Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/603

 NATIONAL DEBT. 567

Dollars Cents Debt bearing interest in gold .... 1,961,152,05000 Debt bearing interest in paper .... 59,135,000 00

Debt on which interest has ceased. . . 3,437,067 35

Debt without interest 409,216,455 48

Total debt 2,432,940,572 83

Interest accrued and unpaid. . . 42,123,240 4

Total debt, principal and interest. . . 2,475,063,812 87

Amount in Treasury : — Dollars

Coin 96,061,661 89

Currency .... 32,088.505 30

128,150,167 19

Total debt, less amount in Treasury, October 1,

1870 2,346,913,645 68

Similar total, September 1, 1871. . . 2,355,921,150 41

The reduction in the public debt during the month of September, 1870, was 9,007,498 dollars, while from the 1st of March, 1870, to the 1st of October, 1870, it amounted to 91,414,826 dollars.

A very considerable portion of the national debt of the United States is in the hands of foreign holders in the various European states, especially in Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. ' It is impossible,' says the Secretary of the Treasury in his report to Congress in 1809, 'to ascertain with precision the amount of our securities held in Europe, nor is there any perfectly reliable data for ascertaining, even, what amount has gone there annually since the first bonds were issued for the prosecution of the late war. In his report of 18G6, the Secretary estimated the amount of United States securities of different kinds, including railroad and other stock, held in Europe, at 600,000,000 dollars. He soon after be- came satisfied that this estimate was too low, by from one hundred to one hundred and fifty millions. It would be safe to put the amount so held at the present time, exclusive of stocks, at eight hundred and fifty millions of dollars, of which not less than six hundred millions are United States bonds, nearly all of which have left the United States within the last six years. The amount is formidable ; and little satisfaction is derived from the consideration that these securities have been transferred in payment of interest and for foreign commodities ; and just as little from the considera- tion that probably not over five hundred millions of dollai-s in gold values have been received for these eight hundred and fifty millions of debt.'

It is ordered, by Act of Congress, that a sinking fund shall be provided for the payment of the debt. The Act requires that the surplus gold remaining after the payment of the interest shall be