JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. The following statement of the Register of the Treasury shows the date of the acts of Congress authorizing the issue of the several loans of the United States, the Texas indemnity, when redeemable, the rate of interest, the amount redeemed from the 4th March, 1853, to the 6th May, 1854, inclusive, the premium paid, the amount outstanding, the amount purchased of the debt of the corporate cities of the District of Columbia, the premium paid, the amount outstanding, the Treasury notes outstanding, and interest due and unpaid upon the old funded and unfunded debt :— Redeemable. Int. Redeemed. 5 66 6 Prem. paid. Outstanding. $5,765.900 54 28.900 00 3,052,700 00 18,130.300 00 July 1, 1853 ་་ 7,199,250 00 1,509,349 41 Debt of the cities of the District of Columbia.. Treasury notes outstanding. Interest on old funded and unfunded debt... Total...... 18,813,714 75 2,657,902 93 50,315,872 52 CONDITION OF THE BANKS OF OHIO IN MAY, 1854. In the Merchants' Magazine for May, 1854, (vol. xxx., pages 605-607,) we gave a statement of the condition of each bark in the State of Ohio, as taken from the returns made to the Auditor of State-furnished to our hands by that officer-on the first Monday of February, 1854. We now give a summary view of the condition of the banks of that State on the first Monday of May, 1854: The number of banks in Ohio, according to the report of the Auditor, is 63; of which 10 are Independent Banks, 38 Ohio Branches of State Bank, 2 Old Banks, and 13 Free Banks. The total capital of all the banks in Ohio is $6,520,195; the specie in banks on the first Monday in May, 1854, amounted to $2,077,169; the total circulation at that time was $9,507,052; and the total resources, $27,760,349. SPECIE IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1820, 1849, AND 1854. The statistics lately collected by the Secretary of the Treasury present some interesting facts. The following the statement of Mr. Crawford :— The amount of specie in the country in 1820 was only. ....... $37,000,000 37,705,250 $252,169,841 Exported during the same time.... 180,462,406 Leaving an excess of imports over exports of specie to 1849 of...... 71,707,435 Exported from the country between January, 1849, and Jan., 1854... 112,695,574 Specie in the country in January, 1854....... 230,589,502 Being $108,000,000 more in the country now than in 1849. But there are large amounts of money brought into the country that cannot appear in statistical tables. It is estimated that over $30,000,000 in coin have been brought in by immigrants since 1840. Of the $230,000,000 in specie in the country now, a little less than sixty millions is in the banks, a little more than twenty-seven millions in the National Treasury, and the balance is in circulation, or hoarded up by private owners. The gold and silver in circulation, then, is over one hundred and forty-three millions now, and the circulation of bank paper is over one hundred and ninety-four million dollars. Together they make over three hundred and thirty-eight million dollars as the active money of the country at the present time. PRODUCT OF THE PRECIOUS METALS IN 1853. TO FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine :- DEAR SIR:-Inclosed you will find a statement of the production of the precious metals throughout the world in 1853, submitted for insertion in the columns of your excellent journal. Yours truly, DAVID M. BALFOUR. PRODUCT OF THE PRECIOUS METALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN 1853. The following statement will exhibit the annual product of the precious metals at different periods prior to above: CONDITION OF THE BANKS OF ILLINOIS. The number of banks in Illinois is twenty-nine. The Hon. THOMAS H. CAMPBELL, Auditor of the State, furnishes a statement of their condition on the 3d of April, 1854, as follows: While there are causes that affect the operation of the banks throughout the country, there are others the force of which is felt most in particular districts. As a general rule, expansions commence in the East, and proceed thence South and West, and contractions follow the same law. The more rapid the development of the natural resources of a region, the greater are the apparent benefits resulting from a bank expansion, and the greater are the real evils that result from a bank contraction. Hence the effects of bank expansions and bank contractions are felt much more sensibly in the Mississippi valley than in the Atlantic States. A commercial or a manufacturing population recovers from the effects of a bank revulsion much more easily than does any one that is purely agricultural. After the terrible revulsion of 1842-43, the banks of Massachusetts were the first to right themselves. By July, 1844, their current credits (circulation and deposits) were swelled to 24,000,000, which was even 6,000,000 more than it had in October, 1837. Since then the banks in Massachusetts have been gradually extending their operations, with occasional and temporary intervals of contraction. The banks in the other New England States and in New York were the next to recover their position; but the banks in the great tier of grain growing States, extending from New Jersey to Missouri, cannot be said to have recovered their position till 1846-48, when a new demand for our breadstuffs sprung up in Europe. The banks in the South and Southwest were still longer in recovering themselves. But a new demand for cotton sprung up, and then they began rapidly to extend their operations. In two years the banks of South Carolina more than doubled their circulation, increasing it from $5.237,000, which it was in January, 1849, to $11,770,000 in January, 1851. In Georgia the circulation was more than doubled in one year; it was $4,118,000 in October, 1849, and $9,818,000 in December, 1850. The Southwestern States still lagged behind; but between October, 1849, and January, 1851, the banks of Tennessee increased their issues from $3,913,000 to $6,814,000. After all, this expansion did no more than bring the Southern and Southwestern States to a level with the New England and Middle States, even if it did that. They err greatly who suppose that paper money makes prices permanently high. It makes them occasionally unnaturally high; but in the revulsions that follow, prices are reduced so low and remain low for so long a time, that it is a question whether, on an average of years, prices are not lower with us than they would be if we had only a gold and silver circulating medium. Sections. Eastern States Middle States...... Capital paid in. 1853-4. 1850-1. COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN DIFFERENT SECTIONS OF THE UNION IN 1850-1 AND 1853-4. Banks & branches. 1850-1. 1853-4. 1850-1. Loaps and discounts. Stocks. Real estate. 1853-4. 1850-1. 1853-4. 1850-1. 1853-4. ..... 313 397 $66,299,185 $84,556,433 $108,504,955 $149,143,789 $191,777 $888,501 $1,912,134 $2.015,838 316 451 79,716.950 114.834,179 170,886,640 283,602,631 15.419,701 24,458,149 5,249,774 6,993,606 40,309,024 46,646,211 60,437,459 73,213,195 2,957,874 7,292.894 8,425,580 9,490,007 Southwestern States. 83 92 29,917,056 28,384,368 51,153,748 72,751,629 1,198,225 2,653,322 3,594,784 8,078,778 Western States..... 77 152 11,565,338 16,954,880 22,773,997 28,576,184 2,621,412 9,062,464 1,037,452 789,213 7,565,472 7,743,566 1,381,440 1,974,371 1,200,000 222,409 4,623,025 7,469,414 1,529,593 2,647,318 6,841,429 50,718,015 670 868 13,164,213 22,367,472 1853-4. $6,570,360 22,845,551 8,776,876 16,117,957 93,655 325,133 4,074,139 5,099,509 55,516,085 17,196,083 22,659,066 15,341,196 25,579,253 48,671,048 59,410,253 EASTERN STATES.-Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. sylvania, Delaware, Maryland. SOUTHERN STATES.-Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. iana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri. WESTERN STATES.-Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. MIDDLE STATES.-New York, New Jersey, PennSOUTHWESTERN STATES.-Alabama, Louis |