FAILURES IN BUSINESS. 



SUMMARY ARRANGED BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 



returns show that the total recorded number 

 of traders in the United States, June 1, 1880 

 that is, those having a distinctive position in 

 the commercial or industrial community was 

 703,328. This means the number of business 

 enterprises including incorporated companies 

 and unincorporated business houses and firms. 

 It does not, therefore, represent the number 

 of individual traders, since many companies 

 and firms are composed of two or more mem- 

 bers each. The aggregate capital, including 

 real estate and personal property, invested in 

 business, was $8,177,505,862. A comparison 

 by States of the failures in 1880, with the 

 number of traders and the amount of capital, 

 will be found in the table in the preceding 

 column. 



From the table above, it is found that the 

 total capital credited to the State of New York 

 alone was in excess of the aggregate for all 

 New England by nearly $200,000,000, was 

 more than twice as large as the total capital in 

 the Southern States, was two thirds as great as 

 the total for the Western States, and more 

 than six times as large as the total for the Pa- 

 cific coast. New York's share comprised 22 

 per cent, of the grand total of all the capital 

 invested in business in this country in 1880. 

 Massachusetts ranked second, with $1,041,000,- 

 000, against $1,822,000,000 invested in business 

 in New York ; Pennsylvania third, with $867,- 

 000,000; Ohio fourth, with $595,000,000; Illi- 

 nois fifth, with $486,000,000 ; and Michigan 

 sixth, with $300,000,000. The following is a 

 comparison by geographical divisions of the 

 percentage of aggregate capital invested in 1880, 

 and of the total number of traders and of fail- 

 ures in 1880 and 1883 : 



The ratio of growth in business, as indicated 

 by the increase in the number of traders, is 

 shown by the following: 



Bradstreet's "Journal " says : 



The total number of failures in business in 1880 was 

 undoubtedly the smallest in any vcar since the simi- 

 larly prosperous period in 1872. \Vhen trade is thus 

 at the flood, many of the elements of disaster are for 

 the time wholly absent. At such a time ventures are 

 at the initial point, and actual disasters are of neces- 



