DEFENCE — PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE
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expemliture for recent years are given as follows in sterling (1 suere = 24,(1.), but the figures are not to be taken as representing the exact state of affairs : —
—
1909
1910
1911
1912 1
1913 1
Revenue Expenditure
£ l,6d7,069 1,556,488
£ 1,511,720 1,547,948
£
1,320,419 1,583,613
£
1,897,182 1,897,132
£
2,038,058 2,038,658
1 Estimates
The principal items of revenue are : Import and export duties, alcohol duties, and salt monopoly. The chief items of expenditure are : Govern- ment, army and navy, education.
On the 3rd of January, 1911, a new foreign loan of 3,000,000 sucres (300,000^.), was contracted with the house of Speyer & Co., of New York. The issue was at 85 for 100, and the guarantee was, 50 per cent, of the export dues and 500,000 sucres out of the liquor dues, in dividends of 21,000 sucres per month.
No other details as to Foreign debt nor as to the Internal debt, have been made public, as owing to the violent change of Presidents and Ministers, the report of the Finance Minister has not been presented to the 1911 Congress. Up to 31st Dec, 1911, the foreign debt was stated to be 3,333,399Z. and the internal debt, 1,180,180Z.
Defence.
The Ecuadorian army in 1910 numbered 7,810 officers and men. This force is composed of 3 brigades of artillery, 9 battalions of infantry, and a regiment of cavalry. The national guard is said to consist of 100,000 men. A mining and torpedo section, a sanitary section and a telegraph and telephone corps were created in 1910. Military service is obligatory from 18 to 32 years of age in the army, and from 32 to 45 in the national guard.
The Navy consists of three vessels, the ex-Chilian cruiser Ministro Zcnteno, 3,600 tons, eight 6-inch guns; the Libcrlador Bolivar, a torpedo gunboat of 800 tons, and an old sloop which was formerly the French Papin.
Production and Commerce.
The staple produce of Ecuador is cocoa, which is grown in Los Rios and other provinces near the coast. The total exports of cocoa in 1911 were valued at 1,602,459^. The largest cocoa estate in the country has been taken over by an English company. Coffee is also grown; the exports were valued in 1910 at 223,911Z. The rubber industry is also important ; as the accessible supply from wild trees is being rapidly exhausted, attention is now turned to the planting of trees. Other products are tagua (ivory nuts), exports 1911, 173,793Z. ; tobacco, the annual yield of which is from 80,000 to 40,000 quintals ; and surar. Cotton cultivation has almost ceased, and all that is now produced is sent to the mills in the interior to be manu- factured into rough calicoes and other goods. Peruvian bark exports have fallea to 60 or 70 tons a year. Mangrove bark (for tanning), alligator skins, and kapok (silk cotton tree fibre bombax ceiba) are exported in small quantities. Ecuador is auriferous, but mining companies have had little success. The Esmeraldas mines have absorbed much foreign capital with no practical result. At Zaruma, in the province of Oro, there are quartz crushings worked by an American company which iii 1910 produced gold to the value (approximate) of 25,000Z., and cyanide slime (containing gold,
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