The sun., 1919-09-27
BRITISH EASE BAN
ON GOLD EXPORTS
Arrival of $4,000, 1000 Here Is
First Since Beginning
Of the War.
SHIPPED BY ROTHsCHILDs
Larger Amount Is Scheduled
to Reach This Port To-day
on Mauretania.

England Is letting down the bars
which have prevented a free movement
Of gold since the outbreak Of war, and
the first shipment OF gold from private
banking firm In London to q private
banking firm In New York in more than
five years arrived yesterday in the form
OF 100000 gold consigned to Kuhn.
Loeb & Co. from Rothsohilds. A much
larger amount Of gold. part of which is
consigned to Kuhn, Loeb q Co. and the
balance to other financial institutions, il
scheduled to arrive to-day on the Maure-
tania. Receiving houses mentioned in
this connection are the National City
Bank and ]. p. Morgan & Co.
In order to make the shipments from
London specific permission had to be OBJ
tanned from the Bank of England. That
permission, however. was obtained and
1t is said to be the forerunner of big
gold movement in the direction of New
York, as the amounts thus far arrived
and on their way are a drop in the
bucket compared with the balances due
the United States from commercial
transactions The arrival OF the gold is
helpful to sterling exchange, not SO
much because of the practical effect of
the relatively small amount OF gold i'm
ports as because of the favorable effect
on sentiment and the possibilities OF
further imports.
Importance of Movement.
The gold which is coming in on the
present movement Is designed to nay
certain specific adverse balances here
and the Importance of the movement lies
In the private banking character of the
transaction. During the war gold reached
New York by way Of Ottawa for the
account of the Bank of England, but
those movements had to do entirely with
governmental transactions The present
movement marks a big stride forward In
the direction of normal international ex-
changes and is a natural supplement to
the announcement in Washington that
the United States Government had agreed
to permit the interest on the obligations
of the European Governments to the
United States Government to accumu-
late. with the view of a later funding
operation. 1t is understood that the
United States Government has gone even
further and has agreed to cooperate with
the banking and investment interests in
this country In the extension of foreign
credits commensurate to the worldwide
needs, but there has been no announce
ment on that point,
In the meantime Il appears that Eng
land will go as far as she can in per-
hitting the export OF gold from London
to New York. with a view of restoring
sterling exchange to point nearer par
ity. At the extreme low point the pound
sterling would command only s4.12A in
the New York market, a discount of
more than is per cent. from parity.
which is one pound equals s4.S665. The
rate Of exchange has now risen to
s426A. and further Improvement is
promised 1t has been helpful also to
francs, which rose yesterday to soc
francs to the dollar, against a low point
when it took more than francs to
equal a dollar.
U. 8. Has Piled Up Gold.
Dlsregarding the calendar year 1918
and the present year up to the start
OF the current gold import movement,
the United States added hugely to its
gold stock in 1917 1915 and 1915. The
gold imports, however, In those years
represented governmental purchases in
this country to get materials to carry
| on the war. In 1917 the imports were
S536,555.026 with excess imports over
exports of 2S0,4S3,7S5. In 1915 the i'm
ports were $685.. $50, 2B4, representing ex-
cess imports OF s530,197.307. In 1915
| imports OF gold were $451. $50. repre-
senting excess imports Of S420,52s,672.
The story was a different one in 1914
That year exports were in excess until
December. owing to the fact that at tn
outbreak of war this country was tempo
rarily debtor on international balance
with a complete disaTangement OF in
ternatioual credit. In 1914 this country
imported only s57.3s7,741 gold and ex.
ported s222,616,156, making excess ex-
ports s165,22S.415. relatively large
amount for those days.
There is an interesting contrast be-
tween our position as creditor nation
| to-day and our debtor state in 1914
! Just prior to the outbreak OF war the
United States owed abroad in one form
or another close to $4,000. 900. 900. Now
this country is a creditor to the tune oil
| SO ,00o, 900. 900, an Improvement of s15,.
| 900. 100000. In addition large amount,
OF American securities owned abroad
have been absorbed by growing invest
ment pOWer in the United States