Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-04-28
SIX DOLLARS PER- ANNUs.

I Q ~
! the payments of last year exceeded his estimates
for that year, we must add 100000 to the esti-
| mates which will make the payments from the
| Internal improvement furd from April 1851 To
| the termination Of this fiscal year, lrognt to
! @4440, 23f. II the propositions pending during
! the last year fol- county subscriptions mad pre-
Vailed as it was confidently expected they woald,
the calls upon the internal Improvement fund
would have been very largely increased. | will
add. sir, that the Second Auditor informed me this
morning, that the actual payments for the first
half OF this fiscal year have so far exceeded bis
estimates as to justify an increase on his estimates
to the amount which [ stated just now. | now
appeal to every unprejudced man in this hall, if
the results so far as they have been developed do
not fully support the estimates Of that portion of
the Board of Public Works. who thought that
the loan ought to be for four millions But fer
the sales of the bonds of the old form that under
the stimulating influence of the rise of our stocks
in other marke is have been effected here at hand
some premiums, the Board would at this moment
be engaged IN negotiating new loan.
loan offour millions, then having to be made
next invite the attention Of the House to the en-
curry whether the terms upon which the negotia-
ton was effected, such as the Board ought to
have regarded as judicious and beneficial to the
State. The compensation which they agreed to
give their agent was, contingent compensation
OF all that the agent could get over par for the
hrst million OF stocks, and over two per cent
Pielliuul ioT Tie Otnef three Millions Had the
Board any just grounds to hope that they could
do better for the public by any other mode of ne
gotlatlng the loan! In the light of the facts then
before them, their highest hopes could not have
anticipated any thing better than a negotiation of
the loan at par without the aid of the efficient
agency which they secured. Virginia State stocks
did not at that time command par in the market.
There was authority to sell them for less than
par In the public offices, and consequently what
were sold there were sold at par But not near
enough could be sold on those terms to meet the
increasing wants of the Board. The price at the
treasury had been fixed at par ever since the
18th OF January. Was there any reason to
hope that public advertisement would bring
offers to the amount required The recent ex-
perlence OF the Board was sufficient to cxtingush
such hopes. in the summer Of 1850 they had
advertised for proposals for loan of 100000.
At that very time the price at the Treasury was
hive per cent premium. The advertisement
brought proposals for only 4140 900, and only
POI, o00 OF that on such terms as the Board were
wiling to accept In April, 1851, they wanted
f4'000,0O0, and the price Of stocks was five per.
cent lower than when the experiment to obtain
loan OF 100000 by advertisement had failed.
| Would the Board of Public Works have been
faithful to the duties of the highly important
position which they held at that moment if they
had ventured on any such attempt! Surely, Mr..
Speaker, the gentleman from Richmond had
notrecurred to the serious and disastrous results
that would have ensued if this hopeless expert
ment had been tried and failed As an evident
result, the difficulties OF procuring access to the
stock market for our bonds would have been null
tlplled, and all prospect of effecting loan at
! par would have been postponed for considerable
time. Newbold & Aspinwall, in recommending
this mode OF sale (Which they express hope
might prove successful for one Million and posi-
bly, for two but certainly for no more, expressly
warn Governor Floyd Of the consequences of a
failure oh the other hand, we must not over
| look the fact, that if this mode Of offering the
bonds for sale should be adopted, and should not
be successful, the result would be very preiudicial
to the interests OF the State, and might prevent
the sale of the bonds altogether, at least during
the existing limits. | have already refer
red to the deplorable effects which failure
to obtain this lean at par would produce OH the
internal improvements and the business interests
generally in the State. With these results STAR
| ing them in the face, would it have been
rational in that Board to have hazarded
an experiment which the firm who advised it only
encouraged them to expect to be successful for
one million, and which they were expressly warn
ed could not be hoped to produce the amount
needed by them? Sir, if the gentleman from
klchmond, ever undertakes to control one of
these large financial operations and he acts on
the principles which he has inculcated here,
predict that he will be Knocked by his own
| achievements.
/ anticipate the reply that will be made to the
FORCE OF the precedent to which | have referred.
1t Will be argued that the coupon bonds are much
more valuable than the old form of bonds and
that the experiment in the summer of 1850, was
made with the old registered bonds. No one will
pretend that this difference in value is equal to
tive per cent. the difference between the price
OF stocks in the summer of 1850, and their price
IN April, 1851, when the four million loan was
negotiated. The only difference between the two
forms OF bonds, is, that the coupon bond is more
easily assignable than the other, and thus better
suited tor the stock markets. The engagements
OF the State are precisely the same in both, and
as permanent domestic investment the old re-
glstered bond is as good as the coupon bond.--
The only advantage of the coupon bond is, that
1t is a better marketable article, and when the
holder desires to dispose of it, he can obtain the
market price for it. But this new value h, not
been attached to these bonds until they had OBJ
| tanned position in the stock markets, and their
price in those markets had been fayoraby esta-
blished. This had not been yet accomplished in
April, 1851, and this new value had not vet been
| ascertained and attached to them. This was the
great and important purpose to be accomplished
by the agency which the Board were to EN- 10y,
and the success or failure of this first effort to in.
troduce our stocks into the great stock markets
of the world, was to be felt in its results on our
subsequent loans. If favorably established there,
1t was reasonable to expect that these bonds
would come to bear premium over the old form
OF bonds but this premium was to be the result
OF the superior value of these bonds in the stock
markets, and could not be expected until that
value was established and made known. This
could not OF course have been done in April
1901 before the experiment to introduce them in-
to the stock markets had been made.
But propose to go yet further in this enquiry
ana snow by the evidence directly applicable to
the value OF these identical coupon bonds, how
dithcult IT not impossible, it was for the Board TO
sell them at par by any other means than the