OCR Text |
Show INCREASE OF Mi DEBTS In its "Federal Reserve Bulletin" for April, the Federal Reserve Board gives probably the most complete am! accurate information as to the growth of national debts occasioned by the yvnr. its Investigation, based on official offi-cial data, is brought down to-as recent a date as possible, the figures thus presented tending to shoyv that the borrowings which the various nations I ! participatiu? in the war have been forced to effect are in excess of what they were generally supposed to be The bulletin condenses the facts in connection with the national debts of the eighl principal belligerent coun tries as the stood before emenns the war and at the most recent date available avail-able defore the publication of the ar tide: Alhed Powers, Ureal Britain. Aut 1914. $3,458,000,-000; $3,458,000,-000; February. 1918. $27.630. ,000 Australia. June, 1914. 193,000,000; March. 1918. nun Canada, March. 1914. $336,000,000; February, 191S $1,011,000,000 New Zealand. March, 1914. $446,000,-000 $446,000,-000 March. 1917. 1611,000,000. I n. of S. Africa. March, 1914, $579. t )00; March. 1910 S734.000.000 France, July. 1914, 6.598.000.000; December, 1917. 22,227,000,000. Italy, June, 1914, 2.792.000,000; December, De-cember, if17. 16,676,000,000 . Hussia January. 1914. $5,092,000,000; September. 1917. $26,383,000,000 i oited States, March, 1917. $1,208 000,00b; January 191S. $7,758,000, Central Powers. Germany, October, 1913. $1. 165.000,- , Iiecember. 1 f 1 T ' 2 ' MS.n0n.0u0 Austria, ruly, 1914, $3,640,000,000; De ember lfHT. $13 "11 0000,000 Hungary. July l'H::. : 1 31." i ' . December. 1917. $5,704,000,000. The foregoing summary' does not include the emissions of treasury cer-i cer-i tiftcafes and paper money ia any of the countries engaged in the contest. I though in the cases of Germany and I Austria and in those of some of the allies these are equivalent to forced loans for enormous suras. Nor does It cover the various heavy borrow, ngs by certain of the neutral countries which have been obliged unwillingly to Increase their national Indebtedness for their own protection; Switzerland, for instance, having been obliged to add over $160,000,000 to her fund '1 debt to maintain the army which pro tecU her frontiers. Even without re-Ference re-Ference to such item? the figures colli col-li i ted in the above form show thai the tieliicjorent countries have, in the aggregate, ag-gregate, increased their debts sini 8 the begmninc of the conflict by $111,-652,000,000. $111,-652,000,000. Trior to the war, the ar title points out. the public debt of the -een pmnip.il European countries was $24,544,000,000; their income, estimated es-timated on the basi of census return-. b--ins -4 i.iMiu.iiiMMiiHi. while their wealth 1352,000,000,000 Today the debt ot the same nations is $130,000,-000,000. $130,000,-000,000. Estimating the annual charges upon the present debts at $6,500',000,-000, $6,500',000,-000, II yjould appear that their interest charges would ah.-orb about thn years' total income of those countries on a pre-war basis, while before the war their annual rhar-'e were approximately approx-imately la per cent ol ihcir annual income in-come Bradt reel's. |