REPORT ON THE FINANCES. DECEMBER, 1813. In obedience to the directions of the "Act supplementary to the act entitled An act to establish the Treasury Department," the acting Secretary of the Treasury respectfully submits the following report and estimates. The moneys actually received into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th September, 1813, have amounted to $37,544,954 93 Viz: Proceeds of the customs, sales of lands, small branch of revenue, and repayments, Proceeds of loans, viz: 13,568,042 43 As will appear by the annexed statement E., $ 37,544,954 93 Making, together with the balance in the Treasury on the 1st of October, 1812, which was - 2,362,652 69 $ 39,907,607 62 The payments from the Treasury during the same period, have amounted to Viz: For Civil, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous expenses, both foreign and domestic, - 1,705,916 35 Military Department, including militia and volunteers, and the Indian Department, Navy, including the building of new ships, and the marine corps, 18,484,750 49 6,420,707 20 Public Debt: On account of interest, 3,120,379 08 Principal reimbursed, 3,197,102 07 6,317,481 15 32,928,855 19 As will also appear by the annexed statement E., 32,928,855 19 And left in the Treasury, on the 30th of September last, 6,978,752 43 $39,907,607 62 The accounts for the fourth quarter of the year 1813, have not yet been made up at the Treasury; but the receipts and expenditures, during that quarter, have been nearly as follows: Receipts from the customs, sales of lands, and small branches of the revenue, about Loan of sixteen millions, 3,300,000 00 1,500,000 00 Loan of seven and a half millions, Treasury Notes, 3,680,000 00 12,330,000 00 Making, with the balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of October, 1813, of 6,978,752 43 An aggregate of about $19,309,000 00 The disbursements have been, for Civil, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous expenses, about 400,000 00 Military Department, 5,887,747 00 Naval do 1,248,145 10 Public Debt, (of which near 6,000,000, was on account of 7,087,994 95 the reimbursement of principal,) And leaving in the Treasury, on the 31st Dec'r, 1813, about 4,685,112 95 $19,309,000 00 Of the sums obtained on loan during the year 1813, and included in the receipts above stated, an account of the terms on which they were made, has been laid before Congress, excepting as to the Treasury Notes issued under the act of February 25, 1813, and the loan of seven and a half millions obtained under the authority contained in the act of the 2d of August, 1813. The annexed statement, marked F., will show the whole amount received for Treasury Notes during the year 1813, and at what places they were sold or disposed of. Three millions eight hundred and sixty-five thousand one hundred dollars, of the notes issued under the act of June 30th, 1812, be. came due in the course of the year 1813, or in the present month of January, and have been paid off, or the funds placed in the hands of the Commissioners of Loans for that purpose. papers The under the letter G., will show the measures taken under the act of August 2d, 1813, authorizing a loan of seven millions five hundred thousand dollars, and the manner in which that loan was obtained. The terms were eighty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents in money for one hundred dollars in stock, bearing an interest of six per cent.; which is equivalent to a premium of thirteen dollars thirty-one cents and four-ninths of a cent, on each hundred dollars in money loaned to the United States. Of this sum of 7,500,000 dollars, about 3,850,000 dollars were paid into the Treasury during the year 1813, and the remainder is payable in the months of January and February, 1814. For the year 1814, the expenditures, as now authorized by law, are estimated as follows: 1. Civil, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous expenses, 2. Public Debt, viz: Interest on the debt existing previous to the war, 2,100,000 $1,700,000 Interest on debt contracted since the war, in cluding Treasury Notes, and loan for the year 1814, 2,950,000 Reimbursement of principal, including the old six and deferred stocks, temporary loans and Treasury Notes, 5,050,000 7,150,000 3. Military establishment, estimated by the Secretary of War, for a full complement, (including rangers, sea fencibles, and troops of all descriptions,) of 63,422 officers and men, and including ordnance, fortifications, and the Indian Department, and the permanent appropriations for Indian treaties, and for arming and equipping the militia, 4. Navy, estimated for 15,787 officers, seamen and boys, and for 1,869 marines, and including the service of two 74 ships for four months, and three additional frigates for six months of the year 1814, and the expenses of flotillas on the coast and on the lakes, 12,200,000 21,550,000 6,900,000 $45,350,000 The ways and means already provided by law, are as follows: 1. Customs and sales of public lands. The nett revenue accruing from the customs during the year 1812, amounted, as will appear by the annexed statements A and B., to 13,142,000 dollars. Of this sum, about 4,300,000 dollars was produced by the additional duties imposed by the act of July 1, 1812. The duties which have accrued during the year 1813, are estimated at 7,000,000 dollars. The custom-house bonds outstanding on the 1st January, 1814, after making a due allowance for insolvencies and bad debts, are estimated at 5,500,000 dollars; and it is believed that 6,000,000 dollars may be estimated for the receipt of the customs during the year 1814. The sales of public lands, during the year ending September 30, 1813, have amounted to 256,345 acres, and the payments by purchasers to 706,000 dollars, as will appear by the annexed statement C. It is estimated that 600,000 dollars will be received into the Treasury from this source, during the year 1814. The sum, therefore, estimated as receivable from customs and lands, is 2. Internal revenues and direct tax: from the credits allowed by law on some