The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-10-16
FRANCE THE WORLDS BANKER.


How Thrift II Making Itself Felt In
the Money Market.
France IL now playing the role Of
the worlds banker, England lost
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 information money
market, says the Review Of Reviews.
The strides toward financial su-
premaoy which France is making
have been most rapid In the past Ave
years. In that time French investors
have taken up many million francs
Of foreign obligations. They furnished
Great Britain with much Of the capt.
tai that went to finance the Boer
war; they loaned enormous amounts
to Russia, practically supplying the
money needed in the struggle against
Japan; they provided Germany with
1000, 100000 marks In 1904-05 to
carry on her tremendous industrial
Enterprises; they took q liberal
amount of the last Japanese loan,
more than half of the Russian loan of
last April, and, finally, they sup
piled borrowers In the United
States with fully s1b0,0o0.0 900 dur
Ing the tight money period of last
winter and are now financing the
bond and note issues of some OF our
greatest corporations.
Although the annual gold produc-
tion of the world Is nearly $400, ,000,-
900, there is such tremendous trade
activity In every quarter of the uni
verse that capital is in demand as
never before. One thinks of the usu-
ally we'll supplied money markets as
to-day cleaned up bare. In oondi-
tion Of drought; but then there is a
great reservoir Of free capital in
France which is being tapped by the
other thirsty nations. and which. in
spite Of the drain on 1t, keeps we'll
filled and shows no sign of exhaus-
ton. The Bank of France, the larg
est hoarder Of gold next to the Uni
ted States Treasury, has In its vaults
to-day nearly $6o0,o00,000 of the
precious metal; two years ago 1t had
$465, 900, 900, and In 1900 when Pa
ris began slowly to forge ahead of
London as the center of largest mon
ey supply, the institution held only
$4,000, 900.
How has France, a nation indus
triaily inferior to Germany and with
a commerce very much below that of
Great Britain, gained such power
in world f1nance2 The answer Is,
through her domestic 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 produc-
tive parish of the republic manages
to put aside little each year for
competency, and the fishermen down
on the Brittany coast would have
starved few winters ago, when the
catch was almost nothing had they
not been able to draw from the saw
ings of more fruitful years. Tens of
thousands OF small shopkeepers.
innkeepers, scantily paid Govern
ment employees are investors, and
their combined savings shave provid-
ed the funds to finance many ma
ton and carry 1t through a lean pc
riod.
The population Of France is about
40,000,000 people; the wealth Of
France is nearly $45,000,000,o00.
This wealth is evenly distributed.
The number of estates administered
In 1904 was 394,787, and Of these
one-half were for values ranging
from less than $4,000 to little un-
der 100000. Only three were over
$10.000,000.