Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/495

Rh CITY.] NEW YORK 457 Banking. The bank of New York, chartered in 1791, was the first financial institution incorporated in the State. Banks con tinued to be incorporated by special Acts of the legislature until 1838, when a general banking law made the business free to all under certain restrictions. In 1829 a safety fund system was established to secure the circulation of the banks contributing to it, and commissioners were created to apply its provisions, but the unequal operation and insufficiency of the system brought about its abolition in 1843, and supervision was entrusted to the comp troller of the State. In 1851 a banking department was created. The Act of the United States of 1865, to provide a national currency, in its requirement of a deposit of United States bonds to secure the circulation issued to the banks by the Government made a radical change in the entire banking system. If the policy of reduction of the debt of the United States be continued, some other form of security must be devised to take the place of the bonds of the United States. In 1867 the State passed an Act enabling national banking associations to become State banking associations. The national tax of 10 per cent, being in effect prohibitory on other than national bank circulation, the State banks are banks of dis count and deposit only. On the 16th December 1882 there were seventy-seven banks in operation under this Act. Their capital was $19,455,700. The mass of the banking business of the State is done by the national banks, of which there were on December 30, 1882, 307, with a capital of $86,313,692. Their deposits at same date were $355,673,215-80, their loans and discounts $336,269,003-87, and their issues of national bank circulation amounted to $45,979,914, secured by United States bonds, deposited with the comptroller of the currency at Washington, to the amount of $52,217,050. They held in specie $54,186,128 94, and in legal tender notes of the United States $18,192,201. The first bank for savings iu the State was incorporated in 1819, since which time these beneficent institutions have vastly increased. On the 1st January 1883 they numbered 127, holding for 1,095,971 depositors the sum of $412,147,213. They are incorporated by special Acts of the legislature, and the provisions for the security of their investment are very stringent. Trust companies, of which there are several, are also incorporated by special Act, and the security of their depositors is guaranteed by deposits of public stocks or cash with the banking department of the State. On the 1st October 1882 there were fourteen corporations for the safe keeping and guardianship of personal property, with a capital of $2,676,900. Agriculture. New York is the third State of the Union in the number of farms, and second in their value. The total number of acres in farms in 1880 was 23,780,754, of which 17,717,862 acres were improved lands. The number of farms was 241,058, value $1,056,176,741. The live stock included 610,358 horses, 5072 mules and asses, 39,633 working oxen, 1,437,855 milch cows, 862,233 other cattle, 1,715.180 sheep, 751,907 swine. The farm products were oats, 37,575,506 bushels; Indian corn, 25,690,156; wheat, 11,587,766; barley, 7,792,062; rye, 2,634,690; buck wheat, 4,461,200; potatoes, 33,644,807 ; hay, 5,240,563 tons; hops, 21,628,931 lt&amp;gt; ; tobacco, 6,481,431 ft|; milk (sold or sent to butter and cheese factories), 231,965,533 gallons ; butter (made on farms), 111,922,423 lb ; cheese (made on farms), 8,362,590 lb ; wool, 8,827,195 lb. The estimated value of all farm productions by the census of 1880 was $178,025,695. Manufactures. New York is the first manufacturing State in the Union, and in the last decade the value produced has increased nearly 35 per cent. In 1880 there were in the State 42,739 establishments, employing a capital of $514,246,575 and 531,533 hands. The amount paid in wages was $198,634,029; for mate rials, $679,612,545. The products were valued at $1,080,696,596. Shipbuilding. The vessels of all classes built in the State during the fiscal year ending 30th June 1882 numbered 1371, aggregating 282,269 tons. Of these there were 668 sailing vessels of 118,798 tons, 502 steamers of 121,942 tons, 68 canal boats, and 135 barges. Fisheries. The chief fishing industry is the taking of menhaden, in value (1880) $1,114,158, and the raising of oysters, value in 1880 $1,577,050, other fisheries $1,689,357. The total number of hands employed in all branches in 1880 was 7266, the amount of capital $2,629,585, and of product $4,380,565; the number of vessels em ployed was 541, measuring 11,583 tons, valued at $777,600. Commerce. New York, owing to its magnificent seaport and its admirable land and water communication, enjoys a large proportion of the national trade. In 1882 the State had in exports and im ports of merchandize, including specie and bullion, the sum of $894, 430, 636, or 56| per cent, of the trade