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The price of wheat averaged $11.98 per quarter in 1866, $15.46 per quarter in 1867, and $15.30 per quarter in 1868. A good wheat crop in 1868, however, and the large foreign importations of wheat, made food cheaper in 1869 than it had been for several years, the average price of wheat per quarter in 1869 being $11.56, and the cheapening of the cost of food, the low rates ruling for money during that year, and a feeling of greater confidence which followed the successful termination of the Abyssinian expedition, gave trade a more favorable turn.

During the summer of 1869 a rise of 5 per cent. in the wages of the persons employed in the iron trades took place, and this increase was followed in February, 1870, by a further advance of 10 per cent. in wages.

The iron ship-building trades, however, suffered disastrously from 1864, through intervening years, to 1870, and the cotton industry also suffered, especially in 1869, from the increasing competition and the high price of raw materials, which resulted in a diminution of profits to manufacturers and in the closing of many of the less modern mills. There was a recovery of activity in 1870 and an expansion of trade throughout the year, during the latter part of which the decline in the price of raw cotton ameliorated the condition of that industry, and in general the year was a prosperous one in all the trades.

The sudden outbreak of the Franco-German war in July, 1870, caused a flurry in financial circles, and the Bank of England advanced its rate of discount from a minimum of 3 per cent. July 21, to 6 per cent. August 4; but by September 29 the rate had fallen to 24 per cent. Prices and wages in all branches of trades continued to increase to an unparalleled extent, and in February, 1873, the highest price ever paid for Scotch pig-iron was recorded at $33.12 per ton, $30.96 having been touched in August, 1872. As an example of the increase in wages during 1872 and 1873 it may be stated that a miner's wages in Scotland averaged $1.08 per day in 1871, $1.74. per day in 1872, and $2.04 per day in 1873. The average price per ton of Scotch pig-iron in each of the years from 1866 to 1872, inclusive, was as follows:

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The following table shows the additional number of miles of railroad opened in the United Kingdom in each of the years from January 1, 1864, to December 31, 1872, inclusive; also the amount of paid-up capital invested in railroads during that period, and the gross amounts of paid-up capital on the respective dates:

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Amount of paid-up capital invested January 1, 1864.

Capital invested from January 1, 1864, to December 31, 1872..

Total amount of paid-up capital invested December 31, 1872...

a Number of miles constructed.

$1,940, 235, 849 60 791, 191, 411 20

2, 731, 427, 260 80

b The length of line open for traffic at the end of 1868 was 14,628 miles, and at the end of 1871 the length was 15,376 miles."

The total number of joint-stock companies registered in the United Kingdom from January 1, 1866, to December 31, 1872, inclusive, and the total nominal share capital, were as follows:

JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1866-72.

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a In this year (1869) a company was registered with a nominal capital of $500,000,000; but its paid-up capital appears at no time to have exceeded $1,000.

The following statement shows the violent fluctuations to which cotton yarns were subjected during the period from July, 1867, to December, 1872, numbers 32 and 50 twist being selected as standards, and the av erage monthly market price in Manchester, England, being given:

VARIATION IN MARKET PRICE OF COTTON YARNS IN GREAT BRITAIN, 1867-72.

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The following table shows the total number of depositors and the total amounts of deposits, including interest, in the savings banks under trustees in the United Kingdom November 20 in each of the years from 1866 to 1872, inclusive:

SAVINGS BANKS UNDER TRUSTEES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1866–72.

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The following table shows the number of accounts remaining open at the close of each year; also the amount, inclusive of interest, standing to the credit of all open accounts at the close of each year from 1862 to 1872, inclusive, in post-office savings banks in the United Kingdom:

1862. 1863.

1864.

1865.

1866.

1867.

1868.

1869.

1870.

1871.

1872.

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1862–72.

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1873.-The three years immediately preceding 1873 were years of the greatest commercial activity. The extraordinary demands upon British manufacturers, owing to the enforced suspension of production in France and Germany during the progress of the Franco-German war, led to an enhancement in the price of labor and raw materials. It was during this period that British trade attained its greatest prosperity. The defeat of France, and the exaction from her of an enormous indemnity by Germany, resulted in the imposition of onerous taxes, which crippled the industries of the former country. A vast impulse to the financial and trade enterprise of Great Britain thus ensued. The iron ship-building industry was in a most prosperous condition, the demand for cotton and woollen manufactures constantly increased, and the augmenting demand for every description of iron resulted in general prosperity, not only in that, but also in the coal trade. Labor was very generally employed at remunerative rates; but December 1, 1872, notice was given of a reduction in wages of 10 per cent. in the coal and iron trades in South Wales, which resulted in immediately throwing out of employment some 65,000 colliers, miners, and iron workers. This strike continued for a

period of eleven weeks, being kept alive by a strong organization of the trades unions, which distributed in that period a sum of $200,000. The loss of wages, however, amounted to $4,000,000.

