When the struggle with Spain was over, and her military establishments reduced, the arrangement of her pecuniary affairs became one of the first objects of her provincial administration.
In 1821 commissioners were appointed to call in and liquidate all outstanding claims against the government, of whatever description, not excepting even those left unsettled by the authorities of the mother-country previous to the declaration of independence. The greater part of these debts were due for actual services, or for loans to the government in times of necessity; others were of a more doubtful character, and had been sold or made over to other parties by the original creditors, and into these classes they were separated by the legislature:—the one receiving obligations bearing an interest of six per cent; the other, receiving the same, bearing an interest of four per cent per annum; and these obligations were simultaneously provided for by the creation of public stocks, bearing quarterly interest:—the first instance of the establishment of anything like a public funded debt in any of the new states of South America. Commissioners were appointed to manage it, and to pay the dividends quarterly to the stock-holders; transfer-books were opened, and a sinking-fund was established for its gradual redemption. The first quarter's interest became due on the 1st of January, 1822, and, for the credit of Buenos Ayres, it should be stated that, notwithstanding the great subsequent increase of the debt, under the circumstances to which I shall presently refer, the quarterly dividends have, from that time to this, been as regularly paid as those at the Bank of England.
The amount of stock created up to the close of 1825 was—
| Dollars. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| of | 6 | per | cents. | 5,360,000 |
| " | 4 | " | " | 2,000,000 |
which was sufficient to provide for every outstanding claim against the government up to that period, whilst the charge for the annual interest was hardly felt in the general expenditure, which, after the reductions consequent upon a state of peace, the revenue was more than sufficient to meet,—as will be seen by the following returns of the yearly receipts and payments from 1822 to 1825, inclusive.
The receipts were—
| Dollars. | ||
|---|---|---|
| in | 1822 | 2,519,094 |
| " | 1823 | 2,869,266 |
| " | 1824 | 2,648,845 |
| " | 1825 | 3,196,430 6½ |
The total of the four years was, Spanish dollars, 11,233,635, which, at the exchange of 45d. per dollar, was equal, in sterling money, to about £2,106,306, or, on an average, £526,576 per annum.
Three-fourths of this revenue was derived from the custom-house duties, the yearly account of which was, in the year—
| Dollars. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1822 | 1,987,199 | |
| 1823 | 1,629,149 | |
| 1824 | 2,032,945 | |
| 1825 | 2,267,709 | |
| In the 4 years | 7,917,002, | or about £1,488,604. |