838 



UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 



UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 



The receipts and expenditures of the United 

 States for the year ending June 30, 1890, may 

 be classified and compared with those of the 

 year previous as follow : 



EXPENDITURES. 



The receipts from duties on imports have been 

 greater than ever before received from that source 

 in the history of the Government, the nearest ap- 

 proach to the amount being that of the previous 

 year, when it was only about $6,000,000 less. The 

 ordinary receipts for the year have been exceeded 

 by those of one year only. 1882, for which they 

 Vere about $400,000 greater. 



The expenditures of the Government, not in- 

 cluding amounts paid for premiums on bonds 

 purchased, or for principal and interest of pub- 

 lic debt, have been greater than for any year 

 since 1866, when they were swollen by war ex- 

 penses. The increase has been almost entirely 

 due to the payment of pensions, for which pur- 



pose it will be noted there has been paid during 

 the year the enormous amount of $106,936,855, 

 or about $44,000,000 more than the entire ex- 

 pense of the Government was for any year pre- 

 vious to the rebellion of 1861. 



Notwithstanding these increased expenditures, 

 there was a net surplus of $105,344,496.03, which, 

 with $5,870 received from 4 per cents., issued for 

 interest on refunding certificates, and $19,601,- 

 877.53 taken from the cash balance in the Treas- 

 ury, in all $124,952,243.56, was used for the re- 

 demption and purchase of the debt, including 

 the premiums paid thereon, which amounted to 

 $20,304,224.06. 



The United States has enjoyed no sinking 

 fund, in the ordinary meaning of that term, for 

 many years ; but it has had an excess of ordi- 

 nary receipts over ordinary expenditures for 

 twenty years, from which has arisen an excess 

 or surplus, constituting a true and effective sink- 

 ing fund, extinguishing the national debt every 

 year to its amount. 



The principal of the debt against which no 

 reserve is held, exclusive of the naval trust fund, 

 may be thus stated for the dates named : 



Showing a reduction last year of the principal of 

 the debt having no reserve of $104,546,469. 



There are also obligations against which the 

 Treasury, by law or long usage, holds in reserve 

 an equivalent amount of cash. These obligations 

 are all payable on demand and draw no interest. 

 Whether they are paid off or remain outstand- 

 ing, the net condition of the Treasury is in no 

 way affected. The changes in amounts of these 

 obligations during the last year have been as fol- 

 low: 



In addition to an equivalent of cash held by 

 the Treasury to meet these demands, there was 

 of cash available for other purposes on the for- 

 mer date, $106,281,869, on the latter, $85,928,- 

 167. It will be seen that the debt is rapidly dis- 

 appearing. The annual interest charge, which 

 in 1865 was $150,977,689, was, June 30, 1889, 



