70 



BRAZIL. 



The national debt stood, on March 31, 1882, 

 as follows : 



Five per cent foreign indebtedness, payable in Milreis. 

 gold 141,072,000 



Internal debt, payable in paper money, and bear- 

 ing 4 to 6 per cent interest 408,132,000 



Floating debt : Milreis. 



Contracted prior to 1327 143,022 



Orphan funds and deposits 51,622,116 



Treasury bonds 28,894,700 



Paper money issued by the state.. 138,110,973268,770,811 

 Total 818,574,811 



The assets of the Government, March 31, 

 1882, were: Uncollected taxes, 13,407,483; 

 due to the state by railroads, 13,211,019 ; due 

 to the state by the Argentine Republic, 15,796,- 

 301 ; and by Paraguay, 227,883 milreis. 



About the above national debt the "Diario 

 Official," of Rio, remarks, under date of Decem- 

 ber 9, 1882 : " Four hundred and seven million 

 milreis of the above indebtedness arose from 

 the Paraguayan War; 60,400,000 from state 

 aid extended to our northern provinces during 

 a series of years when the drought afflicted 

 them ; and 130,885,000 milreis were spent on 

 railroads and other public improvements." 



Since the law of September 28, 1871, the 

 amount of money disbursed under its provis- 

 ions from the Emancipation Fund has been 

 12,096,000 milreis, 8,683,859 of which since 

 March 25, 1875. Further payments are to be 

 made without delay, and thus the total avail- 

 able fund of 24,000,000 milreis will soon be 

 disbursed. This is calculated to allay the agi- 

 tation about the slavery question which has ex- 

 isted in Brazil in 1882. 



The Rio correspondent of the " Independ- 

 ance " (Brussels) remarks : " Slavery has re- 

 ceived a death-blow ; everybody tries to get rid 

 of this shameful heritage of the past as fast as 

 possible, so that hardly a day passes but one 

 hears of numerous liberations of slaves. It is, 

 however, necessary, at almost any cost, to pro- 

 cure other hands to replace the emancipated. 

 There is some European immigration, but it 

 does not amount to much, though latterly 

 rather in the ascendant. Hence, it is intended 

 to introduce Chinese coolies, not as a perma- 

 nent source of immigration, but as an element 

 of transition that is to bridge over the gap be- 

 tween the black field-laborer and the free Eu- 

 ropean tiller of the soil. With this object before 

 them, the coffee-planters of Rio de Janeiro and 

 Sao Paulo have accepted the proposal made 

 them by the ' China Merchants' Steam Naviga- 

 tion Company ' of importing for them twenty- 

 one thousand Chinese coolies within the ensu- 

 ing three years. It will then be seen whether 

 this importation will answer." 



M. Ad. de Fontpertuis, in his work just pub- 

 lished in Paris, " Les Nations latines de 1' Ame- 

 rique," remarks about Brazil that it may be 

 divided into three great zones : that of the for- 

 ests distinguished by the production of cocoa, 

 India-rubber, sarsaparilla, vanilla, a great va- 

 riety of gums, nuts, and textile plants, many of 

 the latter three yet unknown in manufacturing 

 countries thai of coffee, and that of cereals. 



The foreign-trade movement in Brazil, in- 

 cluding the precious metals, is officially given to 

 have been during the ensuing two fiscal years : 



The value of exports in contos de reis of 

 1,000 milreis was distributed as follows among 

 the chief articles : 



COFFEE EXPORTATION FROM RIO. 



RECAPITULATION. 



To other conn tries. 

 6.466,784 

 7,355,755 

 6,988,844 

 5,664,648 

 7,560,575 



To the United Stale.. 

 6,178,530 

 4,394,188 

 7,769,222 

 7,830,911 

 9,792,834 



85,965,685 



The foregoing tables show that, out of the 

 70,002,291 bags shipped during the twenty- 

 five years, the United States took more than 

 one half. 



* One bag = sixty kilogrammes nt. 



