Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 955/956.
Schließen

The Credit Foncier of England.

Rechnungsablage oder „Interior“ dieser (relatively guten) Finance Co.

Die direct liabilities only £127,922 (darunter 43,605l. für deposits)[.] Contingent liabilities of 368,757l. Singular smallness of their debts. Ihr „written up“ Capital = 1,800,000l. Diese Co. neu, formed out of the ruins of the „Credit Foncier and Mobilier of England“. In the assets of the old Co taken over by the new one figurirt: Fully paid shares and stocks, 1,159,000l. valued at £305,466 und in their Report the directors say that „the difference between the sums at which the securities were valued in the Co’s books and their par value is no less than £.1,146,717[“]. Now the whole funds of the Co., whether belonging to themselves or others, only £1,997,000, and when there are losses of this magnitude from the fluctuation in the value of securities, who can be sure of anything about it? The directors tell us they used to value their securities at the price of the day, but now for property like this there is „practically no market“, i.e. the property cannot be sold at all or for anything; and, therefore, the directors are obliged to value it themselves. Of course, we do not know what the Co. gave for these shares; some of them may have been bought in cheap market, others allotted under par by special arrangement. Dennoch the value of the property has fluctuated to that amount, and to somebody’s loss, and the doubt remains whether Cos. which deal in articles of so unstable a value, can be relied on to secure a sure income.

The directors say that they have at stake in the following Cos., or in properties connected with them, the following sums:

besides a large stake both in the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway und Paris Streets Improvements Co. |159 Added die leztern, probably all this these investments = Capital of the Co. Profit on some of those investments may make up for loss in others. And as respects the income to be derived from these securities, such is of course the case. A person who bought all these things to hold would have some income from some of them; there is no common cause why they should all cease to earn. But a finance Co. buys to sell; the great profit such Cos. hope to make, and once apparently did make, did not arise from the earnings of a railway Co. or a dock Co., but from the changes in the share market. And the fatal fact, that securities of this kind all high in good, all low at once in bad times. This does not indicate a secure source of profit on which investors might rely for an increase, but rather a system of sharedealing, which will yield great sums in very sanguine times, at the cost of being left with a property for „which there is no market“ in depressed times.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 956/957.
Schließen

Subways.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen (Gas Cos. etc)

Nämlich for Gas und Waterworks (Repairs) (statt daß sie jezt beständig die Strasse aufbrechen.[)] In 5 years there were 5,332 openings of the street in Gray’s inn Road and Holborn. Although the gas and water Cos. were informed whenever paying was to be done, they invariably waited till afterwards, in order to get over the ground again. The result: permanent deterioration of the roadways. Nach Mr. Bazalgette ganz verdorben die new street of Southwark, „one of the most perfect pieces of paving“, by the Cos. cutting their trenches, breaking up the concrete, disturbing the arch of stone paving. All this would be obviated by the use of subways. The Gas Cos. say that as Parliament has once allowed them to do as they like, it has no right to make them consult the convenience of the public Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen ! The safety of the subway system is merely a question of ventilation, and a downcast and an upcast shaft for every 3 miles would be sufficient. (Nämlich die gas pipes to be laid in subways). (One explosion in such a Paris subway, aber 15 explosion explosions in the Paris sewers from leakage through the earth.)

Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 958.
Schließen

United States. Finances. (Official Report of McCulloch 7 August 1867)

Total debt 1 August, 1867: $2,686,685,896. Increase since 7 months of January by $11,623,391. Since January decrease of about 11 Mill. $ greenbacks afloat, their issue on 1 August being $369,164,844.

1867 imported at New York $53,431,860 worth of Foreign Dry Goods, während 7 months, 1866 während same period $80,442,325. Decrease of $ 27 Mill., about 1/3 of import of 1866.

Nearly all the export of 1867 made in the last 3 months, wahrscheinlich for maturing of bills drawn by American pleasure travellers in Europe (Paris Exposition).

Specie Production in 1867, von California und Nevada mines, Increase gegen 1866, besonders in den Nevada mines. Bulk of the bullion from those mines seeks outlet |160 through San Francisco.

The following table shows (Average Rate of Taxation almost tripled everywhere, since 1860) the ratio for each inhabitant of the total taxation in 1860 and 1866, and also for 1866 the proportion levied by the City, the State, and the Federal (U. St.) Tax.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 961/962.
Schließen

Improvement of Land.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen (Les nouveaux propriétaires)

Nothing is more common than to see a man, who has made a large fortune in trade or manufactures by most intelligent activity, when he becomes a landed proprietor, to be remarkable chiefly for his exaggerations of the semi-feudal abuses in the management of his estate. He becomes, as it were, assimilated to the territorial class. His preservation of game is more monstrous than that of the old aristocracy; and his restrictive control of his tenants is not less stringent and mischievous than theirs.

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