The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-29
~ QUESTION.
The Real Per Capita Circulation of Money
in the United States is
4.o7

not money, any more than pork or
wheat would be. 1t is commodity;
stamped bars of metal, and cannot
be called circulation. This reduces
the metallic money in the treasury
from $27s, s,543, $3.50 to $2o2, 1O3, ,997 SO.
In the next place the estimates of
the gold in circulation is mere guess
work. No allowance is made for the
amount used in the arts. The Com
mercial and Financial Chronicle of
Feb. 9, 1885, vouched for by the sec
retary of the treasury as good au-
thority, says there are at least $275,-
100000 Of the total that cannot be
accounted for. "This is big cut in
to $6SO,O63,5O5. The same authority
shows that on January l, 1888, the
treasury claimed to hold 1924, 773, ,677
of gold; but deducting gold certifi-
Gates issued against it "onw about one
hundred millions cam be fomod" The
same writer continues,-"not one
individual in every hundred receives
in ordinary business transactions a
gold certificate or a gold coin once in
twelve months"
Mr.. Dunning than proceeds to
show that the entire silver coinage
Of a country wears out in thirty
years. John Sherman confirms this.
The treasury claims that every silver
dollar coined since 1878 is still in cir
culation and eight million dollars be-
sides; and that no part of the sub
sidiary silver coin has disappeared:
although the government has been
claiming for years and now claims
that there are $5,916, ,59O47 of frac-
tional currency,-paper "halfs' and
"quarters" and ten cent pieces, float
ing around while every body knows
that not one has been seen,-except
as curiosity twenty years.
What has become of it? Lost, sunk
in seas and rivers, burned up in ho-
tells, worn out. And congress de-
clared June q, 1879, that $8.375, ,934
more had been lost or destroyed.
Fourteen millions in all out of $685.
900, 900 issued vanished. And is not
the same thing true of the silver and
gold coin? And yet this fraudulent
government of ours, to help the
plutocrats, claims that the people
have got it all!
But this isn't the worst of it. The
law requires the national banks to
hold large amount of money in re-
serve for the protection of their de-
pOSitOrs. This is not circulating
among the people. 1t cannot be in
two places at once. How much is it?
1t is 1888, Ill, ,465. Then the state
banks and savings banks also have
to keep reserve of from ten to
twenty-five per cent. Mr.. Dunning
estimates this, (at ten per cent?, as
$233, ,427, ,242. Then there are 3,647
banks that have not reported. Place
the reserve says Mr.. Dunning at $10,-
600 each, and it gives $36, 40, 900; or a
grand total of bank reserves of
$6O3, ,OOS, ,7O7, which must be deducted
from the 81, 1857. .551,835 of total, NOM
inal circulation, leaving but 1884,
SAB, 1928 for the use of the people! !! !!
Why did not our lying servants at
Washington tell us all this when
they took the trouble to figure up
the per capita circulation at $24.02?
How particular they were about
those two cents!
Here are Mr.. Dunning's concluding
figures as to the real currency circu-
lation, of the United States:
Amount outstanding as per
treaSurerS SLatement..... 81 ,666, ,O04, ,42O.47
Amounts to be deducted:
Loss in gold
col coin - :;;nc ;s0o'ooooOo'Oo
Acei coin. IN s..e. ''.. ao,oooooo.oo
Loss in paper ...
currency.... 5O,WO,UO.UO
Loss infraction-
Ill currency. 6,916690.W
total 80. eos. .Oos, ,7o7.Oea n
Held in U. s.
Treasury.... 337,1A, A,Os9.36
COinsent abroad 61.6O5 100
Bullion counted
as currency. 76,439,5O4.00 81 .355, ,204 1886
In circulation $s1O, 1850, ,s42. II