734 



SERVIA. 



SERVIA, a kingdom of Eastern Europe. The 

 Legislature consists of a single Chamber, called 

 the Skupshtina, containing 178 members, of 

 whom three fourths are elected by the people, 

 every tax-payer having a vote, and the remain- 

 ing fourth are nominated by the King. The 

 reigning sovereign is Milan I, born in 1854, 

 who succeeded to the throne in 1868. Servia 

 was formerly a principality, and was erected 

 into a kingdom in 1882. The ministry in the 

 beginning of 1887 was composed of the follow- 

 ing members: President of the Council and 

 Minister of the Interior, M. Garashanin; Min- 

 ister of War, G. Horvatovich ; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, T. Mijatovich ; Minister of Agriculture 

 and Commerce, T. Mijatovich ; Minister of 

 Justice, D. Marinkovich ; Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, D. Franassovich ; Minister of Public 

 Works, P. Topalovich ; Minister of Education 

 and Worship, M. Kuyundchich. 



Area and Population. The area of Servia is 

 18,80u square miles. The population, as de- 

 termined by the census of 1884, is 1,903,350, 

 comprising 973,910 males and 929,440 females. 

 The bulk of the population are Servians, pro- 

 fessing the Greek Orthodox religion. There 

 are 150,103 speaking the Roumanian, and 30,- 

 000 the Bohemian language. The population 

 of Belgrade, the cnpital, is 35,726. The num- 

 ber of marriages in 1885 was 17,093 ; of births, 

 91,813; of dtviths, 53,565 ; natural increment, 

 38,248. In 1886 there were 23,311 marriages, 

 84,351 births, and 60,818 deaths; natural in- 

 crement, 23,533. The population of the king- 

 dom at the close of 1886 was reckoned at 

 1,970,032 persona. 



The Army.^The reorganization of the army 

 was completed in 1882. In time of peace the 

 standing army numbers 13,213 men, with 132 

 guns. In case of mobilization there are 60 

 battalions of infantry, 24 squadrons of cavalry, 

 46 batteries of field artillery, a battalion of 

 fortress artillery, 11 companies of engineers, 6 

 trains of pontoons, and the train. The total 

 effective is about 70,000 fighting men, with 264 

 guns. The reserve army, comprising the men 

 of the second ban, numbers 58,415 men. 



Finance. The budget for the fiscal year 

 1884-'85 makes the total receipts 37,365,000 

 dinars, and the expenditures 37,29 1,000 dinars. 

 The receipts from direct taxes were 20,000,000 

 dinars; from customs, 5,500,000 dinars; from 

 duties on tobacco, salt, and spirits, 5,080,000 

 dinars. The expenditure on the debt was 11,- 

 583,824 dinars; on the army, 16,211,276 dinars. 

 The public debt on Jan. 1, 1886, amounted 

 to 213,000,000 dinars, of which 130,000,000 

 dinars were borrowed for railroad construc- 

 tion. The amount raised on loans in 1885 for 

 the mobilization of the troops was 35,000,000 

 dinars. In January, 1886, a loan of 40,000,000 

 dinars was taken by a French syndicate which 

 obtained the tobacco monopoly as a guarantee. 

 In the autumn session of 1886 the Skupshtina 

 appointed a committee to investigate the 

 finances, which recommended that the tobacco 



concession should be recalled, but the Minister 

 of Finance declared that the arrangement could 

 not be canceled without an agreement with 

 the company. A new tax law increased the 

 direct taxes, suppressed taxes bearing on the 

 poorer classes, and removed the retail license 

 tax on the sale of wine and spirits. Earlier in 

 the year bills were passed authorizing a loan of 

 20,000,000 dinars to cover the floating debt, 

 imposing duties on petroleum and matches, 

 and removing the export duties on wine and 

 brandy. A syndicate of German bankers con- 

 tracted in November, 1887, to take the loan of 

 20,000,000 dinars at the price of 74-25 per 

 cent. The consolidated debt on Jan. 1, 1887, 

 amounted to 254.123,466 dinars, and the float- 

 ing debt to 32,063,762, not including the deficit 

 of 1886-'87, which exceeds 26,000,000. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports in 

 1886 was 42,029,379 dinars or francs, against 

 40,472,989 dinars in 1885, and 43,398,859 

 in 1884. The value of the exports was 40.- 

 718,677 dinars, against 37,615,299 dinars in 

 1885, and 39,968, 706 dinnrs in 1884. The chief 

 articles of export are swine, dried prunes, skins, 

 sheep and goats, cereals, and wine. The 

 principal part of the foreign commerce is with 

 Austria-Hungary, which imported into Servia 

 in 1884 goods valued at 32,717,000 dinars, and 

 received 32,859,000 of the Servian exports. 



Railroads. There were 427 kilometres of 

 railroads in operation at the close of 1886, 

 comprising the line, 354 kilometres in length, 

 from Belgrade through Nish to Vranja. and 

 the roads connecting Lapovo and Kragwievatz 

 and Velika Plana with Smederevo. The sec- 

 tion of the international line between Nish and 

 Zaribrod, 90 kilometres in length, was com- 

 pleted in 1887, and the junction with the Turk- 

 ish railroad to Salonica effected according to 

 agreement. The railroad between Nish and 

 Pirot was finished in July, leaving only the 

 150 kilometres of Bulgarian line between Pirot 

 and Tatar Bazardjik to be completed to afford 

 continuous railroad communication between 

 Paris and Constantinople. 



Telegraphs. The length of telegraph lines at 

 the end of 1886 was 2,841 kilometres; the 

 length of wires, 4,130 kilometres. The num- 

 ber of messages sent over the wires in 1886 

 was 478,110, of which 383,851 were internal, 

 85,220 international, 1,447 official, and 7,592 

 dispatches forwarded in transit. The receipts 

 were 637,098 francs, and the expenses 526,782. 



Polities and Legislation. The result of the gen- 

 eral election that was held in May, 1886, was 

 a defeat of the Government. The ministers, 

 however, proceeded to nullify the popular vote 

 by declaring many of the elections invalid, re- 

 doubling the pressure on the voters in the sup- 

 plementary elections, and casting in prison 

 many politicians of the Opposition. By such 

 measures they secured as many of the elective 

 seats as their opponents, and with the forty 

 members nominated by the crown possessed a 

 large apparent majority. 



