Unsuccessful speculators have a harder time in France than in
England. On Wednesday, the French Courts found M. Secretan, founder of the Societe des Metaux, guilty of mono- polising an article of necessary use, and of distributing fictitious dividends, and sentenced him, with two colleagues, to six months' imprisonment, and to reimburse all persons who bought shares in the Comptoir d'Escompte between February 1st and March 5th, 1889. The Comptoir d'Escompte, it will be remembered, was the bank which, on M. Secretan's representations, financed the copper speculation, and was consequently compelled to go through a process of re- construction. M. Secretan will, of course, appeal, and it is a little doubtful if the sentence will be fully upheld. Copper is hardly such an article of necessity as was contemplated when the law against monopolies was passed, and the fictitious divi- dends were only fictitious because copper could not be sold at the price to which quotations had been artificially driven up. The imprisonment, therefore, may be remitted, but the order to reimburse those who bought shares in the financing bank will be sustained, and amounts of itself to a crushing fine. It is not probable that M. Secretan, himself a millionaire, in- tended to swindle anybody, but he undoubtedly raised money on the security of copper, to which, as practically the sole holder in the world, he affixed any value he chose. The sentence would probably seem just if we had all the evidence before us, but the dividing line between speculation and fraud is very narrow. M. Secretan may have thought that the demand for copper could not fail even at his price.
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