A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 5 February 1870—We shall, we imagine, soon see a great many foreign loans on the Stock Exchange. The country is full of money seeking investment, and joint-stock enterprise is almost extinct. A Chilian loan of a million or so was subscribed in a few hours, and the applications for a Russian loan of £12,000,000 yielding about six per cent. overwhelmed the contractors. It is said that many times the amount was offered. There was a sort of mania, too, this week, to purchase Welsh mining shares, one mine in particular, the Van, going upwards in great leaps of £10 and f12 a share—three times the original value—and there seems to be no limit to the expectation of profit from laying sub- marine cables. There are signs, in fact, of a plethora of capital which ought, according to all tradition, to produce an outburst of specu- lation of some novel kind, perhaps street tram- ways.
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