672 



PORTUGAL. 



1, 1894, a debt of 43,284,600 milreis for which the 

 tobacco receipts are pledged, 14,631,413 milreis 

 of 4 per cents., and 80,293,380 of 4| per cents. 

 Of the consolidated 3 per cents., 187,794,340 mil- 

 reis and 66,844,890 of the amortizable bonds, 

 8,352,990 milreis of the 4's, and 58,491,900 mil- 

 reis of the 4 per cents, are held in London, 

 Paris, and other foreign places, making the total 

 foreign debt 254,639,230 milreis, and the internal 

 debt 370,281,639 milreis. 



The Army and Navy. The standing army 

 numbers 2,029 officers and 24,919 men of all 

 arms, with 3,888 horses and pack animals. In- 

 cluding the municipal and fiscal guards, the 

 total peace effective is 2,286 officers and 31,886 

 men. There are about 100,000 trained men. 

 The infantry and cavalry are armed with Kro- 

 patschek repeating rifles, 8 millimetres caliber. 

 The artillery has 264 guns of various calibers, 

 some breech-loading and some muzzle-loading. 



The war navy consists of 1 armored corvette, 

 6 unarmored corvettes, 14 gunboats, 5 stationary 

 gunboats, 11 sloop gunboats, 4 torpedo boats, 

 and 6 transports, having an aggregate armament 

 of 160 guns. There are under construction 1 

 armored cruiser of 4,500 tons and 2 gunboats. 



Commerce. The imports of merchandise for 

 1893 were valued at 38,314,780 milreis, and the 

 imports of specie at 1,530,383 milreis, making 

 the total value of the imports 39,845,163 milreis; 

 while the exports of merchandise were 23,358.739 

 milreis in value, and the exports of specie 5,929- 

 483 milreis, a total of 29,288,222 milreis. The 

 principal imports are cereals, cotton, iron, fish, 

 sugar, cotton cloth, wool, coal, hides and skins, 

 animals, staves, silk tissues, timber, rice, ma- 



per, 1,679,000 milreis; sardines, 968,000 milreis; 

 fruit, 685.000 milreis; animals, 578,000 milreis; 

 cotton cloth, 548,000 milreis ; onions, 493,000 

 milreis. 



Navigation. There were 5,498 sailing vessels, 

 of 495,000 tons, and 4,825 steamers, of 6,534,000 

 tons, entered at the ports of the kingdom during 

 1893, and 5,532 sailing vessels, of 510,000 tons, 

 and 4,832 steamers, of 6.532,000 tons, cleared. 

 The merchant navy in 1893 consisted of 186 

 vessels, of 104,394 tons. 



Railroads. There were 1,420 miles of rail- 

 road in operation in 1892, of which 915 belonged 

 to the Government. 



Financial Policy. Senhor Fuschini entered 

 the Cabinet of Hintze Ribeiro as a representa- 

 tive of advanced ideas, avowing himself a Social- 

 ist. The Cabinet was harmonious until he pre- 

 sented his scheme of increased taxation, late in 

 1893. He proposed a tax on the large landed 

 estates, and a tax on native industries, with a 

 system of stamping commercial books, intended 

 not so much to produce revenue as to insure 

 accuracy in the returns. The increase in the 

 industrial taxes was expected when the high pro- 

 tective tariffs were imposed in 1892. The in- 

 dustrialists and trading classes had therefore no 

 ground for objecting to the new taxes in prin- 

 ciple, but when all the bills passed the Cortes 

 except the one taxing the large landowners, 

 whose contributions to the state were notori- 

 ously inadequate, the manufacturing and trad- 



ing community was greatly agitated. Owing to 

 the secret operation of private influences the 

 land tax was never even considered by the 

 Cortes. Fuschini, backed by the Liberal League, 

 protested. Bernardino Machado, who was his 

 ally in the Cabinet, was driven to resign the port- 

 folio of Public Works, Commerce, and Industry. 

 The Liberal League thereupon demanded that 

 the portfolio should be given to Fuschini in ad- 

 dition to his own. His colleagues would not 

 agree to this, whereupon he too resigned just 

 before the beginning of the new year. "When 

 they were both gone the reconstructed ministry 

 persisted in maintaining the parts of Fuschini 8 

 financial programme that had been approved 

 by the Cortes, and put in force the new tax on 

 internal commerce and manufacturing and the 

 new stamp duties immediately. The commercial, 

 the industrial, and the shopkeepers' associations 

 held indignation meetings without drawing any 

 response from the Government. At last they 

 announced a monster meeting for Jan. 29. The 

 Government prohibited it, with the result that 

 when the day came every shop, office, and manu- 

 factory in Lisbon, even every tavern, was closed, 

 and the meeting, which was to have been legally 

 a private one, with admission by ticket only, was 

 converted into a great open-air demonstration. 

 In other towns similar demonstrations were 

 made. On the following days most shops re- 

 mained closed. The Government issued a decree 

 postponingindefinitely the elections fortheCortes, 

 which were to take place on Feb. 11, and another 

 dissolving the commercial and industrial associa- 

 t ions. The attitude of the people soon convinced 

 the Cabinet that the position it had taken was 

 untenable. The King received the presidents of 

 the associations, whose halls had been closed 

 and sealed by the police, and he promised to lay 

 their representations before the ministry. Then 

 the Cabinet conferred with them and promised to 

 re-examine the objectionable taxes, and not to 

 levy them, pending their reconsideration. On re- 

 ceiving these assurances the shopkeepers on Feb. 4 

 reopened their places of business and abstained 

 from further agitation. The elections were fixed 

 by a decree of March 17 to be held on April 15 

 for Deputies, and on April 30 for nonhereditary 

 members of the House of Peers. On March 15 

 Senhor Arouca resigned the portfolio of Foreign 

 Affairs, which was taken by Hintze Ribeiro, who 

 held it before. The results of the elections to 

 the Chamber of Deputies gave the Government 

 a majority of 47 over all the Opposition groups ; 

 109 Ministerialists were elected, against 49 Pro- 

 gressists, 11 Independents, and 2 Republicans. 

 An epidemic of choiera morbus interrupted com- 

 munications with other countries in April. 



Differences arose between the French and the 

 Portuguese governments in consequence of which 

 the French minister went to Paris in February, 

 and did not return until they were settled in May. 

 French missionaries in Zanzibar, who had been 

 evicted at the instance of the Portuguese consul, 

 were, again put in possession of their property ; 

 a quarrel with M. Hersent, a French contractor 

 for harbor works at Lisbon, was submitted to 

 arbitration ; and the Portuguese Government 

 agreed to give French bondholders and share- 

 holders in the Portuguese railroads representa- 

 tion on the board of directors, of which they had 



