We see, from these data, that the increase of the national expenditure is a constant, almost an inevitable factor, which occurs year by year in the Argentine administration. It now remains for us to inquire if unavoidable causes exist which force the State to spend without reflection, and, when funds are lacking, to contract loans which grievously burden the future; or whether, on the contrary, we have here a fault rooted in the soil of new countries which have no serious administrative traditions, and in which the spirit of order and economy has not yet grown to the stature of a national virtue. In the Argentine Republic the increase of public expenditure responds to causes which differ from those which are active in the countries of Europe; though we do not say that the latter do not also exercise their influence. A new country, inhabited by a sparsely-settled population, in possession of a rich but desert territory, its economic organism as yet barely developed, the Argentine has not yet produced a class of men practised in and prepared for practical administration. It is, on the contrary, afflicted with undisciplined political parties, full of impatience and of ideas of progress which cannot be immediately realised. It is not surprising that in the Argentine the increase of public expenditure responds to causes unlike those to be observed in other States, which number the years of their lives in centuries; which enjoy perfected administrations, possess a large class of men prepared for the science of government and finance, and whose needs, far from increasing, tend to restrain such expenditure. So, considering the question under its most general aspect, we believe we shall not depart very far from the truth if we suggest, as the causes which produce the constant increase of the Argentine budgets, the following facts: (1) the increase of administrative requirements, caused by the increase of the population; (2) the increase of the public debt; (3) the depreciation of the currency until a recent period, and the increasing dearness of the necessities of life; (4) national and foreign wars (which causes now belong to history, and have happily ceased to exercise their influence in the Argentine); (5) the intervention of the State as manager or promoter of expensive public works; (6) the cost of an imperfect and expensive administrative machinery, and the wastefulness of the Government and of Congress; (7) a lack of control in the handling of revenue and expenditure; (8) increased military expenditure. Under this last heading we may include the heavy expenses which the Government has been forced to meet in order to maintain the integrity of its frontier and to avoid a war with Chili. Between 1889 and 1903 it has employed for this purpose a sum of £13,000,000.