A great deal has been said this week of the
impossibility of Russia making war, owing to her financial embarrassments and the difficulty of raising a loan. The financial embarrassment is considerable, and a large loan outside Russia is probably not to be raised, but a national loan on the Napoleonic principle would pro- duce some millions, and Russia has one oppressive and extravagant but effective resource. She can procure nearly everything by issuing inconvertible paper. An issue of 130,000,000 would only fr increase her paper currency one-fifth, and probably only raise the agio on gold 20 per cent., which, as America has shown us, can be borne without a paralysis of industry. It is a most ruinous ex- pedient, but Russia has resorted to it twice already, and each time has survived.
Previous page
