The second large group consists of the securities representing the External National Debt, which on the 31st December 1908 stood at £62,900,000, or £7,400,000 lower than that of the debt in circulation on 1st July 1905. This diminution arises from the redemption of bonds by means of the 6 per cent. Funding Loan, of which the total was £5,600,000. If to the amount of this debt we add the sums represented by the external debt of certain cities, the internal debt of the nation, and the internal debt of some of the Provinces, we find that the entire Argentine National Debt forms a total of £130,000,000. We need not examine at greater lengths the composition and value of these two groups of securities, as we have already dealt with them in special chapters. As for the insurance companies and foreign banks, any estimate of their capital is difficult; but it is otherwise in the case of the mortgage companies. The capital which these companies have invested in the Argentine is now of a nominal value of more than £16,500,000. But this is only a small portion of the foreign capital invested in mortgages in the Argentine; for the high interest earned by this class of investment, which a short time back rose to 10 per cent., has attracted large sums of foreign money which have been invested privately. Señor Tornquist estimates the foreign capital thus put out in mortgages at £9,000,000. We must call attention to the interesting fact that the amount of foreign capital invested in the agricultural and other rural undertakings of the Argentine increases day by day. At the end of 1908 this capital amounted to £8,726,037, of which the greater part was the property of British subjects, who first devoted their energies to agriculture and stock-raising in the Argentine a comparatively long time ago. It is the English who have been the most active agents of the rapid and extraordinary progress of Argentine stock-raising, especially in all that relates to the selection of breeds and the best manner of feeding. Among the industrial undertakings, that which has of late years assumed the greatest importance is the frozen or chilled-meat industry——the refrigerating industry. There are now nine refrigerating establishments, with a subscribed capital of £3,993,915. Other industrial undertakings, such as sugar factories, breweries, quebracho mills, and mines, are beginning to take a significant place in the list of Argentine securities. The nominal total of all movable values being estimated, at the end of 1908, at £474,396,933, the question which now occurs is, What is the annual yield of these securities? This is the most difficult point of our inquiry, and one we can answer only by approximate estimates.