The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-22
From the Detroit Advertiser, Oetobft 0.
1837-1857.

Young men, whose recollection ex ENDS not
back to that period, but who have heard older
ones talk about it, are apt to Inquire if the
present collapse, is like that of l837-shst great
legendary epoch of financial Infringement
Certainly, as far as Michigan is cAncerned,
there is hardly any analogy between the two
periods. To start with, IS a prominent and
distinctive mark of difference, then thsproducer
from the earth was in the power OF the mer.
chant, the banker, and everybody Use, who
saw fit to buy what he raised. During the hard
times which followed 1887, if faimer had
twenty bushels of wheat to cell, he would drag
it perhaps forty miles, and spend the whole day
in . trading it out" at sons four.corAer store,
in which there might be perhaps five hundred
dollars worth of dry goods, and 8s much more
In groceries, boots and sbOes, 2rockery and
hardware. If ne wanted nails or glass, leather,
salt, plaster, or iron, his wheat woulf not buy
them-not even at three shillings tbs bushel.
His other products, except perhaps autter, he
kept at home, because it did not signify to draw
them to the store. His corn, oats, potatoes,
pork, beef, mutton, aud all the $rtid es which
20 to make up the minor branches OF farming,
he could consume or do anything hi pleased
with, except to sell them-that tbin( was out
of the question, even for the meager onsidera-
ton of shop-work dry goods. Here there is
found one most remarkable and bro5 distinc-
ton, between the times twenty years ago and
the present-for how is it pow ? j is true,
that wheat the great staple of the country, is
not Immediately marketable .becsase of money
arrangements, but it can only be had from the
farmer for the best of funds, while ALMOST every
other article which he raises bringS cash at
high prices. The country has settled, villages
have grown up, cities have thicketed in popu-
lation, and extended their limits, railroads have
he
and West, North and South, and by all these
means a great army of consumers, who are
noDsproducers, have grown up, whose CON-
missariat is In the hands of the farmess of the
State. Hence the farmer of Michigan is to-day
selling his pork in the hog. for ,;old, at eight
dollars by the hundred, his butt sr at twenty
cents, his beans at twenty sbilli ogs, and his
beet, mutton, and poultry, at prices which make
h;m rich, while they make tie butter poor. He
cannot bring barrel of cider O, a bushel of
apples to market, but what he finds himself be-
sIeged upon every prominent confer by buck.
sters or forestallers, so that in eight cases out
OF ten be never goes to market at all. His
wood is as good as gold, at prices which few
years ago were considered high IN New Eng.
land, where it is mostly cut of; lis hay, plen.
ty as it is, finds ready markets ard if he takes
a fancy for horseraising the mop,ent his colts
are fairly halter broke, he fRds four specula.
tor, bank director, lawyer, or railrt ad operator
ready to pay him four prices, upoa the remote
hope of getting 2.4O out of the animal,
The difference, then, as regards Michigan
and her great staple of population, between
1887 and 1857, is, 4" that the boot a. on the other
teg=" Then the farmers were the bsggars. Now
they bid fair to beggsr everybody but them.
selves. Then they were the servants of the
times, now they are the masters. Their really
| independent present condition eviacee the fact.
that the present hardship is all fictitious and
needless. To say that a. country, the basis of
| the existence and prosperity of Whicsl ia aeri
culture, is full to OVERLOOKING With a rich and
| abundant harvest of the articleE of life. for
which there exists demand, both at home
and abroad-to say tina; such a country need
be the subject of financial distress is 10 stultifv
the hrst and most elementary psopastion in
pohheal economy. Any schoolbey k0ows bet
| Ter But the sweetest wine Ia sur, to>make the
sourest vinegar; and when politicians, specu.
lators, bankers, brokers, railroad operators.
\ drsssy women, and extravsgant aouSeholders,
to the number of some millions, .akS notion
TO put their heads together, and uaite their eff
iorts 70 common purpose, there "a No knowing
now mucn mischief they can accC mpsish. This
tey nave Done. Extravaganza, as q national
| Vioe, mas absolutely run mad, of lite; and men
aud women have We'd with each other in the
ba,etul race. But there is anotl ,er and more
geserSH aspect In which the con patison, sug-
carried out In 1887, the banit s6snens;on
throughout the country was generil. and almost
universal. The old Bank of st. Clsir. in this
Stale, used to boast that she neve, suspended
If Se, 1t is probable the reason co assisted in her
NJ t'having any currency out The FOLLOWING
st3tement presents a comparative view of the
c. edition of the banks then and n w, in respect
to*specie, circulation, and capital as COMPLIED
frsp the New York Courier and En,uirer:
lseTs Specie Circtaatio l. CAPITAL
| lcD-JD Sl0O2OpO Sl4O3OOO0 S251 So 900
| 1920 052OoOOO 17615OO 70 37396OOOO