In a
word, affairs resumed their course; from the end of the year the amount
of paper discounted rose to $933,000,000, and the steady advance as set
forth in table No. 3 continued each year, until it reached
$1,300,000,000 in 1884. The panic had burst forth in Europe in 1882, and
the agitation, so lively was its impulse, lasted during eighteen months;
but, as we have stated, the rise in prices ceased in 1882.
Starting from this time, a reaction appeared. The paper on hand lowered
to $1,200,000,000 in 1885. This liquidation was scarcely noticeable,
because we cover the whole Union, and there is always an upward movement
in the new portions of it which have not yet taken part in business
movements. If we note what occurred in the Associated Banks of New York,
the very place where the greatest amount of business is carried on, the
depression of the amount of paper on hand is most noticeable after the
inflation observed at the height of the panic, while the decrease that
we point out showed itself more slowly with the slackening of business.
Thus, in the last period, the greatest amount of paper appears on
hand--at the close of 1881, $350,000,000, and the minimum in December,
1884, the very year the panic had burst forth, and when, during the
first months, the sum of $351,000,000 reappeared once more; except for a
million, exactly the same amount there was in 1881.
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