[Trade Journal]
Publication: Annual Statement of the Commerce of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH, United States
p. 1,5-8,46-48, col. 1-2
ANNUAL STATEMENT
OF THE
Commerce of Cincinnati.
FOR THE
COMMERCIAL YEAR, ENDING AUG. 31, 1862,
REPORTED TO THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
BY WILLIAM SMITH,
Superintendent of the Merchant's Exchange.
CINCINNATI:
GAZETTE COMPANY STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, FOURTH AND VINE STS.
1862.
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ANNUAL STATEMENT
OF THE
COMMERCE OF CINCINNATI,
For the Commercial Year, ending, August 31st, 1862.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
In our last we alluded to the origin and progress of the great civil war, or rebellion, which had even then attained to immense proportions, and had deranged and crippled our commerce sadly, and seriously injured many departments of the industry of our city. Another commercial year is completed, and the war still exists, and has increased in size vastly greater even than it was a year ago.
This, then, continues to circumscribe the commerce of the country very generally, but not to the extent which had been anticipated at the onset, or even at the date of our last annual statement. The vast sums which have been expended by the Government in the prosecution of the war, and the great abundance and low prices of all kinds of food, consequent upon crops of unprecedented abundance, together with the steady and heavy foreign demand, compensated to a great extent for the losses sustained by some departments of our trade, and made the burden of the war much easier borne than had been expected, or indeed could have been expected, according to the rules of human foresight or human sagacity. The war has taught our citizens to economize to a wonderful extent, as is shown by the immense falling off in the consumption of the luxuries of life, in food and in dress. It has brought out the latent strength and power of the nation in such a manner as to astonish the other nations of the earth. It has developed facts connected with naval and land warfare never before known. In short, it has taught us many valuable and priceless lessons, which never could have been learned otherwise. But at the same time it cannot be denied that it has demonstrated that as a nation we must have sinned with a high hand against the laws of the great Ruler of the universe, to bring his chastening rod upon us in such a frightful and unexampled manner, the like of which was never before known among modern nations. And this is the proper way in which to look at this rebellion, and observe the hand that moves the universe moving in this matter, and guiding and regulating the designs and passions of men, so as to work out his own purposes.
During the autumn of 1861, and up until January of the present year, the Union arms had made no progress worthy of note, and the people were discouraged, and commerce languished. In January, the western wing of the army commenced to move, and from that date up to the first of June the rebels had been driven out of Kentucky, middle and west Tennessee, northern Alabama and Mississippi, all Missouri and a portion of Arkansas. New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville had been taken possession of, and the Mississippi opened, excepting Vicksburg. Some successful demonstrations had been made pending this on the Atlantic and Gulf coast, but nothing very decisive, and at the close of June an opinion prevailed, even among the rebels, that the rebellion had been to a great extent crushed. But, about the first of July, a battle was fought while our army was retreating from before Richmond, which changed the whole aspect of the case. Our forces were driven into a corner, and were it not for the protection of our gunboats, under which they retreated, would have been destroyed. This had a most unfavorble [sic] unfavorable influence on all kinds of business, and was a great discouragement to the Union cause, whilst it encouraged and stimulated the rebels, and thus prolonged the war; and as we close our report the aspect of affairs is gloomy in the extreme; more so than it has been at any previous time since the war began. The rebels have driver our forces into the fortifications at Washington, and threatened Maryland; have marched into Kentucky, and are in possession of Lexington and Frankfort, and seriously menace this city and Louisville. This war has checked all kinds of improvements, public and private, and the number of buildings which have been erected since it began in this city is quite small, though there has been more done in this respect than had been expected. There has been a large reduction made in the public expenses, both State and municipal, and in this way the State and city taxes will not be larger than they have been; and notwithstanding this, no public institutions have been neglected. Our public schools have all been sustained. The expenses of the war come in the shape of direct taxes, which are about being laid upon all things; but they will not be burdensome, as they are adapted to the circumstances of the taxed; the rich will have to contribute according to the extent of their riches, whilst the poor men will be dealt with lightly. The agriculturalist and the products of the soil are not taxed, thus leaving unfettered the great source of the wealth and prosperity of the nation. The luxuries of life are largely taxed, whilst the necessaries are touched slightly. A high duty has been placed on most kinds of foreign goods, which, whilst it will yield a large revenue, protects home industry, and will encourage home manufactures, so that, like all evils, this war will be productive of some good.
In examining and analyzing the trade of the city, during the past year, we find many things encouraging. The business done in breadstuff exceeds that of any previous year. The pork business has been the largest ever known before, if we add the receipts of cured meats to the number of hogs packed, and even the largest of any previous year, but one, and within a few hundred head of being up to that.
The receipts and shipments of merchandize, including dry goods, chiefly, are ahead of any previous year. The business done in groceries has been very large, considering the total absence of Louisiana sugar and molasses, and it has paid a fair profit, and been more satisfactory than ever before, as regards the credit system, a vast amount having been sold for cash, and none were able to buy on credit but those regarded good beyond probable contingency. The dry goods trade both in its wholesale and retail branches, is on a sounder basis than it ever was before, in this city; and the long and reckless credit system, which has made this business so uncertain and precarious, has been abandoned, and a large amount has been sold for cash and none on long time. The heavy advance in most kinds of goods, has made the business unusually profitable and satisfactory.
