COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



127 



August, afterward five to six per cent, until the 

 middle of November. The unexampled finan- 

 cial activity of the late fall and winter drove 

 the rates up to five and six per cent, again on 

 call loans, while the discount rates on prime 

 business paper advanced to six and six and 

 one half per cent. In December the minimum 

 price of money in New York was frequently 

 as high as six per cent, on Government-bond 

 collaterals, and one sixteenth per cent, per day 

 was charged for carrying margins. In the be- 

 ginning of the month the market was so tight 

 that operators paid three eighths of one per 

 cent, per diem commission. Foreign exchange 

 was in favor of Europe, and the demand for 

 sterling bills was strong and steady for the 

 first half of the year on account of the large 

 imports' of merchandise that took the place 

 of the large amounts of American securities 

 which were brought back from Europe in 1879, 

 and had the same effect of keeping up the de- 

 mand for bills of exchange. In the latter half 

 of the year the course of exchange was in the 

 opposite direction, as the large importations 

 were arrested by the decline in the prices of 

 merchandise; so that an influx of specie took 

 place, which continued until the close of the 

 year, $69,000,000 being imported between the 

 dates of August l?t and December 31st. 



The number of mercantile failures in the 

 calendar year 1880 is given in Dun's report as 

 4,735, the aggregate liabilities $65,752,000, a 

 still more favorable exhibit than that for 1879. 

 The following comparative statement gives 

 the annual number of failures and aggregate 

 liabilities for the period of fifteen years 

 past : 



The distribution of the failures in the different 

 sections of the United States, and those of the 

 Dominion of Canada, for 1880, with the aver- 

 age liabilities and the proportion of the failures 

 to the total number of mercantile houses in the 

 different geographical divisions, are given be- 

 low : 



The following tabulated survey of prices 

 shows the rates obtaining in the stock and ex- 

 change markets for the leading lines dealt in, 

 the quotations of Government bonds, and the 



rates for money and exchange, ruling on or 

 about the 31st of December, in 1880 and the 

 preceding two years, together with the prices 

 of the staple articles of merchandise : 



