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An important feature in the administration of the finances of the kingdom is the maintenance of a reserve fund of a comparatively large amount. 1867 it was 116,246,060 kroner; in 1877, 38,365,915 kroner; in 1887, 17,820,879 kroner. On the 31st of March, 1898, it stood at 17,890,461 kroner. The object of the reserve fund is to provide means at the disposal of the Government in the event of sudden occurrences.

The public debt of Denmark has been incurred in part by large annual deficits in former years, before the establishment of parliamentary government, and in part by railway undertakings and the construction of harbours, lighthouses, and other works of public importance. The following table gives the national liabilities at different periods, from 1870 to 1896 :

The debt is divided into an internal and a foreign. The total foreign deb amounted in 1898 to 138,512,250 kroner. The debt is mostly at 3 per cent

The interest of the debt for 1897-98 was set down as 7,300,148 kroner; after deducting productive investments, &c., the charge per head of population would be about 2s. 8d. The investments of the State on March 31, 1898, including the reserve fund, but excluding the State railways (valued at 218,021,694 kroner) and the domains amounted to 73,164,075 kroner.

Defence.

The army of Denmark consists of all the able-bodied young men of the kingdom who have reached the age of 22 years. They are liable to service for eight years in the regular army and its reserve, constituting the first line, and for eight years subsequent in the extra reserve. The drilling is divided into two periods: the first lasts six months for the infantry; three months for the field artillery and the engineers; eight months for the cavalry; and four months for the siege artillery and the technic corps. The second period of drill, which is for only a portion of the recruits of each branch of arms, notably those who have profited the least by the first course, lasts eight months for the infantry, eleven months for the cavalry, and one year for the artillery and the engineers. Besides, every corps has to drill each year during twenty-five to thirty days. The kingdom is divided into two divisions or commands, the eastern and the western, the former subdivided into two and the latter into three brigades, and each brigade into two regiments of three battalions. Every brigade furnishes the contingent of a brigade of infantry and one regiment of cavalry.

The forces of the kingdom comprise 31 battalions of infantry of the line with 11 of reserve; 5 regiments of cavalry, each with 3 squadrons active and a depôt; 2 regiments of field artillery, in 12 batteries, and 4 of reserve, and 1 regiment of 3 battalions with 12 companies of fortress artillery, and 6 companies of reserve; and regiment of engineers. The strength of the army (1899) is 800 officers and 9,000 men; the war strength is 1,350 officers and 58,600 men. The total war strength of Citizen Corps of Copenhagen and Bornholm Island is about 4,700 men.

The Danish fleet is maintained for purposes of coast-defence. It comprises 4 coast-defence armourclads (named in italics below): the turret-ship Helgoland; the barbette ship, Iver Hvitfeldt ; the torpedo ship, Tordenskjold; 6 third-class cruisers and gun vessels, 7 gunboats, and a flotilla of 14 first-class and 20 second-class torpedo boats. The following are the armoured vessels of the fleet. Those in italics are purely for coast defence class; b. broadside, c. b. central battery, t. turret, bar. barbette, Q. F. quickfiring.

The Tordenskjold is a remarkable ship having no side-armour, but carrying in an armoured barbette the heaviest gun in the Danish Navy. The deckprotected cruisers Geiser, Hekla, and Heimdal (1,310 tons), Fyen (2,740 tons. and Valkyrien (3,020 tons) have been built, like most other Danish vessels, at Copenhagen. These are the most important and recent of the cruising vessels. An armoured ship, the Herluf Trolle, of 3,470tons, and a sister ship are in hand at Copenhagen.

Production and Industry.

The soil of Denmark is greatly subdivided, owing partly to the state of the law, which interdicts the union of small farms into larger estates, but encourages, in various ways, the parcelling out of landed property, and leaves the tenant entire control of his land so long as the rent is paid.

Of the total area of Denmark 80 per cent. is productive; about one sixth of the unproductive area is peat bogs. Of the productive area 6 per cent. is forest, and of the remainder less than one half is arable, and the remainder pasture and meadows. The total area under corn crops, according to latest returns (1896), was 2,876,000 acres; potatoes, 129,500 acres ; clover, 656,600 acres; bare fallow, 545, 600 acres ; meadows, &c., 2,247,000 acres. The leading crops in 1897 were oats, 34, 140,000 bushels; barley, 18,580,000 bushels; rye, 17,570,000 bushels; wheat, 3,368,000 bushels; potatoes, 19,550,000 bushels; other roots, 147,000,000 bushels; besides vegetables, hay and clover. The total value of the produce in 1897 was 319,832,876 kroner; in 1896, 323,598,188 kroner; in 1895, 301,170,176 kroner.

