Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-09-01
Annual Statement Of the Trade and
Manufactures OF Memphis.
Our Growth and Progress as a Com
mercial COmmunity-0ur
Railroad System.
Increase of Manufactures Increase
in Sales-eaIn in Cotton. :
Finance---Debt Of the United States,
of Tennessee, Of Shelby County,
of Memphis.
Important Facts Concerning the City
This Future Reviewed.
ETC., ETC., ETC.
Important Facts Concerning the City
---thJ Future Reviewed.

other cites, a OF COLuIuoTCs
or Board of Trade may be, and is,
resorted TO to furnish the informatin
whichh would enable us to insti-
tute a parallel betweent this and
the preceding year, but unfortunately
for the interests of Memphis this is i'm
possible to us, as the books Of Cham
Der an institution only tolerated by our
merchants) nave not been kept with the
degree OF care and certainty which sig
nalizsd the first two years Of its existence,
and afforded Memphis business men an
opportunity of knowing accurately what
they had done, what they might do, and
could, by increased exertion. This fail
ure on the part of the Chamber of Com
merce we sought to overcome by refer
ence to the books of the United States
Assessor, or Collector of Internal Rev
enue, the books of the County Court, or
those of the City Tax Collector. But at
all we found ourselves baked Of our pur-
pose. We could not get at the actual fig
ures. The amount Of cotton handled does
not tally with the '~'sales'' of merchandise
returned. In former years we learned
to estimate our trade transactions as one
half greater than the whole value of the
cotton sold. That is, the merchandise by
wholesale and retail, and the msnufsc-
lures of Memphis sold in any n year ex-
eeeded, by so per cent, the whole amount
Of cotton receipts, which have always
been the basis of our trade. Search where
we would we could not realize this pro-
portion of sales to the cotton handled in
IS69-7O, and We are forced to the conclu-
sion that the returns to city, county,
State, and to the United States officers are
below, in many instances, fully one-half
the actual figures. We say this in the in
terest of Memphis. Other cities boast of
the aggregate OF their trade transactions.
They point with pride to their sales of
merchandise; they show what their in
crease is every year, and call attention to
their grand totals as illustrating their ex-
ertion and expressing their worth as CON-
mercisl centers. Cincinnati gives her sta
tistics of trade and invites comparison of
it with that of st. Louis, Chicago or Lou
isville. She gives figures and facts, that
cannot be ~gsinsayed, TO prove that hers is
a steady and not a ~fuctusting growth in
everything that can advance her popula-
ton. If Memphis would make a like inn
preston, if she would prove to the peo-
pie of the surrounding country that she
is advancing, she must give actual results
and not mere guesses. Her Chamber of
Commerce and her merchants should be
able to afford a correct statement of their
yearly transactions in groceries, dry
goods. drugs, irOn-ware, etc, just as the
Chamber of Commerce is able to present,
even to a bale, the actual receipts and
sales of the staple, the banks of their
capital, the insurance companies of their
increase of assets, or the city authorities
Of the condition of Memphis finances. If
we advertise to the world, as we do, that
Memphis has sold s. 900, 900 more cotton
this year than last, we produce results for
our city just such as we should did we
advertise a prOportianate increase in the
business of any of our merchants. On
the principal that "to him who hath shall
be given" the world patronizss the pros
porous man sndthe growing city, By dint
of advertising, the wonderful growth of
Memphis before the war, the newspapers
Of our city induced every year up TO 1861,
a twenty-fold increase in population,
taxable wealth and trade. There is moth
ing like printers ink. Nothing like adj
vertising. Chicago is what she is to-day,
by that agency, in great part, and a lib
eral use of it has built Cincinnati, and
threatens to foster in st. Louis a
rival that may outstrip them both.
In this belief we began the labor
Of this Annual Statement, which, if it
is not perfect, iii does not accomplish for
as what we desire, is all that those in
whose interest it is published, would per-
NIT US to make it.
We do not desire to magnify our office,
but we do seek to impress upon this COM
munity the value of correct and
complete statistics Of trade. They
foster and encourage Of fsvorable)
the pride OF our citizens; they
stimulate exertion, induce increase of
population and Of friends, and expand
our influence far beyond n present
limit. To what extent the statistics of
our trade, first accurately given BY Mr..
John 5. Toof in 1861, might have i'm
pressed the world, we cannot say, except
by comparison of what was accomplished
by the partial and incorrect reports given
by the press before that date. But we
believe that had the war not interviewed,
it would have given an impetus to our
growth impossible in these slow-coach
days to ~reali1e. In that year t1S6O-6D the
receipts OF cotton were S69,6Ss bales, and
the total sales of merchandise
and manufactures, S5I,750,0O0. The
price Of cotton averaged, for Middling,
throughout that year at l0@l0H. During
the year under review, we received 29O,-
737 bales OF cotton, which were sold on al
average basis Of about 22Kc for middling,
netting us fully one-third more money
than the crop of '6O-6I. With these fig
ures and facts before as, surely We cannot
be asked to believe-in face Of an inereas-
ing trade, of increased facilities for trade,
Of an increased number of firms in trade,
an increased demand upon our exertions,
and a population double that Of 1851, that
the sales Of imported and manufactured
goods for this year of 1S69-7e are less than
S45, 200, 900, a figure that, do what we viii,
we cannot reach, owing to the failure
upon the part of those whose duty it
should be to furnish accurate statistics.
But we believe that our sales are rot one
dollar less. The cotton sold this year will
foot up fully $780, 900, 900 in value. Taking
former years Qeaving out the exception
Ally prosperous year Of 1860 -6D as exam
pies, we are forced to the conclusion that
our sales are fully s45,OOO,O00 In this
conclusion we think all OK most of our
readers viii concur when they shall have
read the incomplete list OF imports for
this year elsewhere printed and compape
them with those of the preceding year.
We close this preface by assurances that
in making the structures We have been
compelled to, We do not make any
personal application of them, and
publish them only with a view to the
welfare and prosperity Of a community
Of which the APPEAL ,ims to be a faithful