THE INDEBTEDNESS OF EUROPE.
The London News says: “It may not perhaps be without interest to show clearly the amount of indebtedness of the six great powers, Turkey, of course, being left out for obvious reasons. According to the latest returns, the liability is as follows: Great Britain, £775,000,000; Austria-Hungary, £362,000,000; Germany, £46,000,000; France, £930,000,000; Italy, £356,000,000; Russia, £380,000,000. There is thus a total debt of about twenty-eight hundred millions sterling, but this requires some qualification. Germany, for instance, has no real public debt, and the amount set down merely represents the expenditure on railways by the various States now merged in the empire; and included in the Russian total is also the amount under which she is guarantee for certain railways.” “It is, however, not in the extent of the debt of a nation, but in its ability to meet the interest, etc., on it, that attention chiefly centers, and this can only be properly measured by considering the trade, population, etc., of the various countries. The total value of the imports and exports of Great Britain, roughly stated, are £590,000,000 annually, being about 76 per cent. of the debt; France, about 30 per cent. of her debt, or a little over £300,000,000; Russia, 29 per cent.; Austria-Hungary, 25 per cent.; Italy, 26 per cent.; but for Germany it is not possible to give the actual percentage in the absence of full statistics; but it stands very high. The amount of debt per head of population stands as follows: France, £25; Great Britain, £23½; Italy, £13; Austria, £10; Russia, £4; Germany, £1. In the above, Russia is credited with the whole of her subjects, both in Europe and Asia, and if the same rule was applied to the British Empire the average would be under £4 per head.”