Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/524

 4 88

BOLIVIA.

all sources were stated to be 2,471,000 dollars, or 370,650/., and the disbursements, 2,435,000 dollars, or 365,250/. The estimated revenue and expenditure for 1865 amounted to 3,000,000 dollars, or 450,000/. About one-half of the public revenue is derived from a land-tax, which the aboriginal, or Indian, population is forced to pay, and the rest from import and export duties, and the proceeds of mines and other state property. Direct taxes, other than those laid upon the aborigines, do not exist. The republic has no debt, and no paper currency.

The standing army numbers 2,000 men, one-fourth of them cavalry. In 1866, when engaged in war Avith Spain, the govern- ment raised the armed forces to 3,000 men, but reduced the number again to 2,000 the following year.

The boundaries of the republic, formerly vague and in dispute, were settled to a certain extent, by a Treaty with Chili, concluded August 10, 1866, and by another with Brazil, signed March 27, 1867. No survey of the area of the country has ever taken place, but map measurements give it at 473,300 English square miles. The population of European origin, according to an estimate of 1858, based upon official returns, amounted at that date to 1,742,352, dis- tributed over the nine provinces of the republic as follows :• —

Provinces

Population of province

Chief town of province

Population of chief town

La Paz

Cochabamba

Potosi

Chuquisaca

Santa-Cruz

Oruro

Tarija

Veni

Atacama.

475,322

349,892

281,229

223,668

153,164

110,931

88,900

53,973

5,273

La Paz

Cochabamba

Potosi

Sucre

Santa- Cruz

Oruro

Tarija

Trinidad.

Colija

76,372

40,678

22,850

23,979

9,780

7,980

5,680

4,170

2,380

Total white popi

ilatio

i

1,742,352

— —

To the above enumerated nine provinces, two others were added, by presidential decrees, in 1866, and 1867 ; the first called Melga- reja, taken from the old division of Cochabamba, and the other, entitled Mejillones, from that of Atacama.

The aboriginal, or Indian population of Bolivia is variously esti- mated at from 24,000 to 700,000 souls. A small number of them have been gained to Christianity and civilised habits by the efforts of Roman Catholic missionaries.