DENMARK. Report, by Consul Ryder, of Copenhagen, on the (1) rates of wages and cost of living; (2) present state of trade; (3) paper money; and (4) business habits and systems, with accompanying statistical tables; for Denmark. I have the honor to acknowledge herewith the receipt of your communication of the 11th of April last past, and beg to transmit annexed a statistical report, parts of which I have translated, issued by the department of the interior of the kingdom in 1872, giving the necessary information desired. I may call the attention of the Department to the fact that while wages on an average have been higher during the past five years in this country than in 1872, they are now about 10 to 15 per cent. less, while the necessaries of life are the same as in 1872, if not a trifle higher. 1. RATES OF WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. Agricultural laborers are paid 37 cents per day, but as a general rule farm hands are employed at from $2.16 to $2.70 per month, including board and lodging. Mechanics earn on an average from 54 to 71 cents per day. Laborers on public works, such as railways, &c., earn from $135 to $162 per annum, without findings. I may here add that there is a large surplus of labor at the time of my writing this dispatch and no employment for it. The cost of living to the laboring class in this city is, on an average, for a grown person, at from 27 to 54 cents per day; for a family of adults and three children, from 61 to 81 cents per day. For the country and provincial cities the cost of living to the laboring class is less, say from 20 to 27 cents per day for a grown person, and from 33 to 40 cents per day for a family of two adults and two children. I may here state that during the past years, including 1873 to 1876, of which no official reports pertaining to this matter can be obtained, wages were considerably advanced, say from 35 to 45 per cent. on an average, on all classes; but in 1877 a general reduction commenced, which has brought down the cost of production and labor to nearly the same figures as in 1872. The cost of living is about the same now as in 1872, if not a trifle higher. 2. PRESENT STATE OF TRADE. The present state of trade in this country is very much depressed in every line of business. On looking for the cause of this general depression, I find that there have been several aggravations which have helped to bring about this present state of affairs, namely: Unfavorable harvests in 1875, 1876, 1877; overspeculation, and extreme uncertainty of all European politics. The commercial distress may be explained in the following manner, namely, that the production and overspeculation in a large class of im portant commodities, requiring extensive capital and many workmen, is so much in excess of the real demand as to reduce the prices and leave no profit to the merchant or producer. In other words, the less wealthy are compelled to retire from the field ruined, and the wealth of the country is lessened by the aggregate of the capital they have lost, and by the cost of maintaining in some way or other the many workmen thrown out of employment. In this small country the cash demand for commodities has fallen off to a considerable extent, because, from some cause or other, the means of the consumers have considerably diminished, and in consequence of a larger amount of capital being applied to production or speculation than the actual facts and condition of the country justify. With regard to the means of the consumers having been lessened here since 1874, it may be attributable to the following causes: 1st. From the great losses to investors in stocks and private enterprises, which in annual income amounts to many millions. 2d. From losses incurred in trade. 3d. From losses incurred by the maintenance of many workmen unable to procure employment. It is very certain that the means of consumers, whether in this or in other countries, that is to say, the cash demand for commodities, can only be augmented by, 1st, greater frugality, harder work, and more invention; 2d, unusual productiveness of the seasons; 3d, the accumulation of savings over a considerable period of years. It is not a matter of confidence or credit, but a matter of hard positive capital; that is, of commodities or interest over and above consumption, applied to productive, useful, and dividend-bearing objects of expenditure. Trade has been depressed here since 1874, because in this and in other countries there has been year by year little or no surplus of means over expenses, and trade will continue to be depressed until that surplus becomes considerable. Among modern communities, and especially among the people of this country, there is no coyness or affection about expenditures as soon as the means for it exist. The disposition is not to leave money unspent, but to find plenty of it to spend. Another evil more radical in its nature is the diminished worth of wages; so to say, the descending quantity and quality of work obtained by employers for wages not merely the same, but higher than they were ten and twelve years ago. This is a cause of dearness of production and of retarded accumulation of the most formidable character, to a great extent neutralizing the gain to the community from the increase of skill and the progress of mechanical invention. Its effect on an entire country, if there are no sufficient compensations in the progress of invention or in other directions, is essentially as disastrous as would be a material reduction of the hours of daylight. After a lapse of time, and that not a very long one, the severest and most hopeless sufferers by such a limitation of efficiency and progress are the