ECUADOR. 



ing to a depth of five or six feet, arc believed 

 to aid materially in the drainage and ventila- 

 tion of the ground. They also facilitate the 

 downward passage of roots of moderate size, 

 which are nourished hy the humus with which 

 the burrows are lined. Many seeds owe their 

 germination to having been covered by cast- 

 ings; others, buried inure deeply, lie dormant 

 till they are brought under conditions favora- 

 ble to germination. 



ECUADOR (RErtf BLICA DEL ECCADOR). Par- 

 ticulars relating to area, territorial division, 

 population, etc., of this republic will be found 

 in our volumes for 1878 and 1878. 



The President is General Ignacio do Veinte- 

 milla, inaugurated in December, 1870, and de- 

 clared dictator for an unlimited period in 1878. 

 The First Designado (or Vice-President) was 

 Seflor L. Salvador ; the Second Designado (or 

 (Second Vice-President), SeQor J. Novoa; and 

 the Cabinet was composed of the following 

 ministers: Interior and Foreign Affairs, Gen- 

 eral C. Bernaza; Finance and Public Works, 

 Dr. Martin de Icaza; War and Marine, Colonel 

 F. Bolofia. The Governor of Guayaquil was 

 General J. Sanchez Rubio. 



No official returns having been published for 

 a number of years past, it is impossible to give 

 an exact statement of the revenue and expen- 

 diture of this distracted country. The former 

 seldom, if ever, exceeds $2,500,000 ; while the 

 latter rarely falls short of $3,500,000 ! More 

 than one half of the entire revenue is derived 

 from the custom-house of Guayaquil. 



The total national debt of Ecuador amounted 

 to $11,459,000, including the British loan, the 

 particulars concerning which, and the proba- 

 bilities as to its extinction, are set forth in the 

 subjoined report of the proceedings at a meet- 

 ing of the bondholders : 



Mr. Hvde Clarke (the secretarv to the Council of 

 Foreign Bondholders) having read the notice conven- 

 ing the meeting, the Right Hon. E. P. Bouverie stated 

 that the requisitionists were very largely interested in 

 this debt, and their desire was to obtain the sanction 

 of the meeting to a resolution proposing the basis of 

 an arrangement which they hoped might be effected 

 with the state of Ecuador for the purpose of settling 

 the debt. There was a committee or Ecuadorian bond- 

 holders, which had sat at the offices of the corporation 

 for some years, and they had fully approved the object 

 of the meeting. The debt was a very old-standing 

 affair. He believed it arose originally from the parti- 

 tion of the ancient Colombian debt, about fifty years 

 ago, between the different states which were then split 

 up out of the old state of Colombia, which had incurred 

 the debt in the wars with Spain. Ecuador paid inter- 

 est on this debt to a small extent for about twelve or 

 thirteen years, under an arrangement made so long 

 ago as 1854. It then suspended payment, and he be- 

 lieved an act of Congress was passed shortly afterward 

 repudiating the debt. They hoped, however, that a 

 better tone and temper was springing up on the part 

 of the states of South America, indications of which 

 he had found during his experience in that office, and 

 they hoped that that spirit had extended to the Gov- 

 ernment of Ecuador. At any rate, the requisitionists 

 thought they saw their way to effect an arrangement 

 which would be advantageous to themselves and to 

 the bondholders generally. A short time ago they 

 had deputed a gentleman to go out to Ecuador and 



communicate with .the Government, with the view of 

 effecting an arrangement which they thought might 

 bo submitted to the bondholders. That, however, 

 had not yet been done, for this reason, he understood 

 that the President of the republic, who was more or 

 less a dictator, but who to a certain extent held his 

 authority and power with the consent of the repre- 

 sentative Congress in that country, had said that it was 

 useless for him to propose an arrangement for the ac- 

 ceptance of the Congress, however much he might de- 

 sire it, unless he received some indication that it would 

 be accepted by the bondholders, as. in the event of ite 

 rejection by them after he had induced the Con-n ->s 

 to approve an arrangement, he would damage his posi- 

 tion. That seemed to him (the chairman) not an un- 

 reasonable view, and he believed that the object of 

 the meeting was to see whether they could not agree 

 to a resolution laying down the pecuniary basis on 

 which some such arrangement could be come to as 

 would be acceptable generally. Mr. Robert Campbell, 

 one of the requisitionists, then moved a resolution ex- 

 pressing the readiness of the bondholders to accept an 

 arrangement of the debt which would adequately se- 

 cure to them, in lieu of their present bonds and arrears 

 of interest, not less than 950,000 new sterling bonds, 

 with interest payable hi sterling in London, of not less 

 than 5 per cent, with a sinking fund of 1 per cent 

 accumulative, to be increased after five years to 2 per 

 cent. The re-establishment of the credit of Ecuador 

 on the European bourses would, he continued, be 

 to the great advantage of the Ecuadorian people, and 

 would enable them to develop the immense virgin 

 resources of the country. Tlie large proposed re- 

 duction of the debt would show them that the bond- 

 holders desired to meet them in a liberal spirit. Dr. 

 Wild having seconded the motion, Mr. F. Bennoch 

 thought it advisable to state the precise condition of 

 the debt at the present moment, in order that the 

 bondholders might understand the position they now 

 occupied, and that in which they would be placed in 

 the event of the terms of the resolution being accepted 

 by the Ecuadorian Government. The chairman re- 

 plied that the present principal of the debt, as ar- 

 ranged in 1854, was 1,824,000, bearing 1 per cent 

 interest, with the possibility of a rise in the event of 

 the yield of the Guayaquil custom-house exceeding 

 $400,000 a year. They, however, never received any 

 increase over the 1 per cent, which, as he had stated, 

 they had received for a few years only. The arrears 

 of interest amounted to 264,480 (29 coupons). There- 

 fore, the indebtedness was 2,088,000, which it was 

 proposed should be converted into 950.000 of new 5 

 per cent bonds. The composition would, therefore, 

 DC nearly 10s. in the pound. The amount required 

 under the new arrangement would be 47,500 a year. 

 Mr. Campbell pointed out that that amount was to be 

 made by a population of over 1,000.000. Mr. Wright 

 (of the Ecuadorian Bondholders' Committee) ob- 

 served that when the old arrangement was made the 

 bondholders were entitled to 25 per cent of the cus- 

 toms' dues, which he understood from Mr. Hazlewood 

 amounted last year to 200,000. Therefore last year 

 the bondholders should have received 50,000. The 

 progress of the South American republics was. he said, 

 stopped by the position of their debts, and if they 

 were arranged their immense natural resources could 

 be developed. It was to be hoped that if the Ecuado- 

 rian Government came to an arrangement with tlie 

 bondholders, they would keep it this time. Mr. Van 

 Raalte having alluded to a sum of 11,000 which, ho 

 said, was now in the Bank of England belonging to 

 the bondholders, Mr. Hazlewood referred to his visit 

 to the country a few years ago on behalf of the bond- 

 holders, and expressed his belief that the Government 

 of Ecuador would acquiesce in the terms submitted in 

 the resolution. A bondholder stated that the Presi- 

 dent and ministers had offered to give the salt-duties, 

 which were now 50,000 a year, and could be devel- 

 oped to 70,000, as security for any new arrangement. 

 The chairman then put the resolution, and declared it 

 carried unanimously. 



