Signs of Life in the Seattle Economy
Bank clearance data from February 1894 shows a gradual recovery from the economic panic of the previous summer.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Exchanges at Seattle, Tacoma and Portland clearing houses today were: Seattle, $947,019.41; Tacoma, $407,474.00; Portland, $1,114,354.00. The total for the week at the Seattle clearing house was $947,019.41. This is an excess of $119,850.76 over the total for the previous week, and is the largest total for any one week since the middle of August last year. This is very encouraging, for, though bank clearances are not an infallible index of the amount of business that is being done, they are, nevertheless, ordinarily fairly reliable when used to make comparisons of the aggregate amount of business at different periods. This shows a gradual improvement since business was at its lowest ebb last fall, and disproves the feeling which prevails in many quarters that things are becoming worse all the time instead of better. True, the recovery is slow, but as time advances the improvement will be more and more marked.
“This shows a gradual improvement since business was at its lowest ebb last fall, and disproves the feeling which prevails in many quarters that things are becoming worse all the time instead of better.”
The economic anxieties of 1894—following the Panic of 1893—mirror modern cycles of market volatility in Seattle. Reporting on 'clearing house' data was the equivalent of monitoring today's tech-sector job reports or real estate indices to gauge the city's health.
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