FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



349 



The following are the prices of leading arti- in each of the last eight years, as prepared by 

 oles in the New York market on January 3d the " Commercial and Financial Chronicle : " 



Excluding cotton, iron, rosin, and a few 

 other articles whose fluctuations in value are 

 partly due to other well-known causes, the 

 general course of prices tended upwards during 

 the increase of paper money. That increase 

 reached its highest point in the summer of 1865. 

 since which the paper money has been gradually 

 diminishing, and prices have fallen also. 



The following is a comparative statement of 

 failures, their number and amount in 1865 and 

 the previous nine years, in the Northern States : 



It will be seen by these figures that while the 

 number of failures during 1865 has been about 

 the same as those of the two preceding years, 

 the liabilities are quite double. In explanation 

 of this it may be said that nearly one-half of the 

 failures in 1865 were confined to the leading 

 cities, the liabilities thereof being over three- 

 fourths of the entire amount throughout the 

 Union. This of course is always the result in 

 cities where a concentration of trade results in 

 heavier obligations. Considering the enormous 

 volume of the internal and foreign commerce of 

 the country, the number of its traders, the ex- 

 ceptional condition of its finances, the burden 

 which it bears, and the struggle from which it 

 has emerged, these failures are surprisingly few. 



