The Transvaal Three per Cent. Loan has been an amazing
success. So confident were the great financiers and the general body of investors that it would rise to a premium that they subscribed the total amount nearly forty times over. The rush almost overwhelmed the Bank of England, the number of applications when the lists closed on Satur- day last being a hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred, representing subscriptions of £1,174,000,000. The 3 per cent. deposit alone amounted to £35,000,000, or £5,000,000 more than the total amount required. It is believed that a large number of persons who hoped that subscribers of 2100 (forty thousand) would receive in full sent in heaps of small applications. As that is a little unfair, as well as most embarrassing to the clerks, it has been decided that this time no application for less than £2,000 shall be success. ful, those above that figure receiving pro rata allotments. We regret the result, as we ought to do more to encourage the small investor than we do ; but in the circumstances it was, we suppose, impossible to come to any other decision, Several applications were made for the whole amount of the
loan, very large orders were sent from the Continent, and altogether the transaction proves that the oonfidence of Europe and America in British finance has not been shaken by the war. We could borrow a year's revenue almost without notice at 3 per cent. The only fear is lest the confidence of the public should tempt the Government into enterprises which would absorb too large a share of the accumulations that are heaped up by the unceasing industry of the people. There is a disposition just now to think in millions.
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