Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/380

 

 

CHAPTER XV.

The Liquidation; 1842 to 1845.

M

ASSACHUSETTS.—The full force of the revulsion of the period whose history we have recounted in the last preceding chapters appears perhaps more distinctly than anywhere else in the following statistical statement about the banks of Massachusetts, which shows it in a comprehensive and yet concise form. The New England States escaped comparatively easily from the troubles of the period, yet the Massachusetts banks, which were the leading ones of the section, had their share in it, and these figures show that they went through the full measure of the liquidation. These figures are also the fairest representation we can find of the fluctuations and vicissitudes of the banking system of the country, where it was not dominated by the big Bank of the State experiments or by the mania for "internal improvements."

The ratio of specie to the bills in circulation and to the sum of the circulation and deposits in all the banks in Massachusetts for the years given:^[1]

Date.	No. of Banks	Ratio of Specie to Circulation	Ratio of Specie to Circulation and Deposits.	Date.	No. of Banks	Ratio of Specie to Circulation	Ratio of Specie to Circulation and Deposits.
1820	28	1 to 2.04	1 to 4.52	1832	83	7.89	11.15
1821	28	0.98	3.10	1833	102	8.55	12.57
1822	33	3.31	6.72	1834	103	6.59	10.82
1823	34	3.02	6.04	1835	105	8.29	13.06
1824	37	1.98	4.68	1836	117	7.48	13.52
1825	41	5.76	8.29	1837	129	6.76	12.34
1826	55	4.83	6.82	1838	120	3.92	6.90
1827	60	4.54	6.58	1839	116	4.28	7.94
1828	61	6.36	8.34	1840	115	3.06	5.90
1829	66	4.81	7.38	1841	111	3.06	5.80
1830	63	4.07	6.90	1842	105	3.00	5.74
1831	70	8.41	13.19	1843	104	1.41	2.72

1. Treasury Report, August 10, 1846.