176 



COLOMBIA. 



Goenaga ; of Education, Jose L. Trujillo ; of 

 War, Olegario Rivera; of the Interior, Marce- 

 lino Velez; of Justice, Luis A. Meza; of the 

 Treasury, Primitivo Crespo; of Public Works, 

 Marcelino Arango. 



Area and Population. The area of Colom- 

 bia is estimated at 504,773 square miles. The 

 population is estimated at 3,878.600. Bogota, 

 the capital, has about 100,000 inhabitants. ( 



Finance. The revenue for the biennial peri- 

 od 1891-'92 is estimated at 20,351,100 pesos, and 

 the expenditure at 23,911,515 pesos. There is a 

 funded internal debt of 5,037,310 pesos and a 

 floating debt of 24,568,241 pesos, besides a debt 

 of 7,500,000 pesos due to the last war, and 11,- 

 932,780 pesos of paper currency. The foreign 

 debt, raised in England, was 2.878,203 in 1890, 

 including the defaulted interest for ten years. 



Commerce and Production. Coffee has su- 

 perseded cinchona bark as the principal article 

 of export. The latter still exists in vast quanti- 

 ties and of the best quality, and the cessation 

 of the trade is owing to the cost of transporta- 

 tion, which is so great that it can not compete 

 with the cultivated product of the East Indies. 

 Cacao is also raised and exported in large quan- 

 tities. Cotton and bananas flourish, but the ex- 

 ports are small ; and sugar, vegetables, and ce- 

 reals, though the soil is adapted for them, are 

 imported for the use of the people. Tobacco of 

 excellent quality is exported to Germany. Cat- 

 tle raising is a common pursuit. The hides and 

 horns are usually sent to the United States. 

 Coal and iron exist in many parts of Colombia, 

 but are not mined except in one or two places. 

 Gold and silver are important products, and 

 could be extracted in much greater quantities 

 but for lack of capital and means of trans- 

 portation. The largest mines now worked are 

 in Antioquia and Tolima, and are owned by 

 Englishmen. Of late American enterprise and 

 capital are entering the field. The value of the 

 imports in 1889 was $11,777,624. The chief im- 

 ports are articles of food and textile fabrics. 

 The exports amounted to $16,199,718 in value, 

 consisting of coffee, Peruvian bark, pea-nuts, 

 corn, silver ore, cacao, dye stuffs, live animals, 

 hides, and tobacco. In 1890 the chief imports 

 from the United States were wheat flour of the 

 value of $248,086, machinery of the value of 

 $147,097, refined sugar of the value of $141,929, 

 and for less amounts manufactures of iron, coal, 

 sewing - machines, lard, petroleum, and many 

 other articles. The exports to the United States 

 were coffee of the value of $2,170,963, hides of 

 the value of $927,866, nuts and fruits of the value 

 of $329,388, cacao of the value of $128,024, 

 India-rubber of the value of $294,606, and small 

 quantities of dyewoods, cinchona, raw sugar, 

 and other merchandise. The share of Great 

 Britain in the imports for 1889 was $4,547,628 ; 

 that of Prance, $2,411,585; that of Germany, 

 $1,321,390; that of the United States. $1,230,476. 

 Of the exports, $4,547,628 went to Great Britain, 

 $3,950.531 to the United States, $1,781,619 to 

 France, and $1,410,683 to Germany. The total" 

 coffee exports amounted to $3,516,293 ; gold bars 

 and dust, $2,460,718 ; other minerals, $4,464,750 ; 

 hides, $1,188,911 ; tobacco, $798,029. 



Navigation. In 1889 the number of vessels 

 entered inward was 894, of 798.762 tons, of 



which 583, of 768,908 tons, were steamers. Of 

 the steamers, 351 were British, there being 15 

 English steamers, 9 American, 4 German, 3 

 French, and 1 Spanish making regular monthly 

 calls at the ports of Colombia. 



Communications. With the exception of 

 the rivers, which are navigable for certain dis- 

 tances by boats of light draught, and 9 short 

 lines of "railroad having a total length of 218 

 miles, the only mode of transportation is by 

 mule trains. The Panama Railroad in 1889 trans- 

 ported 192,845 tons of merchandise, a falling off 

 "of 2,564 tons as compared with the previous 

 year, owing to a decrease in the New York trade. 

 There are 5.250 miles of telegraph in opera- 

 tion. The post-office in 1888 carried 1,063,504 

 letters and post cards. 



The Panama Canal. The canal projected 

 by Ferdinand de Lesseps had absorbed up to the 

 middle of 1886 the sum of 772,545,412 francs, and 

 it was then estimated that it would take at least 

 as much more to complete the work. A loan of 

 600,000,000 francs was offered in December, 1888, 

 for subscription, but failed. After a vain effort 

 to reorganize under a new charter, the company 

 went into liquidation, and on March 15, 1889, all 

 payments were suspended and work on the canal 

 was stopped. The Civil Tribunal of the Seine 

 appointed provisional administrators. A com- 

 mittee of the French Chamber of Deputies was 

 directed to examine into the affairs of the com- 

 pany, with a view to the completion of the canal 

 with the aid of the credit of the French Govern- 

 ment if such a plan was feasible. In December, 

 1890, an arrangement was effected with the Co- 

 lombian Government by parties interested in the 

 canal, in accordance with which the time al- 

 lowed for its completion was extended for a 

 further period of ten years, on the understanding 

 that a new company should be formed to take 

 over the entire ass'ets of the old one, and that 

 the work of construction should be actively re- 

 sumed before Feb. 28. 1893. For this conces- 

 sion the promoters agreed to pay 10,000,000 

 francs in gold and 5.000,000 francs in shares 

 of the new company, besides providing for a 

 guard of 250 soldiers to protect the canal dur- 

 ing construction. The committee of the French 

 Chamber recommended the completion of the 

 canal by an international arrangement, by which 

 other governments besides the French should 

 share in the guarantee and other nations be in- 

 vited to contribute the additional capital. It 

 advised the Ministry of Justice to investigate 

 the affairs of the defunct company, to find if the 

 contractors had obtained exorbitant prices by 

 fraud, or been paid for work that was not done. 



Boundary Questions. Differences regard- 

 ing the boundary lines dividing Colombia and 

 the neighboring republics of Costa Rica and Ven- 

 ezuela were referred to the Spanish Government 

 for arbitration. On the Venezuelan frontier 

 Colombia established her claim to Goajii-a, San 

 Francisco, and Arauca. On the Costa Rican 

 border she laid claim to the lands between Chi- 

 riqui and the river Sicsola, and even asserted an 

 historical title to the territory extending on the 

 Atlantic side to the frontier of Honduras, and 

 on the Pacific side to Lake Nicaragua, embrac- 

 ing the whole of Costa Rica and the greater part 

 of Nicaragua. 



