PORTUGAL. 



75f 



tial law was proclaimed, to enable the civilian 

 participant- in tin- ri-ini; to In- tried by c..nrt 

 martial. .M<>iv tlwti -<M> sergeants were, impli- 

 cated. The proceedings began on Feb. ~~>. There 

 about .'id 1 ,' -oldier- tried and :.'',' civiliiins. 

 !:. de Veliki, tin- political leader, escaped to 

 France, ('apt. Leitao, Lieut. Coelho. \ cnlial, 

 Sou/.a, Santos Cardozo, and Joao ( 'ha/as were 

 sentenced to solitary coiiiinciiu'iit from two to 

 ar-. followed by transportation from six to 

 to ten year-. All llie sergeants were sentenced 

 to four \car-' cellular iinprisoniueiit and six 

 Dears' transportation, On April 9 the arrest of 

 some law-breakers, who were supposed by the 

 populace to be Republicans, was followed by a 

 riotous outbreak that could only be suppressed 

 b\ .-: liayonet charge of the soldiery. 



Financial Crisis. The Government of Port- 

 ugal, owing to party rivalries and revolutionary 

 dangers, abstained from imposing fresh taxes to 



n t the growing expenses, and borrowed money 



constantly for current needs, until the public 

 debt amounted to more per capita than tnat of 

 Great Britain, and the interest charges consumed 

 half the public revenue. The total indebtedness 

 rose from about. $400,000,000 in 1875 to nearly 

 $700,000.000 in 1890. an advance from $87 to 

 $135 per capita. For this there was little to 

 show except the 505 miles of Government rail- 

 roads, 7HO miles of heavily subsidized rail- 

 roads belonging to companies, and the costly 

 new harbor at Lessu, which is unsafe. The com- 



petition of German manufactures compelled 



ro>tuguese factories to close ; severe agricult- 

 ural distress was felt; the banks were drained 

 'of their cash reserves for payments abroad and 

 advances to the Government and to the rail- 

 roads, the receipts of which had greatly fallen 

 off: the returns from investments in Brazil, on 

 which Portugal usually relies for the money to 

 carry on the commercial operations at home, 

 were suddenly stopped by the Brazilian crisis; 

 socialistic, agrarian, and Republican agitation 

 confronted the Government and disturbed con- 

 fidence: the treasury was bankrupt unless relief 

 came from abroad, and the money market of 

 London, which had helped the Government out 

 of former difficulties, was closed by the Anglo- 

 Portuguese dispute, while Berlin bankers showed 

 no disposition to come to this rescue. In 1890 

 an attempt was made to float a loan in Paris, 

 which was defeated by certain holders of bonds 

 of the usurping Government of Don Miguel, re- 

 pudiated after the restoration of Donna Maria, 

 who demanded full payment, and raised a public 

 outcry against lending to a country that had 

 defrauded Frenchmen. In December a strong 

 group of Paris bankers made an arrangement 

 by which 75,000,000 francs were advanced, and 

 afterward Seiihor Carvalho. acting as agent for 

 the Government, made new terms with them, by 

 which they agreed to raise t he authori/.ed loan of 

 850.000,000 francs on the security of the tobacco 

 monopoly, which the Portuguese Government 

 promised to transfer to a hoard of managers com- 

 posed < if Frenchmen and Portuguese. As the mo- 

 nopoly brings in ^.oOO.OfHi or v!:..(KK),000 francs 

 a year, there would be an excess of alx.ut 8,500,- 

 000 francs to lie covered into the Portuguese 

 treasury. The syndicate offered to buy OS the 

 Miguel bondholders by giving 2,500,000 francs 



for tin ir worthle-, bond-. Tin* 75.000,000 franc* 



.-ed to pay ,,\1 the Ilio-t pn-Milg i.f tin- 



floating obligation!* and to relu-M- tin 

 Cortes were convoked mi .Inn. 'J, but were /id 

 joiirned till April 'J after hearing the 1 

 speech, ill which the minister* promised i 

 Hohdate the Moating debt by means of n 

 (MM).(KH) francs, without having rccoiir-e to fur- 

 ther credit operations, and to arrive at a finan- 

 cial equilibrium by mca-ure- of economy to ta 

 to avoid the im|>osition of fresh taxes. Tin- 

 gravity of the financial hit nation was not appar- 

 ent even to the minister-, who expected to estab- 

 lish the finances on a sound basis by the opera- 

 tion concluded in Paris, and who were preoccu- 

 pied with the dispute with Great Britain, which 

 had caused a change of ministry it even 

 of tin- negotiations, and with the Republican agi- 

 tation. Before the Cortes met some of them fore- 

 saw a monetary crisis, and asked to ! strength- 

 ened by the admission of men whose influence 

 and standing would strengthen the Cabinet and 

 help to terminate the dispute w ith Great Britain, 

 and to revive confidence in the national credit. 

 In the middle of April the Minister of Public 

 Works and the Minister of the Interior offered 

 their resignations, but were induced to remain. 

 The subscriptions for the tobacco loan were 

 opened iii April, and the amounts taken by 

 irench and German bankers gave the ministers 

 fresh courage. But bear speculators and He- 

 publicans attacked the new loan, causing the 

 price to drop from 480 to 350 francs for 500- 

 francs bonds, and rumors of the bankruptcy of 

 the Government and the credit institutions of 

 Portugal caused people to withdraw their de- 

 posits from the banks in gold. Men thrown 

 out of work by the stoppage of factories the 

 Government offered to transport with their fam- 

 ilies to the colonies in Africa, and to find work 

 for them there. On May 8 a run on th> banks 

 was begun, against which such a precaution was 

 futile. The Banco Lusitano,. which had already 

 exhausted its resources by comini; to the jii-t- 

 anceof the Royal Portuguese Railroad Company, 

 closed its doors on May 10. The Government 

 came to the aid of the other banks by issuing a 

 decree authorizing the redemption of notes in 

 silver, and ordering the ninage of 2,000.000 mil- 

 reis. This proved unavailing, and on May 11 a 

 iiinnttorium, or general suspension of pay men t-. 

 but not of accruing interest, for sixty ilin 

 decreed for the relief of banks, companies, and 

 individual debtor-. 



Change of Ministry. On May 15 the Cabi- 

 net resigned in a Ixxly after arraiiL'ing tin 

 of a convention with Great Britain that was 

 highly honorable for Portugal, since Lord Salis- 

 bury, impelled by a fear that the Knglish |>eople, 

 who have many millions invested in Portugal and 

 are the chief holders of the debt, would not ju-- 

 tify his contentions, and that British diplomacy 

 would lose more than it would gain if he pre- 

 cipitated 'he political chaos and financial ruin 

 that would follow the overthrow of the Portu- 

 guese dynasty. abandoned his claim to the i 

 of the middle Zambesi (-I-I-CAH Coi OM '. ( unt 

 San Januario was called upon to form a mi\d 

 Cabinet, but abandoned the undertaking U-CHUM? 

 he could not get the Con-ervat ive- and ProfpM- 

 ists to agree on the quest inn of i. rti u-. - 



