Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-31
Price Four Cents.

and steamship companies have been started | in abundance, with more or less success. In addition to these. almost every private bust 1 ness of any importance, cafes, restaurants hotels, journals, printing offices, drapery establishments and picture galleries have found banks to take them in hand to convert them into companies with shares issued at
 premium. The Recue de La FiHdzee caIcu lates the capital of the new companies ereat- ed in 1881 at total sum of :, 2,340. .I97, ,125 francs, or e93, GOT ,S84, divided among about APO companies. The greater part of them have probably come stillborn into the world. l and have not been heard of since they were gazetted, or have been since abandoned. But sufficient of them have remained to burden the money market by the quantity of unclass- ed paper they have left in the hands of the banks which introduced them Old banks doubled their capital by the issue of new shares at a premium, reserved for the old share holders, and buyers rushed in to secure the old shares to profit by the rise which invariably attended the creation of new stock.
 Side by side with this speculation in new companies has been thatin certain well-estab- lished companies, of which the Bank of Bank and some railway companies, are noto- rious examples. These have been run up te prices out of all proportion to the dividends they are now paying, and in which the pros pective increase of profits for many years hence is discounted During the last years the price of Bank of France shares has risen from 3, 6S0 to 5,700, after at one moment reaching 6,5OO; Suez Canal from 1915 francs to 3,350 francs Union Generale, from 960 francs to Z, ,890 francs, which is not the highest price reached, and Northern railway shares from 1,73O to :, ,29O francs. The dividends are, however, quite left out of sc- count by buyers who have aimed only at the profit of 100 francs or POO francs per share which has accrued at each monthly settle ment. This speculation might have continu- ed but for the competition of weak buyers at top prices, and the onerous conditions lend CTS have imposed during the last three months. Other companies shares which had been ian object of speculation but have been since abandoned, have sutfer.d a con- siderable depreciation, Credit Lyonnsise shares in particular losing I35 francs in the year. Compared with the end of 1ssO the greater part of the securities with a fixed revenue, City of Paris, Credit Foncier and French railway bonds, all of which are as safe as rente itself, have decreased in value. like the government stocks themselves For the first time during the last ten years rente has suffered depreciation in the year The three per cents. have lost nearly l, the re- deemable three 2f, and the five per cents g.
 The fear of refunding measure explains the fall In the five per cents, but there is no reason for the reaction in the other funds except the abstention of capitalists, and per haps feeling of disquietude as to the polisi- cal future. Baron Louis, former Minister of Finance, said to his colleagues Give me good policy, and I will give you good finances. Tlss oft-quoted saying might be applied to the present government It is said that the Cabinet contemplate some measures to restrict the creation of limited liability companies. The government is evidently annoyed at the depreciation in rente since 1t has been in office, and is, per haps, right in interpreting the fall in rents as an implied censure on its conduct of affairs, but should it attempt any interfer- ence in the business of the Bourss it will find that business is not to be decreed- The granting of quotation on the Bourse to new undertakings is left to the syndicate of Agents de Change, subject to the ratification of the Minister of Finance, but do not re- member that such ratification xes ever refus- ed when recommended by the syndicate, and when the required formal.ties have been ob- served
 Misrepresentation which has given rise to such serious apprehensions abroad is not however, for the present in rente, and even had the business been confined to the usual buyers and sellers who make the movements of the Bourse their daily business, the evil would not have attained it's present exten- sion; but the example of the profits gained in certain funds has attracted a new class of spectators, mostly belonging to the nobility, old and new, and young members of the ar18- tocracy. Perhaps their present exclusion from all public functions has driven them to this new occupation Large fortunes have been made during the last year, and new spectators of the same class arti coming for ward daily. The high charges for carrying over purchases has had little effect in calm ing their ardor. Suez Canal, Ottoman Bank, Rio Tintos, Union Generales and railway shares are bought and sold by the thousand The dividend they pay is imnAterisl, as they are only bought to sell, and not to keep. What mattered if continuation of 100 francs had to be paid iu the middle of January for the loan of 5, ,0OO francs required to take np 6 Suez Canal share for fortnight, when the share gained nearly 400 francs in price in the interval Banque Maritime shares have in the same time risen POO francs on share of 700 francs; Northern Railway, 320 francs in the month. A continuation of 20 per cent. per annum is only per cent for the fort night, or Il per cent for the month, and if the purchase realizes 10 per cent. in the meantime the buyer is satisfied. That must come to an end one day. ~ There does not appear to exist any apprehension of 8 violent crash when this speculation comes to an end. There will be losses, but as the gain has been gradual and has been wide spread, so the loss may be divided among many losers. Probably the principal suffer CTS will not be the speculators themselves. as a great deal of the baying has been on credit.