Total thrown upon market.. $12,654,393 $7,226,475 $11,120,262 $14,282,526 Total entered at the port... $12,506,611 $5,558,202 $10,516,205 $13,880,683 The entries for warehouse have been small. Compared with the receipts for the corresponding period of last year, the imports since January 1st show a still greater increase. The total of dry goods landed at the port for two months is $1,557,876 more than for the same period of 1859, and $2,757,602 more than for the same period of 1857 :— IMPORTS OF FOREIGN DRY GOODS AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK, FOR TWO MONTHS, FROM JANUARY 1ST. Total thrown on market.... $23,310,376 $10,935,557 $22,106,707 $26,288,624 Total entered at the port... $22,893,087 $8,424,346 $21,092,812 $25,650,688 Notwithstanding the large supply, the diminution of the stock in bond shows that there has been no excess. The exports for the month exceed in domestic produce those of any former year. There has been, however, a great decline in specie exports. The total, including specie, is less than for the same month of 1858. EXPORTS FROM NEW YORK TO FOREIGN PORTS FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRuary. Total exports....... $5,399,202 $3,709,870 $3,283,592 $5,699,387 175,706 136,862 188,210 344,994 363,878 326,845 263,831 631,489 1,831,726 3,746,920 2,371,427 977,009 Total, exclusive of specie... $7,770,512 $7,920,497 $6,107,060 $7,652,879 5,938,786 4,178,577 3,735,633 6,675,870 The total exports, exclusive of specie, from New York to foreign ports for the first two months of the year, have been $4,800,000 more than last year. The increase has been large in domestic produce. The specie exports for January and February have been in both months greatly less than for the corresponding months of the three previous years: EXPORTS FROM NEW YORK TO FOREIGN PORTS FOR TWO MONTHS, FROM JANUARY 1 Total exports....... Total, exclusive of specie Compared with the previous fiscal year, the total exports of produce and merchandise from New York to foreign ports during eight months, show an increase of $13,224,915; there is also a decrease of over $5,000,000 as compared with the eight months ending February 28, 1857 :- $13,962,628 $17.355,847 $12,526,756 $14,528,903 10,822,956 8,863,316 7,849,641 12,698,382 EXPORTS, EXCLUSIVE OF SPECIE, FROM NEW YORK TO FOREIGN PORTS FOR EIGHT MONTHS JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. FRANCE AND ENGLAND-DEBT. The London Economist remarks, since the commencement of the present century, the statistics of France show several remarkable changes, and no one of them is more remarkable than the increase since that time of her public debt. The following figures show, in a short compass, the rate at which that debt has increased in comparison with our own : We thus see that while the annual charge of the English debt has not increased so much as a quarter in fifty years, the annual charge of the French debt was, at the end of that time, more than five times as great as it was at the beginning. The population of England increases year by year very considerably; that of France, in comparison, scarcely increases at all. The increase of the English population is well known in all its details. The wealth of France is augmenting, while her population is almost stationary. From whatever quarter we look for information, we find that we are told with one voice of the great growth of wealth in France. It has not, probably, been as rapid as our own, but still it has been rapid. It strikes the eye of the traveler as he passes through the country; the accounts of the bank indicate it; the very loans above mentioned show it, for the nation must be accumulating fast to be able to spare so much so easily. It might at first sight be imagined that this increase of wealth would in some degree have a martial influence, because it would enable the nation to bear better the burdens of a war. But, when the whole circumstances are considered, we think there is some reason for anticipating the contrary. The inevitable consequence of growing wealth among a non-increasing people is growing comfort, and the tendency of comfort is pacific. Soldiers, as we know, are only to be enlisted with their own consent from the lower classes-we may say from the uncomfortable classes. The more comfortable you make the people, the more, cæteris paribus, you diminish the inclination to enlist. France need not, indeed, apprehend an actual diminution in the number of her soldiery, for she raises her army by an involuntary conscription. But the painfulness of that painful system is aggravated by every increase in the well-being of a nation. Compulsory military service is a slight burden in a rude country where there is little else to do, where wages are small, and "life is cheap." But in a refined state of society, where comfort is great, and labor valuable, and opportunities many, it is well nigh unbearable. A country like France, in which wealth is augmenting very much faster than population, is exactly in the economical state which is most favorable to peace and is least favorable to war. Again, the form in which the growing wealth of France is now more and more invested, is of a kind which has a more decided pacific influence than that in which it was formerly invested. Until the last few years the poorer part of the saving classes of France (and a very large part of them are what we should call poor.) had little outlet for their savings except in the purchase of land. To an extent which, but for certain proof, would be