There were several circumstances which made a reorganization at this time desirable. In the first place, the period of exceptional profits for the Central Pacific was passing away with the decline in the mining business in Nevada and the opening of other transcontinental lines. In the second place, the Southern Pacific was beginning to realize the earning power which it was to have as a completed road. It had now a through line to New Orleans; it reached San Francisco while the Central Pacific did not; it was handling 45 per cent of the transcontinental business in 1885; and while it could hardly yet be called a profitable enterprise, its prospects were bright. Southern Pacific bonds were first sold in New York in considerable quantities in 1880, when they brought between 86 and 90. Except on the supposition that the ownership of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific was identical, there was beginning to be reason for the owners of the latter to feel dissatisfied with a lease like that of 1880, which compelled them to be contented with a fixed return. Stock Holdings On this last point the evidence, though not entirely conclusive, offers some interesting suggestions. Up to 1880 the number of stockholders in the Central Pacific remained small. Mr. Huntington had stock of the four associates for sale, and made efforts to place it in New York, but without success. In 1878 the report of the Central Pacific Railroad to the California Railroad Commission showed 82 stockholders, of whom 56, with a total holding of 432,563 shares, were residents of California. Mark Hopkins held 102,812 shares when he died in that same year, and Mr. Huntington, Mr. Stanford, and Mr. Crocker presumably possessed equal amounts. During the early eighties, however, while the Central Pacific was paying substantial dividends, large quantities of stock were sold in Europe. James Speyer has testified that when he came into the New York office of Speyer and Company, some time between 1883 and 1885, large blocks were held in England and Holland. The sales had been made before 1884, probably at a price above 50.