[0]

London. 1868.

„Economist“ (1866 und 1867)
„Money Market Review“ (1866 und 1867)|

1

1866 „The Economist“ (Jahrgang 1866) vol. XXIV.

January. 1866.

Saturday. Jan. 6, 1866. N. 1167.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Januar 1866. S. 1.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Eight Per Cent.

Bankrate at 8%. Bank hӓtte früher raise sollen, zu 7%. Dann jezt nicht nöthig, den screw so scharf zu drehn. »We … carry on the trade of the country on the minimum of bullion which will suffice; and if the Banks are but a little behind in their protective operations, the result may be very serious … . If Peel’s Act is to be worked, the Bank must keep so strong (its reserve) at the middle of a quarter that these calculable drains at the end of a quarter shall not become catastrophes in its policy, shall not spasmodically affect the value of money, shall not jerk the money market.«

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Januar 1866. S. 1–3.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What The Value of Money in 1866 is likely to be.

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Unter diesem heading entdeckt der wiseacre:
1) Daß seit dem Freetrade, Abnahme auf einem Markt, Expansion auf dem andern sich compensiren. Vorher we had nur access to a few markets; wenn diese overstocked, all our trade was suffering. Jezt »for the most part, trade augments with regularity[«];
2) Our system of credit is better than it used to be. Die Bank  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(the world, sezt er emphatisch hinzu)
kannte früher das Geheimniß nicht Bullion festzuhalten durch Erhöhung des Zinsfusses. »When in old times our credit system was shaken by catastrophes, our commerce languished for months, and money was cheap because no satisfactory persons wanted to use it.[«]
3) Now we lend more variously than we used to do … to foreign nations, to compagnies for purposes of work and construction in this country in forms and in quantities wholly unexampled. Daher the value of money, the average value, has permanently risen in Lombard Street.

We shall still deal very largely with the countries which take our bullion, and therefore the value of money will be to some extent affected by the abstraction of bullion. In 1866 his this cause of dear money will not be so potent as in 1864 and 1865, though it will be more potent than in common years. …

But, now there is no reason to fear the least diminution of credit. … As far as our credit goes, we may expect 1866 to be a normal year.

These variations of the rate of interest the moment a foreign drain sets in are inevitable, so long as we endeavour to conduct a vast trade, or rather two vast trades, one of selling, the other of lending, upon the minimum of bullion which will support that credit.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Januar 1866. S. 4/5.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Duration of our supply of Coal. ( Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.14) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
Jevonsbook
)

»At least half the coal raised in Gr. Brit. is consumed by the various branches of the iron trade.[«] |2 Bei der present rate of increase, our coal exhausted in 100 years. Wir kennen jezt thickness and accessibility of our coal mines. Bleiben in Great Britain, down to a depth of 4000 feet, 80,000 millions of tons. Unsre Jӓhrliche Consumtion 1860 war 80 millions. So die available coal would last 1000 years. Aber Consum increases 31/2% p.a.; in 1880 will be 160 millions; und if it continues thus to increase, the whole 80 000 mill. worked out before 1960. Aber früher. Weil gerechnet all coal down to 4000 feet: no coal mine has yet been worked at a greater depth than 2,500 feet. Going deeper enhances the price und mit dieser Preiserhöhnung gehn unser rate of progress und special advantages zum Teufel. Mit tiefrem Arbeiten: the heat grows more insupportable, the shafts and passages longer, the danger greater, the ventilation more costly, the quantity of water to be kept out or got out more unmanageable. A very short period may raise engine coal and smelting coal from 5s. to 6s. per ton. Now a cotton mill of ordinary size will often use for its steam power 80 tons of coal per week; this at 5sh. is £1,000 a year; at 10s. per ton it is 2000. Aber die cotton mill is full of machinery; grosses Kostenitem dieser Maschinerie ist coal used in smelting and working the iron of which the machinery is made. Ebenso in den Transportmitteln, welche von und zu der Fabrik führen, in den railways und steamboats Kohle grosses Kostenitem.

The cost of carriage, therefore, which is a very large item in the contingent expenses of our factories, will be greatly increased both directly and indirectly by a rise in the price of coal.

Grosse Oekonomie im Gebrauch der Kohle schon eingeführt; in smelting iron we use 2/3 coal less than formerly, in working the steamengines 1/2 less.

It is only a rise in the price of coal that will goad us into a more sparing use of it; and this very rise of price is the proof and the measure of our danger.

Of all articles of trade and industry coal is the most bulky in proportion to its value; and it is the fact of having it at hand that has given us our manufacturing superiority.|

3

Of 136 millions of tons now annually raised throughout the world, Gr. Brit. produces 80 mill., the Un. States only 20.

Their (the U. St.) coal fields are estimated at 196,000 □ miles in extent, ours only 5,400. But this is not all: their coal is often better in quality and incomparably more accessible than ours, especially in the Ohio valley. In some places the cost at the pit’s mouth even now is 2s. p. ton in America, against 6s. in England.

Jan. 13, 1866. N. 1168.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Januar 1866. S. 29.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money market.

For the present the foreign drain  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(to the East)
is checked; the silver market in London is dull.

Where does our gold go? Früher, in drain to India, silver went, nicht gold. Grund: Till a recent period, whatever silver was wanted for India was collected on the Continent and sent here. We sent it on to India. But now there is a French compagny sending silver, and French seamen carrying it from Marseilles without its coming here … Our gold goes to pay for the silver which formerly used to be sent to us bodily; but now it is used on our account indirectly, it is transmitted from Marseilles to India to pay our debts.

Many people wonder why, when there is a quick rise of money in Lombard Street, it should be cheap on the Stock Exchange. It is cheap in the latter, because it has quickly changed in the former. The quick change makes people uncertain und dann der easiest market ist der Stock Exchange „from day to day“. Discount houses etc deal dann möglichst wenig in bills, use it daher on the Stock Exchange, where they can have it at once, just because they do not feel sure enough of the future to lock up their resources till definite dates.|

4

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Januar 1866. S. 30/31.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Our Trade with America.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(U. St.)

Alarmists raise warnings.

Our exports to America up to 31 Oct. 1864 15,403,017l.
ditto 1865 14,844,704.
Nun 1859 our export to the U. St. 24,417,000

Wenn also nicht in Nov. und Dec. 9,600,000l. importirt, so geringer als 1859.

England und Europa jezt large buyers of American securities, railway debentures und 5.20 bonds the imports which balance our exports.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Januar 1866. S. 32/33.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Market Prices of Investments in the Year 1865.

As a rule, and in the long run, prices are the true indicators of value.

U. States: debt of more than 600 Mill. l. St. and annual charge upon that debt to be raised by taxation: more than 40 mill. l. St. Our Railwaystocks not improved in 1865. Erklärt dieß, weil sonst profitlichere investments. Daher preference shares declined. Ferner: the original railway stocks possessing no guarantee have been injuriously affected by the recent and prospective commitments of nearly all railway companies to raise additional capital for the formation of new railways. As yet there is no material decline in dividends.

Shares of the banks: On average prices wonderfully supported in 1865, mit exception of Indian and some other banks.

Nicht so die Finance Compagnies. Fall ihrer Prӓmien (z.B. Credit Foncier and Mobilier of England, Financial Discount, General Credit, International Financial, London Financial, Land Securities, Oriental Financial). Obgleich die meisten dieser undertaking undertakings »have been in appearance successful and have paid large dividends«.|

5

Consols (1865) fallen von 893/8 zu 873/16. Actual decline von beginning to end of the year 2%. Hauptsächlich, weil andre securities profitlicher waren.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Januar 1866. S. 35/36.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

A Practical Check on Bubble Compagnies.

Consols depreciated, aber noch mehr limited liability shares, manche wholly unsaleable or standing at a disastrous discount, with heavy calls looming in the future …

Limited Liability is not really the sole cause of the present pressure, which is due largely, if not chiefly, to the feverish energy imparted to trade by the inflation of the currency in America and to the derangement of the cotton trade.

Bubble companies for working a patent, or constructing a railway, or „taking over“ a line of steamers, or a private business, or purchasing and working a mine in Mexico, a tea estate in India etc

January 20, 1866. N. 1,169.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Januar 1866. S. 61.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Effect of the 8%.

No bullion gone out; but none yet attracted from abroad. We have a great though suspended drain to India and Egypt for cotton hanging over the market. Dann hovering about Ejyptian Railway loan etc.

Market Prices of Investments in the Year 1865.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Januar 1866. S. 63–65.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Insurance Companies und Miscellaneous (embracing, die latter, the majority of the Limited Liability Companies recently created).

Insurance Cos. Meist profitable undertakings; singular steadiness of the market prices of their shares.

Von 97 descriptions of stocks and shares quoted in the insurance companies’ list of the Investor Manual  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(leztres Beiblatt zum „Economist“)
nur 16 at a discount, dieser trifling und [»]belongs chiefly to the shares of the new marine insurance cos«. |6 In den meisten lӓnger etablirten Dingern dieser Art (insurance) Prӓmiums der shares im market.

Miscellaneous: In dieser Liste 519 different descriptions of stocks and shares quoted of which 286 mit limited liability, 233 aber unlimited.

Die 233 descriptions of unlimited shares comprise canal, gas, steam marine, dock, water, and other cos’ cos, darunter nur a few cos’ cos of recent creation. 63 von diesen 233 quoted at the close of 1865 at a discount, der remainder meist at a premium.

Von den 286 denominations of limited liability shares in the miscellaneous list, 80 were quoted at a premium, 94 at a discount, 112 without any market quotation, which in effect may probably indicate that they were unsaleable in the market at any price. Also result at the end of 1865:

Marketable and profitable 80 or 28% on the whole
Marketable at a loss 94 or 33%
Unsaleable, involving great loss 112 39
286 100.

So 72% dieser limited liability cos’ shares entailed loss of principal upon the original subscribers at par, or their representatives, the succeeding proprietors. Aber dennoch nicht so large proportion »valueless or even unsound Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
«  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
By no means, dear me!

»there is not, so far as we can judge from dividends and market prices, anything so rotten in our new mode of speculation as to preclude its resuscitation at a more propitious moment.[«]  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Hurrah!

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Januar 1866. S. 65/66.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Insurance is as unsafe as gambling; or, more correctly, it is gambling, if the number of risks to be insured is not enough to ensure an average result … Chance is eliminated from insurance by the number of ventures (Die Grösse der Area, worüber ausgedehnt:)|

7

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Januar 1866. S. 68.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Un. States Commerce mit France (1865).

In den ersten 11 Months exports from U. St.: 34,492,632f.
Import into U. St.: 84,456,666.

Assuming that the month of December averaged the 11 months preceding, 37,376,018f. import to 91,494,749f. export. So die U. St. indebted to France for 54,127,731f. worth of goods. Davon abzuziehn 5,793,000f. of gold coin and bullion und 169,800f. of silver received in the 11 months; also, 5,577,390f. of the payments of silver which French silversmiths call regrets. Rechnet man proportionell ab so viel für December, so bleibt indebtness indebtedness der U. St. to France von about 44 Mill. fcs od. 1,760,000l. St. Nicht viel. It only exceeds by a little more than 1 Mill. l. St. what was due at the end of 1864. Jedoch an important portion of the trade between France and the U. St. carried on via England, and figures in official returns as done with that country.

January 27, 1866. N. 1170.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Januar 1866. S. 89/90.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Memorial of some Liverpool Merchants on the Currency.

They ascribe „the excessive and usurious rate of interest“ dem Act von 1844 und Bank of England monopoly. Both to be abolished. Jede Person und Compagny soll have power to issue notes, so viel they please, upon the deposit of sock stock or Exchequerbill, and so obtain a sufficiency of currency for the discount of bills and the commercial needs of the country.

Whether the currency be issued by 1 person or many, wether whether separated or combined with banking, it is equally a part of the credit system of the country; and that credit system can only be supported in one way. The credit of A means that A will pay gold or silver; it is a believed promise to hand over such and such sums in the precious metals if required. To secure the performance of such promises, a large stock of the precious metals must be kept.|

8

The only known mode of keeping such a stock is by raising the rate of interest.

Das system, verlangt von den Liverpool memorialists, war das in New York before the civil war. Every bank could there issue notes, but every bank was obliged to deposit „security“; but that system did not absolve the banks from the necessity of keeping a stock of gold and silver, and it did not produce a low rate of interest. The normal rate was often very high – higher than the present rate complained of. The banks, as soon as they saw their reserve of bullion getting low, raised the rate of interest, and kept that rate high till the stock was replenished.

If the banks keep the rate of interest too low for a time, they make it too high afterwards.

As long as a nation keeps its store of bullion at a minimum, the money market will be most delicate. And as long as bankers, one or many, are guided by their own interest, it will be kept at that minimum.

Die Liverpooler beziehn sich auf den present lower interest in France. Aber the banking power of the B. o. France is infinitely more authoritative than that of the B.o.E., and its „monopoly“ of the currency is absolute.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Januar 1866. S. 92/93.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cattle Plague. Government Relief.

Government in Lancashire lieh Stӓdten, damit sie Arbeiter beschӓftigten. The Lancashire loan was not a compensation to capitalists. It was a loan for utilising men … Result: good drainage and good pavement in some great northern towns.

Schlӓgt Eine einzige cattle insurance Compagny für ganz England vor; nicht to insure (to prevent fraud) more than 2/3 of the value.|

9

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Januar 1866. S. 94/95.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Recent dividends of Joint Stock Banks.

1865 rate of interest hoch, aber nicht so hoch als 1864.

Averages of
Bk. of England minimum rates of discount. 1864 1865.
7.31 4.74.
The Average Rate of Bank Dividends.
Last 4 dividends, Rate % per annum.
1864 1865.
June 30. Dec. 31 June 30. Dec. 31
Alliance 10 nil 5 5.
Bank of London 20 20 20 20
City Bank 20 12 15 12
Imperial 8 10 8 8
Joint Stock 321/2 50 18 22
Metropolitan and Provincial 71/2 nil nil 5
Union 20 20 30 20
London et Westminster 28 32 26 34.
Half Year ended 31st Dec. 1865
Capital. Dividends and bonus Reserve
Created Paid up. Rate p. annum from calls from Profits
£. £. Per Cent. £. £.
Alliance (limited) 4,000,000 985,785 5 3,014,215 71,840
Bank of London 800,000 400,000 20 400,000 304,411
City Bank 1,000,000 500,000 12 500,000 144,710
Imperial (limit.) 2,250,000 448,970 8 1,801,030 58,560
Joint Stock 3,600,000 1,080,000 22 2,520,000 315,263
Metropolitan and Provincial (lim.) 2,000,000 337,420 5 1,662,580 14,904
Union 4,000,000 1,200,000 20 2,800,000 350,660
London and Westminster 5,000,000 1,000,000 34 4,000,000 363,204

(verte) |

10
Half Year ended Dec. 31, 1865
Liabilities to the Public Assets
Deposits and Acceptances Cash Government and other securities Bills discounted etc
£. £. £. £.
Alliance. 2,504,168 435,930 147,913 3,007,456
Bank of London 4,335,877 820,497 302,167 3,985,036
City Bank 4,859,720 579,448 329,902 4,655,443
Imperial 1,543,281 188,642 59,619 1,836,741
Joint Stock 18,215,358 867,191 1,059,225 17,894,010
Metropolitan et Provincial 860,069 125,592 90,259 984,592
Union 17,794,263 2,816,994 1,665,725 15,085,836
Lond. and Westm. 20,779,301 1,677,841 2,489,412 16,600,522
Half Year ended 31 Dec. 1865
Assets
Liabilities to Public Cash and Securities Calls to be made Total means.
£ £ £ £
Alliance (lim.) 2,504,168 3,591,299 3,014,215 6,605,514
Bank of London 4,335,877 5,107,700 400,000 5,507,700
City Bank 4,859,720 5,564,793 500,000 6,064,793
Imperial (limit.) 1,543,281 2,085,002 1,801,030 3,886,032
Joint Stock 18,215,358 19,820,426 2,520,000 22,340,426
Metropolitan and Provincial (lim.) 860,069 1,200,443 1,662,580 2,863,023
Union 17,794,263 19,568,555 2,800,000 22,368,555
Lond. and Westm. 20,779,301 20,767,775 4,000,000 24,767,775
70,892,037 77,705,293 16,697,825 94,403,818 |

11

February 3. 1866. N. 1171.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 121.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market.

Rate immer noch 8%. The demand for silver for the East to pay for cotton is likely to last for a month or so to come. Ordinary credit is sound.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(! weiser Mann!)
The revelations of the Joint Stock Discount Company and other such cos are disastrous to those concerned, but they have no diffused effect. The public at large never heard of them. There are no signs of collapse in industry, nicht einmal of mitigated or minor collapse wie 1865, viel less of such a collapse as in the spring of 1848 and 1857.

Durch den hohen Zinsfuß (höher als in Frankreich) französisches money wurde attracted to London. There is a very unusual amount of French money in London. This is now invested in short-dated bills becoming due, and renewed or not renewed, according to the rate. So long as the value of the money continues dear, this French money will stay; so soon as it becomes cheap, that money will go from us.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 123.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Credit Mobilier and the Finance Companies.

 Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
1865 veranstaltete\[ver]ursachte der französische(?) Credit Mobilier die Bank enquête, um die policy der B. o. France umzuwerfen.
Dieß Jahr bitterly attacked in  Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.16), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
Revue des deux mondes von Victor Bonnet
. Verdoppelt sein Kapital. (Dazu berufen shareholders 12 February 1866).

„Finance business“ hat nur den special and characteristic part that it cannot be carried on, except mit money, either belonging to the lender, or over which he has a long and sure control. Bekannt in Lombard street, daß Finance Cos in London (dieß jezt gezeigt durch ihre reports) invested money left with them in the bills of railway contractors „secured“ by the deposits in of shares in lines of railways either in course of construction, or not yet paying, and often in inferior districts of the country. The contractor commonly cannot get the money when his bill becomes due, except the shares should by good luck be then »saleable«, and, of course, they are not a „security“ till they are saleable. Yet, some Finance and Discount Cos have persevered in lending upon them money which was only left with them for moderate periods, and which at the end of those periods they knew they would have to repay again.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 126/127.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bubble Cos.

The Master of Rolls recently remarked „that many new Cos were started merely for the purpose of being wound up“. … The case of a company quoted in the official list |12 of the Stock Exchange, and having, therefore, complied with their rules – the shares mit £15 paid, are quoted at £.12 discount: and why? Because it turns out that the scene of its operations positively lies within the Arctic circle. The operations, therefore, can only be carried on during some 90 days in the year, within which very limited period an income sufficient for the whole of the 365 days of the year, cannot, of course, be earned.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 127/128.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Combination of Farm Servants in Scotland. Mid-Lothian Protective Society.

Overworked and underpaid. Let the Scotch ploughmen „strike“ for their union wages and terms, there would to-morrow be Irish substitutes.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 129/130.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

English Farming.

Grosser Unterschied z.B. in Midland Counties agreements, containing terms and stipulations so one-sided, so onerous and unfair towards the tenant farmers that incredible. Besides regulations as to cropping and farm-management, which place the tenants most completely at the landlord’s mercy, provided that the landlord shall have power to distrain for his rent a year or 9 months in advance! Z.B. where a tenancy commenced on 25. March, when one quarter’s rent due on 24. June, the landlord is empowered by the terms to enforce by distress the whole year’s rent to then following 25. March – 9 months in advance! Diese tenants have little or no capital, kaum any live stock of their own, also obliged to let their grass and aftergrass, or to take in stock to keep, in order to consume the produce of their land. In such cases, the hirers of the grass, or the putters out of the livestock, have no idea that their animals can be seized for payment of the tenants’ rent in advance. Yet in some districts the landlord or his agent relies on the opportunity of distraining the stock of strangers to secure the payment |13 of the tenants’ rent. Wenn Dazu reservation und preservation of game, the tenant farmers in a terrestrial purgatory. Lausestand dieser estates, charged too, meist mit debts and encumbrances.

Dagegen Musterfarm of Mr. Robert Leeds, of West Lexham (Graf Leicester landlord), near Brandon, Norfolk. 1200 acres land, 1100 arable, 50 water meadows. »Whoever knows the district will be aware that the soil is light and sandy, only to be farmed profitably by being farmed highly.« 20 years lease, Jagdrecht allein der tenant etc.

[„]The homestead is fitted up with the best possible machinery, where corn is dressed, chaff cut, seed crushed, and cake ground by steam power. This cake a grand consideration at Lexham, where from 3 to 4 times the rent of the farm is annually expended in feeding stuffs and artificial manures. Er buys [in] forward animals at from 20l. to 25l. each, and puts these on all the cake and corn they can eat, but never more than 2 bushels of roots a day. The beasts are on the farm 12–16 weeks, and the yards are continually filled up with animals as those fit are disposed of. Except the bullocks bought in for grazing the water meadows, and which do not require any until July, alles sonst at Lexham is always eating cake, and the flock of ewes are now having 1/2 pound of cotton cake, with a limited ratio of bran at night. The breeding flock averages 300 ewes, and about 1200 hoggets are fattened during winter.“

Aus:
The Economist, 3. Februar 1866. S. 133.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money market.

Greatest depression in the shares of the London Financial Association, afresh quoted at heavy decline on in last week; Joint Stock Discount Co., on its Report, fell to 53/4 discount. Rumours. Selling of shares without reference to the positions of the different Cos. Imperial Mercantile Credit Shares also considerably lower.|

14

10 February 1866. N. 1172.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 153/154.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

»The Indian demand and the Brazilian demand having arisen from the same cause – from the cotton payments, have slackened. … Probably, in consequence of the diminished Oriental demand the bullion in the B. o. France has increased 700,000l.«

There is still much new trade with America, but under her altered circumstances, America is now a new customer.

There have during the week been several failures of contractors and others are still rumoured[.] The finance and discount cos which hold the bills of such contractors are necessarily affected … These contractors made railways (mainly on their own account) in positions where they could not pay, and they obtained the capital wanted to make them at great interest in Lombard Street.

»No one cares whether „companies“ stand or fall. Their credit is too recent to affect by its cessation the general public, to cause diffused fear.[«]

On the whole, therefore, we  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(das Orakel)
are not apprehensive as to the state of creditwe hope that they  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(the Bank of E.)
soon may be strong enough to do so (i.e. reduce the rate of discount.)

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Wichtiger dagegen als der Economist selbst wußte, folgender Passus, der halb ironisch ist:

»These (limited) companies give means to great firms in difficulties to get out of them, without a collapse that frightens the world. The „shell“ of a great house once had to stand as long as it could; there was nothing else for it to do. But now it has a resourceit can turn itself into a company. … The prestige of the great house is diminished easily; it does not fall with a crash. Even if 4 or 5 years afterwards the limited compagny gets into difficulties, no one cares; it affects no one  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(And Overend et Gurney, wiseacre!)
but the company itself. Reid, Irving et Co. would not have failed nowadays. It would have become „Reid, Irving, et Co. Limited“, and lasted over, perhaps succeeded etc.«|

15

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 154–156.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cattle Plague.

We cannot feed the country on homegrown cattle. Year by year the amount of meat consumed in the country augments. Following shows how rapidly the trade is augmenting:

Number of living animals imported in the 11 months ended November 30.
1863 1864 1865
Oxen, bulls and cows: 89,518 141,778 196,030
Calves 36,930 44,678 48,926
Sheep and lambs 380,259 412,469 763,084
Swine and hogs 24,311 68,777 117,766.
Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 157/158.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

American Protectionism.

The whole argument reduced to essentials amounts simply to this, that free trade is absolutely sound over an entire world, provided that world is governed by Congress. … It is better, f.e., that Louisiana, with its splendid facilities for growing cotton, should grow it and send it to Lowell to be made up than that it should waste a special resource by diverting its supply of labour to the making up.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 159/160.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Coal Supply.

Mr. Hull, in his useful work, 1861, calculated that if consumption in England were to proceed at the same ratio as that of the preceeding 20 years, our coalfields would be exhausted in 172 years.

Sir W. Armstrong, in his Newcastle address, assuming 23/4 as the average annual increase in the 8 years previous to 1861, exhausted the available supply in 212 years.

Mr. Jevons estimated the average annual increase between 1854 and 1863 at 31/2%, und exhausted in 100 years at that rate of increase.

Mr. Hunt’s Mineral Statistics (1866). Danach die annual production der last 4 years:

1861 85,635,214 tons
1862 83,638,338
1863 88,292,515
1864 92,787,873.
1863 exceeded 1862 by 4,654,177 tons
1864 1863 by 4,495,358.

So ultimate catastrophe still more proximate.|

16

Our Number of collieries:
1863 2,397
1864 3,268.
British exports of coal.
Amount (tons) Duty. Rate of Increase p.c. of Exports in 10 years
s. d.
1821. 170,941 7 6
1831 356,419 4 0 109%
1841 1,497,197 nil 320   
1851 3,468,545 132   
1861 7,855,115 126   
1862 8,301,852
1863 8,275,212
1864 8,800,000

France.

Production (Metric Quintal) Consumption. (Metric Quintal)
1855 68,270,100 108,567,800
1863 107,079,800 165,800,000
Increase: 38,809,700 57,232,200.
Imports of Coal into France.
From All Countries. (Metric Quintal) From England (Metric Quintal) From Belgium (Metric Quintal)
1863 61,204,500 12,966,000 37,152,000
1864 62,232,870 13,948,124 31,582,551
Increase 1,028,370 Increase 982,124 Decrease 5,569,449.

The English treaty with France has seriously affected the Belgium coal trade, wovon der North of France is becoming comparatively independent. Der Belgian supply finds still a market in the East of France und from Brest to Marseilles. The French Gvt. does the utmost to stimulate national production, even at a pecuniary sacrifice. In the neighbourhood of Marseilles, f.i., where the coalfields are being worked, French navigation is exclusively supplied with French coal, which costs more than English; so, also at Brest, the dockyard is supplied with French coal at 36s., whilst British coal could be supplied at 17s. 6d.|

17
Value of French Import of Coals
1860 107,300,000f.
1864 121,300,000f.

Belgium.

The coal-producing district 1/22 of the territory. In 1840, Hainault alone produced more coal than whole of France, and Belgian production is said to have tripled since 25 years, whilst exports quintupled in the same period. English competition will now more and more limit them to their home market.

Germany.

British coal hitherto largely imported into Northern Europe. In Prussia and the interior, cheapness of the indigenous coal and facilities of transport bid fair to drive English coal out of the market.

Prussian Production.
1852 25,788,268 tons
1862 65,394,470
1863 71,654,478.

The most important supplies from the Westphalian coalfields, the value of which is greatly increased by the proximity to the metal industry. Production hier 1852: 38,000,000 Quintals, 1864 dagegen: 140,000,000. Westphalian coal is rapidly excluding English from Holland, and it is expected to do as much in Northern Germany by communication via the Elbe.

Austria.

Might be unlimited supply of coal. Production only 4,500,000 tons p.a., half of which of inferior quality. Insufficient and expensive means of communications have limited operations.

Russia.

Grosse coalfields, noch wenig exploitirt. The coal of the Moscow basin is of an inferior quality; the value of the Oural district is increased by proximity to iron, and that of the Don District by its easy access to the Sea of Azoff. Russia [spielt] bis jezt keine Rolle im coalmarket. Nur das country accessible from the Baltic und St. Petersburg, where the imports, chiefly English, have tripled since the Crimean war.

U. States.

In Pennsylvania – the largest producer both of anthracite and bituminous coal – the value of coal mined has increased in 10 years at the rate of 179%, whilst the corresponding increase in all the States is estimated at 186%.

Total produce der U. States in 1860. 14,333,922 tons
in 1864 16,472,410 tons.

1860–61 the ton of coal sold at Philadelphia at 4 dollars, the present price between 11 and 12 dollars. Coal at Boston sells at 17 dollars (3l. 9s. 9d.) per ton, and at Chicago, as high as 22 dollars (4l. 10s. 4d.)|

18

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 161.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Banking Question.

Even discount bankers and capitalists, who have been reaping a golden harvest at the expense of the mercantile and industrious classes, should, from recent disclosures, perceive the danger to discount companies from the present monetary system.

The evils suffered from our banking laws have arisen, not from a want of circulation, but from abnormal fluctuations of Bullion – periodical superabundance with speculation in trade, and periodical scarcity with temporary ruin of trade.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 162.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Game and Bankruptcy.

Manche kleine farmers (i.e. small capitalists) gehn dadurch kaput. his little capital is exhausted in providing food for the game, and has been literally drained off into the poulterer’s shop, whereto the game killed in the 3 or 4 grand battues of each season has been consigned by the landlord.

So case vor dem London Court of Bankruptcy, of James Harvey, late of Church Farm, in the parish of Eversley, in the county of Southampton. His creditors consisted of tradesmen and others living in neighbouring towns. The landlord was protected from all loss by his power of distress. His Debt 1355l., his effects small, deficiency of l.1162. Er stated in crossexamination:

„Never been bankrupt or insolvent before. … farming all his life … Began mit 3500l., had lost all that money. Five years ago he was worth 5000l., had lost the whole of that through the over-preservation of game on his farm. In 1862 he had 80 acres of wheat from which he did not get more than 6 bushels, in consequence of the destruction caused by hares, rabbits and other game.[“]

Mr. Read (his attorney): Then, instead of your land producing corn, it produced game for the London markets?

Bankrupt: Yes, Sir, and my landlord would not allow me to give up the farm unless I found another tenant.

Der tenant not unfrequently tempted by the apparent moderation of the rental, and then he is rather pleased to find that with his comparatively small capital so large and good a farm should be open to his acceptance. He knows not or heeds not the fact that the more wealthy and enterprising farmers of the district shun the farm as they would a pestilence. Having entered, he is rather surprised at the small returns of his first crops, and a little annoyed at the restrictions he is under for the sake of the game, and at the insolent interference of the game keeper.|

19

17 February 1866. N. 1173.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. Februar 1866. S. 185.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money market.

Oriental demand for silver very much diminished. Supplies of gold coming to the Bank. Continental exchanges improving … we certainly hope that perhaps, even next week, the Directors of the B.o.E. will be able to diminish their rate of discount.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. Februar 1866. S. 187–190.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Report of the American Commissioners on Revenue (appointed by the President)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Blue Book.)

1) Effects of war on people: „the consumption of coffee in the U. St. decreased from the annual average of 200 Mill. pounds in 1860 to less than 80 Mill. pounds in 1863. During the same period consumption of sugar decreased from 31 to 19 pounds per capita; and of tea for the whole country about 23%.“ the rise of price caused by the immense issues of Gvt paper money greatly straitened all classes mit small fixed incomes. Even now the Commissions estimate 60l. before the war as equal to 100l. now. Such a diminution of effectual income contemporaneous mit immense increase of taxation.

2) The original parts of American finance are breaking down. Z.B. die Yankees erfanden wӓhrend des Kriegs 6% tax on the industrial products of the country, subject to some exceptions and modifications. Nun question: What is a product? The law decided that a thing was produced when it was „made“. Of course when it is completed, and the only test of its completion is its being sold. But owing to the division of labour many articles produced in a 100 places, and the result which the consumer gets is the aggregate of a 100 previous sellings and makings. The law could make no distinction between articles sold to a manufacturer and a consumer. It would have been baffled by wholesale evasion. It taxed all „makings“ 6%. The Commission describes the curious result: „Under the operation of this law the Gvt. now levies and collects from 8 to 15%, in some instances 20%, on almost every finished industrial product. … A good illustration … is presented in the manufacture of umbrellas and parasols, as carried on in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. It was formerly the practice of umbrella-makers to manufacture the main constituents of their product as one business; but now the business of an umbrella-maker is rather to assemble the various constituents of an umbrella or parasol, which are made separately and in different parts of the country. Thus, f.e., the sticks, when of wood, are made in Philadelphia and in Connecticut; part of native and part of foreign wood, on which last a duty may have been paid. If the supporting rod is of iron or of steel, it is the product of still another establishment. In like manner the handles of carved wood, bone or ivory; the brass runners, the tips, the elastic band, the rubber, of which the band is composed, the silk tassels, the buttons, and the cover of silk, gingham or alpaca, are all distinct products of manufacture, and each of these constituents, if of domestic manufacture, pays a tax when sold of 6% ad valorem, or its equivalent. The umbrella manufacturer now aggregates all these constituent parts, previously taxed, into a finished product, and then pays 6% on the whole. It is, therefore, evident that under the existing excise system, all the parts of the umbrella are taxed at least twice, and, in some cases, three times, thus adding from 12 to 15% on the umbrella direct; while we may feel certain, moreover, that each separate manufacturer makes the payment of the 6% tax on his special product an occasion for adding from 1 to 3% additional to its cost price, in some instances over 6%.“

„Again, in the case of books, pamphlets etc, it is claimed that, including licenses and income tax, the finished book and its constituent materials pay from 12 to 15 distinct taxes before reaching the reader. Every separate item that enters into the bookpaper, cloth, boards, glue, thread, gold-leaf, leather |20 and type material – pays from 3 to 6% in the first instance, and then 5% on the whole combined; and this not upon the cost of the manufactured article, but upon the price at which it is sold.“

The effect of this tax, in appearance so equitable and simple, has been to impose a burden differing almost in every instance upon the different industries of the country.

Nor is this all. The tax of 6% on domestic products has led to the oddest results when compared with the tariff on imports. That tariff is necessarily a tariff on consumable articles: not on the bits and components of such articles. Umbrellas or books come by ship as wholes, and must be taxed as wholes. How then is an Excise-duty to be made equal to the Customhouse system, and no more than equal to the Custom-duty? The Commission describe describes the present contrast:

„In the case of the umbrella and parasol manufacture, the cover, as a constituent element of construction, represents from 1/2 to 2/3 the entire cost of the finished article. The silk, the alpaca and Scotch gingham, of which the covers are made, are all imported, the former paying a duty of 60% and the latter two about 50% ad valorem, the variation being slight on the quality of the texture. The manufactured umbrella, covered with the same material, whose constituent parts are not taxed, either on the material used in their fabrication or on their sale, are, however, admitted under the present tariff at a duty of 35% ad valorem, or at a discriminating duty against the American and in favour of the foreign producer of from 15 to 25%. If we make allowance for the various U. St. internal revenue taxes, it is claimed by the American manufacturer that the discrimination in favour of the foreign producer is fully equal to 40%. It needs hardly to be added that, during the past 6 months imported umbrellas have been sold at auction in New York and Boston, with the original cost, duty, freight and charges paid in gold, for a less price than the American article can be manufactured; or that the business of making umbrellas and parasols in New York and Philadelphia, involving a capital of 2,000,000 dollars and employing the labour of some 5000 persons, a majority of whom are females, is threatened with utter destruction. In two instances cited to the Commission, umbrella manufactures have closed their factories in the U. St., and, with a view of exporting to this country, have transferred their capital and skill to Europe. In a communication submitted to the Commission by a committee of umbrella manufacturers, they state that, unless relief is speedily obtained, we can perceive no other possible course to pursue but the alternative of retiring entirely from the field, and leaving it entirely to foreign hands.“

Ebenso mit books.

„The Commission would add that at the present time the one article which, above all others, would seem to be a peculiar product of American industry, viz. Webster’s Spelling Book, is now being printed in large quantities in London for the use of American schools.“

In practice no system of Excise pressing on all commodities can be made equal to a tariff pressing on all commodities. The home imposts cannot be too small, or they will not be worth collecting; the Customs duty must not be too large, or it will be a prohibition unproductive to the revenue and useful only to the smuggler.

Repairs: The Americans put a tax of 36/10% on the repairs of every article if the cost of that repair exceeded 10% on the value. Aristocratic legislation. A repair of trifling cost is more than 10% of an article of small value; much less than 10% on articles of great value: hence, expensive articles of luxury can be repaired without a tax, but cheap articles of common use must pay a tax. „If“, say the Commissioners, „the worker in wood repairs a wheebarrow wheelbarrow worth 1 dollar by adding 10 cents to the value, it is taxable; but if he repairs a carriage or piano worth 500 dollars, no tax accrues unless he adds 50 dollars to the value.“

It is amusing to think that the American financiers should have established a system so favourable to articles of luxury as well as to articles of foreign manufacture.|

21

3) The great revenue now to be raised will necessarily bring about in America a great political change.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Hierüber kohlt aber „Economist“ nur das Oberflӓchliche der Commission nach über die Nothwendigkeit stehende skilled collectors zu haben und dem finance minister neue Stellung zu geben.)

On the whole, the finance management of America is falling back into the old humdrum inevitable channels of Europe, just as the finance itself is falling back. Money can only be got by certain modes and by certain men, whether on the eastside of the Atlantic or the West.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 190.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bill authorising loans for the Construction of Houses for the Poor.

One half the population of Gr. Brit. now lives in towns. The Metropolis has a population equal to that of Scotland, twice that of Denmark, necessarily 3 × that of Greece. London receives new inmates at the estimated rates of 300 a day. This packing has now reached a point at which it threatens to be destructive – typhus has become endemic in London … The railways become a swath of erased houses, until it is officially calculated that, within this single year, 16 000 houses have been marked for destruction, and upwards of 80 000 persons will be thrown upon quarters already overburdened. This cannot go on without one or 2 results – pestilence or an attempt on the part of the dispossed dispossessed to obtain a remedy by force … . Besides, a population so overcrowded must deteriorate in virtue, civilization, and in the capacity for works.

Mr. Childers’ bill, sanctioned by Gladstone, authorises the Commissioners of Public Work Loans to lend money at 4% to municipalities, vestries, companies and private persons to construct dwellings for the poor, the security being the buildings, and the duration of the loan 7 years.

[The Social Economist, 1. Oktober 1868]

Eingeklebter Zeitungsausschnitt
Schließen
Icon dass Zeitungsausschnitt symbolisiert
Aus:
The Social Economist, 1. Oktober 1868. S. 123.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

DWELLINGS FOR WORKING CLASSES.―MR. TORRENS’ ACT.―

The last Act of the late session was to provide better dwellings for artizans and labourers. The preamble states that it is expedient to make provision for taking down or improving dwellings occupied by working men and their families which are unfit for human habitation, and for the building and maintenance of better dwellings for such persons. The Act is to apply to the metropolitan and other districts of the United Kingdom as set forth in the schedule. The mode of procedure under this statute is very simple. It provides for the appointment of officers where necessary, and if in any place to which the Act applies the officer of health finds that any premises therein are in a condition or state dangerous to health so as to be unfit for human habitation he is to report the same, and notice forthwith is to be taken to remove or to improve the same. Action is to be taken by local authorities on the report of surveyors against the owners to make them comply with the directions, subject to an appeal to the Quarter Sessions. On four or more householders living in or near to any street representing in writing to the officer of health that any premises in or near that street are in a condition or state dangerous to health he is to inspect them and report, but the absence of any such representation is not to excuse him from inspecting any premises and reporting thereon. In the event of the local authority declining or neglecting for the space of three months after receiving such report to take any proceedings to put the Act in force, the householders who signed the representation may address a memorial to the Secretary of State, and he may direct the local authority to proceed under the Act. On the owner of premises being required to execute the works, and in his default, the local authority may either order the premises to be shut up or to be demolished, or may themselves |22 do the work. Where the local authorities execute the works they may apply to the Quarter Sessions for an order charging on the premises the amount of all costs and expenses in and about the execution of the works, and the Quarter Sessions, when satisfied of the amount so expended, is to make an order charging the property with the amount and 4 per cent. interest which charge is to have priority over all other charges, and to be deemed a mortgage. If the requirements of the order involve the total demolition and not the improvement of the premises, the owner is within three months after service of the order to remove the same, and if he fails then the local authority is to execute the order and pay him any balance that may remain after the expenses from the sale of the materials. Instead of effecting the improvements required by the local authority, the owner may take down the premises. Where an owner executes the work required by a local authority he is to have an annuity as compensation for the expenditure incurred by him in the shape of a charging order. The annuity is to be £6 for every £100, and to be payable for 30 years. Every charging order on premises in Middlesex and Yorkshire is to be recorded in the Registry-office. With the view of a general adoption of the Act–and there are many places where the working classes “most do congregate”―the Public Loan Commissioner may make advances, and the local authorities may borrow money for the purposes mentioned. Many public improvements are being carried out and contiguous to the same are wretched dwellings; they could be improved or demolished, and the principle involved in the preamble that they were unfit for working men and their families as “human habitations”could be easily established.―Times.

 Handschriftlich von Marx.
Schließen
The Social
ECONOMIST.  Handschriftlich von Marx.
Schließen
(London)
[OCT. 1, 1868.

[„The Economist“ (Jahrgang 1866) (Fortsetzung)]

[17 February 1866. N. 1173. (Fortsetzung)]

Aus:
The Economist, 10. Februar 1866. S. 191/192.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

James Rothschild on Banks and Currency  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(als Zeuge vor dem französischen Bank Enquête Committee)

„As to the order of making the B. o. France invest money in foreign securities … the gravest fault it could commit. Such a measure a constant menace to foreign banks, and a cause of serious disquietude and distrust. If, f.i., the B.o.F. had in its portfolio 3 Mill. St., it might at a given moment throw them on the market, and produce a great perturbation in commerce. In presence of that eventuality, if the rarity of money were felt by the B. o. England, and it were forced to raise its rate of discount, it would have to raise it higher and more rapidly than if that circumstance had not existed.“

Financial shares: The apprehension felt and expressed concerning some of the financial cos, has been in part dispelled by the former appearance of the money market. Speculators had entered too ready into operations for the fall. The very considerable decline that has taken place followed by a reaction influenced by the re-purchases of some holders: indisposed to transfer their holdings, and by the efforts of bears to cover their outstanding sales of shares. … Diffusion of the shares of the various cos. over a larger area … one of the results.|

23

24 February 1866. N. 1174.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 217.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Reduction in Bankrate from 8 to 7%.

Eastern demand for silver suspended, if not exhausted. Gold retained und foreign gold received.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 229.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Corresponding Week ended 24 February.

Die Bankdaten beziehn sich auf B. o. England.

1856. 1863 1864 1865 1865
£. £. £. £. £.
Circulation of Notes incl. Bank Post Bills 19,254,614 19,715,828 20,207,871 20,101,978 20,973,521
Public Deposits 4,141,551 7,901,658 8,153,601 6,665,364 5,048,777
Other Deposits. 14,762,364 13,367,153 12,406 673 14,140,885 12,591,493
Gvt. Securities. 11,946,006 11,043,079 11,174,584 11,023,211 9,915,483
Other Securities. 19,185,177 18,569,000 19,233,243 18,790,280 18,020,480
Reserves of notes and coin. 6,508,872 10,147,041 8,794,497 9,590,713 8,260,305
Coin and Bullion. 10,757,392 14,614,096 13,819,412 14,600,233 13,822,935
Bank rate of discount. 6 and 7% 4% 6% 5% 7%
Price of Consols 913/8 921/2 911/8 891/4 875/8
Average Price of wheat 69s. 2d. 46s. 6d. 41s. 1d. 38s. 4d. 45s. 9d.
Exchange of Paris (short.) 25. 25. 50 25 171/2 221/2 25 25 35 25 121/2 20 25 221/2 321/2
Amsterdam (ditto) 11 181/2 191/2 11 51/2 16 11 171/2 18 11 16 161/2 11 18 19
Hamburg (3 months) 13 111/2 113/4 13 71/4 71/2 13 8 81/2 13 73/4 81/4 13 101/4 103/4
Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 223–225.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

James’ James Rothschild’s Examination continued.

J. Rothschild. „We are much less advanced than the English with respect to credit. Twenty years ago you could not have travelled in France with a banknote – no one would have received it, or change it. to time you must leave the task of developing credit.[“]

It has been said very truly that it is the great speculations made at Liverpool in cotton which are the cause of the present crisis, and that they made the B.o.E. raise its discount – to force holders of cotton to sell.

The Bank of England leads all the other banks of Europe. When money is seen to be rare in England, people open their eyes, not only at Paris, but at St. Petersburg and everywhere. The situation is quite different to ours; the measures taken by the B. o. France do not produce the same effect abroad as those taken by the B.o.E.

The President. In France the limit in the issue of notes is left to the appreciation of the Bank, to its prudence and experience.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 222/223.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mr. Michell’s  Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.17), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, MEN, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, MEN, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
Report on English Trade with Russia
.

The duty on Tea formed a principal item in the Russian revenue, and the trade was a strict monopoly at Kiachta. In 1861 the monopoly was abolished and legal importation has increased 42%.

We have ample evidence of a retrograde movement in Russian agriculture, and in essential national industries, such as linen, hemp, and leather, whilst the important tallowtrade has fallen to nearly half its former amount. Theils wegen cattle plague, but principally from the diversion of capital and labour |24 durch die high protective duties für künstliche Industrien, cotton etc.

Mr. Michell estimates the total importation of manufactured articles into Russia in 1864 at 2,930,000l. paying a duty of 645,333l., about 22% on the Russian valuation, but at least 50% ad valorem. This throws the greater part of the import trade into the hands of the smuggler; and the operations of the latter are on a proportionate scale. Differential duties in favour of importation by the land frontier also favour smuggling. Houses are established for the systematic smuggling of goods into Russia at a premium of 35%; and under this system British trade mit Russia, except as regards bulky articles, such as iron, machinery and coals, is rapidly dwindling into a contraband trade; whilst the trade over the frontier has facilitated the introduction of imitations of English goods with fraudulent trades marks. The interests of the Russian ports and Russian mercantile marine are also sacrificed by these differential duties, and the rate of freights for Russian exportations is materially increased.

As the result, Mr. Michell calculates that comparing 1859 with 1863, our trade with Russia has decreased 11%.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 221/222.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The New Finance and Discount Companies.

With the increased numbers of money lenders created by the new joint stock banks, discount houses, and finance cos, the number of money borrowers has in some degree corresponded to the supply.

While premiums were in the ascendant, and were the leading consideration with the subscribers to these new constitutions created specially for the purpose of lending money, the subsequent struggle for place and dividends were little cared for by promoters and allottees.

Zwei ganz verschiedne sorts of business undertaken by the new cos. The discounter of bills of exchange requires a knowledge of men and their means; the finance manager, of securities and their value. The discounter has to look to the return of his principal at a specified moment; the finance manager to the intrinsic worth of the securities he holds, their market value in fact or in prospect, and their consequent negotiability. The discounter may take money on deposit for short periods with safety; the finance Co. can only borrow for long periods with any degree of safety.

Aus dem Report der Joint Stock Discount Co. folgt, daß ihre embarrassments und call of 5l. p. share, weil der manager Wilkinson took to financing. Railway contractors making railways, as is now commonly the case, for payment in shares or „Lloyds bonds“, offered these securities to Mr. Wilkinson for loans, no doubt at very tempting rates of interest; and the money borrowed at comparatively low rates, and for short intervals, thus became „locked up“ in securities for which there is no market and cannot be converted. The lenders on deposit must be paid. Hence call for the shareholders. The Joint Stock Discount Co. had taken on deposit on 31 Dec. last, nearly 31/2 millions, against which were held securities to the amount of 41/2 millions; but a large portion of the latter is locked up on securities by railway contractors.

Railway contractors’ securities of the class they now take in payment for their work,  Marx’ Worte. The Economist: cannot be accepted by any money lender with anything approaching common prudence
Schließen
sind in der That keine securities
. Hence the London Financial Association compelled to admit recently some degree of embarrassment on account of advances of this nature.|

25

Session after session we have seen bills passed for millions upon millions of outlay upon railways, and we have seen, too, the railways themselves started into existence without shares or any market shape. Now we begin to see that the new money lenders have been their chief support, and that the high terms bid by railway contractors have not only induced the new Discount and Finance Cos to incur injudicious risks, but have contributed to no small extent to the high value of money in this country, for the last 2 years.

A far as the official figures go, there is nothing very alarming in the position of our new Discount and Finance Cos.

December 31, 1865.
Capital.
Limited Cos.

Subscribed

£.

Paid up.

£.

Net Profits.

£.

Last dividend rate % per annum.
International Financial 3,000,000 750,000 91,014, for the year 10%
Joint Stock Discount 2,000,000 (call of 5£ p. share now made.) 8,000,000 19,595 für the 1/2 year nil
General Credit 5,000,000 1,000,000 202,632 for the year 15%
Consolidated Discount 1,000,000 200,000 1,384 for the 1/2 year nil
London Financial 2,000,000 600,000 40,422 for the 1/2 yr. 10%
Imperial Mercantile Credit. 5,000,000 500,000 91,862 für the 1/2 year 20%.
Average Dividend. Surplus Profits after last Dividend. £.
1863 1864 1865
International Financial. 15% 10% 10% 59,473
Joint Stock Discount. 5 7 3 56,169
General Credit 10 15 15 20,072
Consolidates Consolidated Discount 0 0 0 594
London Financial 15 171/2 121/2 160,108
Imperial Merc. Credit ... 141/4 20 94,169.
December 31. 1865
Liability to the Public. (Deposits etc) Assets
£. In Hand (as valued)
£
Calls in Reserve
£
Internat. Financial 682,833 1,549,445 2,250,000
Joint Stock Discount 3,461,290 4,349,407 1,200,000
General Credit 1,117,372 2,473,015 4,000,000
Consolidated Discount 1,862,797 1,941,685 800,000
London Financial 795,088 1,593,062 1,400,000
Imper. Merc. Credit 4,707,655 5,392,042 4,500,000
12,627,035 14,150,000 17,298,656
Total of Assets = 31,448,656.

The one point upon which these official figures convey no comparative information is the all important mode of valuation of the assets in hand. The International Financial and General Credit Cos. took the market prices of their securities as their rule for valuing their assets on 31 Dec. last; but the Joint Stock Discount Co. apparently valued their assets at the amount of money advanced on their security. Und da darunter viele securities of railway contractors, the official figures really afford no insight whatever into their real position.|

26

Aus:
The Economist, 24. Februar 1866. S. 217–219.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Sound State of American Banking at Present.

»It is very generally believed, or feared, that there will be a sudden crisis – some collapse of credit in America.«  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Dieser englische Aberglauben sehr schön! Die Krise war unter ihren Füssen, zu London – sie sahen sie aber nur jenseits des Atlantic. Und der friendly „Economist“ sucht sie zu beschwichtigen durch Darstellung der Solidität des jetzigen amerikanischen Bankwesens!

»The Un. States Government stands in America in the same monetary position (vis-à-vis den banks) in which the B.o.E. stood here.[«] (vis-à-vis den country banks während der suspension of cash payments.) It has issued inconvertible paper, 90 Mill. l. St. in round numbers, for the present much depreciated as compared with gold. They are »legal tender«. If an American bank has enough of these notes, it will pay its way.

Before the civil war no national system. Each state had its own banking law. Annoyance of a currency so multifarious in a country where locomotion so constant and so distant. A Chicago note was at a discount at Washington, and a Delaware note was difficult to pass at Chicago. „Exchange“ dealings between the different states of the Union complex by the difference of currency. Chase provided a national uniform currency to replace the various States currencies.

The Act of Congress, to this purpose, interferes not only with the issue of currency, but with the trade of banking (d.h. securities for the deposits, not only for the notes). The Act permits no bank to be organised „with a less capital than 150,000 dollars, nor in a city whose population exceeds 50,000 persons with a less capital than 200,000 dollars“; though with the permission of the Secretary of the Treasury, a bank with a capital of no less than 50,000 dollars may be „organised in any place of which the population does not exceed 6,000 inhabitants.“ In the principal cities of the Union each bank must keep in lawful money 25% of its circulation and deposits, and banks in less important places 15%; and every bank is bound to carry 1/10 of its profits to the reserve fund before declaring a dividend, till that fund amounts to 20% of its capital stock etc. The aggregate circulation is limited to 60 Mill. l. St., and is divided amongst the banks according to the following singular clause: „The amount of such circulating notes to be furnished to each association shall be in proportion to its paid-up capital, as follows, and no more: To each association whose capital shall not exceed 500,000 dollars, 90% of such capital; to each association whose capital exceeds 500,000 dollars, but does not exceed 1 mill. dollars, 80% of such capital; to each association whose capital exceeds 1,000,000 dollars, but does not exceed 3 mill. dollars, 75% of such capital; to each association whose capital exceeds 3 millions dollars, 60% of such capital. And that 150,000,000 dollars of the entire amount of circulating notes authorised to be issued shall be apportioned to associations in the States, in the district of Columbia, and in the Territories, according to representative population, and the remainder shall be apportioned by the Secretary of the Treasury among associations formed in the several States, in the district of Columbia, and in the Territory, having due regard to the existing banking capital, resource, and business of such State, district, and territory.“ The whole |27 circulation is secured by the deposit of U. St. bonds with 10% margin. This deposit of U. St. bonds was of course, for the Finance minister, the primary point of the Act. Mr. Chase was sorely in want of money. The existing bank circulation was secured by state bonds; and it was of the first importance to him to replace it by a currency secured by Federal bonds. He thus got a loan for the national Exchequer out of funds before used by the State exchequers. At any other time such a proposal would have excited the old controversy of State right versus Federal right, and would most likely have been lost. In the civil war – Mr. Chase passed his Act.

Such an interference of Gvt. with country banking, or half such an interference, would have been impossible in England, but in a democratic country the inhabitants do not look on the Gvt. as something apart from themselves as we do, and do not feel humiliated by its interference; it is only themselves in another form enforcing what they think right, and so they do not mind it.

Chase coaxed the existing banks. He offered them tempting terms to become, instead of State banks under the old system, national banks under the new system. And all but an insignificant fraction have become so. „In about 21/2 years“, boasts Mr. McCulloch (finance minister under Johnson), „from the organisation of the first national bank, the whole system of banking under State laws has been superseded, and the people of the Un. St. have been provided with a circulation bearing upon it the seal of the Treasury department as a guaranty of its solvency.“

With the bold completeness which is its characteristic, the American gvt compels the publication of the most elaborate accounts by every bank in the Union, and the Comptroller of the currency publishes annually a report giving those accounts in detail for each banks, and a summary of them all. The following letzte Publication:

Liabilities
(dollar taken at 4sh.) £.
Capital Stock paid in 78,631,441
Surplus Fund 7,742,676
Notes in Circulation 34,264,380
Individual Deposits 99,195,962
United States Deposits 9,634,076
Dividends unpaid 986,211
Due to national banks 18,008,967
Due to other banks 4,877,236
Profits 6,470,145
Old Circulation outstanding issued by National banks while still State Banks: 11,953,795
Other items 188,810
Total 271,953,614
Assets.
£.
Loans and Discounts 97,062,805
Overdrafts 371,221
Real estate, furniture, and fixtures 2,940,656
Expense Account 907,905
Premiums paid 517,100
Remittances and other cash items 14,461,970
Due from national banks 17,995,796
Due from other banks 3,478,646
Un. States bonds deposited to secure circulation 54,526,840
Other U. St. bonds and securities 31,019,420
Bills of other banks 3,249,448
Specie 2,993,228
Other lawful money 38,618,872
Other items 3,809,702
Total 271,953,614 |
28

No banks in the world such amazing solidity.

Liabilities of the National American Banks to the Public.
£
Notes in Circulation (old and new) 46,218,175
Private Deposits 99,195,962
Public Deposits 9,634,076
Due to other banks 4,877,236
159,925,449.
Against this they have in actual cash: £
Specie 2,993,228
Lawful money 38,618,872
£41,612,100.

Also über 25% ihrer liabilities. B.o.Fr. und B. o. England keep larger amount; am 15 Febr. (1866) B. o. France über 37% ihrer total liabilities, die B. o. England (am 14 Feb.) 343/4%. Aber diese reserves, besonders in England, are the banking reserves of the whole country. The amount of specie held in the tills of the London and provincial banks of this country is a trifle in proportion to the liabilities; it is not regulated by these liabilities; it is simply the ready money of the day. Um die reserve (metallic) der B.o.E. mit der der American Banks zu vergleichen, muß man sie im Verhältnis zu den total liabilities der English Banks betrachten. We do not know those liabilities. Aber 3 banks alone, London und Westminster, Union und London Joint Stock Bank haben 56 Mill. £. liabilities, während die der Bank of England nur 42 Mill. £. The American banks hold in mere cash 25% of their liabilities when thrown together; if the English banks were thrown together, we doubt if they would hold 5%.

Ferner, die securities der American banks:

£
Cash 41,612,100
Government security 85,546,260
Remittances and other cash items 14,461,970
Total 141,620,330
Liabilities but just over 160,000,000l.

That a bank should have 14/16 oder 7/8 of its liabilities either in Gvt. security or cash is to an Englishman perfectly astounding. An English Bank which holds 2/5 considers itself an example of caution, and many of the best banks in the country hold a proportion very much smaller.

The American banks are able to hold so large a reserve, and yet advance a large sum to their public because their capital is so enormous. An English bank does not consider it begins it its proper business till it begins to deal with the property of others; but an American bank lends mainly its own money, and so can keep almost all its customer’s money in hand and tangible. In round numbers the American national banks:

Advances: 97,500,000l. gegen A Capital of 78,631,441l. und Reservefund of 7,742,678l., Zusammen 86,374,119l.

No English bank lends only 14% of its own money.

 Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Der wiseacre schließt aus diesem state der American Banks daß kein credit collapse in U. St., möglich, wie 1837 oder 1857, wenn the State Banks of America kept very small reserves and failed by wholesale.

If banking credit, sagt er, stands firm, no general failure of other credit is likely. Individual failures may happen there as here, but no wholesale bankruptcy of ordinary traders.|

29

March 3. 1866. N. 1175.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. März 1866. S. 253/254.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Board of Trade Returns.

Shipments of British goods and Produce.
£. St.
1863 146,602,342
1864 160,449,053
1865 165,862,402
Also: Increase is our exports in 1865 gegen 1864 of £5,413,349
gegen 1863 of 19,260,060.
Increase or Decrease in export of some articles 1865 and 1864.
Articles. 1864 1865. Increase. Decrease.
£. £. £. £.
Worsted stuffs (pure wool and mixed.[)] 10,800,521 13,321,855 2,521,334
Arms (small fire) 348,850 425,857 49,027
Beer and ale 1,841,637 2,060,369 218,732
Coals 4,165,773 4,431,492 265,719
Cotton yarn 9,083,239 10,351,049 1,267,810
(Manufactures. piece goods[)] 43,917,471 44,860,239 942,768
(Thread[)] 794,597 753,438 41,159
Earthenware et porcelain 1,422,014 1,442,934 20,920
Haberdashery and milinery 4,797,552 5,013,757 216,205
Leather, wrought, boots, shoes 1,484,421 4,334,273 220,566
Linen yarn 2,991,969 1,462,309 22,112
Linen manufactures. Piece goods 7,607,502 2,505,497 486,472
   Thread 492,194 558,865 916,463
Machinery – Steam Engines 1,617,117 1,952,658 335,541
Machinery Other sorts 3,231,475 3,260,872 29,397
Metals – Iron, pig et puddled. 1,412,352 1,591,063 178,711
      Bar etc 2,568,049 2,213,123 354,926
      Railroad 3,305,086 3,541,296 236,210
      Castings 670,111 771,124 101,013
      Hoop, sheet 1,776,652 1,597,604 179,048
      Wrought 2,257,406 2,494,371 236,965
   Steel. unwrought 890,395 779,487 110,908
   Copper. unwrought 586,147 496,957 89,190
      Wrought 2,912,137 2,290,850 621,287
   Lead. Pig 779,174 582,569 196,605
Tin. Wrought. 482,147 499,401 17,254
   Plates. 1,263,246 1,482,766 219,520
Paper. 425,257 351,233 74,024
Silk. Thrown. 568,781 474,957 93,824
   Silk Manufactures 1,460,520 1,409,221 257,253
Wool (Sheep and lambs) 673,446 901,659 228,213
Woolen and Worsted. Yarns. 5,417,377 5,424,047 6,670
   Woolen Manufact. Cloths 4,533,519 4,062,382 471,137
   Flannels 554,543 431,955 122,588
   Blankets 797,023 613,115 183,908
      Carpets and druggets 861,499 861,564 65. |
30
 Die Nummerierung und die Anordnung der Länder in absteigender Folge von Marx.
Schließen
Value of British exports to different countries. 1864 et 1865

£ £ £ £
1864 1865 Increase Decrease
1) India. 19,951,637 18,254,570 1,697,067
2) Un. States 16,708,505 21,235,790 4,527,285
3) Hanse Towns 13,418,826 15,091,313 1,672,547
4) Australia 11,857,213 13,352,357 1,495,144
5) France 8,187,361 9,034,883 847,522
6) Holland 6,884,937 8,111,022 1,226,085
7) Brazil 6,249,260 5,668,089 581,171
8) Egypt 6,051,680 5,985,087 66,595
9) Turkey, Europe 4,481,222 4,931,742 50,520
10) Asia Minor 1,070,827 695,377 375,450
11) Syria, Palestine 1,366,608 1,339,665 26,943
13) British Nth. America 5,595,591 4,705,079 890,512
12) Italy 5,597,496 5,376,886 220,610
14) China (ohne Hong Kong) 3,092,611 3,609,301 516,690
15) Spain 3,084,778 2,249,822 834,956
16) Cuba und Portrico 3,002,025 2,207,511 794,514
17) Russia 2,846,409 2,921,496 75,087
18) Brit. West India 2,649,539 1,945,466 704,073
19) Belgium 2,301,291 2,921,300 620,109
20) New Granada 2,058,843 2,372,497 913,654
21) Cape of Good Hope 1,814,319 1,454,540 359,779
22) Mexico 1,809,753 1,898,056 88,303
23) Argentine Confederation 1,757,457 1,951,048 193,591
24) Chili 1,683,580 1,603,753 581,171
25) Hong Kong 1,618,867 1,561,851 57,016
26) Foreign Westindies 1,370,941 1,157,960 212,981
27) Peru 1,361,692 1,193,335 138,357
28) Gibraltar 1,206,168 1,116,659 189,509
29) Singapore und Eastern Straits 1,181,680 1,442,450 260,770
30) Denmark (incl. Iceland) 1,152,767 1,263,953 111,186
31) Prussia 1,134,399 2,102,714 968,315
32) Channel Islands 1,015,985 752,048 263,937
33) Dutch India (Java etc) 796,850 928,642 131,792
35) Brit. Guiana 795,831 740,553 55,278
33) Uruguay 993,951 813,448 180,503
36) Ilberia, Croatia, Dalmatia 792,119 725,789 66,330
37) Norway 772,095 677,458 94,637
38) Philippine Islands 765,719 945,624 179,905
39) Malta et Gozo 753,113 633,887 119,226
40) Sweden 731,294 900,959 169,665
41) Ceylon 826,333 685,308 141,025
42) Bermudas 657,045 62,659 594,386
43) Mauritius 655,852 596,848 59,004
44) Hanover 689,978 399,933 290,045
45) Japan 627,383 1,520,895 893,512
46) Western Africa (Foreign) 565,962 642,467 76,505
47) Greece (ohne Ionian islands) 433,887 583,253 149,366
48) Natal 427,885 223,420 254,465
49) Venezuela 482,988 387,032 95,956
50) Ionian islands (from 1st June) 310,084 437,236 127,152
51) Western Africa (Brit.) 272,896 403,383 130,487
52) Belize (Brit. Honduras) 204,625 160,445 41,180
Aus:
The Economist, 3. März 1866. S. 254–256.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

James Rothschild Evidence (Continuatio)

J. Rothschild: „It is precisely those  Gemeint sind die Goldfunde in Australien seit 1851.
Schließen
discoveries
which came to our relief. But for them, we should not have been able to do what we have done. There has been a substitution of Australian gold, new or native gold, in place of the specie which we have sent to China or to India, and which will be long before it returns, if it ever does return. … There was a moment when I trembled for a crisis in Germany, because silver had |31 disappeared: so much had been bought to send to China and India; it had become so scarce at Hamburg, Frankfurt, and in many other towns of Germany, where silver is the only circulating medium, as in China and India, that we knew not what to do. Silver was for a time at from 30 to 40f. premium per mille.[“]

President: Do you not think that the corrective of foreign investments, loans, railways etc. is to be found in commercial operations themselves, and that, f.i., a nation which borrows in the French market 300 or 400 millions, does not withdraw them entirely, but employs a part to pay for goods paid there?

J. Rothschild: Yes. 7/8 or 15/16 are employed in buying goods – locomotives f.i; it is impossible to say how many we send abroad. I speak from experience.

Michel Chevalier: If at a given moment there is a tendency among traders to export gold and silver, why should the Bank oppose it by any measures whatever? It does not trouble the export of wheat and wine, why should it trouble the export of gold?

J. Rothschild. Everybody has the right to defend himself, and if the Bank finds that too much gold and silver is being exported, and may consequently fear that in case the reimbursement of its notes should be demanded, it could not make it, – it is its duty to say: I will reduce my discount … so as to be in a situation to re-imburse my notes. … The raising of interest makes the rarity of money. Leave the interest of money at its ordinary rate, at a moderate rate, nobody is disquieted, nobody takes precautions; whereas the raising of interest always causes something unpleasant to be feared. I, f.e., am seated at my desk; I receive a letter from Alexandria, „Send me a million in 5f. pieces.“ The discount is at 4%, I see no danger. I can send the money. But if the discount of the Bank be raised, I say to myself: „I must take precautions“, and I do not send the money. Knowing that I shall have payments to make at such and such an epoch, and not knowing that money will not be still rarer at that moment, I keep my funds, and I renounce a profit of 3 or 4%, rather than send my money.

M. Chevalier: But if the sum be due, you cannot avoid paying it; even if the discount should be 12 or 15%, the money must be sent.

J. Rothschild. No doubt; but I put the hypothesis that I owe nothing.

President. Then you consider the raising of the discount as not being able to paralyse forced and obligatory operations, but … as preventing supplementary exportations, which would be the consequence either of too great security, or of too great facility in undertaking new operations.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. März 1866. S. 260.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Rates of Discount (this week) in the chief continental cities:

Bankrate % Open Market %
Paris 4 33/4
Vienna 5 5
Berlin 6 6
Frankfurt 4 4
Amsterdam 6 6
Brussels 4 4
Madrid 9 Uncertain
Hamburg 31/2
St. Petersburg 6 53/4 – 6. |

32

10th March, 1866. N. 1176.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. März 1866. S. 281.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

The affairs of the Joint Stock Discount Co have caused a diffused alarm – they are considered as specimens … of a very large class of recent business. Great many small railways have been made which never ought to have been made, and the money found for them in Lombardstreet. These undertakings being a heavy loss, that loss must fall somewhere, and a good deal of it is now falling on the lenders in Lombardstreet.  In Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ stellte Marx die Redeweise „to finance“ bereits im Parlamentsbericht von 1857 zur Wirkungsweise des „Bank Act“ heraus und schrieb: „Also dieß Wort schon völliges Bürgerrecht 1857!“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 185.20).
Schließen
The year 1864 was remarkable for several things, and one of the most characteristic was the invention of a new verb. „Finance“ used to be a substantive only in English, but it then became a verb also …
Generally sound and cautious people (in money matters) like to nibble a little at questionable securities. They do not like to be quite out of the world, they count the high profits; they are unwilling to be called slow. This class is sure to be left with the bad security. The clever, quick people who concoct the delusions have a much better chance of getting out of the ruin; they move much quicker than the slower race, and have much better information when the delusions are breaking up and it is advisable to get out of them.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. März 1866. S. 284.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Workhouse Hospitals.

Die infirmaries of workhouses are properly intended nur für die infirm poor. Sie sind es nicht who crowd the wretched infirmaries of our London workhouse hospitals. Persons actually sick of diseases, more or less acute, and requiring more or less active medical care, are crowded into the workhouse hospitals by order of the parish doctor and the parish relieving officer, who rid themselves of the trouble and the responsibility of attending to such cases by combining to get them into the workhouse. Of these cases, there are now over 6000 in the 41 London workhouses, giving about 150 really sick persons to each; in addition to this there are no less than 10,500 of the class properly called infirm, aged and feeble persons needing more than ordinary pauper care, of whom at least half want medical care as well as additional comfort, and 1,800 imbeciles or idiots. So that the poor who are properly infirm poor are crowded out of their proper accommodation by no less than 7,800 persons who do not really belong to workhouses at all, 6000 of whom should be in ordinary, well conducted hospitals, and 1800 of whom ought to be in asylums for the imbecile, or the insane. Daher the most terrible misery not only to the wretched patients themselves, but to the scarcely less wretched poor. Lord Carnarvon (in public meeting über dieses theme) stated that in one workhouse hospital, with 300 patients, the physician, who is never paid more than £150 a year, has at most 11/2 minute with each patient, for he cannot give more than 3 hours to the hospital if he is to support his family. The same overcrowding makes the nursing disgraceful in the extreme. The Boards of Guardians do not like to increase the rates. Hence they do their very best to keep down the expenses of these miserable hospitals. Old crones who are too infirm themselves for activity, too ignorant for intelligent nursing, and too habituated to misery and dirt to see the evil of inflicting misery and dirt upon others, are nominally appointed nurses, by which they gain some trifling addition to their allowances and the power of making the patients even more wretched than they would be without any nurse at all. These creatures are often drinkers occupied only in devices to get a little more spirit for their own allowance, and their mode of dealing with the sick is of course summary in the extreme. One nurse avowed that instead that of attending to the doctor’s orders, she gave the medicine 2 or 3 times a day to those who seemed very ill, or only 2 or once, as they seemed to get better. (Viele geben dieselbe Medizin an Kranke, für die sie gar nicht bestimmt sind) The male nurses are quite as bad. One head nurse was a broken-down potman, appointed by the influence of the guardian who used to drink in the pothouse where the man came from. Another admitted that he had never given any medicines for 3 days to a patient very ill with gangrene, because the said patient’s mouth had been sore. Nor is even this the worst. One |33 workhouse lets the premises outside to a carpet-beating Co. for 600£ a year, and the unfortunate patients get their lungs filled with dust and their ears with noise. Other workhouses leave their patients in the most filthy condition imaginable. A guardian of St. Giles’ workhouse said that none of these statements were true of his workhouse hospital … But the public have not yet quite forgotten the shocking case of Richard Gibson, who really rotted to death there in the most horrible filth, without help or hope; and the indignant virtue of the St. Giles’ Guardian seems therefore rather superfluous.

These things are gross abuses, public cruelties in short.

Das meeting in Willis’s Rooms, unter Lord Carnarvon, (3 March, 1866) carried resolutions proposing that the workhouse hospitals should be consolidated, supported by a general metropolitan rate, and placed under uniform management in connection with the Poor Law board.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Ueberal Ueberall Centralisation und centralised Gvt. action unvermeidliches Schicksal der modernen Gesellschaft!)

Aus:
The Economist, 10. März 1866. S. 284/285.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Late Railway dividends.

The new, or perhaps rather the renewed, feature of our recent railway reports and accounts, is the sudden addition to the capital expenditure attendant upon the rapid extension of our railway system, and thereby the effect upon dividends and market values. As a rule, the effect of a sudden and excessive expenditure of capital by a railway Co. is a fall in the dividend. The money spent upon new works yields nothing at first, perhaps very little for years, and possibly never produces a fair average profit, while in the interval of unproductiveness the investor expects his dividend or interest, and the productive section of the undertaking is made to bear the cost.

The Southeastern, and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Cos. charged their capital accounts with some part of the dividends and interest paid to the share and bondholders; in fact, returned them back again as interest and dividend a portion of their own capital.  Kommentar von Marx. „xxx“ ist eine nichtentzifferte nachträgliche Einfügung von Marx in den Satz.
Schließen
(Dieß, was der Economist hervorhebt, keineswegs the pith of the thing. Unter capital account verstehn die Railway Accounts cookers Anleihn, Pump, aus dem sie xxx Theil der Dividenden zahlen.)

Measured by dividends earned instead of by dividends paid, the market values of some of our lending railway stocks diverge just now more strikingly from intrinsic worth than for many years past.

Dividend earned. Rate per annum Dividend paid. Rate p. annum
Half year ended. Half year ended.
1864 1865 1864. 1865.
About P.C. Per Cent. P.C. P.C.
South Eastern 41/4 21/3 53/4 41/2
London, Brighton etc 43/4 33/4 6 61/2.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. März 1866. S. 285/286.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Trade Returns.

Computed Value of the Principal Articles imported
£
1863 204,533,512
1864 226,161,840
1865 219,751,324.
Aus:
The Economist, 10. März 1866. S. 289/290.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Discount and Money market.

The Stock Exchange Consols settlement has acted rather more than usual on rates, owing to disquieting rumours and the acknowledged unfavourable position of the affairs of the Joint Stock Discounting Co. After the decision taken by the directors a few weeks back, the committee of investigation |34 has reduced the proposed call of £5 to one of 2£. 10s, which was actually made, when, as it now appears, not only was one or the other sum insufficient, but the affairs of the co. in so desperate a state as to render their winding up necessary. The general opinion expressed at the meeting, where the committee of investigation delivered their report, was adverse to the shedding of too much light on the conditions of the account open. It is, however, to be regretted that the steps taken on that occasion were of a nature likely to mislead the general public, who might in many cases have escaped the loss in which they have since become involved by the purchase of shares on the representations then made.



March 17, 1866. N. 1177.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. März 1866. S. 313.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Fall in the Value of money.

Bankrate reduced to 6%. There is much foreign money in London attracted by high rates of interest, which is sure to go if the market falls to a low rate. The demand to the East might again revive. The number of schemes on the watch of our capital is now so great, that any monetary surplus is instantly drawn away from us.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. März 1866. S. 315/316.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mr. Thiers on Protection to French Agriculture.

Thiers says: rent has increased of late years, taxation has increased, and the supply of labour has decreased owing to the emigration of 3,500,000 persons into the great cities, until less than 18 fcs per hectolitre will not pay, and less than 20 will not yield a remunerative profit.

Economist says: The English remedy under these circumstances is to throw farms together till they tempt man with capital to try an expensive mode of cultivation, and this remedy we frankly admit cannot be tried in France. The manners and institutions of the country, together with the passion for proprietorship, do not admit of so vast a social revolution. But nothing in these circumstances prevents the combination of groups of little proprietors to work their land in common, and thus securing at once the high cultivation which is the merit of the English system, and the independence and comparative energy of the peasant which is the merit of France. A commune can be cultivated by its owners acting together quite as well as by one owner, a theorem now being demonstrated in Holland.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. März 1866. S. 319–321.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emile Pereires’ Evidence at Banque Enquête. (7 Nov. 1865 diese evidence)

Emile Pereire. The crisis of 1863–4 was caused solely by the measures adopted by the Bank o. France. That crisis had no intrinsic, no real cause, having its root in the situation: on the contrary, there was unequalled prosperity. For a long time the country had not had so good a harvest; and yet it was after that harves harvest that the restrictive measures were taken by the Bank. … By the generalisation of commercial relations, by the multiplicity and low price of means of carrying, we succeed every day, and still do so more and more in rendering crisis arising from scarcities much less prejudicial to circulation …

The Bank o. F. has no capital, or rather its capital is entirely immobilised. The following was its situation, according to its balance sheet of 2nd November (1865):|

35
Liabilities.
f. c.
Capital 182,500,000 0
Profits in addition to capital 7,034,778 2
Reserves in securities 22,105,750 14
New fixed Reserve 4,000,000 0
Total 215,640,528 16
Assets
f. c.
Immobilised rente, and advances to the Treasury 209,430,488 0
Hotel and Buildings 8,475,341 0
Total immobilised 217,905,829 0

Thus the B.o.F. has immobilised a sum of 2,265,300f. above its capital and the totality of its reserves. With such a situation, it is impossible on the least derangement for the equilibrium not to be broken … the Bank desires to do all with nothing, for it has no capital. Notes payable at sights cannot be issued against immobilised stock. The first measure to be taken to avoid crisis should be to sell the rents of the Bank, and to constitute a reserve in paper on foreign countries. When one has bills of exchange in one’s portfolio, one has gold, because they can be exchanged at London for gold. But that is not even necessary; it would suffice to prevent the export of gold, if the exchange were unfavourable to exportation for the Bank to negotiate paper on London … I know this objection: „The Bank of England could do the same thing; it could have paper on Paris, and negotiate it at the same time as you do.[“] But the mechanism of exchanges is very simple. Paper on Paris cannot be demanded and rising at London, at the same time that paper on London is demanded and rising at Paris. It is the contrary which takes place; and is the forced consequence of this change of the debit or credit balance. Paper on London rises at Paris, when paper on Paris falls at London, and reciprocically reciprocally. So that it suffices to negotiate paper on London, in order to stop the export of gold from France to England …

On Oct. 5 (1865) the B.o.F. raised their rate suddenly, because they learned, by telegraph, that the B.o.E. had done so. … I only know 2 banks in Europe, that of France, and that of England. These 2 banks are the regulating establishments of commercial and public credit in Europe. They have each, independently of their mutual dependence, a speciality. England, by her old connection with all the world, is the market in which all the gold and silver of the New World and of Australia arrive … This monopoly is assured to England by her innumerable steam vessels. A steamship now leaves New York every day für England. In 1822, at Bordeaux, letters were only received 2 a week from Paris, and Bayonne only got letters 2 a week from Bordeaux. But now every day letters are received at London from New York. It is at London that all the precious metals arrive. … They are in great part spread over the Continent, and are centralised at Paris. It is at Paris that the great trade in the precious metals is carried on. Paris is also the principal exchange market, and that in which is concentrated all the bills of exchange drawn on England. Consequently, generally speaking, the metals destined to pay in Europe the transactions not settled by bills of exchange, return to Paris.

The par of the sovereign sterling at London is in the trade 25f. 16c. and at the Bank of England 25.20. The cost of displacing being estimated at about 7c., it results that gold may be imported from England when bills on London are from 25.10 to 25.121/2, whilst it is only possible to export at 25.371/2 or 25.40 on account of the loss sustained by the melting down of French gold pieces.

The American dollar sold at par is 5f. 16c. The expenses are 1%. The quotation must therefore be below 5.11 to render importation into France possible, and above 5.21 for exportation.

The gold napoleon is worth in Ejypt 776/40 piastres; which, with the cost of carriage, puts the rate at nearly 5.27 per Spanish piaster. (Spanish piaster = 5f. 17c.) To export gold coin from France to Ejypt, the rate must be superior to that price; to import into France it must be below 5.23.|

36

All these calculations are made in estimating gold at par. If these were a premium, the parity would be changed.

If now we apply these different operations to the quotations of 4. Nov. 1865, we see that the quotation on London being 25.20 to 25.221/2, and the premium on gold 3%, the price of London is reduced to from 25.13 to 25.151/2. Therefore, we can at the present moment (7 Nov. 1865) neither import English gold into France, nor export gold to England.

The rate at New York against gold is 5.16. At that rate, which represents par, no operation of importation or exportation can be made without losing the cost of carriage.

On the 5. of October, when the B. o. France raised its discount, the rate of exchange rendered gold export absolutely impossible. The rate of bills on London was 25.25, on the 9. October London paper was worth 25.28. In beiden cases export et import equally impossible.



24. March 1866. N. 1178.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. März 1866. S. 346/347.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Should the Bank of England allow interest on Deposits?

The Private Deposits of the B.o.E. nearly the same as 10 years ago: 1856: £12,107,000. 1866: £12,478,000. Dagegen immense growth der private deposits der London and Joint Stock Banks. Z.B. Deposits of London and Westminster Bank in 1856: £11,170,000. 1866: £19,224,000.

According to our system, the B.o.E. is the „Bankers Bank“; the holder of the sole unused store of money of the nation.

Credit means confidence in pecuniary payments. Yet, after the suspension of cashpayments, the B.o.E. for 20 years did not perform its pecuniary promises; and no one thought the worse of it. … The Bank holds a great many public funds, money of corporate and quasicorporate bodies which can hardly go anywhere else … The bankers deposits are between 2,500,000l. und 4,000,000, and probably are generally over 3,000,000. Those deposits are most plentiful when they are most required. Most deposits at a time of difficulty and disaster tend to ebb away; the influence of distrust and the influence of high profits combine to attract them. But the bankers’ deposits at the B.o.E. augments at a time of panic, they rose to over £6,000,000 in 1859, and in any little difficulty of credit their rise is as sure as the rise of the tide at London bridge.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. März 1866. S. 350–352.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emile Pereire’s evidence. Continuatio.

E. Pereire. The B. o. England puts its discount at 7%, and we have it at 3. It is commonly said: „Since our discount is at 3, we will send all our money to England to supply it at 7.“ But it is not necessary in order to do that to send money at England. Bills of exchange on London can be taken and kept in portfolio: in that way the discount of 7% is secured without any displacing of money, for … gold cannot leave France unless the exchange on London accounts to 25f. 371/2c, in which case the banker who might have taken London paper to get 7%, would have had besides the profit coming from the rise in exchange. But in such circumstances a rise of exchange is not to be feared. The bills of exchange of all Europe are in great part centralised at Paris, and thence they go in different directions: consequently one can find at Paris as much paper on London as one wants, especially when France, for the balance of her own exchanges, is not the debtor of England. There is now (7 Nov. 1865) a difference of 2% between the discount rate of B.o.F. and of B.o.E. According to the prevailing prejudices speculators might profit by the difference of 2% to empty the till of the B.o.F. and fill that of the B.o.E. But that is not done. There goes not and cannot go a sovereign to England, because exchange is at 25f. 221/2c. It is impossible to send gold from here to London, and yet there is a difference of 2% in the rate of discount. Ask the first bill brokers at Paris, they will tell you that at this moment the sovereign sterling in short paper on London is bought at Paris at 25f. 221/2c., and in paper of 3 months at 25f. 271/2c., less the discount of 7%. A small profit is, therefore, made on this difference of discount paper is taken at a |37 higher price when it is long in order to obtain a higher discount. What is true for 2%, is true for 3 or 9, not for 10 or 20% … If 3% at B.o.F., 7% at B.o.E., there would be a difference of 4, could not be continued long. How would it be corrected? By gold leaving the B.o.F. or returning to the B.o.E.?

If, during a month or two that state of things were to exist … there would be such an advantage in taking at Paris paper on London, that none or much less would be presented to the B. o. England, which would permit that Bank to reconstitute its stock of notes, by the falling due of bills in its portfolio; and thus the equilibrium prescribed to it by the bill of 1844 would be promptly re-established, without the least of the world producing on the till of the B. o. France a drain … a level is re-established without displacing capital by the single fact of the temporary retention at Paris of the bills of exchange of the Continent.

M. d’Eichthal: What does Pereire tell us? That if the discount be 3% at Paris, and 7% at London, bankers will hasten at Paris, the great market of exchanges, to take bills on London: they will sell their securities, and receive in exchange paper on Paris with which they will buy paper on London. But suppose the contrary case. All the bills that I have on London I send to London, and I realise my capital to buy bills on Paris. The effect of the difference of the rate of interest, when it is higher at London than at Paris, is then to keep out of England, by the attraction of high interest, bills of exchange which but for that would go to be negociated negotiated at London by the Bank of England. What does the Bank of England do in raising its rate of discount? It compels all bills which would be presented to it to be discounted, to remain on the continent, and that renders the money less rare in England, and dearer in France. You are mutually dependent, and in that state of things the exchange necessarily rises. No, it is not necessary to send coin abroad: but when capital becomes rare and dear amongst our neighbours, if you do not detain it in France, they will come to take it; or in other terms, the debt which England has contracted remains in your hands, and it is your capital which pays the goods England has bought. You have no cotton to buy in Ejypt. Granted; but the debt of England comes into France, and you give credit to England.

E. Pereire. We lend to England. We give her credit for the amount of our productions, for those which we have exported; but we do not lend her money. There is consequently no danger for our metallic reserves.

d’Eichthal: rechtzeitige Herabsetzung des Zinsfusses nöthig, sonst nicht operations reduced at right time etc“ etc.

E. Pereire. You have too much experience of banking business to maintain that when English commerce is a debtor to foreign countries for very large sums, an elevation of the exchange on London is to be feared at Paris. The contrary takes place. If England owes a great deal for the cotton, wool, wheat and cattle she imports, that must augment the number of the bills of exchange drawn on her. Those bills arriving at Paris in larger quantities must bring down the exchange, and not make it rise. Now the fall of exchange prevents the sending away of gold.

M. Pastré: The exchange is not at all a determining element. In India the interest is 14 to 15%. The exchange indicates a very trifling profit; but as the discount is at 14 and 15%, masses not of gold, but of silver, are sent to India.

E. Pereire. It is not for the purpose of making investments that silver is sent to India, but principally for the balances in purchases of raw materials. When purchases of cotton have to be made in India or Ejypt, it is not a difference of 1 or 2% in the interest on a bill of exchange which will stop such an operation. When you buy cotton at Alexandria, the complete operation is effected in 3 months, – that time being necessary for sending, receiving, realising the affair. Difference of interest of 2% p.a. is 1/2% für 3 months, does not prevent the operation. You and all the other merchants of Marseilles undertake the operation only if you have a margin of from 12 to 15%. When you take the chance of losing or gaining 10, 15, 20%, no 1/2% of a temporary augmentation of interest will stop you. The warnings (durch raising der Bankrate) referred to, and which it is alleged must be given to prevent certain operations, warn no one: 1/2% cannot be an obstacle to an operation of this kind. But it embarrasses all other operations of commerce and industry.

Pastré: Nicht für die gewöhnlichen Operations, für France alone. It consumes only 30–35000 bales of cotton of Ejypt. Even if 30 000 or 35 000 other bales were taken for Switzerland, it would still matter little.

E. Pereire: The rate of interest does not indicate the abundance or rarity of money. England buys with her productions all the silver necessary für her commerce with India: she even manages to supply you with the coin you send to Ejypt: she is the great purveyor of the precious metals. She pays for her cotton from India and Ejypt with the silver drawn from the country in which that metal is produced, Mexico f.i., paying for it with her productions. At this moment, on all our coasts of the Channel and the Atlantic, she is buying up our grain because she wants it and we have too much: she is carrying off all the fresh vegetables, all the poultry, all the oxen that we can supply, so that England is our debtor. You cannot change that: the exchange cannot modify that situation. We are sellers to England.|

38

Pereire: The extraordinary investments (in bills on England, when high discount at London) rarely exceed 60 or 80 Mill. fcs. The resources employed are not all taken from the Bk. o. France, and besides, as regards England, France only exports gold there very exceptionally. The B.o.E. raises its discount, not because it has no coin, but because it is not permitted to issue enough notes. The void is made up by delays, by credit. It is filled up from Paris, Brussels, Lyons, everywhere, because there is always everywhere disposable capital. The contents of the till of the B.o.F. are not 1/100 of the disposable capital in the county. … The consequence of a different rate of interest between France and England is that on the Continent – at Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Antwerp, Brussels, and in Switzerland, bankers retain English bills of exchange which bring in 7%, and greatly prefer taking them to accepting paper on Paris at 4 or 5. But as the demand for bills on London at 7% augments the demands for bills at a long date, the price rises, and the difference disappears – the level is re-established. … The bills of exchange on London, which the elevation of interest keeps naturally on the continent, not being presented for discount at the B. o. England, the demand for rates declines, and the equilibrium is re-established.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. März 1866. S. 352.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Apprehended mercantile convulsion in America

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Der English clown, der diesen Artikel schreibt, heißt Bonamy Price. (Bon ami Price!)

»A commercial convulsion is apprehended in America.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(nicht in England, where it came to pass in a week’s time!)
Whether it comes to pass, or whether it is averted, in either case alike it furnishes a striking illustration of the mischievousness of that form of tax which consists in levying money by means of an inconvertible paper currency.[«]

Aus:
The Economist, 24. März 1866. S. 353/354.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Professional and Amateur Farmers.

We all recollect that Mr. Mechi, when most loudly proclaiming the profitable character of his own farming, could never be induced, either by taunt or persuasion, to publish his balance sheet.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. März 1866. S. 356–358.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

Discountmarket tending to lower rates. The reduction of the rate in Paris to 31/2% is also indicative of growing ease.

Heavy decline in the value of the shares of financial cos this week has carried alarm amongst holders. Commencing in a speculative movement, it was accelerated by rumours carelessly or maliciously repeated, and ended in a condition of the markets rarely seen save in times of panic. Happily, the state of the money market is such that a run upon any of the institutions alluded to is improbable etc.

Railways and other shares.

Banking shares have, in common with the shares of the financial and discount cos., suffered somewhat, though in a much smaller degree. Indian guaranteed stocks have to some extent, participated in the general decline, and are lower. Financial shares have been rudely shaken by a rapid succession of sales, for which those most interested and best informed are totally unable to account. The shares of the International Financial Society declined rapidly from 1/4 prem. to 3/4 discount on rumours, completely unfounded, of an impending call. Ditto decline in the shares of the General Credit Co. It is remarkable that the shares of these 2 cos. should have been singled out for bear operations, as it would be difficult to injure their position or to succeed in any object affecting them, except so far as the loss to individual shareholders sacrificing their shares in the general alarm might be concerned. The shares of both cos. are 20£, and the deposits in the hands of the two are hardly worth naming. On the shares of the International Financial 5l. is paid, on those of the General Credit 4£, Hudson’s Bay shares, fully paid up, have also shared the general depreciation, and in several other cos. the decline in value very considerable.

Closing quotations this evening (24 March): International Financial Society 4/16 to 7/16 discount. General Credit, par to 1/8 premium. Credit Mobilier and Financier Foncier 11/4 to 11/2 premium, show a fall of 1l. in the day. Overend, Gurney et Co at 13/4 prem., are also lower. Imperial Mercantile, at 3/4 to 1/2 discount, also lower. Some few orders from shareholders at a distance have tended to the further decline of most of these shares, but  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
the state of public opinion and feelings in town appears to be more satisfactory.|

39

31 March 1866. N. 1179.

Aus:
The Economist, 31. März 1866. S. 378–380.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The good and bad Mode of making minor railways.

At this moment all persons concerned in making many of the newest minor railways are half ruined by it – the shareholders and directors who have been led to incur personal liability rather than that the line in which they are interested should stop in the middle; the contractor who took his payment in shares of the co. now worthless; the finance cos. which lent money on „Lloyd’s bonds“ of the Co. and on bills of the directors-bonds now all but worthless, and bills hard to get paid.

Three motives induce people to make minor railways in England: 1) The greatest number are made out of contention. (Theils auf debateable land zwischen 2 grossen cos. Dann the co. worsted in the mixed district, invaded the antagonist cos’ peculiar district; that co. retaliated and so on in a course surprising, for both parties half knew they were lessening their income.[)] 2) On speculation. A contractor who sees a district which 2 great cos. both want, makes a line there, and sells the line to the highest bidder. His trade being construction, he generally gets a fair profit of his adventure, and a large profit if the rival cos. are eager bidders, though of late the high rate of interest and the quantity of such securities in the market have made it difficult for him to get money on terms which would pay, have always made his trade difficult, and often ruined him altogether. 3) On vanity. An engineer and a lawyer, sure to gain, induce gentlemen of a district „on public grounds“ to take shares in a railway and to become directors of it. Letztre oft ruined.

To insure good faith and solvency of the promoters, Parliament tried two ways:

1) It prescribed a „subscription contract“ to be signed in sufficient amount by solvent persons pledging themselves to make the railway. The subscription lists were filled with unsatisfactory names, schwer to detect. Committee (Parliament) in London no judge of persons in province etc[.] System broke down.

2) Present plan: Parliament required a certain sum of money or stock to be deposited by the promoters of the line. The promoters simply borrow that money or stock on their credit or on their securities; very commonly the lender’s name is placed in the books of the B.o.E. along with that of the promoter’s; the stock or the money does not go out of his possession, and when the bill is passed, the borrowed capital is returned to the lender and is not used to make the railway. Just before the „depositing“ season all banks are besieged to lend their stock for this purpose, and its deposit, in fact, shows neither bona fides nor solvency; it shows only that the promoters can get a certain sum into hands upon a secured promise to return it. There is often no company when the bill is passed, even if there is afterwards. (So this plan has also broken down.)

Many non-paying railways exceedingly benefit the places through which they pass, and do so even when no manipulation of fares would make them pay any better. It may often be for the substantial good of a whole district to have a railway, though that railway, after the most remunerative settlement of fares, will only just meet working expenses, and never yield a dividend. The reason is that the railway benefits the stationary property which you cannot charge as well as the conveyed property which you do charge. You can only make a line pay its shareholders by taxing the people and things that travel on the railway. But besides these the whole saleable value of the land of the district is enhanced sometimes almost fabulously. A pretty residence near London, suitable to a man of substantial business, if near a railway, will sell for a price that could never pay the purchaser 2%. But if that residence was far from a railway, it would not get into the market … The case of building land of poor quality is still stronger. The London Chatham and Dover railway does not pay a dividend, perhaps it is not likely to do so; yet, it is well known, that it has enhanced the value of the estates through which it passes, often very much. An estate used to be worth 41,000l. becomes in a few years worth 60,000l., and other similar figures. In many cases no tariff will make these railways give a good dividend … Yet this maximum rate (for goods’ and passengers’ fares) may not to be enough to do more than keep the railway open, while all round the rails the land and the houses may be rising rapidly in price.

Richtige Methode in Switzerland und France. The railway, or portion of it, is made out of the canton or country rate. The sum is borrowed at once and paid off annually during a term of years. Thus the stationary property benefited pays its fair part of the charge. The |40 canton or department investigates which line suit the locality best, selects the line, and raises by local taxation the necessary funds.

Aus:
The Economist, 31. März 1866. S. 382.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Meetings of Agricultural labourers.

The agricultural mind is disturbed. The Mark Lane Express is unhappy. Cattle plague und nun obendrein: the helpless labourers are becoming less patient and less helpless in the matter of wages. Even in husbandry, there is in many districts a demand for labour not altogether easily supplied. In Scotland, the meetings of the ploughmen and other farm workmen have been numerous, and indicated much purpose and good sense on the part of those workmen.

Lately, however, there has been a meeting of agricultural labourers at Maidstone, Kent „for the purpose of taking into consideration their present low wages, with the view of taking steps for an increase thereof“. 4–500 labourers from all the neighbouring parishes. It was agreed: „That this meeting is of opinion, considering the great rise in provisions and other necessaries, together with the fact that nearly every branch of industry had received an increase of pay, that the farmers in this district be solicited to grant their labourers an advance of 6d. p. day upon their present scale of wages.“ They also resolved „that an increase of 2d. on the shilling upon the present scale of piece work be sought for as commensurate with that of day-work“. Endlich: „that it is the duty of the employers to permit their men to leave their work at 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon.“ Of course it must depend on the state of the labour market in Kent whether the rural labourers have or have not any prospect of success … The attempt, however, shows that there are some circumstances rendering success to be apparently possible. At an adjourned meeting 600 labourers were present, and then it was determined to memoralise the farmers of West Kent in conformity with the foregoing resolutions. A 1000 signatures were rapidly attached to such memorial. Doubtless many farmers will regard such a movement much as the workhouse dignitary regarded Oliver Twist when asking for more. That seems in part the spirit in which the Mark Lane Express deals with it. Our contemporary also applies the sort of „mutual confidence“ argument so often and so absurdly directed towards the farmers themselves on the part of their landlords. … This is not a question of sympathy at all. The landlord has made a hard bargain with his tenant, giving him scant security, and many burdens, and drawing as much rent as can be got; while the farmer, in his turn, drives the hardest bargain he can with his men. … This pressure on the part of their labourers arises out of the improving circumstances of the country, its continuance is inevitable, its increase more than probable. What is their remedy? They must relieve themselves from some of the pressure they sustain from above; insist on rational leases; shake off the game and the gamekeeper; require their landlords to do the necessary landlords’ improvements, render their farms fit for the occupation of enterprising and capitalist tenants. Let them do this, and they will find there is a power, at present latent, in the soil to produce more profits and higher wages.

Aus:
The Economist, 31. März 1866. S. 385–387.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Discount and Money Market.

Money is steadily cheapening. Abroad, wie in England, besonders in France, the accumulation of capital goes on, and paper of London is readily taken as an investment at the higher rates prevailing here. Dennoch at Bank und in open market a sustained inquiry, owing to the approach of the quarter and the consequent necessity of providing for matured engagements in commercial circles. Some of the discount houses and financial establishments have also found themselves under the necessity of providing against the probable withdrawal of deposits by the public. The foreign exchanges, already high, seem likely to be supported, as the wool sales just concluded have proved heavy, and a larger amount than usual is likely to be exported from this country.|

41

Foreign stocks. Considerable fall in almost all securities. State of Affairs in Germany, Fenian demonstrations in America. Jedoch little doubt that forced sales of stock to meet the losses incurred on financial and miscellaneous shares, with those effected in consequence of the closing of many loan accounts, have had much more to do with the decline.

Railway shares: In England Railway prices steady or rather higher.

Indian stocks and shares have recovered from the decline, from now at higher prices than those previously attained.

Banking shares in a few cases lower. The amount of acceptances afloat gives colour to the rumour that „financial“ business entered into more or less extensively by several of the less cautious joint stock banks.

Financial shares: A call of £5 announced in 2 instalments on the shares of the Imperial Mercantile Co. proved the signal for a fresh downward movement. On the settling day, however, the accounts showed a tolerably even state of things; perhaps the bear accounts were the most numerous. It was evident that a large number of sales had been effected by persons more or less alarmed at the prevailing rumours, but on the other hand fresh investors seem to have carried off the shares thus brought to market. While Imperial Mercantile and Overend, Gurney etc shares were heavy at lower prices, the markets were firmer in General Credit, International Financial, Credit Mobilier, and Foncier, and some few others that have all along presented stronger features than the rest.

Aus:
The Economist, 31. März 1866. S. 393.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manchester Market.

Manchester market, March 29, inactive; owing to the continued report of considerable quantities of cotton, prices slightly declined.



April 7. 1866. N. 1180.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. April 1866. S. 405.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Corn Duty.

Get rid of the remaining slight corn duty. It interferes with the cheap feeding of cattle, on which the farmers more and more depend every year to pay their rent. Some things can only be done near the market, and fatting cattle is one of them. A long transit makes an animal lean again, and therefore by a natural law an animal should be made fit to eat as close as may be to the place where it is to be eaten. The farmers in the vicinity of great towns have discovered this, and will act on it more and more.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. April 1866. S. 406–408.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

American Finance.

One of the „original“ American taxes which the commissioners do not propose to abolish – is a stamp on matches. One cent on each bunch. Brachte 1865 250,000l. There was raised in America by internal revenue:

£
1863 8,000,000
1864 23,000,000
1865 42,000,000

Und zwar von 150 heads of taxation. The income of the U. St. in the financial year ending 30th June 1865 was 65 Mill. £; but in the quarter ending 30 Sept. 1865 it was 32,000,000£.

The commissioners recommend: 1) to reduce the tax on distilled spirits from 2 to 1 dollars. 2) recommend a tax of 5 cents per lb on cotton to be „levied and collected from the manufacturer“, where the cotton is worked up at home, and from the merchant at the port of export where it is sent away for use abroad. 3d) income tax to be levied on incomes über 200l. a year statt jezt über 120l. Customs und Excises werden geben mit den andren taxes 87,000,000l., Expenditure 60 Mill. £, Surplus: 27 Mill. l. St. Schlagen vor 1) to repeal the taxes on many articles of luxury; 2) to repeal a duty on the repairs of engines, ships, cars, carriages etc. 3) a repeal of a portion of the tax on clothing. The great Tax Bill |42 imposes an excise duty levied on the manufacturer of 5% on boots, shoes, gloves, mittens, hats, caps, bonnets, cloth and cotton clothes, and „all articles of dress not otherwise assessed.“  Siehe Karl Marx: Le capital: „La fiscalité moderne, dont les impôts sur les objets de première nécessité - et partant l’enchérissement de ceux-ci, formaient de prime abord le pivot, renferme donc en soi un germe de progression automatique. La surcharge des taxes n’en est pas un incident, mais le principe.“ (MEGA² II/7. S. 673.21–24.)
Schließen
This is taxing the working classes more certainly than any despot would dare to tax them;
and it is interfering with trade more than an „old world“ Gvt dared to interfere with. In America this tax has yielded more than 2 millions l. St.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. April 1866. S. 413/414.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

British deer farmers.

The potato blight in Ireland formed the last argument which condemned the Corn Laws; the cattle plague may prove the death-blow of that economical crime so widely perpetrated in this country, the appropriation of useful land to deer forests or game preserves. In every county in England there are dozens, perhaps 100 of game preserves, wherein hares, rabbits and pheasants waste and consume the agricultural products, which naturally and economically would be applied by the farmers in the rearing and fattening domestic animals for meat.

In Scotland, in the Highlands in particular, men no longer wanted as vassals, having been displaced for sheep, the sheep in turn have made way for deer.

Prof. Leone Levi schwatzte at recent meeting of the Society of Arts, on deer forests and Highland agriculture. The management of Highland property vermindre die production of food. Jezt the population of the Highland counties very scanty, only 22 persons per □ mile, obgleich diese districts once full of crofters and small occupiers. A farm is seldom to be met with, and miles and miles may be walked over without coming to a cottage. „The plan of depopulating the Highlands,“ sagt er, „and destroying the crofters has been forced and carried to a point inimical to the best interests of the country.“

The crofters occupied land of which the rental for each holding was little more on the average than 30l. a year, and the plan usually adopted was to turn out the tenants, burn down their cottages (often before their eyes) crowd them into fishing villages on the seashores, and convert all the arable land into pasture, on which sheep in large numbers were fed. Though the climate is unsuitable for wheat, oats and barley could be grown, and with roots and green crops would have largely increased the capacity of the Highlands for sheep breeding. It may be questioned, too, whether some amount of cattle should not have been still bred. The crofters were in the aggregate extensive cattle breeders, though of inferior sorts. Levi sagt: „Under the old system, it is said, the people collected in the glens and valleys between the mountains produced but little corn, and were mainly dependent upon cattle. By the overthrow of the cottier system, the clearing of the glens and the introduction of sheep farms, extensive mountain land, formerly useless, has been made productive etc.“

⦗Depopulation and conversion into mere sheep-walk presented the readiest means of income without outlay. …

From the depth of a sheep-walk, the lower deep of a deer forest has been a common change in the Highlands. The sheep are now turned out for the sake of wild animals, as men were once turned out to make room for sheep.⦘ „It is estimated (says the Professor) that there are in Scotland upwards of 2 Millions acres of forests; ⦗and one can walk from the Earl of Dalhousie’s estates in Forfarshire to John o’Groats, without ever leaving forest land.⦘ I might mention the forests of Alyth, Athol, and Dummie, in Perthshire; of Balnagowan and Lewis, in Rossshire; of Boyn and Glenavon, in Banffshire; of Mar |43 and Birsa, in Aberdeenshire; of  The Economist: Gaiak
Schließen
Gajak
, in Inverness-shire; and of Platers in Forfarshire. ⦗In many of these the fox, wild cat, the marten, the polecat, the weasel, and the Alpine hare are common; whilst the rabbit, the squirrel, and the rat have lately made their way into the country. Immense tracts of lands, much of which is described in the statistical account of Scotland as having a ‚pasturage in richness and extent of very superior description‘, are thus shut out from all cultivation and improvement, and are solely devoted to the sport of a few persons for a very brief period of the year.⦘ It has been gravely asserted that there is only a difference in the kind of meat produced. But who will compare beef or mutton with venison? Who eats venison as food? Beef is the sustenance of the many; venison is the luxury of the few.“ High rents are or rather have been obtained for deer forests under the influence of fashion. Such rent is not wealth – it is not derived from the soil – it is simply the price paid by some overwealthy individual for the luxury of plunging for a few hours into the sports of the wilderness. Is not this what was done by our Norman conquerors? … Allowing that a certain amount of produce is extracted from the chase in venison and grouse, the market value of such produce is inconsiderable and altogether incommensurate with the expenditure incurred for such forests, while the permanent injury committed on the land, and far more, the withdrawal of such large portions of land from productive purposes, especially from sheep and cattle, must be considered as most injurious to the country at large.



April 14. 1866. N. 1181

Aus:
The Economist, 14. April 1866. S. 437/438.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Prophezeiungen)

 Bemerkung von Marx.
Schließen
Folgende köstliche Klugscheisserei à l’envers:

Many persons, especially those old enough to remember past times, and so to form their standards by those times, have great difficulties in comprehending the present times. A new element has been introduced which they do not appreciate, and of which they do not follow the effect. Formerly great disasters occurred together. A fancied cycle of 10 years has been laid down for their recurrence. But now failures happen at comparatively distant intervals. After a period of excited business like 1863 and part of 1864 many failures are inevitable. The number of mistakes is so great as to ensure an equal number of ruins, and these are now happening from day to day. First the Joint Stock Discount Co., then another Co., then a private firm … But the misfortunes of these people now hurt no one but themselves. The Bank of England now manage well and they used to manage ill. The directors used to let the reserve run low, and at every period of consecutive failures there was then the probability of a panic. Now the B.o.E. manage well, keep their till full, and the failure of 50 discount cos., and the depreciation of all manner of shares, produces no real effect on the world at large. We are now carrying on the trade of the country with a sufficient balance at our bankers; we used to carry it on with an insufficient balance. …  Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Der wiseacre prophezeit, daß money auf 5% fallen wird.
 |44 Our Credit is on the whole excellent.

As to bullion: The peculiar cause which has affected our cash balance of late years was the necessity of paying in bullion for cotton.

Imports of Cotton in the Two Months ended Feb. 28.
1864 1865 1866
cwts cwts cwts
From U. States 721 5,719 570,735
Bahamas und Bermuda 41,955 69,094 2,551
Mexico 9,411 49,645 1,391
Brazil 41,869 69,981 93,728
Turkey 18,540 23,345 13,616
Ejypt 159,591 322,663 148,268
Brit. India 233,645 186,104 305,907
China 28,988 45,652 …   
Other countries 10,010 39,398 17,926
Total 544,754 811,601 1,154,122.

Aber die increase owing to the new imports von den Un. St., für welche in commodities und nicht in bullion gezahlt wird. Taking the difference of price into account, the Oriental demand is less than last year for past imports, and while cotton falls as now, no speculative outlay is likely.

The imports of corn much heavier this year than last, nämlich:

Imports of Corn in the two months ended Feb. 28
1864 1865 1866
cwts. cwts. cwts.
Wheat from Russia 532,722 588,089 2,310,657
Prussia 850,482 133,239 148,483
Denmark 161,248 59,448 28,803
Schleswig, Holstein u. Lauenburg 73,112 20,819 22,437
Mecklenburg 107,094 24,828 4,550
Hanse Towns 105,065 74,905 16,414
France 281,628 71,571 745,439
Turkey, Moldavia, Wallachia 128,868 37,923 143.140
Ejypt 206,003
United States 1,167,253 118,790 259,797
Brit. Nort America 10,838 2,294 8,727
Other countries 68,996 58,558 490,230
Total: 3,693,309 1,130,464 4,178,686
Barley 1,009,036 1,097,846 905,285
Oats 490,297 547,555 617,719
Peas 141,759 29,621 97,384
Beans 241,525 85,992 37,767
Indian corn or maize 285,372 780,078 2,439,627
Wheatmeal and flour from France 625,424 344,781 1,048,539
from Hansetowns 68,877 29,255 26,624
from United States 350,727 48,303 120,997
Brit. North America 3,779 8,024 4,343
Other countries 9,818 7,438 55,116
Total 1,058,625 437,801 1,255,619 |

45

Aus:
The Economist, 14. April 1866. S. 439–441.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The American Paper Money.

