COSTA RICA. 



177 



American Republics Guatemala, Honduras, 

 Nicaragua, Salvador, and Costa Rica) is Mr. 

 H. 0. Hall. 



The military force of the country consists of 

 the standing army, nominally 500 strong, and 

 the rnilitia, comprising all male citizens between 

 the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, the reserves 

 being made up of men between thirty and fifty- 

 five. The number susceptible to be called upon 

 to carry arms was reported at 16,370 in 1879. 



STATISTICS. The financial condition of Costa 

 Rica, once so flourishing, would seem to grow 

 more and more unsatisfactory 

 each successive year, and this 

 is attributed mainly to the per- 

 sistent maintenance, during the 

 Guardia administration, of a 

 ponderous and costly govern- 

 ment machinery alike incom- 

 mensurate with the require- 

 ments and possibilities of the 

 country, and an ever-increasing 

 home debt accruing from suc- 

 cessive loans the proceeds of 

 which have been applied in part 

 to cover deficits, while the re- 

 mainder has been wasted in un- 

 productive public works. The 

 revenue for the fiscal year end- 

 ing April 30, 1880, as given in 

 the " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 

 that year, was $2,802,279, and 

 the expenditure $3,460,597, 

 leaving a deficit of $658,318. In an official 

 statement issuing from the finance department, 

 and bearing date of October 17, 1882, the ex- 

 penditure for the nine months immediately en- 

 suing was estimated at $3,271,513, to be dis- 

 tributed as follows: 



Interior..., ... $166,8T4 50 



Police 50,54600 



Public Works 812.20768 



Justice... 106,78600 



Worship and Charities 22,150 59 



Warand Marine 878,792 55 



Finance 2,012,646 65 



Foreign Affairs 42,505 00 



Public Instruction 174,190 00 



Additional 4,815 00 



Total $3,271,51897 



Now, the revenue for that period of nine 

 months, if in the same proportion as for the 

 year ending April 30, 1880, would be but 

 $1,101,710, and the resulting deficit would be 

 $2,169,803.97, or nearly double the amount of 

 the revenue. To lighten the burden of such 

 an onerous deficit, however, the Executive, duly 

 authorized by the Congress, issued a decree on 

 October 18, 1882, ordering a reduction of 10 

 per cent of the salaries of all persons employed 

 or pensioned by the Government and paid out 

 of the public funds. Yet, even after deducting 

 10 per cent from the total estimated expendi- 

 ture (in which, of course, are included many 

 outlays other than salaries), as shown in the 

 foregoing table, the deficit would still exceed 

 the income by $740,942. 



The foreign debt of Costa Rica stood as fol- 

 VOL. xxii. 12 A 



lows at the end of 1882, according to the re- 

 port of the bondholders' committee : 



Principal of 6 per cent loan 941,200 



Interest oil 6 per cent loan 508,248 



jM AAQ 44C 



Principal of 7 per cent loan 1,460,100 



Interest on 7 per cent loan 970,966 



2,481,066 



Total foreign debt "8^880^514 



This amount, even at an exchange of 10 per 

 cent, would give the sum of $21,342,827. Pay- 

 ment of the 6 per cents is guaranteed out of 

 the national revenue, the proceeds of sales of 



SAN JOSfi, THE CAPITAL OF COSTA KICA. 



state property, and the customs receipts ; and 

 the 7 per cents were to be paid from the pro- 

 ceeds of the tobacco and spirit monopolies, the 

 export duty on coffee, and the profits on local 

 railway traffic. "In return for this heavy in- 

 debtedness," says a native writer, "we have 

 three sections of railway, of the estimated value 

 of 1,200,000," or say $6,600,000, calculating 

 exchange at 10 per cent. 



The precise amount of the home debt it 

 would be difficult to determine, in the absence 

 of official returns ; but with expenditures ag- 

 gregating $28,541,000 for the decade 187l-'80, 

 against an aggregate revenue of only $24,920,- 

 600, the country must owe at least $3,620,400 

 on that score. " Thus we prove that there is 

 a crisis," adds the writer already quoted, " and 

 this crisis the empirics would cure by issuing 

 paper money, which would at once lead to the 

 withdrawal of all specie from circulation ; vio- 

 lent fluctuations in exchange, and the conse- 

 quent immediate depreciation in the value of 

 the new currency ; the employment of this last 

 in risky and unproductive speculations ; the im- 

 position of an immense tax on future revenues ; 

 and the immediate discredit of the Govern- 

 ment which issues that paper money." 



President Fernandez is said to share with 

 his Cabinet ministers in the conviction that the 

 country's salvation depends upon the comple- 

 tion of the railway and the equitable settle- 

 ment of the national debt. The bondholders 

 have been informed that it is useless to expect 



