_The chief causes of hard times._--Prior to 1837 there was a rapid development of new country, as shown from the greatly increased receipts for public lands. Every new home involves a permanent investment of somebody's savings to the extent of at least $1,000. With the settlement of every new region a considerable waste in real estate speculation is found. A similar expansion of territory occupied by settlement immediately followed the Mexican war, and was a chief cause of reduced capital and consequent lack of employment.
The crisis of 1857 was preceded by enormous waste in the Crimean war. To that was added the loss of a season's labor in a bad harvest and increase of cost of living, reducing profits. The latter cause was incidental to this particular season, but added materially to the suffering. In this country there had also been an extensive enlargement in iron works and woolen factories without corresponding products.
The panic of 1867, felt widely outside of America, was preceded by immense waste of property in the civil war of the United States, a considerable portion of which expense, on both sides, had been borne in Europe, either during the war or immediately following, through the sale of bonds.
The panic of 1873 followed immense investments of wealth in fixed capital, as illustrated in the Northern Pacific railroad, previously mentioned. Between 1865 and 1873 30,000 miles of railroad were built in the United States alone. This permanent investment involved immense debts at home and abroad, _with all the profits yet in the future_. The fact that imports increased at the rate of nearly $100,000,000 a year in 1871 and 1872 indicates the extent of expenditures. The Franco-Prussian war had also wasted great energies.
The hard times in America, shown especially in the price of farms, about 1888 were immediately preceded by enormous investments in unsatisfactory farming lands and unneeded town sites, as well as in railroad building. Forty-nine million acres of land were sold by the government, and more than 12,000 miles of railway were built. Enormous expenditures were also made for school-houses, court-houses, and other public buildings by sale of bonds. The actual crisis was perhaps delayed and a new speculation fostered by large payments on the public debt. Again, there was expansion of credit and large investment in railroad and city building in anticipation of future growth, during which the small savings of multitudes had been gathered up through the guaranty loan companies of the West. Upon the top of this came the expenditures of 1892 and 1893 on the great World's Exposition. The expenditure of savings in attendance upon the exposition curtailed the abilities of hundreds of thousands of families. So the panic of 1893 was in no respect an exception to the rule. No sufficient data are at hand for showing exactly how great has been the expenditure in unproductive enterprises, but a reference to Chart No. IV, p. 83, giving the development of railroad building in this country, will show how this form of enterprise in every case outran the increase in population immediately preceding the hard times.
