Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/485

STATISTICS.] ITALY 405 itself in twelve, and (2) the attainment during five consecutive years of a very considerable surplus. The following table (XLIV. gives the official report on the items of the national debt in 1879: Per cent Annuities, &c. Year of Ex tinc tion. , [. Consolidate Five per cer Three per c II. Sum due t III. Debts entt Debito feud Sardinia ... - Tuscany...- Lombard} and > Venice ...) Modena ... Parma Rome - Kingdom of Italy... Debt IV. Miscellan V. Floating I Debt. ts 5 3 378,193,087 6.408,080 3,225,000 2,823,775 168,975 156,420 139,060 6,525 29,101 2,050 148,148 3,231 22,500 219,600 59,945 5,725 4,217,353 1,084,445 1,888 2,665 9,645 915 962 775 130,000 1894 1885 1887 1881 1902 1881 1959 1886 1883 18S6 1898 190 1946 1880 1917 1948 1961 1964 1906 1915 t tlie Holy See red separately. ile of 1851 (Loan of 1849 4 4 5 3 5 3 5 5 5 5 5 j-5 u J 5 5 248,000 267.680 5,125 1,008,072 493,248 2,201,750 1,185,185 13,963 80,116 215.250 5,058,800 2,646,690 2,341,769 3,104,595 9,823,665 225,280 421,525 3,894,000 243,465 56,963 1,397,800 3,765,900 625,000 } 1850 1859 ( (English, 1855) Loan of 1851 , 1861 Loan of 1859 Loan of 1825 Loan of 1827 1 arodi loan, 1846 Rothschild loan, 1857 Loans of I860 and 1864 Loan of 1866 National loan, 1866 Loan guaranteed by church property, 1867 and 1870 ... Rail- | Cuneo way < Vitt. Emm Loans | Turin-Acqui t Genoa- Voltri Udine-Pontebba Cavour Canal loan 42,148,211 47,605,291 17,268,629 6,409,928 1,604,980 debt Total of debt 494,848,298 8,014,914 ... The figures, it must be noted, represent the interest, not the capital. A large proportion of the Italian consols are held in small amounts, for the most part by French investors, and the greatest holder after France appears to be England. In the Bourse of Paris in 1879, for instance, 11,912,000 lire of the stock were presented for certification, in the Exchange of London 8,319,000 lire; and after these places comes Berlin with only 1,453,000 lire. The value of the 5 per cent, stock at Paris, which was as low as 39 40 in the course of 1866, has risen rapidly nearly every year, espe cially since 1875, and in the course of 1880 was as high as 87 60. A similar advance was observable in the Italian exchanges ; from 43 52 in 1866 the value rose to 94 20 in 1880. In the matter of taxation the Italian statesmen have mainly fol lowed in the footsteps of the French; and the revenue is eked out by several imposts of the most questionable character. Mr Gallenga even goes so far as to say that there is hardly an unwise, inhuman, unpopular, or even immoral tax to which the Government has not been compelled to resort." It is a small matter that the durum lustrale of ancient Rome should again figure in the Italian budget ; but it is a serious thing when the salt monopoly, the lottery, a grist- tax, and an octroi are among the most important of its items. The grist-tax, which pressed heavily on the very means of life, and ag gravated the already aggravated misery of the poorer classes, has happily been reduced in 1880 from 2 lire to T50 per hectolitre, and is destined to disappear altogether in 1884. Against the octroi, which, as shown in the paragraph dealing with the communal ad ministration, tells severely on the prosperity of several important industries, an intelligent opposition is beginning to gather head ; and the law in this respect will probably be amended or abrogated before long. The following table (XLV.) gives the actual revenue of the Government for 1878 and 1879, the actual expenditure for 1878, and the estimated expenditure for 1879, all in lire: I. Seven-lie. 1878. 1879. Receipts 1,197,196,796 78,013,334 60.412,428 101,681,349 1,215,173.076 82,010,298 51,515,710 111,121,575 Movement of capital Construction of railways Compensations Total 1,437,303,907 1,459,820,659 The chief miscellaneous debts are the annuities due to the South Austrian and Upper Italian Railway Company, in terms of the convention of November 1875 (33,160,215 lire, date of extinction 1968), tobacco monopoly obligations (4,503,000 lire), advance in gold made by the national bank at 6 75 per cent. (2,992,610), and obligation issued in favour of the company for the sale of the state property (2,060,501). II. Expenditure, Real Expenses. Trnnsf on ra tion of Capital. Compensa tions. 