$3,570,700 25,000 5,000 The amount of Bank Capital in January, 1848, was Present amount, January, 1849, $3,600,700 In addition to the specie on hand, the New Jersey Banks have generally large deposits in the Banks of New York City and Philadelphia for the redemption of their circulation. BANK ITEMS. LOUISIANA STATE BANK.-The annual election for directors of the Louisiana State Bank, on the 5th February, resulted in the election of Samuel J. Peters, Esq., [President of the City Bank of N. O.,] and the greater portion of his ticket, in opposition to the former incumbents. We understand that a protest against the election was forthwith entered into by the defeated party, on the ground that the funds of the City Bank of N. O. had been used to buy up the stock of the Louisiana State Bank, for the purpose of securing the election of the successful aspirant. [New Orleans Bee.] BANK OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.-J. M. Hughes, Esq. has been elected, by the legislature, President of the Bank of the State of Missouri, at St. Louis, in place of Robert Campbell, Esq. The annual statement of this bank will be found in our columns, showing it to be in a highly prosperous condition. BANK OF CHESTER COUNTY.-About twenty-one thousand dollars of the circulation of this bank have been recently recovered, out of $50,000 stolen in December, 1847. Bank of KentUCKY.-The case of the Bank of Kentucky against the Schuylkill Bank, was concluded last week. After the Supreme Court got through with the miscellaneous business before it upon Saturday, and the session had closed-the judges went into private consultation upon several cases recently argued before them-among others, the case of the Kentucky Bank vs. the Schuylkill Bank. After the consultation was over, and the judges had separated, they notified the representatives of the bank, and other parties most interested, that they had taken the case of the Schuylkill Bank under consideration and decided it. It could not escape their attention that great speculation had taken place in the stock of the Schuylkill Bank, and that more might occur before the judgment of the Court could be formally pronounced. It is not the practice of the Supreme Court to notify in advance what its decision will be, as the Act of Assembly requires that before pronouncing judgment, a written opinion shall be delivered and filed. In the present case, it would be some time before the opinion of the Court could be reduced to writing, but the judges thought it their duty, in order to put a stop to speculation and protect the citizens, to announce in advance that the judgment of the Court below (the Common Pleas) would be affirmed. That decision was in favor of the Kentucky Bank, and this intimation of the Court settles the question definitely. The formal opinion of the Court will be prepared and pronounced, and in conformity with the intimation thus authoritively given, the decision will be against the Schuylkill Bank. A rumor of this matter got upon 'Change in the afternoon, near three o'clock, and occasioned an intense exciteinent. In the morning, shares of the Schulylkill Bank sold at $5.75;-after the rumor got into circulation, one hundred shares are reported to have been sold at $3. This decision will sweep away the entire assets of the Schuylkill Bank, now amounting to $430,000, and which are in the hands of receivers appointed to hold the funds when the Schuylkill Bank appealed from the decree of the Court of Com mon Pleas. The whole claim of the Kentucky Bank was for $1,345,500, and it had assumed the spurious stock to that amount. It will, therefore, after obtaining the assets of the Schuylkill Bank, lose over $900,000. The formal opinion of the Court will be delivered in the course of a week or two, and judgment then be entered in favor of the Kentucky Bank. To Philadelphians, this matter is very important-the stock of the Schuylkill Bank was mostly owned here, and this decision will strike away the last hope of many. The litigation has been so tedious, however, that many have long since ceased to expect anything from it; but hope has been revived in many bosoms by the last argument before the court of highest resort-a hope now extinguished forever.—Philadelphia Ledger, 29 January. NORTH RIVER BANK.-Abraham Halsey, Esq. has been elected Cashier of the North River Bank, Greenwich St., New York, in place of Mr. A. B. Hayes. BOSTON.-Money continues to be scarce and high. In the street, the best paper is done at one per cent.; while the banks are able to discount but a very small proportion of their applications. The rates of exchange charged by the banks are as high as they have been at any time during the last two years-and money borrowed from the best and most liberal institutions, even now, costs full nine per cent. per annum. With the awakening or foreshadowing of spring business, there is an increased demand for money-deposites have recently been reduced in the banks, from various reasons, and the banks are checked at the very time when the business community is beginning to need an increased supply.