COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

THE SPRING BUSINESS-SPECIE IN THE BANKS, AND IN THE TREASURY OF THE GOVERNMENT—ACCOUNTS FROM CALIFORNIA-WANT OF A MINT-LARGE BORROWERS-COIN IN THE UNITED STATESIMPORTS AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK-INCREASE OF CAPITAL-PLANK ROADS-RAILROADS AND CANALS, THEIR DISTANCE, COST, AND REVENUES-MOVEMENT IN THE NEW YORK CANALS-THE BANK MOVEMENT TOTAL MOVEMENT OF NEW YORK STATE CANALS, WITH BANK CIRCULATION, FOR A SERIES OF YEARS-REDEMPTION OF COUNTRY NOTES IN NEW YORK CITY, ETC., ETC.

THE general state of the spring business remains very satisfactory, although the pressure of importations has had a tendency to force auction sales, and somewhat weaken prices. The number of buyers in the city has, however, been large, and the payments prompt. The decline in cotton, and the limited exports of produce, have had a tendency to raise the rates of specie, and to cause a portion of our California supplies to flow off; gold has latterally been shipped, as well as specie. The amount in the city, however, compares as follows:

In addition there was at that moment about $400,000 in the hands of specie brokers. The accounts from California are of a nature to excite hopes in the minds of the community. The gold hitherto produced has been washed out of the soil by individual labor, and the most accurate authorities fix the amount at $150,000,000 up to January, 1851, of which $2,000,000 was exported, the balance remains in the country, as a medium of exchange, of which a large amount is required. The dust, at $16 per ounce, weighed on delivery, being the only currency. The yield of that dust was diminishing, by reason of the high prices of supplies, their remaining no profit to the individual miner. Of late, however, it has become certain that vast ranges of mountain contain quartz which yields, by assay, from 60 cts. to $18 the lb.! In the extraction of this metal, capital and machinery will be applied in a manner to swell the product to a vast amount. All the speculations in relation to a change in the relative value of gold and silver are useless, inasmuch as that the silver produce is likely at least to equal the supply of gold, no matter how great soever that may be. Owing to the defeat of the bill to provide suitable coining facilities, the greatest inconvenience will be encountered by the public, and loss to the miners. The value of coined gold is $18 per ounce, and the trade price of the dust is $16, at which rate the $150,000,000 has been sold by those who dug it. The want of a mint has cost the miners $18,000,000, which has been the profit of speculaters, through the neglect of the government to provide a mint accessible to all.

Although the money market is subjected to the most inconvenient operation, for the want of a mint, by which every arrival of gold causes an extra demand for money, yet there is, apparently, an increased supply of money. Two large borrowers were taken out of the market, last week, viz: the Erie Railroad, by the sale of its bonds, and Messrs. Austens & Spicer, who have been borrowers for a long time. These demands for money have now ceased, and in the latter case

In June last, it will be observed, there was an accumulation of coin in the New York Treasury, while the quantity then held in the mint was limited by law to $1,000,000. There was then outstanding a large amount of mint certificates, which could not be paid, on account of the tardiness of the mint operations, in consequence of inadequate machinery; authority was then given to pay these certificates out of money in the New York Treasury. Thus the amount of bullion in the mint, uncoined, belonging to the United States, has increased to nearly $8,000,000. If the mint certificates had not been paid from the United States funds, collected in New York, there would now have been in the Treasury over $10,400,000. Instead of that, out of $13,667,778, nominally in the Treasury, $7,870,000 is bullion, and not available. Now, to make that available will require two months work of the mint, at its highest rate of movement. In all that time nothing can be done for the public, and all the gold that arrives meantime from California will only create a demand for money, for advances on it. The Mexican indemnity and claims, with other payments of the Government, will require disbursements of its means, and the mint must devote itself entirely to the operations of the Treasury. In effect we shall have no mint for the public service.

The progress of the spring payments, thus far, has been most satisfactory, and the chances, from the situation and prospects of the produce markets, that the receipts of produce from the interior will, with the opening of the spring, be large, and greatly facilitate the discharge of debts. The increase of the population and the pro rata increase of production jointly operate to swell the demand for goods. That is, a greater number of people buy, and all are able to

pay for a greater quantity per head than formerly. This is a circumstance which should be taken into consideration when contemplating the increase of importations, and these have this year not beem small, as compared with former years.

IMPORTS AT THE PORT OF NEW YORK FOR JANUARY AND FEBRUARY.

There has been an increase of ten millions in the importations of goods at New York, but there has also been a proportionate increase in the exports of domestic produce. It is a remarkable fact that never, in the history of this country, has capital been so abundant, or so freely applied to purposes of manufacturing and means of communication, as in the last few years, without, in any degree, affecting the abundance of money, but rather increased it. The amount of money expended in New York State, the last four years, for plank and railroads is nearly forty millions, and the effect has been greatly to increase capital. Plankroads are a new feature. It appears that the first plank-road in Canada was laid down in 1836, and in New York in 1837, but it is only within the last four years that they have been much prosecuted. There now exist as follows:—

Very nearly four millions of dollars have been expended in New York upon these roads, and the resulting advantages are immense. The roads have all been subscribed for by individuals, and all pay handsome dividends. For instance, the Troy and Lansingburg road pays 10 per cent semi-annual; the Utica and Burlington, 20 per cent; and we believe none in operation pay less than 10 per cent, and none of the stocks can be bought in the market.

