OF  GERMANY.

zg

a  large  portion  of  the  railway  stockholders  elected
not  to  re-invest  their  capital  in  Government
securities  optionally  offered  to  them.
Great  activity  was  manifested  at  that  time
on  the  German  Stock  Exchanges,  the  negotiations
for  the  purchase  of  the  railways  by  the  Government ­
  stimulating  and  exciting  speculation.  On
that  occasion,  Mr.  Maybach,  Minister  for  Public
Works,  described  the  Stock  Exchange  in  the
Prussian  Diet,  as  a  “  poison  tree,”  because  he  was
prevented,  by  people  who  had  a  keen  appreciation
of  the  value  of  the  railway  properties,  from
acquiring  these  below  their  intrinsic  values.  This
word  was  conducive  to  creating  an  atmosphere  of
prejudice  and  hostility  against  the  Stock  Exchange,
branding  it  as  an  institution  by  means  of  which
unscrupulous  speculators  and  manipulators  were
enabled  to  accumulate  huge  fortunes  at  the
expense  of  the  general  public.  The  feeling  against
the  Stock  Exchange  became  so  strong  and  popular
that  the  Government  could  not  help  introducing
legislative  measures  prohibiting,  amongst  others,
time  bargains  in  industrial  securities  and,  above
all,  levying  very  heavy  stamp  and  contract  taxes.
“  The  Stock  Exchange  must  bleed  ”  was  a  popular
cry  for  a  long  time.  Only  in  recent  years  when,
with  the  growing  wealth  and  the  increasing
demands  of  the  nation  and  the  expansion  of  trade