The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
T II R
CHANTS’
MAGAZINE
AND
C O MME R C I A L
S E P T E M B E R ,
R E V I E V.
1 8 6 S.
A CENTRAL LINE OF NAVIGATION FROM THE 0M 0 TO THE CHESAPEAKE BAY
BY R . W . H U G H ES, VA.
(Continued from page 127, vol. 59, No. 2.)
O B JE C T IO N S TO T H E R IV E R A N D
GULE ROUTE.
Any reflecting mind would have concluded in 1820, when the success
of steamboat navigation had been fully demonstrated on western waters5
that the course of western trade was thereby determined; that it would
never seek artificial lines of transportation where steam navigation could
be applied; but would assuredly prefer the course of the Mississippi
river to New Orleans and a market. B ut no sooner was the Erie canal
opened in 1825, than produce from the region of the Mississippi began
to seek that route to the seaboard. From the country in the region of
the lakes, the new route had the advantage of being much shorter and
more direct. From the country bordering upon the Ohio river, other
considerations gave trade a northeastward direction towards the canal.
It is a well known fact that almost every article of up-country produce
is liable to undergo a sweating, souring, and heating process from the
warmth and humidity of the climate of the gulf. The loss in value from
this deteriorating cause is sometimes very serious, and always greater or
less 5 being variously estimated at from 5 to 25 per cent, on the value of
1
162
N A V IG A T IO N F R O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A Y . [ S e p t e m b e r ,
produce ; except when the transit is made in the winter months. Assum
ing, however, that the average deterioration amounts only to 5 per cant
on bacon, lard, butter, tobacco, and ten per cent on wheat and flour, we
have an average loss of $7 50 per ton on the former class of articles;
and of $5 per ton on the la tte r; a sum which is sufficient to give the
control of this trade for most of the year to northern routes. The addi
tion of these items to the comparative estimates of cost of transporta
tion by various routes, given in the report of Mr. Lorraine and the
memorial of the Iowa legislature, would make a still greater difference
in favor of the Virginia route over that by way of the gulf.
Besides the objection of climate, there are dangers in the navigation
of the Mississippi, from snags and other casualties. During the last
twenty-five years much has been done to relieve this evil; but the high
rates of river steamboat insurance still attest the magnitude of the
dangers attending the navigation of the river. Mr. Barrow, in a report
to the Senate of the United States in 1843, stated the amount of the
losses on the Mississippi and its tributaries, from snags alone, at a million
of dollars per annum.
The navigation of the gulf of Mexico is subject to the sudden storms
and hurricanes incident to the W est India climate. In his speech at the
Memphis convention in 1845, Mr. Calhoun said on this subject: “ W ith
all the advantages possessed by the coasting trade between the gulf and
Atlantic, be it ever so well secured against interruption, there is one
great objection to which it is liable. The peninsula of Florida projects
far south ; which makes the voyage from New Orleans and the other
ports of the gulf to the southern Atlantic cities, not only long and
tedious, but liable to frequent and great accidents in its navigation. A
voyage from this place (Memphis), for instance, to Charleston, would be a
distance of certainly not less than two thousand five hundred miles, and
is subject to as great losses as any voyage of equal extent in any part of
the world. It was estimated some dozen years since, that the actual loss
between Cuba, the Bahama Islands and Florida, was not less than half a
million of dollars a year, and it may now, with the great increase of our
commerce, be put at not less than a million.”
These dangers, coupled with those incident to the navigation of the
boisterous coast of the Carolinas, and combined with the great length of
the voyage from St. Louis to New York of 4,000 miles, make up a most
imposing and formidable array of objections to the river, gulf and sea
board.
The far-seeing mind of Chief Justice Marshall perceived the effect of
these o'jeciions as early as 1812. In his report in advocacy of the
Virginia canal line, that eminent man said : “ The whole of lb..t exten
18681
N A V IG A T IO N FROM O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T
163
sive and fertile country [the valley of the Mississippi], a country increas
ing in wealth and population with a rapidity which baffles calculation,
must make its importations up the Mississippi alone, or through the
Atlantic states. W hen we take into view the certain growth of the
country, we can scarcely suppose it possible that any commercial city on
the banks of that river [near its mouth*] can keep pace with that growth
and furnish a supply equal to the demand. The unfriendliness of the
climate to human life will render this disparity between the commercial
and agricultural capital still more sensible. It will tend still more to
retard a population of that sound commercial character which would
render some great city on that majestic river a safe emporium for the
western world.”
In answer to enquiries addressed by Mr. Cabell, former president of
the Virginia canal, to eminent merchants largely engaged in trade, botli
in Richmond and New Orleans, he received the following replies. Several
persons united in saying, that if the Virginia line should bring trade
from the west to tide-water at two cents per ton per mile, (which is
quadruple the charge at which it will be brought), it was their opinion “ that
the following articles would pay all the expenses of transportation and
net the grower more in Richmond, than if taken to New Orleans free of
charge ; say tobacco, flour, pork, bacon, lard, butter, cheese, &c., for the
following reasons:
“ Independent of the freight down the river to New Orleans, these
articles are all materially injured, by passing through a warm and humid
clim ate; at New Orleans they have to pay exorbitant rates of dravage,
storage, fire insurance and commission, and when shipped from thence to
other markets, are subject to a rate of freight at times 50 per cent higher
than from the James river.” Genl. Steenbergen, an eminent man of
business in the Ohio valley wrote, that “ every avenue from the Ohio to
the eastern cities at all practicable, and at prices of transportation that
can possibly be borne by the shipper, is used in preference to the New
Orleans route. It will always be the case. The climate and dangers of
the one, against the certainty and even high prices of the other, will
make the inland passage the favorite one.”
Of late years, the construction at St. Louis and other points, of great
stationary steam elevators for transferring grain from boat to boat, and
the employment of floating steam machinery for performing the same
office from boat to boat while in motion ; and the substitution of barges
towed in fleets by steam towboats, for the old plan of carrying the freight
on the steamboat, has restored to water transportation an undisputed
* The context shows that he referred to an importing city near the seaboard.
164
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
[September,
superiority over railroad carriage and diminished the objections which
formerly existed to the route by the lower Mississippi and the gulf. But
the injurious effects of the semi-tropical climate upon agricultural produce,
the great length of the circuitous gulf route, and the dangers of the gulf
and coast navigation, still constitute enduring objections to that route.
D E F E C T S O F T H E ST. L A W R E N C E R O U T E .
The outlet of the St. Lawrence into the ocean is not less than 1,000
miles northeast irom lake O ntario; about 700 miles of the line consist
ing of the river itself, and 300 miles of the gulf of St. Lawrence, into
which it falls. As to its natural features, this line of navigation, in both
of its divisions, was accurately described in 1838 by an eminent English
engineer and traveler, Mr. Stevenson, who had made a professional tour
of observation in the United States and British America. Mr. Stevenson
says of this riv er:
<• Receiving the whole surplus waters of the North American lakes, and the drain
age of a great tract of country traversed by the numerous streams which join it in
its course to the o ean, the St. Lawrence, as regards the quantity of its discharge,
presents abunlant advantages for safe and easy navigation, 'the stream of the
upper part of this river, however, is much distorted by numerous expansions and
c infractions of its bauks, and also by declivities o'- falls in its bed, and clusters of
small islands, which render its navigation exceedingly dangerous, and in some places
wholly impracticable for all sorts of vessels excepting the Canadian batteaux, which
are stiong flat-bottomed boats, built expressly for its navigation. In several parts
of its course the liver expands into extensive lakes; and in its waters, which are
thus dist ibuted over a great surface, numerous shoals occur, among which the shipchannel is generally tortuous and narrow, am only navigab'e in day-light. In some
places again the St. Lawrence forces its way between high banks which encroach on
its bed, and leave a comparatixely narrow gullet for its passage : and in others it
flows over a steep, rugged bottom. These sudden contractions and declivities inter
rupt the peaceful fluw of the stream, and produce chutes, as they are called, or
rapids, some of which are wholly impassable for vessels of large size, and others can
only be navigated in certain sta' es of tide. The islands, which occur chiefly in the
upper part of the river between Montreal and lake Ontario, also disturb the channel,
and give rise to rapids which are no less detrimental in a comme cial point of view. ’
_[Stm nson’s Civil Eng'neering in America.
The navigation of the river is further embrarrassed by the general and
strong current of the river, against which ascending vessels can make their
way only by the aid of steam tow-boats of the most powerful description in
any of the American waters. Since Mr. Stevenson wrote the rapids and
shallows of the river have been flanked by canals and the falls of the N i
agara river have been lapped by the Welland canal—all on the British
side. The dimensions of these Canadian canals are as follows :
Beauharnais......................
Cornwall...........................
Farrand’s Point............... ...............1
Rapid Plat.......................
[
Point Iroquois............... ............
Gallop’s ........................... ............... J
'Welland............................
Total........................
Length in Depth in Size of locks,
miles.
feet.
feet.
S*
10
200x45
10
200x45
H i
1H
10
200x45
200x45
10
10
200x45
oa
10
200x45
200x15
10
28
10
160x26^
69
Li t, Number
feet, lucks.
44$
5
9
m
48
7
1
4
2
Hi
1
6
2
8
830
■-7
5344
51
1868]
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A R E B A Y .
165
The St. Lawrence canals can pass vessels of 800 tons. The "Welland
canal can pass vessels of 400 tons. These canals connect the lower river
and gulf of St. Lawrence with the chain of the great lakes.
Of the gulf of St. Lawrence, Mr. Stevenson gives the following descrip
tion :
The navigation of the gulf of St. Lawrence, through which the river diecharees
itself into the Atlantic, is very hazardous. In addition to dangers arising from the
masses of ice which are constantly to be met with, for nearly one half of the y> a-, it
is subject to dense and impenetrable fogs, and its rocky shores and desolate islands ,
affords neither comfort nor shelter to the shipwrecked manner. One of the most
desolate and dangerous of the islands in the gulf, is Anticosti, which li-s exactly oppo
site the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and is sunounded by reefs of rocks and shoalwater. Two light-houses have been erected on it, and a'so four houses of shelter,
containing large stores of provisions, for the use of those who have the misfortune to
be shipwrecked on its inhospitable shores.
In a memorial of citizens of New York, written by De W itt Clinton in
1816, addressed to the legislature of that state, in advocacy of the Erie
canal, it is stated that “the St. Lawrence is generally locked by ice seven
months in the year, during which time produce lies a dead weight on the
hands of the owner.” B ut Mr. Stevenson seems to imply shorter dura
tion of the period of frost by remarking that it continues “ for the space
of at least five months in the y e a r g o i n g on further to say : “ The rigor
of a Canadian winter, covering the face of the country with snow, and
congealing every river, lake and harbor, produces a stagnation in trade
which cannot fail to have a bad effect on the commerce of the country
and the habits of the people, who are compelled to complete their whole
business transactions during the summer and autumn months, and remain
in a state of comparative indolence during the remainder of the year.”
B R IT IS H P R O JE C T S
IN
CANADA.
These difficulties, attending the navigation of the St. Lawrence river
and gulf, make that route a feeble competitor for the trade of the great
West. Y et British enterprise and capital seem determined to overcome
the disadvantages imposed by nature. Not to speak of stupendous rail
roads constructed from the upper lakes to points on the St. Lawrence,
from which they are continued to Portland, Maine, and Boston, Massa
chusetts, the following plans of water navigations have been projected and
are partially in progress.
The principal enterprise is that of a canal on the American side around
the falls of Niagara, eight miles in length. It is proposed to make the
locks 2Y5 feet long, 46 feet wide, and 13 feet deep on the sills, giving
capacity for the passage of vessels of twelve hundred tons.
There are many canals on the Canadian side projected, in progress or
completed. The proposed Ottawa ship canal will pass from the easterly
166
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E R A Y .
[September,
side of Lake Huron up the French River to Lake Nippisingue; from
tlunce bv canal across the elevation to Trout Lake, at the head of Mattawaco River, and down it to its junction with the Ottawa, following the
latter to Montreal. The length of the canal proper is 37§ miles, and the
whole improvement will cost $24,000,000. A recent location makes a
line of canal proper 29.32 miles long, and a route of canal and improved
river and Jake navigation 401^- miles in length from Montreal to Lake
Huron. It will effect a saving of distance, between Montreal and Chicago,
of 842^ miles over the circuitous route of the great lakes. The locks on
this route will be fifty feet wide, 250 eet long and 10 feet on the sills,
which will pass vessels of one thousand tons. Lift 665^ feet.
The Georgian bay and Toronto canal will connect Toronto with Lake
Huron by a route only 100 miles long, and 470 feet lift of locks. The
locks will be 265 feet long, 55 wide, and 12 feet on the sills, costing $22,000,000. By this route the distance between Chicago and Montreal,
compared with that by Lake Erie and Ontario, or by the W elland canal,
will be 428 miles less.
O B JE C T IO N S TO TH E R O U T E O F T H E G R EA T L A K E S .
The determined enterprise of the British capitalists and colonists who
are undertaking the expensive works in Canada, which have just been
described, proves two important facts. It proves how much water trans
portation is still valued and relied on even in latitudes of frost where
canals can be used only about 200 days in the year; and it proves that
there is some insupperable objection to navigation on the great lakes,
especially those of Erie and Ontario, which it is of great importance to
avoid, by shorter lines across the northern peninsula.
The nature of that objection can be learned from the following facts:
After various unsuccessful experiments, it is perfectly ascertained that ordinary
canal I oats, such as are in use upon the Ohio and Erie canals, cannot be safely towed
upon the stormy surface of the great lakes. The modern barge system cannot there
fore, be applied on the lakes.
The board of the Xew York State canals, in their report for 1835, set
forth the following state of facts :
The method of towing barges by means of steamboats has been very successfully
practiced on the Hudson River ; but on the lakes, though a great ma-y steamboats
have been in use for several years, the plan has not neen a opted, became steam
boats cannot manage barges in a storm. *
*
* An intelligent gentleman of
several years experience in navigating steamboats on Lake Ontario, informs us that
he considered it impracticable as a regular business for steamboats to tow vessels
with safety on the lakes, unless the vessels were fitted with masts and rigging, and
sufficiently manned so as to be conducted by sails in a storm ; th t storms often rise
very suddenl. on these lakes, and with such violence as would compel a steamboat
to cut loose vessels in tow in order to sustain herself.
Those who have not witnessed them can form no adequate idea of the
1868]
N A V IG A T IO N FRO M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A Y .
167
violence of lake storms. The annual damage sustained by the massive
masonry of the piers by which the harbors are protected, in which stones
weighing upwards of half a ton are sometimes raised from their beds and
completely upturned ; the range of lofty trees rooted up and thrown upon
the bordering shores, and the numerous vessels driven ashore and totally
lost or seriously damaged, furnishing striking evidences of the power of
an agency which nothing can resist. They are even more powerful than
the “ground swells” of the ocean near the shore. In all land-locked
bodies of water the waves are short and sudden in their movements,
proving very destructive to whatever obstacle is opposed to their fury ;
but there is a characteristic slowness in the long movement of the ocean’s
swell, which, it is generally acknow edged, renders it less destructive to
marine works exposed to its act on tcan the waves pr.duced in land
locked lakes or seas.
From Mr. AVoodbridge’s report to the Senate of the United States in
February, 1843, upon the subject of the trade of the lakes, it appears
“ that from 1834 to 1841, inclusive, the number of wrecks upon lake
Michigan amounted to eighty nine vessels; that those wrecks were
accompanied by a destruction of property to the value of $1,052,450 ; and
that one hundred and fi'teen lives were sacrificed.” The same report
makes the disclosure, that during the year 1842 alone, “ two steamboats,
one ship, and seventeen schooners, were totally lost in the storms on the
upper lakes; and that three other steamboats, two brigs, and ten schoon
ers, were driven ashore, accompanied by the probable loss of nearly one
half million of value in property, and more than a hundred lives.”
From the shallowness of the water upon lake Erie, compared with that
upon the other lakes, it is more easily and more permanently affected by
frost, its navigation being generally obstructed by ice for some weeks
every spring, after that of all the others is open and unimpeded. From
the same cause this lake is likewise contradistinguished from all the others,
by a slight current constantly setting from the West to Erst, which,
together with the prevailing southwesterly winds, causes the floating ice
in spring to drift down to accumulate to a vast extent about the head of
the St. Lawrence river, thereby retarding the opening of the navigation
at the entrance of the Erie and Welland canals some three weeks
beyond the period at which it opens at the port of Erie upon the South
ern side of the lake.
There is a significant fact disclosed by the last report of the New York
canals. For the months of October and December of 1807, the receipts
from tolls were about two millions, being a little more than half the
receipts for the fiscal year, and more than half the estimated receipts for
the next fiscal year. These figures show that the navigation closes just
168
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T IIK C H E S A P E A K E B A T . [
September,
when the demand for transportation is greatest, and the comparative small
ness of receipts for the other five months of open navigation shows that
the freight which cannot use this canal gets to market over other and much
more expensive avenues of transportation.
I t is probably owing to this serious disadvantage of the lake route that
so little success has attended the various efforts which have been made to
institute direct exports from the lakes to Europe. Notwithstanding al^
these efforts, the following list will show the whole number of vessels that
have passed from the lakes to the ocean from 1846 to 1865 (excepting
1864, 1851, 1852, 1853 and 1849, for which the statistics are not availa b le ) :
1846 ................
1 S 4 7 ................
1848 ................
1850 ................
1854 ................
1 S 5 5 ................
.............
............
1
2
............
............
1
1
1856................ .............. 1
O
1857................
1 8 5 8 ................
1 8 5 9 ................
1860................ .............. 89
1R61................ _______ n
1862 .................
1863 ................
1865 ................ ............ 11
—
.........
150
W h e n t h e m a g n i t u d e o f t h e w e s te r n l a k e tr a d e , a n d w h e n t h e c o s tlin e s s
and perfection of the canals which have been constructed for the passage
of ocean shipping are considered, this must be confessed to be a meagre
exhibit, and it affords conclusive proof that trade avoids the outlet fur
nished by the St. Lawrence, rather than seeks it.
For the trade of the vast country lying in the States W est and South
west of the lakes, this route does not seem to furnish a cheap outlet. In
an able paper on the duty of the Federal government, in connection with
the navigation of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, Prof. Sylvester
Waterhouse, of St. Louis, remarks: “ Under all the existing difficulties (of
this navigation), the freight of cereals from the Upper Mississippi to New
York is far cheaper by way of New Orleans than it is by the lakes and
the New York canal. The comparative rates of transportation from
Dubuque, Iowa, to New York, a re :
Via the lakes......................................................................... 68 cents per bushel.
Via New Orleans.
........................................................38 cents per bushe'.
Difference in favtr of southern route . . . . .
. . . SO cents.
The present cost of shipping grain from Chicago to Cairo by rail, and
thence w’a New Orleans to New York by water, is no greater than the
freight to the same point by way of the lakes. The existing water tariff
on wheat in bulk from Chicago to New York is—
By the la k es,............... ............................................................................44 cents.
From Chicago to Cairo by ra il......................................................
10 cents,
F om Cairo to New Orleans by water................................................. 12 “
From New Orleans to New York by water. . . » .............................. 1% “
N A V IG A T IO N F R O M O H IO TO TH E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
169
So extreme is the cheapness of river carriage, that the rates of the south
ern route, increased by 300 miles of costly railroad transit, do not exceed
those of the northern line. If we take a point on the Mississippi south of
the latitude of Chicago, such as Dubuque, the saving is 30 cents a bushel
by the New Orleans route. This gives 38 cents as the c o st; and it is
believed that after the improvement of the rapids of the Mississippi, and
the erection of elevators for the transfer of grain in bulk, the freight of
cereals from the upper Mississippi to New York, by way of New Orleans,
will be reduced to twenty-five cents per bushel.”
Such a reduction, and even the present low rates, will powerfully affect
the movement of western grain; for even as early as in 1865, out of
48,000,000 bushels of grain shipped to Chicago, 15,000,000 were brought
from points on the Mississippi; and it is officially stated that three-fifths
of all the wheat received in 1865 at Milwaukee and Chicago came from
the towns on the banks of the Mississippi.
T H E V IR G IN IA W A T E R -L IN E T H E B E S T S U B S T IT U T E .
The serious disadvantages which have been here detailed attending the
navigation of the lakes and the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, coupled with
the other consideration, that in the event of a war with Great Britain, this
important channel of transportation of the produce of the West to the East
would be obstructed, have combined to impress upon the public mind of
the East the great importance of auxiliary lines of railroad lying wholly
within the national jurisdiction.
This well-grounded appreciation of railroads which grew gradually into
a railroad mania, operated for several years to turn public attention away
for a period from all artificial water-line routes of transportation. But
now, it is discovered, after the fullest experiment, that railroads are inad
equate to the performance of the immense transportation required, and
that they are liable to the popular objection of being in charge of close
corporations, and are not, like canals, open to indiscriminate public use
at moderate rates of charge.
The Virginia canal, owing to the costliness of the work, did not reach
completion before the railroad fever had taken possession of the public;
and it has had to wait for its consummation to that returning appreciation,
which is now again felt, of cheap water transportation. I t offers now a
channel of navigation frem W est to East shorter than any other, cheaper
than any other, more expeditious, and more free from all obstructions
arising from climate or a public enemy than all the rest. Its only rivals
in capacity for western trade are the Mississippi and gulf route on one
hand, and the great lake, Erie Canal and St. Lawrence River route on the
other. Both of these boundary routes are circuitous, while this central
170
naviga tion from ohio to
T ns CHESAPEAKE BAv. [September,
one is direct. Both of the others take American produce out of the Union,
in transporting it from one part of the Union to the other, subjecting it to
the dangers of war ; and while one of them subjects our national products
to the damaging effects of a semi-tropical climate, and the hazards of gulf
and coast navigation, the other renders it liable to be seized and held for
months by the ice, or wrecked and lost by the lake storms.
Emphatically, in the case of the Virginia line, it is true, in medio tutissimus ibis. It offers the safest, the shortest, the most central, the cheap
est, the most constantly open, and the most available of all'the channels
of outlet by water for western trade.
The rapid expansion and extension of inland navigation in the central
basin of the continent is producing an increase in the quantity of trade
demanding outlet to the seaboard, far exceeding the capacity of all exist
ing avenues of outlet to discharge, and imperatively requiring the opening
of a new line of direct water navigation to the seaboard equal in capacity
to the Erie canal. The extent of this inland navigation will now be dis
played in a few paragraphs.
VAST EX TEN T O F O U R IN L A N D N A V IG A T IO N .
The construction of a ship canal less than one mile in length between
lakes Traver and Big Stone, in Minnesota, will unite the waters of the
River St. Peter’s with those of the great Red River of Northwest British
America. The Red River of the North is navigable for steamboats for
seven hundred miles to Lake W innepeg; and from Lake Winnepeg this
navigation is extended by the Saskatchawau seven hundred miles to the
base of the Rocky Mountains, within a short distance of Frazier’s gold
digging. Thus navigation will soon be opened west of the Mississippi
from St. Paul, on the Mississippi River, to Frazier’s diggings in British
Columbia, via the St. Peter’s and Red rivers of the North. East of the
river, the union of the headwaters of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers in
Wisconsin, will make a navigable water route from the AXississippi to
Green Bay, on Lake Michigan. Further south, one hundred miles of
ship canal, from Chicago west to Peoria, with some improvements in the
Illinois River, will make another navigable water route for large vessels
from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan. A canal in Ohio connects Ports
mouth, on the Ohio River, with Cleveland, on Lake Erie. Cincinnati, on
the Ohio River, and Toledo, on Lake Erie, are connected by the Miami
Canal. A canal from Toledo to Logansport, Indiana, with the W abash
River, unites the waters of the Ohio River with those of Lake Erie at
Toledo. Should the wants of commerce require it, these latter canals can
be enlarged through Ohio and Indiana to a capacity for passing steamboats
of six hundred tons burden.
1868]
N A V IG A T IO N FROM O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
m
The proposed dimensions of the canal above described, as projected for
uniting Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi with Green Bay on Lake
Michigan, across the State of "Wisconsin, are as follows :—The entire
improvement will be 295 miles in length, of which 175 miles, chiefly of
lake and river navigation, are in use. The locks will be 160 feet long by
35 feet wide. The upper Fox is not yet fully improved, but now passes
barges of greater capacity than those of the Erie Canal. The dimensions
of the water line through Illinois will be, when the canal is enlarged,
length 100 miles, with locks 350 feet long by 70 feet wide; cost
$10,000,000. These two latter works are not antagonistic, and will make
a navigable water communication between the great chain of lakes, and
upwards of twenty thousand miles of navigable rivers, including the Mis
sissippi and its numerous tributaries, and the Red River of the North and
Saskatchewan of British America. These improvements, in connection
with the short ship canal, less than a mile long, between lakes Big Stone
and Traver, will open steamboat navigation from Chicago or New Orleans
to Lake Winnepeg, which is 700 miles distant from St. Paul. This great
sheet of water is as large as Lake Ontario, and receives the Saskatchewan
river from the west, which itself is navigable 700 miles to the Rocky
mountains, within a distance of 50 miles from the Frazier’s River gold
mines. By means of these improvements and the various ship canals
proposed or completed between Lake Michigan and the East, steamers
from Quebec, New York or New Orleans could be passed to the head
waters of the Missouri, the Yellow Stone and the Saskatchewan, a dis
tance of 5,000 miles of inland water navigation. This vast extension of
navigation must exert a prodigious influence in stimulating western
production, and produce an accumulation of trade requiring the open
ing of every possible channel of outlet to the seaboard.
The great lakes have a shore line of 3,620 miles on the American side,
and 2,629 miles on the side of Canada. Lakes Huron and Superior are
navigably connected by a ship canal around the rapids of the St. Marie
river, with locks 350 feet long and 50 feet wide, having 12 feet lift.
The present extent of steamboat navigation in the valley of the Missis
sippi river, is shown by the following table, prepared by Col. Long, of the
United States Army :
EXTENT OF W ESTERN STEAM NAVIGATION.
M ississippi and branches.
I o w a ......................................................
Misaissip! i proper............................... 2,000 Cedar...................................................
St. Croix...............................................
80 Des Moines...........................................
St. Peter’s ............................................. 120 Illinois...................................................
Coippeway.........................................
10 Maramec...............................................
Black......................................................
60 Kaskaskia.............................................
Wisconsin............................................. 180 Big Muddy...........................................
Rock...................................................
250 Obion............. .. ..................................
110
60
250
245
60
150
5
60
172
N A V IG A T IO N F R O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
Forked Deer.......................................
Big Halchie........................................
St. Francis.........................................
W hite.................................................
Big Black...........................................
Spring.................................................
rkansas.............................................
Canadian.............................................
Neosho...............................................
Y azco.................................................
Tallahatchee......................................
. 100
80
Big Sunflower.................................. .
Little Sunflower................................
Big Black...........................................
Cumberland........................................
Tennessee...........................................
Red River and branches.
lied river proper............................ .. .1,500
Wachita..............................................
Saline..................................................
Little Missouri..................................
Bayou IV Arbourc ........................
Bayou Bartholomew........................
Bayou Boenf.......................................
Bayou Macon....................................
Bayou de Glaze............... .................
Bayou Oarre.......................................
Bayou Lafourche..............................
rayou Rouze.....................................
Bayou Plaquemine..........................
Bayou Teche.....................................
Grand River.......................................
[September,
Bayou Sorrele.....................................
Bayou Chene.......................................
Missouri and its branches.
Missouri proper
Yel'owstone . . .
Platte river. . . .
Kansas .............
O sage...............
Grand...............
Ohio and its branches.
Ohio proper.......................
Alleghany .......................... ...............
Monongahela. . . .
. . . . ...............
___ . . . .
.................
Big Sandy ......................... ...............
Scioto..................................
.................
...............
G reen..................................
Barren..................................
Wabash..............................
Bayou L ouis.......................
Tensa9................................ .
Lacke Bistenaw............... .
Sulphur Fork.
......... .................
Little River......................
Kiamichi..............................
Boggy ..................................
Bayou Pierre..................... ..................
Atclafaloya........................ .................
12
5
l,5 f 0
300
40
150
275
90
2 0
60
70
65
50
62
5
100
150
860
Total miles................................................................... ............................................... 16,674
Here are nearly seventeen thousand miles of steamboat navigation
I t would be a moderate estimate to reckon the slack water navigation of
these rivers, for boats other than steamboats, at the same number of miles
in addition. And, if we accept the assertion of an eminent European
engineer that any stream having a volume of water 19 feet wide and 18
inches deep may be made navigable, and is considered a commercial stream
in Europe, then there are still as many miles in addition of navigable
water in the great basin ; making a total navigation of 50,000 miles for
purposes of commerce.
T H E B A R G E SYSTEM ON T H E W E S T E R N R IV E R S .
IT S T E N D E N C Y TO D IV E R T
TRA D E F R O M T H E L A K E S TO T H E M IS S IS S IP P I R IV E R , A N D TO T H E O H IO
A N D V IR G IN IA
CANAL.
The inadequacy of the present means of outlet for Western produce to
the seaboard, other than the channel of the Mississippi, is universally
acknowledged.* F o r the sake of cheapness, vast quantities of produce
* I n 1865 M in ' e s o ta a lo n e p ro d u c e d 10,000,000 b u s h e ls o f w h e a t. T h re e -fc u rth s o f th is h a r
v e s t c o u ld h av e b e e n e x p o rte d if fa c ilitie s o f ch e ap ti a n s p o r ta t io n h a d off re d s u flic io t in d u c e
m e n t .' I n 1866, h ig h e r p ric e s —w h ic h p ro d u c e t h j s a m e effect, a s c h e a p e r f r i g n t - l . d to th e
ex ; o r ta tio n o f 8,000,000 o f b u s h e ls . I t is s u c h a s ta te o f f e ig h t c h a rg e s o r o f m a rk e t p ric e s as
w ill le av e a p ro fit to th e p ro d u c e r w h ic h b rin g s o u t p ro d u c ts \o m a rk e t.
1808]
N A V IG A T IO N F R O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E BA Y.
173
must take tlie river and gulf route, or not go to market at all. Notwith
standing the objections which exist, and are universally entertained, to
that route, its trade is rapidly increasing from the very necessity of the
case. W ithin the last three years it has received so great an impetus, that
improvements in the facilities for transferring produce from vessel to vessel,
and for towing it upon the water, have become indispensable. The barge
system has accordingly been substituted for the old one of placing the
produce on large steamboats. Steam tugs of immense strength are em
ployed. They carry no freight. They are simply the motive power*
They save delay by taking fuel for the round trip. Landing only at the
large cities, they stop barely long enough to attach a loaded barge. By
this economy of time and steady movement, they equal the speed of
steamboats. The Mohawk made its first trip from St. Louis to New
Orleans in six days, with ten barges in tow. The management of the
barges is precisely like that of freight cars. The barges are loaded in the
absence of the steam tug. The tug arrives, leaves a train of barges, takes
another and proceeds. The tug itself is always at work. It does not lie
at the levees while the barges are unloading. Its largest stoppage is made
for fuel. The power of these boats is enormous. The tugs plying on the
Minnesota River sometimes tow 30,000 bushels of wheat apiece. The
freight of a single trip would fill 85 railroad cars. Steamboats are obliged
to remain in port two or three days for the shipment of freight. The
heavy expense which this delay and the necessity of large crews involve,
is a grave objection to the old system of transportation. The service of
the steam tug requires but few men, and the cost of running is relatively
low. The advantages which are claimed for the barge system are exhibited
by the following table:
Tugs & b rges.
Stoppage at intermediate points....................................... :il hours.
Stoppage at terminal p oin ts............................................. 24 “
C rew........................................................................................ IS men.
Tonnage............... ........................................................... . 25,000 tons.
Daily expenses..................................................................... $200
Original cost............................................................................ $75,000
S ti a m b o a ts .
6 h o u rs .
48 “
50 “
1,500 tons.
$ 1,000
$ 00,000
In addition to the ordinary precautions against fire, the barges have this
unmistakable advantage over steamboats, they can be cut adrift from
each other, and the fire restricted to the narrowest limits. The barges are
very strongly built, and have water-tight compartments for the movement
of grain in bulk. The transportation of grain from Minnesota to New
Orleans by water costs no more than the freightage from the same point
by railroad to Chicago. After the erection of a floating elevator at New
Orleans, a boat load of grain from St. Paul will not be handled again till
it reaches the Crescent city.
m
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A Y . [, September,
Tlie dimensions of the vessels employed on the river between St. Louis
and New Orleans are as follows :
TOWBOATS.
L i g h t d r a f t.
D e p t h o f h o ld .
T onnage.
b u s h coal
B re a d th .
L e n g th .
feet.
30 feet
180 feet.
6,500
6 ieit.
30 feet.
34
175 feet.
190 “
600 ions.
8
3j feet.
BARGES.
11- 6 feet.
n
“
‘
“
1 ,0 0 0 “
I
The towboats have two engines each; the cylinders are 22 inches in
diameter, with 20 inch stroke. One towboat will draw 8,000 tons of
freight. The time from St. Louis to New Orleans is 6 days down, 10
days back; round trip, on the average, 18 days.
The Mississippi Yalley Transportation Company has 5 towboats and 37
barges. They are crowded with business. They handle as much as
11 000 tons of freight in a week. Tne business is rapidly and largely
developing. The barge system will soon supersede all other methods of
transportation on western waters. An indispensable adjunct of it is the
steam elevator for transferring grain from vessel to vessel in bulk. The
St. Louis elevator cost $450,000, and has a capacity of 1,250,000 bushels.
