Pesos. Flint & Co. 4,684 67 Municipality of Cartago, notes and interest 6,884 50 --------- 11,569 17 ============ Total 6,697,326 51 The _foreign debt_ contracted in 1871 and 1872, in England, against the will of the nation, has been disastrous to it. It amounts to £2,000,000 in five per cent. debentures. Lately an arrangement was made under which the amortization of this debt will begin in 1917, instead of 1898, and with £10,000 per year, instead of £20,000. The government is also authorized to buy in its own bonds for their immediate liquidation. The _floating debt_ chiefly consists of private deposits, of the school-loan, amortization of which is made annually, of paper money which is received in very limited amounts, and of bills payable, mostly given for sugar and syrups to the “National Liquor Distillery” and drawn on thirty days’ sight. The rest of the floating debt scarcely amounts to 50,000 pesos. In figures the _interior debt_ of Costa Rica may be represented as follows: 79,155.75 pesos in notes of war emission; 1,037,628.43 pesos for various accounts, private deposits, cash orders, municipal fund, ecclesiastical fund, etc., making a total of 1,116,784.18 pesos. Another important factor in the commercial and economic life of Costa Rica is the money in circulation. Including every kind of emission, notes of the Costa Rica bank, national paper money, war-emission paper money, silver and gold coin, the money in circulation amounted in Pesos. 1882-83 4,395,089 1883-84 4,129,518 1884-85 3,707,434 1885-86 3,619,261 1886-87 3,899,975 1887-88 4,210,733 1888-89 4,762,885 1889-90 5,603,512 1890-91 5,941,947 1891-92 5,806,752 1892-93 5,630,416 1893-94 5,507,343 1894-95 5,666,207 1895-96 5,721,837 There were in circulation, in 1895-96, currency valued in pesos as follows: 3,820,404 of Costa Rica bank notes, 2764 national paper money, 98,669 war-emission paper money, 1,500,000 coined silver money, 300,000 coined gold money, total 5,721,837; or 20.08 pesos per capita of the population of Costa Rica. As above indicated, the Government of Costa Rica is beginning to displace the notes of the Banco de Costa Rica by others issued by the government, maintained at par and guaranteed by a gold reserve or by gold certificates. This monetary question is of such interest and importance, that the following translation is given from such parts of the reports of the Minister of Finance as relate thereto.