"Weekly Market Summary"

"Weekly Market Summary"

Prices at the Washington Square Market in New York City

The article I chose depicts the “Weekly Market Summery” in New York. It describes the prices of many different types of commodities back in the 1850’s. It provides national and local trends of goods that many people bought each week. The audience of this article could be many different people. They could be people who are interested in financials or men/women looking for the best deals for food. The wasn’t much that I could figure out about the editor of this article. However, they were in New York City and had to have been present the Washington Market in New York. My research did lead me to find out that the Washington Market was one of the biggest agricultural markets in New York during the 1850’s. They were an ideal place to go grab meat, poultry, or dairy products. This article is very interesting to me because I love reading about finance and staying up to date with modern financial news. It is very different to see the prices of things back then compared to today. Also its crazy to see some of the food they ate and what they called it. Pigs used to be called swine and they also sold meat by the head for some animals and by the pound for others. This article depicts life in New York City and the country as a whole. It shows what products cost and what types of food they ate. American used to eat pigeons, fowls, geese, snipes, and plovers. To eat these foods in modern times would be considered odd. This article is also important because it shows the financials of New York and how they change over time. As an accounting major I see this type of language everyday. In the description before the actual prices the language they use to describe the markets is incredibly different then what we use today. This article shows how simple life was back then in New York City. This article also shows what type of financials New Yorkers cared about back then and when compared to today the only people who read about the meat demand are business men and women who are looking to buy large amounts of agricultural commodities or agricultural farmers who sell these type of goods. This article to me symbolizes life back in the 1850’s and the overall movement of our financial system.

Harper's Weekly
Author Unknown

Harper's Weekly [CORRECT CITATION NEEDED]

November 20, 1858

Ed Regler