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which are among the wealthiest and most prosperous in Europe. The following are the official data for the state of the record debt:

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These data, taken from the registers existing in 1880, and, as before mentioned, loosely and imperfectly kept, were far from corresponding with the general impression of the reality or with the complaints and appearances of distress in the country. Estimates had been made by specialists, ranging from 408,000,000 lire to one milliard. In this uncertainty the commission of inquest undertook more exact researches in the record offices of the region and arrived at the certainty that the inscriptions for the last nine years for mortgages on land alone, exclusive of existing debts of older date, amount to much more than 200,000,000 lire, tabulating the results of their researches as follows:

Recorded mortgage debt of the Venetian Territory from 1871 to 1879, inclusive.

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Recorded mortgage debt of Venetian Territory, &c.-Continued.

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12. When a person in business has once failed or been discredited, can he resume, and what are the obstacles to such resumption?

In the old and long-civilized communities of Europe, where commercial positions were slowly acquired and jealously guarded, failure in business was always regarded with a reprobation unknown to the rapid and facile alternations of fortune that characterize business life in America, and in Venice this sentiment seems to have prevailed with especial rigor. Her political ambition, her public and private life, all centered in her commerce, and it was not surprising that she should regard its integrity as her most sacred interest, and should surround it with all the safeguards that legislation and public opinion could furnish. There still stands a pedestal in the market-place where bankruptcies were proclaimed; and in the old communal palace of Padua is still pointed out to tourists the stone of infamy on which the unfortunate debtor sat and declared his insolvency. All the risks and apprehensions of the Venetian merchaut combined with the distance and difficulty of his commercial relations to make him implacable toward the guilty or innocent cause of common misfortune. Legislation, though always imbued with the severity of the prevailing sentiment on the subject, and re-enforced, under the Austrian rule, by the uncompromising spirit of German justice, on which its commercial jurisprudence is based, had become somewhat loose and uncertain in its application during the long transitional period before the complete judicial unification of the new Kingdom, only now terminated. With the 1st of January of the present year, 1883, a new code of commercial law went into force throughout Italy. Its provisions on the point in question are of the strictest nature, and require in all cases an examination on the part of the criminal magistrate, to search for culpability, concurrently with the proceedings in bankruptcy. They admit the moratoria, or suspension, if sufficient motives be established, and also the concordato, or agreement with creditors, provided they be a majority and represent at least three-fourths of the credits. The proceedings finished, independently of liquidation and of other eventual penalties, the law requires the name and surname of the bankrupt or insolvent to be exposed on a tablet appended to the wall of the tribunal, as well as on

similar tablets in the public halls of all the commercial exchanges (Borse di Commercio) in the Kingdom, where he cannot again enter unless rehabilitated and the inscription erased. This rehabilitation, only granted on titles to exceptional consideration, and after complete payment or compromise (fulfilled), is sometimes obtained, but it may be readily supposed that after such proceedings, and in face of the prejudices on the subject, a respectable business position is not likely to be again achieved, although there may be strictly no legal bar; however, the individual may continue to traffic in obscure spheres or under false names.

BANKRUPTCY.

13. Is bankruptcy frequent?

All these circumstances combine with the traditional instinct of the race to make failure in business a much more serious affair here than it is sometimes considered with us. The general abstention from the use of credit, the limited volume of business, and the extreme circumspection with which it is conducted are the best of safeguards against such mischance. As a result, the trade of the region, if modest to insuffi ciency, is essentially safe. Failures have never been frequent, and latterly, since the enactment of the new commercial code, they have grown still more rare. The fact may seem to possess little interest or merit in view of the mediocre risk of such a movement of affairs, but assumes some importance from the further fact that this same mediocrity has preserved Venice from the effects of the long succession of commercial crises which have filled the last twenty years. Even in Vienna, the seat of much the largest portion of her foreign transactions, the famous crash of 1873 caused no disturbance here. During all this troubled period Venice has been untouched by the storms of the commercial world. Had she been involved she might hardly have possessed resources to repair their ruin.

Number of failures in business in the province of Venice from 1871 to 1882, inclusive.

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15. Are fortunes readily made and lost?

The great characteristic of Venetian commerce is its stability. There is little chance for sudden revolutions of public or private fortune. The profits of trade are too slow to accumulate disproportionately in the hands of any one possessor. Production is always scanty, and speculation finds neither the means, the material, nor the market. Fortunes are being made, but only by thrift and frugality. The movement is so gradual as to escape notice, and the result would be equally unmarked beside the colossal agglomerations of wealth in other countries, particularly our own.

