THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1S73. 295 



was undertaken. The rapidity with which iron rose in price in the United States 

 is shown by the circumstance that No. 1 pig-iron, which sold for $30.50 per ton 

 at Philadelphia, in January, 1871, sold for $37.50 in January, 1872, and $53 in 

 September of the same year. Report of the American Iron and Steel Associa- 

 tion, November, 1873. 



1874. The reaction (in the world's demand for iroD) in 1874 has been as 

 general and decided as the advance in 1872 was unexpected and bewildering. 

 It has been felt most severely in the United States; but in the United Kingdom, 

 and in France and Germany, the iron industry has been so much depressed, all 

 through the year, that many iron-works have been closed, and many others have 

 been employed but a part of the time. The testimony of statistics, and of all 

 calm observers, shows that prostration is greater at the close of 1874 than it was 

 at the close of 1873, and that the general distress is greater. At least a million 

 of skilled and unskilled working-men and working-women in this country are 

 out of employment to-day, because there is no work for them to do. Report, 

 December 31, 1874. 



1877. Since 1873 each year has shown a decrease in the production of pig- 

 iron in the United States, as compared with the preceding year, the percentage of 

 decrease being as follows : 1874, six per cent ; 1875, fifteen per cent ; 1876, eight 

 per cent. This is a very great shrinkage, and indicates, with concurrent low prices, 

 a very great depression in the pig-iron industry of the country. If the rate of 

 decrease which marked the period from 1873 to 1876 were to be continued, the 

 production of pig-iron in the United States would entirely cease in 1884, less 

 than eight years from the present time, and our furnace- stacks would only be 

 useful as observatories for the study of astronomy. But our pig-iron industry 

 is not destined to come to such an untimely end, for we see that the heavy per- 

 centage of decrease which had characterized the year 1875 was not continued in 

 1876. It seems plain that the production of pig-iron commenced last year to 

 rally from the effects of the panic of 1873. Report, June, 1887. 



1878. The year 1877 witnessed an increased demand for some of our iron and 

 steel products, as compared with 1876 ; neutralized, however, so far as producers 

 were concerned, by a very marked decrease in prices. Nor did low prices form 

 the only unfavorable feature of the iron trade of 1877. More than one half of 

 the furnaces, and many of the rolling-mills, were idle the whole year. Prices 

 were so low as to warrant the opinion that they could be no lower. Hence, 

 mainly, the increased consumption of iron in that year. Report, July, 1878. 



1879. In nearly all the branches of the domestic iron and steel industries 

 there has been an increased production in 1878 over 1877; but this increase in 

 production has been accompanied by a decrease in prices. At no time in the 

 history of the country have prices for iron and steel been as low as they were in 

 1878, excepting in colonial days, when the price of pig-iron was lower. Report, 

 May 6, 1879. 



1880. Near the close of 1878 it became evident that the business depression 

 which had succeeded the panic of 1873 was slowly disappearing, and that a gen- 

 eral revival of prosperity was at hand. The country had been favored with good 

 crops, and short harvests abroad has caused a demand for agricultural surplus. 

 In the spring months of 1879 the managers of the leading railroads of the coun- 

 try, being assured of a continued increase of their business through the unfavor- 

 able outlook for the European harvests, simultaneously began to give out orders 

 for materials containing iron and steel. In the closing months of 1879 excite- 

 ment and speculation took the place of the gloom and discouragement with 



