On the Crises of i8j/, 184J, and 18^/ 9 



increased from 445 to 720 bales, the price rising at the same time 

 from II cents to 14 cents. ^ 



To sum up with regard to permanent environmental changes, 

 the crisis of i<S37 was characterized in England by construction 

 of railways and formation of joint-stock banks; in France by the 

 formation of literary companies, there being no striking changes ; 

 and in the United States by the construction of railways, the for- 

 mation of banks, and the extension of crop areas on the frontier. 



CRISIS OF 1847 



The crisis of 1847 "^^''is in England and France distinctly a 

 railway crisis. In England, according to Levi, enormous sums 

 of capital had accumulated in the country, the necessity for the 

 investment of which started off railway speculation.- As an 

 indication of the extent to which investment went it is estimated 

 that from 1833 to 1844 £60,000,000 of savings by the people had 

 been invested in railway enterprises.^ From 1838 to 1851 the 

 mileage increased from 490 to 6,890. From 1836 to 1846, 1,577 

 railway acts were passed authorizing the expenditure of the enor- 

 mous sum of £694,406,000, of which £560,000,000 was author- 

 ized for the single year 1846.* The rage for railway speculation 

 pervaded all classes. "So extensively had the railway mania 

 penetrated into the crevices of all classes in the community," 

 says Crump, "that old and young, men and women, pensioners, 

 public functionaries, in every street and in every town in the 

 kingdom were to be found proprietors, of shares."^ 



Railways, however, did not enjoy a complete monopoly of in- 

 vestment. Numerous joint-stock companies were formed which 

 varied in degrees of importance from companies for the manu- 

 facture of concentrated tea to companies for financiering great 

 railway enterprises. 



1 Sumner, A History of Bavkin_s[ in all tlie Leading Nations; vol. I, A 

 History of Banking in the United States, 259. 

 ^ "Levi, History of British Commerce, 302. 



2 Crump, The Key to the Londoti Money Market, 32. ' 



■•Levi, History of British Commerce, 303. 

 * Crump, The Key to the London Money Market, 33. 