68 A-No. 43—12

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EFFECTS OF CREDIT.

The general effects of credit in Italy at large, and fortunately for he are chiefly to be seen in the extension of public works and internal in provements. The Venetian Territory is not the most favored in its repa tition, and it may be safely said that if all the disposable capital of th country for years can be used to provide it with the ameliorations i dispensable to its prosperity with the requirements of the time, cred will produce for it the most beneficent effects of which it is susceptib for the present. MCWALTER B. NOYES,

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

Consul.

Venice, September 3, 1883.

PORTUGAL.

REPORT BY VICE-CONSUL-GENERAL WILBOR.

In compliance with instructions contained in Department Circul dated 15th May last and received 26th June, I have the honor to tran mit replies to the interrogatories therein contained in reference to t systems of credit which prevail in Portugal, and their relation to a effect on the general prosperity of this Kingdom.

First. Does credit stimulate trade?

The effect of credit is to stimulate trade.

Second. Are people averse to contracting debts?

People engaged in business are not averse to credit transactions whi promise profits.

Third. Are there any sumptuary laws or regulations concerni credits?

There are none in Portugal.

Fourth. To what extent does credit prevail in proportion to the v ume of business?

The question of proportion it is impossible to answer, but trade mainly carried on by credits.

Fifth. To what extent do losses incidental to business prevail? Trade in Portugal is conducted on a sound and safe basis, but t "extent" to which losses prevail cannot be fixed.

Sixth. Do tradesmen extend credit to mechanics readily?
No.

Seventh. What advantages have cash buyers?

Such advantages as may be mutually agreed upon, perhaps at the r of 6 per cent. per annum for the term of credit.

Eighth. Is interest demanded on time accounts?

If by "time accounts" are meant the open and running accounts tween business men, the answer is yes, in all cases. Interest at the r of 5 to 6 per cent. per annum.

Ninth. With what classes are the evils of credit most conspicuo Both debtor and creditor classes suffer from injudicious or unw credits.

Tenth. What kind of produce or manufactured articles command c returns?

In large business transactions credit is so universal that with the gle exception of cork-wood no kind of produce or manufactured arti

can be said to command cash returns. The cultivator almost invariably receives cash for his wine, olives, and oil, but these and other articles of farm produce once placed upon the general market are sold on credit. Credits constitute the general system of trade in Portugal, and on many articles very long credits are given.

Eleventh. Are credits of record (mortgages, judgments, &c.) prevalent; and, if so, among what classes?

Mortgages, judgments and other credits of record are not frequent, and are more employed by the upper than by other classes.

Thirteenth. Is bankruptcy frequent?

Bankruptcy is not frequent nor are failures many. A person who has honestly failed is not necessarily discredited, nor are there any insurmountable obstacles, legal or social, to his resumption.

Fourteenth. To what extent do relief acts in bankruptcy prevail? There is a bankruptcy law in Portugal by which honest debtors may without great difficulty obtain relief.

Fifteenth. Are fortunes readily made and lost?

The commercial class are generally free from speculation, neither making nor losing money by rash ventures.

Sixteenth. What are the general effects of credit?

It is difficult to say. Credit, so universal here, is really the basis of trade; business could not go on without it. It may be said that credit stimulates speculation among a class of business operators, and so brings failures and bankruptcy in its train. But on the other hand it opens the way to success and promotes legitimate and profitable business. I suppose the same influences, both good and bad, come from credits in Portugal as in the United States, but with less degree of intensity here, and with results less marked in magnitude.

JOHN B. WILBOR,
Vice-Consul-General.

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,

Lisbon, October 15, 1883.

SPAIN.

BARCELONA.

REPORT BY CONSUL SCHEUCH.

In answer to your circular of May 15 last, in which the Department requested me to report on the credit system prevailing in my consular district (Catalonia and the Balearic Islands), I now beg to submit. to you my answers to the several interrogatories expressly put in said. circular. I may mention here that Catalonia is the first commercial, industrial, and manufacturing district of the Spanish Peninsula, and Barcelona the foremost port and largest importer and consumer of foreign goods, also American.

Does credit stimulate trade?

Without doubt it does. Nevertheless it is notable with regard to this country that the advantages of credit are very little understood, nor is it on such a vast or sufficiently intelligent scale to induce people to see the advantage in encouraging business in general.

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