the Atlantic ports for the first eleven months of 1866 being 60,344,979 gallons against 23,888,258 for the corresponding period of 1865;) a large increase in the demand for and in the production and importation of lumber; an increase in the number of manufacturing establishments, especially of cotton, both in the north and in the south, and a full employment of all iron blast-furnaces, if not an increase in their number; an increase in the production of gold and silver in the Pacific States and Territories; a continued demand and full employment of all kinds of skilled labor; and a partial resuscitation of southern industry and production, especially as regards sugar. 2d. A progress in the invention of machinery, for economizing labor or perfecting products and processes, entirely without precedent in any former experience. This statement, apart from direct testimony taken by the commissioner on this subject, finds full confirmation and illustration in the following returns from the United States Patent Office, of the number of patents issued for inventions from 1857 to 1866, inclusive. 3d. A continued and increasing influx of foreign immigration: the number for the year 1866 having been probably in excess of any year subsequent to 1857, as is exhibited in the following table: Assuming the present average annual immigration to be 225,000, and eighty dollars in gold as the average amount brought in by each person, (an estimate based on former statistics ;) and five hundred dollars as the average value to the country of each individual, as a producer, we have thus as a positive addition to the wealth and producing capacity of the country, of over one hundred and thirty millions of dollars ($130,000,000) per annum. 4th. A spirit of enterprise which seems to redouble its energy with every additional burden which is placed upon it. Under these circumstances, while the general condition of the country during the twelve months ending October 1, 1866, has been apparently prosperous, and while the experience of the last ten years demonstrates that neither war, excited political differences, financial disturbances, onerous and duplicated taxes, and ill-adjusted and unstable tariffs can reduce the progress of national development below a rate which is wholly unprecedented in the old States of Europe, yet, at the same time, it must be obvious to even the most casual observer, that certain disturbing elements have grown out of the war and its concurrent and necessary legislation, which greatly tend to check the normal development of the country, to seriously diminish production and consumption, arrest the growth of foreign commerce, and expose our home industries most unfairly to the competition of other nations. The effect of these disturbing elements acting concurrently has been to create and maintain a most extraordinary and, in the history of modern civilization, an unparalleled advance in the prices of every description of labor and of commodities, to decrease the purchasing power of wages and of the lawful money of the nation, and to place the entire industry of the country in an abnormal and most unsatisfactory condition. ADVANCE IN PRICES. A somewhat extended investigation respecting the advance in the prices of the leading articles of consumption and of rents indicates an increase of nearly ninety per cent. in the year 1866, as compared with the mean of prices during the four years from 1859 to 1862. To speak more exactly, a comparison of the published wholesale prices current of about fifty of the leading articles of domestic consumption, embracing breadstuffs, coal, candles, coffee, fish, (salt,) iron, lead, leather, molasses, oils, paints, provisions, beef, pork, butter. &c., rice, soap, salt, sugars, (brown,) tallow, teas, &c., show an average advance during the period above specified of about 85 per cent. currency. (For more detailed results reference is made to Appendix D of this report.) Of the above, the advance in breadstuffs is estimated at about 70 per cent.; coal, (anthracite,) from 60 to 70 per cent.; salt fish, from 70 to 75; provisionspork and beef-from 110 to 120; butter, over 100 per cent.; rice, 100; salt, from 110 to 120; soap, from 80 to 90; brown sugars, from 70 to 80; coffee, from 30 to 40; and teas, from 140 to 150 per cent. As regards textile fabrics, the currency prices of domestic cottons in October, 1866, show a nominal advance over the gold prices of such fabrics in July, 1860, of one hundred and seventy-two (172) per cent.; the advance in the gold prices for the same period-the premium on gold for the month ending October, 1866, being assumed as fifty per cent.-having been eighty-one (81) per cent. The details of this result will appear from the following table: Of course a very large portion of the advance noted must be attributed to the high price of raw cotton, which has varied from 300 to 500 per cent. above the price in 1860. A careful examination of the books of one of the largest cotton manufacturing companies of New England, made up in detail and with great care and accuracy, shows that the cost of manufacturing cotton goods in their mills in the year 1866, over the average of the years from 1857 to 1861, was 133 per cent. On manufactures of woollens, suited for ordinary domestic use, the advance is estimated at 53 per cent., as is shown by the following table: Table showing the minimum aud maximum prices of four kinds of 3-yard American woollen goods; also of & or broadcloth for the years 1861 to 1866, inclusive. The increase in the price of blankets kept pace with that of other heavy woollen goods, but has now (December, 1866) fallen to less than fifty per cent. in excess of the prices of 1860-'61, or to about the prices existing in those years, computed in gold. Ordinary ingrain carpets have increased about 75 per cent.; three-plys, of Lowell company, and other