Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1898 — TRADE SITUATION. [ARTICLE]

TRADE SITUATION.

Our Complicated Foreign Relations Fall to Have the Depreciating Effect Anticipated by Some. New York, April 1. — R. G. Dun & Co., in their weekly review of trade, say: “In spite of foreign conditions since the destruction of the Maine, February 16, failures In three mpnths are smaller thap In the first quarter of any year since 1886; the ratio of defaulted liabilities, to payments through clearing houses has been the smallest for that quarter since 1881; the average of liabilities per firm In business has been the smallest since 1880, and the /Average of Liabilities per failure has been lower than ever before In any quarter. It La especially significant that the failures for less than SIOO,OOO without material decrease In number, were 29 per cent smaller than last year In manufacturing, and 21 per cent, smaller In trading. The war cloud, which many Inferred ipust have greatly Increased commercial disasters, does not appear to have any such effect as yet, and while there is some decline in the new orders Tor Industries, nearly all live works are covered ao far ahead that the difference Is not felt “Rates for money have advanced, and the six per cent, which used to be the ruling rate in active times again prevails, which compels many speculators to liquidate. But the imports of gold go far to prevent any real anxiety. Moreover, although part of the hypothecated exchange on Europe has been sold and ordered against it, there is known to be about $30,000,000 more yet In the banks at New York, and $12,600,000 In other cities, against which gold is liable to be imported, because there Is small prospect of any better settlement. “Wheat has declined slightly, hut corn has advanced one-quarter cent for the week, and no one imagines that foreign troubles can check the outgo. Cotton has advanced an eighth because of the idea that production may be reduced, although receipts from plantations thus far have been greater by about 800,000 bales than In 1895, from the largest crop ever raised, and while the mills are now nearly all active the consumption does not exceed the maximum. "The iron and steel market shows no decrease, for with works fully employed, and some additional works put into operation for government purposes. "Failures for the week have been 220 in .the United States, against 2GO last year, and 27 in Canada, against 42 last year.” Bradstreet’s says: "A week of rather quieter general trade and of smaller distribution, due to easily explainable causes, closes a quarter which has been eminently satisfactory to nearly all branches of trade and productive of an unprecedented busftiess In many favored Uneß. The heavy foreign demand for our products, particularly agricultural staples, and the active domestic movement In most lines are evidenced by the heavily Increased bank clearings reported for the quarter, and the effect on the commercial mortality Is favorably reflected in a total, for the first three months of 1898, of failures and Of liabilities Involved, smaller than In the corresponding period for four years past. Current demand and distribution at the east have been interfered with by the uncertainties growing pat of our unsettled foreign relations. “Good weather at the south favors an early planting season, but business based upon this has not been of such a volume as to make up for the quieting demand noted at a number of coast cities and at river points, where high water is Limiting business to some ektent. Export trade at New Orleans Is reported checked by Increased freight and insurance rates, growing out of the present unsettled foreign situation. Freight rates are reported weaker on the Pacific coast, and trade is rather quieter at most cities. The outlook is for a heavy crop of wheat in the state of Washington this year. Boat building and iron manufacturing are reported active in the Pacific northwest. The price situation is. on the whole, quite encouraging this week, oats, flour, print cloths and hides being the most prominent among the decreases mentioned, while wheat, corn, lard, coffee, cotton and sugar are higher, and the list of staples unchanged In price appears the most numerous."