The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1878-01-16

chant OF the times his health failed,
however. aud he died in a few years. IL
was matter of doubt what his ultimate
success would have been, whether he
would have proved millionaire or bank
rupt lie commenced merchandising at
the commencement Of a prosperous pc
riod property Of all kinds continued to
rise in value, whilst the Improvements
in machinery in manufacturing, and the
great reduction in the tariff on foreign
merchandise, had so reduced the price of
goods bought at wholesale, that mcr~
chants could sell goods at retail at heavy
profit, and yet have the credit of selling
them DIRT cheap, as their customers
thought and said This prosperous pc
riod continued during the whole of Mr..
ElliOt's tine OF merchandising, his estate
wound up with a very large surplus for
his heirs and left also a very formidable
| list at insOlvent debts which were an en-
tire loss although the stfictest vigilance
WIS used in making collections.
Mr.. Ellioti's death was much lamen,ed
by the community; he was highly
esteemed as citizen; had considerable
literary Taste and allainmenIs, liberia and
generous in his dea lings 1t is useless
now to speculate what wouli have been
his fl nancial success had he lived to pass
the panics aud pressure of the year.
lS37-42-60 and rs, which have not only
tried mems souls, but merchants s)l,
vency
Daring the time and shortly afte- the
close OF Mr.. Ell;otts career va 'ious
other stores were started ia Hartford;
among them were Logan Walkers.
Larkin a John G. Nails, John Phipps'
W. ~ W. Phipps. and Crow Il Taylor,
who carried on a long career of melchan-
disIng with varied success-all Of whom
escaped insolvency, but none of whom
became miilionailes-and all have given
place to others, whose careers are too
well known to the present generation TO
be OF any interest to the general reader
The great drawback upon the cons
mercial success Of this county has been
the credit system. The time was when ]
the credit system was almost a necessity, |
or at least thought 10 be so. Our sole |
market was at New Orleans; the produce
of this country was only shipped there
at one season ofthe year, hence the farmer |
only realized ANYTHING for the products Of
his farm annually, but he had to buy his
supplies at all seasons-instead of being |
a year in advance he was always year
behind. and had TO live on credit and pay !
AT the end of the year. A bad crop or
low market seldom failed to leave the |
farmer short OF means to pay mp at the .
cnd OF the wear, and the result was that !
he had to settle his sore bill by giving /
his note bearing interest. Ii the mer- /
chant had n heavy capital he could stand /
,his. Tor the note WAS drawing interest +; |
but seldom the farmer could, for he was |
too apt to extend his credit SO far that he .
would finally have TO be sued and har- |
raised If not entireiv broken up.
But this was not the only evil attend
ing the crediing system; it threw the
whole trade into the hands of heavy cap
italists; they ,ould afford to iadulge
their Gus, ome,s and sill keep up sup
ply of goods; but lhe merchant with
small capital soon credited ont his stock
on hand and could not collect enough to
replenrh. and hence was compelled to
suspend business, and throw The whole
trade INFO the hands of the more wealthy
merchant who could sell goods at his
own exorbiiant prices.
Upon review of the difficulties and
disadvantages attending the credit sys-
,em, both 10 the merchants and their
customers, it is astonishing that 1t is
sill persisted in 10y so many. BY it the
merchant handles his capital only once
year, and. even in old times, wher
there was little or no property exempt
from execution, all prudent merchants
put on at least twenty-five per cent. TO
cover losses on insClvent debts, for no
matter how prudent a man was. expe,
rience proved that their losses seldom fell
short OF that per cent, aud now, since
such large amount OF property is ex-
empt from execution. it is even doubtful
whether one hundred per cent. would be
even a safe margin to cover losses in that
way; especially now that it has become
so easy a matter for roguos and rascals
TO become redeemed, purified, and bap>
tized in that font of redemption and paris
ication-d court Of Bankruptcy
TO BE CONTINUED.