HEAVY BILL TRANSACTIONS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1852, 13 July 1874, Page 4

HEAVY BILL TRANSACTIONS.

: ... .[ DA n;Y.-NEws.] ,-^_ Prbßaibly the heaviest^ bill .transaction^ ithat the world ever saw are now Btrainirig the resources of the ancient and respectable Bank of Hamburg. They are heavy in every sense of the word, for not only are, they of vast .amo.nn.t, but they are recjuired to be paid mi silver, atthe rate, of about a -waggon load to a bill; and 1 it is not so - much' ■ the difficulty •of procuring the silver as of coining it fast enough, that has taxed the energies of the commercial capital of Germany. Fortunately a crisis, which at one time seemed almost inevitable, has been ; averted by the zeal and co-operatiou of the private bankers, as .the State ; waß ;not, 'permitted ; tp interfere, and the first of these monster bills has; • . been paid. The circumstance ■ are : these:— ;A large, part of the latest instalment 1 of- war indemnity: paid by France toGermany consists • of v bills of < exchange, and 'of tHese were 1 drafts ori Hamburg to ,tl»e^ tune f p^, 48 ; million marks banco-ra coin of about eighteeh-pe'nee value. On the ( 12thSepJember ( the.firpt bUI for about 25 millions became due, and consequently nearly itysrQ..jinilHonsrpf ■': "money, had to .be ■ provided in eighteen-penny pieces. Such a thing had fh'eve'r-beeir heard- of -before ; but the bills had been duly accepted, and being at short dates, had to be .provided for by the acceptors, Messrs L. Behrens and Sons, without loss of time by some unusual operation, as all the money in^ the. bank was inadequate for the purpose. This sum .varies! .fronrjwe'ek'to week'according to tlie quantity of bullion in the cellars of the bank, anyone being at liberty to deposit there his bars of silver ; for which his account is credited in marks banco a fixed rate of: about fiftyrnine 'marks "banco ! per medical "pckm'd' of silver. In ordinary ctimis,Qhis ibalg nee ; has ranged from * < sixteeh'"tb twe fey millions of marks value, and in order o facilitate the ever- increasing •■■'•finano =-■■; operations, a concession has been grantt -torthe—bank-} -tj> -create -bauco money, —n ,. - longer exclusively \by silver bars, but by the deposit of gold in bars, called Belehnungen. In- this manner the stock at the bank at f .ithe/ end >.; ; of August had risen to thirty-two millions of marks , value jbut.of.thip pi -re than five millions 'Were Belehnuhgen, 'and consequently not available/ for the 1 monster bill was drawn .and; made payable, f not in gold, rior.'.even in silver thalers, but in marks b.anco ; and nothing but marks' -banco would do. The Hamburgers .proved equal to the^emergency. ' l ' "■ By 1 great} .exertion/ 'working night and day^: 20,000,000 marks were forthcoming; the -day before the bill becam r e:due they' were -delivered ib the bank in seven thousand bags i of ! 2000 marks each ; and on the 12th the bills were paid in the usual : mariner by a simple cheque on the bank to transfer the amount' to the 'credit 1 of the holder ! No ponder that, with transactions of... such. 'cbloßsal iriagnitude' a great sensation was in the Hamburg Exchange a few aays'l'ago^y •the.exhibitipn of one of, these morisler bills by the' 1 Trbvincial Discbunt ;C,qinp.any, tpwhpm ; it -had been sent to get, it accepted.: r This extraordinary document was drawn on .Messrs L. Behrens and St»ns, and in one sum for 24,650,000 ;marks banco, the bill; stamps amounting to more ( than ( 6,0p0 thalers , .(about JL9OO) whicb! goes into, the /Imperial Treasury,; and which France has to pay. :