working classes themselves. There can be no advancing welfare among the class of working people depending on weekly wages apart from the rapid accumulation of capital. It is the rapid accumulation of capital, arising from invention, skill, energy, and discovery, which has raised the wages and social standing of the humbler classes in this country within the last twenty-five years. I am pleased to hear that everything in the United States is coming down in price; and I firmly believe from what I hear from home that one can live there cheaper than in Europe. If that is the case, labor, that is to say, the cost of production, will be cheaper; and as we can now manufacture many things cheaper than, and as well as in, Europe, I do not see any reason why we should not to a certain extent control the European market in a short time. 3. PAPER MONEY. With reference to the currency of this country, I can inform the Department that on the 30th of April last about $17,000,000 of paper money were in circulation. On the other hand, the amount of gold coin and bars at the National Bank of this city for the security and redemption of said paper currency was $9,500,000. The National Bank of Copenhagen is the only bank in this kingdom allowed to issue paper money; none being issued by the Government or by any other bank in Denmark. The notes of the National Bank are redeemable in gold coin, which is the legal tender; silver being used as fractional currency and only considered legal tender to the amount of $5.30. According to the treaty stipulations between Denmark and Sweden-Norway, the coins of the three countries are circulated in each of them as legal tenders. It is impossible to give an exact statement of the amount of the gold in circulation in the kingdom of Denmark, but, including the amount held by the National Bank of this city, it may be said to be $8,000,000. The circulation of silver amounts to about $4,300,000, and the amount of copper in circulation about $134,000. 4. BUSINESS HABITS AND SYSTEMS. Regarding the business habits and systems of the commercial classes in the country, as far as I have been able to form an opinion, I should say that the majority of the Danish merchants is an honorable and respectable class, and a notable proof thereof can be brought forward. Not only is this opinion entertained, but also the wide-spread credit which is accorded them in all countries in Europe, namely: England, France, Germany, Russia, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden-Norway; in all of which countries several of the principal commercial establishments have had direct business connections with them, which has been kept up and strengthened both by constant personal visits of the parties, their traveling representatives, or by agents domiciled in Copenhagen. The general character of the merchants is that of strict probity in their transactions, but they are somewhat slow in their movements and difficult to be moved out of their old steady way of carrying on their business transactions. More especially do the wholesale merchants, as also a considerable class of the retailers, appear to be held in the highest estimation; and it is but very rarely that such confidence seems to have been misplaced, as in the whole manner of transacting business their chief desire seems to be the maintenance of the credit and high standing of their firms by a strict fulfillment of their engagements, rather than seek to obtain some profit by unreasonable reclamations or deductions; and one, therefore, in commercial intercourse with the Danish traders, does not run the risk of such tendency to chicanery which unfortunately in many other countries is but of too common occurrence in the present day, so long as their orders have been executed punctually and with proper exactitude. Although a considerable part of the transactions, namely, in agricul tural produce and colonials, is made in cash payments, that is to say, from three to thirty days, still the usual terms are a credit of ninety days, with or without bill of acceptance, and in many instances, more especially amongst the small retail dealers in the provincial towns, by an extension of credit to six months. The style of the trade carried on with. England, chiefly in manufac Occupations. tured goods, is on credit against remittance at the expiration of three months from date of shipment. The principal exports, namely, of cereals and fat goods, are chiefly made against direct orders for shipment, the consignments on merchants' account being to small extent. With live cattle, of which some 50,000 head are annually exported, I believe it is different, and that a large proportion of these shipments are made on speculation. The beforementioned remarks have, of course, only reference to the high-toned, honorable, and respectable class of dealers, for naturally here, as well as in other countries, will be found some few who, looking less to their good name, will sacrifice the same for the sake of procuring some temporary profit. Notwithstanding the increased facility of credit created by many years of considerable overspeculation in every branch of business, and obtained by incompetent and not in any way solvent traders and merchants, has tended to augment the number of bankruptcies, still these, when compared with what has taken place in other countries, are small in extent, and it is chiefly amongst this class of traders that the general and widespread stagnation seems mostly to be taking effect. CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES, HENRY B. RYDER. Copenhagen, May 15, 1878. 1.-Detailed statement of the average wages of the working people at Copenhagen. Children. Men. Women. |