Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/679

MISSISSIPPI. State, showed most activity. The manufacture of turpentine and rosin was not important prior to the last decade of the nineteenth century, but made large gains during that period, as will be seen from the above table below.

The railroad mileage increased from 862 miles in 1860 to 1127 in 1880; to 2470 in 1890, and to 2934 in 1900. Among the important lines are the Illinois Central, the Southern, the Louisville and Nashville, the Mobile and Ohio, the New Orleans and Northeastern, and the Queen and Crescent. There is a board of railroad commissioners which is empowered to revise, fix, regulate, and approve the rates of charges of railroad companies. Having a considerable Gulf coast line and being bordered upon one side by the Mississippi River, the State has the advantages of navigation afforded by these waters. Of the two customs districts, Pearl River and Vicksburg, the former only is important in regard to foreign trade.

The Bank of Mississippi at Natchez was chartered in 1809. In 1818 it was created a State bank, with a capital of $3,000,000, the State participating in its management, and pledging to it a monopoly of the banking business of the State until 1840. In 1830, however, the Legislature broke the pledge by establishing the Planters' Bank of Mississippi, with a capital of $3,000,000, and making it the financial agent of the State. This forced the first bank into liquidation. For a few years the Planters' Bank had a practical monopoly of the banking, but from 1835 new banks followed in rapid succession. The most daring venture was the organization of the Mississippi Union Bank in 1838, with a capital of $15,500,000, which made it the largest State bank in the United States at that time. These bold undertakings in the very midst of a financial crisis could but lead to one result. There were numerous failures in 1838-45; in 1855 there was but one chartered bank in the State. A revival came in the eighties, when national banks were introduced. Stringent banking

laws have given to the State banks the confidence of the people, and their number has increased tenfold since 1888, In 1902 there were 17 national banks with a capital of $1,530,000, surplus $549,000, cash, etc., $561,000, loans $4,957,000, and deposits $5,257,000; 92 State banks with capital of $5,468,800, surplus $971,857, cash, etc., $1,550,929, loans $19,467,101, and deposits $16,297,325. There are no savings banks in the State.

The early financial history of Mississippi is closely connected with the organization of the banks in the State. A large State debt of $2,000,000 was created in 1830 in order to acquire shares in the Planters' Bank and in 1838 $5,000,000 for shares of the Union Bank of Mississippi. The financial crisis of the thirties brought the banks to insolvency in 1840; this involved the State in an enormous debt. Infringements upon the Constitution in the floating of the debt led to its repudiation by a popular vote in 1852, which was finally disposed of by a clause in the Constitution of 1875. The Civil War again involved the State in serious financial difficulties and also reduced the general economic condition of the State. The ‘carpet bag’ régime which followed aggravated the situation: the expenditures grew from about $500,000 in 1867-69 to more than $1,500,000 in 1871-75, and the tax rate was increased in these years proportionately from 1 mill to 14 mills. An organized protest from the taxpayers in 1874 was the result, and a gradual diminution of the State debt, expenditures, and rate of taxation followed. In September, 1901, the payable debt was $676,799 and the non-payable debt, for the interest on which alone the State is responsible, was $2,210,227, making the total indebtedness $2,887,026. Total receipts for the year ending September 30, 1901, were $2,436,048; total dislmrsements, $2,229,996, leaving a surplus of $206,052, and the cash balance was $828,453. The main source of income was a direct State property tax which yielded almost 85 per cent. of the total income; of the