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
We had a chart here the other night and some figures, which showed that
the increase and decrease of the bank note currency in Canada amounted
to $3.80/100 per capita every fall, and that every year, for a number
of years, so far as we have the record at least, exactly on the 15th
day of October, it was always at its maximum. Since we are now taking
back from Canada what Canada originally took from Massachusetts, the
principle of a true bank credit currency, we might expect just what
they had in New England, before the war, and what Canada now has every
year, and every month of the year, and every day of the month. That is,
we would have an amount of bank note currency just equal to the demands
of trade; no more, no less, but always just what the business of the
country requires, dollar for dollar, day in and day out. Am I correct?
MR. BANKER: You are absolutely correct. Our variation in the demands
of currency would not differ very much from that of Canada. We might
expect a difference between the maximum and minimum issue of about
$350,000,000 a year, that is, it ought to range from about one billion
dollars to about one billion three hundred and fifty million dollars
during each year, as matters now stand.
MR. LAWYER: Well, if that is true, we should never know one season of
the year from another, so far as the demands of currency are concerned.
MR. BANKER: No, you never would; and the facilities gained by the banks
for adjusting themselves to the changing conditions would enable them
to be far more helpful to their customers than they now are, and yet be
absolutely safe in doing so. You see, I would not limit a bank to an
amount of currency equal to its capital; but subject to the approval
of the Board of Control, where the bank was located, it could issue as
much more, or a total of 200 per cent of its capital. That is twice as
much as its capital; for, there are banks today situated a good deal as
the New England banks were before the war, where the people would use
more bank notes than deposits, if they were permitted to study their
own convenience. This we would find to be true in the newer parts of
the cotton growing country in cotton picking times. Can anyone tell why
a bank, under such circumstances, should not meet the peculiar demands
of its customers, and furnish bank notes at a cost of one-sixth of what
it must be, if the bank is compelled, as it is today, to rediscount its
promissory notes, and buy gold certificates or United States notes to
be used as currency, when its own bank notes would answer every purpose
of currency just as well?
MR. LAWYER: Then I understand also from what you said upon another
occasion that you would allow a bank to use a part of its reserves
during those seasons of the year when the demand for money was
particularly strong, and make up its average reserves when the demand
was slight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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