Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

A dreadful time is near at hand
For all the things that move or stand;
There comes a flood that has no bound,
And everybody will be drowned.

So build a ship, and build it strong;
Put ropes on board, both stout and long.
And one thing further you will need,
Neat packages of every seed.

Embark then with the seven seers,
And wait, good Manu, free from fears,
Until I come. And you will see
A horn upon the head of me.

Till then, farewell. Do not delay.
The danger grows from day to day."

Then Manu packed most carefully
The seeds, and straightway put to sea.
His good ship gently rose and fell
Upon the ocean's mighty swell.

He longed to see the friendly fish,
Who came in answer to the wish.
He seemed a floating mountain dread;
A horn was growing on his head.

So Manu, feeling less forlorn,
Fastened a rope about the horn,
And felt the ship glide speedily
Over the dancing, salty sea.

But when the wind began to roar
And ocean thundered more and more,

The tossing, shaken ship began

To stagger like a drunken man.

No land remained to cheer them there,

But only water, sky, and air;
No life through all those many years
Save Manu, fish, and seven seers.

But Manu, all those many years,

Went sailing with the seven seers;

The fish pulled on with might and main And did not weary nor complain.

At last he did, however, stop
Beside the highest mountain-top,

And bade them tie the ship; and they
Call it Ship Mountain to this day.

And then, with wide, unwinking eyes, The fish, to Manu's great surprise, Declared: "I saved the seven seers From death and agonizing fears;

For I am Brahma. And my friend,
Kind Manu, who has seen the end
Of all the world, shall make again
Gods, devils, animals, and men.''

And so he disappeared. But they,
Amazed, departed on their way,
While kindly Manu made again
Gods, devils, animals, and men.

Now all have heard who had the wish

The tale of Manu and the fish.
And everyone who takes it in,
Shall be forever free from sin.

SOME PHASES OF FINANCE DURING THE
GREAT WAR.*

CARL C. PLEHN.

In this paper the finances of the great war will be approached from two different sides or points of view. From one point of view we shall seek to see a few of the effects on the money market, on foreign exchange, on banking, private investment and commercial credit; from the other we shall view the work of the finance minister in raising the vast sums which are needed to pay for munitions, for men and for the hire of "allies." War finance, however, is not a flat shield with two sides only, one of gold and silver and the other of blood and iron. are other sides and many angles. But the two mentioned are the only ones we shall have space for, and only small parts of these can be viewed.

There

All through a long, dreary afternoon on the last Friday in July, 1914, a long string of "straw 'atted 'Arries,' mostly in holiday attire, filed slowly into and out of the Bank of England, covertly resenting, but trying to appear unconscious of the jibes and jeers of a crowd of the curious, mostly likewise dressed for the holidays, who had been attracted by the novel sight and who had gathered on the steps of the Royal Exchange across the way. This was the opening scene of the great drama of a world-wide financial panic.

What brought this strange mob to the temple? The answer is simple: all they wanted was a little cash to *A paper read at the Berkeley Club, April 27, 1916.

enable them to go away over the Bank Holiday, that customary Fall outing of all Londoners. Yet like Samson, though they came to make sport, they blindly got "hold on the two middle pillars on which the house (of finance) rested and pulled the house down upon the lords and all the people that were therein." The stage setting even was appropriate, for the bank was torn up for structural alterations.

A few thousand pounds of holiday money from the strongest bank in the world-did ever a lighter straw break the camel's back? What a load there must have been otherwise if this featherweight was the overweight. All in one week the load accumulated. On Friday, July 24, Austria sent her ultimatum to Servia. Saturday, July 25, there was a near-panic on the London Stock Exchange and other bourses. All the next week the foreign exchanges were very queer. But the old lady in Threadneedle Street is slow and dignified, until she gets really flustered, and she waited the appointed time for the regular day, Thursday, before raising the bank rate of discount to steady the market. On Thursday the rate was raised from three to four per cent. According to precedent this rate should have stood until the following Thursday. For Thursday is selected so that the effect of the change in the bank rate may be seen on the remoter exchanges during the following week. Furthermore the coming Monday was to be the Bank Holiday. But contrary to all precedents the rate went up on Friday from four to eight per cent and the next day to ten per cent, after the visit of the mob of holiday makers. Ten per cent is the rate which, according to precedent, authorizes the Bank to apply for the suspension of the Bank Act.

"Then," says Hartley Withers, "came Sunday, then the Bank Holiday, and war, and then three more bank holidays, and then the general moratorium.'' 1

1 Hartley Withers, War and Lombard Street. London, 1915.

[ocr errors]

The events in chronological sequence tell the tale. On Sunday, August 2, came the Royal proclamation "for postponing the payment of certain bills of exchange," to which was appended the usual benediction, "God save the King." On Monday, August 3, it was enacted "by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, "His Majesty may by Proclamation authorize the postponement of the payment of any bill of exchange, or of any negotiable instrument, or any payment in pursuance of any contract, to such an extent, for such time, and subject to such conditions or other provisions as may be specified in the Proclamation." The same act ratified the Sunday proclamation.

But three special bank holidays intervened, so that the authorized proclamation calling on God to save the King through a general moratorium did not appear until August 6. Thus a temporary anesthesia fell on all debts, except wages, debts for trivial sums, taxes, maritime freight, debts due Englishmen by foreigners, dividends and interest, bank notes, old-age pensions, insurance, workmen's compensation, and savings deposits. Cheques and demand bills had been excepted from the moratorium of Sunday, and continued exempt until August 12, when there came another proclamation covering cheques and still further extending the moratorium. On September 3 the duration of the moratorium was extended another month, making two months in all. By very different routes and legal devices a similar moratorium was created in France, and, as to debts owed by men called to arms, in Germany. But these we must omit.

Despite these drastic measures, the suspension of the Bank Act, customary in all times of trouble, was authorized by Parliament on August 6 in the usual terms: "The Governor and company of the Bank of England

may

so far as temporarily authorized by the Treasury, and

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »