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diff --git a/11774-0.txt b/11774-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5766a16 --- /dev/null +++ b/11774-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3489 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11774 *** + +INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +BY + +HARTLEY WITHERS + + + + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_. + +OUR MONEY AND THE STATE, +SECOND IMPRESSION. 3s. net. + +STOCKS AND SHARES. FIFTH IMPRESSION. +6s. net. + +MONEY CHANGING: an Introduction to +Foreign Exchange, +THIRD EDITION. 6s. net. + +THE MEANING OF MONEY. +FIFTEENTH IMPRESSION. 6s. net. + +POVERTY AND WASTE. 6s. net. + +WAR AND LOMBARD STREET. +THIRD EDITION. 3s. 6d. net. + +INTERNATIONAL FINANCE. 6s, net. + + + + +INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +BY + +HARTLEY WITHERS + + + "While man cannot live by bread alone. + he cannot go on living, even a good life + if he really falls short of bread." + +PROF. J.L. MYERS. + + + + + _First Edition_ _May_, 1916. + _Reprinted_ _June_, 1918. + + + + +PREFACE + +Responsibility for the appearance of this book--but not for its +contents--lies with the Council for the Study of International +Relations, which asked me to write one "explaining what the City really +does, why it is the centre of the world's Money Market," etc. In trying +to do so, I had to go over a good deal of ground that I had covered in +earlier efforts to throw light on the machinery of money and the Stock +Exchange; and the task was done amid many distractions, for which +readers must make as kindly allowance as they can. + + HARTLEY WITHERS. + + 6, LINDEN GARDENS, W. + _March_, 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +CAPITAL AND ITS REWARD + +Finance the machinery of money-dealing--Lenders and borrowers--Capital +and its claim to reward--Stored-up work--Inherited wealth--The reward of +services--Questionable services--Charles the Second's dukedoms--Modern +equivalents--Workers and Savers + + +CHAPTER II + +BANKING MACHINERY + +Money at a bank--Bills of exchange--Finance and industry--Supremacy of +bill on London--London's freedom--The Bank of England--The great joint +stock banks--The discount market--Bills and trade + + +CHAPTER III + +INVESTMENTS AND SECURITIES + +Stock Exchange securities--Government and municipal loans--Machinery of +loan issue--Underwriting--The Prospectus--Sinking fund--Bonds and +coupons--Registered stocks--Companies' securities--Stock Exchange +dealings + + +CHAPTER IV + +FINANCE AND TRADE + +Why money goes abroad--Trade before finance--Prejudice in favour of home +investments--Prejudice against them--The reaction--Mexico and +Brazil--Neutral moneylenders and the war--Goods and services lent and +borrowed--The trade balance + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +International finance and trade--Opening up the world--Exchange of +products--Finance as peacemaker--Popular delusions concerning +financiers--Financiers and the present war--The cases of Egypt and the +Transvaal--Diplomacy and finance + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE EVILS OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +Anti-Semitic prejudice--The story of the Honduras loans--The problem to +be faced by issuing houses--Their moral obligations, responsibilities, +and difficulties--Bad finance and big profits--The public's +responsibility + + +CHAPTER VII + +NATIONALISM AND FINANCE + +Dangers of over-specialization--Analogy between State and +individual--Versatility of the savage--Specialization and +peace--Specialization and war--Should the export of capital be +regulated? + + +CHAPTER VIII + +REMEDIES AND REGULATIONS + +Regulation of issues by Stock Exchange Committee--Danger arising +therefrom--Difficulty of controlling capital--Best remedy is keener +appreciation by issuing houses, borrowers, and investors of evils of bad +finance--Candour in prospectuses--War as financial schoolmaster--War as +destroyer of capital--War as stimulator of productive activity + +INDEX + + + + +INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +CAPITAL AND ITS REWARD + +Finance, in the sense in which it will be used in this book, means the +machinery of money dealing. That is, the machinery by which money which +you and I save is put together and lent out to people who want to borrow +it. Finance becomes international when our money is lent to borrowers in +other countries, or when people in England, who want to start an +enterprise, get some or all of the money that they need, in order to do +so, from lenders oversea. The biggest borrowers of money, in most +countries, are the Governments, and so international finance is largely +concerned with lending by the citizens of one country to the Governments +of others, for the purpose of developing their wealth, building +railways and harbours or otherwise increasing their power to produce. + +Money thus saved and lent is capital. So finance is the machinery that +handles capital, collects it from those who save it and lends it to +those who want to use it and will pay a price for the loan of it. This +price is called the rate of interest, or profit. The borrower offers +this price because he hopes to be able, after paying it, to benefit +himself out of what he is going to make or grow or get with its help, or +if it is a Government because it hopes to improve the country's wealth +by its use. Sometimes borrowers want money because they have been +spending more than they have been getting, and try to tide over a +difficulty by paying one set of creditors with the help of another, +instead of cutting down their spending. This path, if followed far +enough, leads to bankruptcy for the borrower and loss to the lender. + +If no price were offered for capital, we should none of us save, or if +we saved we should not risk our money by lending it, but hide it in a +hole, or lock it up in a strong room, and so there could be no new +industry. + +Since capital thus seems to be the subject-matter of finance and it is +the object of this book to make plain what finance does, and how, it +will be better to begin with clear understanding of the function of +capital. All the more because capital is nowadays the object of a good +deal of abuse, which it only deserves when it is misused. When it is +misused, let us abuse it as heartily as we like, and take any possible +measures to punish it. But let us recognize that capital, when well and +fairly used, is far from being a sinister and suspicious weapon in the +hands of those who have somehow managed to seize it; but is in fact so +necessary to all kinds of industry, that those who have amassed it, and +placed it at the disposal of industry render a service to society +without which society could not be kept alive. + +For capital, as has been said, is money saved and lent to, or employed +in, industry. By being lent to, or employed in, industry it earns its +rate of interest or profit. There are nowadays many wise and earnest +people who think that this interest or profit taken by capital is not +earned at all but is wrung out of the workers by a process of extortion. +If this view is correct then all finance, international and other, is +organized robbery, and instead of writing and reading books about it, we +ought to be putting financiers into prison and making a bonfire of their +bonds and shares and stock certificates. But, with all deference to +those who hold this view, it is based on a complete misapprehension of +the nature and origin of capital. + +Capital has been described above as money put to certain purposes. This +was done for the sake of clearness and because this definition fits in +with the facts as they usually happen in these days. Economists define +capital as wealth reserved for production, and we must always remember +that money is only a claim for, or a right to, a certain amount of goods +or a certain amount of other people's work. Money is only a title to +wealth, because if I have a sovereign or a one-pound note in my pocket, +I thereby have the power of buying a pound's worth of goods or of +hiring a doctor to cure me or a parson to bury me or anybody else to do +anything that I want, up to the buying power of that sovereign. This is +the power that money carries with it. When the owner of this power, +instead of exercising it in providing himself with luxuries or +amusements, uses it by lending it to someone who wants to build a +factory, and employ workers, then, because the owner of the money +receives his rate of interest he is said to be exploiting labour, +because, so it is alleged, the workers work and he, the capitalist, sits +in idleness and lives on their labour. + +And so, in fact, he does. But we have not yet found out how he got the +money that he lent. That money can only have been got by work done or +services rendered, for which other people were ready to pay. Capital, +looked at from this point of view, is simply stored up work, and +entitled to its reward just as much as the work done yesterday. The +capitalist lives on the work of others, but he can only do so because he +has wrought himself in days gone by or because someone else has wrought +and handed on to him the fruits of his labour. Let us take the case of +a shopkeeper who has saved a hundred pounds. This is his pay for work +done and risk taken (that the goods which he buys may not appeal to his +customers) during the years in which he has saved it. He might spend his +hundred pounds on a motor cycle and a side-car, or on furniture, or a +piano, and nobody would deny his right to do so. On the contrary he +would probably be applauded for giving employment to makers of the +articles that he bought. Instead of thus consuming the fruit of his work +on his own amusement, and the embellishment of his home, he prefers to +make provision for his old age. He invests his hundred pounds in the 5 +per cent. debenture stock of a company being formed to extend a boot +factory. Thereby he gives employment to the people who build the +extension and provide the machinery, and thereafter to the men and women +who work in the factory, and moreover he is helping to supply other +people with boots. He sets people to work to supply other people's wants +instead of his own, and he receives as the price, of his service five +pounds a year. But it is his work, that he did in the years in which he +was saving, that is earning him this reward. + +An interesting book has lately appeared in America, called "Income," in +which the writer, Dr. Scott Nearing, of the University of Pennsylvania, +draws a very sharp distinction between service income and property +income, implying, if I read him aright, that property income is an +unjust extortion. This is how he states his case:--[1] + + "The individual whose effort creates values for which + society pays receives service income. His reward is a reward + for his personality, his time, his strength. Railroad + president and roadmender devote themselves to activities + which satisfy the wants of their fellows. Their service is + direct. In return for their hours of time and their calories + of energy, they receive a share of the product which they + have helped to produce. + + "The individual who receives a return because of his + property ownership, receives a property income. This man has + a title deed to a piece of unimproved land lying in the + centre of a newly developing town. A storekeeper offers him + a thousand dollars a year for the privilege of placing a + store on the land. The owner of the land need make no + exertion. He simply holds his title. Here a man has labored + for twenty years and saved ten thousand dollars by denying + himself the necessaries of life. He invests the money in + railroad bonds, and someone insists he thereby serves + society. In one sense he does serve. In another, and a + larger sense, he expects the products of his past service + (the twenty years of labor), to yield him an income. From + the day when he makes his investment he need never lift a + finger to serve his fellows. Because he has the investment, + he has income. The same would hold true if the ten thousand + dollars had been left him by his father or given to him by + his uncle.... The fact of possession is sufficient to yield + him an income." + +Now, in all these cases of property income which Dr. Nearing seems to +regard as examples of income received in return for no effort, there +must have been an effort once, on the part of somebody, which put the +maker of it in possession of the property which now yields an income to +himself, or those to whom he has left or given it. First there is the +case of the man who has a title deed to a piece of land. How did he get +it? Either he was a pioneer who came and cleared it and settled on it, +or he had worked and saved and with the product of his work had bought +this piece of land, or he had inherited it from the man who had cleared +or bought the land. The ownership of the land implies work and saving +and so is entitled to its reward. Then there is the case of the man who +has saved ten thousand dollars by labouring for twenty years and denying +himself the necessaries of life. Dr. Nearing admits that this man has +worked in order to get his dollars; he even goes so far as to add that +he had denied himself the necessaries of life in order to save. +Incidentally one may wonder how a man who has denied himself the +necessaries of life for twenty years can be alive at the end of them. +This man has worked for his dollars, and, instead of spending them on +immediate enjoyment, lends them to people who are building a railway, +and so is quickening and cheapening intercourse and trade. Dr. Nearing +seems to admit grudgingly that in a sense he thereby renders a service, +but he complains because his imaginary investor expects without further +exertion to get an income from the product of his past service. If he +could not get an income from it, why should he save? And if he and +millions of others did not save how could railways or factories be +built? And if there were no railways or factories how could workers find +employment? + +If every capitalist only got income from the product of his own work in +the past, which he had spent, as in this case, on developing industry, +his claim to a return on it would hardly need stating. He would have +saved his ten thousand dollars or two thousand pounds, and instead of +spending it on two thousand pounds' worth of amusement or pleasure for +himself he would have preferred to put it at the disposal of those who +are in need of capital for industry and promise to pay him 5 per cent. +or £100 a year for the use of it. By so doing he increases the demand +for labour, not momentarily as he would have done if he had spent his +money on goods and services immediately consumed, but for all time, as +long as the railway that he helps to build is running and earning an +income by rendering services. He is a benefactor to humanity as long as +his capital is invested in a really useful enterprise, and especially to +the workers who cannot get work unless the organizers of industry are +supplied with plenty of cheap capital. In fact, the more plentiful and +cheap is capital, the keener will be the demand for the labour of the +workers. + +But when Dr. Nearing points out that the income of the ten thousand +dollars would be equally secure if the owner of them had them left him +by his father or given him by his uncle, then at last he smites capital +on a weak point in its armour. There, is, without question, much to be +said for the view that it is unfair that a man who has worked and saved +should thereby be able to hand over to his son or nephew, who has never +worked or saved, this right to an income which is derived from work done +by somebody else. It seems unfair to all of us, who were not blessed +with equally industrious and provident fathers and uncles, and it is +often bad for the man who gets the income as a reward for no effort of +his own, because it gives him a false start in life and sometimes tends +to make him a futile waster, who can only justify his existence and his +command over other people's work, by pointing to the efforts of his +deceased sire or uncle. Further, unless he is very lucky, he is likely +to grow up with the notion that, just because he has been left or given +a certain income, he is somehow a superior person, and that it is part +of the scheme of the universe that others should work for his benefit, +and that any attempt on the part of other people to get a larger share, +at his expense, of the good things of the earth is an attempt at +robbery. He is, by being born to a competence, out of touch with the law +of nature, which says that all living things must work for their living, +or die, and his whole point of view is likely to be warped and narrowed +by his unfortunate good fortune. + +These evils that spring from hereditary property are obvious. But it may +be questioned whether they outweigh the advantages that arise from it. +The desire to possess is a strong stimulus to activity in production, +because possession is the mark of success in it, and all healthy-minded +men like to feel that they have succeeded; and almost equally strong is +the desire to hand on to children or heirs the possessions that the +worker's energy has got for him. In fact it may almost be said that in +most men's minds the motive of possession implies that of being able to +hand on; they would not feel that they owned property which they were +bound to surrender to the State at their deaths. If and when society is +ever so organized that it can produce what it needs without spurring the +citizen to work with the inducement supplied by possession, and the +power to hand on property, then it may be possible to abolish the +inequities that hereditary property carries with it. As things are at +present arranged it seems that we are bound to put up with them if the +community is to be fed and kept alive. At least we can console ourselves +with the thought that property does not come into existence by magic. +Except in the case of the owners of land who may be enriched without any +effort by the discovery of minerals or by the growth of a city, capital +can only have been created by services rendered; and even in the case of +owners of land, they, and those from whom they derived it, must have +done something in order to get the land. + +It is, of course, quite possible that the something which was done was a +service which would not now be looked on as meriting reward. In the +medieval days mailclad robbers used to get (quite honestly and rightly +according to the notions then current) large grants of land because they +had ridden by the side of their feudal chiefs when they went on +marauding forays. In later times, as in the days of our Merry Monarch, +attractive ladies were able to found ducal families by placing their +charms at the service of a royal debauchee. But the rewards of the +freebooters have in almost all cases long ago passed into the hands of +those who purchased them with the proceeds of effort with some approach +to economic justification; and though some of Charles the Second's +dukedoms are still extant, it will hardly be contended that it is +possible to trace the origin of everybody's property and confiscate any +that cannot show a reasonable title, granted for some true economic +service. + +What we can do, and ought to do, if economic progress is to move along +right lines, is to try to make sure that we are not, in these days of +alleged enlightenment, committing out of mere stupidity and +thoughtlessness, the crime which Charles the Second perpetrated for his +own amusement. He gave large tracts of England to his mistresses because +they pleased his roving fancy. Now the power to dispense wealth has +passed into the hands of the people, who buy the goods and services +produced, and so decide what goods and services will find a market, and +so will enrich their producers. Are we making much better use of it? On +the whole, much better; but we still make far too many mistakes. The +people to whom nowadays we give big fortunes, though they include a +large number of organizers of useful industry, also number within their +ranks a crowd of hangers on such as bookmakers, sharepushers, and +vendors of patent pills or bad stuff to read. These folk, and others, +live on our vices and stupidities, and it is our fault that they can do +so. Because a large section of the public likes to gamble away its money +on the Stock Exchange, substantial fortunes have been founded by those +who have provided the public with this means of amusement. Because the +public likes to be persuaded by the clamour of cheapjack advertisement +that its inside wants certain medicines, and that these medicines are +worth buying at a price that makes the vendor a millionaire, there he is +with his million. Some people say that he has swindled the public. The +public has swindled itself by allowing him to foist stuff down its +throat on terms which give him, and his heirs and assigns after him, all +the control over the work and wealth of the world that is implied by the +possession of a million. When we buy rubbish we do not only waste our +money to our own harm, but, under the conditions of modern society, we +put the sellers of rubbish in command of the world, as far as the money +power commands it, which is a good deal further than is pleasing. + +Hence it is that when some of those who question the right of capital to +its reward, do so on the ground that capital is often acquired by +questionable means, they are barking up the wrong tree. Capital can only +be acquired by selling something to you and me. If you and I had more +sense in the matter of what we buy, capital could not be acquired by +questionable means. By our greed and wastefulness we give fortunes to +bookmakers, market-riggers and money-lenders. By our preference for +"brilliant" investments, with a high rate of interest and bad security, +we invite the floating of rotten companies and waterlogged loans. By our +readiness to be deafened by the clamour of the advertiser into buying +things that we do not want, we hand industry over to the hands of the +loudest shouter, and by our half-educated laziness in our selection of +what we read and of the entertainments that we frequent, we open the way +to opulence through the debauching of our taste and opinions. It is our +fault and ours only. As soon as we have learnt and resolved to buy and +enjoy only what is worth having, the sellers of rubbish may put up their +shutters and burn their wares. + +Capital, then, is stored up work, work that has been paid for by +society. Those who did the work and took its reward, turned the proceeds +of it into making something more instead of into pleasure and +gratification for themselves. By a striking metaphor capital is often +described as the seed corn of industry. Seed corn is the grain that the +farmer, instead of making it into bread for his own table, or selling +it to turn it into picture-palace tickets, or beer, or other forms of +short-lived comfort, keeps to sow in the earth so that he may reap his +harvest next year. If the whole world's crop were eaten, there would be +no seed corn and no harvest. So it is with industry. If its whole +product were turned into goods for immediate consumption, there could be +no further development of industry, and no maintenance of its existing +plant, which would soon wear out and perish. The man who spends less +than he earns and puts his margin into industry, keeps industry alive. + +From the point of view of the worker--by whom I mean the man who has +little or no capital of his own, and has only, or chiefly, his skill, of +head or of hand, to earn his living with--those who are prepared to save +and put capital at the disposal of industry ought to be given every +possible encouragement to do so. For since capital is essential to +industry, all those who want to earn a living in the workshops or in the +countinghouse, or in the manager's office, will most of all, if they are +well advised, want to see as much capital saved as possible. The more +there is of it, the more demand there will be for the brains and muscles +of the workers, and the better the bargain these latter will be able to +make for the use of their brains and muscles. If capital is so scarce +and timid that it can only be tempted by the offer of high rates for its +use, organizers of industry will think twice about expanding works or +opening new ones, and there will be a check to the demand for workers. +If so many people are saving that capital is a drug in the market, +anyone who has an enterprise in his head will put it in hand, and +workers will be wanted, first for construction then for operation. + +It is to the interest of workers that there should be as many +capitalists as possible offering as much capital as possible to +industry, so that industry shall be in a state of chronic glut of +capital and scarcity of workers. Roughly, it is true that the product of +industry is divided between the workers who carry it on, and the savers +who, out of the product of past work, have built the workshop, put in +the plant and advanced the money to pay the workers until the new +product is marketed. The workers and the savers are at once partners and +rivals. They are partners because one cannot do without the other; +rivals because they compete continually concerning their share of the +profit realized. If the workers are to succeed in this competition and +secure for themselves an ever-increasing share of the profit of +industry--and from the point of view of humanity, civilization, +nationality, and common sense it is most desirable that this should be +so--then this is most likely to happen if the savers are so numerous +that they will be weak in bargaining and unable to stand out against the +demands of the workers. If there were innumerable millions of workers +and only one saver with money enough to start one factory, the one saver +would be able to name his own terms in arranging his wages bill, and the +salaries of his managers and clerks. If the wind were on the other +cheek, and a crowd of capitalists with countless millions of money were +eager to set the wheels of industry going, and could not find enough +workers to man and organize and manage their workshops, then the workers +would have the whip hand. To bring this state of things about it would +seem to be good policy not to damn the capitalist with bell and with +book and frighten him till he is so scarce that he is master of the +situation, but to give him every encouragement to save his money and put +it into industry. For the more plentiful he is, the stronger is the +position of the workers. + +In fact the saver is so essential that it is nowadays fashionable to +contend that the saving business ought not to be left to the whims of +private individuals, but should be carried out by the State in the +public interest; and there are some innocent folk who imagine that, if +this were done, the fee that is now paid to the saver for the use of the +capital that he has saved, would somehow or other be avoided. In fact +the Government would have to tax the community to produce the capital +required. Capital would be still, as before, the proceeds of work done. +And the result would be that the taxpayers as a whole would have to pay +for capital by providing it. This might be a more equitable arrangement, +but as capital can only be produced by work, the taxpayers would have +to do a certain amount of work with the prospect of not being allowed to +keep the proceeds, but of being forced to hand it over to Government. +Whether such a plan would be likely to be effective in keeping industry +supplied with capital is a question which need not be debated until the +possibility of such a system becomes a matter of practical politics. + +For our present purpose it is enough to have shown that the capital, +which is the stock-in-trade of finance, is not a fraudulent claim to +take toll of the product of industry, but an essential part of the +foundation on which industry is built. A man can only become a +capitalist by rendering services for which he receives payment, and +spending part of his pay not on his immediate enjoyment, but in +establishing industry either on his own account or through the agency of +someone else to whom be lends the necessary capital. Before any industry +can start there must be tools and a fund out of which the workers can be +paid until the work that they do begins to bring in its returns. The +fund to buy these tools and pay the workers can only be found out of +the proceeds of work done or services rendered. Moreover, there is +always a risk to be run. As soon as the primitive savage left off making +everything for himself and took to doing some special work, such as +arrow making, in the hope that his skill, got from concentration on one +particular employment, would be rewarded by the rest of the tribe who +took his arrows and gave him food and clothes in return, he began to run +the risk that his customers might not want his product, if they happened +to take to fishing for their food instead of shooting it. This risk is +still present with the organizers of industry and it falls first on the +capitalist. If an industry fails the workers cease to be employed by it; +but as long as they work for it their wages are a first charge which has +to be paid before capital gets a penny of interest or profit, and if the +failure of the industry is complete the capital sunk in it will be gone. