banking and administration expenses, extras, and the like, this paper concluded that the stock would pay a clear profit of fourteen per cent. La Liberté then began to scold the doubters, and urged them to have more faith in de Lesseps, "who comes before you with the authority of science." "Invest in these shares," the enthusiastic editor continued, "and by and by you will be proud of your part in opening this work of civilization. The result will be a surprise to those who have but faith in our great fellow-countryman." At the proper moment, when enthusiasm was sufficiently aroused, de Lesseps issued his second prospectus, on November 15, 1880, announcing that the Technical Commission had reduced the number of cubic yards to be excavated and thus considerably lowered the cost, and that the contractors MM. Couvreux and Hersent were now "ready" to undertake the construction of the canal for $102,000,000,1 Then to dissipate the absurd rumor started by his enemies, that the people of the United States in any 1 As a matter of fact no such contract was ever concluded. M. Couvreux had been de Lesseps' partner in Suez, and had already advanced him considerable money on Panama. He did indeed declare that the canal would not cost over $102,000,000, but then he wanted to get his money back and have the new company purchase his Suez dredges besides, and hence his lower estimate. Thus far the cost of the canal had been variously estimated as follows: Mr. Wyse's estimate, 1879..... Canal Congress at Paris, 1879, first estimate.. 46 second estimate.. De Lesseps's Technical Commission, Feb. 14, 1880.. $85,000,000 208,000,000 140,000,000 168,000,000 132,000,000 102,000,000 way objected to the project, de Lesseps pointed with pride to "the full co-operation of the great and powerful American banking houses," which, he said, "shows the results of my trip to the United States." The effect of such diplomacy was really astounding. When the subscription books were opened, so well had the preliminary moneys been expended in influencing public opinion, that instead of the six hundred thousand shares offered for sale, over a million were immediately subscribed for at a par value of 500 francs each. There were indeed more than 100,000 eager applicants, for the most part consisting of small proprietors and women, and thus each bidder had to be contented with but from one fourth to one third the number of shares he or she had subscribed for.1 Such unprecedented enthusiasm of course added enormously to the éclat of the newly formed Com pagnie Universelle, but the first stockholders' meeting which was called together by de Lesseps on the last day of January, 1881, somewhat clouded over the rosy aspect of affairs. De Lesseps himself was all sunshine, it is true, and in his report he declared with confidence that "all problems have been solved 1 Of the 1,206,609 shares demanded 994,508 were asked for by Frenchmen and 212, 101 by foreigners. Most of the foreign subscribers were Alsatians and Spaniards. No shares were taken in the United States besides those allotted to bankers, etc. The allotment was finally made to 102,230 applicants, and of this number 99,982 held less than 20 shares apiece, i. e., 80,837 held from 1 to 5 shares, 19, 143 held from 6 to 20 shares, 3208 held from 21 to 50 shares, and so on down, till we find only 8 holding from 900-1000 shares, and only 14 holding any over 1000. Out of the 102,230 original subscribers 16,000 were women. and all difficulties smoothed over." But there was a little matter of preliminary expenses that had to be attended to, and this was the cloud upon the horizon. A committee was then appointed to report on these expenses, which had now to be made good from the paid-up stock. Within a month the committee was ready to report, and on March 3d de Lesseps called a second meeting of the stockholders, to provide for the definitive organization of the company according to the French law. It would never have done to present the committee's report at the start, so de Lesseps began to stimulate confidence anew among his associates and prepare them for the shock. "The problem of the American isthmus is comparatively easy," so he began his second report. "It is an operation the exact mathematics of which are perfectly well known, and the grandeur of the effort to be made does not at all trouble the enterprising contractors to whom you will supply the means of carrying it out." The Technical Commission, de Lesseps declared, was composed of "the most competent engineers." It had concluded to dam the Chagres, and this de Lesseps maintained to be "a very simple solution of the only doubtful question about the execution of the work of opening the canal." Work was to be begun at once, he announced. The "installations,"-meaning thereby, clearing the line, studying the hydrographic features of the harbors, constructing houses for employees, hospitals, workyards, offices, etc.-were all to be completed by October, 1881. The Culebra cut was then to be attacked, and during November and December the dredges were to be set to work. In January, 1882, work was to be begun all along the line, and by 1888 the canal was to be opened to commerce. After this introduction of brilliant promises, the committee's report was read, and to the conster nation of the stockholders they now found that they had first to make good some $9,000,000 already sunk in the preliminary expenses. Thus from the very outset, the poor people of France began to feed the vultures with their savings, and this first brood, though perhaps the hungriest, was by no means the last of the flock.1 § 155. The Maritime Canal Nicaragua. At the same time another canal company was being organized in the United States, with far less ostentation, and, on this account, perhaps, with nothing like the same quota of suc cess. The gentlemen of the Provisional Company of Canal Society had, as we know, been granted under their last concession until September, 1884, to complete all the preliminaries of their work. While Congress was considering the provisions of their bill, therefore, they took occasion to have their informal preliminary company merged into a more regular corporation, to be known in the future as the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua. But their guaranty bill had failed to become a 1 Bulletin du Canal Interocéanique, Nos. 15-28, Paris. Économiste Français, August 8 and 15, 1885. Rodrigues, loc. cit., Ch. VI. Bunau-Varilla, "The Past, Present, and Future of Panama," Paris, 1893. law, and so some other and more immediate means had now to be resorted to in order to raise the necessary funds. General Grant and General McClellan then lent their influence to the project, and it was mainly due to their co-operation that a syndicate of capitalists was formed, under the direction of the banking-house of Grant and Ward, which agreed to undertake the construction of the canal. Here in America, however, it was the banking-house which failed, and after Grant and Ward had become so hopelessly involved, there was no further hope of the canal project for which they and the old General stood sponsor. Grant's name had served as the talisman thus far for the Nicaraguan project, and now this name was shrouded for the time in a financial cloud. No further influence could in consequence be exerted either in the United States or Nicaragua, and on September 30, 1884, the company's concession lapsed.' § 156. President Arthur's President Arthur all along had very little confidence in the ability of American capitalists to construct the Nicaragua canal, and more especially since Congress had hesitated to lend its aid to the undertaking. And yet Canal Prohe was deeply impressed with the par- ject. amount importance of a transit route under American control. The Panama canal project was now well under way, but citizens of the United States owned no stock in the enterprise, and the diplomatic correspondence on the question had at 1 66 The Interoceanic Canal of Nicaragua," loc. cit., p. 11. |