Year: 1871

change Of products, the prosperity ol


business depends largely upon the


abundance Of products to be ex-


changed. Let the supply be large


and the demand active, and brisk


business follows as a matter of ne


cessity. Since it is the first pressing


necessity of mankind to eat, the bu-


siness of supplying food is the basis


of all other kinds of business. The


fertile region known as the Interior,


is the great fOOd-producing garden of


this continent, and to its crop pros


poets all eyes are turned. The larger


the crops. other things being equal,


the more food producers, who con-


stitute the great bulk of our popula-
tiOn, require of groceries, clothing,


books, music, and all other articles,


whether of luxury or. necessity,


which they need, and do not them


selves produce. Large crops, there


fore, if the food demand of the world


be an average one, tend to set in mo-


ton spindles, looms, laundries and


factories of every sort, from the low


est to the highest grade. They fur


nish freightage to railways and ves-


sells, zest to mercantile circles, active
employment to mechanics, and in


general, wings to capital and nerve
force to labor.


No matter what the Department


of Agriculture at Washington may
say. or editors pushed for paragraph,


nor what the farmers in exceptional
localities may report about chinch


bugs, potato bugs, rust, and other
evils, concrete or imaginary, . every
one who has recently traversed the
immense region tributary toChicago,
unite in affirming that the wheat
crop now being harvested promises
to equal any ever known in this re-
gion, while the corn crop, which is
afLer all by far the most important
cereal product raised, promises to
greatly surpass all former yields. If
the remainder of the season be pro-
pitiOus, therefore, the business of the
country for the coming fall or win
ter, will not lack the stimulus of a
large surplus in the food products of
the interior. 1t furthermore seems
pretty certain that there will be a
fair foreign demand for this surplus.
True, the exceptional prices obtained
during the Crimean war and the late
civil war cannot be expected, but
when it is considered that owing to
the increased use among farmers Of
labor-saving machinery and the low
er wages paid to farm hands, it is
probable that the present crop will
cost producers less per bushel than
any crop within the last ten years,
it is pretty certain that they can sell
everything they raise at a profit,
which is more than can be said of
their experience for the last three
years.


Then, too, the losses to business Of
all kinds during the last six years,
from the shrinkage in values, conse-
quent, among other causes, upon the
fall of gold from an average of 25O |
to 112, are not likely to be renewed |
for some months to come. Gold and |
nearly all other articles of merchan-
die are likely to remain firm for the |
next year, even if they do not rise
in value in that time, which will
make business less hazardous and |
more profitable.


While from these premises we
may reasonably expect for the next
year more profitable business in |
nearly all departments of trade, |
than has favored us for several years !
past, we are frank to admit that |
while the country seems to be tend
ing towards a more prosperous con-
ditiOn, we have some ways yet to go !
before capital and labor will reap
the reward which the enormous re-
of this country justify them !
in expecting. We need still farther
to relieve the people from the bur
dens of taxation, to collect taxes for
the benefit of the national treasury,
and not for the benefit of class in
terests, and as soon as we safely can,
to get back to specie basis. But it |
is doubtless best that some of these
changes should come gradually. We
have to congratulate ourselves that
the tendencies of affairs are mainly
in the right direction. There is per-
haps one tendency against which
we should warn the mercantile COM
munity, and that is the tendency,
under the spur of competition, to
give longer credits.


Chicago has become the great CEN
traI jObbing city of the continent,
partly because her merchants have
in the past had the sagacity to see
that a given capital turned over
every month, at a net profit of 5
per cent, is more productive to all
parties concerned, than if it we're
turned over twice a year at a net
profit each time of 80 per cent,
while the advantages gained by
those who adhere to the cash sys-
tenn in the way of securing an in
crease of trade, from the fact that
they can so largely under.selI those
who adopt the credit system, are
vastly greater than they at first ap-
pear. "Small profits and quick re-
turns" should be the motto of every
merchant who wishes in the long