Mr. Asboth to Mr. Seward
Sir : I have the honor to report that a new currency bill for the province of Buenos Ayres, having duly received the sanction of both legislative chambers, has been promulgated as law, on the 4th instant, by the provincial executive. It reads as follows :
Article 1. The Provincial bank is authorized to give 25 paper dollars for every patacon presented to be changed.
Art. 2. It is also authorized to give the amount of specie so received at one patacon for 25 paper dollars.
Art. 3. If paper money should go above 25 to the patacon, and that the bank have paid away all the specie received in exchange for the amount of the present emission, the bank shall still continue to give gold at 25 paper dollars to the patacon, as far as its reserve of specie will go.
Art. 4. Parties indebted to the bank or the state can satisfy their debts indifferently in gold or paper money at $25 [moneda eorriente] per patacon.
Art. 5. The Provincial bank may emit as much paper money as will be requisite for fulfilment of this law.
Art. 6. The executive is authorized to receive proposals for conversion of the paper currency, and submit same in the most convenient form for the consideration of the legislature.
Messrs. Madero and Camman have been named to take charge of the new-exchange office, which will commence operations this day, at the Provincial bank.
This bill, intended to put an end to the ruinous fluctuation of the paper dollar, has met with a strenuous opposition from some of the interested parties, principally those whose means of livelihood depended on the purchase and sale of gold on commission, and speculators in the same, but seems to meet with the approval of a great majority of the merchants, and of the public at large. If the directors of the bank exercise with caution the powers vested in them by article 5 of the new law, the measure will be a great boon to the commerce of this city; but if by extreme emissions they flood the market with paper money, patacons will of course run up, and the fluctuation in the exchange of gold be worse than ever.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.