840 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. , 
to be permanent and to yield acertain profit, capitalists abroad 
will wish to take possession of it, and they can afford to pay 
more for it than we can, because our money is dearer than 
theirs. A man in New York can afford to pay more for stocks 
than we can in San Francisco. He gets his money for six per 
cent. per annum while we pay eighteen. Whenever therefore 
any large railroad or any extensive improvement, that will 
certainly be permanently profitable, is established in California, 
foreign capitalists will buy it up. We cannot compete with 
them until our money becomes cheaper. Our ocean steam- 
ships are owned in New. York. Our river steamboats are 
mostly owned by a large association, called the California 
Steam Navigation Company, but the stock is very fluctuating 
aud dangerous as an investment. There is no purchasable 
bank-stock in California. Most of the capitalists of San Fran- 
cisco either invest their money in houses and lots, or let it out 
at interest under bond and mortgage. The taxes are very 
high in California, in no county less than one per cent. a year, 
and in some places four per cent. Indeed, when streets are 
repaired in the large towns, the taxes sometimes amount to 
ten per cent. on the value of the property. There is a consid- 
erable amount of French and Swiss capital invested in San 
Francisco, most of it loaned on mortgage, and under the charge 
of French and Swiss bankers. 
In no part of the United States is there so small an invest- 
ment of capital, and so small an amount of real and personal 
property held in fee simple, by individuals and local corpora- 
tious, In proportion to the area, population and amount of busi- 
ness done, as in the gold mining districts of California. The 
custom-house manifests show, that during the last fourteen 
years, we have exported $550,000,000 of gold, and no person 
at all familiar with the business and history of the state, will 
estimate the amount of exportation, not manifested, at less 
than $150,000,000 ; and yet what is there to show in the min- 
ing districts for all that immense wealth? There are many 
fine mountain roads, and yet they are few, and Lad, as cor- 
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