176 SPANISH LOANS. 



or, in our money, in round numbers, about ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY 

 MILLIONS of pounds sterling. 



This amount is no doubt of sufficiently ponderous dimensions, even 

 by comparison with our own enormous dead weight ; but it is more 

 startling still when viewed in connection with the resources of the 

 state at the same period of time. 



Reales. 



The gross revenue of Spain was estimated at . . 551,126,987 



The charges on collecting which were 161,099,000 



Other deductions . . . . 59,316,000 220,415,000 



Net product . 330,711,987 



or rather more than THREE MILLIONS AND A HALF sterling, wherewith 

 to support the army and navy, the royal household, and all other the 

 necessary machinery of government, calculated generally at nearly 

 double that amount alone ; so that interest upon the debt was out of 

 the question, and had been for years. 



In these untoward circumstances the Cortes of 1820 found them- 

 selves with the arrears of pay of a clamorous army to satisfy, and 

 with myriads of hungry patriots to gorge, in default of which they 

 stood on the very verge of the precipice which had just engulphed 

 the absolute monarchy of Ferdinand. Both at home and abroad 

 Spain seemed equally bankrupt in resources and credit. The reign 

 or a constitutional regime became however a wonder-working 

 miracle in her behalf. The ancient prejudices of Europe about 

 her inexhaustible riches her mines of gold, silver, and precious 

 stones her countless hoards of doubloons and dollars, stored up 

 during centuries of a monopoly of the incalculable treasures of the 

 Americas in short, all the wonders of the Galleons, and all the 

 historic fables of the Incas, were revived in the minds of men in 

 more than their pristine magnificence of imagination and invention. 

 The new government was forthwith beset with usurers and sharpers, 

 with Chevaliers d'industrie, and capitalists, Jew and Gentile, exhi- 

 biting or boasting of their cornucopias of fathomless plenty and 

 countless millions, humbly and eagerly contending, as for the most 

 signal favour, for the exclusive privilege of pouring the glittering 

 contents into its lap. Astounded as were the Cortes with the un- 

 undreamt-of succour, they hesitated not, with more haste than good 

 speed, to welcome the golden shower ready to descend and irrigate 

 the arid waste of the national exchequer. Their exigences were 

 urgent both with regard to the public service and to the private 

 interests of many of the members and functionaries of their body. 

 The bargain was hastened lest the fairy dream should vanish ; con- 

 ditions, however onerous, were obstacles unthought of, where re- 

 payment existed only in the distant vista of improbabilities ; accord- 

 ingly, loan the first was concluded on the 6th of November, 1820, 

 with the house of Lafitte and Co., which introduces us to the subject 

 matter of the pamphlet we have heretofore referred to. This work 

 professes to be a ^history of the loans of the Cortes, and those of the 

 absolute government of Ferdinand ; it is published with the view 

 of drawing a parallel between the two series of operations, so as to 



