Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/794

 742 CHILE

Bank of Santiago. At the National Savings Bank of Chile (Caja National de Ahorros) the number of deposit accounts on May 31, 1920, was 641,629 and the deposits amounted to 141,174,373 pesos. At the Savings Bank of Santiago there were 298,701 deposit accounts, and the deposits amounted to 51,899,009 pesos.

The currency is mostly paper ; the time fixed for the conversion of legal tender paper money was deferred till December 31, 1921. On December 31, 1919, the conversion funds in hand amounted to 114,110,600 gold pesos, made up as follows:— In England, 47,305,062 pesos, and Chilian gold in bars to the value of 66,805,538 pesos.

Money, Weights, 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 10-peso gold piece weighs 5 '99103 grammes '916 fine and therefore contains 5 '49178 grammes of fine gold. Silver coins are the peso, weighing 9 grammes, 0'720 fine, and the fifth, tenth, and twentieth of a peso. Bronze coins (95 of copper to 4 of tin and 1 of zinc) 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. 6d. Its use is obligatory in transactions with the Customs Department of the Govern- ment ; it serves, too, as the basis of perhaps the larger half of the trade in imported merchandise, though the actual gold coin is not in these cases usually tendered. Coins minted in 1917 : — 15,058,200 pesos gold, and 3,033,327 pesos silver. (No later mintage.) A forced paper currency is in general use, the paper peso varying considerably in relative value, and repre- senting (1919) about 10 622rf. Total paper money issued and in circulation on December 31, 1920, 302,821,919 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.

On August 31, 1918, Greenwich time was adopted in Chile in place of Chilian time.

Diplomatic and Consular Representatives.

1. Of Chile in Great Britain.

Envoy and Minister. — Agustin Edwards (February 21, 1911).

First Secretary. — Manuel Salinas.

Second Secretary. — Ignacio Serrano.

Financial Adviser. — Luis Waddington.

Naval Attache. — Commander Carlos A. Jouanne.

Attaches. — J alio Bittencourt, Augustin R. Edwards, and Santiago Monk.

Financial Attache". — Patricio Achurra.

Commercial Attache". — Jorge Buchanan.

Consul-General in London. — Adolfo Ortuzar.

There are Consular representatives at Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool (C.G.), Nottingham, Queenstown, Sheffield, Southampton and many other places.

2. Of Great Britain in Chile.

Envoy and Minister.— J. C. T. Vaughan, C.M.G., M.V.O. (1918).

Secretary. — C. H. Bateman.

Commercial Secrctarj/. — W. F. Vaughan Scott.

Naval Attache 1. — Lieut. -Commander Lloyd Hirst, R.N.

British Consul -General at Valparaiso.— J. M. MacLeod, C.M.G.