TO ATTRACT SMALL INVESTORS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1911, Page 7

TO ATTRACT SMALL INVESTORS

<> BRITISH NATIONAL DEBT. CONVERSION INTO FIVE-POUND BOXDS. ■By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright, LONDON, 25th January. The Daily Chronicle states that the British Government will shortly convert a part of the National Debt into bearer bonds as low a3 £5. This is being done for the purpose of attracting small investors.. A NEW DEPARTURE. The reported intention of the British ' ■'Government to convert part of the national debt into bearer bonds of -low denomination will be watched with great interest by those who think England should long ago have followed France in, this method of encouraging thrift and meeting the convenience of the small investor. It is questionable, however, whether the British, people will respond so readily as the French have done. The two peoples take entirely different v*ews on the subject of saving. The French (and Paris is by means all France) are thrifty to the point of meanness, as Balzac and other and later delineators of their character have shown. Small returns, providing the security is irreproachable, satisfy them. The English, on the other nand — and always speaking generally in the case of both peoples — are unthrifty, largely because of the national fear of being described as "near." There is, too, us the huge pubHc subscriptions for rubber and oil 6hares a twelve month ago showed, more of the speculative spirit in the British small investor than in the thrifty French people, although they, too, have had spasmodic attacks of the gambling mania. Germany has endeavoured to attract the capital of the small investor in Government loans, and with some success, but the Germans are quite as thrifty and economical as, but rather less mean than, the French. Coming to Canada's experience with two loans, one for £5,000,000 and the other for £6,000,000 at 3g per cent., is is found that the applications for amounts below £100 were as follow :—: — APPLICATIONS. Bonds. £5,000,000. £6,000,000.' £10 ... 25 126 £20 ... 153 123 £30 ... 15 62 £40 ... 4 28 £50 ... 62 215 £60 ... 6 8 £70 ... 4 5 £80 ... — 6 There would seem to be a disinclination on the part of the British inve&tor of extremely limited capital — say £100 to £400—^to in any way "tie" up his little all, and there is also in him the feeling that it is worth to the world as to himself much more than 3 per cent, or 3£ per cent.