and houses of refuge for night shelter. At the béguinages of Ghent and Bruges women and girls able to contribute a specified sum towards their support are given a home.
National Finance.—The budget is submitted to the chambers by the minister of finance and passed by them. The revenue and expenditure were in the years stated as follows:—
| Year. | Revenue. | Expenditure. |
| 1880. 1895. 1903. |
394,215,932 francs 395,730,445 ” 632,416,810 ” |
382,908,429 francs 410,383,402 ” 627,975,568 ” |
The revenue is made up from taxes, including customs, tolls, including returns from railway traffic, &c., and the balance comes from various revenues, return of capital, loans, &c. The following are the principal items of expenditure (1903):—
| Service of debt Sovereign, senate, chamber, &c. Departments, foreign office ” agriculture ” railways ” finance ” industry ” war ” public instruction ” justice Minor items Total |
143,065,352 francs 5,289,087 ” 3,751,636 ” 12,253,957 ” 65,086,019 ” 34,479,674 ” 19,905,589 ” 63,972,473 ” 31,799,105 ” 27,168,032 ” 4,179,046 ” 510,949,970 ” |
The difference is made up of “special expenditure.” The total debt in English money may be put at 126 millions sterling, which requires for interest, sinking fund and service about 534 millions sterling annually. The rate of interest on all the loans extant is 3%, except on one loan of 219,959,632 francs, which pays only 212%.
Army and National Defence.—The army is divided into the regular army, the gendarmerie, and the garde civique. The Belgian regular army is thus composed: infantry, one regiment of carabiniers, one of grenadiers, three of chasseurs à pied, and fourteen of the line, all these regiments having 3 or 4 active and 3 or 4 reserve battalions apiece; cavalry, two regiments of guides, two of chasseurs à cheval, and four of lancers, all light cavalry; artillery, four horse, thirty field, and seventy siege batteries on active service; engineers, 140 officers and 2000 men. The train or commissariat has only 30 officers and 600 men on the permanent establishment. Belgium retains the older form of conscription, and has not adopted the system of “universal service.” The annual levy is small and substitution is permitted. In 1904 the number inscribed for service was 64,042. Of these only 12,525 were enrolled in the army, and of that number 1421 were volunteers, who took an engagement on receipt of a premium. The effective strength of the army in 1904 with the colours was 3406 officers and 40,382 men. To this total has to be added the men on the active list, but either absent on leave or allowed to return to civil life, numbering 70,043. It is assumed that on mobilization these men are immediately available. The reserve consists of 181 officers and 58,014 men, so that the total strength of the Belgian army is 3587 officers and 168,439 men. The field force in war is organized in four infantry and two cavalry divisions, the total strength being about 100,000. The peace effective has not varied much since 1870, but the total paper strength is 75,000 more than in that year. In the years 1900–1904 it increased by 8000 men. The gendarmerie is a mounted force composed of men picked for their physique and divided into three divisions. It numbers 67 officers and 3079 men, but has no reserve. It is in every sense a corps d’élite, and may be classed as first-rate heavy cavalry. The total strength of the garde civique in 1905 was 35,102, to which have to be added 8532 volunteers belonging to the corps of older formation, service in which counts on a par with the garde civique. Some of the latter regiments, especially the artillery, would rank with British volunteers, but the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism. The defence of Belgium depends on five fortified positions. The fortified position and camp of Antwerp represents the true base of the national defence. Its detached forts shelter the city from bombardment, and so long as sea communication is open with England, Antwerp would be practically impregnable. Liége with twelve forts and Namur with nine forts are the fortified têtes de pont protecting the two most important passages of the Meuse. The forts are constructed in concrete with armoured cupolas. Termonde on the Scheldt and Diest on the Dender are retained as nominally fortified positions, but neither, could resist a regular bombardment for more than a few hours, as their casemates are not bomb-proof.
The training camp of the Belgian army is at Beverloo in the province of Limburg, and at Braschaet not far from Antwerp are ranges for artillery as well as rifle practice. The Belgian officer is technically as well trained and educated as any in Europe, but he lacks practical experience in military service.
Mines and Industry.—The principal mineral produced in Belgium is coal. This is found in the Borinage district near Mons and in the neighbourhood of Liége, but the working of an entirely new coal-field, which promises to attain vast dimensions, was commenced in 1906 in the Campine district of the province of Limburg. The coal mines of Belgium give employment to nearly 150,000 persons, and for some years the average output has exceeded 22,000,000 tons. Other minerals are iron, manganese, lead and zinc. The iron mines produce much less than formerly, and the want of iron is a grave defect in Belgian prosperity, as about £5,000,000 sterling worth of iron has to be imported annually, chiefly from French Lorraine. The chief metal industry of the country is represented by the iron and steel works of Charleroi and Liége. Belgium is particularly rich in quarries of marble, granite and slate. Ghent is the capital of the textile industry, and all the towns of Flanders are actively engaged in producing woollen and cotton materials and in lace manufacture. The bulk of the population is, however, engaged in agriculture, and the extent of land under cultivation of all kinds is about 612 million acres.
Commerce.—The trade returns for 1904 were as follows:—
| Imports— General Commerce Special Commerce (included in General Commerce) Exports— General Commerce Special Commerce (included in General Commerce) |
4,426,400,000 francs 2,782,200,000 ” 3,849,100,000 ” 2,183,300,000 ” |
The general commerce includes goods in transit across Belgium, the special commerce takes into account only the produce and the consumption of Belgium itself. The trade of Belgium has more than trebled as regards both imports and exports since 1870. The following table shows the amount of exports and imports between Belgium and the more important foreign states:—
| Imports. | Exports. | |
| France Germany England Holland United States Russia Argentina British India Rumani Australia Congo State China |
465,684,000 francs 351,025,000 ” 335,404,000 ” 240,873,000 ” 222,301,000 ” 212,119,000 ” 198,913,000 ” 141,669,000 ” 102,174,000 ” 58,190,000 ” 53,100,000 ” 8,770,000 ” |
346,670,000 francs 505,473,000 ” 392,324,000 ” 268,781,000 ” 86,324,000 ” 26,671,000 ” 41,508,000 ” 25,860,000 ” 3,949,000 ” 12,087,000 ” 14,049,000 ” 25,546,000 ” |
In the relative magnitude of the annual value of its commerce, excluding that in transit, Belgium stands sixth among the nations of the world, following Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Holland. The principal imports are food supplies and raw material such as cotton, wool, silk, flax, hemp and jute. Among minerals, iron ore, sulphur, copper, coal, tin, lead and diamonds are the most imported. The exports of greatest value
