The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-11 00:00:00

SPANISH FINANCE.

( Znr: _ cicr Debatg of the sir. initara.
We re.'oiveil letters from Madrid, dated the •Df
June, and can state upon authority that M. Torero com-
plains greatly of the ill-will and of the singular credulity with
which reports have lately been circulated and believed in fo-
reign countries respecting the plans of the Spanish Go-
vernment regarding the reduction of the Three and Five per
Cents., contracted since 189.3. This Minister has assured
his friends that he will respect all the decrees of Ferdinand

VII., by which these debts were contracted, and besides that
his principles on matters of credit are sufficiently well known
by the solemn declaration which he made in the Assemby
of the Cortes in 1820, that the slightest doubt should be
entertained respecting them.. It was, in fact, to this decla-
ration of his principles that the debt of Holland owes its ac
knowledgements—a debt contracted upon a more disadvan-
tageous basis than the latter loans, if we consider the state
of prosperity in which the country then was.
M. de Toreno cannot have changed his view of things
since 1820 ; and his opinion in matters of finance, ma-
tured by observation and experience, cannot but have
acquired more firmness and consistency ; he must
likewise be convinced that the best means of sus-
taining the credit, and of raising it to its highest pos-
sible elevation, is to fulfil rigorously its engagements ; and
if the councillors of the late King had followed this
wise maxim, in acknowledging the debt contracted dur-
ing the constitutional regime, Spain would not have been
obliged to make so many loans, and its obligations would
at present have been at par, at least at the price of the
Neapolitan and Roman loans ; and if, in fact, the
Government of Ferdinand fell into a serious and repre-
hensible error, it would be now a crime to persevere in
disavowing, or, what would be the same thing, in reducing
the new debt.
It is, in fact, impossible that either M. de Toreno or
his colleagues could ever have entertained the absurd idea
of destroying the edifice of credit to rebuild it with its own
ruins. How can it be believed, besides, that a Ministry
whose first consideration bas been to inspire confidence,
and to resist the attacks of its enemies by the frankness
and uprightness of its conduct—a Ministry which, eager
to depart from the beaten track of its predecessors,
has adopted the plan of publicity for its financial
operations, and has not hesitated, notwithstanding the em-
barrassment of the. Treasury, to reject the propositions
which, were made for the loan of 200,000,000, lately offered
for competition, because it did not consider them in pro-
portion to the advanced prices of all the European mar-
kets---a, Ministry of .which nearly all the members have
given, more or less decidedly, their disapprobation of the
non-recognition of the debt of the Cortes ; how then, we
ask, can such a Ministry, on the eve of contracting a loan,
renounce by a measure such as the reduction of the stocks
the advantages which rise in Spanish securities present, and
annihilate its credit at a moment when it is more necessary
than ever to be maintained ?

The example of France, which, with a debt more consi-
derable in 1815 than that of Spain, and oppressed besides
by the enormous war tax of 1,800,000,000 f., did not de-
spair of its credit, cannot be lost upon the Government of
the Queen Regent, and will prove the degree of prosperity
which may be arrived at by respecting all engagements.
Spain, whose immense resources have not yet disap-
peared under the weight of mortgages of all kinds which
oppress those of other countries, has a revenue more than
sufficient to meet its debts. The Royal Treasury pos-
sesses resources upon which the bulk of the holders of
stock and of speculators do not reckon. Many of these
revenues are in the hands of corporations and pri-
vate parties, which, as yet, have not been under the
control of the Government, and are not mentioned
in the annual budget. Others, which until the pre-
sent time have been scattered about and mismanaged,
will necessarily return to the public treasury ; all
together then, according to a close calculation, would give
an amount of 700,000,000 reals (about 7,000,0001.), with-
out reckoning the 207,000,000 assigned last year to the
sinking fund. This mass of effective revenue, maladminis-
tered, neglected, and burdened with pensions and alms,
would be augmented considerably by the adoption of a
better mode of collecting, by the destruction of abuses, by
reforms in the administration, and above all, by the great
economy which is intended to be introduced into all its
branches, and which will be carried into effect as soon as
the provinces shall be tranquillized, where the Government
is at present compelled to employ an unusual force. The
Treasury should also reckon upon the produce of the
Commons;_known by the name of Propios and Arbitrios,
upon the pasturage of the lands called Baldios, and of
several others which at present are lost to the country, the
concentration of which, ordered by the recent decrees, has
been confided to a special commission.
In fine, after so exact an account of all the revenues of
Spain, they may be reckoned at 800,000,000 of reals, by
introducing order and regularity in the administration.
It als" evident that, all the expenses of the
not exceeding 500099.990 of realcit
of the existinf, debt, but of many others.
For if the able Minister chargede at present with the
Department of Finance succeeds in having adopted by
the two Chambers the projects of reform which he for
a long time has had in view, there will remain annu-
ally in the Treasury the sum of 400,000,000 reals for
the liquidation of the debt, the interest of which at pre-
sent does not exceed 200,000,000 of reals. This debt,
besides, has considerably diminished by the effect of a pro-
gressive sinking fund. The Royal Loan, which exceeded
300,000,000 of reals, is now reduced to less than half that
amount by the means of its gradual sinking fund ; and if
we are permitted to make use of a common expression,
"payer ses dettes c'est s'enrichir," every day will naturally
bring fresh resources to the Treasury for the payment of
its obligations.
We are not certain whether what we have stated is suf-
ficient to satisfy the holders of Spanish stock ; we can,
however, assure them with the utmost confidence, that the
statements have not been taken from those impure sources
which the interested defamers of the Spann government
have procured them ; and that the remarks which accom-
pany them are entirely in accordance with the principles of
both the moral and political economy which directs at the
present period the conduct of the Ministers of the Queen,
and of those which M. de Toreno expressed with so much
eloquence in the Assembly of the Cortes in 1820.
To every one at all conversant with either men or things
in Spain, it must be evident that the reports of the reduc-
tion of the 3 and 5 per Cents., circulated with so much
exasperation and ill-will, emanated from the enemies of the
constitutional regime.

It would be difficult to find now that financial questiom
exercise so great an influence over the affairs of states,

means more sure to undermine the throne of the young
Queen, and to destroy the liberal principles by which it is
supported, than to attack the credit of Spain, and to com-
pel its Government to reduce its debt, or in other words to
declare a national bankruptcy. Many would wish to preach
a crusade in favour of Don Carlos, but no Spaniard truly
faithful to his country would be ambitious of such a role.
Lot us hope, then, that such doctrines will make proselytes
but among the sworn enemies of the institutions to which
Spain is indebted for its political regeneration.