An irredeemable currency is a local currency. It only affects trade within the state, has no effect on trade between that state and other states.

F.i. An English merchant ships goods to New York, sells them for greenbacks, cannot use them in and have them remitted to England. He must buy one of 3 things with them, other goods or gold, or a bill of exchange. When he buys either of these he suffers by the depreciation of the currency as much as he gained before. [»]At first, the depreciation of the currency acts upon some commodities and not on others; those articles desired by the first possessors of the new currency are the first to rise, and then those desired by the second possessors, – those who have sold their goods to the first, and so on through society. But there is no general rule that imported products should feel the influence of new money first; it all depends upon what the first purchasers want to buy: those articles rise first, the rest rise afterwards.«

Aus:
The Economist, 14. April 1866. S. 444/445.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Isaac Pereire’s Evidence before the Banque Enquête.

Is. Pereire. Whilst the B.o.E. escaped from the consequences of the crisis of 1847, owing to the power of extending its issues, it was by the sale of its rentes to Russia, that is to say, by the realisation in coin of the immobilised portion of its capital, that the Bank o. France attained the same object. The year following, in 1848, the capital of the B. o. France being again placed in rente, it was obliged to solicit from the Gvt. the suspension of the cash payments for its notes. … the B. o. Engld. only needs the power of issuing more notes, the B. o. France is in need of more money.

There is no mutual dependence between the 2 establishments. The B. o. France might easily maintain its discount when the B. o. Engl. raises it rate. The proof is that now (26 Dec. 1865) there is a difference of 2% between the 2 banks. The discount is at 4 in France, and 6 in England, and yet gold from that country is constantly flowing in here, which indicates sufficiently that the B.o.F. has nothing to fear from the B. o. Engl. If the difference were to attain 3 or even 4%; the same would be the case, if the exchanges were in favour of France. That fact, besides, is not new, for in 1847 a difference of 3% long existed in the discount of the 2 countries.

When the Bk.o.E. raises its discount, a certain superfluity of bills of exchange payable at London comes naturally to Paris to find an easier and more advantageous market. The B. o. France, in such a case, instead of following the B.o.E. in its usurious policy – to take itself part of these bills of exchange, and so aid our neighbours. This indirect assistance, which would give it the opportunity of very usefully employing parts of its funds, would promptly put an end to the ephemeral crises which arise each year; it would enable the B.o.F., if necessary, to exercise a salutary action on exchanges, or … by the negotiation of those same bills when the price of paper on London should have a tendency to rise, in a proportion disquieting to its till. The Bank o. F. could besides if necessary employ those bills on London to purchase gold in England.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. April 1866. S. 447.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton during the civil war.

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Der Kerl übersieht, rechnet nicht ein, die Schwarzerde etc)

 Von Marx verwendet in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 68.19–24).
Schließen
The (British) export of yarn and manufactured goods in 1862, 1863, 1864, more than equalled all the supplies of cotton during those years; the former amounting in weight to 1,208,920,000 lbs; and the latter, after deducting the raw cotton re-exported, and reducing the remainder to its equivalent weight in yarn, being only 1,187,369,000 lbs.
Folgt daher:

1)  Von Marx verwendet im Brief an Engels vom 9. Dezember 1868. Siehe auch die Briefe von Marx an Engels vom 12. und 14. Dezember 1868.
Schließen
on 1. Jan. 1862 in the U. Kingd. stock of raw cotton and cotton manufacturers more than sufficient to supply the home consumption for 3 years;
and that the  Von Marx übernommen in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 68.26–27).
Schließen
people here have been provided during this period with clothing, whose material previously here accumulated
.

2) The enhancement of prices, which, within the period named, amounted to 100%, was not really paid by the people of this country, taken collectively; viz[.], so far as the stocks on Jan. 1 1862, belonged to natives or residents in this country. … The advance (vor dem 100% Aufschlag) of cotton prices already materially before the end of 1861, and attained their highest range in the summer of 1864; from which there was a decline of 25% before the end of the year. But the prices of yarns and manufactures had risen but little before January 1862. In 1865 a lower range of prices on the whole prevailed, and the supplies were more than sufficient to cover the export: being |46 equivalent to 580,714,000 lbs of yarn against 478,240,000 exported, the difference, however, furnishing only 2/3 of the estimated home consumption.

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(All dieß stüzt sich auf report of Messrs. Ellison and Haywood, published in der annual review des Economist 10 March 1866)
This relates solely to the prices paid for cotton and cotton goods in this country, which do not seem to have occasioned a direct national loss during the period of the great rise of prices. The effects of the diminished supply of cotton in the enforced reduction of consumption, the curtailment of wages, loss of interest on capital invested etc, certainly constitute a very serious national loss.

 Marx übertrug diese Tabelle in seinen Brief an Engels vom 12. Dezember 1866 und übertrug und übersetzte sie in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 68) und diskutierte dort die Angaben.
Schließen
Statistics of Cotton in the U. Kingd. 1862, 1863 und 1864.

1862 1863 1864
Cotton imported 533,176 691,847 896,770 thousands of lbs
  Do.    exported 216,963 260,934 247,194
Available to Consumption 316,213 430,913 649,576
Waste in spinning 53,756 64,637 90,940
Equal to production in yarn of 262,457 366,276 558,636 Total 1,187,369
Export of yarn 88,554 70,678 71,951
Do. in piecegoods etc 324,128 321,561 332,048
412,682 392,239 403,399 1,208,920

April 21. 1866. N. 1182.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. April 1866. S. 469.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

Drain of silver to the East has almost died away; bar silver at former prices is almost unsaleable etc[.] tendency to expect cheaper money.

Some gold was taken for Paris; it is said in connection with the German Political difficulties, but rather perhaps with the large amount of foreign money now in London, which would leave us when the value of money became much lower than when that money was sent here.

Failure of Barned’s Banking Co: (Liverpool) Banks which have advanced largely on speculative securities, or lent on cotton, at treacherously high prices, and either with no margin or a margin which faded away just when it was wasted, must fail.

The main doctrine for the times is  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(d.h. die ruling Dummheit im head des Economist)
… that the failures of those who have done bad business will in the present state of credit hurt no one but themselves; that what we now have is a gradual and successive weeding out of unsound speculators, whereas in old times they all failed at once in a mercantile crash and national disaster.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Weiser Salomon!

Aus:
The Economist, 21. April 1866. S. 470/471.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Debt.

Remove a defective quality in the soil, or, by a railway f.i., the distance from a good market, and the farmer remains as he was: the improvement in the land is a benefit not to the hirer of the land but to the owner of the land – it enables him to raise his rent.

It is often said by those who advocate the payment of the debt, that we are squandering, or have squandered the wealth of posterity. But we can only spend what exists. Whether we raise money for a war by taxes or by loans, we equally raise it at once: it comes equally out of the present money of the living nation. Those who succeed are injured, but it is in a manner more refined. The expense of raising the interest, the expense that is of transferring a certain sum from A, B, C, D, E, F, etc, |47 who are the nation, to X, Y, Z, the, in comparison, few creditors of the nation … Posterity is injured by the use of loans by a former generation, and the non-payment of those loans, not in having lost the capital which those loans represent; that capital would have been equally lost if raised by taxes; but in having a constant annual expense in shifting the interest from one man to another, and in being obliged to use all the best taxes in that manner, and having consequently no good taxes (or at any rate fewer) in readiness for a sudden emergency. „Taxing posterity“ means making posterity pay more taxes and worse taxes.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. April 1866. S. 481/482.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Share Market.

Railway shares firmer, the doubt and anxiety prevailing with regard to some of the financial and banking cos. leading to investments in stocks. The American securities firmly maintained; advance in the U. St. 5% bonds, close at 70 to 701/4. Colonial securities steady. In India there is a firm market.

Financial shares had recovered in several instances from 5s. to 25d. per share when the news of the suspension of Barned’s Bk. Co. produced fresh gloom. The shares of the General Credit Co firm; of International Financial Society steady. Those of Credit Mobilier and Foncier have slightly relapsed, and the quotation of Imperial Mercantile and Overend, Gurney et Co shares is lower, after operations of considerable amount. In Banking shares, Alliance Bank have fallen to 21/2 to 2 disc. Many of the new associations have suffered in price.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. April 1866. S. 487/488.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Liverpool. April 19. Prices Current. Cotton Trade.

Same Period 1865
Descriptions. Ord. Mid. Fair. Good Fair. Good Fine Mid. Fair Good.
Sea Island 28d. 30d. 36d. 44d. 58d. 72d. 37d. 42d. 58d.
Upland 121/2 141/4 16 13 15
Mobile 121/2 141/4 161/4 131/4
New Orleans 121/2 143/4 17 131/2 16
Egyptian 12 15 181/2 113/4 123/4 15
Surat. Broach 71/2 81/2 113/4 121/2 13 61/2 91/2
Dhollerah 71/2 81/2 113/4 121/2 13 61/2 91/2
Bengal 71/2 81/2 9 91/2 101/2 41/2 53/4
China 121/2 13 61/2 73/4

The cotton market was heavy on Friday, and on Saturday a further and decided decline was submitted to, quotations becoming almost nominal. This extreme depression attracted the attention of buyers, particularly for consumption, and a large business was done on Monday and Tuesday, accompanied by a rally in prices. Yesterday upon later advices of full receipts in the American parts the demand again fell off, and prices gave way. This morning the existing want of confidence increased by the announcement of the difficulties of a local bank, and business was checked; as the day advanced there was more steadiness, but the quotations still show a decline of about 11/2d. to 2d. from last week’s rates.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. April 1866. S. 489.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manchester, April 19.

With the exception of Tuesday, when a momentary check to the downfall of prices was felt, every day this week has shown increasing depression, to-day increased by rumours of banking disaster in Liverpool, where nearly a million bales of cotton may be said to be almost in view. Sellers of both yarns and cloth have been eager for offers, but buyers have lost confidence day by day. A considerable amount of orders has been cancelled to spinners and manufacturers who had failed to deliver in stipulated time, and some needful portion of such orders has been re-bought in the market at a lower figure.



48

April 28, 1866. N. 1183.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. April 1866. S. 497/498.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

„Finance Paper“ and The Rate of Discount.

Facts [which have] become public during the last few weeks explain a considerable number of the phenomena of the money market during the last 2 years  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(1865 und 64)
or more. The lists of creditors of Mr. Savin, the great contractor for Welsh railways; of Mr. Watson, another contractor; of the Contract Corporation; of Smith, Knight and Co (Limited), also contractors; and of some others, show very clearly the sort of financial influence by which the 100 of Railway bills before every session of Parliament are suggested and sustained, and also the kind of financial devices by which the works themselves are started and carried forward.

Twenty years ago or less, when a railway was projected … people of some sort were found to subscribe beforehand for the shares, and to bind themselves to pay future calls till the line was made … with all the delusions and iniquities of subscription contracts, it is substantially true that until within a late period the costly public works of this country were made by virtue of a previous agreement among a large number of bona fide subscribers, each prepared, or believing he was prepared, to find his quota. In the numerous cases where the adventure was a mistake, the loss and suffering were diffused and severe, and the unlucky contributors were driven to straits and economies painful to contemplate. … The pressure of the period of excessive railway construction, from 1845 to 1853, fell directly, as it ought to do, on the savings of the country. The payments to the contractors were raised by calls from the shareholders, and the shareholders paid the calls by saving out of income, or by the sale of previous investments. But this system was gradually exploded, and for the last few years has been given up altogether. A project for a railway, dock, pier, or other public work, requiring a large conversion of floating capital into fixed, is now concocted by a knot of 4 or 5 persons, consisting of a solicitor, an engineer, a parliamentary agent, a contractor, and a financier. Some of the party have the command of the few thousands necessary to pay for surveys and indispensable preliminaries. They have, in most cases, name and position enough to enable them to borrow as much money as carries them as far as the Royal assent. That once obtained, the Act becomes a lively instrument of Credit. The directors issue Lloyd’s bonds, debentures, stock, preference shares, and the like to the contractor, and he in his turns turn finds avenues in the money market where, for rates of interest and commission almost fabulous, cash is to be had on these securities. Now, these securities are a mere speculation on the future, and a speculation subject to one principal and many smaller casualties. I) The line must be finished and placed in actual working before the obligations representing its cost can have any ascertained value at all. An unfinished railway or dock has no value whatever. II.) The line must not only be finished and actually worked, but in order to impart value to the bonds and shares there must be a positive profit surplus. The difference between securities such as these – wholly dependent on future and uncertain events to happen at distant and irregular dates, and liable to become worthless by the premature stoppage of the undertaking – and the class of securities which experience has shown to be best suited to the requirements of bankers and money dealers –, is not only marked in its character, but so wide and glaring |49 as to prepare any prudent person to expect mischief. Mischief has certainly followed in no limited measure.

There has been in the money market for some time past a very large amount indeed of these „financial securities“. Sicher no less than 5 or 6 millions or more. Many of them have been pushed off among banks who ought to have known better than listen to the temptation of extravagant rates on the bills of persons … wholly engaged in contracts more or less hazardous. Of course, there was the collateral security of bonds, debentures or shares. But both the promissory note or acceptance of the borrower and the collateral security were alike beyond the range of prudent bankers or discount brokers. The Joint Stock Disc. Co. with its millions of liabilities on one side falling due day by day, and its millions of finance securities on the other falling due goodness knows when or where, is the most extreme and lamentable carricature caricature of this folly.

The effect of the system has been to shift the burden of the largest part of the public works of the last few years from the savings in detail of the investing classes of the country and fasten it upon the merchants and others legitimately resorting to the money market for the discount of their ordinary trade bills, and for advances required for short periods to meet the nature of their business. The contractor making a railway in Wales, or Somersetshire, or elsewhere, has appeared in London, or Liverpool, or smaller places where banks are to be found, and has got his bill at 4 or 6 months discounted at twice or thrice the current rate of the time, fortifying it of course by a deposit of collateral security. When the due date arrived the bill could not be paid. It must be renewed, and renewed it has been, not once but several times. Now and then the lender has been lucky enough to get repaid out of his securities, or out of the pocket of some new party discovered and cajoled by the assiduous exertions of the well-paid and plausible emissaries of the people wanting the cash. The end of the process has been a lock-up of funds in advances which are really and truly mortgages on unfinished public works, or on public works struggling into profitable existence.

During the last month or two it is probable that there has been some clearance  The Economist: of this finance paper
Schließen
of finance paper
. The borrowers on it have been, in one way or another, enabled to offer securities to bona fide at prices which had led to a real distribution among the public – or, what is the same thing, a class of real shareholders has been found, not before the line was made or the calls required, but after both these things have been accomplished at a sacrifice about which prudence and pity alike counsel silence.

The finance cos. were set up expressly to do this sort of intermediate work, but have not done it at all well. Sie konnten nur lend safely what they possessed safely, their own capital and the deposits lent to them for long periods expiring at various dates. They resorted to credit; they counted upon the facilities of the market; and when the market ceased to be facile, because contractors were found to miscalculate and to fail, then the finance cos. had to turn round on their shareholders and call up in a hurry and [in] the midst of panic the capital they had been foolish enough to lend to others before they had it in hands themselves. … A bill of exchange drawn against goods bona fide produced and sold is a security which the ordinary consumption of the country will carry off and pay for, and is therefore a safe and proper instrument for circulation among bankers or bill brokers. A bill of exchange drawn in reality against an unfinished public work is a pure speculation on the possibility of that public work yielding a dividend on its cost, and finding purchasers in detail for its bonds or shares.

Fraud or misrepresentation should be punished as a criminal offence; as, f.e., by rendering personally liable the directors and officers actually signing any bond or security, which on the face of it implies any material circumstance at variance with the real facts of the case … Wenn dieß finance paper cleared out of the market, the rate of discount will then resume its former and proper function of indicating the relation between floating capital expressible only in terms of money on the one hand, and floating capital represented by merchantable bills and securities on the other.|

50

Aus:
The Economist, 28. April 1866. S. 501/502.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The East Indian Railway Scandal.

Handelt sich um the great line which serves the valley of the Ganges. The Gvt was forced to order an inquiry into certain great mischief, which the enormous and unexpected prosperity of the railway is inflicting upon commerce. Pressure already severe (auf den rolling stock) when the full weight of the cotton trade fell upon the railway, producing a scene, when its duration is taken into account, entirely without parallel. Every European house rayed out its agents into the NorthWest and Central Provinces in search of cotton. Every native firm began making advances and bribing the little holders, and from 50 districts as big as English counties cotton, the very existence of which was hardly suspected, came pouring towards the line. The stations were choked to the roof, and in a little while the idea of housing was given up and the cotton piled upon the plain. At Cawnpore, says Mr. Robert, official Chief Auditor of the Railway, there were after the greatest efforts had been made 20,000 bales of cotton lying piled in the station, 20,000 more on the plain round it, and 24,000,000 lbs were in the store-rooms of the native town, all waiting transport at once. This represents a property of 21/4 millions lying idle at one station. The railway officials could not carry it, had not, after they had strained their powers to the uttermost, sufficient engines or trucks or time, and by the by they found a reason for not hurrying. The owners wanted the cotton very much – Heißt z.B. in extract from the evidence of a partner in the House of Schoene, Kelburn et Co.: „I have to complain generally of the detention of cotton at Mirzapore and an unfair distribution of waggons. We had goods at Mirzapore ready for dispatch in December and January last, 2,545 bales of cotton, of which up to date we have only received 260 bales. Application to agent on 18. January, reply on the 19. The traffic manager was doing all in his power towards distributing the waggons wagons fairly, and agent was very much surprised to find subsequently, that private instructions were issued to the traffick manager to give the preference to the Commercial Transport Association in the allotment of the wagons. … on our total quantity of cotton at this date there is a loss compared with the prices to be realised in January of 5rs. per mound, in round numbers 30,000rs, and, as the firm has paid for all this cotton, they lose monthly 2,500rs. interest.“

Thus pressed the great European firms used their social weight both with the Co. and its officials, and so obtained occasional preferences, but the natives went more directly to the point. They bribed the station-masters. Fabulous sums were offered to subordinates on 300l. a year, one man’s wife making by a sale of preferences above 1,400l. a month. Outcry. It was seen that the Commercial Transport Association was always served first. Besides being very great customers, they owed the railway a heavy debt … preference given them to pay this off. Committee of Inquiry proposed that the trains should be put up to auction. Whoever paid most, should have his cotton carried first … not met (this) the merchants’ approval … It would render the price of cotton at the part altogether uncertain, the bids being high one day and lower the next, would enable a lucky bidder to undersell his neighbour, and completely suspend all trade in goods unable to bear the heavy premiums. No final orders have, we believe, been issued, and whole the Board in England are straining every nerve to meet the demand, there the cotton lies heaped round the central and Northern stations[.]

These Indian railways are in fact state railways. The state gives the land out of taxes, gives the interest out of taxes, and assumes a direct and most searching control of the administration. Muß also für das interest der natives so gut sorgen wie für das der Europeans, und das der community as well as that of the shareholders. This the sale by auction does not do. It is a direct prohibition to the grower of anything except cotton to use the state railway at all, and as regards cotton itself, gives the capitalist an unfair advantage over the small dealer.|

51

Aus:
The Economist, 28. April 1866. S. 502/503.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Pollution of the Thames.

»Pollution of the river from the paper mills and sewage. In both cases valuable manure wasted and river poisoned. From one paper mill above a ton of dry fertility matter is thrown daily into the stream. Throughout the whole course of the Thames, from Cricklade downwards, the sewage of cities, towns, villages and single towns is suffered to pass into the river.[«] [„]There is no form of scavenging practiced for the surface water of the Thames, but carcases of animals float down the stream until wasted by corruption. The river water receives unchecked the whole of the pollution, solid and fluid, of the district, and this same water, after it has so been polluted, is abstracted, sand-filtered, and pumped into the metropolis for domestic uses.“

The example of London in removing its sewage from the river has not been followed. The water below Oxford is useless for the manufacture of white paper and unfit for drinking … It is true that the river is not so absolutely sewer-like as it was when the main drainage of London was turned into it.

The Commissioners inquire what can be done with the sewage, and whether the irrigation of land with sewage, as carried on at Croydon, Norwood, Worthing, Carlisle, and Edinburgh, has any bad effects on the health of those places. It has no perceptible effect, and they strongly are urge its general adoption. Dr. Carpenter, of Croydon, said: no injury to the neighborhood had arisen from the irrigated fields, and there was but a very slight smell from them in hot weather, just before rain. According to Mr. Latham sewage is completely deodorised as it touches the earth. But great care is needed in the management of the sewer. They must be properly ventilated, and that outside the houses. The sewage water must be passed over a sufficient area of land, and not to near dwellings. But if these precautions be taken, the benefit of the sewage water to the land is invaluable. It goes off from the land bright, tasteless, and inodorous. Mr. Cousins, of South Norwood, who rents some of the irrigated land, has raised crops of grass of 50 tons of the acre. … Near Edinburgh, sewage irrigation has been used for two centuries, and though the conductors were suffered to get out of order, and to become reservoirs of stagnant sewage, no special class of disease has been generated through the sewage.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. April 1866. S. 504/505.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

How to profit by the plague.

Take f.i. Cheshire and other localities where the plague has been virulent. Much of the disease which attacks the dairy cows due to the wretched accommodation, or rather the absolute want of accommodation in housing them, and to the poor system of feeding them during the winter months, well nigh universal in dairy farm districts.

[„]In no case should undrained stiff clay lands be ploughed; the first crop may be tolerably satisfactory, but the expense of tillage afterwards, and the uncertainties of the seasons, will add so much to the cost of production, that there will be little left as profit. I would advocate the allotment of none but good land for arable cultivation, but no more of it than could be well managed; a little well done will be more profitable than double the extent only half farmed.“

A certain number of sheep and a certain quantity of ploughed land would be great improvements on Cheshire farms as helps and auxiliaries to dairy husbandry. Without ploughed land there can be no straw, absolutely necessary to the comfort and good management of cattle during the winter months.

The best fields on most farms (I speak of the average class of land in Cheshire, and not of the very light or sandy portion) are those which were boned many years ago, when never less than from 1 to 2 tons per acre were applied, most of which was in lumps of the size of a thump. These bones, it will be found on ploughing, have sunk 9 or 10 inches deep into the soil, and are lying there in a half-decomposited state; by ploughing you replace them near the surface |52 where the action of the air and repeated tillage reduce them to powder, and lays them under a renewed contribution as fertilisers. There are hundreds of fields also whose grasses are run out, to use a common phrase, and which, by growing in a weak and spiral form and by matting together as they grow longer, ask to be ploughed; they can be returned to permanent pasture even in a better state than when first broken up. In expenses of ploughing, sowing, reaping, and harvesting good land are all less than they are in poor unsuitable soil, and less still in fields conveniently near the homestead , which will be better for the tenant.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. April 1866. S. 508.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Share Market.

In financial shares trifling business. There is, in the Stockexchange and its „entourage“ a considerable „bear“ account or speculation for the fall. On the other hand, the public are in many instances uneasy, and on the slightest unsatisfactory news, reliable or otherwise, send constant supplies of shares upon the market.



5 May. 1866. N. 1189.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Mai 1866. S. 525/526.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Sudden Rise in the Rate of Interest.

Drain of bullion and diminution in the Bank Reserve. Heraufgesezt Bankrate zu 7%. Der Bullion drain nicht for the East wie lately. Es ist nicht an Oriental, but an European demand connected mit den operations of foreign Gvts now preparing for war, besonders der Italian Gvt. Continental capitalists are selling securities in this market, in order to supply the wants of the disturbing Gvts. The Bank return shows a large diminution in the reserve of notes.

1865 1864
£ £
Reserve of notes in the last account in April 7,551,000 5,520,000
Ditto first account in May 6,902,000 4,944,000
649,000 576,000.

 Für diese Stelle konnte keine Entsprechung im „Economist“ ermittelt werden. Möglicherweise Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
15 Mill. der Bank of E. (statt 14) seit 1863, in Folge Eingehens von issue country banks. (15 Mill. paper not issued against Gold.)

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Mai 1866. S. 531/532.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Agricultural Labourers on Strike.

The farm labourers in the village of Peasemore, Newbury, Berks have struck for an advance of wages. Their present pay is 9s. per week, and many of the men have large families. Some farmers have written to the Times that some of their labourers have received from 9s. 9d. to 14s. p. week since Michaelmas – probably by occasional piece-work or the aid of their wives and children – but the general rate of wages for ordinary farm labourers in the parish is not disputed to be 9s. p. week. The advance asked by these Berkshire men is 1sh. p. week. Throughout the rural districts of England there has been at certain times and in several districts an actual scarcity of labour. We know not how the rural workmen can avail themselves of this to them favourable state of the labourmarket so readily as by some general and combined action, and to those who have known the farm labourers of the West of England 20 or 30 years ago, the fact of theirs thus combining for the assertion of their own right to make the best bargains for their labour the market will afford is a sign of hope and promise.

Low wages produce a want of spirit and energy amongst the farm labourers, which often unfits or disinclines them for more active exertions than they have been accustomed to make even when offered better wages.|

53

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Mai 1866. S. 535/536.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Share Market.

Generally very low quotations. Financial shares have mostly given way, quotations in every case show a decline, and in many cases the fall has been severe. Rumours of calls, and the vague feeling of alarm still prompts the public to part with share. Operations for the fall are also active. Banking shares are also lower.



12 May. 1866. N. 1185.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 553/554.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the City.

The failure of Overend, Gurney et Co (Limited) has given occasion to a panic more suitable to their historical than their recent reputation. Overend, Gurney unlimited, for the sake of high interest took bad securities. As to Overend, Gurney and Co. (Limited), they did the best they could, but could hardly help bringing over old business of very questionable nature from the old firm. … Lombardstreet has been thronged and almost stopped by curious wanderers in a way we never saw it stopped before, and on the whole we doubt  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(trotz seiner beständigen Prophezeiung des Gegentheils!)
if there ever was a collapse of credit more diffused and more complete.

It has hardly been observed how new an element of danger limited cos introduce. The moment the operations of the Stock Exchange depress their prices, that instant a run begins. Many cos may go which did not deserve it merely from the depression of their shares.

Bk. act of 1844 must be suspended. Large sums have been withdrawn from the Banking department to-day, notes to a great amount have gone into the country, discounts and advances at the Bank have swelled to an extent almost unprecedented. If these demands have reduced the Bank reserve to such a state as 1847 and 1848 … it is not a matter of theory (die suspension des Bankacts von 1844) at all; it is plain insolvency and must be mended somehow … After a certain though very late period yesterday, the Bank did not make advances on Gvt. securities, wohl weil their reserve was in danger of exhaustion. If the B.o.E., the sole banker of the English Gvt., will not advance on the securities of that Gvt, there is no saying what may happen to any one. … As to the General state of the trade of the country, we have no doubt of its substantial soundness.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Hurrah!

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 554/555.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What a Panic is etc.

The provisions of Peel’s Act aggravate alarm. They cause panic where there would have been merely fear. In solchen Zeiten der credit der B.o.E. is augmented. In the ordinary working of banking in England, a mechanism of diffused credit economises the use of banknotes, of visible instruments of exchange, of money in the ordinary sense of the word. By the aid of the clearing house, of country bankers, of London bankers, of the B.o.E. all working together … the most important bargains are settled without the use of any banknotes or coin whatever. A cheque is given, and by the aid of the system of set-offs, this bit of paper pays for cotton or indigo as effectually as sovereigns, and pays for it in every part of the kingdom. Darin all wholesale transactions settled. Mit Ausnahme des North of England, where a rather barbarous mode of charging bank commissions restricts the use of cheques and banking, no one pays any large debts except by cheque. The wholesale currency of the country is a ledger currency – a currency of bankers’ deposits transferred by bankers’ cheques. Banknotes in general, and in their customary use, are but a retail currency. Small matters are settled by them; large matters are settled without them. In a panic this auxiliary and supplementary currency is at once in part annihilated. Its very |54 foundation is taken away. That foundation is credit, and there is discredit. A person f.i. who has lent money on securities will not take his debtor’s cheque and give up these securities. He asks for banknotes. The general machinery by which bargains are settled and debts paid in this country is in times even of commencing panic disturbed and superseded. The Banknote is a most coarse form of credit as compared with the cheque currency. Taking a banknote (even when not a legal tender) only involves trusting the Bank; but taking a cheque presumes also a trust in the cheque giver.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Viel weniger als by bills of Exchange!)
Weil in dem panic die cheque currency partly destroyed, we fall back on credit of the first sort, upon Banknotes. We require more Banknotes, just because the feeling, the confidence which made few Banknotes effectual has disappeared. The same cause operates in another way at the same moment. Die country bankers provide themselves mit notes etc[.] Wenn Scotch or Irish issuing Bank should fail, die other Scotch or Irish banks would issue notes upon bullion to fill the void, but obtain that gold by getting a credit balance at the Banking Department of the B.o.E., by drawing a cheque on that balance, by getting notes in payment of that cheque, and getting those notes paid in gold at the Issue Department. Those notes are then cancelled, but the effect is the same as if they had been taken to Ireland, or Scotland, and there issued. The panic has in both cases destroyed the local circulation, and taken notes out of the Banking Department of the Bank to replace them. In one case it has issued and in the other destroyed them; but that is immaterial: the demand on the Bank issue, the void in London is the same.

Also pressure on the Banking Department of the B.o.E. More notes are required, taken out of the reserve there. Dazu Bk.o.E. notes a legal tender. … Yesterday (11 Mai 1866) was perhaps the worst day ever known in a week of that sort.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 559/560.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Irish Landbill.

Fortescue’s bill. Tells us that it is merely to render the Act of 1860 effective. Aber das Neue drin: a provision giving a tenant a claim on his landlord in consideration of outlay incurred, irrespective or even in defiance of the landlord’s wishes … The assertion in a general form of the subordination of the Landlord’s right in his property to the public welfare has not yet been made in distinct terms in an Act of Parliament. This would be entirely sound.

The proper object of a measure for tenant-compensation is, to secure to the tenant full property in the thing he has himself created, or, in lieu of this, its value from the man who under the law may appropriate it. It is, however, an inevitable circumstance that the value which the tenants tenant adds by his improvements to his farm becomes, when the outlay has once taken place, inextricably blended with the general value of the land: it is thus a preliminary condition to the practical solution of the problem that a separation should, with at least approximate accuracy, be effected between the elements of value added to the land by the tenant’s outlay and those due to the general circumstances of the country. Moreover, in all progressive communities the value of land – as a consequence of the longer demands made upon it for subsistence by an increasing population – and wholly irrespective of agricultural improvement tends to rise, wozu jezt noch kömmt die immensely increased production of gold and silver. 100l. means not now what before the Australia et California discoveries. This affects wie den price aller Dinge the price of land. … A railway runs through a district, and the value of land in the district rises …

There may, or may not, be good reasons for retaining the land of a country in the hands of the State. The benefit of its augmenting value may thus be reserved for the community at large.

Confiscation is not for us the word of horror which it is for most of our countrymen. We can |55 well believe that a well-devised scheme of confiscation might easily be made productive of solid benefits to Ireland; nor should we shrink from this expedient were it necessary for the regeneration of the country. But our objection to Mr. Fortescue’s measure is that while paying the cost of confiscation, it secures none of its gains.

In dem Act steht: „The Gvt. do not propose to interfere with perfect liberty of contract.“ And the Act is only to come into operation „wherever there is no written contract to the contrary“. The measure is thus rendered absolutely innocuous, but also … perfectly idle. Do the Gvt. really suppose, that Irish landlords will incur the risk of indefinite claims being run up against them by their tenants if they have it in their power to prevent this by the simple expedient of an additional clause introduced a common form into every lease?

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 563–565.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

The business of the old firm Overend and Co in July last (1865) transferred; its suspension followed by that of the English Joint Stock Bank, a still more recently created establishment. Some pressure during the day at a few of the banking houses, but all claims have been satisfactorily met in that direction. At the B. o. England the demand has been heavy; in other quarters the transactions reported are extremely few.

Rapid rise in the discount rate, to day advanced to 9%, seems to have checked demand and the export of bullion.

Chief failures transpired to-day those of 2 or 3 contractors unable to obtain the advances upon which they had been accustomed to rely. Also reported stoppage of a Liverpool House in the iron trade.

In all securities the depreciation has been sudden and beyond precedent within last 20 years.

Foreign Stocks. The rapid decline on the French Bourse and the pressures of sales on the extremely limited market in London occasioned a further excessive decline in prices.

Railway Shares: considerable decline in prices compared with those of last week. The chief depreciation may be attributed to the realisations of those who, to meet losses, have been compelled to sell any high investments at command. There is very little doubt that operations for the fall have had much to do with the further reductions noted in the list.

On Financial shares the panic has acted with unprecedented violence. Concentrated in its form on account of the limited space upon which it has been only able to act, the present panic in financial shares exceeds all that has been previously witnessed, although the depreciation of the past few weeks had been severe and extensive. At this moment the difference between the par value of shares on the „Miscellaneous“ list, and the quotations of this evening amounts to somewhere about 15,000,000l. St. Today the dealers have mostly refused to deal, except to close account; and the consequence of a resolution of this kind following upon a crisis like the present is the closing of a vast number of accounts, and the extinction in many cases of whole fortunes involved on too large a scale in shares on which the dividend depended entirely on the realisation of assets now rendered impossible. In many cases the profits declared have had no existence except on paper, and subject to the safe conclusion of the operations in which the societies had engaged.

Banking shares have suffered afresh; the degree is only inferior to that of the Financial Co. shares, but the results so far have been less disastrous.

Failures: Gibbs, Brothers Ironworks, liabilities 25,000l.; the English Joint Stock Bank limited, today followed Overend; W. Shrimpton, of Westminster, suspension; Bills of Sir Morton Peto returned last evening, and, we fear he will not be able to resume payment.|

56

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 569.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton market. Liverpool.

Much depression. Quotations for Americans and East India are reduced all round 1d. per lb since Friday last. To-day there has been quite a panic in the market; sales about 3,000 bales, at prices quite nominal.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Mai 1866. S. 571.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manchester. May 10.

Iron has given way considerably.

Prices have continued their downward course day by day. Both yarns and goods quoted 1 to 2d. per lb down since last week.



May 19, 1866. N. 1186.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 581–583.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Panic.

This panic more than any other we remember – a Credit Panic. The promises we have given to pay gold on demand could not be performed by many thousand times as much gold as there is in the country. And when this is the case our whole mercantile system must always be easily injured by causes comparatively slight … Last Friday (11 May) no one knew who was sound and who was unsound … the lenders of money were suspected of misusing it. The panic of 1866 was a credit panic, not a capital nor a bullion panic.

Charter Act (1844) suspended. Just before the suspension of the Act no bank was – considering the nature of its liabilities – in so much danger as the B. o. England. It had a reserve of only 3,000,000l. in town and country, and from all parts of the country demands on that reserve were pouring in every hour. Country bankers felt they must either get more notes and more sovereigns, or give up their business; London bankers were pressed upon not only by their country customers, but by a kind of oscillating run which now went to this bank and now to that. The B. o. England could not have increased its reserve by letting its bills „run off“; for they would not have „run off“, but have accumulated unpaid in its bill case. … On Friday the London bankers deposits in the B.o.E. amounted to a larger sum than its reserve. These bankers would not – and some of them used plainly such language – allow the B.o.E. to go on while they failed. Nothing is so imitative as panic, and if 1 or 2 large bankers had drawn their balances, all the rest would have followed like sheep, and the banking department of the B.o.E. must have been left bare … In figures its (the banking department’s of the B.o.E.) reserve looks larger than that of its competitors, but only because it includes that of its competitors. It was at least as badly off as they, for it existed on their sufferance. … No considerable amounts of Consols can be sold at moments when the Bank is for such purposes the only lender, and when it refuses to lend. The jobbers in stock are men of means, but not masters of secret hoards of ready money. It is not a question of price but a question of cash. In ordinary times if stocks come forward in unusual quantities for sale, he can (the Jobber) with ease borrow on it, or dispose of other securities to purchase it. But in a panic these „other“ securities are probably unavailable, and if the B.o.E. hesitate to lend, the other resources of the market are very scanty. If the Bank were, in a panic, absolutely to refuse to lend on Consols, they would not be saleable for cash.

Except in particular branches of speculative trade – as cotton, or pig iron, or the ship-dealing and owning fostered by Barned’s – English commerce was hardly ever sounder Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

Brief des Russell und Gladstone 11 May (suspension der Bankacte). Danach interest heraufgesezt zu 10%.|

57

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 588/589.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Suspension of the Bankact. (Von Bonamy Price im Economist)

Die Banks und many mercantile firms drew only out notes to protect themselves. Aber wahrscheinlich, daß wie in 1847, not a single note in excess of the regulations laid down by the law will have been issued. … Der Effect des letter (der suspension) a real gain. The run was checked, the deposits were left alone; but it was achieved by a process of the imagination; not a single additional note was set to work … The Bank Act of 1844 neither made nor healed the crisis; it had nothing to do with the matter; but the application of a delusion respecting it did do good, and so far the mechanical has an advantage over the discretionary issue of banknotes. It makes it possible to use its abolition, and the substitution of the discretionary method in its place, as an instrument supposed to be capable of working miracles in a panic.

In the hour of panic no one thinks of the gold as necessary for the B.o.E. note. Before 1844, the banknote was accounted as safe, as solid, as it is now. Since 1819 no man has preferred a sovereign to a B.o.E. note on grounds of safety. In 1825, when the severest run was made against the Bank, banknotes were demanded, and the Bank, in its banking department, was saved from the stoppage solely by the accidental discovery, not of bullion, but of a million of unburnt banknotes.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 591.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

In der French Correspondence des Economist.

Gladstone solle der B. o. England pay back the debt which the Gvt owes to it. By so doing it would relieve itself from the interest of 3% on that debt, which it pays the Bank; and that relief would be as effective as buying up Consols in the market. The Bank, on its part, would profit, by having the money as capital to work with. It has at present no capital, and that is a great anomaly in an establishment which directs the market and regulates the rate of commercial interest.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 586.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Figures relating to Panic of 1847, 1857 and 1866.

A. 1847. 1847

Week ending

Notes in Circulation. £. Public Deposits. Other Deposits £.

Public Securities

Other Securities £ Bullion. £. Reserve of Notes. £. Minimum Rate of Discount
Oct. 2 19,577,278 9,329,057£. 7,961,767 11,661,340 21,259,929 8,565,307 3,409,300 51/2
9 19,503,372 9,414,713 7,713,896 11,126,340 21,437,443 8,408,750 3,321,700 dto
16 20,263,004 5,496,883 8,674,584 11,088,877 18,963,326 8,430,700 2,630,115 dto
23 21,265,188 4,766,394 8,580,509 10,899,707 19,467,128 8,312,691 1,547,270 8
30 21,764,085 4,696,032 8,911,442 10,613,607 20,409,897 8,438,874 1,176,740 dto
Nov. 6 21,318,118 4,991,313 8,804,395 10,598,607 19,919,915 8,729,551 2,030,085 dto
Nov. 13 20,931,680 5,991,765 8,312,171 10,583,607 19,560,468 9,258,520 2,797,710 dto
20 20,179,074 7,219,802 7,866,482 10,633,607 18,791,117 10,016,957 4,228,095 7
27 19,860,654 7,729,572 8,238,554 10,946,594 18,531,810 10,532,943 4,986,590 dto
Dec. 4 19,668,782 7,799,527 8,441,289 10,946,594 18,070,409 10,032,599 5,583,020 6
11 19,182,179 8,229,759 8,437,376 10,946,594 17,630,931 11,426,176 6,448,780 dto
18 18,615,039 8,763,497 8,606,976 10,998,214 17,198,338 11,991,376 7,551,140 dto
25 18,630,093 9,235,978 8,243,203 10,065,267 16,979,060 12,236,526 7,786,180 5

(verte)|

58
B. 1857.

Week ending

Notes in Circulation £ Public Deposits £ Other Deposits £

Public Securities £

Other Securities £ Bullion £ Reserve of Notes £ Minimum Rate of Disct. %
Oct. 3 20,824,714 8,243,214 10,002,282 10,593,607 21,835,843 10,662,692 4,606,040 51/2%
10 20,862,690 8,502,326 9,667,123 10,560,607 22,398,877 10,109,943 4,024,400 6
17 21,052,315 4,833,021 11,132,431 10,254,541 20,539,565 9,524,478 3,217,185 7
24 20,585,707 4,861,740 11,263,986 10,254,541 20,404,597 9,369,794 3,485,840 8
31 21,184,276 5,160,918 11,489,979 10,254,541 22,194,320 8,731,553 2,258,275 dto
Nov. 7 21,079,942 4,871,944 11,910,670 10,120,104 22,628,251 8,497,780 2,155,315 9
14 21,036,430 5,314,659 12,935,344 9,444,828 26,113,453 7,170,508 957,710 10
21 22,235,954 5,483,881 13,959,165 6,407,134 30,299,270 6,484,096 1,148,185 dto
28 22,156,143 5,788,998 14,951,516 5,807,494 31,350,717 7,263,672 1,918,840 dto
Dec. 5 21,943,691 6,072,267 14,436,186 5,441,647 31,191,386 7,356,467 2,268,340 dto
12 20,953,992 6,648,062 14,440,724 5,434,022 30,111,185 8,069,489 3,900,485 dto
19 20,537,314 6,944,352 15,077,428 5,446,131 29,264,940 9,450,855 5,757,175 dto
26 20,133,558 7,428,807 15,151,818 5,492,756 28,088,186 10,753,281 7,426,670 8
C. 1866
April 25 22,588,244 4,417,147 13,294,641 10,694,254 18,507,854 13,855,776 5,844,205 6
May 2 23,309,819 4,922,990 13,587,965 10,694,254 20,380,395 13,509,140 4,839,250 7
9 22,806,660 5,781,827 13,515,537 10,894,254 20,844,217 13,156,140 4,950,325 9
16 26,650,817 5,936,219 18,620,672 10,837,056 30,943,259 12,323,805 730,830 10
Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 589/590.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

A Game Preserver’s Ukase.

The following curious notice to his tenants has been issued by Lord Denbigh to his tenants: „As complaints have been made to me of the damage done by rabbits in the cultivated parts of my property, and I am anxious to meet the wishes of my tenants as far as possible, I have arranged with my keeper to destroy the rabbits as far as he can on the arable land; and in order to insure this being attended to satisfactorily, I have given orders that 2 appointed rabbit-catchers shall be at the disposition of the tenants from Febr. 15 till the beginning of the breeding season on the following terms: The tenants shall have full leave to ferret all the hedgerows adjoining arable land on their farms (excepting covert hedges) as often as they like during that period, using neither dog nor gun, but only purse nets over the burrows. All the rabbits so caught by each tenant shall be kept by him, he paying the wages of the rabbit catcher so long as he employs him. No tenant is to ferret without being accompanied by the rabbit-catcher. In consideration of this concession I expect my tenants will preserve strictly for me all other game. As frequent complaints have been made of self-hunting dogs being seen on the property, I have given orders to my keepers to destroy all such found hunting etc.“ etc. Denbigh. Newnham Paddocks, April, 1866.

That which most vitally affects the farmer, the question of whether he is himself to consume the crops he had paid for to Lord Denbigh, or whether Lord Denbigh is to consume those crops by |59 means of his game and rabbits, is to be arranged, not with the tenant, but behind his back with his lordship’s keeper! It is proverbially said, you cannot have your cake and eat it, but Lord Denbigh and his fellow game-preservers have found out the way of doing so. They first take rent for the use of their land, and then they consume for their own profit and amusement the crops raised on the land by means of their tenant’s capital.

At the Aberdeenshire election now pending says Mr. Fordyce, the farmer’s candidate: „From 1820 the Game Laws have gone on increasing until their number was now almost legion.“

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 592–595.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

Comparative view.
At corresponding dates with week ended May 19. 1856 1863 1864 1865 1866
Circulation, includirte bank post bills 20,324,077£ 21,268,315l. 21,313,352l. 21,769,022l. 26,650,817l.
Public Deposits 2,991,956 7,610,278 7,566,661 7,566,661 5,936,219
Other Deposits 12,351,097 13,983,654 12,962,402 13,489,291 18,620,672
Gvt securities 12,479,416 11,151,395 10,785,267 10,984,441 10,837,056
Other securities 16,710,812 20,236,420 20,973,429 20,027,201 30,943,259
Reserve of notes and coin 4,739,925 8,496,341 7,097,911 8,366,913 1,202,810
Coin and bullion 9,801,865 14,529,451 13,267,446 15,023,913 12,323,805
Bankrate of discount 6 und 7% 4% 8% 41/2 % 10%
Price of Consols 915/8 921/4 911/2 903/8 871/2
Average price of Wheat 68s. 9d. 46s. 9d. 39s. 3d 40s. 11d. 45s. 9d.
Exchange on Paris. short. 25 35 421/2 25 20 271/2 25 30 40 25 171/2 25 25 0 121/2
Amsterdam (ditto) 11 181/2 19 11 151/2 16 11 171/2 18 11 171/2 181/2 11 13 15
Hamburg (3 months) 13 103/4 111/4 13 71/2 8 13 91/4 93/4 13 91/2 10 13 10 101/2

Discount market. Notwithstanding the remarkable pressure upon its resources, the Bank has not yet infringed the limit of the Bank Act … There are inquiries on account of foreign investors in first class 6 months paper of unexceptionable character of 83/4 to 81/2%.

Railway shares. Slight recovery in the prices, but business is of a very limited character.

Financial shares: The depression continued during the early part of the week, and reached extreme limits. Unreasoning haste on the part of the holders of shares contributed no less than the numerous sales of speculators for the fall to the fearful sacrifice |60 of property that ensued. It was no longer necessary to pay for shares. Holders became so anxious to be quit of their liability that they offered various, and, in some cases, large amounts to those who would consent to assume their places on the sharelists of the co. in which they were, or fancied themselves involved. The shares of Overend, Gurney etc Co with 15l. paid, were offered at 18l. discount, or a bonus of 3l. for taking the shares. Imperial Mercantile at 10% discount, with 10l. paid. Credit Mobilier and Foncier at 5 disc., with 5l. paid. London Financial, with 20l. paid, at 15 and 16l. discount. General Credit and Finance shares, on which a call of 2l. had most unexpectedly been announced, were offered at 5s. per share, as if the whole capital, or nearly the whole capital, of the co. had been entirely lost. The settlement on the 15. inst., by causing the closing of numerous accounts, served to put an end to many of these wholesale sacrifices of property. Within the past 2 days there is less despondency, and less disposition to sell so freely as previously, a considerable improvement is hence to be noted in very many cases. Credit Mobilier and Foncier have recovered to 25/8 disc.; General Credit to 21/2 disc.; London Financial to 13 disc. The shares of Overend, Gurney and Co. are still dull at 18 to 16 disc. The shares of the International Financial Society have held firm in consequence of the exceptional position taken by the co. in offering to discount its own acceptances at Bank rate.

Bankshares: extremely sensitive. Considerable fluctuation in Agra and Masterman’s Bank, Bank of London, and Alliance Bank .

    Failures:
  • Messrs Penny et Co, Liverpool, East India Merchants. Liabilities 104,000l. Assets: 20,000l.
  • Drafts of the Oriental Commercial Bank (Limit.) were returned unpaid on 17 inst. Liab. 350,000l.
  • Draft of the New Zealand Banking Corporation have been returned. Co[.] formed in 1863, paid-up capital 60,000l. the last dividend declared 10% p.a.
  • Fernie Brothers and Co., Liverpool, merchants and shipowners, have arranged for liquidation.
  • Bank of Turkey, 17 inst., resolved to wind up.
  • Shrimpton, contractor, 15 inst. meeting of creditors. Liab. 220,656l. Assets at their nominal value: 387,070l.
  • British and Foreign Mining Financial Co (Lim.) winding up; ditto „London and Provincial Starch Co.[“] Limit.
  • Failure of Hallett, Ommaney Ommanney et Co, Private bankers and navy agents, Westminster announced on 15. inst. Liabilities von 250 to 300,000£.
  • Imperial Mercantile Credit Association (limited) stopped payment on 12 inst.|
  • 61
  • Failure of Mr. Charles Bedell, wine merchant, Markline, liab. about 100,000l.
  • Northfield Iron and Steel Co. (lim.) winding up; ditto „Hop and Malt Exchange and Warehouse Co[“] (lim).
  • Commercial Bank Corporation of India and the East, suspension of payments.
Aus:
The Economist, 19. Mai 1866. S. 600/601.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Liverpool. May 17. Cotton Market.

The cotton market, which had previously declined to a comparatively low point, has not been so much affected by the monetary crisis as might have been expected.

Manchester. 17 May. The market opened with greater steadiness this week after the recent panic. A small hand-to-mouth business in yarns for manufacturers, who hold only their bare requirements. In cloths, for current general trade, the demand has almost ceased.

Leeds: A collapse of orders and sales of goods for Germany.



26 May 1866. N. 1187.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 613/614.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Substantial Grounds for increased confidence.

Coin and bullion. £.
In 1837 2,400,000
1847 8,312,000
1857 6,484,000
1866 11,857,000

Our discount rate 10% against 4% at Paris.

Besser if the Act had been nicht nur legally, but really broken. It would have been so, if the London bankers had not, to prevent it, sent in a larger amount of small notes than usual. Considering how much must be in the country branches, 800,000l. of notes is childish as a reserve. In fact, the Act was broken the moment the Bank began to act on the letter of this day fortnight; a course of policy then began inconsistent with every clause of it. If the directors were acting under no indemnity they would in the present state of the reserve deserve impeachment.

We are not frightened by the operations of the so-called „bear“ at the Stock Exchange. Some most unjustifiable ruses have indeed been resorted to by inferior persons which amount to aggravated plunder.

The operators, z.B. im case der London und Westminster Bank, could not get the shares which they sell without paying as high or a higher price than that at which they sell. They are indeed able to gain great profits and inflict frightful injury in two cases – first, where as in the case of the Bank of London there has been bad business, and the extensive credit of the Bank is thereby weakened. Then as soon as sales are pressed the price falls, and the operator is able to buy the shares he sold to-day at a far less price to-morrow. The profits so made where shares fall so quickly as those of the Bank o. London are very great, and the consequent ruin of the bank very quick. The same result also happens where, though no bad business had been done by the Bank, its shares are in the hands of poor people, who can bear no loss and |62 pay no calls. Such people rush to sell the moment the price falls; and the „bears“ thrive on their ruin … A fearful penalty is visited on incidental errors, and concerns which might have crippled on and got right, are by the depreciation of their shares crushed and swept down. But half of human justice works by decimation in this way.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 614/615.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Practical effect of the Act of 1844.

The main use of the law is that it compels the Bank to act at an early stage during a foreign trade drain of bullion …  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Aber, der Esel sagt selbst:
the Banking department was bare in 1857 and 1847, before they had aroused themselves to act as they ought,  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
und damals existirte ja Act of 1844!

Evils of the Act: A panic is necessarily aggravated. As the auxiliary credit currency having been impaired and injured, more notes, more primary credit currency is wanted to supply its place. On what is called Overend’s Friday“, the want of such currency was palpable, and it was given. The Act of 1844 is responsible not for the present want of credit but, but for the difference between the acute agony which preceded the relief from the Treasury and the slow suffering which we still feel. Certainly, Peel’s Act is a legal ligament which inflames panic into frenzy.

The Act of 1844 makes the quarterly payments of the dividends and salaries very serious matters, whereas otherwise they would scarcely be felt. The banking reserve being isolated, any considerable amount of notes withdrawn from it, even for internal purposes, makes a marked change, and … the rate of interest is raised unnecessarily. Whether a few more notes go out to the public is immaterial, if we make up the account in the „old form[“], or as the accounts of the B.o.F. are made up; but the loss of those notes, at critical instants, is made most important by the Act of 1844.

There is a danger from Peel’s Act we now experience for the first time; its suspension is liable to cause foreign discredit. This defect is most serious. Dieß bewiesen durch Clarendon’s Brief vom 12 Mai an die British Embassies and Legations throughout Europe, um klar zu machen, daß there is no suspension of cash payments or Bankerutt der B.o.E.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 620/621.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Supply of Animal Food.

During the last 20 years provisions of all other kinds have become lower and more stable in price, while meat had advanced in value far more than other food has diminished, so that even mit better wages our working men find themselves no more able to furnish their families with a fair amount of meat than in the old days before Repeal of the Cornlaws. The importations of foreign live stock do, to a small extent, supplement and increase our own supplies. Probably preserved meat will by and by be derived from those pastoral countries where hides and wool have hitherto been deemed the sole produce of herds and flocks.

There is not the slightest doubt that if the land of this country were properly used and managed, and a far grater population than that now living in these islands might be fairly supplied with meat at a reasonable price. It is not by the diminution of our grain that we shall increase our meat. In modern husbandry more cattle and sheep on a farm imply and furnish the means of growing more grain, while the increase of grain – with its accompaniment straw – is the origin of more stock and stock |63 provender.

„Practically“, says R. Smith, in a lecture at the London farmer’s club, „it depends first (increased supply of animal food) on the investment of capital to increase the fertility of the soil; secondly, on the subsequent improved rotation of crops, so as to secure a larger percentage of cattle food produce with increased economy and decreased waste in its consumption; thirdly, on improved animals, with precocious habits, as fattening stock, whether cattle, sheep, or pigs … For such a purpose the strong lands, which hitherto have done but little in the way of increasing the supplies of animal food, should be used during the summer months for growing green crops. This ought to be to the occupier of clay soils what the winter feeding is to the occupier of light soils. Cabbages, early turnips (sown on a stale furrow) mangolds, and kohlrabi may be grown on clays, the two former in time to be eaten upon the land by the end of September, and the two latter to be drawn off, stored, pulped, and used with wheat straw chaff. In this way all the straw not absolutely wanted for litter, may be advantageously eaten, and, with the aid of oil cake and crushed corn, a good deal of mutton and some beef (the former pays best) may be made from the produce of those soils, the occupiers of which have hitherto relied upon wheat and beans only. This change of system would require autumn cultivation for all the green crops, and so raise the question of efficient drainage and steam cultivation.[“] In dieser question einbegriffen the whole array of questions and difficulties which beset, trammel, and impede British husbandry. Efficient drainage, with its necessary concomitant, sufficient building accommodation for stock must be the work of the landlord, an outlay of capital to be compensated by interest in the shape of increased rent, – to be followed by outlays by the tenant in improved cultivation and stock management which any farmer must be absolutely insane to make unless protected by a long and rational lease. Then steam cultivation can only follow as a result from these other and preliminary improvements. And to render steam cultivation possible there must be a grubbing up of hedgerows and the removal of hedgerow timber, which must be done by the landowner as a capitalist, and completely, too. It is if no use to grub the hedges and leave the timber standing (as we so frequently see) in the midst of an arable field, greatly impeding ploughs with horses, and presenting an absolute bar to steam cultivation. Yet when landlords have consented to the grubbing of hedge-rows, even at the tenant’s expense, they object to the removals of the trees, leaving them as evidences of prejudices at once childish and unintelligible. Yet these prejudices are the serious obstacle to the progress of English agriculture.

Ferner obstacle: The feudal notions which infect all that concerns the ownership of land in England. It is tenacity with owners of land to retain the ownership – very often only the nominal ownership – of much more land than they have the means of managing. Hence we have, in a modified form, many of the evils which affect the Irish tenantry – farmers occupying farms in which many of the most necessary improvements – necessary according to the actual state of English agriculture – must either be made by the tenants or left undone. The result is, especially on the strong soils referred to by Mr. Smith as those on which more live stock ought to be kept, that the improvements are not made. In fact, the strong lands of England are less productive of meat than they were a century ago, and mainly because they cannot be well farmed without considerable preliminary outlay on the part of the landlord.

Ferner poultry much neglected. Smith says: „The late Mr. Pusey told us, 1838, that while England Wales contained about 37 millions acres, and Scotland and Ireland about 20 mill. each, there were in the U. Kingd. 20 millions of acres laying waste, one half of which might be improved.“ Ferner Smith adverts to the want of economy which results from the yearly[-]tenant system, which is the curse of English husbandry.|

64

„Economy in Agriculture“, he says, „is a most important means by which an increased supply of animal food may be attained, the greatest of all being the increased fertility of the soil resulting from a liberal investment of capital under security of tenure, the fixed payments of a farm, such as rent, rates, and taxes, being the same; while, on the other hand, nothing can be well worse than the waste of capital where tenants are ‚farming in and farming out‘. There is economy in a good education; for, while a proper knowledge of the natural sciences is essential to profitable farming, it is equally important to understand the principles by which nature’s laws are governed. There is a marked economy even in well formed animals, as improved machinery at the farm factory, where the animal heat and the proportions of the boiler have alike to be consulted.“

Amongst other improvements he strongly recommended covered yards for stock. There, he says, „the cows having done growing would be placed in stalls to economise place, the fattening animals in warm boxes, the young growing stock would run loose in the centre yards, and the juniors would be placed in suitably arranged calf-pens; in the immediate vicinity of which are well-arranged root, chaff, meal, and mixing houses, which by their concentrated position afford an economy of labour, food, and supervision. Again, as the economy of warmth is a well known equivalent for food, so do covered yards economise feeding stuffs, while the even temperature of the building promotes both health and happiness. Covered yards are the things to save food; the cattle and food are all close together: what one won’t eat another will; nothing is wasted; and it is a capital thing pulping the roots and mixing them with the chaff. The best of all is, they don’t get washed by the storms. Their coats are so alike … They lie about like cattle on grass in the summer time, and don’t take near so much litter as the open yards.“

Mr. Cousmaker said: „too much importance could not be attached to the system of breeding … they ought to combine the breeding of stocks with its fattening: fattening.“ „He had himself escaped the cattle plague, although violently raging in his neighbourhood. In August and September they had lost in his parish 270 head of cattle. One of the causes of this escape was that he had not for years bought stock. He bred at one end and fattened on the other, and he never bought or sold, except to the butcher, beyond buying about once every 2 years a yearling bull, for the sake of change of breed.[“]

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 622.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paris Correspondent. 25 May.

Contrary to what might have been feared, the failure of Overend, G. et Co, and the panic at London, have not brought down any banks here, though several have suffered, one or two greatly. Nor has the stoppage of the European Bank, though it had a branch in this city, done much harm. But the difficulties created by the impending war are beginning to tell on commercial firms. Two commission houses of some importance have stopped; others are reported to be in jeopardy; and in all the great branches of trade the existing perturbation appears likely to produce serious consequences, in Paris and the large commercial towns. News this day arrived of the failure of a firm in the cotton trade at Rouen with liabilities of 4,000,000f.|

65

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 624–626.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market.

Discount Market: Recovery from the panic very gradual, few symptoms only of returning ease. The public show small disposition to relax their hold on the sums withdrawn from deposit; and, as the bankers do not yet esteem themselves secure from further withdrawals, they are unwilling to make any advances, but hold their resources in turn, in reserve. In mercantile circles distrust prevails. Credit is subject to unusual tests, and paper, which in ordinary homes would be considered unexceptionable, is subject to fluctuations as to the rate at which it can be discounted … The demand for money under these circumstances sustained, on good securities, at Bank rate; on other than good securities it is difficult to secure advances; and, in many cases, claims have been held over in London and Liverpool owing to the impossibility of obtaining adequate accommodation. Nevertheless, orders from abroad are still received for English paper of the best houses. As a very limited amount only, compared with the demand, moderate as it is for this class of bills, is to be had, the rate undergoes a proportionate reduction, and takers bid from 81/2 to 8% for 6 months’ unexceptionable paper.

Gold appears to accumulate in the coffers of the B. o. France more rapidly than it is carried away from this country, and we may hence look for supplies of money from abroad on an extended scale so soon as the present partial distrust shall have been expelled.

With regard to the distrust at home – seeing that it is mainly owing to the unavailable nature of the securities in which the deposits lodged at the discount houses and banks have been employed, questionable whether legislative interference should not control the amount of deposits and limit their employment to securities, such as short bills on the one hand, or readily available securities on the other. The danger of the stoppage of banks in the present instance mainly arises from the possible enormous calls on them for the repayment of deposits at a moment when it is nearly impossible to convert their securities into available assets.

Foreign Stocks. Without exception heavy, prices subjected to very considerable decline. Danubian have fallen to near 50. Turkish stocks have also fallen.

Railway shares: Considerable decline from prices current last Friday. The unfavourable movement in the Bank market (Decrease of bullion of £466,019), and realisations with some speculation sales, account for the change. Indian railway stocks also lower.

Financial shares: Very limited dealings. (fast nur in 3 Cos.) Bargains in Overend, G. et Co shares, Imperial Mercantile Association and others, difficult; it being a matter of negotiation now that open market operations are no longer possible. International Financial Co’s shares moderately firm. General Credit improved slightly. Credit Mobilier et Foncier shares have fluctuated considerably, owing to large and sudden purchases, after which the price has mostly relapsed.

Bankshares: Great fluctuation. Previous to the transfer of the business of the Bank of London, unfavourable rumours afloat. Sales took place, followed by sales of shares in other banks, with a heavy decline. This evening prices firmer.

    Failures and stoppages:
  • European Bank (limit.) stopped 19 May. New Zealand Co (limited) not been able to meet their acceptance acceptances. Reese River Mining Co (lim.) winding up.|
  • 66
  • Suspension of Messrs. Robinson, Coryton, and Co. Private bankers at Manchester.
  • Kynaston, Sutherland and Co, colonial bankers brokers failed. Liabilities about 100,000l.
  • Commercial Bank Corporation of India and the East to be wound up.
  • Owing to recent failures at Bombay, S. P. Framjee and Co, of Gresham house, stopped payments. Liab. about 300,000l.
  • Sea and River Marine Insurance Co resolved to wind up voluntarily.
  • Petition for winding up: Glamorgan Iron and Coal Co. (limited)
  • Gellatly, Hankey, and Sewell, extensive mercantile and shipping house, resolved to liquidate under inspection
  • Sithney and Carnmeal Mining Co. ordered to be wound up by the Stannaries Court.
  • Luckie Brothers, merchants, stopped payment. Liab. about 70,000l.
  • Bank of London transfers deposit and current account to the Consolidated Bank limited. Owing to the pressure of a continued withdrawal of deposits.
  • McCulloch, John and Co, Liverpool, East India merchants, chiefly in the Bombay trade, stopped payment 24. inst.; liabilities nearly 3/4 million.
  • Klenan, of Angel Court, is in course of compounding with his creditors. Liab. 2,100,747l.
Aus:
The Economist, 26. Mai 1866. S. 631/632.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton Trade. Liverpool. 24 May.

Business limited. Prices show a further decline generally.

Manchester. 24 May. This week (ausserdem Whitsunday holidays) almost a nonentity in business. Where any changes can be made in prices rather against the sellers. The amount of contracts also still in the hands of manufacturers has been such as to cause general surprise, though, here and there, as an exception, stocks begin to be found.|


67

June 2. 1866. N. 1188.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 641/642.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market.

Extraordinary  Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(foolish durch die Dummheit einiger Direktoren, die aus Panic, ohne allen Grund, auf ihre eigne Faust die Thüren dem Publikum schlossen)
failure of the Consolidated Bank (current deposits and other accounts 3,037,435l. und acceptances 780,530l. 14 days since)

One of the first effects of general discredit in any country is, that even a very high rate of interest will not tempt foreign capitalists to send their money there, halten die high rate offered inconsistent with security. Hence slight drain of bullion after the rate of discount raised to 10%,  Kommentar von Marx. Marx schrieb darüber auch in „How Mr. Gladstone’s Bank Letter of 1866 Procured a Loan of Six Millions for Russia“ (MEGA² I/21. S. 102.10–13).
Schließen
(In der That rief der Peel’s Act dießmal European „run on England[“] hervor.)
withdrawing of foreign investments, instead of attracting them. Secondary effect (which has begun to act during the present week): Great discredit in any country discourages those who have to remit to that country from buying bills upon it even at a rate highly favourable to themselves. It is not worth their while to risk the value of the bill itself for the sake of any gain they may make by the purchase of the bill as compared with the cost of remitting specie. It happens not unfrequently that the value of bills will fall considerably below the specie level if there is any uneasiness as to their acceptance in the discredited country; so that the sellers even of good bills will have to offer a very great advantage as the equivalent of they the risk supposed to be run. Besonders in  The Economist: credit crisis
Schließen
banking crisis
. Where banks have begun to fail, foreigners naturally feel that the men on whom they draw may, by no fault whatever of their own, be unable to meet their engagements. Hence the distrust of bills on a country in such a position. Thus we may now look for considerable remittances of specie from the very same cause which led at first to our loosing specie. Daher remittance of specie during this last week.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 645/646.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Feudalism and deer forests.

Amongst the item items of news in a Scotch newspaper last week: „One of the finest sheep farm farms in Sutherlandshire, for which a rent of 1200£ a year was recently offered, on the expiry of the existing lease this year, is to be converted into a deer forest.“ Diese feudal instincts operate as at the time when the Norman conqueror destroyed 36 villages to create the New Forest. „In Yorkshire the whole country between the Tyne and the Humber was laid so desolate, that for 9 years afterwards there was not an inhabited village, and hardly an inhabitant left … Ebenso im New Forest … He afforested several other tracts. These favourite demesnes protected by the cruel forest laws.“ (Hallam) „Not content with these large forests which former kings possessed in all parts of England, he resolved to make a new forest near Winchester, the usual place of his residence, and for that purpose he laid waste the country in Hampshire for an extent of 30 miles, expelled the inhabitants from their houses, seized their property, and made the sufferers no compensation for the injury.“

Mr. A. Robertson lately read a paper at the Guildhall, Perth, on „Game Laws (diese moderne Ausgabe der Normännischen Forest Laws) and Deer Forests“. Cruel effects on the peasant population; detrimental effects on Agriculture. In reference to the Scotch Highlands he said: „The legalised protection to wild animals in the Highlands was most severely felt in reference to the peculiar products of that country. Two millions of acres had been laid totally waste, embracing within their area the most fertile lands of Scotland. The natural grass of Glen Tilt were among the most nutritive in the county of Perth. The deer forest of Ben Aulder was by far the best grazing ground in the wide district of Badenoch; a part of the Black Mount forest was the best pasture for blackfaced sheep in Scotland. Some idea may be formed of the ground laid waste for merely sporting purposes in Scotland from the fact that it embraced an area larger than the whole county of Perth. The resources of the forest of Ben Aulder might give some idea of the loss sustained by the country from these forced desolations. The ground would pasture 15,000 sheep, and as it was not more than 1/30 of the whole forest ground in Scotland, it might be roughly guessed that the country was deprived by the forests of 1/2 million of sheep. All that forest land was totally unproductive, never having repaid the money spent upon it. It might thus as well have been submerged under the waters of the German Ocean. With a rapidly augmenting population, it was nothing short of madness to continue |68 adding to these desolations, and thereby diminishing the supply of those commodities indispensable for the sustenance of the people. … Such extemporised wildernesses or deserts ought to be put down by the decided interference of the Legislature. The vulgar notion of grouse shooting and deer slaughtering being advantageous to the Highlands was now almost exploded. People had begun to see that the visit of a few sportsmen for a month in the year could not make up for 11 months forced idleness.“

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 646/647.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

French Correspondent.

B. o. France.

Nach dem Moniteur (Return) hatte die Bk. 31. May 1866: 563,095,201f. gegen 536,652,692f. am 24 May in cash und bullion = Increase of 26,444,000f. Ebenso increase in discounts of 50,721,000f., in the circulation of Notes (919,878,775 gegen 879,688,525) of 40,191,000f. und in the deposits 43,572,000f. The total of the last item now exceed 378,500,000f. – a figure which shows depression in commerce and speculation.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 647.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Fraud in Cognac.

In a recent sitting in the senate, the declaration made by by Marquis de Lagrange, that in the Charentes – the department in which Cognac brandy is chiefly fabricate fabricated„immense frauds“ are committed in that article, 100,000,000 litres more being obtained than ought to be. The consequence is, he added, „that prices have fallen for the real as well as for the adulterated brandy, and that honest dealers are injured. Another consequence is that England, a large purchaser, last year took about 2,000,000 galons gallons less than is her usual quantity.“

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 648/649.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Geo. Guthrie schreibt dem Economist on the Banking Question.

 Guthrie legte mit „Bank Monopoly the Cause of Commercial Crises“ (Edinburgh, London 1866) ein Buch zu diesem Thema vor, dessen Titel Marx in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.18), in einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152) notierte.
Schließen
The monopoly of the B.o.E. has been the cause of commercial crises
, by inducing an excessive expansion of credit, the facilities of which are afforded not by the Bank itself, but by the hybrid discount banks and finance cos. to which that monopoly has given birth. These institutions are at present freed from the obligation of holding metallic money as the basis of their transactions, while they have, by their bills and advances, an infinitely more important influence on prices and the value of money than the Gvt. Bk. Hence there is a separation of the power of affecting prices, and the responsibility of maintaining a proper supply of metallic money, which has led to the futile attempt to control the movement of bullion by the rate of interest or hire … The breach of the law was therefore required to save London from universal insolvency.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 649.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Act of 1844 (by another correspondent).

The fact that the reserve in the banking department was reduced to 730,830l. shows the necessity of change. Why, one man, the late Dickie Thornton might have walked into the bank and put his cheque across the counter for 800,000l. As long as our present system continues, interested parties will endeavour to make the reserve of the B.o.E., the reserve of all the banks in England.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 650–652.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

B.o.E. 30 May: Circulation increase of 2,397,057l. in private securities. Increase of 20,989l. in coin and bullion, of 1,676,163l. to the private deposits. (Leztres shows continuance of precautions against pressure.) Decrease of Reserve: £528,236.

Discount and Money Market. Stoppage of the Consolidated Bank, on Monday morning last. Improvement in Exchanges.

Bullion: 218,000l. sent (in gold) to the B.o.E.

Bankrates: Paris 4%, Vienna 5, Berlin 9 (bills), 91/2 (advances), Frankfort 7, Amsterdam 61/2, Turin 8. Brussels 6 (bills) 61/2 (advances), St. Petersburg 51/2.

Railways: Slight reaction from the firmer prices quoted. The change chiefly owing to the decline in Consols on the receipt of lower prices from Paris, where the settlement is heavy.

Bankshares: general prices firmer; in a few cases, a decline to be noted.

Financial Shares: London Financial rather firmer; General Credit improved slightly; International Financial are held firm; and Credit Mobilier and Foncier, under continuous purchases, advanced to 21/4 to 2 disc.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 657.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton Trade. Liverpool. May 31.

After a long period of depression, assumed a much stronger position, and during the last 3 days large business done at advancing prices.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Juni 1866. S. 658.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manchester. May 31.

In Folge of The strong accounts respecting cotton from the states, on Wednesday quite an active demand set in for both cloth and |69 yarn at the low rates lately quoted. To-day the improvement not maintained, being regarded as too sudden under the circumstances. Fabrics made from the better classes of cotton maintain firmly their value.

Cardiff. The steam coal proprietors of the district are well off for orders and fresh ones are coming in freely. Brisk demand from the foreign markets, especially from Italy, France, Austria, Prussia. Freights to those countries have advanced considerably. Inquiry for pig iron slackened; the tin-plate works have to depend on old orders to be kept going.

Birmingham. Orders on account of the Home Trade have fallen off.



June 9. 1866. N. 1189.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 669.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market.

The Bank Return of Wednesday exhibit exhibits 4 great changes. 1) The total bullion is 11/2 millions more, arising from the large American arrivals. 2) Private securities 13/4 millions less, indicating greater facilities and here and there lower rates in Lombardstreet. 3) Banking Reserve is 2 millions more (nämlich 23/4 mill.) 4) Outstanding circulation is more than 1/2 mill. less. The drain of gold is quite at an end. The Java, just arrived from New York with dates of 30. May, brings a further 700,000l. in specie, and large sums are to follow.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 669/670.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failure of the Agra and Masterman’s Bank.

On 7. June, sudden and unexpected. On the Stock Exchange the shares were marked out at an early stage of the panic as a favourite object of attack by the „bears“ … certain that devices of depreciation were resorted to in the last degree scandalous, and certainly rendering the perpetrators, if discovered, amenable to severe legal consequences. The adverse effect of these rumours and hostile attacks is not to be overlooked, and has probably rendered unavailable any chances of escape which under other circumstances the Bk. might have possessed. Aber der failure nicht wholly or even chiefly due to adverse rumours and speculative shares of sales. The directors [had committed] for some time false policy, and engaged its resources in kinds of business in the highest degree hazardous.

The Original Agra Bank founded in Agra, Upper India, 1833. It began with a small capital, and confined itself for several years to limited object of making temporary advances to members of Indian services. On the one hand it received deposits, mostly at considerable notice, and could safely give for them a comparatively high rate of interest. On the other hand it employed these deposits in loans to other members of the services requiring temporary assistance, and in this way did great benefice to the Anglo-Indian community by superseding the extortionate practices of the native money lenders. Gradually its business, besonders at Calcutta and Bombay, became principally mercantile. It opened an agency and then a head office in London, and entered largely into the exchange operations carried on between this country and India. The branches were next extended to China and Australia, and 15. 15 years ago it had obtained the 2nd, and in some sense, the first place among Indian banking institutions. Prosperity increased until about 3 or 4 years ago, when directors fell largely in ordinary London banking business, joining to an Eastern banking connexion, extending from Lahore to Shanghai and Sydney, the operations of an ordinary City Bank competing for mercantile accounts, advances, and discounts, and, of course, attending the Clearing House. More completely to work out this policy, directors effected amalgamation, April 1864, with the firm of Masterman et Co, on High terms of purchase.

Bisher war die London und Westminster Bank ihre London Bank gewesen, worauf sie chiefly drew. Henceforward the branches drew only on the head office, that is to say, the drafts of the Bank ceased to be in reality bills of exchange drawn by one independent party upon a second independent party, and became mere promissory notes upon the Agra Bank. This change schadet their credit in India. Nach und nach oozed out that it had considerable transactions with finance cos. and finance undertakers. By and by a branch was opened at Paris. In the meantime the 6 month’s acceptances of the Bk. drawn from the branches were largely current and met with less and less favour. There was also evidence of the Bank trading upon its credit by accepting bills for a commission. Money market became uneasy, long-dated promissory bills more and more disliked. Then Panic. Then Bank forced to close its doors, |70 after sustaining a severe and protracted drain, because it could not meet the recoil of its Indian business. The telegraph conveyed to Calcutta and Bombay and the other branches news of the difficulties of the London office, led to a pressure of depositors at nearly each place. To meet this pressure, the local managers had only limited local means, and they could only offer bills, i.e. promissory notes, on the head office – the very part of the institution most in Peril. Vergeblicher effort der directors to attempt to negotiate a credit with a first-class London firm against which the branches might be authorised to draw. Kam zu dazu nicht. Ausserdem too late. The points to be protected too distant and scattered. Its collapse almost a national misfortune. It will carry poverty and sorrow to hearts of 100nds of men and women, who, after a long Indian service, had intrusted entrusted all to this institution. The usance of Indian bills ought from 6 months’ sight to be shortened to 4. The Creditors are not only subjected to ultimate loss of part of their money, but for several months wholly ohne die means of raising a sixpence on the security of their estimated dividends.



Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 672/673.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Protection for Public Credit.

Forged orders to bankers (to sell shares) etc. Telegrams ferner (falsche) of outbreak of war to Times, next day all over the world that a great Bank had failed. The next day after the signature of the Paris Correspondent of the Times is forged to a telegram which fortunately finds the Editor on his guard. Morning Post of Monday (2 June) folgender Paragraph: „Last night the person or persons who, by impudent forgeries, have lately succeeded in obtaining the publication of false news … attempted to play a similar swindle upon the Morning Post … the forger’s object is purely stockjobbing, for when affairs looked peaceful he forwarded warlike news to the Times, from Lord Clarendon; now that matters look warlike, and all funds are depressed, he is good enough to forward to us news of peace.“ (nämlich letter von A. H. Layard (Foreign Undersecretary), daß Prussia and Austria have come to terms.) Similar hoax attempted on the Daily News, also unsuccessful.

The real difficulty this: There is not the same difficulty in the detection of direct fraud, because darin ist something tangible, wie bei forged cheque z.B. But when a stranger sends off a telegram, the telegraph clerks have no interest in verifying it, or in taking note of its identity. … Der  Siehe Marx an Kugelmann, 27. Juli 1871: „Die Tagespresse und der Telegraph, der ihre Erfindungen im Nu über den ganzen Erdboden ausstreut, fabriciren mehr Mythen (und d. bourgeois mind glaubt und verbreitet sie) in einem Tag, als früher in einem Jahrhundert fertig gebracht werden konnten“ (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. C 133).
Schließen
Telegraph the most enormous machine for the diffusion for rumour
für all the agencies at work in the panic. Circulars warning the shareholders in different co. cos. of impending ruin, cautions to depositors, mere lies by word of mouth  The Economist: caused perhaps as much mischief as the telegraph
Schließen
neben dem Telegraph
. The evil that may be done by the telegraph is generally at a distance from the seat of the panic, but the panic itself is felt most on the spot. …

If bears can be taught the exact limit where cleverness ceases, and dishonesty begins  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
, there may be panics in the money market, but they will not be such as that of 1866.



Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 675.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Savings’ Banks Returns.

May. 19
The Fund for the Banks for Savings: 37,120,284£. 3s. 4d.
Post Office Savings’ Bk. Fund: 7,242,063, 9s. 10d.
44,362,347l. 13s. 2d.
Ditto by last monthly account: 44,622,080l. 5s. 8d.


Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 678–681.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

Discount Market: The institutions indicated in the first instance by the bear operations meist die, which have subsequently fallen. Secret ihrer risked enterprises known by many persons. Von diesen die sales for the fall have evidently been effected.

The Influx of gold to the Bank of France continues. Ihr Increase in cash and bullion £.1,570,000. Decrease in bills discounted £.2,342,000, in Banknotes £1,660,000.|

71

Foreign Stocks. The overcharged condition of the markets does not admit of any improvement in prices; unsettled state of European politics has led to further decline in several cases.

Railways: The markets firm.

Bankshares: fell heavily on the announcement of the suspension of the Agra and Masterman’s bank. To-day prices have rallied, and mostly close higher.

Financial Shares: General Credit shares better, International Financial firm at late price, Credit Mobilier has again given way.

Failures: Meeting der creditors of Peto, Betts and Co.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Juni 1866. S. 686.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton Market. Liverpool. June 7.

Monday large animated business at advanced prices on news from U. States of increased shipments of specie, and of reduced receipts and exports of cotton. Tuesday demand fell upon the warlike aspect of the continent, sales almost entirely confined to the supply of the immediate wants of trade. Friday news of suspension of Agra Bank, increased depression, decline of prices.



June 16. 1866. N. 1190.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Juni 1866. S. 697.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Still 10 Per Cent.

Attracts no money hither. Dazu our credit too much impaired. The ordinary international currency now deranged. It consists generally of bills, and bills largely upon London. Letztre now suspected; we pay gold and silver where we used to pay bills, and receive gold and silver where we used to receive bills. But zugleich high rate of interest contracts transactions, diminishes trades, lowers prices; tends to encourage exports, diminish imports, and so alter the balance of trade, bring in bullion, and what is more important still, to contract the sphere of our commerce, which was based on good credit.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Juni 1866. S. 697/698.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney, and Co. Limited and Unlimited.

The report of the authorised accounts reveal an „interior“, such as has seldom been seen.

The old firm at the time of its conversion into a limited Co. insolvent by at least 4 millions £. St. The new Co. took over the assets of the old one under a guarantee. Unter den assets die partners’ private estate estates, aber auch der goodwill, hoch angeschlagen und keinen farthing wd werth. Diese in den Assets eingeschlossen bleibt deficit of 4,246,000. It is difficult to understand how any honest et able men could persuade themselves to sell, and still more strange how any such men could be so blind to buy, such a business. The old firm had engaged in extra-bill[-]broking operations, which would compel the Gurney family and others interested in it to sell their private estates; the moment those operations were known, the credit of the old firm was at an end. Der Glaube an sie in the provinces dauerte fort.

Auf die neue firm a run since months. Their credit was daily diminishing. Von Juli 11, 1865 bis 10 Mai 1866 fielen ihre Deposits of other people’s money um 4,660,000£; Von 14,400,000l. auf 9,800,000; or nearly 1/3. The moment the partners in the old firm were announced to be ruined – and this began to be Town Talk from February at least – the new co. was drained, pressed upon, and weakened day by day, while the absorption of means by the bad assets of the old firm rather augmented than diminished as time went on.

At the stoppage, the current bills discounted by the new Co. were:

£
Bills left with depositors security 6,285,000
Bills rediscounted 8,266,000
Bills in hand 1,149,000
15,700,000 |
72

The first are said by the accountants to be good, but all will not been paid. Of the rediscounted bills „a large amount will be returned, and in the first instance rank against the estate“ of the Co. The bills in hand are estimated to produce only 1,100,000l., being a loss of nearly 50,000l. on that item, and their realisation even at that sum spoken of as distant and even problematical.

The current bills clearly contain many questionable ones, and there are other losses too.

The paid up capital of the Co, 1,500,000l., is all gone. Now the Co. bought and involved business:

£
Deficit der old firm after deducing all receipts from the partners’ private estates 720,000
Sum given for that business 500,000
1,220,000,

which is by far the grater part of 11/2 mill., and the bad bills and expense of liquidation will account for all the rest.

There must be a considerable call. Independently of other liabilities, the Co. owes to unsecured depositors 3,800,000l. Die shareholders werden wenigstens 20l. od. 17l. 10 p. share verlieren.



Aus:
The Economist, 16. Juni 1866. S. 700.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Shortening the Usance of Indian Bills.

 Von Marx zitiert in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 212.1–10.)
Schließen
The crisis of 1847 enabled the banking and mercantile community of that time to reduce the India and China usance from 10 months’ date to 6 months’ sight, and the lapse of 20 years mit all the accelerations of speed and establishment of telegraphs renders necessary further reduction from 6 months’ sight to 4 months’ date as a first step to 4 months’ sight. The voyage of a sailing vessel via the Cape from Calcutta to London is, on the average, under 90 days. An usance of 4 months’ sight would be equal to a currency of say 150 days. The present usance of 6 months’ sight is equal to a currency of say 210 days.
These 210 days renders it possible for a large part of the trade to be carried on by men who have little or no capital of their own, and who simply deal with other people’s money. They pay for the goods in India by the proceeds of the bill which they draw against them, and their correspondent on this side provides for the bill by selling or pledging the goods, assuming the English market to be favourable and to leave any margin in the operation. If the markets happen to be unfavourable the holder of the bill is left to pay himself as far as he can out of the  The Economist: hypothecated
Schließen
hypothetical
security. The parties most interested in shortening the usance are the Indian Banks  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(in London.)
 … Not only is the term of 6 months’ itself most objectionable even for single bills, but it becomes doubly objectionable and doubly dangerous, in consequence of large masses ⦗batches, in fact⦘ of these bills having to be accepted, and, therefore, to be made payable on some single day, from the circumstance that the Indian mail arrive at particular periods and bring masses of bills, all of which are of course presented for acceptance within an hour or two after the delivery of the letters. On the 9. June, f.i., the amount of acceptances by the Agra Bank due on that particular day was not less than 1/2 mill. l. St. The bank had closed 2 days ago, and the bills were not met; but the certainty of having to meet a large amount of acceptances on the 9. had a good deal to do with the resolution to close on the 7.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Juni 1866. S. 706–709.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Movement of the Money Market.

Bank of England 13 June. (Wednesday). Increase of Circulation: 557,820l., Bullion 1,202,934, Reserve 689,509. Decrease: Private Deposits 79,336l., Private Securities 501,568.

Discount Market: notes to the extent of 5 or 6 millions have already been taken by country and other bankers and individuals to supply the reserve and additional circulation rendered necessary by the stoppage of so many banks and the loss of so much banking accommodation as has been thereby entailed. Indisposition to contract new engagements. The depreciation in the value of produce and in most kind of raw materials so great that few fresh imports are now engaged for. Outstanding indebtedness to this country is being discharged in gold; and, at the same time, foreign capital is again sent here for investment in longdated bills.|

73

A number of letters, addressed to the holders of London and County Bank shares, anonymous, and posted in London, E. C. N. 73 stampmark, have to-day been sent up to the head office of the bank from the country. The contents were simply: „Sell bank shares at once. From a friend. June 1866.“

On the subject of speculation in bankshares, an injudicious proposal is to be brought before the H.o.C. with the view of rendering „bear“ or „speculative“ sales a misdemeanour.

    Failures:
  • Hawkey, Whitford and Co, private bankers, of St. Columb and Falmouth bank, Cornwall. Liab. about 200,000l. Assets: 250 bis 300,000l., locked up in property.
  • Messrs James Barnes et Co of Liverpool, and T. M. Mackey and Co., of London, the wellknown shipowners, in consequence of the suspension of Barned’s Bkg. Co.
  • Stoppage of the „Universal Banking Corporation“ (Limited) (Eastcheap, London.)
  • The Foreign Lands and Mineral rights Purchase Co. (Lim.) voluntary winding up; ditto the „Dining Halls Co.“ (Limit.)


23 June. 1866. N. 1191.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 729.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ten Per Cent still.

During the week the imports of bullion 1,651,481l., of which B.o.E. only received 369,000l., and the exports 865,233l., while large orders for exportation are understood to be on hand. The drain to the Continent would have been of very painful importance but for the opportune supplies from America.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 730/731.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Crisis of 1866.

All panics in a large sense are credit panics. Aber der of 1866 specially so. The fabric of credit may be disturbed: 1) By our transacting too much business, and, as a consequence, engaging in too many undertakings. We may promise more than we can perform. There is only at the annual disposal of every nation a certain fund set free by the annual industry for production. We have only a certain set of commodities und nur by their help we can keep our engagements. So far as they suffice we can do so, but when they cease we must fail. In such a case a panic arises from a scarcity of capital. We have not enough things to do what we have promised. Something of this sort in 1847. We had made so many promises to build railways which were halfmade and were constantly requiring to be finished, that a large number of persons had to break their promises, that the rupture of these engagements caused first diffidence – then distrust – then panic. This could not be helped in 1847, for the error was in 1845 and 1846. A capital panic arises from our having made more promises than we can perform.

2) Bullion Panic: Though the ultimate object of all contracts is to obtain capital and procure commodities, the universal language in which contracts are expressed is money. The debtor undertakes to produce such and such sovereigns; the creditor absolves him from all claims by receipt in full when he does so. We have to keep our promises not only in articles, but in money. Indeed at first sight a person looking only to the terms of the contracts would say that we need money only, and need nothing else. And in law such is the case. But money will not make a railway. You must have land, sleepers, rails and labour. If these are scarce, the more money you have to spend on them, the more their price will rise. But money, though not sufficient, is plainly necessary, and in the last resort actual sovereigns. Banknotes, credits in ledgers, deposit receipts, are only so many different forms of contract to pay sovereigns. Our whole credit system may be described as an engagement to deliver gold and silver when required, and until a good stock of these metals is kept for that purpose, there is no assurance that such contracts will be performed. Without much of those metals many those contracts could not be performed. The public knows this, and as soon as the stock of money in the country runs low, they begin to doubt if contracts to pay money will be performed. In 1847 this happened: bullion was then scarce as well as Capital; a bad harvest had created a sudden demand for bullion to pay for foreign corn, and the B.o.E. did not then know to keep a stock of bullion. In 1857, also, the B.o.E. allowed the stock of bullion to get very low, and a panic came on in consequence.|

74

3) The speciality of 1866: we had nearly enough bullion and capital, and panic as severe as 1847 and more severe than 1857. We have now 14,800,000l. bullion. We have never had less than 11,800,000l. 1847 we had 8,312,000£. und 1857: 6,484,000. As to our capital the test is not so easy. Was die investments angeht,

Capital expended on railways open for traffick £.
1861 342,386,100
1862 355,107,280
1863 373,246,200
1864 391,396,680
1865 412,558,100
The capital paid up in public Cos, including premiums £
1864 24,229,633
1865 21,193,930
1866 17,781,560
63,205,123,

no terrible sum, when any truth in the estimate that our savings about 130 Mill. l. St. annually.

Aber ausser dem physical, moral element of credit. Persons, most largely in credit, and who most largely use credit, may have given occasion to distrust. Now, it has been conspicuously shown that some of our principal borrowers and men of credit have been quite unworthy of confidence. So Overend, Gurney et Co. The old firm was hopelessly insolvent, and could not, even after absorbing the millions owned in private by the partners, have paid depositors in full. But the new Co  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(nämlich durch deliberate fraud upon the public!)
can pay every one. The shareholders will lose, nicht die lenders.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Aber ultimately, und dieß ist schon loss, ja ruin für Viele.)
The fact is, the private firms, as Overend, G. et Co, unlimited banking cos, like the Bank of London, limited banking cos, as Agra bank, have all sinned alike. They all took securities not fit for them, they held their money payable at short notice; they invested in securities only to be realised after long time, and sometimes not realisable at all.



Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 732/733.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Financial Reforms in the Irish Law Courts.

The Encumbered Estates Court worked its way though misconception and general distrust to appreciation and general confidence und ebenso its successor, the Landed Estates Court. A large portion of Ireland, more than 1/6 of its whole area, has passed under the jurisdiction of the Court. The value of the land thus sold much more than 30 Mill. l. St. A new race of proprietors has been created  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(schöne Kerls!)
, in the main solvent and enterprising men, who occupy the place of the reckless and impoverished squirearchy of former days.



Movement of the Money Market.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 736.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Bank o. E. 20 June. Circulation: Decrease £886,572 und Private Securities Decrease of 61,115. Increase: Private Deposits 1,044,010. Bullion: 369,225. Reserve: 1,228,780.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 736/737.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Discount Market: As the note circulation rapidly increased and distrust, so its subsidence marks the mending of matters after the panic. The stoppage of commerce and trade in Germany durch war, will even more rapidly turn to the augmentation of the amount of the precious metals in this country. Money market easier; a better tone prevails, |75 and satisfactory advices received to-day from Bombay. The marketrate for ordinary bills 1/2 below the Bank minimum; and for first class six months’ Bank bills the rate is 7 to 63/4%, with very few offerings.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 737.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Bankrate p.c. Paris 4, Vienna 5, Berlin 9, Frankfort 6, Amsterdam 61/2, Turin 9, Brussels 6, Madrid 9, Hamburg (open market) 9, St. Petersburg 51/2 . The accumulation of gold in the Bank o. France continues.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 738.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Railway shares: Depression. Operations on behalf of investors not numerous, hence speculative sales had full effect upon a sensitive market.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 738.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Bankshares: Improvement on all the quotations compared with previous week.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 738.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Financial Shares: Fresh efforts made 2 days ago to depreciate the value of the shares of the few remaining financial cos. Reports and rumours  The Economist: industriously
Schließen
industrially
circulated, set forth that further losses had been sustained by one or the other of these, and that additional calls had become necessary. Special attempt against the International Finance whose shares forced down nearly 1l. under the pressure of sales on a depressed market. All the rumours set afloat false, and bears will have some difficulty in providing the shares they have oversold.

    Aus:
    The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 738/739.
    Schließen
    Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
    Failures:
  • Suspension of George Furness, railway contractor.
  • Acceptances of W. Rattray et Co, of Roodlane, Westindia merchants, returned unpaid. Liab. probably not over 70,000l.
  • Failure of Th. Rose, of the Millfield Iron Works, Birmingham. Liab. about 40,000l.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 744
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Manchester, June 21: Depression, almost entire absence of business in Folge des German war in apprehension of commercial disasters in Eastern markets.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. Juni 1866. S. 745.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Bradford. transactions confined to the small purchases of spinners who have exhausted their stock, and require to keep some portion of their machinery at work. Continued depression in yarns. Neither for home or foreign account more than the most trifling transactions. A few insignificant transactions in piece goods for America. Unemployed machinery is on the increase.



June 30. 1866. N. 1192.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 761/762.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Still Ten Per Cent.

10% and 15 Mill. l. St. in the till Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
The foreign exchanges, indeed, take away much of the gold and silver which comes here. This in the main quite as it should be. The bill currency in which international transactions are settled is now disordered, and as we receive more bullion than we used to do, so we ought for the same reason to pay away more. We need not try to augment our bullion beyond the amount which we commonly think about enough. The B.o.E. have till now retained some of the gold which passes through the country, but now they need not do so. A part of the remittances from America are upon German account. The Germans who invested in American securities when very low are now realising and bringing both their principals principal and profits home. Such remittances must go to Germany, and it is preposterous to try to retain them by a high rate of discount. Mit Bezug auf such money, the maintenance of the rate is an ineffectual means towards an undesirable result. Bullion in the Bank of France, increased again more than 800,000l., is now at the astonishing amount of 26,000,000l. It has often of late years been 12 Mill., and once, at least, 8 Mill. A foreign drain of bullion is, of course, infinitely less likely, when the principal continental centre for such matters is overloaded mit bullion and has money at 4% than if money were dear there, and bullion, as at some former times, snatched at by irregular means. Revival of confidence in England prevented by the [10]%. Country people think there must lurch a secret, in the possession of the B.o.E., behind it. The banknotes now wanted to fill the Bank till will never come back, till the signal is given durch lowering the rate of discount.

There is no reason why 10% should be fixed in Gladstone’s (treasury) letter of 11 May any more than a less rate. As money gets cheaper, the growth of auxiliary credit is likely to become more rapid; it will begin to increase when money ceases to be 10%. A letter in which the rate is prescribed requires a series of postscripts.

The protracted continuance of this crisis makes this variation of rate during the period of permitted infraction of more than usual importance. In 1847 and 1857, the panic being mainly mercantile, the cure was quick. quick; as soon as the condition of trade changed, and we regained enough bullion, all was right. But a credit, a banking panic is a |76 is a subtler thing; it attacks confidence not in its adjuncts, but in itself. Nothing will cure it but a reduction of the rate.

The Bank reserve must be less for the next 2 weeks than it is now, and it would be very pernicious that for a fortnight longer a terrifying value of money should be artificially maintained.



Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 763/764.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Mode of Dealing in Bank Shares.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(„Bearing“)

Mr. Leeman, the member for York, has brought in a Bill to regulate the traffic in Bank or other shares. He proposes in substance that no one shall sell Bank or other shares unless he already possesses them, and as a test of his already possessing them, he requires that they shall be described, if possible, by the number of the shares in the register, and when there is no register, in the next most intelligible manner. The object of course is plain. A great number of persons have acted as „bears“, that is have sold the shares of some particular banks which they never owned, have depressed the price of those shares and have ruined the credit of the bank. Of course, where the bank perished, the speculation was most profitable; the „bear“ sold Agra and Masterman’s share shares at a premium for future delivery, thereby depressed the market price, and bought them afterwards if necessary when they were at a discount. Such operations certainly profitable to those who deal in them, and certainly disastrous to those whose property is so dealt in.

The prohibition, if there is to be one, ought to be a legal prohibition, and not a prohibition by the Committee of the Stock Exchange. The whole jurisdiction of that Committee is an anomaly. Why any particular set of men – in fact a sort of „Trades’ Union“, – should have the power to regulate the traffic in millions’ worth of property is very strange. … Diese bears useful: they have served as detectives of bad cos. Overend’s and the Agra are obvious cases of concerns which might for years have gone [on], and might have got worse and worse if it had not been for this effective and stringent effect check. Kommentar von Marx. „Satte Tugend und zahlungsfähige Moral“ stammt aus dem Gedicht „Anno 1829“ von Heinrich Heine.
Schließen
(Sehr charakteristisch! Eine Infamie stets checked by a still worse infamy! Dieß ist satte Tugend und zahlungsfähige Moral.) (Uebrigens, wenn der Economist sagt, daß no good concerns ruined durch die bears, so massenhaft private possessors of good securities frenzied into selling them.)
»Unless there is a true and important nucleus for calumny, it is powerless.« The bears may not have a pleasant trade, but they are useful as scavengers are useful. They remove pernicious and evil matter which taints the air.



Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 767.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Deer versus sheep. (Communicated)

The public does not suffer more from this circumstance than from most other unproductive expenditure.

The best result of augmented wealth and civilisation is to increase the desire for expenditure not strictly productive, and also to increase the means of bearing it. Has not one institution, the London and Chatham and Dover railway, wasted more of the national wealth in a few years than could be wasted by all the deer forests of Scotland during many generations?

Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 767/768.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Game. Farmers Protest.

Gegen Lord Denbighs ukase of 19 May durch 120 of the largest occupiers, within a radius of 30 miles of Denbigh’s seat. Represents the views of at least occupiers of 50,000 acres.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 769/770.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

(Correspondence.) Usance of Indian Bills.

 Von Marx zitiert in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 212.10–22).
Schließen
The Brazilian usance remains at 2 and 3 months’ sight, bills from Antwerp are drawn at 3 months’ date, and even Manchester and Bradford draw upon London at 3 months and longer dates. By tacit consent, a fair opportunity is afforded to the merchant of realising the proceeds of his merchandise, not indeed |77 before, but within a reasonable time of, the bills drawn against it fall due. Daher die usance für Indian bills not excessive. Indian produce, for the most part being sold in London, with 3 months’ prompt, and allowing for [loss of] time in effecting sales, cannot be realised much within 5 months, while another period of 5 months will have previously elapsed (on an average) between the time of purchase in India and of delivery in the English warehouse. We have here a period of 10 months, whereas the bill drawn against the goods does not live beyond 7 months.

The question lies between the large and the small capitalist. The extinction of the latter class of traders, and the concentration of the Indian trade in the hands of the large capitalist, … would be a return to the system of monopoly by which this important trade was formerly restricted. A trade of 10 millions, carried on by 1000 traders will be safer than if carried on by 100. It is to the subdivision of credits characteristic of the present system that we owe the comparative fewness of commercial failures during a period without parallel as regards the fluctuations in the prices of produce. The opulent merchant has already an advantage in purchasing his export goods at cash prices; 2) that of saving the bank commission if he buys with funds of his own in the markets of Asia; and 3) he is able to compete with the banks themselves in exchange business, by transmitting bullion from this country to be invested in bills or produce.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 771–773.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

    Bk.o.E. 27 June.
  • Decrease in: Circulation of £308,566, Priv. Deposits 331,607, and Private Securities 325,352.
  • Increase in: Bullion of 191,279 und Reserve 479,079.

Discount Market: Additional gloom. Bad rumours afloat. The pressure of 10% discount must tell upon ordinary operations.

Railway Shares: Subsequent to the Breaking up of the Bank Court yesterday prices gave way, and have been further to-day depressed in consequence of vague rumours regarding the financial position of some of the cos. and their outstanding engagements.

Financial Shares: Considerable advance had taken place, again declined at the news of the non reduction of Bank rate of discount.

    Failures:
  • Drafts of Messrs Snead et Co, private bankers of Chepstow, have been returned by their London agents.
  • Price, Marryat and Co, private bankers, King William Street, London, stopped payment. Liab. about 250,000.
  • Dadabhai Naoroji et Co, East India merchants, of Great St. Helen, stopped payment, owing to losses in cotton and other produce. Liab. about 300 000l.
Aus:
The Economist, 30. Juni 1866. S. 779.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing markets.

Manchester. June 28. Towards the end of last week telegrams of 17. inst. from Culcutta and Bombay were received here, reporting favourably of these markets, in the face of very adverse advices from this side to the 7. inst. This These dispelled the depression previously existing here. Considerable business done, before close of the week recovering of prices to a large extent from their late fall. Later telegrams from Bombay, rumouring the suspension of large Parsee firm, contributed to check further advance. Today business decidedly limited, but the extension of the engagements of producers, since the 21st prevents much quotable decline on the advanced prices, although continuance of 10% is a disappointment tending to favour buyers.

Birmingham. Very dull foreign trade. The best part mit U. States. On account of that quarter a fair quantity of orders in hand.

Sheffield: Steel trade decidedly dull except in railway material. Cutlers fairly employed, owing to improved American and Canada Canadian orders, and arrears of country orders not yet entirely completed.

Wolverhampton: No improvement, works generally at half time.|


78

Saturday, 7 July 1866. N. 1193.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 789.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Still 10%.

We hold that the Bank is still acting under the sanction of the Treasury letter, that on other grounds it ought not to have its till so low as it now is, and, if it is so acting, its conduct not wise and prudent.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗On the contrary! They acted very prudently – for their own pockets! They used the letter only to buy a tax of 10% and allow their reserve to run down to any amount. They issued too many notes – according to their own theory – in proportion to their reserve, that is, in proportions to their banking liabilities they cared nothing for any reserve whatever. But in proportion to their Bullion they did, by their note issue, not infringe on the Act of 1844. They did not want to do this, 1) because, by the Treasury letter, they would then have been obliged to pay so much to the State; 2) because a nominal infringement on the Act of 1844 – instead of their real one – threatened to give the occasion to their adversaries to spring the whole Peel machinery, so extremely profitable to them.⦘

Why the Panic in England has not caused a Panic in America.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 791.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Früher dieß immer der Fall. The apprehension hier um so grösser when it was seen that large sums in gold were paid by America to England. Aber 1) The connection between the U. St. and England violently broken by the civil war. Our commerce has begun to grow again with stupendous rapidity. But still, the trade being recent, has not yet had time to create that close, intimate, and indissoluble union between the 2 countries which there was in former times. Allied houses here did not as formerly pull down allied houses in New York, because allied houses are not so common – at least not so closely bound as once – and because houses of that sort have not failed in any great numbers here. We had very few mercantile failures.

2) The large payments which America has made to us in bullion would undoubtedly have deeply affected her if bullion had been the basis of her credit system. But it is not so; greenbacks are its basis now. Gold is there simply an article of common merchandise. As long as they have „lawful money“, they can get [on] without gold or without silver.

3) What has happened is this. When it became necessary to remit gold to Europe, gold rose rapidly in value; and the Gvt., which is the principal holder of gold, sold freely. The Gvt. is always a large holder, because it receives Custom duties in coin, and only pays the interest of part of its debt in coin – an out-going much less than the receipt. A balance of gold, is, therefore, constantly accumulating in the treasury, and a large item of the miscellaneous revenue is composed of „profit“ on gold sales. Specie dollars are received as before the war, and, as if there were no greenbacks, at the Customhouse, and so credited in the books, but when surplus comes to be sold, it yields in „lawful money“, in the common currency in which Gvt pays its way, a large percentage more, and that premium is added to the revenue. When, in consequence of the remittance to Europe, the price of gold as measured in greenbacks rose, the Gvt. hastened to sell, in order to gain the additional premium. The sum wanted, therefore, for commerce was supplied without trenching on the wants of commerce or the habits of credit.

This facility of meeting sudden foreign payments may seem a great advantage in the system of inconvertible currency, and in truth so it is. Die disadvantages overweigh it. The constant, incalculable, illimitable variations in the price of commodities, the feeling that the price of everything, and, therefore, the property of every man, may be reduced at any moment for the Gvt. convenience; the disturbance of debts; the impossibility of long credit, because no one can make contracts |79 for a long time in a currency which may during that time be wholly changed in value.

 Die folgenden sieben Absätze sind eine Notiz von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Under the present system bleibt Gold und Silber Weltgeld.
Es bleibt mit der Warenproduktion überhaupt die Nothwendigkeit des Geldes und zwar bleiben gold und silver das Material dieses Geldes, das measure of value, weil sie als Weltgeld functioniren. Die zu lösende Frage die: Erstens die Noten (Papiergeld überhaupt) equivalent mit dem Gold und Silber zu halten, dessen Werth sie repräsentiren. Zweitens a treasure of gold und silver für die Weltmarktsbedürfnisse zu haben. Dazu:

1) Inconvertibles Staatsgeld, wie in Preussen. Dieß ausgegeben für Zahlung von dem Staat und returnirt durch die Steuern. Aber nur ein Theil des so cirkulirenden (currency) erfahrungsmässigen Minimums muß in Papier, der andre in Gold und Silber ausgegeben, also auch die Steuern zum Theil in letztren gezahlt werden. Diese Ausgabe to keep gold and silver in the channels of every day circulation bei diesem System unvermeidlich, soll das Geld Staatsgeld nicht depreciiren. Dient auch im Nothfall als Reserve. Das Gleichgewicht des Werths zwischen Gold und Silber nichts, paper andrerseits nicht nothwendig durch ihre convertibility bedingt, sondern dadurch daß sie gleichmässig nebeneinander cirkuliren, wie in Preussen der inconvertible Papierthaler neben dem Silberthaler, der 10 Thalerschein neben dem doppelten Friedrichsd’or. Depreciation des Geldes und Fluctuation besonders der Arbeiterklasse schädlich. Beweis: U. States und England während der suspension of cash payments.

2) Inconvertibles Staats-Bankgeld, ausgegeben auf bills und Handelssecurities. Diese müssen (ihr Charakter) gesetzlich bestimmt sein. Staatsbank (ausschließlich) mit Zweigbanken, wie in Frankreich und mehr und mehr in England. Namentlich auch Depositenbank (mit discount of bills) vom Staat zu monopolisiren. Die Sicherheit liegt hier in der Art und Weise des Ausgebens, wie der dadurch bedingten returns, wie bei den jetzigen Banks of Issue.

Kein Kapital. Banking trade ist Handel mit other people’s money. Jezt das Kapital der Banks nur security für das Publicum gegen Privatpersons. Die Banks of England und France haben jezt in der That kein disponibles Kapital. Es ist ganz dem Staat gepumpt. Ihr Kapital ist also blosser Credit, den das Publicum dem Staat giebt, und hat nichts mit ihrem Geschäft zu thun. Sie haben Schuldscheine auf den Staat. Der Staat braucht natürlich keine Schuldscheine auf sich selbst.

Das Personal der Staatsbank muß ebenso unabhängig von den Geri von der jedesmaligen Regierung sein wie die Gerichte. Sind zu ernennen und unter direkter Controlle der Parlamente etc, kurz der Volksvertretung.

Soweit der Staat selbst Geschäft treibt, Eisenbahnen, Minen, Telegraphe etc, und dieß wird er in immer grössrem Umfang thun, sind diese Departements gänzlich getrennt (Fremde für) von der Staatsbank. Wenn er die Vorlage hier hat, hat er auch die Einnahmen. Er kann daher nur soweit bei der Staatsbank discontiren lassen oder leihen, soweit er ihr Sicherheit giebt, ihr seine Einnahmen überweist (wie bei der B. o. England) etc[.] Die Staat d Regierung darf nicht vermittelst der Staatsbank Geld ins Publicum werfen, außer soweit er sie es ihm entzieht.

