NATIONAL DEBTS.

BY

R. DUDLEY BAXTER, M.A.

PARTLY READ BEFORE THE B R I T I S H ASSOCIATION, AT LIVERPOOL,

September, 1870.

London:
ROBERT JOHN BUSH, 32, OHARING CROSS, S.W.
1871.
[The Right of Translation reserved.]

Works by the same Author.

NATIONAL INCOME. THE UNITED KINGDOM. 8vo., pp. 100.
Price 3/6. MACMILLAN & Co., London.
TAXATION OE THE UNITED KINGDOM. 8vo., pp. 180. Price
4/6.

MACMILLAN & Co., London.

ENGLISH PAETIES. 8m, pp. 76.
Charing Cross, London.

Trice 2/0.

R. J. BUSH, 32,

PREFACE.
T H E aim of the following pages is to supply a
brief summary of the history, amounts, and results
of the National Debts of the world. The enquiry
divides itself into four heads :—rFirst. The Nominal Capital borrowed by each
Nation.
Second. The Annual Interest of each, and its
Charge per Head of the Population.
Third. The real Pressure or Burden of the
Debts on their resources.
Fourth. The Economical Effects of National
Debts, and the question of their Reduction.
The two first, neads. belong to the province
of strict statistics, and great pains have been
taken to render the information complete and
accurate.
The third is necessarily founded on estimates
and calculations, which have been based on the
best available data, but which are only stated

Preface.

IV

as probable approximations—necessary for giving
a general outline and idea of this part of the
subject.
The fourth head belongs to the science of
Political Economy.
Strict Statistics can only carry us part of the
way in any investigation of the real effect on a
Nation of its Debt or Taxes. Probable Statistics
or Estimates must be resorted to if we are to make
a temporary bridge over the chasms of our defective Statistical information, and to go on to study
the question in its most important economical
bearings.
I take the opportunity of acknowledging
numerous facts and figures derived from the
works of M. Maurice Block, so distinguished in
International Statistics; and from the invaluable
" Statesman's Year Book " of Mr. Frederick
Martin.

HAMPSTEAD,

April 11, 1871.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I. National Debts

3

II. The United Kingdom
III. The United States, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Switzerland
IV. France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, South America,
and Mexico . .
V. Austria, Russia, Roumania, Servia, Turkey,
Egypt, and Morocco

7
26
48

64
73

VI. The Progress of Indebtedness

84

VII. Comparative Annual Burdens

95

VIII. The Growth of Nations

114

IX. Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction
APPENDIX :

National Debts, 1869-70-rI. Europe
II. America..

..
..

III. Asia
IY. Australasia
V. Africa

B

129
130
131
131
132

NATIONAL DEBTS.

I.
I ASK your attention for a short time to the Debts The^
of the Nations of the world ; those mortgages of u j e c '
their property and industry, invented in modern
times, that weigh so heavily upon taxpayers. I t
may be useful to consider their rise and progress
in the different countries where they exist, and
their pressure upon the populations; to compare
their relative amounts; and to add up their vast
totals; so that we may form some idea of their
aggregate burden, as well as of their separate
effect on the nations that bear them, and whether
efforts ought to be made for their diminution.
The figures that I shall quote have been ob- Figures and
tained from the best available sources, though for
some States it has been difficult to gain absolutely
certain information. The diagrams that accompany
are designed to point out clearly to the eye the
increase and decrease of the different debts, and
to supersede long columns of figures. I hope they
will also be useful in giving a complete and intelB 2

4

National

Debts.

ligible view at one glance of the National Debt
period of nearly two centuries, and of the relative
magnitude and pressure of the debts of the principal nations.
Methods of
National Debts may be measured in four difNational ferent ways. The first is the method usual in
Debts.
England, of estimation by Nominal Capital. Thus
1. By
we say that in 1870 the Debt of England (including
Capital.
Annuities) was<£800,000,000, and that of theUnited
States £466,000,000. But this is inaccurate for
purposes of comparison, because it leaves out of
view the difference of Interest, which is three per
cent, for the former, and five per cent, for the
latter ; and also since it takes no account of the
difference of population, or of national wealth.
But this method affords the easiest means of conveying to the English mind a rough idea of the
Debt of each country; and I therefore use it as
the basis of the investigation. The Nominal Capital is shewn in the first Diagram, prefixed to this
volume, which gives the amounts supposed to
be due from each country, expressed in units that
represent million £s sterling, and connected by
lines through ten-year periods.
2. By
The second method is that in use on the ConEente or
tinent of Europe, of expressing the Debt by its
Interest.
annual Rente or Interest.
This measures more
accurately the burden upon the nation, except
that in the case of England the uncorrected

National

Debts.

5.

figures make the burden too- large by including
the repayment of capital in the Terminable
Annuities, as they do in any Debt with an
undistinguishable Sinking Fund. But the corrected figures are still inaccurate as regards the
pressure on the taxpayer, since they take no
account of the numbers of the population, or of
their pecuniary resources : representing the Debt
of England as ten times the burden of that of
Holland.
The third method makes a further advance by 3. By
dividing the annual charge of the Debt by the charge per
population, so arriving at the annual burden per head of
V

i

t*

•

rm •

•

MI •

n

Population.

head of the nation. This is still inaccurate for
comparison, since it makes no allowance for difference of means; and would put on an equal
footing the Russian and the Englishman, whose
average incomes are widely different.
But, as
the nearest practical approach to a common
measure, this method is adopted in the second
Diagram, of "Annual Charge per head of Population/' where the figures of the Rente or Interest
per head are expressed in shillings and pence.
The fourth and most perfect method is to 4. By proascertain the proportion or percentage of the Animal0
Annual charge of the Debt to the gross income Charge to
of the population. For example, the corrected
charge of the Debt of the United Kingdom in 1870
(£24,000,000) was a tax of nearly 3 per cent, on the

6

National Debts,

estimated gross Income of £860,000,000. But
materials are seldom available for arriving at this
comparison, and its general adoption must be left
for an age of more complete statistical knowledge.
I proceed therefore to describe the Debts of the
different Nations by the first three methods, and
the best information that can be obtained respecting the Incomes of the most important nations,
in pursuance of the fourth method. Although
this information is founded to a great extent on
estimates and approximations, it gives a far truer
idea of the real burden of a Debt upon a country
than the most accurate figures of the other methods.
-I shall therefore make no apology for its introduction, and only hope that future researches will
render it more complete and universal.

The United Kingdom*

7

IE
T H E U N I T E D KINGDOM.

The Debt of Great Britain and Ireland has for Eise and
more than a century stood out from those of other t b°^ebt
countries by its singular magnitude. I t commenced in earnest after the Revolution of 1688,
and a glance at the first diagram will show that
it passed the debt of France about 1750, took a
step in advance during the wars of the elder Pitt,
then a longer stride in the eight years of American
War, and finally an immense bound in 'the great
French Wars from 1793 to 1815, which made it
tower like a giant over the debts of all other
nations. Since 1815 it has decreased slowly in
nominal amount, and more rapidly in pressure per
head of the population, and on the income of the
country, but far less rapidly than it might have done
writh more determined efforts for its diminution.
I t is recorded in very great detail in the
Returns presented to Parliament, which give its
amount and interest for every year from 1691 to
the present time. But a perfectly accurate comparison of the real amounts due at those periods
as either Capital or Interest is prevented by the

8

The United

Kingdom,

absence, before 1784, of the capitalized value of
the Terminable Annuities.
Capital of

1. The custom of borrowing by the State on
security of taxes dates as far back as the Conquest.
I t was usually carried on by tallies or pieces of
wood notched with the sums borrowed, one part
of which was kept by the lender and the counterpart in the Exchequer. The loans bore no interest.
I n later centuries money was also borrowed by
letters patent and debentures, and on pledge of
the King's jewels. Charles I I established a more
formal system in 1664, by an Act authorising a
loan of £1,250,000 on tallies and orders for repayment, bearing six per cent, interest.
National
The Funded Debt was commenced by
£
Keturn 443
William I I I , to meet the expenses of
1868.
his wars with France, and amounted
in 1700 (exclusive of annuities) to
12,600,000
The wars of Marlborough under
Queen Anne raised it at her death
in 1714, the year after the Peace
of Utrecht, to treble the amount, or 36,000,000
The wars with Spain under George I
and I I doubled it before the Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, when
it was
76,000,000
The Seven Years' War brought it in
1763 to nearly
..
..
% , 133,000,000

The United Kingdom.

9

After a reduction of £5,600,000 during
the eleven years of Peace that fol-

Same,
p. 104*

.

lowed, the American W a r in ten
years doubled its amount, and, including £30,000,000 capitalized
value of terminable annuities, left
it in 1784 at
..
..
..
After a second reduction of £3,400,000
during the ten years of Peace
that succeeded, the French War
in
twenty-one
years
added
£621,000,000, and left in 1815 a
total debt of £861,000,000 Capital,
besides £41,000,000 the capitalized
value of the Terminable Annuities,
making a total Debt in 1815 of
The thirty-nine years' Peace that
ensued diminished it by nearly
£102,000,000,
and,
including
£30,500,000 value of Terminable
Annuities, left its amount in 1854
The Crimean War, which lasted two
years, raised its amount in 1856
including £29,900,000 value of
Annuities, to
The Peace since 1856 has again reduced it> including £53,000,000
value of Annuities, to the amount
in 1870 of

£
273,000,000

Mr. Glad^ ^
1866. '
902,000,000

Statistical
J J ^
800,500,000
*

834,000,000
* '

800,700,000

10

The United

Kingdom.

Terminable
The Terminable Annuities in the earlier years were small in
Annuities. amount, and up to 1815 had not been converted from Capital
for reduction of the debt, so that the absence of some of their
capitalized value is not important. Their yearly amounts were,
A.D. 1700, £308,000; 1714, £912,t)00; 1748, £210,000;
1763, £477,000; 1784, £1,367,000; and 1815, £1,894,000;
principally annuities for long periods granted as bonuses to
subscribers for other stock.
In the second period the system was introduced of granting
Life and Short Annuities, including repayment of capital, for
the purpose of reducing the principal of the debt, and this
increased their total to £4,000,000 in 1856. In 1860 the
Long Annuities fell in, to the amount of £1,906,000 a-year;
and in 1867-68 the Dead-weight Annuities of £586,000 a-year
also ceased. But the system of creating Short Annuities was
extended by Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli, and Mr. Lowe, so
that their amount was, in 1870, £4,366,000, of which
£1,593,000 represented interest on Stock, and £2,773,000
repayment of Capital.
Reduction
of the
Debt.

The total amount of capital paid off or expired
from 1815 to 1870, including the additions during
that period, are shewn in the following table :—
CAPITAL PAID OFF, 1815 TO 1870.
£20,000,000
1804, Negro Emancipation
7,000,000
1846-47, Irish Famine ..
1855-56, Crimean War ..
35,000,000
1865, &c, Fortifications..
6,000,000
1869, Purchase of Telegraphs
7,000,000
Further balance paid off, being the
difference between £902,000,000 in
1815, and £800,000,000 in 1870
102,000,000

Total for the 55 years..
£177,000,000
Being per year
£3,200,000
This does not include the Chinese and Abyssinian "Wars,
which were proper expenditure out of Revenue.

The United Kingdom.

11

But these figures take credit for £41,000,000,
the value of the Annuities existing before 1815,
which were not created as a Sinking F u n d ; and
they also take credit for the failure to meet the
extraordinary emergencies during that period. The
true reduction of the Debt of 1815, by the efforts of
the nation during the last fifty-five years, after
providing for the expenditure of those years,
is only—
Clear reduction
Being-per year

..
..

;.
..

£61,000,000
£1,100,000

Such has been the progress of the English
Nation in the task of reducing the Nominal
Capital of the National Debt, a rate of progress
that would require 700 more years to effect the
final extinction of the Debt existing in 1815.
The additions made in the years of W a r w a r
Incr€
were at a far larger rate :—
AVERAGE ANNUAL W A R

W a r s in the period from 1689
to 1763,
American W a r ,
French Revolutionary W a r ,
Crimean War,

40
10
22
2

INCREASE.

years
years
years
years

£3,400,000
11,600,000
28,000,000
17,500,000

2 and 3. Now let us look at the total annual Annual
charge of the Debt, and the annual charge per head Det>tf°

12

The United Kingdom,

of the population, exclusive of repayments of

capital.
Reduction
The Annual charge has been diminished to a
o n eres. g r e a t e r e x t e n t than the Nominal Capital, on
account of the reductions of interest in prosperous
times. In 1717 the rate was reduced from 6 to 5
per cent. In 1727 the interest on the greater
part of the debt was reduced to 4 per cent., and in
1749 still further to 3 percent. The saving on
these reductions was £1,230,000 a year; a
large proportion of the burden of the debt.
In 1822 the reduction of interest was recommenced, and 152 millions of 5 per cents, created
during the French war were successively reduced
to 4 per cent, in that year, and 3|-, 3^ and 3 per
cent, in 1830, 1844, and 1854. Seventy-six
millions of 4 per cents, were similarly reduced
in 1824, 1844, and 1854. The total result of
these and some smaller operations was a saving of
£3,764,000 a year, equal to a capital of 120
millions.
Increase of
The Annual charge per head was further reduced by the increase of population, which was
slow till 1750, and rapid during the latter part of
that century and the beginning of the next, and
which has trebled the inhabitants of the United
Kingdom since 1750.

The United

Kingdom.

13

ANNUAL CHARGE OP DEBT.

A.D.

Annual Charge

1700
1712
1736
1763
1784
1815
1843
1870

Population of
United Kingdom

£
1,250,000
3,030,000
2,100,000
5,030,000
9,240,000
32,100,000
27,550,000
24,270,000

9,000,000
9,100,000
9,500,000
10,500,000
13,000,000
18,500,000
27,000,000
30,800,000

Annual
Charge per
Head

s.
2
6
4
9
14
34
20
15

d.
9
8
5
7
2
8
5
9

The amounts deducted in this table from the gross charge Return 443,
of the Debt and Terminable Annuities for repayment of 1858.
Capital, in order to obtain the net charge, are—
In
„
„
„

1784
1815 . .
..
1843 (estimate)
1870

..
..

£300,000
£540,000
£1,500,000
£2,780,000

Hence the diminution between 1815 and 1870
in the total Annual Charge, by reduction of
interest, and falling in of annuities, and repayment of capital, was larger than the decrease of
nominal capital, being £7,830,000, or nearly 25 per
cent.
The diminution during the same period in
the Annual Charge per head of the population
-—by the same causes and also by the numerical

Diminution
o na JJe Ua

Diminution
perheTf6

14

The United

Kingdom.

increase of the nation—was still larger, being from
34s. Sd. to 15s. 9d ; or a reduction of 55 per cent.

Proportion
of Annual
Charge to

4. But even this table does not give, as we
h a V e before shewn, a correct idea of the comparative
r
,

Income of burden from time to time upon the taxpayers. W e
e a ion. 0 fj. e n w o n c l e r w h y o u r forefathers, under George I
and in the early years of George I I I , complained
so bitterly of the oppressive load of Debt, and
predicted the speedy ruin of the nation by its
pressure, although its rapid increase from 1793 to
1815, to more than three times the amount, was
borne with comparative equanimity. The explanation is to be found in the enormous increase
during that period of the income and resources of
the Kingdom, and the fall of the value of money,
which rendered the burdens of the eighteenth
century a feather weight in the century that
succeeded. Can we ascertain approximately the
extent of these changes, and the growth from
1700 to the present time of the total Income of
the nation ?
The Income
I t so happens that we have a reliable estimate
Nation
°^ ^ e national income at the commencement of
A.D. 1700. this period. A great statistical writer, Gregory
King, has left upon record a calculation, which has
been generally accepted as very near the truth,
computing the annual income of England and Wales

The United Kingdom.

15

in 1688 at £43,000,000, of which twenty-three
millions, or rather more than half, represented
real and personal property and trades and profes?
sions (now constituting the Income-tax classes),
and the remaining twenty millions, the wages
of manual labor. Mr. Newmarch has observed
that a similar proportion appears to exist at the
present day. W i t h an addition of seven millions
for Scotland and Ireland, and five for the increase
in twelve years, we may take the income of the
United Kingdom in 1700 at about £55,000,000.
Can we estimate from this basis the income of
the Kingdom in the latter half of the century 1
W e find from Gregory King r and Arthur Young
(also a very high authority), that agricultural
wages rose from a shilling per day in 1688 to
eighteen pence in 1790 ; and that the rental of
land, without houses, increased in England and
Wales from £10,000,000 in 1688 to £16,000,000
a-year in 1770 ; while population had increased
from 9,000,000 in 1700 to 13,000,000 in 1784, and
there was also a gradual increase of the manufactures and commerce of the nation. Arthur
Young calculated the income of England alone in
1770 at 122 millions. That of the United Kingdom may therefore with great probability be estimated in 1784 at nearly three times the income
in 1700, or £150,000,000.
In 1784 began the first great expansion of
0
o
x

National
i7g4me m

Northern
IV# 393.

?reat
increase Lto
1815.

16

The United Kinga «q,.

trade and manufactures, which Was immensely
accelerated after 1793 by the effect of the war.
England obtained the monopoly of the trade of
the world, and the exports and imports increased
with wonderful rapidity. W a t t introduced the
steam engine for cotton mills in 1785, and the
exports of cotton rose from £355.000 in 1780 to
£19,000,000 declared value in 1815. The exports
of woollens doubled in twenty years. The production of iron rose from 68,000 tons in 1788 to
400,000 tons in 1820. Corn largely increased
in price, and the rental of land in England and
Wales, without houses, rose from £16,000,000 in
1770 to £36,000,000 in 1815. Hence it need not
be wondered that the gross amount of income
from property and profits assessed to Income-tax
in Great Britain in 1814-15 down to incomes of
£60 a-year was £146,400,000 ; which, with an
estimate of £15,000,000 for Ireland, and a very
moderate sum for evasions, shews a total income
of the upper and middle classes of the United
Kingdom for that year of more than £175,000,000;
and indicates a total income of the whole nation
of double that amount, or £35.0,000,000.
But the Peace of 1815 was followed by a great
Temporary contraction of the currency and fall in prices and
afte^lSlT w ^ e spread distress, so that the rent of land
three or four years after was estimated to have
fallen back to the valuation of 1810, less than

The United Kingdom.

