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SELLING LATIN AMERICA

SELLING LATIN AMERICA
A Problem in International Salesmanship
WHAT TO SELL AND HOW TO SELL IT

BY

WILLIAM E. AUGHINBAUGH, M.D., LL.B., LL.M.

Illustrated from Photographs

BOSTON

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1915

By Small, Maynard and Company

(INCORPORATED)

Printers

S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U.S.A.

FOREWORD

I made the acquaintance of Doctor W. E. Aughinbaugh about eight years ago, when I was in charge of the advertising department of a large concern doing an international business. The doctor came with us to look after the export trade, especially in the West Indies and South America. My work naturally brought me into close association with him, and I soon began to appreciate his unusual ability in many directions and his special fitness for the position he occupied. There seemed to be no phase of merchandising in far-off markets with which he was not fully conversant; nor did this knowledge relate solely to Latin America. He had previously travelled the distant markets of the Orient in the interests of an American house whose products he successfully introduced there and to him the Far East was an open book.

He has been in Egypt eight times on business missions. He has travelled Somaliland, Palestine, Asia Minor, Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, South Africa, Persia, Arabia, Afghanistan, Cashmir, Beluchistan, India, Assam, Burma, Siam, China, Cochin-China, Japan, the East Indies and all over Europe with the single exception of Russia. The doctor also spent two years of his restless life in the Far North where a business mission of importance took him into Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and the Hudson’s Bay Country. As to the West Indies and South America, he has been not only to them, but through them many times and in every habitable spot where business was to be done. Some idea may be gained as to the frequency of his visits to South America by mentioning the fact that he has made thirty-six trips across the Equator.

Dr. Aughinbaugh talks about the markets of foreign countries with the authority of long experience for he has been engaged in these special fields for more than twenty years; yet he is still a young man with a modern viewpoint. He speaks the languages of many countries and speaks them well. His information is first-hand, reliable data gathered on the ground where he lived and worked, whose people he knew and could speak to in their own tongue, not the unreliable, superficial vaporings of some dilettante globe-trotter who has given the high-spots of civilization the “once over” and therefore considers himself a competent authority to write upon the commerce, customs and manners of foreign countries the very languages of which he does not understand without the aid of an interpreter, or who could not find his way back to the railway station or dock without the assistance of a guide.

Doctor Aughinbaugh is no such lightweight. He has not written this book because he believes he knows it all. Left to himself he would never have written it. It was only after repeated urgings on the part of some of his friends who appreciated his ability to write an unusual book, that he consented to undertake the work, and then he did so under protest.

It may be asked with pertinence how a man could travel in the interest of one line and yet be in possession of so much information relating to every other line; or how one could master the intricacies of foreign banking and credits and still attend to his business. The answer to all of this is that no man can successfully negotiate foreign markets unless he is more than a mere “order taker.” As to the doctor’s ability to measure the requirements of a market all the way from cereals to concrete, that may be accounted for by the fact that he is both a physician and a graduate of the law, and while he never practised at the bar to any great extent he did have considerable experience in medicine, a profession which developed a naturally analytical mind, so that he looked at things with the eyes of a student and from the viewpoint of the trained diagnostician. For six years he followed medicine in Latin America, finally giving it up to accept an offer from a large company who compensated him accordingly. His experience in that line alone took him all over the world and the ramifications of the business brought him into close contact with the marketing of nearly every other commodity. But even had this not been so, he is the sort of man who would have sensed a business opportunity because he is naturally a keen observer and everything interests him. He is the type of man who absorbs information; he does not have to be shown—he sees.

Here, then, is a man possessed of a fund of particularly desirable information—especially valuable to-day when Europe is war-mad and, in her sanguinary frenzy, has left open the door of opportunity to peaceful Uncle Sam. Why not put this information in concrete form for the benefit of American commerce?

These considerations were put up to the author by some of his friends who knew him to be a keen, accurate, analytical observer, a writer and a raconteur of more than ordinary ability, and this book was the result.

Probably never—let us fervently hope never for the same reason—will the United States have another opportunity such as the present one, to enter those fruitful fields to the south, where Europe in general, and Germany in particular, has reaped a golden harvest for so many years.