incredible, they hoarded these accumulations in five franc pieces till they could find a plot of land to buy. In consequence, the price of land in small parcels sometimes became so great that it hardly yielded more than one per cent. The improvement in education, and the development of new and speedy means of communication, have much diminished the suspicious timidity of the petty capitalists throughout the country, and they buy rentes, railway shares, or debentures, or some other properties of that kind. The value of this species of wealth is, we need not explain, far more dependent on the continuance of peace than that of land; and it is a good omen for the future peace of Europe and the world, that the quickly growing riches of France are so invested as to be affected in value even by rumor, and to be certain of great depreciation in prolonged war. www BANKING IN KENTUCKY. The Governor's message, vetoing the Commercial Bank bill, contains the following sketch of banking in that State : A brief recurrence to the past decade in the history of our State will exhibit the comparative advance of our people in population and wealth, with the extension of bank capital during the same period, and enable us to determine whether the prosperity of the State, and true interests of trade, at this time, demand a yet further augmentation of that capital, and a still larger increase in the circulation of paper money. Is not the present bank capital sufficient for the wants of the State? If sufficient for all legitimate business, it is manifest that any increase must engender a spirit of wild and reckless speculation, and bring about an inflation of prices, sure to produce, in the inevitable reaction, panic, depression, and hard times, with all their attendant and resulting evils. In 1849 we had in Kentucky but three banks, the Northern Bank, the Bank of Kentucky, and Bank of Louisville, all well managed, and, together, furnishing a sound, safe, circulating medium, amply sufficient to supply the wants of the people, and to secure to labor a remunerative reward. The new constitution went into operation, and a new and prosperous career opened upon us. to 982,405. The taxable property of the State was valued at $285.085.378. Our population amounted The banks just mentioned, sustained by the full confidence of the people, furnished us a circulation of $6,419,130 as shown by their respective statements, viz. :— Northern Bank, circulation.... Bank of Kentucky, circulation. $2,717,760 2,453,002 Bank of Louisville, circulation. 1,248,368 Amounting in total.... $6,419,130 The capital stock of these banks, at that time paid in, was as follows: Northern Bank, capital.... $2,250,000 Bank of Kentucky, capital 3,700,000 Bank of Louisville, capital.. 1,080,000 Amounting in the aggregate to... $7,030,000 The excess of capital over the circulation was then $610,870. Ten years have passed. Basing our calculation upon the increase during the previous decades, we may now estimate our population at 1,200.000. The taxable property of the State is now valued at $197,831,675. We have now eight chartered banks, with a large number of branches distributed throughout the State, with a capital 30 VOL. XLII.-NO. IV. paid in of $12,660,670, and a circulation of $13,520,207, showing a difference of circulation above capital of $859,537. The following table will attest the correctness of these figures : In addition to this aggregate bank capital already in active employment, I may mention, as an additional resource of commerce, the $2,163,955 of untaken stock in existing banks, which can be subscribed without further legislation. Under their charters the following banks are authorized to open subscription books and increase their capital stock, as here stated : Whenever the wants of the people, or the legitimate demands of a healthy trade, demand the increase, over $2,000,000 can be added to the bank capital of the State; and certainly an equal, if not a larger amount, to the circulation. Besides this, there are scattered over the State a multitude of deposit banks, saving institutions, and insurance companies with banking privileges, which are empowered to discount notes and deal in bills of exchange." In addition to this large increase of the bank capital and circulation, the influx of gold into the United States has been abundantly large, of itself, to meet the demands of the growing trade. From 1848 to 1858 the California gold mines have yielded Making together a total of....... $448,000,000 410,922,000 $858,922,000 The coinage of the mint and branch mints of the United States during that time, will exhibit an increase of the metals which have entered into the circulation of the country, sufficient, without addition to our banking capital, to meet all the reasonable demands of business. The total coinage from 1792 to 1858 has been.. From 1849 to 1858 it was.. $650,969,907 84 150,327,854 50 $500,642,053 74 Nearly five-sixths of the metallic currency of the United States has been coined since 1849, of which our State had, or would have had, in the absence of paper money, its due portion. The most inferior circulating medium, by an inexorable law, ever displaces the more valuable; hence the metals yield to paper, and as bank notes are multiplied, coin becomes more scarce. Compare our bank capital with the adjoining States whose wealth, population, and trade are larger than our own, and let us see if there is not already an excess of circulation and inflation of prices here which operates to the detriment rather |