17

£30,000,000; and the whole\ income of the
country to have suffered severely. Lord Liverpool,
when Prime Minister, in a speech in the House of
Lords estimated the total income of the country
in 1822 (probably too low) at 250 to 280 millions.
But the continual increase of population increased the national income, and when the Income-tax was reimposed in 1843, before the
return of prosperity, Incbme-tax was paid upon
£205,000,000 in Great Britain ; without including
incomes between £100 and £150, for which, and
for evasions of the tax, and also' for Ireland, at
least £50,000,000 may be added ; thus showing a
total income of the upper and middle classes
in the United Kingdom of £255,000,000 ; and
indicating a total Income of the nation of twice
t h a t sum, or more than £500,000,000.
After 1843 an enormous expansion of trade
took place for twenty-five years in consequence
of Railways and Free Trade—raising the Exports
of British and Irish produce from fifty millions
sterling to 190 millions^ and the total Imports
from seventy millions official value (probably
equal to eighty millions real value) to 295 millions
—and for 1867 the income of the country was
estimated at £408,000,000 assessable to Incometax (of which 374 millions actually paid duty), and
£407,000,000 below Income-tax, making a total
of £815,000,000.
Since that time three years
c

Increase to

Great
^g^Qlon

D. Baxter,
income,
P- 65-

18

Th, • United

Kingdom.

have elapsed, during which the assessments to
income-tax have grown larger, and the increase
of income and earnings cannot be taken at less
than £1 5,000,000 a-year, making a total income
in 1870 of £860,000,000.
W e have therefore the following summary of
the whole period from 1700 to 1870.
PROPORTION OF ANNUAL CHARGE OF DEBT 'ro GROSS INCOME.

A.D.

Annual Charge

1700

£
1,250,000

1712

3,030,000

Estimated Income
of United Kingdom

f
1
(

Percentage
of Charge to
Income

2-3

55,000,000
to
65,000,000

4-5
2-3

1736

2,100,000

about

1784

9,240,000

150,000,000

6-2

1815

32,100,000

350,000,000

9-0

1848

27,550,000

500,000,000

5-5

1870

24,270,000

860,000,000

2-8

The Annual Charges from 1784 to 1870 are, as in the last
table, corrected by the deduction of the amounts estimated as
paid for reduction of capital.

Estimates
taxable
basis.

These estimates of the Income of the Country
founded for the eighteenth century upon those
0 f Gregory King and Arthur Young, and after
1800 upon the assessments to income-tax (with
small additions for evasions) of the upper and

are

The United Kingdom.

19

middle classes, and moderate calculations of the
earnings of the working classes, with full deductions for loss of working time. They are essentially estimates on a taxable basis, which is always
a minimum. They differ from estimates of production and wages, which are adopted in the
United States and other countries, because they
omit a large amount of working expenses, such as
produce consumed on farms, and do not contain
any sufficient allowance for unreturned income.
Estimates of production, on the contrary, include
both these heads, and usually fail to make any
reduction for deficiency or waste or losses; and are
apt to become patriotic and maximum estimates ;
requiring deductions for all the above items
before comparison with estimates on a taxable
basis.
The conclusions to which the Table points are T ^ e growth
curious and important. As regards Income it
gives reason to believe that in less than two
centuries—the age of constitutional government
in England—the Income of the United Kingdom,
by the increase of its resources and the fall in
the value of money, has become more than fifteen
times greater than its amount at the beginning
of that e r a ; having trebled during the first
half of the period; and increased more than
five-fold during the second half, from 1784 to
1870.
c 2

20
Pressure of

The United

Kingdom.

But even more surprising is the estimate to
which it leads of the pressure of the Debt at the
different periods.
W e may realise this more
clearly by enlarging the percentages to the
standard of our present income, so as to shew
how similar proportions of Debt would press
upon ourselves at the present day. The following
table shews what we should now be paying, if
taxed for the Debt at the same rates per cent,
on an Income, in round figures, of 850 millions.
PROPORTIONATE CHARGES ON OUR PRESENT INCOME.

A.D.

Percentage of
Charge to Income
(from last Table)

1700
1712
1736
1784
1815
1843
1870

2-3
4-5
2-3
6-3
9-0
5-5
2-8

Amount
on an Income of
£850,000,000

£

Its rise and

1

19,500,000
39,000,000
19,500,000
53,000,000
76,000,000
48,000,000
24,000,000

Thus at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, after only ten years of existence, the
Debt was nearly as great a burden upon the
resources of the Nation as it is at the present
time, and required nearly as large a percentage of

The United Kingdom.

21

taxation. By the end of Marlborough's victories
in 1713 its annua] charge had grown into a proi
portion that would now entail fifteen millions
more than our present interest. The peace that
succeeded, and the prosperous admmistration of
Sir Robert Walpole, reduced the interest until it
fell again to the level of 1700. The Spanish and
American Wars up to 1784 raised it to more than
twice our present proportion, equivalent to a
present taxation of fifty-three millions.
The
French War, notwithstanding an immense increase of resources, augmented the charge to nine
per cent, on the income of the Nation, equal in
proportion to £76,000,000, or more than the
whole of our present Imperial taxes; a pressure
that we can now hardly conceive, and that fully
accounts for the distress after the conclusion of
the war. The diminution of the charge has been
equally rapid, falling in 1843 to three-fifths of the
pressure of 1815; and in 1870 to a third. I t has
now almost returned to the proportionate burdens
of 1736 and 1700. May no great war or series
of wars interfere, as they did after 1736, to inflict
upon us an enormous increase !
The proportion of Capital to National Income is worth Capital and
noticing. The Capital seems to have been a quarter of a Income,
year's income in 1700, more than a half year's in 1712, and
one year's income in 1761. In 1784 it was one and a half
year's income, and in 1815 it was two and a half years'

22

The United

Kingdom.

income. In 1843 it had returned to the proportion of 1784,
or eighteen months' income, and in 1870 it fell to the level
of 1760, or less than one year's income.

Analysis of
The difference of these four methods of
of^eo^ction estimating the National Debt is very evident.
of pressure. "\\re m a y turn them to account for shewing
the causes to which the reduction since 1815 is
due.
The first, the account of Nominal Capital,
shews the net reduction since 1815 by payment
of capital and cesser of annuities to have been
£102,000,000 out of £902,000,000, or
11 per cent.
The second, the account of Annual Charge,
shews a total reduction of 24 per cent., being
an additional reduction through diminution of
Interest of . .
..
..
13 per cent.
The third, the Annual Charge per head,
shews a total reduction of 55 per cent., being
an additional reduction through increase of
population of
.,
..
31 per cent.
The fourth, the Proportion of Annual
Charge to Income, shews a total reduction
since 1815 of 69 percent., being an additional
reduction through increase of wealth beyond
population of
.„
..
14 per cent.
Hence, of all the causes of diminution of the
burden of the Debt, repayment of Capital by the

The United Kingdom.

23

exertions of the nation has been much the least
important; diminution of the rate of interest
stands next in order; increase of wealth beyond
the increase of population has been still more
powerful; and the increase of population has been
the most effective of all.
BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES.

Some account should be added of the Debts of
the British Colonies and Dependencies. That of India.
India is the oldest and most important.
The Debt of India in 1775 was only ..
..
£2,000,000
In 1785 it had increased to
8,000,000
In 1810 it reached, and was for twenty-seven
years stationary, near . .
..
..
..
29,000,000
The Affghan, Scinde, and Sikh Wars raised it
by 1849 to
51,000,000
The Indian Mutiny and successive deficits have
increased it in 1869 to
103,000,000

Austraha has since 1855 contracted large Debts Australia.
in proportion to her population. Her six States,
South Australia, Western Austraha, New South
Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and Queensland,—w4th
a population of only 1,600,000,—have accumulated
in fifteen years debts amounting to £28,500,000.
But at least three-fourths of this capital has been
borrowed for Railways and other productive works,
so that the annual charge is a light burden on the
people.

24

The United

Kingdom.

New Zealand has been even more profuse,
having since 1855 contracted a debt of more than
seven millions for a population of about 250,000.
P a r t was borrowed for remunerative purposes, but
the annual charge per head is just twice that of
England.
Canada and
Canada and the adjacent Colonies have been
British
more economical, and with a population of four
North
America.
millions have only borrowed nineteen millions, and
this to a considerable extent for roads, railways,
and works of public utility.
West
The West Indian Islands and the South
Indies.
American Colonies of Honduras and British
Guiana have debts of moderate amount, only
£1,700,000 for a population of one million.
South
The Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and Mauritius
Africa.
are equally moderate, having less than two and
a half millions of debts for 1,165,000 population.
Malta and
Malta and Hong Kong have Debts of £71,000
Hong
and £16,000.
Kong.
British
Hence the total Debts of the British Empire,
Empire.
exclusive of Sinking Funds and repayment of
Capital, were—
New
Zealand.

The

United Kingdom.

25

BRITISH EMPIRE.—NATIONAL DEBTS, 1869-1870.
Population
and Area
(square miles)

Capital of
Debt
£

£

s.

d.

30,800,0001
120,000 J

800,700,000

24,270,000

15

9

155,000,0001
<
911,000 J

103,000,000

5,025,000

0

8

1,588,0001
2,752,000/

28,500,000

1,600,000 20

0

•<

245,0001
122,000 J

7,180,000

360,000

29

0

Canada and British 1
North America J

4,280,0001
620,000 /

19,230,000

960,000

4

8

West Indies a n d l
South American \r
Colonies . .
J

1,002,0001
92,000/

1,700,000

85,000

1

8

African Colonies

<

1,165,0001
218,000/

2,460,000

150,000

2

6]

Malta and H o n g l
Kong
..
/

260,0001
H7J

87,000

194,427,0001
4>835>H7J

963,487,000

Great Britain a u d i
Ireland
..
J
British India

Australian Colonies 1
New Zealand..

TOTAL . .

1

<

Annual
Charge

Charge 1
per
Head

32,470,000

They are rather larger in amount, both of
Capital and Annual Charge, than the Debts of the
United Kingdom and India in 1815 ; showing an
increase of £34,000,000 capital, and of less than
£2,000,000 interest. But instead of being borne,
as in 1815, by a British population of 18,500,000,
and 80,000,000 Indians, they were borne in 18TO
by an English-speaking population of more than
38,000,000, and 155,000,000 inhabitants of i^ufc

26

lit
T H E U N I T E D STATES, GERMANY,

Other
Teutonic
and Scandinavian
States.

&c.

England we turn to the States most
closely connected with her by race and institutions;—the United States her former colony;
Germany, Belgium, and Holland, the mothercountries of the Anglo-Saxons ; Denmark, Sweden,
and Norway, the sources of our Danish and Norse
blood; and the free States of Switzerland. W e
shall find that all have common characteristics
respecting their National Debts, differing considerably from those of the Celtic, Slavonic, and
Turkish peoples; more thrifty and saving, and
anxious for repayment.
FBOM

UNITED STATES.

United
States'
Debts,

The Federal Debt of the United States is unprecedented in its sudden and enormous growth,
and in the present rapidity of its reduction. I t
has existed since the Declaration of Independence

The United

States.

27

in 1787, but for the first 73 years was of insignificant proportions. With it ought to be considered the separate State Debts, which for thirty
years before the Civil War were more important
than the Federal Debt, but much more difficult of
ascertainment.
1. The Capital of the two kinds of Debt is as Capital,
follows :—
FEDERAL D E B T .

£
Federal
In 1791 the Debt of the Federation was
15,000,000 D e b t '
25,000,000
„ 1316 „
„ 1836 „
58,000
„ 1848 „
9,800,000
18,000,000 American
On July 1st, 1861
Year Book,
On July 1st, 1865, after four
1869.
years' Civil War, it had risen
to
551,000,000
Tim
On January 1st, 1871, after
five
es.
and a half years of Peace, it
* ~
had been reduced to . .
. . 466,400,000

The State Debts came into existence after state
1820. They were principally borrowed in England, ^ e b t s for roads, canals, and railways; but received a
large increase for war expenditure during the Civil
War. Their total amounts were, according to the
best obtainable information :—

The United States.

28

S T ATE DEBTS.

Fortune's
Guide to
the Funds.
American
Year Book,

In
„
„
„
„

1836
1849
1860
1865
1869

^

12,850,000
37,800,000
45,800,000
71,600,000
66,000,000

.
.
.
.
.

Mr. wells'
"[}£& is independent of county, city, and town
1869, p. 6. debts, which are much heavier than any corresponding debts in England, and were increased by
£40,000,000 on account of the Civil War. But
disregarding them in the present account, and only
dealing with the State Debts (which are about
equal in amount to the total increase of State and
local debt by the war), we have the following summary of the Government Debts of the United
States:—
FEDERAL AND STATE DEBTS.

A.D.

Federal Debt

1791
1816
1836
1848
1861
1865
1870

£
15,000,000
25,000,000
58,000
9,800,000
18,000,000
551,000,000
466,400,000

State Debts

Total

£

£
15,000,000
25,000,000
12,908,000
47,600,000
64,000,000
622,600,000
532,400,000

—
—
12,850,000
37,800,000
45,800,000
71,600,000
66,000,000

The United States.

29

T h e rates of increase a n d decrease are :—
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE.

£
139,000,000

Four years of War
AVERAGE ANNUAL DECREASE.

Five years of Peace

£
16,000,000

..

N o t h i n g in t h e Old W o r l d can compare w i t h
these figures.
2 a n d 3 . I f w e look a t t h e A n n u a l C h a r g e a n d Annual
Charge.
t h e P o p u l a t i o n t h e result is equally striking.
ANNUAL CHARGE OF FEDERAL AND STATE DEBTS.

Annual Charge

A.D.

Federal and
State Debts.

Charge
per Head

Population

s.

d.

1800

830,000

£
5,300,000

3

0

1820

910,000

9,500,000

1

10

1836

774,000

15,000,000

1

0

1848

2,710,000

22,000,000

2

5

1860

1

3,398,000

31,500,000

2

2

1865

!

33,046,000

35,000,000

19

0

j

38,500,000

14

2

!

1870

27,280,000

T h u s t h e A n n u a l C h a r g e of t h e F e d e r a l a n d Reduction
State

Debts

in

1865

was

in

round

figures

charge

The United States.

30

£33,000,000, or more than 8^ millions greater
than that of Great Britain. During the succeeding 5^ years it has been reduced, with scarcely
any diminution of the rate of interest, by
£5,700,000; or at the rate of £1,000,000 a
year; and was in 1870 three millions more than
the Annual Charge of the British Debt. The
Federal interest is paid in gold, and has till lately
been equivalent to a third more in currency.
and of
The Charge per head of the population in
Charge per
1865 was 19^., or 3s. more than that of Great
head.
Britain. At the end of 1870 it was diminished by
the reduction of the Debts, and the increase of
population, to 14s. 2d. per head; or Is. 7d. less
than that of Great Britain.
Federal
Debt alone.

For the Federal Debt alone the figures are—
FEDERAL DEBT.

Annual Charge

Charge per Head
s.

£

d.

—

1836

3,000

1848

490,000

0

5

1860

650,000

0

5

1865

28,750,000

16

3

1870

23,320,000

12

0

The United States.

31

So that the Annual Charge in 1865 was four millions sterling more than that of England, and in 1870 one million less;
while the Charge per Head was in 1865 about the same as
that of England, but in 1870 it was 3s. 9d. less.

These figures are astonishing; that a young Results.
nation like the United States should have paid off in
little more than five years nearly £90,000,000 of
capita], or twenty-eight millions more than the net
reduction by Great Britain in the fifty-five years
since 1815, and should have reduced the interest
£5,700,000, or nearly two-thirds of the whole reduction by Great Britain during the same period ;
without any aid from the cesser of annuities and
diminution of the rate of interest, which assisted
so considerably the English total.
But this reduction has been effected by a Mistaken
severity of taxation, and a mistaken system of T a x a t l 0 n «
imposts, that have crippled many branches of
industry, and have probably cost the public of the
United States—by the artificial prices of protected
articles, and the check to trade and the increase of
wealth—more than £250,000,000 of actual payments, instead of £84,000,000 and many times
more than five millions a-year of lost profits of
manufactures and commerce. For a State to pay
off its debt by high protective duties, is as unwise,
a policy as it would be for a merchant to pay off
his by levying a toll at his shop door upon all
his customers. A more judicious system of taxa-

32

Kesources
of the
United
States.

Coals and
Manufactures.

The United States.

tion might have accomplished a considerable reduction without such disastrous consequences.
No State in the world has less need than the
United States to make sacrifices for a rapid reduction of the Debt, since in no other State will the
Debt so surely and rapidly reduce itself by the
natural growth of the nation. The extent of the
United States is four-fifths of that of Europe,
containing in States and Territories more than
2,800,000 square miles, or twenty-three times as
much as Great Britain and Ireland. As this vast
region becomes more completely settled, the land
will increase in value, until it will form a basis for
taxation almost equal to that of Europe. The
average taxable value of land in the United
Kingdom is more than £50,000,000 a-year
per 100,000 square miles. "When the lands of the
United States attain one-fifth of this average value
they will pay taxes upon £280,000,000 a-year, an
amount four and a half times as large as the
present taxable value of the lands of the United
Kingdom.
The Coal formations, on which Great Britain
founds her manufacturing and part of her commercial pre-eminence, are comprised in an area of
5,500 square miles, and far exceed any coal fields
in Europe. But the United States possess coal
fields, believed to be equally rich in coal, covering
an area of 197,000 square miles, or more than 36

The United States.

33

times as great as those of Great Britain, and more
than three times as large as the whole extent of
England and Wales ; an area capable of supporting
a prodigious manufacturing population and commerce.
Iron is also found over an immense
area.
The increase of population is on a greater scale Increase of
than any increase in Europe, having been in the
United States from 1790 to 1860 at a uniform
rate of 33 per cent, every ten years,—or doubling in
less than twenty-five years. The increase in the
last ten years, including the period of civil war,
has been 25 per cent., or doubling in thirty years.
The United Kingdom doubles its population in 75
years. The American rate will slacken as the
country becomes fuller, but there is every probability that in fifty or sixty years at the latest—a
period not longer than that from 1815 to 1870—
the United States will containmore than 100,000,000
inhabitants.
4. The national Income of the United States Natioual
is already very large, and it augments more I n c o m e rapidly than even the population. Englishmen
may be surprised to learn that in 1860, before
the. Civil War, it was calculated by Dr. William
Elder, in an estimate since adopted in official
Eeports, as £760,000,000 a-year; and that in
1869, Mr. David Wells, the Special Commissioner
D

34

The United

States,

of Revenue, presented in his Report to Congress
an elaborate estimate, in which he calculated i t ^
amount in that year as £1,365,000,000 currency,
with gold a t 35 premium, or a gold income of
£1,011,000,000.
Mr. "Wells'
The items of the calculation, with the correKeport,
sponding amounts in gold, are—
pp. 15-20.
MR. WELLS' ESTIMATE OF INCOME OP UNITED STATES, 1869.
Currency

£
485,684,000
71,140,000

200,000,000
320,400,000
72,000,000
20,000,000

148,000,000
237,096,000
53,280,000
14,800,000

1,365,000,000

Agriculture
Manufactures
Handicrafts
(1,000,000 artisans)..
Laborers, servants, &o.
Railway Service
Fisheries

Gold

£
656,600,000
96,000,000

1,010,000,000

The details of the great item of Agricultural products
are in currency, Corn (wheat, Indian corn, oats, barley, rye,
and buckwheat) 193 million quarters, worth £207,000,000;
Hay £50,000,000; Mesh of animals (deducting hay and grain
consumed) £80,000,000 ; Dairy products (deducting the same)
£80,000,000; Cotton £60,600,000; Wool£13,000,000; Tobacco
£7,400,000; Hides £7,400,000; Potatoes £18,000,000. All
other products, including annual increase in value of cattle
and horses, and annual addition to value of farms and farmbuildings, £130,000,000.
Deductions.