A careful reading of this book—not a difficult matter, for unlike most works on commerce it is full of lively interest—will be profitable to every business man interested in the subject of Latin America. It will be valuable to those who are equipped or willing to prepare themselves to cope with conditions as they really are, and just as valuable to those who are not, for it may save them from the costly mistakes of experimentation in foreign fields.

Maurice Switzer.

New York, March 20, 1915.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

SELLING LATIN AMERICA

I
GENERAL REMARKS ON FOREIGN TRADE

War completely changes commercial currents. The victor takes the established and profitable trade, leaving to the vanquished the harder lines of business and the development of new fields. This is as true of the first war recorded by history as it will be of the last.

As an illustration of the veracity of this statement it is only necessary to recall our war with Spain. Prior to her defeat, Spain controlled the bulk of the banking and commerce of the Philippines, Cuba and Porto Rico. To her possessions she exported wines, foods, manufactured articles, textiles, drugs, perfumes, canned goods, shoes and hats, receiving in exchange their sugar, tobacco and coffee.

To-day the United States consumes all of these exports, while the requirements of the three countries are supplied by America, which also does their financing through banks organized in these possessions, and capitalized with American money. To be more specific and by way of a concrete example let me mention Cuba, which in 1913 exported $165,000,000 worth of products, all but 15 per cent. of which was taken by the United States, the amount shipped to Spain being about four-tenths of one per cent. During the same period of time she imported goods to the value of $132,000,000 of which we supplied 65 per cent. against Spain’s 8 per cent. Since 1902, Cuba’s foreign commerce has increased 250 per cent. due absolutely to the part played by the United States in the Spanish-American war. The same condition of affairs in exports, imports and other lines is equally true, although not on such a large scale, of course, of the Philippines and Porto Rico.

The Napoleonic wars gave to England the strong position she now occupies in the financial and commercial world. Her bankers and shippers, merchants and manufacturers, with one accord grasped the opportunity that presented itself then and have held the supremacy thus gained for more than a century.

Perhaps it was the recollection of what gave Great Britain her start in this field which led the London Spectator to remark, at the outbreak of war in 1914:

“The present war gives the United Kingdom an excellent opportunity to capture the export and import trade of Germany and Austria-Hungary.”

If England, engaged in the most desperate and expensive war she or the civilized world ever has known, with her enormous resources taxed to their utmost, saw an “opportunity” for trade expansion, how much greater is the chance in this line for an absolutely neutral power, populated with keen business men, and provided by Nature with unparalleled productive possibilities.

The war in Europe developed the most remarkable business situation for the United States ever presented to any nation. The virtual closing of all the doors of the export and import trade of the Old World and the almost total dependence heretofore of the Far East and Latin America, especially, on Europe for finance and trade connections made the war truly the psychological moment for us, as a nation, not only to overcome the lead of the European commercial world, but also to cement by other than ties of business the bonds of friendship due us not only on account of our ideal geographical position, but also because of our similar republican form of government.

By embracing this extraordinary opportunity—apparently almost created for our express benefit, we being the only people able to profit by it—we can make the nations which formerly depended on Europe for support in their trade ventures our business allies, our sincere friends and well-wishers, and at the same time bring about a new trade alignment so that all America will reap the benefit.

Let us briefly consider some of the enormous possibilities of foreign trade in Latin American countries.

Latin America—that is, the countries of Central and South America, together with Mexico, Cuba, Santo Domingo and Porto Rico—comprises twenty distinct states, with a total population of about 65,000,000, a large portion of whom are Indians and half-breeds—a fact which we should not lose sight of in view of the tremendous imports.

Statistics recently compiled by the Pan-American Bureau show that these countries, in 1913, conducted a foreign commerce valued at $2,870,178,575. Of this the imports were $1,304,261,763, and the exports, $1,565,916,812, thus giving Latin America a favorable balance of $261,655,049.

