the 13th to the 30th of September they fell to 24.44 and 23.55 per cent.

The New York Clearing House in September adopted a measure which
permitted dealings to continue. It authorized the banks to deposit the
bills on hand, or the other securities they had accepted, in exchange
for which they issued certificates of deposit bearing 7 per cent. in
notes of $5,000 to $10,000 to the extent of 70 per cent. of the security
deposited. Thus $26,565,000 of them were put into circulation.

Furthermore, they made a common fund of the legal tenders belonging to
the Associated Banks for mutual aid and protection. The suspension of
payment took place first in New York and then extended to the large
cities of the Union; it lasted forty days, until the 1st of November;
this measure was looked upon as having prevented the greatest disasters.

The table setting forth the situation, compared with the balance sheets
of the Associated Banks of New York on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st,
September 1st, and October 1st of the years 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873,
shows us the following changes: discounts had fluctuated from
$250,000,000 in January, 1870, to $309,000,000 in September, 1871; they
had become reduced to $278,000,000 in September, 1873, on the eve of the
panic, and from the month of September, liquidation of the panic having
begun, they were reduced to $250,000,000. Deposits from $179,000,000 in
January, 1870, rose to $248,000,000 in July, 1871, with $296,000,000 of
bills discounted, and once more reached $198,000,000 in September, 1873,
with $278,000,000 of discounts and $195,000,000 in December.

Even at the most critical moment of the panic they continued larger than
the usual average of the preceding years.