This, like all t h e American estimates, is formed
upon calculations of produce and prices, and, as
Mr. "Wells admits, is much more liable to error

The United

States.

35

than the English estimates, founded upon returns
of taxation and stricter investigations. The remarks made at page 18 respecting the difference
between estimates on a taxable basis and estimates
of production apply to the present calculation,
with the following additions. The quantities of
produce appear very large, though the prices are
moderate; and a considerable allowance should
probably be made for loss and waste. As credit is
taken for the increase during the year of the value
of animals not slaughtered, a similar deduction
ought to be made from the item " flesh of animals,"
for the increase due to the previous year. The
interest due to foreign bondholders, estimated
by Mr. Wells at £17,000,000 gold, ought also to
be subtracted. But to counterbalance these deductions, there is the fact of the great decrease of
the gold premium since the date of the estimate
without any serious diminution of prices. Large
as the amount may seem, I should be disposed
to accept Mr. Wells' estimate of the gold income of the United States in 1869, as representing their gold income in 1870, or £1,000,000,000
sterling.
I t must be remembered that the increase of
population—about 900,000 a-year—in a country
where every worker can find employment and comparative comfort, of itself warrants the calculation
of an annual increase of £23,000,000 a-year of
B 2

36

The United

States.

income, besides the rise in the standard of property
and earnings, which probably raises the increase to
thirty or even £35,000,000 a-year, or double that of
the United Kingdom. I t must also be recollected
that the high income and earnings of the United
States, even when measured in gold, are partly
caused by inflation of prices above the English
standard, and do not necessarily represent greater
power of purchasing.
Eeasons for
I see no reason to doubt that the national
ju ging.
income of the United States exceeds that of the
United Kingdom.
The population is more
numerous by nearly eight millions, which, at
£25 per head, gives £200,000,000 more income.
The earnings of all classes of laborers are greater,
and there are no paupers, so t h a t the total income
of the working classes must be far larger. The
scale of prices and living is much higher than
in England, and the incomes of the classes
next above the laborers higher in proportion.
On the other hand there is much less capital in the
country, and the upper or wealthy classes are
Mr. Wells' much less numerous. The Income-tax begins at
fsQ%% 69. £200 a -y e a r > instead of at £100 as in England,
and indefinite exemptions are allowed for rent.
Probably there is also very great ingenuity and
success in evasion. But in 1868 Income-tax was
paid by only 250,000 persons, instead of the estimated number of 425,000 persons paying Income-

The United States.

37

tax on £200 a-year and upwards in the United
Kingdom. The amount on which it was paid was
£160,000,000 exclusive of all remissions, instead of
the estimated amount of £320,000,000 paid upon
by the same 425,000 persons in the United Kingdom. I t seems probable that the deficiency in the
wealthier classes goes far to balance the greater
population. But the higher earnings must turn
the scale in favour of America, and render the
estimate of £1,000,000,000 a very probable one.
But this surplus is absorbed in the greater cost of
living, and the Americans save much less than the
English or Germans. This would make the annual
burden of the Debt the same as in England, or
2*8 per cent.
But it is an Income that will increase very Future
rapidly; with the increase of population, trade, and j^ome
the value of land, sixty years hence a population
of 100,000,000 are likely to have an income larger
per head than at present, and probably not less in
amount than £2,500,000,000 ; estimating only £25
per head, or less than the present British average.
W i t h such a probable growth of income, the
present Debt becomes insignificant, in proportion.
The reduction of interest from the present average
rates of 5 per cent, for the Federal Debt and
6 per cent, for the State Debts will of itself
bring a great diminution of burden.
With
ordinary financial prudence it will be paid off

38

Germany.

by the surpluses that are sure to result from
the elasticity and natural growth of the revenue.
The Americans need four things for the development of their country;—to readjust the taxes
that diminish their power of production and their
commerce; and to keep out of wars that would
hinder their growth and prosperity; to keep good
faith with every public creditor, so as to attract
the Capital which is required by the rapid
development of the nation; and to promote
intercourse and friendly feeling with European
countries, especially England and Germany, whose
wealth and population have a continual tendency
to invest themselves in America.
GERMANY.

Capital of
Debt.
Prussia.
M. Block,
Europe,
p. 368.
Cohen,
p. 24.

1. The Debt of Prussia has always been the
smallest of any of the Great European Powers.
£
I n 1800 the Capital was
•.
..
5,250,000
The expenses of the French Wars
raised it by 1820 to
..
..
31,000,000
The Debt weighed very heavily upon
a nation of 10 to 11 millions of
inhabitants ruined by invasions
and warfare. Yet in 1842 nearly
£10,000,000 had been paid off, and
the Debt was reduced to . .
..
21,000,000
After the revolutions of 1848 a series

Germany,

39

of deficits took place which increased the debt rapidly.
A
number of loans were contracted
from 1850 to 1864 for military
preparations and the construction
of great lines of railway, which
£
brought its amount in 1866 to . .
42,000,000 Statistical
In 18/0 it had increased, through
the War with Austria, to
. . 56,700,000 Martin's
To this must be added the debts
of the States annexed in 1866,
amounting to
..
..
..
9,700,000
The Debts of the German Empire are very German
complicated and numerous, but they may be tion.6 era "
summed up as follows :—
GERMAN EMPIRE.

Prussia and annexed States
..
Eemaining North German States . •
South German States—
Bavaria
..
2,967,000
Wurtemburg
10,570,000
Baden
..
7,700,000
Hesse
..
1,270,000

£
66,400,000 Martin's
Year Book
28,700,000

49,200,000
German Confederation Loans of 1867,
and July and December, 1870
Total Capital

..

26,600,000
£170,900,000

40

Germany.
Of this there has been spent on Railways and
Public Works—
.
Prussia
.
Saxony
Brunswick
Mecklenburg Schwerin .
Bremen
Bavaria
.
Wurtemburg
Baden
Hesse

£
27,670,000
14,000,000
1,840,000
525,000
600,000
12,180,000
5,500,000
5,000,000
1,000,000
£68,315,000

So that the unremunerative Debt was only
£102,600,000.
Annual
Charge.

2 and 3. The total interest of the
Debt in 1870 was . .
..
The average nominal charge per
head on the whole German
population of 38^ millions was
therefore
..
..
..

£7,340,000

3s. 9 d.

But to pay this, the German States have the
net receipts of their railways, and the produce of
the public mines and ironworks, which in Prussia
and Saxony and other States (without the domains
and forests) balance the interest of the Debts. The
French payments will cancel a large portion of the
Debts, or be accumulated in funds or investments.
The Germans, alone of the great Powers, will be
practically free from d e b t ; and not only so, but they

Germany.

41

will also possess great surplus funds and State property for the relief of taxation, and for use in war.
4. Calculations have been made of the national National
income of Prussia, from the tax-valuations on I n c o m e incomes under £150, and the income-tax on those
above that amount, in the old provinces of Prussia
containing 19,500,000 inhabitants. The incomes
assessed in 1867 were only £115,000,000; but
M. Block, whose great reputation as a statist is jyj- ^\oc^
well known, estimates, from his experience of Europej
French and Prussian valuations, that these amounts
are on an average only one-third of the real
income and earnings of the Prussian provinces,
which ought to be estimated at £345,000,000.
The annexed and South German States are
more wealthy than Prussia, so that, even allowing
for some over-estimate in Prussia itself, the total
income of the Empire of Germany, with its
38J millions of inhabitants, cannot be taken at
less than £725,000,000 ; on which the nominal
pressure of the Debt would average 1 per cent.,
but the real burden will be nothing at all.
The annexation of Alsace and part of Lorraine,
with important manufactures and 1,600,000 inhabitants, raising the population of the Empire to
more than 40,000,000, will add considerably to the
national income of Germany, and render it equal,
even in prosperous times, to that of France.

42

Holland,
HOLLAND.

Holland.

Holland is almost the smallest State of Europe.
But two centuries ago she was the wealthiest of
all, with colonies in the East Iudies, West Indies
and Cape of Good Hope, and monopolised the
carrying trade of Europe. I n proportion to her
resources she carried the system of public loans
to a greater extent than any other nation.
Rise of Her
Her Debt was contracted in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, in her gallant struggle
against the tyranny of Spain, and wars with Cromwell, Charles I I , and Louis X I V ; and attained its
greatest height about the end of the 17th century,
when the Debt of England was just beginning.
So oppressive did her taxes become that they
were supposed to double the price of bread consumed in the towns, and it was a common saying
at Amsterdam that every dish, of fish brought to
table was paid for once to the fisherman and six
times to the State. Eor a time her commerce,
fisheries, and manufactures continued to increase
under the burden. After 1672 her decline began,
McCalloch, and became serious aboiit 1713. " Wages," says
Taxation

p. 412. '

.

.

Mr. McCulloch, "having been raised so as to
" enable the labourers to exist, the weight of tax" ation fell principally on the capitalist. "Profits
" were in consequence reduced below their level in
" surrounding countries, and the United Provinces

Holland*

43

" lost their ascendency ; their fisheries and manu" factures were undermined; and their capitalists
" chose in the end rather to transfer their stocks
" to the foreigner than to employ them at home."
I n 1778 the Dutch had about £62,000,000 in the
public funds of France and England, a very large
sum in those days.
The wars of the French Revolution completed
her misfortunes. Invaded and conquered by the
French, she lost her Commerce, her Colonies, and
her independence, and is said to have paid in war
contributions to the French from 1794 to 1814
nearly £100,000,000 sterling.
1. In 1810 the Capital of her Debt
Capital of
was
£100,000,000 D e b t '
The annual interest of £3,500,000 was beyond
the power of the nation to pay. But rejecting
the law passed by Louis Bonaparte for annulling
two-thirds, she converted her Debt in 1814 into
£48,000,000 actual, and £96,000,000 deferred, with
a Sinking Fund and provisions for ultimately
meeting the whole. The total of the Debt was
thus raised to
£144,000,000
Further additions were necessary
in 1820, and though £10,000,000
was transferred to Belgium after
1830, a loan of equal amount was
necessary, £10,000,000 in 1844 for
the deficiencies caused by the

Holland.

44

Belgian W a r ; and yet in 1851
the Debt bad been reduced by the
Sinking Fund and surpluses to
£102,460,000
I n 1869 it had been further diminished to . .
80,640,000
being a net diminution in fifty-four years of
£64,000,000; or rather more than the similar
diminution in Great Britain during the same
period, although Great Britain is ten times as
great in population and resources.
Annual
Charge.

2 and 3. The reduction of the Annual Charge
^ ajg0 v e r y great.

ANNUAB CHARGE OF DEBT.

Population

Annual
Charge per
Head

3,500,000

2,270,000

30 10,

1851

3,070,000

3,150,000

19

6

1869

2,2§a,ooo

3,750,000

12

3

A.D.

Annual Charge

1810

£

s.

d.

The above is exclusive of the Sinking Fund
and surpluses, that have added very materially to
the temporary burden of the Debt. But even the
net charge was in 1810 nearly as heavy as that of

Belgium.

45

England at its highest point in 1815, and is nowreduced by 60 per cent, of its old burden.
Holland is a signal example of the danger of a
National Debt, and of perseverance and success in
its reduction.

BELGIUM.

The Debt of Belgium, though small in amount, Belgian
ought to be noticed on account of the progress
made towards its extinction. I t began with about
£10,000,000 taken over from Holland after 1830,
and the remainder was principally incurred for the
construction of B-ailways and works of public
utility.
1. The total created has b e e n . . £38,900,000 Capital
By the Sinking Fund and surpluses £11,540,000 has been paid
off, and it was in 18.69
..
..
£27,360,000
Eight millions of the Debt, spent upon the
State Railways, will be paid off by 1884 ; when
the whole revenues will be available towards the
interest on the remainder.
2 and 3.
,.

. . i .

diminishing.

The Annual

Charge is steadily Annual
Charge,

Denmark.

46

Charge
per head

Annual Charge

Population

1852

1,468,000

4,400,000

s.
6

d,
8

1869

1,040,000

5,000,000

4

2

But the interest of the Debt will, at no distant
period, be borne by the Railways and productive
property of the State.
DENMARK.

Banish
De

Capital.

The Debt of Denmark dates from the war of
the French Bevolution, when the great financial
difficulties were met by the issue of paper.
In 1821 a loan was contracted to
redeem part of this currency,
amounting, with a former debt of
£1,150,000, to
£4,150,000
Annual deficits in succeeding years,
and £4,000,000 borrowed for the
cost of the Schleswig - Holstein
War, as well as loans for the
establishment of Railways, increased its amount in 1866 to . .
14,860,000
I t was in 1869
13,240,000
Being a reduction in three years of
per year
600,000

Switzerland.
The Annual charge is now . .
..
Being per head on the population of
1,780,000

47
£817,000 Annual
95.

SWITZERLAND.

The Debt of the Republic is very small, Swiss Debt,
amounting in 1869 to £612,000, against which
there was a " federal fortune/' or property belonging to the State, of £876,000. The Debts of the
Cantons amount together to £5,280,000. The
total annual charge per head appears to be
under 2s. id.

43

IV.
FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN, &C.

Latin

Very different is the history of the Debts of
the Latin nations inhabiting France and the two
great Southern Peninsulas, and the Spanish and
Portuguese colonies of South America.
Their
people are careful and frugal, but their rulers are
too often reckless and spendthrift, prone to overspend their income in time of peace and still more
largely in time of war; trusting to sinking funds
rather than to economy and surpluses; and sometimes unable to pay even the interest. Perhaps
their tendency to arbitrary and therefore irresponsible government has much to do with the
succession of deficits.
FRANCE.

French

The Public Debt of France has always been
involved in obscurity. " There is not a single
man in France/' said a high official in the Ministry
of Finance, " who can tell the exact state of the
National Debt. Pas un seul" In early times its

France.

49

amount was constantly changing through forced
reductions and consolidations, and in later days it
has always been buried in complicated and inaccessible accounts, with no Parliamentary returns to
place the figures before, the nation. The mode of
statement also varies from that of England, being
ordinarily in Rentes, or annual interest, and it is
more difficult to obtain the equivalent amounts of
Capital, which are necessary for comparison. The
information obtained has been from two principal
sources, the " Compendium of Finance," by Mr.
Bernard Cohen, for the amounts in the 18 th
century ; and the kind investigations of M. Maurice Block, for the figures from 1798 to June,
1870.
£
1. The debt of France can be traced
back to rentes created by Charles V
in 1375, and was increased by
Francis I for his ransom. I t was
largely developed by Louis XIV,
and at his death in 1715 amounted
to a capital of
•.
. • " . . 124,000,000
I t was arbitrarily reduced by the
Regent, in J716, tq
•.
. • 8090Q09000
After that time it fluctuated by manyreductions and increases under the
two subsequent Kings till the Revolution.
E

Capital of
Debt.

Cohen,

pp. 1-4.

50

France.

The Revolution created and destroyed
£
a temporary debt of no less than
,£1,823,000,000 of assignats, and
£96,000,000 of mandats, and raised
the Funded Debt to
..
..
96,000,000
This amount was compulsorily reduced to one-third—(the stock was
thence called the Tiers Consolidks)
M. Block.
_ a n a s tood in 1793 at . .
. * 32,000,000
The First Empire increased its amount
far less than might have been expected—thanks to the contributions levied on other nations,—
and left it (including a floating
debt of £20,000,000) at rather more
than double, or s .
..
..
70,645,000
The Bourbons were compelled to
borrow for the deficits and the
Cohen, p. 6.
£55,000,000 levied on France for
"War Contributions and the Army
of Occupation, and also for indemnities for the dispossessed proprietors ; and the first three years
of their reign again doubled its
M. Block.
amount, leaving it in 1830
. . 141,770,000
The Orleans9 reign added about
£40,000,000, of which thirty millions were required to meet the
deficits of the first four years after

France.

51

the Revolution, leaving the Debt
£
in February, 1848
..
. . 182,000,000
The Republic added to the capital a
net amount of £63,000,000 by
loans and consolidations, and an
indemnity for emancipation of
slaves, raising it to
..
. . 245,250,000
The Second Empire, by continued
deficits, and the Crimean, Italian,
Chinese, Cochin China, Mexican,
and German Wars, a third time
doubled the capital, and left its
amount in December, 1870, including the loan in the previous July
of £30,000,000 cash or £50,000,000
nominal capital . .
..
• . 550,000,000
All these amounts since 1798 carefully exclude
the Sinking Fund (which has been erroneously
included by almost every writer), but include the
Caution Money and Floating Debt.
The continual increase of the debt, and its Annual
immense acceleration under the Second Empire, J a t e o f
r

' Increase,

are remarkable.
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE.

First Empire—to 1815
Bourbons—1815 to 1830 (nearly)
House of Orleans—1831 to 1848
Kepublie—1848 to 1852
Second Empire—1853 to 1870..
E 2

.
.
.
..

£
2,500,000
5,000,000
2,300,000
14,000,000
18,500,000

France.

52

Nothing can be more deplorable than such an
inveterate and increasing habit of over-expenditure.
The Second Empire overspent and borrowed during
its existence of eighteen years—of which the
greater portion were years of peace—a larger
average per year than England borrowed during
each of the two years of the Crimean W a r ; and
these deficits amounted to a total of more than
£300,000,000.
Annual
Charge.

2 and 3. The increase in the Annual Charge
is shown in the following Table, which gives the
Rentes only for 1798 and 1814, and adds the
Interest of the Floating Debt after those years;
but excludes the Pensions, as not part of the
Debt.
ANNUAL CHARGE.
Charge per
Head

A.D.

Rente and Interest

Population

1798

£
1,608,000

27,000,000

1814

2,530,000

30,000,000

1

8

1818

7,000,000

30,500,000

4

7

1830

6,560,000

32,500,000

4

0

1848
March 1 ,
1852
1870

'

s.
1

d.
2

7,070,000

35,700,000

3 11

10,130,000

36,000,000

5

7

16,600,000

38,000,000

8

8

France.

53

If we add the Railway guarantees and the
bridge and canal fund, amounting together to
£2,000,000 a-year, the total Annual
Charge is . . .
.,
..
. . . £18,600,000
And the Charge per head . .
. • 95. Qd.
Such was the state of the French Debt at the
end of 1870, before the loan of January, 1871,
or any borrowing for the consequences of the war.
4. Some calculations about the National In- National
come of France m a y b e interesting. From 1815 ^ n ^ ° f
to 1820 there can be little doubt that it was small 1818.
in comparison with that of England, although the
population was thirty millions against eighteen in
England.
Manufactures and trade had been
destroyed, and agriculture was in the most
deplorable condition, while those of England had
been raised to the highest development. An estimate for 1818 of £20,000,000, or rather less than
two-thirds of the income of the United Kingdom,
is probably more than the actual amount;
In 1837, after seventeen years of growing Income in
prosperity, a semi-official estimate was published
of the Agriculture and Manufactures of the
nation, which, with the addition of the estimates
in italics for the omitted items gives the following :—

France,

54

PROBABLE INCOME OF FRANCE,

Agriculture
Manufactures
Minerals
Handicrafts
Professions, Commerce, fyc. . .
Total
Income in
1868.

