386 
Present Condition of Chile . 
[July 
are the postal statistics of the country, which may fitly 
claim a passing word. In 1852 71,168 letters, newspapers, 
and documents of all kinds passed through the post. In 
twelve years, that is in 1864, their number had risen to 
4,375,408, while in 1874 it reached the figure 12,984,428, the 
increase in 1874 over the previous year being no less than 
1,748,800. In 1874 there were transmitted 141,897 tele- 
grams, for which 58,295 dollars were received, while, in 1875, 
the number rose to 161,459, an d produced 59,866 dollars. 
The Transandine telegraph line of Messrs. Clark, which has 
been working for some years, is an achievement of which 
any country might well be proud ; the wires are conveyed 
across the mountains on stone pillars, and in the more ex- 
posed portions carried underground. 
Public Revenue and Expenditure . — The ordinary revenue 
for 1874 was £3,080,164, and the extraordinary revenue 
-£52,180, ora total of £3,162,344, while the ordinary expen- 
diture was £3,431,017, and the extraordinary expenditure 
£1,070,735, or a total of £4,501,772. The deficit on the 
year was therefore £1,369,428, of which £897,692 were taken 
out of the loan contracted in England in the previous year, 
and the remainder was met out of Treasury balances, and by a 
temporary advance from the National Bank of Chile. In this 
connection it may be remarked that the works of public 
utility undertaken in the last few years are of considerable 
magnitude, and though, for the most part, undoubtedly 
destined to be remunerative, the outlay incurred on them 
has sensibly disturbed the equilibrium of Chilean finance. 
For information respecting the Chilean loans, and the 
general indebtedness of the State, we must refer the reader 
to Mr. Rumbold’s Report. 
General Review of Exports. — Agricultural . — The Chilean 
exports, with the trifling exception of a few local manufac- 
tures and miscellaneous articles, altogether not amounting 
to one per cent of the whole, are made up of the mining 
produce and the agricultural produce (raw and manipulated) 
of the country in nearly equal proportions : but it is as 
a mining country that Chile is of absolute interest and 
importance to foreign markets. 
A few notes with regard to the rise of Chilean agriculture 
will not be without interest. Up to the year 1848 Chile 
grew little beyond what she consumed, and the production 
of cereals was not looked upon as lucrative. The discovery 
of gold in California, in 1847, changed the whole aspeCt of 
things. The exports in wheat and flour alone increased 
nearly fourfold in two years, and sevenfold in seven. This 
