258 



FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



commodities, as compared with the price for 

 the same which prevailed previous to the 

 war." This increased cost is further consid- 

 ered as due to three agencies growing out of 

 the war, viz. : irredeemable paper currency ; 

 unequal and heavy taxation; and a limited 

 supply of skilled labor. The influence of an ir- 

 redeemable paper currency to increase the cost 

 of manufactures is thus forcibly illustrated by 

 the commissioner, David A. Wells : 



The statement is furnished to the commissioner by a 

 manufacturer of furniture in one of the Middle States, 

 who previous to the war, had built up an extensive 

 export business to the "West Indies, Central and 

 South America, of a variety of "cane-seated" and 

 " cane-backed " furniture suited to warm latitudes. 



Thus on the 1st of March, 1861, gold and currency 

 being at par, $1,000 in gold possessed a purchasing 

 power sufficient to obtain for the South American 

 importer 111* dozen of what are termed in the trade 

 " ordinary square-post cane-seat chairs." About the 

 1st of January, 1862, gold began to demand a pre- 

 mium, and advanced during the next three years with 

 great rapidity. This movement was not, however, 

 participated in at first, to any considerable extent, by 

 either labor or commodities, and in consequence the 

 purchasing power of gold greatly increased ; so much 

 so that on the 1st of July, 1864, the-$l,000 gold, which 

 in 1861 bought 111! dozen chairs, then bought 143 

 dozen. Under these circumstances, as was to be ex- 

 pected, trade increased, as the foreign purchaser 

 found the American market by far the best for his 

 interest; but from July, 1864, a movement com- 

 menced in an exactly opposite direction, gold reced- 

 ing and labor and commodities advancing in very 

 unequal ratios. Thus in January. 1865, the $1,000 

 gold, which four years previous had a purchasing 

 power of 111| dozen chairs, and on the 1st of July, 

 1864. of 143 dozen, then commanded but 1261 dozen ; 

 in February, 1866, a still smaller number, viz., 91i 

 dozen, and ultimately attained its minimum in Jan- 

 uary, 1867, when the purchasing power of the sum 

 named was only 891 dozen. From this point the pur- 

 chasing power has gradually increased, and for the 

 past year, 1868, has remained at the rate of about 102 

 dozen, or nine dozen less than could be bought with 

 the same money in 1861. 



The result has been that the foreign purchaser now 

 goes to France or Germany while the products of 

 American industry, in the form of furniture^ being 

 no longer available to exchange for sugars, spices, or 

 dyewoods, gold has necessarily been substituted; 

 and, to use the words of the manufacturer describing 

 his condition, " unless there is a speedy return to 

 specie payments, custom will soon so fix the channels 

 and currents of trade that any attempt on my part to 

 divert them will be attended with great difficulty ; " 

 and what has thus been shown to be the case in re- 

 spect to the export trade of the United States in fur- 

 niture, may be accepted as true of almost every other 

 manufactured product, which, as a nation, we were 

 accustomed, before the war, to exchange for foreign 

 commodities. 



So far as regards the fluctuation of prices, 

 investigations appear to have established the 

 fact that up to the commencement of the year 

 186T the general effect of the agencies growing 

 out of the war had been to occasion an average 

 advance in the price of commodities to the ex- 

 tent of about 90 per cent., while the corre- 

 sponding average advance in wages was not in 

 excess of 60 per cent. Later investigations, as to 

 the year 1867, in the Eastern, Middle, and some 

 of the Western States, respecting the increase of 

 prices since 1860-'61, have shown that the ad- 



vance in the price of groceries and provisions 

 was, on an average, a little in excess of 86 per 

 cent. ; of domestic dry-goods, including cloth- 

 ing, 86 per cent. ; of fuel, 5V per cent. ; of 

 house-rent, 65 per cent, in the Eastern States, 

 and 90 to 100 per cent, in New York, Newark, 

 Philadelphia, and Pittsburg. The average in- 

 crease of all the elements which constitute the 

 food, clothing, and shelter of a family during 

 the year 1867 and the first half of the year 

 1868 has been about 78 per cent, as compared 

 with the standard prices of 1860-'61. 



A comparison of the increase of wages for 

 the same period shows it to have been 50 per 

 cent, for unskilled mechanical labor, and 60 

 per cent, for skilled mechanical labor. The 

 average aggregate weekly earnings in 1867 of 

 families of various sizes in different parts of 

 the country, one or more members of each of 

 which were employed in some branch of manu- 

 facturing industry, their average weekly ex- 

 penditure for provisions, fuel, house-rent, etc., 

 and the balance remaining to them over and 

 above such expenditure, available either for 

 accumulation and capital or for the purchase 

 of clothing or articles of enjoyment, are pre- 

 sented in the following statement, prepared by 

 the commissioner from indisputable data : 



The average weekly expenditures of families 

 of varying numbers in the manufacturing 

 towns of the country for the years 1860 and 

 1867 respectively are shown in the following 

 statement, founded upon data gathered from 

 the same sources as the preceding statement. 

 It serves to show whether the large increase 

 in wages has brought any real net gain to those 

 employed in manufacturing establishments : 