3) Sichrung eines treasure für den International Commerce. Der Staat giebt mintnotes zum Ankauf von Gold und Silber aus, nach dem fixed legal standard, also nicht höher im nominellen Belauf als das Gold. Diese mintnotes gegen Barren ausgegeben oder gegen Gold gemünztes Gold und Silber zu ihrem Preis (den Schlagschatz eingerechnet.) (Ein Standard, z.B. Gold. Silber dann nach seinem jedesmaligen Marktpreis berechnet) Diese mintnotes dürfen |80 , wie Ricardo dieß vorschlug, nur für höhere Summen sein, die einzigen, die im international commerce Rolle spielen. Schlagschatz  Marx bedient sich hier des Berliner Dialekts.
Schließen
muß sind
, D. Silberbarren und Goldbarren Silber- und Goldbarren müssen damit der Staat nicht münzt(?) für die Bullionhändler. Es ist möglich, daß by heavy drain of bullion, die Münznoten (die auch legal tender sein müssen, wie alles andre Geld) deppreciiren, prämium tragen, gegen das inconvertible Staatspapier und die inconvertiblen Banknoten. Dieß geringres Uebel als die zu vermeidenden. Perfect ist diese Sauce nicht zu machen. Sie Sieh über einige Details Fullarton p. 231 sqq.⦘ (Auch securities bought by the State Bank, i.e. Foreign Securities, foreign Staatseffecte which it can send, in times of drain to foreign market, and there buy bills for them, really withdraw national bills from their market.)

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 792/793.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Shortened Usance of Indian Bills.

 Von Marx zitiert in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 212.23–29).
Schließen
On 2 July notification von Oriental Bank, Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China; the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China; the Bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan (Lim.); the Delhi and London Bank (lim.); and the „Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris“ which has a large business in Calcutta und elsewhere, – also notification to the effect „that from 1 Jan. 1867, their branches and agencies in the East will only buy and sell bills of exchange at a term not exceeding 4 months’ sight“.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 796.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Influence of Entails upon Agriculture.

The law of primogeniture, by which land not disposed of by its owner descends entire to his oldest son or other heir male, and entails, which limit and restrict the power of the actual possessor of land – rendering him in fact merely a tenant for life – in order that the land may devolve entire to the male head of the family for the time being, are entirely feudal in their origin, and due solely to the exigencies of the feudal system.

Husbandry in this county has come to be carried on by farmers possessed of considerable capitals, who hire their farms at yearly rents from the proprietors of land. The division between the occupation and the ownership of land is complete … It is the fact that the owners of land do not perform their part in the work of production. On the vast majority of farms in England, permanent outlays are required to be made in effecting permanent works, which would constitute investments of capital – additions to the value of the property – the return for which would consist of increased rental, and which, as the rule, can only be properly and prudently made by the owner. In ordinary cases the tenant cannot prudently invest his own capital in executing those permanent improvements, viz: draining, building, road making, the removal of superfluous fences and timber, straightening and deepening brooks and outfalls for water, warping, irrigation, and so forth. It is not too much to say that fully 1/4 of the fee-simple value of the farm ought to be and might profitably be so laid out by the landlord upon 3 farms out of 4 throughout England. Until that is done farmers cannot farm their land properly, cannot make the profits or raise the produce of which the capacity of the land aided by modern skill and appliances would admit. Why then are not these permanent outlays made? The chief reasons are that the owners of land are not full owners, but are so restricted by entails and settlements to be only life tenants, while the estate will go exclusively to their eldest son. They are to a large extent only nominal owners, because the estates being charged mit debts, jointures, portions for the younger children of former owners, and the like, great part of the rental is applicable to the satisfaction of these encumbrances. Then, when the estate is encumbered, |81 – and most estates are both settled and encumbered – the landowner, who occupies the social position of owner, and has all the expenses of an estate much exceeding that which is really his, as tested by the income he can retain for his own use, is practically unable to execute the improvements his estate demands.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 798.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bank Rate of Discount. (Correspondence)

1865 Bullion der Bank 16,407,666l. being 1,365,276 in excess of the bullion on hand this year (1866). (Same date of 27 June.)

Ebenso on the same date, 27 June: 1865 liabilities der Bk.o.E. £24,663,912, 1866: 29,364,399. The Reserve 1865: £.9,931,821, und 1866: £5,218,409. This year daher die liabilities 4,700,487l. in excess of the liabilities of last year, and the reserve in the till of the Bank this year: £4,713,412 less than last year. Last year the reserve 1,700,517l. beyond 1/3 of the liabilities, this year l.4,569,724 less than 1/3 of the liabilities.

Compared daher to last year same date:

£
bullion less by: 1,365,267
Reserve less 4,713,412
Liabilities greater by 4,700,487.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 798.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Usance of Indian Bills. (Correspondence)

The reasons urged by the 5 banks  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(sieh vorige Seite, p. 80)
for the course they have pursued are, the large losses incurred by them during the last 2 years, and their unwillingness to run the risk of so variable a market as cotton for so lengthened a term as 7 months. Their losses, however, have chiefly arisen from their own imprudence in making enormous advances upon cotton during a speculative period, and having by such means encouraged speculation they now turn round upon the merchants whom they have helped to ruin, and say: „In future we will have a 5 instead of a 7 months’ risk.“

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 798/799.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bulling and Bearing. (Correspondence)

The public appear to suppose that this thing is peculiar to the Stock Exchanges; while the fact is, it prevails in every business of any extent, where prices have more or less of fluctuation. It is just as common to sell corn, or cotton, or iron, or tea, or any produce whatever, for a fall, as it is to sell shares. The simple difference is, that in case of stocks or shares the various shades of prices and almost every particular transaction is noted and publicly quoted; while in the case of produce the transactions are only noted in the lump, with the general prices of the day. Moreover, the thing is carried on every day on the Stock Exchanges, while in produce it is pretty well confined to market days. But still the practice really prevails as much in one case as in the other. Every man in business of any magnitude often sells first and buys afterwards. In Manchester, f.i., a spinner, just as often as otherwise, sells yarn for future delivery, when perhaps an ounce of it is not spun, hoping and thinking that he can cover, by buying cotton in Liverpool in a few days or a week an advantage. What is this but bearing the markets? … If a seller of shares is to be compelled to produce vouchers that he actually possesses them, why should not every merchant be compelled to do the same before he enters upon his transactions? … It is supposed that „a bull“ never takes his stock up, and that „a bear“ never delivers what he has sold while in other business he does. Now this is simply a mistake. A „bull“ of shares at the end of every account must, and does, either take up his stock or get others to do it for him, or he must lend it to some one who wants to borrow it. One of these things he must do, and always does, and the seller invariably gets his money for his stock … In what business is more done than paying for what is bought. On the other hand, it is not true that a „bear“ never delivers the stock he sells. On the contrary, when he sells he enters into a distinct engagement that he will deliver at the end of the account, and he always does. He either buys back before the end of the account, or he borrows from |82 some one who wishes to lend, or in some other way he gets for delivery what he has sold, and the buyer invariably gets the shares he has bought. What more can the seller do than provide that the shares shall be ready at the time stipulated, which is never longer than 1/2 month, from the time the transaction is entered into.

The fact is, it is not the liberty to sell and buy shares that has produced the supposed mischief in the late transactions in bank and finance shares, but first, the reckless mismanagement and rotten state of the banks themselves, and next, the „Organisations“ which have been formed to bear the shares. „Organisations“ to raise or depress prices either of stock or produce, partake more or less of the characters of swindles. The ordinary buyer or seller has no chance again such combinations, and hence there is no fair play in dealing in those things in which a powerful organisation is operating. This is really the cause of whatever mischief has happened.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Juli 1866. S. 802.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failures.

  • Messrs Charles Harvey and sons, private bankers of Longton, North Staffordshire, stopped. Liab. 40,000l. Bank established in 1821, had a fixed note issue of 5,624l.
  • Voluntary winding up: Great Devon and Bedford (Colcharton) Copper Mining Co. limited.
  • Wolverhampton: Any new sales of Iron now must be at a decided reduction.


July 14, 1866. N. 1194.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. Juli 1866. S. 817.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of the Money Market. (Still 10%)

The Decrease in the active circulation very satisfactory at this time of the year, when the payments for the dividends are going out … As long as the „danger“ signal is kept up, unusual reserves by way of protection will be kept … In ordinary times, all sound country bankers will hold proportionate reserves in London against their liabilities, but not a sixpence more than is wanted in banknotes in the country … Still efflux of gold. We drive the money away by maintaining the rate of interest at a point which makes everybody believe that there is some great calamity about to supervene which the exceptional rate is to prevent.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. Juli 1866. S. 818–820.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Crisis of 1866.

Why did the banks and discount firms engage in this bad business, and as if by set concert select this special time for so doing? The bad business goes back to 1862 and 1863. Rate of interest for a long period very small, therefore difficulty in employing the loanable capital in the money market. This one of the fundamental causes of bad business. If you leave much money in people’s hand to employ it for their own advantage, and they cannot so employ it in obvious good business, they are very apt to search out recondite bad business. John Bull, it has been said, „can stand many things, but he cannot stand 2%“. As soon as the rate of interest has for a considerable time [been] very low, some bad business is likely to be undertaken.

In general the mercantile community, excited by the facility of obtaining money, engage in mercantile adventures properly so called, and their failure, when it occurs, is generally of vast magnitude. It is then that capital panics are generated. A whole nation of industrious men of business are excited by a long continued facility, and rush into adventures which never pay … though in the aggregate each of them is small, upon the whole swallow up many millions and strain the national capital. But this pervading stimulus to a trading community takes time to act; it has to diffuse itself over a vast surface, and can only produce its full effect after a long lapse of time|83 When this happens the banking firms, the holders of loanable capital, are relieved from this surplus accumulation; it is carried off in this surplus trade. And though that trade be bad, it does not follow that the bankers who advance the capital upon which it is carried on will lose in proportion to its badness. If the bankers take good security, they may preserve themselves from loss, though the traders to whom they lend are ruined. If there is only one good name on a bill, that in the worst event is enough for the banker, the unfortunate possessor of that „good name“ may pay other people’s debts and expiate other people’s follies. But still the banker gets out. He is not ruined. He witnesses tranquilly the ruin of others. But it sometimes happens that the banker is not willing to wait till the expansion, possibly the excessive and too sudden expansion of trade brings new and safe business within his reach; he is anxious to do „something“ when there is nothing safe to do for him.

The circumstances of 1862–3 rendered that difficulty natural. Concession of limited liability. Bad cos. formed. There was a great set towards the establishment of new banks and discount cos. The great English Banks were then paying enormous dividends, and we wrote on 24. October 1863:

„The causes of the great success of the original joint stock banks war waren: The banking of the country was underdone. The richer classes kept banking accounts, the less wealty wealthy classes did not. The shopkeeping classes were generally unaccommodated. Man sah nicht that a great number of small accounts is a much more valuable business to a bank than a small number of great accounts. Ebenso waren, obgleich nicht so viele wie jezt, many banks in large towns and great seats of industry, but the smaller towns had no banks. The system of banking now takes the savings of quiet country places, when they could not be employed, to large mercantile cities where almost any amount of capital can readily find employment, and this is one great source both of their profitableness and usefulness. In former times this was not done completely, and in many districts was hardly done at all. English Banking was underdone und badly. English law would not allow a bank to have more than 7 partners, and it is imposed on all these bankers unlimited liability … Many inferior people, especially those who had wages to pay, were eager for the money of others, wrote Bank over their doors, took deposits, and issued notes especially to their workpeople. They knew nothing of banking, kept no reserve, invested the money of the bank in some business of their own, and in a time of difficulty had no available resource. In 1793, in 1825, and other seasons of distress, these petty bankers failed by hundreds. There never was a better field for mercantile enterprise than the improvements of English banking 30 years ago. There were excessively few banks to receive the deposits of the richest nation in the world, and many of the existing banks were bad ones. The Joint Stock Banks changed this. Every little town has now at least one bank, generally two; all classes of the community, down to the small farmer, keep bank accounts … The same thing cannot be done twice. The best of this thing has been effected. Generally, the profits of a new bank must be made by diverting to itself some part of the profits of existing banks.“ Nun, in 1862 sqq. competition of banking in London extreme. The number of new banks of various kinds – some Indian, some provincial, some foreign, but all London too – which started in those years, was extreme. Each wanted to make a great and sudden profit on a considerable capital; each offered a large interest for money, since it could not make anything till it had money; each compelled others to give that interest too, or they would lose the funds which were the means of their livelihood and the implements of their trade. Just when the natural interest of money was low, because there was a difficulty in lending it well, a new class of money dealers sprang up who bid high for it, and therefore were almost obliged themselves and almost forced others to employ it amiss.

With discount companies the effect, though different, was even more pernicious. A great many new cos. were founded, and they came into competition with Overend, G. et Co. Overends, an old firm quite insolvent, and propping up its great reputation, by high rates of interest, could not let the money go, and the new Cos. wanted to make the money come. Between the two the rate of interest given by intermediate borrowers so to speak – by borrowers who insisted |84 to lend again – was forced up to an unreasonable amount, and yet the rate of profit on actual undertakings, the earning fund, the productive capacity of the country, remained where it was. The specific danger of the time was the accumulation of loanable capital in the hands of those who did not know how to use it because the profits of active capital were at the moment so small, and yet, partly from the competition of banks and partly from the foundation of discount and finance cos, the rate of interest given by these intermediate holders was beyond all precedent excessive and dangerous. Greater folly than has been committed by banks and discount cos during the two last years has never be been known before.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. Juli 1866. S. 820.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The True Mode in whic which a shareholder should watch its Co.

A shareholder only sees the half-year’s accounts – in too many cases carefully prepared to meet his eye, and concealing under delicate ambiguities and well-contrived words exactly what it most concerns him to know. Attendance at a halfyearly public meeting mostly useless. A public debate on a co’s matter has rarely, if ever, done it good; and a single shareholder can scarcely generate a debate at such a meeting if he desires it. The directors in office never wish it, and while the co. is prosperous, can always prevent it. After the Co. is ruined, of course there are discussions enough.

If the principal directors who start a Co. are leaving it as if in terror; if they who know its secrets are leaving its ranks; if they are selling their shares and diminishing their responsibility – there is something wrong. If the directors are selling their shares, other welljudging people sell theirs too. The whole Co. is weeded of its rich capitalists, and left to women, clerks, and vagrants.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. Juli 1866. S. 825.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Movement of the Money Market.

    Bk.o.E.
  • Decrease in Circulation £.598,413, Private securities 1,710,620 und Reserve (total of l.3,800,640) £.264,440.
  • Increase in Private Deposits £.1,532,578 und Bullion: £.883,479.


July 21. 1866. N. 1195.

New Facts relating to the Act of 1844.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Juli 1866. S. 845/846.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Weiß nichts Gutes von dem Act zu sagen, als daß durch rechtzeitige Erhöhung des Zinsfusses von 1861–66 we kept sufficient bullion. Die längre high rate (vor dem Panic) attracted hither an unusual supply of foreign money. But this money was lent us on credit, leaves us mit impaired credit. When you create by law a limit to the issue of banknotes, you entail by inevitable events occasional acts of the Executive to break that law. The foreign discredit occasioned by such acts must not be charged to them. They are part and parcel of the Act itself –, inseparable from it. So are the evils they cause. Ferner: the Act led the B.o.E. to keep the rate of interest higher than it ever was for so protracted a period. Mit gutem credit, the more interest you offer the more money will you get; as soon as your credit is doubted, the higher the rate you offer, the less the money will come in. Dann high interest means bad security. And the foreign holders of bills on England have lately largely acted on it. … For a moment all large holders of a commodity have great power over its price, and at a moment of panic the B.o.E. has nearly despotic power over the price of money. If the B.o.E. had charged 15% for the last 6 weeks, the general market would have approximated to it, and been guided by it more or less nearly.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Juli 1866. S. 846/847.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
… verschiedene English Banks (Union Bank, London Joint Stock Bank f.i.) do not distinguish between the acceptances they give and the money they receive. receive (i.e. deposits), so daß kein Teufel ersieht, how much of this is paper given, and how much is money received.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Juli 1866. S. 852–855.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

Bank o. E. Increase: Circulation: 227,418l. Decrease: Private Deposits 1,651,546, Private Securities 1,287,285, |85 and Reserve: £576,045.

Railway shares. The difficulties of the London, Chatham and Dover railway have produced fears concerning the position of some of the other cos, with speculations adverse to firm prices.

    Failures:
  • Birmingham Banking Co. Liabilities 1,800,000, Assets 200,000l.
  • Carleton (Brothers), wholesale warehousemen. (London)
  • Preston Banking Co on 19 June. Liabilities about 1,000,000l.


July 28, 1866. N. 1196.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. Juli 1866. S. 879–881.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Irish Railways.

Capital employed. Per Cent paid upon them (in dividends etc)
£.
1861 21,180,161 3.81
1862 22,873,401 3.27
1863 23,518,750 3.27.
1864 23,855,490 3.48.
Capital employed in them: (all money invested, whether raised by ordinary shares, preference shares or debentures.[)]
Whole United Kingdom
A) Return of capital of every kind expended in railways.
(Preferential shares, Debentures etc)
B) Return upon ordinary shares.
P.C. P.C.
1861 4.30 3.37
1862 4.22 2.33
1863 4.25 2.26
1864 4.49 2.51
Aus:
The Economist, 28. Juli 1866. S. 883.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Deer versus sheep. (Communicated)

As some indication of the proportion borne by the expenditure on deer forests when compared with other forms of unproductive expenditure, it may be stated that many years ago the disbursements of the English subjects, travelling or residing on the Continent, almost wholly unproductive, was valued at 12 millions p. annum. It is now far greater.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. Juli 1866. S. 883/884.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cattle feeding.

Long is England treated as an axiom that feeding cattle were merely manure making machines, and expensive machines too. The profit was looked to from the corn crops, whose increase formed the purpose of all the elaborate processes of stock feeding. The beasts had as much cake or corn as they would eat for long periods of time, besides large quantities of hay or root. Hence Loss, charged to the manure. The Scotch farmers long in advance of the English farmers in this respect, that by the consumption of their turnips with straw they chiefly produced their fat cattle; though in their case also when any artificial food – cake or corn – was used, they usually gave too much and too long – that is, for profit. Hauptsache: Skill in selecting, – in breeding and buying the store stock – and careful management in feeding them. Dieß subject of 2 papers, one by Mr. George Hope, the other by Mr. Wm M’Combie, read in the Edinburgh Chamber of Agriculture at a recent meeting. Hope said: We must begin with well bred animals, as they fatten easily, have little offal, and get flesh on the parts that fetch the highest prices per lb. Coarse and large boned animals are invariably large consumers of food, while their meat is of less value. Warmth and comfort are of great importance in promoting feeding, and the cattle ought to be separated into small lots. The greater the subdivision or the smaller the number in any one place, so much the better do the animals thrive … ample shed room or cover is indispensable for profitable feeding. „In the Lothians, the cattle feeding was long considered as merely subservient to the production of cereal crops, but from the great change that has taken place in the relative value of grain and butchermeat, crops are more and more grown for the purpose of being converted into butcher meat.“ meat. Foreign substances also, such as linseed and other cakes, |86 white peas and tares, are being used to an extent that 50 years ago would have been thought incredible.“

A piece of grass that will maintain an ox grazing will not keep more than 6 sheep, although as a rule animals generally eat in proportion to their live weight, modified by their age and condition. Sheeps Sheep kept in great numbers on meadows will soon diminish the quantity of the grass produced. In England der Ausdruck „meadows … oversheeped“. In Hertfordshire, on the strong loams, we always found the hay crops to be disappointing whenever sheep were much fed on the meadows. Cattle for meadows, and sheep for arable land, and upland pastures … the practical rule for stock farming.

To return to cattle grazing. The great secret of profitable feeding is to supply the best food at the right time. Hope says: „When an ox is becoming ripe for butcher he gradually eats less and less; he rests more and becomes fatter. And it is at this stage that cattle pay best for linseed cake and rich feeding, and it is most profitable to give it to them without measure. Feeders frequently lose the best part of their profits from selling their stock a month or 6 weeks too soon. An ox may be very good, fat, and readily find a purchaser; but if kept on for another month, or even 2, he would increase more rapidly in weight in proportion to the food consumed than he ever did at any previous stage of his existence, and also from becoming extra quality, he would be worth from 3 to 6d p. stone additional.[“]

„Almost all cattle are sent too soon to the butcher. Cattle grow steadily, and increase in weight until 4 if not 5 years old. But the practice is not even to give them time to attain their natural size, but to force fat on them, as quickly as possible and then off with them to the market.[“] Ferner nöthig: variation in the kind of food – such as potatoes, beans and peas, as well as turnips and oilcakes. … Feeding stock should be kept always improving, and the richest food and greatest warmth and shelter ought to be reserved for the last part of the feeding process.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. Juli 1866. S. 887–889.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

    Bk.o.E. 25. June
  • Decrease: Circulation 248,985£, Private Deposits £.1,274,170, Priv. Securities 1,009,933
  • Increase: Bullion 70,854. Reserve: 229,144.

Bk. Shares. Of the newer cos dull, with, in some instances, a heavy fall.

Financial Shares. Steady.

Failures: Getherton Iron Co. (Birmingham) liab. about 20,000l. |


87

4 August 1866. N. 1197.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 905/906.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of the Money Market.

State of the B.o.E. unsatisfactory. Reserve very low, and Bullion little increased, for under 15 Mill. at which we wish to see it.

1863. 1864. 1865. 1866.
Its Banknote Circulation 1 August £.22,340,809 22,489,710 23,203,757 26,236,388

The reserve – part of whose usual quantity has gone out to the public – 3,273,000. It was 1865: £6,461,000, and rate of interest 4%. Anyone on the Continent who has a debt to receive in England now asks for money, not for bills. He will not as a rule, take bills except those of 3 or 4 first-rate houses, and the usual bill currency of the world is suspended to a corresponding extent.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 906.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Proposed Inquiry into our Banking Laws.

Mr. Watkin brought in H.o.C. his motion for inquiry. It was admitted by Sir Stafford Northcote that there was a „run upon England“. Watkin urged that Clarendon (late Foreign Minister) obliged to issue a letter to explain to foreign nations an Act of Parliament, and so to induce them to continue the credit which their misconception of that Act was inducing them to refuse; and surely such an Act of Parliament and such a letter are anomalies in English history. We have never before written a circular to Foreign Gvts to say we deserved the credit from their subjects. When the Habeas Corpus is believed to be dangerous, its operation is definitely and specifically suspended; but here we have only a letter from an extinct Gvt, saying that if the Bank directors have to break the law, that extinct Gvt will propose a bill of indemnity. For 3 months we have been living in the worst of all states, that of contemplated illegality. A rate of discount is prescribed for the permission to break the law.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 907/908.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Indian Railways.

As to the outline of arterial lines of railways, the plan more coherent and useful in proportion to the outlay than in England. The object was to connect in a vast territory the great centres of commerce; to open up communication with, and thereby to utilise and render productive, an interior teeming with the means of wealth, but lying comparatively destitute for want of a method of intercourse; and to facilitate the gvt. of the country by rapid communication and easy transit of troops. The direct railways now on the verge of completion between Calcutta and Delhi, between Calcutta and Bombay, between Bombay and Madras supply these wants so far as they go … The guarantee of the State to Indian railways possesses at least this merit, that the states state looks after itself, and forbids the waste of capital squandered in this country in useless and competing lines, and forbids also that ruinous system of Parliamentary bungling and indifference which in England has given us bad railways at an exorbitant cost. … Mr. Danvers in his 8. Annual Report (1866), recently issued, shows that the system of guaranteed Indian railways comprises a length of 5000 miles, of which about 2/3 finished. The track is for the most part single; clear now that für grossen Theil it must be doubled, perhaps more than doubled. At present the cost estimates for the double line are confined to 1/3 only of the entire distance, and with that provision the minimum estimate for the 5000 miles is 81 mill. st., or something more than 16,000£. per mile. With nothing to pay for land, no parliamentary expenses, and a track for the most part single, this cost per mile extreme, might, under proper management have done for half the price. When the miles doubled, and rendered thoroughly efficient, the cost will now be much more than 81 mill. per mile. Of the 81 mill., nearly 61 mill., were raised and expended on 1st May last, and there remains, therefore, still to be raised 20 mill. to complete the system of 5,000 miles with only 1/3 of double line. … The gross receipts during the year ended June 1865, were 3,122,480l., as compared mit 2,303,288l. in the preceding year (1864). So from 1864 to 1865 the gross revenue of these Indian railways increased more than 35%. The |88 net profits of the year ended June 30, 1864 were 840,704l. und im folgenden Jahr 1,341,550l., increase of nearly 60%; and this rate of increase in net profit by contrast of gross revenue, completely accords with our experience of railway business in this country. The number of miles worked in the 1st year and the 2nd did not vary materially vary materially, and the cost of working was, therefore, not enhanced relatively to the receipt. A mile of railway costs no more for maintenance, or very little more, with 500 passengers p. day passing over it than with 100, and thus with the sudden growth of traffic the profit of Indian railways increases more rapidly than the business transacted or the freights conveyed. The net profits realised on the Great Indian peninsula relieve the Gvt. from all obligation on account of its guarantee. Population of India 5 × greater than in the U. Kingd. Bis jezt dort will be 5000 miles meist single railed, hier about 13 000 miles of double railway.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 910.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Restricted ownership of land.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Land Improvement Cos.)

There are several Cos which supply the money for land improvements, and furnish the machinery by which they are carried into effect. The whole is subject to the approval of the Enclosure Commissioners. The money advanced with the expenses is repaid by terminable annuities, extending from 22 to 30 years, and such annuity takes precedence of all other charges on property. One Co. „The Lands Improvement Co“ has advanced within the last 12 or 13 years about 21/2 Millions l. St. to landowners in England, Wales and Scotland. Besides what this and other cos have advanced for improvement, there have been large sums advanced from the Treasury under the authority of several acts, of which the first was brought forward by Sir Robert Peel in 1842. In addition, landowners may themselves advance their own money for the improvement of their settled estates, and procure, with the approval of the Enclosure Commissioners, the annuities charged on the entailed property to be vested in themselves. Dieser plan wenig acted upon; terminable annuity ist nicht kind of property wie der landowner es braucht, z.B. als provision for a younger child etc. Interference with agriculture and the productiveness of our soil are necessary incidents to the modern phase of our feudalism. The root of the evil lies in the motives which lead to territorial aggrandisement, and that irrespective of the actual wealth of the owners. Thus a man retains or acquires the nominal ownership and control of a vast tract of territory, of the value of which not 1/2, perhaps not 1/3 belongs to him.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 912–914.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ten Per Cent Discount. Communicated.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Interest and Profit)

Loans of capital being made in money, and interest being paid in money, every change in the supply and demand of money, in its rate of circulation, and in the state of credit, affects the rate of interest, disturbs its proportion to the rate of profit, and, as there is an accumulating force in these influences, often so clogs „the great wheel of circulation“,  The Economist: that the whole of the machinery is thrown into disorder, and a commercial crisis, such as has recently taken place, is occasioned.
Schließen
that commercial crisis etc[.]
The proportion between the rate of interest and the rate of profit being for the time disturbed, the profit of the merchant or manufacturer is increased or diminished in proportion to the amount of capital on which he has to pay interest … A rise of interest involves the transfer of an increased share of profit from those directly employed in production, to those who devolve the task upon others … When a great deficiency occurs in the harvest, the general rate of profit is reduced, but the efflux of bullion diminishing the supply of money the rate of interest is maintained, and the simultaneous contraction of credit often raises it, increasing the disproportion between the rate of interest and that of profits. War, or a foreign loan, has the same effect in a minor degree. On the other hand, the fall in the rate of interest, which follows from the progressive increase of capital under ordinary circumstances, tends to raise profits for the time, and promotes the inflation of credit and a speculative rise of prices, which checks exports, increases imports, and drives capital out of the country. Required some means by which the rate of interest shall be made to conform more promptly and more uniformly to changes in the rate of profit, instead of oscillating as it now often does in the opposite direction … Though the rate of interest ultimately conforms to the rate of profit, it reacts upon it, and if it were possible to secure a permanently low rate, profits must fall in the same proportion. … It is the excessive extension of manufactures and trade caused by the reduction of the rate of discount to 3 or 2%, which gives rise to the necessity of a rise to 7, 8 or 10% and the consequent check to production and trade which ensues.|

89

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 914.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Reaction of the Agra Bank Failure on India.

Calcutta. June 21. On the morning of 14 known the Agra stoppage of payment; this led to the immediate suspension of a leading and much respected firm of produce brokers, having very extensive engagements with indigo concerns in the mofussil, and a panic followed paralysing business of every kind in a manner wholly unprecedented in the presidency, and from which the mercantile community has not yet recovered. During the past week the distrust, more especially in the bazaar, has been very great, fostered by rumours of the wildest kind as to the standing of various banking and mercantile firms. Money, however, continues plentiful, and is offering in the bazaar at 9% on Gvt. securities.

Madras. June 27. Very little doing during the past fortnight. Bankrates unaltered 10% for advances on Gvt securities, and 12% on private bills. The distrust in almost all our local banks has been so great, since the stoppage of the Agra and Masterman bank, that Madras Bank post bills have been chiefly used by our merchants for remittances.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. August 1866. S. 915–917.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

    Quotations of Discount. Bankrate. (Hamburg Open Market Rate.[)]
  • P.C. Paris 31/2, Vienna 5, Berlin 6 (bills) 61/2 (advances) Frankfort 7 (open market), Amsterdam 7, Turin 8, Brussels 5 (bills) 51/2 (advances) Madrid 9, Hamburg 3 (open market) St. Petersburg 51/2 (bank) 81/2 (open market.)
    Failures:
  • Edington and Son, iron founders and engineers, Glasgow.
  • Stopped: Bk. of Mssrs Kennedy et Co, of Dublin, and: Bank of G. W. Hale, of Congleton, Cheshire.


August 11. 1866. N. 1198.

Aus:
The Economist, 11. August 1866. S. 933/934.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

Deputation of Joint Stock Banks to Disraeli. Proposed that the 10% clause in Gladstone’s letter of licence shall be cancelled, and another written without that clause. The semi-suspension of an Act is puzzling. We fear that 10% must now be endured for some time longer.

There are two ways in which a high rate of interest tends to bring ease in Lombardstreet. First), it attracts foreign capital here. But this time no such magnetism. We doubt its drawing much; and we fear it will still deter some.

Secondly): A high rate operates in a more natural way, by diminishing transactions, lowering imports, increasing exports, and so righting the balance of trade and bringing bullion hither. And this process is now going forward.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Wunderschön! „righting the balance of trade“ and „bringing bullion hither“. Die Worte und der Geist des Monetar[-] oder rather Mercantilsystem. Aber dieser return nothwendig!⦘
And this Process is now going forward.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Doch scheint es

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Thirdly) auch damit nichts zu sein.
Denn: It is true  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(obgleich this process is now going forward)
that the figures of the Board of Trade do not yet show such to be the case. Aber there is „another disturbing agency“. At a time of crisis we call in our debts from foreign countries, and the first consequence is an increase of imports.  Der „Economist“ zitiert im folgenden Absatz aus: The Economist, 20. Februar 1858. S. 194.
Schließen
We explained
this in 1858, just after and in reference to the crisis of 1857, as follows:

„When we arrive at a period of crisis, the country is more influenced by its past transactions than those of the moment or those which follow. When a crisis occurs, it is generally preceded by what is termed Overtrading; and this, usually, if not always, takes the form of very extended exports – accompanied by a relative increase of imports of raw materials and other produce. As a rule, however, this country gives a somewhat lengthened credit upon its exports, while its imports are drawn for at the moment of shipment from abroad, and are paid for in cash shortly after |90 their arrival. England gives credit to the whole world, and takes little or none.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(?)
Then it must be borne in mind, that an adverse exchange is caused, by a balance of payments falling due at any one period, and not by the exports or imports of the moment. We may be exporting as largely, or more so, than we are importing; but if in the one case we give a long credit, and in the other are paying ready money, the balance of payments may be against us, while the balance of transactions is in our favour. That such was the case at the commencement of the late crisis, and is usually the case at similar periods, there can be no doubt. We had extended our credits beyond our means. Our capital was absorbed to an inconvenient extent by foreign shipments. What was the natural remedy? Not to increase our exports, but rather circumscribe our transactions, reduce our foreign credits, and wait the arrival of remittances as they fell due for shipments already made. At such times the commerce of the country is placed in a condition of partial liquidation. Liquidation can be, and is, effected as much by commodities as by gold. The same motives which induce to large shipments of gold to England at such times, lead also to shipments of commodities.“

In time we must expects expect our imports to fall off under the influence of diminished transactions. But such is not the first effect of a crisis. The goods sent in payment of old debts confuse the accounts, and make us look as if we were transacting an augmented business.

Aus:
The Economist, 11. August 1866. S. 935–937.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Sir Stafford Northcote and Gladstone on the Panic.

Northcote ascribes this panic to a scarcity of loanable capital. Wir finden darin no explanation of 10% interest for 3 months. Last year the rate was 4%, and there has hardly been an outlay of loanable capital to raise it to 10%; d.h. raise its value 150%. We must not reason first backward and then forward – we must not infer the scarcity of capital from the high rate of interest, and then account for the high rate of interest from the scarcity of capital.

Aggregate Capital invested in Railways at the end of:
1861 342,386,100£
1862 355,107,280
1863 373,246,200
1864 391,396,680
1865 412,558,100.
Showing an increase of 70 millions £ in 4 years, which surely is no unmanageable or stupendous sum.

Trade has gone at an equable rate. In 1865 it can hardly be said to have augmented at all.

1864 1865
Exports £212,619,000 218,858,000
Imports £274,952,000 271,134,000

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Der cotton famine verminderte das Geschäft. Aber zugleich setzte er Kapital frei, welches zu den Finanz etc schwindeleien im Innern führte.)
So for a whole year our trade was stationary. During the present year (1866), it is true, there has been a considerable increase.

Imports during the first 5 months of the following years:
1864 1865 1866
£77,111,991 59,933,184 92,029,657

Exports in the first 6 months.
1864 1865 1866
£78,047,586 74,128,638 92,857,830

Similar changes have often occurred in our railway expenditure and in our trade without causing an augmentation in the value of money either similar or comparable.

It is true that a part of this railway expenditure has been effected in a mode singularly calculated to affect the money market. These railways have in part been made by bankers who advanced money to constructors and others. Such loans are in the nature of an extra and additional conversion of floating capital into permanent or fixed capital. The usual course is that the proprietors and makers of the annual savings of the country, after letting them lie as it were in transitu in some bank,  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Wie soll man das anfangen, die annual savings in einer Bank liegen zu lassen?)
, invest them on their own account. The banker holds a fund permanent in amount, but made up of many changing items.|

91

The customary accumulation of the country passes through the bank, but does not rest there. But if in addition to this normal and natural process, the banker on his own account begins to invest in a permanent form the deposits left with him, the pressure on the short loan market is necessarily greater. The ordinary outgoings made by the owner go on as usual, and the extraordinary outgoings made by the banker have to be met as well. The rise in the rate of interest consequent on investments in railways made by the banker out of his deposits, all else being equal, will be more than from similar investments made by common individuals from ordinary savings.

But these observations only apply to investments by banks, not those of finance companies. The latter are the channels into which common people have chosen to throw their money. These are not like investments from bankers’ reserves, but common investments from ordinary savings. Nor, again, do those observations apply to loans on railways made by the banker at first, but then repaid to him by individuals. These, again, are but the ordinary investments by individuals, forestalled, indeed by the banker, but repaid to him in the end. And the whole argument as to the peculiar effect of a banker’s investments is subject to an important distinction. Banker’s means have of late largely tended to augment. The high rate of interest, offered, not only in London, but generally through the provinces, has filled the coffers of banks with money which else would have been embarked in permanent investments by the owners of it. Accordingly bankers have had more than usual to invest, and common people have been willing to invest less. Ordinary operations have not gone on as usual; they have been diminished at the moment when the investments by bankers have been increased.

The substantial conclusion remains that there is no evidence, that an increased investment of loanable capital is cause of the value of money being 21/2 times as great now as at this time last year. The aggravating cause is the credit – a panic from bad business. The inevitable effect of a loss of credit, especially loss of banking credit, is to send up the rate of interest very rapidly. Persons under large obligations must borrow largely on their securities, and for a moment, even on the best securities, it is difficult to get money. The large loans by the B.o.E. would have quite met this difficulty, and long ere this the panic would have died away; but unhappily we had as a country been trading upon borrowed capital. Owing to the failure of Overend, G. et Co , the suspension of Peel’s Act, the explanatory letter of Clarendon, foreign nations took fright, withdrew from us the capital we possess, and placed it in safer keeping.

Gladstone sagte mit Bezug auf the banking business of the country: „practice of showing reserves on paper, which reserves themselves have been lodged in investments[“].

Aus:
The Economist, 11. August 1866. S. 941–943.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The movement of the Money Market.

Bk.o.E. 8. August.
Liabilities £ Assets £
25,665,018 Circulation Securities 36,681,678
3,160,456 Public Dep. 13,602,429
17,660,244 Private Dpts.
Banking Department. Reserve: 3,579,229l. (Increase of 306,839)
Issue Department Bullion: 12,775,260 (Decrease of 190,911)

Foreign Exchanges improving. On France: 25.221/2.

    Failures:
  • Suspension of G. Evans, Evelyn Iron Foundry, Newport.|
  • Bomanjee, Framjee, Cama et Co, Parsee, liabilities about 500,000l. |

92

August 18, 1866. N. 1199.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 965/966.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Reduction of the Bank Rate to 8% (16 Aug.)

The foreign exchanges have now been turned, notwithstanding the discredit drain. They now bring gold here and take it to the Bank.

This panic has happened in the spring, and from a concurrence of 2 causes money is always dearer in the autumn. 1) There is usually a tide of coin in the hands of non-banking classes, consequent on the harvest. 2) The imports of England from tropical and other countries being vegetable raw products, are dependent on the seasons, and happen to arrive here, and therefore happen to be paid for, in the latter part of the year. Most panics have happened in November, in the naturally dearest month of the money market, and the reaction towards cheap money occurred at a time when money would usually have tended to be cheaper. But this panic has occurred in the summer, and the consequent reaction will fall upon the period when money would naturally become dearer. The present movement towards cheap money will therefore be a mitigated movement, while those of 1847 et 1857 were intensified movements. The usual rate of interest has risen since 1847 and 1857, and the number of ways of carrying off and investing surplus money have largely increased.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 968.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Necessity of Selling Insolvent Railways.

The directors of London, Chatham and Dover Railway have issued a letter to their creditors stating that they cannot pay, and the railway itself has been thrown into Chancery.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 969.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London Joint Stock Banks. – The Recent Accounts.

Last half year, the profits of the London and Westminster Bank at the rate of more than 50% p. annum upon the paid up capital; Union Bank: 30%, Joint Stock Bank 25%, London and County 23%, City Bank 12%. These 5 out of the 8 to be mentioned afterwards seem to have had all the cream of the jointstock business.

Capital Reserve of Profits Undivided
Subscribed £ Paid up £ Uncalled £ £
Unlimited

London and Westminster

5,000,000 1,000,000 4,000,000 473,014
Union 4,000,000 1,200,000 2,800,000 379,884
Joint Stock 3,600,000 1,080,000 2,520,000 346,563
London and County 1,875,000 750,000 1,125,000 267,469
City 1,000,000 500000 500,000 144,551
Limited.
Metropolitan and Provincial 1,686,600 337,320 1,349,280 10,844
Alliance 4,000,000 989,335 3,010,465 71,013
Imperial 2,250,000 448,94 448,940 1,801,060 64,984
Summa 23,411,600 6,305,795 Summa Uncalled 17,105,805 Summa of Reserve of Profit 1,758,325
Liabilities to Public Assets
Deposits and Acceptances. Cash Government Stocks, Exchequerbills etc. Bills and Debts Total including other Assets
London and Westm. 22,298,454 3,464,467 2,594,712 16,578,044 22,637,229
Union 19,424,532 2,362,827 1,362,827 16,871,532 21,261,374
Joint Stock 18,764,578 1,020,000 1,020,000 18,129,041 20,390,239
London and County 12,750,974 293,691 293,691 10,410,722 13,863,607
City 5,408,838 312,358 312,358 5,224,503 6,130,343
Metrop. et Prov. 469,355 82,686 82,686 572,825 817,345
Alliance 1,636,156 39,725 39,725 2,213,783 2,727,717
Imperial 1,234,706 20,669 20,669 1,518,656 1,785,936
Summa 81,987,590 5,726,686 5,726,668 71,519,911 89,613,790 |
93
Half Year ended June 30, 1866.
Bonus and Dividents. Past Half Year

Net Protits. Half Year

£

Amount.

£.

Rate % p. annum Balance of half years profits after dividend.
London and Westminster. 251,263 140,000 28 111,263 Surplus
Union 179,224 150,000 25 29,224 do
Joint Stock 134,571 108,000 20 26,571 do
London et County 85,441 82,500 22 2,941 do
City 29,841 30,000 12 159 Deficit
Metrop. et Prov. 5,299 8,433 5 3,134 ditto
Alliance 25,416 24,743 5 673 surplus
Imperial 25,559 18,000 8 7,559 ditto
Summa 736,614 561,676

The 4 old Banks, viz. London and Westminster (diese allein 1/3 of the whole), Union, Joint Stock, London et County together earned 650,499l. or nearly 90% of the whole. The profits earned und Dividends (incl. bonus) nicht identisch. F.i. Profit earned by the London and Westminster at the rate of more than 50% p. annum, rate of dividend and bonus only 28%.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 969/970.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London Gas.

The Bill promoted by the City of London for providing better gas than that which gives bad light, but good dividends, was referred to a Select Committee, dessen Report und Evidence nun vorliegen. The Corporation and the gas Cos. were heard by counsel (Advocaten). Diese examiniren schärfer als members of a committee. The Committee says that the illuminating power of the gas in other towns is greater, the quality better, and the price to consumers cheaper than in London. „The purification of the gas in the metropolis is imperfect, and an excess of sulphur remains highly injurious to pictures, leather, metals, etc. Since the passing of the Act 23 et 24 Vict. c. 125, the price of gas to consumers has been increased until recently, whilst the power of light has been less, and the quality of the article worse.“ It (the Report) then states that since the Gas Act of 1860 the market value of gas shares has risen considerably, and every Co. in the metropolis pays a dividend of 10%. According to a table at the end of the Blue Book, during the last 4 years the dividend of one Co. averaged more than 18%, of another more than 13, of three Cos. more than 12%, of 3 more than 11%, and of 3 more than 10%. It therefore recommends that the minimum illuminating power should be increased, and the minimum price reduced; that a chemical board should be appointed by the Secretary of State, at the expense of the Gas Cos., to fix a standard of purity and eliminating illuminating powers; that testers and analysts should be appointed by the local power; and that, in the event of the local authority making default in the appointment, the Secretary of State shall have power to appoint officers at the expense of the local authority.

 The Economist: less stringent
Schließen
Faule
defences der Gas Cos:
As for the existing state of the gas, Mr. Jeffery, of the firm of Howell and James, said that the colour was at times almost an ochre, and that it took out the colour of silks and satins. Its action on metals was to deposit a thin film, which eat into the metal if not removed every day, and necessitated reguilding regilding. These complaints had not arisen in the same business at Liverpool, while at Clapham the gas was rather worse than in Regentstreet. The effect on leather, as proved by a boot maker was utter rotteness rottenness; the witness produced a boot that had never been worn, and tore up the leather as if it had been blotting paper. He had sold hundreds of these boots at 1s. and 1s. 6d. a piece, though they had cost him 18s. to 20s. … Dr. Letheby found as much as 10 grains of oil of vitriol in two inches of the leather, and he mentioned a case where 2 volumes of a work were bound at the same time with the same leather, and one remained on the shelf in a room lighted by gas, while the other was taken away by a reader. After a considerable time this volume was restored by the reader, and its binding was sound, while that of the one of the |94 shelf was rotten. Mr. Hedley, a gas engineer, described the gas as subject to variations; „occasionally during the middle of the evening, it is as if a cloud passed over the gas.“ He observed too that the gas was so overcharged with ammonia, „that when the servants washed the globes of the chandeliers they complained that it was just like standing over a bottle of smelling salts, the smell of ammonia was so strong in the water.“

It was proved that at Manchester 22 candle gas was supplied at 3.s. per 1,000, while the illuminating power required in London is 14 candles, and the price is 4s. 6d. Mr. Baxter, solicitor to the gas cos., says that if the illuminating power is to be 14 candles at the end of 6 miles, it must be 17 candles at the works, and that Newcastle coal will not make more than 14 candles. Dr. Letheby, however, says that gas will travel 6 miles without losing any illuminating power and proved it. At Hastings they are making gas from Newcastle coal, and they are producing 14 candle gas at the very end of St. Leonards. In Birmingham the works are 6 miles from the town, they use Derbyshire coal, and supply gas of 141/2 candle candles.

But if there is no reason why our gas should not be better, sufficient reasons for our having no redress under the present system.  Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Fälschung der tests und Kapitalmacht baffling the legal proceedings of individuals:
The tests are notoriously evaded, and attempts to enforce the Act are met by technical objections which no doubt would be cleared away in process of law, but which show that the Cos. are resolved to fight to the last, and have the means of commanding the best legal assistance. „There have been some futile efforts made occasionally by some desperate men (to put the Act in force), but they have died off“, says one witness. Another says it would be knocking your head against a post to appoint a gas inspector. The result of the inspection, as admitted by Dr. Letheby, proves this.

In the first place, the test is applied with a specific pressure to a particular burner, while the consumers have no control over the pressure, and have not generally the same burner. Then the testing houses provided by the Cos are often unfair; in one of them the walls are not blackened, and a large reflector is placed in the room so as considerably to enhance the illuminating power. The ease with which the tests may be defeated appears from the evidence of several engineers. The Co has 3 hours notice before the test is to be applied. So lange dieß der Fall, the test must prove inadequate. „By throwing a little cannel coal into a retort“, says Mr. Hedley, „or charging a certain number of retorts according to the size of the work, you may change the quality of the gas 6 miles off in a quarter of half an hour; or by having a syphon made at the entrance of the gas works by pouring spirits of petroleum or coal-tar naphtha into it, as the weak gas goes through it will lick it up, and you can increase your 10 candles to 16 candles as the gas travels.“ Mr. Hedley did this himself at Uxbridge, to convince Dr. Letheby. „Whilst he was on the works I converted 12 candle gas into nearly 15 candle gass gas in less than 1/4 of hour.“ Another engineer says the same effect can be produced by a slight mixture of photogenic oil, the gas might be raised 5 or 6 candles in value under the eye of the experimenter without his knowing that any trick was being played upon him.

Dr. Letheby shows that during the last 16 months the violations of the law of which 3 Cos. were guilty amounted in one instance to 71%, in another to 58, and in another to 48% of all the testings … To the question, „What is a poor man to do if he gets a grievance from the gas Co.?“, we have the reply, „Why, to be robbed and submit to it – nothing else.“  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
The Parliamentary Committee hat diese Spitzbuben wie immer sehr zimperlich behandelt.
»Dividends averaging from 10 to 18%, tests that can be evaded, Acts of Parliament through which they can drive a coach and four, and charges that they can enforce at their pleasure, are, doubtless, equally sweet to directors and shareholders.«

One complaint against the Gas Cos is the state to which they reduce the streets … they are solely answerable for the pollution … wilful manner in which the Cos. wait till new roads are put down, and then break up the surface for their pipes; as well as gas escapes, traced 30 or 40 feet under the pavement, by the earth, taking fire whenever a brand was applied to it.|

95

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 971/972.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Chambers of Agriculture.

Recent movements in 2 English counties, Shropshire and Gloucestershire, to establish Chambers of Agriculture. (durch die farmers gebildet.) Already have the Chambers of Agriculture in Scotland given to the farmers a certain political and social power.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. August 1866. S. 975–978.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

B.o.E. 15 August Notes issued: 28,151,595. Active Circulation: 25,234,029. Reserve: 3,611,505. (Zusammen mit gold and silver coin in Banking Department 4,610,866.) Increase in Reserve: £1,030,637. Bullion: 13,151,595; Increase: 548,527l. Private Deposits: 18,125,280; increase: 636,000. Priv. Securities: 25,224,317; Decrease: 932,238.

Discount Market. Bankrate on the 16 Aug. reduced to 8%. The activity in the money market yesterday and to-day not been greater; on the contrary, the tendency of rates is downward, and a rapid decline is now looked for in the value of money. There is a much more general disposition to take ordinary mercantile paper at about market rates. The joint stock banks are working freely under 8%.

Railway Shares: The difficulties of the London, Chatham and Dover. Railway Co. have occasioned great anxiety in the general market. Although it must have been foreseen that railway Cos. were at the mercy of the money market for the renewal of loans falling due at various periods, debenture holders express uneasiness at the inability of the cos to fulfil their engagements.

    Failures:
  • W. Hopwood and Son, spinners and manufacturers from Burnley, liab. about 70,000l.
  • Joseph Fletcher, of the Spring Hill Iron Sheet Mill, Birmingham, suspended payments.
  • Failure of W. Bates, Ironmaster, of Tunstall;
  • Suspension of the Bourne Brook Mill Co announced from Birmingham.
  • G. Little and Co (London) suspension of payments.


August 25, 1866. N. 1200.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. August 1866. S. 993/994.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney and Co. (limited.)

Nach dem Report der liquidators: even with the call (den sie noch nicht gemacht) they only propose 5 months after the failure of the Co. to pay its creditors a first dividend of 5s. in the £. Do not hint when the creditors are to have the remaining 15s. Die Liabilities of the estate theils those of creditors for money lent to the Co. und diese cannot be recovered from any 3d party; zweitens liabilities on acceptances and bills rediscounted by the Co.; davon part at least to be recovered from the parties to whom these acceptances were given, and from the parties whose names are on the bills. The account runs:

Liabilities
to be repaid to the Co. in part at least. £.
To Creditors on bills payable 200,000
in respect of bills rediscounted 1,050,000
Not to be repaid to the Co.
Unsecured creditors 3,728,000
3,978,000
Creditors whose securities are insufficient 250,000
Gesammtliabilities 5,228,000, mit interest
since 18. May.

Against this the liquidators will have on 1 October immediately applicable:

Cash 600,000£.
By call of 10l. a share 1,000,000
Deficit. 3,500,000 against immediate liabilities.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. August 1866. S. 995/996.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Is it better that the Banking reserve of a Country be kept in Single Bank or distributed between several banks.

In England and France, the banking reserve is kept by a single bank. Country Bankers as a rule, only keep the minimum of cash sufficient for their daily wants; their reserves, properly so called, i.e. their extraordinary fund for extraordinary occasions, is held in Consols, Exchequerbills, money at the bill brokers, and other like modes. London Bankers add to these a credit at the Banking department of [the Bank of] England. But these so-called reserves are not money. They are but means of getting cash. The only reserve of real cash against the banking liabilities of the country |96 is the reserve in the banking department of the B.o.E. Just so in France. Its reserve both against  The Economist: currency
Schließen
current
liabilities and note liabilities is the Bullion the B. o. France holds.

In America the main reserve of the Banks is not specie, but greenbacks. The Bank Accounts of the 59 New York City Banks (Associated Banks) for the week ending with the commencement of business on June 23, 1866, were:

Loans and Discounts. Specie dollars. Circulation. (dollars) Net Deposit dollars. Legal tenders. dollars.
248,436,808 dollars. 8,504,096 26,585,934 201,969,288 80,840,518.

The banks themselves have a small circulation, but as it amounts to only 1/9 of the total liability, we can easily suppose it forfeited to the Gvt., and sufficient sum struck off both sides of the account. The entire reserve would then be, as almost all of it is now, kept against the banking liability. The general result of the 59 Banks:


Liabilities.
Deposits 40,393,856l. St.
zusammen

£45,710,934 liabilities
Circulation. 5,317,078l. St.

Reserve.
Specie 1,700,818l. St.
Gvt. legal tender paper 16,168,102l. St.
17,868,920l., das ist 17,868,920

or more than 35% of the liabilities; a very satisfactory account if compared mit der insignificant proportion which the reserve in the banking departments bears to the total liabilities not of the B.o.E. only, but of this country. The reserve is distributed about equally between all the banks; those who have the greatest liabilities have the largest reserve, and umgekehrt. Here is an example of many banks, each of which keeps its own reserve.

A single bank, overtopping and overpowering all others, feels that its credit is too good to be questioned. The B.o.E. and the B. o. France know that happen what may they are sure to be in good credit. But when a considerable number of banks keep the reserve of a country, each feels that its position depends on its own prudence. If it does not keep a reserve which will meet the demands upon it, when those demands arise, it will fail.

Again, a number of banks are much more likely to be independent of State control than a single bank. A single predominant bank is always the banker of the Gvt. It is connected with it by relations the most intimate. It receives its taxes, advances its loans, gets to be called the national bank. The credit of the nation and the stability of Gvt. come to be borne up with its reputation, and in a time of difficulty the State must come to the aid of the bank. It will suspend an Act of 1844 or make an Act of 1819; it will authorise a suspension of cash payments; authorise everything necessary to enable the bank to continue its operations and do the business of the Gvt. Ist nicht the case mit any ordinary bank. It is not the basis of national credit, and could not be treated as if it was so.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. August 1866. S. 1001/1002.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Indian News. (Money Market.)

Calcutta July 6. No fresh failures. Distrust continues very great. Discounts not obtained without difficulty. Business generally very restricted.

Madras. 13 July. The Bank of Madras rates for accommodation reduced 1%. Now 9% for advances on Gvt securities, 10% on 3 months private bills. No transactions reported. In fact business of all kinds suspended. Our principal exchange banks have decided upon reducing the currency of Indian document and other bills from 6 months’ to 4 months’ sight, from and after January 1, 1867.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. August 1866. S. 1002–1004.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market Movement.

    Bank o. E. 22 August.
  • Circulation: decrease of £436,301; ditto decrease of Priv. Securities 336,159.
  • Increase: Private Deposits 638,194, Bullion 621,264; Reserve 979,239.

Discount Market. notes and gold sent in from the provinces at a period when, almost invariably, owing to harvest operations, withdrawn to meet the additional circulation exacted by so many diffused payments of coin.

Railways: Much disappointment in the declaration of dividends experienced, hence considerable variations in prices, besonders speculators.

Failure: Younghusband and Co, Australian Trade.|


97

Saturday September 1, 1866.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. September 1866. S. 1021/1022.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of Money Market and Trade of the Country.

B.o.E. rate reduced to 6% on 30 August. It is certainly very difficult to believe that if the B.o.E. reduces its rate of discount to 5% next week, there has been since 17. August a reduction of 50% in the value of loanable capital.

A reduction in price here (and this is the usual effect of dear money) has a tendency to promote export, not to diminish it. The only way in which a high rate of interest affects the export trade is that it cramps traders who live by borrowed capital. They cannot do so much as usual; but for a trader with capital, it is better to export when a high rate of interest has sent down prices, than when a low rate has sustained them. At this period of the year our export trade usually increases, wie gezeigt durch folgenden

Abstract of Total Value of British Exports in each month.
1864 1865 1866
£ £ £
January 10,413,586 10,489,339 14,354,748
February 12,698,121 11,376,214 15,116,063
March 13,554,674 13,770,154 17,520,354
April 13,225,039 12,071,111 15,366,414
May 14,176.640 13,194,758 15,870,131
June 13,978,526 13,227,062 14,630,120
July 14,394,364 14,113,410 14,957,834

so that the trade was in round numbers:

In First 2 months. £. In Last 2 months.
1864 23,100,000 28,300,000
1865 21,800,000 27,300,000
1866 29,400,000 29,500,000.

In fact our trade (within this year, compared the last mit den first months), in consequence of the high rate of interest, has not increased at all. This non-increase is for the purposes of the money market a natural decrease.

Computed Value of Principal Articles Imported.
1864 98,610,176£
1865 75,340,872
1866 115,273,358

showing an increase of 40 Mill. £, and more than 50% over last year. The greatest increase is in the value of cotton imported. The total account is as follows:

Raw Cotton 1864 (£) 1865 (£) 1866 (£)
from United States 1,245,954 534,213 25,269,971
British India 15,023,536 5,880,043 11,737,547
Ejypt 8,952,379 6,193,841 5,466,635
Brazil 2,362,974 1,750,714 3,299,310
China 3,570,152 957,866 957,866 (?)
Bahamas et Bermudas 2,038,809 1,320,109 43,484
Turkey 1,296,529 747,676 490,221
Mexico 1,836,733 1,816,660 35,591
Other countries 1,531,226 1,277,450 1,013,009
Total: 37,858,292 20,487,572 47,348,759

showing an increase of nearly 27 Mill. l. over this time last year, of which 25 Mill. is mit U. States. Returns, this trade, to its former state. Our imports from America used far to outvalue our direct export to America. The balance was made up by other countries, besonders Oriental countries which exported much to U. St. and imported nothing thence, but imported much to England compared to what they took from us. It was a triangular trade. So: (verte)|

98

1865. £. 1866. £.
England imported from America 4,338,917 30,839,017
exported to America. 6,214,937 15,224,220
30,000,000£ bullion now in Bank of France und 15,000,000 in Bank of England.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. September 1866. S. 1022–1024.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Non Paying Railways.

Lord Redesdale has induced the H. o. Lords to pass a standing order reviving the old system of subscription contracts, and requiring the promoters of a railway to show that they are real people, with actual money, in fact intending to make it.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. September 1866. S. 1027.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Monetary Crisis of 1866. (Communicated.)

The characteristics of 1866: a complete exhaustion of the national capital in enterprises of all kinds, at home and abroad, and the vast amount of engagements to furnish more capital. It is to the vast extension of deposit banking, and to the absorption of capital by new cos., that our main difficulties are mainly to be attributed. By deposit, as opposed to ordinary banking, is here meant that form of banking in which the depositor receives interest on the sum placed or left in the banker’s hand. Solche banks existirten seit long in Scotland. Only introduced in London since about 30 years. Has been since then gradually growing in importance and now threatens to swallow up the system of ordinary banking, as still carried on by private firms. The sums thus held in London probably about 150 mill., in the British Islands must exceed 300, perhaps reaches 400 millions. The limited liability Cos., (other than banks, discount and finance Cos) are all collectors, some of them also distributors of capital; the object of the latter class being to make loans either to individuals or other bodies, while the former employ their money in mercantile or industrial occupations of their own. … The mode in which it was proposed to raise the capital for all these cos., both banking and miscellaneous, was by instalments, and this fact had a material influence on the march of events, and largely contributed to the exhaustion of the money market. The shareholders paid their deposit and the first call with little regard to the necessity of meeting subsequent calls, or to their means of doing so.



8 September 1866. N. 1202.

Aus:
The Economist, 8. September 1866. S. 1049/1050.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Circulation of Banknotes in England since the Panic.

Overends failed on Friday Evening  Fehlerhafter Zusatz von Marx. Gemeint ist Freitag, der 11. Mai 1866. Laut Angaben der „Money Market Review“ stellte Overend, Gurney and Company allerdings bereits am Donnerstag, den 10. Mai 1866 die Zahlung ein (siehe S. 187 des vorliegenden Hefts).
Schließen
(9 May)
, and by the next Friday the active circulation had increased by, 3,776,000l. , und zwar, wie Return by order of H.o.C. zeigt, folgendes der change in der increase der notes of different denomination:

Denomination of Note. May 9. May 16. Total Increase Percentage of Increase
£ £ £. £.
£5 8,063,000 8,711,000 648,000 8
10 4,299,000 4,876,000 577,000 13
£20 to £100 6,482,000 8,185,000 1,703,000 26
£.200 to £500 1,798,000 2,337,000 539,000 30
£.1000 1,703,000 2,012,000 309,000 18
Notes held by the public 22,345,000 26,121,000 3,776,000 17

Daher evident, daß by far the highest percentage increase in the notes above 20£ und daß 2,500,000l., or in round numbers, 2/3 of the whole sum, were in notes as above 20l. also. The This shows the purpose for which the great demand on the B.o.E. was made – for deposits. The demand for notes above 20l. could not be to supply the place of the country circulation, which consists wholly of 5l. and 10l. notes.

The country circulation did not instantaneously fall, but it very rapidly did so. It fell at the worst period 909,000l., while the B.o.E. 5l. and 10l. note circulation increased at the worst time, 1,225,000l. The main strain of the demand on the Bank was for a reservethe deposits of other bankers – for notes of a high denomination suitable for that purpose, and for it only.

The return also shows that before the Panic and since February there had been an increase of the banknote circulation, of 1,782,000l., nämlich:

Denomination of Note Febr. 29 May 9. Total Increase. Percentage of Increase.
£5 7,389,000£ 8,063,000£. 674,000£ 9
10 4,005,000 4,299,000 294,000 7
20 to 100 5,916,000 6,482,000 566,000 9
200 to 500 1,590,000 1,798,000 208,000 13
1000 1,663,000 1,703,000 40,000 2
Notes sold by the Public 20,563,000 22,345,000 1,782,000 8

Similar change in 1864. Febr. 24, 1864 active circulation was £19,857,000 und 9 May 1866: £21,484,000.|

99

Aus:
The Economist, 8. September 1866. S. 1052.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Meeting of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Co.

There was a most startling revelation of the mode in which railway debentures are issued. As soon as the power of issuing debentures is obtained, large numbers are at once issued en masse, and a loan raised upon them. As the public, i.e. as real investors, ask for debentures, new ones are granted. But when the limit of the borrowing powers is reached, this process becomes very dangerous. The public money comes in in exchange for new debentures, and with this money the existing loans are paid off, and the old debentures redeemed. But almost necessarily the new debentures are issued before the old ones are got in. There is a moment when both the new and the old are running together. And sometimes the money received in exchange for the new debentures is not used in paying off the old debentures. This happened in the case of the London, Chatham and Dover: the Co. was in great difficulties, their financial agents, Peto et Co , were under immense obligations, and the money was used for other purposes. Hence 128,000 debentures have been issued in excess of the borrowing powers, and these the public, the real investors, hold. The first and good debentures were only advanced upon by bankers and others.

Mr. Rankin, a railway solicitor of the greatest experience, says this is the general practice of railways companies. Who can be sure, then, that his debenture a legitimate one, and not, a fraud? The credit of railway debentures as a security will not survive a series of instances like the present.

The second minor point  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗dieser ist aber sehr wichtig in den U. States.⦘
: It seems these metropolitan cos. turn their compulsory power for taking land into a happy machinery for land speculation. People must sell to them; the value of land near great cities is always rising, and so the Co. eke out their own deficiency of capital. Lord Sondes, the chairman of the Lond., Chat. and Dov., said: „Their solicitor, Mr. Newman, had obtained for the Co. as much land as possible in the city; any portion of it would could now be sold at a profit of at least 20%.“ Also die Co have got a large profit by buying as much land as possible whether they wanted it or not. In future Parliament must be more rigid in confining the area of the land powers it grants, and probably a future juries will compel railway cos. to pay a price for their land higher even than at present.



Aus:
The Economist, 8. September 1866. S. 1058–1060.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

On 6 Sept. Bankrate of Discount reduced to 5%. Increase of bullion in B.o.E. of £363,192, und Reserve 40,457. Decrease in Private Securities £.711,697.

Failures: Suspension of R. Morrison et Co, of the Engine works, Ouseburn, Newcastle.



September 15. 1866. N. 1203.

Aus:
The Economist, 15. September 1866. S. 1084/1085.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Crops and the Harvest.

Promises ill in consequence of the immense quantities of rain which have fallen in the Midland and Northern counties of England. In many places heavy floods, and the quantity of grain still in the fields – many fields of barley still uncut – is very considerable. In the Midlands besonders schlechte arable cultivation. The great prevalence of grassland has commonly a prejudicial effect on it. Schon leztes year’s crops below an average; dieses noch mehr. „Last year the England and Scotch harvests were simultaneous; this year the harvest in the North is fully 3 weeks later than in the South.“ Wheat on all high-conditioned loams, welldrained clays and deep chalk soils will be a fair average, and the grain well developed. The area of wheat is gradually diminishing as not so suitable for stock husbandry and less favourable to turnip-growing as the other grains. Barley crop is rapidly supplanting wheat wherever the mixed system of husbandry is progressing. Turnip crop seldom before so good in England as this year. Potatoes as well as hay abundant. [„]With the exception of wheat, all the crops in England average or above average; while in Scotland, except barley and potatoes, all crops are under average.“ Everywhere pastures are abundant, grass and roots together will furnish more than the ordinary supply of autumn and winter food. A great demand for autumn store stock will be the consequence, which Ireland, the North of Scotland, and Wales, have surplus stock to meet. Sheep have proved the most profitable stock. The high price of this stock have led many who hitherto but fattened, to become sheepbreeders … . Mr. James Sanderson (in seinem Hauptreport in der Times) confirms our views that at present British agriculture is non-progressive: He says: „Apart from improved machinery and more liberal manuring, agriculture, on the whole is in a non-progressive state … Nor need marked agricultural progress in England be expected, for, until tenants obtain a proper security of tenure, and unmeaning covenants, which only rob landlords and fetter tenants, be removed, a large area of |100 British soil, especially in the southern counties, will remain, as now, undeveloped.[“]

Aus:
The Economist, 15. September 1866. S. 1090.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failures:

David Murray, of Belmont Row (Birmingham) Contractor.



September 22, 1866. N. 1204.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. September 1866. S. 1105/1106.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bill Brokers and Bankers.

The bill brokers were in 1857 very much what the bankers were lately; the borrowers who wanted sudden and incalculable advances. But the bill brokers were told not to expect the like again.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. September 1866. S. 1111/1112.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

General Court of B.o.E. Proprietors.

Erklärt dividend von 61/2% für Halbjahr, wäre 13% für Jahr. Einer der proprietor Kerls, named Jones, says: „The main cause of the recent monetary crisis was that, while we had bought 250 Mill. l. worth of foreign produce in 1865, the value of our exports had only been 165 Mill. l. St., so that we had a balance against us of 110 Mill. l.[“]

Aus:
The Economist, 22. September 1866. S. 1115/1116.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Indian Money Market.

Bombay 22 Aug. (Stoehr,  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
Prieger et Co.
): Features of the money market same as before; abundance of money for legitimate trade with few opportunities for employment, and continued distrust, kept alive by the numerous failures and petitions for winding up under trustees, and has during the last few days rather increased through rumours of fresh embarrassments at home. Bankrates remain 8 to 10%.



September 29. 1866. N. 1205.

Aus:
The Economist, 29. September 1866. S. 1133/1134.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Deranged Action of the Eastern Exchange and its Effect upon the Money Market.

Large remittance from India, nearly 1 Mill. l. St. in a single ship, and others beside besides. The common international currency is a Bill Currency. Those who have payments to make from country A to country B buy in country A as cheap as they can good bills – bills sure to be paid – upon country B. When these bills get very scarce, their price rises, or, their „premium“ is augmented, and at a certain point it becomes better to incur the loss of interest, the expense of carriage, and the cost of insurance incident upon the transmission of bullion, rather than to pay a premium upon bills unusually augmented. But such a scarcity of bills and such a premium are exceptional. The balance of international payments is settled in the precious metals; the ordinary current payments are made by bills. But a bill is an instrument based on credit: Its value depends on the fact that the acceptor can pay and will pay. When credit is disturbed, all the first class bills in the market rise in value; everybody knows them and competes for them, but the inferior bills no one touches. Accordingly the premium upon first class bills – upon the only bills practically useful – becomes considerable, and bullion is accordingly transmitted. This happened in America, as soon as the news of the panic here reached that country. Immediately, there was a great demand for bullion as a remittance, and, under ordinary circumstances, it would have been difficult to meet that demand. Just so in the East now. The premium on the best bills has become so great that even the Indian gvt are ready to send bullion. The very same cause, the distrust of longdated bills accepted in England, makes distant countries, as India and America, send us bullion, and makes near countries, as France and Germany, take our bullion.

Generally, if England receives money from India, it is perfectly certain that she will not have to send money to India. But when credit is deranged bullion may easily have to go both ways. The ordinary balance of payments may cause the transmission to the East; the extraordinary perturbation of credit may cause the transmission from the East.

Aus:
The Economist, 29. September 1866. S. 1134–1136.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Liquidation of the Overends.

 Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten. The Economist: The shareholders should first pay their creditors, and then recover compensation from those whose fallacious representations induced them to incur these liabilities.
Schließen
Various shareholders refuse to pay, weil betrogen durch den Prospectus der Directors. Aber sie müssen die creditors zahlen, die defrauding directors prosecute.
|


101

October 6 1866. N. 1206.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 1161/1162.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market.

Both here and in France the harvest of this year is materially inferior to the harvest of last year. Even up to the present time in England there has been considerable increase in the import of foreign breadstuffs.

1865 (£) 1866 (£)
Wheat 4,190,230l. St. 7,229,238l.
Barley 1,430,463 1,806,910
Oats 1,423,460 1,842,771
Peas 111,897 288,029
Beans 195,128 128,361
Indian corn or maize 801,763 2,363,133
Wheatmeal and flour 1,170,613 2,433,732
9,323,554 16,092,168

We have imported 1866 für £53,569,684 raw cotton ⦗davon für £28,004,469 aus Amerika⦘ statt für 24,534,839 im Jahr 1865. India von den 53,569,684l. für raw cotton lieferte für 13,905,053l. doppelt so viel wie 1865.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Er (Economist) gratulirt England, daß Overends die Mine im Frühling, statt Herbst 1866 sprengte.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 1163/1164.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton.

Four years ago our cottonsupply in jeopardy. This year larger than ever before. Already the aggregate importations during the first 9 months of the year exceed the average of the 2 years before the war, and we have still large quantities to receive, much of which is actually at sea. Er rechnet auf about 570,000 bales between 1st Oct. und 31st Dec. und giebt dann folgende comparative receipts from all quarters:

1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866
2,829,000 bales 3,367,000 3,036,000 1,445,000 1,932,000 2,587,000 2,755,000 3,785,000 bales.

Under the stimulus of extraordinary prices and profits, between 1861 and 1865, or in little more than 4 years, Egypt and Brazil trebled their production, while the production of the East Indies, or rather their supply to this country (for a good deal was diverted from China  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(and ass! from the home market)[)]
increased in a greater ratio even.

Prices have fluctuated even more widely than supplies, as always in articles of general and indispensable consumption. Total Supply in 1862 = 1/2 supply of 1859; but the average prices of 1862 were threefold, and the extreme price fourfold those of 1859. Aber erst 1863 und 1864 prices reached their maximum. In der folgenden Lese the average and the highest price per lb of middling Orleans und fair Surat, the usual standards of comparison are given.

Imports. Bales. Prices Prices
Orleans Surat
Highest. Average Highest. Average.
d. d. d. d.
1859 1860 3,098,000 71/2 63/4 51/2 43/4
1863 1,932,000 29 24 24 19
1864 2,587,000 32 27 24 22

Thus, in fact, a falling off of less than 30% in the supply brought about an advantage of 450% in the price. Quantity of cotton reduced 1/3, cost increased near 5 fold. At the present time the current prices of the 2 qualities are 12d. for Orleans and 9d. for Surat. They have been lower in the course of the year.

The consumption of cotton has nearly recovered its former dimensions. The weekly deliveries in 1860 bales 50,600 und in 1866 bales 49,000 up to the 1st of October. All the factories in full work, wo nicht, cause is not want of cotton, but deficiency of hands. It is a remarkable fact that factory operatives, so fearfully redundant 3 years ago, are almost scarce now, at least in some of the country districts.|


102

October 13. 1866. N. 1207.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Oktober 1866. S. 1189–1191.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The History of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.

The law has been systematically evaded; published accounts have been totally misleading; many persons – some probably of small means – have been altogether deceived; a property of great natural value has become of no value at all. Daher Lond., Ch., Dov. Railway „is not a single railway“, sondern „a group“ connected by a personal union. The several sections have a common board of directors, but in other respects they are always independent, and sometimes hostile to each other. The largest davon is „the General Undertaking“, has 116 miles out of 136, und the next largest are the Metropolitan extensions“ (14 miles). Und the „General Undertaking“ has taken off many small lines, and has subsidiary agreements peculiar to itself. Besides which there is a „common fund“, a sort of general contribution from all the units, and regulated by laws of its own.

The Lond., Chat., and Dover is a „contractor’s railway“, … was made by borrowing money, not by subscribing capital. „Since 1860“, say the investigators, „Messrs. Peto et Co. have subscribed for the whole share capital of the Co. of every kind, and such capital was subsequently placed upon the market by Messrs. Peto et Co., either on their own account, or in some instances, as they allege, on behalf of the Co.“ These loans were often secured by Peto et Co’s acceptances, and have been floating about Lombardstreet these 6 years, growing each year larger and larger.

Summa
Nominal receipts on capital Account: £.5,425,000 (Ordinary Stock) £5,533,290 (Preference) 4,295,230 (Debentures) = 15,253,520
Real Capital expended and received 10,625,498
so that the Co, although dividend to be paid upon it, never  The Economist: reached
Schließen
received
£.4,628,022

In one case „2,207,300l. stock was publicly sold, in respect of which Messrs. Peto et Co claim to give the Co. credit for only 27l. 10.s. % of its nominal amount, less 38,500l. further deducted as the expense of placing it“.

Such was the mode of dealing with share capital upon which advanced advances could be procured upon the market, but there were parts of the line, the shares in which were an unmanageable security, and would yield nothing. There was especially a certain unfortunate „Eastern Section“ out by Greenwich peculiarly intractable. But though no money could be obtained on shares on that line, „debentures“ being a first charge on it might be more useful. A legal impediment certainly existed. Parliament required that debentures should not be issued until one-half the amount of the capital was actually paid up, and „certified to be so by a justice of the peace“. But in the year 1864 financial ingenuity was exceedingly sharp. Receipts were given by the contractors as if for work done „in respect of the contract“; and on the same day the Co. gave receipts as if for money paid „in anticipation of calls“ on subscribed capital. These receipts were as follows:

(Copy.) London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. Secretary’s Office, Victoria Station, Pimlico, S. W.
Metropolitan Extension (Eastern Section).
“B” Shares.
Received from Messrs Peto, Betts, and Co, the sum of Two hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred pounds, for deposit, and in anticipation of Calls on 42,500 Metropolitan Extension (Eastern Section) “B” Shares.
£215,400 (Signed) W. E. Johnson, Secretary.



“Copy.” 9, Great George Street, Westminster, S. W.
April 22, 1864.
Received of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Co. the sum of Four hundred and twenty nine thousand seven hundred pounds in respect of our Contract for the construction of the above named Section.
Per pro. Peto, Betts, and Crampton.
£429,700. 0. 0. C. Christian.

„These feigned payments (heißt es im Bericht des Investigation Committee) were then entered in the books of the Co., the only authority for the entries being the receipts above-mentioned. Upon this the statutory declaration was made, and a certificate of a justice of the peace obtained in order to bring the borrowing powers into operation, |103 whereupon the full amount of debentures authorised (356,300l.) were issued and are still outstanding.“

These documents are in fact, two mutually destructive fictions. The contractor acknowledges the receipt of money never paid on account of work ever never done; the co. acknowledge the receipt of capital subscribed by the contractors which never was subscribed. Debentures were then issued, and their produce is the only real money ever actually expended on the Eastern Section. We doubt the legal effect of this „balance entry“ of two deceits; but its financial effect is certain, the Co. got 356,000l. by it which they still owe on debenture.

But this legal impediment thus adroitly encountered, was not the only one which the Lond., Chath., and Dover met with. After the right to issue debentures had been obtained, the amount of debentures so to be issued is limited; it must not exceed 1/3 of the paid up capital. There are 2 ways in which debentures may be used. First, they may be issued to the lender in the usual way, to be held by him or his assigns till they run out; or they may be pledged in the money market to bankers and others for temporary loans, to be repaid when the time fixed for such short loans is expired. But there is a difficulty about using both modes. If a Co. pledges all its debentures to bankers and money dealers, it has none to give to the ordinary investor who wants one, and yet it is on the ordinary investor that at last everything depends. The Lond. Ch., and Dover did, through Peto et Co., pledge all its debentures, and when common investors wanted some, issued new ones, and trusted to Peto et Co’s redeeming the old ones, which they did not always do. New and old ran on together, and a large amount of illegal debentures is outstanding still.

The investigators report that the accounts are very faulty; for the year ending 20. June 1866:

£ s. d.
The Investigators say the loss was 274,165 17 6
The directors formerly said the loss was 78,485 2 4
Difference between the 2 statements 195,680 15 2 Wilful misstatement Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

Peto et Co. were at the same time contractors to the Co. subject to no competition, and financial agents subject to no control. Accordingly, the Co. claims 186,000l. from Peto et Co, and Peto  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(wie sich herausgestellt hat, mere imprudence)
claims 384,000l. from the Co. Das übrige frißt ein Court of Chancery.

Das Capital von 1,000,000 der railway created on 12 August 1864. Von dem share Capital 300,000l. contributed by the Great Northern Co., 700,000l. nominally by Peto. „Immediately after the publication of the  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(false)
accounts (half year Dec. 1864  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(nämlich Peto figurirt hier als having paid)
) in February 1865, the Co. began to take money from the public on mortgage of these lines, placing the sums to credit of separate accounts with the banker, to be drawn against by the Secretary of the Co. jointly with Mr. Christian, the Financial Manager of Peto et Co., and the arrangement was, that the money received from the public should be paid over to Peto et Co. for the express purpose of ‚retiring‘ the pledged debentures, that they might be returned to the Co. and cancelled.[“] Von 303,905l. so paid to Peto and Co, they applied 180,000l. in retiring an equivalent amount of the pledged debentures, which were delivered to the Co, and cancelled, leaving a balance of 123,900l. in the hands of Peto et Co. …

Debentures now outstanding: 460,678l.
Parliamentary limit is 333,300
Excess: 127,378.

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Die als reich verschrienen Citykerls etc, die als directors der co’s cos gewählt, heissen: „guinea pigs.“

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Oktober 1866. S. 1192/1193.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mr. Fawcett in the North.

Everywhere, Mr. Fawcett pointed out, the class of labourers is combined together in large masses, and weighing itself against the class of the capitalists, who wish to dictate the terms of labour … All over the country we hear of these combinations and counter-combination counter-combinations. The masters are distrusted, the men are defied; time, which is all important to the rate of profit, is lost. Capital locked up in valuable machinery is lying barren while these articles of war |104 are discussed. … So long as every great adjustment of terms between capital and labour has to be fought out, a great part of the natural advantages of this country for productive purposes must be lost in paying for the great waste of time, savings, and profits involved in fighting it out. … The only certain way of palliating this evil, is, the growth of such associations such as Messrs. Brigg’s Coal Co., in which the interest of the capitalist and the labourer are so completely identified, that, instead of higgling for terms, the workmen will be glad enough to take whatever rate of wages seems most reasonable, in the full certainty that if they are being underpaid, they will receive the difference at the end of the half-year in a bonus from surplus profits. The plan at Messrs. Brigg’s is to pay, first, the regular rate of wages in the district, then 10% on all the capital of the co, and finally to divide the surplus between the capital and the labour, so that mere labourers, even without a share in the Co., receive a bonus at the end of the half-year if the profits exceeded 10%. This plan has been found to conduce to economy of time and material to a degree scarcely credible to those who have not tried it. … Mr. Briggs explained that the result had been not only to put a good bonus into the pocket of the labourers – a bonus of 5% on their wages – but to yield to himself, as a capitalist, a larger profit than he had ever before received, even in the most prosperous years of the colliery’s existence.

… Free contract between independent persons is the natural and healthy system, but to give ignorant parents an absolute right to contract for their children’s labour … leads to shortsighted bargains in which the future of whole generations of men is mortgaged to secure a few extra shillings a week in the present.



Saturday. October 20. 1866. N. 1208.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 1217–1219.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

The mere fall in prices, when diffused, of itself causes, or at least much promotes, cheap money in Lombardstreet. Bills for the sale of the same quantities of produce amount – say to to 10% less money, and therefore the efficient demand for money is diminished, while its supply remains as it was.



October 27. 1866.

Aus:
The Economist 27. Oktober 1866. S. 1250.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Selling of Securities after a Crisis)

The continued low price of securities still excites remark … During every crisis, and still more, before every crisis, loans are contracted which cannot be repaid till it is passed away. The securities upon which these loans were effected cannot be realised till the agony of the panic is passed; but when the panic is over, the lenders begin to require them to be realised. They call in their loans and at any price the securities must be realised. Such especially the case now, because the class most hit is the class possessing securities … . A large number of excellent shares have been pledged during the last few months to pay up calls in failed and futile Cos.

Aus:
The Economist 27. Oktober 1866. S. 1250/1251.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Peto again.

Half the directors in disorganised railways do not know what is being done, and others wish to do what is illegal. … It now appears that the debentured debentures pawned by Peto at Lombardstreet are not fully filed filled up or not adequately registered and so are questionable. It is, indeed, certain that they were at the time treated both by the Co. and Peto as debentures. The Committee of Investigation state expressly: „Cheques were drawn from time to time on the joint account and delivered to Messrs Peto and Co. to the amount, in the whole, of 303,900l. and they gave written acknowledgements of having received such cheques on account of City Lines Debentures.“ The Lombardstreet lenders must have believed they held „debentures“, when both the Co. and Peto treated them as debentures. Now Peto says they are not. Dieß kommt hinzu zu dem case of the „Eastern Section“, wo debentures issued by the Co. when no real capital whatever was subscribed, sondern nur die fictitious receipts exchanged between the Co. and Peto. Some „Justice of the Peace“ must have certified the reality of the capital, and he could not have comprehended that there was none.

„If such things can be done by Sir Morton Peto, ruft Economist aus, „what will not others do?[“] |


105

November 3. 1866. N. 1210.

Aus:
The Economist 3. November 1866. S. 1279–1281.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The „Law“ of Demand and Supply.

(Mit Bezug und für Thorntons Article in der Fortnightly Review): Price may be determined, i.e. may settle for a time at a given point, while demand and supply are not equal, and have no tendency to become so.

It may be shown that the cases in which Mr. Mill’s doctrine would hold good, are such as rarely or never occur in real life; while Mr. Thornton’s examples, purely hypothetical as they are, appear to us to represent pretty accurately the conditions of an ordinary market, and to be, as he maintains, fairly „typical of commercial transactions in general“.

Das s.g. Mill’s law  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(als wenn dieser Esel diese platitude erfunden hätte)
lautet verbatim:

„Demand and supply, the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied will be made equal. If unequal at any moment, competition equalises them, and the manner in which this is done is by an adjustment of the value. If the demand increases, the value rises; if the demand diminishes, the value falls; again if the supply falls off, the value rises; and falls if the supply is increased. The rise or the fall continues until the demand and supply are again equal to one another: and the value which a commodity will bring in any market, is no other than the value which, in the market, gives a demand just sufficient to carry off the existing or expected supply.“ (Mill. Pol. Econ. vol. 1 p. 541–2. 5th Edit.)

F.e. Mill says: „if the demand increases the value rises“, but the necessity for this entirely depends on the new demand being of such a kind that it will advance on the current price, whatever that price may be: short of this the demand might increase without producing the slightest tendency to a rise of value. And so of the other factor of the problem. „If the demand diminishes, the value falls“, which requires for its truth the analogous supposition with regard to the holders of the commodity, viz. that they are prepared to sell at any sacrifice rather than withdraw their goods from market. Where both these conditions are fulfilled, where demand and supply are both without reserve, where purchasers, numerous enough to absorb the existing supply, and sellers are each determined at any cost the one to obtain, the other to dispose of, goods will doubtless sell or tend to sell in conformity mit Mill’s law. Let us endeavour to present to ourselves the state of mind in which buyers and sellers enter an ordinary wholesale market – we say wholesale market, as it is there that competition comes most freely into play. The great majority of dealers have probably already formed some notion, more or less precise, of the price at which the commodity – the subject of the bargaining – ought to sell. This they take as their guide in their subsequent operations, allowing themselves however, to be drawn from it in one direction or the other by what they find in the market. If the purchaser finds the demand greater than he expected, he will be prepared to advance a little upon his ideal standard; while the holder of the commodity, in the opposite condition of the case, will on his side be prepared to make some concession in a decline of price. In general … these limits within which either will feel inclined to move in a direction opposed to his interest as buyer or seller will not be very great, though cases will occasionally happen when the market will reveal conditions of which both were before in ignorance, and may induce either to deviate widely from his original judgment. As a general rule, however, the data on which all, whether purchasers or sellers, form their opinion as to a legitimate price – the price, we mean, at which in the actual state of the market it is considered safe to trade – are pretty nearly the same. These data are what they know of the state of consumptive demand on the one hand and the supplies coming forward or expected to come forward on the other. … The object of their dealing is in general the same – to obtain the current profit on their transactions. Instead of the indefinite elasticity of demand on the one side, and the equally indefinite urgency to sell on the other, which Mill’s theory assumes, we should have sellers and purchasers conducting their operations within very definite limits – limits which for the great majority on either side would not lie very widely apart.|

106

Mr. Thornton not „merely points out some inaccuracies in the ordinary statement of the law“, but, as it seems to us, proves that  Von Marx zitiert im Brief an Engels vom 14. November 1868.
Schließen
no „law“ of demand and supply, in any sense which has yet been assigned to these words, exists; that neither in fact, nor in tendency, do market prices conform to the rule which is commonly supposed to govern them
. … What a theory of market prices ought to give us is a statement of the conditions which determine them. … All the phenomena of value which are not of a strictly temporary value are referred by the existing doctrines of political economy, not to demand and supply, but to the principle of cost, that principle no doubt acting through demand and supply. … the modes and conditions under which demand and supply affect prices (marketprices) are so numerous and complicated that they do not admit being brought into a precise formula, but can only be set forth in a number of distinct propositions more or less connected.

Demand for labour is a demand without reserve, since it is the means by which the desire for profit, – an insatiable desire – seeks to satisfy itself.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Dieß sagt er dagegen daß
nach Thornton labour „forms a notable exception to the rule, that commodities are almost never offered unreservedly for sale“.



November 10. 1866. N. 1211.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. November 1866. S. 1305.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

Bankrate reduced von 41/2 to 4%. The disturbed state of confidence is still shown, because money is being remitted from the East, while the demand for remittance to the East rather augments than the reverse.

The North British Railway.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. November 1866. S. 1306–1308.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

There seems no end of the railway scandals which this crisis will detect. While money is plentiful it can be borrowed, and used to pay dividends, debenture interests, any one in fact whom it is convenient to pay. But when money cannot be borrowed, these claimants become first irritable, then importunate, finally aggressive, upon which the latent sin is at once discovered. In the case of the North Brit. Railway no debentures have been issued in excess, no Act of Parliament intended to protect lenders has been violated, but a series of erroneous accounts have been palmed upon the shareholders and the public, and confirmed by dividends distributed, on the faith of which ordinary shareholders believed they had an excellent property, and preference shareholders – in several sets – lent money to the concern. The fraud here is a business, not a legal fraud; it consisted in publishing false figures, not in transgressing Parliamentary limitations. The North British is a very large railway and has many branches; more than 700 miles aggregate length, and an authorised share and loan capital of more than £22,000,150. Like so many railways in England, the North British has always been before Parliament, in a series of contests with the Caledonian etc … For a long times time its dividends about 3% p. annum. But the Committee of Investigation find that they have been procured by „manipulation“. The accountant is examined:

„You have stated that from your examination of the revenue accounts of Jan. 1865, you found that the revenue was some £36,000 deficient to pay your preference dividends? – Yes. – Did you report that to Mr. Hodgson (the chairman of directors) or to Mr. Rowbotham (general manager)? Yes. – Before the January accounts were published? – Yes, I required instructions what to do. … I was told the dividend must be paid under any circumstances. That day or a day or 2 afterwards, I was told to bring out a dividend of 21/4% that half year. (these instructions given by Mr. Hodgson.) – How did you do that? By making these cross-entries? Yes.[“] Mr. Rowbotham confirmed this. He was „cognizant of the irregularities in the accounts, and that dividends were declared and paid which had not been earned; but that he did not order or instruct the operations by which the balance-sheets were to show results unwarranted by the position of the co, and that the instructions on that point emanated directly from the chairman to the accountant. He also stated that, although he is the recognised medium of communication between the board and the department of accounts and audit, he did not convey |107 to any member of the board his knowledge of the irregularities.“ Herr Hodgson in seiner published defence, in reply to the Investigation Committee, says: „it would manifestly have been impossible to obtain or maintain the value of the railway without a temporary departure from the strict rule, whereby the limits of expenditure out of revenue and out of capital are defined.“ Und daher North British pumpte sein Geld on preference stock and debentures, because the accounts of the Co. looked well.

Share Capital of the North British £.4,771,000
Its preference shareholders of all kinds 10,642,000
Debentures all but a very little issued 5,799,000
Gepumptes Kapital 16,441,000,
so that 31/2 × the capital of the Co. has been borrowed of victims of the „regulated“ accounts.

Hodgson seems to think that shareholders are necessarily benefited by false puffing accounts. But shareholders are a very fluctuating body. The shares of A become to[-]morrow those of B by transfer. Daher diese accounts a fraud on the buyer for the gain of the seller.

The mode in which the entries were managed was, that a certain amount of expenses which ought to have been by the halfyear were charged to various „deferred“ accounts. Das Investigation Committee says: „Apart from carrying to capital sums which should properly have been put to revenue, complicated and elaborated exertions have been made to conceal a large amount of expenditure under the head of suspense accounts, consisting of ‚line renewals‘, ‚line suspense‘, ‚surplus property‘, otherwise ‚postponed expenditure‘, ‚locomotive suspense‘, ‚suspense account, N. 2‘, ‚suspense account, 1863‘, and ‚contingent account‘. (‚Life‘, half the brokers of England think, in regard to railway accounts, ‚is not long enough to understand such things.‘) Purpose dieser entries, to bring out the intended dividend.[“]

The Persons most to blame are the Auditors. Hätten sie ordentlich zugesehn, so discovered daß die dividend paid out of borrowed money.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. November 1866. S. 1316.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
This latest development of railway misdoings has communicated fresh alarm to the minds of holders of railway stocks and shares. Auf dieser Basis renewed die Bear manoeuvres, wie früher mit den Bankshares, most of which have recovered from the unauthorised reports. … Unless the money market alter very materially, not in price, but in character, it will be impossible to renew the greatest part of the maturing railway debentures.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. November 1866. S. 1316.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failures:

  • Dent and Co’s (China) drafts refused by their London Agents: Dent, Palmer et Co.
  • Stoppage of James Russell et Sons, Crown Tube Works, Wednesbury.
  • Utley Uttley and Lee, manufacturers at Burnley, liab. 20,000l.


November 17. 1866. N. 1212.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. November 1866. S. 1335/1336.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The First Interior of a Finance Company.

Nämlich Public account der General Credit Co. Gestehn loss by loans to Foreign railways, etc aber their capital intact, und reserve funds. »We scarcely consider the dividend of 15% which the Co. has divided, justified by the result. Such investments as they dealt in yield occasionally large gains; many private persons have made immense fortunes by dealing in them. But a company has very material difficulties in such a trade. First, it cannot be idle; it must employ its money, pay a dividend and it will not be entirely easy to carry on 2 kinds of business, one in times of enterprise, another in times of caution. An individual can stand still. A Co. is always restless, and always existing. It is, so to say, immortal. It has to take the average not of a year or 2 like a chance speculator, but of all years to come … The only permanent high dividends are those of Cos which in some shape or other are dealing with much money of other people, and have to divide only upon a small capital of their own.[«]|

108

Aus:
The Economist, 17. November 1866. S. 1338.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

English Agriculture.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Tenant-Right or Leases?) (Improvements)

A more striking illustration of the stagnant condition of all, or nearly all, that concerns the management of land in England could scarcely be found than the fact that the Report on agricultural customs contained in a recently (1866) issued blue book is merely a reissue of the report of Mr. Pusey’s committee of 1848. „That part of the report which recommended the assimilation of the law as to agricultural fixtures to that of trade fixtures has been accomplished.“ Except that infinitesimal progression, for in all else this report might as well have been made now as 18 years ago.

Farmers may be certain – and there are few districts in England which have not afforded sad examples – that any reliance on customary allowances – (statt rational leases) – whether of the old or new pattern, are as unsafe in fact as unsound in principle. We know that many who seek to delude farmers, by a sort of mock liberality, represent such allowances as equivalent to a lease, but let any farmer holding his farm under such terms try it. Let him quarrel with the game keeper –, let him interfere with the game bred on his farm and fed on his crops for his landlord’s profit, – let him vote against his landlord’s candidate at the county elections, and he will then test the real value, the no value, of the „tenant-right“ panacea. The following extract from a letter to the Times by Mr. James Anderson Sanderson , a very able land agent, sagt u.a: „For my own part, whenever I fix farm rentals I put from 5 to 7s. 6d. per acre more upon land of medium quality farmed under the security of a lease than if occupied on the system of annual tenancy. But this additional rental is a mere tithe of the value that landlords obtain by granting leases. Farming under the lease system is progressive, and from the large tenant outlay which the security of a lease induces, it is no unfrequent occurrence for farms during a 19 years’ lease to be doubled in value without any outlay on the part of landlords. Indeed, what are usually termed landlord’s improvements on a farm let on annual tenure become tenant’s improvements on farms let on lease. Tenant’s outlay under the former system is too often limited to what one year will exhaust, while under the latter it embraces improvements which are recovered by periodical returns after a lapse of time. Taking into account the increased and increasing outlay in the shape of labour, manure and implements which land requires to make it remunerative, I consider the question of security of tenure no longer doubtful, and that farm leases are essential to the further development of British Agriculture.“

Aus:
The Economist, 17. November 1866. S. 1343.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failures:

  • Suspension of Philip Levi et Co, Adelaide, South Australia, liab. 300,000l. Ditto:
  • W. Dryman et Co, warehousemen, Sydney und ebendaselbst Love et Son; wholesale grocers, mit liab. respectively of 42,000 und 40,000l.


24 November 1866. N. 1213

Aus:
The Economist, 24. November 1866. S. 1361/1362.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Why Overends failed.

The business established early in the century, was very profitable, gab for the 5 years preceding 1860 the average net income of 190,000. But then, or rather just before, a change occurred. Samuel Gurney , the great, ✝ in 1856 und David Barclay Chapman, his nephew retired soon after the panic of 1857. Danach a more lax and less intelligent regime began 1861, where John Henry Gurney, residing in Norfolk and doing the quiet local business,  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
sah wie’s stand, interfered und decided that no profits should be divided till the bad accounts incurred were liquidated
. The unique fact remains, that the principal partners drew nothing from the firm of Overend, Gurney, et Co. for 5 years, |109 and thus arose the great sum of 940,000l., which stood to their credit in the books when the business was sold.

There were 13 large accounts open at the time of the transfer, and the partners on going into the matter estimated that there would be a loss on these of £. 2,788,000l. The details are these:

Due to Overend, G. et Co. Estimated value Deficiency
£. s. d. £. £. s. d.
Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. 839,344 19 0 160,000 679,344 19 0
Millwail Ironworks Co. et C. J. Mare 422,565 12 5 422,565 12 5
East India and London Shipping Co. 397,653 3 10 25,000 372,653 3 10
Thomas Howard 331,765 9 13 331,765 9 3
Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. 144,144 3 11 7,000 137,144 3 11
David Leopold Lewis 341,559 13 4 182,000 159,559 13 4
Kelsson, Tritton et Co 291,391 4 2 187,000 103,891 4 2
Railways belonging to Overend, managed by J. E. C. Koch 243,069 17 1 54,000 189,069 17 1
Laurence and Fry 148,543 14 6 21,000 127,543 14 6
T. and G. Garraway 190,977 4 4 10,000 180,977 4 4
Charles Joyce and Co 78,728 10 0 62,000 16,728 10 0
Halliday, Fox et Co. 34,628 5 9 3,000 31,628 5 9
Z. C. Pearson 35,693 4 5 35,693 4 5
Total 3,500,065 2 0 711,500 2,788,565 2 0

Everybody familiar with these names has heard that „Overends“ were „deep in with them“. Viele hieltens für böswilligen City Gossip. Dieß nur der estimated loss at the time the new Co. was formed; the real loss was greater still. At the time of the transfer the total amount of „exceptional“ loans was 4,199,000l., but it was „hoped“ that the securities held against them would yield enough to reduce the ultimate deficit to 3,117,000l. Against this the partners prepared to set:

£.
Balance to their credit in the private Ledger 940,000
Estates and other saleable property 2,320,000
Promises in Lombardstreet 45,000
Goodwill 500,000,

leaving as was supposed, 688,000l. to the Gurneys and other partners. A terrible result doubtless, the old firm thought it in August 1865, though the reality has been much worse. Since 1861 (nachdem J. H. Gurney interfered) ging nach wie vor das  Anführungszeichen und Hervorhebung von Marx.
Schließen
„bad“
business in Lombardstreet voran. … The sum for the goodwill has been lost. The securities for the 4 Mill. l. exceptional loans seem to have been pretty well rubbish. Even on the showing of the old partners, an immense part of their private property must be sold. This is what happened. The sale of the old partners’ property attracted attention, showed the nature of the old business, and so ruined the whole firm … The shareholders haben vielleicht a remedy against the directors of the limited Co. for negligence in valuing their security and „incommunicativeness“, to call it by no harsher word, in their prospectus. No human being certainly could have gathered from that document that the bad debt account existed, and which the directors must have just been looking at. We do not say that the shareholders would succeed against the directors; they might do so, try. But they will fail in their present resistance to their creditors. They must pay their debts, however they may have been induced to incur them.|


110

1. December 1866. N. 1214.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 1389/1390.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of the Money Market.

Reserve jezt 10,688,000, dennoch its proportion to the banking deposits nicht remarkably great. These liabilities are:

Public Deposits Private Deposits Seven day and other bills Total
£.6,161,157 18,252,795 516,459 24,930,411.

The reason is that the deposits are so much greater as sonst.

Private Deposits at Corresponding Date with the Present.
1865 1864 1863 1862 1856
£.12,475,521 13,272,161 12,924,545 11,012,432 9,230,817.

Am Tag von Overend’s failure die private deposits were 13,515,000l., and they are now in round numbers 4 mill. and 3/4 more. The B.o.E. has therefore clearly gained business by the panic, and probably many accounts removed from other banks, because they had failed, or were distrusted, have been taken thither.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 1391/1392.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 1. 1868“ und „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 373.11–12, 588.1–2), in einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
Baxter über „Railways“ Paper read to the Statistical Society.

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Es scheint, der eigentliche Zweck dieses paper war, in any way den Eisenbahnen – häklich gestellt und damals sehr in Verlegenheit ihre debentures etc zu zahlen – durch den Staat zu helfen.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 1393/1394.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Short Weights and Measures.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Urgent case for interference).

The scandal of short weights and measures and adulterated articles is rapidly becoming so huge and intolerable as to amount to a national disgrace and grievance. At the Surrey Sessions several hundreds, we may say thousands, of retail dealers are fined every year for false weights and measures; and the worst part of the case is that the same people are fined over and over again, showing pretty plainly that cheating of this kind does not carry with it any heavy stigma among the class they belong to, and also that the fines are so insufficient as to afford no protection to the public. The same disgraceful state of things prevails more or less all over the country. The robberies committed by this sort of retail fraud are of fabulous amount, if they could be expressed in aggregate figures; and the hardship falls chiefly on the artisan and poor classes …

A trading community, which has gone so far to the bad that its public opinion rather chuckles over than condemns, the thievish astuteness of the persevering maintainer of a false balance or a short measure … The remedy is very plain, and has been already tried in France mit den best results. For the first offence, if not very aggravated, the fine should be substantial – if aggravated, the offender should be fined, and compelled to exhibit in his shop window for a few days a conspicuous placard, prepared by the Court, setting forth his offence and its penalty. The police to be charged und supervision of this part of the sentence. For the 2nd offence, the fine should be doubled, and the period of exhibition doubled; and, for the 3d offence, the punishment should be hard labour without the option of any fine, and a longer exhibition of the placard etc[.] The offence of adulteration is more difficult to reach.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 1395/1396.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Demand and Supply (Letter of T. E. C. Leslie)

Grade(?) durch d.d. das Gefasel von der supply und demand „political economy itself becomes practically little better than the logic of established abuses“. … there is really more divergence of opinion among political economists than is ever made known to the public … the very fact of the absolute limitation of the supply may render it physically impossible to supply the whole demand at any price whatever.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 1400/1401.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bank of England.

Das hoarding der Banknotes at an end. The average circulation is still exceeded by fully 2 Mill. l. St. at the date of the return of this week; but the total more than 31/2 millions l. St. less than during the panic of May.|

111

Railway Shares. Grosse Thätigkeit der bears, prices remain without any perceptible recovery.



December 8. 1866. N. 1215.

Aus:
The Economist, 8. Dezember 1866. S. 1423/1424.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Sewage of Towns Progress.

An unsavoury Congress on this subject at Leamington.

The chief systems advocated were the earth closet system, the system of irrigation, and the system of deodorising sewage either by acid, sulphate of lime, or other chemical agents.

Die Croydon experiments (irrigation) schon früher erwähnt. Gesundheit: 1849, says Dr. Carpenter, before sewered, Croydon sehr unhealthy. Deathrate 1 : 36 (27.7 in 1,000), while that of the surrounding country was 1 in 58. The Population of Croydon was then 19,000, the number of inhabited houses, 3060 und the rateable value of the parish 70,000l. Population jezt 40,000, rateable value almost 200,000 und deathrate sunk to 19.5 in the 1000. All this owing to the introduction of good water supply with sewage and thorough drainage, while the irrigation of meadows with sewage has raised the value of land and diminished the amount of sickness … before it is passed on the land the sewage is drained of the solid parts, which are afterwards used separately. Liquid manure has an advantage over solid manure as being food for the plants at once, while solid manure needs time and the agency of water. The result of irrigating a field of rye grass was that 6 crops taken from it in one year, the total height of them being 187 inches. The grass was sown in the early part of November, and it was 6 inches in height by Christmas. Before sewage was applied to the claysoil the land was not worth 1£ per acre; the present tenant is willing to give 16£ per acre for land and sewage. The grass of the irrigated land is preferred by cattle to any other grass, and keeps the cattle in better milk and better condition than other grasses. … But any mismanagement of the drainage works would be a fruitful source of disease. If the sewers are not properly ventilated bad gases escape into the houses, and if any sinks are left untrapped the consequences may be fatal. The Croydon experiments are of great value to the towns too large for the earth closets.

In Manchester the system of taking away the refuse without entering the sewers is tried, but the removal of refuse costs a good deal more than the sale of its produces. It was found, too, at Aldershott, that though the surrounding soil was about the poorest in the Kingdom, no one would take the camp refuse even gratuitously, and the removal of it cost the War Office 5 500 o 600l. a year. Yet Mr. Hawkesley tells us that the product of the earth closets is really worth 1l. per ton, and the results, whenever the refuse has been applied to land, have borne out this estimate. Data z.B. darüber geliefert duch Convict Prisons. Lord Leigh, who presided at the Leamington Congress, said the earth closet system had been tried with much success at the reformatory school of which he was chairman. Many such towns as Leamington just now in awkward predicament about their sewage. They have been restrained by law from sending it bodily into the rivers. The new Thames Navigation Act and the local acts to which it is giving rise, are exercising the same pressure on the towns above London. Something must be done in these places. It will be a wanton waste of money to construct enormous works on the plan of the Metropolitan Main Drainage for the sake of throwing into the sea what is so useful on the land. It is well to bear in mind that lands cultivated by some of the early American settlers became barren after two generations, while the soil of China unceasingly fertile for upwards of 3,000 years. The waste of the ash constituents of bread and meat in London alone is said to amount to 602,676 tons.|


112

15 December. 1866. N. 1216.

Aus:
The Economist, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 1449–1451.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What to buy.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Der sich selbst vermehrende Wert, le système du capital.)

In Oriental countries a man puts his money into diamonds or gold and silver ornaments, or perhaps he buries the specie itself. He is content to keep what he has, if he can only keep it. He does not expect, as by invincible association we all now expect, our property to get more of itself. So deep did this conception of the unnaturalness of interest penetrate into early society that the laws against usury were stoutly defended upon a quasi-philosophic tenet that money was inherently „barren[“].

The broker may be paid a larger commission on questionable investments which hang over the markets, and which the holders are anxious to get rid of. Thousands of bad railway bonds have been in the last 2 or 3 years sold to people who could ill bear the loss, because the broker was paid much to dispose of them.

Aus:
The Economist, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 1456/1457.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Recent Strike among the Iron workers in the North of England.

Previous to the 15 July (1866) the iron workers in the North of England – i.e. in the district of Tees, Wear, and Tyne – gave notice to the men employed in the puddling furnaces and rolling mills that on the day name named wages would be reduced 10%, giving as their reasons for the step, 1) that the price of manufactured iron had not risen by any means so rapidly as the wages of the workmen engaged in producing it, 2) that the accumulation of stocks and the scarcity of orders rendered the reduction unavoidable, and that 3) the increasing competition of Germany, Belgium and France, compelled the manufacturers of this country to economise the cost of production. Most of the workmen on the 3 rivers belong to the Northern Ironworkers Union, and with very little hesitation its leaders declared that the 10% reduction could not be accepted. Work therefore ceased almost entirely about the middle of July, and perhaps between 20 20,000, or 30,000 men, skilled and unskilled, became idle. Besides the Northern Union, there is a Southern Union, comprising the districts, represented by Staffordshire. The strike did not extend to the Midland or South Wales districts … At the outset the Union professed to be able to distribute 10s. a week to the skilled men on strike, but not more than 1 or 2 weekly subsidies at this rate were actually provided. The payments fell to 4s., 2s. 6d, 1s., and even 6d., and during several weeks there were no payments of any kind. In October an attempt was made to amalgamate the Northern with the Southern Union, but it led to nothing. The appeals also for assistance to other trades produced only trifling sums.

The protraction of the strike, and the almost entire absence for demand, led the masters to raise further points of controversy. 10% Abschlag on the puddlers’ wages; aber: the mill men, who work in gangs, ought to submit to a larger reduction, especially in work where, by great outlay of capital, rolling machinery of the best and most powerful kind had been provided. The mill men were paid by a given rate on the quantity of iron rolled and furnished, each pair of rollers being manned by a gang or set, working under a sort of sub-contractor, who alone dealt directly mit dem employer. Suppose, therefore, a mill of the latest and best kind, to be capable of rolling 100 tons a day at say 2.s. a ton, the payment to the middleman or subcontractor, for himself and his set, would be 10l. But if the mill were of old and inferior construction, the produce would be only say 50 tons a day, which at 2s. would only yield 5l., or half of the result in the former case – the amount of actual skill and labour being substantially the same. In other words, the owner of the new and mill was made to double the wage of the men in his employment, without receiving any equivalent. On 23 November, after a conflict of 19 weeks, the strike was terminated by the unconditional reentry of the men at the reduction of 10% on the puddlers, and the revised rates offered to the millmen. The men resisted a small reduction in the face of a falling market, a monetary crisis, increasing stock, and such an unanimity of the masters as could only arise from a general absence of orders.|

113

So far as market price is concerned, labour is as entirely a commodity, and is regulated in exchangeable value in precisely the same way, as coffee or timber.



