REVIEW OF THE WOOL TRADE OF NEW-YORK,

FOR THE YEAR 1896.

WE have been compelled in so many annual reviews to report a discouraging condition of things in wool and woolens that it would be a pleasant change to make a more satisfactory exhibit. But 1896 was no better than so many of its predecessors, and, in fact, is generally considered to have been the worst one of any.

The year opened under the influence of the Venezuela war scare, tight money and a semi-panic in commercial circles. Things improved later, but in the early summer the bitter and novel political campaign of Mr. BRYAN opened. That was the climax of the troubles of the wool trade. All manufacturing business was greatly curtailed and in many departments almost ceased. Nothing suffered more than wool. Fully three-quarters of the woolen machinery was idle during the summer and autumn, and this at a time when our domestic clip was seeking a market. There could be but one result: very low prices, in fact the lowest ever made in America. Our standard, Ohio fine fleece, sold in August at sixteen cents in Boston, a decline of four cents from January. Relief was sought in the export of much foreign and a limited amount of our Western wools, and the latter feature might have offered considerable relief had Europe been able to handle these unknown wools at almost any price. This the foreigner seemed unable to do, and our market dragged along in a deplorable condition until October, when the prospect of Mr. McKINLEY'S election gave confidence to manufacturers and speculators alike, resulting in a large business and an improvement in values of about ten per cent. But business did not greatly respond to the better prospects which became certain when the votes were counted, and the year closed without much life in trade at almost identically the same prices at which it opened, and with stocks much larger than the average of years. The statistical figures are interesting.

The total visible supply of domestic wool on January 1st in the United States was :

The total visible supply of all kinds of wool in the United States, therefore, was 150,402,080 pounds January 1st, 1897.

a natural decrease from so long a period of low and unremuner. ative prices.

Prognostications of a better future are everywhere rife and have a more than usually solid basis. The financial question is settled for the next four years at least. The hard times and the drastic economics since 1892 have forced such enormous exports and such limited imports that we are to-day the creditor nation of the world, and need fear no farther trouble from gold exports or tight money. And the general revival of business and employment should naturally give an impetus to the demand for woolen goods which has been so long absent, and the stocks of which are by no means excessive.

The question of tariff on wool and woolens will be the controling feature in 1897. As Mr. McKINLEY was elected on the protection platform, and as these articles will be the principal features of any higher tariff, it is more than probable that such protection will be carried through a special session of Congress. Rates of duty are more problematical than the fact of additional duties, and the excessive demands of the wool growers will probably not defeat such a measure before the first of June next.

The above review of the fine wool trade exactly applies to that of CARPET WOOL as to the course of the market, prices and stocks. Quotations show little variation, and are :

REVIEW OF THE PETROLEUM TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES,

FOR THE YEAR 1896.

THE friends of the American petroleum industry who have had any reason to doubt its permanency should be re-assured by the record of 1896. It was feared by some, two years ago, that its growth might be checked on the one hand by a serious curtailing of the production of crude oil, or, on the other hand, by a diminution of exports due to the aggressive advances of America's great rival— Russia. The history of the industry for 1896 has been progress rather than retrogression, both at home and abroad.

In the winter of 1894-95 the stocks of crude petroleum, particularly those known as Pennsylvania oil, showed reductions so steady and large as to occasion well founded alarm. Between January 1st, 1894, and January 1st, 1895, the net stocks were reduced one-half, from 12,111,183 barrels, to 6,336,777 barrels. The next six months recorded a further decline to 4,109,788 barrels on July 1st. At this rate of depletion the working stocks would have lasted but a few months. The situation naturally expressed itself in a change in prices. The quotation for crude oil at the wells, which had aver aged 84 cents for the year 1894, advanced rapidly until in the middle of April, 1895, it touched $2.70 per barrel, the highest price recorded in eight years. The average price for the year 1895 was $1.36; the average price for 1896, $1.194. Production was given a new stimulus. In 1894, 3,756 wells were drilled in the Pennsylvania field; in 1895, 7,138 wells were sunk, and in 1896 the number was still further increased to 7,811. At the same time the exploitations in the Ohio field almost doubled the wells completed there. As a consequence the depleted stocks have been again restored, and the industry has settled back into its normal state. The year 1896 has proved that there is no immediate danger of exhausting the American oil fields. To be sure, prospecting has not discovered many new fields with a great production; in fact, the history of the year seems to show that, for some time at least, new fields are not needed. The old territory is far from being exhausted. All that was required was the stimulus of higher prices to make it profitable to work abandoned wells, and to drive new ones in the territory that has yielded so generously for many years.

