Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-13


the London money market:
The position of the money market is I'M
doubtedly singular, if not unexampled.
The bank rate is at 2 per cent, and as the
bank holds nearly fifteen millions of money
in hand to meet current liabilities amount
ing to little more than twenty-six millions,
the rate ought, according to the ordinary
policy of the bank directors, to be still
further lowered. The Bank of England is,
moreover, not the only national institution
which has in its Golfers an amount of coin
and bullion altogether out of proportion to
the necessity imposed upon its management
by the amount of lis liabilities. The Bank
of France has more than thirty-seven mil
lions of money in hand to meet current
demands of all kinds of less than sixty-two
millions. and the stock of coin and bullion
atthe Bank of France continues to increase.
At first sight it would be thought that these
facts must produce an instant and decisive
effect on the trade of the world. Here are
two immense funds of money in the hands
of the two great leaders of capital waiting,
or rather seeking, employment. The man
agement in each case is DESTROYS Of setting
free some of its stock of cash, and proclaims
its readiness to accommodate borrowers
upon the most moderate terms According
to established theory, the temptation should
prove irresistible. The men of business
who are looking out for opportunities, who
nicely calculate the chances of profit, and
make the difference of a quarter per cent.
the occasion of new enterprises, ought to
rush into speculation. As a matter of fact,
they do not. Why are they 50 remis5? We
believe the explanation is not far to seek.
Burnt children fear the fire, and they not
uncommonly have such wholesome recol-
lections of recent suffering that they shrink
from anything that looks even warm. The
popularity of the present time is that
money is at once cheap and dear. We have
the two things side By side. In years OF
ordinary prosperity and comfort, when the
bank rate is low and the bank Golfers are
full, all kinds of Investment show the in
huenCe Of the fact. Government funds Of all
nations, the stocks Of banking and COM
mercial associations, are high in the mar
Eet. 1t is not 50 now. The English and
French funds are, indeed, sufficiently high.
The Rentes are nearly 70; the price Of con-
soils is between "a and 95, and remembering
how many stocks bearing a government
guarantee now compete with the funds as a
mode of permanent investment, the price
is extremely high. The indian securities,
in the same way, are enhanced in the esti-
nation of buyers. 1t is unnecessary to
enumerate the details of the other side of
the picture. The funds of all governments
which have any element Of doubt or inse-
curity attached to them are woefully de-
pressed. The stocks of all companies are
low in the market. The inference is OBJ
vious. Money is cheap, but it is not cheap
to all 1t is cheap to some it Is dear, or
rather inaccessible, to more. 1t is cheaper,
indeed, to the favored few because the rest
are cut off from the supply. When it is
said, for instance, that the bank rate is 2
per cent, and that discounts are lower in
the open market, it is meant that the re-
stricted class whom the bank directors
feed, and the trusted merchants whom other
banks and bill-discounters supply with
money, can have their wants supplied at
these rates. How many fail to obtain ac-
commodation altogether can only be known
approximately to few, and can be known
exactly by none