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Pages 24, 25.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +BANKING MACHINERY + +Capital, then, is wealth invested in industry, finance is the machinery +by which this process of investment is carried out, and international +finance is the machinery by which the wealth of one country is invested +in another. + +Let us consider the case of a doctor in a provincial town who is making +an annual income of about £800 a year, living on £600 of it and saving +£200. Instead of spending this quarter of his income on immediate +enjoyments, such as wine and cigars, and journeys to London, he invests +it in different parts of the world through the mechanism of +international finance, because he has been attracted by the advantages +of a system of investment which was fashionable some years ago, which +worked by what was called Geographical Distribution.[2] This meant to +say that the investors who practised it put their money into as many +different countries as possible, so that the risk of loss owing to +climatic or other disturbances might be spread as widely as possible. So +here we have this quiet country doctor spreading all over the world the +money that he gets for dosing and poulticing and dieting his patients, +stimulating industry in many climates and bringing some part of its +proceeds to be added to his store. Let us see how the process works. +First of all he has a bank, into which he pays day by day the fees that +he receives in coin or notes and the cheques that he gets, each half +year, from those of his patients who have an account with him. As long +as his money is in the bank, the bank has the use of it, and not much of +it is likely to go abroad. For the banks use most of the funds +entrusted to them in investments in home securities, or in loans and +advances to home customers. Part of them they use in buying bills of +exchange drawn on London houses by merchants and financiers all over the +world, so that even when he pays money into his bank it is possible that +our doctor is already forming part of the machinery of international +finance and involving us in the need for an explanation of one of its +mysteries. + +A bill of exchange is an order to pay. When a merchant in Argentina +sells wheat to an English buyer, he draws a bill on the buyer (or some +bank or firm in England whom the buyer instructs him to draw on), +saying, "Pay to me" (or anybody else whom he may name) "the sum of so +many pounds." This bill, if it is drawn on a firm or company of well +known standing, the seller of the wheat can immediately dispose of, and +so has got payment for his goods. Usually the bill is made payable two +or three, or sometimes six months after sight, that is after it has been +received by the firm on which it is drawn, and "accepted" by it, that is +signed across the front to show that the firm drawn on will pay the +bill when it falls due. These bills of exchange, when thus accepted, are +promises to pay entered into by firms of first-rate standing, and are +held as investments by English banks. Bills of exchange are also drawn +on English houses to finance trade transactions between foreign +countries, and also as a means of borrowing money from England. When +they are drawn on behalf of English customers, the credit given is given +at home, but as it is (almost always) given in connection with +international trade, the transaction may be considered as part of +international finance. When they are drawn on behalf of foreign +countries, trading with other foreigners, or using the credit to lend to +other foreigners, the connection with international finance is obvious. +They are readily taken all over the world, because all over the world +there are people who have payments to make to England owing to the wide +distribution of our trade, and it has long been England's boast that +bills of exchange drawn on London firms are the currency of +international commerce and finance. + +Some people tell us that this commanding position of the English bill +in the world's markets is in danger of being lost owing to the present +war: in the first place because America is gaining wealth rapidly, while +we are shooting away our savings, and also because the Germans will make +every endeavour to free themselves from dependence on English credit for +the conduct of their trade. Certainly this danger is a real one, but it +does not follow that we shall not be able to meet it and defeat it. If +the war teaches us to work hard and consume little, so that when peace +comes we shall have a great volume of goods to export, there is no +reason why the bill on London should not retain much if not all of its +old prestige and supremacy in the marts of the world. For we must always +remember that finance is only the handmaid of industry. She is often a +pert handmaid who steals her mistress's clothes and tries to flaunt +before the world as the mistress, and so she sometimes imposes on many +people who ought to know better, who think that finance is an +all-powerful influence. Finance is a mighty influence, but it is a mere +piece of machinery which assists, quickens, and lives on production. +The men who make and grow things, and carry them from the place where +they are made and grown to the place where they are wanted, these are +the men who furnish the raw material of finance, without which it would +have to shut up its shop. + +If they and their work ceased, we should all starve, and the financiers +would have nothing behind the pieces of paper that they handle. If +finance and the financiers were suddenly to cease, there would be a very +awkward jar and jolt in our commercial machinery, but as long as the +stuff and the means of carrying it were available, we should very soon +patch up some other method for exchanging it between one nation and +another and one citizen and another. The supremacy of the London bill of +exchange was created only to a small extent by any supremacy in London's +financial machinery; it was based chiefly on the supremacy of England's +world-wide trade, and on our readiness to take goods from all nations. +The consequence of this was that traders of all nations sold goods to +us, and so had claims on us and drew bills on us, and bought goods from +us, and so owed us money and wanted to buy bills drawn on us to pay +their debts with. So everywhere the bill on London was known and +familiar and welcome. If the Americans are able and willing to develop +such a world-wide trade as ours, then the bill on New York will have a +vogue all over the world just as is enjoyed by the bill on London. Then +London and New York will have to fight the matter out by seeing which +will provide the best and cheapest machinery for discounting the bill, +that is, turning it into cash on arrival, so that the holder of it shall +get the best possible price at the present moment, for a bill due two or +three months hence. + +In this matter of machinery London has certain advantages which ought, +if well used and applied, to stand her in good stead in any struggle +that lies ahead of her. London's credit machinery has grown up in almost +complete freedom from legislation, and it has consequently been able to +grow, without let or hindrance, along the lines that expediency and +convenience have shown to be most practical and useful. It has been too +busy to be logical or theoretical, and consequently it is full of +absurdities and anomalies, but it works with marvellous ease and +elasticity. + +In its centre is the Bank of England, with the prestige of antiquity and +of official dignity derived from acting as banker to the British +Government, and with still more practical strength derived from acting +as banker to all the other great banks, several of them much bigger, in +certain respects, than it. The Bank of England is very severely and +strictly restricted by law in the matter of its note issue, but it +luckily happened, when Parliament was imposing these restrictions on the +Bank's business, that note issuing was already becoming a comparatively +unimportant part of banking, owing to the development of the use of +cheques. Nowadays, when borrowers go to the Bank of England for loans, +they do not want to take them out in notes; all they want is a credit in +the Bank's books against which they can draw cheques. A credit in the +Bank of England's books is regarded by the financial community as +"cash," and this pleasant fiction has given the Bank the power of +creating cash by a stroke of its pen and to any extent that it pleases, +subject only to its own view as to what is prudent and sound business. +On p.33 ("A BANK RETURN", below) is a specimen of a return that is published each week +by the Bank of England, showing its position in two separate accounts +with regard to its note issuing business and its banking business: the +return taken is an old one, published before the war, so as to show how +the machine worked in normal times before war's demands had blown out +the balloon of credit to many times its former size. + +If the commercial and financial community is short of cash, all that it +has to do is to go to the Bank of England and borrow a few millions, and +the only effect on the Bank's position is an addition of so many +millions to its holding of securities and a similar addition to its +deposits. It may sometimes happen that the borrowers may require the use +of actual currency, and in that case part of the advances made will be +taken out in the form of notes and gold, but as a general rule the Bank +is able to perform its function of providing emergency credit by merely +making entries in its books. + +A BANK RETURN + +ISSUE DEPARTMENT. + +Notes Issued £56,908,235 Government Debt £11,015,100 + Other Securities 7,434,900 + Gold Coin and Bullion 38,458,235 + Silver Bullion --- + ----------- ----------- + £56,908,235 £56,908,235 + ----------- ----------- + +BANKING DEPARTMENT. + +Proprietors' Capital £14,553,000 Government Securities £11,005,126 +Rest 3,431,484 Other Securities 33,623,288 +Public Deposits 13,318,714 Notes 27,592,980 +Other Deposits 42,485,605 Gold and Silver Coin 1,596,419 +Seven Day and other + Bills 29,010 + ----------- ----------- + £73,817,813 £73,817,813 + ----------- ----------- + +With the Bank of England thus acting as a centre to the system, there +has grown up around it a circle of the great joint stock banks, which +provide credit and currency for commerce and finance by lending money +and taking it on deposit, or on current account. These banks work under +practically no legal restrictions of any kind with regard to the amount +of cash that they hold, or the use that they make of the money that is +entrusted to their keeping. They are not allowed, if they have an office +in London, to issue notes at all, but in all other respects they are +left free to conduct their business along the lines that experience has +shown them to be most profitable to themselves, and most convenient for +their customers. Being joint stock companies they have to publish +periodically, for the information of their shareholders, a balance sheet +showing their position. Before the war most of them published a monthly +statement of their position, but this habit has lately been given up. No +legal regulations guide them in the form or extent of the information +that they give in their balance sheets, and their great success and +solidity is a triumph of unfettered business freedom. This absence of +restriction gives great elasticity and adaptability to the credit +machinery of London. Here is a specimen of one of their balance sheets, +slightly simplified, and dating from the days before the war:-- + +LIABILITIES. + +Capital (subscribed) £14,000,000 + ---------- +Paid up 3,500,000 +Reserve 4,000,000 +Deposits 87,000,000 +Circular Notes, etc. 3,000,000 +Acceptances 6,000,000 +Profit and loss 500,000 + ----------- + £104,000,000 + ----------- + +ASSETS + +Cash in hand and + at Bank of England £12,500,000 +Cash at call and + short notice 13,000,000 +Bills discounted 19,000,000 +Govt. Securities 5,000,000 +Other Investments 4,500,000 +Advances and loans 42,000,000 +Liability of customers + on account of + Acceptances 6,000,000 +Promises 2,000,000 + ----------- + £104,000,000 + ----------- + +On one side are the sums that the bank has received, in the shape of +capital subscribed, from its shareholders, and in the shape of deposits +from its customers, including Dr. Pillman and thousands like him; on the +other the cash that it holds, in coin, notes and credit at the Bank of +England, its cash lent at call or short notice to bill brokers (of whom +more anon) and the Stock Exchange, the bills of exchange that it holds, +its investments in British Government and other stocks, and the big item +of loans and advances, through which it finances industry and commerce +at home. It should be noted that the entry on the left side of the +balance sheet, "Acceptances," refers to bills of exchange which the bank +has accepted for merchants and manufacturers who are importing goods and +raw material, and have instructed the foreign exporters to draw bills on +their bankers. As these merchants and manufacturers are responsible to +the bank for meeting the bills when they fall due, the acceptance item +is balanced by an exactly equivalent entry on the other side, showing +this liability of customers as an asset in the bank's favour. + +This business of acceptance is done not only by the great banks, but +also by a number of private firms with connections in foreign countries, +and at home, through which they place their names and credit at the +disposal of people less eminent for wealth and position, who pay them a +commission for the use of them. + +Other wheels in London's credit machinery are the London offices of +colonial and foreign banks, and the bill brokers or discount houses +which deal in bills of exchange and constitute the discount market. Thus +we see that there is in London a highly specialized and elaborate +machinery for making and dealing in these bills, which are the currency +of international trade. Let us recapitulate the history of the bill and +see the part contributed to its career by each wheel in the machine. We +imagined a bill drawn by an Argentine seller against a cargo of wheat +shipped to an English merchant. The bill will be drawn on a London +accepting house, to whom the English merchant is liable for its due +payment. The Argentine merchant, having drawn the bill, sells it to the +Buenos Ayres branch of a South American bank, formed with English +capital, and having its head office in London. It is shipped to London, +to the head office of the South American bank, which presents it for +acceptance to the accepting house on which it is drawn, and then sells +it to a bill broker at the market rate of discount. If the bill is due +three months after sight, and is for £2000, and the market rate of +discount is 4 per cent. for three months' bills, the present value of +the bill is obviously £1980. The bill broker, either at once or later, +probably sells the bill to a bank, which holds it as an investment until +its due date, by which time the importer having sold the wheat at a +profit, pays the money required to meet the bill to his banker and the +transaction is closed. Thus by means of the bill the exporter has +received immediate payment for his wheat, the importing merchant has +been supplied with credit for three months in which to bring home his +profit, and the bank which bought the bill has provided itself with an +investment such as bankers love, because it has to be met within a short +period by a house of first-rate standing. + +All this elaborate, but easily working machinery has grown up for the +service of commerce. It is true that bills of exchange are often drawn +by moneylenders abroad on moneylenders in England merely in order to +raise credit, that is to say, to borrow money by means of the London +discount market. Sometimes these credits are used for merely speculative +purposes, but in the great majority of cases they are wanted for the +furtherance of production in the borrowing country. The justification of +the English accepting houses, and bill brokers, and banks (in so far as +they engage in this business), is the fact that they are assisting +trade, and could not live without trade, and that trade if deprived of +their services would be gravely inconvenienced and could only resume its +present activity by making a new machinery more or less on the same +lines. The bill whose imaginary history has been traced, came into being +because the drawer had a claim on England through a trade transaction. +He was able to sell it to the South American bank only because the bank +knew that many other people in Argentina would have to make payments to +England and would come to it and ask it for drafts on London, which, by +remitting this bill to be sold in London, it would be able to supply. +International finance is so often regarded as a machinery by which paper +wealth is manufactured out of nothing, that it is very important to +remember that all this paper wealth only acquires value by being +ultimately based on something that is grown or made and wanted to keep +people alive or comfortable, or at least happy in the belief that they +have got something that they thought they wanted, or which habit or +convention obliged them to possess. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: All this imaginary picture is of events before the war. At +present Dr. Pillman, being a patriotic citizen, is saving much faster +than before, and putting every pound that he can save into the hands of +the British Government by subscribing to War Loans and buying Exchequer +bonds. He is too old to go and do medical work at the front, so he does +the next best thing by cutting down his expenses and finding money for +the war.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +INVESTMENTS AND SECURITIES + +So far we have only considered what happens to the money of those who +save as long as it is left in the hands of their bankers, and we have +seen that it is only likely to be employed internationally, if invested +by bankers in bills of exchange which form a comparatively small part of +their assets. It is true that bankers also invest money in securities, +and that some of these are foreign, but here again the proportion +invested abroad is so small that we may be reasonably sure that any +money left by us in the hands of our bankers will be employed at home. + +But in actual practice those who save do not pile up a large balance at +their banks. They keep what is called a current account, consisting of +amounts paid in in cash or in cheques on other banks or their own bank, +and against this account they draw what is needed for their weekly and +monthly payments; sometimes, also, they keep a certain amount on deposit +account, that is an account on which they can only draw after giving a +week's notice or more. On their deposit account they receive interest, +on their current account they may in some parts of the country receive +interest on the average balance kept. But the deposit account is most +often kept by people who have to have a reserve of cash quickly +available for business purposes. The ordinary private investor, when he +has got a balance at his bank big enough to make him feel comfortable +about being able to meet all probable outgoings, puts any money that he +may have to spare into some security dealt in on the Stock Exchange, and +so securities and the Stock Exchange have to be described and examined +next. They are very much to the point, because it is through them that +international finance has done most of its work. + +Securities, then, are the stocks, shares and bonds which are given to +those who put money into companies, or into loans issued by +Governments, municipalities and other public bodies. Let us take the +Governments and public bodies first, because the securities issued by +them are in some ways simpler than those created by companies. + +When a Government wants to borrow, it does so because it needs money. +The purpose for which it needs it may be to build a railway or canal, or +make a harbour, or carry out a land improvement or irrigation scheme, or +otherwise work some enterprise by which the power of the country to grow +and make things may be increased. Enterprises of this kind are usually +called reproductive, and in many cases the actual return from them in +cash more than suffices to meet the interest on the debt raised to carry +them out, to say nothing of the direct benefit to the country in +increasing its output of wealth. In England the Government has +practically no debt that is represented by reproductive assets. Our +Government has left the development of the country's resources to +private enterprise, and the only assets from which it derives a revenue +are the Post Office buildings, the Crown lands and some shares in the +Suez Canal which were bought for a political purpose. Governments also +borrow money because their revenue from taxes is less than the sums that +they are spending. This happens most often and most markedly when they +are carrying on war, or when nations are engaged in a competition in +armaments, building navies or raising armies against one another so as +to be ready for war if it happens. This kind of debt is called +dead-weight debt, because there is no direct or indirect increase, in +consequence of it, in the country's power to produce things that are +wanted. This kind of borrowing is generally excused on the ground that +provision for the national safety is a matter which concerns posterity +quite as much as the present generation, and that it is, therefore, fair +to leave posterity to pay part of the bill. + +Municipalities likewise borrow both for reproductive purposes and for +objects from which no direct revenue can be expected. They may invest +money lent them in gas or electric works or water supply or tramways, +and get an income from them