BRAZIL. 



77 



trusted to the financial agents of Brazil in that 

 city. 



There is in Rio de Janeiro a delegation 

 whose duty is to keep the accounts of the 

 revenue and expenses of the Empire abroad. 

 This delegation is immediately dependent upon 

 the National Treasury department. 



The public revenue comprises the munici- 

 pal, provincial, and national imposts. 



The municipal imposts are determined in 

 the capital of the Empire by the Assembly and 

 the Central Government, and in the provinces 

 by the provincial assemblies, on the suggestion 

 of the municipal chambers, and are appro- 

 priated to the municipal expenditures. 



The provincial imposts are determined by 

 the provincial assemblies, with the sanction of 

 the respective presidents, and are applied on 

 account of the expenditures of the several 

 provinces. 



The national imposts are fixed by laws ema- 

 nating from the Central Legislature, and are 

 collected mainly through the custom-house, 

 general receiving bureaux, and other offices 

 dependent on the latter. 



The amounts and various branches of the 

 national revenue and expenditure for the fiscal 

 year 1874-'75 are exhibited in the following 

 tables : 



REVENUE. 



Cn atom-House $87,117,177 



Shipping dues 209,037 



Railways 4,808,188 



PoBt-Offlce 498,985 



Telegraphs 104,485 



Stamp duties 2,186,942 



Mutation duties; 2,252,119 



Taxes on industries, trades, etc 1,843,425 



Licenses 249,481 



Beal estate tax. 1,281,508 



Lottery tax 762,888 



Mines 18,880 



Receipts extraordinary 792,026 



Slave liberation fund 677,960 



Deposit* 692,104 



Sundries 802,429 



Total $88,882,219 



From the provinces 11,257,157 



2,506,299 



Total revenue $67,095,675 



EXPENDITURE. 



Ministry of the Interior $4,152,776 



ofJustice 2,604,861 



" of Foreign Affairs 655.817 



u of War 9,881,528 



" oftheNavy 10,551.542 



" of Finance 21,864,841 



" ofCommeroe 18,261,276 



Total... $62,921,686 



Surplus $4,174,089 



In the budget for 1878-'79, the revenue is 

 estimated at $51,650,000; the expenditure at 

 $53,861,084: deficit, $2,211,034. 



It was presumed that the revenue for 1876- 

 '77 would not exceed $58,570,468, while the 

 probable expenditure was set down at $60,- 

 248,665 ; which would show a deficit of $1,- 

 678,197. (For particulars concerning the na- 

 tional debt, reference may be made to the AN- 

 NUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1876.) 



The following remarks concerning the 

 amount of the foreign debt, uses to which the 

 loans were appropriated, etc., are transcribed 

 from a prominent London financial publication, 

 and were provoked by alleged misstatements 

 on the subject, emanating from a British diplo- 

 matic source. 



On October 18, 1877, the financial agentB of 

 Brazil, as appears from their advertisement, depos- 

 ited in the Bank of England, on account of the 

 Brazilian loans, that of 1875 excepted, bonds of the 

 value of 861,700, canceled by the operations of 

 the sinking-funds during the two and a half years 

 ending in June, 1876 ; and since that time the amor- 

 tization of those loans has gone on at a rate exceed- 

 ing 360,000 per annum. By reference to the ordi- 

 nary sources ot financial information, it will be found 

 that the outstanding amounts of the foreign loans 

 of Brazil are, in round numbers, 19,000,000,* or a 

 sum considerably less than two years' revenue of 

 the Empire ; and, as not the least anxiety is ever felt 

 as to the punctual payment of the dividends ? or the 

 unerring application of the accumulating sinking- 

 funds to their reduction, their market values are, in 

 comparison with other foreign funds, high. 



Such being the position of the foreign debt of 

 Brazil, it is with amazement that we see, in the first 

 sentence of a lately-issued report on that country by 

 a young gentleman two years a member of the Brit- 

 ish legation at Bio, the statement that Brazil has 

 been a borrower here of 80,000,000. The reporter 

 includes, indeed, in that amount the railway capital 

 raised by the three English companies on guaran- 

 tees of interest by the Government. Now, even 

 were the reporter correct in describing the Govern- 

 ment as a borrower of that railway capital, say 

 5,700,000, this diplomatic youngster, whose inac- 

 curacy ought to have been manifest to his chief and 

 corrigible by him, would have exaggerated his 

 30,000,000 by the substantial sum of 3,800,000. But 

 the Brazilian Government, in point of fact, is not a 

 borrower of capital for the Bahia, the Pernambuco, 

 and the SSo Paulo Railway Companies. It is not 

 liable in any way for the payment of the capital 

 those companies raised in this market on its guar- 

 antees to make up interest thereon for definite peri- 

 ods, to the rate of 7 per cent, in most of it, and to 5 

 per cent, on the other part of it. On the contrary, 

 its guarantees terminate without any reimbursement 

 of their capital by any one at the expiration of defi- 

 nite periods by the Imperial Government ; and, as to 

 the Pernambuco Railway, the Government, a creditor 

 for 400,000, lent to it at 1 per cent, interest. But 

 this is not the whole situation of the Government 

 vit-a-vit these railway companies. The profits of the 

 SSo Paulo Railway Company have for some years 

 past been so large that the .guarantee of 7 per cent, 

 on its 2,750,000 has not only become wholly inop- 

 erative, but during three of those years the Imperial 

 Government has participated in the profits of the 

 company, beyond 7 per cent., to the amount of some 

 70,000 ; so that, by its connection with that pros- 

 perous undertaking, the Government does not lose c. 

 in'iln-i. but gains substantially in sterling. In the 

 case of the Pernambuco line, the company has, since 

 the year 1861, realized a profit in diminution of the 

 pressure of the guarantee, which, in the year ending 

 June 20, 1877, only cost the Government 38,811 8*. 

 on a guaranteed capital of 1,600,000; and, as the 

 Government is, at its own cost, and out of the loan 

 of 1875, extending that line, it may be anticipated 

 that, when the extension is at work, the pressure of 

 the Pernambuco guarantee on the Treasury will fur- 

 ther diminish, if it be not wholly removed. In the 

 case of the Bahia company the full weight of the 

 guarantee is still borne by the Treasury, but, s ita 



* 19,098,500, on October 81, 1676, as appears from the re- 

 port of the Minister of Finance. 



