Sinking Funds

ay seem after our comparative study, no financial task has so befooled statesmen and led to costly mistakes, as the sinking of public debt. In England, the pioneer in modern finance, the search for the best way of amortization has strained the powers, and taxed the ingenuity, of the best heads for over a century. And yet it has been demonstrated that England, during the Napoleonic wars, lost by her theory of amortization a sum greater than the debt left us by the Revolution. In fact, it is only within the last two decades that the practice of the great financial powers has approached such an unanimity, as encourages the student fearlessly to frame a theory of amortization. Our Theory Concerned with Settled Policy. The first thing to note is, that whatever theory there may be relates to the sinking of funded, consolidated, or permanent debt. The theoretical side of amortization is principally concerned with fixed policy; and floating debt, such as treasury notes, exchequer bills, bans du tresor, is not, and should not become the object of a permanent provision. Good financiering requires that a floating debt be either paid off or funded. We have, it is true, occasional redemption funds and the rather nondescript caissed'amortissement of Napoleon I, but their theoretical import is too slight to require treatment. Similarly we are not concerned with any temporary. hand-to-mouth handling of a time debt. When legislation busies itself solely with the present, lea...