ECUADOK. 



253 



serve at the same time to show the various 

 sources of the national income : 



REVENUE. 



Branches. Amounts. 



Custota-house $1,707,408 



Tobacco tax 19,084 



Spirit tax 111,420 



Salt monopoly 812,786 



Gunpowder monopoly 30,477 



Stamped paper 114,395 



Income tax 67,451 



Tax on sales of lands 216,110 



Tithes 371,81 1 



Pawn-office 1,159 



Post-office 96,280 



Government lands 52,866 



Sundries 512,297 



Total $3,613,536 * 



The following table shows the amount of the 

 revenue (as set down in the message above re- 

 ferred to) for the six years from January, 1869, 

 to December, 1874 : 



Years. 



1870. 

 1871. 



Revenue. 



$1,678,759 



2,248,308 



Years. Revenue. 



1872 $2.909,348 



1873 8,964,551t 



1874 2,944,647 



A detailed statement of the national debt will 

 be found in the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1874. 



In the matter of the national debt it was 

 affirmed, in the message already alluded to, 

 that the Anglo-American and Mackintosh 

 debts had been paid off; that $558,000 had 

 been paid on account of the inscribed debt, 

 and $112,558 on account of the floating debt; 

 also, that the sum of $142,708 had been in- 

 vested in public benevolent institutions, $609,- 

 841 in the cause of public instruction, and 

 $1,943,732 in public works; further, that 

 there still remained to be liquidated "the only 

 foreign debt that Ecuador has, and that had 

 its origin in the heroic period of the indepen- 

 dence;" that the Government had never repu- 

 diated it, as alleged by its detractors ; and that 

 the authority granted to the Executive to 

 contract for a loan in Europe, for the purpose 

 of completing the Yaguachi Kailway, had not 

 been used, the President seeing that, under 

 the (then) existing circumstances, common to 

 all the South American republics, no loan 

 could be obtained except on ruinous conditions. 



The following extract is from the report of 

 the council of foreign bondholders, on South 

 American states, published in London, in 1875 : 



It was stated by the council last year that they 

 entertained strong hopes of receiving a proposition 

 from the state, which hopes were strengthened by 

 the failure of an intended local loan for the con- 

 struction of a railway to Guayaquil. Several inter- 

 views were had with General Salazar, the minister 

 at Paris, and Senor Gonzales, the consul in London ; 

 hut, as the proposed arrangements were based on 

 the condition of a new loan, for the railway, at fixed 

 terms, these negotiations led to no satisfactory re- 

 sult, although the increasing revenue of the country 

 aftbrded the means of an equitable adjustment of 

 the debt, and of restoring the credit of the republic. 



After the news of the assassination of Gar- 

 cia Moreno had reached London, the annexed 



* In Ecuadorian pesos, = 71 cents each, 

 t The difference between these figures (for 1873) and those 

 given above is not accounted for in the message. 



article, signed by "An Ecuador Bondholder," 

 appeared in a prominent journal of that city : 

 Now that the late President is no more, it is to be 

 hoped that his successor may see the necessity of 

 coming to some satisfactory settlement with the un- 

 fortunate bondholders who have been deprived of 

 dividends since 1867 by the confiscatory decree of 

 the late President. In the message to Congress last 

 year by Senor Garcia Moreno, he described the con- 

 dition of Ecuador as very prosperous, the revenue 

 having doubled itself, or nearly so, since 1868. The 

 proportion of the customs duties appropriated to the 

 bondholders produced in that year 23,000 or there- 

 abouts, and in 1874 no less than 53,000 was the 

 proportion they were entitled to and arbitrarily de- 

 prived of. Lord Derby promised the deputation of 

 Ecuador bondholders who recently waited upon him 

 (the writer of this being one) that he would write 

 to the British minister there to urge upon the Presi- 

 dent to come to some arrangement with the bond- 

 holders. If the statement is correct that General 

 Salazar will succeed to the presidency, it is to be 

 hoped that his acquaintance with France, England, 

 and Europe generally, may have enlightened him to 

 see the need of rescuing his country from the ban 

 placed upon it by the cruel treatment the bond- 

 holders have undergone. 



The receipts of the Guayaquil custom-house 

 in 1873 were reported at $1,672,650, or $80,- 

 000 more than the year just preceding. It 

 would appear from a comparison of the cus- 

 tom-house returns of the same port for the 

 twelve years ending December 31, 1873, that 

 the receipts of this department had almost 

 tripled in the course of that period. 



No returns of the imports have been pub- 

 lished since 1871 ; the quantities and value 

 of the exports for the year 1874 were as 

 follows : 



Precious metals of the value of $267,088 

 were shipped in 1873. 



In a non-official report published in 1875, 

 the value of the exports through Guayaquil in 

 1873 was set down at $5,500,000, or $805,720 

 more than the official value published in the 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1874. Before quit- 

 ting the subject of commerce, it may not be 

 inopportune to mention here that among the 

 articles forwarded to the Chilian exposition 

 were samples of excellent silk from Puembo, 

 and of very good wines. The grape finds a 

 genial soil and thrives well in many parts of 

 the country. 



For some time past, the inhabitants of Cuen- 

 ca have been exploring the antique huacas, 

 or Indian graves, and discovered therein nu- 

 merous figures in gold, copper, and stone, to- 

 gether with copper hatchets well hardened, 

 and somewhat resembling those used in the 

 Old World in the mediaeval ages. A painted 



