The national assembly voted on the 5th of July, 1886, for the fiscal year from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 1887, appropriations for expenditures of administration, aggregating $2,252,471, and afterward granted the extra sum of $326,800 for contingent expenses.[XXXIII-50] No provision was made as regards the foreign debt.
The revenue of Honduras in 1886 has been estimated at about two and a half million dollars, being considerably in excess of the expenditures.[XXXIII-51]
Honduras has a foreign and a home debt. The latter is partly consolidated and the rest floating. The consolidated, which was one million dollars, had been in 1883 reduced to $885,000. All treasury notes had been cancelled. The floating debt, amounting in 1880 to $578,609, had been reduced in 1883 to $244,694.[XXXIII-52] The indebtedness to British subjects, including the portion of the old federal debt which Honduras assumed, was finally extinguished by the payment of $50,000 in 1882, and the country was freed from the burden long weighing on the custom-house at Trujillo. The rest of the foreign debt, amounting in 1876 to $29,950,540, is held in London and Paris, having been issued at high rates of interest and at a low valuation. Since that time the accumulated interest has never been paid.[XXXIII-53] It is unknown what portion of the bonds issued has been negotiated. The actual indebtedness may fall short of the above amount after a thorough investigation of the financial affairs connected with the railroad.
RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES.
The revenue receipts of Salvador from all sources, according to President Zaldívar's messages of 1883 and 1884, were, for 1882, $4,549,209, and for 1883, $4,061,020. The expenditures as stated by the same authority were $4,416,454 in 1882, and $4,001,654 in 1883.[XXXIII-54] In 1866 the budget presented by the executive to congress estimated the receipts at $2,211,613, and the expenditures at $2,716,505, leaving a deficit of $501,869.
Salvador had in 1853 a foreign debt not far from $325,000.[XXXIII-55] Between 1861 and 1863 the government made an arrangement for the foreign debt, giving bonds to the amount of $405,260 to cover principal and interest. They were paid in due time, and since then the republic has kept itself free from foreign indebtedness. Her internal debt, consolidated at the end of 1882, was $1,589,861, and became slightly increased in 1883.[XXXIII-56] In June 1885 it was $7,147,359.
The financial condition of Nicaragua at the present time is quite easy. Her revenue has been steadily on the increase for several years past, except when interrupted by political disturbances, such as that of 1875, which caused a considerable diminution. The receipts from all sources in the biennial term of 1883-4 were $3,238,363, an excess of $359,426 over the two preceding years.[XXXIII-57] The expenditures in the biennial term of 1881-2 were $3,240,940, as itemized below.[XXXIII-58]
NICARAGUA AND COSTA RICA.
At the end of 1880 Nicaragua's share of the old federal indebtedness to British creditors—£31,510,[XXXIII-59] as per adjustment made in London on the 27th of March, 1874—had been reduced to £4,170 15s. 6d., which remained unpaid because the holders had failed to produce their claims. Since then the balance was further reduced to £4,011 15s. 6d., and the funds were on hand to pay it off on demand. This was the sum total of the republic's foreign liability. At the end of 1882 the internal debt was $920,258, of which $644,218 were subsequently paid, leaving a balance due of $328,667; adding thereto balances of special accounts, the whole debt of the republic at the end of 1884 was $908,707; but as the amount of consolidated bonds was being met, the whole indebtedness would really be $802,310.[XXXIII-60]
Costa Rica's financial condition is anything but an easy one. The receipts of the treasury for the fiscal year 1883-4 amounted to $1,586,561.[XXXIII-61] The receipts for the fiscal years 1884-5, and 1885-6, were estimated at about $2,559,866 and $2,936,756, respectively.[XXXIII-62] The expenditures for the fiscal years 1882-3, and 1883-4 were respectively $2,796,468 and $1,985,426; the former leaving a deficit of $1,246,448, and the latter of $398,865. Congress voted for expenses of the fiscal year 1885-6, $2,936,756, and for 1886-7, $2,607,613.[XXXIII-63]