No. 379.
Mr. Birney
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
The
Hague, September 19, 1879. (Received
October 4.)
No. 123.]
Sir: Referring to your No. 106, in which you say
you have been requested by the Secretary of the Treasury to obtain certain
information respecting the amount of gold and silver coin and bullion and
paper currency in the Netherlands, and in which you instruct me to present
interrogatories therein set forth to the minister of foreign affairs of His
Majesty, I have the honor to state that on the 28th August last, I addressed
a note to the minister for foreign affairs, a copy of which is hereto
annexed.
The reply of his excellency, the minister, has been received, a copy of
which, with a translation, is herewith inclosed, together with exhibits. On
this subject, if reference be had to my dispatch, which should have been
numbered 19 and to dispatch No. 21, a very full and elaborate report will be
found, giving all the facts obtainable up to this date, viz, November 13,
1876. It was accompanied by a letter from the superintendent of the mint
college at Utrecht, and the laws and decrees of Holland in regard to money.
In the preparation of the report, I was favored with the personal assistance
of Mr. Vrolix, ex-minister of finance, and regarded as the most reliable
financier of Holland. This showing may be advantageously referred to.
The inclosed statement, while not so complete, gives the facts up to the
present date.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in Mr. Birney’s No.
123.]
Mr. Birney to Baron
van Lynden van
Sandenburg.
Legation of the United States,
The Hague, August 28,
1879.
Sir: My government requests me to obtain
through you for the use of the chief financial officer of the United
States, full and detailed information respecting the amount of gold and
silver coin and bullion and paper currency in the Netherlands. It is
desired that such statistics as you may deem proper to furnish may be,
not only those of the past year, but also those of as many previous
years as may be procurable. Answers to the following interrogatories
will cover the ground contemplated.
(Here are set forth idem verbis the seven
questions of No. 106.)
The request of my government herein expressed was forwarded to me in May
last, with the suggestion that the Secretary of the Treasury desired to
receive the information at the earliest practicable moment. It reached
this legation after my departure for vacation, and has been awaiting my
return.
As my absence has occasioned delay, may I ask, as a great favor, that you
will make such reference of this communication as will secure a reply as
soon as convenient.
Your excellency will please accept assurances of my high
consideration.
[Inclosure 2 in Mr. Birney’s No.
123—Translation.]
Baron van Lynden van
Sandenburg to Mr. Birney.
The
Hague, September 17,
1879.
Sir: According to the desire that you have been
so kind as to express to me by your note of the 28th of last August, I
have the honor to send you, inclosed, accompanied
[Page 852]
by your annexes, marked A—D, a note
prepared by the minister of finance, containing replies as exact as
possible to the questions propounded by the Government of the United
States relative to the amount at present in circulation in the
Netherlands of gold, silver, and paper moneys.
Be so kind, Mr. Minister, as to accept the renewed assurance of my high
consideration.
VAN LYNDEN VAN SANDENBURG.
[Inclosure 3 in Mr. Birney’s No.
123.—Translation.]
memoranda of the minister of finance.
Answer to questions 1 and 2. A statement, even by approximation, of gold
and silver at present in the country cannot be made. The two returns,
marked A and B, contain a review of the coinage of silver since 1840,
and of gold since 1875, the year in which the golden standard was
introduced next to the silver standard. Besides this coinage, there has
been from time to time some coinage of gold trading-money in small
amounts, and chiefly on account of the Dutch East Indies, so that it may
be taken for granted that none of that trading-money is at present in
this country.
Of the gold coin, little has been exported. Of the silver coin, it is
quite different; much has been exported, especially to the Dutch East
Indies.
An approximation of the mint college as to the amount of silver coin that
may be estimated as held in this country on the 1st of January, 1879,
amounts to 144,160,855 florins (in dollars, 57,664,342). Of this amount
there was, on the 1st of September, 1879, in the Netherlands banks
74,901,099.518 florins, which in American money would be $29,960,439. At
the same time there was in the bank golden standard to an amount of
41,378,930 florins, and fractional silver money to an amount of
988,369.35 florins.
The stock of mint material amounted, on the 1st of September, to 22,424.5
kilograms (a kilogram being 10 ounces, or a Dutch or French pound).
Answer to third question. Of the ten millions paper currency, there was
on the 1st of September, 1879, in the bank an amount of 3,909,950
florins (in American currency, $1,563,980). Of the issue of bank-notes,
there was in circulation on the 1st September, 1879, 185,451,380
florins.
Answer to questions 4 and 5. There are no silver or gold mines in this
country.
Answer to questions 6 and 7. The annexed returns, marked C and D, contain
an answer to those queries.
On examining all these apparently dissimilar figures, one has to keep in
mind that no coinage of silver has taken place since the 17th of
December, 1874, and with regard to gold that it became standard on the
1st of July, 1875.
S. GRAYENSHAGE.
September 11,
1879
