164 



CHILI. 



There were on April 30, 1884, navigating 

 under the Chilian flag, 30 steamers, with an ag- 

 gregate tonnage of 14,896 ; 4 ships, with 4,457 

 tons capacity ; 84 harks, having a capacity to- 

 gether 40,615 ; 8 brigs, with 2,188 ; 6 schooner- 

 brigs, with 1,552; 10 schooners, 1,166 ; and 16 

 sloops, 916 ; together, 158 craft of all sizes, ag- 

 gregating a joint capacity of 65,790 tons. 



The Government Guano Consignment* The con- 

 fidence that even the most cautious European 

 and American bankers place in the honesty 

 and fair dealing as well as financial solidity of 

 the Chilian Government was best shown on 

 the occasion of the contract for a great guano 

 consignment of 400,000 tons, which it made 

 with the Compagnie Commerciale Francaise, 

 and the money advanced thereon by Messrs. 

 Seligman Brothers & Co., and the Banque 

 d'Anvers, jointly in the spring of 1885. This 

 contract involved advances in the shape of a 

 deposit of 200,000, and the two banking 

 establishments named on behalf of the con- 

 signees of the guano made it in blank, that is 

 to say, without having in their possession bills 

 of lading or any security whatever beyond the 

 signature of the Minister of Finance. The con- 

 ditions of the contract itself were mutually ad- 

 vantageous. The Government engaged to con- 

 sign guano during three consecutive years, 

 150,000 tons each the first two years and the 

 remaining 100,000 tons the third year, to the 

 Compagnie Commerciale, in Europe, allowing 

 it a commission on sales of 2 per cent, while 

 remaining under instructions from the Govern- 

 ment as to the prices the latter is willing to 

 accept for its guano. The Compagnie Com- 

 merciale engages to advance all expenses of 

 12s. 6d. a ton on the guano, and furthermore 

 advances 1 10s. a ton on the shipments from 

 Tarapaca, and 1 a ton on those from Lobos, 

 on which money advanced the Government 

 pays the same 5 per cent, per annum interest. 

 These advances the Compagnie will be reim- 

 bursed for out of the proceeds of sales at the 

 rate of 10s. a ton, the balance which the Gov- 

 ernment will owe. During the first six months 

 of 1885 no guano arrived in England from the 

 West Coast, but there were stocks, and con- 

 sumption was decreasing. On the Continent 

 the stock on July 1 was 90,000 tons, but there 

 was a lack of demand there likewise. The 

 price asked on July 1 was 15s. per unit of 

 ammonia contents in the guano, and Is. IQ^d. 

 per unit of phosphate per ton, but there would 

 have had to be an abatement from these con- 

 ditions to effect a sale, both ammonia and 

 phosphate being obtainable from 25 to 30 per 

 cent, cheaper from other raw material. 



By decree of Nov. 29, 1884, one million tons 



of guano were to be sold at public auction, out 

 of which Peruvian bondholders were to re- 

 ceive 50 per cent, of the net proceeds. 



Nitrate of Soda. The combined nitrate-pro- 

 ducers on the West Coast resolved early in 

 1885 to create a common fund of 5,000, out 

 of which 1,000 were to be appropriated to- 

 ward paying a premium to the author of the 

 best treatise on u the analysis and most profit- 

 able application of nitrate in agriculture," such 

 pamphlet to be translated into the leading lan- 

 guages, and circulated throughout Europe and 

 America. The remaining 4,000 of the fund 

 were to be used toward establishing entrepots 

 of nitrate in Europe and America, from which 

 samples for experiments were to be delivered 

 gratis to agriculturists. In February a general 

 meeting was held by nitrate - producers at 

 Iquique, and it was unanimously agreed to 

 restrict production to 7,000,000 quintals per 

 annum in 1885 and 1886, and not to increase 

 their capacity during these two years, nor 

 found any new establishments. 



During the excitement about the Anglo- 

 Russian Afghan frontier dispute, the German 

 Government was asked by thirty-three Ham- 

 burg ship-owners whether nitrate of soda would 

 be liable to be considered contraband of war 

 and seized as such, while in transit at sea, by 

 belligerents. The answer was that " no gen- 

 erally acknowledged international rules had as 

 yet been laid down as to what merchandise 

 should at all times and everywhere be con- 

 sidered contraband of war ; that, on the con- 

 trary, whenever there is war belligerents desig- 

 nate, guided by the locality and their interests, 

 such merchandise as they intend to treat as 

 contraband. This being the case, the question 

 has not yet arisen whether nitrate ought to be 

 the subject of international discussion because 

 liable to be viewed as contraband. But the 

 Government coincides with you in the opinion 

 that the former treatment of nitrate as contra- 

 band is hardly applicable to the times we live 

 in, inasmuch as it can not be applied at once 

 to the purposes of war, but can only be pre- 

 pared for the same through a tardy process." 



Claims against Chiii. On March 13 it was of- 

 ficially announced at Santiago that the com- 

 plaints made by the Chilian Government 

 against Sefior Netto, President of the Inter- 

 national Arbitration Court, on the Peruvian 

 war claims, had been admitted as well-founded, 

 and that Dom Pedro II, the Brazilian emperor, 

 had deposed Netto from his office. Chili ac- 

 cused Netto of systematically judging against 

 her with an utter disregard of all precedents 

 of international jurisprudence. But it was 

 understood at the time that his withdrawal 

 from the arbitration court would not affect the 

 decisions of the arbitrators already made, not 

 even those made under his direct influence. 

 These decisions altogether assess Chili for 

 $29,000,000 damages in favor of Peru. 



The Government and the Church. The organ- 

 ized opposition of the Church to the civil mar- 



