PAPER MILLIONAIRES

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 25

PAPER MILLIONAIRES

AUSTRIA’S BANKRUPTCY. QUEER VAGARIES OF PRICES. CURRENCY WITHOUT VALUE. Austria is a country of millionaires, the majority of wh6m are beggars, stays the Vienna correspondent of the Morning Post. As a result of the dreadful depreciation of the Austrian crown and the enormous rise of the prices of all commodities, a man who has a few suits, pairs of shoes, and linen, or a room with a bed and some furniture m&y now call himself a millionaire, fox a deoent suit or a bookcase alone costs at present about a quarter of a million, a bed sheet 40,000, and a china plate 4000 to 8000 crowns. There are now crown-millionaires here everywhere, many of whom go hungry. According to recent fttes of exchange, a. million crowns is not more than £25 to £3O. To understand the depreciation of the Austrian crown to nearly one-two-thoueandth of its pre-war value we must remember that 'the 'circulation of Austrian notes now amounts to almost 230,000 millions, and that, despite the fact that all Austrian factories have much work on hand and that fourfifths of the industrial production of Austria is sent abroad, the imports of the country are about five times greater in value than the exports. THE EXCHANGE PROBLEM. Allan, from dispensable articles of luxury, upon which increased Customs duties have been imposed, there are many goods which Austria must import, like flour, fat, coal, sugar, and raw material. Thus it has to pay for sugar about two milliards of Czechoslovak crowns per annum, while the arrivals of coal in Vienna alone cost about two and a-balf million Czech crowns per day. Austrian manufacturers and merchants are compelled to buy at any price the foreign currencies they need for satisfying their creditors abroad. Sometimes their demand for foreign currencies at the Vienna Bourse is so great and so eager that the rates suddenly rise 20 to 30 per cent. These great fluctuations nnake reliable cal oulations regarding cost and selling juices of imported goods impossible. For instance, a draper bought English cloth last summer when the pound was equivalent to 3000 crowns, but when he had to pay the bill in autumn the pound was 20,000 crowns. CHANGES WITHIN A FEW HOURS. The price of a packet of Swiss chocolates in a shop rises from 450 to 500 crowns, or that of a tin of condensed milk fronft 900 to 1000 crowns within a few hours. This practice is pursued not only by the shopkeeper, hotel proprietor, coffeehouse owner, artisan, but also by the municipality and the State. One day one pays 150 crowns for a cup of coffee (350 times the pre-war price), and the next 90 crown’s. One has one’s hair cut for 200 crowns (400 times the pre-war price), while last time it cost 100 crowns. One must pay 60 crowns for a tram ticket (300 times the pre-war price), instead of 30 crowns on the preceding day. A man made a railway trip on January 31, returned on February 1, and paid foT the return journey four times what the ticket cost the day before. On December 31, 1921, prices were 1000 times as high as in August, 1914, and 10 times as high as ori January 1, 1921. Since January 1 the prices have again risen by 20 to 50, and even 100 per cent. ' THE SWOLLEN BUREAUCRACY. The increases in the salaries of civil servants are now based upon the monthly index figures of the prices- cf the rhost important commodities. Thus the salaries given "to them, in December were about 100 per cent, higher than in November. While in the Budget passed on November 1 the total expenditure for State employees was estimated at 43 milliards for the current year as against 17 milliards in 1920, at least 300 milliards will he required, should the salaries remain what they are now. As the total number of State employees is 253,000, that of their wives and children 418,000, and that of pensioned civil servants 87,000, in Austria now no fewer than 758,000 persons, or about 12 per cent, of the total population, live on the State. Another item in the Budget for the current year which has considerably increased since the passage of the Bill is the loss sustained by the State by the depreciation of the crown in connection with the purchase of foodstuffs, coal, etc., abroad. Early in November this loss was estimated at IGS milliards of crowns. The Budget has increased the revenue of' the State by about 150 milliards. For this purpose the taxes on beer, wine, and liquor, railway, telegraph, telephone, and postal tariffs have been considerably raised, the land* and income tax have been revised, the prices of tobacco and cigars and cigarettes again raised, and the gradual abolition of the food subsidies by which the prices of important foodstuffs were kept far under the prices of the world market has begun. Taxes must now be paid in advanoe before the tax authorities issue their summonses. Otherwise the tax is raised by 50 to 100 per cent.