One result of the outbreak of the European War was the establishment of a moratorium in France as in England and all the countries en gaged in the conflict (although the Germans have eluded the name of moratorium). The disappointment and dissatisfaction of many owners of deposits in credit establishments gave rise to the opinion that disaffection would follow. It can hardly .be asserted that this was more than a superficial and passing feel ing and that the standing of the establishments was seriously injured. It is right to say that, though the moratorium is still in force, the credit establishments, as well as all the banks of deposits, ceased to take advantage of it and resumed the habit of payments in full on 1 Jan. 1915.
To complete the description of the organs of credit in France we have still to mention: (1) the popular and co-operative banks, as yet but little developed; (2) the land and estate banks (banques fonciires), the operations of which are carried on in connection with those of the Credit Foncier; (3) the postal transactions; (4) the savings banks, viz., the Caisse d'epargne and the Caisse d'epargne postale, both of which are official institutions; (5) the land credit estab lishments, recently created, whose action is still uncertain; (6) the magasins aeneraux where goods can be warranted; and last but not least the colonial banks, which are constituted under special laws and have a half-official existence. The two more important ones are the Banque de l'Algerie and the Banque de l'Indo-Chine.
The French banks are but scantily repre sented outside of France; there are only a few branches of the credit establishments in Eng land, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and in Con stantinople. Inversely each year previous to the war saw the establishment in Paris of new branches of the foreign banks, a consequence of the abundance of capital which had made France the money-lender to the whole world.
It is impossible to give an estimate of the banking operations carried on in France. By the side of the joint-stock-companies whose statistics are made known to the public, there exists a large number of private firms whose joint capital certainly exceeds that of the said companies and whose balance-sheets, statistics and other results remain unknown. There is,
it is true, a clearing-house (chambre de com pensation) in Paris, but it is only composed of a dozen members (they were 12 including the representative of the Banque de France, until April 1906, when their number was raised to 13), and the amount of business settled there is far from representing even the totality of operations transacted in Paris alone. We can, however, subjoin the following statistics, while warning the reader that under the conditions of secrecy prevalent in French private banking the returns are given below the full total. They are taken from the tables of the aChambre de Compensation)) from August 1913 to July 1916.
Francs August '.423,490,843 78 September 2.999.790.068 40 October 3.277,729.349.86 November 2,824,160,673.50 December 3,591,772.534.84 January.. 3.241,348,903.72 February 3,147.938,228.10 March... 3,530,566,899.14 April pil' 3,338,716,504.44 May 3,398,238,125 16 June July e 3,492,674,442.763.370,915.077 9, • The average per day during the same months was given as follows: Francs August 100,978,785.15 September 115,376.541.09 October 121,397,383.32 November 117,673,361.39 December 138,145.097,49 124.667,265.52 itnuary 131,164,092.83 March 135,791,034.58 A_ poi 133.548,660.17 May 135.929,525.
July 139,706,977.71 134,936,603.11 It is to be observed that the figures of the last named month are not normal figures, part of the sums which fell due on 31 July not hav ing been paid.
Of the three great credit establishments of the state we have of course full statistics which we here append: Francs Cash. etc 939,002,402 Loans and reports 668.153,014 Discounted bills 2.465,433,640 Stocks, shares, bonds 88,668,720 Check accounts 1.555,068,738 Creditor accounts 2,676,918,460 176.112? 1,11: 72,113.895 to which we may add a few more figures: Francs Capital 700.000 Reserve funds Net profit 39,824,299 Dividend 25,000.000 See FRANCE, BANK OF.
J. DEtcourr, Professor of English, University of Montpellier.