This money has been loaned to banks and brokers without interest, at the same time the United States have been paying 6 per cent for money borrowed. The circumstances of the import of foreign goods to which we have above alluded, have greatly assisted to swell this accumulation, and the money, in its turn, has been the means of facilitating the imports, until a foreign demand for specie has sprung up. The government now proposes to demand all its dues in specie of the banks, and pour it off into the channels of general business, through the treasury vaults. The law is briefly as follows:-The vaults of the treasury buildings are constituted the treasury of the United States. The treasurers of the mints at New Orleans and Philadelphia, together with the collectors of Boston, New York, Charleston, and St. Louis, are made "receivers-general" of the public money. To these are accountable all persons in the several districts respectively, who receive the public moneys. Each "receiver-general" receives all the money collected in his district, and deposits it in the appointed vault under his control. The money is then, at all times, subject to the draft and order of the Secretary of the Treasury, either for transfer from one depository to another, or in payment to the public creditors. This appears to be the whole machinery of the Independent Treasury law. The drafts drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury on the public funds, must be presented at the point on which they are drawn, within a reasonable time for their transmission, or the Secretary may, at his option, change the place of payment; as, for instance, if the creditor at Washington receives a bill on New York, it will be worth a premium as a remittance, and might float as a currency in the exchanges for a length of time. To prevent this, the law requires the draft to be presented and paid, within, say a week, or the Secretary may change the place of payment, make it St. Louis, or any other point at his pleasure. If the law demands specie for dues, and compelling specie to be paid out after 30th June, 1846, regardless of the existing surplus, the deposit banks would scarcely be able to meet the $11,788,000, which they hold, in specie. The law therefore provides that, until October, 1846, the disbursing officer may, when provided with drafts on the present depositories, draw those drafts, and pay out such funds as he receives for them. This allows three months for the expenditure of the present surplus; but it necessarily involves the accumulation in the government vaults, in specie, of all the customs duties for that three months, until the present surplus is expended. The quarter from June to July is usually that of the heaviest receipts. In that period of 1845, they were $8,861,992, and in the previous year, $10,873,768. This year they will probably be less in the same time, because the time for the reduction in du. ties will have been approached, and the large imports of the present spring may have so glutted the markets as to make goods plenty. At any rate, some $7,000,000 of specie must go into the treasury vaults, and remain idle for a length of time, unless the present surplus is disposed of before the law goes into operation. A proposition to effect this has been before Congress, with the view to appropriate the surplus to the payment of the government debt at its present value. This operation would, doubtless, relieve the market from many of the apprehensions under which it labors. The present value of the 6 per cent stock of the government, redeemable in 1862, having 16 years to run, interest paid semi-annually, to yield 6 per cent interest per annum, is 1 per cent premium; calculated to yield 5 per cent interest, it is worth 11 per cent premium. If the sub-treasury law produces in its action that stringency in the money-market which is apprehended from it, this stock would be readily obtained at its value as a 6 per cent stock. It has been the misfortune of the recent system of the deposits of public money with banks, that it has imparted to stocks, more particularly to United States stocks, a fictitious value. That is to say, in addition to their value as a safe investment of surplus capital to yield an income of 6 per cent per annum, they have become valuable as a means of borrowing. That is to say, the purchaser or holder of a United States 6 per cent stock, could obtain a loan of government money on it as security, without interest. Therefore that stock had a distinct, tangible and practical value above all other 6 per cent stocks, and well calculated to sustain its market price above most other 6 per cent securities. The law, as it passed the House of Representatives, is, however, clearly impracticable. It provides that, after June 30th, 1846, nothing but gold and silver shall be received, and after October 30th, nothing but gold and silver shall be paid out. The constitutional currency of the United States is, undoubtedly, gold and silver coin, and that alone is recognized as money. The constitution went also a step further, and forbid any of the states ever to recognize, legally, anything but gold and silver. So far, therefore, as strict constitutionality goes, the law simply adheres to that instrument. The constitution, however, when forbidding the states to legalize anything but gold and silver as money, gave to Congress the exclusive power of furnishing that gold and silver coin which was alone to compose the currency of the states. If Congress neglected to exercise the exclusive right thus enforced on it, and failed to furnish the gold and silver money, it was itself the cause of forcing paper upon the states and community. Of this neglect, Congress has really been guilty, and now, to turn round and declare that the government creditors shall have for their claims, not money, but gold bullion, is, to say the least, arbitrary. It has been urged by bank advocates on the one hand, that those institutions are necessary to furnish a currency, and on the other hand, many have contended that it is the duty of the government to furnish it. Both these positions are, we apprehend, gross fallacies. Money, the money of the world as well as of countries, consists exclusively