Converted into pounds sterling, at an exchange of 2s. 3d. per milrei, the internal debt amounts to 8,556,2051. The floating debt, consisting, on December 31, 1863, in treasury bonds to the amount of 4,336,500 milreis, and in Government paper money amounting to 35,249,151 milreis, is not included in the above statement. The total amount of paper currency in circulation throughout the empire was estimated, in June 1864, at 80,021,950,000 milreis, or rather more than nine millions sterling. Army and Navy. The army is formed partly by enlistment and partly by conscription. In extreme cases, impressment is resorted to.. A liberal bounty and a grant of land at the end of fourteen years of service, is held out as an inducement to enlist, and procures about one-third the necessary number of soldiers. In the army estimates for 1864-65, the strength of the regular army was stated to be 14,000 men on the peace-footing, and 22,546 men on the war-footing; in the latter case distributed as follows: The army was at its full complement in May, 1865, when Brazil, in concert with the Argentine Republic, and Uruguay, declared war against Paraguay. According to official reports, 20,550 men took the field on this occasion, the garrison of towns and other home duties being left to the national guard. Municipal returns describe the national guard as 577,329 men strong. The navy, in May 1865, consisted of fifteen sailing vessels and twelve steamers. The former comprised one frigate, six corvettes, and five brigs; and the latter, two frigates, three corvettes and avisos, and seven gunboats. In the navy estimates for 1864-5, the number of sailors and marines of the imperial fleet was stated to be 3,000 on the peace-footing, and 5,000 on the war-footing. Population. The superficial area of the empire is calculated by some writers at 3,000,000, and by others at 2,500,000 square miles: on the latter supposition, there would be three persons, on an average, to each square mile. Brazil, in its extent of territory, is second only to the empires of China and Russia. The subjoined table gives the area and population of each of the twenty provinces of the empire, according to a superficial enumeration of the year 1856: The estimates state the number of the population at above 8 millions, composed of more than 5 millions freemen; 2 millions of negro slaves; and about half a million of native Indians. Large tracts of Brazil are uninhabited, or peopled only by a scattered population. The masses of inhabitants congregate near the coast, and around the chief seaports; thus the district of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro comprises about 450,000 inhabitants, and the slaves in that disirict are rather less than half of the number. the province of Rio de Janeiro, the slaves exceed in number the free population. Bahia contains but a small proportion of whites, and In the black inhabitants are so numerous that it resembles an African city. Out of 125,000 inhabitants of Bahia, seven-eighths are said to be blacks, and nearly all the negroes are slaves. Pernambuco has a population of about 80,000, of whom one-third are estimated to be slaves, one-third coloured free blacks, and remaining one-third are Brazilians and foreigners. Whilst Brazil remained a colony of Portugal, but few women accompanied the emigrants to South America. The earliest European settlers intermarried and mixed with Indian women; afterwards an extensive intermixture of race occurred with the Africans who were bought for slavery. The mixed population increases continually and rapidly in Brazil. In the northern provinces the Indian element preponderates. In South Brazil the negroes are numerous. The greater part of the population of the Brazilian empire probably consists of mixed breeds, each of which has a distinguishing name; thus Mulatto denotes the offspring of a white with a negro; and Mameluco that of a white with an Indian; Cafuzo denotes the mixture of the Indian and negro; Curiboco, the cross between the Cafuzo and the Indian; Xibaro, that between the Cafuzo and the negro. The 2 millions of negro slaves belong to about 40,000 proprietors. A law for the suppression of the trade in slaves was sanctioned by the emperor on June 5, 1854. The immigration of settlers from Europe, particularly Germans and Swiss, has been greatly encouraged by the Government for a number of years. According to an official report of the year 1861, there existed in the empire 55 colonies of these settlers, inhabited by 33,970 foreigners. The nucleus of these settlements, regarded as an antidote to slavery, is in the province of Rio Grande do Sul. Trade and Commerce. The commercial intercourse of Brazil with the United Kingdom is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the total value of the imports from Brazil into the United Kingdom, and of the exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures to Brazil in each of the five years 1860 to 1864 : Years 1860 2,269,180 The two great staple articles of Brazilian imports into the United Kingdom are raw cotton and unrefined sugar, each averaging nearly 1,500,000l. per annum. By far the most important article of British exports to Brazil is manufactured cotton, the average value of which, in the five years 1860-64, was above 2,000,000l. per annum. The total value of all the imports and exports of Brazil in each of the three years 1861 to 1863, was as follows: The imports into Brazil in each of the years 1862 and 1863, were divided as follows between the various countries: Rather more than one half of the total imports into Brazil pass through the port of Rio de Janeiro. Money, Weights, and Measures. The money, weights and measures of Brazil are as follows: : Almanak do Ministerio da Marinha, 1864. Vol. viii. 8. Rio de Janeiro, 1864. Almanak Militar para o Anno de 1864. 8. Rio de Janeiro, 1864. Collecção das Leis do Imperio do Brasile e Collecção das Decisoes do Governo do Imperio do Brasil. 1863. Tomo xxvi. 8. Rio de Janeiro, 1864. Repertorio Constitucional ou Indice Alphabetico e Systematico de todas as disposições contidas na constituiçao politica do Imperio e no acto addicional. 8. Rio de Janeiro, 1863. Report by Mr. Eliot, H.M.'s Secretary of Legation, on the Trade, Commerce, and Revenues of Brazil, dated June 24, 1863; in 'Reports of H.M.'s Secretaries of Embassy. No. vii. London, 1864. Reports by Mr. Consul Westwood and Mr. Consul Gollam, on the Commerce of Brazil; in 'Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office.' London, 1865. Reports by Mr. Consul Morgan, on the Trade of Bahia for the Year 1864; in Consular Reports received at the Foreign Office.' London, 1865. · 2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. Christie (W. D.), Notes on Brazilian Questions. 8. London, 1865. Costa (S. O. d'Araujo), Codigo Commercial do Imperio do Brasil acompanhado do Novo Regulamento do Papel Sellado tambem annotado. de Janeiro. 1864. 8. Rio Hinchliff (Thomas W.), South American Sketches; or, a Visit to Rio Janeiro, the Organ Mountains, La Plata, and the Paranà. 8. London, 1864. Laemmert (Eduardo), Almanak da Corte e Provincia do Rio de Janeiro para o anno bissexto de 1864. Vigesimo-primeiro anno. Rio de Janeiro, 1864. Moré (Jean-Charles), De la Colonisation dans la Province de St. Pierre de Rio-Grande do Sul, Brésil. 8. Hamburg, 1863. Mouchez (Ernest), Les Côtes du Brésil, Description et Instructions Nautiques. 2e section. De Bahia à Rio Janeiro. 8. Paris, 1865. Rodriguez (Jose Carlos), Constituiçao Politica do Imperio do Brasil seguida do acto addicional, da lei da sua interpretação e de outras analysada. 8. Rio de Janeiro, 1863. |