i@75)4
72 @75)4
... © ... .

W e have made this analysis more extensive than ordinary, for the reason
that “ Poor’s Manual” does not include the report forl8G 8, although
we find that it was waited for as long as possible. A partial return obtained
from the company is all that is given in the work referred to.

108

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

\_A u g U S t,

ON THE AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OP T n E UNITED KINGDOM (SECOND
P A P E R .*)
BY JAMES CAIRD, ESQ.
(Read before the Statistical Society of L odcJoh).

Having been invited by the Council to continue the subject of the
Agricultural Statistics o f the United Kingdom, on which I read a paper
in March last year, I propose first to consider the result of the estimates
then offered of the previous crop, the probable yield of the last crop
(1868), and the great public advantage which followed the early
announcement contained in the summary o f the returns.
I.— Estimate and Result o f Crop, 1867.
It will be remembered that I then offered an estimate of the result o f
the bad wheat crop of 1867, in which, after making deductions for the
diminished consumption likely to be caused by high prices, I computed
the foreign supply required within the harvest year at 9,600,000 quarters.
The actual receipts have been 9,690,006 quarters, between August, 1867,
and August, 1868, the dale at which the new crop was ready.
But the harvest was a very early one, and the condition o f the corn so
good that it was available for immediate use. The harvest year, as gene
rally and properly understood, and within which it is very desirable that
the statistical tables should be framed, is from 1st September to 1st Sep
tember. Between these dates last year the total imports o f wheat and
flour were 9,293,000 quarters.
On either basis it will appear that my estimate was not very wide of
the mark, though it was severely handled at the time, and figures were
put forth to show that considerably less than two million quarters was all
we could possibly receive between that time and harvest. The price,
which had begun to droop, was thus again strengthened and maintained
during April, May and part of June, when the final fall began and steadily
continued till the beginning of September, by which time the drop from
the highest point had reached 20s. a quarter. But in the meantime the
pressure on the poor, as was partly shown by the statistics of out-door
relief, was unnecessarily prolonged, while it was found that the foreign
supply, which had been represented to have been exhausted by the enor
mous imports o f the first six months of the harvest year, continued with
very little diminution to its close. Instead of the 1,000,000 or 2,000,000
quarters, which was the utmost we were led to expect from all sources,
we actually received 4,500,000 quarters in the second half of the harvest
year.
* The first paper was published in the June number ol the M a g a z in e (vol. 60, page 431).

1869]

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

109

The economy in the use of bread caused by the high price o f last
year has proved very close to the estimate I ventured to put forth. It will
perhaps be remembered that I assumed every 10 per cent o f additional
price on the crop would diminish the consumption by 1 per cen t; and as
bread had risen 50 per cent, I reckoned the saving at 5 per cent, e r a
little over 1,000,000 quarters on the total consumption. The actual saving
is shown by the following figures:
Quarters.

Average annual consumption since 1862, inclusive o f seed......................... 20,800,000
Seed, 21 bushels per acre........... .........................................qrs. 1,100,000
Foreign wheat imported.................................................................. 9,SOO,0OO
Home crop, 9,700,000 quarters of 59 lb. quality, equal to 61 lb
q u a 'ity......................... .. ........................................................ . 9,880,000
------------- 19,780,000
Saving by economy in the use of bread............... ...............................

1,020,000

This bears out the opinion o f eminent statisticians, that the consump
tion of bread is very constant; that whatever the price may be, every
thing must be given up before bread, for the very severe pinch o f an
increase of price of fully one-half diminished the use of it by only onetwentieth.
II.— Wheat Crop, 1868.
The bountiful harvest o f 1868, and the splendid condition in which it
was saved rendering it fit for immediate consumption, was a great relief
to the country after the pinching caused by two bad harvests and dim
inished trade. If there had been only the greater acreable produce to
rely on much would have been gained ; hut a great deal more than that
was revealed by the publication of a summary of tlie agricultural returns
on 19th September. The beneficient season had added 2,000,000 qrs. to
the produce of an average crop, while the increased acreage under wheat
swelled that addition by 1,200,000 qrs. more. Nor was this a ll; for the
fine and heavy sample will improve the yield and quality of the flour by
2 or 3 lbs. a bushel, or equal to one twenty-fifth part of the total produce.
The contrast between the yield o f the two last harvests, 1867 and 1868
is shown in a very striking manner when all the figures are placed
together.
Years.

1867
’ 68
Increase in 1868

Acres under
Wheat.

8.640.000
3.951.000

Total P oduce at
Qualiiy.
48811)3.
\yeight per "bushel,
per Quurt-r.
lbs.
Q 's.

69
63

9,380,000
16,436,000
7,056,000

Here is a difference in a single year, exceeding four months, or onethird of the total consumption. The home crop will give us within

110

AGRICULTURAL 8TATISTICR OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

[A u g u st,

5,100 000 qrs. of our average consumption, and if we add to that one
month in consequence of the unusually early harvest, and reckon on 13,
months’ consumption before the next harvest may be available, we shall
need 0,800,000 qrs. o f foreign wheat and flour. In the six months since
1st September last we have imported about two-thirds of that quantity,
so that, even if imports should for the current six months materially
decrease, we are likely to receive quite enough to carry us on with
moderate prices till next harvest.
III.— Price and Supply,
The price is a question of great delicacy, though of first importance.
In the course of the year 1808 the highest average (lazette price was in
Mav, 73s 8d, and the lowest in December, 50s I d ; the difference 23s 7d.
There is thus a fall of one-third from the highest point, which corres
ponds in most remarkable exactness with the increased produce o f 1868
over 1867. So far asourown crop is concerned, the consumer would thus
appear to have got the full benefit of the good wheat harvest.
Till next harvest the price will very much depend on the rate of
foreign imports. These come to us not so much in relation to price in
this country as to the productiveness o f the hat vest abroad. A scarcity
here and high prices will draw the surplus corn from every quarter o f the
globe to us, but it will not ceise to flow when the source of supply is
abundant, however low the price may fall in this country. It is an axiom
in political economy that no article can remain long below the cost of
production. But that cost is very different in different countries. In
this country the cost of producing wheat may be taken at the maximum.
In other countries where rent, rates, or wages are greatly lower than ours,
and especially where, as in Southern Russia and the valley of the Missis
sippi, there are likewise boundless tracts of most fertile soil, they can
continue to produce wheat at prices which would entail loss on the grower
in England. Moreover the vast machinery of production, once set in
motion, will maintain its momentum for a considerable period after the
stimulus has been withdrawn. Thus in 1860, in consequence of two
deficient harvests, the price rose 10s. a quarter, and the imports increased
one-third over those of 1359. They continued to swell in volume until
1863, the year of abundance, when the price fell 10s. a quarter. The
imports did not then decline in the same proportion ; indeed but for the
disturbance of the American trade, caused by the war, there would have
been no decline, and if we exclude America for that reason, and limit our
selves to Russia and Germany, which between them have furnished us
with 40 per cent of our imports since the Crimean war, I find that during
1863; 1864, and 1465, when the average price varied between 40s. and

1869]

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS CTF THE UNITED

Ill

KINGDOM.

44s., the imports continued at much the same rate as in the two prece
ding years, when the Drice was 55s.
A very productive harvest in France will exercise an immediate influ
ence on prices in this country. Not only does her demand for foreigncorn cease, but from the small average yield and the vast acreage under
wheat a slight increase in the produce tells quickly up. Last year I
computed an increase of one bushel on the acre in France at upwards o f
2 000,000 qrs. If her increase has been in anything like the same ratioas ours, France will have a large suplus for export, probably quite enough
to meet any decline caused by the deficient crop in Southern Russia.
IV .— Steady Decline in the Price o f Wheat under Free Trade.
The effect of free trade in corn has been to lower the price of wheat
in this country, notwithstanding the increase o f the population and con
sequent increased consumption. The average price o f the twenty years
preceding 1848 was 57s. 4d., and of the twenty years of free trade,.
52s. 3d. But if the disturbing influences of the cessation of supplies from
Russia during the Crimean war, and from America during the later years
and since the close of the American war, be eliminated, the average price
of the last twenty years would have stood 10s. lower than that of the
twenty years preceding free trade.
This is a fact of great importance when we come to consider the increas
ing population of the country, and the means we have of meeting their
annually growing demands upon our resources. The popular estimate o f
the wheat annually consumed by each person of the community in Eng
land used to be 8 bushels. In 1850 I ventured to question that opinion.
My estimates then showed that it did not probably from our own soil
exceed 5 bushels. Mr. Lawes has lately entered on an investigation of
this subject, the first part of which he has embodied in a very able paper
in the last number of the “ Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal.” He
divides the last sixteen years into two periods of eight years each, and the
results of his estimates are embraced in the following summary :
ESTIMATED CONSUMPTION OF W HEAT PER HEAD P E R ANNUM

Englnd
During the Last Sixteen Years and ales.
Bushel.

First eight years....................... 5.9
..................... 6.3
Second
*
Average of whole period. 6.1

Scotland.
Bushel.

4.2
4.2
4.2

Great
Britain.
Bushel.

5.'7
6.0
6.9

Ireland.
Bushel.

2.7
3.3
3.0

T'nited
Kingdom*
i nshel.

5.1
6 5
5.3

Converting these figures into pounds, it appears that during the first
eight years each person consumed at the rate o f 311 lbs. o f wheat, and
during the last period 335 lbs. But the proportions in which that was

112

a g k i 'c U l t c h a d

s t a t is t ic s

the

Un it e d

Ki n g d o m .

\_Augl i s t ,

afforded by foreign supply had also altered from 79 lbs. per head in the
first, to 134 lbs. in the second. Here two Very important results are
shown : first, that the people are able to buy and do consume more bread ;
and second, that we must depend wholly on foreign countries for the
increased supply necessary to meet the growing consumption.
An immense impetus seems to have been given to consumption by the
general increase o f wages consequent on the Crimean war and the Indian
mutiny, and the great exertions put forth by this country on these occa
sions. The foreign imports o f wheat, which up to 1860 had not exceeded
an annual average o f 4,500,000 qrs., then rose to 10,000,000, and during
the last eight years have maintained an annual average of 8,000,000 qrs
V .— Increasing Rate o f Consumption likely to he F ully Supplied.
But we have not only to provide for an increased consumption by each
individual, but for an annual increase of 240,000 in the population.
This, at 5^- bushels per head, is 165,000 qrs. In ten years, at the same
rate o f progress, that will have swollen to nearly 2,000,000 qrs., and in
ten years more to 4,000,000. This would indicate the need of a gradual
rise in our foreign imports in ten years, from the present average o f
8,000,000 qrs. a year to 10,000,000, and in twenty years to 12,000,000
qrs. a year. In one generation more, say thirty years hence, the imports
will at this rate be more than the home growth, if that should remain at
its present point. Our past experience of the readiness with which the
volume o f foreign wheat has increased with the demand would lead to
the conclusion that we need entertain no apprehension on that score.
California promises us next year more than 2,000,000 quarters. France
alone, by a slight improvement in her husbandry, only so much as would
raise her average yield from 15 to 18 bushels an acre, could meet our
requirements. And when we consider the extent o f rich countries within
the wheat region farther east which are scarcely begun to be tapped by
the rail« ay system, we must feel that we are yet far from having reached
the limit at which a moderate rate of price will bring us sufficient sup
plies. F or wheat, whichform s trie great staple o f the food o f civilized man
outside the tropics, occupies o f all cereals the widest region suited to its
cultivation.
The importance of this fact cannot be overrated. I f the wheat region
had been of small extent the increase of population would have been
quickly limited to the food resources o f each country. A continued deve
lopment of mining and manufacturing enterprise in Great Britain would
have been impossible. For nothing can be done without bread. Wheat
is the common food, the real staff of life. The hard-working poor are far
more dependent on and much larger individual consumers of it than the

1869]

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

113

rich. I f its price like that of most other commodities had risen, or was
likely to rise, with the increasing demand, no political foresight, no more
equable arrangement o f the burden of taxation, no reduction even in
public expenditure could have long availed us. But the wheat region has
been designed apparently to be co extensive with the progress of civilized
man, and the more regular and extensive the demands upon it the more
ready and continuous becomes the supply.
The natural tendency of the gradually falling price o f wheat in this
country since 1848, has been to diminish the breadth of our own wheat.
And the force of that tendency, in spite of the great increase o f gold,
shows the steadiness of its operation. There has been a yearly increase
o f consumers, with an increased power and capacity to obtain bread, an
increasing ratio in the supply of gold, the representative of its money
value; and yet in spite of all that, the price has declined, and the average
breadth of wheat grown in the United Kingdom has diminished. But
the figures in the statistical returns show how quickly the price of wheat
affects the home supply. The two fine crops o f 1863 and 1864 reduced
the average price to little more than 40s. But in 1867 the price had
risen to 64s., and in one year there was an addition of 300,000 acres to
our breadth of wheat.
I have already in a previous paper shown that the rate o f increased
productiveness of the land under wheat is very slow. From that source,
therefore, there is little hope of any material increase in our home pro
duce, in the face of larger foreign supplies at low prices. W hen the
price of wheat falls below 50s., the farmer begins to turn his attention to
other crops. The value o f barley has been rising in nearly the same pro
portion as that of wheat has declined in recent years, and oats have also
fully maintained their price. W h ile the farmer in these, and in the
increasing value of his live stock and its produce, will be able to compen
sate himself against the steady decline in the value of wheat, the people,
that vast and increasing body of consumers, have the prospect of abundant
supplies of bread at a moderate price, from the yearly extension of the
means of foreign transport.
V I .— General Results.
Having thus endeavored to discuss the main question answered by the
agricultural returns, viz., in how far the home crop is available for the
national supply of bread, I proceed to extract from the returns certain
other points affecting our food and clothing. Beyond a slight increase in
the breadth of potatoes, and a nearly similar decrease in barley, and the
large increase o f wheat already referred to, there has been no material
change in the general crops o f the country during the last two years.

114

.A G R I C U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

[

A u g u st,

T h e table showing the percentage proportions o f corn and green crop in
each division of the United K ingdom is very interesting.

In round num

bers it appears that England supplies nine-tenths o f all the home-grown
wheat, Scotland and Ireland together only one-tenth.

A nd the increased

breadth, sown under the stimulus of the high prices o f the past year in
England, is equal to the whole acreage under wheat in Ireland.

England

produces more than three fourths of all the barley grow n in the British
Islands, nearly all the beans and peas, and one-third o f the oats.

Ireland

grows one half more oats than Scotland, and tw o-thirdsof the entire potato
crop o f the United K ingdom .

The three kingdoms, as compared with

France and Prussia, grew the follow ing proportions of acres o f corn to
their respective populations:
England 1 acre for every 2 f persons.

Scotland 1
. Ireland
France
Prussia

1
1
1

“

2J persons.

“
“
“

2 1 persons.
1 person.
1 person.

And o f potatoes—
England
Sc< tland
France
Ire1,aid
Prussia

1 acre for every G2 persons.
1
“
20 persons.
1
“
12 persons.
1
“
S persons.
1
“
5 persons.

"With regard to live stock, these countries stand in the following pro
portions :
Catfe.

Sheer*.

England 1 lor every 5 persons ; 1 for every 1 o f population
t<
it
2
“
Scotland 1
3
1
((
M
it
Ireland 1
1
1
H
“
((
U
it
France
1
2 }
“
1
1
((
u
“
Prussia 1
3
“
1
1

Of all these countries Ireland has thus the largest proportion of cattle,
and Scotland the largest of sheep.
V I I .— Increase o f Cattle and Sheep.

The entire loss sustained by the cattle plague up to October, 1867, when
it had quite ceased, was 190,000 head. The natural increase in the two
years since the disease began to decline exceeds 500,000, so that the
efiects of that calamity, so far as the national supply of food is concerned,
have been fully recovered. The increase o f sheep has been very rapid,
the joint effect of high price of mutton, and the panic which in some
counties followed the cattle plague, and led to a substitution o f sheep.
The total increase o f the year has been 1,790,000. The sheep stock of
the United Kingdom is upwards of 35,000,000, which is almost the same
in number as that of the Australian Colonies and Tasmania, according to
the latest returns. The total number o f sheep iu the United Kingdom

1869]

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

115

and the whole of the British Colonies, independent of India, cannot now
be much under 100,000,000. Tue import of continental wool is on the
decline, while that of colonial is largely increasing. A t the late rate of
progress, our vast woolen industry in this country will ere long be suffi
ciently supplied by the home and colonial produce.
Whilst the increase o f sheep at home has been rapid and great, there
has been a very large decrease in the supply o f foreign sheep. These,
which in a single year, 1865, had risen from 496,000 to 914,000, began
to decline in 1867, and fell back greatly in 1868.
This was caused in some measure by the restrictions imposed on the
import of sheep by the Privy Council orders, but was partly also due to
the considerable fall in the price o f mutton during 1868, arising from the
large supply of sheep forced into the home market by the prospect of a
dearth in the green crops. But the agricultural returns have revealed to
us the gratifying fact, in relation to this important branch of the national
food, that there is an immense elasticity in the production and supply o f
sheep, both at home and abroad, and that may be largely and quickly
increased by a moderate rise in price.
V I I I .— Foreign D airy Produce not Increasing.
The foreign supply of butter and cheese has continued very steady
during the last eight j ears. It made a sudden rise in 1S61, and bad
nearly doubled itself in 1862 ; but from that year the average supply has
not materially altered. As the prices of these articles are still highly
remunerative to the home producer, there is every inducement to him to
develop yet further that branch o f agricultural industry, on which the
small and middle class farmers are chiefly engaged.
I X — Large, Compared with Moderate Sized Farms.
The returns afford some indications of the results of large corn farms as
compared with the more mixed husbandry and interests o! small or mode
rate sized farms. I have t-sken ten of the largest farm counties in Eng
land and compared them with ten of the smallest farm counties, the total
area in both cases being nearly equal. The general results may be
broadly summarised thus: The large farm system embraces nearly twice
the proportion of corn and half the proportion of green crops and grass.
In other words, it is doubly dependent on the price of corn as compared
with the middle-class farm system, which relies to a far greater extent on
dairy produce, its fat cattle, its vegetables and its hay. The result is that
the latter pays more rent or surplus for the use o f the land and a higher
rate of wages to the laborer.
There can be no doubt that circumstances of soil and position are the
chief cause or the distinctive modes of husbandry which have continued

116

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

[AliffUSt,

to characterise different counties, notwithstanding the obvious change in
the relative values o f agricultural produce. The price o f wheat is not
higher now than it was one hundred years ago. Barley and oats have
risen 50 per cent and animal produce more than 100 per cent in that
time. A 'd yet wheat maintains its prominence on the heavier soils
where a bare fallow is still found the most perfect and economical
preparation for that crop, and in the eastern, south midland and south
ern counties, where a dry climate and somewhat thin soil is less favorable#
to stock husbandry and grass. It is worthy of notice that in every one
o f the ten counties where the large farm system prevails the chalk forma
tion predominates, and there is no coal ; while in all the ten counties of
the smaller farm system coal is present, and there is no chalk. The
vicinity of coal has naturally influenced the increase of population and
the consequent higher rates o f rent aDd wages.
X .— Pro/ oi tions Under Pare Fallow.

