, plus the difference between 77 and the actual price
received, but the first $300,000 taken was to be placed at once at the
disposal of the Government. The bonds were put on the market March 19,
in London, Liverpool, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, but practically
all operations were confined to England. The bid for the loan was
entitled "_Seven per Cent. Cotton Loan of the Confederate States of
America for_ 3 _Millions Sterling at_ 90 _per Cent_." The bonds were to
bear interest at seven per cent. and were to be exchangeable for cotton
at the option of the holder at the price of sixpence "for each pound of
cotton, at any time not later than six months after the ratification of
a treaty of peace between the present belligerents." There were
provisions for the gradual redemption of the bonds in gold for those who
did not desire cotton. Subscribers were to pay 5 per cent. on
application. 10 per cent. on allotment, 10 per cent. on each of the
days, the first of May, June and July, 1863, and 15 per cent. on the
first of August, September and October.
Since the price of cotton in England was then 21 pence per pound it was
thought here was a sufficiently wide margin to offer at least a good
chance of enormous profits to the buyer of the bonds. True "the loan was
looked upon as a wild cotton speculation[1060]," but odds were so large
as to induce a heavy gamblers' plunge, for it seemed hardly conceivable
that cotton could for some years go below sevenpence per pound, and even
that figure would have meant profit, _if_ the Confederacy were
established.
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