Year.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893..

1894. 1895.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF GOLD AND SILVER COIN AND BULLION.

The mercantile navy of Italy for 1894 is shown as follows:

In 1895 there entered Italian ports 96,512 Italian vessels, of 17,747,629 tons, and 10,739 foreign vessels, of 10,110,165 tons. Cleared 96,057 Italian vessels, of 17,758,323 tons, and 10,678 foreign vessels of 10,072,702 tons.

RAILROADS, POST-OFFICES, TELEGRAPHS.

A majority of Italian railroads are State property, but by an act of April 27, 1885, they were transferred to private management. The contracts are for sixty years, but may be terminated at the expiration of twenty and forty years.

On January 1, 1891, there were 5,246 miles of State lines, 96 miles of joint-stock and corporation, and 2,794 miles of corporation road. In 1890 the passenger receipts were 98,517,946 lire; total receipts, 255,687,108 lire. The total expenses were 193,879,424 lire. Number of passengers carried was 50,855,569.

The total length of lines on January 1, 1896, was 9,580 miles.

POST-OFFICE.

For the year ending June 30, 1895, the post-office carried 202,225,636 letters and postal cards, together with 45,176,416 Government letters. Manuscripts, periodicals, and other printed matter numbered 238,650,097. Money orders numbered 9,567,748, of the value of 675,299,768 lire.

TELEGRAPHS.

The entire telegraphic service is owned by the Government, certain privileges, however, being granted to railroads. The total length of lines on June 30, 1895, was 24,716 miles; length of wire, 95,675 miles. The number of messages sent in 1895 was 7,043,846 inland and 1,796,042 foreign. Total revenue in 1895, 68,978,581 lire; expenditures, 54,875,667 lire.

MONEY AND CIRCULATION.

The money is the same as that of France, the lira being equal to 19.3 cents. The circulation of State and bank notes is shown as follows:

Gold was coined to the value of 1,364,400 lire in 1890; 653,220 lire in 1891; 674,120 lire in 1892; 824.280 lire in 1893. No silver has been coined in recent years. In 1894 bronze pieces were coined to the amount of 3,790,978 lire; nickel, 17,780,200 lire; in 1895, nickel, z,219,800 lire.

The total coinage from 1862 to the end of 1894 was: Gold, 426,332,990 lire; silver, 567,037,025 lire; nickel, 17,780,200 lire; bronze, 83,636,121 lire; total, 1,094,786,336 lire. The recoinage was 28,954,834 lire. NOTE. For further information see this "Year Book," Volume I, pages 61-63.

* Including, for 1893, 9,182,000 lire; for 1894, 2,445,000 lire; and for 1895, 857,355 of notes of the Banca Romana (in liquidation).

BANKING.

There are now only three banks of issue: The Banca d'Italia; the Banca di Napoli, and the Banca di Sicilia. In 1895 the condition of the three institutions combined was as follows:

There are 759 co-operative credit societies and popular banks, with assets at the end of 1891 amounting to 754,072,665 lire, and liabilities 745,789,445 lire; 150 ordinary credit companies, with assets 1,726,911,882 lire, and liabilities 173,940,689 lire. Eleven agrarian credit companies had assets (1892) 49,812,389 lire, and liabilities 49,759,134 lire. There were 10 crédit foncier companies with assets 1,071,378,107 lire, and liabilities 1,063,418,487 lire (1894).

In 1895 the ordinary savings-banks had 1,588,412 depositors, their total deposits amounting to 1,343,723,104 lire.

* Figures are for the year 1893.

BELGIUM.

AREA AND POPULATION.

The area of Belgium is 11,373 square miles. According to the census of 1890, the population was then 6,069,321, in 1880 it was 5,520,009, in 1870, 5,087,826, in 1860, 4,731,996, in 1850, 4,426,205, and in 1840, 4,072,619. The population per square mile in 1894 was 557.6; total population, 6,341,958.

The following table shows the revenue and expenditures, in thousands of francs, for the years indicated:

190,537

14,905

205,442

191,844

25,064

216,908

291.921

102,294

313,170

19,915

340,526

37,878

346,346

55,601

347,264

The amended budget for the year 1897 was: Ordinary revenue, 386,923,178 francs, and ordinary expenditure, 386,295,842 francs.

The national liabilities in 1895 were: Share of the Netherlands debt, at 2% per cent., 219,959,632 francs; loans at 3 per cent., 673,970,458 francs; loans at 3% per cent.. 1,301,446,057 francs; and the floating debt (treasury bonds), 20,000,000 francs, making a total of 2,215,376,147 francs.

AGRICULTURE.

Of the 2,945,715 hectares which compose the area of Belgium, 67.34 per cent. are under cultivation, and 16.61 per cent, under forest, 7.88 per cent. uncultivated, the rest roads, marshes, rivers, etc. The agricultural population in 1880 numbered 1,199,319, or 21.77.

In 1880, the various agricultural products were distributed as follows (in hectares): Cereals, 934,663; peas, beans, etc., 33,093: sugar-beet, 32,627; flax, 40,078; other ornamental plants, 24,070; root plants, 36,153; potatoes, 199,357; grasses, 536,000; heaths, brushwood, land not regularly cultivated, etc., 231,964; fallow, groves, orchards, etc., 146,592; forests, 489,423. The principal cereals were wheat, 275,931 hectares; oats, 249,486; rye, 277,640.

In 1895, the yield of tobacco was 5,166,000 kilogrammes.

The total value of agricultural products in 1880 was 1.412,224,000 francs; and of animal produce, 238,752,380 francs. The net revenue from forests alone in 1890 was 4,830,884 francs. In 1880 there were 271,974 horses, 1,382,815 horned cattle, 365,400 sheep, and 646,375 pigs.

1 hectare = 2.471 acres. 1 kilogramme = 2.2046 pounds avoirdupois.

The production of pig iron and manufactures of iron were as follows:

The value of zinc produced in 1895 was 38,496,000 francs; value of lead, 4,203,000 francs; and of silver from lead, 3,430,000 francs.

FOREIGN COMMERCE.

The imports and exports of Belgium, under “special” and “general” trade, were as follows, in francs:

1887.

1888.

1889.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893.

1894.

1895.

-General Trade

-Special Trade

Imports.

Exports.

1,431,930,000

1,240,624,000

The leading articles of "special trade" for 1894 and 1895 are shown as follows, in thousands of

The values of the imports and exports as between the United States and Belgium, for years ending June 30, were as follows, in thousands of dollars:

The principal articles of imports from Belgium for the year ending June 30, 1896, were: Cement, $871.000; chemicals, drugs and dyes, $241,507; chicory root, $202,993; cotton, manufactures of, $366,112; flax, hemp, and jute, manufactures of, $576,354; furs, manufactures of, $366,602; glass and glassware, $1,688,616; hides and skins, not furs, $211.336; jewelry, $1,269,155; leather, kid gloves, $410,608 paper stock, $372,141; provisions, meat products and cheese, $267,292; sugar, not above No. 16 D. S, beet, $1,771,977; wool, $1,432,400; manufactures of, $666,594.

Principal exports to Belgium were: Breadstuffs, $3,893,234; copper, ingots, bar and old, $1,525,351; cotton, unmanufactured, $3,539,012; iron and steel, manufactures of, $611,490; leather, manufactured, $446,419; naval stores (rosin, etc., and turpentine), $742,158; oil cake and oil cake meal, $1,206,719: refined mineral oil, $2,637,758; provisions, $4,877,026, of which $2,520,358 is bacon and hams and $1,900,065 is lard; tobacco, unmanufactured, $2,216,921; wool and manufactures of, $591,108.

For years 1855 to 1884 see this "Year Book," Volume I, pages 42 and 43.

RAILROADS, TELEGRAPHS, ETC.

The length of railroads open on January 1, 1896, was: 2,044 miles operated by the State; 795 miles worked by companies; total, 2,839 miles. In 1895, 76,937,198 passengers were carried by State lines, and 22,662,735 by company lines. For 1895, the gross receipts for State lines were 154,467,350 francs, of which 50,411,389 francs were for passengers; for the companies, 42,167,600, of which 12,591,444 francs were for passengers. Expenses for the State were 90,436,312 francs; for the companies, 20,054,337.

The first cost of the State railways from their origin in 1834 to the end of 1895 amounted to 1,413,057,543 francs; the net receipts from 1835 amounted to 1,505,187,060 francs, and the financial charges to 1,437,038,840 francs.

On January 1, 1895, there were 847 post-offices. The gross revenue amounted to 19,712,524 francs, and expenditure 10,586,960. The number of private letters transmitted was 109,921,305; official letters, 20,786,583; post cards, 45,177,886: printed matter, 89,061,193; and newspapers, 110,695,533.

The telegraphs carried 8,515,157 dispatches. The total length of public telegraphic lines was 4,045 miles, and length of wires, 19,645. Receipts, 4,909,693 francs; expenses, 4,867,971.

MONEY.

The franc is the unit of value and is of the par value of 19.3 cents. Belgium is one of the five States forming the Latin Union.

For monetary system of Latin Union see "Commercial Year Book," Volume I, pages 61-63. The nominal value of coin minted and circulated from 1832 to 1894 was: Gold, 598,642,745 francs; silver, 556,342,745 francs; copper and nickel, 17,671,784 francs; total, 1,172,657,275 francs. No coinage has been minted recently. The proportion of Belgian and of foreign fractional silver coin (2, 1 and 4 franc pieces) in circulation was as follows: Of silver fractional pieces amounting to 349,217 francs received at the offices of the bank on September 1, 1893, 43.53 per cent. in value was Belgian, 34.24 per cent. French, 17.83 per cent. Italian, 3.65 per cent. Swiss, 0.745 per cent. Greek; or 56.465 per cent. was foreign.

BANKING.

The one bank of emission in Belgium is the National Bank, instituted 1850. Its capital, entirely paid up, is 550 million francs. It is the cashier of the State, and is authorized to carry on the usual banking operations. The following are statistics of the Bank in thousands of francs:

The following are the statistics of private banks (30) and joint-stock banks (23) for 1888, in thousands of francs:

There are, besides, agricultural banks, credit unions, and popular banks. statistics of the State savings-banks:

The following are