Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-07-31
no BE CONTINUED.
THE WORLDS BANKER.
How French Thrift Is 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. Today one makes better di-
agnosis in Paris.
The strides toward financial suprem-
acy which France Is making have
been most rapid in the past five years.
French investors have taken up many
milliard francs of foreign obligations.
They furnished Great Britain with
much of the capital that went to fl
nance the Boer war; they loaned enor-
nous amounts to Russia, practically
supplying the money needed in the
struggle against Japan; they provided
Germany with 1000 900 marks in
19O4-O5 to carry on her tremendous in
dustrial enterprises; they took lib
eral amount of the last Japanese loan
more than half Of the Russian loan Of
last April, and, finally. they supplied
borrowers in the United States with
fully $150,OOO,O00 during the tight
money period Of last winter and are
now financing the bond and note Is
sues of some of our greatest corpora
tions.
Although the annual production of
the world is nearly s4OO,000,0O0, there
is some tremendous trade activity in
every quarter of the universe that cap
ital Is in demand as never before
One thinks of the usually we'll sup
piled money markets as today cleaned
up bare, in a condition 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 it,
keeps we'll 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 $600,OO0,000 Of the
precious metal two years ago II had
$465 100000, and in 1900, when Paris
began slowly to forge ahead of London
as the centre of the largest money
supply, the institution held only $685.
900 000
How has France, nation industri-
ally inferior to Germany and with a
commerce very much below that of
Great Britain, gained such a power in
world finance? 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 poor
est peasant in the least productive
parish of the republic manages to put
tency, and the fishermen down on the
Brittany coast would have starved a
few winters ago, when the catch was
almost nothing, had they not been
able to draw from the savings of more
| fruitful years. Tens of thousands OF
small shopkeepers, innkeepers. scantily
paid government employees are inves-
tors, and their combined savings have
provided the funds to finance many
nation and carry it through a lean
period.
The population of France is about
40, 100000 people; the wealth is evenly
distributed. The number of estates
administered in 1904 was 394,7S7. and
of these one-half were for values
ranging from less than $4,000 to a
little over 100000. Only three were
over $4,000, OO,O0O.-Review of Reviews.
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