688 



ROUMANIA. 



amounted to 274,662,083 lei. Of the imports, 

 139,608,000 lei came from Germany, 114,705,000 

 lei from Great Britain, 71,037,000 lei from Aus- 

 tria-Hungary, 41,726,000 lei from France, 15,698,- 

 000 lei from Turkey and Bulgaria, 13,732,000 lei 

 from Russia, 19,396,000 lei from Belgium, 8,592,- 

 000 lei from Switzerland, 6,846,000 lei from Italy, 

 1,436,000 lei from Greece, and 3,907,000 lei from 

 other countries. Of the total exports, 143,716,- 

 000 lei went to Great Britain, 30,990,000 lei to 

 Germany, 41,215,000 lei to Belgium, 23,195,000 

 lei to Austria-Hungary, 9,818,000 lei to France, 

 9,956,000 lei to Turkey and Bulgaria, 3,269,000 

 lei lei to Russia, 6,242,000 lei to Italy, 385,000 lei 

 to Greece, 407,000 lei to Switzerland, and 5,469,- 

 000 lei to various other countries. The imports 

 of textiles amounted to 184,200,000 lei, and the 

 exports to 4,800,000 lei ; the imports of metals 

 and metal manufactures to 82,100,000 lei, and the 

 exports to 1,500.000 lei; the imports of fruits, 

 legumes, etc., to 26,100,000 lei, and the exports to 

 24,200,000 lei ; the imports of hides, skins, and 

 leather to 24,000,000 lei, and the exports to 1,300,- 

 000 lei ; the imports of drugs and dyes to 17,500,- 

 000 lei ; the imports of minerals, glass, and 

 crockery to 16,200,000 lei ; the imports of chem- 

 icals to 12,800,000 lei ; the imports of paper to 

 15,800,000 lei ; the imports of oil, wax, etc., to 

 10,300,000 lei ; the imports of animals and ani- 

 mal products to 9,700,000 lei, and the exports to 

 5,800,000 lei ; the imports of wood and wood 

 manufactures to 8,600,000 lei, and the exports to 

 3,500,000 lei. The exports of cereals amounted 

 to 225,000,000 lei. 



All the commercial treaties with foreign coun- 

 tries expired on July 1, 1892, and none of them 

 were renewed at the time, so that all imports 

 from all countries stood on an equal footing, 

 and were subject to the general tariff, which 

 had been so modified that the duty on some arti- 

 cles was reduced to a point below that which had 

 been stipulated by the treaties. The Govern- 

 ment retained the power, however, to increase 

 the duties, even up to a prohibitive point, for the 

 whole or any part of the imports from countries 

 where large or prohibitive duties are levied on 

 Roumanian goods or produce. On July 4, 1892, 

 a provisional treaty was entered into with Ger- 

 many, to be in force until Nov. 30, 1892, by 

 which Rou mania granted Germany the same ad- 

 vantages she possessed under the old treaty, and 

 Germany accorded to Roumania the most-fa- 

 vored-nation treatment for cereals. A commercial 

 treaty was signed with Italy on Dec. 30, 1892. 



Communications. The railroads in Rou- 

 mania all belong to the state ; in 1892 the total 

 length of railroads open to traffic was 2,557 kilo- 

 metres, while 544 kilometres were under con- 

 struction, and 1,094 kilometres were in contem- 

 plation. 



In 1891 the post office handled 15,289,336 let- 

 ters, 4,524,277 postal cards, and 7,773,512 pieces 

 of printed matter. The receipts were 3,649,035 

 lei from the post office and 2,395,699 lei from the 

 telegraph service; the expenses of both were 

 4,550,745 lei. In 1891 there were 5,571 kilometres 

 of telegraph lines, and 12,008 kilometres of wire. 

 The total number of telegrams sent was 1,574,359, 

 of which 1,086,388 were domestic, 437,171 exter- 

 nal, 49,376 in transit, and 1,424 were Government 

 dispatches. 



European Commission of the Danube. 



The navigation of the Danube is carried on un- 

 der an agreement of the leading powers made at 

 the Berlin Conference in 1878 and modified in 

 1883. From its mouth to the Iron Gate the river 

 is regarded as an international highway, and is 

 superintended by a commission, to which Austria, 

 Bulgaria, Roumania, and Servia each appoint 

 one member, while a fifth is appointed for six 

 months by the signatory powers in turn. The 

 International Danubian Commission has its seat 

 at Galatz. The receipts in 1891 amounted to 

 3,649,578 francs, and the expenses to 2,721,151 

 francs. The debts of the commission were paid 

 up on June 30, 1887, and the overplus of the 

 receipts has been invested in different funds. 

 There were, in 1891, 1,000,000 francs in the reserve 

 fund, 413,874 francs in the pension fund for em- 

 ployees, and 60,063 francs in the pension fund for 

 pilots. The number of vessels which cleared at 

 the Sulina mouth of the Danube was 1,723, of 

 1,512,030 tons, of which 1,246. of 1,429,433 tons, 

 were steamers, and 477, of 82,597 tons, were sail- 

 ing vessels. Of the total number, 773, of 990,935 

 tons, were English ; 106, of 142,187 tons, were 

 Greek ; 102, of 78,841 tons, were Austrian ; 86, of 

 35,325 tons, were Russian; 41, of 23,129 tons, 

 were Turkish ; 37, of 46,499 tons, were French ; 

 33, of 35,057 tons, were Italian; 29, of 34,455 

 tons, were Norwegian ; 22, of 25,354 tons, were 

 German ; 8, of 8,887 tons, were Dutch ; and 9 

 vessels, of 8,764 tons, belonged to different na- 

 tionalities. There were exported, in 1891, 3,303,- 

 000 quarters of wheat, 583,000 quarters of rye, 

 3,739,000 quarters of maize, and 1,898,000 quar- 

 ters of barley. 



The Elections. General elections for the 

 Chamber of Deputies were held in the beginning 

 of February, 1892, which resulted in favor of the 

 Government. Of the 183 deputies elected, 151 

 were Conservatives, and 32 belonged to the Op- 

 position. Elections for the Senate took place a 

 little later in the same month, when 92 Conserva- 

 tives, 20 members of the Opposition, and 8 bish- 

 ops were elected. In former years the parties in 

 the two houses were very much divided, making 

 it extremely difficult for the Government to pass 

 sound and stringent laws. This year, however, 

 the Conservatives and the Junimists joined hands 

 and agreed on a mutual platform, of which the 

 following are the principal planks : Agrarian re- 

 forms, consisting of a large creation of peasant 

 proprietorships ; a readjustment of the system 

 of national taxation ; judicial reforms, the main 

 object being to make judges irremovable; closer 

 relations with the Triple Alliance ; and the pro- 

 motion of trade. The Opposition went to the 

 country with an unpopular programme, one of 

 the leading points being the disparagement of 

 the ministry, on the ground that it was purely 

 the creation of the King. 



Session of the Parliament. The Roumanian 

 Parliament was opened on March 7, 1892, by a 

 speech from the throne, in which the King, in 

 alluding to the recent elections, remarked that 

 they were an eloquent testimony of the will of 

 the people, which desired before all things order 

 and stability. Bills for the reform of internal 

 organizations were announced, and the attention 

 of the Parliament was called to the agrarian re- 

 form bill which had been introduced in 1890, and 



