North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1870-06-29

Il from the Chicsgo Tribune June ~
The wheat Movement.
After long season of ,dullness in tn
wheat markets Of Europe, with CORES
ponding depression in prices on this sid
Of the Atlantic, an urgent demand ha
suddenly sprung up in England an,
France, which has sent prices up with
bound, the price of No. 2 spring, ii
this market, having advanced % cent
since the beginning of the presen
month. Strangely enough, the result
Of all this has been to cause an accum
ulation of wheat here and at Milwaukee,
so great that capitalists are staggering
under the unaccustomed load, and ye
seem almost powerless to get rid of it
1t may be interesting to glance at the
causes of this anomalous situation.
| Long continued drouth has rendered
it certain that the wheat crop of Franc.
will fall considerably below the average
and the yield Of Great Britain will also
be reduced from the same cause, though
not to SO great an extent, while. the po.
litical difficulties between Russia and
Egypt, on the one side, and Turkey on
the other, threaten to interfere with the
supply from AsiaMinor and the Crimea
which have hitherto sent large quanti-
ties of wheat to Western Europe. In
view Of these facts, the French have re-
Gently bought largely in the markets of
England and the United States, and the
movement Of wheat out of Liverpool
has been SO great as to cause a large de-
mand from that City on New York to
supply the deficiencies Of Great Britain.
The vessels which left our Atlantic ports
for Europe were soon taxed to their ut
most capacity, and the demand for ocean
freightage caused the addition of seve-
raj new vessels to existing lines. This
caused an advance in New York prices,
bat only a moderate one, as New York
dealers knew that the West was stocked
to overfowing, and feared that the ex-
ira demand would not prove equal to the
enhanced supply which would be called
out by the advance in prices.
Western prices moved upward. The
farmers at once began to pour in their
stocks, in increased volume, upon Chi
cago and Milwaukee, but many of them
began to speculate upon the situation,
and sent in large orders to buy for flu
ture delivery, in the expectation of still
greater advances, which they based on
an anticipation of short crop in many
portions of the United States. These
orders caused so much competition be-
tween buyers that the price of wheat
in our Western markets soon reached
point at which it was immpossible to
ship the grain out of Chicago, except
at heavy loss. The cost of moving
bushel Of wheat from this city to New
York, is scarcely less than % cents to-
day, including storage charges here,
whereas prices in Chicago have been on
~ 8 to 10 cents less than New York
prices, for some time past, and were on
ly IA cents less yesterday. The margin
Of loss threatening the shippers has
thus ranged from 8 to ID cents per
bushel, and it is no wonder that they
have declined to empty the elevators,
under the circumstances. Hence, while
there is scarcely more than 500, 900 |
bushels in New York to-day, the Mil
waukee storehouses contain 100000
bushels, and those of Chicago about g.
100000 bushels; and this at time of |
year when they should be nearly empty.
The consequences of this over-specu-
lation can scarcely be otherwise than
disastrous. Already some of the banks |
are refusing to lend money for the pur-
pose of carrying wheat in this city. The |
necessary result of this will be an equal
ization of prices between the East and
West. IF New York prices do not ad-
vance, those of the West must recede
till the grain can be moved away with
out loss to the shippers. This conside-
ration evidently had some weight yes
tcrday, as was shown in decline of full
ly two cents per bushel. It will be we'll |
if the inequality be removed speedily !; |
otherwise we may expect repetition of
the disastrous experiences of 1868-69,
when wheat was accumulated in nearly |
the same way, and dropped from the
neighborhood of 81 in September, 1868 |
to % cents last winter.
N