at an improvement of a c. per pound for an indifferent grade. The sales for the week were estimated at 7,000 bales :

PRICES ADOPTED JUNE 26TH FOR THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:

The sales for the week ending July 3d were quite small, owing in part to the stringency of holders, and the observance of the national holyday. The total sales were estimated at 4,000 bales, the market closing with firmness at the following quotations:--

PRICES ADOPTED JULY 3D FOR THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:

For the week ensuing the transactions amounted to 6,500 bales, at slightly advanced rates. With small offerings, and an active inquiry for the home trade, the market closed firmly at the annexed::

PRICES ADOPTED JULY 10TH FOR THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:

Transactions to the extent of 7,500 bales, principally for home trade, took place during the week ending July 17. Prices continued to favor holders, who offered their reduced stocks sparingly, and only at very full rates. The market closed buoyantly at the following:

PRICES ADOPTED JULY 17TH FOR THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:

For the week closing at date, the sales were to the extent of 6,000 bales, mainly for our own spinners. Prices were again in favor of holders, and our quotations were obtained for not a very strict grade. The foreign advices showed increased confidence in the staple, and the market closed firmly at the annexed, with very

small offerings:

PRICES ADOPTED JULY 24TH FOR THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES:-

Crop prospects are more favorable, and complaints are few. With a late fall,

it is generally conceded that a large crop may be secured.

JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE.

LETTER FROM LONDON ON THE CURRENCY.

We have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with the intelligent writer of the following note, which was not, we presume, designed for publication. It contains suggestions, however, in regard to the currency question, which possess so many of the elements of common sense that we cannot resist the temptation to give it a more extended circulation. The article to which our correspondent alludes does not necessarily express our own opinion, as we have ever opened our pages to the free and fair discussion of every topic connected with the leading mercantile and monetary interests of our own and other countries. The article in the number for June, 1856, was contributed to our pages by T. B. HALL, Esq., a merchant of Boston.

22 PORTLAND TERRACE, (REGENT'S PARK,) LONDON, 3d July, 1857.

SIR-Happening to peruse the June number of your Magazine of last year, I was much interested with an article therein-" No. v.: The Currency Question in Massachusetts," and cannot refrain from sending you a copy of a small pamphlet on this important subject, merely as an introduction to a more extended review of it, with details in connection with the proposed change of system in this country. We differ in opinion, as I consider it impossible for a large commercial country to do without a paper currency of some kind. At the same time, it is essential that such currency be based on positive and real representative value, and that it be redeemable in gold under certain restrictions, such as could not possibly deteriorate its nominal value.

If commercial transactions were limited to our means to pay in gold, both England and the United States might at once seek new worlds in which to locate their surplus population, as a large portion of both must inevitably be thrown out of employment. Trade would be reduced to mere barter, such as existed in the early stages of the world, and such as now characterizes our dealings with the coast of Africa and uncivilized islands in the Pacific.

Your country owes a good deal to paper money and promises to pay; nor could England have maintained her position in the world without it. At the same time, as nations increase in material wealth, it is very desirable to place a legitimate check on any abuse of paper issues; and, as far as possible, to identify them with legislative action, so that there may be a well-grounded confidence in the exercise of this important privilege.

If a civilized nation requires products or luxuries from a country that does not take any return in merchandise, she must necessarily pay for the same in specie; and are we to be debarred the use of such things because they can only be had for specie? Either our wealth is real or fictitious. If the former, we' can afford to buy gold and silver; and if the latter, why the sooner we become economical and do without luxuries the better. The cases of the Bank of England and your system of banking are widely different, and it will take many years before it would be possible to concentrate things into a focus as it can be done here. Hence, our national bank of issue would hardly suit your widelyextended territory; nor does it appear possible to provide any adequate substitute for your existing paper currency; although, as before observed, this may be brought under legislative control, and gradually weeded of its most objectionable features. I congratulate you on the excellence of your commercial magazine, to which we have no publication that will bear a comparison in this country.

Yours, obediently,

W. HADFIELD.

FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., A. M., Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, New York.
VOL. XXXVII.—NO. II.

14

THE SAVINGS OF INDUSTRY:

OR, THE ACCUMULATIONS OF CAPITAL BY SAVINGS BANKS.

In the Merchants' Magazine for June, 1857, (vol. xxxvi., pages 721–722,) we gave an abstract of the annual report in relation to Savings Banks of the State of New York, exhibiting their condition on the 1st of January, 1857. We refer to the subject at this time, for the purpose of introducing some well-considered comments suggested by that report, which we find in the Cincinnati Railroad Record, one of the best conducted and most reliable journals of its class in the United States. The deductions drawn by our cotemporary of the Record on the savings of industry, &c., are entitled to the careful consideration of all who take an interest in the posperity of the nation :—

