THE PUBLIC DEBT Statistics of the public debt on the 1st January 1909——History of the public debt——The first loans. The financial crisis——Consolidated loans——The Romero arrangement—— Loan for the rescission of guarantees——The internal public debt——The total of the Argentine public debt, and its annual cost in dividends and redemption——The proportion of financial charges as compared to other budgetary expenses. The burden of the public debt is heavy, but not unduly heavy in relation to the productive power of the country——The necessity of restraining further issues and of converting old debts——The efforts of the Argentine to improve her credit. All the vicissitudes through which the Argentine has passed in the course of the nineteenth century have left their traces upon the history of the National Debt. To the legitimate uses of credit have been joined abuses; but all this now belongs to the past, and we do not intend, in a book dealing with matters as they are, to recount this history at length, nor to comment upon it nor criticise it. The consolidated National Debt, on the 1st July 1909, amounted to £62,892,428. It may be analysed as follows:—— FOREIGN DEBT.[101] Circulation Annual Cost, on 1st January 1909. Interest and Amortisation. £ £ Loans at 5 per cent. 23,350,139·76 1,702,585·29 Loans at 4-1/2 per cent. 7,697,262·88 516,147·42 Loans at 4 per cent. 29,820,312·79 1,454,465·64 Loans at 3-1/2 per cent. 2,004,710·40 121,238·09 -------------- ------------- Total £62,882,425·83 £3,794,436·44 [Footnote 101: By 15th September 1909, the amount of the debt had been reduced to the following figures: 5 per cent., £22,702,330; 4-1/2 per cent., £7,579,580: 4 per cent., £29,728,562; 3 per cent., £1,920,000; total, £61,930,472.] In the total given above is an important sum of which the cost, though entered in the National Budget, is really borne by the various provinces. Items in this amount are a sum of £6,800,000, for which the Province of Buenos Ayres is responsible; the £3,000,000 of the conversion loan of Santa Fé; £2,800,000 taken up by Entre Rios; and the Córdoba conversion loan of £1,000,000; while Mendoza accounts for £600,000 and the National Bank in liquidation, for £1,800,000. This establishment, although belonging to the Government, bears the cost of its debt out of its own resources. Eliminating these £16,000,000, we find that the external debt, whose cost is borne by the Treasury, amounts not to nearly £63,000,000, but to £47,000,000.