Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/51

 REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

15

The details of the estimated gross expenditure for 1869 were as follows: —

Imperial household

Florins

£

3,450,000

345,000

Imperial Cabinet Chancery

60,514

6,051

490,838

49,083

Council of Ministers ....

€8,919

6,891

Ministry of the Interior ....

13,120,209

1,312,020

„ National Defence.

4,016,837

401,683

„ Public Education.

5,810,326

581,032

„ Agriculture ....

2,176,300

217,630

„ Finance ....

85,320,371

8,532,037

,, Justice ....

13,892,987

1,389,298

„ Commerce and Public Works

13,630,700

1,363.070

Board of Control .....

195,000

19,500

Interest on public debt ....

90,222,457

9,022,245

Administration of Public Debt

1,680,000

168,000

Cisleithan portion of the Common Expen-

diture of the Empire, including War

and Foreign Affairs .... Total estimated expenditure of 1869.

65,191,213

6,519,121

299,326,671

29,932,667

The largest branch of expenditure, as will fee seen from the above statement, is the interest on the public debt, the burthen of which falls mainly on the Cisleithan part of the monarchy. This debt has grown up gradually since the middle of the last century. At the end of the Seven Years' War, in 1763, Austria had a debt of 150,000,000 florins, or 15,000,000/., which grew to 283,000,000 florins, or 28,300,000/., in 1781, and at the commencement of the French Ee- volution, in 1789, had risen to 349,000,000 florins, or 34,900,000/. From this period the debt grew in extraordinary proportions ; rising to 825,000,000 florins, or 82,500,000^., in 1815 ; to 987,000,000 florins, or 98,700,000/., in 1820; to 1,084,000,000 florins, or 108,000,000/., in 1830; to 1,250,000,000 florins, or 125,000,000/., in 1848; and to 3,009,804,134 florins, or 300,980,413/., in 1868. The war against Prussia and Italy, in the summer of 1866, increased the public debt by about 300,000,000 florins; but, on the other hand, freed Austria from the Lombardo-Venetian Debt, which, by the terms of the Peace of Prague, of August 23, 1866, was transferred to the kingdom of Italy. From 1789 until the present time, there was not a year in Avhich the revenue of the State came up to the expenditure.