Tobacco is a monopoly of the State. It is purchased upon a tariff fixed by special commission, and is of well-known quality and peculiarly adapted for the manufacture of cigarettes. The departments where it is principally cultivated are Vranya, Krayina, Nisch, d’Uzice, and Kragooyevac, while in other parts of Servia the Turkish varieties are grown with great success, and for aroma will compare well with the tobacco of Albania or Kavala. Not only is sufficient tobacco grown in Servia to supply the wants of the country, but the quantities exported are increasing year by year. A favoured few Englishmen, and especially diplomats in various parts of Europe—who know the excellence of the special quality of Servian cigarettes—have them direct from Belgrade. Cigarettes bought for export cost one-half the price they do for consumption in Servia.

Marmalade and slivovitza—an eau-de-vie made of prunes—are also two articles manufactured in Servia and largely exported, about three million francs’ worth of the former, and two hundred thousand francs’ worth of the latter being sent out of the country annually.

There are immense forests in various parts of the country with a great wealth of timber unexploited, as a glance at any good map of Servia will show, while the sportsman will find there plenty of game of every kind, from bear, lynx, wolf, and such-like animals, down to the quail, pigeon, partridge, pheasant, and woodcock. The whole country teems with game, and the only prohibitions are upon the stag, deer, chamois, and hen pheasants. There are many sporting clubs, the chief one being in Belgrade, where a paper is also published called Le Chasseur.

Servia’s mineral wealth is well known to geologists. Gold, in diluvial and alluvial deposits, is being worked at Timok, at Pek, and at other places, while cinnabar is found at Avala, near Belgrade, and in the villages of Brajici, Bare, and Donja Tresnica. At Podrinye, at Lyuta Strana, at Zuce, at Crveni Breg, in the region of Avala, at Rudnik, at Kopaonik, at Djurina Sreca there is lead; at Zavlaca and Kucajna, zinc; and at Povlen, Suvobor, Cemerno, Aldinac, Majdanpek, Bor in Timok and Rtanj, large deposits of copper. Arsenic is found in various regions, but principally near Donja Tresnica, in the department of Podrinye; while antimony is known to exist in the Zajaca region. Rich iron is waiting to be exploited upon the Kopaonik, in Vlasina, Rudna Glava, Crnajka (department of Krajina), on the Vencac, in the centre of Servia, and on the Boranja (in Podrinye); while there is coal in places too innumerable to mention in this work.

All this enormous mineral wealth might well be exploited by British capital. The Servian Government are, however, very careful to whom they give concessions, and will not entertain, for a single moment, any application, unless the applicant is properly introduced and can give undeniable proof of his bona fides. Therefore the adventurer who thinks he will, without capital, be able to make a “good thing” will find himself sadly disappointed. The Government is extremely anxious to receive bona-fide proposals, and as His Majesty himself informed me, will grant concessions, but only to firms or companies who mean serious and legitimate business.

The Servian State is owner of all the subsoil of its territory, and can give what rights it thinks proper to foreigners to prospect and work.

British capitalists would do well to make inquiries, for, from certain information I gathered in Belgrade, I have no hesitation in saying that great returns await those who commence serious mining operations in that rich and inexhaustible field.

As the future wealth of Servia will depend to a large extent on the exploitation of her mineral resources, and as Englishmen must, ere long, be interested in her mines—as they are in mines all over the world—a few facts concerning the Mining Law of Servia may not be out of place here.

The Government grants two kinds of rights to make researches, the “simple right” and the “exclusive right.” The former is given for one year, and may be extended to two years, and is limited to the three communes indicated. The second lasts a year, but is renewable each year as long as required, and it gives a right to explore over 500,000 square metres of mining field.

The State gives concessions for mines for fifty years upon a sufficient number of mining-fields each of 100,000 square metres, the boundaries of which are fixed by a special commission. To obtain a concession it must first be proved that there are undoubted traces of minerals; that the capital is sufficient, and a plan of the proposed works has to be furnished. The concessionaire, after fifteen years of uninterrupted work, becomes proprietor, but he must continue to pay the mining duties, and of course conform to the Mining Law.

