In 1889 the public debt of the republic amounted to about £24,000,000, but the financial difficulties which immediately followed that year, and the continuance of excessive expenditures, forced the debt up to approximately £128,000,000 during the next ten years.
He permitted laymen to hold certain public offices, under surveillance of the prelates, organized a guard from among the Roman nobility, decreed a plan for redeeming the base coinage, permitted the communes a certain degree of municipal liberty, and promised the liquidation of the public debt.
He contested the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Bill, opposed the resumption of specie payments, advocated the payment of the public debt in silver and supported the Bland-Allison Act.
The revenue of the republic is derived mainly from customs and excise, and the largest item of expenditure is the service of the public debt.
As finance minister in the Rattazzi cabinet of that year he had been confronted with a public debt of nearly 120,000,000, and with an immediate deficit of nearly 18,000,000.
