Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. November 1866. S. 519/520.
Schließen

North British Railway.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen (Imitated from Hudson)

Report of Committee of Investigation. Dividends systematically paid out of capital, with the connivance of 1 or 2 subordinates, and under the direction of one guiding spirit, who has presided over all the proceedings in Parliament, all the contracting for new lines, all the manipulations of accounts, whereby dividends have been provided;

In April 1849, a Committee of Investigation upon the affairs of the Eastern Counties Railway Co. made the following statement: „It is evident that no accounts of the half year, which did not terminate until 4 January 1846, could have been completed by the 22d Dec. 1845 … when the accounts were made up in accordance with the books, they did not show that any such dividend had been earned; and, in order to justify the foregone conclusion of the Board, the traffick accounts were altered, and the expenses squared to suit the dividend, not the dividend to suit the expenses.“

Again, in April 1849, the assistant accountant of the Eastern Counties Co declared „it was a generally understood thing that capital was to bear what revenue could not.“

Again, there was a traffic manager of the Eastern Counties Co who took the half years’ account ended 4 July, 1848, to Hudson at Albertgate, and who stated to the Committee of Investigation: „Mr. Hudson directed me to tell them at the office to carry £10,000 to the ensuing half-year; that is to say to make the expenditure in the printed report appear to be £10,000 less than was actually incurred.“

Thus 20 years ago, and now the almost ridiculous reproduction of the same thing. Although not earned, dividends of the North British Railway paid for years at the dictation of the chairman Hodgson.|

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In January 1865, July 1865, Jan. 1866, July 1866, the same system of account cooking to bring out the dividend wanted. Mr. Walker, the secretary, wrote to Hodgson on 21. Febr. 1866, that the members of the Finance Committee „charged with the duty of providing the ways and means for the Co.“ ought to be informed of the real state of things. To him, Hodgson, in true Palmerston Style, replies:

„As to the knowledge of the Finance Committee, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and in some cases much knowledge would be more dangerous. I think they know quite enough.“ They were thus designedly kept in the dark.

„Keep their eyes bandaged, Martin“, was the memorable trust committed by one chairman of the South Eastern Railway to the deputy chairman when he desired the shareholders should not understand the position of their property, but that hardly comes up to this bandaging of the Finance Committee of the North Brit. Railway .

Other parallel between the administrations of Hudson and Hodgson. They both have had a remarkable propensity for leases, amalgamations, and extensions. In Hudson’s case the personal motive was apparent enough. The Bristol and Birmingham, the Leeds and Bradford, the Great Northern of England, and the NewCastle and Berwick, and the Hull and Selly, were all leased and amalgamated with at, perhaps, 3 or 4 times their value; but, if so, the enhanced value of the lease or amalgamation went to someone. Mr. Hudson himself was found tolerably well charged with the shares in most of these good things before any lease or amalgamation was contemplated, excepting by himself.

The Committee of Investigation remark that the North Brit. Railway in 1844 a mere project for 58 miles of line, with capital of 1 million; it is now a system of 781 miles open for traffic, und 147 miles partly under construction, with an authorised share and loan capital of £22,210,713. The Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee have been absorbed, ditto Edinburgh and Glasgow, and other lines, and branches in all directions constructed or partly constructed. Contractor influences among the directors. In einem Brief an Hodgson der Secretary insists f.i. that money would be thrown away on the Forth Bridge; that no possible traffic would compensate for the outlay; and yet the outlay was to have been made in the interest of some one, by Hodgson’s command. The directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Section of the North Brit. Co. resolved at recent meeting „That the Reports by the Committee of Investigation … discloses a course of systematic and fraudulent deception and deliberate falsification of accounts on the part of the chairman of that Co., by means whereof he induced this board and the shareholders of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Co. to agree to an amalgamation of the two Cos., to the great detriment of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Co. … call the attention of the Lord Avocate to the report etc.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. November 1866. S. 520/521.
Schließen

Great Eastern Railway.

Turner, present chairman, one of the Investigation Commissioners that drove out the old directors. Now he wants 41/4 mill. £ in 61/2% preference stocks and debentures, at such a moment of general railway distrust, and of special Great Eastern discredit. Points to conclusion that, in direct antagonism to the interests of shareholders, some one or some clique has a positive interest in promoting Parliamentary Bills, and in the construction of new railways.|

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. November 1866. S. 521/522.
Schließen

Joint-Stock-Discount-Co.

A suit has been instituted by the official liquidator against the directors to hold them personally responsible, as for a breach of trust, for the loss sustained by the Co. by the investment of £30,000 in the shares of Barned’s Banking Co. The bill alleged that the Discount Co. established for carrying on the business of a bill broker and scrivener. Barned’s Bkg. Co. was formed for taking over the business of 2 old banking firms at Liverpool, and the Joint Stock Disc. Co., to aid in bringing it out, agreed to subscribe for 10,000 shares, and had 3000 shares actually allotted to them. On these shares they had paid for deposits and call £10 per share, or £30,000, and by a subsequent arrangement they agreed, in consideration of 500 shares by way of bonus, not to sell any of their shares under a certain premium before July, 1866. These transactions concealed from, and never sanctioned by, the Co. Hence the suit against the directors.

Zugleich der unglückliche Mr. James F. Wilkinson, the late managing director of the Co., charged mit misdemeanor.  Zusatz von Marx. Siehe S. 250.
Schließen (Verurtheilt später to penal servitude, später frei als unschuldig.)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. November 1866. S. 524.
Schließen

Cardigan and Carmarthen Railway Co.

This week a large amount of Lloyd’s bonds of said Co. are declared to be fraudulent and valueless.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. November 1866. S. 524.
Schließen

Food Supply.

High price of flesh meat. Now bad prospects of bread supply. In America no surplus available, wheat being, on the contrary, dearer at the present moment in New York than in Europe; and the latest reports represent the spring wheat as fully 2/3 damaged in a greater or less degree. French have deficiency of 4 Mill. qrs. wheat, are now, with Belgian, Dutch, and others, competing with us in the Baltic and Black Sea. Cereal harvest everywhere bad except in Southern Russia. French have had the start of us, as they have been enabled, by means of the  Über die Entstehung einer französischen Agrarstatistik informierte sich Marx im „Großheft 1865/1866“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ in seinen Exzerpten aus L[ouis] Mouniers „De l’agriculture en France, d’après les documents officiel avec des Remarques par M[aurice] Rubichon“ (Paris 1846) (siehe MEGA² IV/18. S. 969).
Schließen system of agricultural statistics which they possess, to learn the probable deficiencies in their crops, and take prompt measures for obtaining supplies when prices were comparatively low; while we, in absence of such statistics, in being obliged to pay much higher prices, the rise in price of grain within the last 3 months 45 to 50%.

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