Page:A history of Chile.djvu/296

 268 A HISTORY OF CHILE nary and extraordinary) at ^43,123,829. The guano beds and Tarapaca nitrate fields had yielded enormous profits to the government and from these sources the credit of the republic had been maintained at home and abroad. In the preceding August, 1880, the senate had authorized a further paper money emission of (j;i2, 000,000 for the year, and this, like the preceding issues, was well received by the people. The unpopular -tobacco esianco, a relic of Spanish t)'ranny, had been annulled, and thus this profitable but unjust source of revenue was cut off. But the Atacama desert more than counterbalanced this. From 1843 to 1875, $89,131,706 worth of silver had been mined there. Of minerals of all kinds including nitrates, there had been in the thirty-two 3'ears the enormous sum of §240, 000,000 taken from that arid province. Verily it was a desert worth fighting for; it was yielding $10,000,000 a year. At the close of 1875, there were 595 miles of rail- road in operation in Chile and 2,559 miles of telegraph ; in 1876, there were 940 miles of railroad and 2,650 of tel- egraph ; in 1877, 1,265 miles of railroad, and 4,800 of telegraph. In 1876, the national debt was ^10,929,600 home, $40,689,000 foreign, being a total of $51,618,600. Of this the government had put $35,000,000 into rail- roads, which were owned and controlled by the state. At this time from five thousand to six thousand ves- sels entered and cleared Chilean ports annually, and the exports and imports averaged from thirty-seven to forty millions of dollars each, with imports somewhat in excess of exports. With the exception of the Argentine Republic, Chile was at this time making larger appropriations for school purposes than any other of the Spanish-American re- publics. In 1875, expenditures for this purpose amount-
 * ?43,992,584, and approximated the total expenses (ordi-