Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1878-04-12
Russian and English Finances.

with equal accuracy and vlYluneSS par
ticularly in these days when nations
set out S5000,000 iron-clads ttOe bat
tered to bits with $500 shells from $780,
600 cannons, that when country goes
to war it draws not the sword but the
purse. Some figures as to the financial
condition of the two countries may,
therefore, be Of interest, when Il war
between England and Russia is threat
ened
The financial year in England ended
on the 31st ult,, and the receipts for
that period are stated by the cable TO
have exceeded the estimates so consid-
erably as to leave surplus Of S3,0s5,-
600. Taking the expenditure ut the
fall figure of the estimate, we have this
showing for the years 1S77-7S
Revenue ..........t.. 1856, $50 600
Expenditure ...,.......... 3S3, 464.3dl
During the sixteen years, since 1862
there have been deficit in the revenues
in three years, those Of 1868 and 1869
being due to the extraorG mary eXpen-
diture on account of the Abbyssnian
war, but the other thirteen years have
shown SURPRISES, those since $685.
amounting in the aggregate to $93,07
996. AT the same time there has been
Il reduction in taxation, the net diminu-
ton being placed at 1929, S67, 800. The
expenditure per head of population has
been reduced since 1862 by 81 cents
while the reynue per head (taxation) has
been reduced by Is cents. The debt Of
Great Britain, including terminable an
nuities and charge theron. amounted at
the close of the last financial year for
which we have returns to $3,775,91S,736
The reduction since 1868 has been $237,-
256,5
1t is not SO easy to frame precise
statement of the financial condition of
Russia, SO different is her system of
public accounts, which do not show till
some years later the details of the re-
Statesman's Yearbook" for 1873 can
only give the accounts up 10 1873. As
VIC have, however in the latest foreign
files the estimates for 1878 and the war
accounts down 10 the end of 1877, we
can make UP Il fair schedule for COM
parison. The budget for 1878 is as
follows, the rouble being converted at
the treasury rate of 1874 cents:
Revenue syen1i,n. ........ sS95, l$5 $ss
This is the ordinary revenue and
ordinary expenditure. The showing
for the eleven years since 1867 is an ex-
cess OF expenditures over receipts of
$56,310,2S2, to which is to be added the
amount of loans contracted. The i'm
perial treasury paid out in 1877, on
account of war expenditure, $317 ,46S,-
81. 50 that the war has been waged at
direct cost Of at least Il million dollars
day, to say nothing of the derange-
ment of industry and material loss. AS
Turkey cannot pay All indemnity save
in territory, which must in the nature
of things be non-productive for many
years, the bill must be footed by Rus
STA. Her debt Including the last in
ternal loan was estimated at 81, 443,
779000 on the first day of July last; it
has. of course, been largely increased
since that date. Besides, Russia is
laboring in the trough Of Il sea of paper.
The circulation was, on the ist Of Janu-
airy, 1876. officially stated to be $780,
22S094; the issues during the war are
estimated to have amounted to $205,
$4,000, making mass of paper
amounting TO nearly $8O0,000,00o,
which has always been far below par.
The last quotation gave the value of
the paper rouble at ODD, gold, i'm other
words, gold at st. Petersburg is at 10.
The PdH Nal Gazette recently copied
an instructive article on the insolvency
cases decided by the Moscow CONNER
n;.,1 frih,,nnlc XUl,1nl1 ShnmaI fhof fl,p
failures in 1876 involved a loss to credit
ors almost six times as great as that in
Cured in 1874, while the cost of living
was increasing without rise in wages.
Vesselowski's Annuaire DIES Finances
Russes" does, however, give a more
encouraging account of affairs from an
immediate standpoint. The excessive
languor which prevailed in commercial
circles in the first half of 1877 gave
place, he says, in the latter part Of the
year to an unwonted activity; the
volume Of business done al the great
fairs was notably increased; despite the
blockade of the Euxine, the eXporta-
ton of grain and flax to Nov. !, was
larger than it had been in the proceed
ing year; and manufactures of iron,
cloth, and leather, were stimulated into
remarkable briskness. Americans who
have 50 recently been through a period
of war and initiation know too sadly the
meaning of such things-what it is to
produce extensively an excess Of goods
to be consumed in war We can there
fore sympathize with the Car. who
finds himself with the difficult choice
between accepting war which must in
any event throw back the so long ten
derly-nursed finances and development
of his country far many MANY wears