The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-30
THE YEAR IN BUSINESS
Bradstreet's Annual Review of
the Country's Trade.
ALL RECORDS SURPASSED
Widespread and General Upward Move
ment Of Values in All Departments.
Smallest Number OF Business
Failures in II Years.

view OF the year in business" to-
morrow will say:
Rarely have sansune commercial
and financial hopes or predictions
found such adequate realization as
they did during 1899. Certainly roth
ing like the widespread and general
upward movement of values alike of
staples and of securities, such as oc-
CURED during this year, could have
been foreseen. Linked with an i'm
mense business and a record -break king
production in nearly all lines of busi-
ness and industry, except, perhaps, in
some products of the agricultural in
terest, there was an advance of staple
values which alone would have made
the year notable
The volume of domestic and of for
eign trade alike was the largest ever
recorded, and the bank clearings, re-
f1ecting immense business expansion,
active speculation in stocks and i'm
mense new industrial fioatings, far sur
passed all previous records. Prices, as
result primarily of the stimulation
proceeding from supply and demand
conditions, scored 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 II years past. These results have
come to pass in the face of consider
ably lessened production of wheat and
an immense falling off in the yield Of
cotton.
In industrial affairs, the year has
been one of enormous expansion. Ger
tainly nothing like the general I'd
vance in wages of industrial employees
has been witnessed for many years.
q nd hi ho, Itch,
a minimum of friction.
The close of the year finds order
books filled to from three to six
months ahead in nearly all lines. Dis
tributiVe trade was naturally of i'm
mense volume throughout the year,
though mild weather at the close tend
ed 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 rec
ords.
Notwithstanding smaller exports of
agricultural products during the cal
endar year. hreadstuffs shipments be-
ing Is 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 ex
ports that the entire export trade of
the year will considerably 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 in domestic trade, with
a total exports little less than $780,
o00,000 an aggregate which 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 IL months is maintained
for the month of December, a total a
little below $500, 100000 may be expect
ed, which would guarantee total for
eign trade well in excess of S2,0000O0,-
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
proportion never before reached; and
as to imports, the heavy increase IN
raw products intended for manufac-
ture bears testimony to the activity Of
domestic industry
The apparent trade balance in our
favor, though not as heavy as in 1898,
will still aggregate an enormous sum.
That the advance in the price of sta
pies has not been a fictitious one or
based upon arbitrary action of COM
missions, 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. this year than for
more than eight years past. The course
of values, too, has been in accordance
with expectations of economists, in
that the greatest relative rise has been
in manufactured goods or in products
OF industry not exclusively agricultural.
Breadstuffs alone, of all classes of sta
pies, are actually lower now than they
were a year ago, the decline being
about per cent. On the other hand,
the manufactured, or partly manufac-
tured, products such as metals, raw
and manufactured textiles, building ma
terial, coal and naval stores, have
scored remarkable gains. Metals, as
a whole, are 30 per cent. higher than
year ago, due largely, of course, to the
forward rush of iron and steel 2rices,
which have all practically doubled in
value within the year.
Raw cotton and wool have made es-
pecially noteworthy advances and from
being among the most depressed of in
dustries the textile manufacturing
trades have become among the busiest
there is record Of. Other textiles have
shares in this advance, with the result
that the textiles, 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 textiles, and
building materials, too, have made
equal gains, owing mainly to the mark
ed advance in lumber.
Naval stores show a gain of nearly
one-third in price. hides and leather
are one-fourth higher, live stock, dried
fruits and oils are one-eishth higher,
and provisions and miscellaneous prod
ucts have all advanced.
Taking bank clearings as an index
the outlook at present favors a total
at the country's clearing houses, maxi
ing comparison with previous years of
IA per cent. over 1897 and of 81 per
way frrtfJ
1894. the volume of clearings has prac-
tically doubled. Active stock specu-
lation and immense industrial float
ings, but, above all, enormous trade
and industrial activity naturally swell
ed the volume of clearings in the mid
die states, but the gains in the New
England group, including Boston,
where copper share speculation was ex-
tensive and where are the great manu-
faucturing centers, We're also consid-
erable. The largest monthly clearings
up to December were reported in