The extent of land in England under bare fallow every year is nearly
800,000 acres, which is more than one-tenth of the whole breadth of corn.
The proportion in Scotland is about a twentieth, and in Ireland less than
the ninetieth part. In France and Prussia an extent equal to one-third
■of all the cereals is annually left to lie fallow. This undoubtedly indicates
the great prevalence of a poor and low state o f husbandry in these coun
tries, due in a large degree also to the dryness of the spring and summer
climates. But of the three kingdoms it is very remarkable that Ireland
should stand so pre-eminently above the others in her comparative free
dom from the direct loss occasioned by the necessity of leaving the land
to lie fallow, which cannot be wholly accounted for by the comparatively
small proportion c f clay soils in that country.
X I .— Distinctive Features o f Husbandry.
There is a much greater similarity than will be generally imagined in
the agriculture o f England and Scotland, and a distinctive principle of
difference between them and Ireland in a very important point. This will
be clearly seen by the proportions o f the whole area o f the three coun
tries, exclusive o f heath and mountain land, thus divided :

England has in corn and potatoes 33 per cent, in green crops and grass
•66 per cent.
Scotland has in corn and potatoes 33 per cent, in green crops and grass
>66 per cent.
Ireland has in corn and potatoes 20 per cent, in green crops and grass
•80 per cent.
The agriculture o f England and, Scotland seems thus alike in its prin

1869]

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

« F

THE

U N IT E D

117

K IN G D O M .

ciple of one-third exhaustive and two thirds restorative crops, while that
o f Ireland has only one-fifth exhaustive to four-fifths restorative. I have
included potatoes in the exhaustive crops, so that Ireland, which has by
far the largest proportion in potatoes, suffers some disadvantage by this
mode of comparison. But the result is very startling, as it places the
agricultural system o f Ireland, as an ameliorating and reproductive selfsupporting system, far above that o f England and Scotland. To this I
■will return. But as some illustration of the effect of this exhaustive
system o f corn husbandry as compared with its proportion o f the restora
tive green crops and grass, the following figures gathered from the returns
are deserving of notice:
Per cent of
Per cent
Av. prod, of
co n and
green c-op, wheat p. acre,
potatoes, fallow & grass. Bushels.

E n g la n d ..............................................................
Prussia............................. ..................................
F r a n c o ,...................................................... ..

38
45
54

66
55
46

28
17
14

This would seem clearly to show that deterioration rapidly follows the
loss of a due balance between the exhaustive and restorative crops, where
there are no extraneous means of supplying the loss.
X II.— Feeble Yield o f France Explained.
The state of agriculture in France is of much importance to the con
sumer of bread in this country. In some recent years she has contributed
one third of our whole foreign supply o f wheat, considerably more than
the entire oroduce of Scotland and Ireland.
A good crop in France,
therefore, at once tells on our prices, whilst a failure brings her large pop
ulation into competition with us in the general market of the world. She
has a vast breadth annually under wheat, but the yieid is very small.
This has been attributed, and would appear partly due, to the poverty and
want of skill of her small occupiers; and many arguments have been
founded upon it against the small farm system and the minute subdivision
of land. But it has often struck mein passing through that part of France
which lies between us and Paris, that the general cultivation of the land,
and the appearance o f the growing crops, was quite equal to our own,
and the very low average rate of yield of wheat officially stated seemed
to me, therefore, unaccountable. The explanation has been afforded to me
by the distinguished French economist, M. D e Lavergne, in the following
letter, dated 25tn February last: “ The official returns gives a mean yield
o f 14^ hectolitres per hectare, the actual yield being more above than
below the estimate. Eight departments, Le Nard, l’Oise, l’Aisne, Somme,
Seine-et Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine and Eure-et Loire, have a yield equal
to the English average; but the forty-five departments which form the
southern part of the territory, do not yield more than 10 hetolitres to the

118

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

[

A u ffU S t,

hectare. This feehle yield is caused in many of the departments by had
cultivation, and in the south by the dryness of the climate in Spring. The
statistical returns also show 5,148,000 hectares of fallow, which is in fact
the thii d of the surface sown with cereals.”
There is no help for that
part of the country which suffers from great dryness of Spring climate,
but there would seem much room for improvement in the yield o f wheat
over the remainder, which comprises probably more than one-half of the
surface o f France. As increasing importers and consumers we are nearly
as much interested in that improvement as the French themselves. The
state of agriculture must be low, indeed, where it is possible to be carried
on with an average produced 10 to 12 bushels wheat an acre. The costs
and profits of cultivation must be at the very minimum to yield any surplus
for rent, and the condition of the cultivator must be a hard one. H e has
other sources no doubt, which may help him— his vines and oil— but in the
nature of things it is impossible that he can get any profit from his wheat
crop, until by such a change o f system as will increase its yield. Towards
this object the French Government have for some years been unremitting
in their attention, by contributing largely from the public resources to
improve the internal communication of the country and facilitate the
interchange of products. The increase of a few bushels an acre over so
large a surface as one-half the wheat crop in France, would give her a
regular surplus for exportation.
X I I I . — Irish Agriculture.

It was my intention to have instituted a comparison between the large
farm system of England, and the small farm system o f Ireland, and I had
prepared detailed statements of groups o f counties in the two countries for
the purpose; but there are too many elements of estimate or ccmjecture
to warrant their publication as a statistical deduction. I f we coniine our
attention to Ireland alone, some remarkable anomalies present themselves.
The province with the highest valuation— Leinster at 20s. an acie— has
the smallest population on the square mile of land under the plough; wnile
Connaught— with a valuation of 6s. 8d. an acre— the lowest of the four
provinces, has the largest population in proportion to its arable land. The
poorest part o f the country is thus also the most populous. But that does
not seem to arise Irom an excess of small farms, for Leinster has a larger
proportion of holding under five acres than Connaught.
X I V .— N o Recent Reduction in Small Holdings.
A great reduction took place in the number o f small holdings in Ireland
during the years o f the potato famine, 1845 to 1850, but since 1850
there has been very little alteration. The comparison one constantly

1869]

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

119

meets with is between the years 3841 and 1861, the small farms being
stated to have fallen in that time one-half in number, and the larger sized
increased in an equal ratio. But that has not been progressive. It had
all taken place before 18 51, and there has been no marked change in
this direction during the last eighteen years. In 1867 the number o f
holdings was 607,000, divided thus:— 307,000 farmers holding farms of
15 acres and under, and 300,000 farmers o f 15 acres and upwards. But
the first-class, or small farmers, hold not more than one-eighth of the
cultivated land; the second-class, or larger farmers, holding seven-eighths
o f the whole.
W e have already seen that the counties in England where the system
o f modei ate-sized farms prevail have the smallest proportion of corn,
and the highest of cattle and of dairy stock. They have a greater rain
fall, a deeper soil, and are more productive of grass and green crops.
Now, if we exclude from consideration for a moment the 307,000 small
farmers, that is exactly the state of Ireland. Her climate and soil are
very favorable to green crops and grass and to dairy farming, and she has
the further great advantage, which I have already shown, of having the
smallest proportion of such land as it is necessarv to lay fallow; and her
system shows the largest proportion in the three kingdoms of restorative
to exhaustive crops. Her only disadvantage as an agricultural country is
the occasional visitation of seasons of too much rain. That has several
times imperilled the wheat crop. But the wheat crop is less than onetenth of the cereals of Ireland, and her agricultuie is but little dependent
upon it. Oats are her chief reliance as a corn crop, and from flax she
derives an annual return of between two and three millions sterling— an
article which mav be said to be now unknown to the agriculture of
England and Scotland. If we sum all up, we find that, as compared with
the sister kingdoms, Ireland has on the whole a more productive soil, and
her produce is chiefly of that kind which in the last twenty years has
risen most in value. I am very much disposed to think that the seveneigliths of Ireland, which are in the hands o f the larger farmers, yield as
great a produce per cultivated acre as the average of England and Scot
land. I am not in a position to submit this to any' accurate test of proof,
but this is the impression left on my mind as the result o f a careful inves
tigation of the question.
X V .— Distress mainly Confined to One-eighth o f Land in Hands o f
Smallest. Occupiers.
But the position of the 307,000 small farmers who occupy the remain*
ing eighth of Ireland is probably very different. It is among that body
that real distress is found, though the class of larger farmers, not much

120

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

T IIE

U N IT E D

K IN G D O M .

[AurjUSt,

separated from them, have helped to swell the general complaint. Expe
rience has shown that it is only in climates and upon soils the most favora
ble that an entire dependence for his subsistence can be placed by the
cultivator of a few acres of land. Even in Belgium, where circumstances
are favorable, the small cultivator has but a hard lot of poverty and toil*
He thrives where, in addition to his land, himself and his family find
regular employment in some other industry. It is the same with the
English peasant. A man who has regular employment at wages finds
an immense advantage in a good garden allottment beside his cottage,
and that is vastly increased when that cottage is on the farm, away from
the temptation of the beer-shop, and where, as part of his wages, he
receives the keep of a cow. This is the system in the border counties(
where agriculture is in the most prosperous state, and the agricultural
laborer the best ted and clothed, the most educated and intelligent of his
class in any part of the three kingdoms. But the Irish farme* of a few
acres of inferior land must be in a position of chronic distress. The
witnesses most favorable to him examined before Mr. Maguire’s Committee
in 1865, held that 15 to 20 acres and upwards was the least extent on
which a man with his family could be expected to thrive. On land of
good quality, and near a large population, a much smaller extent might
no doubt be found sufficient. But taking the land of Ireland as it is, and
the circumstances of the country, and its mode o f agriculture, there is a
general consent of the most competent judges in that country, that farms
below 15 or 20 acres are too small to afford a due return for the entire
labor of a man and bis family. It would therefore follow that 130,000
of the small farmers, with their families, are as many as the remaining
eighth o f the surface of In land can profitably maintain as farmers, and
that there will then remain a surplus of 1V0,000 and their families.
These figures represent the whole dumber o f holdings ; but several hold
ings are believed to be in many cases in the hands of one tanner, and
the total number of occupiers is therefore reckoned by Lord Dufferin not
to exceed 441,000. I f that be so, the surplus to be otherwise provided
for will not exceed 100,000.
That seems no impossible an achievement. A wise measure for settling
the long agitated question of the tenure o f land will give a great impretus
to improved agriculture, and the consequent demand for labor will rapidly
absorb that surplus. It is, after all, little more than «ne additional family
for every 160 acres of cultivated land. I have no doubt that the Legisla
ture which shall pass the great measure of pacification for Ireland, which
is now under its consideration, will in lue time complete the work by a
just land law, which will give greater security to the employment of
capital in the cultivation of the land, and call into action that surplus
labor, without which its latent fertility cannot be fully developed.

1869 ]

A G R IC U L T U R A L

S T A T IS T IC S

THE

U N IT E D

121

K IN G D O M .

X V I . — The English Agricultural Laborer.
But, though the state o f the Irish peasant has been more forced upon
public attention, the condition of the agricultural laborer in England is
very far from satisfactory.
consideration.
sentative.

The agricultural returns afford no guide to-its

H e is the only class o f the community who has no repre

The Irish peasant has, directly in many cases, by his vote as a

small farmer, and indirectly through his church, which (connected neither
with the landlord nor the State) brings the aggregate feeling o f the people
to bear upon their Parliamentary representatives.

B y one means or

another they do make themselves heard in Parliament.

B ut so little is

known o f the English agricultural laborer, that when his actual condition
is set forth in the report o f a R oyal Commission, the public are struck
with astonishment, and even the landowners are surprised to find a state
o f things at their doors which many o f them little suspected.

The con

dition o f the laborers’ dwellings is in some counties deplorable.

It is

not my province, however, on this occasion to enter further on that sub
ject.

I attempted to introduce a clause in the last Census A ct, in 1860,

which would have thrown much light on the state o f our cottage accom
modation, but it was rejected in the English Bill.
ever, in the Scotch

census, and

has

shown

It was adopted, how
that

one third o f

the

population of Scotland lived, each family, in houses of one room only,
another third in houses o f two room s; two thirds of the whole o f the
people being thus found to be lodged in a manner incompatible with com
fort and decency as now understood. The same returns in the next
census will show the progress that has been made in the 10 years; and
the public advantage o f

this will, I

trust, lead to the adoption of

a similar system in the next English census.

In the same year I moved for the returns of the wages of agricultural
laborers in England and Wales, which was subsequently followed for
Scotland and Ireland. Upon these returns Mr. Purdy read to this
Society an able and interesting paper in 1861. These form very
important branches o f the statistics o f agriculture, and though it is not
necessary that they should be included in the annual returns, I trust
their importance will not be overlooked in the preparation o f the next
Census Act.
X V I I .— Great Change in proportion o f the People Dependent on

Agriculture.
It has been found in Ireland, and is the case to a less extent in some
parts o f England, that it is not so much the low rate o f wages as the irre
gularity of employment which depresses the condition o f the agricultural
laborers.

That is mitigated by emigration from the agricultural to the

1 2 2

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

mining and manufacturing districts, or to foreign countries.

\ A u g U S t,

Mere firm

ing will not take up profitably the natural increase o f population in a
thickly-populated country like ours, and the purely agricultural districts in
each o f the three ct untries are constantly parting with their surplus.
The proportion

between the producers and consumers o f food is thus

undergoing a marked change.

In 18-SI, 28 percen t o f the population o f

England and W a les was occupied in the business of agriculture.
it was 22 per cent.

In 1841

In 1851 it had fallen to 16 per cent, not so much

from an actual decrease of the numbers employed in agricultural as from
In 1861 the proportion

the far greater proportional increase of trade.

was 10 per cent, and then not only had the proportion diminished, but
the actual numbers had decreased by nearly one-fifth.
able fact that in the course o f a single

It is very a remark

generation the proportion of

the people of England employed in and dependent on agriculture had
diminished from a third to a tenth.

The only means o f arresting this is

by providing better paid and more regular employment in country work,
and thus diminishing the temptation o f the higher wages o f the mines,
the factory, and the towns.

X V I I I .— Home-Grown Sugar.
Last year I touched on this subject, and mentioned the intention o f
trying the beetroot sugar growth and manufacture in this country.

The

experiment was made in Suffolk, and with so much promise o f success,
that in the same lccality this season a sufficient breadth o f beet will be
planted to keep an extensive sugar factory in full work for the four slack
months from October to February.

The matter, then, will be beyond

experiment, for it it proves, as is anticipated, the suitability o f our climate
and soil to the profitable production o f sugar-beet, it will be tbe dawn o f
a new agricultural industry, w aich may rapidly be developed, to the
great benefit both of England and Ireland.

The possible magnitude o f

the result will be readily appreciated by the fact that in this country the
consumption o f sugar is equal to nearly one-third o f ail the sugar annually
produced in the tropics and on the continent, and that any disturbance
which would seriously alter the state o f property or labor in Cuba, must
give an immense stimulus to the demand for beetroot sugar.

A n d the

reduction o f price which will follow the “ free breakfast table” promised
to us by M r. Bl ight, as one o f the early results o f economy in our public
expenditure, will rapidly augment that demand.
In a national point o f view the introduction o f a new manufacture con
nected with agriculture, sue!) as beetroot sugar, will both enlarge the field
o f remunerative labor in the country, and provide an absolute addition to

1869]

THE

C O M IN G

agricultural produce and wealth.

123

C H IN E S E .

F o r the pulp after the sugar is extracted

has lost little o f its value as cattle food, and therefore the substitution o f
sugar-beet for some o f the present cattle crops will displace to a very
small extent the means of feeding cattle.

And even that will soon be

made good by the more generous farming which the profits o f sugar
growing will enable the farmer to practise on the other ciops of his farm.
I have here a specimen of the first English-grown sugar, not a mere
experiment, but produced as a matter of business.

I find, from a French

paper sent io me this morning, that the northern departments o f France
now produce about 200,000 tons o f sugar a year, or nearly two-thirds o f
the sugar consumed in France.

W e use twice as much sugar in this

country as the French do, and its consumption is always increasing.

a reduction of price equal to the present duty that increase would rapidly
extend.

I may be over sanguine on the subject, but I should not be

greatly surprised if in ten years hence many thousand acres in the United
K ingdom should be profitably employed in the production o f home-grown
sugar.
X I X .— Return o f Horses Desirable.
The last topic on which I will touch is one o f omission.

The returns

o f live stock do not include horses, the most interesting, and individually
the most valuable o f all.

As every man knows the number o f his horses,

the return can be given without occasioning a particle of trouble, and I
hope therefore that the schedule for the present year will include a column
for horses.
In conclusion, I think it will be generally admitted that the agricul
tural returns have proved most useful and most instructive, and consider
ing the ever increasing demands o f our population on the resources o f
agriculture, I trust that nothing will be permitted to interfere with their
continuance, and with that greater development which further experience
may render it desirable to introduce.

THE COMING CHINESE.
The immigration from Europe has been in a westward line and millions
have come from that line o f population
the United States.

to occupy the virgin soil o f

These millions now seem likely to be supplemented

by other millions coming from the W e s t and meeting the great tide that
has already poured in upon

us.

The planting o f American interests on

the Pacific coast and the discovery o f gold in California at once arrested
the sluggish thought o f Asia and turned the attention
country.

o f China to this

Many years ago the Chinese began to come, slowly at first

1 2 4

THE

C O M IN G

C H IN E S E .

[ A u t / U S l,

and then in larger number.0, until a few days ago a single steamer landed
1,200 at San Francisco ; and only week befure last, tbe Chinese
merchants of San Francisco, on the occasion of meeting the Congressional
Committee of W ays and Means, urged upon them the importance of
doubling the subsidy to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company so that
it might engage in a bi-monthly service in order to accommodate the
growing business between China and the Pacific coast of the United
States. There are,at least, 200,000 Chinamen in ibis country. They have
spread all over California, their outposts are carried even East o f the
Mississippi. Last week .‘ 00 went down the great river in quest of a new
home in Louisiana. The population of China is variously estimated
at from 400 to 500 millions. It is only within six years that the Chinese
emigration has gained large proportions. Persecuted and evil entreated
they have been, but this 1ms not kept them back. Harsh laws and a
harsh public opinion have met them, but they have borne all and quietly
asserted their right to labor. That they are needed, the immense acres
of uncultivated land that we have, give proof. That they are frugal,
industrious, teachable, patient and intelligent, even their enemies concede.
When the Chinese came to California and encountered the hostility
that met them, they found it necessary to organize themselves into
companies for mutual protection. There are six of these in San Fran
cisco, directed by Chinese merchants of standing and influence. Each
company represents a district in China, and emigrants join the company
which covers the place from which they come.
The companies
procure labor for their members and take care of them in sickness and
when unemployed. They advance money to bring out emigrants, and
then take the stipulation of the emigrant for the speedy repayment
of the sum advanced. This is briefly the system on which the false charge
o f a sort of peonage or slavery has been based. The Chinese quickly
made themselves popular as house servants. They are neat, orderly,
skillful, inclined to remain in a place, have no “ followers” and are not
troubled with a desire to attend religious services, either before breakfast
or after dark. The ladies admire them so much as servants that they
will be likely to change the public sentiment of California in regard to
their civil and political relations. Already housekeepers at the East,
wearied and vexed with the inadequate service rendered by our household
dependents, turn with longing eyes to the Chinese as auspicious of a better
and brighter day in the domestic economies. Once shown how to do a
thing, and why, Chinamen need no further instruction. Chinese art and
labor are the perfection of imitativeness. They not only labor in houses,
but they are book binders and printers, setting type readily in a language
they cannot read; they are careful and extraordinarily skilled tailors;

1869]

THE

C O M IN G

C H IN E S E .

125

they manipulate the tools of the designer and the carver; they handle
the most delicate labor-saving machines with address and intelligence.
The Pioneer Woollen Mills were once burned because they ernploved
Chinese labor; now they woik in the same mills unquestioned. In
gangs of street laborers they were mobbed a year ago; now they work in
San Francisco streets without the protection of the police. Quiet, peace
ful and persistent, they have disarmed much opposition. Under State
enactments they have paid a license tax of four dollars a month for the
privilege of working in the mines, besides other taxes they have paid.
Once the Legislature imposed on them a special police tax o f §5 a month,
but the Supreme Court pronounced it unconstitutional. Nearly all of the
Chinese read and write their own language. They are anxious to acquire
our language, and they send their children to the State Schools.
The cost of Chinese labor is one o f its great recommendations. The
Chinaman will live, and save, and thrive on the starvation wages o f other
laborers. They can work for one-third the cost of European labor, so
that gold mines which yields £7 per ton can be made productive where
white labor halts when the result is less than §20 per ton. But it is as the
railway “ navvy ” that the Chinaman has made liis mark. The builders
o f the Central Pacific Railroad hesitated long before they employed him.
He turned up less earth at a shovel full than the Irishman did, but he
turned up more shovel fulls in a day. He knew nothing of strikes. lie
never indulged in sprees or thirsted for a “ row.”
A California rail
way contractor, who has worked laborers of many nationalities says, that
these Asiatic laborers are the most serviceable and least troublesome of
any to be found on the Pacific slope. They are promptly on the ground
to begin work the moment they hear the signal, and labor steadily till
notified that the working hours are ended. They will, ere long, turn the
sod and build the embankment, on other lines, across the continent,
and upon the numerous roads which are to be constructed in the Southern
States. They will yet be familiar faces in New England factory towns.
The political and religious relations of this incoming Chinese population
are foreign to our consideration of the subject. W e look at the question
in its bearings upon population and in the grand results to be effected in
the industrial development of the country. Railways and canals, wharves
and docks, public buildings are to be constructed. Farms are to be
cultivated. The hundreds of millions of acres now waiting culture are to
be made productive.
Is it not the part of wisdom to execute these
enterprises at a cost for labor of one-third that which is now paid ? Great
projects languish because of the cost o f execution, and here come to us
naturally and easily the willing hands and the eager wills. They come
just fast enough to admit o f their assimulation with the various masses of

126

THE

CENTRAL

N A T IO N A L

BANK

D E F A L C A T IO N .