which will more than pay the interest on +the money borrowed. Or they may put it into public parks and recreation +grounds or municipal buildings, or improvements in sanitation, thereby +beautifying and cleansing the town. If they do these things in such a +way as to make the town a pleasanter and healthier place to live in, +they may indirectly increase their revenue; but if they do them +extravagantly and badly, they run the risk of putting a burden on the +ratepayers that will make people shy of living within their borders. + +Whatever be the object for which the loan is issued, the procedure is +the same by which the money is raised. The Government or municipality +invites subscriptions through a bank or through some great financial +house, which publishes what is called a prospectus by circular, and in +the papers, giving the terms and details of the loan. People who have +money to spare, or are able to borrow money from their bankers, and are +attracted by the terms of the loan, sign an application form which is +issued with the prospectus, and send a cheque for the sum, usually 5 per +cent. of the amount that they apply for, which is payable on +application. If the loan is over-subscribed, the applicants will only +receive part of the sums for which they apply. If it is not fully +subscribed, they will get all that they have asked for, and the balance +left over will be taken up in most cases by a syndicate formed by the +bank or firm that issued the loan, to "underwrite" it. Underwriting +means guaranteeing the success of a loan, and those who do so receive a +commission of anything from 1 to 3 per cent.; if the loan is popular and +goes well the underwriters take their commission and are quit; if the +loan is what the City genially describes as a "frost," the underwriters +may find themselves saddled with the greater part of it, and will have +the pleasure of nursing it until such time as the investing public will +take it off their hands. Underwriting is thus a profitable business when +times are good, and the public is feeding freely, but it can only be +indulged in by folk with plenty of capital or credit, and so able to +carry large blocks of stock if they find themselves left with them. + +To take a practical example, let us suppose that the King of Ruritania +is informed by his Minister of Marine that a battleship must at once be +added to its fleet because his next door neighbour is thought to be +thinking of making himself stronger on the water, while his Minister of +Finance protests that it is impossible, without the risk of serious +trouble, to add anything further to the burdens of the taxpayers. A loan +is the easy and obvious way out. London and Paris between them will find +two or three millions with pleasure. That will be enough for a +battleship and something over in the way of new artillery for the army +which can be ordered in France so as to secure the consent of the French +Government, which was wont to insist that a certain proportion of any +loan raised in Paris must be spent in the country. (It need hardly be +said that all these events are supposed to be happening in the years +before the war.) Negotiations are entered into with a group of French +banks and an English issuing house. The French banks take over their +share, and sell it to their customers who are, or were, in the habit of +following the lead of their bankers in investment with a blind +confidence, that gave the French banks enormous power in the +international money market. The English issuing house sends round a +stockbroker to underwrite the loan. If the issuing house is one that is +usually successful in its issues, the privilege of underwriting anything +that it brings out is eagerly sought for. Banks, financial firms, +insurance companies, trust companies and stockbrokers with big +investment connections will take as much underwriting as they are +offered, in many cases without making very searching inquiry into the +terms of the security offered. The name of the issuing house and the +amount of the underwriting commission --which we will suppose in this +case to be 2 per cent.--is enough for them. They know that if they +refuse any chance of underwriting that is offered, they are not likely +to get a chance when the next loan comes out, and since underwriting is +a profitable business for those who can afford to run its risks, many +firms put their names down for anything that is put before them, as long +as they have confidence in the firm that is handling the loan. This +power in the hands of the big issuing houses, to get any loan that they +choose to father underwritten in a few hours by a crowd of eager +followers, gives them, of course, enormous strength and lays a heavy +responsibility on them. They only preserve it by being careful in the +use of it, and exercising great discrimination in the class of +securities that they handle. + +While the underwriting is going on the prospectus is being prepared by +which the subscriptions of the public are invited, and in the meantime +it will probably happen that the newspapers have had a hint that a +Ruritanian loan is on the anvil, so that preliminary paragraphs may +prepare an atmosphere of expectancy. News of a forthcoming new issue is +always a welcome item in the dull routine of a City article, and the +journalists are only serving their public and their papers in being +eager to chronicle it. Lurid stories are still handed down by City +tradition of how great City journalists acquired fortunes in days gone +by, by being allotted blocks of new loans so that they might expand on +their merits and then sell them at a big profit when they had created a +public demand for them. There seems to be no doubt that this kind of +thing used to happen in the dark ages when finance and City journalism +did a good deal of dirty business between them. Now, the City columns of +the great daily papers have for a very long time been free from any +taint of this kind, and on the whole it may be said that finance is a +very much cleaner affair than either law or politics. It is true that +swindles still happen in the City, but their number is trivial compared +with the volume of the public's money that is handled and invested. It +is only in the by-ways of finance and in the gutters of City journalism +that the traps are laid for the greedy and gullible public, and if the +public walks in, it has itself to blame. A genuine investor who wants +security and a safe return on his money can always get it. Unfortunately +the investor is almost always at the same time a speculator, and is apt +to forget the distinction; and those who ask for a high rate of +interest, absolute safety and a big rise in the prices of securities +that they buy are only inviting disaster by the greed that wants the +unattainable and the gullibility that deludes them into thinking they +can have it. + +To return to our Ruritanian loan, which we left being underwritten. The +prospectus duly comes out and is advertised in the papers and sown +broadcast over the country through the post. It offers £1,500,000 (part +of £3,000,000 of which half is reserved for issue in Paris), 4-1/2 per +cent. bonds of the Kingdom of Ruritania, with interest payable on April +1st and October 1st, redeemable by a cumulative Sinking Fund of 1 per +cent., operating by annual drawings at par, the price of issue being 97, +payable as to 5 per cent. on application, 15 per cent. on allotment and +the balance in instalments extending over four months. Coupons and drawn +bonds are payable in sterling at the countinghouse of the issuing firm. +The extent of the other information given varies considerably. Some +firms rely so far on their own prestige and the credit of those on whose +account they offer loans, that they state little more than the bare +terms of the issue as given above. Others deign to give details +concerning the financial position of the borrowing Government, such as +its revenue and expenditure for a term of years, the amount of its +outstanding debt, and of its assets if any. If the credit of the +Kingdom of Ruritania is good, such a loan as here described would be, +or would have been before the war, an attractive issue, since the +investor would get a good rate of interest for his money, and would be +certain of getting par or £100, some day, for each bond for which he now +pays £97. This is ensured by the action of the Sinking Fund of 1 per +cent. cumulative, which works as follows. Each year, as long as the loan +is outstanding the Kingdom of Ruritania will have to put £165,000 in the +hands of the issuing houses, to be applied to interest and Sinking Fund. +In the first year interest at 4-1/2 per cent. will take £135,000 and +Sinking Fund (1 per cent. of £3,000,000) £30,000; this £30,000 will be +applied to the redemption of bonds to that value, which are drawn by +lot; so that next year the interest charge will be less and the amount +available for Sinking Fund will be greater; and each year the +comfortable effect of this process continues, until at last the whole +loan is redeemed and every investor will have got his money back and +something over. The effect of this obligation to redeem, of course, +makes the market in the loan very steady, because the chance of being +drawn at par in any year, and the certainty of being drawn if the +investor holds it long enough, ensures that the market price will be +strengthened by this consideration. + +Such being the terms of the loan we may be justified in supposing--if +Ruritania has a clean record in its treatment of its creditors, and if +the issuing firm is one that can be relied on to do all that can be done +to safeguard their interests, that the loan is a complete success and is +fully subscribed for by the public. The underwriters will consequently +be relieved of all liability and will pocket their 2 per cent., which +they have earned by guaranteeing the success of the issue. If some +financial or political shock had occurred which made investors reluctant +to put money into anything at the time when the prospectus appeared or +suggested the likelihood that Ruritania might be involved in war, then +the underwriters would have had to take up the greater part of the loan +and pay for it out of their own pockets; and this is the risk for which +they are given their commission. Ruritania will have got its money less +the cost of underwriting, advertising, commissions, 1 per cent. stamp +payable to the British Government, and the profit of the issuing firm. +Some shipyard in the north will lay down a battleship and English +shareholders and workmen will benefit by the contract, and the investors +will have got well secured bonds paying them a good rate of interest and +likely to be easily saleable in the market if the holders want to turn +them into cash. The bonds will be large pieces of paper stating that +they are 4-1/2 per cent, bonds of the Kingdom of Ruritania for £20, +£100, £500 or £1000 as the case may be, and they will each have a sheet +of coupons attached, that is, small pieces to be cut off and presented +at the date of each interest payment; each one states the amount due +each half year and the date when it will have to be met. + +Bonds are called bearer securities, that is to say, possession of them +entitles the bearer to receive payment of them when drawn and to collect +the coupons at their several dates. They are the usual form for the +debts of foreign Governments and municipalities, and of foreign railway +and industrial companies. + +In England we chiefly affect what are called registered and inscribed +stocks--that is, if our Government or one of our municipalities issues a +loan, the subscribers have their names registered in a book by the +debtor, or its banker, and merely hold a certificate which is a receipt, +but the possession of which is not in itself evidence of ownership. +There are no coupons, and the half-yearly interest is posted to +stockholders, or to their bankers or to any one else to whom they may +direct it to be sent. Consequently when the holder sells it is not +enough for him to hand over his certificate, as is the case with a +bearer security, but the stock has to be transferred into the name of +the buyer in the register kept by the debtor, or by the bank which +manages the business for it. + +When the securities offered are not loans by public bodies, but +represent an interest in a company formed to build a railway or carry on +any industrial or agricultural or mining enterprise, the procedure will +be on the same lines, except that the whole affair will be on a less +exalted plane. Such an issue would not, save in exceptional +circumstances, as when a great railway is offering bonds or debenture +stock, be fathered by one of the leading financial firms. Industrial +ventures are associated with so many risks that they are usually left to +the smaller fry, and those who underwrite them expect higher rates of +commission, while subscribers can only be tempted by anticipations of +more mouth-filling rates of interest or profit. This distinction between +interest and profit brings us to a further difference between the +securities of companies and public bodies. Public bodies do not offer +profit, but interest, and the distinction is very important. A +Government asks for your money and promises to pay a rate for it, +whether the object on which the money is spent be profit-earning or no, +and, if it is, whether a profit be earned or no. A company asks +subscribers to buy it up and become owners of it, taking its profits, +that it expects to earn, and getting no return at all on their money if +its business is unfortunate and the profits never make their appearance. +Consequently the shareholders in a company run all the risks that +industrial enterprise is heir to, and the return, if any, that comes +into their pockets depends on the ability of the enterprise to earn +profits over and above all that it has to pay for raw material, wages +and other working expenses, all of which have to be met before the +shareholder gets a penny. + +In order to meet the objections of steady-going investors to the risks +involved by thus becoming industrial adventurers, a system has grown up +by which the capital of companies is subdivided into securities that +rank ahead of one another. Companies issue debts, like public bodies, in +the shape of bonds or debenture stocks, which entitle the holders of +them to a stated rate of interest, and no more, and are often repayable +at a due date, by drawings or otherwise. These are the first charge on +the concern after wages and other working expenses have been paid, and +the shareholders do not get any profit until the interest on the +company's debt has been met. Further, the actual capital held by the +shareholders is generally divided into two classes, preference and +ordinary, of which the preference take a fixed rate before the ordinary +shareholders get anything, and the ordinary shareholders take the whole +of any balance left over. Sometimes, the preference holders have a +right to further participation after the ordinary have received a +certain amount of dividend, or share of profit, and there are almost +endless variations of the manner in which the different classes of +holders may claim to divide the profits, by means of preference, +preferred, ordinary, preferred ordinary, deferred ordinary, founders' +shares, management shares, etc., etc. + +All these variations in the position of the shareholder, however, do not +alter the great essential difference between him and the creditor, the +man who lends money to a Government or enterprise with a fixed rate of +interest, and, in most cases, a claim for repayment sooner or later. The +shareholder, whether preference or ordinary, puts his money into a +venture with no claim for repayment, unless the company is wound up, in +which case his claim ranks, of course, after that of every creditor. If +he wants to get his money out again he can only do so by selling his +stock or shares at any price that they will fetch in the stock market. + +Thus, if we take as an example a Brewery company with a total debt and +capital of three millions, we may suppose that it will have a million +4-1/2 per cent, debenture stock, entitling the creditors who own it to +interest at that rate, and repayment in 1935, a million of 6 per cent. +cumulative preference stock, giving holders a fixed dividend, if earned, +of 6 per cent, which dividend and all arrears have to be paid before the +ordinary shareholders get anything, and a million in ordinary shares of +£10 each, whose holders take any balance that may be left. This is the +total of the money that has been received from the public when the +company was floated and put into the brewery plant, tied houses, or +other assets out of which the company makes its revenue. + +These bonds and stocks and shares are the machinery of international +finance, by which moneylenders of one nation provide borrowers in others +with the wherewithal to carry out enterprises, or make payments for +which they have not cash available at home. It was shown in a previous +chapter that bills of exchange are a means by which the movements of +commodities from market to market are financed, and the gap in time is +bridged between production and consumption. Stock Exchange securities +are more permanent investments, put into industry for longer periods or +for all time. Midway between them are securities such as Treasury bills +with which Governments raise the wind for a time, pending the collection +of revenue, and the one or two years' notes with which American +railroads lately financed themselves for short periods, in the hope that +the conditions for an issue of bonds with longer periods to run, might +become more favourable. + +So far we have only considered the machinery by which these securities +are created and issued to the public, but it must not be supposed that +investment is only possible when new securities are being offered. Many +investors have a prejudice against ever buying a new security, +preferring those which have a record and a history behind them, and +buying them in the market whenever they have money to invest. This +market is the Stock Exchange in which securities of all kinds and of all +countries are dealt in. Following the history of the Ruritanian loan, +we may suppose that it will be dealt in regularly in that section of the +Stock Exchange in which the loans of Foreign Governments are marketed. +Any original subscriber who wants to turn his bonds into money can do so +by instructing his broker to sell them; anyone who wants to do so can +acquire a holding in them by a purchase. The terms on which they will be +bought or sold will depend on the variations in the demand for, and +supply of, them. If a number of holders want to sell, either because +they want cash for other purposes, or because they are nervous about the +political outlook, or because they think that money is going to be +scarce and so there will be better opportunities for investment later +on, then the price will droop. But if the political sky is serene and +people are saving money fast and investing it in Stock Exchange +securities, then the price will go up and those who want to buy it will +pay more. The price of all securities, as of everything else, depends on +the extent to which people who have not got them demand them, in +relation to the extent to which those who have got them are ready to +part with them. Price is ultimately a question of what people think +about things, and this is why the fluctuations in the price of Stock +Exchange securities are so incalculable and often so irrational. If a +sufficient number of misguided people with money in their pockets think +that a bad security is worth buying they will put the price of it up in +the face of the logic of facts and all the arguments of reason. These +wild fluctuations, of course, take place chiefly in the more speculative +securities. Shares in a gold mine can go to any price that the credulity +of buyers dictates, since there is no limit to the amount of gold that +people can imagine to be under the ground in its territory. + +All the Stock Exchanges of the world are in communication with one +another by telegraph, or telephone, and so their feelings about prices +react on one another's nerves and imaginations, and the Stock Exchange +price list may be said to be the language of international finance, as +the bill of exchange is its currency. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +FINANCE AND TRADE + +We have seen that finance becomes international when capital goes +abroad, by being lent by investors in one country to borrowers in +another, or by being invested in enterprises formed to carry on some +kind of business abroad. We have next to consider why capital goes +abroad and whether it is a good or a bad thing, for it to do so. + +Capital goes abroad because it is more wanted in other countries than in +the country of its origin, and consequently those who invest abroad are +able to do so to greater advantage. In countries like England and +France, where there have been for many centuries thrifty folk who have +saved part of their income, and placed their savings at the disposal of +industry, it is clear that industry is likely to be better supplied +with capital than in the new countries which have been more lately +peopled, and in which the store of accumulated goods is less adequate to +the industrial needs of the community. For we must always remember that +though we usually speak and think of capital as so much money it is +really goods and property. In England money consists chiefly of credit +in the books of banks, which can only be created because there is +property on which the banks can make advances, or because there is +property expressed in securities in which the banks can invest or +against which they can lend. Because our forefathers did not spend all +their incomes on their own personal comfort and amusement but put a +large part of them into railways and factories, and shipbuilding yards, +our country is now reasonably well supplied with the machinery of +production and the means of transport. Whether it might not be much +better so equipped is a question with which we are not at present +concerned. At least it may be said that it is more fully provided in +these respects than new countries like our colonies, America and +Argentina, or old countries like Russia and China in which industrial +development is a comparatively late growth, so that there has been less +time for the storing up, by saving, of the necessary machinery. + +So it comes about that new countries are in greater need of capital than +old ones and consequently are ready to pay a higher rate of interest for +it to lenders or to tempt shareholders with a higher rate of profit. And +so the opportunity is given to investors in England to develop the +agricultural or industrial resources of all the countries under the sun +to their own profit and to that of the countries that it supplies. When, +for example, the Government of one of the Australian colonies came to +London to borrow money for a railway, it said in effect to English +investors, "Your railways at home have covered your country with such a +network that there are no more profitable lines to be built. The return +that you get from investing in them is not too attractive in view of all +the trade risks to which they are subject. Do not put your money into +them, but lend it to us. We will take it and build a railway in a +country which wants them, and, whether the railway pays or no, you will +be creditors of a Colonial Government with the whole wealth of the +colony pledged to pay you interest and pay back your money when the loan +falls due for repayment." For in Australia the railways have all been +built by the Colonial Governments, partly because they wished, by +pledging their collective credit, to get the money as cheaply as +possible, and keep the profits from them in their own hands, and partly +probably because they did not wish the management of their railways to +be in the hands of London boards. In Argentina, on the other hand, the +chief railways have been built, not by the Government but by English +companies, shareholders in which have taken all the risks of the +enterprise, and have thereby secured handsome profits to themselves, +tempered with periods of bad traffic and poor returns. + +For many years there was a good deal of prejudice in England against +investing abroad, especially among the more sleepy classes of investors +who had made their money in home trade, and liked to keep it there when +they invested it. As traders, we learnt a world-wide outlook many +centuries before we did so as investors. To send a ship with a cargo of +English goods to a far off country to be exchanged into its products was +a risk that our enterprising forefathers took readily. The ship took in +its return cargo and came home, bringing its sheaves with it in a +reasonable time, though the Antonios of the period sometimes had awkward +moments if their ships were delayed by bad weather, and they were liable +on a bond to Shylock. But it was quite another matter to lend money in a +distant country when communication was slow and difficult, and social +and political conditions had not gained the stability that is needed +before contracts can be entered into extending over many years. +International moneylending took place, of course, in the middle ages, +and everybody knows Motley's great description of the consternation that +shook Europe when Philip the Second repudiated his debts "to put an end +to such financiering and unhallowed practices with bills of +exchange."