UNITED STATES FINANCES. 



757 



lrl>t has occurred, the net reduction of principal 

 without an < ijuivalent reserve, for the year end- 

 ,. -enilHT :n, 12, bring $9,208,898, mainly 

 in tin 1 liability of the Government for the re- 

 il.'mption of national bank notes. As during the 

 vfar in question there was a decrease in the 

 Treasury balance of $5,481,540 as will be seen 

 In n 'after, only $3,727,858 could have been used 

 of ordinary receipts, and this amount was the 

 out in- surplus of revenues for that period. 



The public debt admits of two divisions, one 

 being that having no specific reserve ; the other 

 that having a full reserve in cash and used 

 mainly for circulation as money. 



The following statement shows the public debt 

 having no specific reserve on the dates named: 



The following statement shows the public 

 debt having equivalent cash reserve on the 

 dates named: 



Of the latter the reserve for old loans matured 

 is not specifically required by law, but in deter- 

 mining the actual available cash on hand the 

 Treasury has usually deducted the amount of 

 such obligations, the loans being liable for pay- 

 ment upon presentation. 



Of the amount without reserve $277,106,627 is 

 payable on demand and bears no interest. Of 

 this amount $55,647 is part of the issue of $60,- 

 000,000 demand notes authorized in 1861, and 

 none has been redeemed during the last year. 

 Probably most of the amount outstanding have 

 been lost or destroyed. Of the amount of frac- 

 tional notes only a little more than $2,000 has 

 been redeemed during the year, and doubtless a 

 considerable portion of the remainder will never 

 be presented for redemption. The amount re- 

 ported does not, however, represent the entire 

 amount of fractional notes unredeemed. About 

 $8,000,000 has been arbitrarily removed from the 

 monthly debt statement. The true amount of 

 fractional notes outstanding on June 80, 1892, was 

 $15,279.401. nearly all of which will probably 

 never be presented for redemption. It must be 

 also remembered that of the other notes a con- 



siderable portion will naturally never be paid, 

 especially those of the earlier issues, subjected as 

 they were to the hard usage of the civil war. 



Circulation. Of the money in circulation in 

 the country there has been an increase during the 

 fourteen months ending December 81, 1892, of 

 paper $44,375,307, and a decrease in that of coin 

 of $6,326,263, a net increase of $38,049,044. The 

 principal items of increase are that of silver dol- 

 lars, $8,401,617, and that of the legal tender notes 

 of 1890, which was $56,020,353. These notes are 

 issued in payment at market price of silver bul- 

 lion, of which there are required monthly pur- 

 chases of 4,500,000 fine ounces. The silver pur- 

 chased is stored by the Treasury and held as 

 reserve, but the law seems to indicate that the 

 notes may be redeemed in gold or silver at the 

 discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury and 

 as may be necessary to maintain the two metals 

 at a parity of value under the present coinage 

 ratio of about 16 to 1. The principal items show- 

 ing a decrease during the period are gold coin, 

 $26,752,860 : gold certificates, $15,542,850. The 

 changes in detail are shown in the following table. 



The following statement shows the monetary 

 circulation of the country at the dates named : 



Coinage. The mandatory coinage of silver 

 dollars ceased on June 30, 1891. and there were 

 coined of such pieces for the fiscal year 1892 only 

 8,329,467, while during the same period there 

 were coined 2,954,185 gold pieces having a value 

 of $36,506,987 ; also of fractional silver coins 



