Amsterdam has long been renowned as a cen tre of learning. The school known as the AthenTum Illustre of Amsterdam, which was founded in 1632, in 1877 was reorganized as a university. The University Library now has more than 100,000 volumes, including the Rosen thal collection of 8000 works on Indian litera ture. It is rich in manuscripts and original letters, such as a Syrian New Testament and Caesar's De Bello Gallico of the tenth century. Amsterdam possesses excellent facilities for medical study, as her hospitals are famous. Other educational institutions are State, nor mal, industrial, and commercial schools, the National Academy of Arts, the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Royal Dutch Geographical So ciety, a school of navigation, and a municipal school for primary teachers, besides a school of acting, set up by the Society for the Promotion of the Art of Acting. The Botanical Garden ranks among the foremost in Europe, and is equipped with a library and ethnographical mu seum. It was established by the Society Natura Ards Magistra, founder also of the ZoSlogical Gardens. There arc numerous other institutions of learning and scientific societies, the most re markable of the latter being the Maatschappij tot Nut van't Algemeen, or Society for the Public Welfare, which haii spread over all Holland. It was founded at Edam in 1754, and moved to Amsterdam in 1787. It aims at bettering the education and normal culture of the people, and strives toward this end in every conceivable way.
Amsterdam has six theatres, one of them owned by the city. Prominent among the benev olent institutions are the various orphan asy lums, one of which, the Diaconic Asylum, erected in 1889, has about 1200 inmates.
For centuries Amsterdam has been the centre of Dutch industry, and its diamond polishing factories are the most extensive in the world. These are exclusively in the hands of the Portu guese Jews, and employ upward of 12,000 work men. Machinery, ship building, and iron mold ing are important industries, and there are large refineries for borax and camphor in the town, producing over 22,000 tons annually. The prepa ration of rice for the market amounts to 23,000 tons yearly, and, besides, there are large glass blowing establishments, many breweries and lum ber mills. Other manufactures are articles of gold and silver, silk, porcelain, and carpets, cor dials, chocolate, tobacco, leather, dyestuffs, as tronomical instruments. chemicals, cobalt blue, stearine and sperm candles, and sailcloth.
Amsterdam's commercial importance has ad vanced rapidly since 1805. Since 1870 the short North Sea Canal has been in operation, running to an artificial harbor of 250 acres on the North Sea. The celebrated North Holland Canal has
been supplanted by it for most of the sea traffic. Within the city much attention is paid to dredg ing and improvement of the canals centring to the north in the three islands, near which are the docks of the various steamship lines, that connect the city with all the great ports of the world. Here, too, are the naval docks and stores, a vast system of docks for merchant shipping, grana ries, and railway terminals for the reception of coal and iron ore, raw materials, etc. Another canal connects Amsterdam with Utrecht. There is a floating dry-dock on the north bank of the for ships of 4000 tons and of 16 feet draught, while another dock of twice the size has been recently constructed. Amsterdam has need of such improvements, for her proportion of ships entering Holland was 18.8 in 1889, and 6.06 in 1399; whereas in those years Rotterdam had 52.1 per cent. and 63.3, respectively.
The chief trade is with the Dutch East India colonies, and the imports aro mainly tropical products, such as raw sugar, Java and Sumatra tobacco, coffee from Brazil and Java, tea. chemi cals, drugs, lumber, and rice. Other articles of import are machinery and manufactured articles, wheat, glassware, and petroleum. In addition to the colonial products—coffee, tobacco, and rice—Amsterdam exports such Dutch products as cheese, beer, manufactured articles mentioned above, and drugs.
Amsterdam is the chief financial centre of the Netherlands. and her stock exchange is one of the most important in Europe. There are many other financial and commercial institutions, and the city is the seat of the Bank of the Netherlands, the successor of the famous Bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1609, which played so important a role in the history of banking, with a capital of $8,000,000, which has full control of all the country's paper money.
Amsterdam has a complete network of commu nications with the interior through railway and steamship lines, while various street-ear routes, carried on by horse and electric power, traverse her streets. There is also a suburban steam rail road.
Amsterdam's new method of fortification merits some attention. In 1870 the old walls, had all been razed, and since then a system of dikes and sluices has been devised whereby the surrounding country may be flooded ; so that now there is only one fort, that at the entrance to the harbor.
Upward of one-fifth of the population of Am sterdam are Catholics, and the Jews form nearly one-ninth. There are, besides, many Germans. Population in 1579, 310,000; in 1891, 426,914. In 1900, after a part of Nieuwer Amstel had been added to the city. the population was 510,900.