lo Ira Ryner 



Furthermore, England was at this time greatly extending her 

 trade. A new and valuable market had been opened up in China. 

 There was a renewal of commercial intercourse with the United 

 States and also operations with the Continent were multiplied.^ 

 Of course these may be classed under either permanent or short- 

 time causes according to the permanency of the influence. 



The excessive optimism of the times characterized the govern- 

 ment" as well as private investors. As evidence of this we have 

 parliament making provision that after a certain time the maxi- 

 mum railway dividends should be to per cent; in case of excess 

 it was to be lowered by the government reducing the fares, tolls, 

 etc." 



Cheap iron and abundance of surplus capital had in France as 

 in England resulted in extensive railway investment. To this 

 may be added the fact that in 1842 the construction and manage- 

 ment of railways were turned over to private corporations, al- 

 though railways might still and in fact did receive assistance from 

 the government. Finally we note that this period was a contin-i- 

 ation of the era in which introduction of improved farm ma- 

 chinery and improved processes of manufacture took place. ^ 

 According to Juglar, there is a very close resemblance between 

 the crises of 1847 in England and France. 



In the United States, however, we have an entirely different 

 state of affairs. Here several forces were in operation to ward 

 off the crisis which convulsed Europe. There was not the abun- 

 dance of capital that was to be found in Europe. Juglar con- 

 tends, and the point seems to be well taken, that the crisis 1836- 

 39 extended over too far to permit the accumulation of much 

 capital by 1847.* Furthermore, from 1846 to 1848 we were 

 engaged in war with Mexico, costing us something like $64,000,- 

 000.^ As evidence of the absence of a railway mania in the 



^ Crump, T/ie Key to the London Money Market, 31. 



^Levi, History of British Coniiierce, 303. 



^Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire generate, X, 440-42. 



^Juglar, Les Crises Commerciates, 468. 



'Dewey, Financial History of the United States, 225. 



152 



