Five years later——in 1895——this expenditure had increased to $76,000,000 paper and $15,000,000 gold, or $37,000,000 in gold, or £7,400,000. Since then, with rare exceptions, the budgets have followed an ascending scale. If, indeed, we concern ourselves with the sums actually realised, instead of those proposed by the budgets, we find that the amounts of the later budgets are these: in 1898, $75,000,000 gold and $119,000,000 paper, or $121,000,000 in gold, or £24,200,000; in 1899, $31,000,000 gold and $104,000,000 paper, or $77,000,000 in gold, or £15,400,000; in 1900, $24,000,000 gold and $105,000,000 paper, or $69,000,000 in gold, or £13,800,000. Reducing to gold the sums estimated in paper, we find that since 1901, that is, since the time when the value of the currency was established on a fixed basis, the following sums have been expended: in 1901, £14,200,000; in 1902, £17,600,000; in 1903, £15,600,000; in 1904, £17,200,000; in 1907, £20,200,000; in 1908, £20,200,000; there has thus been a rapid progress. The budget for 1909 amounts to $270,000,000 paper, or £23,812,800. In this total are comprised two items: one of 15 millions of piastres in paper, value £1,320,000; the other of 3 millions, or £264,000, which are set aside to meet the expenses of the _fêtes_ of the first Centenary of the National Revolution. If we subtract these two items, which are necessitated by extraordinary expenses, we find that the increase of the administrative expenditure over that of 1908 amounts to £1,760,000. We ought here to remark that these figures do not include the sums realised by the Government by means of the issue of stock: a procedure which constitutes an interesting chapter of Argentine finance.