returns are kept of the value of the general commerce, but only of the weight of the goods. The growth of the total commerce of the Netherlands may be seen from the fact that in 1872 the total imports were estimated at 6,451 million kilogrammes, and exports 2,955 millions; while in 1885, the former were 11,664 million kilogrammes, and the latter 6,116 millions, exclusive of goods in transit. The following are the estimates of the imports for home consumption and the exports of home produce for the five years 1882-86 :— Total Exports Years Total Imports The following are the values of the leading articles of import and export in 1886 : : The following table shows the value of the trade with the principal countries in 1886 : Imports from The total value of the exports from the Netherlands to Great Britain, and of the imports of British and Irish produce into the Netherlands, in each of the five years 1882 to 1886, is shown in the subjoined table, according to the Board of Trade returns: Years Exports from the Netherlands Imports of British Home Produce The principal articles of export from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom in the year 1886 were: butter, 1,775,5097.; butterine, 2,771,4887.; live animals, principally oxen and sheep, 1,293,2231.; cheese, 764,871l.; gin, 49,692l., sugar, 1,183,7781.; iron and steel goods, 793,0097.; woollen manufactures, 1,499,1107.; cotton manu. factures, 773,9771. Enumerated also as exports from the Netherlands to Great Britain, in the official returns, are silk manufactures of various kinds, chiefly stuffs and ribbons, of the value of 2,517,381. in 1886, but these must be considered as principally goods in transit, coming from the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, seat of the German silk industry. The principal articles of British home produce imported into the Netherlands in the year 1886 were cotton goods, mainly yarn, of the value of 2,561,1057.; iron, wrought and unwrought, of the value of 608,7841.; woollen-yarn and manufactures, of the value of 1,604,5137.; and machinery, 402,2197. A considerable amount of these British imports are not for consumption in the Netherlands, but pass in transit to Germany. = The surface of the Netherlands is divided as follows, in hectares (1 hectare 2:47 acres), in 1885: Uncultivated land, 710,700; water and morass, 132,582; dikes and roads, 43,148; untaxed land, 91,733; building land and houses, 36,632; cultivated land, 860,137; pasture, 1,137,749 ; gardens and orchards, 52,146; wood, 225,824. The mean yield of the following products was, in 1885, per hectare: wheat, 26-3 hectolitres (hectolitre 2.75 bushels); rye, 20; winter barley, 42-8; summer barley, 30.3; oats, 40-2; potatoes, 169; buckwheat, 8.9; beans, 19-9; peas, 18-6; rape seed, 24-5; flax, 500 kilogrammes; beets, 25,025; tobacco, 2,075; madder, 2,475. The total yield of grain crops proper in 1885 was 36,623,000 bushels. In 1885 there were 79,805 proprietors and 51,183 farmers, making the former 60.9 per cent. and the latter 39.1 per cent. of 130,988 who possessed or farmed from 1 to 20 hectares land, and 13,276 proprietors and 12,105 farmers, making 52.3 per cent. and 47-7 per cent. of 25,381 who possessed or farmed more than 20 hectares. In 1885 there were in the Netherlands 270,100 horses, 1,510,100 cattle, 774,100 sheep. In 1886, 190 vessels were engaged in deep-sea fishing, and 272 in coast-fishing. The following table shows the number of the vessels belonging to the mercantile navy in 1886 : In 1886, 7,695 vessels of 4,106,656 tons entered, and 7,675 of 4,158,088 tons cleared, Dutch ports. Of the ships entered 3,476 of 1,699,990 tons were British. In 1886 there were railways of a total length of 2,550 kilomètres, or 1,584 English miles, open for traffic in the kingdom. The State owned 1,390 kilomètres, or 864 English miles, and private companies the remainder. The total earnings of the various lines in the year 1885 were 25,319,000 guilders, and the total expenses 14,466,000 guilders, leaving a balance of 10,853,000 guilders, or 904,4177. The earnings of the State railways in 1885 were 11,876,000 guilders, and expenses 7,210,000 guilders, leaving a balance of 4,666,000 guilders, or 388,8331. The total outlay upon the State railways up to 1885 was 213,651,089 guilders, or 17,804,2577. In 1886 the number of letters which passed through the postoffice was 65,605,000; post-cards, 23,073,562; journals, and other printed matter, 78,262,000; samples, 2,856,079. The post-office did business to the amount of 30,146,711 guilders, or 2,512,2261., in money-orders, in 1886; and the postal savings-bank (started in 1881) received 6,615,657 guilders, or 551,3051., in deposits, till Dec. 31, 1886, the total deposits remaining at the end of the year being 8,865,643 guilders, or 738,8031. The number of post-offices in 1886 was 1,231. The total income of the post-office in the year 1886 amounted to 5,541,162 guilders, or 461,7637., and the expenditure to 4,160,607 guilders, or 346,7171. The length of State telegraph lines on January 1, 1887, was 4,770 kilomètres, or 2,096 English miles, the length of wires 17,019 kilomètres, or 10,577 English miles, and the number of State offices 322. Besides these are 295 offices of private companies. In the year 1886 there were 3,622,810 paying telegrams carried. The receipts amounted to 1,123,396 guilders, or 93,6161., and the ordinary expenses to 1,536,709 guilders, or 128,0591. Colonies. The colonial possessions of the Netherlands embrace an area of 766,137 English square miles. The total population, according to the last returns, was 28,312,402, or more than six times as large as that of the mother country. The table opposite gives the area and population of the various colonial possessions, divided into three groups: first, the possessions in Asia or the East Indies; secondly, the West India islands; and thirdly, the colony of Surinam, in South America. The Netherlands claim the whole of New Guinea to 141° E. long. Of the colonial possessions of the Netherlands, the East Indian are by far the most important. Slavery ceased in the West Indian colonies on July 1, 1863. There were at this period 44,645 slaves, for all of whom the owners received compensation, the same amounting to 300 guilders, or 251., per individual, in Surinam, and to 200 guilders, or 167. 13s., in the rest of the colonies. For a detailed account of the principal colonial possessions, the Dutch East Indies, see Part II. of the STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK. *Tolerably accurate. † Approximatively. Mere conjecture. § Without the non-Christianised natives. New Guinea belongs to the residency of Ternate, Molucca Islands. |