Full text of History of the National-Bank Currency

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

6 1ST C O N G R E S S )

2d Session

j

J DOCUMENT

SENATE

I

N o . 572

NATIONAL M O N E T A R Y COMMISSION

History of the National-Bank
Currency

BY

ALEXANDER DANA

NOYES

Washington : Government Printing Office : 1910




NATIONAL MONETARY COMMISSION.
NELSON W. ALDRICH, Rhode Island, Chairman.
EDWARD B. VRBBLAND, New York, Vice-Chairman.
JULIUS C. BURROWS. Michigan.
E U G B N B H A L E , Maine.
PHILANDER C. K N O X , Pennsylvania.
THEODORE E . BURTON, Ohio.
J O H N W. DANIEL, "Virginia.
H E N R Y M. TELLER, Colorado.
HERNANDO D. MONEY, Mississippi.
J O S E P H W. BAILEY, Texas.




J O H N W. W E E K S , Massachusetts.
ROBERT W. BONYNGE, Colorado.
SYLVESTER C. SMITH, California.
LEMUEL P . PADGETT, Tennessee.
GEORGE E. BURGESS, Texas.
A R S 6 N E P . P U J O , Louisiana.
ARTHUR B . SHELTON, Secretary.

A. PIATT ANDREW, Special Assistant to Commission.

2

HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL-BANK
CURRENCY.
By ALEXANDER DANA NOYES.

In discussing the fluctuations of the bank circulation in
a modern state, the first consideration is apt to be the
influence exerted on the volume of such issues by the
requirements of trade. A steady increase in population
will, all other things being equal, call for more currency;
so will a steady annual expansion of industrial activity,
even without a proportionate increase in population.
There will remain, after allowing for these fundamental
influences, the variation of demand for such currency in
the different seasons. The harvest months require more
currency than the early springtime, primarily because
the hand-to-hand use of currency for paying the wages of
the agricultural laborers is at its maximum in the one
period and at its minimum in the other.
It is quite beyond dispute that the ideal system of banknote issues would be that which provides automatically
for such varying demands. A currency which is inadequate for harvest uses will result in the sudden pulling
down of the reserve money of city banks and the consequent forced reduction of their loan accounts. A currency which is larger than is needed in the period between
harvests, and the supply of which can not be reduced
through automatic retirement by its issuers, will usually
bring about a needless accumulation of reserve money




3

National

Monetary

Commission

in the cities, with one or both of two results—stimulation
of unhealthy speculation in the oversupplied city markets,
or expulsion of gold with possibly awkward incidental
consequences.
These problems have been present throughout the history of our own national-bank note circulation, since its
establishment in 1864; bjut they have been fundamentally
influenced, from the start, by another factor in the system,
operating quite independently of the fluctuations of trade,
interior exchange, or population. Being based by law on
the pledge of United States Government bonds by the
issuing bank with the Treasury, the national-bank note
circulation is bound to be influenced by the amount of such
government bonds actually outstanding, their increase or
their decrease. In any case, the possible volume of
national-bank notes outstanding must be limited by the
amount of government bonds in existence at a given time.
A heavy decrease in the outstanding public debt would
naturally, at some point, cause reduction in the bank-note
circulation, independently of other influences. A large
increase in the government debt would not necessarily
cause increase in the supply of bank notes; but since the
present system was adopted in 1864 for the express purpose of providing a market for government bonds, it would
be reasonable to suppose that bank notes would in some
degree expand in connection with expansion of the public
debt. It is the purpose of this paper to study the actual
workings of the bank-note system, since its establishment
in 1864, the fluctuations of the bank currency itself, and
the relations of such fluctuations both to the ordinary




