Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-04-12

w HEELlN
1871, which in few days was more
than twice subscribed for in France
alone Out of this he paid Germany
before the end of the year nearly $3.50
100000. and by the imposition of new
taxes and other devices he paid a
further installment of S125,0000OO in
the beginning of 1872 In the summer
of that year he issued a loan for about
SI0J 100000, which was subscribed for
five times over i'm France and nearly
seven times over ira other countries.
About 100000 GOO was paid out of this
loan, and the remaining installments.
OF which the last was not due until
March, 1915, were anticipated by
monthly payments, extending from the
end of 1872 until the autumn of 1873.
Notwithstanding the payment by bills
OF exchange. the transfers of such inn
mense credits to Germany resulted in
/ a considerable drain of gold from tho
I Bank OF England and other gold re
serves. English exchange was much
more plentiful on the Paris market
D %
/ the French government bought as
much of il as they possibly could and
RENTED 1t to Berlin The bills paya-
able in London, which were thus re-
celved in Berlin. were sent by the Ger
man government to its agent in Lon
don-the London Joint Stock Bank
FOR collection at maturity. The Lon
don Joint Stock Bank bought gold
from time to time of the Bank Of Eng
land or i'm the open market and ship
ped it to the German government,
which was enabled TO use the metal
for the foundation Of the new imperial
coinage and the adoption of the gold
standard. The possession of these
credits, therefore, placed it within the
power OF the German Empire to ac-
quire gold. even though the direct pay
ment Of tine metal by France was
small
THE NEW ELEMENT.
This immense operation in the trans
fer of credit was watched with peculiar
interest by fnanciers and political
economists because of the new element
entering into the transactions which
had played but small part in pre-
vious transfers of credit. This ele-
ment consisted of negotiable securi-
ties. Such securities have existed for
nearly two centuries. but those capable
of ready transfer from one country TO
another by quotation in several mar
kcrs have only attained considerable
Importance within the last half cen
fury Certain public funds and rail-
way stock have come 10 be known in
Europe by the term international
stocks not because they are not is
sued i'm many cases by local corpora
tiOns. but because they are generally
quoted on the international stock mar
kets These international stocks rap
idly declined AT Paris after the offering
of the national loans TO pay the war
indemnity. while they suffered no sim
liar decline i'm other capitals Of Europe.
The result was TO bring money TO Paris
10 buy them which Immediately be-
came available for subscriptions to the
national loans French capitalists, in
other words, disposed of their foreign
securities and turned the proceeds into
the securities of their own public debt.
/ That this was actually the fact and
not mere theory is indicated by the
statistics presented by Prof. Paul Le-
roy Beauieu. the eminent French stu
dent of finance. i'm his great work La
/ Science DIES Finances He shows
that the payments of interest on ltal-
/ ian securities at Paris declined from
/ 81. 100000 francs on January l. 1869, 10
about So 500. 600 francs in 1873. This
represented an annual difference in in
terest payments Of about 23,O0O,OOO
francs tSA600 0O0) and a decline in
French holdings of the principal of the
Italian loan of about 3OO0O0O00 francs
| $4,000. C00l. The payments of Turkish
/ coupons at Paris declined in an even
more striking manner. and in 1874
/ were only about half the amount in
/ 1870. NJ. Leon Say the eminent
| French finance minister made an
/ elaborate report upon the payment of
/ the indemnity. in which he pointed oU1
! that FrenChmeu were able to facilitate
/ the payment of the indemnity in still
| another way by their large holdings Of
foreign stocks. by simply surrendering
TO the government the right TO the in
! terest coupons and allowing the trans
fer of the collections to Berlin. NJ.
]
| ments made 10 Germany were in q
/ great part "the product OF the neSotia-
/ ton of the securities of international
\ stocks bought on the Paris market and
sent by our bankers to their CORE
/ snondents beyond the Rhine to be ne
| gotiatad by them, and to cover the
drafts which were drawn against
I France"
| ENGLAND COULD PAY MORE.
Prof. II. Cunning Macleod of Trim
itv College. Cambridge, who has also
/ discussed I'm much detail the payment
of the French indemnity. refers to the
/ large proportion of the bills OF eX-
/ change used i'm the settlement as espe-
cially worthy of notice, because some
financial writer's maintained that II
England had met with a similar mis-
| fortune She could rot have paid such a
ransom. on account of the small guam
titv of specie i'm the country. These
fquras however" continued Prof.
Macleod. show tfat this is a complete
l deusion. as England could pay by
bills. Fl ever she were driven to such
dire extremity. to a far larger amount
than France: and we see that in France
herself. where specie is alleged 70
abound. the part that was paid IN
suecis was less than an eighth part Oh
/ the payment by bills NJ. Leon Say,
I i'm his report upon the payments, sets
forth in a striking manner the change
/ i'm such transfers OF credit which mas
/ been worked ny the creation Of negou-
able securities. lie said: