Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-12-01

In the face of these facts comes the
important news from England of the fail
ure of number of firms engaged in the
| grain trade, many of them with extensive
American connections. These failures are,
| no doubt, the result Of unsuccessful efforts
made on both sides of the Atlantic TO
check the decline in grain, which has
been steadily falling for some time. These
facts show that there must have been a
larger supply of wheat in England than
the returns collated from the Marx Lane
Express would indicate. If there had
been the scarcity which the imports into
England would indicate, there would have
been no failures caused by efforts to hold
the market up. We are therefore bound
to accept the theory that the largely in
creased fall shipments to England have
oYerstocked the market of that country,
and that the decline in prices is the natu-
raj result of this state of affairs. As
England is the largest importer of our
surplus crops, the quotations there rule the
whole market, and the farmers in this coun-
try must feel the consequences of probable
continuance of the present low rates in
Liverpool and London. The recent failures
in. England must discourage any opera
tons for a rise for some time to come, as
there are no present indications of an i'm
mediate cessation of the causes that pro-
duced the decline. Touching the fall in
grain and what it will lead to, the United
States Economist New York; of Nov.
q says:
The causes of the low prices of grain
are to be primarily attributed to the large
y increased yield of the present year.
Our total cereal product in 1868 is esti-
mated at 1,405, 449, 900 bushels. OF
these, OF, 033, 900 bushels were wheat.
Probably total of $4,000, 600 bushels
would be an entirely safe estimate for
1869. This increase, with the large sur
plus of last years crop, would 60 far to
account for the decline in prices. But
besides the increase of wheat we have
had heavy crops of all kinds of food.
Even corn, in spite of reports to the con
trary, will equal, if it does not excel, last
years crops. This large surplus of other
kinds of produce must, of course, excr-
else depressing influence on cereals.
Another cause of the decline in prices
is to be found in the blunder of the farm
ers in holding back their crops last year.
This policy resulted in the loss of the eX-
port trade last season, thus accommodating
a surplus, which produced fall in prices
The farmers this fall rushed into the op-
pOsite extreme, and hurried forward their
crops on falling market The artificial
scarcity of currency produced by the
September gold panic did the rest. The
result is that prices, in currency, are now
below the average rates in gold before the
war, and breadstuffs are cheaper, so far
at least as the producers are concerned,
than at any period for ten years, except
in 1862. Wheat is now so low that, in
many districts in the West, farmers find
it more profitable to feed it to hogs than
to send it to market. This course will
result in an increase of production that
viii soon bring meats down to rates cor
responding TO the price of cereals.
The following table shows the receipts
at, and exports from, New York from
September l to November 90, 1869, as
compared with the corresponding period
last year: