Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-07-06
THE BUSINESS SITUATION.


r. G. Dun & Co.'s Review, in its
issue of today. says: "The demand for
iron and steel seems to have no limit.
Scarcity of pig has raised the price 81
per ton for local coke at Chicago, 81. 10
TO Slv.15 for Bessemer at Pittsbure,
and Sl.75 to SIT. 10 for Grey Forge, and
rs cents to sl92 for anthracite No. l
at Philadelphia, with some iron selling
above these quotations at all points for
early delivery. Efforts to got foreign
contracts out of the way are met by
fresh orders from Europe at last weeks
prices. Some furnaces have started
with contracts for their whole years
product, but others are YET delayed.
Prices of pig average higher than at
any other time since February, 1880,
and prices of finished products higher
than since March, 1891. Billots are
hardly obtainable. Bar and plate
orders are refused quite largely because
works are overcrowded; sheet mills
have much stronger demand in the
West, but less at the East, and struc-
tural works report $4,000 tons required
in two new Eastern contracts. The
continuing demand, in spite of rising
prices, astonishes everybody. Coke
ovens, ITO, 453 at work, put out for the
week ISL, s52 tons, the heaviest weeks
work ever known at Connellsville. Tin
is stronger at 26 cents, and copper Is
cents for lake, but lead is dull, with
hope of an end to tho Colorado strike.
Another industry passes all records,
boot and shoe shipments from the East,
400, 8l3 cases, exceeding those in any
ether month of any year for four weeks,
and the demands for speedy delivery
show enormous distribution in all di
rections. New orders are large, and
several months ahead. Wool sales,
36, l79, 900 pounds, Of which 20, $3.50, 800
were domestic, reveal speculation
scarcely less obtrusive than in 1897,
when Al, 1877, 600 pounds were sold in
the same weeks, against %, 76S, 200 in
1892, when the mills were we'll en-
ployed. ="
Bradstreet's, says Though seasonal
bly, quieter in many lines, the strength
of the general business situation re-
mains apparently unabated, and the
half year closes with the commercial
and financial community contemplat-
ing very satisfactory returns in the re-
cent past, and manifesting tone of
cheerful confidence regarding the out
look for the last half Of 1899. In the
volume of business done the first half
of 1893 will certainly rank higher than
the best hitherto experienced, and the
notable rise in prices which was such
feature of the past spring has done
much to reconcile traders to the I'D
mittedly small margins of profits which
modern business operators tend toward
making permanent.
"A low ebb may be said to have been
raQrhal n fniltfraG harra
ments being the smallest and least i'm
portant noted for many years. For the
| first six months the total number re-
ported to Bradstreet's has been 5,049.
with liabilities of $50, 304, 253. This is
a decrease as regards number of 81 per
| cent from last year, of % per cent from
| 1897 and of "a per cent from 1896, while
| the liabilities are 80 per cent smaller
than they were year ago, 46 per cent
| less than in 1897, 80 per cent less than
in 1896 and 10 per cent less than in
| 1892 In number, in fact failures are
fewer this year than they have been
for seventeen years past, and the liabili-
ties involved are smaller than in any
year since 1881. That current embar-
easements are we'll down to the normal
| is proved by the fact that assets this
year constitute only 45.5 per cent of
the liabilities, against so per cent last
year, 81 per cent in 1897 and 81 per
cent in 1893. Large failures were
specially scarce during the second
quarter of the year, and the only gain
in number or In liabilities noted is in
the Territories, while specially heavy
decreases in liabilities are reported
from the Middle and Western States.
In Pennsylvania the number of failures
the past six months was 495. against
772 in 1893. The liabilities were
50, 485, 500, against $40, SGT, 227.