ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



debt held abroad, amounting to $222,531,022, 

 whereby the creditors agreed to accept, instead 

 of the full interest and amortization, which 

 would be $14,227,677, an annual payment of 

 $7,887,600 in gold for the first five years, up to 

 July 12, 1898, then the full interest, amounting 

 to $11,081,780, till Jan. 12, 1901, and alter that 

 interest and amortization in full. The internal 

 gold debt was officially stated, in the beginning 

 of 1894, to amount to $50,646,366, for which the 

 annual charge is $2,646.667. In addition, the 

 Government is obligated to pay a railroad guar- 

 antee of $3,791,783 in gold, and about $350,000 

 in bounties for the export of fresh meat and the 

 manufacture of sugar. The internal currency 

 debt, including the floating debt consolidated 

 early in 1894, amounts to $59,269,537. Adding 

 the 'gold equivalent of this, the total acknowl- 

 edged direct debt of the National Government 

 is $302,000,000. The annual service of the debt, 

 including railroad guarantees, amounts to $18,- 

 100.000. The indirect obligations of the Gov- 

 ernment include guaranteed cedulas and the 

 note issues of the provincial banks, to guarantee 

 which the Government issued $158,412,000 of 

 gold 4^-per-cent. bonds, which bonds were an- 

 nulled when the National Government assumed 

 direct responsibility for the bank notes. The 

 total amount of these outstanding in the begin- 

 ning of 1894 was $306,726,000, not including 

 $41.324,000 illegally emitted, and therefore not 

 guaranteed by the Government. An agreement 

 made with the Rothschild committee in 1891 

 bound the Government to withdraw and burn 

 $15,000,000 of bank notes annually, but the Gov- 

 ernment has authorized fresh issues exceeding 

 the amounts withdrawn, and thus swelled the 

 volume of the currency by $50,000,000 in two 

 years. The revenue for 1894 was calculated by 

 the Finance Minister at $26,305,800 in currency 

 and $34,342,982 in gold, the latter figure repre- 

 senting the import and export duties which are 

 charged at gold rates, though not to a large ex- 

 tent collected in coin. The expenditure for 1894 

 was estimated by Dr. Terry at $17,168,097 in 

 gold and $74,007,356 in currency. The esti- 

 mates allow $6,000,000 for the reduction of the 

 notes in circulation, but the policy of the Gov- 

 ernment has been to maintain the premium on 

 gold at 200 per cent. The cedulas for which 

 the National Government has assumed respon- 

 sibility are those of the National Hypothecary 

 Bank.' amounting to $72,310,800 in currency and 

 $15,431,550 in gold. Adding the cedulas and 

 the bank notes, converted to specie values at the 

 rate of 1 gold dollar for 3 in paper, the acknowl- 

 edged debt of the National Government amounts 

 to $434,000,000 in gold. The cedulas of the 

 Provincial Hypothecary Bank, amounting to 

 $201,054,622 in currency and $3,058,000 in gold, 

 are not accepted as a part of the national debt. 

 The external debts of the provinces payable in 

 gold amount to $166,841,117, and those of mu- 

 nicipalities to $25,403,558. On some of these the 

 interest charges have been scaled down by agree- 

 ment, and on others the interest has not been 

 paid, and no arrangement has been made to pay 

 any portion of the debt. The internal debts of 

 the provinces and municipalities amount to 

 $5,916,960 in gold obligations and $155,361,349 

 in currency. The total public debt of the coun- 



try is $760,000,000, reducing the currency obliga- 

 tions to their gold value. If they are reckoned 

 at their face value, the amount is $1,307,000,000. 



Commerce and Production. The live stock 

 at the end of 1893 were roughly estimated at 

 75,000,000 sheep, 22,000,000 cattle, and 3,000,000 

 horses and mules. Agricultural production has 

 made great progress in recent years. Indian 

 corn has been for the last three seasons injured 

 by locusts, so that whereas in ordinary years 

 700,000 or 800,000 tons were available for 'export, 

 the export for 1893 was only a little over 35,000 

 tons. Of wheat, 950,000 tons were exported in 

 that year. The province of Buenos Ayres is 

 stocked with beef cattle and sheep of the best 

 European breeds, and owing to the superior 

 grazing quality of the land they will continue 

 to be the chief source of wealth, though agricul- 

 ture is extending, and was stimulated greatly by 

 the financial crisis of 1890-'91, which drove 

 manual labor from the towns into the fields, 

 where good wages were obtained. During this 

 period the farmers were very prosperous, selling 

 their bumper crops at good prices. In 1894 they 

 were in a different condition, for, while wages 

 had risen, prices were much lower, and a long 

 drought had left them with short crops. The 

 drought affected the flocks and herds through- 

 out the republic, and reduced the profits of 

 the industrious Italian, German, and French 

 colonists of Santa Fe and Cordoba, who by rude 

 methods have in favorable years raised a vast 

 quantity of inferior wheat, besides cultivating 

 corn, linseed, and lucerne. In Santa Fe 311 

 agricultural colonies cultivate 2,117,476 acres, of 

 which over 1,600,000 are under wheat. This 

 province possesses, like Buenos Ayres, large herds 

 of Durham and Hereford cattle. The province 

 where agriculture chiefly continued to flourish 

 is Tucuman, which grows sugar and tobacco, 

 but the sugar-planting industry is protected 

 by a high tariff. In Mendoza and San Juan, 

 where cattle are bred or fattened for the Chilian 

 market, French and Italian settlers have planted 

 vineyards with good, hope of success. In these 

 provinces the area of cultivable land could be 

 quadrupled by systematic irrigation. They pos- 

 sess deposits of gold, silver, copper, and petro- 

 leum, but attempts to exploit them have re- 

 sulted in losses. In Patagonia, where small 

 colonies of Scotch and Welsh immigrants have 

 taken up land for grazing, valuable gold quartz 

 reefs and alluvial deposits are said to exist. 

 The area under cultivation in all the provinces 

 and national territories was 7,400,000 acres in 

 1891 only 1 per cent, of their total area. 



The wheat crop of 1894 was a large one, nearly 

 double that of the preceding year, and in spite 

 of the low prices the farmers were not disheart- 

 ened, but made preparations for an increased out- 

 put in the following year. Should the next har- 

 vest prove favorable it was estimated that there 

 would be 2.500,000 tons available for export, as 

 a largely increased area has been broken up in 

 Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, and Entre Rios along 

 the railroad lines. The railroads have not gen- 

 erally availed themselves of the privilege of rais- 

 ing their freight rates in proportion to the rise 

 in the price of gold. The increased production 

 is mainly the work of Italian immigrants, who 

 are content with a little beyond the barest neces- 



