Year: 1872

far as the thousand and one lines OF general
business are concerned, many and very various
considerations have, of course, to be taken into
account 1t Is altogether out Of the question to
examine the probable prosperity or possible mis-
fortunes OF eacn particular branch OF trade. Some
goods affected by the caprice OF fashion, others
are annually supplanted by new improvements and
inventions that supersede entirely articles which
have enjoyed in their day the distinction of being
staple commodities; and yet again, as any thought
full trader will tell you, there is now and then q
special vein Of Ill luck which assails some indi-
vidual lines of business, and which has
no discernible cause explanation. Such
frowns Of the presiding genius of commerce some
times affect not only luxurtes and superfuous COM
forts. but even goods that apparently are necessa
ries for every civilized human being and in every
decently furnished household. If we could only
get reliable statistics Of the subsidiary branches OF
trade we should, indeed probably find in isolated
instances many remarkable variations from the
claw of averages" We should perhaps discover,
for instance that though every one had lots Of
money and the year generally was an exceptionally
prosperous one, there was inordinate demand
for chairs or stools, while tables or lounges, for
some mysterious reason, languished in the tedious
dulness Of frightfully heavy market. Similar
experiences are at any rate the experience
OF pretty large retail traders, and one cannot help



even If 1t be merely one of those popular super
stitlons which 1t is the province of full and ex-
Sended statistics to explode. 1t might possibly,
however, turn out to be the whole truth. If we
could get accurate returns from everywhere, that
this supposed difference in the readiness OF sale be-
tween tables and chairs merely local one, and
that the fact that the ordinary balance between
these necessary articles was rigdly preserved,
though, unfortunately for one individual trader or
for the traders of district it happened that people
CHANGED to buy most Of their chairs the east
side and most of their tables on the west side of
town.


But universal experience shows that the "gen-
eral" Fall trade is affected mainly by certain lead
ing characteristics of the year, and that, though
special lines OF commerce may be- or may seem to
be- in this way strangely neglected. the volume of
the principal currents Of business is subject the
same grand controlling influences for good or ill.
And, first of ALL 1t is one of the earliest discoveries
made in the modern science of political economy
that good crops and cheap wheat mean CORE
spending briskness In the annual consumption of
articles OF consumption and luxurys This may seem
at first somewhat strange, at any rate when
the principle a,r ' Is applied to land like
try Any one might at the first blush suppose that
wheat being low, the farmers income was of course
a light one, and that. farmers being the principal
customers OF all kinds OF American commerce,
trade must therefore necessarily be duh. But this
mean little, but much money in the pockets of the
farmer. The reason why 1t Is low is that there has
been an abundant harvest, and though the price Of
wheat per bushel may be very moderate, yet the
FARMER has so many more bushels to sell that he Is
much better of than If he sold scanty crop at
universal laws which infalbly true, and of
which the most thck-headed OF human beings
there come reports from all over the country ieav.
ing scarcely any doubt that the yield in all kinds of
w be a9S 70 sap W
we may reasonably assume that this season, even
n prices rule low, the farmers are going to have
therefore legitimately expect to have brisk and


There are some other signs in the commercial
sky which induce us to take very favorable and
hopeful view. of the situation. We are now
in spite OF " the heated and partisan stasements
of the followers Of the rival candidates
the struggle is on the whole very good natured
one. Take the opinion OF any old nhabtant upon
ahs point and he viii at once reassure you, ifyOu
happen TO be q young man recently arrived at
lanh0od and with q limited acquaintance with the
asperities OF national campaign. 1t is Invariably
The cry at such crises that the country will be ire
rrlevably ruined unless the right man Is elected.


But old stagers look upon such stories with amused
contempt. They have heard them a dozen times
oeofe G % and regard them with coldy critical eye;
and IL VIII be noticed also that whether Grant or
Greeley be elected there win be much the
same aairr confidence In the integrity OF the in
general belief not only in wall street but
, among heavy mercantile houses whose operations,
haps more. to do with the premium on aod az tn The
brokers and dealers In the Gold Room That unless
there should be some great European disturbances
the rate Of gold and the value Of greenbacks will
DOT be SUBJECT 10 any very violent fluctuations i'm
the near future. The failure OF the determined
effort recently made to run coin up to rates which
we have come to look upon as high has very ma.
terialiy strengthened this conviction which A.
may be remarked also, is one of those opinions
which justify themselves. Let everybody be.
,lieve, as everybody does practically believe
Just at present that gold can scarcely
he carried beyond lis, while there is
no very sound ground for hoping that It can be
brought below 10, and the tide OF speculation will
elacken whenever IL nears those figures And with
such comparatively limited swing to the pentu-
lum OF gambling In gold business OF all kinds as
sumcs gratifying air OF healthy confidence which
Is scarcely below what would exist II we again
blessed, as we were in the happy old times before
the war, with q specie basis, and greenbacks and
an uncOnvcrtibe currency had passed away into
that limbo OF 1orgetfuness into which delight to
down.
so much for the bright side OF the picture. There
are, however some facts which are not quite so
hopeful and inspiring. All over the world there
has occurred within the past decade singular but
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