Spain 327 



the telephonic industry in Spain is now pursued, they are given 

 rather fully below. With regard to trunk lines, concessions have 

 been granted for connecting Madrid to Saragossa, Barcelona, Pam- 

 peluna, St. Sebastian, Vittoria, Bilbao, Valencia, Tarrasa, and Saba- 

 dell. Of these, only the Madrid-Barcelona and the Bilbao-Vittoria 

 are at the date of writing (February 1895) reported finished. 



The new policy has, it is understood, been attended by con- 

 siderable development. The last official report only extends to 

 the end of 1892, when the number of exchanges was forty- six, and 

 of subscribers 10,984. Practically the whole of the increase over 

 1890 had been won by the companies, for although the State had, 

 in pursuance of the new policy inaugurated by the decree of 1890, 

 opened no less than ten exchanges, its subscribers, after two years' 

 working, only numbered 135 ! The State management appears to 

 be on less liberal lines than that of the companies, since the 

 statistics show that it possesses no public telephone stations, and 

 that there is neither a telegram nor telephonogram service in con- 

 nection with its exchange. 



The Spanish system, although now modified on decidedly 

 liberal lines so liberal as to include the cheapest rate for tele- 

 grams in the world is defective in one important particular. 

 The concessions are for twenty years only, after which the whole 

 system becomes the property of the State without payment to the 

 concessionaries of any kind, unless the State is willing to take over 

 the switch-boards and subscribers' instruments (a most unlikely 

 contingency, seeing that most of this apparatus will be of old 

 design and well worn), which will then be paid for at a rate to be 

 settled by arbitration failing friendly agreement. This means that 

 the concessionaries have not only to earn adequate interest on 

 their capital, but are to get back the principal too, and that within 

 twenty years. Such an arrangement must be bad for the sub- 

 scribers during the latter half of the concessionary term, for it 

 may be taken for granted that no improvements will be introduced 

 and the service starved in every conceivable way. And eventually 

 the State will come into possession of a system the upkeep of 

 which has been so neglected that a thorough reconstruction will 

 be the first thing it will have to set about. Technically, the future 

 in Spain is not bright ; for although metallic circuits prevail, we 