On July 15, 1893, there were in Denmark proper 410,639 horses, 1,696,190 head of cattle, 1,246,552 sheep, 25, 266 goats, and 829, 131 swine. (In 1881 there were 1,470,078 cattle, and in 1871, 1,238, 898.)

In 1897 there were exported 20,800 horses, 81,122 head of cattle, 6,250 sheep and lambs.

In 1897 there were in Denmark 81 distilleries (Copenhagen 22), whose output of brandy, reduced to pure alcohol (100 per cent.), was 3,586,000 gallons (16,870,000 potter). In 1896 there were produced 20,530,000 gallons of excisable beer and 29,840,000 gallons (small) beer, not excisable. In the same year 48,345 tons of beet sugar were produced at 6 sugar factories.

Commerce.

The following table shows the value, according to official returns, of the imports and general exports (excluding precious metal) for six years.

1890

1893 1894

307,031,194 233,837,937 1895 364,039,120 268,894,032 320,294,907 235,115,937 1896 383,936,695 283,878,946 348,969,131 263,664,535 1897

416,797,703 328,121,076

The exports of home produce in five years were, in kroners :---1893, 198,300; 1894, 221,700,000; 1895, 216,700,000; 1896, 218,600,000; 1897, 243,500,000.

In 1897 the general imports and exports, and the special imports and exports (imports for consumption and exports of Danish produce or manufacture) were as follows:

The principal articles of import and export, with their respective values, were as follows:

1 Before 1897 the free port of Copenhagen figured in the tables as foreign territory, but now its trade is included with that of the rest of Denmark.

The values of imports, whether subject to duty or duty-free, and of exports, always duty-free, are determined by the Statistical Bureau in communication with commercial firms, who state the average values of the various articles of merchandise. The quantities are verified by the Customs authorities. The prime origin and ultimate destination of goods are not recorded. The general trade comprehends all imports and exports; the special trade only imports for consumption, and exports of home produce. Usually the Customs authorities easily ascertain whether imports and exports belong to the general or the special trade, but sometimes the amount of imports for home consumption is determined merely by the excess of imports over exports.

The value of the imports into the United Kingdom from Denmark (including Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, and Greenland), and of the domestic exports from the United Kingdom to Denmark, is shown in the subjoined table in each of the last five years, according to the Board of Trade Returns :

The imports of butter into Great Britain from Denmark rose from 767,1907. in 1870 to 6,748,1637. in 1897. In 1897 the imports of live animals from Denmark amounted to the value of 41,2127. (in 1891, 359,5537.), comprising 19,1897. for sheep and 22, 0237. for horses. The import of eggs has risen from 67,6547. in 1878 to 596,2827. in 1897. The import of bacon in 1897 was 2,744,4307. Of British exports to Denmark in 1897, cotton manufactures and yarn amounted to 536,8117., coal to 773,7251., iron, wrought and unwrought, to 397,2927., sugar, 71,8167., and woollens, including yarn, 300,1387.

Shipping and Navigation.

On December 31, 1897, Denmark and colonies possessed 3,696 vessels (of 4 tons and upwards) of 356, 108 registered tons in her merchant marine, of which 44 of 182,702 tons were steamers. In 1897, 32,036 vessels of 2,712,224 tons cargo entered the Danish ports, and 31,424 vessels of 713,671 tons cargo cleared, besides 35,389 coasting vessels entered, and 35,431 cleared.

Internal Communications.

There are (1897) railways of a total length of 1,532 English miles open for traffic in the kingdom. Of this total, about 1,087 English miles belong to the State, the total cost of which up to March 31, 1898, was 218,021,694 kroner.

The Post Office in the year 1897 carried 80,821,201 letters and post-cards, and 74,403,222 samples and printed matter. There are 829 post-offices. The State telegraphs in 1897 carried 2,009,788 messages, of which 597,437 were internal, 1,262,734 international, 149, 617 official or meteorological. The length of State telegraph lines at the end of 1897 was 2,988 English miles, and the length of wire 8,549 English miles; number of offices 171. At the same date the railway and private telegraphs had 249 offices. There are besides, exclusively for the telephone traffic, 575 English miles of lines, and 1,067 English miles of double wire; number of State telephone offices 27.