WAR BORROWING
116
It would be unsafe to draw any outright conclusion
as to prevailing monetary conditions from
this exhibit. At least this much may however be
ventured: the business community has during this
period suffered no monetary convulsion with its inevitable
accompaniment of widespread disaster and
ruin.
More specific evidence that althoueh strained the
business world has been neither dislocated nor convulsed
is afforded by the actual course of the money
market during the period of our war borrowing.
The prevailing rates of call and time money in New
York City in the period under review have been as
follows: 8
Actual Rates of Interest
(Per cent.)
Call Loans at New York Stock Exchange
’08 ’09 ’10 ’n ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18
Jan 4.75 1.81 4.72 3.18 2.43 3.23 2.38 2.13 1.88 2.0S 4-io
Feb 1.81 2.25 2.78 2.28 2.28 3.31 1.78 1.97 1.88 2.41 4.99
Mar 1.85 1.85 2.88 2.28 2.42 4.19 1.91 1.93 1.91 3.13 5.19
Apr 1.72 1.94 3.28 2.30 3.00 3.43 1.83 2.09 2.09 3.13 4.08
May 1.66 1.84 3.63 2.31 2.75 2.75 1.78 1.94 2.28 3.13 5.16
June 1.52 1.87 2.77 2.40 2.75 2.25 1.84 1.85 2.97 3.63 5.00
July 1.22 2.06 2.41 2.36 2.88 2.25 2.65 1.88 3.13 3.97 5.63
Aug 1.06 2.17 i.SS 2.31 2.84 2.25 6.25 1.78 2.35 3.63 5'.88
Sept 1.3s 2.69 2.00 2.28 2.63 2.90 6.00 1.78 2.78 3.38 5.88
Oct 1.44 4.31 3,13 2.33 5.33 3.69 6.00 1.81 2.60 3.38 6.00
Nov 1.7s 4-65 3-23 2.72 6.38 3-75 S41 1.88 343 3-S° S-S8
Dec .2.90 5.03 3.38 4.03 6.50 4-63 3-38 1.94 4-44 3-91 S-OO
Average ..1.97 2.70 2.97 2.57 3.52 3.22 3.43 1.92 2.59 2.40 5.29
8 The figures for 1908-19x5 are Professor W, C. Mitchell’s
(■“Business Cycles,” 1913, p. 155; Journal of Political Economy,
June, 1913, p. 512; ibid., February, 1916, p. 146.) For
1916-18 the data have been computed by the writer according
to Professor Mitchell’s method.
