Preparations are making for a large issue of three cent pieces from the Mint at an early day. By authority from the Treasury Department, a great part of the Silver Bullion Fund will be converted into these pieces; and after receiving a sufficient supply for the various Government offices, the balance will be exchanged for deposits of foreign silver coins or bullion, and also for American gold or silver coins. A fund is likewise provided for procuring future supplies of silver bullion for this coinage, so that all the public demands may be promptly satisfied. To prevent undue accumulations of these coins in single hands, a discretion is allowed to decline selling more than $150 worth at a time to one applicant. The least amount to be sold is $30 worth. Authority is also given to deliver the coins in distant cities, at the cost of the Mint for transportations, as is now the case in distributing the copper coinage. Notices will hereafter be given of the time at which applications for the new coin will be received.

DAILY EARNINGS OF THE WORKING POPULATION OF BELGIUM.

A "New Englander,” in a letter to the Editors of the Tribune, gives the following "Official statistics" of the wages of the working population of Belgium, that magnificent country whose beauty delights every eye, and warms every heart, save the eye and the heart of those who have created its beauty :

MEN.

5,342 men earn from 58 to 78 cents per day. 180,440 men earn from 30 to 40 cents per day. 113,950 men earn from 20 to 30 cents per day.

WOMEN.

162 women earn 40 cents and upwards per day. 27,721 women earn from 30 to 40 cents per day. 29,620 women earn from 10 to 20 cents per day. 13,612 women earn less than 10 cents per day.

BOYS.

5,890 boys earn from 20 to 30 cents per day. 12,459 boys earn from 10 to 20 cents per day. 17,531 boys earn less than 10 cents per day.

GIRLS.

1,385 girls earn from 20 to 30 cents per day. 6,346 girls earn from 10 to 20 cents per day. 22,538 girls earn less than 10 cents per day.

The above figures do not represent the whole working population in Belgium, of course; in fact, they exclude the whole agricultural class, which would have made the statistics still more melancholy; but they represent, without doubt, a fair average estimate of town wages throughout the Kingdom. Such a statement requires no comment. It is only necessary to publish it. What an epitome it presents of an inverted civilization!

SAVINGS BANK OF BALTIMORE.

This Bank seems to be conducted in a manner highly creditable to its Directors, and equally gratifying to the depositors. It is stated in the Baltimore Sun, that this institution has declared an extra dividend of 7 per cent on all sums on deposit a period of three years; 5 per cent for sums on deposit two years; and 24 per cent for those on deposit one year-amounting in all to $93,000. This dividend, added to the regular annual interest of 4 per cent, which is carried to the credit of each depositor on the 1st of April in each year, makes for the last three years 64 per cent per annum, without computing the profit of compound interest on the undrawn annual interest.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

COMMERCE OF NEW YORK.

The business of the Port of New York continues to increase beyond all precedent, and some are seriously alarmed as each month's returns swell the aggregate expansion There is less cause to fear, however, in this flow of prosperity when we consider that nearly all branches of business have received a corresponding impulse. The buoyancy has not been confined to real estate or to stocks alone; the imports of merchandise, about which many are so fearful, have not increased in proportion to the exports; and the expansion of the currency has been, not for speculative purposes, but to meet the wants of increased regular business, and has been based on a large increase of specie capital. The increased imports, either for the last month, or the quarter ending 1st of April, are not made up, as many seem to suppose, chiefly of dry goods, the increase in other merchandise being full as large in proportion, as will be seen by the following comparative statement:—

Deduct, now, the specie, of which the receipts for the last month include $1,970,843 from California, and we have an increase in all the other imports over the corresponding month of last year of $3,188,106, of which only $1,546,874 were in dry goods, and the remainder, $1,641,232, in general merchandise, showing the imports to be as equally divided as possible. A similar state of things is found by examining the exhibit for the quarter:

1851 1850

1849.

...

IMPORTS AT NEW YORK FOR JANUARY, FEBRUARY, AND MARCH.

Free.

Total.

Total, exclusive Of which were Dutiable. Specie. of specie. dry goods. $35,793,788 $3,128,216 $5,875,501 $44,797,505 $38,922,004 $21,989,327 27,320,278 2,464,445 1,922,878 31,707,601 29,784,723 17,057,136 24,019,966 1,402,500 209,918 25,632,384 25,422,466 15,095,102 This shows that the increase is regularly and nearly equally divided between foreign fabrics and general merchandise.

