quantities, the only ores that have been worked are gold, silver and copper. At the beginning of the 20th century the silver and copper mines had been abandoned. The goldfields are exploited with American capital, and yield a fair return.
Commerce.—The exports, which comprise coffee, bananas, cocoa, cabinet-woods and dye-woods, with hides and skins, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell and gold, were officially valued at £1,398,000 in 1904; and in the same year the imports, including foodstuffs, dry goods and hardware, were valued at £1,229,000. Over £1,250,000 worth of the exports consisted of coffee and bananas, and these commodities were of almost equal value. Nearly 85% of the coffee, or more than 20,000,000 ℔, were sent to Great Britain. The development of the banana trade dates from 1881, when 3500 bunches of fruit were exported to New Orleans. This total increased very rapidly, and in 1902 a monthly service of steamers was established from Limon to Bristol and Manchester. The service to England soon became a weekly one, while there are at least three weekly sailings to the United States. In 1904 the number of bunches sent abroad exceeded 6,000,000. So important is this crop that the rate of wages to labourers in the banana districts is nearly 3s. daily, as compared with an average of 1s. 8d. in the coffee plantations. The bulk of the imports comes from the United States (52% in 1904), Great Britain (19%) and Germany (13%). Almost the whole foreign trade passes through Limon and Puntarenas. In 1904, exclusive of banana steamers, there were regular steamship services weekly from Limon to the United States and Germany, fortnightly to Great Britain, and monthly to France, Italy and Spain; while at Puntarenas four American liners called monthly on the voyage between San Francisco and Panama.
Finance.—The valuable resources of the republic, and its comparative immunity from revolution, formerly attracted the attention of European and American investors, who supplied the capital for internal development. In 1871 the government contracted a loan of £1,000,000 in London, and in 1872 it borrowed an additional £2,400,000 for railway construction. The outstanding foreign debt amounted in 1887 to £2,691,300, while the arrears of interest were no less than £2,119,500. An arrangement with the creditors was concluded in 1888; but in 1895 the republic again became bankrupt, and a fresh arrangement was sanctioned in March 1897, by which the interest on £1,475,000 was reduced to 212% and that on £525,000 to 3%. It was provided that amortization, at £10,000 yearly, should begin in 1917. In 1904 the service of the external debt, which then amounted to £2,500,000, including £500,000 arrears of interest, was again suspended; the total of the internal debt was £815,000. About one-half of the national revenue is derived from customs, the remainder being principally furnished by railways, stamps, and the salt and tobacco monopolies. In the financial year 1904–1905 the revenue was £503,000, the expenditure £390,000. Education, internal development and the service of the internal debt were the chief sources of expenditure.
Money and Credit.—There are three important banks, the Anglo-Costa Rican Bank, with a capital of £120,000, the Bank of Costa Rica (£200,000), and the Commercial Bank of Costa Rica (£100,000), founded in 1905. On the 25th of April 1900 a law was enacted for the regulation of the constitution, capital, note emission and metallic reserves of banks. On the 24th of October 1896 an act was passed for the adoption of a gold coinage, and the execution of this act was decreed on the 17th of April 1900. The monetary unit is the gold colon weighing .778 gramme, .900 fine, and thus worth about 23d. It is legally equivalent to the silver peso, which continues in circulation. The gold coins of the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany are legally current. The metric system of weights and measures was introduced by law in 1884, but the old Spanish system is still in use.
Constitution and Government.—Costa Rica is governed under a constitution of 1870, which, however, only came into force in 1882, and has often been modified. The legislative power resides in a House of Representatives, consisting of about 30 to 40 deputies, or one for every 8000 inhabitants. The deputies are chosen for a term of four years by local electoral colleges, whose members are returned by the votes of all self-supporting citizens. One-half of the chamber retires automatically every two years. The president and three vice-presidents constitute the executive. They are assisted by a cabinet of four ministers, representing the departments of the interior, police and public works; foreign affairs, justice, religion and education; finance and commerce; war and marine. For purposes of local administration the state is divided into five provinces, Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia and San José, and two maritime districts (comarcas), Limon and Puntarenas. All these divisions except Guanacaste—which takes its name from a variety of mimosa very common in the province—are synonymous with their chief towns; and each is controlled by a governor or prefect appointed by the president. Justice is administered by a supreme court, two courts of appeal, and the court of cassation, which sit in San José, and are supplemented by various inferior tribunals.
Religion and Education.—The Roman Catholic Church is supported by the state, and the vast majority of the people accept its doctrines; but complete religious liberty is guaranteed by the constitution. The Jesuits, who formerly exercised widespread influence, were expelled in 1884. Of the other religious communities, the most important are the Protestants, numbering 3000, and the Buddhists, about 250. Primary education is free and compulsory; the standard of attendance is high and the instruction fair, but a large proportion of the older inhabitants were illiterate at the beginning of the 20th century. In the matter of secondary education considerable neglect has been shown. In 1904 there were only six secondary schools, including the institute of law and medicine and the training-school for teachers at San José. The state grants scholarships tenable at European universities to promising pupils, and there are three important public libraries.
Defence.—Military service in time of war is compulsory for all able-bodied citizens aged 18-50. There are a permanent army, of about 600; a militia, comprising an active service branch to which all under 40 belong, with a reserve for those between 40 and 50; and a national guard, including all males under 18 and over 50 who are capable of bearing arms. On a war footing these forces would number about 36,000. A gunboat and a torpedo boat constitute the navy, which, however, requires the services of an admiral, subordinate to the ministry of marine.
History.—The origin of the name Costa Rica (Spanish for “Rich Coast”) has been much disputed. It is often stated that the territories to which the name is now applied were first known as Nueva Cartago, while Costa Rica was used in a wider sense to designate the whole south-western coast of the Caribbean Sea, from the supposed mineral wealth of this region. Then, in 1540, the name was restricted to an area approximately equal to that of modern Costa Rica. In such a case it must have been bestowed ironically, for the country proved very unprofitable to the gold-seekers, who were its earliest European settlers. Col. Church, in the paper cited below, derives it from Costa de Oreja, “Earring Coast,” in allusion to the earrings worn by the Indians and remarked by their conquerors. He quotes evidence to show that this name was known to 16th-century cartographers.
With the rest of Central America, Costa Rica remained a province of the Spanish captaincy-general of Guatemala until 1821. Its conquest was completed by 1530, and ten years later it was made a separate province, the limits of which were fixed, by order of Philip II., between 1560 and 1573. This task was principally executed by Juan Vazquez de Coronado (or Vasquez de Coronada), an able and humane governor appointed in 1562, whose civilizing work was undone by the almost uninterrupted maladministration of his fifty-eight successors. The Indians were enslaved, and their welfare was wholly subordinated to the quest for gold. From 1666 onwards both coasts were ravaged by pirates, who completed the ruin of the country. Diego de la Haya y Fernandez, governor in 1718, reported to the crown that no province of Spanish America was in so wretched a condition. Cocoa-beans were the current coinage. Tomás de Acosta, governor from 1797 to 1809, confirmed this report, and stated
