The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-04 00:00:00

FOREIGN FINANCE.

(FROM OUR PARIS CO RESPONDENT.)
" Next to the United States of America,
perhaps Russia, with reference to the part which
it is hereafter to act in the great theatre of na-
tions; may be regarded as best entitled to our
attention, but with respect to the degree cf in-
formation we already possess regarding it, the
great empire of the North is comparatively a
terra incognita, hermetically sealed with the
signet of a despotic government, so as to exclude
all external observation ; while America wears a
windo.v in her bosom, through which all the•
workings of the internal machinery may be sub-
jected to close and accurate examination. I hope
before long to be able to present to your readers
some new and interesting details as to the pre-
sent state of Russia, and in order to pave the
way for what is to follow, I propose as the sub-
ject of this day's communication to take a view
of the great credit establishments, by means of
which the finances of the empire are at present
administered.

" These establishments consist of the Bank
of Assignats, the Loan Bank, the Commercial
Bank, and the Redemption Chest. This me-
chanism will not be well understood if it is not
borne in mind, that in Russia the Government
is everything, and the people absolutely nothing.
Before examining their mode of operation, it
may be convenient, if not necessary, to make
some preliminary observations.

" The money in which accounts are kept in
Russia is the rouble, which is a silver coin equal
in intrinsic value to about 3s. 4(1., and is divided
into one hundred copecks. But the paper
money, from the train of circumstances in which
the kingdom has been placed, and the great dis-
crepancy which has long existed between the
wants of the inhabitants and the amount of
coined currency in circulation, having been sub-
ject to all the fluctuations which its origin im-
plies, it must always be carefully attended to
thSt.it is necessary to distinguish in what form or
value the rouble is payable. In the accounts of
1829, the silver rouble was valued by the Council
of the credit establishments, which formed a
branch or section of the department of the Mi-
nister of Finance, at three roubles, seventy co-
pecks in paper assignats, and the gold rouble at
three roubles, eighty-six copecks in paper. The
gold rouble is understood to apply to such sums
in general as are payable in gold money, and the
difference of sixteen paper copecks, equal to a little
more than four per cent., answers to what is
sometimes called the price of the gold, or the
difference in the expence of transit of the pre-
cious metals. This, it is clear, must rise to a
rate comparatively high in a country like Rus-
sia, where commercial relations are formed at
such immense distances front each other, in re-
to the facilities of communication, and
where the quality of the silver employed at the
Imperial Mint is so very inferior to that used in
the coinage of that of any of the other first-rate
Powers of Europe. The silver rouble of 3s. 4d.
being taken as the term of comparison, and the
differences of exchange being excluded from
consideration, the gold rouble, according to the
account of 1829, is worth about 3s. 54d. and
the paper rouble about is. 811. In giving the
valueS in English money I shall adhere to this
basis of reduction, and shall thus avoid the
confusion inseparable from any account where
the results are presented in units of different
values.

" The Bank of Assignats is similar in princi-
ple to that of the famous French institution of
the same name, differing only in the political
causes out of which it has arisen. Tne whole
mass of assignats in circulation in the Russian
empire on the Ist of January, 1829, amounts
to 595,776,310 roubles, the nominal value of
which would be 95,320,209/. and the exchange-
able value 25,737,5361. The task would be
more difficult than curious to inquire how the
loss, which has obviously arisen by this depreci-
ation, has been divided between the government,
its immediate creditors, and the present holders
of the assignats. What may be regarded as
Certain is, that a large proportion of the debt of
Russia.has been liquidated by a result which is
not materially different in its effects from a na-
tional bankruptcy.

