SPAIN. 



62T 



debt was 118,967,929 sterling, of which 59,- 

 299,869 were perpetual and 59,668,000 redeem- 

 able external debt. Sefiors Laiglesia and Cornya, 

 delegates of the Spanish Government, made on 

 July 14, 1900, with representatives of councils 

 and associations of foreign bondholders, a con- . 

 vention with reference to the 4-per-cent. external 

 debt which, under the compact made with Seuor 

 Camacho, Minister of Finance in the Sagasta 

 ministry, on June 28, 1882, was declared free from 

 all imposts. The law of Aug. 2, 1899, for the reor- 

 ganization of the debts authorized negotiations 

 for the modification of this compact, which ap- 

 plied to all foreign debts. Senor Puigcerver, Min- 

 ister of Finance in Sagasta's Liberal ministry of 

 1898, kept faith with the bondholders, paying the 

 4-per-cent. coupons in gold without the duty. 

 It was an agreeable surprise in Spain when the 

 delegates succeeded in inducing the foreign bond- 

 holders to forego \ of 1 per cent, of their interest 

 on condition that it should be applied to amor- 

 tization, thus taking upon their own shoulders 

 the whole cost of the extinction of the debts 

 without requiring any sacrifice from the Spanish 

 treasury. The bondholders feared that the tax 

 of 20 per cent, which was deducted from the in- 

 terest on all Government debts paid to Spanish 

 holders would be imposed on their coupons, 

 although no proposal to that effect had been 

 made by the Government or by any important 

 political party. 



The Army. The permanent army on the peace 

 footing has a legal strength of 98,140 men, in- 

 clusive of 18,140 gendarmes, to be raised in war 

 to 183,972 men. All able-bodied Spaniards at the 

 age of nineteen can be called into the service un- 

 less they purchase exemption by paying 1,500 

 pesetas. The annual contingent of recruits is 

 fixed at 80,000 men. The whole period of service 

 is three years in the regular army and three years 

 in its reserve, after which they are transferred 

 for six years to the sedentary reserve. There are 

 64 active regiments of infantry and 55 regiments 

 in the reserve, 15 battalions of chasseurs, 28 

 active and 14 reserve regiments of cavalry, 16 regi- 

 ments of field and mountain artillery, 10 battal- 

 ions of fortress artillery, 1 regiment of siege artil- 

 lery, 4 regiments of sappers, 1 regiment of ponton- 

 niers, 1 battalion of railroad troops, 1 battalion 

 of telegraph troops, and 6 companies of sanitary 

 troops. The depot battalions are being increased 

 and each reserve battalion has its district with 

 the object of forming a separate regiment in case 

 of war. By this system it is expected to make 

 the war strength of the army 1,000,000 men. 



The Navy. Since the disasters of the war 

 with the United States little has been done to 

 restore the naval armaments of Spain. The bat- 

 tle-ship Pelayo, of 9,900 tons, has been recon- 

 structed and armed with Canet guns, 4 9.4-inch 

 breechloaders in barbette turrets, 9 5.5-inch quick- 

 firers, and smaller ones. The cruisers Cataluna, 

 Cardenal Cisneros, and Princesa de Asturias, of 

 7,000 tons, having 12-inch steel armor belts and 

 engines of 13,000 horse-power, giving a speed of 

 20 knots, are not yet completed. The Carlos V 

 is a Spanish-built cruiser of 9,235 tons, carrying 

 2 11-inch guns, 10 5.5-inch quick firers, 4 4.7-inch 

 ones, and 2 12-pounders, and -with engines of 

 15,000 horse-power able to steam 20 knots. There 

 are 2 deck-protected cruisers of 4,800 tons, the 

 Alfonso XIII and Lepanto, which can also make 

 20 knots. The old Numancia and Vitoria are 

 being rearmed. 



Commerce and Production. Four-fifths of 

 the area of Spain is productive land, and of this 

 over a third is taken up with farm and garden 



crops and a fifth with orchards, which is more 

 than is given to grazing, vvl.il.- vineyards and 

 olive-groves cover 5.3 per cent, of the cultivable 

 area. There are 3,426,000 a^.se^ed proprietor*, the 

 transfer of the land from landlord-, to tin- cultiva- 

 tors having proceeded rapidly in recent times. 

