TABLE IV.-COINAGE OF THE MINT OF THE UNITED STATES, IN THE SEVERAL YEARS FROM ITS ESTABLISHMENT, IN 1792, AND INCLUDING THE COINAGE OF THE BRANCH MINTS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THEIR OPERATIONS, IN 1838.

$18,310,365 50 $66,493,431 90 $1,042,556 52 305,106,101 $115,846,356 92

BANKS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

The Convention of the State of New York, now in session at Albany, for the purpose of revising the Constitution of the State, passed a resolution on the 16th of June, 1846, directing the Comptroller to report a list of the incorporated banks of New York, the time of their incorporation, or renewal, when their charters expire, and the amount of capital of each; also a list of such of the banks subject to the "Safety Fund" law as have become insolvent, and the amount contributed and paid out of that fund to the creditors of such insolvent banks; a list of the banks established under the "act to authorize the business of banking;" where the same purport to be located, and the business carried on; the actual capital, as returned to his office, (Comptroller's,) by the applicants to him for circulating notes; the amount of such notes delivered by him to each banking association or individual banker, and the nature and amount of the securities transferred to him for the redemption of such notes; also a list of such of the last-mentioned banks which have failed to redeem their notes, by reason of insolvency, or otherwise; the amount of the circulating notes of such banks, unredeemed, or not returned to him, and the loss, (if any,) and the amount thereof, upon the securities transferred to him, for the payment of said circulating notes.

The report, or statements, in answer to these inquiries, by A. C. FLAGG, Esq., the Comptroller, have been prepared by that gentleman, with his accustomed precision and accuracy, and printed for the use of the Convention. The following statements, derived from it, embrace a summary view of the tabular statements connected with the report, besides other explanatory matter, and information of sufficient interest for preservation in this department of the Merchants' Magazine.

From this report, it appears that the aggregate amount of capital of all the incorporated banks now in operation, is $30,491,460. The debts of two of the banks which have failed have been paid from the assets of the banks, without calling on the Safety Fund; these are the La Fayette Bank in New York, and the Oswego Bank in Oswego. The capital of the eleven Safety Fund banks which have failed, amounts to a total of $3,150,000. These banks have paid into the Safety Fund, $86,279 42; and there has been paid from the Safety Fund, on account of nine of them, the sum of $2,447,997 41. There is yet to be paid from the Safety Fund, $86,000 on account of the Clinton County Bank, with interest at 5 per cent from 1842, and $74,000 on account of the Bank of Lyons. Deducting $50,000 to be realized from the assets of the City Bank of Buffalo, and from some mortgages received from the Clinton County Bank, it will leave $134,000 to be drawn from the Safety Fund, making the total loss to that Fund equal to $2,581,997 41. A portion of this sum has been paid to the creditors of insolvent Safety Fund banks, in 6 per cent stock, issued under chapter 114 of the laws of 1845, and for the reimbursement of which the future contributions of the Safety Fund are pledged. The payment of the interest and principal, of the stock issued and to be issued, will absorb the entire contributions of half of 1 per cent annually on the capital of all the Safety Fund banks, during the continuance of the present charters of those institutions.

The cash paid into the Treasury, by the banks, on account of the Safety Fund, from 1831 to 1845, amounts to........ $1,188,422 76 36,363 23

Revenue of fund added to capital,.

Making a total of.............

$1,224,785 99

When eight or ten of the Safety Fund banks had suspended the payment of their debts, an act was passed, (chapter 247 of the laws of 1842,) authorizing the banks which did not suspend, to commute for their payments to the Safety Fund for six years in advance, by paying 3 per cent on the capital, in the bills of the suspended banks, and a rebate of interest was allowed to the contributing bank, from the date of payment to the time when the annual contributions of half of 1 per cent would be payable. Sixty-four banks availed themselves of the privilege of commuting, and paid to the Treasurer $477,609 in the notes of broken banks, on which they were allowed a rebate of $74,186 44.

The future contributions to the Safety Fund which were not commuted for, under the act, chapter 247 of the laws of 1842, have been anticipated, by the issue of stock for the

payment of the debts of the nine banks which failed prior to 1843, as provided for by the act, chapter 114 of the laws of 1845. The Safety Fund, therefore, is used up and mortgaged for liabilities already incurred, and there is no provision which can be made avail. able for the redemption of the notes of Safety Fund banks which may become insolvent hereafter.

The original Bank Fund act of 1829, (chapter 94,) provided for the payment of all debts of insolvent Safety Fund bands, from the Bank Fund. The act of 1842, (chapter 247, section 8,) provides that the act of 1829" shall be so amended, that wherever the word 'debts' occurs, the same shall be stricken out, and the words 'circulating notes' inserted." This releases the Safety Fund from the payment of any of the liabilities of insolvent banks, except those created by the issue of circulating notes. A history of the operation of the laws of 1842 and 1845, and their effect on the Safety Fund, may be seen by reference to the Comptroller's annual reports for 1843 and 1846.

It further appears that seventy-one banks, with an aggregate capital of $12,437,654, have deposited with the Comptroller securities to the amount of $7,462,253, and have received from the Comptroller circulating notes to the amount of $6,641,756. The securities thus pledged for the redemption of the circulating notes, consist of

Twenty-nine banks, established under the "Act to authorize the business of banking," which have failed to redeem their notes, by reason of insolvency or otherwise, have consequently been closed, and the securities sold, and the proceeds applied to the redemption of the circulating notes of such banks. The nominal amount of securities deposited with the Comptroller, by these twenty-nine banks, as shown in the table, was $1,555,338 00 Amount received from sale of securities, Circulating notes at the time of failure,... Circulating notes outstanding, June 20, 1846,..