4

History

of National-Bank

Currency

requirements of trade and to the movement of the public
debt.
It should be noticed, to begin with, that the founders
of the present national-bank note system frankly recognized and avowed other purposes than the simple purpose
of establishing a sound and elastic currency. They had
in view two special considerations, each of which was of
greater immediate importance in 1864 than elasticity in
the currency, but neither of which is of vital importance
at the present day. The two foremost problems of the
Administration in 1864 were, first, to finance the civil
war; second, to provide for the future cementing of the
union of the States. This explains why, advocating in
his report of 1862 a system of bank-note currency secured
by government bonds, the Secretary of the Treasury set
forth, as the chief advantages of such a system, that the
negotiation of bond issues by the Government would be
greatly facilitated; that "it is not easy to appreciate the
full advantages of such conditions to a government
obliged to borrow;" that it would "reconcile, as far as
practicable, the interests of existing institutions with
those of the whole people;" and that it would provide " a
firm anchorage to the union of the States. "
In other words, to use a familiar expression, the nationalbank act of 1864 w a s a "war expedient. " But when the
results of this particular device are considered with reference
to conditions prevalent since the war, and especially to
the totally altered position of the United States since
1864 as a commercial or industrial community, the expedient wears some very different aspects. We shall most




5

National

Monetary

Commission

readily discover how the system has worked under these
varying influences, and under these changing conditions
of the country's trade, by reviewing the history of the
national-bank note currency itself, from the time of its
establishment up to the present day.
During 1864, the first year of its operation, $58,813,980
national-bank notes were issued. At the end of 1865, the
total had risen to $298,588,419. These additions to the
currency were offset by reduction in the legal-tender
notes, which had not yet fallen under the rigid regulation
in regard to the limit of retirement, which was applied to
them by act of Congress in January, 1868. It was still
the theory of our statesmen and financiers that the banknote currency would gradually replace the government
legal tenders. In December, 1865, the House of Representatives had by resolution indorsed the " necessity of a
contraction of the currency," meaning the government
notes, and early in 1866 Congress had voted for a plan
whereby the legal tenders would be reduced by $4,000,000
per month. Thus it happened that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, while bank circulation increased
$135,342,000, United States notes decreased $30,286,000,
and this, along with retirement of $122,923,000 of the old
state bank notes, actually reduced the total volume of the
currency. The same result was achieved in the following
fiscal year, when the total currency supply was reduced
by $26,000,000, notwithstanding $17,000,000 increase in
outstanding bank notes.
When contraction of the legal tenders was stopped by
act of Congress at the beginning of 1868, $299,747,569 in




6

History

of National-Bank

Currency

national-bank circulation was outstanding, and it remained practically stationary during the next three years.
With 1871, however, extension of the system, chiefly
through organization of new national banks, began to have
marked effect on the circulation. In his report at the end
of 1870, for instance, the Comptroller of the Currency
reported that 37 new national banks, with an aggregate
capital of $3,239,000, had been organized within the year.
At the end of 1871 he reported for that twelvemonth the
organization of 155 new national banks, with an aggregate
capital of $15,996,000. There was, however, a special
reason for this movement. To what extent it was an
automatic response to the growth of the interior communities during the "boom times" which then prevailed
in trade may be judged from the fact that out of the 155
newly founded institutions of 1871, all but two were in
localities west of the State of Ohio or south of Mason and
Dixon's line. Between the end of 1871 and the end of
1874, ^ e number of national banks was further increased
by 237. These large additions to national-bank facilities
in the interior of the country were as obvious a response
to the rapid development of the country as was the railway building of the period. From the 2,979 miles of new
track laid in 1869—itself the largest since the panic of
1857—the annual construction rose to 4,615 miles in 1870
and to 7,379 in 1871. This was the preparation for the
foundation of new interior communities. Purchases of
public lands for settlement doubled and trebled in the
same period. It was inevitable, in the development of
ordinary business, that banks should grow up along with
87010—10




