Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-01-16
REASURE SHIPS OF TO-DAY.
How the Shipment Of Geld is Carried
on Attracting Very Little
Attention.
The Steamship Majestic Laden With
Gold to Meet the Demand for
Currency.
Received Here it Goes into the Gov
ernment Melting Pot and Comes
Out Ready for Use.

hecelVed Here 1t Goes into the Gov
ernment Melting Pot and Comes
Out Ready for Use.
Tales of golden freighted galleons sweep
ing through the Spanish Main. stories of
the millions that were wrested from the
lncas or from splendid temples of Yucatan.
tabled cargoes of bullion from FL Dorado
all that romance has told the world of
riches of gold and silver seems like a saw
ages dream of plenty when compared to
the wealth which is carried to and fro by
the Atlantic liners of today without even
arouslng passing comment.
Ofcourse. such things as conditions of
exchange vary the great quantities of specie
which commerce or the financial conditions
of the world of trade command to go upon
the ocean from week to week, but the
amount of sovereigns or of the beautiful
double eagles of our own country which
pass from England to this country or
back TO England again in single week
nowadays would represent the total spoils
of Plzzaro and Cortez combined.
And yet this great shifting of the pre-
clous metals goes on from month to month,
from year TO year. without arousing more
than casual remark. Tourists voyage
upon steamships which carry upon their
decks sufficient gold to plate the dome of
st. Peters an inch thick or would buy a
principally without mortgages. Orders
for million from the bank of England
are events of so usual occurrence that they
do NO. cause the merest tutter in the
movement of trade; similar demands
from the other side upon our assay office
are of quite as usual occurrence. Yet still
the romanceS tell Of the stores of bullion
which Drake and his followers and sue
cessors took back with them to EIizabeth's
England and of the gold strewn bottom
of the sea.
ALL THE ROMANCE rs GONE.
Yes, the romance is all taken out OF the
pursuit of wealth. Men do not now go
forth with Greek fire and culverins, hal
herds and picks to attack the spoil of
Americans. They simply cable their cor
respondents in London, Paris, Amsterdam
or Berlin to send them a certain amount of
refined gold or specie, and over it comes on
the next steamship without any more ado.
Theoretically the simplicity of this sort of
thing is beautiful, and when one only
recognizes the change from posssesSor to
posssessor the system seems to be ideally
perfect.
WEIGHING THE GOLD.
But In order to bring about this result and
still to preserve the integrity of the com
mercial relations there are lots of things
to do. Even with these precautions aud
with the precautions of years there occur
times when it is very difficult to secure
even 1.-THE of the gold needed to supply
the demands Of the business community.
Then great inconvenience takes posses
sion of the financial world.
Such condition of things has existed in
this city for nearly month past. The whole
banking and commercial community was
demanding gold, but because of elements of
uncertainty in trade in England and on
the continent, our bankers could not get a
sufficient quantity to supply the demand.
though great efforts were made to obtain
from England a large amount, such were
the drains upon the bank Of England on
account of the embarrassment of the Bar
IngS, and the anxiety which prevailed be-
cause OF 1t, that great arDlter of finance de-
clIned to permit any OF its fine bars or the
American double eagles which it constant
ly keeps In store to pass from its posses
sion.
With an additional supply from the bank
of France, however, there became avail
able the more or less worn sovereigns in
the bank of England's vaults, and at once
Il number of foreign bankers in this city
began to secure them for shipment to this
city. The result is the big steamship Ma
jestic, which sailed from the other side
recently, veritabe treasure ship, laden
,,,iiIiO,,. of cold cn,E how, o,,o
the fear of our merchants that there would
not be enough currency money to accom-
modate the exigencies of trade.
THIS WAS A RAPID ACCUMULATION.
OF course these shipments on the Ma
jestic are exceptional. But they illustrate
how promptly a great quantity of treasure
may be accumulated in case of necessity.
For it must be remembered that these mil
lions We're pledged within no more than
two or three business days-the first
amount $3.50 000) being secured on
Saturday a week ago by the MesSrs. Selig-
man.
The method of shipment, the precau-
tions to prevent loss, the preparations
made to assure the certainty of its arrival
the insurance against disaster by wreck
ttliu VIC IllGtllN OLlC1 ECIIlo vi Vic std, ILS
passagethrough various hands here before
it is converted into either circulation or
the circulating medium-in fact, all the
course which the yellow metal goes
through from the time that the banker
sends an order to his European cores
pondentuntil it az pears in equivalent form
in a check of the United States assay
office held upon the United States sub
treasury in New York should be of inter
est to that great mass of persons who know
that the gold comes from somewhere,
somehow, but have no conception of just
how.
PACKING GOLD BRICKS.
Go first inIo a consideration of this
thing with the understanding that bank
ers, while wonderfully good fellows, are
not in the business merely as philan-
thropists. They don't bring gold over
here simply because you and | may want
to buy Christmas presents. They do it all
to make money, and for no other purpose
under the sun. So when you hear of a
great shipment of gold from the other
side, depend on it that some one is MAX
ing all the way from ne-quarter of one
per cent. to one-half of one per cent. on
every dollar that is landed on these COM
paratiyey prosp trous shores.
According to the present rates of ex-
change the bankers make about $50, 900 on
every Sl,000,000 worth of the precious
metal which is shipped to this CITY This,
too is upon the mere rates of exchange.
Besides they make very comfortable sort
of profit on the loan of this money to
those who are In need of it. So when
the community is CRYING for money with
cried for food in the wilderness. there is
every reason why they shouId be satisfied. |