ABSTRACT
The drovers, who bought cattle on the ranches and marketed them in the East, were the first to need extensive credit. In the era of wild speculation, few persons stopped to consider the possibility of exhausted ranges or glutted markets. Western cattlemen at the time were wanting a quarantine against Eastern bulls infected with pleuropneumonia, and the packers were opposing any federal legislation on the subject lest it might also result in a check to the flow of Texas cattle to their markets. The packers' combination was smaller than any devised by the cattlemen, more closely knit, better financed, and powerful enough to dictate. In transportation, as in credit relations, the experiences of the range country can well be exemplified by the cattle industry. The upward curve of gold supply, along with other forces operating the world over, was bringing back higher prices for cattle, wool, sheep, and wheat.
