The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-06-06
FRANCE THE WORLDS BANKER.
How Thrift Is Making Itself Felt in
the Money Market.

tht hVhtf Nufh'b'
France is 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 SUI
premacy which France is making
have been most rapid in the past five
years In that time French investors
have taken up many million francs
0f 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
/ 900, 100000 marks in 1904-05 TO
carry on her tremendous industrial
enterprises; they took 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 $50, 100000 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 s400, ,O0O,-
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 well supplied money markets as
to-day cleaned up bare. in a condi-
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 It, keeps well
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 100000 of the
precious metal; two years ago II had
s465, 100000, and in 1900 when Pa
rls began slowly to forge ahead OF
London as the center of largest mon
ey supply, the institution held only
1876, 100000.
How has France, a nation indus
trially inferior to Germany and with
a commerce very much below that OF
Grsat 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
lifes labors enough to make bright
the inevitable rainy day and to cheer
old age the Frenehman has no peer.
To save Is an Inherited desire. The
poorest peasant In the least produc-
tive parish of the republic manages
to pnt aside little each year for a
competency, and the fishermen down
IN 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 saw
ings of more fruitful years. Tens of
thousands of small shopkeepers,
lnnkeepers, scantlly paid Govern
ment employees are investors, and
their combined savings have provid-
cd the funds to finance many a ma
tion aud carry It through q lean pc
riod.
The population of France is about
40.000,0O0 people; the wealth OF
France is nearly $4,000, 600, 900.
This 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 un-
der 100000. Only three were over
s10,000,000.