The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1878-05-31
1 give again the table showing this,

|
| which is as follows:
Old demand notes, s., 50
Legal-tender notes............... S59, ,76I3 352 90
One-year notes...,............-....... % 40 w
Two year notes 46300 90
Compound interest notes ............ 296, $50 90
Fractional 20 4O3 l31 %
NationsI hank notes - '' 3I70iSS12 00
Making 7O7, 2SS 81
Now, approximating as near as can
| be done, assume that it will be shown
upon the 1st day of January next the
| following sums:
Legal-tender S40,0G0,O0O
National bank notes.................. 3oO,0O0tOO
6IO,OOO,OOO
This will be about the nominal
amout then shown to be outstanding
| by the books of the Treasury and the
banks. But will this nominal amount
show the real amountin circulation or
| accessible to the people for the purpose
| of et!ecting the exchange of the pro-
ducts of labor or for payment of debts,
| &C.? | answer, unhesitatingly, not
| Why not? When the day arrives it
will become the duty of the Secretary
of he Treasury, in the interest of re-
sumption, not only to retain as much
as he can of the gold on hand,
| but also to husband in the Treasury as
much as possible the legal-tender cir
| culatiQn. Its reissue makes the neces-
sity of a redemand for resumption, and
| hence makes a constant demand upon
| the coin of the Treasury, and therefore
| il il that he must hushand and keep
| the legal-tenders to very large extent.
| That this demand will be large neces-
sarily follows from the relations of the
! Treasury to the national banks, whose
| circulation the Secretary must be pre-
| pared to support and redeem,
| Now, the hanks must lii order 10
| maintain their position of SOlvency
| keep and hold in reserve a sufficiency
! of legal-tenders to meet any demands
made upon them for the resumption
| of their circulation. Assuming that
| each, that is the Treasury and tie
| banks, adopt lanq preservation of the
| public credit will compel and make
necessary some such percentage) SO
| per cent, and we have mobile circu-
l4tion of about foul hundred and fifty
milliQEs, but deduct from this the lost
| and destroyed notes, and there will re-
main about the sum of four hundred
millions of paper circulation to per-
! form all the offices of CURRENCY for the
trade, commerce, industry, and debts
| of the people of the United States. 10
this assumption of facts it is reniied
that gold and silver will form titen a
part Of the currency. Let, then, one
hundred millions be added on this ac-
count and We will have nearly or quite
the sum of 500, ,9O0,00G TO perfqrm all
the offices OF currency required 10y the
trade and commerce of fOrty-five mill
lions of people inhabiting a territory
larger than that of the whole of Eu-
rope, and whose import and export
| lfOreign) trrde is over 81, 200, 900, 900
per annum, whose internal and do
mestic trade is estimated at nearly
$50, 600, O00,0 per annum. / dare
challenge any enc safely to promise
under the resumption policy any larg-
er amount of circulation than have
estimated.
1t is about 81 per capita; quite 1Q(
per Gent. helow that of any of the in
telligent and commercial countries OF
the world. In France the circulation
is estimated at about S44, in England
it is about S:3o, il Germany it Is about
S24 per capita. With our domestic
trade and between distant States, with
our population remote from trade CEN
ters, there is a necessity for retention
! of currency in the pockets Of trader: