Excessive
issue of new railroad securities and disastrous competition between
certain of the Southwestern roads were without prudence. Money was easy,
bank-note circulation continued to decrease till it was only $151,000,000,
and legal tenders to $81,000,000, but specie reserve rose to $181,000,000,
the banking capital to $592,000,000 plus, the exports to $1,350,000,000,
and discounts and loans rose to $1,684,000,000.
The sharp speculations in wheat and the formation of the French copper
corner caused a certain fluctuation in general business. Large crops,
excepting wheat; a flourishing cotton manufacture, a decline in
production of petroleum by agreement, a 6 per cent. decline in pig-iron
production, a very heavy one in Bessemer iron, and a very small export
trade as compared with imports occurred. But in the year 1889, the
export movement, consisting largely of cotton, was very great, being the
greatest since 1880, and near the maximum, and compared favorably with
the immense imports induced by the new tariff of 1890. In fact, the year
1889 surpassed all its predecessors in the volume of trade movements;
the bank clearings showing an increase of 13 per cent.
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