[3] But though there were moneylenders in those days who +obliged foreign potentates with loans, the business was in the hands of +expert professional specialists, and there was no medieval counterpart +of the country doctor whom we have imagined to be developing industry +all over the world by placing his savings in foreign countries. There +could be no investing public until there were large classes that had +accumulated wealth by saving, and until the discovery of the principle +of limited liability enabled adventurers to put their savings into +industry without running the risk of losing not only what they put in, +but all else that they possessed. By means of this system, the risk of a +shareholder in a company is limited to a definite amount, usually the +amount that has been paid up on his shares or stock, though in some +cases, such as bank and insurance shares, there is a further reserve +liability which is left for the protection of the companies' customers. + +In the eighteenth century a great outburst of gambling in the East +Indian and South Sea companies, and a horde of less notorious concerns +was a short-lived episode which must have helped for a very long time to +strengthen the natural prejudice that investors feel in favour of +putting their money into enterprise at home; and it was still further +strengthened by the disastrous results of another great plague of bad +foreign securities that smote London just after the war that ended at +Waterloo. This prejudice survived up to within living memory, and I have +heard myself old-fashioned stockbrokers maintain that, after all, there +was no investment like Home Rails, because investors could always go and +look at their property, which could not run away. Gradually, however, +the habit of foreign investment grew, under the influence of the higher +rates of interest and profit offered by new countries, the greater +political stability that was developed in them, and political +apprehensions at home. In fact it grew so fast and so lustily that there +came a time, not many years ago, when investments at home were under a +cloud, and many clients, when asking their brokers where and how to +place their savings, stipulated that they must be put somewhere abroad. + +This was at a time when Mr. Lloyd George's financial measures were +arousing resentment and fear among the investing classes, and when +preachers of the Tariff Reform creed were laying so much stress on our +"dying industries" that they were frightening those who trusted them +into the belief that the sun was setting on our industrial greatness. +The effect of this belief was to bring down the prices of home +securities, and to raise those of other countries, as investors changed +from the former into the latter. + +So the theory that we were industrially and financially doomed got +another argument from its own effects, and its missionaries were able to +point to the fall in Consols and the relative steadiness of foreign and +colonial securities which their own preaching had brought about, as +fresh evidence of its truth. At the same time fear of Socialistic +legislation at home had the humorous result of making British investors +fear to touch Consols, but rush eagerly to buy the securities of +Colonial Governments which had gone much further in the direction of +Socialism than we had. Those were great days for all who handled the +machinery of oversea investment and in the last few years before the +war it is estimated that England was placing some 200 millions a year in +her colonies and dependencies and in foreign countries. Old-fashioned +folk who still believed in the industrial strength and financial +stability of their native land waited for the reaction which was bound +to follow when some of the countries into which we poured capital so +freely, began to find a difficulty in paying the interest; and just +before the war this reaction began to happen, in consequence of the +default in Mexico and the financial embarrassments of Brazil. Mexico had +shown that the political stability which investors had believed it to +have achieved was a very thin veneer and a series of revolutions had +plunged that hapless land into anarchy. Brazil was suffering from a +heavy fall in the price of one of her chief staple products, rubber, +owing to the competition of plantations in Ceylon, Straits Settlements +and elsewhere, and was finding difficulty in meeting the interest on the +big load of debt that the free facilities given by English and French +investors had encouraged her to pile up. She had promised retrenchment +at home, and another big loan was being hatched to tide her over her +difficulties--or perhaps increase them--when the war cloud began to +gather and she has had to resort for the second time in her history to +the indignity of a funding scheme. By this "new way of paying old debts" +she does not pay interest to her bondholders in cash, but gives them +promises to pay instead, and so increases the burden of her debt, which +she hopes some day to be able to shoulder again, by resuming payments in +cash. + +Mexico and Brazil were not the only countries that were showing signs, +in 1914, of having indulged too freely in the opportunities given them +by the eagerness of English and French investors to place money abroad. +It looked as if in many parts of the earth a time of financial +disillusionment was dawning, the probable result of which would have +been a strong reaction in favour of investment at home. Then came the +war with a short sharp spell of financial chaos followed by a halcyon +period for young countries, which enabled them to sell their products at +greatly increased prices to the warring powers and so to meet their +debt charges with an ease that they had never dreamt of, and even to +find themselves lending, out of the abundance of their war profits, +money to their creditors. America has led the way with a loan of £100 +millions to France and England, and Canada has placed 10 millions of +credit at the disposal of the Mother Country. There can be little doubt +that if the war goes on, and the neutral countries continue to pile up +profits by selling food and war materials to the belligerents, many of +them will find it convenient to lend some of their gains to their +customers. America has also been taking the place of France and England +as international moneylenders by financing Argentina; and a great +company has been formed in New York to promote international activity, +on the part of Americans, in foreign countries. "And thus the whirligig +of time," assisted by the eclipse of civilization in Europe, "brings in +his revenges" and turns debtors into creditors. In the meantime it need +hardly be said that investment at home has become for the time being a +matter of patriotic duty for every Englishman, since the financing of +the war has the first and last claim on his savings. + +Our present concern, however, is not with the war problems of to-day, +but with the processes of international finance in the past, and +perhaps, before we get to the end, with some attempt to hazard a glimpse +into its arrangements in the future. What was the effect on England, and +on the countries to whom she lent, of her moneylending activity in the +past? As soon as we begin to look into this question we see once more +how close is the connection between finance and trade, and that finance +is powerless unless it is supported and in fact made possible by +industrial or commercial activity behind it. England's international +trade made her international finance possible and necessary. A country +can only lend money to others if it has goods and services to supply, +for in fact it lends not money but goods and services. + +In the beginnings of international trade the older countries exchange +their products for the raw materials and food produced by the new ones. +Then, as emigrants from the old countries go out into the new ones, +they want to be supplied with the comforts and appliances of the older +civilizations, such as, to take an obvious example, railways. But as the +productions of the new countries, at their early stage of development, +do not suffice to pay for all the material and machinery needed for +building railways, they borrow, in effect, these materials, in the +expectation that the railways will open out their resources, enable them +to put more land under the plough and bring more stuff to the seaboard, +to be exchanged for the products of Europe. The new country, New Zealand +or Japan, or whichever it may be, raises a loan in England for the +purpose of building a railway, but it does not take the money raised by +the loan in the form of money, but in the form of goods needed for the +railway, and sometimes in the form of the services of those who plan and +build it. It does not follow that all the stuff and services needed for +the enterprise are necessarily bought in the country that lends the +money; for instance, if Japan borrows money from us for a railway, she +may buy some of the steel rails and locomotives in Belgium, and +instruct us to pay Belgium for her purchases. If so, instead of sending +goods to Japan we shall have to send goods or services to Belgium, or +pay Belgium with the claim on some other country that we have +established by sending goods or services to it. But, however long the +chain may be, the practical fact is that when we lend money we lend +somebody the right to claim goods or services from us, whether they are +taken from us by the borrower, or by somebody to whom the borrower gives +a claim on us. + +If, whenever we made a loan, we had to send the money to the borrower in +the form of gold, our gold store would soon be used up, and we should +have to leave off lending. In other words, our financiers would have to +retire from business very quickly if it were not that our manufacturers +and shipowners and all the rest of our industrial army produced the +goods and services to meet the claims on our industry given, or rather +lent, to other countries by the machinery of finance. + +This obvious truism is often forgotten by those who look on finance as +an independent influence that can make money power out of nothing; and +those who forget it are very likely to find themselves entangled in a +maze of error. We can make the matter a little clearer if we go back to +the original saver, whose money, or claims on industry, is handled by +the professional financier. Those who save do so by going without +things. Instead of spending their earnings on immediate enjoyment they +spend part of them in providing somebody else with goods that they need, +and taking from that somebody else an annual payment for the use of +these goods for a certain period, after which, if it is a case of a +loan, the transaction is closed by repayment of the advance, which again +is effected by a transfer of goods. When our country doctor subscribes +to an Australian loan raised by a colony for building a railway, he +hands over to the colony money which a less thrifty citizen would have +spent on pleasures and amusements, and the colony uses it to buy railway +material. Thus in effect the doctor is spending his money in making a +railway in Australia. He is induced to do so by the promise of the +colony to give him £4 every year for each £100 that he lends. If there +were not enough people like him to put money into industry instead of +spending it on themselves, there could be no railway building or any +other form of industrial growth. It is often contended that a +reconstruction of society on a Socialistic basis would abolish the +capitalist; but in fact it would make everybody a capitalist because the +State would have to make the citizens as a whole go without certain +immediate enjoyments and work on the production of the machinery of +industry. Instead of saving being left to the individual and rewarded by +a rate of interest, it would be imposed on all and rewarded by a greater +productive power, and consequent increase in commodities, enjoyed by the +community and distributed among all its members. The advantages, on +paper, of such an arrangement over the present system are obvious. +Whether they would be equally obvious in practice would depend on the +discretion with which the Government handled the enormous responsibility +placed in its hands. But the essential fact that capital can only be got +by being saved, and earns the reward that it gets, would remain as +strongly in force as ever, and will do so until we have learnt to make +goods out of nothing and without effort. + +Going back to our doctor, who lends railway material to an Australian +colony, we see that every year for each £100 lent the colony has to send +him £4. This it can only do if its mines and fields and factories can +turn out metals or wheat or wool, or other goods which can be shipped to +England or elsewhere and be sold, so that the doctor's £4 is provided. +And so though on both sides the transaction is expressed in money it is +in fact carried out in goods, both when the loan is made and the +interest is paid. And finally when the loan is paid back again, the +colony must have sold goods to provide repayment, unless it meets its +debts by raising another. But when a loan is well spent on a railway +that is needed for the development of a fertile or productive district, +it justifies itself by cheapening transport and quickening the output of +wealth in such a manner, that the increased volume of goods that it has +helped to create easily meets the interest due to lenders, provides a +fund for its redemption at maturity, and leaves the borrower better off, +with a more fully equipped productive system. + +Since, then, there is this close and obvious connection between finance +and trade, it is inevitable that all who partake in the activities of +international finance should find their trade quickened by it. England +has lent money abroad because she is a great producer, and certain +classes of Englishmen are savers, so that there was a balance of goods +available for export, to be lent to other countries. In the early years +of the nineteenth century, when our industrial power was first beginning +to gather strength, we used regularly to export goods to a greater value +than we imported. These were the goods that we were lending abroad, +clearly showing themselves in our trade ledger. Since then the account +has been complicated by the growth of the amount that our debtors owe us +every year for interest, and by the huge earnings of our merchant navy, +which other countries pay by shipping goods to us, so that, by the +growth of these items, the trade balance sheet has been turned in the +other direction, and in spite of our lending larger and larger amounts +all over the world we now have a balance of goods coming in. Interest +due to us and shipping freights and the commissions earned by our +bankers and insurance companies were estimated before the war to amount +to something like 350 millions a year, so that we were able to lend +other countries some 200 millions or more in a year and still take from +them a very large balance in goods. After the war this comfortable state +of affairs will have been modified by the sales that we are making now +in New York of the American Railroad bonds and shares that represented +the savings that we had put into America in former years, and by the +extent of our war borrowings in America, and elsewhere, if we widen the +circle of our creditors. The effect of this will be that we shall owe +America for interest on the money that it is lending us, and that it +will owe us less interest, owing to the blocks of its securities that it +is buying back. Against this we shall be able to set debts due to us +from our Allies, but if our borrowings and sales of securities exceed +our lendings as the war goes on, we shall thereby be poorer. Our power +as a creditor country will be less, until by hard work and strict saving +we have restored it. This we can very quickly do, if we remember and +apply the lessons that war is teaching us about the number of people +able to work, whose capacity was hitherto left fallow, that this country +contained, and also about the ease with which we can dispense, when a +great crisis makes us sensible, with many of the absurdities and +futilities on which much of our money, and productive capacity, used to +be wasted. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: "United Netherlands," chap. xxxii.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +THE BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +When once we have recognized how close is the connection between finance +and trade, we have gone a long way towards seeing the greatness of the +service that finance renders to mankind, whether it works at home or +abroad. At home we owe our factories and our railways and all the +marvellous equipment of our power to make things that are wanted, to the +quiet, prosaic, and often rather mean and timorous people who have saved +money for a rainy day, and put it into industry instead of into +satisfying their immediate wants and cravings for comfort and enjoyment +It is equally, perhaps still more, true, that we owe them to the brains +and energy of those who have planned and organized the equipment of +industry, and the thews and sinews of those who have done the heavy +work. But brain and muscle would have been alike powerless if there had +not been saving folk who lent them raw material, and provided them with +the means of livelihood in the interval between the beginning of an +industry and the day when its product is sold and paid for. + +Abroad, the work of finance has been even more advantageous to mankind, +for since it has been shown that international finance is a necessary +part of the machinery of international trade, it follows that all the +benefits, economic and other, which international trade has wrought for +us, are inseparably and inevitably bound up with the progress of +international finance. If we had never fertilized the uttermost parts of +the earth by lending them money and sending them goods in payment of the +sums lent, we never could have enjoyed the stream that pours in from +them of raw material and cheap food which has sustained our industry, +fed our population, and given us a standard of general comfort such as +our forefathers could never have imagined. It is true that at the same +time we have benefited others, besides our own customers and debtors. +We have opened up the world to trade and other countries reap an +advantage by being able to use the openings that we have made. It is +sometimes argued that we have in fact merely made the paths of our +competitors straight, and that by covering Argentina with a network of +railways and so enormously increasing its power to grow things and so to +buy things, we have been making an opportunity for German shipbuilders +to send liners to the Plate and for German manufacturers to undersell +ours with cheap hardware and cotton goods. This is, undoubtedly, true. +The great industrial expansion of Germany between 1871 and 1914, has +certainly been helped by the paths opened for it all over the world by +English trade and finance; and America, our lusty young rival, that is +gaining so much strength from the war in which Europe is weakening +itself industrially and financially, will owe much of the ease of her +prospective expansion to spade-work done by the sleepy Britishers. It +may almost be said that we and France as the great providers of capital +to other countries have made a world-wide trade possible on its present +scale. The work we have done for our own benefit has certainly helped +others, but it does not, therefore, follow that it has damaged us. + +Looking at the matter from a purely business point of view, we see that +the great forward movement in trade and finance that we have led and +fostered, has helped us even by helping our rivals. In the first place, +it gives us a direct benefit as the owners of the mightiest fleet of +merchant ships that the world has seen. We do nearly half the world's +carrying trade, and so have reason to rejoice when other nations send +goods to the ports that we have opened. By our eminence in finance and +the prestige of a bill of exchange drawn on London, we have also +supplied the credit by which goods have been paid for in the country of +their origin, and nursed until they have come to the land in which they +are wanted, and even until the day when they have been turned into a +finished product and passed into the hands of the final consumer. But +there is also the indirect advantage that we gain, as a nation of +producers and financiers, from the growing wealth of other nations. The +more wealthy they grow, the more goods they produce want to sell to us, +and they cannot sell to us unless they likewise buy from us. If we +helped Germany to grow rich, we also helped her to become one of our +best customers and so to help us to grow rich. Trade is nothing but an +exchange of goods and services. Other countries are not so philanthropic +as to kill our trade by making us presents of their products and from +the strictly economic point of view, it pays us to see all the world, +which is our market, a thriving hive of industry eager to sell us as as +it can. It may be that as other countries, with the help of our capital +and example, develop industries in which we have been pre-eminent, they +may force us to supply them with services of which we are less proud to +be the producers. If, for example, the Americans were to drive us out of +the neutral markets with their cotton goods, and then spent their +profits by revelling in our hotels and thronging out theatres and +shooting in Highland deer forests, and buying positions in English +society for their daughters we should feel that the course of industry +might still be profitable to us, but that it was less satisfactory. On +the other hand, it would be absurd for us to expect the rest of the +world to stand still industrially in order that we may make profits from +producing things for it that it is quite able to make for itself. + +For the present we are concerned with the benefits of international +finance, which have been shown to begin with its enormous importance as +the handmaid of international trade. Trade between nations is desirable +for exactly the same reason as trade between one man and another, +namely, that each is, naturally or otherwise, better fitted to grow or +make certain things, and so an exchange is to their mutual advantage. If +this is so, as it clearly is, in the case of two men living in the same +street, it is evidently very much more so in the case of two peoples +living in different climates and on different soils, and so each of +them, by the nature of their surroundings, able to make and grow things +that are impossible to the other. English investors, by developing the +resources of other countries, through the machinery of international +finance, enable us to sit at home in this inclement isle, and enjoy the +fruits of tropical skies and soils. It may be true that if they had not +done so we should have developed the resources of our own country more +thoroughly, using it less as a pleasure ground, and more as a farm and +kitchen garden, and that we should have had a larger number of our own +folk working for us under our own sky. Instead of thriving on the +produce of foreign climes and foreign labour that comes to us to pay +interest, we should have lived more on home-made stuff and had more +healthy citizens at work on our soil. On the other hand, we should have +been hit hard by bad seasons and we should have enjoyed a much less +diversified diet. As it is, we take our tea and tobacco and coffee and +sugar and wine and oranges and bananas and cheap bread and meat, all as +a matter of course, but we could never have enjoyed them if +international trade had not brought them to our shores, and if +international finance had not quickened and cheapened their growth and +transport and marketing. International trade and finance, if given a +free hand, may be trusted to bring about, between them, the utmost +possible development of the power of the world to grow and make things +in the places where they can be grown and made most cheaply and +abundantly, in other words, to secure for human effort, working on the +available raw material, the greatest possible harvest as the reward of +its exertions. + +All this is very obvious and very material, but international finance +does much more, for it is a great educator and a mighty missionary of +peace and goodwill between nations. This also is obvious on a moment's +reflection, but it will be rejected as a flat mis-statement by many +whose opinion is entitled to respect, and who regard international +finance as a bloated spider which sits in the middle of a web of +intrigue and chicanery, enticing hapless mankind into its toils and +battening on bloodshed and war. So clear-headed a thinker as Mr. Philip +Snowden publicly expressed the view not long ago that "the war was the +result of secret diplomacy carried on by diplomatists who had conducted +foreign policy in the interests of militarists and financiers,"[4] Now +Mr. Snowden may possibly be right in his view that the war was produced +by diplomacy of the kind that he describes, but with all deference I +submit that he is wholly wrong if he thinks that the financiers, as +financiers, wanted war either here or in Germany or anywhere else. If +they wanted war it was because they believed, rightly or wrongly, that +their country had to fight for its existence, or for something equally +well worth fighting for, and so as patriotic citizens, they accepted or +even welcomed a calamity that could only cause them, as financiers, the +greatest embarrassment and the chance of ruin. War has benefited the +working classes, and enabled them to take a long stride forward, which +we must all hope they