M. Block,
Europe, pp.
90 and 316.

..

1837.

£
180,000,000
56,000,000
4,000,000
60,000,000
60,000,000

. £360,000,000

Soon after 1837 the great development began
of French industry and commerce by the construction of Railways; and was immensely stimulated
after 1852 by the financial system of the Emperor
Napoleon. Manufactures increased very largely,
and the smaller and more tasteful articles for
which France is celebrated became a great source
of national wealth. M. Block, in his work on
" Europe," has estimated the income of France in
1868 :—
M.

BLOCK'S ESTIMATE OF INCOME OF FRANCE,

Agriculture
Manufactures
(grande industrie)
Handicrafts
..
..
..
(petite industrie)
Professions, Commerce, &c. . .

1868.

£
308,000,000
240,000,000
240,000,000
120,000,000
£908,000,000

Joanne's
The ^ ore usual estimate of French income is
gctiormaire that given by M.M. ElisSe and Elie Keclus, in a
France,
well known article on the Finances of France, as
tion, p. 172,. twelve milliards, or £800,000,000.

France.

55

I should incline to this lower calculation as the Reasons
safer taxable basis, and more nearly corresponding the latter*3
to the deductions and moderate computations of E s t i m a t e English income. I t shows a wonderful increase in
1870 over 1837; and nearly as large an income in
1870 as that of the United Kingdom. France has a
population more numerous by seven millions (equal
at £21 per head to £147,000,000 a-year), but a
lower scale of earnings and prices, a less productive
condition of agriculture, and less capital, trade and
manufactures than England, so that this appears
a probable estimate. The taxation of the two
countries is nearly equal, being about £72,000,000
each of general revenue, besides local taxation ;
but it is borne more easily in England, and could
be more readily increased, thus affording another
indication of comparative resources. Putting the
three years together, we have this table :—
PROPORTION OF ANNUAL CHARGE TO INCOME.

Estimated Income Per Centage

A,D.

Annual Charge

1818

£
7,000,000

£
200,000,000

7,900,000

360,000,000

I 18,600,000

800,000,000

1837
1870
With Railway
Gruarantee

3-5
2-3
2-3

56
Conclusions.

Local
Debts.

Kesults of
the Prussian War.

France.

I give these estimates under " all reserves," as
the French say; as affording an approximate idea
of the immense progress of the French nation
before the Prussian War. They seem to shew
that even the extravagance of the Second Empire
has not imposed a heavier burden on the resources
of the country than existed in 1837, and that the
burden of the Debt in 1870 was much less than
in 1818.
But in addition to the State Debt there are
heavy local debts. That of Paris pays more than
£850,000 a-year interest, a larger amount than
any of the minor States of Europe—except
•Holland; and is an annual charge of 9s. on every
Parisian. Similar though smaller debts, exist hi
all the large towns. I n 1867 their aggregate
amount was £16,500,000.
The Prussian war has changed /the face of
affairs. Instead of a debt of £550,000,000, and
an annual charge of £18,600,000, France, if she
fulfils her engagements and succeeds in raising
the sums that are necessary for her foreign and
home liabilities, will have a debt of 1,000 to
£1,100,000,000, and an annual charge of something like £40,000,000. On the other hand, her
national._ ome will require some years to regain
its former amount of £800,000,000, after the temporary destruction of trade and manufactures by
the war, and the permanent loss of the manu-

Italy.

.57

facturing district of Alsace and part of Lorraine,
with 1,600,000 inhabitants, reducing the population of France to 36,500,000.
When the
standard of 1870 is regained, the Debt-tax will
be about live per cent, on the national income, or
double that of England in 1870, though less than
the burden of„England so lately as 1843.
But, in considering the National Debt of Sinkin
France, we must not forget that by the terms of Railways,
the concessions of her Railways the State will in
the middle of the next century become the unencumbered owner of all the railways now existing
in her territory—a property which before the
Prussian war was worth more than £300,000,000.
ITALY.

The Italian Republics, Adam Smith tells us, Italian
were the inventors of the funding system, and health of
from them it spread over Europe. They injured Nations,
themselves by its adoption, and Genoa and Venice*
who in the middle of the eighteenth century were
their last survivors, were sensibly enfeebled by it.
The kingdom of Naples, in the first part of the
present century, was a large borrower in proportion
to her means, and latterly had a debt of about
£25,000,000. The kingdom of Sardinia, before its
era of annexation was very economical,
£
and in 1847 had a Debt of only
..
5,000,000

Italy.

58

The troubles of 1848 and the wars
£
with Austria and Russia increased the
Debt by 1858 to
.,
. . . .
40,000,000
On the constitution of the Kingdom
of Italy in 1861 the consolidated
Italian Debt, including more than
£25,000,000 for that of Naples . ,
84,000,000
I n 1869 it was, including the Floating
Debt
,,
..
..
285,000,000
f.
Hence the Debt of Italy has increased more
rapidly than that of any European State.
Annual
Increase.

The Annual Increase from 1861 to
1869, through the continual deficits,
has been , ,
.,
.,
.,

22,000,000

The Annual Charge shews a correspond' ig
increase.
ANNUAL OHAKGE.

A.D.

Annual Charge

Population

£
1847, Sardinia
1861, Italy
1869

..

S.

230,000

5,000,000

4,500,000

22,000,000

d.

1

0

4 1
11 2

14,000,000-j

With Railway " 18,000,000 J
1
Guarantees J

Charge
per Head

25,000,000 J 1
14 0

1

Spain.

59

This is the heaviest burden per head of any
State in Europe, except England ; and presses far
more heavily than in England upon the resources
of the Kingdom.
The data for calculation are not sufficient to Resources,
give any trustworthy estimate of National Income,
since yL Block tells us that the taxes are levied
on a valuation of only £35,000,000 for all Italy
except Venetia. But there seems no doubt that
the Italians are the poorest of all the European
nations ; and the most heavily burdened with
taxation.
SPAIN.

The National Debt of Spain is involved in Spa ish
great uncertainty, from the conflicting statements
that have been promulgated. I t was introduced Cohen,
from Italy, and Spain was deeply in debt in the p* '
16th century, a hundred years before England
began borrowing. Philip the Vth,in 1745, left debts
to the amount of £9,000,000 sterling. His son,
Ferdinand V I , assembled- a Junta, composed of
Bishops, Ministers, and Lawyers, and required
them to pronounce " Whether a king was obliged
to discharge the debts of his predecessor V The
question was determined by a majority in the
negative —the King's conscience was quieted—and
a bankruptcy resolved on.
Spain, like other
countries, has since frequently followed this royal

Spain.

60

Capital.

Fenn on
the Funds.

Statistical
Tables.

precedent. The succeeding kings contracted large
debts by Royal Notes, called vales, which were:
often greatly depreciated.
I n 1820 a commission was appointed
which reported the amount of the
£
National Debt to be
140,000,000
A second Junta, in 1822, declared
the first exaggerated, and the real
amount to be
52,000,000
I n 1851 Spain passed the celebrated
measure dividing the debt into an
Active or interest bearing debt of
£57,500,000, and a Passive debt of
£52,000,000, which bore no interest, but was to be gradually
redeemed; the whole with the
113,000,000
Floating Debt being
145,300,000
In 1861 it was
237,400,000
I n September, 1870 it was
The rate of increase appears to be —
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE.

1851 to 1861..
1861 to 1 8 7 0 . .

Annual
Charge.

£
3,000,000
9,000,000

Of this capital, £10,400,000 represents subventions to Railways, roads, and public works.
The Annual Charge is
.
£6,735,000
Being on the population of seventeen
millions . .
..
..
. . 8s. per head.

Portugal.

6V

POBTUGAL.

The Debt of Portugal arises from a succession Portuguese
Debt.
of deficits, without any excuse of war.
£
In 1796 it was
900,000 Capital.
Martin's
The first considerable addition was
Year Book,
p. 349.
made in 1826, and other loans succeeded in 1835, and between that
year and 1854 when it stood at . . 20,700,000
From that time it increased annually
to October 1869, when a loa-n of
£12,000,000 issued at £32 105. for
each £100 3 per cent, stock raised
l u XO
••
. .
..
••
59,300,000
The Annual Charge increased in
Annual
equal proportion, and is now
1,800,000 Charge.
Being on a population of four millions 9s, per head
SOUTH AMERICA . ND MEXICO.

The immense Empire of Brazil, the former
colony of Portugal, half as large again as the
whole of Europe, has a population of only twelve
millions and a Debt of £42,000,000.
The South Eastern States, the Argentine
Confederation, and Paraguay and Uruguay, on
the Bio Plata and its continuation the Parana,,
formerly Spanish Colonies, have populations of
1,740,000, 1,340,000, and 470,000 ; with Debts
of £14,760,000, £5,000,000, and £10,000,000.

Brazil,

Argentine
tion, Para£ua,y a n d
Uruguay.

62

Latin

America.

Peru, Chili,
The Western States, on the narrow coast strip
Ecuador.
of territory between the Andes and the Pacific
and on the eastern slopes of those mountains, also
revolted colonies of Spain, are Peru with three
million inhabitants and a debt of £20,400,000 ;
Chili, with seventeen hundred thousand inhabitants and a debt of £7,300,000; Bolivia, a
little behind them both, with two millions and
a-half of population and no debt; and Ecuador
with thirteen hundred thousand inhabitants and
£3,275,000 debt.
Colombia,
A t the northern angle of South America
are the Bepublics of Colombia and Venezuela,
other old colonies of Spain, with populations of
three and two millions, and debts of £10,000,000
and £10,600,000.
Central
There are also the Bepublics of Costa Rica
w
States.
^ h 127,000 inhabitants and £620,000 D e b t ; San
Salvador with 750,000 population and £170,000
D e b t ; Guatemala with 1,200,000 inhabitants and
£500,000 Debt, and Nicaragua with 400,000
population and £750,000 Debt.
Mexico.
In the adjoining peninsula of North America
is Mexico, with eight millions of population, and a
nominal Debt of £63,500,000, for the present
practically repudiated.
The Island of Cuba, the only remnant of
Spanish Dominion in the western hemisphere,
has a population of 1,400,000, and a Debt

Latin
of £560,000,
£6,000,000.

with

63

America.
an

annual

revenue

of

The following is a summary of the American
Latin States:—
LATIN AMERICA.

Latin

America.
(SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO, AND CUBA.)

{
Population (one-eighth of that of Eu
rope)
-}

9,127,000
square miles

Public Revenues

£30,000,000

Area (2 J times that of Europe) . .

••

40,000,000
persons

£212,000,000
Annual charge of the Debts

• •"

Annual charge per head . *

••

£12,200,000
6s. Id.

64

V.
AUSTRIA, RUSSIA, T U R K E Y , &C.

The States
The three great Empires of Eastern Europe have
of Eastern
, • ,•
n
• .-i •
1
Europe.
some common characteristics as well as a similar
geographical position. All have been, and two are
still, despotic and military governments, irresponsible to their subjects, and prone to incur Debt for
military purposes as far as their power of borrowing
extended. Austria and Russia for a long series of
years borrowed by means of an inconvertible
currency, and funded their debts as opportunity
offered. W i t h them we shall also consider the
adjacent and semidependent States of Greece,
Roumania, Servia, Egypt and Morocco.
AUSTRIA.

Austrian

Austria is a country of uninterrupted deficits.
From 1789 to the present time there Jias not
been a year in which the revenue of the State has
equalled its expenditure.

Austria.

65

1. In 1763, at the end of the Seven
£
Capital.
Years' War, the capital of the Debt
was
15,000,000
In 1789 it was
35,000,000
During the disastrous Wars of the
French Revolution and Empire the
Debt increased rapidly. Inconvertible bank notes were largely
resorted to, with the usual
result of increasing depreciation. I n 1811 their amount was
£106,000,000, and 12 florins of
Cohen,
paper money was only worth one of
currency. Loans were contracted,
on the return of Peace, for their
liquidation, and the Debt rose by
1820 to
98,700,000
The successive deficits brought it in
1848 to
125,000,000 Martin's
The Wars with Hungary, Italy,
France, and Prussia, and the vast
military establishments in the intervals caused an enormous increase, and raised the Debt in 1868
to
301,000,000
I t is now divided between the Cisleithan or
Austrian provinces, and the Transleithan or Kingdom of Hungary, in the pi~oportion of three-fourths
F

Austria.

66

Annual
Increase.

to the former and one-fourth to the latter. Besides
this proportion, the Transleithan provinces have a
separate DeBt of £8,400,000, making the total
debt in 1868 £309,500,000.
The rate of increase is shown in the following
Table:—
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE.
1763 to 1789
1789 to 1820 (French W a r s )
..
1820 to 1848
..
. . . .

Annual
pe^head.

..
..
,.

£
800,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
9,000,000

2 and 3. The Annual Charge is more difficult
^° ascertain, but the following table is an approximation :—
ANNUAL CHARGE.

Annual Charge ;

Population

1815

.£
3,300,000

28,000,000

1848

5,500,000

37 3 000,000

1868

13,120,000

36,000,000

Charge per
head

s.

d.

2

4

3

0

7

3

The diminution of population was from the
cession of the Italian provinces.
National
Income.

4. Some information about the produce and

67

Russia.

income of Austria is contained in an official valuation of agricultural produce in 1866, amounting to
nearly £200,000,000; and an estimate by M. Block M. Block,
of the industry of the nation as producing annually pp. 454-5.
£300,000,000. Adding, in italics, an estimate of
£100,000,000 for professions and other employments, we have :—
ESTIMATED INCOME OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE.
Agriculture
Manufactures and Handicrafts . .
Professions and other employments

. . . .
..
<.

£
200,000,000
300,000,000
100,000,000
£600,000,000

Since Austria is less developed in commerce
and industry than North Germany, and much less
so than France, this seems a probable calculation.
On this amount the Annual Charge of the Debt is
2*2 per cent.
RUSSIA.

Russia, like Austria, is a country of paper Russian
money and continual deficits. But, unlike Austria,
it is most difficult to obtain the facts of the debt.
The Compendium of Mr. Cohen, and the Statistical Tables relating to foreign countries published
by the British Government, are almost the only
sources of information.
1. From 176 8 to 1817, the debts of the Govern- Capital,
ment were chiefly met by issues of paper roubles,
F 2

68
Cohen,
p. 24.

Martin's
Year Book,
1871.

Statistical
Tables for
foreign
countries.

Russia.

which in 1817 amounted to 836,000,000 roubles,
representing a nominal value of about£125,000,000,
but really less than a third of that sum. There
was also a funded debt of £7,000,000 owing in
Holland.
In 1817 the redemption of the paper money
was undertaken, and several loans were contracted
for that purpose.
From 1832 the deficits of
Income under Expenditure became very large, and
have been officially stated.
The Debt, including the outstanding paper money, is first stated
for 1853, when it is given,
perhaps inadequately, at
..
I n 1858, after the Crimean War,
it was
I n 1869, including the Floating
Debt, it was
..
..
,.

£

125,000,000
240,000,000
300,000,000

From the want of corresponding accounts it is
difficult to obtain accurately the rates of increase,
but the following table gives an approximation :—
AVERAGE ANNUAL INCREASE.

Annual
Increase.

Deficits,
„
„
Increase

1832 to 1845
1846 to 1853
Crimean "War, 1854 to 1856
of Debt, 1857 to 1869 . .

£
2,500,000
7,000,000
31,000,000
5,000,000

Russia.

69

2 and 3. The Annual Charge may be approxi- ^n n u a l
mately stated thus, including an estimate of
£1,500,000 for liabilities on guarantees to opened
lines of railway :—
ANNUAL CHARGE.

Annual Charge

! 1853
1869

£
6,000,000

Population in
Europe

Charge per
head

60,000,000

s. d.
2 0

f 11,500,000
< 13,000,000 .
^
I .70,000,000
l_ with guarantees

f 3 3
I 3 8

4. There is a recent official valuation by National
M. de Buschen of the annual produce of Russia, n c o m e which, adding, in italics, £120,000,000 for professions, Government servants, and other employments, i s : —
ESTIMATE OF INCOME OP RUSSIA.

Agriculture
Fisheries and game, nearly
Forests
Mines, nearly
Handicrafts and Manufactures
Professions and other employments

£
218,000,000
4,000,000
24,000,000
7,000,000
140,000,000
120,000,000
£513,000,000

This is only a small income, £7 per head, on

70

Houmania and

Servia.

t h e European population; and appears a narrow
basis on which to rest the taxation of £66,000,000
of the Russian Empire. I t may account for the
continual deficits. The charge of the Debt is
2*1 per cent. Including Bailway guarantees it is
2*5 per cent.
GREECE.
s

Greece.

Martin's
Year Book.

Greece gained her independence in 1821, and
became a Debtor in 1824. H e r Debt is n o w Funded Debt \
Floating Debt . .

£:
12,000,000
6,000,000
£18,000,000

The Annual Charge of a small portion is paid
by Greece; t h a t of a loan of £2,344,000 is paid
by England, France, and Russia, its guarantors;
and t h a t of the remainder is paid by nobody.
ROTJMANIA AND SERVIA.

Roumania,

Servia,

Houmania was formed by the" union of the
principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia into a
semi-independent State in 1861.
Its Debt is
£4,325,000, and population four millions.
Servia became a semi-independent State in
1856, and is the only European State without a
Debt.

Turkey*

71

TURKEY.

The Ottoman Government was received into Ottoman
tne European family of National Debtors in 1854. Em P ire *
Previous to t h a t time it had lived, like other
Oriental governments, from hand to m o u t h ; contracting debts from time to time with local money
lenders at usurious rates of interest; and irregular
in its payments. The war with Russia increased
these debts very largely, and brought the nation
into contact with the lending countries of Europe.
From 1850 to the present time, there has been a
continual series of deficits, covered by loans in two
years out of every three.
L The first foreign loan was in 1854
Capital,
for
.._
..
..
.,
3,000,000
I n 1865, after several foreign loans,
the Home Debts were consolidated by a further loan of
£36,000,000, making the total
Fenn on
Debt
..
...
..
..
71,000,000 F u n d s *
I n 1870, after deducting the amounts
paid off by Sinking Funds of
2 per cent, attached to nearly 0 2
every loan, the Debt was a b o u t . . f#4,000j000
The average rate of Increase from
1 8 5 t to 1870 has been per year.,

Increase.
5,000,000

72
Annual
Charge.

Morocco.

2 and 3. The Annual Charge, at nearly
6 per cent., exclusive of Sinking
Funds, is about
Being per head on the population of
twenty-five millions
..
•.

£
5,000,000
is. Qd.

EGYPT.

Egypt.
Capital.

