MONEY AND CREDIT
755
The gross revenue from posts was 52,653,221 lire, and telegraphs 13,785,725 lire (exclusive of official despatches), total, 66,438,946 lire ; the expenditure was 55,018,028 lire ; and the net revenue 11,420.918 live.
Money and Credit.
The following table shows the amount of State notes and bank notes iti circulation at the end of each of the last five years in thousands of lire : —
State notes Bank notes^
1893
1,000 Lire
351,792
1,221,634
1894
l,000Lire
492,149
1,128,598
1895
1,000 Lire
510,000
1,085,675
1896
1,000 Lire
510,000
1,069,233
1897
1,000 Lire 576,491 1,086,129
1 Including, for 1893, 9,182,000 lire, for 1894 2,445,000 lire and for 1895, 857,355 lire of notes of the Banca romana (in liquidation).
The total coinage from 1862 to the end of 1897 was: gold, 427,099,650 lire; silver, 567,037,025 lire; nickel, 20,000,000 lire; bronze, 83,679,051 lire; total, 1,097,815,726 lire. The re-coinage was 30,846,271 lire.
The nominal value of the money coined (including recoinage) in the last five years has been : —
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Nickel
Total
1893 1894 1895 1896 1 1897
1
Lire
824,280
766,660
Lire 1,595,632
Lire 3,667,338 3,790,978
170,080 42,930
125,725
Lire
17,780,200 2,219,800
Lire
4,491,618
21,571,178
2,389,880
42,930
2,488,017
1,590,940
1,595,632
7,797,051
20,000,000
30,983,623
By the monetary convention of October 29, 1897, the contracting States agreed that each (except Greece) might increase its fractional silver coinage (2-franc pieces and .smaller coins) from the limit of 6 francs per inhabitant to 7 francs ; and thus Italy, which, by the convention of 1885 was restricted to 182,400,000 lire of fractional silver and 20,000,000 lire additional for special reasons, may increase its issue by 30,000,000 lire, the total amount authorised being now 232,400,000 lire. By a protocol of March 15, 1898, Italy is freed from the obligation, created by the convention of 1885, to take back its fractional coins within the year following the dissolution of the Union on condition of forbidding the exportation of such coins while the Union continues, and undertaking not to change its present system with respect to such coins during five years following the dissolution of the Union. Not- withstanding these arrangements the fractional silver money remains withdrawn from circulation.
By law of July 22, 1894, gold and silver were temporarily withdrawn from circulation, being represented by paper. In January, 1898, the actual cur- rency consisted of 466,491,470 lire of State notes, 110,000,000 lire of "buoni di cassa" (one and two-lire notes guaranteed by .silver in the Treasury), 1,086,129,247 lire of bank notes, and aboiit 100,000,000 lire of copper and nickel coin.
There is no national l)ank in Italy. According to the law of Augitst 10, 1893, there are only three banks of issue : the Banca d' Italia (formed by the fusion of the two Tuscan banks with the Banca Nazionale nel Regno d'ltalia), the Banco di Napoli, and the Banco di Sicilia. The following table
3 c 2