In the manufacturing departments, in wood and iron, there is a sad falling off, even as compared with the year 1860-61, and all our workshops, in these departments, are not operating to over one-third their capacity. It will be seen by refering [sic] referring to our tables, that the exports of cabinet ware, under the head of furniture and chairs, have decreased to a vestige of their former greatness; and so it is with the product of our machine shops and rolling mills, the deficiency in iron being quite large. In the boot and shoe business, crockery ware, hardware, nails, molasses, butter, cheese, grass seeds, white lead and castings, the falling off is marked and suggestive. But on the other hand, in looking over our statistics of imports and exports we find an increase of a decided nature, in Alcohol, Beans, Candles, Corn, Cooperage, Beef Cattle, Flour, Feathers, Fish, Dried Fruit, Grease, Hay, Horses, Lard, Leather, Oats, Pork, Potatoes, Rye, Soap, Salt, Starch, assorted packages of Merchandize, and tons of the same, Leaf and Manufactured Tobacco, Tallow, and Domestic and Foreign Liquors, including Wines. There are many other articles in which the increase is but slight.
Notwithstanding the large business done in breadstuffs, and the heavy foreign demand for them, there was no speculative movement in them worthy of note, and the fluctuations in prices few and the changes gradual, so that there was a quiet and steady market throughout. The low price of pork, being the lowest current in this market for a long time, induced a speculative demand for mess soon after the packing season commenced, of a somewhat singular nature, as all classes of trade, and not a few professional men, including money dealers, were represented in the speculative operators. The grounds or basis of this movement were: first, the unusual low price, $9.50 per bbl., precluding any serious loss, they reasoned; and, second, the probability that a southern demand would arise during the coming spring, which would lead to an important advance. These premises seemed to them correct, and the investments were made anxiously and largely, and with few exceptions still remain undisturbed, and the prospects are that they will remain so to a great extent until another pork crop is secured, which promises to be an abundant one.
The quantity of lard and boxed meats shipped from this country to England during the season is without any previous precedent, and yet did not lead to any special excitement, or unusual speculative demand. The total weight of the lard and pork exported from December to August was equal to that of two million hogs! Nothing like this ever happened before. And the fact that this immense amount met with a market is a most important and suggestive one. It shows what an amount of surplus food this country can spare, and that there is now secured a market for our pork in Great Britain and on the continent, of such magnitude, that compared with it the amount consumed heretofore in the Southern States sinks into comparative insignificance. Whilst it is true that the low price extended the demand, by introducing it in markets where heretofore it has been unsaleable, yet a higher price next season will not exclude it, because the price of European meat is vastly higher than we can furnish American, and even obtain much higher prices than those current the past season. The introduction of it into new markets is, therefore, an important point. Lard has been shipped to all European markets where it is used; and bacon, though chiefly to England, yet a considerble [sic] considerable amount went to France, the German States, Belgium and Denmark, and we notice that it met with such favor in this latter country that it is now admitted free.
About the beginning of the present year it became evident that a tax would be imposed on whisky, and an extraordinary speculative demand ensued from all those in various departments of trade who had a speculative disposition. This demand was kept up during the spring and summer with great steadiness, but under the most harrassing uncertainty at times. Congress was almost unanimous in favor of taxing the article, but very much divided as regarded the amount to be imposed; and as this antagonism was developed from time to time when the tax bill was up, the market for whisky responded, and the advance and decline were sudden and frequent. The tax bill passed, imposing a duty of 20c per gallon, in the latter part of June, and whisky rose from 20c to 28c in a brief time. When it reached this point some speculators sold out, and the price fell back 3c, but again rallied. All those who deal in the article purchased stocks of unusual size, and the country is overburdened with it in the States not in rebellion, the like of which was never known before. The price paid the distiller fifty to seventy-five per cent., and consequently all the distillers were taxed to their utmost capacity, and running all the time to supply the demand.
The scarcity of cotton and the consequent high price led to an unprecedented advance in all kinds of cotton goods and yarns, and the supply is not equal to the demand.
Naval stores, in consequence of the supply from the Carolinas being cut off by the blockade, advanced two hundred per cent., and the supply being exhausted, prices at the close were nominal at $12 per bbl. for tar and rosin, and $2 50 @ 2 60 per gall, for spirits turpentine. Benzine, a product of petroleum, is being used quite generally by painters as a substitute for the latter, and answers the purpose well for dark work.
Iron, partly owing to the duty placed upon it by the new tariff, and partly to the light stocks, and the fact that in the bill passed by Congress authorizing the construction of a railway to the Pacific it is especially stipulated that the iron used shall be of American manufacture, advanced in price materially towards the close of the year, and the tendency was still upward.
The crops of all kinds gathered in 1861, as noticed in our last annual statement, were good, with but little exception, and therefore food was abundant and cheap. The crops the present year are even more abundant, in all the loyal States. The wheat crop in this State, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Misrouri [sic] Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, is above an average and in some of these States largely so. There is a large stock of old corn still in the hands of farmers, and the growing crop promises to be an unusually large one. Oats and barley partially failed. The spring being late and unusually wet, there was but a small amount of land sown with either, and oats were badly injured by rust. The grass crop is very abundant, but was not saved in good order in some sections, owing to heavy and protracted rains about the time of the hay harvest. The abundance of the leading crops is of great importance under existing circumstances, not only insuring an ample supply of cheap food for the people and the army, but also an immense surplus for foreign shipment, which will keep the balance of trade in our favor, or but slightly against us. Abundant crops two years in succession is an unusual occurrence in this country, and the coincidence at this time is remarkable.
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