CHILI. 



CHINA. 



perpetual and perfect title to the property, 

 which the owner may work or keep idle and may 

 freely transfer to any other person. 



The importation of European labor has been 

 resented by the native workmen. In July, 1890, 

 a serious strike spread through the nitrate dis- 

 tricts. It began in the port- of Iquique, where it 

 was accompanied by riots and the stoppage of 

 all traffic. When the rioters had destroyed 

 much property troops were sent by the Govern- 

 ment. In the first encounter 40 of the workmen 

 were killed or wounded. At Antofagasta, when 

 the troops had gone to Iquique, the employers 

 paid under duress an advance of three months' 

 wages to the strikers. The number of strikers 

 in the whole district was about 7,000. At Areca 

 the soldiers charged into a mob, wounding many 

 with their bayonets. A large body of rioters 

 sacked and burned stores in Valparaiso, and 

 were subdued by troops brought from Santiago, 

 1,000 being arrested and imprisoned. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 inward in 1888, inclusive of coasting craft, was 

 9,880; tonnage, 8,730,329; the number cleared 

 outward, 9,795; tonnage, 8,655,579. About 40 

 per cent, of the tonnage was Chilian and 30 per 

 cent. British. English, German, and French 

 steamship lines run between Chilian and Eu- 

 ropean ports through the Straits of Magellan, 

 and English and Chilian lines run to Peruvian 

 ports and Panama. 



Railroads. The lines in operation in 1889 

 had a total length of 1,748 miles. The state 

 lines were 749 miles in length, having cost up to 

 the beginning of 1888 the sum of 48,247,398 

 pesos. The receipts in 1887 were 6.349,621 pesos 

 and the expenses 4,197,250 pesos on the Govern- 

 ment lines. The construction of 614 miles of 

 new railroads has been authorized. 



The Post-office and Telegraphs. The num- 

 ber of letters and packets carried in the mails 

 during 1888 was 41,093,855. 



The telegraph lines in the beginning of 1889 

 had a length of 10,640 miles, of which 7,030 

 miles were the property of the Government. On 

 the state lines 572,333 * messages were forwarded 

 in 1888. 



The Army and Navy. The strength of the 

 regular army, as. fixed by the law of Dec. 30, 

 1887, is 5,835 men. The National Guard in 1888 

 numbered 48,530 men. The navy in January, 

 1889, consisted of 3 ironclads, 1 deck-protected 

 cruiser, 10 first-class and 2 second-class torpedo 

 boats, 2 corvettes, 3 rams, 2 dispatch boats, 2 

 transports, and 4 gunboats. The cruiser "Es- 

 meralda," of 2,810 tons displacement, carrying 

 2 25-ton breech-loaders, besides 6 4-ton guns 

 and machine guns, can steam 18 knots an hour. 

 The navy is strong for the size of the country, 

 because it is considered of the utmost impor- 

 tance to be able to keep the communications 

 along the coast open, many of the towns, owing 

 to the nature of the country, being almost inac- 

 cespible by land, their supplies depending on the 

 communication by sea. One very powerful iron- 

 clad, 2 swift cruisers, and 2 torpedo gunboats ca- 

 pable of steaming 21 knots under forced draught, 

 have recently been ordered in Europe. 



Finances. The chief part of the revenue is 

 obtained from customs. The income for 1888 

 was estimated at 46,000,000 pesos, the expendi- 



ture at 40,234,685 pesos. For 1889 the estimate 

 of ordinary revenue was 46.000,000 pesos, and of 

 expenditure 53,000,000 pesos, including 7,000,000 

 pesos for new railroads and the resumption of 

 specie payments. The export duty on nitrates 

 furnishes more than a third of the revenues of 

 the Government. 



The external debt on Jan. 1, 1889, amounted 

 to 39,976,500 pesos, and the internal debt, includ- 

 ing paper currency, to 47,524.096 pesos. 



Political and Economical Situation. 

 During the administration of President Balma- 

 ceda, the revenue having considerably increased, 

 large strides have been made in popular educa- 

 tion, and new buildings for elementary and nor- 

 mal schools have been erected in all parts of the 

 country. New railroads costing more than $40,- 

 000,000 have been contracted for, the greater part 

 with citizens of the United States. A line of 

 steamers has been subsidized which run between 

 Valparaiso and Panama. The country has not 

 made the advance in general well-being that the 

 expansion of foreign commerce seems to indi- 

 cate. Agriculture is less prosperous than former- 

 ly, owing to the exhaustion of the wheat lands. 

 British and German laborers have been officially 

 warned against the delusively tempting prospects 

 held out to immigrants. 'The wages are not 

 what they are represented to be, and foreigners 

 are despised and often ill-treated by the native 

 citizens. Violent political demonstrations, one 

 of which occurred on May 20, 1890, and the labor 

 disturbances of July are indications of a grow- 

 ing turbulence from which the republic has long 

 been free. All the political parties Liberals, 

 Radicals, Conservatives, and Monti- Varistas op- 

 posed the candidate whom the President favored 

 as his successor in 1891, Senor San Fuentes, who, 

 by accepting the Ministry of the Interior, retired 

 from the contest. Chili opposed obligatory ar- 

 bitration, and refused to adhere to the Pan-Amer- 

 ican arbitration treaty. Her relations with the 

 other republics have been excellent, except for a 

 difference with the Argentine Confederation re- 

 specting the delimitation of their respective ter- 

 ritories in Patagonia. 



CHINA, a,n empire in Asia. The reigning 

 Emperor, Kwangsu, born in 1871, son of Prince 

 Shun, the seventh brother of the Emperor Hien- 

 fung, succeeded to the throne by proclamation 

 on the death of the Emperor Tung-Chi, in 1875. 

 The Empress Dowager, the mother of Tung-Chi, 

 acted as regent until his marriage in February, 

 1889, when he assumed personal direction of the 

 Government. (For area and population, see 

 " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1889). 



Commerce. The value of the imports into 

 China during 1888 was 124,782,893 haikwan or 

 customs taels (the haikwan tael = $1.15) and of 

 the exports 92,401,067 haikwan taels. Of the 

 total amount, 103,392,264 taels represent the 

 transit trade of Hong- Kong ; 47,093,616 tads, 

 the share of Great Britain not embraced in that 

 amount; 12,108,275 taels, the direct trade with 

 the United States, in which sum 3,145,712 taels 

 stand for imports and 8,962,563 for exports; 

 15,898,535 taels, the trade with Continental Eu- 

 rope (without Russia) ; 9,336,970 taels, the trade 

 with Japan ; and 7,801,565 taels, the trade with 

 Russia in Europe and Asia. Cotton goods were 

 imported in the amount of 44,437,525 taels ; opi- 



