[4] The 2nd category of the 1875 law had practically ceased to exist.
[5] This may be reduced, in consequence of the adoption of the new Q.F. gun, 1 to 6.
[6] “Movement of capital” consists, as regards “income,” of the proceeds of the sale of buildings, Church or Crown lands, old prisons, barracks, &c., or of moneys derived from sale of consolidated stock. Thus “income” really signifies diminution of patrimony or increase of debt. In regard to “expenditure,” “movement of capital” refers to extinction of debt by amortization or otherwise, to purchases of buildings or to advances made by the state. Thus “expenditure” really represents a patrimonial improvement, a creation of credit or a decrease of indebtedness. The items referring to “railway construction” represent, on the one hand, repayments made to the exchequer by the communes and provinces of money disbursed on their account by the State Treasury; and, on the other, the cost of new railways incurred by the Treasury. The items of the “partite di giro” are inscribed both on the credit and debit sides of the budget, and have merely a figurative value.
[7] Financial operations (mainly in connexion with railway purchase) figure on each side of the account for about £22,000,000.
[8] For example, wheat, the price of which was in 1902 26 lire per cwt., pays a tax of 7½ lire; sugar pays four times its wholesale value in tax; coffee twice its wholesale value.
[9] “Privileges” assure to creditors priority of claim in case of foreclosure for debt or mortgage. Prior to the law of the 23rd of January 1887 harvested produce and agricultural implements were legally exempt from “privilege.”
[10] At the beginning of 1902 the Italian parliament sanctioned a bill providing for the abolition of municipal duties on bread and farinaceous products within three years of the promulgation of the bill on 1st July 1902.
[11] Among the insurgents of Romagna was Louis Napoleon, afterwards emperor of the French.
[12] In Rome itself a certain Angelo Brunetti, known as Ciceruacchio, a forage merchant of lowly birth and a Carbonaro, exercised great influence over the masses and kept the peace where the authorities would have failed.
[13] The popular cry of “Viva Verdi!” did not merely express enthusiasm for Italy’s most eminent musician, but signified, in initials: “Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re d’ Italia!”