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CONTENTS
OF
OCTOBER
MAGAZINE.
T he I ncrease of Material P r <.sperii y and of M oral A gents , C omfared w ith the
S tate of C rime and P auperism .
(B y J. H. E lliott, E s q .)........ ...................................
T he C ultivation and P roduction of C otton ........................
N orth C arolina B onds .............................................. .. . . . .
239
............................... ...............
266
........................................................ 270
L abor in the S outh ................................................. ............................................................................
271
B readstuefs ..................................
274
L ouisville , C incinnati and L exington R ail ro ad ..................................................................... 276
B ridging the M ississippi and the D evelopment of our I nternal C ommerce.............. 279
R ailroad P rogress ......................................
R ailroad E arnings eor A ugust, and for the N ine
282
Months from J anuary
1 to
S eptember 1 ................................................................................................................................
C urrency — R esumption.
.
284
(B y V ictor Consi erant.) ................................................................... 286
C otton Movement and C rop for 1868-69 ............................................................................... . 294
T he W heat T rade of G reat B ritain ........................................................................................ 299
R ailroad I tems .....................................................................
801
W estern U nion T elegraph C ompany ..........................
309
C ommercial C hronicle and R ev ie w .................................................................................................... 312
J ournal
or
B anring , C urrency and F inance ........................................................................... 317
\
\
T i l Hi
MERCHANTS’ MAGAZINE
AND
COMMERCIAL
O C T O B E R ,
REVIEW!
1 8 6 9.
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY AND ;0F [MORAL AGENTS, COM
PARED AVITH THE STATE OF CRIME AND jPAUPERISM.
BT J. H. ELLIOTT, ESQ.*
P art I.— I.— Introduction.
It is proposed to place some groups of familiar facts and figures in an
unusual apposition, to see what conclusions they point. The subsequent
tables are exceedingly suggestive when so placed. The population was
taken in 1851 and 1861, showing an increase of 12 per cent in England
and Wales, 6 per cent in Scotland, and a decrease o f 12 per cent in
Ireland. The net increase of the United States being 6 per cent. Let
this numerical increase be remembered while studying the Tables A and
B, which exhibit a much greater relative supply of the various things
which go to make up the material of human well-being— food, clothing,
and fu el; add also of education, as narrowly understood, and of educa
* Bead before tbc Statistical Society of London.
1
340
THE INCREASE OE MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
tion in its true meaning, either for good or for harm, and o f religious
instruction. To this add the improved sanitary condition of the people,
by reason o f better drainage ; o f improved dwellings, as far as they go ;
extension o f medical aid and hospital relief; more temperate habits;
and, what does not admit of measurement, the kinder social and moral
relations of the various classes of the people. The wealthy and intelli
gent, if they err at all, err now on the side of too much solicitude and
active interference, with their less fortunate fellow creatures. Friendly
and courteous behavior seems to increase daily ; and gentler manners,
arising from the better training and example o f the upper and middle
classes, which reflects usefully upon the con duct'of all.
Very much
good, little heeded, is attributable to railway discipline, and to the hon
orable and generous policy under which the affairs o f railways are usually
conducted. A ll these are so much moral teaching for the millions o f
railway passengers. The less use of alcoholic drinks, consequent upon
railway traveling, allows the brain to continue in a more normal state of
tranquil health, a condition closely affecting human conduct. All this,
if carefully thought out, will indicate a very great increase in the power
and quantity of those agents which tend to improve the morals and
manners of the people. They must produce great practiea^'esults o f a
most cheering kind, but they do not do so nearly to the extent they
ought to do. There is a portion of the people which do not illustrate
much, if any, of these happy results, or the amount of violence, o f crime,
and of indigence would not concurrent^' manifest so much increase. It
is not enough that crime should be even stationary, which it is n o t; for
if these good agents did their specific work undisturbed, moral disease,
crime, and misery, would very much decrease; and in such a wealthy
and improving nation as is Great Britain, we have a right to expect this
result. If certain medical treatment were known to be capable of
relieving certain diseased symptoms, and yet did not do so in some or
many cases, the physician would say, as he often does say (especially
when attending ignorant and vicious people,) “ There is something
wrong here; that does not take place, which all experience shows should
take place ; there is some antagonistic agent at work. I apply known
and proved remedies, yet the disease continues, and is even aggravated.”
So, if vice and misery, crime and pauperism, still increase among a
people, when so many curative agents increase, we must inquire more
deeply, and ascertain what the antagonistic agents are which spoil our
work, baffle our hopes, and (resist our sanitary influences as well moral as
physical.
Notwithstanding all this, which, according to moral and physical laws,
should be followed by less and less misery; when we find that misery
1869]
TIIE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
341
increases under our hands, we are compelled to ask what is yet omitted,
or what, if anything, is still done of an evil tendency which spoils our
work ? W hat other things do we do which may or may not be snakes
in the grass ? W hatever they be, they ought to be fearlessly exposed,
candidly and honorably acknowledged, and our policy changed. Some
things are good in moderation which are destructive in excess, hut some
things are bad in every degree.
Much of human ill depends upon organization, which is hardly to be
reached by human interference, at least in the present state of our appli
ances, but a larger portion of human ill i3 amenable to wise management.
The causes of misery which depend on our organization are, defective
animal strength, depraved appetites, imperfect intelligence, defective selfcontrol, commonly shown in the absence o f industrious and frugal habits,
or in the undue energy of the passions, the healthy action of which are
indispensable to happiness— due adjustment is virtue, too much or too
little is vice.
Improvidence, i.e, want of thrift, is the usual cause o f misery among
multitudes. Common prudence seems a very uncommon virtue; but
with increase of so many good influences improvidence ought to decrease
and thrift to increase, but they hardly do so. The lower orders especially,
consume much more than they did, and in a wasteful manner. I f luxuries
increase, the consumption thereof must not be allowed to increase without
due regard to the future.*
The people obtain more and more good things, but they consume and
waste so much of this excess that they ever fall into indigence; those who
do so, suffer deservedly, and they ought to be let alone. Year by year
there is less excuse for poverty in this country, therefore those who so
suffer, ought not to be relieved, or only with utmost stringency, else they
are thereby encouraged in their vicious course of life, and, what is much
worse, bystanders are demoralised, that is, they are discouraged in their
* The dietary o f a mechanic in the East o f London (where there is now much poverty,;
earning from 36s to 40s per week, was in 1865 thus : he goes to work at G, taking a dram o f
mm, breakfasts at 8, tea or coffee, eggs and bacon; luncheon at 10.30, bacon, mutton chops,
or tansages, With beer; dinner at 1, meat, bread, potatoes, beer; at 3 to 3 30, a dram, usual y
o f rum; 4.30 he goes to tea ; home for the evening at 6, unless extra hours at extra r te of
payment. Supper at home, sometimes o f hot meat or poultry.—{On the Statement o f the
Jlaster.)
Others in the same district w onll go into a public house on a Monday, throw down 20s,
and order four bottles of sherrv, a-id returning to woik on Tuesday, would boast that since
Saturday they had been living at the rate c f a £1.060 a year. Men engaged in the city have
wages f om 15s t >l*is a week, but make with fees 40s to 45s weekly. If they take home 15s
for the wife out o f lGs, keeping one for tbenise ves, they think they make fair contribution—
they say noth n ; o f the 24s to 30s e x tn .—(Id^n )
M n who two years ago were employed six days in the week at 40s to 50s, gave the smalle t
sum to their fainly on which they c n drag on, and now that they get work only four or live
days in the week, their families are no worse off, for they always did and do get only the
minimum. The man himself nas less rink.
A man with a gang of 1tborers under him, working on a farm near London, makes some
times 40s a week. His wife complainei the family had barely nece varies, but'showed the
visitor the beer score for the week—17s Gd.
342
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITT.
[October,
own difficult self-denial, and invited to disregard the future. If we cannot
annihilate misery, our duty is to reduce it to the minimum, but by inju
dicious means we seem to insist that it shall ever continue at its
maximum. It would be much more humane even, to leave all such suf
fering persons to their fate (but that is not necessary.) for misery would
be reduced by such severe but unwholesome examples. Our practical
teaching is, “ be lazy, wasteful, and extravagant, and if any evil come
there are those who will relieve you.” *
The true dogma is this, that in England there ought to be but one
charity in the whole land, i.e., the national poor law. All who suffer
ought to be relegated to that really grand national charity; to it and
nowhere else, except it be that small section of suffering persons, who
are' the surrounding o f each one ot us, who are known to us, and
with whom we have some special or personal sympathies, our relations
and intimate friends, and it may be our faithful servants, if such exist,
honest to us and thrifty to themselves, these may be specially relieved
by ourselves on the condition of our closer and affectionate sympathy
with them.
All the rest of human sufferers are our common fellow creatures, who
have equal claims upon us ; none of them ought to have special aid or
arbitrary preference. Special charity to small groups of sufferers fanci
fully selected beyond the circle of those we respect and esteem, is
partiality and injustice to the larger mass who suffer on and get no
special relief. After having aided one’s own friend or his children, v\ho
cares whether it be Jones or Smith who enters the almshouse or the
orphan asylum ? who cares whether it be Brown or Ilobbs that goes
only to the union ? All these persons are our fellow creatures, have
equal claims to our sympathy, and they ought ail to be equally well and
kindly treated: and, if children, they should be usefully educated, not
one better than another, for that is whimsical partiality and fanciful
injustice. Tiiey ought all to go to the one national charity. Other
public charities interfere with the good order of the State. Our own
kind aid is due only to those we love and esteem, the national charity
for all the rest.
That large mass of suffering which is the result o f diseased organiza
tion, or of organic depravity, depends as much on our original formation
(inscrutable as it may be) as lameness or scrofula, idiotey or deafness,
and should not be so treated as to extend and perpetuate such depraved
constitutions. A multitude of these diseased persons, but not quite all,
* During a late outflow o f charity in the east o f London, a sack manufacturer complained
that he had great difficulty in getting any sacks made. See also Statistical Journal, yol.
xxxyiii, p. 190, “ Lancashire’ s Lesson.”
1869]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITF.
343
should be left alone. Nature intended that the diseased stock should
disappear and become extinct, and she has provided accordingly. Organic,
depravi y should not be propagated and diffused by injudicious artificial
interference.
The healthy undisturbed process o f animal life is to
eliminate diseased organisms. The gardener propagates and encourages
only the best fruits and flowers of their kind. The people of Scandinavia
collect those hapless beings who are afflicted with leprosy into special
hospitals. In Norway there are two, one at Molde another at Bergen
where they keep in comfort and ease those of their fellow creatures who
are infected with this loathsome and incurable disease. They say, here
you shall liv e; but you shall not be abroad, contracting marriage and
transmitting to another and another generation your dreadful affliction.
There is much vice which is a leprosy of the soul, is as incurable, and
should be so treated.
But the curable are still a large section of evil-doers.
Those persons
who are amenable to educational discipline, a discipline o f no subtle and
recondite sort, arrived at only by some difficult process, like that which
enables men at last, after many trials and failures, to make a new die or
a new engine. What has hitherto been done with the most amiable
motives— nor labor nor money spared— has almost entirely failed, if the
figure-facts before us is any evidence. The reports of various charitable
and reformatory societies point at best to very uncertain results, the
larger portion o f those who are reported to the world as reformed offend
ers— cases of moral cure— are at best doubtful.
They cannot be, and
they are Lot thoroughly traced. Besides, the most satisfactory cases o f
cure are of persons who, having been taught some useful handicraft, are
sent to the colonies where, labor being scarce and work abundant, and
the land and the produce of the land in excess, the wretched offender and
mendicant, the transient reformatorty, whose existence has been that o f
severe continued self-denial or o f criminal abundance, is placed in a new
state of life, where begets £3 or £ 4 a week. N ot much moral pharmacy,
good advice-alteratives, are required to change the youth who has matric
ulated in these penal schools into useful and fair-living workers, where
they must behave well or disappear in the wilds. It is not that their moral
nature, not that the diseased volitions o f their brain, or it may be of a
naturally depraved organization, have been changed, but that new and
large rewards to industry have supplied strong motives to good conduct.
Some few creatures there are who are bad, inveterately bad, for the pleasure
of being bad, but excepting these, make it worth people’s while, and most
will become honest for a handsome consideration.
At a familiar united
meeting of mauvais sujets and of philanthropists, one man said, “ W ell, by
picking pockets and such like, I make £10 a week (£500 a year); if you
344
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
\Ottobery
will secure me as much, with no harder work, 1 will emigrate to the Cape
at once.” Words, phrases, moral lessons, good advice, will not alone effect
a change in men’s conduct; with such gentle influences must bo added
the alternative of pain and suffering, with the secured reward in the end*
of honest food for honest work. Many who have been submitted to the
materia medica of the reformatory, have left that dispensary in improved
moral health ; but th»n they were persons o f a class, hapily rather numer
ous even among the evil-doers, who wanted no treatment at all, who did
wrong once, and who, if they had escaped, would probably have played
the fool no more. Many persons are submitted to medical treatment who
would get well as soon, and perhaps sooner, i f lejt alone ; and these are
the cases which form some of the triumphs o f the doctor, and are the
source of his reputation.
Going his rounds, an hospital surgeon— an
honest one— said to his pupils, “ Gentlemen, there is here nothing to inter
est us, one portion of these patients will get well if we leave them alone, the
rest will die and we cannot help them.” Some few moral sufferers are in
the same hopeless condition, others can be cured, but only by other treat
ment than it has hitherto been the custom to apply.
[II.— Aliments.
The large increase of material good things, as shown by Tables A and I>
(Appendix), has been chiefly appropriated and enjoyed by what are called
the working classes.
This mere numerical quantity inadequately illus
trates their great material improvement, if we omit to notice that the
richer classes of society have hardly shared this increase, because they have
always had enough and to spare o f all such commodities. In this respect
they were equally well off in 1851 as in 1861 or 1865.
Persons o f
£200 or £300 a year and upwards, except in as. far as the number of the
class have increased, consume no more food, no more in weight and nutri
ment of beef, mutton, bread, tea, coffee, &c., in I 860 or 1861 than they
did in 1851. The increase with them, can but have been in the luxurious
and extravagant use of wine, silk, and perhaps a little extra wool and cot
ton, which, encouraging extravagance in apparel, has probably done as
much harm as good to the national morals. This enormous addition to
the good things, to the comforts o f life, has been appropriated almost
exclusively by poorer nersons. During the 15 years this increase (in addi
tion to the home supply), of 200 or 300 per cent o f animal food, 235 of
butter, 162 o f cheese, has been con-umed almost entirely by the million.
The upper ten thousand, or hundred thousand, have not had it, for this
good reason, they could not have consumed it, “ their cup already runneth
over.” If they take more it is wasted, and that would be inconsiderable
1809]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY".
345
seeing that they belong (chiefly to the thrifty, saving, and, as a consequence,
well doing, good-managing class.
The increased supply o f one period over the other of those articles,
chiefly of comfort and luxury, which are entirely of foreign growth, as teaj
cocoa, sugar, rice, maize, spirits, is an absolute increase, and is not like the
foreign increase of one period over another, which must be added to the
unknown quantity o f home produce of wheat, &c.
W e know that the
total quantity often, e. g., has increased almost 100 per lent, but we only
know that butter has increased by 235 per cent of foreign butter added
to the unknown quantity of home-made butter.
III.— Wages.
Whatever may be the advanced price of food, &c., the increasing quan
tity consumed is evidence o f increasing ability to purchase.
The subject of wages has been searchingly investigated in the Journal
of this Society. It is needless to weary attention by any exposition show
ing how much wages have advanced during the fifteen years under com
parison. In volume xxiii o f the Society’s Journal, Mr. D . Chadwick
states that wages have increased in Lancashire in twenty years, from
1839 to 1859, 10 to 25 per cent in the cotton trade, and in the silk
trade 10 percent. In the building trades wages have increased 11 to 32
per cent. In many mechanical trades a general advance, even up to 45
per cent.
In the South, wages in the building trade advanced about 10 per cent
from 1851 to 1861, and much more subsequently; at the same time
there has been a diminution o f the hours of labor claimed and readily
granted, on the plea that time was wanted for these workers to improve
their minds by the study of mathematics, geography, history, &c.; a great
sham by the bye, which it is not creditable should have been listened to.
Advance wages and shorten labor if you will, but do not believe that much
use will be made thereof for mental improvement. Many of these people
(and rightly enough) use their increased leisure by working for themselves.
T he best fellows among the builders and the like, do jobs on a Saturday
afternoon if they do not idle about, and even that is not so bad recreation
for men who work hard either with their brains or their muscles. Study
they do not, and they would profit little if they attempted it.
Mr. Purdy’s exhaustive paper, in volume xxiv, shows the wages of the
agricultural laborers in thirty-four counties to have increased about 12 per
cent from 1837 to 1SS0. A subject of great rejoicing to all who know
the admirable though humble virtues which illustrate the lives o f that
class of the community, who are at once the most useful and the most
hardly done by, the most patient, enduring, and uncared for, just because
346
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITT.
[ October,
they have been the least troublesome, and have kept their sorrows to
themselves.
A few additional facts may be interesting.
In Kendal, in the woolen trade, during the period under notice, the
wages of—
Toung persons have advanced................................................... 20 to 25 per cent
Women.......................................... ..................................................
25
“
Skilled women, working in looms and machines..................
50
“
Skilled men
“
“
“
.................. 5 to 10
“
Power loom weavers, women, from.................. ..
6s 3d to 8s 2d per week
Spinners, from......... .................. .........................................18s 4d to 22s
“
During this time the population of the borough of Kendal increased
about 2 per cent only.
Persons in the web trade, in Somerset, earned in—
1851, Men........................................ 12s I 1861, M e n ...................................... 15s
“
W omenandboys................
fis | “ Women and bo ys.. . . . . . .
6s
K o change took place in the wages of letter-press printers from 1816,
when sixty hours’ work earned 33s., until 1866, when an advance to 36s.
was made, or 9 per cent.
It is then much within the truth to say, that in the last ten or fifteen
years wages have advanced, at a minimum, 15 per cent; at the same
time there has been so steady an increase in the demand for -workers,
that none need have been out o f work who could and would work. The
demand is almost above the supply, or it has been so until lately, as well
for unskilled as skilled laborers.
IV .— Savings Banks.
The capital deposited in the savings banks for the United Kingdom
was for the periods—
l c61
1861
1865
£30,217,000
41,546,0' 0
45,228,000
(including the Post Office Savings Banks) being an increase in fifteen
years of 50 per cent. But, as Table C (Appendix) shows, the increase is
more in the amount o f deposit, 22s. 2d. and 29s. Id., than in the number
of depositors, the greater thrift o f the thrifty depositors is better shown
than the greater number o f depositors. Thrift, it seems, is rather a fixed
quantity.
In this cheering increase, Ireland enjoys its full proportion. Thus, the
virtuous section o f the people, making wise use o f prosperity, goes on
1869]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
347
improving their state o f independence, for we cannot believe that the
dangerous classes make any considerable deposit in savings banks. These
have full command over other and ever increasing funds provided by the
public for their relief— in parochial and other luxurious charities, in
pillage, in the warm and comfortable asylum of the prison-house, the
reformatory, and the hospital, and now in the casual ward o f the union
house. Perhaps of all modern fancies this is the most mischievous.
Here the .wandering idler is supplied with food, lodging, bath, and
attendance, gratis, such lodging as used to cost him 2s. 6d. to Ss. a week.
The stone-breaking and the oakum-picking is but nominal, or amusing
exercise. Discipline cannot be enforced. The officials aud others are so
ill-used alike by the paupers, by the humane magistrates, and the public,
that they almost give up their duty in despair, and connive at the ill'
conduct they cannot suppress and have no means o f punishing. This is
very much the case now in many prisons, and other asylums for the
repose o f evil-doers. It is only people in the best moral health who
deposit in savings banks, the rest— that is, those who are morally diseased
— know better, and are too much encouraged in their unthrift.
Thus, the means by which the people have been enabled to buy an everincreasing quantity of good things, have increased still faster, so that the
thrifty portion of the humbler classes have been enabled in fifteen years
to increase their savings from thirty to forty millions. To say nothing of
the millions which have been added to their own or to the national
capital by the richer class, who thereby have supplied the improving
fund, wherewith more workers are better employed. There is much
sound political economy in the maxim of low life, “ What are the rich
for but to take care o f and keep the poor ? ” Capital for their work,
money for their relief.
Y .— Emigra tion.
Emigration for the ten years 1 S/» 1—61 (continued to the present time),
has steadily relieved the labor market. This is another cause of the
increasing wage-rate, and by which the eaters become fewer and their
severer competition is lessened. Thus there has been again more and
more bread for the eater. It is time to consider if the State should
continue at the public cost its emigration agency. W e cannot without
limit, be at once a nursery and an almshouse for half the world, losing so
many of our best workers, and making our colonies richer at an undue
charge to the mother country, which is thus left to struggle with an everincreasing proportion of lame, lazy and helpless persons who must be
maintained by the labor o f a less and less proportion of woikers.
The
348
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
[
October,
cost of rearing so many useful workers, during the period of their unpro
ductive growth, is almost solely defrayed here in England, and when they
are sent elsewhere, at our own cost, or chiefly s o ; the only compensation
being that they become better customers to us abroad than if they had
remained at home. A farmer would soon be impoverished if he endured
the cost of rearing foals or colts, and was deprived of his mature horses.
A t a time when there is a demand beyond the supply for domestic servants
there are busy people, well meaning but not very wise, who, selecting the
stoutest and best ordered of our young women, send them carefully con
signed to Australia. If such young women desire to improve their own
condition by emigration, they ought first to engage in some useful labor
here, and with their own saved earnings depart themselves to other regions’
A few years of thrifty labor here, especially as domestic servants, would
render them at once self-dependant and properly trained workers elsewhere;
in all respects better qualified to become good settlers.
VI.— Education.
For the purpose of education, or for that limited education more correctly
called pedagogy, treasure has been liberally bestowed. The sum expended
in the United Kingdom in 1854 was £715,000, which increased in 1865
to £1,369,000, or nearly double. In 1854, 1 in 38 of the population
attended schools; in 1865, 1 in 22 (see Table D , Appendix). A large
percentage of the population ought to have exhibited the good effects of
this education in their conduct in life, for during this time some at least
must have emerged from the state of pupilage into that of adolescence and
active life. That such has taken place in but a small degree, if at all,
subsequent tables will show.
Still more ought such good effects to appear, when we add the great
increase of religious teachers and places of worship. Clergymen, priests^
and all such, have been, and very consistently, most tenacious that religious
training is of essential importance in the States, and that no good can be
expected from any teaching which is not intimately allied with their own
especial ministrations. Some seven or eight millions yearly is appropri
ated to special religious purposes, and the sum is increasing.
The means— other than religious— of moral and intellectual teaching
have also enormously increased. Newspapers, halfpenny and penny
books, pamphlets, serials, works of art, not to omit photography, come
forth in myriads. Especially does the photographic portrait maker
deserve a place in the ranks of moral teachers. In these literary educa
tional agents, England contrasts favorably with France, Three or four
years ago there was but one journal, “ Le Petit Journal,” o f universal
1869]
THE INCREASE OP MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
349
circulation over tlie country, inferior in size and still more in matter to
any of our lowest priced English newspapers.* It is worth while briefly
to inquire why all this has so greatly failed.
The pedagogy o f education has little to c o nith crime and pauperism,
though it is taken to be a specific against those evils. Heading and
writing, as mere reading and writing, may do as much harm as good, and
can no more make an educated person than does a nen make a scribe, or a
box of carpenter’s tools a bost-builder ; yet that sort of so-called education,
is correctly taken to be a sign or sympton of some really good training
more or less. Those parents who have taken care to get their children
schooled are usually a good sort of people, and have done much for their
children in home training. A s the weather-cock shows the way of the
wind, so the sending to school shows the way o f the family.
Useful education means habitual industrious work and severely enforced
self-denial. The training o f a good laborer commences from the time
when, as a bov, he follows his father into the fields ; and so far from an
agricultural laborer being unskilled— though unschooled— he is a variously
skilled workman, and, to he good for anything he must be brought up to
his profession from his early boyhood. It requires more varied qualities
of mind and body to be a good laborer than to be a good carpenter, whose
tools keep him square, “ By line and by rule,” &c., while the other makes
parallel lines in a field, with an awkward thing called a plough, and still
more awkward things called horses.
Further, our tables show a sorrowful dfssonance between means and
results, because, with regard to females, true training has been misplaced
by false schooling. Domestic servants, male and female, were one million
in 1861, and to fit them for such useful labors, their own future natural
occupations as heads o f families, and especially as wives and mothers, the
duties of the household afford the best kind of training, and until the mar
ket for domestic female servants is full, charity ought not to push necessituous women into any other so appearing more genteel occupations.
* Of the state r f literatnre in 1860 we have ve’-y ample statistics. Of monthly magazines
more or less devoted t » fiction, there were 2,210.000 circulated ai nua'ly; of journals puilish©1 weekly, the chief feature b< ingnove's, 700.000; of single rommees issue! at a p- nn”, 5,0(0 ;
o f immoial piudioations, 52.500; and of magazines at twopence, 374,000, exclusive of sectar au
literature, religious, temperance, educat'onal, &c : total, in round numbers, 3.349,000. Com
paring this wi h 1831, b-fore the stamp t ix or advertisement duty had been repealed, we see
against lie 125,000 o f monthly magazines «ircu’ ate i then over 2,000 000 n o w ; and whereas
there existed then no cheap fiction o f a realty wholesome kind, we have now a circulation of
over a million of journals t a i enny and two e^ ce. co ’ taining stories not classed as immoral,
against odI v 52,500 o f a notoriously immoral kind. But the creat impetus to the spread o f heap
literatim of all kinds w »s given by the repeal o f the paper duties in 1861. We learn by an arti
cle in ’ he ‘ ‘ Bookseller,” of May 31, 1861, thema erials for which were supplied by Mr. Fia' cis,
the fol’owing facte concerning fiction. Three yea s after the repeal of the e n i e there were
o f journals contaii ing novels, sketches. &c.. thirteen at a penny and a halfpenny, with an aggr- gale weekly i-sue 1,053,000of romantic tale1published sepa ately, e ght public tier s, aggre
gate issue 195.000 ; of immoral publications, 9 / 00; of higher clas- magaz lies, published month
ly, 244,850 This is not inc’uding religions and other literature where fic ion was •• secondary
object. _ Thus we have a weekly and monthly issue o f respectab e nublicat ons a most equal to
the entire am ual issue o f a few years previous'y, and o f immoral publications we have 9,000
against 52,500 then.—So-Azl Science Journal.
350
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY
[ October,
The things taught in a school, useful as they may be, are o f small value
indeed, compared with the practical training which girls receive in that
true school of humble life— the kitchen ; where they are (or ought to be)
taught obedience, and required to perform subordinate labor, drudgery it
may be, though much of it is indeed skilled labor, in well-ordered house
holds, o f an expenditure o f £200 or £2,000 a year.
It would be well if those kind ladies who do so much for school educa
tion and out of door charities, would inquire if the true schools for their
superintendence be not their own households, their kitchens, pantries, nur
series ; if .they cannot teach there they can teach nowhere. Some of our
most sensible ladies take girls into their households for the mere purpose
of teaching the accomplishments o f good housewifery. All educational
schemes and charitable fancies are likely to do more harm than good, if
the nomos oikou (the law of the house) be unknown and neglected. The
great merchant and the little mechanic, alike collect the grains o f subsist
ence, which in the end the good housewife distributes with as sharp a
percentage of saving here and there as they have been scraped together
by keen commissions and profits.'*
P art
I I . — V II. Introduction.
A ll these moral and material agents
enormously increased
during ten or fifteen yeais, and much above the increase of population,!
we now seek for their effects on the conduct o f the people. I f they show
no favorable result, or at best a verv inadequate one, we had better give
* Th^ prartical good of this sort o f training, even among person* of a superior c^ss, was
bett runderstood in former tim s. v e rea in McDiarm d’ s “ Lives of British irtatesmen,”
th it, “ as a further step in his education Thomas More was placed in the family of Cardinal
Morton. In consequence of the form nto which society was th' own by the feudal ius ititions,
the only road by which men o f inferior ra; k con d hope to reach distinction and power was
by the favor of the great propiietors o f land, th - ch ef eccles astics, Ac. In their families
also, the po iteness, elegance, at d knowlerge of the age were to be found ; for while ihe rest
o f the community, groaning under tbe tyr any o f their superiors and the terrors of supersition
added the most aiject poverty to the most degraded igneance, the patronage of h great was
necessarily coveted by men o f learn ug,j s their only resourc •; and distinguished schol r hav
ing a ready access to the tables o f persons of condition, at a period wh. n learni. g from its
rarity, waslheld in high e-timat on, brought a ong with th**.m a eompa ative degree of informat on and refi ement. At the same t me the internal economy of a great man’s family, pre
senting a eimi ar appearance wita that o f the monarch on a small, r scale, was the proper
school for acquiring ihose *ccomplisb incuts and that address by which success at court might
afte wards be insured. Influenced by the cun si erations of these advantages, persons of g od
condition were eager to p ace their sm s in the families of the greU, as the surest r >ad to for
tune. in this st t on it was not ac ounted d grading to sub nit even to menial offices; while
the greatest baron* o' the realm were proud to officiate as stewards, cu -bearers, carve s to the
monarch; a \outh of good family could w nt at the ta»ie or carry the train o f a man of high
condition without any loss o f dignity. The patronage of the gr a man being natura ly secured
to tho^e who had acted as his inmates and retainers, >drniss on into the funili s o f the prin
cipal officers o f the fct .te, who had preferment most direct y n their power, was particularly
cour.ed.” This ilmstrat e a custom common in E glana among a 1 classes, and continued
from ihe tim i of Hem y VIII, toward the end o f Jast century
t The smaller population- ncrea^e, when he whole United Kingdom is noted, arises from
the fact that, while the outflow ol the people from Irelan •has reduce i the redundant popula
tion the e, the large migrat on of the n into Great Britain from Ireland has unduly raised the
percentage o f incre ise here, and has unhappily increased in large ratio he ill-ccndi ioned
population, i he Irish constitute an unfa r proportion of our crimina s, a state of things
imminently daugerou as well moral as political, and cne with which the Government must
concern itself, or some catastrophe may be feared.
1869]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY".
361
up the expense and save our fruitless toil. But these agencies, counter
acted as they have been, are still of priceless value, and had it not been
for their salutary force we should have sunk lower in pauperism and
crime. The small dimunition o f crime— where crime has diminished, a
grave matter of doubt— is by no means commensurate with the prodigious
increase of all these wholesome influences, which would have produced on
the largest scale their own specific effects, had they not been so gratu
itously disturbed by evil agents. W h at those agents are, is well enough
known and understood by thinkers, though not very readily admitted by
people in general, and scarcely ever declared in public. They form one
group, and one alone. All has been going on for good in this country,
but a sentimental humanity, interfering with the criminal law and prison
discipline, and an inconsiderate multiform charity, which have put out of
gear the action o f the laws of nature and of man. Let any man tell the
world why pauperism increases, why crime increases, or why, at best, do
both remain stationary, except as both are influenced by bad discipline,
and he will discover the philosopher’s stone. The inquiry is exhausted ;
none will say that the causes enumerated if left undisturbed can produce
any effect upon society but good. All except one, and if that one be not
the disturbing evil hand, which puts out of order all the rest, then why
do vice and misery so increase under our hands ? The increase must
have a cause, and there the one cause lies, patent before us ; for if it be
not that, tben we have an uncaused effect, or the cause is still latent,
unknown, undiscovered, and hardly to be reached by human inquiry.
But to say that the cause which has been just alleged is not the true
one, is to deny all human experience, to deny one’s own instincts, and to
ignore the laws o f our moral nature, indeed of the whole animal world.
If more food, more employment, more social kindness, do not cause those
who are under their influence to behave better— in truth to be happier—
there must be some concealed disturbance to look after. I f a man— any
one man— having all these things in abundance, yet sink down in atrophy,
there surely must be some diseased action, in bis own nature, or in some
poison with which be is infected that resists and repels all nutritive
agents.
V III.— Pauperism.
