MONEY AND LABOR. 189 



1857, in which year there were 4,932 failures, followed 

 by a general suspension of specie payments. Still the 

 idleness and distress increased, and business failures 

 continued. During the last year of that period of 

 great idleness, 1861, there were 6,993 failures ; but 

 the next year, 1862, when the people became gener- 

 ally employed, the number of failures fell to 1,652. 

 As the employment of the masses increased prosperity 

 developed ; in 1863, the failures were 495 ; in 1864, 

 520 ; and in 1865, the number was 530. In this last 

 year the millions who had been employed in the occu- 

 pations of the war were thrown back upon the normal 

 industries for employment, with the resulting idleness 

 and business distress shown in the following table of 

 failures, being for twenty-six years, from 1857 to 

 1882, carefully made up from the reports of the Com- 

 mercial Agency of Messrs. K. G. Dun & Co. of New 

 York. These statistics are collected from the large 

 corps of branch agencies connected with that house, 

 and are designed and believed to include approxi- 

 mately the whole number of business concerns in the 

 United States, engaged in trade or commerce, except- 

 ing a considerable portion of the strictly petty traders. 

 Banks, bankers, stock operators, insurance, real estate, 

 the professions, as the medical and legal, manufac- 

 turers, builders, contractors, etc., are not included, 



It will be noticed that since 1865 the increase in 

 the number of yearly failures was nearly constant to 

 1878, like the increase in idleness, whatever may have 

 been the condition of the currency, whether hard or 

 soft, plenty or scarce ; but since that year there have 

 been greater fluctuations, though at very high figures. 



