(Vanity Fair, June 14, 1884)
Among all the woes that at the present moment oppress Capel Court, and cause members of the Stock Exchange to wear the aspect of perpetual reciters of penitential psalms, there is one from which they are free. The English public, and more especially the brokers and “jobbers” within the sacred doors of the fifteen hundred privileged gamblers, have never lost money in Spanish railways. That will no doubt appear to be a striking fact to the average reader; but it is not difficult to explain. The truth is, that the English investor-most whimsical and capricious of investors-never lost money in Spanish railways because he never bought their stocks. Had he done so, in all probability the usual results would have followed; he would have dropped his sovereigns into someone else’s pockets. But he bought not, and so his money remained with him. No, it did not-confound it, no. He elected to lose it in Spanish Government Bonds, and succeeded as a rule remarkably well. We know-but what do we not know?
The consequence of this perversity has been that the capitalists and projectors who own the railways of Spain have long ceased to think of England as a market for this description of stock, and that several excellent investments have gone past us. So at least the proprietors assert. But now again we are to have an opportunity to buy a “bonâ fide” investment security of a Spanish railway. The Rio Tinto people-the pious Mathesons, of opium fame and of Lombard Street-beg everybody who possesses posses £10 13s., for which no immediate use can be found, to buy therewith a £20 bond of the above-named railway. Messrs. Matheson feel sure that the purchase will never be regretted; but should misfortunes come they will without doubt cause prayers to be offered up for the peace of the sufferers in all Dissenting conventicles, Salvation Army halls, and other places of devout public entertainment. The prospectus, to be sure, does not say this in express terms, but all that and much more is implied in the name of “Matheson.” What the prospectus does say is, that the railway will serve the ring of copper mines that lies around Huelva, and open up the phosphate deposits of Lagrosan and the wheat-fields of Estremadura. And we must admit that the scheme appears to be good in its way, for the line will connect at Zafra with the Central and Western Railways of Spain. We therefore would rather buy a few of these bonds than shares in the Montana Mine even yet. There is but one question we should like to be permitted to ask. It relates to the share capital. That amounts, we are prospectusly informed, to £1,120,000, or to the same sum nominally as the bonds now obligingly offered by Messrs. Matheson. Could Messrs. Matheson tell us who bought these shares shares, what cash was paid for them, and where they now are? The prospectus is singularly blank in facts relating to these shares, but there is perhaps nothing surprising in that circumstance. As has already been observed, Messrs. Matheson are pious folk. They live by faith, and naturally expect other people to do the same. But the world is full of scepticism, and so we should be glad to know all about these shares before we risk that £10 13s. Eh, Messrs. Matheson?