The forces which have produced so large and increasing a mass of
pauperism (see Table E, Appendix) have been too energetic to be resisted
with much effect by the vis medicatrix natures, aided by our resources of
moral and intellectual hygiene and pharmacy. The political physician—
statesman or philanthropist— has applied the costliest remedies o f bis art,
for many a long year, and here is the result; but a sound education by
352
TIIE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
\Octob&r,
the law and by public opinion, would long ere this have taught men, and
iuforced them at their peril, to provide in prosperity against adversity.
It is no new thing to be told the truth, that the pauper must be in all
respects worse off than the humblest self-supporting laborer; yet, as an
illustration of the contrary practice, a man was some weeks since taken
into a union house near London, he said, “ I f I had known how com
fortable I should have been in this place, I would not have struggled as I
did all last winter.” W e have weakened all the motives to industry and
thrift. The sound rules o f government are as old as reason itself.
They are taught clearly enough in Scripture, and Tacitus tells us: “ By
false compassion we injure the community ; industry will go to ruin;
sloth will predominate; men will no longer depend on themselves, but
having from their own conduct nothing to hope or fear, they will look to
their neighbors for support-, they " ill first abandon their duty, and then
be a burden on the public.” Surely some of the errors which caused the
ruin of old Borne, were not such as are doing the mischief to old
England !
IX .— Insolvency.
Insolvency may be called the pauperism o f the middle and upper
classes, and insolvency laws will be wholesome in as far as the vices
which cause insolvency are thereby restrained. But as both laws now
exist and are administered, they form an influence in our national system
of education, not for good but mainly for harm, and so far the people
have a bad education. Fifty years o f incessant changes have left the
insolvency laws in a worse condition than at any former period. Such
laws, to be effectual, ought to restrain by punishment those who by wilful
and avoidable conduct will not or cannot pay what they justly owe.
W e know little o f the magnitude o f insolvency, we know not the true
number of insolvents, nor the amount of treasure of which they despoil
their creditors. It would be one step towards a reformation of the law, if
we were informed yearly o f our losses by insolvency, as we are of our
losses by pauperism.
Some twenty years ago the estimated loss was £50,000,000, and in all
probability it is more now, especially when we add the gigantic disasters
of 1866 and 186V, to which belong the laige and new class of limited
liability insolvencies.
In the year 1865, out o f 8,^00 bankruptcies, nearly 6,000 were upon
the petition of the debtors— the wrong-doers— seeking the protection o f
the law against those they had injured. And 5,200 trust deeds show
how injured creditors submit to any terras rather than accept the assist
ance of the court. The shades of difference between many of these cases
1809]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
853
and compounding felony itself are not morally very distinguishable. In
one case lately a dividend of 9d. in the pound legally satisfied debts of
£2,000,000, and in another case the like dividend on £500,000. Such
dividends on enormous debts are not rare (see Times, 13th and 17th
February, 1808). W e sometimes read, “ One murder makes a villain,
thousands a “ hero.”
X .— Police.
Police is a transition force, intermediate between those agents which
improve the education ot the people, constrain good conduct and prevent
crime, and those which discover and bring crime to punishment. It has
now grown up into a large army (1860) of 23,728 men, costing £ ',8 2 7 ,106, yet this force has with difficulty prevented things from becoming
much worse. Better results ought long ere this to have appeared. An
efficient police restrains crime as well as detects it, but it does not correct
the tendency to crime— it does not reform depraved natures— it only ren.
ders the development thereof into active life more difficult or impossible.
When we put a drunkard under restraint, we prevent but do not reform
him. The good citizens are mercilessly taxed to restrain evil-doers. A
much less costly apparatus would control the desire, and would therefore
in the end effectively and permanently reform the wicked. That is to
say; humane discipline would present a stronger motive to work and take
care than, as is now done, to be lazy, dishonest and cruel.
When it is said crime increases, the answer is often made, “ Aye, hut a
vigilant police brings more crime to light.” There is much fallacy in
this; the truth being that for one crime that is detected by the police,
there is many which are prevented. It is good to prevent, but it is still
better to reform ; that is, to diminish P e power o f the motives within a
man which urge him to crime, by the active presence of counter-motives,
rather than to restrain him in the deed he desires to do, by the presence
of merely repressive forces acting upon him from without, which do not
lock him up truly, but which hold the key before his eyes. All this is
only force from without, acting on a weaker force within. W e want
men’s conduct under their own will, to be directed in the right course by
the energy of motives to do well being stronger than the motives to do
evil. The one set of motives being of an agreeable kind, the other being
o f a very disagreeable but useful kind, i. e., reward and punishment.
W crk and food, or pain. Respect, peace and comfort on one side, or
sharp suffering on the other. Bread earned, or stripes inflicted. ‘‘ Pris
ons’ bonds, bread and water, will put sense into a fool’s head.” They
knew that more than two thousand years ago in ancient Greece.
354
THE INCREASE OP MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
[ October,
The vulgar notion o f what is due to policemen, who are officers of the
law, is illustrated by the treatment they receive at the hands of the lower
orders. In the whole metropolis, for assaults on peace officers, were—
Convicted, in-the average of three years, 1850-’6 2 ................................. 3,543
“
“
’6 0 - 6 2 .................................. 3,123
“
“
’6 3 -’6 5 ...................................2,713
And in one year, 186 6 ...................................................................................... 2,5 A
being a great decrease, when we note the increase of the London popula
tion. In this part o f education there has been a great improvement,
because for this class o f offences the punishments have been severer. O f
3,543 offenders, a total of only 86 were committed for trial (1851), but
of the smaller number c f 3,123 in the period 1861, 174 were so commit
ted. More persons, therefore, were formerly treated with undue tender
ness, i. e , they were badly educated, and the safety o f peace officers was
less respected. The law has assumed its more humane severity, its moral
education has improved, and we trace its good effect in the better beha
vior o f the people, and in the less suffering o f the police. The person of
the humblest peace officer ought to be as sacred as that of a judge or
bishop, and protected by unusual severity. No man should be allowed to
resist him or raise a hand against him. The civilization of a country is
low indeed while such grievous cruelties inflicted on policemen, especially
by street ruffians, are but slightly punished, regarded with apparent
indifference by the public, or are considered to be equitably compensated
for in their wages. A sharp flogging ought with utmost certainty to be
the penalty for a kick or a blow on a peace officer. Be it right or wrong,
the arrest of any one by a police officer must be absolutely and loyally
obeyed. To be innocently taken in hold is a disagreeable thing, but it
cannot he altogether avoided; it is one of the misadventures, one of the
accidental costs as it were, which all must lay to their account as the
price of so much protection.
XI.— Crime.
The alteration o f the law in 1854, which extended the power o f sum
mary conviction before the magistrate, so disturbed the uniformity of for
mer returns that they now cease to be comparable. 1861, as compared
with 1851, shows a considerable diminution in the commitments for
crimes (except the more heinous ones), not because such crimes have actu
ally diminished, but because they are differently treated. For, while the
commitments have decreased, the summary convictions for similar crimes
have increased ; many offences which used to pass to higher courts are
now decided by magistrates. Thus:
The average number of persons similarly treated for the three years
1869]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
355
1857-59 was 250,619, or 128 in 10,000 of the population ; for the three
years 1860-2, 290,084, or 131 in 10,000; in 1863, 333,641, or 138 in
10,000; and for the three years 1864-66, 317,568, or 149 in 10,000.
But there were committed for trial or bailed, in the first period, 27,427;
in the second period, 18,108 ; and in the third period, 16,155— making a
total for the first period, or three years’ average, 278,044 ; second period
282,202; and for the third period, 1864-66, 322,953— being an increase
o f 16 per cent in ten years, while the estimated increase of population has
been 10 per cent.
Again, the average number o f persons committed or bailed were, for
seven years, 1848 to 1854, i. e., before the change in the law, 28,125 ; for
seven years, 1856 to 1862, i. e., after the change, 18,366.
Taking the four years after the alteration of the law, 1856 to 1859, the
average number, 18,559; increasing afterwards, from 1860-63, to 18,786;
while the class of commitments for one year, 1864, were 19,506 ; 1865
19,014; 1860,18,849.
Again, in five years ending 1861, inclusive, the totals were 90,234, and
in five years ending 1865, inclusive, 98,265.
The increase of crime coincident with relaxed punishments is shown
over a period o f forty years, from 1817 to 1857, in table F, appendix.
Offences against property without violence were, in 1851, 21,489; in
1861, 12,606— a decline caused by the A ct of 1854 ; in the five years
ending 1861, 62,828, and for the five years ending 1865, 67,146— being
an increase of 4,318, or 6.9 per cent.
Offences against property with violence decreased, 1851 to 1861, from
2,013 to 1,905; but for the five yearsending 1860 the total of these
offences was 9,351, while for the five years ending 1865 they increased to
10,521. In burglary and housebreaking there has been very great increase.
Malicious offences against property (including arson) in 1851 were 270 ;
in 1861, 257. But for five years ending 1860 these offences were 947,
and for five years ending 1865, 1,816. A singular increase.
Offences of all sort against the person in 1860 were 10,043, and in
1865,12,146. Assaults of all kinds, committed or bailed in 1860 were
4,361, and in 1865, 5,814. In the year 1865 the total o f assaults
brought before magistrates was 60,406, and on peace officers, included in
the above (one-fifth of the whole), 12,270.
O f murders and murderous assaults the total o f five vears ending 1860
was 2,8 6, and 1865, 2,585. The total o f ten years ending 1856 and
1866 were 20,219 and 22,589, or about ten per cent increase. (Tables
G and H , appendix.)
Crimes of violence indicate a more depraved state of the moral sense,
and are very specific tests of the low state o f education, not of the peda
2
356
THE INCREASE OF
MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
[October,
gogue, but o f public opinion and of the law— the law, which the allpowerful schoolmaster. There has been so much talk about capital punish
ment of late, in which an affectionate interest in the blood-guilty has
been strongly put forth in richly-colored relief, while the victims and their
ruined familils have been left in darkest and most neglected shade, that
public opinion seems to have lost much of its horror and all of its holy
anger. Yet venerable authority says, “ Ye shall take no satisfaction for
the life of a murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put
to death.” *
W e know but little o f the crime of murder. In the year 1866 there
were—
Verdicts of murder by inquests.................................................................... ...................
Reported by police......................................
Committed for trial .................... ....................................................................... ............
Acquitted or insane...........................................................................
Sentenced to death............................................................................................................
Executed......................
272
131
55
24
26
12
So that of notoriously known murderers, 12 only met a righteous doom
out of 272, or 1 in about 23. But with the greater sharpening of men’s
wit by education and reading, it is to be feared that deeds of death have
become more subtle and refined, and more scientifically perpetrated
Undiscovered murder, as by poison, is practised to a great extent in Eng
land, as well as in other parts of the world. W e know this by the testi
mony of competent persons, especially doctors. 272 doubled will fall
short of the total o f lives sacrificed yearly, encouraged in great part by
fanciful legislation and literature.
The proportion of convictions for serious offences has in a small degree
declined in the ratio o f population, but even with this improvement, the
increased cost o f our police may indeed be grudged (see Tables I and K ,
Appendix.)
This insignificant result is at last obtained only by an
oppressive burden of two millions o f money yearly, and by an inglorious
abstraction of an army o f now more than 24,000 stalwart men, at the
most energetic period of their lives, from the productive industry of the
* Ancient Germans bad no scruples abont public executions: ontbe contrary, they thought
the just gods themselves migutfitly preside over these ; that these were a solemn and highest
act of worship it rightly done. When a German man had done a crime deserving death, they
in solemn general assembly of the tribe doomed him to die with ignominy. Certain crimes
there were o f a supreme nature ; him that had perpetrated one of these they believe1 to
have declared himself a prince o f scoundrels. Him once convicted, they laid hol'd of—nothing
doubting—bore bim after judgment to the most convenient peat bog, plunged him m there,
drove an oaken frame down orer him, solemnly in the name of gods and men. “ There,
prince o f scoundrels, that is what we have had to think o f thee on clear acquaintance; onr
grim goodnight to thee is that 1 Lie there, and he onr partnership with thee dissolved
henceforth. It will he better for us, we imagine P’ —“ Model Prisons,’ * by Thomas Carlyle.
1869]
THE INCREASE OB' MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
357
country.* The game hardly pays for the candle. More wholesome and
less costly means are at hand, had we the energy and benevolence to use
them. B ut while this small improvement is concurrent with, as we see
all along, an enormous increase in all the material and moral agents
which ought to diminish crime, however much they may have aided to
the comfort aud have caused a decrease in the physical suffering of multi
tudes, they have not done the best part of the work expected of them.
CRIM E, ENGLAND
1851
1861
1862,
1863
1864
1866
1866
Number
summarily
punished.
cannot be )
ascertained, j
263,510
272,969
283,641
300,731
312,882
339,091
AND W ALES, OONVI0TED AND PUNISHED, f
Number of
criminal prisoners
sentenced
and convicted.
Ratio per cent
of criminals
to population
convicted.
21,579
0 .1 2
13,879
15,312
15,799
14,726
14,740
14,264
0 .07
0 .08
0 .08
0 .0 7
0 .0 7
0 .0 7
Total
of
offenders.
277,389
288,281
299,440
315,457
327,622
853,345
In respect of religious training there were, on the 1st of January, 1862,
out of a total of—
Prisoners in England "Wales..................
26,153
Population being...................................... 20,000,001)
4,189 or £ Roman Catholics
1,500,000 or l-13th only ditto.
Thus the Catholic offenders, instead of bting 1 in 1 3, were 1 in 6.
Pri oners in Liverpool.................... ..
Population................................................
Prisoners in Ireland..................................
Population..................................................
888
443,874
2,888
6,764,543
485, or above one half.
130,0; 0, or about 1 in 8J'
2,483, or six sevenths.
4,490,583, or near four-fifths.
Thus in Ireland, where the people are under the strictest ecclesiastic
* The total charge o f the criminal classes was stated in a daily paper in the year 1866
Folice..............................................................
Paid by treasury for criminal prosecutions
Cost of prisons..........................................
Cost o f convict prisons..................................
Eeformatory schools (treasury)..................
Industrial schools..........................................
Criminal lunatics...........................................
T ota l..................................................................................................................
£
s.
1,827,105 16
143,511 6
614,677 12
237,333 2
51,734 6
18 567 10
45,037 12
d
7
6
8
..
1
6
..
2,937,967 6 4
—to which must he added the special cost incurred hy prosecutors, the earnin?s o f thieves
while following their profession, and the in identa but great waste aud destruction of prop
erty. It is no exaggeration t j pat this at £7,000,000, or £3,001,000 mors.
t The convictions in Ireland were, in 1851, 14,377, hut from 1861 to 1865 the number declined
from 3,271 to 2.663, the average o f five years bring 3,205 But the great decrease of criminals
o f late years in Ireland, has been apparently lol owed by a corresponding increase in the
United States, as well as by an undue proportion o f Irish offenders in England. Of 80,532
persons arrested in New York (population 805,651) during 1867, 38,128 were natives o f Ireland,
2,764 o f England, 970 o f Scotland. Thus nearly one-half o f the total offenders were Irish.
358
th e
in c r e a s e
of
m a t e r ia l
p r o s p e r it y .
[ October,
discipline and exclusive infallible teaching, the offenders are 6 out o f 7
instead of being 4 out o f 5.
Prisoners in Scotland o f ..........................
Population ...............................................
3,155
3,061,329*
1,523 were Catholics.
The state of education among offenders, like all else belonging to that
class, is beset with trick, deceit, and fraud. They come to prison again
and again and every time they report themselves illiterate, though they
have been taught as often to read and write. More schooling, and less
oakum-picking, result naturally in quick progress in learning, especially
when the learning is ot an old lesson, which shows a good lad or good
man, and obtains a better character from the schoolmaster and the
chaplain.
These are among the reasons why so large a proportion o f offenders
appear to be illiterate, and they will ever continue so until a compulsory
system gives opportunity to all of the population to learn to read and
write, who are not naturally incapable of doing so, and they are rather a
considerable number.
In our reformatories and prisons vte teach evil-doers mechanical trades)
and thus change them, at the public co^, from unskilled into skilled
workers. Offences are profitable to them ; they are rewarded; thereby
they are enabled to earn higher wages when they come out o f prison.
“ It one has a proteeto1' he escapes from a murder with only two or three
years o f imprisonment. The bagnio at Rome is not a very bad place.
The prisoners acquire a trade there, and on returning to their villages are
not dishonored, but rather feared, which is often o f utility.” (“ Italy,’’
by H. Taine.) W ordly London thus imitates the prison discipline o f
Holy Rome, and the results are singularly alike. How extremes meet 1
The table L, showing the number o f fires in Loudon, is painfully sug
gestive that, with increasing education and prosperity, people have
become more and more careless, or worse.
Incendiarism is a crime second only to murder; in some forms our
ancestors regarded it as of equal atrocity. The total of commitments for
malicious offences against property of this kind, in five years ending
1866, were 804; 1862, 670 ; 1866, 1,231.
X II.— Conclusion.
The most elaborate statistical tables leave our knowledge of crime still
uncertain. The crime which travels on to punishment is but a small part
of that which comes within the first grip of the officers of justice, and
* Out of this number the Irish-horn, according to the census, were 204,C03, or 6.6 per cent.
1869]
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
359
that is only a fraction of the crime which is known, but passes on
unheeded, even though it be murder, to which must be added that stilj
largest part of all which is unknown, and escapes with complete impunity
itmay be for years, or for ever.
The causes of crime in England are, in addition to natural depraved
organization,* the carelessness of people with regard to person and pro
perty. People ought to go about armed, as in former times, to resist the
ruffian; and they ought, as a part of their education, to be trained to
defend themselves. When there is danger they cry “ Police,” who, in
order to answer effectually the cry, had need be 20,000 in London alone,
instead of 7,000. One ruffian disabled on the spot is more exemplary
than many punished after the slow and very uncertain process of law.
There is also the reluctance o f people to prosecute, because they think it
amiable and virtuous to forgive offenders; and further, there is the
expense and trouble of prosecution, and the risk of considerable illtreatment in the court of justice itself by barristers and others concerned
in the defence. He must be a very enlightened philanthropist, or a very
severe and almost malignant persons who will nowadays seek to punish
an offender. Juries will hardly convict in the face of clearest evidence;
and judges, partaking o f the gentle tendencies of the age, pass trifling
sentences quite out of all proportion to the offences ;f and, when all is
done, and death or some long period of penal servitude is the culprit’s
doom, in comes the Secretary o f State, who reprieves and commutes.];
A remarkable illustration o f this was shown at the Thames Police Court,
23d February, 1868, where a man was convicted as a begging impostor,
having been of course at large, although within ten years he had been
sentenced to no less than twenty-three years’ imprisonment— twice for
forgery, once seven years, and once fourteen, and thrice liberated on a
ticket o f leave. This is indeed “ making a scarecrow o f the law
but
old birds are not frightened from their pilfering ways by such scarecrows.
Whatever the punishment may be, it should be strictly carried out.
Destutt Tracy says, “ Les plus puissans de tout les moyens moraux, et
aupres desquels les autres sont preque nuls, sont les lois repressives, et
leur parfaite et entiere execution.”
* Of which too little heed is taken. Dr. Guy, who brings a rare but indispensable patho
logical knowledge to bear upon this and kindred objects, has judiciously treated it, in the
44Transactions o f the Social Science Association for 1862.”
+ Our prison discipline itself is a satire on punishment. A troublesome jade in Holloway
Gaol works ten hours’ hard labor, i. e., in picking three pounds o f oakum, while a poor,
honest woman at Rotherhitbe must pick more than six pounds to earn one shilling; and
while a labor r in Sussex earns 12s. a week, a scoundrel in Woking Prison costs 21s. a week,
and while detained in Newgate, he costs £2 a week, or more than a £100 a year, the salary
o f many hundred clergymen.
X Two cases of miscarriage o f justice furiously illustrate the administration of the law.
Pallaz^ini, an Italian, in 1865 was convicted on clearest evidence of the murder o f one Har
rington, but escaped at last on the confession o f a relation, and on the evidence o f a fresh
batch o f Italian witnesses.
rai.cisco G ardiniere in 1866 was convicted f >r the muruer, on
equally good evidence, o f a German sailor at Cardiff, but to whom a pardon was granted on
condition of hie leaving the country.
360
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
[ October,
It is a failing o f the multitude to go to extremes. Formerly the law
and public opinion were needlessly severe; now they are cruelly lax, and
the one error is not less cruel than the other. S o cause for self-gratulaion
that we now practise a sentimental surgery. It is a matter of great doubt
who is the more unfeeling officer in the army or navy, be he who orders
700 lashes, or he who orders none at all. Instinct under the control ot
reason is our unerring guide. Obedience to the four instincts o f hunger,
thirst, lust, resentment (the common attributes o f the whole animal
creation,) is virtuous, degenerating into vice only when alike intemperate,
plus or minus. Respecting injuries to ourselves and others, we have
been erroneously taught to allow, or manifest, no resentment towards the
offender, yet whenever so righteous an instinct has been suppressed
nature has been thwarted, evil-doers have flourished, and the world has
been going wrong. It is the instinct— the virtuous instinct— o f the
whole world to impose retributive pain, for pain inflicted wilfully and
criminally, just as it is the instinct o f the whole world, to slake thirst
with drink; no need of drunkenness therefore.* Pain should be the
certain punishment for all violent offences against the person, and either
pain or some ignominious punishment, as the pillory, is due to malicious
offences against property, especially on living animals. In the Statis
tical Journal is a useful notice, and admirable for the courage of the
writer, Dr. Mouat, wherein he says, “ Flogging is found to be very
reforming o f the prisoners in India, and is successful in clearing the
gaols,” of India (vol. xxx).
“ As thou dost so shalt thou be done by.”
“ It is right to deal with one’s enemy according to bis wickedness.”
“ Word for word and blow for blow, says (heathen) Justice when
she caileth for payment.”
And in confirmation of all this, for the use of stripes so wholesome
and so reforming we have not merely the highest authority by precept,
but the same highest Authority, by example. W e are told o f One who,
and not for the extremest o f offences either, “ made a scourge of small
cords.”
* ‘ 'F irst follow nature, and your judgment frame
By her just standard,”
is as correct a rn^e of law as it is o f criticism. Art, jurisprudence, mora's must not depart
very far or wide from the canon o f nature’ s instincts, or the savage man will remain more vir
tuous than the so-called refined and civilized men.
1869]
361
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
APPENDIX.
A. — COMPARATIVE
QUANTITIES OF CERTAIN ARTICLES IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM
AND RETAINED FOR HOME USE.
[000’s omitted from the quantities].
Articles
Average
of
1850-52.
Average Increase in
of
1860-62,
1860-62. on 1850-52.
Per cent.
Increase in
1865,
1865
only. on 1850-52. 1866.
Per cent.
Oxen, bulls, cows, and
calves....................... No.
82,
103,
26
283,
Sheep an 1 lambs..............
192,
311,
62
914,
Bacon and ham. . . .cwt.
209,
7 i9,
250
713,
Beef......................................
126,
202,
60
244,
Butter
..........................
323,
957,
196
1,084
Cheese................................
325,
665,
104
853,
109,83 2, 201,110,
83
364,
Eggs ■ •• ................No.
Fish of foreign taking, ex
clusive of eels__ .cw t.
350,
92,
279
472,
o
Hops....................................
117,
4,753
82,
Lard.....................................
138,
351,
155
137,
P o r k ........... .......................
178,
154,
19
222,
Potatoes .............................
920,
807,
767, 17 deerse
R i c e ...................................
2,920,
1.942,
839,
248
W heat.................................
15,292,
108
20,936,
31,795,
B a r le y ...............................
2,946,
6,389,
7,818,
117
O ats.....................................
73
3,047,
5,277,
7,711,
Maize...................................
6,505,
10,937,
68
7.087,
Wheat flour......................
4,282,
6,038,
41
3,883,
Currants...................... lbs.
666,
61
799,
407,
Raisins ..............................
218,
281,
29
294,
Pepper.................................
4,512,
6,186,
15
4.713,
Rum......................... gals.
3,5' 0,
21
3,698,
2,894,
Brandy...............................
1,881,
1,586, 16 deerse
2,664,
Other foreign and colonial
39,
2 7,
456
370,
Tobacco, manuf’d . . . .lbs.
202,
313,
55
825,
do unmanufactured,.
25
88,072,
27,771,
34,848,
W ine......................... gals.
6,354,
9,059,
43
11,994,
Coals for consumption in ) 1851 avge 1861 avge
1863
1864
metropolis.........tons, f 3,427,3 ■7 4,537,671 4,479.896 4,727,301
18s. 2d.
20s. Id.
Pries.................................... 16s. 7d.
19 s.
245
376
242
94
235
162
231
411
3,313
1 deerse.
45
12 deerse
131
36
165
153
9
9 deerse.
96
35
4
28
42
849
808
37
89
1866 avge
5,240,747
20s. id.
....
•* •»
23,109
8,433
8,829
15,000
4,953
756
301
•P•»
4,127
3,120
549
879
39,621
13,244
1
Noje.—Quantity increase in tixteen years, 50 per cent., p ice 20 per cent.
B—
IMPORT AND EXPORT TRADE OF UNITED
TO
KINGDOM,
HOME
[000’ s omitted from amounts.]
1851.
1861.
1862.
1863.
£
CONSUMPTION, AND RATIO
POPULATION.
£
£
£
1864.
£
1865.
£
1866.
£
Real value,imports. ..110,485 217,485 225,717 248,919 274,952 271,135 298,392
Exports........................... 74,449 125,103 121,992 146,602 160,449 165,862 188,82S
Total trade........... 184,934 342,588 349,709 895,521 435,401 436,997 487,220
Proportion of total trade
to population................
6 8
11 8
12 0
1 3.5
14 7
1 4 .7
1 6.2
Quantities o f some o f the Principal Articles o f food retained f o r Home Consumption
Cocoa, lbs..........................
Coffee, lbs..........................
Sugar, cwt........... .............
Tea, lbs.................
Malt, b u s h ......................
Spirits, gals......................
2,978
32,505
6,234
53,949
40,337
23,977
3,408
35,202
S,937
77.928
46,650
19,699
3,622
34,45!
9,112
78,794
43,689
19,128
3,712
82,763
9,203
85,183
49,073
19,383
3,862
31,360
8,937
88,599
61,797
20,496
38 6
30,511
9,877
97,835
59,746
21,006
4,607
30,944
10,600
102,325
54,445
22,516
362
[ October,
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
Proportion o f each Article to Population.
Cocoa, l b s ......................... 0 .1
Coffee, lba......................... 1 .2
Sugar, cwt......................... 0 .2
Tea, lbs............................. 2 .0
Malt, bush......................... 1 .5
Spirits,gala................
0 9
Average price of British £ s. d.
•wheat per quarter.. . 0 88 6
Gross revenue per head
ofpopulatiou...................2 2 0
C.—
0 .1
0 .1
1 .2
1 .2
0 .3
0 .3
2 .7
2 .7
1 .6
1 .5
0 .7
0 .7
£ s. d. £ s. d.
0 55 4 0 65 5
0 1
11
0 .3
2 .9
1 .7
0 7
£ s. d. £
0 44 9 0
2
2
90 2
80
80 2
0 .1
1.1
0 .3
3 0
1 .8
0 7
s. d.
40 2
70
2
AMOUNT AND PROPORTION TO POPULATION OF DEPOSITS IN THE
THE UNITED
0 .1
0 .2
1 .0
1 .0
0 3
0 .4
3 .3
3 .4
1 .7
1 .8
0 7
0 7
£ s. d. £ a. d.
0 41 10 0 49 11
7
02
5
0
SAVINGS BANKS OP
KINGDOM.
[000’ s omitted.]
Amount
of de-
Rateofde'
posits per
individual.
£ s. d.
i 10 7
0 10 4
0 4 2
posits.
£
Years.
1851— England and W ales..................
“ — Scotland......................................
“ — Ireland................ ..................
Population.
17,928,
2,889,
6,552,
27,480,
1,489,
1,359,
Total United Kingdom.............
1861— England and W ales....................
“ — Scitland .....................................
“ — Ireland........................................
27,369,
20,662,
8,062,
5,799,
30,278,
36,856,
2,538,
2,153,
1 2
1 16
0 16
0 7
2
9
7
5
Total United Kingdom...........
1862— .......................................................
“ — Scotland......................................
“ — Ireland ........................................
28,923,
20,228,
8,079,
5,799,
41,547,
35,797
2,677,
2,088,
1 8
1 15
0 17
0 7
9
5
5
2
Total United Kingdom.............
1863— England and W ales....................
“ — Scotland......................................
“ — Ireland........................................
29,106,
26,445,
3,101,
6,799,
40,562,
39,134,
2,977,
2,217,
1 7 10
1 18 8
0 19 2
0 7 8
Total United Kingdom........... .
1864— England and W a l e s .................
“ — Scotland........................................
K — Ireland..........................................
29,345,
20,663,
3,118,
5,799,
44,328,
39,416,
2,943,
2,155,
1 10 3
1
X 18
2
0 18 11
0 7 6
Total United Kingdom.. . . . . . .
1865— England and W ales....................
“ — Scotland.......................................
“ — Ireland..........................................
29,580,
20,881,
8,136,
5 799,
44,514,
40,171,
3,005,
2,052,
1 10
1 18
0 19
0 7
0
6
2
1
Total United Kingdom..............
1866— England and W ales....................
“ — Scotland........................................
“ — Ireland...........................................
29,816,
21,100,
3,153,
5,799,
45,228,
39,797,
2,916,
1,791,
1 10
1 17
0 18
0 6
4
2
6
2
Total United Kingdom..............
30,052,
44,504,
1
9
7
.
,
D .— E xpenditure on E ducation, and N umber of C hildren E ducated in the
U nited K ingdom .
Years.
1854. .England and Wales
“ . Scotland...................
“ ..Ireland.......................
Total U ’d Kingdom.
Hate per
Expenditure Average No. Aver’ e cost head of Pro to Pop.
frcm
of <hildren for each Expen. on of average
all sources.
at School.
Child. population. Scholars.
s. d.
£
£ 8.
j 393,556*
( 1 in 46
717,248
.. 8
j 67,890}
\ 43
26
208,650
253,726
.. 8
. . 16
925,898
715,171
1
6
8
38
1869]
363
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
1 8 6 1 ..England and Wales )
“ ..Scotland....................)
“ ..I r e la n d ........................
1,664,588
808,648
“ . . Total U’d Kingdom..
1862, .England and Wales )
“
Scotland....................J
“ Ireland .............................
1,971,506
“ . .Total U ’d Kingdom..
1863. .England and Wales )
“ . . Scotland................... J
“ . . Ireland .........................
1,957,518
“ ..T otal U ’d Kingdom..
1,959,614
1 8 6 4 ..England and Wales )
“ ..Scotland.................... )
“ ..Ireland...........................
1,645,129
312,389
1,638,462
326,152
1,662,855
322,860
“ ..T otal U ’d Kingdom .
1865 England and Wales J
“ . .Scotland ..................J
“ . . Ireland........... ............
1,985,715
“ . .Total U ’d Kingdom. .
1866 England and Wales )
“ . . Scotland.................... J
2,253,978
1,927,208
326.770
1,993,657
( 773,831*
( 146,104f
284,726
i
[■
1 5
16
1
1
1
2
1
1 13
1
4
15
1
5
2
1
1
1.233,541
( 889,764*
J 169,161 +
296,986
1 12
1 1 12
f 1 2
...
1
1
1
4
5
1
1,305,911
( 854,950*
( 156,184f
315,108
1 10
1
4
i
ll «
13
1
5
1 ••
1
1
1,326,242
( 901,750*
| 155,995f
311,406
1 10
1
4
j
j
1 16
1
1
1
1
1,369,151
( 911,450*
( 17o ,60 :f
1 13
1
\ i 17
j
1
1,204,661
( 799,056*
J 149.573f
284,912
[ ’
1
t
(
i
f
■
j
24
25
21
20
'j
i1
24
24
18
20
i
1
22
24
20
18
[
1
22
23
20
19
••
1
26
21
20
j
’ j
1
22
6
;
8 \
23
18
E — P a u p e r is m .
England and Wales.
Population.
1851 (average 3 years).
1861 (average 3 years).
1863....................................
1864
.............................
