Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Arrivals at this Port, from Foreign Ports, during the year 1860.

[blocks in formation]

Number of Steamers, War Steamers, Corvettes, Ships, Barks, Brigs, Galliots, Schooners, Canal Boats, arrived, of each Nation, at the Port of New-York, in the year 1860.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[graphic]

THE NEW-YORK CLEARING-LIFORNI

THE following is a condensed statement of the Clearing-House transactions during the year ending October 1, 1860:

[blocks in formation]

One of the most satisfactory financial features of the year was the resolution adopted in November, 1860, by the banks of the city of NewYork, that each shall maintain, after February 1st, 1861, an average specie reserve of twenty-five per cent. of its net liabilities.

At a meeting of the officers of the banks of the city of New-York, at the Merchants' Bank, on Wednesday, the 21st of November, 1860, the following proceedings were unanimously adopted, viz.: In order to enable the banks of the city of New-York to expand their loans and discounts, and also for the purpose of facilitating the settlement of the exchanges between the banks, it is proposed that any bank in the Clearing-House Association may, at its option, deposit with a committee of five persons-to be appointed for that purpose-an amount of its bills receivable; United States stocks, Treasury notes or stocks of the State of New-York, to be approved by said committee, who shall be authorized to issue thereupon to said depositing bank certificates of deposit, bearing interest at seven per cent. per annum, in denominations of five and ten thousand dollars each, as may be desired, to an amount equal to seventy-five per cent. of such deposit. These certificates may be used in the settlement of balances at the Clearing-House for a period of thirty days from the date hereof, and they shall be received by creditor banks, during that period, daily, in the same proportion as they bear to the aggregate amount of the debtor balances paid at the Clearing-House. The interest which may accrue upon these certificates shall, at the expiration of the thirty days, be apportioned among the banks which shall have held them during the time. The securities deposited with said committee as above named shall be held by them in trust as a special deposit, pledged for the re

demption of the certificates issued thereupon. The committee shall be authorized to exchange any portion of said securities for an equal amount of others, to be approved by them at the request of the depositing bank, and shall have power to demand additional security either by an exchange or an increased amount, at their discretion. The amount of certificates which this committee may issue as above shall not exceed $5,000,000. This agreement shall be binding upon the Clearing-House Association when assented to by three-fourths of its members.

Resolved, That in order to accomplish the purpose set forth in this agreement, the specie belonging to the associated banks shall be considered and treated as a common fund for mutual aid and protection, and the committee shall have power to equalize the same by assessment or otherwise.

For this purpose statements shall be made to the committee of the condition of each bank on the morning of every day before the commencement of business, which shall be sent with the exchanges to the manager of the Clearing-House, specifying the following items, viz.:

1. Loans and discounts. 2. Deposits. 3. Loan certificates. 4. Specie. Resolved, That after the 1st of February next, every bank in the Clearing-House Association shall have on hand at all times, in specie, an amount equal to one-fourth of its net liabilities, and any bank whose specie shall fall below that proportion shall not make loans or discounts until their position is re-established, and we, as members of the ClearingHouse Association, agree that we will not continue to exchange with any bank which shall show by its two successive weekly statements that it has violated this agreement.

The chairman appointed the following named gentlemen as the committee: MOSES TAYLOR, of the City Bank; JAMES PUNNETT, of the Bank of America; R. W. HowES, of the Park Bank; A. S. FRASER, of the Seventh Ward Bank; CHARLES P. LEVERICH, of the Bank of New-York. JOHN A. STEVENS, Chairman.

W. T. HOOKER, Secretary.

The aggregate exchanges of the banks of this city for the year, up to the 1st October last, were a fraction over seven thousand two hundred and thirty-one millions of dollars, or a daily average in excess of twentythree millions of dollars.

In the year 1856-7, when these exchanges were $8,333,226,718, [see pages 13-14, Chamber of Commerce Report of last year,] or nearly twentyseven millions per day, the bank reserve of specie in this city was, at various times, under twelve millions of dollars. This slender reserve of specie shows upon what an unreliable basis the banking operations of that year were transacted; leading (as the result proved) to general suspension of payment.

More sound principles have since gained ground in this community, and the recent determination to provide by the banks against similar revulsions from external causes, by maintaining an adequate specie reserve, may be looked upon as one of the most desirable changes of the day.

