Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-12-18


ssT7sssE $500 f''-'-77 POPULATION. DEBT.
United States 1861 ITO $6lG000,000
Great Britain, 1910, 900 3,679 64124
France S6,O39,364 1906, 1S6,0S7
Holland 3,4S7,6l7 SO221,6lo
Austria 3g,41l, 3O9 1,lO3, 39S24l
In the figures for the United States debt are en-
braced the old debt and obligation, as noted by Mr.
Chase at the Bank meeting in New York, at $li1,-
OOO 600 the new loan sou 900 900, and the exist
ing note debts, making together 100000 QUO, OF
existing funded debt, rather more than that OF
Holland, with population about equal to the State
of New York The English debt is about 800 per
head Of the population and the French debt $40 per
head of the people There is this difference between
the debts Of the United States and of the govern
ments of Europe, viz: that the former are payable
within period of twenty years. and those Of the
latter not at ALL Agdin, the United States debt
bears per cent interest," while the English bears
per cent and the French averages per cent Thus,
the United States debt pays annually $42, 100000
interest II the whole amount is paid at the end of
twenty years, the amount to be raised in that time
will be ST. AGA, 900 900 or 1854 000, 900 interest
money, and 500, 600, 900 principal. In the same
period the English will pay ST. zoe, O0O and the
French 81, 2O4, 10000 or thus:
U. States pays on deb: in 20 years, $l,464 100000
Great Britain pays l,lll,7OO,OOO
France pays 1,2O4, OOO
We thus observe that the United States, assu-
ming the new authorized debts as issued, at this
moment are under a heavier burden OF debt Tor the
next twenty years than either France or England.
Now it must be borne in mind that this sum is the
war expenditure of the United States, estimated
by The Secretary of the Treasury for one year. L
saw in the Raleigh papers that the estimated ex-
penditure Of the United States was 81, 100000 per
diem. Mr.. Chase estimated the expenditures to be
50, 600 600 per day when he was in New York. at
least such were the assurances of his friends who
arn1 hat hn mfr cd than In no This would
make the annual expenditures of the United States
seven hundred and thirty millions of dollars and
the annual interest SOL, 100000. With the present
debt of the United States, the account of that gov
ernment for the years 1861 and 1862 would stand
as follows
Present debt $610,000,000
Interest for two years, S5,400O0O
Debt for 1862, 73O,OO0O00
Interest for one year. 5l,l00000
This will make the debt Of the United States at
the end of two years, paying they do rate of it,
tereSt at per cent. the enormous sum of one bill
lion four hundred and seventySix millions aud five
hundred thousand dollars, Isl, 476 5000OO) These
figures will be found to be under the mark" when
We consider the vast ornaments, the immense num-
Der of troops ships and all the paraphernalia oS
war" which that government is daily bringing into
active service. And this is the more readily
counted for when consider the nature and char
actcr of the contest and the war which they are
waging with the South. For it is well remarked in
an able article in the London Recie,o which was
pleased TO find published in your paper "the South
can act on the 3treitsire without ruinOuS cost of
money7-the North cannot act on the ofensire with
out mourning liabilities that will break the back of
the Republic. thousand men defending their
own soil, are equal to ten thousand men who carry
fire and sword TO invade them. All experience
proves It-and when the country to be invaded is
large as five or six great European monarcheS, the
invader ShOull remember the fate of NaDOlpOn
Russia and pause ere he commit his fortune to
desperate an enterprise" The largest portion Of
the Dutch debt pays but q per cent. hence the an
nual charge is seventeen millions. 1t will thus DC
seen that the mode of borrowing by high interest
and short loans makes the United States already by
far the heaviest taxed country on the face Of the
earth in respect to debt Ii we add to these public
debts the enormous load of corporate and private
debt the interest ON which cats daily into the pro-
ducts of industry, We shall come to understand why
with the semblance of such immense wealth, the
United States have really less capital than any 9TH
er country. The people have been in the habit of
living up to their incomes. If they have produced
largely, they have consumed largely and have lived
under load of debt which leaves them impoverish-
ed Directly active production ceases from any
cause At the close of the Revolutionary war; the
5000, 900 people (about the same as the present
population of Iolland) owed $67, 100000, and the
weight of it nearly crushed them. They managed
to pay a part-and the amount in lSl2-l5 was
raised to 1927, 00O, 900 which paid off in 1885,
after twenty years of the highest prosperity, in
which vast capital was produced and consumed
Since then the country has run riot in its proSperi
ty. The extravaganza OF every class of people has
been immense, so much that cash capital has not
increased at all. The most eminent economists of
France place the metallic wealth at $500, 600, 900,
mostly in the hands Of people who have earned and
hold it. The metals have in ten years produced
S6jO, OOO 900 as one item of wealth. and that added
to what was before in the country should have
given $500, 900 OO0 but it las all been exported in
exchange for tea, champagne, silks, &c, that have
been consumed. The whole amount Ofspecie, plate,
&c, now in the country is not over S250,0O0,000.
They have magnificent houses and furniture, &C.,
but no money. The system of annual production
circulation and consumption of wealth in the Uni
ted States has come to end, and pinching power
ty trcads fast upon the heels Of prouse expenditure
There is no basis for large government loan, and
this is known in Europe. The only resource they
have is taxation The idea that England went thro'
the French war by means Of loans Is, although gen.
erally entertained erroneous. The following table
shows the amount Of money raised in England each
year of the war by taxes and loans and the price of
the per cent consols in each year
WAR REVENUES OF ENGLAND
Id1es LOGnS 8 per cts.
1893, Gls,3OO799 e4,G69,677 748
1874 49, 445 49, ,S41 664
1895, 19,657,993 29,336,O97 669
1896 20,7SO269 S9,9O4,S7S Cog
1877, %, lO3,S62 S2,O9S, $50 soy
1885, 27,936,27l lS,2oo,3o4 5O9