The total sum of national, provincial, and municipal expenses. The proportion per inhabitant——Comparison with other foreign countries in the matter of administrative expenses. The national revenue——The revenue as organised by the Constitution, and its analysis——Indirect taxation——The customs the chief source of revenue——Direct taxation; its origin in the Argentine; its justification; its yield——Revenue of the industrial undertakings belonging to the State: railways, sewers, posts and telegraphs——The exploitation of the State lands. Elasticity of the receipts, which follow the development and progress of the country——The accelerated increase of expenditure, and the resulting chronic deficit——Necessity of serious reforms. The phenomenon of an increase in the national expenditure: a phenomenon which makes itself felt under monarchies as well as under republics, in those countries which have long centuries of life behind them, as in those whose independent existence has barely begun: this phenomenon is felt in the Argentine Republic more keenly than in the older nations of Europe. Our book would present a serious lacuna if we did not, before speaking of the increase of the Argentine budgets, inquire first of all, as closely as we can in a work of information, what are the causes which have led to this continual increase in the national expenses. We must know, in short, whether this increase is due to general causes, produced by administrative necessities, and connected with the mere progress of the country, or whether on the contrary it arises from special factors, peculiar to the social and political conditions of the country, and to the practical defects of its Government. If we examine the amounts of the Argentine budgets for a number of years, we shall see that, with a few rare exceptions, they have always increased, and at a more or less extraordinary rate. Even in the years when the country was groaning under some profound economic or financial crisis the same thing was to be observed. Not to go back too far in our retrospective study, let us take as a point of departure the year 1891, which year is a veritable landmark in the history of the Argentine people, since it was in that year that the political and financial crisis which broke over the country attained its greatest intensity. We find that in 1891 the expenditure authorised by the national budget——not the expenditure actually effected, with which we shall deal further on——amounted to $41,230,349 paper and $20,315,446 gold, or some 31 millions in gold, or £6,200,000.