The age-herald., 1898-03-11
CUBA'S GREAT DEBT
 MAKES SPAIN GROAN
From the Washington Times.

| T ioih Nit W HdSAali6NOn AlhiCS.
 The ponderous debt under which the Gu
 ban treasury now groans. brought on by the I fruitless efforts of the Spanish Government
 to suppress the patriots on the island, has l seldom been stated clearly and fully to the l public, and for this reason an article in 1 La Cronica Mercantil one of the leading l financial gazettes of Madrid copies of | which have just reached here, stating that
 the Cuban debt is now something like | $500, ,000 900, will be read with more than or l dinary interest.
 l The article appeared in the issue of Feb l ruary IA last in the columns usually de-
 voted to the treatment of financial matters 1 in connection with the Spanish Govern | ment, and for this reason is considered to 1 carry great weight
 Senor Gonzalo de Quesada, charge de af-
 fairs of the Cuban Republic in this city,
 has furnished the Times with the follow l ing translation of the article: 1 Tn the year 1863 the Cuban treasury commenced to contract debts. At the end of that year, according to a balance made by the Minister of the col- onies, Senor Seijas Lozano, $7SS4 ,456 was 1 owed, and since then the debts have not 1 been wiped out. The floating debt, the | forced circulation of paper money, some- l times made by the treasury, sometimes by 1 the Bank of Havana, afterwards called the 1 Bank of the Island of Cuba, have given 1 rise to chronic deficits in the budget The I assets nave ulmlmSneu owing to une want of fiscal system in the island and to the enormous expenses that have been caused by the war.
 That the increase, according to of- fcial data collected from documents of va rious kinds, of the debt of Cuba, have nev- CT been made is shown in the following statement, in which is included the paper in circulation, so that the reader may judge as to the debt of Cuba in each of the following years
 '186S-Debt of the treasury $20 000 900; paper in circulation, $24, 400, ,0O0 "173-DtIbt of the treasury, S27, 800 900; paper i'm circulation, S59, TOO 900.
 '1S74-Debt of the treasury, sS2, 900, 900; paper in circulation, $76,0OOO00.
 '1S75-Debt of the treasury, S33, ,5o0 600; paper in circulation, $67, ,SOO0OO.
 '1S7S-Debt of the treasury, s5S, 300 900; paper in circulation, $61, 100000.
 '1sSO-Debt of tha treasury, s75, 900; paper in circulation $49, 800, ,0O0.
 '1SS6-Debt of the treasury, $115, 100 GOO; paper in circu1a ticn, $36, ,000
 "1s90-Debt of the treasury, $154, 900 GOO; paper in circulation, $36, 400, ,000
 '1Ss2-Debt of the treasury, $162, BOO GOO; paper in circulation, $S1 100000. '1S93-Debt of the treasury, $170, GOO 900; paper in circulation, $29, ,600,0 900.
 '1S95, March 23-Debt of the treasury, 65,400000 in certificates, s25O00,000 in ar rears; paper in circulation, $1S00,000.
 '1S97, December 31-Debt of the treasury, $50S, coo 900; paper in circulation, ST. 200, 000.
 ''The debt increases the war in Cuba continues The causes of the increase are three, the liquidation of the arrears and acknowledgement of all claims, the deficits in the budget, and the redemption of the paper money which gradually diminishes. Until March, 1893, wlDen the redemption was made, $29, 631 165 paper redemption was made, $29 631, ,165 paper money of the $32, ,O0O,- 900 which the department of tine treasury in Cuba and the Spanish bank circulated was led 000 000 in fyOld was employed in exchanging it at the rate of 249 per 100, which was the market value and ,S07 in silver at 50 per cent. was also employed to withdraw the bills of less than $5 denomination.
 1.-The debt of $503, GOO, ,000 which dt ao- pears owing by the treasury of Cuba on the 3lslt of last December, consists of two issues of mortgage bends of the years 1886 and 1890, discounting $60,3CO of the first, which were redeemed up to that date, and $S2 300 of the second. Of the issue of 1890 there are $S00,000 given as collateral, and number of those of 1896. So not to make the mistake of charging 1t twice we do not add to the mortgage debts the debts con tracted by the treasury of the colonies with 6hese bonds, and those of the custom house as guarantees. Of these bonds we discount S167, ,0O0,OO0, which have been al- ready redeemed, but notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the last two series are pledged, we consider them as debts in their nominal value. It is true that in the market they are worth one fifth more than the loans they guarantee but would they be worth so much if they had to be sold?
 Besides these debts of Cuba we con- sider as debt s6O, OO0O00. which, according to the ministry of the colonies Is owed by arrears, and also add 900 of credits admitted but not part of claims awaiting decision by the court of claims in Cuba, and the rest of the redeemable annuitieS of the year of 1882.
 "The debt of the Cuban treasury on the 31st of last December was in detail:
 Mortgage bonds of 1SS6 SIS, ,01O 200; mort- gage bonds of 1S90 s175,710, GOO; obligations of the custom house, $43,3O0,000; arrears waiting payment, s6O,000000; credits and claims, $15.O0O,0O0; paper of the Spanish bank, S14000, coo.
 'Tn order to pay the interest and pro- vide for redemption of these debts with out abandoning the other necessities of the budget estimate of 900 a year is not enough