The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-11-20

necessary to a correct understanding oil this money
or exchange topic.
Another error of the Gazette critic We must
refer to. There is no scarcity of freight tonnage
this fall, nor has the rate of freight advanced.
The rate (l2 cents currency per gallon) is the
same as for four years past, and the amount oil
tonnage is ample to take all oil and bone Offering
and perhaps leave room for any that may arrive.
in the summer This simply illustrates the ig-
norance Of the Gazette writer's when referring to
subjects they know little of.
In order to have a clear understanding OF this
subject, let us look back a year or. two. In 1908,
81 northern whalers arrived, bringing 4l,45S
barrels of oil, and though nearly all were in port
at one time, exchange ruled at par to 81 per cent,
most Of it being RENTED ut par.
In 1867, rs whalers arrived mere, bringing
SO, $50 barrels of oil, and exchange was freely
taken at from par to three per cent.
This year, (lS69,) with a comparatively small
fleet of about "A vessels, bringing about ~, 600
barrels of oil, an unsuccessful attempt has been
made to force exchange to 10 per cent, albeit the
amount of money in the place to meet the wants
of the feet is believed to be comparatively as
a nc III isiiCt ~ tS yN"
fully sufficient TO meet their wants within the rates
then obtained.
The Gazette takes the ground that because
merchandise may become scarce and rise in value,
like shocks, therefore gold should rise in value.
Now, here is just where We differ. No circum-
stances can justify uSur7ous rates of gold. The
fleet came in with n much better catch than
was anticipated but even this fact affords no
ground for the attempt TO make whaleships pay
usurious rates, when the money they require
was here lying ready for them, and the drafts
they offered were all needed for the ordinary
commerce of the port. So scarce have means OF
remittance been of late that persons sending
money to New York have been compelled to pay
81 cents on every dollar RENTED. This indicates
that some means Of exchange was greatly In
demand here when the whalers arrived.
The Gazette lays stress on the fact that forty
four ships came into port in twenty days, or
{" all together" Here again it shows It's igno-
rance, Us every year the fleet arrives in much the
same way, and the bulk of the arrivals us well as
the demand for coin have always been, as this
year, between the LIST and Goth of November.
The result this year as regards arrivals in Noyem-
Der, has simply been the experience of the past
ten and even twenty years, and the attempt to
excuse the = gold corner " on this score is absurd.
Assuming, then, that these facts have been
satisfactorily established-that the fleet Of ships
this year has been smaller than usual, and the
consequent demand for money less that the
supply of money was amply sufficient to meet
their wants, and that the exchange Offering was
no more than the current trade necessities of the
port require-this attempt of two or three parties
to force the whalemen to pay an unexpected
tribute is arhoHy unjustyfaGle, and must ,oork 10
The injury Of The place.
The Gasete's ding ut the :. owners - of whale
ships, portraying them up as ' such innocents "
should they make wry face" at this bold
attempt of a few spectators to compel them to
pay ten per cent. for the use of their money,
coupled with the remark 80 there exists no longer
our dependence on whaler's exchange to pay for
our imports" when every merchant knows that
every draft offered on New York or New Bedford,
is needed to enable US to pay our balances there
without sending coin or making forced remittanccs
comes with very poor grace from a government
which owes so much to the American whaling
feet. 1t looks like an attempt to drive away the
few vessels which now remain of a once numerous
fleet.
We had hoped that the rumor referred to last
week that the Minister of Finance was involved
in this attempt to corner gold, was groundless.
The bold and vigorous effort to defend it, made
in the official organ, removes all doubt on the
As the Gazette refers to the San Francisco
money market, and it's tightness, the following
from the Sacramento Bee, may furnish one of the
reasons why the money market there is tight,
and apply equally well here:
TIGHTER AND TIcuTER.-For some DAYS past we
have been receiving news of the igLtening of the San
francisco money market. And now we are told that
the banks will loan no money, even upon real estate
They will not even purchase gold bars,
nor will they allow any one to overdraw his account.
What kind Of banks are they that thus hamper the
money market instead Of relieving it7 What are
banks for to borrow money or to loan money ? |
Elsewhere their business is to loan, but in San Fran
:isco they appear 10 do nothing but borrow They
seem to have no capital of their own and so soon as
heir depositors withdraw their FUNDS there is nothing
to loan An institution i'm Europe or the Attain
ic StateAcalling itself a bank that would act thus
would be ridicuied out of existence i'm a month-the
public would lose all confidence in it. and if it could
lot lend, merchants and capitalists would take care
hat II should not borrow from them, They could
no faith in n moneyed institution that had no
money, or having il that would fail to relieve the
PRESSURE in the money market. No more deposits
,ould n bank 80 managed receive. |
\ prominent merchant of San Francisco, one who
has been doing business there for more than a decade
md banking always in one place. went into his bank
he other day and said that he wanted to over draw
=, 900 for a few days. The cashier told him that it
.ould not be, so the merchant went direct to the
manager and asked him what this meant. He was
that money was scarce, depositors might
ONE after it, and really he could not let il 60
What then are you here for ?' inquired the mer-
liant. of you have no money to loan why don't
'ou shut up shopr IL you keep a bank why don't
'ou do as banks do but if you are merely q shaving
institution why don't you haul down your present
ign "a up the three ballsy Balance my
account ; r4m done with you.' And the banker
I~pologized, offered him $4,000 or $4,000, but he
efused to have any future dealings with such a sham.
bank that can't loan money to its customers on
,roper security when they want it, is q delusion, and
3 not deserving of patronage. 1t is the business of
ianks to relieve the money market when it is dis
ressed. That is their use and their only use ; and
{ they fail in this they fail in their whole duty to the
community. And it seems now that all the banks of