VALUATION OF REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE, ETC.-CONTINUED.

Assessment
Counties,

Valuation.

of tax. Population. Potter..

646.000

1,955

6,048 Schuylkill

8,972,005 27,522 60,713 Somerset

2,833,818 8,617 24,416 Sullivan..

350,254 1,109

3,694 Susquehanna..

2,607,359 7,928 28.688 Tioga

1,597,193 4,904 23.987 Union..

5,862,853 18,242 26.083 Venango.

1,275,221 3,948 18,310

1,196,736 3,757 13,671 Wasbington.

9,267,728 28,394 44,939 Wayne..

1,371,750 4.219 21.890 Westmoreland.

7,663,939 23,480 51,726 Wyoming...

883,780 2,754 10,655 York..

10.616,397 32,384 57,450

Taxables.

1,348 12,935 5,642

820 6,222 5,228 6,197 4,027 3,145 10,030

4,363 11,853

2,401 13,083

Warren.

Total...

$492,898,829 $1,529,757

2,311,786

491,977

CONDITION OF THE STATE BANK OF INDIANA.

COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE LIABILITIES AND RESOURCES OF THE STATE BANK OF INDIANA,

1847-51.

FIRE INSURANCE IN GERMANY, Fire insurance, in so far as the private companies, (Die Privatversicherungs Gesellschaften,) are concerned, is fully established in Germany, and in its management, with respect to the insured, is carried on in a spirit of justice and liberality, and knowledge of affairs, found in few other countries. From the very active competition which exists amongst the pative companies,—not to speak of foreign companies to which the

liberty of operation has been conceded,—it is almost generally taken advantage of by the population, with the exception only of the inhabitants of the chief towns in Austria; namely, Vienna, Prague, and Pesth; as also people of the fourth rank, being petty tradespeople, day.laborers, handicraftsmen, small cultivators of land, and cottagers ; the first, because they are believed to dwell in fire-secure buildings; and the last, because, on account of their small property, the costs of insurance would come higher to their share than the just premiums, and they are impressed with the idea that they could not afford the outlay; neither does it happen that the companies seek to draw the latter to them, however great in other respects may be their hunting after insurance.

The condition of the German private insurance companies may in general be looked on as normal, though the pernicious custom “ not to make the premium reserve dependent on a full and careful'account, but on the close of the year to reserve an arbitrary sum,” is not yet laid aside by two of the companies.- London Assurance Magazine.

16 CREDIT IS MONEY." FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc:

Dear Sie :--Observing an article on money by M. Chitti, published in the late number of your journal, I send you a copy of a letter addressed some time since to a distinguished statesman, in consequence of a previous conversation in which I asserted “ credit to be money." Of course I use the word credit in the financial acceptation. Respectfully yours,

ROBERT HARE. Dear Sir.-In support of the opinion yesterday expressed to you that credit is money, I would urge that specie is money, only so far as it commands credit, or the belief of the holder that it will pass for a certain value. Obviously, credit, derived from credo (I believe) or creditum, (believed,) implies the belief entertained respecting the realization of a promise or expectation excited. Nothing can act as money which cannot create such an expectation as that above defined. I offered to pay a farmer for a quarter of veal with a quarter eagle; he objected; and only agreed to receive it upon my giving credit to it, which it previously wanted with him, by promising that if it did not pass, I would give him other money. He took the gold therefore, not because he trusted to it, but because he trusted in me. Of course he would have taken a bank note, under the same impression.

People are governed altogether by their knowledge and experience of the certainty with which anything, tendered them as good money, will be received as such in the market; and hence, bank notes are more readily taken in those parts of the country, where they are believed to be good, than gold coin of which the dealers concerned are not judges, while they have no means at hand of either testing or weighing.

A piece of coin might be made to resemble gold by alloying copper with platina, or a piece of platina plated with gold might be in circulation for ages, and would pass only by the credit it commauded. A goldsmith would be a loser who should buy it to melt up, but no person would lose by holding it as money, so long as its credit should be sustained by its fallacious exterior. Of course whenever any other substance, or substitute for specie, can produce the same credit as specie does, whether genuine or spurious, so as to produce in the holder the impression that it will pass, it will have equal competency to perform the part of good money.

