The following table gives the total actual revenue and expenditure of the Imperial Government for each of the years from 1875 to 1882, taking the paper rouble as =2s. :

The budget estimate for 1883 balanced the revenue and expenditure at 778,505,423 roubles, or 77,850,5421.

The expenditure from 1876 to 1882 is exclusive of the large expenses incurred during the war with Turkey, which in 1876 amounted to about 51 million roubles, in 1877 to over 429 million, in 1878 to 408 million, in 1879 to 128 million, and in 1880 to about 59 million.

The financial estimates of Russia are framed on the model of the former Imperial French budgets. The estimates of revenue are subdivided under the three heads of, first, ordinary receipts; secondly, 'recettes d'ordre;' and thirdly, extraordinary receipts. The estimates of expenditure are subdivided into four heads, namely, first, ordinary, expenditure; secondly, anticipated deficits in receipts ('non valeurs dans les recettes'); thirdly, 'dépenses d'ordre;' and fourthly, temporary disbursements, the latter chiefly incurred for the construction of railways. The ordinary revenue includes all the direct and indirect taxes raised for the purpose of meeting the ordinary cost of the administration, while the 'recettes d'ordre' represent the estimated receipts from the sale of volumes of laws printed by the government, of the produce of State mines, and of other miscellaneous sources. These receipts are balanced by sums of a similar amount placed on the estimates of expenditure under the heading of 'dépenses d'ordre.' The extraordinary receipts consist mainly of sums borrowed for the purpose of subsidising railways and for promoting other works of public utility. They are entered in the same manner as the recettes d'ordre' on the expenditure side of the Budgets.

The following two tables show the principal sources of revenue and the chief branches of expenditure of the Government according to the budget estimates for the year 1884 :

The income and expenditure for 1885 are balanced at 886,294,997 roubles. The direct taxes consist chiefly of imposts on the peasants -nine-tenths of the whole, the other tenth consisting of a land-tax on non-peasant proprietors, and a house tax in cities. Customs and excise duties form the bulk of the revenue from indirect taxation.

It will be seen from the above table that the largest branch of expenditure is that for the public debt. In 1884, the total amount required for interest and sinking fund was divided as follows:

The finances of Russia, almost since the beginning of the century, exhibit large annual deficits, caused partly by an enormous expenditure for war, and partly by the construction of reproductive works, such as railways. But the war expenditure was by far the greatest cause of the deficits. The total war outlay incurred by Russia during the four years 1876-80 amounted to 1,075,396,653 roubles, or 107,539,6651.

To cover a series of annual deficits and, at the same time, to procure the capital for the construction of a network of railways throughout the Empire, a number of foreign loans were raised during the twenty-eight years from 1850 to 1882. The most important of them were, first, a loan of 6,400,000l., issued in 1850, to meet the expenditure for the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow; secondly, a loan of 12 millions sterling, issued in 1859; thirdly, a loan of 8 millions, issued in 1860; and fourthly, a loan of 15 millions sterling, issued in 1862, the latter three contracted partly for the covering of financial deficits and partly for the construction of railways. The subsequent foreign loans were one for 2,600,000l., issued in 1863, and two for 6,000,000l. each, issued respectively in 1864 and 1866. The next was a foreign loan of 12,000,000l., brought out in January 1870; followed by another loan of 12,000,000l., issued in 1871; and by two loans, each of 15,000,000l.,

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the first brought out in September 1872, and the second raised in December 1873. The two foreign loans of 1850 and of 1864 were contracted for by Messrs. Baring; the four foreign loans of 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873 were contracted by Messrs. Rothschild, of London and Paris; the foreign loan of 1877 was contracted by Messrs. Mendelssohn, Berlin, in union with the Comptoir d'Escompte, Paris, and other continental banks. A foreign loan of 23,000,000l. was issued in November 1880 direct by the Russian Government, but both Messrs. Rothschild and the Comptoir d'Escompte of Paris declining to contract for it, there were but few subscribers; and, finally, in 1882, Messrs. Baring brought out a loan of 8,904,2007.

The following table gives the year of issue, nominal capital, interest per cent., and price of issue, of the foreign loans of Russia, fifteen in number-including early liabilities dating back to 1822contracted up to 1882:

Not included in the above list are several loans for railways, gua ranteed by the Imperial Government. On January 1, 1883, the railway debt of Russia was officially stated to amount to 1,500,000,000 paper roubles, or 150,000,000. The earlier of the foreign loans of Russia have become largely reduced at present, through the operation of sinking funds. Of the 1822 loan, issued by Messrs. Rothschild, more than one-half had been repaid at the end of 1875; of the 1850 loan, contracted for by Baring Brothers, the outstanding

sum was 2,950,000l.; of the 1859 loan, issued by Thomson, Bonar, and Co., the amount was 5,100,000l.; and of the 1860 loan, issued by Baring Brothers, it was 6,600,000l. at the same date. But the repayments, through sinking funds, were comparatively small of the subsequent loans.

On January 1, 1884, the entire public debt of Russia, internal and foreign, was estimated to amount to 578,000,000l., exclusive of the railway debt, above referred to.

Included in the debt here enumerated is a very large quantity of paper money with forced currency. According to official reports, the total amount of bank notes in circulation on the 1st of January 1882, was 716,515,125 roubles, or 71,651,512, to which should be added a loan of 15,000,000l. contracted in 1884. The total debt represented by paper money of forced currency was on January 1, 1884, 1,085,000,000 roubles, or 108,500,000l.

The destruction of public credit, through an unlimited issue of paper money, is of old standing. In the reign of Catherine II., the first attempt, on a large scale, was made to cover the annual deficits by a very liberal supply of paper roubles, the sum total of which at the death of the Empress, 1796, amounted to 200,000,000. During the subsequent wars with France and Turkey, new emissions of paper followed, with the consequence that in 1815 the notes had fallen to 418, that is, one silver rouble was worth four roubles eighteen copecs in paper. Great efforts were now made by the Government to improve this state of things, by withdrawing a portion of the paper from circulation. After ten years of improved financial management, there remained, however, still 600,000,000 of notes, circulating at the rate of three paper roubles to one silver rouble. As a final remedy, the Imperial Government withdrew, in 1843, the whole of the old paper money, introducing, in its stead, a new form of bank notes, with forced currency. By these and other means, particularly the establishment, in 1859, of a State bank, the Bank of Russia, under the control of the Minister of Finance, the nominal value of the paper money was considerably raised, with a prospect of the resumption of specie payments in the course of a number of years. The Grand-duchy of Finland had a revenue of 37,570,211 marcs, or 1,502,8081., and expenditure of 36,453,043 marcs, or 1,458,1217. in 1884. Its total debt on January 1, 1884, amounted to 68,605,634 marcs, or 2,744,2251. The special budgets of Poland ceased in 1867, on the final incorporation of the kingdom with Russia.

Army and Navy.
1. Army.

The armed forces of Russia were drawn, previous to the year 1874, from the classes of peasants and artisans, partly and princi