DRAFT OF BILL
Uncle Sam: Well, boys, here we are ready for the report of the committee on legislation, I suppose you would call it. Are you ready to report now?
Mr. Farmer: Yes, Mr. Lawyer will make our report and speak for the committee.
Mr. Lawyer: Uncle Sam, your committee has been deeply impressed with the duty you have imposed upon it.
That the solution and settlement of our financial and banking problem is the most important economic question that has ever confronted the civilized world must be admitted by all who will take the trouble to investigate it and institute a comparison between our conditions and those of any other country at the time when it adopted its financial and banking system.
In 1803, when the Bank of France was established, the financial resources of France were without official record, but comparatively nominal.
In 1844, when the bank act under which the Bank of England is conducted was enacted, the banking resources of that country were probably in the neighborhood of $500,000,000. The total note issue of England, Scotland, and Ireland was less than $200,000,000; the public and private deposits in the Bank of England were less than $75,000,000; and the gold in the Bank of England was less than $75,000,000.
In 1873, when the Imperial Bank of Germany took its present form, industrial Germany was still slumbering; and the bank resources probably did not exceed $1,000,000,000. The capital of the incorporated banks was about $425,000,000, the notes were about $325,000,000, and the reserves held about $30,000,000.