2

7

National

Monetary

Commission

the towns and railways, and since the purpose of these
new institutions was also, in great measure, to provide
currency as well as credit for the growing interior communities which they served, it was not strange that,
despite the restriction of the day as to the circulation to
be permitted to any one national bank, the total supply of
bank notes should have risen from $306,307,672 at the
end of 1871 to $347,267,061 in the middle of 1873, a n ( i to
$354,128,250 even at the end of 1874.
It would appear, therefore, that from the foundation
of the national-banking system up to the panic of 1873
and the end of the following year, movement of nationalbank circulation proceeded on lines prescribed by the
natural development of the country's population, wealth,
and trade. One reason why the machinery operated
with so little fricton was that the amount of government
bonds outstanding was so large and changed so slowly
that there never arose any question as to the ready procuring of the requisite collateral for new national-bank
circulation. This factor in the problem was now about
to be tested in a striking way, and the real defects of the
entire system to be disclosed. In 1871, when the refunding of the national debt began, it has been pointed out by
Comptroller Knox that the national banks held more
than one-fifth of the government's interest-bearing bonds.
A certain displacement of holdings occurred in the enormous conversions of the period; the price of outstanding
government bonds rose in such years as 1876 to quite
unprecedented heights, and this provoked realizing on
such holdings. For this and other causes, United States




8

History

of National-Bank

Currency

bonds held as security for circulation fell from $391,171,200
at the end of the fiscal year 1874 to $338,713,600 at the
end of 1877. The after-panic trade depression doubtless
encouraged this surrender of holdings and consequent
reduction of circulation, but the cause lay deeper, and
a very short time afterward began to display its inevitable workings in a manner which has largely made the
subsequent history of the American bank-note currency.
No one has ever contended that a currency built up on
the basis of government bond security will respond with
automatic elasticity to the changing requirements of
trade. At best, government bonds must be purchased
to provide for additional circulation, when such circulation appears to be needed by the customers of a bank.
In theory at any rate, retirement of that circulation
when trade no longer needs it—whether because a year
of depression has followed a year of activity, or because a
normally inactive season follows one that is normally
active—should be accompanied by sale of the bonds used
as security for it. But the price of government bonds
may be so high as to discourage a bank from risking purchase, or so low as to discourage sales. The result has
invariably been that circulation, once taken out by a
national bank on government bond security, remains
outstanding in entire disregard of the trade requirements
of the moment.
This obviously does away with elasticity. But what
I wish more particularly to discuss is the fact that, under
the present system, bank-note circulation not only does
not expand and contract as trade activity increases or




9

National

Monetary

Commission

diminishes, but is extremely apt to move in exactly the
opposite direction from such trade requirements. The
history of our bank-note issues has repeatedly exemplified this process; let us see just how and why it
happens.
A period of great prosperity and trade activity normally
calls for increase in the currency, which bank notes
theoretically should provide. But such a period also
brings a larger public revenue, and, in a country of
such enormous trade as ours, a rapidly mounting surplus
of public revenue over expenditure. Now the most
obvious use of an overflowing public surplus, during the
period when taxation has not been reduced or expenditure
increased, is in redemption of the public debt, and this
was the use that was made of the surplus revenue, notably
after 1879. At the close of that fiscal year, the Government's outstanding interest-bearing debt was $1,797,643,700; at the end of the fiscal year 1887 it w a s $I>O 2 I>692,350; at the end of 1892 it was $585,029,330. This
reduction was continuous, and part of it occurred in a
period of immense industrial expansion, which was in
fact the cause of the overflowing revenues.
What, then, happened to the bank-note circulation?
At first, through the large conversion operations in the
public debt, the national banks were enabled moderately
to increase their circulating notes. This process, however,
raised the price of the government bonds requisite to
secure the notes; the 4 per cents, which had sold at 99 in
1879, got up to 1 2 1 ^ in 1882. This of itself discouraged
purchasers to take out new circulation, and tempted the




10

History

of National-Bank

Currency

banks to retire their outstanding notes and secure the
profit on the released bonds. But that was not all. In
1883 there were on deposit, as security for national bank
circulation, some $353,000,000 government bonds, and of
these upwards of $200,000,000 were 3 per cent bonds
subject to call by the Treasury. The surplus revenue
continued large; it was used to pay off these bonds. As
a result, the outstanding national bank notes fell from
$361,882,000 at the opening of 1883 to $296,572,000 at the
close of 1886.
The surplus revenue continuing, and itself upsetting the
money markets through the flow of actual cash to Washington, where it was locked up in the vaults of the Treasury, Congress in 1888 authorized the use of that surplus,
not only for redemption of government bonds already
matured, but for purchase of unmatured bonds at a
premium. During the next four years no less than
$235,000,000 was expended by the Government in buying
back its bonds at the market price, which at one time in
1888, under these bids by the Treasury, rose to 130 on
the market. Such a price prevented the buying of government bonds for new bank-note circulation and greatly
stimulated the sale of bonds held to support outstanding
notes, and by July, 1891, the country's total bank-note
circulation was down to $167,577,214.
That is to say, between 1883 and 1891 the country's
bank-note currency had actually been reduced 53 per cent.
The reduction had been progressive; sometimes, as in
1886 and 1888, it was most rapid in the autumn months,
when the harvest requirements for currency are heavy.




