FINANCES.
tiated with individual banking-houses or syndicates of banks,
which, as a rule, have subscribed the whole loan at a fixed rate,
and thereafter, on their own account, have sold the bonds in the
market. While the loans up to and including 1892, have as a
rule been raised in the English, and partly in the German,
market, the following loams —• excepting the loan for purposes, of
conversion raised in 1897, the bonds whereof were mostly retained
by the original bond-holders — have chiefly been raised
in France.
With reference to the terms upon which the loans have been
raised it may be noted that the nominal rate of interest has been
4 % for the loans contracted between 1825 and 1851, for the
loans from 1858 to 1878, 4Vs °/o, for the loans of 1880, 1884,
1892, 4 °/o, for the loans of 1886, 1894 and 1895, 3Vs % and for
the loans of 1888,. 1896 and 1897, 3 %, and that, with the exception
of the earliest loans and the loan of 1888, which was quoted
at 867s %, they have been raised.almost at par, thus for the loan
of 1895 (37a %) 99Vs and for the loan of 1896 (3 %) 98Vi %•
The repayment of the loans is done by means of gradually increasing
instalments, so that the aggregate amount of interest and
instalment for every term is about the same. The interest and
instalments are paid (for loans contracted since 1858) semi-annually
and the repayment takes place (for the loans contracted since
1874) either by redemption of a certain number of bonds, drawn
by lot, or by free purchase of bonds in the open market. The
time of reimbursement has been, for the loans contracted prior to
1874, 10 to 3 IV2 years, but for the later loans it has been lengthened,
and has varied from 40 to 75 years. An exception to this rule
is formed by the internal loan for purposes of defence, contracted
in 1895, which is reimbursable in 24 years. The state has reserved
its right, either at any time (in the case of some loans now
redeemed) or after the expiration of ten (in the case of the loan
of 1892, seven) years, after due notice, to pay the whole of the
remaining principal or to increase the instalments on the loans.
The interest and instalments on the loans raised in foreign countries
are paid in more and more places, as the market in which
the state sells its bonds is extended; thus, as far as the later
loans are concerned, not only in Norway, but also in England,
France and Germany, and in the case of a few loans, also in
Sweden and Denmark.
The effective rate-of- interest for the loans contracted from
1848 to 1884 varied from 5.028 % (in the case of the loan of
1858) to 4.145 % (for the loan of 1884), Eor the loan of 1886 it
was 3.715 %, for the loan of 1888, 3.661 %, for the loan of 1892
it rose to 4.0826 %, and finally for the four loans contracted since
then, it has gone down to 3.728 %, 3.56 %, 3.099 % and 3.12 °/o-
At the end of the financial year 1897—1898, the national debt
was distributed as follows:
The permanent d e b t .................................kr. 245,472
The public loan of 1886 (1887). . . . » 30,072,683
1888 . . : » ' 62,247,018
1892 _. . . . . . » 9,648,889
1894 . . . ,■». 39,010,965
1895 . ' . . V . . » 11,670,800
1896 . . . ‘ . . . » 25,444,233
The loan raised for constructing branch
lines on the Drammen and Randsfjord
railway . . . . . , , . . . : » 840,000
An addition to the stock fund of the
Mortgage Bank, for which 4% bonds
have been issued . . . 991,200
Total . . . kr. 180,171,260
While on Dec. 31st, 1847, the national debt amounted to
kr. 5.34 per head of the population, and on Dec. 31st, 1870, to
kr. 17.08, this amount on June 30th, 1880, had been increased to
kr. 55, and on June 30th, 1898, to kr. 83.72. About the same
time, the national debt of Sweden amounted to kr. 57 per inhabitant,
that of Denmark to kr. 96, that of Great Britain to kr. 288,
and that of France to kr. 582.
The amounts paid in interest and instalments on the national
debt, which in the year 1848 amounted to kr. 366,000, have been
increased to such an extent by the subsequent rapid increase of
the debt, that before the loans of 1858 and 1863 had been converted
in 1880, they amounted to kr. 6,708,000. By means of the
various conversions which took place in the eighties, and the
complete redemption of a couple of earlier loans, the expenditure
on this account was reduced to such an extent, that in the year
1889—1890 it amounted to only kr. 4,191,553. In the years