The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-17
French Finance IN IN American
Aspcct-Big Bonnnzns Abroad.

his stamp in New York. 1t shows that,
according to the old proverb, "history has
o confirmed habit Of repeating itself. " Thus
a mania for speculation has seized upon the
French precisely similar to that which has
almost invariably followed unsuccessful wars
and great national disasters in. every country.
We have glimpses of the same spirit in
Germany and in our own Wall street
advertisers They may be compared,
with perfect ptopriety to those wild
experiments which were contemporary
with the Mississippi scheme Of Law and
the South Sea bubble, which ended SO
unluclzily for Huntingdon and Craggs, not
inaptly called ''the most respectable public
robbers of their time" similar rash de-
sire to make fortunes quickly and out of
nothing was also felt by the French, soon
after the battle Of Waterloo and by our own
American people after the close of the great
est civil war on record. We are far from hav
ing recovered from the war panic now.
Paris, like New York with its Big Bonanzas,
has lately become the meeting place of oil the
wild Adventures and spectators upon earth.
/ Funds not worth cent, Barbarian fifty per
cents, Utopian consols and Lunar bonds, Big
Bonanza shares of every description are bought
up eagerly and resold at premiums which
may well induce ignorant people unac-
quainted with the tricks of stock jobbers to
believe that such securities really have a sub
stantial value They do believe it and will
believe it till they find themselves utterly
ruined. They always do. Suspicious and
calm business men will, nine times in ten,
throw aside q sure and slow government
security for Pacific Big Bonanza. 1t
is therefore high time to call attention
to the present state of the Paris money
market, because already the warming note of
disaster has been heard, and we may suffer in
New York from sympathy. A Swiss house
has recently given the first signal of the COM
ing CRASH, and more recently another firm
failed for two million five hundred thousand
dollars. The causes which imperil the gen.
eral solvency of Paris credit may at any time
be felt in New York.
| In examining the causes which have led up
to the existing state of things in France it is
we'll to take into account the national charac-
4 ter of the most brilliant and reckless people
in the world. The French have all the pre-
cious foresight OF the ant in the fable. They
| toll with o courage which has often something
very beautiful if not sublime, in its self-de-
NAL They save and they hoard from their
little earnings and meagre salaries to secure
themselves an honorable provision for old
age, to educate their sons aud to dover their
daughters Toe habit of wise parsimony, SO
eminently French, has made their country a
very granary Of abundance. This is ex-
| tremely attractive to the impecunious
and offers on irresistible temptation to
spectators Of all denominations. It
people have the art of making and Of saving
money, they have not always the fortitude
necessary to keep it against the Establishments
of well spoken persons and eloquent adver-
tisements. The career of Jay Gould is as
possible in Paris as In New York. The French,
ike the Americans, are almost incredibly sim
pie and easily persuaded By clever rogues.
Their vagabond hunor was especially excited
by the law Of 1867 respecting les SOCIETIES
anon,raes This was liberal law indeed, but
in the condition of utter financial ignorance
in which three-parts of the population are
content to live, it docs not sufficiently
protect dupes against those sharp Gus
toners who are anxious to deceive them.
/ Immediately after the war of 1870 there was
a sort Of halt in the steeplechase of spccula-
| ton. The promoters Of bubble companies
perceived that it would be no use to attempt
/ to float them during the period of patriotic
4 fervor which had absorbed the French nation.
I The one preoccupation Of the national mind
\ was 70 pay of the German indemnity and to
i free the soil Of France from a foreign invader.
\ II seemed, indeed, for an instant, as if the era
OF cosmopolitan speculation was over, and for
some time there was no more unlikely place
than Paris to raise money on a foreign loan.
I But the French are light-hearted people,
and the wisdom Of one day, however dearly
y purchased, gives no security against the inn
\ prudence Of the next They have the sanguine
I American temperament and have a pro-
i found belief in tomorrow. Ayarjce, cupidity,
Y the desire to become rich without labor, soon
\ rcasserted their old spell over o vivacious and
Il imaginative race French funds went up to
Y such price that they ceased to be q satisfac-
\ tory investment; and the prospect Of a con-
version OF the FIVE per cents also had its inhu-
snce in keeping the smaller capitalists from
hocking all together into the funds. From
I that period their eyes, ears and francs we're
at the service OF any one who could invent
plausble tale 1t was the era of the Big
Bonanza over again, the opportunity for
"hnarcier" like jay Gould. SO, dur
Il ing the last six months all sorts Of
i haselcss monetary schemes have succeeded
each other with alarming rapidity. The
very rubbish Of the Stock Exchange, which
was supposed to have been long since given
Il over to contempt and oblivion, sud-