The Loan Rank receives deposits, and makes
loans generally for long periods, to various
branches of the administration, to government,
and other undertakings of public utility, and
alao to private companies and individuals. Dur-
ing the two last campaigns this Bank made con-
siderable advances to the war department. The
paper it issues resembles our English Exchequer
Bills or the Treasury Bonds of France, and it
is received in payment in ordinary transactions.
At its opening, in 1828, the deposits made
to the Loan Bank by the various branches
of the administration, amounted to £3,805,320
Of which 1,'776,4281. belonged to the Corn-
wercial Bank, and 403,0561. to the Lon-
bard of St. Petersburgh, a great pawn-
brirk ing establishment similar to that which
1 lately described to you as existing in Paris

under the name of ti:e Mont de PietL
L Tie deposits of individuals amounted t 0... 4,155,689

£7,961,009

On the lst of January, 1829, the deposits of
the various branches of the administration
amounted to
Of which 2,500,611/. belonged to the Com-
mercial Bank, and 424,2641. to the Lom-
bard. The deposits of individuals amounted
at the same period to
To which is to be added the original capital
of the Bank
And the capital of reserve
At the same period the Bank had lent to the

Redemption Chest .£2,319,652
To various branches of the

vernment
To individuals, or private co[n-
panies 4,836,496
Aud it had in its coffers

650,212
43,600

X 9,656,715
.‘ The destination of the Commercial Bank is
similar in some respects to that of the Bank of
England, or the Bank of France, with this dif-
ference, that it lends also on deposits of tiler-
-chandise to private companies or individuals;
besides making advances- to the government. In

the accounts for 1828 a sum of 950,4001. were
so employed.

The capital of the Bank is £1,296,000
And it had in deposit on the Ist of Jan. 1828 10,217,090

Which made its means of itttlOn amount to £11,543,090

" Its profits have amounted to 74 per cent. on
the capital, although since its formation this
Bank has lost 279,2701. on protested paper.
" The Redemption Chest is exclusively devoted
to the management of the affairs of the public
consolidated debt, and the reimbursement of the
capital. On the Ist ofJanuary,lB29, the conso-
lidated debt consisted in principal or capital:—
lit. Of the Perpetual Six per Cent. Rente £11'094,925
2d. Of the Perpetual Five per Cent. Rente 11,396,524
3d. Of the Interior Limited Debt 1,494,934
4th. Of the Dutch Debt 3,806,440

The total represents the amounts of the con-
solidated debt £27,782,723
but it does not represent the whole amount of
the national engagements, as may be seen from
the sums which have been borrowed from the
Loan Bank and the Bank of Commerce. In
1828 there was paid—
let. As the interest of Dutch and
other anterior debts, at the
rate of seven roubles 35 co-
pecks per cent
2d. For the interest of the Five
and Six per Cent. Stock 1,475,452

X 1,855,942

" This last sum, it will be observed, is applied

to the interest of the borrowed capital. It is
'mid in London through the medium of the
house of Rothschild, and the expense of
commission and exchange amounts to about
one 9-100ths percent. Previous to the year 1828
the redemption chest had paid up 5,050,4681.
of the public debt.

During the year 182 S it had redeemed of the
old debt £ 50,386
And of the Five and Six per Cents 279,114
Which at the mean rate of 94 per
cent. has cost £263,896
Thus the redemption for the year of
has been about one 36-100ths per cent. on the
amount of the permanent consolidated debt, not
including the Dutch debt, on which they did
not begin to operate till the currency of the year
1829.

" The expenses of management for the year
amounted to 17,280/., in order to extinguish
which there has been placed to its credit the
value of the prizes of the squadron of Admiral
Semiavine of 17,750/.

