Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/484

Rh 466 to the Eastern llailway Company of .£'13.000,000 fur the railways Iii-ought under the control of Ucrniaii_v. The lollowiiig table shows the state of the imperial funds at 1st .Iareh 1818 :— liivalid fund .................................. ..£27,S70,700 Fund for arniauieiit of fortresses .......... .. 6,515,800 War reserve fund .................... .. 6,000,000 l‘arlianient Ilouse building fund. ....... .. 1,405,400 Imperial Dcbls.—The loans contracted by the 1_'oi'tli Gerinan Coiifederation for the war with France have long since been paid 011'. The extraordinary expenditure of the empire was for several vears paid out of the French indemnity, but that resource is now exhausted. Accordingly, for def raying the expenses of the army and navy, the extension of the subterranean telcgraplis, &c., two new loans had to be raised in 1877 and 1878, amounting to £8,760,800. There exists, besides, an unfunded debt. The law allows the imperial chancellor to effect an issue of bills of excliequer for short terms to the extent of £7,500,000, and these are destined partly for the expenses of administration, and partly for the completion of the monetary reform. Since 1874 also a debt bearing no interest has been created in imperial treasury bills (Reichscassenseheinc), which are to be substituted for the paper currency issued by the separate states. At that date only four States;Llp1)0,1Llibccl§gHi).111l)lul‘%3a16:)lg33€31Cl; —had no paper currency. russia 1:1 in 7:. on y, , 0 paper currency, or 2s. 6d. a head, but in the minor states the proportion was liigher,—reachiiig in Sax_c-Coburg-Gotlia 10'3s. a head, in Anhalt 14s. , in Mecklenburg-Strelitz 2-1 '7s. , and in_ Scliauiii- burg-Lippe the very high ﬁgure of 34'8s. This inconvenience was remedied by an imperial law, ordering the states to call in their palper currency, and E(é1)%)16Cll6%0lt by the issue [0ft11lDp01'lIl.ll1tl‘0a:l1tl‘y ii s amounting to, 0 . or many 0 ie siiia er s a cs this sudden vithdra'al of their papeii currency was dtoo se‘i'ep_e an ordeal. Aecordinvly to these a furt icr sum was a vance or a term of years in ti%as’ury bills; £8,338,000 was thus in circulation on the 30th Se teiiiber 1878. 1 G d 1 Id Reform of tw Currcncg/.—'I‘ ie erman empire a optec a go currency by the law of the 4th December 1871. Subsequently the old local coinages (Landcsiniinzen) began to be called in and replaced by new gold and silver coins. The old gold coins, amounting to £4,550,000, had been called in as early as 1873; and the old silver coins have also been successively put out of circulation, so that none actually now remain as legal tenders but the thaler (3s.). Silver currency to the amount of°£52,000,000 had been withdrawn up to the 30th September 1878, and copper coins to £157,600. To replace these there were coined up till the 30th September 1878—gold pieces, £'81,900,000; silver coins, £21,330,000 ; nickel and copper, £2,237 800. The currency reform was at first facilitated by the French, indemnity, a great part of which was paid in gold. But later on that metal became scarcer; the London cold prices raii higher and higher, while silver declined. The ascrage rate per ounce of standard silver in 1866—70 was 605-d. in January 1875 only 57%d., ill Ji(illy 118761315 1<aiir_as gait. IlErOs1e8i:I1SJ:’£tl;I1uary;l35;1‘("{ to‘%7l;gi1i., )11 again ec nie, an in ep em er 1 was .1 — . 1 e therefore, the proportion of like weights of ﬁne gold aiiad ﬁnedsilvei‘ in 1866-70 averaved 1 to 15'55 it was 1 to 1779 in 1876 an 1 to 17'18 in 1877, anld the differcnde again increased in 1878., Bank£ng.—A new banking law was promulgated for the whole empire-on the 14th March 1875. Before that date there existed 32 banks with the privilege of issuing notes, and on the 31st December 1872 £67,100,000 in all was in circulation, .£25,100,000 of that suiu beinrr uncovered. The bankinv law was designed to reduce this circulation of notes; £19,250,0C0O was ﬁxed a: an aggregate maximum of uneovered notes of the banks. The private banks were at the same time obliged to erect branch offices in Berlin or Frankfort for the payment of their notes. In consequence of this rcvulatioii 13 banks resigned the privilege of issuing notes, so that 8.l'.°1)l'eS(‘11lJ there are in Germany but 19 note-issuing banks of which 5 belong to Eouth Germany(Frankfoi't included). The Imperial Bank (Reichs- ank) ranks far above the others in importance. It took the place of the Prussian Bank in 1876, and is under the superintendence and management of the empire, which shares in the proﬁts. Its head ollice IS in Berlin, and it is entitled to erect branch offices in any part of the empire. It has a capital of £6,000,000 in shares of £150. The following table exhibits the position of the German compared with the other 18 banks at the 30th Sep- ”“"“”- ciil°.ii§ti3n. B"“1°"- El§?§.f‘ 1 _ £ £ £ I-leiehsbank .............. .. 33,551,350 23,452,150 10,099,200 18 private banks ........ .. 