624 



PERU. 



During the past year the country was gov- 

 erned by Colonel Nicolas de Pierola, with the 

 title of Supreme Chief (Jefe Supremo). The 

 Cabinet was composed of the following Minis- 

 ters : Interior, Sefior Orbegoso ; Foreign Af- 

 fairs, Setter Pedro Jose Calderon ; Finance, 

 Seflor Manuel A. Barinaga; War, Sefior Mi- 



fuel Iglesias ; Navy, Sefior Manuel Villar ; 

 ustice and Public Instruction, Sefior Fede- 

 rico Panizo ; Commerce, Public Worship, etc., 

 Sefior Mariano Echegaray. The staff Major- 

 General of the Army and Navy was P. Silva ; 

 and the Commandant-General of the Navy, 

 J. M. Garcia. The Postmaster- General was 

 Seflor F. de P. Mufioz. The Archbishop of 

 Lima is the Rt. Rev. Orueta y Gastrillon. The 

 Peruvian charge d'affaires in the United States 

 is Sefior Jos6 Carlos Tracy (resident in New 

 York) ; and the United States Minister Pleni- 

 potentiary to Peru, Mr. J. P. Christiancy. 



For the respective strength of the army and 

 navy, up to the commencement of last year, 

 reference may be made to the " Annual Cy- 

 clopedia" for 18T9. It may here be stated 

 that by the end of 1880 the Peruvian fleet had 

 been almost completely annihilated by the uni- 

 formly successful Chilians. 



Of the present condition of the national 

 finances nothing definite can be said, nor have 

 any returns of an official character been made 

 on which to base an approximate statement. 

 Previous to the war, the revenue, for the most 

 part derived from the sale of gnano and ni- 

 trate, and to a certain extent from the cus- 

 toms department,fluctuated between 30,000,000 

 and 50,000,00 soles,* and the expenditure be- 

 tween 40,000,000 and 60,000,000. Vast outlays, 

 regarded abroad as unwarranted, were made 

 on railways, iron-clad vessels, etc., giving rise 

 to large annual deficits ; and, even without the 

 additional expenses of war, hopeless bank- 

 ruptcy for the republic was predicted as the 

 inevitable issue. 



Peru's onerous national debt comprises the 

 home liabilities, estimated at 20,000,000 soles, 

 exclusive of a floating debt of unknown 

 amount, greatly increased by extensive issues t 

 of paper money in 1879 and 1880 to carry on 

 the war ; and the foreign liabilities, amount- 

 ing, in July, 1879, to 45,268,103.40, or 226,- 

 340,516 soles, at five soles to the pound sterling.:): 

 There is now, however, a fair prospect of ulti- 

 mate liquidation of this debt, the Chilian Gov- 

 ernment having generously consented to the 

 shipment, for the benefit of the Peruvian 

 bondholders, of guano from the deposits se- 

 cured by conquest. The conditions to which 

 the shipments are subject may be briefly stated 

 as follows : 1. A royalty of 1.10 per ton of 

 guano so exported to be paid to the Chilian Gov- 

 ernment, in drafts on London at ninety days' 



* The sol is equivalent to about 90 cents of United States 

 money. 



t The total amount of these issues, up to October 81, 1S80, 

 was estimated at 35.000,000 soles. 



$ For further particulars relating to the debt, see " Annual 

 Cyclopaedia" for 1878 and 1879. 



sight, before the cargoes leave Valparaiso; 2. 

 The intervention of the Chilian Government in 

 the appointment of a responsible firm that will 

 undertake to pay the royalty, defray the ex- 

 penses of removal and shipment of the guano, 

 and receive and sell the stuff in foreign mar- 

 kets. (See also the article CHILI in the present 

 volume, and that of PERU in the volume for 

 1879.) 



The foreign commerce of Peru was, previ- 

 ous to 1879, of an average value of 80,000,000 

 soles, the exports representing about 50,000,- 

 000. The total values of the exports to and 

 imports from Great Britain for each year of 

 the decade 1870-79 are exhibited in the fol- 

 lowing table : 



The principal commodities imported from 

 Great Britain were cotton and woolen fabrics. 

 Among the minor exports from Peru to that 

 destination were raw sugar, which in 1879 

 was of the value of 6,903,110 soles; sheep's 

 and alpaca wool, 1,643,840 soles; and copper, 

 unwrought or partly wrought, 506,420 soles. 

 But by far the most important staples of ex- 

 port to Great Britain were guano and cubic 

 niter, the total values of each of which for 

 each of the ten years 1870-'79 were as folio v, s, 

 in pounds sterling : 



At the end of 1877 there were in the re- 

 public twenty-two railway lines (open to traific 

 or in process of completion), of a total length 

 of 2,030 miles, and representing a total cost of 

 35,994,920, or 179,974,600 soles. Eleven of 

 these lines were the property of the Govern- 

 ment; eight belonged to private companies or 

 individuals, and these are partly government 

 and partly private property. " Of the railways 

 belonging to private individuals," writes the 

 British Minister to Peru, in 1878, "only the 

 double line from Callao to Lima and Chorillos 

 (17 miles in length) is reported to be a com- 

 mercial success; and 232 miles of difficult rail- 

 way have been made, at a cost of 0,000,000, 



