The actual revenue for 1884-85 was found to be 44,970,100 kroner, or 2,476,3271., and expenditure 41,233,900 kroner, or 2,270,5901. The budget estimate of revenue for 1885-86 was 2,369,1701., and of expenditure 2,355,8441. The debt of the kingdom was contracted for the construction of public works, mainly railways. It amounted at the end of 1885 to 108,408,200 kroner, or 5,969,6157. The total value of the land is estimated at 44,500,000l. and of buildings 25,000,0001. Army and Navy. The troops of the kingdom are raised mainly by conscription, and to a small extent by enlistment. By the terms of three laws voted by the Storthing in 1866, 1876, and 1885, the land forces are divided into the troops of the line, the Landvaern or militia, the Landstorm or final levy, and the military train. All young men past the twenty-second year of age are liable to the conscription, with the exception of the inhabitants of the three northern Amts of the kingdom, who are free from military land service. The young men in the line raised by conscription have to go through a first training in the school of recruits, extending over 42 days in the infantry, 50 days by the engineers, and 70 days in the artillery and cavalry. They are then put into the battalions, whose second, third, and fourth class of year by the artillery, cavalry, and engineers, and whose second and third class of year by the infantry and train, under ordinary circumstances, have an annual practice of 24 days, after which the men are sent on furlough, with obligation to meet when requested. The recruits of the line, and the sixth class of year of the Landvaern have only a practice of 12 days' extent. The train has a school of recruits, extending over 25 days for the engineers, and 18 days in the other arms. The nominal term of service is thirteen years, divided between five years in the line, four years in the Landvaern, and four years in the Landstorm. The Landvaern is only liable to service within the frontiers of the kingdom. Every man capable of bearing arms, and not placed in one of the said categories, is in time of war liable to do service in the reserve of the Landstorm, from the eighteenth to the fiftieth year of age. On the 1st of January, 1886, the troops of the line, with its reserves, numbered about 40,000 men, with 800 officers. The number of troops actually under arms can never exceed, even in war, 18,000 men without the consent of the Storthing. The king has permission to keep a guard of Norwegian volunteers at Stockholm, and to transfer, for the purpose of common military exercises, 3,000 men annually from Norway to Sweden, and from Sweden to Norway. The naval force of Norway comprised, in 1886, 39 steamers and 6 sailing vessels. The following was the composition of the fleet of steamers in the navy : On July 1, 1886, the navy numbered 119 officers and 332 petty officers and sailors on permanent engagement. The ships in commission in 1886 were manned by 645 sailors, with 179 commissioned officers and cadets. All seafaring men and inhabitants of seaports, between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-five, are enrolled on the lists of either the active fleet or the naval militia, and liable, by a law passed in 1866, to the maritime conscription. The numbers on the register amounted, in 1886, to nearly 27,000 men. The fortresses of Norway are unimportant, Frederiksstad, Frederiksten, Akershus near Christiania, Oscarsborg and Vardöhus, with forts at Kristiansand, Bergen and Trondhjem. Area and Population. A census of the population of Norway has from 1815 to 1875 been taken every ten years. The area and population of the kingdom are given in table on next page, as at the census taken December 31, 1875. In 1875 there were 876,762 men and 930,138 women; the domiciled population was 1,818,853. At the end of 1880 the domiciled population was estimated at 1,925,000. In 1875 there were 7,594 Finns, 14,645 settled and 1,073 nomad Lapps, about 700 Gypsies, and 4,461 of mixed race between norwegians, Finns, and Lapps. Of the 57,350 foreign-born population 29,340 were Swedes, 2,205 Danes, 1,471 Germans, 2,709 Finlanders. At the census of 1865 the inhabitants of towns numbered 266,292, and at the end of 1875 they were 326,420, showing an increase of 23 per cent., against an increase of the rural population of only 4 per cent. In 1880 the town population had increased to 404,000, showing an increase of 23 per cent. in five years, while the country * Including one in course of construction. K K population had only increased at the rate of less than two per cent. On January 1, 1886, the town population amounted to 426,379. The two largest towns are Christiania, with a population (1886) of 128,302, and Bergen, with 46,552. Other towns are Stavanger, with 22,634 inhabitants, Trondhjem, 