The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-30
BUSINESS ON A GREAT BOOM.
RECORD FOR 1900 FAR BEYOND
ALL EXPECTATION.

Volume Of Domestic as Wei as For
eign Trade Was the Largest Ever
ACCOMPLISHMENTS In the Total or
ExpOrts-They Were About $780,
OCO,OOO Greater Than the Imports.
Great Gain in Price of Manufac-
tured Products.
New York, Dec. S9-Bradstreet's review
of The Year in Business" tomorrow
viii say
Rarely have sangulne commercial and
financial hopes Of predictions found such
adequate realization as they did during
1899. Certainly nothing like the wide-
spread and general upward movement Of
values, alike of staples and Of securities.
such as occurred during this year, could
have been foreseen.
Linked with an immense business and q
record-breaking production in nearly all
lines OF business and industry, except,
perhaps. in some products Of the agrlcul-
tural interest there was with Il an adj
vance of staple values either OF which
alone would have made the year notabls
and combined they have served to estab-
fish the year as a recordbreaker and set
up new standards
The volume OF domestic and of foreign
trade alike was the largest ever recorded,
and the bank and elearings reflected inn
mense business expansion, active specula-
ton in stocks and immense new Industrial
ioatings, far surprising all previous
record
In Industrial affairs the year has been
one OF enormous expansion. Certainly
1.
OF Industrial employees has been Witnessed
for many years and this has been accom-
plshed with minimum of friction enti-
ling the year TO special mention on this,
II on no other account. The close of the
year finds order books filed TO from three
TO six months ahead in nearly all lines.
Increase of Exports.
Notwithstanding smaller exports OF ag-
rlcultural products during the calendar
year, breadstufs shipments being Is per
cent smaller. cattle and hogs exports ~
per cent less and cotton shipments, ow-
ing 10 the short crop al least Is per cent.
less, there was such an expansion of our
manufactured exports that the entire ex-
port trade Of the year will considerably ex-
coed that of che last calendar year which
was the heaviest recorded and make the
year no less notable in the lines OF foreign
than IN domestic trade with a total of ex-
ports little less than 81 ,2S0 100000, an ag-
greRate which II reached, will mark a
gain Of 3 per cent over the record total of
1893.
Imports have naturally shown a marked
revival and If the gain for the eleven
months IL maintained for the month OF
December total little below 100000 600
may be expected. which would guarantee
. total foreign trade well In excess Of ST.
600 COO, an amount It might be remarked.
never before equaled.
That the advance In the price of staples
has not been a fictitious one or based upon
arbitrary actions of combinations is EVIL
denced 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. l this
year, than for more than eight years past.
Breadstuns and Textiles.
Breadstuffs alone of all the classes OF
staples are actually lower now than they
were year ago, the decline being about 8
per cent. On the other hand, the mafu-
| featured or partly manufactured products,
such as metals, raw and manufactured.
| textiles, building materials, coal and naval
stores, have scored remarkable gains.
Metals, as a whole, are 50 per cent higher
than a year ago, dug largely, of course,
to the upward rush of iron and steef
prices, which flave all practically doubled
In value within the year.
Raw cotton and wool have made eepe-
cially noteworthy advances, and being
among the most depressed OF industries
the textile manufacturing trades have be-
come among the busiest there is record Of
Other textiles have shared in this advance
and the result is that textiles, as a class
are one-thrd higher than year ago.
Taking bank ciearngs as an index, tha
outlook at present favors a total at the
country's clearlngs houses making com-
parlson with previous years Of fully S93,-
300, 900 COCO, an increase of IS per cent. over
a year ago, OF "A per cent over 1897 and Of
81 per cent. over 1892. while as compared
with 1894 the volume of clearngs has
practically doubled.