BRAZIL. 



61 



policy will, it is expected, favor the best inter- 

 ests of the empire. The promised reforms will 

 embrace direct representation, retrenchment of 

 national expenditures (especially in the depart- 

 ments of War and the Navy, both unduly de- 

 veloped during the Paraguayan campaign), the 

 repression of custom-house frauds, and a return 

 to normal budgets. Eecent elections in Bahia 

 and Parana, although these provinces are ad- 

 ministered by Conservatives, give indications 

 that the Liberal party is increasing in strength 

 and influence. The President of the Council, 

 himself a planter, has taken the departments 

 of Agriculture and Public Works, once consid- 

 ered of secondary importance, and has raised 

 them to the rank becoming such offices in an 

 agricultural country requiring public improve- 

 ments, particularly railways and internal navi- 

 gation, for the development of its natural re- 

 sources. The Council of State is made up of 

 the following members in ordinary: the Prin- 

 cess Imperial Donna Isabel, Prince Gaston 

 d'Orleans Count d'Eu, and the Senators Vis- 

 count de Abaete", Viscount do Rio Branco, Vis- 

 count de Muritiba, Viscount do Bom Retiro, 

 Viscount de Jaguary, Viscount de Nictheroy ; 

 and of six members extraordinary : Senators 

 Viscount de Araxa, Duke de Caxias, J. P. Dias 

 de Carvacho, and J. J. Teixeira, Vice- Admiral 

 J. R. de Lamare, and Dr. P. J. Scares de Souza. 

 The President of the Senate, which is composed 

 of 58 life-members, is Viscount de Jaguary ; 

 the Vice-President, Count de Baependy. The 

 Archbishop of Bahia, J. G-. de Azevedo (1875), 

 is Primate of all Brazil, and there are 11 bish- 

 ops, viz., those of Para, Sao Luis, Fortaleza, 

 Olinda, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, 

 Marianna, Diamantina, Goyaz, and Cuyaba. 



The amounts and various branches of the 

 national revenue and expenditures for the fiscal 

 year 1875-'76 are exhibited in the following 

 table : 



Custom-house $53,973,120 



Balance from 1874-'75 199,880 



Deposits 1,735,653 



Nickel coin 18,530 



Lottery tax 4,737,908 



Treasury notes 2,552,647 



Slave-liberation fund 9 018 887 



the expenditures at $53,861,034 ; deficit, $2,- 

 211,034. 



The national debt was as follows in 1876 

 and 1877 : 



Total $72,236,075 



EXPENDITURES. 



Ministry of the Interior $ *,247,71 5 



of Justice 8.156,729 



of Foreign Affairs 551,815 



of Marine 9,145,916 



of War. 10,671,149 



of Agriculture, etc 1 5,995,174 



of Finance 24,257,350 



Total $68,025,848 



Surplus 4,210,221 



$72,236,075 



The revenue for 1876-'77 was estimated at 

 $58,570,468, and the probable expenditures 

 at $60,248,665, which would show a deficit 

 of $1,678,197. In the budget for 1878-'79 

 the revenue is set down at $51,650,000, and 



The following is a statement of Brazilian 

 finances from a London publication : 



The internal debt of the empire consists of six, 

 four, and five per cent, apotices, the dividends 

 whereon are payable in currency, and a gold loan 

 raised during the Paraguayan war, the interest of 

 which appears to be paid in sovereigns. Despite 

 some recent addition to the former through the Bank 

 of Brazil, which that institution has not yet wholly 

 placed at the profit it seeks, the quotations of apolices 

 at Bio are slightly above par, and the gold bonds 

 are, of course, at higher quotations. Converted into 

 sterling, at 24d. per milrei, the funded home debt 

 of the empire may be stated at 30,208,670, carrying 

 interest in sterling of 1,810,302. So that the con- 

 joined services of the foreign and home debt of 

 Brazil in 1877-'78 will need in sterling 3,247,240, 

 out of a revenue for this year calculated to exceed 

 fractionally 10,000,000, and brought, according to 

 the Emperor's speech at the close of the session of 

 the General Assembly, to an equilibrium with the 

 expenditures. Thus far, then, the resources of Brazil 

 are amply sufficient to bear a charge for debt, which 

 bears a proportion to receipts less than the service 

 of the public debt of England bears to its revenue. 

 But, in calculating the revenue for the current year 

 at that amount, it is to be borne in mind that the 

 revenue of Brazil has for two years past been ad- 

 versely affected and reduced, as well by the com- 

 mercial misfortunes of the world, as at home by bad 

 sugar and coffee crops, and by a drought in three of 

 its northern provinces almost totally destructive of 

 the crops. Not only have the great ports of Bahia 

 and Pernambuco been suffering from short supplies 

 reacting on the revenue, but, as Mr. Heath lately 

 told the SSo Paulo Eailway shareholders, a few 

 nights' frost did last year enormous injury to the 

 coffee culture of that province, diminishing also the 

 traffic of that line. The new crop is, however, greater 

 than ever. As, then, the revenue has in the past 

 suffered from these causes, so the present revenue 

 will, it is to be expected, improve with better crops ; 

 indeed, in the past ten months of 1877 those of cot- 

 ton and sugar imported into England exceed by 

 800,000 in value their imports for the same period 

 of 1876, and we may again shortly see the total in- 

 come of the empire rising to 12,000,000, to which 

 it had ascended a few years ago, when the services 

 of its debt will bear still more reduced proportion 

 to its income. 



The total values of the exports and imports 

 in 1875-'76, including precious metals, were 

 $104,247,000 and $86,074,500 respectively. 

 The values of the chief articles of export 

 were, in the years 1874-'75 and 1875-'76, as 

 follows : 