It is able to handle 100,000 bushels a day. I t began to receive grain in
October, 1865. Before the 1st of January, 1866, its receipts amounted
to 600,000 bushels, 200,000 of which were brought directly from Chicago.
The local receipts at the elevator in 1866 were 1,376,700 bushels.
Grain can now be shipped by way of St. Louis and New Orleans to New
York and Europe 20 cents a bushel cheaper than it can be carried to the
Atlantic by the other existing routes. The effects produced by barge
system is thus described by a New Orleans correspondent of the New
York Times:
N ew
O rlea ns,
Sunday, April 5, 1868.
CHICAGO AND N EW ORLEANS.
Every one observes how this most enterprising people are prospecting for com
mercial expansion. Chicago owns about one-third of the whole tonnage of the
Union. She controls the lakes, and is forcing her way bv the St. Lawrence to the
ocean. She is penetrating the upper countrv of the Northwest, and intercepting
from St. Louis the productions of Iowa and Montana. Recently she has discovered
that the Mississippi is the cheapest open way to the markets of the world,so she has
sent her commercial explorers to mark her pathway to the ocean by way of New
Orleans. The great Illinois Central Railroad has taken hold of the West India trade,
and offered Buch inducements to western importers that Havana sends her products
by this route instead of by New York. The Texas cattle dealers have adopted this
route. Large capital has been put in grain elevators, and Western men who are here
to conduct business claim confidently this important commerce. These explorers
from the northwest seem delighted with the climate and local attractions of New
Orleans and with a rapid rail time between the snows of the north and the sunny
troltoirs of New Orleans, we have crowds of business men, with their families, con
stantly among ns. This has given an impulse to our Western trade, and has occa
sioned considerable investments in city and country real estate.
1868]
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO TH E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
175
THE NORTHWEST ON POLITICS.
The giant northwest is, in fact, b egining to perceive and employ its physical
abi ity in the commercial politics of the country. With the conviction that the Mis
sissippi outlet was of indispensable importance, it has decreed that all obstacles to
the navigation of that river shall be removed from its sources to its mouth. So the
Des Moines Canal is under contract. It is to be 7 miles long, 300 feet wide, and 6
feet in depth. The smaller obstructions of the upper river, including the bridge at
Rock Island, are to be removed, or so modified as no longer to impede navigation.
Then the Government has ordered a dredgeboat, costing nearly 8400,000, to go to
work on the Belize Passes. Besides this, St. Louis is declared a port of entry, and
hereafter goods will he imported direct to that city. This will, no doubt, make a
great change in the values imported by way of this Custom House. There are
other evidences that this great internal power will make itself felt in the legislation
and foreign policy of the Government. It is a leviathan, which has only made itself
known, so far, by spouting and an occasional lash of its tail. When its power shall
be fully awakened, it will snap the ropes and splinter the lifeboats of the politicians
who are after it for its blubber alone. The character of national politics will be
fixed by the millions who inhabit the northwest. They ere mostly ot European
origin, believe in the divine right of the msijori y, think that the minority ought to be
hanged for the treason of a difference of opinion. In a word, they have transfused
the doctrine of European despotism into the forms of a popular government. When
ever this numerical power shall demonstrate itself, we may anticipate a moral revo
lution in the political administration of this Democratic Republic.
The employment of the barge system on the Ohio river will, as to al\
trade accessible to that stream, neutralize the objection to the overland
portage from Parkersburg to tide water at Baltimore, by way of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A t a recent meeting of the Board of
Trade of New York, it appeared that transportation by rail to Cincinnati
from that city cost 70 cents per hundred ; while from Boston and P hila
delphia along the Atlantic coast to the mouth of the Chesapeake, thence
north to Baltimore, and thence by railroad to Cincinnati, the cost is 40
cents per hundred. The Baltimore Gazette of April 11th, 1868, gives
the following table of freight charges respectively from New York and
Baltimore to different points in the West on fourth-class goods :
To Cincinnati . . . .
To Louisville . . . .
___
To St. Louis. . . ...........
From From I
N.York.Baltimore
so To Chicago...............
66
48 To Indlaoapolis.. . .
94
55
From
N.York. Baltimore
88
35
These differences are producing a great diversion to the Baltimore
route from the more northern ones, and demonstrate the strong tendency
of trade to seek the shortest crossing from the west to tide-water.
T H E Q UESTION
O F B A C K -L O A D IN G ---- P R O D U C T S
OF
THE KANAW HA
V A L LEV
Transportation by either of the two great routes of circuitous naviga
tion, from the west to the sea, which have been considered, is conducted
under the very costly disadvantage of a deficiency of return freights for
the boats conveying the trade. The products moved eastward from the
west, are gross and bulky, while the freights taken back to the west con
176
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
[September,
sist chiefly of articles much lighter and less bulky in proportion to their
value. All the statistics of trade between east and west show, that the
tonnage moving eastward exceeds by several fold, that moving westward.
This condition of trade subjects the boats engaged in it to the necessity
of returning westward either wholly or partially empty. In western
New York, the deficiency of back loading thus occasioned, has produced
a very great development in the salt manufactuie, and swollen that busi
ness in that locality probably to the largest salt manufacture in the world.
The reverse state of things now exists in the trade of the' Ohio river.
A very large portion of the western population derives its coal from the
mines on the upper waters of the Ohio. This mineral is bulky in pro
portion to its value, and boats carrying it down from the region about
Pittsburg to the places of consumption, having no sufficient return load
ing eastward in consequence of there being no outlet of navigation to the
seaboard from the upper Ohio, do not return at all, and are broken up
for fuel or lumber, and sold at a sacrifice.
The opening of the water-line from the Great Kanawha river, through
Virginia to the Atlantic, will correct both of these serious disadvantages
incident now to western trade. The boats or barges which shall carry the
heavy and bulky farm produce of the far interior to the mouth of Chesa
peake bay, will refill in returning with the fine bituminous coals of W est
Virginia, and carry them back to the very hearths of those western farmers
from whose granaries they were loaded for the eastward voyage. The
coals of W est Virginia would themselves supply all the return tonnage
which the boats moving east would require ; but in the event of any
deficiency in this respect, the Salines of ihe Kanawha Valley, now pro
ducing two millions of bushels of salt per annum, would multiply their
production to any possible requirement.
I t is well know to geological men that the veins of bituminous coal
which pervade the entire western slope of. the Appalachian chain of
mountains, have their maximum aggregate thickness in the Kanawha
Valley.
From a late authentic work on the subject to the Kanawha coals, the
following extract is made :
TH E GREAT K A N A W H A
CO AL F IE L D S .
The coal fields of the Great Kanawha region, in West Virginia, are superior to
those of Great Eritainjor Pennsylvania. They are regarded by eminent geologsts
as the finest deposit of coal in the world. The quality of Kanawha Cannel coal is
equal to the best English Cannel; the quality of its bituminous coal is equal to the
be«t found in Pennsylvania; and Kanawha splint coal, for smelting iron ore, is unsur
passed. The veins lie horizontally, and vary from three to fifteen feet in thickness ;
and the aggregate thickness of the various veins in some localities amounts to forty
and even fifty feet of solid coal.
18681
N A V IG A T IO N F R O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
177
The advantages of the Great Kanawha C >al Fields over those near Pittsburg may
be summed up as follows :
1. The Kanawha Coal Fields contain as good bituminous cial as the best found on
the Monongahela and Youghiogheny, an 1, in addition thereto, large deposits of
Cannel C >al, equal in quality to the best English Canuel—none of which is found in
the Monongahela coal fields.
2. The veins of coal are thicker and more numerous on the Kanawha than on the
Monongahela. Veins of splint and bituminous coal on the Kanawha are from 4 to 15
feet thick, and the Cannel from SO inches to 5 feet thick.
3. Coal lands on the Monongahela and Youghioghenv sell for 1300 and ¥ 1 00 per
acre, whilst better coal lands on the Kanawha can now be purchased from $ 10 to $20
per acre.
4. The Kanawha coal fields are 230 miles nearer to Cincinn tti and the southwest
cities than the Monongahela coal fields are. This gives to Kanawha coal an advan
tage of at least one cent per bushel in cost of transportation to such markets over tne
Monongahela and Voughiogheny coal.
5. The navigation of the Ohio at Point Pleasant is greatly better than it is at
Pittsburg; therefore Kanawha coal can be more frequently shipped from Point
Pleasant than Monongahela coal can from Pittsburg.
6. The nav:<r itioa of the Kanawha and Lower Ohio is not interrupted by ice to
the extent thlX the navigation of the Monongahe'a and Upper Ohio is, as NVw
River, the chief tributary of the Kanawha, rises in North Carolina—whil t t ie Alle
ghany (which, with the Monongahela, forms the Ohio.) rises near Late Erie T h is
gives to the Ohio River at Point Pleasant an advantage of two weeks and more every
winter over the Ohio at Pittsburg—and at a time when fuel is most needed in Cin
cinnati and Louisville.
7. The Kanawha coal fields are situated on what must be, in time, a great high
way for the trade and travel of the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic seaboard.
The vast and rapidly increasing trade of he Great West is seeking new routes for
transit to the cities of the seacoast; and the route through the Kanawha valley has
advantages over all others in shortness of distance, grade of road, and mildness of
climate.
COALS F O R T H E S E A B O A R D
C IT IE S A ND F A C T O R IE S .
The coals of the Kanawha region are now shipped around by way of
New Orleans and the Gulf to New York, at a profit to the miner and
dealer. The quality of the cannel coals of W est Virginia is fully equal to
that of the coals of England and Nova Scotia imported into New York.
It has become of vital importance to the manufacturing interests of the
seaboard cities to obtain adequate supplies of the best qualities of bitu
minous coals from shorter distances than those from which they are now
derived, and at cheaper rates. The most intelligent manufacturers, and
dealers in coal, of New Y ork and the eastern cities, recognize the neces
sity of a resort to the excellent cannel and bituminous coals of the Kana
wha, Coal, Guyandotte, and Sandy rivers of W est Virginia for fuel;__a
fact which is fully established by the shipments that are now making o
the coals of that region by the roundabout route of New Orleans to (he
Atlantic seaboard.
The opening of the Virginia Canal will finally settle the question of an
adequate coal supply for the eastern cities, and forever relieve the appre.
hension and scarcity now felt by eastern manufacturers on that vital sub
ject. Valuable as this water-line will be to the W est, as shown in these
pages, its importance is doubled by the fact that the work is vital to the
2
178
N A V IG A T IO N THOM O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A Y.
[September,
success of the manufacturing system of the East, as a means of supplying
the best coals of the continent from the nearest mines by the most direct
navigation and at the cheapest rates.
DUTY O F C O N G R ESS ON T H E S U B JE C T O F IN L A N D N A V IG A T IO N .
“ The invention of Fulton has, in reality for all practical purposes, con
verted the Mississippi, with all its great tributaries, into an inland sea.
Regarding it as such, I am prepared to place it on the same footing with
the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, and the
lakes, in reference to the superintendence of the general government over
its navigation. I t is manifest that it is far beyond the power of indi
viduals or of separate States to supervise it, as there are eighteen States,
including Texas and the Territories—more than half the Union— which
lie within the valley of the Mississippi or border on its navigable tribu
taries.”—J. C. Calhoun in Memphis Convention of 1845.
Pertinent to this question of Congressional duty, with reference to the
W estern rivers, there is an important provision in that great organic law
of the northwest, the Ordinance of 1787. By that law, enacted by Con
gress for the government of the territory of the United States northwest
of the Ohio river, it is declared that “ the navigable waters leading into
the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the
same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabit
ants of the said territories as to the citizens of the United States and those
of other States that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any
tax, impost, or duty therefor.” It may be asked—How can the people of
the United States at large enjoy the benefits of this common right, unless
they have avenues of access opened to them by a competent power 1 and
how can the people of the country bordering those streams enjoy the
benefit of their navigation if that inland navigation be not connected with
the seaboard by direct lines of artificial navigation, opened by competent
authority? This ordinance is in the nature of a compact between the
General Government and the people of the States, and it reserves certain
rights and imposes certain duties, in which all citizens of the United
States are interested. It is a part of the fundamental law of the land.
Reserving the rivers as common highways for all, it divests all the States,
and each particular State, of any jurisdiction over them, and gives Con
gress full powerjto extend their advantages to every citizen of the Union.
Having guaranteed to all the people the navigation of these rivers for
ever, the Gnited States is bound to open avenues to them from all direc
tions, and keep them in a condition to be freely navigated and fully
enjoyed. B ut how can an inland navigation be fully enjoyed if Congress
shall supply no direct and convenient outlet to the seaboard and to the
markets of the world ?
1868]
N A V IG A T IO N FR O M O H IO TO T H E C H E S A P E A K E B A T .
179
I t is now conceded that Congress has power, as proprietor of the public
lands, to do what any prudent landowner may do for the enhancement of
the value of his patrimony, and can lawfully appropriate part of its lands
in aid of public works which would commensurately enhance the lands
retained. If this be so, what method could be conceived of that would
more certainly enhance the value of every acre of public lands in the
W est than the opening of another canal of the capacity of the Erie, on a
more central, more southern, and shorter route ?
The attentive reader of these pages cannot fail to have arrived at the
conviction that water navigation affords greater advantages to greater
numbers of people, at lower rates, and for far more numerous tons of
produce than railroad transportation. Y et railroads have received nearly
all the bounties which Congress has been willing to bestow upon public
roads.
The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his report for 1865
(pp. 34-5) gives the following information :
“ The immense railroad grants [of land by Gongress] embrace, by estimate, the
quantity of 125,000,000 of acres, exceeding by 8,000 000 of acres the aggregate area of
the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. These enormous grants are within about
one-fourth of being twice the united area of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland,
Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, and islands of the British seas, and less than a
tenth of being equal to the French Empiie proper, with its 89 departments and its
87,510 communes.
*• Why is it that the Congress cf the United States, as ;he national trustee, charged
under the Constitution with the disposal of the public lands, have made grants on
such a stupendous scale as this? The "answer is found not merely in the indemnify
ing principle of duplicating the reserved sections, but in the higher purpose of open
ing speedy communication by the iron railway across the continent to unite the great
industrial interests of the Atlantic siope, the valley of the Mississippi, and the
declivity from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.”
Does not a line of direct eastward navigation, promising similar results
to those which followed the opening of the Erie Canal, present a very
strong claim upon the bounty of Congress ?
A
C R O W N IN G A C T
O F R E C O N ST R U C T IO N .
The effect upon public opinion in the Southern States of liberal grants
of aid by Congress in behalf of public works of national importance
within their borders, would be unspeakably happy. And no act of such
assistance would be more gratefully received, or be more beneficial in
result, than a donation of lands and loan of bonds in behalf of so import
ant an enterprise as the completion of the Virginia water-line. Such an
act, giving earnest of a broad beneficent policy, would exert as great an
influence in securing thorough and permanent reconstruction as any
measure that could be adopted by the Federal power. I t would com
pletely identify Virginia with the Great West, and utterly and finally
180
M O N ET OR CURREN CY.
[,September,
obliterate every sentiment and trace of sectional alienation. I t would
give that bounding prosperity to the State which brings solace for every
grievance, and sweeps away every remnant of the poverty and privation
which are the sure nurses of disaffection and resentment. The completion
of a great line of trade across the territory of Virginia would bind that
great leading Southern State to the bosom of the Union by the strong
ties of prosperous commerce, and hold her in indissoluble allegiance for all
time to come.
The bestowal of such a bounty at a period of so much -need as the
present upon a commonwealth which, at a former era of the national his
tory, made notable sacrifices in behalf of the national cause, would be a
requital not inappropriate, and would do as much to restore an era of
good feeling and sterling loyalty as any measure that could be taken to
that end.*
MONEY OR CURRENCY IN RELATION TO THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY.
There is an article upon the subject of currency in the June number of
the M a g a z in e by Mr. Chas. PI Carroll, in which he discusses to a con
siderable extent the economical principles which appear to him relevant to
the question, though, as it seems to me, he has not given due weight to
others of equal importance.
In combatting the assumption that an increase of currency at the
W est would lower the rate of interest, Mr. Carroll takes occasion to say
that “ interest is not the price of money merely; it is the rent of capital.
It is not, therefore, currency that is needed at the W est, but capital, since
the more capital there is the less is its re n t; and capital can only be
obtained by labor, or it is the fruit of labor, wherever and however
obtained.”
W e shall not attempt to discuss all the principles involved in this para
graph, as that would open up most of the difficult problems of political
economy, for which we have neither time nor space at present, and it
would, to some extent, be a repetition of matter contained in articles
lately contributed to this magazine.
That interest is the rent of capital permanently invested upon undoubted
security, under ordinary circumstances, none will deny; but under the
present system and practice of banking, gold-getting, stock-jobbing, &c.,
and the very extensive financial operations of almost all the governments
of the world, that principle can have but the least possible effect at
present in regulating the interest or discount on money.
u A w i? r
n p
P T T P R i i 'w r v
181
In Europe we find that the interest of money or discounts fluctuate
continually, and even from 1£ to 10 per cent; and these constant varia
tions also take place in New York and all the large cities of the Union,
which seems to argue that the rate of profit and the quantity of capital
have but very little influence upon the rate of interest. That the increase
of capital should lower the rate of interest or profit, is one of the fallacies
of Adam Smith, which receives countenance from no other English
economist. There is certainly as much real capital at the W est at
present, proportionally to the number of people, but, perhaps, not the
same proportion of exchangeable wealth as in older States ; and, although
this last circumstance might command a larger circulation of currency, it
would be a fallacy to assume that it would lower the rate of interest;
notwithstanding, a lower rate of interest might be an incident of that
state of society. Nevertheless, what would cheapen loans would increase
prices, and such an amount of currency must eventually be withdrawn ;
if of bank paper, with fluctuation and loss, and if of gold and silver it
would flow off naturally, with a little less inconvenience. But if one
principle of political economy has been better ascertained and oftener
demonstrated than another, it is that the amount of money in circulation
in any given locality must necessarily conform to the exchangeable value
of the commodities which have to be exchanged; and therefore no unne
cessary or artificial increase of currency can be permanently maintained in
circulation for any length of time. Nor is it logical to assume that an
“ increase of currency in relation to capital is a safe way to increase the
rate of interest.” It might cause it to fluctuate and induce other incon
veniences, but it could not permanently increase it.
Many years ago I made the assertion in this magazine that any supe
rior increase of money must develop its own employment, as there can be
no use nor scope for it in circulation without increasing prices, or of push
ing out of circulation a like quantity of some other kind of money. An
undue increase of money must therefore always be forced into the loan
market, and its first effect, no doubt, will be to lower the price of loans
(rate of discount); but afterwards, when commerce becomes deranged in
consequence, and the demand for loans increased, their price will be
regulated only by the exigencies of the borrower and the ability and
disposition of the lender.
I t is assumed, however, by political economists in general that there is
a natural or necessary rate of profit to which all businesses, more or less,
tend, and which, to some extent, regulates the interest of money, and no
doubt this may have been true before the era of banking, and ought to be
true still. W e may be satisfied of one thing, nevertheless,— that the
principle in question has not at present the least possible effect upon the
182
M ON EY O R C U R R EN C Y .
[ September,
interest or discount on loans. We must therefore beg leave to differ with
Mr. Carroll’s proposition, although we may think it just as futile as he
does to attempt to lower the rate of interest permanently by an increase
of money. N or are we more fortunate with respect to the next proposi
tion, as we can see no necessary connection between a high rate of interest
and the exportation of money ; yet Mr. Carroll seems to think that one is
the cause and the other the effect.
lie says : “ I presented the example of California, and stated that
money runs away from a high rate of interest all the world over, as it
runs away from that State, where it is from 24 to 30 per cent per annum?
to New York, where it is from 6 to 9 per cen t; thence to London, where
it is 4 per c e n t; and thence to Paris, Hamburg, &c., where it is only 2
or 3 per cent.
Now I venture to say there is no truth or reality in this theory laid
down by Mr. Carroll. That money will necessarily be exported from
where it is relatively cheap or in excess, there can be no doubt. In
Europe, under such circumstances, we see exactly the same phenomenon
of the exportation of the metals from countries where the rate of interest
is comparatively low to countries where it is comparatively high, and it
is always this comparative low rate of interest which is the predisposing
cause of exportation, and, as we should very naturally assume, the rate of
interest is increased for the purpose of compelling the gold to return, or
at least to prevent further exportation.
W ith respect to gold leaving California while interest is at 25 or 30
per cent, I can only say that it is a very natural circumstance, as a
stream must always be highest at its source. Gold leaves California
because it is continually produced there. If you could contract the
issues by raising the rate of interest, you would soon see gold returning
to California, as it does to London or Paris, under the same operation ;
but to make Mr. Carroll’s doctrines feasible this stream of gold should
stop and remain where interest is at the lowest point. This, however, is
not the case, for it has no sooner arrived in England and Paris than it
again takes its flight up the Levant towards Asia, ILindostan and China,
where interest is understood to be at a much higher rate than in Europe.
I t is very true that gold or “ money is but one of the exchangeable
commodities of commerce, and that the demand for it is without lim it;”
but we say, under present circumstances : Money is neither wealth nor
capital; it is only a convenience by which labor is eased or time saved.
Mr. Carroll claims that it is capital, and in this instance seems rather at
issue with himself, for in that case it ought to remain in California to be
applied to reproduction and, according to bis teaching, to lower the rate
of interest. But it is true, notwithstanding, “ that the miners and the
1868]
M ON EY OR C U R R EN C Y .
183
State of California are as much enriched by producing it (money),
although cheapening it all the while, as they would be by producing a
like value of wheat.” That is to say, with this qualification, unless the
wheat were consumed at hom e; but supposing the wheat to be exported,
it might have been added that Ihey have a much better chance of being
enriched by the production of the gold than the wheat, as the same
exchangeable value could not always be guaranteed for the wheat, but gold
cannot be produced in excess under present monetary arrangements. All
the banks in the world might be glutted and gorged with gold, but the
demand for loans and discounts would never cease, and, therefore, gold
will continue to be produced in California and elsewhere, and to follow its
usual course.
I t is quite against the conclusions of political economy, that any com
modity can be thus constantly produced and constantly cheapened unless
the facilities for such production are continually increased; so that the
same amount of labor must produce a sufficiently ^increased quantity of
the commodity to demand an equal exchangeable value of any other pro
duct. This also presumes an effectual demand ; or, in other words, an
increased consumption to the full extent of the increased production, or
the commodity will cheapen from redundancy, which must cause a cessa
tion of production eventually. There cannot, therefore, according to the
principles of political economy, be any effectual demand for a constantly
increasing amount of money, without a constant increase in price ; and
certainly very little increase could possibly get into circulation unless
loaned out to jobbers and speculators.
The reason why California gets rich by the production of gold, is not
because gold is either capital or wealth, but because the absurd regulations
of commerce effectually protect that production from the effects of redundany. If a bushel of wheat were made the measure of value for all other
commodities, as well as the equivalent, which should satisfy all debts at a
certain price, much beyond its cost of production, the demand for wheat
would constantly increase ; so that all agriculturalists that could would
produce wheat, and get rich at the expense of the community; in the same
manner, if not to the same extent, as California gets rich at the expense
of the world, by the production of an unnecessary amount of gold. Sup
pose that all the laws were repealed in the different countries of the world
which stipulate the quantity of gold to be contained in the various coins
which are a legal tender in those countries, what would be the conse
quence 1 Gold getting would very soon colapse in California as every
where else, nobody would require gold, it would be nearly an useless com
modity, that intenseness of value would cease ; it would cease to run its
regular course from country to country as at present, until it reaches the
184
M O N E T O R CU R R EN C Y .
ySejAember,
remotest corners of the earth. Each country that required it in future,
would have to import it directly from the mines for its own purposes; but
it would not necessarily be required for currency, and none would be
wanted to pay the balances of foreign exchange.
\
W e must get rid of our prejudices in favor of the standard of value,
then we should get rid of the evils of monetary fluctuation, as well as the
tax of the constant production of gold. The governments might issue the
money, which could always be kept at par, by reference to the price of
gold or of foreign exchange. Gold would then have a price, which it has
not at present. All other commodities have a price in gold, but gold has
no price in other commodities; and notwithstanding the dictum of our
friend Carroll and Professor Leiber, there are and must be such terms and
acts as buying and selling, they are the necessary outgrowth of the mon
etary system, and, therefore, will be used as long as iteontinues, and must
be correct. A certain weight of gold being the universal medium and
measure by which all other things are exchanged, without any reference
whatever to any change which may have taken place in its own value or
quantify necessarily gives price to all other commodities. The value or
price of gold is fxed for the time being, and can only be cheapened event
ually by the slow increase of its quantity in the universal market of ike
world. Money is the commodity which every one reserves to purchase
all other things, and is not a consumable article; and in the estimation of
the public its value never varies. Therefore itjs never sold, nor exchanged,
nor bartered, technically, so to speak, nobody haggles about its price, it
merely buys all other commodities, and, as Mr. Carroll says : “ it is the
only universal recompense accepted without question.” This property
money will always retain, and for that reason its relative quantity should
never be allowed to increase. And it would make no difference if, as Mr.
Carroll suggests, we were to call the coin by the name of a weight, if all
values were still to be measured by it, and all debts liquidated with a
like quantity. There was a time no doubt when gold and silver were not
the standards by which other things were exchanged, but gradually became
so as commerce became more extensively practised. Most students of the
Bible are aware, no doubt, that the words “pieces of silver,” and “ pieces
of money,” are translated in the margin “ Lambs,” lambs of silver, &cThe Bomans also valued other things by reference to cattle. But enough
upon this point, as it is not at present of the least importance.
Mr. Carroll, after assuming that the rapid strides to wealth making at
present by California, puts to shame the speculative theory of certain
scholars and writers that money is not capital, proceeds to say, “it would
be as absurd to oppose the cheapening of money by its increase, as if
Indian corn or wheat, by an increase of crops.”
185
M O N EY O R C U R R E N C Y .
Now this seems to be an unaccountable error on the part of Mr. Carroll,
unless it may be that he is extensively interested in the production of
gold. In that case, we should suppose that his interest had blinded his
judgement. Indian corn or wheat can be consumed, and there is always
a demand for it at some price, and if it happens to be otherwise it is in
some locality which has not sufficient means of transport, or it is prevented
from finding a profitable market by the effect of some absurd tariff regu
lation or other; but notwithstanding these infrequent instances the price
of grain steadily appreciates, whereas it is far otherwise with money; it is
not a useful or consumable commodity. But to proceed : the next sen
tence is rather paradoxical, it is as follows: “ B ut to cheapen money
as currency, without increasing it as capital, to compensate the depre
ciation and to supply the export demand which that depreciation cre
ates is quite another th in g ; that should be restrained as rigidly as
counterfeiting; for it amounts to the same thing in its effects upon
the wealth of the nation.” How can the addition of any commodity
be an increase of capital if its exchangeable value depreciates in the ratio
of its addition i This admission is fatal to the hypothesis that gold is
capital. N o addition can be made to wealth, or value, by an increase
of currency. I t is true that Mill, as well as Smith, is blind and inconsis
tent upon this point. H e believes that a country exporting gold from an
excess of money, obtains value in re tu rn ; but this is only the case in a
country that produces gold, as they seldom export any otjier produce but
for which they have also peculiar facilities of raising. But let us hear
what Mr. Mill says upon the point at issue, (page 299).
“ It is to be remarked that this ratio would be precisely that in which
the quantity of money had been increased. If the whole money in circula
tion was doubled prices would be doubled- If it was only increased onefourth, prices would rise one-fourth. There would be one fourth more
money, all of which would be used to purchase goods of some description
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Even if some prices were raised more and others less, the average would
be one-fourth. This is a necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth
more money would have been given for the same quantity of goods.”
According to this, nothing can be obtained by an increase of money—
it is an evil and a tax. Mr. Carroll is very much against an increase of
currency in contradistinction to money, but I think it preposterous that
the world should be taxed to humor the silly conceit that money is
wealth.
I have no issue with Mr. Carroll upon the subject of banking, he is
welcome to fight it as hard as he can, and I think the community are*
*
186
M ON EY O R C U R R E N C Y .
[September,
much indebted to him for the many clear and forcible exposures be has
given to it; though, I confess, that I can see no difference in principle
between the English, French or American systems, their operations all
tend to increase money, and they differ only in unimportant details.
The banks of the United States are enabled through the fixed standard
of value to add to their profits or capital every year the proportionate
amount of the increase of the currency of the world which is constantly
taking place; and they could do this legitimately, if managed with pru
dence, under a system of specie payments ; therefore, there can be no
reason why it should not be done under present circumstances; and it
seems to follow, as a matter of course, that the banks and Government of
the United States will never return to specie payments without an absolute
reduction of the currency.
After quoting a short paragraph from De Quincy, apparently intended
to stow that there is resident in each and every commodity some myste
rious force which induces it to be exchanged for some other commodity
regardless of the principle of supply and demand. Mr. Carroll proceeds
as follows:— “ It is by this law of equivalents, this isodynamic, or
equal force and intensity of value, tending to an equilibrium constantly
but never resting, that money moves from place to place, and that every
fraction of capital is attracted by and to every other fraction of capital
throughout the commercial world.”
It seems somewhat difficult to understand this specious proposition—
“ this law of equivalents, or equal force and intensity of value.” Nothing,
however, is plainer than the rule, supply and demand being equal, that a
commodity, being the product of a given amount of labor, will always
exchange for another commodity being the product of a similar quantity ;
but monej is not naturally an equivalent for any commodity as money,
it being neither wealth nor capital, but representave only. Nobody wants
it for itself, but merely to purchase something else, or to pay for some
other commodity already consumed. It is only when gold and silver shall
cease to be money that they will be in a condition to be bartered
or exchanged against other commodities possessing an equivalent amount
of value or labor. U ntil then, a great part of their assumed value is
fictitious and of the same nature as money of paper. It is true that the
laws and customs of the world have made a certain weight of the precious
metals equivalent to a certain amount of labor, although it may not have
cost one-fourth of it. The arrangement is just of the same nature, and
nearly as artificial, as making a greenback a legal tender for debts and
tax es; excepting that gold cannot be quite produced in unlimited
quantities. A greenback is much cheaper and more convenient to the
community, but because we have not sufficient confidence in the wisdom
1868]
M O N ET O R C C R R E N C T .
187
and honesty of the government, we give the banks and the producers of
the precious metals the opportunity to rob us of the full amount of that
constant addition to the currency which we have just noted. And whether
we altar or abolish the system or not, fidelity to science demands that we
should expose our error, notwithstanding it may have the sanction oftimekonored names.
Money, then, is not an international equivalent, as the exports or imports
of a country must always be balanced by an equal amount of labor exclu
sive of money, exactly as if no money existed. Gold and silver are
merely surplus commodities, purchased at a monopoly price through the
fiction of a standard value, and circulated gratis from those countries that
are unfortunate enough either to import them direct from the mines or to
produce them in sufficient quantities to increase price, having at the same
time a large preponderance of other commodities to export.
If the principles of political economy laid down by all standard writers
be true, there can be no necessary demand for money beyond the amount
sufficient to keep the prices of other commodities steady and uniform. If
it increases beyond that rate it must cheapen from over-supply. This, all
parties admit, though Smith and Mill both assume that this incident
would shortly react upon the interest of the producer and force him to
cease his production. But they seem to forget that the markets of the
of the whole world would have to be glutted before that period arrived ;
and therefore a vast amount of injury would accrue to some particular
nations in the mean time. If Congress were to repeal the law which
designates the amount of gold to be contained in a dollar, no one would
be injured, but gold would be no longer imported at Mew York from
California to be sent to other countries, it must take a less circuitous route.
B ut suppose all countries should become wise and abolish their standard
of value. Each country must then import all the gold she might require
directly from the mines for her own purposes ; but currency would
hardly be one of them, at least for some time to come. That expense
would be saved to the world in future whether at present it be borne
equally or n o t ; and gold would cease to be required in future to balance
the exchanges between nation and nation.
Mill seems to differ with us, however, upon this subject of the demand
for money. H e says (page 298) “ The demand for money differs from
the demand for other things, in this, that it is limited only by the means
of the purchaser. The demand for other things is for so much and no
more, but there is always a demand for as much money as can begot.”
How it seems to me that these two demands must always be equal, the
one precisely balancing the other. It perhaps might be admissible to
assume that the desires of man are insatiable; but we are speaking of the
188
M O N E T O B C U R R K N C r.
[ September,
principles of a science which are said to check and balance each other.
No doubt all traders having commodities to sell would like to dispose of
them, at least as early as their neighbors, and would endeavor to do so, if
they could obtain the cost, and the profit, upon their goods; but at this
point their demaud ceases. It is not an affectual demand for money ; but
only a desire for profit. Therefore an increased quantity of money could
never get into circulation from such a demand, unless artificially created,
and loaned for the purpose of speculation. And yet California gets rid of
her money, and gets value in return, and would do the same thing if she
produced three times as much ; as she could pay her debts with it, as she
does at present in any country in the world. And she may, notwithstand
ing, export a few millions worth of agricultural produce, for which she
may have peculiar facilities of production. B ut her trade will probably
be fitful, and chiefly with neighboring countries similarly circumstanced
with herself. It is possible, also, that she may produce, if she has cheap
labor, the coarsest kinds of clothing for domestic use, but beyond this she
will hardly progress while the production of gold is profitable.
