320 foreign and colonial office reports. [dec. 1896. 



Agricultural Depression in Spain. 



The Foreign Office has lately published a Report on the 

 Spanish Estimates for 1896-7, drawn up by Sir George 

 Bonham, Bart., Secretary to Her Majesty's Embassy at Madrid. 



It is stated that the agricultural condition of the country is 

 so depressed that 6,000,000 pesetas (240,000Z.) of the surplus is 

 to be at once devoted to the relief of that industry. The form 

 in which this relief is to be given is described in a Bill, which 

 proposes to grant temporary freedom from the duty on succes- 

 sion and transfer of property, also from import duties on cattle, 

 plants and seeds imported for the improvement of agriculture. 

 Assistance is also to be given by means of increased facilities to 

 companies for obtaining loans for agricultural purposes, the 

 expense of so doing to be defrayed out of the sum of 6,000,000 

 pesetas (240,000?.), part of the surplus in the ordinary budget. 

 A certain sum derived from the same source will also be em- 

 ployed by the Agricultural Department in the acquisition of 

 certain plants and seeds, and with the same object of assisting 

 agriculture the increased duties on wheat and flour imposed by 

 the law of February, 1895, will be continued until June 30, 1897. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1776. Price 2d.] 



The Antwerp Linseed Trade. 



In a review of the trade statistics of Antwerp during the 

 year 1895, Mr. G. R. de Courcy-Perry, Her Majesty's Consul- 

 General at that port, states that, according to a gentleman who 

 is thoroughly acquainted with the trade between Bombay and 

 Antwerp, India has occupied, in the past, the leading position 

 as an exporter of linseed and rapeseed ; but that her supremacy 

 in regard to the former is likely soon to be challenged by the 

 Argentine Republic, which is making rapid strides as a pro- 

 ducing country. Although the linseed is smaller than a fair 

 average of Indian sorts, it is, as a rule, better cleaned than the 

 latter, and at a difference of about 2 fr. 50 c. per 100 kilos, (one 

 shilling per cwt.) is becoming a favourite with crushers. The 

 crop of La Plata has now assumed such dimensions that no 

 forecast of the probable future of prices can be made without 

 careful inquiry into the probabilities of the return from that 

 quarter, and, as far as can be gathered from inquiries made, the 

 Russian and Plata crops, not the Indian, are now the dominant 

 factors in prices in Europe. The United States also is raising a 

 considerable quantity of linseed, and altogether it would seem as 

 if Indian producers have now and henceforward to reckon with 

 annually increasing competition, and must shape their course so 

 as to hold their own in European markets. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, JS T o. 1806. Price ljc?.] 