E g y p t is a still younger borrower, having commenced foreign loans in 1862.
There are four classes of d e b t : —
£
1. General loans, 1862-68..
,.
21,786,000
2. Khedive's loans, 1866-67
.•
4,950,000
3. Private domains of Khedive, 1870
7,144,000
4. Floating debt, about
..
..
3,000,000
Total Debt, 1870 ,

Increase.
Annual
Charge.

... .

... .£36,880,000

The Increase has been per year . .
The Annual Charge is at various rates of interest from 7 to 10 per cent.,
exclusive of the Sinking Funds,
and amounts to . . ' ' . .
.. r
The charge per head on the population of seven millions i s . .
..

4,000,000

2,580,000
7s. 4cZ.

MOROCCO.

Morocco.

Morocco is another Mahommedan State in Africa,
and has a small Debt of £440,000, contracted to
meet part of the indemnity to Spain in 1862.

73

VI.
T H E .PROGRESS OF INDEBTEDNESS.

Such is a brief account of the separate Debts
and burdens of the civilized nations of the world.
Let us now review their aggregate amounts and
progress, in successive historic periods ; first
examining the increase of their capitals.
Most of the European States were in the habit, Rise of
from very remote antiquity, of anticipating their Debts,
revenues by temporary loans to meet emergencies ;
borrowing for short terms and at a usurious rate
of interest from merchants or money lenders, much
in the same way as Oriental nations at the present
day. The Italian Republics were the first to
reduce the practice to a system, and to contract
permanent debts.
Their example was followed
by their nearest connections and invaders ; the
Spaniards and French. From Spain the custom
was adopted by her rebellious subjects, the Dutch,
who achieved by its aid independence and poHtical
power, and introduced it after 1688 into England.

74

The Progress ofIndebtedness.

The first distinct account that can be made up is
about the year 1715.
NATIONAL DEBTS IN 1715.
Seven-,
teenth Century and to France
,.
..
.„
..
..
..
A.I>. 1715.
Holland (about)
..
England . .
..
Spain, Italian Republics, and other States
..

Total

• ..

., "

£
124,000,00090,000,000
36,000,000
50,000,000

. . £300,000,000

These debts pressed so heavily upon the first
three nations that France became bankrupt in the
next year; Holland fell into decay from excessive
taxation on her small population; and English
patriots predicted the ruin of their country.
Eighteenth'"
During the next eighty years borrowing inUr t0 c r e a s e (
1793 ^
i and spread, with the increase of capital
and credit, to meet war expenses. England, as the
most commercial nation, and the successor to the
naval and financial supremacy of the Dutch, was
the largest and most frequent borrower, especially
during the costly struggle with her colonies in
America. In 1793,—on the breaking out of the
French Revolutionary "War, and just after a third
bankruptcy by France,—the most reliable figures
that can be procured show that the Debts of the
world had doubled.

The Progress of Indebtedness,
NATIONAL DEBTS,

1793.

Great Britain (with value of Annuities)
Continent of Europe—
Holland
Austria
France
Russia
Russia and German States . •
Spain
Portugal

75

..

£
280,000,000

£
100,000,000
35,000,000
32,000,000
17,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
900,000
202,900,000

United States

..

British India

..

.:

..

15,000,000

..

8,000,000

..

..

. • ..

Total

..

..

. . £505,900,000

The long W a r that followed W a s c a r r i e d o n b y
the Oontinental nations without much recourse to

French
Re

yolution

and Empire

credit.
France made, war support war by un- to 1815.
sparing contributions, and added to her debt little
more than an average of two millions a-year.
Austria, Russia, Prussia, Spain, and Denmark
supplied their necessities by the issue of paper
currency that brought its usual result of depreciation, and was gradually funded at the close of the
war. England by her trade and manufactures
largely increased her pecuniary resources during
the war, and supplied not only her own but a
considerable portion of her allies' expenditure by
her borrowing. She was at once the manufacturer^
the merchant, and the subsidizer of half Europe;
0,nd made efforts that, in proportion to her then
means and population, were as great as those of

76

The Progress of

Indebtedness.

the United States in their recent Civil War. On
the conclusion of Peace the war bills took some
years to settle in most of the European countries,
but the highest amounts of the debts between 1815
and 1820, according to the most reliable figures,
are shown in the following table :—
NATIONAL DEBTS, 1815-1820.

United Kingdom

902,000,000

Continent of Europe-^Holland
.*
..
..
^Franc^
Austria
.,
.. - ..
Prussia and German States
Spain
Russia
Xaples
Portugal
Denmark ..
..
'..
United States

£

..

..

Latin America . .

..

British India
Total

..

£
144,000,000
140,000,000
98,700,000
53,000,000
52,000,000
50,000,000
20,000,000
8,000,000
4,300,000
-—
..

..

570,000,000
26,000,000
3,000,000
29,000,000
£1,530,000,000

Hence in twenty years of war the Debts had
trebled, adding a thousand millions to the previous
indebtedness, two-thirds of which had been
incurred by England. The position of England
is very remarkable, with £900,000,000 of debt
against £630,000,000 owing by the rest of the
world.

The Progress of Indebtedness.

77

The x
period from 1820 to 1848 was one of The Restom

ration and

peace, only interrupted by the French Revolution Peace to
1848.
of 1830, and wars in Belgium and Spain, increasing
the debts of the three countries affected.
The
list in 1848 is very similar to the last, but is
worthy of notice on account of its contrast to the
one that will follow.
NATIONAL DEBTS,

1848.

820,000,000

United Kingdom..
Continent of Europe :—
*—franco
Austria
Spain
Russia
Holland
^ J r a s s i a and German
Italian States
Belgium
Portugal
Denmark
Greece (about)
Sweden and Norway

States

£
182,000,000
125,000,000
113,000,000
100,000,000
100,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
17,500,000
17,000,000
11,500,000
10,000,000
600,000
746,600,000

America:—
United States and State 1
Debts
..
..
J
British Colonies
Latin America

47,800,000
6,600,000
60,000,000
114,400,000
50,000,000

British India
Total

..

. . £1,731^000,000

78

The Revolution of
1848 and
Second
French
Empire to
1870.

The Progress of

Indebtedness.

I n this table the aggregate of these Debts
is very little larger than in 1815-20, though
England has less than half the total Debt, instead
of £270,000,000 more than all the other nations.
Our wonder in 1870 is that go lately as 1848
England owed nearly a half of the total debts of
the world.
The French Revolution of 1848 introduced a
new era, in which National Debts increased in
geometrical progression.
France herself was
tlirown into monetary embarrassment t h a t augmented her debt by very large deficits. Germany
and Austria had rebellion in every capital. Italy
and Rome were equally insurgent, and wars broke
out in Hungary, Lombardy, and SchleswigHolstein. When the people were subdued, the
Imperial regime commenced with gigantic armaments of all the European Powers, followed by
the Crimean, the Italian, and the Danish Wars,
the Indian Wars and Mutiny, the South American
Wars, the American Civil War, the AustroPrussian, and the Franco-Prussian W a r t h a t
is just concluding.
But the extension of the
borrowing system was equally due to three other
causes, the more perfect organization of credit and
financial combinations inaugurated in France under
the Imperial r u l e ; the increased facilities of
intercourse by railways and telegraphs, and the
rapid development of commerce and national

The Progress of Indebtedness,

F9

resources. The result appears in the following
table, which is summarized from t h e detailed
Tables in the Appendix :—
JNA.TION- IL

DEBT s,

1869-70.

See
800,000,000

Continent of Europe:—
France
..
Austria
Russia
Italy..
Spain
G-erman Empire
Turkey
Holland
Portugal
Belgium
Smaller States

£
550,000,000
310,000,000
300,000,000
285,500,000
237,400,000
160,800,000
104,000,000
80,640,000
59,335,000
27,360,000
50,395,000
o ifin 4.QA 0 0 0
ij* J. \JtJ»rt*J\J*\J\J\J

America;—
United States and State!
Debts
..
..
J
British Colonies
Latin America

532,400,000
20,920,000
212,000,000
765,320,000

Asia :—British India
Japan, Ceylon, Hong-kong

103,000,000
1,716,000
104,716,000

Australasia

..

35,744,000

Africa (Egypt, Morocco, &c.) . .

..

39,655,000

Total..

..£3,911,000,000

App(mdiX

80

The Progress of Indebtedness,

The increase is enormous, being
for the 211 years
£2,218,000,000
m%
##
or per year
£103,000,000
The Continental States have trebled their
debt; America has multiplied hers by ten;; India
has doubled hers; while Australasia and Africa
have begun new debts of thirty-five and thirtynine millions.
England shows a small actual decrease of her
debt, but a wonderful diminution of its proportionate magnitude. Instead of being greater by
a half than the total debts of the rest of the
world, as in 1815, or equal to them as in 1848, the
Debt of England was little more than a fifth of
their vast aggregate in 1870.
France increased her debt during these
twenty-two years by £370,000,000; Austria by
£185,000,000 ; Russia by £200,000,000 ; Italy by
£250,000,000 ; Spain by £114,000,000 ; the new
German Empire by £120,000,000; Turkey by
£100,000,000; Latin America by £150,000,000;
and the United States up to 1865 by £567,000,000.
These amounts, and the Table and Appendix, only
include £65,000,000 borrowed for the FrancoPrussian War to the end. of the year; and omit
more than £100,000,000 borrowed by other
nations during 1870, but not yet appearing in
their official accounts.

The Progress of Indebtedness.

81

The borrowing process goes on continually,'--'Future
even independently of the demands occasioned by Borrowing,
great wars, and, judging by the past, we should
look for a steady and rapid increase of the gigantic Debt of the world, Yet the late events have produced a change t h a t may exercise an opposing
influence, For ^the last twenty-two years the
leading Continental Nation, t h a t set the fashion
ill finance and aiimameuts, as well as in less important matters; has been the .greatest borrower'$ and
Her example hadj a great effect upon neighbouring
budgets. Now, the leading nations will be economical and paying-qff nations; and their neighbours
may see the necessity of following the more
salutary example. But for the next few years the
increase will be very great, on account of the augmentation of the French D e b t ; and, for the first
time since 1760, England will be exceeded by
another-country i n the magnitude of her -National

lj)eht.
: I t is Bad to see the universality and enormous \ Summary of
amount of national borrowing. Qut of fiffcy-two {
civilized States and considerable Colonies in the
-Y^orld, only three| small States ar^ actually free
from d e b t ; Servia: in Europe; Bolivia in America ;
ahd Liberia in Africa; and one other State, the
most powerful of all, the Empire of Germany, is,
or will soon be practically relieved from debt.
The last quarter of a century has been unpreceG

82

The Progress of

Indebtedness.

dentedly prolific in national wealth, but nations
have been equally active in mortgaging the increase of their resources.
The following table
recapitulates the growth of the last 150 years.
NATIONAL DEBTS OF THE W O R L D .
A.D.

Period.

1714

j

•

1793

j

1

1815-20

300,000,000

j

1848
1870

j
J

£

Chiefly Peace
506,000,000
War
1,530,000,000
Peace
1,730,000,000
Armaments and some
Wars

3,910,000,000

But the increase will be more clearly shewn in
the following table :—
INCREASE OF DEBTS OF THE W O R L D .
A.D,

Total Increase.

Increase per year.

1715 to 1792

£
2,640,000

1793 to 1818

1,024,000,000

40,000,000

1819 to 1848

200,000,000

6,600,000

1849 to 1870

Loans for
Works of

£
206,000,000

2,180,000,000

100,140,000

How much of this total has been expended on

The Progress of Indebtedness.

83

Railways, Canals, and other works of public utility % ^u!?Jic
The information is imperfect, but the following are
the approximate figures of the items :—
USEFUL EXPENDITURE.

rital—
Germany
United States (Federal and State Debts)
Australasia
Belgium
Spain . .
Sweden
Denmark

£
68,300.000
50,000,000
23,000,000
20,000,000
10,400,000
- 6,000,000
5,000,000
182,700,000

Annual Guarantees—
France
Italy
Russia
India

£
2,000,000
4,000,000
1,500,000
1,600,000
9,500,000

Equal to a Capital of

200,000,000
Total

£382,700,000

Adding £120,000,000 for unrecorded expenditure or guarantees on productive works, the total
productive loans appear to be about £500,000,000.
As the National Debts, with the capitalised value
of the guarantees, exceed £4,100,000,000, it follows
that only 12 per cent., or one-eighth, of this vast
total, has been raised for productive purposes ;
while £3,600,000,000, or eighty-eight per cent, of
the aggregate Debts of the world, have been spent
on war and unproductive purposes.
G 2

84

VII.
COMPAJRAT^YE A N N U A L BURDENS,

The comparative burdens of the indebted
countries and the effect of the increasing Debts
of the Continental States are in an exaggerated
form shewn by the annual charges per head of the
different nations at the three principal periods of
the present century. A t the end of the long
war with France the known amounts were as
follows:•—
Annual
Charge per
head,
1815-20.

ANNUAL CHARGE PER H E A D , 1815-20.

5.

United Kingdom

..

..

Continent of Europe :—
France
..
..
..
Austria
..
..
..
Prussia and German States

.,

,

,*
.,
..

s.
. . 4
. . 2
..
1

Average..
United States

..

,.

d.

34

8

d.
7
4
8
..

2 10
110

The excessive burden on British industry is
sufficiently evident; the charge per head being

Comparative Annual Burdens.

85

twelve times greater than the average of the three
principal countries of Europe ; and, taking them
singly, seven and a-half times larger than t h a t of
France, fifteen times larger than that of Austria,
and twenty-one times larger than that of Prussia
and the other German States.
A t the outbreak of the Revolutions of 1848 Annual
the account had become considerably better for head^l&lls
England, but was still very disadvantageous.
ANNUAL CHARGES PER HEAD,

1848
S.

United Kingdom

20

a.
2

••

3

2

..

2

7

••

Continent of Europe :
Holland
Belgium
Spain
France
Austria
Russia
Italian States
Prussia and German States
Average.,
United States (with State Debts)

s* d.
19 6
6 8
4 0
3 11
3 0
2 0
2 0
1 1

Hence the English charge per head had dimi*
nished from twelve times to six times as great as
the average of Continental Nations ; and, taking
them singly, was five times larger than the charge
per head of France, six and a-half times larger

86

Comparative Annual

Burdens.

than that of Austria, and eighteen times larger
than that of Prussia and Germany.
Annual
At the close of the Second French Empire in
Charges in
1870, the effect of its example on the Continental
1869-70.
States, and the change in the Debt-position of
England is very apparent.
ANNUAL CHARGE PER HEAD, 1869-70.
8.

Australasia

Cl.

21 6

United Kingdom

••

••

Continent of Europe:—
Italy (with Railway Guarantees)
Holland
France (with Railway Guarantees)
Portugal and Denmark
Spain
Austria
Turkey
Belgium
German Empire (nominally)
Russia (with Railway Guarantees)
Switzerland

s.
. . 14
. . 12
.. 9
..•- 9
.. 8
.. 7
.. 4
.. 4
.. 3
.. 3
.. 2

15 9

d.
0
1
9
0
0
3
6
2
9
8
4

Average
United States (with State Debts)

6

2

14 2

Latin America

6

1

Canada

4

6

Egypt

7

4

Here the charge per head of England has

Comparative Annual Burdens.

87

decreased from six times as great to two and
a-half times as great as the average of Continental States ; and from eight times as great as
the burden, of the United States to very little
more than equality.
Taking the Continental
States singly the charge per head of England was,
in 1870, one and a-half times larger than t h a t of
France, twice as large as that of Austria, and four
times that of the German Empire. This change
is caused by the decrease of the English charge
since 1815 from 345. 8d. to 155. 9c?., and the
larger increase of the Continental charges.
But these comparative results, though obtained Error in
by a recognised and usual method of measuring SOn per
National Debts, convey an exaggerated and there- head.
fore to a considerable extent fallacious idea of the
comparative burdens of the different nations;
because they take no account of the comparative
wealth of the several countries. The real burden
on England was never so many times greater
than the burden on France as the comparisons
per head suggest, beca-use England was at those
periods very much richer than France. The burden
on England is not at this moment five times greater
than the burden on Russia, as the figures per
head would indicate, because England is per head
so many times richer than Russia.
The only correct method of comparing the Comparison
burdens on different nations is by a comparison of P e r c e n t "
J

x

a g e on
Income.

§8

, Comparative Annual

Burdens.

of percentages on their incomes, and although
estimates of income may be approximations rathe?
than accurate calculations, they afford a much
truer estimate of the burdens of Debts or taxation
than calculations founded upon population, in
which considerations of relative income are entirelyleft out. On this account I have endeavoured,
throughout this essay, 'tov give the most reliable
estimates of National Income, although they can
only be approximations to the truth.
Income per
To make t h e Charges per head of the preceding
be contables represent correctly the burdens of their
^ t h o t * several nations, they require to be supplemented
per Head, by the average Income per head of the populations. Every one allows in discussion that we
must take into account the resources of the different countries. But how can their resources be
ascertained 1 The figures in the preceding chapters
may help us to an approximation.
Debt
For the period 1815-20, we hnd for the United
1815-20
Kingdom that the population and estimated income
(given at pages 13 and 18) show an average estimated income per head of J 1 9 , on which the
charge per head of 34s. 8d. is 9 per cent. Similarly for France, the tables given on pages 52 and
55 show for 1818 an average estimated income per
head of £6 10&, on which the charge per head of
&s. 7d. is 3*5 per cent. For Austria and Germany
there are no similar data, but as the standards of

Comparative Annual

Burdens.

89

earnings and prices and living were very much
alike in the central nations of the Continent, and
all had been exposed to the same long destructive
wars, we may assume as an approximation the
same average income per head for the German
countries as that of France. This gives the following approximate table:—
BURDENS OF NATIONAL DEBTS, 1815-20.

Nation.

Estimated
Income
per Head

Annual Debt
Charge
per Head

Percentage
of Debt Charge
to Income

19 0

s. d.
34 8

9-

6 10

4 7

3-5

Austria

6 10

2 4

1-8

Prussia and Ger-1
man States
J

6 10

1 8

1-3

£

United Kingdom ..
France

..

8.

|

So that on these estimates of National income
the burden of the English Debt upon income in
1815-20 was two and a-half times that of France ;
five times that of Austria, and seven times that of
Prussia; instead of being, like the Charge per
head, seven and a-half, fifteen, and twenty-one
times the charges in those Countries. The figures
indicate that, at the close of the French War, the

90

Debt
1837-43'

Comparative Annual Burdens.

average income of an Englishman, in consequence
of English manufactures, commerce, and high
prices, was three times as great as that of an
average Frenchman or German.
For the period 1837-43 we find, from com~
ar son
P i
°f the figures of population and national
income in the same tables, that the average income per head in England was estimated at
£18 105., and that in France at £10 55. For
Austria and Germany we are again obliged to
deduce the figures from those of France. The
tables of 1868-70 indicate that in those years the
income per head of Prussia and Germany was less
by one-tenth than that of France, and that Austria was one-tenth behind Prussia and Germany.
The same proportions for 1837-43 give the German
income per head as £9, and the Austrian as £8,
in comparison with the French £10 per head. If
Prussia alone were taken, without the South
German States, her income per head ought not
to be estimated so high, since Prussia is a poorer
country than South Germany. The above figures
furnish the following table :—

Comparative Annual

Burdens.

