The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1915-02-12
HISTORY Of HIGH
PRICES OF WHEAT
N UNITED STATES
PRESENT BOOM PRICES ARE FAR
FROM THE MAXIMUM
OF 82.s5.
LATTER REACHED 1877 AND 1876
History Shows That Prices Have
SCARED Either During or Immediate
ly After War In This Country or
Some Foreign County.

Contrary to the common belief, the
high price of wheat now is far from
the level that it has reached at 9th
er times in the history of this coun
! try. Though SLIGO, which is about
the price that it is now bringing in
st. Louis and Chicago, is figure at
which most farmers will be willing
to engage their crops, yet it is more
than dollar less that what wheat
brought in 1917 and 1867 In those
two years it scared to $685. per bush
ell, the highest ever recorded in the
history of this nation.
| A study of the high prices shows
that these prices have always ruled
| during or Immediately after some
great war, either in this country or
| some other, the effect being felt in
America.
The most profitable period in which
wheat was ever raised was from 1888
to 1872. From 1888 to 1895 the price
scared from SO cents per bushel to
$2.48. There was a continuation of
the high prices until 1912, though not
quite so high as the above figure.
During this period of quarter of
century occurred the French reyolu-
ton, the Napoleonic wars, and our
own war of 1912.
The Napoleonic regime was ended.
in 1915 with his defeat at Waterloo.
The average price that, year was
$1.76, which rose two years later to
$685. per bushel, the high water
mark. The reason for this was that
the grain supplies of the world had
been depleted by the long duration
of the war.
Wheat then receded to a much low
er level and stayed there until 1854,
when the Crimean war broke out 1t
rose that year from 3S cents to $185
per bushel.
In 1861, at the beginning Of the
civil war, the price Of wheat was 62
cents It rose steadily then until
1864, when it reached the crest at
1928 per bushel There was break
in the price to IA cents Immediately
upon the declaration Of peace. How.
ever. it took sudden squirt in the
spring of 1857 to $2.S5 per bushel, the
same level that it reached just fifty |
years before.
There we're also two advances in |
1870 during the Franco-Prussian war
and the Russo Turkish war in 1876-7S |
The maximum was $1.76 and after |
the declaration of peace after each |
war there were sudden breaks in the
price.
Twenty years later the Spanish
American war came on. In May,
1898, Joesph Letter attempted to cor
ner the wheat market He forced
the price up to $185 for May option,
but the bottom dropped out Of the
market and the price collapsed to GO
cents before the end of the war.
During the Russo-Japanese war in
1904-5, the price of wheat rose from
"A cents to $1,21 per bushel, follow
ed in the next two or three years by
still further advances, the maximum
being reached in 1909, when the price
was $16o.
Up until August /, 1914, wheat
brought only 70 to rs cents per bush
ell in this county. With the breaking
out of the great European war on
that date, it rose steadily until now.
It seems probable that there will be
a sill further increase. However, all
grain men predict drop as soon as
the Dardanelles are opened up and
the Russian supply of wheat can get
out, or there is some peace negotia-
tions between the warning nations.