Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/76

 40 BELGIUM.

with its own surplus revenue. The year 1861 was the first year which showed an actual profit on the whole operations from the commencement, irrespectively of the charge for the redemption of the debt. It is expected that the State Railway will have bought itself up in the year 1884, by which time it is calculated the net revenue will amount to 24,000,000 francs, or 960,000/. per annum, or enough to pay the then reduced — through the sinking fund — interest of the national debt. As each conceded railway lapses gratuitously to the State in 90 years from the period of its construc- tion, the entire system will in time become national property.

Money, Weights, and Measures. The money, weights, and measures of Belgium, and the British equivalents, are as follows : —

Monet.

The Franc Average rate of exchange, 25 to £1 sterling.

Weights axd Measures.

The Kilogramme, or Livre. . = 2-20 lbs. avoirdupois.

„ Tonneau. . . . = 2,200 „

., Hectare — 2 - 47 English acres

tt. j- f f Dry measure. = 2-75 imperial bushels.

" hectolitre <j^ Liquid measure = 22 imperial gallons.

„ Metre = 3-28 feet.

„ Metre Cube. . . — 3o - 31 cubic feet.

„ Kilometre = 1,093 yards.

Belgium was one of the four Continental States — comprising, besides, France, Italy, and Switzerland — which formed a Monetary League in 1865. The four States, considering the mutual advantages accruing to neighbouring nations from the adoption of a uniform standard of coins, weights, and measures, entered into a Convention by which they agreed upon the French decimal system, establishing perfect reciprocity in the currency of the four countries, and giving the franc, livre, or lira, the monetary unit of each of them, as well as its multiples or fractions in gold or silver, the same course and value throughout the extent of their respective territories. Among the conditions of the Monetary League, it was stipulated that for the larger silver currency, namely, the five-franc pieces, the standard should be fixed at 900 parts of pure silver per 1,000 ; but it was agreed, as a matter of common convenience, that for the minor coin, called ' divisionaire,' or fractionary, namely, the pieces of two francs, one franc, and hall-franc, the intrinsic value should be only of 835 per 1,000, instead of 900, so that a sum of 1,000 francs in five-franc pieces would contain a quantity of pure silver greater by 65 francs than the same sum in the smaller, or ' fractionary,' coin. It Avas, however, determined that the issue of this minor coin should be