compliance with a resolution of the House adopted as long since as July 10, 1832. The following statement of the method of preparing the tables is taken from the "Letter." "In all the tables prepared in the Treasury Department, the following general rules have been observed: "1. The net amount of the capital of the banks has been given whenever it could be ascertained. So, whenever a bank appears to have bought shares of its own stock, that amount has been deducted from its gross capital. Bank stock thus bought in stands on the same footing as bank stock not paid in. "2. The capital is placed first, and next to it loans and discounts, stocks, real estate, and other investments,' to show at one view the whole investments of each bank supposed to yield income, and the ratio these investments bear to the capital paid in. "3. The next four columns, sums due by other banks, notes of other banks on hand, specie funds, and specie,' comprise all the immediate means of the banks. "4. The next three columns, 'circulation, deposits, and sums due to other banks,' comprise all the immediate liabilities of the banks. “Under the head of 'deposits' are included 'dividends unpaid,' and all other sums due on demand, as far as could be ascertained. “5. The four columns, 'circulation, deposits, sums due to other banks, and other liabilities,' include all the liabilities of the banks, excepting what is due to their own stockholders for capital paid in, and profits acquired. "6. From these general tables the items 'profit and loss, surplus and contingent funds,' &c., &c. are excluded; partly because they are, as Mr. Gallatin observes, merely balancing accounts,' and partly because they cannot be conveniently introduced on a sheet of the size of that on which the public documents are printed." In the following statements.are included, it is believed, all the incorporated banks that were in operation in the several States at the dates given, a few scattering ones excepted, and these consisting chiefly of banks that had but lately commenced business. In the State of Texas there is one bank doing a small business, from which no returns have been received. In the States of California, Florida, Arkansas, and Iowa, and in the Territories of New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska, there are no incorporated banks. In the returns from some of the banks of Pennsylvania, and those of some other States, a considerable amount of specie is believed to be embraced under the head of "specie funds," but the exact amount cannot be ascertained. Comparative View of the Condition of the Banks in the different States from their Returns received to January 1, 1855. $8,850 $112,694 $1,781,065 52,343 602,447 140,864 136,115 $85,132 1,079,686 1,186,509 8,225,632 124,356 Maine, Dec. '54 71 $7,301,252 $13,181,903 111,185 49,960 316,841 2,671,903 31,158 1,368,203 9,305,651 6,148,837 249,298 878,612 3,087,827 7,166,581 13,578,339 2,466,247 298,2221,006,525 2,751,312 980,416 1,900,942 555,431 146,035 15,345 392,550 1,400,000 1,861,043 1,044,021| Comparative View continued. 24,320 8,791 306,982 Massachusetts. 5,325,594 3,828,402 4,80,758 18,783,281 6,930,098 563,313 Rhode Island, 880,724 Connecticut, 459,502 206,921 New York, New Jersey, 418,342 312,606 5,035,073 2,772,367 1,046,658 1,207,381 11,219,566 3,910,160 1,008,655 1,022,940 3,665,954 16,453,329 13,661,565 31.507,780 84,970,840 21,081,456 4,731,884 Pennsylvania, 3,769,420 3,927,949 3,944,602 16.739.069 21,076,464 3,930,665 2,716,872 329,425 826,452 3,552,585 3,290,462 483,875 1,233,284 6,739,623 2,871,095 1,197,949 53,936 43,611 1,451,880 6,698,869 2,034,455 462,091 1,199,309 45,647 1,125,490 2,382,176 1,278,022 181,558 15,000 6,570,569 6,586,601 11,688,296 1,154,538 2,232,973 8,063 221,760 42,738 68,209 1,473,040 5,850,562 2,413,418 211,681 85,501 4,152,938 8,628,946 3,011,719 2,577,824 975,491 1,460,650 1,247,651 284,776 335,339 63,892 565,152 2,283,526 1,286,102 911,000 173,573 1,894,357 8,165,856 2,289,605 905,555 158,310 1,690,105 8,074,132 5,450,566 118,784 6,612 143,123 500,942 1,170,974 341,174 103,184 334,383 740,764 1,482,053 296,60 294,034 803,849 456,739 XXVII. FINENESS AND VALUE OF CERTAIN FOREIGN COINS. THE Director of the Mint is required to ascertain and report to the Secretary of the Treasury upon the fineness and value of certain foreign coins. His report of January 29, 1855 (House Ex. Doc. No. 62), is given below: "I present the following report on the fineness and value of certain foreign gold and silver coins, as required by the acts of Congress of January 25, 1834, and March 3, 1843; said coins being therein made a legal tender upon certain terms, to be ascertained by this report. "Gold Coins. The gold coins of Great Britain, if not less than 915 thousandths fine, are receivable at 94.6 cents per pennyweight; gold coins of France, not less than 899 thousandths, at 92.9 cents; gold coins of Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, 'of the fineness of 20 carats 3 grains,' which is equivalent to 869.14 thousandths, at 89.9 cents; and gold coins of Portugal and Brazil, not less than 22 carats (9163 thousandths), at 94.8 cents. Of the above, only the coins of Great Britain and France fulfil the terms of the