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Leader (1850-1860), 6th October 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 959, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      OnMiftimi THE LIEAPSiR . 989 .

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      NOTICES TO COBBESPONI > ENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the " name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for-publication , bufras a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written . and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the diffi-r culty of finding space for them . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication .

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      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to Keep things fixed when all the world is "by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold-

      Untitled Article

      AN EUROPEAN COUP D'ETAT . The Soeiete de Cridit Mobilier has consented to adopt the recommendation of the French Government , and abstains froni issuing the obligations of which it had given notice , to the extent of 240 , 000 / . This fact is stated in the French papers , and repeated in the English , as an isolated event ; but the political public in Paris has not told the kind of authority which this pressure on the part of Government indicates . Still less is the

      English public enabled to appreciate the grasp which it proves the French Government to possess , not only over the particular society , but over the whole commercial transactions of France . Explanations of the working of the society have been given in various newspapers , but they speak of it as if it were simply a vast mercantile institution , without seeming to be conscious how extensively it is designed "to concentrate a control over the economy of the country ; still less how it has succeeded in establishing

      that comprehensive jurisdiction . We in this country have no institution that resembles the society . From remarks which havu been made , it might be supposed that it resembles our Stock Exchange , in which stock and shares can be bought or sold ; but the Stock Exchange acts collectivel y in nothing more than giving a certain sanction and enforcing certain rulos , the regular observance of which gives groat convenience and influence to the members of the Stock Exchange . . "We have amongst us joint-stock companies for conducting a variety of business , and somo of

      the insurance oilicea present examples ot societies that combino several purposes—of granting individual guarantees , lending money , possibly on securities , and thus to a great extent it may bo said , of dealing in securities . Still these societies aro iaolatod ; and whatovor combinations they may have with oach other , they can exercise no general control . An amalgamation of railway companies presents , in somo limited respects , an example of what combination can ollbct in this country ; but in comparison with tho French model the example fails for its diminutive proportions .

      1 movable" property of the Kind . It may also purchase stock aud . shares , and receive or pay moneys on behalf of the companies with which it is connected . It is likewise empowered to issue bonds in the exact ratio of the money that it ha ^ advan ced . Thu s it gives credit on the one side , and takes credit on the other ; the shares , bonds , or other securities of its borrowers standing , as securities for its lenders . It is empowered to issue obligations to the extent of ten times its capital , 24 , 000 , 000 / . ; its own paid-up capital constituting a guarantee fund equivalent to ten per cent , on the capital in which it may deal . The company may also receive sums on account current . Now let us consider for a moment the nature of this machinery . The society becomes at once the partner and the agent for all joint-stock associations connected with it , receiving money for them , paying their dividends , holding their shares and their securities , advancing them , capital , and , in short , establishing a very close and complicated amalgamation between the central society and a great number of other joint-stock associations . The aggregate capital in which the company is empowered to deal consists of its paid-up 2 , 400 , 0002 ., and its credit of 24 , 000 , 000 / . —26 , 400 , 000 / . in all . But , that is in reality a very small proportion of the capital which , upon realising the whole project , it could control with a concentrated authority . The obligations which it issues and which would go into the trade of the country have an equivalent in the sums advanced to the several companies , and thus we realise 48 , 000 , 000 / . exclusively of the paid-up capital , or more than 50 ^ 000 , 000 / . But to find the mass of floating property influenced by the society , we must add the unknown quantity consisting of all the capitals of all the companies with which it is connected . These companies are probably amongst the most active associations in the different parts of the country , and thus we say , the society operates as an agency which consolidates the commercial joint-stock interests of the provincial centres , while it places all those bodies under the direct control of a Government which shall say to the central body , " So far shall you issue bonds and no further . " Nor does the society stand alone . There is also the society which was its model , the Credit Foncier , to deal in real or fixed property much in the same fashion ; and another society , tho " Societ 6 Generale du Credit Maritime , " exercising similar functions with regard to merchandise in the foreign trade of France . Supposing that landowners , the proprietors of fixed property , have availed themselves of tho one , and that foreign merchants have accepted the advances of the other , it follows that wo have central agencies wielding a large capital , and influencing a still more enormous capital , and exercising a paramount control over the real property , tho moveablo property , and tho merchandise of tho country . When tho Emperor Napoleon was a prisoner at Ham ho wrote his treatise on the extinction of pauperism . In that treatise will bo found lurking tho idea that tho State should provide employment for tho industrious classes by promoting the cultiva- tion of tho laud and industrial occupations , and that it should do ho moro by directing tho energy of tho people than by subventions . Xvouxs Napoleon confessedly borrowed this idea from Socialist writers . There ia , iudeod , a fundamental economical truth at tho basia of all Socialist arguments worth oxamining , tho nature of which has been several times explained in these pages . As Adam : Smith said that the true increment of wealth lay in the division of labour ; as Ejdwakjo