will maintain, towards the improvement in their +lot which is so long overdue. It has helped the farmers, put fortunes in +the pockets of the shipowners, and swollen the profits of any +manufacturers who have been able to turn out stuff wanted for war or for +the indirect needs of war. The industrial centres are bursting with +money, and the greater spending power that has been diffused by war +expenditure has made the cheap jewellery trade a thriving industry and +increased the consumption of beer and spirits in spite of restrictions +and the absence of men at the front. Picture palaces are crammed +nightly, furs and finery have had a wonderful season, any one who has a +motor car to sell finds plenty of ready buyers, and second-hand pianos +are an article that can almost be "sold on a Sunday." But in the midst +of this roar of humming trade, finance, and especially international +finance, lies stricken and still gasping from the shock of war. When war +comes, the price of all property shrivels. This was well known to +Falstaff, who, when he brought the news of Hotspur's rebellion, said +"You may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel," To most financial +institutions, this shrivelling process in the price of their securities +and other assets, brings serious embarrassment, for there is no +corresponding decline in their liabilities, and if they have not founded +themselves on the rock of severest prudence in the past, their solvency +is likely to be imperilled. Finance knew that it must suffer. The story +has often been told, and though never officially confirmed, it has at +least the merit of great probability, that in 1911 when the Morocco +crisis made a European war probable, the German Government was held back +by the warning of its financiers that war would mean Germany's ruin. It +is more than likely that a similar warning was given in July, 1914, but +that the war party brushed it aside. And now that war is upon us, we are +being warned that high finance is intriguing for peace. Mr. Edgar +Crammond, a distinguished economist and statistician, published an +article in the _Nineteenth Century_ of September, 1915, entitled "High +Finance and a Premature Peace," calling attention to this danger and +urging the need for guarding against it. First too bellicose and now too +pacific, High Finance is buffeted and spat upon by men of peace and men +of war with a unanimity that must puzzle it. It can hardly err on both +sides, but of the two accusers I think that Mr. Crammond is much more +likely to be right. But my own personal opinion is that both these +accusers are mistaken, that the financiers never wanted war, that if +(which I beg to doubt) diplomacy conducted in their interests produced +the war, that was because diplomacy misunderstood and bungled their +interests, and that now that the war is upon us, the financiers, though +all their interests urge them to want peace, would never be parties to +intrigues for a peace that was premature or ill-judged. + +Perhaps I have a weakness for financiers, but if so it is entitled to +some respect, because it is based on closer knowledge of them than is +owned by most of their critics. For years it was my business as a City +journalist, to see them day by day; and this daily intercourse with +financiers has taught me that the popular delusion that depicts them as +hard, cruel, ruthless men, living on the blood and sweat of humanity, +and engulfed to their eyebrows in their own sordid interests, is about +as absurd a hallucination as the stage Irishman. Financiers are quite +human--quiet, mild, good-natured people as a rule, many of them spending +much time and trouble on good works in their leisure hours. What they +want as financiers is plenty of good business and as little as possible +disturbance in the orderly course of affairs. Such a cataclysm as the +present war could only terrify them, especially those with interests in +every country of the world. When war comes, especially such a war as +this, financing in its ordinary and most profitable sense has to put up +its shutters. Nobody can come to London now for loans except the +British, or French, Governments, or, occasionally, one of our colonies. +Any other borrower is warned off the field by a ruthless Committee whose +leave has to be granted before dealings in new securities are allowed on +the Stock Exchange. But when the British Government borrows, there are +no profits for the rank and file of financiers. No underwriting is +necessary, and the business is carried out by the Bank of England. The +commissions earned by brokers are smaller, and the whole City feels that +this is no time for profit-making, but for hard and ill-paid work, with +depleted staffs, to help the great task of financing a great war. The +Stock Exchange is half empty and nearly idle. It is tied and bound by +all sorts of regulations in its dealings, and its members have probably +suffered as severely from the war as any section of the community. The +first interest of the City is unquestionably peace; and the fact that +the City is nevertheless full of fine, full-flavoured patriotic fervour +only shows that it is ready and eager to sink its interests in favour of +those of its country. + +Every knot that international finance ties between one country and +another makes people in those two countries interested in their mutual +good relations. The thing is so obvious, that, when one considers the +number of these knots that have been tied since international finance +first began to gather capital from one country's investors and place it +at the disposal of others for the development of their resources, one +can only marvel that the course of international goodwill has not made +further progress. The fact that it is still a remarkably tender plant, +likely to be crushed and withered by any breath of popular prejudice, is +rather a comforting evidence of the slight importance that mankind +attaches to the question of its bread and butter. It is clear that a +purely material consideration, such as the interests of international +finance, and the desire of those who have invested abroad to receive +their dividends, weighs very little in the balance when the nations +think that their honour or their national interests are at stake. Since +the gilded cords of trade and finance have knit all the world into one +great market, the proposition that war does not pay has become +self-evident to any one who will give the question a few minutes' +thought. International finance is a peacemaker every time it sends a +British pound into a foreign country. But its influence as a peacemaker +is astonishingly feeble just for this reason, that its appeal is to an +interest which mankind very rightly disregards whenever it feels that +more weighty matters are in question. The fact that war does not pay is +an argument that is listened to as little by a nation when its blood is +up, as the fact that being in love does not pay would be heeded by an +amorous undergraduate. + +If, then, the voice of international finance is so feeble when it is +raised against the terrible scourge of war, can it have much force on +the rare occasions when it speaks in its favour? For there is no +inconsistency with the view that finance is a peacemaker, if we now +acknowledge that finance may sometimes ask for the exertion of force on +its behalf. As private citizens we all of us want to live at peace with +our neighbours, but if one of them steals our property or makes a public +nuisance of himself, we sometimes want to invoke the aid of the strong +arm of the law in dealing with him. Consequently, although it cannot be +true that finance wanted war such as this one, it cannot be denied that +wars have happened in the past, which have been furthered by financiers +who believed that they suffered wrongs which only war could put right. +The Egyptian war of 1882 is a case in point, and the South African war +of 1899 is another. + +In Egypt international finance had lent money to a potentate ruling an +economically backward people, without taking much trouble to consider +how the money was to be spent, or whether the country could stand the +charge on its revenues that the loans would involve. The fact that it +did so was from one point of view a blunder and from another a crime, +but this habit of committing blunders and crimes, which is sometimes +indulged in by finance as by all other forms of human activity, will +have to be dealt with in our next chapter, when we deal with the evils +of international finance. The consequence of this blunder was that Egypt +went into default, and England's might was used on behalf of the +bondholders who had made a bad investment. This fact has been put +forward by Mr. Brailsford, in his very interesting book on "The War of +Steel and Gold," and by other writers, to show that our diplomacy is the +tool of international finance, and that the forces created by British +taxpayers for the defence of their country's honour, are used for the +sordid purpose of wringing interest for a set of money-grubbers in the +City, out of a poor and down-trodden peasantry overburdened by the +exactions and extortions of their rulers. Mr. Brailsford, of course, +puts his case much better than I can, in any brief summary of his views. +He has earned and won the highest respect by his power as a brilliant +writer, and by his disinterested and consistent championship of the +cause of honesty and justice, wherever and whenever he thinks it to be +in danger. Nevertheless, in this matter of the Egyptian war I venture to +think that he is mistaking the tail for the dog. Diplomacy, I fancy, was +not wagged by finance, but used finance as a very opportune pretext. If +Egypt had been Brazil, it is not very likely that the British fleet +would have shelled Rio de Janeiro. The bondholders would have been +reminded of the sound doctrine, _caveat emptor_, which signifies that +those who make a bad bargain have only themselves to blame, and must +pocket their loss with the best grace that they can muster. As it was, +Egypt had long ago been marked out as a place that England wanted, +because of its vitally important position on the way to India. Kinglake, +the historian, writing some three-quarters of a century ago, long before +the Suez Canal was built, prophesied that Egypt would some day be ours. +In Chapter XX. of "Eothen," comes this well known passage on the Sphynx +(he spelt it thus):-- + + "And we, we shall die, and Islam will wither away, and the + Englishman, leaning far over to hold his loved India, will + plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit in the + seats of the Faithful, and still that sleepless rock will + lie watching, and watching the works of the new, busy race, + with those same sad, earnest eyes, and the same tranquil + mien everlasting." + +After the building of the Canal, the command of this short cut to India +made Egypt still more important. England bought shares in the Canal, so +using finance as a means to a political object; and it did so still more +effectively when it used the Egyptian default and the claims of English +bondholders as an excuse for taking its seat in Egypt and sitting there +ever since. The bondholders were certainly benefited, but it is my +belief that they might have whistled for their money until the crack of +doom if it had not been that their claims chimed in with Imperial +policy. It may have been wicked of us to take Egypt, but if so let us +lay the blame on the right doorstep and not abuse the poor bondholder +and financier who only wanted their money and were used as a stalking +horse by the Machiavellis of Downing Street. Mr Brailsford's own account +of the matter, indeed, shows very clearly that policy, and not finance, +ruled the whole transaction. + +In South Africa there was no question of default, or of suffering +bondholders. There was a highly prosperous mining industry in a country +that had formerly belonged to us, and had been given back to its Dutch +inhabitants under circumstances which the majority of people in this +country regarded as humiliating. On this occasion even the pretext was +political. It may have been that the English mine-owners thought they +could earn better profits under the British flag than under the rule of +Mr. Kruger, though I am inclined to believe that even in their case +their incentive was chiefly a patriotic desire to repaint in red that +part of the map in which they carried on their business. Certainly their +grievance, as it was put before us at home, was frankly and purely +political. They said they wanted a vote and that Mr. Kruger would not +give them one. That acute political thinker, Mr. Dooley of Chicago, +pointed out at the time that if Mr. Kruger "had spint his life in a rale +raypublic where they burn gas," he would have given them the votes, but +done the counting himself. But Mr. Kruger did not adopt this cynical +expedient, and public opinion here, though a considerable minority +detested the war, endorsed the determination of the Government to +restore the disputed British suzerainty over the Transvaal into actual +sovereignty. Subsequent events, largely owing to the ample +self-government given to the Transvaal immediately after its conquest, +have shown that the war did more good than harm; and the splendid defeat +of the Germans by the South African forces under General Botha--our most +skilful opponent fifteen years ago--has, we may hope, wiped out all +traces of the former conflict. But what we are now concerned with is the +fact, which will be endorsed by all whose memory goes back to those +days, that the South African war, though instigated and furthered by +financial interests, would never have happened if public opinion had not +been in favour of it on grounds which were quite other than +financial--the desire to bring back the Transvaal into the British +Empire and to wipe out the memory of the surrender after Majuba, and +humanitarian feeling which believed, rightly or wrongly, that the +natives would be treated better under our rule. These may or may not +have been good reasons for going to war, but at least they were not +financial. + +Summing up the results of this rather discursive chapter we see that the +chief benefit conferred on mankind by international finance is a +quickening of the pace at which the wealth of the world is increased and +multiplied, by using the capital saved by old countries for fostering +the productive power of new ones. This is surely something solid on the +credit side of the balance sheet, though it would be a good deal more so +if mankind had made better progress with the much more difficult problem +of using and distributing its wealth. If the rapid increase of wealth +merely means that honest citizens, who find it as hard as ever to earn a +living, are to be splashed with more mud from more motor-cars full of +more road hogs, then there is little wonder if the results of +international finance produce a feeling of disillusionment. But at least +it must be admitted that the stuff has to be grown and made before it +can be shared, and that a great advance has been made even in the +general distribution of comfort. If we still find it hard to make a +living, that is partly because we have very considerably expanded, +during the course of the last generation or two, our notion of what we +mean by a living. + +As to the sinister influence alleged to be wielded by international +finance in the councils of diplomacy, it has been shown that war on a +great scale terrifies finance and inflicts great distress on it. To +suppose, therefore, that finance is interested in the promotion of such +wars is to suppose that it is a power shortsighted to the point of +imbecility. In the case of wars which finance is believed with some +truth to have helped to instigate, we have seen that it could not have +done so if other influences had not helped it. In short, both the +occurrence of the present war, and the circumstances that led up to war +in Egypt and South Africa, have shown how little power finance wields in +the realm of foreign politics. In the City if one suggests that our +Foreign Office is swayed by financial influences one is met by +incredulous mockery, probably accompanied by assertions that the +Foreign Office is, in fact, neglectful, to a fault, of British financial +interests abroad, and that when it does, as in China, interfere with +financial matters, it is apt to tie the hands of finance, in order to +further what it believes to be the political interests of the country. +The formation of the Six Power Group in China meant that the financial +strength of England and France had to be shared, for political reasons, +with powers which had, on purely financial grounds, no claim whatever to +participate in the business of furnishing capital to China. The +introduction to the 1898 edition of "Fenn on the Funds," expresses the +view that our Government is ready to protect our traders abroad, but +only helps investors when it suits it to do so. "If," it says, "a +barbarian potentate's subjects rob a British trader we never hesitate to +insist upon the payment of liberal compensation, which we enforce if +necessary by a 'punitive expedition,' but if a civilized Government robs +a large number of British investors, the Government does not even, so +far as we know, enlist the help of its diplomatic service. Only when, +as in the case of Egypt, there are important political objects in view, +does the State protect those citizens who are creditors of foreign +nations. One or two other countries, notably Germany, set us a good +example, with the best results as far as their investors are concerned." +Germany is often thus taken as the example of the State which gives its +financiers the most efficient backing abroad; but even in Germany +finance is, like everything else, the obedient servant of the military +and political authorities. For several years before the present war, the +financiers of Berlin were forbidden to engage in moneylending operations +abroad. No doubt the Government saw that the present war was coming, and +so it preferred to keep German money at home. It is true that Germany +once shook its mailed fist with some vigour on behalf of its financial +interest when it made, with us, a demonstration against Venezuela. But +it is at least possible that it did so chiefly with a view to the +promotion of the popularity of its navy at home, and to making it easier +to get the money for its upkeep and increase from the taxpayers, +already oppressed by their military burden. In Morocco questions of +trade and finance were at the back of the quarrel, but it would not have +become acute if it had not been for the expected political consequences +that were feared from the financial penetration that was being +attempted; and as has been already pointed out, the financiers are +generally credited with having persuaded Germany to agree to a +settlement on that occasion. + +In short, finance, if left to itself, is international and peace-loving. +Many financiers are at the same time ardent patriots, and see in their +efforts to enrich themselves and their own country a means for +furthering its political greatness and diplomatic prestige. Man is a +jumble of contradictory crotchets, and it would be difficult to find +anywhere a financier who lived, as they are all commonly supposed to do, +purely for the pleasure of amassing wealth. If such a being could be +discovered he would probably be a lavish subscriber to peace societies, +and would show a deep mistrust of diplomatists and politicians. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Quoted by the _Financial News_ of September 28, 1915.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +THE EVILS OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCE + +No one who writes of the evils of international finance runs any risk of +being "gravelled for lack of matter." The theme is one that has been +copiously developed, in a variety of keys by all sorts and conditions of +composers. Since Philip the Second of Spain published his views on +"financiering and unhallowed practices with bills of exchange," and +illustrated them by repudiating his debts, there has been a chorus of +opinion singing the same tune with variations, and describing the +financier as a bloodsucker who makes nothing, and consumes an inordinate +amount of the good things that are made by other people. + +It has already been shown that capital, saved by thrifty folk, is +essential to industry as society is at present built and worked; and the +financiers are the people who see to the management of these savings, +their collection into the great reservoir of the money market, and their +placing at the disposal of industry. It seems, therefore, that, though +not immediately concerned with the making of anything, the financiers +actually do work which is now necessary to the making of almost +everything. Railway managers do not make anything that can be touched or +seen, but the power to move things from the place where they are grown +or made, to the place where they are eaten or otherwise consumed or +enjoyed, is so important that industry could not be carried on on its +present scale without them; and that is only another way of saying that, +if it had not been for the railway managers, a large number of us who at +present do our best to enjoy life, could never have been born. +Financiers are, if possible, even more necessary, to the present +structure of industry than railway men. If, then, there is this general +prejudice against people who turn an all important wheel in the +machinery of modern production, it must either be based on some popular +delusion, or if there is any truth behind it, it must be due to the fact +that the financiers do their work ill, or charge the community too much +for it, or both. + +Before we can examine this interesting problem on its merits, we have to +get over one nasty puddle that lies at the beginning of it. Much of the +prejudice against financiers is based on, or connected with, +anti-Semitic feeling, that miserable relic of medieval barbarism. No +candid examination of the views current about finance and financiers can +shirk the fact that the common prejudice against Jews is at the back of +them; and the absurdity of this prejudice is a very fair measure of the +validity of other current notions on the subject of financiers. The Jews +are, chiefly, and in general, what they have been made by the alleged +Christianity of the so-called Christians among whom they have dwelt. An +obvious example of their treatment in the good old days, is given by +Antonio's behaviour to Shylock. Antonio, of whom another character in +the _Merchant of Venice_ says that-- + + + "A kinder gentleman treads not the earth," + +not only makes no attempt to deny that he has spat on the wicked +Shylock, and called him cut-throat dog, but remarks that he is quite +likely to do so again. Such was the behaviour towards Jews of the +princely Venetian merchant, whom Shakespeare was portraying as a model +of all the virtues.