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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
which the American iron-trade had heen so familiar scarce one year before, and the business of buying and selling iron became close neighbor to that of gambling in stocks.—Report, May, 1880.
No. 1 pig-iron, which sold for $53 per ton at Philadelphia in September, 1872, sold for $24 in 1874, $21.25 in 1876, $16.50 in 1878, $41 in February, 1880; $25 in May, 1880; $26 in 1882, $18.50 in 1884, $17.75 in 1885, and $18.50 in 1886.
1882. The year 1881 was the most prosperous year American iron and steel manufacturers have ever known.—Report, June, 1882.
1883. The extraordinary activity in our iron and steel industries, which commenced in 1879, culminated early in 1882. The reaction was not sudden, but was so gradual and tranquil that for some time it excited no apprehension. In November and December the market was greatly depressed. At the beginning of December, 1881, the average price of steel rails at the (American) mills was $60 per ton, but in December, 1882, the average price was only $39.[1] In all the fluctuations of iron and steel that have taken place in this country, we know of none so sweeping as this decline in the price of steel rails, if we except in 1879 and 1880, and many of these were entirely speculative.—Report, May, 1883.
The cause of this serious reaction was attributed, in the same report, in great measure to the circumstance that "we had increased our capacity for the production of most forms of iron and steel much faster than the consumptive wants of the country had increased."
1884. Since the publication of the last annual report, in May, 1883, the unsatisfactory condition of the American iron-trade, as it then existed, has not improved. It has steadily grown worse.—Report, May, 1884.
1887. The year 1886 was one of the most active years the American iron-trade has ever experienced. The improvement in demand which had commenced in the latter part of 1885 was well maintained throughout the whole of 1886. The production of the year in all the leading branches of the trade was much the largest in our history. The remote causes of the revival in the prosperity of the American iron-trade which began in the last half of 1885, and still continues, may be difficult to discover; but one influential immediate cause is directly traceable to the meeting of the Bessemer steel-rail manufacturers in August, 1885, at which meeting a restriction of production for one year to avoid the evils of over-production and ruinous prices was agreed upon. This action was almost immediately followed by beneficial results to the iron-trade of the whole country, and to many other branches of domestic industry. We do not forget that the revival in railroad-building which commenced in the late months of 1885, and has continued to the present time (1887), has been the influence which most stimulated the demand for iron and steel; but it was the action of the Bessemer steel-rail manufacturers which put a check to the demoralization of prices which prevailed prior to their meeting, and stimulated the managers of existing railroads to hasten their arrangements for contemplated repairs and equipments. An incident of our industrial history for 1886 was the large number of strikes among workingmen. More American workingmen were volun-
- ↑ The average price of Bessemer steel rails, which commanded $39 per ton at American mills in December, 1882, declined to $25 in 1885.
