This page needs to be proofread.
CHINA
655

these figures is supplied, no comparisons can be based upon them. There were in 1918 nine electric traction companies carrying 1 80,- 388,425 passengers concentrated for the most part in the cities of Valparaiso, Concepcion, and Santiago. There were also 35,120 km. of public roads and 70 km. of navigable rivers. The length of the Government telegraph lines amounted in 1918 to 15,687 km., operating through 370 offices and employing a personnel of 1,395. The private telegraph lines had in the same year an extent of 9,078 km. with 214 offices and 917 employees. In the years 1914-8 the Government-owned lines showed an excess of expenditures over income of from 100,000 to 1,750,000 pesos a year, while the private lines showed an excess of income over expenditure of from 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 pesos. No figures are available on which to base a comparison of the services rendered. The number of post- offices in 1918 totalled nearly 1,000, with 2,222 men and women em- ployed. The postal revenues in that year amounted to 5,639,897 pesos and the expenditure for the same year to 5,253,283 pesos. The merchant marine in 1918 included 35 sailing vessels of 23,381 tons and 95 steamships of 46,587 tons total. The total number of vessels entered at and cleared from Chilean ports in 1918 amounted to 26,799 aggregating something over 25,000,000 tons. These figures were far below those which had been attained previous to the out- break of the World War (1914). The four ports in which the entries and clearances exceeded 2,000, in the year 1917, were Punta Arenas, Valparaiso, Iquique, and Antofagasta, in the order named. Over half of these ships were Chilean, Great Britain ranking next, and Germany, of course, wholly eliminated from her former strong position by the war.

Commerce. The effect of the war on the foreign commerce of Chile was of such a nature that statistics for the years 1914-8 must be regarded as largely abnormal. After a period of rapidly rising figures up to and including the year 1913, there came in 1914 a drop of about 20 % in the total figures, followed in 1915 by a further decline which brought the totals below the figures attained in 1908. Then followed a marked increase in 1916 reaching a figure higher than the last pre-war year, and a tremendous increase in the two years following. In 1918 the total foreign trade of Chile amounted in value to 1,235,669,482 pesos gold, considerably more than double the value 10 years before. Of this sum imports represented 436,074,- 065 pesos, and exports 799,625,417 pesos, showing a favourable balance of 363,551 ,352 pesos. The principal countries of origin of the imports in 1918 were the United States, Great Britain, Peru, Ar- gentina, India, France, Spain, Japan and Mexico. The value of the imports from the United States equalled the combined values of the imports from all the other countries mentioned, and was 23 times the value of the imports from Great Britain, which in 1914 had been in the lead. The chief countries of destination of exports in 1918 were the United States, Great Britain, Argentina, Peru, Japan, Bolivia, France and Panama, in the order named. The United States alone received goods of a value equal to three-fifths of the total exports from Chile, and exceeded the value exported to Great Britain almost three to one, though in 1914 the exports to Great Britain exceeded in value those to the United States. The chief groups of imports arranged according to value were textiles, gold coin and bullion, chemical products, metals, machinery and implements, and food products. The chief exports arranged in the same manner were minerals, chiefly nitrate; the products of grazing, mostly wool and hides; the products of agriculture, mostly grains and legumes; and manufactured food products, principally flour and meal and preserved meats.

Agriculture. The principal agricultural products showing the number of hectares in cultivation in each and the yield in cwt. appear from the following table for 1918.

Crop Wheat

Amber Wheat Barley . Oats Corn Beans Peas

Potatoes . Alfalfa . Clover

Hectares Planted Yield in cwt.

484,951 42,088 39,680

32,150 26,468

52,950 16,308 32,806 45,860 H-245

5.647,584 644,719

719,312 461 ,088 367,236 693,144

145.828 2,623,587 2,522,323

433,584

There were in 1918 a total of 66,727 hectares planted in vineyards yielding 1,555,543 hectolitres of wine. In 1917 the figures for the live-stock industry were as follows: 403,013 horses; 36.069 asses; 52,185 mules; 2,029,942 cattle; 4,182,910 sheep; 375,828 goats; 300,832 swine; and 33,506 llama and alpacas.

Manufactures. In 1917 there were 2,738 manufacturing estab- lishments in Chile employing 64,660 persons and representing an invested capital of 596,265,540 pesos. The value of the output was 701,362,029 pesos. Rated according to the value of their output the chief manufacturing industries were those producing food supplies (which amounted to more than a third of the total), leathers, furs, gas and electricity, clothing, chemical products, paper and printing, metals, alcohol and beverages, lumber, tobacco manufactures, and textiles.

