The Times correspondent at Berlin sends to Thursday's paper the
chief figures connected with German finance. They may well cause anxiety. It appears that the sum to be handed back from the Customs and Excise to the separate States is nearly three-quarters of a million sterling less than it was last year. At the same time, the contributions of the States to the Imperial Treasury are already considerably in excess of what they receive. The net deficit in the Imperial revenue appears to be over £500,000, and something like £2,300,000 extra will have to be appropriated this year to make up the deficit of 1901. Meantime the expenditure on the Army and Navy and other services is constantly rising. Simul- taneously, discouraging statistics are given as to German shipping, which, in spite of the great subsidies given to the sensational German lines, does not flourish as a whole. The fact is, the old, careful, and even penurious, fiscal system of the Germans has now been abandoned for many years. The results were at first apparently favourable, but now the re. action is being felt, and Protection, subsidies, State inter- ference, and direct State action over an enormous commercial area are beginning to produce their inevitable results. That Germany should suffer economically can, however, be no source of satisfaction to us. Any decrease in the wealth of the world is sure to injure Britain, as the greatest of com- mercial nations.
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