70 



BRAZIL. 



following have been definitely settled, from 

 which it appears that the receipts were 127,- 

 076,363, the expenditures 138.583,090, and the 

 deficit 11,506,727. For 1881-'82 the Govern- 

 ment admits a deficit of 5,054,000 ; hut on 

 removing some 7,000,000 milreis of Treasury 

 bills, deposits, etc., from the revenue, and 

 nearly 1,000,000 from the expenditures, which 

 had no place there, the actual deficit amounts 

 to 10,315,847. For 1882-'83 the Government's 

 estimate places the deficit at 6,104,000 ; but 

 as the revenue receipts include 17,666,800 of 

 Treasury bills emitted, 141,200 in nickel coins, 

 and 3,500,000 of deposits for special purposes, 

 the deficit really amounts to 27,412,000 milreis 

 as shown on the minister's report. For the 

 current year the " Jornal do Commercio " cal- 

 culates that the deficit on actual appropriations 

 will be 28,366,066, making a total of 62,249,- 

 842 for the two years covered by the budget 

 law now in force. 



On the 19th of September, after a session ot 

 139 days, the General Assembly of Brazil was 

 formally adjourned. Although the financial 

 state of the country is most critical, the impe- 

 rial budget laws for the ensuing year were not 

 passed, and no measures were adopted to aid 

 or relieve the public Treasury. Supplementary 

 or deficiency credits were passed, to an aggre- 

 gate of 18,000,000 milreis ($9,000,000), one of 

 which was for a deficit of 12,000,000 milreis 

 in the public relief expenditures of the Ceard 

 drought of 1878-'80. As the public depart- 

 ments are now running under the budget laws 

 of 3882, which were prorogued to 1883 be- 

 cause the General Assembly failed to pass the 

 regular annual appropriations, it is evident 

 that this fail-are of last session can not be 

 otherwise than inimical to a proper fiscaliza- 

 tion of the public expenditures. 



Revenue of the Provinces. The following table 

 shows the revenue of each province in 1882- 

 1883, the total being 32,662,058 milreis, of 

 which 17i per cent., altogether 5,688,943 mil- 

 reis, were spent on public instruction : 



In 1854 the total number of primary schools 

 in the provinces was 4,014; in 1883 it had 

 increased to 6,180, the increase being about 

 two per cent, per annum. 



The Mint Under provisions of the law of 

 1849 there have been coined since that year, 

 to the close of 1882, 44,948,083 milreis gold 

 and 18,979,927 milreis silver. From 1703 to 

 1883 the mint at Rio de Janeiro has coined 

 262,139,212 milreis gold and 35,508,316 milreis 

 silver. 



Commerce. According to the List " relatorio " 

 of the Minister of Finance, the foreign trade of 

 Brazil (official values), during the fiscal years 

 1880-'81 and 1881-'82, was approximately as 

 follows, the minister stating that full reports 

 had not been received from all the provinces : 



From this it will be seen that the total for- 

 eign trade of the country is about 400,000,000 

 milreis, or, in round numbers, about $200,000,- 

 000 at the par of exchange. During the past- 

 fiscal year (1882-'83), although no general sta- 

 tistics of that year have been compiled, it 

 is certain that the above totals were greatly 

 reduced. The imports were considerably de- 

 creased because of the general stagnation in 

 business and the increase in taxation. Toward 

 the end of 1882 a new surtax of 10 per cent, 

 was imposed on imports, and the customs-ware- 

 house charges were largely increased. The im- 

 mediate result of this step was a decrease in 

 imports, both on account of the enhanced cost 

 of goods and the additional costs of storage. 

 Under the new warehouse charges, importers 

 are limiting their receipts to current demands, 

 and are keeping their stock reduced to the 

 narrowest limits possible. In exports, with 

 the exception of coffee, and possibly rubber, 

 there was also a large falling off', owing to the 

 failure of crops in the northern provinces, and 

 to the general decline in many branches of in- 

 dustry. In the rubber-trade it is possible that 

 the exportation was also reduced through the 

 attempt to "corner" the market, though at 

 the sjime time production has gone on steadily 

 increasing. The customs revenue, however, 

 shows a large increase, though how much of 

 this is due to enhanced values it is difficult to 

 say. In the absence of complete and trust- 

 worthy statistics it is impossible to form any 

 accurate opinion as to the trade of the whole 

 empire. The official reports, as complete as 

 they ever appear, are always from three to 

 five years behind, and the customs returns 

 from the provinces are both irregular and con- 

 fusing. They are neither accurate nor uni- 

 form. Taken all together, the customs receipts 

 of last year will show a large falling off from 

 the two or three preceding years. The causes 



