Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-20
THE COPPER MARKET.

The New England Statist of Boston
says: The copper market continued
strong during last week., and there was
an active business both in the domestic
markets and abroad.
In London the market h%uctuated con-
s~lderably. indicating that the speculative
FORCES. which formerly played an import
ant part in the transactions there. were
again active. The closing of the London
market was at an advance of los for spot
and IFS Sd for future deliveries,
In New York lake copper held firm at
16 3-44 cents, and the volume of sales was
moderately large. 1t is said that manu-
Iacturefs have displayed great conf
dence in making contracts for forward
dellVerles, several of them having recent
Ivy asserted that future variations in
the price of copper must carry it higher
n that there is no occasion for fear
ing a decline.
A newspaper writer who has often eau
toned his readers not to get too bullish
on the copper mining stocks, and has ar
gued that the price OF the metal must
swing back to l0c., a little later, now
writes:
1T is not improbable thai the price of
copper in the worlds market has been
kept up, greatly to the advantage of our
copper mines, by two circumstances. In
the manufacture of cartridges used in
modern warfare copper finds q large en-
f~s SNNNSt eo w GIL loN "llIlll
the last twelve months an enormous
amount of ammunition has been used in
the wal that has been going on in South
Africa.
Still another and larger use has been
found in the very general, though not
rapid, introduction of the trolley electric
system for street car service in the prin-
cipal cities of Great Britain. The sup
plying of this need has made a large de-
mand for the copper market, and would
of itself account for the maintenance of
relatively high prices.
Besides these exceptional demands
there has been an increase in
lures of all kinds, and into many of these
copper enters to a greater or less extent,
1t will be seen from What we have said
hat the future demand for this metal be-
comes somewhat problematical. It can
hardly be assumed that in the near flu
ture we are to have another war which
will lead to the exhaustion of ammuni-
ton in the manner that this has been ex-
hausted In the South African war;
A ton of copper will max enough cart
ridge shells to equip a very large army.
In fact, the amount of copper used in
cartridge shells is extremely small. The
effect on the copper market of the recent
demand for war purposes, if it had any
effect, would be seen in a relatively
stronger demand for lax copper as his
kind is used almost exclusively by the
cartridge manufacturers. Instead of be-
ing noticeably stronger, however, AXE is
selling within about LA cent of electro
lytic, whereas 1t has often sold as high as
l IL and 2 cents above electrolytic. No:
cope is not dependent for it's market on
the continuance of International wars.
1t is also a mistake to credit too much
of the present demand for copper to the
extension of the electric trolley roads. The
largest single use of copper is in the
manufacture of brass, a metal that is en-
ployed in too many industries to permit of
enumeration. 1t is the gradual develop
ment of all kinds Of machinery to a high
err point of excellence, that is so steadily
increasing the demand for copper. The
superiority Of the red metal over all 9TH
ers for innumerable uses, is causing the