THE MARITIME CANAL OF SUEZ. 25 1 



interest that France had from the first taken in the enterprise, and 

 her anxiety that its complete execution should not be delayed 

 nor imperilled, that this appeal was not in vain, and that they 

 determined to sanction the issue of Bonds reimbursable under a 

 system, of what is called Lottery drawings. This Lottery loan, 

 secured by what was undoubtedly an Imperial guarantee, was im- 

 mediately launched, and the whole sum required of ;^2,856,3i3, 

 was eagerly taken up by French contributors. 



In 1869, the financial state of the Company, judging from the 

 Balance-sheet presented to the Shareholders, was still a cause of 

 grave anxiety and embarrassment, for it showed that whilst 

 ;^i2,28o,ooo had been received on Capital account, yet there had 

 been incurred on Expenditure account the sum of ;^i8,i44,ooo, 

 which showed a deficit on balance, of ;^5, 864,000. Against this 

 deficit, there were certain uncalled up Balances due to the Company, 

 by which the Directors endeavoured to show an equilibrium : firstly, 

 the indemnity of ;^3,36o,ooo, payable by the Khddive, Ismail 

 Pasha, in accordance with the decision given by Napoleon III. 

 under the Arbitration decision of 1864; secondly, a sum of 

 ;^75o,ooo, which had been placed in reserve and invested in the 

 funds ; and thirdly, a large number of calculated receipts from 

 various sources ; and, by adding these, supplemental funds payable, 

 or to be paid within a specified period, they would amount in all 

 to ;^5, 860,000, equivalent to the actual deficit. But this squaring 

 of the accounts, and securing what was termed a financial equi- 

 librium, appeared very well on paper, but it gave no practical 

 relief to the Company, because the Khddive was not in a position, 

 however much he may have been disposed, to advance the whole 

 amount of the award under the Arbitration of 1864, before its 

 maturity ; and so, therefore, in order to avert a disaster, an arrange- 

 ment was entered into with Ismail Pasha for the transfer of the 

 coupons of his Bonds and Shares, to the Company. 



At the general meeting of the shareholders held in July, 187 1, 

 Ferdinand de Lesseps stated, that the balance on Profit and Loss 

 account was still large, amounting to ,^^7 5 0,000, and it was, there- 

 fore, resolved to have recourse to a loan of a nominal amount of 

 ;£'i, 000,000, in 200,000 Bonds of ;£^ each, and to raise this sum 

 in the same way and on the same conditions as the last loan of 1867, 

 in order that it might have a similar attraction for the investor. 



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