How an Arab Victory Moved the Chicago Grain Market
The fall of Khartoum and its curious effect on prices
A short dispatch marvels at how news of Khartoum's fall in Sudan rippled instantly through Chicago wheat prices and New York stocks — an early glimpse of how connected global markets already were in 1885.
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Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 20, 1885 · Page 4
1 min readThe Real Estate Record remarks on the singular fact that an Arab victory in northeastern Africa raised the price of grain in Chicago, and checked an advance in the stock market of New York. Yet such was the effect of the fall of Khartoum. The better price of wheat was because it was supposed that the British defeat would lead to complications in Europe that might bring on a general war, in which event, of course, there would be a heavy demand for our grain; but war would also lead to the selling of foreign securities, which would lower prices on the New York stock market. All this shows how sensitive are the great commercial exchanges to news from any part of the world. The Army and Navy Journal thinks it perceives clear indications that the peace of Europe will be disturbed before the year is out.
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