The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-05-07
WAR AND TRADE
(From "Bradstreet's.,l

Evidences accumulate that h corner
has finally been turned in the trade situa-
ton, and that circumstances which have
hitherto been regarded as disquieting,
nave begun to give way to more cheerful
conditions, or are beginning to be recog-
nized in a truer and more reasonable
light. While it is claimed, and perhaps
with justice in many cases, that the
changes yet noted are largely sentiment
tel, and that little that is tangible is to
be cited in the direction Of improvement,
it is not to be forgotten that the dullness
and even depression ruling for some time
past was likewise largely sentimental, and
it is now beginning to be admitted by
many, had even less of a basis to rest
Upon than the present un1nistakable signs
Of improvement. A new sense of ma
t:onal strength and energy seems unque
tionably to have developed since the news
of the American victory at Manila, and
the business community generally, with
few exceptions, would appear to have
come to the conclusion that the possible
effects of the present war have been all
ready well discounted.
Among the more favorable features of
the week have been the slightly easier
tone in the money market and a little
more disposition or the part of ~nanci
Institutions to accommodate legitimate
demands of trade. Another has been the
very general foreign recognition of the
critical position of wheat supplies in the
lowering or the suspension entirely of i'm
port wheat duties, notably in Italy.
France and Spain, and reflected in adj
vances proportionate to the import duty
reduction in those countries. Prices, both
at the seaboard and at the interior, have
broken all records for many years past,
while the eagerness of foreign buyers to
take hold at the advance furnishes testi-
mony to the fact that the present wheat
corner is not due entirely to the fear of
Interruptions in supplies, nor yet to the
successful projection of a wheat corner.
but. to a considerable extent, to foreign
recognition of the fact that the worlds
wheat stocks today are smaller than they
have been for many years past, and that
some time must yet elapse before the
admittedly good worlds wheat crop pros
poets find expression in new supplies.
Partly as a recognition of the buoyant
tone in wheat and other cereals and their
products, and partly apparently because
of the general idea that the present hos
tilities with Spain are not likely to Sc
riously menace the general business of
this country. a p%erceptibly more cheerful
tone seems to animate the business COM
munity.
OF considerable Importance also in the
direction of actually stimulating business
in some lines and the large orders re-
ceived for equipment and supplies of all
sorts for military use, notably in the lines
of cotton and wooden goods, shoes, pro-
~jectiles and ammunition of various sorts.
The advance in prices of hides and the
activity at much higher prices reported
in the demand for duck, bunting and light
wooden cloth are symptoms of this stimu-
lation. no less thar thte reports of activ-
ity in shipbuilding to supply the places
of vessels taken for government use.
Partial reflection of this latter demand is
found in the immense demand for steel
plates at higher prices and in the large
business doing at most iron centers in
pig iron. Features of the week have been
the placing of two orders for export, one
for a large quantity of steel plates and the
other for a quantity of light rails, the
latter said to be for delivery in England.
Cold. rainy weather has ended to check
distribution in some sections of the coun-
try. notably in the Mississippi Valley and
in the eastern and middle Atlantic States.
The crop situation, as a whole, is an ex-
cellent one this being particularly true of
wheat both winter and spring, which oc-
cupies such an enviable position as re-
CARDS prices in the market of the world.