and New York Centrals into the eighties. Denvers at 8, Wabash Ordinary at 5½, Readings at 9, Eries at 14, Oregon and California at 16, and Ohio and Mississippi at 18, are more difficult for a "bull" of 1881 to realise than sugar at a penny per pound. They seem to be opposed to the course of nature, and after this we no longer wonder what may come next. Americans were supposed to be in the dirt at the end of 1883, when they were found to have shrunk 150 millions sterling in two years, but last year they contrived to drop another 50 millions sterling or more. The Dollar Bonds and shares quoted in London declined, in 1884, 47½ millions sterling, and the Sterling Bonds over 2 millions. A valuation of the same stocks taken in May last would have put them at least 40 millions sterling lower.
Foreign railways would have been a very dull, respectable market but for Mexicans, which played the part of meteor. As a melodramatic gamble they rivalled Wabash, and apparently they have more vitality. A stock which can dance gaily up from 20 to 140, and tumble back to 26 in less than two years, must command the admiration of every patriotic broker and jobber. It shows what human nature is capable of in moments of enthusiasm. Mexicans had a sharp recovery at the end of the year, which brought them out with the comparatively small depreciation of 1¾ million, but the difference between the maximum and the minimum prices of the year would be over 3 millions sterling. Other foreign railways, especially the Brazilian and Argentine guaranteed lines, improved materially, and the net depreciation on this market was thereby reduced to less than one million sterling. In the miscellaneous markets there were some severe depreciations, set off, however, by a few material gains. Of nearly seventy banks quoted in London, only five showed an improvement on the year, and it aggregated only £167,000; while forty were lower, to the extent of 6½ millions sterling. Here we are not taking into account the Oriental Bank, whose 1½ million of capital has to be written off entirely, with as much more that is being called up by the liquidator. Including it, the year's loss to holders of bank shares would be about 9½ millions sterling for the year; or, allowing for Oriental Banks having been worth only £12 at the, beginning of the year, we may set the depreciation down at over 8½ millions. Commercial and industrial shares to the number of 119 appear on the London list, and of these nearly one half show declines aggregating almost 1¾ million. Ten were higher on the year by £415,000, and the net depreciation in this market was about 1¼ million. Coal, Iron, and Steel shares, thirty-one in number, had a similar experience. There were eighteen of them lower on the year by £1,425,000, and only one higher by £60,000. The net amount of shrinkage here was £1,365,000.
Shipping shares had a notoriously bad year. Of twenty-seven on the list in 1884, there were thirteen lower by £825,000, and only five higher by £109,000, leaving the net depreciation £716,000. The Insurance Companies show, as usual, very varied results, but the movement among them was limited. Of sixty securities in this class, only thirteen showed an appreciable change, having fallen to the extent of fully 1½ million sterling. Other seven companies rose in value, but only one of them, the North
