FINANCES OF T1IE UNITED STATES. 



303 



The State valuation is, however, the practical 

 one. In addition to the aggregate debt of the 

 States, there are the city, town, and county 

 . which swell the amount to fully $300,- 

 000,000, and make the whole public debt, ac- 

 tual and authorized, $1,400,000,000, bearing 

 an annual average charge of $84,000,000, or, in 

 round numbers, $100,000,000, with a one per 

 cent, sinking fund. The $781,000,000 that have 

 been paid in the past eighty years of the Gov- 

 ernment, were met by the duties levied on the 

 goods purchased abroad with the proceeds of 

 cotton sold. That resource is, for the present, 

 at all events, cnt off, and the general exports of 

 the country will not sustain an import revenue 

 more than equal to the ordinary expenses of the 

 Government : hence, the whole burden of the 

 debt must fall upon taxation, direct and indi- 

 rect. These taxes, which are now new in the 

 country, will be systematized, so as hereafter to 

 yield the largest portion of the Government 

 revenue made necessary by the debt. 

 The currency necessities of the Government 

 ave produced also another radical change, 

 leretofore, under the Constitution, gold and 

 Iver have been the only legal currency, and 

 powers of Government have been repeat - 

 ly directed to its increase as the basis of the 

 rculating medium. The Government has, 

 jwever, resorted to paper money as a re- 

 >urce, by which $150,000,000 are obtained 

 the use of notes, where bank notes have pre- 

 iously circulated to the extent of $200,000,000. 

 iis paper, competing with that of the banks, 

 a matter of course, would depreciate in the 

 roportion in which it is emitted to the amount 

 ' taxes collected. If the taxing is sufficient to 

 leet the wants of the Government, there will 

 no depreciation of paper, whether the notes 

 paid in coin or not. The banks issue, in 

 United States, some $200,000.000 of paper 

 Dr circulation, payable in coin ; yet, in ordinary 

 times, they are never really paid in coin, because 

 they are carried back to the issuer through the 

 cancelment of the credits on which they were 

 issued. If that did not take place, redemption 

 in coin would be impossible ; as it does take 

 place, redemption in coin is not asked. The 

 case is not different with the Government. No 

 possible form or device of paper issue can save 



its credit, unless it makes available, by taxation, 

 the vast property in the country. The payment 

 of these taxes will carry the paper money back 

 to the Treasury," and $200,000,000 might easily 

 float at par. The question is, how to make the 

 notes float until the taxes are available, and this 

 object is sought by making them a legal tender 

 for all debts. It is to be borne in mind, that a 

 certain amount of currency is requisite for the 

 transaction of business. Hitherto specie has sup- 

 plied a considerable portion of the circulating 

 medium. The disappearance of the metals on 

 the suspension of the banks, left a vacuum 

 which the Government notes could supply to 

 some extent. The amount of the metals in the 

 country may be approximated as follows : 



In the country in 1821 $87,000,000 



United States'mines, 1821 to 1S49.. $13.511.206 



Net import, 1S21 to 1S49. O,6OyM7 75,453,603 



Onhand,lS49 $112,453,603 



United States mines, 1849 to 1861.. $481 .350.963 



Net export, 1S49 to 1861 431,552,145 49,S2818 



On hand, January, 1S61 f 162,232.421 



United States mines 'in 1S61 $34.379.547 



Net import, 1561 40,843,180 75.22 7.727 



In the country, January, 1S62. . . 



$237,510,143 



The amount in the country in 1821 was the 

 estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury. The 

 result is the amount in the whole country, in- 

 cluding about $60,000,000 which is in banks, 

 &c., at the South. It has been estimated that 

 there is $50,000.000 in plate, jewelry, &c. There 

 would then remain about $127,000,000 in North- 

 ern banks and circulation. Of this amount, $50,- 

 000.000 are gold dollars and silver fractions. A 

 considerable portion of the whole has gone out 

 of circulation, leaving an opening for an equal 

 quantity of paper, which, for denominations 

 above $5, will be well supplied with Govern- 

 ment notes, and bank issues for small notes. 



The large increase which took place in the im- 

 ports of specie in 1861 grew out of the balance 

 due the United States from the foreign trade, 

 which brought large sums of specie into the 

 country, and caused the retention of the Cali- 

 fornia supplies. The general state of the trade, 

 as manifest in the rates of bills and money, and 

 the amount of specie in the city of Xew York 

 monthly during the year, are expressed in the 

 following tables : 



