Finance: Scarcity of Cotton

• Share

Cotton, after breaking through 31¢ to a new high record on the present movement, subsequently sold off under that figure upon anticipations of an increased crop in 1923. Meanwhile, published statistics are throwing more light upon the reason for cotton's recent extraordinary advance in price. Spinners' takings last week were 205,000 bales, compared with 184,000 bales for the same week in 1922; similar figures for the season are 9,012,000 bales this year as against 8,483,000 last year. While demand has thus been increasing, supply has been diminishing. The "visible supply" lost 91,000 bales compared with 46,000 for the same period last year; the American supply of cotton now amounts to only" 2,651,000 bales as compared with 3,907,000 a year ago.