ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



Oct. 12, 1892. Each province elects its Gov- 

 ernor and Legislature, and can levy taxes and 

 contract debts and legislate on all matters not 

 reserved to Congress by the Constitution. The 

 Cabinet in the beginning of 1891 was composed 

 of the following members: Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, E. Costa ; Minister of Finance, Vicente 

 Fidel Lopez : Minister of Education and Minis- 

 ter of Justice, Juan Carballido ; Minister of War, 

 N. Levalle ; Minister of the Interior, Gen. Roca 



Area and Population. The area of the 

 self-governed provinces is 515,700 square miles, 

 and their population is estimated at 3,916,492. 

 The territories have an area of about 609.386 

 square miles, and 170,000 inhabitants. Buenos 

 Ayres, the capital, with its suburbs, had in 

 July, 1890, a population of 556,160, more than 

 one quarter being foreigners. The immigration 

 in the past six years has been nearly 1,200,000. 

 About three fourths of the settlers are of Ital- 

 ian nationality, one tenth are Spaniards, one 

 twelfth are French, and the rest of various na- 

 tionalities. 



Finance. The revenue for 1890 was esti- 

 mated at $74,370.000, namely, $48,000,000 from 

 customs. $3,950,000 from municipal taxes, $7,- 

 700,000 from banks, $6,050,000 from stamps and 

 the post-office, and $8,670,000 from other sources 

 The total expenditures were estimated at $67,- 

 881,884, apportioned as follow; Interior, $16,- 

 237,406; finance administration, $25,989,893; 

 instruction, $9.517,026 ; military expenditure, 

 $9,507,839; the navy, $4,029,440; foreign af- 

 fairs, $2,600,280. The actual expenditures ex- 

 ceeded the revenue by $31,000,000, and in 1891 

 a deficit of $22,000,000 was looked for, to avoid 

 which the President issued a decree reducing 

 salaries in the civil departments and in the army 

 and navy, which was approved by Congress. 



The Army and Navy. There is a standing 

 army of 5,585 men and officers. Able-bodied men 

 under forty-five are enrolled in the militia, which 

 numbers 236,000. 



The naval forces in 1890 comprised 1 ironclad 

 frigate, 2 deck-protected cruisers, 2 monitors, 7 

 gunboats, 2 transports, 7 dispatch boats, 1 tor- 

 pedo school ship, and 8 torpedo boats, of which 

 4 are armed with spar torpedoes. The " Almi- 

 rante Brown " is plated with 9 inches of steel- 

 faced armor, and mounts six 11^-ton breech-load- 

 ing Armstrongs in her central battery, 1 in the 

 bow, and 1 in the stern. A deck-armored cruiser 

 of 3,200 tons, completed in England in 1891, 

 showed in her trials a mean speed with natural 

 draught of 21J knots, with 9,000 horse-power de- 

 veloped by two vertical 4-cylinder engines work- 

 ing independent screws. She is named the " 25 

 de Mayo." Her armament consists of two 8-inch 

 breech-loading guns, eight 5-inch quick-firing 

 guns, twenty-four quick-firing guns of smaller 

 calibers, and three 18-inch torpedo guns. 



Commerce. The breeding of cattle and sheep 

 is the most important industry. Agriculture is 

 carried on extensively, about 6,000,000 acres be- 

 ing under cultivation, yielding a product valued 

 in 1890 at $100,000,000, the exports for the first 

 six months amounting to $31,865.000. The wheat 

 area in 1889 was 2,580.000 acres. The exports 

 of wool in 1889 were of the Value of $56,709,- 

 774 ; of hides and skins, $27,352,949 ; of wheat. 

 $1,596.446; of Indian corn, $12,977,721. The 



total exports of animal products were $89,282,715 

 in value; of agricultural products, $16,936,547; 

 of manufactured products, $11,946,366; of min- 

 eral products, $1,629,160; of forest products, 

 $793,257; of other products, $2,228,012: total 

 merchandise exports in 1889, $122,815,057. The 

 imports of textile goods and apparel were $32,- 

 229,422 in value; of iron manufactures, $24,- 

 727,113 ; of railroad and telegraph supplies, $24,- 

 173,749; of food substances, $18,350,904; of bev- 

 erages, $15,301,607; of timber, $12,106,858; of 

 coal and oil, $7,593,810; of glass and pottery, 

 $6,658,646 ; of chemicals, $4,756,797 ; of all other 

 articles. $18,670,978: total merchandise imports, 

 $164,569,884. 



The exports to the United States, mainly hides 

 and wool, in 1890 were $5,401,697, compared 

 with $5,454,618 in 1889 ; the imports from the 

 United States, consisting chiefly of railroad ma- 

 terial, agricultural implements; machinery, lum- 

 ber, petroleum, and cotton, were $8,887,000 in 

 1890, against $9,293.008 in 1889. 



The financial disturbance of 1890 caused a 

 large diminution in the volume of imports, 

 chiefly in luxuries, while the exports have re- 

 mained steady. The decrease of imports is part- 

 ly due to the protective tariff and the growth of 

 native industries. 



Railroads. The Argentine Republic has the 

 completest system of railroad communications of 

 any South American country. There were 5,798 

 miles in operation and 4.840 miles building in 

 1890. The cost of the completed lines was $249,- 

 907,796. The receipts for 1889 were $35,250,- 

 907 and the expenses $24,420,152. The panic 

 of 1890 caused railroad construction to fall off 

 greatly ; but many of the lines were already com- 

 pleted or nearly completed. The extension of 

 the Buenos Ayres and llosario line to Tucuman 

 connects the capital with one of the most pro- 

 ductive of the provinces. The Transandine line 

 to connect the Argentine system with the Chil- 

 ian is expected to be finished before 1894, though 

 several long tunnels will have to be cut through 

 hard rock. 



Financial Crisis. During the Celman re- 

 gime, which ended in the financial crash followed 

 by the revolution of July, 1890. the national 

 treasury was robbed of $500,000,000. The Na- 

 tional and Provincial banks were left insolvent, 

 having lent the money of their depositors on 

 unsubstantial secxirity to politicians and their 

 friends. For three years before the economical 

 collapse London banking houses, and Continental 

 houses to a smaller extent, found profit in rais- 

 ing money from investors in Europe to start 

 all kinds of new undertakings in Argentina, and 

 even dealt largely in cedulas. which were secured 

 loosely on real estate. The vast quantity of Eu- 

 ropean gold that was poured into the country 

 was an incentive to wild speculation and a temp- 

 tation to political jobbery. President Pellegrini 

 and the Union Civica were supported in their ef- 

 forts to retrieve the financial disaster by the best 

 classes of the people. For this it was necessary 

 not only to make the public income and expendi- 

 ture balance by economy and fresh taxation, but 

 to rehabilitate the bankrupt public banks. An 

 extraordinary session of Congress was called to- 

 ward the end of 1890. Measures proposed by the 

 Government were a 10-per-cent. tax on the prof- 