[ A l/ ffU S t,

people that compose our population, and which are rapidly acquiring
homogenity. They can live in any part c f the land, but they tend rather
to the Southern portion of the Union as more nearly allied to the climatic
influences to which they have been habituated. There is a movement
now in progress at the South, to tempt Chinese emigration thither. It
meets with a singular unanimity o f approval. It is regarded as the means
and the hope of a new and higher prosperity than has ever yet visited
those States productive and prosperous as they have been. To the conven
tion which represents this movement, a report has been made that
emigrants in lots of 50 or upwards can be brought from California for $50
each in gold, and from Hong Kong to San Francisco for from $80 to $100
in gold. A Chinese contractor who has brought 30,000 laborers to the
Pacific Coast, says that they are paid in California 90c to $1.10 ir. gold,
per day, that they will come from San FrancLco to Memphis and work
for $20 a month, while if brought out fresh from China, they may be
had for from $10 to $12 a month. H e remarked, however, that at these
low wages they were likely to abandon their situations for higher wages,
unless security was exacted of them. Chinese companies organized in
the South, with those in California might arrange the proper security.
But of this movement we shall speak again.

THE CENTRAL NATIONAL BANK DEFALCATION.
A

better proof could not be given o f the judicious choice which has

been made of officers for our new National Banks than the very rare
occurrence among them o f defalcation and breach o f trust*
painful

One o f these

and exceptional instances has recently been detected and has

awakened almost equal surprise and sympathy.

"William II. Sanford,

the Cashier o f the Central National Bank in this city, was, it seems, one
o f the sufferers in the recent Mariposa speculation which terminated so
disastrously for the holders o f the shares, who had supposed that this
highly speculative stock had ceased to be the foot-ball o f W a ll street,
and had taken a permanent place among the solid securities whose value
would be steadily but slowly and surely appreciated with the im prove
ment o f the property it represents.

The particulars of the disaster which

befel this stock are fresh in the memories of our readers and weie detailed
by us at the time.

It is sufficient for us now to say that Mr. Sanford,

like multitudes o f other victims, thought the decline was temporary,
and did not wake up to the real state o f the case until the final crash
had com e and had left him the loser o f one hundred thousand dollars.
To keep his account good with his brokers he seems to have placed in

1869]

THE

CENTRAL

N A T IO N A L

BANK

D E F A L C A T IO N .

127

their hands securities o f which the bank was the depository and which
belonged to various customers o f the institution, chiefly to persons and
banks outside o f the city.

Goaded almost to madness by the discovery

that his loss was irretrievable, this miserable delinquent, placed as he was
in peril o f the most severe punishment from

the laws o f his country,

obtained leave o f absence from the bank, and, before his crime was found
out, put himself beyond the reach o f pursuit, and is now supposed to
be in France or South America.

The unhappy family are left quite

destitute, and no trace seems to have been left by which he could be fol
lowed and brought back to justice.
Such are the chief facts o f this painful case

which has inflicted a

loss on a banking institution o f the very highest credit, and has swept
away a part o f the surplus which belonged to the stockholders, involv
ing not only a crime which has blasted the career o f a man hereto
fore stainless and respected, but has also grieved and shocked beyond
measure his wide circle of friends and has plunged his family into the
depths o f poverty.

There are two or three lessons o f a general nature

which we should not omit to deduce from the event.
The first is the necessity o f enforcing on all our bank officers the strict
est prohibition o f speculation.

Let the directors o f every national bank

adopt a rule that any officer or clerk discovered speculating in the stock
market, either with his own money or not, shall be instantly dismissed
without being allowed to resign.

Such a rule might, it is true, be evaded,

B ut the men who would evade it are just the sort o f speculators to be
detected in some other way, if the directors and the other officers o f the
bank do their duty.

The chief effects of this prohibition would be felt by

such men as Sanford, who are self respecting, frugal, honest, but anxious
to be rich, and tempted by ilie success o f others, to try to draw a prize in
the W all street lottery.

VVhen such a man is tottering on the brink of

his first breach o f trust and shrinks with the sensitiveness o f a half-awak.
ened, half-paralyzed conscience from taking the fatal plunge, let him have
at least this one chance to rescue himself.

L et him have the knowledge

that if discovered he will be ignominiously discharged from his place
and will find it impossible to get another.
But it may be said that the brokers, through whom these bank officers
must do their surreptitious speculation, would keep the matter so secret
that the risk o f detection would be almost annihilated.
tain.

This is not so cer

By a law o f the last session o f Congress, the broker who is a

party to such defalcations as this o f Sanford’s, is liable to severe penalties,
and it is not possible that perfect secrecy could be preserved in any such
transactions.

Somehow or other the affair would leak out, and the delin

quent would be all the time in danger.

In such matters it is o f great

128

t h e

f in a n c ia l

o u t l o o k

[Avgust,

importance to raise barriers against the first offence.

W h en a bank

cashier or a bank clerk has once gone wrong, it is easy to repeat the
offence.

Besides, the first breach o f trust involves usually a small amount,

easily replaced, t hough perhaps urgently wanted. Y et if yielded to the
temptation will grow by that it feeds on till like a canker, it destroys and
ruins.

Sanford would not now be a fugitive from justice after blast

ing his own prospects and ruining his family, had he resisted the first
temptation, which involved probably a trivial sum.

Pubdc opinion w ill

support our banks in the enforcement of the penalty o f dismissal which we
have suggested as the proper punishment for a bank officer or clerk
who is found guilty o f the crime o f speculating.

A nd except some such

safeguard is given, the banks must not be surprised, if they are looked upon
by some o f their stockholders and dealers with anxiety not altogether
devoid of distrust and fear.
There is one other point which demands notice.

Mr. Sanford’s accounts

with the bank were all in the most perfect order.

The books o f the

institution showed nor the least indication that anything was wrong.
A nd stdl he was a defaulter to an amount one half o f which would
have been regarded by him as an ample fortune.
similar losses

For aught we know,

might have taken place before, but were retrieved

time to prevent discovery.

Now it will be impossible to persuade the

public that there is not something radically defective in this loose way o f
keeping bank accounts.

If a bank officer can show a clean record on his

books after he has made away with $100,000 o f funds belonging to his
customers, it is high time that some m ore effective checks were devised
for keeping such violent temptations away from fallib’e men.
well if this defalcation in the Central Bank, which is one o f

It will be
the best

managed institutions in the city, should draw the public attention to this
matter, and should cause some better guarantee that the records and
books o f the bank should give such an account o f the funds in the hands o f
the officers that defalcations may be more easily detected and more effec
tively prevented.

THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.
In the anomalous condition o f our national finances, every body is asking
with anxiety about the future, and there are several points whic,h are
well deserving attention with a view to forecast what awaits us.
is that there is no lack o f capital in the loan market.
not be easily accessible to ordinary borrowers.

T h e first

This capital may

There are obvious reasons

why it is hard for the mercantile community and the ordinary public to
obtain from the banks the usual accommodations to which they have been

1869]

THE

F IN A N C IA L

127

OUTLOOK.

so accustomed that they find the want o f it a serious deprivation.

Still

that capital is here in large accumulated masses, the vast amounts of secu
rities o f all kinds which are offering in W a ll street, offer a conspicuous
proof.
The second point is that this capital is in few hands.

Never was

there a time in our history when capital moved in such large masses as
now. The effects which this aggregation o f the m oney power is producing
in the course of speculation is destined, no doubt, to produce hereafter
some very troublesome evils.

It has its compensations, however, for with

out it the gigantic strides which the South and W est are making in the
career o f material progress would have been impossible.

There is, how

ever, considerable jealousy o f the growing power o f capital, and no small
apprehension prevails lest the corruption and other mischiefs it is likely
to inflict on the republic should outweigh all the advantages it is likely
to confer.

W ithout acknowledging for a moment the justice o f this jeal

ous suspicion, we frankly admit that this growing power o f capital will
bear watching, and that some remedies for the evils it has produced and
the greater evils it threatens are already demanded, and should neither be
refused nor delayed.
The next point worthy o f note is the large profits made on capital in
this city.

There are not a few national banks in the country whose officers

almost reside permanently in New York, and use the money o f the
bank in W a ll street to much better purpose, so far as profits are con
cerned, than if they soberly and quietly sat still at home and lent it to
their neighbors in tbe legitimate way o f loans and discounts.

W e do not

now refer to speculative bank officers, but to those sharp, shrewd austere
men who never speculate, but always in a tight money market have
large sums to kn d at the highest rates.

How far the recent prosecu

tions for usury will check this trading in money we cannot tell, but* there
is no doubt that the vast sums which have been lending in

W all street

o f late at usurious rates were not wholly derived from our city banks or
from city lenders.

A goodly proportion o f the amount we fear comes

from country national banks, which are technically said to be “ run in
W a ll street.”

Ttiere is some doubt whether such banks would not have

their privileges

revoked if these

privileges, which really belong to

another State, are thus transferred to New Y ork for the sake of extra
profits.

The country banks are notoriously unable to make such large

profits as the banks of the city, but this is no excuse for the abuse in
question.

W e do not now discuss this aspect o f the case however.

only allude to it as an illustration o f tbe vast profits which shrewd money
lenders can make by manipulating loanable capital in W a ll street.
Another o f the most significant features o f the financial situation is

128

T IIE

F IN A 'C l A L

[August,

OUTLOOK.

that the trouble caused by the monetary spasms which have lately pre
vailed,, and the dead uncertainty as to the future o f the loan market, cto
not prevent capitalists from embarking large sums in permanent invest
ments o f almost any kind.

Railroads are building, while all over the

country, and especially in our large cities, new edifices are going up, and
on every side there are unmistakable indications o f the rapid conversion
o f floating capital into fixed forms.

Meanwhile, almost every descrip

tion o f legitimate business is suffering, and there is no small apprehension
among our mercantile classes as to the prospects o f the fall trade.

It is

premature to offer any very positive opinion as to these apprehensions.
But there can be no doubt that those persons are greatly in error who
suppose that the country is growing poorer.

Everyone who is familiar

with the history o f England during the first decade after the Napoleonic
war will call to mind that that country passed through an experience very
similar to our own, although in our case the evils are somewhat more
aggravated, because our currency is moie deranged, and the speculation
bubble o f paper money has assumed more formidable dimensions.
From all that has been said, two obvious inferences arise.

First, there

is no ground for fear lest we are on the eve o f a general financial crash.
The country is richer to-day than ever before in all the elements o f
material wealth, and we can bear all needful fiscal burdens if care be
only taken to reform our internal tax list, to keep the national debt sacred
and to enforce the most rigid econom y in every department o f govern
mental administration.
Secondly, the monetary troubles o f the past six months, although
artificial in their origin, indicate a highly sensitive and excitable condition
o f the financial atmosphere, and as they may be repeated again and
again, our mercantile and industrial enterprises should be kept as nearly
as possible within the limits o f sound prudence and o f bona-fide capital.
I f our merchants and business men will avoid speculative risks and trust to
legitimate operations, they will soon find the country recuperating and
themselves recuperating with it.

If, as seems probable, a beneficent P ro

vidence gives us a copious good harvest this year, north and south, we
shall soon enjoy more obvious and general prosperity, and joy and plenty
will cheer those sections o f our industry where now gloom and depression
are but too frequently found.

W e see no reason to doubt the accuracy

of those shrewd, far-seeing merchants o f this city who, from the scarcity
o f goods in the interior, the anticipated good harvest, and the substantial
prosperity o f the country, are looking for a lively fall trade.

1869]

R A IL R O A D

129

E A R N IN G S .

RAILROAD EARNINGS FOR JUNE AND FOR THE FIR ST SIX MONTHS OF
1SGS AND 1869.
The results of the June traffic of our railroads, as compared with the
returns for the corresponding month of last year, are highly satisfactory,
showing as they do an increase of no less than 14.84 per cent in the
earnings of ten leading western lines. N ot one of the roads indicated
has fallen behind the previous years’ earnings. That these favorable
results are due to enlarged biuiness is well ascertained, since the tariff
o f 1869, both as to passenger and freight rates, are lower generally by
several pei cent than in 1868. There has been worked in 1869, however,
about 150 miles more road than in 1868.
The earnings for June are as follows :
R A IL R O A D E A R N IN G S E O K JU N E .

18(59.

tCbicago & Northwestern..............
♦Chi a, o, Kock Irhnd <» Pacific___
..............
+ lhi"ois Central ................................
Marietta & Cincinnati......................
Michigan Central.. .........................
Michigan Southern...........
......
Milwaukee & Sr. Paul..................
.. - .........
Ohio & M ss’ssip p i.........................
bt. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute.... ................. .............

1868.
$•184,504
1,167,541
508, 0 ‘
878,4' 6
626,249
95,333
325,301
36% il7
678,800
4\S,191
217 0S2
151,1x2
140,408

Total...............................................

Inc.

Dec

90,740
129.564
41,763
23,326
41,322
43,022
220,609
0,151
13,734
$017,405

The returns of the same companies for the first half of the same years
show an increased traffic averaging of 12.36 per cent. The total earn
ings from January 1 to June 30, for the current and last previous years
were as follows:
E A R N IN G S E B 0 5 I J A N U A R Y

Chicago & Alt n ...........................
Chi ago & '•orthwestern .. ___
Chicago, R ck Isiaud & Pacific.
11 inois Oen r it...............................
Slur etta & Cinc'unati................
Michigan C litral...........................
Michigan Sout.i era.......................
Milwiiuk e & St. Paul............ ..
Ohio & Mississippi........................
St. Louis, Alton &Terre Haute
Total.........

...........................

1 TO

JU N E

1869.
$3,106,636
0,468,336
2,330,109
3,707,581
637,442
2,278.365
2.524,2i5
2.975,997
1,271,189
91 *,7.'6

30.

1868.
$1,735,318
5,8 1,497
1,877,579
3,335,052
565,983
2,085,569
2,295,930
2,484,269
1,383,079
836,49.2

Inc.
$321,398
616,o29
452,510
431,929
71.959
192 796
223,329
491,737

$22,5ul,S21

$2,781,821

53,294

Dec.

$108,890

In our former statements of monthly earnings we included the Pittsburg,
Fort Wayne & Chicago and the Toledo, Wabash & Western Com
panies. The new relations of these roads, and the difficulty of obtaining
separate returns, compel us to omit them. W e also omit the Western
Union Company.

* Miles working in 1863, 454; in 1809, 591.
t Including leased lines in Iowa.

ISO

F L 'L L I C

B1LT

A M )

F1K A K C E S

KEW

H A M P S H IR E .

|Avgust,

H IE PUBLIC BEET AM ) FINANCES OF N EW HAMPSHIRE.
Tl e^pul lie di bt of New Han psliire lias been created solely for war
purposes, and on the 1st day of June. 1869, amounted to (bonds
82,849,200, and notes 8321,810) $3,171,010. Tlie State also holds trust
funds to the amount o f 842,925 22. The following statement describes
the bonded d eb t:
S ix per cet,t Loan o f 1861................................................................. 8705,200
Authorized bv Act o f July 3, 1861. Issued 81,000,000, in 100s, 500s
and 1,000s. Coupons January 1 and July 1 and principal July 1, 18661875 inclusive, the annual payment averaging about 8100,000. Up to
date $294,800 has been paid, and $100,000 became due July 1, 1869
All these bonds bear date July 1, 1869. Payable at Boston or Concord.
Six per ce p Loan o f 1862............................................................... 8294,000
Authorized by A ct o f July 9, 1862. Issued 8300,000 in 500s an
1,000s. Coupons January 1 and July 1, and principal July 1,1876-1878
inclusive. These bonds also bear date July 1, 1861, the act authorizing
them being supplemental to that of July 3, 1801. Payable, interest and
principal, at Boston or Concord.
Six percent Loan o f 1864.............................................................. 8600,000
Authorized by Act o f August 19, 1864, and bonds dated September 1 }
1804. Issued $600,000 in 1,000s. Coupons March 1 and September 1
and principal— $450,000 September 1, 1884, and $150,000 September 1,
1889. Payable at Boston or Concord.
S ix percent Loan o f 1866...........................................................$1,250,000
Authorized by A ct of July 7, 1866. Issued in 100s, 500s and 1,000s.
Coupons April 1 and October 1, and principal in sums of $250,000
annually, October 1, 1870-1874, inclusive, both payable at Boston or
Concord. The act as above, and a supplemental act o f June, 1868,
authorized the issue o f $1,800,000, so that there remained in the Treasury
June 1, 1869, $550,000 subject to issue, and which will probably be used
in taking up the short loans which mature at various dates prior to
January 1,1870. These are in the shape of notes bearing interest (6 per
cent $28,810, and 7 per cent $293,000) $321,810. Under the law of
1868 the Treasurer has also the authority to hire all the money that will
be needed for the temporary use of the State, so that no further legisla
tion will be necessary.
O f the State’s claims against the U nited States for expenditures for war
purposes, amounting to $1,032,527 45, there has been allowed and paid

81,000,618 06, leaving a balance still disallowed o f $31,908 39.

1869]

P U B L IC

DEBT

AND

F IN A N C E S

NEW

H A M P S H IR E .

131

The population o f N ew Hampshire in 1860 was 326,073, which was
11.74 per cent increase from the next previous decennial censusl or 1.17
p e rce n t per annum.

The population

is now estimated by the Stite

Treasurer at 350,000, showing an increase in nine years o f 23,927, or 7.34
per cent.

This estimate is based on a reduced rate o f increase, and is

probably nearly correct, the retardation to the extent shown being due
to the withdrawal o f large bodies o f troops from civil life from 1861

1865.

The war debt, as above exhibited, divided among the existing

population is thus only $9 06 per capita.
The value o f taxable property in 1868 was (real estate 869,344,903,
and personal property 879,720,387) 149,065,290.

Compared with the

war debt o f the State this amounts to one of debt to every 847 09, or

2.12 per cent o f valuation.

The valuation o f 1858 was 884,758,619, the

increase in ten years having been 865,306,671, or 78.23 per cent.

