New-York tribune., 1874-04-14
4 MELANCHOLY CONTRAST.

No one will deny that in the number and
aggregate income of its inhabitants. its nat
ural resources and its power to sustain taxa
ton, France is inferior to the United States.
Yet how different is the spectacle presented
by the United States Congress lin dealing with
our irredeemaDe paper currency from that
offered us by France. The last payment to
Germany on account OF the indemnity
Of one thousand million dollars was
made in September last. No sooner had
the French Government paid of its fine to
the German invaders than it began to dis
charge its debt to the Bank of France, in
order to enable that institution to return to spe-
Gle payments. For the last six months the rich
United States have been going deeper and
deeper into the mud of deprecated paper
money, while exhausted France has been max
ing a steady march in the opposite direction.
Between the 18th of November, 1878, and
the Goth Of March last, the contraction IN the
note circulation of the Bank of France has
amounted to 424 million francs, or s. million
dollars. The aggregate circulation now out
standing isI2,59s million francs, or 525 million
dollars. But this is only one half the story.
In the same 10 weeks the Banks reserve in
million francs, or 148 million dollars, to 1.028
million francs, or 205 million dollars, being
gain of 296 million francs, or SO million
dollars. Though specie payments have not
yet been formally resumed, the premium on
coin has wholly disappeared. The specie 1e-
serve exceeds oDe-third of the entire note
circulation added to the Government and
other deposits. We suppose that no one
will deny that the above figures
indicate radical contraction yet in
the teeth of contraction at the rate of over
IS million dollars a month, business has
not been so much depressed in France as it is
in the United States at the present moment
after six months of imitation, and with the
banks in all the chief cities doing their best
TO lend out the superabundant Government
paper at low rates of interest.
Since the panic of last September the Bank
of France has demonstrated in the face of the
world that .premium on coin may be made
to disappear by contraction, and that by taking
the proper measures coin may be attracted
back to country from which 1t has
been temporarily excluded. The Paris cor
respondent of The London Economist
saws in his letter dated March 20
specie is coming into the country from all
directions from Germany especially, and In
d" gold rs well as silver And we may add,
for the benefit of the Boutwell, school of
economists, that the balance Of trade, as
shown in the official returns of imports and
exports, has been of late heavily against
France, owing to the deficient harvest
Meanwhile this country, with balance
suce the 1st OF November last of
from fifteen to twenty million dollars q
month excess of exports over imports,
has not in the five months imported any spe-
Gle at all, except that passing through the
country in transit. The reason is that there
is no use here even for the limited stock Of
specie we have. Until proper steps are taken
for the resumption of specie payments, gold
and silver will no more come to this country