28 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



the ornamental arts ; that the builders of the dol- 

 mens were the ancestors of the present Japanese; 

 that during this period the clans of the race had 

 driven out the aborigines from the richest por- 

 tion of the country, had become a settled and 

 united people, and had made great progress in 

 both the arts and industries." 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, a federal repub- 

 lic in South America. The legislative power is 

 vested in the Congress, consisting of a Senate of 

 30 members, 2 from each province and the federal 

 district, and a House of Representatives, num- 

 bering 86, 1 to every 20,000 inhabitants. The 

 President and Vice-President are elected for six 

 years by popular vote. One third of the Sena- 

 tors and one half of the Representatives are 

 elected every two years. Gen. Julio A. Roca 

 was inaugurated as President on Oct. 12, 1898, 

 and Norberto Quirno Costa as Vice-President. 

 The Cabinet of ministers appointed by the Presi- 

 dent was as follows: Minister of the Interior, 

 Dr. Felipe Yofre ; Minister of Foreign Affairs and 

 Worship, Dr. Amancio Alcorta; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, Dr. Jose" M. Rosa; Minister of Justice, 

 Dr. Oswaldo Magnasco; Minister of War, Gen. 

 Luis Maria Campos; Minister of Marine, Com- 

 modore Martin Rivadavia; Minister of Agricul- 

 ture, Dr. Emilio Frers; Minister of Public Works, 

 Dr. Emilio Civit. 



Area and Population. The area of the re- 

 public is 1,778,195 square miles. The population 

 increased from 1,736,922 at the census of 1869 to 

 3,954,911 at the census of May 10, 1895. The 

 population at the latter date consisted of 2,088,- 

 919 males and 1,865,992 females. These figures 

 do not include 30,000 uncivilized Indians, 60,000 

 unenumerated, and 50,000 Argentinians residing 

 or traveling abroad. Buenos Ayres, the capital, 

 has 753,000 inhabitants; Rosario, the next largest 

 town, 94,025. The number of immigrants in 1897 

 was 72,978; of emigrants, 31,192. Of the immi- 

 grants, 21,431 were females. The total included 

 38,745 Italians, 13,059 Spaniards, 7,813 French, 

 and 1,876 Germans. The total number of foreign- 

 born residents in 1895 was 886,895, of whom 492,- 

 636 were Italians, 198,685 Spanish, 94,098 French, 

 21,788 English, 17,143 Germans, 14,789 Swiss, 

 12,803 Austro-Hungarians, 2,269 Portuguese, and 

 32,184 of other nationalities. 



Finances. The revenue in 1897 was $30,466,- 

 322 in gold and $61,035,853 in paper; expendi- 

 ture, $29,214,763 in gold and $93,427,502 in paper. 

 For 1898 the revenue was estimated at $34,759,- 

 146 in gold and $52,918,000 in paper, and the ex- 

 penditure at $22,100,182 in gold and $97,881,111 

 in paper. The budget estimate of revenue for 

 1899 was $32,423,500 in gold and $67,540,600 in 

 paper. Of the gold revenue, $28,099,800 come 

 from customs. The estimated receipts in paper 

 are $18,000,000 from alcohol, $8,849,400 from to- 

 bacco, $13,868,400 from other taxes, $5,900,- 

 000 from sanitary works, $2,000,000 from land 

 taxes, $7,314,600 from stamps and licenses, 

 $4,543,900 from posts and telegraphs, $4,120,000 

 from sales and leases of land, $2,000,000 from 

 bank profits, and $944,000 from other sources. 

 The total expenditure for 1899 was estimated 

 at $29,070,173 in gold and $75,782,687 in paper. 

