Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/559

 NOTES AND MEMORDA 537 Argentina, partial. The comparatively small depreciation, in the country, of the paper currency proves this; the refusal of many of the mercantile community and of the traders to take advantage of the moratorium decreed is another indication in the same direction. The moratorium was passed against the desire of the President; it favours the Argentine banks; and probably is designed to delay or avert the day of reckoning which ought to be established for those whose frauds have compromised the credit and high standing of the Argentine Republic. It follows from an examination of facts, so far, that the country is rich and prosperous. The speculative fungi, which had with parasitical likeness fastened upon the great promise of the land, cling tenaciously to their hold; but their presence is detected, and in the daily interchange of communications with Europe, healthy public opinion should gain strength and means be found to clean off the offensive growth. If the Argentine provinces had been devastated by pestilence or destroyed by war there would be good reason why alarm should be felt for the future. The failure of crops in one or over a series of years would be a serious matter. None of these events has occurred. An excessive supply of foreign capital has induced speculation and opened the way to fraud by an immoral administration. But the moneys-worth exported from Europe during a series of years is there, in Argentina; not perhaps in the right hands, but it still is there. A certain amount of expenditure on unfinished railways is and must for a time remain unproductive. Other railways, on the contrary, have been extended and developed, and add, and are adding, to the means by which cultiva- tion of crops and rearing of cattle will be extended. The very small depreciation in the value of the currency in districts remote from the towns proves that the country is prosperous and suffers little. The imports have been considerably reduced and probably will grow, when a turn comes, slowly. That is a point for consideration in connection with the payments upon the debt; the requirements under this head are however small. At present the 1886 Customs Loan will take about 400,000 a year, and the new funding loan, of which only about one-twelfth part is to be issued in each three months during three years, will require for its service this year, say, 10,000, as 2,000,000 will be the approximate extent of the issue up to its close. Investors here, with minds disorganised by the fate which has overtaken those concerned in the reckless speculations and borrowings of the past years, seem to conclude that Argentina is ruined because they, themselves, have lost money. Reckless speculators in the Argentine Republic have lost money because they carried their speculations to undue lengths; but the Argentines have profired and the country is profiting by the sowing broad-cast of European capital in the country. A solid administration is required under an honest President. Some assistance in the formation of a bank upon sound principles is