BOOT OF ALL EVIL THE MONEY MARKET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 28, 1 August 1907, Page 7

BOOT OF ALL EVIL THE MONEY MARKET.

BRITISH FINANCE BILL.

IMPERIAL CONSOLS. By Tcltcrapa.— Pirss -Vssociation. — Copyright. LONDON, 31st July. The Finance Bill was read a third time in the House of Commons ycatcrday by 232 votes to 91. Tho division was taken on a challenge by a Labour member. Replying to criticisms, Mr. Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer, incidentally compared the prices of gilt-edged securities hero with thoso prevailing in Germany. He said Britain's credit was still better than that of any other •country. Treasury bills and exchequer bonds were now reduced to a manageable amount, and tho sinking fund was applied alternately to the war loan and to consols.

Consols were quoted on the 30th at £82 15s. Financial papers attributo the weakness to the absence of demand for low interest-bearing securities. Early last month (ho Statist ventured tho opinion that steady redemption of tho public debt at tho present rate ought in three years to raise the price of consols to par. The first cause of the stagnation was, argued the paper mentioned, tho lato Government's failure to mako the sinking fund effective , the second was uncertainty respecting the Rand goldminiug-industry, and a third was the dalay of joint stock banks to accumulate adequate reserves. According to ths Chancellor of the Exchequer, many causes are contributing to the decline of otockn. He has instanced tho increased demand for money consequent on the rise of ruling yates of interest due to exceptional activity at Home and abroad, and the necessity of replacing tho capital destroyed by the San Francisco earthquakes and other disasters. Thero were, he said,, other causes, and the Government, as a remedy, proposed to reduce expenditure, strengthen tho sinking fund and avoid borrowing for current expenditure such as naval and military works, which ought to bo paid for out of revenue.