[5] Compare also, for a more modern example, Kinglake +in a note to Chapter V of "Eothen." + + "The Jews of Smyrna are poor, and having little merchandize + of their own to dispose of, they are sadly importunate in + offering their services as intermediaries; their troublesome + conduct had led to the custom of beating them in the open + streets. It is usual for Europeans to carry long sticks with + them, for the express purpose of keeping off the chosen + people. I always felt ashamed to strike the poor fellows + myself, but I confess to the amusement with which I + witnessed the observance of this custom by other people." + +Originally, as we see from the Hebrew scriptures, a hardy race of +shepherds, farmers, and warriors, they were forced into the business of +finance by the canonical law which forbade Christians to lend money at +interest, and also by the persecution, robbery and risk of banishment to +which Christian prejudice made them always liable. For these reasons +they had to have their belongings in a form in which they could at any +moment be concealed from robbers, or packed up and carried off if their +owners suddenly found themselves told to quit their homes. So they were +practically compelled to traffic in coins and precious metals and +jewellery, and in many places all other trades and professions were +expressly forbidden to them. This traffic in coins and metals naturally +led to the business of moneylending and finance, and the centuries of +practice, imposed on them by Christianity, have given them a skill in +this trade, which is now the envy of Christians who have in the meantime +found out that there is nothing wicked about moneylending, when it is +honestly done. At the same time these centuries of persecution have +given the Jews other qualities which we have more reason to envy than +their skill in finance, such as their strong family affection and the +steadfastness with which they stand by one another in all countries of +the world. The fact of their being scattered over the face of the earth +has given them added strength since finance became international. The +great Jew houses have relations and connections in every business +centre, and so their power has been welded, by centuries of racial +prejudice, into a weapon the strength of which it is easy for popular +imagination to exaggerate. Christendom forced the money power into the +hands of this persecuted race, and now feels sorry when it sees that in +an ordered and civilized society, in which it is no longer possible to +roast an awkward creditor alive, money power is a formidable force. That +a large part of this power is in the hands of a family party, scattered +over all lands in which finance is possible, is another reason why, as I +have already shown, international finance works for peace. The fact of +the existence of the present war, however, shows that the limits of its +power are soon reached, at times when the nations believe that their +honour and safety can only be assured by bloodshed. + +A large part of the popular prejudice against financiers may thus be +ascribed to anti-Semitic feeling. We are still like the sailor who was +found beating a Jew as a protest against the Crucifixion, and, when +told that it had happened nearly two thousand years ago, said that he +had only heard of it that morning. + +But, when we have purged our minds of this stupid prejudice, we are +still faced by the fact that international finance is often an unclean +business, bad both for the borrower and for the lender and profitable +only to a horde of parasites in the borrowing country, and to those who +handle the loan in the lending country, and get subscriptions to it from +investors who are subsequently sorry that they put their eggs into a +basket with no bottom to it. Under ideal conditions our money is lent by +us, through a first-rate and honourable finance house, to a country +which makes honest use of it in developing its resources and increasing +its power to make and grow things. The loan is taken out from England in +the shape of goods and services required for the equipment of a young +country, and the interest comes in every year in the shape of food and +raw material that feeds us and helps our industry. Such, it may be +asserted with confidence, is the usual course of events, and must have +been so, or England could not have been so greatly enriched by her +moneylending operations abroad, and the productive power of the world +could not have grown as it has, under the top-dressing that our finance +and trade have given it. But though it is thus clear enough that the +business must have been on the whole honestly and soundly worked, there +have been some ugly stains on its past, and its recent history has not +been quite free from unsavoury features. + +In 1875 public opinion was so deeply stirred by the manner in which +English investors and borrowing states had suffered from the system by +which the business of international finance was handled, that a Select +Committee of the House of Commons was "appointed to inquire into the +circumstances attending the making of contracts for Loans with certain +Foreign States and also the causes which have led to the non-payment of +the principal moneys and interest due in respect of such loans." Its +report is a very interesting document, well worth the attention of those +interested in the vagaries of human folly. It will astound the reader +by reason of the wickedness of the waste of good capital involved, and +at the same time it is a very pleasant proof of the progress that has +been made in finance during the last half century. It is almost +incredible that such things should have happened so lately. It is quite +impossible that they could happen now. + +In 1867 the Republic of Honduras had been for forty years in default on +its portion, amounting to £27,200, of a loan issued in London in 1825, +for the Federal States of Central America. Nevertheless it contracted +with Messrs. B---- and G---- for a loan of £1,000,000 to be issued in +Paris and London. The loan was to be secured on a railway, to be built, +or begun, out of its proceeds, and by a first mortgage on all the +domains and forests of the State. The Government undertook to pay +£140,000 annually for fifteen years, to meet interest on and redemption +of the loan. As it had been forty years in default on a loan which only +involved a charge of £1632, it is hard to imagine how the State could +have entered into such a liability, or how any issuing house could have +had the temerity to put it before the public. + +The public was the only party to the proceedings which showed any sense. +Don C---- G----, representative of the Honduras Government in London, +relates in the record of these events that he put before the Committee, +that "the First Honduras Loan in spite of all the advantages which it +offered to subscribers" [issue price, 80, interest 10 per cent., sinking +fund of 3 per cent, which would redeem the whole loan at par within 17 +years] "and the high respectability of the house which managed the +operation, was received by the public with perfect indifference, with +profound contempt; and according to the deficient and vague information +which reached the Legation, there were hardly any other subscriptions +than one of about £10,000 made by the firm of B----itself," Don G----, +however, seems to have slightly exaggerated the wisdom of the public; in +any case the Committee found that by June 30, 1868, by some means +£48,000 of the loan was held by the public, and £952,000 was in +possession of the representatives of the Honduras Government. On that +day a Mr. L---- undertook to take over the Government's holding at £68 +12s. per bond, and pay current interest. A market was made, brokers were +prevailed on to interest their friends in the security, and in two +years' time the bonds were disposed of. The quotation was skilfully kept +above the issue price and in November, 1868, it reached 94. + +The story of this loan is complicated by the fact that half of it was at +the time alleged to have been placed in Paris, but it appears, as far as +one can disentangle fact from the twisted skein of the report, that the +Paris placing must have resulted much as did the first effort made in +London, and that practically the whole of the bonds there issued came +back into the hands of the representatives of Honduras. + +At the end of the proceedings the whole amount of the loan seemed to +have been disposed of in London, £631,000 having been sold to Mr. L---- +and passed on by him by the means described above, £200,000 having been +issued to railway contractors, £10,800 having been "drawn before issue +and cancelled," while £49,500 was "issued in exchange for scrip," and +£108,500 was taken on account of commission and expenses. + +The actual cash received on account of this loan appears, though the +Committee's figures are difficult to follow, to have come to just over +half a million. Out of the half million £16,850 went in cash commission, +and £106,000 in interest and sinking fund, leaving about £380,000 for +the railway contractors and the Government. On this loan the Committee +observes that the commission paid, of £108,500 bonds, and £16,850 in +cash was "greatly in excess of what is usually charged by contractors +for loans." + +So far it was only a case of a thoroughly speculative transaction +carried through by means of the usual accompaniments. A defaulting State +believed to be possessed of great potential wealth, thought, or was +induced to think, that by building a railway it could tap that wealth. +The whole thing was a pure possibility. If the loan had been +successfully placed at the issue price it would have sufficed to build +the first section (fifty-three miles) of railway, and to leave something +over for work in the mahogany forests. It is barely possible that in +time the railway might have enabled the Government to produce enough +stuff out of its forests to meet the charges of the loan. But the +possibility was so remote that the terms offered had to be so liberal +that they frightened the public, which happened to be in a sensible +mood, until it was induced to buy by the creation of a market on the +Stock Exchange; the employment of intermediaries on disastrous terms, +and finally default, as soon as the loan charge could no longer be paid +out of the proceeds of the loan, completed the tale. + +In May, 1869, the Minister for Honduras in Paris, M. H----, "took steps" +to issue a loan for 62,250,060 francs, or £2,490,000. Out of it a small +sum (about £62,000) was paid to the railway contractors in London, but +little of it seems to have been genuinely placed, since, when the +Franco-German war broke out in July, 1870, M. H---- sent 2,500,000 +francs in cash (£100,000), and 39,000,000 francs in bonds, to Messrs. +B---- and G---- in London. Messrs. B---- and others made an agreement +with Mr. C. L----, presumably the gentleman who had taken over and +dealt with the unplaced balance of the First London Loan. By its terms +the net price to be paid by him for each 300 francs (£12) bond issued +originally at 225 francs (£9), was 124 francs (not quite £5). He +succeeded in selling bonds enough to realize £408,460, and he, together +with Messrs. B---- and G----, received £51,852 in commission for so +doing. + +In the spring of 1870, the Honduras Government, still hankering after +its railway and the wealth that it was to open up, determined to try +again with another loan. Something had to be done to encourage investors +to take it. A few days before the prospectus appeared a statement was +published in a London newspaper to the effect that two ships had arrived +in the West India Docks from Truxillo (Honduras) with cargoes of +mahogany and fustic consigned to Messrs. B---- and G----on account of +the Honduras Railway Loan, and that two others were loading at Truxillo +with similar cargoes on the same account. These cargoes had not been cut +by the Honduras Government. It had bought them from timber merchants, +and they were found to be of most inferior quality. In the opinion of +the Committee "the purchase of these cargoes and the announcement of +their arrival in the form above referred to, were intended to induce, +and did induce, the public to believe that the hypothecated forests were +providing means for paying the interest upon the loan." + +With the help of this fraud, and with a free and extensive market made +on the Stock Exchange, the 1870 Honduras 10 per cent. loan for +£2,500,000 nominal was successfully issued at 80. It also had a sinking +fund of 3 per cent., which was to pay it off in fifteen years. Mr. L---- +again handled the operation, having taken over the contract from Messrs. +B---- and G----. But the success of the issue was more than hollow. It +was empty. For Mr. L----, in the process of making the market to promote +it, had bought nearly the whole loan. Applicants had evidently sold +nearly as fast as they applied; for on the 15th December, when the last +instalment was to be paid, less than £200,000 bonds remained in the +hands of the public. Nevertheless by October, 1872, nearly the whole of +the loan had been somehow disposed of to investors or speculators. One +of the means taken to stimulate the demand for them was the announcement +of extra drawings of bonds at par, over and above the operation of the 3 +per cent, sinking fund, provided by the prospectus. + +There is no need to linger over the complicated details of this sordid +story. The Committee's report sums up, as follows, the net results of +the 1869 and 1870 loans of Honduras:-- + +"In tracing the disposal of the proceeds of the 1869 and 1870 loans, it +must be remembered that your Committee had no evidence before them +relating to the funds resulting from three-fifths of the loan of 1869; +only two-fifths of the loan was realized in this country, the remainder +was disposed of in Paris before August, 1870, and no account of the +application of the funds resulting from such portion of the loan could +be obtained. + +"The two-fifths of the 1869 loan, and the whole of the loan of 1870, +produced net £2,051,511; out of this sum only £145,254 has been paid to +the railway contractors; a sum of £923,184 would have been sufficient to +discharge the interest and sinking fund in respect of the issued bonds +of the three loans, yet the trustees ... paid to Mr. L----£1,339,752 or +£416,568 beyond the sum so required to be paid upon the issued bonds of +the loans. + +"There was paid to him for commissions (apart from expenses) on the +three loans, out of the above proceeds, the sum of £216,852. He also +received out of the same proceeds £41,090, being the difference between +£370,000 cash paid to him by the trustees and £328,910 scrip returned by +him to them. This £41,090 probably represents the premiums paid on the +purchase of the scrip before or immediately after the allotment of the +loan, and was certainly a misapplication of the proceeds of the loan. + +"Mr. L---- was also paid, out of these proceeds, a further sum of +£57,318, nearly the whole of which seems to be a payment in discharge of +an allowance of £8 per bond in respect of the dealings in the 1867 +loan.... In addition ... it will be remembered that Mr. L---- received +£50,000 'to maintain the credit of Honduras.' + +"He also on the 18th of June, 1872, obtained £173,570 by delivering to +the trustees ... 5042 bonds of the 1870 loan, at £75 Per bond and 33,000 +bonds of the 1869 loan at 104 francs per bond, and retaking them at the +same time from the trustees at £50 and 104 francs per bond respectively. +Mr. L---- had contracted to pay for these bonds and they had been issued +to him at the prices of £75 and 104 francs respectively, and the +remission in the price therefore amounted to a gift to him of £173,570 +... out of this portion of the loan of 1869, and the loan of 1870, Mr. +L----has received in cash, or by the remission of his contracts, +£955,398." + +It is little wonder that Honduras has been in default on these loans +ever since. In its Report the Committee commented severely on the action +of Don C---- G----, the London representative of the Republic. "He +sanctioned," it says, "Stock Exchange dealings and speculations in the +loans which no Minister should have sanctioned. He was a party to the +purchase of the mahogany cargoes, and permitted the public to be misled +by the announcements in relation to them. By express contract he +authorized the 'additional drawings.' He assisted Mr. L---- to +appropriate to himself large sums out of the proceeds of the loans to +which he was not entitled." Very likely he had not a notion as to what +the whole thing meant, and only thought that he was doing his best to +finance his country along the road to wealth. But the fact remains that +by these actions he made his Government a party to the proceedings that +were so unfortunate for it and so ruinous to the holders of its bonds. + +After its examination of these and other less sensational but equally +disastrous issues the Committee made various recommendations, chiefly in +the direction of greater publicity in prospectuses, and ended by +expressing their conviction that "the best security against the +recurrence of such evils as they have above described will be found, +not so much in legislative enactments, as in the enlightenment of the +public as to their real nature and origin." + +If the scandals and losses involved by loan issues were always on this +Gargantuan scale, there would be little difficulty about disposing of +them, both on economic and moral grounds, and showing that there is, and +can be, only one side to the problem. But when it is only a question, +not of fraud on a great scale but of a certain amount of underhand +business, such as is quite usual in some latitudes, and a certain amount +of doubt as to the use that is likely to be made by the borrower of the +money placed at its disposal, it is not so easy to feel sure about the +duty of an issuing house in handling foreign loans. At a point, in fact, +the question becomes full of subtleties and casuistical difficulties. + +For instance, let us suppose that an emissary of the Republic of +Barataria approaches a London issuing house and intimates that it wants +a loan for 3 millions sterling, to be spent half in increasing the +Republic's navy, and half in covering a deficit in its Budget, and that +he, the said emissary, has full power to treat for the loan, and that a +commission of 2 per cent. is to be paid to him by the issuing house, +which can have the loan at a price that will easily enable it to pay +this commission. That is to say, we will suppose that the Republic will +take 85 for the price of its bonds, which are to carry 5 per cent. +interest, to be secured by a lien on the customs receipts, and to be +redeemed in thirty years' time by a cumulative Sinking Fund working by +annual drawings at par, or by purchase in the market if the bonds can be +bought below par. If the Republic's existing 5 per cent. bonds stand, +let us say, at 98 in the market, this gives the issuing house a good +prospect of being able to sell the new ones easily at 95, and so it has +a 10 per cent. margin out of which to pay stamps, underwriting and other +expenses, and commission to the intermediary who brought the proposal, +and to keep a big profit to themselves. From the point of view of their +own immediate interest there is every reason why they should close with +the bargain, especially if we assume that the Republic is fairly rich +and prosperous, and that there is little fear that its creditors will +be left in the lurch by default. + +From the point of view of national interest there is also much to be +said for concluding the transaction. We may, with very good ground, +assume that it would also be intimated to the issuing house that a group +of Continental financiers was very willing to take the business up, that +it had only been offered to it owing to old standing relations between +it and the Republic, and that, if it did not wish to do the business, +the loan would readily be raised in Paris or Berlin. By refusing, the +London firm would thus prevent all the profit made by the operation from +coming to England instead of to a foreign centre. But there is much more +behind. For we have seen that finance and trade go hand-in-hand, and +that when loan-houses in the City make advances to foreign countries, +the hives of industry in the North are likely to be busy. It has not +been usual here to make any express stipulation to the effect that the +money, or part of it, raised by a loan is to be spent in England, but it +is clear that when a nation borrows in England it is thereby +predisposed to giving orders to English industry for goods that it +proposes to buy. And even if it does not do so, the mere fact that +England promises, by making the loan, to hand over so much money, in +effect obliges her to sell goods or services valued at that amount as +was shown on an earlier page.[6] On the Continent, this stipulation is +usual. So that the issuing house would know that, if they make the loan, +it is likely that English shipbuilders will get the orders on which part +of it is to be spent, and that in any case English industry in one form +or another will be drawn on to supply goods or services to somebody; +whereas if they refuse the business it is certain that the industrial +work involved will be lost to England. + +On the other side of the account there are plenty of good reasons +against the business. In the first place the terms offered are so +onerous to the borrower that it may safely be said that no respectable +issuing house in London would look at them. In effect the Republic +would be paying nearly 6 per cent, on the money, if it sold its 5 per +cent. bonds at 85, and the state of its credit, as expressed by the +price of its bonds in the market, would not justify such a rate. The +profit offered to the issuing house is too big, and the commission +demanded by the intermediary is so large that it plainly points to evil +practices in Barataria. It means that interested parties have made +underhand arrangements with the Finance Minister, and that the Republic +is going to be plundered, not in the fine full-flavoured style that +ruled in earlier generations, but to an extent that makes the business +too disreputable to handle. Any honourable English house would consider +that the terms offered to itself and the conditions proposed by the +emissary were such that the operation was suspicious, and that being +mixed up with suspicious business was a luxury that it preferred to +leave alone. + +On other grounds the loan, well secured as it seems to be, is not of a +kind to be encouraged. We have supposed its purpose to be, firstly, to +meet a deficit in a Budget, and secondly, to pay for naval expansion. +Neither of these objects is going to improve the financial position of +the Republic. Covering a deficit by loan is bad finance in any case, but +especially so when the loan is raised abroad. In the latter case it is +most likely that the borrowing State is outrunning the constable, by +importing more goods than it can pay for out of current production. + +If it imports for the purpose of increasing its productive power by +buying such things as railway material, then it is making a perfectly +legitimate use of its credit, as long as the money is well spent, and +the railways are honestly built, with a prospect of opening up good +country, and are not put into the wrong place for political or other +reasons. But if this were so, the money would not be wanted to balance a +Budget, but on railway capital account. When a balance has to be filled +by borrowing it can only mean that the State has spent more than its +revenue from taxes permits, and that it is afraid to cut down its +expenses by retrenchment or to increase its revenue by taxing more +highly. And so it chooses the primrose path of dalliance with a +moneylender. + +As to naval expenditure, here again we have bad finance writ large over +the proposal. It is not good business for countries to borrow in order +to increase their armies and navies in time of peace, and the practice +is especially objectionable when the loan is raised abroad. In time of +war, when expenditure has to be so great and so rapid, that the +taxpayers could not be expected to have it all taken out of their +pockets by the tax-gatherer, there is some excuse for borrowing for +naval and military needs; though even in time of war, if we could +imagine an ideal State, with every citizen truly patriotic, and properly +educated in economics and finance, and with wealth so fairly distributed +and taxation so fairly imposed that there would be no possibility of any +feeling of grievance and irritation among any class of taxpayers, it +would probably decide that the simplest and most honest way of financing +war is to do so wholly out of taxation. In time of peace, borrowing for +expenditure on defence simply means that the cost of a need of to-day is +met by someone who is hired to meet it, by a promise of interest and +repayment, the provision of which is passed on to the citizens of +to-morrow. It is always urged, of course, that the citizens of to-morrow +are as deeply interested in the defence of the realm that they are to +inherit as those of to-day, but that argument ignores the obvious fact +that to-morrow will bring its own problems of defence with it, which +seem likely to be at least as costly as those of the present day. +Another objection to lending economically backward countries money to be +invested in ships, is that we thereby encourage them to engage in +shipbuilding rivalry, and to join in that race for aggressive power +which has laid so sore a burden on the older peoples. The business is +also complicated by the unpleasant activities of the armament firms of +all countries, which are said to expend much ingenuity in inducing the +Governments of the backward peoples to indulge in the luxury of +battleships. Here, again, there is no need to paint too lurid a picture. +The armament firms are manufacturers with an article to sell, which is +important to the existence of any nation with a seaboard; and they are +entirely justified in legitimate endeavours to push their wares. The +fact that the armament firms of England, Germany, and France had certain +interests in common, is often used as a text for sermons on the subject +of the unpatriotic cynicism of international finance. It is easy to +paint them as a ring of cold-blooded devils trying to stimulate +bloodthirsty feeling between the nations so that there may be a good +market for weapons of destruction. From their point of view, they are +providers of engines of defence which they make, in the first place, for +the use of their own country, and are ready to supply also, in time of +peace, to other nations in order that their plant may be kept running, +and the cost of production may be kept low. This is one of the matters +on which public opinion may have something to say when the war is over. +In the meantime it may be noted that unsavoury scandals have +occasionally arisen in connection with the placing of battleship orders, +and that this is another reason why a loan to finance them is likely to +have an unpleasant flavour in the nostrils of the fastidious. + +But if we admit the very worst that the most searching critic of +international finance can allege against the proposal that we imagine to +be put forward by the Republic of Barataria--if we admit that a loan to +balance a deficit and pay for ships probably implies wastefulness, +corruption, political rottenness, impecunious Chauvinism and all the +rest of it, the question still arises whether it is the business of an +issuing house to refuse the chance of doing good business for itself and +for the London money-market, because it has reason to believe that the +money lent will not be well spent. In the case supposed, we have seen +that the terms offered and the commission to be made by the intermediary +were such that the latter would have been shown the door. But if these +matters had been satisfactory, ought the proposal to have been rejected +because the loan was to be raised for unproductive purposes? + +In other words, is it the business of an issuing house to take care of +the economic morals of its clients, or is it merely concerned to see +that the securities which it offers to the public are well secured? In +ordinary life, and in the relations between moneylender and borrower at +home, no such question