326 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



railway managers anxious to pay 407. a year for a local telephone 

 connection developed but slowly, and even the stream of ordinary 

 twelve-pounders who did not keep casinos bore more resemblance 

 to a Ravensbourne than to a Mississippi. A concession was 

 granted for Felanitx, the inhabitants of which town were assumed 

 to be eager to get level with the necessities of modern life on the 

 1 2/. a year terms. An exchange was built and declared opened 

 in October 1888, at which time the only connection to it was a 

 public telephone station. At December 31, 1891, the date of the 

 last report, the system had neither grown nor decreased but was- 

 still open. At the end of 1890, after more than four years' de- 

 velopment, the exchanges in Madrid and Barcelona having been 

 opened in 1886, the number of subscribers in all Spain was 8,680, 

 connected to thirty-two exchanges, giving an average of 271 sub- 

 scribers per exchange. The total annual subscriptions actually 

 collected in 1890 amounted to 1,726,284 francs, or 198 francs 

 (7/. iSs. 5*/.) per subscriber. These results were, rightly enough, 

 considered unsatisfactory, and a third royal decree made its 

 appearance in November 1890 and came into operation on 

 January 2, 1891. The decree set forth that the State, instead 

 of being, as the royal decree of 1886 had alleged, a perpetual 

 obstacle to the development of telephoning, had, in Spain, proved 

 its greatest supporter. That opinions were now divided as to the 

 better method of control, State or company, so that it was deemed 

 judicious to recall the decree of 1886 in order that the State might 

 again be free to undertake exchange work where expedient. At 

 the same time, it was proposed to give future companies a greater 

 degree of freedom. This it certainly did in various ways. The 

 auction system was abandoned, and the royalty reduced from as 

 much as could be screwed out of the concessionaries to 10 per 

 cent, on the net earnings, with a minimum payment for each town 

 based on the number of inhabitants. Thus a town of 10,000 

 inhabitants or less must pay a minimum royalty of 4o/. per annum ; 

 10,001 to 20,000, 8o/. ; 20,001 to 50,000, 2oo/. ; increasing by steps 

 to 2,ooo/. for a town of 200,001 or more inhabitants. 



The rates were generally reduced, even the unhappy casino- 

 keepers being remembered, and new regulations issued. As 

 these rates and regulations represent the conditions under which 



