The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-05-09
MEN WHO SELL MONEY,
Their Profits Were Large During the
Pnnic-HONX TheN Operate.

FRONTS " ere Large During the
Panic-HONV They Operate.
The men who sell money made a lot of
money during the panic, says the New York
Recorder. They are still gathering in
from the sale of cash. Dealing in bullion
and specie has always been considered
profitable. But hard times make it loubly
so. When the merchants are hard up, the
money broker reapS a harvest. When the
financial world is in trouble, gold and silver
are exported and the specie bankers get
liberal and frequent commissions 1t doesn't
follow that they are shylocks Quite the
contrary. The leading money bankers of
the country are indispensable in trou5lous
monetary periods. They help out J.o RI
street in London; Wall street, in New
York; Devonshire street, in Boston, and
Third street in Philadelphia, and furnish
money where ready money is in great le-
mand.
Nearly all the great banking institutions,
with foreign connections, are to a certain
extent money buyers and money sellers.
The importation of gold early n the panic
conducted by large houses The ax-
porting of gold, after the Sherman act was
repealed, was managed by the same houses
The world-renowned houses of Brown Bros,
DreXel, Morgan & Co. and Morton, Bliss &;
Co. engaged in the export and import tf
gold to a certain extent. But they did not
make a speciality of this branch OF finance
The New York houses that may be consid-
cred the leading specialists in this line are
lIOSe OF I1auSnDerS, Ihalmdn 20. ana
Lazard FrereS. The is German con-
Germ and the other is French. They did ali
enormous business. Ladenbarg bought IL,
Germany as well as Great Britain. The
Iazard Bros. secured considerable in !'atis.
There time late last summer when
the vaults of the Bank of France and the
cellars of the Bank OF England poured ont
the rich yellow metal, because they were
paid rates that warranted them letting it
60 Not over four months afterwards these
same banks needed their Golfers replenish-d
and paid the bankers acting as their CORE
spondents in America to return some of TIE
gold that had gone across tie Atlantic
earlier in the year. The Bank of England
has for century been noted the great
gold repository of the world, but of late
years the gold reserve of the Bank of
France has exceeded that OF any banking
institution in any of the countries.
Only in the periods of the greatest none
tary depression and excitement, is there a
great demand for greenbacks and small
change. There was big premium
rent cash in 1873 and somewhat of a similar
premium in 1884. But the year 1893 will go
on record the red letter era for dealings
in the ordinary small coin of the republic.
Then it was that comparatively obscure
firm reaped quick fortune On Wall
street. only few doors from Broadway
was the house of Zimmerman & Forshay
When money began to be badly required,
this firm stood ready to supply it at pre-
mum. During the week already inStanCed,
the firm practically cornered the market
1t raised the percentage of premium day
after day, the demand increased 1t
was tempting bait and it took. Hundreds
of people scraped and boarded until they
got together all the way from fifty to a
thousand dollars and then sold it to Zim-
norman & Forshay. Just as fast as it
was bought it sold at a larger figure
The line of customers reached all day long
clear up the street. One day the crowd
was so great that the services of police
man We're required to keep it in order 1t
was impossible to accommodate the patrons
in the crowded Office. Fortunately for the
firm, but not for the sufferer broker
failed a few doors above, and the money
dealers at once rented his Offices which
were larger and more commodious Even
the new quarters were filled daily for many
weeks and up to recently there was more
or less of steady demand for currency at
g slight premium 1t is estimated the
firm cleared, just in the difference between
the prices paid for money and the price,,
at which it sold, over $1O0 900 in one
month.
This episode must be chroncled in the
annals of the panic of 1884. one of its
most unique events.