THE FINANCIAL FABRIC.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15138, 30 November 1914, Page 7

THE FINANCIAL FABRIC.

HOW IT WAS PRESERVED. | i STATEMENT BY MR LLOYD GEORGE. LONDON, September 27. Mr Lloyd George, speaking in tho House of "Commons, said that at the beginning of the war this country could neither buy nor sell because exchange had broken down, though tho wholo world owed the British money. America owed us one' thousand millions. « He assured tho Labour Party that, the moratorium was not " enforced to save a few rich people, hut to eavo British industry, commerce, labour, and life. With eighteen thousand millions of assets it would havo been criminal negligence to allow tho credit of the country to be in doubt for twenty-four hours for 350 millions, tho most of which was owing to our own people. Continuing, the Chancellor said: "We decided that tho credit of the State must be maintained at any cost. Thus tho unimpeachable character of the British bill of has been maintained, and the greatest financial catastrophe the world could e\-er havo seen has been averted, Tho total loss as tho result of these bill transactions is about what it costs us for a single week of war. Between seventy and eighty millions of Stock Exchange securities were hypothecated before tho outbreak of tho war, and if the hanks had pressed tho bottom would havo dropped out of the market." Mr Lloyd George said that the machinery of exchange had been re-estab-lished despite the great world war. Wo were still supromo in international trado and commerce, and the British money market was better than any other in the world. Others were coming here to borrow while wo were conducting a war costing four hundred or five hundred millions a year. The fact that the Stock Exchange was closed was a serious detriment to the war loan. Had >the Exchange been open the loan would have been applied for severaT times over. Tho small investor had shown patriotism by stepping in and enabling us to raise the hugest sum of money ever raised during any war without any of the expedients to which Germany resorted in raising a much smaller amount at higher interest. Mr Lloyd Georgo stated that the war loan was over-subscribed. Tho applicants number nearly odo hundred thousand, of whom an enormous number are for small amounts.