332 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1883. 



sity exceedingly limited. At a later period, when ac- 

 tivity has become general and ill-judged ventures 

 have readied the point of fruition or failure, numer- 

 ous trade disasters come about as a matter of course, 

 and this while the general condition of trade is excep- 

 tionally sound. The record of the past three years 

 has verified the analysis. In 1880 failures were rela- 

 tively few. while in 1883 they were about 2 -4 times as 

 many ? activity and competition in production and dis- 

 tribution having become severe. The general aver- 

 age of failures for the United States in 1880 was one 

 in every 1 62 traders. This, if compared with the esti- 

 mated ratio for 1878, a year of heavy commercial dis- 

 asters, and again with the past calendar year, is as 

 follows : 



The final column of the table given above 

 shows the average amount of capital per trad- 

 er by States, in round numbers, with averages 

 by geographical divisions. It is interesting to 

 note that Massachusetts leads among States 

 with about $27,000 capital per trader, and that 

 Ehode Island is second with $21,000. Con- 

 necticut with $19,200 outranks New York by 

 about $2,000 per trader. Maryland ranks ahead 

 of Pennsylvania, the former having $15,900 

 average capital per trader to $10,700 of the 

 latter. California averages $14, 1 00, and Michi- 

 gan $11,100. For the United States as u whole 

 the average capital to each trader or business 

 concern is in round numbers $11,600. 



FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. See 

 UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF. 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1883. The record of 

 1883 is that of a growing commercial depres- 

 sion. The causes may be traced, not so much 

 to excessive expansion during the brief tide of 

 prosperity which reached its highest mark in 



1881, as to the failure of crops from drought 

 in that year, the losses of stock from frost and 

 snow the following winter, the paralysis of the 

 iron industry resulting from the cessation of 

 railroad-building, and largely to the simultane- 

 ous depression in Europe and its effect on the 

 exports and prices of American products. In 

 the South, and in parts of the Southwest and 

 West, where industrial expansion has proceed- 

 ed at a rapid rate, the stringency was less felt, 

 and in some trades and localities profits were 

 still sufficient to encourage a continued exten- 

 sion of facilities. This transfer of productive 

 activity to new centers was proportionally op- 

 erative in producing the pressure under which 

 Eastern trade and manufactures suffered. 



Business failures increased in steady progres- 

 sion, from the minimum amount of liabilities, 

 in 1880. of $66,000,000, to $81,000,000 in 1881, 

 $102,000,000 in 1882, and $173,000,000 in 1883. 

 (See FAILURES IN BUSINESS.) But there was 

 nothing approaching the character of a finan- 

 cial crisis. A continuous decline in the values 

 of stocks, in the face of the heaviest returns of 

 railroad traffic and earnings ever made, was 

 the most remarkable feature of the year. The 

 safety of the financial institutions of the coun- 

 try is in a large measure involved in the fluc- 

 tuations of stock- values ; but it was a reassur- 

 ing symptom that their operations were con- 

 servative enough to sustain so vast a shrinkage 

 of values. There was no bank failure of mag- 

 nitude or wide-spread influence, and none which 

 was not due to the failure of isolated enter- 

 prises or speculative corners. 



The following tabular survey of the economi- 

 cal conditions and results of 1883, contrasted 

 with those of the preceding year, is taken from 

 the " Commercial and Financial Chronicle " : 



The pric'es of the leading staples on or about at the same date in 1883 and 1882, were asfol- 

 the 1st of January, 1884, compared with prices low : 



^ The Banks and the Money Market. In no year ject to violent fluctuations, than during 1883. 

 since 1878 was money more uniformly easy There was a temporary stringency in March 

 throughout the year, or the market less sub- and April, when call 'loans, which had been 



