Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era / A volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress

by James P. Boyd

As early as 1826 the United States began to export domestic gold, beginning with an export of $1,056,088 of gold coin and bullion, and receiving an import of $678,740. Up to 1897 the grand total of exports of gold coin and bullion amounted to $2,186,238,541, and the total imports to $1,112,138,766, an excess of exports over imports of $1,074,099,775. In 1898 the imports of gold coin and bullion into the United States were $120,391,674, and the exports $15,406,391, making the net imports $104,985,283.

From 1821 to 1897 the grand total of exports of silver coin and bullion from the United States was $1,152,688,776, and the imports $730,325,881, making an excess of exports over imports of $422,362,895. In the fiscal year 1898, the silver imports were $30,927,781, and the exports $55,105,239, making the excess of exports $24,177,458.

The total product of gold in the United States from 1792 up to 1896 was $2,113,034,769, and of silver $1,444,970,000, making a grand total of the precious metals of $3,558,004,769. The total value of the entire world’s production of gold, between the years 1493 and 1896, was $8,983,320,600, and of silver $10,556,700,800, making a grand total of gold and silver of $19,540,021,400.

As a comparison of the money status of the United States at the beginning and end of the century, the following figures are interesting: In 1800 the population was 5,308,483; the estimated bank notes outstanding, $10,500,000; the estimated specie in the country, $17,500,000; the total money in the United States, $28,000,000; the specie in the Treasury, $1,500,000; the money in circulation, $26,500,000; the amount per capita, $4.99. In 1898 the population was 74,522,000; the total coin in the United States, including bullion in the Treasury, $1,498,993,249; total paper money, $1,138,440,126; total money of all kinds, $2,637,433,375; coin, bullion, and paper money in the Treasury, $799,537,480; total circulation, $1,837,859,895; circulation per capita, $24.66.

CARPENTERS’ HALL, PHILADELPHIA.

(First Site of First United States Bank.)

Perhaps no law relating to the coins and currency of the United States has been so widely discussed, or has borne more directly on the attitude and influence of political parties than the Coinage Act of 1873. This act grew out of a proposition to revise our coinage laws, made by John Jay Knox to the Secretary of the Treasury, in April, 1870. Mr. Knox, in his rough draft of a bill, provided for a silver dollar of 384 grains, to be a legal tender for sums not exceeding $5.00. Thus, the standard silver dollar of 412½ grains was eliminated. It did not appear in the bill as it passed the Senate, January 10, 1871, nor in that reported to the House, March 9, 1871. The bill underwent protracted and thorough discussion, and on May 27, 1872, was passed in the House. As passed, it contained the original provision for coining a silver dollar of the weight of 384 grains—twice the weight of the silver half dollar. These dollars were to be a legal tender for amounts not exceeding $5.00. The Senate amended this House bill, by substituting a trade dollar of the weight of 420 grains for that of 384 grains, at the same time preserving the legal-tender limit of $5.00. In the amended form, it passed the Senate, January 17, 1873, and the House, February 7, 1873, and became a law. It will be seen that the standard silver dollar of 412½ grains was never in the bill, and could not, therefore, have been secretly omitted, as was afterwards charged. It was omitted from the first draft, and all through, because none were being coined, and those that had been coined were exported, the silver bullion in them being, at that time, worth more as bullion than coin. By joint resolution of Congress, approved July 22, 1876, the trade dollars provided for in the act were deprived of their legal-tender quality. It was supposed they would circulate in China, but they proved useless even for that purpose.

III. EARLY BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES.

The first banks in the United States owed their origin to Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton. Morris, as early as 1763, conceived the plan of a bank to assist in developing American trade, and in 1779, Hamilton proposed the organization of “The Company of the Bank of the United States.” These plans did not mature, but were followed, at the suggestion of Thomas Paine, by an association of ninety-two subscribers to a fund of 300,000 pounds Pennsylvania currency to support the Revolutionary army. This association became known as the Pennsylvania Bank. It commenced business July 17, 1780, and after a career of a year and a half, during which time it greatly aided the government in furnishing army supplies, its affairs were wound up.