Norwich bulletin., 1915-04-29
Stories of the War
Austria -Hunqary's Financial Power.

The official Fremdenblatt at Vienna
 publishes an article by the director Of the Allgemeine Verkehrsbank on the financial defensive power of Austria Hungary, in which he assert that the
 econmic system of the dual monarchy
 has proven and will prove equal to the
 great tasks imposed upon it by the
 war.
 To the most intensive exploitation
 of the available working forces, to the
 willing submission of the people to national regulation of nourihment,
 and to the sound basis of the indus trial and economic life, he said, is
 due to the fact that nowhere a trace
 of a crisis shows itself.''
 Pointing to the success of the Aus tro-Hungarian war loan, he notes that
 the decrease in bank deposits as a
 result of this loan amounted to only
 three per cent, or 500 million crowns, ($150, ,00O,00O) which in view of total
 deposits of twenty billion crowns, jus
 tifies the assertion that the war loan
 for the greater part was paid from out
 of our economic reserves, so that the deposit accounts in Austro- Hungarian banks remain intact.
 'sAs a matter of fact, he continues,
 ''the deposits in the larger V;enese private banks, not considering the Postal Savings Bank increased dur ing the first two months of 1915 by 110 million crowns, i. e., II per cent.
 
 the provinces.
 "A further war loan Is at the mo-
 ment not matter of actual occur ence, but it is certain if a new ap- peal to the people should be necessary, 1 the next war loan would be foated on | terms even more favorable than the first. For the present ample provi- | sion has been made for immediate I needs by the issuance of 1-2 bill ] lions.
 Tn case a longer duration of the war has to be reckoned with, and if 1 the costs are estimated at twelve l million crowns, the country would have l to raise additional taxes of about 700 | million.
 "The Austro- Hungarian debt at the end of 1913 amounted to IS billion 1 crowns, of which ten billion comprise railroad investments, so that more | than half of the national debt con- | sists of productive expenditures. The | budget receipts of the two countries | since 1900 increased nearly three bil-
 lions. In Austria the annual taxable | income of the people when estimated
 last was nearly seven billions. The | wealth of the people of Austria is es- timated at 100 billion crowns. The l normal value of the agricultural pro- l duction has risen to nearly five billions 1 yearly. The elasticity of the state ! budget for both nonarchieS therefore | permits the covering of the interest l requirements of the war costs without | any injury whatever to the economic | life of the country
 The article controverts the asser- ! tlon that Austria-Hungary is meeting I its money requirements in connection ] with the war by drawing on the Aus 1 tro-Hungarian Bank, and points out | that the financial department had re- | ceived money neither from that bank | nor from the Postal Savings Bank | but that in issuing the war loan it had | relied upon an Austrian bank syndi- l cate which together with a Hungarian 1 syndicate of equal rank was available 1 for the credit requirements of the en- | tire country and would show itself | equal to any further tasks.
 The injuries done to the economic 1 life of Austria-Hungary by this ter rible war;, he says. "are inf1nitesima compared with those wrought in other countries, because the economic life l of this country is based chiefly on Its own home resources, and because ou1 l part in the affected international traf- 1 flc is only modest"
 The article concludes as follows
 That the monarchy heretofore had to l adapt herself to conditions and build
 up it's economic system from it's owr
 resources proves of great advantage
 now. She can draw the powerful means for the conduct of the wal
 from her own national resources and | will also be strong enough to meet
 the great tasks of the ensuing peace.'