1878. Ministry of treasury and finance 735,290,059 27,954,811 84,620,435 02,508,419 ,, foreign affairs 6,120,220 87,0X3 24,917,244 368 36. 762 319 ,, the interior ,, public works, 85,420, SCO 89,541,857 206,345,102 386,895 64,745,628 2,299 146 1.360,447 370,207 4 064,688 ,, marine 45,107.243 200,308 2,241,350 Total 1,190,896,596 152,620,774 101 652 263 1879. Ministry of treasury and finance grace and justice foreign affairs public instruction 7(15,747.254 28 823,991 6,277.894 30,305,598 78,416,401 "8,000 103,296,f M> 114J4I; 72,500 788,426 ., the interior 60,067,476 1 143 947 ., public works war 108,562,485 223,147,405 47,424,797 69,642,511 273,718 4,088,254 2.237,048 9,585,680 110,587 Total 1,279,942,580 148,066,912 112,125,300 The relative importance of the various sources of revenue may be seen from the following figures in millions of lire ( = 40,000), show- tlie totals for the ten years 1871-1880 (Table XLVI.) : 2 Land tax 1864 Tax on personal property 1711 Customs 1042 Salt monopoly 784 Lottery 731 Succession duty 713 Grist-tax 693 Octroi 661 Tobacco 558 Registration 507 Stamp duty 368 Post-office 243 Railway 112 Telegraphs 82 Banks. By the law of April 30th 1874, the right of issuing bank notes was limited to six banks the National Bank of the King dom of Italy founded by the Sardinian law of 1850, the National Tuscan Bank founded by the grand-duke in 1857, the Roman Bank constituted by papal authority in 1850, the Tuscan Bank of Credit for industry and commerce established by the provisional Tuscan Government in 1860, the Bank of Naples dating from 1816, and the Bank of Sicily due to a decree of 1843. The two Tuscan banks and the Roman and the National Bank are joint-stock companies, with their capital subscribed in shares. The capital of the four joint-stock banks amounted in the aggregate to 255,000, 000 lire, of which 200,000,000 belonged to the National Bank, 30,000,000 to the National Tuscan, 15,000,000 to the Roman, and 10,000,000 to the Tuscan Credit. By the law of 1874 the Bank of Naples was authorized to carry its capital by 1885 to 48,750,000 lire, and the Bank of Sicily to 12,000,000 ; the actual amounts in 1877 were 39,000,000 in the one case, and 9,200,000 in the other. The law just mentioned united the six banks into a consorzio or union, bound if required to furnish to the national exchequer bank-notes to the value of 1,000,000,000 lire manufactured and renewed at their com mon expense ; but by the law of 7th April 1881 (mentioned in detail further on) the consorzio ceased on the 30th June 1881. The following table (XLVII.) indicates the position of the issue of bank notes both by the consortium and by the individual banks on their own account on the 30th September 1880. Notes. Consort ial. Bank- proper. Notes. Consortial. Bank- proper. 50 cent. 1 lire 2 5 ,, 10 ,, 11,074,171 38,984,381 63,679,518 201,866,350 243,533,830 280,947 161,528 49,684 204,535 106,670 20 lire i 25-50 ,, 100-500 ,, | 1000 50,323,000 146,439,750 184,099,000 494,400 130.639.9-45 463,412.500 129,585.000 The total aggregate amounts to nearly 1,665,000,000 lire. The following table (XLVIII.) gives details (the amounts in millions of lire) as to the working of the institutions in 1879 : Banks. Debts at sight. Reserve per 100 lire for Debts at sight. Paper dis counted. Advances. Special Guarantee Fund. National Bank 480-11 33-58 167-66 114-8 ) 443-77 Bank of Naples 216-65 38-20 57-03 57-08 196-87 National Tuscan Bank. Roman Bank 46-72 44-91 38-20 37-84 19-74 29-49 61 3-69 38-20 50 17 Sicily Bank 60-61 34-56 15-65 6-86 43-45 Tuscan Bank of Credit 14-16 35-84 6-29 6-36 17-73 863-16 35-32 295-86 189-49 790-19 i The total amount of the circulation and deposits of all the six banks thus amounted to 863,160,000 lire, while that of the Bank of England alone at the same date was 1,657,234,000. The following table (XLIX.) indicates the number of the various joint-stock credit institutions at the close of 1878 : 2 See Marpurgo, Sulla finanza nazionaJe, Rome, 1874. XIII. 59