*The foreign importations for the fiscal year 1858-59 were $338,765, 130, while the annual average for the ten years previous was about twenty-eight per cent. less, or $244,731,000. The foreign export of coin and bullion the same year reached $63,887,411, the largest export of any one year to that period. The export of cotton for the same year was 1,386,000,000 pounds, valued at $161,434,923, or an average of 11.64 cents per pound. The amount realized from the loan act of June 14, 1858, was $19,742,000-an act to authorize a loan not exceeding the sum of $20,000,000. The President, within twelve months, authorized to borrow not over $20,000,000, payable at any time after fifteen years from January 1, 1859, and the faith of the United States is pledged for the due payment of the principal and interest, stock to be issued therefor, bearing not over five per cent. interest, payable semi-annually, with coupons attached. The Treasury Department negotiated, in October, 1860, a loan of $10,000,000, bearing five per cent. interest, and repayable in ten years. The average rate of premium obtained was 1 per cent. Some of the bidders forfeited their deposit of one per cent. The banks of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and other southern cities, suspended payment in the month of November, 1860. The bids for loans to the treasury, in the month of December, 1860, ranged at rates from 6 to 36 per cent. per annum. *The year 1861 being the first year of the rebellion, it presents (with the year 1862) curious features as to the fluctuations in value of both domestic and foreign products. A new tariff was passed in March, 1861, and further changes were made in August and December, 1861, and important modifications were made in July, 1862, to take effect from August 1, 1862. The prices of the year 1861 were upon a specie basis; but, the banks having suspended at the end of that year, the prices of the following year (1862) were gradually adapted to a paper currency. Prices were also affected by the excise law of 18, and by the increased demand for consumption in the army and navy. fA new tariff went into operation August 1, 1862. 62 The range of prices at New York for thirty-nine years-Continued. *The tariff of July, 1862, took effect August 1, 1862, according to the rates annexed. Wherever the duty is named (in this and preceding tables) on articles of American production, it is appli cable only to a foreign article of a similar quality when imported. -26 F |