91

BURDENS OF NATIONAL DEBTS, 1837-43.

Nation.

Annual
Estimated
Inceme per Head. Debt Charge
per Head.

d.
2

5-5

5

3 11

2-3

8

0

3

0

2-2

9

0

1

1

•6

United Kingdom

£
8.
18 10

France

10

Austria
Prussia and Germany

s.
20

Percentage
of Debt
Charge to
Income.

Here t h e burden of the English Debt is
scarcely two and a-half times larger than those
of France and Austria, and nine times as large as:
that of Prussia and Germany, instead of being,
like the charge per head, five, six and a-half, and
eighteen times as large. I t should be remarked
that, according to these estimates, the English
income per head was rather smaller in 1843 than
in 1815, on account of t h e long period of depression and distress, and the previous high standard;
but that t h e Continental incomes had recovered
since t h e war about 50 per cent. ; and were then
on t h e average one-half instead of one-third of
the average English income.
For the period 1868-70 we "have, in the pre- p e ^ t
ceding chapters independent estimates of the Bur<lens,

92
See above,
pp. 17, 36,
41, 54, 66,
69.

Comparative

Annual

Burdens.

National income of each of the above Powers, and
also of Russia and the United States, from the
best statistical and official authorities ; and workP
ing out from the populations the incomes per head,
we have the following table :—BURDENS oi NATIONAL DEBTS, 1868-70.

Nation.

PerAnnual
centage
Estimated
Debt
of Debt |
Income per
Head. i , Charge per Charge on
Head.
Income. :

s. d.
15 9

2-8

14 2

2-7

7 6

3 8

2*5

France
(with Railway guarantees)

21 0

9 9

2-3

Austria

16 15

7 3

2-2

German Empire

19 0

3 9

1-0

£

5.

United Kingdom
28 0
United States
(with State Debts)

26 0

(with Railway guarantees)

The table shows how nearly equal the burdens
had become of the debts of England, the United
States, Russia, France, and Austria, and t h a t these
burdens were about two and a-half times as large
as t h a t of the German Empire. I t also shews

Comparative Annual Burdens.

9&

what immense strides have been made by the
incomes of all the countries except Russia, in
consequence of Railways and freer Commerce.
England seems to have risen since 1843 from
£18 105. to £28 per head; France from £10 5s.
to £21 ; Germany from £9 to £19 ; and Austria
from £8 to £16 15s. ; while Russia appears to be at
the pecuniary level of the rest of the Continent
in 1815.
The advance on the Continent from lower to
higher incomes and prices has of course been far
more rapid than in England, where the standard
was so high in 1815, the advance being since 1837
100 per cent* on the Continent against 46 per
cent, in England ; and, since 1815, 300 per cent,
on the Continent against 40 per cent, in England.
The long prosperity and monopoly of manufactures
and commerce during the twenty-two years of the
French war, had given Great Britain a great
superiority of wealth and higher prices over the
devastated and impoverished nations of the Continent, which was sure to be largely diminished on
their recovery.
Such are the inferences respecting the true
burden of the Debts to be drawn from the estimates and facts respecting national incomes that
have been collected in the preceding pages from the
best available sources. I give them as approximations, and indications, and not as verified statistics;

94

Comparative Annual Burdens.

but still as throwing valuable light on the history
of National Debts, and their comparative pressure,
and the policy that ought to be adopted respecting
them.

95

VIII.
T H E G R O W T H OJF NATIONS.

National Debts were the invention of Com- First Period
mercial Republics, whose principal citizens were Debts,
wealthy and patriotic, and willing to lend to
the State of which they were eminent members.
By this means those small communities were able
to hold their ground against the larger but less
wealthy nations by which they were surrounded.
The United Provinces of Holland, the bravest
and richest of all these Republics, were enabled
by borrowing to conquer their independence from
Spain, to resist the encroachments of France, and
to carry on naval wars with England, and to rank
as a first-rate Power in Europe. But after 1715
this contest of the smaller against the greater
States came to an end by exhaustion. If the
small community was not conquered and absorbed,
it lost its commercial pre-eminence and resources
through excessive taxation, and was weighed

96

Second
Period.

Probable
Estimates
of [Resources.

The Growth of

Nations.

down by the Debt and the competition of less
burdened traders.
W i t h the eighteenth century commenced a
second period of National Debts, in which new
nations began to take the places of some of the
old, and the rivalship has lain between four or five
States, who have steadily increased their population and resources as well as their debts up to the
present time. This increase of resources has been
very great, and ought to be taken into account in
considering the magnitude of the obligations, and
in judging whether a State is crippling or emancipating itself from National Debt. But it has
been difficult to foim any idea how great the
increase has been, or how far the different nations
are advancing or retrograding in comparative
strength and burdens.
I shall endeavour/in the following pages to
construct from such indications as can be discovered a sketch of the progress in population
and resources since the year 1700 of the five
principal nations of the modern world.
As
regards Population, our information is tolerablycomplete and authentic, and the figures t h a t will
be quoted possess of themselves, without any
additions respecting wealth or income, great interest and importance.
As regards Resources, I
must, as in the last chapter, step out of the path
of strict statistics, and give the best and most pro-

The Growth of Nations.

97

bable calculations that can be obtained.
For
England we have contemporary estimates of her
national income in the eighteenth century that
are worthy of reliance, and estimates founded on
the income-tax returns for the present century.
From them we can obtain the English income per
head at each period, which we know was much
higher in the eighteenth century, as it has been
since, than those per head of France or Germany.
Hence we can determine, within narrow limits of
error, the probable incomes per head and therefore the approximate total incomes of those
countries. I n the nineteenth century the facts are
more numerous, and we have the independent
estimates above quoted respecting France, and
inferences respecting Germany. For 1868-70 we
have from all the nations (as mentioned in the last
chapter) estimates of some authority respecting
their annual incomes. Such is the method proposed for this inquiry, and the data available.
I n the year 1700 the principal State of Europe Five
was France, powerful by her population of nearly 1 7 ^Q
twenty millions, and her political unity. Next
came Austria, with about twelve millions; and
England with nine millions of inhabitants. Prussia
was a small State with a million and a-hal£ The
American Colonies, afterwards the United States,
had a quarter of a million. Respecting Russia I
can get no reliable information.
H

98

The Growth of

Nations.

Gregory King calculated the average income
of England in 1688 at £8 per head of her population, an amount equal to a much larger sum in
our present currency, and the average of the
United Kingdom has been calculated in the
earlier pages at £6 per head. But the nation
was richer and able to bear heavier taxes in proportion to its numbers than the French or Germans ; so that we must calculate their incomes
per head at less than £6 ; and shall not be far
wrong in putting them at £4 10s. per head. The
American income per head may probably be
reckoned throughout the calculations a little
under that of the United Kingdom. These data
give the following approximate estimate :—
FIVE NATIONS, A.D.

1700.

Nation and probable
Income per head.

Population.

Probable Income.

United Kingdom, £ 6

9,000,000

£
55,000,000

19,500,000

88,000,000

12,000,000

54,000,000

1,500,000

7,000,000

250,000

1,250,000

42,250,000

205,000,000

France "
^
Austria

- £ 4 105.

Prussia ^
American Colonies, £ 5
Total

..

The Growth of Nations.

99

The Debts at this period were £12,600,000
for England, and nearly £100,000,000 for Franee.
The smallness of the total income of all the States
—about one fourth of that of England or France
in 1870-—is worthy of notice; and also the infantine condition of the States that have since
developed into the German Empire and the
United States.
I n 1784, Prussia and the United States had The same
.

...

.

T

.

Five

grown, in very similar proportions, to populations Powers in
of five and a-half and three millions; the United 1 7 8 4 ,
Kingdom had expanded to thirteen millions ;
Austria to twenty-three millions; and France
retained her leadership with a population of
twenty-five millions.
Such wrere their relative
strengths at the breaking out of the French
Revolution.
The income of the United Kingdom was calculated at page 15, on the basis of the estimate
of Arthur Young, as £150,000,000, or £11 10s.
per head; and this increase was partly due to the
expansion of trade and manufactures in a greater
degree than those of France and Germany. W e
shall not be far wrong in calculating the incomes
per head of the latter one-third lower than that
of the United Kingdom, or at about £8 per head.
This gives the following table :—
H 2

The Growth of Nations.

100

THE

FIVE NATIONS,

Nation and probable
Income per head.

1784.

Population.

Estimated Income.

13,000,000

£
150,000,000

..

25,000,000

200,000,000

*£8

23,000,000

184,000,000

Prussia _
_

5,500,000

44,000,000

United States, £10

3,000,000

30,000,000

Total . .

69,500,000

608,000,000

United Kingdom, £11 10s.
France *"
"
Austria

These are still very small incomes, and that of
the United Kingdom was weighed down by a
huge debt, twice as heavy in proportion as that of
1870. The Debts were:—
T H E I R DEBTS,

1784.

Capital.

.

£
9,240,000
5,000,000
1,750,000
750,000

419,000,000

United Kingdom
France
Austria
United States

Annual Charge.

£
273,000,000
96,000,000
35,000,000
15,000,000

16,740,000

The interest on the three latter is taken at five per cent.

France and Austria were more oppressed by
the modes of taxation, and their expensive and
•unequal levying, than by their debts, which were

The Growth of Nations,

101

not so heavy a burden in proportion to their
resources as those of the present day.
At the end of the war in 1815, the population The Five
of the United Kingdom had made a great advance, ^ ^ g 1 1
having risen to eighteen and a-half millions.
France had been raised during Bonaparte's reign
to a very large total, but was reduced on his final
defeat to her old boundaries, and a population of
thirty and a-half millions; still remaining the
most populous State in Europe. Austria had been
diminished by Bonaparte to possessions with
twenty millions of inhabitants, but was restored
by the Allied Powers to twenty-eight millions.
Prussia at the same time recovered her territories,
and numbered ten and a-half millions. The United
States had increased to nine millions.
But the war had produced an immense change
in the relative incomes of the United Kingdom
and the Continental nations. That of the United
Kingdom had risen to the then unprecedented
average of £19 per head, or a total of £350,000,000.
Those of France and Germany, by the ruin and destruction of property and the interruption of trade
and industry, had probably sunk below the money
average per head of 1784, and much below its
purchasing power ; and may (as mentioned in the
last chapter) be estimated from the figures for
France at £6 10s. per head. The progress of the

102

The Growth of Nations.

United States was very great, though not equal
in proportion to that of England. The estimate is
therefore :—•
T H E F I V E NATIONS, 1815-18
Nation and probable Income
per head.

Population.

Probable Income.

United Kingdom, £19

18,500,000

£
350,000,000

France

30,500,000

200,000,000

28,000,000

190,000,000

10,500,000

70,000,000

United States, £ 1 4

9,000,000

126,000,000

T otal

96,500,000

936,000,000

Austria

>£610s

Prussia J . .

|

Thus England rose to the first place in total as
well as individual income, and became the great
monied State of the World. But here eminence
was purchased with a corresponding Debt.
DEBTS, 1815-18.
Capital.

£
United Kingdom.
France
Austria . .
Prussia
United States

Total

Annual Charge

£

902,000,000
140,000,000
99,000,000
31,000,000
20,000,000

32,000,000
7,000,000
3,300,000
1,500,000
1,000,000

.. £1,192,000,000

£44,800,000

The Growth of Nations,

103

The heavy burden of the British Debt has
been fully pointed out in the preceding pages, and
the necessity of looking at the income as well as
the charge on each nation, to come to a safe
conclusion respecting the comparative pressure on
each.
The next period, down to 1837-43, was a The Five
period of peace and gradual development. I n the ^ i P ^
United Kingdom the increase was altogether in
population, which, in spite of every discouragement from slackness of trade, increased to twentyseven millions ; whilst France only increased at
one-fifth of the English rate, and reached thirtyfour millions.
Austria made a much larger
increase than France, and attained thirty-eight
millions; and Prussia and the United States
again kept pace together with fifteen and eighteen
millions.
As to Income, the United Kingdom was
stationary in the average per head, making
her large total increase entirely by increased
population.
France made a great advance
both in average and total income, though still
very timid in enterprise, and deficient in capital, and her total income is taken from the
calculation at pages 54-5 as £360,000,000.
The estimates for 1868 show that the average
per head of Austria should be assumed as one-

104

The Growth of Nations.

fifth lower than that of France ; while Prussia
—without the richer provinces of South Germany—was about the same as Austria. The estimate is therefore :—
T H E FIVE NATIONS, 1837-43.

Nation and probable Income
per head.

Population.

£
United Kingdom, £18 10s.
France, £10 10s. . .
Austria, £ 8 10s.

£
500,000,000

27,000,000
34,000,000
38,000,000

Prussia, £ 8 10s. . .
United States, £17
Total

Probable Income.

..

15,000,000
18,000,000
132,000,000

360,000,000
320,000,000
530,000,000
300,000,000
1,610,000,000

Their Debts a t that period were
DEBTS, 1837-43.
Capital.

United Kingdom
France
Austria
Prussia
United States
Total . .

Annual Charge.

£
825,000,000
170,000,000
115,000,000
21,000,000
15,000,000

£
27,550,000
8,000,000
5,000,000
1,000,000
900,000

1,146,000,000

42,450,000

which are smaller than the totals in 1815-18.

The Growth of Nations.

105

The general increase of income had therefore
lightened considerably the pressure of the Debts,
which had scarcely increased in total amount
since 1820.
The last period, from 1843 to 1870, was one The Period
of astonishing increase for almost every nation.
Railways and Steam, with more intelligent
Commerce, and the gold discoveries, added in
thirty years more than 50 per cent, to the
average income per head of every civilized country.
The increase of population was slower in the
United Kingdom than during the preceding period,
owing to the great diminution in Ireland, but the
total rose to nearly thirty-one millions. France
increased at a much slower rate than the United
Kingdom, but the annexation of Nice and Savoy
brought her numbers up to thirty-eight millions.
Austria was diminished by the loss of her Italian
territories to thirty-six millions. Prussia merged
into the North German Confederation, and then
into the German Empire, with an immense advance
from fifteen to thirty-eight and a-half millions ;
and the United States again keeping pace with
Prussia by her large immigrations, rose from
eighteen to thirty-eight and a-half millions.
The preceding chapters have given estimates of
the income of all these countries from M. Block,
M. M. Eeclus, Mr. Wells, and semi-official sources ;

106

The Growth of Nations.

and also one for Russia founded on that of M. de
Buschen; forming the following table, in which
the same order is preserved for convenience of
reference :—
THE SIX POWERS, 1868-70.

Nations and Income
per head.

Population,

Estimated
Annual Income.

£
United Kingdom, £28

30,800,000

860,000,000

France, £21 ..

38,000,000

800,000,000

Austria, £17 ..

36,000,000

600,000,000

German Empire, £19..

38,500,000

725,000,000

United States, £26 ..

38,500,000

1,000,000,000

Total Five Nations

181,000,000

3,985,000,000

70,000,000

500,000,000

251,000,000

4,485,000,000

Kussia, £7
Total Six Powers ..

The increase in the Continental and American
Incomes, is even more remarkable than the increase
of their Debts, which were :—

The Growth of Nations,

107

DEBTS, 1868-70.
Capital.

£
United K i n g d o m . .
France
Austria
German Empire . .
United States
Total Five
Russia

Nations

Total Six Powers

Annual Charge.

£

800,000,000
550,000,000
310,000,000
,160,800,000
532,000,000

24,270,000
18,500,000
13,120,000
7,340,000
27,280,000

.

2,353,000,000
300,000,000

90,510,000
14,300,000

.

2,653,000,000

104,810,000

. '

So that in spite of the large amount of
borrowing, the total income of these five nations
had gained considerably upon the total indebtedness.
Such is a sketch of the progress for 170 years
of the five greatest Nations of the "World. I t s
main features are undoubtedly correct, whatever
uncertainty there may be about details, and suggest
the following inferences.
] . There can be no doubt of the immense advance Total
of these five Nations, the United Kingdom, France, I u c r e a s ? of
Austria, Prussia, and the United States, both in and Income,
population and wealth during this period ; in
Population from 42,000,000 to 180,000,000, or four
and a-half times as many ; and in Income from an
approximate amount of £200,000,000 to nearly
£4,000,000,000, or twenty times as much. The

108

The Growth of Nations.

United Kingdom alone, without any assistance (as
in Germany and America) from conquests or immigration, has increased since the estimate of
Gregory King three and a-half times in population
and fifteen times in income. The steps of the
increase are in round numbers :—•
UNITED KINGDOM,

FRANCE,

AUSTRIA, PRUSSIA, AND UNITED

STATES.

Increase, 1700 to 1870.
Probable Incomes
Population

Average
per bead

Total Incomes

£

s.

£

1700

5

0

205,000,000

1784

70,000,000

8 10

600,000,000

1815-18

96,000,000

9 10

930,000,000

1837-43

132,000,000

12

0

1,600,000,000

1868-70

Rise of
Prussia
States.

42,000,000

180,000,000

22

0

3,980,000,000

The slow progress of Income between 1784 and
1815, and its great acceleration from 1840 to 1870
are remarkable.
2
- The second point is the extraordinary and
almost co-equal rise throughout the whole period
of the two great nations of Prussia and the
United States ; beginning from populations like

The Cfrowth of Nations.

109

those of Denmark and Edinbro', and ending with
thirty-eight and a-half millions each. The numbers are :—
R I S E OF PRUSSIA AND UNITED STATES.

Populations, 1700 to 1870.
Prussia.

1700
1784
1815
1843
1870

United States.

1,500,000
5,500,000
10,500,000
15,000,000
38,500,000

250,000
3,000,000
9,000,000
18,000,000
38,500,000

The two nations have grown in entirely different w a y s ; Prussia by war and annexation; the
United States by development in a country of
unlimited area and resources, and by immigration
from older nations. The German Empire is more
warlike and economical; the United States richer
and more profuse. The American increase must
continue in an even greater ratio. Will the German increase stop at its present point, and cease
the progress of 170 years % Probabilities are
against it, and the next thirty years may add in
A.D, 1900 another curious record of the growth
of both the nations.
3. A reverse series of facts is observable respecting France. I n 1700, she was literally " La
Grande Nation/' with nearly 20,000,000 out of the
total 42,000,000 population of the four European
States.
I n 1784 she was nearly equalled by

Diminution
of the
Power of

France,

110

The Riches
of England.

The Groivth of Nations*

Austria, while England and Prussia were together
growing a match for her. I n 1 815 she had thirty
millions of population against fifty-nine millions of
Austria, Prussia, and England. I n 1840 she had
thirty-four millions against eighty millions of those
three countries.
I n 1870 she had thirty-eight
millions, and was surrounded by the German
Empire with an equal number, Austria with
thirty-six millions, and England with thirty-one
millions. Recent events show that this steady
diminution of comparative strength is also likely
to continue.
4. The fourth, point is the leadership of England during the present century in wealth and
income, and the near approaches in the last few
years of France and the United States. The
following table will show the figures :—
LARGEST NATIONAL INCOMES.

