Part de Fondateur of the Compagnie Universelle du CanalInterocéanique de Panama (issued November 29t

Part de Fondateur of the Compagnie Universelle du CanalInterocéanique de Panama (issued November 29th, 1880).The company was founded by Ferdinand de Lesseps on October 20th,1880, to build the Panama Canal.  But the canal was poorly planned,mortality rates were extremely high, and Lesseps, who was in charge,was not an engineer.  The company went bankrupt in May 1889, and theproject was suspended.The canal was only two-fifths complete, and about $234 million hadbeen spent on it.  The company’s collapse led to the Panama Scandals,in which 104 legislators were found to have been involved incorruption – about 500,000 francs had been taken in bribes fromLesseps to keep the company’s financial problems covered up.About 800,000 people lost their investments in the Panama CanalCompany, about 1.8 billion gold francs in total.  The company hadreceived 1.2 billion gold francs from their nine stock issues, butonly 960 million had been invested in the canal.  Lesseps died in1894. -- source link

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