new National Bank issues which was in circalation on the 15th ult. being:

This amount is certainly not much towards the authorized $300,000,000 of tbat description of notes, but in ordinary times it would have been a serious addition to the currency. Thus, then, the outstanding currency is increased to $700,000,000 dependant upon the government action, giving an increase of $200,000,000 since the 1st of January. The effect of this currency has been counteracted to some extent by the fact that a part of the five per cent coupon legal-tenders have been witheld from circulation for the interest which was due June 1st, at which date the coupon was cut off, and the whole amount then again became currency. These coupons have been the object of a singular action on the part of the Treasury, which has ordered that no one but a government officer should cut the coupon off. This has given rise to a great deal of dissatisfaction, because it was an arbitrary imposition of new conditions to a bargain after it had been consummated.

The notes were issued originally a legal-tender for their face, without the interest. The idea of the Secretary seems to have been to prevent the notes from circulating. In the bill sent to Congress, the distinction between the legal-tender character of the principal and interest was made in order to compel the holder to keep the note to maturity or lose his interest. When, however, he was forced to borrow $50,000,000 of the banks to pay the troops, September 5, to be repaid in the five per cent notes, the banks stipulated that the notes should bear half-yearly coupons. This was agreed to. When the notes were ready, the rate of money had gone up in the open market, by reason of the operations of the Treasury, from five to nine per cent. It was then perceived that the new note-holders had nothing to do but to cut the coupons off from the notes, keep them for redemption, and pay away the note itself as legal-tender.

To remedy this oversight, the Treasury ordered that the coupon should be cut off only by the government officer. This was an arbitrary rule, and of no legal force. The Secretary had of course no power to go behind the law and his contract with the banks, to make new conditions on penalty of repudiating the debt. The rule was, however, submitted to. It did not stop the circulation of the notes as currency, because money being worth 7a8 per cent, and the notes but 5 per cent as an investment, it was worth 3 per cent more to pay them away as currency than to hold them for interest.

The issue of the notes was stopped March 15, when the amount out was - $115,000,000. The coupons now fell due June 1. and the difficulty of having them all cut off by a government officer is so apparent, that the rule is so far abrogated as to require the coupon to be taken off in the presence of a National Bank officer. The banks that lent their money on the notes to the Treasury, to pay the troops, can collect the coupons only on the oath of its officers that the bank is the actual owner of the note given.

The payment of the coupon, June 1st, has caused the whole amount to seek employment as currency. In the mean time the wants of the Treasury are very

pressing. The sales of the 10-40 loan, under the National Bank arrangement, are small as compared with the government wants. Up to May 14, it appears, but $50,000,000 had been sold. This was due, no doubt, to some extent, to the unfortunate perturbation of the market, caused by the Treasury action in selling gold and exchange to put down the price of gold, which only succeeded in causing a stock revulsion that checked all demand for the loan, except from the National Banks. Meantime, it appears from the table of debt, that there were, May 14, forty-six millions of over-due requisitions, in addition to the pay of the troops.

The call for more troops, indicated in the despatch of the Secretary of War, involves, necessarily, a large amount of money expenditure, as well for outfit, equipment, and bounties, as for transportation back and forth, of new and old troops. The transportation of wounded men, coming North, also swells the demand for money, and the mode of raising this is yet a problem. According to

the official return of the debt to May 14, the amount of five per cent legal tender notes outstanding is $223,894,887.40, which, deducted from the amount authorized, gives $176,105,112 as the disposable amount from that date, when $46,689,000 over-due requisitions were outstanding. This leaves but a small ballance with which to meet the accumulating charges upon the Treasury.

There is, also, another resource in the one-year certificates, of which the amount that may be issued is unlimited by law, but the amount out, $147,000,000, sells at 98 cents per dollar, or equal to 8 per cent per annum interest, when money is worth but 5 per cent. There is a good deal of other paper afloat, in the shape of vouchers and quartermasters' checks, on which money is borrowed by them, but will not command money at better than 7 per cent, because of the formalities that encumber them.

