76 



BRAZIL. 



number of North Americans is put down at 

 405. About 250 of these were from the South- 

 ern States, of whom more than half went to 

 Brazil at their own expense, and nearly all had 

 friends or relatives already settled in the em- 

 pire. The German immigration has augmented 

 rapidly in the last few years, owing to the 

 good management of the Brazilian immigration 

 agent in Germany. 



A table is given showing the emigration 

 from the port of Rio Janeiro, from which it 

 appears that the immigration exceeded the 

 outgoings by 4,196. No fewer than 338 North 

 Americans left the country during the year- 

 convincing proof of the failure of the scheme 

 tor establishing an American colony in Brazil. 

 With 405 arrivals and 338 departures, the rem- 

 nant is seen to be very small. Of the 338 who 

 left, about 100 were immigrants from the South- 

 ern States. 



The Brazilian Government, in its anxiety to 

 promote immigration to its shores, has made 

 liberal arrangements to assist in paying the 

 passages of immigrants to Brazil. During the 

 year 1868 the aggregate number of those who 

 received " assisted passages " was 1,236. More 

 than half this number were British subjects ; 

 385 were Germans ; 132 North Americans, and 

 only two Portuguese. This is remarkable, con- 

 sidering that more than one-half of the total 

 of immigrants of the year were Portuguese. 

 During the year, 55 vessels, of variou snation- 

 alities, arrived at Rio Janeiro with immigrants. 

 Brazil has a Passengers' Act intended to pro- 

 tect immigrants on board the ships which take 

 them to its shores. This law applies to all 

 ships carrying four passengers in the steerage 

 to every hundred tons of burden. Its execu- 

 tion is confided to the Official Agent of Colo- 

 nization, who visits the ship immediately on 

 its arrival in port, makes minute inquiries 

 with regard to the treatment which the immi- 

 grants received on their voyage, proceeds at 

 once to an investigation, if the complaints are 

 sufficient to warrant it, and imposes such a fine 

 on the vessel as he may deem just, if those 

 complaints prove to be well-founded. It is 

 claimed that, owing to these excellent regula- 

 tions, which are rigidly carried out, emigrants 

 to Rio Janeiro are better protected than even 

 those to New York. The great majority of 

 the emigrants going to Brazil are laborers and 

 agriculturists. 



The Brazilian navy now consists of sixteen 

 monitors and casemates, and one building in 

 Rio, forty wooden steamers, eight transport 

 steamers, two auxiliary propeller Bailing-cor- 

 vettes, and eleven sailing-vessels of various 

 kinds. These mount 298 cannon the heavi- 

 est one-hnndred-and-fifty-pounder rifles are 

 manned by 7,353 men, and the sixty-five steam- 

 ers have engines of 7,299 horse-power ; fifteen 

 iron-clads, seventeen steam gunboats, two 

 steam corvettes, and four other vessels, form 

 the squadron in Paraguay, to which are at- 

 tached two transports and a host of chartered 



steamers and sailing-craft. The squadron 

 mounts 151 cannon, and is manned by 4,227 

 men. Other vessels are posted at Montevideo 

 and on the Uruguay. Twelve small iron steam- 

 ers were being built in Europe for service 

 on the Amazon, and a gunboat was building 

 at Para. An extraordinary credit of over 

 $6,000,000 was opened to the Minister of Ma- 

 rine for extraordinary expenses. 



According to the budget brought forward 

 by the Minister of Finance for the year 

 1870-'71, the revenue was estimated at $28,- 

 100,000, and the ordinary expenditure $32,- 

 090,500, leaving a deficit of nearly $4,000,000. 

 This deficit the minister proposed to meet 

 by increased import duties, and in accord- 

 ance with his views the House Committee re- 

 ported a bill adding 40 per cent, to the pres- 

 ent duties on foreign goods entered for con- 

 sumption (abolishing the collection of 15 per 

 cent, in gold), and raising the duties on free 

 goods to 5 per cent, besides placing 5 per cent, 

 of " additional " duties on the goods not charge- 

 able with such. It was also proposed to levy 

 landing and shipping dues in the custom-house, 

 and to charge for warehouse rent therein from 

 the day of landing the goods. The distressing 

 condition of the Treasury, which was without 

 means to satisfy the exigencies of the war, or 

 meet its obligations with the creditors of the 

 state, compelled the Government, previous to 

 the meeting of the legislature, to resolve on 

 a decree authorizing a fresh issue of paper 

 money. 



According to the Treasury return published, 

 the ascertained indebtedness of the nation, ex- 

 clusive of the foreign debt, which is about 

 14,000,000, was, on September 30, 1869, as 

 follows : 



Milreis. 



Bonds payable in currency 180,015,700 



Bonds payable in gold 30,000,000 



Paper-money in circulation 181,054,735 



Treasury bills bearing interest 69,859,900 



Of the above, 35,279,700 milreis have been 

 added since the 28th of February, 1869, viz. : 

 Bonds, 24,249,900; paper money, 6,140,000; 

 interest - bearing treasury bills, 4,889,900. 

 Adding the foreign debt to the internal 

 debt, the total of the Brazilian debt becomes, 

 taking the foreign debt at the present rate 

 of exchange, about 643,000,000 milreis, or 

 $321,500,000 currency. Of this total, 181,054,- 

 735 milreis bears no interest. The charges of 

 the debt are estimated by the Minister of Fi- 

 nance at 29,000,000 milreis, but it is expected 

 that next year they will be 36,000,000, owing 

 to the further expenses of the war, which will 

 require the borrowing of 60,000,000 to 70,000,- 

 000 more milreis. 



The exports, during 1868, are valued at $52,- 

 376,000. The exports of coffee from Rio Ja- 

 neiro show a falling off of 337,028 sacks dur- 

 ing the first nine months of 1868 as compared 

 with the same period of 1867, when 1,583,163 

 sacks were exported. The exports to the 

 United States show a decrease this year of 



