The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-07-21
COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL.
BUSINESS PROSPECTS.
From the Phtl. Ledger.

Trade ana business QAV6 eNlu6uIIy
reached a point that must be followed
bv important results. The stock OF
cotton in this country has become so
much reduced that all that will come
to market in the next three or four
months will be scarcely more than so-
fficient to keep the spindleS OF this
country In operation In the current
time. Here arise three or four import
ant questions. Will cotton goods sutt1-
ciently advance to justify spinners In
Importing cotton from Liverpool2 In
the competition for cotton to what prt-
ces will it advance ? In the "crushtng
out" process, exposed by Senator
Sprague, to which the smaller spinners
are being subj cted, what effect will It
have upon public and private credit
and the money market? How long can
our great manufacturers go on piling
up goods produced at loss2 1t is be-
lieved that the credit system is being
abused, partly by merchants, and
tradere, owing to great competition
within the last half year to
make sales, and partly owing to
which goods are sold to go to distance
this latter being more specially appli.
cable to the trade of New York and
Boston. Everybody comedies the great
loss OF the product Of industry by rea.
son OF the war, as we'll as the loss Of
source of production, and which only
years can replace. Much has been
done by immigration, the average for
the last thirteen years being about I2S,-
600 per year-which for the eight years
since the breaking out of the war, gives
l,774, 600. Still there has been great loss
over and above that made up from Inn
migration that has never been recover
ed or compensated for in any practical
way, and this loss must be made up by
industry. The country has been saved,
thus far, from q financial convulsion,
for the reason that the Government
has assumed this entire loss itself: The
industry of the country has been draw
ing on the future, and. as means OF
meeting accruing Emergencies, we
have before US huge debt OF two thou
sand five hundred millions OF dollars,
which the industry of the people car
ries at an annual interest charge or six
per cent, in gold. There has been no
general breaking down among indi-
rule, business for most OF the time
since the breaking out OF the
war has been carried on for cash or
very short credit. Individual Iiabtli-
ties have not been large, oonsequen
few, comparatively, have failed. The
banks all over the country nave never
made SO much and lost SO little as with
in the last six or eight years. But there
is a change in prospect, and cotton 1s
likely to have its share in producing 1t.
All prices are enormously high, and yet
each are so adjusted to others that It Is
difficult to see where to take the first
step downward. Some people argue
that because cotton goods cost more
| than they are now bringing, they must
therefore advance. This by no means
follows. 1t has appeared for the past
year that, though favored by cheaper
breadstufts, more cotton goods nave
been manufactured than could be sold,
even when prices were reduced below
cost. Hence the tempting process OF
forcing sales by offers of credit, and
lust here is exposed the magazine, that
if continued to be fed with that i'm
f1amable material, undue credit, must
eventually explode and engulph us
all. Nor can this explosion be long de.
layed. The only safety is an avoid
ance of debt. Prices begin to show q
weakening, though still enormous
ly high for certain necessaries.
Real estate, usually the last to rise, is
generally the first to fall and real es-
state in every direction Is lower. Much
city property is advertised to let at
lower rates, and there are already 1ndl-
cations, in both city and country, that
at the close of the present summer there
will be more real estate on the market
for sale than in the same time for sew
eral years. Breadstuffs are also lower,
and though all kinds of provisions
keep up, the vegetable productions are
yielding in price with grsin. In the
British provinces potatoes are quoted
at twenty-five cents bushel, and in
this market, where, within year they
have sold at one dollar and fifty cents
per bushel, they are now Offering, and
OF very fine quality, at that price per
barrel. Fruits are exceedingly abun-
dant and are necessarily low, compared
with the last two or three years. All
these facts point to coming down OF
time when it is most desirable to be out
of debt-because decline of prices is
but another term for the appreciation
of money. While every dollar is more
valuable as the price of labor or its pro-
ducts decrease, it will only pay one dol
lar of debt.