1 8 6 5 ..................................
1866....................................
1867....................................
17,985,000
20,044,000
20,455,000
20,663,000
20,881,000
21,100,0 0
21,320,000
Number of Per cent to
paupers. population,
955,227
881,899
1,079,882
1,014,978
951,899
916,152
631,000
The Metropolis.
1851 $ (average 3 years)
1860 (average 3 years).
1863....................................
1864........... ........................
1865....................................
1866....................................
1867....................................
F ,— NUNBEK
2,802,000
2,802,000
2,802,000
2,802,009
2,802,000
2,802,000
91,593
99,568
99,097
99,981
104,499
122.454
5 8
4 4
5 3
4 9
4 -6
4 -3
4 '4
Cost per indiv.
of population,
Cost.
s. d.
£
5 8
5,085,166
5 8
5,770,477
6,527,036
6 H
6 n
6,423,283
6
6,264,961
6 n
6,439,517
6 «*
6,959,841
....
.......
...
3-26
3'55
3 -50
3 56
3 50
4 37
833,549
848,198
876,290
905,639
976,263
1,175,363
5 in
6 2*
6
3
6 5*
6 11
8 4*
OF CRIMINAL OFFENDERS OF CERTAIN CLASSES CONVICTED IN ENGLAND AND
W A L E S.
Increase( + )
or
Senten Decrease
Total Decrease(—) ced per cent.
Offences.
Shooting at, stabbing,
wouuding, A c .:
1817 ..................
1827....................
1837....................
1847....................
1857....................
ed.
26]
85 |
41 y
118 |
208 J
in 40 years, death, years.
f
|
+ 7 0 0 -{
|
l
26]
85 |
36 J4 |
9J
Trans
Iroprisonment
Penal above 1
ted tation- tude. months.
f
|
65 -{
|
l
12
6
..
..
...................................
...................................
2
..
3
42
..
72
11
58
130
* Including Roman Catholic School for Great Britain,
t Exclusive o f Roman Catholics.
$ No return o f pauperis n in these years for the metropolis alone; the statistics were then
given in the ordinary county form.
[
October,
••• •
....
18
..
..
..
....
....
20
186
23
161
90
187
THE INCREASE OF MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
364
Eobbery:
18 i 7 ........ .
154]
201
184 J2+
385 J
1S27...................
1837...................
1847...................
1 8 5 7..................
r
19
17
94 -!
..
i
i
,.
r 154 1
201 1
146 y
9 1
7J
+145
.•
Burglary:
3741
368
232
346
464 J
1817...................
1S27...................
1837...................
1S47...................
1857 .................
r 3741
368 |
+ 2 3 7 -! 223 y
5 1
6J
L
r
i
98 -!
i
i
IS
10
••
.,
..
. •• •
....
8
.•
..
..
...
227
14
..
.,
....
....
1
188
164
265
Housebreaking :
1521
24 U
403 j506
56S j
1817 .................
1827...................
1837 ...................
1 8 4 7 ..................
1857 ...................
r 152
240
+273
.«
..
-{
i
•.
..
..
294
172
10
..
.•
171
....
....
109
334
387
Larceny in a dwelling house :
143'
223
159 )- + 7 2 .0
172
246 J
1817.................
1827...................
1837...................
1847...................
1857...................
r 143
•.
..
223
•,
•,
1
..
....
...
..
..
4
.,
..
••
••
r .,
i , ,
— 98 •i . .
i ,,
..
.,
..
..
.
.
.
,
t •*
••
••
1,300
1,897
1,611
991
•••
18
....
4
....
l
..
..
..
59
144
75
....
...»
15
97
180
Simple larceny :
6,4201
817............... ..
1827................... 8,358
1837................... 10,409 J1847 ................... 12,778
1857*................. 5,783 J
Forgery, and uttering forged iustruments ;
1817 ....................
1827 ....................
1837 ..................
1847 ................■
1 8 5 7. . . . _____
G .—
62'
46
42
r
y
121
134
i
+ 196
<
i
i
62
46
..
,
.
.
.
.,
..
..
••
..
,,
.
783
,,
4,982
6,293
8,4 62
11,569
4,846
....
..
31
40
. ,
6
80
11
81
95
INDICTABLE OFFENCE9 COMMITTED IN ENGLAND AND W ALES, 8 0 FAR A9 KNOW N TO
THE
P O L IC E ;
A L90
THE NUMBER OF CASES
SUMMARILY DISPOSED OF
UNDER THE
HEAD OF “ DRUNKENNESS,” AND THE NUMBER AND COST OF THE POLICE.
1. No. o f indictable offences known.
2
“
persons apprehended.......
3. Class oi known oflences—
a . Offences against the person.. .
b.
”
properly with
violence........................................
c . Offences aga nst propert.- with
out violence.................................
v d . Malicious offences against proporty.............................................
3 5 . Forgery and offences against the
cur'i ney................... ....... .
p Other offences............................
1857.
57,273
32,031
Average
1860-62.
51,480
27,Or5
1868.
52,211
30,410
1864
51.058
28,734
1865.
52,250
29,049
1866.
50,540
27,199
2,861
2,787
2,403
2,963
3,091
3,123
6,471
4,598
5,433
5,022
5,160
5,088
43,397
40,861
39, SOI
39,481
40,383
39,731
406
520
762
774
669
465
2,839
1,373
1,737
951
1,869
1,380
1,364
1,326
1,410
1,505
1,199
1,205
* Summary Jurisdiction Act passed in 1855.
1869]
the
in c r e a s e
of
m a t e r ia l
p r o s p e r it y .
365
4. Special offences o f violence aginst the person, included in Class A —
135
99
110
121
131
131
1. M urder.....................................
II. Manslaughter and murderous
793
1,102
assault.................................
817
998
1,033
9S3
HI. Assaults and Inflicting bodily
239
198
2S1
306
295
272
harm......................................
433
156
163
214
229
207
IV . Common assaults....................
309
196
311
249
164
V . Assaults on peace officers.......
228
471
585
VI. Rapes, and attempts a t............
497
552
579
593
5. i'runkenness, and drunk and disS8,488
94,745 100,067 105,310 104,368
ord rly, summarily determined ...
75,859
4.9
4.7
4.6
Rat o t<> population...........................
4.8
5.0
22,849
21,445
22,622
23.728
19,187
23,250
Number o f police...........................
1.1
1.1
Proportion to population o f 1,000...
1.0
1.1
1.1
i.i
£
£
£
£
£
£
Cost o f the police.............................. 1,2G5,580 1,569,109 1,658,265 1,700,212 1,748,758 1,S27,106
N o t b .— 1This table includes the metropolitan district.
H . — INDICTABLE OFFENCES COMMITTED IN THE
METROPOLIS SO FAR AS KNOWN TO THE
POLICE ; ALSO THE NUMBER OF CASKS SUMMARILY DISPOSED OF UNDER THE HEAD OF
“ DRUNKENNESS,”
AND THE NUMBER AND COST OF THE POLICE.
Average, 1S63. 1S64. 1865. 1866.
1860-62.
. 12.331 14.044 13,534 13,859 14,767
. 4,817 5,776 * 5,el0 5,747 5,823
S. Class o f Known offences—
a . Offences against the person....................
b . Offences against property with violence.
d.
e.
f
I.
ii.
lit.
iv.
v.
vi.
572
643
357
663
6*0
609
479
646
585
657
. 10,604 11,703 11,196 11,577 12,550
28
no
43
38
4S
623
632
562
444
411
231
468
485
512
451
ded in Class A —
8
11
9
14
8
203
121
189
200
1S6
5
3
2
5
35
58
71
145
150
156
43
72
79
59
87
44
64
85
61
76
Malicious offences again t property...............
Forgery and offences against the currency ...
>ther offences....... .........................................
Murder ..............................................
Manslaughter and murderous assault,
Assaults and ii dieting bodily harm...
Common assaults..................................
Assaults on peace officers ................
Rapes, and attempts at............... .. .
f 19,731 19,099 13,940 21,105 20,789
. 7,424 7,961 8,056 8,156 8,277
2-9
2'9
2-9
30
£
£
£
£
£
. 566,679 611,639 626,289 659,765 685,375
Number o f police (metropolitan
Proportion to population o f 1,000.
Cost o f the p o lic e ...........................
J. —
NUMBER OF PERSONS COMMITTED
FOR
T RIAL IN ENGLAND AND W ALES.
1848 .......................... No. 30,349 "1
1849 ...................................
27,816 |
1850 ...................................... 26,813 j Average
1851 .................................
27,960}of
1852 ...................................
27,510 I
7 years
1853 ...................................
27,057 I 28,123
18r.4 ......................................
29,359 J
1 8 5 6 * . . . . . ........................... 25,972
1856
.................................
1857 .................... ...............
1858 ........................................
1859..
. ..............................
1860 ...................................
1861 ...................................
1862 ...................................
1 8 6 3 .. ...........................
1864........................................
1 8 6 5 .. ...............................
1866........................................
Population, per 1,000
f 17,357,00 ^
17,565.000
Average
| 17,773,000 |
of
-}17,983,000 }- 1-6
7 yeaA I 18, 93,000 I
17,983,000 | 18,404,000 |
L'S.eiS.OMJ
18,829,000 18,829,000
1 ’4
19,4371
29,269
Average
17,855
of
16,674
7 years
15,999 I 18,366
18,326 I
20,001 J
20,8181 Average
19,506 :
of
.9,614 {
4 years
18,849J 19,697
f lfl,042,0001
Average
I 19,257,000 |
of
I 19,471,000 |
7 years ■{ 19,687,000 }- 0'9
19,688,000
19,903,000 |
i 2 ‘,120,' 00 |
^20,336,000 J
Average
f 20,554,0001
of
J 20,772,000 (
4 years | 20,991,000 f
20,882,000 [21 ,2 10 ,(,0oj
* Year c f the Criminal Justices Act.
366
th e
c u l t iv a t io n
and
p b o d u c t io n
of
[ October ,
cotton,
K . — FIRES AS KNOWN TO THE POLICE IN LONDON, LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER AND DUBLIN.
Reported to
I iverpool,
the fii etropolitan
year ending ManFire Brigade. London. 29th Sept. Chester. Dublin.
1 8 5 7 .. ...............................................
1 8 5 8 .. ...............................................
1 8 5 9 .. . .............................................
1860 ...................................................
1861 ...................................................
1 8 6 2.....................................................
1863 ...................................................
1864 ...................................................
1865 ..................................................
1866 ...................................................
1,116
1,114
1,084
1,056
1,188
1,303
1,404
1,487
1,502
1,338
66o
608
661
568
647
660
742
748
805
661
202
194
28
189
174
42
185
205
48
241
223
32
263
261
63
242
206
54
244
228
49
206
275
43
..........................................
..........................................
Note—Average o f first three years 5761, and o f the last three years 733, in London.
L .—
TABLE SHOWING THAT FIRES HAVE INCREASED IN LONDON IN AN
UNDUE RATIO
TO
THE INCREASE OF POPULATION AND OF HOUSES.
I d 1845 there was 1 fire to every 2,990 of population, and 1 to every 395 houses
CC
tt
tf
it
“ 1850
2,673
347
tt
it
if
a
2,585
333
“ 1855
cc
tc
((
cc
2,613
335
“ 1860
a
u
tt
it
2,370
803
“ 1861
tt
tc
tt
tc
2,188
280
“ 1862
tt
Ct
it
cc
2,064
265
“ 1863
it
tt
tt
u
1,980
265
“ 1864
it
tt
it
tt
1,900
250
“ 1865
Note.—Increase from 1815 to 18S5, nearly 50 per cent.
TABLE SHOWING THE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER
Clous,
In
“
“
“
“
OF
FIRES
DOUBTFUL OR UNACCOUNTED FOR ”
RECORDED
AS
OF
“ SUSPI-
ORIGIN.
1852 there were 923 fires, of which 318 or 34-J per cent were “suspicious,” Ac
ft
“
91-0
324 “ 38
“
“
1853
“
“
“
1862
“
1,303
507 “ 88
“
‘
1,401
601 “ 36
«
“
1863
tc
“
1,502
618 “ 4 0 i
“
“
1865
CC
700 “ 5 2 i
“
“
1866
“
1,338
Note—Average o f first three years 36; )a!ter three years 43, or as 6 is to 71-6.
THE CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION OF COTTON.
In view of the condition of labor in the South, both present and
prospective, it is evident that, if the supply of cotton from this country
is to be materially increased within the next few years, this result must
be accomplished through greater carefulness and economy in the manage
ment of labor and the cultivation of the land. In a former paper we dis
cussed the labor question ; but the importance of thoroughly and properlypreparing the soil is no less evident.
Before the war the upland cotton fields were year after year “ crop
ped” under a system of superficial cultivation, and it is only because o f
the slow exhaustive nature of the cotton plant and the great natural
fertility of the cotton belt, that these lands were not completely exhausted
1869]
THE c u l t iv a t io n - a n d p r o d u c t i o n o f c o t t o n .
367
long ago. Fortunate!}’, however, the cotton fibre, which should alone be
removed from the plantation on which it grows, absorbs but six and onehalf pounds per acre of the mineral properties of the soil, calculating the
yield at one bale to the acre. In comparison with wheat, which absorbs
17-65 pounds to the acre, potatoes, which absorb 163 pounds, or beets,
which require 458 pounds of the most valuable properties of the soil,
it will be seen that the amount taken up by the cotton fibre is small;
but even with this slow exhaustion of these necessary mineral dements,
the time has come when the use o f fertilizers to restore the land to its
original fertility is imperatively required. Even in the rich bottom landss
where as much as two or two and one-half bales have been raised to
the acre, and with little or no cultivation, the custom o f forever taking
away from and never returning anything to the soil, must ultimately
impoverish it. These facts are becoming more and more evident to
planters throughout the South, and during the past year fertilizers have
been more extensively used than ever before.
On account of the
peculiar properties o f some of these manures, however, it is said that,
during the excessively dry summer we have had, injury has resulted
rather than benefit. But where this has happened, we think it may be
traced to the properties o f the fertilizer, and is certainly no argument
against the scientific cultivation of the soil. To understand then what
are the best fertilizers, requires a careful study of the nature o f the
cotton plant and of the manures generally in use obtainable at a price
which will enable the planter to apply them freely to his land.
The requirements of cotton may, o f course, be correctly determined by
ascertaining what are its constituent parts. An analysis of the fibre
shows that 100 pounds o f cotton lint contain one and three-quarter pounds
of mineral matter in the following proportions: Potash, 41.8 per cent
Lime, 19.8 ; Magnesia, 11.2 ; Chlorine, 7.8; Phosphoric A cid, 6.4; Soda'
6 .1 ; Sulphuric Acid, 4.2 ; Oxide of Iron, 2.4 ; Silica, .3. It is evident’
therefore, that manure, to be thoroughly adapted to cotton, must contain
these properties in a soluble condition. The most important are potash
lime, magnesia, phosphoric and sulphuric acids, all of which are essential,
and, when lacking, must be supplied to the soil. These necessary ingre
dients m ay be found most readily in the following available manures:
cotton seed, natural phosphates, guano, super-phospliate, bone dust, ashes,
salt, stable manure, lime, and land plaster. B y far the most valuable
of these is cotton seed, which contains the same mineral properties as the
lint, and in much larger quantities. A s there are 300 pounds of seed to
100 of the lint, the mineral matter abstracted by the plant can be returned
to it through the seed, which contains the bulk of that taken up during
the growth. The usual mode of preparing the seed for manure is to put
368
th e
c u l t iv a t io n
and
p r o d u c t io n
of
cotton.
[ October,
it in a water-tight basin prepared in the ground and leave it to rot in the
weather. After it is thoroughly decomposed it can be used for grain,
corn, or cotton, and if mixed with bone dust, gypsum, or any good
mineral fertilizer, it becomes very rich. This manure is in general use
through the uplands, but the modes of preparing it are often so wasteful
and injurious as to deprive the planter of much of the profit and advan
tage that would otherwise result. Experience has proved, however, that
cotton seed, mixed with bone dust, stable manure, muck, or gypsum,
will greatly improve the soil and increase the yield of cotton. It is essen
tial, also, that the planters take better care o f stable manure, which is
valuable on any kind of soil and for any kind of crop. The barnyard
is a thing hitherto almost unknown in the South, and the rich beds o f
manure which the Northern farmer accumulates from year to year, are
seldom or never seen on the Southern plantations. It is also essential
that the black muck from the swamps shall be more generally employed.
The character of the soil o f the cotton belt is, in great part, light and
sandy, e.nd, with but few exceptions, needs stiffening. Many sections
abound in swamps, where the richest kind o f vegetable mould can be
procured in unlimited quantities, and a few enterprising planters are
already beginning to avail themselves of this cheap fertilizer with profit
to themselves and advantage to the soil under cultivation.
Among the available mineral fertilizers, the cheapest and, in some re
spects, the best are the natural phosphates from the Ashley, Cooper and
Wando river regions of South Carolina. The Ashley beds, which were
the first discovered, are the most extensive and valuable. These deposits
extend over a surface of several miles square; the strata generally lying
within two feet of the surface in a light soil, and being quite accessible
from their proximity to the Ashley river and the Charleston market. The
analysis of these phosphates show them to contain lime, sulphuric and
phosphoric acids, but no alkali, which must be supplied when used on land
not already containing it in sufficient quantities. In this respect it resem
bles guano, and should, therefore, be mixed with other fertilizers supply
ing silica and potash, which are rapidly exhausted from the soil when
guano is used alone. The alkali and chlorine may be imparted to the
soil by the use of common salt and ashes, thus making a fertilizer as nearly
perfect as possible; but owing to the present high price o f salt, it is in
most instances placed beyond the reach of the planter. It is possible that
the lately discovered “ potash-salts” of Germany will soon be introduced
into this country, and as we suppose it is not covered by the tariff, it
may be obtained at a price which will place them within reach of every
Southern planter.
In treating of the subject of manures and fertilizers, however, it is
1869]
THE CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION OF COTTON.
369
necessary to bear in mind the difficulties in the way o f generally distri
buting phosphates, guano and other commercial fertilizers throughout the
cotton country. The railroads are comparatively few in number, and on
such as are now in operation the rates are high and facilities for freight
transportation extremely limited. In view of this fact, it is necessary that
a large proportion o f the planters,whose lands are distant from railroads
or navigable rivers, should depend mainly on such manure as they can
make on their farms or procure from the swamps. Both ot these have
been in former years quite generally neglected, although they should be
regarded as a main dependence. A n eminent chemist, o f extensive expe
rience and observation in the cotton States, has given it as his opinion
that the black muck of the swamps, which can be procured anywhere in
the South for the cost o f carting it a short distance, possesses many of the
elements most needed to improve the character and stimulate the fertility
o f the light Southern soil. W ith a proper system o f drainage, thousansd
of acres of this rich mould might be made available for fertilizing pur
poses.
Under the old system o f labor existing before the war, the method o f
cultivation adopted was, as a general rule, wasteful and ineffective. In but
few instances did the proprietors o f the soil know or care much about the
practical management of the plantation, preferring to leave it to irrespon
sible overseers, whose interest it was to get the largest possible crops with
the least trouble to themselves. As a consequence, but few improvements
were made in farming implements or machinery, and everything was of the
most primitive and inferior description. A wretched system of surface
culture was followed year after year, and the land, rapidly exhausted, was
abandoned for new soil as soon as it ceased to yield profitably ; Manuring
was seldom resorted to ; subsoil plows were unknown ; and little effort was
made to improve the quality of the lint by experiments with seed imported
from foreign countries or procured from other sections of the South, as has
been done with wheat and other cereals in the Northern States. Under
the present condition of affairs, however, the necessity of economizing
labor has compelled the planters to farm on very different principles, and
to make the yield as large as possible from the limited acreage now under
cultivation. Experience has shown that cotton, like all other products of
the soil, thrives best when cultivated most carefully. A ll lands in which
it is planted must be sub-soiled to the depth of eighteen inches, at least.
B y furrow planting and careful cultivation it has been found that the fruit
on the plant can be largely increased. In a word, experience has shown that
the size of the cotton plant and the number of pods it holds are in direct pro
portion to the richness o f the soil and the care with which it is cultivated,
and hence with our limited labor supply the extent o f our crop for the next
few years must depend very much upon careful cultivation,
370
N o r t h Ca r o l i n a b o n d s .
\October,
NORTH CAROLINA BONDS.
T ie following information and opinions are of much interest upon the subject of the
North Carolina debt. A despatch from Raleigh states :
“ The public Treasurer gives notice that the interest on the bonds issued in aid
of the new railroads, due April 1, will be paid on the presentation of the coupons at
the Treasurer's office, or the Raleign National Bank. He also gives notice that similar
future interest will be paid at either of the same places.”
Jn regard to this the New York Commercial Advertiser remarks :
A North Ca-olina Senator communic .tes the tollowing information relative to the
bonds of North Carolina known as “the Special 'l ax Bonds,” respecting which there
is some mystification in the public imnd :
Secton 5, article 6, Constitution State of North Carolina, ratified April, 1868, says :
Uutii the bom s of the Mate shall be at par, tin General Assembly shall I ave no
power to contract any new i ebt or pecuniary obligation in behalf oi the State,
except to supply a casual deficit, or tor suppressing an invasion or insurrection,
unless it shall in the same bill lay a special tux to pay the interest annually, and
the General Assembly shall have no power to give or lend the credit of the state in
aid of any persen, association, or corporation, except to aid the completion of euch
railroads as may be ui finished at the time of the am ption of this Constitution.”
At the last session of the Legislatuie, appropriations and amendments to the charters
of the following railroads were made, to w it :
Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad, Western (N, C.) Railroad, West
ern Railre, d, and to several others ; but the above are the only ones.declared by the
Supreme Court of North Carolina, in July last, to be in accordance with the Consti
tution. The appropriations, in all amounting to some $10,OOP,000, were, with the
amendments to the different charters submitte I to a general meeting of the stockhold
ers of the several roads, and by them accepted, hence becoming a part and parcel of
their charters, and a vested right wh cb no future Legislature can repeal.
In each of the bills making these appropriations “a special tax to pay the interest
annually" was levied, which levy is good and binding as a first leitt on all the real
and personal property of the State until the especial tax” bonds are paid.
'1 he tax levy to pay the interest on such bonds having been made under the above
section of ihe Constitution, has no need of further legislation to pay its interest, and
cannot under the Constitution, be diverted for any other purpose, while the payments
of interest on the “old and ntw” bonds are dependent on the annual tax levy of each
Legislature.
The above is briefly but correctly the reason why those bonds are called the
“ special tax bonds.”
The Times (financial arti le) says, in reference to the same matter :
A Rale th announcement by telegraph is to the effect that the April interest will
be paid in that city on such of these “ Special Tax” issues as may be in Ihe hands of
the public— the amount said to be two or three millions out of $16,240,Out) designed
to be maiked in New York, if practicable, to build certain new railways,1n preference
of $ 18,049,946 including back interest, heretofore issued for the old railways and
other State purposes. These latter are acknowledged to hold the sa e rank as a
charge upon the general revenues and public faith of the State. The pretext of
special tax secuiity on the new bonds rests upon the provision of the amended
Constitution requiring additional taxes to be levied by the Legislature whenever the
State debt is inci eased. But we discover nothing more forcible in the new than
in the old fundamental law for the preservation of the entire public faith. And, if
the State holds $11,241,COO stock and mortgage in the old railways (most of them
anti war), which cannot be made available with the help of the ordinary state
revenues to pay the interest on $18,000,t 00— even after the arrearages of interest up
to 1866 bad been funded promise of a general resumption of payments, and the fund
ing bonds, to the amount of $2,r39,9oO, now known as “New North C .rolinas,”
sold in the New York market at 65@70 cents on the dollar— it is scarcely to be
credited that new railways, some of them barely commenced, can be implicitly relied
upon to help the State pay the interest on $16,240,000— much longer, at least, than
it will take to market the whole amount. \Ye make these suggestions by way of
caution to the public against buying the bonds upon the mere announcement of one
or two installments of interest to be paid on a few millions already in second hands
as eo'd for cash or exchanged for railroad iron, but in no hostility to North Carolina
credit properly administered.
1869]
LABOR IN TBE SOUTH.
271
LABOR IN THE SOUTH.
Within the past three years the question of labor in the cotton pro
ducing States of the South has become one o f great interest and import
ance to the entire country. In a few localities the supply is compara
tively abundant, and employers are enabled to select good workmen and
reject those that are incompetent or untractable ; but throughout the
greater part of the cotton belt it is becoming more and more difficult each
year to obtain a sufficient force of field hands to work the comparatively
small proportion of land now under cultivation. Instead o f increasing the
acreage devoted to cotton, as has been urged by Northern journals, the
planters declare themselves unable to properly cultivate and gather even
the crops they have planted. This is a serious condition o f affairs,
and one which it is the interest o f the whole country to seek to relieve.
Most planters, however, are looking to immigration as the solution of
the difficulty, and the Chinaman is now supposed to be the “ coming man ”
who is to solve the problem and make the whole South blossom. But
it should be remembered that for years the main reliance o f the South
must be upon the freedmen, and the great question is, how can their labor
be made most effective ?
W e admit that since the close o f the war idleness, and the vicious
habits o f life engendered by it, have demoralized a large proportion of
the black population and greatly impaired their usefulness as laborers;
thousands have left the agricultural districts and flocked to the cities and
towns, where they remain engaged in whatever occupation offers them
emploj’ment; many more settle in the woods, or on small patches o f land,
from which they raise only enough to afford them a bare subsistence.
Those remaining in the cotton fields are frequently unreliable, and
attempts to control them are followed by the abandonment o f their work
and the violation o f whatever contract they may have made with their
employer. In addition to this, the women and children have abandoned
field work, and cannot be induced to return to it permanently. From
these causes, as well as from the alarming mortality among the blacks
during and since the war, the number o f laborers available for the culture
of cotton has been reduced one half since 1860.
A ll these difficulties we admit exist; but still the fact remains that
the freedmen are now the sole reliance, and must for a long time continue
to be the main reliance o f the South. How can the planters best use
them ? At present in employing field hands two systems of payments are
adopted, one by giving a share of the crop, and the other by wages.
Under existing circumstances neither of these plans have been found to
work satisfactorily. In the share system the laborer usually receives one
8
272
labor
in
th e
south.
[ October,
half the cotton and corn he raises, provided he “ finds” himself. I f
rations are given him his share of the crops is usually one-third or onequarter. In some instances the laborer is given the use of a certain
amount of land in consideration of his services, by which he becomes
practically a tenant, paying one quarter or one-third of bis crop as rent,
and finding his own teams, tools and seed. In the wages system the pay
is from ten to fifteen dollars per month, according to circumstances—
an experienced and industrious band being worth more than one who
is ignorant or indolent. Both of these systems have, as related above,
been found to work favorably only in certain instances. The payment
of wages gives the planter a greater control over the daily labor of
the workmen, and enables him to carry out a general system o f improve
ment on his farm, but he gains no such control over the laborer as will
secure him his assistance all through the crop season. In case of any
attraction away from the plantation, or any election or other excitement,
or sometimes from a simple desire to spend the wages already earned,
the freedman will leave his work even at the most critical period o f the
season. There are, however, instances in which the wages system has
been satisfactorily tried. On the plantation of Col. Lockett, o f Georgia
it has been found to work w e ll; and, if the statements of correspond
ents are trustworthy, the results of its adoption have proved satisfac
tory in a remarkable degree. Col. Lockett hires his laborers by the
year, and pays quarterly in currency. Field bands are classified accord
ing to the amount of work they are capable of performing, and the wages
for each class is stipulated by the employer, to which is added one ration,
consisting of four pounds of bacon and one peck of cornmeal to each
laborer per week. W e are inclined to believe, however, that the success
which has attended the practical workings of the wages system in this
instance is mainly due to the personal energy and executive ability o
Col. Lockett, whose management o f his estate evinces a degree ot
judgment and perception rar. ly manifested even by the most intelligent
planters; and hence we find that under less able and energetic manage
ment, the adoption o f this system has led to very different results. In
fact the freedmen are not like other laborers. Their long life spent in
slavery has given them their unstable characters, making them in many
respects like overgrown children, caring only to supply present wants and
having little thought for the future. To keep them up then to their work
it has been generally found that some interest in the result o f the crop
was a great assistance, and hence it is our opinion, based on the results
o f inquiry and observation, that, in most instances, planters in the cotton
belt would find it greatly to their advantage to adopt a system embody
ing the best features of both the systems now being tried with but
1869]
LABOR IN' THE SOUTH.
[273
indifferent success. "We believe the share system to be, on the whole,
much the better of the two, but we see no reason why it should be
adopted by the planters to the exclusion of the other, which unquestion
ably possesses some good features. By giving the laborer an interest
and a pride in the crop, the share system certainly stimulates him to
greater industry, increases his self-respect, develops his individuality and
quickens both his mental and physical powers, helping to make him in
some degree, at least, a responsible member o f society. This is, above
all things, the kind o f education the freedmen need to make them good
laborers ; compel them to look into the future— not to live on the present
alone— and you have at once made them provident and reliable. This
system also gives the laborer the strongest of all motives to increase,
improve and protect the crop by every means in his power, for his inte
rests are identical with those o f his employer ; and in the end we think
it will actually inciease the amount of labor, as the man who is culti
vating a number of acres for himself, in part, will command the services
of his wife and children in case of need. In this way a large force
of laborers, now withdrawn from this department of industry, will be
returned to it again, and the effect be seen in fuller crops and greater
prosperity.
In making contracts, however, the planter must, of course, exerciss an
intelligent judgment and a keen discrimination. It could in no way result
to his advantage to entrust his land to the care o f indolent and improvi
dent negroes, who would be content with a bare subsistence as the result
of their year’s labor. Due allowance must also be made for the ignorance
which is the legitimate result of their former condition, as well as for the
demoralizing and intoxicating effects of a sudden elevation to their present
social and political status. Whether agreeable or otherwise, the Southern
people must recognize the existence of a new order of things and maki
themselves conformable to it. Where the planter finds his tenams
ignorant, it is his duty and his interest to instruct and counsel them, and
by his greater knowledge and experience teach them to farm on correct
and economical principles. This may not have an immediately perceptible
influence, but the good accomplished will tell powerfully in the future.
More than this, a system of free schools for the children of the freedmen
should be established and encouraged in every State and supported by a
general school tax, as in the North. Under such instruction, and with
such substantial encouragements to honest industry, the negro would
soon become more intelligent, self-reliant and capable, and the labor
problem would sooner or later work out its own solution.
There are, it is true, certain disadvantages in the share system that has
heretofore prevented its more general adoption in the Cotton States.
274
BREADSTUFFS.
[ October,
The most important of these is the difficulty o f carrying on the general
work of the farm, such as ditching where drainage is necessary, repairing
buildings, machinery, fences &c., clearing new lands and preparing it
for cultivation, and other important matters incident to the proper care
of a plantation, that would not belong to the laborer hired by contract to
cultivate a certain number of acres on shares. For this kind o f work the
planter will find it for his interest to make seperate arrangements, employ
ing a number o f laborers during part o f the year, which leaves him free
to engage, control and discharge supernumeraries as he may see fit1
Thus the two systems can be made to work together advantageously and
profitably, by paying the freedmen first with a smaller share in the crop
than has heretofore been customary, and second with a limited amount of
money per month; while the general work on the plantation, after the
crops are gathered, can be kept up by continuing on wages such hands
as are required for that purpose.
It is, of course, both desirable and necessary that labor in the cotton
districts should be more abundant, but until it is so the planters must
make the best of the present condition of affairs. Coolie labor and
immigration from Europe or the Northern and Western States, may
ultimately furnish an abundant supply; but these are matters of the
iuture; at best, many years will elapse during which the labor of the
blacks must be the main reliance. It is the part o f wisdom, therefore,
that in the organization o f industry in the South, the labor o f the freedmen
should be treated practically, aside from any speculative theorizing over
possible immigration in the future. Whether the blacks become more
and more valuable each year, or whether they deteriorate in a proportionate
ratio, depends mainly on whether the landed proprietors o f the South
are willing to accept and master the situation as they find it, or whether
they prefer to devote themselves mainly to the discussion of vast schemes
of immigration depending for their success on innumerable uufores.en
contingencies.
