COMMERCE. 339 
for investing money securely in California are few compared 
with other countries, and the chief causes of the difference are 
to be found in the defects of our land-titles, and the unsteadi- 
ness of business. There is no place where capital needs the 
constant attention of a prudent manager more than in this 
state. There are so many revolutions in business, that a brief 
neglect may cause the loss of a fortune. It is a very unsafe 
country for money left in the charge of agents. Their com- 
mission is high, and they will usually give much less atten- 
tion to a bailor’s property than to their own. The interest of 
money is too high for investment in state stocks. The bonds 
of the state of California are all sold in New York, and the 
interest is made payable there, and nearly all are held there or 
in Europe. Most of these bonds bear only seven per cent. in- 
terest annually, not half the current rates here. So of the 
bonds of our towns and counties, for nearly every town and 
county has its debt, the bonds are mostly held abroad, and the 
interest is too low for the demands of capital in California. 
There are then no state stocks that can be owned here, and 
thus we are cut off from one of the best and most extensive 
fields of investment. Labor is so high that we have few fac- 
tories. The titles of farming-land are as a general thing inse- 
cure. Farming, as a business conducted on a large scale, is 
extremely uncertain. Our population is so small that the 
market is easily overstocked, and freight to Europe and the 
Atlantic states is so expensive, that a surplus can only be sent 
away with difficulty; and we are so remote that any shipment 
is accompanied by many risks, for between the time when the 
vessel sails from San Francisco and the time when she arrives 
at Liverpool, there is an interval of three or four months, dur- 
ing which period a ruinous depreciation may occur. The fluc- 
tuations which oocur in the grain market, liave their parallels 
in all other kinds of agricultural products: cattle, sheep, and 
wine. There is'no title to mineral land save occupation; and 
mining on a large scale is more dangerous than farming. 
Whenever any branch of business becomes so established as 
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