22 December. 1866. N. 1217.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 1481–1483.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Actual State of American Finance.

Report of McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury. Bericht für dieß last financial year. (1866) dollar berechnet zu 4s.

Customs Land Direct tax Internal Revenue Miscellaneous Summa
Revenue: £.35,809,330 133,066 394,952 61,845,362 13,423,875 111,605,525l.
Civil Service Pensions et Indians War Department Navy Department Interest on Public Debt. Summa:
Expenditure 8,221,392 3,770,481 56,889,940 8,664,827 26,613,540 104,150,180
Balance: 7,456,445.

The most unexampled fact in financial history. That a Gvt. which one year ago had no internal revenue at all, should be able to raise 60 Mill. l. is a miracle. In any other country the bare attempt would have caused a revolution.

Derselbe Account for the quarter ending 30th September last.
Customs. Land. Direct tax Internal revenue Miscellaneous Sources Summa
Revenue: 10,168,755 45,699 68,091 19,833,398 1,596,353 31,712,296
Civil Service Pensions. War Department Navy Interest on Public Debt Summa
Expenditure: 2,378,745 2,357,595 2,766,644 1,575,722 6,733,080 15,811,786

In form, it is true that 40 millions l. St. of American Public debt have been paid off since 31st August 1865, when the debt was at its maximum. But that payment was not made out of revenue, sondern from overloans which had become superfluous nach End des civil war. Die funds für reduction der debt from real excess of revenue over expenditure = 23,000,000l. … The Un. States have still the best possible land, the best mines, the best things above ground, the best things under ground, and an educated Anglo-Saxon race to make use of them all. Such means and materials for production, and such skill in making, the world has never seen together.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 1484/1485.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Liquidation of the Bank of London.

The creditors have already had 12s. in the £, which has been entirely obtained from the assets of the Bank and without calls upon shares. The Bank deposit on 22. May: £, 2,315,000l.; on the 26: they were reduced to 1,038,000l., and to meet this stiff run there were only 27,510l. of India bonds and other available assets. The facility with which the B. o. London gave their acceptances was injurious to them.

Die bills accepted beim stoppage waren £1,218,088, wovon 599,225£, Hälfte, unbezahlt an die Bank zurückkam. There were no securities to meet them. Die Bank hatte auch „financed“, i.e. taken securities of a possibly good, but certainly difficult character. Die Assets waren 26. May: £.2,383,979. Davon already received: £.1,361,751. Remaining to be received: 1,022,227. Mr. Coleman, the liquidator, only expects to get 584,696 eventually, and irrespective of what may be  The Economist: recovered
Schließen
received
from the unsecured balance due by the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, which balance will be represented either by shares in that undertaking or by certificates to fall due in July, 1871. 417,226l. are dependent upon the liquidation of the Ebbw Vale Co., the Imperial Mercantile Credit (Lim.) , the Joint Stock Discount Co (lim.), Barned’s Banking Co. (Lim.), Smith, Knight and Co limited and – Peto and Betts  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
The remaining liabilities are £496,662 to meet which Mr. Coleman estimates £. 229,224l. as likely to be extracted during the next year from the ruins of the specified Cos. The shareholders in the Bk. o. London will lose the capital they had in the concern, but not more.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 1489/1490.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ownership of Landed Property in England. (Communicated).

An English entail does not last, on an average, more than about 30 years, once in a generation the entail is usually cut off, and the estates resettled. Most deeds of entail contain powers to grant long leases, to sell for special purposes and to exchange. By far the greater part of the land in England including some of the largest estates is not entailed. Estates are |114 constantly sold in England entire, although, if a strong desire existed to obtain small portions of them for cultivation, and a higher price could thus be realised for them, they would infallibly be divided as we see to happen when a demand exists for land for building or accommodation purposes, owing to some peculiarities of situation. On the whole then it appears certain that although the effect of entails in preventing the division of estates is doubtless considerable, yet it is much less than is commonly supposed, and will not account for the phenomena before us. The number of small farmers occupying the land of others for agricultural purposes has diminished as much and as rapidly as that of small freeholders unless in a few districts where market gardening and fruit growing prevail. There a class of tenants holding small portions of land is rapidly increasing.



29 December 1866. N. 1218.

Aus:
The Economist, 29. Dezember 1866. S. 1519/1520.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paris Correspondence.

The Banque Enquete. (Report of M. de Lavenay, Commissioner General in the Bank inquiry, viz. who conducted the investigation)

Decides (der Report) für Monopol der Bank o. France, no essential changes in its organisation to be introduced. 75 oral depositions heard und written depositions sent in by 65 French, and 10 Foreign Chambers of Commerce; also by 16 French, and 20 foreign merchants, bankers, or economists. Majority of witnesses established that there was a monetary crisis in 1863 and 1864, a fact disputed by some authorities, and that it was caused by the export of specie to buy cotton and silk, and by the large investments in industrial enterprises and foreign loans. Notes ought to be equal to metallic money. How was that condition to be fulfilled? By not exceeding the wants of the currency. How ascertaining the true limit thereof? By rendering the notes constantly convertible, in which case, if too many were sent out, they would be presented for payment.

Relative to the organisation of the B. o. France, the majority of the witnesses were of opinion that the elastic power it possessed of issuing notes (meaning thereby the absence of any restrictions beyond what prudence should demand,) was much preferable to the inflexible limit imposed upon the Bank of England.|


115

Jahrgang 1867.

January 5, 1867. N. 1219.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Januar 1867. S. 4/5.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Proposals Made for sharing profits between Masters and Workmen

Notice issued by Fox, Head, et Co, of Newport Rolling Mills, Middlesborough-on-Tees (Oct. 1866), with a view to prevent further disputes with their workpeople. Diese works employ about 120 men, when in full activity. The principles:

1) To pay to all the men the full ordinary wages of the district for the several kinds of work, and for the number of hours usual in the district. 2) To prohibit any workman from belonging to any Trades Unions Union, and so long as he is employed at Newport. 3) the firm to have a first lien on the net profits of each year to the extent of 10% p.a. as compensation for interest and risk of capital. 4) The surplus of net profits (if any) beyond 10% per annum to be divided equally between the firm and the workmen – the payment to the workmen being calculated as an uniform percentage on the amount of actual earnings of each during the year, in order that the bonus to each man may be determined by his own skill etc. The bonus to be paid to workmen who may have worked for the firm even for part only of the year. 5) Arrangements to be made under the Amended Partnership Act of 1865 for enabling the men to invest their savings in the business at rates of interest depending on profits. 6) The full and absolute control of the business to remain with the firm; and the certificate of a public accountant to be final, and without appeal, as regards the profits and distributions of each year.

Many kinds of trade, and notably the iron trade, have cycles of good and bad years. For long periods a large concern has to be kept in motion at rates which just pay expenses and leave no profit at all. Then comes a spurt of demand, and large profits are made in a short time.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Januar 1867. S. 6/7.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ownership of Landed Property in England.

The selling price of land is too light high to tempt the small capitalist, unless under special circumstances. In his view land does not pay. If he is to let it to a farmer, he cannot expect a return at the best of more than 3%, and if he is to cultivate it himself, he will have to furnish additional money, with great chance of getting no return at all. Under this persuasion he puts his savings in funds, railway shares, bonds, or mortgages etc[.] Daher is so little competition for moderate quantities of land, farms of 100 to 200 acres, only fit for cultivation. Wenn for building purposes etc, the small capitalist becomes an eager purchaser. Daher auch constant diminution of proprietors holding small quantities of land for purposes of cultivation. The price offered for them is too tempting to be declined. The free holder of 20 acres, who has supported himself and family in a state of great penury, by farming it himself, is offered for it 1000 to 1200l. which, if employed in trade, when added to what may be considered his salary, will double or triple his income. Again take the freeholder of a higher class, who, f.i., owns a farm of 100 acres, and has a capital besides of, say £1000 employed in its cultivation. His total income can hardly exceed 300l. p. annum, 150l. for rent, and 150l. for profit of capital. Bettered his position if he sells his farm for from 4,500 to 5000l., and withdraws the floating capital. He will then possess in money from 5,500 to 6000l., and, if experienced in agriculture, take a larger farm from a neighbouring estate, certainly double, and perhaps, his income. … The break between the labourer and the large farmer or his bailiff in where what are called improved districts, the South of Scotland f.i., is far too great.



January 12, 1867. N. 1220.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Januar 1867. S. 31/32.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Foreign Trade.

The East India Company , the Russian Company , and the Turkey Company , in old times, divided much of our foreign trade between them. According to the then received doctrines, the scattered ships of unconnected traders had no business in distant foreign seas.|

116

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Januar 1867. S. 33–35.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Master and Servant.

A poor man who is accused of an offence cannot employ the same counsel, cannot have the same facilities of collecting evidence, cannot have his case put before the court as a rich man could. For these very reasons the law ought to favour the poor rather than the rich. It ought not to presume on the necessary disadvantages of a man’s position to impose fresh burdens upon him. It has done this in the case of master and servant. It has widened the gulf between capital and labour by attempting to give capital the command over labour. It has viewed the relation between employer and employed as if the first entered into a light civil contract, while the second bound himself by a penal bond. It has given the first a summary mode of redress, while it has thrown the second on his own resources. Summary punishments are the most effectual. Penalties which must be levied by civil process are comparatively seldom exacted, introduce doubt, delay, technical objections, increase costs and obstructs obstruct justice.

Many instances of the injustice, caused by this inequal legislation, may be found in a recent blue book bearing the same title as the article. Firstly, the servant who refuses to work is taken, mostly in handcuffs, before the magistrate. By the English system of criminal procedure, he cannot be heard in his own defence. The magistrate who tries him is generally a master. The law gives, besides, the magistrate no option. If the master presses for a conviction he is entitled to have it, and we read of a case in Scotland where a master refused to take a man back but insisted on his being imprisoned. The man pretended that the master had virtually broken the contract by putting him to work which he was not legally bound to do. This case does not stand alone. In the blue book … an instance of men being refused their wages on the usual pay-day, and yet being compelled to work by criminal proceedings. We have a peculiar case of men being discharged for refusing to work night and day, being then apprehended under a warrant, and, on an acquittal, being unable to recover damages either for their discharge or their false imprisonment. In some trades the master may discharge on a month’s notice, but the servant who leaves on a month’s notice, notice may be sent to prison. At certain steel works, „when a man is engaged, he is supplied with a code of rules, the notice to leave being 7 or 14 days’ notice.“ But the manager, instead of giving this notice to the men, „posts a notice on the wall to say that all those who belong to Unions are to leave at a certain date. The men want the same notice as he would require.“ In the Wolverhampton district it is the custom to enter into contract for a year, and the contract stipulates that the master may discharge his workmen at a month’s notice, but that the workmen must give 6 months’ notice. „A workman binds himself for 12 months to his employer“, says a witness from the Potteries, „and the employer undertakes to find him work for that period; but when the workmen sought to force from the employer the full amount of work, he never could obtain it, and the master could force from the workmen his 12 months’ employment.“ When the men know that there are some 10 000 prosecutors annually under the Master and the Servant Act, when they think that the magistrates before whom those cases are tried are mostly employers, when they see the justice of peace and the employer conferring in an ale house together before the trial, and returning to the ale house together after the trial, they may be excused for combining against their masters and the law which supports their masters.

The committee recommends that all cases should be publicly tried before two or more magistrates, or a stipendiary magistrate, the procedure to be by summons instead of warrant, the punishment fine instead of imprisonment.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Januar 1867. S. 35.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

A territorial Magnate.

Aus recently published number of the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, nämlich Prize Essay on the „Farming of Leicestershire“. Der essayist says: „That to the native excellence rather than to any pains bestowed on their (the pastures) improvement, is Leicestershire indebted for her surpassing fertility, and for the high rental – probably the highest of any county in the kingdom – received by her landowners.“ The Duke of Rutland’s estates extends to 1/16 of the whole county. The estate comprises 39,000 acres, of which about 1/2 is strong loam and clay (the pastures of surpassing natural fertility), of which the Vale of Belvoir, on the lias, forms the chief part, about 5000 acres beyond Leicester being composed of strong marl and gravel. The remaining half being about equally between white and red „creach“ (soil) upon the colite and marlstone formations. The farms vary from 50 to 750 acres; the more general size is from 200 to 400, the portions in grass and arable being about equal. All the ducal tenantry hold their farms from year to year. They have no formal agreement, but a sort of a ukase or „memorandum is printed on the backs of the rental receipts given when rent payments are made.“ This memorandum commences as follows: „Take notice – that the following are the conditions upon which you rent or hold the land in your occupation under His Grace the Duke of Rutland.“ Unter diesen provisions: „5) no trees growing on the premises will be permitted to be lopped or |117 in any wise injured. 6) On your quitting the premises all the manure will be considered as belonging thereto, and will not be suffered to be removed therefrom or allowed for. 7) the game and right of sporting on such lands is (common English would be ‚are‘) reserved to His Grace.“ It is also said the tenants „are further! protected by a liberal schedule of allowances, as tenant-right for purchased manure“, though how such a schedule can co-exist with the 6th condition, would puzzle the acumen of legal interpreters of the contract should any litigation arise thereupon. Kömmt hinzu the political influence such a territorial magnate can wield, by the agency of a subservient tenantry.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Januar 1867. S. 37.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Debt.

Returns of the Revenue for year ending Sept. 30, 1866 was 68,460,142l., wovon 41,876,000£., almost 2/3 of the entire revenue, raised by Customs and Excise, fallen fast ganz auf beer, chicory, cocoa, coffee, corn, malt, sago, spirits, sugar, tapioca, tea, tobacco and wines. Those taxes act as a property tax of 15 to 20% on all that a poor workman has; 9,356,000l. stamps, affect especially all traders, from small shopkeeper to the merchant who draws bills, also bankrupts and litigants; 3,422,000l Assessed Taxes, not 1/12 of customs and excise, fall besonders auf die wealthy classes; 5,595,000l Property tax. The land pays hiervon ridiculously little; 4,365,000l. Postoffice; und 3,846,142l. von den Crownlands.



19 January, 1867. N. 1221.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Januar 1867. S. 58.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Danger of mixing up Acceptances and Deposits in the Banking Accounts.

Suppose the liabilities of a Bank, viz. deposits and acceptances together, have, at 31st Dec. 1866, fallen off, say 3,000,000l., as compared with June, 1866. The Bank may have shortened sail, and reduced its acceptances, or lost public confidence, so that public has reduced its deposits. While the accounts are put together no human being can tell which. The chairman of one bank has defended the combination of these distinct liabilities, upon the ground that it was not desirable, that the source of the bank’s profit should be revealed.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Januar 1867. S. 60–62.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Letters of Creed and Williams on the danger of foreign competition in the iron trade and the subsidiary branches of industry.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Januar 1867. S. 62/63.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

„Government Notes“ by R. Slater.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Mintnotes) (Bullion notes)

Hat gezeigt, in a pamphlet, December 1857, from actual commercial transactions reduced to the scale of one million, that gold entered only to about 3% of the whole, banknotes 8%, bills of exchanged exchange to 53%, cheques to 36% of the actual circulation. Let the Mint, or some public body, be the recipient of standard gold, and issue its certificates for its value at 3l. 17s. 101/2d. per oz. These certificates, or notes against bullion, will circulate over the whole of Europe, without the necessity of exporting bullion. But above all, that bullion will belong to the people in whom the capital of the country is really invested, will be distributed amongst them, and not be concentrated in the hands of the Bank.



January 26, 1867. N. 1222.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Januar 1867. S. 85.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

The natural position of this country is that of an exporter of bullion. We are the entrepôt between the mining countries and the monetary countries. The gold of Australia and California, in the main, comes first here, and hence is diffused over Europe and the world. Mere export of bullion daher not to be confounded with a foreign drain of the necessary bullion we require. A certain sum of the precious metals – more or less – is needful for the business of England, and when that sum is trenched upon, we must raise the rate of interest at once and quickly.|

118

Trade is very slack – slacker, perhaps, than ever, for people must go on for a long interval after a crisis to clear off existing obligations, ; it is not until the ante-crisis liabilities are effaced, that we can truly estimate the effects of such a year as the last. Now we have reached that stage. The demand for capital is falling still more short of the supply than before.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Januar 1867. S. 87–89.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Striking etc.

The men should consent to receive payment part in wages and part in profits – part as an advance in anticipation of profits, and part when the profits were actually realised; and that the wages or anticipated portion should be calculated at such a rate as to leave a balance in the hands of the employers to meet the workmen’s share of losses in case losses were incurred. In other words that the men, instead of receiving the whole of their share of the profits in advance, should receive only a large instalment of that share. The only difficulty – the workmen could scarcely ever be persuaded to submit to that preliminary reduction in their fixed wages. If they desire to have larger profits at the year’s end, they must be content with smaller advances on the faith of those profits during the course of the year.

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Januar 1867. S. 91/92.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Farming of Leicestershire. Grass Land.

Leicestershire is the land of the Grazier; its grass land is the great source of its profit. Some of this grass land is, as says Mr. Moscrop, the author of the Prize Essay of the Royal Agricultural Society, of surpassing fertility, and a large part of its 2nd and 3d class pasture land is very valuable for the dairy and the rearing of store stock. Land produced produces but little compared with its capacity for production. About 1/2 the area of the country, containing 522,240 acres, is under permanent grass. Was von den grass lands of Leicestershire, and their management, gilt von den great grass districts of the Midland counties, already the source of so much of our meat supply.

The climate being mild and equable, the rainfall moderate though usually sufficient, and there being no bogs or mountains, the Leicestershire farmer occupies a position more favourable than the average of the English counties. The Eastern division contains the greater portion of the rich grazing land – consisting mainly of clay loams – varying from stiff to friable. Many of the farms in this division have no arable land, others having from 1/6 to 1/3 in arable. Dairying is pursued chiefly on the small farms in the northern portion, while the great bulk of this division is used for fattening cattle and sheep. It is to the natural richness of the pastures „rather than to any extraordinary pains bestowed on their improvement that Leicestershire is indebted for her surpassing fertility“. The rents received by the landowners are the highest of any county in the kingdom. Though within the last 20 years – since Repeal of the Cornlaws – much draining has been done, much land yet requires that first and preliminary improvement.

Farms range from 50 to 80 acres, the more general sizes being from 100 to 300. There are, however, many small holdings ranging from 20 to 70 acres. The smaller farms are usually occupied by dairy farmers, as their chief product is the wellknown Stilton Cheese. Trees und hedge rows bilden a serious incumbrance of the land. The grazing farms are nearly devoid of farm-buildings. Yet these farms let at 3l. and upwards per acre. Such land will „fatten a bullock, weighing when fat from 50 to 60 imperial stones, and one sheep over 20 lbs per quarter, during the summer months, and in winter will keep from 1 to 11/2 sheep per acre. Freedom from the care and complexity of arable cultivation, cultivation renders these purely grazing farms attractive. Yet they require much attention to render them profitable. Care must be taken to prevent the grass getting too long, and yet the pasture must never be bare, or rapid fattening becomes impossible. Consequently cattle in certain seasons must be bought at whatever cost; and, again, when grass falls short, some of them must be sold even at a disadvantage, or the grass must be supplemented by a liberal use of cake. Once a year the pasture must be grazed bare, or the rough places mown with the scythe. The more general practice to „crop them off during the winter months with Scotch or Welsh runts, termed ‚gnawers‘ [“]. All this requires watchful attention to keep the pastures sweet and level, and yet have the cattle, including the gnawers, in an improving state. The droppings of the cattle are also collected before they have time to rot the grass and ultimately to produce rough herbage which nothing will eat. Meadows, from which hay is taken, are grazed and mown alternately. Here there is great room for improvement, as very little dressing beyond ditch scourings and the clots collected, collected are afforded. The manure made is most wastefully consumed for want of farm-buildings.[“]

Mr. Moscrop says: „The scarcity and consequent high price of store stock, together with the many risks of importing disease where all are bought, are tending to a revolution, from mere grazing, so that farms with a certain proportion of friable arable soil are regarded much more favourably than formerly, especially |119 if the buildings are suitable, which, however, is rarely the case. [“]

In the Northern part of the Eastern division of the country: „About Burrow, and from thence north, some of the pastures are in a much neglected and unimproved state, some fields being covered with ant-hills, to the entire exclusion of all good and nutritious herbage. Drainage is much wanted. Thistles and other noxious weeds abound, and the care and attention bestowed on the grass land in the south of the division is on many farms here totally wanting.“

In the Western Division of the County there is a good deal of friable and some heavy arable land. „Seit den letzten 20 Jahren hier progress in the management of the arable land. Dennoch antiquated und obsolete practices yet linger on, but chiefly on the small farms; as a rule, the best management is seen on farms of fair size.“ In summing up the account of the grass land, Mr. Moscrop says: „There yet remains much land that loudly calls for drainage. There are 1000 of acres of secondrate quality which liberal and judicious manuring would convert into pastures of fair fattening quality. There are 100ds of acres so covered with ant-hills as to be almost worthless. On some farms, hassocks, thistles etc are allowed to run riot. Much is taken from all the meadow land mown, only a little being returned by few, and nothing by many, the inevitable result of which must be deterioration. [“]

Aus:
The Economist, 26. Januar 1867. S. 103.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing districts.

Manchester Jan. 24. Again Gloomy market for all kinds of yarns and goods. Prices are still against producers. Though short time has been resorted to of late in some districts, stocks must be accumulating rapidly, as the buying has been on the most limited scale. Notwithstanding the limited buying for some time past for the India and China markets, the exports hence continue on a large scale, which shows that many producers are tempted to consign rather than accept the unremunerative prices offering in this market.

Birmingham. In the foreign department the symptoms of reaction are slight, the merchants are keeping back orders, and will continue to do so to a certain extent until much of the indebtness indebtedness of long-standing by various foreign markets is renewed.

Wolverhampton: So far the reduction of prices has given but slight stimulus to the demand for iron.



2 February 1867. N. 1223.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 117.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

A Curious Effect of the Paper Currency in America. (From the New York Chronicle, financial paper.)

Failures.
Numbers. Liabilities in all the States. Dollars. Failures in Northern States only[.] Numbers. Dollars. Liabilities in Northern states only.
1857 4,932 291,750,000$ 4,257 265,818,000
1858 4,225 95,749,000 3,113 73,608,747
1859 3,913 64,394,000 2,959 51,314,000
1860 3,676 79,807,000 2,733 61,739,000
1861 6,993 207,510,000 5,935 188,632,000
1862 1,652 23,049,000
1863 495 7,899,900
1864 520 8,569,000
1865 530 17,625,000
1866 1505 53,783,000 632 47,333,000

Das Papiergeld durch seine depreciation takes from the creditor and gives to the debtor. During the war, the failures in the Southern States were not known; but taking the Northern States only, the lubricating influence of the deteriorating currency is wonderfully exemplified in the small amounts of failures in 1862, 63, 64 and 65.|

120

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 117/118.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Proposed Trades Unions’ Commission.

It would scarcely be possible for any inquiry to show how often the mere existence of Unions have caused masters to raise wages without a strike, or even a quarrel; how often the same fact has prevented them from lowering wages where they would otherwise have been glad of the opportunity; and it is in their silent exercises of influence that trade combinations have no doubt effected their greatest benefit. You could discover by investigation, how often overexercise has caused illness; but not practicable to make out, by an investigation, how often moderate exercise has prevented it. Unions, which put the labourers to some extent in the condition of a capitalist, must improve the terms they obtain from capitalists. This power is so great as often to be abused, and to lead the men into wasteful strikes. But the power itself is an obvious and great good. Poverty and inability to resist disadvantageous offers can never be an advantage to either labourer or capitalist; for if to either, then to both; and it is, of course, absurd to assert that a poor capitalist who cannot afford to wait for his market, is not in a very much inferior position to a rich capitalist who can.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 120.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Aneline.

The dyers of Lyons and St. Etienne have addressed a petition to the minister of commerce, for a modification in the duties on alcohol, so far as concerns the dyeing trade. The preparation of the colours derived from aneline, „which“, they say, „tends to nothing less than to dethrone vegetable colours“, necessitates the employment of alcohol; but the Gvt requires the alcohol so used to be „denaturalised“ by the addition of 20% of coal tar, so as to prevent it from being turned to other purposes. This denaturalisation spoils its quality, hence Swiss dyers, able to use pure alcohols, are beating the French in the quality of their dyes. The French Alcohol too, though spoiled by the said addition, is taxed heavily, where that of the Swiss pays nothing; consequently, in price also, the Swiss defeat them. Whilst in France a kilogramme of light blue costs 445f., it only costs in Switzerland 205f. Nearly one half of the silks of Lyons and St. Etienne are now dyed by aneline.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 121.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacture of Beetroot sugar.

In the German States which formed the Zollverein:

1851–2 1859–60 1864–5 1865–66
1,261,372 cwts 2,915,196 3,413,214 3,698,825 cwts.

Owing to the employment of improved processes, and a better cultivation of the root, the quantity of sugar obtained from the beet is gradually increasing. In 1863–4 it was 71/2%; in 1864–5: 8.20, in 1865–6: 8.55.

In Belgium: 1863–4: 400,620 cwts; in 1864–5: 437,896, und in 1865–6: 831,037.
Sweden 217,517; 230,000; 300,000 
Holland 50,000 50,000  70,000 
Dagegen decreasing in Russia 1,413,263 1,534,505  1,000,000 
Austria 1,169,057 1,691,280  1,350,000.
Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 121.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Tableau General du Commerce de la France. (issued for 1865.)

Total imports francs. Taken for consumption. francs
1860 2,657,300,000 1,897,300,000
1861 3,085,400,000 2,442,300,000
1862 2,899,200,000 2,198,600,000
1863 3,236,400,000 2,426,400,000
1864 3,407,400,000 2,528,200,000
1865 3,527,400,000 2,641,800,000
Total exports. francs French part thereof.
1860 3,145,500,000 2,277,100,000
1861 2,660,200,000 1,926,300,000
1862 3,049,900,000 2,242,700,000
1863 3,526,400,000 2,642,600,000
1864 3,921,200,000 2,924,200,000
1865 4,086,500,000 3,088,400,000 |

121

Aus:
The Economist, 2. Februar 1867. S. 131.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Districts.

Manchester. Jan. 31. Large business done in yarns und goods for China und India. Doch producers still complain of prices not paying; consequently, many continued to consign largely, preferring that risk to selling in this market at a positive loss.



9 February, 1867. N. 1224.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Februar 1867. S. 145.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emigration from Ireland. (Communicated by T. E. Cliffe Leslie)

 Von Marx bereits zitiert in „Draft of a Speech on the ‚Fenian Question‘ for the Meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association, November 26, 1867“ (MEGA² I/21. S. 19.9–11).
Schließen
After a loss of 2/5 of its population in 21 years, throughout most of the island the rate of wages is now only 1s. a day; a shilling does not go farther than 6d. did 21 years ago
, and the man who earns it might earn 4 or 5sh. or more in America.

What is there in the diminution of the supply of labour to increase the demand? What is there in the loss of labour by employers in Ireland, and its gains gain by employers in America, to equalise the means of payment of both? Irish farmers, f.e. are not enriched by the increasing difficulty of getting hired labour at the very time that their children are leaving them; and the wages fund has been actually diminished in many localities by the disappearance of employers accordingly. The entire organisation of rural districts has been broken up, country towns have lost their customers, the shopkeeper has been driven to follow the farmer and the labourer, and the demand for labour in both country and town has been lessened, not increased, in many cases, by emigration.

That The the rise of wages produced by emigration ⦗so far as this has been done⦘ is no proof of prosperity, appears in the fact that it is in the poorest, and not in the most prosperous, parts of the island, that some kinds of skilled labour are now dearest, while other kinds are not forthcoming at all. The wages of masons and carpenters are higher in the West than in Antrim or Down, though the workmen are worse, and their services little in demand; building is dearer in Mayo, though stone and lime are abundant, than in parts of England where those materials are scarce. It is dearer, not because there is a great deal of building, but because there is very little; because there is a very limited demand for builders, and, therefore, a very limited supply of them; because few can pay the price of skilled labour; and it is, therefore, seldom employed, and hardly to be had. It is only by emptying the labour market, and depriving all but a few rich people of the assistance of labour, that emigration can raise wages considerably, or put a stop to itself, so long as people to emigrate remain. Farmers are not made wealthier or more enterprising by it; it does not create manufactures; on the contrary, it at once increases the difficulty of production, and diminishes the home demand for all articles produced.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Februar 1867. S. 147/148.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Duke of Rutland’s Estates Estate

gives, wie sein Steward unterrichtet, nur 54,000£ jährliche Rente.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. Februar 1867. S. 158.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Manufacturing Districts.

Wolverhampton. The leading houses are receiving a few more orders from large home buyers, and there are also orders coming, but not to a large extent, from the East Indies, Brazil, and the Un. States, though far short of sufficient to keep the works fully employed. The hardware trades are considerably depressed.|


122

16 February. 1867. N. 1225.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Februar 1867. S. 169.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Clearing House.

Sir John Lubbock, as honorary Secretary to the London bankers, proposes weekly statistics of the Clearing House. We have no later statistics than 1839, when certain figures were given to Mr. Babbage.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Februar 1867. S. 178.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Police Game Preservation.

Schamlosester Act 1862: „An Act for the Prevention of Poaching.“ (Sir Baldwin Leighton’s Act). Polizei dadurch in Wildfänger der landlords verwandelt.  Zusammenfassende Bemerkung von Marx.
Schließen
Dabei voll der most arbitrary Clauses gegen individual liberty etc.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. Februar 1867. S. 178/179.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Tableau General du Commerce de la France. (bis 1865, published 1867)

Imports into France, including Consumption, Transit und Bonding.
1863 fcs 1864 fcs 1865 fcs.
England 691,800,000 679,600,000 700,200,000
Belgium 360,700,000 397,400,000 423,500,000
Switzerland 330,900,000 344,500,000 372,600,000
Italy 247,200,000 278,300,000 284,400,000
Zollverein 265,000,000 286,100,000 271,900,000
Turkey 177,200,000 166,900,000 159,300,000
Russia 81,800,000 93,100,000 118,000,000
Egypt 69,100,000 101,800,000 115,700,000
Brazil 84,600,000 85,900,000 96,100,000
British India 100,900,000 117,400,000 88,500,000
Algeria 52,700,000 76,700,000 71,600,000
Spain 74,900,000 72,000,000 71,500,000
Rio de la Plata 52,600,000 41,500,000 57,200,000
United States 92,100,000 Imports from U. St. were 282,8000f. in 1860 und 393,000,000f. in 1861 75,100,000 56,200,000
Holland 55,400,000 54,000,000 54,600,000
Brit. Possessions in Mediterranean 12,500,000 40,400,000
Brit. Africa 12,900,000 13,100,000 17,700,000
Brit. America 3,400,000 5,700,000 3,900.000
Australia 200,000 100 000
Austria 21,900,000 24,600,000 27,000,000
Hanse towns 22,000,000 31,700,000 30,000,000
Mexico 4,900,000 6,100,000 5,700,000
Exports to Foreign Countries (French and foreign Productions on transit)
1863 fcs 1864 fcs 1865 fcs
England 1,039,800,000 1,145,000,000 1,294,900.000
Italy 354,200,000 409,900,000 415,900,000
Switzerland 319,400,000 359,700,000 359,300,000
Belgium 245,300,000 257,700,000 287,700,000
Zollverein 228,200,000 237,000,000 235,500,000
Spain 248,700,000 266,200,000 217,000,000
Algeria 139,300,000 131,600,000 150,300,000
U. States 107,800,000 100,800,000 133,400,000
Brazil 81,700,000 129,200,000 118,900,000
Turkey 118,900,000 129,300,000 99,800,000
Egypt 47,300,000 96,600,000 96,200,000
Rio de la plata 44,400,000 51,900,000 61,900,000
Russia 34,100,000 27,400,000 29,900,000
Holland 39,800,000 40,600,000 37,800,000
Brit. Mediterranean 20,700,000 22,200,000
Brit. Africa 17,200,000 16,300,000 14,700,000
Brit. America 2,900,000 5,300,000 3,700,000
Australia 7,300,000 5,000,000 4,500,000
Austria 11,000,000 7,000,000 7,400,000
Hanse towns 35,300,000 37,700,000 45,600,000
Mexico 22,200,000 70,700,000 70,700,000 |

123

Aus:
The Economist 16. Februar 1867. S. 190/191.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing towns.

Manchester Feb. 14. Business dull. Just enough buying to keep prices steady, and stocks from further accumulating. Goods selling in small lots for immediate wants of buyers. The short time movement does not increase, but manufacturers all complain that they are losing upon every sale they make.

Bradford: The failures, in this town and elsewhere, have done much to injure what little confidence remained in the present range in the prices of wool. Transactions few et small. Staplers who must or will sell, have to submit to a further reduction. Prices of yarn are even more irregular and depressed than those of wool. Demands for goods quiet.

Birmingham. More favourable than a month ago. Cardinal difference between this and ordinary seasons being that there are few orders on the books beforehand.

Wolverhampton. Improved demand for iron, though far from overtaking the means of supply. Tin and copper quiet, in spite of the present low rate of discount, which often leads to large speculative purchases when prices are low.



23 February 1867. N. 1226.

Aus:
The Economist 23. Februar 1867. S. 218.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Districts.

Manchester Feb. 21. Stocks are not pressing heavily on the market, as the short time movement keeps them in a reasonable compass.

Iron has moved off slowly. Exporttrade in coals is somewhat active.



2 March 1867. N. 1227.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. März 1867. S. 231/232.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mr. Leeman’s Bill for Regulating the Sale of Bankshares.

To prevent the „bear“ operations on the stock exchange in Bank shares. At the time, when credit was much disturbed, speculators sold, for future delivery, shares in banks on a large scale, which they did not possess – they then propagated bad rumours as to these banks – thus depressed the prices of the shares – they then gained the difference between the comparatively high price at which they sold the shares when the bank credit was good, and the comparatively low price at which they bought, when partly by their own machinations the bankcredit had become bad. Often great profits in this way gained last year. On the shares which, like those of the Agra and Masterman’s bank, went forth at a high premium, and then, by the failure of the bank, fell to be worth less than nothing, the differences were often very large. The dealers in bank shares gained by the destruction of the whole bank, and intended so to gain. Leeman’s bill checks this practice by providing; providing that no man shall sell bank shares which he has not got, and requiring, as a guarantee of his having them, that he shall state their „numbers“ in the register when he sells. Nobody could then sell bank shares which he hoped to buy in the market, because he would never know that he could get hold of the particular shares his sale note mentioned … The price of bankshares is, now that the blot is hit and the danger known, more depressed by its being known that this kind of property is subject to annihilation by well planned machinations than it would be depressed by the exclusion of bankshares from the speculative market.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. März 1867. S. 233/234.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Board of Trade Returns.

1864 1865 1866
Exports: 160,449,053£. 165,835,725 188,827,785.
Exports in December only: 12,095,437£. 15,030,088 14,914,363.

Computed value of the principal Articles Imported for 11 months: 1864: £197,448,426. 1865: 180,820,357. 1866: £211,539,785

1864 1865 1866
In November only the imports were £.16,164,570 19,190,403. 17,841,738.|

124

9 March, 1867. N. 1228.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. März 1867. S. 267.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Banque Enquête in France.

Rouland (the Governor der Bank, an advocate by profession) said that France, in the 12 or 13 years previous to 1865, exported 5,825,000,000f. for foreign investments, and that of that sum a dead loss of 1,773,000,000f. has been sustained. … M. Chevalier asked why, when every other commercial enterprise has need of capital for daily operations, the Bank should do without one? M. de Waru (bankdirector) answered, that it is because the Bank possessed the power of issuing paper money, which no other establishment has.



16 March 1867. N. 1229.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. März 1867. S. 296.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emigration from Ireland (Communicated by Leslie)

Die figures der numerischen Reduction der population seit 1848 fail to show the real change, as they do not show what the natural increase would have been. Nevertheless, agricultural wages throughout the greater part of Ireland are still under 6sh. a week, deducting Sundays and holidays; in America the rate is 7 dollars a week, and even more in the Eastern states. Where skilled labour (in Ireland) dearest, it is so only because it is so only seldom employed, and hardly to be had. The price of common labour, on the other hand, is still below a shilling a day throughout the year; having risen in some counties from 8 to 9d. for a day’s work to a shilling, with more constant employment it is true. A rise to this extent, it is very clear, will not stop emigration … It is material to observe that these additions ⦗von food etc zu money wages⦘ are most common, and on the most liberal scale, where emigration has not reduced the number of the labouring population; and, in the second place, that while such allowances are far from being general throughout the island, a great rise of prices must be set off against the rise in money wages. In 1848, the cost of the Irish constabulary was estimated at 35l. 2s. 6d. a man; 1866 the Commission rated it at 51l. 16s. 4d.; a rise of nearly 50%, and prices have risen since then. In many parts of Ireland, the labourer earns 6sh. a week, where his father, or he himself in his youth, earned only 4; but potatoes were then at 2d. a stone, where they are now above 4d; meat was 3d. a pound, where now it is 7d. or more; the labourer’s clothing 10 years ago was from 50 to 100% cheaper than now; and his whiskey was both cheaper and better. His tea alone is considerably cheaper. He can, indeed, now live upon Indian meal, but his diet on that costs a good deal more than it formerly did on potatoes, and he does not like it so well. What is more to the point, he would not have to live upon Indian meal in America. Were it not for remittances from friends in America, it is certain that a great number of the peasants would be little better off than before the famine; I know cases in several counties where a labourer is positively worse off than he was then; that is to say, he earns now just what he did then – a shilling a day; for his employer can give no more on account of the scarcity of labour or the dearness of food. … It has been suggested that increased payments for labour may be met on the part of producers by increased charges on commodities, and that a higher cost of production must result in higher prices for the articles produced. Erstens Foreign Competition checks this, und: The limit to expenditure is fixed by the means of the buyer, not by the needs of the seller; and consumers are not enabled to pay more for commodities by having to pay more for services. In the case of commodities, as in that of labour, the equation of demand and supply at a higher price involves, if other things are unaltered, a diminution of both demand and supply – a decrease in the number both of the buyers and of the articles sold.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. März 1867. S. 309.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Markets.

Manchester. March 14. Wieder very dull week for all kinds of goods and yarns; stocks, consequently, have accumulated, and are pressing on the market with more severity than hitherto. Prices are, therefore, regulated, pretty much by the position of sellers, and when these are anxious to realise, low rates must be accepted; prices, consequently, are very irregular. Several failures of manufacturers show the unprofitable nature of the trade at the present time.

Birmingham: No improvement in the trade of this town; the country orders are small for hardware goods generally; as a rule, those given out by the factors are not more than 2/3 what they usually are at this season. Such slackness as now prevails has not been experienced here for a 12 12 years. |


125

March 23, 1867. N. 1230.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. März 1867. S. 326.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Board of Trade Returns.

Board of Trade Returns. Exported in January (Irish and British Produce)
1865 £10,489,339
1866   14,354,748
1867   12,786,842.

Der computed real value der Principal Articles Imported waren

1864 £.226,161,840
1865: £219,393,987
1866: £238,714,094.

In December only the Imports were: 1864: 28,609,265; 1865: 38,930,967; 1866: 27,174,300

Vergleicht man Export in January 1867 und 1866, so bedeutender Decrease (1867) in Export of Apparel, Cotton (Yarns und Goods), Earthenware und porcelain, Haberdashery und millinery, Hardware und cutlery, Leather (wrought, shoes und boots) Linen (Yarn und manufactures) Eisen aller Art (nicht steel), Seidengarn und [-]manufactures, Wolle (wollen woollen und Worsted stuffs aller Art ⦗nicht woollen and worsted yarn.⦘



March 30. 1867. N. 1231.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. März 1867. S. 352.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mr. Torrens’ Bill for Improving the Dwellings of Artisans.

Till now die „rookeries“ in towns etc can be cleared und inspected, but not pulled down, except by the owner. Torrens proposes, in the interest of public health and working men’s comfort, to enable any magistrate, or municipal council, or vestry, or other local authority with jurisdiction, to compel the landlord to abate the nuisance. The owner of any house, or group of houses, unfit for human habitation may, on a report of the health officer condemning such houses, be summoned before the Grand Jury to explain their condition. If he fails to do so, the Grand Jury may issue an order for the completion of any necessary works, even if they involve the total destruction of the buildings, and on this order the „local authority[“] must act. They will order the owner to perform the work, and if he declines or delays, they may tender to him the value of the premises, and enter into possession of them themselves. When so entered, they will be entitled to borrow money from the State, and with it erect buildings suitable for the labouring classes, paying the interest out of the receipts from the new buildings, or out of a local rate. The local authority is not, however, to keep the buildings, but to sell them within 7 years. The purpose of the Act is, to enable any municipality, or authority like the Metropolitan Board of Works, to take at a valuation the „rookeries“ in great cities, and either clear them away or cover them with habitable dwellings for the poor. … Land in towns is limited in quantity – that is, houses too far from business centres are useless to relieve those centres. … The demand may exist, indeed, does exist; but supply is not afforded, because there is no unoccupied space on which to build … There remains … only force, and this is applied in the gentlest manner, the landlord not being compelled to sell unless he refuses to protect the public health and morals in the way required of him, and when compelled, receiving the full money value of his property. … For the rest, the Bill, as it stands, is only important in principle. In practice it is too cumbrous to be of very great use. A few very bad fever centres will, no doubt, be swept away; but we shall have to go very much further than this, especially in London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol, before we succeed in securing that great necessity of modern civilisation, the decent and healthy housing of the mass of the people.



April 6. 1867. N. 1232.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. April 1867. S. 387.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Parliamentary Return in Ireland.

Purely agricultural holdings: 608,864. Davon 174,989 valued at £4 or under, 190,877 over 4l. and under 10l., 123,784 at 10l. and under 20l., 83,259 at 20l. and under 50l., 35,595 at 50l. or upwards. Tenements in the 798 towns of Ireland: 392 towns (nach Census von 1861) mit population under 500, 280 mit population von 500 to 2000, 82 mit 2000 to 5000, 26 mit 5000 to 10,000, 18 towns mit more than 10,000 inhabitants. The number of town tenements is 272,381, viz. 156,973 valued at 4l. or under, 85,189 at over 4l., und under 20l., 30,219 at 20l. und upwards.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. April 1867. S. 394/395.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Towns. Iron und Coals less active.

Manchester. 4 April: Stagnant market, prices continue to droop. The larger imports of cotton have caused prices to recede, and buyers in this market, fearing still lower rates in consequence, keep aloof. Stocks, therefore, continue to increase, placing producers in a worse position than before. With many it is a necessity to realise, at very unremunerative rates. Further failures amongst manufacturers are reported. We cannot see well how makers, with limited or no means, can go on much longer at the losing rates now current.|

126

13 April. 1867. N. 1233.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. April 1867. S. 427.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Markets.

Manchester. April 11. Very dull market for both yarns and cloth; during the last 3 days very gloomy feeling owing to the generally current opinion now that prices must give way much further, owing to the languid demand for goods and the large supplies of cotton now coming forward. Prices are all lower and very irregular, some few wealthy producers adhering pretty firmly to our quotations; but the bulk are now anxious sellers, owing to their stocks becoming too unwieldy to hold. All anticipate lower prices.

Birmingham. Second quarterly meeting (on 11 April) der ironmasters of the Birmingham district. The quantity of finished iron sold was under the average, but there was a certain steady kind of trade doing; and producers seemed less anxious to press for orders than they did last quarter day. A demand for a large quantity of finished iron on account of the East Indies and Australia is said to be certain, contributed to cheerful feeling. The market for pig iron firmer, a considerable quantity of that class of iron sold to-day at 3l. 10s. per ton for all mine hot blast; cinder pig has sold 2l. 12s. 6d. per ton. We quote pig iron at 1s. 3d. per ton above the price of last quarter day.

Wolverhampton: Orders for iron continue far below the capacity of the works, although there is more doing than in the first months of the year.

Sheffield: The large iron und steel houses are doing a brisk trade in Bessemer steel for railway rails und other purposes. Some of them have also fair orders for railway wheels, springs and buffers. In most other departments business still languid.



20 April. 1867. N. 1234.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. April 1867. S. 437–439.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Report of the Directors of the Bureau of Statistics on Shipbuilding in the Un. States.

In dem Report und in Evidence (inspection of) von McKay, dessen „once famous shipyard was entirely deserted“. Er sagt: „There was no sale for American vessels other than the small craft employed in the coasting trade. First-class ships he formerly built and equipped ready for sea for from 65 dollars to 70 dls per ton; now the same vessels would cost 110 dls p. ton; an investment which would afford no profit to the merchants who employed such vessels. The merchants could do better by investing in Gvt. Securities, which yield 6% in gold, on currency investments, and which are exempted from taxation. In the British provinces, the same class of vessels can now be built and equipped ready for sea for 40 dls to 50 dls gold per ton – about half. And this, too, after buying the oak timber in Maryland. If this state of affairs continues a few years longer, the nation would not own a vessel which could be used as a war transport in the event of war. All our cotton-carrying is done by foreign vessels. Our tonnage statistics for the main part comprise vessels engaged in coasting and inland navigation; very few sea-going ships. Ship-building at a standstill … The year 1854–5 was the best year of active shipbuilding in the U. St. From 1856, it declined somewhat during 1857, 1858, and 1859. Then it went up again, until 1861 it touched almost as high a point as in 1854–55. During 1862, it declined again, but not so much as it had during 1857, 1858, and 1859. In 1863, it recovered its former level once more, but soon afterwards sunk down much lower than it sunk in 1857 und 1859, and now in 1866 it was almost at an end.“ As a consequence the trade of America is beginning to be carried on in non-American ships.

1860 1864 1866
American 6,165,934 tons 3,090,948 3,383,187 tons
Non American 2,624,005 3,741,131 4,438,384.

Falling off der native tonnage by 1/2, foreign augmented by almost 2/3 … Much American shipping was (during the war) sold to foreigners, and the rest died out, and was not replaced. But nur ganz schwacher increase in American shipping since war. Ein Hauptgrund ist die unequal taxation, die 6% tax upon all the manufactured products of the country. It favours simple industries, and falls heavily on compound industries. A ship is a far more composite article than an umbrella. The frame of the ship may be cut out and put together in the building yard; but the iron, the yellow metal, the masts, the sails, the spars, the cordage, and much else must all be bought elsewhere; it is what Americans might call „an assembled article“. And upon every item so collected, two taxes, at least, are paid, one by the seller of whom the shipper buys, and another by the shipbuilder himself. The new taxation of America has, therefore, a most sure tendency to drive capital from a complex manufacture like shipbuilding to simple manufactures which are only charged once, and agriculture which is not charged at all. … In shipbuilding, America has only one advantage, cheap timber, and with the daily progress of iron shipbuilding|127 this advantage täglich weniger werth, und America has an incurable disadvantage – the scarcity of skilled labour.

To some extent shipbuilding und ship-owning lately depressd (wenn auch nicht to the same degree as in U. St.) throughout the world. Shipowning is a trade in which a slight excess of supply produces a great depression of price. When a ship, with a crew on board, arrives in Bombay harbour, she must take what freight she can get; she cannot stay there, as the saying is, „eating her head off“, till freights get better. Accordingly, as soon as a greater number of ships come into port than there are pressing goods for, freights rapidly go down, and with them the profits of shipowning. If, on the other hand, there are but few ships in port, and there is an accumulation of goods on the wharf which the owners want to send on at once to a very profitable, but not, perhaps, very steady and lasting market, freights rise with wonderful rapidity, and then the shipowner gains enough to repay him for other seasons of bad demand and depression. Shipbuilding is a trade intended to supply shipowners with ships, and as the profits of the latter are intermittent, so also is their demand for new ships.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. April 1867. S. 443/444.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emigration from Ireland. (communicated by Leslie)

The mere number of emigrants, great as it is, does not give the real state of the case; it is the young and able-bodied who go, the old and infirm who remain, and a great part of the reduced population of Ireland is in its last generation. … The rise of wages is in a great measure nominal, and represents a fall in the value of money, not a rise in the value of labour; being accompanied by a rise in general prices, and being due to the importation of gold from the new world, not [to] the exportation to it of labour. Again, in the places in Ireland where wages are highest, as f.i. Belfast, immigration not emigration has taken places, so the latter cannot have occasioned the rise.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. April 1867. S. 456/457.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Markets.

Bradford. Transactions in wool merely to supply the immediate wants of spinners. So small are the stocks of wool in their hands, that they only buy to cover new orders as they receive them.

Manchester, 18 April: Prices are steadily declining and, with one or two notable exceptions, almost total cessation of buying. Holders are now anxious sellers, and as the price of cotton has materially declined, they are now compelled to accept very reduced rates for their productions.



27 April. 1867. N. 1235.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. April 1867. S. 465–467.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bank o. France. (Aus der Enquête etc)

Der Governor der Bank (French) (1856) asked for the suspension of cash payments. Verweigert. Andouillé, subgovernor, adds: „It was on Octobre 5, 1856, that the Governor and the Subgovernors of the Bank repaired to St. Cloud to demand a suspension of cash payments; there was a discussion in the Council of Ministers and in presence of  The Economist: Emperor
Schließen
Caliban
upon the measures to be taken; the suspension was abandoned, but it was decided that no bill with more than 2 months to run should be discounted … No application of the kind has been made since the Bank has been invested by the law of 9 June, 1857, with the power of raising its rate of discount above 6%.“  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Während der Examination folgende heitre Diskussion:

Andeuillé (Subgovernor der Bank of France): We used to fear that the establishment of branches would have the effect of scattering our reserve, but we have now grounds, derived from experience, for believing that the small branches we have still to create will only feebly augment the circulation, and will feed their own reserve. We begin by sending them 20,000l., and at the end of a certain time they give us an available surplus.

M. Chevalier: The current accounts of the whole 54 branches are not nearly enough to make 80,000l. a branch, for the whole of them for all the branches is less than 1,200,000l.

Andouillé: I speak of the reserve, not of the deposits. We have branches which have not £.400 of deposits, but from which we derive 80,000 to 120,000l. in coin every year; it is the payment of bills of exchange which more than anything else brings coin to our tills.

The President: You mean that independently of the gain by discounts, there is an advantageous drainage of coin?

Andouillé: Thus the branch of Toulouse where the deposits hardly exceeded 4,000l. give us 800,000l. of coin a year, which we distribute among other branches. No long description could convey to an Englishman so true a conception of the beggarliness of French banking, as these few facts. The Bank of France … is almost the only great distributing machinery for money capital in the country, and its branches with 4,000 on deposit, and its looking to coin as a great means of profit, are evidences of utter banking barbarism. … In England, the diffused country banks were enabled for years to live by the profit of local issue; they then became banks of deposit, receiving shops for capital, and thus, by a series of petty and unnoticed efforts, they filled London with capital, and created the London money market.|

128

Aus:
The Economist, 27. April 1867. S. 468/469.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Working of Trades’ Unions.

The Unions secure considerable advantages to the main body of workmen in each trade, they distinctly injure the best workmen in each trade, they diminish in all trades the incentives to rapid and general progress. That they tend to raise the average level of wages, by depriving the master of his main instrument, the fear of hunger, is beyond question, and is indeed unquestioned, because, if they did not, masters would have very little reason to bestir themselves in the matter. They would not be displeased with a strike to lower wages, if such a thing could occur. Up to a certain point this process is beneficial, as without some resistance of some kind the tendency of employers would be to lower wages to the limit below which life could not be preserved, a point actually reached in some kind of agricultural work. It seems, also, clear that the Unions always diminish the number of minor strikes … And lastly the effect of the Union has been to substitute moral force, social compulsion for physical force, compulsion by the pike, and vitriol throwing and fire raising. A strike ordered by a Union is a very bad thing; but it is a better thing than an organisation like that of the Luddites, which years ago kept Nottinghamshire in terror. On the other hand, the Unions crush down special power, activity, and originality in workmen.

We do not see, f.e. how under the Union theory, any general progress is to be made in trade at all. The Union decrees, it may be quite justly, that to lay, say 100 bricks an hour, is good average work. But if the best men were tempted by the free enjoyment of their faculties to do all they could, they might bring up the standard to 200 bricks, and devise appliances  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(what foolery!)
enabling inferior hands to keep up to them. The Unions themselves say that it is possible, for they discourage piecework, upon the ground that it tempts men to „overstrain“, that is  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(d.h. that is für einen Cityschweinhund, a Citypig like the City sycophant like the Economist)
tempts them that is towards perfection.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Perfection as profitproducing machines for the capitalist!)

Mr. Applegarth, the Unions’ best advocate, tried very hard to show that while the average wage was fixed, a master might give a specially good hand any extrapay he liked. But Zusatz und Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
! (horrible dictum)
Mr. Applegarth forgets that the master’s interest is to make that extrapay as little as possible, and trust to the man’s pride in his work Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

At present, the Union men are subject, at all events, to emulation and competition from non-Union men, but the Executives try to attract all of a particular trade, by steady discouragement to outsiders.

The single thing to prevent is intimidation, whether physical, or, if we can reach it, moral. So far from making Unions, or rather leaving Unions illegal corporations, we would give them every opportunity of legalising themselves, insisting only that their rules shall be public, and that every member shall be free to depart without fine or other punishment. At present, he loses all back payments.

The ablest men would form new and smaller Unions of picked men. Jobs would be undertaken by Associations, which would be, in fact, Competitive Unions. By refusing to recognise the Unions, we shall not extinguish them; but we shall turn them into illegal combinations with written, instead of printed laws, and a secret and, therefore, oppressive, system of punishment for secession. That was the direct effect of the laws against combinations, and it would be also in a less degree the effect of placing or leaving them outside the law.

There is not a State in the world which, deprived of the power of coercion, would not go to pieces, and if we can but destroy that, and we can, the Unions will divide. Allow new combinations to start easily, and they will be numerous enough, and competitive enough, to keep up the natural progress of society. Persecute a sect and it holds together, legalise it and it splits and resplits, till its unity is either null or a non-oppressive bond.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. April 1867. S. 469–471.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

United States. – Evidences of Pressure.

The revenue of 1866 was largely exceptional. The „Commercial Chronicle“ confesses week after week that the „existing system of taxation is oppressive, and that the inequality of its pressure is such that if not speedily revised, political discontent and general suffering may perhaps precipitate changes more radical than safe.“ It says, referring to the small diminution of the debt (1867): „Experience has shown us that until our internal taxation is better adjusted and more skilfully distributed, a needless oppression of the productive power of the country would be induced by the attempt to pay off from this source, any considerable account of the public obligations.“

Der New York correspondent des Standard sagt in letter vom 5 April inst. (1867):|

129

„Trade has not been so dull since 1857 as at present. The warehouses are filled with idle dealers, the shops with idle clerks, the streets with idle mechanics. The spring business is already over. The people are wearing their old clothes, drawing on the savings’ banks, and giving another turn to the economical screw. Rents and provisions are enormously high; and although dress goods are cheaper than at the same time last year, the people have no inclination to buy. … The newspaper proprietors, with one exception, are drawing on their capital. The business of the railway Cos. is much smaller than at the corresponding period 1866. The Woollen and Cotton mills are running upon short time, and some of them will soon suspend work altogether. And the clamour of the Gold Room and the Stock exchanges are more furious than ever. Während des war all seemed to thrive. And then came Petrolium, with its immense profits etc.

All this has changed. The Army has disappeared. The 100ds of workshops where army clothes and munitions were manufactured are closed. The working men have used up their savings of paper. To be sure, the paper dollar is, when compared with the gold dollar, worth more than it was a year ago, but it will buy less than then.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Was beweist, daß die relative Theurung von 1867 gegen 1866 dem Steigen der Waarenpreise und nicht weiterer depreciation des Paper dollar geschuldet ist.) (Taxes etc der Hauptgrund.)

Take the condition of the ordinary working man, a Carpenter f.i. While at work, he receives, if an adept in his business, 31/2 dollars a day. Before the war, he thought himself fortunate, if he obtained 11/2 dollars a day. But he now pays $6 a week for the Rent of 3 rooms; before the war paid rent of $1.50 or $2. $2 for the same rooms. For flour of medium quality, he now pays, if he buys it by the barrel, $12 to $13 per barrel, or $17 to $20 per barrel, if he buys it by the sack or small parcel; before the war, he rarely paid more than $5.50 or $6 for a barrel of flour of the same quality. The Beef for his Sunday dinner costs him now 18 cents a pound; in 1860 nur 6 to 10 cents a pound. Potatoes now sell for $1 a bushel; before the war, they were dear at 20 cents a bushel. Mutton sells in 1867 for 18 cents a lb, 1861 for 5 and 8 cts a lb. Turkeys and chickens 1861 für 10 cents a lb, now 30 to 35 cts. Butter, 1861, 15 to 20 cts a lb, 1867: 30 to 40 cents. Cheese, 1861: 6 to 10 cts a lb, 1867: 22 to 30 cts. Eggs, 1861: 8 to 10 cts a dozen, 1867: 30 to 35 cts. Veal, 1861, 4 to 7 cts a lb., 1867: 18 to 23 cts. Pork, 1861, 6 to 10 cts a lb., 1867: 17 to 25 cts. Bacon, 1861, 6 to 8 cts a lb, 1867, 18 to 20 cts; Lard, 1861, 5 to 7 cts a lb, 1867: 17 to 25 cts. Red onions, 1861, 40 cts a bushel, in 1867, $2,25 to $2,40. Beets, in 1861, 25 cents a bushel; in 1867, $1. White turnips, in 1861, 30 cts a bushel, in 1867: $1.25 to $1.30. White cabbages, in 1861, 2 to 3 cts a piece, in 1867, 10 to 12 cents. Marrow squash, in 1861, 10 to 12 cts a piece, in 1867, 10 cents a lb. White onions, in 1861, 75 cents a bushel, in 1867 $6. Red cabbages, in 1861, 8 to 10 cents a piece, in 1867, 25 to 30 cts. Carrots, in 1861, 20 to 25 cts a bushel, in 1867, 75 cts to $1. In fish and shellfish the advance has been quite as great. Clothing costs 3 to 4 × what it did in 1861. A mechanic could lay up money out of $10 a week before the war; he can save nothing now out of $20 a week.

Noch schlechter sind die fixed income Leute dran. Die Arbeiter hatten advance von 100% in wages, aber nicht so clerks, agents, reporters etc[.] Ein armer clerk mit 800$ a year, or a little over $15 a week, must pay at least weekly $4 for his lodging und theures Fressen selbst bei den schlechtesten Restaurants. … Our Labour market is now greatly overstocked.[“]

Aus:
The Economist, 27. April 1867. S. 471/472.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Tenant Right in Ireland. (Communicated)

It is maintained that the tenant’s claim should in all cases be liable to a deduction proportionate to the time which has elapsed since his outlay; otherwise, he would be paid twice over; once from the profits derived from the improvements during his occupancy, and a second time on quitting. If no such deduction were allowed, it would be the interest of the landlord to eject the tenant as soon as the improvements were completed, for he might have to pay as much compensation at the end of a long period of years, without any corresponding benefit.|

130

Aus:
The Economist, 27. April 1867. S. 475/476.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Progress of India (Bluebook just issued. (April 1867) (First) „Statistical Abstract“ of India.)

Area. (□ miles) Population. (estimated)
British India 955,238 144,674,615
Native States. 596,790 47,909,199
States under French Gvt. 188 203,887
States under Portuguese Gvt. 1,066 313,262
Total 1,553,282 193,000,963
British India.
Calcutta (population nach Census von January 1866): 377,924.
Bombay (dto Census von Febr. 1864): 816,562
Madras (administrative report von 1863): 427,741.

1864–5: 2,747 miles of railway were opened in India, and conveyed 12,826,518 passengers. There were 1421 postoffices; 17,117 schools maintained or aided by Gvt. Average attendance of pupils: 435,898 und Gvt. expenditure upon them 391,277l. 4,473,263l. expended in the year upon public works. 11,736 miles of Gvt. telegraph lines were opened.

Commerce in British India.

Import by sea from foreign countries
Jahr 1840–41: 8,415,940l. 1860–61: £23,493,716. 1864–65: 28,150,923l. in addition to 21,363,352l. treasure
1848–49: Cotton goods imported for 2,222,089l. 1864–5 for 11,035,885l.
Exports from India.
1840–41: l.13,455,584. 1860–61: l.32,970,605. 1864–65: l.68,027,016. This last increase due chiefly dem effect des American war (cotton)
1859–60: Export of raw cotton from British India l.5,637,624. 1864–5: l.37,573,637.
The other chief exports in 1864–5: Opium, 9,911,804l. Rice: 5,573,537l. Seeds: 1,912,433l. Indigo: 1,860,141l. Jute: 1,307,844l. The U. Kingdom took 7,054,388l. exports in 1840–41 und 46,873,208l. in 1864–65. Exports of 10,874,652l. in 1864–5 went to China and Japan, and 2,902,596l. to France.

Public debt: 34,484,997l. in 1839–40 und 98,477,555l. in 1864–5. The troops employed in British India 35,604 Europeans und 199,839 natives in 1839–40, dagegen in 1864–5 … 71,880 Europeans und 118,315 natives.



May 4, 1867. N. 1236.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. Mai 1867. S. 493.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of the Money Market.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(The Savings and Trade)

Exports for the 3 months ending 31 March: 1866: £46,991,165. 1867: 42,381,621l. Diminution: £.4,609,544

Imports for the 2 months ending 28. February: 1866: £.26,457,723. 1867: 24,281,048. Diminution 2,176,675.

These diminutions are small, but a long experience shows that an augmenting trade is necessary to a stable money market, and that whenever trade goes down, even ever so little, the value of money is sure to be low. The reason is that the savings of the country accumulate day by day, and unlet unless some new outlet is found for them, an accumulation of loanable capital and a reduction in the rate of interest is inevitable. Ferner: now-a[-]days bills are scrutinised with extreme accuracy, with more nervous caution than almost ever before, and consequently the „effectual demand“ is less than usual.

Aus:
The Economist, 4. Mai 1867. S. 495/496.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Metropolitan Gas Bill

Every monopoly must, as such, be under public regulation, or it may hurt the public. Incomparably the best system in such a case where it can be applied, is that the State should be itself the producer. This system has been applied in Manchester and other towns to the supply of gas. The municipality manufactures, and if it manufactures ill its members can be unseated, and others who will do better put in. But at present, in Manchester, it manufactures very well.|


131

March May 11; 1867. N. 1237.

Aus:
The Economist, 11. Mai 1867. S. 521/522.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Brighton Railway.

In case of 3 lines (Surrey and Sussex, Chichester and Midhurst, und West Sussex Junction Railway Co.), of which the directors of the London and Brighton or their nominees were themselves directors, they have incurred, on behalf of the Co., liabilities never explained to the proprietors, and which, if explained, would have been repudiated. Ferner: False Accounts, speciell Verheimlichung von temporary liabilities.

Aus:
The Economist, 11. Mai 1867. S. 523/524.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Letter of Sir John Lubbock. d.d. May 9, 1867. Clearing House.

Er giebt, to be continued weekly, the Returns of the Clearing House, each day in the week. These returns will be published the same day as those of the H.o.C. B.o.E.

1839 Exports were £53,233,580 und The average clearing of 1839: £18,400,000.
1866 £188,827,785 und The Clearing for Week commencing Thursday 2 May und ending Wednesday, 8 May: 57,024,000.

The amount of clearing for 1 May, 1866 was 8,006,000l. The largest amount which passed through the Clearing House in any one day in 1839 was 6,209,900l. und the smallest was 1,529,700l.



May 18. 1867. N. 1238.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. Mai 1867. S. 553/554.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Rediscounting.

Many banks, in the great centres of industry, besonders im North, rediscount their bills in London. The amount of such discounts should be stated. Z.B. bei der Leeds Bank (diesem swindle) von £.2,650,300 liabilities, at the time when it failed, waren liabilities on endorsements (rediscount) of bills = £1,919,991 about 2/3 of the entire liability of the Bank to the public. Davon estimated 1,000,000 not to be paid at maturity.

An agricultural country cannot safely employ its own money. A good class of borrowers does not exist there in sufficient numbers to carry off the yearly savings of the district. On the other hand, there are single streets in some large towns where the whole deposits can be lent instantly and safely. No unemployed saving class lives there. Rediscounts best mode of bringing the money to the investment. A West country Bank sends its spare money to London, and leaves it with a billbroker; a Lancashire banker sends his bills to London and asks for money on them. That money when he gets it he takes down to Lancashire and discounts again. In this way trade and industry get the supplies they want, and quiet people are able to employ the money they save.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. Mai 1867. S. 554/555.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Causes of the Existing Depression.

First: At the present time, and for the last 9 months: Limitation of demand in almost every direction, and, consequently, falling prices, declining wages, accumulating stocks, debts difficult of collection, pressure on bankers for advances and accommodation, great diminution of the amount of bills in circulation, and exceeding discrimination on the part of dealers in money as regards the class of bills to be admitted by them at all.

Second: Enormous collapse on all sides of enterprises, which, during the Extension Mania of 1863–5, were in the highest vogue. In this list, Railways occupy the most prominent place.

Up to May, 1866, the nation had been running a career of desperate extravagance, i.e. for 3 or 4 years, it had been forestalling its savings in hundreds of ways.|

132

Dissipation of Capital, während der Extension Mania, almost as complete as a war expenditure. The Great Eastern, the London, Chatham and Dover, the North British, the Great Western and the Brighton did, during 1861–6, raise by debentures, preference shares, ordinary stocks, short loans in the open market, advances from bankers and others, scores of millions st., to be invested in extensions which, for the time, and, perhaps, for some year years to come, will not yield any net revenue. The money  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
has been sunk in earthworks, bridges, stations, locomotives, rails, sleepers, carriages, trucks, and land, and the people who found the money have now to go without any income from it.

Ebenso a large part of the investments made during 1861–6 in joint stock cos. of all sorts – banking, finance, docks, ships, mines, buildings, trading, manufacturing, and the almost endless catalogue of miscellaneous purpose. The state of the Share List and the Liquidations proceeding in Chancery, are sufficient evidence that 9/10 of these cos have failed to make any profit, and, too, incurred losses so great as to extinguish most of the capital.

The prices of Stock Exchange securities, and the range of dealings in them, were kept up by the appearance of continual fresh bodies of purchasers, who brought into that market capital taken and to be taken from other employments, present and future. Demand of all kind was stimulated for the same reason, and so were Wages. It was a period of bold, sanguine, and experimental outlay. It was also a period of ostentatious expenditure. Large numbers of people seemed to get rich all at once, and, of course, they hastened to show how naturally their habits and tastes could rise with their fortunes. The panic of May, 1866, brought to a sudden end all this artificial prosperity. Ausserdem kam politische Unruhe, German War, Fenians, Cattle Plague, Cholera, dismal and rainy weather. The disorganisation of the India trade has extended throughout the last 12 months. The Railway Discredit occupied all the winter, and the strikes, and severe weather, prolonged to the end of April. Dann die preussisch-französischen Quängeleien.

It is quite certain that there has scarcely been any period when debts were so difficult to collect, and when the usual bills drawn by wholesale dealers on the retailers in country towns met with such irregular payment. The draper and grocer sells less because his customers have to meet the calls of some Railway, Banking, Finance, or Trade Co., either in or just out of the Court of Chancery, and hence are compelled to live in smaller houses and reduced style. The tradesman in the manufacturing town cannot pay because his working class supporters are earning 20% less wages, with uncertain employment, and are, besides, in large debt for goods obtained on credit during some recent strike or lock out.

Deposits and balances in banks are low, because hardly any one has any surplus means or income; and the rate of discount remains low for first-class bills, because but few such are in circulation.

Aus:
The Economist, 18. Mai 1867. S. 557/558.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Clearing House Accounts. (communicated by W. Stanley Jevons).

Der Economist wunderte sich last week, daß Clearing House operations nur 3 × grösser in 1866 als in 1839, namentlich auch weil Export trade 31/2 grösser seit jener Zeit und the sphere of operations of Clearing House  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(durch Beitritt der Joint St. Banks, später der B.o.E. etc)
sehr enlarged.

Aber in early part of 1839 trade was very much inflated, and prices exceedingly high (higher in general than they have ever since been), and in March 1839, the climax of speculation (see Tooke ) was reached. The total amount of bills drawn (nach Newmarchs tables of the amount of inland bills 1830–53) in 1839 > than any previous year in the tables, or any year after until 1853. Although the amount drawn in 1840 was but little less, the bill circulation much reduced in 2nd qr. of 1841, und continued low until end of 1844.

On the other hand, in May 1867, year of collapse of speculation, which may well by this time have reduced the current amount of transactions. The comparison of May, 1866 mit March 1839 daher nicht conclusive.

Ferner: The Clearing House Transactions, including large part of the inland trade of the country, cannot increase as rapidly as the returns of our foreign trade, influenced by a complete reform of the Tariff. I am not aware that the returns of the income tax, corn sales, excise duties, assessed taxes, or any other available data lead us to |133 suppose the increase of inland trade to be at all so rapid as that of our foreign trade. … Lubbocks returns of the operations of his own Bank, („Statistical Journal, Sept. 1865“) show, in actual numbers, that the amount of currency afloat is no measure at all of the amount of transactions accomplished.



25 May, 1867. N. 1239.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. Mai 1867. S. 581.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State of the Money Market.

The savings of the country accumulate day by day  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(er sagt grade das Gegentheil im folgenden Artikel)
, and unless there is a daily increase in the channel by which they are to flow out, they will encumber the market und bring down interest; a fortiori mit diminishing foreign trade. Generally, when money is cheap, credit is good. Dieß Jahr das Gegentheil. The railway scandals, the number of private ruins, or semi-ruins, going on all through the country, the disenchantment with old names by the fall der Overends, the alleged complicity of banks mit railway errors, tend to generate distrust. 1864 credit viel besser mit 8% als jezt mit 3. (und diese nur nominal)

Aus:
The Economist, 25. Mai 1867. S. 582/583.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Causes of the Existing Depression.

Bankers can only lend to one set of customers the money left with them by another set … Trade is dull, losses heavy and general, and accumulation almost suspended.

Since Sept. 1866, average price of wheat over 60s., or 50% beyond the average price of about 40s., which had prevailed during the 4 years preceeding ’66. Corn dear all over West Europe. An advance of 20s. per qr on wheat means a home trade crippled in all its ramifications; and if an enhancement almost as serious extends to France and Germany, the effect is a similar falling off in the purchasing power of some of our best foreign  The Economist: consumers
Schließen
customer customers
.

Nach dem influence der harvest, condition des Cotton Trade. It is now ascertained that a large part of the activity of the cotton trade last year was premature and speculative. Goods were sent to India, Australia, and elsewhere, on manufacturers’ account, and have not been sold, if sold at all, at remunerative prices. In all these markets, therefore, there is more or less dead stock to be cleared off by such demand as may be stipulated by falling prices. Since the close of 1866 the manufacturers have by short time and total cessation of work reduced the production by about 1/5 und daher der price of middling Upland cotton has gone down von about 15d. to under 12d. a lb. The average price of middling Uplands in 1865 was 19d p. lb.; in 1866 151/2 d., or 18% less; the real revival of the cotton industry depends entirely on the re-establishment of a low price of the rawmaterial. The world cannot afford to buy anything like the same quantity of goods mit cotton at 19 or 15 or 11d. p. lb, as when at 7 or 6 or 5d. In order to employ fully our people, machinery, mills, warehouses, ships, all the industries set in motion by a large volume of export trade, die alten cotton prices nöthig.

The severe regimen of the past 12 months has brought down the cost of producing most of the great manufacturing staples of this country not much less than 30%, taking into account the fall in the prices of raw materials, and in the wages of labour.

In times of active prosperity our weekly accumulations probably 2 to 3 mill. l. Since May 1866 they have fallen short of that sum.

Aus:
The Economist, 25. Mai 1867. S. 585–587.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

United States. Strikes. Taxation. Local War Taxes.

In April last addition to the Federal Debt of 5 Mill. l. St. The increase of debt to be entailed by the Volunteer Bounty Bill of last session will not be less than 20, may reach 40 mill. l. st. Under special arrangements, their will be two collections of income tax in the course of the present fiscal year.|

134

Standard New York Correspondent writes d.d. 7 May (1867): „The Illinois Legislature, during its late Session, passed a law directing that 8 hours’ labour should be considered a legal day’s work in the State of Illinois in all cases where special contract for a larger or shorter term of service should not be made. The working men of Chicago and neighbouring towns at once fell into the error of supposing that this enactment gave to them a legal right to demand and obtain a full day’s wages – the payment for 10 hours’ labour for 8 hours’ service. Es kam daher zu riots, forcible closing of workshops; expulsion of those willing to work under the old system; burning of factories and grain elevators. The police forces were strengthened, the military forces called out. So disturbance at an end. The eight hour law has been proved to be a mere nullity. Capital has again won the victory. Chicago, is one of our largest inland towns. It commands almost the entire commerce of our great inland lakes. It has a direct trade with Europe. It is the most important railroad centre of the West, the Granary of the Eastern States, if not of Europe. Its population is large, and composed principally of traders, speculators, and labourers. Hence, Chicago affords a fair field for the testing of the 8 hours system. Capital triumphed, as it always must triumph, when opposed to ignorant poverty … In St. Louis the working are aggressive, but have not resorted to the extreme measures so foolishly adopted by their fellows of Chicago. They, too, ask for 10 hours’ pay for 8 hours’ labour. They will not get it. They have struck; but the employers are importing workmen and labourers from the Eastern States, where idleness is now the rule among the working classes. The States of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, have ‚eight-hour‘ laws; aber die workingmen warten auf die final results of the tests in Illinois and Missouri before asserting their newly granted ‚rights‘. The New York Legislature, just before the late adjournment, adopted an ‚eight-hour‘ Act; but the Governor has not signed the Bill. Waits for a favourable opportunity – for that time when the New York workmen shall become aggressive – to show himself the ‚friend of the labourer‘ by attaching his signature to the Act. The politicians have been quick to connect themselves with the 8 hours’ movement … In New York, strikes are still occurring. Yesterday, the shovellers, tool sharpeners, stone cutters, and stair builders struck. Some of the trades try ‚Cooperative industry‘. A cooperative ‚Housebuilders shop‘ and a cooperative ‚Printing Office‘ have been opened here. The latter have a wellfurnished, though not large, establishment. These printers, about 30 in number, began October last to contribute to a General Fund – each compositor pledged himself to deposit 2 dls. each week in the hands of a treasurer. Certain philantropists, perhaps speculators, have helped them along. On Monday last they set up for themselves, having stock and presses valued at about 5,000 dls, and the promise of pecuniary aid to the extent of 20,000 dls … It is a significant fact that, wherever strikes have occurred in this country, a large number of incendiary fires have taken place in the ‚striking‘ neighbourhood. The late strikes in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Lawrence, Massachusetts, were followed by fires of incendiary origin, 2 or 3 mills being destroyed. During the most exciting days of the strike in Chicago – Friday and Saturday – 3 grain elevators and one railway workshop were set on fire and destroyed.“ Dieser Correspondent estimates the Local War Debt, (abgesehn von der Federal Debt und incurred by individual States, Counties, and Towns) to 300 Mill. l. St, which added to the 500 mill. l. St. of Federal debt makes a total of 800 Mill. l. principal, entailing between 40 and 50 mill. st. p.a. interest. Wahrscheinlich transfer of the Local debts to the Federal Exchequer.

Der Standard Kerl fährt fort in seinem Brief vom 7 May: „Whatever may be the causes of the movements among the working men of Europe, the agitation among the working classes in the U. States is due to the increased cost of living produced by the great and growing taxation. The struggle is not for political advancement, nor for social recognition, for the labourer has as many political privileges as the millionaire, saving only the power to purchase votes; and, outside of the cities, there are practically no distinctions of class. On Dec. 1, 1860, the debt of the State of New York was 34,182,975 dls, and on Dec. 1, 1866 it was 51,753,082 dls. It has been increased some 10,000,000$ by the legislation of past winter. The debts of the Counties and Towns of New York State have grown in the same proportion, so that the total State, County, and Town Debt of New York certainly not less than 90,000,000$. In Massachusetts the increase has been greater; its state and local debt was in 1860 about 12 Millions $; now it is in round numbers 55 Mill. $, and will soon be increased by 15 Mill. $. Rhode Island was free from State Debt in 1860, and her County and Town indebtedness was small; now her State debt alone is 3,626,500$. |135 Vermont had no State debt in 1860; it is now 1,567,500$. The State debt of Connecticut was, in 1860, about 50,000$; now it is something over 10 Mill. New Hampshire, in 1860, had State debt of 82,000$, now it is 4,169,818$. In some of the Western States the increase has not been so great. Iowa statedebt has grown from 322,000$ to 622,000$; in Missouri from 23 Mill. $ to about 38 Mill. $; in Wisconsin from 1 Mill. $ to 2 Mill. In mehren states the Town und County Debts have increased much faster than the state debts; in other States they include State debts – viz., debts incurred by the States in aid of Counties and Towns have been transferred. The Municipal Debt of New York (City) about 22 Mill. $. The County and Town debts were incurred principally, in the effort to meet the demand of the Federal Gvt. for troops. Under the threat of conscription, the people offered enormous bounties for volunteers; in some localities as high a sum as 3000$ paid to each volunteer. Of course the only method of equalising this forced loan was by taxation. It is probable that the Federal Gvt. will in time assume all the debts incurred in carrying on the war – State, County, and Count Town debts. In fact, Congress has already established a precedent by assuming the war debts of several of the States … Our working men may strike therefore, and strike till doomsday; they cannot remove one atom of the burden of taxation. They have a remedy in their hands. All other means of relief exhausted, they, the majority, will surely use it. That remedy is repudiation. Just here speaking of the debt and of the working men’s movements, I may cite the opinion of R. H. Dana (of Boston), who will be recognised in Great Britain as a good authority. He says: ‚The condition of the poorer kind of mechanics is lower than before the war. They are bleeding at every pore. They are falling into the wretched tenement life.‘

Daily News New York Correspondent, d.d. 7 May 1867 says: „The Labour strikes still continue all over the country … The cause of all the trouble is, of course, the excessive lowness of wages. I doubt if in the history of the country wages have ever been so low, estimated as they ought to be, ⦗Currency more than 1/3 depreciated⦘, in food and clothing, and house rent, and not in money. The harvest last year was bad, and daher flour, which usually sells at 9 or 10$ a barrel, has been 18$ throughout the winter, and is now 21. In fact, the dearth so great that the Northern States have been importing wheat and the demand has been so great that it has actually paid to send it from San Francisco round the Cape to New York. Until the last year or 2 California has never been able to supply her own wants. The consumption and waste of Cattle during the War has also been severely felt in the markets. Beef and Mutton are double their old price, and show no sign of falling. The high tariff and heavy internal taxation keep up the price of clothing. A coat costs more in this country now than a whole suit used to cost 4 years ago. The abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty with Canada, which the protectionists were able to secure by the aid of the hostility towards the Canadians, bred by their conduct and language during the War, at once nearly doubled the price of timber, as the greater portion of the timber to be found in the market in this part of the country has for many years been drawn from the great Canadian pine forests. As most houses in America, outside the large cities, are built of wood, this rise has put almost a stop to house-building. It is safe to say that it now costs 3 times as much to construct a house in any material as it did 3 years ago. Of course, people must have shelter, and the population is growing as rapidly as ever; consequently house-building would go on as of yore at any price, if there were no fear of a fall. Aber keiner glaubt that the present state of things will last, daß vielmehr either on the resumption of cash payments, or at some period not very remote, prices will come back, if not to the old standard, to one very near to it. Consequently, there is a general reluctance to fix capital in any way that can be possibly avoided. Men do not like the idea of putting 10,000$ into a thing which in 3 or 4 years may sell for, or yield them interest on, 5000. There has accordingly been an almost total cessation of housebuilding for the last 3 years. This is no exaggeration. In the large cities wealthy men, who will be comfortably lodged, and to whom the price of any house is but a trifle, have every year been building themselves a few dozen mansions in each of the great towns; but it is safe to say that the increase in the number of houses for |136 for the class of moderate means, or for the working class, have not been 1/20 part so large as the increase of population. In New York the state of things is rather worse than elsewhere; rents here have more than trebled since 1863; but all over the country there is a positive distress for house room. People of small incomes are compelled to deny themselves all their luxuries, and many of their comforts, in order to keep a roof over their heads; while the working men are crowded into miserable lodgings, or find themselves forced to choose between absolutely bad food and bad clothing and the surrender of their homesteads … During the War, the excitement, the steady rise of prices under the expansion of currency, and the great demand for labour kept up by the enormous drafts made on the Market by the Army and Gvt. Orders, kept the labouring classes in good spirits; but they now find themselves down upon what the goldminers call the hard pan, and they can think of no mode of relief but a rise in wages. The Manufacturers go to Congress every year, and plead the dearness of labour as a reason for asking for higher protection; this raises prices, and the labourers in their turn go to the manufacturers, and plead the dearness of living as an excuse for asking higher wages, and so on, in one unvarying round. The manufacturers, of course, find trade extraordinarily dull; there is no demand for anything; and yet prices remain high as ever. Many of the great mills and workshops are kept going merely to keep the operations together, and prevent suffering. Daher strikes besonders irreasonable und less likely to produce a result than at this moment; and yet strikes are the order of the day. There is no trade in which a strike is not raging. The Trades Unions are not here the perfect organisation as in England. The country is too large, and the working men are too little of a distinct class, and are largely divided by difference of origin and religion into too many distinct sects, for any Union to secure the wideness of ramification or perfection of discipline secured by those of England. The consequence is that strikes are partial, isolated, and desultory; but they are incessant. They are at this moment more general than they have ever been and there is no immediate prospect of their termination. The 8 hour law, passed by the Illinois Legislature last winter, and which has just gone into operation, has thrown the large towns in the State into commotion, and given the Striking Mania in the West a violence which it does not display in this part of the world. Absurd this 8 Hours’ Agitation. It was begun by some of the better class of the workmen, believing in its salutary effects on the moral and physical condition of the labourers. Owing to the enormous profits which the manufacturers were making 2 years ago, the economical objections to the scheme made little impression on the agitators. They denied that a reduction in the hours of labour would materially diminish production, and maintained that even if it did it ought not to cause a restriction in wages, as long as capitalists were making, as many of them were, 100%. All that would happen, if 1/5 were taken off the working hours, would be that the enormous gains of the employers would be slightly diminished, while the condition of the whole working class would be greatly improved. The argument drawn from these large profits has of course since lost all its force. They have disappeared. The reduction of 1/5 labour would be = reduction of 1/5 production, und daher an increase of prices. But, unfortunately, by the time this demonstration of the absurdity of the movement was ready, the rank and file of the Irish, and other foreigners, ignorant and bigoted, had entered into it with zeal; politicians had got committed to it, and it has raged on without rhyme or reason, until it has at last got an act passed in Illinois, and has come near doing so in Pennsylvania and some other States.“|


137

June 1. 1867. N. 1240.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Juni 1867. S. 612/613.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Taxation in the U. States. (apart from Customs)

Nach dem „Commercial Chronicle“ (New York) the assessment per head of the New York State more than double the rate paid in England, nämlich. $9.95 per head in Great Britain und Ireland. und $22.75 in New York State.

Aus:
The Economist, 1. Juni 1867. S. 613.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Emigration from Ireland.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(State of Agriculture.)

Mr. Robertson, an agricultural expert, commissioned to report on the state of some Irish counties[,] states: „There is a very large area of grassland, which is in a very impoverished condition. The land is grazed year after year; young cattle are reared, and dairy produce sold; but nothing is returned to the soil. It will not be long before the Irish farmer experiences that this system will end in the total exhaustion of the land.“ Lord Dufferin himself, in his book, just published on Irish Emigration and the Tenure of Land in Ireland, says; in reference to the conversion of tillage land into pasture, p. 298: „It is attributable chiefly to the difficulty of getting labourers. The Irish tenant has to take his capital out of the farm in place of putting it into it.“ Caird in Brief an Times (May 1867) says: „What I feel is that the nation is being weakened by the withdrawal, year after year, of so many of the young, strong, and intelligent. It is no longer a question solely of landlord and tenant, for this constant drain is a national loss.“



June 8. 1867. N. 1241.

Aus:
The Economist, 8. Juni 1867. S. 638–640.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Bank System of the United States.

This System has been in course of establishment und diffusion throughout the Union during the last 5 years.

Prior to the passing of the 1st National Bank Act early in 1863 (25. March), the Banking Institutions of the Union had been regulated in each State by the State Legislature; considerable variations between one State and the other. In all the States there were regulations, more or less stringent, regarding the Deposit of State and Federal Bonds as a Guarantee for Note Circulation, in Bezug auf Publications of accounts etc. In the more commercial States, New York, New England und Philadelphia the current of opinion for some time gegen die excessive and minute interference formerly considered indispensable. There was a period when the State Comptroller professed to satisfy himself, by a personal visit to each Bank on certain days, that it had in its own actual possession the prescribed amount of specie and public securities. But it was soon discovered that by ingenious arrangements, the same parcel of specie and securities was made to travel through a series of banks – being, of course, borrowed for the occasion, and paid for handsomely, under the appropriate title of „shin plaster“. For some years prior to 1863, the American public had found out that by far the best preservative against vicious banking is not excessive legislation, but rigid enforcement of the obligation of specie payment. There had, accordingly, been long established in New England, a system of almost daily Note Exchanges between all Banks carrying on business within a given circle. This plan was known as the Suffolk Bank Redemption Plan. In New York, a Clearing House on the London model was set up about 12 years ago. Dadurch the irregularities of former periods practically impossible. A Bank endeavouring to force out more of its notes than the trade of the Neighbourhood required, had them, of course, immediately returned upon itself as cash demands through the Clearing House. Dadurch state der State Banks der Union sehr satisfactory for a considerable time before 1863. Diese State Banks private institutions, regulated by the State Legislatures.

The schemes during the last 40 years for establishing a single bank, or series of banks, specially selected und empowered by Congress, for the transaction of Federal Financial Business all utterly failed. The history of the two socalled Banks of the U. States a history of mistakes and disasters. Unter Andrew Jackson  |138 conviction prevailed that any powerful banking organisation, under control of the Federal Executive, would be a grave departure from the Constitution, and dangerous to Public Liberty. Daher regulation of Banks to be matter of purely State concern and policy. Even the Washington authorities required to provide themselves in New York and elsewhere, under the title of Sub-Treasuries, with separate offices of deposit for the collection and custody of the public revenue, until disbursed for Gvt. outgoings.

The exigencies of the Civil War compelled the banks generally to suspend specie payments on 28 Dec. 1861. In the preceding April (1861), an Act was passed by Congress – authorising a suspension of the Independent Treasury Law – that is, permitting the Secretary of the Treasury, at his discretion, to lodge the revenue collections not in the Sub-Treasuries, but in any banks considered eligible. Aber nicht much use made of this permission; and, as a matter of fact, the New York Banks were principally forced to suspend specie payment, in consequence of their large subscriptions in coin to the loan of 250 Mill. $ opened in July, 1861. The War extended in the course of 1862. Chase überzeugt, daß to provide efficient financial support for the Federal Gvt, necessary to override all State Legislation on Banks, to suppress all the local issues of existing State Banks, to convert them into National banks, to require each National bank to invest considerable part of its paid-up Capital in Federal Securities, and to furnish strong inducements to the establishment dieser national banks, in small und remote places, hitherto not reached by, or unable to support, any private institutions of their own. Opposition in Congress und von den Banking interests of the larger States. Danach Chase[’]s scheme became law on 25 March, 1863, under the title: „An Act to provide a National Currency secured by a pledge of United States Bonds, and to provide for the circulation and redemption thereof.“

Dieser Act intricate und long (65 Sections.) Sein outline, mit subsequent amendments, ist:

1) An officer is established at Washington, called the Comptroller of the Currency. Under his charge all the machinery of the Act is placed.

2) Any number of persons, not less than 5, may constitute themselves into a Co. with liability limited to twice the value of the shares held for the purpose of forming a National Bank. The shares to be $100 (20l.) each.

3) In cities und places exceeding 50,000 persons, the capital of the National Bank to be not less than $200,000 (say 40,000l.), – in smaller towns not less than 100,000 (say 20,000l.) But at the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, National Banks may be formed in places von nicht mehr als 6000 inhabitants mit Kapital of $50,000 (10,000l.) Half the capital to be paid up before commencing business, the other half by 5 monthly instalments.

4) Before commencing business, each National Bk. to transfer to the Comptroller registered Bonds of the U. States zu, at least, 30,000$, or in the case of the smaller banks, 1/3 of the paid up capital. In return for such transfer, the Comptroller shall deliver to the Bank, Circulating Notes of one dollar and upwards registered and countersigned on behalf of the Federal Gvt., but with blanks for the signatures of certain officers of each National Bank: the amount of the notes so furnished for issue not at any time to exceed 90% of the market value of the Bonds lodged as Security.

5) The Total Amount of the National Banknotes to be created under the Act not to exceed $300 Millions (60 Mill. l. St.) In the original Act of March, 1863, these 300 millions were apportioned among the several States, half according to representative population, half to banking capital, resources, and business. By amended Act of June, 1864, the distribution left to the discretion of the Secretary of Treasury; and in March, 1865, other amendment adopted, wodurch the State Banks encouraged to convert themselves into National Banks, regardless of any precise ratio in the distribution of the National Bank Note Circulation.

6) Each National Bk. to be primarily liable for the payment of the Notes issued by it under its counter signature, but failing such payment, the Un. States Treasury will redeem the notes and reimburse itself by the sale of the Bonds held by it, and by the exercise of a prior lien over the general assets of the defaulting bank.

7) National Banknotes to be received at par in all Revenue collections, except for Custom Duties, and to be paid by the Gvt. at par for salaries, wages, and debts, but not for interest on public debt, nor in redemption of the „greenback“ currency. The effect of this provision is to give the National Bank Notes a modified compulsory circulation between the Federal Gvt. and the Public, but not to render them legal tenders as between individuals.

8) In 17 places, viz. 1) New York, 2) Philadelphia, 3) Boston, 4) Albany, 5) St. Louis, 6) New Orleans, 7) Louisville, 8) Chicago, 9) Detroit, 10) Milwaukee, 11) Cincinnati, 12) Cleveland, 13) Pittsburgh, 14) Baltimore, 15) Leavensworth|139 16) San Francisco, 17) Washington, each National Bk. to have constantly in hand, a sum equal to at least 25% of the aggregate amount of its Circulation and Deposits, in lawful money of the U. St. (i.e. specie or greenbacks.) National Bks. in other than these 17 cities, need have only 15% of similar cash reserve, and of this 15%, 3/5 may be balances due to the Bank from its Correspondents in these 17 cities.

9) The Secretary of Treasury, at his discretion, may select National Bks. to be depositors depositories of public money except Customs duties) and to be employed as financial agents of the Gvt.

10) The Federal Taxes to be paid by National Bks. shall be – one % p. annum on the average amount of their Circulation; 1/2% p. annum on the average amount of Deposits; and 1/2% p.a. on the amount of capital not invested in U. States Bonds.

11) The Federal Taxes to be paid by State Banks to be 10% p. annum on the amount of their Circulation, and corresponding rates on their deposit and Capital.

12) Each National Bank to forward to the Comptroller quarterly full returns of its condition and business, and also monthly returns of a less elaborate character. The Comptroller may, at his discretion, order a personal verification of these returns.

13) All laws relating to usury which may prevail in the several States to continue in full force, and be applicable to all transactions of National Banks.

The principles of this arrangement come to this:

Ⅰ) Almost absolute control by the Federal Executive at Washington over all the National Banks. The Secretary of Treasury, at his discretion, can authorise the formation of Banks in all places of less than 6000 inhabitants; he can select National Bks. to be depositories of public money and Federal financial agents; he can constantly interfere in the affairs of each bank, by rigidly enforcing the condition that the Notes furnished shall only be 90% of the market value of the Bonds lodged; and, at his pleasure, tighten or relax the power of affecting the credit of any Bank, by directing the visit to it of a Special Inspector.

Ⅱ) The establishment of at least 300 mill. $ circulation of National Bk. Notes , ultimately payable by the Federal Treasury out of the proceeds of Federal Securities, that is, of 300 millions of what may be called Greenbacks N. 2. These National Bk. Notes to be forcibly substituted (for the 10% tax on the circulation of the State Banks is virtually prohibitory) for the notes of the Banks previously existing under laws and constitutions adopted by the several States. The 300 mill. of National Bank Notes to be apportioned over the country virtually at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Ⅲ) The sudden and complete creation of a Federal Gvt. Banking Organisation of the most absolute character, differing only from the Bank of France in the circumstance that instead of creating, as in France, a large Central Bank, with a monopoly of Circulation and a monopoly of Branches, and a management largely nominated by the Minister, the procedure consists in scattering 1600 or 1700 separate institutions over the country, but placing them under the effective control of an office in Washington, compelling each of them to invest 1/3 of their capital in Federal Securities, and selecting from time to time from the most favoured Banks those which shall become depositories of public money and Gvt. financial agents. Folgendes ist der

Progress of the National Banks, subsequent to First Act, March 1863, und Amended Act, June, 1864.
Date Number of Banks. Capital paid up $ Circulation. $
1863. October 63 6,700,000 No return
1864 Januar. 137 14,500,000
April. 309 42,000,000
1865. Jan. 643 135,000,000 67,000,000
July. 1264 325,000,000 131,000,000
1866 Januar. 1626 403,000,000 213,000,000
Oct. 1659 415,000,000 280,000,000
1867. Jan. 1649 419,000,000 291,000,000
April. 1649 419,000,000 291,000,000

The progress became rapid after Jan. 1865, when pressure really put on the State Banks to conform to the new system. Prior |140 to April, 1865, it is probable that most of the 6 or 700 National Banks opened were entirely new institutions. Z.B. out of 152 Banks established up to Feb., 1864, not less than 46 opened in small places where, up to this time, no bank had existed. It was, undoubtedly, a principal feature of Chase’s scheme to promote the creation of New National Banks in the more remote und primitive parts of the country.

Aus:
The Economist, 8. Juni 1867. S. 654.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Manufacturing Markets.

Demand for goods only moderate. Prices well supported. Iron steady. Falling off in the transactions in coal.



June 15. 1867. N. 1242.

Aus:
The Economist, 15. Juni 1867. S. 667/668.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Bank System of the U. States.

Um das für den Krieg nöthige Geld beizubringen, Chase offered to capitalists, and others the inducement of large immediate profits für die National Banks undertakers. Z.B. The profit and loss outline of the case stands at presents present thus for any 5 persons setting up a National Bk. on the basis of subscribing $100,000 (20,000l.) in lawful money. (Assume 5$ = 1£.):

1) 20,000l. deposited with the Comptroller in Un. States Bonds, 6%, in coin, equal at present price of gold to, say, 81/2 in greenbacks, will produce annually 1700£ (nämlich 20 000£ à 81/2%). 2) The Comptroller will issue for this deposit 90% of National Bk. notes, say 18,000l.; against these 18,000£ in Notes the Bank must keep 15% of Legal Tenders, or 2,600£, leaving 15,400l. available for advances at, say, the same rate of 81/2% in paper, producing per annum 1309£. (15,400 à 81/2%) 3) The result is, therefore, to give an immediate gross return of over 15% p. annum, or 3,009l, on the 20,000£ put down.

The private bank, started purely on its own credit and connection, has gradually to get out and establish a circulation for its notes. Erst nach mehren Jahren it can command a circulation of such magnitude as to be of importance in the profits of the business. Die National Bank launches at once of the whole of the (virtually) Gvt. Notes received by it from the Comptroller, and for the simple reason that they possess almost all the qualities of a legal Tender note. Daher die rasche multiplication der National Banks, besonders in the more remote parts of the country. The Sub-Treasuries were mere offices or vaults for the safe storage of its revenue collection. Waren in no sense credit institutions. So lange as the Federal Gvt. had a surplus revenue and no public debt, they answered. Nicht so, when  The Economist: a crisis arrived
Schließen
the crisis appeared
, and Gvt. became borrower on large scale, and by means of the issue of inconvertible paper. It became, then, apparent, that the Secretary of the Treasury was utterly destitute of the appropriate Organisation.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Had not at his hands a Bank of England, is it not?)
There was no central and powerful Bank, and the Sub-Treasuries were warehouses, not places of financial business. Dieß new organisation has all the faults and dangers, and scarcely one of the advantages and safeguards of a chief Federal Bank.

In a table (C) below, we give from the official returns collected by each State, an abstract of the condition of the State Banks at the end of 1862, or rather early in January 1863, a year after the suspension of the cash payments, and just before the passing of the first National Bank Act at the end of Feb. 1863. The number of banks in each state was in no case unmanageable; in New York State f.i., it was 308; in Pennsylvania 94; in Illinois 25; and the local supervision was aided by general local knowledge.

In the 3 groups of states included in the table C, there were 1205 banks, but 998 davon in the 11 commercial and leading States, forming the Eastern and Middle Regions of the Union. Their PerCentage of Assets und Liabilities were:

B) Summary of Condition of the 998 State Banks in the 11 Eastern and Middle States, 1st Jan. 1863.
Liabilities. P.Ct. Assets. P.Ct.
Circulation 11.3 Cash reserves 12.1
Due to other Banks 10.7 Gvt. Securities 17.3
Deposits 40.0 29.4
Other liabilities 4.5 Due by other Banks. 12.6
66.5 Loans and Discounts 54.2
Capital paid. 33.5 Other investments 3.8
Total: 100.0 100.0 |
141

In the cash reserves, appearing here as equal to 12.1%, of the assets, were included, of course, legal tender notes of the Federal Gvt. In actual specie the Banks in the above category seem to have held about 7% of their assets. The Gvt. securities included State Bonds as well as Federal Bonds. In Cash Reserves and Gvt. Securities, the State Banks held very nearly 29.4% of their total assets. The large items on both sides of the account of sums „Due to“ and „Due by“ other Banks, arise from a practice early adopted in all American returns of distinguishing the balances between one set of banks and another, in order to ascertain in some degree with what exactness the system of exchanges was kept up. On the Liability side, the Circulation was only 11.3%, and the Capital paid up was 33.5%. At the end of 1862, the State Banks had so arrived at a condition of no little strength. We find from table C, that in the 5 Middle States, including New York and Pennsylvania, the Circulation was only 5.7% of the liabilities, against 26% in the more remote and less commercial Eastern States, and 32.5% in the still less populous and less wealthy North Western States. Where the facilities and resources of capital and credit are largest, the quantity of circulation is least. The public have to pay for every Note they retain, and, daher, they retain exactly as many as it is worth paying for, and no more. In table D returns of the 261 State Banks existing at the close of 1861 in the 10 Southern States, just before the Civil War. Diese Figures less trustworthy than in table C., from the more scattered nature of the Banks, and the incipient disorders which, in 1861, prevailed in the South. They give, however, forcible evidence of the greater poverty of the South as compared mit dem North in the comperative largeness of the Circulation and Loans, in the Smallness of the Deposits, Reserves, and Gvt. Securities.

Table C.) Un. States. Twenty Northern etc States. Official Return of State Banks therein, Jan. 1, 1863, prior to passing of Nt. Bk. Act. 25 Feb. 1863. 00,000’ are omitted. Thus, f.i., 65.5 = 65,650,000
Liabilities Assets
A.) Six Eastern States (507 Banks) B.) Five Middle States (491 banks) C) Nine Northwestern States. 207 Banks D) Total 20 States. 1205 Banks. A. B. C. D.
$ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C.
Circulation. 65.5 26.0 31.5 5.7 19.6 32.5 116.7 13.2
Due to other Banks. 20.5 7.1 68.4 12.4 1.3 90.3 10.2
Deposits. 66.7 3.0 267.7 48.6 21.2 34.1 355.7 40.2
Other Liabilities. 11.4 4.0 28.0 5.1 4.6 1.0 44.0 5.0
164.2 60.1 359.8 71.8 46.8 67.6 608.8 68.6
Capital paid up. 126.8 39.9 155.2 28.2 15.7 32.4 297.7 31.4
291.0 100.0 551.0 100.0 62.5 100.0 844.5 100.0
Assets.
$ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C.
Cash Reserves
  Specie 12.8 4.5 51.2 8.3 7.4 12.0 71.4 7.5
  Cash items 1.1 42.0$ 7.0 1.1 1.7 44.2 4.5
Other Banks.
  Balances due 52.2 25.2 10.1 46.3 7.7 9.2 14.8 81.8 9.5
  Notes in hand 11.9 4.0 29.0 5.0 7.4 12.0 48.3 5.1
Stocks 8.0 2.9 146.1 24.3 8.5 13.7 162.6 17.2
Loans 216.3 76.0 265.8 44.2 24.5 39.2 506.6 53.0
Real Estate 4.5 1.7 13.0 2.0 1.6 2.6 19.1 2.0
Other Investments. 2.6 0.8 8.3 1.5 2.5 4.0 13.4 1.3
284.4 100.0 601.7 100.0 62.2 100.0 947.4 100

A) Six Eastern States: Maine, 69. New Hampshire, 52. Vermont 40; Massachussets 183. Rhode Island 88. Connecticut 75. All: 507.

B) Five Middle States: New York: 308. New Jersey, 52. Pennsylvania, 94. Delaware 5, Maryland 32. Total: 491.

C) Nine North Western States: Illinois, 25; Indiana 37; Ohio 55; Michigan 4; Wisconsin 64; Iowa, 14; Minnesota 7; Kansas 1; Nebraska 1. Total: 207.|

142
Table D.) Unit. St. Ten Southern States. Official Return of State Banks at Close of 1861, prior to the Civil War.
D) Five Southern States.
147 Banks.
E) Five South Western
114 Banks.
F) Total Southern States.
261 Banks.
Liabilities.
$ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C.
Circulation 39.6 32.0 31.5 27.3 71.1 30.1
Due to other Banks. 4.2 3.3 6.1 5.5 10.3 8.0
Deposits. 16.5 13.0 21.5 19.0 38.0 12.0
Other Liabilities. 4.1 3.3 5.6 5.0 9.7 4.1
64.4 51.6 64.7 56.8 129.1 54.1
Capital paid up 56.3 48.4 51.0 43.2 107.3 45.9
Total. 120.7 100.0 115.7 100.0 236.4 100.0
Assets
$ P.C. $ P.C. $ P.C.
Cash Reserves
  Specie 8.1 6.7 21.5 18.4 29.6 12.4
  Cash Items 0[.]2 1.8 1.5 2.0 0.8
Other Banks
  Balances due 5.1 4.1 11.0 9.3 16.1 7.0
  Notes in hand 3.8 3.2 6.0 5.1 9.8 4.0
Stocks 10.0 8.3 8.0 6.8 18.0 7.2
Loans 79.3 65.8 61.7 52.7 141.0 60.0
Real Estate 10.6 8.4 2.2 1.7 12.8 5.0
Other Investments 3.5 3.5 5.1 4.5 8.6 3.5
Total. 120.6 100.0 117.3 100.0 237.9 100.0

Unter

  • D) Five Southern States: Virginia (66) North Carolina (31) South Carolina (20) Georgia (28) Florida (2) Total: 147
  • E) 5 South Western States: Alabama (8) Louisiana (6) Tennessee (14) Kentucky (44) Missouri (42). Total: 114.



22 June 1867. N. 1243.

Aus:
The Economist, 22. Juni 1867. S. 695–697.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Bank System of the U. States.

Table E brings into distinct contrast by means of Per Centage Proportions the 1649 National Bks., April 1867, mit den 1205 State Banks, in the Northern Portion of the Union, Dec. 1862.

Table H Abstract of the official Returns of 1626 National Banks, Jan. 1866, and of 1649 National Banks, April 1867 (Union, North und South)

Table F. Results of Detailed Return (Table I) on New York State brought in Smaller Compass.

Table G Total U. States Circulation in 1861, 1862 und 1867.

Table I New York State.

Table K Distribution of 1466 State Banks, Dec. 1862, and of 1649 National Banks, Dec. 1866.|

143
Table E.) United States. Condition of 1205 State Banks, Jan. 1863, compared mit 1649 National Banks, April 1867. Per Centages of Liabilities and Assets.
1649 National Banks. April 1867. A.) 6 Eastern St.
807 Banks.
B) 5 Middle St.
491 Banks.
C) 9 North Western St.
207 Banks.
D) Total
1,205 Banks
Liabilities
Per Cent. Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent
20.4 Circulation 26.0 5.7 32.5 13.2
7.7 Due to other Banks 7.1 12.4 10.2
37.0 Deposits 23.0 48.6 34.1 40.2
Other Liabilities 4.0 5.1 1.0 5.0
65.1 Total 60.1 71.8 67.6 68.6
34.9 Capital paid up 39.9 28.2 32.4 31.4
100.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Assets.
P.C. P.C. P.C. P.C.
7.0 Cash Reserves 4.5 15.3 13.7 12.0
8.8 Other Banks 14.1 12.7 26.8 14.6
34.7 Stocks 2.9 24.3 13.7 17.2
48.2 Loans 76.0 44.2 39.2 53.0
Real Estate 1.7 2.0 2.6 2.0
1.3 Other Investments 0.8 4.5 4.0 1.3
100.0 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

In group A circulation of the 507 Banks 26.0% of their total liabilities, the deposits to 23.0% and so forth.

A distinction must be made between the State Banks of the 5 large and leading Middle States and the Banks of the East and NorthWest. In the National Banks the circulation is 20.4%, but in the Middle States it was in Dec. 1862 only 5.7%. In the National Banks the Cash Reserves are 7%, but in the Middle States they were 15.3 p.c., and even the average of the 3 groups gives 12%. In the National Banks the Cash Reserves and Gvt. Securities together are 41.17% of the assets. In the Middle States they were 39.6%, or very nearly the same; and in the North West the proportion was 27.4%.

 Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Da diese Vergleichung nicht die gewünschte „deterioration“ ergiebt, vielmehr mehr securities unter dem National System, so vergleicht die Werthe des Verhältniß in beiden Systemen im Staat New York.