The importance-even necessity-of this measure (in view of the heavy cash liabilities of the banks) may be seen by reference to the official tabular statement of the banks of this State, [page 291 of this volume.] According to this statement the individual deposits at the

[blocks in formation]

to meet which there was then on hand an aggregate specie reserve less than twenty-seven millions of dollars, or about fifteen per cent. Of this sum, twenty-four and a half millions were held by the banks of this city, leaving the small sum of $1,830,000 in specie among the two hundred and ninety banks of the interior, to meet cash liabilities exceeding fiftyfive millions of dollars. These facts indicate that the country bankers of this State keep a large portion of their reserve fund or unemployed capital on deposit in this city, with which to meet their circulation and the demands for exchange. These deposits are made with the implied understanding that the balances shall be at all times available.

The banks of this city, in pursuance of a resolution adopted in November last, have since reported at the close of the first quarter in the year 1861, a specie reserve of $41,000,000, against cash liabilities of

[blocks in formation]

When we consider that New-York city has been, for some years, the commercial and financial centre of the United States; that the domestic exchanges are almost invariably in favor of this city, it is not surprising that the balances held by the banks of this city in favor of the country banks and bankers have increased from ten millions, in 1851, to twentynine millions in the year 1860. If to these balances we add the deposits held by individual bankers in this city for account of their country correspondents, the aggregate would reach beyond the sum of fifty millions of dollars, making, with circulation and individual deposits, a total of over one hundred and fifty millions, payable on demand.

To meet the weekly, daily (and, we may say, hourly) drafts of country bankers upon these deposits, it must be considered that our NewYork moneyed institutions should maintain, at all times, a large specie reserve, in order to avoid a recurrence of the lamentable revulsions which marked the year 1857 in this city, and of 1860 in other communities. The credit and honor of New-York demand that the large deposits usually made here by the bankers of the thirty-four States should be maintained intact, or that an adequate specie basis be invariably maintained in view of the perpetual, and, at times unfavorable, fluctuations of the domestic and foreign exchanges.

We have reason to believe that this financial policy will be hereafter maintained, and that the creditors of our banks and bankers will not again have occasion to complain (as in the year 1857) of speculation and extravagance in this community.

REPORT ON THE HARBOR OF NEW-YORK.

From the Annual Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey.

Report of Assistant HENRY MITCHELL on the physical surveys of NewYork harbor and the coast of Long Island, with descriptions of apparatus for observing currents, &c.

BOSTON, September 30, 1859.

SIR,-I have the honor to inform you that the field-work comprehended in your plan for the physical survey of New-York harbor has been completed by the operations of the past season.

At the commencement of this work it was quite impossible to foresee the form it would ultimately assume, the questions to which it would give rise, or the investigations to which it would lead. Neither the precise character of the observations to be made, nor the extent to which they should be carried, could be estimated in an undertaking in many respects quite novel and without precedent.

Certain changes in the forms of shoals and channels had been revealed by the comparison of the early surveys with those of more recent date, and the questions arose-To what causes are these changes due? andTo what end do they progress? What are the natural forces which build in one direction shoals and beaches, while opening elsewhere new channels, or wearing away the shores? These were the problems for the solution of which the physical survey was instituted.

The general plan of this work, to which you first directed my attention, has been adhered to throughout; since your subsequent instructions have referred to the limits of each season's work, rather than to the character of it. By this plan we have been required to observe, and make note of, every natural operation, whether of tides, currents, winds or waves; in fine, to compile for a certain period a complete physical history of these elements from a systematic course of inquiry.

The field over which our observations have spread includes not only the harbor proper, but its approaches in all directions, extending up the Hudson River to Fort Washington, into Long Island Sound as far as Execution Light, through the Kills, over the bar and sixty miles out to sea. Throughout this field the periods, velocities and paths of the various currents are determined, as are also the experiences of the tide waves (both from the Sound and the ocean) in the different channels and avenues which they traverse. The disturbing effects of winds and freshets, the appearance of rips and eddies, together with general meteorological phenomena, have all been noted carefully.

The whole number of tidal and current stations which we have occupied exceeds one hundred and fifty, and at these the observations number many thousands. Many of the tidal stations were occupied one or more entire lunations, and at some of the current stations the observations were continued in unbroken series of half-hourly records for seven, nine and fourteen days. The aggregate amount of time spent on the field-work has not exceeded twelve months.

« EdellinenJatka »