PORTUGAL. 



C37 



flour, the Government, in September reduced to 

 15 reis per kilogramme ihe iluly <-n 

 wheat till July :M. l.vi. 



Thenew coiiM.lidated debt on .Iune::it. 

 umoiinteil to .~>;:;.'ji i,'.i;;i milnii, of which 988,- 

 .'ll.'.KU milreis were the new iniermil bonds 

 hearing 8 per cent, interest, 210,902,779 milreis 

 represent the foreign debt of .t'~iO,HOl.576 ster- 

 ling funded at the same rate, and 104,178,466 

 milreis were amortizable delits hearing 5, 4^, and 

 4 per cent. interest. There remained uncon- 

 verted r,J.~).<i:!r> milreis of the internal and 2,252,- 

 :'>(>:{ milreis of the foreign debt. The amount of 

 interest paid on all the debts in 1881) was 17,- 

 730.807 milreis. 



The Army and Navy. The law of Sept. 12, 

 1887, introduced obligatory service for three 

 years from the age of twenty. A decree of July 

 23, 1891, reduces the service with the colors to 

 eight months in the second and four months in 

 the third year. Substitution is allowed and 

 leaves are granted under the decree of June 30, 

 1891, sufficient in number to restrict the effec- 

 tive to 22,000 men. The contingent for 1893 

 was 14,204 men. Including the furloughed, the 

 permanent army in 1892 numbered 2,089 officers 

 and 25,658 rank and file, with 3,985 horses. With 

 the municipal and fiscal guards included, there 

 were 2,346 officers and 32,625 men. The war 

 effective reaches 4,000 officers and 150,000 men, 

 with 23,000 horses and 264 guns. For 1894 the 

 peace effective has been fixed at 30,000 men. 



The navy consists of 1 armored corvette, of 

 2,422 tons, with 6 cannon above and 3 below 10 

 centimetres; 6 corvettes with 6 large and 42 

 small guns; 14 gunboats, with 17 large and 36 

 small guns ; 6 stationary vessels, with 12 small 

 guns; 9 small gunboats; 2 transports; and 4 

 torpedo boats. 



Commerce. The special imports of mer- 

 chandise for 1891 were 39,529,946 milreis and of 

 specie 8,269,727 milreis. The special exports of 

 merchandise were 21.378,330 milreis and of specie 

 29,803,648 milreis. The chief exports are cereals, 

 cotton goods, machinery and instruments, iron, 

 coal, sugar, woolens, codfish, raw cotton, rail- 

 road material, chemicals, animals, timber, wool, 

 skins and leather, silks, rice, coffee, and butter 

 and cheese. The values of the leading exports for 

 1891 were as follow: Wine, 10,122,000 milreis; 

 cork, 2,951.000 milreis; fish, 1,416.000 milreis; 

 copper, 1,033.000 milreis; animals, 403,000 milreis: 

 onions, 288,000 milreis. Of the goods imported, 

 34 per cent, in value consisted of articles of ali- 

 ment, 3-5 per cent, of animals, 28'9 per cent, of 

 raw materials, and 33-6 per cent, of manufac- 

 tured articles, while of the exports 75*5 per cent. 

 consisted of foods and drinks, 2'3 per cent, of 

 animals, and '2'-\-'2 per cent, of raw materials. 



Navigation. There were entered 3.708 steam- 

 ers, of 5.181,000 tons, and 2.554 sailing vessels, 

 of 363,000 ton?, engaged in foreign commerce 

 at the ports of Portugal in 1891. and cleared 

 3.721 steamers, of 5.187.000 tons, and 2,720 sail- 

 ing vessels, of 351.000 tons. The merchant 

 navy in 1891 consisted of 67 steamers, of 108,- 

 001 cubic metres, and 486 sailing vessels, of 

 101.711 cubic metres. The Royal Mail Steam- 

 ship Company, which formerly traded with south- 

 east Africa and afterward with Brazil, became 

 bankrupt in 1893. 



< nmmiiiiiealionH. There were 1.835 miles 

 of railroad- in operation in 1 V !M and ill! miles 

 building. The stale owned "()." null-. The 

 poM-ollire in 1N91 carried 20.*:, 1.000 dorm-tic 

 letters, 4,7(5H.OOO postals, and 20.:XUM other 

 pieces, and 7.~>!i:!.0<to foreign letters, rJ70.<M:0 j .. ..-t- 

 als, and 4,902,000 other pieces, besides those 

 forwardeil through. The total length of the 

 state telegraph lines in 1^91 was :{,!/H5 miles. 

 with 8,839 miles of wire. The number of private 

 internal messages for that year was 582,066, and 

 of international messages 584,619. The receipts 

 of the post-office from mail and telegraphs were 

 6,057,789 francs and the expenses 7,196,653 

 francs. A British company in the autumn of 

 1893 laid down a cable from Lisbon to the 

 Azores, which it expects to continue to North or 

 South America. 



Change of Cabinet. The Bias Ferreira min- 

 istry, after the meeting of the Cortes in January, 

 1891, had a conflict with the Finance Committee 

 of the Chamber, which wanted to consider the 

 budget and the plan of new taxation, and thus 

 calculate the means at the disposal of the Gov- 

 ernment for paying the interest on the debt, 

 while the ministry insisted on first receiving 

 sanction for the decree of June 13, 1892, cutting 

 down the rate of interest on the foreign debt by 

 two thirds. Rather than face a Cabinet crisis, 

 the Chamber supported the Government for the 

 nonce. There was much dissatisfaction with the 

 Cabinet among the Conservatives as well as 

 among the Progressists and Republicans. The 

 wine growers believed that their interests had 

 been sacrificed for the benefit of distillers. The 

 Republicans led the attack on the moribund 

 ministry, which had submitted a scheme of 

 exceedingly onerous taxation ; and when Dias 

 Ferreira found that he could not obtain the co- 

 operation of the Chamber in his plans for set- 

 tling with the foreign creditors, he proposed, an- 

 ticipating a hostile vote, to prorogue or dissolve 

 Parliament. A fresh protest from the German 

 Government against any solution of the ques- 

 tion of the external debt that had not the con- 

 sent of the bondholders may have impelled him 

 to seek escape from office and the responsibility 

 of carrying out his declared purposes. Dissolu- 

 tion the King refused to sanction, whereupon 

 the Cabinet resigned on Feb. 21, 1893. Hintze 

 Ribeiro was asked to form a new one, and on 

 Feb. 23 it was constituted as follows : President 

 of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, 



E. R. Hintze Ribeiro; Minister of the Interior, 

 Jofto Franco Pinto Castello Branco; Minister 

 of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Antonio de 

 Azevedo Castello Branco; Minister of Finance, 

 Augusto M. Fuschini ; Minister of War, Col. L. 

 A. Pimentel Pinto ; Minister of Marine and the 

 Colonies, Capt. J. A. de Bris$ac dos Neves Fer- 

 reira ; Minister of Public Works, Commerce.and 

 Industry. Bernardino L. Machado; Minister oT 

 Public instruction and Fine Arts ad interim. J. 



F. Pinto ( 'astello Branco. The new Cabinet renre- 

 senled chiefly the Regenerador party, led I 



pa Pimentel, from which the majority of its mem- 

 bers were taken. The ministerial" programme 

 embraced amnesty for political offenses, free- 

 dom of the press to criticise the existing respon- 

 sible ministers, an effective Government control 

 over the banks, and the payment of the foreign 



