ABSTRACT
Let us first speak about the effect of the form of securities, or rather the character of those who issue them on lowering interest.
As you know, gentlemen, the weaker the moral or material guarantee offered by an individual, the more he is made to pay for borrowing the capital he is granted. Thus in Paris there are a host of industrialists whose credit is unknown as the present organisation of banks is far from perfect; these industrialists generally pay 6, 8, 10 per cent interest and sometimes even more, whereas the paper of the leading Paris institutions is negotiated at 3 or even 2.5 per cent per year and banknotes are accepted at par without interest. We shall also mention Treasury bonds in France, Exchequer bills (1) and annuities in England on which interest is low. We could add French annuities, if the general state of uncertainty and crisis in which our country finds itself at present and if the memory of the financial behaviour of the French government at a time which will not come again did not accidentally increase the interest rate on public funds; this has occurred by a proportional decrease in the capital which is granted for a specific annuity.