A bank currency no doubt would be an evil to California, as it. has been
to all other countries where it has been used ; but it could not perma
nently increase prices even in California, nor lower the rate of interest. I t
is not necessary, however, that California should be troubled with such a
currency, any more than with the credit system which has been built upon
it. All honest people, if they were intelligent, would vote for the abo
lition of bank currency, as well as the credit system, and all other modes
of unduly increasing money. M r. Carroll talks of the law of equivalents,
but no such thing exists, nor can exist, except by accident, under the pres
ent system of money and banking. And it is of no use splitting hairs
upon the subject of notes, or bills on time, being money, or merely secu
rities for money, as nothing can possibly be gained by it. Mr. Carroll is
mistaken, however, Mr. Mill agrees with him, upon the very point upon
which he seems to think they differ. Let us quote (page 314) :
“ A bill of exchange, when merely discounted and kept in the portfolio
of the discounter until it falls due, does not perform the functions of
money, but is itself bought and sold for money. It is no more currency
than the public funds or any other securities.” Mr. Carroll expresses him.
self to the following effect upon the same point.
“ The effect of selling such bills in market is to convey the equitable
ownership of so much of his goods or capital; it is to demand money or
currency, and so far to appreciate general prices.
Now to me, these two ideas seem to be equivalent to each other, or
rather they appear to be the same, though Mr. Mill does not carry it out
to the same extent. It is not important, however, what relation any par
1868]
M ON ET OB CURRENCY.
189
ticular kind of bill or note, manipulated in a particular manner, bears to
the currency, as all bills given for goods under a regular system of credit,
will be sure to create others long before the goods are consumed ; there
fore, if any of them should be dishonored, the equitable ownership of the
goods, which might have been conveyed half a dozen times, might not
prove very good security in the end, and perhaps no security at all. But
what is the use of following out these fanciful distinctions 2 Suppose we
admit with Mr. Mill at once, “ That bank notes, bills, as cheques, as such,
do not act on prices at all; but what does act on prices is credit, in what
ever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any transferable instruments
capable of passing into circulation or not.”
Here we have the whole matter in a nutshell. Whatever accelerates
consumption, without demanding in return an equivalent production, must
increase price, by altering the relative quantity of commodities to money
or currency; operating exactly, upon the same principle, as an undue
increase of money.
No doubt the whole credit 'or banking system ought to be abolished
without delay, but the world will not he very easily pursuaded to abolish
paper money. But if the subject should ever be really understood, it will
abolish banks and banking, as there is no real necessity for such institu
tions as at present conducted. Banks of deposit for security and conven
ience merely, and not for the loaning of money, would be useful, and,
therefore, admissible under strict regulations.
An inconvertible government currency, always kept at par with the
currencies of other countries, would be infinitely preferable to the present
system of banking and bank paper. The undue increase of money, and
the credit system engendered by it, creates all kinds of uncertainty and
fraud, and all kinds of commercial immorality, speculation and stockjobbing
and the thousand social evils which grow out of it, and cannot be abated
without the total destruction of this rotten foundation.
A government currency would benefit the whole people, while this sys
tem of fraud and wickedness is for the benefit only of a class of private
individuals. Therefore it ought to be abolished without delay—the sub
ject taking precedence of all others in the mind and action of the states
man as the most important and effective movement towards the much
needed social reform. In fact, without it all other efforts at moralization
must fail.
B ic h a r d S u lley .
190
the
new
w ar
ruhors
fro m
Eu r o
pe
.
[September,
THE NEW WAR RUMORS FROM EUROPE.
One clear and luminous fact emerges from the cloud of war rumors
which once more covers the surface of things political in Europe. This
is the immense increase of importance which economical questions have
gained over dynastic and political questions in the cabinets of Western
Europe during the last ten years. It is quite possible that this fact
may not avail to prevent an absolute shock of war on the Continent;
but it is quite certain also that thanks to this fact, or rather to' the influ
ences which it shows us to be at work in the bosom of the European
world, the shock of war if it comes will be greatly circumscribed in its
sphere, and curtailed in its duration. Let us make this plain, for to do
so, will be to render our readers a better service than we can do them
by entering upon general speculations as to the truth or the falsehood of
the fears and hopes with which the Atlantic Cable has been alternately
charged during the last month.
The attention of diplomats, statesmen and the press in Europe has
during this last fortnight been particularly fixed upon the relations of
Belgium to the two great powers—France and Prussia—whose duel for
the control of the Continent, all the world is now watching with an
uneasy apprehension, lest at any moment the combatants may exchange
the pen for the sword, and the protocols of prime ministers for the fieldbatteries of marshals. Placed, like what the railway men call “ a buffer,”
between the frontiers of France and those of Prussia, Belgium occupies a
political position not less compromising than her geographical position.
She is in no received sense of the word a “ nationality.” H er people
are neither sprung from one race, nor do they speak a common lan
guage ; nor are they united by the ties and the associations of a long
cemented political unity. Although nearly twice as populous as Swit
zerland, Belgium cannot De pretended to be nearly so strong and wellestablished a political fact in the European family as is the Helvetic
Republic. For the Swiss, though widely separated from one another by
blood and by religion, made up of Catholics in one canton and of P ro
testants in another, here speaking an antique dialect of the Italian, and
there a modern patois of the German, Franks in Geneva and Eomansch
in the Tessin, are still essentially and predominently Swiss. As Swiss
they have been banded together in war and peace for centuries, as Swiss
they have conquered and kept a national independence which stands
them in the stead of national greatness. Nothing like this can be said of
the Belgians. The only concentrated and vigorous nationality which
can be said to exist within the Kingdom of Leopold II., the Flemish, has
nothing in common with the very modern history of the actual Belgium,
1868]
T H E N E W W A R R U M O RS FR O M E U R O P E .
Ill
and overlaps the frontiers of France even more completely than the
Basque nationality of Northeastern Spain overlaps the Pyrenees, or than
the Savoyard nationality of Northwestern Italy overlaps the Alps.
Belgium was called into existence a little less than forty years ago,
partly by the resistance of the Flemish Catholics to the union with
Protestant Holland, which had been forced upon them by the Great
Powers at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and partly by the co opera
tion of France, which had her own objections to the perpetuation of a
really powerful State on her Northeastern frontiers. England also, for
reasons of her own, in 1839, joined in a guarantee of the independence
of Belgium, and until within the last decade, it has been a recognized
fact in European politics that Belgium must be considered, for all prac
tical purposes, as an outwork of British power and British policy on
the Continent.
The events of the last two years, which have so gravely modified the
relations of Prussia with France have now brought forward the annex
ation of Belgium by the French Empire as one of the by no means
remote possibilities of the existing situation ; and the discussions excited
by the mere suggestion of so important a consummation have thrown into
a strong light the great change which has been wrought by recent eco
nomical influences in the relations of Belgium with France and with
England, and of those two great powers with each other. While France
maintained her protective policy, Belgium bore to the trade of Great
Britain, with the central part of the European Continent, a relation not
unlike that borne by Portugal to the trade of Great Biitain with the
Peninsula. Belgium, it is true, had a protective tariff of her own, and
in this respect she cannot be exactly compared with Portugal, which for
years had practically been a coast line of British “ tree ports” on the
South Atlantic. But the Belgian tariff was far less restrictive than the
French ; and it was the commercial policy of Belgium on the one hand
to make herself a grand depot of contraband trade with France, and of
imitations of the French manufactures, and on the other hand, to secure
the import trade of Great Britain by a partial discrimination in favor of
British products. While this state of affairs continued England was the
necessary friend, ally and defender of Belgian independence. Lord Pal
merston always made the maintenance of Belgium one of the cardinal
points of his European system ; and it was a maxim of British politics
that France must never on any account be permitted to make herself mis
tress of the formidable harbor and fortress of Antwerp.
The customs-reform inaugurated between England and the Continent
by the co operation of the Emperor Napoleon with Cobden, Chevalier,
and other enlightened economists in England and France, has, however,
192
the
sew
w ar
r t jm o r s
fro m
Eu r o
pe
.
[September,
put an end to this state of affairs. In 1865 the Belgian government, act.
ing in harmony with England and with France, systematized the Belgian
tariff, and recast its whole code of customs duty. All differential duties
were suppressed, a general tax of ten per cent imposed on manufactured
goods and raw materials, with the exception of iron, and castings of iron
admitted free of duty.
The result of these economical changes in the legislation of the three
countries has been to make the union of Belgium with France desirable
rather than undesirable to England. Such an union would at once
increase the already enormous trade of Great Britain, both with France
and Belgium. How greatly it would develop what would then become
the internal trade of Belgium united with France, we may judge, in a
measure, from the simple fact that the trade of independent Belgium
with France, which, in the six years between 1856 and 1862 had increased
only from 200,000,000 francs to 321,000,000 francs, rose in a single
year after the commercial revision of 1865 from 350,000,000 francs to
442,000,000 francs. But the point on w'hich we desire to fix the reader’s
atttention to-day is not so much the probable advantages to Belgium, to
France or to Great Britain of a union between the Belgian monarchy and
the French empire as the instructive and striking fact that by simply
opening the door of trade between England and France and Belgium, the
Em peror Napoleon has in three year’s time undone the political work of
a generation, and made possible at least without the firing of a French
or British gun in anger, that which even ten years ago could not have
been attempted without involving France and Great Britain in a tremend
ous war. The opposition which a project of annexation between France
and Belgium would now encounter will come not from England, but from
Prussia and from a party in Belgium itself. The reigning sovereign of
Belgium is a member of the House of Orleans. Brussels, which is, in
fact, a kind of little Paris, has throughout the whole period of the empire,
been the refuge of discontented or exiled Frenchmen, who have there
been able to print and to say the things and the books suppressed by the
police of Napoleon in the French capital. A large and respectable
party of Belgians, too, regard with extreme dislike the existing regime in
France, and would be very averse to the swamping of the Belgian P ar
liament in the Corps Legislatif of Imperial France. Prussia, too, will
do her best to persuade Belgium that it will be better to see Holland
absorbed by the N orth German Em pire, and to put herself under the
protection of that empire against France, than to join with France in
preventing the extension of the N orth German Em pire by Holland to
the N orth Sea.
These influences and others of less weight and power w'ill, no doubt,
conspire to adjourn the absorption of Belgium by France, or to make
1868]
T H E GOLD P R E M IU M .
193
that absorption the price of a severe continental war. On this head
speculation may indulge itself liberally. But as it is demonstrably cer
tain that the most powerful bulwark of Belgian independence has already
been destroyed by the pacific operation of great commercial laws, so we
may be perm itted to believe and to hope that by the operation of the
same laws in other regions of Europe, whatever convulsions may attend
the completion of the new orcler of things abroad will be notably mitiga
ted and robbed of their power for working protracted evil.
THE GOLD PREMIUM.
The wide fluctuations of late in the gold premium, and the possibility
that the price may settle at a higher point than has ruled during the
past year gives rise to much uneasiness amongst those directly con
nected with foreign trade. The illusion which for a while existed, that
the gold premium was to decline gradually until it reached par, and
then the banks and government would resume specie payment without
any effort, has quite passed away. O f course there never was any founda.
tion whatever for such an expectation. The idea would never have had
sufficient buoyancy to float itself had it not been for the vitality given it
by the low rate (25 per cent) which obtained for some time in 1866.
Some argued that if it had fallen to such a point why should it not go
fu rth er; failing to realize that the decline was a temporary one induced
by temporary causes. Gold is now merchandize. Its price within
certain limits is the result of supply and demand. A free sale of bonds
in Europe during 1866, together with large shipments of cotton at high
prices, furnished all the exchange the market required. Hence, there
being but little demand for gold except for duties, the Treasury, by
more than supplying that demand, established temporarily a low r;.te
for it. But it is not our object at present to suggest what point gold s
to reach hereafter, or whether even the price now ruling will be ma n
tained, but simply to enquire whether (the actual depreciation of ihe
currency remaining the same) a further advance in the gold premium will
be advantageous or otherwise to the general interests of the country.
The immediate effects of such an advance are self evident. Take our
greatest branch of production, agriculture. W e will suppose for the
sake of simplicity, that two commodities represent the agricultural inter
ests of the country, Cotton and W heat, for as these are affected, so will
the value of all exportable products be determined. If, then, gold goes
up to 100 per cent premium, and cotton is worth in New Orleans, in
gold, 16 cents to ship to Liverpool, the planter will get 32 cents minus
commissions, &c. If, on the other hand, the premium is but 50 per cent
3
194
T H E G OLD P R E M IU M .
[September,
the cotton will sell for 24 cents in currency, and will realize but about
three-fourths as much as if the gold were at 100. Very clearly (all
other things remaining stationary), it is greatly for the planters’ interest
that the premium be advanced as much as possible, since the higher it
goes the more he gets of what he is obliged to accept as money.
The same will be true of the western farmer. If his wheat is worth 81
50 in gold at New York for export (and whatever it is worth for that
purpose will determine its price), and the gold premium is 100, he will
get 83 00 per bushel for his wheat in currency; while if the premium is
but 50 per cent he will receive but 82 25. The farmer, then, will desire
that the premium should be very high—because the higher it is the
richer he is in greenbacks, unless the expenses of production correspond
ingly increase.
The position of the wool grower is unlike that of the producers of
cotton or grain. As there is no surplus of wool that must necessarily
be exported, the currency price of it will not be directly raised by the
advance of gold premium, as in the case of cotton and breadstuffs, but so
far as wool is protected by the tariff, the protection will increase as the
premium on gold rises. F o r example, if the duties are 20 per cent in
gold, and the premium on gold 50, the protection is equal to 30 per cent
in currency ; but, should the gold advance to 100, the protection is 40 per
cent, and so far as foreign competition is concerned, the wool grower
may demand a higher price than he otherwise could; but, on the other
hand, if he would purchase foreign stock or raw material, the price of it
will of course be enhanced by the rise of gold.
Another great national interest is that of the cotton manufacturers,
who are also situated quite differently from those engaged in agriculture;
for, as the premium on gold advances, so the currency price of their raw
m aterial rises, as we have just seen, while at the same time the protection
afforded by tariff duties is increased. But the export trade in manufac
tured cottons having been annihilated by the depreciated currency of the
country, the manufacturer cannot gain in the price of his commodities
from the rise of the gold premium as the planter does upon his cotton.
Furthermore, if his goods are of such a character that the protection, when
the premium on gold is 50 per cent, is sufficient to prevent foreign com
petition, then the rise of the premium above that point is of no advant
age to him, but, on the contrary, he will suffer by the enhanced prices
of foreign articles he may be obliged to consume.
The remaining interest we shall notice is that of labor. How does a
rise in the gold premium affect wages and salaries % They will rise,
but not instantaneously, nor to an equal extent with the general rise of
those commodities that are particularly influenced by the price of gold.
1868]
T H E GOLD P R E M IU M .
105
The events of the last five years have demonstrated in a remarkable
manner the effects upon wages of a general rise of prices occasioned by
a depreciation of the currency. Probably at no time, nor in any part of
the world, has the result of a false standard of value upon prices and
wages been so fully exhibited as in the United States within the last
five y ears; and the evidence is most conclusive that wages neither rise as
soon, noi as high, as the commodities which the laborer consumes. It
has been satisfactorily ascertained that the rise of wages, take all kinds
of labor and services together, is but about half as much as that of com
modities. W e cannot go into the reasons for this, but the fact is not
disputed that wages do not rise in proportion to the rise of those things
which labor creates, when the rise is occasioned by an expanded currency.
If this be true, then the laboring class m ust lose lay the advancing premium
on gold, so far as that causes a temporary rise of prices.
Prom this brief and necessarily imperfect sketch of the direct effects
o f a rise in the gold premium, it is quite apparent that there is a wide
difference in its influence upon different classes—no two being affected in
precisely the same manner, or to the same ex ten t; and it would also ap
pear on a close examination that what is gained by a particular interest
in one direction, is lost in another; that while the farmer and planter
gain by a rise of prices occasioned by an advance in gold, they lose this
advantage in the additional price they pay for whatever they consume,
and in the rise in wages. The same is true of every other interest, except
labor, in regard to which there is this distinction, that while other inter
ests may gain more than they lose, labor must lose more than it can gain ;
and therefore it is that upon the laboring classes falls mainly the loss
which the country suffers from a defective standard of value. A little
reflection upon the gains and losses to which we have referred, is sufficient
to convince any intelligent mind, that under an irredeemable and depre
ciated currency the whole trade and industry of the country is in a per.
turbed and unnatural condition; the fluctuations in gold so affecting
values that chance reigns instead of law, chaos instead of order.
B ut there is a point below which it is not desirable (while the currency
remains the same) that the gold premium should fall; for the premium
should always be so high as to represent as fairly as possible the real
depreciation o f the existing currency. The value of gold as measured
by the currency, should be the same as the value of commodities in
general when measured by the same standard. Gold should be no
cheaper than other articles of commerce, for if so the country will be
drained of it. That is the process that has been going on in the United
States for the last three years. The fact that we have a large amount of
National bonds, and that Europeans are willing to buy them at the low
196
P A C IF IC
R A ILR O A D O F M ISS O U R I.
[September,
rate, (about '70 cents on the dollar) at which they have been selling, has
enabled us in the past to pay our increasing foreign balances with them.
This has temporarily checked, or, we should say, diminished the outflow
of gold. But with about fifty millions of gold interest to pay in the
future, we should most fear any influences used to keep down the price
making gold cheaper than other commodities. A depreciated currency
causes of itself evil enough, as we all too well know -T but a depreciated
currency continually doctored by legislation, and restrained in its move
ments by official interference, is far more injuiious in its final results.
W e may be able to depress the price of gold for a time, or in other words
cheapen it, while we thus increase our imports and decrease the currency
value of every exportable article ; but like a rising river the natural flow
of which has been stayed by artificial means, when it once breaks away
from its bonds, the injurious results will only be the more widespread
and complete.
There is but one conclusion we will draw in view of these facts, and
that is that the general interests of the country require a speedy return
to a specie basis. How long can we submit to the drain of gold and
bonds which for the past few years has been going on 1 If our trade
balance in the past has been against us so that we have been compelled
to ship a large amount of government securities to settle it, how will it
stand when this bond movement stops, and with our foreign interest
account added1?
PACIFIC RAILROAD OF MISSOURI.
The Pacific Railroad of Missouri extends from St. Louis directly
west to the Kansas line, 283 miles, where it forms a close connection
with the Union Pacific (E . Div.) Railroad, already completed to Coyote,
■856 miles beyond that point, making the whole distance from the
Mississippi River to the present western term inus of the joint lines,
369 miles. It also connects at Kansas City with the Missouri River
Railroad, extending thence to Leavenworth, 33 miles, and operated
under lease by the Pacific Company.
This company is one of the great Land-Grant and State-Aid corpo
rations of Missouri. It was chartered February 12, 1849, and organ
ized January 30, 1850. In June of the latter year the surveys for the
projected line were commenced, and Ju ly 4, 1851, the formal breaking
of ground took place. Construction was carried on with frequent
interruptions through the following fifteen years, and was completed
only in October, 1865, when the whole line was brought into opera
tion. The details of operations through the intermediate years are
1868]
P A C IF IC
R A IL R O A D
197
O F M IS S O U R I.
given in an article published in the C h r o k i c l e of October 27, 1866.
W e refer to this article also for other valuable statistics not repeated
in our present number.
The Southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad, constructed chiefly on
credit and State aid, and which formerly belonged to this company, has
been sold to a new organization, and will form the first link in the pro
jected Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. In the following review its
accounts have been separated from those of the present Pacific Company.
The equipment of the Pacific Railroad is now sufficient for the
business transacted on it. The number of engines placed on the road
since the commencement of operations has been 63. On the 1st March,
1868, there were on the line 52, 5 of the 63 having been condemned,
and 6 turned over to the Southwest branch. A t the same date the
company had 41 passenger, 6 mail, 17 baggage and express, 30 caboose,
270 box, 224 flat, 175 stock, and 7 other ears; also 25 stationary engines
for pumping water. The sleeping car company had 4 cars on the road,
and the St. Louis and Pacific Express freight line 50 box ears.
The list of engines and ears owned and in use by the company on
the first of March, 1864-68, both inclusive, was as follows:
;iS64
•Locom otives.................................. ........................
P a s s e n g e r T ra in C ara—
P a s s e n g e r ...................... *....................................
M ail. ..................................................................
B aggage a n d e x p r e s s ......................................
F r e ig h t T r - i n C a rs —
C a b o o s e ................................................................
B o x ................ _.....................................................
F i t ...................................... .................................
S to c k ......................................................................
S e rv ic e c a r s ............................................................
1865.
42
1866.
48
1867.
47
26
6
8
31
41
7
7
41
6
17
20
184
218
98
4
23
239
211
133
15
29
269
221
144
7
30
270
224
175
7
17
1868.
52
The mileage made by engines in the same five years, with the total
cost and ccst per mile for repairs, &c., is shown in the following exhibit:
1864.
E n g in e m ile a g e .................... .........................................
C o s t o f re p a irs , & e ..........................................$ . . . .
C o s t of r e p ’r s , e tc ., p e r m ........................ .................
1865.
698,977
$23-2,395
33% c.
1866,
831,433
$348,942
43c.
1867.
1.199,660
$464,829
3844c.
1868.
1 405,886
$528,434
3714c.
These figures, meagre as they are, will serve to explain in some
measure the general operating expenses given in the following para
graph.
The gross earnings from operations in the years ending with F eb
ruary, 1864—1868, both inclusive, have been as exhibited in the fol
lowing comparative statem en t:
1664.
$
P a s s e n g e r e a rn in g s .............................. 313,790 41
F r e ig h t e a rn in g s ...................................... 560,"44 59
M ail e a rn in g s ............................................ 23.350 00
R e n t s ................................................... ---•
3,860 95
1865.
$
453,880 41
609,272 14
30,487 50
5,127 64
1666.
1867.
1668.
$
$
$
831,24511 1,166,318 31 1,264,398 01
924 075 86 1,465,373 25 1,694,233 38
37,996 25
44,183 28
45,049 92
1.039 0 0
...................................
T o ta l g ro s s e a rn in g s .............................. 906,745 95 1,097,967 69 1,794,356 22 2,675,674 84 3,003,681 31
O p e ra tin g e x p e n s e s ................................ 546,161 99 886,483 23 1,393,530 06 1,956,644 84 2,030,626 38
S e t t r e v e n u e .............................................. 360,583 96
211,484 46
400,826 14
719,230 00
973,054 93
108
P A C IF IC
R A IL R O A D O F M IS S O U R I.
[,September,
The gross earnings were divided proportionately as follows:
O p e ra tin g e x p ’s, p .c .............. ..................
N e tt r tv e s u e , p . c . . . ..............................
60.23
39 97
80.74
19 26
77.66
22.34
7S.10
26.90
67.61
32.39
The increase of gross earnings, operating expenses and nett revenue
yearly, over each preceding years, is shown in the annexed statem ent:
1SG4
over
1863.
G ro ss ra r n in g s , o e r c e n t ........................
O p e ra tin g e x p e n s e s , p* c e n t .......... . . . ........
N e t t re v e n u e , p e r c e n t ..........................
N e tt re v e n u e d e c re a s e d ..........................
20.69
1865
over
1864.
21.09
62 31
1866
over
1S65.
63.42
57 19
89.05
1867
over
1866.
49.13
40.41
79 44
1868
over
1867.
12.25
3.78
35 29
41.34
The following shows the average length (miles) of road operated in
each of the above years, and the gross earnings, operating expenses and
net revenue per m ile :
1S63-4.
1864-5.
1865-6.
1886-7.
1867-8.
M ile s o f r o a d o p e r a t e d ......... .............. .. ..............
194
214
252
283
283
G ro ss e a rn in g s , p e r m i le ........................................ $4,673 95 $5,130 69 $7,120 46 $9,455 38 $10,613 71
O p e ra tin g e x p e n se s , p e r m i l e .................. . . . . 2,815 26 4,142 44 5,529 88 6,913 94 7,175 36
N e tt re v e n u e , p e r m i le ............................................ 1,858 69
988 25 1,590 57 2,541 44 4,438 33
The whole line from St. Louis to Kansas City (283 miles) was brought
into operation October 2, 1865. F o r the year ending February 29,
1866, the gross earnings per mile were $7,100 46, and in the year end
ing February 29, 1868, they were $10,613 71, an increase of $3,493 25,
or 49'07 per cent. The operating expenses in the latter year were
greater than the gross earnings of the former year. In the meanwhile
the nett revenue rose from $1,590 57 per mile to $3,438 35, an increase
of $1,847 78, or 116 per cent. The decrease in operating expenses is*
rem arkable: in 1864 5 they were 80'74 percent of gross earnings, and
in 1867-8 67.61 per cent, a decrease equivalent to 16*26 per cent.
These facts are encouraging ; they show not only that the business of
the line is rapidly increasing, but also that it has been managed with an
intelligent economy that augurs well for the future of the enterprise.
One great drawback has been experienced in the fact that the guage
of the road is different from that ot the lines connecting at either termi
nus. The guage of the Pacific (Mo.) Railroad is 5 feet 6 inches, while
the guage of the Illinois lines, and also of the Union Pacific (E. D.)
Railroad is 4 feet 8£ inches. To remedy this anomaly and to secure
more complete connections the company have decided to change the
guage of their road to that of the neighboring roads. This will secure a
great uniform line of roads from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Balti
more, &c., to the furthest west. Improvements in the way of auxiliary
lines will be adopted.
The Osage Valley and Southern Kansas Rail
road, nearly completed from Boonville to Tipton is the pioneer. Its
ultim ate destination is F o rt Scott in Kansas. The Pacific Company
have taken a thirty years’ lease of this road, and will probably open
the first section early in September,
1868]
R A IL R O A D
199
STOCKS A N D E A R N IN G S
In order to show the progress of the Pacific (Mo.) Railroad ab initio
we compile from the record the following statement of the mileage
operated, and the earnings thereon yearly, since the opening of the first
section in December, 1852 :
Years.
1852 (8 days)............ 1853 (year).................
Miles.
.. .
71
1855-56...................... .. . 81
1S56-57......................
1857-58 .....................
1858-59......................
1859-60..................... ... 165X
Earnings.
$108 15
41,323 29
97,178 39
330,222 34
426,285 97
668,346 59
674,248 95
648,600 00
Years.
Miles.
1810-61..............
1861-62..............
1862 63..............
1863-64..............
1864-65..............
1865-66..............
1866-67.............. .............. 283
1867-68 ............
EarniDgs.
$683,644 28
457,183 69
679,956 06
906,745 95
1,097,967 69
1,791,356 22
2,675,874 84
3,003,681 31
The financial condition of the company, March 1, 1864-68, yearly,
is shown in the following exhibit, being abstracts from the general bal
ance sheets made up at d a te :
1S64.
n
C a p ita l s to c k ............................................................ 3,493,715
S ta te lo a n .. .............................................................7,090,000
L a n d g r a n t sale s a n d r e n t s ................................
109,188
T r a n s p o rta tio n r e c e ip ts ...................................... 5,567,957
M ortgage c o n s tru c tio n b ’d s ................................................
S t. L o u is c o u n ty b o n d s ........................................................
R e a l e s ta te (land) b o n d s ......................................................
B ills p a y a b le ............................................................
48,144
A c c o u n ts a u d ite d ................
75,908
1865.
$
1S66.
<$
1867.
$■
1868.
$
3,497,085 3,581,598 3,009,115 3,614,515
7,000,000 7,000,000 7,000,000 7,000,000
112,432
131,295
200,358 219,300
0,645,300 8,401,010 11,092,480 13,963,585
1,314,000 1,500,000 1,500,0C0 1,500,000
12,350
700,000
700,000
700,000
—
___
149,000
241,909
911,688 1,100,328
649,555
408,003
238,754
255,807
156,726
T o t a l .................................................................-.16,294,845 19,229,380 22,524,347 25,458,089 27,952,682
Against which aggregates are charged the following, viz.:
C o n s tr u c t io n .......... ........................... ................ ... 8,507,993
7fi1 447
M isso u ri R iv e r R a ilro a d ................
Office e x p e n s e s ..................................
C o n tin g e n c ie s .......................... ..
73,026
I n t e r e s t a c c o u n t................................
D is c o u n t o n c o n s tr u c tio n ,........
& c., b o n d s .................................. .
C o m m issio n o n p u rc h a s e s ..........
I n te r e s t , d is c ’ts & c o m m is............
L a n d g ra m e x p e n s e s ....................
T ra n s p o rta tio n e x p e n s e s * ............
. . . 4,616,148
B a lan ce, M arch 1 ..............................
10,115,728 11,233,133 11,413,794 11,479,635
1 1 0 1 0 7 0 1 K04 01K 9 OIQ 074 9. IQ* five
6,511
10,901
151,259
133,635
173,989
194,473
75,062
76,110
75,960
80,553
750,241
953,297 1,176,259 1,388,35S
8,860
8,860
8,860
8,865
17,375
17,375
17,375
17,373
1,141,078 1,238,933 1,238,933 1,23*,930
5,362
6,044
6,834
7,243
5 502,631 6,896.161 8,852,806 10,883,052
377,432
439,156
432,089
447,297
T o t a l ................................................................ 16,294,845 19,229,380 22,524,347 25,458,089 27,952,682
RAILROAD STOCKS AND EARNINGS.
W e have repeatedly directed attention to certain considerations con
nected with the management of our railroads, calculated to affect inju
riously the value of their stocks for investment. The now unsettled
condition of the stock market, and the fall m the prices of leading shares,
comes in as a direct confirmation of our views. F o r several months
past, the stock m arket has been in a “ cliqued” condition. The major
* I n c lu d in g $1,-222,721 54 ch a rg e d a g a in s t tr a n s p o r ta tio n re c e ip ts fo r in te r e s t o n S ta te b o n d s
p r io r to J a n u a ry , 1S56.
SCO
r a il r o a d
sto ck s
and
e a r n in g s
.
[September,
portion of the stocks of the principal roads has been bought up by
combinations of capitalists, who, having secured the direction of the
companies’ affairs, conduct the management with a view to the inflation
of the value of the stocks. In some instances, the necessary expendi
tures for keeping the roads in condition have been severely curtailed,
so as to secure larger net earnings and pay increased dividends; and
in others, where a cash dividend has not been fairly earned, large
dividends in stock have been made, (said to represent money sunk in the
permanent improvement of the roads), the addition to the share capital
of the principal roads upon the New York Stock Exchange having
been fully 845,000,000 within the last fifteen months. By these means,
and by holding the prices ot stocks steady under the fluctuations of
the money market, the aim has been to establish a higher scale of prices
for stocks, and thereby enable the cliques to sell out at a profit. The
result of this policy is now beginning to appear. The public seem to
have understood the tactics, and have stood aloof from the stock market
with remarkable persistency, the transactions at the boards during
the summer months having been little over half what they were at
the same period of 1867, although the extreme ease of money has been
very favorable to speculation; and, judging from the very general
testimony of brokers, we should conclude that parties holding stocks
as an investment have unloaded, to a large extent, upon the combi
nations at the late high prices. These combinations having thus proved
a failure, the more conservative members of them are becoming wearied
of a fruitless effort to practice upon the public, and are said to be
throwing their stocks upon the market. The near approach of the usual
activity in money connected with crop movements, warns them that they
cannot hope to carry their burdens through the fall months without
embarrassment, and the more so because ihe banks have very prudently
declined to make time advances upon stocks, a course which they have
heretofore adopted with very ser.ous inconvenience to the commercial
interests of the country, but which they feel indisposed any further to
follow. The consequence of this realizing movement has been a consid
erable fall in the price of railroad shares generally, but in Erie and New
York Central especially. E rie has fallen from the late average price
of 70 to 4 4 J ; while New York Central has fallen about 10 per cent.
The decline in these stocks has been, to a certain extent, connected with
schemes for controlling E rie so as to run the road in opposition to the
Central Company. On W ednesday the E rie transfer books were closed,
about thirty days in advance of the usual period, with the purpose,
as is stated, of insuring the continuance in power of the present man
agement of the road, a majority of the stock standing registered in their
1868]
R A ILRO A D STOCKS AND E A R N IN G S .
201
names at [that d a te ; and it is now reported that the directors have
bought four lines of Sound steamers, and leased the Boston and Providence
Railroad, with a view to diverting eastern traffic from the New York
Central road, the funds for said object to be raised by the issue of
$6,000,000 more of convertible bonds. A t present we are not aware
whether these things are accomplished facts; but negotiations have
certainly been in progress to the effect stated. These developments are
but another illustration of the reckless management of our railroads, and
have materially aggravated the demoralization of the stock market.
The late improvement in the railroad earnings has doubtless laid a
basis for a proportionate increase of confidence in stocks, as a source
of investment, had the management been at all conservative or prudent.
But the public have so entirely lost confidence in the stability of stocks,
that they appear indisposed to take them, except at prices below what
may be considered a fair value, based upon earnings; and nothing but
a thorough reform of management can restore this lost confidence.
These remarks, we are glad to say, do not apply to all the roads. W e
think we have discovered a growing disposition in some boards to
separate themselves from all suspicion of using the property they hold
in trust for their own private ends. Legislation also can do much to
increase this improving tendency and check this evil wherever it exists.
