Constantine republican. [volume] (Constantine, Mich.) 1836-1838, 1837-09-20
ulated to its destructive consequences by

ulated to its destructive consequences by
excessive issues of bank paper, and by 9TH
err facilities for the acquisition and enlarge
ment of credit. AT the commencement of
the year 1884, the banking capital of the
United States, including that Of the Ma
tional Bank, then existing, amuonted to a.
bout two hundred millions of dollars; the
bank notes then in circulation to about nine
ty-ive millions; and the loans and dis.
counts of the banks to three hundred and
twenty-four millions. Between that time
and the first of January, 1886, being the
latest period to which accurate accounts
have been received, our banking capital
was.increased 10 more than two hundred
and fifty.one millions; our paper circula.
ton to more than one hundred and forty
millions, and the loans and discounts to
more than four hundred and fhy-seven
millions. To this vast increase are to be
added the many millions of credit acquired
by means of foreign loans contracted by
the states and state institutions, and "a
bove all, by the lavish accommodations
extended by foreign dealers to our mer.
chants. vs.
The consequences of this redundancy of
credit, and of the spirit Of reckless specula-
ton engendered by it, we're foreign debt
contracted by our citizens, estimated in
March last at more than thirty millions of
dollars the extension te traders in the in
terror of our country of credits for supplies,
greatly beyond the vans of the people !;
the investment of thirty.nine and a half
million of dollars in reproductive public
lands, in the years 1885 and 1886, whilst
in the preceding year the sales amounted
to only four and half millions the crea-
ton of debts to an almost countless amount,
for real estate in existing or anticipated Cit
les and villages, equally unproductive. and
at prices now seen to have been greatly dis
proportionate to their real value the ex-
penditure of immense sums in improve
ments which, in many cases, have been
found to be ruinously improvident the
diversion to other pursuits of much of the
labor that should have been applied to ag-
ricuture, thereby contributing to the ex-
pendi.ure of large sums in the importation
Of grain from European expenditure a.
mounting in 1884 to about two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, was, in the first
two quarters of the present year, increased
to more than two millions Of dollars; and,
finally, without enumeritng other injuri-
Gus results, the rapid growth among all
classes, and especiallyin our great CON-
mercial towns, of luxurious habits, founded
too often on mere fancied wealth, and det-
rimenia alike to the Industry, the resour-
ces, and the morals of tie people.
1t was so impossible that such state of
things could long continue, that the pros
pect of revulsion was present to The minds
of considerate men before it actually came.
None, however, had correctly anticipated
its severity. A concurrence of circum-
stances inadequate of Themselves to pro-
duce such widespread ard calamitous EN-.
barrassments, tended so greatly to aggra-
vate them, that they caniot be overlooked
in considering their history. Among these
may be mentioned, as mSt prominent, the
great loss of capital sustai led by our CON-
mercial emporium in the ire of December,
1864 loss, the effects of which were
moderated at the time, because postponed
for q season by the great facilities ofcredit
then existing the disturbing effects in our
commercial cities, of the transfers of the
public moneys required By the deposit law
of June, 1886 and the measures adopted
by the foreign creditors d our merchants
to reduce their debts, ind TO withdraw
from the United States a large portion of
our specie.
However unwilling any Of our citizens
may heretofore have been to assign to these
causes the chief instrumentality Of produc-
ing the present state Of things, the devel-
opements subsequently made, and the ac-
tual condition Of other commercial coun-
tries, must, as it seems to me dispel all re-
manning doubts upon the subject. 1t has
since appeared that evils similar to those
suffered by ourselves, have been expert.
enced in Great Britain on the continent
and, indeed, throughout the commercial
world and that, in Other countries, as wei
as our own, they have been uniformly pre-.
coded by an undue Enlargement Of the
boundaries of trade, prompted, as with us
by unprecedented expansions of the sys.
TENS Of credit. A refe ence to the amount
Of banking capital, and the issues of paper
credits put in circulation in Great Britain
by banks, and in othet ways, during the
years 1894, 1885 and 1886, will show al
augmentation of the paper currency there
as much disproportioned to the real want
of trade, as in the United States. Will
this redundancy of the paper currency
there arose in that country also q spirit o
adventurous speculation, embracing tn
whole range of human enterprise. All
was profusely given to projected improve
ments large investments were made il
foreign stocks and loans; credits for good
we're granted with unbounded lberaity +
merchants in foreign countries; and a
the means of acquiring and employin
credit were put in active operation, an
extended in their effects to every depar
ment of business, and to every quarter {
the globe. The reaction was proportions
in its violence to the extraordinary charac
ter of the events which preceded it. III
commercial community of Great Britai
we're subjected to the greatest difficutie
and their debtors in this country were N
only suddenly deprived of accustomed an
/ expected credits, but called upon for pa.
ments, which, in the actual posture ofthinl
here, could only be made through gel
/ eral pressure, and at the most ruionus SAL
rifices.
:, T., ,,;o,., &C tboso facts n would Seam in