Omaha daily bee., 1888-09-30
The CONDITION OF TRADE.
Money Still in Good Supply at Our
rent Rates. -.
COLLECTIONS ARE RATHER SLOW
But Business I'm General Is in n Healthy
State Groceries Steady = Dry
Goods and Hardware Active
Futile Resolutions.
Omaha Commercial, Interests.

Money has been in good supply the past
week at the usual rate of 10 per cent per
annum. Exchange is 81 per 81 900 premium.
General trade is good, There is no great
rush, but merchants are Kept comfortably
busy filling orders. Collections are not at all
satisfactory. and complaints are quite gen.
eral in this respect. The fact is, the country
was quite bare Of produce at the beginning
Of fall trade, and farmers, with nothing to
sell, could not pay their debts and there en-
able merchants to meet theirs. The benefit
to be derived from the heavy corn crop now
being harvested will not be felt until next
year. to an appreciablc extent, in trade and
collections. Groceries are, as a rule, steady,
and there are no important changes to note.
The usual scare as to n short rice crop has
been sprung, but prices have not increased,
and there is no fear but what we will have
all the rice necessary to supply the consump-
ton at reasonable figures. Sugars are quiet,
with n tendency to a lower market, though as
the fluctuations are wholly artificial and sub
jcct to the action of the trust, higher prices
may be made whenever that august body so
The increased offerings have a
tendency to bear the coffee market. TIT
total stock Of Brazil coffee in first hands at
seaboard and afloat is reported at iOt,G03
bags, against 45i Coz bags at this time last
year.
Dry goods are active and steady at ruling
quotations. Trade has been very fair and
the season will undoubtedly be profitable and
sales will foot in excess of last years.
Hardware is quite active, especially In
builders needs, and prices are steady with
out material changes.
The resolutions adopted by the associa-
ton of produce commission merchants in
this city to compel retailers to settle their
bills weekly have fallen rather flat, or rather,
have been received with Indifference by the
parties most affected. They argue that the
commission man necessarily supplies but few
of their wants. and in reality none but what
the iobbing grocers will be glad to meet on
the old terms-thcy can get all their fancy
groceries and prepared produce, butter,
cheese, etc, from the wholesale grocers, and
their garden truck" from the farmers.
They accordingly feel quite independents
good deal more so than they would had the
resolutions been passed and enforced three
months since. There seems to have been no
consultations held between retailers, but
they have concluded within themselves that
as the produce men have only q monopoly
of California fruits, the season for
which is about over, their services can be
dispensed with without any great inconven-
fence, until next year. The retailers agree
furthermore, that as the shops, smelling
works and street railroads pay but once a
month and the bulk of their credit business
is with the employees of these corporations,
they, (the retailers), cannot pay oftener
without doubling their capital, and as they
do not possess "fiat" powers for the issuance
of money, they do not see how they can do
this, and so it would appear difficult to en-
force the resolutions at present at least.