The record-union., 1899-12-30
Found Such Adequate Realization as in the
Season Just Closing.
The Year 1899 a Record Breaker
in Nearly All Lines of Business
and Industry-The Volume of
Domestic and Foreign Trade the
Largest Ever Recorded, and the
Bank C1earings Surpassed ALI
Previous Records.

! ASOOO> 49,
| NEW YORK, Dec, 29.-Bradstreet's
review of 1.-The year in business" to-
morrow will say:
| Rarely have sanguine commercial
and financial hopes or predictions found
such adequate realization as they did
during 1899. Certainly nothing like the
widespread and general upward move
ment of values, alike of staples and Of
securities, such as occurred during this
year, could have been foreSeen. Linked
with an immense business and a record
| breaking production in nearly all lines
of business and industry, except, per-
| haps, in some products of the agri-
cultural interest, there was with it an
advance of staple values, either of
which alone would have made the year
notable, and, combined, to have served
| to establish the year as a record
| breaker, and set up new standards. The
volume of domestic and of foreign trade
alike was the largest ever recorded and
the bank clearings. rejecting immense
business expansion, active speculation
in stocks and immense new industrial
f1oatings, far surpassed all previous rec
ordS.
! 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 a considerable increased pro-
duction of wheat and an immense fall
ing off in the yield of cotton.
Industrial affairs for 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 mini
mum Of friction.
The close of the year finds order
books filed 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 calendar year, breadstuff
shipments being 10 per cent smaller,
cattle and hogs exports II per cent.
less, and cotton shipments, owing to the
short crop, at least Is per cent less,
there was such an expansion in our
manufactured exports that the entire
export trade of the year will consider
ably exceed that of the last calendar
year, which was the heaviest recorded,
and will make the year no less notable
in the line of foreign than domestic
trade with a total of exports little less
than $3.50, 100000, an aggregate
which, if reached, will mark a gain of
per cent. over the record total of
1898.
Imports have naturally shown a
marked revival, and if the gain for the
eleven months is maintained for the
month of December, a total a little be-
low $SOO,OO0,0O0 may be expected,
which would guarantee total foreign
trade well in excess of 81 600 600. 900,
an amount it might be remarked, never
before equaled. AS to exports it is to
be noted that nearly one-third of all
are manufactured products a proper
ton never before reached and, as to
imports, the very increase in raw prod
ucts intended for manufacture bears
testimony to the activity of domestic
industry. The apparent trade balance
in our favor, though not as heavy as
in 1885, will still aggregate an enor-
nous amount.
That the advance in the price of
staples has not been a fictitious one. or
based upon arbitrary actions of combi-
nations, is evidenced by the fact that a
similar price movement has been wit
messed abroad, the general level of
prices in England for instance. being
higher on December LIST this year than
for more than eight years past. The
course of values, too, has been in ac-
cordance with expectations of econo-
mists, in that the greatest relative 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 q per cent. On the
other hand the manufactured or partly
manufactured products, such as metals,
raw and manufactured textiles. build
ing material coal and naval stores,
have scored remarkable gains. Metals,
as whole, were 80 per cent. higher
than year ago, due largely, of course,
to the forward rush of iron and steel
prices, which have all practically
doubled in value within the year. Raw
cotton and wool have made especially
noteworthy advances, and from being
among the most depressed of industries,
the textile manufacturing trades have
become among the busiest there is rec
ord of. Other textiles have shared in
this advance and the result is that tex
tiles as a class are one-third higher
than a year ago.
Coal and coke have shared in the
wonderful industrial development of the
year, with a rise equal to that in tex
tiles, and building materials, too, have
made equal gains, owing mainly to the
marked advance in lumber Naval
stores showed a gain of nearly one
third in price. Hides and leather are
one-fourth higher. Livestock, dried
fruits and oils are one-eighth higher,