The manner of circumventing the debt increase prohibition of the
convention having been discovered, the interior debt was further
augmented after that time by failure to pay salaries, by hypothecating
stamps and stamped paper, and by contracting other obligations, either
to combat insurrections or because of less worthy motives. In
addition, claims for revolutionary damages were filed against the
government.
The foreign debt thus consists merely of the $20,000,000 customs
administration loan of 1907. The sums paid into the sinking fund of
this loan have been used to purchase bonds of this issue at their
market price, somewhat less than par, and the interest falling due on
such purchased bonds has also gone to swell the sinking fund. The
value of the assets in the sinking fund on December 31, 1917,
estimating the purchased customs administration bonds at par, was
$6,019,161.50, exclusive of interest accruals in 1917.
The interior debt, as a result of revolutionary confusion and
defective accounting, became as problematic as in days of yore and was
estimated at widely different figures.
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