Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/834

 712 CHILE

4,494,895 were sent abroad. There were 1,104 po.st-offiees, besides letter boxes. Revenue (1911-12), 3,426,946 pesos gold ; expenditure, 4,269,950 pesos gold.

The length of telegraph lines at the end of 1910 was 22,334 miles, of which 16,513 miles belonged to the State. In 1911 there were 367 telegraph offices ; 2,225,000 messages were sent. The Telephone and railway companies have 8,000 miles of telephone line.

There is also a wireless telegraphy system with 13 stations.

Money and Credit.

In 1912 a law was promulgated establishing a Bank of Issue (Caja de Emission). There are a number of joint-stock banks of issue with agencies in Chile. Their joint capital amounted on September 30, 1911, to 183,199,628 pesos, and their reserve funds to 44,145,074 pesos. The largest of the banks is the Bank of Chile with a paid-up capital of 30,000,000 pesos. The banks are required to guarantee their note issue by depositing gold, Government notes, or securities in the Treasury. There are also land banks which issue scrip payable to bearer and bearing interest, and lend money secured as a first charge on landed property and repayable at fixed periods. Several savings banks are established in the large towns. The 19 principal cues contained on Ju]y 1, 1912, deposits to the amount of 2,103, 668Z. The public savings banks number 72, and on December 15, 1912, had 301,353 depositors.

The currency is mostly paper ; the time fixed for the conversion of legal tender paper money has been deferred till January 1, 1915. Under tlie law Avbich came into force on September 12, 1907, the President in 1907 issued 30,000,000 pesos in legal tender paper money The paper peso in 1910 fluctuated between the value of ll'-^^oO?. and lO^^d.

Money, Weig^hts, and Measures.

According to the Act of 1895, the coinage of Chile is as follows: — Gold coins are 20, 10, 5 peso pieces, called respectively Condor, Doblon, and Escudo. The lO-peso gold piece weighs 5 '99103 grammes "916 fine and herefore contains 5*49178 grammes of fine gold. Silver coins are the peso, weighing 20 grammes, '400 fine, and the fifth, tenth, and twentieth of a peso. Bronze coins (95 of copper to 5 of nickel) are the centavo and 2^-, 2-, and \-centavo pieces. The monetary unit is the twentieth part of a condor or the (uncoined) gold peso, of the value of Is. Qd. Its use is obligatory in transactions with the Customs Department of the Government ; it serves, too, as the basis of perhaps the larger half of the trade in imported mer- chandise, though the actual gold coin is not in these cases usually tendered. A forced paper currency is in general use, the paper peso varying considerably in relative value, and representing (1913) about lO^d The English sovereign has a legal value of 13^ pesos.

The metric system has been legally established in Chile since 1865, but the old Spanish weights and measures are still in use to some extent.

Diplomatic and Consular Representatives.

1. Of Chile in Great Britain.

Envoy and Minister. — Agustin Edwards. First Secretary. — Enrique Cuevas. Second Secretary. — Ricardo Pepper.