New-York tribune., 1875-10-20


amount of paper currency i'll circulation IN the
United States at this date and in the Fall OF
1865. On the 31st of October 1865, accord
ing to Mr. McCulloch's official report for that
year, the paper circulation was as fellows:
United States notes and fractional currency
National bank notes. lS'oooooo
State bank notes still outstanding 6oOoO,Ooo
Compound interest notes, &c, in use as
money 'oOV''oOo
Total Observation-Disclosures. S734,2l s,03s
This il Il fair statement OF the aggregate 0i
the currency ten years ago. Mr.. McCuiloch
brought it forward to show the necessity for
contraction. and it was on this showing that
the House of Representatives, on the 18th OF
December, 1860, passed the following resou-
ton by the nearly unanimous vote of LA 10 d:
Resolrcd. That this House cordially concurS Ill the
views o the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the
necessity of contraction of the currency with view to
as early resumption oi specie payments the business
interests Of the country will permit; and we hereby
pledge cooperative action to this end speedily rs
practicable.
If the whole amount Of that portion of the
Public Debt existing at that time i'll the shape
of five per cent Treasury notes, seven anu
three-tenths notes, and compound interest
notes. could have been called currency III any
proper sense of that word, it Is absurd to sup
pose that Mr. McCuloch would have omitted
to include il in his summary. lie was making
an argument III favor of contraction, the force
of which rested entirely on the alleged ex-
cessve amount of the paper circulation. AS
part of the ciIeulati0n he rcckons $50 100000
of the compound interest notes and other inter
est bearing securities, recognizing the fact that
tI ind. no a.
a part of the circulating paper currency than
the five-twenty bonds. In order to figure ont
a contraction the infationists nowadays
reckon as part of the currency i'll 1860 the
entire issues of the compound interest notes,
fye per cent notes, and sevcnthirties, and in
doing so they are equally regardless of facts,
of principles, and of their own consistency.
Mr. Henry G. Carey, FOR example, in Il letter
to Schuyler Cofax, dated Feb. 13, 1860,
speaks as follows of the volume of the cur
rcncy:
what in the mean time. had been the course of the
Treasury in regard to the issue Of legal tender noest
For reply to this question mnst refer you 20 the fol-
lowing ncuIes exhibiting the state o that portion OF the
Public Debt on the first OF November lasi;
/. OF aTecnbacks the amount then ont
standing gwas....-......--....-.....',i" ,i"joOoOOo
II Ogonr-ycar notes ............ A3,OOOOO
Ill OF tw0-year rnotcs................... l0oOoooo
" Oftwo-year coupon notes. Gloo0O00
v OF tlnee-year notes ................ 1O2,O0OOO0
Total ............ .S655. 5000
The amount is here shown 10 have been greater by
about one hundred and hcy millions than it had been
year before but OF this low much there that really
remained in circulation! At the present moment, "a
am assured tw0thir,ls of Nos. H., ILL., and " have
been absorbed by individuals aud institutions, and have
ceased constitute any portion Of the circulation such
likewise is the with portion of No. " Admitting
now the quantity since issued of this last to be equal TO
the amount Of the Others absorbed in the last three
months we obtain. as deduction from the
above apparent circulation the large of SOOOOOO0,
and thus reduce the real amount to SJ7j00O,C00.
Is this however all the deduction needed 10 be made!
BY no means Throughout this period banks have been
parting with their gold and substituting for IL United
States notes. both demand and bearing and ind-
viduals, a extent. have followed their example
The farmer paws for what needs in local notes. but he
puts aside his grecnbacks." The miner and The me
cianicthe laborer and the village shopteeper-he sol
dicr and the saoT-thc immigrant who is seeking 10 i'll
vest his little capital and the soripsiloss who Is trying
to accumulate the means with which 10 purchase
a sewing-machne-all OF these have been hoarders of
"ereenbacks," which have thus been Withdrawn from
circulation and have for the time being more infI-
ence upon either the gold produce markets than they
would have had they been altogether blOcd out of ex
iscnce Adding now together all these quantities we
shall as think readily obtain the sum Of S75OOOOO0,
and thus reduce the actual Treasury circulation Ia the
precise point at which stood at the close OF 1863
Letters to Schuyler Colfax the Currency Question,
Philadelphia 1860
This was before Mr.. McCulloCh had begun
to contract. The same Mr. Carey, in a letter
to Mr. McCulloch, dated Jan. %, 1866, and
afterwards published in pamphlet form, recllons
the actual circulation of the United States at
the very date of Mr. McCullochS estimate, at
$460 OOO, 900 only! (Sec pages D 6 and of
the pamphlet Contraction or Expansion Re-
"pudiation or Resumption ?" published in 1866
by Henry Carey Baird.) [Mr. Carey obtains
this result by deductiug the reserves of the
banks and the currency balance of the
Treasury, and estimating only SlO.00O,0OO
of compound interest notes, &C., as
in actual circulation as currency. This
estimate of $lG0, 900 Mr.. Carey repeats in
his second letter to Secretary Bristow, bearing
date Sept. II, 1874
On the I'd of October, 1875, by the
official statement of the Public Debt and the
reports of the Controller of the Currency. the
paper currency of the United States was as
follows:
Legal tender notes. 373,9l1,12i
Fractional currency cy.................. 4O,7s3,576
National bank notes. 3i4,3ji,693
To,ni.......................... s759,o7o,3o3
From the above total should be deducted
from $l5,O00,O00 to $20,00O,000 for legal
tender notes deposited and still remaining
with the United States Treasurer for the re-
demption of surrendered bank note circua-
ton. We have made a perfectly fair COM
parison of the paper circulation of the country
at the two periods and We have found that
we have more paper money than we had ten
years ago. We do not however, expect those