REPORT ON THE FINANCES. DECEMBER, 1809. In obedience to the directions of the act supplementary to the act entitled "An act to establish the Treasury Department," the Secretary of the Treasury respectfully submits the following report and estimates. The duties on merchandise and tonnage, which accrued during the year 1807, amounted, after deducting the expenses of collection, to $26,126,648 From which, deducting for debentures issued on account of re-exportations Left for the nett revenue accrued during that year 10,067,191 16,059,457 The same duties, during the year 1808, amounted, after deducting the expenses of collection, to 10,581,559 From which deducting for debentures issued, and which, on account of the embargo, did not exceed Leaves, for the nett revenue accrued during that year, as will appear by the statement A 249,396 10,332,163 The statement B exhibits, in detail, the several species of merchandise and other sources from which that revenue was collected during the year 1808; and the statement Aa gives a comparative view of the importations and re-exportations of the several species of merchandise for the years 1807 and 1808; showing thereby, distinctly, the effect of foreign aggressions and commercial restrictions on the importations of foreign articles. From the returns already received for the first three quarters of the present year, and from the general knowledge of the importations made during the last two months, it is believed that the gross amount of duties on merchandise imported during the whole year will, after deducting the expenses of collection, amount to about ten millions of dollars. But, as the debentures issued on account of re-exportations (principally of colonial produce) will amount to about $3,500,000, the nett revenue accrued during the year 1809 cannot be estimated at more than six millions and a half. It appears by the statement C, that the sales of public lands have, during the year ending on the 30th September, 1809, amounted to 143,000 acres ; and the payments by purchasers to near $500,000. The proceeds of sales in the Mississippi Territory, being, after deducting the surveying and other incidental expenses, appropriated in the first place to the payment of a sum of $1,250,000 to the State of Georgia, are distinctly stated. It appears by the statement D, that the payments on account of the principal of the public debt have, during the same period, amounted to near 6,730,000 dollars; the reimbursement of the eight per cent. stock having taken place on the 1st of January last. But the aggregate of payments on account of principal and interest will not, for the two years 1808 and 1809, exceed the sum of sixteen millions of dollars appropriated by law. The same statement shows that about 34,796,000 dollars of the principl of the debt has been reimbursed during the eight years and a half commencing on the 1st of April, 1801, and ending on the 30th September, 1809; exclusively of more than six millions of dollars paid in conformity with the provisions of the convention with Great Britain and of the Louisiana convention. The actual receipts into the Treasury, during the year ending on the 30th of September, 1809, have amounted to Making, together with the balance in the Treasury on the 1st October, 1808, and amounting to $9,315,753 16 - 13,846,717 52 $23,162,470 68 The disbursements, during the same year, have consisted of the following items, viz: Civil department, including miscellaneous expenses, and those incident to the intercourse with foreign nations - $1,439,633 23 Military and naval establishments, including the Indian department, viz: Military, including arms and fortifications $3,366,403 12 Indian department Interest on the public debt 2,379,267 80 Reimbursement of principal of the public debt Amounting together, as will appear more in detail by the statement (E,) to And leaving in the Treasury, on the 30th of September, 1809, a balance of 6,729,777 53 17,333,534 67 5,828,936 01 $23,162,470 68 Whence it appears that the expenses of Government, exclusively of the payments on account of the principal of the debt, have exceeded the actual receipts into the Treasury by a sum of near thirteen hundred thousand dollars; and that that deficiency, as well as the reimbursement of the principal of the debt, have been paid out of the sums previously in the Treasury, or, in other words, out of the surplus of the revenue of the preceding years. The outstanding revenue bonds may, after deducting the expenses of collection, and allowing for bad debts, be estimated to have amounted, on the 30th of September, 1809, to $7,500,000 The duties on the importations during the last quarter will not, probably, after making a similar deduction, fall short of All those will fall due prior to the 1st day of January, 1811, and make, together with the balance in the Treasury 2,800,000 on the 30th September, 1809, and amounting, as above stated, to An aggregate The expenses of the present quarter, though not yet precisely ascertained, will not, probably, including the payments on account of the public debt, exceed Leaving on the 1st day of January, 1810, a sum of 5,800,000 3,600,000 $12,500,000 About twelve and a half millions of dollars, in cash or bonds, payable during the year 1810, and applicable to the expenses of that year. This estimate, however, is founded on the supposition that the amount of debentures payable in that year, will not exceed two millions of dollars'; and that the receipts during the year, arising from importations subsequent to the 1st of January next, and from the sales of lands, will be sufficient to pay those debentures, and to leave at all times in the Treasury at least one million of dollars. Estimating the expenses of a civil nature, both domestic and foreign, for the year 1810, at the same amount actually expended for those objects during the preceding year, or at about And adding thereto the annual appropriation of for the public debt; (of which sum about three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars will be applied to the final reimbursement of the exchanged six per cent. stock,) it follows that, unless the aggregate of the expenses for the military and naval establishments should be reduced to about $1,500,000 8,000,000 3,000,000 $12,500,000 a loan will be necessary to make up the deficiency. That state of the Treasury had been anticipated; and, for that reason, an increase of duties had been respectfully submitted in the last annual report. But should that measure be now adopted, it would not, on account of the terms of credit allowed for the payment of duties, supersede the necessity of a loan for the service of the year 1810, commensurate with the extent of those establishments, and with the appropriations which may be made for their support by Congress. No precise sum is suggested, since this must vary according to the plans which may be adopted in relation to foreign nations, and will particularly depend on the decision of Congress on the question of war or peace. It is sufficient to state, that, if the actual expenditure of the year 1810, for all military and naval purposes, should be estimated at the same sum which was disbursed by the Treasury for those objects during the year ending on the 30th September, 1809, and exceeding, as above stated, six millions of dollars, the deficiency, according to the preceding estimates, would amount to three millions: on which supposition, it would seem prudent, in order to provide against any deficiency in the receipts, beyond what has been estimated, to authorize a loan of four millions of dollars. In the event of war, the necessity of rendering it efficient, and of calling for that purpose into action all the resources of the country, is too obvious to require any comment. On that subject nothing will, at this time, be added by this department to the suggestions respectfully submitted in the two preceding annual reports. Loans reimbursable by instalments, and at fixed periods, after the return of peace, must constitute the principal resourc for defraying the extraordinary expenses of the war. For the support of public credit, the basis on which rests the practicability of obtaining loans on reasonable terms, it appears necessary that the revenue should, in the mean while, be equal to the interest on the public debt, including that on the new loans, and to all the current expenses of Government, calculated on a peace establishment, or, for the present, to about eight millions of dollars. An immediate and considerable increase of the existing duties will, it is believed, be requisite for that purpose, in order to cover the defalcation which a maritime war must necessarily produce in a revenue almost exclusively depending on commerce. That increase appears preferable, in the present situation of the United States, to any other source of taxation, and is not, in time of war, liable to the objection of its encouraging smuggling. It is only in the event of that revenue being still more affected by a war than is apprehended, that a resort to internal taxes, either direct or indirect, may become necessary. If war should not be resorted to, it does not appear requisite, unless Congress should resolve on a permanent increase in the military and naval establishments in time of peace, to lay, at present, any additional duties, beyond a mere continuance of the two and a half per cent. known under the name of "Mediterranean fund." It has already been stated, that an increase of the impost would not supply the deficiency which may take place in the year 1810; and exclusively of the reimbursement of the loan which may be wanted for the service of that year, all the national expenses, calculated on a peace establishment, and on the average of the actual expenditures of the six years, 1802 to 1807, will not exceed ten millions of dollars for the year 1811, and eight millions after that year. For the only portion of the existing debt, which, according to law, it will be practicable, after the year 1810, to reimburse, will, exclusively of the annual reimbursement of the six per cent. and deferred stocks, consist only of the converted six per cent. stock, which amounts to less than two millions of dollars. The payments on account of the annual appropriation of eight millions of dollars, for the debt, cannot, for that reason, (except for the purpose of reimbursing the loan which may be wanted for the service of the year 1810,) much exceed six millions of dollars in the year 1811 and four millions of dollars annually after that year. The expenses, for the year 1811, and the ensuing years, may, therefore, if calculated on a peace establishment, be estimated as followeth, viz: Civil expenses, domestic and foreign $1,500,000 Military and naval establishments, (including the Indian department,) calculated on the average of the actual expenditure for those objects during the six years, 1802-1807, as will appear by statement (F) about 2,500,000 Interest on the public debt, including the annual reimbursement on the six per cent. and deferred stocks 4,100,000 Total of the annual expenses after the year 1811 8,100,000 1,860,000 $9,960,000 |