Business & Finance: Fur Trade

In summer and early fall the fur trade prepares for the winter season.

In the New York market during the past fortnight nearly 11,000 skins of house (Satis, among other items, changed hands in one day. Black cat pelts from Holland sold for as much as $1.02 each. For civet cats, even higher prices ruled; “Nos. 1 and 2 Iowa” reached $1.20, and “ringtail cat” rose to $3.50.

More varied were the offerings of “sundry cat,” aggregating about 25,000 skins in one day. Russian cat went for $2.00, leopard cat as high as $1.70, Hungarian cat at $1.40, spotted cat at $1.30.

Although most of the furriers’ dealings, judged by bulk, seem to have been in cat fur, the pelts of other animals also came upon the block, including black bear, grizzly bear, polar bear, ocelot, wolf, Canadian baum marten, Japanese marten, cross fox, fisher, flying squirrel, Chinese weasel, pahmi and Gold Coast monkey.