The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-30
It WAS A YEAR
OF PROSPERITY
BradStreet'S Review of Bust
ness For 1899.
AN IMMENSE FOREIGN
AND DOMESTIC TRADE
Exports and Imports Aggregate An
Enormous Sum.
Balance of Trade Is In Favor of the
United States-Movement of Val
ues Was Widespread and Upward
Failure Statistics the Smallest
For Seventeen Years-Bank Clear
ings Reflect Immense Mercantile
Expansion.

view OF the year IN business tOHlOI-
row will say: Rarely have sanguine
commercial and financial hopes or pre-
dictions found such adequate realiZa.-
ton as they did during 1899. Certainly
nothing like the widespread and gen
eral upward movement of values alike
of staples and of securities, such as oc-
CURED during this year, could have
been foreseen. Linked with an immense
business and a record-breaking pro-
duction in nearly all lines of business
and industry, except. perhaps in some
products of the agricultural interest,
there was; with it an advance of staple
values, either of which alone would
have made the year notable and COM
bined to have served to establish the
year as a record breaker, and set up
new standards.
The volume of domestic and of for
eign trade alike was the largest ever
recorded, and the bank. clearings. re-
flecting immense business expansion,
active speculation in stocks and i'm
mense new industrial fioatings, far sur
passed all previous records.
Prices, as a result primarily of the
stimulation proceeding from supply and
demand conditions. scored probably the
greatest advance in any single year,
and brought the general level of staple
values to the highest point reached for
more than eight years past. Failure
statistics point to the smallest number
reported for seventeen years past. These
results have come to pass in the face
of considerably lessened production
of wheat, and an immense falling off
in the weld of cotton
Enormous Expansion.
In Industrial affairs the year has
been one of enormous expansion. Ger
tainly nothing like the general advance
in wages of industrial employees has
been witnessed for many years. and
this has been accomplished with min
imum of friction.
The close of the year finds. order books
filled to from three to six months
ahead in nearly all lines. DiStributive
trade was naturally of immense vol
ume throughout the year, though mild
weather at the close tended to modify
the satisfaction with which retail trade
in winter fabrics was regarded. This
was, however, partly compensated for
by a holiday business SURPRISING all
previous records.
. Notwithstanding smaller exports of
agricultural products during the cad
endar year. breadstufs shipments being
Is per cent smaller, cattle and hogs eX-
ports II per cent less, and cotton ship
ments. owing to the short crop, at least
15 per cent less, there was such an ex-
pansion in our manufactured exports
that the entire export trade of the year
will considerably exceed that of the
last calendar year. which was the heav-
lest recorded, and Will make the year
no less notable in the line of foreign
than in domestic trade. with total
of exports little less than s1,2S0.000, 900,
an aggregate which if reached viii
mark a gain of 8 per cent over the rec
ord total of 1898.
Exports and Imports.
Imports have naturally shown
marked revival. and if the gain for the
eleven months is maintained for the
month of December total little be-
low $500, ,o00, 900 may be expected, which
would guarantee a foreign trade well
might be remarked, never before equal
ed.
As to exports, it is to be noted that
nearly one-third of all are manufacture
ed products, q proportion never before
reached; and as to imports, the heavy
increase of raw products intended for
bears testimony to the ac-
tivity of domestic industry. The ap-
parent trade balance in our favor,
aggregate an enormous sum.
That the advance in the price of
staples has not been a fictitious one.
or based upon arbitrary actions OF
combinations, is evidenced by the fact
that a similar price movement has been
witnessed abroad, the general level OF
prices in England, for instance. being
higher on Dec. 1 this year than for
more than eight years past.
Course of Values.
The course of values. too, has been
in accordance with expectations OF
economists, in that the greatest rela-
tive rise has been in manufactured
goods or in products of industry not
exclusively agricultural. Breadstuffs
alone of all the classes of staples, are
actually lower now than they were
year ago, the decline being about per
cent
On the other hand. the manufactured
Or partly manufactured products, such
as metals. raw and manufactured tex
tiles building mate rial. coal and naval
stores, have scored remarkable gains.
Metals as a whole, are 30 per cent
higher than a year ago. due largely, OF
course. to the forward rush of iron
and steel prices. which have all prac-
tically doubled in value within the
year.
Raw cotton and wool have made es-
oecially noteworthy advances. and from
being among the most depressed of in
iustries, the textile manufacturing
-rades have become among the busiest
here is record of.
Other textiles have shared in this
advance, and the result is that textiles,
rs a class, are one-third higher than
L year ago. Coal and coke have shared
N the wonderful industrial develop
nent of the year, with rise equal to
hat in textiles. and building materials.
90. have made equal gains, owing
mainly to the marked advance in lum-
Der. Naval stores show a gain of near
V one-third in price. hides and leather
ire one-fourth higher. livestock, dried
ruits and oils are oce-eighth higher, !