could be asked. If I went to my banker and asked +for a loan and gave him security that he thought good enough, it would +not occur to him to ask what I was going to do with the money--whether I +was going to use it in a way that would increase my earning capacity, or +on building myself a billiard room and a conservatory, or on a visit to +Monte Carlo. He would only be concerned with making sure that any of his +depositors' money that he lent to me would be repaid in due course, and +the manner in which I used or abused the funds lent to me would be a +question in which I only was concerned. If it is the business of an +international finance house to be more careful about the use to which +money that it lends on behalf of clients is put, why should this be so? + +There are several reasons. First, because if the borrower does not see +fit to pay interest on the loan or repay it when it falls due, there is +no process of law by which the lender can recover. If I borrow from my +banker and then default on my debt, he can put me in the bankruptcy +court, and sell me up. Probably he will have protected himself by +making me pledge securities that he can seize if I do not pay, a +safeguard which cannot be had in the case of international borrowing; +but if these securities are found to be of too little value to make the +debt good, everything else that I own can be attached by him. The +international moneylender, on the other hand, if his debtor defaults +may, if he is lucky, induce his Government to bring diplomatic pressure +to bear, for whatever that may be worth. If there is a political purpose +to be served, as in Egypt, he may even find himself used as an excuse +for armed intervention, in the course of which his claims will be +supported, and made good. In many cases, however, he and the bondholders +who subscribed to his issue simply have to say goodbye to their money, +with the best grace that they can muster, in the absence of any law by +which a lender can recover moneys advanced to a sovereign State. With +this essential difference in the conditions under which a banker lends +his depositors' money to a local customer, and those under which an +international house lends its clients' money to a borrowing country, it +follows that the responsible party in the latter case ought to exercise +very much more care to see that the money is well spent. + +In the second place, the customers to whom bankers, in economically +civilized lands, lend the money entrusted to them, may fairly be +presumed to know something about the use and abuse of money and to be +able to take care of themselves. If they borrow money, and then waste it +or spend it in riotous living, they know that they will presently +impoverish themselves, and that they will be the sufferers. But in the +case of a young country, with all its financial experience yet unbought, +there is little or no reason for supposing that its rulers are aware +that they cannot eat their cake and have it. They probably think that by +borrowing to meet a deficit or to build a Dreadnought they are doing +something quite clever, dipping their hands into a horn of plenty that a +kindly Providence has designed for their behoof, and that the loan will +somehow, some day, get itself paid without any trouble to anybody. +Moreover, if they are troubled with any forebodings, the voice of common +sense is likely to be hushed by the reflection that they personally +will not be the sufferers, but the great body of taxpayers, or in the +case of actual default, the deluded bondholders; and that in any case, +the trouble caused by over-borrowing and bad spending is not likely to +come to a head for some years. Its first effect is a flush of fictitious +prosperity which makes everybody happy and enhances the reputation of +the ministers who have arranged it. When, years after, the evil seed +sown has brought to light its crops of tares, it is very unlikely that +the chain of cause and effect will be recognized by its victims, who are +much more likely to lay the bad harvest to the door not of the bad +financier who sowed it, but of some innocent and perhaps wholly virtuous +successor, merely because it was during his term of office that the crop +was garnered. So many are the inducements offered to young States, with +ignorant or evil (or both) rulers at their head, to abuse the facilities +given them by international finance, that there is all the more reason +why those who hold the strings of its purse should exercise very great +caution in allowing them to dip into it. + +There is yet another reason why the attitude of an issuing house, to a +borrowing State, should be paternal or even grand-motherly, as compared +with the purely business-like attitude of a banker to a local borrower. +If the bank makes a bad debt, it has to make it good to its depositors +at the expense of its shareholders. It diminishes the amount that can be +paid in dividends and so the bank is actually out of pocket. The +international financier is in quite a different position. If he arranges +a loan for Barataria, he takes his profit on the transaction, sells the +bonds to investors, or to the underwriters if investors do not apply, +and is, from the purely business point of view, quit of the whole +operation. He still remains responsible for receiving from the State, +and paying to the bondholders, the sum due each half year in interest, +and for seeing to the redemption of the bonds by the operation of the +Sinking Fund, if any. But if anything goes wrong with the interest or +Sinking Fund he is not liable to the bondholders, as the bank is liable +to its depositors. They have got their bonds, and if the bonds are in +default they have made a bad debt and not the issuing house, unless, as +is unlikely, it has kept any of them in its own hands. + +But this absence of any legal liability on the part of the issuing house +imposes on it a very strong moral obligation, which is fully recognized +by the best of them. Just because the bondholders have no right of +action against it, unless it can be shown that it issued a prospectus +containing incorrect statements, it is all the more bound to see that +their money shall not be imperilled by any action of its own. It knows +that a firm with a good reputation as an international finance house has +only to put its name to an issue, and a large number of investors, who +have neither the education nor the knowledge required to form a judgment +on its merits, will send in subscriptions for the bonds on the strength +of the name of the issuing house. This fact makes it an obvious duty on +the part of the latter to see that this trust is deserved. Moreover, it +would obviously be bad business on their part to neglect this duty. For +a good reputation as an issuing house takes years to build up, and is +very easily shaken by any mistake, or even by any accident, which could +not have been foreseen but yet brings a loan that it has handled into +the list of doubtful payers. Mr. Brailsford, indeed, asserts that it may +be to the advantage of bondholders to be faced by default on the part of +their debtors. It may be so in those rare cases in which they can get +reparation and increased security, as in the case of our seizure of +Egypt. But in nine cases out of ten, as is shown by the plaintive story +told by the yearly reports of the Council of Foreign Bondholders, +default means loss and a shock to confidence, even if only temporary, +and is generally followed by a composition involving a permanent +reduction in debt and interest. Investors who have suffered these +unpleasantnesses are likely to remember them for many a long year, and +to remember also the name of the issuing house which fathered the loan +that was the cause of the trouble. + +There are thus many good reasons why it is the business of a careful +issuing firm to see not only that any loan that it offers is well +secured, but also that it is to be spent on objects that will not +impair the productive capacity of the borrowing country by leading it +down the path of extravagance, but will improve it by developing its +resources or increasing its power to move its products. On the other +hand, the temptation to undertake bad business on behalf of an +importunate borrower is great. The profits are considerable for the +issuing house and for all their followers in the City. The indirect +advantages, in the way of trade orders, conferred on the lending +country, are also profitable, and there is always the fear that if +London firms take too austere a view of what is good business for them +and the borrowing countries, the more accommodating loan-mongers of +foreign centres may reap the benefit, and leave them with empty pockets +and the somewhat chilly comfort conferred by the consciousness of a high +ideal in finance. + +One of the most unsatisfactory features about the monetary arrangements +of society, as at present constituted, is the fact that the reward of +effort is so often greater with every degree of evil involved by the +effort. And to some extent this is true in finance. Just as big +fortunes are made by the cheap-jacks who stuff the stomachs of an +ignorant public with patent medicines, while doctors slave patiently for +a pittance on the unsavoury task of keeping overfed people in health; +just as Milton got £5 for "Paradise Lost," while certain modern +novelists are rewarded with thousands of pounds for writing romances +which would never be printed in a really educated community; so in +finance the more questionable--up to a certain point--be the security to +be handled, the greater are the profits of the issuing house, the larger +the commissions of the underwriters and brokers, and the larger are the +amounts paid to the newspapers for advertising. As has already been +observed, that part of the City that lives on handling new issues has +been half starved since the war began, because its activities have been +practically confined to loans issued by the British Government. These +loans have been huge in amount but there has been no underwriting, and +brokerages are cut to the bone. Advertising for the second War Loan was +on a great scale, but in proportion to the amount subscribed the cost +of it was probably small, according to the ideals that ruled before the +war. A Colonial loan, or a first-class American railroad bond, almost +places itself, and the profits on the issue to all who handle it are +proportionately low. The more questionable the security, the more it has +to pay for its footing, and the higher are the profits of those who +father it and assist the process of delivery, as long, that is, as the +birth is successfully accomplished. + +If there is failure, partial or complete, then the task of holding the +baby is longer and more uncomfortable, the more puny and unattractive it +is. If, owing to some accident in the monetary atmosphere, a Colonial +loan does not go off well, the underwriters who find themselves saddled +with it, can easily borrow on it, in normal times, and know that sooner +or later trustees and other real investors will take it off their hands. +But if it is an issue of some minor European power, or of some not too +opulent South American State, that is coldly received by the investing +public, bankers will want a big margin before they accept it as +security for an advance, and it may take years to find a home for it in +the strong boxes of real investors, and then perhaps only at a price +that will leave the underwriters, like Sir Andrew Aguecheek, "a foul way +out." There is thus a logical reason for the higher profits attached to +the more questionable issues, and this reason is found in the greater +risk attached, if failure should ensue. + +Thus we arrive at the reply to those who criticize International Finance +on the ground that it puts too big profits into the pockets of those who +handle it. If the profits are big, it is only in the case of loan issues +which carry with them a considerable risk to the reputation of the +fathering firm, and to the pockets of the underwriters, and involve a +responsibility, and in the case of default, an amount of wholly unpaid +work and anxiety for which the big profits made on the opening +proceedings do not nearly compensate. As in the case of the big gains +made by patent pill merchants, and bad novelists, it is the public, +which is so fond of grumbling because other people make fortunes out of +it, that is really responsible for their doing so, by reason of its own +greed and stupidity. Because it will not take the trouble to find out +how to spend or invest its money, it asks those who are clever enough to +batten on its foibles, to sell it bad stuff and bad securities, and then +feels hurt because it has a pain in its inside, or a worthless bond at +its banker's, while the producers thereof are founding county families. +If the public would learn the A B C of investment, and also learn that +there is an essential difference between investment and speculation, +that they will not blend easily but are likely to spoil one another if +one tries to mix them, then the whole business of loan issuing and +company promotion would be on a sounder basis, with less risk to those +who handle it, and less temptation to them to try for big profits out of +bad ventures. But as long as + + "the fool multitude that choose by show" + +give more attention to the size of an advertisement than to the merits +of the security that it offers, the profits of those who cater for its +weaknesses will wax fat. + +When all has been said that can be urged against the record of +international finance, the fact remains that from the purely material +point of view it has done a great work in increasing the wealth of +mankind. It is true that capital has often been wasted by being lent to +corrupt or improvident borrowers for purposes which were either +objectionable in themselves, or which ought to have been financed, if at +all, out of current revenue. It is true, also, that crimes have been +committed, as in the case of the Putumayo horrors, when the money of +English shareholders has been invested in the exploitation of helpless +natives, accompanied by circumstances of atrocious barbarity. +Nevertheless if we compare the record of finance with that of religion +or international politics, it stands out as by far the cleanest of the +influences that have worked upon the mutual relations of the various +groups of mankind. International Finance makes a series of bargains +between one nation and another, for the mutual benefit of each, +complicated by occasional blunders, some robbery, and, in exceptional +cases, horrible brutality. Religion has stained history with the most +ruthless massacres, and the most unspeakable ingenuity in torture, all +devised for the glory of God, and the furtherance of what its devotees +believed to be His word. International politics have plunged mankind +into a series of bloody and destructive wars, culminating in the present +cataclysm. Finance can only prosper through production; its efforts are +inevitably failures, if they do not tend to the growing and making of +things, or the production of services, that are wanted. Destruction, +reduced to a fine art and embellished by the nicest ingenuities of the +most carefully applied science, is the weapon of international politics. + + _Note_.--The names of the actors in the Honduras drama were + printed in blank because it seemed unfair to do otherwise, + in revising fifty years' old scandals, as an example of what + International Finance can do at its worst. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: _Merchant of Venice_, I, 3.] + +[Footnote 6: Pages 75, 76. (NOTE: See Chapter IV, "In the beginnings of international trade...")] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +NATIONALISM AND FINANCE + +So far we have considered the working of International Finance chiefly +from the point of view of its effects upon the prosperity and comfort of +mankind as a whole and on this country, as the greatest trader, carrier, +and financier of the world. We have seen that the benefit that it works +is wrought chiefly through specialization, that is, through the +production of the good things of the earth in the lands best fitted, by +climate or otherwise, to grow and make them. By lending money to other +lands, and the goods and service that they have bought with it, we have +helped them to produce things for us to consume, or to work up into +other things for our consumption or that of other peoples. Thereby we +have enriched ourselves and the rest of mankind. But the question still +arises whether this process is one that should be left altogether +unchecked, or whether it involves evils which go far to modify its +benefits. In other words is it a good thing for us, socially and +politically, to enrich ourselves beyond a certain point by a process +which involves our dependence on other countries for food and raw +material? + +Analogy between a State and a man is often useful, if not pushed too +far. The original man in a primitive state is always assumed to have +been bound to find or make everything that he wanted by his own +exertions. He was hut builder, hunter, cultivator, bow-maker, +arrow-maker, trapper, fisherman, boat-builder, leather-dresser, tailor, +fighter--a wonderfully versatile and self-sufficient person. As the +process grew up of specialization, and the exchange of goods and +services, all the things that were needed by man were made much better +and more cheaply, but this was only brought about at the expense of each +man's versatility. Nowadays we can all of us do something very much +better than the primitive savage, but we cannot do everything nearly as +well. We have become little insignificant wheels in a mighty great +machine that feeds us and clothes us and provides us with comforts and +luxuries of which he could never have dreamt. He was the whole of his +machine, and was thereby a far more completely developed man. The modern +millionaire, in spite of his enormous indirect power over the forces of +nature, is a puny and ineffective being by the side of his savage +ancestor, in the matter of power to take care of himself with his own +hands and feet and eyes, and with weapons made by his own ingenuity and +cunning. Moreover, though in the case of the millionaire and of all the +comparatively well-to-do classes we can point to great intellectual and +artistic advantages, and many pleasant amenities of life now enjoyed by +them, thanks to the process of specialization, these advantages can only +be enjoyed to the full by comparatively few. To the majority +specialization has brought a life of mechanical and monotonous toil, +with little or none of the pride in a job well done, such as was enjoyed +by the savage when he had made his bow or caught his fish; those who +work all day on some minute process necessary, among many others, to +the turning out of a pin, can never feel the full joy of achievement +such as is gained by a man who has made the whole of anything. Pins are +made much faster, but some of the men who make them remain machines, and +never become men at all in the real sense of the word. And when at the +same time the circumstances of their lives, apart from their work, are +all that they should not be--bad food, bad clothes, bad education, bad +houses, foul atmosphere and dingy and sordid surroundings, it is very +obvious that to a large part of working mankind, the benefits of the +much vaunted division of labour have been accompanied by very serious +drawbacks. The best that can be said is that if it had not been for the +division of labour a large number of them could never have come into +existence at all; and the question remains whether any sort of existence +is better than none. + +In the case of a nation the process of specialization has not, for +obvious reasons, gone nearly so far. Every country does a certain amount +of farming and of seafaring (if it has a seaboard), and of +manufacturing. But the tendency has been towards increasing +specialization, and the last results of specialization, if carried to +its logical end, are not nice to forecast. "It is not pleasant," wrote a +distinguished statistician, "to contemplate England as one vast factory, +an enlarged Manchester, manufacturing in semi-darkness, continual uproar +and at an intense pressure for the rest of the world. Nor would the +continent of America, divided into square, numbered fields, and +cultivated from a central station by electricity, be an ennobling +spectacle."[7] + +It need not be said that the horrible consequences of specialization +depicted by Dr. Bowley need not necessarily have happened, even if its +effects has been given free play. But the interesting point about his +picture, at the present moment, is the fact that it was drawn from the +purely economic and social point of view. He questioned whether it was +really to the advantage of a nation, regarding only its own comfort and +well-being, to allow specialization to go beyond a certain point. It +had already arrived at a point at which land was going out of +cultivation in England, and was being more and more regarded as a park, +pleasure ground and sporting place for people who made, or whose +forbears had made, fortunes out of commerce and finance, and less and +less as a means for supplying food for our workers, and raw material for +our industries. The country workers were going to the new countries that +our capital was opening up, or into the towns to learn industrial +crafts, or taking services as gamekeepers, grooms or chauffeurs, with +the well-to-do classes who earned their profits from industry or +business. Even before the war there was a growing scarcity of labour to +grow, and harvest, even the lessened volume of our agricultural output. +Dr. Bowley's picture was far from being realized and even if the process +of specialization had gone on, it may be hoped that we should have had +sense enough to avoid the blackest of its horrors. + +Then came the war, which went far to undermine the great underlying +assumption on which the free interchange of capital among nations and +the consequent specialization that proceeded from it, was taken to be a +safe and sound policy. This assumption was in effect, that the world was +civilized to a point at which there was no need to fear that its whole +economic arrangements would be upset by war. We now know that the world +was not civilized to this point, and is a very long way from being so, +that the ultimate appeal is still to "arms and the man," and that we +have still to be careful to see that our trade and industry are carried +on in such a way as to be least likely to be hurt if ploughshares have +suddenly to be beaten into swords. At first sight, this is a somewhat +tragical discovery, but it carries with it certain consolations. If the +apparent civilization evolved by the nineteenth century had been good +and wholesome, it might have been really sad to find that it was only a +thin veneer laid over a structure that man's primitive passions might at +any moment overturn. In fact, the apparently achieved civilization was +so grossly material in its successes, so forcibly feeble in its +failures, so beset with vulgarity at its summit and undermined by +destitution at its base, that even the horrors of the present war, with +its appalling loss of the best lives of the chief nations of the earth, +may be a blessing to mankind in the long run if they purge its notions +about the things that are worth trying for. + +At least the war is teaching us that the wealth of a nation is not a +pile of commodities to be frittered away in vulgar ostentation and +stupid self-indulgence, but the number of its citizens who are able and +ready to play the man as workers or fighters when a time of trial comes. +"National prosperity," says Cobbett, "shows itself ... in the plentiful +meal, the comfortable dwelling, the decent furniture and dress, the +healthy and happy countenances, and the good morals of the labouring +classes of the people." So he wrote, in Newgate gaol, in 1810.