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PARAGUAY. 



PERSIA. 



President. The ministry at the beginning of 1901 

 was composed as follows : Minister of the Interior, 

 Guillermo de los Rios; Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 and Colonization, Fabio Queirolo ; Minister of 

 Finance, Francisco Canipo; Minister of Justice, 

 Worship, and Public Instruction. Dr. Jose T. 

 Legal; Minister of War, Gen. J. A. Escurra. 



Area and Population. Paraguay has an area 

 of 157,000 square miles. The population was esti- 

 mated in 1898 at 432,000 whites and 100,000 In- 

 dians. There were about 13,000 foreigners, of 

 whom 5,000 were Argentinians, 2,500 Italians, 

 1,500 Spanish, 1,250 Germans, 800 French, 600 

 Brazilians, 000 Swiss, 450 Austrians, and 200 Brit- 

 ish. The number of immigrants in 1897 was 197, 

 in 1898 it was 337, and in 1899 the number was 

 340, consisting of 113 Italians, 74 Spanish, 37 

 French, 46 British, and 70 Swiss, Germans, and 

 Argentinians. The Government has sold a great 

 part of the public domains in large estates for 

 grazing. The schools numbered 390 in 1897, w r ith 

 700 teachers and 25,000 pupils. Attendance is 

 compulsory. The college at Asuncion had 15 pro- 

 fessors and 205 students in 1898. 



Finances. The revenue for 1898 was $8,977,- 

 299, of which $4,410,283 were derived from import 

 duties, $625,942 from export duties, $950,408 from 

 various taxes, $417,364 from the agricultural 

 bank, and $1,073,215 by the issue of paper money. 

 There were $9,785,000 of notes in circulation at 

 the close of 1898. Metallic money had disap- 

 peared, and gold was at a premium of 740 per 

 cent. The expenditure in 1898 amounted to $8,- 

 441,275, of which $2,712,082 were for salaries, $1,- 

 023,031 for interest and conversion of the debt, 

 $1,108,474 for the army and navy, and $1,023,031 

 for public instruction. The revenue for 1900 was 

 estimated at $8,065,782, and expenditure at $8,- 

 122,180, of which $1,846,567 were for the Minis- 

 try of the Interior, $2,469,663 for the Ministry of 

 Finance, and $645,852 for the Ministry of War 

 and Marine. 



A foreign debt of 1,505,400 sterling contracted 

 in 1871 and 1872 was compromised in 1885 after 

 several years of default by the issue of new bonds 

 of the amount of 850,000 and grants of lands to 

 the Anglo-Paraguayan Land Company to be dis- 

 tributed among the bondholders in lieu of arrears 

 of interest. In 1892 interest was defaulted on the 

 new bonds, and in 1895 another arrangement was 

 made by which the rate of interest was reduced, 

 bonds were given for arrears, and guarantees were 

 afforded. The debt in 1900 stood at 994,600. 

 There was also the debt of the Paraguayan Cen- 

 tral Railroad guaranteed by the Government, 

 amounting to 786,747, and the Government owed 

 $42,590 in gold to the National Bank. A debt of 

 $9,876,500 was due to Brazil, and one of $12,393,600 

 to the Argentine Republic. The internal debt, in- 

 cluding the note issues, amounted in 1898 to $12,- 

 085,234. 



Bailroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 railroad from Asuncion to Pirapo has a length of 

 156 miles. The receipts in 1899 were $1,247,973 

 from 538,524 passengers and 50,774 tons of freight. 

 The length of telegraph-lines is 600 miles. The 

 number of despatches in 1899 was 58,383. Asun- 

 cion is provided with telephones. The number of 

 letters and other mail-matter that passed through 

 the post-office in 1899 was 1,254,864. 



