most
demolished during the two insane civil wars--was wrecked and well-nigh
ruined, its industries destroyed, its commerce at an end. With peace and
quietness came one of the most extraordinary revivals of modern times:
the population increased at a marvellous rate, the new town sprang into
existence on the left bank of the Nerrion, the river was deepened, the
bar, which used to block almost all entrance, practically removed,
extensive dock-works carried out; so that in ten years the shipment of
ore from the port sprang up from four hundred and twenty-five thousand
tons to 3,737,176, and is increasing daily. Bilbao, with its five
railway stations, its electric tramways, and its population of
sixty-six thousand, has become the first and most important shipping
outlet of Spain. Nor have the southern ports of Huelva and Seville been
much behind it in their rapid progress; while on the Mediterranean coast
are Malaga, Almeria, Aguilas, Cartagena, Valencia, and Tarragona--all
vying with the older, and once singular, centre of commercial and
industrial activity, Barcelona. The northwest seaboard has been hitherto
somewhat behind the movement, owing to a less complete railway
communication with the rest of the country; now that this is no more a
reproach, the fine natural harbours of Rivadeo, Vivero, Carril,
Pontevedra, Vigo, and Coruna, are gradually following suit, some with
more vigour than others. The little land-locked harbour of Pasages has
for some years been rapidly rising to the rank of a first-class shipping
port.

It is satisfactory to note, from the latest statistics, that in 1899
Spain possessed a total of one thousand and thirty-five merchant ships,
that in the same year she bought from England alone sixty-seven, and
that 17,419 ships, carrying 11,857,674 tons of exports, left Spanish
ports for foreign markets. Although no official information has been
published since that year, the increase since the close of the war has
been in very much greater ratio. From the same records we find that
during the year 1899 no fewer than sixty-nine large companies were
formed, of which twenty-three were for shipping, eight were new sugar
factories, seven banks, seven mining, six electric, and ten others
related either to manufacture or commerce, the total capital of these
new enterprises representing one hundred and twenty-eight millions of
pesetas.

In contrast to Portugal, the _caminos reales_, or high-roads, of Spain
have