St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-13
ST. PAUL'S REALTY.
There's the Usual Summer Dizziness
in Real Estate Traffic,
But Values are Steadfast and Holders in No
Hurry.
The Great Wholesale Trade of the City
One Cause of SOlidity.

with very decidedly upward tendency all
along the line. Building is progressing
rapidly, and new blocks of business struc-
lures as well as dwelling houses are being
continually commenced.
THE WHOLESALE TRADE OF ST. PAUL.
Last week we took occasion to make a few
comments upon the banking capital of st.
Paul, as compared TO other parts of the state,
and from the statistics furnished by the COM
ptroller of the currency showed that the
banking capital of St. Paul far exceeded in
in amount that Of the whole state of Mime
sofa, outside of st. Paul. The showing was
very satisfactory and demonstrates where the
business and financial center of the North
west is beyond all question. There are 9TH
er features in the history of st. Paul that
strike the visitor as we'll as the business man
from abroad, and that is the wholesale trade
of the town. The magnitude of St. Paul's
wholesale and jobbing trade establishes be-
yond all question the claim of
this city to the position of the
commercial metropolis of the great
northwest. It is right here in ST.
Paul that the largest and strongest dry goods,
grocery, drug, paper and fur concerns in the
Mississippi valley outside of Chicago are per-
manently established. 1t may also be added
that in regard to the kinds of business refer
red to but one or two houses in Chicago are
larger than those in st. Paul. The general
solidity and character of st. Paul's wholesale
houses have for many years been the boast of
our citizens, yet it is only within three or
four years that the volume of business trans
acted has attracted the special attention of
the commercial world. Since 1881, however,
st. Paul has more and more occupied the
western and northwestern field, until now
Chicago and st. Louis no longer claim su-
premacy in this region, but are content to
take what they can get in an even and well
contested struggle. 1t is generally conceded,
by those interested that the ratio of business
increase enjoyed by st. Paul commercial
houses within the past three years, if con-
tinued for the next decade, will place this
city beyond possible rivalry in the vast region
naturally tributary to it. The growth of bust
ness can only be understood or appreciated
by study Of the official figures which have
been collated every year since 1865, when
there were five or six concerns that claimed
to do iobbing trade. In that year the larg
est amount sold by single firm barely reach
ed 100000. In 1870 the total trade reached
S9,S13,000, and the figures were a stan ding
subject Of favorable comment and admra-
ton. 1t was not until the close of 1881,
however, that the figures presented a really
large showing, resulting in a total of $46,
555, 500. Then began the wonderful devel-
opment, which has never been surpassed by
any American trade center, that swelled the
figures OF the wholesale trade of st. Paul to
S72, 04S, III in 1888. Such in few words
and general terms, is what st. Paul has thus
far accomplished in commercial way; and
it is but hint of the possibilities of the
future.
st. Paul has, then, during the past year.
despite the best energies of Chicago, Mil
waukee and st. Louis-distributed S72, 049,-
III worth of goods throughout Northern
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota and the far
West; vast domain on the very threshold
of development; region of incalculable
possibilities, but yet more in its infancy
than the territory which has made Chicago,
was thirty years ago; an empire of natural
wealth of forest, field and mine greater than
any city on this continent ever had to its
own exclusive advantage. st. Paul is, by
geographical location, the one absolute gate
way to this field of future greatness in wealth
and population. Northwestern trade and
commerce cannot flow around st. Paul-the
railways have settled that point forever-but
must ever concentrate at this point. And it
is not alone the trade and traffic of the terri
tory east of the Rocky mountains (Which up
to this time has been the sole dependency
which is to make this city one of the mighty
commercial centres of the nation but, situat-
ed midway between the ports of entry on the
Pacific of the products of the eostern empires
of the old world, and the ports of export on
the Atlantic, st. Paul becomes by its very
position the natural middleman between the
East and West. Whatever then, the i'm
mense region embraced in Oregon, Montana,
Dakota, Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin and
the British provinces of Manitoba and the
Northwest Territory, may in the future be-
come, (aggregating more than one-fourth of
the entire area of tina United States) st. Paul
will be its chief mart and metropolis.
There is another important factorin the
question of st. Paul's future supremacy as a
commercial center, and that is its position
at the head of navigation on the most ex-
tended river system of the world. If rail
rates east and south should ever become an
imposition, the products of the northwest
may easily and quickly secure market by riv-
err to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico;
Louisville, cincinnati and Pittsburg, even,
are accessible by water route. This single
condition secures immunity forever to the
commercial interests of st. Paul, from anv
form of freight extortion. But st. Paul's
position at the head of navigation on the
Mississippi has Q grander purpose to serve
in the future than standing guard over
grouudless fears of extortion; for year BY
year as the great valley of the Mississippi
prospers and becomes more and more popu-
lous, so viii the improvement of natures
highway be pushed forward until 1t shall be-
come the main route of commerce between
the north and the south and ST. Paul will be
the great northern depot of all the river traf-
&c.
In referring 10 the figures of the wholesale
trade of ST. Paul for 1888, there is one ele-
ment that viii hereafter enter into the con-
sideration of this matter that mas never be-
fore been taken into account, and that ele-
ment is the completion OF ;ae Northern PSI
cife railroad. With the completion of that
road in September, aSS3, there was opened
up to the wholesale dealers of ST. Paul, an
entirely new, rich and fairly prosperous field
OF trade, which is destined 10 increase in
/ importance year by year indefinitely. As a
mStter of curiosity the wholesale business of
st. Paul for the years 1sS1-2-S may be given
/ in tabular form as follows:
1881. 1852. 1883.
! Number of es-
adjustments ssS s76 3s5
( Number of en-
plOyees..... also 4,ss4 s.sl5
NJ