1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalogue
http://books.google.com/books?id=CSVIpqnFMTMC&pg=PA527&lpgDaly
150AE............$129
250AE............$190
Greener
No. 3AE.............$187.50
Facile Priceps....$93.75
No. 6 Forester....$69.95
"The Panic of 1907" hit the U.S. economy hard.
A credit crisis similar to that of 2008-2009 occurred in 1907. Strains in the financial system started to appear in 1906 when American industry and railroads found it increasingly difficult to obtain credit from Europe, previously a large source of capital flow into the US. Liquidity became increasingly tight through 1907 and on October 23 panic occurred when New Yorks third largest trust, the Knickerbocker Trust Company, collapsed related to an attempt by then president Charles T. Barney and Otto Heinze to corner the copper market. Banks began to fail when depositors at other trusts sought to withdraw their money and other banks in New York were forced to retract loans. Lending ceased and the credit crisis spread world wide. Were it not for the intervention of J.P. Morgan, and President Theodore Roosevelts agreement to set aside the Sherman Antitrust Act to enable his plan, the entire US banking system may have imploded.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48% of its value from January 1906 to November 1907. Industrial production dropped by 11%, imports by 26%, while unemployment rose from less than 3% to 8%. The stock market, and the economy, did not recover until the summer of 1908.
A two year recovery? That's what happens when the Government doesn't try to "stimulate" things. Pretty sharp contrast to the past six or seven years.