Table F.) New York State. 308 State Bank, Dec. 1863, und 313 National Banks, April 1867 (Details in Table I.)
National Banks. April 1867. State Banks. Dec. 1862.
Per Cent. Per Cent.
Liabilities.
Circulation. 13.0 9.1
Deposits 45.0 47.0
Due to other Banks. 13.5 13.4
Other Liabilities 2.0 4.3
73.5 73.8
Capital paid up 26.5 26.2
100.0 100.0
Assets.
Cash Reserves 22.3 16.7
Due by other Banks 5.4 10.3
27.7 27.0
Government Securities 26.6 28.0
54.3 43.0
Advances and Discounts 43.2 43.0
Other Assets 2.5 2.0
100.0 100.0

The State Banks held 28% assets in Gvt. Securities, the National Banks hold a trifle less, 26.6%. Cashreserves  Interpretation der Tabelle von Marx.
Schließen
grösser
in den National Banks  Interpretation der Tabelle durch den „Economist“.
Schließen
(er sagt. about the same)
, Discounts grösser in den National Banks by 6/10% (er sagt about the same.) Paidup Capital grösser in den National Banks (er sagt (der Economist ) about the same) Deposits etwas grösser (by 2%) in den State Banks. Aber,  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
und das soll das Fürchterliche sein,
Circulation der National Banks 13%, der State Banks 9% (Unterschied von 4%) (in both instances secured by the deposit of public securities).  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Ob mehr Deposits oder mehr Notes hängt von ganz bestimmten Zuständen ab. Wenn nicht, so könnte man nachweisen, daß, in different periods dieser Unterschied, bei der B. o. England, viel mehr als 4% fluctuirt.)
|

144

We have seen that in New York State, the National Banks are hardly more numerous than were the State Banks. But the case is very different in the less commercial parts of the Union. A statement (K) gives the distribution of the 2 kinds of banks in detail; and we find there an increase of 120 banks in Pennsylvania  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(which is not uncommercial-State)
, 85 in Ohio, 31 in Iowa, 57 in Illinois, 34 in Indiana etc. Früher, obgleich das building derselben free, 207 State Banks had grown up in the 9 North Western States, at the end of 1862. Jezt statt dieser 207 sind da 434 National Banks. The State Bank Circulation of these 9 Banks was 191/2 mill. of dollars in Dec. 1862. The National Bank circulation pertaining to them in Dec. 1866, was 501/2 millions, or 21/2 times greater. Diese expansion der Note Circulation in the North West – the eminently agricultural and grazing region – sicher Schuld an increase in price of articles of food, and in the wages of ordinary manual labour which has occurred during the 2 last year years.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Aber mon Cher, warum nicht umgekehrt die increase of prices Ursache der increased circulation? Prices mußten increase 1) weil die lawful currency (legal tenders) depreciated und die Banknotes stellen nur diese depreciated currency dar; 2) In Folge der taxation; 3) Mißerndte und 4) Mangel an Händen während des Kriegs. Ist das nicht sufficient? In derselben Art hatte Overstone, damals Lloyd Jones den englischen countrybanks vorgeworfen, daß ihre Circulation 1836–8 (oder 9?) expanded, während die der B.o.E. contracted und, umgekehrt, nach der Panic 1866, Gladstone, daß die Circulation der country notes contracted, während die der B.o.E. expanded. Stets derselbe Kohl.⦘

In his Report of December 1861, Chase estimated amount of gold und silver coin in the whole Union at 275 Millions $ (say 55 Mill. £. St.) Danach können wir in approximate form beurtheilen die additions to the amount of Circulating medium, besonders in the Northern or Federal States. Dieß in der folgenden Tabelle G.

Table G. Estimates of Circulation in 1861, ’62 und 67

Jan. 1861.
North. South. Total.
Mill. $ Millions $
State Banks Notes 140 60 200
Coin. Gold and Silver 200 75 (?) 275
Total 340 135 475 510 710
December 1862. Northern States only. Millions $
Notes of State Banks 180
Greenbacks 290
Fractional United States Notes 20
490
Coin 20?
510, increase of 50% over 340 Mill. of Jan. 1861.
April 1867. Whole Union. Millions $
Notes of State Banks 6
Notes of National Banks 290
Greenbacks 375
Fractional Un. States Notes 29
700
Coin 10?
710

These 710 Increase of 40% over the 510 mill. of Dec. 1862 und 100% over the 340 mill. of Jan. 1861.|

145

The 710 millions includes about 13 mill. of National Bk. Circulation established in the Southern States.

In stating this part of the case, most American writers confuse themselves  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Du Esel! Die greenbacks in the Banks, als cash reserve, circuliren nicht, solange die Noten für sie cirkuliren, und die Noten cirkuliren nicht, sobald sie gegen greenbacks ausgetauscht werden.)
and their readers by making deductions for the quantities of Coin, Greenbacks etc held in the tills of Banks and the vaults of Sub-Treasuries. Such deductions are – fallacious and misleading Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Also, wenn 15 Mill. £ Gold in the B.o.E. und 22 Mill. £. St. in circulation und 8 Mill. l. als Reserve im Banking Department, so circuliren für 30 Milll. Gold!)

Upon this  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(false and stupidly arbitrary basis)
, there seems to be good reason for concluding that at the present time the Circulating medium in the U. St. is very nearly double the amount before the Civil War, or in January 1861; and that out of the present 710 millions of dollars (say 142 Mill. £ St.), it will be necessary  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
to redeem at least 220 to 250 Mill. dollars, (44 to 50 Mill. l. St.) before the volume of the currency will approach the level at which it stood when cashpayments were suspended.

H.) U. States. National Banks. Founded Febr. 1863. Official Return at dates as under. 00,000 omitted.
April 1867.
1649 Banks.
Jan. 1866.
1626 Banks
Liabilities.
$ P.C. $ P.C.
Circulation
  National Banknotes 291.9 20.0 213.2 15.2
  State Banknotes 5.9 0.4 45.4 3.2
297.8 2.586 258.6
Deposits
  Government Deposits 30.0 2.0 29.7 2.1
  Private Deposits 510.6 35.0 513.6 37.0
540.6 543.3
Due to other Banks
  To National Banks 91.1 6.2 96.7 7.0
  To other Banks 23.1 1.5 23.8 1.7
114.2 120.5
952.6 65.1 922.4
Capital
  Paid up 418.8 403.3 29.0
  Reserves 60.2 43.0 3.0
  Profits 31.1 29.0 2.0
510.1 34.9 474.3
1462.7 100.0 1396.7 100.0
Assets.
$ P.C. $ P.C.
Legal Tenders. 92.6 6.3 90.0 6.3
Specie 10.4 0.7 16.0 1.1
103.0 106.0
Due von Other Banks.
  Balances Von Nat. Banks. 94.0 7.0 93.2 6.6
  Other Banks 10.7 0.8 14.6 0.7
  Notes 13.7 1.0 20.4 1.4
118.4 182.2
Government Securities:
  U. S. Bonds for Circulation 338.5 23.0 298.0 21.2
     for Deposits 38.4 2.6
     in hand 46.6 3.1 142.0 10.0
  Compound Interest Notes 84.0 6.0 97.0 7.0
507.5 537.0
Advances und Discounts:
  Loans und Discounts 597.1 40.0 498.8 36.2
  Stocks und Mortgages 20.2 1.3 17.5 1.2
  Real Estate 19.6 1.1 15.4 1.1
  Cash Items 87.8 5.8 89.8 6.2
724.7 621.6
  Expenses 14.0 1.3 5.5 1.9
Total 1467.6 100.0 1398.2 100.0 |
146
K.) Distribution of 1466 State Banks in Dec. 1862, and of 1649 „National Bank“ in Dec. 1866.
Six Eastern States St. Banks. Nat. Banks. Five Middle Sts. St. Bk. Nat. Banks. Nine Northwest. States State Banks. Ntl. Banks. Five Southern States State Banks Nat. Banks Five South West. States St. Banks Nat. Banks
Maine 69 61 New York 308 313 Illinois 25 82 Virginia 66 35 Alabama 8 3
New Hampshire 52 39 New Jersey 52 54 Indiana 37 71 Nth. Carolina 31 5 Louisiana 6 3
Vermont 40 39 Pennsylvania 94 201 Ohio 55 135 South Carolina 20 2 Tennessee 14 10
Massachusetts 183 208 Delaware 5 11 Michigan 4 42 Georgia 28 9 Kentucky 44 15
Rhode Island 88 62 Maryland 32 32 Wisconsin 64 37 Florida 2 Missouri 42 15
Connecticut 75 83 491 611 Iowa 14 45 147 51 114 46
507 492 Minnesota 7 15
Kansas 1 4
Nebraska 1 3
507 492 491 611 207 434 147 51 114 46
Aus:
The Economist, 22. Juni 1867. S. 698.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Pollution of the Lee.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Sewage Irrigation)

About a Year ago, First Report of the Rivers Commission on the state of the Thames. In Folge davon der Thames Navigation Act of last session (1866), in which many of the recommendations of the Commissioners were adopted, and many of the grossest abuses of the former management provided against or remedied. Jezt Second Report derselben Commission to the River Lee. The great prevalence of the cholera in the East of London (1866) last year was attributed to the foul state of the water furnished by the company which draws its supply from the river Lee. This river is one of the northern tributaries of the lower Thames. It rises in the county of Bedford, above about 3 miles above the town of Luton, and with its tributaries drains a large area of Hertfordshire. It is a tidal river for about 5 miles in length, and is navigable for barges a distance of 28 miles. So old is this navigation of the river, that King Alfred availed himself of it to visit Ware, and that Parliament legislated for the river in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The weirs, locks, and other works are kept in good repair, nor has the river trade been injured by railway rivalry. In this respect the Lee presents an advantageous contrast to the Thames, but the comparative rates at which the 2 rivers are drained for the supply of London are out of proportion. While the Thames has a minimum dry weather flow of 350 millions gallons daily over Teddington lock, and supplies 48 mill. gallons daily to 5 London water companies, the Lee, with a dry water flow of 40 mill. gall., is said to be mulcted of 38 mill. gallons by two water companies. This almost incredible statement rests on the authority of the engineer to the East London Water Works Company. The New River Co. provides for about 840,000 persons, and the East London Waterworks Comp. for some 675,000. The first Co. furnishes about 24 gallons per head daily, the second co. 18 gallons. Few of the houses are put on the constant system; in most, the water is turned on for 35 minutes, and the poorer houses have a Sunday supply. The New River Co. lays pipes to the doors of houses, but does not hold itself responsible for anything further, and as the landlords very frequently provide the most scanty means of storing the water, there is a continual water famine. Of this, the engineer to the New River Co gives some examples. Die Company takes credit that it furnishes a Sunday supply to so many of the poorer class of houses, and the culpable indifference of the landlords has led to these exceptional privileges being granted to their helpless tenants. Whether such |147 privileges ought to be exceptional, and whether it is certain that „in few cases can it be truly said that the turncock[’]s services on Sunday are necessary“, are questions on which the consumers and the co. would, probably, differ.

The systematic way in which the sewage of the towns on the banks of the Lee, and the refuse of an agricultural and industrial district are poured into the river, schlimmer als die pollution der Thames selbst. At Luton, indeed, where the Lee is yet „a slender stream“, the sewage is clarified by the lime process before passing into the river. This purification is the result of legal measures taken by a landed proprietor, and, though not a perfect remedy, is an improvement. As we drop down the river much litigation is found without any such result. „We learn“, say the Commissioners, „with something approaching to dismay, that one manufacturer alone employs from 1 to 2 tons of oxalic acid in bleaching straw plaits, but are somewhat reassured upon consideration that the poisonous character of this substance is entirely destroyed by admixture with the carbonate and sulphate of lime contained in the water of the river.“ Then, the river is polluted by sheep washing, and, as the preparation for dipping sheep contains arsenic, another noxious ingredient is added to the new witches’ cauldron. But, besides these directly poisonous substances, the river receives the sewage of Hatfield, Hertford, Ware, Enfield, Barnet, and Tottenham. The foulness of the stream after passing by all these places, or their outlets, is such that the enormous volume of sewage, pumped in by West Ham, which has a population of more than 22,000, makes no visible alteration. Every town complains of the town next above it, and gives cause of complaint to the town next below. At Luton, a perpetual injunction has been obtained against the town authorities. At Hertford, the New River Co. is threatened by the authorities of Ware. Ware itself passes on both grievance and complaint. Bishop Stortford has been threatened by several parties. „Our neighbours at Sawbridgenorth have told us that we have been poisoning them. We have said that we are sorry for it, but we think that they contribute to the nuisance to some extent themselves, and we have, therefore, not heeded what they had to say.“ Indeed, Bishop Stortford prides itself of having discovered a plan for the utilisation of sewage, and having appeased the discontent of its own inhabitants at the expense of strangers. „The nuisance of which the inhabitants have complained from the smell of the river was during the summers of 1864 and 1865, but it was very much abated in consequence of our having wet seasons, and a plan was adopted that succeeded remarkably well, and that was this: During the summer when the water is very short, the filth will sometimes almost crop up to the mouth of the drains, and when there has been a flood in the winter, this accumulation has been stirred up by a large and a heavy rake behind, so that we have passed it on to our neighbours to some extent. We thought we had kept it long enough, and by the use of the flood water relieved ourselves from a considerable quantity of stink by that means.“ The Commissioners see no hope in the litigation opened by Edmonton against Enfield, by Tottenham against Hornsey, by the Lee Trustees against Tottenham. What the Commissioners propose is a Conservancy Board, acting for the entire watershed, and bound to provide for the cessation of the present supply of sewage to the river, as well as for its general maintenance and protection.

A few fresh details in diesem Second Report on manner wie sewage to be applied to land und success of grassfarming under the system of irrigation. Crops of Italian ryegrass, grown under sewage irrigation at Worthing, are cut at the rate of from 5 to 8 tons to the acre, whilst adjoining pasture lands are almost bare. „A small dairy has been established, the cows being stall-fed on the cut grass; the milk produced, from its richness and superior quality, commanding a preference in the town.“ Irrigation was tried at Tottenham under the direction of the surveyor to the local board, and his report was, that the system had to contend against much prejudice, but was, in itself, successful. There was, however, a difficulty in procuring land for the experiment where every acre was so valuable for building purposes, and those who had land in cultivation were the most reluctant to run the risk of their crops being injured. Of course, so long as all the refuse of town and country can be turned into the rivers, people will refuse to look beyond the present need. But when the rivers are closed to them, they will admit that the disposal of sewage becomes a practical question. |


148

June 29. 1867. N. 1244.

Aus:
The Economist, 29. Juni 1867. S. 729.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Austria. Iron, Coal and Railway facility.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Working of means of transport)

The ore of the iron mines of Styria and Carinthia abundant, produces steely-iron, renowned all over the world. Difficulty to work them because of the absence of fuel. Lignite was for a time employed, but there was not enough of it to be got; then turf used, but the supply not sufficient. Recourse must therefore be had to coal. This found in large quantities, and easy of extraction at Fünfkirchen, within some 40 miles of the river Drave, one of the tributaries of the Danube. The valley of the Drave extends to Styria and Carinthia, and is in communication by means of the South of Austria railways with Trieste on the one hand and Vienna on the other; also with Pesth. A railway from Bares on the Drave (not far from the railway) to Fünfkirchen would enable the coal of the latter place to be carried to the rich ore deposits of the 2 provinces. The Austrian Gvt. has taken active measures to execute it as quickly as possible. Part of the line will be opened on 1st July 1868, and the other part a year later. The iron of Styria and Carinthia of great hardness and solidity, and at the same time is light. It is pre-eminently suitable for Bessemerising, and for making steel. Wird daher market find in all the parts der world. All that was needed to turn it to full account was the construction of a short railway to pits. Not only will the coal pits of Fünfkirchen obtain by means of the railway a profitable market in the iron works, but [they will] be able to send coal to Vienna, where it is very dear; also to Trieste, and through Trieste it is believed to all parts of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. The coal is very good, and the deeper it gets the better it becomes. It is specially suitable for making coke. At the pit mouth it only costs about 6d. p. cwt, so that the use of it will not affect the cost price of iron. The pits are of considerable extent. In 1866, the extraction was about 225,000 tons.



July 6. 1867. N. 1245.

Aus:
The Economist, 6. Juli 1867. S. 750–752.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Bank System of the United States.

The notes of the States State Banks were purely a local issue, and were, therefore, constantly and rigidly controlled in quantity by the frequent exchanges and clearings. Notes issued by a small National Bank in Maine may, and do, float away 1000ds of miles from their point of starting.  Wahrscheinlich Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Dieß könnte einfach geheilt werden durch ein Gesetz wöchentlicher Interchanges, Clearings, zwischen allen Branchen⦘
It is hence a common occurrence for National Banks to have to provide for the redemption of a very small fraction indeed of the Notes they have originally paid away. The wide action of the Notes of National Banks has already reduced a large part of them to a discount; and to remedy this discredit, the Comptroller urges that all National Banks shall be compelled to redeem their Notes at par at New York, by means of funds maintained there in the hands of correspondents – that is, of some one or more of the New York National Banks. Aber, says the Comptroller: „If all the provincial National Banks are to redeem their Notes in New York, they must constantly maintain there large funds – the New York Banks will compete for the custody of these funds, and the more adventurous of them will bid for accounts by offering high rates of interest on country deposits. But if the New York Banks give high rates of interest for money left with them, they can only make a profit by advances more or less hazardous, and subject, therefore, to onerous terms. In order, then, to avert the catastrophe of a Banking collapse, Congress must pass a stringent law prohibiting Banks from allowing interest on any sort of deposits.“ Such legislation would be futile and mischievous. The Comptroller proposes other checks for the supervision of the 1600 banks. Z.B. Prevent Persons from setting up National Bks. who find the means of borrowing the largest part of the available means, and applying them to most objectionable speculations. Also clauses for monthly instead of quarterly Bank Returns: the quarterly Returns enable Banks „to prepare for a good exhibit on these particular days“.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Weekly public Reports!)
Schon cry in different parts of the Union about the dangers and abuses arising from the patronage des Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the selection of National Banks to be depositories of public money and financial agents of the Federal Gvt. It is a paramount object with a National Bk. to obtain the custody of the Gvt. money. Selection for such a trust is used as an |149 advertisement to attract private deposits and private business, and largely succeed. The First National Bank at New Orleans, holding Gvt. Deposits, has just failed, under disgraceful circumstance – about 300,000l. has been made away with in a clandestine manner, and a leading authority in New York writes: „The machinery of the National Bks. has proclivities to weakness et danger which cause wellfounded apprehension. Disclosures at New Orleans, and disgraceful previous failures of Natl. Bank Banks in various parts of the country, leave no room for further doubt. The best way for a shrewd manager of a Nl. Bk. to obtain private deposits, is to get up an appointment for his institution as a depository of Gvt. fund.“ Sagt ferner: the increasing number of Banks which even on the face of their quarterly returns do not hold the amount of cash reserved reserve required by law. The returns of October 1866 showed that 55 Banks then held reserves considerably below the prescribed limit. It is now complained in New York, „that the Comptroller has not announced publicly how many of the Banks are defaulters in their reserves since Oct. 1866, nor what measures have been taken to correct this serious defect“.

Up to March, 1865, or just at the close of the War, the circulation of the Nl. Bks. no more than about 25 mill. l. St. The expansion to the present limit of 50 millions l. is the work of the 2 last years. Their paid up capital only 30 mill. l. in March 1865, has risen to 84 mill. l. since that time. The advantage and strength of the State Banks arose from 1) Rigid enforcement of cash payments; und 2) perfect freetrade, subject to a few reasonable preliminaries, in banking business. The danger and weakness of the National Banks arises: 1) They have been called into existence, and been distributed over the country by the arbitrary discretion of a public officer, acting in most cases in perfect ignorance or misapprehension of circumstances, exceedingly prone to be influenced by motives of party patronage, and chiefly intent not on supplying the fittest banking institutions to the several parts of the Union, but on finding active and wealthy sympathisers with the Republican party, who, through the medium of the Nl. Banks, would support, first, Northern measures, and next, the views of the majority of Congress. 2) Under conditions like these, Nl. Banks have been set up by persons having no adequate knowledge of the business. They have started a Bank either chiefly as a party measure, or as a convenient mode of getting nearly double rates of interest for their money, or with a view of attracting deposits and employing them in private speculation of their own, or with the object of commanding a deposit of public money, and becoming Gvt. financial agents. 3) As the Circulation of the National Banks is essentially general and not local, the check of constant liability to its return through the exchanges does not operate. 4) The supervision of the Comptroller at Washington over 1600 Banks, of necessity, almost worthless for any purposes of practical control, ausserdem nicht desirable that all the Banking institutions of a country subject to the regulations of a party political officer.

The imperfections of the Nl. Bk. System became already practically manifest: 1) in the admitted imperfection of the returns made by the Banks; 2) admitted abuses prevailing in the administration of many of them; 3) admitted exercise of unjustifiable patronage in the selection of particular banks to be depositories of public money, and to be financial agents; 4) admitted necessity of further stringent legislation (f.i. the prohibition of interest on deposits)

If no modifications speedily introduced: The large number of incompetent, inexperienced, careless, scheming and speculating people, who have forced themselves or been attracted into the control of the Nl. Banks, will grossly mismanage the business; dissipate the deposits in foolish or disreputable advances, and the Banks will fail. Under the law of prior lien, the Gvt. will, out of any available assets, as far as possible, pay itself first, and in full, and the ordinary creditors, as in the recent case of New Orleans, will be left without a farthing. The Notes of the failed Bank will be at least to some extent covered by the lodgement of Federal Gvt. securities, but there will be a wide field for ingenious financing in the realisation, sudden or gradual, of these securities, and in the cancelling, sudden or partial gradual, of the particular Nl. Bk. tainted by default. A series of failures of Nl. Bks. may create a panic and bring down a large part of the organisation at once, or the distrust and dissatisfaction may operate more gradually. During the last 2 years, the Nl. Banks have had all in their favour. They have run up their Circulation from 25 to 60 Mill. St., and prices have all been rising. They have now reached the limit of their Note Issue. Process of reaction has set in which, by the by, will render cash payments again possible. This kind of reaction wird Masse dieser hastily set up concern ruiniren.|


150

July 13, 1867. N. 1246

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Juli 1867. S. 781–783.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Effect of Trades Unions upon Wages and Prices.

System of Trades Unions would in all probability raise wages. Supply is not the mere quantity of an article in the market for the moment. We must take into account the desires and needs of the suppliers. Great Western stock was, and, indeed, still is, above what figures show to be its fair value, because it was „well held“; that is, its proprietors had no need to sell at once, and could afford to take the chance of future improvement. Rice z.B. falls of off mit same supply und demand. In fact, some great holders of rice have large bills to meet, and so to clear his liabilities, he was forced to sell at a sacrifice. This mental element in „supply“ the most obvious fact about the moneymarket for months. Many good stocks und shares have been at an absurd discount, because the proprietors were very anxious to sell, either to pay off liabilities incurred, or because, having suffered much by bad shares, they wished to be „out of those things“ at any cost.

By accumulated funds and an organised concert, trades unions enable the working classes to remain unemployed if they choose; während der agricultural labourer, who has not a shilling beforehand, and who acts as an atom, cannot remain out of work or out of the poorhouse for a week. Abzuziehn the constant cost of the Trades’ Union und the occasional loss by strikes. But the expense of strikes is occasional, while the benefit of being a better seller is constant, and a very heavy cost in machinery and management will not seem too much to those who have watched in other markets how powerless weak sellers are, and how sure the price of the commodity is to go down when a large dealer has liabilities which he cannot meet unless he sells. The lock out by the masters is the plain and obvious reply to the strike by the men. The whole is a rough sort of bargaining, and the party which can hold out longest wins.

Labour has a law by which it is propagated; capital a law by which it is accumulated. Capitalists can by no combination force wages lower than the rate at which labourers choose to marry and have children. Labourers can by no combination force profits beyond a rate at which monied people think it worth while to go into business. But between these limits and at every particular instant, wages and profits are determined by a sort of wholesale „higgling of the market.“ As to wages, the chance is that a sudden and simultaneous introduction of a combination system among labourers in all trades would have a tendency to raise wages. As a rule, a new force favourable to one party to a bargain will help him to make a better bargain. Would such a general rise of wages raise, or tend to raise prices (of commodities)? Obviously not. A cause which operates generally upon, and equally upon, the cost of production of all articles, cannot affect the exchangeable value of money. A considerable disturbance might and would be caused. Articles into which the cost of hand labour entered largely would rise, and those into which the cost of such labour entered little, but the profit of fixed capital entered much, would fall in comparison. Aber dieß would altogether differ from a general augmentation of all prices. The average remains as it was.

Wenn aber Trades Union introduced into one single trade, and that only, und die profits of capital hier only upon a level mit other trades, der capitalist will withdraw capital as soon as he begins to get less. Mit fixed capital geht das nicht (buildings und machinery cannot be transferred from one trade to another.) Aber das floating capital can be transferred. The most profitable trades borrow most. Je mehr a trade becomes less profitable, less inclined to borrow money to carry it on. In dem particular trade daher, mit rise of wages, the price of the special article must be forced up, or capital will withdraw from the trade. Whether the price can be forced up or not, depends on the taste  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
of the public. In an article of prime necessity probably it could. In luxury articles an addition to the price causes a diminution of the demand, and can only be obtained by a diminution of the supply; and if the supply is to fall off, labour as well as capital, must leave the trade, and labour will not leave any trade till it is driven hence by bad wages. Also: Wages rise, and force up prices; then the demand slackens, and prices fall; then, in consequence of the fall of prices, wages go down. The |151 effect of Trades Unions upon such a trade is to cause disastrous fluctuations. In the case of articles of subsistence, their price will not at once fall, because the buyers must have them; but the labourers being more highly remunerated than in other trades, labour will flock thither; an extra quantity will be produced, and so both prices and labour will fall again.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Ass! More capital will be attracted, wenn the prices rise; daher more labour can be employed. Die workmen verwahren mehr necessities. Und in den luxury branches capital und labour withdrawn. In other words: The distribution of production changes.⦘

By the agency of a common cause operating upon all employments, wages may rise by a reduction of profits, and yet prices be unaltered. Aber Union etc may occur at a time when the trade is exceptionally profitable, and the capitalist gets more than the common profit. The tendency to the equalisation of profits is a very powerful tendency in all business, perhaps the strongest single tendency. But still it is only a tendency. Water tends to find its level, but still much water is always higher than other water, and on that account is in motion to descend to the usual level. Just so the profit in particular trades may, even for considerable periods, be higher than in other trades, though a perpetually acting cause tends to bring about an average and common equality. If a Trade Union should be introduced into a trade at a period of unusually elevated profits, it might raise wages without raising profits. Profits being higher than usual, capital would  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(auch ohne Unions)
come in and compete for that sort of labour  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
, and so its price would have risen. Rise will not be permanent, except the labourer was before earning less than the common rate of wages. If the Trades Union makes him earn more, other labour will come into the trade, und the rate of wages go down to the common level. Nevertheless, in such a case, the operation of Trades’ Union, even in a single trade, may be (and often has been) to raise wages without raising prices.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Juli 1867. S. 784/785.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The  Diesen und andere Parlamentsberichte zur Hungersnot von 1866 im indischen Orissa exzerpierte Marx ungefähr im Sommer 1868 in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 670–676).
Schließen
blue book on the Orissa Famine
.

Orissa, a British Province, not 3 days’ steam from Bengal, and not 6 from Arracan, population of 3 mill. mit plenty of money, lost 1/4 of its numbers from sheer starvation. County isolated. Its resources in grain sufficient for ordinary years, but its isolation, preventing exports, prevented also the accumulation of stores. It was useless to grow more than a neighbourhood could eat in a year, for if an extra quantity was grown the money value of the new harvest proportionately declined. This money value of extreme value to the farmer, as he had to pay his rent in cash, which he gets only by the sale of his grain within a very limited area. Each farmer, therefore, grew what he and his dependents needed, plus a very small surplus value to non[-]agricultural persons, and plus a store adequate to his own support for a few months. At the same time, the labouring class of Orissa – the class without any land – was for India unusually large, probably 1/4 or 1/3 of the whole population. They were prosperous, the Ooreyahs, as they are called, occupying in Bengal just the position of Auvergnats in France, emigrating readily, and finding in the cities preferential employ as servants of almost all descriptions. Thrifty up to the Auvergnat point, 3 × more than Scotch cottiers, but, living on monthly wages, they of course store up nothing except cash. Harvest of 1864 bad, of 1865 totally failed. They had plenty of money but nothing to eat. To the last, the peasant proprietors managed to exist, each man hoarding some little store, and refusing to part with it at any price whatever.

The remedy for these dangers to increase irrigation, so as to prevent drought, the great Indian evil, which we have intensified by incessant felling of the forests, and to develop communication. Until roads are made the people will never store their grain to any great extent, for if they do they can never hope to sell it. Each township grows enough for itself, and a man with a 1000 bags of rice which he cannot move is just as poor as the man with only one – indeed poorer, for he has spent |152 labour on unprofitable works. This has repeatedly occurred in parts of India, notably in the Punjab, where the people, after an enormous harvest, have been unable to pay their rent. Nobody in the neighbourhood wanted their grain, and carriage to a distance was impossible, till it was in one instance at least officially reported that the wheat in the Punjab would feed the people for 3 years, and that there was consequently very much distress. Irrigation, railways, und besonders auch canals wanted.

Aus:
The Economist 13. Juli 1867. S. 785/786.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Workhouse Reports.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Communal (self) Government.)

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Diese Scheisse wichtig, weil sie wieder zeigt, wie impossible local Gvt. in our state of things.

Two thick Blue Books (1867) containing a history of the official inspection of the last 10 years. Every workhouse in London visited yearly or oftener during that period. The inspectors have noted down in the visitors’ books their exact impressions of every workhouse.  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
Und doch existirt die größte Scheisse ruhig fort.
At the very time when „the Amateur Casual“ of the Pall Mall Gazette visited the Lambeth workhouse, Mr. Farnall certified that the wards provided there for the homeless poor were „good and sufficient“. Unangenehmer Posten der des Poor Law Inspector. If he finds too much fault, he sets the guardians against him, and exposes himself to the reproach of caring more for the poor than the ratepayers. To show the time required for the introduction of any scheme case of an idiot in Bermondsey workhouse: January 1861, his name is mentioned, and an amelioration of his treatment suggested. Met by a sneer in the answer of the medical officer of the workhouse. In Dec., 1862, the idiot again under discussion, recommended he should be removed into some proper institution. This recommendation brought before the guardians in a letter from the Poor Law Board; guardians reply that there is no reason for such a thing. Dec. 1864, same recommendation repeated by the Lunacy Commissioner, and again brought to notice of guardians. Febr. 1865, the medical officer of the workhouse reports that the idiot is better, where he is, but that, in deference to the Poor Law Board, his case shall be considered. In March 1865 same report (der Inspectors), the same suggestion, the same reply. Then, after 3 years’ delay, and 4 unsuccessful attempts on the part of the Poor Law Board, idiot removed to an asylum in November 1865.

Corresponding mit Stepney guardians wegen Bau of new workhouse. Letter from the Poor Law Board in September 1857. No answer. Second letter in December. Answer: Aber sie machen neue difficulty. Letter des Poor Law Board May 1858, repeated August. Answer: they are still considering the subject. Some more letters from the Poor Law Board; they send endlich their minutes about building a new workhouse. 20 October 1859, member gave notice that he would move for a committee to take the matter into consideration. 27 October motion was adjourned to 3d November. 3d Nov. no proceeding taken. 9 Febr. another motion substituted. 16 Febr. resolved to postpone the matter till election of the new board of guardians. 23 Feb. a motion put to take immediate action, and having thus been deliberated upon for 4 months, was lost. Mr. Farnall writes that defects of the Rotherhithe workhouse pointed out again and again „the guardians have for many years been earnestly solicited to build a new workhouse, but wholly without effect; still I hope, almost against hope, that they will see the real necessity which positively exists for such a step.“ Marylebone Workhouse – disgrace to such a wealthy parish. |153 In Bloomsbury, the inspector found one of the classes in school, being instructed by a monitor without breeches. In the same workhouse, the privies were so covered with filth, Febr. 1858, that Mr. Farnall could not go in to visit them[:] „the pavement, for at least 3 feet, was thus obstructed. One of the directors accompanied me, and will report this fact to the directors. I never remember seeing a more filthy display.“ Yet, in Dec. 1858, „the water closet which, at my last visit, was in a most filthy state, was equally dirty today“. In the Hackney workhouse, the bedrooms teem with bugs, and the damp and stench from the water-closets was most offensive. In two other workhouse workhouses, St. James’s, Westminster, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the want of basins for washing led to the use of chamber utensils for that purpose. In Lambeth „the drains are frequently in a defective state; the deadhouse is immediately under the flooring of a sickward for females, and the medical officer says: „The smell is sometimes terribly offensive; it is most atrocious.“ The dispenser says: „It is impossible for me to do the duties which involve upon me.“ Sample of the complaints made by inmates, and calling upon themselves the elaborate attention from the Poor Law Board, verbatim from the Blue Book: „Sain Margret and Sain John Workhouse Kensentone. Sur i humbeley big yore parding but i think upon outer no that we poor sols bees in danger of our lifes the luntik keeo (Keogh) been an cutt poor Metcafs throt (throat) the too doctors sowd him up an the poor feler ant ded yet i hope he wont be lett stop hear. i bees told that won of the womann lunatiks bees very denjors to. i bees your humbel servant. P. Hennks.“ Throughout the blue books (jedes 450 pages) too much deference is shown to the sovereign guardians, slight examples of good management are praised almost too fervently, while graver errors are passed by with a word of implied censure. These guardians think themselves important and indispensable, are conscious of their authority, and only neglect their duty; remember that they have powers when threatened with interference, and forget why they were charged with those powers when there is need for their exercise.

Aus:
The Economist, 13. Juli 1867. S. 788.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paris 10 July. Bankruptcy of Pollet, the banker of  The Economist: Roubain
Schließen
Roubaix
.

Liabilities 16,000,000 fcs, assets: 20,000,000f. Just condemned by the Court of Lille to 5 years imprisonment  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(![)]
and 5000 3000 fcs.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
for swindling. His House enjoyed the highest reputation, so that an eminent banker declared: „any person inquiring about its credit would have been as much laughed at as if asked if the Rothschilds were solvent.“ Yet for 30 years in a most embarrassed position, and for a great many of them only existed by putting into circulation bills of exchange drawn by clerks, servants, women etc. Amongst the victims: Bank of France for 1,080,000 fcs, Lecuver et Co, bankers, for 1,650,000f. Fould et Co, for 1,650,000 fcs. Mallet et Co, for 300f. 300,000f. and several other bankers for sums of 420,000f., 350,000f. 240,000f. and so on.

Failure of W. Brunner et Co, New York, Manchester, et Bradford. Liabilities about 200,000l. Fairchild and Fanshaw Fanshawe , merchants in the American trade, have made composition with their creditors of 10s. in the pound.|


154

20 July 1867. N. 1247.

Aus:
The Economist, 20. Juli 1867. S. 817/818.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Finance of the American States. (Von George Walker, Springfield Massachusetts gegen den Standard Correspondent )  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Loanable Capital of the West.)

In the New York Financial (nicht Commercial) Chronicle of April 27, 1867 carefully prepared table on the indebtedness of the 36 States composing the Union, in 1860 and 1866. The figures are derived from the latest State reports, and are official. Total of these debts in 1866 = 352,194,290$, but in 1860: $255,839,769; increase only during the 6 years within which the war occurred of $96,354,521. In the 3 largest States of the West – Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the aggregate debt was reduced in that period from 37 to 31 millions, and in Pennsylvania, after New York, the most populous state of the Union, reduced 2 millions. The largest increase was in the rich States of Massachusetts (18 millions), Connecticut (10 mill.), New York (171/2 mill.) Hier und the other North Eastern States the greatest stimulus given by the war to manufactures, and other productive industry, and in them, consequently, the largest boundies bounties paid to voluntary volunteers, and most voluntary monetary relief furnished to the families of the absent soldiers. In the West, no considerable bounties were paid, and no debts, on account of them, could therefore be created.

The State of New York has just published a return on its indebtedness, embracing the State debts, and the debts of counties, cities, towns and villages within it. State Debt now $51,753,082, but of this 34,182,975$ existed before the war and more than 18 mill. of it represents the costs of the Erie canal, a gigantic work of internal improvement, nearly 400 miles in length, which has existed for 40 years, and has contributed many times its cost to the wealth of the State. Interest on it defrayed by the tolls of the canal, paid by the whole inland commerce between the West and East. The county, city, town, and village debts $85,675,645; of this $41,927,998 created for bounties and other war purposes; residue grown out of internal improvements, roads, bridges, waterworks, railways, schoolhouses, almshouses, prisons, asylums for the infirm, hospitals, all built by the help of the municipalities; debts temporarily created for them. Greater part of them only municipal guarantees; no burden whatever, on account of them, falling on the people. Total Debt of New York, alles zusammen, less than $ 140 mill. Population of New York nearly 4 mill. that of the late loyal states about 24 Mill. Southern states had never great local debts, weil no improvements. If the State and local debt of the whole loyal North on so large a scale as those of New York = 850 $ mill. Aber die population of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois 51/2 mill., their aggregate state debt: 31 mill. The population of New York is 3,880,000 und its State debt 51 mill., more than twice as large as that of these Western States per capita. The disparity of local indebtedness noch grösser, weil in den new agricultural states not so many municipal bodies capable of creating debts as in the older and richer states in the East, and very few of them have an established credit. Their wealth is chiefly inland, and of this much is unimproved. No loan fund in the West to make the advances necessary to create debts. Little banking capital (proportionally), no savings’ banks, few insurance or trust company companies; and private capitalists can do better than lend their money on county or city bonds. To a very large degree, the ordinary hand to mouth business of that section is done on Eastern capital; and there is certainly no local capital which can have been immobilised in the manner supposed. Their absolute inability to borrow must, therefore, have kept the Western local bodies from contracting considerable debts. The total bank capital of the Union is 420 millions; and all of this is invested in Federal Bonds, and, therefore, the loanable capital which they control must come from the people in the form of deposits, and from their circulation of 300 millions. Of this bank capital, New York has 116 millions, the 6 New England States 145 millions, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey 60 millions; while the 12 Western and Border StatesOhio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nebraska, Colorado, with a population of nearly 12 mill., have only 68 mill. of banking capital. The savings’ banks of the |155 East also hold a very large fund, much of which available for local loans. The savings’ bank of New York $ 141 mill., of Massachusetts 67 mill. $, the other North Eastern States, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, hold proportionate amounts. Mit exceptions, here and there, z.B. 8 or 9 mill. $ in California, savings’ banks are unknown in the U. St. The savings banks of the West are her broad acres of cultivated land; and the only deposits of its people the seed, the growing crops, the horses, the meat cattle, the hogs, and the farming implements, with which the land was stocked.

Nearly the whole loanable capital of the Union is held in the Eastern und middle States, und no appreciable part of their capital is invested in the local debts of the West. Daher kann die indebtedness (State und Local) der U. St. not exceed $ 650 mill. Added to Federal Debt, as shown by the June statement, of 2515 mill. $, the total public debt of the American people would be 3,165 3165 mill. $, a sum which does not much exceed the anticipated amount of the Federal Debt alone when the war was ended. Dagegen schreibt der Standard Kerl von 4 4000, und probably nearer 5000 millions.



July 27. 1867. N. 1248.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Juli 1867. S. 843/844.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Effect of Trades Unions on Prices and Wages.

Trades Unions are introduced into all trades, but more or less into all trades of skilled labour, not at all or very little into agriculture or other departments of unskilled labour. Dieß would nicht raise manufacturing produce, weil in the barter of gold  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(quel imbecile!)
for skillmade articles an equal force would be operating to raise sowohl den value of gold (mining being also a skilled labour) and the articles. Daher reduced the price of agricultural produce. (as gegen Gold) If labour migrated from agriculture to mining and manufactures easily and quickly, this process would be arrested, but in matter of fact it does nothing of the sort. Der agricultural labourer is like the capital sunk in the plant of a particular trade; it cannot be got out  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Nonsense! dieser Vergleich)
for any gains or by any means. Much labour is cooped up in agriculture, which for its own gains and earnings had better gone to manufacturers. Aber andrerseits: Any fall in home-grown corn, or other agricultural produce very slight. It cannot be effected except by an increase of quantity  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Rindvieh! Als ob ein Artikel mit the same quantity nicht in price fallen könnte relativ, weil ein andrer in price steigt!)
und dann nöthig resort to inferior soils and greater difficulties of production. The fall in the price of these articles already checked by the economy of nature. Also, upon the whole: the prices of all articles would continue unaltered. If in manufactures the rise in wages reduced profits 1 or 2%, capital would flow into agriculture as long as it could obtain a greater rate of profit. Aber even the augmenting difficulties of further production would reduce that profit. So kein Anlaß to go to agriculture. Also result: a general reduction of profits, in trades of skilled labour, becauses because wages forced up by it, and prices remain the same; in agriculture, because of resort to inferior soils. Hier supposed that money (gold etc) was produced within the country.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Juli 1867. S. 848/849.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

How to retain farm labourers?

Allgemeines Gekohl auf den Agricultural Meetings über scarcity of labourers. Sir Stafford Northcote (President of the Board of Trade) attempted to make out, on agricultural meeting in Devonshire, daß derselbe Mangel in the mercantile navy, the works and employments of the large towns und manufacturing districts. Darauf Remonstrances: The Rev. E. Girdlestone (Canon of Bristol and Vicar of Halberton, in Devon) in a letter to a newspaper, stated that there are about 60 farms in his parish, and that, with very few exceptions, the pay of the ablebodied agricultural labourers is there 8s. a week; in some cases only 7. And that a like scale of wages prevails throughout a large part of Devonshire. He added: „In many instances, deduction is made, not only for rent, but for grist at the farmers’ price, so that the labourer sometimes does not carry home more than 3s. 6d. in coin. I know 2 strong lads in one family, aged resp. 16 and 14, who receive from the farmer who employs them, the one 3s. 9d., the other 2s. 6d. a week; and the farmer, reckoning these miserable earnings of the 2 lads together with the father’s wages, stated in a public paper that he gave his labourer 14s. a week.“ Another Vicar in Hampshire says: „The wages received by an able-bodied labourer when engaged in |156 ordinary work is 9s. a week. Out of this they have to pay one s. a week for houserent. … There is no ale, cider, or any other emolument given.“ Well, does any one wonder that rural labourers get away from Devonshire and Hampshire the first available opportunity? … How are the farm wages of such districts to be increased? To some extent by the depletion of the market. But this process, especially in backwards backward regions of the West of England, must be a slow one. … If most of the estates in England were judiciously managed, some of the present tenants must, perhaps, either give up their farms, or give up some portion of their land.

Aus:
The Economist, 27. Juli 1867. S. 849.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Strike of Agricultural Labourers.

Strike in Buckinghamshire; village of Gawcott, near Buckingham; demanded advance of 2s., namely from 10 to 12s., with an additional sh. for Sundaywork, which would be necessarily the case with shepherds, horsekeepers, cowmen, and the like. Appeals have been made to the public und subscriptions have, indeed, aided them. Some of the Gawcott farmers have yielded. The same demand is being raised in other parishes in the neighbourhood. Rural labour has been scarce for several years past, while at this particular time the prices of all kinds of provisions, besonders bread and potatoes, very much higher than for some years. Discomfort of insufficient cottages, long distances between the places of work and the abode abodes of many of them. The agricultural labourer has no other mode of righting himself than by combining with his fellows to demand better wages. Farmers are not to be expected to give more than they are compelled to do by the rates current in the labour market; and meeting, as they do, at their vestries, and in fairs and markets, they can and do practically combine together to keep wages down to the lowest possible point. Until very recently, that point was very little beyond the merest maintenance for a human family.

The movement of the labourers in some of the worst paid of our agricultural districts for an advance of wages must be regarded as a part of the great movement in English agriculture which is imminent.



3 August 1867. N. 1249.

Aus:
The Economist, 3. August 1867. S. 877.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paris. 1 August. Failures in Building Speculation.

Building Cos. in Paris seem not destined to prosper, notwithstanding the vast number of new houses which the immense demolitions of Prefect Hausmann necessitates. The difficulties of the Great Immobilière Co. are well known. The directors of another Co., the Immobilière de la Rive Gauche, were obliged to avow in a recent meeting of shareholders that its debts were 15,607,428f., and the assets, consisting of houses and building ground, only 10,563,266f. So deficit of 5,044,152. A third building Co, that of the Boulevard du Temple, failed some time back. The great speculators in housebuilding are also said not to be prosperous.

Manufacturing Towns: Iron trade has continued very inactive.



10 August, 1867. N. 1250.

Aus:
The Economist, 10. August 1867. S. 900.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Foreign Trades Unions.

Blue Book: Reports from ministers et Consuls on industrial Questions and Trades Unions: |


157

17 August, 1867. N. 1251.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. August 1867. S. 925/926.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What Bankers should at Present do with their money.

Much of every country bankers business’ banker’s business deposits are employed in his own district at comparatively unvarying rates, and he can now get upon these 4, 41/2, or even 5%. For such old money, so to speak, he can afford to give 2%, or even a trifle more. But nicht upon new money, which he has to send to London to employ. London Bankers only give 1%, and even this rate – miserable as it is to the depositor – is not very satisfactory to the banker. In most parts of England, vestiges of the old „fixed price“ of money. 5% gilt noch als natural rate (in Folge der früheren usury laws.) Die country bankers können daher sich so leicht raise money to 10 or 12%, in times of difficulty, wie at London. Andrerseits brauchen sie nicht so zu reduciren. Aber auch, verglichen mit „London bills“ und the larger bills of all great cities sind „country bills“ the bills of less known people. Der country banker knows them, and charges them more.

Aus:
The Economist, 17. August 1867. S. 929/930.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failures of Three National Banks in the U. States.

2 in State of New York, 1 in Massachusetts, Liabilities 230,000l., including the paid up capital of 82,000l. The causes: advances imprudently made on bad securities, and speculations in land. … Most prolific grain harvest secured, South, North, und West. Guter cotton crop steht before.

Standard Correspondent schreibt New York, 30 July: »Within the past 5 days 3 National Banks have failed: Unadilla National Bank (Unadilla, New York); Newton National Bank (Newton, Massachusetts), Weedsport Nat. Bank (Weedsport, New York)[.] The liabilities of the first at least $750,000 (mit Capital: $,100,000), the liabilities of the 2nd $210,000, of the 3d $200,000; the capital of each of the two last named: $150,000. Ausserdem, the Pegnonnock Nl. Bank (Hartford, Connecticut) has just lost $50,000 by the peculations of an officer. Cause der disasters: reckless speculation, und equally reckless extravagance in living, induced thereby on the part of Bk. officers. In every instance numerous poor depositors ruined.[«]

The Unadilla Bank organised some 12 years since as State Bank, had profitable business. Nach institution des National Bank scheme, its managers deposited $110,000 in Federal bonds und received a charter as a Nat. Bank and $100,000 in Nat. Bank currency. As it had long enjoyed the confidence of the community, it became a sort of savings Bank for the surrounding country; und enabled to carry on a fair business in advancing money, or paper, to the farmers and shopkeepers of the neighbourhood, obtaining the full state rate of 7% upon its loans. Received so not less than 13% upon its capital stock (nämlich ausser den 7% mindestens 6% upon the bonds deposited mit der Gvt.[)] They (its managers) invested a large sum in the purchase of petroleum lands in Pennsylvania, another in real estate in various towns, und another in a scheme for making cheap paper upon a „patent“ process. Endlich its notes protested. Run. Usual closing of doors. Struggling farmers, widows, orphans, small shopkeepers, dealers in produce have become paupers. One man committed suicide; two persons have become insane. … Trade is at a standstill in the east. The losses of some of our New York dealers in dry goods are to be counted by millions. Stewart, Lord, and Taylor, Arnold and Constable, Lake and M’Creary, and other heavy dealers in dry goods, are offering their goods at less than their original cost in Europe, and yet their stores are deserted. The paper money system makes an „easy“ money market just at this time … The advocates of the Nat. Bk. system assert that at all events the notes of Banks, being secured |158 by the bonds deposited with Gvt. bonds in excess of the amount of circulation, will always be redeemable at Par. Dieß only partially true in the cases of isolated failures; for the only value of the currency lies in the public confidence, and if the public refuse to accept at par the notes of broken Nat. Banks the holders must suffer, and the holders are the mechanics und labourers. Wenn aber viele National Banks auf einmal caput gehn, then the value of the notes nur »what the bonds, held as „collateral“ security, will sell for in time of general financial disaster and distress«. But the depreciation in the value of the notes is the slightest disaster of people in connection with Nl. Bank failures. The ruin of 1000nds upon 1000nds of depositors whose money has been used up in foolish speculations by bankers, is a calamity of vastly greater magnitude.



August 24, 1867. N. 1252.

Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 955/956.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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:

City of Milan’s Improvement Co. £.243,615
Varna and Rutschuk Railway 196,467
Belgian Public Work Co. 107,279
Irrigation Co of France 282,740
Imperial Land Co. of Marseilles 325,666
Millwalls Docks Co. 145,526
1,301,293

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
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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.

(7 months) During the 7 months of 1867, the total Customs receipts at New York $71,260,915
decrease over 10 Mill. $ of 1866 81,309,466.
Vom Jan. 1 to Aug. 3 1867, the New York Specie export $38,427,856.
Same 7 months of 1866 51,824,771.

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.

During first 1/2 of 1867 amount sent to that city $22,193,291,
same time of 1866 $21,137,763.

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.

Cities. 1860 1866

Total Tax.

$.  c.

City Tax

$.  c.

State Tax

$.  c.

Federal Tax.

$.  c.

Total Tax.

$.  c.

New York 12. 12 17. 34 1. 84 13. 95 33. 13
Philadelphia 6. 68 8. 17 1. 27 13. 95 23. 39
Boston 15. 32 21. 98 2. 49 13. 95 38. 42
Cincinnati 11. 25 10. 39 1. 50 13. 95 25. 84
Chicago 6. 18 8. 57. 1. 17 13. 95 23. 69
San Francisco 18. 71 18. 71 4. 96 13. 95 37. 62.
Aus:
The Economist, 24. August 1867. S. 961/962.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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.



31 August. 1867 N. 1253.

Aus:
The Economist, 31. August 1867. S. 983/984.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Finances of Russia.

Consul Michell’s Report of Russian finance friendly to Russia; he obtained his appointment partly through Russian influence. It shows that that Gvt. never succeeds even temporarily in avoiding a deficit. Before 1832, each Russian department spent at its own discretion; deficiencies made up by the issue of inconvertible notes, sales of property, or by leaving debts unpaid. In 1832 a slightly better system introduced, but Treasury still unable to make expenditure and revenue meet, and compelled every year either to borrow money abroad, or to take money from the State Banks of Deposit, or issue inconvertible paper.

Between 1832 and 1861 thus obtained 216,000,000l., average deficit for 30 years of 7 Mill. l. a year.

Official admitted deficit of 1862 over l.1,500,000;
1863 1,700,000;
1864 6,300,000.
1865. 2,700,000 
1866 5,700,000.

Michell shows that this is far within the truth. The State helps itself from the National Bank as it pleases, giving only inconvertible |161 paper in return; and so, in one way or other, the Russian Gvt., von 1861–1866 borrowed 75, 75 Mill. l., or at the rate of 15 Mill. l. a year, an average deficit of nearly double the old amount. Much of all this debt met by notes which bears bear no interest, and the interest bearing debt bears no proportion to the real indebtedness of the State. No one knows how much paper is afloat, total enormous, but public debt = 286 Mill. l., mit annual charge of 11 Mill. l., or average of about 41/2%. As the ordinary revenue in 1866 = 53 Mill. l. St., Russia owes, apart from her paper, nearly 6 years income, and has mortgaged nearly 1/5 of her usual receipts, not a very formidable state of affairs when compared mit English, French, or Dutch accounts, but very formidable when compared mit dem true analogue, India, which owes barely 2 years income, and has mortgaged little more than a tithe of her revenue. India, moreover, has no inconvertible paper. Yet India can borrow at 5%. Michell says, as to the unknown quantity of inconvertible notes: „The accounts between the Treasury and the State Bank are so complicated as to defy any inquiry for the purpose of making a statement beyond dispute. Practically, the State helps itself to whatever it wants from the Bank, which is thereby compelled to issue more inconvertible notes to ‚strengthen the branches‘, and thus to suspend its own charter. The Treasury has broken the State Bank, for it has long been unable meet its engagements to pay specie. Nor could it return to the public their deposits if demanded, except by a corresponding new issue of inconvertible paper.[“] „Irrespective of 45,000 men serving in the Imperial army, the 800,000 rank and file, supplied by a total population of about 55 millions, constitutes 14/10% of that portion of the population liable to conscription, while the numerical relation of the army to the population of the empire (70 mill.) exceeds that of France and Prussia by 1/3.“

„At the same time“, says Michell „the number of young men eligible in Russia for service is comparatively far smaller than in other countries of Europe, where about 1% of the population yearly reaches the age of 20 years, and of these 40[%] are fitted for military service. In Russia, owing to the mortality of the children, it takes 50 millions of the population to produce the number of young men of 20 years that France can command with a population of 38 mill. According to this calculation, the number of men of the class liable to military service, who reach the age of 20 years in Russia, about 400,000 p. an.; of these, perhaps not more than 160,000 are fitted for the army; but the actual number yearly taken is 100,000, and these only return to their families after 8 years’ service. Official Expenditure 33% of revenue; in der That immer viel mehr. Ausserdem charge to the country by the fact that the annual expense to the male taxable population of furnishing a contingent of 100,000 recruits cannot be less than 31/2 mill. roubles, while their liability to transport and quarter troops is estimated at 15 Mill. roubles, constituting a tax of 60 to 70 copecks per male; while in order to possess irregular troops, 3 mill. of a population occupying the most fertile provinces of the empire are exempted from all taxes and contributions.“|


162

September 14, 1867. N. 1255.

Aus:
The Economist, 14. September 1867. S. 1041/1042.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Common Schools of America.

Rev. James Fraser was sent out, to make the inquiry, by the Schools Inquiry Commissioners. His Report now printed. He begins by the State of Massachusetts. By its laws every township is bound to keep up common schools for the instruction of all the children of the township in the rudiments of education. Every township containing 500 families or householders is, in addition, to keep up a high school of the second class, in which general history, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of the State itself and of the U. States, and Latin are to be taught and every township containing 4000 inhabitants is further to provide instruction in Greek, French, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and political economy. These schools are supported almost entirely by local taxation. There is a State School Fund, contributing towards their expenses, but this contribution is small, positively and relatively. In 1864, the average sum contributed by the State School Fund less than 1/4$ for each child, while the average sum raised by local taxes almost 61/2$ for each child. School fees are unknown in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Ohio; in some other States they are permitted, but limited by law. Where they do not exist, each township is bound to raise such sums of money for the support of its schools as it judges necessary. If it refuses or neglects to raise the money, or to choose a school committee, it is liable to penalties, and receives no aid from the State School fund unless it raises 11/2$ for each person between 5 and 15. These penalties difficult of infliction, and instances where they are evaded. The law says the common schools are to be kept for at least 6 months in the year. In 1864 more than 1/4 of townships failed in this respect, 32 townships out of 68 (of more than 4000 inhabitants) did keep no First class school (as by Law), in 1864. Nach dem Law der High Schools to be open 10 months in year. Of the 118 High Schools of Massachusetts, in 1864, only 88 fulfilled the requirement; 14 kept open for 8 months only, 16 for less than 8 months. These breaches insignificant.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(dabei 1864 Kriegsjahr!)
The public duty by no means neglected in the chief States. In Boston, more than 1/8 of the whole amount of taxation, about 21/2% on the capital of the city, spent on education; in New York city 1/5 of its ordinary annual taxation, 51/2% on its capital. „The cost“, says Fraser, „being defrayed by taxation, is proportionate to the property of the parent, not to the number of the children he sends to school.“ |163 „It is nothing more than a sober conclusion, that an American farmer frequently gets an education for his family at a cost to the community of not more than 10sh. a year per  The Economist: child
Schließen
head
, 1/3 of the amount at which our own Committee of Council have been in the habit of rating the cost of the education of the children of an English mechanic or labouring man.“ The community, defraying the cost, has the right to insist on guarantees, that the education is effective. Each township elects a school committee, charged with the management and control of the scholars at large. The duties of the committee are to appoint, examine, and, if necessary, dismiss the teachers; to visit and inspect the schools, to provide books and apparatus, and maintain and keep in order a sufficient number of school houses. As to the books to be used, the school committee bound to take care that „no book calculated to favour the tenets of any particular sect of Christians be purchased or used, and  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Holla!)
to require the daily reading of some portion of the Bible in the common English version.“ There is a growing demand in the U. States for a central bureau of education, or a Ministry of Public Instruction. „The supreme control of schools absolutely in the hands of local administrators“ and want of „a properly authenticated and independent officer“ to see that legal requirements are not ignored or evaded. At present the law rests too much on the sentiment of the district.

The Massachusetts Factory Act is almost if not quite inoperative. Parents are bound to send their children to school under a penalty, but this seems to be seldom inflicted. But the demand for compulsory attendance is growing loud and vehement. „It is argued that if the State taxes me, who perhaps have no children, towards the support of schools for the security of the society, I have a right to claim from the State for the security of the same society, that the schools which I am taxed to maintain shall be attended by those for whose benefits they were designed.[“] Others ask if the State has a right to put its subjects into prison, but no right to send them to school; a right to take away life, but no right to make life useful and bearable. Diess richtige Sprache für the descendants der early colonists, who „in 1642, only 22 years after the landing of the pilgrim fathers from the Mayflower, enjoined upon the municipal authorities,“ (by a public Act passed in the General Court of the colony) „the duty of seeing that every child within their respective jurisdictions should be educated“. These Public schools supported by the people for the people, instruction offered freely to everyone, powers given by the law to render that instruction compulsory.



21 Sept. 1867. N. 1256.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. September 1867. S. 1068/1069.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Waste of Educational Revenues. (in England)

Oxford und Cambridge have almost fabulous income. They don’t know what to do with their money. Prof. Rogers hat vieles brought out. Mr. Forster tried to get at the facts (as member in the Committee on Mr. Ewart’s University Bill), but was outvoted. Nach Rogers die revenues of Oxford reported von 2 200,000 to 800,000£ St. Nach Roundell’s exact numbers für the different items, revenue of 500,000l. Dafür educated about 1,400 undergraduates, chiefly of the upper class, members of the Established Church. Und diese 1400 pay for their own |165 education into the bargain, z.B. 20,000l. a year for tutors’ fees. The fixed charges of every college for tuition, chamber rent, food, and attendance, at least 60l. a year for each undergraduate. At Cambridge, average annual cost to a parent 300l., though some young men live on 150l. But the academical year consists of only 24 weeks. During the rest of the year, the young men have to be maintained at home etc. On what, then, are these endowment endowments spent? On Prizes. The University of Oxford alone, independent of the colleges, is not more than 27 27,000 or 30,000l. Von den incomes der colleges (13,000 für Merton College, 30,000 St. John’s College, Cambridge) nur 200 or 300l. a year is directly spent on instruction. Das actual money für die Professors lecturing in den colleges fast nur von den fees paid by the undergraduates. The revenues go to the Fellows and the scholars. These fellowships may be retained for life if their holders do not want to marry, and have no objection to taking orders. Some who hold them for life do nothing in return for the income. A man gains a fellowship at 24 years, and vegetates then on his 300l. a year. He does not live in Oxford or Cambridge. Because he was first in a competitive examination, when young, he is maintained for the rest of his life at the expense of all future competitors.



September 28, 1867. N. 1257.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. September 1867. S. 1097.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Further Failures of the National Banks in New York State.

2, mit paid up Capital of about 100,000l., Liability to depositors and customers about 450,000l. more. Farmers’ National Bank, of Brooklyn (New York) und the First National Bank, of Kingston (New York.)

„The Farmers’ Bank of Brooklyn“, organised 1852, State Bank; with a nominal capital of $500,000, the capital stock being divided into 25,000 shares of $20 each. High place, under prudent management, in the public confidence; large profits; its dividends, paid semi-annually, about 8% of the capital stock. Its shares quoted 118 to 120, and were practically out of the market. It sustained the storm of 1857, when the Banks were tumbling by 100nds, and was thenceforward looked upon as perfectly sound. In 1865 transformed into Ntl. Bank. A settlement was made, its assets were divided, converted into the „Farmers’ Nl. Bank[“], with a capital stock of $300,000, represented by 15,000 shares at $20 each. The shares appropriated by the stockholder of the old State Bank. Its affairs proceeded without interruption, its stocks being quoted in Wallstreet at 108 to 110. A Branch Bk. at Green Point, a suburb of Brooklyn, was established. People were induced to make the Brooklyn Bk. a sort of Savings’ Bank, and two Savings’ Banksthe Germania and the Dime [–] deposited large sums in its vaults. Nach official statement on 1st July 1867 its deposits: $1,156,135. These deposits made by the Savings Banks aforesaid, small tradesmen, farmers and market gardeners living in Long Island, by speculators, manufacturers, private gentlemen, and mechanics – the largest deposit by one individual probably not exceeding $15,000. The President of the Bank and others connected with its management used these individual deposits for the purpose of speculation.|

166

The nature of these speculations shown by list of the offices filled by the President, who was treasurer of the Tionesta and Sugar Greek Oil Comp., treasurer of the Beaurehoff Run Oil Co., treasurer of the Challenge Gold and Silver Mining Co., director of the Trust River Navigation Co., president of a Company of Divers and Wreckers, and director of a Co. for making „whisky“ by a cheap „patent“ process. Upon all these bubble cos., the manager of the Bk. wasted the funds of depositors, and the capital of the Bank. They squandered so much that on 1st July 1867 they were unable to show to the Gvt. Inspector the Currency Reserve (of 15% of deposits and circulation) required by law to be kept in hand by every Nl. Bank. They were duly warned by the Gvt. Officer. The prescribed 30 days granted to Nl. bankers as a time for complying with the requirements of law expired, and, the Currency reserve not being shown, the Comptroller of the Currency appointed a receiver, who entered upon his duty on Saturday. The liabilities of the Bank were: (on 1st July 1867): $1,851,307, but since that time, the amount has been swollen by speculation to at least 2 Mill. $. The available assets: Real estate, valued at $26,000; cheques on solvent Banks, $49,524; U. St. Bonds, deposited as a basis of circulation $285,500; U. States Bonds, on hand, $3,300; bonds and mortgages $1,900; city certificates $800; cash on hand in Circulating Notes of other Banks, about $27,000; legal tender notes, compound interest notes, fractional currency, specie, and cash in an Albany Bank, to redeem the outstanding Circulation of the Old State Bank, about $100,000; or in all, something less than $500,000. Other assets mentioned, but not available or at least doubtful; probably 1/2 mill. $ is a liberal estimate of the assets; 25% on the Liabilities. This is equivalent to the ruin of 100nds of small tradesmen, poor depositors, farmers etc[.] The effect of the failure was seen in the mob that besieged the doors of the Bk. on Saturday – a weeping, cursing, howling, distracted mob of old men and young men, old women and young women, Yankees, Germans, Irishmen – representatives of the Cosmopolitan population of an American seaport city. The creditors of the Germania and Williamsburgh City Dime Savings’ Bank – whose failure probably involved in that of the „Farmers’ Bk.[“] – surrounded the latter’s doors with frantic demands for their „money“, the Directors of the Savings’ Bk. being unable to afford them any relief. It is unnecessary to dwell on these scenes – being the inevitable concomitants of all Bank failures in all lands.

The Kingston Nl. Bank failed durch speculations on the part of its officers. It was organised under the National System, capital $200,000. The cashier has sunk his own private capital of $130,000, and $70,000 to $80,000 of the money of the Bank; i.e. money of depositors, and the President has withdrawn not less than $90,000 from the Bk. of deposits or currency. The Federal Gvt. is responsible only for the Circulation Notes of the Collapsed Banks, welche secured sind by Federal bonds deposited in Washington. Aber die depositors must look to the humbug mining and stock Cos. for their money. Result: widespread ruin among small traders (shopkeepers) etc and farmers.

The Comptroller of the Currency has made „a black list“, in which appears the names of all Nl. Bks. suspected of unsoundness. It is not exposed to public inspection. Not less than 7 Nl. Bks. – 2 of them New York banks – are in this list described as „shaky“, as most fit to be watched.|

167

Aus:
The Economist, 28. September 1867. S. 1099/1100.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mulholland’s (Irish man of Business) Remarks On the Currency at the Belfast Social Congress.

Any person who contracts a debt comes under an obligation to pay money. … A bill or note may have the effect of postponing the payment of the debtor, while, at the same time, enabling the creditor to anticipate the effect of payment. But the creditor can only realise in the present by the possession of a bill or note the effect of a future payment, by finding some one who has loanable capital at command. When trade is in a natural condition, the supply of this floating uninvested capital is usually equal to the demand, and the interest for loans at its normal state. Aber when a period of speculation and excitement, with inflated prices, had led to a general extension of transactions, there is, necessarily, an increase in the amount of indebtedness. When this indebtedness has to be liquidated, it is found that there has been no corresponding increase in the supply of unemployed capital. In fact, the supply in such cases is generally smaller; for many who formerly preferred the small but sure return from interests to the risk of speculation may have been induced by the contagion of such excitement, and the example of large gains, to withdraw their capital from its accustomed employment, and to embark it in the ventures of the day. The demands for loans having increased, and the supply to meet it diminished, advance nothwendig in the rates of interest demanded by holders and offered by borrowers? Such an advance in the rate of interest is simply an indication that enterprise and speculation have exceeded the limits beyond which they cannot pass with safety. … At last the amount of debt so far exceeds the amount of available loanable capital that a money crisis or panic ensues.

Where trade is „International“ as well as domestic „money[“] must have a real, an intrinsic, an international value. It must not only be the measure of the value of other commodities, and the medium of their payment, but absolutely their equivalent. Gold and Silver alone combine all the necessary conditions.

In the  Diese Geldklemme bemerkte Marx im Manuskript zum dritten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/4.2. S. 205.30).
Schließen
autumn of 1864
we had the first symptoms of the financial pressure that continued with but slight intermissions until its culmination on the 11. May, 1866.

The high rates given for deposits have proved so attractive, that the amount deposited at call, or short notice, in the London Joint Stock Banks alone, now amounts to about 100 millions. Für diese immense liability they keep a small reserve of money in the B. o. England. Diese Bank proceeds to do with them what the bankers who lodged them felt could not be done with safety – it uses them for the discount of mercantile paper, or it includes them with its own reserve. Now, the same money cannot be a reserve for the joint stock Banks and a reserve for the B.o.E. also. It is, in fact, no reserve for the Bk. of England at all, and it ought not to appear as such in their weekly statements, but be noted as „cash held on account of bankers“. In May, 1866, the total reserve shown in those statements seemed at first sight not to be unsatisfactory, but it was in reality less than the balance held on account of other bankers, so that at that time the B.o.E. had no reserve of its own whatever.

We see in the recent history and present position of the commerce of the U. St. a striking example of the effects of an inconvertible currency. Deprived of the healthy check of convertibility, it was certain to become redundant. There had been in that country all the symptoms of a fictitious prosperity – the feeling of an universal increase of wealth. This apparent increase in the value of |168 all property from the inflation of prices was so deceptive, that it misled a leading statesman so far as to make him declare publicly that the war had not only enriched the nation, but added to the wealth of every individual in it. … An artificial level of prices stimulated importations, but it destroyed their export trade, and a heavy balance, due to foreign countries, accumulated against them. To pay this, the money by which they had measured values  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Nonsense!)
was found useless, and fell to a heavy discount. A complete collapse must have occurred before this time had not their Government bonds been received in Europe instead of gold.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. September 1867. S. 1101/1102.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Correspondent. Paris. 26 Sept. 1867.

Pereires.

Abtritt der Pereire vom Credit Mobilier. Vermögen von 4 to 6 Mill. £ St. gemacht. »In success the Pereires were worshipped.« Jezt fällt alles über sie her. Sie haben railways in Frankreich established, a service of no small magnitude, considering the lack of enterprise in this revolution-tossed country. They have, too, had no inconsiderable part in promoting the remarkable extension of material prosperity in France after the Coup d’état.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. September 1867. S. 1103.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Mortality in England in 1865.

490,909 persons died (1865) in England. Davon 199,843 oder 40%, under 5 years of age. 70 in a 1000 of children under 5 years died in the course of the year. The deaths between 5 and 10 years only 19,733, less than 1/10 of the deaths of the first 5 years, and about 1/8 in 1000 living. The third quinquennial period, 10 to 15, is the least mortal of all our lifetime; 10,420, less than 5 in 1000 of the living boys and girls of that age. In an equal number of children under 5 and of children between 10 and 15, 14 of the former die when only 1 of the latter [dies]. From the age of 15 upwards the ratio of mortality never ceases to increase. Von 15 to 20 were 13,484; von 20–65, the working time of life, 155,051, the ratio increasing from less than 1/8 per thousand of that age living in the first decennial to more than 32 in the last. After 65, the ratio increases very rapidly.



October 5, 1867. N. 1258.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Oktober 1867. S. 1122/1123.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Suggestion Introduction (by Mr. Hutton, at Belfast Social Congress) of Prussian Rentbanks into Ireland.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Interest Bearing Currency)

The Prussian Rent Banks seem to us a rudimentary and infantine financial device … Stein had to buy out, on behalf of the peasant cultivators, the manorial Lord. The Rentbanks – no banks at all – were simply a Gvt. department charged with this peculiar financial arrangement. The Govt. valued the interest of the „lord“ at such and at such a sum, and issued to him bonds with 4% interest – bonds in every sort of sum from 30s. to 150l. – payable at the option of the Gvt., but not at the holder’s option. The landlord was compelled to take them, and the idea of issuing them in various sums was that he might keep them or pay them away – in every mode that he thought fit. These bonds were secured on the estate, and the tenant was obliged to pay a certain rent-charge annually for their liquidation. There was an annual „drawing“ (Ziehn wie bei Losen), according to the continental fashion, and the bonds „then drawn“ were discharged out of the sums so paid by the peasants. If the peasants did not pay their annual quota, the State took and used very ample powers of entry and confiscation. Der Lord forced to take these bonds. It is plainly a severe act of despotic finance. … In fact, no interest-bearing security is really suitable to currency purposes, because its value changes from day to day. The interest accrues de die in diem. It is one thing on the 1st Oct. and a greater on the 2nd Oct. A sum, therefore, has to be done whenever the bond changes hands, and no population has ever borne, or will ever bear, a kind of currency requiring so much labour … |169 Prussia may have much to teach us in other departments; but, surely money is our own subject; we understand that if we understand anything. And so it is.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Herr Jesus!)



October 12, 1867. N. 1259.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1153/1154.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Money Market here and in France.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Credit Mobilier etc) (Cotton, Wheat etc)

The Credit Mobilier Co. (in France) was raised up to be a kind of Providence in the moneymarket, and its stoppage, therefore, troubles people. It was raised up, according to its original programme, to „regenerate industry“, and it was known to have the Gvt. aid in so doing. Its original statutes are full of the most patriotic aims … L. Bonaparte patronised the Crédit Mobilier, and we see the result. A pretty full list of the shares it holds has been given, and greater rubbish could not have been collected, worse even than those of our Finance Cos. They, at least, have had no political aspect, but the Crédit Mobilier has. It is the representative of the „Imperial Initiative“, and when it fails, the Empire is damaged.

The state of the Cotton Trade, of Liverpool especially, is gloomy. Cotton has been falling in price rapidly. In Indian cotton, it is probable that many have been obliged to sell to meet bills drawn upon them, and it is not yet at all clear that the price has gone down to the point at which the manufacturers will begin to work. Before the cotton famine we had „Three years’ clothes in advance for the human race“. Beforehand, this great supply was called overproduction; but it had the best effect. It enable enabled us to get through the cotton famine with ease otherwise impossible. But until the whole world is satisfied that cotton has reached its final fall, no similar stock will again be accumulated. The fall in the raw material is ruining many, but no corresponding augmentation of our manufacture occupies our surplus capital or employs our population.

Wheat crop bad (barley und oats good.) Our foreign purchases will have to be large. The largest augmentation (in wheat import) is from Russia; and the Russian exchange almost never rises to the point at which gold goes. Large orders, too, are gone to California.

Slack Employment: The bad state of credit has, undoubtedly, made the employment of the people worse than it has been for a long time. In some departments, f.i. iron trade, the prospects are improving. Still, compared mit late years, employment will be bad, and consumption too. This evil is of a self-intensifying kind. The worse any trade is, the less those engaged in it can spend on other things, and the worse, therefore, the trade in such other things will be also.

Aus:
The Economist, 5. Oktober 1867. S. 1121.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

L. Bonaparte’s Cost.

 Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen
Der Economist sagt in einer früheren Nummer, daß L. B. Europa, on average, 40 Mill. £. St. gekostet hat in Rüstungen, Armies, Krieg etc.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1155.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Our Wheat Crop.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Lawes’ Experimental fields)

Mr. Lawes’ experimental fields in Hertfordshire consist of land of fair quality on a chalk subsoil, which has also been artificially drained, and for 24 years wheat has been grown, year after year, on one portion of the land without any manure; on another portion, with a yearly dressing of farm yard manure; and on several other portions, with dressings of artificial manures, varying on each portion, but the dressing on each constituting in fact high farming. In other respects, |170 each portion is treated like every other. „As the preparation of the land“  Zusatz von Marx. Marx exzerpierte John Bennet Lawes’ Artikel in „The Times“ vom 5. Oktober 1867 im Januar/Februar 1868 in „Heft I. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 360).
Schließen
(dieß alles aus J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, Herts, Letter to Times)
„the quantity of seed sown, the time of sowing, and every other operation is each year the same for all the plots, the difference of result between plot and plot in the same year is due to the difference in manuring; and as the operations are also conducted, as far as possible, in the same way from year to year, the variation in the produce of one year compared with another should represent the variation of the climatic conditions or season.“ Lawes notices that von 1860 to 1863, there was a progressively increasing yield from year to year; the great crop of 1863 having been the largest grown during the whole series of 24 years, while the subsequent 5 crops show a progressively declining yield. There is little doubt that these cycles of advancing and declining crops are due to season, and that the same results will be found to have occurred in the ordinary farm crops during the same seasons.

On the plot unmanured crop of 1866 bushels 121/8 of dressed corn per acre, in 1867 only 87/8 bushels, decline of nearly 1/3. Average produce of the unmanured land for 15 years, 1852–1866 was 151/4 bushels per acre; that of 1863, the largest, was 171/4 bushels. On the plot manured with 14 tons of farm yard manure to the acre, produce in 1866 was 325/8 bush., in 1867 bush. 271/2. On the plot dressed with artificial manure, the highest farmed and most productive, 1866 321/2, in 1867 291/8 bush. p. acre – the average crops for 15 years on the 2 last plots being 355/8 und 361/8 per acre respectively – falling off in this year, compared mit last year, but the proportion of deficiency is nothing like so great on the „unmanured“, i.e., ill-farmed land. The produce of 1867 is not only less than that of any of the 4 preceding years, but also „very inferior to the average of the preceding 15 years“. The produce without manure is unusually low, „indicating that the season was specially unfavourable for the crop on lands out of condition“. The quality of the grain, as show shown by the weight, per bushel, is above the average in every case, except where there was no manure employed. On the unmanured land, the wheat this year was 56-1 lbs per bushel, against an average for 15 years 75-5 lbs p. bush. Here again, we see the greatest loss from season falls on the poor farmer. Lawes estimated the crop of 1866 at 10% below the average, fears the present will be 20% less than the average.

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1155/1156.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money and Trades Unions.

If the Trades’ Unions can, as they say, „raise the price of all things“, where do they get the money to pay that augmented price? Under a metallic circulation, as a rule, higher prices require more of the precious metals. The operations of the Trades’ Union have no tendency to improve Banking. The „consumer“, as he existed before the rise of prices, cannot find the money. He is very commonly a person mit fixed income. If he buys less of one thing, he must buy more of another. The new money must be found, either by making the miner work harder and so bring fresh gold into the world, or by changing the distribution of gold, and diverting to the country affected by the Trades’ Unions a part of the gold which used to go elsewhere. Beides unmöglich. Wenn the Trades Unions can cause a general rise of price, how will they get more gold for the same things?  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Der Esel hätte sagen sollen: How they get more things for more gold.)

Aus:
The Economist, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 1159/1160.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The State and the Currency. (Communicated)

Mr. Patterson in Fortnightly [Review] (July, 1867) proposes: „That the State should secure the substantial value of the note circulation, by requiring that every bank of issue shall deposit with a Gvt. office an amount of Consols fully equal to its note issue, at the same time allowing each bank to security secure the convertibility of its own notes, by keeping in |171 inhand hand so much gold as experience shows in each case to be requisite.“

What we (the State Currency men gegen Patterson) propose is, that all banknotes above a certain amount to be fixed by the H.o.C. should be issued by Gvt. in exchange for properly assayed gold, 22 carats fine, at the rate of 77s. 101/2d. p. ounce, exactly as sovereigns are now issued by the Mint in exchange for the same kind of gold at the same rate. Giving banknotes in exchange for bullion at the exact value of this last per standard ounce, and which is to lie idle in a vault as long as the amount of banknotes which represents it is in circulation, is a very different thing from being a dealer in bullion, nor does it involve any transactions in either home or foreign securities. The H.o.C. must determine what amount of banknotes may be issued against securities other than gold coin or bullion  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Blödsinn!)
, and this amount banknotes should be unalterable without their consent. The duty of the Gvt. would be simply to take care that any one who wanted banknotes for bullion or gold coin should be able to get them, or vice versa. This could be arranged by 3 issuing establishments at London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, where stores of bullion, gold coin, and banknotes should be kept for the purpose of being exchanged one for the other according to the wants of the public. The State banknotes legal tender everywhere but at the issuing establishments; here they would be simple certificates on gold. They should go as low as one sovereign; dadurch holders of banknotes kept away from the issuing establishments until they required gold for exportation, and the tedious process of changing 5£ St notes into sovereigns, and back again into 5£ notes, would be thereby avoided. Any one who lived in Scotland or Ireland, will admit the 1l. notes’ convenience of carriage and superiority to sovereigns, often light, and to be weighed. The legitimate business of a banker to lend and borrow money already in existence. To each of the 3 issuing departments, there should be a Gvt Clearing House Department, open to all bankers on payment of an annual fee; they should be permitted to settle with each other by drafts on the reserves they have previously lodged at the Clearing House Department, such drafts to be payable to Clearing bankers only.



October 19, 1867. N. 1260.

Aus:
The Economist, 19. Oktober 1867. S. 1181/1182.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Low Price of Bank Shares and its Dangers.

Low price of Bank Shares now and high prices derselben 2 years ago. As a rule people do not keep at the bankers, without interest, more than the sum of money which they want for current expenditure, and this they must keep somewhere. If a man distrusts the old banker, he selects a new banker, and the aggregate result – the sum total of the money – on the running accounts of all banks is not diminished. Auch die interest bearing deposits, trotz low rate of interest, probably, as great or nearly as great as ever. Even at this low rate, people do not know what better to do with their money. They do not like to go into the funds at a high price. Four causes of the fall in the Prices of the Bankshares: 1) Banking far less profitable trade than it once was. Zwar nicht so fluctuating as the public quotations of the value of money would indicate. A great deal of money is employed at 5% by country bankers in the discount of local bills, which they know to be good, which are not known, and by their nature cannot be |172 known in the London market. In respect to the great London joint stock banks (and in a minor degree, to almost all other banks, too[)], they charge far less, they also give far less; lose therefore not out of their profits the whole difference of the discount. Trotzdem on the whole banking far less profitable.

2) Many banks, besonders those conspicuous banks whose shares are most watched, have greatly increased their capital. A banker, it is true, wants no capital in his own proper business; as Ricardo justly said, a banker does not begin his true business till he begins to deal with the capital of others. Aber die public demands rightly, that a banker should have a visible guarantee fund to meet the possible losses he may make with their money, and that this fund should be approximately [proportionate] to that money.

3) Leeman’s bill has put a stop to the speculative (dealing in) sale of bankshares. A low price of bankshares is the greatest of all temptations to joint stock bankers. The only mode of raising the value of the shares is to augment the dividends und, in order to augment that dividend quickly, managers take statt securities insecurities. This season of cheap money is the season for warning. It is in that sort of time that the beginnings of panics are laid; and may be laid the sooner if from any accidental cause, like this low value of their shares, bankers or other money lenders, should be unduly anxious to employ their money, and unduly regardless of the quality of the securities upon which it should be employed.



October 26, 1867. N. 1261.

Aus:
The Economist 26. Oktober 1867. S. 1209/1210.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Liverpool Bank Scandal  Bemerkung von Marx.
Schließen
(In Money Market Review zu sehn[)].

Aus:
The Economist 26. Oktober 1867. S. 1211–1213.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Finance of Trade Unions.

The most remarkable point elicited by the London Commissioners, that they are all insolvent, even the Amalgamated Carpenters und Amalgamated Engineers. The Unions join together the most dissimilar things in the world – the cost of supporting men in sickness and old age, and the cost, or alleged cost, of getting them good wages; benefit societies – and strike societies, strikes are an incalculable element; no one can tell how often they may happen, how long they may last, and what their cost may be. You might as well endeavour to settle a priori the cost of a continental war. This matter was referred to an Actuary by the Commissioners. The rules of the Amalgamated Carpenters Society provide that in consideration of a contribution of 1sh. weekly, each member shall be entitled to 12s. a week when sick, to from 5 to 8s. a week when old, according to the duration of his membership, and to a funeral benefit of 12l. These die objects of ordinary friendly societies, but, in addition to these, the society gives help to members „out of work from causes other than sickness“, i.e. in the disputes with masters, and aids in emigration, as well as upon the loss of trade tools. Mr. Tucker, the Actuary, stated he could form no estimate of the liabilities from such sources; as they depend upon human passions. When a Trades’ Union will quarrel with an employer, or pay members to leave the district, cannot be determined by statistics. If a merchant were asked to pay his life insurance premiums, either to defray the costs of „lock-outs“, or to provide for his family after his death, he would think the proposer mad … It may be said a member |173 of a Trades’ Union might make himself tolerably safe by paying a considerable weekly payment in addition to that required by benefit societies, by paying a large strike premium over and above his common benefit premium. But he does precisely the reverse. The actuary who reported upon the 2 model societies (Engineers und Carpenters) reported that, even as benefit societies, and not including the wages-augmenting element, they were completely insolvent. The subscriptions utterly inadequate even for an ordinary benefit society. „If“, says Tucker, the actuary, „the society continues to be conducted upon its present footed footing, although a continued influx of new members may defer the period, the Amalgamated Carpenters und Joiners Society must ultimately become bankrupt.“ A society which has such future liabilities as a superannuation, may easily have large funds in hand, and yet be wholly unsound; more especially when it has been very many years in existence, and only admits young members. In the first years of a superannuation office, as in the first years of a life insurance, the incomings are present, but the outgoings are postponed. Members are attracted by the „strike element“ to join bad benefit societies. The Central Committee of the Union are sure to have immense funds in hand from the „benefit payments“. Out of the monies subscribed for sickness and old age they can, if they like, fight the employers. If they had to deal with a strike fund alone, they would have in comparison but an empty treasury. The constant hopes and the continual payments of a benefit society keep the strike society together; but if the strike society cannot hold together of itself, it ought to fall. One of the first and most necessary reforms is the separation of the 2 elements of the provident fund from the „contentious fund“.



November 2. 1867. N. 1262.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. November 1867. S. 1241/1242.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Trades Unions’ Finance.

The societies are as yet financially young; their superannuation fund does not begin to tell for years, because they only take young members. Therefore, their great apparent prosperity quite consist consistent with real insolvency, even so far as the risks of old age and sickness are themselves concerned. But if you added to these liabilities the strike liabilities, the insolvency is indisputable.

Aus:
The Economist, 2. November 1867. S. 1243.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bank of England.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Separate Reserves for Bankers’ Accounts)

If the Banks all issued notes, and at the same time instituted an efficient system of note exchanges by means of which they returned to one another the notes of their respective issues, as in Scotland, the return by the Banks of the notes in circulation made up immediately after a general exchange of notes would represent the notes in the hands of the general public as distinguished from the banks. As a matter of fact, such a return is made weekly by the banks in Scotland, and shown, in round figures, that the 1l. notes in circulation 2,500,000l. und die notes of 5l. and upwards, 1,500,000l. These returns show with great accuracy the amount of the natural circulation of the country. Aber in England there is a national circulation und an artificial or factitious circulation. The national circulation is the notes in transitu, or circulation outside the banks. The artificial consists mostly of the B. o. England notes held in reserve by the non-issuing banks. The amount |174 so held varies, not according to the actual requirements of the public, but the anticipated requirements, and in times of mistrust the apprehensions of the non-issuing banks. Daher die increase in the apparent circulation on 9. und 16 May 1866. The increase in that one week was nearly 4 millions. This operated on the B.o.E. reserves precisely as if much bullion shipped out of the country. Wären die Bankers accounts getrennt gewesen von der übrigen Reserve, so on 16. May, 1866, supposing they held 10 Mill. £ belonging to other banks, all the specie they had of their own was 2,323,805l. against 41,207,708l. of liabilities, for 11,120,995l. of which they were under statutory obligation to provide a separate reserve of gold.



9 November 1867. N. 1263.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. November 1867. S. 1265/1266.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

State of Trade.

Aggregate Exports for the 9 months ending 30 Sept.
1866. 1867.
£.141,936,898. £.137,202,497.

Die Imports much less than last year. 1866: £.155,812,883 und 1867: £141,448,055 für die 8 months ended 31st August. Aber die 2 capital items have curiously changed

Cotton. Corn.
1866: £58,204,544. 1867. £39,752,424. 1866: £:8,192,693. 1867: 14,680,483

Corn. Wheat.
From: 1866 1866. (in £) 1867. (in £)
Russia £.2,263,829 £.5,334,125
Denmark 182,637 233,112
Prussia 1,755,805 3,437,432
Schleswig Holstein et Lauenburg 72,284 63,093
Mecklenburg 326,064 427,081
Hanse Towns 337,494 341,815
France 1,676,745 361,220
Turkey, Wallachia, Moldavia 150,432 1,030,200
Ejypt 5,565 254,344
U. States 180,658 1,285,863
British North America 4,156 2,273
Other Countries 1,237,024 1,909,880
Total 8,192,693 14,680,438.

Die imports of other sorts of corn, and of wheat, meal, and flour, not in the aggregate very different from last year.

Import of Cotton. Raw.
From 1866. 1867.
Unit. States £.29,349,669 22,606,517
Bahamas und Bermudas 46,816 56,437
Mexico 28,591 121
Brazil 3,973,456 2,716,300
Turkey 515,714 273,333
Ejypt 6,626,740 6,674,842
Brit. India 16,139,879 6,942,842
China 78,000 20,965
Other Countries 1,445,679 1,061,067
Total. 58,204,544 39,752,424

Prussia and Russia the largest creditors on the Continent; take as a rule not much bullion; great falling off of the Indian debt for cotton, which has of late absorbed so much für bullion.|

175

Aus:
The Economist, 9. November 1867. S. 1266/1267.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Trades Unions and Friendly Societies.

Mr. Pitt, in 1793, passed the first law relating to Friendly Societies, followed by a whole crowd of successors. Ihr aim: to exempt from the general prohibition of combination certain particular associations so as to encourage and protect „by voluntary subscriptions of the member thereof, separate funds for the mutual relief and maintenance of the members in sickness, age, infirmity“. Viele „friendly societies“ solvent, many insolvent. Und insolvency often very gross, selbst in sehr respectable societies. Thus „The Preston Branch of the Manchester Union“ had a deficiency of 23,880. The favours given to the Friendly Societies:

1) The right of suing, and being sued at law, especially, what was vital, the right of suing their own members for arrears, and their own officers for defalcation. The right was, indeed, given in an absurd way. In the case of Joint Stock banks, those constituted under the original Act, cannot sue for themselves, a public officer must sue for them. Friendly societies are under the same disability; they cannot sue on their own account as a Railway Co. does; a trustee has to sue for them.

2) Exemption of the transfer of interests in them from certain stamp duties, though only to a certain amount.

Wegen dieser privileges der Friendly Societies, all other associations of workmen tried to be Friendly Societies whatever else they were, and so to gain the right of suing their defaulting members and officers. Und dieß um so easier als, by a series of enactments, it had become very difficult to say what a Friendly Society was or was not. No blame can be attached to the founders of the Trades Unions for coupling together 2 antagonistic aims, for the law encouraged them in it, and gave them no chance of gaining that for which they most cared, unless they attempted the other also. The attempt was, however, vain. Aber Judges decided that Strike Societies were illegal as in restraint of trade; and, therefore, that although they were benefit societies also, they could not sue for payments in arrears by members, or for sums in the custody of defaulting and resisting officers. So die Trades Unions are now wholly unable either to sue or be sued. No legal defect can be more absurd or fatal. We cannot understand those who wish that these societies should be half legal and half illegal. That they be permitted to combine, but not allowed to provide the funds which alone make that combination effectual. Abolish all notion of wages-combinations being in restraint of trade; we professed to legalise these combinations years ago, and now it would be impossible to destroy them by a sidewind, and pernicious to attempt it.

Aus:
The Economist, 9. November 1867. S. 1272.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Occupation of land in England.

The tenant farmer would make a great sacrifice in purchasing land; he would be employing his money at 3%, instead of 15. In fact, he borrows the largest amount of the capital at a rate which does not exceed 3%.

Upon similar grounds the yeoman sells his freehold. He will not hold a property which yields him 3%, when he can get for the money which he obtains for it, perhaps 5% on a perfectly secure mortgage, 7% by building or buying cottages, or 10 to 15% in some industrial enterprise. Land, hier, at the market price, of 30 years’ purchase, lower than in France, Holland, Belgium. Some of the largest properties in Europe are to be found in Belgium.|


176

November 16, 1867. N. 1264.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. November 1867. S. 1296/1297.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Economic Side of the Workhouse Inquiry.

Quite clear from the evidence already received by the Commission of Enquiry that the report des Lancet upon the Farnham Workhouse was undertoned. It is rare to meet, even in fiction, with anything quite so horrible as the little story of the sick pauper woman, roasted to death from sheer supine neglect. … wretched race of „masters“ selected to keep down masterful beggars.

The main source and reason of all the barbarities now exciting so much just indignation has been the desire to save expense, to keep the rates as far as possible „down“. Das management der workhouses is mean, aber zugleich viel waste, peculation etc. Local boards are not good managers of money, as we all know from the experience of vestries and municipalities, and local boards working through contracts are peculiarly liable to imposition and jobbery. Witnesses seem to doubt whether (in dem Farnham case) supplies paid for ever arrived. At all events it is quite clear the workhouse did not get the full benefit of its position as a great wholesale buyer.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. November 1867. S. 1301.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bank of England (Communicated)

A banknote is a promise to pay, a cheque is an order to pay, no analogy between them. A banknote is a transferable promise on the part of a bank to pay to bearer, on demand, a certain amount of coined gold; it circulates side by side with gold in endless succession; it liquidates debts like coin; and men in business are practically bound to accept it when in circulation. A cheque is an order to a banker to pay over a specified sum of money; it requires endorsement on being paid, nor is any one practically bound to accept it when offered to him in payment of a debt etc[.] An order to pay Notes is not the Notes themselves.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. November 1867. S. 1301.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railways’ Cos’ Act of 1867  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Auditors)

Durch seine clause 30 haben die shareholders control through the auditors und leztre responsibility they had not before. It is a striking fact that the auditors have never discovered, or at any rate disclosed, any one of the numerous cases of forgery of stock, false returns to the Board of Trade, payment of unearned dividends, charging of revenue expenses to capital, or any other of the various forms of „cooking“ accounts by which shareholders have been lured to ruin by their directors.

Aus:
The Economist, 16. November 1867. S. 1301.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Iron Production in Sweden. (1860–1866)

Production Tons. Export to England. Export to other countries. Total
Export.
1860 134,700 tons. 51,000 44,600 95,700
1861 142,600 32,200 37,100 69,300
1862 126,200 42,700 44,800 87,500
1863 123,000 45,600 45,100 90,700
1864 135,000 45,000 48,300 93,300
1865 146,100 43,400 44,500 87,900
1866 164,200 56,000 57,300 113,300

Nov. 23. 1867. N. 1265.

Aus:
The Economist, 23. November 1867. S. 1324/1325.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Necessities from Improved Statistics of the Supply, Consumption und Stocks of Cotton in this Country.

leztens(?) falsche Angaben der Cotton Brokers’ Association at Liverpool, haben a close monopoly over trade, and maintain it by the usual expedients. Of late years oft excess of the actual over the estimated quantities in bond. Ausserdem cotton trade has outgrown even the progress of Liverpool. London is rapidly becoming a considerable port in the cotton trade – especially as regards arrivals and stocks.|


177

30 November, 1867. N. 1266.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. November 1867. S. 1352.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Financing. The Details of an Actual Example. (London, Chatham, and Dover Railway und Peto)

Vor May 1866 system in vogue to raise money in the discount markets for „financing“ purposes by the creation of fictitious bills purporting to be drawn on the Continent, America, and elsewhere; Accommodation bills of the very worst character – of persons trading under false pretences and Credit.

Early, in 1866, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway was in extremis, violent effort made to avert the crash. By a certain elaborate machinery of trusts, the Railway Co. purported to contract to sell to Peto certain lands at Blackfriars said to be surpland surplus land, aber nach evidence der parties now before the Courts, not surplus or available land at all. Upon the security of these alleged available lands, Peto arranged on 21 Febr. 1866, for an advance of 135,000l. from the then Imperial Mercantile Credit Association, which failed in June, 1866, and for 190,000l. (in all 325,000l.) from the General Credit and Finance Company. These 2 Cos. were not to advance any actual money at all. They were to give their acceptance to Bills to be drawn from time to time during a twelvemonth by „firms or individuals resident on the Continent of Europe, and in that behalf approved by the Credit Cos.“; and the bills so drawn and accepted were to be handed to the Borrowers „for Discount“. The Credit cos. were to be paid a commission of 5% for the twelvemonth; i.e. 6,750l. as commission on the 135,000l. und 9,500l. as commission on the 190,000l.; and in the untoward event of the Finance Cos. being at any time under actual cash advance, the rate of interest to be charged by them was to be 4% p. annum above the minimum Bankrate; such rate never to be computed for this purpose at less than 8% p.a.; so that for the use of actual cash, the Borrowers had to pay 12% interest and 5% commission.

The following are the actual clauses of the Deed of 21 Feb. 1866:

3) „The Credit Co. (Mercantile Credit Association) will advance to the said Sir M. Peto the sum of 135,000l., and such advance shall be made by Bills of Exchange to be from time to time drawn by firms or individuals resident on the Continent of Europe and on that behalf approved by the Credit Co, who shall accept the same accordingly, and deliver the same to the said trustees for discount.“

4) „The said advance and credit shall continue for the space of 12 Calendar Months from the 21 Febr. 1866, and during that period all Bills to be accepted by the Credit Co. as aforesaid, shall be satisfied out of the proceeds from fresh Bills to be drawn on and accepted by the Credit Company as aforesaid, so that the Credit Co. shall never be called on to pay the said Bills or any of them.“

6) „The said Sir M. Peto shall pay all stamps in respect of the said Bills, and all costs and charges and expenses of, or in anywise incident to, the said loan or transaction.“

7) „The said Sir M. Peto shall, as and when the Bills for the said sum of 135,000l. be presented for acceptance, as the consideration for such acceptance, pay to the Credit Co a commission of 5l. p.c. on the amount thereof for the whole period of 12 months.[“]

8) In case the Credit Co. shall pay any of the Bills so drawn as foresaid, the said Sir M. Peto will forthwith repay to them the amount paid by them, with interest thereon at the rate of 4l. p.c. above the current rate of discount at the time being, at the Bank of England, from the time of such payment to the time of such repayment as aforesaid, such Bankrates never to be computed at less than 8%.

The 325,000l. in money was to be taken from the Discount Market, at any rates which might be necessary, and applied to the purchase of materials for partly finishing |178 a London Railway. But the transaction was to be disguised by procuring Bills to be drawn from abroad in amounts, appearance, and dates, as nearly like ordinary mercantile Bills as possible, and the process was to go on by means of renewals for at least a year. The Finance Co. came forward as the intermediate party, and carried off 5% commission for the use of his name.

We see, in this case, the exact details of the kind of transactions by means of which the Rate of Discount was carried to and maintained at the exorbitant figures which prevailed so long before the final collapse of May 1866. So long as Overend and Co.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(und andre!)
could keep their credit, there was a place in London where Bills of the kind in question were not too severely criticised.

The Finance Co. fared badly by this transaction. Of course the „firms or individuals resident on the Continent of Europe“ being mostly boys in offices signing Bills at a few shillings a quire were quite unprepared to provide 325,000l. Peto was still less prepared – and the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway even still less than Peto. The Finance Cos., therefore, were left to find the money as well as they could, claim now against Peto and the Railway, for the principal, interests, and Commission. It was alleged last Session before the Parliamentary Committee on the London, Chatham, and Dover Bill, that the Borrowers, so far, were more acute than the Lenders; that not only was the alleged surplus land not really available, but that the same pieces or plot of land were positively made to do duty as security on the same day to the 2 lending Cos., that is to say, the land was pledged twice over.

Aus:
The Economist, 30. November 1867. S. 1357.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Landlord and Yearly Tenants.

Wm. Walton, (farmer) of Clawton, near Alton, Hants, writes to the papers: „It is neither the want of capital, industry, nor judgement that keeps the farmer poor and the land half cultivated, but it [is] the want of security for the extra capital employed upon the land. All landlords who do not give sufficient security for capital laid out upon their farms, particularly cold clays, are the whole and sole cause of the land not being properly cultivated. 1/3 or 1/2 more corn, beef, mutton, pork, and all other food for men, could be produced in old England by this little word security.“



7 December 1867. N. 1267.

Aus:
The Economist 7. Dezember 1867. S. 1377/1378.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.

England is a large importer of vegetable produce, and, therefore, her paying account is largely dependent on the season of the year. All tropical produce on the one hand, and all the produce of iceclosed northern countries on the other, are paid for in the autumn, and, perhaps, the greater part in the later autumn, and, therefore, the value of money always, other causes being taken out of the account, tends to rise from October onwards. … An augmenting trade is necessary to employ our gradually accumulating capital. If even for a year trade does not increase, a certain amount of saving clogs the market which it is difficult to employ. Now both Imports and Exports less than last year.

1866 1867
Imports (9 months) 174,168,898£. 161,963,750l.
Exports (10 months) 158,832,792l. 153,051,639l.

But if trade should revive, there is not yet any great accumulation of |179 capital to keep down the rate of interest. Much bullion in the Bank of England und Bank of France, aber their liabilities have also much amended. The private deposits of the Bank of England were: 1864: £12,666,764, 1867: £,18,507,007. In the Bank of France no increase of deposits, but of note circulation. 1864 nämlich £.28,891,656 und 1867: £45,693,632.

Aus:
The Economist, 7. Dezember 1867. S. 1382.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paris 5 December. Credit Mobilier.

Meeting of Shareholders Saturday last. Danach Verlust durch decline in the values of securities held f.51,192,260. Presumed Loss on different accounts (bills, advances to Cos., doubtful Credits) 3,160,886. Zusammen 54,353,146; Nach Abrechnung von Profits: f.47,542,000 (= 1,901,688 £ St) Dieß loss. Liabilities: f.68,152,000. Assets: 143,402,000f. Bleibt balance of 72,250,000f. Aber capital actually paid up f.122,792,000 out of 124,000,000 due. Bleibt der obige loss of 1,901,688l. St. Die shareholders wanted to have a detail of the securities held by the Mobilier; verweigert, because such a document would encourage adverse speculation. Aber aus dem Report des Censors ergiebt sich, that part of the securities consist of debentures of the North of Spain Railway, and the Immobilière Co., the Transatlantic Steam Navigation Co. to 28,675,000f., and shares of the Magasins Généraux, North of Spain Railw., Immobilière Co, Spanish Credit Mobilier for 22,500,000f.



December 21, 1867. N. 1269.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Dezember 1867. S. 1437/1438.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Why Money is dearer in the Autumn than in the Spring.

Our imports are smallest in the beginning of the year, and augment continually as the years year goes on. Accordingly, we have more to pay in the autumn, and money is dearer; and less in the spring, and money is cheaper.

Allerdings andrerseits our exports grow too as the year goes on, wie die folgende Table zeigt:

Monthly Imports. Import. Exports. Monthly Exports.
1865. 1866. 1867. 1865. 1866. 1867.
Jan. 6,348,256l. 9,847,564l. 9,452,759l. 10,489,339l. 14,354,748l. 12,786,842l.
Febr. 12,855,353 16,610,192 14,828,289 11,376,214 16,116,063 14,446,072
March 13,010,659 19,891,687 17,183,770 13,770,154 17,520,354 15,148,707
April 13,079,816 22,455,968 18,701,332 12,071,111 15,366,414 13,804,908
May 14,595,979 23,225,301 23,275,243 13,194,758 15,870,131 15,936,864
June 15,409,877 23,243,939 20,054,958 13,227,062 14,630,120 15,490,091
July 18,964,728 19,597,929 18,166,789 14,113,410 14,957,834 15,562,430
August 21,000,023 20,940,303 19,784,915 14,158,648 17,450,156 17,880,999
Sept. 21,633,447 18,356,015 20,515,950 17,316,681 16,671,078 16,145,584
15,547,225 16,895,894 15,849,142.

Die augmentation der Exports aber nicht so great as die der imports.

But an increase of export trade, combined with an increase of import trade, would of itself rise raise the value of loanable capital; it would bring more bills and more warrants to Lombard street, even though no gold was exported. But there is a tendency to export gold; da wir mehr Credit für unsre exports geben als wir commonly take for our imports; and, |180 therefore, what we have to pay comes to be paid sooner than what we receive comes to be received – thus making the balance against us.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Dezember 1867. S. 1438/1439.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Panic in the Railways.

There has been so much painful experience, so many boards of directors have circulated so much which misled, that all which boards now say is searched between the lines; is suspected of ambiguity even when plain; is taken in a sense unfavourable to the railwhen railway whenever doubtful; is believed when against the board, and disbelieved when for the Board. Staat soll official Accounts machen.

Aus:
The Economist, 21. Dezember 1867. S. 1439–1441.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

American finance. McCulloch’s Report (1st Nov. 1867)

Dollar = 3s., die Revenues der U. St. now 73,595,098l. (waren zwischen 12 und 13 Mill. vor dem Krieg.) (Darunter von Customs 26,452,671 und von Internal Revenue: £39,904,130.

Expenditure for the year ending June 30, 1867 war: 52,009,367l. McCulloch proposes to reduce the taxation to the level of expenditure, or nearly so. Sein Estimate for 30 June 1868 ist: Revenue: £62,574,288 und Expenditure: 58,990,381l.

Paper dollar now about 70 cents to the coin dollar, nearly 3s. instead of 4s. 2d.

McCulloch hat greatly reduced the currency. Nach dem Chronicle (New York):

Currency on 1st Nov. 1865: $929,767,080 vis. 454,218,038$ Greenbacks and fractional currency,
270,000,000$ National and State Bank notes
205,549,042$ Interest bearing notes.
Currency on 1st Nov. 1867: $772,040,669 vis. 387,871,277$ Greenbacks und fractional Currency
297,980,095$ Nl. and State bank notes
71,875,040$ Interest Bearing Notes
Reduction in 2 years of $172,040,669 oder nearly 26 mill £ St. Much discussion has arisen why this great diminution has not brought the value of paper nearer to the value of gold. But the greater part of the reduction, say 19 Mill. l. on the Interest bearing Notes which, like Exchequer bills, do not pass easily from hand to hand. Ausserdem Geschäft contracted seit  Gemeint ist der Amerikanische Bürgerkrieg.
Schließen
war
, so daß ohne McCulloch’s interference, paper would have gone down much lower.

On the 31st August 1865 Federal debt on highest point: $2,757,689,571.
On 1st November 1867 $2,491,594,450.

In der Debt included alles legal paper (Issued by the Federal Gvt.)



December 28, 1867. N. 1270.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. Dezember 1867. S. 1471/1472.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Conciliation versus Strike.

Mundella, eminent employer of labour in the Midland counties.

Of any particular trade, it is usual to say that the price of labour ought to be the same as in any other trade, but this, if true, only shifts the difficulty, for what then settles the price of labour in all trades. And, in accurate science, it is not true, for a rise or fall in wages, when legitimate, must begin somewhere, and the trade which takes the lead ought not to be proscribed because it is the first.|

181

Some say: „Trades’ Unions are not wanted; the men need not be disappointed at not getting an increase of wages now. Capital will flow into the trade, if wages there are lower than in other trades, and the incoming of that capital will at once raise wages.“ Aber, thus it may be said, when masters propose a reduction: „You, too, need not be so anxious about it; if you do not get the reduction now, you will get it soon,“ – that is if you ought to get it. Supposing wages are higher in that trade than in other trades, capital will flow out of the trade, and that which remains will be rewarded better. Of course both these augments are arguments of pure theory; no capitalist ever voluntarily submitted to pay more wages than he could help, because, even if he did so, wages would be gradually reduced by an inevitable diminution of competition; nor will labourers ever, to the end of the world, give up a claim to an augmentation of wages, because their successors, or even themselves in later life, will have an increase by the gradual augmentation of employment. Both capitalist and operative always look to the present, and not to the future market.

Mundella sucht zu settle by friendly bargain. Since 1860, he and others have worked at Nottingham a joint council of operatives and capitalists, who after due argument settle what shall be paid. These he calls courts of conciliation. As to their structure we own we are rather sceptical. We fear the critical question will be: „Is the casting vote to be given to the master or to the workmen?“ As to the decision of any tribunal, we have great doubts. Aber jedenfalls „Before a strike has occurred, it is far easier to reason calmly than after a strike.[“]

Mundella says: „When difficulties mit den workmen – they had the actual samples of the native and foreign manufacture on the table before them, with the prices: they went into the whole question of competition, and showed the delegate (of the workmen) that with the increase demanded, it was impossible to compete with the foreign trade. Experience of 7 years“ zufrieden stellend.

We doubt, says Economist, about the composition of the Nottingham board, but as to the desirability of some such board, and some such discussion, at all places, we have no doubt whatever.

Aus:
The Economist, 28. Dezember 1867. S. 1476.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Farmers and Farm leases.

John B. Brandram, of Chapmore End, near Ware, Herts, know known in the district as an enterprising farmer, writes:

„Die farmers verlangen meist keine leases, weil the dislike of the great majority of our landowners to grant leases is so well-known, that most applicants for farms would think it a mere farce and waste of words to ask for one. The competition for farms is so great, owing, in a great measure, to the increase of the population, and the decrease of the number of farms, that when there is a farm to let, there is nearly always a great number of applications for it, and thus the owner can dictate his own terms, which generally are a yearly tenancy, with 6 months’ notice to quit … Rents have risen so much during the last few years, that many farmers are afraid to incur the responsibility of paying the present rent for a term of wages … Besides, a prudent man may well hesitate to bind himself to the payment of a fixed rental for a 14 years’ lease in the face of a probable heavy increase in his labour account.“ Another Tenantfarmer writes: „Suppose the farm to be fairly drained, it must be manured. A good dressing of London dung costs 4l. per acre; and to feed bullocks and make the manure in the yards at the present prices of feedingstuffs, straw, and meat, will cost nearly as much. This manure will directly improve the land through |182 the whole course of the rotation of crops 5 or 6 years, and indirectly, by the increase of green crops for many more years … I maintain that as soon as a yearly tenant goes beyond the old crop and fallow system his investment is not commercially sound … Why is it that so little of the abundant surplus capital of the country is invested in the cultivation of the soil? Simply because there is no security.“|


183

Register der obigen Auszüge aus dem Economist für 1866 und 1867.

