REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
15
The details of the estimated gross expenditure for 1869 were as follows: —
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Imperial household
Florins
£
3,450,000
345,000
Imperial Cabinet Chancery
60,514
6,051
490,838
49,083
Council of Ministers ....
€8,919
6,891
Ministry of the Interior ....
13,120,209
1,312,020
„ National Defence .
4,016,837
401,683
„ Public Education .
5,810,326
581,032
„ Agriculture ....
2,176,300
217,630
„ Finance ....
85,320,371
8,532,037
,, Justice ....
13,892,987
1,389,298
„ Commerce and Public Works
13,630,700
1,363.070
Board of Control .....
195,000
19,500
Interest on public debt ....
90,222,457
9,022,245
Administration of Public Debt
1,680,000
168,000
Cisleithan portion of the Common Expen-
diture of the Empire, including War
and Foreign Affairs .... Total estimated expenditure of 1869 .
65,191,213
6,519,121
299,326,671
29,932,667
The largest branch of expenditure, as will fee seen from the above statement, is the interest on the public debt, the burthen of which falls mainly on the Cisleithan part of the monarchy. This debt has grown up gradually since the middle of the last century. At the end of the Seven Years' War, in 1763, Austria had a debt of 150,000,000 florins, or 15,000,000/., which grew to 283,000,000 florins, or 28,300,000/., in 1781, and at the commencement of the French Ee- volution, in 1789, had risen to 349,000,000 florins, or 34,900,000/. From this period the debt grew in extraordinary proportions ; rising to 825,000,000 florins, or 82,500,000^., in 1815 ; to 987,000,000 florins, or 98,700,000/., in 1820; to 1,084,000,000 florins, or 108,000,000/., in 1830; to 1,250,000,000 florins, or 125,000,000/., in 1848; and to 3,009,804,134 florins, or 300,980,413/., in 1868. The war against Prussia and Italy, in the summer of 1866, increased the public debt by about 300,000,000 florins; but, on the other hand, freed Austria from the Lombardo-Venetian Debt, which, by the terms of the Peace of Prague, of August 23, 1866, was transferred to the kingdom of Italy. From 1789 until the present time, there was not a year in Avhich the revenue of the State came up to the expenditure.