Trade Group
The success of small trade enterprises is affected in the confusion of post-disaster conditions and, in the absence of expert supervision, almost as much by the amount of capital available as is personal and domestic service. Like the keeping of rooming houses and other branches of personal service, trade is looked upon by the unskilled as an easy means of earning a livelihood. But the prizes in trade are, as a matter of fact, reserved for those rare few who have the special sense for perceiving the “elusive value that hovers now here and now there.” The average citizen, if he is to make even a modest living by trade, needs certain material advantages to compensate him for the lack of that keen economic sense possessed by the shining few who started with the traditional pack and are now numbered among our merchant princes. When the everyday citizen sets out to peddle, he must have a horse, a place to keep him, hay to feed him while he lives, and money enough to make a payment down on another if he dies. If the business is to be in a shop, it must be fairly well located, and decently equipped with fixtures and stock. He can go into debt for fixtures, but as a rule he can get little credit for stock, especially if it is a mixed stock, like that of a notion store, or perishable stock, such as food stuff. In fact, the only shop keeper sure of holding his own in the face of universal competition is the one who can pay a fair amount of rent from the start, can buy attractive fixtures for cash, pay cash for all goods,—thus avoiding interest charges on deferred payments,—and have enough margin left to extend credit, when necessary, to customers and to carry stock over a dull season. Such business does not from the start necessarily include shelter for the family as is the case with a rooming house. It is often many months before the net income is sufficient adequately to support more than one person.
So much for the average citizen, starting business on his own capital, or given a lump sum by a relief committee and left, without supervision, to run the risk of making costly if not irretrievable mistakes.
View from Nob Hill looking toward Harbour and Ferry Building,
one year after the fire, April 18, 1907
It has already been seen that, of the 175 applicants given assistance for trade, 124, or about 71 per cent, were in business at the time of the visit in 1908. In three cases satisfactory data relative to capital could not be secured. The 172 remaining cases have been classified, like the persons aided in personal and domestic service, on the basis of capital and grants. [Table 62] shows for the small-grant low-capital group, for the large-grant low-capital group, and for the high-capital group the number of applicants in business at the time of the Relief Survey, those who started but discontinued, and the number who did not start.
TABLE 62.—BUSINESS STATUS AT THE TIME OF THE RE-VISIT OF APPLICANTS RECEIVING BUSINESS REHABILITATION FOR TRADE, BY SIZE OF GRANTS AND AMOUNT OF CAPITAL[166]
| Business status | CASES IN WHICH CAPITAL WAS LOW | CASES IN WHICH CAPITAL WAS HIGH | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant small | Grant large | |||
| In business at time of revisit | 54 | 20 | 50 | 124 |
| Started and discontinued | 14 | 7 | 4 | 25 |
| Did not start | 19 | 4 | .. | 23 |
| Total | 87 | 31 | 54 | 172 |
[166] Information relative to amount of capital was secured for only 172 of the 175 applicants receiving business rehabilitation for trade concerning whom data are presented in [Table 60].
It will be seen that the proportion of applicants remaining in business was very high for members of the high-capital group, and only very slightly higher for the members of the large-grant low-capital group than for the members of the small-grant low-capital group.