The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-26 00:00:00

TO THE MINISTER OF FINANCE.

To increase the reserve fund for the exchange of
Bank credit notes a loan was made in virtue of our
ukase- of March 20, 1859, of twelve million pounds
sterling, nominal capital, bearing 3 per cent. annual
interest, through the agency of the blnkiug homes
of Thomson, Boner, and Co., in St. Petersburg, and
F. Mart Magnus, in Berlin, but the war which
broke out since in Italy, and the state of agitation
which still exists in that country, produced a fall
in the prices of Securities on all the European Ex-
changes, and only about seven million pounds
sterling have therefore been placed of the whole
loan. The remainder, say about five million pounds
sterling of the 3 per cent. stock, representing at the
price of sale more than twenty millions of roubles,
has been retained at the disposal of the financial
departtncnt of the Government.
In the meantime the reduction in the rate of in-
terest on deposits in the banking establishments,
ordered by our ukase of July 20, 1857, having
checked the flow of capital into the banks, and
diverted it into various branches of industry, pro-
duced the result that the deposits were withdrawn
in such a proportion that the funds of these estab-
blishments were insufficient to meet entirely the
demands of the depositors. It was therefore deemed
necessary that the Imperial treasury should assist
the banks by means of special arrangements.
This circumstance induced the Government to
apply, for the purpose of strengthening the banks,
the whole sum realised from the Three per Cent.
Loan. The Loan Bank, and the Bank of Commerce,
have delivered to the Imperial Treasury in exchange,
Inscriptions of the Six per Cent. Loan of the year
1818, which they had acquired during the extraor-
dinary augmentation of their deposits. The Loan
Bank has delivered 15,340,025 roubles nominal
capital of these Inscriptions, and the Bank of Com-
merce 7,771,425 roubles, making a total of
23,111,450 roubles. The Government has therefore
at present at its disposal in Six per Cent. Stock,
and out of the remainder of the Three per Cent.
Loan, as has been already stated, a sum of more
than 47 millions of roubles.

Consequently, in order to restore to the Imperial
Treasury the amount which it has disbursed, it is
our intention that, instead of future sales of the
above-mentioned stocks, you should contract with
the houses of Baring Brothers and Co , in London,
and Hope and Co., in Amsterdam, a foreign loan,
which we order to be opened by subscription, for
the amount of eight millions of pounds sterling, on
the following conditions, the basis of which has
been confirmed by us :-
Ist. This loan shall be inscribed in the great
book of the public debt, under the denomination of
the second loan bearing 41 per cent. interest.
2d. There shall be delivered for this loan by the
Imperial Commission of the Sinking Fund bonds to
bearer. These bonds shall be issued for a sum each
of at least £lOO sterling, and not above £l,OOO
sterling.
3d. These bonds shall bear an annual interest of
41 per cent., beginning from the 20th May (Ist
June) of this (year. To each shall be attached
twenty coupons, on presentation of which the in-
terest due shall be paid at the dates of 20th May
(Ist June) and of 19th November (Ist December),
in London, at the bankers, Hope and Co. reckon-
ing in the last-mentioned place 11 Netherlands
florins 80 cents for each pound sterling.
4th. The payment of this interest shall be made
each consecutive half-year, from 20th May (Ist
June) to 20th July (Ist August), and from 19th
November (Ist December) to 20th January
,(Ist
February.
sth. At the expiration of the first ten years fresh
coupons and talons shall be delivered for the bonds
then remaining in circulation.
6th. For the redemption of this loan a special
fund shall be applied annually, beginning from
20th May (Ist June), 1862, amounting to 4 per
cent. of the nominal capital, or say one hundred
and twenty thousand pounds sterling per annum.
This sinking fund shall be employed iu the reim-
bursement of the bonds drawn by lottery, which
bonds will be paid at par when presented in Lon-
don to Baring Brothers and Co., or in Amsterdam
to Hope and Co. In the latter case the pound
sterling shall be reckoned for 11 florins and 80
cents Netherlands money.

yv
•
For the above purposes the bonds of this loan shall
be divided into eight hundred series of ten thousand I
pounds sterling each.
The bonds of the series drawn in the annual lot-
tery must, in order to receive the principal, be pre-
sented with the remaining coupons ; that is to say,
with those of which the periods of payment of in-
terest shall not then be due.
Lastly. When this loan shall have been placed,
the bonds of the 3 per cent, loan, and the inscrip-
tions of the 6 per cent. remaining with the Imperial
Treasury shall be cancelled, and the numbers shall
be published in the public papers of St. Petersburg,
London,. Amsterdam, and Berlin.
The original is signed by his Majesty the Emperor.
Zarskoe Selo, May 27, 1860. ALEXANDER.