Annuaire de législation haïtienne: the laws, decrees and arrêtés of 1908

The fifth year of the Annuaire, covering 1908.

The editor's review is blunt about the public finances: the previous year's strikes and issues had not improved the situation but worsened it, as was to be expected. With the Chambers not yet sitting, the government at bay devised on 1 May an issue of Treasury bonds of 600,000 gourdes, repayable in gold at a rate the text records. Once the Chambers met, the same policy of expedients continued: an issue of 2,000,000 gourdes in notes and a striking of 400,000 gourdes in 50-centime pieces, then three months later a further striking of 2,000,000 in 50-centime pieces granted by the law of 21 August. The two strikes carried nickel circulation to 7,000,000 gourdes.

On the budget, the expenditure budget for 1907-1908 stood at 6,885,559.70 gourdes and 2,051,248.50 dollars gold, and was inflated by a supplementary credits law of 2,787,617.58 gourdes and 495,498.77 dollars, so that voted expenditure for the year reached 9,673,177.34 gourdes and 3,140,747.33 dollars gold. The volume is the primary record for a year in which monetary financing of the deficit is set out by an editor who names it as such.