Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1213

 COMMUNICATIONS — MONET AND CREDIT 1161

Communications.

In 1919, 4,385 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 341,681 tons, entered at the port of Asuncion, and 4,966 with a tonnage of 366,993 cleared. These figures include sailing vessels. The principal company engaged in the river service is the Argentine Navigation Company hancvich.

Ltd., the controlling interest in which is British.

There is a railway (the Paraguay Central Railway) from Asuncion to Encarnacion, ou the Rio Alto Parana, a distance of 232 miles. The change of gauge from 5£ ft. to the standard 4 ft. 8£ ins., was effected in 1910 and a through train service without break of bulk from Asuncion to Buenos Aires was opened in 1911. Opposite Encarnacion is Posadas, to which an Argentine line is extended, and the two lines are conuected by a train ferry (opened October 10, 1913). El Ferrocarril del Norte, owned by a Paraguayan company, runs from Conuepcion as far as Horqueta, a distance of 43 kilo- meters (26 miles). This road is projected to run as far as Pedro Juan Oaballero on the Brazilian border. The Azucarera Paraguay*, in the Department of Ihytymi, has 13 kilometers (8 miles) of its line open to the public. It is owned by Paraguayan capital. The country roads are in general mere bullock tracks, and transport is difficult and costly.

There is a line of telegraph at the side of the railway. The national telegraph \915 miles of line and 1,440 miles of wire) connects Asuncion with ntes and Posadas in the Argentine Republic, and thus with the out- side world : there are altogether 1,436 miles of telegraph line and 61 telegraph offices in 1919. Number of messages in 1918, transmitted, • <2 ; received, 100,378. The telephone at Asuncion was destroyed by tire in 1913. Wireless telegraph stations have been erected at Asuncion. Encarnacion, Concepcion, and Paraguari. They are said to hare a radius of 500 kilom. by day and 1,000 kilom. by night. Paraguay joined the postal union in 1881 ; in 1917 the number of post offices was 385. In 1919 the total number of pieces of mail matter handled was 5,028,896.

Money and Credit.

The principal banks in Paraguav are the Bank of the Republic, opened in June, 1908 (capital, 4,000,000 dollars gold); the Mercantile Bank, established 1891, with a capital of 25,000,000 dollars paper; the Banco de Espana y Paraguay, with a capital of 5,300,000 dollars paper ; the Banco Constructor, with a capital of 2,000,000 dollars paper ; and the Agricultural Bank, established 1887, with a capital of 35,664,468 currency dollars ad- vanced by Government. The currencv was increased in 1916 to 125,000,000 dollars. Of this total, on December 31, 1917, 45,818,480 dollars were in circulation, 13,694,240 dollars in the Government conversion office, and 6.548,728 dollars in the banks. The total gold credit, chiefly in Buenos Aires banks, was 2,830,555 dollars.

There is no gold and silver current, and paper is the only circulating medium with the exception of a few small nickel coins The average rate ol exchange in 1919 was about 93 dollars paper to 1/. The exchange is subject to fluctuation and transactions are frequently made in Argentine gold or paper dollars. On Jauuaiy 20, 1916, a law was passed establishing an Office of Exchange or Conversion. For the purpose of buying gold currency the office had placed at its disposal (1) 10,000,000 pesos paper currencv, (2» the amounts received from the sale of gold currency, and (3) the available funds in hand at the Agricultural Bank. The Office of Conversion had on December 31, 1918, a capital of 1,394,356 gold pesos and 1,017,211 pesos paper.