Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-27
THE LONDON
MONEY MARKET

New York, March ZI.-lne llmeS IlldH-
cial correspondent cables from London:
We shall nave a scurry after money this
! week, for the opening market is now very
bare. Notwithstanding it's last expendi-
ture, the government has gathered nearly
Els, coo. COO to it's credit in the Bank of
England, or within about 1,000,0 900 a
year, and the market has less, or rela-
lively much less, in the way Of our
than it then had. AS more business Is
doing and a larger weight Of securities
has to be carried, it follows that the credit
pinch next week may be extreme, and L
shall not be surprised to find that be-
tween now and the 30th instant the Bank
of England has advanced on loans f6,00O,-
600 to e., 900, 900. The smaller of these
amounts and the added sums it has al
ready lent will suffice to hold the market
in it's grip, after the new quarter comes
in, almost from mid-April. Thus the
! debt of the market to the bank in tempo
rary loans, say $4,000. GOO, the British and
! Indian dividends paid and, available for
the market, say 5000, 000-ta shortage Of
e., COG, o00-in addition to the heavy dis
bursements for public services, may be
! counted upon, so that April might see for
a short time low rates of interest. But
they cannot last, and such is the state of
credit everywhere in Europe that you
! will do we'll to play for a troubled London
market all through the spring.
Note, also, that we do not retain a
single ounce of the new gold sent us. We
had upwards of f40, O00, 900 worth pass
! through our hands since his time a year
ago., and the Bank Of England is poorer
now than then by 1851 900. 1t loses metal
weekly on balance and experienced deal
! erS 3lrp91y hpoin tO aptipir2tp an adj
vance of the discount rate SOON This is
not Immediately probable, and next
weeks scramble must not be interpreted
in that way. None the less it is true that
our market is liable to harden again and
unexpectedly before long. All European
money markets, as we'll as the Indian and
Australian markets dependent upon
them, and all other markets are at pres
er0t In more or less narrow circumstances
The monetary conditions, present and
prospective, explain continued lethargy
in the stock markets. Small people are
afraid to operate and the large ones
have as much as they can do to keep
quotations hard. After Easter a dash
may be made to try and renew the &C
tivity of last summer, but it cannot be
sustained, because the credit basis is
too narrow for free dealings. We have
less cash than We had twelve months
ago, and in the new securities created
and the advanced prices of the old ones
we nave ABOUT t4OO, OUO, 900 more IN values
to carry. All of our credit resources will
therefore be engaged up to the hilt.
Had you not taken home so much of
your railroad stocks, we must have
ceased playing before now, and since you
have nearly stopped your purchases W.
have become increasingly unable to play
the old, old game Alone, even for a single
week at a stretch. After all, our position
IS easier than that of Paris or Berlin or
Vienna, where the volume of inflated
values to be kept before the world as
good securities is fast becoming I'M
managea bic.
say nothing about the copper shares,
which nave got to a point where no sane
person touches them. Nor need one
dwell again upon the French load OF
Spanish securities, both government and
railroad. although they do mean an i'm
mlnent loss of at least f10O, 900, OG0 to the
French market and the people. More dis
quoting even than these indigestible
masses is the inchoate tumble. of So
called industrial corporations" which
have been created and flung at the con-
t%inental public in the last three years,
At first the shares of these Adventures
attracted buyers through the free use OF
the premium bait, but this charm has
ceased for some time to work, and today
tho French banks and finance houses are
smothered IN unstable paper. They
stagger along partly under the load of
credit obtained on bills discounted in
London. This over-gorged condition of
the markets may be worked of, or kept
Tor some time from the ev%entuatine
crisis.