J&O SPANISH LOANS. 



" We find that the contractors finally reserved to themselves the 

 right of remitting exclusively, for eighteen months, the stock of the 

 stock of the old loans at the price of seventy per cent. ; and that 

 they gave in, as equivalent to cash, the interest accruing on those 

 bonds at the day when they remitted them ; the dividends in arrear 

 on the old Dutch loans, at the price of 4J reals vellon per florin, 

 and the premium tickets of the first loan, at the price of 300 reals 

 vellon each. 



" In exchange for the amounts which they could deliver, the 

 Spanish government gave them a quantity of indeterminate stock, at 

 the price of fifty per cent., with the enjoyment of interest from the 

 1st of November, 1821. 



" The government was forbidden to conclude any loan during the 

 first twelve months after the signing of the contract : if a fresh loan 

 became necessary before the expiration of that term, the new stock 

 could be disposed of to none but these contractors." 



In gross, we may state that the old loans, then without price or value 

 in the market, were to be redeemed at the par of issue, and the 

 arrears of interest accruing thereon at the par of exchange, and at 

 general full nominal amounts. 



The most scandalous part of the transaction however was, that 

 the Spanish government covenanted to pay interest on the new 

 indeterminate stock delivered to the contractors, from the 1st of 

 November, and secured to them the interest in the old stocks at the 

 same time -both running for the space of eighteen months, during 

 which the operation was to last so that a cross fire of double interest 

 on two classes of obligations representing the same values was esta- 

 blished ; an ingenuity of usury such as the world never witnessed 

 before, and Shylock himself must have confessed in it the master- 

 mind of all the tribe of money changers from those of the temple, 

 to this, our time. 



The Cortes at length began to open their eyes, when all the world 

 besides had long been wide awake. They deliberated upon annulling 

 the contract and impeaching Angel Vallejo, the Minister of Finance, 

 under whose auspices it had been settled. A Committee of Enquiry 

 was appointed, and on the 17th of May, 1822, the Report was 

 presented and read, if not drawn up, by the Conde Toreno himself, 

 then an eloquent and independent member of the Cortes, afterwards 

 and now sworn friend of Ardoin, Hubard, and Co., and actual 

 Minister of Finance, and Prime Minister. The following are 

 extracts : " The losses which it is sought to inflict upon unhappy 

 Spain by this pernicious treaty are not confined to what we have 

 already pointed out. It is designed to make her drain the bitter cup 

 of sacrifice to the dregs. In contempt of reason and morality, and 

 without any example of such a transaction, we find from this treaty, 

 that for one and the same thing, that is, for the previous loans, an 

 obligation is entered into to pay the interest which was due before ; 

 and, moreover, to pay fresh interest, commencing before the ex- 

 istence, and even before the signing of the contract, viz. from No- 

 vember I, 1821. In the eighteen months which this operation may 

 occupy, of double payment of interest, it will occasion to Spain a loss, 

 in specie, of 6 1 ,096,9.50 r. v," 