1) Money Market. (1866)

  • p. 11, 13, 19, 32, 33, 34, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47. Sharemarket (52) Rise in the Rate of Interest (5 May) (52) Sharemarket (53) State of the City, Panic (53, 54) Money Market 55, 56. Comparative view of Money Market 1856–66 (59, 60) Bankshares (60) Money Market 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 91. Reduction of Discount Rate 93 92. Money Market (96, 97, 99, 101, 104, 106, 110) (Bank o. England 110, 111) 117, 118. Rates of Discount on Continent (31)
  • Money Market (1866) Before Crisis (1 (Eight P.C)[)], Prospective Value of Money in 1866, p. 1, 3, Investments in 1865 (5), Bubble Cos, 5, 11, 12. Effects of 8% (5) Market Prices of Investments in 1865 (5, 6.) Recent Dividends of Joint Stock Banks (9, 10) Reduction of Discount Rate to 7% (23) to 6% (34)
  • B.o.E. Interest on Deposits (36)


2) Crisis of 1866.

  • Figures on it (57, 58) Grounds for Confidence (61, 62)
  • Crisis of 1866 p. 73, 74, 82–84, 98.
  • Ten P.C. p. 73, 75, 76, 78, 82, 81, 88. (Profit et Interest)
  • Agra and Masterman’s Bank Failure (69, 70) Its Reaction on India (89)
  • Overend et Gurney (71, 72, 95, 100, 108, 109.)
  • Protection for Bankshares (70) Dealing in them (Bears) (76) Bulling and Bearing (81, 82) Bill for regulation sale in them (123) Low prices of Bankshares (171, 172)
  • Northcote and Gladstone on the Panic (90, 91)
  • Circulation of Banknotes since Panic (98)
  • Credit Mobilier and Finance Cos. (11, 12, 13, 14) (24, 25)
  • Finance Paper and Rate of Discount (48, 49)
  • First Interior of a Finance Co (107) Financing Details (177, 178)
  • Credit Foncier of England (158, 159)
  • Account of Joint Stock Banks (92–93) How a shareholder should watch its Co. (84)
  • Liquidation of Bank of London (113)
  • What to buy? (G – Gʹ Sich selbst verwerthender Werth) (112)
  • Failures (1866) 60, 61, 82, 107, 108. 1867 (p. 153)|

184

3) Banking and Currency.

  • Suspension of the Bankact (57) French Opinion on it (l.c.) Its practical effect (62) New facts relating to it (84). Guthrie etc on Bankact (68) Proposed Inquiry (87)
  • Bank of E. and its Bankers Accounts (173, 174, 176) Its Reserve (95, 96) Acceptances and Deposits (117)
  • Clearing House (122, 131, 132, 133)
  • Billbrokers (1857), Bankers (1866.) [(100)]
  • Rediscounting (131)
  • Memorial of Liverpool Merchants (Anfang 1866) (p. 7, 8)
  • Banking Question (18) Gvt. Notes (117) Mulholland (167, 168.) State and Currency (170, 171)

4) India. English Railways. Money Market (1867)

  • Savings and Trade (130) Causes of Depression (131, 132, 133, 140) What Bankers should do with their money (157, 169 (Trade), 174, 175 174, 178, 179) Why money dearer in Autumn than Spring (178, 179 179, 180)

5) Railways.

  • English Railways (33) Making Minor Railways (39, 40) Non Paying Railways (98) London, Chatham, Dover (99) Its history (102, 103) Peto (104) Baxter (110) North British Railway (106–7) Brighton Railway (131) Railways’ Act 1867 (176) Panic in Railways (1867) (p. 180)

6) Ireland.

  • Land bill (54, 55) Law Courts (74) Railways (85) News (96)
  • Emigration (21 121, 124, 127, 137)
  • Holdings (Parliamentary Return) (1867) [(125)]
  • Tenant Report (129) Prussian Rentbanks proposed by Hutton für Ireland (168, 169)

7) Land in England and Agriculture 
Schließen

  • Crops and Harvest for 1866 (99, 100) Wheatcrop (1867) (Lawes) (169, 170) Corn Duty (41)
  • Cattle Plague. Gvt. Relief (8, 15, 51, 52)
  • Cattle feeding (85–86) Supply of Animal Food (62–64)|
  • 185
  • Ownership of Land (88, 113, 114, 115, 175) Entails (80, 81)
  • English Farmers (12, 13) Tenant Right or Leases (Improbements) (108) Farming of Leicestershire. Grass Land (118, 119) A Territorial Magnate (116, 117, 121) Yearly Tenants (178, 181, 182) Chambers of Agriculture (95)
  • Game Laws (18) Ukase (58, 59) Farmers Protest (176 76) Police and Game (122)
  • Deerfarmers (42, 43, 67, 68) Deer versus sheep (76, 85)
  • Agricultural Labourers: Strikes (12, 40, 53 52, 156) Wages (155, 156)
  • Sewage (111) Pollution of Thames (51) Of Lee (146–147)

8) India.

  • Indian Bills (72, 76, 77, 80) East Indian Railway Scandal (50) Railways (87, 88) Money Market (100) Deranged Exchange, action upon English Market (100) Progress (130) Orissa Famine (151–152)

9) Miscellaneous

  • (Law of Demand and Supply) (105, 110)
  • Coal Supply (1–3, 15–17) London Gas (93. 94. 130) Gas (Subways) (159)
  • Saving Banks (70) National Debt (117) Frauds of Shopkeepers (110)
  • Mortality in England (1865) (168.)
  • Trade Returns (29, 30, 33) für 1867 (123, 125) Foreign Trade (115)

10) Cotton.

  • During the Civil War (45, 46) Cotton Market Liverpool May ’66 (56, 61, 66) Cotton. (101) Improved official Statistics wanted (176)

11) Manufacturing Markets

  • (1866) (p. 77) und 1867 119, 121. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127.

12) Labour, Poor, Conflicts.

  • Houses for Poor (21, 22) Torrens Bill (125)
  • Workhouse Hospitals (32, 33) Workhouse Reports (152–153) (176)
  • Master and Servant (116)
  • Industrial Partnership (Fawcett) (103, 104, 115)
  • Courts of Arbitration (Mundella) (180, 181)
  • Strikes. Iron Workers (112, 113) („Labour mere commodity“ 113.) 118.
  • Trades Unions: Commission (120, 125) Effect on Wages (150–1) (155) Money and Trades Unions (170) Finance of Trades’ Unions (172, 173)|

186

13) United States.

  • Trade with America (4) French Commerce with U. States (7) Protectionism (15)
  • Finance: 41, 42, 113. Revenue (19–21) Taxation (137, 154–55, 159–160, 180.[)]
  • Banking: Evidences of Pressure (1867) (128, 129, 133–136) Shipbuilding (126, 127) American inconvertible Currency (45) Antidote against Commercial failures (119, 120) Sound state of American Banking (1866) (26–28) Apprehended commercial convulsion (38) Why no Panic in America (1866) (78–80) National Banks (137–140) (140–146) (148–149) Failures of Nl. Banks (1867) (157, 158, 165, 166)
  • American Public Schools (162–3) Waste of Educational Resources [(]in Engld.) (163–4)

14) Russia.

  • Finance (Michell) (23, 24) (160–161)

15) France.

  • Bank Inquiry (22, 23, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 45, 114, 124, 127.[)] Bk.o.F. (68)
  • Effect of Overend’s Failure (64)
  • Pereires (168)
  • Bankruptcy of Pollet, Roubaix Banker (153)
  • Failures in Building Speculation (156)
  • Fraud in Cognac (168 68)
  • Tableau Général du Commerce (120. 122)
  • Agriculture (34) Beet root sugar (120)
  • Aneline (120)
  • Bonaparte’s Cost to Europe (169)

16) Austria:

  • Iron, Coal, Means of Transport and their effect. (148)

17) Sweden:

  • Production of Iron (1860–1866) (176)|

187

The „Money Market Review“. Jahrgang 1866.

Saturday. May 19. 1866. N. 311. Panic. Bank o. E.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 659.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Money Market.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Reserve of B.o.E.)

On Friday evening (11. May) Gladstone stated in the H.o.C. that the reserve of the B.o.E. fell that day from close upon 6 millions to 3, and the Bank Return shows that in the course of the entire week it has fallen from nearly 6 millions to one. The demand for loans, after removal of Bank Act ⦗a few hours more of intense panic would have absorbed this reserve altogether⦘ during the week more than 10 millions, greater than ever known in any previous week of the Bank[’]s history.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 659/660.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Recent Panic and Bank Act Suspension.

Kein solcher Panic seit 1825. For a long time previously, day after day, and week after week, persistent endeavours in the Times to bring all the financial associations into disrepute. Continual repetition of damaging insinuations could not fail to prove injurious to the credit of these Cos. and depreciate to some extent the value of their shares, as well as the value of the securities on which their advances had been made. When the favourable moment arrived, therefore, when the disreputable doings of the Joint Stock Discount Co. and the Contract Corporation had excited a large amount of public suspicion and distrust, and the imminence of a great Continental War was added, the speculators for a fall in the Stock Exchange had every inducement to extend immensely their operations, and every reason to calculate upon their success. These operations, it is said, have resulted in the realisation of large fortunes by many of the adverse speculators. For the Cos which were at all „financially weak“ – the effect was crushing. The depreciation in the market price of their shares was certain to be accompanied by a corresponding depreciation in the market value of the securities on which their investments had been made, and the depreciation of both led their customers to a withdrawal of deposits. This the result calculated upon by the speculators, and enforced. But as the conduct of these unscrupulous gamblers, that of some directors of these Cos has been infinitely more reprehensible. It is freely said that some of these directors, like certain animals which are known to follow in the trail of other beasts of prey, more savage and courageous than themselves, for the chance of partaking of the offal that may be left behind, have been following the lead of the Bears, and selling on Speculation the shares of their own Cos. These have been attempted to justify or palliate on the shallow pretext. Feeling certain that the operations of the „bears“ must frighten the public and induce them to sell, and a fall of prices must therefore ensue, they have followed the movement and have sold also, thereby accelerating and increasing the fall. Suchten dieß to justify or palliate on the shallow pretence that, by subsequently buying back their shares at the reduced prices and whilst pocketing the profits – or, in other words, sharing with the bears in the plunder of their own shareholders they have been sustaining the market.

On Thursday, the 10, the panic, which till then might be said to be still „looming in the distance“, fairly set in: at 1/2 4 o’clock had culminated in the stoppage of Overend, Gurney, et Co. News flew like wildfire in all directions, in an instant telegraphed to all parts of the country. Dense masses congregated in the streets around the doors. It was clearly perceived that this Overend stoppage would be the signal for the commencement on the following morning of a „run“ upon every other banking and financial establishment, whose credit had been called into question. „Not even in the panics of 1847 and 1857“, said the Daily News, „was the apprehension shown this day equalled. The circulation of mercantile bills, however good, is completely paralysed. Merchants who have the most |188 undoubted paper find themselves under the risk of inability to meet their engagements by reason of the partial or complete collapse of the money market.“ Even the Times City Editor declared that „unless prompt steps were taken, the close of that week would be marked by disasters such as had never been equalled in our commercial history“. Means must be devised, he urged, for stemming the insane torrent of the panic, or it „would not only affect the metropolis and all the great provincial centres of our commerce, as well as our Indian colonial and the foreign markets, but would at once lead to a suspension of public works throughout the kingdom, and in every district throw thousands of people out of employment.“

The time for action had arrived. The only action possible was, in the first instance, a deputation to Gladstone (Chancellor of the Exchequer) composed of representatives of the leading institutions and firms of the City, to urge him, not in terms to suspend the Bk. Act again, but in fact and in effect to supersede it. Friday Morning (11 May) came the anticipated run upon the other banks and financial institutions, and such a pressure upon the discount Department of the B.o.E. as had never been experienced before. Under this pressure the Bk. raised the rate of discount from 8 to 9%, and as regards advances on stock to 10%, and even upon those exorbitant terms it was only on the most unexceptionable bills that money could be obtained. Partially known on Thursday evening the closure of the Joint Stock Bank, its liabilities only about 8 Mill. £. This announcement was followed on Friday Morning (11 May) by the suspension of Peto, Betts, and Co (mit liabilities to £4,000,000) and of W. Shrimpton, railway contractor, for £200,000. In the course of the day it became known that Imperial Mercantile Credit Association had succumbed, the Consolidated Discount Co. has suspended. Several banks severely pressed, but the „run“ was well met. Lombard-Street was thronged in a most extraordinary manner by crowds and gazers, watching the movements at several banks. So great these crowds that the streets almost impassable … constant streams of depositors and customers with anxious faces as they passed and repassed through the doorways of the banks …

Several informal communications from the bankers of the City made to Gladstone during the day, urging the immediate suspension of the Bank Act, but the Bank (o. E.) Directors had made no application, nor expressed any desire on that subject, and Gladstone unwilling to determine anything without some formal application. In the meantime the pressure upon the Discount Department of the Bank such as without parallel in all its previous history. In that single day the Bank extended its loans and discounts to a sum of more than £4,000,000, so as to reduce the reserve from 5 millions and 3/4 mill. to about 3 millions. These facts communicated to Gladstone on Friday evening, and on that evening Gladstone was waited upon by a deputation representing the Joint Stock Banks in the City, who were more urgent for a suspension of the Act. Gladstone then decided to send suspensory letter to Governor and Deputy Governor of the B.o.E. He announced this to the H. o. Commons on Friday (same day of 11 May) night. … Thus the Bankact for 3d time suspended.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 660/661.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Panic and its Remedy.

If the Bankact had not been suspended then, the B.o.E. itself would have forewith forthwith suspended payment. Three millions out of a reserve of less than 6 mill. went on Friday, and, with a panic becoming more intense every hour as the reserve attenuated, there is no doubt that before the close of banking business on Saturday the B. o. Egd. must have closed its doors.  Von Marx übernommen in seinen Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 13. November 1868.
Schließen
If the leading members of Gvt had been out of the way, as is sometimes the case when Parliament is not sitting, … the B.o.E. would have stopped payment. It certainly seems strange that the commerce of a great commercial nation should be paralysed because a Minister or two might not be at their posts; but the law, as it stands, may entail a catastrophe thus momentous for a cause so insignificant.

Jezt sagen die defenders des Act of 1844: its peculiar advantage is that it will stop any Panic as soon as the Act is defunct. … The speculation in cotton, in produce, in iron; the institution of Finance Cos., „Lloyds Bonds“, and contractors’ loans, are certainly not the inventions of the Act of 1844. |189 The „phantom“ Reserve of B.o.E. Notes had suddenly fallen to such a panic point as induced a scramble for the Remnant. … Attempt to limit the supply of money, when it was most needed.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 661/662.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What to do with the Act of 1844?

It does no harm so long as it is doing nothing; it never does any good; it never comes into actual operation without producing evil. It is raising the Bank rate of discount that checks a foreign drain upon our gold reserves, and checks and moderates undue speculation, when it is to be checked … . It is most humiliating to reflect – that the whole of the banking, and financial, and trading interests of this country should hang suspended in the feeble grasp of a body of bank directors, supposed ⦗by the defenders of the Act⦘ to be perpetually oscillating between abject fear and reckless indiscretion. … Banks and bankers imagine that the Bank Act works well for them, and for all the money-lending community, however hardly it may operate upon the money-borrowing public, by keeping up and raising to a permanently higher level the value of loanable money. … The tendency of these frequently recurring periods of pressure and panic is to convert the industrious and enterprising classes into speculative and reckless gamblers …

The landed interest owns less than 1/6 of the national wealth, and pays less than 1/6 of the national taxation.

 Die unter dieser Überschrift versammelten Exzerpte verwendete Marx ausführlich im Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 13. November 1868.
Schließen
The Times and the Panic.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 662–664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Influence that Journal can exercise in bringing about a panic.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 662–664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
On Thursday evening (10 May) frigtened frightened by the Panic wants something official being done[,] urges deputations from leading banks and firms to press at once upon the Chancellor of Exchequer, warns the Gvt etc[.]

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 662–664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Friday night (11 May) Bank Act suspended. Saturday Morning (12 May) Times declares that the suspension was not necessary, „and if, as we expect, confidence be speedily restored, we shall attribute it to natural causes rather than to the interference of the Executive Gvt … The Panic would have subsided of itself.“ „The suspension of the Act coincided with the Restoration of Confidence. Confidence would have been surely and speedily restored had the law been preserved in all its integrity.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 662–664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Monday Morning (13 May) ⦗in point of fact, already in its evening edition of Saturday⦘: „To suppose that the panic could have subsided of itself, especially when the news of the condition of London, and of the State of the Bank Reserve had reached the provinces, would have been tantamount to waiting for a miracle.“ And in its leader columns on the same day: „The panic far exceeded the proportions to which delicacy and discretion reduced it in the newspapers, though even they told a sad tale.“ „The concession of the Chancellor of the Exchequer came not an hour too early.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 687/688.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
It was falsely announced that the Ambassadors of Prussia and Austria had mutually withdrawn. Hence perturbation on the Stock Exchange. Then the Times announcement that „there was not one word of truth in the announcement“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 687/688.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Times City Article of 25 May.  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
Again an article, full of „deliberately false and grossly exaggerating representations of the affairs in the City“, with the transparent purpose to „write up“ the Panic, and set it again a-going.
In that article it is said: „The authority to suspend the Bk. Act has not allayed the panic … the state of embarrassment at the present moment seems to have reached a much worse point than before.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 688/689.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
In another article the Times has the impudence to represent the „distressed“ London bankers as begging assistance from the B.o.E., while they were calling for „their“ money at the Bank. Speaks of „bankers in distress“, while the B.o.E. was the Bank „in distress“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 4. August 1866. S. 132/133.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
 The Money Market Review: „City article of Monday“. Gemeint war also die Ausgabe der „Times“ vom 30. Juli 1866.
Schließen
On the 1st August (City article)
(on occasion of Mr. Watkin’s motion for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Bank Act) the Times  Zusammenfassende Bemerkung von Marx.
Schließen
declares all Inquiry useless, and the Act perfect
.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 4. August 1866. S. 131/132.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
On the  Siehe The Times, 2. August 1866. S. 8.
Schließen
2nd August
it says: (Leading Article) „The fortunate possessors of capital and credit, whether in Threadneedlestreet or Lombardstreet, sit aloof and administer their power upon purely selfish principles. When money is abundant, they underbid one another, and the B.o.E. lends at 2%, thereby encouraging speculation. When the evil tree is beginning to bear its evil fruit; when enterprise has gone to its utmost limits; when money is gone and ordinary credit falls into suspicion, then the Bank of England trafficks upon the fatal excesses it has provoked, and exacts 10% from its own victims. The other moneylenders do the same, but it is the Bank that sets the example. As a public institution it realises the questionable maxim that private vices are public benefits, for it thrives upon the folly of private speculators, and the 10% which accumulates the Bank ‚Rest‘ and raises the price of Bankstock to £250 means universal difficulty and general disaster. Certainly, there is something invidious in being the chief example of a trade the profit of which is founded upon misfortune.“|

190

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Investors Losses from „Bear“ Frights.

Recently the current of speculation in the Stock Exchange has set all one way. Prices have fallen – in some instances on merits; z.B. für die Joint Stock Discount shares und Contract Corporation Shares. But upon this comparatively small basis the Stock Exchange „bears“ have erected a huge structure intended to crush all finance and discount Cos. … The bears of the hour not only sell as the old „bears“ were wont to sell, but they combine, and sell in masses, and they back up their sales by endless rumours. If one Co. makes a call, all are reported to be likely to make calls. If „Lloyd’s Bonds“ are held largely by One Co., all are said to hold „Lloyd’s Bonds“. If one Co. has railway contractors for creditors, all are reported to „be in“ deeply with railway contractors. In the peculiarly sensitive condition of the market at present a few rumours of this description, coupled with a smart decline in the price of the shares, bring real and frightened sellers into the market; whereupon depositors get frightened also, and a complete panic sets in. … There has, during the last week, been a dead set against the Alliance Bank, the Agra and Masterman’s Bank, the Credit Foncier and Mobilier of England.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 664.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Stock Markets of the Week.

Gvt. Stocks have had a great rally, despite the immense sales forced by banks in hourly fear of a „run“. That investment has been rapidly absorbed by the public, and Consols are restored to a very fair price for a 3% security. … The public have eagerly taken all the Railway Stock which a pressure from the North had thrown upon the market. London Chatham and Dover stock has risen. The German sales of American Stocks seem for the moment suspended, while the American demand continues, so that 5-20 Bonds have shared, although very meagrely, in the general rise.

The variations in Agra and Masterman’s Bank shares tremendous, but after touching 20, the price seems now recovering. In London and County Bank Shares recovery of £10. Speculators for a fall in Consolidated Bank shares were forced last „account“ to pay 10s. „backwardation“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 664/665.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Limited Liability Act of 1862.

So far, indeed, it seems passed for the especial benefit of clever promoters, financiers, and liquidators to the injury of the real investors. The liability, in many instances, has operated as a share. The bona fide shareholder has practically no protection against either unscrupulous directors or against a wholesale system of nominees or „men of straw“, put up as his co-partners in Cos. which have only a trifling amount of capital paid up. Thus the so called Reserve of unpaid capital may be no reserve at all. No real audit. There are some figures which must be published at least once a year; but, in some instances, if not absolutely false they have been grossly deceptive, and in nearly all cases, they are grouped under a few heads in such a way as to convey little or no information – not even to the most acute accountant in the world – as to the real character, or the extent of the commitments of the Co. The securities held against advances sometimes actually involve a liability, and may, in fact, become heavy liabilities instead of securities, without the shareholders having slightest idea of such a risk. … On the creditor side of the account should be given the amount of advances on securities not fully paid up, on securities of works in progress, and on securities representing fully paid up shares in Cos. or Loans brought out by the Co. distinct from those of other cos., also, the amount of cash at call, at interest, also that at the B.o.E., and in hand.

The shareholders selbst grossen Theils am Dreck Schuld. They blindly support directors who admit having transacted such a description of business that secrecy is actually necessary to preserve the Co. as well as the client. Shareholders are led away by plausible observations from the directors as to the evils of exposing details to the public or their rivals; recent disclosures have proved that secrecy allows unprincipled directors and managers to carry on abominably reckless transactions, of which the shareholders are in ignorance until the Co. is ruined. Even when it is ruined, a balance-sheet in accordance with the requirements of the present Act can at the very last moment be issued, showing a profitable position, as was the case with the Joint Stock Discount Co. With regard |191 to the appointment and re-election of directors (the latter being a ceremony which has almost degenerated into a mere form) they are selected because of their names being prominent as guinea-pigs, oder weil sie political, municipal, official, und mercantile duties have in combination with the responsibilities of a directorship over 5, 10, 15 other cos of varying nature with the most diversified objects. There should also be an end to reserve funds being used as capital. If it be clear profit, and is yet wanted for use in the business, let it be added to the paid up capital or invested so a as to prove a real reserve fund in case of need.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 665/666.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railways.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(don’t pay)

In these 25 years we have more than doubled our wealth. Sicher the securities which represent about 450 millions of Railway properties would not realise at the existing market rate their original cost. The investors in British railway property are losers. For many years past subscribers for new railways could not be found. There were, however, lawyers, contractors, and promoters. Devices invented whereby, by „Lloyd’s Bonds“ and Finance Cos., and the issue of railway securities at enormous discounts, and the payment to contractors of prices for their work and materials far in excess of the value, some railways have been made, or partly made. But, as Lord Redesdale said in the H. o. Lords last Monday, the system has fairly broken down.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 666/667.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Reports of the Asiatic Banking Co., and the Bank of Hindostan, China and Japan (Limited.)

The disastrous crisis at Bombay last year (1865) has told upon the balance sheets and dividends of the various Indian Banks. All have suffered, some severely. Mit Numerous failures amongst firms of the highest standing and greatest repute, and prolonged depreciation of all description of Indian produce the Banks could not escape heavy losses. So sehr bedeutende losses der „Commercial Bank Corporation of India and the East“, ebenso, obgleich nicht so groß, in den beiden oben genannten Banks. Losses of Asiatic Banking Co: £142,000 against profits realised of £61,494. Hatte aber, fortunately, reserve fund of £175,000.

Net profits of the Bank of Hindostan etc for the year £23,485, whole swallowed up by the losses, which have also absorbed £87,794 transferred from the reserve fund. In addition, £70,000 loss anticipated. Sonst sound.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Mai 1866. S. 668.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Economy of B.o.E. Notes. 1000£ Notes.

The B.o.E. directors suchen constantly economy of banknotes, so as to keep as small an amount as possible in the hands of the public, and as many in the reserve as they can contrive. A large amount of the whole circulation, perhaps 1/10 (say 2 mill. £. St.) consists of notes of £1000 each, and nearly all these are in the tills of bankers within half a mile of Lothbury. They are of little or no use, except to settle balances among the banking houses themselves, or occasionally for lawyers to pass when they sell real estate.



May 26, 1866. N. 312.

Aus:
The Money Market Review. 26. Mai 1866. S. 688/689.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bank of England and the London Bankers in the Panic.

Friends of the Bankact of 1844: If it has been suspended, it has not failed; if it has failed, it was good, very good, that it should have failed; and that it fails as beautifully and beneficently as it operates. Economist selbst muß aber sagen: „Indeed if it had not been broken this month it must have been repealed next month. The panic took the matter in its own hands.“

In the letter of the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank to the Chancellor of Exchequer , on the 11. May, they have the impudence to state: „We commenced this morning with a reserve of £5,727,000, which had been drawn upon so largely that we cannot calculate upon having so much as 3 Mill. £. St. this evening, making a fair allowance for what may be remaining at the branches, and unless the money taken from the Bank is entirely withdrawn from circulation there is no |192 reason to suppose that this reserve is insufficient.“ Dieß als »Troops of bankers were coming up from all parts of the country in order to provide themselves with gold and banknotes.[«] The balances of the London Bankers, lodged in the B.o.E., usually from 3 to 5 Mill., and it was clear that, had the Bank Act not been suspended, they would have been compelled to withdraw every 6d. of those balances to meet a tremendous „run“. All those balances must have come out of the Bank reserve of 3 Mill. £.

The Deputy Governor of the Bank was exceedingly reluctant at the conference with Gladstone to admit that there was any necessity whatever for the suspension of the Act, until he was curtly reminded by one of the joint-stock bank directors present that „they could draw a couple of cheques to-morrow morning, which would compel the B.o.E. to close its doors“. Gladstone interposed, „but you will not do it“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 689/690.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Lord Clarendon on the Panic.

The panic of 1866 possesses one essential characteristic which did not belong to its predecessors. Continental capitalists have in this instance become alarmed, and, contrary to all precedent, on the seeming verge of a colossal European war, withdraw their money from London as a measure of security, instead of sending it to London for safety, as in previous periods of convulsion. Clarendon, on the morning after the issue of the Gvt. letter, indited his circular to the British embassies and legations throughout Europe, with the view of staying undue panic on the Continent as to British solvency.

We have been taught to think that the withdrawal of a million or two of bullion from the Bank of England is a very serious affair, and that the addition of a million or 2 is the occasion for national congratulation. … The precious metals always have and always will flow backwards and forwards from one country to another, and all law is powerless to stem this natural course … Clarendon tells Europe that long-continued prosperity in commercial affairs and the general wealth consequent on it have produced their ordinary results in encouraging speculation, especially of a monetary and financial character, and in fostering hopes of acquiring wealth by more speedy means than are presented by ordinary methods of commercial industry. …

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 690/691.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Transfer of Business of the Bank of London to the Consolidated Bk.

The London Bank Reserve Fund in its last balance-sheet upwards of £300,000. In April 1864 it paid dividends at the rate of 15% p. annum, price of its shares £122, or £72 premium und damals addition of £200,000 made to the capital by the creation and issue of 2000 new shares. These shares issued to the then existing shareholders at premium of £70 p. share, and the £140,000 realised by these premiums was carried to the reserve funds. At its last half yearly meeting paid dividend of 20%.  Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen
Came to deadlock
by  The Money Market Review: dealing
Schließen
dabbling
in financial transactions.  Zusatz von Marx. The Money Market Review: Such an arrangement is somewhat novel and curious, but, under the circumstances, it is perhaps the best that could have been made.
Schließen
Dummes
arrangement mit der Consolidated Bank. Transfer ihr 22 May, evening, the current and deposit accounts of their customers mit ample assets to cover them. Consolidated Bk. undertook the charge of these accounts, but assumed no responsibility für die acceptances der B. o. London. Diese daher unpaid return.  Kommentar von Marx. The Money Market Review: it must be owned that some very nice legal points might be raised in regard to this arrangement, were it worth the while of any party to raise them.
Schließen
⦗Dieß ungesetzlich; giving one creditor privilege gegen den other.⦘
Der Fehler to invest Banking Funds, which may be any day withdrawn, upon Railway Contracts or Lloyds Bonds, or other securities based on public works in a progressive but unfinished state. These works may be long in progress, the capital to complete them may not be readily obtainable, the works may never be finished. Until their completion all such securities not only liable to great fluctuation in value, but extremely difficult to deal with as available securities, even if they can be dealt with, as such, at all.

It is the business of a financial association to lend money, or lend its credit for the raising of money, upon securities not immediately convertible, and repayable at longer dates than those at which a banker justified in lending his money. The financial association, lending at longer dates, and on less marketable securities, incurs therefore greater risk, and obtains therefore larger profits than the banker. If the business well managed, higher profits cover the larger possible losses, and enable it to pay higher interest and dividends to the shareholders. But the financial association ought not to take deposits repayable on demand, or at short notice, because their investments not immediately convertible, in case of emergency for the repayment of these deposits. The mischiefs of intermingling the system of the Banking institution mit financial operations lamentably illustrated in the cases of the Joint Stock Discount Co. and the Bk. of London, the London Financial and the Imperial Mercantile Credit Associations.|

193

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 690/691.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Loss in Investments since beginning of 1866 – May 26.

The recent failures and the general depreciation in the value of joint stock investments, since the commencement of the present year, has involved loss at 130 mill. £. St.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866, S. 692/693.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Stock Markets of the Week.

A steady drain of bullion to the Continent continues, partly to pay for the stock with which Continental holders have lately loaded our market, and partly because the machinery of the Foreign Exchanges is out of gear. Consols are weaker, but only to a trifling extent.

The speculators for a fall have altogether had a good harvest the this week. Individuals or cliques sell in combination large quantities of shares in an undertaking whose very existence depends upon its credit, and then comment on the depreciation in price which they have caused, in a way to bring the credit of such concern into question, and cap the whole proceeding by circulating false and defamatory reports. It is said that men of high standing in the City of London are not ashamed to pocket the profits of these transactions. Such men pick out a high priced bank as their next victim, and repurchase with glee the stock out of which they have frightened timid shareholders.

With the exception of Italian, which seems to have fallen as low as it well can go, Foreign Stocks are all weaker. The fall in Railway Stocks very severe. London and Northwestern have been the greatest sufferers.

The great interest of the week has centered in the market for Bankshares, where the fluctuations have been terrible. The crisis under which India is still suffering afforded a pretext for heavy sales of Agra and Masterman[’]s shares, touched at one time 10l. per share, or 15 discount; but a great rebound has taken place, and they close at £20.

Persons who have locked up their property in their cash-boxes can so invest mit immense profits.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 694/695.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

What is a Five-Twenty Bond?  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Neue Art Convertibility for paper currency)

The Gvt of the U. States have the option of redeeming this part of their debt at par, or 100, after 5 years from the date of issue, and at any period between 5 years and 20 [years] from the date of issue; but, at the expiration of the 20 years, the holder of five-twenty bonds can claim the principal or par value. Similar condition für die ten-forty Bonds, the option of the State continuing in this case after the first 10 years up to 40 years. On both these kinds of bonds the interest is payable in gold, on the former at 6, on the latter at 5% p. annum.

Seventy-thirty Bonds: Interest on them payable in greenbacks, at the rate of 73/10% p. an. (say 7$ 30 cents p. 100 dollars). These bonds exchangeable, at the option of the holder, after 3 years from the date of issue, into five-twenty bonds. By the last advices the relative prices of five-twenty and ten-forty bonds in New York were 102 und 96. Before long – das scheme schon brought forward by McCulloch, the Gvt. will issue a 5% stock at par, and thus exercise the option they have of paying off the five-twenty 6% or substituting a 5% in their place. Chase gave the holders of „greenbacks“ the option of conversion into five-twenties. He could not make his „greenbacks“ equal in value to gold, but to five-twenties, and that he did; and so he paid for the greatest and the most costly war the world ever knew. This is a form of convertibility for paper currency never before devised. But the money was raised at war rates. A „greenback“ issued in payment for cannon and gunpowder when gold was at 100% premium was, when converted into five-twenties, virtually raised at 12%. The purchase-power of the „greenback“ was only 50 p. 100, and upon that 100 6% interest was payable p. annum. Um später dieß to correct hielt Chase dem Staat die option der Rückzahlung etc vor. Mr. Chase’s option of redemption in 5 or 10 years, will be found supremely economical; in the course of a few years we may see a 41/2 or 5% stock substituted for the existing 6% five-twenties and ten-forties.|

194

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 695/696.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Annual Circular of the American Commercial Agency.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Vehmgericht)

Issued from New York. The American Commercial Agency erstreckt sich nicht nur auf U. States, sondern auch British North American Provinces. The review takes the form of an everyday ledger account, the substance of what is known in favour of and against all large merchants and shopkeepers being regularly entered up. This Agency has long proved a terror to mercantile evil doers. In no large American town is it possible for anyone to embark in business without receiving an early call from a representative of the Agency, who puts questions about the previous place of business of the members of the firm, their capital, and their expectations. Into the ledger of the Agency the answers are duly posted, and beneath them such corroboration as the Agency may think proper to obtain. All the entries, in the name of any firm, are accessible to the other firms connected with the Agency, but inaccessible to the firm concerned. (Der Economist hat aus diesem Annual Circular Zahlen über die American failures genommen.) The considerable increase of failures in 1865, compared mit 63’ und 64’, is chiefly to be accounted for by the depreciation of the Currency.

The circulation, in England, as in New York, of a kind of Lloyd’s register of the seaworthiness of firms, would provoke proceedings in the Courts of Law. But as long as we resist the supervision of the Agency, and America submits to it, wir haben keinen Grund für our aspersions on American credit.

In diesem Augenblick great Consignments von Liverpool to New York. Diese consignments are stored in the bonded warehouses, for payment of duties; and the large amount of those duties keeps the market itself bare of stocks. Where realisations are demanded, such consignments take precedence of other sales, and a slight advantage in price – i.e., a moderate discount – universally attracts the jobbers. It is absolutely prejudicial to the standing of a firm to realise on terms of sacrifice; and no house of respectability will obey such instructions. Das Circular sagt u.a: „From all points of view, the prospect warrants the conclusion that the entire production in the U. States in 1866 will be nearly, if not quite double that of 1865.“ Dießmal, nach Ende des Kriegs, very few „drummers“ (commercial travelers) have been sent from the North to the South, sondern der South has gone to the North. Southern buyers have revisited the North, and made their own proposals to sellers. To New new and unknown men sales have chiefly taken the form of cash or produce, or collateral security of some kind – the assignment of planters’ notes, or mortgages, or of merchants’ notes, or mortgages. Old and known men well received, when they appeared with proposals for immediate or partial liquidation of old claims; but there has been no pressing of sales, as in former days.

The opening words of the Annual Circular state that last year (1865) was one of remarkable success in all commercial pursuits, or that seldom or ever has the increase in the surplus of merchants been so considerable or so universal.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 697.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Act of 1844 and Bank of England.

Our trade £500,000,000 p.a., und amount of capital held on deposit in Bank, payable at demand, not less than 400 Mill. £. St. Surely of greater moment that convertibility should be preserved for such a mass of capital than £7,000,000 should be locked up in the B.o.E. as security for the note.

Nach der Theory des Acts von 1844 the value of money should fluctuate and depend on the variations in the currency. 2 August 1865 Bankreserve £6,461,318, rate of discount 4%. On 9 May 1866 Bankreserve £5,811,745, rate of discount 8%, showing a reduction of £649,573 in the amount of reserve, and an advance of 100% in the value of money. The theory, therefore, of regulating the value of money by the amount of reserve admits of the most capricious exercise.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 697.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

A Pluralist Director.

Thomas Dakin, alderman of the City of London, is a director und auditor in some 20 or 30 Cos, was a druggist, but left that to go to the directories, derives some 1000£ a year from it.|

195

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Mai 1866. S. 697.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Directors of failed Cos.

The bears may make a dead set at the shares of the Bank of London and the Agra and Masterman, but they know that some of the directors of both these banks are directors of the Imperial Mercantile Credit Association , who managed in January last to carry forward a supposed sum of £100,000 undivided profit; in April to make a call equal in amount to the paid-up capital; and in May to wreck the Co.



June 2, 1866. N. 313.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 720.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

John C. G. Hubbard, M.P. On the Bank Act and the Currency. (Letter to the Times on 14 May.)

He brings the pretentions of the Act down to one single principle „that of securing the convertibility of the banknote“. Aber dieß is no principle at all. Die absolute practical convertibility nur to be secured by limiting the issues of notes to the amount of gold available for the purpose; whereas the Act of 1844 authorises the issue of 14 mill. £ Notes  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(jezt 15)
beyond that amount. Hubbard avows that the promoters of the Act „confidently affirmed that, with the enactment which limited all the credit issues of the country, and secured the convertibility of the notes of the B.o.E., would result an immunity from speculations, crises, and panics.“ Aber, sagt Hubbard, in fact: „The Act professed to quiet panics only where panic arose from suspicion as to the validity of the B.o.E. note.“ What necessity, then, for passing the Act? Was the note „suspect“ in 1844? No panic ever did arise from such suspicion. Hubbard sagt: „Men now transact business to 10 × and 20 × the measure of their means; in banking the uninvested deposits are committed on interest to a money broker, who, gathering the surplus of many bankers, lends them against higher interest, and without reserve, so that, when the depositor calls upon the banker and the banker upon the broker, the broker is unable to refund.“

It is the limitation of Bank note issues which causes and aggravates panics, and it is not that limitation which stops a drain of gold, whether internal or external, which is the main object Hubbard has in view. It is the rate of discount which effects that object now, und it can do it without the limitation of issues. The rate of discount, regulated by the reserve of gold, is sufficient.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 720–722.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Theory of Panic etc.

All traders require a reserve of ready cash; this reserve[, instead] of being kept about the person or in some hiding place, is put into a bank. The banker can afford to pay the possessor something for the use of it, and makes a profit upon lending it again. Those to whom the banker lends again make use of the money and again make profit; and so it goes on, and the first deposit with a banker is used over and over again. This is credit. Upon this credit basis our trade has increased and wealth accumulated. A cheque upon a banker answers the purpose of banknotes; and the substitution of cheques for banknotes during the past 20 years has enabled us to dispense with banknotes. There are „banking facilities“. In a word, increased banking is increased currency. The restricted currency of the Bankact of 1844 has been corrected by increased banking faculties. … In the ordinary course bankers can calculate with tolerable accuracy the average deposits of their customers. If the balance of one customer is smaller than usual, that of another is larger, and the medium average is fairly calculable. Bankers, therefore, as a rule, lend again the loans of their depositors, retaining as a reserve for emergencies 10 to 12% of the whole, and thus, in an average condition of credit, the same deposits of a banker are used over again performing the functions of currency by cheques equally with banknotes. … In Zeit of discredit, wie jezt: Our currency, as expressed by bankers’ balances, is thus, or has been, in process of contraction, and, in proportion as deposits are withdrawn by timid customers, bankers have less and less to lend. Moreover, if some depositors draw out money from banks, others may; and bankers must be more cautious than usual, and must increase their reserves by holding more notes and gold. The whole credit machine has been put out of gear … The deposits mit British bankers probably 200 mill. or more. What |196 portion of this currency of credit is now practically extinguished by the panic no one can tell … The 20 or 25 Mill. of Bk.o.E. notes nominally constituting the chief paper currency of the country, is a mere bagatelle by comparison mit other forms of credit fulfilling the functions of currency … Destroy this banking system by impaired credit, and the chief part of this form of currency is swept away. This is panic. … In France the credit-structure is diminutive by comparison with our own, and consequently there is much less open to destruction when discredit comes, and much less room for discredit …

By law of 1844, in this country, the basis of all our credit is made the accidental cash balance at the Bk. of England. By this law, and the usages of that law, cash balance of 20 mill., or so much gold und silver at the Bank o. E., is considered more than ample for any superstructure of credit, and British bankers lend 100, 200, or 300 mill. of deposit freely, and the rate of discount low. It is a question [of] how borrowers can be found. On the other hand, metallic cash balance at B.o.E. of only 10 Mill. £, instead of 20, is regarded as ruinous, and the credit fabric vanishes. British bankers lend nothing, call in their outstanding debts, lose their deposits, and make panic; then the question arises where lenders are to be found of any money on any security. The bankers cannot lend. Both ridiculous extremes, they belong alone to the law of 1844.

French commerce has not been educated by law to build much upon a purely accidental stock of bullion, whether large of small. Our banking facilities are virtually a system of currency, open to extreme expansion and contraction. Its expansion within reasonable terms assists national progress; undue contraction of credit checks it. Under law of 1844, the expansion and contraction of credit and currency are made to rest chiefly upon the accidental stock of the precious metals at the Bk.o.E.

A paper pound sterling is not a pound sterling if not convertible into a coined piece of gold such as it professes to represent; and, therefore, the price of gold must continue to express the precise value of the paper promise. But it is a question whether this ought to be more than an expression of value.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 722.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Board of Trade Returns.

The anomaly is that, while we are receiving enormous quantities of cotton from America, we are also drawing heavy amounts of gold from her.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 722/723.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Consolidated Bank (limited)

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Stopped foolishly paymed payment after the transfer to it of the Bank of London.

Consolidate Bank formed of amalgamations at different times between the Bank of Manchester, a Joint Stock Bank, and the private firms of Heywood, Kennard et Co (Manchester) and Messrs. Hankey et Co.

Bank of Manchester established 1829, stopped payment in 1842, suspended business. Reopened in 1852, carried on with profit. In 1860 adopted itself to the Liability Act of 1858 , nearly doubled its shareholders, increased largely current and deposit account. Shares of £10 each, on which £4 paid. 1 Jan. 1863 fusion mit Heywood, Kennard et Co, Lombardstreet. The business of Hankey, established nearly 200 years, was amalgamated in August 1863. Neue shares. Branch established in Norwich. The partners of the private banks became directors of the „Consolidated“. In Sept. 1863 Mr. Brone selected as manager. Die Bank zahlte seit June 1863 10% for year, 1864 161/4% und 1865 161/4%. The deposits held nach last return £3,037,436 und die acceptances £780,564. 22 May 1866 announced on the doors of the Bk. of London that the Consolidated Bank (lim.) had taken possession, and would „protect“ the current and deposit accounts of the B. o. London. Step led to difficulties. Shut on May 27.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 723/724.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

American Exchanges and Grain Trade.

Owing to the backwardness of the American spring, the influence of the American Grain Trade will not be felt upon the exchanges until middle or end of June. In other words, until then there will not be any considerable amount of grain bills offering in New York on London, either to operate as set-offs against our shipments of merchandise, or against our transfer of U. St. and other securities for realisation at the other side … This year Canada comes in direct trade mit England, durch abolition des reciprocity treaty mit den U. St. Under that treaty, the bulk of the produce of Canada passed into consumption in the U. St, and was paid either in cash or by draft on New York, daher in former years stets numerous Canada bills in New York …|

197

In the course of last season the oldest fashioned goods – goods of all kinds which had been unsaleable for years – were cleared out in Canada for cash at high prices to American buyers.

From best information, probable that the American grain trade of 1866 will fall below the usual average. … it is stated in New York that shipments of flour from the French ports to New York are either in contemplation or in progress. … the wet weather, during and after last harvest, destroyed large quantities of wheat; in consequence, good wheat is scare scarce, and sought for eagerly at the moment and for future delivery; Ohio and Indiana, in former years extensive shippers of wheat, are this year buyers in Wisconsin and Illinois. The reason of so much interest at the other side of the Atlantic to the grain trade is, that it is a new and appreciable element of disturbances in the exchanges. If sterling bills are to be sold low, gold will decline; if sterling bills are to rise, gold will rise.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 724–726.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Pressure and securities.

Pressure in monetary circles forces even the best securities on the market; in fact, none but the least are available at such periods, and the shares of the Ocean Marine Co. have doubtless suffered with many others from this cause.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 727.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Variations between Prospectus and Articles. The Russian Iron Works Co. (lim.)

In den Articles der Russian Iron Works Co power der directors to increase, without the shareholders, the capital of the Co. to the extent of £500,000. Nichts davon im Prospect. Daher illegal. Und shareholders repudiate the shares. Ausserdem the objects in Memorandum und Articles differ materially from those stated in Prospectus.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 728.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

America. U. St.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Trade)

All English capital which can be withdrawn from U. St. recalled, because wanted, and value of money is greater here than there. The same cause has led to the return to New York for realization of a large proportion of the 5-20 bonds, railroad shares, and other American securities held here and in Germany since the war. With the exception of some £30,000 of petroleum per week, their present exports very light, not exceeding £100,000 per week, all told. Their cotton shipments are over, the stocks left not exceeding the wants of their own manufacturers. Price in New York higher than in Liverpool und 30 May large purchases made at Liverpool for American account. Till now the proceeds of the stock of cotton on hand at the conclusion of the war, über 2 Mill. bales, furnished them the means of paying their debts to Europe. That being now exhausted, shipments of gold have commenced, schon £2 Mill. already shipped.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Juni 1866. S. 728/729.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bearing.

Times says in City Article: „Circulars have been sent to all parts of the country with the words: ‚withdraw your deposits from – – bank‘, the name of the bank inserted being that of any special establishment to be attacked on a particular day. Papers with a similar inscription have been freely scattered in the streets and public places; and letters with forged signatures have been addressed to brokers ordering them to sell 500 shares of such and such Co etc.“

These conspirators furnish themselves with a list of the shareholders in a respectable Co, paying 10, 15, 20% p.a., examine carefully how many of the shareholders are women, clergymen etc who know nothing of commercial affairs – estimate continually how many of these poor creatures can be terrified into selling their shares at any conceivable price, |198 calculate with precision what effect this will have on the Co. itself, and if the shares on which £25 have been paid are now fairly worth £50, undertake to deliver, a fortnight hence, a given number of these shares at £40 p. share. This will probably produce the effect of inducing 1/10 of the widows, orphans etc who are proprietors to sell at £20 p. share. This reduction frightens another 1/10 into selling at £10 p. share. This further reduction brings in another tenth thankfull to sell at or below par and this will stop the concern absolutely, and reduce to beggary the remaining shareholders. Thus the „bears“ will be able to re-purchase the shares at a profit of £50 or upwards per share. The Times acquits them of all „moral delinquency“.



July 21, 1866. N. 320.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. Juli 1866. S. 68/69.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bank Rate and Bank Act. Deputation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Watkin moved address for the appointment of Royal Commission of Enquiry into the pressure, the 10% discount etc. Deputation from Glasgow Chambers of Commerce to Disraeli mit memorial, on 18 July. Sie sagen u.a. „Only last week £200,000 shipped to France. Here 10% rate, dort 4%.[“] Mr. Graham, one of the members for Glasgow said: „There was a widespread opinion that the present system favoured the monied interest rather than mercantile.“

Neither want of capital, nor want of currency, but want of credit.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. Juli 1866. S. 69/70.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Gvt. Debt to the Bank of England a Legalised Fraud upon the Country.

The Bk. commenced its career as a „Government convenience“ by lending the whole of its capital, £1,200,000 to the State at 8% interest, with an allowance of £4000 yearly towards the cost of managing its own business. The Bank empowered to raise an equivalent amount of capital (to that lent to the State) to trade with, by the issue of B.o.E. notes, and the Gvt. contracted to pay in addition to the 8% interest on the loan, £4000 towards defraying the expenses attending the issue and management of the notes on which, in fact, the loan had been raised by the Bank. Such origin and first transaction of the B.o.E., and origin of the Gvt. Debt to the Bank, 170 years ago. This first advance has never been paid off; country, through all its vicissitudes, paying interest on that £1,200,000 to the present day and upon a number of other loans advanced from time to time by the Bank to the Gvt., together £11,015,100, the present amount of the Gvt. Debt to the Bank. Now all these advances or loans made by the Bk. to the Gvt. were raised and made by the issue of banknotes, which the Gvt. authorised and empowered the Bank to issue, and to the validity of which the credit of the Gvt. itself has always, virtually stood pledged. Without that Gvt. sanction and authorisation, and the monopoly of banking and metropolitan banknote issues, the Gvt. secured to the B.o.E., that establishment could not have raised those amounts and lent them to Gvt.

The Gvt. of the country was, therefore, really raising and borrowing money from its own people, and upon its own credit; but through the medium and instrumentality of a banker, from whom it nevertheless received it as a loan, to whom accordingly it acknowledged itself indebted, and to whom it has ever since paid interest upon the amount for periods varying from 170 to 50 years, the last advance having been made in 1816. The banknotes whereon the Bank raised the money which it advanced to the Gvt have never been paid, but remained outstanding in the hands of the public upon the credit of the Bank, but virtually endorsed and guaranteed by the Gvt, down to the present moment. The banknotes actually issued in the first instance, have, of course, come in for payment, but they have all been paid only by the issue of other banknotes for the like or other accounts, in perpetual succession, and have never in any other sense been paid or redeemed. The Bk.o.E. have, therefore, received 20s. in the |199 pound upon those notes; and the Gvt. is still liable to pay them 20s. in the pound upon the whole amount, to the extent of 11 mill. and upwards. The country wanted 11 mill. and upwards of currency beyond the „current coin of the realm.“ realm“ in circulation, and having obtained these B.o.E. notes, indirectly guaranteed by Gvt., they have constantly held and retained them in circulation, and not a single note in that amount has ever been paid off. The whole has remained in permanent circulation, in the hands of the public until the present moment. The B.o.E. receives the interest upon those 11 mill. of money to which it has no claim. The Bk. can only say that they did raise and pay over to the Gvt. 11 mill., in the sense as it would be true for a billbroker or commission agent to say that he had raised and paid over the amount of the bill he had negotiated for his principal. The credit of the Gvt. gave the B.o.E. notes its currency and provided for its payment … ensured its perpetual currency without payment. Zudem during 20 years Bank expressly relieved by Gvt from that liability to pay by a special law. Shortly after the B.o.E. note was made a legal tender. By this the notes placed upon a par with the current coin of the realm. This entirely superseded all question as to their payment or convertibility. From this moment they were the inconvertible notes of the Gvt. Schon hiedurch the „Gvt. Debt to the Bank“, if it had existed before, was cancelled. It is true, that the Bk. is still nominally liable to payment on demand. But even that nominal liability does not attach to the notes issued in respect of these 11 mill., because they never come to the Bk., and cannot come in for payment, for the most disastrous pressure has never reduced the circulation so low as 11 millions, not lower than 15 or 16. Why, therefore, still claims the B.o.E. to hold the Gvt. to be its debtor to 11 mill. and upwards? Of the whole of that sum the B.o.E. did not advance one single 6d. out of its own moneys. The whole of it was raised upon its bank or promissory notes, every one of which still remains, down to the present moment, wholly unpaid and unredeemed. But received interest from Gvt. upon them, as if it had really paid the whole of them. Its note circulation has never been less than the Gvt. debt, but, on the contrary, it has at all times been greater than that debt. The credit, which held them in continuous circulation and exempted them from payment, was the Gvt. credit; and of legislature Acts.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. Juli 1866. S. 70/71.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bears.

Among the winners by panics the banking and money lending class, und that wary and wealthy fraternity who keep their resources at command when the storm threatens, and use them freely when the hurricane comes.

We have seen quite enough lately of the infamous prostitution of the Court of Chancery by nominal shareholders in joint stock Cos to feel certain that it has been abused, not in the interest of shareholders, but to swell the illgotten gains of gamblers upon falling markets at the cost or ruin of shareholders.

A real fright, cleverly contrived, can scarcely fail to bring down the most trustworthy joint stock bank under the existing system of time bargains.

The writer of ‚Profits of Panics‘ has substantially written the truth … there is no doubt whatever.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. Juli 1866. S. 71/72.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Joint Stock Co. Promoting and Financing. Bernard Salomon Bernard.

Lord Chief justice of the Queen’s Bench und Special Jury occupied 3 days in case, wo der plaintiff swindler. Bernard Salomon Bernard – his original name Salomon only – had heard of a certain iron mine, at St. Columb, in Cornwall, of which Carter, banker at St. Columb, was the principal owner. He had heard also of one Gill, supposed to be a gentleman „of great influence“ in certain quarters in London. He conceived the idea of introducing the one to the other, getting up a jointstock Co., and getting himself a handsome sum from the transaction. Bernard saw Gill, represented him |200 the mine especially rich in a species of iron called „spathose“, peculiarly adapted for making steel.

It does not appear whether Carter ever authorised or empowered him to sell the mine, but Bernard assured Gill that he could get a contract for the sale of it. Gill thereupon saw Captain Blakeley respecting it, and as Blakeley was largely invested in the making of steel guns, and as the one of this mine was adapted for the manufacture of steel by the Bessemer process, the captain readily agreed to become party to the acquisition of the mine with a view to forming a jointstock Co. and working it in connection with his Ordnance Company. Bernard entered into a contract to sell, as the agent of Carter, agreed to sell the property to himself and Gill for £75,000. According to Bernard, £60,000 was to be paid to Carter, and 15,000 was to belong to himself. A Co. was then to be formed, with a nominal capital of £250,000, and a working capital of £125,000, to which Co. the promoters were to resell the mine for £125,000, and thus realise a trifling profit of £50,000 for themselves. The names of Blakeley and Bessemer were relied upon to float the Co., a financial Co. would find the money, and, as the cost of raising the iron would be only £2 p. ton, which, when converted into Steel by the Bessemer process, would be worth £100 a ton, the profits of the shareholders must be ‚prodigious‘. But, when the lawyers come to look into the matter, small difficulty discovered. Carter not the sole owner, had not solely power to sell, had never empowered Bernard to enter into contract on his behalf, and there were other parties, some of them ladies, who had never been consulted on the matter. Fresh negotiations for the sale of the property by all the parties interested at £110,000. Bernard insisted now that the name of his brother Salomon should be inserted into the contract with that of Gill, which Gill would not consent to. Captain Blakeley and the Finance Co., it was said, would not have anything to do with the concern until wholly in Gill’s hands. Gill willing to bring out the Co. in 3 months upon 3 conditions. 1) that the contract for sale be made to him; 2) ditto the negotiations for resale through him; and 3) that „we shall share the profits in equal moieties – half to me and the other half to you“. To these terms Salomon, the brother of Bernard consented, but Bernard, the brother of Salomon, refused to assert, and therefore wrote to the Finance Co. to put a stop to the arrangement. Gill thereupon declined to have anything more to do with the matter. Nothing more of the contract of sale. Nevertheless, Bernard Salomon Bernard, the plaintiff, brought action against Carter to recover „the sum of £23,750 for services in connection with the Perron Iron Mines“. Das Vieh was of course non-suited. Er hatte nur acted in the character of a purchaser, nicht an agent for the seller. Im lezten case, sagte der Chief Justice „his conduct would have been scandalous in stipulating for a share of the profits on the resale of the mine, for in that case he would have a direct interest in keeping down the price, in order to increase the difference“.



28 July 1866. N. 321.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Juli 1866. S. 99/100.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Banking Act of 1844 etc.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(No Royal Commission, discussion in Parliament)

Erst Watkin’s motion postponed from Friday last to Monday, Monday he was again foiled.

Reason for no Royal Commission of Inquiry „that a time of panic is not a fit one for such an investigation“. In fact, on some pretext, the inquiry is to be shirked. B. o. France does not find it necessary … to impose upon commerce 1/3 of the changes in discount as the B.o.E.

Report of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in their annual meeting in London (Febr. last) gegen den Act. Vgl. British Quarterly Review. (July 1866)

Bk. o. Fr. has reduced its interest von 4 to 31/2%. 61/2 und 7% Market Rate of Discount (Bankrate 10%) für best bills in London.|

201

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Juli 1866. S. 101.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Drain of Capital for New Investments.

Nach Table sent von Spackman et Son to times Times:

Cos formed Capital authorised Capital Offered. Deposits.
Half Year ended June 30. 1865 160 £.56,302,000 £41,492,000 £.6,551,870
Ditto … 1866 32 8,220,000 6,635,000 1,649,000

Company making is thus shown to be, for the time, almost extinguished.

The figures of the past 31/2 years are thus given by Spackman:

Cos. Capital authorised Capital Offered. Deposits.
1863 263 £.100,053,000 £.78,135,000 £.8,875,550
1864 282 155,887,500 106,523,000 12,545,800
1865 287 106,995,000 75,578,900 12,174,790
1866. Half Year. 32 8,220,000 6,635,000 1,649,000
Total. 31/2 year. 864 £.371,155,500 266,871,900 £.35,245,140.

Diese figures stellen nicht allen drain upon the resources of the country in the shape of new investments dar; for they do not comprise foreign and colonial loans raised partly or wholly in England, some new issues of shares created entirely, and some new Companies omitted by  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
the illustrious
Spackman.

Also zuzufügen, ohne auf 63’, 64’, 65’ Rücksicht zu nehmen, nur für First Halfyear 1866.

    Foreign and Colonial Loans advertised between 1 Jan. und 30 June 1866.
  • Argentine £500,000.
  • Two Egyptian: £6,321,700.
  • Queensland Debentures.
  • Cape of Good Hope Debentures.
  • Chilian.
  • New Zealand etc
    New Cos advertised in first Halfyear 1866 (omitted ditto by Spackman.)
  • London Meat Consumers.
  • National Coal.
  • London and Suburban Land.
  • Staffordshire Wheel and Axle.
  • United English and Scottish life.
  • South Buckley Coal.
  • South Cornwall Mines.
  • Buckley Mountain Co.
  • Terras Open Workings Co.
  • Ehehardt’s Gunpowder, Montpellier Mining.
  • North Eastern Waggon.

Putting all this together, the drain upon the investment resources of U. Kingd., nominal or real, nearly as follows:

For Half Year ended 30 June last.
Capital offered, as rendered by Spackman … £6,635,000
Other Capital offered, not included by Spackman 12,400,000. Summe £19,000,000.
Deposits, as rendered by Spackman £.1,649,000
Deposits and calls 21,500,000
Foreign Loans partly subscribed in England to £4,000,000
Calls in the same Half year 1866: for Foreign Loans in England nearly £15,000,000

As regards Foreign Loans, a large portion of the proceeds is remitted in arms, ships, munitions of war, machinery, and railway iron; while of the ostensible amount of capital for new Cos only a percentage ever raised and paid upon.|

202

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Juli 1866. S. 102/103.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

American Money Matters.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Specie Drain)

A New York Bankers’ Circular d.d. July 6 says: „The heavy specie shipments to Europe, which were going on at the date of our last circular, June 6, suddenly ceased at the close of the succeeding week, and have since been not only moderate in amount but less than the current receipts of gold and silver bullion from Australia.“ In other words, the specie drain from the U. St. to Europe has been checked by the changes in the price on gold, which on 5 June was 146, and on 5 July 153%. A fluctuation of 7% apparently separates the two periods – one of efflux, the other of stagnation – with no contraction of notes, no action on prices, and no parliamentary or other generalship to balk the enemy. The recent specie movement from the U. St. dates from 1st May. On that date, it may be fairly assumed, the first notes of alarm were sounded in private letters from England. But the U. States Treasury was then well stocked with specie, so that 35 Mill. dollars were thrown on the market, in response to the demand. Parting with that sum, the U. States Treasury withdrew from the „Gold-room“ and left the continuing wants of commerce to be provided on the usual terms of demand and supply. From 1251/2, at the opening of the „Gold-room“ on May 1st, the price was carried to 1681/2 on June 18, to recede, however, as stated, to 153 on 6. July. Thus the precious Metals were acted on in the U. St. as mere articles of commerce. Prohibitory Acts, 1st passed by State of New York (Feb. 18, 1863) prohibited loans on gold coin or bullion, 2nd , passed by Congress, (March 3, 1863) restricted the sale and price of gold; the 3d , passed by Congress (June 17, 1864) absolutely prohibited in certain cases the sale of gold. It so defeated its intended object, that formally repeated on 2nd July, 1864, 15 days only after its enactment.) At no period whatever have banknotes and coin in the U. St. stood in anything like the relation maintained in this country. So, obviously, the exchanges control themselves in the U. St. The banking in New York has been deliberately accepted by the Congress as the model for the national banking system.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Juli 1866. S. 105/106.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Coal Export from Port of Newcastle von 1854 to 1864. (in Tons)

Coastwise. Tons. Intercolonial and Foreign. Total. Increase over previous Year. (Tons) Decrease over Previous Year (Tons)
1854 49,880 44,751 94,631
1855 65,870 47,101 112,971 18,340
1856 61,364 70,786 131,150 19,179
1857 60,998 84,553 145,551 13,401
1858 70,385 69,553 139,938 5,613
1859 91,201 150,125 241,326 101,388
1860 104,383 179,453 283,836 42,510
1861 85,060 170,880 255,940 27,896
1862 127,613 229,810 357,423 101,483
1863 140,387 229,856 370,243 12,820
1864 160,710 229,150 459,860 89,617
1865 159,640 302,362 462,002 2,142
Total. 1,177,491 1,878,380 3,055,871

Nur in 1858 und 1861 decrease, diese years periods of strife between masters and men in regard to wages. 1864 rendered memorable in the coal trade of Australia Colonies as the year of the great „lock out“, when the whole of the mines were laid off for a period of 8 weeks.|

203

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Juli 1866. S. 106/107.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Demand for Money and Demand for Capital.

An increase of the monetary requirements of the country is by no means synonymous with an increased demand for capital. The former does often coexist with a decrease in the demand for capital. Notably during every commercial crisis. (sc. panic.) When large failures or suspensions take place, demand für capital diminishes, demand for currency increases. These events diminish the amount of business, hence for the use of capital on loan. The suspended firms cease business, the distrust occasioned induces other forms to contract their operations. Hence demand for capital lessened. But the monetary requirements of the commercial classes increase. Bills, by means of which trade is carried on, become temporarily distrusted. The bills of all merchants connected in business mit den suspended firms are looked upon with distrust both by the banks and by the public. The parties dealing with such firms refuse to accept bills from them and require payment in banknotes. Hence increased supply of banknotes required, although the ordinary amount of business is diminished. But such increase of banknotes only to be obtained from the B.o.E. But when increased demand for its notes, Bank raises the rate of discount. Legal limit of notes, decrease of reserves points to the approximation to that limit. Hence raising of rate of discount. The Bank says not: „we cannot lend so much capital“; it say: says: „we have not enough of notes wherewith to transfer the capital“ to make the loans. Thus rate of interest rises contemporaneously with a diminished demand for capital throughout the country. Every rise in the rate of discount depresses the markets, at once depreciating the value of goods of all kinds, and still further contracting credit. Hence failures and suspensions multiply, and, with every new failure, bills become more distrusted, and banknotes are more called for in payment. Another diminution in the Bank reserve of notes, up again goes the rate of discount. Thus a momentary commercial difficulty aggravated into a serious crisis, mercantile firms go down in scores, the trade of the country is immensely diminished, 10 of 1000nds of the working class thrown out of employment. The legal limitation of Banknotes has totally upset the natural course of things, and made the rate of interest to depend, not so much upon the supply of capital, and the demand for it, as upon the artificially made fluctuations in the amount of the medium (banknotes) by which capital is transferred.



August 4. 1866. N. 322.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 4. August 1866. S. 131/132.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Currency and Banking.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Watkin’s Motion. 31 July)

On Tuesday last (31. July 1866), Watkin (member for Stockport) moved for the issue of a Royal Commission to investigate die causes der late Pressure, the continuance for a long period of minimum Bankrate of 10%, and the loans at present affecting currency and banking in the U. Kingd., and to report what alterations had become expedient thereon. The Gvt. had previously determined not to assent to, and accordingly opposed it. Disraeli hatte der Recent Deputation (von Glasgow) gewissermassen diese commission versprochen. Aber  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
dull
Sir Stafford Northcote (President of the Board of Trade) opposed it. (On the part of gvt.) Obgleich der Act 3 × suspended, „there is no cause for inquiry“. Traders and manufacturers throughout the land are deprived of the ordinary means of transacting their businesses, and their businesses are declining; orders are being curtailed or withdrawn, and their workpeople in considerable number deprived of their employment. The B.o.E., meanwhile, is making a market of the general distress, though every 1000 pounds it makes cost the country a million. Watkins Watkin sagte u.a., daß nicht nur Disraeli und Gladstone (vor ihm) |204 sich gewissermassen pledged for inquiry, sondern: „The Chambers of Commerce throughout the country, including those of Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, had associated themselves together, and memorialised the Gvt., and instructed their members to move in the matter … his sympathies were with that great mass of capitalists of the 2nd and 3d class, composed of substantial and respectable men, who, while these things were going on, were brought down to ruin from no fault of their own, and were, in fact, the victims of the laws for which they were in no way accountable.“ A 10% tax, he said, meant a tax of more than double the annual amount upon 300 Mill. £ St. It meant further, Watkins Watkin said, a depreciation in the value of commodities and securities, estimated über 100 Mill. £. St., and although that loss of course did not fall on the large capitalists who could afford to hold their property yet the smaller man, who had to meet his engagements without the power of holding them over, suffered very severely. The loss fell most heavily, not upon those most able to bear it, but upon those least able to bear it. He urged that during all this time when commerce taxes, prices depreciated, large numbers of the working classes entirely thrown out of employment, the profits of the B.o.E. largely augmented. The amount of the Rest on 9. May, 2 days before the panic, £3,237,587; whereas, on 28 July, £3,742,406, increase of no less than £504,819, being a profit of more than 1/2 mill. in 11 weeks. Ferner the advantage, für the B.o.E., shown in the improving value of Bank Stock. In 1844 the price of B.o.E. stock £195, 1847 £180, 1865, after the experience of 2 panics, no less than £250. Comments der Times hierüber on 2 August (sieh p. 189). Watkin said ferner: „during the last 20 years, 3 panics, in 1847, 1857, 1866; and if the House would look at the rates of discount and the times of their continuance at each of those periods … every succeeding panic was of greater severity than its predecessor. 1847, penal rate of discount fixed by the Gvt letter 8%, and endured for 4 weeks. 1857 the penal rate 10%, endured for 6 weeks; 1866 10%, had already endured for 3 months.“ Daher must be some cause or law at work, which, at every recurrence of these crises, aggravated their pressure. Nach Report des Committee des H. o. Lords von 1857 the labouring classes suffer most von der destruction of credit and confidence on which commercial transactions are based.

„What had the Bank done with the authority entrusted to them by Gladstone on May 11th? Our present trade was double its value in 1857.[“] The Bank had not advanced one shilling beyond the fixed amount, während in 1857, they advanced 2 Mill. l. St. the moment they received the Gvt. letter. In order to avoid infringing the Act, they „sent round and borrowed banknotes from their customers“, and were thus enabled to defeat the object of the letter, and cheat the commerce of this country. Motion seconded by Mr. Akroyd; opposed by Northcote , Fawcett , Hubbard , (bk.o.E. director, früher governor of it) und Gladstone. Alle diese fellows admitted the necessity of inquiry.

Northcote’s main objection: that an inquiry now would be premature, would follow to too close upon the panic itself, and »that it would«, if now constituted, »be necessary to examine the partners and investigate the transactions and affairs of the firms which had suffered from but survived the shock«. Flippant remarks of Fawcett , feeble and hacknied arguments of Gladstone . Wegen absence des  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
graussen
G. J. Göschen , Debatte adjourned.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Elendes
Argument der Times, daß banknotes merely the representatives of gold, or certificates for so much pounds of gold coined at the mint – and the 15 mill. not based upon gold? |208 Diese legal issue must be expanding and contracting je nach den requirements of the public. Der City Kerl der Times giebt in demselben Artikel zu (30 July) daß „14 mill. £ St. notes not represented by gold.“



11 August, 1866. N. 323.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 11. August 1866. S. 167–169.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Count out on Watkin’s Motion for Enquiry.

Pitiful exhibition of this country in the eyes of foreigners.

Merchants and traders who had nothing do with share speculations or financial shares have been compelled to countermand their orders, manufacturers obliged to discharge their workmen, trade and commerce paralysed throughout the country, because money could not be had to meet engagements and pay wages. Our Foreign minister wrote to our foreign creditors, telling them that we had been overtrading and speculating, and were in temporary difficulties. 10% rate cause of the protracted discredit. The adjourned debate, which should have been resumed by Mr. J. B. Smith , on 3 August, was met by a „count out“. Resolved to shelve all inquiry. Der  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
würdige
Northcote: „Can you, or ought you, to make money when money is scarce? … There are those who say that the money that there is in the country represents the capital, the loanable capital, or gold, or this or that or the other, for there are different theories as to what money really is … the other school says, that money is only a form of credit.“ A small amount of wit goes a long way in the H.o.C. This These empty remarks excited the laughter of the H.o.C. „It is hopeless for you to investigate practical questions tending to legislation unless you have made up your mind on which of the 2 theories you intend to proceed“ (says Northcote)[.] These different argument arguments secundum Northcote „arguments against inquiry“. Millions of money „labouriously“,  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
says the Money Market Review
„and honestly  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
acquired by the mercantile and industrious classes, periodically filched from their pockets to enrich the pockets of the moneylender“[.] Gladstone (summus!) added that „whatever the nature of the report, he was quite sure, that so far as it dealt with principles and causes, it would not weigh with the H.o.C.“

Fawcett said that the „panic had been produced by the reckless spirit of commercial gambling which had spread itself over the country“. Gladstone (obgleich gegen inquiry) said „that commerce so far as he had observed, had been in a sound and satisfactory state. The charge of excessive speculation and recklessness was not applicable to the manner in which for some years past the general commerce of this country had been carried on.“ Gladstone further says: „we must recognise the great benefits derived from the working of this Act.“ „At any rate the convertibility of the banknote – the first object of currency laws – has been placed beyond the smallest question – not only beyond the absolute reach of dangers, but beyond the slightest taint of danger or suspicion.“ True? The suspension of the Bank Act has preserved the convertibility of the Note. The Banknote was endangered by the Bank Act during each of the 3 panics it has brought upon us, for it brought in view the bankruptcy of the Bank itself. If the doors of the Banking Department were once closed, as they would have been but for the suspension of the Act, how long does Gladstone imagine it would have taken to exhaust the gold in the issue department? When the 10 or 12 mill. of gold withdrawn, there would still be 14 mill. of notes to come in for gold, and there would be no gold to meet them. And the Bankact has preserved the Banknote!

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 11. August 1866. S. 169/170.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ministerial Opposition to any Change in the Bank Act.

The banking interest is powerful, and as a body is identified with the Act of 1844. The Bank has a plethora of gold, which cannot be touched, and thus it has so long maintained a 10% rate.  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
Throw the 2 departments together! It |209 is foolish to make the Bank promise to pay in gold, notes issued upon the Gvt. debt to it only!

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 11. August 1866. S. 172/173.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Clearing Houses for Banking.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Country Clearing)

A few years back the private bankers of London alone used the Clearing House. Then, joint stock banks admitted, and, sill still more recently, established in London a „country clearing“, but only partial in its operations at present. A country banker having cheques upon another banker in the same place presents them over the counter for payment in notes or coin, and thus, in the settlement of the account between these bankers, notes and coins are required. The London bankers settle their accounts by an interchange of cheques and bills, and this economy of notes belongs alone to the Clearing House.

Sir John Lubbock , banker, honorary Secretary to the London Bankers, was the author of the country clearing, and in June (1866 1865) read  Diesen Titel notierte Marx in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 728.12). Er exzerpierte darüber in seinen Auszügen aus R[obert] H[ogarth] Patterson: The Science of Finance (ebenda. S. 750.36–37 und 755.20–21).
Schließen
paper upon this subject before the Statistical Society
. In diesem paper Lubbock took an amount of  Diese Angabe und die folgende Tabelle exzerpierte Marx bereits in seinen Auszügen aus R[obert] H[ogarth] Patterson: The Science of Finance (MEGA² IV/18. S. 750.36–37).
Schließen
£23,095,000
, which passed through his bank in a few days, and found that it was made up as follows:

Clearing £.16,346,000
Cheques et bills which did not pass through the clearing 5,394,000
Banknotes 1,137,000
Coin 139,000
Country Notes 79 000
£.23,095,000

These figures taken at the close of 1864, approximately represented the general average of the transactions of all clearing banks, and, upon that assumption: 70% of the whole (£700,000 in each million £) passes through the clearing house. Of the second 5,394,000 – £3,603,000 included transfers made from the account of one customer to another, and the remainder, or £1,791,000, represented cheques and bills on banks which did not clear. Also: 70% of the whole passed through the Clearing House; 94% of the whole was done without the aid of what is usually termed money – notes and coin. 6% was done in notes and coins, in the following proportions:

B.o.E. notes 84%
Country notes 6  
Coin 10  
100. 

These figures show the proportion of the transactions of bankers which passes through the Clearing House. Subsequently, he shows the proportions made in banknotes or coin by the public in London, and the following are the figures he supplies of payments by his customers into his bank:

Cheques and bills £18,395,000 or 97%
Banknotes £408,000
Countrynotes 79,000
Coin 118,000 3%
£.19,000,000 = 100

Estimated by both tests, at least 9/10 of that large portion of English commerce, settled by London bankers is performed by methods of currency other than banknotes and coin. The country clearing, established by Lubbock|210 belongs only to a particular class of country bankers. To use Lubbock’s words: „the country banker, A, receiving a cheque drawn on another country Banker, B, sent the cheque by post direct to B. B then requested C, his banker in London, to pay the amount to D, the London correspondent of A.“ In 1858 Lubbock thought that the complication of this system might be avoided by the establishment of a central office in London, for the special purpose of clearing country cheques, established in November (1858) the Country Clearing House at London. But this economy does not yet attach to a very large proportion of provincial business. Liverpool should have its own Clearing House, for cheques and bills between Liverpool bankers, so should Manchester, Glasgow etc. The requirements of banknotes whereby commerce is expressed has been gradually reduced, relatively to the magnitude of our commerce, by the banking facilities we have described. If our commerce depended, in fact, at this moment, upon banknotes as much as in 1844, when Peel’s Act passed, it would be simply extinguished.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 11. August 1866. S. 174.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce on Banking.

That the Bankact of 1708, limiting all banking cos., except B.o.E., to 6 partners, produced numerous weak banks, subject to failure in all times of difficulty;

the exclusive privilege of issuing banknotes in London obliges the B.o.E. – and this impracticable – to hold a stock of bullion not only for its own transactions, but for those of all other banks and financial cos;

It has led to the establishment of Great Joint Stock lending Cos., who issue credit, in all other forms, except banknotes, without obligation of holding stocks of bullion corresponding to their credit;

that, by abolishing monopoly, all banks would be on an equal footing etc.

In Scotland, proved by long experience, that the keener the competition among banks, the smaller has been the amount of banknote issues.

It is only issues of credits for 2, 3, or 6 months which, by exciting speculation, derange prices and the foreign exchanges.



August 18. 1868. N. 324.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 18. August 1866. S. 191/192.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Reduction of Bankrate of Discount to 8% (16 August)

The Times said: that „as to the rate of discount, the circumstance of its being so high showed that a high rate of profit was being realised, and that again showed that both capital and labour were meeting with a bountiful reward.“ Herr Hubbard in der bisher erwähnten Debatte (gegen Watkin) in H.o.C.: „If the borrowers have suffered, the lenders have gained, and he begged the House to remember that, as both were citizens of the same country, the gain as well as the loss would be felt throughout the empire.“ Er läugnet, daß high rate of interest could impede large mercantile transactions and arrest the employment of labour. Schön, da: the avowed purpose and object of the currency school, by the high interest, consequent upon the operations of the Bank Act, to contract mercantile operations and diminish the employment of labour, and to force the sale of the stocks of commodities on hand at reduced prices. „throughout the past quarter (sagt Times of 17 August) trade has been working, so to speak, half time.“ |211 „Everyone“, sagt die Times ib., „– bankers, merchants, manufacturers – gave as little credit, kept as small a stock, and did as limited a trade as possible.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 18. August 1866. S. 193/194.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Misrepresentation in Prospectus of Joint Stock Cos.

Action brought by the Glamorganshire Coal and Iron Co. against Mr. Irvine, shareholder, to recover amount of call made upon him. The defendant pleaded that he had been induced to become a shareholder by the fraud and misrepresentations of the plaintiff … The Co. formed in June last for the working of a coal and iron mine. In [»]prospectus stated that the estimated quantity of coal in the mine was 7,000,000 tons, that the value of the mine was £48,000, that the probable annual produce of coal would be 93,000 tons; the annual profit upon the coal £14,000 and upon the iron £12,700; minimum dividend 10%, payable halfyearly.« These representations false and fraudulent. According to the report of a committee of inquiry, quantity of coal only 1,500,000 tons; the coal not worth the cost of raising, or at best inconsiderable profit; no profit to be made upon the iron, consequently impossible these could be any dividend payable to the shareholders. The defendant called evidence on those points, also showed that £10,000 had been paid to the attorneys for getting up the Co; that the whole concern was enormously in debt, and in fact insolvent; the only parties who had derived any benefit from the Co. were the attorneys and their friends, the directors; that „dummy“ shareholders had been got up to a large amount; and that by such means the shares had been worked up to a fictitious value when in fact and reality they were worth nothing whatever. Of course verdict for defendant against the Co. Letztre, durch ihren Secretair, gab zu, daß die £10,000 paid to the attorneys – for getting up the Co. A Mr. Baylis, who had been managing director, had got £1000 a year. Another director (auch evidence für die Co) was compelled to admit that he had also received £200 from somebody, though „he declared he had no idea where it came from“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 18. August 1866. S. 196/197.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Royal Insurance Co. Incendiarism.

The Royal represents an unexampled rate of increase in the life department. The sums ensured in the last 5 quinquennial periods were respectively £272,796, £.733,408, £1,655,678 und £3,439,215. At this rate the business effected in the present quinquennial period will be more than ever on record in insurance office in this country. … Incendiarism is on the increase, and amongst the potent incentives to the crime the directors of the Royal very properly enumerate in their report the „irrational competition for business among new and unskilled officers“. … The average ratio of loss which fell in 1865 on several leading fire offices was no less than 87% of the premiums received; in many offices all the profits were swallowed up, and the reserve funds seriously encroached upon. The loss of the Royal, a prominent sufferer, was 77% of the premiums received, yet gain on the years’ transactions of nearly £10000. The actual outlay made by the Royal in the payment of claims amounted to £318,946. After declaring a dividend of 171/2% on the original capital, the credit balance of the profit and loss account is found to amount to £62,076, in addition to the reserve fund of nearly 2 × that amount.



25 August, 1866. N. 325.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 25. August 1866. S. 220/221.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railway Debentures falling due in a Money Panic.

In a circular the directors of London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Co. announce that they are unable to renew debentures which have recently matured to the amount of £400,000, or to pay the interest last month on any of their debentures; also that the Court of Chancery has appointed, on behalf of the creditors, a receiver and manager, who take the entire income of the Co., and, after payment of the working expenses, hold the residue at the order of the court. All the rolling stock, plant, and movable chattels are assigned to other creditors, to prevent their seizure and appropriation by any special creditors.|

212

Debentures of railway Cos. are always falling due, in good times as well as bad. When the times good, the renewal is easy, when bad, very difficult or impossible. Laing , when chairman of the Brighton Co., attempted to correct the evil by giving a higher rate of interest for long terms of years; but longdated debentures may fall due in bad times, even if the periods of their renewal are less frequent. Then arose the notion of debenture stock (originated with the Bristol and Exeter Co) whereby the debenture debt virtually converted into a permanent stock, requiring no renewal in good or bad times. The Great Northern Co. has made wonderful use of this method of converting debenture debt into a simple annuity, the principal of which can never be demanded by the creditor. The London and North Western and other cos. have also availed themselves of it to some extent. With all this, the amount of railway debentures payable at fixed periods and now outstanding, is very large, and in a crisis such as that from which we are now emerging, has been a grievous source of difficulty and discredit. Debenture stocks are generally at a discount, and the conversion from debenture debenture bonds, the principal of which is guaranteed is, therefore, nearly impossible just now.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 25. August 1866. S. 221.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Increase and Employment of Capital.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Cos) (Law of partnership)

Not overtrading in merchandise and manufactures, which enrich rather than impoverish, but overtrading in too numerous schemes and projects, many of which are crumbling to pieces every day.

Roads and railways lock up capital irrecoverably, since they are almost valueless except for the purposes for which they are used.

What an enormous amount of capital has been dissipated by many of the Cos. which of late years have sprung up. The public fail to see that many of such cos. have their foundation not on capital but on credit, and induce those of a speculative tendency to embark in schemes neither required nor calculated to become useful or productive. It is the business of such Cos. to foster and encourage credit. … Large sums divided among the directors of such Cos und der avarice of the shareholders for large dividends.

There is a wide difference between capital as originally drawn from various channels, and concentrated for and employed in legitimate purposes, and capital swelled out to enormous proportions by premiums on shares and exorbitant dividends. There is no increase of real capital to the country under such circumstances of fictitious value.

It may be thought, prima facie, that the best law of partnership, is the one which enables persons to associate themselves together for the purposes of trade and commerce with the least amount of restrictions as to the manner in which they choose to combine. This may be the case where private partnerships alone are concerned … But public Cos., dealing with vast interests, and in which a large body of shareholders are virtually governed absolutely by a board practically irresponsible for their acts, require a certain amount of organization, and at this point the law steps in, and defines the obligations of the Co. in a rigid manner. … Die directors, Governors, proprietors der B.o.E., which is a Limited Co., only responsible to the amount of the Bankstock they hold.



1 Sept. 1866. N. 326.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. September 1866. S. 247/248.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paper of Leone Levi (Prof.) read at British Association at Nottingham.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Rate of Interest.)

Abolition of Usury Laws in 1839. Levi shows that during the last 20 years since Act of 1844 the average rate of interest has been progressively rising.

Von 1845–49 Average Rate £3 s.11 d.7
1850–54 dto 3 15 6
1855–59 dto 4 11 8
1860–64 dto 4 15 3
to 1865 dto 4 16 0

It is not the higher average, but the sudden, frequent, and extreme fluctuations that constitutes constitute the evil of Act of 1844.|

213
During the last 37 years: first 12 years average about equal für Banks of England and France;
9 years lower für B.o.E. than B.o.F.
last 15 years higher für B.o.E. than B.o.F.

Aber Levi giebt no sufficient reason: besonders auch nicht für difference in der Rate der B.o.E. und dem der of France. Principal Reason: Act of 44?

Die Reasons of Levi für den rise des Average in England sind:

1) Large Increase in English Trade:

  • 1849 Exports: £63 Mill., 1865 £165,860,000
  • 1854. Imports: 152£ Mill. 1865. 271,000,000.

Shipping has increased in the same proportion. Levi forgets, that with this increase of trade, concurrent increase in profit, wealth and amount of loanable capital. Die Advocates of the Bank Act say, that an increase of trade necessitates no increase of currency, but only an increase of capital. In one sense they are right. The same amount of currency will be sufficient, if currency eked out by an expansion of credit, and the holders of „loanable capital“ be thereby enabled to command higher rates of discount for the temporary use of it. That is the object of the arbitrary limitation upon the banknote issues, and it has answered, as shown by the higher average rate, and the extreme fluctuations. As to the increase of trade per se, so French trade in last 20 years increased in the same proportion. Dennoch in France 4%, while in England 10%, in France now 3, while in England 6%.

2) Annual Export of precious metals for the East. Zeigt nichts für den average der last 15 or 20 years. Silver did not return, but we obtained, in exchange for it, something else, which we exported to other countries for equal or greater amount of silver and gold, and, therefore, the temporary abstraction of those amounts will not account for a permanent rise.

3) Immense Number of Joint Stock Cos: In 1864 and 1865 were 832 Cos. formed mit authorised capital of £362,935,000, much of that capital invested or prepared to be invested in public works. But, the capital of a Joint Stock Co. is not so much capital taken out of the country, nor so much currency taken out of circulations; it is only so much money transferred from the names of the respective subscribers to it, at their bankers, to the credit of the Co. as their bankers. The formation of a new joint stock Co., and the aggregation of their capital, differs in no material respects, from the formation of a new firm of bankers, merchants, or traders, and the combinations of their capitals.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. September 1866. S. 248/249.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

„Great Authorities“ on the Bank Act of 1844.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Money or Capital wanted? (in Crisis)

One authority Bonamy Price (in Economist und Daily News)[.]  Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Dieß Vieh entdeckt, daß Notes nicht Kapital sind, und daß in den Crisen nicht money, sondern capital was wanted.

The capital, bankers deal in, is in the shape of money. Money not only represents, but commands capital; therefore, the term used as synonymous with capital. If it be commodities or capital which traders want during a crisis, and not gold or banknotes, perhaps Mr. Price will tell us how it happens that gold and banknotes and not capital or commodities are always found to be the appropriate remedy? When banknotes are issued, commerce relieved, panic at end.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. September 1866. S. 251/252.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Great Eastern Railway. Ditto London, Chatham and Dover.

Great Eastern expended during past year on capital account more than £800,000, its receipts of capital were nearly £700,000 less at 30 June 1866 than 30 June 1865. On 30 June 1865 cash balance of more than £400,000 in hand, at 30 June. June 1866 cash account in debt more than 1 Mill. Money crisis had its effect upon Great Eastern. They have not been able to renew their debentures as they fell due, and found the utmost difficulty in paying off that part of their mortgages which fell due in the late crisis. The preference charges are this half year not met from revenue; charges have been made to capital for calling stock etc and by such means dividends, never earned, have been paid. This last half year no dividends paid, because capital account never so much overdrawn.

For last half year:

  • Increase of Expenses £150,911 (£103,454 in Preference Charges, 47,452 in working expenses)
  • Increase in Gross Revenue: £14,151. Balance against Dividends: £136,760.

If the Great Eastern could only banish all lawyers, contractors and engineers from their domain, they might do very good.|

214

Was die London, Chatham und Dover angeht, so haben sie, instead of applying the earnings of the Beckenham and Dover Line (the socalled „general undertaking“) to the debentures of that particular section, to which they belong, applied them to the loss in the Kent Coast of the Metropolitan Extensions, the Lease of Sevenoacks Line and other matters with which the Debenture holders on the Beckenham and Dover line have nothing to do.



8 September 1866. N. 327.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. September 1866. S. 280/281.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

English Capacity.

English Gvt the most costly in the world, and the worst.

If we look to our legislation and administration, as affecting national defense, national finance, army and navy, Bk.o.E., railways etc, in all we shall see the same lamentable indications of utter incapacity. The „ruling families“ have lost the art of ruling, and the leading political parties the art of legislating and governing.

Besides the great leading parties of Liberal and Conservative, which manage to impede and obstruct all legislation on general topics, the House is split up into smaller sections, representing the particular rights of some private interest, which in general means some special wrong affecting the public interest. We have the great landed interest, and the Church party, the Irish party, and the railway interest, and the banking interest, and the director interest – comprising the directors of the water, and gas, and other jointstocCos jointstock Cos; and these sections, by occasional combinations for the protection of each other, can generally manage to defeat any attempt to protect the public against their wrongdoings. We have a deficient watersupply in India, and a defective water supply in London; both urgent evils for years, remain urgent evils, and in consequence we have at this moment 100dns of 1000ds dying of starvation in India, and of 1000nds either dying or subject to disease from the foul and pestilent water supplied by unscrupulous water Cos. in London. We want roads and railroads and canals for transit and for irrigation in India, and we have been spending millions of money to obtain them, but we have not obtained them, nevertheless. Our army and navy the most costly in the world, and yet we have scarcely a ship to send to sea to impede the passage of an invader. Sir John Pakington, one of the great mismanagers, startled the H.o.C. by telling us that, although we have been spending 10 mill. a year for the last 10 years, we have no naval reserve nor ships sufficient to relieve the vessels coming home from foreign stations! „There is“, says Mr. Scholefield, „an amount of incompetence and almost imbecility, of confused accounts and reckless extravagant extravagance to be found in the Navy Department not to be found perhaps  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
in any other part of the Gvt. Administration.[“]

Blödsinnige Jointstock Cos. Legislation. We cannot have them worked in an honest and business[-]like way when they are formed; nor get them wound up without an enormous amount of trouble and expense when they fail. Promoters can job and manage pretty much as they please until the Co. is fully formed, and the directors can job and mismanage the funds of the shareholders pretty much as they please afterwards, and the shareholders and public are comparatively helpless against both of them. The same remarks apply to our Bankruptcy Laws.

For a man to purchase a seat in the H.o.C. by the most extravagant bribery and corruption is no shame to him or disgrace to the House, but he forthwith becomes an „honourable member“ of that assembly. For merchants, and bankers, and directors, and managers of joint stock Cos to embark in the wildest speculations … with the money of others is no longer morally or commercially wrong, provided only they succeed in making themselves rich by the process. Success covers the „multitude of sins“ which the achievement involved.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. September 1866. S. 281.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

U. States Bonds.

5-20 bonds. Their price now 73%, rate of interest 6%, payable in specie in New York, yielding to the buyer more than 8% upon the purchase price guaranteed by the Gvt. of the U. St. The principal too is redeemable at 100 at the option of that Gvt. either in 5 or 20 years from the date of issue, but at the expiration of the 20 years the redemption is |215 compulsory upon the State. Therefore, in addition to the 81/3% interest which the purchase price of 73 yields to the buyer, there remains the difference between 73 and 100, or 27%, to be made good to the buyer within perhaps 15 or 17 years. Altogether 5-10 bonds yield the investor, at present prices, a minimum of 10%.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. September 1866. S. 282.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Agra and Masterman’s Bank.

Cause of its failure a run upon the Indian branches, consequent upon a telegram sent by a clique of speculators in London to India stating that the parent bank in London had stopped payment. Subscribed capital 3 Mill. St, in 60,000 shares. The last price at which business was done, 4£ p. 50£ share, upon which 25l. paid, also still liability of £25 p. share. The 4 last dividends paid 18, 22, 16, and 16% p.a., and, after the last dividend, there was stated to remain a „rest“ or surplus of undivided profits, of £510,254.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. September 1866. S. 282.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Paying amongst new limited Cos.

    Waggon Cos:
  • Gloucester Co, £10 shares, all paid up. Dividend 8 to 12% p.a., market price about 113/4.
  • Birmingham Waggon Co. Dividends from 61/2 to 10%, 10£ shares paid up; market value par or fractional premium.
  • Scottish Waggon Co. 10 to 121/2% dividend. 10l. share paid up, market price about £14.
  • Railway Carriage Co 10 to 20% dividend, of £10 shares 3£ paid, market price about 43/11.
    Manufacturing Cos (Lim.)
  • Hopkins, Gilks and Co (lim.) 10% div., of 15£ share 8l. 10s. paidup, market value £6, 10s.
  • John Crossley and Sons (lim.) 15% div., price 18l. für 15l. share, with 10l. paid.
  • Avonside Engine Co (lim.) pays 121/2 to 15%, price of £10 share mit £7 paid, 8£. p. share.
  • Patent Shaft and Axle Co (Lim.) 15% p.a. from commencement, 10£ share fully paid, market price £16.
  • Runcorn Soap et Alcali Co (Limit.) 15% p.a., 25£ share, 20£ paid, market price 171/2.
  • Patent Nut and Bolt Co (lim.) 15%, £10 share, fully paid, market price £9.
    New Marine Insurance Cos:
  • British et Foreign Co (lim.) 10 to 15% p.a., 20£ shares, (2£ paid) worth 23/4. Reserve: £207,667.
  • London and Provincial Marine Co (Lim.) 10 to 15%, 20£ shares, 2£ paid, worth 21/4. Reserve £125,000.
  • Thames and Mersey: 10 to 20%, 20£ share, 2£ paid, with 71/4, Reserve: £527,394, or more than double the capital paid up.
Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. September 1866. S. 285.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton Trade. (Prices)

Price of middling Orleans cotton at the close of August (1866) by contrast with 12 months past, now lb 14d., then 253/4d. Decline of nearly 1sh. a lb in one month. Before the American war price was 5d. or 6d. a lb … The quantity of cotton consumed by our own mills have averaged 45,610 bales per week throughout the first 8 months of this year, by contrast with 36,227 bales p. week in the same months last year, and thus far we may assume that the demand for cotton fabrics has been unusually large. Spinners bought cautiously upon a declining market, from „hand to mouth“. Questionable whether this scale of consumption will continue. Fact deserving notice, the decline in the prices of manufactured cotton goods, in which there is little or no speculation, has exceeded that in raw cotton during the last month.|


216

Sept. 15, 1866. N. 328.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. September 1866. S. 303/304.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bankact of 1844.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Raising Rate of Discount.) (Bonamy Price) Want of Capital or Money?

Was Gladstone, „Economist“ etc an dem Bankact rühmen ist: »The Policy of raising the Bankrate of Discount in the case of a foreign drain«, aber dieß nicht »the limitation of the Banknote issues in that case«. Nun, was der Akt wirklich vorschreibt, ist die limitation des Banknote issue, während das raising of discount mit drain etc »is not a specific policy or mode of proceeding prescribed or imposed by the Bank Act, but is left entirely in the discretion of the directors, as well under the provisions of the Act of 1844 as it was before that Act was passed, and as it would be if that Act were now repealed.« Seit der Crise von 1783 (incl.) never any danger from apprehension as to convertibility of note Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

Great Authority – the  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
blockhead
Bonamy Price  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!),
as a director of the Turin and Savona Railway Co., of the Aberama Iron Works, and several other Joint Stock Cos. He set himself up to maintain that „the cause of the pressure in the money market was a deficiency not of sovereigns and notes, but of capital, commodities, or the products of human industry.“ He was called upon to explain, therefore, how it was that, if commodities were deficient, in relation to the demand, they did not rise in price, instead of falling in price? He is asked to say of what use commodities, instead of banknotes or sovereigns, would have been on the great day which followed the fall of Overend etc?

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. September 1866. S. 303.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bullion Drain.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Reversion of Current)

The current of the precious metals suddenly reversed. It was recently, and has been for many years, from West to East, and it is now from East to West. The accustomed „drain of silver for the East“ is at an end, and from the East we now receive gold; while to the Unit. States we now export gold. Probable causes: 1) that our remittances for Indian cotton have exceeded what was required, especially as so large a store of raw cotton has been discovered in the U. St., and that the money is coming back again from India; 2) that our active purchases of American cotton, and of American securities „for gold by next steamer“, necessitate a preponderance of cash payments to the West.



22 September, 1866 N. 329.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. September 1866. S. 327/328.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Profits of Panic to the Bk.o.E.

13% p. annum dividend (20 Sept. ’66) von 1706 to present time, with single exception of 1708, when it was 121/2% p.a., the dividend had never exceeded 11% p.a., and for many years not 41/2%. If the industrious classes have lost a million, the Bankproprietors have gained it; but what of that? „they are both citizens of the same country.“ Ausser der Bk.o.E., other lenders gained many millions; but the sum total of these gains falls very short of the sum total of losses incurred. These „variations in the currency“, and the transfer of these few millions involve the depreciation and destruction of property to the amount of 100dns of millions. As these „variations“ the result of an artificial and unjust law, they are „gigantic robberies“. The plan (by Hubbard) of common citizenship would be as good in the mouth of the pickpocket and the burglar. The plundered and the plunderers are in both cases citizens of the same country.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. September 1866. S. 330.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Abuse and Use of Bankers[’] Deposits.

An increase in the deposits of 9 joint-stock banks in London von £8,850,774 in 1847 to £43,100,724 in 1857 was one of the prominent causes assigned by the Committee on Bank Acts for the panic of November, 1857. Of course, this the doctrine of the Bank Parlour (B.o.E.) and |217 the private banking circles opposed to the modern plan of allowing interest on deposits.

In 1866, 5 of our London Joint Stock Bank Banks held, instead of 9, more than 78 millions deposits.

Deposits and Acceptances.
June 30 last (1866)
London and Westminster £.22,298,454
Union 19,424,532
London Joint-Stock 18,764,578
London and County 12,750,974
City 5,408,838
£78,647,376.

The ready cash of the multitude has been accumulating gradually for some years in the hands of bankers, and by them has been utilised instead of lying idle as before. The practice has become quite an institution … The history of the recent failures among the receivers of deposits may be written in a few words. They have either lent them on insufficient securities, or in securities which cannot be realised in time of need – that is, the borrowers of deposits bound themselves to pay principal on demand or at fixed dates, and employed that principal in securities which either were not worth the money borrowed, or not realisable when most wanted – locked up.



29 September 1866. N. 330.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. September 1866. S. 351.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Reduction of Minimum Rate to 41/2% (27 Sept. 66’)

There is very little difference between the wealth and capital of 2 months, but the difference in the value of money by which wealth and value are expressed is more marked and sudden than at any previous period of like duration. Vor 2 months 10%, now 41/2.

With very dear money for more than 2 years, we had an enormous speculative business in Stock exchange securities, in produce of all sorts, besonders cotton, but now, with an unprecedentedly rapid fall in the value of money, promising almost nominal rates, there is an extreme absence of speculative business.

We must not have B.o.E. notes of the present character palmed off upon us as national banknotes.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. September 1866. S. 352/353.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Losses by Shares in Liquidation.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Bankrupt private Concerns converted into Cos. Losses upon them.[)]

After a few years of Company-making and promoting, we have entered now upon a like period of company destruction and liquidation. There are many more calls to come (from the liquidators appointed by the Court of Chancery), and this is only an early stage of much suffering. The share mania through which we have passed has been extreme, and the other extreme of depression and exhaustion is present and in prospect. Zu many new Joint Stock Banks founded; dann Finance Cos. Dann: With the aid of the share mania, numerous insolvent undertakings, perhaps otherwise doomed to bankruptcy at the next money crisis, were foisted upon the public by ingenious proprietors as solvent and prosperous; and credulous shareholders now awake to the conviction, not only that they have been deceived, but, perchance, are ruined. Daher auch Confidence into in really sound jointstock shares is wanting. There was too much confidence, now too little, but much of the distrust is fully justified.|

218
As a speciemen of a few cos. in course of liquidation:
Present Loss to Original Subscribers.
No. of shares. Called p. share in liquidation.  Marx hat diese Spalte angekreuzt.
Schließen
Before paid
Per Share. Total.
English Joint Stock Bk. 20,000 £4 £10 £.14 £.280,000
Humber Iron Works 20,000 20 20 40 800,000
Imp. Mercantile Credit 100,000 5 10 15 1,500,000
Overend, Gurney, et Co. 100,000 10 15 25 2,500,000
Joint Stock Discount 80,000 7l. 10s. 10 17. 10 1,800,000
Contract Corporation 20,000 30 10 40 800,000
Land Credit Co. (Ireland) 10,000 2 5 7 70,000
£.7,750,000

Here is an absolute loss to shareholders of nearly 8 millions, and they have still much more to pay. Yet, there is not one of these Cos. that did not either spring from private undertakings of reputed wealth and prosperity, or commenced business under favourable circumstances. The distress which followed the railway mania of 1845 and 1846 was intense, and, whatever the amount of calls paid, it was, for the time, swept away in depreciated market value; but these calls were represented by some value; there was the freehold of the land, upon which the rails were laid, and the rails, the lodgings, and a certain monopoly of traffick which must belong to every railway. But in this share crisis of 1866 the money called up under liquidation is utterly lost to the contributories. It all goes to pay for losses which can never be recovered, and against which there is no asset. It is gone, too, in several cases, to pay losses long concealed, and artfully made to wear the aspect of gains, or almost wilfully contracted by reckless management. The share crisis of 1866 is, therefore, peculiarly disheartening, und daher all new shares distrusted. If the Rothschilds, the Barings, and the Glyns were now to attempt to convert their firms into limited Cos, they would scarcely find bona fide subscribers. The share of such conversions has been too palpable, and the heavy blow under which credulous shareholders now suffer has been too stirring for confidence in anything „limited“.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. September 1866. S. 353/354.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Depreciation of shares and Railway stock (this week).

Even London and Westminster, London and County, Alliance and Union Bank have each fallen 1£.

The most market marked feature fall of railway stock. Railway directors, by recklessly expending the enormous sums which the public as recklessly entrusted them in Parliamentrary contests, and by undertaking schemes simply recommended by their extravagant magnificence, have forfeited all confidence which in the time of cheap money was reposed in them. Ferner: public sees that it not only exposed to mismanagement, but to chances of fraud. The system of a huge floating debt altes Uebel, must lead to the consolidation of all the floating railway debt. The issue of fictitious promises to pay will then be rendered impossible. Distrust of public promoted by announcement der North British railway Co. that they have not sufficient funds to pay the 1% dividend recently announced, and that the shareholders are to receive |219 deferred dividend warrants in lieu of cash. The fall has been rapid and disastrous, and the stocks in good and bad repute have suffered alike.



October 6, 1866. N. 331.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 379/380.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The English Joint Stock Bank Lim.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Disclosures.

Into this concern 5 old unlimited banks, with all their branches, were merged, premiums paid for the acquisition of all. After 18 months’ existence, proved that the old banks valueless, or worse than valueless. Concern now hopelessly bankrupt. During its 18 months published 3 Reports, with statements of account, showing great prosperity, with good dividends, endorsed by a directorate composed of most respectable gentlemen.

The Co. formed in 1864 as the South Eastern Banking Co (lim.) in order to take over the business of Messrs Mangles, carried on at Guilford and other places, and established in 1836. Capital first fixed at £500,000, in 20,000 shares of £25 each, and £5 p. share was paid up. Directors were:

James Abbiss (Alderman, City), Sir Charles W. Blunt, Baronet, Sussex, (Director of the Imperial Gas Co.), J. Canham (Ramsgate, late Burgess, Canham and Co. bankers), W. Conningham Coningham (Director of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway), A. Lawrie (Director of the City Bk.), Captain Mangles (Chairman of London and South Western Railway, and the Royal Mail Steampacket Cos.) Th. Bradshaw, Esq. (Hampton Court), Charles D. Manning (Mssrs Manning et Anderson, Lothbury), E. G. Swann (Director of the Oriental Commercial Co.) G. Young (Mssrs Begbie, Young and Begbie.)

Shortly after formation of that Co. the business of the Ramsgate Bank, carried on by Burgess and Canham, taken over. First general meeting held on 6 Feb. 1865, there announced that 15 new branches and 3 agencies had been opened, making in all 26 places of business; that the capital paid up was £95,365, Gross profits £14,118, net profits £3,364, dividend 6% p.a., leaving rest of £977. June 1865 the name of English J. St. Bank taken. July 1865 business of the Bideford Bank taken over. August 1865 second general meeting, profit declared of half year, including premiums on new shares, at £24,965, second dividend at 6% p.a declared. Sept. 1865 business of the Nottinghamshire Bank taken over, belonging to Hart, Fellows et Co, and Fellows joined the board of directors. Feb. 1866, 3d general meeting, directors declared that, in order to transact their own London business, they had acquired the old established business of Olding, Osborne et Co, and that this together with the other acquisitions „proved highly advantageous“. Gross Profit of the half year stated £46,437, dividend of 6% p.a. declared. Capital paidup at 31 Dec. 1865, was £168,525, Reserve £6,000, Deposits £901,469, Cash in hand £197,901, Securities 747,395, and other property £140,897.

On 11 May (’66, „Black Friday[“]) Bank stopped payment. In June a committee of shareholders made report to the effect that Co. was solvent at time of stoppage, and arrangements would be made to continue business. Last month the liquidators under the Court of Chancery announced first dividend of 8sh. in £; 1 October meeting for »resuscitation«, but then came the disclosures.|

220

Mr. Chatters, one of the liquidators declared, that the West Surey Surrey branches ought never to have been purchased for £16,000 goodwill, and that on the day the bank stopped, or on the following day £12,000 worth of bills were abstracted from the Bank. Guilty parties not yet discovered. Half Year preceding the stoppage there was a loss on the Aldershot branch of £630, besides £6000 more in consequence of the fraudulent conduct of their manager; at Eastbourne branch 100l., and 6000 locked up as a loan to a building society etc etc[.] Total loss of the half year: £63,348. Ferner: the bank holds as security property found to have been previously mortgaged. The managers had given acceptances for £2000, of which no notice was taken. One director owed the Bank 8000£ which he could not pay. The liquidators now hold bills dishonoured for more than £100,000. Ueber 200,000£ loss, leaving out of the question the „goodwills“, for the Ramsgate, Bideford, Nottinghamshire, and London banks. Impossible to understand, how so late as last February, the capital of the Co. was in official document represented as intact, gross profit declared £46,437, dividend of 6% p.a., £3,688 written off from the cost, £5000 added to Reserve Fund, and £4,180 carried over!

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 381/382.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Spirit of Cotton Circulars.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(False American Rumours.)

On 1st Oct. cotton crop always underestimated. Mssrs. Ellison and Haywood remark in their circular: „Americans never admit, and of course never publish, the probability of a good harvest, until the arrivals at the ports have placed the matter beyond doubt of contradiction; and even when the receipts are heavy, they cry out that we shall soon witness a heavy falling off. During the season they ‚seriously damage‘ and sometimes ‚almost destroy‘ the crops 3 or 4 × over. The plant is punished in a variety of ways; the rain drowns it, the weeds choke it, the drought parches it, the worms devour it; or, if it escape all these and sundry other disasters, the frost kills it.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 382/383.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Commercial Credit and Commercial Debt Insurance.

