L’Écho d’Alger
- General Council of Algiers
- The Stabilisation of the Belgian Franc
- M. Doumergue at Rambouillet
This Algiers daily's front page mixed colonial administration with international finance and presidential ceremony. The General Council of Algiers, meeting under Senator Duroux, voted money for local policing: 55,000 francs as a first payment towards a building for a gendarmerie barracks at Bouzaréa and 2,000 francs for furniture at the Sidi-Aïssa gendarmerie. A Paris dispatch relaying Le Petit Parisien's New York correspondent reported that a 50-million-dollar loan to stabilise the Belgian franc, issued by an American bank syndicate the paper said was led by Morgan and the Guaranty Company, sold out by 10:30 a.m. on the day it opened. A short item from Rambouillet, cut off on the page, told of a shoot M. Doumergue gave there in honour of members of a 'Corps di–', almost certainly the diplomatic corps.
This edition covers three items from a partial reading of the page. Because the OCR text was badly corrupted, the excerpts were transcribed by eye from image tiles, and some words at tile edges are cut off. The Rambouillet item ends mid-word at 'Corps di–'. The commentary does not cover the Algiers council's debate on a livestock tax or the zekkat, because the gathered material contains no supporting evidence on that subject.
Translation
General Council of Algiers
The session opens at 3:30 p.m. Senator Duroux presides. The agenda is taken up at once. On a report by M. Laquière, a credit of 55,000 francs is adopted for the first instalment of the purchase of the building required for the gendarmerie barracks at Bouzaréa. – A credit of 2,000 francs is voted for the purchase of furniture for the gendarmerie at Sidi-Aïssa.
The Stabilisation of the Belgian Franc
Paris, October 27. – Le Petit Parisien reports from New York: The 50-million-dollar loan for the stabilisation of the Belgian franc, launched by the syndicate of American banks headed by Messrs. Morgan and the directors of the Guaranty Company of New York, was opened for subscription in the morning; by 10:30 at the latest the windows were closing, the loan having been fully subscribed.
M. Doumergue at Rambouillet
Rambouillet, October 27. – M. Doumergue today gave a shoot in the Rambouillet preserves in honour of the members of the Corps di–
Context
Who designed Belgium's 1926 currency rescue
The New York loan reported here was the foreign-credit side of a domestic stabilisation programme. According to a numismatic history of the Belga, the new Jaspar government drew up a stabilisation plan for the Belgian franc in 1926, and one part of it was a new unit of account, the Belga, worth 5 Belgian francs. The banker Émile Francqui, who served as a minister without portfolio, is credited with designing the reform plan that ended the monetary crisis. A history quoted in his biography says that thanks to him Belgium restored the gold standard in 1926, but at a parity almost seven times lower than the earlier one. The dollar loan that sold out within hours in New York therefore supported a franc being fixed at a much lower value, not one being restored to its old value. The paper names Morgan and the Guaranty Company as leaders of the syndicate. The sources gathered here do not confirm the syndicate's make-up or explain why demand was so strong.
Why the franc needed stabilising
The Belgian franc's troubles went back to the German occupation. During the First World War the Reichsmark became Belgium's only official currency. After the war the government exchanged those marks for francs at the occupier's overvalued rate, which carried wartime inflation into the peacetime economy and drove the franc down. The franc kept falling against sterling and the dollar, capital fled the country, and the Poullet-Vandervelde government was eventually forced to resign. The crisis also reached the central bank. Fernand Hautain, governor of the National Bank of Belgium from 1923, clashed with Francqui and was dismissed in 1926. Louis Franck replaced him. The quickly subscribed loan in the article came at the end of these political and institutional upheavals.
Francqui's American connections
Francqui's links to the United States help explain why the loan was raised in New York. While serving as Belgian consul in China, he met the future American president Herbert Hoover in 1901, and the two became friends despite being rivals. During the First World War, Hoover's Commission for Relief in Belgium supported the national relief committee that Francqui chaired. In April 1924 Francqui also took part in drawing up the Dawes Plan for German reparations. When Belgium went to the American market in 1926, its leading financial minister was therefore a man with long experience of working with American partners.
The presidential hunts at Rambouillet
The Rambouillet item records one of the French Republic's ceremonial customs. Presidential hunts began under the Second Republic in 1848. They were first held on the presidential estate at Marly and, from 1880, on the estate at Rambouillet. A photograph of President Armand Fallières at Rambouillet in 1909 shows the custom in practice under the Third Republic. The hunts let the president invite members of the government and foreign guests such as diplomats, ambassadors, heads of state and princes. Accounts of the later twentieth century say that one day each season was traditionally set aside for the diplomatic corps, meaning the foreign ambassadors posted to Paris. The truncated words 'Corps di–' in this 1926 dispatch fit that pattern. The item shows M. Doumergue hosting the hunt at Rambouillet, the estate used by successive presidents.
Original
CONSEIL GÉNÉRAL D'ALGER
La séance est ouverte à 15 h. 30. M. le Sénateur Duroux préside. On aborde immédiatement l'ordre du jour. Sur un rapport de M. Laquière est adopté un crédit de 55. 000 francs pour la première tranche de l'achat de l'immeuble nécessaire à la caserne de gendarmerie de la Bouzaréa. - On vote un crédit de 2. 000 francs pour l'achat de mobilier à la gendarmerie de Sidi-Aïssa.
La Stabilisation du franc belge
Paris, 27 octobre. - On mande de New-York au Petit Parisien: L'emprunt de 50 millions de dollars pour la stabilisation du franc belge, lancé par le Syndicat des banques américaines dirigées par MM. Morgan et les directeurs de la Garanty Company de New-York, a été mis en souscription dès le matin; à 10 h. 30, au plus tard, les guichets fermaient, l'emprunt ayant été entièrement souscrit.
M. Doumergue à Rambouillet
Rambouillet, 27 octobre. - M. Doumergue a offert, aujourd'hui, dans les tirés de Rambouillet, une chasse en l'honneur des membres du Corps di -