Both the prospector and the concessionaire are obliged to work regularly, take proper precautions for the well-being and personal safety of their workpeople, report annually upon work executed, and furnish each year plans for next year’s work. There must be no mining beneath roads, water-courses, buildings, or cemeteries.

All rights of research and all concessions are lost if the specified work is not executed within the first year, or is interrupted without a reason approved by the Minister, or by bankruptcy.

The State, in order to encourage industry, favours the importation of all machinery and material for use in mines, as well as the exportation of the ore obtained, and gives many other advantages to the concessionaire.

Of late, Belgrade has been overrun with foreign concession-hunters, most of them of the adventurer type. I met several of them in Belgrade. In my conversation with the Ministers I quickly learnt that the Government, fully alive to the great mineral resources of their country, and confident in the great wealth that must in a few years accrue, will have absolutely nothing to do with any person who comes to them without introduction.

In Belgrade, I repeat, the doors are closed to the irresponsible concession-hunter, but at once open to anyone who on being introduced can show his bona fides and that he has capital behind him.

In the course of my inquiries into the mineral wealth I had a number of conversations with Mr. J. R. Finney, Ass. I. M. & M., an English mining engineer who has spent seventeen years in prospecting and working mines in Servia.

No one knows more about mines and traces of minerals in the country than he.

He pointed out to me that the mineral deposits of Servia have been worked to a very great extent from very early times, as the remains of Roman and Venetian works prove and the enormous slag-heaps found in various parts of the country. He himself has on many occasions found, while prospecting, rude ancient implements, bones, etc. Of the ancient Roman workings, copper, galena, and silver were obtained at Kopaonik; at Rudnik, lead, silver, and zinc were mined; at Kucajna, gold, silver, zinc, and coal, while alluvial gold is to be found all along the Pek River, and especially where it joins the Danube. This gold has, he said, evidently been worked down in course of time from a rich quartz reef which is known by certain persons, including himself, to exist.

At the Rebel copper mine, which Mr. Finney himself discovered, he found ancient workings that had been shored up with timber, but so long ago that the wood was petrified! Again, the wood was pine, which does not now exist in the forests. The latter are all beeches, and it is known that in course of long ages beeches kill the pines. At the mine in question is an extensive copper-smelting works, and a very large percentage of metal is obtained. All over this same district Mr. Finney has prospected, and declares that in the mountains of Medvednick and Povlen there are large deposits of lead, copper, silver, and antimony all awaiting exploitation.

Some very important copper mines and smelting works are at Maydan Pek, and have been worked at a good profit for years, while at Bor there has been erected a large smelting works, which are capable of producing ten tons of copper daily. Large deposits of antimony exist, to Mr. Finney’s knowledge, at Zajitchar and Krupanj.

“I quite admit,” said Mr. Finney, as we were chatting, “that some mines in Servia have not been successful. The bulk of them have been over-capitalised. Take, as an instance, one company with £300,000 capital, which left £20,000 for working. The consequence is that the sum at disposal has not been sufficient to develop the mine or to work sufficient to pay interest on £280,000.

“Again, in many cases men unacquainted with any foreign language, or with the customs of the country, have been sent out here to manage, and with instructions from a board in London utterly ignorant of the requirements of the case. As an instance of this, a certain company that I could name sent out to Servia six managers in three years. In such a case, with a manager dependent upon interpreters and ignorant of the people, the price of labour and materials rises from 200 to 300 per cent. I have known these prices to be paid. Again, there is some little reform needed in the mining laws, and the Government would be well advised if they compelled the communes to put the roads in better repair. Transport is at present somewhat difficult, and if the communes put the roads in order they would, in the long-run, greatly benefit by the opening up of the country. Such,” Mr. Finney added, “are some of the reasons why foreign mining undertakings in Servia have not been altogether successful in the past. But for the future there is great hope, and English capitalists will do well to regard Servia as a field where good profits may easily be made.”