July, 1877.—Great railway strikes; rioting and incendiarism in Baltimore and Pittsburgh; losses $10,000,000. Over 100,000 laboring men took part in the movement.
January, 1878.—The Vanderbilt combination, including Michigan Central, Lake Shore and Canada Southern, was made in this month.
February, 1878.—The purchase of silver bullion by the Government to the amount of $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 per month, and its coinage into legal tender dollars, was ordered by Congress on the 28th.
May, 1878.—Congress passed the Resumption Act.
January, 1879.—Specie payments were resumed after the suspension which took place soon after the opening of the war of the rebellion.
April, 1879.—Gould and Field combined, and under their auspices the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern and Wabash Railways were consolidated. Gould already had control of Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific, and afterward secured control of Missouri Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande.
June, 1879.—Western Union declared a scrip dividend of 17 per cent.
August, 1879.—There was a serious tumble in prices in this month.
October, 1879.—The stock market was very active in October and November. The bull movement of the year was at its height and transactions were so numerous that it was impossible to record them all. The drop came in November.
November, 1879.—William H. Vanderbilt sold 250,000 shares of New York Central & Hudson River stock at 120 to a syndicate headed by J. S. Morgan & Co., of London. Early in the following year the same syndicate took 100,000 shares on the same terms.