The

valuation o f 1868 has probably been based on a nearer approximation to
market rates than that o f 1858, and hence the enormous addition to the
The valuation of 1868 gives 8425 90 to each inhabitant.
The rate of taxation in New Hampshire is 4 per 1,000 on the valuation.
The amount levied for the service of 1 8 6 9 -7 0 will hence be 8596,261 16.
This rate covers taxes o f all kinds levied for State purposes. There is
very little delinquency in this State, the whole sum of the taxes of 1865’ 67 and ’8 delinquent on June 1, 1869, having been only 81,181 54, an

sum total.

infinitessimal percentage on the amount levied.
The following is a synopsis of the revenue and disbursements o f the State
Treasury for the year ending May 31,1869:
K e v e n u e . — Cash June 1, 1868,818,684 72; taxes o f 1866, 86 2 5 ;
"taxes o f 1867, $1,035 63 ; taxes of 1868, 8623,840 6 3 ; savings bank
tax, $99,017 58 ; railroad tax, $215,615 00 ; civil commissions, $630 00;
copyright of vol. 46 N. II. Reports, $100 0 0 ; tax on foreign insurance
companies, $100 0 0 ; rent of store house, $300 0 0 ;
war claims,
$42,158 21 ; interest, $4,785 6 5 ; loans, (school fund $25,050 00. notes
$427,660 00, and bonds $242,500 00)8695,160 00. Total, $1,702,333 67.
D i s b u r s e m e n t s .— Executive department $3,918 80 ; Secretary’s D'-paitment, $3,853 29 ; Trea-urer’ s Department, $3,657 98 ; Adjutant-General’s
Department, $9,550 7 4 ; Department o f P ublic Instruction, $3,604 40;
Legislative Department, $47 3 '>2 57 ; supreme judicial court, $11,541 52 ;
probate court0, $7,685 65 ; State library, $1,549 6 9 ; com piling provin"
cial papers, $3,501 40 ; State house, $2,7.57 22 ; N .H As\lum for Insane’
$28,S8S 3 9 ; education o f the blind. $3 674 8 4 ; education o f the deaf
and dumb, $2,012 50 ; reform school, $12,182 9 2 ; State Prison,
$10,374 2 5 ; volunteer militia, $35,759 77 ; military expenses,$6,04 9 29 ;
W hite Mountain roads, $2,600 ; miscellaneous, $5,928 11 ; savings’ bank

132

P U B L IC

DEBT

AND

F IN A N C E S

NEW

[AuffUSt,

H A M P S H IR E .

ta x* 199,917 5 8 ; railroad ta x * $100,138 6 1 ; interest, $225,436 0 2 !
payment of bonds, $850,100 and of notes, $139,254.
Total, $1,627,299 54.’ Cash, May 31, 1869, $75,034 13.
Deducting the receipts from bonds and notes, &e. ($695,160), the revenue
amounted to $1,007,173 67, and the payments of bonds and notes
($989,354), the disbursements amounted to $637,945 54, which last named
sum paid the ordinary expenses of the State, the distributions to towns,
and interest on the bonds and notes outstanding.
The condition of the Treasury June 1, 1869, is shown in the following
statement:
L IA B IL IT IE S .

ASSETS.

Bonds.................................................$2,849,200 CO Cash in Treasnry...........................
$75 037
321,830 00 T».xes, ( el nquent......................
1,581
867
Trusts--Fisk Legacy....................
8,952 74 Net income of state prison...........
“
Kimba 1 ‘ k ....................
6,75 < 49
Surplus levenue—principal....... 1,00944
$77,082
“
intere t...........
1,236 55 Deficiency b ing indebtedness
School fund......................................
25,000 0 )
June 1, .869................................. 3,13«,879

N otes...........

Total..........................................$3,213,962 -22

Total........................................

13
54
22
89
33

$3,213,962 22

The liabilities, less assets, June 1, 1868, were $3,487,41 1 97, and June
1, 1869, $3,136,879 33, showing a reduction of liabilities in the year of
$350,532 64.
In New Hampshire the township system is carried out to its full extent
and there appears to be very little cohesion o f the one with the other,
the counties being merely so many court divisions.

The towns, indeed,

are so many little republics, managing their own affairs and disbursing
their own revenues.

It thus happens that if desirous ol acquiring a

knowledge o f the exact measure o f their burdens and abilities we must
canvass the affairs o f each town within itself, and so the returns o f each
are published separately by the State Treasury Department.
sible, however, to transfer these, from 230 towns, to the

It is impos

C h r o n ic l e ,

and

hence we cluster them in counties, naming the number of towns included
in each, the amount o f their debts and assets, the highest and lowest rate
o f taxation in the towns of the counties named, and the highest and lowest
tax on each poll therein.

The following is the county summary :

No. of
Total
Available
Tax p. $100—%^-Taxp poll—,
Counties.
towns.
febt.
assets
IJ.
L.
11
L.
Rockingham............................... . 38 $1,323,901 54 $179,515 36 $5 00 $13 3 $? 20 $2 00
St afford.......................................... 13
657,('39 86
44,247 50
3 89
1 40
4 83
2 05
Belk- ap......... ............................... 10
495,880 98
45,950 12
2 52
1 91
3 78
1 91
Cam-31 ...............
17
442,060 09
50,067 07
4 '7
2 08
5 55
3 12
Mer imack ................................... 26 1,220,291 03
129 385 26
2 83
1 01
4 24
1 95
Hillsbor ugh................................... 30 1,2 8.575 54
146,699 58
2 45
1 43
3 68
2 14
Che hire............................................22
536,964 ?4
41,799 18
3 IP*
1 25
4 66
1 88
Sullivan...................................... . . . 15
458,218 40
44,226 85
2 14
1 25
3 22 1 87*
Graf on........................................... 38 1,043,390 41
154,010 24
5 28
1 30
7 91
1 95
C oos................................................. 21
308,1-4 36
59,163 43
4 60
1 84
6 90
1 76
Total..........................................2 0 $7,714,446 34

$S95 064 54

$5 28

* Divided to the several towns of the State.

$1 01

$7 91

$1 76

1869]

C H IC A G O ,

ROCK

IS L A N D

AND

P A C IF IC

133

RR.

The highest taxed town in the Scat'- is Thornton, in Grafton County,
and the next highest, Gosport, in Rockingham County ; and the lowest
taxed town is Cambridge, in Coos County. The net reduction in town
debts during the years 1868-69 was $ 7 ’ ,622 04, the increase having
been $151,764 06, and the decrease $229,386 10. Almost the whole of
these debts have been incurred for permanent improvements, which have
tended to the rapid development of industry and wealth in the State.

CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILROAD.
The Rock Island Road formed a junction with the Union Pacific
Railroad on ihe 11th day of May, and on the 7th of June, 1869, asecond
line between Chicago and the Missouri River was opened to travel and
transportation. This is another great triumph o f national enterprise, and
an assurance of a prosperous future to our vast territories beyond the Mis
souri. The extension has added 140 miles to the company’s lines, which
at the present date consist o f the following divisions and branches :
Miles.
Chicago, 111., to Rock Island, 111............................................. .. ...................................................... 182
Rock I'Ian » bridge over the JViis-ds-'ippi..........................................................................................
2
Dave port, Iowa, o ihe M.ssouri Rtver.......................................................................................... 310
Length from Ch:ca o *o the Miss nri River................................................................................... 404
M ilton, Iowa, to Washington, Io w a ................................................................................................. 50
Total length of line owned by the company............................................................................ 544

T o this must be added the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad
(leased), extending from Bureau Junction (114 miles west of Chicago) to
Peoria, 46 miles— making a total length of 590 miles of road under a
single management. During the year the cost of new construction and
equipment has been $5,192,609 03, exclusive of improvements and
renewals on the old lines.
Further sums will be required for ballasting,
perfecting and equipping tbe recent extension. The company will also
expend during the current year nearly $800,000 in improvements in
Chicago.
In the following tables we compare the company’s operations in
1868-69 with the same in 1867-68 :
LO C O M O T IV E S

AND

CARS.

Statement giving the number of locomotives and cars owned by
the company April 1, 1867, and at the close o f the fiscal years ending
March 31, 1868 and 1869:
Wood burning......................
Locomotives. - Coal burning ......................
B. th oesc iplions...............
Coaches.................................
baggage, mail and express
Stock....................................
Box........................................
Cars
Flat. ....................................
Drovers.................................

Pay..............................

.All kinds...............................

1867. 18fi8. 1859. Inc. Dec.
35
37
24
.. 11
57
58
83
26
92
95 107
15
46
48
49
3
20
22
23
3
202
210 287
85
1,109 1,305 1,534 425
468
491 659 lal
3
3
3 . .

1 1 1 . . . .

1,816 2,080 2,556

710

134

C H IC A G O ,

ROCK

IS L A N D

AND

P A C IF IC

[August,

RR.

The comparative results o f operations in the fiscal years 1867-68 and
1868-69 are shown in the following tables:
M IL E S R U N B Y E N G IN E S H A U L IN G T R A IN S .

Wood and giavel <ngines .

1867-68.
575,213
1,150.489
171,235

186S 69.
607,649
1,692.>-09
214,615

Increase.
32,436
512.320
43,380

Total by all engines....
Cost per mile run...............

1,896,937
32.64 cts.

2.515,073
26.94 cts.

618,136

P A S S E N G E R T R A F F iC -

“

w a y ............

“

Eat-t..............

“

W t-sn.............

Pas t ngers ot all kinds.
Tasst ngers <ne n«ile . . .

5.70 cts.

5 D IR E C T IO N A N D A M O U N T .

1867-68.
52.833
507,471
271,253
289,051
560,304

Passengers, through___

Decrease.

4.19 cts.

1868-69.
59,793
567.797
306,391
321,204
627.595
81,339.650
4.12 cts.

Increase.
6,965
69.326
35.1 *8
3 ’,153
67.291
3,151,180
.1.........

Decrease.

0.70 cts.

TC— IT S D IR E C TIO N A N D A M O U N T .

1867-68
39,359
35,746
75,1 "5
651,435
8.28
87/22.193
3.35 cts.

Loaded cars, eastward.........
“
“ westward.............
“
“ bo h ways.............
FreudP (tons) ■ rned ...............
Tons p r c r (average)..............
Tons one mile.............................
Average rate per ton per mile..
F IN A N C IA L

RESULTS

1869-69
51,662
53,877
105,539
806,788
7.24
119,974 436
2.98 cts.

Increase.
1 *.3 3
18,131
30,434
152,353

Decrease*

1.C4 cts.
32,451,943
0 37 cts.

O F O P E R A T IO N S .

The financial results of operations for the last two years are shown
in the following comparative statement:
1867-68.
1868-69.
Increase. Decrease.
Passenger earnings ...................................... $1,181,583 67 $1,292.6 4 84 $111,041 17 .................
Freight
2,934,504 15 3,5"5,915 56 641,ill 41 . . .
...
Mai
36,743 15
34.848 48 .................
$1,894 67
E x ress
“
47,314 I
128,701 11
81.384 83
Rents, &c.....................
64,5 20 63
70.315 27
5,794 64
Interest on loans, &c..
105,941 58
176 908 77
70,9c6 19
Total expen es.
Operating expenses...

, $4,451,974 29 $5,231,979 75 $780,005 46
. 2,020,192 07 2,366,679 13 346,487 06

Earnings less expenses.................................$2,431,782 22 $2,865,300 62 $433,513 40

W hich remainder was disposed of as follows:
Legal expenses.................................................
'•'axes on real» s’ ates...................................

U. *. Government tax...................................
Rent fP . & B V. K .R .................................
Interest on bo’ ds........................................ .
Dividends inc tiding t a x ...
......... . . . .
Surplus to cred t.................................

Included in the operati
repairs o f rail :
re-rol ediron.,
with steel.......

$23,593 95
$6,62114
107,92989
118,15335 10,223
32,11)54
82,426'*9
316
105,000 01
125,0 >» 00
276,‘.40 00
667.55179 391,311
957,821 10
1,469,968 50 512,147
60y,03674445,57885

e x p e n se s are

GENERAL

79
40
164,507 89

t h e fo llo w in g r e n ew a ls an d

14 55m.
18 00
13.00
45.55m.
21,457

Rails repaired.

$16,972 81
46
45

0.05m.

2.00m.

12.44
10.05m.

2.051

A C C O U N T-----L E D G ER B A L A N C E S .

The financial condition of the Company, as of April 1, 1868 and 1869’

1869 ]

C H IC A G O ,

ROCK

IS L A N D

AND

P A C IF IC

RR,

135

shown on the balance-sheets of date, is epitomized in the following
statement:
1868.
1869.
Increasi. Decrease.
Oapi’ al stock.................................................. $14,000 000 00 $14/00,000 00 $ .............$ ..................
C. at- R. I. mortgage bonds..... ..................
1,397 000 00 1,397,000 00 ......................................
4.!. & k . I. i c -me bm ds.............................
42,0u0 00
29,0 ,0 00 .................
13,000 00
C., R.1. & Pacific mortgage sinking fund
bond*............... ..................
...............
6,833,000 00 7,375,000 00 542,000 CO .................
C., It. I & PxiticRR. Co of Io w a ...........
59(1,852 '5
49,85 75 ................
540/00 00
Railroad Biidge C mpa y ........... ...............
100,000 00
60,('00 00 .................
40,0 0 00
Oiherc edit balances....................................
38,550 85
46,203 57
7,712 72 ................
balance ot .neome account...........................
...............
1,551,605 17 1,597,244 02 445,578 85
Total

$24,160,781 49 $24,515,809 49 $355,023 00 $ . -

Against which the following accounts are charged:
Cost of ro d & equipment.................... $17,251,433 47 $22,444,212 50 $5,192,809 03
Truste ■for guar, bonds...........................
'13*420*23
74.800 26
61, 8 ) 03
8. E. & W. Committee...........................
1,086 59
1,086 59
Trustee L. G Div sion.. ........................
19,084 22
17,066 87
2,017 35
Corn Ex. Bank, N. Y ...............................
1,755,365 16
1.755,365 16
Un'onMat tlk, Chicago ..........
1,500,"00 00
1,50\000 00
Bond c ’ to special lie s .$June 7,1867.
255.563 50
<37/01 63
18/61 87
5,'19 80
C. >-> I. & P. coup, acct...........................
5.419 80
2,431,500 00
Bills receivab e ........................................
2,721,3.0 00
289.870 00
Cash in ha'-ds of C sistant Treasurer...
1 177,045 03 1,177,045 03
Cash in bands Cashier.............................
*'578,675 84
505,0 '9 25
*73/37 59
Total

$24,160,781 49 $24,515,809 49

$35 i,023 00 $,

The mortgage bonds of the late Chicago and Rock Island Riilroad
Company (11,397,000) will fall due July 10, 1870. The bonds of the
Railroad Bridge Company, guaranteed by the railroad company ($400,000), will become due Jan. 1, 1870. Both these liabilities will be paid
or exchanged for Sinking Fund bonds.
A contract has been entered into between the company and United
States Government for the erection of a bridge between Rock Island
and Davenport, with a view of changing the location across the island of
Rock Island to accommodate the government works. The company’s
proportion of the cost will be $000,000, o f which $300,000 will be required
during the year 1869-70.
GENERAL REVIEW FOR TEN YEARS.

In the following table we give the cost of the road and equipment
(estimating the cost of the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad at
$2,100,000), and the earnings, expenses and profits from operations yearly
for the ten years ending March 31, 1869 :
Fiscal
Years

Miles
of Road
Open

185960................. 228 4
1860- 61.............................2 48.4
186162..........
228.4
1862-63.............................228.4
1863- 61............................ 228 4
186465...
228.4
1865-66.. . .................... 228.4
18666?................. 410.0
186768..................454.0
1868 69............................. 526.0

Ordinary Profits Tnter’ t on ivirfe d Ralance
Gross
Operating or Nett Fanded pai l on aft rLease
Ear ings. Expenses. Earnings. De'*t.
Sto-k. iaxes.<fce.
$024,661 $1?1,273 $97,730 $167,597 $ 120, 134
$1,0 <3,934
7 8,0 VI
1,161,018
955,964 97, 90
4 4,481
*1,054,04
*531,387
528,317 *9 ■,7 *0 168.090
<82,866
1,529,141
728,154 100,135
800,987
328 239
14,726
2,143,8? 5 1,010,462 1.103 413 1 (2,690
382,1 42
313,438
3,359,390 1,467,681 1,891,709 102,532
375,04
1,1156,250
3,154,235
1,711,454 1,412, 81 101,535
631,579
33 i,6S2
3,571,032 1,8 -7,852 1,716,181 -96.132
3 t,983
820 879
4,451,974 2, >2J 192 2.431,732 576, 40
957 8 '1
609,i,87
5,231,980 2,366,679 2,8j5,301 6)7,552 1,469,968
445,579

136

THE

U 8U RV

[August,

P R O S E C U T IO N S ,

MARKET VALUE OF STOCK AT NEW TORK.

The course of the company’s stock at the New York Stock Board
inonthly for the five years 1864-09 inclusive is shown in the annexed
abstract from the published returns:
Months.
1861-5.
April.....................................110 @134
M ay...................................... 105 @ll!>
J u n e ................................... 110 @ !17%
J u ly ....................................... 107)4@114
August..................................109%@U4%
Sepiember............................. 95 @i09%
October................................. 85%@ 97
N ov e.b er............................. 99 @110
December............................ 101%@10W
January ............................... 88%@l05%
February............................... 89)4® 98%
March....................................85%@100

Tear............................

1865 6.
1866-7.
81%@ln3
310 @123)4'
91 @ 05
90 @ 9 %
93 @103
»1 @ 9> *
101Ss@10 %
94%@1(I3
1 3 @109
1(I2%@110
108%@ll3% 108%@U2%
105 @113%
106 @111%
1 0 4 ) 4 @ 1 i>9%
100 @112%
105>,,@103% 103 @!n?,%
9,>.@109%
91 @104.4
9t @107
95 @10 i%
104*i@118%
92% @ 98%

84%@131

81%@11S%

90 @133%

1S67-S.
85)4® 93%
8 t% @ 91)4
8T?',@ 96%
95%@104
99%@103%
»9 @105
91 @ 01
91)4® 97%
!0-@99%
93%@10(l%
90 @10w%
91%@ 98%

85%@105

1868-9.
85 @ 9 7
913s@9S%
96%@105%
105 @110%
9 7 ^ 8 12%
10n%@104%
H'2 @ 0 9 %
10! @109%
105)4@1 8
117%@li5%
12«%@i32
121)4(9131-

85 @135%

Former articles relating to this company were published in the
of June 23, 1866 ; June 22,1867, and August 29, 186S.

C hron

ic l e

THE USURY PROSECUTIONS.
A ll the brokers and W all street bankers who have been prosecuted
under the Usury Law of this State have pleadeu guilty and await sen
tence.

A s these are, we believe, the first prosecutions under a law passed

more than thirty years ago, we hope that the court will use lenity.

The

extreme punishment allowed by law is three months imprisonment and
a fine o f one thousand dollars.

The judge

ment and reduce the fine as he pleases.
that sentence may be held

in suspense.

may remit the imprison

It seems to be generally believed
These trials have produced a

good deal o f excitement in certain circles in W a ll street.

A n d the

most noteworthy fact about the prosecution is that it stopped the high
rates o f interest, so that the mercantile community have been able ever
since to obtain the usual accommodation from the banks.

It is this circum

stance which has caused the usury law to be regarded with more general
favor than formerly in N ew York.

The spirit of modern legislation is adverse to attempts to govern by law
the price of commodities or the rates of loans. Supply and demand are
believed to be better regulators of contracts and prices than the wisest
human restrictions and the best human laws. Accordingly the usury
law of this State, although it was passed in 1837, has never, we believe,
been put in force until now. Still it has been kept on the statute-book,
and the numerous attempts to repeal it have always miscarried. These
attempts, we understand, are to be repeated next winter at Albany, with
what success remains to be seen. For the present the law is more popular

1869]

THE

USU RY

P R O S E C U T IO N S .

137

tl'an it has ever been before ; for to it the people ascribe in part their relief
from those fierce, prolonged spasms in the money market which suspended
the collections of our mercantile houses, and made it impossible for almost
everybody to get in his debts. The debt-paying machinery of the country
was deranged and controlled by cliques and speculators, who, to fight their
own battleq succeeded in throwing into confusion the financial arrange
ment* of this metropolis, with great consequent damage to the business of
the whole country.
It has been urged, and we believe with justice, that some of the per
son; who have been prosecuted were mere agents and had nothing to do
except as accessories with the schemes of the tight-money ring. This
extenuation may properly be pleaded as a ground for inflicting a lighter
punishment. But the favor has been asked for on other grounds. And it
would not be easy for any judge to discriminate between the various degrees
in which each of the convicted brokers is implicated.
The popular approval of these prosecutions must not be taken as evi
dence that any severe penalties are desired. W hat the people wished
to accomplish was first to stop the monetary spasms and to relax the
tourniquet with which the cliques had strangulated business and arrested
the vital functions of oui internal commerce. The second object was to
prevent a repetition of such a conspiracy. Never before in this city has
so bold, so rich, so adroit a clique been formed. It was small, compact,
but as usual has failed in its chief objects, which were to break down
the prices o f government stocks and other securities. This depression of
stocks was to be produced as a result of monetary stringency. Stocks,
however, were sustained, and the clique found that its profits went to the
money lenders, many of whom fell gladly into the plan of charging high
rates for money and lent themselves in various ways to the projects of the
speculators. There were thus implicated in the trouble several indepen
dent parties all united in the single obj >ct of tightening the money-maiket.
Some had the ulterior aim of putting down the price of government bonds,
others of depressing the railroads, while others again had no other aim
than to lend their funds at the highest possible rate of interest, regardless
o f the mischief and commotiou they were producing by this concerted
attack on the money-market. It might be a useful task to detail the
methods and devices by which these adroit and skilful assaults on the
money-market were made, and it would at any rate be gratifying if we
could show that the profits of the campaign passed over the guilty
parti s, and that the chief conspirators were no more successful than they
deserved to be in making gain by their manoeuvres. This circumstance,
however, would not be sufficient to prevent similar enterprises in the
future. Accordingly, the popular desire seems to be, that if, as is probable,

13S

THE

TEHUANTEPEC

ROUTE.

