What is the total value of the German capital invested in the Argentine Republic? It is not easy to say with strict accuracy; but according to the very authentic information of certain Buenos Ayres bankers we may reckon that the German capital employed in the banks, commercial houses, _estancias_, and industrial concerns, and in the German Electrical Company, the electric tramways, etc., etc., amounts to £40,000,000. If to this capital we add that represented by the vessels under the German flag, which maintain an active communication with the Rio de la Plata, obtaining a large proportion of the best clients, the total of the German capital employed in the Argentine amounts to some £60,000,000. With these data in hand, and an approximate knowledge of the amount of foreign capital invested in this country in shares, bonds, and other securities, namely some £384,000,000, as well as its approximate revenue, which in round figures is about £18,000,000, plus £1,600,000 as the general sinking fund charge, or in all about £19,600,000, we may draw the following conclusions:—— We know that the revenue of the bonds held by the English capitalists, including the sinking fund, amounts to £14,158,337. Again, the amount necessary to pay the interest on the bonds of the National Debt, cedulas, debentures, and shares held by French, German, and Belgian investors, may be estimated at £3,698,779; so that of the total revenue of £18,493,896 produced by the Republic, there remains in the country a balance of £4,287,820. THE BALANCE-SHEET Nothing is more difficult than to bring together the constituent elements of a national balance-sheet, on account of the complexity of the necessary facts which often escape the net of the statistician. Beginning with the most important elements of this balance, and, so it seems, the most plainly visible——those formed by the movement of exports and imports through the customs——and ending with the most insignificant facts, there are still a large number of factors for which it is impossible to allow. Taking a broad view of the matter, we must first of all observe that the estimates by which we finally decide that that which leaves a country, whether in merchandise or in specie, is of greater value than that which enters it, are extremely arbitrary. The principal means of appreciation is the table drawn up by the Customs Administration upon cargoes leaving and entering the country, but the results drawn from this table are inevitably approximate. On the one hand the declarations upon which the valuations are based are always untrustworthy, as they are made by individuals who are interested in diminishing the actual values of their consignments. On the other hand, they are influenced by a thousand other circumstances which the customs cannot take into account, such as shipwrecks and unfortunate commercial transactions.