Considerable alarm has been created both in Berlin and Vienna
by the collapse this week of the Leipziger Bank with a share capital of z2,400,000, the shares of many banks falling in consequence seven or eight points. There seems, at first sight, little reason for the panic, as the failure was caused, not, by losses, but by a large lock-up, and, according to the directors, all creditors will be paid; but in both these capitals there is great readiness to take alarm. The stimulus recently given to German enterprise has produced a fever of specula- tion, which is the more dangerous because the landowners share in it. They raise money from banks on the " good " security of their estates, and when money is wanted it cannot be called in without long delays. Shareholders, moreover, are comparatively poor and very nervous, so that even a slight shock to credit sends them tumbling over one another in eagerness to sell. There is, however, a good deal of cautiot among Continental business men, and we notice that althougl a Black Friday is frequently expected both in Paris ant Berlin, it somehow does not arrive.
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