[ August,

the offenders who have just been, prosecuted and await the sentence o f
the law s ould be let off with a slight punishment by the court, there should
be a distinct understanding that in future the law will be pul in force if
another combination or conspiracy to produce a financial spasm should
render it needful.
Such, we believe, is the public desire, and if the usury law should thus
be rendered more stringent and should become a more prominent part
o f our State legislation, the cliques have the sati-faclion o f knowing that
it is the work o f their own hands and the fruit o f their own devices.

THE TEHUANTEPEC R O U T E *
The proposed railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the construc
tion of which has already been undertaken by a company of American
capitalists, is an enterprise of the greatest importance to the commercial
interests of the country. For several years the preparations fur this work
have been quietly progressing, under the diiection of some of our leading
capitalists, and everything is now ready for the immediate construction
of railroad, carriage road, and telegraphic communication from ocean to
ocean, across the Isthmus ; Mr. Marshall O. Roberts, of this city, having,
as we are informed, signed the company’s bond, as surety, in the penalty of
$100,000. in gold, for the construction, within eighteen months, of a car
riage road and telegraph line along the entire line of the proposed rail
way, to assist in building the latter. W e are also informed that the road
itself is to be begun within two years, and completed within five; the
work to progress at the rare o f fifteen leagues, or one third of its entire
length, each year. From the elaborate and elegant octavo volume of 209
paces, prepared under the able direction o f Mr. Simon Stevens, President
of the Company, we learn many facts regarding the Isthmus of Tehuan
tepec, as well as of the proposed railroad and its advantages, that are of
great importance and interest. The volume, indeed, is wholly without a
rival in the literature of the great material enterprises which characterize
the present century; presenting not only the resources and prospects of
the company, and the results to be accomplished by the successful com
pletion of the work they have undertaken, but a fund of useful and vduable information for the general reader as well, which would insure for it
a careful perusal by tbe intelligent reading public throughout the country.
The following summary of the contents o f this comprehensive volu i e will
doubtless be found o f much interest by many who cannot readily obtain it.
* /he Tehuantepec R a ilw a y. Its Location, Features and Advantages, uuder the La Sera
Gr^nt oi 1SBJ. D. nppieton is Co.

1869]

THE

TEHUANTEPEC

ROUTE.

139

The history of the present enterprise is briefly told, although a glance
at history will show that the project of opening inter-oceanic com
munication across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was first proposed by the
daring adventurer, Hernando Cortez, as early as 1529, It was not until
more than three centuries later, however, that the Mexican Government, on
the 7th of October, 1867, made a concession for seventy years, to a com
pany organized by Don Emilio La Sere, of the right to open inter oceanic
communication across the Isthmus o f Tehuantepec by railroad, carriageroad and telegraph. This concession also grants large tracts o f valuable
lands to the company which, together with the proposed road, is declared
free from taxation or imposts of any kind by the Mexican Government,
except the payment o f twelve cents for each through passenger, and eight
per cent of the net profits whenever dividends to stockholders shall be
declared. This grant was confirmed by the Congress o f the Mexican
Republic, with a few modifications, on the 29th o f December, 1868,
approved by the President, January 2, 1869, and duly officially published.
Pursuant to said grant, Don Emilio La Sere formed the Tehuantepec
Railway Company, composed wholly of citizens of the United States;
and this company, in November, 1868, obtained a charter from the State
of Vermont, incorporating it with a capital o f $18,000,000, divided into
shares of $100 each. The Company has received from La Sere the assign'
ment o f the grant, as intended by the Government of Mexico, and entered
into a bond to that Government, in the sum o f one hundred thousand
dollars, for the construction o f the road in compliance with the terms o f
the grant.
In connection with the proposed railroad, the enterprise contemplates
the establishment o f such lines of steam and sailing vessels as may be
found necessary to meet the demands of international commercial inter
course. On the Atlantic side of the Isthmus the road will begin at
Minatitlan, a town situated on the Goatzacoalcos River, twenty miles
from the Gulf of Mexico. This point is at all times and seasons accessible
to sea-going steamers, and, with the improvements to be made and the
light houses to be built, there will be no difficulties to be encountered by
vessels entering the river. From Minatitlan the line takes a direction
almost due south to the Pacific ocean, which it reaches at the port of
Ventosa, distant 162 miles from the northern terminus. The bay at the
mouth o f the Tehuantepec River was for a long time regarded as the most
convenient terminus; but subseq ent investigations have revealed the
fact that even a better harbor can be obtained at Safina Cruz, about three
miles westward. From the interior, the approach to the shore is easy,
and the topographical features such as to make the site suitable for the
erection of all necessary buildings, or even the growth of a new city .

140

THE

TEHUANTEPEC

[August,

ROUTE.

The anchorage is excellent: the shore being so bold that from 18 to 28
feet o f water can be obtained at a very short distance.

Nature has done

much to prepare the way for the construction o f the necessary improve
ments, which can be erected at a very reasonable cost.
Unlike the deadly and pestilential swamps o f Panama, the country
along the line o f the proposed road includes some o f the loveliest valleys,
the most fertile stretches o f high

table land and luxuriantly productive

‘ ‘ b ottom s” to be found on the American Continent.

It is, to the very

highest degree, available for agricultural purposes, and abounds in gold
and silver “ placer” diggings, and petroleum springs. The land granted to
the Company comprises a belt twelve miles in width extending along the
entire length o f the road ; in conceding w 'nch the Government o f Mexico
has not only given a magnificent proof o f its enlightened interest in this
enterprise, but has endowed the corporation with a property which needs
only to be truthfully described to add materially to their financial posi
tion ; for each alternate league o f the public lands on either side o f the
road, or on a strip of territory two leagues in width, is permanently conveyed
to the corporation, in fee simple.

A s the road is to be, in round numbers,

fifty leagues in length, a rough calculation, reveals the fact that a landed
estate o f great value has been added to the other productive resources o f the
Tehuantepec enterprise.

The lands abound in India-rubber and mahogany

trees, dyewoods o f the most valuable kinds, medicinal plants o f great
commercial value, native hemp or ixtle in unlimited quantities, cocoa,
cochineal, sarsaparilla and numberless other plants indigenous to the
country.

The soil and rlimate are admirably adapted to the successful

cultivation of coffee, indigo, tobacco, rice, pepper and maize.
o f this region is only second in quality to Java.

The coffee

The forests may be

made to yield unbounded supplies o f tar, pitch, turpentine and rosin.

A ll

tropical fruits, such as oranges, lemons, pineapples, bananas, etc., are
abundant;

and

even

the

most

careless

and

stimulates them to a most luxuriant production.

inefficient

cultivation

So that, whether as

primeval wilderness or as cleared and cultivated land, the domain o f the
Tehuantepec Railway Company may be made immediately productive,
and a local tariff built up in all respects sufficient to warrant the con
struction o f a much more expensive line.

A n d this is certainly a most

important feature in the prospects o f any enterprise, as affording a basis
for safe operations, which is not always obtained even in more densely
populated regions.

It is with a view to the development o f the rare rich

ness o f this favored province, quite as much for the inter oceanic transit,
that the M exican Government has made so munificent a donation ; and it
is but right to add that the great landed proprietors, whose estates lie in
the neighborhood, seem to he equally alive with the government to the

1869 |

THE

TEHUANTEPEC

141

ROUTE.

important benefits which are to accrue to them from the construction o f
the road, and manifest a disposition to extend the utmost liberality to its
managers.

The importance o f this fact will be appreciated when it is

considered how largely these men, who are in tl eir way very much like
feudal lords, can influence the supply o f labor and assist in providing the
many requirements o f the employes of the Company.

In speaking o f

the immediate resources o f the Tehuantepec region, the mines may be
for the present left out o f the account, though no doubt exists o f the auri
ferous wealth o f this portion o f the Isthm us; but mention may be made
o f the fact that unsurpassed facilities exist for the manufacture o f salt and
lim e— the former o f which already engages the attention o f a portion o f
the present inhabitants.
Although lying within the limits o f the equatorial belt, the climate o f
the Isthmus is agreeable and salubrious.

The country is well drained and

dry, with an abundance o f swift flowing streams, and, being for the most
part an elevated plateau or table land, is traversed by constant winds
sweeping from ocean to ocean.

It is said that the surveying expeditions

o f this and other enterprises on this line, though very much exposed and
compelled to sleep for the most part in the open air, reported fewer cas“s
o f sickness than would have been deemed inevitable in any similar cir
cumstances in any o f the States o f this country.

It will therefore be seen

that the climate o f this portion o f the Isthmus presents no obstacles iu
the way o f the enterprise, while it exhibits many advantages over that
o f Panama.
There are but few natural obstacles in the way o f constructing the pro
posed road.

The “ mountainous region ” occupies a strip o f territory

with an averaged width o f about forty miles, in the centre o f the Isthmus,
and may be said to extend from the Jaltepeo river, on the north, to within
twenty-five miles of the Pacific coast.

Here, in the elevated ridges and

spurs o f the Cordilleras, are the only important obstacles to railway con
struction ; but the continuity o f the mountain chain is very nearly broken
by a pass which lies nearly in the line of shortest communication between
the two oceans.

It is as if nature had providentially cared for such an

exigency as the present proposed rou te; for the depression is so marked
that the highest grade to the mile at any part o f the line is but little m ore
than sixty feet.

On the Pacific side the gap or opening is narrow, and

the descent quite rapid, to a series o f table lands, which incline slowly to
the coast at about fifteen or twenty feet to the mile.

The surface is

remarkably smooth and even, and their gentle slope is ad mirably adapted to
railroad purposes. The amount o f tunneling which will be required, even in
the mountain region, is comparatively small, and none o f the rivers present
unusual difficulties in the way o f bridging.

The summit; o f the road will

142

THE

TEHUANTEPEC

ROUTE.

[August,

be only '793 fec-t above the level o f high tide, and the severest grade will
be sixty feet to the mile, and this but for some twelve or fifteen miles,
while for the rest o f the distance the average grade will be less than
twenty-five feet to the mile. The gauge adopted is four feet eight and a
half inches, that having been found by experience to be the most
economical in working as well as in first cost. The preliminary carriageroad will have the same general location as the railroad, but will follow a
slightly different course, making its total length 200 miles. It is to have
a carriage-way fifteen feet wide, and the timber on each side is to be
cleared to the width of fifty feet. Ten substantial truss bridges will be
required for it, beside a number of smaller bridges and culverts. The
cost of the road will be about nine millions, according to the estimates o f
the engineers in the employ of the company. It will require 8160,000
for the carriage-road ; the grading, bridging and preparation of the road
bed for the railroad will take 86,000,000 ; the superstructure, 81,500,000 ;
the equipment, $400,000 ; and the other expenses— engineering, survey
ing station houses and similar things— a little less than $1,000,000^
making the total amount of capital necessary to be raised $8,900,000, or
about $55,000 per mile for the 162 miles.
O f the advantages o f the work when completed it is almost impossible
to speak in brief.

glance at the map o f M exico will show that the

geographical position o f Tehuantepec will secure to the new route the
entire west coast freightage, including the almost entirely, as yet, unde
veloped commerce o f the rich provinces o f Western M exico, and that o f
part o f East California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, etc., which cannot
be transported overland to the Atlantic shores, but will find its future
way to the sea through the Colorado river and the G ulf o f California; as
well

as the already established trade o f California, Oregon and the

extreme Northwest, which must eventually seek its passage across the
Pacific*m the line of the North Pacific current.

This includes the Jap

anese and the best part of the Chinese freightage.

The Australian trade

and that part o f the Chinese, East Indian and Island commerce which is
compelled to take advantage o f the South Pacific trade-winds and cur
rents, w ill find little to choose between Panama and Tehauntepec, if it
has a Emopean destination; but, if consigned to any port o f the United
States, it cannot fail to find a marked advantage in seeking the more
northerly transit, especially as the winter passages, even o f the present
New Y ork and Panama line o f steamers, are trequently made to the
westward o f the Antilles.

As M r. Stevens says in the volume before u s :

“ The Tehuantepec route is, o f all the routes proposed from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Ocean, the true Am erican route.

It is the route which is

entirely commanded by our possessions on the G ulf o f M exico, and not

18691

THE

P U B L IC

DEBT

STATEM ENT.

domineered over by any British possessions whatever.

143

In case o f a war

with Great Britain, our vessels bound to Chagres would be obliged to sail
almost within gunshot o f the British forts at Jamaica. The Mississippi
river being the great artery o f the W est, and the Mississippi Valley
destined

to be the great

reservoir o f the population, enterprise, and

nationality o f the United States, we are at all times better prepared to
defend the Isthmus o f Tehuantepec than any other position on this side
o f our continent south o f New Orleans.”

The project of an inter-oceanic ship canal across the Isthmus is said
to form a part of the plan of the Company proposing to build the rail
road and carriage-way; but in the volume before us Mr. Stevens expresses
the belief that such a work will not be undertaken until the demands of
our commerce renders it indispensibly necessary. Such a work, it is
estimated, would cost about $325,000,000. For all present purposes,
however, the railroad will serve, as its carrying capacity will be found
susceptible of almost indefinite expansion.
Still, looking to that far
future in which a ship canal across the Isthmus may become a practicable
enterprise financially, the Isthmus o f Tehuantepec possesses topographic. J
features which will certainly attract to it the investigating eyes of scientific
explorers for the most available route.
Considered simply as a scheme for the improvement o f the facilities o f
intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the people o f the
United States have the deepest interest in the completion o f the railroad,
and the far-sighted capitalists under whose direction the plan has matured
into a purpose deserve our heartiest sympathy and most earnest good
wishes for the success o f their enterprise.

THE PUBLIC DEBT STATEMENT.
The J u l y schedule o f the public debt, which appears elsewhere,
demands very little special notice except as it shows as usual a reduction
of the principal of the debt. The receipts from internal revenue have been
swelled of late by the payment o f the annual taxes which are very wisely
made due in the summer, in order that the currency and the money
market may be less perturbed by the influx of so large an aggregate of
greenbacks into the Treasury. The income tax alone will amount to
some 40 millions, and if the payment o f so large a sum within a few
days were not allotted to that period of the year when there is a great
accumulation of idle currency in the financial centres, our clumsy and
inelastic monetary machinery would receive a succession of jerks and

144

THE

P U B L IC

DEBT

STATEM EN T.

[August,

spasms which must cause no small trouble in the money market and in
the movements of business. It was on this account that the time of
paying the income tax was changed a couple of years ago from September,
when business is brisk and greenbacks cannot be spared, to July, when
business is dull and greenbacks can be absorbed into the Treasury with
less risk from the temporary depletion o f the channels of the circulation.
Still this year is exceptional, and in consequence o f the feverish and sensi
tive condition to which the money market has been reduced by the spasms
and unprecedented strain o f the past six months, the locking up of so large
an amount of currency as is usual would have been attended with peril.
Accordingly the special case had to be met by a special remedy, and Mr.
Boutwell hit upon tie expedient o f buying up the bonds of the govern
ment. In payment for these bonds he has poured out the currency from
the Treasury vaults as fast as it accumulated there, and when Congress
meets he will seek instructions as to what is to be done with the 40
millions or more of Five-Twenties in which the surplus revenues have been
thus invested. It is perhaps premature for us to discuss now the probable
action o f Congress. But various opinions are held in W all street as to
what should be done, and a lively contest of opinion will doubtless be
provoked.
There are indeed some persons who contend that the
Secretary has exc eded his legal powers in making these purchases. W e
apprehend however that it will not be difficult to find law for everything
that has been done, and Mr. Boutwell is too shrewd and has too
enlightened advisers to be caught tripping. Moreover the necessity o f the
ease justified some exceptional treatment, and the success of Mr. Boutwell’s
policy is a strong ground of defence. It has been urged that the Treasury
purchases of bonds have caused a speculative advance in their price. And
no doubt a part of the rapid rise in the market value of government
securities is due to this cause. But perhaps too much influence is
attributed thereto, and before Congress meets we shall have an oppor
tunity of testing this point by the pertinacity with which the advance is
sustained.
In presence of this gratifying appreciation of our National securities
which are nominally worth to-day 250 millions more than at the beginning
of the year, t!,ere has been a great deal said about the reduction of the
rats of interest. It has been even affirmed that some Frankfort capitalists
have offered to negotiate a loan at five per cent for 300 millions of dollars.
O f course this is mere sensational gossip, for at Frankfort to-day our six
per cent bonds are offered at eleven or twelve per cent belovv par. It is
therefore absurd to say that while they can buy our six per cents at 89 or
less, they will give us 100 for our five per cent-, or even for our four and a
half per cents. Our bonds certainly bear too high a rate of interest.

1869]

T IIE

P U B L IC

DEBT

145

STATEM EN T.

AVe ought to be able to reduce that rate and thus to relieve ourselves of
part of the pressure of the hordes of taxation. But it may well be doubted
whether this reduction and this relief are to be secured by any large loan
negotiated in Europe. However this niav be, the question of lowering
the rate of interest is assuming more and more importance, and the
pressure which will be exerted in Congress for relief from internal
taxation will render it a necessity that some change should be made. It
will be remembered that our debt was funded in Five-Twenties with the
special purpose o f securing its controllability, so that at any time after
the year 1867 there might be an adequate proportion of the public debt
which was subject to be paid off at par. By this expedient we expected
to have the option of using our surplus in paying off our debt by degrees
without being required to pay a premium as we had to do when we paid
off our debt more than a quarter of a century ago; and secondly we
expected to take advantage of the improving credit o f tie country and
pay off old loans with the proceeds of new loans obtained at lower rates
of interest. These objects so far have not been secured. The agitation
of repudiation, with other causes have been adverse to the public credit,
and instead of lessening since the wTar we have been rapidly increasing
that burden. T o illustrate this point we have completed the following
table showing the various rates of interest which we paid on our debt, and
the proportion of the principal which stood at each rate in each year
since 1860:
July ,------ Coin'inter st.------ , ,------------- Currency interest.----------No
or Aug. 0 p. cent. 5 p. cent.
7.30 p. c.
6 p, cent, 3 p. cent.
interest.
1860..
. $21,513,002 $23,401,000
$ ..........
s............. $................$ .........
1'SOl... 40,041,948 »1,428,000
24,550,325
....
18112..
. 100,754,61430,483,000122,836,550 ................
149.660.000
1863..
. 256,971,24330,483.000139,910,500 ..............................
407,839,145
109,356,150
15,000,000
........ 454,073,643
1304..
. 661,419,715 102,508,750
1865..
. 908,870.012 199,792,100
830 000,000 213,379,470
....... 474.646.001
798,9.9.3 0 102,054,140
...... 443,449,047
1866..
. 1,044,387,342 198,241,100
...... 417,177,534
1867..
. 1,480,475,342 198,431,350
451,233,425 123,731,430
63,814,890 68,000,000 4:0,302,891
1868. . 1,866,783,400 221,588,400 . .. ..........
I860. . I,8e6,341,300 221,580,300 ....................................... 58,038,32000,120,000
418,008,501

Miscella
neous
$19,795,011
22.404,7(2
110,477,2- 8
380,849,052
247,304,195
123 3 15,630
15,034,816
IS,099,175
5,071,884

Included in the above currency six per cents are railroad bonds, and in
the “ no interest” column gold certificates to the following amounts.
Under the head miscellaneous we have grouped together treasury notes,
temporary loans and over due securities.
1864.
1805.
i860
1807.
IS 8.

1809

R. R. Bonds.
1,258.000
0,042,000
15,40 V 00
32,210,0 -0
58,638,320

Gold Certificates.
10,403,1SO

19,457,900
22,414,000
£0,4:59,640

The chief object o f this table is to show that, so far as regards the
pressure o f the interest, we have had no relief since the war, no change
from a higher to a lower rate of interest.