W e have called the attention of our legislators frequently to this subject.
If every State would require every railroad corporation existing under
its laws to publish monthly a statement of its earnings and expenses,
and a more detailed account quarterly, directors would be robbed of
much of their present speculative power. Other remedies have been
suggested by us from time to time, and we have not space to repeat them
h e re ; but we think if the publication referred to is required, one long
step on the road to a thorough reform in management will have been
taken.
F rom the subjoined statement it will be seen that the gross earnings
of the principal roads for July exceed those of the same month of 1867
by about 9 per cen t; while for the first seven months of the year there
is an average gain of 10 per cent. There has been a slight increase
in the mileage of the roads, but not sufficient to affect this re su lt; the
average gross earnings per mile, for the seven months, being $5,311
against $4,891 in 1867, an increase of 10 per cent. It is to be presumed
that there has been also an increase of expenses; but probably not in
proportion to the gain in earnings, the cost of some materials of repair,
especially iron, having declined during the interim. The large amount
of grain to be moved over the roads the next six months is likely to
keep up this increased rate of earnings. The gross earnings of the
202
condition of the national banks .
[ September,
under-specified railroads for the month of July, in 1867 and 1868, and
for the first seven months of each year are exhibited in the subjoined
statem ent:
--------- July----------x
1867 AND 1868.
/---- Seven Months-----*
1867.
$400,116
354,244
880,324
274,800
210,134
525,242
106,594
313,021
312,879
365,156
234,633
537,381
309,591
58,262
1867.
$2,860,346
1,951,856
5,476,618
1,857,601
1,297,153
8,548,075
624,187
2,257,709
2,363,581
2,355,657
1,783,940
3,917,747
1,969,628
321,119
GROSS EARNINGS FOR JULY, AND FO R T H E FIRST SEVEN MONTHS OF
Railroads.
A tlantic and G reat W e s te rn __
Chicago and A lton.......................
Chicago and N o rth w estern .......
Chicago, Rock Island &. Pacific,
Cleveland and P ittsbn/g ..........
Illinois C e n tral...........................
M arietta and Cincinnati............
Michigan C e n tra l.......................
Michigan South. & North. In d ..
Milwaukee and S t.P au l..............
Ohio and M ississippi . .............
Pittsburg, F .t W. & Chicago__
Toledo, Wabash and W estern .
W estern U n io n ............................
1868.
$*41,266
405,617
1,091,466
329 800
229,973
576,458
108,413
321,013
301,500
423,200
194,455
571,834
283.833
59,762
T otal ........................................................................ $4,8S2,377 $5,238,590
1868.
$2,578,166
2,208,279
6,933,089
2,321,801
1,393.100
3,501,524
680,728
2,406,411
2,613,793
2,935,300
1,577,534
4,338,734
1,937,855
382,807
$32,585,217 $35,709,211
The following statement shows the gross earnings per mile of the same
roads during the first seven months of the two years :
GROSS EARNINGS P E R M IL E DURING FIR S T SEVEN MONTHS OF
Railroads.
A tlantic & Great W estern. ...
Chicago and A lto n...................
Chicago and N o rth w estern __
Chicago. Rock Isl. & Pacific...
Cleveland and P ittsb u rg .,....... .
Illinois C entral...........................
M arietta and Cincinnati..........
Michigan C e n tra l......................
Michigan South. & North. Ind.
Milwaukee and St. P aul..........
Ohio and M ississippi.............. .
Pittsburg, F t. W. & Chicago...
Toledo, Wabash and W estern
W estern U nion.........................
T o ta l....................................
,— M ile s — ,
1867.
1868.
507
507
2S0
280
1,152 1,152
452
410
229
229
708
703
251
251
285
285
524
524
827
827
340
340
468
468
521
521
180
180
6,682
6,724
1867
AND
r — E u rn in g s —,
1868.
1867.
$5,642
6,971
4,754
4,531
5,664
5,011
2,488
7,922
4,507
2,861
5,246
8.371
3,778
1,784
1868.
$5,0S5
7 886
6,019
4,916
6,083
4,945
2,712
7,922
4,984
3,549
4,637
9,271
3,719
2,127
/—D iffe r’e —x
In c r. D ec.
$557
$ ...
915
1,265
385
419
65
224
521
477
683
£09
900
59
343
$4,891
$5,311
$420
$ ...
CONDITION OF THE NATIONAL BANKS.
The July quarterly statement of the condition of the National banks,
published in our last number, presents some features to which the atten
tion of the banking interest needs to be directed, and the interesting and
elaborate table given below, furnished by the Comptroller of the Cur
rency, affords all the details necessary for making the examination. In
certain respects, the return is a satisfactory one; in others, it is not so.
T he deposits show a very large increase upon those of the same period of
last year, there being in all the banks of the country $575,644,604 of
individual deposits, against $587,882,949 for the same period of 1867.
This indicates a relaxed condition of business, and is so far an unhealthy
symptom. The generally low rates of interest are a natural result of this
plethora of idle funds, and simply means that at present business is not
sufficiently remunerative to tempt capital into employment. W hen legit
1868]
C O N D IT IO N O F T H E
203
N A T IO N A L B A N K S .
imate business, however, is least active, speculation is apt to be most so :
and the present condition of the loans aptly illustrates this rule. The Ioans
and discounts of the banks stood, on the first Monday of July, at the very
large total of $655,525,346, which is about $67,000,000 over the aggre
gate at the same period of 1867. Considering that the general business
of the country is unusually dull, none of this increase can be regarded as
due to an addition to the discounts, and it is, therefore, to be concluded
that the expansion is mainly upon demand loans, consisting chiefly of
advances upon stock collaterals. The amount of railroad stocks has been
increased during the year $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 by share dividends
or by other issues of new stock, and the prices of stocks are generally much
higher than a year ago, as will be seen from the following comparison of
prices of leading shares :
N e w Y o rk C e n t r a l......................
E r i e ..................................................
H u d so n R iv e r................................
M ic h ig a n S o u t h e r n ................
M ich ig an C e n t r a l ........................
N o r th w e s te r n ................................
Jane
28. ’67.
104%
66%
109%
78%
110%
42%
J u ly
3. ’68.
134%
70%
139
91%
119
75%
Ju n e
J u ly
28, ’67. 3, ’68.
N o rth w e s te rn p r e f ......................
65%
79%
R o c k I s l a n d .......................... . . .
95%
105%
F o r t W a y n e ..................................... 103% x .d l0 9 %
Illin o is C e n t r a l ............................... 121%
157%
T o ta l p r ic e s . . . . * ..................
898%
1,0S2%
It is thus seen that railroad shares ranged, at near the date of the
quarterly statement, about 20 per cent above the prices of a year previous ;
which, of course, called for a proportionate increase of advances upon this
class of securities. This is an expansion of loaning operations in a direc
tion least to be desired, inasmuch as it indicates a growth of speculation
rather than of legitimate business operations. The expansion implies a
certain degree of danger, when the trade of the country assumes more
activity; but it is the speculators rather than the banks that are threatened.
I t cannot be said that the loans and discounts of the banks are out of
reasonable proportion to either their capital or deposits. The capital and
deposits combined amount to $995,451,511, against $655,525,346 of
loans and disoounts; so that the loanable resources are 52 per cent in
excess of the advanoes actually made. In 1860 the capital and deposits
together aggregated $675,000,000, while the loans and discounts were
$692,000,000. So that the condition of the banks, in respect to loans, is
much more conservative now than eight years ago. There is, however,
this difference between the two periods ; the banks in 1860 made their
advances to a larger extent upon capital than at present, their capital
being $422,000,000, and deposits $253,000,000 ; while the capital of the
national banks now is $419,806,511, and the deposits $575,644,604. Or,
to present the difference in another aspect, in 1860 the capital was 62
per cent of the loans, and in 1868, 54 per cent; while the deposits were
in 1860, 86^-per cent of the loans, and in 1868, 88 per cent. Butalthough
the loans now are less upon capital and more upon deposits than in I860,
yet considering the very large amount of deposits, it can hardly be fairly
204
C O N D IT IO N O P T H E N A T IO N A L B A N K S .
[ September,
assumed that the loans are imprudently expanded. The very large amount
of deposits, as compared with eight years ago, very strikingly illustrates
the present comparative stagnancy of trade; and, at the same time, it sug
gests a ready explanation of the fact of the prices of securities being so
much higher than in former years.
But the Comptroller’s exhibit given below is particularly important as
showing the condition of the reserves of the banks, since these figures
give us light as to their stability. No subject is so important to the
people; and if they are once convinced that the financial machinery is
working more smoothly, more efficiently, and with more safety than any
other we are likely to have in its place, we shall soon hear far less in favor
of those unfortunate destructive measures which are urged before each
succeeding Congress. Fears have been expressed !est the contraction of
the greenback circulation, and especially the redemption of the Compound
Interest Notes, would induce the banks to run upon a much smaller
reserve. These apprehensions are now, however, proved to have been
groundless. The official returns show that the banks are much more than
living up to the law. The New York city banks held, at the date of the
statement, $17,200,000 of available reserve, in excess of the amount
required hy sections 31 and 32 of the National Currency Act, the surplus
being 6.9 per cent over the legal requirement. In the other cities named
in section 31 of the Act, there is an excess of reserve amounting to
$19,600,000 or 7.92 per cent beyond the legal limit of 25 per cent. The
per centage of excess is largest at Philadelphia, being there 11.8 ; and next
at Boston, Chicago, and New Orleans. A t Cincinnati, the available
reserve is only 1.6 per cent beyond the amount required; while at Cleve
land aud Leavenworth it falls below the limit. These points are illustra
ted in an official exhibit given in our last issue. The table subjoined gives
an analysis of the reserve of those banks required to maintain a reserve of
15 per cent, commonly designated the country banks. While in the
redemption cities the reserve averages 7£ per cent beyond the lawful
requirement, the reserve of the country banks averages nearly 9 per cent
in excess; a fact which satisfactorily refutes the impression that the latter
class of banks have not maintained a very conservative regard for their
reserve. The reserve stands lowest in the District of Columbia, U tah and
Texas, where the excess ranges from 2.2 to 4.2 per cen t; and highest in
the Southern States, ranging from 21.4 per cent in Georgia, to 46 per cent
in South Carolina. In the New England States the ratio of excess is
comparatively low, ranging from 6.4 per cent in Vermont to 8.6 per cent
in New Hampshire. In New York State the excess is 7.7 per cent, in
Pennsylvania 7.8 per cent, and in New Jersey 9.9 per ceut. In the
W estern States the excess varies between 6.2 per cent in Indiana to 17.4
per cent in Iowa. The amount of reserve required at the date of the
statement, to be kept in the vaults of the country banks was $25,100,000;
whereas they actually held $48,800,000. T hat portion of required reserve
allowed by law to consist of balances due from redeeming agents was
$37,700,000, while the actual amount was $51,700,000. In a word the
return, as a whole, must be viewed as satisfactory, not only as measured by
the legal standard, but also as tested by the requirements of conservative
banking. Below we give the exhibit as sent us by the Comptrollej of the
Currency.
$192,068,592
$227,255,956
A g g re g a te o f
CircuT tio n
a n d D e p o s ts .
$13,422,107
6,717,110
8,401.725
54,159,990
19,938,530
32,223,019
78,419,923
23,913,389
47,826,270
2,667,484
4,523,845
158,191
6,141,220
4,644,385
1,127,357
1,671,526
4,085,661
646s 226
40,500
1,479,853
871,667
2,867.251
4,207.962
30,695,041
19,587,040
15,741,642
6,903,431
5,022,811
10,793,436
3,7S9,712
2,559,623
545,440
1,994,820
1,083,019
206,450
217,865
$419,324,543
2-5 o f 15# req u ir e d to b e
k e p t in th e
v a u lts o f
th e B&r.k.
$805,326
403,026
504,103
8,249,599
1,196,311
1,933,381
4,705,195
1,436,603
2.869,576
160,i>49
271,4:10
9,-191
368,473
278.663
67,641
100,292
245,139
38,773
2,430
88,761
52,300
172,035
252,477
1,841,702
1,175,222
944,498
414,205
301,368
647,606
227,382
153,577
32,726
119,659
64,981
12,397
13,071
$25,159,472
3-5 o f 15# w h ic h
m av c o n s is t o f
b a la n c e s d u e
fro m red ee m in g a g e n ts .
$1,207,989
604,5:19
756,155
4,874,399
1,794,467
2,900,071
7,057,793
2,154,905
4,304,364
240,073
497,146
14,237
552,709
417,994
101,462
150,438
367,709
58,160
3.645
133,141
78,450
258.052
378,716
2 762 558
1,762.833
1,416,747
621,808
452,052
971,409
311 074
230,866
49,< 89
179 488
97.471
18.58!)
19,607
$57,139,209
Per
c e n t.
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
25
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
A g g re g a te
am o u n t of
R e se rv e
r e q u ire d .
$2,013,316
1,007,566
1,260,258
8.123,998
2,990,779
4,833,452
11,762,988
3,591,508
7,173,940
400,122
678,576
23,728
921,183
696,657
169,103
250,730
612,849
96,933
6,975
221,9)3
130,750
430,087
631.194
4,604.2 6
2,938,056
2 3 >1.246
1,035,514
7>3.42l
1,619,015
56b,456
3 <3,913
81,816
299,148
162,452
30,967
32,679
$62,898,681
205
T o t a l ...................................................... 1,411
Circulation
outstanding.
$7,438,326
4,275,303
5,723,684
31,515,840
12,617,195
17,656,561
30,224,210
9,388,059
20,847,459
1,215,845
1,795,252
89,430
2,053,420
1,968,712
315,760
146,090
1,230,935
267,405
40,500
391,775
179,415
1,536,621
923,163
13.273,575
10,985,239
5,407,510
2,775,535
1,747,519
3,147,461
1,378,776
663,990
159,316
168,700
254,000
13\000
131,010
Deposits in
cluding balances due to
Banks and
bankers.
$5,983,781
2,441,807
2,678,041
22,644,150
7.321,335
14,566,458
48,195,713
14,555,330
26,978,811
1,451,639
2,728,593
68,761
4,087,800
2,675,673
811,597
1,525,446
2,854,726
378,821
....
1,087,578
692,252
1,330,630
3,284,799
17,421.466
8,601,801
10,334,132
4,127,895
3,275,292
7,645,975
2,410,936
1,895,633
386,124
1,825,620
829,019
71,450
86,S55
CONDITION OF THE NATIONAL BANKS.
W States, &c.
Maine.......................................................
New H am pshire....................................
V erm ont..................................................
M assachusetts........................................
Rhode I s la n d ....... ...............................
C o n n e c tic u t.........................................
New Y o rk ...............................................
New J e rs e y .............................................
P ennsylvania.........................................
D elaw are................................................
M aryland.......... ...................................
District of Colum bia.............................
V i r g n ia .................
W est Virginia . ........
North Carolina.......................................
South Carolina ....................................
G eorgia...................................................
A labam a..................................................
M is s is s ip p i..........................................
T ex as.......................................................
A rkansas..................................................
K entucky.............................................
Tennessee . ........................................
O h io ......... ...........................................
In d ia n a ...................................................
Illinois.....................................................
M ichigan................................................
W isconsin.....................
I o w a ........................................................
M in n eso ta..............................................
M issouri.................................................
K ansas.....................................................
N eb rask a................................................
Colorado T erritory.................................
Utah
“
.................................
Nevada
“
.................................
No. of
Banks
reported,
60
40
40
161
62
81
239
54
152
11
19
1
19
15
5
3
8
2
1
4
2
11
11
123
70
69
37
31
44
14
10
3
4
3
1
1
1868]
STATEMENT OF TH E CONDITION OF TH E LAWFUL MONET RESERV E, REQUIRED BY SECTIONS 31 AND 32 OF THE NATIONAL CURRENCY ACT, OF NATIONAL
BANKS LOCATED OUTSIDE OF TH E ClTIES NAMED IN 8ECTION 31, AS SHOWN BY TH E QUARTERLY REPORT OF TH E CONDITION OF EACH BANK ON THE
M ORNING OF MONDAY, JULY 6, 1868.
,-------- R eserv e r e q u ir e d .--------
206
,----------I te m s o f R e s e rv e o n h 'n d . ------------ ; ^ -R e se rv e e x c e e d s w h a t
T o t a l .. . . $48,840,031
11 6-10 $51,705,501
Per
cenL
13 4-10
14 1-10
11 5-10
14 9-10
13 M 0
13 9-10
12 7-10
14 3-10
10
12 3-10
9
6 9-10
9 1-10
7 5-10
6 4-10
30 6-10
7 8-10
12 7-10
13-10
19 7 10
9
7 7-10
8 1-10
9 2-10
7 4-10
12 1-10
12 6-10
12 3-10
16 5-10
8 2-10
11 9-10
22 3-10
36 4-10
11 6-10
7 5-10
5 9-10
A g g re g a te
am o u n t of
a v a ila b le
re s e rv e .
$2,891,458
1,58 >,319
1,805,232
13,253,226
4,38 S019
7,358,269
17.828,724
5,981,664
10,923, *-32
618,531
1,061,530
2? 243
1,279,656
936,012
275,717
1,019,544
1,489,938
269,628
IS,405
758,819
167,644
6H.136
1,049,344
6,698,123
4,104,238
4,110,643
1,831,365
1,386,097
3,502,239
833,454
724,757
212,880
992,635
312,755
38,259
71,220
Per
c e n t.
21 5-10
23 6-10
21 4-10
24 5-10
22
22 8-10
22 7-10
24 9-10
22 3-10
24 3-10
23 4 10
17 2-10
20 8 10
20 1-10
24 5-10
61
36 4-10
41 6-10
45 4-10
51 2-10
19 2-10
22 8-10
24 9-10
21 8-10
21 2-10
26
26 5-10
27 5 10
32 4-10
22
28 3-10
39
49 8 1 0
28 9-10
13 4-10
28
*-{2-5 o f 15 $ o fC irc u la tio n m u s t c o n
s i s t o t th e s e .)—n
L e g al
S p ecie.
T e n d e rs .
$927,822
$41,227
459,749
6,598
617,780
48,126
232 258
3,442,071
32,726
1,231,074
163,159
1,975.250
4,s53,220
336,122
58,586
1.7»8 567
93,716
4 ,?65,667
192,431
10,257
51,841
465,895
368
15,182
112,025
533 877
38,403
441,402
17,202
91,709
17.31)0
486,045
2%441
1,018.653
61,744
125,599
17,S80
210,884
255,952
2,709
8 5.087
5,054
382,271
31,258
551,810
64,098
3,130,480
66,901
2,273,698
93,432
1,826,904
23,565
796,478
23.213
626,317
64 268
1,512,243
36,951
442,653
28,498
366,449
85,994
220
10,790
242,409
28,925
157,645
20,680
2,008
31,390
26,785
(2-5 01153
is r e q u ire d b y la w b y th e
< f d e p o s its T h re e fo llo w in g a m o u n ts of—,
m ay con p e r cent
S p ecie
O th e r ite m s
s is t of)
C ertifi- a n d L e g al
m a k in g u p
C o m p ’nd s. <a te s .
T e n d e rs . th e re s e rv e .
$714,419
$95,430
$30,000
$522,749
511,432
10 i,670
65,000
209,829
109,090
60,000
322,485
383,170
1,233,790
285,000
1,783,379
4,704,497
125,000
506,769
392,660
1,327,180
200,000
1,079,015
2,319,788
527,030
3,375,889
5,581,589
1,387,720 1,300,000
310,000
1,217,S70
2,045.605
453,430
2,160,085
840,000
3,203,535
842,760
55,000
129,737
205.768
63,230
93,090
40,000
410,621
136,648
10
784
200
8 l’6 ’4
15,000
522,697
57,820
361,682
38,212
75,000
31,2*0
89.965
65,344
94,680
494,670
365,610
4,160
973,239
75,1:34
90,000
33.060
24,122
171,301
15,450
443,329
158,841
73,031
398
10,000
295,130
8,756
36,400
20,000
527,678
87,558
1'14,340
2.398,164
375,000
740,990
298,670
1,681,485
60,805
120,000
250,4<*0
1,595,885
100,000
773,459
182,500
653,511
390,012
40,000
100,120
544,679
284,514
55,000
59,830
20,000
1,387,663
954.318
120,300
12,775
38,110
5,000
396 877
355,108
99,443
25,450
77,576
76,655
5.090
559,946
8,230
5,000
243.077
171,330
28,713
SCO
14,588
....
5 ),315
....
....
....
12 3 . 0 $100,545,533 23 9-10 $2,119,441 $35,721,260 $G,7f5,330 $1,240,000 $26,3.9,586
$24,962,622
T o ta l
Per
a m o u n t c e n to f ex
age
c e ss o f o f e x
re s e rv e . cess.
$S78.142 6 5-10
574,752 8 6-10
544,973 6 4-10
5,129,228 9 5-10
1,395,269 7
2,524,816 7 8-10
6,065,736 7 7-10
2,390,156 9 9-10
3,749,M)2 7 8-10
248,408 9 3-10
382,953 8 4-10
3,515 2 2-ld
358, *03 5 8-10
239,354 l 1 10
106,614 9 5-10
768.814 46
877,089 21 4-10
172,694 26 6-10
12,330 30 4-10
536,916 36 2-10
36,894 4 2-10
224,048 7 8-10
418,149 9 9-10
2,093,867 6 8-10
1,226.182 6 2-10
1,749,297 11
795,850 11 5-10
632,676 12 5-10
1,8^3,223 17 4-10
264,997 7
340,814 13 3-10
131,064 24
693,487 34 8-10
150,302 13 9-10
7,291 3 4-10
38,540 13
$37,646,851
8 9-10
CONDITION OF THE NATIONAL BANKS,
S ta te s , & c .
M a in e ..............
N . H a m p s h ire
V e rm o n t. . . .
M a s sa c h u s e tts
R h o d e Is la n d .
C o n n e c tic u t..
N e w Y o rk . . .
N e w J e r s e v ..
P e n n s y lv a n ia .
D e la w a r e ___
M ary la n d . . . .
D ie t, o f C o l..
V i r g i n i a ........
W . V ir g in ia ..
N . C a ro lin a ..
S . C a ro lin a ..
G e o rg ia ..........
A la b a m a ........
M is s i s s i p p i..
T e x a s ............
A r k a n s a s ___
K e n tu c k y ___
T e n n essee ...
O h io ................
I n d ia n a ...........
I l l i n o i s ..........
M i c h i g a n ___
■W isconsin . . .
I o w a .......... .....
M in n e s o ta . . .
M is s o u ri........
K a n s a s ..........
N e b r a s k a ___
C olorado T e r.
U ta h
N evada
“ .
•R eserv e available.
D u e fro m
re d e e m in g
P e r a n d re s e rv e
On hand.
ce n t.
a g e n ts .
$1,094,479
8 1-10 $1,796,979
9 5-10
636,317
946,002
834,996
9 9-10
970,236
5,193,119
9 6-10
8,000,107
1,781,460 8 9-10
2,604,588
2,865,439
8 9-10
4,592.830
7,877,062 10
9,951,66 i
2,544,583 10 6-10
3,437,080
6,142.143 12 8-10
4,781,689
320,918 12
327,612
652,826 14 4-10
408,704
16,350 10 3-10
10,893
718,722 11 7-10
560,964
5S6,025 12 6-10
349,987
203,591 18 1-10
72,126
507,595 30 4-10
511,949
1,170,154 28 6-10
319,783
187,345 28 9-10
82,283
17,880 44 1-10
525
466,836 31 5-10
291,983
88,796 10 2-10
78,848
4 3,727 15 1-10
220,409
707,408 16 8-10
341,935
3,868,248 12 6-10
2,S29,S74
2,711,049 13 8-10
1,453,1S8
2,202,836 13 9-10
1,907,707
960,163 13 9-10
871,201
764,360 15 2-10
621,737
1,716,811 15 9-10
1,7S5,427
522,714 13 8-10
310,740
420.397 16 4-10
301,359
91,304 16 7-10
121,575
266,429 13 4-10
726,205
125.6S4
187,070 17 3 10
2',688 10 9-10
15,570
58,175 22 1-10
13,044
CH
1868]
207
■WATERING O F R A ILR O A D STO CKS.
Of the above Banks having balances, to be counted as part of their
reserve, due from Associations, there are in—
N ew Y o rk C ity .
B o s to n ..............
A lb a n y .............. .
P h ila d e lp h i a . . .
P i t t s b u r g ..........
B a ltim o re ..........
N ew O rle a n s ..,
L o u is v ille ........
C in c in n a ti —
C le v e la n d ........
C h ic a g o ............
D e t r o i t ............
M ilw a u k e e ....
S t. L o u is ..........
T o ta l...
. 894, a m c u n i i n g t o ....................
an,
....................
32
“
....................
. 126!
“
................. ...................
. 18,
41
................. ..................
. 23,
44
................. ...................
2
“
.................... ...................
4
41
................. ......................
.. 76! a m o u n tin g t o .................... ......................
6.
44
.................... ......................
94’
44
.................... ......................
6’
44
.................... .............. . . .
. 16'
44
....................
“
............................................
9,385,279 4!)
3,347,762 55
314,435 25
391,265 60
43,224 77
27,811 66
1,380,532 40
29,848 27
3,155,665 45
22,253 92
807.821 71
.
'WATERING OF RAILROAD STOCKS.
Much has been said of late with regard to the burden which is being
placed upon our internal commerce by the stock dividends of raiiioad cor
porations. Of course additions to stock or bonds of any company beyond
the requirements of construction make necessary an increase in the trans
portation charges to pay interest on debt and capital. The extent of this
practice we propose to illustrate by one through route from New York to
the W est. The roads constituting this, route are named not because their
extra stock issues have been in excess of others, but simply, as we said, for
illustration.
The plan of thus increasing railroad capital appears to have been initiated
by the New York Central Railroad Company in 1853. This company in
that year was, as our readers are aware, formed by the consolidation of eleven
independent companies, whose roads made up the great line between the
Hudson, at Albany and Troy, and Lake Erie, at Buffalo. The share capital
of these companies amounted together to $22,858,600 as follows :
A lb a n y an ti S c h e n e c ta d y .................. $1,635,800 S y ra c u se & U tic a D ir e c t....................
S ch e n e c ta d y a n d T r o y ..........................
650,000 R o c h e ste r, L ’p o r t & N . F a lls ...............
U tic a a n d S ch en e ctad y ...................... 4,500,000 R o c h e ste r a n d S y ra c u s e ....................
M o h a w k V a lle y ...................................... 1,575,000 Knffalo a n d R o c h e s t e r ........................
S y ra c u se a n d U tic a ..........................
2,700,000 B uffalo a n d L o c k p o r t............................
$600,000
2,016,100
5,600,700
3,000,000
675,009
This amount was increased to $23,067,400, by the conversion of con
vertible bonds; and further, by the addition of the stocks of the Buffalo
and Niagara Falls Railroad, $565,000 ; of the Lewiston Railroad, 217,600 ;
and the Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad, $150,000— which com
panies were united with the Central subsequent to the general consolidation.
These additions brought the capital stock up to the neighborhood of $24,000,000, since increased by the conversion of bonds and the purchase of
the Athens Branch Railroad to $28,537,000.
The stocks of the several companies varied largely in productive value,
and hence were received into the new company at a premium above the
208
W A T E R IN G
O F R A IL R O A D STO CKS.
[September,
Schenectady and Troy stock, which was made par, being the lowest in the
scale. The convertible bonds shared the same treatment. To pay this
premium the company issued Six P er Cent D ebt Certificates, the principal
payable through the instrumentality of a sinking fund by May 1, 1883.
These were issued to the stockholders of the old companies, in accordance
with rates agreed upon in the articles of consolidation, and as shown in the
following statem ent:
Companies.
A lb a n y a n d S h e n e c ta d y .............................
t l t i c a a n d S c h e n e c ta d y ..............................
M o h a w k V ail v ...................... .......................
S y ra c u s e a n d U t i c a ......................................
S y ra c u s e a n d U tic a D ire c t..........................
R o c h e t<*rand S y ra c u s e ........................
R o c h e -te r, L o c k p o t a n d N ia g a ra F a lls,
B uffalo a n d L o c k p o r t....................................
Kuffalo a n a P o c tie tte r ..............................
R o c h e s te r a n d L a k e O n ta rio ......................
S c h e n e c ta d y a n d T r o y ..................................
T o t a l . . . ............ ...................................
S to c k R a te s o f p re - A in ’t
& c o n v e rt-m iu m aw ir’d . o f
p re ’m .
ib le b o n d s. P e r c e n t
$275,706
$l,62t,S00
«
55
2,475,000
4,540,000
55
866,250
1,575,000
1,350,000
2,700,000
50
50
360,000
600.000
30
1.682,610
5,608,100
538,6^4
25
2,155,100
25
168,750
675,000
40
1,200,000
3,000,000
25
150,000
37,500
650,000
0
$23,235,600
$8,S94,500
No premium was allowed the Schenectady and Troy stock. Of these
certificates, $2,604,540 have been retired by the operations of the sinking
fund, leaving outstanding $6,189,954. Not a cent of the $8,894,500 issued
js represented by property, but is made a charge, principal and interest,
against “ future income.” As respects the Mohawk Valley Railroad, the
charges for stock and premium have never been availed of, that lioe being
still in abeyance, with no intention of having it brought into use. Here,
then, we have at least $11,000,000 calling for 0 per cent or $660,000 a
year to be paid from traffic receipts ; or in other words, all this amount
and a yearly sinking fund contribution for the final settlement of the prin
cipal is drawn from the public for the sole benefit of the holders of these
certificates, which are in reality so much guaranteed stock.
Leaving Buffalo west, the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, 88 miles in length,
extends to Erie. This has for many years been a 10 per cent stock. It is
a consolidation (1867) of the Buffalo and State line, the capital of which
company was $2,200,000, and the Erie and Northeast, whose capital was
$600,000, or, together, $2,800,000. The consolidated company came out
with a capital of $5,000,000, the increase going into the pockets of its few
stockholders. Should the usual 10 per cent dividend be paid hereafter, this
operation loads the public with a contribution to private pockets for no
tangible advantage of the sum of $220,000 a year forever.
The Cleveland Painesville and Ashtabula Company’s Railroad extends
from Erie to Cleveland, 96 miles, and is another link in this through route.
In 1861 its stock capital was $3,000,000, and its bonds $1,353,000. In
that year a stock dividend of 4 per cent was distributed. In 1862, 10 per
cent in stock and 1 3 i in bonds were given to the stockholders, and in 1863
1868]
W A T E R IN G O F R A IL R O A D STO CKS.
209
10 per cent in stock. In 1865, 25 per cent was divided, and in 1867, 75
per cent in stock and 20 per cent in bonds. These several distributions
brought the stock up $8,750,000 and the bonds to $2,500,000, being an
increase by stock and bond issues amounting to $6,897,000, or more than
twice the amount of the original capital. In the meanwhile the cost of
the road advanced from $3,986,537 to $4,S68,427, or less than one million.
These extra dividends on outstanding capital from 1861 to 1867, both
inclusive, were no less than 157-J- per cent. W hat this dividend would be
on the original capital, is simply a matter of arithmetical calculation.
But these are only the czfra-dividends. The total dividend yearly was 14,
33^, 23, 26, 35,10 and 95 per cent respectively, and the amount distributed
$9,388,000, or 319 per cent on $3,000,000 in seven years.
The Cleveland and Toledo Railroad (in all 148 miles) carries the Lake
Shore Line by one arm to Sandusky and by another arm to Toledo. In
1867 it was leased to the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Company,
which agreed to pay its stockholders dividends equal to those paid on its
own stock. Previous to the execution of this lease the company divided
25 per cent in stock, increasing its capital from $5,000,000 to $6,500,000.
The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, which leaves the
lake at Cleveland in the direction of Cincinnati, has also inflated its capital,
in 1862 by a division of 5 per cent on $4,746,200, or $237,310 ; and in
1863 by 20 per cent on $5,000,000, or $1,000,000. Its capital is now
$6,000,000, one fourth part of which is not represented by property.
The Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad carries the Lake
Shore Line into Chicago. The main line has a length of 242 miles, and
the total length is 516 miles. It is a great but unfortunate enterprise,
and has never had opportunity to expand its non-earning capital. It is
borne down by unremunerative laterals and branches, but has nevertheless
added to its capital and bonded debt in settlement of dividends accumu
lated on its guaranteed stock and the conversion of the same. Probably a
million and a half has been added to capital on these accounts.
Transferring our review to the place of beginning (Albany and Troy)t
we have the Hudson River Railroad. This company doubled their capital
in 1867, raising It from about $7,000,000 to $14,000,000. Only 50 per
cent of the increase was paid in, and that was applied to the purchase of St.
John’s Park in New York City,and improvements required on the line of
the road. The balance is a present to stockholders.
As stated above, we have selected the companies spoken of sunply
because they are conspicuous for their position and direction, forming one
continuous line from the seaboard to the beginning of the Great W estern
system <f railroads, and are among the best known on the Continent.
They have their peers in other parts of the country. For instance, the
4
210
T H E S U P R E M E CO URT A N D T H E L E G A L T E N D E R S .
