Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1902 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

TJ ~ j~l Bradstreet’s annual reNeW YOrK. vlew of American trade, 'finance and industry shows that 1901 has established the highest record of the last five years of commercial expansion enjoyed by the United States. The year has seen transacted an aggregate of general business, as reflected in bank clearings, far in excess of any preceding period; immense increase in outputs of coal, ore, iron, steel, leather, lumber and a multitude of other branches; freight transportation facilities' insufficient to handle the volume of business offered, and a “volume of holiday business passing all previous bounds both in quantity and quality.” Present estimates indicate that the earnings for 1901 will exceed the highest records of preceding years by one-fourth. There lias been a gain of 38 per cent in bank clearings over 1900; the highest price for wheat since 1898 and of corn and oats for almost a decade. Not all the returns, however, are so favorable. There is less money in cotton for the South this year, aud the margin of profit in manufacture has occasioned complaint in New and old England. Export trade has shown signs of hesitation after years of steady advance, and imports have increased; still the margin in favor of exports is very large. Food products as a whole are higher than in the general price boom of 1900, while manufactures are' lower. Prices as a whole are 8 per cent lower than in February, 1900, and December, 1899, but are higher tiian in any year from 1893 until the third quarter of 1899. In transportation activity has been without precedent. The pre-eminence of the trade conditions of-this year is all the more notable when we consider a number of Occurrences which in a normal year would have proved depressing, if not disastrous. There were the machinist and steel strikes, the stock excitement of May, the failure of several imprudently managed combinations, the efforts of some combinations to fix prices, the shortage in corn, cotton ami oats, and the assassination of President McKinley. T~ In almost all wholesale Cbicano. l * nes tbe usua l holiday dull- * ‘ ness was not experienced While the volume of trade was not near ly as large as during some weeks pre viously, orders came thick and fast in departments where spring buying is usually done some weeks later. There was a firmness in quotations indicative of a rising rather than a declining market, and the conditions surrounding trade in all its branches were more favorable, perhaps, than during any former closing week of a year. Never before have the prospects for a large spring business been more auspicious. This is indicated by advance sales and also by the widespread requests for early deliveries. As to grain prices, wheat is now at a point where a few big traders seem inclined to sell it on every bulge. The foreign situation is fairly strong, and the latest estimate of German requirements is for 8,000,000 bushels monthly. Seaboard clearances continue close to the level of 4,000,000 bushels weekly, which are not enough to make foreign markets weak, and their supplies are being closely adjusted to requirements. In the soft winter wheat markets there has been a good milling demand at better than May prices for the No. 2 red, and an indisposition on the part of farmers to sell, which makes the movement light. In corn the cash situation is weakened, and premiums are lc to 2c lower than a week ago, with a light cash demand. The East is getting supplies that have been delayed by the inability of railroads to handle their traffic rapidly, and for the moment is not buying. Foreigners are also indifferent. The week’s range in both corn and oats was influenced largely by wheat, and confined to lc, corn closing with a loss of %c, and oats %c.