The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-18

ties may be. They regard it as sufficient to knows wsthat China has sent and is send ing gold in large amounts to the United States for the purpose of facilitating transactions between her merchants and those Of other parts.
 Before the war began the greatest of American trust institutions--at least the greatest in amount of foreign exchange which it handles-was accustomed to transact for China certain financial busi- ness through it's London branch. But the somewhat chaotic conditions which the war occasioned made it expedient to trans fer this business to the home institution. In the past, China would have sent gold to this American branch in London. Now the gold comes to the United States
 The question has been asked many times since this report has been published, .Is this the first step in the direction of d change in the worlds money center from London to New York;" Whether it be the hrst step or not will. not be disclosed until sometime has passed, two or three years possibly. There are however many men of finance, both on this side of the ocean and in London, who have been for some years persuaded that it is inevit- able that the financial center of the world be shifted from London to New York. One of the governors of joint stock bank in London which is one of the greatest in the world, ventured to say 10 years ago that his visit to the United States and his profound study of her resources as well as good understanding of the en- ergy and capacity of the leaders in Amer ican affairs had persuaded him that it is inevitable that the prestige of London as the money center of the world pass to New York, although perhaps a generation of time must elapse before that happens.
 He relied for this judgment upon infor- nation he obtained regarding American natural resources, the variety of the az ricultural products which it's soil can pro- duce in enormous amounts and partic- ularly upon the evidence that he had ob- tained that American manufacturing in- dustry was beginning to share greatly in the markets of the world. He was es- pecially impressed by the fact that the United States was exporting manufactured commodities so largely that the aggregate was rapidly approaching the aggregate Of her agricultural exports. That Is some- tnlng no other nation can report.
 Those who sometimes discuss this sub. Ject are accustomed to say that London need not fear loss of it's prestige until the United States has made as great in. vestments of capital in other parts of the world as England has done The income which British capital receives on its for eign investments Is enormous, and this ex. plalnS Tn part why London has become the great money center of the world There is. however. a new point of view and it is one which year ago it would not have been possible to obtain at thi. time England's income from her for elgn investments is providing no smal 1 part of the funds she needs in order tt maintain the war. If the war be pro longed the drain upon this income will b,
 enormous. Furthermore, England pre-
 sumably will not be in position until som, years after the war is ended to make ad | ditional investments of capital in othe l lands.
 Here IS where one of the chief oppor l tunities of the United States is believe,
 10 exist. Already American capital O approximately 800, GOO has been invest | ed Tn foreign lands since the war Tn evidences are strong that American cap ltal Tn great amounts will be invested ii
 the south American nations in one forn I or another. One of the subjects whicl
 will be discussed, informally at least
 at the convention of representative Amer | lcan manufacturers at St Louis thi 1 week will be the ways and means b, | which nations of South America can suc
 ceed, as Argentina has recently done. il
 obtaining capital in large amounts iron l the United States
 For it is vital if our tradc vt,b So,t,
 America is to be increased that frs
 or all American capital be secured as il the past English capital and German can ital mas been obtained by the Soutl
 American nations The form of this in vestment may in many instances be sim
 liar to that which is how represented h
 the gold which China is sending to tn united States to facilitate her trad transactions. The exchange drawn agains tnis gold will be what is called dollar eS
 chahge' that Is to say, represented i
 .ern's o1 dollars. When the time come
 that the majority of exchange of tb
 world Is represented by dollars rathe I than pounds sterling the money center z
 the world will be regarded as having sniff ed from London to New York