-Post, 20 February. LOUISVILLE. The banks continue to check on the East at 1 per cent., though the money market is very tight. The out-door rates range from 4 to 1 per cent. The banks are taking bills on the South in light sums, as follows: 60 day bills on New Orleans per cent., adding interest; 60 days to 4 months, 1 per cent. Bills on the East, 3 to 6 months, 1 per cent; over 6 months, 1 per cent. Bills having over 90 days to run are extremely difficult to negotiate. Cincinnati bank-notes are freely taken at par. Ohio State Bank and branches and most of the interior and independent Ohio bank notes are taken at a 1 per cent. dis., except the banks of Norwalk and Sandusky, which are utterly discredited; and the Bank of Wooster, which is nominally worth 20c on the dollar. Tennessee notes are, Union Bank, 3 a 4 per cent. discount; all others 4 per cent. discount. Indiana, a per cent. discount; Louisiana, per cent. discount; Missouri, par; Virginia, al per cent. discount; North and South Carolina, 3 per cent. discount; Georgia, 3 a 5 per cent. discount; Alabama, 5 per cent. discount; Mobile, 3 per cent. discount; Louisville city scrip, 5 a 6 per cent. discount.-Journal, 17 February. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.-Our correspondent at Marietta, (Ohio,) will find nearly all the information he seeks, in our present No., upon the subject of gold and silver. "The population of the civilized world at the period of the development of the mines of America" will be very difficult to furnish. It is only within a comparatively recent period that close attention has been given to the census by civilized nations-so as to arrive at any general results. Our next No. will contain the conclusion of Baron Humboldt's essay on the precious metals. This article has not, we believe, appeared before in this country." GRACE ON SIGHT BILLS.-In the case of Minick v. Martin and others, pending in the 4th Judicial Court of New Orleans, noticed in the last number of the Code Reporter, another commission has been issued to John Livingston, Esq., No. 54 Wall Street, to take further testimony of notaries, merchants, brokers, and bankers in this city, as to the custom of allowing days of grace on sight bills. By virtue of said commission, Mr. Livingston has taken the testimonies of Charles McKinstrey, Lewis B. Woodruff, Richard Goodman, Daniel Trembly, Albert S. Case, and Samuel A. Willoughby, Esqrs., by which it appears it has been customary in this city to protest sight bills for non-acceptance, and to allow grace upon the same, and that the contrary custom is by no means universal.-New York Code Reporter. EXCHANGE BANK, HARTFORD.-Elisha Colt, Esq. recently Cashier. has been elected President of the Exchange Bank, Hartford, Conn.) in place of Roderick Terry, Esq. deceased. PENNSYLVANIA.-A Bill for a General Banking Law for Pennsylvania is now before the Legislature of that State. If passed at the present session we will publish it in full for the information of our readers. Notes on the Money Market. NEW YORK, 22 FEBRUARY, 1849. There is at this moment an unusual activity, for this period of the year, in the various channels of trade. There is every indication that upon the opening of the navigation of the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and of our western lakes, we shall have as much business as our merchants, manufacturers and carriers desire. There are several circumstances to produce a buoyant feeling among all classes, and to induce the hope of a favorable condition of business throughout the year 1849. Among these circumstances we may mention: 1. The demands for the California market. 2. An improved state of the Cotton market in Europe; and 3. Accessions of foreign capital. The impetus given to manufactures and to the shipping interests by the recent discoveries in California, will necessarily exert a favorable influence upon our country at large. Whatever the results may be as to California itself, and upon the moral and commercial condition of its people, the Atlantic States will, without question, derive a large benefit. The advices from Europe indicate an improvement in the price of cotton, and an increased demand for this staple for their home consumption. From the 1st September last to the 15th February, the receipts of Cotton at the several U. S. ports have been against, for the same period in 1847-8, . 1,570,000 bales, 1,130,000 bales. The exports of Cotton to Great Britain have more than doubled, when compared with the previous year, being for the past 6 months as follows: To Great Britain, 1848-9, 570,000 bales. To" 1847-8, 275,000 To all foreign ports, Το 829,000 bales. 572,000 Estimating its value, at this period, at $35 per bale, the aggregate export for the past 6 months is at least twenty-eight millions of dollars in value, and the export for the entire year will probably reach thirty millions more. The accessions of capital from abroad are derived, in the first place, directly from the emigrants from Great Britain and the Continent. These sources generally contribute more largely than are supposed, and at this time, particularly, when the commotions on the Continent are such as to lessen materially existing confidence in their present investments. The rapid advance in the prices of American securities in London indicates a large influx of capital to this country from Europe. The best price for U. S. six per cents. in London, on the 20 November last was 98, dividend on. A gradual improvement has since taken