THE BALANCE OF INDEBTEDNESS, 1918-28 211 
has been deemed of sufficient importance to call for special con- 
sideration. 
As in the pre-war period the receipts from Australian capital 
invested abroad were not of a high order, although it was evident 
that the amount is steadily on the increase. On the basis of the 
excess of the receipts from overseas over the expenditure over- 
seas by life assurance and other companies, rates of dividends 
in tin, rubber, and other concerns, and other related data, the 
computation shown in the interest column under ‘credits’ in the 
final table was made. It is, admittedly, not much more than 
conjecture. 
The completed balance of international indebtedness is of 
more than ordinary interest. Notwithstanding the disjointed 
nature of the period, and despite the adjustments made necessary 
by the return to gold, the situation revealed by the table is 
precisely what orthodox theory would lead us to expect. The 
mechanism of adjustment varies in no important respect from 
that indicated by the pre-war balance of indebtedness. Setting 
the two main facts of this last phase of the investigation side by 
side, the following comparison is obtained for the whole period 
1920-28 - 
Tora oF OVERSEAS LOANS. 
Government 
Municipal . 
Business . . 
Private ‘ . . “ 
Capital imported . . 266 
. 
£m. 
210 
16 
28 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL 
DEBTS AND CREDITS, 
Total debits 
Total credits 
£m. 
1635 
1360 
Excess of debits 
, . . 278 
The discrepancy of approximately £9 millions can be partly 
reconciled. The calculation is taken to 30 June 1928; and the 
first half of this year was a period of relatively heavy loan issues. 
At the end of the half-year London banks held about £3-5 millions 
of unexpended loan balances in connexion with loans floated by 
the Commonwealth for the States, and this amount, of course, 
would not show in the total of imports. The surprising feature 
of the whole balance of transactions is once again the rapidity 
and accuracy with which loans become translated into imports 
of all kinds, both services and commodities.