New-York tribune., 1879-01-16
4 PyRfOD or FlfILrPES.

The commercial history of the last siy years
is one OF failure In that one word dleary
volumes are cpitOmIzed. Failure Of corpora
tons and municipalities TO pay interest on
bonds amounting to over 81, 100 900 /;
failure of merchants and manufacturers, 40
17j in number, to meet liabilities amounting
TO 81 POI ,Ojg207. Failure to defeat the
eternal laws of nature and OF trade by un-
limited speculation, extension of credit, and
continual mprtgagng Of the future 70 meet
or hide the losses Of The past. The hi2l-tidc
of imitation and advance i'll prices was reached
in 1872. The collapse in 1873 has been fol-
lowed by many struggles, both political and
financial, to bring back the condition oi
boundless hope and rampant speculation
which the collapse had terminated. Specula-
ton had made everybody rich in dreams
Imitation, it Was thought, wOnld hft everybody
ont of the mire Of actual bankruptcy. The
efforts failed. More money was poured
out. both BY the Treasury and by the banks,
without avail. Enormous extensions Of credit
saved thousands OF firms and corporations
from bankruptcy for a time, only 20 make
the losses of creditors more heavy in the end.
Thus the cilcular of the Mercantile Agency,
and for five preceding years, is in condensed
form The history of this dismal period.
In 1878, the number of failures was
1O.47S iu the United States, and 551 in Can
ada. III no ether year i'll the history OF the
country has the number been as large; IN
1876 1t was only 9.092, and i'll 1873 only
5.1G3. The Mercantile Agency itself, though
IT may naturally be inclined to wish that the
number of traders may increase. expresses
the conviction that large proportion of re-
cent failures has been due to the excessive
number Of firms in business. 1t holds that Z" the
"nunIber remaining in trade Is too great by
" far III proportion to the volume of business
to be transactcd;' and that the existing
trade is "barely sufficient for the support Of
"ouc- half Of the number engaged That the
number is excessive is undoubtedly true but
il seems an cXaggcratlon to say that a rcduc-
tion of one-half could be effected without
deriving the community OF important ad-
vantage, which are now secured by more
active competition. The aggregate Liabilities
Of firms failing last year were 1924, 1888, ,132,
and this exceeds the record of any previous
year. In 1878 the liabilities only reached
$22S, S,JS9, 900.
In every section Of the country the proper
ton of failures to firms in business was
greater III 1878 than in 1877, and in nearly
two thirds of the States 1t was greater than
IN 1876, the year III which the general
proportion was highest. In AcwYork City,
however, the ratio WAS highest i'll 1875, viz. ~
i'll 900. and was higher IN every other year
since 1872 than IN 1873, when il was % in
.OOO In Rhode Island the proportion Was
greatest IN 1876, viz. 2s.2 III !, 200, and WAS
only 25.3 last year. IN Maryland 1t was much
lower than usual-S9 in 900 last year, against
12.4 in 1876. In every other Eastern and
Middle State the proportion of failures to firms
was greater in 1878 than in 1876, reaching
2j2 in 1000 III Massachusetts,, 22.3 in Con-
necticut, 1919 i'll Pennsylvania, 1872 III New
York outside of this city. and SO in New-Jer-
scy On the other hand, in four OF the ten
Western States, and seven of the thirteen
Southern States, the proportion OF failures in