BREADSTUFFS.
The present position and future prospects of our market for Breadstuffs, are subjects of unusual importance in various relations. The
resources of the agricultural community and their capacity to purchase
the products of our manufacturers and the goods of our importers, are
involved on the one hand; while public finances are subject largely to the
influence their exportation may exert upon the foreign exchanges.
It may be premised, that we have a magnificent crop o f wheat, unsur
passed if ever equalled in quantity, and wholly acceptable on the average
1809]
BREADSTUFF'S.
275
in quality. O f Indian corn, there is undoubtedly a deficiency from the
average crop of from fifteen to twenty per cent. But in proportion to the
quantity grown, corn does not possess the mercantile importance o f wheat.
A much larger proportion is consumed or fed near where it is grown. Of
course, it enters finally into the aggregate value o f the products o f the
country. Our supply of pork, lard, bacon, &c., depends upon it, and they
are largely exported. But it is, of itself, not o f first importance as a “ cash
article.” O f oats, the yield is very large and the quality good, but they
are seldom exported to any extent. Rye is a fair crop, and unless main
tained at a high figure by a distilling demand, in lieu o f corn, it may be
exported to Germany to some extent. Barley is a full crop, but not o f
prime quality, and will probably not be exported.
It will be seen from this brief review, that so far as foreign markets, and
consequently the state of exchanges, are concerned, we are limited in our
observations to the single staple o f wheat.
W e have, as we have said, a crop unprecedented in quantity and excel
lent in quality. W h at shall be done with it ? Reducing flour to wheat,
our exports for the year ending the first September may be set down at
thirty million (30,000,000) bushels, against twenty-two million (22,000,000)
bushels for the preceding crop year. The United Kingdom last year had
a very fine crop o f wheat; so that, notwithstanding the increased con
sumption incident to a material decline in prices and relatively high prices
of roots and coarse grains, she did not import more than fifty million
(50,000,000) bnshels of wheat, (including flour reduced to wheat,) against
about sixty-five million (65,000,000) bushels the preceding year. And
yet, with this decreased importation from all points, she increased her draft
upon the United States, taking from us about twenty-two million
(22,000,000) bushels, as against fifteen million (15,000,000) bushels in the
preceding year.
W hat these statistics indicate, respecting the supplies o f wheat in other
countries from which England has been accustomed to make good her
deficiencies, must be in good part conjectured. Whether the lower prices
caused growers to withhold their wheat from market, or induced such
increase of consumption as to curtail the supply for export; or whether
other countries competed for their surplus; or whether there was a
deficiency in the growth equal to the falling off in the export to Great
Britain, cannot be accurately determined. It seems probable, however,
from such reports as we have been able to gather, that while England had
some new competitors in buying, the yield in the aggregate was not so
large as in former years, nor does it appear probable that the coming
year will be any improvement on the last. If, therefore, Great Britain is
to increase her supplies for the present crop year from countries other
276
LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON BE.
[ October,
than the United States, it must evidently be by means of a considerable
advance in prices.
Great Britain admits a deficiency in her crop just gathered o f 13 per
cent. Her necessary importation for the next twelve months is set down
as high as ten million quarters, or eighty million bushels, and is rarely
stated at less than eight million quarters, or sixty four million bushels.
Can she secure this large quantity at current prices?
W e have already
stated that she took from us in the past year twenty-two million bushels.
Can we send her for the current year thirty million bushels? And if we
can, whence shall she draw the remaining forty million bushels, adopting
seventy millions as an estimate of her needs? There is nothing in the
aggregate reports of the yield on the Continent of Europe to indicate any
increase o f shipments to Great Britain from those markets. Indeed, occa
sional shipments from this market, both to the south and to the north of
Europe, are a significant fact bearing upon this point.
There can be no doubt that we shall be able, without serious inconve
nience, to increase our shipments to Great Britain for the coming year to
the extent o f eight million bushels. Its transportation to the seaboard will
be an item of some consequence. Thirty million bushels to Great Britain
mean about forty million bushels to all foreign markets, of which California
may be reckoned upon to contribute one quarter. The whole indicates
active employment for shipping, and, in connection with the export of
cotton and other staples, an abundant supply o f mercantile bills on the
market for exchange.
The present movement of wheat and flour at the W est is somewhat
abnormal. Notwithstanding the admitted increase in the yield, the
receipts at the lake ports, both of flour and wheat, and the quantify
moving Eastward, are smaller than last year, as will be seen by reference
to the statistics which we publish in our regular report o f the market on
another page. This is caused by the fact that the crop of spring wheat
is fully twenty days later than last year, and that the movement embraced
in the figures which we have printed for some three weeks or more, has
been made up almost entirely o f the new crop of winter wheat. As we
write, however, the new spring wheat begins to move, and will soon show
in our statistics.
LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON RAILROADS.
The Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroads, as now existing and
being operated, comprise the two railroads, which together extend from
Louisville to Lexington, Ky., as follows : Louisville and Frankfort Rail
road, Louisville, Ky , to Frankfort, K y., 65 miles ; Lexington and Frank
1869]
LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON RR.
277
fort Railroad, Frankfort, Ky., to Lexington, Ky., 29 miles; and the Cin
cinnati branch, from Lagrange to Cincinnati, 81 miles, making a total
of 175 miles operated.
It thus appears that while each company retains its separate organiza
tion, the two companies under the firm o f the Louisville, Cincinnati and
Lexington Railroads, are partners in operating the railroad between
Louisville and Lexington, and joint owners of the Cincinnati branch to be
built with moneys raised on their joint credit. It is easy to see that this
organization is cumbrous, and would be greatly simplified by a consoli
dation of stocks; and the President remarks in his leport that a pro
position looking to this end would be submitted at the annual meeting,
which it was hoped would be adopted, and the two companies be made
one corporation.
The following: comnarative statement of the financial affairs of the two
companies shows the present condition :
Lou. & Frank, Lex. <fcF-ank.
Capital stock.......................................................... $1,109,594 40
$514,716 02
Deot secured by mortgage . . .
1SS,000025,030 00
Debt unsecured.....................................................
74,519 50
............
Total liabilities...............................................$1,372,113 90
$539,716 02
Total.
$1,624,31042
213.00000
74,519 50
$1,911,82992
The joint liabilities on account of the Cincinnati Branch are borne
by the two companies, as between themselves, in the same ratio in which
their profits are divided, and do not therefore constitute an element in
considering the terms of consolidation.
In regard to the Cincinnati Branch the President remarks, “ that the
end of the fiscal year witnessed the opening of the Cincinnati lineforpassenger business.
It was a month later before the completion o f our
temporary station buildings at Covington enabled us to advertise our readi*
ness to carry freights. The total expenditures, exclusive o f discounts
and interest paid, is 13,827,998 42.
The Auditor’s general balancesheet indicates the mode by which these means have been provided.
The item of bills payable in the sheet includes the sum of $60,393 24 for
interest yet to accrue on notes given for rails and equipment. The float
ing debt is provided for by the deposit as collateral security of 372 mort
gage bonds and 6,517 shares o f preferred stock. The larger portion of
the debt for which they are pledged will not mature for nearly two years
to come, so that ample time will be afforded to realize the hypothecated
securities for its payment.”
The brief experience which we have had from the opening of the road
to the time of writing this report is very far from discouraging. W e have
been carrying passengers but six weeks, and the public are just beginning
to understand the advantages which we offer them.
The passenger
receipts for the month o f August will very closely approximate, if they
2 ?8
[ OciO0eT>
LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON HR.
do not exceed, those of the old road, which has been in successful opera
tion for nearly twenty years. As it is only a fortnight since we advertised
our readiness to carry freight, we can not be said to have had any actual'
experience of the business; but I may add that it is already evident that
the freight traffic from the eastern end of the Lexington Line will receive
large accessions from the use of the Cincinnati Branch, and that the
business between Cincinnati and Louisville is beginning to develop itself
very encouragingly. There can be no doubt of a steady increase of
both passengers and freight even while matters remain as they are; and
if, as there is every reason to hope, we shall be able next year to com
plete our connections at both Louisville and Cincinnati, the increase
can not fail to be immediate and very great.”
The earnings and expenses for the year ending June 30 were as fol
lows :
EXPENSES.
HARKINGS VOR THREE TEARS PAST.
1860.
1868.
1868-9. 1867-8. 1866-7
Passengers................ $257,553 $277,702 $283,S12 ConductingTransp’n ............... $71,628 $71,6i0*
Freight.................................. 220,398 187,247202,137
i Motive power... .................. 77,708 77,641
Express................ ..
14,8681
Maintenance of w’ay............... 136,5' 8 1?9,566.
T e fa r a p h - ■■■■■...
j. 228,68 24,368 I Maintenance of cars ............ 42,223 33,977
|General expenses.................................. 13,04113,175.
Miscel Ian’ s..............
313 J
I Total................................................... $341,115$335,971
T ota l.................................... $503,871 $493,218$510,319
I Net earnings........................... $162,756 $157,24?
GENERAL STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENSES
ENDING JUNE
Operating expenses for year.
Construction Cincin. Branch.
Intere-t on bonds, e tc.........
Dividends on pref. stock___
Beal estate............ ..............
Paid to sundry individuals..
Louisville &Fraukfort K .R .
LexiDgton & Frankfort B. R.
FROM
ALL
SOURCES
FOR
TEE
YE AR
30, 1869.
$311,115
1,781,195
170,574
52,128
5,805
78,352
74,078
28,439
Transp’n receipts for year. ............. $503,871
Sales o f bond ............. .
$512,000
Less discount.................
76,800
----------- 435,200
Sal°s o f pr^ fer ed stock ... ..............
6?7,193
Bills payable...................... ..................
564,2ST
Decrease o f cat-h on hand . ..............
375,450
Dec. in stock o f supplies.. ..........
15,685
$2,531,688
$2,531,688.
The following table, compiled from the annual reports, shows the
results o f operations for a series of ten years :
,----------- Gross earnings---------- . CnrNet /—Earnings
ExFiscal
Passenrent ex- earn- per mile—, penses
years.
gers. Freight. Other. Total, pe ses. i> gs. Gross. Net., p. c.
1859 60.............................$212,134 $165,982 $12,261 $390,377 $211,234 $179,113 $1,153 $1,906 f4.ll
1860 61........................... 153,897 181,304 49,654 354,855 212,9118 141,947 3,775 1,519 59.99
1861-62...........................
97.776 141 439 19,022 25s,237 16 ',022 89,215 2,747
849 65.45
1862 63................
101,899 201,132 19,198 322,229 188,272 133,957 3 428 1.425 6S.4S
1863 64.......................... 142,928 277,212 19,170 439,840 231,609 S04.731 4.674 2,178 53.40
1861-65........................... 374,985 204,746 29,794 669,525 411,186 118,339 6,484 2,110 67.46
1865- 66...................... 374,492 165,308 26,(02 562,8"2 403,696 159.106 5.9S7 1 6S3 71.73
1866- 67...................... 283,813 2n2,138 24,368 510,3'9 { 57,102 1 3,217 5,429 1,930 71.10
1867- 68...................... 277,703 187,248 28,268 493,219 335,972 157,247 5.246 1 673 68 12
1868- 69 ...................... 257,553 220,398 25,919 503,871 341,115 162,756 5,360 f731 67.69
Average.........................$113,447 $1SS,892 $18,763 $421,012 $260,291 $160,720 $1,478 $1,709 61.82
The financial condition of the Company at the close of the last two years
ending June 30, 1868 and 1869, is shown in the following abstract from
the general account:
18P8.
Preferred stock, 9 per cent................................................................. $211,121
First mortgage bonds, 6 per cent, due 1897..........................
Reservation on contracts....................................................... .
Due other companies........ .................................................. .
. . 2,11(5,000
10.',3i»9
Bills payable for rails, &c.......................................... .
Unpaid coupons...................................................................... .
Unpaid dividends..................................................................
Due suudry individuals......................................... .............
7,578
Balance to credit of income account............................ .........
Total........ .......... .
.......................... ....................... ..............,$2,995,845
1869.
$848,315
2,023,OuO
628
1,013,602
4,655
4,48628,152
155,516
$4,683,35*
1869]
279
BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI.
Per contra, the following charges:
Cincinnati. Branch.................................
$2,107,196
Discount on b o n d s................................................................................
317,400
Interest on bonds...................................................................................
71,691
Dividend on preferred stock.................................................................................
3,827,998
394,200
242,265
52,128
Total construction account..........................................................$2,496,238
26,898
23.250
59,456
Stock of supplies for current operations...
389,952
Cash on hand..................................................
$4,576,985
,$2,995,845
$4,683,351
Due from sundry individuals.......................
Total
19,037
29,055
43,770
14,502
BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI AND TIIE DEVELOPMENT OF ODR INTERNAL
COMMERCE.
On the 7th inst. an important convention was held at Keokuk, Iowa
The call invited all the States and communities of the Mississippi Valley
who desired to fee the Great River and its branches freed from the fetters
natural or artificial, that obstruct its navigation or retard its commerce)
to be represented by delegate?. It was understood that the Convention’
in addition to affirming the, necessity o f government appropriations for
freeing the water way and deepening the channel o f the rivers designated,
professed also to take action with regard to the bridges which railroad
companies have constructed over these great western water courses. The
leading purpose was to free the Mississippi and to utilize, in the highest
degree, the splendid natural lines of communication which are found in
our western States, connecting communities removed from each oilier by
many degrees of longitude or latitude. It represented another effort in
the contest for the transportation of products which is in progress
between the railroads and the water routes.
So far as the question of bridging navigable riveis is concerned, the
point is settled by our highest courts. The old doctrine o f the Common
Law, whose roots are found far hack in the history o f the people from
which we largely derive our law and our tradition, threw its amplest pro
tection around-the lines of natural communication. Rivers, and bays and
estuaries were sacred, and the iron rule of prescription came in to ratify
what the law had conceded. W ith the growth o f new interests, the
demands of an expanding commerce, the competition o f new methods o f
transportation, there was inevitably to be a conflict between these ancient
rights and claims and the exactions of the new method. The contest was
confined to the courts, and out of dangerous litigation came the safe com
promise on which the modern relation of steam by land and steam or sail
by water is adjusted.
The navigable river is bridged, but the bridge must
sufficiently clear the main water way and must offer no insuperable or
difficult obstacle to navigation. The question of bridging the Ohio, the
280
BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI.
[ October,
Susquehanna, the Hudson, the Mississippi, the Missouri, is not local. It
rises to national importance. In the great sweep of the leading railroad
lines, they comprehend the traffic of a continent. They are no longer for
a State or for a section of a State; the seaboard cities and the growing
towns of the interior being all vitally interested in the crossing o f the
great rivers, for thereby time is saved, money is saved, the farmer has
higher prices, the great commercial houses have quicker returns, products
are cheapened to the consumer, emigration is encouraged, the whole
country is compacted and so bound by iron bands that a common interest
pervades every part. So great has the importance of these bridges become
that the value o f the commerce which crosses a single one on the
Mississippi river is stated to be in excess of all the commerce moved on
the waters both o f the Ohio and the Mississippi. Commerce cannot delay
while the water rises when navigation is low’, nor can it wait shivering
upon the bank while the icy barrier of nature melts away. The true
interest of East and West— the amplest development o f the whole country
demands that railroads shall have as free passage over our rivers as the
claims of the river commerce will allow. Last of all will it admit of any
unnecessary exaction or of any obstacles that shall thwart the great design.
Every bridge is a triumph over a natural difficulty.
From the Committee of the Convention, two reports on the bridge
question were submitted. The majority report was adopted. It included
a bill to be presented to the next Congress, of which the important
sections are as follows :
That any bridges hereafter erected across the Ohio river shill be made with
continuous and unbroken spans, and tbe Bpan across the main low water channel shall
not be at a less elevation than ninety feet above low water mark, nor less than forty
feet ab ive the extreme high water mark, as underst ood at the point of location.
Measurfs for such elevation shall be taken at the bottom chord of the bridge. A ll
the spans, other than the one over the main low water channel, shall be at least 300
feet in length in the c'ear, and the span covering the main low water channel of the
river shall be of such length as to leave at least 400 feet of unobstructed passage
wav for navigation at all stages.
That any bridge built under the provisions of this act shall bs located in such
places and in such manner as to be at right angles with the direction of the current in
tiie main channel of the river at all stages, so that the piers of sa d bridge may be
always parallel to the current in the main channel, and the location of the bridge
shall always be such that the (urreDt of the mai l channel shall move in a straight
line from a poict at least 1,000 feet above the bridge to a point 500 feet below the
bridge, and no rip rap or other material shall be placed rou id the base of the piers
or abutments to compensate for inadequate foundations, which material shall contract
the passage way hereinbefore provideJ or which shall injuriously affect the regimen
of the river.
That all bridges hereafter to be built on the Mississippi, below tbe mouth of tbe
Missouri, shall be constructed under the foregoing conditions and restrictions, with
the exception that the main span shall be at least five hundred feet in the c ear.
That all bridges hereafter built on tbe Missouri river and Mississippi river, above
tbe mouth of the Missouri, Bhall be built under the foregoing conditions an 1 restric
tion', with the fol owing exceptions, viz.: If constructed with continuous spans, said
bridge shall have one span over the main channel of not less than 300 feet clear
1869]
BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI.
281
water way, and the bottom chord of said bridge shall not be less than fifty fe»t above
extreme high water mark, and if built as a druw bridge, it may be constructed
with a pivot or counterbabnce draw over the main channel of not less than 300 feet
of dear water, and that the draw shall be promptly opened upon signal, that no
delay be caused to any steamboat or barge, tow or other craft.
That the righ‘ to alter or amend this act ho as to prevent or remove all material
obstructions to the navigation of said river by the construction of bridges is hereby
reserved.
Another clause provided for the reference o f plans for bridges to the
Secretary of W ar and the designation by him o f a board of officers to
examine the plan.
The objection to this bill is that the span required is of too great a
length. In the case of the span where the revolving draw would be,
some seven or eight hundred feet of continuous span supported at the
centre would be required. The height, too, above the water way would
be excessive where the river banks did not offer a suitable elevation. It
is not probable that Congress will look at this matter precisely as the
Convention, which was largely composed o f river men, regarded it, and as
we have shown before, the highest interests of the whole country require
a large and comprehensive plan in accordance with the era of progress
and development upon which we have entered.
So far as the Convention evinced a disposition to enter upon a scheme
for expanding the commerce o f the Mississippi and its tributaries, it meets
the approval of all who are interested in the growth of the country
Action of this kind was taken, and a report and resolutions upon the
subject submitted and adopted, with the following estimate showing the
cost o f improving the rapids of the Mississippi:
Des Moines Rapids........................... .......................................... .................................... $1,479,64?
Rock I-land Rapids............. ................ ................................................. . . ..................
8 >',601
Upper Mississipi, •stimates by General G. K. Warren.............................. - ................
1131,465
Mouth o f the Mississippi, estimate by Ge-eral McAllister.. .....................................
315,000
........................... 3,0^0,000
Removal o f sn«gs and wrecks and dredging.................................
Ohio River, Falls of he Ohio, estimates by General Godfrey Weitzel—Extension
o f old cat al............................................................... ....................................................
033,500
New canal, Indiana shore................................................................................................ 3,470,000
Two dams....................... ................ ..............................................................................
225,000
Total........................................................................................................................... $8,678,213
Above the fai's, W. Milner Roher's’ estimates...
...................................................
473,000
Below the falls, W. Millner Roberts..............................................................................
353,000
Grand to ta l.................. ............................................................................................
The resolutions asked for the
Moines, at Rock Island and at
Congress for further expenditure
Balize, the removal o f snags and
$9,514,213
completion of the improvements at Des
the Falls o f the Ohio, and also asked
on the improvements in progress at the
sand bars on the Lower Mississippi,
the Arkansas and the Missouri Rivers, and of obstructions in the Ohio,
Illinois, Tennessee and Red Rivers.
9
Whether Congress will consider it a fit moment for furnishing the
necessary funds is o f course questionable. The growth and development
282
RAILROAD PROGRESS.
[ October,
however of the immense region drained by the Mississippi and its
tributaries is of the highest importance. Here is a population of nearly
20,000,000 of souls. In 1805 the total value of the grain crop of the
United States, as estimated by the Commissioner of Agriculture, was
$1,118,904,376, in which estimate the crop o f Illinois, Missouri, Iowa,
and Wisconsin, having less than one-sixth of the population of the Union,
is put down at one-third of the whole crop, or $391,596,000. To
these returns add the increased product of the same States since that
date and the product of Kansas, Nebraska, and large portions of Ohio
and Indiana, add Kentucky and the States below the mouth o f the Ohio
and the imagination finds it difficult to conceive the reality.
Here
are 13,000 miles of navigable river; improve the facilities o f this naviga
tion, lower the rates of charges, and the business now done would neces*
sarily be largely increased.
W e thus see that as the country grows there is enough traffic for all
routes. The mad competition of business interests adjusts itself, so that
the wants of the community are regularly met, and with a uniformity that
is susceptible of calculation. The natural conflict of rival interests must
be peaceful and their settlement must be upon broad, comprehensive
principles. The Keokuk Convention does good, for it stimulates enter
prise and promotes development. The opposing forces that are repre
sented in such bodies learn to estimate each other more truly, and
compromise and adjustment dull the edge o f competition, whose hot
and earnest zeal is ever seeking new fields for its exercise.
RAILROAD PROGRESS.
Between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts three great mountain ranges
and one of the largest rivers o f the world intervene ; no small portion
o f the interior is an undeveloped wilderness. These formidable obstruc
tions paralized progress for a long time, so that the whole district was
wholly shut out from the seaboard. This was the exact position of affairs
previous to the opening of the New York Canal in 1825. The West
was then unsettled in the proper meaning o f the term. Now, however,
the engineer has leveled the mountains and spanned the stream, so that
the traveler can at present leave Portland, in Maine, and reach the Pacific
in less than ten days thereafter. Many now living considered it the extent
o f speed to travel from New York to Buffalo in the same time. Before
the canal was dug a ton of wheat in Buffalo was commercially worthless
in New York, the cost of transportation to the latter port then being
$100 per ton. The same service is now obtained for a comparatively
trifling addition to the prime cost at the port of supply.
1869]
RAILROAD PROGRESS.
283
This great revolution has been effected by the combined agency o f cana\
and railroad. In all countries into which these powers have been intro
duced the same results have been gained, commerce, agriculture and
manufactures having thus attained proportions surpassing the dreams o f
the slow races o f old.
In no country, however, were these means more necessary or have they
been more perseveringly pressed into service than in the United States.
In the older countries, the mileage o f canal and railroad is, indeed, in
greater proportion to the extent o f the country and population than in
America. But in the magnitude of the works constructed and in their bear
ings on the commerce o f the world, those of the United States present a
proofof enterprise unequalled. A t the commencement of the current yeart
there were in the United States 42,255 miles of railroad. In all other
parts of the world the mileage aggregated only 56,939 miles. It thus
appears that the United States has 42-^ per cent o f all the miles of railroad
in existence at present.
Yet this proportion is rapidly gaining, and before the year closes we
shall certainly have at least 50,000 miles o f iron-way.
In whatever
direction we go we find the people at work laying the foundations for
future railroads. In Illinois at least a dozen lines are in progress, and
the same may be said of Indiana, Michigan, Iowa and Missouri. N ever
before was such activity exhibited in this direction. Undoubtedly the
completion o f the first trans-Continental Railroad has stimulated States
and associated capital to action, and the final result must be an enlarged
internal commerce, with increased prosperity. W hen the Northern and
Southern Pacific Railroads are completed other enterprises will succeed
and become as necessary to them as arteries and veins are to animal
existence.
In proof of the present activity in railroad construction, it is only
necessary to recite a few facts, which will show that on an average each
State of the Union has in progress at least seven or eight separate enter
prises. Maine is now building eight railroads, New Hampshire, four ;
Vermont, six; Massachusetts, five; Rhode Island (? ) ; Connecticut,
seven ; New York, eleven ; New Jersey, seven ; Pennsylvania, thirty-two ;
Delaware, five; Maryland, seven; West Virginia, one, the Chesapeake
and Ohio, and probably others; Ohio, at least a dozen ; Indiana, Illinois
and Michigan, each about the same number; Wisconsin, five ; Minnesota
seven; Iowa and Missouri, each a dozen; Nebraska, two or three;
Kansas, nine; Arkansas, three; Texas, three or four; Louisiana, four ;
Mississippi, three; Alabama, six, and in the Southern Atlantic States,
there are at least twenty great works on which progress is being made
with unparalleled rapidity. In a short resume it is impossible even to
284
r a il r o a d
e a r n in g s .
[October,
name these enterprises; but any one acquainted with facts as they really
exist, will readily admit that our estimates are moderate, and that we have
now under construction at least 300 separate lines. Startling as this
assertion may appear, it is nevertheless an incontrovertible fact. Many o f
these are hundreds of miles in length, and probably the average length)
is not less than 50 miles. This calculation gives a total of 15,000 miles
as the length of railroad now in progress, and which will be completed
within the next three years.
T o the facts here related, and the raising o f the necessary funds for
carrying forward these projects, may be attributed in great part the
spasms in the money market during late months, but we shall discuss
this more at large on a future occasion.
RAILROAD EARNINGS FOR AUGUST AND FOR TIIE NINE MONTHS FROM
JANUARY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 1.
Our usual table o f monthly railroad earnings is now complete and
given btlow.
It will be observed on reference to the table following, that there is now
for the first time since the beginning of the year a decided decrease in the
earnings of several of the principal roads for the month, compared with
the same month in 1868.
The monthly statements have heretofore
shown an almost uniform increase over the corresponding months o f the
previous year, aud there seem to be special reasons, why this steady
improvement has given place m the month of August, to a falling off in
earnings compared with August 1868.
There have been two principal causes for this decrease in earnings:
first, the ruinous competition in freights among the several through lines
to the West, which has carried prices of transportation down to figures
which did not pay the cost o f the service ; and, secondly, the smaller
grain movement at the W est in August, which has had an important effect
upon the traffic of the Western roads. These causes are evidently tem
porary, as the freight war can not be long continued, and the grain crop
at the West is large and must come to market sooner or later.
In the case of the Chicago and Northwestern road, which shows a very
considerable decrease in earnings, there has been the additional circum
stance, that, with the completion of the Union Pacific Road, the trans
portation of material for construction has ceased, and as immense quan
tities of that material were carried over the Northwest roads, a very large
item of the freight traffic of the latter in 1868 has been discontinued.
A s regards the report of the Chicago and Rock Island Road for
August, 1868, the figures issued from the office, for comparison, are $478,-
1869]
285
RAIIROAD EARJUNGS,
660, while the total earnings for August, 1868, as published officially in
the last annual report, were $568,880, we assume that the official figures
must be correct, and therefore use them in the table below.
Of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway earnings two state,
ments are published, one in a Chicago paper as follows:
“ The comparative earnings for the month of August were:
(EEIE TO CHICAGO.)
186S.
Passengers........................................................................................... $-298,493 22
Freight ............... ................................................. ..............................
497,193 4S>
Miste laneons......................................................................................
48,180 77
Total......................................................... ....................................
$837,887 48
186!).
$303 620 07
413,857 08
41,400 00
$S3S,777 13’
— The other, published in New York, gives the figures for 1868, as
$971,772.
This discrepancy probably arises from some confusion in
reports incident to the late consolidation ; and we take the Chicago
statement, as it is given in detail and therefore less likely to be erroneous
The Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Company now
report their earnings for the first time.
EAKNINGS FOE AUGUST.
1869.
Chicago & AHon..............................................
Chicago & Northwestern................................
Chicago, Rock Island
Pacific.......................
Cleveland, 'o 1., Cum & Indianapolis.......... ............
Illinois Central ................................. .
* Lake ' hore & Michigan Southern.................. ................
Marietta & Cincinnati.................. ................. .............
Michigan Central........ .................................... ..............
Milwaukee & Sr. P a u l...............................
..........
Ohio & M ssissippi.............................. . ...
St. Louis, Alton <te Terre Haute ....................
Toledo, Wabash & V\estern............................
341,783
838,777
129,388
353,569
525.363
1868.
$558,100
1,251,910
508,380
271,425
763,779
837.827
126,556
392,942
522,683
287,557
504,596
484,208
Inc.
$ .. ..
ffl.i’ .s
26,549
950
2,832
2,680
Pec.
$56,434
219,127
87,480
39,373
12,337
26,068
33,902
$5,898,581 $0,267,753 $103,869 $474,781
The total earnings for the nine months from January 1 to August 31,
for the current and previous years were as follows ; the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern Road is necessarily omitted, as no comparison with the
previous year can be made since the consolidation :
E A R N IN G S F liO M
J A N U A K Y 1 TO A U G U S T 8 1 .
1868.
$2,747,430
8,194,903
2,797,844
4,049 145
800,952
2,799,524
3,4311,340
1,850,091
1,185,074
2,410,3S6
Inc.
$214,598
473.391
453,405
570,557
75,830
162,360
657,302
$33,618,332 $30,880,689
$2,890,961
( hicago and Alton.............................................
Chicago <fe Northwestern ...................................
Chicago, Rock Island & P acific.........................
Illinois Central.....
....................... ..............
Marietta & Cincinnati.......- ........................... .
Michigan Central.................. .............................
Milwaukee & St. Paul.........................................
Ohio & Mississippi..............................................
St. Louis, Alton «fc Terre Haute......... ...............
Toledo, Wabash & Western...........................
Total,
1809.
$2,902,028
8,068,294
3,251,309
5.219.702
870,832
2,961.884
4.087.702
1,741,713
1,242,478
2,630,330
* Erie to Chicago.
57*404
225,344
Dec
123,318
$123,318
286
CURRENCT----RESUMPTION.
[October,
C U R R EN C Y— RESUMPTION.
BY VICTOR CONSIDER ANT.
In 1839, Russia suffered, as the United States is now suffering, from
the evils o f a depreciated and unstable paper currency, the value o f which,
as compared with specie, was as 350 to 100; that is, it required 3Y paper
roubles to buy one o f specie. Notwithstanding this great depreciation,
Russia effected a reform in her debased currency, returning to a regular
and fixed monetary system in twenty-four hours, and that without wrong
ing any one in or out o f the Empire. This is a fact o f history. To effect
this financial operation, Russia was obliged to borrow ten or twelve mil
lion dollars in specie o f the Bank of France. The government o f the
United States has had for two years past, from six to eight times that
amount lying idle in its vaults; and during all this time, with all the
.discussions on resumption, nothing has been accomplished, and no one
single point has been agreed upon. I will not undertake to criticise the
financial wisdom o f the American people : but I, as an adopted citizen—
which authorizes me to speak as one o f the people— must confess that
we have shown no great wisdom in this particular conjuncture.
The present currency is a scourge. It operates as a monetary disease,
affecting all the commercial and industrial interests of the country. The
whole economic mechanism is subject to the greafest uncertainty. N o
one can foresee what will be the result in four, six, or eight months, o f
investments made to-day, or o f enterprises undertaken. And no safe
calculations can be made without stability and fixedness in the unit o f
value called the dollar. If the dollar is not a fixed value, no one can
know what real value a given amount o f capital will represent six months
hence. I may realize an apparent profit on m y investments, or from
m y business, but it may turn out to be a loss instead o f a gain.
Owing to this instability o f the m oney value, which measures all
others— an instability which prevents any one foreseeing what $100 will
be worth in six months, or even six weeks— regular business suffers,
while a wide field is thrown open to speculation, and financial and com
mercial gambling.
The sole remedy is the return to a regular and stable monetary sys
tem. Let the example o f Russia be followed, unless something better
can be done. Can any thing better be done 1 I answer, Y e s ; and some
thing far better. A s we can improve on her processes, I will not enter
into an explanation o f them.
I affirm that by a simple act o f Congress the following results may be
obtained: 1. Return without wronging any interest to a regular mone
tary system; that is to say, to a fixed and stable currency. 2. Effect a
1869]
CURRENCY— RESUMPTION.
287
beneficent reform, which will economize, and hence save to the country
the expense o f the hundreds o f millions o f gold and silver which it would
be necessary to use to return to and re-establish the specie currency.
