Prior to the year 1890 cold storage was dependent upon the employment of ice, but in the evolution of the cold-storage warehouse ice is no longer a requisite. In fact, the temperature obtained by the employment of ice precluded a thermometric register much below the freezing point. The accepted temperature for butter and eggs was formerly 40° to 50°; but through the introduction of mechanical refrigeration, which has revolutionised the business economically as well as physically, eggs now are held in storage at a temperature of 31° and butter from 10° to 18°. Under the former method of ice storage, goods that were offered on the market as "held goods"—that is, as coming from a cold storage—always brought several cents under the prices of fresh merchandise. But the remarkable modern methods of cold storage permit the carrying of dairy products for a number of months and their successful sale afterward in competition with fresh goods. Eggs stored in March are taken out in the following November and have commanded as high and often higher prices than the fresh commodity. Eggs have been kept two years and found perfectly sweet when used. In freezing poultry and fish the temperature now frequently given is zero and under. Poultry does not carry so well as other merchandise. Although it is possible to keep it for two years, yet it loses its flavour. Five or six months' storage is its usual average limit.
Certain temperatures are maintained in the various compartments of a cold-storage warehouse according to the requirements of the products, and these temperatures are made possible by forcing through pipes arranged around each compartment a brine composed of about ninety-five per cent. of pure salt whose temperature has been reduced by the action of the chemicals. When a shipper stores his goods there is an implied contract with the storage company that the temperature required for the product will be furnished and maintained. Failure to do this renders the company liable for any damage to property. So vital is this feature of the business, which is really the only liability assumed by the company, that the custom prevails of taking the temperature of each room as often as five times in every twenty-four hours, and keeping the record in temperature books open to the inspection of the shippers. A room filled with merchandise may not vary in temperature one degree in six months.
COLD-STORAGE CENTRES
Chicago very naturally is the leading cold-storage centre. Its situation in the heart of the productive area and its advantages as a distributing centre have given it its prestige. But in the last two or three years the Eastern cities, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, have developed enormous cold-storage facilities, and Chicago no longer is absolute in her dictation to the markets of the world. When it is remembered that the dairy interests of our country during the last three years averaged an annual value of $650,000,000, and that the greater portion of this found its way into cold-storage warehouses, the importance of this new and very necessary business is readily appreciated.
COLD-STORAGE CHARGES
The cold-storage charges for eggs in thirty-dozen cases would be about 15 cents per case for the first month and 9 cents for every additional month. Butter in sixty-pound tubs would be charged at the rate of 12 cents per tub for each month. Cheese would cost one tenth of a cent a pound per month. The rates of Eastern cities are usually higher than in the West. About ninety per cent. of the storage business of the East is in goods shipped from the West. The refrigerator car is a valuable adjunct to the business. The temperature of the cars is about 45°.
Although no ice is used in the modern cold-storage plant, yet the ice has become a very valuable by-product. Since all the facilities for its manufacture are at hand it has become a matter of commercial expediency to employ them to the company's profit in the production and sale of a commodity indispensable to modern life.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
- Give some particulars in which the Bank of England differs from our larger national banks.
- A bank cheque is a demand order for money drawn by one who has funds in the bank. How does a cheque differ from an order on A—— B—— to pay bearer a certain sum of money?
- You are sending a cheque through the mails to John Brown, Chicago. How will you prevent the cheque from falling into the hands of the wrong Brown?
- You identify A—— B—— at your bank. The cheque A—— B—— presented turns out to be a forgery. Are you responsible?
- What is meant by power of attorney? How should an attorney indorse cheques for any person for whom he is acting?
- What is a certified cheque? Brown gives A an ordinary cheque for $1000, and B a certified cheque for $1000. He fails before either cheque is presented. Why is B's security for his claim considered better than A's?
- Show how all the banks of the United States are connected through the clearing-house system.
- How do State and national banks differ as to their organisation?
- A national bank has a capital of half a million. A customer asks for a loan of $62,000 on indorsed paper. Can the bank legally grant the loan?
- Give some particulars of the liabilities of the officers and directors of national banks.
- What is meant by borrowing money on collaterals? How is this done?
- Tell how it is possible for a young man of good character, but without friends who have financial standing, to secure bonds for his faithful conduct in a responsible position.
- When rates are high bankers prefer to deal in long-time paper. Why?
- Account for the fact that London is the financial centre of the world.
- Explain in detail the business of a note broker, giving some particulars of his responsibility in connection with the paper handled.
- Enumerate the leading items of resource and liability in a national-bank statement.
- A bank receives from the comptroller of the treasury $100,000 in new bank-notes of its own issue. What ledger entry? A bank retires $10,000 of its own bank-notes. What entry?
- Discuss fully the points which should enter into a proper estimate of the value of paper offered for discount.
- Give the successive and necessary steps in the formation of a joint stock company.
- Why are companies which properly exist and belong in one State sometimes organised under the laws of another State?
- Explain very fully the difference as to resource and liability between a bondholder and a stockholder.
- How may a stock company be dissolved?
- What is the difference between a voluntary association, such as a society or club, and a stock company?
- Explain very fully the meaning of Limited when it forms part of the legal title of a company.
- Is it legal to sell shares of stock and issue mortgage bonds upon the same property? What relationship do they bear one to the other?