RUSSIA ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 8

RUSSIA ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY.

The Example of France in 1870 to the contrary notwithstanding, it is the nation that can fire gold as well as lead that conquers in modern wars. Herein lies the weakness ff Russia. Of lead she has p enty, and of men and chips an abundance, but in gold < r credi 1 ; she is lacking, Her bonds have been popular of late because they pay 5 per cent, an unusual rate in the European money ma kets, and, singularly enough, they are held in large quantities in England. It has been noted by observers that the Russian bonds were not so •ensitive to war talk as the English secnri' ies, which, while paying but about half the interest paid by the Russians, and therefore regarded as the lafer investment, fell farther and more rapid!). This firmness was the sign of staving off of war, to which conservative ■ people clang tenaciously. The financial condition of the Czar’s Empire certainly will not of itself explain the steadiness of the bonds. _ During tne last four years the financial outlook of the Russian Government has been something which we A mericans, puzzled how to dispose of our surplus, find it difficult to realize. In 1880 the revenue of the Empire was £65,102.000, and the expenditure £69 451.000. Thefollowingyearthedeficitarose to £8,066,000. No statistics since 1883 are readily accessible, but the deficit st 11 is large and would be vastly increased by the expenditures of a foreign war, especially one so likely to fee stubbornly contested as a struggle for golden prize of India. it is true that a despotism proceeds more ■••‘ectly to its point than a free government, ... "ruse the former has no public opinion to < militate ; but even under a despotism * tht -e is a limit to the taxation a people will endure, and the poverty of the country, and the grinding weight of taxes,, are leading -counts of the indictment which Russian popular discontent prefers against the Russian Government. In a great war, the spirit of ' patriotism, or its substitute, national pride, makes people willing to submit to burdens •unendurable in t mes of peace ; but the money with which prepare for war is what Russia needs, and that money she finds it next to impossible to wring from the tax-payer or borrow from the bankers 3he great money lenders look askance on Russia for the reason that they consider her an exhausted country almost on the verge of revolution. In this dilemma Russia feels all the bitterness of being dependent on her great rivals for all the sinewß of war. A writer in a London paper notes as an Ingenious method of keeping the Russian bonds popular the way in which loans have been put on the money market, small sums having bseo borrowed in rapid succession, and the “ calls” comprehending very limited amounts of several issue'. Thus an appearance of ability and willingness to take up the deed is counterfeited to the benefit of the Czar and the comfort of the investor. Engli-h investors are therefore urged by the same writer to sell out their holdings of Russian bonds, as the closing of the English money market would leave the Moseovite loans without a refuge in Europe, the Ge mans at present being disinclined to stock up any further. Should war break out on the Afghan frontier an unlimited issue of paper money may float Russia through it, ody to accelerate the day of national bankruptcy. Hut, as between a nation paying 5 per cent and one paying 3 per cent, the probabilities of sueoess are in favor of the latter, as borrowing the readier and paying the less for what •she has to buy. Boston Transcript, March 26.