The year 1873 opened with other premonitions of coming financial and labor troubles. The enormous demand for all classes of manufactures had carried prices and wages to an unsafe height. The Bank of England discounts, however, continued to fall during the first quarter of the year. March 25 the minimum rate was 3 per cent., but by June 17 following it had reached 7 per cent. It afterward rapidly declined to 3 per cent. August 21 of the same year. This condition was fed by the reaction caused by the partial recovery of Germany and France from the effects of the Franco-Prussian war, and by this reaction, or suffering under its effects, Great Britain was in a condition to receive great harm from the commercial crisis in the United States in September, 1873, which effects also reached in succession various countries of Europe, Asia, and South America. The Bank of England rate of discount rapidly advanced from a minimum rate of 4 per cent. September 25, 1873, to 9 per cent. November 1 following. This precipitated a financial panic, the immediate effect of which was to depress wages and prices in every branch of industry. A vast transference of floating to fixed capital had taken place in the extension of railroads in the United States and in all other parts of the world, and the concurrent rise of wages, price of materials, and coal had so enhanced the working expenses of all these railroads as to more than absorb the natural increase in traffic receipts. The decline in wages and the prices of commodities continued through the years 1874, 1875, 1876, and 1877.

The persons employed in the iron, coal, and iron ship-building trades were not satisfied to allow a natural fall in wages, and many disputes occurred, which resulted in a great loss of time and production. In the course of the year 1874 the wages of iron workers were reduced 35 per cent. The year 1875 was one of even greater distress and stringency than the preceding; the business failures of this year, amounting to about $250,000,000, returned not more than 10 per cent. on the average out of the liabilities. The monetary uncertainty was greatly heightened during the year 1875 by a fall in the price of silver, consequent upon its demonetization by Germany and an increased production on the Pacific coast, the product of that section being $46,000,000 in 1874 and $56,000,000 in 1875. The successions of poor harvests in the six years from 1873 to 1879 led to increasingly great distress in the agricultural sections. The very poor wheat crop of 1876 required large supplies to be purchased abroad, but the lower prices of meat and other necessaries somewhat alleviated the prevailing distress.

In 1877 the iron trade suffered, not only from the slackness in respect to the demand for manufactured materials, but from the fact that cheapened steel was steadily supplanting the former metal and aggravating the losses of those who had investments in iron plants.

The political uncertainties in Europe and Asia, such as the RussoTurkish war and the trouble between India and Afghanistan, caused much disquiet in commercial circles throughout the whole of the year 1878. The failure of the City of Glasgow Bank was followed by many other banking failures, and a period of gloom ensued. Great losses were incurred in almost every branch of business, and in the coal and iron trade especially failures were numerous, consequent upon the general fall of prices.

In the latter part of the year 1879 trade was quickened by increased orders from the United States, which resulted in raising the price of most commodities. The embarrassed condition of the cotton industry, over which ruin had seemed to be impending, improved at the close of the year.

The depressed state of trade during 1877, 1878, and 1879 caused reductions to the extent of 20 per cent. to be made in the wages of persons employed in cotton spinning and weaving, but through improved trade in 1880 and 1881 there was an advance in this industry of 10 per cent. There was a general revival of trade in all industries during the years 1880 and 1881, but the quickening of business during these two years led to large over-production in almost every'important branch of industry, and this over-production was continued through the years 1882 and 1883, and resulted in the serious and general depression of 1884.

1884. The present prolonged depression of trade in Great Britain is largely owing to the succession of bad agricultural seasons, coupled with large over-production in nearly all the leading manufactures, and with the practical insolvency of many of the minor money-borrowing states of Europe and the American continent, which, having obtained large loans of money from England, have defaulted in the payment of both interest and principal. Great Britain is becoming increasingly dependent upon other nations for her food supplies. Almost a million acres, as is shown by the following table, formerly devoted to the growing of wheat, have gone out of cultivation since 1870. The following table shows the total wheat acreage of Great Britain in each of the years from 1870 to 1884, inclusive:

WHEAT ACREAGE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 1870-84.

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