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we ^ eirfj preacrat , ifor the purpose of pronouncing judgment on Napojjeon ' s St . Simonian projects * but for-really placing ourselves in a condition to estimate those institutions , and still more to understand the interests of our own country in the progress of events . JPie interests involved in this subject , future £ » < treli as present , are so vast and so moment-• ous , that no prejudice against the man should bias our observation . In describing the character of the Societe -de Credit Mobilier and its congenens , last week , we pointed out how the economical policy of the French Government furnishes a key to the political policy of Napoleon ; how in establishing a connexion which amounted to solidarity between the different industrial and commercial enterprises of 3 ? rance , bringing the whole under the con-< eentrated power of his one hand , he furnished ra working- model of the plan upon which he lias constructed an alliance , including this country and Sardinia , and probably to include other states . ^ Ve now have the working of these principles as they affect the monetary state of Europe , and , therefore , of England , and we may be assured that monetary projects are not excluded from the scope of ! N ~ aio : leon ' s views or operations . On the contrary , he is himself , through his Ministers , directly acting upon the money market of Europe . We say he is doing so , because not only do we find his personal adherents , such as Deouynde Lottys and De Morny , amongst the governing bodies of the credit societiesnot only do we know that a . Pebeire could not have carried out his projects into the vast institutions which have been established , and have extended under State patronage for two or three years , if he had not had the positive active assistance of NAroT . EOif—but we also find tliat the Governor and two Deputy-Governors of the Bank of France are appointed by the State ; to say nothing of the fact that the whole condition of France and of the metropolis compel all men who have the opportunity of taking an active part in public affairs to subordinate their action to the will of tlie Empehoe , who carries in his pocket the gigantic " Yes" and "No" of the whole empire . " When , therefore , we find the Bank of France purchasing the 4 , 000 , 000 / . sterling of bullion to sustain the public credit , and continuing to purchase , we must understand that it is acting under the approval or the expressed orders of Napoleon ; and indeed that grand decree regulating the monetary tide is as manifestly a Napoleonic decree a 8 any that we have read in the great characters of practical events . The state of France , therefore , monetary as well as commercial and political , is Napoleonic . ¦ Let us , however , not ascribe too much to N . APOiiEON . The . drain of gold which has been , exhausting the bullion of our Bank of England does not originate in France ; nor does the stream terminate in France . Paris ia not the bottom of the great abyss into which the stream is running . The bullion in the Bank of England , . which atooil at X 7 , 5 OO , OOOZ . in June last , has since dropped to 13 , 000 , 000 Z . But the bullion of the Bouk of France , which stood at 17 , 500 , 000 ? . in March , has now dropped to 10 , 000 , 000 ? . Here , therefore , js a lowor level in Paris , a more rapid otream . The gold then flows further on : whither ? In part the ultimate direction of the current is well known . Speaking generally , we may describe the circulation thus . London is the great reservoir towarda which , as towards tho most open mart with the most liberal pricea ^ the gold of America and Australia flows ; here then we might expect to find the highest level of tho collected stream , md tUence , from Xondon it flows in a atroam
which forks aa it leaves our shores towards the East by many minor channels , to supply the wants of the war , to supply also the requirement of an increasing commerce in thai quarter ; and to supply , thirdly , a preference given for the Eng lish sovereign as a medium for circulation throughout the Mediterranean and the Levant , because it is so well minted , and so well trusted . The next branch of the stream flows , no doubt , into Paris , and thus percolates to many parts of the country where speculation has beeu fostering the outlay oi capital—to the innumerable joint-stock companies and private associations which have been assisted by the credit companies in Paris . And the chief of these companies , in its dealing with Austrian railways , Ebrc canalisation schemes , aud other foreign projects , has ended in sending gold out of France With Austria it has been beg , beg , beg , and borrow , borrow , borrow , except during the very brief period when she enjoyed the credit of au alliance with the powers , and she was enabled to p lan and hypothecate her Bohemian and Hungarian railways . Russia is borrowing , and our impression that she is doing so by some covert if not private channel in many quarters at once , imitating , as it were , secretly , the great public loan of France , is confirmed by various circumstances , and by the disposition of commercial men to think that there may be something of that kind at work . It will be observed that many of these demands for gold are not strictly ascribable to Napoleox , but that we and he have to furnish for the time the war expenses of the enemy . The plan of ramified connexion , amounting to solidarity , which JN ' apoieon has carried out , however , has contributed to render France a percolator through which tho ptream of gold is with some facility conveyed towards Russia . We do not for a moment , indeed , suppose that it would be possible , if it were