Adding, now, to this sum nine or ten millions of dollars for the six or six and a half millions that, according to certain data, are left uncoined, and that which is exported, either by permission or fraudulently, the result is, the whole amount extracted during the period above cited exceeds $38,000,000. EXPORTS OF GOLD FROM CALIFORNIA IN 1849-50. The statement published below of the value of gold exported from California, in each month from April 1st, 1849, to December 31st, 1850, was compiled from official sources, and originally prepared for the San Francisco Herald. It may, therefore, be relied upon as accurate as far as it pretends to speak of facts. The estimates are, of course, matters of opinion, based, however, upon authentic information, derived from the very best sources. STATEMENT NO. I. TABULAR STATEMENT OF GOLD dust shipped FROM SAN FRANCISCO, FROM APRIL 1, 1849, TO 31ST DECEMBER, 1850, INCLUSIVE-PASSENGERS at an AVERAGE OF $500 EACH. The above statement, from April 1, 1849, to May 1, 1850, includes only the gold dust shipped on the steamers of Howland & Aspinwall's line. From that period, shipments and passengers by Law's line and the Empire City line, are included. STATEMENT NO. IL Gold dust shipped to Chili and Peru, by the Chili and California Flour Total.... $1,373,000 873,000 1,570,216 51,520 708,306 $4,576,042 STATEMENT NO. III. To these amounts may be added the following estimates, which are made up from the best information that can be obtained from well informed persons: Gold dust carried overland and coastwise, by miners from Mexico, Chili, Shipped by merchants, of which there is no manifest entry 7,500,000 5,000,000 500,000 6,000,000 Total.. $19,000,000 RECAPITULATION. Gold dust shipped by steamers, from April 1, 1849, to December 1, 1849 $4,560,201 30,010,054 754,500 By passengers from January 1, to December 31, 1850. 3,817,000 As per statement No. 2. As per statement No. 3 Total.... 4,576,042 19,000,000 $62,717,797 In the above estimate, the value of gold dust has been computed at $16 the ounce Troy; to this amount should be added $1 50 per ounce, the Mint value, say Total, at Mint valuation..... $5,869,794 $68,587,591 It is supposed there are 150,000 persons now in California, engaged in mining for gold. COINAGE OF GOLD, SILVER, AND COPPER AT THE MINT OF THE UNITED STATES AT PHILADELPHIA IN JAN., 1851, AND DEC., 1850. We published in the Merchants' Magazine for February, 1851, the statement of EC. Dale, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, of the coinage of gold and silver at the United States Mint in Philadelphia in 1850, and also a separate statement for the month of December. We are indebted to the same official source, for the subjoined statement for the month of January, 1851, and for the purpose of comparison we give the coinage in December, 1850. Dollars. December, 1850, Quarter Eagles.. The total value of gold deposited at the Mint from 1st to 31st January, 1851, inclusive, was $5,000,000, of which $4,940,000 was from California, and $60,000 from other sources. It will be seen by the above table that there has been a large falling off in the amount of coinage in January, 1851, as compared with the month of December 1850. This diminution in quantity is attributed to a suspension of the refining operations from the 30th of December, 1850, to the 20th of January, 1851. It will be noticed that the great bulk of the coinage during the two months was in double eagles, ($20 pieces,) the most inconvenient for the purpose of a circulating medium. It, however, enables the Mint to increase the value of the coinage, if not the number of coins.* DEBT AND FINANCES OF ILLINOIS. The Legislature of Illinois assembles biennially at Springfield, the capital of the State. The Governor is chosen for four years, and receives a sallery of $1,000 per annum. The term of the present Governor, AUGUSTUS C. FRENCH, expires January 4th, 1853. The Legislature meets on the second Monday in January. The Message of Governor French, transmitted to the Legislature of Illinois on the 7th of January, 1851, gives the subjoined statement of the debt of the State on the 7th of January, 1851:Principal debt funded under act of 1847. Interest on same to same date.. Arreared interest funded... Unfunded interest improvement bonds. Other kinds of indebtedness.. Interest on last two amounts Wiggins loan, principal and interest. $5,590,565 36 1,020,278 18 1,945,485 27 $180,000 00 144,680 00 173,261 40 142,000 00 150,000 00 789,941 40 $9,346,270 21 $561,788 73 $8,784,488 48 The canal debt, on the 1st of January, 1851, may be stated as follows, to wit: The Governor is in favor of the alteration of the newly adopted constitution of the State, so that the money now required to be raised by taxation, under its fifteenth article, instead of being applied virtually by way of endorsement upon the bonds, as is For a statement of the coinage of the United States Mint at Philadelphia in 1850, see Merchants, Magazine for February, 1851, vol. xxiv., page 238; and for deposits and coinage of United States ⚫Mint and branches, from 1824 to 1850, inclusive, see number for January, 1851, vol xxiv., pp. 97–98. $225,818 51 13,270 14 269,088 65 $7,843,028 43 16,627,509 91 now provided, shall at once, and as fast as it may be received into the Treasury, be taken and used in the purchase of State bonds and indebtedness, at their