material is placed in a perforated cage or “basket,” which is enclosed in an outer casing, and when the cage is rapidly rotated by suitable gearing, the liquid portions are forced out into the external casing.
FIMBRIA, GAIUS FLAVIUS (d. 84 B.C.), Roman soldier and
a violent partisan of Marius. He was sent to Asia in 86 B.C.
as legate to L. Valerius Flaccus, but quarrelled with him and was
dismissed. Taking advantage of the absence of Flaccus at
Chalcedon and the discontent aroused by his avarice and severity,
Fimbria stirred up a revolt and slew Flaccus at Nicomedia.
He then assumed the command of the army and obtained several
successes against Mithradates, whom he shut up in Pitane on
the coast of Aeolis, and would undoubtedly have captured him
had Lucullus co-operated with the fleet. Fimbria treated most
cruelly all the people of Asia who had revolted from Rome or
sided with Sulla. Having gained admission to Ilium by declaring
that, as a Roman, he was friendly, he massacred the inhabitants
and burnt the place to the ground. But in 84 Sulla crossed over
from Greece to Asia, made peace with Mithradates, and turned
his arms against Fimbria, who, seeing that there was no chance
of escape, committed suicide. His troops were made to serve in
Asia till the end of the third Mithradatic War.
FIMBRIATE (from Lat. fimbriae, fringe), a zoological and
botanical term, meaning fringed. In heraldry, “fimbriate”
or “fimbriated” refers to a narrow edge or border running round
a bearing.
FINALE (Ital. for “end”), a term in music for the concluding
movement in an instrumental composition, whether symphony,
concerto or sonata, and, in dramatic music, the concerted piece
which ends each act. Of instrumental finales, the great choral
finale to Beethoven’s 9th symphony, and of operatic finales,
that of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro, to the second act, and to the
last act of Verdi’s Falstaff may be mentioned. In the Wagnerian
opera the finale has no place.
FINANCE. The term “finance,” which comes into English
through French, in its original meaning denoted a payment
(finatio). In the later middle ages, especially in Germany, it
acquired the sense of usurious or oppressive dealing with money
and capital. The specialized use of the word as equivalent to
the management of the public expenditure and receipts first
became prominent in France during the 16th century and quickly
spread to other countries. The plural form (Les Finances) was
particularly reserved for this application, while the singular
came to denote business activity in respect to monetary dealings
(as in the expression la haute finance). For the Germans the
phrase “science of finance” (Finanzwissenschaft) refers exclusively
to the economy of the state. English and American
writers are less definite in their employment of the term, which
varies with the convenience of the author.
A work on “finance” may deal with the Money Market or the Stock Exchange; it may treat of banking and credit organization, or it may be devoted to state revenue and expenditure, which is on the whole the prevailing sense. The expressions “science of finance” and “public finance” have been suggested as suitable to delimit the last mentioned application. At all events, the broad sense is quite intelligible. “Financial” means what is concerned with business, and the idea of a balance between effort and return is also prominent. In the present article attention will be directed to “public finance”; for the other aspects of the subject reference may be made (inter alia) to the following:—Banks and Banking; Company; Exchange; Market; Stock Exchange. See also English Finance, and the sections on finance under headings of countries.
Finance, regarded as state house-keeping, or “political economy” (see Economics) in the older sense of the term, deals with (1) the expenditure of the state; (2) state revenues; (3) the balance between expenditure and receipts; (4) the organization which collects and applies the public funds. Each of these large divisions presents a series of problems of which the practical treatment is illustrated in the financial history of the great nations of the world. Thus the amount and character of public expenditure necessarily depends on the functions that the state undertakes to perform—national defence, the maintenance of internal order, and the efficient equipment of the state organization; such are the tasks that all governments have to discharge, and for their cost due provision has to be made. The widening sphere of state activity, so marked a characteristic of modern civilization, involves outlay for what may be best described as “developmental” services. Education, relief of distress, regulation of labour and trade, are duties now in great part performed by public agencies, and their increasing prominence involves augmented expense. The first problem on this side of expenditure is the due balancing of outlay by income. The financier has to “cover” his outlay. There is, further, the duty of establishing a proper proportion between the several forms of expenditure. Not only has there to be a strict control over the total national expense; supervision has to be carried into each department of the state. No one branch of public activity is entitled to make unlimited calls on the state’s revenue. The claims of the “expert” require to be carefully scrutinized. The great financiers have made their reputation quite as much by rigorous control over extravagance in expenditure as by dexterity in devising new forms of revenue. Unfortunately they have not been able to reduce their methods to rule. As yet no more definite principle has been discovered than the somewhat obvious one of measuring the proposed items of outlay (1) against each other, (2) against the sacrifice that additional taxation involves. Of almost equal importance is the rule that the utmost return is to be obtained for the given outlay. The canon of economy is as fundamental in regard to public expenditure as it will appear, later, to be in respect to revenue. Just application of the outlay of the state, so that no class receives undue advantage, and the use of public funds for “reproductive,” in preference to “unproductive” objects, are evident general principles whose difficulty lies in their application to the circumstances of each particular case.
Far greater progress has been made in the formulation of general canons as to the nature, growth and treatment of the public revenues. Historically, there is, first, the tendency towards increase in state income to balance the advance in outlay. A second general feature is the relative decline of the receipts from state property and industries in contrast to the expansion of taxation. Regarded as an organized system, the body of receipts has to be made conformable to certain general conditions. Thus there should be revenue sufficient to meet the public requirements. Otherwise the financial organization has failed in one of its essential purposes. In order continuously to attain this end, the revenue must be flexible, or, as is often said, elastic enough to vary in response to pressure. Frequently recurring deficits are, in themselves, a condemnation of the methods under which they are found. Again, the rule of “economy” in raising revenue, or, in other words, taking as little as possible from the contributors over and above what the state receives, holds good for the whole and for each part of public revenue. In like manner the principle of formal justice has the same claim in respect to revenue as to expenditure. No class of person should bear more than his or its proper share. In fact the special maxims usually placed under the head of taxation have really a wider scope as governing the whole financial system. The recognition of even the most elementary rules has been a very slow process, as the course of financial history abundantly proves. Until the 18th century no scientific treatment of financial problems was attained, though there had been great advances on the administrative side.
A brief description of the historical evolution of the earlier financial forms will be the most effective illustration of this statement. The theory of well-organized public finance is also discussed under Taxation and National Debt.
The earliest forms of public revenue are those obtained from the property of the chief or ruler. Land, cattle and slaves are the principal kinds of wealth, and they are all constituents of the king’s revenue; enforced work contributed by members of the community, and the furnishing commodities on requisition,
