Omaha daily bee., 1889-03-10
The CONDITION OF TRADE.
Bankers Report the Money Market
Very Easy.
GENERAL BUSINESS is GOOD.
Prices Are Inclined to Advance
Seasonabie Activity Noticeabls
In All Lines OF Trade d.
Business Matters.
GENERAL BUSINESS is eoot
rho Local Outlook.

bhllktES report Jle money udIheN tN
ceptionally easy, in fact the general remark
is that money has never been so plentiful in
Omaha at this time OF the year as now, and
customers In good standing are urged to
have all they can use, Not only is tins the case
with bankers, but loan and trust companies
are solicited by their eastern correspond.
ents to make terms easy to applicants, and
AS a result the more conservative managers
of these institutions have not cared TO meet
competition and have declined TO place loans
where the amount required by the applicant
was in excess of what they considered
safe, though the applicant was
in u position TO secure what he
wanted elsewhere. In other words, the sur.
plus of loanable funds TO be placed on mort
gage is so great hat lenders must loan %
per cent more than their conservatism will
permit or lose the opportunity to make the
loan. How long this state of affairs will CON
tinuc it Is difficult TO say, but 1t is not u
healthy condition, and the sooner the
market reacts to its normal con
dItion the better for all concerned.
The ease prevailing with our banks doing u
commercial business is attributed to the fact
that country bankers have been called upon
during the past sixty to ninety days to square
accounts, If only to show that they possessed
the ability to do so, and the pronptness with
which they have come to the front has dem
onstiated that they were not in such
bad shape rs newspapers inclined to the sen
s%ational, have tried to show. The financial
outlook is upon the whole very comfortable,
at the same time IL is Just as well TO suggest
that a plethora of money is not an unmixed
blessing, and that prudent men will scan the
financial horizon frequently during the coming
year that they may be ready should a
storm suddenly arise. General trade has
improved very much and seasonable activity
is noticeable in all lines. 1t is tho general
opinion in trade circles that the spring
season will be short and active, but that the
bulk of the goods sold will be fully up to
and probably in excess of the average.
Prices are, as II rule, well sustained with a
tendency to advance, and as it is a well
known fact that goods have been sold
during the past season at very near the cost
of production in very many cases, the natural
result is to higher values as the active season
approaches.
Sugar is beginning to be affected by the
statistical showing, and prices are respond.
ing to the frmness reported abroad Foreign
markets are all frmer, with Il disposition in
producing countries to wait for better prices,
inasmuch as preceding crop estimate are
scarcely being realized anywhere, and pros
poets certainly point to limited supplies. The
season IN Louisiana is unfavOrable, and field
work for the next crop is very backward.
The total stock in all the principal countries
by latest mail and cable dates is l.035, $40
tons, against !, 1913, COG tons at the same time
last year.
Carbon oil is unchanged, the production
being on a liberal scale. The output of pc
troleum is about AZ, 900 bbls daily, and the
Official monthly report shows that the stocks
on hand aggregate Iii, SOO,0OO bbls. Exports
since January | amount TO S5,2 900 gals,
showing an increase of Is, 800, 600 gals over
the amount that cleared for foreign ports
last year in the corresponding period.
The most conspicuous article in the
canned goods line just now is salmon, Eng
lish parties having recently bought unusually
1n,rn 49,, N,,a F~,f .t,,uA l,-N. I,,- Il;
river goods are so much higher than Alaska
fish that it is generally thought that the
former will not sell readily, while the latter
is comparatively cheap and Is of very good
quality.
Apples are the most active goods in the
fruit line, but there is II good call for
oranges, and Messlna and California oranges
arc beginning to sell freely now that the
supply of Floridas is decreasing. cmons
are slow of sale.
Coffee is firm, though not especially active,
except in a speculative way. Stocks in Rio
are fairly large, footing VI 100000 bags. but
they, are in strong hands and holders evil
IDENTIFY believe IN Il short crop and higher
prices. The very dry weather in Brazil and
Venezuela is having the effect to curtail the
growing crops and prevent moving the
coffee down the rivers. Mild coffees are
scarce and advancing, and Maracaibo coffee
ls being shipped to Hamburg, where prices
are higher than in this country.
Molasses is firm, as advices From New Or
leans report diminishing supplies and har-
dening prices. Thu first Porto Rico cargo
of molasses of the season has reached New
York, and it is so excellent that it sells read
lily there for 36M39c per gall
Teas are steady with no surplus supplies
anywhere. In Great Britain and Ireland the
yearly consumption has risen to 1856, OO0, 900
lbs, and other countries are using so much
more tea than formerly that the production
finds ready purchasers. After Great Britain
the United States is the largest tea-drinker,
the amount used yearly in this country being
90, ZOO, 900 lbs, followed by Russia with 10
600. 600 lbs, and the AustI allan colonies and
Canada with 81, DOC, 900 and 49, 600 lbs re-
spectively. France, Germany and Holland
can scarcely be called consumers of tea
merely ~tastcrs, so to speak-as only a few
million pounds find their way into those
places, and IN other parts Of the globe the
article is practically unknown. being hardly
ever used.