Changes in the principal items of resources and liabilities of national banks as shown by the returns on May 5, 1898, as compared with the returns on February 18, 1898, and May 14, 1897. United States bonds. $783,500 00 $657,600 00 Due from national banks, State banks and bankers, and reserve agents... 80,375,794 12 69,942,293 10 Specie..... 45,804,847 23 81,106,389 39 Legal tenders........... 1,206,501 00 United States certificates for legal tenders 25,275,000 00 1,496,311 00 29,615,000 00 Capital stock. 4,418,650 00 12,530,725 00 Surplus and other profits........... 3,388,658 98 3,205,363 50 Circulation. 4,318,986 50 9,853,001 50 Due to national and State banks and bankers... 95,104,785 35 111,627,629 91 Individual deposits..... 16,647,505 81 271,224,467 76 United States Government deposits. 4,409,170 16 11,395,749 21 Bills payable and rediscounts.... 5,495,157 79 2,496,026 62 Total resources........... 76,980,256 20 377,554,862 41 Total number of banks May 5, 1898, 3,586; February 18, 1898, 3,594; May 14, 1897, 3,614. $7,188,393 $128,030 $5,646,088 7,992,678 $45,260,504 71,063,659 171,321,905 508 86,782,802 $1,446,608 $8,467,682 44,991,700 74,177,750 13,003,713 92,453,475 125,268,731 97,118,690 95,966,696 64,295,458 59,898,441 71,958,517 122,166,537 93,238,658 993,001,670 1,245,294,093 88,538,119 68,667,322 1,120,147,797 1,306,143,930 79,941,255 1,277,196,205 1,587,549,134 90,054,461 1,408,833,600 1,684,180,624 1,525,592,874 1,817,257,703 1,597,070,082 1,986,058,320 1,610,039,150 2,005,463,206 1,783,184,728 2,171,041,088 94,722,450 30,688,607 Bank checks and bank notes.-Bank checks and drafts and bank notes constitute by far the most important part of our currency. On January 1, 1898, the total volume of our circulation was as follows: The volume of bank currency, therefore, was more than double that of the non-bank currency. Moreover, it did a vastly larger proportion of the actual work of commerce. Careful investigations have been made from time to time by the Comptroller of the Currency to determine the actual usefulness as currency of our various forms of money. The last investigation was made on July 1, 1896. It showed that of every $100 of business transacted through the banks the different forms of money were used in the following proportions: Gold, 60 cents; silver, 50 cents; greenbacks, silver certificates, Treasury notes, and national-bank notes, $6.30; bank checks, drafts, etc., $92,50. And the clearing-house returns of the country show that the bank checks and drafts constitute a currency which performs transactions in the exchange of property amounting to over $50,000,000,000 a year. And a great many checks, estimated at $20,000,000,000 are used as currency each year, which do not go through the clearing houses. It is very important to note in this connection that a bank check and a bank note are practically the same thing. Both are obligations of the bank payable on demand, and both, without being legal tender, perform admirably the work of money as a medium of exchange. But, notwithstanding this identity, there is a great difference in the amount of service rendered, that of the check and draft being scores of times that of the note. This is partly due to the superior safety of payment by check or draft by reason of their being collectible only by the person named as payee and upon his indorsement, which indorsement becomes a receipt. Bank clearances since 1892.-A very wholesome indication of In national, State, and private banks; but this does not include deposits in savings banks, or any other deposits not subject to check. reviving confidence among business men is afforded by the condition of the bank clearances in the country outside of New York since the passage of the Dingley bill, compared with the period covering the operation of the Wilson act for several years. These clearances reached the two-billion mark in September, 1897, under McKinley, for the first time in nineteen months, except the month of December, 1896. Down to May, 1893, they ran steadily at that mark, but from May, 1893, to October, 1894, remained stationary at less than two billions. That month they again touched the limit, going down, however, to their old figure during November and December, recovering in January, 1895, lapsing back to the one-billion figure in February, March, and April. They touched two billions only eleven times during the entire four years of the Cleveland Administration from March, 1893, to March 1897. That was in April and May, 1893; October, 1894; January, May, July, October, November, December, 1895, and January and December, 1896. They rose to the two-billion mark one month after the passage of the Dingley act, and from August, 1897, to February, 1898-six months have continuously remained at that figure. For New York City the bank clearances reached the three-billion mark but once during the Cleveland Administration. They were stationary at that figure January, February, and March, 1893, fell to two in April, went back to three in May, and thereafter fluctuated between one and two for upward of four years, until September, 1897. Since then they have never fallen below three billions, going to $3,690,282,724 in January, 1898, the highest since 1892. Bank clearances, 1898.-The bank clearances of the leading cities are justly regarded as a reliable barometer of the business condition of the country. The following table, compiled by Bradstreet, shows the bank clearings at eighty-nine cities for the week ended June 9, with the percentage of increase and decrease, as compared with the corresponding week last year: |