328 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1884. 



every quarter forced the price to the unpre- 

 cedented figure of Sis. 6d, per quarter. This 

 decline in Europe naturally affected our mar- 

 kets, and producers of spring wheat in the ex- 

 treme Northwest who, raising almost nothing 

 else, were obliged to sell, had to dispose of 

 their product below the cost of production. In 

 the winter-wheat belt, however, where corn is 

 also raised, the farmers were more fortunate. 

 The demand for the last-named staple became 

 so urgent in September that deliveries for that 

 month were cornered, and the price forced to 

 $1 per bushel. This enabled those who had 



the remnant of the previous crop on hand to 

 sell it at good prices, thus supplying their cur- 

 rent requirements for money, and leaving them 

 free to hold their wheat for better prices. To- 

 ward the close of the year wheat reacted to a 

 figure which drew out moderately large sup- 

 plies of both spring and winter grain, the ex- 

 ports were comparatively liberal, and the con- 

 dition of the markets became more satisfactory 

 to the producer. Taking the prices on the first 

 of January each year, and the total yield for 

 the previous season, we have the following ap- 

 proximate results in quantities and values : 



Railroads. Early in the year the granger 

 roads suffered from the effects of the light 

 crops of 1883 ; the lines west of Chicago and in 

 the Colorado pool began to cut rates, and the 

 competition of new roads was seriously felt. 

 The movement of the old crops of corn and of 

 new winter wheat in the spring months aided 

 in a partial recovery in traffic, but thereafter 

 business fell off, and the depression in trade 

 which prevailed through the summer and early 

 in the fall had a marked influence upon rail- 

 road earnings. One important feature was the 

 war between the New York Central and the 

 New York, West Shore, and Buffalo, which first 

 took the form of cutting passenger rates, and 

 resulted in the reduction of the tariff in this 

 State to one cent per mile. Later, there was 

 a cut in freight rates, and by October all the 

 roads directly controlled by Mr. Vanderbilt, 



and the Grand Trunk, Erie, Delaware, Lacka- 

 wanna and Western, and the Baltimore and 

 Ohio, became involved in the contest. The 

 last-named road, having had its New York 

 passenger connections cut off by the refusal of 

 the Pennsylvania to haul its trains, formed an 

 alliance with the West Shore, furnishing it 

 with a western outlet over the Niagara Falls 

 short line, and the Grand Trunk also facilitated 

 the business of the West Shore to a greater or 

 less extent. This had a demoralizing effect 

 upon the passenger and freight traffic passing 

 over the American trunk lines. The losses 

 resulting from this competition compelled a re- 

 duction of dividends by the New York Central 

 and seriously embarrassed the Erie, and more 

 or less all the lines running to the seaboard. 

 The following shows gross and net earnings of 

 the principal trunk roads : 



the Stock Market. The year 1884 opened with 

 depression, the result of the unsettled feeling 

 prevailing at the end of the previous year, and 

 this was intensified by collapse of railroad en- 

 terprises' the New York and New England and 

 the North Eiver Construction Companies be- 

 ing placed in the hands of receivers in quick 

 succession. The failure of the last-named com- 

 pany was largely due to the embarrassments 

 of men prominently identified with it who had 

 Buffered severe losses by the decline in Oregon 



and Transcontinental and the Northern Pacific 

 securities, and a farther sharp fall in the mar- 

 ket value of the latter naturally followed the 

 suspension of the North River Construction 

 Company. Immediately thereafter New York, 

 West Shore, and Buffalo first mortgages de- 

 clined rapidly, as it was seen that a receiver 

 for that property was inevitable. The whole 

 market sympathized with this downward move- 

 ment, and the bears freely made speculative sales, 

 and thereby created a large short interest. To- 



