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puts the population, exclusive of that of Panama, at 3,917,000, the area and population of the 8 departments being given as follows:

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This includes about 150,000 uncivilised Indians, and the population of the extensive territories attached to each Department. On December 4, 1903, the Department of Panama asserted its independence and was formed into a separate Republic.

The capital, Bogotá, lies 9,000 feet above the sea. The chief commercial towns are Barranquilla (population 40,000) on a caño of the Magdalena and connected with the coast by 20 miles of railway; Cartagena (20,000); Medellin (40,000), the capital and mining centre of the Department of Antioquia; Bucaramanga (20,000); Cúcuta (10,000), the last two being large coffee centres in Santander.

The frontier line with Venezuela was settled by the award given by the Queen Regent of Spain, March 16, 1891. The boundary line with Brazil is still undefined. That with Peru and Ecuador is to be submitted to the decision of the King of Spain according to the convention of December 15, 1894.

Religion and Instruction.

The religion of the nation is Roman Catholicism, other forms of religion being permitted, so long as their exercise is 'not contrary to Christian morals nor to the law.' There is a Ministry of Public Instruction which has the supreme direction of education throughout the Republic. Nearly all the schools for secondary education, maintained or assisted by the nation, are entrusted to religious corporations of the Catholic Church. There used to be in the capital Faculties of letters and philosophy; of jurisprudence and political sciences; of medicine and natural sciences; and of mathematics and engineering. Of these only the Faculty of Medicine and natural sciences is now open. For the working class there is a school of arts and trades directed by the Salesian Fathers. There are three schools or colleges open, under religious orders, and the school of fine arts has just been reopened. The whole educational system, interrupted during the war, is being reorganised. In 1897 there were in the 9 departments of the Republic 2,026 colleges and primary schools with 143,076 pupils; their cost for the year was 2,400,2477. There

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are no statistics of private schools. Primary education is gratuitous but not compulsory. The Republic possesses a national library, museum, and observatory.

Finance.

The following are the official estimates (in paper pesos) of revenue and expenditure for the biennial periods indicated:

Revenue.
Expenditure.

1895-96

1897-98

1899-1900

1901-02

1903-04

Pesos

Pesos

Pesos

Pesos Pesos 1 26,226,300 34,361,000 29,918,640 28,983, 640 426 031,000

35,773,882 35,771,013 29,918,640 40,427,575 451,557,930

1 Currency, at the rate of 10,000 per cent. Converted at this rate, the revenue is equal to 852,0621., and the expenditure to 903,1157.

The revenue is mainly derived from customs duties. Both import and export duties are levied, the latter falling heavily on the staple products of the country, coffee, hides, skins, rubber, gold, silver, and cattle. The largest items of expenditure are war, 13,317,088 pesos gold; justice, 4,571,892; debt, 3,773,500; finance, 4,336, 238.

The internal debt appears to consist mainly of the paper currency in circulation, amounting, 1903, to 656,000,000 pesos. Other internal debt in 1903 was declared to be reduced to 689,551 pesos.

The external debt, mostly due to British creditors, in 1896 amounted, with arrears, to 3,514,4427. An agreement for a settlement was arrived at by the Colombian Government and the bondholders in January, 1897, new bonds being issued for 2,700,000l. at 13 per cent. interest, increasing by per cent. every three years till the rate is 3 per cent. This arrangement was satisfactorily carried out till August 31, 1899. In the middle of 1904 the interest arrears amounted to 283,5007., and the total external debt to 2,983,5007.

The departmental revenues are derived largely from monopolies.

Defence.

The strength of the national army is determined by Act of Congress each session. The peace footing was fixed at 1,000 in 1898. After the war the actual strength was by decree of March, 1904, reduced to 10,000 men. Every able-bodied Colombian is liable to military service.

The Colombian navy consists of the following vessels:-On the Atlantic, 3 cruisers; on the Pacific, 2 cruisers, 2 gunboats, 1 troopship, 2 tugs; on the river Magdalena, 1 gunboat.

Production.