In London alone it is estimated that 6–8000 merchants and wholesale dealers carry business on, more or less, upon credit, and in the provinces and country towns, at least 30,000 more. The losses sustained by these 36–38,000 merchants and traders immense; they are computed to amount in London to at least 30 Mill. £. a year, and in the country to at least 30 Mill. a year more, making a total loss from bad debts of 60 Mill. l. Mr. Moffatt in his recent publication on the Bankrupt Act of England says: „The cost to trading community in losses by insolvency, were estimated in 1849 at 50 Mill. St.; but, considering etc and the frauds facilitated by the existing laws, as shown by the Parliamentary Returns, probable annual net loss of 100 Mill. £. St., more than 3 × the cost of the National Debt.“

From pamphlet of John Bath public accountant („On the Insurance of Merchants and Wholesale Traders’ Commercial Debts[“], London 1866), we learn that different attempts made to establish Insurance Offices for such losses. They failed all. „One Co., and then another and another was formed for this purpose; but, after very few years’ experience, found that established upon false principles, and thus serious loss was accruing.“|

221

These Cos., for premium of say 10s. Per Ct. upon the total of the annual sales of the mercantile House, undertook to pay all the losses from bad debts. The creditors, therefore, were left free to trust anybody to any amount, and the imprudent firms entailed terrific losses upon the Cos, paid out of the premiums contributed by the more careful and competing neighbours. The natural result followed. The prudent firms declined to pay premiums to be expended in paying the losses of their reckless competitors, and the Cos. themselves soon obliged to wind up.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. Oktober 1866. S. 385/386.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Indian Banks and Banking.

Joint Stock Banking in India more than quadrupled its original value since the sudden impetus it received from the cotton famine. Originally its growth slow. Previous to 1833, the old East India Co. kept backs back. The Banks of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay brought out under the auspices of the East India Co. The Banks holding Charters from the crown are merely tolerated by the Indian Gvt, and not permitted to designate their offices in India as branches, but agencies. Their business is also restricted to exchange, deposit, and remittance. It is questionable, in a legal point of view, whether the Charters are strictly applicable to India, as limiting the liability of the shareholders to double the amount of their shares.

1809: First Joint Stock Bank established in India, viz … the Bank o. Bengal. East India Co. patronised it, took shares to a certain extent, and had the nomination of 3 members of the board of directors, such members being civil servants of the Co. 1809 dann established Bank of Madras und Bank of Bombay, in 1840; both constituted on the same principles as Bank o. Bengal, holding charters from the East India Co., limiting the liability of the shareholders to amount of their respective shares. Durch den transfer des East India Co’s property to the Crown, the latter got also the partnership in the 3 Gvt. Banks, which continues to this day; jedoch Gvt. only responsible to the amount of its shares in the Banks.

Agra and United Service Bank in 1833, and the Union Bank of Calcutta about the same time. The latter bank, having advanced a great portion of its capital upon Indigo and Sugarfactories, was obliged in a few years to succumb. The Delhi Bank (now Delhi and London) formed in 1836. In 1842 the Bank of Western India (now the Oriental Bank Corporation) was established at Bombay; in 1846, the Commercial Bank of India, in 1852, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, in London; in 1853, the Mercantile Bank of India, (Bombay, now the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China); 1860, the Central Bank of Western India; 1862 the Bank of Hindustan, China, and Japan, in London; 1864, the Asiatic Banking Corporation (originally the Bombay Joint Stock Bank), and the National Bank of India, with which the Scinde, Punjaub, and Delhi Bank is now being amalgamated. |223 During the „golden age“ of cotton, and exciting times of high prices, a great variety of large and small banking and finance Cos. sprang up, the majority of which gone or in course of being wound up.

Without the great banking element, money, no banks; yet what blindness and infatuation is it to suppose that banking profits can be made without trade and commerce Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
There may be an accumulation of money to superabundance, and banks may be established ad libitum under such circumstances; but the possession of such resources without employment for them will not pay a dividend; and when safe and legitimate employment cannot be obtained, all kinds of expedients involving risk and ruin are resorted to. Bombay, by squandering the immense money wealth poured into it, has derived little substantial benefit from it. A few years ago a modest but flourishing port of Western India, it bade fair to become, in an incredibly short space of time, as by the stroke of the magician’s wand, a City of Palaces, ambitious enough to arrest the progress of the mighty ocean itself. Back Bay under a costly scheme of reclamation, is soon doomed to be brought under the subjection of a moneyed Co. of speculators. Speculative mania in that city. All classes more or less imbued with it. New houses and public buildings crowds crowd up in rapid succession. Gay and glittering equipages within the reach of the once most humble and servile. Increase in price in all articles of daily consumption, and necessaries of life. Those dependent upon fixed incomes encumbered by high house rents and other additions to their expenditure. Still additional wealth teeming in, and, in imitation of England, gigantic credit and finance Cos spring into existence, shares of which soon attain a high premium, and enable men holding Gvt., Bank, and other appointments, on a few 100 rupees a month, who have the good fortune to realise, to a mass large fortunes, and either retire altogether, or go into business on their own account. The money amassed both by European and native speculators in, and shippers of cotton during the period of high of high prices, amounted to fabulous dimensions, taxing ingenuity to discover ways and means of employing it.

At last the commercial hurricane came, swept away many of the recent Indian banks, including now the Asiatic Banking Corporation , leaving with a few exceptions the old Banks only. This state of things traceable to the unexampled acquisition of wealth in Bombay, in particular, consequent upon the civil war in America, the high prices to which Indian cotton attained, and the misappropriation of the wealth derived therefrom. Article – cotton – 4 years ago only 4 to 5d. p. lb – rose gradually to 4 or 5 × this value. India was the largest participator in such advance, Bombay export place of the bulk of this cotton. Thus inundated with money. Such an influx of capital, within so short a period of time, never fell to the lot of any |224 place or country. One of the first applications of this superabundant capital was to manufacture banking and finance Cos of every possible character and name, and to work with the resources so lavishly bestowed in the way most likely to dissipate and render them unproductive. The native disposition for speculation and restless trading has lasted too long, and is too well known to be wondered at. Aber leading European merchants enroll themselves as directors of speculative land and finance Cos., managers and other officers of banks give up their appointments to take part in such concerns, and banks spring up in connection with them for the purposes of making advances on their shares. A Gvt bank even is tempted to depart from the rigid conditions of its charter to foster such unsound and hazardous schemes.

The banks which have held their ground have had severe trials to pass through, and having losses to contend against, consequent upon the failure of many East India houses long established, of high character and credit. Indian banking has its seasons of profitable opportunity, as well as drawbacks and disadvantages. A bank, with its head office and board of directors in London, cannot be alive at the moment to what is going on at a distance of 10,000 or 15,000 miles; much to be left to the executive on the spot, which, in many of the bank branches, consists of an inexperienced, halddespotic halfdespotic manager. Much must [be] left to their judgment and discretion. Then, nearly all our enterprising men who have founded and successfully managed Indian banks, want to return as soon as possible home. No sooner a bank set up in Bombay or Calcutta bidding fair to become a prosperous concern when than it must have its head office established in London, and run away, as it were, from the most important part of its business and most legitimate sphere of operation. A tempting salary is held out as the London manager’s income. An influential board of directors has to be got together at London, and attractive place of business rented or purchased.



13 October. 1866. N. 332.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. Oktober 1866. S. 409/410.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Case of the Shareholders in Overend, Gurney et Co.

Deficiency des old concern, when converted into Limited Liability Co. of 3 mill. The old firm had received 250,000£ in cash since the transfer of the business, besides cash to a large amount on the sale of shares at a premium, yet „when the lim. Co. stopped payment, the books showed still the deficiency at upwards of 3 Mill. £. St.[“] Alle faulen Schulden figurirten as assets „to pay the liabilities transferred to the limited Co.[“] Den faulen Schulden unter denselben Rubriken noch zugefügt durch die limited liability Co.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. Oktober 1866. S. 410/411.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Journal des Débats on Act of ’44.

„That system renders a panic inevitable, as soon as the public perceives that the limit (of the quantity of banknotes) is being approached. Then bankruptcies accumulate … and the entire commerce of the most opulent nation in the world struck with discredit on all the Exchanges to such a point that hardly any one at Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfort, or Hamburg will buy paper on London.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. Oktober 1866. S. 413/414.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Limited Liability as Applied to Banking.

Paid plan that followed till now (last 10 years) to have only a small proportion of the capital paid up. It was done: 1) to attract shareholders by the expectation that on their part no further advance would be required; 2) by the unpaid reserve to afford a ground of confidence to creditors.

Kömmt nun call, oder its prospect, many (schlechtbeschlagne shareholders) rush to the broker. Shares are pressed on the market; the price falls, and drops lower day by day. |225 Simultaneously, another process commences. As the value of the shares drops, the depositors and customers become alarmed. As fast as they withdraw their money the shares decline lower and lower, till the final catastrophe arrives. In some cases, such was the alarm which the mere idea of raising more capital excited, that it became impossible to make a call, however imperatively required, the directors avowing that, by such a course, more money would be frightened away, on the one hand, than obtained, on the other. Where, then, to these Cos. the advantage of the uncalled margin? It has only been prejudicial to the shareholder. Depositor, perhaps secured from ultimate loss, but the long delay of liquidation etc. If Capital paid up in full , the prospect of a call could never be employed to depreciate the share. Directors and managers, knowing to be without reserve, obliged to be entirely careful in the conduct of their business. Mit a reserve, an absolutely rotten concern – da jeder, der mit ihm handelt auf die Reserve rechnet – may be patched and supported for a time by trading on the credit of others. Should a banking Co. trade on its capital, or on the credit of its shareholders?



20 October, 1866. N. 333.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 435/436.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et Co. Fraudulent Misrepresentation.

There have been concealment, frauds and misrepresentations. The public would never have become shareholders, if they had even suspected the true state of the affairs at the time of the transfer. The old firm was at that time absolutely and irretrievably insolvent; it was worth several mill. St. less than nothing; for several years it had carried on business without any profit, at a very heavy annual loss; a large proportion of the assets they had to transfer was composed of the fictitious debts of bankrupts and insolvents and men of straw. The public believed, and were induced to believe by the prospectus, that the old concern prosperous; the goodwill cheap at 1/2 mill. St.; and that, after paying that price, the business was such „in the opinion of the directors could not fail to insure a highly remunerative return to the shareholders“. The shareholders are now seeking to be relieved from the liabilities they incurred. Contracts obtained by frauds and false representations not binding in equity. The Co. failed in May. Till now (October) the official liquidators did not disclose the true state of things, although this a necessary preliminary before settling the list of contributors. These official liquidators appointed as their solicitors, and, until within the last few days, have been acting under the legal advice of, the firm who were the solicitors also, to the old firm of Overend etc.

Three of the directors who put forth the prospecting (der new Co.) were three of the acting members of the old firm, they knew the insolvent condition of business which the Co. were purchasing; the other 4 directors ought to have ascertained it. How could they take the bad debts of the bankrupt Howard, David Leopold Lewis, and Mssrs. O’Beirne and others as assets? One paragraph of the prospectus is, indeed, to the effect that „the vendors guarantee the Co. against any loss on the assets and liabilities transferred[“]; but the guarantees were insolvent. Among the assets there were merely nominal debts based upon the accommodation bills of men of straw.|

226

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 436/437.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Joint-Stock Discount Co. Scandals. Necessity for Public Official Audit of the J. St. Cos’ Accounts.

Not even the „unprotected female“ so helpless as jointstock cos. shareholders. Greedy and unscrupulous promoters dig their pitfalls and lay their traps to catch them, – prospectuses. The haunters of the Stock Exchange, in the guise of bulls, and bears, and stags, „make game of them“, and job them, and mercilessly slaughter them in detail as in murderous battues. Boards of directors possess themselves of their properties and funds, and use and appropriate them as they, in their ignorance and incapacity, or their cupidity and self-seeking, may please. The shrewdest adept in „artful dodging“ and „hocuss-pocussing“ is generally made the chairman and spokesman of the board; or a tinsel lord „in need of tin“ … is caught and put in the chair to keep the turbulent shareholders in order, and by timely address to repress any rising disposition to make impertinent questions about the business of the Co. or the proceedings of the board. Clever managers conceal the true position of the co. in mystifying and unmeaning reports or unintelligible balance-sheets, and accommodating auditors are very ready to certify that „all is right“ and perfectly satisfactory. At the public meetings of the Co. every shareholder who attends is expected to „conduct himself as a gentleman“; and then he learns that to be a gentleman he must be silent, submissive, and confiding, and that the most ungentlemanly conduct of which anyone can be guilty is to exhibit a curious or distrustful disposition, or to put obtrusive questions about the business of the Co., or the conduct or management of the honourable board. The shareholder knows nothing of the secret articles and private arrangements made with the promoters of the Co., and he wants to know 50 other things about its origin, progress, and prospect, but he must not inquire about them. They are all matters in the hands of „the board“, and sure to receive their best consideration. He must be content, therefore, with such information as the board may vouchsafe to give him, and the board takes care to give him as little as possible. If the shareholder becomes urgent he is treated as rude. The chairman rises with dignity, and asks if the honourable gentleman means to insinuate etc, or means to impute etc, and he is expected to shake in his shoes when told that the board would feel compelled to regard his motion as a vote of censure or of want of confidence. If he should not be sufficiently awed by this threat, there are 20 hands in the meeting ready to „bonnet“ him, or to „shut him up“ by some other summary process, lest his impertinent inquiries should lead to impolitic disclosures and unfavourable rumours which might damage the property of the shareholders in the market. If he goes to the offices of the Co, he is probably snubbed by a supercilious manager, a flippant secretary, or an impudent clerk. They are the humble servants or subservient tools of the magnificent board, he is only one of the shareholders. It may be true that the board, the manager, the officials, and the Co. itself are but the creatures of the shareholders; but all power and authority are concentrated in the board; the individual shareholder is but one of many; and, therefore, even his servants and subordinate subordinates will scarcely deign to recognise him.

The general result of all this is, that the great body of j. st. co. shareholders – the owners of the 100dns of mill. £. invested in joint-stock enterprise – are entirely without any efficient control over the use, employment, expenditure of these vast funds. A comparatively small number amongst them, who occupy the position of directors, arrogate to themselves the entire management, and exercise a virtually irresponsible power and authority over the whole. The consequence, in but too many lamentable instances – grossest mismanagement, most unscrupulous perversion of the funds to other purposes than the proper business of the Co., most reckless jobbing and extravagant expenditure, and an almost total subordination of the property and interests of the shareholders to the primary objects and designs of the directors and their associates. Hence the scandalous disclosures brought to light by the failure of the Joint-Stock-Discount-Co , in which the directors had recklessly misappropriated the capital which the shareholders had subscribed for the discounting of commercial bills to advances on so called financial securities. Hence the Overends scandals only revealed in October, months after the failure occurred. Hence the complicated commercial and financial abuses for years carried on by London Chatham Dover Railway Co.

If shareholders cannot manage their own affairs themselves, and cannot get honest and capable boards of directors to manage for them, which it is clear they cannot, the Legislature ought to provide some kind of supervision over the conduct and accounts of joint stock Cos. Independent Public Auditors, appointed by Gvt for the audit, at stated intervals, of the accounts of all joint st. Cos. Professional accountants – appointed by directors or the shareholders – as |227 the Times City Editor remarked – have acquired „such a confirmed habit of putting affairs in the light most agreeable to their clients that their reports and certificates are no longer deemed trustworthy, and are now usually received with a certain degree of allowance“.

The accounts of the Joint Stock Disct. Co. were „duly credited“. Thus the accounts of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway , down to the last period, and by one of the most eminent professional accountants in the City. It is absolutely necessary that we should have some competent and thoroughly independent body of auditors, to whom should be committed the audit and supervision of all the railway and other joint-stock cos. in the kingdom. Board of Trade ought to nominate the auditors. „The Audit Office of the Board of Trade.“

Would, with such an office, the directors of the notorious West Hartlepool Harbour Railway Co. have been able to issue 2 millions of debenture bonds in excess of their borrowing powers without detection?

In Australia the directors of all the banks and branches thereof have to deposit, quarterly or halfyearly, at the Gvt. office, a balance sheet setting forth a summary account of the assets and liabilities of the bank, the cash in notes and gold, amount of deposits, advances on bills etc, and increase or decrease in these items during the quarter or half-year just ended. These asccounts, having been audited and found regular and correct, are forthwith published in the papers of the respective locality, where the bank or its branch established.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 437/438.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Gain to India by our Cotton Famine.

The American civil war raised the price of cotton, shut up the Lancashire mills, starved the Lancashire operatives, caused a huge speculation, and prodigious drain of the precious metals from Gr. Brit., gave a vast National Debt to U. St. – and it has given to British India a new commercial existence. Our high prices great incentive to Indian cotton production. Bombay, the great centre of cotton dealing in India, with such comparatively small aid as the railways terminating at Bombay now confer, made huge fortunes upon the opportunity, and then Bombay lost much of what had been made. … Bombay and India have found a great necessity in Liverpool and Manchester … .

The great speculation at Bombay began in the 2nd year of the American war when the Lancashire spinners were fairly roused to a true appreciation of their position and their pressing wants. Our high prices and our urgent needs gave fabulous profits to the intermediate traders between the ryot producer, and the Manchester consumer, and Bombay and Liverpool grew nominally rich. Here (England) not only the cotton speculation, but speculation in various other forms ran riot, and collapse has followed.

At Bombay, relatively to the population, the mania set on foot by our cotton wants was of giant proportions compared to our own. Finance Cos., Banking Cos., Reclamation Cos., sent for their shares by the million to eager all others, and the quantities of shares, the premiums, and the scale of apparent gains during 3 years dwarfed our own experience of such matters into insignificance. One poor Gvt. clerc won 2 millions £ in a few months. Other poor Gvt. clercs became great directors and financiers, with millions upon millions under their control. Even the poor ryot, who always had lived from hand to mouth, and could never raise a crop without the aid of the money lender, bought his horses and his vehicles, and loaded himself and his belongings with costly jewels and ornaments of the precious metals. His crops bought and the money paid almost as soon as he sowed the seed. For fully 3 years we have paid little short of a 100 millions a year for raw cotton, and our Board of Trade returns show us that about 1/2 of that supply came from British India, which in effect signifies Bombay.|

228

The collapse came of course. With it, Bombay speculators who had been millionaires in name failed en masse, together with the banks, and the finance, and all other cos. Western India is clearly roused from the lethargy of centuries. The Parsee and Hindoo are, after the cotton mania, more productive beings than they were, and have learnt to be producers, not alone for immediate wants, as of old, but to supply the wants of other nations.

Wilson saw that railways India’s greatest need, and forthwith drew up that agreement between the State and the railway cos. which has inaugurated a railway system in India.

Bombay is built on a narrow peninsula joined to the mainland by a still narrower isthmus, which, combined, constitutes one side of the spacious harbour. The commerce of the place is at present conducted in what is called „The Fort“ and, in a word, the commerce of the few narrow streets of the Fort of Bombay is the commerce of Western India. The shipping discharge their cargoes in the Bay into lighters, and again discharge them at the wharves, which are inadequate for the trade. The only extension of Bombay possible is either by building beyond the isthmus on the mainland, or by filling in shallow portions of the harbour for the erection of warehouses and wharves; and it is the supply of these pressing necessities which has called forth the various reclamation projects in which so much money has been won and lost. The reclamation of the waste lands in the harbour of Bombay is, therefore, a great want, with corresponding profits, if judiciously executed.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 441/442.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Lance. Letter (Third) on American Railways. (Published Oct. 1866)

Great Britain had in operation on 1st Jan. (1866) 13,000 miles of railway, cost to that date: 413 Mill. £. St.
U. States at same date 35,000, cost 278 Mill. £.

Lance gives the following survey of the American Railways:

System of Railways. Group. Cost per mile. Earnings per mile.
New England. 1 £10,015 1352.  
      Do. 2 11,528 969.6
      Do. 3 6,843 681.9
      Do. 4 7,280 785.6
      Do. 5 8,087 1101.6
Grand Trunk of Canada 16,522 849.9
New York Central 15,454 2612
      Do.    Connections. 4,971 685.1
Erie 14,181 2186.7
Do.    Connections. 8,368 1157.4
Pennsylvania 13,435 2796.9
   Do.    Connections. 20,505 3918.6
Philadelphia and Reading. 18,201 3025.2
Baltimore and Ohio 15,763 1880.3
Intermediate Western 1 6,917 1855.6
      Do. 2 9,924 576.  
Western 1 7,778 1020.2
   Do. 2 9,872 1847.5
   Do. 3 9,714 618.9
   Do. 4 10,290 1646.4
   Do. 5 9,423 475.6
Southern 1 6,414 802   
   Do. 2 4,995 871.2 |
229

Was die Atlantic and Great Western angeht built by capital raised in anticipation of the issue of the bonds and shares. Calculations zunächst baffled by American Civil War, and the bad credit into which American railway securities had fallen by the diversion from their professed objects of various subscriptions in the London market. The Atlantic and Great Western, at present in its infancy, only opened since a year; but its traffick receipts far exceed expectation.

As the different sections of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway were constructed, the money was for the most part borrowed in this country upon the bonds issued, and thus in the recent money-famine there was an undue pressure of sales by the lenders tending to a ridiculous depreciation of the bonds. Steady investors too became frightened, as the bonds fell, and added to the general panic by their sales.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Oktober 1866. S. 444.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Foreign Loans. and Panics

Now that money is getting plentiful, rumours of foreign loans, due to the leviathans of the money market and the whole fry of premium hunters. No doubt, it is a fine thing for certain millionaire firms to take this opportunity of palming upon us loans for foreign Powers to the tune of several millions, for if they but get the English public committed to such transactions by a stiff deposit of, say, 20%, they are secure of their commission of 21/2% on the nominal amount of the said loans, of an annual percentage on payment of dividends, and of being for several years to come well in hand from from the funds of their „royal“ and „imperial“ constituents, not to mention other pickings. Then cry of overtrading, panic – a period most favourable for our plutocracy to lay out at high interest the fortunes made by financing for kings and emperors, and to make the most exorbitant demands in the way of securities. A panic follows, then a plethora of money, and then fresh loans. During all the late crisis these millionaires of European celebrity had no difficulty in getting from the continent whatever money they wanted at 3 or 4%, so that, whichever way the wind blows, it blows in at their barn door.



27 October 1866. N. 334.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 27. Oktober 1866. S. 463/464.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et Co.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Shareholder and Creditor.)

Mr. Denton, of firm of Maynard et Co., the new solicitors of the liquidators, depreciated any delay, mentioned that, „on recently going into a conveyancing office, he had seen a deed conveying £300,000 to 3 children in consequence of enormous liabilities to Overend, Gurney et. Co.“ … The Capital of £1,500,000 raised by the shareholders, entirely gone and entirely absorbed by the creditors; to that amount they have already benefited from the fraud upon the shareholders. The legal question not between these 2 parties. The right of the creditor is against the Co. and the Co’s Assets only. The sole question is, whether the shareholder was really a lawful member of the Co.|

230

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 27. Oktober 1866. S. 464/465.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

How is Money to be employed.

The mania of 1864 and 1865 and the attendant panic of 1866 are over. Investors some months back sold Consols and Exchequer Bills, and all the good prudent things, and bought finance and bank share and almost any „limited“ shares which appeared to promise fabulous rates of interest upon the purchase prices. There was, for a time, a vision of sudden wealth which a few months have utterly destroyed. As a rule, the mania in other shares has extended to railways. Even now, the minimum both of dividend and market value has not yet been attained in a number of cases. For the time very little railway debenture money is forthcoming from the public, as the overdrawn balances at the bankers show in the lately published accounts; and it seems quite a question whether, in some instances, revenue will not be absorbed to meet capital engagements in the absence of that constant supply of capital upon debentures.

There is little field for speculation except Indian and Colonial Railway Shares, and U. States Stock.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 27. Oktober 1866. S. 465/466.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Influence of the Weather upon the Money Market.

Since 1st August bad weather, prospect of bad harvest, and consequent depression of Stock Exchange. Why should the crops, during harvesting, depend on the atmosphere? Farmers will say that the Corn, when out, must go through a certain drying process in the open air, and if the open air will not admit of that preparation, the corn must be spoilt A coffee grower from Ceylon wrote to the Times that when his coffee crops liable to risk from rain, he placed them under cover, provided especially against such emergencies.



10 November. 1866. N. 336.

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

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.|

231

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
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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.|

232

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

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
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

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%.



17 November 1866. N. 337.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 17. November 1866. S. 547.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railway difficulties.

Railway collapse of 1866 scarcely less memorable than that of 1845. In 1845 a railway bond holder believed he had, as security for his money, the mortgage of the freehold of a railway. In 1866 bonds not the securities they were supposed to be in 1845. Then have turned up „Lloyds Bonds“, which did not exist in 1845. In 1866 it is discovered that not one, but many railway cos. have issued bonds without any legal authority. Then have arisen question of priority; debentures, Lloyds bonds, Preference shares, ordinary shares. Lloyds bonds are only „acknowledgements of indebtedness“ (mostly paid to the contractors, contractors.) Die Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway Co. issued bonds (Lloyds) to 200,000l., in duplicate numbers. Which are legal and which not?

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 17. November 1866. S. 551/552.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Large Uncalled Capitals in Limited Liability Cos.

Disadvantage of large uncalled capitals. The practice, from 1862 to 1864, to fix the shares of the leading Cos. then formed at a high denomination, 50 to 100£ each. With a large uncalled capital you buy or sell not an asset, but a liability, with a small uncalled capital, not a liability, but a property.|


233

 Aus dieser Ausgabe zitierte Marx zwei Stellen im Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 19. November 1868, die sich nicht vollständig in den vorliegenden Exzerpten befinden.
Schließen
24 November, 1866. N. 338
.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 24. November 1866. S. 575/576.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Overends. (Their Guarantee Account)

The suspense and guarantee account amounts to £4,213,896. 16s. 4d. Darunter parties, wie Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Packet Co (for £839,344), Millwall Iron Works Co. and C. J. Mare (£422,565)[,] East India and London Shipping Co (£397,653) Thomas Howard (£331,765) „Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation“ Co (144,144), David Leopold Lewis (£341,559), Nelson, Tritton and Co (291,391), J. E. C. Koch (railway accounts, actually belonging to the firm but under the care of Koch) (243,069), Lawrence and Fry (148,543)[,] T. and G. Garraway (190,977), Charles Joyce and Co (78,728) Halliday, Fox et Co (34,628) und Z. C. Pearson (35,693) – firms that had failed previous to the transfer of the business, and whose estates were then being, or had been, wound up, either in bankruptcy or arrangement. Besides these bad debts thus transferred to the new Co. as assets, the old firm were under liabilities on bills rediscounted, bills payable, credits granted, and guarantees, to the extent of £8,808,699, 8s. 3d. for which no provision was made in the arrangement. Many of these liabilities were on account of parties who had at that time failed, and upon which, therefore, it must have been well known that an ultimate loss would arise, and in respect to these the new Co. has been called upon to pay a large amount, for which no provision had been made.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 24. November 1866. S. 576/577.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railway Debentures.

Debentures outstanding.
At end of 1865 At Midsummer 1866
Great Northern £1,063,500 £1,258,062
Lancashire and Yorkshire 4,870,242 5,067,523
London and North Western 10,365,508 10,862,188
Great Western 12,959,633 13,181,938
London, Brighton etc 2,156,285 2,500,590
Total £31,415,168 £32,870,301.

Increase in debentures outstanding during half year = £1,455,133, more than 41/2%. These 5 Cos. – specimen of their class – have enormous floating debts, the principal of which is continuously falling due. The collective debts of the 5 Cos nearly 33 mill., – that is, each Co of the five has on the average an unfunded debt nearly equal to the unfunded debt of Great Britain now outstanding in Exchequer bills … The total unfunded debt der Railways perhaps 150 to 200 millions, 20 × or 25 × the unfunded debt of Gr. Britain.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 24. November 1866. S. 577/578.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Directors’ Fees.

Many Cos. only brought out for the benefit of promoters and directors. The General Credit and Finance Co fairly illustrates this. Directors davon, by the articles of association, entitled to 1/10 of the net profits. Under this clause they took £15,000 for 1864, and £20,000 for 1866 for themselves. In May last, when panic, their management unequal to the occasion, and soon after call, the shares being quoted at 5 to 7sh. each. Now the directors invite the shareholders into the new Co., and ask them, by proxy (indirectly) to bind themselves to new articles of association. In diesen, N. 67 makes beyond the 1/10 of the net |234 profits, nämlich a provision for the directors „of all travelling expenses, and other actual outlay, a fixed salary of 3000l. p.a. and 1/10 of the ultimate surplus profits“.

The Russian Anglo-Dutch 5% Loan for £6,000,000.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 24. November 1866. S. 578.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
 Von Marx zitiert im Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 19. November 1868. Marx ergänzte dort einen weiteren Satz aus der Quelle, den er nicht exzerpiert hat: „It is said that English applications alone for this loan amount to between 20 and 30 millions ... there is no doubt that a very large amount of British Capital has been offered for this investment.“
Schließen
It is said that the English applications alone for this loan amount to between 20 and 30 millions.
Where then is Disraeli[’]s want of capital? There cannot surely be a want of capital or money upon such evidence.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 24. November 1866. S. 584.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Ein Foreign Bondholder schreibt über dasselbe Thema in diese Nummer:
No sooner have we an easy money market, and no sooner do dividend paying foreign stocks, from their  Money Market Review: absurdly
Schließen
absolutely
low prices, begin to attract the attention of people who are seeking investments, than forward come intimations of fresh foreign loans – as if enough of British Capital had not already been lent to foreign States. We thus help to depreciate the Foreign Securities we hold.

The Russian Gvt. now seek a new Five P.Ct. Loan of 6 Mill. £, at the nominal price of £86. Now Russian Five P.Ct. of the 1822 Loan were once as high as 115. Why have they fallen to 88£, their present price? There has never been any doubt as to a dividend; on the contrary, to the everlasting Credit of the Russians, the dividends were punctually paid even during the Crimean war. The reason is this, that from 1850 Russia has been continually borrowing, and instead of the one Five P.Ct. Loan of 1822, we have now no less than 5 other Russian stocks quoted on the London Stock Exchange! The same may be said of the Brazilian, Ejyptian, Peruvian, and Turkish bonds.

If this Russian Loan be floated at 86, what security is there that another will not be introduced next year at 80? And so from time to time are existing interests deteriorated. An attempt was made not long ago by Mssrs. Barings to introduce a Six p.Ct. Loan for the Argentine Republic at 75, when Buenos Ayres Six P.Ct. were at about 88. What was the consequence? Down went the price of the latter stock, because there was a rush to sell by subscribers to the new loan; but, after all, it proved to be a failure, and but a small portion of it could be floated. … It is not the thing for any State to come to us for new Loans whilst their old debts are below the prices at which they were issued, and it is too bad to seek to borrow on terms below the market value of bonds of former loans, as is the case now with Russia.



December 1. 1866. N. 339.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 606/607.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Estate Investment Co. Misrepresentation in Prospectus.

Nach judgment des Vice Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood „the plaintiffs contract to take 10 shares rescinded, deposit money returned to him, his name removed from the register of the Co, the defendants to pay the costs of the suit“.

This Co. promoted by one Sarl. Purpose set forth in Prospectus to buy Land for building near metropolis etc[.] The capital of the Co was to £250,000, in 10,000 shares of £10 each, the prospectus stating that the first issue would be of „5000 shares of which more than half has been subscribed“; that upwards of 70,000£ had been expended upon the Selhurst Estate (at North Norwood) by the vendor Sarl; and that a binding contract had been entered into for the purchase of the Leyton stone Estate (within 6 miles of London etc). Alles dieß gelogen. Sarl himself (promoter und agent der directors) had agreed to take 2,510 shares. The directors told the public that they had got rid of, while Sarl was afterwards found pushing these 2,500 shares in the market, and |235 inducing the public to buy that which they were assured by the prospectus had been already taken up.

The New Russian Loan.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 608/609.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
The returns of the Banks of England and France show a glut of money … yet, so thoroughly the basis of public confidence sapped, that prices (on Stock etc Share markets) without any sign of animation. Dulness and distrust prevail, in face of the fact that the Board of Trade returns show the commerce of the country in more active condition than is generally believed.  Von Marx mit Auslassungen und Ergänzungen aus der Quelle zitiert im Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 19. November 1868.
Schließen
Holders of money are afraid – afraid, at least of all the old channels of investment, and capital is only to be tempted for the moment by foreign or colonial loan. Of this the enormous applications for the Russian, and the marked success of the New Zealand, Victoria, and Queensland Loans are proofs. Employment of this kind will not long be wanting for our capital. The Lombardo-Venetian Railway Co are about to issue bonds for £3,600,000, and doubtless several needy Governments will not delay following in the wake of the Russian. It is a gain, at all events, that there is at length some renewal of investment
, and we must continue to wait patiently until the need for interest shall make itself sufficiently felt to force into employment the unremunerative hoards which are now accumulated in bankers’ vaults.

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Der oben citirte Foreign Bondholder schreibt in dieser Nummer über die New Russian Loan:

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 611/612.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
The New Russian Loan „a success“; that is to say, before allotment, it has been dealt in largely at a premium, as was the case invariably a year or 2 ago with all the limited liability Cos now being wound up under the orders of the Court of Chancery. I predict, this new loan will go to a discount, as the monthly instalments of £15 become due … Its introduction has had the effect, not only of checking the rise, which was general, in all foreign stocks, but of causing a fall in Consols, and a fall of 2 to 3% in all classes of Russian bonds. It is now stated that various other foreign loans are about to be introduced, Austria is in need – also Brazil, Portugal, Italy, and, as John Bull’s coffers are once more filling, there will be no end of applications for the surplus wealth of the nation … The public for the moment care little about foreign stocks as investments, yet send in their applications for a slice of the New Russian Loan, tempted, as in the days of the late mania, by the hope of realising a premium on the scrip.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 1. Dezember 1866. S. 611.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
1915.
On the Overends.

The personal guarantee was expressly given, not as against the 4 millions and upwards of the secret instrument at all, but solely against the 19 mill. and upwards of the comparatively public deed of transfer. Even the pledge of the private estates of the old firm was not to be redeemed before 31st Dec. 1868.|


236

 Aus dieser Ausgabe zitierte Marx eine Stelle nach der Quelle im Brief an Collet Dobson Collet vom 19. November 1868, die sich nicht in den vorliegenden Exzerpten befindet.
Schließen
8 December 1866. N. 340
.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. Dezember 1866. S. 636–638.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.35), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152). – Verzeichnet im Katalog der SPD-Bibliothek (Nr. 41745).
Schließen
John Benjamin Smith, M.P. An Inquiry into the Causes of Monetary Panics etc[.] Letter addressed to Malcolm Ross, President of Manchester Chamber of Commerce. London. (1866)

Nach Smith „the currency question“ is „the only question which is incomprehensible“.

(Smith was the first chairman of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and von 1839–1841, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.)

In 1840 charges der Manchester Chamber of Commerce against B.o.E. that, against her own acknowledged rule to hold a reserve of gold in the proportion of 1/3 to its liabilities, „the directors continually acted in direct violation of their own principle – fostered speculation and overtrading by large and injudicious loans, and then, by suddenly calling them in, produced a panic, a fall in the prices of all commodities, and serious losses to the whole commercial community“. In illustration he mentions, that in 1836 Bullion of the Bank reduced to 4 Mill. St., whilst its circulation and deposits 30 Mill. £. To replenish their stock of gold, a course of restriction was commenced, resulting in panic of 1837, by which losses of capital in the 5 great staples of cotton, woollen, silk, linen, and hardware, estimated at 40 Mill. £. The same thing occurred in 1839. To remedy these evils the Bank Act of 1844 was passed, but, says Smith „22 years have since elapsed, – and the evils now complained of … appear like a mere recital of the complaints of 1840“.

Now, nach Smith, reason davon, daß die London Joint Stock Cos. keep not large enough money reserve.  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
But, Smith, great Smith, 1847 panic! but at that time deposits in the 9 leading joint stock banks less than 9 mill. Then, Smith, 1857, panic!
and the Inquiry Committee of 1857 considered the increase of deposits in the Joint Stock Banks as one of its causes, but failed to adduce any evidence – because there was none. And, finally,  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
Smith, immense Smith, according to thyself,
in 1866 June 30, those Joint Stock Banks denounced not only not failed, but paid 25, 29, 50 p.ct. p.a. on their respective capitals. Smith utterly fails to show that the large deposits in the Joint Stock Banks, or the amount of their reserves had anything whatever to do with the last crises. But Smith feels it a hardship, that they should have drawn so largely, at such a time, on their own balances in the B.o.E.  Zusammenfassung von Marx.
Schließen
But, Smith, Smith!, couldst thou complain if thy creditor drew largely upon thine reserves at the time he wants his money?

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Smith is evidently a damned and solemn and presumptuous ass!

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. Dezember 1866. S. 642.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Spirit of the Cotton Circulars.

Decline (gradual) in the price of raw cotton. Manchester manufacturers are losing money, have no confidence in current values, and begin to put their mills on short time.|

237

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. Dezember 1866. S. 642–644.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Ebbw Vale Co. (Lim.)

Great Colliery owner und iron master; territorial magnate and powerful capitalist. Employs more than 15,000 persons, representing population of 50,000. 6 different collieries and iron works in Monmouthshire (3,254 acres of freehold land and mines; 9,352 acres of leasehold properties, besides properties in Gloucester and Somerset – the former in the Forest of Dean to the extent of 700 acres (inexhaustible coalfields), and the latter in Somersetshire to 3000 acres.[)] On its freehold and leasehold estates 2000 houses and cottages; its rental alone from lands, farms, and houses beyond 14,000 a year. 23 blast furnaces yielded 152,000 tons of pig iron annually, 100,000 tons of railway and finished iron turned out in the year. Collieries 850,000 tons of coal yearly, the mines 280,000 tons of ironstone annually. Besides, at the shipping ports there were ample appliances for a vast and increasing trade by sea. All this was private property when taken over by present Co.

The Co. among the first to apply the furnace gases to the saving of heat in the production of iron – applications that have since been carried to such perfection in South Wales, Staffordshire, and Cleveland.



December 15, 1866. N. 341.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 667/668.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Overends. „Justitia“ in „Times“ (11 December) „On Commercial Morality.“

 Zusammenfassende Bemerkung von Marx.
Schließen
Die Times indeed defender der Overends. Ausnahmsweis for sensation sale jener Artikel. Es heißt darin u.a:

The old firm saw ruin imminent, and they seriously set themselves to the task of averting the dreadful catastrophe. They had already wasted a great part of their own fortunes, and squandered in foolish speculation 3 millions of other people’s money; what were they to do? Craft and subtlety were to be employed to stave off the evil. Their own firm was ruined, but their name was still a potent spell, and that they believed they could persuade a credulous public to buy and so to save themselves. That by this process they might bring ruin upon thousands of helpless innocent people was apparently of no consideration to these „pious bankrupts in fortune and in honour“. They determined to obtain for themselves a large sum for their name and their goodwill, and then to transfer all liabilities to the new. new Co. To do this the public had to be deceived, „and this was done in a mode that in more savage times than ours would have brought to the gallows the perpetrators of the dead.“

In the prospectus issued by the directors of the new Co. no statement of the circumstances either of the old or new co.; nothing said of the 3 millions of liabilities; no hint of the actual insolvency of the firm for whose business they engaged to give £500,000. The public were cajoled into buying shares in a concern utterly bankrupt by persons thoroughly cognisant of the |238 fraud they were committing. The private arrangement (secret article) contained a full description of the actual state of the old firm, and set forth in „damning figures“ all the liabilities and debts of the bankrupt sellers. Who, asks Justitia, are the criminals? The members of the old firm and the directors of the new Co. They concocted and executed the whole scheme, etc. „These“, he says, „are the criminals, and their crime is that of obtaining money under false and fraudulent pretenses – or swindling – and for that they ought to be placed on the criminal charge at the bar of the Old Bailey.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 668/669.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 587.39), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
The Crisis of 1866: A Financial Essay. By W. Fowler. (1866.)

Defends Peel’s Act, Overstone etc. A panic, he says, is invariably the result of the opposite extreme. Too much confidence – undue inflation of credit – invariably followed by distrust, but in all cases there must be one immediate cause – one culminating point – which precedes the crises. Before the panic of 1847 great railway mania which necessitated money borrowing to an extreme extent, then panic, with the attendant export of precious metals to buy food, which was the immediate cause of suspension of Peel’s Act. Before panic of 1857 extreme speculation in the Un. States, which extended to this country, and the immediate cause of the suspension of the Bank Act then was the failure of various banks and colossal commercial houses connected with the American trade. Before the panic of 1866, great speculation in cotton, finance Cos, banks, limited liability Cos of all sorts, and in merchandise of various descriptions, and pinnacle of the crisis stoppage of Overend etc, 11 May, necessitating for 3d time the suspension of Peel’s Act.

Fowler so far right,  The Money Market Review: but we cannot go with him in his declaration
Schließen
but fool when asserting
: that the B.o.E. was prepared for the emergency because the Act of 1844 had compelled her to take the utmost caution in the management of her business, and that, guiding herself, by the state of her reserve, she maintained the high rate of interest which counteracted an adverse tendency in the foreign exchanges.

1) As to the necessity for a high rate of interest as a means of retaining gold in the country and of counteracting adverse foreign exchanges … B.o.E. minimum rate of discount 10% from 12 May to 15 Aug., and in that interval the Bank increased its stock of coin and bullion from less than 13 to less than 14 mill. In the same interval the B.o.F. minimum rate from 3 to 4%, but its stock of coin and bullion increased in those 3 eventful months from 201/2 to 291/4 mill. Ten % brought the B.o.E. virtually no gold at all; 3 and 4% brought the Bank of France nearly 9 mill. From 15 Aug. to now (15 Dec.) the minimum bankrate of discount at the B.o.E. reduced from 10 to 4%, and from about 14 mill. on 15. Aug. B.o.E. holds now 18 mill. It is clear that a high interest does not always attract gold; and that, after the panic of last May, it was worse than inoperative. It was mischievous to all but the B.o.E. and some other banks. Rest and dividends of B.o.E. good.|

239

2) Old, old theory that „the convertibility of the note“ secured by 10% rate for 3 months, that the 10% kept enough gold, and that convertibility was never in danger. Nonsense! The convertibility was more in danger from the 10% than from any other cause. Was the convertibility of the French note in danger from 3 to 4%, while ours was 10; or with 30 mill. of gold to back it, while B.o.E. could not get half the amount with 10%. If from 12 May to 15 Aug. the B.o.E. had acted up to the letter of the law, it must have stopped payment. And then the convertibility of the Note went to the wall. It was only by throwing the Act of 1844 overboard that the Convertibility of the note was preserved.

3) Fowler tells that there must be a limitation of notes, and that the power of relaxation must rest with the minister of the day. Where existed the power of limitation in the recent crisis? Country bankers would have big B.o.E. notes in their tills so long as the 10% rate lasted, as the return made to the H.o.C. at the instance of Alderman Salomons amply shows. It was not for the B.o.E. to choose. The B.o.E., during those fatal 3 months of 10%, had outstanding obligations to pay gold on demand to an amount far larger than it had gold to pay, and all these debts might have been demanded in full at short notice. If the B.o.E. had only been a little more obstinate and a little less accommodating, their gold creditors would have demanded prompt payments, and where would the B.o.E. have been then?

Fowler says that the Bank Act of 1844 point points to a limit to the available supply of money, and thereby is a wholesome check to speculation. Might it not also be said that when the Bank coffers are full, as they are now, and will probably continue, the Act of ’44’ ’44 stimulates speculation? This law has taught us that, with 18 millions of bullion and coin in the B.o.E., we may regard money as dirt |240 cheap, and that with 12 mill. it must be at panic prices. Was there ever anything so supremely ridiculous in the shape of a law framed to regulate the commerce of the greatest commercial nation of the world?

 Nummerierung von Marx.
Schließen
4)
Furthermore, we are told that the limitation of banknotes relatively to the accidental stock of bullion in the Bank vaults ought to exist by law, and that the law of 1844, therefore, a wise and expedient measure. Yet, nevertheless, that some relaxing power is necessary in times of emergency, but that the power of relaxation, meaning an extension of the paper money beyond the limits of the Act of 1844, should rest, at as it now rests, with the Gvt. of the day, and not be an integral part of our Currency Law. This means, in fact, that our currency system ought to be regulated by a stringent law, but that, however stringent that law may be in easy times, it should invariably be abrogated in difficult times, and should no longer be law at all. We are told that on three occasions of 1847, 1857, and 1866, the Treasury Letter suspending the Bankact of 1844 has sufficed, „as by magic“, to stop all panic, and quickly to restore the normal state of monetary affairs; and that, as this magical suspension is sometimes imperative, a general power should be given to the First Lord of the Treasury and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give the needful authority to the Bank to suspend the law at their discretion. That is, in fact, that the law should be sustained upon the statute book, but that it should never be really put in operation. One of the aims and objects of the law of 44’ was to provide against those crise crises from one of which we have just emerged, and we are now told that whenever such emergencies arise there must be no such law at all. The law was meant to meet all such emergencies, but it is now argued by this most earnest advocate for the law that the emergency must be met by suspending the law.

Yet again we are told that a high rate of discount will not put a stop to speculative operations so long as it is profitable to pay it, but that the Act of 1844 will and does check such transactions, because in points it points out, in a way that cannot be mistaken, that there is a limit to the available supply of money in the country, and that, however good may be the bills offered, it is not certain that money will be procurable just when and to the extent required.|

241

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 669/670.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Lloyd’s Bonds  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Railway Debenture)

Lloyd’s Bonds are, or ought to be, an acknowledgement, under seal, of a debt due for work performed or materials supplied, and in that form are held to be lawful; but in cases in which they have been used as a means of borrowing, as distinguished from the discharge of debt incurred before their issue, they have been held invalid.

In the last session of Parliament Law was passed rendering compulsory the public registration, on and after January 1867, of railway debentures and all other loans; and this same Act requires that after 21st  January 1867 every mortgage deed, bond, and certificate of debenture stock issued shall be endorsed by 2 directors and 1 officer of the Co., with a certification that the issue is made under Parliamentary Powers. These 2 directors and the officer are liable to fine and imprisonment if they certify falsely. Presently, 45% of the net revenue is the maximum of the debenture interest, while the minimum is 73/4%, and the average less than 23%. (Dieß nach Coles’ Tables.)

Mr. Coles has prepared tables for 26 Cos (the most important:): important): In substance these figures amount broadly to the facts that the 26 Cos. have raised in all 348 Mill. St., of which 79 millions is, virtually, at this moment, in the form of debentures.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. Dezember 1866. S. 672/673.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bills of Lading.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Frachtbriefe) (Handelsschwindel)

At the bottom of all transactions there is money. In a rough kind of way the business community may be divided into 2 great sections, the one dealing with money and the other with merchandise. The 2 live by one another. The capitalist is always ready to lend, and the merchant willing to borrow, the fundamental basis of dealing being security. This is provided by certain well known contracts formulated upon acknowledged instruments of trade, such as bills of exchange, bills of lading, dock warrants, and the like, which pass current generally „to order“, and by simple endorsement from hand to hand. These, when complete, are recognised as valued transfers of value. Bills of lading, for convenience, are drawn in sets of 2, 3, 4, and sometimes 5 parts. The number of parts is stated upon the face of each, and the captain certifies that he had signed the number indicated. The important part of the contract between the captain and all other parties to the bill of lading is that he engages to deliver the merchandise in good order, „in witness whereof the master of the said ship hath affirmed to ―― bills of lading, all of this tenor and date; the one of which being accomplished, the others to stand void“.

Now the course of dealing is ordinarily after this fashion: A merchant in India buys a parcel of cotton for which he engages to pay. He ships the purchase to London, obtains the bills of lading, and negotiates with an Exchange Bank to draw on the correspondent to whom he consigns the cotton, and assigns the shipping documents as collateral security for the due honor of his draft. In return, the banker pays the amount agreed for, which enables the merchant to meet his engagements. In other words, the bank buys the |242 bills of exchange, reserving power of recourse against all parties as well as against the goods in case of need. The bill is then remitted to the London office, and presented to the merchant’s correspondent, who, being duly advised, accepts the same. In due course the vessel arrives, and the agent sends his cotton to a storekeeper or to a dock warehouse. The storekeeper holds the cotton as bailee for the captain until payment of freight, and, after notice, for the bank who claim a lien for the advances made. The agent next pays the acceptance he has given and takes possession of the documents. He then lodges one bill of lading and a release from the captain’s claim for freight, and obtains from the storekeeper a dock warrant or wharf note, as the case may be. He then possesses a clear title to the goods, and if he should consider the markets unfavourable for immediate operation he can wait, when the certainty of being able to obtain a loan upon the document should need a rise. The storekeeper makes himself responsible for the delivery of the goods on receiving one only of the set of bills of lading, and he does this in virtue of the understanding that „one of which being accomplished the others to stand void“.

Nun schöner case of Meyerstein vs. Barber. J. C. Azemar et Co, respectable firm, lately transferred their business to one Abraham, formerly in their employ and known in London first as their manager, and afterwards as their successor. A parcel of cotton came to him drawn against in the usual manner. The cotton arrived and was landed under Abraham’s direction, but he appeared to lack the means to obtain the shipping documents. Consequently he could not deal with the merchandise, and had to contrive some scheme to meet the difficulty. He went to the bank and paid the bill by a cheque upon his own banker. He thus released the documents and immediately negotiated with Meyerstein for an advance upon them. This was successful, and, Meyerstein’s check being paid into Abraham’s credit, enabled his bankers to liquidate the cheque already given by Abraham. So far no harm done. The scheme was bold, but it had gone through, and all parties stood to come out right. But here the mischief begins. Abraham had deposited two bills of lading with Meyerstein, and one still remained in his possession. Meyerstein at this time was in the dark as to the arrival of the ship. Meanwhile, Abraham became active. He had been in communication with Mssrs. Barber as to a loan, in the first instance, but the negotiation had dropped, for want of agreement as to the amount. This was no longer of consequence, and the matter was resumed and concluded, eventually, upon Msrs. Barber’s first proposals. Every precaution was taken; the merchandise was inspected, and, being found free of all liens, the advance was made, the one bill of lading lodged, and the wharfinger issued the customary warrant. The mortgagees, being thus in possession of the cotton, sold it in their capacity of brokers and repaid themselves out of the proceeds. Part of the cotton was sold by order of Abraham, but somewhere about this part of the business he disappeared or absconded. His flight roused Meyerstein, who instituted inquiry, and finding how the case stood, made his claim on the Barber for the net proceeds of the sale, on the ground that the property in the cotton passed to him with the transfer of the 2 bills of lading.



22 December, 1866. N. 342.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 700–702.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et. Co.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Times veering about.)

Times of 18 Dec. (’66) leading article sees nothing legally or morally wrong in the conduct of the partners of the old firm, nor of the new directors. Früher feebleness and indecision in its articles. „a disposition to wink at commercial delinquencies“, „shrinking timidity“, „moral cowardice.“ Then Justitia. Now: Fraudulent concealment and wilful and deliberate misrepresentation, for the purpose of taking the public in, if the public could not be taken in without them, are, according to the Times, neither legal crimes nor moral offences, but fair and |243 allowable mercantile transactions. That is the orthodox commercial morality of the Times.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 702/703.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Manchester Chamber of Commerce on the Bank Act and the Currency.

Motion was put into the recent crisis and the working of Act of 1844. President (Malcolm Ross) declared  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
that he was an ass
, that he had received 72 pamphlets and communications on the subject (one pamphlet proposing to allow banks to issue notes, taking pig iron as a basis) and  Zusammenfassung von Marx. „Mir wird von allem dem so dumm, Als ging’ mir ein Mühlrad im Kopf herum“ ist ein Ausspruch des Schülers von Mephisto in Goethes „Faust“.
Schließen
daß ihm ward von all dem so dumm, als ging ihm ein Mühlrad im Kopf herum.

This the extraordinary commencement. Dann the resolution moved by Henry Ashworth, who stated he did not wish to address the meeting, not being in possession of sufficient knowledge to enable him to express any definite idea on the subject. His seconder, Mr. Bannermann seconded it, because he was of opinion the inquiry would be of „no practical use“, having made up his mind that „the crisis had been caused, not by the Bank Act, but by overtrading“. Ferguson supported because no investigation was necessary, because the public were able to judge for themselves as to the cause of the panic, the immediate cause being the failure of Overend et Co, the proximate causes the speculations of the public in the shares of the limited liability Cos, and the action of the financial Cos.

Mr. Wood thought the passing of the resolution would not be for the credit of the Manchester Chamber, for it would simply show that they in Manchester were „ignorant of the causes etc“[.] He and Ferguson full of encomiums upon the Bank Act. Dennoch he and Ferguson voted for the resolution. Wood denied that the Act had been suspended more than once. The same Wood gave the following anecdote of Lord Overstone: „On the first occasion“, he says, „he asked Lord Overstone whether the suspension of the Act was sought, and Overstone replied that the authorisation was undoubtedly right, for there existed at that period a state of panic which, if it had not been allayed, would have swept everything away before it, producing a run upon the Bank of England which might have endangered the payment of the notes in gold.“ And it is said that the Act has secured the convertibility of the note from all danger! The Act works well in raising the price of the capitalists’ money, and in lowering the price of the merchants’ and manufacturers’ goods.

Bazley, übrigens auch für den Act, said u.a: This year greater exports than ever before, but imports exceeded them by 30 Mill. £. But Bazley ought not to be ignorant of the fact that it is the balance of indebtedness, and not the balance of exports and imports which governs the exchanges, and that the balance of trade may be and frequently is against us, whilst the balance of indebtedness is greatly in our favour.

Bazley sagt selbst, daß „it was our industry that bought the gold from every market … The B.o.E. could not do it of itself; it might possibly depress prices, and compel English manufactures to be sold at very low prices, in order that gold might be bought at very high rates.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. Dezember 1866. S. 708.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overends.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Gordon and Rennie)

From the affidavit of those men (Gordon and Rennie) follows, that the Gurneys had told these 2 directors  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(im Ganzen 7?)
their damnable secret on the transfer of the business.

In the Joint Stock Cos. Act of 1862 it is laid down: „Any fraudulent statement or concealment of fact ⦗in prospectuses⦘ will subject the persons putting it forward to criminal proceedings.“|

244

Is it in the power of any 8 persons, by means of the Limited Liability Act, to saddle unconscious individuals with the Debts of an insolvent firm, luring them by a flattering prospectus, whilst concealing the peril in which they are placed?

29 December 1866. N. 343.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. Dezember 1866. S. 731.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bank Act of 1844.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Reserve)

While we 10%, the B.o.F. 31/2 to 4%. It had not one farthing of Reserve in our acceptation of the word. That is to say, the notes issued and payable on demand in coin were generally in excess of the State Securities held and the coin and bullion in possession. The B.o.F. cares nothing for what we call „Reserve“, and yet during these 3 months accumulated an additional share of upwards of 9 Mill. £. St. … Throughout the history of the B.o.E., the smaller the Reserve of notes, coin and bullion, the larger have been the deposits and the actual circulation … It was not that the commerce of Gr. Britain wanted more notes, but that it feared there might be a stoppage of the supply altogether.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. Dezember 1866. S. 733/734.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Railway Cos. Securities Act of 1866.

The money penalties against railway Cos. for non compliance with the Act singularly small, but two useful clauses. 1) the holder of a railway bond may demand a certificate from 2 directors and an officer of the Co (secretary or other officer registered at the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Cos., authorised to sign the railway debentures of the Co.) that it is legally issued; 2) if certification wrongfully given, the directors and the officer may be imprisoned.|


245

The Money Market Review. Jahrgang 1867.

5 January, 1867. N. 344.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Januar 1867. S. 5/6.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Barned’s Bank etc. Public Official Audits.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Overends und Times)

Professional Accountants make things pleasant to the people by whom they are employed. Overends’ case „typical“. With official accountants, it would have found it its way into the Bankruptcy Court. The liquidators, acting in concert with the partners and the solicitors of the old firm, and the new one, have hitherto contrived to baffle all the endeavours of the shareholders or others to obtain an insight into the real state of affairs past or present. A few weeks ago the partners of the old firm denounced in the leading type (by Justitia) of the Times, if not in the leading columns of the Times as criminals of the deepest dye, and the new directors as swindlers, who ought to be forthwith arraigned at the Old Bailey. But, a few days after, another writer in the leading columns of the Times, upon precisely the same state of facts and information, laboured to exculpate both the partners of the old firm and the directors of the new Co. from all moral imputation, and even from all legal responsibility. Still more recently – Times of 27. December 1866 – the City Editor of that Journal without any additional facts or information, not only exculpates all these parties, but this to show that the old firm was not insolvent at all at the time when the transfer took place. Es existiren immer noch no official figures as to the liability of the old firm. Times City editor says: Liabilities taken over were £4,199,000 and assets handed over £4,887,000.

Those assets, says City Editor:

Securities held against liabilities: £1,082,000
Private Estates: 2,320,000
Goodwill 500,000
Premises in Lombard street 45,000
Balances due to partners in books of the old firm 940,000
Total: £4,887,000

Der City Editor of the Times seeks to make out, daß danach nach dieser Rechnung die firm was not insolvent at the time of transfer; that „there was no insolvency of any kind“.

Woher dann »the present (undisputed) insolvency[«]? Not consequent upon losses or bad business of the new Co., for it is boasted that they made a profit on their legitimate business during their 9 or 10 months’ existence, of some £200,000. Aber the whole of the capital (of the new Co.) is gone, and there are still 5 Mill. £ St. unliquidated. Towards the liquidation of these, already call made upon the shareholders of 1 Mill. £, and two other calls of 1 Million each, are expected. How this, with the solvency of the old firm and 200 000£ profit of the new one? …|

246

As to the bills taken over, great number of them, which were taken as good, have been renewed from time to time, and were bad, and known to be bad, or at least doubtful at the time, and are still unpaid. The „goodwill“, as encumbered not only with the legitimate discount business, but with the bad business too, was a mere fiction. According to the examination of John Henry Gurney they were loosing year after year before the transfer. The „balance due to partners“, in the books of the old firm – a myth. This no mere question of bookkeeping. Of what was that £940,000 composed? Of undrawn profits, it is said. But, first, we were led to believe that this £940,000 were profits accumulated during the years following 1861, in which no profits were divided, but now we learn that no profits were made, and could, therefore, not accumulate. Again, it is said, these socalled profits are largely composed of nominal half-yearly additions of enormous rates of interest upon those millions of bad debts. If so, these profits as bad as the bad debts themselves.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Januar 1867. S. 7.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Cotton Circulars.

Decline in the prices of raw cotton in 1866 unusual, but not extraordinary.

Quotations 29 Dec. 1866. From Msrs Smith, Edwards, and Co’s Circular.
1865 1866
Orleans. Middling. 21.1/4d. 153/8d.
Brazil. – Peruvian 201/2d 15d.
Fair Dhollerah 171/2d. 123/8d.
Bengal. fair. 121/2d. 87/8d.
Stock of Raw Cotton in Ports of Great Britain, taken from Ellison and Heywood’s Circular.
31 December 1862 Bales 433,900 Bales
1863 Bales 327,500
1864 Bales 575,727
1865 Bales 405,488
1866 Bales 581,570
Imports into Great Britain. (Ellison and Heywood)
In 1862 1,445,000
1863 1,377,600
1864 1,606,390
1865 2,034,730
1866 2,436,394
British Imports and Exports of Raw Cotton. (Ellison et Heywood)
Imports: bales 1862: 1,445,000 1863: 1,377,600 1864: 1,606,390 1865: 2,034,730 1866: 2,436,394
Exports: bales: 1862: 564,900 1863: 661,000 1864: 732,480 1865: 890,830 1866: 1,136,565
Net Imports: 880,100 716,600 873,910 1,143,900 1,229,829 1,299,829

Decline of 1866 not so great as might have been expected. Gross and net import larger than in any of the 5 years. But cotton market still supported by rumours of very limited supply of the U. St.|

247

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Januar 1867. S. 7.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Separation of Acceptances from Deposits in Bank Balance Sheets.

With exception of a few Banks, like London and Westminster, these items thrown together in the public Bank accounts. Acceptances represent the liability of a Bank to be called up to pay that sum; deposits money actually deposited by the Public. The latter show the confidence of the Public in the Bank; the acceptances the confidence of the Bank in the issuers or guarantees of the Bills they accept. During the recent crisis, when Bankrate at 10%, the rates „out of doors“ for the very best Bankers bills varied often from 1 to 3% below the Threadneedlestreet minimum. This variation entirely owing to the respective amounts which each billbroker held of the bills of each bank.  Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen
The bank, of whose acceptances his portfolio was full, had to pay more or [was] declined at all.

The worst features of the recent troubles may be traced to the undue facilities which existed for issuing and placing acceptances.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Januar 1867. S. 9/10.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Conservative Land Society.

 Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen
Macht seit 15 Jahren sehr gute Geschäfte. Hauptzweck den Arbeitern Wohnung zu verschaffen und sie zu proprietors dieser Wohnung zu machen.
Hat gekauft bis 1866 (Ende) 67 estates in 26 different counties, besides assisting individual shareholders and depositors to leasehold and freehold houses and villas.  Zusammenfassung von Marx in zum Teil eigenen Worten.
Schließen
While paying 4% (yearly) to depositors, and 5% (nebst additional 1% bonus for the first year) annually to shareholders, enable workmen to acquire property at a cost little more than the rent they would otherwise have to pay year by year.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Januar 1867. S. 12.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overends.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Friends of the Co.)

Thought the parties implicated did not themselves dare to do anything that might have betrayed a fatal consciousness of delinquency, yet their friends and confidants carried their deposits out almost at the same moment (9 May) at which Oppenheim was carrying his investment (15,000£) in.



12 January 1867. N. 345.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 12. Januar 1867. S. 35/36.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Proposed Expansive Clause in the Bank Act of 1844.

Economist,  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
under J. Wilson
, antagonist des Bank Act. Then, it „ratted“, became its supporter. Latterly, again backsliding. Globe, after supporting the Act for more than 20 years, has turned against it, demands its repeal. Economist, less courageous, demands expansive clause (so daß minister Chancellor of Exchequer by law ihn suspendiren können). Wants, therefore, partial abrogation of the Act. J. Mills (Manchester) (at meeting of Social Science Congress und Fowler „The Crisis of 1866 verlangen dasselbe. Beide Kerls affirm, that there would be nothing inconsistent with the Act in the existence of a permanent power to abrogate it! in a specific provision for the violation of its principle! Economist says „that power is not contrary to principle unless the suspensions of the Act are so“. A suspension of the law by Ministers is a violation of the law by sufferance, which the Economist himself elsewhere designated as a misdemeanour, although an excusable one. The Bankact has only one essential principlethe limitation of the bankissues to 14 (now 15) millions, except against gold. The „crisis clause“ would abrogate this „sound“ |248 principle in the only case where it can come into play. Ausserdem: The power (known to exist on 11 May 1866, and not preventing the panic) would never be exercised except at the last moment, just to prevent the worst effects of a panic. Nach J. St. Mill die theory und practical arrangements des Bank Act adapted  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
nur
to the case where drain of gold originates in a rise of prices produced by an undue expansion of the currency or credit, but in no other case.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 12. Januar 1867. S. 38/39.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Evidence of John Henry Gurney and Mr. Robert Birnbeck Birkbeck before Vice-Chancellor Malins.

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Dieser meek und pious swindler
, J. H. Gurney, admitted vor Gericht, in his evidence the damning fact, viz: that during the whole period von 1861 to the time of transfer no profits whatever were made by the old firm, but, on the contrary, large losses. Practice, nach dieser evidence, of the firm für years, in making up their annual accounts, to add interests upon all debts owing to the firm, bad as well as good good debts. After 1863 this practice discontinued. Balance sheet for 1864 exhibits dead loss of £348,000. This ratio of loss increased in 1865 down to the moment of transfer to the new Co. In 7 months von January to July 1865 (inclusive), balance of losses £295,000, being at the rate of £506,000 p. annum. In this period of 19 months, therefore, the firm was receiving and wasting or sinking irrecoverably the money of their depositors to £643,000. All this elicited during the examination of John Henry Gurney. And 500,000£ goodwill paid by the new firm for this business Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 12. Januar 1867. S. 39/40.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Cotton Market. Past and Present.

Import value of cotton landed last year at Liverpool estimated at more than 80 Mill. £, larger than in any previous year; quantity of cotton manufactured (1866) larger than in any previous year, auch its export. With an import value of more than 80 Mill. £, there were fluctuations in the market price, in the course of a few months, von 40 to 50%, und prices at close of 1866, though firm for the moment, 20 25 to 30% lower than at beginning of 1866. Hence, during that year, prodigious losses und gains of cotton sellers Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!

Mssrs. Leech, Harrison, and Forwood’s Review of cotton trade in 1866 shows that that year commenced with stock of raw cotton at Liverpool of 402,630 bales, which declined, on 16 March, to 340,250 bales, the minimum of the year, then rose, on 25 May, to 1,205,330 bls, the maximum of the year, and closed at 516,770 bales on 28 Dec. 1866. The course of market values thus described in outline:

Range of Prices in 1866 Middling Orleans, per lb. Fair Dhollerah. Per lb.
Highest, Jan. 5, the first prices of the year 21d. to 211/8d. 183/4d to 187/8d.
Lowest, May 25, when the stock at maximum 131/2d to 135/8 91/2d to 95/8d.
Last, Dec. 28 161/4 to 163/8d. 131/2d to 135/8d.

Quantity of Cotton imported in U. Kingd. in 1866: bales 3,749,041, or 1,556,952,589 lbs, against 2,755,321 bls. in 1865. The increase in 1866 thus about 32%. Of this imported quantity supplied, at a cost to this country, as under:

United States: Bales: 1,156,130 British India. Bls: 1,847,739 Egypt bls: 167,451 Brazil. bls: 407,646 Smyrna bls. 32,770. Peru, Mexico, Westindies 111,820
Un. States: Cost: £35 35 Mill. £ St. India Cost: 33 Mill. £ St. Egypt et Levant. Cost 6,600,000£. Brazil. Cost: 5 Mill. £ St. Westindies etc 21/2 Mill. £ St.
Total Cost: £82,100,000

Home consumption, or quantity of raw cotton delivered from the port of Liverpool to consumers, i.e. manufacturers, in 1866 was 2,436,444 2,436,344 bales, or 46,853 bales per week, against 39,129 in 1865, and 30,822 bales in 1864.

Contrasted, quantities of cotton imported and used for home consumption during the last 7 years (but that of 1864 is omitted, for reasons not given,) stands thus: |249

Imported lbs. Consumed at home lbs
 Marx verwendete die Angaben über die importierte Rohbaumwolle der Jahre 1860 und 1861 in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 67.38–39) als Indikator für die These, dass „[d]as Jahr 1860 und Theil des Jahrs 1861 [...] bekanntlich die Zenithjahre der englischen Baumwollindustrie [waren]“ (ebenda. S. 67.30–32).
Schließen
1860
1,429,697,450 1,068,727,600
 Marx verwendete die Angaben über die importierte Rohbaumwolle der Jahre 1860 und 1861 in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 67.38–39) als Indikator für die These, dass „[d]as Jahr 1860 und Theil des Jahrs 1861 [...] bekanntlich die Zenithjahre der englischen Baumwollindustrie [waren]“ (ebenda. S. 67.30–32).
Schließen
1861
1,359,823,120 988,051,900
1862 533,223,819 414,905,150
1863 703,306,968 467,183,800
1865 965,727,070 718,428,470
1866 1,356,952,389 915,748,679

One prominent feature in this year: the large export of raw cotton to the Continent. In 1866: 1,136,565 bales, or a weekly average of 21,850 bales, against 890,830 bls in 1865, or 17,100 bls per week on the average.

Exports of manufactured cotton goods from the Un. Kingd. during first 11 months of last 3 years nach den Board of Trade Returns.

1866 2,341,747,710 Yards Piece Goods 126,000,000 Yarns. Lbs.
1865 1,805,814,998 94,000,000
1864 1,617,050,947 69,000,000
Liverpool stock of raw cotton at end of the last 7 years, except 1864. (Bales)
1860. 1861 1862 1863 1865 1866
594,400 bls 699,300 433,900 327,500 405,488 581,570.

Most of our spinners have adopted their machinery to the use of Indian cotton, and not altered it, will not alter it, until the supply of American cotton is proved certain and abundant.

Increasing consumption of raw cotton on Continent. Owing to the low wages there current, continental manufactures enabled to compete successfully with ours, it is said, in many of the coarser classes of cotton goods. Introduce also English machinery on extensive scale into their manufactories, so that feared as competitors in all classes of cotton goods unless „a great change takes place in our labour market“.

The tendency in this country is, and will be, towards dearer labour. The Prices of food, house rent, and indeed of all the necessaries of life increase in this country year by year, and must continue to increase so long as the present rate of production of the precious metals goes on, and so long also as we possess such vast colonial dependencies which, together with the U. St., are bidding treble or double the value for labour which in this country we can afford to pay.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 12. Januar 1867. S. 40/41.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Thomson Hankey: (formerly Governor of B.o.E.)  Titel von Marx notiert in einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148).
Schließen
„The Principles of Banking, its Utility and Economy; with Remarks on the the Working and Management of the Bank of England[“]. Lond. 1867
.

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Nichts brauchbar hierin als die explanation and description der organisation der different offices der B.o.E.
 Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Im Uebrigen Peel man.
He considers Act of ’44 as „perfectly successful“.

Bill and mortgage, sagt Money Market Review, both promises to pay at fixed dates, and both are transferable, though by different modes of transfer. In the one case the debt always attaches to the property or commodity mortgaged, and need not necessarily to be paid at the time fixed; whilst, in case of bill of exchange, the debt is transferred from person to person, though each still remains liable to pay it, at the fixed date.|


250

19 January, 1867. N. 346.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Januar 1867. S. 63/64.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Overends. Evidence of J. H. Gurney as to the Sale and Transfer of the Norwich Bank.

At time of transfer old firm handed to the new list of assets which were indeed bad debts, no less than £4,199,000. The management and liquidation of these debts was made the subject of a separate and special arrangement which was embodied in the private deed of arrangement so carefully concealed from the shareholders and the public. The loss losses upon those debts were said to be amply provided for by the so called guarantee of the partners and their private estates etc[.] (Sieh Seite 245 dieses Hefts) The Private estates were given at £2,320,000. But, so far as we can learn, there was, in fact, no conveyance or assignment of these private estates, nor any mortgage, trust, or charge upon them, which rendered them subject or liable to make good these losses. The partners, it is true, in the deed of arrangement, covenant to guarantee 20s. in the pound upon these assets, and they seem to have shown, on paper, that, besides the other items enumerated, they had private estates which they estimated or valued at £2,320,000, and it does not at present appear that they were ever called upon to do more. The properties appear to have been left in the hands of the owners to dispose of as they might think fit; and, as to one part at least, they have done it.

The sum of £2,320,000 is made up of several items, two of which relate to the Norwich Bank (with its 25 branches). The Norwich Bank estate figures for nearly half the aggregate amount of the private estates ⦗Goodwill: £300,000, Undrawn balances due to the respective partners £,767,000. Zusammen £1,067,000.⦘ Now the Norwich Bank and all its belongings had, by virtue of these transactions, become the equitable property of the new Co. until all the obligations of the old firm had been liquidated and discharged. But we now learn from the lips of John Henry Gurney that this property and interest in the Norwich Bank which had been thus pledged as a guarantee to the new Co. was on 1 March, 1866, actually sold and disposed of by the partners in the old firm to Henry Ford Barclay, one of the directors of the new Co., and to Samuel Gurney Buxton, who was one of the promoters of the new co., and signed the articles of association. In February 1866, it had become apparent, Mr. Gurney admitted, that there would be little or no surplus (!), as the losses would be more disastrous than they had led the new Co. to expect. And at that moment the partners in the old firm and their friends on the new direction were only intent to secure something for themselves. In the transfer of the Norwich Bank, Barclay and Buxton were only to pay the £300,000 for the goodwill on 1st March 1870; ditto the whole or a larger proportion of the £760,000 to be postponed until the same period; and the payment of either of them, even at that time, is to be contingent upon the business and the profits and losses of the concern in the meantime. These larger amounts are to be retained by Barclay and Buxton, as a „material guarantee“ against possible losses from any deficiency of assets of these Norwich Banks until March 1, 1870. And the unrealised portion of the other „private estates“ are, we believe, in like manner, pledged to the same parties, and for the same period, as a further guarantee on the part of the vendors, in favour of the purchasers of this Norwich Bank business. The partners in the old firm, after pledging this private estate to the depositors and creditors of the limited Co., had no right to sell and dispose it to a couple of their private friends and relatives. Nor had Barclay, one of the promoters and directors of the limited Co., and Buxton, one of its promoters, a right to purchase it for their own benefit. The liquidators, solicitors in „winding up“ etc hielten dieß willig geheim, denied all access to the books etc.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Januar 1867. S. 64/65.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Joint Stock Discount Co. and its late managing Director, Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, the scapegoat of public virtue, for having fraudulently applied to his own use, property of the Co. (i.e. in diesem Fall cheques paid to stockbrokers in discharge of his own private debts) verurtheilt to 5 years penal servitude. Die Sache kam heraus beim winding up in chancery. James Freeling Wilkinson, formerly billbroker. 1863 a joint stock Co formed for taking over that business; he became its managing director mit minimum salary of £3000 a year. 80,000l. bills were abstracted from the billcase, and became utterly lost to the Co.

Kleman, a commission agent in the City, had many and large transactions with the Joint Stock Disc. Co. as well as other Cos in the city. Kleman has left the country without leaving any „address“, being heavily indebted to all of them.

According to Mr. Henry White, the director who had signed these fraudulent cheques, Wilkinson had power to grant loans, and to take securities which in ordinary transactions were not submitted to the directors. |251 Any special matter might be referred to the directors at their weekly meeting, „but that reference would depend upon Mr. Wilkinson making it“. „Each director“, says White, „attended a week in rotation at the bank“, and Wilkinson says that „ordinarily the director who was on the weekly rota for signing cheques, when he went to the office, would go up-stairs and sign a lot of cheques, and then go away.“ These were all blank cheques which Wilkinson could fill up and sign, and deliver to whomsoever he pleased“ pleased, and Wilkinson „believed that the cheques for the advances that appeared to Kleman’s debt in the loan ledger were signed in that manner.“ The advances on to Kleman increased from 30 000£ to £108,000 between 1st Jan. and 1st Feb. 1866, without any security. Further advance to Kleman of £12,000 on 3d of Febr. 1866, without security. Ebenso subsequent advances to Kleman, during the month of February, when the Co. was struggling in extremis, which raised the total amount of Kleman’s debt to £184,838? Wilkinson had a private account with Kleman, but declined to show it or say anything about it. Were there any other such private accounts?

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Januar 1867. S. 70.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Overends.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Swindlers) (Old firm in the new directorate)

In the board of 7, the 3 members of the private firm were sufficient to form a quorum, one of them, moreover, being chairman, and the 2 others being the managing directors.



26 Jan. 1867. N. 347.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Januar 1867. S. 99/100.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Foreign and Colonial Loans.

Nach Disraeli the financial crisis of 1866 attributable to a want of capital. Now what is the fact? Russia applied to the money market the other day for a loan of 6 Mill. £. St., and immediately capitalists were to be found ready to supply Russia with the amount several times told. Chili demanded 2 millions; 17 were offered in the course of a few days. A small colonial railway – the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay united – wanted 50,000£, immediately subscribed. Several other Colonial loans immediately supplied. Italy, Portugal, and the Danubian principalities ask for money … If Disraeli had said last August that there was a dearth of security instead of capital, he would have been right. … Colonial Loans the best securities. 6%. They have never failed to meet their engagements. Foreign war for them impossible. The money borrowed by them for railways, harbours, and other productive investments.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Januar 1867. S. 100/101.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overends. Before Court of Chancery.

„It is admitted“, said Vice-Chancellor Malins, „that the old firm of Overend etc was insolvent to the extent of 3 Mill. £, with private property, as a guarantee, upon which there was no lien. No man in his senses, if he had known that, would have taken a single share.“ The prospectus was prepared and put forth by the partners in the old firm, who knew the whole truth, and by the friends whom they had selected and appointed as their colleagues in the direction of the new Co. The future shareholders had no voice in the appointment of these directors, auditors, solicitors, or other officials, nor any opportunity to ascertain the statements of the prospectus. Malins stated: „If the true nature of the suspense amount account of 4 Mill. £ had been stated, one deed would have been sufficient;“ but, as the true nature of that suspense account was to be concealed, two deeds became necessary. „The first deed“, said the Attorney General (Advokat von Oakes, one of the parties who sought to have their names removed from the register of shareholders, and list of contributories in the liquidation) „raised no suspicion that the old firm was insolvent, whilst the second deed, known only to the members of the old firm and the directors of the limited Co., proved that the concern … had not made any profit for years, and was actually in a state of collapse.“ As to the private estates, they were put down as follows:

Landed Estate £.556,000; Personal Property, including chapels! Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
£603,000. Reversionary Interests £92,000. Life interests under settlements: £97,000. Moneys in the Norwich Bank: £767,000. Share of goodwill of the Norwich Bank business: £300,000. Zusammen £2,425,000.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Januar 1867. S. 101/102.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Consolidation of all Railways of Gr. Brit. under one management.

This suggested by Charles Baylis in a pamphlet, with the general objects of increased facilities for travelling, lower fares and tolls, increased profits, and consolidation of the various stocks and shares, with the view to negotiability.|

252

In the management of our railway system, there is a vast interest involved, conferring upon the managers large emoluments, and in order to break up and consolidate the existing system, many snug berths must be swept away, and much opposition encountered from the incumbents. The real labour of all railway directorates is performed by efficient officers, which the directors give to their business an occasional hour or two.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Januar 1867. S. 107.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bill Brokering and Money Dealing.

Bill brokering seems to have had its origin with the house of Overend, Gurney, et Co, or their predecessors, Richardson, Overend, et. et Co. (Samuel Gurney ✝ 1856). In later years the confidence in the Overend Gurney led to large accumulation of deposit money in their hands seeking employment from time to time. Money dealing or discounting on their own account, lending on securities or other modes of investment, being found to yield a larger profit than to be derived from simple brokerage business, their transactions gradually took the more lucrative shape, and bill brokering with them was continued only in name. It was their large money dealing business that brought to their doors the surplus funds of bankers and others in town and country, and laid the foundation of the £200,000 per annum they were able at one period to divide.

A broker … one who acts for another, a factor, agent, or intermediate party, who knows who wants to buy in the cheapest market, and who wants to sell in the dearest, any particular commodity, be it a bill or a bale; he concludes a bargain, and thus earns his commission or brokerage. In other words, he reconciles the conflicting interests of buyer and seller. Or he may, without direct communication with either party, as in the article of produce, offer what is to be disposed of to public competition. He is at the same time an irresponsible party, unless where, under exceptional circumstances, he guarantees payment for an extra commission. Bill brokering proper with its 1/8 or 1/4 commission does not admit of such colossal futures being made … As it is conducted at present, the principal part of the profit or discount goes to the bank supplying the money, which probably has a large amount from customers on current account, at little or no interest. The broker – who, by the way, is not strictly speaking a broker at all, but an intermediate discounter – comes in for only what he can make, over and above the rate of discount he has to pay. He does not work for a brokerage or commission upon the amount discounted, or passing from hand to hand, with freedom from responsibility, but is understood to guarantee payment of all bills he may rediscount, either by endorsement or otherwise.



February 2, 1867. N. 348.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Februar 1867. S. 136/137.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Venial Offences and Convenient Scapegoats.

There is always something very curious to be observed in the  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(so zu sagen criminal Revelation)
pages of commercial panic in the remarkable cleverness and facility with which some of the chief delinquents manage to escape, and the fatality with which some one or more of their comparatively innocent colleagues or instruments are made to „stand committed“. Directors misapply or otherwise squander the funds of the shareholders and destroy their property, and the unlucky manager or somebody else is put in the pillory, and the chief offenders are tarred and feathered by deputy. The scapegoat has carried away their sins, perhaps to bury them in the desert sands of a penal settlement, and „the law is satisfied“ and „justice is appeased“. Wilkinson is convicted of fraudulently misappropriating a cheque, but the director who signed the cheque, escapes unhurt … Peto auch scapegoat für die directors, solicitors, auditors, der Chatham etc railway Co. Bei der falschen Transaction der Co., bei dem issue der debentures (um zu prove that part of their sharecapital subscribed paid up). As none of that capital had been really subscribed, it was necessary that a sham subscription list should be made up, and sworn to before a magistrate, and this was done by an exchange of receipts between Peto et Betts and the Co, the Co. acknowledging the receipt of so much on account of so many shares, and Peto and Betts acknowledging the receipt of so much on account of their contracts. Thereupon two gentlemen, one from the office of Freshfield et Newman (solicitors), and the other from the office of Peto and Betts, appear before a magistrate, and depose to the bona fide subscription of a certain proportion of the capital. Gross Fraud upon the Legislature. But it is alleged that railway Cos. and their solicitors, however respectable, never regard this as an obligation to be strictly performed, and that for many years past almost every subscription list got up in compliance with it has been more or less a sham. Hence it seems to have been imagined that no great crime was committed by anyone in the transaction. But the committee of investigation bring this up as charge against the contractors, but not against the solicitors, one of whom must not only have had knowledge of it, but must have sanctioned and advised it.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
O Freshfield, Freshfield!
Trotz dem verlogenen Brief  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(in Times oder so)
, statement of 3 or 4 persons shows daß Dein partner Newman advised and sanctioned the transaction.|

253

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. Februar 1867. S. 137/138.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Joint Stock Financing.

The International Financial Society, pioneer of the modern finance associations, first imitator of the Paris model, paid first 25% dividends, gradually less, is compelled at length to admit that there is nothing wherewith to pay any dividend. The accounts for 1866 are duly audited. All the securities valued at the lowest market price. There was a profit last Midsummer „brought forward“ which has been „absorbed“, and a loss of £23,934 incurred, which has been written off against the Reserve Fund reducing it to £4,846. At this time last year (1866) it was 10 × the amount, and at one time was more than that. Aber the severe financial pressure was met without a call upon the shareholders. Its capital seems intact. (of 3/4 of mill. £) It seems chiefly the possibility of calls that renders the 3/4 Mill. £ paid by the shareholders worth in the market only 10s. per £. The greater portion of the securities on which advances have been made by the London Financial Association represent railway property, u.a. on more than 20 completed British railways.



9 February, 1867. N. 349.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. Februar 1867. S. 173/174.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The National Freehold Land Society.

Building Societies have become a great institution. The National Freehold Land Society is 17 years old, originated from a desire to extend the electoral franchise. In 1856, in order to meet legal requirements, the property committee of the society was converted into the British Land Co. A separate capital was raised and a separate organisation established. From that period – Sept. 3 13, 1856 – the National Freehold Land Society’s sole business has been to receive deposits and to make advances on real security, and the British Land Co. has been its largest customer. Gute Geschäfte, high dividends, no losses incurred.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. Februar 1867. S. 175.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London, Chatham and Dover. (Peto)

Peto made speech in Bristol in October ’66; darin he read a letter from Mr. Morgan, the accountant of the Co, stating that he himself attended before the magistrate with a gentleman from office of Freshfield et Newman to make the necessary deposition. So it was on the oath of the official representative of Co., and of the representative of their legal advisers that the debentures were issued.



16 February 1866 1867. N. 350.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 16. Februar 1867. S. 203/204.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et Co. Further Disclosures.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Judgment of Malins.)

Sir Richard Malins, Vice chancellor, on 9 Feb. refused die motions of Oakes und Peck to have their names removed from the list of contributories. 7 directors in the Co und one gentleman who signed the articles of association for 600 shares, but did not become a director. Bei der formation der new Co., Barclay, Gibbs Gibb, Gordon and Rennie consented to become directors; the fullest disclosure was made to them of the actual state of the concern. They were told that the firm insolvent to 2–3 Mill. £. St. J. H. Gurney told them that from 1860 the total result of all the operations of the firm was a loss. There was a positive deficiency of at least £3,117,000. Malins declared that the conduct der 4 new directors „was a fraud“. Nebst all dem andern, den Lügen des Prospectus etc, they told the shareholders [„]that they could inspect the memorandum and articles of association and the deed of covenant, whereas there were really two deeds, only one of which was offered for inspection.“ The 9 members of the old firm conspired of course mit den 4 new directors in the false representations made to the public.

Debts: £5,250,000 (nach den liquidators) Uncalled capital of Shares 3,500,000. £.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 16. Februar 1867. S. 206/207.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Conviction of Greenland, late manager of the Leeds Bkg. Co.

Disastrous failure dieser Co in autumn of 1864; in Folge von frauds und forgeries, carried on for long time by Greenland (auch Frommer(?)), the manager, who made ciphers of the directors, and engrossed to himself the entire control of the business of the bank. Up to the time of its failure, the Bank paid 25% dividend p. an. The first call – nach stoppage – for 70l. p. share, the 2nd for 40. Widespread misery. In many cases sudden deaths from suicide or broken hearts. Einzige Cause: Greenland, and the knaves and forgers with whom he had associated himself. The forgers had escaped. A poor half witted clerk to one of them (Marsden) was prosecuted for forging an acceptance, and though it was proved that he did it by direction of his employer, and that both Greenland and the bankclerks knew that it was a forgery at the time when it was received, he [was] sentenced to 15 years’ penal servitude. At length, the |254 Leeds Chamber of Commerce, failing to obtain evidence of his many other crimes, discovered that Greenland had been in the habit of making false returns to the Gvt. in regard to the note issues of the Bank. Indicted and tried at the Central Criminal Court, the Leeds chamber of commerce being the prosecutors. He now sentenced to 15 months imprisonment with hard labour.  Es geht um das Alter von Greenland: Er ist beinahe 70 Jahre alt.
Schließen
Das Vieh ist verging upon 70.



23 February 1867. N. 351.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. Februar 1867. S. 231/232.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Overends etc.  „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
(1915)

Mr. Harry George Gordon, despite of motion of some shareholders, and City articles in Daily News remains Chairman of the Oriental Bank Corporation. (Obgleich on 9 Feb. Malins ihn cum aliis guilty of fraud erklärt.) He originally moulded the prospectus.



2 March 1867. N. 352.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. Februar 1867. S. 237.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Joint Stock Co’s Directory for 1867. London. Charles Barker et Sons. 8, Birchin-lane.

The importance of directors as a body in the State has often been a subject of remark, and in some matters they absolutely rule the H.o.C. Their number in U. Kingd. 9,932.

Official Return of Cos under the Limited Liability Act: 1864: 992 Cos, with proposed capital 237,391,818£. 5 Cos. registered without nominal capital, total 997. 1865: 1,013 Cos. registered, proposed capital of £205,391,818; 20 Cos without nominal capital, total 1,033. 1866: 758 Cos registered, proposed capital £76,599,823; 10 Cos without nominal capital, – total 768.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 263/264.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overends. Report of Liquidators and Report of Defence Committee.

Nach dem Report der Liquidators the liabilities, at the date of suspension, £18,000,000, now reduced to £3,640,655. Davon 1 mill. further ab für 1/2 Mill. already in hand, and other 1/2 produce of assets actually disposed of, but not yet paid for. Dann noch verschiedne respective Einnahmen berechnet für Payments on bills, proceeds of securities not yet realised etc.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 265.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Leeman’s Bill respecting Dealings in Bank Shares.

A clique or cliques of „speculators for the fall“ fastened upon certain Banks etc, in 1866, made to fail by the operation of these unscrupulous tricksters. Thus Agra and Masterman’s Bank. A telegram was sent out to India by the operator to a certain clique that it had failed. At that time not the smallest foundation for that rumour. Effect run upon the different branch banks in India (by depositors); London bank unable to meet them, chiefly owing to the great distance; result failure of the London bank. … dealings for time at Stock Exchange, i.e. speculators who have no shares allowed to make fictitious sales of shares they do not possess, for delivery at some remote date, upon the prospect of buying them at a lower price, in the interval. Before the said telegram was sent to India, a clique of speculators had sold the sales shares largely for future delivery, and this was one of the expedients resorted to in order to render those operations profitable. In order that these miscreants should pocket their illgotten gains, widows, orphans, and dependent persons have been ruined or brought to the verge of ruin. If, from any cause, as mit der Agra and Masterman’s Bank, there should be a sudden demand for all the money lodged by the depositors, while the money lent can only be recovered by instalments as they fall due, no bank could meet such pressure. In 1866 no less than 51,000 persons in England and Wales registered as the holders of shares in joint stock banks, including persons in every grade of life. Aber die number of depositors, 20, 30, perhaps 50 × greater. We do not want banknotes if we can keep banking accounts and make our payments by cheques.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 266/267.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Limited Liability. High Nominal Shares.

Small sum paid upon deposit. Few intended to be permanent investors. All thought that, if ever a period of adversity arrived, some one else would have to bear the brunt of it; besonders so long as premiums reigned. The experience of last crisis has shown that there is no market for shares of heavy nominal amount of which only a little is paid. The terror of coming calls has outweighed all intrinsic merit; £100 shares with £10 paid, were, and still are, unsaleable.|

255

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 268.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London, Chatham and Dover Railway Co.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(faux frais)

Mit Bezug auf die Section called „The General Undertaking“: Of £6,710,000 capital issued, the enormous amount of £2,945,296 for interest, commission, and „loss on issue“; which means that, in paying away to contractors for work performed securities of the nominal value of £6,710,100, they were received by the contractors as only £3,763,804 in cash. There is one item of £1,500,000 of ordinary stock which is put down as issued at a loss of £1,113,663; that is, the 1 million and 1/2 of stock went for £386,337.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 269.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Plethora of money.

There is always a large amount of floating capital in the country which is never invested, so to speak, but only laid out from day to day, or, at all events, in the very shortest-dated securities. So long as trade is brisk, this money proves remunerative enough for the purpose for which it is intended … But although a good deal of our capital is not available for investment in permanent securities, there is still a very considerable amount kept out of employment by sheer distrust.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 270/271.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
1915
on Overends.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(David Barclay Chapman)

The fellow, redolent as he is of the history of 1853–58, macht ein enthusiastic revival of himself. Aber in fact, he secured upwards of £27,000 on 3. Aug. 1865 (out of the House)[.] The stigma on the „revered“ brows, that they had surreptitiously rescued all their connections and friends from bitter loss, and involved others in bitter loss, for the comfort of all their connections and friends.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 2. März 1867. S. 271/272.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London, Chatham et Dover  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Zusammensetzung des Investigation Committee) (Solicitors) (Scapegoats)

Dieß Committee speaks only of contractors, nicht of the directors, and still less of the solicitors. Now, auf dem first meeting in St. James Hall, „a cut and dried“ committee proposed by Cornelius Surgey, and enforced. (He intimated that he had many proxies.) This Surgey himself is or was the broker to Messrs. Freshfield and Newman; another member of the committee is a near relative of Surgey’s own partner; another most active member was for years a partner of Newman’s brother-in-law, Newman being the principal manager of the business of Freshfield and Newman. Ferner: the new board is composed of the members of this committee, with the addition of Lord Harris as a figure-head. The board remains practically Surgey’s committee. Then this Surgey, who professed in his long speeches at St. Martin’s Hall to know nothing of the Co. and its past management, turns now out to be the very man upon whose advice the board raised loans on the new stock created in 1864 rather than sell it to the proprietors and the public, when it could have been disposed at [a] far better price than it would have fetched since, viz. about £40 instead of which it was eventually sold for £27. 10s., after the Co. had paid enormous amounts for interest and commissions on temporary loans. … Within the last few years an amount closely approximating to 1/4 Mill. St. has been paid to the solicitors of the Co. for their own charges, not including amounts paid to other parities. If this amount was not paid for the purpose of keeping the Co. right in legal matters, what was it paid for?



9 March, 1867. N. 353.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. März 1867. S. 295–297.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Appointment of Parliamentary Committee on Limited Liability Acts and their Operation.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Gerichtssporteln)

Dieß auf Watkin’s Vorschlag (motion). Er gab some statistics: There are now 2200 Joint Stock Cos. in this country, with capital of not less than 1000 millions £, 750,000 shareholders, 12,500 directors. Since the passing of the Limited Liability Act the Cos. formed under it nominal capital of 150 mill. £. St., paid up capital of 30 mill.; large proportion of this capital, nearly 1/3 , appertains to Cos. now in liquidation.|

256

The periodic recurrence of speculative manias, and their tendency to promote transactions either positively fraudulent or verging upon fraud, have become familiar historic facts.

There are now 4 Courts of primary jurisdiction engaged in winding up joint-stock Cos., their decisions often in striking conflict not only with each other, but with the decisions of the Courts of Appeal. The expenses of these proceeding proceedings enormous, a scandal and disgrace to the law and its administration. „The fees of the Chief Clerks“, said Watkin, „are high, but they are nothing compared with those of the official liquidators“; and he instanced the case of a Bk. Co. which had failed, but at the end of 5 months had been reopened. The claim of the official liquidator in that case, for 5 months’ work, during which he had employed 12 clerks, whilst he himself had been employed in a host of other concerns as well as the Co. in question, amounted to the modest sum of £38,000. Formerly, official liquidators were paid by a percentage, but latterly, they demand remuneration by the day, and, as Watkin stated, „many of them have been suddenly struck with the great importance of proceeding with due deliberation“. Mr. Morrison urged inquiry into the proceeding in voluntary liquidations without the supervision of the Court, „for he had heard of cases of extortion against Cos. which he should like to see brought to the test of truth“. Alderman Salomons said: „As to the liquidators, they were a public nuisance. They caused great delay, and no information could be obtained from them.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. März 1867. S. 297/298.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Leeman’s Bill. Vote of H.o.C. (5 March 1867)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Stock Exchange)

By law there shall be no more „time“ dealings in bank shares.

Durch den Stockexchange pass at least 500 millions of other people’s money annually. The Stock Exchange close body, like a club; about 1000 members, governed by a committee of 30, annually elected. The admission of members vested in the Committee etc. The body consists of brokers and jobbers. A stockjobber is simply a stock or share merchant. No capital would suffice for him to hold a stock to meet the wants of the public at large, and so rapid are the fluctuations in the prices of securities that no man of sense, if he had the means, would lay in such a stock. The sharemerchant must therefore be prepared to sell to as well as buy of all comers. This necessity, and the extraordinary pressure of business, have originated a system unknown in any other market. The jobber ascertains the momentary value of a security, and, as it is called, „makes a price“. F.i., a holder of Great Western Railway Stock instructs his broker to sell £5000. The broker goes into the market, and asks a jobber to „make him a price in £5000 Great Westerns“. The latter, knowing that the stock has been recently dealt in at 50, „makes“ 493/4 to 501/4 – that is, he undertakes to give the former price for that amount of stock, or to sell it at the latter. If the business is concluded on these terms, the jobber’s only object – unless he happens to have sold the stock previously – is to turn it over at a profit. Of course, if sales preponderate, he may be unable to part with his purchase except at a loss, or may have to find the necessary capital to pay for it at the settling day. Looking at an isolated transaction in this matter, the risk would seem to be very great, but it is in reality less than it appears. So frequent and so enormous are the transactions of the Stock exchange (for all the share operations of the kingdom centre in it) that in most instances a moderate profit is easily realised. Besides, it is not only in London that a jobber deals, and, if unable to close a bargain here, he frequently succeeds in doing so by telegraphing to his correspondents on the various country Exchanges.

The jobbers take different „lines“; some deal in Consols, some in Foreign Stocks, some in Bankshares, other others in Indian railway securities, some in colonial bonds, some in the Northern, some in the Southern English lines, others in financial and miscellaneous undertakings. By habit and for convenience, a certain portion of the large room (forming the Stock Exchange) is occupied by the dealers in each different class of property, and a member knows at once that in one corner he will be able to deal in Consols and in another in mining shares. As a rule a jobber devotes himself, for the time, to one class of security, changing his market occasionally, as the business in one falls off or in another increases. Certain firms and individuals, however, possessed of unusually large capital, deal through their partners or authorised clerks (clerks whom they invest with special power to deal on their account) in nearly every class of security that is quoted; and there are a few jobbing millionaires who have correspondents all over the world, and transact business by telegraph in Paris, Vienna, and New York as well as London. The only possible mode of executing his client’s order expeditiously consists – for the broker – in the free market which the jobber creates. The dastardly plots (as against the Agra Bank) were formed outside, and entirely independent of the Stock Exchange, by bankrupt speculators in the City, by  The Money Market Review: desperate men
Schließen
desperadoes
who had nothing to lose, occasionally by haunters of West-end clubs, and in some cases they originated with directors themselves who, foreseeing the ruin from the information they possessed, sold freely, and even induced others to  |257 sell. The Stock Exchange only the unwitting instruments of their schemes.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. März 1867. S. 299.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Board of Trade Returns.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(their incompleteness)

They omit much that is exported and imported. F.i. in 1866 we were large importers of 5-20 Bonds, and other American Securities; we lent money to all our colonies, and to most of the world, against which we imported securities; those securities do not figure in the Return. Ebenso, the exports of foreign and colonial merchandise not manufactured – a very large proportion of our exports – are not valued by the Board of Trade. So impossible to strike any accurate „Balance of Trade“.

Imports of Articles Enumerated. Month ended 30 November.
1864 1865 1866
Computed Value £16,164,570 £.19,910,403 £17,841,738
Eleven Months ended 30th November.
Computed Value £197,448,426 £.180,820,357 £211,539,785
Deduct: Raw Cotton 66,991,418 49,294,092 70,665,438
£130,457,008 £131,526,265 £140,874,347
Deduct. Cereals 18,600,191 17,908,052 26,001,033
£111,856,817 £113,618,213 £114,873,314

Deducting raw cotton and cereals – the 2 great items of disturbance – Imports of the 11 months of the 3 years valued as nearly as possible alike.

Exports of British and Irish Produce. Month ended 31 Dec.
1864 1865 1866
Declared Value. £.12,095,437 £.15,030,088 £14,914,563
Year ended 31 Dec.
Declared Value. £.160,449,053 £.165,835,357 £.188,827,785
Deduct Cotton Manufactures 45,799,090 46,923,384 60,865,022
£.114,649,963 £.118,912,341 £127,962,763
Deduct Linen Manufactures. 8,172,813 9,156,990 9,576,163
£106,477,150 £109,755,351 £118,386,600

The reports from many quarters state that trade is bad, labour cannot find employment, factories are closed or worked short time; but there is nothing in these figures to illustrate this. Exports of 1866 valued at 189 mill. gegen 166 in 1865, and 1601/2 in 1864. Apart from export of linen and cotton fabrics, the value of the exports during the last 3 year years again singularly similar.



March 16, 1867. N. 354.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 16. März 1867. S. 331/332.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

South Eastern Railway Dividend

An increase in the capital during the last 5 years from 121/2 to 18 mill., nearly the whole of which has been raised in some form of priority overriding the dividend, and at rates of interest exceeding the average rate of net earning upon the entire capital spent. The dividend has fallen nominally from 5% p.a. to 3; but the actual decline is more than this, and having regard to the altered method of accounts, questionable whether the dividend of 1867 is not almost a myth.|

258

Commercial Morality. (Overends)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. März 1867. S. 306/307.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Meeting of English and American Bank on 5 March, London Tavern, Chairman William Scholefield, M.P. (perhaps 100 leading commercial men present). He (Scholefield) said took the chair, because their chairman Gordon  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(one of the Overend Swindlers)
became suddenly ill. „Mr. Gordon was extremely anxious to be present to-day, to state what he had done in reference to his connexion with this and other Cos.“ Der  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
grosse
Gordon „has, with the frankness and sincerity of purpose which always marked  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
him, placed himself entirely in the hands of the directors, to do what they please with respect to his resignation“. Sie werden aber take no steps „especially as our confidence in Mr. Gordon’s integrity is untouched in the slightest degree. I should mention to you, as a matter of some importance, that Mr. Gordon has taken the same course with other Cos with which he is connected that he has taken with regard to this, and in every instance the determination which has been come to by the directors interested has been that it is no part of their duty to take any steps whatever with reference to his resignation or the dissolution of his connexion with the Cos. (Cheers)“.  Zusammenfassung von Marx aus: The Money Market Review, 16. März 1867. S. 335.
Schließen
(Gordon had not given his resignation, but only declared his willingness to withdraw, if his co-directors etc should declare that he ought to do so.)

 Zusatz von Marx. „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
Ueber diese Farce bemerkt 1915 u.a:

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 16. März 1867. S. 335/336.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Vice Chancellor’s Malins charge of „fraud“ against the Directors in general of Overend, Gurney et. Co. (Lim.) involves this same Gordon. In the face of such a judgment, the „unabated and unbounded confidence“ – a very strong generality certainly under the special circumstances – can only rank as an illustrative certificate of character. Scholefield sagte that Gordon, but for „sudden and severe illness“ „was extremely anxious to be present to-day to answer any questions“, aber Scholefield afterwards added, that „Gordon’s official advisers have most strongly forbidden any action as matters at present stand“. How is the anxiety to speak to be reconciled with the prohibition of speaking? If Gordon, barring „sudden and severe illness“, be really eager to answer questions, he will enjoy the chance at the annual April meeting of the Oriental Bank Corporation. … Scholefield says that Gordon „has had no opportunity of saying a word in his own defence“.

On the 11 June (1866), when the only formal assemblage of the limited Co. took place, I  Zusatz von Marx. „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
(1915)
asked the new directors, Barclay, Gibb, Gordon, and Rennie to explain their doings with respect to the transfer. Trotz 4 × Wiederholung der Frage no answer. Gordon, not only silent, but changed his seat. 6 Months afterwards, 11 December (1866) Justitia’s Letter in Times. Gordon might have endeavoured to refute the writing, or prosecuted the writer. He adopted neither alternative. He penned to Times a most „lame and impotent“ promise to purge by oath. Gegen Ende des above said meeting, Robinson, a shareholder, would save Gordon by representing him not as a decoy but as a dupe. This Gordon, however, was a party to the 2 documents – the delusive prospectus and the secret deed. Nay, as to the former, he was more deeply concerned than any one else having drafted it in a form too bold even for the consciences of his accomplices in the business. According to the crossexamination of John Henry Gurney this Gordon did all this with his eyes open. His rough sketch had referred to „profits so long earned“. Now there had been only loss; and Gurney said as witness Gordon must have had in mind the perior period anterior to 1861.

The assets (des Overend Concern) have been reduced since 10. May last by 21/4 mill. How, when, and where has this sum disappeared?



23 March. 1867. N. 355.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. März 1867. S. 362.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Commercial Morality. (Continued) (Overends)

 Zusatz von Marx. „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
1915 sagt u.a:
As to Scholefield’s (member of Parliament for Birmingham) „unabated and unbounded confidence“ in Harry George Gordon, I might have reminded Scholefield how „unabated and unbounded confidence“ in a colossal delinquent had, not many years ago, dragged the Birmingham Bank, with which the same Scholefield connected, |259 to the very brink of ruin; and, to cite a more recent instance, the shareholders of the Bank of Australasia expelled a director for his „unabated and unbounded confidence“ in James Freeling Wilkinson, notwithstanding the „unabated and unbounded“ confidence of his colleagues, as distinguished from his constituents.

It was Gordon’s Position at the „Oriental Bk. Corporation“, as head of the foremost establishment of its class, which has procured to him a seat at so many boards, and more expressly at the board of Overend, Gurney et Co (lim.)[.] Nay, in the delusive prospectus itself, he stands stereotyped for ever, as challenging, in that capacity alone, the „unabated and unbounded confidence“ of the public. To many, the Oriental Bank Corporation became so the finger-post that marked the road to ruin. Hence special duty dieser Corporation den Gordon herauszuschmeissen.



30 March 1867. N. 356.

Commercial Morality. (Continued) (The Overends.)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 30. März 1867. S. 387/388.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
The comments of some of the London newspapers on this Overend affair, and the no-comments of others are equally significant. The Times City luminary, and others, denounce generally (declamiren gegen) all new Cos., legitimate or illegitimate. That „sort of thing“ easy. Aber in this case of one of the most gigantic and unmitigated frauds ever recorded in our mercantile history, Times all soft sawder. No mitigation in judgment possible for the 3 new directors. Never was a clearer case of deliberate misrepresentation so indubitably brought home to any parties. Times and Economist are continually discussing this as a common and ordinary case of misadventure or miscalculation only for which nobody ought to be blamed or punished. They constantly and vehemently denounce the shareholders in not submitting with proper resignation to a further process of fleecing (and allowing Kerls like Oppenheim to win by a legal fraud), whilst depreciating any further investigation into the mysteries of the affair. They do their utmost to slur over its iniquity, and to whitewash and rehabilitate the delinquent directors. The Economist, last week (23 March) emphatically explains that it „does not mean to impute to the new directors or the old partners the slightest formed intention to deceive the public“. Unformed intention perhaps? „The sellers“, he says, „thought they were selling a good thing; the buyers thought they were buying one; and both joined in telling the world what they thought.“ Most outrageous perversion of truth! Neither the sellers (old firm) nor the buyers (new firm) thought any such thing; both of them knew the contrary, and, therefore, instead of „both joining to tell the world what they thought“, they both joined in executing a secret deed to conceal from the world what they knew, and that fact reveals to us what they really thought. Economist again repeats that it „does not mean to impute a hint at conscious fraud, in the minds of either the new directors who bought or the old partners who sold“. Unconscious fraud? And, therefore, the evident consciousness of the necessity for concealment? Poor perversions, shifty arguments, shallow sophistries. Speech of Scholefield (at the meeting of English and American Bank) asinine. If the new directors were men of ordinary business capacity, they were not deceived, also fraudulent. If they were deceived, how fit to be directors as utterly wanting in ordinary business capacity.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 30. März 1867. S. 393/394.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
 Zusatz von Marx. „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
1915 sagt u.a.:
Scholefield and 7 Confederate Boards endeavour to save their protégé. Gordon had no deposit in the concern nor any shares beyond his bare qualification as official recipient of £500 a year. He was a party to the secret deed of arrangement by which the separate estates were to fill the gap of insolvency by 31 Dec. 1868 at the latest. He was subsequently privy to the sale of the Norwich Bank, whereby its goodwill and assets, besides being payable only on certain conditions, were not to be realised before 1 March 1870, 14 months beyond the stipulated time for final adjustment as between private firm and limited Co. He knew that, in connexion with the sale which thus virtually annihilated nearly 1/2 of the separate estates, the remaining portion of the same was assigned as a guarantee to the purchasers of the Norwich Bank, just as it had been previously assigned to the limited Co. At or about |260 the sale of the Norwich Bk. Gordon sanctioned an exceptional loan of £150,000 to the private firm beyond even the requirements of the secret deed of arrangement. In his affidavit (November 1866) Gordon constantly recognised Mr. William Rennie alone among the directors as his associate in the negotiations and investigations, which led to the transfer of the business from the private firm to the limited Co.



April 6. 1867. N. 357.