market value. The preliminary steps to bring this proposition before the people were taken at the previous session of the Legislature. If endorsed at the present, it will then be submitted to the popular vote. In relation to the views of the bond-holders on the subject, the Governor says that they would undoubtedly prefer that the money “should be applied to the payment of interest as it accrues upon the bonds; but, as between the two modes here referred to, they uniformly manifest a preference for that contemplated by the amendment." As a public measure, he thinks that the amendment will tend gradually to raise the market price of bonds, and enable the State to relieve herself more rapidly from the burthen of the public debt. UNITED STATES TREASURER'S STATEMENT. TREASURER'S STATEMENT, SHOWING THE AMOUNT AT HIS CREDIT IN THE TREASURY, WITH ASSISTANT TREASURERS AND DESIGNATED DEPOSITARIES, and in THE MINT AND BRANCHES, BY RETURNS RECEIVED TO JANUARY 27TH, 1851, the AMOUNT FOR WHICH DRAFTS HAD BEEN ISSUED BUT WERE THEN UNPAID, AND THE AMOUNT THEN REMAINING SUBJECT TO DRAFT-SHOWING, ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF FUTURE TRANSFERS TO ANd from depoSITARIES AS ORDERED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Transfers ordered to Treasury of the United States, Washington, D. C. 1,536 74 $11,584,564 82 525,000 00 $12,109,564 82 $100,000 00 525,000 00 100,000 00 UNITED STATES TREASURY NOTES OUTSTANDING, FEB. 1, 1851. Amount outstanding of the several issues prior to 22d July, 1846, as per records of this office..... Amount outstanding of the issue of 22d July, 1846, as per records of this office... Amount outstanding of the issue of 28th January, 1847, as per records of this office... Deduct canceled notes in the hands of the accounting officers, of the issues prior to 22 July, 1846.... ་་་་་་་ $138,461 64 25,200 00 26,300 00 $189,961 64 150 00 $189,811 64 THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION-PRACTICAL BANKING. We copy from the London Bankers' Magazine for January, 1851, the following announcement, by which it will be seen that JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, F. R. S.,* one of the most accomplished, scientific, and practical bankers in England, offers the liberal premium of one hundred pounds sterling to the author of the best essay on the subject indicated in the subjoined question: We are authorized to announce that J. W. Gilbart, Esq., F. R. S., will present the sum of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS to the author of the best essay which shall be written in reply to the question: "In what way can any of the articles collected at the Industrial Exhibition of 1851, be rendered especially serviceable to the interests of Practical Banking ?” "These articles may be architectural models, that may suggest improvements in the bank-house or office-inventions by which light, heat, and ventilation may be secured, so as to promote the health and comfort of the bank-clerks-discoveries in the fine arts, by which the interior of a bank may be decorated, or the bank furniture rendered more commodious-improvements in writing paper, pens, ink, account books, scales, letter copying machines, or other instruments used in carrying on the business--improvements in printing and engraving, by which banks may get their notes, receipts, letters of credit, and other documents, of a better kind, at a less expense, or so as to prevent forgery-new inventions in the construction of locks, cash-boxes, and safes, which shall render property more secure against fire or thieves-and generally all articles of every kind which can be so applied as to improve, cheapen, or facilitate any of the practical operations of banking. The names of the adjudicators, and other particulars, will be announced in a future number of the Bankers' Magazine." to award the premium to the Were Mr. Gilbart himself in but little chance for others. We presume that the adjudicators will not hesitate best essay, irrespective of the nationality of the writer. the field as a competitor for the prize, there would be But as the generous awarder, we presume that is out of the question. Our esteemed correspondent, A. B. JOHNSON, Esq., of the Ontario Branch Bank at Utica, should, at least, enter the lists-not, we are quite sure, for the sake of the hundred pounds, as his circumstances do not render such a compensation desirable, but for the "glory and fame" that would necessarily attach to the successful competitor. It will be recollected by most of our readers that we gave a sketch of the life, character, and writings of this eminent Bank Manager in the Merchants' Magazine for July, 1818, (vol. xix., pages 68-76,) accompanied with a portrait. We have also published in former numbers of our Journal a series of lectures from his pen, on the " History and Principles of Ancient Commerce." His able and interesting work, entitled a "Practical Treatise on Banking," the fifth edition of which was published in London in 1849, by Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, is now being republished in successive numbers of the Boston Bankers' Magazine. Mr. Gilbart has done more, probably, to create, as it were, a Literature of Banking, than any single writer in Great Britain, and his writings on that, and kindred topics, have secured for him, at once, a solid and permanent reputation. |