[8] Since +then many reformers have preached the same sound doctrine, but its +application has made poor progress, in relation to the growth of our +riches in the same period. If we now decide to put it into practice, we +shall not long tolerate the existence in our midst of disease and +destitution, and a system of distribution of the world's goods which +gives millions of our population no chance of full development. + +We need not, then, stay to shed tears over the civilization, such as it +was, which we thought we had and had not. Its good points will endure, +for evil has a comfortable habit of killing itself and those who work +it. All that we are concerned with at this moment is the fact that its +downfall has shaken an article in our economic faith which taught us +that specialization was a cause of so much more good than evil, that its +development by the free spreading of our capital all over the world, +wherever the demand for it gave most profit to the owner, was a tendency +to be encouraged, or at least to be left free to work out its will. This +was true enough to be a platitude as long as we could rely on peace. Our +capital went forth and fertilized the world, and out of its growing +produce the world enriched us. As the world developed its productive +power, its goods poured into us, as the great free mart where all men +were welcome to sell their wares. These goods came in exchange for our +goods and services, and the more we bought the more we sold. When other +nations took to dealing direct with one another, they wanted our capital +to finance the business, and our ships to carry the goods. The world as +a whole could not grow in wealth without enriching the people that was +the greatest buyer and seller, the greatest moneylender and the greatest +carrier. It was all quite sound, apart from the danger depicted by Dr. +Bowley, as long as we had peace, or as long as the wars that happened +were sufficiently restricted in their area and effect. But now we have +seen that war may happen on such a scale as to make the interchange of +products between nations a source of grave weakness to those who +practise it, if it means that they are thereby in danger of finding +themselves at war with the providers of things that they need for +subsistence or for defence. + +Another lesson that the war has taught us is that modern warfare +enormously increases the cost of carriage by sea, because it shuts up in +neutral harbours the merchant ships of the powers that are weaker on +the sea, and makes huge calls, for transport purposes, on those of the +powers which are in the ascendant on the water. This increase in the +cost of sea carriage adds to the cost of all goods that come by sea, and +is a particularly important item in the bill that we, as an island +people, have to pay for the luxury of war. It is true that much of the +high price of freight goes into the pockets of our shipowners, but they, +being busy with transport work for the Government, cannot take nearly so +much advantage of it as the shipmasters of neutral countries. + +The economic argument, then, that it pays best to make and grow things +where they can best be made and grown remains just as true as ever it +was, but it has been complicated by a political objection that if one +happens to go to war with a nation that has supplied raw material, or +half-raw material, for industries that are essential to our commercial +if not to our actual existence, the good profits made in time of peace +are likely to be wiped out, or worse, by the extent of the inconvenience +and paralysis that this dependence brings with it in time of war. And +even if we are not at war with our providers, the greater danger and +cost of carriage by sea, when war is afoot, makes us question the +advantage of the process, for example, by which we have developed a +foreign dairying industry with our capital, and learnt to depend on it +for a large part of our supply of eggs and butter, while at home we have +seen a great magnate lay waste farms in order to make fruitful land into +a wilderness for himself and his deer. It may have paid us to let this +be done if we were sure of peace, but now that we have seen what modern +warfare means, when it breaks out on a big scale, we may surely begin to +think that people who make bracken grow in place of wheat, in order to +improve what auctioneers call the amenities of their rural residences, +are putting their personal gratification first in a question which is of +national importance. + +We may seem to have strayed far from the problems of International +Finance and the free interchange of capital between countries, but in +fact we are in the very middle of them, because they are so complicated +and diverse that they affect nearly every aspect of our national lives. +By sending capital abroad we make other countries produce for us and so +we help a tendency by which we grow less at home, and export coupons, or +demands for interest, instead of the present produce of our brains and +muscles; and we do much more than that, for we thereby encourage the +best of our workers to leave our shores and seek their fortunes in the +new lands which our capital opens up. When we export capital it goes in +the shape of goods and services, and it is followed by an export of men, +who go to lands where land is plentiful and cheap, and men are scarce +and well paid. This process again was sound enough from the purely +economic point of view. It quickened the growth of the world's wealth by +putting men of enterprise in places where their work was most handsomely +rewarded, and their lives were unhampered by the many bars to success +that remnants of feudalism and social restrictions put in their way in +old countries; and it cleared the home labour market and so helped the +workers in their uphill struggle for better conditions and a chance of +a real life. But when the guns begin to shoot, the question must arise +whether we were wise in leaving the export of capital, which has such +great and complicated effects, entirely to the influence of the higgling +of the market, and the price offered by the highest bidder. + +Much will evidently depend on the way in which the present war ends. If +it should prove to be, as so many hoped at its beginning, a "war to end +war," and should be followed by a peace so well and truly founded that +we need have no fear for its destruction, then there will be much to be +said for leaving economic forces to work themselves out by economic +means, subject to any checks that their social effects may make +necessary. But if, as seems to be probable, the war ends in a way that +makes other such wars quite possible, when we have all recovered from +the exhaustion and disgust produced by the present one, then political +expediency may overrule economic advantage, and we may find it necessary +to consider the policy of restricting the export of British capital to +countries with which there is no chance of our ever being at war, and +especially to our own Dominions oversea, not necessarily by prohibitions +and hard and fast rules, but rather by seeing that the countries to +which it is desirable for our capital to go may have some advantage when +they appeal for it. + +This advantage our own colonial Dominions already possess, both from the +sentiment of investors, which is a strong influence in their favour, and +will be stronger than ever after the war, and from legal enactment which +allows trustees to invest trust funds in their loans. Probably the +safest course would be to leave sentiment to settle the matter, and pray +to Providence to give us sensible sentiments. Actual restraints on the +export of capital would be very difficult to enforce, for capital is an +elusive commodity that cannot be stopped at the Customs houses. If we +lent money to a friendly nation, and our friend was thereby enabled to +lend to a likely foe, we should not have mended matters. The time is not +yet ripe for a full discussion of this difficult and complicated +question, and it is above all important that we should not jump to +hasty conclusions about it while under the influence of the feverish +state of mind produced by war. The war has shown us that our wealth was +a sure and trusty weapon, and much of the strength of this weapon we owe +to our activity in International Finance. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: "England's Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century," p, 16, +by Dr. A.L. Bowley.] + +[Footnote 8: "Paper against Gold," Letter III.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +REMEDIES AND REGULATIONS + +Apart from the political measures which may be found necessary for the +regulation, after the war, of International Finance, it remains to +consider what can be done to amend the evils from which it suffers, and +likewise what, if anything, can be done to strengthen our financial +weapon, and sharpen its edge to help us in the difficult fight that will +follow the present war, however it may end. + +It has been shown in a previous chapter that the real weaknesses in the +system of International Finance arise from the bad use made of its +facilities by improvident and corrupt borrowers, and from the bigger +profits attached, in the case of success, to the more questionable kinds +of issues. With regard to the latter point it was also shown that these +bigger profits may be, to a great extent, justified by the fact that +the risk involved is much greater; since in the case of failure a weak +security is much more difficult to finance and find a home for than a +good one. It may further be asked why weak securities should be brought +out at all and whether it is not the business of financial experts to +see that nothing but the most water-tight issues are offered to the +public. Such a question evidently answers itself, for if only those +borrowers were allowed to come into the market whose credit was beyond +doubt, the growth of young communities and of budding enterprises would +be strangled and the forward movement of material progress would be +seriously checked. + +It is sometimes contended that much more might be done by the Stock +Exchange Committee in taking measures to see that the securities to +which it grants quotations and settlements are soundly based. If this +view is to prevail, its victory has been greatly helped by the events of +the war, during which the Stock Exchange has seen itself regulated and +controlled by outside authority to such an extent that it would be much +readier than it was two years ago to submit to regulations imposed on +it by its own Committee at the bidding of the Government. Nevertheless, +there is this great difficulty, that as soon as the Stock Exchange +begins to impose other than merely formal rules upon the issue of +securities under its authority, the public very naturally comes to the +conclusion that all securities brought out under its sanction may be +relied on as absolutely secure; and since it is wholly impossible that +the Committee's regulations could be so strict as to ensure this result +without imposing limits that would have the effect of smothering +enterprise, the effect of any such attempt would be to encourage the +public to pursue a happy-go-lucky system of investing, and then to blame +the Stock Exchange if ever it found that it had made a mistake and had +indulged in speculation when it flattered itself that it was investing. +The whole question bristles with difficulties, but it seems hardly +likely that after the war the Stock Exchange and the business of dealing +in securities will ever be quite on the old basis again. + +In any attempt that is made to regulate them, however, it will be very +necessary to remember that capital is an extremely elusive thing, and +that if too strict rules are laid down for it, it very easily evades +them by transferring itself to other centres. If the authorities decide +that only such and such issues are to be made, or such and such +securities are to be dealt in in London, they will be inviting those who +consider such regulations unfair or unwise to buy a draft on Paris or +New York, and invest their money in a foreign centre. Capital is easily +scared, and is very difficult to bottle up and control, and if any +guidance of it in a certain direction is needed, the object would +probably be much more easily achieved by suggestion than by any attempt +at hard and fast restriction, such as worked well enough under the +stress of war. + +Any real improvement to be achieved in the system by which we have +hitherto supplied other nations with capital will ultimately have to be +brought about by a keener appreciation, both by issuing houses and +investors, of the kind of business that is truly legitimate and +profitable. It does not pay in the long run to supply young communities +with opportunities for outrunning the constable, and it is possible that +when this wholesome platitude is more clearly grasped by the public, no +issuing house will be found to bring out a loan that is not going to be +used for some definite reproductive purpose, or to float a company, even +of the semi-speculative kind, the prospects of which have not been so +well tested that the shareholders are at least bound to have a fair +chance of success. The ideals of the issuing houses have so far advanced +since the days of the Honduras scandal, that in the time of the late war +in the Balkans none could be found to father any financial operation in +London on behalf of any of the warring peoples. It only remains for the +education of the investor to continue the progress that it has lately +made, for the waste of capital by bad investment to be greatly +curtailed. Probably there will always, as long as the present financial +basis of society lasts, be outbursts of speculation in which a greedy +public will rush madly after certain classes of stocks and shares, with +the result that a few cool-headed or lucky gamblers will be able to +live happily ever after as country gentlemen, and transmit comfortable +fortunes to their descendants for all time. This is the debt that +society pays for its occasional lapses in finance, just as its lapses in +matters of taste are paid for by the enriching of those who provide it +with rubbishy stuff to read, or rubbishy shows in picture palaces. The +education of the individual in the matter of spending or investing his +or her money is one of the most pressing needs of the future, and only +by its progress can the evils which are usually laid to the door of +finance be cured by being attacked in their real home. In the meantime +much might be done by more candid publicity and clearer statements in +prospectuses of the objects for which money lent is to be used and of +the terms on which loan issues have been arranged. Any reasonable +attempts that may be made to improve the working of International +Finance are certain to have the support of the best elements in the +City. + +At the same time we may hope that as economic progress goes slowly ahead +over the stepping stones of uncomfortable experience, borrowing +countries will see that it really pays them to pay their yearly bills +out of yearly taxes, and that they are only hurting themselves when they +mortgage their future revenue for loans, the spending of which is not +going to help them to produce more goods and so raise more revenue +without effort. War is the only possible excuse for asking foreign +nations to find money for other than reproductive purposes. In time of +war it can be justified, even as an individual can be justified for +drawing on his capital in order to pay for an operation that will save +his life. But in both cases it leaves both the nation and the individual +permanently poorer and with a continuous burden to meet in the shape of +interest and sinking fund, until the loan has been redeemed. Loans +raised at home have an essentially different effect. The interest on +them is raised from the taxpayers and paid back to the taxpayers, and +the nation, as a whole, is none the poorer. But when one nation borrows +from another it takes the loan in the form of goods or services, and +unless these goods and services are used in such a way as to enrich it +and help it to produce goods and services itself, it is bound to be a +loser by the bargain; because it has to pay interest on the loan in +goods and services and to redeem the loan by the same process, and if +the loan has not been used to increase its power of turning out goods +and services, it is inevitably in the same position as a spendthrift +individual who has pledged his income for an advance and spent it on +riotous living. + +One of the great benefits that the present war is working is that it is +teaching young countries to do without continual drafts of fresh capital +from the older ones. Instead of being able to finance themselves by +fresh borrowing, they have had to close their capital accounts for the +time being, and develop themselves out of their own resources. It is a +very useful experience for them, and is teaching them lessons that will +stand them in good stead for some time to come. For the old countries, +when the war is over, will have problems of their own to face at home, +and will not be able at once to go back to the old system of placing +money abroad, even if they should decide that the experiences of war +have raised no objections to their doing so with the old indiscriminate +freedom. + +It is easy, however, to exaggerate the effect of the war on our power to +finance other peoples. Pessimistic observers, with a pacifist turn of +mind, who regard all war as a hideous barbarism and refuse to see that +anything good can come out of it, are apt in these days to make our +flesh creep by telling us that war will inevitably leave Europe so +exhausted and impoverished that its financial future is a prospect of +unmitigated gloom. They talk of the whole cost of the war as so much +destruction of capital, and maintain that by this destruction we shall +be for some generations in a state of comparative destitution. These +gloomy forecasts may be right, but I hope and believe that they will be +found to have been nightmares, evolved by depressed and prejudiced +imaginations. War destroys capital when and where actual destruction of +property takes place, as now in Belgium, Northern France, and other +scenes of actual warfare, and on the sea, where a large number of +ships, though small in relation to the total tale of the merchant navies +of the world, have been sunk and destroyed. Destruction in this sense +has only been wrought, so far, in limited areas. In so far as +agricultural land has been wasted, kindly nature, aided by industry and +science, will soon restore its productive power. In so far as factories, +railways, houses and ships have been shattered, man's power to make, +increased to a marvellous extent by modern mechanical skill, will repair +the damage with an ease and rapidity such as no previous age has +witnessed. + +In another sense it may be argued that war destroys capital in that it +prevents its being accumulated, but this is a distortion of the meaning +of the word destroy. If it had not been for the war, we in England +should have been saving our usual three to four hundred millions a year +and putting the money to productive uses, in so far as we did not lend +it to spendthrift nations or throw it away on unprofitable ventures. If +we had invested it well, it would have made us and the rest of the world +richer. Instead of doing so we are spending our savings on war and +consequently we are not growing richer. But when the war is over our +material productive power will be as great as ever, except for the small +number of our ships that have been sunk or the small amount of damage +done to us by enemy aircraft. Our railways and factories may be somewhat +behindhand in upkeep, but that will soon be made good, and against that +item on the debit side, we may set the great new organization for +munition works, part of which, we may hope, will be available for +peaceful production when the time for peace is ripe. + +It is a complete mistake to suppose that war can be carried on out of +accumulated capital, which is thereby destroyed. All the things and +services needed for war have to be produced as the war goes on. The +warring nations start with a stock of ships and guns and military and +naval stores, but the wastage of them can only be made good by the +production of new stuff and new clothes and food for the soldiers and +new services rendered as the war goes on. This new production may be +done either by the warring powers or by neutrals, and if it is done by +neutrals, the warring powers can pay for it out of capital by selling +their securities or by pledging their wealth. In so far as this is done +the warring powers impoverish themselves and the neutrals are enriched, +but the world's capital as a whole is not impaired. If we sell our +Pennsylvania Railroad bonds to Americans, and buy shells with the +proceeds, we are thereby poorer and Americans are richer, but the +earning power of the Pennsylvania Railroad is not altered. It may be, if +we conduct the war wastefully, and refuse to meet its cost by our own +self-denial--going without things ourselves so that we can save, money +to lend to the Government for the war--that we shall pledge our property +and sell what of it we can sell to neutrals, to such an extent that we +shall be seriously poorer at the end of it. At present[9] we are not +selling and pledging our capital wealth any faster than we are lending +to our Allies; and if we pull ourselves up short, and exercise the +necessary self-denial, seeing that we must pay for the war in the long +run out of our own pockets, and that far the cheapest and cleanest +policy is to do so now, and if the war does not last too long, there is +no reason why it should impoverish us to an extent that will cripple us +seriously. + +It is true that we shall have lost an appalling number of the best of +our manhood, and this is a loss that is irreparable in many of its +aspects. But from the purely material point of view we may set against +it the great increase in the productive power of those that are left +behind, through the lessons that the war has taught us in using the +store of available energy that was idle among us before. We shall have +learnt to work as we never worked before, and we shall have learnt that +many of the things on which we used to waste our money and energy were +unworthy of us at all times and especially at a time of national crisis. +If we can only recognize that the national crisis will go on after the +war, and will go on until we have made this old country civilized in the +real sense of the word, that is, free from destitution and the vice and +dirt and degradation and disease that go with it, then our power of +recovery after the war will be illimitable, and we shall go forward to +a new standard of wealth and national duty that will leave the dingy +ideals of the nineteenth century behind us like a bad dream. This may +seem somewhat irrelevant to the question of International Finance, but +it is not so. We led the way in spreading our capital over the world, +with little or no regard for the consequences of this policy on the +condition of our population at home. We have now, in the great +regeneration that this war has brought, and will bring in still greater +measure, to show that we can still make and save capital faster than +ever, by working harder and spending our money on improving our +heritage, instead of on frivolity and self-indulgence. Then we shall +still be free to lend money to borrowers who will use it well, and at +the same time have plenty to spare for wise use at home in clearing the +blots off our civilization. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: Written on New Year's Eve, 1915.] + + + + +INDEX + +ACCEPTANCES, of banks and firms. 26, 36 +America, as international financier, 73; + trade expansion of, helped by England, 85 +Armament firms and bad finance, 135, 136 + + +BANK OF ENGLAND, position of, 31. 32; + weekly return of, 33 +Banks, bills of exchange held by, 26 _seq_.; + functions of, 35 _seq_.; + money deposited with, 25 _seq_.; + specimen balance sheet of, 35 +Bearer securities, 54 +Bill-brokers, 37, 38 +Bills of exchange, meaning of, 26 _seq_.; + on London, popularity of, 29, 30; + uses of, 39, 40 +Bonds, description of, 54 +Bowley, Dr., on specialization, 156 +Brailsford, Mr., on Egypt and finance, 99 +Brazil, financial embarrassments of. 71; + funding scheme for, 72 + + +CANADA lends to England, 73 +Capital, bad effects of export of, 164; + difficulty of controlling, 166, 171; + definition of, 4, 17; + function of, 3 _seq_.; + how acquired, 16; + plenty of, advantageous to workers, 19, 20; + reward of, 2 _seq_. +Charles II, dukedoms founded by. 14,15 +China and international finance, 106 +Cobbett on national prosperity, 159 +Colonial investments, advantages possessed by, 166 +Companies' securities, classes of, 57; issue of, 55 +Coupons, description of, 54 +Crammond, Mr., on financiers and peace, 93 +Cumulative, preference, 59; + sinking fund, 52 + + +DEBENTURE stocks, 57 +Discount, market rate of, 38 + + +EGYPT and finance, 98 _seq_. + + +"FENN on the Funds," on diplomacy and finance, 106 +Finance and industry, 75, 76, 131; + as peace-missionary, 90 _seq_.; + benefits of, 83 _seq_.; + defined, 1; + dependent on industry, 28, 29, 40; + effects of war on, 92, 93 +Foreign Office and finance, 105, _seq_. +France, loan issuing in, 47 +Freights, effect of war on, 162 + + +GEOGRAPHICAL distribution, investment by, 24, 25 +German finance and diplomacy, 107 +German industry helped by English finance, 85 +Governments, borrowing by, 43 _seq_. + + +HONDURAS loans, Select Committee's report on, 116 _seq_. + + +"INCOME," Dr. Nearing on, 7 +Industry the foundation of finance, 28, 29 +Inherited wealth, 11 _seq_. +Interest, the price of capital, 2, 3 +Interest claims, as article of export, 80, 81 +Issuing houses, responsibilities of, 137 _seq_. + + +JEWS and finance, 111 _seq_. +Journalism in the City, 49, 50 + + +KINGLAKE on Egypt, 100; + on Jews of Smyrna, 112 + + +LIMITED liability, system of, 68 +Loans, issue of, 45 _seq_. +London, strength of, in credit matters, 30 + + +MEXICO, revolution and default in, 71 +Morocco crisis and financiers, 93 +Municipalities, borrowing by, 45 + + +NEARING, DR., on capital's reward, 7, 8 +New York as financial centre, 30 + + +PHILIP II repudiates debts, 67 +Preference securities, 57, 59 +Profit, distinguished from interest, 56; + the reward of capital, 2, 3 +Prospectuses, fuller statement desirable in, 173; + terms of, 49 _seq_., 51 +Public, the, the modern dispenser of wealth, 15 _seq_. + + +REGISTERED stocks, 55 +Risk, inseparable from industry, 23 + + +SINKING Fund, working of, 52 +Snowden, Mr. Philip, on finance and diplomacy, 90, 91 +South African War and finance, 102, 103 +Specialization, dangers and evils of, 153 _seq_. +State, as saver of capital, 21 +Stock Exchange, as regulator of new issues, 169, 170; + effect of war on, 95; + securities dealt in on, 42 _seq_. +Stock markets, fluctuations of, 61, 62; + international relations of, 62 + + +TRADE balance, 80, 81 + + +UNDERWRITING of loans, 46, 48; + risk involved by, 53 + + +VENEZUELA and German diplomacy, 107 + + +WAR, effects of, on finance, 92, 93; + lessons taught by, 161 _seq_., 175 _seq_. + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's International Finance, by Hartley Withers + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11774 *** |