The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-03-13 00:00:00

THRIFT AND THE INVESTMENT OF

SMALL SAVINGS.

The Daily News has published the following letter
Sir,—Now that bad times have drawn public :Men.
bon inore closely to the necessity of thrift, and that
something is proposed to be done in the way of extend.
bag the usefulness of the Post Office Savings' Banks
and facilitating the investment of small sums of money
in Consols, it may not be out of place to point out
the practice in France. As it is, the subject of thrift
can hardly be mentioned in this country without some
allusion being made to our thrifty neighbours; and
yet it. seems to suggest itself to few people that the
opportunity offered in that country for the safe
Investment of savings may be as much a cause as an
effect of French providence. Now, in France, as many
of your readers will be aware, Rente)s issued for very
smell sums,of money. This Rente la in the form of
bonds payable to bearer, which have the coupons
attached, with the amounts and dates of interest due
on them, in the ordinary form of foreign bonds, and
which are readily bought and sold at a small commis-
sion, or even passed from hand to hand, Moreover, as
a protection to buyers or sellers, the price quoted on
the Paris Exchange is put up from time to lime on a
notice board in every town, or even village, where
there is a Make. Wishing to make myself familiar
with the working of this system, I recollect once buy-
ing, when I was living in France, a bond of 10 francs
Three per Cent. Rente, which represented a capital,
roughly speaking, of some £lO sterling. I found no
difficnlty in cashing the 2.501, coupons as they became
due, and this in a very small town. And Rente is
current for very much smaller amounts than this
which I only give as an example of the daily transae.
, bons in the funds of the French National Debt.
' What a contrast to this openness and simplicity is the
English system? It is true that no minimum limit is
drawn to the amount which may be bought in Con-
sole, and which may be registered in the purchaser's
name (though there is a limit to the amount which
may thus be purchased in bonds payable to bearer—
the limit, viz,,of 2,50); but to the uninitiatiated there
is, I am sure, a mystery and secrecy about the whole
transaction of the purchase which makes it seem to
them as though our Government rather discouraged
than invited the investment of small sums of money
in the Funds. The Chancellor of the Exchtqaer
has not yet told us in what direction he intends to
move in this matter; but I think meanwhiie, there is
an advantage about the French system which should
be well weighed. It is this—that, to a half-educated
mind, Government paper that you can see and feel
and carry away in your pocket is of more obvious
value than a registration of which you may read and
hear, but which will always be comparatively clothed,
however illogically, with suspicion. Some object to
the low rate of interest which the National Debt must
always bear, but about this it is to be remarked that
the first thing the thrifty require is absolute security
for and easy disposability of their savings; and that
the lesson of unthrift, which is taught by the opposites
of these conditions, is one of the hardest to be un-
taught. —I am, your obedient servant,
EDMUND AV. HOLLAND,
Maidenhead, March 7.