CANNY FRENCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 July 1934, Page 10

CANNY FRENCH

THEIR GREATEST STOCKING. How many people know the contents of the biggest of France’s gigantic “woollen stockings”? asks the “Daily-Mail.” This “stocking” is the “Caisse des Depots et Consignations,” founded in 1816, probably the most important in the world, and which to-day controls a capital of £1,2000,000,000. This financial institution may be called the pillar of French finance, for only invasion and defeat can shake the strong foundations of the “Caisse des Depots et Consignations.” Even should the franc leave the gold standard, or the State go bankrupt, the “Caisse des Depots et Consignations” would not be affected. It is an institution with a State guarantee, but not governed by the State. To give an idea of its accrued importance only the few following figures need be given:— Beneficiaries Amount of Old-age Received. Pensions. Year. £ £ 1900 . . 2,200,000 247,000 1932 . . 19,300,000 1,205,000 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the safe investments which the “Caisse

des Depots et Consignations” affords, French folk have not given up their other bank—that situated between the stacks of sheets in the wardrobes of country farmhouses. There the peasants do not believe in storing shares and debentures, but hard cash; silver and gold coins sonnantes et trebuchantes. Hundreds of millions of pounds in gold “louis” are thus secreted in the wardrobe or in a recess in a disused chimney. When President Roosevelt decreed that all American gold should be returned to the Federal Reserve Bank—and the penalty for keeping back gold dollars was imprisonment—tlie difference in the returns compared with the issue figures left a deficit of some £230,000,000. For many years previous to this American agents were reaping great profits in France, selling twenty-, dollar gold coins at a premium to French peasants, and it is known that three-fifths of these missing gold dollars from the coffers of the Federal Reserve Bank, together with a vast number of British sovereigns, are in the French peasants’ cupboards. Another hoarding place where French capital finds a refuge is the 60,000 safes of the French National Savings Bank. Taking a small average for each safe, the very lowest estimate that can therefore be given for the 60,000 is £150,000,000. From these facts, one object lesson can be drawn—the French do not put all their eggs into the same basket, and it would need a multitude of Stavisky frauds to exhaust the resources of France’s national economy.