﻿78

WAR BORROWING

By this time, however, the Treasury’s plans for
successive issues of certificates had definitely ma-
tured. At fortnightly intervals — May 10, May
25, June 8 — issues of $200,000,000 each were al-
lotted. Of the $600,000,000 thus realized, no less
than $560,000,000 was advanced to the Allies to
June 29, 1917, leaving as the Treasury balance on
that date $299,830,457, with $417,748,467 (June
9) and $149,682,891 (May 21) as the high and
low points intervening. The funds derived from
certificate borrowing were carried as a government
deposit with the Federal Reserve Banks up to May
25, after which time the proceeds of certificate is-
sues were redeposited with subscribing banks quali-
fied as special depositaries and were remitted to the
Federal Reserve Banks for disbursement as required
for public expenditure.

Subscription lists to the First Liberty Loan closed
on June 16, with an aggregate subscription of $3,-
035,226,850 and an actual allotment of $2,000,000,-
000. In the light of the Treasury’s prospective re-
quirements and the clear alternative of early resort
to further certificate borrowing, it is incomprehen-
sible that no part of the oversubscription should
have been accepted. A preliminary payment of two
per cent, was due on June 15 and a further install-
ment of 18 per cent, on June 28, making the amount
certainly available on that date $400,000,000. As
a matter of fact there was heavy over-payment of
the installment, the receipts on account of the Loan
up to June 30 totalling $1,458,400,000 or 73 per cent,
of the principal. The over-payment was not limited
to any particular section. In the New York dis-