the loan, the remainder going to banks and agents. The bank rate at the time of the Russo-Chinese loan of 400,000,000 francs amounted to 8 per cent.: that of the Russian loan of 800,000,000 francs (1904), to 10 per cent., and of the Moroccan loan of 62,500,000 francs (1904) to 18.75 per cent. Capitalism, the development of which began with petty usury, ends in the gigantic usury of high finance. "The French," says Lysis, "are the moneylenders of Europe. Their whole economic life is profoundly modified by this transformation of capitalism. Without increase of population or development of industry, business, or sea-borne carrying trade, the country can grow rich by usury." Fifty persons representing a capital of 8,000,000 francs can control 2,000,000,000 deposited in four banks. The system of participation, with which we are already acquainted, leads to the same result. The Société Générale, for instance, issues 64,000 bonds of one of its subsidiary companies, the Egyptian Refineries. The bonds are issued at 150, the bank gaining straight away 50 centimes in the franc. The dividends of the new company are then found to be non-existent. The public lost from 90 to 100 million francs. One of the directors of the Société Générale belongs to the board of directors of the Egyptian Refineries. Hence it is not surprising if the author is driven to such conclusions as "the French Republic is a financial monarchy," "the financial oligarchy is the supreme power behind the press and the government."50
The extraordinarily high rate of profit from the issue of securities, which is one of the chief functions of finance-capital, plays a large part in the
