Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-11-12
ssH,77s, ses, an increase Of .s72 I'm,

s2f4 ,77s spa an increase of $4,000. s72 The
specie basis for this vast amount of paper circu-
lation was SIS ,3i9, S35, showing a decrease of
1851 .225.
1.-The capital of unchartered banks is estimated
al Sl22 QUO UO0, showing an increase of So }6 600
over the preceding year. The aggregate ascer-
tanned capital of the chartered and ncharter red
banks is Si95 ,s3i 600, though the returns of the
banks do not distinguish the gold from the silver
in their specie tables, but the Secretary estimates
that silver does not constitute over one seventh
Of the whole.
"a comparison of the bank returns at different
periods for the last twenty years, present inter-
esting results. In 1897 the ex pansOn of the bank
Ing system, owing to the pet bank and deposte
schemes of the Jackson administration, had
reached its greatest height. There WEI then
.es banks and branches. whose circulation was
SAG. 500; specie S37 9l5, $40: deposies, Sl27
397 900; loans and discounts, 1875, ,702 Com
ing down to our time, the number of chartered
aud private banks I'm 1887 is exactly dou bled since
lS47. Numerically, therefore, the banks have
just kept pace with the population, which twenty
years since was is, 0OO, 900, and is now 30 90 600
But in other respects the banking business was
vastly more inflated and unsound than now For
example, the circulation was then within frac-
ton Of ten dollars per head Of population, il is
now but seven dollars per head. In 1887 the spe-
Gle of the banks was one dollar to four OF their
clrculation--it Is now as } 60 to one. The loans
and discounts of 1887 were as thirty five to one
of population. Bank capital in 81 was about $40
per head-it Is now but SIP 30. The public
stocks held by the banks in 1887 amounted to
twelve and half millions in 1857 to nearly sixty
millions.
"The period Of greatest depression in Banking
since the destruction of the Bank of the United
States, was in l543, when the anti bank and free
trade Juror had reached its elimination, and
produced its most disastrous effects. Though
the population Of the country had increased fully
twenty-five per cent. since 1897, the number Of
banks had declined from 7Ss to 69i, their capital
had fallen sixty-two Millions or more than TWEEN
ty per cent, their circulation had decreased to
ffty-rig lat millions, or over sixty per cent. and
their loans and discounts S270 600 900, or more
than So per cent
The influx Of California gold ma ked the be-
ginning Of period of great activity in Banking
In ISL there Were $40 banks in 1854, Dos in
1857; ,ili. Their business increased correspond
ingly, the seven years from 1851 to 1857 exhibit
ing expansion in loans and discounts Of ST. -
uOU,OOO, not far from sixty per cent. while popu-
latiOn increased less than twenty-five per cent
But it must also be observed that the business of
private ing has arisen chiefly since 1851 and
is now said to employ one hundred and twenty
five millions of capital, which, added to the cap
ital of the chartered banks, produces much
greater extension of business than indicated by
the ratio just above given.n
FINAScIAL.-We copy the following quota
tons of stocks, uncurrent money and remarks
from the financial circular of Sweeny, Ritten-
house, FAINT & Co., Of the 18th instant: