In this instance the commission merchants in all probability were those who agreed "to take such an amount of stock as may be necessary to ensure the success of this enterprise," it being either agreed that in return for this they should get the brokerage of the mill, or even, perhaps, receiving their pay as agents in shares of stock, which meant taking dividends instead of commissions. The practise was a common one, and machinery manufacturers followed the same plan. It is not at all clear that it could have been avoided, and the net profits which were earned by the mills of the South in this period would seem to dispute the statement, that the commissions charged by firms which had thus gained control over the product were exorbitant, and left the mills barely enough earnings to continue to turn out the goods which was the instrument of their own exploitation. A final instance of Northern pecuniary interest in the development of cotton manufactures at the South may be noticed in the fact that New York bankers were expected to exceed the subscription of $25,000 to the International Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, alloted to the city. Among the large subscribers were Inman, Swan & Co., $2,000; Drexel, Morgan & Co., $1,000; Brown Bros. & Co., $1,000.[246] CHAPTER V _FINANCING THE MILLS_ The preceding chapter dealt with the capital of the Southern cotton mills in the period of their establishment. It was first noticed that local capital was naturally drawn upon before any other, and the character of the appeals to local resources and the response to these appeals were brought out. The second division of the report dealt with the attitude of the Southern mill promoters toward outside, usually Northern capital, the nature of the appeals made to Northern capital, and the extent of the response to these solicitations. Altogether, the surface aspects of the securing of capital were dealt with in a large way; in denominating the present chapter and that following: "The Financing of the Mills", it is intended to bring out the minutiae of the process, and to set forth the mechanism of the problem in its detail. In seeking to make clear the methods of securing capital in the South, it is convenient to consider first the soliciting of subscriptions to stock, and at the outset it will be well to give a notice that appeared in the financial advertising columns of the Charleston News and Courier at the beginning of the period of cotton mill growth. This notice is directed by "The Charleston Manufacturing Company to The Citizens of Charleston", and carries a contemporary flavor that is of service in an understanding of the problem. Given almost entire, it reads: