Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1876 — Volume of the Currency. [ARTICLE]

Volume of the Currency.

A correspondent writes us that just after the recent independent convention, held in this city, he met one of the delegates in the Union Depot. Some conversation on the state of the country ensued, the delegate manlaining that all our troubles were owing to the contraction of the currency, when our correspondent ventured the remark that the volume of the currency was nearly as great as it had ever been. He adds: I can never forget the withering look lie cast upon me as he said ; “Now you know better than that; you know better than that, when there has been thirteen hundred millions retired since 1865.” This is a fair sample of the dense ignorance that prevails and of the wild nonsense that is talked on the subject. Some of the independent and democratic speakers are daily making assertions nearly as wide of the truth. The. facts are these: The war ended m 1865. On the Ist of November, 1866, the outstanding paper currency of the United States was as follows: j Greenbacks $889,945,428 National bank notes 292,904,585 Old demand notes 250,357 Fractional currency 27,588,010 Total $5,710,748,327 Oil the Ist of November, 1875, the outstanding paper currency was: National btnk notes $348,216,902 Greenbacks..... 373,236,244 Fractional currency..., 48,380,673 Total $769,840,119 On the Ist instant the amount of greenbacks outstanding was 5369,68&,020; the amount of national bank notes outstanding at t his time is not precisely known, but it is probably about the same as in November, 1875, so that it is safe to say that the total amount of paper currency now in circulation is at least fifty millions more than it was the year after the war closed. —lndianapolis Journal.