[
September,
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad have declared the following stock
dividends:
On Common Stock—1846, 12 per cent; 1847, 12 per cent; 1852, 8 per cent; 1854,
10 per cent; 1855, 4 per cen t; 1862,7 per cent; 1863, 7 per cent; 1864, 15 per cent;
1865, 10 per cent; 1866, 10 per cent; 1867, 6 per cent, and 1868, 5 per cent. Total,
105 per cent.
On f referred Stock, (payable in common stock)—1863, 3-J per cen t; 1864, 15 per
cent; 1865, 10 per cen t; 1866, 10 per cent; 1867, 5 per cent, and 1868, 5 per cent.
Total, 48 per cent.
It should bestated that the dividends of 1866 an 1 1866 were made payable in stock
or cash, at the option of the stockholder. A t these dates the stock was considerably
above par in New York.
In a word, wherever business has been prosperous, and dividends large,
stocks have been increased by distributions undervarious pretenses. Is it
wise to allow a continuance of this policy ?
THE SUPREME COURT AND THE LEGAL TENDERS.
W all street has been during the last month troubling itself about
certain rumors which have been set afloat to the effect that the Legal
Tender Act is about to be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court. The story is supposed to have been started from the Treasury
Department, and Chief Justice Chase is declared to have concurred in
the decision. Some of our financial prophets have accordingly been
busy searching out the probable consequences of such a decision and
how its operation would affect banks and bank notes, mercantile debts
and mortgage securities, existing engagements and future contracts.
Before we follow these gentlemen into so tangled and pathless a jungle,
it is probably worth while to challenge the fact which they make
their starting point. Perhaps we may find that they have been wrong
at the start. If no such decision as they talk of is imminent, nor any
decision tending to disturb the foundations of our greenback currency,
or to impair contracts made in its standard dollars, or to produce any
general perturbation whatever, then our ingenious friends have spent
their labor upon imaginary difficulties, and there is nothing to do but to
wait and see their “ castles in the air” vanish, frowning but harmless.
Now, in the first place, this report is no new thing. It is a very old
story. Several years ago it was quite current. And it has several
times perished and died away, only to revive again like some oftuprooted but vivacious weed. The truth is that dishonest debtors have
in a few cases been availing themselves of the ambiguity of the acts of
F ebruary and July, 1863, by which greenbacks are made “ a lawful
money and legal tender in paym ent of all debts, public and private,
1868]
T H E S U P R E M E CO URT A N D T H E L E G A L T E N D E R S .
211
within the United States, except duties on imports and interest upon
bonds.” By a perversion of the plain meaning of this statute these
men, after making contracts to pay so many dollars in coin, have tend
ered greenback dollars to their creditor, who has appealed to the
Supreme Court for redress. Several such cases are at this momen ^
pending. And it is no douDt to a misinterpreted rum or about one o^
these cases that we are indebted for the stories that have been dis.
turbing the equilibrium of the financial circles around us.
Another mischievous perversion of the legal tender act is the pro
posal to pay off some 500 millions of old Five-Twenties by a new
special issue of greenbacks. If greenbacks are a legal tender for “ all
debts public and private,” these greenbacks, it is argued, will pay off the
Five-Twenties, for these are a public debt. And “ since greenbacks
can be had for the mere cost of printing” these wise men argue, there
is a vast saving in the scheme. This monstrous and absurd proposal
has fewer abettors than it once had. There is no doubt that wellmeaning persons have given the Supreme Court “ canard” a more
welcome hearing in consequence of their dread of an inundation of
paper money to pay off the Five-Twenties.
However this may be, it is certain that in an active commercial
country like ours, the thousands of millions of dollars of semi-matured
indebtedness which at all moments exist in various forms throughout
the country, m ust not be disturbed by any decision of the Supreme
Court in any such way that if we have made a bona fide engagement
to pay a currency dollar we shall be compelled to pay one third more,
that is a dollar in coin.
The same thing may be said of our banks. No holder of a bank note
which represents currency dollars will be permitted to acquire, from any
decision of the Supreme Court, any right to demand gold coin for his
note at par. Such a contingency would break every bank in the
country, and would bring on us an overwhelming flood of misfortune,
financial chaos and irremediable ruin.
In such instances as these, which, in some form or other, are contin.
ually occurring, we have a suggestive commentary on the evils of paper
money when depreciated so that the currency dollar shall be worth less
than the standard dollar of coin. H ere we have two currencies side by
side—a gold and silver currency of the old standard, and a new standai d
paper currency, every dollar of which is worth considerably less than
coin. In these small paper money dollars for six years the nation has
founded its contracts and done its vast business, so that every dollar of*
our vast changing current of mercantile indebtedness has been incurred
on the basis of the small paper dollar throughout the country. This,
212
T H E S U P R E M E CO URT AND T H E L E G A L T E N D E R S .
[
September,
then, is the great problem of specie resumption. How shall we trans
mute this vast mass of obligations so that although they have been
incurred in small paper dollars they shall be payable and shall be liqui
dated in the larger standard of the coin dollar? and how shall we do all
this so that no debtor shall pay any more than his contract, and that
neither debtor nor creditor shall lose or suffer any injustice.
Of course any sudden change, such as would result from the prophe
sied decision, would entail fearful consequences upon the country, and
these threatening results will present themselves with unusual force
to any court having the question of the constitutionality of the legal
tender act before it. Not that the consequences of a decision are to
rule where the law is plain, but if there is doubt as to the law, or,
in other words, if there is any ground upon which the court can con
sistently uphold the act, they will do so rather than entail upon the
country the ruin which a contrary decision would inevitably bring. All
know the influence such considerations have, during times past, had in
modifying and directing the conclusions of our judiciary, and we have
reason to believe they will be no less potent now.
But it may be claimed that to affirm that the government has the
right to issue when it pleases legal tenders, would be the greatest of all
evils. Very likely this is so; yet it is unnecessary to hold any such
doctrine in order that what has been done may be upheld. The court
may decide, and very likely will decide, that this power, under ordinary
circumstances, is not delegated by the constitution, and that new
legislation to issue legal tenders now would be an unauthorized act, and
therefore void. But where that act is necessary as a means for preserv
ing the life of the nation, such a power must be one of the incidents of
every government. Of course many will insist that it was not necessary;
that the war might have been successfully prosecuted without it. We
shall not argue the point. Congress affirmed that it was necessary, and
a very large majority of the people were, and still are, of a like opinion.
The United States Court can now very reasonably be of the same
mind. They see the harm and wholesale injury which threaten the
country if they decide the legal tender clause to be void, and hence
will be inclined to hold that it was an act necessary for preserving the
life of the nation, even if they do decide that under any other circum
stances such legislation would be unauthorized and void.
18681
C H IC A G O , R O C H ISLA N D
AND P A C IF IC
213
R A IL R O A D .
CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILROAD.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company is a consolida
tion under date of August 20,1866, of the Chicago and Rock Island Com
pany of Illinois and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (late Mississippi
and Missouri) Company of Iowa, and at the date of the last annual report
(just published) which refers to the year ending March 31,1868, the con
solidation owned and operated the following lines:
C h icag o an d R o ck Is la n d R R —C hicago. I l l , to R o k Is la n d . I l l ........................................ 182 m iles*
R o ck Is l nd B rid g e & R R .—R o c k I e 'a n J , 1 1., to D avenport,, I o w a .............. . .................
1
“
C h icago, R . I & Pacific R R .— > avenport, I w a, to D e- M o in e , I o w a .............................. 175
“
O s k a 'o o s a E x te u s io n R R .— W ilto n , Io w a , to W a s h in g to n , I o w a .......... ............................. 50
“
T o ta l o w n e d b y c o m p a n y ............................................................................................................ 408 m ile s.
P e o ria a n d B u re a u V alley R a ilro a d ( le a s e d ) .................................................... ...........................
6
u
T o ta l o w n ed , le a s e d a n d o p e ra te d ...................... ................................................................. 454 m ile s .
The track between Kellogg and Des Moines, 44 miles, was completed
Sept. 9, 1867. On the first of August, li-68, the track was laid from Des
Moines, 30 miles west, and the grading and bridging completed to Middle
River, about 22 miles further, to which latter point the track was to be
completed by the 15th of the same month (probably now in use). The
remainder of the line to the Missouri is rapidly progressing, and it is antici
pated that next year a bridge will be. built over the river to connect the
Rook Island road with the Union Pacific, thus making, on the completion
of the latter road, an unbroken line from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The equipment of the line has been increased during the past year, and
it is designed to continue to add to it by construction and purchase as the
increasing business of the road may require. For this purpose large shops
have been erected near Chicago and tools and machinery contracted for.
These will be occupied in the fall of the current year. The following is a
statement showing the amount of the motive and carrying power in use on
the road at the close of the years named :
E n g in e s (eoal) .................................... )
“
( w o o d ) ,................................ 1 . . . .
1861-5. 1865-3. 1868-4. 1864-5.
61
59
61
59
E n g in e s of all k i n d s .......................... . . . .
------ -
65
1866-7.1SS7-8.
< 57
58
\
35
37
61
57
960
61
59
1,195
59
63
1,459
65
63
1,568
92
66
1,780
93
70
2,010
1,017
1,264
1 ,5 :2
1,631
1,846
2,080
59
F r e ig h t, & c., c a r s ..................................
C a r s o f all k in d s . . . . . . .
1865-6.
In the statements which follow, the annual accounts for the past six
years are given, showing the changes in the condition of the company from
year to y ear:
M ILEAGE OF ENGINES
E n g in e s .
P a s s llg e r..........................................
F r e ig h t .............................................
W o o d J c g ra v e l...............
1865-3.
354,267
579.115
97,605
T o t a l ........................................... 1,030 834
C o s t p e r m ile
r u n . . . ( c e n t s ) ............ ...................
20.78
HAULING TRAINS,
1863-4.
348,8.8
734.0- >8
90,004
1,162,880
21.15
1864-5.
3t7. 85
783,056
82,014
1,212,656
3311
1865-6
1866-7.
864,870
46 .7 3
7111,3,-7 1,058.136
93,594
95,408
1867-8.
575.213
1,160,488
171,5.35
1 234,8 7
1^681,307
1,893,937
38.39
38.68
32.64
2 14
Ch
ic a g o
,
rock
is l a n d
and
p a c if ic
r a il r o a d
. [
September,
PASSENGER TR A FFIC— ITS DIRECTION AND AMOUNT.
F fle e e n g e r-tliro 1................................
29,352
45,130
70,234
61,371
44,491
52,833
“
- w a y ................................
223,892
279,114
393.632
376,373
418,609
507,471
289,051
“
- w e s t................................
122.566
166,167
227,8 -4
204,343
242,684
271,253
“
e a s t .................................
130,678
If 8,077
236,012
233,401
220 416
P a ° ’gs o f all k ’d s ................................
253,244
324,244
463,866
437,744
463,100
560,304
“
o n e m ile................................ 14,206,292 20,401,500 29,888,967 26,934,579 22,701,661 28,185,470
3.41
3.73
. 4.36
4.19
R a te p e r p a s ’g e r p . m i l e .. ( c ts .)
3.05
315
FR EIG H T TR A FFIC— ITS DIRECTION AND AMOUNT.]
L o a d e d c a rs , W ................................
16,395
26,811
24.015
23,995
86,126
35,746
“
“ E a s t ..............................
31,228
31,589
32,708
31, <'99
30,176
39.356
47,623
52,400
56,723
55,097
66,352
75,105
“
“ W & E ..............................
T o n s (2,000 lbs), c a r r i e d ..............
379.879
441,570
472.557
459,986
598,914
654,435
T o n s , p e r lo a d ..................................
7.98
8.42
8 46
8 .35
.9.65
8.14
T o n s o n e m ile ................................. 38,558,462 56,539.150 63,414 831 59,218,3 5 79,565,903 87,522,49$
R a te p e r to n p e r m ile ........ (c ts).
2.69
2.58
3.50
3 .45
3.05
3 35
The following is a statement of the business between the Illinois and
Iowa shores, illustrated by the number of loaded cars and tons of freight,
and number of foot passengers passing over the Mississippi River Bridge at
Rock Island in the same years :
I L o a d ed
c a rs .
T F r e ig h t
(to n s).
Foot
P a s s nge rs . '
1S62-3.
G o in g w e s t .............................. 5,866
G o in g e a s t.................................. 8,306
Bo h w a y s ................................ 1*, 72
G o in g w e s t................................ 30.039
G o in g e a s t . ................................ 71,542
i o th w v s .....................................110,581
G o in g w e s t ................................ 4 ,2 7 7
G o in g e a s t................................ 40,166
B o t h w a j s .................................... 80,443
1
!
1S68-4.
7,998
10,114
18,114
60,741
89,914
140,655
70,962
3864-5.
9,913
10,109
20,022
68.844
81,167
150,001
57,38i
58 371
115,755
69 0 32
140,894
1865-6.
8.438
9.067
17.505
59.573
82,752
142,325
60,712
50,963
101,675
1866-7.
11,247
12,630
23,877
88.582
123,562
212,144
41,712
41,451
83,163
1867-8.
12,529
11.832
24,361
103,849
11 ,400
217,249
37.412
37,258
74,670
It will be seen by this that the trade between Iowa and Illinois has
increased from 110,581 tons in 1802-3, to 217,249 tons in 1867-8, or by
106,668 tons or 96.4 percent, viz.: going W est by 64,810 tons or 166.0
per cent, and going East by 47,858 tons or 58.5 per cent.
The navigation at this point on the Mississippi is illustrated by the num
ber of steamers, barges, and rafts passing the draw of the bridge, yearly,
as follows:
1863-4.
106
233
398
155
129
284
276
1862-3.
l G o in g n o r t h ................ . ................. 353
S te a m e rs . ■< G iu g s o u t h ................
( B oth w a y s .......... ...........
i G o in g n o r t h ..................
B are s.
< • o in g s o u t h ................ .
( B ut w ays
........ .
237
R a fts g o in g s o u t h . .. ...................... ....................
F IN A N C IA L R ESU LTS O F
1864-5.
132
1F7
329
125
110
235
296
IS65-6.
473
453
926
238
255
493
576
18G6-7 1867-8
679
462
673
468.
1,352
930
342
244
238:
466
F48
482
684
333
O P E R A T IO N S .
T e gross earnings from operations, the cost of working the load and
machinery, and the profits from this source of revenue yearly for the same
years, are shown in the following condensed abstract :
1862-3.
^
1863-4.
1864-5.
$
1865-6.
S
1866-7.
cj^
lS '7-8*
<jj^
P a s s e n g e r e a rn in g s ......................................
433 297 643.775 1,0/1,779 1,005,872 988,961 1.181,564
F r ighi e a r n i n g s .......................................... 1,034.850 1,448.965 2,222,309 2,016,806 2,42c 24 2,984,5 4
M ail ea l l i n g s ................................................
21,200
21,200
21.201)
21,200
21,200
36,743
B s p .e s s , re n s, &e
..............................
39,794
35,935
91,102 110,867 135.048 293,163
T o ta l ro s - e a rn i g s .............................. 1,529.141 2,143.875 3, 59,390 3,'54.235 3.574,023 4,451,974
W o ,k i n /, e ,a ,s , & e ..................................
8 0,987 1,040,462 1,467.681 1,711,454 1 827,852 2.040,198
N e tt ea r 1 ta g s (p ro fits)................................
328,154 1,103,4 3 1,891,709 1,442,781 1,746,181 2, 31,78,
1868]
C H IC A G O , R O C K ISLA N D
AND P A C IF IC
215
R A ILR O A D ,
The net earnings or profits were disposed of as follows :
P e o ria & B u re a u V ail y R R ................................ $125,000 $125,000 $125,001 $125,000 $125,000 $125,000
U n i'e d S ta te s t a x e s ............................................
5,053
10,415
64 770 93,728
52.291 82,110
T a x on re a l e s t a t e ...................
85,001
88,918
54,818
63,402 106,801 107,930
L eg al e x p e n s e s ......................................................
3,908
4,061
5,608
7 302
8,590 23,594
E x tra o rd in a ry re p a irs, & c ........................
45.791
67,754 68,l*.i0 46,438
........................
I n te r e s t on fu n d ed d e b t .................................... 100,135 102,690 102,532 101,535 256,132 576,240
I n te r e s t on b rid g e b o n d s ................................................
22,934 40,000 40,000
40,000
..........
D iv id e n d s (in c h U . S. ta x ) ................................ 338,239 343,438 375,041 631,579 820,879 957,821
74,726 332,1421,056,250 333,682 336,988 609,087
B a la n :e t o in c o m e a c c o u n t ............................
G E N E R A L A CC O U N T---- L E D G E R B A L A N C E S .
The financial condition of the company at the close of the fiscal years,
as above, is shown in the abstract which follows:
1864.
1865.
1836.
1867.
1868.
1863.
$
$
$
$
$
$
C a p ita l s to c k .. .............................. . 5 603,000 6,000,000 6,0!'0,000 6,500,000 9,100,000 14,000,000
M o rtg ag e b o n d s .............................. .. 1,397 000 1,397.900 1,397,000 1,397.000 8,099,524
8,23(>,000
47, 00
70,000
53,500
51,000
42,000
In c o m e b o n d s ................................
70,000
635,486
590,852
C h ic.. R I.& r a c . RW. o f I o w a ..
12,078
146,264
S u n d r i e s ............................................
977,832 2,034,082 2,367,764
621.753
1,151,665
B a l. o f In c o m e .................................. . 660,961
T o t a l ................................................ . 7,743,039
8,444,832
9,484,5S2 10,315,766 18,506,763 24,160,781
Accounted for in the exhibit following, viz.:
R ’d & e ju i p m e n t.............................. 7,069,727 7,429,433 7,4S0,923 8,050.132 15,313,823 17,251,433
257,218
207,260
F u e l & m a te ria ls ................................
42 268
156,976
— ..........................
745,738 1,126,931 1,717,169
O th e r a s s e ts , & c................................
401,414
232,523
3,609,302
726.661
881,483 1,475,771
C a s h Dnd b ills ....................................
209,830
625,700
3,300,046
T o t a l ................................................. 7,743,037 8,444,832
G E N E R A L R E V IE W
9,485,582 10,315,764 18,506,7G3 24,160,781
F O R TE N Y E A R S .
The following table gives the cost of the road and equipment (estimating
the cost of the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad at $1,250,000); and
the earnings, expenses and profits from operations, &a., yearly, for the ten
years ending March 31, 1808 :
C o st o f
O rd in a ry P ro fits I n te r e s t D iv id ’d B a l.a fte r
ro ad au d
G ro ss
o p e r a tin g o r n e t o n fu n d - p aid o n le a se
e q u ip m e n t e a rn in g s , e x p e n s e s , e a r in g s . e d d e b t. s to c k , ta x e s ,& o .
1858- 59............................. $8,026,119 $889,3u0
1859- 6J ........................... 8,163,554 1,093,34
1860- 61........................... 8,237.710 1,164,018
3861-62................................. 8,273,936 *1,054,701
1862- 63............................ 8,319,727 1,529.141
1863- 64........................... 8,67.*,433 2,143,875
1861- 65........................... 9,054,923 3,359,390
1865-66.......................... . . 9.300,132 3,154,2:35
1866- 67.......................... 16,563,823 3,574,032
1857-68................................. 18,501,433 4,451,974
$537,668
622,661
708,054
*531,1387
800,987
1,010,462
1.467,681
1,711,454
1,827,852
2,' 20,192
$351,632
471,273
455,964
523,317
728,154
1.103,413
1,891,709
1 442.781
1.746,181
2,431,782
$97,790
97 790
07,990
*97,790
100,135
102,690
102,532
101,535
296 132
576,240
$ $92,685
167,597 44,181
. . . . 12'»,134
168,090 82,866
328,239 74,726
343,438 382,142
875,041 1,056,250
631.579 333,682
820,879 336,988
957,821 609,087
.
Y e a rs .
In the following table will be found deductions from the foregoing^
giving the cost of road, &c., per mile, the earnings &c., per mile, and the
rates of expenses to earnings and of profits to cost, with the dividends, &c.,
annually :
M iles C o s t o f
o f r ad
ro a d
T e a rs.
o p e n , p e r m il e
1858-59 ........................................ 2-8.4
1659-60........................................ 228.4
1860 6 1 ................................
228.4
186.-62 ........................................ 228.4
1862- 6 3 ........
............... .
228 4
186364.................................. 228.4
18646 5 .................................. 228.4
1865- 66...................... .................. 228.4
1S66-G7........................................ 41U.0
1867-68 ......................................
454.0
$35,202
35.805
36,1 0
36.285
£6,488
38,067
39,714
40,790
4; i,399
40,7 2
-— P e r m ile o t ro a d —-x E x p e n s e s P ro fits
E arnExP ro to
to D iv iin g s. p e n s e s .
f it s . E a r n i n g s ,
c o s t, d e n d s .
$3,893
$2,354 $ i.5 3 9
60.47
4 4*3
n il.
4,789
2,726
2,063
56 97
5.76
3
5,096
3,100
1,996
60. "3
5.53
n il.
4,617
2,326
2,291
5 '.3 8
6 31
6
6,695
3,705
2,990
52.38
8 19
6
9,386
4.556
4,S30
48 53
12 70
6
14,939
6,426
8,243
43.81
20.75
8
13,834
7,506
6,328
54.25
15.51
10
10,512
5,376
5,136
51.14
13.83
10
10,475
4,754
5,721
45.39
13 14
10
* O p e ra tio n s fo r 9 m o n th s o nly.
216
ST. L O D IS , A LTO N A N D T E R R E H A U TE R A IL R O A D .
[September,
The average length of road operated in 1866-7 was 340 miles, and in
1867-8 about 425 miles.
M A RK ET V A L U E O F STO CK
AT N E W
YORK.
The monthly ranges of prices in the New York market of the stock of
the company are shown in the subjoined statement (dividends April and
October):
1862-3
A p r i l ............................................ 533-56*
J l a y ............................................. 56 -66
J u u e .......................................... 62* 693
J u l y .............................................. 601-68*
A u g u s t ...................................... 123-69*
S e p te m b e r.................................. 66*-18*
O c to b e r
.................................. llf-S S *
N o v m b e r ............................. 11* S3*
D e c e m b e r .................................. 11J-86*
J a n u a r y ...................................... 8v*-96}
F e b r u a r y ...................... ............. 81J-S5
M a r c h .......................................... 89 -95
Y e a r ...................................... 53J-96*
1863-4.
883- 95
94 -108
93* 104
93 - 1 '6
103* 111
103 -113
106* 111*
102-111*
106 -123*
122J-119*
1111-144*
119*-121*
883-149*
1864-5.
110 -134
105 -119
110 -111*
107*-114
109*-U43
95 -109*
85*- 91
99 -110
10l*-108*
1865-6.
8U -103
91 -105
93 -102
1013-109*
103 -109
10 * 113*
105 -11?*
104*-109*
1053-168*
1866-1
110 -123*
90 - 96*
91 - 95*
943-10-1
102*-1I0
108*-112*
106 -111*
100 -112*
102 -1 0 .*
18CT-8.
85*- 93386*- 92*
81*- 95*
9f*-104
993-103*
99 -105
94 -104
94*- 91*
90*- 99f
8 9J- 98*
98 -101
85(-100
104*-118*
95 -100*
92*- 98*
96 -102*
96J-102*
84*-134
90 -123*
85* 105
88,-105*
96*-'09*
813-118*
91 -104 *
flag-100*
ST. LOUIS, ALTON AND TERRE HAUTE RAILROAD.
The lines of railroad owned by the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute
Company are made up as follows:
Main line ... .Terre Haute, rnd., to Alton, 111........................................
TirannVi lino a J Wood River (Alton) Tunct., 111., to Bloody Island, 111.
Branca lines -j East gt Louia< IlL| t0 Belleville, 111. ...........................
Total length of road owned by the company.
r7f>m iles*
20
"
14
“
209
"
The main line of this road was constructed by the Terre Haute and
Alton Railroad Company, chartered in Illinois, January 28, and in Indiana,
February 11,1851. Construction was commenced in May, 1852, and worked
from both termini. On the 13th November, 1854, the section from Terre
Haute to Paris, 19 miles, and on the 3d December that from Paris to
Grandview, 9 miles, were opened, and on the 11th December of the same
year the section from Alton to Litchfield, 38 miles. In 1855 (Jan. 26)
the road was opened to the Embarras River, 14 miles from Grandview,
and (July 2) to Mattoon, 14 miles beyond the Embarras. In the same
year the western division was completed (June 25) from Litchfield to
Hillsboro’, 11 miles, and (Nov. 12) from Hillsboro’ to Pana, 28 miles.
The remaining gap between Mattoon and Pana, 42 miles, were closed up
on the 1st March, and the whole line opened to traffic on the 1st April,
1856. The Belleville and Ulinoistown Railroad Company was chartered
June 21,1852, with authority to construct a road between those two places,
and also a line from Wood River, a point on the Terre Haute and Alton
Railroad, 4 J miles east of Alton to Ulinoistown. The first was completed
in the fall of 1854, and the latter, subsequently extended to Bloody Island,
oppositejSt. Louis in October, 1856. By agreement these roads, so necessary
ST. L O U IS . A LTO N AND T E R R E H A U TE R A IL R O A D .
217
to the Terre Haute and Alton Company in the transaction of their St.
Louis business, were consolidated with the main line under date of October
30,1856, the consolidated company taking the title of Terre Haute, Alton
and St. Louis Railroad Company. The capital stock and funded debt of
the company at the date of consolidation was as follows:
T . H . & A.
C ap ital s t o c k ........................................................ ................
*2,672,050
1 s t m o rtg a g ■ b o H d s ..............................................................(7s) 1,000,000
I d m o rtg a g e b n d s ...................... . . .................................(8s) 2,000,000
Stock and bonds...................................................
$5,672,050
B. & I.
*498,7 0
(7s) 6 0,(’00
(7 ) 601,000
C o n s o 'id ’n .
$3.170,S00
1,600,000
2,500 000
$1,598,750
$7,270,800
Soon after this consolidation the company became embarrassed, and
defaulted on all their bonds (including two issues under the consolidation) ;
and in December, 1859, went into liquidation. The bondholders and other
creditors, however, agreed upon terms of reorganization, which were carried
into effect on the 1st July, 1862, the consolidated company taking the
name of the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company, to
distinguish them from their predecessors. The basis on which the reor
ganization was consummated was as follows: The 1st mortgage bonds
and certain other liabilities of the old company, with all back interest to
June 30, 1862, were converted into new 1st bonds. This issue embraces
two series of 81,000,000 each, the one marked A , with coupons payable
October and April 1, and the other, B, with coupons payable January and
July 1, the first coupon to be paid Oet. 1,1862, and Jan. 1,18 >3, respect
ively. A sinking fund of $25,000 per annum, commencing with Jan. 1,
1864, was provided for the final redemption of these bonds. The second
bonds, and certain other liabilities, with interest to Jan. 1, 1863, were
exchanged for new second bonds. This issue was divided into two classes,
viz.: “preferred” $2,800,000, and “income” $1,700,000, both to carry inter
est from Jan. 1, 1863. The preferred bonds were issued in two series, C
and D , each of $1,400,000, the coupons of C being payable February and
August 1, and of D, May and November 1, annually. AH these bonds
are sevens, and redeemable in 1894. The third and fourth bonds of the
old company, and other junior liabilities, with interest added to Jan. 1,
1863, were changed for 7 per cent preferred stock, the issue of which was
limited to $1,700,000, increasable only under the expressed sanction of a
majority of the stock and bondholders. The first dividend was payable
May 1, 1864, and if not paid was to become accumulative and a charge
against income. The common stock of the old company was converted
into new common stock at the rate of 40 per cent of its face. The result
of these conversions placed thecapital of the new company at $10,700,000,
the same as it stood up to 1867, when the preferred stock was increased by
a 20 per cent dividend in kind, issued in liquidation of arrears of interest up
to Jan 1, 1867. T he addition to the amount of liabilities under this issue
218
ST. L O U IS , A LTO N A N D T E R R E H A U T E R A IL R O A D .
[September,
was $340,000, increasing the capital account to $11,040,000. In 1867
the main line of the company’s railroad was leased to the Indianapolis and
St. Louis company, a corporation engaged in the construction of a railroad
between Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Since this lease the Bellville
branch is the only line operated by this company. It is essentially a coal
road, and derives the greater part of its revenues from the transportation
of that mineral to St. Louis. “ A negotiation has been pending for some
time with the Bellville and Southern Illinois Railroad Company for the
extension of the branch to Duquoin. and it is hosed that some satisfactory
arrangement will yet be made.” Should this project be accomplished a
very direct line will be formed between St. Louis and Cairo at the con
fluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi. The terms of the contract referred
to above are set forth in the company’s report for 1867, as follows:
“ An operating contract with the Indianapolis and St. L ;uis Railroad Company was
duly executed, and actual possession of the road and its equipment was formally
delivered to that company on the 1 ith day of September la-t, since which date the
main line has been operated under the contract. By the terms of the contract it took
effect on the first of June previous, fiom which last date up to the 1 Ith of September
it was operated on account of and for the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad Com
pany, and the accounts have been adjusted accordingly. By the terms of the operat
ing contract they are to put the road, with its equipment, in good condition and equal
in evi ry respect to first class roads of the Western States and so to keep and main
tain it. They are to pay to this company 80 per cent of the first $2,000,000 of gross
earning- ; 25 per cent of the next or third m llion, and 20 per cent of all earnings
above that during the existence of the contract (99 years). These payments are to be
made in n onthly instalments, with an agreed minimum of $37,500 per month, or $450,000 per annum. Ttie performance of this contract is guaranteed by the Pittsburg, Fort
Wayne and Chicago Railway Company, one-third; the Indianonolis, Cincinnati and
Laiayetie Railroad Company, one-third; an I the Bellefontaine, Cleveland, Columbus
and Cincinnati, and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company,
jointly, one-third.”
The stock of engines and cars used in operating the road at the date of
reorganization, and on the 1st January, 1864-68, both inclusive, is shown
in the statement which follows :
E n g in e s ( w o r d ) ..................................................
“
(c o a l)............................................ . . .
J u ly 1,’621864 1865 1866. 1867.
32
30
30
30
10
16
16
16
48
25
5
4
5
21
242
93
17
12
92
188
328
46
25
5
4
5
21
242
93
17
12
92
188
328
46
28
5
6
4
21
242
103
22
12
88
142
378
9S3 1,032
1,051
0
T o ta l c a r s ................................................
42
23
5
4
5
20
238
81
17
12
94
165
319
l <T*?*
T o ta l e n g in e s ..........................................
P a s s e n g e r c o a c m s , 1st cl s s ........................
“
“
2d c l a s s ........................ ..........................
5
B ag g a g e a n d e x p re s s c a r s ..............................
“
a n d m a il c a r s .................................... ..........................
4
C ab o o s • c a rs .................. ...................... .........
B o x fre ig h t c a rs ( c o m m o n ) ......................... .......................... 240
“
•
(com p o m i s e ) ....................
“
“
(B lu L i n e ) ..........................
L im e c a r s ..............................................................
8 to c k c r s .............................................................
P la tfo rm ca s ....................................................
G av e l a n d coal c a r s .................................. .................................. 163
1868.
s lo
® l. o
£ § •3
% g s
g j= s
S i
° -= c 2
&
The following statement shows the gross earnings, working expenses
1868]
219
ST. L O U IS , A LTO N A N D T E R R E H A U TE R A IL R O A D .
and cost of improvements, and revenue after all costs, yearly since the
reorganization of the company, July 1, 1862 :
P a s s e n g e r e a 'n i n g s . ..
F r e ig h t e a rn in g s ............
A ll o th e r ea n i n g s ........
O p e ra in g e x p e n s e s .. .
E x tra o rd in a ry ex p e n se:
1862 (6 in) 1863.
.[$174,025 $511,234
. 429,659 969,886
, 29,027
73.792
.................. 919,02 s
.................. 212,305
1864.
$655, 46
1,324.396
164,231
1,289,909
293,398
1865.
$853,960
1,251,161
135.621
1,415,375
336,809
1866.
1367.
$820,563 $707,194
1.291,253 1,265,808
138,320
185,399
1,622.860
...........
100,526
...........
T o ta l e x p e n s e s ........ ................................... .. 354,281 1,131,333 1,583,307 1,752,185 1.723,378 1,621,858
K ev en u e o v e r c o s ts ........................................
T o ta l g ro s s e a r n i n g s .............'..................
278.480
423,579
500,766
4S8 558
526,764
£ 96,54;
632,712 1,554,913 2,084,074 2,240,743 2,250,142 2,218,462
The income account, showing the whole financial transactions of the
company yearly, is condensed in the following statem ent:
1862-63. 1864.
1S65.
1 8 m o s . 1 2 r a o s . 12 m o s
^
tj>
£
1866.
1867.
12 m o s. 12m os.
S
^
B alan ce fro m la s t y e a r ..................................................
37,667 294,228 201,449
89.507
47.272
r a rn in g s from all s o u rc e s ............................................ 2,211,103 2,084,074 2,240,743 2,‘ 50,142 1,030,819
C o n tr c to rs o f m a in lin e , f rom J u n e 1 to N o v .
30. 30 p e r ce n t, f g ro ss ea rn in g s , $1,038,001 48
...................................................................
311,400
C ontracto> 8 o f m a in lin e for D ec (m in im u m ; e x
ce ss p ay a b le F e b ru a ry 1, 1868)...........................................................................................................
37,500
I n te r e s t o n b a an c es, c o n tra c to rs a c c o u n ts .......................................................................................
