Arizona republican., 1899-12-06

draw a hard and fast line between
 cause and effect-a good deal of the prevailing depression has been attribu- ted, has brought to light the weakness. previously unsuspected, of various en- terprises connected with them, and the difficulty of obtaining ready money, to
 which M. de Witte alluded, has become rapidly accentuated, the balance of the Imperial Bank, for instance, having fallen from 260, 700. GOO rubles on the 18th
 ultimo to 241. .4O0. 900 rubles on the 2Oth.
 A comparison of the prices of which ob-
 tained on the St. Petersburg bourse at
 the beginning of the year with those
 quoted this week proves not only tha:
 the fall which has occurred is a serious
 one, but also that it has not been con
 fined to any particular class of invest
 ment. Russian per cents have fallen
 per cent at the head of the list, muni-
 cipal loans from per cent to per cent,
 the actively dealt in shares of the com
 mercial banks, the position of which
 may be regarded as throwing light on
 the general situation, from T. to z5 per
 cent; shares of metallurgic and mec-
 hanical manufacturing companies from
 The shares of naptha companies. glass
 the same proportion. The depression,
 in fact is being felt by almost every
 species of joint stock enterprise.
 To account for this condition of af-
 fairs it is not necessary to look for oth-
 CT explanations than those given by NJ.
 de Witte in his statement of August 15. It is due, he then maintained, in the
 first place, to the state of the money
 market in other countries in Europe.
 whence capital in large quantities has
 lately been withdrawn for investments
 in the east, in Africa and in Australia.
 with the result that in almost every country the national funds have fallen and the official rate of interest has been
 increased; and, secondly, it is due to overspeculation and the Notation of nu
 merOus enterprises wholly out of pro
 portion to the pecuniary resources of their founders, who, anxious, no doubt.
 to take full advantage of the wave of commercial and industrial activity which has recently passed over Russia, disregarded the warning of the minis ter, more than once repeated, that reckless speculation on the stock ex- change, indifferent management and scarcity of capital could not fail event ually to bring about disaster. Since the middle of August the position has, if anything, become worse. The rate for three months paper has risen from 51a per cent to 612 per cent, and if, as seems not unlikely, the bank rate in London and other western capitals should shortly be raised. the scarcity of money may become still more pro- nounced. Even if the outbreak of war in South Africa and the consequent temporary stoppage of a large propor- ton of the worlds gold production should not produce this effect abroad. it is certain that locally the demand for money must for a time increase in con- sequence of the needs of merchants en- gagged in the corn trade, who will be- fore long be in want of advances to en- able them to purchase in the interior the grain which they send abroad and | for which they naturally do not at once ] receive payment. Scarcity of money | inevitably produces realiZations. In the | present weak condition of the bourse | can be effected only at | sacrifice, and fresh impe- | tus is then given to the downward l