best qualities, 53 per cent.; while the advance on low-priced Brussels and tapestry carpets has been from 90 to 100 per cent. The advance in the price of ready-made clothing has been as follows: An invoice costing in 1860 and 1861, $100, was $115 in 1862; $140 in 1863; $180 in 1864; $170 in 1865; and $150 in 1866; showing an advance in 1866 over the prices of 1860-'61, of 50 per cent. currency. On silk goods in general the advance is estimated at an average of a little over one hundred per cent.; the lower grades having advanced since 1860 at still higher ratio. In respect to the advance in the prices of labor, no very exact and comprehensive statement can at this time be made, owing to the varying nature of the conditions which enter into and affect the estimate; but, so far as investigations of the commissioner have extended, they lead to the conclusion that, as a general thing, the price of labor has not advanced in an equal ratio with the price of commodities, although numerous exceptional cases might be quoted which seem to indicate the contrary. The following are some of the most interesting and reliable data gathered under this head, from personal examination or inquiry at some of the principal seats of the industries specified, in different sections of the country: Branches of manufacture. Agricultural implements.. Advance in wages from Agricultural laborers in the northern, middle, and western States, average. Bookbinding Boots and shoes-Men's... Cotton manufactures-general average of all branches*. Furniture-Cabinet Hardware-Files 663 to 90 do. Machinists' tools... Hand printers Laborers. Hats, wool, and fur... India-rubber manufactures. Ink, printing Iron-Founding. Wire.. Jute manufactures. Locomotives and machinery in Paterson, N. J., average. Machinery, cotton and woollen, average. Machinery, general average. Paper hangings-Machine tenders and block cutters Printing-Composition.. Saddlery and harness.. The following estimates of the increased advance in wages (1861-'66) in the cities and States below named, were carefully made at the instance of the commissioner, by intelligent and reliable gentlemen: ..... In all the manufacturing establishments in the town of Chester, *As regards the advance of wages in the cotton manufacture above given, it should be stated that, as a consequence of the withdrawal of men for the war, and from the scarcity of skilled operatives, a much younger and less efficient class of operatives was employed in the manufacture of this and other textile fabrics; and that consequently a larger number have been required. If the per cent. of advance in wages should be cast upon the amount earned by an operative of equal age and efficiency in all textile manufactures, the average would be nearer the higher than the lower rates specified in the table. In the city of Baltimore, Maryland, carpenters..... In Massachusetts the increase in mechanics' wages is.. In western New York the increase in wages of skilled farm la- The following exceptional cases may also be given as illustrative of the recent advance of wages: A careful examination of a rolling-mill in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, making band-iron, showed a disbursement for wages, per week, of five thousand two hundred dollars in 1866, against one thousand seven hundred in 1860 and 1861the mill working to the same capacity and employing exactly the same number of hands in both cases. The average wages earned by melters, forgers, and rollers, employed in the steel works of Pittsburg, and working nine hours per day, during the month of October, 1866, was reported to the commissioner as eight dollars per day. The following rates of wages are also reported to have been paid during the past year in the same city, in the manufacture of iron and glass: Skilled hammer-men, working, on an average, five days per week, eight dollars per day; head nailers, superintending four machines, eleven dollars per day; puddlers, six to seven dollars per day; blowers of bottles and window glass, two hundred and seventy-five dollars per month. During the months of April and May, 1866, the rates of wages paid in certain of the glass-works of Pittsburg, are reported to have averaged eleven dollars and forty cents per day. Bricklayers and masons have received from four to seven dollars per day in different sections of the country during the past year. The average advance in the rents of houses occupied by mechanics and laborers in the great manufacturing centres of the country, is estimated to have been about ninety per cent.; in some sections, however, a much greater advance has been experienced, as, for example, at Pittsburg, where two hundred per cent. and upward is reported. In many of the rural districts, on the other hand, the advance has been much less; and in New England, where the manufacturing corporations are usually the proprietors of the tenements occupied by their operatives, little or no advance has been reported. In cases like the latter, where rents have not appreciated, the average rise in wages has been undoubtedly in excess of the advance in the price of commodities. The general result of an examination and comparison of all the statistics gathered leads therefore to the opinion, that the average increase in the prices of labor, since 1860, has been about sixty per cent, and of commodities, as already stated, about ninety per cent. It further appears, from an examination of the United States census statistics of manufactures, in 1860, that the average monthly wages of employés, in all branches of manufactures, was, of males, twenty-seven dollars and ten cents, and of females, twelve dollars and fifty cents; while, by the census of the State of New York, in 1865, the average monthly wages, in the whole State was, for males, forty-four dollars, and for females, twenty dollars; being an increase over |