Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-09-21
NO. 80
THE WORLDS BANKER.
How French Thrift lie Making Itself Felt
In the Money Market.


France is now playing the role of the
worlds banker; England lost her claim
to the title when she went to war in
South Africa. A generation ago one
had to go to London to feel the pulse
Of the international money market. To-
day one makes a better diagnosis in
Paris.
The strides toward financial supremacy
which France Is making have been most
rapid in the last five years. In that time
French investors have taken up many
milliard francs of foreign obligatiohs.
They furnished Great Britain with much
of the capital that went to finance the
Boer war; they loned enormous amounts
to Russia, practically supplying the mon-
ey needed in the struggle against Japan;
they provided Germany with 1000, ,000,-
600 marks in 1904-05 to carry on her tre-
mendous Industrial enterprises, they took
a liberal amount OF the last Japanese
loan Of last April, and. finally, they sup
piled borrowers in the United States with
fully $3.50, 900 during the tight money
period of last winter and are now financ-
ing the bond and note issues of some of
our greatest corporations.
Although the annual gold production
of the world is nearly $400, ,000, 900 there
Is such tremendous trade activity in
every quarter of the universe that cap
ital is in demand as never before One
thinks Of the usually well supplied money
markets as today cleaned up bare, in a
condition of drouth, but then there is a
great reservation of free capital in
France which is being tapped by the
other thirsty nations, and which in spite
of the drain on It, keeps well filled and
shows no sign Of exhaustion. The Bank
of France, the largest hoarder of gold
next to the United States treasury, has
in its vaults today nearly $sOO,OOO,o 900 Of
the precious metal; two years ago it
had S465, 100000 and in 1900, when Paris
began slowly to forge ahead of London
as the centre of largest money supply,
the institution held only 1915. 900 600.
How has France, a nation industrially
inferior to Germany and with a com
merce very much below that of Great
Britain, gained such a power in world
finance? The answer is, through her do
nestle economy For frugality, thrift.
intense application to the work in hand
and the very commendable ambition to
carve from life's labors enough to make
bright the inevitable rainy day and to
cheer old age, the Frenchman has no
peer. To save is an inherited desire.
The poorest peasant in the least pro-
ductive parish of the republic manages
to put aside a little each year for a
competency, and the fishermen down on
the Brittany coast would have starved a
few winters ago when the catch was al
most nothing had they not been able to
draw from the savings Of more fruitful
years. Tens of thousands of small shop
keepers. innkeepers, scantily paid gov
ernment employees are investors. and their
combined savings have provided the funds
to finance many a nation and carry 1t
through lean period
The population of France is about 40
| 000, 900 people; the wealth Of France is
nearly $45, 900, ,000. 900. This wealth is even
ly distributed. The number of estimates
administered in 1904 was 394.7S7, and of
these one-half were for values ranging
from less than 10000 to a little under
| 800, 900. Only three were over $40, 900, 000
-[Review of Reviews.