THE WAR AND WEALTH. 167 



the normal industries for employment and subsistence. 

 Then again commenced the struggle for work, with 

 increasing distress and another panic in 1857. 



During the industrial transitions here referred to 

 our monetary system had undergone no change. Our 

 medium of exchange was gold and silYer, with State 

 bank issues redeemable in United States coin. 



Let us briefly review some of the most prominent 

 industrial facts of the late war of the rebellion, com- 

 mencing with the panic of 1857, which was similar to 

 that of 1873, only less in degree, but from similar 

 causes. For years our producing capacity had been 

 marvellously increasing ; our productions had vastly 

 multiplied, and at the same time we were importing, 

 in great variety and enormous quantities, of nearly 

 everything that entered into our consumption. In 

 these two ways we were accumulating and piling up 

 immense stocks of products for which a market could 

 not be found. Already great numbers had been 

 thrown out of employment. Our markets had been 

 forced ; prices fell ; our credit had been strained to 

 the utmost ; goods could not be sold ; debts could 

 not be paid, and the crash of 1857 was the result, as 

 the crash of 1873 was the result of like conditions. 



1860 found us suffering a great industrial and com 

 mercial distress ; large numbers of our people were 

 idle in our towns and cities, begging from door to 

 door, vainly seeking employment, whilst our stores 

 and warehouses were gorged with products, offered at 

 unprecedentedly low prices, with little or no sale. 

 The people were almost hopelessly in debt, and the 

 government nearly bankrupt. In this condition the 



