25. Mr. Cleveland Tackles the Financial Question     

Source:  Anthony Weekly Bulletin (KS), August 18, 1893

The railroad expansion that took place during the late nineteenth century meant that few Americans remained isolated from the effects of business stagnation.  By the end of 1893, some five thousand banks and sixteen thousand business firms had closed.   A number of factors, in addition to monetary problems, appear to have contributed to the depression.  European investors began liquidating American investments beginning with the collapse of the London banking house of Baring Brothers in 1890, lessening American financial liquidity.  Railroads over expanded into markets that never materialized.  Industries closely connected to such expansion, like steel, also suffered when cutbacks came.  Speculative booms in western lands went bust.  Agricultural expansion, both in America and overseas, brought prices plummeting.

For more on the Depression of the 1890s, see:

Hoffman, Charles. The Depression of the Nineties: An Economic History. 326 p. Contributions in Economics and Economic History, No. 2. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1970.

| Index | Back to Cartoon |