Constitution.—Gibraltar is a crown colony. Of local government properly so called there is none. There is a sanitary commission which is vested with large powers of spending and with the control of buildings and streets and other matters managed by local authorities in England. Its members are appointed by the governor. An appeal from their decisions, so far as they affect individuals, lies to the supreme court. Apart from the garrison and civil officials there are comparatively few members of the Anglican Church. The great majority of the people belong to the Church of Rome. The Jews have four synagogues. The Protestant dissenters have two places of worship, Presbyterian and Wesleyan. Education is not compulsory for the civil population, but most of the children, if not all, receive a fair education in private or private aided schools. The number of the children on the rolls of the private and private aided schools was in 1905: boys, 1504; girls, 1733; total 3237.
Commerce.—Except in respect of alcoholic liquors and tobacco Gibraltar has been a free port since the year 1705—a distinction due, it is said, to the refusal of a sultan of Morocco to allow of much-needed exports from Morocco to Gibraltar if full liberty of trade were not granted to his subjects. During the great wars of the beginning of the 19th century trade was most active in Gibraltar, and some large fortunes were made; but trade on a large scale has almost disappeared. At the point of contact of two continents, on the direct line of ocean trade with the far East, in regular steam communication with all the great ports of Europe and with North and South America, Gibraltar, by its position, is fitted to be a trade centre of the world, but the unrest and suspicion engendered in Morocco by the intrigues and designs of the European powers, and excessive protective duties and maladministration in Spain, have done much to extinguish the trade of Gibraltar. There are, however, no trustworthy statistics of imports and exports. Before the year 1898 wine, beer and spirits were the only goods which paid duty. In that year a duty of 1d. per ℔ was for the first time put upon tobacco and produced £1444; the duty was, however, in force only for a part of the year; in 1899 the duty, at the same rate, produced £7703. In 1902 the duty on tobacco was raised to 2d. per ℔ and produced £29,311. In 1905 this duty produced £24,575. The chief business of Gibraltar is the coaling of passing steamers; this gives work to several thousand men. Goods are also landed for re-export to Morocco, but the bulk of the Morocco trade, much of which formerly came to Gibraltar, is now done by lines of steamers trading to and from Morocco direct to British, German or French ports. Nearly all the fresh meat consumed in Gibraltar comes from Morocco, also large quantities of poultry and eggs. A fair amount of retail business is done with the passengers of ocean steamers which call on their way to and from the East and from North and South America.
The steam-tonnage cleared annually since 1883 is shown in the following table:—
| Yearly Average. | British. | Foreign. | Total. |
| 1883-1885 | 3,525,135 | 817,926 | 4,343,061 |
| 1886-1890 | 4,507,101 | 908,419 | 5,415,520 |
| 1891-1895 | 3,710,856 | 975,390 | 4,686,246 |
| 1896-1900 | 3,281,165 | 1,063,367 | 4,344,532 |
| 1901-1905 | 2,810,849 | 1,309,649 | 4,120,498 |
The main sources of revenue are (i.) duties upon wine, spirits, malt liquors and tobacco; (ii.) port and harbour dues; (iii.) tavern and other licences; (iv.) post and telegraph; (v.) ground and other rents; (vi.) stamps and miscellaneous. The returns before 1898 were made in pesetas (5 = $1). In the following table these have been converted into sterling at an average of exchange 30 = £1.
| Yearly Average. | i. | ii. | iii. | iv. | v. | vi. | Total. |
| 1886-1890 | 9,692 | 17,070 | 5387 | 6,805 | 6485 | 2,873 | 48,312 |
| 1891-1895 | 9,250 | 13,157 | 4275 | 7,833 | 6208 | 10,113 | 50,836 |
| 1896-1900 | 14,071 | 8,435 | 4136 | 10,016 | 5924 | 14,460 | 57,042 |
| 1901-1905 | 35,900 | 6,028 | 3905 | 12,091 | 6945 | 15,859 | 80,728 |
| Year 1905 | 36,554 | 5,872 | 4050 | 16,551 | 7489 | 17,007 | 87,523 |
The money, weights and measures in legal use are British. Before 1898 Spanish money only was in use. The great depreciation of the Spanish currency during the war with the United States led in 1898 to the reintroduction of British currency as the legal tender money of Gibraltar. Notwithstanding this change the Spanish dollar still remains in current use; much of the retail business of the town being done with persons resident in Spain, the dollar fully holds its own.
Harbour and Fortifications.—Great changes were made in the defences of Gibraltar early in the 20th century. Guns of the newest types replaced those of older patterns. The heavier pieces instead of being at or near the sea-level, are now high up, many of them on the crest line of the Rock; their lateral range and fire area has thereby been greatly increased and their efficiency improved in combination with an elaborate system of range finding.
With the completion of the new dockyard works the value of Gibraltar as a naval base has greatly increased. It can now undertake all the ordinary repairs and coaling of a large fleet. There is an enclosed harbour in which a fleet can safely anchor secure from the attacks of torpedo boats. A mole, at first intended for commercial purposes, closes the north end of the new harbour. The Admiralty, however, soon found that their needs had outgrown the first design and the so-called Commercial Mole has been taken over for naval purposes, plans for a new commercial mole being prepared. The funds for these extensive works were provided by the Naval Works Loan Acts of 1895 and subsequent years.
The land space available for the purposes of dockyard extension being very limited, a space of about 64 acres was reclaimed from the sea in front of the Alameda and the road to Rosia; some of the land reclaimed was as much as 40 ft. under water. The large quantity of material required for this purpose was obtained by tunnelling the Rock from W. to E. and from quarries above Catalan Bay village, to which access was gained through the tunnel. The graving docks occupy the dug-out site of the former New Mole Parade. There are three of these docks, 850, 550 and 450 ft. in length respectively. The largest dock is divisible by a central caisson so that four ships can be docked at one time. The docks are all 95 ft. wide at the entrance with 35½ ft. of water over the sills at low-water spring tides. The pumping machinery can empty the largest dock, 105,000 tons of water, in five hours. There are two workshops for the chief constructor’s and chief engineer’s departments, each 407 ft. long and 322 broad. For the staff captain’s department and stores there are buildings with 250,000 ft. of floor space. At the north end of the yard are the administrative offices, slipways for destroyers, a slip for small craft, an ordnance wharf and a boat camber. The reclaimed area is faced with a wharf wall of concrete blocks for an unbroken length of 1600 ft. with 33 ft. of water alongside at low tide; on this wharf are powerful shears and cranes.