Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “” before and after a word or phrase indicate italics_ in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Foreign Exchange

BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN

UNITED STATES SENATOR OF OKLAHOMA CHAIRMAN OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY

NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1919

Copyright, 1919, by Robert L. Owen

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

THE FEDERAL RESERVE FOREIGN BANK

PUT THE AMERICAN DOLLAR AT PAR IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Because of war conditions the American dollar is at a serious discount in all of the neutral countries of Europe and throughout the world, notwithstanding the fact that the United States had a favorable balance of trade of over three thousand millions last year, and ten thousand millions since the war began.

It is important that American business men, American bankers, American importers and exporters should understand this problem and the remedy for it.

The problem is not really a difficult one. It is the purpose of this little book to explain the problem; to show the factors entering into it; to show the remedy and point the path and mechanism by which to maintain the American dollar at par, and make it the medium of international exchange and of international contracts.

THE U. S. DOLLAR IN SPAIN

The American dollar should buy 5.18 pesetas, lire or francs on a gold par basis, but at present (August, 1918) will buy 8.90 Italian lire and about 3.5 Spanish pesetas, although the gold value of the Italian lira and the Spanish peseta is identical. The reason for this is that Italy has an urgent demand for dollars in America to pay for the purchases of the Italian Government and of the Italian people, and the credits being extended to Italy for this purpose are being furnished at enormously high rates by private banks and capitalists, while Spain is selling more commodities than she is buying, is an international creditor, has no need for dollars, and pesetas in Spain are being sold at an artificial high price by private banks and capitalists. The Allies requiring Spanish pesetas are being charged enormously high rates for the pesetas required in Spain, which means that the pesetas are selling for 28 cents apiece instead of 19 cents and that the gold dollar measured in pesetas is at a heavy discount and only worth 67 cents.

The gold dollar in New York instead of buying 67 cents’ worth of Spanish gold currency should buy 50 per cent. more than it does, and American and Allied purchasers of Spanish goods suffer this 50 per cent. loss with the added penalty of war prices which makes the 50 per cent. loss probably 100 per cent., to which must be added the merchants’ profit.

It is obvious, therefore, that the loss to the United States and to the Allies from a condition of this character ought to be promptly met. It can be done. It is necessary to understand foreign exchange, the factors entering into it, the means by which to economically settle international commodity trade balances and to provide the mechanism under Government control through which the steps can be taken to obtain the desired results.

I desire, therefore, to explain the factors entering into foreign exchange, the steps required to bring the dollar to par, the steps required to keep the dollar at par, and the mechanism necessary to make effective the proposed policy.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE DEFINED

Foreign exchange is a broad term referring to the business of international bills of exchange. These bills of exchange take the form of drafts representing an evidence of debt in the form of a negotiable instrument, the drawer or maker constituting the creditor, the drawee the debtor, and the title to such bill being vested in the payee. These drafts take the form of acceptances, often endorsed by acceptance banking companies. When drawn against merchandise exported they are often accompanied by documents—such as the receipt of the transportation company, or bills of lading, certificates of insurance, certificates of inspection, weight, etc. These foreign bills of exchange may be drawn against securities which are sold as merchandise. They may appear as authorized commercial or banking credits or as finance bills.

They may be drawn against actual cash funds or credits in banks, but, whatever they are, they comprise at last merely the order of the drawer or maker upon the drawee or debtor to pay to a payee a certain amount of money in the currency of the country upon which they are drawn, in pounds sterling in London, in pesetas in Spain, in francs in France, in lire in Italy, in dollars in New York. The forms of these bills are well established and can be found in any of the many comprehensive works on international exchange.

These bills may be at sight, payable on presentation, or thirty, sixty, or ninety days; they may be with documents attached or without documents attached; they may be acceptance bills or payment bills. The scope of this book does not permit of an elaborate discussion of the mere forms of such bills or the mechanism employed by the banks in handling such bills or the mathematics of converting one currency into another.

BALANCE OF TRADE

When a country is shipping more goods in the form of commodities than she is receiving, it is said that the balance of trade is favorable. The term “balance of trade” is apt to be misleading. It is a convenient phrase relating to commodity shipments alone as they appear on the record of outgoing and incoming ships, which are always subject to Government inspection and from which a definite and accurate compilation can be made and is made. If such “balance of trade” runs against a country the actual balance of commodity indebtedness must be made up by shipments of gold, securities or transfer of credits. Outside of commodities which appear in making up the balance of trade there are a number of invisible factors, not of statistical public record, which go to determine the extent to which the citizens of one country may be indebted to those of another, and by which the international debts are actually settled. These elements are not absolutely available in the form of statistics and can be only roughly estimated. Taking the United States as an example, there are certain factors not tabulated by the Bureau of Statistics at Washington because their proportions are unknown to the officials. These are the elements which comprise the invisible factors in determining the settlement of international debts. The transfer of money or credit from the United States to other countries (outside of commodities) is accomplished in the following ways:

FACTORS AFFECTING INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE

1st. The purchase by citizens or corporations in the United States of securities or properties of any kind (outside of commodities actually shipped, otherwise accounted for) in other countries;

2nd. The payment of interest or dividends on American securities and properties owned by foreigners;

3rd. The payment of loans due foreigners;