[523] Principles of Money and Banking, II, p. 52.
[524] Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, vol. II, pp. 145 et seq.
[525] Total collateral loans in New York City on that date were $719,327,596. This is for national banks alone. Report of Comptroller, 1915, II, 144. There is every reason to suppose that if trust companies and private banks were included, the proportion of stock exchange collateral loans would be very much higher.
[526] I am very fortunate in having the views of Dr. J. E. Pope on this question. I know no one whose knowledge of agricultural credit, whether of American or of European conditions, is so thorough and extensive.
[527] This table is constructed on the basis of data in the Report of the Comptroller for 1913, pp. 774-78.
[528] A single observation does not justify very confident conclusions, and figures for subsequent years may alter this. There is reason for supposing that commodity collateral was unusually large in proportion in the Comptroller's figures for national banks in June, 1915, (1) because the banks had been trying to reduce stock collateral loans, following the collapse of the outbreak of the War, (2) because they were aiding cotton owners to tide over a period of stress, and (3) because of great grain speculation. Later: 1916 figures show this. Comptroller's Report, I, p. 30. Stock loans increase from 66% to 71.2%, of collateral loans.
[529] The preceding argument would indicate that it is much too high.
[530] The figures for 1909 are fairly typical of the proportions of these items in the assets of the three classes of institutions for the ten years from 1904 to 1914. Since 1900, there has been some increase in the percentages of real estate loans and "all other loans," at the expense of the percentage of securities owned, and collateral loans, as these years have been years of reduced activity on the Stock Exchange. The changes are not important enough, however, to modify any conclusions which we shall base on the figures here given. All classes of loans have grown, and investments in securities have grown, but real estate loans and "all other loans," particularly the latter, have grown somewhat more rapidly.
[531] These figures are taken from Conant, Principles of Money and Banking, vol. II, p. 52.
[532] The term "commercial paper," as here used by Conant (whose source is the Comptroller's Report for 1904 and preceding years), doubtless includes a good many items which we have decided not to count as commercial paper. The item, "advances on securities," also includes some items other than stock exchange loans, but not a high percentage in New York City. In 1913 the figures for all reporting banks in New York City were: collateral loans, 1,070; "other loans," 658. Report of Comptroller, 1913, p. 779.