A gentleman in New England, who had dealt for twenty years in pork, and handled millions of money, remarked, that he thought on a fair balance of accounts, that he had neither gained nor lost much by the pork trade. He had, however, saved a large property, and said, that if the subject was examined properly, it would be found that nearly all large fortunes were made by saving. In the accumulation of capital, this is undoubtedly true to a great extent. For, although large profits are made, yet they are often spent as fast as made. A fortune may be saved out of a small income, while one may be lost out of a large income by extravagant expenditures. We see this illustrated in all walks of life; but the principle of saving is never so advantageously employed, as when it is applied to the industry of the working population. For, this is far the most numerous class, and their thrift, or their extravagance, will tell largely on the interests of the community. In the present generation, we have an institution which enables us to ascertain in part the savings of industry, among those not engaged largely in commerce or business. This is the savings banks. These institutions have few depositors from the wealthy class. They are almost exclusively made up from the working people; not merely laborers, but small mechanics, traders, clerks, and salary men. They are the savings mostly from the wages and salaries of industrious people, who live on small means In some of the States, like New York and Massachusetts, we have the operation of savings banks on a large scale, and can determine very nearly the savings of this class. In the report of Mr. KELLY to the New York Senate, we have a full statement of the operations of savings banks in a State where they are popular, and large numbers of people deposit in them. We give the results :

It thus appears, that there was a net gain of the savings in these banks, during 1855, of nearly a million of dollars. The average amount of the deposits was only $73 60. In the year 1856, the operations were :

Deposits in 1856..

66 withdrawn...

Increase

$22,363,855

18,369,068

$3,994,792

In this year, then, the savings of industry reached nearly four millions; indicating that the condition of the working classes was much better in 1856 than in 1855; and undoubtedly this was the fact. It was in the fall of 1854, that a great commercial shock was experienced, and the railroad interest became greatly depressed. Many work people were thrown out of employment, and it was not till in 1856 that an entire recovery from this stock was experienced. Thus, we see the savings of 1856 greatly enlarged over those of 1855. The increase in the two years of aggregate deposits was :—

In 1855.
In 1856.

Aggregate....

$938,707

8,994,792

$4,933,499

This was the increase of deposits; but, as the banks had likewise investments, the real increase of their means was larger.

As these banks must be ready to pay their depositors on demand, and must, at the same time, make a profit for them out of the deposits, the great bulk of their means is invested in stocks, or bonds, which are of ready sale; so that they can be disposed of at short notice. The investments of these banks on the 1st day of January, 1857, were as follows:

These investments are all made on the most valuable productive property; so that they can be made available at any time. The income derived from them were as follows:

From stocks and securities..
From bonds and mortgages

Total income

$1,097,482

1,177,698

$2,275,180

Of this $224,000 was retained, and the residue paid to the depositors, and expenses.

The number of accounts in the savings banks, on the 1st of January, 1857, was 204,375. This indicates that there were the same number of depositors. New York has about 3,600,000 people; so that about 1 in 18 of the whole population are depositors in savings banks. As families contain an average of six persons, and only one person in a family can be suffered to deposit, it is a fair inference, that about 1,200 000 persons, or one-third the entire population of New York, is represented in the savings banks.

If we assume the years 1855 and 1856 as fair samples, we have $5,000,000 accumulated in two years by the sarings of 1,200,000 persons; that is, each of these persons average a saving of $2 a year, or $12 to each family. Take a single family and this looks small; but look at it taken in connection with time and use. At this rate, in ten years, from 1856 to 1860, the State of New York would accumulate twenty-five millions from the small savings of the people of smallest means. This is certainly something of importance; but this is not all. Each year these depositors have received a million of dollars as interest on these deposits. In ten years these deposits draw ten millions of interest, and this, too, is all a clear saving; for, if the savings had not been made originally, this interest would not have existed. So that, in fact, New York saves in ten years thirtyfive millions of dollars by saving banks! In addition, this saving teaches habits of economy, thrift, and industry. In every point of view savings banks are useful and salutary. They should be commended to the adoption of those States and cities where they do not exist.

VARIATIONS IN THE WEIGHT OF THE NEW CENT.

Professor HORSFORD, of the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, Mass., weighed the first twelve new cents that came into his possession, and gives the result in the following note:

One hundred of the new cents are said to weigh an exact avoirdupois pound. As the pound contains two hundred and fifty-six (256) drachms, one cent should weigh two and fifty-six hundredths (2.56) drachms. We are thus to have a stand

ard of weights in our current elementary coin. There is in this announcement such promise of convenience that it is obviously of the first importance to know how trustworthy the standard is.

The writer weighed the first twelve cents that came into his possession, and found their weights as exhibited in the following table :

The range of error is from forty-one thousandths (-.041) below the standard, to one hundred and fifty-three thousandths (+.153) above-in all, one hundred and ninety-four thousandths (.194) of a drachm. The difference between the weight of one hundred of the least and one hundred of the greatest is nineteen and four-tenths (19.4) drachms, or nearly an ounce and a quarter. The average of these twelve is 2.605 drachms, which would give for a pound an error of fourand-a-half drachms, or about one-and-three-quarters per cent excess.

It was doubtless designed that the coin should weigh a little more than the standard. It is better that it should be so, for while the abrasion incident to use would render a cent weighing precisely 2.56 drachms at once inaccurate, like use would, with each occasion, make a cent weighing above 2.56 drachms more nearly accurate, and leave it possible for any one, at any time, with delicate scales and a file, to prepare a standard weight.

CAMBRIDGE, June 8, 1857.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

E. N. HORSFORD.

CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN PORTLAND IN 1857.

The following table shows the comparative condition of the banks in Portland, Me., according to the returns made to the Secretary of State, Jan. 3, 1857 :—

$1,925,000 $3,619,982 $1,125,428 $621,350 $172,892

The following table shows the condition of banks in the city, Jan. 5, 1856 :

Cumberland..

$200,000 $344,009 $139,274 $76,047 $18,112

Comparing the returns of January 5, 1857, with those of January 5, 1856, the