COLOMBIA. 



115 



Some idea of the development of the several 

 departments of the Colombian Government in 

 the past fourteen years may be formed by com- 

 paring the estimated expenditures for 1866- 1 67 

 and 1879-'80: 



A significant feature of this table is the ab- 

 sence of appropriations for the branch of Pub- 

 lic Instruction in 1866-'67. 



The national debt was reported as follows 

 on August 31, 1879 : 



Foreigrndebt $10,064,000 



Home debt 9,907,219 



Total... 



$19,971,219 



On the principal of the foreign debt, ob- 

 serves President Trujillo, in his message al- 

 ready mentioned, $136,000 were paid in the 

 civil year of 1879, and for interest, and ex- 

 change on remittances, including that which 

 the previous Administration had failed to cover, 

 were paid $1,000,138. The foreign debt on 

 January 1, 1880, amounted to $9,959,500. 



The following remarks, published in Octo- 

 ber, 1880, on the subject of the consolidated 

 debt of 1873,* are from the pen of a foreign 

 resident in Panama : 



Under the arrangement entered iato some years ago 

 by the Government of this republic with its foreign 

 creditors, it was agreed by the bondholders that the 

 debt should be reduced to about one third of its then 

 existing amount, and that the annual rate of interest 

 should be reduced also. In view of these concessions, 

 the Government of Colombia bound itself to pay punc- 

 tually in future the annual interest, and gave security 

 for the carrying out of the same. Among other in- 

 comes thus hypothecated was the subsidy of $250.000 

 a year from the Panama Railway to Colombia. The 

 annual interest under the new arrangement was met 

 with considerable punctuality till about a year and' a 

 half ago, when, we understand, all payments ceased. 

 We now learn that the bondholders, finding it impos- 

 sible to get any further remittances from the Govern- 

 ment, have fallen back on the hypothecated revenues, 

 and that instructions were received from his Govern- 

 ment by the British consul in this city to embargo 

 on behalf of the creditors all further payments of the 

 railway subsidy, which he immediately did. In view 

 of the existing state of affairs, and the apparent apathy 

 of the nation in meeting its most sacred obligations, 

 we do not see that any other course was open to the 

 creditors than that they have taken. At the same 

 time we regret that such a step should have been 

 necessary, as it must cause no little inconvenience 

 to the State of Panama, which is entitled to $25,000 

 per annum of the subsidy mentioned, and is in no 

 way responsible for the acts of the nation, and also 

 to the merchants of this city, who have already dis- 

 counted for the government of the State some five 

 quarters of said subsidy not yet due. We trust, how- 



* See " Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1875, p. 127. 



ever, the matter will not be permitted to remain long 

 in abeyance, but that the Government will bestir it- 

 self and see that the whole affair is at once arranged 

 in a manner creditable to the nation. 



The exports for the year 1878-'79 were of 

 the value of $13,711,511 ; and the imports, 

 $10,787,634. 



From the port of Cartagena were shipped in 

 1879 native products of the value of $924,489.- 

 50, including sugar, spirits, cotton, starch, rice, 

 canime-oil, India-rubber, coffee, tortoise-shell, 

 cacao, hides, cocoanuts, dividivi, ipecacuanha, 

 corn, dye-woods, lumber, flame, cattle, cotton- 

 seed, tobacco, ivory-nuts. The most valuable 

 of these exports were sugar, hides, cacao, 

 woods, cattle, tobacco, and ivory-nuts. Their 

 values and destinations were as follows : 



Germany . . $174,164 80 



Costa Rica 24,553 00 



United States 843,314 00 



France 52,183 10 



GreatBritain 249,996 00 



Italy 1,765 50 



Santiago de Cuba 55,390 00 



$901,366 40 



The $23,133.10 remaining to complete the 

 sum total of exports consisted of various ship- 

 ments of provisions to the port of Aspinwall 

 and the State of Panama. 



The value of the Colombian exports to Great 

 Britain in 1878 was $4,684,680, and that of 

 the imports therefrom $5,159,760, of which 

 $3,722,190 were for cotton fabrics. It is here 

 to be observed that one half of the foreign 

 commodities imported by Colombia are British 

 products, and more than one third British 

 manufactures, which would readily yield to 

 competition from the United States if the im- 

 portance of a commercial treaty based on wise 

 principles of reciprocity were fully realized at 

 Washington and Bogota. Proposals have al- 

 ready been made to the United States Minister 

 by the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 to reduce the duty on American dry goods to 

 25 per cent, ad valorem (it is now 50 per cent.), 

 and admit American beer free of duty in ex- 

 change for a reduction of duty on Colombian 

 tobacco here. Mr. Deichman, the United 

 States Minister to Colombia, has given much 

 time and attention to the study of the com- 

 mercial movements of that republic, and con- 

 fidently asserts the possibility of turning the 

 balance of trade in our favor; but he is of 

 opinion that, although our products are, as has 

 frequently been stated in these volumes, stead- 

 ily gaining favor in South American markets, 

 some decided advantages should be offered by 

 us in order to overcome the long-standing hab- 

 it among Spanish-Americans of trading with 

 Great Britain. 



In 1878'-79 there were entered at the vari- 

 ous ports of Colombia 833 sailing-vessels, with 

 an aggregate tonnage of 47,425; and 459 

 steamers, with 538,148 tons. 



From the report of the General Superintend- 

 ent of the Panama Railway Company, it ap- 

 pears that the gross earnings of the line in 



