The rates at which the stock of the company has sold at the New York Stock Exchange for the past five years have been as follows: 69 @@76% 18 2-63. 1863-64. 1864-65. 1860-61. 1861-62. 80 91 734@794 1054@107% 133@138% 109 @122 70 @84 77 @814 101 @105% 130 @139% 75%@80% 101@1044 131 @138 754082% 79% @83% 107 @124% 130 @137% 75% 804 794 @84% 116%@120 132 @138 75% 80 824@84% 107 @1184 68 @78% 821 @5% 71@73% 84% @8% 71@7434 881 95% 73%@79% 87@93% 7240077 89% @94% 72%@74% 93 @104 113 @117 68 @*2% 73%@104 101 @140 185@145 130 @144% 128 @135% 130@135 119 @128% 1120122 102@119 1304@117 83% 113 85 @18 874@1013 89%@ 94% 904@963 90 @ 93% 924@95% 114 @145 834@1283 In explanation of the results of the year 1864-65 the Report makes the following statement: The items charged to Construction account, during the year, have been: Land: principally at Troy, Syracuse and Buffalo.. 17 engines, 18 passenger and 322 freight car- added to equipment.. 5.85 miles of second track on the Syracuse and Rocheste direct road. $110.718 18 659,300 00 52,650 00 $822,668 18 All the other expenditures during the year (except as shown in the increased value of fuel and supplies) have been charged to Transportation Expenses, and include a very general and thorough overhauling and repairing of the motive power and rolling stock, and of the road-bed and superstructure, the rebuilding of the cattle sheds at Buffalo, and a portion of the car shops at West Albany, which had, respectively, been destroyed by fire, and the rebuilding of the bridge over the Genesee River at Rochester, which had been carried away by the flood in March. The uniformly extreme cold weather in January, February and March, and the unusual fall of snow and rain in the two months last named, caused great general damage and consequent additional expense for repairs, besides materially diminishing the traffic. The stock of Fuel and Supplies from the light supply of which during the winter of '64 and '65 some difficulty was experienced) has been increased to a proper standard. The enhanced price of the articles made the value of nearly similar quantities much greater than formerly, and necessarily involved a larger investment of money to provide for the requirements of the line. Owing mainly to the great increase in prices. the net result of the business of the year did not affo d sufficient means to meet this investment, in order to provide for which, and for the amounts paid on Construction account, and for account of Hudson River Bridge at Albany (the latter $330,000.00), there was issued, during the year, $2,000,000.00 in convertible seven per cent bonds, due in 1876. During the same period certain items of debt matured and were paid off, so that, at the close of the fiscal year, the Capital Stock and Funded Debt stood $1,621,000.00 more than at the close of last fiscal year Statements showing the amount of Capital Stock and Funded Debt at close of each fiscal year, from 1856 to 1865, will be found on pages 8 and 9. The Iron Bridge over the Erie Canal at Schenectady, spoken of in last year's Report, has been completed this year. The length of iron bridging now pon the line, reduced to singl track, is 5.677 8-12 feet. The renewal of Iron Raile, during the year, amounted to 15.708 tons, equal to 163,62 miles of single track. The number of Ties renewed during the same period was 535,669. The New York Central Railroad Company is a consolidation of a number of original and separate companies whose lines in conjunction extended from Albany & Troy on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie, with extensions to the Niagara Suspension Bridge and other points. These were as follows: Albany & Schenectady. Schenectady & Troy. Syracuse & Utica... Syracuse & Rochester Direct. Rochester & Syracuse. Buffalo & Lockport. Mohawk Valley (never built). Rochester, Lockport & Niagara Falls....... Buffalo & Rochester..... -and several others were subsequently added to the consolidation. Miles. 16.97 20.50 78.00 58.00 7870 104.00 12.25 .... 76.50 80.00 The Albany & Schenectady was originally chartered under the title of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad Company and was the first corporation of the kind chartered in the State. The construction of the read was commenced in August, 1830, and the road completed and opened to the public September 24, 1831. The superstructure was primitive, being simply longitudinal sills, on which a flat bar 9 16th inch thick and 24 inches wide was laid. The ascents from Albany & Schenectady respectively were overcome by inclined planes worked by stationary engines, the intermediate road being operated by both engine and horse power. The first engine used was of American manufacture aud weighed three tons. An engine imported from England, weighing twelve tons, could not be used on account of its weight. The planes were abandoned in 1844, and in 1847 the original name of the company was changed to that of Albany & Schenectady. The cost of the road at the date of consolidation was $1,810,693 and for the five years then ending the dividends averaged seven per cent on the capital. The Schenectady & Troy Railroad Company was chartered in 1836 and the road built in 1841-42. At the date of the consolidation its cost had been $698.873. No dividends were ever paid. The Utica & Schenectady Railroad Company was chartered in 1833. Construction was commenced in the fall of 1834 and completed August 1, 1836. The cost in 1853 was $4,296,728. Dividends for the five previous years averaged twelve per cent on its capital stock. The Syracuse & Utica Railroad Company was chartered in March 1836, and the road fully opened to traffic July 3, 1839. Up to 1853 it had cost $2,836,856. From '39 to '50 inclusive, the annual dividend was eight per cent and thenceforward to consolidation ten per cent. The Syracuse & Rochester Direct Railroad Company was organized under the general law August 6, 1850, and was immediately merged into the Rochester & Syracuse Company by which the road, 84.70 miles in length, was constructed and opened in 1853. The Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Company was formed by the consolidation August 1, 1850 of two separate organizations, viz.: the "Auburn and Syracuse," 26 miles, chartered in 1884 and completed in 183839, and the "Auburn & Rochester," 78 miles, chartered in 1836 and completed in 1841. Both roads were very successful and paid during their separate existence eight per cent dividends. Including the direct road their cost at consolidation was $6,506,301. In the three previous years the company paid a total dividend of 23 per cent. The Buffalo & Lockport Railroad Company was organized under the general law April 29, 1852. While the road was being constructed it was consolidated into the Central Company at an estimated value of $675 000 The road was opened in 1854. The Mohawk Valley Railroad Company was formed under the general law Jan. 21, 1851 and anew Dec. 28, 1852. The company proposed to construct a railroad on the south bank of the Mohawk between Utica and Schenectady. No portion of the road was ever constructed, and in 1853 the company became merged into the consolidation, the share capital being payed by agreement to the Central Company. The Rochester, Lockport & Niagara Falls Railroad Company was successor to the Lockport & Niagara Falls Company, chartered in 1834. Its road, 23 miles long, was completed and opened in 1838 at a cost of $197,000. In 1850 the company filed articles of association under the title of the Rochester, Lockport & Niagara Falls Railroad Company, and soon after commenced the reconstruction of the original road and the extension of the line from Lockport to Rochester, 53 miles. The whole was finished July 1, 1852, at a cost of $2,343,388. In thirteen months previous to August 1, 1853, the road earned $309,848 gross, or $194,466 net, out of which was paid a 3 per cent dividend. 66 The Buffalo & Rochester Railroad Company was formed Dec. 7, 1850, by the consolidation of the Attica & Buffalo" and the Tonawanda" companies. In 1852, having completed a direct road between Buffalo & Batavia, the company sold that portion of its original road which extended from Buffalo to Attica, 31.95 miles, to the Buffalo & New York City Company. At the date of consolidation into the Central Company the road had cost $3,332,152, and was paying 10 per cent on its capital. The articles of agreement required by the act authorizing the consolidation of the above named companies were signed May 17, 1853, but did not take effect before August 1. In addition to the roads named, the new company acquired by further consolidation, the line from Rochester Junction to Charlotte 7 miles in 1853, and the line from Buffalo to Lewiston 28 miles in 1855; and by lease the Canandaigua and Niagara Bridge Railroad 91 miles in July, 1858. The consolidation fixed the Capital Stock at $24,000,000 of which the stocks of the original companies amounted to $22,858,600. These stocks stood as follows: -making a total of $22,858,600. This amount was further increased by the conversion of outstanding bonds $800,000, the capital of the B fflo & Niagara Falls Railroad $565,000 of the Lewiston Railroad $217,600 and the Charlotte Branch $10,000, companies subsequently admitted into the consolidation. The capital now amounts to $24,591,000. The bonds of the several companies were assumed and exchanged generally for bonds of the consolidated company at par. Included in the debt of the company are a series entitled Premium Bonds or Debt Certificates. These were issued to the stockholders on the old lines, being the estimated value of their stocks above par. This excess of par or rate of premium was rated in the articles of consolidation as follows: The articles of consolidation provided for a Sinking Fund for the retirement of the Debt Certificates by the annual payment thereto of a sun equal to one and