Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-14
Has Been on In London For
the Past Week.
RATE IS NOT ADVANCED
For the Reason That If It Was at
Present 1t Would Go Higher in a
Short Time--COntinental Conditions
Are Quite Serious.

New York, Aug. 14.-The Times Lon
don financial correspondent cables Per-
plexity still haunts our money market,
rendering business difficult. In the early
part of last week New York exchange
| frightened us and led to talk of gold
going to the United States. The Bank of
England rate would be sure to go up on
| Thursday, so gossip ran, to protect the
| reserve against danger. So the bill
| brokers quoted 334 per cent as their rate
for three months bankers acceptances,
| and refused to accept less, except sub
ject to an additional charge should the
| bank rate advance. The bank itself only
| took 60day bills at it's minimum and
asked 3A per cent for longer dated paper.
1t also resumed borrowing surplus bal
ances from the market Offering and 3A
per cent for money into September. In
this move it was not successful, other
! bankers declining to part with their funds
for so long, but all this strengthened the
belief that the rate would be advanced
to per cent. Thursday came and no
change was made, SO the market at once
began to work at or under 3h per cent,
the bank itself ceasing to get any bills.
or fortnight, as lenders consented, at 21a,
2A or per cent, and perpleXity again
laid hold Of the market
| Also the news leaked out that the bank
| directors would have gone to per cent,
but for the fear that per cent might be-
come inevitable later in the year. Their
| argument was:
| IF we make the rate per cent now,
there would be nothing between us and
5 per cent rate should we have a revival
OF German or the appearance of Ameri-
can demands on our gold in October. Bet
ter. therefore, wait a little and 20 on
trying to make the open market Stiff
| Ihe market did once more stiffen and
6O-day bills again sought the Bank of
England and other joint stock banks also,
because brokers refused to work under
39s to 3A per cent for any dates.
! On Friday this cautious diSpost ttion was
strengthened by the export of 40 600 SOW
erelgns to South Africa and we began the
stock exchange settlement with distinctly
uncomfortable feelings. Money yester-
day was 10 per cent to 20 per cent on
Australian mines. Yet the sending Of
gold to the Cape meant nothing because,
having no mint, the colonies there now
| and again exchange bars for gold We,
! however, must have dearer money soon.
! The Bank of Germany had to go to 5
per cent last Monday, and the stringency
| there was but beginning. AS l have al
| ways said, the Germans are wrestling
with monetary difficulties as the fruit OF
| reckless trading and finance, and / can
not yet discover how the empire will be
| able to surmount the trouble without a
good, Old-fashoned panic.
In France, too, the position grows every
week more precarlous in spite of the skill
| of the Bank of France in collecting gold
! Business on the bourse is so dead that
partners in a large arbitrage house here
which l visited had become diigent at
tendants at cricket matches. having no
orders to execute. The calmness pre-
saying a storm hangs over France, but
when and how the crisis may come [ am
una BILE to foretell. The army rotttenness
is alone sufficient to let hell loose in that
unhappy country. The proof that mill
tarism and true democracy cannot CO.
exist causes enough gloom.
Turning to brighter subjects, our for
egn trade is now going ahead in a man
ner unknown for these many years. It is
even improving with you, and the deliv-
erance of the Spanish est Indies has
wrought an immense change for the bet
ter in our business there. In Central and
South America also we are doing an in
creased trade, and China is nobly SPEND |
ing the money she borrowed from u.s.
Most parts of the world continue freely |
to absorb our machinery, particularly for |
textiles, which fact some never-content |
moan over as proving that all the world |
and her looms and her spinning jennies |
will soon be able to do without our It's |
sues. 1t is a curious fact that our i'm
pcria possessions over which we strut
SO, partake but moderately of this gen.
eral revival. Canada is doing better by
us in some things but not all around.
Australasia is still backward. and South
Africa, as might be supposed, is downs
right bad. Indian trade wears a forced,
not to saw gluttrd aDpearance,
Our most improving customers are
our newer foreign nations. AS for poor
old Europe. It is hard work to maintain
its old levels. but Spanish orders are bet
ter All around prices have more to do
with enhanced totals than quantities. Our
domestic trade Is still more hOurishinS
than the foreign, as the railway returns
for the last half year prove. The gross
receipts increased f2,256000 on English
lines alone, and aggregated f36.753 900,
the passengers. giving about quarter of
the increase.