COMMERCE AND FINANCE, AMERICAN, IN 1881. 



127 



beginning of 1881 the New York banks held 

 $55,221,200, and the banks of the rest of the 

 country $51,650,269. In March the New York 

 reserves had fallen to $51,000,000, in May they 

 had increased again to $65,000,000, and on 

 June 30th to $67,393,400, falling off afterward 

 to $51,000,000 in October. The reserves of the 

 other banks of the country increased progres- 

 sively to $53,500,000 in March, $57,500,000 in 

 the first week of May, $61,245,000 on June 

 30th, and $63,000,000 in October. 



The Comptroller of the Currency states in his 

 report that he has been unable to obtain any 

 evidence showing that the action of the banks 

 in depositing legal-tender notes and withdraw- 

 ing bonds pending the action of Congress on 

 the funding bill, was concerted in order to de- 

 range the money market. Such a course, he 

 says, would dangerously affect the value of the 

 securities held by the banks against call loans. 

 The banks of New York city had loaned out 

 $97,000,000, and all the banks throughout the 

 country $196,000,000 on demand, secured by 

 collaterals which would be seriously depressed 

 in value in a money panic. 



The number of national banks which de- 

 posited legal-tender notes for the purpose of 

 obtaining possession of their bonds in antici- 

 pation of the passage of this bill was one hun- 

 dred and forty-one. These banks were lo- 

 cated in twenty -four States, and the amount 

 of legal-tender notes deposited by them was 

 $18,764,434. Only about one third of the bonds 

 which were thus released were subsequently 

 redeposited, and for some months thereafter 

 the total amount of bonds redeposited by the 

 one hundred and forty-one banks which re- 

 duced their circulation was less than $7,000,- 

 000. 



From an investigation made by Comptroller 

 Knox, it appears that the financial settlements 

 made by checks and bills of credit through the 

 banks of New York amount to about three 

 fifths of the business transacted by the aid of 

 such instruments throughout the United States. 

 The clearing-house settlements for the year 

 ending October 1st aggregated about $48,000,- 

 000,000. The total financial transactions of the 

 country effected by instruments of credit would 

 be, therefore, some $80,000,000,000 for the 

 year. That portion of the total payments 

 which are due to fictitious operations on the 

 Stock Exchange should be subtracted in order 

 to arrive at the volume of the legitimate busi- 

 ness of the country indicated by the bank ex- 

 change. About 5 per cent of the total transac- 

 tions, it is found, are liquidated in money, and 

 95 per cent are discharged by means of checks, 

 drafts, and other instruments of the kind. 



From the date of resumption to November 

 1, 1881, the imports of gold in excess of ex- 

 ports amounted to $197,434,114, and the esti- 

 mated gold production of the country for the 

 same period was $104,150,000. The increment 

 from both sources for the year ending Novem- 

 ber 1st was $114,749,390. Silver dollars are 



coined at the rate of about $2,300,000 a month, 

 the total coinage for the year ending Novem- 

 ber 1st having been $27,824,955. The total 

 amount of coin and currency in the United 

 States at the date of the Comptroller's report, 

 compared with the amount a year previous, 

 was as follows : 



The amount of legal-tender notes in circula- 

 tion has remained the same since May 31, 1878, 

 in accordance with law. The additional issue 

 of national-bank notes during the year was 

 $16,510,143. The increase of bank-notes, gold 

 coin, and silver coin, amounted to $152,912,- 

 876. On November 1st there was held in the 

 Treasury $167,781,909 of gold, against $133,- 

 679,349 at the same date in 1880 ; $66,576,378 

 in standard silver dollars, against $47,156,588 

 in 1880 ; $3,424,575 in silver bullion, against 

 $6,185,000 ; $25,984,687 in fractional silver 

 currency, against $24,635,561 ; $22,774,830 in 

 paper currency, against $18,221,826. The na- 

 tional banks held $107,222,169 of gold coin and 

 certificates, against $102,851,032 in 1880; $7,- 

 112,567 of silver dollars, against $6,495,477; 

 $77,630,917 of currency, against $25,828,794. 

 The State banks held $19,901,491 of gold, 

 against $17,102,130. In the savings-banks 

 there was $11,782,243 of currency, against 

 $17,072,680 in 1880 at the same date. The to- 

 tal amount of coin and currency in the Treas- 

 ury and the banks on November 1, 1881, was 

 $537,583,083, as compared with $485,668,362 

 on the same date in 1880. Deducting the 

 amount thus retained from the total amount 

 in the country, the amount of money in the 

 pockets of the people on November 1, 1881, was 

 $918,048,519, against $817,050,364 in 1880. 



The total amount of silver dollars coined up 

 to November 1, 1881, was $100,672,705. Of 

 the $66,576,378 in the Treasury, $58,838,769 

 was represented by certificates in the hands of 

 the people and the banks, leaving only $7,737,- 

 609 actually belonging to the Treasury. Of 

 the $100,672,705 coined, therefore, $34,096,327 

 were circulating in the form of coin and $58,- 

 838,769 in the form of certificates. The re- 

 mainder of the silver, $85,364,660, is in sub- 

 sidiary and trade dollars and bullion, of which 

 $29,409,262 is in the Treasury, and $55,955,398 

 is in use in place of the previous fractional pa- 

 per currency, which at its highest point, on 

 March 23, 1874, amounted to $49,566,760. 



The product of the precious metals in the 

 United States reached its highest point in 1877, 

 when the mines of Nevada alone yielded $51,- 

 580,290 within a few hundred thousand dol- 

 lars of the total product of all the States and 

 Territories in 1870. Since that time there has 



