Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1881 — A YEAR’S FAILURES. [ARTICLE]

A YEAR’S FAILURES.

The Dun Mercantile Agency has issued its annual circular of failures for the year 1830. The following table shows the failures for last year and the year before, with the amount of i liabilities:

The tables indicate that the mercantile failures in the United States, during the year 1880, were in number 4,735, with liabilities aggregating nearly $66,000,000. The failures lor 1870 were in number 6,658, with liabilities of $98,000,000. The decrease, therefore, for the past year is 1,923 in number, and in liabilities $27,000,000, thus showing an improvement equal to 40 per cent, in number, and a saving in losses by bad debts in the same proportion. While the comparison of the last year with the previous one is so extremely favorable, the comparison of 1880 with 1878 is even more remarkable. In 1878 the failures numbered 10,478, while in 1880 they numbered only 4,735, indicating a lessened number of casualties by 5,743, equivalent to nearly 60 per cent But in the amount of liabilities the change for tho better is even greater, for in 1878 the indebtedness of those who failed was $234,000,000, while in 1880 it did not reach $66,000,000, a lessened amount by $168,000,000. When it is remembered that the number of pei-sons now engaged in business as compared with 1878 is nearly 10 per cent greater, and that the extent of the transactions during the past year at least trebled those of 1878, the significance of the lessened number of failures and the reduced loss by this cause will be apprehended. The following table sMbws the failures for twenty-four years: Amount of LiaYear. Failure*. bilitie*. 1857 4,932 $291,759,000 1858 4,225 95,749,0(10 1859 3,913 64,394,000 1860 3,676 79,807,<00 1861 6,993 207,210,000 1862 1,652 23,049,(MX) 1863 495 7,899,900 1864 520 8,579,000 1865 530 17,625,000 1866 1,505 53,783,000 1867 2,780 96,666,000 1868. 2,608 63,694,000 1869 2,799 75,054,054 1870 3 546 88,242,000 1871 2,915 85,252,000 1872 4,069 121,056,000 1873 5,183 228,499,930 1874 5,830 155,239,000 1875 7,740 201,<!00,000 1876 9,092 191,117,000 1877 8,872 190,(169,936 1878 10,478 234,383,132 1879 6,658 ' 98,149,013 1880 4,735 65,752,00 0