The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-23
PUNoTUR1Ne A BUBBLE.
How the Cotton Men on Change Re-
gard the Charleston Quotations


The cotton men on cnange yesterday
were very much amused at the article il
yesterdays NelCs and Courier claiming
that Charleston is a higher market than Sa
vannah. A Charleston man, whose atten
ton was called to the article, frauEly ad
mitted that the cotton receipts at Charleston
this year, he was sorry to say, have not
been what they should be.
Referring TO the story that a Charleston
exporting firm had bought 1000 bales at
Savannah paid 80 cents per bale freight for
taking it to Charleston, and then sold it at
profit over the price paid here, the gentle
man SAID, it was unreasonable and could
not be true.
A member of one of the largest cotton
exporting firms of this city said, yesterday,
that his house is in constant correspondence
with a Charleston house, and keeps posted
daily as to the ruling prices at Charleston,
and he said that the Savannah market
for Liverpool grades has always
been higher in Savannah than at
Charleston, and it needed no further
argument to convince the people Of this
fact than to call attention to the heavy re-
ceipts of cotton at Savannah, aud to note
how RAPIDLY the cJtton trade Is slipping
away from Charleston.
The gentleman also said thata Charleston
house had asked his firm for figures on cot
ton, aud that when the firm here in Savan-
nah gave him an offer the Charleston buyer
had at once declined it, stating that he could
buy cotton in Charleston for one-siKteenth
of cent less per pound than the Savannah
figure.
A cotton factor, who stood by, spoke up
and said that 1.-THE article clearly shows
that Charleston, as Il cotton port, is on its
last legs, and that something had to be
done to revive il. But statements SO mani
testify incorrect is not the right way to go
about it. Besides its comparative state
ments of cotton quotations at Savannah
and Charleston are misleading, as Savan-
nah cotton men have been sho wing, for the
last three or four years, Charleston having
different grading than that of Savannah.
That article sounds like a dying gasp.
There are more steamships in this port
now, or, TO put it more conservatively, as
many steamships loading cotton in this
port at the present time as are likely to load
at Charleston during the entire season.
The other argument that the article ad-
vances, that Charleston is a high price cot
ton market, would have tendency to drive
away exporters, for Liverpool won't send
to Charleston for cotton If it had to pay
more for it there than anywhere else.
The receipts of cotton at
Charleston so far, this season, have fallen
behind the receipts for the corresponding
period last year, while the receipts at Sa-
vannah have been largely increased. If the
cotton exporting firms of Charleston can buy
cotton in Savannah, ship it to Charleston
and after paying freight make profit by
the transaction, the NelOs and Courier
ought to be happy. If the 1,000-bale trans
action alleged to have been made was made,
no profit resulted from the purchase,
but it is manifestly apparent that the
Charleston firm had to have cotton,
and as they were unable to get it at
Charleston on account of slack receipts,
they had TO come TO Savannah for it, al
though, as the cotton exporter telegraphed
here, 1--WE can buy cotton here for one-six-
tenth of a cent less per pound than you
ofrarn