Ten of these countries alone purchased goods to the amount of $961,000,000. Of this sum Great Britain supplied $273,000,000; Germany, $180,000,000; France, $84,000,000; Italy, $54,000,000; Belgium, $47,000,000, and Austria-Hungary, $8,000,000. The United States exported to these ten countries last year $160,000,000 and imported from them $250,000,000. Brazil, in 1913, imported $15,000,000 in textiles alone, of which amount the United States supplied only $500,000. In the same length of time Argentine imported goods to the amount of $468,999,996, of which amount less than 8 per cent, was supplied by this country. The United Kingdom exported to all of Latin America $23,500,000 worth of coal in 1913, the United States, during the same period of time, $750,000.

Practically the same story in all lines of exports could be told of these countries, demonstrating that individually in nearly all cases the United States is the largest consumer of their raw or finished products and the smallest exporter of the goods they most require.

Fearful that some one may infer after looking at these figures that European countries have preferential duties with Latin America, let me state most emphatically that this is not the case. With one single exception no favoritism is shown any of the trading nations, in the matter of import fees, and in that instance we benefit by it. Brazil makes a decided preferential tariff in favor of some of our goods in view of the fact that we are the largest consumers of her chief product—coffee.

Everyone of these countries is in process of development and expansion. They have in profusion the things the busy world most needs. Their mines are the richest known to man. Some have been worked for thousands of years and are still productive. Their broad fields are destined to make them the granaries of the world. Their miles of pasture lands and their extensive acreage mean that Europe and the United States will depend upon them for meat. Their vast virgin forests are capable of supplying humanity with cabinet and other woods for several centuries. Their trade and imports must therefore increase. It is apparent that they cannot diminish. We cannot as a nation afford to remain indifferent any longer to their possibilities and opportunities.

Very naturally there have been many objections on the part of our business men to going after this trade which all of Europe strained every resource to acquire and control. It was urged that we had all the business we required; that we lacked foreign banking facilities; that our merchant marine was small and inefficient; that to go abroad for trade meant learning new languages, acquiring new customs, opening new accounts, taking more risks. These conditions were equally true when the European merchant decided to enter this field. He met and overcame all these difficulties under far more adverse circumstances than exist for us, to-day. His experience in this territory has charted the path for us to follow, and if we take advantage of the beacons he has erected we shall be saved from many pitfalls.

Latin America with the things the world most requires—wheat, meat, wool, coffee, sugar, nitrates, minerals, woods—can never collapse completely through any financial crisis. Furthermore its power of reviving quickly from any unfavorable panic is truly phenomenal. I recall Venezuela, the year she terminated her bloodiest revolution under Castro, harvesting and exporting a bumper crop of coffee, which immediately cleared up her monetary depression, and this rapid convalescent condition has been duplicated time and time again after every period of internal trouble experienced by all of these countries.

Nature has been bounteous in her gifts to these favored lands of the sun. If in a given locality the soil is not fertile, it is rich in mineral wealth, or covered with luxuriant forests. Throughout Latin America large and small rivers afford easy and cheap means of transportation. Drought or excessive rainfalls are comparatively unknown. Despite the fact that a majority of the population lives primitively, epidemics of a severe nature have been few and far between. Revolutions, formerly the blight on these lands, are becoming rare and in most of these countries there have been no such uprisings or demonstrations of this character for more than twenty years.

The opportunities for successful business in almost any chosen line in Latin America are unlimited, provided one uses ordinary judgment and simple tact in the undertaking. Furthermore less capital is required to start an enterprise than in lands where competition is keener, and less energy necessary to insure success. The truth of these statements is demonstrated most completely by the fact that millions of Europeans—many of them uneducated and possessed of no great amount of ability or money—have settled throughout these lands and established themselves in prosperous occupations.

The greatest possibilities exist along the lines of general development. All these countries are new; most of them practically unexplored—many of them not even having their boundary lines definitely established. Think of what must be the opportunities in Brazil—a country larger in area than the United States, and supporting only 20,000,000 people—or of Argentine, spreading over almost as much territory as Europe, excepting Russia and Austria-Hungary, with a population slightly more than 7,000,000. It is to these countries that overcrowded Europe must come for elbow room—for a glimpse of the sun.