953,371 75 1,233,374 00 27,551 00

If the amount of notes outstanding, ($27,551,) be deducted from the amount in circulation at the time of failure, ($1,233,374,) it shows a difference of $1,205,823, which is the amount of notes surrendered to the Comptroller; but this sum greatly exceeds the amount actually paid to bill-holders from the proceeds of the securities of the banks. A single case will be given to explain how this difference arises. An individual presents for redemption a twenty dollar note, on a bank which pays only 75 per cent of its circulation from the avails of the securities in the hands of the Comptroller. This person is paid $15 in money, and gets a certificate that he has surrendered $20, has been paid $15, and that there is due him $5 from the bank which issued the note. In no instance, has anything been realized from the receiver of a free bank to pay these certificates; in two or three cases, where securities in the hands of the Comptroller were left out of the first dividend, recoveries have been had, and the certificate redeemed in whole or in part from the avails of such securities.

The law requires that all mortgages taken as security for notes, shall be on improved, productive, unincumbered lands, worth, independently of any buildings thereon, at least double the amount for which they are taken. Appraisers have been selected, and their estimates were made under oath; and yet, when the value of these mortgages have been tested by forced sales, the average product of nineteen banks exhibits a loss equal to about thirty cents on the dollar. The average loss on New York State stocks and bonds and mortgages, taken together, is about sixteen cents on the dollar. These are the only securities now authorized to be taken for the redemption of circulating notes. The twenty-nine banks before referred to, had deposited with the Comptroller, securities in State stocks and mortgages to the amount of.... $1,555,338 00 These produced on sale,........ 953,371 75

Showing a loss on the securities of.............

$601,966 25

At the time of failure, these twenty-nine banks had in circulation notes to the amount of $1,233,374.

On these notes, the payments were equal to an average of 76 per cent; the total loss to bill-holders being $292,344 36. It is thus shown, that while the banks have lost $601,966 25, on that portion of their securities deposited with the Comptroller, the holders of their notes have lost $292,344 36, or a fraction less than 24 per cent on the amount in circulation at the time of the failure of the banks respectively.

FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1844-46.

On the 29th of June, 1846, the Senate of the United States passed a resolution requiring of the Secretary of the Treasury "a statement of the revenue received from customs for the three first quarters of the present year, and the amount expected from that source for the present quarter." Under date Treasury Department, July 13th, 1846, Mr. Secretary Walker transmitted to that branch of the government, the statement which we publish below:

The receipts from customs for the fiscal year terminating on the 30th of June, 1845, and for the first three quarters of the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June, 1846, are given from the official returns for moneys actually paid into the treasury.

The official returns for moneys actually paid into the treasury for the last quarter of the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June, 1846, are not quite fully completed, but can vary only a very small sum from the amount given in the estimate of $6,270,000.

It will be perceived that the receipts into the treasury from customs, for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June, 1846, are less than the receipts for the fiscal year preceding, by the sum of $846,197 28.

RECEIPTS FROM THE CUSTOMS FOR THE FISCAL YEARS ENDING THE 30TH JUNE, 1845 AND 1846. Quarter ending 30th September, 1844,.

1845,.......

$10,873,718 04

8,861,932 14

$2,011,785 90

$4,067,445 15

4,192,790 77

$125,345 02

$6,385,558 83

7,357,192 51

$971,633 68

$6,201,390 68

8,280,000 06

$68,609 32

RAILROAD AND CANAL STATISTICS.

CAPACITY OF RAILROADS FOR BUSINESS.

THE Reading Railroad, which is ninety-two miles in length, transported, in the year 1845,800,000 tons of coal; and in the single month of July last, 104,000 tons. The business for the year 1846, is estimated at 1,220,000 tons, which is equivalent to 7,500,000 bales of cotton, more than three times the entire crop of the United States. If a like amount of up-freight is performed—and which might have been done, as the cars returned empty-we have an example of a railroad nearly 100 miles in length, capable of doing a transportation within the year, equivalent in weight to six times the cotton crop of the United States, or 12,000,000 of bales, and which would be equal to 5,000 ships of 500 tons each, performing two voyages to Europe.

This business on the Reading road, was performed at the rate of one cent per ton per mile, or $1 for 100 miles-one-half of which is shown to be profit. At the same freight, a bale of cotton may be brought from the Tennessee valley, North Alabama, at fifty cents a bale. "Who can, with this exhibit," says the Charleston (S. C.) Mercury," doubt the capacity of railways competing successfully with river navigation, or the ability to transport, at remunerating prices, western produce to our south Atlantic markets? Enterprise and confidence is all that is necessary; and if our southern cities, with all the lights before them, are resolved to remain in slumbering inactivity, others, acting up to the spirit of the age, will enjoy the harvest."

READING RAILROAD.

The following are the receipts of each of the twelve months of the year 1845, as compared with the twelve months of the preceding year :—

ERIE CANAL AND WESTERN RAILROAD.

The great State work of Massachusetts, has frequently been compared to that of New York State, as a means of developing the resources and improving the property of the Commonwealth. The analogy of the receipts in the two cases, for the first five years, is rather impressive:

*The increase on the Western road, thus far, in 1846, is over 20 per cent, giving $70,000 for the first six months, and being at the rate of $163,000 for the year, making the total, as above, $976,000. The expenses to the present time have not increased. -Boston Courier.