14 



Table XI. — Showing supply and consumption of cotton in the United States and Europe — 



surplus stocks and prices. 



[In bales.] 



1 Estimate of Department of Agriculture; all other figures for 1895 are to July 1. 



2 The tigures of 1895 are estimates by Thomas Ellison. 



1S91. — Acreage increased, resulting iu a crop of 1,345,316 bales in excess of the year 

 previous. 



189S. — Increased acreage, good season, and the largest crop to date on record. 



1893. — Acreage reduced over 18 per cent. Late planting on account of overflows 

 in Mississippi River districts, followed in summer by disastrous drought. Great 

 finnncial panic. Cotton-picking machine tested in the South. The approximate 

 production of cotton in the world, 16,170,000 bales; estimated consumption in Europe, 

 United States, and India, 13,183,000 bales of 400 pounds each. Strikes in Oldham 

 district, England. 



lS9d. — Acreage greatly increased, excellent season, and the largest crop ever gath- 

 ered in the United States. Texas alone produced as much cotton as was made in the 

 entire Union in 1853. Spindles in the United States, 15,700,000 ; in Europe, 72,620,000. 

 Number of mills in India, 142; spindles, 3,650,000; consumption, 1,222,000 bales, 392 

 pounds each. 



1895. — Planters' convention held at Jackson, Miss. (January 11), to effect a reduc- 

 tion in acreage. 



Prices. — Beginning with 1891, prices began to decline, the average for that year iu 

 New York being 2| cents lower than that of the year previous. In 1892 there was a 

 still further decline and a reaction in favor of higher prices in 1893, on account of 

 the diminished crop. In 1894 prices again declined to about the same average for 

 the year as in 1892. The commercial year 1895 is not yet closed, but thus far, while 

 prices for middling upland have reached (November, 1894) the lowest .price on record 

 in Liverpool, they have not touched so low a level in the markets of the United 

 States as in 1845 and during other years in the decade from 1840 to 1850. 



The following are some of the reasons assigned by leading commercial authorities 

 for the decline in 1891 : A crop altogether disproportionate to the wants of the 

 world, the supply exceeding that of 1890 by 475,000 bales; the failure of the great 

 banking house of Baring Brothers & Co. and the collapse of commercial credit; the 

 ever-increasing development of the American crop; the diminishing volume of busi- 

 ness in Manchester, and financial uneasiness. As to the decline in 1892, the chief 

 reason given is the magnitude of the American crop. Ellison & Co., of Liverpool, 

 say : "Never before has the unconsumed stock of cotton at the opening of the season 

 been so large;" and "the cotton industry of Europe in general has during the past 

 season been adversely affected by an unforeseen excessive supply of raw material, 

 while that of Lancashire has also had to contend against the depressing influence of 