 The area under wheat in 1898 was IJ,s<;i,997 hoc- 

 tares, and the yield was 43,649,900 hectoliters, 

 and 20,822,061 hectoliters of barley \veio obtained 

 from 1,514,457 hectares, 6,809,652 hectoliters of 

 rye from 713,525 hectares, 3,112,585 hectoliter- of 

 oats from 376,923 hectares, and 4,968,264 hecto- 

 liters of corn from 408,890 hectares. The vine- 

 yards had a total area of 1,997,046 hectares, and 

 they yielded 28,089,004 hectoliters of wine. The 

 olive-crop was 2,829,111 hectoliters, the trees occu- 

 pying 1,092,238 hectares. Beans are raised and 

 consumed in great quantities. Flax and hemp 

 are important crops. Oranges, grapes, and filberts, 

 are exported largely. The production of coal in 

 1899 was 2,565,437 tons; of iron ore, 9,505,119' 

 tons; of copper ore, 2,443,044 tons; of lead ore r 

 123,750 tons; of galena, 184,906 tons; of zinc ore,. 

 119,770 tons; of quicksilver ore, 32,144 tons; of 

 manganese ore, 104,974 tons; of salt, 508,108 tons. 



The total value of imports in 1900 was 862,- 

 396,600 pesetas, and of exports 723,867,883 pese- 

 tas. The imports of cereals, sugars, wine, and 

 alimentary substances of all kinds were 139,571,- 

 350 pesetas in value, and exports 254,735,684 pese- 

 tas; imports of minerals, glass, pottery, etc., were 

 96,557,403 pesetas, and exports 159,092,522 pese- 

 tas; imports of animals and animal products were 

 81,901,845 pesetas, and exports 64,846,347 pesetas; 

 imports of wood and wood manufactures were 

 60,182,094 pesetas, and exports 53,378,864 pesetas; 

 imports of metals and metal manufactures were 

 41,280,627 pesetas, and exports 88,898,633 pesetas; 

 imports of cotton and cottom manufactures were 

 84,832,169 pesetas, and exports 33,946,034 pesetas; 

 imports of machinery, vehicles, and vessels were 

 138,850,707 pesetas, and exports 755,709 pesetas; 

 imports of drugs and chemicals were 83,640,680 

 pesetas, and exports 18,879,732 pesetas; imports 

 of wool and woolen manufactures were 28,901,704 

 pesetas, and exports 9,688,657 pesetas; imports of 

 silk and silk manufactures were 26,380,189 pese- 

 tas, and exports 5,178,319 pesetas; imports of 

 vegetable fibers and manufactures other than cot- 

 ton 24,364,023 pesetas, and exports 1,308,449 pese- 

 tas; imports of paper and paper manufactures 

 11,234,137 pesetas, and exports 8,743,656 pesetas;, 

 imports of miscellaneous articles 8,692,193 pese- 

 tas, and exports 3,470,399 pesetas; special imports- 

 30,488,309 pesetas, including tobacco for 20,300,385 

 pesetas and railroad materials for 6,350,754 pese- 

 tas; imports of gold and silver 5,519.180 pesetas, 

 and exports 20,944,878 pesetas. The value of wine 

 exports fell off from 103,562,987 pesetas in 1899 

 to 82,202,920 pesetas, of which 76,362,220 pesetas 

 represent common wines, 5,325,120 pesetas sherry, 

 and 515,580 pesetas wines of full body, most of 

 which last went to American countries, while of 

 the sherry the value of 2,465,28.0 pesetas went to- 

 England and 1,948,680 pesetas to France, and two- 

 thirds of the common wines went to France. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 at Spanish ports during 1900 were 17.722, of 14,- 

 172,872 tons, of which 10,161, of 7,332,737 tons, 

 were with cargoes; the number cleared was 16,- 

 910, of 14,086,361 tons, of which 14,780, of 12,- 

 602,916 tons, were with cargoes. Of the total 

 number entered 9,517, of 6,860,444 tons, and of 

 those cleared 8,383, of 6,608,266 tons, were Spanish 

 vessels. 



Dependencies. Spain has come to an agree- 

 ment with France by which the Kio de Oro coast 



