Berlin has been greatly moved by the failure of Messrs.
Hirschfeld and Wolff, a Jewish firm of bankers and Army agents. The amount of their deficit, £250,000, is not very great ; but assets are always over-calculated in failures, and they are expected to bring down other houses. They were especially trusted by great families, and it is asserted that Prince Henry, who would be Regent if the Emperor were disabled, will be a heavy sufferer. Heavy falls have in con- sequence taken place in the value of industrial undertakings, and Berlin is just at present in no position to meet a financial crisis. Its business men have suffered like the rest of the world from the South American collapse, and it is closely connected with St. Petersburg, where the famine, the decline in the rouble, and the embittered position of all Jews, threaten a financial storm. The prohibition on the export of all cereals except wheat embarrasses many houses, and it has been found necessary for the Banks officially to deny a rumour that discounts would be suspended. It is, of course, impossible to recover debts from the thirty millions of people affected by the famine, who form one-third of the population of European Russia.
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