If it could be clearly demonstrated to our legislators that the green
back dollar could be raised in value to that o f the specie dollar, or to
par, and maintained invariably at this value, provided that they, on
their side, would pass a law abolishing the use o f gold and silver, as a
currency, and the circulation o f these metals as money, I ask, would
they consent to such a measure and take the initiative in a fundamental
monetary reform I
Let us remark that if the country, wishing to return to a regular and
stable currency, imagine that it is necessary to go back to the old specie
money, this fancy will cost it the several hundreds o f millions o f gold and
silver which it will be necessary for the metallic currency that is to replaccthe greenback circulation. It is hardly probable that it will return to the
old State Bank system, with its alternately expanding and contracting
issues of paper money, so that but three alternatives are open before i t : 1 .
To retain the present greenback currency as it is, with its fluctuations. 2.
T o return to a pure metalic currency. 3. To discover some new principle
on which to base the national currency, and adopt it. It is this latter
alternative which I propose, and I explain the principle which is to serve
as a basis for i t :
It would require at least $600,000,000 in gold and silver to establish
a specie currency. H ow is this vast sum to be obtained but by taxation,
by adding new burdens to those already imposed on the people? If a
dollar o f the currency I propose will always be worth a dollar in gold,
in what respect is a bit o f metal preferable— to effect the exchange o f
values— to paper? I will remark here that the material for the new
currency will be paper; it is easy to handle and costs nothing. Extern
ally, this currency will resemble the greenbacks ; but, based as it will !>e
on a different principle, it will be intrinsically a new and different mone
tary system, F or the purpose o f a circulating medium, the metals are
far inferior to paper; this is so well known that it is unnecessary„to
dwell upon it.
I f then, the permancy in value o f the paper dollar can be secured, there
can be no objection whatever to using paper as the material out o f which
to make the national currency. To attain the great end in view— namely,
to create a fixed and stable currency, using the cheapest and best material
— Congress has but to pass the following law, comprising three articles :
1st. Hereafter, gold and silver will not be used for m oney; and coin
made o f these metals will not be recognized as a legal tender. The
national currency will be of paper (or any cheaper and better material that
4
288
CURRENCY— RESUMPTION.
[ October,
can be discovered) 2d. The National Government will alone create and
issue the currency o f the country. N o individual or corporation will be
permitted to create or issue a circulating medium, or any representative
o f it, like our bank notes. 3d. The Secretary of the Treasury will at all
times, first, deliver to any person wishing the national currency a dollar
o f the same, on his depositing 23 8 -1 0 Troy grains o f gold (the amount
now contained in a dollar) or its equivalent in silver; second, withdraw
from circulation an amount o f national currency necessary to keep it at
all times at par— that is, diminish it whenever the metals rise in value
above the point fixed as their standard price.
If this simple law is passed, a monetary reform will be effected, and a
regular and stable currency will >be established. The country will be
delivered from the evils o f an ever-fluctuating and uncertain circulating
medium— in other words, from a measure o f value which has no fixedness
o f value o f its own. A s soon as this law is promulgated, and gold, in
consequence, is refused at the Custom House and in payment o f all
national dues— the issues o f the national currency being in the hands of
the Government alone, and withdrawn from the banks— it would at once
rise in value, and the dollar would attain to par for 23 8 -1 0 Troy grains
o f gold, at which point it could be maintained with very slight fluctuations.
There is a question which will probably be asked by the reader, and
which I must answer before going further ; “ H ow is it that you take gold
as the standard o f value of your currency, and the regulating principle
of its issues, and yet reject it as a circulating medium ? This appears a
strange anomaly.” I answer : There must be some standard and guide
by which to regulate the issues o f the new currency— o f the amount to be
put and kept in circulation. A paper currency can be increased indefi
nitely in amount; there is nothing to prevent it, as there is with gold ;
while the wisdom o f legislators, however great, cannot determine so
complex a question as the amount o f currency to be issued and kept in
circulation. A s a consequence, some product or article which is univer
sally in demand, and the value o f which does not fluctuate, or at least but
slightly, must be taken and used as this standard and guide. Gold is the
article. Iron or lead, wheat or cotton, would answer the same purpose,
provided they existed permanently in nearly the same quantities, and
there was the same uniform demand for them as for gold over the earth,
so that their value was everywhere as regular and stable. If too much
currency were put in circulation, gold would rise in price, as do all articles
— flour, cotton, land, &c— but more promptly, as it feels at once all change
in the market. The rise, even o f % per 100, would be an indication to
the Secretary o f the Treasury to contract. On the other hand, if too
little currency were in circulation, the price o f gold would fall below the
1869]
CURRENCY----RESUMPTION.
289
par value o f the same, which would indicate the necessity o f increasing
the currency. By this means, instead o f using vast quantities of the most
expensive metals for a circulating medium, the same result could be
obtained b y taking its value in the markets o f the country, and using it
as a gauge and indicator— as a standard to which to conform.
The economic principle on which this reform is based, may be compre
hended by any market-man. He knows that the scarcity o f any product
in the market renders it dear, while its abundance causes it to fall in
price. H e can deduce the conclusion that if some one can monoplize
and hold any one product, he can raise or lower its price at will, and as
a consequence, regulate and fix it at any given point he pleases. Now,
under the power conferred b y the above law, the Government, being
alone invested with the right o f creating and issuing the currency, is in
the position o f the monopolist o f some product. The Government can
regulate the currency at will, expanding or contracting it, and in so doing(
raise or lower the price o f all things, gold included. It could make one
dollar in paper worth two in gold— that is worth 47 6 -1 0 T roy grains
o f this metal, or it could make it worth but fifty cents in gold. To do
this, it would, in the former case, have only to contract the currency
one half, and in the latter to double it.
To form a clear idea on the subject, let us suppose that the business
o f this country requires a circulating medium o f five hundred millions,
and that this amount o f currency is in circulation. In this case, the dollar
o f currency will be at p ar; that is, will be worth, or will buy, 23 8 -1 0
Troy grains o f gold. Now, if the amount is increased or diminished,
the currency will rise or fall. If increased five millions, it will fall 1 per
100; if diminished, five millions, it will rise 1 per 100. This will be
the inevitable effect o f expansion and contraction.
The Government can, consequently, regulate the value o f the currency
by determining the amount put in circulation ; and hence, can secure the
regularity and stability o f the value o f its dollar, or the monetary unit. If
the business o f the country requires more money than there is in circula
tion, the paper dollar will begin to be worth more than the amount o f gold
fixed as its legal value. A s an effect gold and silver bullion will flow
into the Treasury to be exchanged for currency. The difference in price
being being in favor o f the latter, bullion will be exchanged for it, exactly
as it now is for coined money at the mints. I f on the other hand, a
falling off in the business o f the country requires less currency, causing
it to decline below par— there being a redundancy— the percentage o f
the decline would indicate infallibly to the Treasury the amount o f cur
rency which it should withdraw from circulation in order to bring it up
again to par and maintain it there.
290
CURRENCY— RESUMPTION.
[ October ,
Gold and silver are, under absolute and despotic Governments, the
best materials for a currency, and for the reason that the employment o f
these metals prevents kings and other rulers from increasing or dimin
ishing arbitrarily the amount o f curreney in circulation, and thereby
debasing it, and taking from it its stability and fixedness. Gold and
silver furnished by nature, take from absolute rulers the power o f cre
ating money, and leave them only that of coining it— o f putting the G ov
ernment stamp upon it.
W hen the opinions and business habits o f a nation require that money
should have an intrinsic value in itself (which is the case with gold and
silver’ which are valuable metals), kings and princes are restrained from
creating a currency out of materials o f no or very little value. Coinage
is not the creation o f a monetary value, but the authentication simply o f
the weight and alloy of the metals used— that is o f the intrinsic value o f
o f the piece o f gold or silver o f which the money is made. By this means,
the monetary value o f the currency is combined with the material of
which it is composed, and finds in its metalic substance the measure o f
its value.
It is easy to see that the guaranty thus offered to the people against the
rapacity o f rulers is based wholy on the principle o f the equality o f the
cost o f money with its value. But, so soon as a people is free, and lias
the wisdom requisite to govern itself, who should it pay the cost o f this
guaranty— a guaranty against itself— o f which there is no longer any need?
T o continue to employ, under such circumstances, a currency which custs
the entire value it represents, can only be the effect o f the influence o f
old ideas, the falseness o f which has not been discovered and exploded,
and which, in consequence are retained. W hen a people governs itself,
all it has to do is to acquire knowledge sufficient to adapt its laws and
institutions to its true interests. If, instead of employing for its currency
a material as cheap as paper, and whioh is more convenient than gold or
silver, it keeps in the rut o f routine, and uses those expensive metals, it
confesses tacitly its ignorance in economic matters. The American
people will be rightly accused o f this ignorance, if, with the experience
it has had in the greenback currency, it does not comprehend the theory
o f a cheap circulating medium, made o f paper, and based on principles
which will secure entire stability and regularity to it.
“ Agreed, it may be said ; let us accept the idea of a cheap national
currency, costing, so to say, nothing, which is kept at par and its stability
secured. The sudden return to such a currency, however desirable in
itself, would be a severe blow to all having debts, contracted under the
old system to pay.” I answer : Nothing is more tru e; but what would
prevent the introduction o f a clause into the law which would protect the
1869]
CURRENCY— RESUMP I ION.
291
interests o f debtors and serve the cause o f strict justice 1 W hen Russia
bridged over the gulf which separated the paper from the silver rouble—
the difference between 350 and 100— she decreed that all debts anteriorlycontracted should be paid at their real, not nominal, value— that is, in
paper, not silver, roubles. The United States could follow the same
policy. A ll debts contracted in Greenbacks prior to the passage o f the
law in question would be paid in Greenbacks, or their average value
during the year preceding the passage of the law. N o one could com
plain o f the equity o f such a provision.
A s regards financial reform, and a true financial policy, the American
mind has been led astray by a false conception o f the meaning o f a
single word— the word Dollar. The word, in its old, its true and exact
meaning, expressed the value o f a certain amount of gold (that con
tained in a dollar). The Dollar signified, and still signifies this, and
nothing more. A t the present day, the American people have contracted*
by the use o f greenbacks, the habit o f giving the name Dollar to the
value o f a constantly fluctuating piece of paper, which has never been
a Dollar, and never will be one until it is brought up to par with g o ld :
that is, is made worth 23 8-10 Troy grains o f gold, and kept there.
If this distinction had been clearly established between a name and
a thing, much of the confusion which reigns in the public mind on cur
rency questions would have been prevented. It would have been said :
“ If Congress by wise legislation could bring the country back from a
currency worth but about 75 per 100 o f gold, to one at par, making a
greenback dollar worth a real dollar, natural debts contracted in green
backs should be paid at the value o f greenbacks, that is, three real
dollars would pay four greenback dollars. The same piinciple would
regulate the payment o f our National Debt, and put an end to the
controversies respecting its payment in gold or in greenbacks.”
W hatever may be the terms o f the law relating to the loans contracted
by the United States, it is clear that whenever the Government sold a
bond o f $ 1 ,000, with the stipulation o f its payment at maturity, it was
1,000 dollars that it expected to pay, promised to pay, and, in common
honesty, is bound to pay. Whether the $ 1,000 are made of gold, o f
paper, or o f any other substance, is o f no consequence. The essential
point is that the value which it is to give to pay off a bond o f $ 1,000
be really 1,000 dollars. The material, no more than the name o f the
thing to be given to settle the contract, is o f any legal importance;
the legality consists in the value o f the thing given. When a dollar is
promised, a dollar must be paid, whether made o f gold, silver, or
paper. There is no alternative between this and a breach o f faith.
It is a piece of knavery to pretend that the National Debt can be
292
CURRENCY----RESUMPTION.
[ O d oler,
justly paid in a depreciated currency— in greenbacks, which may not b©
worth 50 cents on the dollar— under the pretext that the greenback
bears on its face the word dollar, printed in large letters. On the other
hand, it is sheer nonsense to oppose the payment o f a debt in a national
paper currency, provided the currency is raised to, and kept at, the
standard value o f specie.
Another fallacy is to suppose that the monetary capital or monetary
total o f a country can be increased by new emissions o f currency. Let
us suppose that the amount in circulation is such that the paper dollar
answers to its name, and is worth a dollar. If, under such circumstances,
the amount o f currency is doubled, the prices o f things will augment
until they are doubled ; or, in other words, the paper dollar will cease
to be a dollar, and fall really to the value o f fifty cents. It is conse
quently impossible to increase, b y new issues o f currency, the real value
and volume o f the monetary capital, and the effectual means o f facili
tating the exchange o f products.
It must be clearly understood, once for all, that the monetary unit—
called with us a dollar, in France a franc, in Prussia a thaler— will
always be worth the value o f the labor or effort which, on an average,
it costs to obtain i t ; and that by doubling, trebling or quadrupling the
amount of circulating medium, the real value o f the monetary circula
tion— o f what is the dollar, franc, or thaler— cannot be increased in like
proportion. On the contrary, the value o f the monetary unit will be
reduced in proportion to the increase o f the currency.
Until these elementary and simple truths are understood and admitted
as the basis of the monetary question, the theory o f the science of
money, in its application to the present industrial and commercial state
of society, cannot be comprehended. Before leaving my adopted coun
try, I hold it to be a duty which 1 owe to it— to the noble pioneer in
political justice, equality and liberty on the earth— to present briefly
what I believe to be the primary principles o f a true monetary system,
and the means by which—-transforming its greenback currency into a
permanent money— it will secure for itself a stable currency, and liqui
date so much of its national debt as is represented by its greenbacks.
The leading points to be borne in mind are: 1. That a paper cur
rency, resting on a true basis, is the best circulating medium for a free
people who possess the capacity o f self government. 2. That nothing
is easier than to fix the value o f the paper dollar and maintain it at par
value with specie. 3. That there is for the people of the United States
a saving or a gain o f $500,000,000 or $600,000,000 to be made, and at
the outset, by adopting the reform proposed.
On these three points I challenge contradiction. If any one will
undertake to invalidate the second point-— which, if sustained, sustains
the other two— I stand ready to reply.
1809]
C URRBNC Y----RESUMPTION.
293
P . S.— Some friends, to whom I have read the above, have said :
“ You lose your time ; nothing will be done as regards the currency.
The public is satisfied with the greenback; it answers the purpose o f a
circulating medium very w e ll; it is not the greenback that varies when
it appears to fall in comparison with gold ; it is gold, which the wants
o f foreign trade, or manoeuvers o f the Exchange, cause to fluctuate ; the
price o f things is not affected thereby. N o desire is felt to bring paper
up to the price o f the old dollar, and there are powerful interests
involved which are entirely opposed to any such policy.”
W ell, agreed. It is not absolutely necessary to bring the paper dol
lar back to the value of the old dollar to raise it to par. Let us leave
it as it is, provided its present value is adopted and is maintained fixed
ly at its actual rate, say 100-133, or about three-quarters o f its former
value. I f gold and silver are, once for all, set aside as money, reduced
to the rank o f ordinary metals, and left to be dealt with as such; if the
privilege o f creating or issuing money is taken from all corporations
and individuals, and reserved exclusively to the Governm ent; and if
the value o f the greenback is fixed at its present rate o f value, and kept
at it, the reform which I propose will be effected.
The all-important end to be attained is to bring to a close— and with
out expense to the Government, but a saving to it— an unstable and
fluctuating monetary state, an ever-changing currency, which paralyzes
the business o f the country by rendering unstable and uncertain the
value o f its circulating medium. So long as the question o f the resump
tion o f specie payments continues to be agitated in the confuse 1 manner
which it thus far has been, the fear, either of the rise or the fall in value
o f the greenback, will be suspended, like the sword o f Damocles, over
the heads o f debtors and creditors, and will continue to offer a serious
obstacle to all regular business and to a stable credit system. The
advocates o f a return to specie payments ought to be able to understand
that what is right and legitimate in their demand is not specie in itself,
but the regularity and fixedness o f value, which are secured b y the
metallic currency. On the other hand, the advocates o f the greenback
currency should comprehend that they cannot hope to see their ideas
triumph until the greenback (that is, a system o f paper money whose
value is fixed and determined) is declared by law to be the currency o f
the nation, and gold and silver are set definitely aside as money.
In a word, the real issue is not Specie versus Paper, but Stability
vers:is Instability in the value o f the currency of the country. Let this
be clearly understood on both sides, and all differences of opinion, all
controversies relating to the vexed question of the currency, will be
promptly settled, even that o f the payment o f the National Debt, which
can admit o f but two solutions : Integral Payment, or National Defalca
tion.
294
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR
1869.
[ Octoler,
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR 1868-9.
[From the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, of September 18.]
W e furnish our readers to-day with our annual statement of the cotton crop
of the United States for the year ending September 1, 1869. The figures will
be found very complete, as our returns have been fuller than ever before. It
appears that the total crop reaches 2,439,039 bales, while the exports have been
1,448,020 bales, and the home consumption 998,806 bales, leaving a stock on
hand at the close of the year of 12,343 bales. The stock of cotton at the
interior towns, September 1, 1869, not included in the receipts, is 613 bales,
against 1,985 bales last season. W e have also revised our statement of the
overland movement for last year, having discovered an inaccuracy in the pub
lished returns, as fully explained in the C h r o n i c l e of April 10 (vol. 8, page
455). The corrected figures will be found below.
W e now bring forward our tables showing the whole movement for the year.
The first table indicates the stock at each port, September 1 of 1868 and 1869,
the receipts at the ports for each of the last two years, and the export movement
for the past year (1868-9) in detail, and the totals for 1867-8.
Receipts, year
ending
P oets.
New Orleans....
Alabama...........
South Carolina..
Georgia.............
Texas................
Florida.............
North Carolina..
Virginia.............
New York**........
Boston*..............
Philadelphia*__
Baltimore*.........
Portland, Me......
Exported, year ending Sept.
1,1869, to
Stock.
Sept, l,
1869.
Sept. 1, Great
Other
Britain. Fran’e For’gn Total.
1868.
•79-1.205
230.621
199,072
357,253
147,817
13,392
584.240
366.193
240,431
495,959
114,666
38,593
38 643
166,587
106,973*
34,862*
24,22* *
26,610*
2,304*
160,97!
104,584*
35,033*
20,114*
19,467*
1,991*
Sep 1, Sep 1
1869. 1868.
342,249 165,282 112,003
137,484 16.133 9.537
53.753
3 056
133,678 20.S69 12.990
57,582
25,794
810
619,534
770 1.959
163,154 1,064 2,161
56,809
250 1,945
167,537
363
696
83,376
202
166
S10
18
6.253
246.284 21,433 60,121
1,306
185
99
9.082
10,130
1,907
6,253 ’iio 1*666
327,838 7,367 23,440
1,491 1,756 2,500
99
160 1.763
19,212
253 2,500
1,907
Total this year...
Total last year...
2,120,428
9S9.677 224,527 233,816 1,448 020 12,343
2,240,282 1,228.890 193,395 229,730 1.657,015
3S.130
* These figures are only the portion of the receipts at these ports which arrive overland from
Tennessee, «&c. The total receipts at New 'i orx, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia, for the year
ending August 31, 1869, are given in a subsequent part o f this report.
By the above it w ill he seen that the totalreceipts at the Atlantic and Gulf
Shipping ports this year have been2,120,428
bales, against 2,240,282 bales
last year. If now we add the shipments from Tennessee and elsewhere direct
to manufacturers, we have the following as the crop statement for the two years:
,------ Year ending Sept 1------ v
1869.
1868.
Receipts at the shipping ports.................................. bales. 2,120,428
Add shipments from Tennessee, &c., direct to manufac
turers ................................................................................
258,611
2,240,282
Total ......................................................................... 2,379,039
Manufactured South.not included in above.....................
*60,000
2,511,993
82,000
T o t a l c o tto n c r o p fo r t h e y e a r , b a le s .......................... 2 ,4 3 9 ,0 3 9
271,711
2 ,5 9 3 .9 9 3
* In the Virginia receipts are included 20,000 bales taken from Petersburg for manufacturing
purposes, so that the total consumed in the South this year is 80,000 bales against 82,000 bales last
year.
The result of these figures is a total of 2,439,039 hales as the crop of the
United States for the year ending August 31, 1869, against 2,593,993 bales
1869]
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR
1869.
295
as the crop for the previous year. It was thought, early in the crop year, that
the overland movement direct to the mills this season was to he largely in excess
of last season ; in fact, the returns which we obtained and made up on the 1st
of January, showed that up to that time such was the case. Since then, how
ever, the receipts of this description have been comparatively small. The move
ment for each four months of the two years has been as follows :
From
From
Total
From
Sept. 1 to Jan. 1 to April 20 to
the
April 20. Sept 1.
year.
Jan. I.
48,000
1T,OOD
258,000
Overland shipments direct to mills in 1S6S-9.......................... 193,000
151,0111
11,'J00
271,000
Overland shipments direci to mills iu 1S67-S........................... 109,00J
As stated above, and as the foregoing figures indicate, we have revised our
overland shipments of last year by new returns obtained, and are able,
therefore, to give with accuracy the relative takings of our mills for the two
years, which will he found in a subsequent part of this report. Below we give
the details of the crop for the two years :
L o u is i a n a .
,------ 1867-8.------ ,------ 1868-9.
.. 619,531
581,477
.. 222,871
100,215
1,959— 683,651
770— 843,175
Exported from New Orleans:
To foreign ports......................
To coastwise ports.................
Stock at close o f year.............
Deduct:
Received from Mobile..........
Received from Montgomery..
Received from Florida...........
Received from Texas.............
Stock beginning of year.........
..
48,970
67,043
3,650
5,770
7,692
15,256— 99,411
794,205
584,240
1,064— 248,412
236.511
127,243
3,650
342
2,161— 369,907
2,373
747
7,376
Total product for the year
A la b a m a .
Exported from Mobile:
To foreign ports...........................................................
To coastwise ports.......................................................
To New Orleans from Montgomery.............................
Burnt at M obile...........................................................
Stock at close of year...................................................
Deduct;
Receipts from New Orleans........................................
Stock at beginning o f year..........................................
..
...
81,821
2,373
..
15.630
2,161— 17,791
Total product for the year.....................................
T exas.
Exported from Galveston, & c,:
To foreign ports.........................................................
To coastwise ports.....................................................
Stock at close of year.................................................
Deduct:
Received from New Orleans.....................................
Stock at beginning of year........................................
..
..
83,376
64,505
202- 148.083
68,595
49,138
166— 117,S99
100
13)—
..
3,714
366,193
Total product for the year....... . .........................
F lo r id a .
Exported from Fernandina, St. Marks, &c.:
To foreign ports........................................
To coastwise ports....................................
Stock at close of year................................
Deduct stock at beginning o f year..............
3,fi4—
230,621
12,564
18—
266
3,233
147,817
114,666
3,392
38*598
Total product for year........................
38,598
38,893
G e o r g ia ,
Exported from Savannah:
To foreign ports—Uplands..........................................
Sea Islands.....................................
To coastwise ports—Uplands.......................................
Sea Islands.................................
Exported from Darien, etc., to Northern ports.............
Stock at Savannah at close of year.............................
Deduct:
Received from Florida—Up’ands................................
Sea Islands...........................
Stock at beginning of year..........................................
Total product for year...........................................
.. 161,516
253.556
6,043
235,708
5,245
.. 189.9S9
5,174
313— 363,0
4,824
5,760
357,253
698- 501,255
4,997
666
633—
6,296
495,959
296
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR
S o u tli C a r o lin a .
Exported from Charleston:
To foreign ports—Uplands..................................................
Sea Islands..............................................
To coastwise ports—Uplands...............................................
Sea Islands..........................................
Exported from Georgetown.................................................
Stock at Charleston at end of year—Uplands.......................
Deduct:
Seals.’ds.......................
Deceived from Florida—Uplands.........................................
Sea Islands....................................
Stock at Charleston beginning of year—Uplds......................
Sealsl.......................
1869
[October,
52,814
3,995
142,024
3,313
477
208
42— 202,873
156
1,700
1,849
96— 3,801
99,847
5,966
135,031
3,328
339
1,849
96— 246,456
180
4,617
1,034
6,025
194-
199,072
240,431
Exported:
To foreign ports..................................................... ..............
To coastwise ports................................................................
35,908— 35,908
38,643— 38,643
Total product for the year..............................................
35,908
38,643
Total product for year.
N o r t h C a r o lin a .
V ir g in ia .
Exported :
To foreign ports............................................................
To domestic ports.........................................................
Manufactured, taken from Petersburg, &c...................
Stock at end of year at Petersburg, &c........................
Deduct stock beginning of year.....................................
6,253
134,747
20,000
141— 161,141
170
170-
Total product for the year.......................................
160,971
8,283
159,T23
*170— 168,176
1,589— 1,589
166,587
T e n n e s s e e , &c.
Shipments:
247,651
From Memphis.....................................................................
65,825
From Nashville.......................................................................
From other places in Tenn., Kentucky, &c............................ 194,172
Crop o f Illinois........................................................................
‘ 94— 507,742
Stock in Memphis and Nashville end of year..........................
Deduct:
30,767
Shipped to New Orleans.........................................................
35,666
Shipped to Charleston and Norfolk........................................
Shipped direct to manufacturers........................................... 258,611
1,402
Deceived from New Orleans..................................................
Stock in Memphis and Nashville beginning of year.............
107- 326,553
254,240
79,193
189,05)8
15,000
107— 537,638
69,355
27l‘,7ii
1,602— 342,668
Total shipments to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and
Portland............................................................................
Add shipments to manufacturers, as above..............................
181,189
258,611
194,970
271,711
Total product for the year, of Tenn., &c.*.........................
439,800
466,681
* Except the shipments to New Orleans, which are included in the New Orleans receipts, and
to Norfolk, which are included in the Virginia receipts.
Total product detailed above by States for tbe year ending Sept. 1,
1869....................................................................................................bales. 2,379,039
Consumed in tbe South, not included (in addition to tbe 20,000 taken
from Petersburg)......................................................................................
60,000
Total crop of tbe United Sates for year ending Sept. 1, 1869
Below we give tbe total crop eacb year since 1821 :
Years.
1868-69............
1867-68............
1866-67............
1865-66...........
1861-65 ............
1860-61............
1859-60...........
1858-59...........
1857-58...........
1856-57...........
1855-51}...........
1854-55............
1853-54............
1852 53...........
1851-52............
Bales.
............. 2,439,039
............. 2,593,993
............. 2,019,774
............. 4.669,770
............. 3,851,481
.............3,113,962
............. 2,939,519
............. 3,527,845
............. 2,817,339
............. 2,930,027
Years.
Bales.
1850-51............. ............ 2,355,257
1849-50.............
1848-49............. ............ 2,728,5%
1847-48............. ............ 2,347,634
1846-47............. ............ 1,778,651
1845-46............. ............ 2,100,537
1844-45............. ............ 2,394,503
18-13-14.............
... 2,030,409
18)2-43............. ............ 2,378,875
1841-12............. ............1.6S3.574
1-40-41.............
1839-10............. ........... 2,1/7,835
1838-39.........
.......... 1,360,532
1831-38............. ........... 1,80l,!97
1S36-37............. ............ 1,422,930
Years.
1835-36
1814-35
18 3-34
1832-33
1811-32
1830-31
1829-30
1828-29
1827-28
1826—
"^7
1825-26
1824-25
1823-24
1822 23
1821-22
2,439,039
Bales.
1,300,752
1,254,328
1,205,324
1,070,4:58
987,4S7
1,03S848
976.845
870,415
727.593
957,281
720,i 27
569,249
509,158
495,COO
45.1,010
Tbe crop of Sea Island the past year has been as follows : Florida, 6,748 bales ;
Georgia, 6,480 bales; South Carolina, 5,454 bales—total, 18,682 bales, tbe partic
ulars of which are set out below :
FLORIDA—Bales..............................
CrEOBGIA—Exported Foreign..........
Domestic ports.............
Stock end of year..........
Deduct received from Florida__
Stock begiuuing of year..............
Total Sea Island and Ge.rgia.
6,621
5,174
169- 11,361
4,824
60- 4,8°4
6,718
6,480
1869]
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR
SOOTH CAROLINA—Exported foreign.............
Esported domestic ports.
Stock end of year............
Deduct received from Florida.......................
Stock beginning of year.................................
1869.
297
3,095
3,313
42— 7,350
1,700
96— 1,796
-------
T o t a l C rop o f Sea I s la n d s
5,454
1 8 ,6 8 2
The crop of Sea Island during former years has been as follows :
1855-56....................bales. 44,512 11858-59..................... bales. 47,592 11969-6?.................... bales. 32,228
1856-57.............................. 45,314 1859-60.............................. 46,649 1867-68.............................. 21,275
1857-58.............................. 40,566 1860-60......................No record. 1186S-69.............................. IS,682
C o n s u m p tio n .
The consumption the past year shows a slight falling off, notwithstanding
the mills have increased their stock about 30,000 bales. Our usual summary,
showing the result for the year, North and South, is as follows :
Total crop of the United States as above stated.................................................................. 2,439,039
Stock on hand commencement of year (Septembel 1,1868):
At Northern ports.............................................................................................. 30,203
At Southern ports............................................................................................... 7,927—
38,130
Total supply during year ending September 1,1869 .................................................. 2,477,169
Of this supp y there has been
Expoi tea to foreign ports during the year........................................................ 1,448,020
Sent to Canada by railroad direct from the W est.............................................
18,000
Now on hand (September 1, 1869):
At Northern ports............................................................................................
9,536
At Southern ports............................................................................................
2,807— 1,478,363
Total consumption in United States year ending Sept. 1,1869 .................................... bales.
Consumption in Southern States...........................................................................................
998,806
80,000
Leaving consumption in Northern States..........................................................bales.
918,806
W e have been at considerable trouble to obtain a correct idea of the stock now
held by the mills, and find that, although several of the largest corporations
are bolding sis, seven or eight weeks’ supply, the great body of the spinners
are lightly stocked. The total held by them, therefore, on the 1st of Septem
ber was less than we supposed, being about 60,000 bales, against 30,000 bales
last year. Taking the stock, then, on the 1st of September at these figures, we
see that the actual consumption of all the mills, after deducting the increase
held this year over last year (30,000 bales), would be about 968,000 bales, against
982.000 bales last year, leaving for the Northern mills about 888,000 bales against
900.000 bales last year.
The new year begins with a deficiency in tbe visible supply of cotton for this
country and Europe to tbe extent of 330,000 bales compared with tbe amount
on band at the same period of last year. Hence to permit of tbe same consump
tion the coming season as during tbe season which has just closed, tbe cotton
production of the world must be increased to that extent. But this year tbe aver
age weekly consumption of Great Britain has been about 8,000 bales less than
during the same period of 1867-8, while tbe Continent and tbe United States
have probably together also consumed about 3,000 bales less per week. If,
therefore, the mills this season return to tbe consumption of 1867-8, 300,000
bales additional will be needed, or in all an increased production o f 630,000 bales,
without allowing any accumulation of stock. W e shall undoubtedly be able to
make good a part of this deficiency; but tbe extent of our crop cannot yet be
definitely stated.
E x p o rts.
In tbe first table given in this report will be found tbe foreign exports tbe
past year from each port to Great Britain, France and other ports, stated sepa
298
COTTON MOVEMENT AND CROP FOR
rately, as 'well as tlie total to all the ports.
exports for six years for comparison :
1869.
[ Odder,
Below we give the total foreign
T o t a l E x p o r ts o f C o tto n to F o r e ig n P o r ts fo r S ix Y e a r s .
E x ports to foreis
1800.
1861.
.bales 2,005,602 1,783,673
..........
0 9,481
450,421
........... 886,770
2U,388
.........
337,755
302,187
..........
111.967
63,209
..........
59,103
28,1-73
...........................
195
..........
2,259
810
..........
203,028
24S.049
..........
9,6-4
23,225
..........
292
3,793
..........
257
3,515
F rom —
N ew O rleans___
M ob ile.................
South Carolina
G eorgia ...............
T e x is .....................
F lo r id a ................
N orth Carolina.
V irginia
.......
N ew Y o r k .......
Boston.................
P h ila d elp h ia ___
■Baltimore..........
P ortland, Maine.
San F r a n cis c o ...
ITotal from the U. S.
n ports fo r year ending A ugust 31,—
1866.
1867.
1868.
1869.
