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The remarkable monetary crises during the 19th century were as follows: 1814—In England, 240 banks suspended. 1825—In Manchester, the failures amounted to £2,000,000. 1831—In Calcutta, the failures aggregated £15,000,000. 1837—In the United States, this was the time of the "wildcat" crisis; all banks closed. 1839—The Bank of England was saved by the Bank of France. The crisis was severe also in France, where 93 companies failed for $20,000,000. 1844—In England, the government loaned to merchants; the Bank of England was reformed. 1847—In England, the failures amounted to $20,000,000; discount was 13 per cent. 1857—In the United States, 7,200 houses failed for $111,000,000. 1866—In London occurred the Overend-Gurney crisis; failures exceeded over $100,000,000. 1869—September 24th of this year was Black Friday in New York (Wall street) 1873—Many banks failed and great commercial enterprises were driven to the wall in the United States. 1893-95—The question of a silver or gold standard was greatly agitated, and the United States passed through a financial crisis which wrecked thousands of business firms and brought on general financial disaster. SCENES OF GREAT FLOODS Nine years after Christ, the Thames overflowed and destroyed a number of the inhabitants living along its banks. Another flood, A. D. 323, destroyed all the inhabitants in Ferne Island, seven miles southwest from Holy Island. In A. D. 3,535,000 people were lost in Cheshire by flood. An overflow of the Dee drowned 40 families in 415 A. D.; an inundation of the sea at, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex occurred in 515; an inundation took place at Edinburgh, which did great damage, A. D. 730; there was an inundation at Glasgow, which drowned nearly 400 families, A. D. 738; also an inundation of the Tweed, which did immense damage, A. D. 836; an inundation of the Medway occurred A. D. 861; and another took place at Southampton, which destroyed many people, A. D. 935; the Severn overflowed and drowned hundreds of cattle in 1046; the sea overflowed 4,000 acres of Earl Goodwin's land, in Kent, since called Goodwin Sands, in the year 1100; a great part of Flanders was overflowed by the sea in 1108; an inundation of the Thames for about six miles occurred at Lambeth in 1243; and another took place on the Dollert Sea in 1277. At Winchelsea, 300 houses were overthrown by the sea in 1280; 120 laymen, and several priests and women were drowned by an inundation at New Castle-upon-Tyne in 1339. There was a flood at the Texel, which first raised the commerce of Amsterdam in 1400; the sea broke in at Dort, drowned 72 villages and 100,000 people, and formed the Zuyder Zee in 1421. In 1530 the Holland dykes broke and $400,000,000 worth of property was lost. In February, 1735, a flood occurred at Dagenham, and upon the coast of Essex, which carried away the sea walls and drowned several thousand sheep and cattle. Another, at Bilboa, in Spain, destroyed property valued at 3,000,000 livres, in April, 1762. At Naples, a flood carried away a whole village, and drowned 200 of the inhabitants, November 10, 1773. At Navarra, in Spain, in September, 1787, 2,000 people lost their lives, and all the buildings of several villages were carried away by currents from the mountains. A terrible inundation of the Liffey, in Ireland, did considerable damage in Dublin and its environs on November 12, 1787. At Kirkwald, in Scotland, the breaking of the Dam-dykes, October 4, 1788, nearly destroyed the town. The melting of the snow caused floods almost throughout England, and the greater part of the bridges were either destroyed or damaged in February, 1795. A flood occurred at St. Domingo, which destroyed 1,400 persons in October, 1800. The coast of Holland and Germany was overflowed in November, 1801; there was a flood in Dublin and parts adjacent December 2 and 3, 1802. The flood, in June, 1889, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was caused by the breaking of a dam on the upper waters of the Conemaugh River, which confined a great lake on top of the Allegheny Mountains. Several small towns and the city of Johnstown were swept away, and 6,111 persons perished. The water in its passage to Johnstown descended about 250 feet. The theoretical velocity due to this descent would be about 127 feet per second, or between 86 and 87 miles an hour. According to the best accounts from 15 to 17 minutes were occupied in the passage to Johnstown, a distance of about 12 miles. Thus the average velocity could not have been far short of 50 miles an hour. The impetus of such a mass of water was irresistible. As the flood burst through the dam it cut trees away as if they were stalks of mullein. In September, 1900, a hurricane along the southern coast of the United States reached the climax of its fury at or near Galveston, Texas, at 1 o'clock at night. It literally blew the Gulf waters over the island on which Galveston is situated, causing a loss of life and property unparalleled by any similar disaster in the United States. The city of Galveston was well nigh annihilated, 7,000 lives being lost and $30,000,000 worth of property destroyed. This appears the more frightful in view of the fact that the population was less than 40,000. Thousands escaped by clinging to the Wreckage of houses and ships, which the wind blew far inland on the high tide. About $1,000,000 was subscribed throughout the country for the relief of the sufferers from this disaster. SCENES OF TEN TERRIBLE PLAGUES During the years 1656 to 1871, there occurred ten great plagues, which are remarkable for the large number of lives destroyed. The dates and places are as follows:
COUNTRIES SMITTEN BY THE GREAT FAMINES OF HISTORY Walford mentions 160 famines since the 11th century, namely: England, 57; Ireland, 34; Scotland, 12; France, 10; Germany, 11; Italy, etc., 36. The worst in modern times have been as follows: That in France, 1770, 48,000 victims; Ireland, 1847, 1,029,000 victims; and India, 1866, 1,450,000 victims. THE CULTURE OF TAPIOCA |