In our banking power the situation is equally fortunate. Mulhall defines banking power as the paid-up capital of banks, the deposits exclusive of savings banks, and the amount of convertible paper money. He shows the growth of this form of wealth to have been as follows, from 1840 to 1894:—
MILLIONS POUNDS STERLING.
| Great Britain. | United States. | France. | Germany. | Other States. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1840 | 132 | 90 | 16 | 12 | 58 | 308 |
| 1894 | 960 | 1,030 | 356 | 231 | 760 | 3,337 |
In the two great essentials of financial strength—the quantity of metallic money and banking power—we have far outstripped every other nation. This is an unfailing sign of our advance toward a position of commercial and industrial supremacy. The sceptre of financial power has crossed the Atlantic from Europe to the New World. We are gradually acquiring command of the world’s markets, and in time we shall see our banks—ever the handmaids of commerce—extending their operations to the most distant quarters of the earth and carrying everywhere the beneficent influences of modern civilization.
New York as a financial centre has been growing with astonishing rapidity in recent years. From 1879 to 1899 the banks belonging to the New York Clearing-House Association increased their deposits from $254,700,000 to $910,500,000, and their specie—chiefly gold—from $54,700,000 to $202,600,000, the latter item having about doubled in the past two years, being $104,700,000 in 1897, and $202,600,000, as above stated, in 1899. The aggregate of banking institutions in the city—national banks, state banks, trust companies, and savings banks, exclusive of private banking firms—had, about January 1, 1899, capital, surplus, and profits amounting to $311,600,000; deposits of $2,047,800,000; and total resources of nearly $2,500,000,000. One bank—the National City—with over $144,000,000 of deposits, is the largest in the United States; while the Bowery Savings Bank, with 121,000 depositors and $67,000,000 of deposits, is the largest of its kind in the country.
The present status of the different classes of banks in the United States is fairly shown by the following table compiled from the Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, for the year 1898:—
PRINCIPAL ITEMS OF RESOURCES AND LIABILITIES OF ALL CLASSES OF BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES, JULY 14, 1898.
| National Banks. | State Banks. | Loan & Trust Companies. | Savings Banks. | Private Banks. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loans | $2,151,757,655 | $813,749,803 | $539,162,445 | $1,070,775,293 | $57,206,819 | $4,632,632,015 |
| United States bonds | 285,356,900 | 4,185,304 | 34,186,440 | 140,029,726 | 927,473 | 464,685,843 |
| Other bonds | 250,689,375 | 127,500,484 | 159,791,312 | 834,670,491 | 3,599,092 | 1,376,250,754 |
| Cash | 492,882,724 | 133,877,133 | 22,250,862 | 32,928,323 | 5,857,132 | 687,796,174 |
| Capital | 622,016,745 | 233,587,353 | 101,228,555 | 18,536,130 | 16,721,750 | 992,090,533 |
| Surplus and profits | 332,971,643 | 109,554,519 | 97,643,666 | 187,475,971 | 5,092,341 | 732,738,140 |
| Deposits | 2,076,226,576 | 912,365,406 | 662,138,397 | 2,028,208,409 | 62,085,084 | 5,741,023,872 |
| Total resources | 3,977,675,445 | 1,356,084,800 | 942,462,179 | 2,241,344,991 | 91,436,387 | 8,609,003,802 |
There were 3582 national banks that reported, and 5903 other banks, a total of 9485. The total banking funds, that is, capital, surplus and profits, and individual deposits, of all banks reporting, amounted to $7,416,355,568.