TRADE STATISTICS.

NATURE AND VALUE OF IMPORTS, 1896 TO 1899.

NATURE AND VALUE OF EXPORTS, 1896 TO 1899.

The course of trade for the last four years has been

Right Hon. Lord Avebury, Chair- Sir W. Cuthbert Quilter, Bart.,

* Five-sixths of the Coupon due February 15th, 1898, has been paid (see below page 417). + Issued principally in settlement of Railway guarantees. Bols. 4.50 per Coupon of Bols. 12.50 paid on account of Interest due June 30th, 1898.

1834. By the Convention of 1834 Venezuela assumed 28 per cent. of the original Colombian Debt, or £1,888,396, upon which the arrears of interest amounted to £906,400; total, £2,794,795.

1841.-A Settlement was made on the following terms :

"Active" Bonds to the amount of £1,900,000 were issued to represent the principal of the Debt, and were to bear interest at the rate of 2 per cent. for the first seven years, increasing per cent. annually, until the maximum rate of per cent. should be attained.

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"Deferred" Bonds were issued in satisfaction of the arrears of interest to the amount of £1,500,000. These Bonds were to carry interest from 1st October, 1852, at 1 per cent. per annum, and to increase per cent. annually up to a maximum of 5 per cent., when a Sinking Fund of per cent. should also come into operation.

Default took place in October, 1847.

1851. An Arrangement was agreed to by the Bondholders, but it was not ratified by Congress, although the half-yearly Coupon, due 1st October, 1851, was paid.

1856.-Venezuela received, as the proportion of the Debt due from Peru to the Old Colombian Republic, a sum of $1,140,000 in Four and a-Half per Cent. Peruvian Bonds. This money was kept by the Government for its own purposes, and not handed over to the External Creditors.

1859.-An Arrangement was concluded on the following basis :—

New Bonds to be issued, bearing interest at 2 per cent. from 1st January, 1859, to 1st January, 1860, and 3 per cent.

thereafter, in exchange for the previous "Active" Bonds, with arrears of interest thereon to 31st December, 1858, and also for arrears of interest to same date on existing Deferred Bonds.

Against the Deferred Bonds New Bonds were to be issued, bearing I per cent. interest from 1st January, 1859, to Ist January, 1860, and thenceforth 1 per cent. Holders of Deferred Bonds had, at the time of Conversion, the option of exchanging £100 Bonds into £50 of the New Three per Çent. Bonds.

1862. —No interest was paid from July, 1860, until 1862, when a Six per Cent. Loan was issued at 63 per cent. through Messrs. Baring, to provide for the unpaid Coupons. The Government defaulted again in 1864 upon the 1859 and 1862 Loans. 1864.—A Loan, bearing 6 per cent. interest, was issued by the General Credit and Finance Company. The last interest paid on this Loan was in April, 1867, when £2. 7s. 6d. on account of the £3 Coupon was paid.

1880-81.-The Loans of 1859, 1862, and 1864 were converted into a "New Consolidated Debt." This Arrangement provided for an issue of £4,000,000 New Bonds, of which £2,750,000 was applied to the Conversion of the above Loans and the necessary expenses. The balance of £1,250,000 was reserved for the Unification of the then existing Internal Debt. Interest on the New Bonds to be 3 per cent. per annum until the Unification of the External and Internal Debts was completed, after which it was to be raised to 4 per cent. on the whole Debt. The Unification Scheme was not carried out owing to difficulties with the Internal Bondholders. Only £2,750,000 Bonds were therefore issued, and the rate of interest paid up to the present remains at 3 per cent.

1883 and 1888.-Proposals were made to carry out the Unification Scheme in these years, but proved abortive, owing, in the first instance, to the Government refusing to provide the necessary funds for the expenses of the operation, and, in the second instance, to Congress requiring that the loss on Exchange should be provided out of the sum allowed for the expenses of the Debt Service.