" The disbursements of the redemption chest
amount in all to 2,230,3851. But the funda•
mental question regards the manner in which it
is supplied or alimented. In the regular order
of things the interest of the public debt, and the
amount of redeemed capital, would be placed at
the head of the current expellees of the State,
and would be deducted from the amount of the
year's revenue. It is not so, however, in Rus-
sia. It has been seen, in treating of the loan
hank, that the redemption chest had borrowed
from it, in 1828, a sum of 2,319,6521. in addi-
tion to all the disbursements of the year. It ap-
pears also from the accounts, that on the Ist of
January, 1828, the redemption chest had an ac-
cumulated reserve beyond the amount of previous
loans and operations, amounting to 4,161,2291.;
but the Emperor, absolute in the disposal of the
fund of redemption, as in every thing else, had
applied 1,612,3121. of the amount to the ex-
pellees of the war. It would seem from the ex-
planations in the accounts, that the fund of re-
serve, or at least what remains of it, and which
ought to be about 2,560,0001., remains in specie
in the chest. It would be so natural, however,
to diminish the amount of the floating debt due
to the Bank, on which interest is paid, with this
alleged fund of reserve, that there seems to be
good reason for doubting its existence.

" The view which I have thus taken of these
financial establishments in Russia, seems to
prove, that in the midst of almost unlimited re-
sources, the State, though rich in the ordinary
sense of the term, is far from being in easy cir-
cumstances. In fact, the public purse of the
Empire is managed like too many private for-
tunes, without much regard to method or sim-
plicity. Those who know anything of the man-
ner in which affairs are conducted in Russia,
will easily understand that it could not be other.
wise, and that the confusion most go on until it
becomes still worse confounded,' and produces
at length some serious embarrassment. It is not
to be expected, indeed, that the Government
should put itself to much trouble in preventing
such an issue, when its creditors concern them-
selves so little on the subject, and while Spain
continues on the exchanges of Paris and
elsewhere to enjoy a certain degree of credit,
although its public creditors are so obviously
in a situation to reduce it to a state of dgelared
and open bankruptcy. However that may be,
it must not be disguised, that in the state of
civilization in which Russia is now placed, these
financial establishments have given rise to many
useful undertakings, and have in various ways
been of the greatest public service."

ANCIENT PREJUDICES OF THE GYPSIES.—
During the severest weather of last week, a tribe of gyp-
sies encsmped under Leckhampton Hill, where an ex-
tremely interesting and beautiful gypsey woman was taken
in labour• and safely delivered of a fine boy. Several cha-
ritable ladies of Charlton Kings hearing of the circum-
stance, and pitying the condition of the poor creature
lying in that situation on the ground, and only protected
from the inclemency of the season by a tent, collected a
number of half-crowns, and gave them to her husband,
offering him at the same time a comfortable room for his
wife in the village, until she recovered. He introduced
them to his wife, who received the half-crowns, but de-
clined the offer of the room, saying, that "if she or any of
her tribe were to be confined in a room, they were sure to
he unlucky."—CLeltenham Chronicle. •
MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE.—The vil-
lages of Warmley and Tinsley have been thrown into
considerable agitation by the following shocking event
A married woman has been in the habit of going daily to
discharge the domestic duties in the house of a gentleman
and lady, who reside at a distance of two miles, and her
husband used to fetch her home in the evening. On Wed-
nesday se'nnight she left the house alone, about four o'clock.
Her husband, it is said, left his home about the same hour
,o fetch her; it appears he did not arrive at the house
where she worked until seven o'clock, and being told she
had left at four o'clock, he returned home and went to bed.
In the morning the body of the poor woman was found
about midway between the two houses, with evident marks
of violence on her clothes and person. A Coroner's in -
quest has been held on the body, which returned a verdict
of " Accidental Death." This verdict has given great
dissatisfaction in the neighbourhood. It seems she had
eight shillings and fourpence in her pocket, which were
left untouched ; but a loaf she had bought and was taking
home, was broken, and a half taken away.— Bath Chron.

PRICES OF STOCK% THIS
flan„ •-t_~ek
:1 per Cent. Red. )2? 3I
3 per Cent- Cons. ...92,,g%%344i
:0,4, per Cent. lOO
Ditto te,..1. 997i 1,4 100 99S
t. per Cent. Ann.
Ditty, 126., 105,15!6
Wink 1.. Ann.
I)itto 30 years W 7-10
Ditto 30 years
India Stock 232
Ditto Bonds ............ 74 75 pr:. t