It is true our bonds have

R A IL R O A D

146

[August,

IT E M S .

risen in market value. Five-twenties are now worth in Frankfort or in
London twice as much as the quoted rates o f the period of greatest depres
sion during the war. But the whole of the gain arising out of this
improved credit has gone into the pockets o f the speculators, the b inkers
and their customers; while very little, if any, o f the gain has accrued to
the National Treasury or has been available for the lowering o f taxation
and the relief of the burdens of the people. In the pressure of hard times
and heavy taxes, it is the contemplation of such facts as these which has
produced the outcry for a lower rate of interest on the debt— a demand
which, in some way or other, will have to be satisfied.

RAILROAD ITEMS.
C h i c a s o , B u r l i g t o n a n d Q u i n c y R a i l r o a d . — The Annual Report for the year
ending A p r i l 80, 1869, shows the following:
The gross earnings of the railroad for the year have been as follows :
IProm Passengers................................................................................. $1,659.30S 61

Freight .................................................................................... 4,168,864 29
Miscellaneous.....................................................
394,636 28—$6,819,809 18
Interest and exchange.......................................................................................

33,716 18

Total...........................................................................................................................$6,S40,525 36
The operating expenses of at! kinds, inclnd ng taxes, both Sta e and National,
and rent o f u acks, and ccst ot transfers have been................................................. $ 1,668,622 14
Leaving applicable for interest and dividends during the y e a r ..............................$3,177,903 22
The balance to credit o f income account at the close o f last year was.................
491,963 80
T o ta l.................................................................................................................. .$3,669,8.2 03

There have been paid during the year—
Interest on bonds...............................................
$369,547 44
Dividend No. 36............................................................................................... 627,19500
Dividend No. 17 ......................................................................................... 627,195 00
Sto-kdividend......................................................
1,254,390 00
Tax on dividends....................
130,092 S5
152 bonds for sinking fnnd............................................................................ 161,2000U
------— -$3,169,619 79
Leaving a balance to credit o f income account at the c’ose of the year o f ............ 500,-.'52 23
Exclusive oi amoant paid into sinking fund, vrh ch at tuis time is ....................... 1,036.761 13
I f the amo nntpaid into this fnnd he a proper credit to income account, that
account stands at...........................
...................................................... .......... $1,537,013 30

The gross earnings of the road have t een in excesi of the previous year by
$658,161 93, notwithstanding the somewhat diminished rates of fare and freight.
After referring to the various improvements, and new connectiors made necessary
by the rapid progress o f railroads and civilization in ihe West, the President remarks :
“ To provide the requisite means forthese purposes, they propose to dist ibute stock
among the stockholders, at its par value, to the extent of twenty per cent of the capital
stock o f the company, as being at once the easiest and, to them, most agreeable
mode of raising the money.”
The treasurer’s report shows the following :
GENERAL ACCOUNT— DEBIT.
Capital stock................................................................
Funiieddeht.................................................................
Due on moitgage o f Northern Cross R ailroad.......
Operating accounts unpaid.........................................
DaeChairman o f doard for advances.........................
Sinking fund.................................................................
Balance to credit of income account.........................

$13,825,025 00
4.794,260 00
270,(100 00
348,6;8 76
1,226,207 18
1,036,161 13
500,252 23

$21,999,124 SO

1869]

r a il r o a d

it e m s

147

C R E D IT .

Cost of co 'struction before May, 1868........................... ........... ............. ...................... $14,507,341 47
3,205.407 62
Cost of equipment before may, 18li8...............................................................................
270,000 00
Due on Northern Cro*s Raiload . . . .................. ..........................................................
1,237,705 60
Cost o’ new construction during the year......................................................................
644,811 72
Cost of equipment during tney’ ar...................................................................................
490,923 07
Material on hand for fuiure operations..........................................................................
66.200 00
Pullman Palace Car Company stock.................................................................................
41,0 4 01
Steam Ferry, President and other boats....................
................... ........................
315,946 42
Burlington depot, ground and acere ions.................................................... .............
4,500 00
Chicago teams for transferring ‘reight
.............. ............... ...................................
257,408 45
Monthly traffic accounts and bills receivable............................. .................................
8,935 40
Post Office i epartment......................................................................................................
412,73-7 64
Burlington and Missou i River Railroadpref. stock, 7 instalm’s . .........................
Ke kuk & St. Paul Railroad Company............................................. ..
$500,401 68
Less amount received on bonds........................................ ...................... 413,781 06

86,620 62

American Central Railroad construction account....................... ..
$926,032 89
Interest on bonds...........................................................................................
11.833 79

$937,866 68
639,158 13
--------------Due from agents and connecting rnads............................................... ....................
Deposits in New York and treasury ................................ .....................................
Less received on sale o f bonds...............................................................

298,708 55
115,985 97
31,831 73

Total............................................................. .....................................................$21,999,134 30
S IN K IN G FU N D .

The sinking fund has now $77,000 Chicago and Aurora 2d mortgage bonds ;
$623,000 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy irc< avertible 8 per cent bo ds ; $11,000
Chicago Burlington & Quincy conv rtible 8 percent bonds; $151,000 Chicago, Bur
lington <fe Quincy trust mortgage 7 per cent bonds, and $129,00 1Chicago, Burling
ton & Quincy trust mortgage 8 per cent bonds; a total of $991,00 , purchased at a
cost of $1,035,761 13.
E x f o r t s o f I r o n R a il s f r o m
G r e a t B r i t a i n . — Messrs. S . W . Hopkins & Co.,
Rai road Iron and Steel Rail Merchants, Nos. 69 and 71 Broadway, N. Y ., and 58
Old Broad street, London, furnish the following official statement of the export o f
iron rails from Great Britain :

F ive M onths Ending Ma y 31st :
1867.
To i s.
AMERICA.
UnPed States........................... .........
. 2,813
British..................................................
Cuba............................... .
..........
93 r
B razil...................................................
773
. 2,640
( h i l l .....................................................
Peru......................................................
163
EURuPE.
. 17,863
R ussia..................................................
Sweden............................ ....................
350
. 4,3 1 1
Prussia.................................................
Illyria, Crotla and Dalmatia...............
58
F rance..................................................
II Hand........... ....................................
, 3,103
4,328
Spain and Canaries..............................
A- IA.
45,151
B n tP '1India........................................
Australia..............................................
6,827
AFRICA.
. 8,511
Egvpt ...................................................
Other countries......................................
11,027
Total............................ ..............

199,287

1868.
Tons.
112,303
5, <16
1,672
1,820
404
770

1869.
7 ons.
141,334
12,M2
319
548
1,670
9,306

12,230
413
3,611
3,8 0
44
14,66 4
S.l.T

52,714
2.890
2,138
12,975
2.770
4.880
5,373

42,818
4,688

30 132
9,9C1

10.5t2
14,3^2

3,711
25,^92

233,769

320, i75

— The following is a statement of the amount of interest due Virginia by the various
railroad corporations:
r
Orange & Alexa d m ..............................................................................................................

$17,500 00

Vir^i-. a Central............ ......................................... ..............................................................
South-ide ............................................................................................................
.............
Vi g lii i & Tennessee..........................................................................................................
N, rlolic & i etersbu g
.....................................................................................................

6 50o 00
252,000 00
420 000 0J
45,85 • 13

Richmond <fe Dmville...................................................................................................

Total

42,000 00

$843,855 13

148

EA1LE0AD

[August,

IT E M S .

C a n a d ia n
R a il w a y
R e t u r n s . —Tlie earnings of the railways of Canada for the
month of May, 1S68 and j 8B9, were aB follows :

1879.
$294,658
736,917
3,371
9,201
81,906
19,344
14,688
9S9
12,324
17,190

Gr lid rinik.......................
London and Port Stanley.
Wellaii 1 ...............................

St. Lawrence and Industry.......
New Brunswick and Canada ..

1863.
$280,992
616,324
3,642
10.792
74,671
36,556
10,263
1,027
11,273
14,745

— The annual statement of the Michigan Central Railroad for the year ending
May 81, 1S69, shows the following results :
E A R N IN G S .

From pas en te rs.............................................. . ................................... $1,795,806 11
From freight......................... ....................................................................... 2,755, 00 48
From miscellaneous...................................................................................
155,280 80

,4,716,292 S9
The ordinary expenses of operating, including local taxation and
taxes on dividend, rave been............................... .
.......................... $2,698,278 72
Paid in o sinking fund.................................................................................
84,500 03
---------------------- 2,052,773 72
Leaving for interest at d dividends............................................................ .................... 1,653,514 60
biO.170 63
Interest and exchange paid............................................................. . . . . ......................

Leaving, above all expenses, net..................................................................... $1,017,843154
The proper net earnings above those of the last year have been $115,235, and
the excess of gross earnings, $245,000. The amount of the sinking fund Irom the
current earnings is now $1,851,599 35. There is outstanding no floating debt.
The funded debt now stands at .................................... ...................................... ........ $5 153,4S8 89
Les amount paid into sinking fund........... ...................................................................
1,351,599 35
Le-ving the n-'t borded deb1: at.............................. .................................................
Tile capi al siock amounts to.......................................................................................

$3,801,889 54
11,197,343 00

Bonded debt and stock to......................................................................................... $14,999,237 54

The bon ’e i debt has been decreased during the year by conversion of bonds into
stock by the amount o f $1,815,500, and the stock of the Company has been corres
pondingly increased, and has also been further enlarged by a stock dividend during
the year of ten per cent, amounting to $904,401).
— The Burlington Hawkeye gives as follows the gross earnings of railroads of Iowa
for the year 1868, as gathered from books in the State Treasurer’s office :
Railroads.
Chicago & N-'rihwestern.............
Dubuque & Sioux Coy................
Dub qu ■& i-outhwest era......... .
Cedar Falls &■ Mi n< seta............
Sioux City & Pacific.................. .
De- Moines Va ey...................... .
Chicag •, ock I-lan ’ & Pacific.
Burlington <fe Mi-n-uri...............
Cornell Bluffs fi t Jo . ____
McGregor Gr^ at We?tern .........
Keokuk & st Paul.....................
*i)U". & Dnbnqu Bridge C o ...
t Dubuque Street R ilroad. . . .

Total

Gross Famine's.
.. .. $3,371,682 23
.. .
970.696 25
172,427 02
55,465 57
1 7.000 02
710,240 94
. . . . 1,051,823 84
841,653 24
153,854 93
498,2 5 03
71,043 21
2,7 8 24
10,7.8 23
$8, it 3,197 56

R a i l r o a d s i n G e o r g i a . — Railroad enteiprise h active in Georgia.
The road from
Milledgeville to Macon, completing the Augusta and Macon litilroad, will be built
immediatelv.
Arrangements have al-o teen made to build the road from Augusta
to Pi rt Loyal S. C. The Georgia Railroad Company have ag eed to indorse the*

* In ope. a1ion but a few diys
t In operation but a portio cf tbe year.

1869]

■ R A IL R O A D

IT E M S .

149

bonds of the road. The survey of the long talked of Northeastern Railroad, from
Athens to Clayton, in Raybun county, connecting with the Tennessee roads, and
making a continuous railroad from Augusta to Knoxville, has been ordere I by the
Georgia Rai’roal. The Macon and Brunswick Railroad will be s o n completed, and
the extension of the Southwestern Railroad to the Florida line is also under way.
The feud between the Augusta and Columbia and the South Carolina Railroad has
been settled, and the trains of both companies now come and go between Colum
bia, Charleston and Augusta.
Negotiations have been in progress for some time for the purchase of the South
western Railroad and brandies by the Central Railroad and Banking Company of
Georgia. The Savannah Republican says that the bargain and transfer have been
perfected, the entire interests of the Southwestern road having passed into the
possession of the Central Company on the 24th ult.
The Frederick and Pennsylvania line Railroad Company has issued $2°,000 worth
of coupon corporati n bonds in sums of $200 $500 and $1000, bearing interest at
the rate of 6 p r cent per annum in currency, payable on the 1st of June and
December. The company has endorsed these bonds with a gold bearing interest—
or its equivalent—of 0 per cent, and they are exempt from corporation and county
tax.
R a i l r o a d s i n M i n n e s o t a .— A letter in the Chicago Tribune gives some inter
esting information about railroads in Minnesota. At the present time nearly four
thousand laborers are at work on the railroads in ihat State. One thousand men
have just been taken by propeller from the lower lakes and transferred to the
railroad now building from the head of Lake Superior to the Mississippi River at St.
Paul.
On the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, ninety miles west of Minneapolis are under
contract. The laborers come from Sweden and Germany. Agents of the Com
pany ba~e circu’ ated in those countries of Europe descriptions of the choice lands
in the Big Woods and the Kandiyohi prairies beyond that bait of forest; by
similar personal influence, parties of emigran s have been billited from their
native villages to tiae particular fraction of land destined to be a Minnesota
homestead; and the protection of the Company is not withdrawn for a moment of
the lcng journey. Even after arrival in Minnesota the Company’s buildiug* are
arranged for their tempora-y occupation, while more permanent shelter is provided
in the immediate section of the roa i under construction and of the lands to be occu
pied.
They expect in Iowa that every tier of country East and West will have its
line of rail. Minnesota begins to show the same sort o f Enterprise. There are
railroads in the two lower tiers of counties; another in the fourth tier, and
another in the fifth. The North Pacific arid St. Cloud and Pembina Railroads will
open other and large portions of the State, and of the region beyond.
Of the lines
in progress or projected, one is from St. Paul via Si ux » ity to the Union Pacific
R .ilroad, west of Omaha. As to the North Pacific Road, the correspondent suggests
that an eligible route would be on latitude 46 degrees, crossing the Missouri
River near the northern boundary of the Sherman-Harney Sioux Reservet on, cr es
ing the Yellowstone at the mouth of the Big Horn, and thence west near Helena,
in Montana, and through the Hell Gate Pas3 to the Rocky Mountains to the channel
of the Columbia River.
“ J o i n t C o m p a n i e s ” o f N e w J e r s e y . — With the view to procure funds for the
improvement of the canal and railroads of the united companies, the stockholders of
the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, the Delaware and Raritan
Canal Company, the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company, and
the Philadelnbia and Trenton Railroad Company, are entitled to subscribe at par
fo- 15 per ee t of the amount of stock which shall stand in their names on the books
of the sai l companies, collectively, on the 1 th day of July next, at the commence
ment of the o<y; the stock thus subscribed for to be stock of t e said three'firstnamed companies, and to be contributed by them in proportion to the present amount
of capital st ck of each company; and each stockholder entitled to a fractional part
of a share shall be allowed to subscribe there! r a full thare ; but no fractional sub
scription received. The subscriptions will close August 10th. Every stockhjlder

150

R A IL R O A D

\Avgust,

IT E M S .

holding less than seven shares will be entitled to subscribe for one share. The
installments on account of the new stock shall be paid in cash, in two instalments
of 50 per cent each, as follows : First— Fifty dollar a share at the time of subscrip
tion— between the 22d day c f July and the 10th day of August, I860. Seco nd—
Fifty dollars a share between the 22d day of January and the 10th day of Feb
ruary, 1870. Stockholders failing to subscribe within the time mentione 1, or neg
lecting to pay tie instalments when due, will forfeit their right to the new stock.
R u t l a n d R a i l r o a d . —The decision of the Court at Vergennes, V t., on the petition
of the Rut’and Railroad Company for possession of the road, which was oj posed by
some of the first mortgage bondholders of the old Rutland and Burlington, leaves the
matter as before the petition was made, the property being still in the h inds of the
trustees of the second mortgage bonds. Nearly all the second mortgage bonds have
been converted into common stock of the Rutland company, and over $1,00',000
of the $1,800,000 first mortgage bonds have betn converted into preferred stock.
The Rutland >oad ask for possession, a9 they hold that they can manage more pro
fitable than the trustees, by increasing the rolling stock an 1doing more business.
This has beendenied them, and the case remains in the lawyers’ hands, and may be
there for years to come. In most cases of contention for rights claimed equit ble com
promise is judicious, and we do not believe this an exceptional one Even if the first
mortgage bondholders could eventually, years hence peihaps. obtain every dollar of
principal and all back irterest, a fair settlement now would undoubtedly result more
to their benefit than a long legal controversy, with its attendant costs and troubles.
The experience cf other roads would certainly confirm this view of the matter.—

B oston Jou rn a l.
T he

S u b s t it u t io n

T e n - F o r t ie s

fo e

F iv e - T w e n t ie s

N a t io n a l

B ank

S ecu

following letter has bien addressed by the Secretary of the Treasury
to the Comptroller of Currencv, July 23 :
Referring to mv letter of May 14th u lt, I have decided to permit the substitution
of ten fortits for five twenties or the exchange of any gold-bearing bonds now held
as security for circulating notes on the lads hitherto adopted; the ten-fifties to
be received at e i ’hty five per cent of their par value, and all other six per cent
gold-hearing bonds at ninetv per cent The six per cent currency bonds issued by
the United States to the Pacific Railroad will not he received as security for the
circu'ation of National banks; and the exchange of gold-bearing bonds is subject
hereafter to revision if it shall be found that such exchanges are so frequent as to
become onerous to the department.
G eorge S. B outw ell,
Secretary of the Treasury.
The Comptroller of the Currency has given notice accordingly.
r it ie s

. — The

P a c i f i c R a i l r o a d F r e i g h t s . — Under the tariff for through freights by rail to the
Pacific a car load weighing 18,000 pounds is transported from Chicago to Sacramento
for $900. This is a charge of just $5 per hundred for transportation a distance of
2,266 miles. The division of rates per car load gives the road to Omaha, 490
miles, $110; the Union Pacific to Promontory, 1,085 roi’ es, $385 ; an 1 the Central
Pacific, from Promontory to Sacr .mento, $405. So the Northwestern or the Rock
Island receives about $22 4 5 per car load per hundred miles, the Union Pacific
$35 5^, and the Cenlral Pacific $58 70 per car lead per hundred mile*. The dis
tance from Chicago to New York is just about two fifths of ihe distance horn Chicago
to Sacramento.
C o l o r a d o R. R. I t e m s . —The Denver News says that “ a very large proportion o f
the goods now arriving at Denver come by the Kansas Pacific Road. Large invoices
of groceries are coming in from Chicago by that route, all included under a single
rate of freight, and without classification. The tariff is astonishingly low. Now
let St. Louis compete with Chicago in her selling prices.
O i l C r f .e k
and A llegh an y
R i v e r R a i l r o a d C o m p a n y .—This Company gives
notice that the Commissioners of its Sinking Fund will purchase for investment, on
and after August 2d, from the several stockh lders at par, five per cent of the capital
of the stock as it may stand on the iooks of the Company on the 1st of July, 1869.
Those who elect to sell that amount <f their stock at par for cash, must notify the
Commissioners of the fact, and present their certificate- before the 20th of July. The
transfer books of the Company are to be removed to Pittsburg after the 1st proximot

1869]

R A IL R O A D

IT E M S .

151

— The Detroit Tribune comments as follows on the vote in that city against aid to
railro ds : “ As we intimated would probably be the case, the propositi n to loan
the cred t of the city to certain railroad companies was defeated yesterday by a large
majority. The majority against the Detroit & Hillsdale road was 3,874, the largest,
and against the Detroit & Howell Roa 1 2,206, the emalles . The total vote was
not far from 6,000. The vote of the city last fall was about 12,000, showing that
the vote yesterday was about half the full vote. Little interest was taken in the
election. But the adverse majority is decisive enough to show that, as matters now
stand, Detioit will not help build railroads. As our reader\are aware, we desired
a different result, and labored for it. We think the result, as it n w stands, will
be unfavorable to our city. The most potent agency against voting aid was the
existing railroad corporations, which organized the opposition, and from their employes
furnished a considerable share of the majority aga nst it. *
— The Portland, Saco and P rtsmouth Railroad’s stockholders at their meeting
lately discus ed the contract between this road and the Boston and Maine and
Eastern railroads. The latter were thereby bound to p iy their rent in gold and
silver coin, but have for six years availed themselves of the Legal Tender act to pay
in greenbacks. The lessors think that under a recent decision of the United States
Supreme Com t, they have a right to recover back rent according to the c* ntract’s
terras, which would amount to$l 94,658 in go’ d, cr $323,600 in currency. The direc
tors were accotdingly instructed to take action to recover for the past and enforce
tor the future according to those terms.
The N. Y . Tribune gives the following items;
— The Rari an and Delaware Bav Rdiroad will be sold on the 4th, of September
at the Manchester Depot., under a writ of fieri facias issue I by the Court of Chancery
at the suit •f Charles J. Hendricks n and Stewart Brown, complainants, who are
holders of mortgages. The entire property of the Company, including the steamer
Jesse Hovt, will be sold, and the branch road from Manchester to Tom’s River
will he disposed of, subject to the payment of the principal of certain bonds seemed
by mortgage given to James W. Alexander Trustee.
— The line of the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis Railroad is now located as
far as Rhoad’s Point, in Macoupin county. From that place different routes have
been surveyed, with St Louis as the objective point. One route proposed lies
through Miles’ Station thence to the Terra Haute Road ; another through Shipman ; another through Brighton to Bethalto ; another through Biighton and Foster
burg to the Junction; and lastly, one through Upper Alton to the Junction.
— A b’ll has passed the Senate c f Florida in aid of the railroads in th it State.
It is proposed to issue bonds to the fmount of $14,000 a mile, to aid in ex ending
the Pensacola and Georgia road to Mobile, all the bonds to be issued at the same
time. The second proposition is for the State to endorse to the extent of $14,000
a mile the bonds of any company undertaking to build a road from Gainsville to
Tampa. The indorsed bonds to be issued as sections of five miles are completed.
A meeting was held at Leavenworth on July 14th to organize the Leave worth
and Gulf Railroad. The people of the c unties interested in the road are in earnest,
and the work will be speedily undertiken an! accomplished.
Many leading
capitalists are among the incorporators, and the scheme is one that will command
the co-operation and eupp it of the people ot a large and important section of
country.
The net profit of the Great Western Rairway Company of Canada for the three
months ending April 30, 1869, available for dividend (after deducting interest
charges loss by exchange, &e.)is $S1,710 78, against $79,191 45 in the correspond
ing period of 1868.
— The Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad Company has adjusted, its legal diffi
culties, and all the suits are to bo withdrawn. The company is nly t ) is ue $l,"00,000 of new stock, instead of $ I,0u0,000, to be divided equally among the parties,
repre ented by Azariah fi >ody and Jay Gould. The ro’ d from Akron to Tole o is
expected to be built within eight m nths, and also that from Djcatur to St. Louis.

152

P U B L IC

DEBT

THE

U N IT E D

\August,

STATES.

PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES.
STATEMENT COMPARING THE RETURNS FOR JULY 1 AND AUGUST 1,1809.
D E B T B E A R I N G C O IN I N T E R E S T ,

Jny 1.

Character c f issues.

6s, “
6s, “

7,022.000
IS,415.000
945,000
189,317 60»
514.771,600
75,000,000
194,557,300
129. 43,8<'0
332 9 <8,950
203.3 7,250
370,583,450
42,539,350

Increase. Decrease

$ ...... S L$........
100

600

B E A R IN G L A W F U L M O N E Y IN T E R E S T .

Ss, Certificates (demand)....................................
3s, Navy Pension F u n d ....................................
D E B T ON

$ 20 , 000,000

7,0 >2,001
18,415,0 0
945.000
189,317,500
514,771.600
75 0 O.Ol'O
194,567,300
121443.800
332,998.950
203,327,250
319,582,850
42.539,350

July 1, ’67 (5 20's)____
July 1, ’68(5-2 j’ s) . . . .
DEBT

.Aug 1.

i0000

5s, Bonds of Jan 1,’59(15yr?)..
)“
44 Jan. 1,’61 (lOyrs)..
68, B’d sof’Gl (after Dec 31,’80).6s, “
“ (Oregon war)’ 81..
6s, “ o f Tune 20,’61 ( 20yrs)...
6s, “
May 1,6-, (5-20’s) ..
6s, “
June ’ 63 (’81) .. .. .
58, “
Mar. 1,’64(10-^0'9)...
6s, “
Nov. 1, ’ 61(5-20’ s)..
6s, “
July 1 ,’ 65 (5-20’s ) ....
6s, “
Nov. 1 ,’65 (5-20’ s )....

Wflicn

$5 \1 *0,000
14,000,000

IN T E R E S T H A S e E A S E D

6s, Bonds of 1862, ’67. ’ 68...........
os. Bonds (tax iu-iem.) 1.-64.. ..
Treasu y notes prior to 1857___
“
“
since 1857..........
6s, Certificates of indebt’ ess . . .
6s, Comp’d int. notes ’67 &’0 8 ...
Temporary loan.........................
7-30s, 3 year notes (’67 & ’6S)

$50,810,000
14,000,000

.........
.........

$1,310,000
.........

SIN CE M A T U R IT Y .

$0,300

; $05,700
242,000
1' 3,615
368 222

$ 1 0 2 ,0 0 0

242,000
201.512
379,152
19,000
2.879,410
186,310
1,11,6,500

897
10,930

1 2 .0 0 0

2,787,911)
1*4,110
993, c00

93 £00
2 ,< 0 0

168,000

N O IN T E R E S T .

Demand notes.......................
0 . iS. n,egal Tender notes___
Postal & fractional currency.
Gold Certificates....................
Debt
“
“
*•

bearing coin interest...
b’rinv lawful money int .
on which i t h s ceas’d
bearing no interest___

$121,638
355,0:15,105
82.062,028
30,489,640

$4,919

$116,719
61,805
356,(100,000
31,030,3 0
36,725,610 $0,*236,200

$2,107,930,600 $2,107,031 300
66,129.090
64.810,0(0
5,071,884
4,790,'*7
418,608,501
423,872,859

1,081,728

$700
$1,310,000
281,827
5,264,358

Aggregat principal debt.................................. $2,597,730,985 $2,601,401, 16 $3,673,231
Coi imerestaccraed. . .................................
45,373,830
31,50.0 9
.........
Lawful money int. accrued..............................
1,382,70!)
1,2 7,700
... .
Int. accrued on matured debt......................... .
690,680
660,784
—

13,523,801
175,00)
29,896

Agg egated.bt&int. a c u’ d ........................... $2,645,178,295$2,635,122,739

10,055,556

Deduct amount in Treasury:
Coin belon mg to Government. . . - - .............
Coin lb whica certificates are cutstanding...
Curie i c y ...............................................................
Sin kV fund in coin, b’de & int .............
—
Other U. S. coin in . bds. purch »sed & accrued
interest thereon ............................................

$79,713,673
»*'.489,640
37,097,819
8,867,282

$6",405,771
36,725.840

Total coin & cnr’y in Treas’y.

$156,168,414 $153,556,002

$13,307,902
6,236,200

23,3 1,6,54

11,932,147

13,710,165

3,064,865

15,110,590 15,110,590

Debt less coin and currency.............................. $2,189,099,881 $2,481,566,737

$ .........

$2,612,412

......... $17,443,144

B ON DS I SU ED TO U N IO N F A C IF IC R A IL R O A D A N D B R A N C H E S .

(Under acts of July 1,1862, a d July ’. '•61 principal payable in 30 years after date, and
interest semi-annua iy, in January and July, both in lawful money.)
Gs, Union Pacific Pailroad........................... . . . .
6-, Union Pacific E.l>) P R .....................
6s, Sioux City & P- cific R .R .....................
___
6s’ Cm tr 1 Bran h (Kansas).......................
6s, Western Pacific ti li .. .......................
Total amount issued...................................

$25,018,000
22 789,(H0

$26,6 ’^,000
6,>03,0 0
1.62',320
24,-.71,0(0
1,600,OOt)
320,0J0

640,000

.........

1,582,000

.........

$10,800,320 $4,222,000

....

1869]

C O M M E R C IA L

C H R O S IC L E

AND

R E V IE W .

153

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW
Monetary Affairs—Rites of Loans and Discounts—Ronds gold at New York Stock Exchange
Board—Price of Government Securities at New York—Course of Consols and American
Seen ities at Nfew York—<'teninn, Ei-h e-t, Lowest and Closing Prices at the New York
Stock Exchange—General Movement of Coin and Bullion at New York—Course of Gold
at New York—Course of Fore gu Exchange at New lork.

July has been marked by a more settled feeling in monetary affairs. There
has been a steady reaction from the extreme stringency in money which had pre
vailed f ir some weeks previous, and at the close o f the month the rate on call
loans was 5 @ 7 per cent and on prime paper 7 @ 9 per cent. The change of tone
was due almost exclusively to the release of a large amount o f currency pre
viously taken into the Treasury. A ccording to the Debt statement, the July
purchases of bonds by the government, with premium added, amounted to some
thing over $517,000,000, while the receipts on account o f gold sales were about
$2,750,000, so that, upon these operations, the street received a balance o f
$14,250,000 o f currency, about the amount which had been previously lost
through the preponderance of M r. Boutwell’s sales o f gold over his pnrehas s o f
bonds and the large receipts o f the Treasury on account o f infernal revenue. Con
trary to expectation, there has been no influx o f money from either the W est
or the South. The latter section is evidently hoarding currency, in the absence
o f backs o f deposit or o f any means of employing its savings, and having
app aienjy no balance of indebtedness to the North, is not compc-lled to send
money here.
The West, instead of settling its maturing obligations in cur
rency or forwarding here its bank balances for temporary employment, has
required all its funds for local business and sett'ed its Eastern balances by
esp< daily heavy shipments o f breadstuff^. W e thus find onrselves at the beginnir.g of August, close up; n the period for the Western crop movements, with the
currency more than nsu l'y distributed over ibe country, and widi but little cir
culation at the East, the amount o f legal-tenders in the N ew Y ork Clearing
House banks on July 31, being only $56,100,900, against $73,60(1,000 on
August 1st, 1868. This condition of things suggests the probability that the
W estern demand on this city for currency to move the crop3 will be less this iJ l
than usual, which is a consideration favoring a steady money market for the next
iew weeks.
The ea i r feeling in money has contributed to a more settled tone on the
Stock Exchange. The severe experience o f operators, during the spring months,
bar nn'urally produce! a marked caution, with a consequent inactivity. Some
of ilie larger speculators have, under this condition o f the market, taken a
lengthy vacation, and stocks have thus been very much left to take their own
cour-e. The- only features of interest have been in what are known as the
Var.de bilt stocks— New Y crk C 'D tra i, Hudson River and Harlem— which
have been actively dealt in at a iarge advance, owing to the negotiations for the
consolidation o f the two fo'm er roads, and, as is reported, the intendid declar
ation of a large sn ip divdend upon the latter. N ew Y ork Central advanced,
within the month, from 189| to 2 1 7 £ ; Hudson River from 159$ to 191, and
Harlem from 142$ to lG 8 f.

The maiket generally, however, has failed to

154

C O M M E R C IA L

C H R O N IC L E

AND

\August,

R E V IE W .

respond to the special firmness on these stocks. But, although the fransctions
have been light, amounting to only 449,150 shares, recorded on the exchange,
against 1,344 7G7 sh ires for the same month of 186d, yet there his been a steady
improvement in the tone of the market, the re ult o f growing confidence in the
future course o f money and o f liberal earnings by the roads.
Classes.
Ban!; shares................
Railroad “ ................

Telegraph “ ..............
Steamship1* ............... .
Expr’ ss&c“ ...............

1808.
3,-86
1,14'.).707
2, >80
10,125
34,320
23,833
55,201
70,412

Total—June..........
Si. ce January 1..

1,344 7(7
11,662,386

Coal

“

.............

Mining

“

................

Improv’ nt** ..............

1869.
1.929
368,363
787
5,3'0
1,500
15.680
2 '.400
32,101

Increase.
....
....
........
.......
........
....
........
....

410,150
8,293,332

Dec.
1,657
781.344
1,493
14,125
12,820
8,153
31,714
44,311
805,617
8,363,054

The measures which have contributed to the eise o f money have, at the same
time, been productive o f au extraordinary activi y and firmness in Government
securities. J r. Boutw 11 has bought, on the open m irbet, @14,000,1 Oi) of FiveTwenty bonds $2,00 *Ob i being on account o f the Sinking Fund and §1*2,000,000 subject to the approval o f O ingress, the Secretary probab y assuming that
Congress will hereafter consent to these purchases being charged to account o f
the Sinking Fund, f r the period antecedent to his incumbency, when the law
providing for these operations was not enforced. The result of these large with
drawals of bonds rom the market, and the . ntic:p ition of further large pur
chases by the Secretary, in Augu<t, was an adv nee of 6 @ 8 per cent on all bonds
except those issues chiefly held in Europe.

In July there is usually a free foreign

demand for the reinvestment of the July interest; this year, however, the sup
ply on the foreign markets appears to have been adequate for that purpose and
few have b en exported.
BONDS

SOLD

AT T H E

N. T . 8TOCK E X C H A N G E B O A E D .

1868.

Classes.

................................ $26,2'>4,200

.............................. '

St’ c &city b’ d s ................
Company b’d s ............... .................................

i*8?,"60

1,1 88,500

Total—.June..............

Since January 1 ............. .............................. 216,140,3.0

1869.

$32,9:0,ICO

Inc.
$6,6o5,900

Dec.
$ .............

$4,418,600

6,592,060
1,134,500
$4 >,676,600
214,997,- 59

? 82,000
10,7 >8,500
54.0)0

4,85 T,539

The daily closing prices o f the principal Government securities at the New
Y o rk Stock Exchange Board in the month o f June, as represented by the
lwtest saie officially reported, are shown in the following statem ent:
P E IC E S

Dav of
month.
1..............................
2............................
5 ..........................
»i..................... . ...
7.............................
8 ............................
10.............................
1 2 ............................
13 ............................
14.............................

O P G O V E R N M E N T S E C U R IT IE S A T

NEW YORK.

6’ s, 1SS1.—,,---------- -6’ s, (5-20 yrs.)Coupon------ ---- <5 s,10-40
’64. C’pn.
Coup. Reg. l c62. 1861
18(5, new ’67.
11-:%
108
131* m % its%
12>% i n % 1 1 8 % 110% 116V ilo% 1 *S%
117?^ 118% 116% 116% i i % 108%
117% 122
(IIo iday.)
108%
11 7% 113%
116%
107%
117% ia iv 117% . ... ii6% M6% 116
217
1:6%
103
u
x
113
)1S%
1'6%
m
%
.......... ........ m %
121% 118% 113% li7,V 117V 117% 108
119K 117% m % 113% 108%
117% 121% 119
120K 1 2 2 % 12! 3^ 121% 126% 10% 120% 110
110% i l ' % 110%
.................
1i ' H
U 1X
121% 120
123% 131% 12»% 120% 126% 120% 110%
.................. 120%

1SGD]

C O M M E R C IA L

21 __
22

-6 s, (5-20 yr8.) Coupon----->’ s ,1 0 - 4 .
Keg. 1862. 1864.
1865. new. 1867. 1
s.C’ pn.
120% 124% 121*
120* 120% m ; 110V
120* U S X 121% 121% 120* 120*
■
n o*
121* 121% 120* 1:0*
t - m
121X 121* 120% 120% 120V iiok
u \ y .
U S X
la l* 120* 120* 12 V iiov
120% M M
121* 121X 1 0% 1-0% K0% no%
121* 121*
10
120* 119% no*
121
USX 121% 121% 120* 120* 120>4
123%
120% 12 * 120% iii*
u i y ,
121* U S % 121% 122% 120* 120%
122
124
122% 122% 121
121* 121
m*
n t %
i-ai* 124* U ! X 122* 121* 121
124* 122% 123
123
121* 32 !*
125
123*
123* 122* 122* 122* 122
114%
128* 123*
U S X
122.*
114%
*0*
1* 1*;
l* 'X
120%
ia i«
120
*
12 I*
121
121*

................
................

......

23........
21........
2G........
27........

23.........

20........

155

R E V IE W .

Coup.

16____

19
20

AND

—6 8, IS

Day of
month.
1 5 ...
1 7 ............

C H R O N IC L E

..................

First................................................
Highest...........................................
Low est...........................................
Last..................................................

117%
123%
116%
123%

117%
122%
117%
122%

121%
125%
121%
125%

117%
128%
117%
123%

118%
123%
118%
123%

116%
122 %
116%
122%

115% 116%
122% 122
115% 116
122% 122

103
114%
JU7%
114%

C O U R SE O F CONSOLS A N D A M E R IC A N S E C U R IT IE S A T L O N D O N .

Date.

Thursday................. 1
Friday........................2
Saturday................ 3
Monday .................. 5
Tuesday.................... 6
Wednesday.............. 7
Thursday.................. 8
F rid a y .......................0
Saturday ............ 10
Monday.................... 12
Tuesday................. 11
Wednesday.............. 14
Thursday.................. 15
Friday....................... 16
Saturd i y .................. 17
Monday.................... l!)
Tuesday.................... 20
Wednesday.............. 21
Thursday.................22

Cons Am. securities.
lor U. S. 711.0 Erie
mon. 5-208 sh’ s. shs.
02*
02*
92%
93*
93%
03*
03*
03*
9*
93 V5
93*

!»•;*
93%
03*
93*
93*
91*
93*
93*

80%
81*
81 h
8 *
81*
81*
81*
81*
81*
81%
92
81*
82%
82
82%
82*
82*
83%
S3*

95
95
95*
95%
95*
94
95*
9 *
95 H95*
95 Vi
95*
93
93
93%
93*
9 '*
94*
93

19*
19%
19*
19*
19*
19*
19%
18%
IS*
IS*
18%
18%
19*
19*
19*
19*
19*
19
19

Date.

Cons, Am. securities.
for U.S.II1I.C.I Erie
mon. 5-20s sh’ s. jsh’ e.

Friday.........
"aturday . . .
Monday ___
Tuesday ...
Wednesday.
Thursday__
Friday.........
Saturday___

- 0! 9'% 83% j 94
31 93% 83%I 94

19%
19%

Lowest.........
Highest.......
Range..........
Last.............

92% 60%, 93
93% 83% 96
3
2
93% 83$ 94

18%
19%

Low7 )) 0 th .
II ig
i-s3-.•
Hng■)j h
c/2h
CZ2H
Last .

92%
94

93%
93%
93%
93%
93%
93%

| 91% | 19

82%|94% IS)
S2%| 91%I IS)
82 is, I 94% 19
11)

82% I 94

83%

V4 19%

19%

74% 9*2% 17%
81
98% 26%
9%
6% 9%
93% 83% 94 ' 19%

Gold has attracted little speculative interest, and the business at the Gold
Room has been very light. There appears to have been considerable di ap
pointment of the expectations o f operators relative to the exports <f specie,
the shipments having been comparatively light, v bile !t was supposed, In m
the late large excess o f imports over exports, and the heavy interest p yim-uts
to be made to Europe duiing July, we should h ve to ship large amounts o f
gold. While, therefore, it was predicted in some quarters, at the opening of
the month, tb.J upon these grouads the pin e would advance fiom 137£ to 14t),
it steadily declined to 134J, and ranged for the most part below 136, During
the month of July, lust year, t1e price ranged between 140& and 1 4 5 J ; in 1867,
between 138 and 140-g-, and in 1866 between 147 and 1 r 5 f . The supply on
the market has hem inert ased during the month, through the government pay
ments of July interest and the

Treasury sales o f §2,0' 0,0l>0 o f co in ; and

hence o.i the 1st of August there wa3 over §36,000,000 o f private gold
on deposit in the Treasury, the largest amount ever reached.

held

[August,

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

156

M onday..........
Tuesday..........
Wednesday___
T hu rsday......
Friday.............
Saturday .......
M o n d a y ..........
Tuesday..........
Wednesday.. .
9 lnnsday.........
F rid a y ............
{Saturday..........
Monday...........
Tuesday...........
Wed esday.. .
Thursday........

137 w; 138* 137* 137
13(5* 137* 136*
135% 1*7% 135%
5
»■oil day
.......6 137 135% 187 135%
.......7 ID * 13 t% 135*
....... 8 135* 135% 135* 135%
.......9|136
133* 136* 135%
...... 10 135% 13'* 135* 135*
135% 137* 137%
....1 3 137% 188* 137* 137%
.......14 137% 137 137* 137%
1 7 136% 137 13'%
134* 136* 136* 135%
___ 17 135^ 13a* 135* 135%
.......19 136% 135% 136t| 135*
.......20 135% 135% 135* 135%
.......21 135* 135 13a* 135
. . . . 22 135% 135* 13 * 135%

Lowest.'