The importance of plank-roads, in farming regions, becomes self-evident when it is stated that on the Salina road a two-horse team drew six tons of iron, twelve miles, without unusual strain. Four and a half tons is an ordinary load, and a team will travel with it eight hours per day, four miles an hour, day after day. A farmer, in a heavy country, stated that the tolls paid saved themselves in the labor of cleaning horses. In all locations where these roads are in operation, land rises greatly in value. On the Salina road farm land rose from $9 to $15 per acre; on the Syracuse road the increase was $10 per acre. It will be observed that an amount of property equal to $4,000,000, bearing a high rate of interest has been created, and that property has added, in addition, several millions to the value of the land through which it runs, and that all this property is mere saving from the old cost of transportation.

The cheapening the means of transportation lays open to the supplies of cities large quantities of produce, and the accumulation of these forms the means by which goods are paid for in the cities. There are now in operation in the State of New York railroads on which over $60,000,000 have been expended, making, with the plank roads, over $64,000,000. These all pay handsome dividends on the capital employed, and the traffic increases at a very rapid rate. The increased export trade in the last four years has given a great impulse to the internal traffic

of the country, impelling over the public works the produce required to meet an increasing foreign demand, and also the swelling consumption of the Atlantic border. In 1835 the Erie Canal was the only avenue of connection between the vast country west of the mountains and the Atlantic border. There are now five main routes:

This gives an increase of six-fold in the trade between the West and the Atlantic slope since 1835, and if we consider that the tolls are scarcely one-half on the Erie Canal what they then were, and also bear in mind that the Pennsylvania Railroad, 175 miles in operation, and the passage of goods by the Northern Lakes to Boston, the trade is fully ten times greater. But, at the same time, we find that the external trade of the Union has by no means increased in the same proportion. The imports and exports of the port of New York, and the value of all articles transported upon the State canals, have been as follows:

Movement on the New York canals
Imports and exports.....

Increase.

1836. 1850. $67,634,343 $156,397,929 $88,763,586 146,341,417 198,453,889 52,112,472

It is here apparent to how considerable an extent has the internal trade of the country increased as compared with the external trade. The banking movement has increased rapidly during the past year, and has assumed an importance which awakens solicitude, but as yet the volume of the circulation in the State bears no proportion to the internal trade, as compared with that of the speculative years, 1836-7. As an indication of this we have compiled from official reports the following table of the trade of the New York canals. It shows the value of produce coming to tide-water, and of that sent up, comparing the aggregate with the volume of the circulation.

TOTAL MOVEMENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE CANALS, WITH THE BANK CIRCULATION.

The value of produce brought down the canals constitutes the real wealth of the country, and was, in 1850, 150 per cent greater than in 1837, at the same time the bank circulation paid out as currency for the purchase of that produce was scarcely larger. The restraint imposed upon the circulation of the banks by the law which requires security for the issues, amply prevents that over issue or borrowing on circulation by the weak banks, which was the main evil sought to be remedied, some twenty-five years since, by the organization known as the Suffolk System. The law also provides for the redemption of those secured notes either in New York or Albany at a rate not exceeding per cent, which is what is paid when the remittance is in the shape of drafts instead of bank notes. It has been now projected, through the operation of the Bank of the Metropolis, to undertake to compel the country banks to redeem at par in the city, an operation which presents no little difficulty.

The facts are these. The circulation of the State of New York is $26,000,000 of which $15,000,000 circulates at a discount, and this is redeemed at not over per cent by law, four times per year. That is to say, the redemptions are $60,000,000 per annum, at per cent, making exchange $300,000 per year, paid by city business for exchange on country notes. It is a great error to suppose that this per cent is all profits. On the other hand it is the actual exchange between the point of issue and the city. The actual exchange, or the cost of collection, varies on each bank, according to its locality, and the discount on the bills of each bank within the legal per cent, is governed entirely by the competition of brokers. Thus the North River banks, which are as easily got at as those of the city, are compelled to keep their notes at par, because a small discount would afford a profit to the holders to send home the bills. The bills of some other banks are purchased at one-fifth per cent, or 20 cents on the $100, by holders who make a profit at that rate. When these notes are issued by the country banks, they are intended as local circulation. The bank pays them out for the city acceptance of the produce dealer, who purchases produce therewith. The farmer who receives them pays them in to the shop-keepers, and these sometimes return them to the bank for a city acceptance, on which no one disputes the charged exchange. To save that exchange, some shop-keepers remit these notes to the city merchants, who receive them as money, but from whom the city banks will not receive them. Now the error here is in taking them from the country merchants. If like the banks, the merchants will not take them, the evil disappears. If they will take them, they ought not to expect the country bank to pay the exchange because the shop-keeper has misapplied the notes. If the country banks are compelled to pay this exchange, they must call in several millions of circulation. That is to say, at a moment when city merchants look for large payments from the country for goods, they seek to compel the country to make large and needless payments to the banks. Boston is eagerly competing for this western business, and if the Western New York banks are subject to charge upon their money, it leaves a door open for Boston competition by additional facilities.

The spring trade has been unusually brisk at Philadelphia, this season, and, as an evidence of its increase, it may be remarked, that rents have generally advanced. The steady increase of population in the city and county of Philadelphia shows its growing prosperity.