5,570
T o t a l ........................................................ ................... 2,248,SS0 2,378,302 2,442,193 2,339,650 1,432,562
— which amounts are charged with the following:
P a y m e n ’s fo r im p ro v e m e n ts , n e w ir o n a n d rolli g s to c fc , n d t a im p o r t a t i o n .............................. 1,497,764 1,583,307 1,752,185 1,723,378
456,837 593,545 600,500 494,(00
C o u p o n ' a n d s in k ii g ’f u n d ........................................
................................................
75,000
P a id to W i g in s F » rry C o........ ................................
B a la n c e to n e x t y e a r ......................................................
294,228 201,449
89,507
47,272
777,168
494,000
...........
161,394
T o t a l ............................................................................. 2,248,830 2,378,302 2,442,193 2,839,650 1,432,562
The earnings from all sources for 1867 are divided thus: Earnings on
all the lines from January 1 to June 1 (5 months), $842,447 19, and on the
Belleville Branch Line only, from June 1 to December 31 (7 months),
$188,372 56. The earnings on the Main Line for the 6 months (June 1
to Nov. 30), as shown in the account, amounted to $1,038,001 48, of
which 30 per cent ($311,400 44) was paid by the contractors to the St.
Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company. The amount set down
for the month of December ($37,500) is the minimum stipulated for by
the company in their contract with the lessees. The payments for improvemems, &e., for 1867 are for all lines to June 1 ($857,141 33 less amount
assumed by contractors for locomotives and supplies on hand $118,089 09)
$739,052 24. The payments for the Belleville Branch for the last 7
months of the year are stated separately at $38,116 10—total as above,
$777,168 34.
The first balance sheet of the reorganized company bears date January,
220
[September,
ST. L O U IS, A LTO N A N D T E R R E H A U T E R A IL R O A D .
1864. The following abstract shows the financial condition of the com
pany at that date and yearly thereafter :
C a p ita l s to c k —c o m m o n ....................................
“
“ —p r e f e r r e d ..................................
B o n d s —1 st m o rtg g e .........................................
— 2d m o n ., p r e f ..................................
“
>-2d m o rt., in c o m e ...................... ...........
1864.
1865.
1866.
1867.
1868.
2,2(0.000
1.700.000
2, 200, u00
2.800.000
1.700.000
2,300,000
1,700,003
2,200,0(0
2,8u0,0C0
1,700,000
2,300,000
1,700.0 0
2,200,000
2,800,000
1,700,000
2.300.000
1.700.00 1
2, 20'‘,000
2,8u0,0'0
1.700.00
2,30- ',000
2,040,000
2, 200,000
2.800,000
1,700,000
S
$
$
S to c k a n d b o n d s ................................ .......... 10 600,000 10,700,000 10,700,000 10,700 OHO 11,040,000
E a rn in g s fro m J u y 1, 1862................................ 2.187,625 4,271,699 6,512,443 8,762,5*5 9,645,033
162,465
D u e o n a c c o u n t s ..................................................
219,242
302,361
200,113
142.411
S ales o f re a l es: a t e ..................................................
14,790 25,230
43,080
57,677
T . H ., A . & - t L . R R , b e in g ea rn in g s p rio r
37,682
to J u ly 1,1862, a n d sin c e c o lle c te d ..............
37,867
37,682
37,682
37,682
348,900
C o n tra c to rs , m a in li n e ..............................................
....
....
5,426
I n t e i e s t .................. ...................................................
......
......
T o ta l
12,> 59,325 15,350,823 17,493,319 19,7t0,326 21,199,507
P e r contra, the following charges are made :
C o s t o f p ro p e rty , a s re o rg a n iz e d .............. 10,600,000 10,700.000 10,700,000 10,700,000 11,040,000
A c c o u n ts a n d t e d ................................................ 1,485,615 3,068,922 4,821,108 6,544,486 7,263,538
17,444
12,149
12,490
13,4 5
14,023
C h a rte r ia b l i l i e s .............................................. .
1,490
3.321
2,281
P r o til a n d lo s s ........ ............................................
1,99S
13,215
118,5:- 5
107,209
C a s h in B a n k o f N . A m e ric a ..............................
205,647
661,070
58,003
C ash on h a n d ..........................................................
55,138
88,378
122,6*7
Vo,105
333,830
158,632
D u e on accou- ts
..........................................
245,351
183,014
179,143
C o n tra c to rs , m a in l i n e ........................................
787,877
1 s t m o rtg a g e , c o u p o n s ..................................
302^864
448,7 9
593,557
918,274
320,240
617,325
709,055
2 d m o r t , p ref. c o u p o n s ................................ .
572,150
328,941
446,4s9
2d m o rt., in c o m e c o u p o n s .................................
211,207
....
237,937
111,123
234,311
23-,311
I n t e r e s t o n p re f. s to c k ........................................
87,500
S in k in g f u n d ..........................................................
37,500
67,592
25,000
T o ta l
12,059,325 15,350,823 17,493,319 19,700,326 21,199,507
The increase in the capital account in 1867 was caused by a divident of
20 per cent in kind to the preferred stock in settlement of accumulated
interest. This amounted to $340,000, otherwise the account has remained
without alteration since July 1, 1862.
The stocks of the St. Louis, Alton and Terre H aute Railroad Company
are occasionally but not frequently sold at the New York stock boards.
So far as sales have been reported, we give the monthly range for the two
years 1866 and 1867 :
-----------C om m on.
1866.
J a n u a r y ....
F e b r u a r y ...
M arch . . . .
A p r i l ..........
M a y .............
J u n e ...........
J u l y .............
A u g u s t ___
.
.
.
,.
.
.
.
S e p te m b e r.
O c to b e r....
IS o v e m b e r .
D e c e m b e r ..
.
. 38 @53
37%@41
Y e a r ...
. 29 @53
30 @36
29 @35
30 @38
30 @34#
30 @:-2
31 @35
34%@4l
36%@3S
1867,
31 @39%
32 @35
iii
31 @35
4U>S@58>£
50 @55
50 @51
—
@—
49 @54
50 @50
30% @58%
— P re f, :rred.
1866.
1867. ^
56
60 @67
68 @81
62%@03
59%@61
\ 0% @64
61 @6s
60
@81
61 @64%
66 @ 7 0 #
61 @63
75 @S5>£
83 @84
64K @ '" X
7s @83
61 @73%
71
67 @67
64 @ 8Stf
7aK@7S
69 @78
60%@67
66 @87
65 @65
56
@78
56
The common stock is now quoted at 36@37|- and the preferred at 60
@69.
1868 J
TH E H A T CHOP.
221
THE HAY CROP.
The failure of the usual second hay crop, and partial failure of the root
and green crops of England, in consequence of the protracted severe
drought, has directed attention to the hay crop of the Uniied States, and
the more so because there has recently been an unusually large shipment
of the product from this port. That there must be a scarcity of cattle
food in Great Britain until next summer there can, we suppose, be little
doubt, judging from the general tenor of reports; and the deficiency will
doubtless require to be supplied, to a certain extent, from other countries.
The bearing of this state of things, however, upon the foreign demand
for our own hay crop may be easily over-estimated. As in all cases of
deficient supply substitution must first be duly allowed for. The principal
demand for cattle food comes from the farmers who are always strongly
disinclined to increase the costs of feeding their live stock. If their
crop of hay or clover falls short they are not apt to buy, but to increase
the rations of coarser feed ; which has been facilitated by the now general
use of the strawcutter; and if the turnip crop fails, they simply feed
their horned cattle more plentifully with straw and manufactured food.
The high price of oats and beans only induces the farmer to sell them
in preference to distributing them among his own cattle. He undoubtedly
suffers in the deterioration of the condition of his stock, and perhaps in
the diminution of his next year’s supply of straw manure; but here the
evil ends. This process of substitution, together with the economy of
consumption, go far toward compensating for the loss of supply, and
the result is that little in the shape of cattle food has to be imported.
The scarcity of this class of products is calculated to tell most directly
upon oats and Indian corn ; for the former is apt to come in from foreign
countries upon an advance in the home prices; while the latter is avail
able for the production of manufactured cattle food, which is now used
to a large extent in the towns of England, though little among the farmers.
In view of these facts, it is not difficult to estimate what may be the
effect of the drought in England upon our own hay crop. The founda
tion is a very slender one for counting upon any large additions to our
exports from this source, an expectation which has been encouraged in
some quarters. The exports of hay from New York for the last four
weeks have been 8,631 bales, worth about $20,000, which is about onefifth of the average annual shipments from this port. This, to be sure,
shows a large increase ; but the shipments are in value still insignificant,
and appear to have been made principally on shipowners’ account, and
merely in the way of stowage and for filling up deficient cargoes. The
bulkiness of such freight prohibits it from being available to any important
extent for shipment to Liverpool. Hay, indeed, is a purely domestic crop ?
{September,
TH E H AY C RO P.
222
and, although exceedingly valuable as such, is not raised in sufficient
quantity to admit of our supplying a trans-Atlantic deficiency, even were
it susceptible of importation thither. Three-fourths of our entire exports
go to the near ports of the West Indies and Mexico, while ordinarily
our shipments to England are nominal. The following statement shows
the exports of hay from the United States for four late years, and the
ports to which they were destined :
,— lSG3-’64— .
Porta of destinat’n .............
British ''■'or h Ain.............. .......... 1,323
British Columbia...............
40
Russian Am rica............... . .........
British W est l e d ...............
39
French W 1 & C................ ..........
Spanish W- st Ind..............
16
Danish W e st In d ............... ..........
33
Dutch W.I. & Col.......... ............
Bremen .................. ........
Azores, &c. . ...................
Canary Islan d s...................
Liberia ..............................
H a y ti & San Dom ..............
« entral A m e ri c a .................... __
N . Granada &Ven..............
Chili and P eru ....................
............
Pacific p o rts &I s ............... ...........
China and Ja p an ................ ..........
___
9
12
43
lS64r-’65.—,
r - lS 6 5 - ’6 6 .- ^
18G6-’6 7 .- ^
Value. Tns. Value. Tons. Value. Tons. Value.
$ ........
$ .........
$ ........ 928 $27,161
'23,279 3 >7
2,768
8,846
189
28
777
......... 700 15,800 733
10,850
256
3,063
900
35
433
192
1,045
24
13
36,224 1,682 29,603 1,782
33,173 1,136
26,167
8S0
55
1,679
GS4
14
30
329
34,564 2,389 56,448 3,964
72,158 1,246
40,014
353
17
21
451
73
536
2
882
27
74
96
2,086
1,931
810
...................
26
7S8
35
2
38 . . . .
is
575
’ *’ 164 !!!’.
2,460 643 21,135 203
1,174
47
3,717
11,096 1,476 29,823 1,748
32,489
29,223 2,058
.......
6
202
1
23
3
73
145
35
1,254
1
....
27 . . . ,
....... 130
3,000
11
165
84
55
187
5
100
1,481
- 2
2S0
1
40
15
260
41
516
1,273 . . . .
71
895
1,560
67
T o t a l................................................ 4,836
4.836 $11?,562
$11?,563 8,457 $198,784 8.97S $159,016 5,028 $109,776
A v erag e p e r t o n ..............................................
23 49 . . . .
23 51
....
17 71
....
21 83
It is not easy, however, to over-estimate the importance of this crop as
a product for home consumption. It ranks, in point of value, with oui most
important productions, even rivalling the cotton crop, but, not appearing
in the local export returns, its value is less generally appreciated. Exclusive
of the Southern States, the value of the crop is estimated, in official returns,
at $247,000,000 in 1863, at $365,000,000 in 1864, at $273,000,000 in
1865, and at $306,000,000 in 1866. The quantity of hay (absolute and
per acre in tons) and the value per ton thereof at the place of produc
tion, as shown in the statistics of the Department of Agriculture for the
seasons of 1864, ’65, ’66, and ’67, were as follows :
,— -------1864-5.---------- s ,---------- 1S65-6.-------- ,
t—Q, a n tity .— » V alue,, /—Q u a n tity .—nV alu e,
S ta te s .
...................
....................
....................
....................
..................
.................. .
..................
..................
..................
..................
..................
..................
..................
..................
N e b r a s k a ............ .......... ..
A b so lu te . p . a.
0.88
1.00
1.00
1.00
62,044 1.00
1.20
1.12
436,496 1.57
1,706,336 1.30
33,111 1 50
167,909 1.33
112,325 1.33
1,415,006 1.13
962,805 1.50
847,737 1.12
2,166,725 1.50
789,765 1.14
1.50
814,764 1.63
390,599 1.43
82,569 1.67
18,391 1.33
p. t
$21 00
21 00
17 95
29 CO
31 50
27 00
23 05
26 72
24 55
30 00
27 00
2010
19 38
17 81
19 33
15 33
13 00
9 36
9 51
1812
13 00
7 33
A b so lu te , p . a. p . t.
1,429,511 1.00 $11 81
793,327 1.00 14 70
991,814 1.20 11 50
844,173 1.33 21 00
64,312 1.13 22 50
596,191 1.25 23 50
5,288,352 1.40 12 33
461,958 1.75 13 89
2,463,545 1.60 11 23
29,800 1.25 17 00
181,341 1.50 16 43
127.301 1.40 12 10
2,158,021 1.66
8 00
1,251,646 1.66
9 40
1,231,278 1.80 1217
2,600,070 1.50
9 30
1,066,182 1.50 10 14
274,217 1.70
8 59
7 36
1,018,455 1.75
519,479 1.75 12 33
118,348 2.00
SCO
29,425 2.00
5 64
.----------- 1866-7.----------,
/—Q u a n tity .—%V alu e ,
A o so lu te . p . a. p . t.
957,772 0 8d $19 28
665,395 0.84 17 88
862,878 1.00 35 61
742.872 1 CO 21 39
53,379 1.00 31 66
536,527 1.40 25 60
4,759,516 1.20 16 18
869,506 1.26 25 00
1,970,536 1.20 16 14
: 6,820 1.10 17 50
181,341 1 30 20 2?
115,844 1.37 12 80
1,963,799 1.30 11 00
1,08 ,932 1.23
9 44
1,218.959 1.30 13 75
2,340,063 1.47
9 27
1,151,477 1.30 12 25
350,000 1.50 10 00
6 20
1,161,039 1.90
9 91
654,544 1.90
323,082 2 00
718
6 43
29,720 1.50
T o tal......... ....................18,116,691 1.20 $20 18 23,538,740 1.44 $11 63 21,321,361 1.23 $14 46
1868]
TRA D E O F G REA T B R IT A IN
A N D T H E U N IT E D STA TES.
223
The hay crop of the Southern States in the season of 1866 vras as fol
lows :
/—Q u a n tity .— » V a lu e ,
/—Q u a n tity .— * V alu e,
A b so lu te , p . a .
p . t.
A b so lu te , p . a .
p . t.
$30 00
V i r g i n i a ............................ 203,698 1.30
$14 28 L o u i s i a n a .......................... $36,90 • 1 00
N o r th C a ro lin a ................ 163,229 1.30
1300 T e x a s .................................. 15, 43 1.50
J3 00
7,578 1 .30
2643
S o u th C aro lin a.................. 70,069 1.00
22 00 A rk a n s a s ..........................
G e o r g i a .............................. 46,448 0.90
2362 T e n n e s s e e ......................... 140,550 1.40
1863
9,754 3.00
20 62
F lo r id a .......................
A la b a m a .......................... 80,854 1.00
1863
$17 81
T o t a l............................ $804,266 1.19
M is s is s ip p i........................ 29,611 0.87
2750
The following compares the total crops of 1863, ’64, ’65, and ’66 :
/------------------- A b s o 'u te .----------------------»
P r o d u c t: to n s . A cr a g e .
V a lu e .
1863*.................... ............................... 18,316,730
15,641,501 $247,680,855
1864 ...................................................... 18,116,691
15,034,564
365,707,074
1865 ..................................................... 23,528,740
16,323,852
273,812,617
1866 .................................................... 21,324.361
17,265,1)2
306,732,957
1866 (5. S ta te s ) ................................
804,266
674,682
14,328,880
T o n s , /----- V a lu e .----- ■
p. a.
p . t.
p. a.
1.17 $13 48 $15 83
1 .20
2013
24 32
1 .44
11 63
16 77
1.23
14 46
17 80
1.19
17 81
21 23
These statistics are suggestive. I t will be noted that the value of
the crop runs very irregularly with the yield.
In 1863, when the
yield averaged 1.17 tons per acre, the price was $13 48 per ton while
in 1865, with a yield of 1.44 tons, the price averaged only $11 63.,
This apparent discrepancy, however, is to be accounted for from the
fact that the crop was 4,800,000 tons greater in 1865 than in 1863.
The yield per acre and the value will be seen from an examination of the
table to vary very widely in the several States, the yield being most
abundant in New Jersey, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and
Kansas.
TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.
The British Board of Trade returns for June and the six months ending
June 30, have been published. They show that the outward trade has
fallen off not only from last year, but also from the previous month, owin^,
no doubt, to the diminution in the trade with China, the United States
and France. During the month the declared value of the exports of
British and Irish produce and manufactures amounted to £13,933,054,
against £15,490,091 last year and £14,630,120 in 1866; while in the
six months ending June 30 it reached a total of £84,601,157 against
£87,613,484 in 1867 and £92,857,830 in 1866. The computed real value
of the imports in the five months ending May 31 was £90,167,617, against
£88,547,811 last year and £98,315,826 in 1866.
In June the imports of cotton reached a total of 1,086,630 cwt., of which
608,910 cwt were from the United States, 98,923 from Brazil, 4,820 from
Turkey, 139,655 from Egypt, 211,964 from British India, and 22,358
from other countries. The total received in June last year was 1,293,724
* Kentucky and Nebraska were not returned In 1863.
224
TRA D E O F G R EA T B R IT A IN
AND T H E U N IT E D STATES.T September,
cwt., and, in 1866, 1,671,672 cwt. The following figures show tbe imports
into tbe United Kingdom in the six months ending June 30 :
F ro m —
U n ite d S ta te s ....................
B alia m a s a n d B erm u d as.
M e x ic o ................................
F r a z i l....................................
T u r k e y ................................
E g y p t....................................
B ritis h I n d i a ....................
C h i n a .................... ..............
O th e r c o u n t r ie s ..............
T o t a l ........................
1866.
cw t.
3,231,089
5,931
3,145
408,678
78,531
619,538
2,378,199
186S.
c w t.
3,986,796
41
1867.
cw t.
3,401,4S3
9,9i6
22
456,194
15,534
747,465
728,983
393,878
53,307
70 J 83 L
939,536
4.707
141,526
132,631
6,857,742
80,495
6,015,508
5,647,206
As regards the exports of cotton there is a considerable falling off as
compared with last year. In the six months the diminution is about
280,000 cwt., the heaviest decline being in the shipments to Russia and
Prussia, The following are the particulars for the six months :
To—
R u s s a ..................
P r u s s i a ..............
H a n o v e r ..............
H a n s e T o w n s ...
H o lla n d ..............
O th e r c o u n trie s ,
1866,
cw t.
129,471
31,383
5,618
405,076
236,531
742,874
1867,
cw t.
153,546
114,92?
3,214
365,014
254,' 27
577,837
1868,
c w t.
70,198
56,947
1,671
316,083
253,362
483,139
T o t a l ........
1,550,953
1,469,165
1,181,400
The exports of cotton piece goods wero less in June, current year, than
in the corresponding month in ] 807, in consequence of diminished ship
ments to Egypt, the Continent and the United States. The official return
however, shows extensive shipments to India and China. The following
are the total exports in the six m onths:
1866.
Y a m .................................................................................. lb s .
63,481,909
P ie c e g o o d s .................................................................... y d s . 1,196,186,533
T h r e a d ............................................................................... lb s .
3,051,889
18W.
76,133.031
1,304,110.080
3,214,965
1868.
87,484,783
1,373,762,414
3 219,022
The annexed return shows the exports of the principal British and Irish
productions and manufactures to the United States during the first six
months of the current year, compared with 1867 and 1866;
1866.
1867.
692.709
9,753
67,604
1868.
55’,187
C o tto n M a n u fa c t u r e s—
P ie c e g o o d s , y a r d s .................... .......................................... .
T h re a d , lb s ................................... ..............................................
E a rth e n w a re a n d p o rc e la in , p k g s .........................................
H a b e rd a s h e ry a n d m illin e ry (v a lu e ).................................... ............
H ardw ares and C u tlery —
K n iv e s , fo rk s , & c . ( v a lu e ) ..................................................
A n v ils , v ic e s , & c ( v a lu e ) .................................................. .
M a n u fa c tu re s o f G e rm a n s ilv e r, & c ( v a lu e ) ................
£758,318
57,474,454
733,102
54,937
596,921
45,469,839
883,112
45,904
475,792
120,405
47,986
253,745
78,171
35,459
165,753
> L in e n M a n u f a c t u r e s —
P ie c e g o o d s, y a r d s ............................................................. . .
T h re a d , l b » . . . ......................................... ............. ....................
45,696,325 38,348,573
749,334
549,67t>
1868]
225
B R IT IS H S T A T IS T IC S .
M etals—
100,112
57,905
22,018
97,073
246
13,4S2
3,661
10,2S1
2,947
5,698
491,582
1,170,872
70,842
31,339
18,056
148,544
2i9
5,7£9
1,745
6,641
1.139
3,900
645,1J9
156,204
75,135
431,645
4,623
17.007
£63,758
£35,127
57,321
4,£80
227,028
2,323
12,854
26,u49
33,207
14,885
8,904
178,495
113
9,3£3
69,370
31,S74
30,759
48,894
44,732
30,8<i6
54,396
695
15,0-21
5,589
9,930
5,618
2,913
554,040
747,189
I r o n —P ig , & c., t o n s ..............................................
B ar, & c., t o n s ..............................................
R a ilro a d , t o n s ............................................ .
C a s tin g s, t o n s ............................................
H o o p s, s h e e ts a n d b o ile r p la te s , to n s ,
W ro u g h t, t o n s ............................................
S te e l U n w ro u g h t, t o n s ........................................
C o p p er, w ro u g h t, c w ts .........................................
3 > a d , p ig , & c , t o n s ..............................................
T i a p la te s, c w ts ......................................................
O il se e d , g a l ls ................................................................
S a lt, to n s ......................................................................
S il k M a n u f a c t u r e s —
B ro a d p ie c e g o o d s, & c ., y a r d s ..........................
H a n d k e rc h ie fs , d o z e n s ..........................................
R ib b o n s , lb s ...............................................................
O th e r a rtic le s o f s ilk ( v a l u e ) ..............................
' ilK m a n u f ’s m ix e d w iih o th e r m a te r i a ls ...
S p ir its , B ritis h , g a lls ................................................ .
W ool, lb s ........................................................................
W oolen a nd W o rsted M a n u fa c tu r es—
3,144,385 2,384,598 1,733 879
2,251.8'i2 2,335,934 1,554,59 0
58,803
71,972
50,55 5
42,466,342 23,553,440 31,804,821
C lo th , y a r d s ..............................................................
C a rp e ts a n d d ru g g e ts, y a r d s ..............................
S h aw ls, ru g s , & c., n u m b e r................................
W o rs te d stu ffs a n d w a is tc o a iin g s, y a r d s . ,
BRITISH STATISTICS.
From official documents we gather the following statistics relating to tl e
Nati nal Debt, as also to the progress of commerce in Great Britain and Ireland :
A t the close of the financial year on the 31st of March, 1855, the funded debt
amounted to £752,(64,119; the unfunded debt was £23.151,400; and the
estim .ted capital of terminab'e annuities, £26,763,244; making the total amount
of the National Debt £801,978,763. A year later, at the corresponding date in
1856, at the close of the Crimean war, the a »ount was £829,579,798; at the
like date in 1857, £ < 3 i,722,963; in 1858, £826 134,640; in 1859, £823,931,880 ; in 1860, £819,<>70,310; in 1861, £818,048,896 ; in 1862, £817,389,290 ;
in 1863, £817,559,322 ; in 1864, £813,23(1,134 ; in 1865, £808,289,398; in 1866,
£802,842,949; in 1867, £800,848,847; and on the 3 Lst of March, 1868, £797,0 3 1 ,650;-viz., £741,190,328 funded debt, £7,911,100 unfunded, and £47,930,222, the estimated capital value of the terminable annuities, which in that
year amounted to £3,447,270. Since 1855 the increase of debt incurred for the
Crimean war has been wiped out, and the proportion of debt payable by termin
able annuities has been mat* rially increased.
The total gross revenue of the country for the year ended March, 1868, amount
ed to £69,600,218 sterling. Of this sum £22,650,000 was derived from customs,
and £2 ,162,000 from excise duties; £9,541,000 from stamps; £6,177.000 from
property and income tax, and £3,509,000 for other taxes ; £ 4 630,000 from the
post office, £345,000 from crown lands, and £2,: 86,2] 8 from miscellaneous
receipts. The charges of collection o revenue amounted to £4,883,294, and
the total expenditure, after deducting charges of collection, to £66,3 3,038
which is thus epitomized
£26,571.750 for interest and management of the
National Debt; £11,193,757 for the civil list and civil charges of all kinds;
£15.4 8,582 for the army, including ordnance and all other military charges •
and £11,168,949 for the n^vy. The customs revenue was derived—from duties
5
226
a s s is t a n t
t r e a s u r e r ’s
sta tem en t
fo r
au gust.
[Septemberf
on sugar and molasses, amounting to £5,582,473; on tea, to £2,827,317; on
coffee, to £390,161 ; on corn, meal and flour, to £869,323; on spirits, to £4,298,403; on wine, to £1,468,993. on tobacco and snuff, to $6,542,250; on other
imported articles, to £581,481; and on miscellaneous receipts, to £104,580.
The excise duties consisted of £10,511,530 derived from spirits, £6,302,419 from
malt, £2,640,237 from licences, and £736,152 from other receipts. By an
abstract of alterations of taxes from 1853 to 1867, it is found that taxes were
repealed or reduced to the extent of £40,292,904, and were imposed to the
extent of £28,448,596, causing at the end of 1867 an actual diminution to the
extent of £11,844,308 sterling. The total value of imports during the past
year was £275,249,853, or £ 9 2s. 6d. per head of population of the United
Kingdom. The total value of exports (British, foreign and colonial produce)
was £226,067,136, and the total value of imports and exports represented £16
12s. 5d. per head of the population. Thu actual receipts t the Exchequer fell
short of the sum estimated in the • udget by a sum ol £369,782. and the actual!
payments out of the Exchequer (excluding lortifications) were less than those
estimated in the budget (including supplemental votes) by £50,785.
ASSISTANT TREASURER’S STATEMENT FOR AUGUST.
The following is the official statement of the business of the office of the Assistant
Treasurer of the United States, in New York, for the month o f August 1868 :
RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS.
$80,133,185 5$
B alan ce, J u ly 3 1 ,1 8 6 S ............................................................
R e c e ip ts d u rin g th e m o n t h :
O n a c c o u n t o f c u s t o m s ........................................................
do
G old n o te s ..................................................................
do
I n te r n a l r e v e n u e ......................................................
do
T h re e p e r c e n t. C e rtific a te s .................................
do
P o st-o ffice D e p a r tm e n t........................................
do
T r a n s f e r s ............................................ .......................
do
P a te n t fees ..............................................................
do
M is c e lla n e o u s ........................................................
do
D is b u rs in g a c c o u n ts ..........................................
do
A ss a y office...............................................................
do
I n te r e s t a c c o u n ts .......... ................. ...............
$12,263,8S3 91
9,075,920 00
239,632 47
12.835.000 00
880,933 45
17.251.000 00
3,059 SO
4,530,446 53
24,130,294 83
1,341 35
41,722 30— 81,253,234 64
T o t a l .................................................... ................................
$161,386,420 00
P a y m e n ts d u rin g th e m o n t h :
T r e a s u r y d r a f t s ........................................................................
P o st-o ffic e d r a f t s ......................................................................
D is b u rsin g a c c o u n ts .............. .................... .........................
A ss a y -O ffic e .................. ................
.....................................
$50,337,076
253,163
21.827,453
149,104
99
35
71
89
I n te r e s t a c c o u n ts , v i z . :
I n c o i n .............................................. ..........................................
I n c u rre n c y .................................................................................
1,222,446 79
41,722 30— 73,830,963 03
$87,555,452 17
B a la n c e ...............................................................................
✓ Balance to C r. T re a s u re r U . S ....................................
B alan ce to Cr. d is b u rs in g a c c o u n ts ..............................
B a la n c e to C r. A ssay office
.
.................................
R e c e ip s for C u s to m s in th e m o n th o f A u g u st, 1868
R e c e ip ts for C u s to m s in th e m o n th o f A u g u st, 1867
r
D e crea se for A u g u s t, 1868.......................................... .
$70,163,120 14
15,058,596 60
2,328,735 43
$12,263,883 91
12,903,740 08
$639,856 17
1868]
227
S A N F R A N C IS C O TR E A SU R E M O V EM EN T.
UNITED STATES ASSAY OFFICE FOR AUGUST.
Below w e giv e the statem ent o f business at the U nited States A ssay Office at
N ew York for the month ending August 31, 1868 :
DEPOSITS OP GOLD.
F o re ig n c o i n ...........................................................................................................
F o re ig n b u llio n .....................................................................................................
U n ite d S ta te s b u ll io n .........................................................................................
$8,900 00
144,100 00
1,302,500 00-$1,455,500 00
DEPOSITS OP SILVER, INCLUDING PURCHASES.
F o re ig n c o in s .........................................................................................................
$4,000 00
F o re ig n b u llio n .......................................
13,500 00
U n ite d S ta te s b u llio n (c o n ta in e d i n n o ld )...................................................
12,500 00
M o n ta n a ..................................................................................................................
3,500 00
C o larado .................................................................................................................
16,500 00
L a k e S u p e rio r..................................................................................................
2,000 00
N e v a d a .....................................................................................................................
18,500 0 0 - $70,500 00
T o ta l d e p o s its , p a y a b le i n b a r s ....................................................................... $1,426,000 00
T o ta l d e p o s its, p a y a b le in c o i n s ....................................................................
100,000 0 0 - 1,526,000 00
G o ld b a rs s ta m p e d ..........................................................................................................................
1,142,785 25
SAN FRANCISCO TREASURE MOVEMENT FOR SIX MONTHS.
W e have received from Thomas P. K ettell, the San Francisco Commercial L ist of
July 13, co n fin in g a review of the trade o f San Francisco for the six months endiDg
June 30th, from which w e extract the following:
The rece:pts o f bullion, as reported by W ells, Fargo & Co., distinguishing that
from Nevada, have been for six months in three years as follows :
N e v a d a ..........................................................................................
N o r th e rn m in e s ..........................................................................
S o u th e rn m i n e s .........................................................................
C o a s tw is e .....................................................................................
T o t a l ............................
.................................................
1866.
$7,263,218
10,329.958
1,769,208
1,775,349
1867.
$9,341,949
9,647,527
1,519,958
1,683,857
1868.
$6,481,427
10,229,998
1,470,428
1,495,502
$21,137,733
$22,193,291
$19,678,355
The great decline, as compared with last year, is in the Nevada product; but there
has been an increase in the gold of the Northern California mines.
These are the returns o f the express company which embrace nearly all the bullion
that c» mes do ■n.
Much comes, however, in private hands, but which finds its way
either to the mint, to the custom house or for export. These returns account for
rather mere than the express deliveries, as follows :
G o ld b a r s a t m i n t ..................
“
“ s e n t p e r s te a m e r,
“
“
“
s a i l ........
S ilv e r b a rs p e r s te a m e r ........
“
“
s a i l ................
T o ta l co in ed a n d sh ip p e d
R e p o rt W ells, F a rg o & C o . . . .
E x c e s s o v e r re p o rte d r e c e i p t s .
"867.
$7,701,902
9,582,510
348,193
5,453,851
2.520,155
11
16
45
00
00
1868.
$3,923,660 41
11,046,824 64
384,852 72
6,170,797 77
7(5.397 18
$25,606,611 72
22,193,291 09
$22,226,532 92
19,678,355 00
$3,413,320 72
$1,568,177 92
This excess indicates the quantities that came down through irregular channels. It
i3 obvious that these figures do not embrace the stocks of bullion on hand,as thus some
$600,0' 0 was shipped on the first week of July, which was on hand at the close of
June ; but the amount on hand January 1st was about the same as that held July
1st.
ence the figures give nearly the actual movement for the quarter. The offi
cial report ot the exports of treasure, showing the destination, embraces the coin ship
ment with the bullion, and is not to be relied upon as an indication of th e actual
gold product of the coast.
228
ban
F r a n c is c o
trbasu re
m ovem ent.
[
September,
The shipment of treasure for the six months, distinguishing the kinds o f metals sent
forward have been as in the following to tables, showing the description by each conj
yeyancd
EXPORT OF TREASURE VIA PANAMA P E R STEAMERS.
Ja n .
“
“
"
F eb.
“
“
Gold bars.
1............................... .. ............ $757,788 18
11....................................
18....................................
............ 639,296 53
30.............................
10....................................
18....................................
29...................... .............
Silver bars.
$IG9,S34 39
497,073 43
232,629 92
303,137 89
330,568 64
176,786 43
277,312 60
100,009 67
Gold coin.
$67,083 0i
114,000 00
72,986 78
146,991 96
83,233 00
105,302 59
25,654 94
223,763 95
55,353 17
21,000 00
“ 31..................................