9,395,850 6,809,450 2,586,400 Total .......... ..‘ 42,947,200 30,261,600 '12,685,600 1 l Subjoined is a comparison with the great banks of England, France, n2;-l Austria at the same date : — ' G E 11 M ANY‘ [1‘i1~:.-men. — £ £ Bank of liuglaiid ....... .. 26,592,000 ! 23,816,000 2,742,000 tank of 1"ranee ......... .. 91,250,000 86,114,000 5,126,000 German l'iL‘lCllSl)il1ll{ 33,551,000 | 23,452,000 10,099,(i(:(I Austrian National Bank; 29,698,000 I 13,836,000 15,862,000 1"i:ianccs Qf the separate Slatcs.—'1'lie budgets of the dilferciit German states are so variously arranged that it is dillieult to group them on uniform principles. We extract the following particulars from the scheme published by l'rof. II. 'agner in the Alvnmiacli. dc Got/ta for 1874. The expenses and receipts of the empire and those of the separate states are in the two tables taken together. The ﬁrst table contains the net expenses for 1872—73, the charges of collection bcing deducted :— - Net E.1y)c7iditurc Qf Gcrnum Statrs, 2'-nclmling the I;'7npz'rc. 1. Civil list and annuities to the princely f-aniilies .... .. £1,750,000 2. Diets ........................................................... .. 112,500 3. Civil service . ................................................. .. 20,200,000 4. Interest and management of the public debts ....... .. 9,000,000 5. Army and navy .............................................. .. 17,360,000 Total ............................... .. 48,422,500 Professor 'agiici"s second table gives the principal items of revenue :— P‘°"°"“°' Itfirddile. RcI‘l'Clltll(.'. 1. Revenue from public properly and cstablish- -9 -9 metals nmnag/ed by state. 1. Crown land and state forests ...................... .. 5,300,000 2. Intgiéest on consolidated funds, pioﬁis of issiie, if 3,075,000 3. State lotteries .......................... .. ...l ' 375,000 4. Produce of public mines and salt works ..., 1,4-15.000 5. Various state cstziblisliinciits ............ ........  3-53,000 6- P°;§§.ii3.‘.’iT.‘T?:...‘i‘.?§T‘IT¥’.‘.‘.fffflfffi’..f{f'.‘f.Ii‘.‘ii‘Lf'?§?:. :- II. Tu.r('s. 1. Diicettaxes ..............................................  11,175,000 10,680,000 2. EX('i.SL'— i Spirits and malt ..................................... .. 4.865.000 Beetroot sugar ........................................ .. 2,170,000 Salt ................................. ... .................. .. 1,665,000 )8,s00,0(:0 Tobaeeo............ 9i;_.'.0o , Other articles of consumption 1,100,000 3. 6.075.000 5,500,000 4. Stanips of all kinds, iuid fees ...................... .. 5,700,000 5,385,000 5. Tolls, toiiiiages, &c ...................................... .. 450,000 Total .......................... .. 4'i',6:3S,000 In the absence of trustworthy statistics the local taxes have not been taken into consideration in the above table. These, however, are very considerable in many cities in Germany, in consequence of recent expenditure on schoolhouses, sewage-works, &c. A comparison of the foregoing tables with the corresponding sta- tistiee tor the United Kingdom (1874) gives the following result. The payments on account of the national debt in Great Britain formed 422 per cent. of the total expenditure after deducting the chargcs of collection ; in Germany only 1814 per cent. The army and navy in England absorb 39'3 per cent. of the expenditure (or 68 '0 per cent. after deducting the charges of debt), in Germany 3513 per cent. (or 43'7). The expenses of the national debt in England are about 173. a head, in Germany about 5s. The expenses of the arniy and navy in England are about 16s. a head, in Germany 9»-. The public property in domains and forests is greater in Gerniany than in any other state of Europe, the area of the state forests being no less than 17,600 square miles. Many of the smaller states di-fray more than one-lialf of their expenditure by the revenue from domains and forests. From this source Germany is able to meet nearly one- ﬁftli of her expenditure (17'3 per eeiit.), whereas in England only 0'6 per cent. is thus obtained._ Qn the other hand, the expciises iii- curred by Germany for the civil lists and for annuities to the princely families are very considerable. Germany pays 3'6 per cent. of the national income to her princes, Great Britain only 104 per cent. In the minor states the rineely households_absoi_‘b 10 to 12 per cent. of the expenditure. he proceeds of establishments n_ianaged by the state cover 17 '5 per cent. of the whole ex_penditur_e in Germany, but only 25 in England. The proportion of direct to indirect taxes is in England as 17 to 83, in Germany as_31 to 69. But on the whole the English are taxed twice as heavily as the Germans. The gross revenue in England was, in _1874, 423. a head, in Gcrniany16'2s.; of these sums 13'2s. eame,.in England, from customs duties, and 1333. from excise on spirits and malt (apart from the cnstonis duties), while in Germany the corresponding ﬁgures were only 3s. and 2'4s. A considerable part of the public debt of the separate states was