11

National

Monetary

Commission

It proceeded, in fact, in all respects without regard to the
question of trade activity—a fact sufficiently demonstrated by comparison of the checks drawn on iVmerican
banks in the years referred to. Such "clearing house
exchanges" were $36,079,000,000 in 1883 and $56,636,000,000 in 1891. The use of money for purposes of trade
had increased 54 per cent in the very period when the
bank-note currency, which should have served that trade,
had decreased 53 per cent. This was at least anomalous;
but we have seen the reason for it. Through the unfortunate machinery provided for such issues the Government itself was killing the bank circulation and was doing
so because it could not help itself.
Nor was this the whole of the story. In 1893 came the
panic; in 1894 began a period of prolonged trade reaction
and depression. Now, at all events, reduction in bank
circulation would fit in normally with the industrial situation. But the machinery which had worked so badly
in times of great activity now proceeded to make trouble
in exactly the opposite way during dull times in trade.
Toward the close of 1892 the surplus revenue disappeared;
the Government's bond purchases ceased, and the price of
United States bonds fell rapidly. It went much lower in
1893, and, as might have been expected, national banks
now began to buy bonds again as a basis for new circulation.
In 1894, ^ e gold reserve against legal tenders having been
greatly impaired by the revenue deficit, the Government
sold $100,000,000 new bonds. In the prevalent financial
distrust national banks were the only buyers and, as
investment of their deposits in government bonds was not




12

History

of National-Bank

Currency

considered b y them to be a p a r t of the banking business,
they used t h e m largely to obtain new note circulation.
More bonds were sold in 1895 and 1896. As a result of
these various causes, outstanding bank-note circulation
rose from $174,404,000 at the end of 1892, to $206,605,000
a t the end of 1894, a n d to $235,663,000 at the end of 1896.
This was in the face of a trade movement in this country
at the three periods, reflected by $62,011,000,000 clearing house exchanges in 1892, $45,545,000,000 in 1894,
and $57,403,000,000 in 1896. In two years after 1892
trade activity had decreased 26 per cent and yet the banknote circulation had increased 18 per cent. The system,
in other words, after actually depriving a genuinelyactive and rapidly expanding trade, which could normally absorb more currency, of a good p a r t of t h e verynotes which had previously been in existence, operated
afterwards, in a similarly automatic way, to crowd the
channels of circulation with new b a n k notes at a time when
trade was in a state of extreme depression, when it did
not need and could not use the note circulation which it
had possessed already.
This is sufficient illustration of the tendencies of the
present system of bond-secured bank-note circulation
under conditions which have actually prevailed before
and which may prevail again. I t is not difficult to picture a chain of circumstances in which the country's
bank circulation might be absolutely- annihilated, a t a
time when a full currency supply was needed for business
purposes, or in which, on t h e other hand, it might be
indefinitely inflated a t a time when the existing supply




13

National

Monetary

Commission

was already superfluous. The first result would certainly
occur, regardless of trade conditions, in the conceivable
condition of extinction of the national debt. This is a
contingency not at present in sight, but it is one which
actually arose in 1836, and which seemed in 1888 in a fair
way to recur—on both occasions as a direct result of active
general trade, which expanded the public surplus at the
moment when trade needs for the bank currency were
themselves expanding.
The second contingency is a constant possibility. The
Panama Canal will call for repeated issues of United States
government loans; as the law now stands, these new bonds
must be sold at par or higher, and must not bear a higher
interest rate than 2 per cent. But these stipulations virtually restrict the market for such bonds to the national
banks. Supposing for the sake of argument an indefinite
continuance of bond issues for such purposes and under
such conditions, the bank-note currency would inevitably
expand along with the bond issues, and without any reference whatever to the needs of trade.
It is true that of recent years, the difficulty of 1888,
when bank circulation was arbitrarily reduced through
use of the public surplus for wholesale redemption of outstanding government bonds, has been mitigated through
great increase of public deposits in the national banks.
Until ten years ago, it was assumed that such deposits
ought not to be increased beyond the amount necessitated
by the routine operations of Government. On exceptional
occasions they became very large;
they reached
$279,000,000 during Secretary Sherman's refunding op-




