Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1882-06-08
From the New Yo,k j Journal of Commerce I
The Business Outlook.

Our table is covered with questions re.
latiug to the financial future. There is
evidently anxiety on the part of all who
are engaged in any department of trade as
TO the business outlook, aud m.ny of our
shrewdsst merchants and bankers a.c at
fault 10 determining their course. The
reason OF this nervousness and iudicision
is obvious. The country has passed throu,. h
a most remarkable financial experience,
unlike anything heretofore known 10 its
history. The Imports Of foreign produce
and merchandise have not been sulal, but
the exports have tcen sn enormously large
that the balance of trade has been greatly
in favor Of this country For the year
ending Deccmber 81, 1877, tho excess of
exports reached Sl6l 600. 900; for 1878
the excess was s303 600 900; for 1870 it
was Sl8i 900 600; for 1880 it was $l23.-
100000; for 1881 it was Sll4,000, 900;
and for tie first two months of 1882 il was
Sl3SS4 900. Ia March the balance
turned the other way, and the e. %
imports for the month was 2,6S2 900. In
April the excess Of imports will be two or
three times as much us 10 NJ r..i sud :,
would appear as if the tide had turned
For the previous five years the excess Of
exports had amounted 3nearly nine hun
dred millions of dollars. Asa consequence
of this excess Of exports large product
OF gold aud silver has been kept in the
country, aud there has been steady flow
Of precious metals toward our ports This
money for several years has been earning
very low rate of interest, and at our linan-
cial cen,ers large sums of money have been
begging for employment at an average of
less than half the legal rate. Iu former
periods there were intervals of an onsy
money market, but the moment the autumn
came and the crops we're to bc moved the
demand grew active, and capitalists were
each year taxed to the utmost to furnish the
needed supply. During the last few years
there have been no seasons of strngency
aud it has been impossible to make permn
neDt Investments Of an undoubtcd character
10 pay over g. or 4 per cent annual interest.
On call the lending rate in this city for
three ycars hus not averaged three per cent
and upon government stocks has ruled at
. per cest. for months together This
plethora of capital at a low rate of interest
has not been an unmixed blessing ev;n if
VIC conccdo thut on the whole it has been
productive of good. 1t has been most
trying period to persons with fixed incomes
No one whose earnings have been augmented
through Tho abundance Of capital can Justly
estimate the s.raights, the piuchins und
often sore distress in families whose old
time competence, without any waste or loss
of their property was dw,nded into
scanty hoard by the cheapness of money.
Another evil corrected with this abundance
anc cheapness of money has been tho en-
courngement of visionary or reckless en-
terprses, which would havo been no sup-
port but for the temptation they offered to
capital that was lido and seeking empoy-
ment. Many very desirable mprovcm ats
have been effected through this plethora:
but not few have anticipated their true
era by dozen years, and others which
ought never to have been encouraged have
swallowed up l,ee sums that are thus
uttcrlc wasted Tho balance of trade is
now turned against us. The imports for
the first tinc 10 long rericd have con
sidcrably exceeded tho exports, and from
present appearance this is likely to be the
ese tsr at least some mQnths to come