516.188
618,940
581,477
619,534
270,934
153,4 >4
236,511
163,154
53,824
80,896
105,813
56,809
92,905
114,101
259,604
167,537
64.388
76,9 S
68.595
83,376
37,977
3,009
810
21
534
13,(11
8,2^3
6,253
469,668
374,7:34
495.462
327,838
1,441
12,014
17,0 4
1,491
2,0 55
3,155
1,140
99
16,3(19
6,709
7,975
19,212
103
2,SO7
1,907
32
1
3,774,173 3,127,568 1,552,457 1,558,787 1,657,015
1,448,020
A wish has been expressed by some of our readers that we should give a de
tailed statement of the exports from each port during the past year, and we
have therefore prepared the follow ing:
Liverpool.......................
London.........................
Queenstown.................
Glasgow........................
Cork..............................
Havre............................
Marseilles.....................
Rouen...........................
Amsterdam...................
Bremen........................
Antwerp........................
Hamburg.......................
Rotterdam....................
Pillau-Prussia................
Barcelona......................
Malaga.........................
Mexico..........................
Genoa...........................
Salerno..........................
St. Petersburg..............
Narva...........................
Helsingfors....................
Cronstadt......................
New Granada................
Brit. Provinces.............
N ew
M o
Orleans. bile.
-E x p o r te d fr o m Gal- F lor- Char- Savaveston. ida. leston. nah.
..........
.........
2,418
218
..........
6,176
..........
3,695
..........
6,138
..........
9,978
2,085
7,203
16,133
2,981
20,869
8i(i
76
33,399 9,573
&51
1,771 20,303
200
431
2,404
5,556
1,000
21,433
3,645
3,626
22,629
3,165
1,298
1,802
970
652
163,154 83,376
Total.......................
N ew
A ll
Y o rk . Others.11
53,753 133,67S 243,214 18,647
985
13U..81 57,582
2,978
2,435
328
1S5
976,186
985
2,418
2,085
7,203
224,101
218
208
5,015
110,822
3,432
31,841
681
6,176
34.011
3,695
5,541
8,436
1.802
9,918
4,293
750
6.830
328
185
810 56,809 16?,537 327,838 28,962 1,448,020
* U nder this head, “ Other P orts,” w e have included as f o l l o w s F r o m B oston—1,306 bales to
L iverp ool and 185 bales to British P rovin ces. F rom P h iladelphia—99 bales to L iverpool. F rom
Portland—1,907 bales to L iv e rp o o l. F rom Baltim ore—9,082 bales to L iverp ool, 481 bales to R o tte r
dam , 9,573 bales to Brem en, and 76 bales to Am sterdam .
The following are the total gross receipts of cotton at New York, Boston,
Philadelphia and Baltimore for each of the last two years ending September 1 :
NEW YORK.
BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA. BALTIMORE.
R E C E IP T S FK O SI-
N ew O rlean s..........
T e x a s ........................
Savannah ................
M o b ile ......................
F l o r id a ....................
South Carolina.......
N orth C a ro lin a ___
V ir g in ia ...................
N orthern P o r t s ___
Tennessee, & c .........
F o r e i g n ...................
T otal this y e a r ..
1868-9.
1867-8,
125,807
41,191
145.364
17,610
7,465
106,50.)
1 2T.SU
1 70,774
12,640
104,534
3,031
51,862
28,011
177,574
12,776
14,482
1868-9
101.327
27,863
100,783
117,640
6.089
152
25,713
76,263
35,033
931
662,780
632,328
246,433
73,008
19,66 *
2,656
6,919
1867-8.
1868-9.
1867-8.
45,514
5,846
18,737
22,056
238
14,386
370
21,403
66,214
34,862
6,929
7,310
16.. 81
333
22.147
1,871)
10,3 ti
1,313
3,496
1,714
229,653
1863-9. 1867-8.
1,594
218
13,754
50
417
188
13,511
20,114
19.221
2. 87
23,490
134
5.6 3
24,22 L 19,4->7
ii,iii
2.1-74
28,841
404
20,813
4
55.811
65,851
83,423
SI,393
48
1869]
299
THE WHEAT TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN-.
To complete our record, we give below a table showing tlie price of middling
uplands at New York and Liverpool on Friday of each week during the last two
years :
P r ic e s o f C o tto n a t N e w Y o rk , a n d L iv e r p o o l t w o Y e a r s .
,-----1868-9-----, ,-----1867-8— ,
,-----18G8-9-----\ ,-----1867-8---- %
New Liver-
’68
Sept. 4
“ 18
“ 25
O ct. 2
“ 9
“ 16
*• 2 *.
“ 30
N ov.
“ 6
“ 13
“ 20
“ 27
D ec. 4
“ H
“ 18
“ 24
“ 31
I860.
Jan.
“ 8
“ 15
“ 22
“ 29
F eb . 5
“ 12
“ 19
New Liver-
Y o r k . p ool. Y orK . p ool.
d.
Cl 8.
d.
era.
67.
27
10
6.......... ........... 20%
10%
25
13...........
10%
f%
20........... ...........26%
24%
9X
30%
2J
27......... ...........25%
8%
9%
......... ........... 26%
20
10%
8X
IS
H ......... ...........26
10%
8%
19
18......... ...........25%
30*
►%
20
2 )......... ...........25
10%
—
—
11
...........25%
—
19
1.........
8%
19
8......... ........... 2S%
8%
UK
18
15.........
10%
8X
10 %
22......... ...........24%
11%
8X
......... ...........25%
16
7%
11%
6.........
17
7%
MX
10%
15%
13.........
7%
15%
7%
20......... ........... 25%
30%
27......... ...........25
15%
10%
7%
—......... ...........26
10%
’68.
—
3.........
... —
15%
7%
’ 0......... ...........28
11
16
7%
17......... ........... 29%
17%
7%
11%
H%
18
24......... ........... 29%
7%
11%
SI.........
19%
7%
20
S
7......... ........... so%
12X
20%
14.........
8%
12X
21......... ...........28%
23%
io x
HX
4
w
_
',9
......
vew liv e r-
\'ew Livcr-
York. pool. York. pool.
cts.
d.
f69. ’68.
c»s.
d.
Feb.26 28......... ......... 29%
11% 22
9X
Mar. 5 6........ ........ 29
12
25
9%
30%
12
“ 12 13.......
24X
24% 10%
“ 19 20....... .........28%
12
26
10%
“ 26 27....... .........28%
MX
Apr. 2 3....... .........28%
29
12X
32%
“ 9 10....... ......... 28% 32% 30
“ 16 17....... .........28%
32% SOX 32%
“ 23 24....... ......... 2S% 12
32% 12%
“
30....... ......... 28% 11%
May
1.......
12%
32X
31% 32
“ 7 8....... .........28%
12%
33% 32
“ 14 15....... .........28%
12%
31
“ 21 22....... .........28%
11%
“ 28 29....... .........28%
11% 31
H%
June4 5....... ......... SOX 11% SOX 11%
11% 29
11
“
11 12.......
“ 18 19....... .......... S3X
U K
12% 31
“ 25 26....... .......... 33
12% 31% 11%
July 2 3.......
12% 32
11%
“ 9 10....... .......... 34%
12% 32%
H%
“ 16 17....... .......... S4%
12% 32
H%
31
“ 23 24....... .......... 34
10%
32 %
12% 30
“
30 31....... .......... 33%
9%
29
12%
A ng. 6 7....... .......... 33%
9%
10
13 14....... .......... 33%
3S% 29X
13%
30
20 21........
10X
11
“ 27 28....... ............ - M X
13% 30X
THE WHEAT TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN.
[From the London Correspondence of the “ Commercial and Financial Chronicle.” ]
W e have now reached the close of a protracted an i iemarkable wheat seasoD,
and a brief retrospect may not be unappropriate or uninteresting.
The season
commenced at an unusually early period, owing to the forwar 1 state of the crops in
1868.
In the early part of May, last year, the average price of English wheat
was as high as 748 7d per quarter; but the prospect of an early and abundant
crop, produced, from that period to the time when the harvest had c mmericed, a
steady downward movement in prices.
The result was that by the 17th of July,
there had been a decline of 9s. 4d., or to 65s. per quarter.
When the unexampled
abun lance of the harvest of 1868 had, however, become a matter of general know
ledge, the fall in prices became more rapid, and there was an almost uninter
rupted decline uutil the 19th of December, when 49s. 5d was the average quotation.
From that point, there was a recovery of from 2s. to 3s. per quarter ; but in April,
May and June, there was much heaviness in the trade, and on the 8th rf May
the average price of English wheat was only 4 1 p. 4 d . per quarter.
Towards
the close ot the season, arising from causes which are too recent to require recapitula
tion, there was a rise to 54s. 2d., which i9 the elf sing price of the season, a4id
which is 2s. 9d. lower than at the termination of 1867-8.
The table which follows shows the average price of English wheat in England
and Wales each week since the commencement of the seas: n 1864-6.
From th a it
will be seen that notwithstanding the abundant crop of last year, the price was never
at so low a point as in 1864-5,
This, however, is easily explained.
The crops
of cerial produce in 1864 were very large, and had been preceded by an abundant
harvest
in 1S63.
The result was that at the commencement of 1864-5 there wa9
a large supply of old wheat in stock, while, at the same time new produce came
freely to market.
Even from the low average of 429. 3d., there was an almost
uninterrupted fall until the close of the year, when the average quotation was only
300
[October,
THE WHEAT TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN.
87s. lOd. ; and although wheat became a little dearer during the latter part of the
season, the average price for 1864-5 was only 40a. 3d. per quarter. The abundance
of the crop of 1868 has had an important effect upon prices; but it has not forced
them down to so Iowa point. The lowest official average was 44s. 41., which is
6s 6d. above that of 1864-5. Eut at the close of 1 8 6 .-* the supplies of old wheat
were exhausted, and the new crop came rapidly into consumption at an early period.
A very important fall, however, took place, and the satisfactory result is ascer
tained that English wheat was just 20 . per quarter cheaper than in 1867-8. That
result not only benefitte I the consumer but the grower also, for it is evident that an
at undant crop producing 38s 3d. per quarter is tar more remunerative than a scanty
crop yielding 68s. 5d. per quarter. With regard to the future, it does not appear
probable that any great variation from the prices now current will take place. The
abundant harvest of last year has been succeeded by a crop which i3 believed to
be under an average, but which has been harvested in excellent condition, and
which, taken as a whole, is not unsatisfactory.
We have, however, by the lateness
of the season, saved a months’ consumption, owing to the circumstance that thirteen
months’ consumption has bet-n thrown on to last year’s crop.
If, however, it
should be found when the sea-on is more advanced, and when a better knowledge
has been gained respecting the actual yield that the crop is deficient in quantity,
then: are ample supplies ready to come forward from nearly all the leading graingrowing countries o f the world to make up for the deficiency here : —
1868.
1867.
1S61.
1866.
1S65V
62 5
47.3
42.3
September 5 ........
46.0
..
42.4
61.3
12 . .. .. ..
47.0
44.7
*
62.11
49.8
42.0
42.0
19........
K
64 1
51.5
. .. 53.7
40.10
40.lt
5c6.......
39.8
63.5
52.2
41.1
3........
October
38.9
41.11
10........
64.10
52.7
41 1
38 1
67 6
52.2
IT........
**
70 5
42.4
37.6
24........
52.6
... 52.'1
69.11
54.9
38.9
43 4
31.........
57.2
70.1
45.3
33. U
November 7 . . . .
“
14.........
70.1
56.7
38 9
46.11
“
68.33
57.6
46.10
38.9
21........
51 0
68.5
60.0
46.6
38.8
2"........
68.1
46.5
38.5
December 5_____
... 50.1
61.7
67.3
38.4
12........
60 3
46.8
38.1
39........
66.9
59
5
... 49.5
46.8
6T.4
60 0
26........
46.11
37.10
1869.
186S.
1865,
It 67.
1866.
2........
67 10
60.2
38.2
January
46.3
9 ........
69.6
61.0
46.1
38.7
10........
71.6
62 3
45.7
38.10
“
72.4
23 . . . .
62.2
45.6
48.6
n
62.6
30........
72.6
38.4
45.10
73.4
6'.4
... 51.0
45.5
38.4
February 6.......
38.4
13.........
7 '.0
59.10
45.0
“
72.11
20........
. .. 50.3
45.5
38.2
59 11
“
73.4
27........
38.6
59.8
45.7
73.8
45.4
38 4
March
6.........
59.3
13 . ...
73 1
59 4
45.6
38.3
“
59.9
20........
72.5
38.4
45.3
38.11
2T........
72.10
60.11
44.11
72.6
44 9
89.8
3.........
61.2
April
73.2
10........
60.9
44.5
40.1
73.8
61.4
44 9
39.7
37........
... 45.5
73.11
62.11
45.5
39.5
74.2
45.9
1.........
63.10
39.1U
M ay
40.11
b.........
. .. 41.4
74.7
64 9
45.9
41.8
15.........
... 44.6
74.3
64.11
46.1
41.9
22........
47.4
7^.10
65.3
“
47.5
29.......
72.3
65.5
41 11
70.8
5........
65.4
47.1
41.5
June
67 6
12. .. .
65.9
47.4
41 1
66.1
41.3
39........
65.8
48.5
*»
26........
... 46.4
67.5
51.0
41.6
64.10
64.11
42.5
3 ........
54.6
6' .7
J u ly
*•
10........
6.6 7
64 7
43.1
55.10
tt
65.1
54 0
43.0
17 . .. .
65.0
24........
52.0
62.9
65.8
42.10
‘i
61.1
67.5
41.1
42.6
31........
... 61 9
50.2
7 ........
57.31
58.2
42.0
August
50.2
43.1.
14........
55.0
68.4
tt
45.4
57.1
68.2
50.10
21........
49.7
66.7
“
28.........
50.11
46.7
Average
68.4X
60.8X
46.5
40.2X
1869]
301
RAILROAD ITEMS.
During the season, our imports have of wheat been as much as 28,865,123 c ^ t.y
against 35,553,725 cwt., being a diminution •f 6,688,602 cwt. as compared with
1 8 6 7 -8 . Owing lo the firmness that prevailed in the trade shortly before the
close of the season, and to the rap dity with which communicat on can now be
effected with the producing countries, our imports in July and August were very
large. In August, they were as much as 4: 00,000 cwt., against 1,850 000 cwt.
in the corresponding month last year. Of flour, there was an import of 3,927,051
cwt., against 3,143,260 cwt.
The exports of wheat were only 150,641 cwt., against
737,881 cwt. ; and of flour, 33,545 cw?., against 53,504 cwt
RAILROAD ITEMS.
— C ompany R eports— B oston and M aine R ailroad .— The earnings of this road
for the years ending May 31, 1868 and 1869, were as follows:
1868.
1869.
From passengers................................................................
$907,133 23
$997,397 CD
“ freight........................................................................................
603,355 62
689,913 85
“ rents..........................................................................................
28,909 01
27.568 60
“ mails ......................................................................................
13,671 58
11,139 51
“ interest, premium on stock sola, etc......................................
12,392 94
32,474 59
$1,565,462 38
Expenses......................................... .................................................. $1,129,682 32
Earnings less expenses............................................... ......... ... .. .
435,780 06
Deduct tax on dividends and surplus........................... .................
21,786 67
$1,761,493 55
$1,204,503 28
556,990 27
24,8(J6 51
Net revenue..............................................................................
$413,993 39
Reserved for the purchase of rails, and unadjusted liablities, etc...........................
$532.183 76
60,000 ( 0
Leaving ............................................................... ....................................
.
From which two dividends of five per cent each have been pa d .........................
$472,183 76
455,000 0u
Balance...........................................................................................................
Add balance from previous year..............................................................................
$17,183 76
976,017 10
T . tal as in general balance sheet...................................................................
$993,2C0 86
The above balance of $993,200 86, is invested as fallows : in Newburyport rail
road bonds $300,000; in Danvers railroad bonds (guaranteed by this corporation)
73,000; in the Danvers railroad contract and stock $27,430; in the Dover an! W innipiseogee railroai stock, $258 46 4 14— and the remainder in expenditures on the
road, rolling stock, etc.,m addition to the capital rece ve 1 from the sale of stock.
It is, therefore, only an element indicating in some measure, the value of the stock
above par ; but it is not available for the payment of debts or dividends.
— P ortland , S aco and P ortsmouth R ailroad .— The report for year ending May
81, 1869, shows the following :
INCOM E REC E IPTS.
Yearend’g Y e rend’g
1869.
May 31,
May 31, Mails............
1889.
1868. Rems and miscellaneou s.............
Fassengers.................. . . . . $307,736 $301,571
—
20 '.,782
Freight........................
14,177
E x p ress...................... . . . .
13,877
$575,036
259
153
Extra Baggage............
1S6S.
7,837
4,864
$530,389
E X P E N D IT U R E S .
1869.
Machine Shop.............
Mai ntenance of Way...
Locomotive t ower___ .......... 134,598
Train E xpenses........
Office Establishment .......... 23,030
Taxes and Insurance.. .......... 13,533
1868.
1869.
$1,051 Damages and Law Expenses $ 1,962
—
1* 0 451
399,449
112,527
39,459
10,000
—
—
29,697
18,912
409,449
11,617
Net Earnings........ ................. 165,586
Payments, including interest, dividends, taxes, & c......................... .....................141,807
{Surplus this year..................................................................................................... 23,779
1S6}.
$5,989
320.011
10,000
330.011
200^378
302
[ October,
RAILROAD ITEMS.
The claims of this company upon the Boston ami Maine and Eastern railroad com
panies, for the payment of dividends in gold, has been settled as follows: The com
pany receives $180,000 fo- claims on back dividen s, and the June (i8t>9) dividend
and all subsequent ones to be paid in gold.
— A tlanta and W est P oint R ailroad .— A c ndeosed comparative statement o f
items o f income for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1 8 6 8 ,a n ! June 30, 1869, gives
general results, as follows :
l c69.
1868.
$130,988
. .. 205,733
203,281
Freight.................................................................
8,(549
7,028
M
a
il
............................................................
0,240
Express............ ...............................................
13,556
United States government and miscellaneous.
.. .
7,157
$351,071
$382,858
The percentage of ordinary expenses to gross earnings is 6 13 10 against 61 last
year. The President remarks in his repo t :
“ The unc rtainty of all r ilroad investments is much increased by the growing
policy of ‘ State aid’ in neighboring States, as well as our own. N*> railroad built with
the capital of the shaieholdcis, to satisfy the real wants of the country, can be long
secure against a riva ry and c mpttition under the patronage of the State No policy
could he more unjust and oppie-sive than the policy of ‘ State aid.’ It is a distin
guishing feature iu this policy that the citizen who has built his own enterprise with
his own means, is taxed to build up rival enterprises, by which his own may be
ruined. In other worda, he is forced to contribute money for the destruction of
his own property ! The effects <f this policy are no longer left to theory. Proof
is abundant that roads will be built with little regard to the wants of the public, if
men c. n organize an \ build them at the expense of the State. Hence vast amounts
of capital aie wasted that mi-ht have been belter employe l ; t«'o apt to be f Rowed
by loss of credit, and f e bankruptcy of the State, and general financial paralysis.
Our road has suffered, an l wi I suffer, perhaps more from the effects of this perni
cious pobc. in a neighboring State than ia our o-vn ; though, to some extent, we
shall suffer in both.”
— T he S outhwestern R ailroad of G eorgia reports its gross earnings for the
year ending July 31, 1869, at $910,116 i 6, and its operating expenses, including
taxes, as $549 729 89, or about 60 per cent, leaving as net earnings the sum o f $360,iS 6 IB. T w o four per cent dividends were paid out o f the y e a r s earnings, leaving
a trifling surplus. Tne receipts were $10,000 less, and the operating expenses $28,000 less than during the previous year, i h e shipm entsof cotton were less by 75,000
bales than those o f the previous year.
The Southwestern Railroad consists of a main line from Macon southward to Albany,
107} miles; a branch from Fort Valley, *28 miles south of Macon, west to Columbus,
72 miles ; a branch from Smithville, 83 miles South of Mac n, west to the Chatta
hoochee, opposite E-ifala, Ala., 59} miles; and a branch of this last name I branch,
from Cuthbert 37 miles west of Smithville, in a southwesterly direction to Fort Gaines
on the Chattahoochee, 19-} miles. Of the Columbus branch, the 51 miles east of
Columbus was the old Muscogee Railroad, formerly leased by the Southwestern,
but consolidated with it last October. The total mileage of the road is 258} miles.
It affords the only railroad route to nouth western Georgia, except to the lew counties
in the extreme south which are reached by the Savannah & Gulf Railroad.
The Southwestern Railroad was leaied on the 24th of June last to the Central
Railroad and Banking Company, which owns the railroad from Savannah to Macon,
with a branch to Augusta, and several less important branches. By the terms of
ihis lease, a dividend of 7 per cent annually is guaranteed cn Southwestern stock,
and when a dividend of 10 per cent is declared on Central stock, there must be a
dividend of eight per cent on Southwestern, and iu that proportion for larger
dividends. The dividends <f the C ntral have usually been 10 per cent, of the South
western 8 per cent. In order to make the fiscal year of the Southwestern (which
maintains its organization) correspond with that of the Central beginning December
1st, a fractional dividend of $2 50 per share will be made for the time betweea
RAILROAD ITEMS.
1869]
303
August l and December 1. Thereafter dividends on both stocks will be made regu
larly in June and December.
It is now reported that the Central Company will purchase or lease the Macon
and Western Railroad, which extends from Macon to Atlanta. The people of Macon
are very much opposed to these conso idations, believing that they will make their
town a mere way station instead of the terminus of several roads. There can be no
doubt, however, that there will be great economy in operating the road9 together;
and if Macon suffers it will be because the surrounding country finds it more profit
able to ship through to the seaboard than to make an exchange at Macon. The
strongest ot jectiou made to the consolidation is on account of new roads from Bruns
wick to Macon and Albany, which could have obtained a heavy business from these
roads if they had remained independent corporations.— Western Railroad Gazette.
T he N ashville and C hattanooga R ailroad . — The stockholders of this company
held their annual meetin; on August 11th, at the Chattanooga depot, when the fol
lowing report of operations for the year was submitted:
The receipts were $1,085,694 52. Operating expenses, $854,018 71. Net earnings,
$231,575 81.
Expendit :res 78 per cent. Net earnings 22 per cent of gross earnings.
Comparing this with the re ult of the preceding year we find:
Increase of grocs earnings, $125,094 79.
Decrease in operating expenses, $172,921 66.
Total increase, $293,016 35.
The decrease in the revenue derived from rents and privileges is owing to the
fact, that previously some $15,000 per annum was received from the Nashville
and Northwestern Railroad, for rent of offices, roundhouse, shops, yard, room, et .,
but by the terms of the lease under which the Nashville and Chattanooga Com
pany are now operating that road, no compensation is allowed for those privileges.
Mr. Cole offered the following resolutions, which were adopted:
Resolved, by the stockholders in meetiDg assembled, That the Board of Directors
this day elected are authorized to lease for a term of years the Nashville and North
western Railroad, the terms of the lease to he fixed by said Directors.
Resolved furthermore, That said Board of Directors be authorized lo make any
such arrangements with the Tennessee and Pacific Railroad, ia reference to depot
connection or rail communication, that they may ueem advantageous to the company
for a term of years.
E eie R ailw ay .—
O ffice E rie R ailw ay C ompany,
)
N ew Y ork, Sept. 9, 1869. J
To the President of the New York Stock Exchange:
Dear Sir : In compliance with the request of several of your members, this com
pany has just registered in the office of the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company
common st ck representing $70,600,000 ; preferred stock, $8,536,900.
The earnings of the road during the eleven months ending September ],n o t
including receipts of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, have been $ 1 7 348,355.
W e have pleasure in stating that the road and equipments were never in better
condition.
(Signed)
J ay G ould , President.
— The suit against the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company of South Caro
lina, for the foreclosure of the mortgage upon their road, brought by certain holders
of their first mortgage bonds, has been settled to the mutual satisfaction of all
parties concerned, and an older has been made by the court, now in session (at the
suggestion of the eueing creditors), dismissing the bill.
— A t the annual meeting of the stockholders of the Boston and Maine Railroad, at
Lawrence, Mass., recently held, the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad was
authorized to increase its capital stock, and fully equip itself as a first-class railroad.
C ompletion of the L eavenworth and A tchison R ailroad .— The last rail of this
road, connecting ibe Central branch of the Pacific Railroad with Leavenworth and
St. Louis, via the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was laid on September 2d, and the first
train passed over it to Atchison.
L ake S hore
and
Michigan S outhern.— The following statement for the first week
5
304
[ October,
RAILROAD ITEMS.
of September, like all statements of earnings hereafter, gives the earnings of the lines
between Chicago ami Buffalo:
Sept. 1 to Sept. 7 ,3S69.................................................................................................... $273,418 37
Sept. 1 to Sept, 7,1863..................... .............................................................................. 203,127 73
Increase.....................................*.............................................................................. $10,290 64
Travel over the road is very satisfactory. The fast train gains continually in popu
larity, as might be expected from its excellent accommodations and perfect regularity
in making time.
— Messrs. S. W . Hopkios
Co., 68 Old Broa3 street, London, and 69 Broadway*
New York, furnish the following official statement of the export of rails from Great
Britain :
r—Month end’g July 31—v
1868.
1869.
America—
1867.
16,936 £5,249
.
United States.................
2,135
1,643
British....................................
Cuba...................................... .
326
Sll
Br<«z 1........................ .............
23
85
Chili.................................... .
957
Peru.........................................
153
3,315
Europe—
7,886 35,731
Russia.................................... .
383
244
Sweden......................................
123
2,428
299
Prussia.................................. .. ..........
1,030
2.729
Illyria, Crotiaand Dalmatia..
16
219
Fiance ....................................
2,561
1,391
Hoi and....................................
443
910
Spain and Canaries................
Asia—
1,532
8,833
British India..........................
223
Australia .................................
1.845
Africa 1,615
E gypt.....................................
7,325
Other countries.........................
2,779
T otal,...................................
37,516 103,938
r-6 months end’g July 31.—,
1869.
3S6S.
1867.
112,661 165,480 203,597
10,803
19,258
9,439
1.999
319
3,017
1,962
872
779
2.674
1.393
2,626
14,624
16S
923
48,4S2
606
4,720
SO
8,245
6,170
28,100
1,428
4,09!)
4,840
96
19 343
4,893
122,517
3,1:39
6,972
19,457
3,283
757
7,603
83,473
10,436
51,026
5,749
46,032
14,141
8,668
18,050
10,512
21.412
5,355
42,170
318,028
334,058
519,722
8,923
57,399
Old iron to all countries___....
7,8.38
26,749
42,587
— The Western Union Telegraph Company have purchased the lines of the Atlantic
and Pacific States Telegraph Company for about 60 per cent of their actual cost of
construction. By this arrangement the old Company is enabled to increase its facili
ties for doing business at once, instead of waiting for the construction of new lines
over the same territory, which they had in contemplation. The purchased property
was all new and in excellent condition. The Western Union Company will announce
a material reduction in rates to all points on the first of October prox.
D istances via C hicago and N ew Y ork T runk L ines. — A correspondent o f the
Chicago Railway Review gives the foil >wing: I have compared the tables o f instances
(the authority is A pp leton ’s Railway Guide) by the various routes, with the following
results:
-Miles----Noith Shore Line.
144 )
New York to Albany......................................................................................
Albany to Suspension Eridge .......... .......................................................
301 f 448 ] 961
y
229 I
Bridge to D etroit..........................................................................................
284 f 513 j
Detroit to Chicago........................................................................................ .
New York Central and South Shore Line.
144 |
New York to Albany ................................................................................. .
, 298 f 442 1 980
Albany to Buffal >...........................................................................................
538 y 538 )
Buffalo to Chicago........................................................................................ .
Erie and South Shore Line.—(via Buffalo.)
423 | 961
New York to Buffalo...................................................................................
538)
Buffalo to Chicago..........................................................
....................
Erie and South Shore Line.—(viaDunkirk.)
New York to Dunkirk.................................. .............................................
Dunkirk to Chicago.................................................. ................................
Pennsylvania Failroad Line.—(via Philadelphia.)
New York to Philadelphia..................................................... .....................
Philadelphia to Pittsburg.............................................................................
Pittsburg to Chicago.....................................................................................
Pennsylvania Railroad Line.—(via Allentown.)
New York to Harrisburg.............................................................................
Harri burg to Pittsburg.................... ...........................................................
Pittsburg to C hicago........ ........................... ...............................................
460 )
498 f 958
90)
355 k 913
468)
182 )
249 J
. 899
468 J
1369]
r a il iio a b
Item s.
305
B altimore and O hio R ailroad .— A t the repot monthly meeting; of the Board of
Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, President Garrett made the
following statement in reference to the business of the roads: The Board will
remember that on the 1st of July the contract with the Sandusky, Mansfield and
Newark Railroad Company went into operation. That line is 116 miles in length,
extending from Newark, on the Central Ohio division, to the city of Sanduskv, on
Lake Erie. Passing un er the charge of this company permanently, it is now. known
as the Lake Erie Division of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The relations of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, through the Marietta and Cincinnati road, under the
contract which has been recently made with the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Lafayette
Railroad Company, are also proving of a highly interesting character. Amidst the
tremendous efforts and conflicts of the past few months of the great Trunk lines, in
connection with western business, the power and capacity of the Baltimore and Ohio
road to maintain satisfactory results under its enlarged arrangements have been
exhibited.
It is interesting to note that the revenues of the main stem and
branches— which in the corresponding month in 1S68, were in the aggregate
$790, 59 99, in the past month of August, notwithstanding the unprecedented difficul
ties in rates, amounted to $!,036,244 29, exhibiting an increase of $246,184 30. Of
this amount, however, $40,889 21 was derived from the Labe Erie division. Deduct
ing this sum, an increase of $205,295 09 is shown in the general bu iness of the com
pany.
O ffice E rie R ailway Co. )
N ew Y ork , Sepl. 11, 1869.
)
R. G. Rolston, Esq., President Farmers’ Loan and Trust Ct>.:
D ear S ir — The following is a statement of the stock, debt and leasehold estates,
in answer to your inquiries of this date. The amount of common stock issued is
$70 000,000, and the amount of common scrip none. The amount of preferred stock,
including scrip, $8 536,910. The amount of mortgage debts (7 per cent) authorized
and issued is a follows:
First mortgage, $3,000,000, extended May, 1867, due 1897.
Second mortgage, $4,000,000, date of issue March 1, 1849, due 1879.
Third mortgage, $6,000,000, cate of issue March 15, 1853, due 1883.
Fourth mortgage, $4,441,000, date of issue Oc ober, 1857, due 1880.
Fifth mortgage, $926,500, date of issue June 1, 1859, due 1888.
Buffalo Branch mortgage, $186,400, date of issue July 1, 1861, due 1891.
The amount oi sterling bonds £1,000,000, equivalent to $4,844,400, date of issue
September 1, 1865, due 1875.
Under a statute of the State the mortgage debt is convertible into stock only
within ten j ears from date of issue. The ten years have expired ou all but the
sterling loan, and, as that is selling at par in London, there is no danger of conver
sion. There is no leased road that can be converted into the stock of this company,
except in compliance with the rules of the Slock Exchenge by giving thirty days
notice, nor will any increase be made in any form except in compliance with aforesaid
rule.
H . N. Otis, Secretary,
J ay G ould, President.
E rie R ailw ay .—
T he L ouisville, C incinnati and L exington R oad.— The consolidation, which has
been anticipated, has at length been completed, as appears from the following
despatch:—“ Louisville, K y., Sept. 11.— Articles of consolidation were sigued to-day
by the Louisville and Frankfort, and the Frankfort and Lexington Railroad com
panies. The road will hereafter be known as the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexing
ton Railroad Company. They have now iu successful operation 175 miles of the
road.”
— The last rail on the Fort Wayne, Muncie and Cincinnati Railroad, connecting
Muncie with Cincinnati, was laid at Muncie on the 4th inst., and at 5 o’clock, P. H .,
the construction train passed from the road to the Bellefontaine.