place, showing increased confidence in such securities among foreign capitalists. On the 20 January the same stock had reached 104, and on the 9 February, sales were effected at 106-7. These important indications in the condition of money affairs at home and abroad will be further improved by the Financial Views of the New Administration. We consider the days of the Sub-Treasury as numbered. It cannot be much longer permitted that the government at Washington shall absorb, lock up, and render inoperative, such a large fund as is now held in the vaults of the Sub-Treasury. It certainly cannot be, that the wisdom and experience of the last fifty years; or that the counsels of the ablest men of our own country and of Europe, shall be lost sight of, and the treasures of the people hidden from them, to gratify a mere theory and to provide offices for a few partizans. The mercantile interests demand that the receipts and disbursements of the Treasury shall be made in a form to facilitate the transactions between the government and its debtors and creditors. The British government, with a revenue and expenditure equivalent to five hundred millions of dollars per annum, do not require the medium of coin in its exchanges and commercial operations; nor does this government, with an ordinary revenue of forty millions, require such a medium in its business transactions. We think the following positions have been long since established and may be maintained from this time forward. 1. That paper money is a more convenient medium of exchange than coin. 2. That the banks of our large cities can furnish such collateral security as will render the government deposits more secure in their vaults than in the hands of any individual Sub-Treasurer, or combined body of Sub-Treasurers, in the Union. 3. That the financial transactions of the general and state governments (or of individuals) cannot be carried on with coin. 4. That, besides the risk of the government deposits in the hands of Sub-Treasurers, the Sub-Treasury is an unnecessary burden upon, and expense to, the country. 5. That the convenience and wishes of the merchants, who, as a body, make fourfifths of the payments into the National Treasury, should be consulted in any system proposed for payments to, and expenditures by, the government. 6. That the business of the nation was transacted for more than fifty years, to the satisfaction of all concerned, without the aid of the Sub-Treasury, and that now the country can do without it. Finally, that the funds of the government are the funds of the people, and that such funds should be kept where they will accomplish "the greatest good for the greatest number." At this moment there are millions locked up in the Sub-Treasuries at Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, which can do no goed whatever. It is buried treasure: we hope it will soon be treasure trove. What the merchants require is, that there shall be no obstacles thrown in the way of their business intercourse with the government-on the other hand, that the greatest facilities, consistent with its safety, shall be furnished in such intercourse with all parties. The government funds are at times large, and at times are much reduced: but whatever they may be, large or small, they should not be drawn from their legitimate sphere, to the detriment of the community, thereby keeping up a fictitious excitement or stricture in the money market. Money is in active demand in Wall Street. The banks are afraid to do all the paper which their present means would permit. Their coin is wanted by their own customers to pay into the Custom-House. There is a full supply of good paper and the rates are 9 a 10 per cent. Bills on London 107 a 103. Translated for the Bankers' Magazine, from the Journal des Economistes, March, April, May, 1848. [Continued from p. 545, March No.] It is rather the discovery of new and abundant sources than the disappearance of the old, which has modified the relative value of gold and silver at a given epoch. It is to this cause, subsequently to the discovery of the greater Antilles, that we must attribute the new rise in the price of gold about the middle of the 16th century; when the rich silver mines of Potosi and Zacatecas had been opened in Peru and in the north of Mexico. From researches which I have carefully made, it results that the importation of American gold was by weight to that of silver, in the ratio of 1: 65; down to the first year of the 18th century, when they commenced the gold workings in Brazil. At this moment, taking in at one view the aggregate of the metallic commerce of Europe, the ratio is not higher than as 1:47; which is, at least, the result given by comparison of the quantities of the two metals simultaneously existing in Europe in the state of coin. The data in the work, in other points so excellent, of Adam Smith, are very inexact; in respect to this ratio, they are in error by more than one-half. In commerce, the relative value of gold and silver among the civilized nations of Europe • See my Essai Politique t. iii. pp. 400, 436, 448, 463. Jacob, Precious Metals, t. ii. p. 187. The result which I have found, has been illustrated with profound penetration by Say, [Political Econ.] t. ii. ch. 10, by analogies drawn from general commerce. |