As in England and France, the amount of discounts, as the balance sheets
give it to us, rose each year during the prosperous period.
Thus from 1830 to 1839 it reached $492,000,000 from $200,000,000, to
decline again to $254,000,000 at the end of the liquidation in 1843.
In the following period the same rising movement from $254,000,000 to
$344,000,000 was reproduced in 1848. The panic in Europe burst forth in
1847; it resounded very slightly in the United States in 1848, as its
subsequent liquidation in 1849 indicates, which only reduced the local
discounts to $332,000,000.
A new period of prosperity followed the preceding events; the growing
movement re-appeared, and from $332,000,000 carried the amount of the
discounts to $684,000,000 between 1849 and 1857. The panic broke out
simultaneously throughout the whole world; but notwithstanding the
wrecks it caused, such was the saving already, so healthy was the
general situation of business, that, after having thrown out a little
scum, the current of affairs resumed its course until 1861, and
discounts had already reached the amount of $696,000,000. This amount is
greater than that we have noted in 1857, but at that time (whilst the
movement continued in Europe up to 1864), despite the shock it received
by the declaration of war here, there was complete stoppage until the
end of the struggle; we have here come across a political panic, not a
business one.
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