But besides these modes of providing the necessary funds, many others may be resorted to. It is given out now that the Secretary proposes to sell at auction fifty to one hundred millions of six per cents. This, however, has not been officially announced as yet. As this uncertainty serves to unsettle and check business, we hope that whatever plan is adopted will soon be made known, and the money raised. The country is ready to furnish the means, and is only anxious that it should be raised with the least possible waste.

The wants of the coming year, or twelve months from June 1, will be-say about one thousand millions. As a similar amount has been raised in the past year, in great part, as we have seen, by the aid of paper money, it becomes an important question how this can be best met.

The policy of the Treasury is, as we have said, indirect taxation and cheap loans. The success of this policy depends eminently upon a cheap money market. It is quite obvious that with a contracting currency there will be falling prices, reduced production of commodities, and dear money. In such a state of affairs indirect taxes will fall short of the estimates, and money cannot be borrowed at five per cent. The loans that have been obtained in the last year were through the cheapness of money, rise in prices, and apparent prosperity, caused by paper money. To borrow at five per cent, all those features will require to be exagerated, and this certainly cannot be done by curtailing the volume of paper money, or by making war upon the old banks, the machinery of which is so essential to the promotion of productive business. The enormous amount of money required

can only be procured, after so large a drain upon the national resources as has been made in the last three years, by some attention to the business convenience of the country.

The industry and the trade of the country are the means by which capital is created. If. these are oppressed and hampered, the amount of production ceases, and the sources of government revenues are gradually dried up. The larger the demands upon the national capital the more necessary is it to nurture the means by which it is produced. The most disastrous influence upon business is uncertainty, and uncertainty in relation to the mode of raising such large sums of money is the most deleterious of all. To go on and borrow at five per cent requires a great and continual abundance of money, to change this policy and borrow at the market rate will cause a higher rate of money. Whichever plan, therefore, is adopted, the mercantile interest requires that it should be knownthat there should be no uncertainty about it.

Not only was

In view of the progress of military events, also, the influence of peace should be taken into account by all, and this is a very grave question. The effects of the war are now apparently but beginning to show themselves upon the finances of Europe. The last advices were of a rise in the rate of interest to 9 per cent, a rate higher than it has been since 1857, and perhaps never before at this season of the year, which is not that in which usually the greatest drain is made upon specie reserves. The rising prices of cotton, and the increased quantities requir ed from sources that are not ready to take anything but specie in return, are permanent causes of an enhanced rate of money in England. This occurs, too, in a year when, happily, through good harvests, the rates of food are very low, and the necessity of buying much does not present itself. The cause will continue to operate, however, after renewed demand for foreign food will have set in. Meantime, the rise there impels more rapid remittances of money from this country and must greatly affect exchanges. The supply of cotton in England is by no means sufficient in quantity, and the quality is deceptive. For example, in a recent case a manufacturer purchased some Surat at 13d. per lb. it short in ultimate staple, but before this ultimate staple could be arrived at, it had lost 50 per cent in the process-a costly process too-of cleaning. So that the cleaned Indian cotton in reality cost the manufacturer 26d per lb.-—or very nearly the present price of middling Orleans. None of the cotton purchased at all answers the purposes of the United States cotton, which would, as ever, instantly have the preference. Hence the return of peace and the opening of the Southern ports will involve a demand for money, for cotton, tobacco, rice, naval stores, &c., which can be counted by hundreds of millions. A bale of cotton at this moment is worth $350. In ordinary years the number of bales produced in the South is 4,000,000. If there should be but 2.000,000 to sell on the return of peace, the value would be $700,000,000. But the cotton would fall in price, and might realize $500,000,000. The suspended looms of Europe and England and the North would all contribute their quota to pay the enormous sum, of which a large proportion would be specie. Rice would require $10,000,000; tobacoo $50,000,000; naval stores as much. In return, of course, an immense amount of goods would be required.

