Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-01
ANNUAL REVIEW OF TRADE Bradstreet and Durs | Startling Situon. OuLlEsT OF 5af 0of.L Is the Present cOnditiof z Affairs in the Bus
 iness rid.
  THE REGARD OF FAIIllRFc COMPARED
THE RECORD OF FAILURES COMPARED
Figures Vary, but ths Percentage of h. crease Show Repetition of s93- Cut in southern 1rou--La4rse
 Stocks ot Print unaoId.

New York, Dec. 31.-Br. 1stre sat urday, Jan. 2, will say:
 General trade has been rather more quiet and this week proves one c the dullest of the dull season which has lol- lowed the fortnight of revived demand early in November. The uneasiness last week caused by northwestern bank fail ures is continued by similar embarrass- ments at Chicago and Minneapolis. These bank failures seem to be . out come of conditions originating in the banks and not due to the situation of gen. eral trade.
 Unreasonable weather, the making of inventories, and the customary absence of demand in wholesale lines have com bined to produce more than the usual holiday dullness. More favorable re- ports include heavy exports of flour and general merchandise from Tacoma to China and Japan, the receipts at Chicago of a satisfactory amount of orders for dry goods for spring delivery and an in- creased total volume of business in 1896 among St. Louis manufacturers and job bers and jobbers of dry goods, as com-. pared with 1895.
 Manufacturers of woolen goods are buying raw material only to cover orders received. Large stocks of unsold print cloths continue to depress quotations and merchants in leading staple lines at larg- CT distributing centers do not antici- pate an early improvement in business. Prices of oats, petroleum cotton and print cloths are lower and buyers of west ern and southern brands of pig iron re- port a cut of 25 cents ton. Prices are unchanged and comparatively firm for flour, pork, lard, sugar, anthracite ceal and steel billets. Since the break {. iron and steel prices consumers appe4 inclined to await developments.
 The list of business failures through out the United States for the calendar year 1896 is with one exception the long est since records of this character have been compiled. It remains for the panic year of 1893 to present a larger total and for that year and for the year 1884, which was also visited by financial disaster to furnish larger aggregates of liabilities of those who failed in business.
 The total number of failures during 1896 is 15,112, an increase of 16 per cent compared with 1885, in which year busi- ness endorsements increased 2 per cent, contrasted with the year before In 1894, which was marked by extreme depression in commercial and industrial circles the total number of failures fell off sharply, fully IS per cent. from the record in 1893, when the aggregate was 15,560, the largest total ever reported for calendar year. During 1896 the ag- gregate assets of those embarrassed in business were nearly 50 per cent. of the total liabilities, the significance of which lies in its contrast with the record of a year ago when the proportion of assets to liabilities was 55 per cent, and to the ex- hibit for 1894, when the proportion was 53 per cent.
 The extraordinary heavy total of busi- ness endorsements in the panic year 1893 was almost paralleled in 1896, not withstandlng a falling off of nearly one fifth in number in 1894. The $247, ,000, ,OO0 liabilities of those failing during the past twelve months is challenged only by corresponding totals in 1894 and 1893. re- spectively SPAS, 100000 and s402, ,000 ,0O0 The aggregate of $148,000,000 of assets is an increase over the corresponding total one year ago Of fully per cent, is $14- O00.000 larger than the like total in 1894 and has been exceeded only by the total assets of failing traders in the panic year of 1893.