"BLACK SATURDAY"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 10 December 1912, Page 8

"BLACK SATURDAY"

HOW WAR AFFECTS FINANCE. RUIN OF INNOCENT HOMES. LONDON. October 16. Somebody is making money, no doubt, in these days <-f uncertainty, but thousands are losing on all hands. The heedless little gentlemen who say "Forward" and "Halt" to the armies of the Balkans have brought disaster upon innocent homes in Germany, in France, in England, and even in America. The man who is making most out of the whole thing is probably Mr Norman Angell, whose theory of the interdependence of nations is thriving in the early snows of autumn. BLACK SATURDAY. Last Saturday the exchanges of Europe were in a state of panic. On the London Stock Exchange there was a positive demoralisation, and Paris brokers had seen nothing like it since the outbreak of the war with Germany in 1870. In their anxiety over the Balkan crisis,'says the "Daily Mail," and the weak state' of the Continental bourses, London dealers brought down prices mercilessly, and not a market escaped fro"m the heavy collapse. Certainly never during the present crisis have prices fallen so heavily in so short a time, and it is doubtful indeed whether the oldest members can remember a more serious "slump" on a Saturday morning.

THE THRIFTY FRENCHMAN. The unfortunate small investors, who are_such a potent evidence of the thrift of France, were hard hit. They hold many foreign bonds, and the ail-rotmd panic struck them all. The Bourse was completely demoralised. The collapse was worse than in 1882 and 1895. . Fevei-sh liquidation continued in an almost un broken stream. No one ventured to buy, and offerings fell flat, meeting with no response. When the market opened a perfect avalanche of selling orders descended upon the brokers, and there was demoralisation in all departments. No doubt prices were a temptation to capitalists, great and small, but the; international situation caused offers even at the very low rates quoted to fall flat Buying was nil. The fact that the large amount cf French money invested in Turkish and Balkan stocks belongs chiefly to small capitalists aggravated the .financial situation in Paris, which had already been imapired by recent excessive speculation. Russian funds, in which millions rt francs have been invested by humuie Frenchmen, were quoted 3 francs lo»v.r than at the beginning of the day's business, owing to the gloomy telegrams foreshadowing the possibility of Russia and Austria being involved in a Balkan upheaval. Servians and Turks "slumped" in sympathy, and Bulgarians were simply unsaleable. Sensational losses are also recorded in the various oil shares, which have recently reached in Hated prices on the Paris market. IN GERMANY. The Stock Exchanges of Berlin, Frank furt-on-the-Maine, and Hamburg were thrown into a state of wildest alarm. Investors declined to give the slightest credence to official and semi-official assurances that the war would be confined to Turkey and the Balkans, and dumped the sh'ares on the market in the ter-ror-stricken conviction that all Europe was on the brink of a conflagration. "The situation became so critical." during the day," says the "Daily Mail," "that the great German banks called a hasty conference at the premises of the Deutsche Bank .to adopt, emerge jcy ways and means. When the conclave became known the Austrian Ambassador in (Berlin was closeted with the German Foreign Secretary. This sent srej.'i sh:\ers down the spine of the ier.-jus financial public. By closing time unprecedented declines had been recorded."

RUSSIA. The Bourse at St. Petersburg was al.--o badly affected, and financial journalists hire got to the "oldest iiihan't:*iit ' stage in their search for adequate superlatives. One of them says "the Berlin Bourse has passed through days oi terror such as the past generation had never before experienced." Another declares that the Bourse "has behi.id it a week like which, but few are to I p found in the history of banks and stock markets." How much ground th-.- i•• for this emphatic language will be • e cognised when it is stated-that since last Monday shares of 30 well-known trial undertakings fell upwards of 2, por cent.' AUSTRIA. . At Vienna there was the same =tate of things, and the Hungarian Premier tried to check-the downward rush byissuing a statement to the effect that there was no question o"f Austria-Hungary intervening in the Balkan conflict and declaring that the Government only introduced the supplementary estimates in view of the distant future. The situation became so serious that half an hour before the markets closed a Government official had a notice posted on the Exchange . door • stating that. the. political situation had not become worse in any direction, declaring that there was no ground for further anxiety, and denying the report concerning the mobilisation of an army corps.—"O.D. Times."