To fully understand this, let us take the actual results of one year's operations. The English capitalists, we will say, in 1867, invested $500,000,000 in the purchase of $1,000,000,000 of our depreciated currency. They took it to the United States Treasurer and exchanged it for United States bonds drawing 6 per cent interest in coin. At the end of six months they drew $30,000,000 in gold coin, and took it to the gold-room and sold it for $45,000,000 in greenbacks. Then they exchanged their greenbacks for railroad bonds at 20 per cent discount. They would thus receive about $54,000,000 of railroad bonds drawing 7 per cent interest. At the end of the next six months they would draw another $30,000,000 in coin and sell it for $45,000,000 in greenbacks, and exchange them for another $54,000,000 in railroad bonds. They would also draw 7 per cent interest on the first $54,000,000 of railroad bonds, which, for six months, would be $1,840,000. The account of the first year would stand as follows: $500,000,000 in gold brought $1,000,000,000 of depreciated currency, and was exchanged for $1,000,000,000 of United States bonds; one year's interest on $1,000,000,000 amounted to $60,000,000. This was sold in the gold-room for $90,000,000 in greenbacks. Then the greenbacks were exchanged for railroad bonds at 20 per cent discount on the bonds. In this way at the end of the first year, for their investment of $500,000,000, they found themselves in possession of $1,000,000,000 of United States bonds, and $108,000,000 of railroad bonds, and $1,840,000 in cash for the first six months' interest on the first $54,000,000 of railroad bonds. Nor was this all the profit of the English capitalists, for in 1869 they secured the passage of a law by Congress pledging the Government to pay not only the interest but the principal of the United States bonds in coin. This rapidly increased the value of the bonds, and in a few years they were eagerly sought for by English capitalists, and they rose to a premium of 25 per cent in gold on their full face value. Within five years after the passage of the law of 1866, the bonded debt of the United States reached the sum of over $1,800,000,000. The interest was paid in coin, and was sold in the gold-room in Wall Street at a premium until 1878, and the profits realized upon the sale of this gold were simply enormous. These profits were promptly invested in railroad bonds at a discount of from 5 to 25 per cent. In 1866 the bonded indebtedness of the railroads had got up to $2,165,000,000, and was in the hands principally of English capitalists, who had paid for them with the profits they had made on the United States bonds they had bought at a discount of from 40 to 60 per cent.