FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



327 



received by the bank depositories are secured 

 by a pledge of United States bonds held by the 

 Treasurer, and are paid out from time to time, 

 as the convenience of the public service may 

 require, or transferred by the bank, without 

 expense to the Government, to an independent 

 Treasury office. By an act approved March 3, 

 1857, public disbursing officers were required 

 to place all public funds intrusted to them for 

 disbursement on deposit with a public depos- 

 itary, and to draw for the same only in favor 

 of the persons to whom payment was to be 

 made, excepting that they might check in their 

 own names when the payments did not exceed 

 $20. The enforcement of this provision ac- 

 cording to its letter was found impracticable, 

 and the attention of Congress was called to it 

 in the annual reports of the Secretary for 1857 

 and 1858, with a recommendation for its modi- 

 fication. No action in the matter appears to 

 have been taken by Congress until the act of 

 June 14, 1866, reproduced as section 3620, 

 Kevised Statutes, was passed. This appeared 

 to supersede the act of 1857, in removing the 

 restrictions as to the method in which the 

 money was to be drawn ; but by an act ap- 

 proved February 27, 1877, section 3620 has 

 been amended by requiring the checks to be 

 drawn only in favor of the persons to whom 

 payments are to be made. 



The number of national banks in existence 

 on October 1st was 2,053. The amount of 

 their circulating notes outstanding, including 

 those in liquidation, was $323,147,710; the 

 capital invested was $466,147,436 ; the surplus 

 fund and profits were $157,833,993 ; the loans 

 and discounts were $830,521,542. The Secre- 

 tary regards this system as the most important 

 business agency in the country. Its advantages 

 over any other system heretofore existing, he 

 presents fully. He alludes to the question of 

 their permanency, now somewhat discussed, 

 and suggests that as each is organized under 

 the law for twenty years, and none of them 

 expire until June, 1883, it -is good policy to 

 continue the experiment until that date. The 

 amount of taxes paid by the banks is : United 

 States, $6,902,573; State, $8,829,304; total, 

 $15,731,877. 



The annual report of the Director of the 

 Mint exhibits in detail the operations of the 

 several mints and assay offices, and also pre- 

 sents interesting information relative to the 

 production of gold and silver in the United 

 States, the estimated amount of gold and silver 

 coin and bullion in the country, the deprecia- 

 tion of silver, the position of the American 

 trade dollar in the Oriental trade, and other 

 subjects connected directly or indirectly with 

 the coinage : 



The value of the gold coinage executed during 



the last fiscal year was $52.798,980 00 



Of trade dollars 11^378,010 00 



Of standard silver dollars 8,573,500 00 



Of fractional silver coin 8,339,315 50 



And of minor coin 30,694 00 



A total coinage of $81,120,499 50 



In addition to the coinage, fine and unparted 

 bars were prepared for depositors in the amount 

 of $12,501,926.23 in gold, and $11,854,385.87 

 in silver. 



The present production of bullion from the 

 mines of the United States appears to approxi- 

 mate $100,000,000 in value. All the gold bul- 

 lion produced in the country contains more or 

 less silver, and the greater portion of the silver 

 bullion from the mines contains a percentage 

 of gold, making it difficult to determine with 

 accuracy the proportion of each. It is safe, 

 however, to state that the production of the 

 two metals, calculated at their coining rates, 

 is nearly equal. The amount of gold coin and 

 bullion in the country September 30th is esti- 

 mated by the Director at $259,353,390, and of 

 silver coin and bullion at $99,090,557, a total 

 of $358,443,947. 



The gold values of the exports of merchan- 

 dise from the United States, and imports of 

 merchandise into the United States, during the 

 last fiscal year, as appears from returns made 

 to and compiled by the Bureau of Statistics, 

 are as follows : 



Exports of domestic merchandise $680,709,268 



Exports of foreign merchandise 14,156,498 



Total exports of merchandise $694,865,766 



Imports of merchandise 437,051,532 



Excess of exports over imports of merchandise. $257,814,234 



Compared with the previous year, the im- 

 portations are less by $14,271,594, and the ex- 

 portations greater by $92,390,546. The annual 

 average of the excess of imports over exports 

 of merchandise for the ten years ended June 

 30, 1873, was $104,706,922, but during the last 

 three years there has been an excess of exports 

 over imports as follows : In 1876, $79,643,481 ; 

 in 1877, $151,152,094; and in 1878, $257,814,- 

 234. The total amount of exports and imports 

 of specie and bullion during the last fiscal year 

 has been as follows : 



Exports of specie and bullion $33,740,125 



Imports of specie and bullion 29,821,314 



Excess of exports over imports $3,918,811 



The importation of specie and bullion was 

 less than for the preceding year by $10,953,100, 

 and the exportation less by $22,422,112. The 

 excess of such exports over imports has de- 

 creased from $71,231,425 in 1875 to $3,918,811 

 in 1878, as above stated. 



The excess of exports over imports of mer- 

 chandise during the first four months of the 

 current fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, 

 amounted to $81,415,477, and during the cor- 

 responding months of the last fiscal year to 

 only $34,295,076. During the first four months 

 of the last fiscal year there was an excess of ex- 

 ports over imports of coin and bullion amount- 

 ing to $3,430,787, whereas, during the first four 

 months of the current fiscal year ending as 

 above, there has been an excess of imports 

 over exports of coin and bullion amounting to 

 $3,355,882, making a change in this respect of 



