No. 404.
Mr. Langston to Mr. Evarts.
Port-au-Prince, July 2, 1880. (Received July 14.)
Sir: Referring to communication from the Department, “Separate,” dated April 30, 1880, having reference to the amount of gold and silver coin, bullion, and paper currency in Hayti, I have the honor to advise you, as follows:
1st. I am unable to secure so far reliable information with regard to the actual or even approximate amount of gold or silver coin in the general treasury of the government. So far as this treasury is concerned, the amounts received from day to day constantly fluctuate, not finding deposit there for any length of time, but are used immediately to meet daily demands. Some days a hundred thousand dollars; at others fifty, thirty, twenty, ten, five thousand dollars, in American, Mexican, and Haytian silver may be found therein, with a small amount, it may be, of American, English, French, or Spanish gold.
Bullion, gold or silver, is never found in the treasury.
At present, the amount of silver, Mexican silver dollars, in the Caisse d’Amortissement, is $120,000. This sum, however, is being used to pay the interest on certain obligations of the government, as created by legislation had in 1875–’76.
2d. There are no banks in this country, and there is now no paper currency. In 1872, when paper currency was retired, to be redeemed at the rate of one silver dollar for three hundred of paper, in American [Page 636] silver, there was certainly a fabulous estimated circulation of paper, amounting, as some estimate, to over $800,000,000; redemption was provided for $544,675,404 by $2,154,266.04 in American silver.
3d. There are no gold and silver mines worked in Hayti, and there is no coinage of gold or silver in this republic.
4th. The amount of gold annually imported and exported, used as currency, or in connection with the arts and manufactures, is comparatively small 5 when found, it is more generally bought, at high rates of premium, to be hoarded.
5th. The amount of silver coin annually imported, and exported is considerable.
Here first, it is to be recollected, that in connection with the redemption of the paper currency, there were employed in 1872, as stated already, $2,154,266.04 in American silver. And, for the past eight years, Hayti has depended almost entirely upon the United States for her circulating medium, and gold and silver standard of value.
In the next place, the estimated amount of gold and silver coin needed for the business transactions of the country annually, cannot vary far from $5,000,000, the principal part of this amount being silver coin of the United States; about $1,000,000 of Mexican silver dollars lately imported, and a small amount of Haytian fractional currency, variously estimated, lately monetized.
Late statistics of Port-au-Prince show that in 1879 there were imported in this city, in silver coin of the United States, $63,519; and in Mexican dollars, $719,888; the total being $783,407; while the exportation from the same city for the same period, in the silver coin of the United States aggregated $278,818.88.
It is through the imports and exports of gold and silver coin at and from the various open ports of the republic, that the amount named as required by the exigencies of business in this country is kept at about the figure given, $5,000,000.
It is not possible, at this time, to give the exact amount of the total of imports and exports of gold and silver coin for the entire republic for the year 1879. Hereafter, however, in the annual report which will be made from this consulate general to the Department for the year, if not the exact, a very close approximate estimate thereof, will be given, founded upon such statistics as may be secured from the several open ports of the republic.
There has been no law as yet passed by the Corps Legislatif of the republic fixing the coin standard and governing minting operations. As already stated this republic depends in the main for its circulating medium and its gold and silver standard of value upon our country.
It should be added that American gold and silver are held in special favor, the first selling generally for a considerable premium, and the latter, as against Mexican dollars, always being held preferable, and often selling, as against them, for a premium sometimes as high as 7 per cent.
I am, &c.,