14

History

of National-Bank

Currency

erations of 1879, and $95,000,000 pending the financing
of the Spanish war loans of 1898. But in each of these
cases the deposits were cut down to relatively small
figures when the particular operation requiring their
temporary increase had been completed; total deposits
falling at one time in 1880 as low as $9,750,000. Their
increase to $61,500,000 in 1888 caused very widespread
criticism. Beginning with 1900, however, a different
policy was pursued; in November, 1903, government
bank deposits rose to $168,047,000; in the panic of 1907,
they rose to $256,920,000, nearly paralleling Secretary
Sherman's maximum, though for a very different reason.
The use of government bonds as collateral for this
greatly increased trust fund restrained the tendency
toward unnecessary expansion in bank-note circulation;
but it none the less continued the artificial situation. So
long as government bonds alone were accepted as collateral
against public deposits, and in large measure after other
collateral had been declared lawful, the available supply
of such bonds for bank-circulation purposes was restricted
almost as severely as when the Government bought up
its own bonds in 1888. On the other hand, whenever
the government bank deposit fund was reduced—as it
would be, necessarily, in case of deficit in public revenue,
and as it was to the extent of $100,000,000 between December, 1903, and July, 1905—the necessary result was
to set free a proportionate amount of the bond collateral
for which virtually no market would exist at the prevalent
artificial prices, except among banks which could be induced to add to their circulation. The resultant increase




15

National

Monetary

Commission

in bank-note issues might occur at a time when additional
currency was required for an expanding trade; but there
was not the least assurance that this would be the case.
Like all other influences exerted on the bank circulation
by the supply of government bonds, the indirect influence of the bond-secured government deposits has been
purely arbitrary, and was quite as likely to operate against
the legitimate interests of trade as in favor of them.
We have seen how awkwardly the movement of nationalbank circulation operated in the period prior to 1896.
Shortly after that year there began the great industrial
revival which continued throughout nearly all of the
ensuing decade. It was plain from the start that, with
the unprecedented expansion of trade and industry, the
need for circulating medium at the seasons of particular
business activity would be proportionately great. The
country approached this chapter of its development with
the bank-note currency in perhaps the most rigid condition in its history. From $51,300,000,000 in 1896, exchange of checks at the country's clearing houses rose to
$68,900,000,000 in 1898—a new high record in our history—and to $94,100,000,000 in 1899. They were destined to reach the enormous figure of $160,000,000,000 in
1906. That is to say, the country's business activity, as
measured by this exchange of checks, was about to treble
itself within a decade.
Yet, so far as could be seen in 1896, proper facilities for
automatic response by bank circulation to the resultant
requirements were altogether lacking. Accident helped
out the situation to some extent; the Spanish war of 1898




16

History

of National-Bank

Currency

added $200,000,000 to the government debt, and thus to
the supply of bonds available as a basis for new circulation.
Legislation also did its part. In connection with the
gold standard act of March 14, 1900, provisions were made
whereby United States bonds could be bought for that
purpose without the risks involved in such high premiums
as had prevailed on the 4 per cents in 1882 and 1888.
The greater part of the public debt outstandin at higher
rates of interest was converted into a thirty-year 2 per
cent loan, the purpose being, first, through the low nterest yield, to throw the bulk of such bonds into the banking field, where special inducements for holding them
existed; second, to narrow the range of possible fluctuations in the price; and, third, through the relatively lower
price which the 2 per cents would command, to reduce the
capital which had to be locked up in a purchase of bonds
as collateral for bank notes. In addition, the law now
permitted issue of circulation up to the par value of the
bond collateral, instead of 90 per cent, as previously, and
the tax on notes thus secured was reduced from 1 per cent
to one-half of 1 per cent.
In response to these various influences, outstanding
bank-note circulation, which had actually decreased during
the rapid trade recovery in the last half of 1897 and the
first half of 1898, and which was stationary throughout
1899, increased from $246,277,223 at the end of the lastnamed year to $340,141,871 at the end of 1900, and to
$360,289,726 at the end of 1901. It was in January, 1901,
that the national-bank notes, for the first time in our
history, ran beyond the $346,681,016 United States notes




