New-York tribune., 1896-10-05
MONEY iND BT STNESS.

|
ing away Free trade and free silver boasts II
| credited would stop the heavy buying or materi-
| ais for manufacture. which continues without
| dimunition for there is as yet scarcely any def
| mite improvement in the demand for hnisned
| products, But belief that the dawn Of prosperity
il only about four ,eks off has actually started
quite a number Of factories and mills largely In
advance Of orders and many more are laying IN
| stocks OF materials expecting to start Delore
| long While extreme conservatism still prevails
| In purchases for final distribution. which rarely
go beyond quantities Immediately required IL Is
generally believed that dealers stocks nave peen
| reduced very low so that the rush to replenish
| them will make active business FOR time In
| the hea vier manufactures. great number or or
| ders and contracts are deferred. have been
| made conditional upon the election ana tnese
also would suffice to give the mills better times.
| This estimate OF the future explains the moder-
| ate but somewhat general advance In prices or
| materials Bessemer pig is advanced by large
| purchases to S11 - at Pittsburg and asking
| rather than bid quotations now more nearly rep
| resent the market f. other iron. The price or
| coke IL sustained. although the present output Is
| less than a third Of the capacity. There IL
| better tone regarding ore, and the associations
| have declined To reduce prices OF nails ana rails
| although the business is very small. ana or bar
| iron balow - cent although steel bars have
| fallen To | cent Plates are a little weaker but
| there is a large demand for sheets. few struc-
| tural orders have been placed. but most business
| Of consequence is held back. The minor metals
| are little weaker. with one large sale ~ lake
! copper reported for export The anthracite coal
agents make no change In prices. but reduce the
| output To 3 1.OoW tons for October. The heavy
| purchases Of hides AZ Chicago have raised the
- cir
I. while leather meets a slightly increasing de-
| mand but has risen only per cent The boot
and shoe manufacture. after delivering great
rr number ~ cases than ever before In Septem-
her. approaches the end of orders FOR the season
! with as vet scanty orders for the next s"ason
but ON such business AZ comes is getting the
small advances asked which averages only "a
per cent from the lowest point.
| on. mos, significant fact IL the slight advance
| In wool small in ohio and Colorado. but more IN
! combing and deane. unwash"d and Montana
wools go ,ha, the average of lOl quotations by
Coates Rrohers rises 20 II n cents against II III
cents September I. Even now the average Is
| I.,2 per cent lower than in 1872 and there is no
| gain in tn. demand for wooen goods. Of which
| some qualities have recently been reduced IN
| price go thnt the average of representative quo
taiinns is ~ IL Ter cont lower than early In lS!'2
| But as the cloth forms only part Of the cost OF
| clothing II is well known that consumers realize
| no corresponding decrease In the sums they nave
| 10 Day Yet the sales ~ wool In expectation OF
| future demand have been nearly as large as II
| all the machinery VAS In operation Instead Of
| about a third of H. and OF 81. l6',G~ pounds sold
| In fy. weeks past. only I.6i9G" w"r" Foreign
! against 34Tl9l1O pounds last year. OF which
40 wcr. foreign and - .2sS i0O In lS.'2 OF
| which II 900 GlU pounds were foreign. Cotton
| has also been bought more largely than In pre-
| >ious years l32..,i:. bales having been taken IN
September by Northern spnncrs. against 'i''i"
from the big crop OF 81. while 3"''3i bales
| have been taken for export. against -"-"'o III
| that year But goods are weaker since the ad-
| vance Of about per cent which commenced In
August and print cloths have declined to 80"
cents again.
The rise I'm wheat may have originated with a
purely speculative attempt to corner December
hut In any case II had the support OF an unusual
export demand. which IL attributed To partial
fsi,ur. Of some foreign crops. In the first quar-
ter Of the crop year ending September ~. the
Atlantic exports flour Included. amounted TO
% g,214 bushels. against l+,32O.O2o last year.
and IT is noticed that the exports in the form of
,,he,, nearly doubled II now To be quite
probablc that the supplies from other surplus
producing countries. taken az whole. VIII be
many million bushels below those OF last year.
when this country actually exported about
IoG lNW bushels -four included. lf we should
he called upon To furnish 5pW0oD bushels more
this year IA higher range Of prices would he nat
uralIy expected even II the crop should be al
large AZ Western receipts indicate. for these
have amounted during the first quarter of the
crop year TO j7.Ti2,9ll bushels. against +3. iW.
i:tI last year Speculation In cotton has been
embarrassed ever since the failure ~ the New
Orleans banks and the quantity which has come
into sight 22,2 22sI bales In September. against
,io3a4 last year and Gi3 7n from the great
| crop of IS.p does not encourage operations for
an advance Receipts may. however. be some
what Increased by the monetary pressure. and
he difficulty n getting commercial accommoda-
tons
| The stock market had been slowly growing
stronger until near the end Of the week when
| there were signs ~ the realizing which many
had expected The earnings are not helpful
having fallen in September = per cent below
those Of last year. and ST per cent below those
Of IS,2 although the eastbound tonnage from
Chicago is heavy. The payments through all
clearing houses In September We're ll.3 per cent
l-ss than last year and -! less than lSb2. when
another Presidential campaign was In progress
But the recent change of feeling has been great
ard the arrivals or Bolu nave ho" 'i'ru '"e re
serve belonging To the Treasury To about *l'iO.
NpW while the banks are making commercial
loans far more freely than two or three weeks
ago with wheat and cotton exports continuing
large the heavy decrease In imports Is interest
ing for at New-YOrk during the past -four
weeks imports have been 265 per cent less thar
last wear and 294 per cent less than In the same
weeks Of 1852 The decrease has been especially
. large i'm drygoods, for the same weeks AZ pei
cent compared with last year. and 40 per cen
? compared with 1872