The exports for the month show a marked increase over the corresponding period of previous years:

The shipments for the last month of domestic produce show an increase of more than 30 per cent over the same period of last year. The exports for the quarter are

also larger in the same particular than for any previous year if we except the year of 'famine" abroad :

These statements of the imports and exports would convey an erroneous impression in regard to the actual state of our foreign trade but for some explanatory remarks. The figures represent the value and not the quantity of the receipts and shipments Almost every description of foreign dry goods has advanced abroad, since this time last year, nearly enough to account for the difference in the total entries, without implying an excess of quantity. This is partially true, also, of the exports, as many of our staples have been entered at a higher rate. It may not be uninteresting, in this connection, to exhibit the comparative quantity of some of the principal articles of produce which have left this port during the first quarter of this and the previous year:

1851. 4,783

1850. 4,547

The exports of specie have been large, but bear no comparison with the actual receipts. In the latter item our entries at the Custom-house are seriously at fault, as the larger portion of the California gold dust is brought in the hands of passengers. This statement was at first received with incredulity, and the large capitals displayed in the newspaper extras on the arrival of each steamer from the Isthmus, were looked upon by the more cautious as mere traps to encourage emigration. But the returns from the Mint not only confirm these reports, but actually go beyond them; the deposits for the quarter being double the nominal imports. Te following will exhibit the movement in specie for the quarter:

$1,266,281 $1,007,689 $2,368,861 $4,642,831

Exports from this port.

Imports from abroad..

Here we have in our nominal imports from California but $5,230,510, while the actual receipts at the Mint, acknowledged from that source, amount to $10,434,000. Considerable amounts in gold dust have also been included in our exports, so that the quarter's receipts from California at this port alone are upwards of ten and a half millions.

IMPORTANT TO CHEESEMONGERS.

The Government of the Two Sicilies has issued a decree, allowing the importation of cheese, free of duty, into the Island of Sicily, for one year, from the 1st of January last to 31st December, 1851.

VALUE OF EXPORTS.
In American

States.

In American yessels.

In Foreign
vessels.

THE COMMERCE OF LAKE AND RIVER PORTS:

WITH REFERENCE TO TRADE ON THE PUBLIC WORKS OF OHIO, AND ITS COMPARATIVE MOVEMENT.

The Cincinnati Price Current, one of the best and most valuable journals of its class published in the United States, availing itself of the annual report of the Ohio Board of Public Works for 1849, which, says the Current, "is a year later (in its publication) than it ought to be," furnishes some interesting comparisons of a portion of our inland trade. As the statements of our Cincinnati cotemporary are made up with care from the most reliable official data, and as it is our object to exhibit in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine the commercial resources and the industrial progress of every section of the Union, we here subjoin the remarks and conclusions of the Price Current, together with the figures brought from the official document in illustration.

"In the first place, we must remark, that the exports of domestic products must, of course, depend on our own production, and must be modified by seasons and crops. In 1849, the wheat erop was less than one-half, and consequently our export of wheat and corn fell off. But it is not of that we speak. It is of the gradually increasing trade of Cincinnati, Portsmouth, &c., in groceries and merchandise sent to the North. Take the following tables, which we have compiled from the Report of the Board of Public Works, as proof of our position:

These are all clearances from the outer ports to the interior. Let us see, now, what is the proportion in the clearances between the Northern ports and the Southern ports.

Cleared at the two lake ports...

Cleared at the three river ports.

1848.

1849.

783,390

8,612,686

"We find, thus, that more than nine-tenths of all the sugar shipped on the Publlo Works of Ohio are shipped from the ports on the Ohio River.

"Now let us reverse the tables, and see how much sugar has arrived at the lake ports :

1848.

1849.

"These tables prove, absolutely, that not only is nine-tenths of the sugar shipped from the Ohio River, but that a large quantity of it was received at the lake ports, and some portion of it actually shipped on the lakes for other States.

"Now, if we deduct from the amount of sugar cleared at the river ports, the amount arrived at the lake ports, we shall have the amount shipped at the river ports, and left in the interior of Ohio for consumption. Thus :

1849.

1848.

"We thus see that the movement in sugar from the river ports, for the domestic consumption of Ohio, increased, in 1849, 1,146,000 lbs., or 0 per cent on the consumption in 1848.