Fiscal year 1900. The revenues of the Government for the current fiscal year are thus estimated upon the basis of existing laws: From customs.... From internal revenue From miscellaneous sources.... From Postal Service...... $225, 000, 000. 00 Total estimated revenues.... 290, 000, 000. 00 25, 000, 000. 00 100, 958, 112. 00 640, 958, 112.00 The expenditures for the same period are estimated as follows: It is estimated that upon the basis of existing laws the revenues of the Government for the fiscal year 1901 will be: The estimates of appropriations required for the same period, as submitted by the several Executive Departments and offices, are as follows: Postal Service, including $3,004,546.08 deficiency in postal revenues... Permanent annual appropriations Interest on the public debt... 40, 000, 000. 00 Refunding-customs, internal revenue, etc.... 7, 244, 000. 00 $49, 300, 952.88 110, 777, 800. 00 26, 968, 220.00 79, 712, 220.00 Total estimated appropriations, exclusive of sinking fund........ 685, 855, 248. 78 18, 081, 994. 86 Since the expenditures of the current fiscal year will probably not exceed $600,958,112, it is confidently believed that Congress, in reviewing the requirements of the various Executive Departments for the fiscal year 1901, now placed at $685,855,248.78, will be able to reduce the estimates submitted to such a point as will bring expenditures within the estimated revenues of $667,773,253.92, and leave in fact a fair and substantial margin for surplus. OPERATIONS OF THE TREASURY. The transactions of the fiscal year, as shown by the report of the Treasurer of the United States, were of unusual magnitude, the net ordinary receipts having been exceeded in any like period but once, in 1866, and the net ordinary expenditures but thrice, in 1863, 1864, and 1865. Inclusive of the amounts involved in the issue and redemption of bonds, notes, and certificates, the gross receipts, under warrant, were $1,038,451,340.18, and the gross expenditures $946,222,148.83. There was, in consequence, an addition of $92,229,191.35 to the general Treasury balance, which increased from $775,751,368.11 to $867,980,559.46. These operations were conducted through the offices of the Treasury, numbering 10, those of the mint, increased during the year from 11 to 12, and the depositary banks, of which there were 172 at the beginning of the year and 357 at the close. The aggregate of money handled by the Treasury offices alone was $2,393,199,747 in the receipts and $2,371,283,629 in the disbursements. While there was a deficiency of $89,111,559.67 in the ordinary revenues, the excess of receipts over disbursements on account of loans was sufficient to realize a net surplus of $100,791,521.35 as the result of the fiscal operations of the year. This substantial addition to the available resources, together with the steady advance of the receipts from taxation to an actual excess over current needs, has relieved the Treasury of all danger of difficulty from sudden emergency. Nor was the growth of the available cash balance, which stood at $284,488,516.20 at the close of the year, more wholesome than the improvement in the character of the assets, which were converted into gold as far as statutory and other limitations would permit. The receipt of the proceeds of the war loan extended from June, 1898, to April, 1899, although the bulk of the subscriptions was fully paid within the first four months. Of the total of nearly $200,000,000, no less than upward of $125,000,000 was remitted by means of checks on banks in all parts of the country, which were collected through the Washington office. This fact, with the further circumstance that the remainder, which was paid in cash into the offices of the Treasury, was divided among them very nearly in proportion to their ordinary business, shows how evenly the whole country was represented in the subscriptions. Although the Department made no preference of one kind of money over another, the tenders of gold exceeded those of any form of paper, and amounted to more than a third of the total cash payments. Important changes took place during the year in the composition and distribution of the stock of money. The amount of notes and silver certificates in circulation was increased by $43,828,386, reducing the paper holdings of the Treasury to the minimum required for the transaction of business. The outstanding Treasury notes of 1890 were cut down, by cancellation on redemption in silver dollars, from $101,207,280 to $93,518,280. This process, however, did not involve a contraction of the currency, since the coins paid out for the notes either remained in circulation or were