To purchase the material, to produce the goods, to transport them, will require capital that is now unemployed, and this sudden and large demand for

money thus created, could not but have a very serious influence upon the value of existing investments, and, of course, to an extraordinary extent upon the operations of the Treasury Department, since the expenses of the government could not suddenly be brought to an end.

The price of money in New York during the past 30 days, has been falling. The high rates that existed in April, caused money to get to the centre, and the demand for money decreased. The decline in the stock business is no doubt one of the chief reasons for the diminished demand for money. The comparative approximate amount of stock operations are as follows:

Thus the stock transactions of the last week were not forty per cent of those of April 9, a decline of $32,000,000, and the clearings diminished $248,000,000, which would indicate that the stock checks are manipulated nine times before reaching the Clearing-house.

The prices of general stocks were as follows:

PRICES UNITED STATES PAPER.

The Treasury has given notice in regard to the conversion of the three-year 7-30 notes. These notes were isssed under the Act of July 17. 1861, and by its terms are exchangeable at any time, before or at maturity, for six per cent bonds of the Acts of July 17 and August 5, 1861, when presented in sums of not less than $500. The three-years' notes were issued, bearing date of August 19 and October 1, 1861, and become due after August 19 and October 1, 1864. Holders of the notes of either date are notified that they may be presented for immediate exchange for six per cent bonds, with full coupons, drawing interest to July 1, 1864, up to which date interest will be paid, without delay, on the threeyears' notes, at the rate of 7 30-100 per cent per annum. The interest found to be due to July 1, 1864, will be transmitted by the United States Treasurer's

draft, payable in coin. The six per cent bonds, which are exchanged for the principal of the three-years' notes, will be issued, drawing interest from July 1. 1864, the date up to which the three-years' notes are settled, and will be transmitted as fast as they can be conveniently prepared. Parties wishing to exchange the three-years' notes in the above manner must send them to the Treasury Department in sums of $500, or its multiple, indorsed, "Pay to the Secretary of the Treasury for redemption," which indorsement must be signed by the party on whose account they are to be exchanged. They must be accompanied by a letter stating the numbers, denominations and dates of the notes, and the kind, registered or coupon, and denomination of the six per cent bonds wanted in exchange. The six per cent coupon bonds are of the denomination of $500 and $1,000, and the registered bonds are of the denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. When registered bonds are ordered, parties must state at which of the following places they wish the interest to be paid, viz. : New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore or New Orleans.

The suspension of the sale of gold, gold certificates, and exchange by the Treasury, lessened the demand for money. The pay of the troops recurring again May 1, however, caused a demand for greenbacks to send to the army, and the Treasury sold exchange, on the 20th of May, at 97. The specie movement has been as follows:

26

159,105 1,050,156

375,101

Apr. 2

250,778

9

16

217,602

23

256,604

629,855

30

294,998

May 7

205,057

14

21

273,900 20,425,504 691 a 70₫ 473,385 273,429 168,912 19,527,665 634 a 681 607,059 302,344 345,471 20,924,287 67 a 71 158,437 269,522 1,002,884 21,687,670 71 a 89 3,226,000 24,868,203 724 a 79 282,376 1,271,836 24,087,343 77 a 85 451,827 282,276 1,174,241 23,082,028 71 a 81 661,996 2,452,668 22,635,155 61 a 76§ 258,570 438,745 383,428 1,884,195 22,091,691 73 a 85

Total.... $6,583,708 $17,455,966 5,756,603 21,700,980

This does not include $5,000,000 sent by the Government to London, and against what bills were sold in New York. The large importations had caused a steady and regular demand for bills, but the passage of the new tariff bills adding 50 per cent to all duties for 60 days, and which went into operation April 27, caused very large removals of goods from warehouse, and by so doing checked, for a time, remittances, which were, however, resumed actively, causing a rise in the price of gold. The rates of exchange were as follows: