Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. ManufacturerFowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
History
Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. Manufacturer
Fowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
Banks and banking -- United States; Currency question -- United States
MR. MANUFACTURER: I have been listening to you gentlemen with intense
interest, and must say that you have worked this plan out completely
and practically.
I see what an enormous advantage it would be to a bank to use its
reserve as a reserve should be used, and what an absolute guarantee
of protection it would be to have all the reserves of all the banks
centralized, and ready to help anyone of them in need of gold, because
the gold was actually on hand, and had not been loaned out as the banks
now do; but I have been wondering where the State Banks and Trust
Companies were going to get 10 per cent more reserves of their demand
deposits to put up in this central gold reserve. You must remember that
they have five billion of deposits.
MR. BANKER: I can tell you how to do that; that is very easy.
When the State Banks come into the National system as they certainly
will, if you have the right kind of a system, they will exchange their
notes for the gold or gold certificates that are now in circulation,
as they come in over their counters. You see that all the gold and
gold certificates that are now held by the banks only amount to
$879,000,000, although there is in the country $1,850,000,000 of gold,
practically one billion of gold, or $10 of gold for every man, woman
and child out in the corn, cotton and wheat fields; in the mining
camps, when as a matter of fact, this gold should be in the reserves
of our banks, protecting our bank credits; and bank notes should be in
the corn, cotton and wheat fields, in the mining camps filling the true
function of currency, and where gold, or gold certificates are not at
all needed.
MR. LAWYER: Now, wait a moment, Mr. Banker, and let me see if I grasp
that. It is very important that we should all understand this. I am
exceedingly anxious to, and it strikes me that we are at a mighty
interesting juncture of this subject. If a State Bank with a reserve
of $70,000 came into your National system and had to increase its
present reserve, which is only 7 per cent, by as much as 10 per cent,
it could do so by simply retaining the gold and gold certificates as
they were deposited from day to day, and pay out its bank notes to the
extent of one hundred thousand dollars. The result would be that the
bank would increase its liabilities by $100,000, but it would also
increase its reserves by $100,000. That is certainly a perfectly sound
proposition. Before the bank came into the system, its reserves were
only 7 per cent, or $70,000, since its deposits were $1,000,000. After
it goes into the National system, it has changed $100,000 of its notes
for $100,000 of gold, or gold certificates, as they came in over the
counter; it now owes $1,100,000, of which $100,000 is of notes, but it
now has $187,000 of reserves of all of its demand liabilities, or 17
per cent, instead of $70,000, or 7 per cent, as before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account