United
Kingdom.

France.

£

£

United States.

£

1815

350,000,000

200,000,000

126,000,000

1837-43

500,000,000

360,000,000

300,000,000

1869-70

860,000,000

800,000,000,

1,000,000,000

Thus, after a primacy of more than seventy

The Growth of Nations,

111

years England ceases to be the nation of the
world with the largest national income. The
United States, with eight millions more population, and with a higher standard of wages and
prices, now exceed her in gross amount, and are
growing with double the rate of annual increase.
France, by a great advance in the wealth of her
larger population and by the saving habits of her
people, was pressing closely upon England, till
stopped and put back by the misfortunes of the
late war.
The German Empire will probably
take the financial place of France, and, exceeding
the United Kingdom since the late annexations
by nearly ten millions of inhabitants, will rival
her in the amount of her national income.
But the richest nation, for commercial and
financial purposes is the country that has the
largest amount of disposable capital; or, in other
words, the country with the largest margin
between average income per head and average
expenditure. Holland, in the days of her prosperity, was the richest State of Europe, and the
creditor of Europe, although in aggregate income
she must have been much surpassed by the other
States of greater population. The United States,
notwithstanding their large income, are financially
not a wealthy country, because they have a
smaller margin between individual income and
expenditure, and a smaller amount of available

112

Debts and
Income.

The Growth of Nations..

capital than European countries. England is the
richest country in the world, because she has the
largest margin between income and expenditure,
and much the greatest amount of disposable
capital, so that, after providing for her own commercial requirements, she is the greatest lender to
other nations.
5. Lastly, as regards National Indebtedness,
^ e estimates of Income which have preceded
shew that we must take into account the losses of
industry and income by a great war or calamity, as
well as the burden incurred of Debt. During the
French Revolutionary War, England suffered no
loss of industry, but on the contrary considerably
increased i t ; but she incurred an additional debt
(including annuities) of £630,000,000, with* an
annual charge of £23,000,000 which was a tax of
seven per cent, on her income of £350,000,000.
The Continental States incurred no equivalent
amount of debt, or debt-charge on their incomes ;
but they suffered a terrible destruction of property,
and diminution of those incomes themselves, far
more than equivalent to the percentages imposed
on England. During the long Peace, from 1815
to 1848, all the European Countries made progress towards recovering their losses, England by
diminishing the pressure of her Debt, and the
Continental States by reviving their industries
and incomes; and thus at the termination of that

The Growth of Nations.

113

period a great modification had taken place in the
two extremes of the excessive burden of English
Debt, and the excessive deficiency of Continental
income.
After the Revolution of 1848 the same process
continued at a more rapid rate, but a new cause
came into action, in Continental distrusts and
armaments.
This time the Continental nations
copied the example set by England in the previous
war, and mortgaged their growing industries for
their military preparations. They did not mortgage them so deeply as England—except perhaps
in the case of Italy—because their prosperity kept
pace with their need of borrowing. But they lost
the opportunity of lightening their burdens by
their unprecedented development of resources.
England has availed herself of it, and, by unprecedented good fortune in avoiding any great war
during the last half century, has reduced by twothirds the real pressure and burden of her National
Debt.

i

114

IX.
D E B T - E V I L S AND DEBT-REDUCTION.

Is a National Debt a national evil, and ought
efforts be made for its reduction'? This is the
practical question before us.
The nature
A State is not, like an individual, the, absolute
10na
owner
Debts
°f a permanent estate, that can, without
injustice, be mortgaged at pleasure. The State is
only invested with a protectorate and jurisdiction
over a vast aggregate of property and living
workers t h a t constitute the capital of the country,
and a large amount of produce and earnings t h a t
form its annual income. Much of the property
changes and perishes, and all the workers change
and perish more rapidly still. Aids and benevolences were levied in the Middle Ages for extraordinary emergencies by exactions out of the
capital of men's property—fifteenths, tenths, or
even fourths. I n modern times this prerogative
is practically rehnquished, and contributions are
now only levied out of the annual income. But

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction,

115

with the growth of credit the State has gained a
power of mortgaging this income, by imposing on
all present and future property and inhabitants
within the State, under pain of national loss of
honor and solvency, an obligation to pay out of
their income for terms of years or for ever the
interest of money that it has borrowed.
Thus
owners of property that was not in existence at
the time of the loan, and workers who have
inherited no property at all from their borrowing
ancestors, are obliged by this law of public credit
to pay interest, as to the amount of which they
have had no discretion, and to deprive themselves
of comforts, and even necessaries, for the cost of
services in which they had no share, and probably
have derived no benefit. Such a power as this
transfers a burden from one set of workers and
property to a materially different set of workers
and property, and inflicts a great deal of hardship,
and often of injustice, upon future generations,
more particularly on the poor among them. Hence
the power of borrowing ought only to be exercised
on the clearest necessity, and with the utmost
economy.
But these are just the two conditions most Recklesslikely to be absent from every habit of borrowing. borrowing.
When money is raised by taxation within the year
for which it is needed, the amount that can be
raised is limited by the tax-enduring habits of the
I 2

116

Debt-Evils and

Debt-Reduction.

people, and must be as small as possible in order
not to provoke discontent. For the same reason
it must be expended as economically and made to
go as far as possible. But when money is raised
by loans, it is limited only by the necessity of the
interest not being too large for the taxable
endurance of the peoples, or provoking their discontent. Hence the limits of borrowing (on the
average of States) are about twenty times larger
than the limits of taxation; and an amount t h a t
is monstrous as a t a x is a very light burden as a
loan. I n consequence, borrowing is freed from the
most powerful check t h a t restrains taxation, and
may be, and generally is, used without difficulty
or discontent to carry on war for a much longer
time than heavy taxation, and to obtain much
larger annual amounts.
Cost and
W h e n a loan is obtained, the reason for
wastefuleconomical expenditure is equally wanting, and
borrowing, borrowed money is commonly expended with
much greater profuseness and even wastefulness
than would be the case with taxes. Besides,
loans are subject to considerable cost in commissions and other expenses, which diminish the net
sum t h a t reaches t h e treasury.
They are also
usually raised by the issue of stock at a discount
which can only be redeemed at a higher rate in
times of prosperity. From all these causes it
generally results that very much money, often

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction.

117

many times as much, is raised and spent by loans,
than would have been out of taxation only. The
heavy taxation creeps on insidiously and insensibly*
but is then permanent and irremoveable, except by
efforts very many times more serious and difficult
than the payment of interest on the debt. And
the real annual charge is larger than the nominal
interest, because of the cost of collection.
Now, let us consider the economical effect on Economical
the nation. The unnecessary or extra portion of Debt.
war expenditure, occasioned by the adoption of
borrowing, is capital unnecessarily diverted from
productive investments, and spent on unproductive
objects. Instead of being employed in trade or
industrial undertakings or improvements, adding a
new annual produce to the net income of the nation,
this capital becomes a pensioner on the old net
income of the country. I t is like taking an army
of artificers and agricultural labourers from their
workshops and fields, to maintain them and their
children after them, without labour, upon the taxes.
An unproductive debt, by its absorption of useful
capital, prevents improvements, hinders the growth
of industrial capital, and stunts the development
of a nation ; while at the same time, to meet the
necessity of paying interest, it imposes additional
taxation, and lessens the margin of tax-bearing
power of the nation.
Had France adhered strictly to the rule of Instance of
France.

118

A Debt
causes

injurious
taxation.

Debt-Evils and

Debt-Reduction.

raising her expenditure from the taxes of the year,
she would have saved the greater portion of the
£300,000,000 fresh debt of the Second Empire ;
and might have been a more improved country,
and richer in capital; and therefore stronger in resources, and in margin for taxation.
But a Debt produces greater evils and causes
.

_

.

oi weakness than the mere increase ot taxation.
Moderate taxes are easy to lay and to bear
without hardship or inequality, and the taxes
necessary for government and national safety
are usually of moderate amount. But heavy
taxes are difficult to impose without hardships
and inequalities, disarranging industry, and
raising the prices of necessary articles; losses
that are apt to fall principally upon the poor.
Such taxes may be borne for a short effort
during the fever of war, but when continued
during peace, for the interest of a heavy Debt, they
lessen the annual production of a nation and
cripple, its development. Such was notably the
effect of Debt-taxation in the United States after
the Civil War. Such also was the effect of the
Dutch Debt. Hence a Debt not only causes the
payment of additional taxation, but of a worse
kind of taxation ; for, even if taxes are wisely
levied, it necessitates the heavy portion of the
taxation, which is always the most prejudicial to
industry. Escape from such taxes is often sought

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction.

119

by emigration, draining the State of many of its
best workers and their savings.
Yet, notwithstanding all these evils, it is Great wars
practically impossible for a great State to avoid fr0m time
being involved from time to time in National t o t m i e Debt.
Crisises occur in the history of every
nation, when war becomes a life or death struggle,
and the greatest possible efforts must be made for
national honor and existence.
A t such times
monetary considerations sink into insignificance,
and the safety of the State necessitates very ]arge
borrowing, and on terms that in peace would be
very disadvantageous.
No State can hope
altogether to escape such emergencies, or is
justified in ignoring their inevitable occurrence.
Sometimes a long interval of peace may be enjoyed,
with many hairbreadth escapes from w a r ; but
then a period of war may follow, with many failures
to restore peace. A wise national policy will take
into account these conditions^ of national existence,
and not act as if peace were to be perpetual.
Thus, a great State will from time to time be When Debt
becomes a

obliged to spend in national defence far more than necessity.
can be raised within the year, even by war taxes ;
and. in order to avoid confiscation of property and
stoppage of industry, will be compelled to have
recourse to loans, throwing part of the burden
upon posterity, and will have to submit to disadvantageous terms and costliness in order to

120

A borrowing generation ought
to make
efforts to
repay.

Objectionable t a x a tion should
first be
reduced.

Debt-Evils and

Debt-Reduction.

be strong enough to repel attack or carry the
war into the enemy's territory. A wise nation
will, like Prussia, borrow as little as possible,
and administer the borrowed money with the
strictest economy. A wise nation will not, like
the United States, carry on war by borrowing
instead of taxation, and postpone increased taxes
till a huge debt has been accumulated. A wise
nation will not, like England in the Revolutionary
Wars, borrow on conditions t h a t render subsequent
repayment extremely onerous; and abandon all
care for economy in expenditure.
But in the intervals of peace ought the Debt
to be reduced % When a Debt has been only just
contracted there is a special duty on the borrowing
generation to make an effort to exonerate posterity,
and to bear themselves in a more gradual manner
the 'burden t h a t was too heavy for instant pay-,
ment. This was the case with the United States
at the conclusion of their Civil War, and it formed
a great reason for the sacrifices they made for the
diminution of the Debt. But when a Debt has
long survived the generations that created it, like
the Debt of England in 18/0, what is the Nation's
true policy and duty ?
If a Debt is causing objectionable taxation
t h a t hinders trade and industry, there can be no
doubt that the principal efforts ought to be directed
to getting rid of the pernicious taxes, and that

Debt-EviU and Debt-Reduction.

121

it is unwise to spend in simple saving of interest
the greater part of a surplus that might do double
service by creating new industry as well as remitting a burden. Still more is it unwise to
impose fresh prejudicial taxes in order to pay off
debt and save its interest, since this is destroying
industry, and buying a five per cent, reduction by
a ten or fifteen per cent, imposition. But it is not
wise altogether to lose sight of the diminution of
the Debt, and to allow the nation to lose the habit
and the sense of duty of redaction.
If there is no taxation that tends to cripple
industry, and if it is possible to obtain a surplus
without injuring industry, ought greater efforts to
be made to reduce an old Debt ? Many have
argued that it is unwise to pay off a Debt that
bears a low rate of interest with money drawn from
industry and bearing higher interest. But money
paid in taxes is not chiefly drawn from industry.
I t comes from other sources as well, where it bears
as low an interest as t h a t of the Funds, and it is
partly saved from superfluities. The industrial
capital of a nation is rather increased than diminished by reducing a Debt,
* The real argument arises on the point that we
have taken so much pains to elucidate, the rapid
growth of modern nations in numbers and wealth.
-i

- T i l l '

The effect
t i o n of

Debt*

Growth of
does nofc
render

active

Why, it may be said, should we increase our present reduction of
b t un
taxation in order to diminish the debt for future
"
necessary.

122

Debt-Evils and Debt

Reduction.

generations, when the experience of the last 170
years shows that the nation by its rapid growth
is constantly diminishing its burden. I n the peace
between 1815 and 1870 England has diminished
the pressure of her debt from 9 per cent, to less
than 3 per cent., principally by her natural growth
and increase, what can we want more than such
a rate of diminution, and why should we pinch
ourselves to accelerate so rapid a process ? The
answer is, that this argument is fallacious, because
it assumes the continuance of peace and rapid
growth, which we have no right to count on as a
certainty. W e must in prudence expect and make
provision for periods of war and great increase of
debt.
Instances
I n 1784 the same argument might have been
use(
a-.id France.
l • " See how immensely the national income
has increased since 1700, trebling itself in 84
years. The next thirty years will make a vast
reduction in the burden of the debt." But the
next thirty years included twenty-two years of
war, and notwithstanding the growth of income,
the actual pressure of the debt was nearly doubled.
The same contingency of war may again falsify
anticipation, and render the argument equally
delusive. So also in France, it might have been
argued under the Second Empire : " See how the
increase of national wealth has kept pace with our
borrowing, so that the pressure of the Debt in 1869

Debt-Evils

and Debt-Reduction.

123

was no greater than in 1850." But the war has
destroyed a great part of the increased income, and
rendered the debt in 1869 far heavier than in 1850,
besides imposing a fresh burden far harder to be
borne. A great naval war might equally destroy a
large portion of the trade and income of England,
besides loading her with a new debt very hard to
bear.
B u t there is still another reason for active Industrial
Debt-reduction in the industrial competition of 0f Nations.
nations.
The least indebted nation will, other
things being equal, have a distinct advantage in
the markets of the world; an advantage t h a t may
in course of time have a great influence over
national prosperity. There will probably in the
future be three great industrial and trading
nations, England, the United States, and Germany.
Of these three, England stands first at the present
moment, but the United States and Germany have
the greatest room for expansion. France has for
the present thrown herself out of the competition.
The future pre-eminence of these three nations
will depend in a great degree on their taxation;
and t h a t again on their National Debts. Germany
has always been economical in debt, and now has
the prospect of being entirely free from its burden.
The United States have taken up the idea of
paying off their debt with the pertinacity with
which they embrace all ideas tending to the

124

Debt-Evils

and

Debt-Reduction.

greatness of their nation ; and they are aided by
an extraordinary rate of national development
t h a t will diminish the pressure of their debt at
double, and soon at treble, the diminution of t h a t
of England. A t no long distance of time, if they
manage their affairs with the ordinary prudence,
the pressure of the Debt will have become insignificant, and they may return to their former light
taxation before the Civil War.
Their mineral
resources will then be fully opening, and their
manufacturing and trade capabihties growing
greater than those of their Mother Country.
If England remains burdened with debt, how
will she maintain the competition ? I t is the true
policy of every industrial nation to diminish the
burden of her d e b t ; b u t of all nations this is a
policy most essential for England.
J u s t as in
1700 greater nations came upon the scene to contend for commercial supremacy with the Italian
Cities and Holland, so towards 1900 greater
nations are coming upon the scene to contend for
commercial supremacy with England. The United
States and Germany may each rise to 70,000,000
inhabitants, and the United States will grow to
100,000,000, and far exceed any population of the
United Kingdom. The United Kingdom ought
to lessen her burdens to prepare for the competition.
B u t England is not the only State to whom

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction.

125

this advice should be given; every other borrowing and Eastern
rJfltion^

State equally requires it. The Latin Nations are
injuring their industrial prospects by the recklessness with which they are plunging into debt.
France is grievously weighted with her recent
additions. Italy is almost crushed by her burden.
Spain and Portugal are increasing the obstacles to
a revival of their commerce. Latin America is
steadily enlarging the taxation for her debts. I n
Eastern Europe, Austria continues to borrow for
her military deficits; Russia goes on burdening
her poor population; while Turkey and Egypt
borrow up to the verge of bankruptcy. All these
States are disqualifying themselves for competition
with Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic industry.
Reduction of National Debts has been practised Debt
by few nations. The following table shows nearly Reductio11 its extent :—
REDUCTIONS OF NATIONAL DEBTS.
Highest
Debt.

Lowest
Debt.

£
902,000,000

United States
(with State Debts)
Holland

1865-1870

622,000,000

1814-1870

144,000,000

Belgium

1830-1870

39,000,000

Denmark

1866-1869

14,860,000

Prussia

1820-1842

31,000,000

Per cent,
per Ann.
Reduction.

£

1815-1870

Nation.

Period.

United Kingdom..

800,000,000
532,000,000
80,000,000
27,400,000
13,240,000
21,000,000

0-2
2'6
0-8
0-75
8-6
1-5

126

Debt-Evils and

Debt-Reduction.

All of these are Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic
or Scandinavian nations. The reduction by the
United Kingdom is the smallest in the list, being
only 4s. per £100 per annum. Those of Holland
and Belgium are four times as great. That of the
United States for the last four and a-half years is
thirteen times as g r e a t ; b u t this, like the reduction by Denmark, is over too short a period for a
fair comparison.
Conclusions.

Such are the principal facts and arguments
respecting National Debts. I t may be useful to
give a brief summary of their conclusions.
A National Debt is a mortgage of the
future income and earnings of a nation, and
shifts the burden from the borrowing generation to materially different property and
earners.
Hence it is only justifiable in case of great
emergencies, with which the State is unable
otherwise to cope ; but it is then able to
render great services to the nation.
I t generally leads to much greater and less
economical expenditure, and is raised on
onerous terms.
I t weakens a nation by withdrawing capital
from productive employment and improve-

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction.

127

ments, and also by necessitating additional
and often injurious taxation.
I t s bad effect is modified by the growth of
the nation, which gradually diminishes its
pressure and burden.
But great wars from time to time arise,
requiring large increases of Debt, so that
national growth cannot be depended on to
wipe out a National Debt.
In time of peace the industrial competition
of nations gives a great advantage in the
markets of the world to the nation least
weighted by Debt.
The removal of prejudicial taxation, so
long as it exists, must be the principal object
of exertion.
But for war reasons, and also for peace
reasons, it is always the true policy of a
nation to keep steadily in view and persevere
in efforts for the reduction of its National
Debt.
A few words may be added on the Statistics of National
the Civilized Nations of the World contained in ^^nrces
the Appendix. The total populations of those
nations in A.D. 1700 were probably 200,000,000,
and their national incomes, and taxes, were

128

Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction.

probably not more than one-fifteenth of the
present amounts. Their National Debts were
little more than £300,000,000.
Their population is now..
..
600,000,000
Their Annual Income, if only
taken at £11 per head
£6,600,000,000
Their Taxation is
£596,000,000
Being per head
205.
Their National Debts have increased to
£3,900,000,000
Being per head
£6 105.
The Annual Charge of their
Debts is
£157,000,000
Being per head
55. 2 d

APPENDIX.

