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. | Pesos. | ||
| 1882-83 | 4,395,089 | 1889-90 | 5,603,512 |
| 1883-84 | 4,129,518 | 1890-91 | 5,941,947 |
| 1884-85 | 3,707,434 | 1891-92 | 5,806,752 |
| 1885-86 | 3,619,261 | 1892-93 | 5,630,416 |
| 1886-87 | 3,899,975 | 1893-94 | 5,507,343 |
| 1887-88 | 4,210,733 | 1894-95 | 5,666,207 |
| 1888-89 | 4,762,885 | 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.
“The emission of gold certificates is necessary, as it would be impossible to keep the gold coins in circulation so long as the quantity of paper money issued by the bank, is far greater. Again, in order to avoid the difficulties which would arise from the constant retirement of this paper money, the gold certificates must be issued to furnish an adequate supply of currency. In this way also the Government has the advantage of utilizing the quantities of gold in deposit, and of acquiring by means of those certificates resources for fresh coinage of gold pieces.”
“In order to avoid embarrassment in the commercial and economic life of the country it has been agreed with the Banco de Costa Rica to maintain parity between these certificates and its notes. By the monetary law of October 24, 1896, also parity with the actual silver peso was established. It was further agreed that the ‘colon de oro,’ the new gold coin, should correspond in intrinsic value with this standard of ratios.”
“For these purposes, there had to be taken into consideration: First, the actual state of the national wealth, estimated in the already established credit circulating medium; second, the average range of international exchange during a number of years, and third, the average ratio of silver to gold during the same period. There had further to be considered the outstanding obligations of the interior and of the exterior debt, as well as pending negotiations as to exportable products, and the relation of the intrinsic value between gold and silver.”