PUBLIC STOCKS. 



749 



think of soon obtaining any income from them. In 

 1819, seventeen million guilders interest were to be 

 paid. The sinking fund was fixed, in 1821, at 

 '2,600,000 guilders annually. Besides these debts, 

 which include those of Belgium, the government of 

 Holland assumed the responsibility of paying a por- 

 tion of the Russian-Dutch debt (of eighty-three 

 million guilders), and 1,443,750 guilders were de- 

 voted every year to the discharge of the interest 

 and gradual liquidation of the capital. These obli- 

 gations belong to the unfunded debt, as does also 

 the Austrian-Belgic debt of about six million guild- 

 ers, and other obligations little known out of the 

 country. 



VII. Neapolitan Stocks. The Neapolitan finances, 

 on the whole, have been subject to no little disor- 

 der ; but, at the close of the last reign, measures 

 were adopted for the punctual payment of the stipu- 

 lated interest and rentes, even though fresh loans 

 should be required. The occupation of the king- 

 dom by Austrian troops added to the national debt 

 upwards of nine million ducats (about 7,200,000 

 dollars). The French system of managing the 

 public debt has been taken, to a considerable de- 

 gree, as a pattern, the shares of the creditors being 

 registered, and bought and sold in the same manner 

 as in France. The yearly amount of income from 

 the debt was estimated, January 1st, 1821, at 

 3,882,000 Neapolitan ducats (about 2,928,000 dol- 

 lars). This income is five per cent. The Neapo- 

 litan stocks have hitherto found purchasers in the 

 European markets at low rates. 



VIII. Spanish Stocks. The history of the old 

 debt of Spain is a chaos of confusion. It has been 

 always loaded with arrears and unpaid interest. 

 According to the statement of November 29th, 1820, 

 only a part of the Spanish debt bears interest. The 

 part which does not bear interest consists of unpaid 

 pensions, annuities, and many other unpaid and 

 floating debts, but principally of paper money. 

 These were estimated in the above mentioned year 

 at 7205 million reals, or about 345,840,000 dollars. 

 The public obligations bearing interest, which con- 

 sist partly of old debts, new loans, &c., amount to 

 6,814,780,373 reals, or about 327,109,457 million 

 dollars, of which the yearly interest is estimated at 

 235,966,630 reals, or 11,326,390 dollars. A plan 

 was adopted, during the constitutional government, 

 for paying off a portion of the debt by the sale of 

 the estates of monasteries, the property of the in- 

 quisition, and the public lands ; but the restoration 

 of the absolute monarchy in 1823, put a stop to its 

 execution, and the loans made by the cortes were 

 declared to be invalid. Great deficits have since 

 taken place every year, and till this day new loans 

 have been utterly insufficient to cover them. The 

 stocks which are most commonly found in the mar- 

 ket at present are : 1. The Dutch-Spanish obliga- 

 tions of 1807, created by means of the house of 

 Hope and Co., each of which is for 1000 Dutch 

 guilders with interest, payable annually. The in- 

 terest of this loan of thirty million guilders, and of 

 several of the other debts, has never been paid since 

 the French invasion of 1808. 2. The stocks of the 

 Laffitte loan of fifteen million dollars, which was 

 negotiated in Paris. Each certificate is for one 

 hundred dollars. A lottery ticket is connected with 

 every one, by which the certificate gains a greater 

 or less premium (from eighteen dollars to 20,000) 

 whenever its number is drawn. The obligations 

 are to be paid within twenty years from 1825, agree- 

 ably to the regulations for the annual extinction of 

 a portion, with the premiums belonging to them. 

 S. The certificates of the loan of 1821, negotiated 

 by the house of Ardouin, [lubbard and Co., fixed at 



different sums in dollars, and with interest payable 

 semi-annually in Paris and London. 4. The certi- 

 ficates of the national loan of 18^1, which is con- 

 nected with the last, or rather forms a part of it. 

 Every certificate is for 150 dollars in specie, but the 

 old obligations of the governments, as well as shares 

 in stocks No. 1 and 3, and premium certificates, are 

 received by the government in return for these new 

 stocks, according to their market value. These 

 new certificates were to bear five percent, interest, 

 paid annually at Madrid, Paris, or London, at the 

 option of the holder. 



IX. Danish Stocks. The obligations on account 

 of the domestic loans, made for the sake of the 

 liquidation and better regulation of the paper money, 

 are scarcely found at all in foreign markets. But 

 those that sprung from the loans of 1818 and 1819, 

 in Hamburg, and from the English loan of 1821, 

 have a wider circulation. The first loan of 1813 

 gave rise to obligations at five per cent, each, cf 

 the amount of 3000 marks, Hamburg banco (a 

 mark banco is about thirty-four and a half cents), 

 which were sold at par. because they involved a 

 premium, in which every certificate gained, at least, 

 400 marks banco, in stocks bearing six per cent, 

 interest, and under the most favourable circum- 

 stances, 200,000. After the drawing of the prem- 

 iums, the five per cent, obligations of this descrip- 

 tion stood at 7883 ; the six per cent, at 91 96. 

 The loans of 1818 and 1819, in Hamburg, were 

 concluded under similar conditions. The English 

 loan of 1821 amounted to three million pounds ster- 

 ling, and the obligations vary in amount from 100 

 to 1000 pounds sterling. All these loans are entit- 

 led to interest semi-annually, till all the capital is 

 paid, provision being made for cancelling a portion 

 of this capital annually. No loan could well rest 

 on a firmer basis than the Danish. In regard to 

 the premium notes, it is left with the government 

 to repay the capital at pleasure. All the rest are 

 gradually paid in full, as their numbers are drawn, 

 and all the stipulations have hitherto been punctu- 

 ally fulfilled. 



X. Norwegian Stocks. They arise from the loan 

 of 2,700 ,000 marks, concluded in 1819, in Ham- 

 burg and Berlin, by the king of Sweden and by the 

 Norwegian states, and consist of obligations which 

 vary from 3000 to 300 marks banco. The method 

 adopted to repay the capital is, to re-purchase the 

 certificates as long as they are below par. Another 

 Norwegian loan at six per cent, was negotiated in 

 1822, at Hamburg. It amounted to 2,400,000 

 marks banco. It is to be entirely paid off in twenty- 

 nine years, in semi-annual instalments. The pay- 

 ments have hitherto been regularly made ; and this 

 circumstance, together with the guarantee of the 

 states, seems to have given to these loans a high 

 degree of credit, although the guarantee given by 

 the states, of their associated kingdom, Sweden, to 

 the stocks of the Frege loan, has not secured to the 

 creditors a regular payment. For this reason, 

 Swedish certificates are not found in the money 

 markets. 



X I . Stocks of the German Confederation. Nearly 

 all the states in this body have public debts ; their 

 notes, however are scarcely ever seen in the 

 markets of London, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfort, 

 and Berlin ; they remain chiefly in the states 

 where they originated, and are monopolized by the 

 capitalists and institutions of those states. The 

 certificates of the kingdom of Saxony enjoy the 

 highest credit of all. Though the debts of this 

 little territory amount to sixteen and a half million 

 convention dollars (a Saxon dollar is about ninety- 

 five and a half cents), the people believe the govern- 