Colombia is rich in minerals, and gold is found in all the departments. The average annual output of gold and silver is about 823,000l. in value. Mining is carried on in some cases with modern appliances, but more frequently by primitive methods, nearly all the gold mines being either alluvial or in veins. The mines (mostly gold and silver) are in Antioquia, Cauca, Bolivar, Tolima, and Magdalena. Other minerals, more or less

worked, are copper, platinum, lead, mercury, cinnabar (14 mines), manganese (7 mines), emeralds (32 mines). The emerald mines of Muzo and Coscuez belong to the Government, but are leased to mining companies for periods of 5 years. No statistics of their output are published, but they are said to yield over 20,000l. worth of stones per annum. The Pradera iron works northeast of Bogotá have a capacity of 30 tons of pig iron daily, and manufacture wrought iron, rails, sugar mills, castings, &c. In the immediate neighbourhood of the works are coal, iron, limestone, sand, manganese, and fireclay deposits, which render the locality highly favourable for the development of metallurgical industries. The salt mines at Zipaquirà, north of Bogotá, are a government monopoly and a great source of revenue, supplying most of the interior departments. The maritime departments use sea salt evaporated at the numerous natural salt pans along the coast. In several of the departments there are extensive deposits of coal and petroleum. The Government has undertaken the working of the coal mines at San Jorge, which had been abandoned. On the coasts there are valuable pearl fisheries which the Government desires to concede for a term of years.

Only a small section of the country is under cultivation.

Much of the soil

is fertile, but of no present value, from want of means of communication and transport. Coffee is the staple product, but coffee planting has been very much overdone. There are difficulties with respect to labour and transport, so that numerous plantations have had to be abandoned. Tobacco is grown and shipped to Germany. Cotton is produced in Magdalena and Bolivar, but little care is expended on its cultivation or preparation, and its market value is small. Cocoa, sugar, vegetable ivory, and dyewoods are produced, besides wheat, maize, plantains, &c. The rubber tree grows wild, and its cultivation has begun. Tolu balsam is cultivated, and copaiba trees are tapped but are not cultivated. Dye and cedar woods are abundant on the Magdalena river, but little or no wood of any sort is exported In Colombia the number of cattle in 1899 was estimated at 3,465,000, besides 3,487,000 goats, sheep, and swine. There is a considerable export trade in cattle.

Commerce.

The value of the foreign commerce of Colombia for the years named has been as follows in gold pesos, in 1899 and 1900, the exports in sterling

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At the port of

There are no proper statistics of trade for recent years. Barranquilla the imports amount to the value of about 408,000l., and the exports to about 690,000l. annually. From this port the principal exports in 1903 were:

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About 67 per cent. of the coffee goes to the United States; all the tobacco to Germany; and all the cotton to Liverpool or Havre. The chief imports are flour, lard, petroleum, and cotton goods from the United States; sugar, rice and potatoes from Germany; and cotton goods from Great Britain.

The following table gives the total value of the imports into the United Kingdom from Colombia, and of the exports of British home produce to Colombia, according to the Board of Trade returns, in each of the last five years :

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Of the imports into the United Kingdom from Colombia, the most important articles in 1903 were silver ore, of the value of 13,5107. (43,0107. in 1899); coffee, 373,8697. (402,8617. in 1898); caoutchouc, 36, 4817.; hides, 41,872. At the head of the articles of British home produce exported to Colombia in 1903 were cotton goods, of the value of 488,7077. The other principal articles exported from Great Britain to Colombia were linen manufactures, 20,5617.; woollens, 61,355.; iron, wrought and unwrought, 22,4507.; machinery, 20,8007.; sacks, 10,9527.

The imports from Colombia into the United States, and the exports to Colombia from the United States in 5 years were as follows (in U.S. dollars) :—

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Imports into U.S.
Exports to Colombia

4,307,814 3,230,652 3,271,894 4,184,149 7,948,611 2,710,688 3,142,052 2,973,460 4,293,295 4,678,104

The United States imports from Colombia in 1903 comprised coffee, 2,045,432 dollars; hides, bananas, and rubber; the exports cottons, 1,484,261 dollars; breadstuffs, mineral oil, and provisions.