Once a business or a plant is established in Latin America one need not have the intense fear of bitter local competition. These people have never been manufacturing or creative in their desires, and the chances are, if we are to predicate their future from their past, that they never will become competitors in any of these fields. Climatic conditions, racial and inherited traits have made them follow the lines of least resistance and they have become cattle raisers and large farmers, while comparatively few have entered commercial life. This being true it follows that these countries are ideal for those desirous of leading an active commercial or manufacturing career.

All of Latin America is in the process of awakening. They are building railways, making vast municipal and national improvements, exploiting their natural resources, modernizing their agricultural methods. The advent of the foreigner has been potent in raising their standard of living. If these people were to raise their standard of living to that of the United States at the present time, it would be the equivalent, so far as market possibilities are concerned, to creating three new Americas. Each day sees some progress in this direction, and with it a desire for more of the comforts of modern civilization—for more of the things which go to make up the full and complete life. This means employment for their people—civic progress—and prosperity.

Their markets are easily reached, the merchants willing to buy, our producers capable of providing the things they require. Their first orders may be small, but they become enormous buyers when they find the article adapted for their needs. The European marts which might have supplied the things these nations require in their growth cannot do so for a long time to come, thus giving us an ideal opportunity to capture these markets and at the same time introduce American methods throughout the length and breadth of the land.

II
BRAZIL

The Republic of the United States of Brazil, including the Acre Territory, is the largest of the South American countries and if we include Alaska and our island possessions is really larger in area than the United States of America, by about 200,000 square miles. It is fifteen times larger than Germany and sixteen times larger than France. With the exception of Ecuador and Chile its frontier touches every country of South America, being bounded on the north by British, French and Dutch Guiana and Venezuela; on the west by Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentine; on the south by Uruguay, while the Atlantic Ocean forms its eastern and a portion of its northern limitation. Its most eastern point is but three days’ sail from the western coast of Africa. It is the fourth largest country in the world, and is widest between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, covering an area of 3,292,000 square miles.

The population has been variously estimated at from 20,000,000 to 24,000,000, of whom less than 1,000,000 are aborigines, thus giving it about one-fifth of the population per square mile of the population of the United States of America. Its inhabitants are white, black, mulattoes, Indians and mixed breeds, a heavy percentage being descendants from the slaves imported originally from Africa, slavery in Brazil having been abolished in 1888.

The language of Brazil is Portuguese except among the Indian tribes, each one of which has its own dialect. These Indians are to be found in the interior and the remote districts, and are a negligible quantity as far as trade is concerned, living primitive lives and having few wants that the rich country and rivers cannot supply.

The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro

Brazil was discovered April 22, 1500, by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese explorer, but no definite attempt was made to settle it, or assume governing power by the Portuguese until 1549, fifty-seven years after Columbus had been to America, when Portugal awoke to the great possibilities of the country and dispatched her first Governor General in the personage of Thome de Souza.

During the century following the arrival of its first constituted governor, Brazil became the scene of numerous attacks and invasions on the part of the French, Dutch and British, each one desirous of acquiring portions of its territory, having been attracted by the current stories of its great wealth and latent resources. For a time both France and Holland established themselves in a small way within its boundary, but ultimately abandoned their outposts.

From 1640 to 1808 Brazil was governed by a Viceroy, who resided in Rio de Janeiro. The victorious armies of Napoleon and their progress across the Spanish Peninsula ultimately caused King John to abandon his capital in Portugal and flee to Brazil, where he established himself in Rio de Janeiro (in 1808), and ruled Portugal from this one of his possessions. This is the only instance in history of any portion of Europe ever being ruled from the western continent. When peace came to Europe, King John returned, leaving Brazil under the regency of his eldest son Dom Pedro, who in 1822, proclaimed Brazil independent of Portugal, and established himself in power as Emperor, the first and only instance of such a form of government in South America. Dom Pedro was forced to abdicate in 1831 in favor of his son Dom Pedro II, who after reigning through a regency assumed the throne on becoming of age in 1840. It is unnecessary to detail the causes that led to the bloodless revolution of November 15, 1889, which ended his reign and by means of which Brazil proclaimed herself a republic, adopting a constitution patterned after our own and a government comprising a President, with legislative powers vested in a Congress composed of two bodies, a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

Brazil is so immense, situated between the fifth degree north and the thirty-third degree south, and its topography so varied that it has all kinds of climates excepting extreme cold. Lying in the temperate and tropical zones one would incline to the belief that it would be more or less warm, but its many rivers and mountains, its high table-lands and plateaus exert a beneficial influence in this regard and materially modify what otherwise would be extreme degrees of heat.