Openi’g

Date.

-t-i
ai
h
tQ

Closing!

’Thursday........
Friday...........

. Closing.:

Date.

Lowest

Openi’g

C O U R S E O F GOLD A T N E W Y O R K .

135%
136*
137*
137%
136%
136*
136*
136*

185*
136*
137*
137
135*
186*
(36*
136%

Friday.................
Saturday ............
M nday...............
1uesday............
Wednesday........
Thu; sday...........
F iid iy ...............
atui day...... ►«..

....23 185% 135%
....21 135% 1135%
....26 136% |136%
137* 13a*
136* 135*
...% 9 185* 185*
...30 136% 186*
....31 136% 136*

July ...1869........
“
1868........
“
1867........
“
1866........
“
1865........
“
1864 .......
“
1863........
“
1862........

137*
14(1*
138*
151%
141
222
in *
10J

S’ ce Jan 1,1869.'!

134* 130% 144* 136%

134* 137*! DU*
14u% 145* 145*
138 140* 140
147 155% 119
138% 146% 114
222 285
123% 145 158*
108% 120% 115

Tm- iollowine table will m ow tlie opeumg, highest, lowest and closing prices
ol ail the railway and miscellaneous securities quoted at the N ew Y ork S tock
Exchange during the months of June and July, i 869 :
Railroad Stocks—
Alton & Terre llaut..........
'■
"
pret...
Chicago & A lto n .............
do'
do pref.........
Chicago, Burl. & Quincy .
do
& North westuu.
do
do pref—
do
& Rock Island...,
Colurab., Chic. & lnd. 0 ,...
Ch-v . & Pittsburg...........
do Col.,Cin. & In d ......
Dei., Lack & Western___
Dubuque & Sioux city ....
Harlem..........................
Hannibal & St Joseph ...
do
do pref...,
Hudson R iv e r...............
Illinois Central ...............
Joliet & >hicago...
—

....

....
....
....

Long Island.......................

Lake S hore.....................
do
&Mich. South.
Macen & Western..........
Mar. & Oincin.,lst ...
“
2d “
Michigan Central.............
c,o
S. & N .In d . ...
Milwaukee & St. Paul. ...
no
do pref...
Morris & Essex.................
New Jersey ......................
do
Central............
New York Central............
do
& N. H a v,n ...
do
do scrip..
Norwich & Worcester----Ohio & M ississippi..........
do
do
p ref...

....

23*
8%
136*
n s * 119
79*
eo
91*
Hd* 93*
133
122*
191* 191*
149
139
125
125
105
35* 37
70
300
159
100*
125
77*
83
82
8*

....
....
...
....
. ..
....
....

Panama .........................
Pit.isb., Ft. W . & C hica...

R eading..........- —
•
it, one, W. & Osrdensb’g
Toledo, Wab. & Western
"do
do
do pi cl..
Miscellaneous—
Cumberland Coal.........
p. n syivama...........
Wilks bane C al.......
Del. A Hud. Canal .
Pacific M ail..............

- Jtme-----Open. High. L w.
39
38
63
63.
59
162
152*
159
It 0
199
190
93% 77*
93*
164* 106* 93*
12i
115
43% 39
10S* 196* HI*
75«
73
119
113
109
105
142
157
152
139
117*
118
133* 134
166% 153%
147
143
86
96
96
50
50
117
107*
105
108% 102*

....
....

23
8*
128
107%
70*
81*
89
130
103
183
135
194*
105
32
70
295
154*
96*
125
66%
80

Clos.
39
60
160
160
190
81*
95*
118*
40
101
74
113
107
146*
120
120
165
145
96
50
107*
108*

---- July-------Open. High. Low. Clos.
60
162
ICO*
191
82%
96%
118*
38*
102
74
lli*
105
144
119
119*
165%
14a*
50

110*
120
23
23
8*
«*
133* iso
1 '7*
75% 76
86* 86
80*
89%
133
103
101*
195* 106 or
136
127
124* 124
105
104%
33* 3a*
70
295
285
155% 156
97* 98%
12)
72
72%
8i
76

60*
166
166
191
8i
96%
118*
39*
109*
76
113
1U5
168*
133
130
194
146

59*
158
159
188
78%
93*
113*
36
102
72
110
102
14a*
115
1:9
159*
140*

59*
166
It 6
190
80*
9514
114*
36%
107%
73
112*
1' 4%
163%
126%
126
187*
111*

110% 104* 105*
1-dO
120
120
23
23
23
9*
9%
9*
177* 131*
7,8*
89*
90

73
84*
87*

'•7%
87*
81*

102*
101* 97
a n * 189% 215
131
la s * 131
128
124
328
105
104% 105
33
51% 32*
2^5
270
270
157* 150
153%
99% oa * 9 i *
77
86

71*
76

75
so

36
33* 34% 32
S3* SO
S3*
225
225
225
225
225
225
225
66
65
45
55
62
55
62
134
130
131
131
331
127
127
93* 60* 88*
88* 92% 81* 84*

1839]

JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FIN AN CE.

Boston Water Power........................
16%
16
15%
15%
16% 17
68
62
62
62%
Canton............................. ..................
66 X
62%
11
11
11
It
Brunswick City..................... ........
8%
8X
7
8
9
9
Mariposa...................................................... 24
24 X
83
do
1st pref....................................... 82
SIX
81X
14
io
60% 60%
do
p r e f .................................
17
16%
14
15
Quicksilver.................................................. 16%
10%
18X
16X
io x
39
West. Union Telegraph............................. 48%
43^4 43% 33
38% 39
Citizens G is.......................................................
160
160
250
250
250
250
Mai battauCas ..........................................250
108
Bankers & Brokers Ass....................
109
110
110
Express—
40%
40% 40%
American...................................................... 40%
■9
42%
American M . Union.................................
SS%
41%
39% 44%
43%
58
63
59%
Adams ..................
62
62
68 X
59 X
72%
73
66
United States................................. .........
51
67
70
14
15
16
Merchant’ s Union..... ......................
6
6
15 X
Wells, Fargo & Co................ ........
30%
32%
20% 32
31%
31%

157

10
1(5
37%

100

89%
58%
60%

Foieign Exchange has been steady at about specie shipping rates; the supply
of commercial bills snd of bond bills, however, l as proved sufficient to obviate
the necessity o f sny considerable covering of drafts with specie.
COURSE

FOREIGN EXCHANGE (60 D A Y S ) A T NEW Y O K E .

London.
cents for
Days.
54 pence.
1 ............................3C9%@I09%
2 .................... . . . 109%@10!l%
8 ...............................10'%@109%
5 ........................................@ -----li
109% @ li9%
7
........................... !00%@110
8
........................... T0S%@110
0 ...............................109%@110
10 ........................... 109%@1'.0
12 ........... ..............10!IX@110
13 ........................... 101l%@110
14 ...........................109%@U0
15 ...........................110 @110%
16 ...........................110 @ 1 I %
17 ...........................110 @110%
11 ...........................110 @110%
20 ........... ............ 110 @U (i%
21 ...........................110 @110%
21............................... 110 @11 OX
23 .......................... 110 @110%
24 .......................... 110 © 1 .0 %
26 .......................... 110%@110%

28 .......................... 1 1 0 % @ ....
20 ........................... 110%® •
SO............................... H O X w llO X
3 1 ... ......................... 1 1 0 % ® ....

Amsterdam. Bremen. Hamburg,
Paris,
centimes
cents for cents for cents for
florin.
rix daler. M. banco.
for dollar.
517%>i 515% 40Jf@40% 78%@78% 85%@:5f,;%
516% @515
40%@41>% 7S%@78% 35%@85%
5,G%@5!5
4 ’%@40% 7S%@78% 35% @35%
H o l id a y .
. . . © ....................@ ____
.. @ . . . .
516%@515
40%@40% 7S!t@7»% 3)%@35%
515 @513% 40%@40% 78%@7S% 81«®35Ji
515 @514% 40%@4(>% 70 @79% 35%@S(>
515 @514)1 4U%@40% 70 @79,X 35% ©36
515 @514% 40%@40% 7!) @79% 35%@36
515 @514% 40%@4l% 79 @79% 35%@36
515 @514% 40%@40% 70 @79% 35%@36
515 @514% 40% @40« 70 @79% 38%@36
513%@518% 40%@4il% 70 ©70.X 35IX©36
513%@513% 4t>%@40% 70 ®7*% 35%@36
613%@513% 4ll%@40% 70 @70 X 85%@80
513%@513% 40%@40% 79 ©793a 35%@S6
M*%@618% 40%@40% 79 @7934 85%@"6
513%@513% 4o%@40% 79 @79% 36%@36
513%@513% 40% @40% 70 @79% 35%@36
51S%@513% 4».%@4ll% 79 @19% 3S%©36
513%@518%
40%@40% 79 @1934 35%@36
514%@518% 4J%@40% 79 @7934 36 @36%
614%@MK% «0%@40% 79 @7934 36 @«>%
514%@513% 40X @40)4 70 @79% 36 @30%
40fc@40K 79 @7934 36 @36)4
514%@518%
5)4%@518%
40%@40% 79 @7934 36 @86%
514%@51S%
40%@I0% 7!) @7934 36 @86%

7;X@71X

71X& 7IX
71 X@71.if
71%@71%
7l%©71%
71%@71%
71%@71Jf
71%©71%
71%@71%
7 13) @71X
71X@7134
71X@71X
71),@7134
7I%@71%
7l!»@7Utf
71)4 @71X
71%©71%

71X@71X
71%@7I%

July,
I860............................. 109%@U0% 517%@513% 40%©40% 7S%@79% 3o%@36% 71 @71%
July,
1868........................... 110 @110% 513)4©512)4 41%@41% 79%@80
36X@36)4 71%@72

JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE.
Returns of the New York, Philadelphia and Boston Banks.

Below we give the returns of the Banks o f the three cities since Jan. 1 :
N E W Y O R K C IT Y B A N K R E T U R N S .

lo m s .
Date.
January 2 ___ $259,090,057
January 9 — , 258,792,562
January 16.... 262,338,831
January 23..,. 264,954,6 9
January 30.... 265,171,’ 09
February H. . 206,541,732
February 13. . 264,380,407
February 20. . 263,428,064
February 27. „ 261.371,897
262,089,883
31 arch 6 ___
March 13... . . 261,* 69,695
March 20___ . 263,098,302
Marrh 21___ . 203,909,5^9
April 3 ....... . 261,933,675

Ciivul t’.on.
►Specie.
Deposits
L. Tend’ s. Ag. e’ear’"
$20,736,122 $34,379, COO $150,490,445 $48,896,421 $585,1.04.7
34,344,156
187.905,539
27,384.730
51,141,128
701,772,0
29,258,536
34,279,153
195,484,843
52.927.053 675,795,0
31,265,9,6
28.804.197
197,101,163
51,022,119
671,231,5
34,231,156
27,784.923
196,955,462
54 747.561) 609,30",2
27,939,404
34,246,436
196,602,899
53,4*14,133 670 3*29,*;
34,263,451
3\S54,331
192,977,609
52,334,952 690,754 c
23,351,: 91
34,247,321
187,612 546
£0,997,397 70 ,991,C
20,832,603
34,247 9SL
185,216,175
50.835.054
529,.situ
19,486,634
34,275,885
182,601,437
49,115,369 727,1 j8,1
17,358,671
34,6110,445
If 2,392,458
49,039,62 i 0214. i7T r
34,741 310
15,213,300
183,504,999
50,714,874
730,710*C
34,777,814
12,073,722
150,113,910
59,555,103
797,987,4
31,816,916
10,7^7,889
175,325,759
48,496,359
837,' 23, C

158

JOURNAL OF BAN KIN G, CURRENCY, AND FIN AN CE.

Date.
Loans.
Apr' 1 10 . . . . . 257 480,427 •
April 17
. . . 255,184,882
April -21....... 257,558,074
May 1...........,.26u,485,lf>0
May 8 . .. .. . 268,486,372
May 13........... . 260.498,8117
May i ■......... . 270,275,952
May .1*........... . 274,985,461
June 5 _____ 275,919,609
June 12......... . 271,983,735
June 10......... . 163,341,006
June 2u......... . 260,481,782
J lya............ 258,368.471
July 0...........,. 25%424’942
July 17........... . 257,008,289
July 4........... . 259.64 ,889
July 81........... . 260,530,225
Date.
Janua y 4 . . .
Janu »ry U ... ...............
January 18 ... ...............
Janu ry23..i ...............
Feb u i i y l ... ...............
February 8 ... ...............
Feb u ry 15.. ...............
Febr ary 22.. ...............
March 1 ....... ...............
Marc 8......... .............
March IS . . .
March 22 . .
March 2 9 ... . ...............
April 5 . . . .
April 12......... ...............
Ap'il 19......... ...............
A prit 26......... ...............
May 8 ......... ..............
May 1>........... .............
May 17...........
May 24. . . . . ...............
M y 8 1 ......... ...........
June 7......... ...............
J une 14-------- ...........
June 21.........
Jun •28......... ...............
July 5...........
July 12...........
July 19—
Ju y 26...........

Circulation.
Deposits.
Specie.
34,609,360
8,791,>13
1~1,495,580
7,811,779
34,436.769
172,203,494
8,830, <60
34,060,5 1
177,310,080
0.267,6 5
373,972,053
183,948,565
16,081,489
19 ,8 3,'37
83,93(5,100
15,874,760
33.977,793
199,392,449
15,429.404
33,927,386
199,414,869
17,871,-*80
2 13,055 600
33,920,845
19,051,133
33,9-2,995
199,124,042
19,053,580
34,141,790
193,886,905
19,025,444
386,214, 10
34,198,829
20,2 7,140
34,214,785
481,774,695
23,520,267
34,217,973
179,929,467
30,266,912
31,277,945
183,197,23 *
31,055,450
183,431,7 1
3'.178,437
30,079,4 4
31,110,7*8
193,622 26)
27,8 1,933
3l,< 68,677
196,410,443
rillLADELPUIA BANK RETURNS.
Loans.
Specie. Le sal Tenders.
$352,483
$13 210,397
51 642,237
544,691
13,49s, 109
52,122,733
478,462
13,729,498
411 8S7
52.537,015
14,054,870
52,032 SI3
3 2,782
14,296,570
53.030,716
3 17,0 1
13,785,595
13,573,043
52,929,391
304,681
52,416,146
2 1,307
13,208,607
52.251,351
256,933
13,010,568
52,233 iKiO
297,887
13 258.201
277.517
13.028,267
2-'5.0.)7
12,705,759
210,644
50.597,! 00
13,021.315
50,499,866
1-9,0 !3
12,109,221
50,770,193
181.246
12,643,357
51,178,371
267, S18
12,941,783
51,294,222
164,261
13,64u.063
• 51,510,982
201,753
14,2,0.371
51,936,530
270,525
14,623,803
2~0,167
14,090,305
52,361,764
174,115
15,087.01)3
52,210,874
18',257
15,481,947
52,826,357
169,316
15,37-, 388
152,451
53.121.800
15,178,3 >2
448.795
14,972,123
53,661.172
180,68 4
14 567,327
14,0.1,449
803,621
485,293
13,415,493
456,750
12 944,836

[August,

L. Tend’s. Ag. clear’gs.
48,614,732
810,05 ,455
51,001, 88
772,365,294
53,677,898
752,905,766
56,195,722
7 3,: 63,349
55,109,573
9 4,174,577
56.501,356
86'i,720,8S0
78S,747,852
57,8 8, 98
7Si,t.46,491
57,810,373
51,289.429
766,28 ,026
856,006,645
50,359,258
49.612 488
836,224,021
48,163,920
76 ,170,743
4 ,737,203
>46,763,300
48, i 2.723
676.540,291
711,328,141
51,859,706
5 8,455,097
51,271,862
54, 101.6.7
614,455,437
Deposits.
$3\ 21,0-23
38,768 511
3 * 6^5,158
: 9.585,462
29,677,943
4o,0-0 399
38,711,575
37,990,986
3 ,735,205
30,293,950
37,57 ,582
86,96<*,U09
36,800,344
35,375,854
36.029,133
37,031,747
37,487,285
38 971,281
39. i78,893
40,692,712
41.0 1,4:0
42, 47 319
42,31*0,830
42,095,077
42,066,901
41,517,716
41 321,537
40,140,497
09.834,802
36,160,611

Circulation.
$10,593,719
lu,59 <,372
10,596 560
10,51*3,914
10,599,351
10,586,552
10, 82,226
10, t 8,546
10,458,546
10,458,953
10.459,081
10,411,406
10,412,420
10,622,896
10,628,166
10,619,425
10.624,407
10,617,315
10.617,934
1 14,612
10,018 246
10,6 8,561
10 <10,890
10,0.‘1,932
10,017 S >4
10,622,704
10.618,845
10,018,*75
1 ,618,766
10,6.4,973

Deposits.
$31,538,767
38,082.891
39,717,193
39,551,747
40,228,402
39,-693,8 7
37,759.7 2
36,323.814
55, 89,400
35,5 v5,680
34,091,715
32,641.0 .7
32,930,430
33,504,199
34,392,377
31,257,071
35,302,203
86,135,742
37.457,887
38,708,304
39,347,881
38 404,621
38,491, .46
37,40s,719
36,243,995
34,341,417
31,851,745
31.520,417
35,211,103

Circulation.
$.5,151,345
25,27**,607
25,243,823
25,272.300
25,312,917
25,2 2,057
86,352,122
85,804,055
25,301,537
25.315,317
25,351,654
24,559,312
25,254,107
24, *71,716
25,338,782
25,351,814
25,319 751
S5.330.0ISO
85,321,532
85,-09.888
25,290,382
25,175,232
25,292.157
25,247,667
25,313,061
25,304,858
25,335,101
25,325,035
25,251,204

BOSTON BAN K RETURNS.

Date.
Jin ry 4 ----- ............
January 11... .............
January 18...
Janu ry 2 5 ... .............
Febru - y 1. . . .............
Feb nary 8. . . .............
Febi nu; y 15..
F e b r u a r y 2 8 .. .............
Mar«h 1.........
March . -- .............
Marc « IZ. .. . .............
Maicli 2 2 ----Hart Ii 2 9 ___ .............
April 5 ......... .............
April 12......... .............
April 19 ....... .............
Aprii v 6 -----May 8 ....... . .............
May 10 ......... .............
May 17........... .............
May 21 ......... .............
May 81...........
June 7 ____ .............
June 11 ....... .............
J une 21....... . .............
June S......... .............
July 12........... .............
July 19........... .............
July 26...........

(Capital Jan. 1, 1866, $41,000,000.)
Loans.
Specie. Le:jal Tenders.
$98,423,644
$>.203 401
$12.9:.8,332
100,727,0 7
3,075,844
12.8.4,700
2,677,OSS
12,9 *2,327
102,950,942
13,228,874
2,394,7 0
103,69h.,-58
2,161,284
12,964 225
101,3-12,423
2,073,908
12,452,795
1.845,924
11,642,856
1,515,418
11, 60,790
102,252,632
1,238.936
11,200,149
101.425,932
3,297,599
10.985,972
1 2 7,315
100.820,303
10,869,188 1,330,804
10,490.448
937,769
11,646,222
<W,BT0.!I45
11,248 884
862,276
Wi.ut.a.iU
99,625,172
750.160
11,391,5 9
99,116, f 50
639,460
11,4x9,995
617,435
12,361.827
100,127.411
703.963
12,352.113
100,555,542
1,-'37,149
12,5.3,472
1,134, ,-86
101,474.527
12,688,527
102,042,18 i
934,560
14,19 4,542
772.397
13.696,857
103.613,849
640,5*2
13,454 661
104,352,548
601,742
12,643,615
103,691,658
959,796
12,087,305
102.575,825
3,105,662
11,7-4,602
102,633.948
3,140,010
9,595,0t,8
101,405,211
3,255,151
9,541,879
3,024,595
9,793,461

Full text of The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review : August 1869, Vol. LXI, No. II

FRASER