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This was boom talk. All that was needed to start another mining stock boom were a few "circumstances": 1) prospective Philippine independence which will put other Philippine exports outside the U. S. tariff wall, thereby making them unattractive for investment; 2) $16,000,000 of AAA sugar benefits which poured into the islands; 3) the Spanish revolution which marooned Spanish capital in the islands; 4) the greater venturesomeness of British and Chinese capital.
Mining stocks rose gradually. Then two months ago the boom hit. Compared to a year ago, the stocks of most of the established companies have nearly doubled in price. The prices of typical new companies have doubled, tripled and quadrupled, mostly quadrupled. All summer between 10 a. m. and noon the Manila Stock Exchange on the Escolta was crowded with "Escolta miners'5—lawyers, doctors, merchants, newspapermen, government officials, speculating gleefully, many of them starting with no more than 100 pesos ($50) capital. Five Americans and five Spaniards, said to have been worth almost nothing a year ago, were credited with becoming millionaires.
In one day the exchange had a turnover of 7,451,127 shares—most of them priced at only a few cents, but 100% profit is just as good on a cheap stock as on an expensive one. The exchange was a bedlam. With only 20 members, its facilities were swamped. Tickers were ordered from the U. S. so that customers might go to brokers' offices instead of to the exchange to do business. Brokerage became tremendously profitable. Seats on the exchange which sold for $500 when it was organized three years ago were worth $4,000 last December, are now valued around $30,000 each.
This glorious sensation of sudden riches could not help being felt in high places. Fortnight ago, President Manuel Quezon with more moderation than most of his compatriots put his blessing on the boom: "In their mines the Philippines have a storage of great wealth. If reports of the Bureau of Science are justified I believe that our country is one of the richest in the world.
"If this industry is given encouragement, we can look to it to be of great help to us if, when the republic is proclaimed, we should lose some or all of our trade privileges. The industry will then tide us over until we can develop new markets or build new industries."