Apr. 6 ....................................
14....................................
380,993 06
193,179 09
348,406 59
19 682 00
220,5i 0 00
22,000 00
“ 22....................................
« 30....................................
368,872 56
134,231 71
115,102 67
135,304 43
376,270 01
196,777 28
113,376 65
415,360 11
118,108 69
76.953 86
447,264 04
185,412 66
234,067 39
24,629 34
46,196 96
“ 10....................................
“ 38....................................
6 ....................................
14....................................
20 .....................- ..........
22....................................
30....................................
“
“
“
“
“
.......
536,935 68
“ 6 . . . . ~ .......................... ............
“ 1 3 ^ .................................
“ 22....................................
“ 30....................................
526,928 72
49,260 25
46,245 16
26,184 06
30,573 54
18,500 00
10,000 00
25,744 62
30,700 00
$6,170,797 77 $1,261,S11 38
5,452,871 85 1,766,188 78
Total 6 months ’68..........
Total 1867........................
T o ta ls .
$994,705 58
1,312,995 83
809.5U1 66
*1,093,161 88
1,058,781 37
501,416 28
654,061 16
474,009 67
362.008 07
704,799 44
303,000
00
953,820 38
474,579 09
740,582 89
314,500 00
679,358 60
696,999 08
208t700 00
610,883 02
1,006,820 52
196,777 28
676,496 39
1,072,298 00
118,108 69
622.382 58
1 359,371 80
527.383 08
470,667 16
16,801,600 79
EXPORT TO CHINA, E T C ., P E R STEAMERS AND SAIL VESSELS.
G o ld b a r s .
Ton
" U•
1,100 00
39,105 00
7 ....
52,673
84^566
35,104
125,006
18 __
M ay
June
T o ta l.
G old c o in . M ex . d o la rs.
$29,832 00 $176,581 00 $$378,844 S4
69,707 81
107,4c3 11
Feb.
it
tt
tt
tt
S ilv e r b a r s .
$58,531 24
3 ....
25
37
05
23
26,029 00
191,62S IB
69,883 25
36,000 66
208,377 00
41,174 00
121,760 00
1,000 00
225,384 00
59,707
143,403
§291,159
93,847
34,566
35,104
11350,387
81
11
47
25
37
C5
68
1,000 10
TO JAPA N.
154,642 50
8,000 00
50,716 66
J a n . 13,
J u n e 3,
205,359 46
8,000 00
TO VICTORIA.
25.000 00
50.000 00
J a n . 21
A p r. 4,
..............
..............
25,000 00
50,000 00
..............
...............
25,000 00
25,000 00
TO SANDWICH ISLANDS.
25.000 00
25.000 00
F e b . 8 ..........
M a r. 1 7 . . . . *~
T o ta l 6 m o n ’s ...................... $374,506 32 $715,397 18 $2S9,S49 25 $972,918 50 $2,363,017 85
T o t a l 1867 .............................. 348,193 45 2,520,155 68 146,419 00 775,179 65 3,789,947 78*§
* $3,735 50 fo re ig n g o ld c o in in c lu d e d in to ta l,
t $15,01)0 M e x ic a n d o lla rs in c lu d e d i n to ta l.
± $ 2 ,2 0 0 g o ld d u s t in c lu d e d in tu ta l.
§ $587 60
“
“
“
II $954
“
“
“
**$6,605
“
“
“
1868]
229
S A N F R A N C IS C O T R E A S U R E M O V EM EN T.
By recapitulation, the whole treasure exported has been as follows:
V ia I s h m u s .
G o ld b i r s ........................................................................$11,046,8-24 64
S ilv e r b a r s ......................................................................
6,170,797 37
Gol-i c o i n ........................................................................
1,261,811 38
G o ld d u s t ....................................................................................................
M ex ic an d o lla rs ............................................................
15,000 00
F o re ig n g o ld c o i n ........................................................
8,735 50
C h in a , & c.
$374,506 32
715,397 18
289,849 25
10,346 60
972,918 50
................
T o ta l.
$11,421,330 96
6,886,194 95
1,551,66 ) 63
10,346 CO
987,918 50
3,735 50
$18,498,169 29
4,028,521 37
$2,363,017 85
$20,861,187 14
4 0 2 :*,521 37
T o t a l ..................................................................................................................................
$24,889,708 51
D u tie s, c o in . ~ ..............................................................
There has been a great decline in the shipments of silver to China, mostly owing
to the derangement of the exchanges there, in the attempt to change the customary
usance on England. At the same time the opposition lines to the East greatly re
duced the cost of treasure in that directi* n, and therefore not only reduced the quantity
of silver sent to China but increased that sent to the East, at the same time reducing
the quantity of silver to be refined in the local refineries, because only fine silver is
sent to China, and crude bars are shipped East. The mines also produced less than
last year. The gold production is arrived at by taking the official returns of all the
bullion bars received. These are as follows for gold:
1867.
$7,7ol,902
9,582,510
17,907
34S 193
D e p o s ite d a t m in t........................
S h ip p e d t e r s te a m e r s ................
“
s te m e s, d u s t ..,
“
s a il, C h in a , etc
“
s a il, C h in a, d u s t,
T o ta l gold,
11
16
54
45
$17,750,513 26
1S68.
$3,928,660 41
11,016,824 64
374,506 32
10,346 60
$15,349,991 37
This approximates the actual gold product by accounting for all the gold received.
The remittances of silver in the last six months, as compared with the correspond
ing six mouths of 1866 and 1867, were as follows:
P e r s te a m e rs .
1866 ....................................... ..................................... ............... . . $3,558,264
1867 ........................ ............................................................................. 5,453,851
1868 ................................................................................................... 6,170,797
T o C h in a.
$2,107,356
3,- 20 155
715,397
T o ta l
$5,665,620
7,974,006
6,886,194
This rise and fall in the silver exports indicates the Nevada production. It is to
be understood that the bars sent to China are fine, while those sent East are partly
g"hl; hence the total value of the China shipments would be fifty pu’ cent greater
in unparted bars, <r $3,780,232 last year, which with the Eastern shipments would
make $9,234. 83 Nrvada bars. This year the total value wou d b • $7,243,8 2 show
ing a decline of $1,990,241 in Neva ia bars, which is the measure of the diminished
production in that region.
The coin movement for the same period has been as follows:
1867.
C o i n a g e ....................................................................................$7,701,9C2 11
S h ip p e d .................. ....................................... 1,926,561 98
D u tie s .............................................. ........... 8,578,221 00
---------------- 5,504,782 98
1868.
$3,928,660 41
1,566,660 63
4,02',521 37
---------------
E x c e s s c o in a g e ...................................................................... $2,197,118 13
D efic.t c o i n a g e ................................................................................................................................
5,595,182 00
------ ■--------$1,666,521 5 9
This small supply of corn has been the result of the low rates of transportation
wh ch have carried the bullion East. The movement of coin to and from the interior
h is been as fallows:
S er t
in la n d .
$ >,239,4 -8
2.947,012
F ro m
in te r io r .
$1,497,619
1,8H3 385
S u rp lu s
8 n t.
$791,789
1,142,627
T o ta l s ix m o n t h s ................................................................$5,235,420
T o ta l s ix m o n th s, 1867 ...................................................... 4,724,573
$3,301,004
2,554,859
$1,914,416
2,169,714
F r e t q n a rte r ..,
S eco n d q u a rte r
The internal drain Jus not been quite so great as at the Bame time last year.
230
[Septemberf
P O S T A L C O N V E N T IO N .
UNITED STATES DEBT.
The subjoined letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, shows the amount of the
several gold-bearing loans of the United States outstanding July 1, 1868 :
T beasury D epa r tm en t,
July 15, 1868.
In reply to your letter of 13th inst., inquiring the amount outstanding of various
loans, I would respectfully state that on July 1, 1868, there was of—
F iv e p e r c e n t b o n d s , d u e 1871, o u ts ta n d in g ..............................................................................
$7,022,00.?
F iv e
44
“
“ 1874,
“
.............................................................................
20,0<i0,00°
F iv e
44
te r - fo r tie s oui s t a n d i n g .......
.......................................................................... 198,449,80°
S ix
44
b o n d s o f 1847-8 o u ts ta n d in g ................................................................................
6,878,44*
S ix
44
“
1881
44
................................................................................ 283,677,20°
S ix
44
fiv e -tw e n tie s, F e b . 25,1862, o u t s ta n d in g ....................................................... 514,771,60®
S ix
44
“
Jnn»* 30, 1864,
44
...................................................... 125,561,30®
S ix
44
44
1865, May a n d N o v em b e r, o u ts ta n d in g .................... . 197,777,25°
S ix
44
44
1865, co n so ls, J a n . & J u ly ,
44
.............................. 334,972,950
Six
44
S ix
44
44
1867,
44
44
44
.......................... c6',123,900
1868,
44
44
44
..............................
44
17,64 8,950
T o t a l................................................................ ............................................................................ $2,060,883,39$
The 1865 consols, 1867’s and 1868’s cannot be definitely given, as these loans are
being continually increased on account of the exchange of Seven-Thirty notes.
H . M cC ulloch, Secretary.
To Messrs. H enry C lews
&
Co., N ew York.
Comparing the above with the Public Debt Statement of June 1 we notice the
following changes:
Ten-Forties...........................
Five-Twenties, 1862..........
F i v e - T w e n ti e s . 1864-’65-’67.
Five-Twenties, 1868............
Old Loans, 1847-8.................
Fives of 1871-74...................
S xes of 1881.....................
Total
June 1.
$193,790,400
514,780 500
979,975,100
* 8,582*642
27.022.000
S83,677,200
July 1.
*$198,449,800
514,774,600
1,022,435,400
17,6 8,250
6,87 ,442
27,022,000
283,677,210
$2,007,827,812
$2,060, 83,392
POSTAL CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.
A Postal Convention has just been concluded between the United States and
the Eritish Post-cffice Department for establishing and regulating an exchange
of mails betwfen the United States, the Straits settlements and the British East
Indies by means conjointly of the line of United States mail steamers plying
betw.en San Francisco and Hong Kong, and oi the line of British mail packets
plying between Hong Kong and Singapore, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and
Aden. Its leading provisions are as follows : On and after the 1st of November,
1868, (the date on which this Convention is to be carried into operation) the
postage to be lev ed and collected in the United States upon correspondence of
all kinds posted in the United States and addressed to the Straits settlements or
the British Esst Indies for transmission by this route, will be ten cents per single
rate of half ounce or under on letters; two cents each on newspapers, and eight
cents per four ounces or fraction thereof on books, packet-, patterns and samples.
The correspondence thus prepaid in the United States will be delivered at the
proper destinations in the British East India possessions frpe ot all charges whatever.
Pre-payment is obligatory on newspapers, book packets and patterns, but letters
posted unpaid, or in-ufficiently paid, will, nevertheless, be forwarded and charged at
* Now within $1,550,200 of the authorized limit.
1868]
C O M M E R C IA L
C H R O N IC L E A ND
R E V IE W .
231
the place of destination in the Straits settlements or the British E isi Indies with a
postage of ten pence (twenty cents) per single rate, together with a fine of sixpence
(twelve ceLts). Paid correspondence of all kinds received from the Straits settle
ments and the British East Indies by this route will be delivered at the office of
destination ir, the United States free of all charge whatever; but unpaid or insuf
ficiently paid letters so received will be charged on delivery with a postage of ten
cents per single rate of half an ounce or under, together witb a fine of twelve
cents each. N o accounts will be kept between the respective post departments of
the correspondence thus exchanged, each department retaining all the postage
which it collects both on paid matter sent and unpaid matter received. New
York and San Francisco are the offices of exchange on the side of the United
States, and Singapore, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Aden are the exchange
offices in the Straits settlements and the British East Indies.— Washington
Despatch.
C O M M ER C IA L C H R O N IC LE A N D
R EV IEW .
T h e M o n ey M a rk e t—R a te s o f L o a n s a n d D is c o u n ts —U . S. S e c u ritie s —B o n d s so’d a t th e N ew
Y o rk to c k E x c h a n g e B o rd —P ric e s o f G o v e rn in g t r e c u ritie s a t N e w Y o rk —C o u rse o f
C o n so ls a n d A m or can s e c u r itie s a t LondoD —C lo sin g p ric e s o f a ll th e R ailw ay a d M is
cellan eo u s S e c u rit e s —C ourse o f G o ld —G ei e ral M o v e m e n t o f C o in a n d B u llio n a t N ew
Y o rk —C o u rse o f G old a t N e w Y o rk —C o a rs e o f F o re ig n E x c h a n g e a t N e w Y o rk .
August has been characterised by the usual <ase in the money market The
banks have held large amounts of idle funds, the deposits of the Western bank3
having perhaps been unusually large ; and, with but a moderate demand for dis
counts, the supply on call has been very abundant at 3@4 per cent, with a brief
interval at 4@5 per cent. About the 10th of the month there was a very active
demand from the West, which continued for two weeks, causing a loss of about
$10,000,000 of currency, chiefly national bank notes. This demand was to pro
vide for the moving of the earlier grain crop in the more Southern sections of the
Wes', and was followed by a suspension of remittances. The oulflow of currency
almost exhausted the supply of bank bills, but had little effect upon the loan mar
ket. The loanable resources of the banks, however, were undoubtedly largely
curtailed, and the fact ol the rate of interest on call loans not being enhanced was
perhaps due to the banks anticipating a renewal of the Westward outflow in .Sep
tember, and holding themselves prepared for such a n ovemect whenever it may
occur. In August of last year the movement corresponded closely with that of
last month, the banks sending a large amount of currency West from the 10th
to the 25th of the month, after which the shipments fell off, and the rate of inter
est declined one per cent. But iu September the outflow of currency was
renewed, with the oss of a large amount of legal tender, and the advance of
the rate of interest to 6even per cent in gold toward the clore of the month.
The following comparison shows the totals of the statements of the New
York banks at the close of each week in August and at the close of August, 1867:
L o a n 6 a n d d is c o u n ts
S p c i e ....................
C irc u la tio n ............
D e p o s t s . . . , ........
Legal Tenders ...
A u g u s t 8.
$279,755,786
24,784,427
34,074 374
231,. 10,402
74,051,548
A u g u s t 15.
$277,808,620
22,953,850
34,114.087
223,561,087
72,935,481
A u g u s t 22.
$275.24% 781
19.768,681
34,137.627
216,435,405
69,757,645
A u g u st 29. S e p t. 3, ’67
$271,780,726 $24,787,662
16,949,108
7,271,595
' 34,112,139
33,715,128
210.314,646 190,892,315
67,757,376
67,932,571
282
c o m m e r c ia l
c h r o n ic l e
and
m v ih w
.
[September,
T ie fo'lowing are the rates of Loans and Discounts for the month of August':
KATES OF LOANS AND DISCOUNTS.
Loans on Bonds and M ortgage.. .
A 1, endorsed bills, 2 mos.............
Good endorsed bills, 3 & 4 m o s ...
“
“
single names..
Lower grades.........................................
.
.
.
.
.
.
A u g u s t 7.
S @ 4
7
6
-@
7
i
@
A u g u s t 14.
3 @ 4
-@ 7
6
—@ 7
7 @ 7*
8 @ 10
n
8 @ 10
A u g u s t SI.
4 @ 5
7
6
7
7 @ 71
8 @ 10
A u g u s t 28.
3 @ 4
—@ 7
6
—@ 7
7 @ 71
8 @ 10
The transactions in securiti s have exhibited rather more activity than in Ju y.
The speculative combinations upon the leading stocks having fonnd it impractic
able to effect long loans, so as io enable them to carry their stocks ihrough the
usual fall activity in money, appear to have turned iheir attention to distributing
their load upon the market, and have been successful to a considerable extent,
although at the expense of some reduction in prices. Late in the month the
returning ease in the money market revived the spirit ot speculation, and pro
duced a general advance in the price of securities, further facilitating the distri
bution of stocks by the cliques; and at the close of August, railroad shares
appear to have been much more generally held by brokers and the smaller class
of operators than for some months past. The sa'es of the various clas-es of
shares at both boards for the month aggregate 1,151,00 3 shares, which is an
increase over the same period of last year of 18,227 shares, as may be seen in
the following statement:
C la sse s.
B a n k s h a r e s ................................................. ..............
R a ilr o a d “ ................................................................
C o al
“ ................................................................
M in in g
44 ................................................................
I m p r o v ’n t 44 ..............................................................
T e le g r a p h 44 ................................................................
S te a m s h ip 44 ................................................................
E x p r ’s s & c 44 ...............................................................
.
.
1867.
2,467
931,606
4,854
18.D20
9,405
98,114
33,666
33,744
. 1,132,776
14,633,638
1868.
2,332
1,003,925
2,431
6,700
7,200
23,660
33,957
70,808
1,151,003
12,813,389
In c r e a s e .
D ec
135
72,319
2,433
13.220
2,205
74,454
291
37,064
18,241
3,850,237
United States securit es have exhibited very considerable speculative activity.
The shipment of bonds to E mope continued during the earlier part of the month,
and the total sent during July an I August is estimated at if25,000,000 to $ 3 0 000,000. These shipments have been almost wholly consignments upon specula
tion, and it yet remains to be seen whether they will be all ultimately distri
buted or some part w 11 be retimed ; for the moment, however, this movement
has the effect of taking off a large amount of bonds thrown upon this market
by home investors, under apprehensions created by the agitation of financial
questions. There has been considerable fluctuation in prices, encouraged by the
operations of large dealers, who have alternately had to buy heavy amounts from
dome tic holders and been able to sell freely to foreign bankers. The month
closes with generally lower quotations, and apparently with large supplies in the
hands of the larger brokers.
BONDS SOLD AT T H E N. T . STOCK EXCHANGE BOABD,
C la ss e s .
1807.
U . S . b o n d s ...................
$15,772,150
U . S. n o te s ................................................................
4,458, 00
S t ’e & c ity b ’d s ........................................................
1,918,500
C o m p a n y b ’d s .............................................
728,000
1868.
In c .
$29,432,650 $13,660,500
1,750
-------8,205,900
6,232,400
989,. 00
261,560
T o ta l—A u g u s t .............................................. $22,931,850 $38,629,800 $15,697,950
44 —s in c e J a n . 1 . . . . .............................. 123,256,990 248,770,120 125,513,130
D ec.
I*
4,45®l45«
1868]
C O M M ER C IA L
C H R O N IC L E A N D
233
R E V IE W ,
The daily closing prices of the principal Government securities at the New
York Stock Exchange Board in the month of A ugustas represented by the
latest sa.e officially reported, are shown in the following statement:
PR IC ES OP GOVERNMENT SECURITIES AT NEW YORK.
D ay o f
6’s, 1881.—,,------------- G’s, (5-20 y r s .) C o u p o n -------------, 5 ’s ,10-40
m o n th .
C oup. R eg .
180-2. 1804. 1805. n e w . 1867. 1868.y rs .U ’p n .
1 .......................................................... 115% ........ 113% 111% 112% 108% 109
.......... 108%
3 ....................................................... 115% 115% 114% 110% 112% 108% 108% 109
108%
4 ...................................... ................ 115% .. . 114% 110% ........ 108% 108% 108% 109
5 ...................................................... 116
115% 114% 111
112% 108% 109
109
109%
6 ...................................................... 116
........ 114% 110% 112% 108% 109
109
109%
7 ...................................................... 115% ........ 114% ........ 112% 108% 108% 108% 109%
8 ..................................................... 115% . . . .
114% 110% 112% lt'8% 108% 109
108%
1 0 ...................................................... 115% 116% 115
111
112% 109
109% 109
109%
1 1 ...................................................... 115% 115% 114% 110% 112% 109
10S% 109%
109%
1 2 ...................................................... 115% . . . . 114% 110% 112% 109% 109% 109%
109%
13 ......................................................... 115% 115% 114% 110% 112% 109% 109% 109% 109%
1 4 ...................................................... 114% ........ 114% 109% 112
108% 108% 103% 109
1 5 ........................................................... 115
......... 113% . . . . 111% 108
108
........... 108%
1 7 .................................................................................. 113% 109% 111% 108
107% 107% 108%
1 8 ...................................................... 114
........ 113% 10 % 111% 107% 107% 107% 108%
1 0 ............................................................ 113% ........ 113% 108% 110% 107% 107% 107% 108%
2 ' .......................................................................... 113
113% 108% 111% 107% 107% 107% 108%
2 1 ..................................... .................................... 113% 113% 108% 111% 107% 107% 108% 108%
2 2 ...................................................... 113% ____ 113% 10!)
1H % 107% 107% 107% 108%
2 4 ...................................................... 113% ........ 113% 108% 111% 107% 107% 107% 108%
2 5 ....................................................... 113% 113
113% 108% 110% 107% 107% 107% 108%
£ 6 ............................................................ 113% 113% 113% 109% 110% 108% 108% 108%
108%
27............................................................ 114
113% 113% 109% 111% 108% 107% 108
108%
£8 .................................................
114% 114
114% 110
111% 108% 108% 108% 108%
2 9 ............................................................ 114% ......... 114% 110% 112
108% I i8 % 108% 108%
3 1 ............................................................ 114% 114
114
109% 111% 108% 108
........... 109
F irst..............................................
L ow est.........................................
H ighest.........................................
R an ge. ....................................
Last................................................
115%
113%
116
2%
114%
115%
113
115%
1%
114
113%
113%
115
1%
114
111%
108%
111%
2%
109%
112%
110%
112%
2%
111%
108%
107%
109%
1%
108%
109
107%
lo9%
2
108
100
107%
109%
2%
108%
108%
109%
109%
1%
109
The closing prices of Five-Twenties at Frankfort in eaeh week endi-g with
Thursday, were as follows :
Ang 6.
75%
Aug. 13.
75%
Aug. 20.
75%
Aug 27.
75
Month.
75@75%
The closing prices of Consols for money and certain American securities (viz
TJ. S . G’s 5-20’s 1862, Illinois Central and Erie shares) at London, ou each
day of the month of August are shown in the following statement :
COURSE OP CONSOLS AND AMERICAN SECURITIES AT LONDON.
Cons Am. secur ties
for U. S. Ill.C. Erie
raon. 5-20s sh’s. shs.
Date.
S at’day...........
Monday...........
T uesdy .......
Wedu’y ..........
T h u rsd ay .......
Friday.............
Sat ’d ay ..........
M o n d a y .........
T a ’s day..........
W ednesday....
T hursday.......
F r i d a y ...........
Saturday........
Monday..........
T uesd ay.........
W edney..........
T h u rs..............
Friday.............
....... 1 04% 72
94%
....... 3 94% 71% 94
....... 4 94% 71% 93%
94% 71% 92%
....... 6 94
71
91%
93% 71% 92%
93% 71% 92%
.......10 94% 71% 92
94
71% 92%
93% 72
92%
93% 71% 92
....... 14 91% 71% 92%
.......15 91% 71% 92
94
71% 91%
.......18 94
71% 91
.......19 93% 71% 91
....... 20 03% 71% 90%
93% 71% 91
43%
42%
41
37%
39
38
37%
37%
37
37
30%
36
Cons Am. seem ities.
for U.S. Ill.C. Erie
mon. 5-208 sh’s. sh’s.
Date.
-aturday............
Monday................
Tu sda'y...............
Wednesday..........
Tliurscay............
Friday...................
Saturday..,..........
T u esd ay..............
Lowest..................
Highest.................
Range....................
34%
33 % H ig ^ S g ..............
31%
31% L ast......................
31
...22
. .24
...25
... 26
- 27
...28
94
91%
9 ‘%
94%
94
94
...31 93%
(Holi
71%
71%
71%
71%
71%
72%
72
dav.)
91%
91
92
91%
91%
90%
91%
31%
31%
33
31%
31%
31
30
93% 71% 90% 30
91% 72% 94% 43%
4%8 13%
% 1
91% 70% 81%
90% 73% 102
4% 3% 17%
93% 72
91%
30
50%
20%
30
234
[September,
C O M M E R C IA L C H R O N IC L E A N D R E V IE W .
The following table will how the opening, highest, lowest and closing prices
of all tin railway and miscellaneous securities quoted nt the New York Stock
Exchange during the months of July and Ausrust, 1868 :
O p en .
T R a ilro a d S to c k s —
A lto n & T e rre H a u t ......................
do
do
p r e f ................
B o s to n , H a rtfo rd & E r i e .............. .............. 16
C h ic ag o & A lto n .......................... .............. 138
do
d o p r e f ..................... .............. 1 3 9 #
C h ic ag o , B u rl. & Q u in c y ..............
do
& G t E a s t e r n ................
do
& N o rth w e s t’n .............. .............. 7 3 *
do
d o o r e f ................ .............. 7 9 #
do
& R o c k I s l a n d . ............ .............. l o s *
C leve., O o l.,C in & I n d ................
d o P a in e sv . & A sh ta ................
d o & P i t t s b u r g ..........................
d o & T o l e d o .............................. ..........
103*
D e l., L a c k & W e s te r n ..................
D u b u q u e & S io u x c i t y ................. .............. 75
E r i e ......................................................
d o p r e f ..............................................
I l a r l e m ................................................
do p r e f ........................................
H a n n ib a l & S t. J o s e p h — ------ .............. 86
do
d o p r e f ................ .............. S 8 *
H u d so n R i v e r ..................................
I llin o is C e n tra l ..............................
I n d . & C in i n n a t i ..........................
J o lie t & C h ic a g o ..............................
M a r. & C in c in ., 1st p r e f ...............
do
2d p re f.................
M ic h ig a n C e n t r a l ............................ .............. 1163k
do
S . & N . I n d .....................
M il. & T . d u C h’n, l s t p r ..............
df
do
vd p r................
M ilw a u k e e & S t. P a u l ....................
do
do p r e f ..................
M o rris & E s s e x ..................................
N e w H a v e n & H a rtfo rd .......... ......
N e w J e r s e y ......................................
do
C e n t r a l ........................ .
N e w Y o rk C e n tr a l.......................................... 134*
do
& N . H a v e n ..................
N o rw ic h & W o rc e s te r................................. 02
O h io & M is s i s s i p p i........................ .............. 2 9 *
do
do
p r e f ................ .............. 133k
— J u ly .-------H igh. L ow .
46
40
68
66
16
18*
138
137
1393k 1 2 8 *
165
164
843k
84*
110*
903k
101
90
104*
118
78
71
75*
124
124
86
883k
1393k
159
52
91
29
10
119
93
106
100
773k
85
65
73
78*
105
HS*
99
84*
102*
118
75
67*
743k
123
122
86
87
138
144
50
91
28
10
116*
88*
104*
99
65
78
65
128
124*
136*
145
92
30*
783k
330
P itr s b ., F t. W . & C h ic a................................ 110
11" Sk
R e a d in g .......................................... .............. 1013k 1 0 1 *
R e n s s e ia e r & S a ra to g a .................. .............. 9 5 *
95*
110
R o m e & W a te r to w n ...................... ............ 110
S econd A venue ................................
46*
SO
S to n in g to n ........................................................ 80
T o led o , W a b . & W e s te r n ------------ .............. 4 8 *
54>k
73*
do
do
d o p i e t ..................
M is c e lla n e o u s —
A m e ric a n Coal
...........................
35
C u m b e rla n d C o a l............................ ............... 33
141
140
D el. & H ud. C an a l C o a l............................
210
210
P e n n s y lv a n ia C o a l..........................
101*
P acific M a i l .................................— ..............100
A tla n tic do ........................................
293k
U n io n N a v ig a tio n .......... ............................... 2 6 *
29*
17
B o s to n W a te r o w e r ..................
49
C a n t o n ................................................ .............. 40
C ary I m p r o v e m e n t.......................... .............. n *
ii*
9
B ru n s w ic k C ity ............................... ..............
10*
4
M a r i p o s a .......................... ..........
do
p r e f .................................... ..............
8Jk
9*
24
Q u ic k s ilv e r ........................................ .............. 2 ! *
210
M a n h a tta n G a s .................................
w e s t. U n io n T e le g r a p h ................ .............. 3 4 *
35*
106
B an k e rs & B ro k e rs A ss ................ .............. 106
4
N e w Y o rk GuaLO.............................. ............
4*
E x p re ss—
A m e ric a n ............................................ .............. 47>k
48*
54
A d am s
...................... - ...............
U n ite d S ta t e s ................................................... 483k
49*
M e rc h a n t’s U n i o n .......................... .............. 2 5 *
25
W e lls, F a rg o & C o.......................... .............. 253k
273k
128
120
131*
145
92
29
78*
330
106*
94 3k
95*
110
40
80
48*
69
Cl os. O p en .
44*
67
19*
183k
137* 1?6 *
138* 138*
165
170
40
82*
82*
S ilk
823k
1 1 0 * 119*
88
SS*
3 9 * 100
89*
90
102#
103
118
118
72*
78
68*
6 5*
75
73*
124
122
86
85*
86
87
1 3 8 # 140
151
151
51*
91
29
28
10
i '. o *
119
88*
88*
106
106
99*
763k 76
84
83*
65
63
213
128
1203k 121
132* 132*
145
145
91
92
30*
30*
78*
78*
330
340
110* 1103k
94*
91*
95*
11"
46*
80
80
51
51*
73
73*
33
33
130
131
210
210
9 7 * 101*
28
28
263k
28#
16
17
45
48*
10
10
8*
8*
4
4
9
8*
22*
19*
210
210
333k 3 5 *
99
963k
4
4*
44*
51*
45*
52*
46
24*
27
453k
23
24*
— A u g u st —
H ig h . L ow . C los.
....
24
is *
144
136
145
138*
173
170
40
40
83#
80
79*
S3*
112*
97*
88 - 81
100
97*
89*
85
102#
98*
118
120
72*
72*
68 *
4b*
68
73*
21*
142
145
171
40
83*
83*
101*
82
98
86*
101*
119
72*
48
69
84
83
133
142*
84
83
140
144*
85*
86
140
151*
28
28
28
i2 i
88*
107
118
82
106
iid
77
84*
64
225
69
79*
63
213
*76*
83*
64
225
121
132*
14b*
91
30*
79
368
no*
95
ii8
122*
143
91
28*
77*
340
105
88*
119*
125*
143
9L
2S*
78
368
108*
90*
SO
53*
73
80
49
73
'80
63*
73
45
30
1 1
200
101*
35
27
17*
48
10*
8*
45
31
131
200
104*
19*
27*
17*
48
ii*
8*
45
29
119*
200
98*
15
27
15*
45*
10*
8*
4o
29
127
200
101*
19*
27#
15*
4o*
11
8#
t
21*
....
35
7
22*
7
*0
7
21*
33
'3 4 *
105
99
45*
52*
46
243k
26*
35
105
45*
53
46#
24*
27*
99
40
46
41
18*
24*
84*
107
41
48
42*
21
24*
C O M M E R C IA L
C H R O N IC L E A N D
235
R E V IE W .
The course of the gold premium has fluctuated widely.
The month opened with
6 Very strong feel ng caused by fears of a commercial drain of gold to Europe
an by the anticipation of election excitement, carrying the price up to 150
du ing the first week of the month When the large extent of our shipments
of bonds became understood, the upward tendency abated, and parties holding
largely for a further rise became sellers, b ing satisfied that the irregularities of
the foreign trade movement were largely set off* by the export of securities The
specie movemen* r'e fhe month has been of a somewhat irregular character. The
receipts from California were §736,853 below tnose of August, 1867 ; but, per
contra, we have received from foreign ports §335,833 more than last year, while
the Treasury has paid §601,380 in the way of interest more than then, and has
disbursed §372,150 in the payment of bonds of 1847 and 1848. The Alaska
purchase money, §7,200,' 0 •>, on being paid to the agents of the Russian govern
ment, went into one of the banks, and of the total amount over §6,000,< 00 was
remitted in the form of bills, thus augmenting the supply of coin on the market.
As will be'seen from a subjoined statement, the supply on the market for August
was §19,537,153 in excess of that of 1867. In the same month of last year,
however, there was §8,939,720 received from unreported sources, chiefly from
Treasury sales; while no supply whatever <ame from that source last month.
The exports of specie for the month was §1,559,776 in exc ss of that of August,
1867. The amount of specie in the banks at the close of the month was
§9,677,513 in excess of that at the same period of 1867.
The f. flowing formula will show the movement of coin and bullion during the
month of August, 1867 aud 1868, comparatively :
GENERAL MOVEMENT OF COIN AND BULLION AT N EW YORK.
1868.
In c re a s e . D e c re a se
1867.
$8,738,094 $20,502,737 $11,764,643 $
736,853
3,967,100
3,230,247
827,833
335,833
492,000
621,067
1,222,447
601,380
372,150
372,150
7,200,000 7,200,000
.......
I n b a n k s , n e a r f i r s t ............................
R e c e ip ts fro m C a lif o r n ia ................
Im p o rts o f co m a n d b u llio n ..........
C o in in te r e s t p a id ...............................
R e d e m p tio n o f loan of1847-’4S . . .
o n accou* t oi A la s k a p u r c h a s e ...
T o ta l re p o rte d s u p p ly ................
E x p o rts o f co in a n d b u llio n ...........
C u s to m s d u t i e s ..................................
. $13,818,261 $33,355,414 $19,537,153
1,559,776
. $2 639,178 $4,198,954
. 12,903,740
12,263,884
T o ta l w i t h d r a w n ........................
. $15,542,918 $16,462,838
E x c e s s o f re p o rte d s u p p ly .............. .