Mining. In 1917 there were in Chile 38,021 mining properties, the value of whose licenses was 1,040,551 pesos. The value of the production of the principal minerals in 1917 is shown by the follow- ing table:

Nitrate 510,367,506 pesos

Copper 143,512,182

Coal 87,740,898

Iodine Iron . Borax Sulphur Salt . Silver

12,199,105 150,000 2,392,600 2,841,300 1,319,290 3,602,485

Gold 2,098,440

Government and Education. In 1918 the police force of the republic, exclusive of the municipal police and a force of 2,151 carabineros, numbered 8,194. The army the same year comprised 996 commissioned officers of the line, and 82 officers of the intendancy or other service. The total number of troops including non-com- missioned officers was 18,826. The navy in 1918 comprised 295 officers and a total force of 5,595 men. The ships were 52 in all, of which one was classed as a battleship, four as cruisers, two as armoured cruisers, two training ships, three transports, one gunboat, nine destroyers, six submarines, five torpedo boats, and the rest of a miscellaneous character, the total tonnage being 129,080. The value of the public works constructed in 1918 was 24,452,276 pesos, of which the largest expenditures were for the ports of Valparaiso and Santiago, roads and bridges, and public buildings. In 1918 there were 3,581 .primary schools in Chile, of which 3,058 were Government schools, and 305 private schools receiving subventions; there were 287 secondary schools, of which 150 were Government schools and 86 private schools receiving subventions; and 19 in- stitutions of higher learning, of which 12 were Government in- stitutions, and one received subventions. The total number of pupils in the primary schools in 1918 was estimated at 397,721, almost equally divided between boys and girls, of which number 336,- 292 were in public schools. The number of pupils in secondary schools was estimated at 54,722, of whom 31,676 were in public schools. The students enrolled in 1918 in the institutions of higher learning numbered 4,875, of whom 4,228 were in Government institutions. There was a total of 105 daily papers, 81 semi-weeklies, 270 weeklies, 49 semi-monthlies, 126 monthlies, seven quarterlies and a number of miscellaneous publications, making a grand total of 698 periodicals of various kinds. The number of hospitals in the republic in 1917 was 109 with a personnel of 3,973. equipped with 2,217 rooms and 10,655 beds. The total number of patients ad- mitted in 1916 was 108,945. There were in 1916 11,000 inmates of the various charitable institutions.

Finance. On Dec. 31 1918 there were in circulation 227,688,421 pesos in paper currency. The total amount of gold in the conver- sion fund at the end of 1918 was 111,272,238. The Govern- ment expenses for 1918 amounted to 221,616,130 gold pesos and the receipts to 249,910,012 gold pesos. The national debt stood in 1917 at 625,712,416 gold pesos.

Bibliography. Among the large number of works that appeared between 1910 and 1920 dealing wholly or partly with Chile, the following are worthy of special mention, (a) History: Crescente Errazuriz, Historia de Chile sin Gobernador (1912), Don Garcia de Mendoza (1914), and Franciso de Villagra (1915); Guillermp Arroyo Alvarado, Historia de Chile (1916); Alejandro Alvarez, Rasgos generates de la historia diplomatica de Chile, l8lo-iQio; (V) Travel and Description: J. P. Canto. Chile: an Account of its. Wealth 'and Progress (1912); W. H. Koebel, Modern Chile (1913);}. G. -Mills, Chile: Physical Features, Natural Resources, etc. (H. G. J.)


CHINA (see 6.166*). In the absence of any systematic census by the Chinese authorities the figures periodically published for the population of China must always be regarded as rough estimates. The Imperial Maritime Customs' Report for igi6 calculated the total pop. of the country, including the three Manchurian provinces (iq,ooo,coo), to be 445,873,000, but the arguments advanced by Mr. Rockhill in 1904 still justify doubts as to the evidence on which these estimates are based. Chinese records since the beginning of the i7th century show that at various periods the estimated pop. of the empire varied between 250 and 430 millions, and that its density always increased rapidly in times of peace and plenty only to be reduced with equal rapidity by outbreaks of floods, famine or civil war. Thus, in 1851 the pop. was believed to be about 430,000,000, but nine years later after 12 provinces had been devastated by the Taiping rebellion it was reckoned at 260,000,000. It is probable that in the period immediately preceding the revolution of 1911, the number of inhabitants in most provinces had attained to something approaching its normal maximum, but 10 years'

  • These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.