AND MATURITIES.

The total of commercial paper, exclusive of bankers' acceptances, discounted during December, 1915, amounted to $15,412,000, a total of 15 per cent below the total for November, but larger than for any other month of the past year. Of the total amount of discounts reported, the share of the three southern banks was 62.3 per cent; the share of Kansas City, 11.7 per cent; and that of Chicago, 14.4 per cent. Out of the 12, only 5 banks appear to have been active in the rediscount field during the report month, these 5 banks reporting 88.4 per cent of the total discounts granted during the month by all the reserve banks, as against 86.7 per cent in November. Chicago is the only bank which reports a considerable increase in discounts for the past month.

Commodity paper, $2,939,500, mostly secured by cotton, constitutes 19.1 per cent of the total discounts for the month, compared with 23.9 per cent for November, and 13.7 per cent in October. About 62.2 per cent of this paper was handled by the Atlanta bank and its New Orleans branch and 30.5 per cent by the Richmond bank. A total of $514,000 of trade acceptances was discounted during the month by six banks, and in addition $31,600 of this class of paper was purchased by the Boston bank in the open market.

The total of paper discounted during the past calendar year by the 12 banks was $161,353,000, of which about two-thirds was handled by the three southern banks, less than 20 per cent by the four western banks, a little over 10 per cent by the four eastern banks, and 4.6 per cent by San Francisco.

The total number of bills discounted during the month was 8,095, compared with 9,652 in November and 9,285 in October. The average size of the paper discounted in December by all the banks was slightly less than $1,904, as against $1,893 in November, $1,621 in October, and $1,249 in June, marking the gradual and steady increase in the average size of the paper handled. During the past year the monthly average varied in the case of the more active banks from $1,500 for Richmond to $2,415

About 36.5 per cent of the total number of bills and 49.6 per cent of the total amount discounted during December were bills in amounts ranging between 1,000 and 5,000 dollars. Bills of the largest size (i. e., in amounts over $10,000) constituted 17.6 per cent of the total discounts for the month, as against 22 per cent shown for the month before. In the case of Atlanta and its New Orleans branch the share of these largest-size bills was 31.3 per cent of the monthly total, being largely commodity paper secured by cotton and discounted at the 3 per cent rate. Small bills (in denominations up to $250) constituted over 19 per cent of the entire number, though less than 1.5 per cent of the total amount of the paper discounted during the month. The Richmond bank reports 571 and the Atlanta bank 387 of such bills. Over 60 per cent of the number and amount of all small bills discounted during the month were handled by these two banks.

Of the total amount of paper discounted during December, 1.9 per cent was 10-day, 16.4 per cent 30-day, 32.9 per cent 60-day, and 34.2 per cent 90-day paper. Over 2.25 millions, or 14.6 per cent, was agricultural and live-stock paper, maturing after 90 days at the time of rediscount. The largest amounts of 10-day and 30-day paper were discounted during December by the Chicago bank. Richmond reports the largest amounts of 30-day and 60-day paper, while Dallas leads in the amount of 6-month paper handled during the month.

The number of member banks which rediscounted with the Federal Reserve Banks during vember, 796 in October, and 762 in September, December was 725, compared with 837 in Noentire number of member banks shown at the and constituted about 9.5 per cent of the end of the year. About one-half of the rediscounting banks were southern banks. largest absolute and relative number of banks accommodated is shown for the Atlanta district, viz, 131 out of 387, or 33.8 per cent of the total. This total is 50 less than in November, a

The

relative decrease about equal to the relative decrease shown for the total amount of paper discounted by the bank and its branch during December of the past year.