But within fifteen months the bank issues increased from forty-five and a half to sixty millions. ----------------------+-------------+--------------+------------ | Capital. | Circulation. | Specie. ----------------------+-------------+--------------+------------ Banks of New England. | $15,690,000 | $5,320,000 | $8,200,000 Other Banks | 66,930,000 | 44,730,000 | 8,600,000 ----------------------+-------------+--------------+------------ 1815. 208 State Banks.| $82,620,000 | $50,050,000 | $16,800,000 1816. 246 State Banks.| 89,822,422 | 68,000,000 | 19,000,000 ----------------------+-------------+--------------+------------ The depression of the local currencies ranged from seven to twenty-five per cent. In New York and Charleston it was seven to ten per cent. below the par of coin. At Philadelphia from seventeen to eighteen per cent. At Washington and Baltimore from twenty to twenty-two, and at Pittsburgh and on the frontier, twenty-five per cent. below par. The circulating medium, or measure of values, being doubled, the price of commodities was doubled. The agiotage, of course, was the profit of the bankers and brokers; a sum estimated at six millions of dollars a year, or ten per cent. on the exchanges of the country, which McDuffie, in his celebrated report, estimated at sixty millions annually. In November the Treasury Department found itself involved in the common disaster. The refusal of the banks, in which the public moneys were deposited, to pay their notes or the drafts upon them in specie deprived the government of its gold and silver; and their refusal, likewise, of credit and circulation to the issues of banks in other States deprived the government also of the only means it possessed for transferring its funds to pay the dividends on the debt and discharge the treasury notes. Mr. Dallas found himself compelled to appeal to the banks by circular to subscribe for sufficient treasury notes to secure them such advances as might be asked of them for the discharge of the public obligations.