The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-03-09
Copper.

battles have been pfec!pltdteu mas ailoTu'u
no small corroboration of the opinion held
by many competent observers that the sue
! cassive failures in sagacity shown by Eng
lish merchants and manufacturers raise
the question whether or no the commercial
prosperity Of their country has passed
| its zenith. The British qualities Of con-
| seryatism and obstinacy seem to have made
it impossible for these merchants to adapt
| themselves to the conditions Of modern
, competitive enterprise, and to have left
| them in the race behind the persistent and
| studious German and the inventive and
energetic American.
Az in the case OF cotton, there was a
scarcity Of copper, due, however, not as in
| cotton, to reduced production. but to great
ly enlarged consumption, English manu-
facturers declared that the rise in the value
Of copper as in the case Of cotton, was not
due to normal and proper causes, but to
| speculation and to American manipulation
and corners Now they have had to con
TESS themselves mistaken and to accept the
natural punishment of their error.
The rise in the copper market has pro-
crossed with various fluctuations ever since
1893. Up to that time for many years pro-
duction had greatly outrun consumption,
and a large quantity Of the metal stored in
reserve exercised a constantly depressing
influence upon prices. At the period named
the use Of copper IA the base OF the modern
industrial development of electrical heat
aud power began to dawn upon the mining
and manufacturing world. The huge mass Of
reserve supplies Of copper slowly diminish
ed, while the price OF the article rs slowly but
as steadily rose. All copper-using interests
were skeptical about the advance at first,
but, in the course OF two or three years,
people who looked at the matter with their
, understanding, and not with their preju-
dices, became convinced Of two great facts:
First, that the new use OF copper was not OF
an experimental and uncertain nature. but
meant a vast permanent increase in the con-
sumption OF the article; and. secondly, that
the sources Of copper were, comparatively
speaking, limited.
A great development OF tho copper-min-
ing business began in the United States
as soon as the new use Of the metal became
apparent. and in 1893 We were exporting
considerably more than half OF the raw
copper used in the world, giving us control
Of the worlds markets. The manufacturers
OF France and Germany gave up the fight
after n brief struggle and began TO buy
enormously. But the English manufact-
urers wouldn't buy. In England, unlike
the United States, raw copper Ia an article Of
speculation. The cash article and options for
the future delivery Of 1t are dealt In, In much
the same manner that grain. cotton and
similar commodities are in our w country.
The English manufacturers still asserted
that the rise in price was due to a gigantic
American corner, exactly similar to that
which NJ. SEcRETAN attempted to form in
France some years ago, and they held
that the same collapse would In a little while
come on it. They therefore entered into OK.
tensive speculative operations for the de-
cline in the price Of options in copper.
Moreover, they refused to buy the actual
metal at the prevailing prices and allowed
the business of manufacturing II To go to
other lands, chiefly to our own country.
The charge that the rise In copper was due
to a corner was, Of course preposterous, but
the Englishmcn entertained it with all stub
bornncss. 1t is hard for Americans to I'M
dorstand how such on idea could have
lodged in business mems minds, when tho
figures showing the actual enormous in
crease in the worlds consumption Of copper
were before them, and II was undisputed
that in 1898 the exports OF American copper
----- IA nnn n.Nn .-,.,I, nI.-x,,
those OF the year before. The Englishmen
declared that American copper concerns
had bought enormously in the English
market, taking copper back to America
and then reshipping it 10 England again
for the purpose Of confusing tho statistics
OF copper manufacture and imports! II
Ia true that large American purchases
Of Upper were made in the English
markets, but this was chiefly because
Of the development OF American business
and the decay OF English enterprise. II
meant simply that 80 tremendous had
been tho advance in the improvements
of copper refining and smelling in Amer
lea that our reilners were ablo to buy
the crude copper brought to England
llbll NHll, bIlHk II W Nv Ifil'I w vi
Perth Amboy, and send it back TO
England at a large net profit on the trans
action. There IN little wonder that the far.
famed %reiincrs OF Swansea were roubied at
the progress OF American metallurgists.
The English manufacturers asserted,
finally, that the high prices commanded for
copper would cause an increase in produc.
ton which would. defeat the ends OF the
imaginary American manipuldtors. 1t
should be observed that these so-called high
prices, while they ave been rapidly at.
tanned, are still much below those which
prevailed in years gone by. III 1888 the
stan ard brand Of copper sold AZ ElO5 per
ton in the English market. The rise in
price Of the last six years has only resulted
In an Increase OF about 10 DER cent.
annually in the worlds production and
OF this the greater proportion has been
In our W country.
Bitter and determined. even II deluded
was the resistance made BY the English