T he R ichmond and Y ork R iver R ailroad C ompany have resolved at last to
extend their road to some point on the Chesapeake Bay. They have authorized
for the purpose the issue of $450,000 in bonds and $10 ’,000 in eight per cent pre
ferred stock, making a total of $550,''00. The extension from West Point to the Bay
will be twenty-two or twenty-five miles long, depending on the terminus selected.
[ October,
RAILROAD ITEMS.
SOS
F ailure o r V irginia R ailroad C ompanies to P at I nterest D ue on S tate
L oans.— The following has been received from Richmond: Major Staunton, the
Acting First Auditor of the State, states that the Richmond 4 .Danville Railroad
Company have paid into the State Treasury one-half of the in'erest due the State
on its loans, and the remainder is to be paid December 15th, under instruction from
General Canby. The Orange 4 Alexandria Railroad is yet behind. The annual
interest due from that corporation is about $18,000, while the Soutbside Railroad
owes the large sum of $252,010. The Virginia 4 Tennessee Railroad owes about
$420,000 interest to the State, and neither of the last mentioned roads appears to
be in a condition to meet its liabilities at present. The Chesapeake & Ohio Rail
road is negotiating a loan with which it expects to liquidate its entire indebtedness
to the State, principal and interest, in all about $350,000.
“ I learn that the receipts of the Virginia 4 Tennessee Railroad within the past
month amount to $100,000."
R aritan and D elaware B at R aileoad .— The sale of this road took place on the
13th inst., at the depot of the company, Manchester, N. J. The sale was under a writ
of fieri facias , issued to Robert S. Green, a Master in Chancery of New Jersey, by
the bondholders of the lice, for non-payment of a mortgage on the line and stock of
$1,000,000 and accumulated interest to the amount of $1,700,' 00.
The property was sold in two lots, the first comprising the railroad and its cor
porate franchises and rights. The second consisted of the entire rolling stock of the
company, the locomotives, cars and the steamboat Jessie Hoyt. Both lots were
knocked down to the bondholders of the company after a very feeble competition,
the first for $50,000 and the se ond for $74,0(10
These prices were only nominal,
it being understi od that the bondholders were determined to buy in the line, and
no opposition was offered.
The new proprietors will have a fresh board of directors, of which Charles Gould,
of New York, is proposed as President, and intend issuing $3,500100 worth of new
stock and raising $2,000,000 on fresh mortgage bonds, the majority of which is to be
expended in putting the road into better working order and improving the stock.
A nnual R epoet of the Memphis and C harleston R ailroad , for the year ending
June 30, 1869. —The receipts and expenses have been as follows:
r e c e ip t s
.
O P E R A T IN G e x p e n s e s .
From passengers.............................. $600,514
From freight................................... 478,133
From mail..............................
34,371
From
express
and
other
sources........................................
69,710
37 Conducting transportation............$254,125 9!
25 M dive power.................................. 241,257 22
53 Maintenance o f w a y ...................... 200,013 i(i
Maintenance of cars......................
86,149 88
07
$781,516 27
$1,182,759 22
Leaving net earnings
$401,212 95
The receipts for the first six months o f the past fiscal year were.........
$531,854 27
And for ihe corresponding p riot! o f the previous fiscal year..............
653,499 25
Showing a decrease m receipts o f................................ . ....................
98.H44 98
While lor the last six months of past fiscal year the receipts were ...
627,904 95
And for the corret ponding period o f the previous fiscal year___—...
621,414 88
Showi-g an increase in receipts o f............................................................................... $:0',490 07
Deducting decreased receipts of the first six m onths................................................
98,644 98
Shows an increase in receipts over previous fi cal year........ .....................................
$7,845 09
Although the receipts of the whole year shew but small gain, the results of the
past six mo tbs promise well for the future, it being a gain of $106,490 07 in
receipts over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. The reduction
of expense has been as fallows :
Total for 1867-8................................................................................................................ $830,107 86
Total for 1868-9................................................................................................................ 781,516 27
Deduction................................. ................................ ..........................................
Increase in gross receipts added..............................................................................
$48,561 59
7,845 09
Makes an increase in net earnings o f...................................................................... $56,406 68
FINANCIAL
CONDITION.
A s stated in the previous annual report, the finance? are easy, the roadway and
rolling Btock in fine condition. All that is now needed to produce increased net earn
jugs is an improvement in the general business of the country, and consequently an
1860]
r a il r o a d
it e m s .
307
increase in the receipts. Out of a gross receipt of $1,182,759 22 during the past
year the net earnings were but 1401,212 95.
The receipts of the road may greatly increase without adding proportionally to
the expense.
I f the receipts fwere increas’ d 25 per cent, reaching........................ .......................$1,47S,000 00
Your expenses could not, we believe, increase m re than 5 pur
820,000 00
cent, reaching........................................... .................................. .............................
Leaving your net earnings.........................................................................
$658,0:0 00
This amount of receipts is nearly $200,000 less than we obtained during the fiscal
year ending June SO, 1867, and when the country fully recovers, our receipts should
again be as great as then, in which event your net earnings would not be much under
$800,000 per annum.
CONNECTIONS.
In the last report reference was made to the future connections, the most important
of which is from some point on our road to Atlanta, Ga. The prospects are now fav
orable to an early beginning of the work of building this line, as it is reported the
contract has been let for that portion of the road between Guntersville and Jackson
ville, Ala. The road from Decatur to Montgomery, A la., is now under contract, to
he com peted by the first of January, 1872. These two southerly lines, taken in
connection with the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Road via Columbus, K y., and
Corinth on the one hand, and via Memphis on the other, will give us a short line from
the grain markets of the West to the cotton regions of the S utheast, which must
add materially to the traffic of your road. Besides this, it would give St. Louis a
line shorter by cne hundred and fifty miles to the Atlantic seaboard at Chariestou
or Savannah, than to the seaboard at New York, which must ultimately prove benefi
cial to the interests of the road.
Negotiations are now pending between those representing the Winchester and Ala
bama Ra lroad and ourselves for the lease of that road for a term of years. Shoul i
the conditions be confirmed by the Legislature of Tennessee, it will be our interest to
build, at once, a branch road from Fearu’s Switch, six miles east of Huntsville, to
the Alabama and Tennessee State line, there connecting with the Winchester and
Alabama Railroad. This will not only give us the trade of several large counties
in Tennessee, but also a connection via Decherd and the Southwestern Railroad with
the line of r ad to be built from Cincinnati south, by which we will have as short a
line from Grand Junction to Cincinnati as by any other route, and from any point
east of Grand Juuction on our road a much shorter line than any other to Cincinnati.
This we regard as promising to become one of our most valuable connections.
The Memphis and Little Rock Railroad is progressing, with indications of a com
pletion within twelve months. This road is on the proposed lioe of the Southern
Pacific route, and in connection with our line, will form the shortest and best great
thoroughfare from the eastern Atlantic seaboard cities to the Pacific coast, and its
importance to us cmnot be over estimated.
There is a line projected and being surveyed from Memphis via Jacksonpori, Ark.,
Springfield, Mo., and Fort Scott, Kan., to Junction City, Kan., on the Union Pacific
Railroad, Eastern Division, the distance being 420 miles. Thin would, with the
completion of the road from Atlanta, before mentioned, form aline of about 1,000
miles in length from Charleston or Savannah to Junction City, which is less than the
distance from St. Louis to New York, and places Juuction City 425 miles nearer
the seaboard by this line than via St. Loirs to New York.
On the 6th of May Col. Wm. Dickson, for many years a Director in the company,
and a pioneer in the enterprise of building the road, tendered his resignation as a
member of the Board, the duties of which he had so faithfully and creditably per
formed.
A t the annual meeting the following resolution was pas?ed:
Resolved, That the President and D rectors of the Memphis and Chariest n Rail
road Company are hereby authorized to lease or purchase, as they may deem best,
tbe Decherd, Winchester and Fayetteville Railroad, in Tennessee ; and in the event
they cannot lease or purchase said Decherd, Winchester and Fayetteville Railroad,
they be authorized to build a branch road from or near Huntsville, Ala., to or near
Decherd, in Tennessee; and if under the authority we h reby grant to the Presi
dent and Directors of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company to lease or
SOS
| October*
RAILROAD ITEMS.
purchase the Decherd, Winchester and Fayetteville Railroad, and if they succeed
in doing so, we authorize them to build a branch road from or near Huntsville, Ala^,
to intercept the same at such a point as the President and Directors may consider
for the best interests of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
The Board take pleasure in acknowledging the fidelity and capacity with which the
business of the various departments of the company have been managed during
the year.
condensed
ealance
sh eet
.
cu.
DR.
Construction proper r
$
Capital:
$
Construction.......................
6,354,913.
Capital stock.. ........................... 5,312,725 Od
Incidental to construction................ 1.025.818
Equipment......................................... 1,202,970 Funded debt r
State o f Tennessee.............
1,817,937 43
First mortgage b on d s.................. 1,293,000 00
$8,583,733
Stocks and property:
Second mortgage bonds...............1,00' ,000 00
Stock in—
Miss. Central Railroad........................ 141,600
4,110,937 45
South and North Ala. R .R .................. 87,900
Southern Express ( o ........................... 27,200 Floatirg dent:
500
Memihis & ft . Louis R .R .................
Bills payable...........................
137.886 65
Shelby Iron Company .......................... 25,000
Pas> aue coupons.......................... 32,690 00
Mobile & Montgomery R .R ,,............ 29,200
ray ro lls.....................
55,8'i3 21
National Bank at Huntsville................
8,000
..................
85,294 2S
Dividends
Nashville & Decatur Railroad............ 26,000
Unpaid State interest................... 54,538 12
6,082
Raiiread Hotel at Huntsville..............
Unpaid United States taxes.......... 3.867 52
Telegraph............
2,684
Due to railroads........................... 12,634 91
........
173,737
Road material
Due to indiv, duals....................... 130,550 64
Interest and expenses:
Road expenses.................... .
interest t n State bonds.......
Interest and exchange.......
Interest on Company bonds
Tax account... ..............«...
Assets:
Bills receivable.......... .............
Coupon bonds.....................
Due from railroads............
Due from individuals..............
Due from agents......................
Sam Tate, Receiver................
United States.................... .
Post-office Department..........
People’s Bann: of S. Carolina..
Georgia Railroad Bants..........
Cash.........................................
527,903
781,546
88,437 i
Profit and loss................ ...........
Suspense account........................
513,355 33
99,667 03
In,505 87
3,696 |
110,172 90
156,555
26,638 Receipts:
Passage.......... . . .............. ........... 600,541 37
1,056,273
Freight ........................................ 418,133 25
Mail service.................................
34,37153
39,564
Express service.............................
37,98680
596,500
Kerns aud privileges.....................
31,72327
185,082
66,539
1,182,759 22
6,3u4
26,583
Total
.$11,229*949' 90
12,319
20,897
16,555
25,551
66,040
1,002,039 |
Total,
.$11,229,949
U nion P acific R aiload C ompany.— The President of the Union Pacific Railroad
Company has addressed the foliowing circular to the stockholders :
O ffice of the U nion P acific R ailroad C o., }
B oston, Mass., Sept. 15th, 1869.
)
To the Stockholders o f the Union Pacific Railroaa:
It is well known that malicious at tacks have been made upon your company, upon
its credit, and upon the character of the work itself.
W’hilp all persons who ki ew
the real causes of these attacks were well aware that they were without foundation
and only vindictive, it cannot be denied that they were a source of grave embarrass
ment and difficulty. There is nothing so sensitive as credit: It may receive almost
as great a temporary injury Bom false rumors as from damaging statements of fact.
The natural result of these assaults upon the company's credit wa9 the arrest of
the public sale of its securities, and a threatened danger of stopping the work, when
two millions a mouth were required to continue it. It was fortunate for the country,
as well as yourselves, that you had the ability, as well as the courage, to advance
the millions from your private mea> s that were required t> finish the road. I believ©
that no private corporation ever before made so large a call, or one that wan mo e
promptly responded to.. The work upon the Hus was continued during the winter at
1309]
WESTERN- ONION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
30 9
a very heavy extra cost, but Dearly all the obligations incurred have now been
adjusted.
The earnings of the road since its opening have been :
From Slay 10 to May 31.......................... .................................................................... $301,420 12
“ June 1 to June 30......................... ......................................................................... 7' 6,002 29
“ J u y lt o J u ly 3 1 ..................................................................................................... 623,559 96
This is at the rate of about eight millions a year, which will be steadily aug
mented by the development of the Pacific coast and b f settlement along the line.
The company own over 3,000,000 acres of land in the Platte Valley, in Nebraska,
which competent judges pronounce equal to any in the West.
The lands were
offered for sale at Omaha July 27th, an I 40,000 acres were sold in one month there
after, at an average of over $5 per acre. The company also ovn over ten million
acres in addition, some of which is of little value, but there are portions from which
a considerable sum will eventually be realized.
You will perceive that the income of the company is now ample to meet the
interest on its first mortgage and land grant bonds, and we have every reason to
expect that the natural growth of its business will soon give its st ck a value that will
make a suitable return for the risk you have taken in building the longest rsdlroad
line in the country, through a wilderness which most persons pronounced impassable
for a locomotive.
O liver A mes, President.
S an F rancisco, Sept. 12.— The "Western Union, and Atlantic and Pacific States
Telegraph Companies have consolidated.
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
The annual report to the stockholders of this Company for the year
ending
June 30, 1869, has just been issued, and is a very complete document, not alone
interesting to stockholders of the Company, but to the public generally, as a brief
history of the Telegraph in the United States.
ORGANIZATION OF THE W ESTERN UNION COMPANY.
The Western Union Telegraph Company was originally organized as the New York
and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, on the 1st of April, 1851, for
the purpose of building a line from Buffalo, N. Y .‘ to St. Louis, Mo.
By numerous purchases and consolidations of lines throughout the country which
have been go'wg on almost uninterruptedly far nearly a score of years,a complete
unification of the great majority of the telegraph lines in the United States has been
the result, and rendered the system the most extensive and efficient in the world.
TIIE EXTENT OF THE W ESTERN UNION LINES.
The territory now occupied by the lines of this company embraces almost the
entire civilized portion of the continent of North America.
On the eastern coast
oui lines extend from Plaister Cove, on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, to Indianola,
on the Gulf of Mexico; and on the western coast from Los Angelos, California, to
the fisheries on the Kishyox River, 8C0 miles north of New Westminster, British
Columbia.
They
reach across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean, and embrace every State and Territory in the Union but Minnesota, New
Mexico and Arizona, and include the British Provinces of Nova Scoda and New
Brunswick.
Our lines also have an exc'usive connection with those in Newfound
land, Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New Mexico, and with the Atlantic and
Cuba Cables.
[W e are informed that since the preparation of this report the Company has pur
chased the lines and property of the “ Atlantic and Pacific States Telegraph Compauy" of California, for which it paid $115,000. This purchase was made because
the Company needed the material ta enable it to meet the demands for telegraph
310
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
\ 0ct6b er,
facilities on the Pacific coast, and because it could be acquired at what was regarded
a fair value, being about 40 per cent less than the original cost. By this purchase the
Western Union Company have acquired about 50'J miles additional of line, and about
1,000 miles of additional wire.
The Atlantic and Pacific States Company, we believe, was organized about two
years eince, and had expended in the construction of lines about $200,000 in gold.—•
E d.
M
a g a z in e . ]
K E-ORGAN IZATION OF THE SYSTEM.
Among the more important lines which have been or are now being rebuilt, is that
extending from Omaha to San Francisco.
The opening of the Pacific Railroads has fortunately remedied the difficulties from
Indians, and the lines have been transferred from the old route to the railroads as
fast a3 possible. Within the past year ihe new lines have been completed over the
entire length of the Union Pacific road from Omaha, Nebraska, to Promontory Summit,
Utah, a distance of 1.200 miles ; and over the Central Pacific road from Sacramento,
California, to Eli o, Nevada, a d stance of 468 miles. Nearly all the poles are dist
ributed for the construction of the line over the intervening section between Promon
tory Summit and Elko, a distance of 220 miles, and it will be completed during the
present^season.
The following table gives the aggregate amount of lice which lias been con
structed and reconstructed duting the past three years, show ng it to be more thaD
30 per cent of the entire extent of line belonging to the comp .ny :
STATEMENT SHOWING THE NUMBER
OF
M ILES OF POLES
RECONSTRUCTED FRO M JULY
Prom July 1, 1866, to Dec. 81,1866..,
“
Dec. 31, 1866, to Dec. ; 1, 1867
“
D o. 31, 1867, to Dec. 81, 1868,
“
Dec. 81, 1888, to July 1, 1869.
Total............................................
AND W IR E
CONSTRUCTED
AND
1, 1S66,T0 JULY 1, 1869.
,---- Constructed-----, ^-Re-constructed—,
Miles of Miles o f
Milesol Miles of
poles.
wire.
poles.
wire.
6,490
3,255
1,621
2,748
4,751
2,518
4,443
2,356
2,202
2,032
4,604
6,036
1,735
1,624
430
4,900
, 7,968
18,127
8,073
17,580
EXTENT OF R IV A L ORGANIZATIONS.
The following statistics will show the comparative extent of the lines, wire and
offices belonging to the Western Union Company, and those working in exclusive
connection therewith, and of those of all the rival organizations :
Number o f miles ot line belonging to W. U. system....................................................
“
*■
“ wire
“
"
“
......................................................
“
“ stations
“
“
11
........................... ........................
66,263
121,695
4,692
Number o f miles o f line belonging to Rival Companies................................................
*• “
“ wire
“
“
“
....................................................
“
“ stations
“
“
“
......................................................
6,773
9,107
330
Thus it will be seen that, cf the total number of miles of line in the United States
and the British Provinces, the prop rtion belonging to all rival organizations is about
ten per cent and of wire and stations about seven per cent.
The increase of the lines of the Western Union Company by construction alone,
during the past three years, exceeds by 1,195 miles the total amount of lines belong
ing to all the rival organizations in the United States and Canada ; while the ami unt
of wire erected by this company during the same time is 9,000 miles more than that
owned by all the rival companies combined.
FINANCIAL STATISICS
OF THE COMPANY.
■
C apital Stock.
The capital of the company at its organization in April, 1851, was $360,000.
For more than seven years thereafter no dividen s were made, the surplus earnings
being devoted to the construction an I purchase of additional lines. On the 23d of
December, 1863, the amount of stock outstanding was $7.950,700, the increase in the
eleven years which had intervene! being due to consolidations of other lines and th e
1869]
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
311
capitalization cf profits. The united capital of the various companies whose lines
were consolidated with ours during this period amounted to over 17,000,000. The
company subsequently issued its stoc* upon favorable terms in the acquisition of
other telegraj h lines to the extent of $2,116,200, and on the 11th of May, 1864, made
a stock dividend of $100 per share, thus increasing the capital to $20,13,3800.
It has since been increased as follows :
$813,400 For Fractions....................................
For A & O . Tel. stock...................
$55,100
E. & M. “
“ .............. ......
68,000
Truemaub’g and 8enaca Falls
House
“
“ .....................
5,700
3,500
stock......................................
Pemb’n & Gold.Trust’ s .. . . . .
3.800
Hick- & Wrishtrepeat.............
1,500
Cash .........................................
77.000
Lodi Telegraph sto k ...........
500
91.500
Western Union bonds...............
American “
“
11,833,100
14.500
Ithaca telegraph stock...............
Pitts., Cin. &Lou. st’k.............
4,100
Cal. Stite “
“ ..............
164,900
4.800
i*yra’e * B. “
“ ...............
Total capital stock ... ...... $41,063,100
80.4i 0 Owned by company esciusive of
Mo. & Kan. “
stocks..............
U. States “
stock............... 3,885.20'*
the sinking fund...........................
494,800
“ “ Pac“
“ ............
3,333,300
Equalization o f stock, as............
Balance on which dividends of July,
ptr cousoid’n ag’m’t .............
468,000
1863, was paid..... ......................... $40^568,300
THE BONDED DEBT.
The bended debt of the "Western Union Company was begun in 1864, by the issue
of $2,000,0i 0 of seven per cent bonds, for the purpose of buying the control of the
stock of the California State Telegraph Company, and for the construc:ion of new
lines. These bonds were convertible into the stock of the company at par, and
$91,500 were subsequently so converted, leaving the balance outstanding Jauuary 1st,
3866, $1,918,500.
The amount since issued is as follows :
ForRus’ n Extea.tel. stock................ $3,170,202 American telegraph bonds...............
$81,503
Cal. blare
“ “ ................
218,940
West. Union
“ “ ................
10,000
$6,071,095
Wash. & N . O. “
“ ........ ...
53,175 Bonds paid and can celled ....-....... 1,436,995
Real estate......... . .....................
50,000
For cash................
570,688 Ain’ t o f bond, debt July 1/69............. $4,634,100
These bonds mature as follow s :
In 1873......................................................
In 1875......................................................
...........................................................
...........................................................
$S9.509
4,544,600
$1,634,100
The bonds issued in 3864 became due in May, 1866, and May, 1867, and were paid
partly from the net earnings of the company. One dividend was passed because
it was deemed prudent, in the then existing state of financial affairs, to appropriate
the earnings to the payment of the $540,695 of bonds maturing in May, 1867, rather
than to divi le them among the stockholders, and thereby compel the negotiation of
a new loan with which to meet the maturing debt.
The greater portion of the debt of the company was incurred in the grand attempt
to build a line on the northwest coast and across Bell ing’s Straits, to connect
with the Russian line at the mouth of the Amoor River, known a9 Collins’ Over and
Line to Europe, which was abandoned after the successful submergence and oper
ation of the Atlantic Cable.
In May, 1867, it was decided to establish a sinking fund to provide for the bonded
debt, and the sum of $20,01*0 per month has since been appropriated to that object.
Up to December, 1868, the sinking fund was invested in the bonds of the com
pany, which, as fast as they were purchased for that account, were cancelled.
JSince that date the Executive Committee have been authorized by the Board of
Directors to invest the sinking fond in the stock of the company, when it can be
purchased for one half the market price of the bonds.
STATEMENT
OF SINKING
FUND ACCOUNT.
$488,500 Western Union bonds o f 1S75, purchased and cancelled.............................
2,008 shares Western Union sto ck .... .......................................................................
balance uninvested...................................................................................................
$4 ‘ 8,971 80
72,251 75
29,770 54
$521,000 00
A t the annual meeting of the stockholders, held July 8, 1868, the following by
law was adopted :
COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW,
312
[ 0 ctober
The Board of Directors may hire or purchase the lines, or purchase stock of any
other telegraph company; but neither the capital stock nor the bonded debt of the
company shall be increased beyond the amount now authorized, except by the writ
ten consent of two-thirds of the directors, entered in the secretary’s records of pro
ceedings ^f the board, and by a vote of the stockholders holding a majority of the
capital stock, at an annual meeting, or at a special meeting called for that purpose.’
1, 1866, TO JULY 1, 1869.
1866.
1867.
1868.
$175,23!) 36
$205,566 95
$151,910 57
194,706 68
201,974 65
25;5,852 70
258,023 96
2-25,907 29
25*,467 86
235,376 82
279,283 24
269.707 64
21*,294 09
248,527 36
22<ft03 59
196,843 84
249,374 99
236,237 1
1867.
1868.
1869.
239,455 82
173,347 98
256,473 20
254,327 80
220,393 35
252,014 59
233,556 07
220,634 75
245.907 87
21S,9S3 13
224,716 89
248,209 06
202,283 67
19S,608 11
226,535 50
209.447 46
170,653 56
jolt
.
August.......
Sep* ember
October. . . .
November..
Dectm ber..
January.. .
February...
March........
A p ril. ____
May
J u n e..........
. $2,624,919 73 $2,641,710 88 $2,801,457 48
Net profits for three years, ending July 1, 1869........................................................ $8,015,432 03
Miscellaneous profile...................................................................................................
116,213 44
Balance on liana July 1, 1866................................................................ .....................
17,828 94
Total
$8,119,474 44
D IS B U R S E M E N T S O F N E T P R O F IT S .
Of the above net earnings there has been disbursed for
Construction o f new lines.......................................................... ..
Purchase o f teleg aph property...................................................
Redemption of bonds.....................................................................
Parch se o f real estate...................................................................
Inteiest on bonds...........................................................................
Sinking fund.....
.....................................................................
Divid h is ......................................................................................
Miscellaneous................................................................................
$1,238,870 11
294,621 53
616,355 00
44,591 69
940,248 98
520,000 00
4,014,595 84
x4,976 43
Balance on hand July 1, 1869, as follows :
Due !rnn Russian Extension Company,
Supplies on baud undistributed.............
Cash.........................................................
$227,339 64
172,097 69
55,758 03
--------------$455,215 36
Total.
$8,179,474 44
COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW
Monetary Affairs—Rates of Loans and Discounts—Ronds sold at New York Stock Exchange
Board—Price o f Government Securities at New York—Course of Consols and American
Secu ities at New York—opening, Highest, Lowest and Closing Prices at the New York
Stock Exchange—General Movement o f Coin and Bullion at New York—Course o f Gold
at New York—Course of Fore gu Exchange at New York.
September was distinguished chiefly by derangements in the money, stock
and gold markets, attendant upon the go'd panic V ery fortunately, the crisis,
though convulsing every W all street interest,was felt comparatively little outside.
In the local grain market, there was a brief partial interruption o f business, with
which the Western markets sympathised; and in the merchandise markets
there was naturally a brief halt among buyers, to see what might be the result
upon holders o f g o o d s ; but no cases o f embarrassment occurred iu aDy o f
these branches of trade ; but, on the contrary, the merchants were found to be
the first to come to the relief of the distressed financial interests, by the free pur-
COMMERCIAL
CHRONICLE AND
313
REVIEW.
chase o f secur'ties; their intervention having checked the panic and prevented
it from spreading disastrously over the general commerce o f the country. N o
stronger evidence than this could be afforded that the commercial interests are in
a sound and healthy condition and that the panic was purely speculative in its
origin, scope and bearings.
The money market has naturally sympathized with the bold and demoralizing
speculation in the Gold R oom . A t the beginning of the month the scope o f the
clique movement in gold was understood, and the apprehension that it might
result in great excitement and derangement kept the money market in a con
stantly feverish state, with much irregularity in the rates o f interest. This feel
ing was intensified by the efforts of brokers to break down the price o f stocks
and, if possible, accomplish the failure of a large stock house, whose suspension,
it was calculated, would materially help their scheme; and this attempt, no
dobt, contributed very much to the weakness o f Lockw ood & Co. in the panic
under which they succumbed at the close of the month. The crisis was attended
with the failure of six or eight stock houses, most o f them in good standing ;
while, in the Gold Room , several failures have been reported, and many firma
have been thrown in 'o a condition of temporary suspension, until the immense
gold transactions c f Friday, the 24th ult., can be settled.
The rates of interest
have been determined less by the supply of money than by the degree o f distrust
both in securities and borrowers. T o the class o f borrowers upon Government
collaterals money has been accessible at 7 per cent in currency to 7 per cent in
g o ld ; but, for the last week o f the month, ordinary borrowers have had to pay
upon stocks rates ranging from
per day upon low-priced shares, to 1 @ 4
per day upon high-priced. There has been a considerable demand for money
trom the W est, and at the opening o f the mouth some liberal amounts were sent
also to the South. The excessive scarcity o f small notes, owing to the Treasury
having taken them in preparatory to a new issue, h s, however, prevented this
demand being fully n et, the result being favorable to the reserve o f the city
batiks.
The market for Government bonds has been less affected by the crisis than
might have hern expected.
The remarkable steadiness o f bonds abroad has
helped to sustain pi ices here, although at brief prriods there has been a margin
or 3 @ 4 per cent in f.<vor o f the shipment of bonds to Europe. Prices fell at
one time 4 @ 5 per cent below the opening quotations; but this was no more
than was naturally required by a tall in gold to 1 3 0 @ 1 3 3 .
Some considerable
amounts of bonds were thrown on the market during the panic, to employ the
proceeds in the purchase o f stocks at the very low figures; but this supply has
perhaps not been more than sufficient to cover the liberal purchases o f the G ov
ernment, which were increased to S3,000,000 on the 25th and $3,000,000 on the
29th, as a mtaus of checking the panic in the money market.
BONDS SO LD
Classes.
U. S. bonds............
State & city bonds.
Company bonds. ..
AT T H E
N. T .
STOCK
EXCH AN GE BO ARD .
18G8.
$28,894,150
10,058,000
1,658.300
1869.
$15,884,930
5,105,500
1,£00,00J
Total—September... . . . . . .................. $35,608,450
Since January 1................................... ..
153,803,440
$21,800,400
256,415,109
Inc.
$
..a.
. ...
$97,549,669
Dec.
$3,557,250
4.892,500
358,300
$13,803,050
............
314
COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND
REVIEW.
[
October,
The daily closing prices o f the principal Government securities at the New
Y o rk Stock Exchange Board in the month o f September, as represented by
the lutest sale officially reported, are shown in the following statem ent:
P R IC E S
O P G O V E R N M E N T S E C U R I T IE S A T
Day of
mouth.
1.........
2 ..........
6 s, ISS S l.-^ —
Coup. R e g . 1S62.
123* 143*
123
123
123
123
122%
144*
142X
l 22*
m%
124*
122
121*
121
n o *
122
120*
141* 121*
121
121*
122
121*
121% 121* 122
121% 121* 121*
14 *
121
120* 121*
122
3 .....
4 ......
5 .....
7 .....
8 .....
0........
1U..........
11..........
13 ........
14 ......
15... ,
15 ___
1 7 .............
I S ..............
20..........
21........ .
22..........
23 ......
24 ......
25 ......
2T..........
23..........
29 ......
30 .
120*
140*
1 4 '*
119
119
i i '* *
iu *
First..
Highest
L ow est.
L ast.....
123
123
119
119*
143*
143*
119
119
121*
121*
122%
122
121*
120*
112*
NEW YO RK .
-6’s, (5-20 yrs.)Coupon--------— . 5’ e.,10-40.
1854. 18t5, new. ’67.
’68. C’pn.
n s *
141* 121*
122%
121
121%
111%
124* 122* 1 0 * 121* i s o * i n *
122
112
122* 120* 121*
122% 12 - * 121% 140* i- 40* i n *
122
124* 120* 120* 120% h i *
1-411* 120* 119* 119* 119* 111
120
120* 119
1 9 * 119* 110
141*
119* 119%
n o *
120* 120*
n o *
121*
121
121% U 9 * U 9* i20* m i*
121
n o *
121* 119* 120
121%
n o *
U 9 * 120* 120
119* 120
120*
119* 109
109*
120* 120* 1 9% n o *
120* 119% 1111* 119* 109%
120* 121
119% n o * 119* 109*
19*
1-40* 121
U 8* 119*
108*
120* 120% 118* 118*
120
121
118* U - * i i s *
119%
119
119
117* 109*
109
10
119
119* 120* i n * u *
11)8*
H9
117* 117* 108*
119* 117
108*
119* 11-* 110* n o * 117
118* 117* 117*
U s*
143* 122* 144*
123* 124* 124*
119* U f * 118*
119* U S * 118*
121* 121*
121% 121*
ii"* n o *
117* 117*
120*
120%
117
117
112*
112*
108%
108*
C O U R S E O P 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.
Wednesday......
Thursday........ . . . . 2
Friday ...... ...
Saturday ........ . . . . 4
Monday............ . . . . 6
Tuesday.......... .. . 7
Wednesday . . . .
Thursday.......... . . . . 9
Friday.............. ....1 0
Saturday.......... .......11
Monday............ .......13
Tuesday........... .......14
Wednesday___ .......15
Thursday........ .......15
Friday.............. ....1 7
Saturday.......... .......IS
M on d a y .........
Tuesday.......... .......21
Cons Am. secur ties.
for U. S. lll.C. Erie
mon. 5-20s sh’ s. shs.
93%
93*
93
93
94*
93
92*
94*
94*
94*
92*
94*
92%
92*
94*
92*
92%
94*
84
84*
83*
83*
84*
83
82*
S3
83*
83%
83*
83*
82*
83
83
83%
83%
83%
94%
04*
94%
93%
93%
94*
94
93*
94
95
94*
94*
94*
94*
94*
94%
94*
94*
24%
‘43*
23*
23*
23*
23*
23*
23%
24*
23*
27
28
28*
27*
23
27%
24*
2/
Date.
