SPAIN 



5476 



SPAIN 



Much of the trade in normal times is with 

 Great Britain, France, the United States, Ger- 

 many, Argentina and Cuba. Trade is pro- 

 tected by high duties, and since 1894 the United 

 Kingdom has been the "most favored nation." 

 In 1912 a commercial treaty with Portugal was 

 broken, and the regular tariff rates now apply 



to Portuguese goods. The principal exports 

 are wine, over 3,000,000 gallons of which go 

 yearly to Great Britain alone, cork, metals, 

 olives and other fruits, wool and cotton goods. 

 Foodstuffs, live stock, machinery, coal, raw cot- 

 ton and linen are imported. Bilbao and Bar- 

 celona are the chief ports. 



Government and History of Spain 



Army and Navy. Military service for a 

 term of eighteen years is compulsory in Spain. 

 There is an Aeronautical Service, consisting of 

 balloon and aeronautic sections, attached to 

 the military department. The reserve troops 



THE FLAGS OF SPAIN 

 (a) Warship; (&) merchant marine ; (c) mail. 



number about 90,000 and the total strength of 

 the field army is about 300,000 men. There 

 are three military commissions in the colonies. 

 The Civil Guards, numbering 20,000, and the 

 Carabinos, or military police, preserve order 

 throughout Spain and act as the customs guard 

 on the frontier. 



The navy has been comparatively weak, but 

 a recent bill provides for the expenditure of 

 about $55,000,000 for the six years following 

 February, 1915; the program includes cruisers, 

 destroyers, gunboats, many submarines and 

 mines, new repair docks and works. In 1915 

 the navy consisted of not more than forty ships 

 and about 15,200 sailors and marines. 



Colonies. Of its once extensive colonial pos- 

 sessions, Spain now retains only Adrar and Rio 

 de Oro, on the Sahara coast, Spanish Guinea, 

 also on the west coast of Africa, and the islands 

 of Fernando Po, Annobon and Corisco and 

 the Elobey Islands, all in the Gulf of Guinea. 

 The total area of these possessions is 85,814 

 square miles, and their population numbers 

 235,844. The Canary and Balearic islands are 

 considered a part of Spain, and are under the 

 central government. The colonial government 

 of Spanish Guinea and of the islands in the 

 Gulf of Guinea is centered at Fernando Po. 

 Rio de Oro and Adrar are under the govern- 

 ment of the Canary Islands, 



Government. Spain is a constitutional mon- 

 archy. Its present constitution was adopted in 

 1876. The executive power is vested in the 

 king and a council of ministers appointed by 

 him. The monarch is inviolable, but the minis- 

 ters are responsible to the Cortes and must sign 

 all of the king's decrees. The king has power 

 to assemble, suspend or dissolve the Cortes. 



The legislative authority is vested in the 

 king and the Cortes. The Cortes meets annu- 

 ally and consists of the Senate and Congress 

 of Deputies. There are 360 Senators, eighty 

 of whom are hereditary, 100 appointed and 180 

 elected. The hereditary Senators are the adult 

 sons of the king and those of the heir, the 

 grandees, captains-general in the army, ad- 

 mirals, archbishops, and the presidents of the 

 councils of state, of the supreme tribunal, of 

 the tribunal of accounts and of the war and 

 navy. Half of the elective Senators retire every 

 five years, and all retire whenever that body is 

 dissolved by the king. The Deputies are ap- 

 portioned according to population, one to every 

 50,000 people. Senators and Deputies have 

 equal authority. If the Cortes is dissolved by 

 the king, a new Cortes must assemble within 

 three months. Since 1907 voting has been com- 

 pulsory for all males over twenty-five years of 

 age, and all such voters must be registered, 

 possess full civil rights and must have been 

 members of the municipality for two years. 



Local Government. Each province and com- 

 mune has its own elected assembly, and neither 

 the king nor the Cortes has the right to inter- 

 fere in the government of the established com- 

 munes and provinces except in the protection 

 of general or permanent interest. 



The Three Conquests of Spain. This ancient 

 country, known to the Greeks and Romans as 

 Hispania or Iberia, and inhabited by people 

 they called Celtiberians, was colonized in the 

 twelfth century before Christ by the Phoeni- 

 cians. In the third century before Christ the 

 Greeks founded the city of Saguntum, and the 

 Carthaginians crossed the Mediterranean to the 

 peninsula and founded New Carthage. 