E x c e s s o f w ith d ia w a ls .................... .
S p e c ie in b a n k s a t e n d ......................
.
.
.
D e riv e d from u n re p o rte d s o u rc e s .,
. $8,996,252
$919,920
$ ............ $16,892,576 $16,892,576
1,724,657
7,271,595
16,949,108 9,677,513
$56,532
$ ..............
$ ............
639,856
* ............
$ ............
$ ....
1,724,657
$8,939,720
The following exhibits the fluctuations of the New York gold market in tne
month of August, 1868.
S a t u r d a y ...................... 1
M o n d a y ......................... 3
T u e s d a y ..............
4
W e d n e s d a y .................. 5
T h u r s d a y .........................6
F r i d a y ..........................►7
S a tu rd a y ........................ 8
M o n d a y .........................10
T u e s d a y .........................11
W e d n e s d a y ................... 12
T h u r s d a y .......................13
F r i d a y ............................ 14
S a t u r d a y ....................... 15
M o n d ay ...........................17
T u e s d a y ......................... 18
W e d n e s d a y ...................19
T h u r s d a y ....................... 20
F r id n v
.
H
145X 144%-I,146% 145%
145% 145 1145% 145%
145% 145% 1146% 146%
147% 147
149% 148%
148% 147%
147% 147
146% 146%
146 145%
146% 146%
147% 147%
147% 146%
146% 146%
147% |l46%
146%; 145%
145% 144%
144% 143%
148
148%
147%
147%
146%
146%
146% A u g ... 1868..........
147% “ 1867............
“
1866............
146%
“
1865............
146%
“
1864............
146%
“
1863 ..........
145%
“
1862............
145%
143%
. . .91 1 1S7<ll4S7< 1413< 114% S’ce .Tan 1. 1868 . .
148%
150
148%
147%
147%
146%
146%
147%
148
146%
147%
146%
145%
144%
S a tu rd a y ...............
Mo* d a y .................
T u e s d a y ................
W e d n e s d a y ..........
T h u r s d a y ..............
F r id a y ....................
S a tu rd a y ...............
M o n d a y ................
ca
a
' C lo sin g
D a te .
L ow est
D a te .
O p e n i’g
COURSE OF GOLD AT NEW YORK.
....2 2 {1 4 4
. . . . 2 4 144%
145%
144%
...2 7 144%
...2 8 1 4 5 k
144%
...3 1 145
143%
144%
144%
144
144 J i
141%
144%
144%
144%
115%
146
145
14 %
115%
145
145
144%
145%'
141%
145
144%
145
144%
144%
145%
139%
149
144%
255
129%
115%
143%
139%
149%
140%
231%
122%
112%
150 144%
142% 111%
152% [147%
145% 144X
201% 238
129% 127%
llb% 115%
h
to
133 vr 1 3 3 ^ 150
144%
236
p u b l ic
debt
of
the
u n it e d
[ September,
sta tes.
The following exhibits the quotations at New York for bankers 60 days bills
on the principal European markets daily in the month oi August, 18S8 :
COURSE OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE (60 DATS) AT NEW TO R E.
London,
c e n ts fo r
54 p e n c e .
D ays.
1............
3
4
6
.........
6..............
7
8
10..............
11..............
110 @I103£
@110^
....................
110
........................
110 @11OX
110 @110J4
110 @11014
....................
110 @11044
..............
! 0944® 110
110 @
....
10944@109)4
109)4® . ...
13
....................
109?4@109)4
14 ..........
109%@109)£
15
....................
10;i%@109)4
17
....................
109)4 @109)4
18
....................
100J4@1 9)4
19
....................
109?4@109)4
20
....................
109%@109)4
21..............
1 0 9 )4 0 1 0 1 4 4
22..............
109)4@10944
24
....................
109)4@109J4
25
....................
1C9)4@10944
2 0 ............
109)4@109)4
27
....................
109)4 O.109K
28
....................
109 @ . ...
29..............
109 @
31.........
108J4@109)4
12 .........
Aug.,1868.
Aug., 1887
P a r is ,
c e n tim e s
fo r d o llar.
5 1 1 )4 0 . . . .
515 @51314
515 @513)4
515 @513)4
515 @513)4
515 @513)4
515 @514)4
514)4@513S4
515 @514)4
516) 4@514)4
517) 4@516)4
517)4@516)4
517X @516)4
517)4@516)4
517)4@51 )4
517)4 @516)4
517)4@516)4
517)4 @516)4
517)4 @516)4
517)4 @516)4
517)4@516)4
517) 4 @51t>)4
51r )4 @517)4
518t,@ 5!7)4
518) 405 1 7 )4
518)40517)4
A m s te rd a m . B re m e n ,
c e n ts fo r
c e n ts fo r
flo rin .
r i x d a le r.
41)4@ —
79K © 80
41«@ 41)4 79)4070)4
tl)4@ 41)4 70)40*9)4
41fe©41?4 7!()4©79)4
41)4@41)4 7il)4@79J4
41)4@41)4 79)4@7<i)4
4114@41)4 79)4 0 7 9 )4
41)4@ 41X 79K@ 79)4
41)4@41)4 791i@79)4
41)4@41)4 79)4@79)4
41 @ 41)4 79)4@79)4
41 @ 41)4 79X@79)4
41 @41)4 79)4 @79%
41 @41)4 79)4079)4
41 @41)4 70X@79)4
41 @ 41)4 70)4 ©79)4
41 @41)4 79)4@79)4
41 @ 41)4 79)4079)4
41 @ 41)4 79)4@79)4
41 @ 41)4 79)4@79)4
41 @ 41)4 79)4 @79)4
41 @41)4 79)4@7sl X
40)4@4054 79)4@7!i%
40)4@40)4 79)4 @79)4
40)4@40)4 79)4 @79)4
40)4@40)4 79)4@79)4
108) 4@110)4 518)4@51354 4i'J4@41)4
109)4@110)4 518)4@512)4 40)4@41)4
H am b u rg ,
c e n ts fo r
M . banco.
3«)4@:i6)4
3 6 )4036)4
36)4@3634
36X@ 36)4
8 6 )4 0 3 6 )4
36)4@36)4
3 6 )4 0 3 6 )4
34 @36)4
36 @36)4
.. @ —
36 © 36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @ 36‘4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
36 @36)4
3 5 )4035)4
35)4@35)4
85)4@35)4
35)4 @35)4
B e r lin .
c e n ts fo r
th a le r .
72 @72)4
7154@72
71%@72
7154 @72
71)4@72
71)4@72
71)4 @72
71)4@72
7! 54@72
71)4@72
71)4@7S)4
7154 @71)4
71)a@71)4
71)s@71)4
71K@71)4
7154 @71)4
71), @71)4
7154@71)4
71)4@71>4
7 1 ),@ 7 iX
71 )e @71)4
71)«@71%
71)i@7154
71)4@71?4
71)4@71)4
71)4@71)4
79X@ 80
3554@36)4
78 @ 79X 35X@ 36.tf
71)4@72)4
71X@72.tf
PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Abstract statement, as appears from the books and Treasurer’s returns in the
Treasury Department, on the 1st of Augu t and 1st of September, 1808 :
DEBT BEARING COIN IN TER EST.
A u g s t 1.
S e p te m b e r 1.
In c re a se .
$ ............
18S1..........................................
283.677,300 00 283,677,300 00
............
(5-20’s ) .................................. 1,583.106,100 00 1,591,226,050 00 S8,119,950 00
D e c re a s e .
$ ..............
............
...............
5 p e r c e n t, b o n d s ...................................... [$>21,588,400 00 $221,588,400 00
6
6
“
“
T o t a l ............................................
2,0S8,371,S00 00 2,096,491,750 00
8,119,950 00
...............
DEBT BEARING CURRENCY IN TEREST.
6 p e r c t. (R R ) b o n d s ..............................
3-y’a rs com . in t . u ’t e s ..............................
3 p. c e n t, c e rtif ic a te s ............................
N av y P e n . F d 3 p .c .................................
$32,210,000
21,604,890
50,000,000
13,000,000
00
00
00
00
116,814,890
T o ta l
$35,314,000
30,595,410
62,205,000
13,000,000
00
00 $3,104,000 00
$ ........
00
.............. 11,009,480 00
00 12,205,000 00
..............
00
.........................................
121,114,410 00 $4,299,520 00
MATURED DEBT NOT PRESENTED FOR PAYMENT.
7-30 n . d u e A ug. 1 ,’67, J ’e & J ’y 15, ’63
6
c. co m p . iur.. n’e s ............................
B 'd s o f T e x a s in d ’t y ..........................
T r e a s u r y n o te s (o ld )................................
B ’d s o f A pr. 15, 1812, J a n 28, 1847 &
M ar 31, 1843 ..........................................
T re a s . n ’s o f Ma. 3 ,6 3 .................... .........
T e m p o ra ry lo a n ........................................
C e rtifl. o f in d e b t’e s s ..............................
T o ta l
00
00
00
64
$4,650,000
5,033,490
256,0 0
154,111
1,92»,941 80
55 ,4 *2 00
7-16,520 00
13.000 00
1,258,200
555,492
744,920
13,000
$8,433,800
6,013,910
256,000
154,511
18,099,175 44
00 $
00
00
64
$3,733,800 00
930,420 00
12,665,213 64
’ 460‘66
667,741 80
00
00
00
00
1,600 00
$
5,433,961 80
DEBT BEARING NO IN TER EST.
U n ite d S ta te s n o t e s ................................ $356.02*,073 00 $356,021,073 CO
$ ..
F ra c tio n a l c u r r e n c y ................................
31,1-67,818 37
31,'02,218 37
...
G old c e rti. o f d e p o s i t ..............................
22,414,000 00
25,161,620 00 2,747,620 00
T o ta l
410.302,891 37
412,981,911 37 2,682,020_00
65,600 00
1868]
JO U R N A L
o r
B A N K IN G ,
currency
,
and
f in a n c e
237
.
RECAPITULATION.
$
$
$
B e a rin g co in in t e r e s t..
B e a rin g c u r'y i n t e r e s t . .
M a tu re d d e b t ................
B e a rin g n o i n t e r e s t l . . .
2,088,871,800 00 2,000,491,750
110.814.890 00 121,114,410
18,099,175 44
12.005,213
410.302.891 37 412,984,911
A g g re g a te ........................
2,633,588,750 81 2,643,256,285 01 9,667,528 20
C o in & c u r. in T r e a s . . .
110,054,276 14
D e b t le s s c o in a n d c u r.
00 8.119,950 00
00 4,299,520 00
..............
04
. . . .......... 5,433,901 80
37 2.682,020 00
............
107,641,971 98
...................
~ ...........
2,412,304 1 6
. 2,523,534,480 67 2,535,614,313 0312,079,832 36
The following statement shows the amount of coin and currency separately at
the dates in the foregoing table :
COIN AND CURRENCY IN TREASURY.
C o i n ..............................................................
C u rre n c y .....................................................
$83,409,917 93 $92,570,901 21 $9,160,983 28 $ ..................
26,644,358 *1
15,071,070 77 .......................11,573,287 4 4
T o ta l c o in & c u rre ’y ..............................
110,054,276 14
107,641,971 98
....................... 2,412,304 16
The annual interest payable on the debt, as existing August i , and Septem
ber 1, 1868 (exclusive of interest on the compound interest notes), compares as
follows:
ANNUAL INTEREST PAYABLE ON PUBLIC DEBT.
C o in —5 p e r c e n ts ......................................
“
“
6
6
“
“
1S81.................. ..................
(5-20’s ) ................................
T o ta l co in i n t e r e s t ................ .......
A u g u s t 1.
S e p te m b e r
$11,079,420 00 $11,079,420
17,020,638 00
17,020,038
94,986,366 00 95,473,563
1.
00
00
00
I n c re a s e .
$ ................
................
487,197 00
D ec re a se .
$ ............
.....
............ .
$123,086,424 00 $123,573,621 00 $487,197 00
$ ................
p e r c e n ts ..............................
3
“
..............................
$1,932,600 00
1,890,000 00
$2,118,840 00
2,256,150 00
186,240 00
366,150 00
T o ta l c u rre n c y in t e r ’t ................................
$3,822,600 00
$4,374,990 00
552,390 00
C u rren cy—
“
6
JO U R N AL
OF
B A N K IN G , C U R R EN C Y , AN D
................
................
$
FIN A N C E.
S to le n F if ty D o lla r B a n k N o te s o f th e F i r s t N a tio n a l B a n k o f N e w J e r s e y .—B e t u r n s o f
N e w Y o rk , P h ila d e lp h ia a n d B o s to n B a n k s .
the
A very important question of law has been raised the past month by the dis
covery of one of the fifty dollar bank notes of the First National Bank of Jersey
City, which was stolen from the Departmental Washington before it was signed
by the officers of the bank. The thief, or one of his confederates, has forged the
requisite signatures, and the note, after passing probably through the hands of
ten thousand innocent holders, has at length been stopped. It was deposited in
one of our city banks, forwarded to the Jersey bank for redemption, aDd so was
detected. Now the question arises who is to lose the amount. Is the Jersey
bank, on which the note was forged to make it good ? Or must the last holder
to whom it cau be traced bear the loss ? Or is the burden to fall on the Depart
ment through whose negligence or misfortune the theft was made and the loss in
the first instance incurred ?
In some form these questions will be submitted to the courts, and how they
238
JO U R N A L O F B A N K IN G , C U R R E N C Y , A N D F IN A N C E
[ S e p te m b e r ,
will be decid d we do not presume to affirm. There are, however, one or two
other questions on which we will inform our readers. The first is, as to the
amount of such stolen natioral notes which are in circulation. If this point is
incapable of being ascertained, the public confidence in the National Bank cur
rency will be very much shaken, for the people in general eainot tell whether the
signatures are forged, and no one will know how to distinguish the spurious notes
from the tiue one Even at the Department itself the discrimination c.m scarce'y
be made if, as is not impossible, the numbers of the notes have been alteredMoreover, it makes a great difference to th public whether or no the aggregate
amount of lhese stolen notes is large, of what denominations they aie, and cn
which of the I,t>39 National Banks the forgeries have bet n done In the last
annual report of the Comptroller of the Cuirency we find the following statement
of the who! c ise. We quote from pag 3 :
It is an unpleasant task, but neverth less the performance o f a duty, to submit the
following statement relative to the abstraction at various times of unfinistnd national
bank n o tes:
In the sum er o f 1864 it was ascertained that packages o f notes forwarded to cer
tain Western bants were each found to be short of the required amount bv one
impres iou (a sheet containing four notes). This happened at intervals for several
months. Then, for nearly a year, no losses occurred. But in the fab of 1865, impres
sions beo n to be missed from the packages of notes in the counting room of the office ;
an! in December a package containing $4,500 in fifty and one hundred dollar notes
of ihe National City Bank of Lynn, Massachusetts, was missed. From this time there
was a cessaii n in the thefts, until about the first of May last, when a package con
taining §1 -,000 in fifties and hundreds of the First National Bank of Jersey City, New
Jersey, was stolen.
A t ea< h of the periods when these frau is took place, investigations were instituted,
and diligent efforts were made to discov r the perpetrator, bi t without success. The
last ro her was discovered almost immediately upon its taking place, and vigorous
measures w eie at once taken to detect hdcI biing the guilty p rty to justi e.
I here
is reason to believe the effort was not unsuccessful, as a man who had neen em p l yed
in the countin room from the tim e of it- fiist organization, in a confidential capacity,
w as ariested and upon examination before the proper autbori;i s, held under bonds
until the next session of the grand jury of the District. A s this has not y e t taken
place, the case is still pending; it is, therefore, Dot deemed expedient to enter more
into detail- at p esent, as the whole matter is in a fair w ay to be investigated by the
Criminal Court.
A full official list o f the stolen im pressions is appended to the report,
w hich is as follow s :
Im p re s D es g n a ’io n a n d
s io n s *
nam e o f B a n k .
,—
1 . . F ir s t, P e rn , I ’l ............................................................
5
1 ___F ir.-t, i ae o n , 111.............................................................
5
1
. F i s t La S alle, 111........................................................ 5
1 ..
. . F ir s t, C a n t n. I l l ....................................................... 5
1 . . i i.s t,C a to n . Ill
.................................................. 5
1 ___> ii> t. C e n tre ille,
I o w a .......................................... 5
1 ___F ir s t, to iiw aw -ee,
W is ............................................ 5
1 ___F irr-t. W a s h in g to n , I o w a ...........................................
5
l ! . . . M e c h a n ic s , in c ag o . I l l ........................................... 10
1
A pp e to u , i-ow uli, M a s s ............................ - ........ 5
1 __Mei-i h an s’, M ilw u k e e , W i s ............................. . . .
5
1 . . . .S u s s e x , N e w to n , N . J ..............- ............................ ..
5
1
. M ecca ie s’, B o?t n , M a s s ............................... —
5
1 . . . C i t al, C h e rry V alley , N. Y ..................................... 10
1 . . . . 1 . p T te rs ’ & T ra d e rs , N.Y .................................... 10
1 ___ W a h in g to n , B oston, M a s s .....................................
5
1..
. . T re e o n t, C o sto u , M ass.......................................... 5
1 . A 'ltin tic , Host o n , M ass ............................................. 5
1 ___ K ev ere, B o sto n , M a s s .................................................
5
1 ..
. . T i g a , O w ego, N . Y ............................................... 5
1 . ...L e e , L ee, M a s s ..................................
5
B ank
P la te .— * N u m b e r.
5 5 5
1
5 5
5 1,201
5 5
5 1,962
5 5 5 1,144
5
5 5 1,145
5 5 5 2,( 00
5 5
5 2,327
5 5 5
343
10 10 20
900
5 5
5 3,000
5 5
5
993
5 5
5
1,565
5 5
5 2,553
10 10 10
188
10 10 10 3,835
5 5 5 7,904
5 5 5 3,466
5 5 5 8,000
5 5 5 1,422
5 5 5
905
5 5 5 3,601
T re a s u r y
'Ntimhpr
N u m b e r. A m t.
18,565
$20
894,600
20
211,586
20
996,281
20
696,232
20
45,134
20
817,016
20
834,067
20
149,119
50
310,144
20
2li
463,539
20
404 244
20
493,897
40
507,843
40
20
20
20
20
• •. •
20
20
1863]
239
JO U R N A L O F B A N K IN G , C U R R E N C Y , A N D F IN A N C E ,
I m p re s D e s ig a t i o n cn d
so n s.
n m o f B ank.
1 ___F ir s t, K n ig h ts o w n , I n d ...........
1 ___N a t. St* e B ’k, L a fay ette, In d ..
1 . . . . 5 .le m N t. B ank. C o.. N . J -1 ___M ech. «£ F a rm ., A lbany, N . Y ..
1 ...S a v a n n a h N. b ’k ,S a v a n n a h ,G a ,
1 ___P acific. I 'e w Y o r k .......................
1 ___C h ic o p ee, S p rin g fie ld , M a s s ..
1 . . . .N a t . U n io n , h in d e rh o o k , N . Y
1 ___N o rw a lk , N o rw a lk , O h io ...........
1 ___M e ta c o m e t, F a ll R iv e r, M a s s ..
1 ___N a t b ’k o f R ep u b lic, N . Y . . .
1 . . . T h ird , B a ltin :o re , M d ............
1 ___T h iid , B altim o re, M d .................
1 ___W a s h in g to n . W e ste rly , R I . . .
1 ___M ech an ics’, N e w a rk , N . J .........
1 ___P eople s% P tts b u rg , P a ...............
1 ___ R o c k p o rt, R o c p rr, M a s s .........
1 ___N ew ark C ity , N e w a rk , N . J . . .
3 0 ___N at. C ity B an k , L y n n . M a ss. .
8 0 . . . . F ir s t, J e rs e y C ity, N . J ..............
...
....
...
....
....
...
....
B ank
,— P h t e —* N u m b e r
419
5
5 5 5
1
5
5
1,500
5 5 5 5
1,733
5 5
1,999
5 5 5 5
5
500
5 5 5
3.767
5 5 5 5
5
5
1
5 5 2,300
5 5 10,064
5
5
646
5 5 6,152
5
5 6,167
5
660
5 5 5
1 0 1 0 10
10 10 10
10
T re a s u r y
N u m b e r.
....
10
20
4.840
741
50 100
213
50 100 121-150 66,796-66,825
50 100 671-750 19,609-19,688
20
A m t.
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
40
50
50
150
4,500
12.U0G
$17,560
T o ta l a m o u n t
Such is the whole story. When properly understood it is calculated to rea?sure the public mind. For, in the first place, the aggregate amount is small,
only $17,560 altogether. Secondly, the denomination of the notes and the hanks
are known, and, we trust, will be widely promulgated, and finally the Government
is, perhaps, responsible to an innocent holder. For the bills were all finished so
far as the Government endorsement is concerned, and it was while in the pos^ession of the Government officers that they were stolen. It is obviously of the
most pressing necessity that no cloud should rest upon the credit oi the national
currency. The principle involved in this ,-ase is vastly wider and more fir"
reaching in its scope than would appear from the somewhat trivial incident out
of which it has arisen.
Below we give the returns of the Banks of the three cities since Jan. 1 :
NEW TO RK C IT T BANK RETUR NS.
L . T e n d ’s. A g. c le a r’g s .
L o a n a.
S p ecie.
C irc u la tio n .
D e p o s its .
$249,711,297 $li.724,614 $34,134,391 $187,070,786 $62,111,201 $483,266,304
.io 1,170,723
19,222,856
194,835,525
64,753,116
34,094.137
553,884.525
66,155,241
23,191.867
34,0:1.006
205,883 143
619,797.369
J a n u a r y 18 .. 256,033,938
258 392,101
25,106,800
34,0 2,762
67,154,161
210,093,084
528,503.223
65,197,133
23,955,320
44,062,521
213 330,524
637.449.923
F e b r u a r y 1 ..,. 266,415 613
22,823,372
70,555,356
34,096,834
217.844,5:8
55,846,259
597,242,595
F e b ru a ry 8 . .
24,192,955
63,471,762
34,043,296
216.759, S2S
F e b ru a ry 15 . . 271.015,970
550,521,185
22,513,9S7
34,100,023
209,095,351
60,868,9:0
F e b ru a ry 21 . . 267.763,643
452,421,592
22,091,642
34,0 6,223
208,651,578
58,553,607
705,109 784
F e b ru a ry 29 . 267,240,678
20,714,233
207,737,080
57.(17,044
34,153 957
M arch 7 ----619,210,598
54,738.866
19,744,701
34,218.381
X01,1S8,470
691,277,641
M a rc h 1 4 . . . .
. . 261,416.900
17.944.308
191,191,526
34,212,571
52,261,086
649,482,341
52.123.078
.. 257,378.247
17,323,367
34.190.808
186,525,128
M arch 28
557.843.908
17,077,299
34,227,108
280.956,846
51,709,706
A p ril 4 ........ . . 254,287,891
567,783,138
252,936,725
16,343,150
34,194,272
179,851,880
51,982,609
493,371,451
A p ril 11-----254,817,936
16,776,542
18!,832,523
50,833,660
34,218,581
A p ril 18........
623.713.923
34,227,624
.. 252,314,617
14,943,547
180,307,489
53,866,757
8 2,784,154
16,166,373
191.206,135
57,863,599
34,114,843
M ay 2 ........ .. 257.623,672
588,717,802
21 286,910
34.205,409
199,276,568
57,541, >27
5''7,028,567
20,939,142
34,193,249
201,31 ',305
57.613,095
M ay 16........
480.186.908
20,479,947
34,183(38
202,507,550
62,233,(02
M ay 23........
4*8,73 \1 4 2
17,861,088
65,633,984
34,145,606
20 *,746,964
M ay 30 ........ .. 268,117,490
6<'2,118,248
273,792,367
14,328,531
34,188.159
209,089,655
68,822,023
J u n e 6 ........
640,063.329
69,202 840
31,193,631
210,670,765
34.166,846
J u n e 1 3 ........
530.328,117
72.567.58 *
9,124,830
34,119,120
211.484,387
553,9-3,817
. . 276,504, 36
7,753,300
34,048,721
214,302,207
73,853,303
516,726« 5
.. 281,945,931
11,954,730
34,03',4b6
221,050,806
72.125,939
525,646,6! 3
. . 284,147,708
19,235,348
34.068,202
2 '4,320,141
68,531,542
591.756,3 5
20,399,031
34,004.111
228,130,749
71,847.545
J u ly 18........ ... 282,912,490
505,462,464
20,804,101
280,345,255
33,963,373
226,761,662
72.235.58 >
4 S7,169,387
20,502,737
33,957,305
73,638, 61
223,104,867
A u g u st 1 ., . . . 279,311,657
409, 34,169
D a te .
J a n u a ry 4 ..
* D a te o f th e ft o f th e firs t w a s S e p t. 1 3 ,18b4 a n d th e la s t in 1867.
240
D a te .
A u g u st 8
A u g u s t 15
A u g u st 22
A u g u s t29
JO U R N A L O F B A N K IN G , C U R R E N C Y , A N D F IN A N C E .
....
....
....
....
L o an s.
279,105,786
277.808,620
275,345,781
271,780,726
S p ecie.
C irc u la tio n .
24,784,427
31,074,374
22,9*3.$5)
34,1 •4,087
39 768,681
3 4 ,137,627
16,949,108
34,112,139
[ S e p te m b e r ,
D e p o s its . L e g a l T e n d ’s. A g .c le a r’g s .
23' 716,492
74.051,518
587 004,381
223,561,087
—
72 9 5,481
482,533,952
210,435,405
69,757,645
610,308,551
210,334,646
67,757,376
480,785,665
PH ILA D ELPH IA BANK RETURNS.
Date.
Legal Tenders.
Jan u ary
4 ........................$16,782,432
Jan u ary
11..................... 16,037,995
Jan u ary
18...................
16,827,423
Ja n u a ry
25...................... 16,836,937
F e b ru a ry 1 ........................ 17,064,18 v
F e b r u a r y 8 ........................ 17,063,716
F e b ru a ry 1 5 .. ................ 16,949,944
F e b ru a ry 22........................ 17,573,149
F e b ru a ry 29 . ................. 17,877,877
M a rc h r .............................. 17,157,954
M arch. 14.............................. 16,662,299
M a rc h 21 ............................ 15,664.946
M a rc h 2 8 .............................. 14,348,891
A p ril 4 . ............................ 13,2( >8,625
A p ril 1 1 .. ...................... 14.194.385
A p ril 20.............................. 14,493,287
A p ril 27 .......................... 14,951.106
4 .............................. 14,990,832
M ay
15,166,017
M ay
15,381,545
M ay
15,823,099
M ay
16,184,865
J u n e 1.
16,078,308
Ju n e
15,837,117
J u n e 15
15,993,145
J u n e 22
16,414,877
J u n e 29.
16,443,153
J u ly 6 . . . .
fl u l y 13 .............................. 16,664,232
J u ly 20.............................. 16,747,440
J u ly 27 ............................ 16,855,894
A u g u s t 3 ............................ 17,402,177
A u g u s t 10............................ 17,792,508
17,819,300
A u g u s t 17
17,14,195
A u g u s t 24
17,616,325
A u g u s t 31.
L o an s.
$52.00 ,304
52,593,707
53,013,196
52,325,599
52,604,916
52.672,448
52,532,046
52,423,166
52,459.757
53,081,665
53,367,61153,677,337
53,450,878
52,209,234
52,256,949
52,989,780
52,812 6-3
53,333,740
53,771,794
53,494,583
5S, 63,225
53,562,449
53,491 364
53,122,521
53,381,820
53,072,878
53,653,471
53,791,596
53,994,618
54,024,355
54,341,163
5 i,592,015
54 674,758
55,151,724
55,255,474
S p e c ie .
$235,912
400,615
320,973
279,393
248,673
287,878
263,157
204,929
211,365
232,180
251,051
229,518
192 858
215,835
250,240
222, v29
204,699
314,366
397,778
3 3,525
280,302
239,371
226,581
175,303
182.711
198,563
233,996
182,524
188,252
195,886
187,281
184.007
196,530
185,1S6
182,268
C ir c u la tio n .
$10,639,000
10,639,096
10,641,752
10,645,226
10,638,927
10,635‘926
10,663,328
10,632,495
10,634,484,
10.633,713
10,631,399
10,643,613
10,643,606
10,642,670
10 640,932
10,640,479
10,640,312
10.631,044
10,629,0 5
10,632,665
10,661,276
10,626,937
10,630 945
10,630,979
10,631,220
10,630,307
10,625.426
10,626,214
10,647.852
10,622,247
10,623 646
10,622,751
10,624,772
10,623.360
10,622,581
D e p o s its .
$36,621,274
37,131,830
37,457,089
37,312,540
37,922,287
37 396,653
37.010,520
36,453,464
35,798,314
34,826,861
94,523,550
33,836,996
32,428,390
31,278,119
82,255 671
33,950,952
34,767,190
35,109,937
36.017,596
36.030.063
36,000,297
36,574.457
42,910,499
43,016,968
43,243,562
43,936,629
44,824,398
45,156,620
45,637,975
45,5,'-3,220
47 205,867
45,04 ,718
46,636,377
45,985,616
46,063,150
BOSTON BANK RETURNS.
(C a p ita l J a n . 1, 1866, $41,900,000.)
L egal
T e n d e rs .
S p e c ie .
D e p o s its .
D a te .
L o an s.
$1,466,246 $15,543,169 $40,856,022
J a n u a r y 3 ...............$34,960,249
15,56'>,965
1,276,987
41,496,320
J a n u a r y 13 ............... 97,800,239
926,942
15,832,769
41,904,161
J a n u a r y 20 .............. 97,433,463
43,991,170
841,196
J a n u a r y 27 .............. 97,433,435
16,349,637
16,738,229
777,627
42,891,128
F e b ru a ry 3 .............. 96,895,260
652,939
16,497,643
42,752,067
F e b ru a ry 10 .............. 97,973,9)6
605,-40
16.561 4 1
41 502,550
F e b r u a r y 17 ............ 98,218,828
40,387,614
16,309,501
F e b ru a ry 2 4 ............... 97,469,436
616,953
633,832
16,304,846
40,954,936
M arch 2...................... 100,243,692
867,174
39,770.418
M a rc h 9 ...................... 101,559,361
15,556,696
39,276,514
918.485
14,582,342
M a rc h 16....................... 101,499,611
798,606
13,712,560
37,022,546
M a rc h 23...................... 100,109,595
685.034
13,736,032
36,184,640
M a rc h 30...................... 99,132,268
13,004,924
731,510
36,608,157
A p ril 6 ...................... 97,020.925
873,487
12,522,035
36,422,929
A p ril 13 ...................... 97,850,230
805.486
11,905,603
36,417,890
A p ril 2 0 ...................... 98,906,805
577, 63
12.2; 8.545
36,259,946
A p ril 2 7 .......... . . . . 98,002,343
815,469
4
......................
97,624,197
12,656,190
37,635,406
M ay
1,133,668
11,962,368
37,358,776
M ay 11. ................... 97,332,283
1, 186,881
12,199,422
37,844,742
M ay 1 8 ...................... 96,938,524
1,018,809
12,848,141
88,398,141
M ay 2 5 ...................... 97,041,720
1
......................
97,458,997
766,553
14,188,806
40,311,569
Ju n e
631,149
8 ...................... 98 116,632
14,368,900
41,470,376
June
561,990
14,373,575
J u n e 1 5 ...................... 99,513,988
41,738,706
476,433
14,564,614
J u n e 22...................... 99,389.631
42,583,871
436,699
15,195,550
J u n e 29 .................... 99,477,074
42,506,316
1,617,638
6 .................... 100,110,830
15, 7,307
43,458,654
J u ly
1,193.529
15,743,211
43,116,765
J u ly 1 3 ...................... 101.493,516
1,521,393
15,469,406
43,876,300
J u ly 20 .................... 1"2,430,433
785,641
1
\837,7I8
43,580,894
2
7
'....................
102,408,771
J u ly
7 6,254
15,796,059
43,389,523
A u g u st 3 .................. 102, 80 658
634,963
15,7 >3,958
44,962,268
A u g u s t 10.................. 103,860,688
6* 4,698
15,554.580
43,702,501
A u g u s t 17.................. 103,956,603
779,1 2
16,310,323
42,860,049
A u g u s t 24 ................ 103,6^4,691
767,8x9
15,843,796
A u g u st 31.................. 103,550,020
41,214,607
------C irc u la tio n —
N a tio n a l.
S ta t e .
$24,636,559 $228,730
24,757,965
227,953
24,700,001
217,372
14,564,; 06
226,258
24,628,103
221.560
24.850,926
221,700
24,850,055
220,452
24,686,212
216,490
24,876,089
2 5,214
24,9S7,700
210,162
25,062,418
197,720
25,094,253
197.289
24,983,417
197,079
25,175,194
168,023
24.213.014
167,013
24,231,058
166,962
25,231,978
164,331
25.203.234
160,385
25,225,173
145,248
25.234
465 160,241
25,210,660
160,151
25,204,939
159.560
2 5 .194.14
159,3! 3
25,190,505
159.150
158,908
25,197,3:7
25,182,920
158,812
144,689
25,214.100
141,538
25,216,184
13',799
25,21*,7-7
25,254,906
142,450
25,016,192
25,197,164
25,182.658
25,214,5 6
25,190,091
@FedFRASER