desirable , to arrest the stream . Free trade is as essential in money as much as in other articles , so that " money" be properly defined and constituted . But Napoleon has also fostered an artificial demand for money . He has developed schemes for commercial activity , designed to promote the apparent well-being of the middle classes . He has set going works not properly of a reproductive kind , to keep the working classes employed and contented And , carrying out his guiding principle , he has thus effected a solidarity between the commercial progress of France and his own political position . To keep up a state commerce of this kind , however , ia expensive , and it demands peculiar devices to control it . It givea the appearance at once of safety and vigour in the commonwealth , but it also afloru . i enormous opportunity for jobbing by persona who can lend their hands in carrying out so grand a scheme Men whom we wee in the direction of the great credit companies will probably retire at tho end with immense fortunes ; we have yet to conjecture- what may become of all tho shares and shareholders . But the most remarkable consequence of the scheme is , that it has , to a certain extent , placed foreign countries in a condition of partnership , for many purposes , with tho joint-stock associations of France . All Europe has a common money-chest , in which tho coins are spun round Blower or faster in proportion to tho de in anils rafchor than tho meanB of tho many partners who dip their hands into that cheat . No effectual barrier can interpose between tho groat money-box of Franco and that of England j and while wo cannot in any manner estimate the unfathomable nature and extent of operation of French credit , we are compelled to shore with it the common stock of gold . ¦
. . i The partnership iB not one by which this r country can profit . On the contrary , this - country can be most useful to France by rei maining in an independent position . The 5 commercial state of the two communities ia i entirely different ; their principles of action i are different . We have already described the , condition of French commerce . Our own ) was never in a state more perfectly intelli-! gible , less speculative-, or sounder . Some s few years ago , largo advances were made f upon goods to be scut from India , and India remained disastrously indebted to our trade ; > while heavy consignments from this couutry i hung on hand in all the Indian markets . t That has been pretty well cleared off . When i the gold discoveries were first made in Aus-¦ tralia , immense speculative consignments by our merchants were attended by tho novelty of direct consignments from the manufacturers ; and the Australian markets were loaded with English property , rendering prices ruinously low by competition , and yet constantly arriving after tho supply of demands from the other side . That also has now been cleared off ; and the arrivals of , Australian gold and produce in this count ry ; arc effectually restoring tho balance . Some time since there were great speculations in i railways . "When the Avar broke out , a Liver-. pool merchant , speculating in freights , bought up an enormous fleet which he coxild . not keep going , and he " smashed . " The [ American merchants habitually trade upon calculations which are safe enough if every \ post and every ship performs its destined course in the shortest possible time . Liverpool and London were largely engaged in American business , and when the crop failed , last year , with the smash of high speculators who had mingled fraud with gambling , there were disastrous' consequences both to London aud Liverpool . That is now corrected , and America will repay us handsomely in corn . Something else has been corrected : our merchants have not lavished speculative consignments ; our manufacturers have not . neon making on speculation ; there ar < % therefore , no back stocks to beat down the market all over tho world , and transactions are generally effected : at a , genuine profit . Even the raising ot bank discount — should it take place next week as it was expected this—would not materially influence profits , except through unintelligent interpretations it were to cause a panic , and then it would contract dealings , and so render existing stocks cheap in tho market . Our commerce- with all parts of tho \ vorl < l — quite uninterrupted by war—lias been so extensive , has moved so steadily , and must return such genuine ' profit , that dealers on a large scale arc not likely to be moved by a mere rin * in tho price of money in the- Bank , One ov two 1 cent , discount cim make little difloivnco j in the largo profits ot * first traders as between country and country ; and the pronperity of our trade , independently considered , is ' not , therefore , moivly endangered by tho ' inconvenience of a . somewhat short supply of the circulating in v . ilium . On the contrary , th « rise of prico , by directing the gold current towards this country , will keep u « perfectly safe . It will co-operate , and ought to co-operate , with other measures ia drawing a strong lino of duinsiruation between English and French commerce . This tho Bank iliroctors will of course have in view , nml prevent them from unduly delaying tho defensive enhancement of discount . Let us have a « many dealings txa possible ; lot ua assist eacli other as much as possible ; but let England stand firm upon her own ground , and then , -while aho suffers leaa from nny vngariea in a neighbouring country , aho will bo able to render
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1855, page 984, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2110/page/12/
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