      < : < < 1 i ) < i t i j i « i < i Gtbbon Wakefield ' corrected : that statement by showing that in order to the effect intended there must be combination of 1 labour and division of employment ; so the Socialist economists have proved that there cannot be the maximum increment of wealth without the combined labour and divided employment be carried on in concert ; and the ablest political economists of our day , such , as Edward Gibbon Wakeeielb- and Johw Stttabt Miiiii , have recognised the substantial elements in the co-operative idea * , IiOUis Napoleon , at all events , saw its capacity for bringing industry into combination , and still more decidedly its power to concentrate industry to be governed by the highest authority . It is evident from the character of the man , if we grant him whatever sincerity he can claim as desiring for obvious reasons to improve the economical condition of his countrymen , that a full half of his thought is given to the concentration of power which the Imperator can thus acquire . It has been supposed that the Napoleonian idea of the extinction of pauperism had been abandoned when it had been used , and Louis Napoleon , by the coup d'etat , had acceded to the possession of arbitrary power . The facts do not confirm this supposition , but rather show that the Empjebob is proceeding in a long formed design , the lines of which are only now beginning to unfold themselves to our view in their enormous proportions . The suggester of these societies , dealing by joint-stock in the capital of a number of outlying joint-stocks , is M . Pebeibe , a member of the St . Simonian order—that mystical sect of Socialists who adopted the idea of community of property , and some other things , upon apostolic grounds , and who -established a transcendental authority in their chief . -The last chief of their order , Enjfantin , is now living in Egypt , where he has made a fortune ; as several of his countrymen have who went to Egypt when the order was broken up . They are at the bottom of the plan for establishing the Suez Canal ; they are to a great extent , in conjunction with other French coadjutors , the effective administration of Egypt . Here is another fact which shows how the association of the Napoleonic idea is ramified . IiOtris Napoleon had no sooner acquired the stipremc authority as President , than he began to exercise the soldiers of his army in exercise calculated to make them peculiarly efficient . Like his uncle , he identified himself with tho soldiers—devoted himself to increasing their comforts—made the officers feel that his notice was their best prospect of promotion , and rendered them immediately dependent upon himself for approval and advancement . Having acquired a complete military control of Franco through its metropolis , by a sudden blow concerted with , base agonta in tho dark ho applied that concentrated power to a conversion of his republican headship into his Emperorship . . Ilia patronage of tho clergy indicates a dojsign to identify himself in a similar manner with tho religious institutions of France and of Italy . This part of his scheme , howevor , has been as yet less devoloped . Wo aro now in a position , from tin a analysis , to understand the Napoleonic policy . It consists apparently in thia . Tho Emperor , sees that material interests ' » ° divided , and that each section of society is intont upon its own dovoJopmonL f-o sots himself to create n machinery wn en shall subserve all those accurate H'Jerosuji , fsfe ^ npe » ss £ . S& Jt& TSaTiM = £° for « fl tl ? o outlviug «¦ .

      mdo-The Soci 6 t 6 de Credit Mol ) ilior possesses a capital paid up of 2 , 400 , 000 ? . ; it nas authority to lend money on auy kind of public securities , shares , billa of exchange , or other

      Untitled Article

      SATURDAY , OCTOBEB 6 , 1855

      S%&Lt; L I * Ri T£ * J^Ttulit Jlliettil I

      Ifahlir Iftairjs

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 959, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2109/page/11/