Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/590

554 According to a government report, published in the official Gazette, 'El Peruano,' May 4, 1869, the exports of guano, and their value, in the two years 1869 and 1870, were calculated to be as follows: —

According to this report there was to be an estimated sale of 444,000 tons at the net profit of 3,200,000l. per annum for each of the years 1869 and 1870.

A system of railways, designed mainly to develop the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, including important mines of nitrate of soda, has been in course of construction for several years. For this purpose the government raised in 1870 a foreign loan of 11,920,000l., the proceeds of which were to be employed in the first instance for the construction of a railway from Arequipa to Perno, in the direction of Bolivia, and a road reclaimed a long time ago — that from Lima to La Oroya — which, after crossing the Cordi, will branch off in two directions, on one side towards the Cerro de Pasco, the centre of the mineral districts, and on the other side towards Janja, the middle of a province which furnishes the greater part of its food to the metropolis.

The money, weights, and measures of Peru, and the British equivalents, are : —

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The Dollar = 100 centesimos. Average rate of exchange, 3s. 1d.

The Ounce = 1.014 ounce avoirdupois.

Libra = 1.014 lb.

Quintal = 101.44

Arroba of 25 pounds = 25.36

of wine or spirits = 6'70 imperial gallons.

Gallon = 0.74

Vara = 0.927 yard.

Square Vara 0.859 square yard.