The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-10-30
The ResnIts of n short War.

The Franco German war was brief vet it
destroyed vast amounts of wealth, stopoed The
accumulation of much more and now at the
close produces drain upon the money of Eu-
rope to pay Germany the enormous war in
demnity of 81 900 100000 equal to half of our
national debt.
A French newspaper In New York points
out the immensity of this sum, when consd-
cred as hard money, and the i'll effects that
may come and are now coming from a trans
fer of third part of it only from France 10
Germany. 1t says this milliard of dollars
equals all the California and Australia gold
crops combined, for ten years; all the gold
which was drawn from the western-continent
from 1900 to 1S4S; nearly the whole product
of the famous Potosi silver mines during
three centuries and half, which, according
to Humboldt, amounted to six thousand mil
lions of francs; the combined gold and silver
crops of the globe, at this time, for five con-
secutive years, and, finally, onc-tenth of the
whole available specie and bullion fund now
in existence. Here are five grand eouiya-
lents, each about the same as the sum now de-
manded by Germany, and third part OF
which has actually beeen paid over by France.
The details OF the payments made, and to
be made within the next five months are as
follows: M Theirs has paid as a contribution
for the city OF Paris, S40,000,000; Tor the
maintenance of German troops in France 10
October 1871, $60,000,000; and Tor first nav
ment upon the national indemnity. S225 0O0y-
600, besides S65, 100000 allowed as the pur-
chase money for the railroads in Alsace and
Lorraine; in all 1885, 100000. There are due
to Germany in the spring of 1872, SlOOOOO.-
0OO ha nail in Six ipct oil oc
600 each, beginning with January Is; the re.
mainder OF S4,OOO,O00 to be paid April 1 be-
sides more than $36,000,000 for Interest, at 8
per cent. per annum, upon the remaining
5000, 100000. The total amount of money to
be transferred from one country to the other
for the year ending April l, 1872, is, therefore,
more than S460,000,000.
OF this amount about $s30,O00,OOO has ac-
tually been made over to Germany, and the
bulk of it transferred from France and Eng
land to that country. The consequence is q
great scarcity of specie in both France and
England; it is at constantly Increasing pre-.
MUM in France, and the bills of the bank of
France are already at discount of IA per
cent; while in London the rate of dis.
count on loans has gone up from or
3 per cent. TO 5, and there are symptoms of a
panic, which would make matters much
worse. Meantime the specie thus drawn from
London and Paris goes largely into the kai-
ser's fortress at Magdeburg, to form an ''impe-
rial war fund.-" (Which Bismarck has Just ask
ed the German Parliament to sanction,) or to
be used in replacing the silver coinage of the
empire by gold currency. Thus more than
Sl0O,OOO,OOO is already locked up, and nobody
knows where the boarding of the Berlin GOV
eminent will stop. The Eueninq Post esti.
mates that, by February next at least S3OO.-
100000 in coin will have been drawn from
England by France, or taken rom France IT,
self, and shut up in the Golfers of Bismarck.
| The bank OF England lost $23,00O,OOO in coin
in the single month ending October 7, and
nearly $3OO0O,0 900 of its total reserves
| 1t we suppose, as now seems possible, that
the financiers of London have devised prac-
ticable way of checking this drain of gold to
i the continent, and thus removing the danger
/ of an immediate crisis, the French people
| have still before them, in the amount of their
| debts and taxes, a financial prospect almost
as distressing as panic would be. Michael
| Chevalier, the celebrated economist hos
printed statement of the present and futnre
OF French finances, which is gloomy enonob
BESIDES this indemnity balance of 5000 600.
QUO, which will remain for France In nav
after next March, there is also yearly charge
OF SZOOOO,OO0 for interest on the national
debt, and $400,000000 more for the other ex-
penses of the government c
Before the war the Interest paid was but
anu Tue WHOio yearly DuuSeb Dut
| 50,000,000, instead of S600,000,000, as now:
| and this increased tax must be borne by a
population two or three millions less than in
| 177O, and poorer than by all the losses of the
war. The new taxes, which went into effect
on the first and 14th instant, are necessarv
but they are unpopular, and there is alreadv
an ominous threat of reputation, and a ID
mand that the new government shall not bold
the face OF France to the grindstone cutie 40
severely. s1A'e 80
Yet IN view of all these gloomy fipures ~.
French people have loaned their mons, 'aS ~
their government with zeal that IL es.ou 70
lshing and without parallel in the h;s, as.on, n
any nation. This was shown six or eIo5t
months me. ago, when the first great loan was Tas
pat out oy Thiers,- it was again display.
ea ea ,ew weeks since in the subscription to a
new loan for Paris. The city called in Sep
.emoer ior a loan of $70OO0OOO, which was
pald IN cash into the city treasury within "a
hours alter the books were opened. The sub
scrlptions were three or four times more than
was needed, and half of them came from inn
pogerished Paris. This shows that there Is no
lack of boarded specie in France, and no un-
willingness, as yet, to place it at the disPosai
of the government. L---