The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-01-20
What do the Nations Owei-Letter from
Secretary Boutwell,.

In answer to our remarks of last Tuesday upon
the amount Of the national debts OF Europe ana
America, we have received the following letter
from the Secretary of the Treasury
"TREAsURY DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF The SECRETARY, Nov. 2, 1871.
To The Editors Of he EreRing Post:
In your paper OF the 3lst ult., you state that
in a lecture recently delivered by me IN New
York and Boston, | gave the aggregate national
debts Of Europe and the United States at So
600 900 900.
Tie statement made by me included the debts
Of all tie nations on the globe, whose financial
condition Il known.
Baxter, IN his work on {" National Debts, at
page o., gives the AMOUNT as three thousand
nine hundred and eleven million pounds sterling
His tables were prepared for 1869 and 1870, and
do not include the additions TO the debt Of France,
caused by the recent war. | estimate the increase
of the debt of France at FIVE hundred million
pounds sterling.
This gives a total of national Indebtedness of
about twenty-five thousands millions of dollars.
without the increase of the national debts OF
other countries. GEO. >. boutwell,
The latest official reports we have from most OF
the nations of Eurupe are not Of later date than
l868-some Of them are of l867-and from them
the estimate was made up. But 1t Is probable
that Mr.. Baxter, in preparing his book, bad no
more recent authorities. Now the debts OF Aus
tria, Belgium. Denmark, France, Prussia, Ham
DurZ, DdVdTlds Ddutn, OEcdL DIlIdhH, ''CS'
Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain,
Sweden and Turkey. together, amounted, IN 1907
and 1868, as nearly as possible, to SI3,2o9 ,OOO,-
600 so that his estimate, adopted by Mr.. Bout
well, was far out of the way.
But there has been a large increase in the
debts of a few Of them since that time. For in
stance, Spain, in Jan. 1867, reported her public
debt at almost exactly 81 900 900 600 probably
"A false report, since the official return of it on
March 3lst, 1870, was S2,639.35l ,7O3. The
debt of Russia, reported in 1868 at 300, 600,
600, had already become 81 700, zoo, 900 in
1869, and is probably 81, 900 600 900 now. The
debt of Italy, understood to be 81 $50, 900 600
five years ago, was SO swollen in the intervals by
deficits and bad credit, that last year the budget
called for ACT ,3l4 SIP francs for interest upon 1T;
which would indicate n principal OF about
81 $50, 900 900.
As FOR the debt Of France, it il Impossible to
ascertain the amount with exactness. In October,
1870, the adjusted or funded debt was said to be
- 1923 7l8,U73 francs. Besides the expenses OF
the war, France has since incurred the war in
demnity debt of 1000 ,O0O, 900 francs to Germany,
and has only paid part Of this by borrowing the
money, SO that the national debt at this time
cannot we'll be less than 81 900 ,000 900.
Making llowance for all these additions since
the last official debt statements, the aggregate OF
the national debts of Europe will be found to be
Mt this time about SIT 400, 900 900 and, adding
that Of the United States, we find that the pro
ductive industry of Christendom Is mOrtgaged To
capitalists for about $40, 500, 900 900. Public
debts are unknown in Asia, and there are none in
Africa except in Egypt. The debts of the Amer
lean countries beyond the United States are too
small to raise the estimate above twenty thousand
millions of dollars, which may be fairly assumed
as the present sum of the national debts of the
WORLDLY. Y. Erening Post.