The early public loans were chiefly connected with the settlement
of the debt inherited from the union with Denmark, while
the public loans raised during the last fifty years hare been
almost entirely applied to productive objects, especially to-the
construction of railways. The first of these loans, amounting to
kr. 6,000,000, was raised during the year 1848 in order to assist
those tradesmen who had come to grief during the crisis in the
same year. Thereafter a loan of kr. 4,800,000 was raised in 1851
in order to be applied, partly to the formation of a working
capital for the Norwegian Mortgage Bank, which was just then
established, and partly as a subsidy to the construction of the
first Norwegian railway, which was otherwise constructed with
private capital.
In the year 1858 a loan of kr. 14,400,000 was raised to be
chiefly applied partly to the construction of railways, and partly
to increase the working capital of the Mortgage Bank. Bor railway
purposes a new loan was raised in 1863 to the amount of
kr. 6,000,000. An internal loan of kr. 1,000,000 having been
raised in the year 1875 for defensive purpose, four loans were
negotiated in the course of the seventies applicable to the further
construction of railways. These were an amount of kr. 6,000,000
in 1872, in 1874 kri 20,000,000, in 1876 kr. 23,971,200 and in
1878 kr. 30,872;000. Thereafter a loan was negotiated in 1880 to
the amount of kr. 20,992,960, which was applied partly to the
construction of railways, partly to increase the working capital of
the Mortgage Bank, but chiefly to the conversion of the remaining
rests of the public loans of 1858 and 1863, to the strengthening
of the cash reserve of the Treasury, and to the covering of the
deficits of the revenue during the latter part of the seventies. By
this loan the aggregate amount of the national debt at the end
of the year 1882 (for a part of the loan had only been called in
during that year) had risen to kr. 108,332,000, implying an annual
expenditure for interest, re-imbursment and commission of about
kr. 5,975,000.
The next three public loans were all raised for the chief
purpose of converting previous loans. The first of these was
raised in 1884 and amounted to kr. 24,987,733 at 4% interest.
I t was applied to the redemption of the 4Vs % loans of
1872 and 1874, and a minor part of it served the purpose of
a loan on the part of the Treasury to the state railways, and to
increase the working capital of the Mortgage Bank. The next
loan, raised in 1886, for kr. 30,826,667 at 3Vs °/o interest, was
exclusively taken up for the purpose of converting previous loans,
and was applied to the redemption of the 4 Vs °/o public loan of
1876, and almost all the permanent debt (the latter bearing an
interest of 3*/* °|V to d'/s %). The third loan, negotiated in 1888
at the rate of 3 Vo; and amounting to kr. 64,554,667, served the
purpose of redeeming the 4Vs Vo. public loan of 1878, and the
loan raised in 1884 for purposes of converting. A minor part of
it was applied to the increase of the working capital of the
Mortgage Bank.
In 1890 the Treasury was charged with a loan raised in
1869 for the purpose of constructing two branch lines on one of
the state railways (the Drammen and Randsfjord Line) amounting
originally to kr. 1,600,000, and bearing 5 Vo interest. The' construction
of railways having been resumed on a large scale in the nineties,
a loan of kr. 10,000,000 was raised in 1892 and chiefly applied
to this purpose, but partly also to granting loans to the state
railways. Since that time loans have been raised in 1894, 1895
and 1896, amounting to kr. 39,675,733, kr. 12,072^000 and kr.
25,444,233, respectively1. Of the first loan nearly half was employed
in converting the state loan of 1880. Out of the rest of
this loan and the loan of 1896, various minor amounts were employed
in granting new loans to the state railways, in increasing the
working capital of the Mortgage Bank and in increasing some special
funds, while the rest of this loan is, or will be employed partly
in constructing railways, partly in improvements relating to telegraphs
and telephones. The whole of the loan of 1895 was employed
in improving the defences of. the country. Finally, in 1897, the
remaining rest of the loan of 1886, kr. 30,136,819, was redeemed
by means of a new loan for the same amount, bearing interest at
3 % . Of the aggregate amount obtained by the before-mentioned
loans, about kr. 136,500,000 have been applied to the construction
of railways, about kr. 11,000,000 to the formation and increase of
the working capital of the Mortgage Bank, about kr. 9,600,000 to
loans granted to private individuals and the state railways of Norway,
about kr. 6,000,000 to the laying of telegraph and telephone
lines, and about 13,000,000 for defensive purposes.
The terminable national debt has, with few exceptions (e.g.
the loan of 1895), been incurred by means.of foreign loans nego