66 stocks held by Philadelphia....... 500 Railroads centering at Chicago, Illinois. in New York in 1855 ..... 682 Specie, receipts and exports of, at N. York.. 344 356 494 751 66 in Maine in 1854-55 747 66 - ... of Wisconsin.. Railway traveling in England, safety of............. 66 Real and personal property in R. Island.. Receipts, sealed... -uses of the receipt .... Regulations, commercial.. 247, 374, 483, 616, 742 Sugar, a new Mexican 465 brokers, or gimlet rangers........... 519 Statistics of agriculture, 118, 253, 378, 502, 624, 752 4 PAGE Tablet to the memory of Samuel Appleton, a 264 Taxation, rates of, in cities and towns of Ohio 596 738 and Gt. Britain registration of cultivation of the olive in..... 755 export of teas from China to.. 733 mint, change in for'gn coins at 728 operations of mint of, for 1855. 721 railroad management in...... 682 427 Z. .... 129 CONTENTS OF NO. I., VOL. XXXIV. ARTICLES. ART. I. A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL CURRENCY PAGE. 19 II. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.-No. XXI. Passage of the Stamp Act-Its effect on American, British, and West India Commerce-Congress-Non-ImportationAmerican Manufactures-British Goods in the Colonies. By ENOCH HALE, Jr., Esq., of New York ........ III. MERCANTILE BIOGRAPHY: ALEXANDER HENRY. IV. ABBOTT LAWRENCE: THE MAN, THE MERCHANT, THE STATESMAN V. THE TRUE MERCANTILE CHARACTER. By J. H. ALLEN, Esq...... VI. THE LAW MERCHANT.-No. 111. The Application of Voluntary Payments-(Concluded.) By ABBOTT BROTHERS, Counselors at Law, of New York. JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. Contract-Consideration... Libel for Materials alleged to have been used in the construction of a Ship.. COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRA TED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Excitement in the Money Market-Causes of Commercial Disquiet-Difficulties with EnglandIndications of General Prosperity-The Crops North and South-The Stock Market, and Movements in Foreign Exchange-Bank Difficulties, and the Bank Movement in New York and Boston-Deposits at the New York Assay Office-Imports at New York for November, and since January 1st-Cash Duties received at New York-Imports of Foreign Dry Goods --Exports from New York to Foreign Ports for November, and from January 1st-Comparative Exports of Leading Articles of Domestic Produce - Probable Demand for Breadstuffs in Europe, etc................. New York Cotton Market. By ULHORN & FREDERICKSON, Brokers, New York 76-83 84 Steam-carriages for Common Roads.... Railroad Management in Germany.-Steamboats on the Western and Southern Rivers 110 111 112 113 117 118 119 120 121 122 125 125 Model Furnace for making Iron.. 126 Ship-building in Boston and Vicinity in 1855. 127 Ames's Shovel Manufactory........ 128 Incombustible Wood.-Glass-faced and Grooved Bricks.-Zinc Paint HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. JANUARY, 1856. Art. I-A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL CURRENCY. THE following sheets were written in 1841, when the subject of a National Bank was before Congress, under the first year of Tyler's administration, to embody the writer's speculations on the absorbing topic of that day. They were submitted to Mr. Clay during the session in which the bank bill passed. In a letter acknowledging their receipt, he expresses his approbation of the plan in the following words:-"I have received your plan of a bank of the United States, embracing a system of banking' for all the States. I have perused it with much pleasure, and with much more satisfaction than I have derived from the examination of any other plans, of which I have received a great number." After discussing its details, and showing the points of coincidence with his own plan submitted to the Senate, he adds:-"I cannot give you a better proof of my estimate of the good sense which characterizes your communication, than by having written so much about it. After all, it is very doubtful whether our labors will be of any avail-whether the state of public opinion is such as to admit, for some time to come, the establishment of any effectual regulation of the paper currency. I advise you to preserve your plan, and at the proper period submit it to the consideration of the public. It will receive my approbation and support." There is, perhaps, less prospect now than in 1841, of the adoption of a national bank by the country, but the plan, by a slight variation, can be adapted to a system of State banking. Free banking under State laws being at present the popular plan, the chief difficulty appears to be to devise some basis for the security of the circulation. A State bank of issue, that should have the exclusive right to issue bills for circulation, and which should be restricted in its dealings to bankers and banks under the general |