Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-18
WEEKLY TRADE REVIEW The Price of Pig Iron Has Gone 54@ Up,a Little. THE OUTPUT s HAS DECREASED a iss ..le--4i = But Still the Production Far Exceeds the Pres
 ent Demand. THE PRICE or TOBACCO HAS ADVANCED Due to the Revolution in Cuba-Wheat, Pork and Lard Have Also Gone Up. The Bank Clearings IA Per Cent
 Less Than Last Week.
 
THE OUTPUT HAS DECREASED
THE PRICE OF TOBACCO HAS ADVANCED

New York, Jan 17-R. G. Dun & Co. will say tomorrow in their weekly review of trade: ga.
 Failures for nine days of January have shown liabilities of $5,56S, OOS, against $4,522,531 last year in ten days and $9041.- 225 in eleven days of 1894. Failures for the past week have been much larger in magnitude, numbering 395 in the United States, against 373 last year, and S1 in Canada, against 60 last year.
 The situation could hardly be more perplexing for business men. Practical merchants, manufacturers or bankers can have little sympathy for those who minimize their difficulty. None doubt that the government will raise money to meet its obligations, but how far the money market will be disturbed or the treasury reserve first diminished, none can say. The business world cannot know as yet how far foreign questions may upset calculations, though there seems every reason to expect peaceful settlement. It cannot know what may be the duties on any important class of imports a month hence, whether imports are likely to exceed exports and draw away gold, whether the deficit of reve- nue will continue, or what other taxation will be levied. The failure of the senate thus far to take any action upon financial measures proposed by the president or those proposed by She house affects unfa- vorably all branches of business. Under such adverse circumstances 1t is actually encouraging that shrinkage in transac- tions and resulting commercial disasters have not been greater. But four large failures within day or two indicate that the same condition cannot continue without much embarrassment.
 Domestic trade shown by clearing house payments Is 8.8 per cent larger than last year, but 27.8 per cent less than in 1893, and in nearly all trades there is much hesitation. Cotton receipts still indicate yield neither as small as Mr. NeiIps estimate of 6500, ,000 bales nor as large as the 7,000,000 bales estimated by others, but 1t Is yet to be seen whether supplies held for better prices are of consequences. The30 price declined Ac, with accounts of narrow demand for spinners abroad and declining prices for goods in this country.
 Cotton goods are not quotably lower but concessions to secure business are reported in many instances, and many of the mills have been running largely in anticipation of orders not yet received. There is little better inquiry for staples, with indications that dealers in stocks are running low. The opening of fine and fancy woolens has brought no change in prices, and revisions, caused by recent openings of worsteds, have been generally toward lower prices.
 The pig iron output for the week end ing January 1 was POT, ,4S1 tons, a de- crease of 9316 tons, or 4.3 per cent, the same week in December, and unsold stocks increased 91, ,125 tons, or over 20,- 900 weekly, while the great steel compa- nies, whose stocks are not reported, pro- duced. in December 342,936 tons. The production is so far beyond the present demand for finished products that tenn porary stoppage of many furnaces is ex- pected Yet pig iron is higher, Bessemer about 50 cents and gray forge and an thracite 25 cents, although finished prod ucts are generally weaker with less de- mand. Controllers of the coke and ore outputs are said to have agreed to main tain prices above those of 1895, which means dearer pig iron, but if orders for finished products do not materially in crease the advance in materials can hardly be maintained.