The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-08 00:00:00

Chairman—S. LAING, -Esq.laieFinance Minister of India.
Culonel Balfour, C. 8., late Chief of Military Finance Depart-
ment of India.
H. L. Bischoffiheim, Esq. (Messrs. Bischcffscheim and Gold-
schmidt).
Hon. W. S. Fitzwilliam, Member of the Supreme Legislative
Council of India.

Sir John P. Graut, K.C.8., late Lieut.-Governor of Bengal.
P. Northall Laurie, Esq., Governor of Union Bank of London.
J. T. Mackenzie, Esq., Deputy Chairman of Eastern Bengal
Railway.
W. Mackinnon, Esq. (Mackinnon, Mackenzie, and Co., Cal-
cutta), Director of British India Steam Navigation Com-

pany.
H. Nelson, Esq. (Messrs. Crawford, Colvin, and Co.), London.
Mons. Pinard, du Comptoir d'Escompte, Paris, et du Credit
Fonder Colonial.
A. M. Worms, Esq. (Messrs. G. and A. Worms), London.

AGENTS IN INDIA.
Calcutta—Messrs. Colvin, Cowie, and Co.
Bombay—Messrs. I-Zemin:4ton and Co.
Madras —Messrs. Parry and CO.
AGENTS FOR THE CONTINENT.

The General Credit and Finance Company of London
(Limited'.
The Union Bankgoff London.
SOLICITORS.
Messrs. Freshfieids and Newman.
SECRETARY (pro tem.)—Mr. Charles Grant,
Temporary Offices-69, Lombard-street.

The system of Land Credit, or "Credit Foncier," has now
been established in many of the chief countries of Europe,
with the uniform result oflarge profit to the Companies eo-
gaged in it, and great benefit- to the holders of land. The
principle of all these Associations is the same, viz., the inter-
vention of a Company whose large subscribed Capital, and
consequent credit, enable it to borrow money to the best ad-
vantage, as an intermediary between individual lenders who
seek investments on mortgage, and borrowers who seek for
loans.

Thus, the French Credit Fonder has a large Share Capital,
of which only half is paid up, and is authorised by its
statutes to issue its own Bonds against an equal amount lent
on mortgage, with a Sinking Fund for redemption, on first-
class landed security. The security to the Bondholder, under
these circumstances, is ample, represented as it is try the
whole unpaid-up capital of the Comnany, and all its invest-
ments and assets, while the profit to the Shareholders, being
the profit on the employment of a large capital distributed in
dividend over a small paid-up capital, is so great, that with
£lO paid up the £2O shares of the French Credit Fonder
stand at a market value of upwards of £5O.
The present Company is formed in the belief that, on the
one hand, it will be very profitable to the Shareholders, and,
on the other, most beneficial to India. It is obvious that our
Indian territories present an unrivalled field for a Company
of this description. Land there is rising in value with a ra-
pidity quite unexampled, and the fixing of tenures, the im-
provement of laws, and the opening cf communications, are
fast creating an ease and certainty in dealing with it equal to
those enjoyed in any country of Europe. At the same time
capital is scarce, and the rate of interest extravagantly high,
as compared with any EUropean standard.
In Bengal, where, in the first instance, the operations of
the Company will be principally directed, land is held upon
a Zemindary tenure, which may be described as conferring
the fee-simple of the land in perpetuity, held direct from the
Crown, on the condition of paying a fixed annual quit rent,
which is always moderate, in comparison with the value of
the estates. An accurate and simple system of registration
precludes doubt and dispute concerning the title to estates,
and the first mortgage on the register takes precedence of all
other claims. The principle of a permanent settlement has
been adopted by the Government, and will doubtless be
shortly extended to the other provinces of India.
The land included in the Lower Bengalsystem Is estimated
at a value of more than one hundred millions sterling, and
by the establishment of railways, the op ration of irrigation
works, and the general extension of Indian trade and in-
dustry, it will be doubled and trebled within a moderate
number of year. Of these estates a very large proportion
are at present under advances from local money-lenders, at
a rate of 12 per cent. interest, besides incidental bonuses,
and upon other conditions, that are alike unfavourable to
their owners and to the community at large.
With prudent management the results of an Indian Credit
Fonder can hardly fail to be even more successful than in
France, considering the wide margin between the rates of in-
terest at which money can be borrowed in England and lent
in India.

The field for operations in India is practically unlimited,
and in no country of the world are all the elements of national
prosperity, including the value of land, in a state of such
rapid development. The revenue of the State has risen in
ten years from X 28,500,000 to £45,125,0"0 a-year : and the
aggregate Import and Export Trade during the same period
has more than doubled, and last yt ar reached the enormous
total of .Z100,000,0e0, including bullion. During the same
period V0,C00,000 of English capitol has been invested in
railways m India, which are now approaching completion,
and will greatly accelerate the march of prosperity.
The benefit to India of obtaining capital on landed security
on reasonable terms, and emancipating the native landed
proprietors from an exclusive dependence on native money-
lenders, will be incalculable ; and this benefit will be speci-
ally felt at a time when the prosperity of the country, the
completion of rosds and railways, the sale of waste lands,
the extension of the permanent settlement, the introduction
of an improved currency, and, generally, the adoption of a
wise and liberal system of Government, are giving every-
where a rapid impulse to improvement.

OBJECTS,
The Company will be prepared to grant Loans on land,
ei her for fixed periods, or upon terms that will extinguish
the debt during the currency of the mortgage, by the pay-
ment of an annual instalment on account of the principal, in
addition to the annual interest, thus conterrin2, on the bor-
rower% the benefit of an eventual liquidation of their debts.

CAPITAL.
The present capital is fixed at £2,000,000 sterling. of which
£2 per share is payable upon allotment. It is not the inten-
tion of the Directors to call up more than a small proportion
of the Share Capital in all, as the successful conduct of a busi-
ness of this description is chiefly through borrowed capital.

BORROWING POWERS.
As a means to mske the advances on the extended scale
contemplated, the Company will issue Debentures for fixed
periods, and bearing a fixed rate of interest, payable half-
yearly in this country ; and in ord, r t gire the holders of
such Debentures undoubted security, they will have a lien on
the entire property of the company, consistin"-' first of the
whole of the estates held on mortgage, and much exceeding in
value the total of its liabilities • an i secondly, of the as.ets
of the Company, in which its paid-up capital is invested, to-
gether with its large reset ve of uncalled capital. The trans-
actions of the Company will be conducted free Item all spe-
culation or purchase on their own account, and may be re-
garded as partaking of the nature of a Commission Agency
between the European lender and the Indian borrower,
opening to the latter a command of capital limited only to
the value and security his estates afford.

I'IiOFITS.
The profits of a well-conducted business of this description
in such a field for operations as India may be tested by a
comparison w,th the results realised by the French Credit
Foncier and other similar undertakings both abroad and at
home. The institution named is limited by its statutes to
lend at 5 per cent. Interest, and it has to pay more than 4 per
cent. interest on money raised on its Debentures ; the margin
of profit is, therefore, very small. Nevertheless, the French
Company pays bb d iv iden d of 16 percent. ver annum, carrying
a further ~um equal to 7 per cent. to reserve. In India the
margin of profit between the rate at which the money is
borrowed and the rate at which it is lent will certainly
not be less than 3 per cent., so that each £1,000,000 borrowed
in England and loaned in India will give .£30,000 a year
towards Dividend on the Share Capital, of which it is not
orobable that more than £500,000 out of the £2,000,000 will
be called up.