116 



COMMERCE AND FINANCE, AMERICAN, IN 1882. 



premium, and then issuing circulation to the 

 amount of 90 per cent of the par value. 2. 

 That the law be amended so that notes may he 

 obtained to within 10 per cent of the market 

 value of the bonds, with a provision for an 

 additional deposit in case of depreciation. 3. 

 That the tax on circulation be reduced to an 

 amount sufficient to simply cover the expenses 

 of the Treasury incident to the issue of these 

 notes. The Beck law against the over-certifi- 

 cation of checks was directed against a prof- 

 itable branch of the business of New York 

 banks. Upon the opinion of the Attorney- 

 General that the "acceptance" of overdrawn 

 cbecks was an evasion of the law, several of 

 the largest national banks of New York city 

 prepared before the new year to retire their 

 circulation, which was but slightly profitable, 

 owing to the contracted supply and high prices 

 of United States bonds, to resign their char- 

 ters, and to reorganize as State banks. 



The national banking system has many ene- 

 mies, but Congress passed without hesitation 

 the bank extension act which was necessary 

 in order to enable those banks organized under 

 the first banking laws to continue their exist- 

 ence. The act contained a provision for the 

 exchange of the five per cent Government 

 bonds continued temporarily as three and a 

 half per cents for three per cent registered 

 bonds, also redeemable at the pleasure of the 

 Government, but only after all bonds bearing 

 a higher rate of interest which may be pay- 

 able have been redeemed. Of these three per 

 cent bonds, those which are last issued are to 

 be paid off first, and the earliest issued called 

 in last. 



The total amount of coin and currency in 

 the country at the date of resumption, and on 

 each 1st of November subsequent, as estimated 

 by the Comptroller of the Currency, was as fol- 

 lows: 



The gold production of the year ending No- 

 vember 1st is reported as $43,359,021. During 

 the year there was a net export of $36,122,536. 

 Taking the amount used in the arts as $2,700,- 

 000, there remained $4,536,483 to be added to 

 the gold currency. From the date of resump- 

 tion to November 1, 1882, there was a total 

 excess of imports of gold over exports of $161,- 



311, 5T8. The total product of the mines for 

 the same period is estimated at $147,509,021. 

 The total amount of standard silver dollars 

 coined up to November 1, 1882, was $128,- 

 329,880. 



The amounts of gold, silver, and paper cur- 

 rency in sight at the same dates as above were 

 as follow : 



Deducting these totals from the amounts 

 computed as the total stock in the country, the 



amounts held by the people at each date are 

 approximately determined as follows : 



