Karl Marx 
The New Sardinian Loan— 
The Impending French and Indian Loans 

New-York Daily Tribune. 
Nr.6035, 28. August 1860 

Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune. 
London, Aug. 14, 1860. 

The new Sardinian loan of £6,000,000 has been closed and three times the 
sum required is said to have been subscribed. Thus it appears that the bonds 
of the new Italian Kingdom are rising in the market at the very time that 
Austria is struggling in vain with a debt whose magnitude ought to be 
measured not by the resources of the country, but by the weakness of its 
Government, and while Russia, mighty Russia, having been driven from the 
European loan market, was forced to recur again to its own paper-money 
machinery. Still, even in regard to Sardinia, the new loan reminds us of the 
ugly fact that in modern times almost the first act in a people's struggle for 
freedom or independence seems, by some monstrous fatality, to consist in 
contracting a new servitude. Is every public debt not a mortgage saddled 
upon the industry of a whole people, and a curtailment of its freedom? Does 
it not give rise to a new set of invisible tyrants, known under the name of 
public creditors? However that may be, if the French, in less than a decade, 
have almost doubled their public debt in order to remain slaves, the Italians 
must be allowed to incur the same habihties in order to become freemen. 
Piedmont proper, exclusive of the provinces newly added, was in 1847 taxed 
to the amount of £3,813,452 while this year it will have to pay £6,829,000. 
It has been stated by English papers, The Economist, for instance, that the 
commerce of Piedmont, consequent upon the Uberai changes introduced into 
its tariff, had also greatly increased, and in illustration of this progress we 
are treated to the following figures: 

In 18% the imports were only. ............2.. £12,497,160 
In 1857 they were. 2.2.2.2... 19,123,040 
In 1854 the exports were . 2.2.2.2... 2... 8,595,280 
In 1857 they increased to. |... 2.2.2.0. 14,050,040 

The New Sardinian Loan—The Impending French and Indian Loans 

Now, I beg to remark that this increase is more apparent than real. The 
leading articles of Sardinian export consist of silk, silk manufactures, twine, 
spirits, and oil; but it is generally known that during the first three quarters 
of 1857 the prices of all those articles had assumed a most bloated aspect, 
and would, consequently, greatly swell the sum total of the Sardinian com- 
mercial returns. The official statistics of the Kingdom give, moreover, the 
values only, not the quantities of the articles exported and imported, so that 
the figures for the year 1857 may be altogether exceptional. No public 
accounts for the years 1858-60 having as yet been issued, it remains to be 
seen whether or not the commercial crisis in 1858 and the Italian war in 1859 
have checked the industrial progress of the country. The following tabular 
statements, showing the official estimates of the revenue and expenditure 
for the current year (1860) of Sardinia proper, afford evidence that part of 
the new loan will be employed to cover the deficit, while another part of it 
is wanted for new preparations for war: 

Sardinian Revenue for 1860. 

CUSTOMS 3.25.0. BEB OSG AAO 262896 9.24 £2411,824 
Land tax, house-tax, stamps, etc. .....222222.. 2,940,284 
Railroads and telegraphs. www 699,400 
Post-Office. |... oo oo con 242,000 
Fees received at Foreign Office .. 22.222222. 12400 
Fees received at Home Office . .. 2.2... 21,136 
Profits on some branches of Public Instruction ... 580 
Mint oe ee a a ee wk Sees 6,876 
Miscellaneous... 2... 2.000.202.0200... 000000. 193,888 
Extraordinary resources...) 7 a 301,440 
Totale too. ole the Bose ho Ais AND de £6,829,738 

Sardinian Expenditure for 1860. 