129

NATIONAL DEBTS, 1869-70.
I.—EUROPE.
Population
and.
Square Miles

Government
Kevenue

30,800,0001
120,000 J

71,450,000

United Kingdom 1870

800,000,000

38,066,0001
207,500/

72,000,000

France . .

550,000,000

36,000,000"!
227,000 J

44,700,000

Austria.

70,000,0001

1.763.000 J
25,000,0001
108,000/

Capital
of
Debt

. . 1870

310,000,000
. . 1866

32,120,000

285,500,000

.. 1870

Italy

300,000,000

. . 1870

66,038,000

237,400,000

7
110,800,000

17,000,0001
183,000]

25,850,000

38,514,0001
206,500 /

47,780*000

Gbrmany

1869-70

25,000,0001
149,000 /

14,500,000.

Turkey . .

.. 1870

3,750,0001
13,5°°/

9,704,000

Holland

. . 1869

4,000,0001

36,500/

94
104,000,000

80,640,000
3,758,000
59,335,000

5,000,0001
11,500/

7,007,000

1,780,0001
14^00 J

2,706,000

Denmark

.. 18

1,195,000

Greece . .

..18

3,517,000

SwedenandNorway 18701

1.350.0001
20,000 /
6,000,0001

292,000 J
2,500,0001
15,000/
4,000,0001

45,000/
1,100,0001
12,500/

27,360,000
13,240,000
18,000,000
8,940,000
854,000

Switzerland

. . 1869

3,130,000

Koumania

. . 1869

577,000

Servia ..

.. 1870

5,890,000
4,325,000
None

309,860,0001
406,886,000
3,425,000/

ETJEOPE

K

..

,965,430,000

1»0
II.—AMERICA.
Population
aM
Square Miles

Government

£
38,300,0001
2,'819,000 J
4,280,0001
6 40,000 J

'828,0001
t-2,C00 J

174,0001
89,000 J

Capital
of
Debt

NATION

Revenue

ANGLO-SAXON AMBEICA.

United States . 1870
78,966>OOo{
State Debts . 1870
3,020,000

Canada . .

1,014,000

West Indies

333,000

. 1868

Honduras and Guiana .
1869

Annual Charge
and
Per Head

£

£

466,400,000 / 27,280,000
66,000,000 I
4/>
/
960,000
19.230,000 L
4/8
/
51,000
1,014,000 1
1/*
f
33,000
676,000 I
3/9

LATIN AMERICA.

8;000,0OO1
1,030,000]

12,000,0001
4,891,000/
3,000,0001
I

500,000 j

1,740,0001
51^,000/

2,206,0001
3 68,000 J
3,000,000 \
-432,000/

470,0001
73>500J
1,700,0001
250,000 /

1,340,0001
103,000/

1,300,0001
219,000 J
400,0001
,57,000 J
127,0001
;

2'6,000 /

1,400,0001
48,000 J
750,000]
..9,500 J
1,200,0001
53,000/
2,400,000]
473,000/

1

3>300,000

Mexico -..

. 1865

63,500,000

9,400,000

Brazil

..

. 1870

64,410,000

2,690,000

Peru

..

. 1870

20,400,000

2,637,000

Argentine Republic 1870

878,000

Venezuela

. 1870

470,000

Colombia

> 1867

1,056,000

Uruguay

. 1870

1,855,000

Chili

..

1

. 1870

7,290,000

. 1870

5,000,000

280,000

Ecuador

. 1870

3,274,000

246J000

Nicaragua

. 1868

750,000

. . 1869

6,000,000
San Salvador

. 1869

171,000

305,000

Guatemala

. 1865

500,000

450,000

Bolivia *.

4^000,000
10/3,500,000
10

5/

1,132,000
853,000
9/9
'636,000
5/9
500,000
3/4
600,000

*5/«

370,000

1

4/4

/

300,000

1
/

4/6
163,500

J

45,000

t

^/3

I

560,000

AMERICA

J

J
620,000

156,000

84j609i0001
u ^ ^ o o o j 113,856,000!

/

f
I
/
10,600,000
L
/
10,000,000
I
/
10,000,000

Paraguay

Costa Rica

t

14,760,000

500,000

300,000

/
I
f

37,000

sh

J

33,600

/

10,500

/

30,000

I

-16

/

40;50O;O0O

$fone

.

765,155*000

I

'9IS

Appendix.

131

III.—ASIA.
Population
and
Square Miles

Government
Eevenue

£
155,000,0001
911,000/

35,000,0001
156,000/

2,083,0001
24,000 j

117,000 \
3^/
192,200,0001
1,091,000/

49,263,000 British India .. 1869

103,000,000

5,000,000 Japan .,

.. 1870

1,000,000

925,000 Ceylon ..

.. 1870

700,000

236,000 Hong Kong

.. 1868

55,424,000

Annual Charge
and
Per Head

Capital
of
Debt

NATION

PAET OF ASIA

£
J 5,025,000
*

I

-/*

/

90,000

/

42,000

1

|

-/5

16,000 /

1,000

-/*

1

104,716,000 /

5,158,000

1 -/<*

IV.-AUSTRALASIA.
Population
and
Square Miles

Government
Eevenue

Annual Charge
and
Per Head

Capital
of
Debt

NATION

£
715,0001
86,000/

467,0001
480,000 /

107,0001
680,000/

176,0001
380,000 j

99,0001
26,000 /

23,0001
978,000/

246,0001
'

122,000/

;

1,833,0001
z,75*)Ooo /

3,175,000 Victoria..

., 1869

J
12,535,000 it

£
724,000
20/3

r
8,565,000
L
/
3,460,000 I

427,000
18/3*
225,000
4*/-

777,000 Australia, South 1868

/
1,663,000 1

99,000
ii/3

377,000 Tasmania

r
1,314,000 1

79,000
15/10

r
1,027,000 1

61,000
54/3
j

4,094,000 New South Wales 1868
780,000 Queensland

.« 1868

.. 1869

99,000 Australia, Western 1869
1,006,000 New Zealand .. 1868

•
10,368,000

ATJSTEAIASIA

/
7,180,000

1

35,744,000 /
1

360,000

*9h i
1,975,000
zi/6

132

Appendix.
V.-AFRICA.

Population
and
Square Miles

Government
Kevenue

Capital
of
Debt

NATION

£

£
7,000,0001
31,000/

566,0001
200,000 J

324,0001
700/

8,500,0001
250,000 /

275,0001
18,000/
:

720,0001
30,000]

17,385,0001

5^700/

.. 1870

2,580,000
7/4

1,100,000 f
I

64,000
2/-

/
I

66,000
4/~

440,000 r

22,000

265,000 /
1

16,000
1/*

Egypt .,

565,000

595,000

Mauritius

500,000

96,000

9,258,000

£

J
36,750,000
I

Cape of Good Hope ,.
1868

7,480,000

22,000

Annual Charge
and
Per Head

., 1869

Morocco

..

Natal

..

., 1868

Liberia,,

PAET OE AFRICA ..

1,100,000

1

-w

None

39,655,000 /
I

2,748,000
3/*

THE CIVILIZED WOELD.

£
£
("Total of Europe,"!
J America, Austral- 1
606,000,0001
596,000,000
3,910,000,000 /157,000,000
I asia, and part of [
20,400,000 j
I
5/*
L Asia and Africa J
£

133

INDEX.
A.
PAGE

America, Latin, Areas, Populations, Debts and Resources
..
Annual Burdens, Comparative
..
..
..
..
..
Annual Charges per head, 1815-20 . .
..
..
..
..
. _ 1848
_
1869-70
Argentine Confederation, Debt and Population
..
..
..
Australia, Debts
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
.— South
— West
Austria, Debt . .
..
..
..
..
..
.,
..
Annual Increase, Charges, Population, and Resources
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..

63
84
84
85
86
61
23
23
23
64
66

B.
Baden, Debt
Bavaria, Debt ..
..
..
..
..
..
Belgium, Debt . .
.,
..
..
..
..
Annual Charge of Debt
Charge per head
..
..
..
•— Population . .
..
..
.•
..
Bolivia, Debt and Population . .
..
..
..
Borrowing, Future Progress of
..
..
•*
Generation ought to make efforts to repay
British Colonies and Dependencies . .
..
..
Empire, Area, Population, Debts and Charges
—• Guiana and West Indies, Debt
..
..
••
North America and Canada, Debt . .
..
Brazil, Debt
..
..
Burdens of National Debts, 1815-20..
.*
,
1837-43..
,_^
— 1868-70

K 2

..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..

39
39
45
45, 46
.<
46
..
46
..
62
..
18
.,
123
.«
23
..
25
..
24
..
24
..
61
89
91
92
•.
..

134

Index.
c.
PAGE

Canada and British North America, Debt . .
— — Population
..
..
..
..
Capital of Debts. See l National Debts.'
Chili, Debt and Population
Columbia, Debt and Population
.,
..
Comparative Annual Burdens
..
..
Charges per head
..
comparison of percentage on
Cost and wastefulness of borrowing . .
..
Costa Rica, Debt and Population
..
..
Cuba, Debt and Population a
.«a
-Revenue . .
..
..
..
**

..
..

..
..
..
Income
..
..
a
.»

..
..

..
•.
.«
•.
..
..
**
a

..
..

24
25

62
..
62
..
84
84, 85, 86
..
87
..
116
..
62
.«
62
**
63

D.
Debt causes injurious taxation..
Debt Burdens, 1815-20
1837-43
1868-70
..
Debt-Evils and Debt-Reduction
Debts and loss of Income
..
Debt Reduction..
,.
..
Denmark, D e b t . .
.,
••
Annual charge of Debt

».

..

..
..

..
..
a

.*
.*
..
..

..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..

•.
..
..
..

..
..
..
..

118
88
90
91
114
Il2
125
46
47

.,
..
«<
a
**
,«
..
n

.*
a
..
*.
«»
a
a
a

a
a
•.
..
..
**
a
».

117
117
62
121
72
llO
64
97

**
«.
i«
,.
,«

97
99
101
103
106

.«
..
..
.,
..
E.

Economical Effect of a Debt . .
..
..
Instance of France
Ecuador, Debt and Population
a
*»
Effect of Reduction of Debt . .
..
a
Egypt, Debt Charges, Increase and Population
England, Riches of
..
..
,.
««
Europe, Eastern States of
.,
a
European Nations
*.
%.
««
a
F.

Five European Nations, Population and Resources* 1700 i .
.,
•—
1784
,
— ^ _ ^ _ 1815-18
_^
1837-43
~
_^__^
1868-70

Index.

135
PAGE

Five European Nations, Increase of Population and Income
France
..
..
Debt
.
Annual Charge of
,.
..
..
,«
Annual Rate of Increase of . .
..
..
Annual Charge or Income
.•
..
..
— Capital of
Charge per head of
..
..
..
•-— Diminution of Power of
..
..
..
..
Income, Estimated .,
..
..
..
..
Local Debts . .
..
..
..
..
..
National Income of 1818 and 1837
.
1868
Population
..
..
..
..
..
..
Prussian War, Eesults of
..
..
..
—
Rente and Interest r .
..
..
..
..
Sinking Fund, Railways . . .
..
..
..
f u t u r e Progress of Borrowing
.•
..
..
..

..

..
..
..
..
..
..
..

..
..
.•
..
.*

107
48
48
52
51
55
49
52
109
55
56
53
54
52
56
52
57
81

G.
Germany
..
..
.•
..
..
..
..
..
Q-erman Empire, Debts :
Annual Charge of
..
..
..
..
..
..
Capital of
_, National Income . .
..
..
..
..
^
States, North, Debts . .
..
..
.
South, Debts . .
.,
.*
»*
..
.>
Great Wars unavoidable
..
..
..
..
,«
».
Greece, Debt and Charge
..
**
*.
*«
,»
»
&
Growth of Nations, First Period of National Debts
<«
.»
,
Second Period . .
,*
..
«.
i.
**
Period to 1870 . .
«,
,,
..
..
Growth of a Nation does not render Active Reduction of Debt
unnecessary
,,
..
,.
..
..
.»
.r
•
•
Instances of England and France . .
G-uatemala, Debt and Population
..
.,
..
..
..

38
40
39
41
39
39
119
70
95
96
105
121
122
62

H,
Hesse, Debt
.,
..
..
**
Annual Charge of Debt
*Charge per Head

..
..

,,
..

»*
*s
..

**
«»
.*

.*
..
..

39
44
44

136
Holland, Capital of Debt
Population . .
—
Eise of Debt . .
Honduras and West Indies
Hong Kong, Debt
..

Index.
..
,.
..
..
..

..
..
..
..

,,
..
..
..

..
..
,.
..

..
..
..
..

43
44
42
24
24

..
..

..
..

..
..

..
..

..
..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..
..

82
73
23
25
123

..
..
..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..
,.
..

..
..
..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..
..
..

,.
..
..
..
..
..

58
58
58
57
58
59

..

..

..

..

83

,,
..
..
..
I.

Increase of Debts of the World
Indebtedness, Progress of
..
India, British Debt
•
Population
..
..
Industrial Competition of Nations
Italy, D e b t :
Annual Charge . .
..
per Head
•
Increase of
Capital of
..
..
Population
..
..
Resources
..
..

L.
Loans for works of Utility

..

..
M.

Malta, Debt
Methods of stating National Debts :
By Nominal Capital . •
..
By Annual Eente on Interest..
By Annual Charge per head . .
By per centage on Income
..
Mexico, Debt and Population..
..
Morocco Debt

24
..
..
..
..
..

..
..
..
..
..

..
..
<m

..
..

..
..
..
..
..

4
4
5
5
62
72

N.
National Debts, Eise of
..
_
in 1715
—
inl793
.
,
inl815-20 ..
.
in 1848
- i n 1860-70

..

..

73
74
75
76
77
79

Index.

137
PAGE

National Debts, Increase
..
..
Summary of Increase
Nature of National Debts :
New South Wales
New Zealand Debt
Nicaragua, Debt and Population

.«
..

..
..

..
.*

..
.•

80
81

..

*
..

,,
..

..
..
•.

23
24
62

..
..
..
. •.
.«

..
..
..
.«
..

.•
..
..
..
..

.«
..
..
,.
.„

61
62
61
73
38
108

..

«•

..

..

23

..
..
..

•..
.•
..

..
.»
..

115
120
96
97
99
101
103
73
108
70
67
68
69

P.
Paraguay, Debt and Population
Peru, Debt and Population . .
Portugal, Debt and Annual Charge
Progress of Indebtedness
..
Prussia, Capital of Debt
..
Eiseof
..

..
..
..
.•
•«

Q.
Queensland, Debt of . •.

..

.•
E.

Recklessness of Borrowing . .
..
.,
Eeduction of objectionable Taxation..
..
Resources, Estimates of
..
..
..
•
Five Nations, 1700]
1784
.
1815-18
1837-43
Eise of National Debts..
.•
».
..
Eise of Prussia and United States . .
..
Eoumania, Debt and Population
..
..
Eussia, Debt . .
..
..
..
...
— Annual Increase
,.
..
Charges, Population, and Eesources

,
*
..
..
..
..
..
.,

..
..
..
..
..
..
..

,•.
„.
..
«.
..
..
..
..
..

S.
San Salvador, Debt and Population
Servia
South America and Mexico . .
..
Spain, Debt
„
~
Annual Charge of

.*

..

..
..

..
..

62
70
61
59
60

'138

Index.
PAGE

Summary of Increase of DeJ^ts
'Switzerland, Debt , , . .
...

.*
,,

T.

..
,.

United Kingdom, Annual Charge of Debt
„
_
"—
——
«
,

,,
.,

t,

,.

81
47

..
.*
..
..

.*
..
.,
..

r.
»,
,,
.,

23
10
71
72

"

Tasmania
..
..
< •..
.,
..
Terminable Annuities of United Kingdom . ,
Turkey, Debt and Annual Increase , .
..
Annual Charge . .
..
,.
XJ.

..
,,

"

..
..
..
..
13
p e r head
..
..
13
Diminution of..
..
13
per head, Diminution of
13
Proportion to Income.. 14, 18
percentage of, to Income
18
._,
,_
Capital, Reduction of ., . .
..
..,
,,
10
— a n ( i Income
..
..
..
..
21
,
.
Debt, Annual Charge of . .
..
,.
. . 11, 13
•
' Capital of .
..
..
.,
8
t.
-*-.
r^
—.
r - Pressure of,..
.,
»%
..
20
t, ..
<~r-.
;
rr—Rise and Progress of
*»
*.
. . 7> 20
-T
=— Income, Capital and
...
,.
.,
,.
21
r-,
:-5
r-. Estimated.. . . .
..
,•
• ,.
18
.-v
G-rowthof
.,
..
..
_
19
_
_
_—1700
..
,.
14
?,
-.-,
-.,-—1784
15
••
—
Increase, to 181& . .
«,
..
..,
15
'
^
—
.--— Diminution after 1815 . .
.*
.,
16
-.
«-!
.Increase to 1843 . .
,.
,,
,,
17
~
:
r-rl87Q ..
17
>r- Increases . .
..
..
.,
,.
..
H
••
-— Interest, Reduction of
.,
».
..
,,
12
Population, Increase of . •
.»
,.
,,
12
•
"
—
Pressure of Debt . .
..
..
.,
..
20
its Rise and Fall
..
..
20
a
Analysis of Causes of Reduc:
:tion . .
..
..
..
. . . .
. . . .
..
22
-.••:
rr~ Taxable Basis, Estimate on
<•,
,»
..
18
—•
r r - Terminable Annuities
,.
..
,.
,,
jo
United States, Debts *.
.»
,•
• .,
,.
,,
^,
26

Index.

139
PAGE

United States, Annual Charge
.*
..
—
Capital of Federal Debt
Charge of Federal Debt
..
Capital of State Debt
Charge per head
..
..
>
reduction of
Coals and Manufactures
..
• Income, Estimate of . .
•.
Future increase of . •
Increase and Decrease of Debt
National Income
..
..
Population
..
..
..
Increase of
..
Resources
..
..
..
Rise of . .
..
Total Charge, Reduction of
Uruguay, Debt and Population
..
..
Useful Expenditure of Debts . •
.*
..

..

..

..

.,

..

..
,.
,.
..
,.
..
..
..
..
..

.,
..
.•
..
..
..
..
..
..
..

,.
..

..
..

29
27,28
..
30
27, 28
.«
29
.*
30
..
32
..
34
*,
37
..
29
*.
33
..
29
..
33
..
32
108
29
..
61
.,
83

..

..

..

..

62
23

..
..
..

!..
..
..

..
..
..

..
.,
..

24
119
39

V.
Venezuela, Debt and Population
Victoria

..

W.
West Indian Islands, Debt . .
"When Debt becomes a necessity
Wurtemberg, Debt
..
..

..
..
..

HAERISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN OEDINAEY TO HER MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON.