The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1884-02-06
3awaiian 6azrtte.
Our New York Letter


COMMERCIAL BOON AND IFS coNSESUENCES,
NV YoEN. January IL, 1854.
The wear 1875 closed with an unbrOkcn
record Of decline in prices Of leading sta
,,lc food PRODUCTS and leading articles OF
merchandise The poriod Of liquidation
which began eSrly IN 1882 has continued
fc- twenty months The topic OF the hour
among business men now Is, whether We
have rsached the bottom. The causes OF
enforced economy IN production due TO
restricted purchases On all hands, have
been too frequently outlined 10 rcQuire
| elaborate explanation. The latter half Of
1879 had witnessed several seasons Of good
crops 1t home and corrCSpCnGhUgly Shor.
haryests in Europe, The United States
had been selling abroad freely OF its sur
plus produce and this, in connection with
the SIX preceding years Of moderate pur-
chaSes by consumers had brought the
country as a whole 10 3 degree " well-to-
dOitiveness which showeditseH in rapidly
increasing demands for almost every arti-
Gle u commerce. and, by the aid OF the
still remaining high protective war tariff
On imported products stimulated our ma
tive industries in 3 marked degree, The
country had Outrun itself, somewhat IN
the 50 called boom Of lSIO-12, Fruln 1915
TO 1879 il had paid the penalty and aided
by fayuring weather and fertile soil had
laid the foundations for another squirt,
This begau IN the mud summer and fall Of
1872 OF the enormous increase IN indus.
trial producing capacity from lSSOto 1SS2
il Is unnecessary 70 speak at length. The
great railway building era Is COMPRISED IN
that period and steel rail mills were con
structe,i which enabled the railway kings
10 lsy from 1000 to l2,OOO miles Of rails
per annum. AL other industries TO aeon
siderable extent kept pace with this, and
in two or three years greatly exceeded the
home requirements. Railway building had
fallen far behind is own rccOriS, cotton
and wuOllen mills had increased their an
nuGl output until the sOods remained IN
the warehouses IN sufficient quantity TO
warn the pruprietOrs that for the time be
ing the public were stocked. To compL-
cate this, there came the new cotton mills
81 the south where the raw material was
to be obtained without paying the freight
which entered psrfurce into the accounts
Of the New England mills. In this way
competition injured the business and pruS
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employed on the class Of fabrics under
taken al the south. Failures werp not un-
known a. Il result, and the several mann
moth cotton goods auction sales taking
place at New York during the year Just
past constituted the means taken 10 turn
surplus, and not readily sSleablo stocks
into cash. The blanket sales during the
same season and Of kindred proportions
tells Of the pinch which came to the wool
len industry, In raw iron there was an
enforced StCppSSo Of about eiShty five
furnaces between January lst, 1888, and
January 1st. 1881 Prices had declined
during the year from $3.50 70 so and
many Of the less efficient stocks found It
impossible to do business probably. Some
few steel rail mills have shut d1wu-ur
practically 50. One, at Joliet, IL and the
Vulcan az St. Louis While the latter
may not have actually banked its fires it
i known 10 be turning orders at market
rates, over to other mills