INTERNATIONAL FACTORS.
It is the more difficult to form a definite opinion with regard to the matter owing to the complexity arising out of the international character of markets. In New York the Stock Exchange activity is apparently even more pronounced than in this country, but, on the other hand, there is greater general prosperity in the United States than here. Moreover, although Wall Street remains the centre of great speculative activity, the fact remains that American investors, as a whole, appear to have thrown overboard recently a good many of their holdings of foreign loans in order that they may take part in gambling in domestic industrial and utility 'companies' shares. That development, together with the dear money rates in New York, has, in its turn, thrown more directly upon the London Money Market the task of
• financing the needs of various countries, a feature being the • extent of the short loans made to Germany. As a conse- quence, the foreign exchanges and, notably, the American rate, have tended to move adversely, so that while the Bank of England has gained sovereigns from South Africa, most of the bar gold available has been taken for abroad, and on one day £500,000 in gold was taken out of the Bank for New York.
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