No. 429.
Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Evarts.
St. Petersburg, June 17, 1879. (Received July 3.)
Sir: Referring to your No. 56, in reference to certain statistics upon gold and silver and paper currency in Russia, requested by the honororable Secretary of the Treasury, I have the honor to inform you that I applied to Mr. de Giers for this information on the 9th instant. In the mean time I have endeavored to collect such data as the Russian Government permits to be published. I find, however, that the statistics are not looked upon by business men as altogether reliable, especially those relating to the paper currency.
In partial reply to Mr. Sherman’s first and second questions, I have the honor to state that on the 12th of this month there was in the bank,
| Roubles, in gold | 144,423,246 |
| Roubles, in silver | 3,398,480 |
| Roubles, in metallic values (funds publics metalliques) | 25,229,693 |
In this connection it may be well to state that the bank for many months past has been steadily reducing its stock of silver, and increasing [Page 924] its gold. In January last it had more than nine millions of silver and only 138½ millions of gold.
In answer to the third question, the authorized paper currency in circulation amounted, in January last, to 720,265,125 roubles 5 but in addition to this, the branches of the Bank of Russia had emitted 455,550,000 roubles; total paper circulation, 1,175,815,125 roubles. The rouble is to-day worth $0.47.
In answer to the fourth and fifth questions, there was produced from the mines in 1877 (the latest published statistics), gold, 2,515 poods; silver, 1,202 poods. A pood is 36.08 pounds avoirdupois.
I have been unable to obtain any information as regards the quantity of gold and silver used in the arts and manufactures, and I doubt if any have been published. Judging, however, from the number of sacred pictures in Russia, in the manufacture of which silver is the principal ingredient, I should say that the quantity of this metal used in the arts and manufactures is large, while gold is very little used.
I have, &c.,