FRANCE. AREA AND POPULATION. The present area of France is 204,092 English square miles. By the census of 1891 the population was 38,343,192, while that of 1896 shows 38,517,975, or 188.7 population per square mile. The number of foreigners residing in France (census 1896) constituted 2.66 per cent. of the whole inhabitants, or 1,027,491 persons, of whom, at the census of 1891, 465,860 were Belgians and 286,042 Italians. DISTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATIONS. The number of French citizens abroad in 1891 was 517,000; the home residents are classified according to the following employments: The French are remarkably non-migratory, as will appear from the following figures of emigrants for a series of years: STATE FINANCES. The following official figures represent the yearly expenditures of the French Government from resources derived from taxes and loans, but do not include the "budget sur ressources spéciales": 3,448,795,732 3,538,714,027 1888. 3,107,534,722 160,256,078 1890. 3.229,372,253 The following table shows the interest and annuities to be paid under the various heads of the public debt, according to the budget estimates of 1896: The agricultural lands of France comprise 36,977,100 hectares under crops, fallow, and grasses, and 8,397,131 hectares under forest. The following statement shows the chief crops and the acreage of each crop for the years named : 1 hectolitre = 2.8375 bushels; 1 hectare 2.471 acres; 1 quintal =220.46 pounds. Silk culture is carried on in 27 departments of France-most extensively in Drôme, Gard, Ardèche, and Vaucluse. In 1895, 154,800 persons were employed in this industry; the production of cocoons was 9,300,727 kilogrammes; 625,400 kilogrammes of cocoons were exported, valued at 4,627,960 francs, and 3,161,000 kilogrammes of raw silk, valued at 76,800,640 francs. (1 kilogramme = 2.2046 pounds avdps.) COAL, IRON, AND STEEL. The following statement shows the production of coal, iron, and steel: 23,851,912 808,724 529,302 25,591,545 25,501,595 25,697,233 3,706,748 2,057,390 25,172,792 3,517,438 2,003,096 27,417,000 3,772,000 2,077,647 2,003,868 29,310,832 2,333,702 814,643 1,128,769 TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. At the date of the latest official data (1893), the productive equipment of France, so far as respects her textile industries, was as follows: The following statement of the imports and exports of cotton yarn and cloth affords some indication of the status of that branch of industry: . The values of the yearly imports and exports of woolens and silks in millions of francs are seen from the subjoined table : In the following statistics of imports and exports of merchandise " General Trade " includes all goods entering or leaving the country, while "Special Trade" includes only imports for home use and exports of French origin: * The imports and exports of France from the year 1840 are contained in Volume I of this work, at page 3. The chief divisions of "Special Trade" were, in millions of francs: Manufactured goods.. -Imports Exports1893. 1894. 1896. 1895. 711 606 639 652 784 755 830 836 1890. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1893. 1890. 1892. 4,438 4,188 3,854 3,850 3,838 3.799 3,753 3,461 3,236 3,078 3,405 3,400 The chief articles of import and export in the "Special Trade," expressed in millions of francs, were as follows for the years 1890 to 1895: Chief imports for home use and exports of home goods, to and from the following countries, in millions of francs: The principal articles of import from the United States for the year ending June 30, 1896, were: Breadstuff, $1,710,112; copper, $3,888,923; cotton, unmanufactured, $19,506,348; india rubber, manufactures of, $1,021,321; iron and steel, manufactures of, $828,353; mineral oil, crude and refined, $5,535,028; oil, cottonseed, $1,356,858; provisions, $3,322,512, of which lard is $2,131,390; tobacco, unmanufactured, $2,614,605; wood and manufactures of, $1,172,342. The principal articles of export to the United States were: Art works, etc., $2,401,258; chemicals, drugs, dyes, etc.. $2,914,381; cotton, manufactures of, $3,187,668; earthen, stone, and china ware, $1,621,224; feathers and flowers, $2,169,668; hides and skins, not furs, $1,424,666; furs and manufactures of, $1,958,185; glass and glassware, $1,056,610; jewelry. etc., $1,764,629; leather, gloves, $2,499,644; metals and manufactures of, $1.132,236; silk, raw, $1,670,031; silk, manufactured, $10,643,832; wines, $4,286,768, of which champagne, $3,313,752; wool, unmanufactured, $3,149,462; wool, manufactured, 7,841,375. Gold, $3,933,491; silver, $8,133. At the close of 1894, the mercantile marine of France comprised 14,332 sailing vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 398 567 tons, and crews numbering 69,900; the number of steamers was 1,196, of 491,972 tons, and crews aggregating 14,333. Of this total (890,439 tons) 456,175 tons were built in France and 434,364 were built abroad. The following table shows the number and tonnage of vessels engaged in foreign, colonial, and marine fishing trade, coasting trade not included: The following table shows the tonnage of all vessels which entered and cleared in France during the years named, classified as French and foreign, with the percentage of each to the total carrying trade. To avoid confusion it should be noted that the net tonnage of a given vessel is counted in the following totals every time the vessel enters and every time it clears from a French port, so that, while the tables are an approximate measure of trade, they are no measure of construction: The length of railroad in operation, the cost of building, the receipts and expenses, and the passengers and goods carried on the French system of railroads have been as follows during late years: *These statistics are carried back to the year 1815 in Volume I of this work, at pages 41 and 42. They are converted from £'s sterling at a value of $5.00 to the £. |