of the United States. Of the imports it received and distributed $499,928,774, and it exported $394, 501, 862. The amount of internal trade can only be estimated by the value of the tonnage moved. In the year ending 30th September 1882 the arrivals at tide water were 3,068,152 tons, and the internal movement reached 1,361,268, the total value of the property transported being $147,918,907. The freight carried on railroads amounted to 47,350,174 tons, which at the same rate of valuation as that given for canal traffic, $35 per ton, may be set down at$l,657,256,090 ) a total value transported of $1,805,174,997. The value of the freight carried through the Sound, the Hudson river, and the lakes may be estimated at $250,000,000, which would give an aggregate of over $2,000,000,000. Deducting from this gross amount 900 millions, the value of its foreign commerce (imports and exports), the sum of 1000 millions is arrived at as an approximate valuation of the internal trade of the State. Conveyance. On the 30th September 1882 there were 326 steam and 81 horse railroads incorporated under the laws of the State. The paid up capital stock of the steam roads amounted to $623,772,211-67 (of which for this State $397,386,453-21), and of the horse roads to $24, 068, 248 35. The steam roads carried 66,691,562 passengers ; two elevated roads in New York city carried 86,361,029, and the horse roads 277,171,345 passengers. The total of miles of steam roads built and owned by New York companies was 10,058, of which 6641 were in New York State. There are twelve canals, of which the Erie is the principal. The total move ment on all reached 5,467,423 tons in 1882. Population. New York has the largest population of any of the States. From official sources the population of the province was given in 1698 at 18,067 ; in 1703 at 20,665 ; in 1723, 40,564 ; in 1731, 50,824 ; in 1737, 60,437; in 1749, 73,448; in 1756, 96,790; in 1771, 163,337. By the first United States census of 1790 at 340,120; in 1800, 589,051 ; in 1810, 959,049 ; in 1820, 1,372,111; in 1830, 1,918,608; in 1840, 2,428,921; in 1850, 3,097,394; in 1860, 3,880,735; in 1870, 4,382,759. The total population by the census of 1880 was 0,082,871 (2,505,322 males, 2,577,549 females); of these 3,871,492 were native born. The race division was whites, 5,016,022 ; coloured, 65,104 ; Chinese and Japanese, 926 ; Indians, 819. * There are 59 cities having each a population of over 4000, the principal being New York, 1,206,299; Brooklyn, 566,663; Buffalo, 155,134; Albany, the State capital, 90,758; Rochester, 89,366; Troy, 56,747; Syracuse, 51,792; Utica, 33,914; Auburn, 21,924; Oswego, 21,116; Elmira, 20,541 ; Poughkeepsie, 20,207. There were engaged in agriculture 377,460 persons ; in professional and personal service, 537,897 ; in trade and transportation, 339,419 ; and in manufac tures and mechanical and mining industries, 629,869. The popu lation averaged 106 &quot;74 persons to the square mile, and occupied 772,512 dwellings. (J. A. S.*) II. NEW YORK CITY. NEW YORK, the principal city of the United States in Plates point of wealth and population, and, next to London, the XII - most important commercial and financial centre in the world, lies mainly on Manhattan Island, which is situ ated at the upper end of New York Bay, between the Hudson River and East River, on the west and east respec tively, and the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, small connecting tide-ways which separate it from the mainland on the north-east and north. The legal limits of the municipality also include on the northern side a portion of the mainland which formerly constituted the towns of Morrisania, West Farms, and Kingsbridge, the boundary on the N. being the city of Yonkers and on the E. the Bronx and East Rivers, containing in all 41|- square miles, or 26,500 acres, of which Manhattan Island makes 22 square miles, or 14,000 acres. They also con tain the small islands in the East River and New York Bay known as North Brother s, Ward s, Randall s, BlackwelPs, Governor s, Bedloe s, Ellis, and the Oyster Islands. The city-hall stands in 40 42 43&quot; N. lat. and 74 3&quot; W. 2 long., and is about 18 miles distant from the ocean, which is reached through the upper and lower bay, together constituting a harbour of the first order. The upper bay has an area of 14 square miles and the lower bay of 88 square miles of safe anchorage. The ship channels have from 21 to 32 feet and from 27 to 39 feet of water according to the state of the tide. The Hudson and East Rivers also afford the city 13^ square miles of good anchorage. The tide rises and falls on the average 43 inches. Manhattan Island, as well as the adjacent country to the north and east, is composed mainly of rocks, chiefly gneiss and mica schist, with heavy inter- 1 This includes only Indians subject to taxation. 2 New York is 3 E. of Washington. In time it is 12 m before Washington, 55 m before Chicago, 3 h 14 m before San Francisco, aiid 4 h 56 m after Greenwich. XVII. 58