Finance Department. . 2.2.2.2... 2.2... £ 4331,676 
Public Justice. |... 243,816 
Foreign Affairs ' |.. aaa a 70,028 
Public Instruction 5... 2.2.0.2... 117,744 
Ministry of the Interior. ........222222222.2.. 407,152 
Public’ WOKS) cos ge pete eee Papa ee ode na as 854,080 
Military expenditure. 222.2... 2,229,464 
Marine expenditure... aaa 310,360 
Extraordinary expenses. . 2.2.2.2... 22.2.2... 1453.268 
ae OTE east £10,017,588 

Comparing the expenditure, amounting to £10,017,588 to the revenue of 

40 £6,829,738, we find a deficit of £3,187,850. On the other hand the newly 

acquired provinces are estimated to yield an annual revenue of £3,435,552, 

Kal Marx 

and to cost an annual expenditure of £1,855,984 so that they would leave a 
clear surplus of £1,600,000. According to this calculation, the deficit of the 
whole kingdom of Sardinia, including the newly acquired provinces, would 
be reduced to £1,608,282. It is only just that Lombardy and the Duchies 
should pay part of the expenses Piedmont has incurred in the Italian war; 
but, in the run of time, it might prove ahighly dangerous experiment to charge 
taxes upon the new provinces, almost twice as large as their cost of ad- 
ministration requires, with a single view to relieving the exchequer of the 
old provinces. 

People conversant with the undercurrents of the Paris money market 
continue to give out that another French loan is looming in a not remote 
future. The only thing wanted is a specious opportunity for raising the wind. 
The emprunt de la paix, as you know, has proved a failure. Partant pour la 
Syrie has till now been rehearsed on too small a scale to justify afresh appeal 

to the enthusiasm of the grande nation. It is, therefore, presumed that, should 15 

nothing new turn up, and the prices of corn go on increasing a loan will be 
raised on the pretext of providing against the possible disasters of dearth. 
In connection with French finances it may be remarked as a curious fact, 
that Mr. Jules Favre, who dared to predict in the midst of the Corps Législatif, 
the impending crash of the Imperial Exchequer, has been elected Bätonnier 
of the Paris bar. The French advocates, as you are aware, have from the times 
of the old monarchy saved some tatters of their ancient feudal constitution. 
They still form a sort of corporate body, called the Barreau, the yearly elected 
chief of which, viz., the Bätonnier, represents the order in its relations with 
the tribunals and the Government, at the same time that he watches over its 
internal discipline. Under the restoration, and under the following régime of 
the citizen King, the election of the Paris Bätonnier was always considered 
a great political act, involving a demonstration for or against the Ministry 
of the day. Mr. Jules Favre's election must, I believe, be considered the first 
anti-Bonapartist demonstration ventured upon by the Paris Bar, and con- 
sequently deserves to be chronicled among the events of the day. 

In yesterday's sitting of the House of Commons, before a House hardly 
large enough to make up a quorum, Sir Charles Wood, that true pattern of 
the genuine Whig place-hunter, carried a resolution empowering him to 
contract a new loan of Three Millions Sterling on behalf of the Indian 
Treasury. According to his statement, the Indian deficit was in 1858-59 (the 
financial year always beginning with and ending in April) £14,187,000, in 
1859-60 £9,981,000, and is estimated for 1860-61 at £7,400,000. Part of that 
deficit he promised to cover from the yield of Mr. Wilson's newly introduced 
taxes—a very questionable prospect, after all—while the other part was to be 
provided for by the new loan of three millions. The public debt, which in 

The New Sardinian Loan—The Impending French and Indian Loans 

1856-57, the year before the Rebellion, amounted to £59,442,000, had now 
increased to £97,851,000. At a still more rapid rate the interest on the debt 
had grown. From £2,525,000 in 1856-57 it had risen to £4,461,000 in 1859-60. 
Although the revenue had been forcibly expanded by the imposition of new 
taxes, still it could not keep pace with the expenditure which, even according 
to Mr. Charles Wood's own statement, was increasing in every direction, 
save that of Public Works. To make up for an outlay of three millions on 
fortified barracks, there has been put during the present, and will be put 
during the following year, "almost a perfect stop to public works and public 
buildings of a civic character." This "perfect stop" Sir Charles seemed to 
consider one of the beauties of the system. Instead of 40,000, as in 1856-57, 
there are now kept 80,000 European soldiers in India; and, instead of anative 
army of hardly 200,000, one of above 300,000 men.