THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 301 



have been more or less influential ; and among such causes the follow- 

 ing are generally regarded as having been especially potential : " Over- 

 production"; "the scarcity and appreciation of gold," or "the depre- 

 ciation of silver, through its demonetization "; " restrictions of the free 

 course of commerce " through protective tariffs on the one hand, and 

 excessive and unnatural competition occasioned by excessive foreign 

 imports contingent on the absence of "fair" trade or protection on the 

 other ; heavy national losses, occasioned by destructive wars, especially 

 the Franco-Prussian War ; the continuation of excessive war expendi- 

 tures ; the failure of crops ; the unproductiveness of foreign loans or 

 investments ; excessive speculation and reaction from great inflations; 

 strikes and interruption of production consequent on trades-unions 

 and other organizations of labor ; the concentration of capital in few 

 hands, and a consequent antagonizing influence to the equitable dif- 

 fusion of wealth ; " excessive expenditures for alcoholic beverages," 

 and a " general improvidence of the working-classes." In the investi- 

 gations undertaken by committees of Congress in the United States, 

 the causes assigned by the various witnesses who testified before them 

 were comprised under no less than one hundred and eighty heads ; 

 and an almost equal diversity of opinion was manifested by the wit- 

 nesses who appeared before the Royal (British) Commission.* The 

 special causes to which a majority of the Commission itself attached 

 any great degree of importance, stated in the order presented by them, 

 are as follows : 1. Changes in the distribution of wealth i. e., in 

 Great Britain ; 2. Natural tendency to diminution in the rate of 

 profit consequent on the progressive accumulation of capital ; 3. Over- 

 production; 4. Impairment of agricultural industry consequent on bad 

 seasons, and the competition of the products of other soils which can 

 be cultivated under more favorable conditions ; 5. Foreign tariffs and 

 bounties and the restrictive commercial policies of foreign countries ; 

 6. The working of the British Limited Liability Act. In addition to 

 these special causes, others of a general character were mentioned ; 

 such as "the more limited possibilities of new sources of demand 

 throughout the world, and the larger amount of capital seeking em- 

 ployment " ; " the serious fall in prices " ; " the appreciation of the 

 standard of value " so far as connected with the fall of prices and 

 foreign competition. A respectable minority of the commission also 

 included, in the list of principal causes, the effect of British legislation, 

 regulating the hours and conditions of labor on the cost of production 



* The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce attributed it in great part to German and 

 Belgian competition, to foreign import duties on home-manufactured goods exported 

 abroad, and exorbitant railway rates ; the Hartlepool Chamber to foreign competition ; 

 Manchester, the same ; Leeds, " to foreign tariffs " ; Liverpool, to a loss in a once large 

 re-export trade in cotton ; Wolverhampton, to changes in the hours of labor resulting 

 from the operation of the Factory, Workshop, and Education Acts, and the action of the 

 various trades-unions. 