of the precious metals. The prices of all commodities are determined by the quantity of gold or silver of a certain fineness or quality, which they will command in any country. In the commerce of nations, gold is as much purchased with commodities, as are commodities with gold. A barrel of flour in Liverpool, is worth 30s., or 185 grains of gold, 915 thousandths fine. The same barrel of flour, in New York, is worth $5, or 129 grains of gold, 900 thousandths fine. That is to say, there may be obtained in Liverpool 56 grains more gold for a barrel of flour, than in New York. This may arise as well from the scarcity of gold in New York, as from the scarcity of flour in Liverpool. To transport the flour to Liverpool and bring back the gold, would require that the ship-owner, merchant, and others, should have some grains of gold for their trouble. Possibly they would take 40 grains; so that he who gave 129 grains of gold for a barrel of flour in New York, would also disburse for freight, &c., 40 grains more, making 169 grains, and he would get 185 grains in Liverpool; he will, therefore, bring into the country 16 grains of gold more than was here before. Thus it is, that the precious metals, or the raw material for money, is furnished; it is, purely, an operation of commerce. Now money is simply the division of the metals into convenient pieces, and having a stamp upon them by which the receiver may know, at a glance, the precise quantity and quality contained in each. The government reserves to itself the exclusive right to do this, and it is very desirable that it should. It so happens, however, that every nation of the earth makes its pieces to contain different quantities and qualities of gold, and although they are perfectly well known to the people of each country, yet they are entirely unintelligible to the citizens of foreign countries. Most of the nations, therefore, do not recognize gold as money until it is actually money; that is to say, until the government stamp certifies that each piece contains the required quantity and quality. In the United States, the government does not require this; it allows all gold and silver to be a legal tender, no matter what shape it may be in. It makes the metal money, instead of coin, exclusively. It provides, indeed, a mint to coin the metal, but it requires the owner of the metals to bring them to the mint; and, as that is situated in Philadelphia, at a distance from the place of ownership, it is little available. Now it is very evident that gold and silver bullion, or foreign coins, are no more money than watch-cases and ear-rings, because the public cannot ascertain the number and quality of the grains of gold they contain. Of the $7,000,000 of specie now in the New York banks, about $1,000,000 only, is money: that is, coins with which the people are acquainted. The balance is all sorts of foreign coins, to ascertain the value of which, requires a skilful assayer. If, therefore, the government demands, in July, specie exclusively, it can procure nothing but this material for money. This may answer for its receipts, but when it undertakes to pay it out again, for salaries, contracts, &c., at the rates fixed by law, it simply throws its creditors into the hands of brokers, who will shave them at their pleasure, as much as if that which they received from the government was strange paper instead of strange gold. From these circumstances, it is pretty obvious, we think, that before the government compels the exclusive use of gold and silver money, it would be well for it to do its own duty, and provide the money from the material furnished by commerce, according to the exclusive right to "coin money and regulate the value thereof," conferred upon it by the federal constitution. The location of a mint in New York, would go far to obviate this difficulty; and, with the growing trade of Boston, perhaps a branch there may become necessary. If the law, as it is, goes into operation, it may become necessary to transfer the specie collected here, to the mint at Philadelphia, for coinage, and again to this city for disbursement, until a mint can be established here. The establishment of a warehousing system will also become a necessary accompaniment of the sub-treasury law, with the enforcement of cash duties. To enforce the collection, in coin, of all duties on goods at the moment of import, must, necessarily, crush all car. rying trade, as well as greatly interfere with the regular returns into the country, of the proceeds of produce sold abroad. A treasury order has been issued, and transmitted to the customs authorities at the several ports, directing that buckwheat, Indian`corn, and rice, may be liberated on pay. ment of the reduced rates of duty proposed by Sir Robert Peel, and resolved on by the British House of Commons, the parties, however, being required to give bond to pay the old duty, provided the parliament finally reject the ministerial project. Without waiting for the consummation of the measure now before the House, therefore, the subjoined articles may be liberated at the rates of duty annexed, the importers merely giving the formal undertaking above specified: Buckwheat, the quarter,........ Buckwheat meal, the cwt.,.... Maize or Indian corn, the quarter, meal, the cwt., . . Rice, the cwt.,.... ................. of and from any British possession, the cwt.... of and from a British possession, the quarter,. £ 8. d. 010 0 41 006 0 10 001 The import of corn into England, for the supply of whatever may be wanted to make up the deficit of the coming summer, must come from the United States, principally. The prices of grain in Europe are by no means such as to warrant the expectation that they will be able to compete with the abundance of the great west. It is to be hoped that the exports of farm produce will, to a considerable extent, compensate for the loss which will be sustained through diminished exports of cotton, at low prices. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, We are indebted to the Hon. CHARLES S. BENTON, member of Congress from New York, DOMESTIC EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Summary statement of the value of the Exports of the growth, produce, and manufac |