act, and there is an upward tendency in the fineness of British coins; but neither class has been received here for recoinage for more than two years past, except in trifling parcels, owing to the course of trade, which has cut off the importation of foreign gold coins. The standards of gold coinage in New Granada (formerly a state of Colombia) are so entirely altered as to render the act of Congress obsolete in respect to that item. The fineness of the doubloon has raised to about 894 thousandths, but by decrease of weight it has fallen in value from about $ 15.60 to about $15.30. "Silver Coins. The dollars of Spanish-American coinage, and those restamped into reis of Brazil, as also the five-franc pieces of France, were also made receivable at certain rates, by the acts before mentioned; but as those coins are purchased at the mint for recoinage at a premium, the provision for making them current may be considered nugatory and obsolete. I subjoin, however, a tabular statement of their average weights and fineness, and their value per piece and per ounce, according to the rate at which our whole dollars are coined; and in the last column I have stated their value per ounce, as paid for by purchase at the mint. There is much uncertainty, however, about the dollar of Central America, whose coinage is quite irregular as to fineness. "In general the halves, quarters, &c. of these dollars are very near in fineness to the whole piece; but the public should be aware that half and quarter dollars of Bolivia, commencing with the date 1830, and those of South Peru of 1835 to 1838, were greatly debased in quality, and are worth only about three fourths of their nominal value. Such pieces are occasionally seen in our circulation. The fractions of a dollar coined within a few years in Central America, or rather in Costa Rica, are still more depreciated, and very irregular, but their misshapen appearance will be enough to exclude them from currency here." XXVIII. LIFE-ANNUITY AND OTHER TABLES.* THE following Life-Annuity Tables, the Table showing the Value of the Right of Dower, and the two Tables exhibiting the Number of White Inhabitants of the United States, classed according to Age, are extracted from the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," New Series, Vol. I.; and they were furnished for that publication by Mr. J. Ingersoll Bowditch. The Table exhibiting the Law of Mortality in the northern part of the United States, given by Dr. Wigglesworth, in the second volume of the "Memoirs of the American Academy," being generally used in Massachusetts to ascertain the value of a dower-right, it was thought advisable to construct the following Tables to facilitate such calculations. TABLE I. exhibits the Expectation of Life, expressed in years and decimals of a year, in the United States, and in the city of Carlisle (England), at intervals of five years. These agree nearly with each other in the middle ages, but there is a considerable difference in ages below 20 years; the Carlisle bill of mortality giving a much greater expectation than most tables which have been published. TABLE II. exhibits the Expectation of Life in the United States at every age, according to Dr. Wigglesworth's Table. Thus, at the age of 50 years, the expectation of life is 21.17 years. TABLE III. exhibits the value of a life-right in the income of $100, supposing the rate of interest to be 5 or 6 per cent. Thus the value of the life-right of a person aged 50, interest being 6 per cent, is 62.72 per cent. Subtracting this from $100 leaves the present value of the reversion 37.28 per cent. Hence, if the estate was worth $10,000, the present value of the life-right would be $6,272, and the present value of the reversion $3,728. TABLE IV. exhibits the value of a Widow's Dower in the income of $100. It is exactly one third of the value given by Table III. Thus, if a widow has a right of dower in an estate worth $3,000, her age being 40 years, and the rate of interest 5 per cent, we should find by the Table the present value of her life-right to be worth 21 per cent; hence we get the present value of her dower, $630. We get nearly the same result from Table III., where the life-right is 62.99 per cent on her third part of $3,000, or $1,000 set off to her for dower, making its present value $629.90. TABLE V. exhibits the value of an annuity on a single life at every age. Thus, a person at the age of 30 must pay 13.27 to secure an annuity of one dollar per annum, interest being at 5 per cent; or $11.80, interest being at 6 per cent. TABLE I. Showing the Expectation of Life at Intervals of five Years, according to the Table of Dr. Wigglesworth for the United States, and that of Milne for the City of Carlisle, in England. We reprint these tables from the American Almanac for 1835, as there is a call for them, and that volume is out of print. TABLE II. Showing the Expectation of Life, deduced from Dr. Wigglesworth's Table of Mortality. Age. Expectation. Age. Expectation. Age. Expectation. Age. Expectation. TABLE III. Showing the present Value of a Life-Right in the Income of $100, at every Age, calculating the Interest at five and at six per cent, according to Dr. Wigglesworth's Table of Mortality. |