Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18
A FINANCIAL FOCUS.
Hong Kong's Great Progress From
q Few Fishermen's Huts to the
MONEY MARKET OF THE FAR EAST.
Daring Spectators Making Mammoth For
tunes in E Day.
CHARACTER OF HONG KONG FINANCE
rRoM OUR TRAVELLING COMMISSIONER. ]

| rrRoM OUR TRAVELLING COMMISSIONED
| Hone KONG, July 22.-The Hong Kong
Stock Exchange, if people at home only
knew Of it, would be regarded as one of the
financial wonders of the world. But they
| do not. and indeed, to begin with, there is
no Stock Exchange, properly speaking, in
Hong Kong. One is being established at this
moment What exchange there is now, is
the gutter. From the bar of the club to
about hundred yards down the Queens
| road is the local Rialto. But there, all day
long, a financial business is done which 1
doubt if any hundred yards in the world,
except the spaces including the London and
| New York Stock Exchanges and the Paris
Bourse. can equal either for voinme of
money, audacity of speculation, or sersa-
tional ups and downs. Everything is done
either under the punkahs in the hall of the
club or literally id the gutter, and by the
most motleey crowd Of brokers in double
decked hats that the world can show.
There are Englishmen. Germans, Anglo
| Indians, Chinese from Canton, Armenians
from Calcutta, Parsees from Bombay, and
Hebrews from Bagdad. And from the
princes of finance who play with millions
| of dollars (there are several Of them in
Hong Kong) down to the humblest who
buvs 10 shares here and sells 10 shares there,
all are making money fast. There are
practically no bankruptcies in Hong Kong.
| The former live in their little palaces; they
entertain like princes; they are as generous
as they are prosperous, and the latter kick
their heels all day long in the street and
the corridors of the Hong Kong Hotel. And
| although to say that all of them make
money is not unlike saying that two men
| live on what they win from each other at
| cards, still the paradox is a truth. Money
in Hong Kong seems to have less value than
anywhere else, like wheat in Manitoba or
| petroleum in Pennsylvania.
FORGOT THE VALUE OF MONEY. j
A player at poker the other night dropped
a "long chip" value 500, under the table.
"Maskee," he said, in pidgin English, mo
matter" ''It's a15," somebody reminded
him; 'it you were at home you'd look for it
| fast enough" 'By Jove," he replied, $50
1 will forgot how much it was" And
here is an example showing at once all
three characteristics have claimed above
for Hong Kong finance. A few weeks ago,
in the stock of a single mine in the Malay
Peninsula, upward of 81 500, 900 dollars was
paid by Singapore spectators to Hong
| Kong spectators in less than a fortnight,
and the same shares were bought back by
Hong Kong within a month at more than
80 per cent discount.
AS for ups and downs, here are a few ex-
amples taken at random. The shares of the
Hong Kong and Kowloon W harfand Godown
Company, issued at 500, rose Immediately
to S195, fell to S125 within a month, and are
to-day quoted at 5000. Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank shares, of $125 par value,
were at one time at 205 per cent premium,
they fall again to 125 per cent premium, and
are to-day back to 200 per cent The Hong
Kong and 'Whampoa Dock Company's
shares, of S125 par value, rose from 20 per
| cent premium to 135 per cent, fell to 26 per
cent, and are quoted to-day at 95 per cent
The Puniom and Sunghie Qua Samantan
Gold Mining Company (mine at Punjom,
in the Malay Peninsula) was ioated at $40
per share, rose at once to SIS, andssthen
| Jumped suddenly to $50, fell back as sud-
dollars had changed hands, to $25 at which
price most of the shares bought and sold
again, and now they are firm at $50. But
| perhaps
| THE MOST SENSATIONAL
of all is the Tongking Coal Mining Com.
pany. The shares, which by French law
|
500 francs, say S13S, they rose on issue to 60
| per cent premium, then at jump to 120 per
| cent, then at another to 220 per cent, and to-
| day they stand steady at 400 per cent
| premium. say 500, with few or no sellers,
| in spite of the expense of holding them, as
| the local banks will not advance a dollar
| upon mining shares which have not yet
paid a dividend. I suppose it would be
difficult to match this in the history of re-
| cent finance.
Now this state of things is the rule, not
the exception, in Hong Kong, and it is SELF
evident that such high prices can only ex-
| ist and have existed on one condition,
namely, that the local companies-in-
cluding, of course, the enterprises in Bor-
neo, in the Malay Peninsula, in Manila,
etc., of which the capital is held in Hong
| Kong-were formed on a sound basis and
are doing .horoughlys veil. Many of these
ups and downs are, OF course, the merest
gambling, some of them not even honest
| gambling, as a recent lawsuit has shown,
and 1 am sorry to say that much of this is
done by young men, earning clerks sal
aries, who would find such course impos-
sible elsewhere. But gambling is in
separable from prosperity, and no
gambling could produce the same steady
effect as legitimate profit and promise.
| This is the case with the local COM
| pdultS, Dut l. lduCy very lew ptOpic nave
any idea of what the combined capital of
| these companies amount to. The total num-
Der of companies of all kinds registered in
Hong Kong is A. Space prevents me from
| giving list of these, but have made one,
and the following facts are shown by it. The
total capital of Hong Kong local companies
is no less than $40. 740, 600. The average
| dividend of the local companies which have
| already been in existence long enough to
| pay one, is a fraction over 13 per cent per
annum. And their average annual yield to
investors at the so-called inflated" current
prices is 6.2 per cent
FLOATING NEW COMPANIES.
New companies are being foated almost
every month in Hong Kong. As the new
lands of the Far East are gradually devel-
| oped, it is to Hong Kong that they look and
| must look for financial aid. And capital
there responds to the right call, as the flash
responds to the trigger. For instance, a
month ago a new issue Of shares of the
| Hong Kong Land Investment Company was
made at so per cent premium, 500 for $50
share. The number offered to the public
was 13 900. No fewer than 1000 were ap-
| piled for. To day they are quoted at S145.
| Of course there are not wanting prophets of
evil who foretell an utter collapse of the
| Hong Kong market, as aconsequence of what
| they are pleased to term the gambling
mania prevalent in the colony. Finan-
ciers at home send kilograms to their repre-
sentatives here urging caution, and mer-
| chants write long homilies to their agents.
! Yet have heard that the very merchants
and friends both st home and elsewhere in
NJ