In like manner American perseverance has had similar success in combating the encroachments of the Russians in our foreign trade. We not only recovered the trade lost in 1895, but made such gains in the volume of our business as to bring our exports beyond the largest total heretofore recorded.

A general summary like this would be incomplete without some reference to the great Ohio oil fields and the disposition now made of their production. More than a third of the American output

was in the Ohio and Indiana fields in 1896. A year's experience sending the products from this crude abroad has verified the good opinion of them already established here. Improved methods of manufacture have produced from this crude refined oil quite the equal of that made anywhere. Its use as a fuel has, therefore, been almost entirely displaced by the higher mission of helping to supply the world with illuminatiug oil.

The magnitude of the petroleum industry, and the large capital required to conduct it successfully, are sometimes illustrated by the features of the business which are not remunerative. Of the 26,000 wells drilled during 1895 and 1896, one-fifth, or nearly 5,000, were what are termed "dry holes ;" that is, wells that did not yield a single drop of oil. There were many others, of course, which did not yield enough to pay the cost of sinking them, but these were absolutely unproductive. $8,000,000 would be a low estimate of the cost of these 5,000 wells. It should be remembered that this vast sum not only gave no return to those investing it in this way, but the principal itself, as capital, disappeared, there being no salvage to an unproductive well.

Production.-Up to the very close of 1896 the price of Pennsylvania crude had been over $1 per barrel at the wells for nearly two years. The renewed activity in the producing fields consequent on these higher prices continued unabated during 1896. 7,811 wells were drilled in the Pennsylvania field, as compared with 7,138 in 1895, and 5,639 wells in the Ohio field, as compared with 5,768 in 1895. While this active search discovered no new prolific territory, many minor pools were reached, most of them within the bounds of what was already known as the "oil region." The average production of Pennsylvania crude oil in 1896 was nearly 91,500 barrels per day, and of Ohio crude oil nearly 69,000 barrels per day.

Prices. There was quite a wide range in price of export oil during the year, with a steady tendency towards lower figures. In January the price in barrels was about 8 cents per gallon; there was a steady decline until August, when 63 cents was quoted; then for a month or two there was a slight re-action influenced by the price of crude. December was the lowest month in the year, averaging 63 cents, a reduction of nearly 14 cents per gallon since January. The average for the year was 6.95 cents, as compared with 7.28 for 1895. Looking back over the record of the past few years we find that the average price of refined oil in 1891 was 6.92 cents per gallon, practically the same as that in 1896. But in 1891 crude oil cost only 663 cents per barrrel, while in 1896 it cost $1.19 per barrel. Perhaps nothing can illustrate more than this the tendency towards very narrow margins in the petroleum industry.

The price of naphtha fluctuated in sympathy with that of refined oil, declining from 84 cents per gallon in January to 64 cents in December.

Exports.-Up to that time the year 1894 showed the largest export trade on record. There was some reduction in 1895 from

various causes. The war between China and Japan had some influence, and the extraordinary efforts of Russian refiners checked the shipments of American oil to India. The record of 1896 seems to show that the losses of 1895 have been more than recovered.

Naphtha exports were 12,896,535 gallons, 1,223,595 gallons less than in 1895; but the exports of crude amounted to 119,210,801 gallons, a gain of 3,054,649 gallons, and the exports of refined oil show the enormous total of 753,577,089 gallons, a gain of 80,995,912 gallons. This makes a total of crude oil, refined oil and naphtha of 885,684,425 gallons, some 40,000,000 gallons more than the exports of similar products in 1894, and 83,000,000 gallons more than those in 1895. If we add to this the shipments of residuum and lubricating oils, we make the total of all exports over 936,000,000 gallons, the largest in the history of the industry.

MONTHLY RANGE AND AVERAGE PRICES IN NEW-YORK IN 1896.