816 



SPAIN. 



The following tables will serve to show the 

 amount and sources of the national revenue, 

 and the amount and branches of the expendi- 

 ture, as estimated in the budget for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1878: 



REVENUE. Pesetas. * 



Direct taxes 287.200,000 



Indirect taxes 209,000,000 



Sale of national property 1.287,500 



State monopolies 219,425,0(iO 



Colonial revenue 5,000,000 



Exemption from military service 



Sundries 2,500,000 



Total 736,000,000 



EXPENDITURE. Pesetas. 



Civil list 9,500,000 



Cortes 



National debt 249,725,000 



Compensations for privileges 



Pensions 44,675.000 



Presidency of the Council 1.250,000 



Ministry of Foreign Affairs 8,250,000 



ofFinance 188.000,000 



of Justice... . 43,225,000 



of War 122,275,000 



ofMarine 26,475.000 



of the Interior 40,800,000 



of Commerce and Agriculture . . 48,900,000 

 of Colonies 1,317,500 



Total 735,750,000 



In the budgets for the years 1878-'79, 1879- 

 '80, and 1880-'81, approved by Congress, the 

 estimated revenue and expenditure stood, re- 

 spectively, as follows : 



The amount and main branches of the na- 

 tional debt were set down as follows, on Janu- 

 ary 1, 1880: 



Pesetas. 



State debt 9 696.616,650 



Special Treasury debt 1,005.564.500 



Floating debt on December 1, 1879 57.000.000 



Total 10,759.181,000 



On Jan. 1, 1881, the amount stood at. 12.523.742.-G2 



On October 4, 1881, the Minister of Finance 

 laid before the Cortes the financial plans for 

 1882-'83, including the supplementary budget 



* The peseta equals 20 cents. 



for the second half of 1881-'82. The reading 

 of the statement, owing to the unusually large 

 number of projects set forth (twenty-four in 

 all), occupied nearly four hours. Senor Ca- 

 inacho has achieved a triumph, in presenting 

 for the first time for many years in Spain a 

 balanced budget. He commenced by saying 

 that he was prepared to pay the additional 

 one fourth per cent on the general debt, as pro- 

 vided by the law of 1876. After recapitulating 

 various internal administrative economies and 

 new indirect taxes, estimated to yield some 

 75,000,000 pesetas annually, by which the in- 

 crea&ed interest on the general debt, and the 

 reduction of certain existing taxes, would be 

 more than covered, he deprecated the misman- 

 agement of his predecessors, and proceeded to 

 the article relating to the conversion of the 

 privileged debts. r \ hese, which include all debts 

 except the external and internal three's, and the 

 railway obligations, amounting in all to 330,- 

 000,000 sterling, are absorbed in an emission of 

 72,000,000 four-per-cent stock at 85, redeem- 

 able in forty years. He stated that the desire 

 of the Government was to come to an imme- 

 diate arrangement, on a basis of compensation 

 and not of composition, with the bondholders, 

 and for this purpose he asked the Cortes for 

 authority to treat before January 1, 1882, when 

 the existing law would give him such author- 

 ity. The minister clearly intimated that the 

 general conversion would be upon the basis of 

 the privileged debt conversion now accom- 

 plished. With regard to the customs tariffs, a 

 gradual reduction in conformity with the law 

 of 1869 the Figuerola law would be made, 

 thus harmonizing the Catalonian interests with 

 those of the rest of the country. The pro- 

 posals of Senor Camacho met with almost uni- 

 versal approval, and telegrams from most of 

 the commercial centers of the country, not ex- 

 cepting Catalonia, the province most affected 

 by the free-trade principles indicated in the 

 budget, proved that the impression throughout 

 the country was most favorable. The decided 

 improvement in Spanish credit materially af- 

 fects certain private interests, reducing to 

 reasonable limits the heavy rates of interest 

 which bankers and capitalists obtained in ne- 

 gotiations with the State. The banking com- 

 munity, however, generally highly approved 

 Sefior Camacho's schemes, remarkable at once 

 for a bold and prudent policy, which, it is freely 

 admitted, even by the strongest opponents of 

 the present Government, will permanently 

 raise the standard of the national credit. The 

 colonial representatives were enthusiastic in 

 their eulogy of the change in the laws of cabo- 

 taje, or shipping, between the Peninsula and 

 the colonies, the result of which would, they 

 thought, be to draw closer the union with the 

 mother-country, and practically establish what 

 has hitherto been but a political theory the 

 colonies as provinces of Spain. 



On November 6th, at a meeting of the 

 Budget Committee of the Cortes, under the 



