Article Text
The Suspension of Specie Payments. [From the New York Times, Tuesday.) The public interest in the Bank return is much diminished by the general suspension of specie payments announced in this morning' paper. While the average of specie on the present return is reported $29. ,000, the actual amount in bank on the opening of business this morning is understood to be $23,319. 000, or about six millions below the average The policy of suspension agreed upon on Sat urday night is concurred in by the outside public to -day. with the greatest unanimity The previous indifference to the mere empty honor of the specie basis, in the face of the large prospective wants of the Government and the favorable condition of the actual bal ance of tradewithEurope, rendered the change much easier than the nervousness of some of our Bank officers might have presupposed. The transition is made not without the mo mentary unsettling of the market value of the gold and the rates of foreign exchange, but without the slightest apprehension that the difference will be seriously felt or substantially recognized a week hence. The quotations for gold over current funds to-day is variously quoted from 100% to 10116 per cent and Exchange London per cent. but the positive settlements in either case are 60 few as to render these figures next to nominal The bullion brokers are unwilling to name a price at which they would purchase American gold coin, and the banking houses engaged in Foreign Exchange did but very little business at or within the quotation just named for bills on London. A rumor obtained early in the day that a few of the banks were not in accord with the general suspension But this, if true, amounts to nothing more than a factitious attempt to gain little extra eredit, at a very small cost. As we understand the dodge, it is simply a recognition of the right of individual depositors to draw for their balances, as they stood at the close of business on Saturday, in gold, if they desire it. No bank in the city, as far as weare advised, is refusing, o-day, to conduct their engagements with depositors in current funds. that is receiving certified checks or the circulating notes of other city banks in account, to be repaid in kind. Nor are we advised that any of the large hanks refuse gold on checks drawn against deposits made up to Saturday last. where the necessities or convenience of the depositor requires gold instead of current d funds. This test has not yet been applied in a sufficient number of instances to authorize us to speak positively as to the rule to be obd served, but sufficient has transpired to know that the difference is not likely to amount to a rate sufficient to make the rate worth discussing before the public. The Government is understood to have vird tually suspended specie payments with the banks: the latter holding an aggregate balance of $21,000,000 to the credit of the Trea is sury, of which they propose to pay in a suffi n cient sum o-morrow to enable the Assistant n Treasurer in New York to pay the January interest on the Public Debt in gold, if demanded. The Circulating Notes of the United es States were employed to-day in current payof ments on the checks of the various disbursing officers of the Government The operation was conducted with mutual good will and d with every sign of entire confidence in the at credit of these Circulating Notes. The sulti is that the specie balance is almost the same at the close of the day as on Saturday night. Some few of the banks have manifest d ed less liberality than the public in reférence to the currency of United States Notes. The Bank of America, on whose books there is an undrawn balance of about $920,000 to the g credit of the Treasury, sent down Notary this afternoon to demand $80,000 in gold, on checks and drafte drawn upon the Sub-Treasuor ry, The demand was not persevered in, and no protest was entered. for the sufficient reahson that the scandal of the transaction would have more than counte rbalanced the miscrable s, pittance growing out of the difference between $80,000 in gold and $80,000 United States notes, which the bank is at liberty to set he off against a corresponding sum to the credit to of the Government on its own books, Anre other instance is mentioned of the refusal of the American Exchange Bank, on whose books the Treasury of the United States ry stands ereditor to the amount of about $1,525,000. to receive the Circulating Notes of the United States as current funds The President of this non-dividend paying concern il has recently issued one or more pamphlets amminst the credit of the Government, claimad ing in his last manifesto, indemnity for the ds past and security for thefuture, before granting further countenance from his Bank and its ey associates in the Clearing- house in the negoit, tiation of the Public Loans. This course of conduct carries its own comment The pruct, tical inference is that if the Bank in question a will pay in gold its own solemn undertaking to the Government the latter would probably ny be able to redeem in gold all the United States ve Notes that the Bank is likely to receive on ddeposit in the course of its ordinary business some time to come. Aside from the foreral going cases, we hear of no factions opposition wo our National currency, which, from its convertibility percent Treasury Bonds se of the Government or into a 6 per cent. Funded Stock, ought to be esteemed as at In least equivalent unsecured deposits S. resting under a general suspension of specie ary payments in our City Banks, The January interest on the public debt of orthe United States will assuredly be paid in So gold, if demanded. b also will be any other and obligations on the public debt due to the Assock einted Banks or other parties, on the 31st December provided the banks make good their A promise to protect these payments in the ach equivalent of gold. The Manhattan Company by as the agents of the State of New York, will also, it is understood pay the January intereen est. and such of the principal of the State ate debt of New York, in gold or its equivalent. ght The State of New York has yet to make the the first default in the payment of gold on its ma turing obligations. As far back as 1837, a pre1th miuni of 15 per cent was paid for specie to lese redeem a State debt then falling due on o and after 1857 at the option of the State. The suspension of the banks announced go, morning, was received on the Stock Exchang hat as a relief to the anxiety which had been fel rein regard to the course of the money market The event was previously deemed as inevita ble-as a question of a few days or weeks. It an occurrence before the banks have exhausted stop their stock of bullion by $23,000,000, and th dd. belief that the public are measurably indif ferent to the mere credit of maintaining a par all ticular basis while the prospective wants of th isGovernment are so enormous, caused an im mediate average advance of two per cent a prices. The excitement was quite marked isboth Fessions of the Board and large sale Ado were made at each, partly in realization The profits, and partly from the calculation tha the extreme advance might not be sustained fied, vice of the Cairo
