FAILURES IN BUSINESS. 



329 



* A large proportion of the failures classified as miscellaneous may be characterized as miscellaneous manufactures, in- 

 eluding, as they do, makers of patented articles, novelties, and specialties not strictly under any class given above. 



those firms which could work at the least expense and 

 otherwise to the best advantage, have all tended to 

 crowd the weaker trader or manufacturer to the wall. 

 Thus, with from 180,000 to 200,000 new competitors 

 within five years, the arrival of a period of enforced 

 contraction of production, distribution, and prices, 

 with a commercial obituary list of some 300 less than 

 in 1878, can not be regarded as indicative of a radical 

 unsoundness in the present business situation. As 

 heretofore, the list of failures given includes none 

 which have been the outcome of purely speculative 

 dealing as a distinctive occupation. From this analy- 

 sis some so-called business failures have been inten- 

 tionally omitted as in no way forming a part of the 

 mortality list in the legitimate commercial world. 

 It should be borne in mind that it is a general rule 

 with failing traders to swell the aggregate of liabili- 

 ties in the event of disaster. We have previously 

 defined a failure as that which has to be considered as 

 a matter of record in the regular conduct of business 

 of a mercantile agency-. In preparing a list of mer- 

 cantile traders it will be recalled that planters, other 

 agriculturists, and those engaged in professional occu- 

 pations, are necessarily excluded, under the above 

 definition. 



The statistics for 1883 show two other note- 

 worthy results: First, that the average pro- 

 portion of indebtedness offset by available as- 

 sets is larger than ever before, amounting to 

 52 per cent. Second, that there has been a 

 striking increase in the percentage of liabili- 



Commenting on the fact that the number of 

 business failures in the United States in 1883 

 shows a large increase when compared not 

 only with 1882, but also any preceding year, 

 with the exception of 1878, Bradstreet's 

 "Journal" explains that this exhibit is less 

 startling when more closely examined. The 

 number of legitimate trading concerns re- 

 corded in the Bradstreet Agency at the close 

 of 1883 was 838,823, as compared with 548,- 

 180 in 1873, a gain of 290,646 in ten years. 

 In 1878, at the end of a five years' depres- 

 sion in general trade, there was but a mod- 

 erate gain in the number of business enter- 

 prises, while now the total number of traders 

 having a distinctive place in the commercial 

 and industrial community is 50 per cent, 

 greater than ten years ago. Fully 60 per 

 cent, of this development in trade has taken 



)lace since 1878. The expansion in business, . 



extending over 1880 and 1881, was very great, 

 arid competition was keen, resulting in a con- 

 tinuous increase in the number of failures 

 from year to year. The " Journal " says : 



The enforced contraction in production during 

 st two years, shrinkage in prices, abuses of the 

 system, and competition for the survival of 



