FINANCIAL & COMMERCIAL EFFECTS OF THE FIRE AT CHICAGO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 514, 23 February 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

FINANCIAL & COMMERCIAL EFFECTS OF THE FIRE AT CHICAGO.

The fire at Chicago seems, both in its financial and commercial bearings, likely to prove more disastrous than any ever known in the world. Chicago, with its population of 300,000, was the grand centre both of the export and', import trade of the West, and the "calamity lias occurred at a season when that trade was approaching its height. About 400,000 tons of shipping were, directly or indirectly, engaged in it ; twenty-four lines of railway meet there, and from 200 to 250 trains daily arrive and depart. Its traffic in grain, lumber, and provisions far exceeded anything known elsewhere, and, while its granaries and yards were thus filled, its magnificent warehouses were stored with the manufactured goods and articles of domestic luxury received from Europe in return for these richts. It was now just the time for the grain shipments to be mo 4 active previously to the close of navigation, and, on the other hand, for the autumn supply of Manchester, Lyons, and other "poL tp be concentrated by tiro wholesale houses for the wants of the dealers from- all surrounding part's. Hence ,-, it is a question, how far New York will be affected by the failure of Chicago to pay tor these goods ; and, again how far Manchester, Leeds, Lyons, and the other manufacturing towns may be affected by any difficulties at Now York. On the corn-market such influence as it may exercise will, of course, lie favorable for our dealers, and bad for the public. As regards the provision trade, its effect may beless important, as the time for meat paclring begins with the November frosts, and the quantity in stoic as v - st may, therefore, have been small Equally serious with the disturbance to be occasioned in trade may be, in many cases, the financial consequences. The large insurance ollices of New York, Boston, Hartford, and elsewhere will be called upon, more or less to a crushing extent, and these institutions will be obliged to realise in a proportionate degree tlieir holdings in Federal and State securities. The saino will be the case with the life offices which have made advances on bonds an i Chicago mortgages All the bonds and shares of the railway companies converging upon the city must likewise temporarily suffer from the prospect of suspended traffic and the impoverishment of the people, and the shaves of the Illinois lino, the Erb> lino, and others have consequently been sold at a decline of nearly 31. per share. Still in the midst of all the confusion and loss it is necessary to bear in mind the vigor and elasticity with which the American people meet and repair every adversity. The consepnonces of the two tires which within the past thirty-live years have devastated the business portions of New York were encountered with a promptitude which soon efiaced their traces, and at a later period a like visitation at San Francisco caused a still greater development of indomitable energy.