743 



PUBLIC STOCKS. 



tutignatx, or silver roubles. The design was to di- 

 minish the immense quantity of asiienats. It was 

 intended to have many series of these loans follow- 

 ing one another, to destroy the paper roubles which 

 might be brought in by their means, and thus to 

 raise the paper money gradually to par, or perhaps 

 to put it wholly out of circulation, and substitute 

 silver money in its place. Although these loans 

 never accomplished the desired object, and seemed 

 to be founded on mistaken principles, yet they 

 helped to confirm the credit of the government, be- 

 cause every stipulation was punctually fulfilled, and 

 a regular financial system was forming in regard to 

 the public debts. The interest of the first loan in 

 silver was regularly paid; and the capital, too, was 

 repaid in the way stipulated, notwithstanding the 

 distress to which the kingdom was reduced by the 

 war of 1812. The credit which the government 

 thus acquired was, perhaps, worth the sacrifice of 

 some millions ; for the state had hardly any other 

 advantage from this loan. These stocks, during 

 their five years' continuance, were in great demand, 

 and their price speedily rose above their par value 

 in assignats; but this was not strange, for paper 

 roubles were not worth in the market one third of 

 silver, and, by the terms of the loan, a silver rou- 

 ble was paid for every two paper roubles advanced. 

 Only a few of these obligations are now in circulation, 

 for, in 1815, they were nearly all cancelled. This 

 system, however, was continued under better condi- 

 tions as regarded the government, and to a much 

 greater extent. The diminution of the assignats was 

 the pretext for every measure. But the deficit in the 

 income, and the expense occasioned by the war of 

 1812, were perhaps the principal causes of the suc- 

 cessive loans. There have been three or four since 

 1816. The two first, made in 1817, at Petersburg, of 

 seventy million roubles in assignats, were mostly re- 

 duced to silver money at a fixed valuation ; the third 

 and fourth were in England, in 1820, and amounted to 

 forty million silver roubles. All the stocks of this 

 kind bear five per cent, interest, and are regulated 

 after the manner of the stocks in other countries, 

 wherein the government merely pledges itself to 

 discharge the stipulated interest punctually. The 

 liquidation of the capital by the sinking fund is ef- 

 fected by re-purchasing the certificates or otherwise, 

 as the state of the treasury renders most expedient. 

 The arrangements for the public debt are similar to 

 those in France and England. All the debts since 

 1817 have been registered, with the creditors' names 

 in alphabetical order. At the same time, the credi- 

 tors receive notes (inscriptions), which contain what 

 is written in the book of registry, and the conditions 

 and stipulations of the government, and are so pre- 

 pared that they may be endorsed in blank in a foreign 

 country, being verified by a Russian consul, and in 

 this way transferred to any one without difficulty ; 

 and the directions, necessary in case of transfer, are 

 contained in the inscription. An important traffic is 

 now carried on, in all the markets of Europe, in Rus- 

 sian stocks. The interest on the English loan is pay- 

 able, not merely in Petersburg, but in Hamburg and 

 London, in the money of those places, at a fixed 

 valuation, and the income of the Dutch stock is pay- 

 able in Holland. The report of the minister of fin- 

 ance, January 1st, 1822, made the whole debt of 

 Russia to consist of the following sums: I. The 

 Dutch, 48,600,000 guilders; 2. the domestic, in 

 silver roubles 53 millions ; 3. the domestic, in 

 paper roubles, 296 millions. The fund destined 

 for the liquidation of these debts is one mil- 

 lion in silver roubles and five millions in paper 

 about in the ratio of one to fifty. Near- 

 ly ten million silver roubles are necessary for 



the payment of what is annually due on these 

 stocks. 



VI. Dutch Stocks. Although the public debt in 

 Holland has been very great from the earliest times, 

 yet, in consequence of the regular fulfilment of all 

 obligations, and the multitude of wealthy capitalists 

 in the country, the stocks have maintained a high 

 credit, and, during the thirty-two years of tranquil- 

 lity, from 1748 to 1780, they were in such demand, 

 that, notwithstanding their low rate of interest (two 

 and a half per cent.), they brought from eight to ten 

 per cent, above their nominal value. But owing to 

 the wars with England and France, the finances of 

 the country were thrown into disorder ; it is prob- 

 able, indeed, that these wars only hastened a calami- 

 ty which must, sooner or later, have fallen upon 

 the people ; for the deficit in the income was in- 

 creasing every year after 1786, and the public debt, 

 of course, was continually accumulating. The ex- 

 penditures were multiplied by the oppression of 

 France, and the deficit daily grew more enormous. 

 Under the administration of Louis Bonaparte, in 

 1807, 1808, and 1809, loans of forty, thirty, and 

 twenty million guilders, to cover the deficit, were 

 obtained on tolerable conditions, as Louis Bonaparte 

 maintained the credit of the state by opposing with 

 firmness, on every occasion, the reductions of the 

 public debt, which his brother proposed. When 

 Napoleon united Holland with France in 1810, it 

 was found that the national debt of this little king- 

 dom amounted to the enormous sum of 1200 million 

 guilders (about 480 million dollars.) Napoleon 

 commenced a system of reform in the financial de- 

 partment, by setting aside two-thirds of the debt, 

 as had already been done in France. The remain- 

 ing third was to be registered in the great book of 

 France, as a part of the general national debt, and, 

 like the rest, to pay an interest of five per cent. 

 This measure, however, was never carried into 

 execution. After the establishment of the kingdom 

 of the Netherlands, subsequent to the fall of Napo- 

 leon, the debt was newly organized, and, by the law 

 of May 14th, 1814, was regulated by the following 

 principles : 1. The two-thirds of the debt abolished 

 by Napoleon were again acknowledged, although 

 his measure was, in a degree, sanctioned, by tlie 

 division of the new debt into a real or active, and a 

 nominal or dead one ; the interest of the first (the 

 third retained by Napoleon) was to be paid from 

 January 1st, 1815 ; and the interest of the latter 

 (the two thirds abolished by Napoleon) was to com- 

 mence gradually ; so that every year from four to 

 five millions should be put on the same footing \vith 

 the active debt, as to the payment of interest of the 

 abolished debt. All subsequent obligations were 

 required to be presented, and for an advance of six 

 per cent, in specie, were changed into new obliga- 

 tions, of which all were fixed at two and a half per 

 rent. ; in such a way, however, that two-thirds of 

 the new notes were assigned to the dead debt, which 

 paid no interest, and only one-third of the amount 

 was transferred to the new debt, bearing interest 

 from 1815. Charitable institutions, holders of life 

 annuities, and some other classes, however, had 

 some particular privileges. But the debts con- 

 tracted during the French administration were put 

 under less favourable conditions. These obligations, 

 frequently increased by new loans, formed the 

 Dutch stocks found in the money market, of which 

 those that yielded an actual income, were sold be- 

 fore the Belgic revolution for forty-six to forty- 

 seven per cent. Shares in the nominal debt are 

 regarded like shares in a lottery, and stand at one 

 quarter per cent., or even still lower (five eighths); 

 this is sufficient evidence, how little the purchasers 



