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the States and the Communes, as they are to a greater
 
or less extent compensated by the contracting of new
 
debts. Only the additional means of credit claimed by 
 
the public authorities (that is, the assumption of debt 
 
less the amortization) is a claim against the national
 
income, while only a shifting of portions of the national
 
wealth is involved in connection with the amounts which
 
are paid off through amortization. In so far as the 
 
State and Communes amortized more debts than they assumed 
 
new ones during the past fiscal years, the margin of 
 
credit that was released became of practical benefit to 
 
the Reich. In the same way, account should be taken of 
 
the reserves of the Communes, accumulated during the
 
recent fiscal years by order of the Reich, since they 
 
too have lightened the debt of the Reich either indirectly, 
 
by investment in Reich obligations, or directly, by reliev-
 
ing the capital market. So amortization of debt and 
 
formation of reserves by public bodies would, unless sub-
 
tracted from the corrected total for thelr expenditures, 
 
lead to duplicate figures in the same way as would be the 
 
caae with regard to non-deduction of tax transfers in the 
 
budget Of the units making the transfers.
 
 
      While data, or at least estimates, are available for
 
the amortization of debts by the Reich, the States and the
 
                                   Communes