Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/66

44 000, these being held chiefly in Great Britam, and to a much less extent in Holland, France and Germany. In 1915 and 1916 these were largely resold to us. It is difficult to estimate exactly the amount of this liquidation. Vice-president Rovensky of the National Bank of Commerce in New York in September, 1918, estimated the volume of American securities we purchased from Europe between Jan. 31, 1915, and Jan. 31, 1917, at $1,743,000,000. Between Jan. 31, 1917 and September, 1918, he put the amount at $250,000,000. From September, 1918, to the end of that year no estimate was made. Let us guess $150,000,000.

From Jan. 1, 1919 to Sept. 15, 1920, Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr., of the Chase National Bank, estimated that America re-purchased $200,000,000. From Sept. 15, 1920, to the middle of 1921, let us guess another $100,000,000. We shall arrive, therefore, at a grand total of $2,443,000,000 value of American securities repurchased from Europe. Let us say, $2,500,000,000.

These figures are substantially confirmed by other estimates. In the Review of Economic Statistics, July, 1919, it was estimated that the return of American securities up to the end of 1918 had been about two billion dollars. In 1919 about $150,000,000 was re-purchased and in 1920 about $200,000,000, according to John H. Williams. The several authorities who have looked into this subject agree fairly well, therefore, upon about $4,500,000,000 of American securities being held abroad at the beginning of the war, and about $2,500,000,000 at the end of 1920 or in the early part of 1921.

These figures match fairly well with some recent British data. In July, 1921, the Chancellor of Exchequer stated that total of American dollar securities