If it be said, that in this respect confidence in the competency of gold is more likely to be sustained, is more durable, and that it has in this respect a peculiar universality, this is only proving that the best means of establishing a currency capable of producing durable and universal credit is to employ hard money. It may be said that paper money is more liable to lose its credit. This is an argument against the use of the paper money, but does not disprove that credit is money, since so long as the paper has credit it performs the office of money as well as coin, and passes in consequence of a qualification common to both, and when coin ceases to have credit, it ceases to be competent to perform the office of money.

Whenever å knowledge of the coinage and its mechanical qualities does not intuitively create confidence, whenever a resort must be had to assay, it becomes bullion, not money. It will then have no more value than the price of its metallic constituent in the form of an ingot.

Hence it strikes me that credit (embodied in a bank note, check, or draft) may act as money without the aid of specie, but that specie cannot act as money without the aid of credit.

The idea of the holders of notes generally, is not to exchange them for specie, the immediate idea is to pass them in payment of what they may owe, or as the price of what they may buy. "Reference to specie is almost always ideal, as we refer to the digits to express numbers abstractly ; when associated with silver or gold, they express both number and value abstractly. Ten dollars couveys an abstract idea as much as the No. 10. The digits are associated with these metals as they may be associated with the liquid or solid measurement in which an ideal resort to solidity or fluidity is made, in like manner.

If the precious metals are preferable as a means of interchange, it is only because they are the simplest and surest means of inspiring confidence, or creating credit

, in other words, of creating and supporting the belief that they will pass in the market for their alleged value. Coin does not pass on account of its intrinsic value, but in consequence of the belief that it has an intrinsic value. False coin will pass better with this belief, than real coin without it.

But a piece of gold may be in circulation for a hundred years, without benefiting the holders by any of those metallic properties to which it owes its value. It will have done nothing for them which good bank notes would not have accomplished, whatever may be said of trade. Yet so long as paper passes for the value at which it is taken, those who thus receive and pay it away lose nothing.

It is the holder of a note which depreciates while he holds it, that suffers. A ten dollar bill which is taken for nine specie dollars is virtually a nine dollar note, and answers to the taker an equally good purpose.

CONDITION OF THE BANKS OF BOSTON. CONDENSED STATEMENT OF THE CAPITAL, CIRCULATION, DEPOSITS, PROFITS, COIN, AND

LOANS OF THIRTY BANKS IN BOSTON, AND ONE HUNDRED BANKS IN THE INTERIOR ;
FOR THE YEARS 1847-51.

LIABILITIES.
Sept., 1848.
Sept., 1849.
Sept., 1850.

May, 1851. Capital......

$32,985,000 $31,630,011 $36,925,050 $38,265,000 Circulation.

10,807,193 19,014,194 13,984,953 16,365,195 Circulation under $5.

2,388,837 2,686,741 3,020,873 3,329,503 Profits on hand'...

3,737,434 3,011,996 4,627,660 3,824,608 Due other banks...

4,083,650 4,720,816 6,549,930 *7,003,441 Deposits... ...

8,094,970 9,875,317 11,176,827 12,969,776 Deposits on interest.

470,016 746,415 442,085 870,129

LONDON AND WESTMINSTER BANK, We are indebted to JAMES WILLIAM GILBAET, Esq., the general manager of this bank, for an official copy of the report of the directors to the proprietors at the halfyearly meeting, January 21st, 1852, from which it appears that the net profits of the bank, during the last half-year, amount to £41,993 78. 9d. Out of these profits the directors declared a dividend for the half-year at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, on the paid up capital of £1,000,000. They also, at the same time, declared a bonus of

• Including an error of $1,520 in the statement of the Adams Bank.

eight shillings per share--being equal to 2 per cent on the capital. After these payments, the report shows a surplus fund amounting to £104,152.

Under the efficient management of Mr. Gilbart, this bank has attained a position second to no similar institution in Europe. The London and Westminster Bank, as we have before remarked, is the largest of its class in London, and second only in importance to the Bank of England.

The subjoined statement shows the debit and credit account, or condition of the bank on the 31st December, 1851:

DEBTOR.

To proprietors for paid up capital......
To amount due by the bank for deposits, circular notes, &c..
To rest or surplus fund....
To net proties of the past half-year.

£1,000,000 0 0 4,677,298 911 112.158 13 4 41,893

Total ...

.....

.£5,831,450 11

0

CREDITOR,

By Government stock, exchequer bills, and India bonds.......... 21.054,018 10 0 By other securities, including bills discounted, loans to customers, &c. 4.123.485 4 6 By cash in hand.....

653,916 16 7

Total .

