Bismarck tribune., 1879-12-12
Some Eras of Speculation.

The year 1928 Witnessed the COM
mencement of speculation which cul-
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 934,000,000 had
been issued in this country. In 1926
began the inevitable collapse. Chill
and Brazil led the way with failures
more or less redeemed in later years.
Peru the penniless and Paraguay are to
be found side by side, as in the records
of 1875. Poyais, an independent state
of Honduras, borrowed 100000 on the
personal security of Gregor Mac cGregor,
the caciQaAe of the country, and proved
a worthy precursor of its present repre-.
sentative by failing to provide the in.
terest on single coupon. Its scrip,
adorned with all the high-fown titles
of it's author, long served the turn of
petty jobbers, and may even now oc-
casionally be found reserved as a, curl
osity of the time. Along with these
ventures from the New World just
starting into existence came appeals
from countries having claim upon the
patriotic or the sentimental interest of
the English nation. Spain and Portu-
gal contracted obligations for which
they are wholly or partially in default at
this day. Greece drew from the pock-
cts of sympathizing bondholders the
loans of 92,000,00O, the interest on
which has been suspended now for fifty
years: The speculation of the period
seems to have been Unsuitable. The
political fate of nations hung in the bal
ance of the stock markets. The opera
tions of MIR. Rothschild and che London
fnanciers, it is said, created an excite
ment scarcely inferior to the march of
armies The troops themselves, as Sgd
ney Smith wittily remarked. advanced
to the cry of "sc1ip and omnium," ire
duced, and 3-per-cents." Following in
the wake of foreign loans and politlco-
financial speculations came the more
usual devices Of the ingenious promoter.
Foreign mines with nominal capital
of more than 924,OO0,00O, more than
600 industrial companies calculated at
nearly e4OO,00O, 900, stimulated the ap-
petites of the small investor. As on
oil such occasions, charity and sef-help,
profit and philanthropy, went hand in
hand. The same touching sympathy
with the poor which produced the
charitable corporation of 1888 produced
the Equitable loan Company of 1926,
and has since been the faithful parent
of more doubtful children in the shape
of companies for workmen's dwellings
and other philanthropic objects. De-
signed to relieve the industrious poor
from the usurious exactions of the
pawn broker, and at the same time
promising to it's shareholders dividend
of 40 per cent, the Equitable 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, specu-
lative purchases were made as if prices
must always be on the rise, and by the
end of 1926 the ruin and CONSERVATION
were widespread. As usual, upon the
Stock Exchange was concentrated the
wrath of those who had speculated and
lost BlackaC00d' Magazine.