Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1395

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MONEY AND CREDIT
1039

kronor, and the total expenditure to 8,016,794 kronor, leaving a surplus of 1,018,577 kronor.

Money and Credit.

The Riksbank, or National Bank of Sweden, belongs entirely to the State and is managed by directors elected for three years by the Diet, except one, the president, who is designated by the king. It is a bank of exchange to regulate financial relations with foreign countries, it accepts and pays interest on deposits of money, and on sufficient security it lends money for purposes in which there is no speculative element. The Bank is under the guarantee of the Diet, its capital and reserve capital are fixed by its constitution, and its note circulation is limited by the value of its metallic stock and its assets in current accounts at home and abroad; but its actual circulation is kept far within this limit.

The following table gives statistics of the National Bank, private banks, and joint-stock banks in Sweden for January 1, 1898:—

Assets National Bank Private Banks Joint-stock
Banks
Kroner Kroner Kroner
Mortgages 57,963,876
Real estate 5,450,010 3,568,629
Coin and bullion 32,257,248 22,345,981 12,060,231
Accounts with other banks 19,673,635 49,820,620 34,299,040
State notes and bills 21,942,664 35,599,603 22,222,755
Stocks, shares, mortgages, &c. 64,364,526
Bills 53,716,569 178,300,580 73,718,235
Loans, public obligations, shares, &c 42,257,196 190,062,481 117,935,409
Cash credits, &c. 8,455,379 95,985,951 49,363,355
Totals 178,302,691 635,529,102 377,532,180
Liabilities
Bank notes and bills 70,941,074 89,546,531 7,674,108
Liabilities with other banks 9,464,303 52,664,164 40,839,196
Deposits 3,936,366 264,986,177 90,767,714
Capital 50,000,000 73,252,600 56,582,258
Reserve 5,000,000 24,339,612 17,073,109
To be paid out to the public treasury 1,800,000
Various liabilities 30,285,280 123,174,141 163,263,922
To further disposition 6,875,668 7,565,877 1,331,873
Totals 178,302,691 635,529,102 377,532,180

The savings-banks statistics (exclusive of Post Oflfice) are as follows:—

1893 1894 1895 1896
Number of depositors at end of year 1,111,187 1,119,887 1,124,298 1,141,469
Deposits at end of year, kronor 314,653,546 333,078,309 348,441,088 369,707,290
Capital and reserve fund, ditto. 28,557,033 29,998,600 31,383,447 32,634,284

At the end of 1896 the Post Office Savings Bank had 451,872 depositors and 49,733,810 kronor of deposits.