In 1848, after a long period of prosperity, broken only by the war with Mexico, business inflation and over-speculation again brought about the logical and inevitable result. Europe also had been over-speculating again and a crisis in England soon extended to the United States. Liquidation was drastic and the depression lasted until the discovery of gold in California began to bear fruit. In 1857, one of the most serious, as well as the most short-lived, of our crises occurred. Again speculation was extreme; December, 1856, marked the high point in securities, and prices continued to sag for some months; but it was not until August, 1857, that a panic occurred. In 1864, came a crash in speculative prices following tremendous inflation. Between April, 1864, and April, 1865, leading stocks declined from $50 to $100 per share. As the inflation of this period was caused largely by the high prices of commodities and greatly increased railroad earnings occasioned by the events of the Civil War, most writers on the subject do not consider it in their theoretical discussions of crises. In 1872, another boom was on, particularly in Iron and Steel. The Chicago and Boston fires had not been as effective in breaking stock prices as might have been expected. Prices of stocks began going down materially in April, 1873, and in fact had been rather “toppy” during the preceding years. This panic, like most of the others, was preceded by enormous speculation and high prices. It is interesting to note that while stocks were declining, general business was booming. The trained minds of Wall Street were learning to discount the future at longer range and more accurately. The iron and steel business exceeded all former records in 1873, both in the matter of normal price and actual production. In January, 1884, numerous failures and suspensions produced a panic which was in reality the culmination of a long decline. As in 1872, this panic was preceded by enormous general business. The steel and iron trade again broke all records in 1882, and other lines were equally prosperous. In 1893, the period of prosperity which followed the enactment of the McKinley bill was rudely broken. Speculation had been rampant, as usual. On May 4th, 1893, the National Cordage Company went into the hands of a receiver. Only a year prior to that date, this corporation was paying 12% in dividends and the stock was selling well above par. There were many badly inflated stocks and many rotten spots in the speculative stock markets. The Distillers and Cattle Feeders shares fell from $70 to nothing, and were assessed $20 per share. The aggregate liabilities of business failures in 1893 were almost $350,000,000, over 20% greater than in 1892. Banks failed right and left, and several leading railroad companies went into the hands of receivers.