The record-union., 1899-03-28
The Market is Also Likely to Be TreuhIet''
All Through Spring.
Though Upward Of Forty Million
Pounds of New Gold Have Pass
ed Through British Hands the
Past Year, the Bank Of England
is Poorer Now Than a Year Ago.


Times - financial correspondent cables
from London:
We shall have scurry after money
this week, for the opening market is
now very bare. Notwithstanding it's
last expenditure, the Government has
gathered nearly f1S,O0O,O00 to it's credit
in the Bank of England, or within
about Fl ,0O0,O0 a year, and the mar
ket has less, or relatively much less in
the way of resources now than it then
had AS more business is doing and
larger weight of securities has to be
carried, it follows that the credit pinch
next week may be extreme, and / shall
not be surprised to find that between
now and the Both inst. the Bank of
England has advanced on loans six to
seven millions. The smaller of these
amounts and the added sums it has al
ready lent will suffice to hold the mar
ket in it's grip, after the new quarter
comes in, almost from mid April. Thus
the debt of the market to the bank in
temporary loans, say fS,0O0,000, the
British and Indian dividends paid and
available for market, say $4,000, 600
a shortage of 1000, ,000-in addition to
the heavy disbursements for public SER
vices, 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 every
where in Europe that you will do well
to play for troubled London market
all through the spring.
Note always that We do not retain
single ounce of the new gold sent us.
We had upward of 100000 worth
pass through our hands since this time
a year ago, and the Bank of England
is poorer now than then, by f561 900. 1t
loses metal weekly on balance and ex-
perienced dealers in credit already be-
gin to anticipate an advance of the dis
count rate soon. This is not immedi-
ately probable, and next weeks scram-
bic must not be interpreted in that way.
None the less it is true that our mar
ket is liable to harden again and unex-
pectedly before long. All European
money markets, as well as the Indian
and Australian markets dependent
upon them and all others are present in
more or less narrow circumstances.
The monetary conditions, present and
prospective, explain. continued lethargy
in the stock market. Some 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 ac-
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
have about 100000 900 more in values
to carry. All of our credit resources
wild, therefore, be engaged up to the
hilt Had you not taken home so many
of your railroad stocks, we must have
ceased playing before now and since
you have nearly stopped your pur-
chases we 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, Berlin or Vienna. where
the volume of inflated values to be kept
before the world as good securities is
fast becoming unmanageable. / say
nothing about the, copper shares, which
have got to a point where no sane per-
son touches them. Nor need one dwell
again upon the French load of Spanish
securities, both Government and rail-
road, although they do mean an immi-
nent loss of at least f1O0,O 100000 to the
French market and the people.
More disquieting even than these in
digestible masses is the inchoate tumble
of so-called industrial corporations
which have been created and flung at
the continental public in the last three
years. At first the shares Of these ad-
ventures attracted buyers through the
free use of the premium bait, but this
charm has ceased for some time to
work, and to-day the French banks and
finance houses are smothered in unsal-
able paper. They stagger along, partly
under the help Of credit obtained on
bills discounted in London. This over
gorged condition of the markets may
be worked off or kept for some time
from the eventua ting crisis 1 do not
wish to alarm you, but merely indicate
in broad, clear lines, the chief features
OF both the credit and the stock mar
keus' position at this Eastertide and
insist that it contains elements of a
dangerous and even an explosive kind,
which should render yours operators and
bankers more than ordinarily cautious
They must expect no solid help from
this side if they are pushed into a cor
ner.