3?6 RESOUKCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



be purchased by the investment of considerable sums of money. 

 The wages of common laborers and mechanics are very high 

 in California, and a large portion of the people are in hopes to 

 attain vrealth, and many of them make a practice of engaging 

 in speculations, to do which they must borrow money. The 

 liigh rate of wages, the unsettled habits of the people, the 

 questionable character of land-titles generally, and the fluctu- 

 ating nature of our commerce, all contribute to keep the rate 

 of interest at a high figure. In San Francisco a peculiar 

 custom prevails of loaning money from " steamer-day" to 

 "steamer-day." Steamer-day is the business-day which pre- 

 cedes the sailincr of the steamer for Panama, which steamer 

 always carries away a shipment of about a million dollars. As 

 the steamer starts early in the morning, all the business in 

 arranging the shipments must be done on the previous day, 

 and then importers must send their money to the Eastern 

 houses from which they obtain their supplies, and they must 

 then dun their customers, the jobbers ; and the jobbers must 

 dun their customers, the retailers ; and the retailers must dun 

 every body. So steamer-day is a great day for the payment of 

 money, and as every body expects to get his money on steamer- 

 day, so he borrows promising to pay then. There are men 

 who make it a business to lend money from steamer-day to 

 steamer-day, a period of ten or fourteen days, the rate for that 

 period being from one to two per cent., almost invariably with 

 '•'collateral security" of merchandise, which is on deposit in a 

 warehouse, and is transferred by warehouse receipt to the 

 money lender. Nearly every body borrows and lends money 

 in California. It is no disgrace to lend money for high inter- 

 est, nor is it ever considered bad management for a mer- 

 chant to borrow and pay high rates ; that is, if the amount be 

 small or the term brief. But as a general rule, the merchants 

 of California borrow altogether too much money. There are 

 not less than fiftv mercantile houses in San Francisco, that have 

 paid more than ten thousand dollars each of interest on money 

 borrowed during the last ten years, and of one house which 