Cons Am. securities.
for U.S. lll.C. Erie
mon. 5-20s sh’ s. sh’ s.
Wednesday..........
Thursday.............
Friday..................
Saiurday...............
Monday...............
T u esd ay..............
Wednesday..........
Thursday.............
94* 83* 94*
....2 3 9J% 82* 93
...24 92* 82* 93
94* 83% 93*
92* 83* 93*
94
....23 93
84
84
... 29 9<
93*
....ci) 93
83* 98*
26*
24*
2b*
2b*
25*
23*
23
22%
Lowest.................
Highest................
Range...................
Last......................
92* 82* 93
93* 84* 95
1* 2
*
93
S3* 93*
22*
28*
b.X
22*
Hie: L a f l ............
R ng)o3>?............
Last
...........
92* 74* 92* 17*
94
81* 98% 23*
11*
1* « *
93
83* 93* 22*
T he excitement in the stock market has amounted to absolute panic.
Specu
lative brokers, seeing a timid feeli g amoug the banks and in the market gene
rally, growing out o f the prospect o f a threatening corner in gold, began early
in the month to assault the stock market with much v ig o r , and, there being none
who cared to resist them, stocks dec’in d heavily throughout the list.
Some o f
the large holders being thus weakened, the market the more readily yielded under
the general wreck o f confidence growing out of the culmination o f the great gold
speculation on the 24th, and prices fell to an extent ranging between 6 per cent
1869]
COMMERCIAL
315
CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.
on Reading and 53 per cent on N ew Y ork Central.
The extent o f the fall may
be judged from the following comparison o f the highest and lowest prices of some
leading stock s:
Bigh- Low
est.
est.
STO C K S
153
27
134
91
76
82
206
42
.. 186*
97
106*
112
SO LD A T
High- Low
est.
est.
86*
63
do
ao
pref....................................
Pilts. & Fort Wavne.................. 8 9 *
79
St. Paul........................................ 8 0 *
61
do
pref
.................................................
Ohio & Mississippi.................... 32*
24
Toledo & Wabash....... ......... 83
50
59* Chicago & Northwest1n.............
80*
Pacific Mail.......... „ .
New York Central___
E rie ............ ............
Hudson River.
...
Reading........
Michigan Southern
Cleveland & Pittsburg,
THIS N E W
YORK
STOCK
EXCH AN GE
Classes.
1868.
Bank shares.............................................................
2,183
Railroad “ ............................................................ 1,461,464
Coal
“ ..............................................................
3,773
Mining
44 ...................... ....................................
33,317
Improv’ n t 44 ..............................................
13,700
Telegraph “ ..............................................................
19,615
Steamship*4 ............................................................
81,498
Expr’ ss&c44 ..............................................................
110,074
Total—September............. . ........................... 1,730,629
Si:ce January 1..
............................. .............. 14,544,018
BOARD.
1869.
1,533
723,644
1,248
11,750
2,100
14,121
24.915
24,103
803,414
9,429,845
Increase.
.......
....
.......
.
.. ..
. ..
Dec.
655
737,820
2 525
23,567
11,600
5,494
56,583
85,971
.......
....
927,215
5,114,173
The great feature of the month has been the extraordinary speculation in gold,
under which the price was run up from 133J at the opening to 162^ on the 24th.
On the latter date the Treasury came i to the market with p rop osa l to ss li on
the following day $4,000,000 of coin ; with the result o f breaking down the price,
within a few minutes, to 130. Am id the exc tement o f 'he enormous transactions
o f the 24th, transactions were made involving enormous lo.-ses to de h rs. Some
o f these were repudiated ; upon others the parties failed ; and o f the remainder*
covering many millions, there remained at the clo e o f the month a large amount
unsettled. Am id the contusion resulting from the culmination o f the speculation,
the Gold Exchange Bank became involved suspended, and was thrown into the
hands o f a receiver, large amounts o f the funds of dealers being in that way tied
up.
The experience of the month tea lies a sad lesson o f the demoralization o f
gold speculation, and is likely to tell hereafter upon the excesses of Gold Room
operations.
3
Date.
1 133% 133% 133% 133% Thursday.......... ....2 3
Wednesday...
2 133% 133* 135% 135% F iid 'iy ............... ....24
Thursday.......
'aturday*.,........ ....25
3 135% 135% 136 136
Friday...........
Monday*............. ....27
4 138% 135% 137% 137
Saturday ......
6 137 137 187% 137% Tuesday*.......... ....2 8
Monday . . . . .
7 137 136% 137 136% Wednesday*. . ....29
Tuesday........
8 136 131% 136 135% Thursday t ....... ....30
Wednesday...
9 135* 135% 135% 135%
Thursday. ...
10 135% 135 135% 135% Sept., 1869.........
F rid a y ---- .. .
44
1868.......
Saturday.......
11 13o* 135% 135% 135*
44
1867.......
13 13b* 135% 135% 135%
Monday.........
13b*
14
135%
136%
4
4
1866.......
136%
Tuesday........
15 16% 136% 136% 138%
44
1865.......
Wednesday...
44
1864 . ...
16 13n% 136% 136*; 136*
Thursday.......
17 136% 138% 136*1136*
44
1863......
Friday............
Saturday.. ..
1862......
18 136* 136% 136% 1136% | 44
20 136* 136% 137% [137% |
Monday..........
21 137% 137% 137% 1137% S’ceJau 1,1869..
Tuesday.......
22 137% 137% 141%|l41%|
Wednesday...
* No transactions.
t Called at the Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.
bQ
’3
V
Pi
o
High’ st.
to
Lowest
02
^Closing.
Date.
Lowest.
C O U R S E O P GO LD A T N E W Y O R K .
so
'a
<u
p.
o
to
•O
S
Q
o
5
141% 141% 143% 143%
150 133 162% 133
131% 129* 132
133%
144%
111%
117%
141%
245
127
116%
133%
141%
141
143%
143%
191
126%
116%
129%
162* 129*
145%|141%
14C%I143%
147% 1146%
145 144
254* 193
143% 141%
124 122%
134% 129% 162% 129%
816
COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW,
[
October,
The following table will show the opening, highest, lowest and closing prices
ol all the railway and miscellaneous securities sold at the N ew Y o r k Stock
Exchange during the months o f August and September, 1869 :
Open.
Railroad Stock*—
Alton & Terre Haut..................
“
'* prel.......... ..........
59
Chicago & A lto n ........................ ............168
do
do pref.................. ........
Chicago, Burl. & Quincy............
do
<fc Northwest’ n
.. . ............ 84
clo
do pref............. ............ 96#
do
& Rock Island............ ,............ 114%
Columb., Chic. & lnd. C......................... 87
Clevtf. & Pittsburg.................... .............107*
do Col., Cin. & ln d ............... ..........
ta x
Del., Lack & Western............... ............ 112
Dubuque & Sioux c it y ............... ............104*
Brie...........................................
do preferred ................. ......
Harlem .......................................
Hannibal & St. Joseph...............---------- Is6%
do
do pref...............
Hudson R iv e r ............................ .
Illinois Central........................... ............ 142
Lake Sho. & M ich.South..,. ...
Mar. & C in cin .,lst.................... ............ 22
9
“
"
2d “ .........................
Michigan Central....................... ............ 132%
Milwaukee & St. Paul............... .
AO
do pref............... ............ 89*
Morris & Essex........................................ 88%
Few Je rse y ........................... .
do
Central......................
New Haven & Hartford.............
Few York Central.................................. 209#
do
& N . Haven.......................... 132%
do
do scrip.............
Norwich & Worcester...............
Ohio & Mississippi.....................
Panama ......................... .......... .
Pittsb., Ft. W . & Chica............. ............. 153%
do
do
guar............. ..........
89%
Reading......................... ..............
Home, W. & Ogdensb’g ............. ............ 100#
9 hird Avenue..............................
Toledo, Wab. & Western............. ............ 74
do
do
do pref...............
Miscellaneous—
American Coal..............................
Central Coal...............................
Cumberland Coal......... ..............
Wilksbarre Coal...........................
Del. & Hud. C an al...................... .......... 127
Atlantic Mail................................
Pacific M ail.................................. .......... 84#
Boston Water Pow er...............
Canton..........................................
M ariposa.....................................
do
pref.............................
Ouickeilver................................
V eet. Union Telegraph...............
Citizens Gas.................................
Rankers & Brokers Ass...............
Union Trust.................................
Exorees—
Amencan M. Union.................... ..........
............ 59*
United States............. ~ ...............
Merchant’ s U n ion ..................
. . . . 10
Wells, Fargo & Co.......................
-— August---High. Low.
36
33
59
58
153
168
1#3* 155
soo
194*
92% 83#
101
03*
11** 114*
33
37
108% 104
82
73#
113
m x113
104*
Clos.
35*
59
155
156
194*
83#
93#
114*
35
106*
79
112*
112
160
122
120
179*
139#
104*
22
9
128
78
86#
81*
123
102
160
125
121
184
139*
105*
32
9
129
79#
87*
83*
123
107*
197
132*
128
112
31%
270
230
154* 151*
90
88*
93
95*
100* 100#
199
140
335
112
32*
230
151*
83%
96*
100#
167
131
128*
188%
142
109%
22
9
132*
84*
92*
89*
123
169*
212%
145
140
112
88
87*
74
74
83
85
35#
65
123
....
87
15
58*
8
15
16
39
150
110
150
33
65
126
33
65
126
. ...
42*
59*
69*
11
22
79
so'
13*
13*
58 68
8
8
10* 12
14
15
37
37*
150
150
m s* 108*
15U
150
•5*
56
62*
10
13*
36
56#
63*
11
19
Open.
___
59
154*
156
170
84*
94%
115
33*
109
78
112#
in
37
70
160
125
123
186%
139
JOi
20
8*
129
79#
87%
83
123*
10 %
232
203*
140
130
112
32%
240
—September—
High. Low. Clos.
S9% 89% 79
97% 97# 91
105 110
105
185 185
ISo
83%
60
83%
83
83
80
54
145
135
165
70*
85
106#
25
93
74*
115*
1*5
32
57*
127
107
97
151*
134
82*
20
8
118
68
80
80
120
1*0
232
168#
130
330
112
20*
250
___
81%
9r,%
109
185
55*
SO
40
60
31*
40
60
28
40
60
31*
59
154*
156
170
86*
95
115%
34
112
79
113
in
42
71
160
125
123
186%
139*
106*
20
8*
131
80%
89*
88#
1 3#
107*
232
206#
140
130
112
32%
251
54
135
135
160
63
79
102
24*
82
73
105*
104
27
67*
121
92
97
334
134
76*
20
8
118
61
75
87*
320
97
232
153
135
130
112
24
240
40
(0
28
125* 326
122
2 i*
29# 29*
80
80% 59*
13
15% 16
56
f6
£0
8
8
10*
12* 19
12*
12
15*
15*
37#
31% 35
150
150
1£0
35
66*
63
11#
18
38
57*
63
u*
19
30
49#
50
11
16
122
21*
03*
13
54
9
14
12
3(5
150
30#
51*
50
11
17
Foreign exchange has been very irregular, owing to the demoralizing specu
lations in gold. A t one time, p ime bankers’ 60-days’ sterling bills could not be
sold on the street at better than 1 0 2 ; on the breaking up of the speculation, the
price quickly advanced to 107^.
1809]
JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE.
317
COURSE OE FOREIGN EXCHANGE (60 DAYS) AT NEW YORK.
L ondon.
Paris.
Amsterdam. Brem en. H am burg.
Berlin
cents for
centim es
cents for
cents for cents for
cents for
Bays.
54 pence.
for dollar.
florin.
rix d a le r. M. banco.
thaler.
1 .......................... 109%@:09% 517%a516% 40%@40% 79
@79% 35%@36
71 @71%
2
........................... 109%@109% 517%@516% 40%@40% 79
@ 79¥ 35%@38
71 @71%
5
........................... 108%@109
5I7%@516% 4l% @ 40% 79
@79% 35%@36
71 @71%
4 ................................ 108%@109
521%@5'20
40%@ll>% 7S%@7»% 35%@35% T0J4 5^70=^
@108V 520
@518% 40%@40% 7S%@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
6 .............................. 108
7
........................... 104
@103% 520
@518% 40%@40% 73%@7S% 35%@35% 70%@70%
........................... 108
@108% 520
@518% 40%@40% 78%@7S% 35% @35% 70%@70%
8
9
........................... 108%@108% 523%@521 %
4»% @40% 7S%@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
10 ........................... 108%@103% 521%@518%
40%@40% 78%@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
11 ........................ . 108%@10S* 531%®518%
40%@40% 78%@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
13 ........................... 108%@!03% 521%@518%
40% @40% 78%@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
14 ........................... 103%@10S% 521%@520
40i<©40% 78% @ 7-% 35%@35% 70,H@70%
15 ...........................103%@103% 521%@5/0
40%@40% 78%@78% 3o%@35% 7o%@79%
16 ........................... 107% @ lf8
521%@520
40%@40% 78
@78% 35%@35% 70%@70%
17 ........................... 108 @ . . . . 521%@5>0
40%@40% 78
@78% 35%@35% 70%@7lJ%
IS ............................. ..108 @ . . . . 521 %@520
40%@40% 78 @78% 35%@35% 70% @70%
20 ........................... 107%@107% 525 @523% 40 @40% 77%@77% 35 ©95% 70 @ 7o%
21 .............................. 107%@107% 628%@523% 40 @40% 7 7';@ 77 % 35 @35% 70 @70%
22 ........................... 107%@107% 526%@525
40 @40% 77%@77% 35 @35% 70 @70%
23 .......................... ion @107
632%@530
89%@89% 76%@77% 34%@34% 69 @09%
24 ........................... 107%@108
532%@530
39% @39% 76% @ ; 7% 34%@34% 69 @69%
25 ................................ 108 @10S%
Irregular.
27................................ 108 @109
Irregu ar.
23................................ 108%@10S% 521%@518% 40 @40% 78
@78% 35%@3o% 70%@70%
29 ........................... 108%@ 08% 521%@5I8% 40 @40% 78
@78% 3o%@35%
70%@7u%
30 ........................... 108 @10.'% 521%@518% 40 @40% 78
@78% 35% @35% 7o%@70%
Sept., 1S69.............. 106 @109% 532%@516% 39%@40% 76%@79% 31%@36
69 @71%
Sept., 1808.........~..108%@109% 620 @520
40%@40% 79 @79% 35%@35% 71%@71%
JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE.
Returns o f the New York, Philadelphia and Boston Banks.
Below we give the returns o f 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 .
Date.
Loans.
January 2 . . . . $259,090,057
January 9 . . . . 258,792,502
January 1 6 ... 262,338,831
January 2 3 ... 264,954,6!9
January 3 0 ... 263,171,109
February 6. . 266,541,732
February 13.. 264,380,407
February 20.. 263,428,06s
February 27.. 261,371,897
March 6 .......... 262,089,883
March 13..........261,069,695
March 20....... 263,098,302
March 2T........ 263,909,589
A pril 3 ......... 261,933,675
A pril 10 ........ 257,180,227
A pril 17 ....... 255,184,882
April 24....... 257,458,074
May 1............. 260,435,160
May 8............. 268,486,372
May 15............. 269,498,897
May 22............. 270,275,952
May 29............. 274,935,461
June 5 ........... 275,919,609
June 12 ........... 271,983,735
June 19........... 265,341,906
June 26........... 260,431,732
J,»ly 3............... 258,368,471
July 10............. 255,424’ 942
July 17............. 257,008,289
July 24............. 259,641,889
July 31............ 260,530,225
August 7......... 264,879,357
A ugust 14....... 266,505,365
August 21........ 262,741,133
August 28. . . . 261,012,109
September 4 . 262,549,819
September 11. 263,S64,533
September 18 266,496,024
September 25. 263,441,823
Circul tion.
Specie.
Deposits.
L. Tend’s. Ag. c'ear’gs.
$20,736,122 $34,379,609 $180,490,445 $18,896,421 $5S5,£04.79o
34.344.156
27,384,730
187.908.539
51,141,128
701,772,05 r
29,258,536
34.279,153
195,484,843
52.927,083 675,795,61?
28.864.197
31,265,9^6
197,101,163
54,022,119 671,234,54-3
27,784,923
34.231.156
196,985,402
54 747,569 609,36-',
27.939.404
£4,246,436
196,602,899
53,424,133 610 329,478
35,854,331
34,263,451
192,977,860
52,334,952 690,754,49a
34,247,321
387,612 546
23,351,391
50.997.197
70 ,991,04a
20,832,603
34,247 981
185,216,175
50.835,054 529,816,02?
19,486,634
34,275,885
182,604,437
49,145,369 727,148,13?
34,690,445
17,358,671
lc2,392,458
49,639,62 > 629, i77 56a
183,504,999
34,741 310
15,213,306
59,774,874 730,710,003
34,777,S14
12.073.722
180,113,910
50,555,103 797,987,488
175,325,789
10,737,889
31,816,916
48,496,359 837,>-23,69*
34,609,360
8,791,543
1^1,495,580
48,644,732 810,054,45s
34,436.769
172,203,494
7,811,779
51,001,i188 772,305,20?
177,310,080
34,060,5 1
8,850,360
53,077,898 7 5 2 , 9 0 5 , 7 0 k
33,972,053
183,948,565
9,267,6 5
56,195,722 763,768,34a
19 \8 3,137
16,081,489
33,986,160
65,109,573 991,174,57?
33.977,793
199,392.449
15,374,769
50,501,350 800,720.SSf,
199,414,869
£3,927,386
15.429.404
57,838,298 788,747,85?
203,055 600
17,871,230
33,920,855
57,810,373 781,046,497
19,051,133
33,982,995
199,124,042
53,289,429 7 0 0 , 2 8 1 , 0 2 k
34,144,790
19.053,580
193,886,905
50,859,258 856,000,64?
19,025,444
186,214,110
34,198,829
49,012,488 836,224,02?
20,2:7,140
34,214,785
481,774,695
48,163,920 70', 170,74-.
34,217,973
23,520,267
179,929,467
46,737,203 846,763,3(K
30,266,912
34,277,945
183,197,239
48,792,728 676,540,297
31,055,450
31.178,437
388,431,7 1
51,859,706 711,328,147
193,622 26)
34,110,798
30,079,424
54,271,862 5 8,456,095
27,8 1,933
84,068,677
196,416,443
56,101.627 614,455,4?17
33,947,985
26,003,925
*00,220,008
58.056.834
614 875,63?
24,154,499
198,952,711
83,992,257
54,730,089 632,821,62?
21,594,510
34,023,104
192,024 546
53,070,831 666,050,535
188.754.539
33,999,742
19,469,102
52.792.834
603,801 34;
191,10 ,0S6
33,960,035
17.411.723
5 ■-',829,782 546,8S9,27i
14 942,056
33,964,196
188,82*,3*4
51,487.867 791,753 34?
14,538,109
33,972,759
185,390,130
51.259.197
662 419,785
33,996,081
130,230,793
13,968,481
50,025,081 989,274,47%
31S
JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE.
[ October,
P H I L A D E L P H IA B A N K R E T U R N S .
Date.
Jannai y 4............
January 11..........
January 18..........
Janu ry 25..........
Feb n a iy l..........
February 8.......... .......
Febiu ry 15........ ____
February 22........ .......
March 1 ...............
Marc 8...............
March 15.............
March 22............. .........
March 29.............. .......
April 5 . . . . . . .. .......
April 12............... .......
April 19............... .......
April 26 —............ . ..
May 3.................
May 10................. .......
May 11................
May 24.........................
M y 31................. .......
June 7............... ........
June 14................ ___
June 21............... .
June 2S................
July 5.................
July 12................. .......
July 19.................
J u y 26..................
August 2.............
Audits 9 .......... .......
August 16.......... .,
August 23....................
August 3 0 .......... .___
Sep* ember 6.............
September 13___ .......
September 2 )----- .......
September 27.............
Loans.
Specie. Legal Tenders.
$352,483
$13,210,397
544,691
13,49^,109
478,462
13,729,498
'411 8S7
14,054,870
52,632 813.
3 >2,782
14,296,570
53,059,716
337,0 »1
13,785,595
52,929,391
804,681
13,573,043
52,416,146
231,30?
13,208,607
256,933
13,010,508
52,238.060
297,887
13.258,201
277,517
13.028,207
51,328,419 . . 225,097
12,765,759
50,597,i00
210,644
13,021.315
50,499,866
1^,08'3
12,169,221
50,770,193
184,246
12,643,357
51,478,371
167,818
12,941,783
51,294,222
164,261
13,640,063
201,758
14,220,371
Bl,93li,530
270,525
14,623,803
276,167
14,696,365
174,115
52,381,164
15,087,008
52,210,874
183,257
15,484,947
52,826,357
169,316
35,378,3S8
53,124,800
152,451
15,178,332
148.795
14,972,123
180,684
14,507,327
303,621
14,031,449
53,140,755
485,293
13,415,493
53,128,598
456,75)
12 944,886
390,377
13,076,180
51.953,8 3
884,869
13,618,911
325,216
52,022,830
13,530,061
266,0S9
13,047,635
62,309,626
244,256
12,977,027
245,515
52,0 '3,052
13,018,213
51,931,372
247,358
13,073,705
51 597,2^>8
149,169
12,900,0^4
51,703,372
174,855
13,348,598
52,130,402
139,058
13,418,889
Deposits.
$38,121,023
38,768.511
39.625,158
19,585,462
29,677,943
40,080 399
38,711,575
37,990,986
37,735,205
3S,293,956
37,57.1,582
36,960,009
36,863,344
35,375,854
36.029,133
37,031,747
37,487,285
38.971,281
39.478,803
40,602,742
41,031,410
42,-47 319
42,390,330
42,005,077
42,066,901
41,517,716
41.321,537
40,140,497
39.834,862
36,160,644
39.717,126
39,506,405
39,141,196
39,0.0,665
3 ,833,414
39,212,588
38,915,913
39,169.526
39,345,378
Circulation.
$10,593,719
10,593,372
10,596.560
10,593,914
10,599,351
10,586,552
30,582,226
10.458.546
10.458.546
10,458,953
30.459,081
10.461.406
30,472,420
30,622,896
10,628,166
10,629,425
10.624.407
10,617,315
10,617,934
10,€14,612
10,618 246
30,618,561
10,610,890
10,621,932
30,617.864
10,622,704
10.618,845
10,618,275
1",618,766
10,6 4,973
10,610,233
10,608,381
10,G10,S61
10,608,352
10,GU8,824
10,611,674
1' ,612,041
10,610,055
10,609,182
BOSTON B A N K R E T U R N S.
Date.
Jun i>-ry 4 ..............
January 11.......... .
January 18...........
Janu ry 25...........
Februry 1............
Feb uary 8............ . . .
February 15..........
February 23..........
March 1.................
March 8.................
Marc a IZ. ............ ...
March 2 2 ..............
March 29 .............. .
April 5................. . . .
April 12................. .. .
Apiil
.................
April 26 ...............
May 3................. . . .
May 10..................
May 17................... .. .
May 24.................. ...
May 31...................
June 7 ................ . . .
June 14................. . ..
June 2 l................. ...
June 2S................. . . .
July 12.................. ...
July 19................... ...
duly 26.................. ...
Augu.-t 9.............. ...
Auuustlo.............. .. .
August 23.............. .. .
August 30.............. .. .
September 6 .. .. .. .
September 13 ..... ...
September 20........ ...
September 27........
(Capital Jan. 1, 1866, $41,900,000.)
Loans.
Specie. Legal Tenders.
$1,203,401
$12,938,332
3,075,844
12,864,700
2,617, OSS
12,992,327
2,394,790
13,228,874
2,161,284
12,964,225
104,342,425
2,073,908
12,452,795
1,845,924
11,642,856
1,545,418
11,260,790
1,238,936
11,200,149
101.425,932
1,297,599
10,985,972
100.820,303
1.217,315
10,869,188
1,330,864
10,490,418
99,670,945
937,769
11,646,222
96,969,114
862,276
11,24S,S84
99,625,472
750,160
11,391,559
639,460
11,429,995
617,435
12,361.827
100,127,413
708.963
12,352,113
1,281,149
12,513,472
101,474,527
1,134,£86
12,888,527
102,042,182
934,560
13,191,542
772.397
13,696,857
640,582
13,454 661
103,643,849
601,742
104,352,548
12,648,615
103,691,658
959,796
12,087,305
1,105,662
102,515,825
11,7S4,802
102,633.948
3,140,676
9,595,668
8,255,151
101,405,241
9,541,879
3,024,595
102,702,540
9,798,461
103,804,554
2,365,920
10,719,569
103,811,271
2,154,616
10 438.595
102,988,791
2,117,372
11,210,664
3,871,713
103,053,007
11.908.736
103,904,545
1,715,563
11,792,519
104.437,227
1,258,474
12,371,211
104,478,949
915,681
12,141,357
518,519
12,950,081
Deposits.
$37,538,767
38,082.891
SB,111,193
39,551,747
40,228,452
89,093,8)1
37,759.7^2
36,323,814
85,689,466
35,525,680
34,081,715
32,641,057
32,930,430
33,504,099
34,392,371
31,257,071
35,302,203
36,735,742
37,457,887
38,708,304
39,347,881
38 403,624
38,491,446
37,408,719
36,243,995
34,331,417
31,851,745
31.520,417
35,211,103
37,308,687
36,117,973
34,933,731
35,229,149
87,041 045
37,362,7 *1
37,0S6,497
36,917,068
V/ l i C l l I f l l l U X J .
$25,151,345
25,276,667
25,243,823
25,272,300
25,312,947
25,2 2,057
25,352,122
25,304,055
25,301,537
25.335,377
25,351,654
24,559,312
25,254,167
24,671,716
25,338,782
25,351,844
25,319,751
25,330,060
25,324,532
25,309,662
25,290,382
25,175,232
25,292,157
25,247,667
25,313,661
25,304,858
25,835,701
25,325,035
25,254,204
25,514,706
25,279,282
25,244,004
25,200,083
25,202,271
25,227,279
25,277,734
25,307,121
MARINE
OFFICE
INSURANCE
OF
THE
SUN MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY,
IN C O R P O R T E D MAY 22, 1841,
NO.
52
W A L L
S T R E E T .
Cash Capital paid u p .................................................$ 5 0 0,0 00 00
Surplus 1st Jan, I860 - - * ................$531 167 17
Total Assets, - * .................................................$ 1 ,0 3 1 ,1 6 7 17
N ew Y o r k January 23, 186"*
The following ftatement o f the fla’rs of this C mpanyoH the 31st o f December, 1668, is published in CO' lor mi y with the requi ements «l the 10th Sect Oj o f the A-1 o f its mcurpor »tion:
Premiums on Uocx ir»d R sks, I ec. 31,1867...................................... ................... ..................... $222,591 £4
Premium* received durin^ the year endi g December 31, 1868:
On Mad e Ri k s............................................................................................................ $624,680 87
i n I and Risks
...................................................................................................... 14,707 97
------------- 689,388 84
Total Prem ium s.......................... .............................................................................................. #8'»1,980 38
Mark* d off as earned d ring the year 1-61........................................................................................ $636,574 79
Return Prenrni i s uring ^ear........................................................................................ $16,815 68
Los»es incurred during tt e ye r (including estimates for all d saste s reported*:
On Marine Risks................................................. .........................................$314,294 99
On lDlaj d Risks.......... •.................................................................................
2,118 43
------------- 316.413 42
Expense , R -insurances, Taxes, Commissio’ s. Abatements in 1 eu o f Scrip, c ___ 10 ',72-i •'■-9
$493,957 44
The *S-K S o f th i C mpa y on ihe 31stDeC.%18'58, were s follows.
U. S. 5 0 Ponds............................................................................................................ $340,400 00
U. S. 10 40 bonds............................................................................................................ 1- 4,610 00
$505,000 00
11.152 00
26,0’ 0 00
62,29 2 02
------------- $605,044 62
Premium Notes and Bills Receive b e no* rnatur d ....................................................................... 154,914 91
Subscription Notes........................................................................................................................... 111,166 35
Cash Prem urns in course o f coll ct on and jc nied interest on Loans andStocks................. 2',168 25
Sundry Salvage, Rein uranee and other c •i ns due he Company,stimated at........................ 118,813 04
City Bond-1and other S ock .................................................................. ..................
Bonds and Mo tgag s ..................... ........................................................................
cash on dep.» it, and loans on dema d, s tcnrcd by Bond- and S’ ocks.....................
To ala s-tr rt maining with the Company on i e 31st D e c«m e , lSf'8.....................................$1,031,167 17
No Fire Hiek have been takenb. the C o'-piny during the year, ex ept in conn ition wi'hMarine
R sks.
- In view o f the fore oil g result the B ard o Tru-t*-es have this day.
Kesolv d, That a •R Fl'l DIVIDtN
F F UKPKRCEN , in Cash, bepaid to'h e ' tO'-kln lders on
demand, » ee ot hov iDurent Tax, io add. ion to the mterc t Dividend ot -even per Cent, a.d in
Jmy and J unary.
->!§ , hat a &C IP DIVIDEND O F T • ENTY PR3P CENT, fr e o f Oov^r me tT *x , b declared on
the net »'arn«d piem’ nms entitle to puticipa ion for the year 1868, for vshi.h eitifica es may be is
sued on and after 1he 1st day o f April Lex .
J y order o f the Boa d,
ISAAC H . W A L K E R , S icre t.ry .
Moses H Grinnell,
John P. Paulison,
John E. D evlin,
Lout# r*eB«bian,
W illiam H. M acy,
Fred. G. F oster
Richardson T. W ilson,
John H. M acy,
Henry F orster Hitch,
Elias P on vert,
Sim on De Visser,
Wm. K. Preston,
TRUSTEES:
Isaac A. Crane.
A . Yznaga del Valle,
Joh n 8 W right,
W m . V on Sachs,
P h ilip I'ater,
W m . Toel,
Thomas J Slaughter,
Joseph Gaillard, Jr.,
A le x . M . Lawrence,
Iwaac Bell.
Billot C. Cowdln,
P e rcy R. Pyne,
Sam uel M. F ox,
Joseph V. Onativta,
Edw ard S. .1affray,
William O >thout,
E rnest Caylus.
F rederick Chauneey,
G eorge L. Kn gsland.
Jam es F. Pennimnn,
F r e d -r ic Sturgi s,
A n son G. P. Stokes.
MOSB6 H. GRTNNELL, President.
1 ISAAC H. WALKER. Secretary
JOHN P. PA U LISON , Vice-Preaideut
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H as now Assets, accumulated from its business o f over Thirteen
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* $ 2 ' ,537,435 ^j
C Loans secured by Stocks and otherwise,
#,214,100 /
t) Premium Notes and Bills Receivable, Real Estate, Bond and Mortgages
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, 3,453,795
X Cash in Bank, 405,545
$13,660,875
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T R U S T E E S:
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J. D. JONES,
CHARLES DENNIS,
W. H. H. MOORE,
HENRY COIT,
WM. C. PICKERSGILL,
LEWIS CURTIS,
CHARLES H. RUSSELL,
f) LOWELL HOLBROOK,
R. WARREN WESTON,
A ROYAL PHELPS,
CALEB BARSTOW,
f\ A. P. PILLOT,
WILLIAM E. DODGE,
DAVID LANE,
JAMES BRICE,
DANIEL S. MILLER,
WM. STURGIS, .
HENRY K. BOGERT,
DENNIS PERKINS,
JOSEPH GAILLARD, Jr.
C. A. HAND,
JAMES LOW,
B. J. HOWLAND,
BENJ. BABCOCK,
ROB’T. B. MINTURN.
GORDON W. BURNHAM,
FREDERICK CHAUNCEY,
R. L. TAYLOR,
GEORGE S. STEPHENSON,
WILLIAM H. WEBB,
PAUL SPOFFORD,
SHEPPARD GANDY,
FRANCIS SKIDDY,
CHARLES P. BURDETT,
ROBT. C. FERGUSSON.
SAMUEL G. WARD,
WILLIAM E. BUNKER,
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL,
JAMES G. DE FOREST.
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JOHN D. JONES, President.
CHARLES DENNIS, Vice-President.
W. H. H. MOORE 2nd Yicc-Pres.
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J. D. HEWLETT, ?>d Yice-Prcs.
J. H. CHAPMAN, Secretary
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