The amount of Spanish trade with the various countries of Europe, Africa, America, and Asia, is shown in the subjoined statement, giving the total value of merchandise imported into and exported from Spain, from and to various countries, and Spanish possessions, in the year 1860:

ports of the kingdom is given in the subjoined table, containing the total value in reales of the imports and exports in the year 1860 :—

50

Bilbao
Gijon

1,866,885

The real value of the total imports into the United Kingdom from Spain, in the year 1863, amounted to 4,922,9177., which sum was in excess of the returns for 1862 by 1,156,4801. To a great extent this increase was caused by the importations of wine having been of a more extensive character than any on record in recent years. After wine, the most important articles of merchandise were copper and copper ore, meal and flour, nuts, oranges and lemons, raisins, manganese ore, olive oil, pyrites of iron or copper, pig and sheet lead, quicksilver, and sheep's wool. The exports of British manufactures to Spain in 1863 attained in value to upwards of 3 millions sterling, an increase on the previous year's aggregate of 646,3137. In the last decade the augmentation in these exports has exceeded 168 per cent. In the ten years immediately preceding the year 1857, their annual average value scarcely exceeded one

million.

The strength of the commercial navy of the kingdom, or the number and tonnage of sailing and steam merchant vessels which belonged to Spain in the year 1860, was as follows:

Spain was famous in ancient times for her precious metals, and has still 2,332 silver mines; but some of them are very insignificant. There were also on January 1, 1860, 37 mines of antimony, 744 of lead, 31 of zinc, 26 of cinnabar, 156 of calamine, 270 of copper, 72 of iron pyrites, and 527 of coal- the latter not very productive when compared with the English coal mines. The quantities produced are stated in a report for the year 1780, and another for the year 1860. These returns show that the produce of iron has risen during that period from 9,000,000 kilogrammes to 41,137,800; that of copper from 15,000 to 2,704,700; that of zinc from 125,000 to 1,853,000. The produce of quicksilver has remained nearly the same, namely, 900,000 and 903,726 kilogrammes per annum, while lead has risen from 1,600,000 to 82,498,400 kilogrammes. There were 1,420,124 marks of silver produced in 1860. The progress in coal mining has been very considerable. In 1858, the native produce was 1,985,150 quintals of 46 kilogrammes, and the imported quantity 6,330,553, which, without adding 594,000 quintals of charcoal, gives a total consumption of 8,315,703 quintals, or 382,522,338 kilogrammes. In 1860, the Spanish mines produced 3,217,734 quintals of 100 kilogrammes, and coal was imported to the value of 33,000,000 reales, or 330,000l. In 1846, the importation was nearly 73,000,000 kilogrammes; and from that year to 1858, the imports rose 217,000,000 kilogrammes; that is, they quadrupled in twelve years.

Spain has seldom been able, in modern times, to export corn; but wine, spirits, and liqueurs are sent away in large quantities. The export of these articles amounted to :—

The consumption of wine varies greatly in the different cities and provinces of the kingdom. In Valencia each inhabitant drinks 83 litres a year, in Segovia 78, in Logrono 78, in Madrid 72; while in the Balearic Islands, Malaga, and Seville, each person is contented with from 7 to 8 litres. The general average for the whole of Spain is 32.4 litres, or nearly 56 pints.

Colonies.

The Colonial possessions of Spain, formerly embracing nearly the whole of America, consisted, in the year 1860, of the following islands, with a small strip of territory in Northern Africa :*

* Anuario Estadistica, 1860.

The population of the African possessions is estimated at 15,000; of the colonies in America at 2,066,000; and in Oceania at 2,860,000 inhabitants. If these estimates be correct, the whole population of the Spanish colonies would amount to about 5,000,000 inhabitants, mostly coloured men.

The most important of the Spanish colonial possessions are those in America, Cuba taking the first rank. The census of Cuba of 1775, gave a population of 170,370; that of 1791, 272,140; that of 1817, gave 551,998, and that of 1827, 704,487: namely, 311,051 whites; free coloured, 106,494; slaves, 286,942. The census of 1841, gave a total population of 1,007,624. Of these, 418,147 were whites; 152,838, free coloured; total free population, 571,129. Of the