The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-02-13
Marked Development Seen In
Every Department OF Its Life
and business
NOW SOUIH'5 GREAT
BANKING CENTER
Postal Receipts. Bank Clear
ances, Jobbing 'et1ls, In
crease by leaps and Lounds.
$24,000,000 Of New tt Id
lngs il 81 Years

ComLarl5o.t OF the L bios Of sta
tistics Tor Las: year with tnoss OF llaa
tells "a tale OI tfc!n ndous prog re3s
for Richmond during tie six eats
just passed, during V .lea tnts paper
has been one uf the Clty's INSTITUTIONS.
over fourteen million dollars ADVANCE
in manufacturing saico More e.is,n
eleven million increase in ioht'lIis
tradt, together Win AMOUNTS n eAse.ts
Of one hundred and seY@rt. II ll1o.t
IL hank clearings. and uin~ty ha.teeb
enhancement in The Nulre oi her f&at
aad Gers nal property arc g5ins sy5f.a.t
place this city In the S"IN forefront
II ID dvancC tntUt.
These commercial int rests form the
bone and Siuew ~ a Chy, ana il IS III
4 Ee se mainly that Richmond mas made
ner greatest strides forward 1t needs
hut a glance nj the figures which
have been furnished by }. II. sER.tls.
the statist.clan of the Chamber CT
Commerce, to show thai this city has
gone forth to great progress with u
rapid. but sturdy step, IN 1909 MIR.
Witty reported that this city vas .lo-
ing a manufacturing business o. $780,
3SA, 532- Last year Richmond lid a
manufacturing business Of $50 tiG.-
163 Thus in six years ais city has
gained s14.372.23l in gales Of her rraa-
ufactured goods These tigurcs, are
especially Illuminating whom it is borne
IN mind that his great Increase was
accomplished with the outlay of only
S2.267,563 additional capital and the
construction OF 27l more manufacture
ing plaEts In 1893 the total manu-
featuring capital employed Was S3a.-
1i9.907. Last year S36.3S7.460 eapi-
tai was employed Six years ago there
were only 1r75S plants in this city.
Today there are 2,031 The invest
mont of s3>367.5s3 more capital and
the Construction Of 374 additional
manufacturing plants are in them
selves salient features of stable nro-
sress and bespeak future prosperity.
Huge Jobbin2 Increase.
As IN the manufacturing business
So in the business of jobbng + ich-s
mond mas risen on stepping stones Of
progress To greater things J3,bins
trade IN 1893 totaled S6s,o40.425.
while last year it was st1,7Y3,I0a
more, being a total of s7a.s3s.525.
Here again with a limited additional
outlay Of capital business has "pnu II
IN millions. The capital employed In
the joobins business IN this city I'D
(4n9 was $l21iS,25G as Against sfS.-
81. 545. making an increase nj 81
0i9,293 in the last six years.
This immense increase in job
hing trade carries with it cor
responding increases in many lines
of business The retail merchant
of the city depends largely on the
iobber for his goods ana an IN
crease of bushes, for the latter means
a t,"oportion2tc 5Ncrease for Ihe fIr-
n,er The merchant however. haNA
much Of his goods from the manr-
faCtUref direct, and in many instances
from out-of-town concerns, SO that
- much larger figure would represent
he sales of the retailers than could
he estimated from the business of the
}obbers here. w A Clarke. secretary
or ttC Richmond Retail Merchants
Association, and the merchants them
selves, are unanimous in declaring that
although their business suffered CON
siderably during the general business
depression Immediately succeeding tha
war the retail sales have shown steady
advancement through the past SIX
years
Bank EiearanceS Soaring.
Bank clearances also have gone sky
ward No greater contributor 10 a
eity's financial stability is known tbau
its banks Prosperity and bank clear.
arecs 20 hand in hand The Largo
cities OF the North are more iargely
dependent on their bank clearan noes
tor their prosperity than are cities
South, which have other stable fouu-
dations on which to build the super.
structure Of progress and conseunene-
iy The greater effort is made in North.
ern cities to develop the banking bgsi.
ness to it's fullest extent But RieA
mond now is rivaEng some OF these
larger Northern cities notlceably Bal
timore. since this city secured the "a,
gional bank. another tremendous gnir
born of the last six wears.
The figures tell the story palmer
than could words IN 1909 The T.ieh.
mond hank clearances amounted &c
$3Gl.2GT.lt H. Al the end Of 1915 t,tes
had jumped 10 s5$7, 26i 3a0. totai
gain of no less than s116. 054.2T3. Last
year the ciearances were $i0o. baQs 6oG
ahead of the year preceding. whi.-
IS the largest gain that has been sacwa
in the history OF the city, These fig
ures do not show the result OF tho
operation ct the Federal Reserve
Bank
Material Wealth Millions More.
The basis OF every city's mrterisf
wealth is her fea: estate. IN tlas
Richmond has shown almost plies
nomenai gains, la 1908 Richmond
real estate was put down az see, iaA,.
S54 In 1915. its value was Sl2j,4f4.-