Читать книгу Readings in Money and Banking - Chester Arthur Phillips - Страница 52

	1862	Fiscal Year	1866
	(Six Months)	1863	1864	1865	(Two Months)
Current receipts:
From customs	33.5	69.1	102.3	84.9	31.3
From sales of public lands	.1	.2	.6	1.0	.1
From direct tax	1.8	1.5	.5	1.2	.0
From miscellaneous sources	.5	3.0	47.5	33.0	12.3
From internal revenue	…	37.6	109.7	209.5	64.4
	——	———	———	———	———
	35.9	111.4	260.6	329.6	108.1
Estimated actual increase	0	10	39	106	19

The caution is hardly necessary that the above results are to be accepted subject also to a wide margin of error.

There were other financial consequences of the shift from the specie to the paper standard, however, that were not unimportant, though they were indirect and difficult to gauge. Two of the most prominent must be indicated.

1. It is probable that not a little of the lavishness with which public funds were appropriated by Congress during the war can be traced to the paper-money policy.

2. If the paper currency tempted the Government to reckless expenditures, it also predisposed the people to submit more willingly to heavy taxation. It has been remarked several times that the advance of money wages and of money prices made most people feel wealthier, and, feeling wealthier, they were less inclined to grumble over the taxes.

While these indirect effects of the paper currency on expenditures and receipts could not by any system of bookkeeping be brought to definite quantitative statement, it is probable that their net result was unfavorable to the treasury.