22 Ira Ryiier 



fully as severe a crisis as was experienced in England ; and we 

 find the Bank of France getting assistance from the Bank of 

 England. The distress resulting from the crisis was continued 

 through the revolution in 1848. 



In the United States, as previously shown, the crisis 'was very 

 slight and did not come until as late as 1848. The prolongation 

 of the crisis of 1839 ^"cl the consumption of surplus capital in 

 the Mexican war were strong forces working to avert the crisis. 

 Furthermore, we were having fairly good crops, while in Europe 

 they were deficient. One writer attributes what little distress 

 we experienced to the cutting off of the demand for cotton as a 

 result of the revolution in France.^ 



CRISIS OF 1857 



. The crisis of 1857 is distinguished from the two preceding 

 crises by the absence of any premonition of an 'approaching ca- 

 lamity. In England up to the very outbreak of the crisis business 

 was apparently in a healthy condition. There were several -po- 

 litical disturbances on the Continent — the intervention of Russia 

 in Hungary, the French expedition to Rome, and the disturbances 

 throughout Germany, not to speak of the war in the Punjaub, — 

 but these could not be regarded as causes nor even signs of a 

 panic. ^ The first crisis impulse came from the United States, and 

 that not until six weeks after the movement had started there. 



In the United States as in England the crisis was not preceded 

 by any warning. The first alarm soimded was the actual failure 

 on the 25th of August of the Ohio Life and Trust company, sup- 

 posedly one of the soundest institutions in the country. By the 

 17th of October, 150 American banks had failed.^ The crisis 

 came suddenly, was very severe, and was -notorious for bank 

 failures. 



If, however, we turn to trade and banking statistics we find 

 conditions conducive to a crisis. -Comparing the years 1857 and 



* Balfour, Merchants Magazine, vol. XVIII, 477. 



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

 'Macleod, History of Banking in England, 159. 



164 