£5,831,450 11

0

PROPERTY AND TAXES OF MARYLAND. We are indebted to the Treasurer of the State of Maryland for an official copy of his annual report for the fiscal year ending first of December, 1351. From this report we derive the subjoined tabular statement:SHOWING THE ASSESSED VALUE OF REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY, WITH TIK AMOUNT

THE BRITISH POST OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. A Parliamentary paper just issued shows the estimate for the Post Office packet service for the coming year as compared with that for the twelve months whili will terminate on the 5th of April. The increase in the amount of contracts is £98,135, caused chiefly by the new lines for Ireland, Brazil, and the Cape. On the other baud there is a diminution of £52,875 in the expense of Queen's vessels employeu, so that the total augmentation is limited to £45,260. TI total amount for 1850-51 was £764,236; for 1851-2, £809,496.

а

PUBLIC LOANS OF PENNSYLVANIA,

RATES PER

66

66

66

66

66

July

STATEMENT SHOWING THE SEVERAL LOANS OF THE COMMONWEALTITUEIR

CENT INTEREST-PÉRIODS WHEN REIMBURSABLE-AND AMOUNTS, AS THEY SEVERALLY
STOOD ON HE IST DAY OF DECEMBER, 1851- FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF TUB
AUDITOR-GENERAL,
Loans, &c.
Rate of int. Reimbursable.

Amount. Stock loan per act of April 2, 1821.... 6 June

1, 1841

$20,332 99 April 1, 1826.. 5 Decem. 1, 1846 286.760 31 April 9, 1827.

5 Decem. 1, 1850 988,202 42 March 24, 1828.

Decem. 1, 1853 1,973,154 86 Dec. 18, 1898.

January 1, 1854

770.903 97 April 22, 18:29. 5 Decem. 1, 1854 2,140,529 83 Dec. 7, 1829.

5 Bank chart'r loan 60 000 (10) March 13, 1830.

5 March 4, 1858 3,977 895 89 March 21, 1831.

5
July

1, 1856 2,437,161 06 March 28, 1831.. 5

March 28, 1861 11 ,300.00 March 30, 1831..

5

1, 1856

294.029 43 March 30, 1832.. 5

July

1, 1860) 2.283,930 37 April 5, 1832.

5 July 1, 1860 299,436 (6 Feb. 16, 1833.

5 July 1, 1853 2,516,195 016 March 1, 1833 43 April 10, 1863 198,200 00 March 27, 1833...

July
1, 1858

528:32 06 April 5, 1834.

July

1, 1862 2,243,711 91 April 13, 1835.

July

1, 1865 949.604 98
Jan.
26, 1839.

5
July

1, 1859 1,102,101 19
Feb.
9, 1839.

5
July

1, 1864 1,239,931 32 March 16, 1839.

6

1, 1864 91,851 79 March 27, 1839.

5 July 1, 1868 467,1:5 43 June 7, 1839.

5 August 1, 1859 47.798 10 June 27, 1839.

5
June

27, 1864 1.115.505 17 July 19, 1839.

6

July 1, 1868 2.043.641 77 Jan. 23, 1840,

5 January 1, 1865 816.550 18 April 3, 1810.

5 August 1, 1864 10:443 37 June 11, 1840.

5 July 1, 1870 1.907.763 98 Jan. 16, 1841..

August 1, 1816 80111,000 00 March 4, 1841...

July & Nov. 1847 2.335 06 Loan (relief) May

4, 1841..

May 4, 1846 6:30 143 00 Stock loan May 5, 1811.

5 Bank ch't'r loans 56,791 06 May 6, 1841.

6 June 1, 1840 909,677 01 Int. certificts“

July
27, 1842.

6 August 1, 1843 :50) 0:4 69 March 7, 1813..

6 August 1, 1816 58 1:3 14 Stock loan

April 29, 1844... 5 March 1, 1849 53 61 90 Int. certificts “ May 31, 1844... 5

August 1, 1816 61.473 99 Stock loan

April 16, 1845.... 5 August 1, 1855 4,178,40 20
Jan, 22, 1847... 5 Bank ch't'r loans 69.560 00
April 11, 1848.

6 April 11, 1853 161.6NS 45 Inc. Pl. loan «

April 10, 1849.... April 10, 1879 400.000 00 Total.......

$40 017,102 36 The loan per act of 20th April, 1846, for the construction of the outlet lock at Wells, Falls (originally $20,000, and now amounting to $12,500) is not embraced in the foregoing table, for the reasou that the faith of the Commonwealth is not pledged for its