More than half of Brazil is an elevated plateau, varying from 2000 to 3000 feet in altitude. It has four distinct mountain ranges, which deflect its rains and form vast watersheds for irrigating the fertile lands at their base. The eastern and central portions are elevated while the chief characteristics of the north and west are its fertile plains and valleys.

The coast of Brazil straggles along for over 5000 miles and is provided with numerous natural harbors, where the earlier settlers established cities which have grown and prospered, the principal ones from the north to the south being Belem, or Para, San Luiz, Parnahyba, Fortaleza or Ceara, Natal, Parahyba, Recife or Pernambuco, Maceio, Aracaju, São Salvador or Bahia, Victoria, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Paranagua, São Francisco, Rio Grande do Sul and Porto Allegre. As a rule each of these ports is the terminus for a railway system penetrating the interior, designed solely for the purpose of bringing the products to market and carrying supplies and necessities to the part of the country dependent upon it. There are practically no trunk or interstate lines, but plans are now formulated to overcome this condition.

Manaos is an inland port of Brazil, famous as a trading depot and one of the centers of the rubber industry. It is located on the Rio Negro, at its mouth where it empties into the great Amazon, one thousand miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and maintains direct steamship connection with the United States and Europe as well as the other ports of Brazil.

Perhaps no other country in the world is so well provided with rivers as Brazil. The mighty, muddy Amazon, the greatest river in existence, practically traverses the country from east to west in its 3850 miles journey to the sea. Some idea of its strength and volume may be gained when I state that its yellow waters color the Atlantic for over 100 miles beyond its mouth, and freshen the salt water for a distance of 180 miles. Emptying into this Queen of Rivers are more than 200 tributaries, over 100 of which are navigable, the famous Rio Roosevelt or River of Doubt forming one of the number. There are over 10,000 miles of navigable waterways for ocean vessels and 20,000 miles for light-draft boats.

Brazil is a pastoral country and the indications are that it will always remain so. Its vast savannahs and fields have formed ideal locations for raising cattle and sugar, while its mountain sides and plateaus are unparalleled for the growth of its staple product—coffee, the average yearly crop of which is the enormous amount of 1,596,000,000 pounds. Rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco, matte (a species of tea for native use), mandioca (a starchy tuber from which a bread is made much liked by the native) and cacao are also extensively grown. India rubber, the use of which was early known to the Indians of Brazil, to whom it is indebted for its name, is the second leading product of this remarkable land. The tree, the juice of which produces this twentieth century necessity, grows wild in the northern portion of the country, although it can be successfully cultivated. No effort is made to preserve the trees when once tapped, and the rubber prospectors are continually going farther and farther into the interior in search of new districts. The trees are from three to twelve feet in diameter, of slow growth, indigenous to the region of the Amazon and its tributaries, growing wild, scattered through the jungles and tropical shrubbery.

The forests of Brazil are practically virgin. They abound in dye, cabinet and hard woods and the opportunities for the development in this field alone are enormous. Due to the fact that the country has a wonderful series of aqueous arteries the transportation problem to mills and markets is easily solved and the waterpower can be used in preparing the timber for shipping.

Brazil has at present more local factories than all the other Latin American countries combined, forty per cent. of her manufactured articles being cotton goods, which find a ready market. In the Federal District of Rio de Janeiro, five of these mills have eight thousand operatives, producing yearly about 80,000,000 yards. Petropolis has four mills and São Paulo twenty-five with a total output of nearly 100,000,000 yards. The number of establishments in this industry alone amounts to 3664, giving employment to 168,760 hands, with a total yearly output of 275,000,000 yards of goods.

Of late the shoe-making industry has developed extensively. In 1913 there were in all of Brazil 4524 factories employing ten or more operatives, with a total invested capital of $18,857,000. These plants are nearly all operated by American machinery, many of them under American superintendents, the demand for American equipment being sufficiently large to warrant the big shoe machinery and shoe-finding houses of New England in maintaining their own offices and carry their own stock in the larger cities devoted to this business.