 The items are $17,299,711 in paper for the inte- 

 rior and Congress, $237,441 in gold and $249,792 

 in paper for foreign affairs, $6,872,114 in gold for 

 finance, $22,746,732 in gold and $11,249,408 in 

 paper for the debt, $10,331,466 in paper for jus- 

 tice and public instruction, $14,027,582 for war, 

 $11,256,614 for marine, $6,086,000 in gold and 

 $4,400,000 in paper for public works, and $96,000 

 in paper for new ministries. For 1900 revenue 



was estimated at $45,981,000 in gold and $67,122,- 

 000 in currency; expenditure at $32,947,000 in 

 gold and $95,447,000 in currency. The external 

 debt in July, 1898, amounted to 61,900,352 

 sterling, not counting 9,994,098 new bonds to 

 be issued. Of these, 6,746,030 were for con- 

 version of the Buenos Ayres provincial debt, 

 1,378,968 for conversion of the debt of Buenos 

 Ayres city, and 1,819,100 for commutation of 

 railroad guarantees. The internal debt amount- 

 ed to $189,162,500 payable in gold and $45,838,- 

 067 in paper in 1896, since when a popular loan 

 of $39,000,000 has been raised to increase the 

 army and navy and $6,000,000 of bonds have been 

 issued to discharge a debt for education. The 

 floating debt is about $39,000,000. 



The actual revenue in 1898 reached $35,000,000 

 in gold and $49,000,000 in currency. The receipts 

 for 1899 showed in the beginning of the year an 

 increase of nearly 25 per cent., owing to a new 

 tax on alcoholic liquors, and the revised estimate 

 made the total $47,000,000 in gold and $62,000,- 

 000 in paper. Congress in 1898 authorized a 

 sterling loan of 6,000,000, for which, however, 

 satisfactory proposals could not be obtained. In 

 regard to the provincial debts, the National Gov- 

 ernment has offered to pay the interest on all 

 national bonds acquired by the provinces when 

 the loans were first made. Of the heavily in- 

 debted provinces, Entre Rios and San Luis con- 

 cluded an agreement with their European credit- 

 ors in January, 1899. The National Government 

 sought to induce Santa Fe and Cordoba to do the 

 same, and before the end of the fiscal year the 

 debts of all the provinces were arranged. At 

 the opening of Congress, on May 1, President 

 Roca urged in his message the necessity of pla- 

 cing the currency on a sound basis by making 

 notes convertible for gold, so as to avoid the 

 fluctuations that have injured the general com- 

 merce in the past; and to accomplish this he 

 proposes to accumulate a strong gold cash re- 

 serve, by this means gradually improving the 

 value of the currency until it reaches par. The 

 amount of inconvertible paper currency in cir- 

 culation on June 30, 1899, was $292,000,000. 



The debts of the various provinces were con- 

 verted and assumed by the Federal Government 

 on similar terms to those made originally in re- 

 spect to the debt of Buenos Ayres. The Federal 

 Government, for example, handed over to the 

 creditors of Entre Rios $14,000,000 of 4-per-cent. 

 gold bonds for the purpose of canceling the out- 

 standing provincial obligations, and to the cred- 

 itors of Cordoba $11,000,000 of 4-per-cent. bonds 

 to extinguish $27,000,000 of provincial 41-per- 

 cent, bonds, recovering from each province the 

 sums required for the annual service of the debt 

 in a similar manner to that provided for in the 

 case of Buenos Ayres. The assumption or the 

 provincial debts, in addition to the extraordinary 

 obligations incurred in anticipation of war, has 

 increased the liabilities of the Government in ten 

 years from $120,000,000 in gold to $469,000,000. 

 The amount of the external and internal debt of 

 the National Government on June 30, 1899, not 

 including $25,000,000 of floating debt, but includ- 

 ing the settlement of the claims of the Trans- 

 andine Railroad Company and the bonds for the 

 Cordoba and other provincial debts not yet de- 

 livered, was $443,991,768 in gold, requiring for the 

 annual payment of interest and sinking fund 

 $27,760,211 in gold, equal to $7 per capita, and 

 requiring over 38 per cent, of the total federal 

 revenue. Notwithstanding the improved finan- 

 cial outlook, the best terms that the Govern- 

 ment could arrange for the new loan of 6,000,- 



