FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1883. 



335 



whioh was selling at low prices in the Western 

 markets. Other mineral industries suffered un- 

 der a general stagnation. 



The cotton and woolen trades were later in 

 discovering overproduction, and slower in cur- 

 tailing it. But before the end of 1883 the ne- 

 cessary process was under way. Prices fell to 

 a point where exportation can relieve the coun- 

 try of the oversupply. The manufacturers re- 

 duced their accumulations by auction-sales, and 

 offered blocks of unprecedented magnitude, 

 which sold below current rates, but not with 

 the demoralizing effect that many feared. 



The Crops. The agricultural products of 1883 

 were but slightly above the average. The 

 yield of corn, wheat, and cotton was about 

 the medium, and fell far below the crops of 

 1882. The corn-crop was 373,000,000 bushels 

 less, but the deterioration caused by rain and 

 frost makes the deficiency much greater. The 

 receipts of grain and cotton during the last 

 five months of 1883 were very heavy, leaving 

 a smaller proportion than usual in the hands 

 of the farmers, indicating that the movement 

 will be light and the deficiency of the crops 

 strongly felt in the remaining months of the 

 crop year. Of the minor cereal crops and of 

 potatoes the yield was abundant. 



The Stock Market. The year 1883 was char- 

 acterized by a more general, persistent, and 

 severe decline in the prices of stocks than in 

 any year since the depression of 1873-'78. A 

 mass of stocks and income bonds had been 

 floated on the market which could not possi- 

 bly pay dividends in four or five years. Recent 

 consolidations and extensions had given rail- 

 road managers an opportunity to supply the 

 public with these watered stocks during a pe- 

 riod of prosperity and speculation at double 

 the prices to which they fell in 1883. The to- 

 tal amount of new shares and securities placed 

 upon the market in two years was probably not 

 less than $2,000,000,000. The holders of this 

 speculative material were anxious to sell when- 

 ever prices recovered, and by such an attitude 

 checked any tendency to -a rise. Mercantile 

 profits had fallen away, and there were com- 

 mratively few who still disposed of the means 

 to carry on Wall street speculations. Heavy loss- 

 es in speculations during the last four months 

 of 1882 emptied the street of petty operators. 

 The market opened in January with a weak 

 and vacillating tone. In the absence of tran- 

 sient buyers for speculative purposes, the great 

 operators were unable to strengthen prices or 

 took no pains to do so. There were signs of 

 renewed activity in March, but the movement 

 was checked by a tight money-market. When 

 the stringency relaxed there was a brief activ- 

 ity, followed by complete lassitude. Large op- 

 erators were supposed to have utilized the op- 

 portunity to unload a part of their holdings. 

 A tendency to an upward movement manifest- 

 ed itself in June, but a reaction set in imme- 

 diately. Toward the end of July, when "bear " 

 speculators attempted to force prices to a lower 



level, they were effectually resisted by large 

 operators who wished to sustain the stocks in 

 which they were particularly interested. The 

 slight effect of the telegraph employes' strike 

 on the price of Western Union stock revealed 

 the extent of the control of the chief holders 

 over this stock. The prolonged dullness of 

 the market was reflected in a decline in the 

 value of seats in the Stock Exchange, which 

 were sold in July as low as $23,000. The ex- 

 ceedingly favorable semi-annual reports of rail- 

 road earnings failed to invigorate the market. 

 In August there was a sudden decline in Den- 

 ver and Rio Grande, and a heavy block of this 

 stock was believed to have been purchased in 

 the interest of the Union Pacific, to prevent the 

 road from falling under the control of any ri- 

 val corporation. The "bears" attacked also the 

 Northern Pacific and Oregon Transcontinental. 

 The following month, while the ostentatious 

 opening of the Northern Pacific was taking 

 place, the attack was vigorously renewed. The 

 speculators for a fall selected these stocks on 

 account of the difficulties in which Mr. Villard 

 had involved them in order to complete the 

 Northern Pacific railroad. The object was, by 

 causing a break in them, to effect a sympathetic 

 decline in the rest of the list. The announce- 

 ment in October of the issue of $20,000,000 of 

 new bonds on the Northern Pacific property 

 removed the last prop, and with the heavy de- 

 cline in these stocks nearly the whole list went 

 down. The margins on stocks were to a large 

 extent wiped out when the decline took place. 

 The bears conducted their operations on a vast 

 scale. Such activity had not been witnessed in 

 many months. The result was that the mar- 

 ket was largely oversold and the bear influence 

 paralyzed for the remainder of the year. The 

 opposite party seized the opportunity to give 

 them a " twist " in some of the oversold stocks. 

 Prices rose in consequence to an abnormal lev- 

 el, Northern Pacific advancing from 56 to 78 

 and Oregon Transcontinental from 34|- to 51. 

 Mr. Vanderbilt entered the market as a buyer 

 and called in his loans, with the effect of ad- 

 vancing Michigan Central from 77 to 96-J-. The 

 high prices were not long maintained. A bull 

 movement started in the beginning of Novem- 

 ber soon gave out. At the close of the year 

 dissensions among the railroads caused a re- 

 newed depression. The Northern Pacific stocks 

 and Union Pacific fell oft' among other stocks, 

 and in some cases the lowest level was reached. 



The total sales of stocks at the New York 

 Stock Exchange during the year 1883 were 

 96,037,905 shares, against a total of 113,720,- 

 665 shares in 1882, 113,392,685 in 1881, 97,- 

 200,000 in 1880, and 74,166,652 in 1879. 

 The most active stock during 1883 was Dela- 

 ware, Lackawanna, and Western, of which 

 nearly 16,000,000 shares were dealt in, exceed- 

 ing in amount thirty times the capital stock. 



The following is a list of quotations of the 

 leading stocks on or about Jan. 1, 1882, 1883, 

 and 1884: 



