282 BANK States bonds. This act farther provided for the redistribution of $25,000,000 of bank cir- culation to banka in states not having their proper proportion, to be taken from banks in states having circulation in excess. This, how- ever, was not to be done until the full amount of $54,000,000 of new circulation provided for in this act had been applied for and issued. Under the provisions of this act four gold banks have been authorized : one in Massachusetts, with a capital of $200,000 circulation issued, $120,000; and three in California, with an aggregate capital of $2,800,000 circulation issued, $1,481,100. By means of a provision in "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to provide internal revenue,'" &c., approved March 3, 1865, congress effectually drove from circulation the notes of all banks chartered under state laws by taxing all such circulation paid out by them 10 per cent, per annum. On Oct. 3, 1872, there were in operation in the United States 1,919 national banks, and their condition was as follows : RESOURCES. Loans and discounts $372,520,104 85 Overdrafts 4,677,819 12 United States bonds to secure circulation '. . . 882,046,400 00 United States bonds to secure deposits 15,479,750 00 United States bonds and securities on hand. 12,242,550 00 Other stocks, bonds and mortgages 28,533,151 73 Due from redeeming and reserve agents 80,717,071 80 Due from other national banks 84,486,598 87 Due from stole banks and bankers 12,976,878 01 Eoal estate, furniture, and fixtures 82,276,498 17 Current expenses 6,810,428 79 Premiums 6.546,848 54 Checks and other cash items 14.916,784 84 Exchanges for clearing house 110,086,815 87 Bills of other national banka 15,784.098 00 Bills of state banks 53,198 00 Fractional currency 2,151,747 88 Specie 10,229,756 79 Legal tender notes 102,074,104 00 Clearing-house certificates 8,632,000 00 United States certittcates of deposit 6,710,000 00 Three per cent, certificates 1,555.000 00 $1,755,857,098 24 LIABILITIES. Capital stock ... .... $479,629.1 74 00 Surplus fund 110,257,516 45 Undivided profits 46,628.784 60 National bank notes outstanding 888,495,027 00 State bank notes outstanding 1,667,148 00 Dividends unpaid 8,149,749 61 Individual deposits 618.290,671 45 United States deposits 7,858,77241 Deposits of United States disbursing officers. 4,568,883 79 Due to national banks 110,047,847 67 Due to state banks and bankers 83,789,068 82 Notes and bills rediscounted 6.649,481 t8 Bills payable 6,040,562 66 $1,756,857,098 24 The distribution of national banking capital throughout the country is very unequal, and based upon no sound or equitable principles. This is shown by the fact that Boston, with a population of 250,000 and a manufacturing in- dustry of $111,000,000 per annum, has 48 banks with a capital of $48,600,000 and circulation of $26,059,468; while Philadelphia, with a population of 674,000 and a manufacturing industry of $325,000,000 per annum, has but 29 banks with a capital of $16,235,000 and a circulation of $11,383,620. In several of the states banks exist under state charters, but without circulation. In the state of New York there are 70 state banks, having on Sept. 21, 1872, a combined capital of $24,845,040 ; cir- culation (not yet sent in for redemption), $126,927; deposits, $78,305,491; loans, $66,- 076,361 ; and specie, $1,261,772. In Pennsyl- vania, and especially in Philadelphia, the effort has been made, and to some extent with suc- cess, to supply the great deficiency of national banks with state banks the former being quite inadequate to the present large and rapidly ex- tending manufacturing business and trade of that city. Banks of Canada. The condition of the Canada banks, Sept. 30, 1872, was as follows: paid-np capital, $44,157,690; cir- culation, $24,422,451; deposits, $57,581,646; specie, $6,601,380 ; loans to government, $557,238 to corporations and individuals, $109,521,798. Clearing House. The clear- ing house is an institution founded, not mere- ly upon the idea of saving time and trouble in the use of the precious metals, but also of circulating notes. All the banks and bankers associated as members of a clearing house are for this purpose, as it were, but one individual. The clearing house of London, the first of its kind, originated among the bankers of that city, whose transactions in the checks, billt, and drafts drawn upon each other became so large as to call for the daily and even hourly use of vast sums in bank notes by all of them. Appreciating how readily the debits and credits respectively due or held by them might be set off the one against the other, they formed the clearing house, where up to 4 o'clock each day all drafts, bills, &c., drawn upon each in- dividual member were taken. The system of the London clearing house has recently been much extended and improved, and all balances are settled by checks drawn upon the bank of England no bank notes being required at all. Clearing houses exist in New York, Philadel- phia, Boston, and other cities of the United States. The system in that of Philadelphia is equal and in some respects superior to that of any other in the United States. The clearings are made each morning at 8.30, just before which hour a messenger and a clerk from each bank are at the clearing house. The clerks take their seats inside a series of desks arranged in the form of a hollow oval. Each messenger brings with him from his bank a sealed package for each other bank, containing all the checks or drafts on such bank. The name of the bank sending and that of the bank to which it is sent are printed on each package, and the amount sent is written thereon. The messengers take their places near the desks of their respective banks, and they have with them tabular state- ments of the amount sent to each bank and the aggregates. These are exhibited to the respec- tive clerks and noted by them on the blank forms. At 8.30 precisely the manager calls to order and gives the word, when all the mes-
