290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



One of the leading economists and financiers of France, M. Leroy 

 Beaulieu, claims that the suffering has been greatest in his country, 

 humiliated in war, shorn of her territory, and paying the maximum of 

 taxation ; but not a few stand ready to contest that claim in behalf of 

 the United States, rejoicing in the maintenance of her national strength 

 and dominion, and richer than ever in national resources. 



Commenting upon the phenomena of the industrial depression sub- 

 sequent to the early months of 1882, the Director of the United States 

 National Bureau of Labor, in his report for 1886, considers the nations 

 involved, in respect to their relations to each other and to severity of 

 experience, to stand in the following order : Great Britain, the United 

 States, Germany, France, Belgium. The investigations of the director 

 also indicated a conclusion (of the greatest importance in the considera- 

 tion of causes) ; namely, that the maximum of economic disturbance 

 has been experienced in those countries in which the employment of 

 machinery, the efficiency of labor, the cost and the standard of living, 

 and the extent of popular education are the greatest ; and the minimum 

 in countries, like Austria, Italy, China, Mexico, South America, etc., 

 where the opposite conditions prevail. These conclusions, which are 

 concurred in by nearly all other investigators, apply, however, more 

 especially to the years prior to 1883, as since then " depression " has 

 manifested itself with marked intensity in such countries as Russia, 

 Japan, Zanzibar, Uruguay, and Roumania. 



The business of retail distribution generally owing, probably, to 

 the extreme cheapness of commodities does not, moreover, appear to 

 have been less profitable than usual during the so-called period of de- 

 pression ; in contradistinction to the business of production, which has 

 been generally unprofitable. 



It is also universally admitted that the years immediately preced- 

 ent to 1873 i. e., from 1869 to 1872 constituted a period of most 

 extraordinary and almost universal inflation of prices, credits, and 

 business ; which, in turn, has been attributed to a variety or sequence 

 of influences ; such as excessive speculation ; excessive and injudicious 

 construction of railroads in the United States, Central Europe, and 

 Russia (1867-'73) ; the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) ; the Franco- 

 German War (1870-71) ; and the payment of the enormous war in- 

 demnity of fifty-five hundred million francs (eleven hundred million 

 dollars) which Germany exacted from France (1871-'73). The con- 

 been set on foot, and the suspension of many of the public works has tended to further 

 reduce the commercial prosperity of the country. Consumption has been upon the lowest 

 possible scale, retrenchment universal, and want of employment, and even of food, among 

 the laboring-classes, a grave public difficulty." United States Consul Siler, Report to 

 State Department, 1885. 



January, 1885. "The price of mackerel in 1884 (Boston) was lower than at any time 

 since 1S49 ; and, in the case of codfish, the lowest since 1838. 



" The price obtainable for sugar at Barbadocs entails a loss to the producer in excess 

 of one pound per ton " Barbadces Agricultural Reporter, February, 1887. 



