The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-01-16

sis to their result. From 1880 TO 1880, q
period of fifty years, the total export of
wheat from the United States was 958,-
$4,000 bushels and of this great aggre-
gate, 667 ,429, sol bushels, or more than
two-thirds, was exported in the ten years
ending with 1880. Nearly half of it, or
443, 40 425 bushels, was sent abroad in |
the five years from 1876 to 1880, inclu-
sive. In other words, the exports of |
American wheat from 1870 to 1880 were
more than double the entire amount ex-
ported in the preceding forty years; and
the exports from 1875 to 1880 were great
er by more than fifty per cent than from
1880 to 1870, inclusive. Those who have
been inclined to marvel at the recupera-
tive power which the nation has shown
since its last financial reverse, at the &C.
tivity of its industries and the accumula-
ton of wealth of which so many evidences
have been manifest, may find in these fig
ures key to the apparent mystery.
In the midst of this wonderful demand
for the farmers products there was
heavy fall in the prices of nearly all kinds
of goods required by farmers. One of
cloth, of which, in 1873, the export price
was sixteen to seventeen cents per yard
in 1876 it had fallen below nine cents,
and for the five years ending with 1880
the average was about eight cents per
yard. OF pig iron the price in 1869 was
1894, and in 1873 had already declined
to $3.50 per cwt.; but in 1875 it fell to
81 S. and for that and the ensuing four
years the average was but fraction over
$1.3S. Nails and spikes make similar
showing; in 1866 they were quoted in the
tables of the statistical bureau at nine
cents per pound; in 1875 they had fallen
to four and a half cents and in 1870 to
less than three cents per pound; the
average for six years being three and
half cents. In the department of house
hold supplies, tea and coffee are repre-
sentative commodities. In 1874 the price
given in the official exhibit of imports
was thirty-nine cents per pound for tea
and nineteen and half cents for coffee;
| in 1873, twenty-three cents for tea and
seventeen cents for coffee; in 1879,
| twenty-five cents for tea and twelve and
half cents for coffee; in 1880, twenty
eight cents for tea and thirteen and half
cents for coffee. While there were huclu.
ations, the general level of prices in that
period, contrasted with the quotations
prior to 1873 shows reduction ranging
from fifteen to sixty per cent, and of
which thirty-three and one.third per cent
would be safe average estimate.
The important circumstance should fur
Their be mentioned that together with the
depreciation of prices in general trade
there was heavy reduction in freight
rates throughout the country, both by rail
and water, from which an immense saving
resulted to the farmers in the cost of trans
porting their products; and this notwith-
standing the fact that the transportation
companies themselves profited largely by
the increased volume of traffic which came
to them from the swift growth of agricul-
tural industry.
The striking fact is thus made appar-
ent that in that period of our history
when the farmers of America were enjoy
ing the most bountiful harvests ever
known, and were able to dispose of their
immense surplus at remunerative prices
in market opened to them year after year
by foreign scarcity, they had at the same
time the advantage of purchasing their
supplies of manufactured or imported
commodities at a reduction of about one
third from their cost in former years. To
comprehend the effect of this saving, we
have to consider that the 20,000000 per.
sons who belong in this country to the
agricultural class are estimated to pur.
chase each year not less than $50 worth
per capita of commodities such as they
do not produce. These estimates, both of
their number and of the rate of individ.
ual consumption, are extremely moderate.
They give an aggregate value of such
commodities, purchased by American
farmers each year, of one thousand mil
lions of dollars and the saving which
was annually made as a result of the de-
preston of prices by the panic was,
therefore, more than three hundred mil
lions of dollars. In the six years from
1875 to 1880, inclusive, the accumulation
which this reduction of expenditure ena
bled them to make amounted to $1,000,
100000. 1t was this cheapening of his
supplies by three hundred millions of dol
lars yearly which paid the debts anC
swelled the savings of the American
farmer and made him the financial deliv
erer of the nation.