296 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OP 1893. 



rentes, and deposits were largely withdrawn from 

 the savings banks. In July and August the de- 

 mands of France upon Siam for reparation for 

 violations of treaty stipulations attracted the at- 

 tention of the English Government; but the 

 compliance of Siam with the French demands 

 prevented English interference and probably 

 averted a crisis. In April there were very impor- 

 tant failures of Australian banks, brought about 

 by the fall in silver, the low prices for wool, and 

 the collapse of land speculations. These failures 

 had a decided influence in London, and before 

 the troubles ended 13 Australian banks had 

 failed, with liabilities aggregating about $450.- 

 000,000. One event in April was a coup d'etat 

 by the young King of Servia, who dismissed his 

 regents and assumed control of the Government. 

 On June 26 the announcement was made in 

 the British Parliament that the Government of 

 India had decided to suspend the public coinage 

 of silver. Thereupon there was an unsettling 

 fall in the price of bar silver in London from 

 38 pence per ounce early in the month to 30 

 pence on the 30th, and a derangement of Eastern 

 exchange was prevented only by the Indian 

 Government fixing the price of the rupee at 1 

 shilling 4 pence. With the exception of silver 

 stocks the general market in London was not 

 greatly affected. In August large withdrawals 

 of gold from London for shipment to New York 

 led to an advance in the bank of England rate 

 of discount to 5 per cent. The great lockout 

 of coal miners, who had resisted an attempt to 

 reduce wages, began in August, and about 350,- 

 000 men were out of work until the middle of 

 November, when the differences were compro- 

 mised through the intervention of the Govern- 

 ment, and the men resumed work at the old scale 

 of wages. It is estimated that the lockout in- 

 volved seven of the railroad lines of Great 

 Britain in a loss of about $9,000,000, and a logs 

 to important industries of $150,000,000. To- 

 ward the end of August an insurrection in Bra- 

 zil, led by Admiral Mello, caused a fall in the 

 bonds of that country, and the tension of polit- 

 ical and financial affairs in Italy and Spain af- 

 fected Internationals in all the European mar- 

 kets. In October the visit of the Russian fleet to 

 Toulon .and the extravagant demonstrations of 

 welcome to the visitors by the French officials 

 and people attracted the attention of the other 

 powers, and gave color to reports that an alli- 

 ance had been formed between the two nations 

 in opposition to the Dreibund. Early in Novem- 

 ber, there was a panic on the Italian bourses, 

 caused by the financial embarrassments of the 



16th of the affairs of Overend, Gurney & Co., 

 who failed May 10, 1866, for $55,000.000, involv- 

 ing six banks with an aggregate capital of $150.- 

 000,000. The ultimate loss to stockholders was 

 $15,000,000. Another feature was the retire- 

 ment of Mr. Frank May, who for twenty years 

 had been cashier of the Bank of England, in 

 consequence of indiscretions connected with the 

 house of Coleman & May, which resulted in a 

 loss to the bank of about '25,000. On Nov. 25 

 there was a Cabinet crisis in Italy, caused by dis- 

 closures in connection wi^h the affairs of the 

 Bank of Rome : a similar crisis in France, grow- 

 ing out of differences between President Carnot 

 and M. Dupuy, Prime Minister ; and also a con- 

 fession by the Premier of Greece of the insol- 

 vency of that country. On Dec. 9 the explosion 

 of a bomb, thrown upon the floor of the French 

 Chamber of Deputies by an anarchist named 

 Vaillant, had a startling effect in all the Euro- 

 pean capitals, and at once led to the adoption of 

 vigorous repressive measures against anarchists, 

 particularly by the French Government ; the 

 Italian Cabinet was reorganized by Signor Cris- 

 pi ; there were indications of a revolutionary 

 movement in Sicily, and although the political 

 tension in Europe was somewhat relaxed, there 

 was more or less anxiety at the close of the year. 

 The following tabular survey of the econom- 

 ical conditions and results of 1893, contrasted 

 with those of the preceding year, is from the 

 " Commercial and Financial Chronicle " : 



The prices of leading staples on or about the 

 1st of January, 1894, compared with prices at 

 the same date in 1893 and 1892, were as follow : 



Government, which somewhat affected Berlin ; 

 and there was also an uneasy feeling at Vienna 

 growing out of a rise in the gold premium 

 and a break in Government securities. One fea- 

 ture in London was the final settlement on the 



The Crops. The yield of wheat, corn, and 

 oats was small in 1893, while that of cotton was 

 better than during the previous year, and. com- 

 pared with the heavy cereal crops of 1891, the 

 returns of this year seemed to be failures, and 