of the internal duties, and from the delays incident to the assessment and collection of the direct tax, it is not believed that more ought to be expected to come into the Treasury during the year 1814, than the sum of 6,600,000 3,500,000 3. Balance of the loan of seven and a half millions already contracted for 3,650,000 1,070,000 4. Balance of Treasury Notes already authorized, 5. Of the balance of cash in the Treasury, on the 31st December, 1813, amounting, as above stated, to about 4,680,000 There will be required to satisfy appropriations made prior to that day, and then undrawn, at least 3,500,000 And leaving applicable to the service of the year 1814, So that there remains to be provided by loans, the sum of $1,180,000 16,000,000 29,350,000 $45,350,000 Although the interest paid upon Treasury Notes, is considerably less than that paid for the moneys obtained by the United States on funded stock, yet the certainty of their reimbursement at the end of one year, and the facilities they afford for remittances and other commercial operations, have obtained for them a currency which leaves little reason to doubt that they may be extended considerably beyond the sum of five millions of dollars, hitherto authorized to be annually issued. It will perhaps be eligible to leave to the Executive, as was done last year, a discretion as to the amount to be borrowed upon stock or upon Treasury Notes, that one or the other may be resorted to, within prescribed limits, as shall be found most advantageous to the United States. The amount estimated to have been reimbursed of the principal of the public debt, during the year ending on the 30th September last, including Treasury Notes and temporary loans, will appear, by the estimate marked D., to have been 3,201,368 dollars. As the payments on account of the loan of sixteen millions had not then been completed, and the stock had consequently not been issued therefor, it is not practicable to state with precision the amount added to the public debt during that year; but after deducting the above-mentioned reimbursement of 3,200,000 dollars, this addition will not fall short of 22,500,000 dollars. The plan of finance proposed at the commencement of the war, was to make the revenue during each year of its continuance equal to the expenses of the peace establishment and of the interest on the old debt then existing, and on the loans which the war might render necessary, and to defray the extraordinary expenses of the war out of the proceeds of loans to be obtained for that purpose. The expenses of the peace establishment as it existed previous to the armaments of 1812, made in contemplation of war, but including the eight regiments added to the military establishment in the year 1808, and the augmentation of the navy in actual service, authorized in 1809, amounted, after deducting some casual expenses of militia and other incidental items, to about The interest on the public debt payable during the year 1814, will be: on the old debt, or that existing prior to the present war, On the debt contracted since the commencement of the war, including Treasury Notes, and allowing 560,000 dollars for interest on the loan which must be made during the year 1814, a sum as small as can be estimated for this object, 2,100,000 $7,000,000 Making 2,950,000 5,050,000 $12,050,000 The actual receipts into the Treasury from the revenue, as now established, including the internal revenues and direct tax, are not estimated for the year 1814, at more than · Viz: from customs and public lands, 10,100,000 6,600,000 3,500,000 10,100,000 If to this sum be added that part of the balance in the Treasury on the 31st December, 1813, which has been estimated above, to be applicable to the expenses of the year 1814, and which, upon the principle above stated, may be considered as a surplus of revenue beyond the expenses of the peace establishment, and of the interest on the public debt for the year 1813, and therefore applicable to the same expenses for the year 1814, which sum is estimated at and making together there will still remain to be provided, new revenues capable of producing 1,180,000 11,280,000 770,000 $12,050,000 But as the internal revenues and direct tax, when in full operation, will produce, in the year 1815, probably 1,200,000 dollars more than is estimated to be received from them in the year 1814, it will rest with Congress to decide whether it is necessary that new and additional revenues should now be established. To what extent the existing embargo may reduce the receipts into the Treasury from the customs during the year 1815, it is difficult to estimate, as the operation of the war had reduced the receipts from the customs nearly one half from that which was received during the year, preceding the war. The former embargo reduced the revenue from the customs nearly onehalf the amount of that which was received during the year preceding its full operation. In this case, however, the transition was from the full receipt of a peace revenue to the entire suspension of exportation and of foreign commerce in American bottoms. It is not, therefore, to be presumed, that the existing embargo will cause a reduction of the war revenue in the proportion of the peace revenue: moreover, the effect of the act prohibiting the importation of certain articles, necessarily increases the demand and enhances the value of those which may be lawfully imported; and the high price they bear will produce extraordinary importations, and in part compensate for the prohibition to export any thing in return; to this may be added the duty on salt, the operation of which is yet but partial. To the amount of the defalcation of the revenue caused by the embargo, whatever it may be, must be added the difference between the amount of the interest payable in the year 1814 on the loan of that year, and the whole amount of the interest on the said loan payable in the year 1815, as well as that part of the interest which may be payable in the year 1815 on the loan of that year. The sum of these items will be required |