Of the increase from 1840 to 1843, more than five millions and a half of dollars is caused by including the free banks in the assessments of 1843, and not in the 1840. The total sum paid for taxes in 1843, by the incorporated companies in cluded in the table, was dollars. cts. 360,726 15 20,646 74 381,372 89 The Delaware and Hudson Canal, and turnpike and bridge companies are not included. NEW YORK BANKS. The general banking system of New York is considered restrictive. We shall defer our account of the chartered, the free, and the safety-fund banks of this state, until we bring them under view hereafter in a general account of the banking systems of the United States. We shall therefore "confine the subject under the present head to the following opinion of the Comptroller on the general bank law of New York, and to the annual report of the bank commissioners. COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE, Albany, July 30th, 1841. 1. That I am of opinion the restriction in the third section of the act of 1840, which prohibits the commencing of banking until securities to the amount of 100,000 dollars shall have been deposited with the comptroller, applies only, as you contend, to an "association of persons," and not to an individual banker, and therefore, that the comptroller would be bound, under the general provisions of the act, to issue circulating notes to an amount equal to the current market value of the securities, although the securities deposited should not amount to 100,000 dollars. 2. I find nothing in the act, however, that authorises an individual banker, or "any person" as distinguished from an association of persons, to assume any fictitious name as the name of his bank, and I think there is manifest propriety in requiring, in such case, that the circulating notes delivered to such individual banker, should be in his individual, and not in an assumed name. The obvious intent of the statute is, that the individual banker shall be held personally liable upon his circulating notes. They are, it is true, to be "in the form and similitude of bank bills," and to be countersigned, numbered, and registered, and are to bear the stamp which is to indicate that they are secured in the manner contemplated by the act; but the holder of such notes, in case the bills are not paid or redeemed according to law, can resort for his indemnity not only to the securities deposited in the hands of the comptroller, but to the maker or individual banker personally.-He is to "execute and sign the circulating notes" so as "to make them obligatory promissory notes, payable on demand at his place of business." How can the signature by his president and cashier, and in the assumed name of a bank, be deemed a compliance with this provision? If "any number of persons" associate for the purpose of banking, they are required to file a certificate in the office of the secretary of state, and in the office of the clerk of the county, specifying: 1. The " name assumed" to distinguish such associations. 2. The place where the business is to be carried on. 3. The amount of capital and number of shares. 4. The names and places of residence of the shareholders, and the number of shares held by each. 5. The period at which such association shall commence and terminate. Such associations are to carry on the business of banking, as provided for by the act, and in the manner specified in their articles of association, and to choose one of their number as president, and to appoint a cashier. All contracts made by such" association" and all notes and bills by them issued, must be signed by the president or vice-president, and suits by, or against them, are to be prosecuted in the name of the president, and a judgment against him, can only be enforced against the joint property of the association; and no shareholder of "any such association" is liable in his individual capacity, unless the articles of association signed by him, shall have so declared. The annual statement too, required by the 26th section of the original act of 1838, applies only to such "associations" and not to individual bankers, although the act of the last session in terms includes individual bankers. Many other of the restrictions and limitations can only be deemed applicable to associations. The law of 1841, directing the manner of commencing suits against "associations," has no reference to individual bankers, and suits against the latter, upon their circulating notes, should, as I suppose, be commenced and prosecuted as against other individuals, and be enforced like any other private demand, the holders of the notes having, however, the additional remedy against the securities in the hands of the comptroller-to which, perhaps, a court of chancery might compel him to resort in the first instance. If you desire to avail yourself of this law in obtaining circulating notes from this department, and to commence the business of banking, under its provisions, as an individual banker, the notes must be prepared and issued in your individual name, and bear your individual signature.-You will then be entitled, upon depositing the securities contemplated by the act, to circulate notes equal to the market value of the securities deposited. A STATEMENT of all the Incorporated Companies in the State of New York, having Banking Powers, the Date of their respective Acts of Incorporation, the Limitation of the same, and the Amount of Capital authorised. THE FREE BANKS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. By the annual report of the comptroller, dated January 7, 1841, there were seventy-six associations and banks named in the report of last year; thirteen have been struck from the list, as either closed or closing, and there have been added six, which have been established since the 1st of December, 1839; leaving now in operation sixty-nine, several of which have indicated a disposition to close their operations as speedily as circumstances will admit. It is much to the credit of the free banks, that of the great number of them, they have all, with but one exception (the Millers' Bank), complied with the terms of the act of the last session, relating to the redemption of bank notes; and consequently, the circulating bills of all the associations and individual bankers (with the one exception) have been taken at par for all state dues, at the several points where those dues are payable. Many of the associations, and some individual bankers, have found it necessary materially to curtail their circulation, as will be seen by comparing the amount in 1839 with that in 1840. On the 1st of December, 1839, the circulation of the free banks (or, the amount issued from this office) was On the 1st of December, 1840, there was outstanding dollars. 6,012,009 5,353,567 Making a diminution of 658,442 STATEMENT of the Banks under the General Banking Law, December 1, 1840. By the annual report of the bank commissioners of January 30, 1843, it appears that on the 1st of January, 1840, and after the second suspension of many of the banks, south and west of New York, which occurred before the end of that year, the returns exhibited a diminution of loans and discounts, on the part of the ninety chartered banks of the state, to the amount of 15,512,000 dollars; and a reduction of 8,743,365 dollars, the circulation, as compared with the reports of the same institutions on the 1st of January, 1839. During the year ending on the 1st of January, 1843, the loans and discounts of all the chartered banks, eighty-five in number, as compared with the same banks on the 1st of January, 1842, have diminished 2,959,602 dollars. The discounted debt of forty-three banking associations has increased within this period 974,263 dollars, making an aggregate of diminution, in all the banks of the state, of 1,985,339 dollars. The circulation of the chartered banks has also been reduced 2,027,810 dollars, and the free banks, 60,794 dollars, showing the whole decrease of circulation to be 2,088,604 dollars. The specie of the chartered banks has increased 2,094,602 dollars, and the free banks, 974,000 dollars, making the whole increase of specie, 3,068,602 dollars. The following table exhibits a comparative view of the resources and liabilities of all the chartered and free banks for the years 1841 and 1842, excluding the La Fayette Bank in the City of New York, the Watervliet Bank, the Clinton County Bank, the Bank of Lyons, and the North River Bank, whose charter has expired, and which has since gone into operation under the general banking law, together with the James Bank, the Farmers' Bank of Malone, and the Manufacturers' Bank at Ulster ; which last-named association did not make any returns. The cash items in the line of resources in the New York banks, embraces a large amount of Treasury notes. The reports of the eighty-one safety fund banks, exhibit nominal profits on hand to the amount of 3,359 772 dollars. On deducting therefrom the aggregate expenses and contributions to the fund, amounting to 1,484,718 dollars the balance will be 1,875,054 dollars, being a little over 6 per cent. To determine the circulation of all the banks, the amount of notes of other banks contained in the statements, should be deducted. This account would then stand, in relation to the specie in the banks, as follows: The 131 banks which have made returns, show the circulation to be. Actual circulation Specie... dollars. 12 031,871 4,888,987 7,142,884 8,447,076 Excess of specie over circulation 1,334,192 AGGREGATE Statement of Eighty-one Safety Fund Banks, as reported to the Bank Commissioners, January 1st, 1843. |