23,753, Drammen, 19,391. The following table gives the marriages, births (excluding stillborn), and deaths from 1880 to 1884: In 1884 of the total births 4,801, or 8.0 per cent., were illegiti mate. The number of emigrants was 7,608 in 1879, 20,212 in 1880, 25,976 in 1881, 28,804 in 1882, 22,167 in 1883, 14,776 in 1884, and 13,981 in 1885. In 1883 3,652 persons were accused of crime, and 3,185 convicted. The number of paupers in 1883 was 150,804. Trade and Industry. The average value of the total imports into Norway, in the five years 1881-85, was 158,237,000 kroner, or 8,790,9001., and of the exports 114,833,000 kroner, or 6,379,600l. Of the imports about 26 per cent. came from, and of the exports about 33 per cent. went to Great Britain; 29 per cent. of the imports came from Germany, 11 per cent. from Sweden, 9 per cent. from Denmark, 9 per cent. from Russia, 4 per cent. from France, and 3 per cent. from Holland. Of the exports about 13 per cent. went to Germany, 12 per cent. to Sweden, about 10 per cent. (chiefly fish) to Spain, about 8 per cent. to France, about 5 per cent. each to Denmark and Holland, and about 3 per cent. to Russia. The imports in 1884 were valued at 8,822,000l., and in 1885 at 8,089,000l. In 1884 the exports were 6,233,000l., and in 1885, 5,663,000l. The chief imports are corn (one-fifth of total), textile manufactures (one-sixth), colonial goods (one-tenth), minerals (onefourteenth), and metals, raw and manufactured (one-fourteenth). The chief exports are fish and timber, each one-third of total in 1885. The commercial intercourse between Norway and the United Kingdom, according to the Board of Trade Returns, is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the value of the exports from Norway to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce into Norway, in each of the ten years 1876 to 1885: Years Exports from Norway to £ Imports of British home £ 1,511,538 : 1,727,433 About three-fourths of the exports from Norway to the United Kingdom consist of wood and timber. In 1885 the exports of timber, sawn or split, amounted to 1,276,2517. The minor exports to Great Britain comprise fish, ice, and small quantities of bar iron and copper ore. Iron, wrought and unwrought, of the value of 157,7771.; cotton manufactures, of the value of 180,0917.; coals, of the value of кк? 263,5391.; and woollens, of the value of 144,3567., formed the chief British imports into Norway in the year 1885. The shipping belonging to Norway numbered 7,884 vessels, of a total burthen of 1,583,434 tons, manned by 60,937 sailors, in January of 1885. Of the vessels, 7,397, of 1,477,796 tons, were sailing vessels, and 487, of 105,638 tons, were steamers. Of the total number, 4,862, of 1,472,968 tons, were engaged in foreign trade. During 1885 there were added 28 steamers, of 8,108 tons. Norway has, in proportion to population, the largest commercial navy in the world. In 1884, 12,315 vessels of 2,596,893 tons entered, and 13,126, of 2,576,584 tons, cleared Norwegian ports. Norway has about 120,000 people and over 30,000 boats engaged in the fisheries, three-fourths in the cod fisheries. The total value of the fishery in 1884 was 1,354,8001. In January 1886 there were in Norway 970 miles of railway open for traffic. The receipts in the financial year 1884-85 amounted to 390,5167., and the expenses to 297,8101. The capital sunk in railways amounts to 7,025,4301. Except the first line, Christiania to Mjösen, 42 miles, all the railways have been constructed partly by subscription (one-fifth to one-third out of whole cost) in the districts interested, and partly at the expense of government. All the railways, except the above, are thus entirely under control of the government. There were in January 1886 telegraph lines of the length of 5,549 English miles (4,565 miles belonging to the State, 984 miles to the railways), and wires of the length of 10,049 miles (8,477 miles belonging to the State, 1,572 miles to the railways). The number of telegrams in the year 1885 was 893,243, of which 520,673 were inland, 168,342 sent to, and 204,180 received from foreign countries, and 48 in transit. The number of telegraph offices in 1886 was 315. Receipts 1885, 53,510l., expenses 66,0137. The number of postoffices at the same date was 1,070. The number of letters forwarded through the post in 1884 was 18,923,574, besides 15,971,358 journals. Diplomatic Representatives. 1. OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY IN GREAT BRITAIN. Envoy and Minister.-Count Edward Piper, accredited July 6, 1877. 2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. Envoy and Minister. --Edwin Corbett, appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden and Norway, Dec. 24, 1884. Secretaries. Hon W. J. G. Napier; George Greville; H. C. Lowther. |