New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-05-30

For the bulletins of the Grand Army the present
French Empire makes up by the reports of the
Credit Mobllier. At the last general meeting Of
the Shareholders on the 25th of April, Mr. Isaac
Pereirc, in the name of the Board of Directors,
presented report, purporting to comprise the
summary history for the year ls5G of this remarka-
bic Bonapartst institution. From this grand-
oquent document mitgling, in a manner peculiar
10 il author, financial statements with theoretical
pr, positions, figures with sentiments, and stock
obbiDg speculation with speculative philosophy, a
cautious research may elicit evidence of decay,
which the apologetical yarnsh covering the whole
exposes rather than conceas.
The profits Of the Credit Mobilier continue, in
deed. to dazzle the public eye. Its shares being
originally fixed at 800 francs, there was paid on
them. for the year 1896, % francs by way of inter
est ana 30 francs by way of dividend, making to-
gether llj francs, sum which exactly represents
% per cent IN the funds of the Company. Yet, to
arrive at safe conclusions, one must compare the
Credit Mobilier, not with ordinary commercial
enterprises, but with itself, and then shall find
that, during one single year its profits have de-
creased nearly one half. There are two elements
to be distinguished in the net revenue Of the Com
pany-the one fixed, the other varable-the one
settled by statute, the other dependent on It's
mercial moyement-the one figuring under the head
If interest and the other under the head of dyi-
dends The interest of - francs, or per cent per
share, forms, therefore, standing item in the ac
counts Of the Company while the dividend declared
is the real test Of its progress Now, We ind that
from Us francs 20 centimes, Ia which the dividend
amounted in loj5, it has dwindled down to 90
francs in lSj6, movement which cannot very we'll
be called an ascending one. Ii it be considered
that the smaller fry of the shareholders have Oh an
average. bought their -harrs at 800 francs the
real dividend they received in l-jG Will hardly ex
coed per cent.
Mr. lsaac Percire thinks that q" i would be SUI
perfuous 10 endeavor to point out the causes Of
the difference which exists between the dividend
Of l-56 and that of l,5j." Stll he coLde-
scends to intimate that the profits Of $3.50 bore
Zen exceptional character True enough but
then it is only by keeping up the exceptional char
acter Of It's profits that the Credit 4obilier lay
claim TO any character whatever. The exceptional
disproportion between its capital and its operations
That disproportion, so far from being merely tran
sient, forms, in fact, the organic law of ts exist
eDce. The Credit Mobilier preteIds TO be neither
banking nor al industrial company, but rather
the representative, on national scale ii possible
Of other banking and industrial companies. The
originality Of its conception is founded On this rep
re-enta;Ne office. It, operations purport there
FORE to be circumscribed, not by It's own capital
and the usual credit derived from IT, but solely by
the ya,tness Of the interests it actually represents
or attempts to represent. If the disproporton be-
tween its capital and its operations and eonse-
quently iis exceptional profits were to disap-
pear, the Credit Mobilier would not dwindle to a
commoE banking house, but would miser,bly break
down. 10 pursuing the enormous operations in