The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-28

tnon r FRENCH pTONluoo, oAu OIL suo
land watered by the Mississippi.
Subsequently it was given favors in
the South Sea and the China trade,
and its title was changed to "The
Company of the Indies" Later
on Laws institution was intrusted
with the collection of taxes and rev.
enues, which gave them virtual
monopoly of the financial aud
commercial business of the
country. The stock of the
company from the beginning
was eagerly sought, as the currency
of the kingdom, which was depre.
ciated to the extent of 60 or 10 per
cent as compared with gold, was
received at it's face value in pay.
men for shares. Under the stimu.
lus Of the important concessions
granted by the government the
stock of the company rapidly rose,
and at the close of l7l9 was twenty
times as high as it had
been at the beginning. AS
was the case in England about
the same time, the fever of specula-
ton seized all classes. Even WON.
en- and the clergy were affected by
the craze. Land and all other sorts
of property rose in value many fold
Unknown to all the country except
the officials of the company the col.
lapse was already impending when
the highest condition of prosperity
appeared to be touched.
In 1920 it began to be apparent
thai though the paper representa-
tives of money were larger than
they had been few years earlier,
the amount of specie in the bank
had actually fallen. Early in 1920
a government edict was issued max
ing cut of one-half in the value of
the shares and notes of the corpora
ton. Then the crash came, and
Law was fugitive. The Missis-
sipi scheme went to wreck, as the
South Sea speculation did a few
months later, and nine out of every
ten persons in France were ruined.
The South Sea and Mississippi
schemes were the most conspicuous
and calamitous speculation of the
eighthteenth century, but there
were others which were almost as
disastrous. A few years after the
bursting of these bubbles there was
published list of wild and vision.
airy enterprises already collapsed or
then under way, to make fortunes
out of hard soap, potato starch,
silver extract, fattening hogs,
South Sea hops, bleaching of hair,
making swords from iron, making
butter, suppressing piracy, manu-.
featuring ladies' stockings and
hoop petticoats, trading in the
North seas, American fisheries, i'm
provement in tobacco, expectation
of old clothes, importation of hair,
insurance against burglars, insur.
ance of children's fortunes, insur-
ance against highwaYmen, new
method cf.isisssfeeIs, cdFl1gs6
brokepwfnded horses and mares
anHof melting sawdust and shaw.
ings into real boards of an length
and free from knots. Of course
the wreck which overlook all these
schemes added vastly to the general
demoraliz alton and distress.
The greatest financial catastrophe
of the eighteenth century, aside
from the Harley and Law adven-
lures, came in the century's closing
years, when the Bank of England
was compelled to suspend specie
payments. Great industrial and
financial development began
throughout Great Britain soon after
the close of the American war of
independence. Banks grew rapidly
In number, the circulating medium
was expanded out of all proportion
to the requirements of legitimate
trade, mania for speculation took
hold OF the country, prudence van.
ished and everybody imagined that
ne was going to get rich suddenly
and without any actual, honest
work. Credit of every sort was
strained to its utmost, and the
a'aliaD'e funds OF all the banks at