In 1897 the budget voted by Congress increased the general revenue to be collected to $33,492,000 in gold and $47,835,000 in paper (deducting from this last sum 12 millions of paper produced by the shares of the National Bank and 2 millions as the profits of the Bank of the Nation), or in all $148,000,000. The yield of internal duties had increased to $19,360,000, or 13 per cent. of the whole revenue.
In 1908 the domestic imposts produced £4,000,000, or 17 per cent. of a total collection of £22,400,000. The chief element of this revenue was furnished by the duty on the consumption of alcohol, which produced £1,496,000. The tobacco duty came second with a yield of £1,760,000. Matches yielded £269,000; beer, £308,000; insurances, £61,600. These figures show how rapid has been the increase of the revenue from internal duties on consumption.
If we disregard that portion of the revenue which is raised by imposts, and examine the yield of the industrial undertakings exploited by the nation, we shall find that as yet they are far from constituting any real resource for the Treasury, and far from compensating the large amounts of capital employed. Comparing the yield of these undertakings with the working expenses, we find that the balance, as a general thing, is on the losing side.
This is the case with the four railways belonging to the nation, whose yield, in 1905, was £1,012,000. The working expenses, the renewal of rolling-stock, and repairs of the permanent way, completely absorbed the revenue. We must hope that this ruinous state of things will disappear presently, when the network of State railways is completed, and the lines unite important centres of production, and the system of administration is perfected.
After this miserable result we may point with relative satisfaction to another important industrial undertaking of the Government: the sanitation works of the city of Buenos Ayres. Apart from the hygienic advantage, which is already very evident, the financial results are worthy of attention, as they show that this undertaking will very shortly cover, if
not the whole, at least a portion of the interest on the capital employed.
The ordinary working expenses of this undertaking amounted in 1908 to £258,202, while the revenue amounted to £673,200. This left a balance in favour of the Treasury of £415,000, of which a great part was employed, by virtue of special laws, in the enlargement of these works, which enlargement will still further increase the revenue. The financial result of this undertaking is a conclusive proof that such enterprises, when directed with method and intelligence, are always profitable to the State.
The Postal Service, which the authors of the Constitution expected to be a considerable resource, has hitherto given only negative results; the receipts have not hitherto covered the working expenses. The ordinary expenses of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs were £1,144,000 in 1908, while the effective receipts for the same year were only £936,320; giving a deficit of £207,680. In reality this deficit was far greater, because fresh expenditure was necessitated by the construction and repairs of telegraphic lines, and certain purely nominal receipts, arising from the franking of official correspondence, were put on the credit account.
If we now proceed to examine the revenue derived from the national estates, we find that its most important item proceeds from the sale and allocation of the public lands. This revenue, which figures among those enumerated by the fundamental charter as forming the resources of the Treasury, has by no means produced what it should, owing to the lack of method or foresight in the management of this important administrative department. In 1908 this source produced only £278,080; and this sum represents a considerable increase over previous years, especially over the year 1904, when the revenue was only £27,368. But when we take the fact into account that the nation still possesses 212 millions of acres of land, which are situated in territories whose population is rapidly increasing, and which will shortly be well served with railways, we perceive at once that these lands, which are a powerful source of attraction to immigrants, may also in time become a very important source of revenue.
The revenue derived from the exploitation of industrial