The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-05-31
COMMERCIAL.

The currents Of trade are moving sluggishly.
and during the past week the volume OF trade
has not been large in any department.
DRY GOODS.
Merchants report limited sales. Prices,
however, are essentially unchanged, and the
opinion prevails that values for domestic
goods have touched bottom, and that an early
reaction is more than probable. This opinion
is predicated in a large measure upon the
large sale recently made in New York by IL e
aution house of Field, Morris, Fenner & Co.,
which was in every respect successful. The
New York Evening Post says: The number
of packages sold was 500; the amount adver-
tised to be sold was $500, and, as was the case
at the great ats sale on Tuesday, through the
such was the demand that a very large
amount of goods were sold which have not yet
been finished at the mills. The prices obtain
ed yesterday averaged about 10 per cent. be-
low the nominal quotations in this market
before the great auction sales this week,
put at which nominal quotations even com
paratively small amounts OF goods could not
be moved. IL Is, in considering the unprece-
denied sale of domestic goods at auction this
week they having aggregated nearly twenty
i've thousand pack ages). 10 be borne in mind
that when these goods were made cotton was
about three cents per pound higher than 1t is
now At the present cost of cotton these goods
can be probably manufactured at the prices
which II is demonstrated an almost unlimitei
amount of them will command when offered
to the trade of the country under clrcum-
stances most advantageous for the buyers.
The auction sales of this week, therefore, not
merely make a bottom for the market and
quicken business, but give encouragement 10
| the capital as well as the labor so extensively
employed in cotton manufactures. The great
success of these auction sales raises the ques-
ton whether the methods which have so long
been in use by manufacturers for the distrtbu-
ton of their goods can not be improved by reg
ularly holding trade sales throush the auction
houses at stated times during the year. The
| entire trade OF the country Is represented at
these sales, and the goods pass directly land In
| amounts which so distribute credits as TO make
| them as near safe as possible) into the hands
i OF dealers who have place for the goods, who
| know their home markets thoroughly and the
i wants Of 1t. With the auction method Of dis
trfDution there Is no congestion of goods and,
| as said, credits are distributed. These sales Of
domestics are exceptional, the great bulk OF
auction sales being OF imported fabrics. 1t Is
safe TO say that e-hfth and possibly one.
| fourth OF all the foreign dry goods imported
| this year have been sold through the auction
rooms, whichf fact, as well as the sales of do
mestlcs this week. shows to our manufacture
ers the efficiency of the auction system as q
means of distributing merchandise.
GRoCRkIEs.
The trade in this department Is represented
as quiet, though q fair demand for goods In re-
ported, and prices have undergone but little
change since the date OF our last weekly re-
view of the market. II anything, coffees are
shade lower. Sugars are stesdy, In other