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Show Wtt EXCHANGE OUTLDQKJIRKER ollapse in Values of Foreign For-eign Money Due to Several Sev-eral Factors. Present collapse o: rore.g:. exchange is the direct result 01 the dark outlook of foreign credits, according- to the Bustou News Bureau. "ashington authorities, including the federal reserve board, insist in-sist on washing their hands of the affair, af-fair, contending that it is one for private pri-vate enterprise. Bankers answer thai, In view of the present attitude of the American Amer-ican investment public, which declines to purchase securities in any Quantity, huh-can huh-can be accomplished toward successfully floating foreign obligations without active ac-tive participation of the government in some form. The result is a deadlock, and it is difficult to see when it will be broken. Undoubtedly this lias conic to the kuoweldge of bankers abroad, and has caused their present heavy selling of exchange, which is no mean cause of the decline in rates. Another factor is the advance in price of grold in Bondon to 100 shillings a fine ounce, although it may have been in part the result of the decline in sterling, as the two markets, sterling exchange in this center and (he gold market in Loudon, Lou-don, are mutually dependent.- P'or some tinifl previous Transvaal gold bad been selling in London a t 99 shillings a fine ounce, a depreciation of 11 per cent on British currency. The latest figure indicates indi-cates n premium of 21 per cent on gold or a discount of 19. S per cent on British currency. The natural tendency is for sterling to follow the price of gold in London and vice versa. Discounts on sterling and on British currency tend to differ by no more than cost of exporting or importing import-ing gold from Great Britain, assuming the latter movement were permitted. Ou Tuesdav. when cable transfers here were quoted about $3.94, depreciation on the exchange was approximately 19 per cent, which was about the percentage of discount on currency in London. Mint parity of the tiy ounce fine is 84 shil-litiKs'andL shil-litiKs'andL 31 pence. Ordinary luint parity of 77 shillings 10'. ponce applies to an ouneo of gold eleven-twelfths fine, the- British standard of fineness, which formerlv was also the fineness of the gold dealt in in the open market. |