INVESTMENT FINANCE AND
HAS M. Daladier saved the franc ? It is early to reply with an unequivocal yes, but at least one may say that for the present he is doing very well. Not merely has his bold manoeuvre stopped the rot ; it has provoked such a flood of franc buying as has not been witnessed before for many years. One can only guess at the amount of franc purchases which have strained the exchange organisation of London and other centres during the past week, but I should be surprised if it has been less than the equivalent of £120,000,000. Nobody would suggest that this represents entirely or even mainly the repatriation of money on the part of French capitalists. By far the biggest element in the world-wide scramble for francs up to the present has been the rush to cover by the " bears." Most of these speculators were running very nice profits and I am not surprised that when M. Daladier presented them with an extra Io francs in the two days before " stabilisation " they decided to cash in.
As for genuine repatriation of French money, there is so far very little evidence of the transfer of large sums from London or other centres although this kind of money movement is difficult to trace. I feel, however, that the French capitalist who has been holding funds abroad over a longish period is not likely to make up his mind to take them home again in any great hurry. After all, M. Daladier's political position cannot yet be regarded as fully assured and we shall have to wait many weeks for better news of French trade. In all the circumstances, it is a pretty safe guess that the reflow of money to France will prove to be a gradual process.
Previous page
