New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-13

4
Be salabe st any price, and the common rate was
l2ic TO Csc, fresh or dried.
| We have no certain data for the rates of beef
cattle on foot at Cincinnati thirty years ago, bu.
thick it was about equal 10 &c. to &c. a pound for
| the meat IN the quarters. And these low rates
are Lot confined TO Cincinnati or the West for
they were corresponiiDgy low in this city. There
! are many persons who are still in active business
| here who can recollect very wei When the New
! York Bulls Head vas in the BOwery, at the place
where the Theater now stands, aud when bee7es
were sold there at prices not exceeding &c. TO %.
pound for the beet in the quarters, and when
other animals designed for the shamb.es bare cor
responding prices, and when butchers meats bore
very diferen. value, as compared with the stand
ard Of gold and silver, from VIA: they do at the
close OF the year 1856
Now hat the present prices are not spasnodic,
uor attributable 70 the ordinary fluctuations oftrade,
nor to the short crops Of any year, nor TO the ID
creased foreign demand nor 70 the dyerson OF tr ide
in cattle in any unusual direction nor TO an unusual
short supply for this year. r. an increase of cir
culating medium, We think We shall be able to sho Y.
According to the opinion Of good judges aud men
of long experience, the general average price OF
beeves, sheep and swine, in November aud De
cember, ha. never ranged so high throughout the
country as i: has this year. The general quality
ha. rever ranged higher in this city, while the
numbers weekly reported will prove most ab ln-
dant supply. Then wha; is the Cause Of the con-
tinued and gradual advancement of prise and is it
L .ba han
we shal return to the good Old times of cheap
roast beef and when the OTdlasry fluctuations IN
trade shall establish corresponding prices with those
have stated These are mpOtt ant questions, aud
We know that many persons consider the present
prices Of meats eIOrbitant and unreasonable, simply
because they are so much higher than they have
BEEN accustomed 10, without even thinking they
are 20 only as the work of "speeulstOrs, and that
90 soon as that work ceases the price will run
down the scale to the old standard.
In that they Will be disappointed, Meas IN the
United States will never again be sold, general
thing, at the prices we have quoted in this article;
and the reason which We shall give is one that no
merchant or political economist will dispute, be
cause it is based upon that fundamental rule-the
existing relation Of demand aud supply. The de-
mand in any market-:Own in the country cannot
remain single month in such relation to the supply
as materially to increase the price, vi hout bringing
from the remotest district, such supPy-and it Is
astonishing how rapidly the animals side down the
inclined plane from the mountains and plains OF the
interior-that the price becomes equalzed, less the
cost Of transit all over the country. Then why
don's We get our beef, and pork and mutton
cheaper 7" is the question naturally arising in every
mind which does not trace effect 20 lie cause
The law of demand and supply is an arbitrary
one; ard the supply Of beef cattle, mutton-'heep,
and fattcd swine beyond the reach and control OF
any speculator, or company of spectators; and
certainly none exist who have produced the present
prices.
Why, then, has the price for series OF years
continued in one general, regular progression up
the scale l; can only be accounted for by tho
fact that there has been regular dimlnutiOn in the
supply, until the natural law has increased the
price; aid the next question of any Importance IL,
whether that dimnution is permanent, sad If so,
why sol
We do not mean to be understood that there is
q real dminution Of food-produciDg animals; but
ODly relat re one to the consumers. The case s
Just this: man aud his wife. in commencing life,
fstted and killed one hog every Fall for their sup
ply Of Winter meat, and the supply was sufficient
for the demand But in due course of time there
was an increase of mouths till the number to be
filed was quadrupled, and then the one hog was
insufficient for them all, and if they had not been
conten.ed to continue to make an equitable division
of the fe.h between all the mouths, it is probable
that one would have outbid the other, and 80 en-
HANGED the price in money to those who did con-
sumo it. Now, is this the case with the people OF
The United States Has the family beco ne too
| large for the national pig-pen
| We lay il down as an axiom that domestic AMI
mails decrease as human beings increase. China is
witness of this fact, and SO is our own couotry,
though it has not generally been supposed that this
relative dimnuton had taken place in the United
States 10 degree sufficient TO permanently affect
the supply and price Of the three great food produc-
ing classes of snimals Facts derived from hsures,
which, it is SAID, though somewhat 6guratiycly,
capnet lie, prove that the dminulion has con-
menced, and the increase of prices further prove
that the supply is insufficient for the demand so
that the high prices are a legitimate result, ani
that they will not recede perm inently becomes a
moral certainty
The increase Of population relative 10 the To-
crease of animals, particularly the non producing
class of persons, such as reside in cities, or are
engaged in other emPioymenss than farming, is
much greater than we could be ieve possible, bas
for the proof of the figures found in the census re-
turns. Again, another reason Of ,hor. supply for