The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-06-26
Tho Commerce OF New Nork-comfort
for the Cr0a kers.


The Chamber of Commerce has just pub
lished its annual report, a document always
of great value but Of unusual interest this
year. We cannot give even summary OF
IFS various contents and must restrict our
notice to one salient feature. Among the
features of these annual reports the most
instructive is their careful statistical re-
view of every leading branch Of trade, pre-
pared by leading merchants or other experts
specially conversant with that branch,
as, for example, in the volume be-
fore US the tea trade is reviewed
by A. A. Low Brothers, the tobacco
trade by III. RAIDER Il Son, the wool trade
by Abraham Mills, and SO on through list
I, of nineteen of the chief articles of our COM
MERGE. These yearly trade reviews are val
liable, because they are precise and trust
! worthy. 1t is impossible to dispute them
because they consist Of official figures given
| in detail. An attentive examination OF
them will be profitable to the large class. OF
loose takers and writer's who have been for
the last few years bewailing the loss OF it's
commerce by New York city in consequence
of its diversion to rival ports. We find
nothing in the figures to justify these
hysterical lamentations. The reliable Stats
! tics of the Chamber Of Commerce prove
beyond question that the lugubrious view
! so constantly put forth is chimera.
! The only branch of trade in which we
suffer any serious loss, rs compared with
| other American cities, is the tea trade. This
l 1tc erCu, hal oo OF fan ic m m
| so light in proportion to its value that it
will bear carriage for long distance by rail.
| Tea for Am erican consumption now comes
| by o comparatively short sea route to San
Francisco and thence over the Pacific Rail-
road It would be waste and folly to send it
| by rail to the Atlantic seaboard and then back
again by rail to the Mississippi Valley for
Western consumption. "Of the IA, 5O0,0 600
pounds shipped by the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company last season but one-half has
come through to the seaboard, and the cap
ital hitherto invested in this business is
being gradually transferred to Chicago"
| But aside from this loss of the tea trade
| New York holds its own remarkably well.
1t has had larger proportion both Of the
/
the preceding year-a showing which, in the
| language OF the report under notice. eff not
brilliant is at least not discouraging" The
sugar trade was not fourishing, the decrease
| in the deliveries for consumption being
| q, 900 tons below those OF the preceding
! year, but this was not owing to diversion
OF the sugar trade to other ports, but to "a
/ q ~ct 1ox Il
In this branch of commerce New York has
| increased her share of the importation, re-
ceiving ~ per cent of all the sugar inn
ported into the United States, against
6S 3-S per cent in 1875 and 60 per cent In
| 1874. There was diversion of the coffee
trade to other cities couple of years ago,
but this report of the Chamber of Com
melce shows that it has been recovered.
The coffee trade has resumed its usual
channel, 'sthe imports into New York show
ing a large increase, while those to the
other ports largely declined" The deliver
les of coffee in this port for the last year
exceeded those of 1875 by 100000
pounds, or about nine per cent "The to-
bacco trade" says the report, "shows q
large increase, the receipts and deliveries
having been nearly double what they were
in 1875" The exports of manufactured to-
bacco from this port were 35 per cent in ex-
cess of the preceding year. The foregoing
statements and figures relate chiefly to the
import trade.
The review Of the export trade published
by the Chamber of Commerce does not show
that New York is decaying city. The ex-
ports of cotton from all the ports of the
United States amounted to 1852, 904 bales
an increase Of sos, 594 over those of the pre-
ceding year. Of this crop New York re-
ceived 1871, 1893 bales over its receipts of the
preceding year, whereas there was a falling
off at Boston, falling off at Baltimore,
and only slight increase at Philade-
phia OF the cotton exported New York
sent 494,374 bales, against 41517
bales the preceding year. an in
crease of 10 per cent in the cotton
export from New York. There is similar
increase in the exports OF beef and pork, the
increase from this city being nine per cent,
while the exports of beef and pork from the
whole country have fallen off more than ten
per cent This does not look az if rival
cities are taking away the trade OF New
York. The statistics of the grain trade tell
the same story. While the total exports of
wheat from the whole country were only
five per cent greater than in 1876, the share
Of New York increased from twenty-four
millions of bushels to thirty-one millions,
or about thirty per cent We suppose no.
body will undertake to impeach the accuracy
of these figures, and, assuming that they
are correct, we do not as yet see any occa-
sion for despairing OF the future of New
York.