PERU. 



725 



country chiefly depends upon that of the silk- 

 trade to furnish returns for imports of mer- 

 chandise from Europe, the conclusion is that 

 P.T-iu is drifting into a state of bankruptcy, 

 which the effects of the late war must tend to 

 accelerate. 



PERU (REpfJBLicA DEL PEE*;). For terri- 

 torial division, area, population, etc., reference 

 may be made to the "Annual Cyclopaedia" 

 for 1878, 1875, and 1878, and to the article 

 BOUVIA in the present volume. 



The President of the Republic, until Decem- 

 ber 18, 1879, was General Mariano Ignacio 

 Prado, installed in office on August 2, 1876. 

 The Vice-President was General La Puerta. 

 The Cabinet, in May, 1879, was composed of 

 the following Ministers: Interior, Sefior Ra- 

 fael Velarde; Justice and Public Worship, 

 Sefior Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan; Foreign 

 Affairs, Sefior M. Irigoyen ; War and Marine, 

 General M. Mendiburu (President of the Coun- 

 cil) ; Finance, Sefior J. M. Quimper. 



In November General La Puerta, in charge 

 of the Government during the absence of the 

 President, who had taken command of the 

 army in the south, formed a new Cabinet com- 

 posed of his personal friends and political co- 

 operators, as follows: Interior, Sefior Buena- 

 ventura Elguera; Justice and Public Worship, 

 Sefior Adolfo Quiroga ; Foreign Affairs, Sefior 

 Rafael Velarde ; War and Marine, General La 

 Cotera (President of the Council); Finance, 

 Sefior J. M. Quimper. After the departure 

 of General Prado from the country, which oc- 

 curred on December 18, 1879, Colonel Nicolas 

 de Pifirola assumed the dictatorship. The 

 President of the Supreme Court was Seflor T. 

 A. Ribeyro; the Postmaster-General, Sefior 

 F. de P. Mufloz ; the Inspector-General of the 

 Army, General M. Rivarola; and the Com- 

 mandant-General of the Navy, Rear-Admiral 

 A. de la Haza. The Peruvian Consul-General 

 in New York is Mr. J. 0. Tracy. The Arch- 

 bishop of Lima is the Rt. Rev. Orueta y Cas- 

 trillon. 



For particulars concerning the peace strength 

 of the Peruvian army, see the " Annual Cyclo 

 pffldia" for 1878. In May last, after the out- 

 break of hostilities with Chili, the number of 

 men under arms was raised to 40,000. The 

 following statement concerning the Peruvian 

 navy was published in December last : u The 

 Peruvian fleet may be said to exist only in 

 name since the combat of Punta Gruesa, in 

 which the Chilian gunboat Covadonga occa- 

 sioned the loss of the Peruvian ironclad Inde- 

 pendencia, and the surrender of the monitor 

 Huascar and the gunboat Pilcomayo to the 

 Chilian naval forces. Peru's only remaining 

 effective war-vessel is the corvette Union, the 

 old monitors Manco Capac and Atahnalpa, 

 built in the United States in 1868, being no 

 longer fit for service otherwise than as float- 

 ing batteries at anchor. Add the four steam 

 transports, Limefia, Oroya, Chalaco, and Ri- 

 mac (the only Chilian naval loss by capture in 



the present war), and we have enumerated the 

 entire Peruvian sea-force now in existence." 



In the absence of official reports concerning 

 the national finances, it can only be stated that 

 the average revenue and expenditures are usu- 

 ally estimated at about $60,000,000 and $50,- 

 000,000 respectively. The revenue,* derived 

 in part from the custom-house receipts, bat 

 chiefly from the sale of guano and nitrate ot 

 soda, having for many years past been insuffi- 

 cient to cover the expenditures (a large propor- 

 tion of which has been for the construction 

 of railroads and other useful public works), 

 formidable annual deficits have become the in- 

 variable rule. 



Peru has an immense national debt, the 

 home branch of which is estimated at $20,- 

 000,000, exclusive of a floating debt of un- 

 known amount, greatly increased by extensive 

 issues of paper money made in 1879 to carry 

 on the war against Chili. In regard to the 

 foreign debt, the following statement, from the 

 pen of a Spanish-American writer, will be 

 found interesting : 



The foreign debt of Peru, according to the latest data 

 obtainable, including the unpaid coupons from Janu- 

 ary, 1876, to July, 1879, amounts to 46,268,103 4s., 

 or $22(5,840,516, in coin, at five soles to the pound ster- 

 ling. Since January, 1876, no interest has been paid, 

 nor have any sums been provided for the amortization 

 of this tremendous debt. At the commencement of 

 the present year the interest on the consolidated debt 

 that is to say, the 6 per cent loan of 1870, and the 

 5 per cent, loan of 187'2 1 was reduced to 3 per cent, 

 per annum, which reduced the half-yearly interest 

 trom 1,690,369 16s. to 659,244 4s. Notwithstanding 

 this large reduction, no interest has been paid during 

 the present year. A remarkable proposition has lately 

 been made to the Government by tne French section 

 of the foreign bondholders. The character, advan- 

 tages, and disadvantages of this proposition are briefly 

 as follows : The principal of the foreign debt shall be 

 reduced to 100,000,000 soles, coin, again to the state 

 of $69,086,980. No payment shall be exacted for in- 

 terest now overdue, which represents another gain 

 to the republic of $57,800,586 ; these items providing 

 for the extinguishment of a total claim against Peru 

 amounting to the immense sum of $126,340,516. The 

 bondholders will pay the Government for the guano 

 delivered alongside their ships, at the rate of 210*. per 

 ton in coin, or in bills on London nt ninety days, on 

 presentation of the receipt of the captain countersigned 

 by the general agent of the society. On the delivery 

 or the guano at the port of destination a further sum 

 of 210. per ton will be paid in bonds of Peru at their 

 nominal value ; or in other words, the Government 

 accepts payment of a certain portion of the value of the 

 1:11:1110 in its own bonds, and provides to that extent 

 tor the amortization of its debt. The Government will 

 be at no expense on account of interests or commis- 

 sions, and will receive on the acceptance of the terms 

 of the proposition certain advances in the character of 

 a further loan. The society of bondholders will have 

 the sole right to fix the price of the guano, and to sell 

 the same in its native state, or mixed or manipulated, 

 in the markets of Europe. The Government will 

 transfer to the bondholders its rights of proprietorship 

 in the deposits of guano existing in the republic of 

 Peru, and on that account the bondholders are the 

 only parties who have the right to extract guano, and 

 to sell it in the markets of Europe. In virtue of these 



* See "Annual Cyclopaedia" tor 1P73. p. 887. 

 t The 1370 and 1873 loans are secured on the guano de- 

 posits principally. 



