704 



SANTO DOMINGO. 



tntion proclaimed on June 14, 1867, and by 

 the terms of which the executive power 

 in a President, who is elected by the people for 

 a term of four years, and who must have at- 

 tained the age of thirty-live years. No Pres- 

 ident can be reflected before the lapse of at 

 least four years after his term of office has ex- 

 pired. Five ministers <>f Interior and Airri- 

 culture, Justice and Public Worship, Finance, 

 War and Marine, and Foreign Affairs), aiil the 

 President in the administration of the repub- 

 lic. The judicial power resides in a High Oourt 

 of Cassation, which is the highest court of ap- 

 peals, with superior courts in the departmental 

 capitals, and subsidiary and primary courts 

 in the arrondissements and communes. The 

 legislative authority is vested in a National 

 Assembly, composed of two bodies the Senate 

 and the Chamber of Deputies these being 

 elected by direct vote of all male citizens, for 

 three years, and the. senators are appointed by 

 the deputies themselves for two years. 



The President is General Nissage-Saget, 

 elected March 19, 1870; and the Vice-Presi- 

 dent, General M. Dominate. The Minister of 

 the Interior and of Agriculture is General Th. 

 Laraothe ; Minister of Justice and Public Wor- 

 ship, O. Ramean; Minister of Finance, 0. 

 Hacntjens; Minister of War and Marine, Gen- 

 eral 8. Liantand ; and Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs, General Th. Lamothe (ad interim). The 

 President of the Senate is Dnpont ; and the 

 President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 

 D. Lafond. There are seven civil, criminal, 

 and correctional tribunals at Port-an-Prince, 

 Aux Cayes, Cape Haltien, Les Gonalves, Jao- 

 mel, J6r6mie, and Port-de-la-Paix, respec- 

 tively; and six tribunals of commerce, one at 

 each of the foregoing places, except the last. 

 Guillonx is the name of the present arch- 

 bishop. 



There are no definite returns of the present 

 strength of the Haytian army. There are 

 in the republic four colleges, and each com- 

 mune has a number of common and grammar 

 schools. 



The chief staples of export are coffee, cot- 

 ton, cacao, wax, logwood, fustic and other 

 dyes, mahogany, and tortoise-shell. Cotton. 

 though always cultivated in Hayti, has varied 

 in quantity at different periods; about 7,200,- 

 000 Ibs. were annually sent to France before 

 the Revolution; in 1858 the amount shipped 

 was but 488,608 Ibs. ; after the outbreak of 

 the United States civil war. the rise from !</. 

 to 2*. '/. per Ib. in England, served to stimu- 

 late cotton-planters, and increase the exports 

 of that article to 5,000,000 Ibs. ; nor did the 

 great fall in prices in 1865 cause any diminu- 

 tion in the crop of 1888, which reached 7,oon,- 

 OOOlbs.; but owing to the civil war in 1868, 

 there was a considerable decrease, the total 

 shipments being only 2,000,000 Ibs. An inter- 

 val of pence, however, brought the exports 

 for 1K71-72 up to 4.130,815 Ibs. But such 

 la the disorganized state of society, so great 



the lack of field-hands, and so demoraliz- 

 ing the system of peasant culture, that the 

 yU-ld of the most favorable y< men- 



tioned is by lar interior to the capabilities of 

 the country. 



The production of coffee has been less in- 

 termittent. The mean annual exports of that 

 berry, during the last lit'teen years of the 

 eighteenth century, was 7o,OOo,0<lUlbs., ap- 

 proximately : from 1850 to 1860 it was 45, >,- 



000 Ibs. ; and in the decade immediate: 

 lowing, 60,000,000 Ibs. All the coffee of the 

 island is known in commerce under the eom- 

 inon designation of St. Domingo. That from 

 lliiyti is of very good quality, and relatively 

 cheap, but shippers have too often been so 

 unscrupulous as to send it away imperfectly 

 hulled, and even with an addition of sand or 

 gravel to increase the weight; henee. Euro- 

 pean purchasers, in general, are strongly pre- 

 judiced against it. It is, for the most part, 

 sent to France, and is there bought in large 

 quantities for the army. In the year ls~2 

 tlie coffee exports to Hamburg amounted to 

 1 9,303,858 Ibs. ; and in 1H7: to 9,401,666 Ibs. 

 The home consumption is set down at nearly 

 2,000,000 Ibs. per annum. The production of 

 cacao, much neglected of late years, might be 

 extended indefinitely. 



The imports from Great Britain include, 

 though in small quantities, almost every article 

 m.'inut'artured in that country, which owes this 

 advantage to its direct steam communication 

 with Hayti. Large quantities of British hard- 

 ware are imported, and galvanized iron has 

 of late years been extensively taken for roofing 

 houses, a precaution rendered indispensable 

 by the frequency of disastrous fires. Of pro- 

 visions, which trade is mostly monopolized by 

 the United States, only the high classes come 

 from England. Certain kinds of American 

 cotton fabrics now find a good market in the 

 republic ; for. though somewhat higher priced 

 than the British, they are found to be more 

 durable. 



The total value of the imports, for the year 

 ending September 80, 1872, was $6,860,408. 



The imports from England in 1870, $3,900,- 

 000, were over one-halt' the total imports into 

 the republic; and the same proportion was 

 observed in the following year, notwithstand- 

 ing the aggregate amount of the imports fell 

 to $2,600,000. The consumption of petroleum 

 is gradually increasing: in 1871 the shipments 

 from the United States were 40,899 gallons; 

 69..177 gallons in 1872 ; and 87.421 in 1878. 



The shipping movements at all the ports 

 in l71-'72 were: 904 vessels entered, with 

 nn aggregate of 165.908 tons; nnd 850 vessels 

 cleared, with 186,985 tons. Vessels under 50 

 tons burden, not being subject to tonnage- 

 dues, do not appear on official returns. 



There is little cargo in Hayti for American 

 ports, hence it in advantageous to ship coffee 

 nnd cotton for Europe via New York, there to 

 be transshipped. 