redeposited in the Treasury for silver certificates. As the volume of the paper currency is fixed by limitations, the depletion of the Treasury holdings made it necessary to refuse many requests, most of them for small denominations, where the application was not accompanied with a tender in kind. Precaution had, however, been taken to provide a liberal supply of small notes, and they were always sent out when desired in redemption of unfit currency. In consequence of these operations and the increased use of gold, there was a noteworthy addition to the denominations of $20 and under in active circulation. In the year ended September 30 last the increase in the amount of paper money of these denominations outstanding amounted to $58,665,416, while the increase of the gold coin in the hands of the people was estimated at $23,911,373. Inclusive of the higher denominations of paper, the total increase of the active circulation, reckoned on the same basis, was $125,751,014. In the fiscal year the offices of the Treasury paid out $42,532,296 in standard silver dollars, an increase of $1,700,147 over the previous year. The receipts in the same period were $37,581,040, a decrease of $16,426,894. By September 30 the continued demand for these coins carried the total in circulation to $68,755,243, the highest amount ever reached. Similar activity in the call for subsidiary silver coins, of which the Treasury received $36,593,199 and paid out $40,189,375 during the same period, gradually reduced the Treasury holdings, until at the close of the year only $6,070,497 remained on hand. In the ensuing three months the continuance of the demand decreased the Treasury stock to $2,477,571. The amount estimated to be in circulation on the 30th of September was $74,045,762. The receipts of gold at New York from customs amounted for the fiscal year to 78.5 per cent of the whole, as compared with 20.4 per cent for 1898. For the first quarter of 1900 they rose to 84.5 per cent. In the aggregate operations of the Treasury, the receipts of gold in 1899 amounted to 37.6 per cent of the whole, and the disbursements to 35.37, as compared with 10.03 and 11.83, respectively, in 1898. the quarter ended September 30, the percentage of gold receipts was 38.5 and of the disbursements 35.2. While so large a part of the Treasury's business was transacted in gold, and while large additions were made to the coin in outside circulation and are estimated to have reached $702,060,459 on July 1, 1899, the goid holdings of the Treasury have exceeded all previous records, both in the aggregate and in the net amount above outstanding gold certificates. On September 30 the gross amount of gold coin and bullion in the Treasury was $353,002, 380, and the net $254,328,821. The maximum net gold was $258,081,565 on October 12. The highest previous records for the end of any month were $332,551,306 and $218,818,253, respectively, the former in September and the latter in March, 1888. The gross on October 31 was $379,817,316. COINS AND COINAGE. Deposits. The receipts and deposits of bullion at mints and assay offices, including redeposits, aggregated $254,392,856.22, of which $221,184,530.61 was gold and $33,208,325.61 silver, classified as follows: Silver bullion purchased under the provisions of section 3526, Revised Statutes of the United States, for coinage of subsidiary silver aggregated 420,737.27 fine ounces, costing $235,220.34. The silver dollars coined were from bullion purchased under the act of July 14, 1890. The total coinage of silver dollars from bullion purchased under act of July 14, 1890, from August 13, 1890, to July 1, 1899, was $97,005,966, containing 75,028,051.81 fine ounces, costing $71,195,539.09, giving a seigniorage of $25,810,426.91. In addition to the above coinage there were manufactured at the mint at Philadelphia for the Government of Santo Domingo $901,881 silver pesos. Recoinage. Uncurrent gold coin of the face value of $1,168,851 and mutilated silver coin of the face value of $8,588,076.81 were received, as follows: This represents in new gold coin $1,158,307.57, and in new subsidiary silver coin $8,101,979.26. Of the subsidiary silver coinage, $9,318.391.40 were coined from worn and uncurrent silver coin transferred from the Treasury for recoinage, and $148,486.25 from silver purchased under provisions of section 3526, Revised Statutes, for the subsidiary silver coinage, on which latter the seigniorage was $86,838.47 Silver balances. The balance of silver bullion on hand at the mints for the coinage of silver dollars, subsidiary silver coins, and for payment of deposits of silver bullion in fine bars, July 1, 1899, was: |