Shipping and Communications.

In 1902 the merchant shipping of Colombia consisted of 1 steamer of 457 tons and 5 sailing vessels of 1,118 tons. In 1900 there entered the port of Barranquilla, 228 vessels of 394,584 tous (108 of 202,533 tons British), and cleared 228 of 395,131 tons (108 of 202,533 tons British). In 1901 there entered at Cartagena 197 vessels of 338,320 tons (85 of 170,481 tons British). The ports of Colombia are in regular communication with those of European and American countries by means of 10 lines of mail steamers, 5 of which are British and the others German, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian.

The total length of railways open in Colombia in 1901 was 411 miles belonging to 9 companies and 2 States. There are besides about 76 miles unfinished, and extensions of existing lines are projected to a length of about 330 miles. The Cartagena, Santa Marta, La Dorada, and Girardot railways have a gauge of 3ft.; Barranquilla, 3ft. 6in.; the other 9 railways a metre gauge. The roads of Colombia are simple mule tracks, but the Government is employing soldiers to improve the

main roads. Much of the inland traffic is by river, and the work of clearing and canalising the lower and upper Magdalena is being carried on. That river is navigable for 900 miles; steamers ascend to La Dorada, 592 miles from Barranquilla. Tributaries supply 215 miles more of navigable water, and on these rivers 42 steamers, with a total tonnage of 7,331 regularly ply.

In the two years 1896-97 the Post Office carried 2,794,069 letters and post-cards, 1,233,313 printed papers, and 161,217 other packets; total 4,188,599 packets.

There were 8,600 miles of telegraph in 1898, with 448 stations; between January 1, 1896, and June 30, 1898, 1,388,388 telegrams were transmitted and received, and 9,887 cablegrams. Receipts for telegrams 303,570 pesos paper; for cablegrams, 99,923 pesos paper.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

In October, 1903, a law was promulgated for the regulation of the monetary system and the redemption of the paper money. It prohibits new issues of paper money, retaining the forced character of the currency, but legalising contracts for payment either in gold or paper. Certain revenues (from specified mines, pearl fisheries, forests, harbour dues and export duties) are assigned for the redemption of paper money, a council being appointed to give effect to these measures. The monetary unit is to be a gold dollar equivalent to that of the United States; foreign gold and silver 835 and 900 may circulate at their commercial value.

The forced paper currency amounted in 1903 to over 700,000,000 pesos. In June, 1904, the peso was worth about d., but its value was fluctuating. The gold peso, or dollar, of 10 reals was of the nominal value of 4s. or 5 fr.; fineness ⚫835.

There is a considerable quantity of foreign gold coin in Bogotá, especially United States gold. Silver and nickel coins are scarce.

The metric system was introduced into the Republic in 1857. In customhouse business the kilogramme, equal to 2,204 avoirdupois pounds, is the standard. In ordinary commerce the arroba, of 25 Colombian pounds, or 12 kilos; the quintal, of 100 Colombian pounds, or 50 kilos; and the carga, of 250 Colombian pounds, or 125 kilos, are generally used. The Colombian libra is equal to 1·102 pound avoirdupois. The Colombian vara, or 80 cm., is the measure of length used for retailing purposes, but in liquid measure the French litre is the legal standard.

Diplomatic and Commercial Representatives.

1. OF COLOMBIA IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Minister and Envoy.-Dr. Ignacio Gutierrez-Ponce.
Secretary of Legation.-Filemón Buitrago.

Consul-General in London.-G. R. Calderon.

There are consuls or vice-consuls at Grimsby, Liverpool, Nottingham, Southampton, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dover, Dundee, Glasgow, & Manchester.

2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN COLOMBIA.

Minister and Consul-General.-George Earle Welby. Appointed November 23, 1898.

Vice-Consuls at Barranquilla, Bogotá, Carthagena, Honda, Medellin, and Santa Marta, and consular agents at Cúcuta and Tumaco.

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