"The conditions we had to face -]at the beginning of this war were entirely different from those which our forefathers had to deal with in the great European wars at the beginning of this century. The nternational trade of the world at the commencement of thi suppose that at the time of the Napoleonic wars it was about 200 millions. The position of Great Britain in the international trade something without parallel in the history of the commerce of he world. We had not merely our own business to we wore essentially part of a machine that ran the whole international credit of the In these words, the Chancellor of the Exchequer described the _position of Great Britain in the House of Commons, Apart from the dislocation of commerce even in all neutral countries, the direct ex penditure on the war by the coun trice engaged in this war is an amount appalling in its total.
We-will briefly describe the weveral financial events that took. place since July 27, when the clouds began to gather on the political. horizon.
On July 27 there was a heavy fall on the Stock Exchange. Paris Rentes fell 5 points; the bourses were closed in Vienna, Budapest and Brussels and in Paris the "Coulisse." On July 28 there wax heavy liquidation in "New York. Toronto's Stock Exchange opened only for ten minutes and Montreal closed in the afternoon. On the following day the bourses at trograd, Amsterdam and Montreal were closed. On July 30 the Bank rate rose from 3 to 4 per cent. and the French rate from 3} to 4}; and the baurees, were closed in Rome and Milan. On July 31, the Bank rate was raised.to.8 per cent. and. the Stock Exchanges in England and_the United States closed. In Europe, the Paris Bourse alone was open, but prices were nominal. There was" run on Paris banks.
On August 1, the Bank rate was raised to 10 per cent.; moratorium was proclaimed in France. and settlements postponed to August 31. On August 3, Parliament pose ed the Buspension of Payments Act, giving retrospective sanction to the Proclamation and established moratorium—at first only for ills)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.