Commerce and Production. Next to the 

 rearing of cattle the most important industry is 

 the cultivation of yerba-mate. The Government 

 has parted with the plantations in which this 

 plant is grown, which are now in the hands of 

 capitalists. The export of timber is large, and 

 about 200,000 hides are exported annually to 



Buenos Ayres and thence to the United States and 

 Europe. Tobacco is cultivated, besides corn, 

 beans, and other food products, and the agricul- 

 tural colonies composed of immigrants from Eu- 

 rope raise fruit, coffee, rice, sugar-cane, peanuts, 

 etc. A colony of Sicilians arrived in 1898. There 

 were 2,500,000 cattle in Paraguay in 1899, and 

 the horses numbered 300,000; mules and asses, 

 20,000; yaks, 10,000; sheep, 200,000; goats, 40,000; 

 and hogs, 50,000. 



The total value of imports in 1899 was $2,147,- 

 838, and of exports $2,021,023. The export of 

 yerba-mate was valued at $718,292; hides, $441,- 

 308; tobacco, $112,488. The number of vessels en- 

 tered at Asuncion in 1898 was 418; cleared, 408. 



PENNSYLVANIA. (See under UNITED 

 STATES.) 



PERSIA, an empire in central Asia. The reign- 

 ing Emperor, called Shah in Shah, is Muzaffer 

 Eddin, born March 25, 1853, second son of Nasr 

 Eddin, whom he succeeded on May 1, 1896. The 

 Valiahd, or heir apparent, is Mohammed Ali 

 Mirza, the Shah's eldest son, born in 1872. The 

 Grand Vizier in the beginning of 1901 was Mirza 

 Ali Ashgar Khan, appointed Aug. 11, 1898; Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, Mushir ed Dowleh; Min- 

 ister of War, Amir Khan Serdar; Minister of the 

 Interior, Dabir el Mulk. 



Area and Population. The area of Persia is 

 estimated at 628,000 square miles, and the popula- 

 tion at 9,000,000. The Europeans do not exceed 

 1,000. Teheran has about 250,000 inhabitants; 

 Tabriz, 180,000; Ispahan, 80,000. There are nu- 

 merous colleges supported by the Government in 

 which the Mohammedan laws and religion are 

 taught and both Persian and Arabic literature, 

 with some knowledge of science. The polytechnic 

 school at Teheran is conducted by European pro- 

 fessors. Since 1898 the Minister of Public In- 

 struction has introduced schools at Teheran, Ispa- 

 han, and other cities in which about 3,000 pupils 

 are instructed on modern lines. 



Finances. The revenue is raised mostly by as- 

 sessing towns and districts, the quota of each be- 

 ing changed from time to time according to their 

 prosperity, or remitted altogether on account of 

 poverty. The payments are part in cash and part 

 in kind. The first foreign debt contracted by 

 the Shah's Government was a loan of 500,000 

 obtained in 1892 from a British banking company 

 for the purpose of paying an indemnity for the 

 abrogation of a contract for a tobacco monopoly. 

 This loan was redeemed with part of a loan ob- 

 tained in 1900 from a Russian banking institution 

 created for the purpose and countenanced by the 

 Russian Government. The latter loan was 22,500,- 

 000 rubles in amount, paying 5 per cent, interest 

 and secured by customs receipts. A further Rus- 

 sian loan of 17,500,000 rubles has been under con- 

 sideration, its object being to provide means for 

 the reorganization of the army. 



Commerce and Production. The fertile parts 

 of Persia produce rice, wheat, barley, and other 

 grains and fruits in abundance. The date-palm 

 grows near the southern coast. Silk is produced 

 in the country southwest of the Caspian, 400,000 

 worth in 1899, besides 532,546 kilograms of co- 

 coons exported to Europe. Opium is grown in in- 

 creasing quantities, and the Persian product is 

 prized in Europe for medicinal extracts and in 

 China for smoking. The quantity exported an- 

 nually is about 3,500 chests, worth 462,000. 

 The annual exports of tobacco are 5,500 tons; of 

 cotton, 9,934,400 pounds; of wool, 9,000,000 

 pounds. The export of rugs is about 140,000 in 

 value. The value of pearls from Debay, Shargeh, 

 and other places on the Persian Gulf is estimated 