a quarter per cent of the amount issued. This is $111,182 38. The whole amount retired by the operation of this fund to the 1st October, 1865 was $2,202,480 38 leaving $6,690,119 62 outstanding. The policy of issuing these bonds has been condemned. The principle has not been followed in posterior consolidations. Instead of ascending the practice is now to descend from a par, and so scale inferior stocks to their proper level. Had the Central Company followed this plan a great financial burden would have been avoided-the cost of the certificates being upwards of $600,000 a year for 30 years, deducting so much from the dividend fund. Had they made the highest stocks par and scaled down the result would have saved all this, and also large sums in the reduction of the inferior stocks. The New York Central Railroad as now existing is one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the United States. It forms one of the great lines between the east and west, and has grown up on the commerce between the two sections. It depends also largely on its local business. Anything that affects these is naturally of importance. A failure of crops, or a stagnation in business, are soon felt in a decrease of revenue. On the other hand the late war created for it an immense traffic which swelled the gross receipts enormously, but at the same time labor and material were enhanced in cost, and the actual result was a loss in net revenue, which in 1862-63 was $4,054,998, but in 1864-65 only $3,093,166 and at least one half of this residue was raised chiefly by increasing the freight charge from $2.70 cents in 1863 4 to $3.26 cents in 1864-5 per ton per mile. A large gain was also due to increased travel, the volume having increased 15 per cent the last year. The dividends necessarily fell from 9 to 6 per cent. The prospects for the current year are that the result will be the total consumption of net earnings in expenses and interest, for passage traffic has already returned to its usual rate, and freighting, reduced 15 per cent from its maximum last year, will sink a like rate the current year without a possibility of further increasing charges. Operating expenses in the meanwhile continue as high as when highest. No further dividends can, therefore, be expected for years to come, nor at all until there is brought about a ter balance between income and cost. OUR RESOURCES,* OF NEW A LECTURE BY H. C. CAREY, READ DECEMBER, 1865, BEFORE THE SCIENCE OF BOSTON. Ir is of the resources of the Union, gentlemen, that I propose this evening to talk with you. By those who usually speak or write on that subject we are constantly told of the vast extent of our yet unoccupied land, of the great deposits of fuel and of metallic ores by which our soil is underlaid, and of the rapidly growing numbers of our population; and yet, if we look to Russia, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, or the South American States, the countries in which such land most exists; or to that European one, Ireland, in which the growth of population has been most rapid; we find among them precisely those in which land has the smallest money value, capital is most rare, interest at the highest rate, and the working man most nearly in the condition of bond slave to the landowner or other capitalist. Turning our eyes homeward and comparing the different portions of the Union, we find, in the States south of the Potomac, the greatest natural advantages coupled with a population whose natural increase has been even greater than that of these Northern States; yet there it is that land has been cheapest, that capital has least increased, that interest has been at its highest point, and that the laborer has been most enslaved. Passing thence to the New England States, we find that, though wholly destitute of natural advantages, land is there scarce and high in price, and man is free, while capital abounds, and interest, though high when compared with certain parts of Europe, is very low by comparison with almost any other portion of this Western Continent. Crossing the Atlantic, and comparing two of the smaller kingdoms, near neighbors to each other, Ireland and Belgium, both possessing great natural advantages, we find differences closely approaching those which are here observed. In the first, capital has been so scarce that, wh le holding the laborer in a condition nearly akin to slavery, the middleman possessor of money has been enabled utterly to ruin a large proportion of those who formerly owned the land; in the latter, on the contrary, la id commanding a higher price than in any other part of Europe, and the use of money being readily obtained at the lowest rate of interest. Turning next to the French and Turkish empires, we find ourselves face to face • We must not be held to endorse the conclusions of the articles we publish under the authors' names. Mr. Cary has presented his case very ably, as usual.-E. HUNT'S MAG. |