FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

CORPORATION

OF THE

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,

OF THE

STATE OF NEW-YORK,

FOR THE YEAR 1871-72.

IN TWO PARTS,

COMPILED BY GEORGE WILSON, SECRETARY.

New-York:

PRESS OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

1872.

205673

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by the

SECRETARY OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, NEW-YORK, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

JOHN W. AMERMAN, PRINTER,

No. 47 Cedar Street, N. Y.

ANNUAL REPORT.

THE Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York has caused to be prepared, for the use of its members and others, this fourteenth number in the regular series of its published Reports, presenting, with unusual extent of details, an account of the proceedings of the one hundred and third year of its existence.

In the present Volume, the practice adopted in the past years has not been departed from.

Part First comprises the legislative proceedings of the Chamber at its regular and special sessions; while Part Second is devoted to Special Reports on various branches of trade and commerce, together with tables of commercial and financial statistics prepared with the utmost care, and which it is believed may be relied on for perfect accuracy.

A cursory examination of the Annals of the Chamber will scarcely fail to bring into prominent notice the earnest zeal and lively spirit of benevolence which have invariably guided its action whenever human suffering or national calamity has appealed to its sense of duty, its sympathy or its generosity.

The justness of this allusion to the well known record of the Chamber was fitly illustrated in the recent overwhelming misfortune, of the burning of Chicago.

A great, populous and prosperous city, filled with works of art, science, and all the evidences of enterprise, intelligence, religion and civilization, suddenly swept out of existence by the ravages of fire; a hundred thousand or more of its people helpless and homeless, almost without food or raiment, was a spectacle scarcely to be paralleled in the world's history.

Sympathy was instantaneous and world-wide. Months of time have not yet exhausted the wonders of the abundant response to this silent appeal for immediate relief. But in no quarter or direction was it more promptly or effectually met than in the Chamber of Commerce of New-York. While the conflagration was still raging, on the ninth of October last, the members were summoned to meet together to take measures for immediate succor.