The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-09-25
Some Eras Of Speculation.

The year 1928 witnessed the COM
mencement of a speculation which Gull
minated in crisis such as had not been
known since the South Sea Bubble. By
1924 foreign loans to the nominal amount
of more than f34, 100000 had been is
sued in this country. In 1925 began the
inevitable collapse. Chill and Brazil
led the way with failures more or less
redeemed in later years. Peru the PEN
niless and Paraguay are to be found side
by side, as in the records of 1915.
Poyais, an independent State of, Hon
duraS, borrowed 100000 on the per-
sonal security of Gregor MacGregor, the
cdciqUe of the country, and proved II
worthy precursor of its present repre-
sentative by failing to provide the in
terest on single coupon. Its scrip,
adorned with all the high-fiown titles of
its author, long served the turn of petty
jObberS, and may even now occasionally
be found preserved as a curiosity of the
time. Along with these ventures
from the New World Just start
ing into existence came appeals
from countries having claim upon the
patriotic or the sentimental interest of
the English nation. Spain and Portugal
contracted obligations for which they
are wholly or partially in default at this
day. Greece drew from the pockets of
sympathizing bondholders the loans for
f., 900, 200, the interest on which has
been suspended now for 80 years. The
speculation of the period seems to have
been Unsuitable. The political fate of
nations hung in the balunce of the stock
markets. The operations of Mr.. ROths-
child and the London financiers, it is
said, created an excitement scarcely in
ferior to the march of armies. The
| troops themselves, as Sydney Smith wit
tily remarked, advanced to the cry of
"scrip and Omnium," reduced, and
per cents" Following in the wake of
foreign loans and politico-financial spec
ulations came the more usual devices
of the ingenious promoter. Foreign
mines with nominal capital of more
than f24 100000, more than 600 in
dustrial companies calculated at near
ly f400, 0O0, 900, stimulated the appetites
of the small investor. As all such
occasions, charity and self-help, profit
and philanthropy, went hand in hand.
The same touching sympathy with the
poor which produced the charitable cor
poratiOn of 1873 produced the Equitable
Loan Company of 1925, and has since
been the fruitful parent of more doubt
full children in the shape of companies
for workmen's dwellings and other phil
anthropic objects. Designed to relieve
the industrious poor from the usurious
exactions of the pawn-broker, and at the
same time promising to its shareholders
dividend of 40 per cent, the Equita-
bic Loan Company was one merely of
the many schemes by which the unwary
were lured to their destruction. Nor
was the speculation confined to the Stock
Exchange and its surroundings. Gam
bling in produce was another sign of the
same spirit. The markets were glutted,
the warehouses filed, speculative pur-
chases were made as if prices must be
always ON the rise, and by the ;end of
1925 the ruin and CONSERVATION were
widespread. As usual, upon the Stock
Exchange was concentrated the wrath
of those who had specialized and lost
Bldck1COod's Magazine.