17

National

Monetary

Commission

During the subsequent years of intense financial and
industrial activity, the organization of new national banks
and increase of circulation by older institutions caused
an absorption of the government bonds into the hands
of the banks such as had never before existed. It became
increasingly difficult to obtain these bonds for purposes
of new circulation—not less so when the increase in public
deposits secured by government bonds threw an increased
burden on the existing supply of bonds. The outstanding principal of the interest-bearing United States debt
at the end of the fiscal year 1907 was $894,834,280, as
against $987,141,040 at the end of 1901, and within the
same period the amount of national-bank notes outstanding had increased from $353,742,187 to $603,788,690.
This increase, moreover, went on with practically no
relation whatever to the incidental ebb and flow of trade.
In the first three or four months of 1902, and again in the
same months of 1903, outstanding circulation was reduced by three or four millions, but in the subsequent
four years there was not one month which showed a
reduction from the month preceding.
The immediate sequel to the panic of 1907 was even
more impressive. That national bank circulation should
have increased, during the money-hoarding and currencyfamine episodes of November and December, 1907, was
entirely normal; it expanded $46,237,729 in the one
month and $33,912,699 in the other. But the equally
normal event, when the hoarded currency rushed suddenly back to the channels of circulation during January,
1908, would have been not only retirement of all the addi-




18

History

of National-Bank

Currency

tional bank notes put out during that money-hoarding
period, but further and very drastic reduction in the
bank circulation as it existed before the panic; for, in
the trade stagnation of the first half of 1908, actual
volume of trade in our principal industries fell for a time
to one-half or one-third of what it had been the year
before. During March, 1908, the country's clearing
house exchanges decreased 33 per cent from 1907. During the three months ending with March, the shrinkage
was 28 per cent. This happened while other currency
than bank notes was heaping up at such a rate in city
depositories that the specie and legal tender reserve of
the New York Associated Banks alone, at the opening
of April, 1908, was $65,000,000 greater than a year before.
The May reports of the national banks of the whole
United States showed an increase in reserves, as compared with the same month in 1907, of $170,000,000.
Here was assuredly every economic reason for retirement,
on an extensive scale, of outstanding bank note circulation.
The currency was manifestly oversupplied.
Yet so clumsy and inelastic did the apparatus again
turn out to be, that at the end of May, 1908, the outstanding bank notes actually showed an increase of
$8,318,612 from the unprecedented total reached at the
end of December, 1907, and exceeded by no less than
$96,508,967 the figure reported at the end of May, 1907,
when trade activity had been fairly at its maximum.
Even with the slow and irregular contraction of bank
circulation during the subsequent months of idle trade,
the total stood, in May of the present year, $87,000,000




19

National

Monetary

Commission

above the highest level ever reached in that month during
any year prior to 1908.
The sum of the whole matter is that under the existing system of bank notes based upon government bonds,
normal and automatic expansion and contraction of the
currency, in response to needs of trade, is flatly impossible. The currency supply may be greatly enlarged in
the dull midsummer months and suddenly contracted
when the active autumn business season begins. It
may increase rapidly at a time when trade reaction has
reduced to a minimum the necessities for even the existing bank note supply, or it may be as rapidly reduced
when large harvests, full employment of labor, and active
hand-to-hand use of currency, most need a larger circulating medium. That there is no remedy for this abnormal situation, except the substitution of some other system for that which prescribes the United States Government bond as a basis for bank note issues, every economist
at all familiar with the question agrees. It is only when
discussion converges on the system which is to be substituted, that difference of opinion is encountered.




*

20