The duties of national-bank examiners have also become more exacting and more difficult in consequence of the expansion of the business of these banks. These statements will doubtless be accepted when it is considered that in the past five years the number of banks has increased from 2,132 to 2,852, reporting October 7, 1886, while the aggregate of their loans and discounts has risen from $1,173,800,000 to $1,443,665,000. It is of the highest importance to the banks themselves, as well as to the public, that the examiners should be expert, vigilant, and trustworthy, and that the examinations should be frequent and unexpected. While the examiners now employed are generally competent, and many of them are excellent, yet in some cases the territory to be covered is too large, and the pay too small, to secure the best men for the work. I have elsewhere made some recommendations on this subject. During the past year 14,010 reports of condition, about 6,000 reports of dividends and earnings, and 2,930 reports from examiners have been received at the office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and fully 6,000 letters and circulars have been sent out in connection with them. The reports received are all carefully examined, compared with one another, and abstracts are made from them. The work in this division of the office is continuous and exacting. From these various reports, after examination and verification, the subjoined tables have been compiled, and other tables compiled from the same sources will be found in the Appendix showing the condition of the reserve of national banks, their loans and discounts, abstract of reports of dividends and earnings, ratios to capital and to capital and surplus, and other valuable information as to the condition of the national banks on the date of the last report. A large table on folded sheet, appended hereto, exhibits for October 7, 1886, in aggregate every detail embraced in the tabulated reports required of the banks. Similar tables are made up for the information of the Comptroller from the reports gathered from all banks five times each year. The amounts are given separately for each State, reserve city, and Territory. DIAGRAM. The diagram accompanying this report exhibits in a very striking manner the main features of the national banking system, and how each has varied during the twenty-one years since the peace of the country has been re-established. On the 1st of January, 1866, there were 1;582 national banks; on the 7th of October, 1886, there were 2,852-a net increase in number alone of 1,270. The following table groups in a compendious form the most important facts shown in the diagram: Capital Capital, surplus, and undivided profits... Circulation. $103, 000, 000 $543, 000, 000 $543, 000, 000 Oct. 7, 1886 $403, 000, 000 Jan. 1, 1866 Deposits.... Cash: National-bank notes. 20, 000, 000 187, 000, 000 19, 000, 000 23, 000, 000 63,000,000 156, 000, 000 28, 000, 000 Dec. 31, 1863 205, 000, 000 Oct. 1,1866 177, 000, 000 July 1, 1885 11, 000, 000 Oct. 7, 1857 50, 000, 000 Mar. 11, 1882 8, 000, 000 Oct. 1, 1875 475, 000, 000 Jan. 1, 1868 213, 000, 000 Jan. 1, 1860 291, 000, 000 Oct. 7, 1886 501, 000, 000 Oct. 8, 1870 500, 000, 000 Jan. 1, 1850 An examination of this table shows that the aggregate capital, surplus, undivided profits, circulation, and deposits have increased from $1,210,000,000 in January, 1866, to $2,173,000,000 in October, 1886, which is less than double, while the loans and discounts have gone up from $500,000,000 to $1,443,000,000, which is nearly treble, showing how much more widely the banks are now identified with the general business of the country than they were twenty-one years ago. The investments in bonds have taken an opposite course. Amounting to $440,000,000 in 1866, increasing to $712,000,000 in April, 1879, they had subsided by 7th October last to $291,000,000, but little more than half what they were in 1866, and scarcely over a third of what they momentarily amounted to in 1879. The specie, which at the beginning of the period was but $19,000,000, had got down in October, 1875, to $8,000,000, is now $156,000,000, and in July, 1885, was $177,000,000. It is interesting to see how these changes appear when reduced to percentages. The capital, surplus, undivided profits, circulation, and deposits constitute together the fund upon which a bank does its business. Loans and discounts, United States bonds, specie, &c., are different forms in which this fund is invested. Taking the fund at $1,210,000,000 in 1866 and at $2,173,000,000 in 1886, these investments represent the following proportions of those amounts, viz: Another striking fact is that in 1866 the circulation was $213,000,000 and in 1886 it is only $228,000,000. At the former period, therefore, the circulation was nearly 45 per cent. of the capital, surplus, and undivided profits, while now it is only about 29 per cent. LOANS. The following table gives a classification of the loans of the national banks in the city of New York, in the three cities Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, in the other reserve cities, and in the rest of the country, at nearly the same dates, in each of the last three years: In the table below is given a full classification of the loans in New York City alone for the last five years: The following table exhibits, in the order of capital, the twenty-five States (exclusive of reserve cities) having the largest amount of nationalbank capital, together with the amount of circulation, loans and discounts, and individual deposits of the banks in each on October 7, 1886: Loans and dis- $88, 361, 209 07 Individual deposits. $54, 429, 904 43 84, 991, 702 64 67,557, 897 11 25, 847, 208 35 37,693, 620 87 .13, 748, 576 25 29, 525, 240 04 23, 305, 427 14 35,736, 912 23 22,088, 907 30 29,403, 692 78 10, 219, 683 42 17,813, 880 18 9, 133, 451 30 5, 915, 120 70 11, 647, 162 22 14, 214, 337 51 12, 591, 124 83 5,705, 741 18 9,564, 181 89 D, 224, 256 61 11, 011, 032 53 9,531, 677 93 4,585, 637 93 9, 231, 635 10 The following table affords an interesting comparison of the exchanges in the clearing-houses of the world: COMPARATIVE STATEMENT of settlements of CLEARING-HOUSES of the WOrld. [Foreign money reduced to dollars.] a 2 at $4.86,6. b Franc at 19.3 cents. e Florin at 39.3 cepts. d Mark at 23.8 cents. e Lira at 19.3 cents. TAXES UPON NATIONAL BANKS. National banks are subject to a semi-annual duty of one-half of 1 per cent. upon the average amount of their notes in circulation during the preceding six months. They are also required, by the act of June 20, 1874, to pay the cost of the redemption of their notes at the office of the Treasurer of the United States at Washington, and the cost of the plates from which their notes are printed. Banks extending their corporate existence have to pay for new plates. Previously to the act of June 20, 1874, the expense of the plates had been paid out of the tax on the banks, which at that time attached to capital and deposits as well as to circulation. The banks are further required to pay the fees of the examiners employed to ascertain their condition, under section 5240, Revised Statutes of the United States. The taxes and assessments collected during the past year were as follows: It has not been customary heretofore to include assessments with taxes, but it seems proper to do so. The following tables are brought forward from previous reports. For the sake of uniformity the only addition made is the semi-annual duty on circulation during the past year: The following table exhibits the taxes upon the circulation, deposits, and capital of banks, other than national, collected by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, from 1864 to November 1, 1882, the date upon which the taxation of capital and deposits ceased: |