648 



PERU. 



unmanageable khans have been put out of the 

 way by different means. The establishment of 

 Persian as the only official language, taking 

 the place of the Tartar, Kurdish, and Arabic 

 tongues in various districts, has helped to cen- 

 tralize the administration. There is more se- 

 curity than formerly, and districts that could 

 only be visited with passports and letters to 

 the local chiefs, can now be traversed with 

 entire safety. 



The Russian Advance. The political and mili- 

 tary power of Russia in Central Asia, and 

 Russian commercial interests, are interdepend- 

 ent and expand together. The occupation of 

 Merv was followed by a large development of 

 trade, and when Sarakhs was occupied, a place 

 that is situated on the natural commercial 

 route to India at the most advantageous point, 

 the commercial relations with the neighbor- 

 ing parts of Persia and with Afghanistan were 

 greatly strengthened. The expansion of Rus- 

 sian interests in Afghanistan, and of Russian 

 influence among the people, which the Ameers 

 of Cabul and Candahar, who are in the pay of 

 England, were powerless to check, made a new 

 "rectification of the Persian frontier" desira- 

 ble. The Shah, for the sake of Persian inde- 

 pendence, now seriously threatened by the 

 growth of Russian power on the east, as well 

 as on the north, and the political influence 

 gained by the Czar in Persia, determined to 

 resist further encroachments. The negotia- 

 tions to secure a strip of territory on the 

 eastern edge of Iran, and a proposal to lease 

 Meshed fo'r an annual payment of 30,000 

 tomans, met with refusals, with which the 

 Russian Government expressed itself satisfied. 

 Meshed, it was explained, was a sacred place, 

 containing the tomb of Iman Reza, the Shiite 

 apostle. Prince Mahomed Taky Mirza, the 

 brother of the Shah, was dismissed from his 

 post of Governor of Meshed at the same time. 

 He is supposed to have been a friend of Russia. 

 Several ministers were dismissed during the 

 year, with the result of emancipating the Gov- 

 ernment to some extent from Russian influ- 

 ence, yet without inviting a breach of the 

 friendly relations with the Czar's Government. 

 The Russians have offered to aid in improving 

 the internal communications of Persia by con- 

 structing a railroad from Reshd to Teheran, 

 with the prospect of extending it to the Per- 

 sian Gulf. Rival English projects are the im- 

 provement of navigation in the Karun, and a 

 railroad between Teheran and Bagdad. The 

 German Government established an embassy 

 at Teheran in the autumn. 



PERU, a republic in South America. (For 

 details relating to area, populatiou, etc., see 

 "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1883.) 



Government. The President is Gen. Iglesias. 

 The Cabinet is composed of the following min- 

 isters: Minister of Justice and President of the 

 Council, Senor Mariano Castro Zaldivar; Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, Seftor Baltasar Garcia 

 Urrutia ; Minister of the Interior, Sefior Igna- 



cio de Osma, Prefect of Lima since the evacua- 

 tion ; Minister of War, Senor Francisco Garcia 

 Leon ; and Minister of the Treasury, Sefior 

 Manuel Golup. The United States Minister 

 at Lima is Capt. S. L. Phelps. The Minister 

 Resident at Washington is Sefior J. F. Elmore ; 

 and the Consul at New York, J. C. Tracy. 



Pnblic Indebtedness On Jan. 1, 1882, the for- 

 eign debt of Peru stood as follows : 



Six per cent, loan of 1870 11,141,580 



Five per cent, loan of 1872 21,546,740 



Overdue interest thereon 7,465,811 



Ecuador bonds 7 706 



Pisco-lca Railroad bonds 264,<J80 



Miscellaneous foreign debts 9,445,190 



Total 49,871^707 



The New Tariff. The necessities of the Gov- 

 ernment have been such as to demand the es- 

 tablishment of a new customs tariff, by which 

 the duties on all imports and on most articles 

 of exportation were considerably augmented. 

 The ad-valorem system was adopted. 



The duties are payable in silver, and there is 

 an additional 10 per cent, imposed on all arti- 

 cles of import, which is paid in the paper cur- 

 rency of the country, and is set apart for 

 monthly incineration in the public squares of 

 Lima, in order to reduce the volume of paper 

 money in circulation. This sum reaches the 

 figure of about $300,000 paper, or about $20,- 

 000 in silver. 



So numerous, influential, and pressing have 

 been the complaints of merchants with respect 

 to the value given to their goods for this ad- 

 valorem duty that the Government consented 

 to the appointment of a commission, of several 

 foreign and Peruvian mercantile men of Lima, 

 and three of the customs officers of superior 

 rank, for the purpose of a thorough revision. 

 This work was under way in December. 



American Trade. These are the statistics of 

 trade between the United States and Peru : 



IMPORTS OF MERCHANDISE FROM PERU INTO THE UNITED 

 STATES, AND EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES TO 



European Trade. In 1883 the imports from 

 Peru into the United Kingdom were $10,951,- 

 941 ; exports thence, $4, 3 18. 070. Th e i mports 

 into France were $5,308,199; exports thence, 

 $1,829,265. 



Brents of 1884. In February an arrangement 