Commercial Morality. (Overends) (Continued)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. April 1867. S. 424/425.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
The total number of creditors of Overend etc about 1500, old and new, about 1000, or 2/3 creditors of the old Co., at the time of the transfer. Old Co. carried on their business until 31 July 1865, the new Co commenced business on the following day, 1st August 1865. But according to the recitals in the deeds, the New. Co New Co. formed, and „established and incorporated on and from 12. July, under a memorandum of association with articles thereunto annexed, pursuant to the Cos.’ Act of 1862“, and this was 19 days or nearly 3 weeks before the actual transfer and the commencement of business took place. On 12 July ditto all the terms of arrangements as to the transfer of the old firm to the new Co. definitely arranged. At that time the promoters, who had constituted themselves the directors of the new Co., had become fully aware of the actual state and condition of the old firm. The fraud was complete and entire, on 12 July 1865, before one single shareholder had joined the Co., and before one single application had been made for shares. Whilst the applications for shares, on the false and fraudulent prospectus, were flowing in, the promoters and directors were occupied in maturing the documents by which the fraudulent compact was to be carried out. Darin activ Messrs Young, Jones, Vallings, and Roberts, the solicitors of the old firms, who also acted as the solicitors of the new Co. The prospectus, dated 12 July (and issued on that day) stated that „the deed of covenant in relation to the transfer of the business could be inspected at the offices of the solicitors of the Co.“, but that deed was only executed on July 27. Hitherto believed that although the secret deed was not offered to inspection at all, the deed of covenant was so, whereas it now appears that neither of these deeds executed, also existing, before July 27. Diese deeds, however, bound nobody except the partners of the old firm and promoters and directors of the new Co. On the same 12 July, notices were sent by the partners in the old firm and the promoters and directors of the new Co., in their corporate capacity, apprising the creditors of the old firm of the proposed transfer, and asking their assent to it, and to that transfer they assented. By that assent they released the old firm, and accepted as their debtors the new Co. as then incorporated. In the meantime they fished for shares by false prospectus, but no shares were allotted to any of these applicants until 31 July 1865, and the letters of allotment were not issued to them until 3d August, and the scrip certificates not until about a month after that. The register of shareholders would not be completed for a further period, and the share certificates were not issued until February, 1866. To whom then were the creditors giving credit during all this interval? Not to the socalled shareholders, but to the members incorporated on 12 July.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. April 1867. S. 435.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
 „1915“ ist das Pseudonym eines Verfassers einer Reihe von Leserbriefen an die „Money Market Review“.
Schließen
1915
remarks that Gordon nun eliminated von 2 aus 7 Cos., nämlich Ebbw Vale Co. und Société Financière d’Egypte. Henry Edmund Gurney is 1 director und 2 trustees; sein Bruder, Samuel Gurney, in virtue of his seniority in the family, is one president, 2 trustees, 9 directors. Is this not pretty well for 2 individuals, who, as hopelessly insolvent debtors at once in Overend etc (Lim.) und Norwich Bank, and many more concerns besides, cannot creditably hold one farthing of the requisite qualification in any of the cases cited?|


261

13 April 1867. N. 358.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. April 1867. S. 448/449.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Commercial Morality. (Overends) (Continued)Progress of Railway Dilemma.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Directors)

9 March meeting of shareholders of Brighton Railway Co at London Tavern; decided to appoint a defence committee of large shareholders. Sir Charles Jackson pointed out that in July 1865, the Directors in their Report said that the Surrey and Sussexline was promoted by an independent Co, that it was a useful scheme, and that they had accordingly entered into a working arrangement with the promoters. Then, at the next meeting, it appeared that the whole capital for this railway was to be provided by the Brighton Co alone upon the plea that it was to make a third main line from London to Brighton. The same story appears to apply to the other lines in question, and Sir Ch. Jackson stated that the directors intended not only taking over these 3 undertakings, but all their liabilities at par. As to their ever paying a fair rate of interest for the money expended, out of question. „He feared that the directors were interested in those lines, that they were directors’ lines, and that they wanted the Co. to invest their money in them.“

London and Northwestern Railway Co is prosecuting a new line to Sheffield. Dazu meeting for to-day (13 April) berufen. Notices of the meeting (aber without its purpose) reached the shareholders on 2nd instant, and prior to that there had been a canvass for the proxies of the larger shareholders – in some cases by directors themselves. Most expensive undertaking which, as it has to compete with the line already in operation, without possibility of paying working expenses. Who is to gain by this new line at the cost of dividends? At all events, not the shareholders. Ebenso Midland Railway Co. Large extensions proposed. Chairman (at meeting of 15 Febr. Derby) did his best to commit the Co. to this expenditure of millions, and amalgamations; and positively declined to put the amendments. Based this decision of what he regarded as a „show of hands“; when poll demanded, he took no notice of it. Mr. Shepherd states in Daily News that within the last 2 years the Midland Co. have spent capital to nearly 41/2 mill.; at the end of 1862, the capital applied to all purposes, 181/2 mill., and since that time (i.e. in course of 4 Parliament sessions) the directors have raised, or obtained power to raise, 10 mill. more. The Acts obtained in last session alone involve outlay of £3,600,000; and upon the works thus authorised there is at this moment not one shilling expended. – In all cases excessive expenditure of capital beyond the growth of revenue. Railway directors, from one cause or other, are eager beyond all reason for an unlimited expenditure of capital, in utter disregard of the interests of shareholders. Manifest antagonism between the administrative body and the proprietary.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. April 1867. S. 450/451.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

North British Railway.

The new board have issued circular to shareholders, proposing the creation of nearly 2 millions pre-preference stock, to override every existing priority.

Humber Iron Works Co. (Limit.)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(E. Watkin, M.P.)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 30. März 1867. S. 408–410.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Meeting of shareholders 22 March, Guildhall Tavern: Chairman, C. H. Knight said that the Defence Association thought, good case against the directors. Mr. Jacomb reported für die Defence Association. Some 14 months ago circular of the directors, calling meeting of shareholders for resolution to wind up Co., and dispose of the work, for the purchase of which, it was stated, a proposition was made to the directors. Dieß meeting held 20 Jan. 1866. Mr. Jacomb showed at this meeting (of 20 Jan.) that it was illegal, because of non-compliance with the articles of association. Solicitor der Co. pooh-poohed him. E. Watkin (M.P., late chairman of the Co, who was not chairman of the |262 meeting, meeting) produced a statement of accounts showing that, subject to a deduction of £60,615, the whole capital of the Co. was intact. Some shareholders forced out of the directors the admission that the reason for winding up was not the sale stated in the circular, but the financial difficulties of the Co. It was known, in fact, that the negotiations for the sale of the undertaking had fallen through before meeting was held. Directors knew that the concern on the verge of bankruptcy. Watkin was the principal spokesman of the directors, and produced this account. Watkin (M.P.) had transferred the last of his shares the day before the meeting, so that it now turned out he was not even a shareholder, and had no right to be present. The resolution for the winding up of the Co. passed. But 1 or 2 days afterwards the solicitor of the Co. found Jacomb’s view correct, so

New meeting called for 3d February. Chairman said that they were only £10,000 worse than in preceding May, and the before mentioned acount account showing deficiency of only £60,615 again produced. Jacomb said that if the account correct, no reason for winding up Co; if such reason, the account false. Wanted correct balance sheet to be prepared; moved resolution to that effect, but the proxies in the hands of directors were sufficient to neutralise any attempt at investigation. Jacomb objected also to Child being appointed as liquidator, because that man was the auditor of the accounts which would be impeached, and also the negotiator for Msrs Pile in reference for the sale of concern.

Meeting on 20 Febr. Jacomb took the same course, but the power of the directors was too great, and Child’s appointment as liquidator was confirmed.

Some time after petition presented to Court of Chancery for winding up the Co. On his application to the Court Child was removed.

In July 1866 call made by the new liquidator; a certain number of shareholders formed Defence Association, the first under Limited Liability Act of 1862. Jacomb instructed to attend before chief clerk on the making of the call by the liquidator. Produced Watkin’s account in meeting of 20 Jan. showing deficiency only of £60,615, und stated that if accurate, there could be no necessity for call; da angeblich Cos’. Co’s. property intact. The official Liquidator, on examining the account, declared it fallacious, and wrote that word and his initials on the account.  The Money Market Review: Under those circumstances he (Mr. Jacomb) could no longer offer any opposition to the call that occurred in July last year.
Schließen
Jacomb paid then call.

31 Oct. 1866 official liquidator summoned meeting of shareholders, produced true statement. Statt 60,615, Deficit of £259,000; deducting £130,000, reduction in the value of assets, as estimated in both accounts, blieb balance of £69,000 unaccounted for by the directors. Ferner liquidator showed that since the resolution to windup the Co. the trading had been carried on at a profit. Hence the further loss of £69,000 must have taken place before 20 Jan. The Committee of Defence Association found out that 25,000£ had been paid to the vendors for the property in excess of the amount agreed to. The first communication made by the Directors report for extraordinary meeting on July 13, 1864. In that report they stated that shareholders would have early opportunity of examining the works of the Co. That was followed by invitation to the shareholders to go to Hull to witness the launch of the ship „Annie“. A great flourish of trumpets made about that vessel, but what had since transpired? Why the Annie mortgaged for £10,000 by the vendors at the time when sold to the Co. Directors knew it. Not a word of it came out before meeting of 30 May 1865. The Annie cost £12,000, and a lot of litigation, and was sold for £8,500. At the time the Co. was started the shareholders were led to believe that they purchased a property, but it turned out that they only bought an equity of redemption, and that there were mortgages to the extent of £88,000, including the 10,000 on the Annie. So the Co. had never a good title to the property, and when they got into difficulties they were unable to take it into the market and raise money on it to relieve them from their embarrassments. Many other instances of mismanagement and misrepresentation. The Co. was born in concealment and fraud. That system was carried on throughout the whole history of the undertaking. They proposed proceedings against the directors, in accordance with the opinion received from counsel. Dagegen spricht Morris (shareholder und solicitor.) Jacomb zeigt daß dieser Kerl had been connected with the Co. in 6 different capacities. Viele Statements in Prospectus flagrantly untrue, f.i. that 10,000 shares had been allotted, that a railroad ran into the yard, that contracts for 300 000£ had been entered into at remunerative prices, upon which dividend of 20% was confidently anticipated. No such contracts existed, except on paper. Uebrigens not 3 of the directors worth 500£. Some of them completely ruined by their connection mit this and other Cos.|

263

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Ein Correspondent bemerkt in der Money Market Review über dieß meeting:

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. April 1867. S. 455.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
No better evidence before the Committee of the H.o.C. of the manner in which the Limited Liability Act of ’62 used to decoy the public into those fictitious schemes which have resulted in such wide-spread ruin and misery, no better evidence than E. Watkin, M.P. This man who spoke so pathetically in his oration at Sheffield of the „fatherless and the widows“ – played prominent part in the formation and management of the Humber Iron Works (of which he was chairman) up to the time of its disastrous collapse.



April 20, 1867. N. 359.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. April 1867. S. 473.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Panic about „Calls“.

The fear about calls has become almost a panic. Question with shareholder now, not what profits may accrue upon his investment, but, as a measure of the extent of his losses, what calls he may have to pay upon his shares. Z.B. City Offices Co. (Limited) possesses already an annual income of 26,000£ a year, which will increase. Concern well managed; and yet the £20 paid is worth only now £5 or 6. But these shares are of the nominal amount of £50 each.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. April 1867. S. 479.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Directors of Overend, Gurney, and Co. (lim.)

Henry Edmund Gurney (Lombard Street); John Henry Gurney (St. James square and Norwich); Robert Birbeck Birkbeck (Lombardstreet) Henry Ford Barclay (Woodford, Essex); Thomas A. Gibb (Msrs T. A. Gibb et Co) (Old Broad Street) Harry G. Gordon (Chairman of the Oriental Bank Corporation); William Rennie (Mssrs Cavan, Lubbock et Co., Leadenhallstreet.) (This list given in the Co’s Prospectus, published end of July, 1865)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. April 1867. S. 481.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Bears of Bank Shares.

Leman’s Leeman’s bill will probably break up entirely the trade of panic-mongering so far as this particular branch is concerned. (Daily News)

[April 27, 1867. N. 360.]

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 27. April 1867. S. 499/500.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Commercial Morality (Continued) (Overend)

For 9 whole months the concocters of this fraudulent scheme had carried the business, in pursuance of the original and fraudulent compact, without any knowledge, sanction etc of the shareholders … By prematurely assenting to the transfer, the creditors of the old firm enabled the concocters of the firm to complete their fraud, of which those creditors now eager to reap the fruits.



May 4, 1867. N. 361.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 4. Mai 1867. S. 530/531.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Railway Directors. in H.o.C.

179 railway Directors in H.o.C., about 27% of the whole House.



11 May 1867. N. 362.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 11. Mai 1867. S. 560.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Liquidators.

Nach Act von 1862 „any person or persons“ may be appointed to the job. Practically the nomination  The Money Market Review: of liquidators
Schließen
dieser Kerls
emanates from those who have rendered liquidation necessary.



25 May. 1867. N. 364.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 25. Mai 1867. S. 607/608.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Excessive Liability of Limited Liability Cos Shares  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Overstone) (Watkin)
.

Milner Gibson, as President of Board Trade, pressed and passed a Bill through H.o.C. to enable Cos, without diminishing their capitals, to divide those capitals into a greater number of shares. The Bill thrown out by Lord Overstone und Earl Grey (mit  The Money Market Review: 16 noble
Schließen
14 dummy
Lords als followers.) E. Watkin proposed the Limited Liability Co.’s Committee.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 25. Mai 1867. S. 609/610.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Statistics of the London Clearing House.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Inland Bills.)

The Committee of Bankers decided to issue weekly Returns, simultaneously mit B.o.E., on the transactions of the Clearing House. This due to Sir John Lubbock. 4th each month – the principal day of settlement for Inland Bills – will give an indication of the relative activity of our inland trade. The 4th of month may also be occasionally a |264 „heavy day“ for foreign and colonial as well as for inland bills. Cheques are often multiplied even for one and the same transaction. F.e., the import and export trade of London is almost entirely done through agents or brokers, and as a consequence, each sale or purchase, when settled, necessitates 2 cheques; therefore the operation is represented by double the amount of money in cheques at the Clearing House. Again, the transactions in discounts and loans, such as are negotiated through brokers, always require at least 2 cheques, while a purchase on the Stock Exchange, through a broker, invariably involves the drawing of cheques by 3 separate parties, and sometimes 4, owing to the intervention of the jobber between the buying and the selling brokers. Thus a single transaction may be represented at the Clearing House by a quadruple amount in cheques. F.i. the buyer of stock pays a crossed cheque to the his broker, the broker a second cheque to the jobber, the latter a third cheque to the selling broker, who then hands a fourth cheque to the original seller.

The institution founded on very exclusive principles in 1775, by a committee of private bankers; joint stock bankers only admitted 1854; erst in 1864 the B.o.E. jointed the association.

Until 1854, when the joint-stock banks joined the Clearing House, the balances or differences were settled in banknotes; and in 1839, the only year for which statistics are given – the total cheques and bills passing through the house amounted to £954,401,600, to settle which banknotes to the extent of £66,275,600, or not quite 7% of the total amount wanted.

Since 1854 the differences settled by cheques on B.o.E., so that banknotes still further economised, and the bulk of the vast transactions of the metropolis settled by transfer of balances standing in the books of the B.o.E. to the credit of the clearing bankers. Average daily clearance in 1839: £3,066,700 und in May 1867: £9,803,790, progress of 220%.

In 1839 total Exports of English und Irish products: £52,701,509, in 1866: £188,827,785, increase of 258%; i.e. each 100£ of exports in 1839 has become £358 in 1866. Imports of 1839: £60,346,066, of 1866: £238,714,094, advance of 296%. Aggregate imports and exports of U. Kingd. 1839: £113,047,575 und 1866: £427,541,879; showing the growth of commerce, between the 2 periods, 278% or 58% more than increase in the Clearing House amounts.

Total balances held by London et Westminster, London Joint Stock, London et County, Union Bank of London at the close of 1839: £3,030,963 und on 31 Dec. 1866: £71,788,555 – increase of 2,268% since 1839.

The total amount of clearances does not embrace all the transactions in London. A few bankers do not clear; large settlements are made with notes and coin; and numerous payments are made between persons keeping accounts at the same bank, which are settled by a mere transfer of balances. On the other hand, a large amount of country cheques and drafts pass through the Clearing House.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 25. Mai 1867. S. 614.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The City Offices Co. (Lim.)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Directors)

Wieder call von 5£ über die 20£ paid. Only one dividend, 5s. per share last year; harassed with calls; quotable value of shares reduced to vanishing point, while our directors have been in hot haste to commit us to a wholesale and simultaneous expenditure of money, and been revelling in the pay and patronage of their position. They and their friends hold most of the stock of the Co. I wonder how much of it is at par, and should like to know the average at which it stands them in.|


265

June 8, 1867. N. 366.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 8. Juni 1867. S. 665.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London and Westminster Bank.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Liability and Security)
(Communicated)

Issues new shares. In der That diese most successful Bank, has only become so by incurring £22,672,559 of liability, whilst the share capital and reserve fund were together less than 11/2 millions. Is this not enormous overtrading such as has not been afforded hitherto by any Bank in the Kingdom? The system of creating new shares at a premium, so readily adopted by joint-stock banks, in order avowedly to raise a factitious reserve fund – for reserve funds are not such unless created out of profits – is becoming so general as to suggest an unpleasant comparison of the position of jointstockbanks with that of railway Cos., which latter have gone on creating new shares and borrowing money etc … So long as the deposits continue to increase in amount, and new shares can be issued at a premium, dividends may be declared of 10 to 100% p.a. All goes well as long as the joint-stock banks can increase their indebtedness to the public.



15 June. 1867. N. 367.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 15. Juni 1867. S. 699.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Years’ Fall of Railway Property.

During the last 12 months – shutting out from consideration all the previous depreciation – several descriptions have fallen 20%, and some of these are in the best credit. Great Northern Stock fell 7%, but the A stock of the Co. 23%; Caledonian 18%, London and Southwestern 19%. These Cos. have apparently only suffered from the prevailing disquietude. London, Brighton and South Coast fell 40%, North British 19, Cumbrian 17, Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire 111/2, Bristol and Exeter , Great Eastern and North London, 10%, South Eastern 9, Glasgow and Southwestern , London, Chatham, and Dover, and the Metropolitan 8, North Eastern 6, Lancashire and Yorkshire , and London and Northwestern 4 each.



22 June 1867. N. 368.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 22. Juni 1867. S. 722.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Gellivara Co. (limit.)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Directors.)

On 14 August 1866 the directors stated: (Report): £130,640 received in deposits and calls, £130,640 £139,640 of debentures due June 1867; and £50,747 due on mortgage. Total: £320,807. The chairman further stated that £288,000 required to complete the works, less £50,000 already expended. What has been done with the difference between 50,000 expended, and the £320,807 obtained from shareholders, or borrowed at their cost? Has this 270,807 been paid for the mine? Who were the owners of this mine? Were any of our projectors or directors proprietors of the mine? If so, they were vendors for themselves and purchasers for us,  The Money Market Review: a peculiarly perilous position for themselves morally, and a peculiarly perilous position for us financially
Schließen
a position for themselves morally, and for us financially perilous position
. The mine useless, unless upwards of 1/4 mill. l. St. laid out in forming a communication between it and the coast.



29 June. 1867. N. 369.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 29. Juni 1867. S. 746.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

City Offices. Co. (Lim.)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Directors)

Before seeing almost the shadow of a dividend, we had to pay, the present call included, 500,000£. Meanwhile the directors thriving. All this has been going on while the directors have had accorded to them and their friends fine opportunities to buy cheap our shares. The directors and their friends now hold the largest stock in the concern.



July 6. 1867. N. 370.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 6. Juli 1867. S. 6/7.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Barned’s Banking Co. (Lim.)

Infamous swindling. The private Bank of Israel Barned et Co, oldestablished, wellknown private bank, since 1809. 1865 Prospectus for formation of Limited Liability Co. with 2 Mill. £. Capital, 40,000 shares, 50£ p. share, for the purchase of this business and to organise it on a broader basis. 160,000£ purchase money, payable by instalments in 2 years, guarantee by the Barneds of the assets taken over, „a moderate payment for a lucrative business“. Dieß alles im Prospect. The assets taken over were utterly rotten, the guarantee utterly worthless. At that moment the firm Barned consisted of Mr. Charles Mozley and Mr. Lewin Barned Mozley. It had then been recently discovered that the Bank defrauded by more than 100,000£ by a relative of one of the partners. To repair these losses Lewin Barned Mozley brought a further capital of £20,000 into the Bank, |266 and Charles Mozley £100,000. But this latter sum, as afterwards transpired, borrowed from the Bk. o. Engd. on the guarantee of 10 Liverpool merchants, who had taken a mortgage on Charles Mozley’s property for that amount. The business, instead of being, as represented, „a large and continually increasing business“, had for some time previously been carried on without profit, if not on annual loss. The profits were variously stated at different times, but the representations always gross misrepresentations. The profits stated 60 or 70, or 50, or 40,000£ a year. But when more closely looked into – there were no profits at all for the last 3 years. Closely pressed, Mozley said that from the balance sheet prepared in 1865 he was not prepared to say that they had lost money, although he could not say that they had made any profit. At the time of transfer the old firm had lost more than all its capital; carrying on business for several years without any profit; it was under advances to several Liverpool firms, all of whom have since failed to £700,000; and their private property deeply mortgaged to provide the means of keeping the bank afloat. Yet these partners presented their profits at sums varying from 40 to 70,000£ a year. Lewin Barned Mozley said „he had just looked into the thing, and found that 20 000£ would cover the losses of the last 3 years[“]. When Mr. Bencke, one of the directors, evinced a disposition also „just to look into the thing“, he was told by Ch. Mozley that „in transactions of that kind it was unusual and highly improper to ask to see private books of accounts“. „The directors of Barned’s Bk. Co.“, says Ch. Mozley, „never made any inquiry into the private property of the partners in the firm of I. Barned et Co. They had confidence in the position they held, and the property which was patent to the town at large.“ So die new directors duped. The scheme was elaborately planned and cunningly worked out. Of the 40,000 shares, 20,000 or one half, representing 1 Mill. St., were subscribed for, in pursuance of a previous and secret arrangement, by 2 Cos. – Contract Corporation and Joint Stock Discount Co – which had no legal power to subscribe, since then became insolvent, and incapable of performing their engagements. The whole of the debts of this socalled Co, therefore fall upon a limited number of bona fide holders of shares, caught by these gross and fraudulent misrepresentations. Hitherto contributions of enormous amount levied upon these shareholders, until the whole of those placed upon the list of contributories exhausted or utterly ruined, and still the creditors have only received a fraction of their demand. Liquidators wollen nun die packen, die ihre shares verkauft haben within 12 months prior to the winding up order. (aber diese nur liable für debts contracted at the time when they were shareholders.)



July 13. 1867. N. 371.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. Juli 1867. S. 31/32.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 728.13–14) und einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148).
Schließen
„The Financial Lessons of 1866.“ A letter addressed (by permission) to the R. H. E. W. W. E. Gladstone. By a City Manager. London 1867. (Smith, Elder, and Co. Cornhill)

He denounces certain corrupt practices which seem to have prevailed for some time past between the promoters and directors of Joint Stock schemes, and the managers of the Joint Stock Banks and financial associations of this City. He avows: the key to so much bad business having been done in the way of joint-stock-Cos. is to be found in the fact that „it has been made the interest of those to whom was confided the management of other people’s money (i.e. the bankers of the City) to do the bad business“. He says, „he is not making a hasty, vague, and indefinite charge which can only be true in a few exceptional cases“; he vouches for it as a fact within his own personal knowledge and experience that this charge is true in the vast majority of cases. „The giving of bribes“, he says, „to the chairman, deputy-chairman, manager, secretary, confidential legal adviser, or whoever the important man or men may be, in the conduct of the business of the bank from which the money is to be borrowed for a Co. already in existence, or to be introduced to the public, is a regular, established usage and custom in the City of London.“ The cases in which this charge not true constitute »a most insignificant minority«. So general have these corrupt and scandalous practices become, that they seem to be regarded as legitimate by men of ordinary commercial repute, und diese bribes selbst made for legitimate business.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Die Money Market Review remarks dazu:
 |267 [»]The honest man who refuses such overtures is in many respects at a great disadvantage as compared with the man who accepts them; for, while the former remains poor, and has no financial power, the other acquires financial power and strength, which he uses occasionally for the apparent benefit of his Co., and by which he also earns the repute of talent and success, and, consequently, the increasing confidence of his shareholders – until the bubble bursts.«

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 13. Juli 1867. S. 38.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Barned’s Bank. (lim.)

9 July the Master of the Rolls said „this Co. (Barned’s) was got up in June, 1865, in promoting which the Corporation Co. was very active. It was puffed in various ways, and great efforts were made by the Corporation Co. and its friends to raise it in the estimation of the world. They encouraged others to join the concern, and now, when the winding up came, they turned round etc.[“]



July 20, 1867. N. 372.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 20. Juli 1867. S. 56/57.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Financial Lessons of 1866. etc[.] By the City Manager.“ Continued.

Recent disclosures have shown that half of the Railway Cos. in the kingdom have been under the management of grossly incompetent or corrupt boards of directors, whose jobbing and speculations have brought the properties of the shareholders and the securities of their creditors to the verge of extinction. The records of our banking and finance Cos. tell the same story; either the shareholders or the creditors must be ruined; and the question which it shall be, is the knotty question, which the winding up courts are now vainly endeavouring to determine.

The „city manager“ does not seem to recognise that the party who consider considers the Bank Act of 1844 „a monument of human wisdom“ is constituted of a small but active and influential minority of the commercial world, in whose favour, as capitalists and dealers in money, the Act operates most beneficially at the very time when it is operating most disastrously upon the other party, who are dealers in merchandise and manufactures, and constitute the great majority of the commercial community. The „suspension“ of the Bank Act. produced more serious results in 1866, than in 1857 and 1847, because there was a far greater amount of foreign money on deposit in this country. And this amount is yearly increasing.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
⦗Dieß neuer Beweis für Carey, daß das Geld den Punkt sucht, wo rate of interest am niedrigsten. Er war am höchsten in England in den letzten Jahren.

Der „City Manager“ says: The deposits „on call“ or at short notice in the banks of the U.K. amount to 350 Millions £, whilst the total amount of sovereigns in the country estimated at only 120 millions. Nach Returns published by Sir John Lubbock „out of each million of nominal money which passes through the London Bankers Clearing House only £27,710 consists of legal currency; and of this small percentage only the paltry sum of £6,210 consists of coin – the balance, or £21,500, being B.o.E. notes. Thus, of the cheques and other promises to pay which pass through the Clearing House, 2% are represented by the promises to pay of the B.o.E.; and, of all the vast sums of ‚money‘ for which credit is thus daily given and taken, only the fabulously small fractional percentage of six-tenths (of a pound) (also 6/10%) has any real existence. Upon this slender foundation of 12s. for every 100£ St. is the huge fabric of credit built up.[“]

„City Manager“ wants a large increase in the gold Reserves of the B.o.E., wegen den proportionately large drains which must occasionally occur to meet the temporary balances of international indebtedness. Bank soll statt den Gvt. Securities 15 Millions mehr Gold halten.



July 27. 1867. N. 373. August 3. 1867. N. 374.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 3. August 1867. S. 113/114.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Leeds Banking Frauds. Pardon and Release of Convict Manager Greenland.

Leeds astonished über diese release.

The Leeds Banking Co was old and prosperous concern of 30 years standing; Greenland for 20 years |268 its manager, it stopped payment in autumn 1864. The legitimate business of the Bank good, to the last it paid 25% to its shareholders. Cause of failure: fraudulent conduct et proceedings of Greenland, who had allowed the most extraordinary credit facilities to a number of persons of notorious bad repute. Many of the bills discounted for these persons were forgeries of the most transparent character, as Greenland knew, when discounting them. All these illegitimate and fraudulent transactions were concealed from the directors and kept in secret books, to which they were denied all access. The annual statements and reports were false and fraudulent concoctions, and, at the time the Bank stopped, the directors were engaged in making a further issue of shares amongst their shareholders at a high premium, all of which eagerly taken up on the strength of the false balance-sheets and 25% dividends. Trotz alledem das Schwein nicht prosecuted. Shareholders dazu zu poor, creditors too anxious to be paid, official liquidators would not take upon themselves responsibility, no public prosecutor. Wenn discovered, daß Greenland was in habit of making false returns to the Board of Inland revenue of yearly note issues of the Bank, and swearing to them as true, Gvt ought to have prosecuted, did not, Leeds Bank of Commerce did, Mr. Darnton Lupton, in his address to the Chamber of Commerce said: „he held in his hand list of the shareholders in the Leeds Banking Co; a melancholy list, for there were not two of them consecutively who were not now reduced to wretchedness or misery or were dead. At the time of the stoppage of the Bank 243 shareholders, of whom there remained only 51; but there were about 20 estates of deceased shareholders. 25 died, directly or indirectly, of the losses; 2 or 3 had committed suicide … there were the widows and orphans, aged clergy and lonely females, who lost their all by these frauds, and now objects of wretchedness and misery.“ Dieß beast also pardoned. Chamber of Commerce (Leeds) petitions House of Commons on reasons of this pardon. The conduct of Gvt. only the more extraordinary when compared with its conduct in another case. In the prison, from which Greenland released, there was and is still another convict, named Skaife. He was a poor half-witted young fellow, clerk to one Marsden, one of the swindlers and forgers to whom Greenland advanced 100ds of 1000ds of £, the moneys of the Bank. When the Bank failed, Marsden escaped to America. Poor Skaife remained and frankly confessed that bills to £20 or 30,000£, found in the Bank, had been signed by him by Marsden’s direction. He knew they were forgeries, but said Marsden knew it, and Greenland knew it, and he had done it solely at his master’s instigation, and derived no profit whatever from it. Poor knave was tried for forgery, and convicted, partly on Greenland’s evidence, and was sentenced not to 15 months imprisonment but to 15 years penal servitude. It now appears, from a letter of Beekroft Beecroft , M.P. for Leeds, that some time ago he presented a memorial to Gaw. Hardy (Home minister) for remission of sentence upon Skaife, but refused by Hardy. Skaife, therefore, remains in Armley Goal Gaol , while Greenland, but for whom he would never have been forger or felon, set free.



[August 10. 1867. N. 375.]

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. August 1867. S. 139/140.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Edward Greenland’s Pardon. H.o.C. Continued. (Money Market Review 10 Aug., 1867)

It is an undeniable fact, that there has of late years been a great deal of very lax morality prevalent amongst the managers and directors of joint stock Banks and other Cos., much of it very closely bordering upon crime, and much of it actually overstepping the line which divides mere immorality from positive criminality … The successful operators in these transactions become objects of envy and examples for imitation to numerous other coveters of wealth and aspirants for fame, and the ranks of our mercantile classes have become thickly studded with men who have gone through these desperate ventures with more or less success, or who are ready to plunge into them when opportunities offer. Hence we have the downright frauds and scandalous robberies which are now almost daily exposed in the winding up courts. … It must be admitted that the law has almost lost all its influence as a deterrent, and for the plain reason that it is almost useless for the prevention or detection of these joint-stock and commercial frauds. In many cases where the fraud is undeniable a prosecution, it is said, „would not hold“; in other cases, where a prosecution might be sustained, there being no public prosecutor, no one else is willing to undertake the invidious task; and, even where a prosecution has been instituted and succeeded, ends of justice may subsequently be defeated by the capricious intervention |269 of an incompetent Secretary of State, as in the present case.

Lord Frederick Cavendish, one of the M.P. für North-West Riding of Yorkshire, sprach über Greenland case in H.o.C. „Greenland had been prosecuted for perjury in reference to the banknotes issues“ and „when the Board of Inland Revenue were applied to“ durch Leeds Chamber of Commerce, „and urged to prosecute, they declined, but stated that they would afford assistance to any persons who chose to undertake the prosecution“, viz. at their own expense. „The judge at the trial had expressed its his surprise that the prosecution of such a case had fallen upon private persons.“ Lord F. Cavendish continued: „When Greenland was taken to prison, he was placed in the hospital, where he remained for 3 months, but, in consequence of the report to the visiting justices, he was removed to one of the cells. The visiting justices were therefore greatly astonished when they afterwards received intelligence that Greenland had obtained a free pardon.“ That pardon was obtained by Greenland’s solicitor, upon the strength of a memorial which he addressed to the Home Secretary and came up to London to present in person. Lord Cavendish said: „Doubts would arise whether, in the administration of justice, distinctions were not made between different classes. It was difficult to believe that a poor man who had no solicitor would have received a remission of the greater part of his sentence because he was in a state of health which, in the opinion of the (prison) surgeon, would not justify his removal to the hospital of the prison.[“] Hardy said im trial „the Jury had recommended Greenland to mercy on account of his age etc.“ Mr. Hardy, „with the report of the trial at the Central Criminal Court before him“, knew perfectly well that the recommendation of the jury was to the mercy of the judge, and that the judge had given effect to it by giving the dog only 15 months imprisonment instead of 15 years penal servitude. W. Morrison drew the attention of the House „to the fact that the perjury of which this old man had been convicted had extended for a period of nearly 20 years“. »If Greenland had had not an able solicitor and wealthy and influential friends, he would have been permitted to serve out the remainder of his short sentence.« Other criminals, who have committed only one single act of perjury, are sentenced to penal servitude, and unless they happen to have made money enough by their frauds to retain a clever attorney, are compelled to undergo their allotted sentence. … The plea of humanity and mercy becomes mere cant in solchem Fall. It is an hypocritical abuse to apply them to the wealthier of the criminal classes alone, whilst in effect denying them to the poorer. During the past week (ending August 3, 1867) an inquest was held on the body of a pauper in one of our metropolitan workhouses who, at the age of 80, had been compelled to turn out and work at drawing a dust-cart, in a drenching rain. The poor wretch was seized with cold shivers and died, and before he died he was wicked and ungrateful enough to declare that „that cart and that rain had killed him“, and that the brutal officer who had compelled him to the task was guilty of his death. That man’s only crimes were poverty and old age – great crimes no doubt in a human and Christian county – but still the old man could not very well help either. If that old man had lived a riotous and extravagant life, committing frauds et perjuries during a period of 20 years, to the utter ruin or impoverishment of a 1000 innocent victims, and had thus made himself a well-to-do criminal instead of a beggarly pauper, humanity would have taken much more interest in him and „much better care of him[“].|


270

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 10. August 1867. S. 141/142.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Limited Liability Act of 1867. (for amendment of Act of 1862)

Enthält no clause whatever to afford additional protection against fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the promoters of new Cos.

August 17, 1867. N. 376.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 17. August 1867. S. 167/168.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et Co.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Judgment of H. o. Lords für creditors gegen shareholders)

On 15 August this judgment der Lords on the appeals. Das judgment gefällt im Sinne des Vice Chancellor Sir R. Malins durch die 3 alten Esel (law lords) Lord Chancellor (Chelmsford), Lord Cranworth und Lord Colonsay, the Scotch judge. Lord Westbury, Lord Romilly, and Lord Justice Cairns, also law lords, each of whom had previously given or concurred in judgments in equity in conflict with that [of] Malins, neither of them was present.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 17. August 1867. S. 172/173.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Credit Foncier of England (limit.)

Those undertakings obstructed and thwarted by a condition of panic, followed by a state of chronic distrust. The present stage is that of a slow revival, held to some extent in check by the caution and timidity that constitute the natural reaction from the recent experiences. Credit Foncier balance for past half year of £62,000, of which the directors propose £30,000 to distribution of profit, or 3s. per share, free of income tax, and to carry over the remainder. The following are 6 of the principal investments of the Co. as they now stand in the books:

City of Milan Improvements Co. £: 243,615
Varna and Rustchuck Railway 196,467
Belgian Public Works 107,279
Irrigation Co of France 282,740
Imperial Land Co of Marseilles 225,666
Millwall Docks 145,526.


August 31, 1867. N. 378.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 31. August 1867. S. 223/224.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The New Act (1867) to amend „The Companies Act“ 1862.

 Zusammenfassender Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Dieser miserable bungling act erlaubt keiner Co. ihr ihre nominellen shares herabzusetzen, ohne durch Chancery Court (Winding up) zu gehn. Dank dem Lord Overstone, as leader of a knot of 16 lords, verwarf das Oberhaus 1866 Milner Gibson’s (then President of Board of Trade) rationelles Amendment, wodurch die ganze Sache ohne Kosten etc mit Board of Trade abgemacht werden konnte.

 Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Zweitens, was fraudulenten Schwindelcharakter betrifft, enthält nur den silly Paragraph,
daß die „dates and names of parties to any contract be entered into prospectus, or the promoters, directors, or trustees thereof, before the issue of such prospectus or notice.“ It does not require that the subject matter of the contract should be stated, nor that the subject matter should have any relation to the business or purpose of the Co., or its undertaking.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Ferner heißts in dieser Klausel:
„and any prospectus or notice not specifying the same (names and dates) shall be deemed fraudulent on the part of the promoters, directors, and officers of the Co. knowingly issuing the same, as regards any person taking shares in the Co. on the faith of such prospectus, unless he shall have had notice of such contract.“

Secretaries, clerks, or officers may know that there are such contracts, but not know the dates or names of the parties. Ferner, what is to constitute, für die shareholders, |271 notice of such contracts? The only notice of such contracts which the statute requires is notice of their dates and the names of the parties to them, without any knowledge of their substance or contents.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Silly nonsense!



The Judgment of the Lords in the Overends Case (für die Creditors) (Money Market Review Aug. 31, 1867)

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 31. August 1867. S. 232.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Consecrates fraud. The argument that shareholders under such circumstances must be held liable is tantamount to saying that a man must pay a cheque stolen from him because a creditor of the thief should plead that he parted with property of on the strength of the drawer’s name, and that therefore the drawer had no right to stop payment at the bank it was drawn upon.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 31. August 1867. S. 232.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Das motive der lordships was fear – the fear of consequences – the fear that the joint-stock system could not bear the test of justice, but that, like Satan at the touch of the angel’s spear, it must appear in all its corrupt deformity, and that creditors – that terrible bugbear at which justice itself turns pale – must be satisfied at all cost. Truly, Englishmen may well deserve the title of a money-getting race, in the most offensive sense of the term, when the socalled rights of creditors are assisted to ride rough-shod over every other equities by the highest judicial tribunal in the land. Aber ihr Lordships „rewarded by the almost unanimous recommendations of the press“.

 Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
Der Case war sehr simple. Nach dem Limited Liability Act of 1862 hat der creditor no hold on the personal shareholder, sondern nur auf den corporate body, die Co. Nun sagten die shareholders – dieß war die question – sie seien nicht members dieser fraudulenten Co, die ursprünglich nur aus den 7 Directoren bestand. Die shareholders hatten keinen Ertrag erhalten, die creditors ihr eingezahltes Kapital bereits gefressen. Die Co. war bankrott, bei ihrem Beginn (eh shareholders drin waren) July 1865 so gut wie May 1866. Mit ganz wenigen Ausnahmen alle Creditors waren die identical creditors der old firm. Sie wurden also durch den fraud – nach dem Judgment erst des Malins, dann der Lords, bezahlt, und steckten vielleicht mit in dem Hokus Pokus! Die Presse war fast ganz gekauft, Times und Economist an der Spitze, durch die creditors. Dieß Urtheil zugleich gegen die durch die Lords selbst anerkannten Precedents!


Aus:
The Money Market Review, 31. August 1867. S. 227.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Diese 4 law lords have decided that contracts induced by fraud are binding obligations upon the party defrauded. Dieß war absichtliche perversion, kept up im judgment durch deliberate perversion of facts and cases, garbled quotations of previous decisions, and the wholesale suppression of adverse judgments, sogar in derselben Parlamentssitzung gefällt von denselben Lords und andern.


Aus:
The Money Market Review, 7. September 1867. S. 262/263.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Untainted Creditors had no place in the record; at all events, the liquidators had not proved a single claim as being extraneous to the fraud itself; neither creditors nor liquidators had alleged that Mr. Oakes’s £1250 on his 25 shares, or even Mr. Peek’s £100,000 on his 2,000 shares, would be required for paying to Oppenheim and others 20s. in the pound, with interest.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
Oakes und Peeks Peek waren die 2 contributories, welche die Sache vor Gericht bis zum Last Appellate Court der Lords brachten.
|


272

14 September. 1867. N. 380.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 14. September 1867. S. 275/276.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The (1867) Act for the Amendment of Cos. Act. Act of 1862, and the Merchant Bank Co of London (lim.)

 Zusammenfassung von Marx in eigenen Worten.
Schließen
This sehr well to do Co, has weathered panic at all.
Aber its shares at present £100 each with 25 paid, and liability of £75. Directors und Shareholders (General Meeting Sept. ’67) wünschen daher reduction in nominal amount of their capital, and subdivision of their shares. Aber nun der neue Akt; came into Operation 1st Sept. ’67. Chairman said: „Impossible to act upon the Act. First the whole thing must go into Chancery Court, and this utter ruin for a Co. depending on its credit. Their creditors spread over the whole world, and their debtors also, and impossible to do what required by the Act. That Act greatly complicated the previous law upon the subject.“ It is a burlesque upon commercial legislation. But Graves, one of the commercial members for Liverpool, seriously told Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, it was „the one Act“ „next to the Reform Act“. Times outstrips him in eulogy of Act and Gvt. which passed it, says, it was carried through Parliament almost „without discussion and without alteration“. Fact is that the Bill had been completely gutted in its transit, all those clauses empowering the Board of Trade to effect the reduction of the Capital of Cos. being entirely expunged, and all those clauses handing the Cos. over to the winding up Courts in Chancery, of which nobody had ever heard anything before, being substituted in their place. This was passing the Bill without discussion certainly, but scarcely without alteration! The Economist equally lavish in its encomiums upon this miserable abortion of an Act.



21 September, 1867. N. 381.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. September 1867. S. 301/302.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Overend, Gurney et Co. (lim.)  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(English Legislation gegen grosse Schwindler)

By Statute 24 und 25 Vict. cap. 96, section 89, enacted daß directors, managers or public officers of any corporate body or public Co. die circulate, publish, or concur drin „any written statement or account which he shall know to be false in any material particular, with intent to deceive or defraud any member, shareholder, or creditor of such body corporate or Public Co., or with intent to induce any person to become a shareholder, or partner therein, or to intrust or advance any property to such body corporate or public Co., or to enter into any security for the benefit thereof, shall be liable etc to penal servitude for 7 years.“ Danach also die Overends etc faßbar. Aber nach Sect. 85 desselben Act „no person shall be liable to be convicted of any of the misdemeanours in any of the said sections mentioned, by any evidence whatever of any act done by him (vor irgend einem Gericht), if he shall at any time previously to his being charged with such offence have first disclosed such act on oath, in consequence of any compulsory process of any Court of law or equity, in any action, suit, or proceeding which shall have been bona fide instituted by any party aggrieved; or if he shall have first disclosed the same in any compulsory examination or deposition before any Court upon the hearing of any matter in bankruptcy or insolvency“. The Legislature  Zusatz von Marx. Siehe S. 263 des vorliegenden Exzerpthefts.
Schließen
(composed of swindlers)
appears to have considered it of far greater importance to obtain full disclosures of such transactions than to prosecute and punish the actors in them. It, therefore, denies them the privilege of pleading that they are not bound to answer because their answers may tend to criminate themselves, and, at the same time, tempts them to a full confession by the offer of a plenary pardon. This law is a standing incitation to even the most culpable of mercantile delinquents to come and confess and be absolved without the infliction of any penalties. Dieß rettet Overend et Co Directors, puts them out of criminal proceedings. Aber law absolves sie nicht of their civil liabilities. Sie sind liable to each shareholder for all the money they have paid, and all the damage sustained in consequence of the fraud. Some of the directors are said to be ruined|273 but it is certain that this is not the case with all of them. It is now pretty certain that these latter parties realised very large sums in the shape of the premiums on the shares which were allotted to them and their nominees, and these large sums they still retain. It certainly seems to be a hard case and a shameful thing that, whilst so many of the unfortunate shareholders reduced to absolute beggary and destitution to liquidate the debts thus fraudulently imposed upon them, the parties by whom they have been defrauded should still be permitted to retain unchallenged the profits they made by the scheme.

Down to the present moment the shareholders, the members of the Co., have never been permitted to know who their creditors are, or in what right, or what their respective claims amount to.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. September 1867. S. 305.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Credit Mobilier Co. of Paris.

In its difficulty, B.o.F. appealed for for 3 Mill. £ St., but B.o.F. giebt nur Hälfte, und has exacted all the security that was offered in the first instance. Immediate Cause of Breakdown des Credit Mobilier arises from its large advances to Compagnie Immobilière, one of the many affiliations sprung up from the original present establishment. The Co’s funds locked up in „inconvertible securities“ or „inoperative accounts“. This was always the weak point in the constitution of the concern.

Credit Mobilier und Credit Foncier were the 2 grand financial „idées Napoleoniennes“, and they were coeval mit dem Empire itself. Decree of authorisation für Credit Mobilier: Nov. 18, 1852; Credit Foncier, of same date. One of the projects rejected by the Council of State, the other seriously opposed in same quarter, Emperor put down all objection. Credit Foncier had an even and profitable career.

Credit Mobilier a grand experiment in the St. Simonian school of finance, the principles of which have been given by a friendly hand as „in contradistinction to those of the old school, not to extort money from governments and individuals, but, whilst enriching the authors, to augment to an incalculable degree the public and private fortunes. Their object is to lower as much as possible the interest on capital, and to place credit within the reach of all industrious men“. With such a programme the Credit Mobilier started at a time when it was the custom of the country to hoard money, and transact all kinds of business in a petty and peddling fashion. British capital and labour had already been imported to make the first great network of railways that was constructed. The new school of financiers,  The Money Market Review: the Emperor
Schließen
Badinguet
amongst the number, conceived that these enterprises were quite within the power of the French people themselves, and Credit Mobilier founded to propagate »this doctrine« Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!!)
This revolution now complete. Paris has become a financial centre, competing often successfully with the wealth and prestige of London itself. Frankfort and Amsterdam have, to a certain extent, given way, and the influence of French finance is coextensive with the Continent; indeed, it has spread to Egypt and beyond the Indies. Paris capitalists are now amongst the boldest operators of the world. The commercial classes of France have vastly increased in wealth and numbers; people develop previously unknown activity of trade and industry. The Credit Mobilier was the prime mover in this great change. Its capital £2,400,000 in shares and an equal amount in bonds. Its deposits generally figured of late years for about £4,000,000.|

274

28 September, 1867. N. 382.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. September 1867. S. 324/325.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Gold mines of Victoria. (Kitto: „The Goldminers of Victoria.“ Lond. ’67)  Von Marx aus Platzgründen neben die Überschrift „28 September, 1867. N. 382.“ geschrieben, bezieht sich aber auf die vorliegenden Exzerpte.
Schließen
Expropriation of Individual Labour. (Property)

Kitto was 11 years a miner and manager of mines in Victoria, 7 years a Gvt mining surveyor. His conviction: The occupation of the mere digger is drawing to an end, while that of the practised miner is being rapidly developed under large profits already achieved. Goldmining in Australia no longer a fortuitous game, to be played by adventurers possessed of a pick-ax pick-axe and a pan, but a sound business-capital and skilled labour. One third of the gold yielded by Victoria during 1866 was the result of quartz-crushing. Nach Official „Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1866“ quartz crushed (1866) 861,468 tons, and the average yield of gold per ton: 10 dwt. 16.2 gr. The price paid for treating the quartz von 4s. to £1. 10s. per ton. (Dieß jedoch nur exceptional Minimum und Maximum limits[.]) The average cost of treating the Quartz, which embraces of course much more than the cost of crushing, nach T. Eyre, manager of the Catharine Reef Co.: „For the 6 months ending Febr. 28, 1867, the average cost of raising and crushing, including all charges in the mine, 13s. 3d. per ton, and for the 6 months previously 12s. 11d per ton, or 13s. 1d for the last 12 months.“ This statement coincides with that given by the manager of the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Co, the best conducted property in the Colony. Says that 13s. p. ton. They crushed 4,654 tons during June 1867 which yielded average of 12 dwts. 5 grs. per ton. The pennyweight of gold in mining arithmetic is equivalent to 4 shillings, so that 31/4 dwts. is the average cost of treating the quartz. Kitto gives an estimate based on an outlay of £25,000 for a mining and quartz-crushing establishment, and that only 7 dwts. or 28 shilling per ton on average are obtained. Allowing £10,900 for contingencies, such as loss of time through accidents to machinery etc, dennoch clear profit of £12,500 or 50% would accrue to the shareholders. As Kitto says: „In a few years individual mining, as it is called, will be no more known; the quartz mines and deep leads will become the property of the capitalist, and will be worked with science and skill; … and once more the social system will be properly regulated.“ Im Anfang glaubte man, daß die alluvial goldfields in which the gold had been deposited, broken off from the mother rock by the operations of nature carried on during countless ages, were the only localities worth the attention of the gold-seeker; and that, once ransacked and made to yield up their spoil, nothing would be left on which to rear a permanent industry. A Commission of the Victorian Gvt., 1856, to report on the state of the mines, declared that mining for gold to great depths in quartz reefs would be unprofitable; useless, they said, to go below 10 miner’s fathoms or 60 feet. Dieß theory false, as proved in California and Australia. A Californian mine is now being worked at a depth of 1,250 feet from the surface, and is producing better ore than ever. Kitto gives a long list of quartz reefs in Victoria varying worked at depths varying from 200 to 600 feet, where result in all cases very profitable. In one instance 105 tons of stone, obtained from depth of 500 feet, yielded average of more than 141/2 oz. gold to the ton. Selwyn, the Government (i.e. Victoria Gvt) geologist, asserts that there is in Victoria an area of 30,348 □ miles, „in any part of which there is a possibility of remunerative gold deposits being found“. Of this vast extent only 870 □ miles, or about 1/33 have been mined upon, and of this 1/33 only 1/6, or about 1/1200 1/200 of the entire auriferous distinct, was occupied at the end of last year (1866). Kitto, from personal knowledge, states that at least 2 × the area in present occupation of miners is quite as valuable for gold as any now claimed and worked. As a Capital, the mining property at the colony now estimated at 22 mill. £.



Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. September 1867. S. 327/328.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Public Debt of Russia. Consul Michell’s Report.

Michell friendly to Russia, partly appointed Consul there by influence of Russian Gvt.

Between 1832 and 1852 annual deficits more than 4 Millions £ a year, von 1852 to 1856, time of Crimean war, annual deficit of nearly 28 Mill. £, represents, says Michell, far less than the additional cost to the Empire of that war. Increase of Revenue during the whole period, total in 1852 being 44% more than in 1832, but in the same interval Rate of Expenditure increased at least 97%. Nach Michell Russia owed in 1866 Public Debt of 1,810 Millions of roubles (£286,604,000), annual charge upon this debt: £10,961,142. Of this total the Foreign Loans, in round numbers, 520 Millions of roubles, and the internal debt to the residue, or nearly 1,300 millions roubles.

A work on Budget of 1866, attributed to Senator Hagemeister, states increase of expenditure zwischen 1845 and 1866 as follows:

1) Army. Increase: 70%. 2) Navy: 70%. 3) Home Office: 100%. 4) Public Instruction 150%. 5) Foreign Office 10%. 6) Justice 100%. 7) Church 90%. 8) Pensions 130% 9) Grants of Land. 10%

During this same interval, 1845–1866, liabilities of the Russian Treasury increased 172% und mit dem second lottery loan, 193%. The issue of paper money, now practically inconvertible, during the same period, 300%. In the same 20 years Increase of Population 11%, and of Ordinary Revenue 75% (from 197 to 345 Millions Roubles). In the same 20 years „the foreign trade of the country almost remained stationary“. The Budgets of the Russian Finance Ministers invariably anticipate a deficit, but fall always short of its amount. In the 5 years von 1862–1866 (incl.), the deficits, were estimated at nearly 141 millions roubles, turned out about 501 Millions, as indicated by the „Extraordinary Resources“ or loans raised to meet the deficiency in revenue for the requirements of the Gvt.|

275
The Foreign Debt of the Russian Empire is thus condensed:
Original Amount. Annual Interest in 1866. Annual Repayment of Principal in 1866. Capital Outstanding Jan. 1, 1866
In £ St. £35,937,800 £1,499,432 334,950 33,792,800
Florins 140,533,000 3,752,275 1,981,000 75,535,000
Roubles 290,000,000 10,568,282 6,711,889 208,661,660

To this to be added the Internal Debt of 1,290,490,321 Roubles. Total: 1,810,132,823 Roubles (£286,604,363, nämlich 519,642,502 Roubles Foreign Debt und Roubles 1,290,490,321 Internal Debt.) Rates of interest on Foreign Debt von 3 to 5 %, und the annual sinking funds from 1 to 21/2%; on Internal Debt from 4 to 6%, and the annual sinking funds from 1/2 to 5% p.a.



Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. September 1867. S. 328.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 729.7–8), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152).
Schließen
Robert Knight: Letter to the Right. Right Honourable Sir Stafford Northcote on the Present Condition of Bombay. Lond. 1867.

Collapse (Commercial) at Bombay. Scarcely anticipated the degree of prostration in this „city of millionaires“.

India cotton Exports etc in Folge des American Civil War. Bombay was the centre and outlet of the cotton growing districts of Western India, the chief port from which England drew its supply. Darauf based huge speculation. Raw cotton, which in Interior of Bombay presidency had been worth 80 rupees per candy before the American war, rose to 600 rupees afterwards. For a time gains to producers and middlemen – i.e. merchants and brokers of Bombay – prodigious. This sudden accession of wealth produced insatiable desire for more; Result wie gewöhnlich Time Bargains. Finance Cos., oder, wie sie in Bombay heissen „joint-stockery“, in every form. Some for useful projects; but the common ruin enveloped legitimate enterprise mit bubble Cos. Bombay built upon island too small for its population and commerce. Harbour magnificent, by position and other natural advantages, greatest port for Ocean communication between India and Europe. Large tract of land around the city covered only by a few feet of water, leicht to reclaim, Joint Stock Co, während des Schwindels, formed to this purpose. Large portion of the work has been done; but, up to the present time, obgleich millions sunk upon these works, not a shilling of the outlay has yet been rendered available. Not a single house or warehouse can be erected upon the halffinished work, except that small portion whereon stands the terminus of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The Gvt. of India, by its contract with that Co., had to provide a terminus 50 acres in extent for goods traffick. Bombay Island alone could not supply the land wanted, hence „Elphinstone Co“ formed to effect the object in view. Performed substantial work, for which it paid hard cash. It required reclaimed the whole site required for the terminus, and also a large area of land on the harbour shore. In Bombay a perfect glut of shares, some quite valueless on demerits, the aggregate amount far beyond the capacity of the place for legitimate business. Hence Elphinstone Co. Shares find no buyers oder at ruinous prices for the holders. No bank in India will advance a farthing on them. No capitalists want them, because, mit 400 rupees paid on them, there is a further liability of 600 rupees upon each share. Several Cos were (während dem Schwindel) formed for reclamation of land around the island of Bombay, but majority have failed, nur 2 have spent much money – the „Elphinstone“ und die „United Victoria“.



Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. September 1867. S. 329/330.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Limited Liability Cos formed since 1865.

Part of them to establish new businesses, and the other to prosecute old businesses with greater means and wider connections.



5 October. 1867. N. 383.

Joint Stock Cos. Management.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Oktober 1867. S. 351/352.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
Good et successful management have been exception. We have a natural propensity for blundering, muddling and bungling. Shareholders in general have elected as directors men with „handles to their names“, oder any undertaking men in quite different line of business, merchants and manufacturers as directors for banking, financial, railway Cos und bankers und successful speculators for mercantile und manufacturing undertaking. Such men eagerly sought and solicited by the promoters of Cos. Shareholders thought the more of them the better, obgleich numerous directorates nuisances. The most plausible speaker  Zusammenfassung von Marx in einem eigenen Wort. The Money Market Review: Men who knew that they had been sought for their names only gave their names, but did not feel bound, therefore, to give their time and their talents also, and would consequently content themselves with dropping in regularly to take their fees, and occasionally to take part in the business of the company.
Schließen
(brass)
elected chairman, oder noble as head-figure. Shareholders complain that directors who ought to be their servants are their masters. Their own fault. Give absolute power to the directors and absolutely defer to it. Statt 3 oder 4 in most Cos. 6 or 8, or even 11 10 or 12 directors. Efficient management mainly dependent upon efficiency of the manager. He should be more responsible to them, less to the directors. As an instance of numerous directorate City Offices Co. At their last halfyearly meeting shareholders demanded that number und pay der 8 directors should be reduced. Die directors deigned, weil Hon. J. St. Wortley had given demission, not to fill up the vacancy, and reduce remuneration by 1/8, and, in event of further vacancy occurring, not fill it up, until remuneration brought down to 1500£ a year. One shareholder thinks 800£ mit 200£ extra für directors would do. Another shareholder, adverting to the heavy payments of directors, points out that salaries only 900£, also staff insufficient und underpaid. Nach dem neuen liability Amendment Act (1867) können die shareholders insist upon the liability unlimited unlimited liability der directors, or manager, or managing directors.|

276

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 5. Oktober 1867. S. 352/353.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
We want the issue of shares to bearer which are not fully paid up. In France shares mostly of smaller amount than in England, and the Cos may issue them to bearer when 2/5 of nominal amount paid. Amount called up in France generally bears much larger proportion to nominal amount. Thus increased facilities for transfer of shares. In true spirit of landocracy our Legislature provided that the stamp duty payment on transfer of shares same as on transfer of land. Shares as many times bought and sold in days as land in years. Dann stampduty levied upon nominal value of shares etc[.] This is the way in which our landlords facilitate the economical transfer of shares issued to bearer. The first person to whom the share warrant are issued will have to pay 3 times the amount of a most exorbitant stampduty, and all the subsequent transferees will go duty free.  Kommentar von Marx.
Schließen
(Diese Geschichte mit dem warrant wegen des häufigen Wechsels der tranfer transfer of shares.)



Money Market Review. 12 Oct. 1867.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 12. Oktober 1867. S. 377.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Shares.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Paid to Vendors etc)

It is a very common practice on the formation of a Jointstock Co. for the purchase of a concession or contract, or the goodwill and stock of an existing business, or of a patent-right, for the vendor to agree to take either the whole or a portion of the purchase money in the shares of the intended Co., either fully paidup or with £5 or £10 or other sum per share paid thereon.



19 October 1867. N. 385.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Oktober 1867. S. 403/404.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Fall in Value of Gold, Rise in Price of Commodities.

M. Chevalier predicted that „the transition (from fall of gold value) would be an interval painful to pass, and would be marked by innumerable shocks and sufferings“. The value of all properties, he said, „would be subjected to a painful uncertainty and injurious fluctuations. It would be still worse for persons whose incomes consisted of a sum of money fixed in advance. They would live in a perpetual state of trouble, anxiety, and uneasiness“. Er unterstellt stets that gold would fall to half of its recognised value. The fixed income man „would be flung headlong, without rule or measure, down to a lower station, and without the chance of preparation, as it was of the very essence of changes of this kind, subject to so many opposing influences, to pursue an irregular and disorderly course“. His assumption und reasoning equally absurd. Change nothwendig slow und very gradual. Die opposing influences could not but produce compensating circumstances.

The general rise in prices since 1853 is indisputable and now almost universal, and the inference of a corresponding fall of gold is inevitable. If increased supplies of gold accompanied by a corresponding increase in the demand for gold, there would have been no disparity between demand et supply. There would have been no relative increase, no excess of supply over demand. The excess from California and Australia was absorbed in new fields by the enlarged commerce of England, America, and other countries. Then American Civil War. The war expenditure absorbed the greenbacks. Sobald England gold received from Australia et California, passed over to France und other countries, in exchange for silver, transmitted to India in payment for cotton und other commodities. Durch dieß enlargement of trade rise in wages und dadurch allmählig in prices of commodities.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Oktober 1867. S. 404/405.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

The Chambers of Commerce of Rouen and Liverpool on Commercial Crise.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Conversion of productive Capital in Bankers Capital)

The Rouen Chamber of Commerce anxious about the commercial crisis which for some time past pressing upon industry of great part of France. Its President wrote to President of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, on their opinions. Rawlins, the President, answers in name der Liverpooler Handelskammer: (10 Oct. 1867): Common Causes in France und England, nach Rawlinson Rawlins: 1) American War, 2) Protective duties of U. St. 3) Disorganisation in Southern parts of U. St. 4) Unsettled State of Europe, annual cost of armies about 80 mill. £ St. jährlich. Unter den spezifisch englischen Ursachen führt Rawlins an: 1) Premature investment von 1862–1866 in railway enterprises, not now, nor probably für many years, giving revenues to shareholders; 2) Excessive Speculation and Overtrading, especially of late years. Traders who conduct their business disproportionately on borrowed capital are, in the event of a small depreciation in prices or pressure in the money market, compelled to suspend payment. 3) Reckless investment of Capital in Jt. Stock Cos. 4) Collapse of several Banks. 5) These causes aggravated by 2 deficient harvests, enhancing price of wheat by 50% over average of the three previous years. Those who conduct their business disproportionately on borrowed capital, sagt Money Market Review , »constitute the great mass of English traders, manufacturers, shopkeepers[«]. Three months of 10% Discount Minimum, for them 20 or 30%, equal to 2, 3, or 4 × the profits they were making, hat diese Hände ruinirt. Viele dieser Kerls so ruinirt. All their accumulated wealth has been converted into money capital, and is in the hands of the banker, bill discounter, or other moneyed capitalist. Henceforth the latter is the owner and possessor of it; but he is willing to lend if the former classes are willing to borrow, and to become „traders upon borrowed capital“. On the first hint of distrust, capital seeks to fly back to its owner und dann new ruin unter jenen Traders und creation, for next period, of more traders upon borrowed capital.|

277

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 19. Oktober 1867. S. 407/408.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 588.9–10).
Schließen
A. King: „Smith, Knight et Co. lim.“ Lond. 1867.

Late Co. of Smith, Knight, et Co, insolvent, with unlimited prospect before them of insolvency, formed this limited Co., in the first instance, to extricate themselves, und, in the second, to pay their creditors Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
The prospectus stated that business valuable, that the vendors required bonus as the selling value, including plant, of £230,000 in cash und shares, und that capital required to conduct the business of 2 Mill. £. St., in a first issue of 40,000 shares of £50 each. Shares came out at premium, i.e. demand for these 40,000 shares seemed larger than their supply. For a time this alleged value seemed real. In Nov. 1864 first dividend of 5% paid on account, d.h. ohne Rechnungsablage. April, 1865, statement of profit und loss rendered, und dividend declared of 8% p.a. (mit Abzug der „on account“ gezahlten 5%.) Zugleich aber call for £5 per share. Price der shares fell to something like nil, even mit der addition of £5 paid on them. Shareholders appointed Committee of Investigation; this Committee reported in Oct. 1865 that the good will etc, for which £230,000 paid in cash und shares, was of no value, that the contracts were burdensome rather than profitable. Directors gave flat contradiction. Contracts taken over showed all „an estimated profit“; the only contract then completed exhibited profit of 15%; they could, however, not obtain payment for work performed and materials supplied for the Royal Sardinian Railway, dieß chief cause des call £5 (additional). But concern, they said, promising. At meeting November 1865 embarrassment officially admitted; new directors were appointed, darunter 2 members of Parliament. February, 1866, 2 further calls announced – viz. £5 p. share, payable on April 10, und £2 in July – making in all £17 p. share paid. March 1866 officially notified that the £2 call coming due in July would be the last call made. May 1866, directors issued a Report stating that the Co. had undertaken no new works, and contracts in hand were approaching completion; bonds received from the Royal Sardinian Railway Co had been offered to the Creditors, assets and liabilities were alike, about £800,000 etc. In Oct. 1866 A. J. King filed a bill in Chancery against the Directors, and at meeting of shareholders in Nov. 1866 a Defence Committee formed.

Another call of £5 ordered by the Liquidators of the Co, making 25£ p. share, or one million called up on the 40,000 shares. King states, that prior to this call, only £367,000 were paid up, that the present call will make the total £400,000 instead of a million. In brief, it comes to this, that the majority of the shareholders cannot or will not pay calls, and that minority will have to pay all. Trotzdem creditors have only been paid 2sh. in £. King adds that there were claims of creditors in Sept. 1865 which, with interest, amounting to £376,947 would represent now nearly the same sum. So bulk of £50 p. share will be called upon by the liquidators, so that shareholders will lose every farthing of their money, and even the creditors not fully paid. No farthing left for the shareholders.

King asserts that the register (of shareholders[)] is rotten, and that 5/6 of the names enrolled are owned by men of straw who are merely nominees of the vendors and the Syndicate, nämlich a number of persons interested to combine in order to support the price of the shares in the market, subscribing a common fund for the purpose; hence the money said to be paid by the shareholders never paid at all. This proved by the nonpayment of calls. He alleges that no less than £72,000 spent as „secret service money“ostensibly given as commission on certain contracts. King gives the names of some of these recipients. Entries in the books, or in the dates of the invoices, falsified by a clerk who was discharged; dieser jedoch mere tool, acted simply at the direction of his employers.

October 27 26, 1867. N. 386

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Oktober 1867. S. 428/429.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Royal Bank of Liverpool.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Illimited Liability)

On October 22 (’67) Stoppage officially announced.

Shareholders not numerous, but wealthy. Unlimited Liability. This Bank founded 1836. Suspended during Railway Panic of 1847, in consequence of reckless advances to a large amount to a few individuals. Reopened on 1 Dec. 1847. In Directors Report to 31st Dec. 1866 stated that despite „an extraordinary series of banking and commercial disasters“ on the operations of year ending Dec. 31, 1866, gross credit balance of £83,809. 3s. 11d, and a net profit, after various deductions, u.a. 7% interest on the preference Capital, of £50,546. 15s. 7d. H. A. Withers had a penchant for „large accounts“. Financing. Upwards of £300,000 advanced and locked up in ships of about 40,000 tons, now trading to various parts of the world; large sums said to have been advanced upon cotton bills. The acceptances of this Bank, 12 months ago, reached 2 Millions. One of the shareholders on meeting of Oct. 23 said: „Taking in consideration the interest he had been getting for many years in connection mit der Bank, he could afford to lose the capital invested in it. People looked upon property of this sort as though it was as secure, so far as income goes, as if it were land; but it was not so.“ etc. It is the immense greedy of the shareholders which directors und shareholders pander to. Speculative und gambling business daher, besonders by Liverpool Banks.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Oktober 1867. S. 430/431.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Re-establishment of 6 months’ Sight Usance in Indian Trade.

 Von Marx verwendet in Manuskript II zum zweiten Buch des „Kapital“ (MEGA² II/11. S. 212.29–30).
Schließen
Almost unanimously accepted by the Indian Banks.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 26. Oktober 1867. S. 431.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Failure of the Commercial Bank of Canada

Announced during last days. Involved by lock up in railway securities.|

278

9 November, 1867. N. 388

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. November 1867. S. 476/477.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

 Titel von Marx notiert in „Heft 3. 1868“ der „Hefte zur Agrikultur“ (MEGA² IV/18. S. 588.11), einem Exzerptheft 1878 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 148) und im Notizbuch 1878/1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 152) sowie exzerpiert im Heft Dezember 1878 bis Januar 1879 (IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass, Sign. B 151).
Schließen
Gassiot: Monetary Panics and the Remedy (1867)
(Dieser Gassiot merchant in City of long experience, and director of oldest and largest Jt. Stock Bank in London)

„At any time after 12 o’clock on 11 May 1866“ (says Gassiot, when it was confidently reported that Gladstone had declined to suspend or interfere mit dem Bank Act) [„]there was probably no price for which the B.o.E., or other banks or bankers, could have obtained B.o.E. Notes for any amount of Gvt. Stock.“ Hoarding had commenced, because of fear that no more banknotes could be obtained. Ohne die legal limitation des Note supply, nobody would have dreamt of hoarding. The suspension of Act produced immediate relief. „High rates of interest“ – so Gladstone’s 10% Mr.(?) Rate – „entail distress“, says Gassiot, „on the merchant, trader and manufacturer, but more particularly on those employers of labour who require large sums of money to pay weekly wages, and whose only safety from ruin, when money is raised to an exorbitant rate, too often rests on discharging large masses of the hardworking industrious mechanics employed in their extensive works.“ In proof and illustration of this, he refers to the record of the Mansion-house Committee, the closing of the workshops on Bank of Thames, and the multitudes throughout Kingdom even now without employment, and driven to the utmost privation.

Suspensions of the Bank Act, says Gassiot, „have ever resulted in obtaining enormous profits for every description of money-dealers, from the proprietors of B.o.E. Stock, and bankers of all descriptions, down to the petty usurer who discount discounts the bills of those whose necessities compel them in such times to obtain money at the rate of 20 and 30% p.a.“ Mentions that B.o.E. paid in October 1866 13% p.a. on Capital of £14,533,000, whilst in previous halfyear ending April 1866 nur 101/2 und in corresponding half year of 1865 10%.

The object of the Bank Directors was to avail themselves of the exorbitant rate of 10%, for their own benefit, without exceeding the limits of their fixed issues for the benefit of commerce. In case they exceeded the limits, the profits, nach Gladstone’s letter, of overissue went to Gvt; if not exceeded, the whole profit of the 10% rate went into their pockets. J. B. Smith stated in the H.o.C.: „They (the Bank of England) sent to their customers and borrowed banknotes from them, in order to prevent the infringement of the Act, and the Act was therefore not infringed.“ Frazer’s Magazine (August 1866) says: „The letter of the law was only saved by the London bankers responding to an appeal from the Bank o. E. Court to pay every night to the banking department all the notes which, under ordinary circumstances, would have remained in the tills of the bankers themselves.“ So the directors secured to their proprietors all the advantage of the high rate. With all these means, the credit of the Bank Act could not be saved. „On the 30th May“, says Gassiot, „its Reserve was reduced to £415,865, and at that time the Bank was entirely dependent upon the nightly assistance of the London bankers, and on the forbearance of its depositors, to avoid the use of the Gvt. letter.“ The principle of the Act as much violated by such reduction of Reserve, as if the limits of issue exceeded by millions.

The Times in leading Article of 13 Nov. 1857, on the panic of that year, said: „Yesterday the commercial public received the news that the Bk. Charter Act had been suspended. The commercial interests of the country should not be submitted to a system by which a law is obeyed so long as obedience is easy, and temporarily swept away as often as pressure or panic intervenes. The houses which in 1847 and 1857 have stopped payment before the relaxation of the law, may well complain that, whilst they have been crushed by the operation of the Bk. Charter Act, others not more solvent or of higher standing than themselves have been saved by the suspension of the Act … . The defenders of the present system will have to face the fact that the Act has been twice suspended in two successive Panics.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 9. November 1867. S. 477–479.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Annual Losses of Fire Assurance. Incendiary Fires.

Extraordinary increase of fires of late in London und Counties, und other countries ausser England. Buildings now generally constructed of less combustible materials. In London 1840 number of fires 681, 1 to 2,800 inhabitants, und 1 to every 379 houses; 1850 868 fires, 1 to 2,673 inhabitants und 1 to every 347 houses. In 1860 number of fires 1,056, 1 to every 2,613 inhabitants und 1 to every 335 houses. In 1865 1502 fires, 1 to every 1900 inhabitants und 1 to every 250 houses. In 33 Jahren von 1833 to 1865 recorded fires in London 29,069 und Capt. Shaw has compiled a table showing the causes of those fires. Candles caused 11%, Curtains nearly 10%, Gas nearly 8%, Flues nearly 8%, Sparks from Pipes 41/2%, Children playing mit fire 11/2%, Lucifer matches 11/2%, Smoking Tobacco 11/2%, Stoves 11/2%, Spontaneous Ignition nearly 1%, und other known causes 191/2, while the unknown causes were 33%. But the proportion in London fires, of unknown causes has increased from 25% in 1850 to 41% in 1860 und 44% in 1860 1866. Of the 589 fires from unknown causes in London, 1866, no less than 480 were on property insured against loss or damage by fire in one or other of the insurance offices. The latter know not how many of them willfully caused, but more than 1 /3 of all the fires in London are regarded by the insurance offices und der fire brigade as involved in suspicion. … The idea that in any civilised  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(!)
country there could be wretches so abandoned as to trade in fire, to contrive and design the letting loose of an agent so uncontrollable and so destructive in its ravages for the infamous purpose of making a profit by it, is a fearful idea to contemplate; yet considerable number of such wretches amongst us. Besides a number of employees who, having committed frauds und depredations upon the property of their employers, afterwards set fire to the premises to conceal their crimes, there are |279 organised gangs of fraudulent persons who get their living by incendiarism and frauds upon insurance offices. „Their stocks“, it is said, „consist principally of dummies or imitation goods made of plaster of Paris, of half tubs of butter, of rolls of cloth made up of straw of parcels filled with sawdust, of bottles of coloured water and the like.“ These being duly insured, are duly set fire to afterwards, and the insurance office is called upon to pay, not the real value of the property destroyed, but the highest value the felonious incendiary is able to put upon it. These losses did not enter into the calculations of the Cos. when they fixed their insurance premiums. Sie finden nun, daß daher considerable addition to their rates necessary. They do not like to prosecute; they do not like to object to pay; gets them bad name und Prosecution very hazardous thing. Difficult to get legal evidence. Numbers of these claims therefore are paid trotz moral conviction des Office.



16 November 1867. N. 389.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 16. November 1867. S. 503/504.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Royal Bank of Liverpool. „Hushing up of Commercial Delinquencies.“

Entire loss of capital (paid up) und Reserves. Ausserdem Estimated Deficiency of £382,470. Interest und Expenses will make this £100,000 more. Call made of £10 per share. One Lady mit 900 shares will have to pay 90,000£. Ruin brought about by grossest mismanagement; besonders manager, submanager und managing director, und culpable neglect der other directors. Large sums advanced upon shipping. Much of this shipping was actually in the hands of the directors, and they were working it under agreements mit den owners, to whom they had made advances upon it. In the case of one of these shipowners, „the directors had entered into an agreement with him for the working of his estate und property for 5 years upon certain terms, and that agreement is still subsisting, and the debtor claims to have it carried out.“ In addition to such advances upon such securities as these, the Bank have for some time past been gambling in their own shares, and lost £46,000 upon those transactions. Original shares to the number of 1280 have been purchased since May 1860, besides preference shares to the number of 264, which the Bank have acquired by purchase or otherwise since 1858. These dealings in their own shares rendered legal by a special clause in the Co’s Deed. But most scandalous transactions of the Bank those with their own officers und directors. The manager is debtor to the Bank to £6,000, balance due upon 1000 shares which he had been allowed to take up, and for which he had paid only £2,850, the original debt having been £10,700. Submanager debtor to amount of £500, on account of 50 shares which he had bought. Of the directors, Bibby and Rae never indebted to the Bank; Holm indebted to the Bank for an old account in connection with McCormack, for which they held securities; Shand, another director, besides being a holder of 4000 shares, indebted to the Bank on his business account; Hutchinson, the managing director, besides being holder of 200 shares, considerable debt on business account. By him, Banner said, Bank would sustain heavy loss. Said ferner: „The agreements before alluded to were executed early in 1860; did not come before the general board; Bibby, Holme und Rae heard only of them after the stoppage of the Bank; they were carried out by the management, did not come upon the minutes of the general board.“ Banner said: It would be asked, what had become of the money? „He had the full particulars of the losses, and the names of these through whom they had been sustained, but it could do no good to publish them.“ „They could not blow up these debtors without doing an injury to themselves.“ He recommended, therefore, „the avoidance of all ill feeling and recrimination … he recommended a voluntary in preference to a compulsory winding up, because by the former they would avoid publicity being given to their documents und affairs.“ Shocking und Banner one of the most respectable men in Liverpool, und so his audience too Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
!
Nach dem law it is a criminal offence to compound a felony. Banner’s arguments have been used, and with fatal effect, for many years past by many boards of railway directors, and, under cover of it, (thus to get more out of the debtors) the duped and quiescent shareholders and debenture holders have been defrauded of millions invested in those undertakings. The same sort of thing has been practised in most of the recent Bank and other failures, and under cover of it the delinquent directors, the causes of those disasters, have escaped without a scratch. The same disposition „to make things smooth“, to „hush up“ observable amongst traders in bankruptcy courts, und still more outside these courts, where merchants und traders annually mulcted of millions of money, the loss of which they are content to put up with, in order to avoid publicity. All this has a most corrupting und pernicious influence. Bankmanagers und Bankdirectors, und traders who get into the confidence of banks with view and for the purpose of swindling them, und managers und directors of other Jt Stock Cos, all know und tempted to calculate upon on this disposition of the shareholders, liquidators, und creditors to hush up. They are told that the larger their transactions the stronger will be the disposition to cloak und cover them, to avoid publicity. Times of 13 Nov. (67) says: „These unscrupulous operators upon the banks [know] that if they can but get heavily into debt to a bank, the bank, when a certain stage of peril has been reached, will not dare to allow them to drop, and that when the final crash comes they may count upon the strenuous efforts of all the sufferers, not merely to palliate their proceedings, but to uphold them. Hence, amidst all the desolation they have caused, they not only escape reproach, but are usually favoured mit complimentary expressions of confidence, and not unfrequently the consequence is that when the storm has passed, they reappear, backed, in some cases, by advantageous family settlements made in previous times, as influential merchants or directors of new enterprises.[“] |


280

23 November 1867. N. 390

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. November 1867. S. 533/534.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

London and Mediterranean Bank. Extraordinary Report of Liquidator to Shareholders.

Shareholders und Creditors of this concern in a „fix“ between shareholders und creditors of 2 other unfortunate concerns, the Continental Bank Corporation und die London, Bombay, and Mediterranean Bank. The London und Mediterranean Bank first agreed to take over and absorb the Continental Bank, and then the London und Bombay Bank agreed to take over and absorb them both. But, except as to Assets, assimilation imperfectly performed in both cases. Hence the appearance of the trio in the winding up court. Continental Bank Corporation founded Jan. 1863, 5000 shares of £100 each, subsequently increased to 10,000 shares of like amount, thus making a capital of 1 Mill. £, wholly subscribed. On the first 5000 shares £25 p. share called up, on the second 5000 shares £15 p. share. Bank had thus paid up capital of £200,000. Within 2 years, viz. by the early part of 1865, this Bank had lost the whole of its capital, and was considerably in debt besides; yet, at that moment, the directors in their Report to shareholders, with a most pretentious affectation of candour, regretted that they had sustained considerable losses, „deemed it their duty to make the shareholders acquired with the precise condition of their affairs, and to exhibit the whole losses incurred“, and then confessed that „the total loss amounted to £19,500“. It amounted [to] über £200,000. In order to meet these difficulties, the London und Mediterranean Bank was formed April, 1865, mit capital of 2 mill., in 100,000 shares of £20 each, of which it was stated in prospectus that „80,000 shares had been already subscribed“. Object of the Co. to take over the business of Continental Bk., converting its 100£ shares into £20 ones; and also to take over the banking business of Messrs. Landau et Co., of Alexandria, „and to facilitate commercial and financial transactions between this Country, Continent, and Egypt“. But statement that 80,000 shares subscribed, utterly false. The bona fide applications for the new shares only 1800 shares in number. Yet the promoters obtained a nominal quotation of the shares at a considerable premium. To obtain a settlement on the Stock Exchange, „the fictitious issue of a large number of shares“ was resorted to, in order to make up the requisite proportion of their capital, and, as a necessary adjunct to this, „the parties engaged in this scheme did not hesitate to manufacture a book, purporting to be a banker’s pass book, in order to carry out the pretence of payments of deposits on the fictitious subscription of shares.“ The report further shows that „a large sum, nearly approaching £40,000, was lost out of the assets of the Continental Bank Corporation in the purchase of its own shares [“]. Trotzdem no settlement, scheme broke down. Landau et Co. discovered that „there was no real substance in the new Bank“, and, although they had received no less than £60,000 to carry on the business, they ultimately obtained an abrogation of the agreement. That transaction mit Messrs. Landau resulted in direct loss of £22,000 to the shareholders, beyond loss of £40,000 on the purchase on of the shares in the Continental Bank, making a total loss of over £60,000 on the Landau purchase. But the transfer to the London und Mediterranean Bank of the business und liabilities of the Continental Bank had been so far carried out, that in the course of time the whole of the obligations of the Continental Bank were actually paid or turned into liabilities of the Mediterranean Bank, to the exoneration der Continental Bank, except a claim of London und County Bank, of which £30,000 und interest still undischarged. The liquidation of the Continental Bank entrusted to Maxwell, Cargill, Routh, and Cumming, all of whom had been directors; und diese gentlemen, notwithstanding the resolution to windup from 1st of May had still carried on business till 31 Aug. 1865; und zwar in such a way, that when at the latter date they actually handed over the Continental Bk. Estate to the Mediterranean Bank, it was £64,000 [worse] than on 1st May, when it ought to have been handed over. But, inasmuch as the liquidators of the Continental Bk. were also the liquidators of the Mediterranean Bk., and the shareholders in both Cos. were nobodies, that small addition to their liabilities was of no account. Bank N. 2 having thus failed the purpose of raising new capital, the promoters looked out for some Co. with the requisite Capital already raised with which they might amalgamate. This they found in „London and Bombay Bank and General Financial and Insurance Agency Corporation. Limited“, which had „paid up Capital of 150,000£ nearly untouched“. This bank fought at first rather shy of their would-be partners, but in the end consented to „take over“ the business of the Mediterranean Bank und on Sept. 7, 1865 agreement executed between the 2 Banks for that purpose. Between Sept. 1865 und April, 1866, the whole of the Capital of the London and Bombay Bank applied in meeting the pressing demands of the Continental Bk., or of the London and Mediterranean Bank, in respect of the original obligations of the Continental Bank. This process of pumping commenced „immediately after the agreement of 7. Sept“. [„]The same cause that brought about the destruction of the Mediterranean – the obligations of the Continental Bank, accumulated by the mismanagement of its liquidation, soon brought about the failure of the London and Bombay Bank, which went into liquidation July, 1866.“|

281

The European Bank (Lim.) Meeting of Shareholders 19 Nov. (67) Appointment of Committee of Investigation.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. November 1867. S. 534/535.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bk. o. Europe stopped payment 19 May, ’66. It was first known, for brief period, als „Union Bank of England and France“. Its prospectus appeared November 1862, and it proposed to raise a capital of 1 Mill. £ in 10,000 shares of 100£ each, in order to meet „the growing wants“ of the extended trade between England und France expected to arise out of the commercial treaty with France. Schon its birth shows extraordinary disposition to appropriate or „take over“ other people’s businesses instead of minding its own, by „taking over“ an existing business which had been established for several months. After carrying on business mit moderate success for about 7 months, this Union Bk. o. E. and F. contemplated another union, found in the „English, Belgian, and Netherlands Bank“ a mate in every way worthy of its alliance. This latter lady was somewhat younger than the intended spouse, its prospectus having only appeared in March 1863. It was first the „English and Belgian Bank“ only, but agreed to embrace the Netherlands also; with Capital of 1 Mill. £, in 20,000 shares of £50 each. Before it had organised commencement of its business, invited to alliance mit der Union Bank, Sept. 1863 definitively amalgamated. Henceforth the 2 wedded Cos took the title of European Bank, mit united Capital of £2,000,000, in 40,000 shares of 50£ each, of which 20,000 had been subscribed, £10 p. share paid upon them, zusammen £200,000. The amalgamated Co. had commenced business in October 1863 und in May 1864 they concluded an arrangement for the amalgamation with them of the „English and Irish Bank“. This Bk. established in Nov. 1862, Capital 2 Mill. £, in 20,000 shares of £100 each, of which 7,282 shares had been subscribed. Board composed of Sir Robert Walter Carden , chairman, Alderman Rose, then Lord Mayor, and a number of other city men of commercial repute. Had for some time some success, very moderate too. Concern now „European Bank“, nominal capital of 2 Mill. £, of which 34,443 shares subscribed, and £10 p. share paid thereon, making paid up capital of £344,420. Now amalgamation arranged mit London, Birmingham, and South Staffordshire Bank – a Co. started in Dec. 1862 mit Capital of 1 Mill. £, in shares of £100 each, had commenced business in Cheapside in early part of 1863 mit paid up capital of £120,000. Result of this last operation: Nominal Capital of the European raised to 42,966 shares, 15£ p. share paid, paid up Capital of £644,490. Accounts of June 30, 1865 show that the Bk. was then doing a considerable business, deposits über £780,000 und bills payable über £844,000. On 31 Dec. 1865 balance sheet showed deposits to £1,138,319 und bills payable £974,520. In June 1865 dividend paid 5%, in December ’65 3%, zusammen 8% p.a. und Reserve of £45,000. Shares, nevertheless, fell to heavy discount in 1866, und in Folge von call of £5 per share still lower; 19th May 1866 Bank stopped payment. Now what has become of the large paid up Capital of the Co. and its Reservefund? Mr.  Conrybeare Conybeare at the meeting of 19 Nov. ’67 said: „the manner in which this Bank had been conducted, was a disgrace to the mercantile community.“ Liquidation had gone on for 12 months, creditors had only yet received 5s. in £. Sir R. W. Carden , he said, one of the directors, ought to be removed from the liquidation. Mr. Kintrea (also a shareholder) said: In the last balance sheet said that the concern was paying 10%, and was in a position to pay other 10%, „but that document“, inducing many to buy shares, „one of the grossest illusions perpetrated. He, for one, desired to bring the directors to a court of justice, to compel them to repay him“. Charges against the directors, besonders the chairman und Sir R. Carden of the gravest character. Mr. Finley said that at the very last meeting of the Co. he was advised by the directors to buy more shares. The chairman of the meeting said that „he had called upon Sir R. Carden on the day before the day on which the Bk. stopped payment, and that Carden had then assured him, on the honour of a gentleman, that the Bank was perfectly sound“.

Mr. Hoskins, another shareholder said that in 1866 Charles Bye Colchester, the Chairman of the Bank, had stated that „the Bk. was in such a prosperous condition that he would recommend anyone who, as a trustee, had funds to invest, to invest them in this Bank“. On his question to Colchester what their liabilities were on Foreign Securities, he stated them to be between £70 and 80,000, whereas it now appeared that they were at the time £280,000.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 23. November 1867. S. 546/547.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert
At the meeting der shareholders (19 Nov.) chairman Potter said: Carden had told them they would have von £7 to 10£ per share of their capital returned to them. Stattdessen they were called upon for instalment of £2. 10s. to meet their liabilities, other calls would follow in quick succession. Oliver says: all the original directors of the European Bank , who were so at the time of the amalgamation, had all withdrawn, except Thompson. They had also, at different periods, got rid of their shares. The „English und Irish Bank“, when they absorbed it (June 1864) had up to that time paid no dividend but incurred losses etc. At last meeting, March 1866, Sir W. Carden presided, made highly favourable statement, dividend 6%, Reserve fund 13–14,000£. A retired colonel bought 100 shares on Carden’s Representations. Harding und Morgan, their auditors, at same meeting told, that they were doing profitable business. It was necessary to investigate the transactions with M. Lafitte et Co und namentlich mit der St. Nazaire Co. Die original proprietors der St. Nazaire Co were 8 men, seven of whom held 1 share each; und advance of £120,000 made to it before it was registered. It now appears that another Co. puts in a claim to the land assigned to the Bk. as a security for the advance in question, und die St. Nazaire Co., instead |282 of aiding the Bk. to realise that property, turned round and said they considered they were freed from all liability, since the suspension of the European Bank had led to their embarrassments. … Since it became known that a call of £2. 10s. was about to be made, a great many shares had been transferred to men of straw. There were 2 or 3 clerks in the office whose names now on the register for a large number of shares. One held 200, another 250 (a nephew to Colchester who never held a share while the Bank was a going concern, diese 250 shares). Colchester selbst (der chairman) »who held 2,467 shares, does not hold a single share nowKintrea (shareholder) says: „Colchester the high priest of the sacrifice of the Bank; was it true that for getting the advance made to the St. Nazaire Co. he obtained 600 paid up shares in that Co … During the whole time the shareholders were being propitiated by high dividends und deluded by favourable statements, they made loss after loss. There was so much rottenness und foul play going on in the management of the concern that it was questionable if a criminal court was not the proper tribunal to inquire into what had taken place.“



7 December 1867. N. 392.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 7. Dezember 1867. S. 589–591.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Incendiary fires. Blue Books of Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, published in last Session. (1867[)]

P. M. Dove, manager und actuary of the Royal Insurance Co, says in his Evidence: had in 1865–66: 3,036 fires; causes ascertained 1,732 cases, oder 57%, but in 1176 or 38% „causes unknown or unsatisfactory“, great proportion of them suspicious. Amount paid on policies, where causes satisfactorily explained, nur 24%, auf andre 61%. Many of these fires their „frightful source“ in deliberate design of warehousemen or servants, to conceal robberies perpetrated upon their employers. In Liverpool, says Dove, [„]viele solche fires durch warehousemen; when the time came to take stock, best method of getting rid of the difficulty, to fire the premises. One of those men tried, confessed his crime, sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude.“ In other case: Culprit of 4 brothers, who seem to have devoted themselves to the business of insurance and incendiarism as trade to live und thrive by. „One of the brothers has had 2 fires in 1 town; another 1 fire in another town; the third 1 fire in another town, all of which were insured in other Cos, and 4th brother had an insurance with the Royal.“

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 7. Dezember 1867. S. 591.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Bank Shares. Recent Variations in prices. Dividends.

National Provincial Bank of England announces dividend und bonus of 20% p.a. for current half year, 22% in corresponding period last year. Die London and County Bank have all the advantages of London Banks as regards obtaining deposits on the lowest terms that prevail und can avail themselves of the higher rates charged in the agricultural districts for accommodation, which, even in times as the present, rarely descend much, if at all, below the old orthodox 5% p.a., with the usual commissions.

W. Abbott in seiner Stock Exchange monthly price list, gives dividends last paid (first half year 1867) und Prices of stocks und shares. Dividends varying zwischen 43/8 und 113/8% p.a. ⦗reckoned on present prices⦘, the average return from 31 foreign and colonial banks: 7£. 16s. 3d. %. On the quotations of 1st July ’67 the Return would average about £7, 15s. 10d %, at Dec. 1 1866 average £8. 13s. %, on 2 July ’66 £8, 10s. 8d %, on Dec. 1. 1865 £7, 12s. 6d %. Shares of London und Westminster before issue of the new shares £96, now £100. Shares of London Joint Stock Bank on June 1 £46, on 1st Dec. 67 £371/2 ex the new shares, or, with 1/9 of the present premium on the new shares, at £381/2. London and County Bank shares on 1st June 61, 1st Dec. 54; Union Bank at corresponding dates £46 und £35 respectively. The variations in these 4 Banks as follows: London und Westminster advanced 41/8%, the others declined, London et County 111/2%, London Jt. Stock Bank 181/2%, Union Bank 24%. This decline in great measure due to prevailing despondency in the markets for all Joint Stock Bank undertakings. Shares have been brought to market to provide for calls in other Cos.



21 Dec. 1867. N. 394.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 21. Dezember 1867. S. 646/647.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

President’s (Andrew Johnson’s) Message on American Currency and Finance.  Zusatz von Marx.
Schließen
(Ursprüngliche Accumulation at Publick Expense.)

Sagt u.a: „It is well and publicly known that enormous frauds have been perpetrated on the Treasury, and that colossal fortunes have been made at the public expense. This species of corruption has increased, is increasing, and, if not diminished, will soon bring us into total ruin and disgrace.“ „Some of the taxes are so laid as to present irresistible temptation to evade payment. The great sums which officers may win by connivance at fraud.“ He complains that, by the present system of finance, the metallic currency, when collected, is reserved for one class of Gvt. creditors only, who, holding its bonds, receive their interest in coin from the national treasury. „Our circulation now embraces: 1) Notes of the National Banks, receivable for all dues to the Gvt., and by all its creditors, excepting in payment of interest upon its bonds and securities themselves; 2) Legal tender-notes issued by the U. St., and legally to be received as well in payment of all debts between citizens as of all Gvt. dues, excepting imposts; 3) Gold and Silver.“|

283

At the beginning of the Rebellion 200,000,000$ banknote circulation of the country; jezt circulation of National Banknotes und Legal-tender Notes $700,000,000. Compared with Gold und Silver, nach Johnson, diese $700,000,000 Notes nur werth 350,000,000$, also depreciated by 50%. He then shows that the Production of the Precious Metals in U. States von 1849 to 1867 (incl.) = $1,174,000, amount of specie coined during the same period $874,000,000. The net exports of specie (1849-’67) only $741,000,000, leaving an Excess of Production over Exports of $433,000,000. Then, taking the amount of coin in Treasury, and estimating the amount in National and other banks – in all about $160,000,000 –, and also taking into account the specie in the country prior to 1849, he says there are more than $300,000,000 not accounted for by Exportation, and therefore may yet remain in the country.



28 December 1867. N. 395.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Dezember 1867. S. 671/672.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Winding up of Joint Stock Cos. in Courts of Chancery. Scandal and Waste attending it.

About 1846 was started a Railway Project called the Warwick and Worcester Railway Co., did not succeed in raising its capital, came never to anything except being wound up in the Court of Chancery. May 1849, order made to wind it up, and it is not quite wound up yet. After nearly 19 years of protracted and costly litigation, a circular issued this month, December 1867, announcing the payment of a first and last dividend. Dieß durchaus keine Exception. Many cases, originally of the simplest character, have lasted 1/4, 1/2 oder 1 whole century. Another Joint Stock Co. – the Agriculturist Cattle Insurance Co – was also started about 1846, fell into the jaws of this insatiate Court, not yet wound up, without any nearer prospect of that most desirable end than when it first entered. Of all the tribunals of the Country, Chancery Court least adapted for winding up Joint Stock Cos. Yet, in spite of all this, und trotz experience of the utter incapacity of the Bankruptcy Courts, which were modified Courts of Chancery, to administer the simple estates of ordinary traders, the Legislature committed the far more complicated estates of Jt. St. Cos. to the Courts of Chancery. Have no officers for such administrative duties. Can only act through official liquidators und their attornies, their counsel and their witnesses, so that every step in the process of winding up is encumbered and embarrassed by the needless forms and ceremonials of the Court, and the costly array of its adjuncts, both in 19 cases out of 20, nothing but expensive, dilatory, and wasteful impediments. Public at this moment experiencing, to their heavy cost, the result of this legislative folly and judicial blundering. Cos. are being continually drawn within the vortex of the Court of Chancery, where engulphed, hopeless for either shareholders or creditors to expect a final release. These torments and delay, calls and costs, and dread of them, verlängern our present financial paralysis. London, Chatham und Dover Railway Beispiel of extent to which the assets are likely to be squandered in actions at law and suits in equity, in preposterous conflicts on technical grounds between the various opposing parties. As City Editor in Times remarks: „every writer on the subject correctly points to the trade which a certain set of accountants and attorneys are enjoying upon the general ruin.“ The liquidators are encouraged to place themselves, and their clients, and the estate, in the hands of the attornies. The attornies very naturally relieve themselves from all responsibility by „taking the opinion of counsel“, and counsel, quite as naturally, are continually advising bills and petitions and motions and applications to the Court which, if not wholly unnecessary, might be avoided. In this way liquidators are constantly occupied in embroiling their clients in litigious proceedings, and involving the estate in the cost of it. Year after year the various Chambers of Commerce have been clamouring for an Act to confer upon the creditors and their official nominee the right and the power to administer themselves the estates of their bankrupt debtors, but their object always frustrated and postponed. There is a „lawyer power“ in Parliament which is wholly inimical to the „commercial influence“ there. Hence the difficulties in obtaining either a bankrupt law or Jt. St. Co. Law at all adapted to mercantile requirements.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Dezember 1867. S. 674/675.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Joint Stock Co. Law. Misrepresentation in Prospectus. Sir Edmund Lacon’s Case.

„Great Yarmouth Royal Hotel Co.“ (Lim.) promoted und got up by a certain Hawes, Febr. 1865, for the purchase, „upon very advantageous terms“ of most valuable properties on the Esplanade at Great Yarmouth, including the „Royal Hotel which for many years had been so well conducted by Mrs. Sizeland“. Capital £25,000 in 2,500 shares of £10 each; defendant named in the prospectus as one of the directors. Hawes was to receive £2,500 for promotion money, out of which, by arrangement mit den directors, he was to pay the first directors’ qualification in the shape of 10 fully paidup shares each, the qualification of the subsequent directors being stated in the articles at 30 shares. It was not „a bubble“. There was a good and bona fide business, but not successful; on 24 Febr. 1866 a winding up order was made. Present proceedings originated in Bill filed by Rev. Mr. Henderson, against Sir. E. Lacon et the other directors, to have his name removed from the list of contributories, and his allotment and deposit money repaid to him, on ground of misrepresentation in prospect, and through the subsequent stages of the Co’s career. Case came before Vice Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood. Wood decided for the plaintiff against Lacon et other directors.

[»]The prospectus represented that the directors had „concluded an agreement“ for the purchase of the properties; that the Co. would enter into full possession of the hotel „early in the ensuing spring“; that the house, „prior to the ensuing season“, would be remodeled and enlarged; and that „the directors and their friends had subscribed a large portion of the capital“, and offered the remaining shares to the public.« Henderson darauf applied for 50 shares, on 15 March 1865 |284 allotted to him. But May 1865, from circumstances which came to his knowledge, Henderson began to doubt the bona fides and prospectus of the Co.; and having found upon inquiry that only 762 shares had been allotted and only about 430 more agreed to be taken; that the directors were not duly qualified, and that such shares as had been taken had not been subscribed for by the directors and their friends, he wrote, July 1865, for return of his allotment und deposit money, which was refused. On 25 July (65), therefore, he had failed filed this bill. It appeared by the evidence that „the agreement for purchase“, so far from having been „concluded“ in February, was not concluded until August, and that the business of the Co in the hotel did not commence until July. As to the other statements, Wood, the Vice Chancellor, said it was clear that there had been a misrepresentation in the prospectus as to the „directors and their friends having subscribed a large portion of the capital“. In fact, at the time when the plaintiff made his application no one of the directors had subscribed for shares in any sense of the word, and the friends of the directors, i.e. their business connections, consisted of no more than one firm at Norwich. Wood said „it surprised him that gentlemen of position should consent to authorise what in their private affairs they never would have consented to permit – namely, that their names should be used in this way to carry out a speculation of this kind … it was their plain duty when, on 15 March, they heard of the plaintiff’s application, to have returned to him his proposal, which they must have known had been made upon misrepresentation.“

Mercantile men frequently permit themselves to do, or participate in the doing of things, in their corporate capacity, which they would shrink from in their individual or personal capacity. This is the foulest blot, und the most pernicious und fatal drawback upon the progress and success of Joint Stock Enterprise in this country.

Aus:
The Money Market Review, 28. Dezember 1867. S. 677.
Schließen
Icon dass Zitate symbolisiert

Limited Liability. Joint Stock Cos. Parliamentary Return. (66’–67’) (1 June ’66 to 31 May 67)

Danach: von June 1, 1866 to May 31, 1867 (12 months since Panic ’66): England registered as limited 469, unlimited 5, 474 Cos, dazu 6, which existed prior to passing of Act of 1862, but subsequently registered under the Act as Limited. Nominal Capital about: £35,000,00 £35,000,000.

Scotland: limited Cos. registered 22, nominal Capital £897,800; Ireland 22, nominal Capital £400,400, thus making the total number of the Cos. registered under limited liability in U. Kingdom 524. Dazu 13 Cos. for working mines within jurisdiction of the Stannaries’ Court, nominal Capital of £221,000.

There is no longer any doubt that the principle of combination applied to the development of industrial wealth is far more powerful in its influence upon the progress of nations than that of mere individual enterprise. But, when exercised without any legitimate restraint, may be used for the worst of purposes. Under limited liability the nation has, during the last few years, been intoxicated with visions of rapidly acquired wealth. The eagerness, with which a number of speculative persons have sought to enrich themselves at the cost of others has carried with it the seeds of self-destruction, which only required time to develop their fatal results.|


285

Register Money Market Review Jahrgänge 1866 und 1867

1) Banking et Currency.

  • Bank Act of ’44. p. 189, 194, 195, 198. (Bankrate of 10%) (200. 213–14. 216.[)] „Debats“ on the Act. (244 224) 244. Expansive Clause (247–8) 249. Profits of Panic to Bk.o.E. 216. Govt Debt to Bank o. Engld. a legalised Fraud. (198), (199)
  • Economy of Banknotes (191) Separation of Acceptances from Deposits (247) Abuse and Use of Bank Deposits (216, 217)
  • Bill brokering et Money dealing (252) Limited Liability applied to Banking (224, 225) Rate of Interest (L. Levi) (212–13) Clearing Houses for Banking. 209, 210, 263–4. Demand for Money and Demand for Capital (203)
  • Influence of Weather on Money Market. (230)
  • Commercial Credit and Commercial Debt Insurance (220, 221) Bills of Lading (Schwindel) (241, 242)
  • Fall in Gold, Rise in Prices of Commodities (276)
  • Joint-Stock Banks. London und Westminster. Liabilities und Securities (265)

2) Crisis of 1866. 
Schließen

  • A) Bank o. England und Act of 44.
    • Reserve of B.o.E. (187) Act Suspension (187, 188) Panic and its Remedy (188) B.o.E. und London Bankers in the Panic (191–2) Times on the Panic (189) Clarendon on the Panic (192)
    • Reduction Bankrate to 8% (Aug. 66) (210–11) to 41/2%. (27 Sept. ’66) (217) Watkin’s Motion, 31 July 66. (203–208) Count out (208) Ministerial Opposition (208–9)
  • B.) Theory of Panic.
    • p. 195, 196, 236, 238–40, 266–7, 267, 278. Glasgow Chamber of Commerce on Banking (Aug. ’66) (p. 210.) Manchester Chamber of Commerce Dec. ’66 (p. 243) Rouen und Liverpool Chambers of Commerce (p. 276, 277)
  • C) Securities (Investments) und Panic:
    • Losses. (193) Pressure and Securities (197)
    • Investor Losses from „Bear“ Frights (190) Bears (197, 198, 199) Bears: Leeman’s Bill (254) Stockexchange 256, 263.
    • Stockmarkets: Week ending May 19, ’66 (190) Week ending 26. May ’66 (193) Losses week ending 29 Sept. ’66 (218, 219)
    • Shares and Dividends (1867) (282) Panic about calls (’67 April.) (263)
    • Foreign Loans and Panic (229) Russian Loan. Nov. ’66 (234–5) Colonial Loans (251)
  • D) Joint Stock Banking und other Cos. Schwindel seit 1865 etc. (respective seit 62).
    • Prospectus und Articles: „Russian Iron Works[“] (lim.) (197) Promoting und Financing. Bernard Salomon Bernard (199, 200) „Humber Iron Works“ (E. Watkin) (126 261–63) City Offices Co. (264) Smith, Knight et Co (lim.) [(]p. 277) Misrepresentation (211) Estates Investments Co (234) Great Yarmouth Railway Hotel Co. (283, 4)
    • Bankrupt Private Concerns converted into Limited Liability Cos. Losses by Shares in Liquidation (217, 218) Directors (194, 195) (Fees 233–4) 254. Railway Dilemma Directors (261) Directors in H. o. Commons (263) Directors und Gellivara Co. (265) Venial Offences und Scapegoats (252)|
    • 286
    • Joint Stock Financing (253)
    • Ditto Management (275, 276) Shares paid to Vendor (276)
    • Increase and Employment of Capital (212)
    • Limited Liability Cos formed since 1865 (275) since May 1866 – about May 67 (284)
    • Drain of Capital for new investments (July ’66). (201)
    • Credit Mobilier of Paris (270 273) Credit Foncier of England (273 270)
    • Joint Stock Banks Transfer of Bank of London to Consolidated Bank (192) Failure of Consolidated Bk. (196)
    • Asiatic Bk. Co et. (lim.) (191)
    • English Joint Stock Bk. (lim) Disclosures (219, 220); ditto Scandals (226, 227)
    • Agra and Masterman (215) Joint Stock Discount Co. 232. (Wilkinson) (250–51)
    • Overend et Gurney (224, 225, 229, 233. (Commercial Morality) 235, 237–38, 242, 243–4) Evidence of J. H. Gurney (248) 250, 251, 253, 254, 255, 258, 259, 260. Directors dieses swindling Concern 
      Schließen
      (263) Commercial Morality, 263. H. o. Lords 270, 271, 272–3
    • Barned’s Bank (245–46, 265–6, 267.)
    • Leeds Banking Co. Conviction of Greenland (253–54) His pardon (267–9)
    • Royal Bank of Liverpool (277, 279)
    • London et Mediterranean Bank (280)
    • European Bk. (281, 282)
  • E.) Railways.
    • Dont pay. (191) Debentures (211, 212) North British (Hudson) (230, 231) (261) Great Eastern (231) Cardigan et Carmarthen (232) Difficulties (232) Lloyd’s Bonds (241) Act of 1866 (244) Consolidation (251–2) London Chatham und Dover (253, 255) Zusammensetzung des Investigation Cosmittees Committees (255)
    • South Eastern Directors (257) Years’ (June ’67) Fall of Railway Property (265)|
    287
  • F) Plethora of Money.
    • How to be Employed? (230) Plethora. (255)
  • G.) Limited Liability Act. of 1862
    • (p. 190, 191)
    • Gerichtssporteln. Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (255, 256) Liquidators (263) New Act (Amending) of 1867 (270, 270–1, 272) Winding up in Chancery Courts (283)
    • Large uncalled capital in limited liability Cos (232, 254, 263)
    • English Capacity und Blundering (214)

3) Board of Trade Returns.

  • Week ending June 2, ’66 (196) Their Incompleteness (Week ending Nov. ’66 etc (257) Food Supply Nov. ’66. (232)

4) Cotton Trade.

  • Sept. 66 (215) Dec. ’66 (236) Jan. ’67 Circulars (246) Past and Present of Cotton Market Jan. ’67 (248–9)

5) India.

  • Indian Banks and Banking (221–24) Gain to India by Cotton Famine (227–28)

6) U. States.

  • American Exchanges and Grain Trade (June ’66) (196, 197) U. States Trade (July ’66) (p. 197) American Money Matters (202) U. States Bonds (214, 215) American Railways (228–9) American Currency et Finance (282–3) What is a Five-Twenty Bond? (193) Annual Circular of American Commercial Agency (194)

7) Miscellaneous.

  • Insurance and Incendiarism (p. 211. 278–9. 282)
  • Public Debt of Russia (Michell) (274, 275)
  • Goldmines of Victoria (Kitto) (274)
  • Ebbw Co. (Industrial, und Territorial Magnate) (237)
  • Conservative Land Society (247) National Freehold Land Society (253)

Inhalt:

  • London. 1868.
  • 1866 „The Economist“ (Jahrgang 1866) vol. XXIV.
  • The Social Economist, 1. Oktober 1868
  • „The Economist“ (Jahrgang 1866) (Fortsetzung)
  • Jahrgang 1867.
  • Register der obigen Auszüge aus dem Economist für 1866 und 1867.
  • The „Money Market Review“. Jahrgang 1866.
  • The Money Market Review. Jahrgang 1867.
  • Register Money Market Review Jahrgänge 1866 und 1867