Brazil is wonderfully rich in mines of precious and semi-precious stones. Among the semi-precious stones to be found are achroite, actinolite, agates, amethysts, analcime, anatase, andalusites, anthophyllite, apophyllite, apatite, aquamarines, cymophane, citune, columbite, desemine, iolite, jasper, opals, ruby, sapphires, spinel, topaz, tourmalines. There are many deposits of minerals, such as copper, iron, silver, gold, arsenic, barium, bismuth, cinnabar, cobalt, galena, manganese, nickel, platinum, tin, and wolframite. There are also rich veins of asbestos, coal, soapstone, sulphur, salt, marble, mica, and evidences of petroleum.

Gold has been mined in Brazil for over 300 years, the principal deposits being in the State of Minas Geraes. A mine near the Honario Bicalho station produced from 1888 to 1912, over $26,000,000 worth of gold and as late as 1911, paid a dividend of 10 per cent. An English authority has estimated the total output of gold to date from all mines at $1,000,000,000.

Brazil is reputed to be the second largest diamond-producing country in the world, the Brazilian stone being considered fifty per cent. better than others owing to the constant attrition it has undergone in prehistoric days. At one time more than 40,000 men were employed in this industry in Minas Geraes alone. The best diamond fields extend from 10 degrees to 25 degrees south latitude and many enormous and high-grade stones have been discovered, the total amount exported in 175 years or up to 1903, being estimated at four tons. Edwin Streeter in his book on precious stones, says that “The State of Minas Geraes produced in the first twenty years 144,000 carats. Up to 1850,—5,844,000 carats worth $45,000,000 were sold and some $10,000,000 stolen from the mines by employes.” As an evidence of the fact that these mines are still productive, there were registered 456 claims in 1909 in the Diamanta Districts, which produced $1,000,000 worth of gems. In 1911 there were registered in the State of Minas Geraes 437 claims.

Travel along the coast and to the cities located on the railway lines is comparatively convenient and comfortable although very expensive. In the interior and from the beaten paths it is difficult and filled with hardships.

Living is high—much more so than in the larger cities of the States or Europe. Hotels are far from the standard one is accustomed to in towns of corresponding size, throughout the world—a statement equally true of all Latin America.

At first the monetary system of Brazil may confuse one, its currency being on the gold exchange basis. A milreis is the unit of value and while it is subject to fluctuation, may for all practical purposes be reckoned as worth .33⅓ cents, or three milreis as the equivalent of a United States dollar. The symbol for the unit is $ and the value of our dollar would be expressed thus 3$000. A conto, or about $333.33 would be written 1000$000. The banking of Brazil is chiefly controlled by the British, while Germany is their closest competitor, both France and Italy being represented each by a bank. The National City Bank of New York has recently established a branch in Rio de Janeiro, with sub-agencies throughout Brazil, so that direct exchange on New York may now be bought.

Brazil imported in 1913, $326,428,509 worth of goods, of which sum the United Kingdom supplied $79,881,008; Germany, $57,043,754; United States, $51,289,682; France, $31,939,752; Argentine, $24,293,712.

In the same period of time she exported goods to the value of $315,164,687, the United States taking about one-third of the total amount or to be exact, $102,652,923; Germany, $44,392,410; United Kingdom, $41,701,815; France, $38,685,561; Holland, $23,252,700.

The United States should do a much larger trade with Brazil owing to a preferential duty allowed our nation due to the fact that we are the largest consumers of her leading staple—coffee. According to government decree No. 9323, of January 17, 1912, flour imported from the States pays 30 per cent. less duty than if imported from any other land, while dried fruit, condensed milk, typewriters, rubber articles, and supplies, scales, refrigerators, cement, corsets, school furniture, windmills, watches, desks and printing inks, pay 20 per cent. less duty than similar articles imported from other countries.

Brazil exports coffee, rubber, hides, skins, cacao, tobacco, salt, cotton, sugar, woods, nuts, precious and semi-precious stones and gold. She imports foodstuffs, shoes, machinery, textiles, building woods, ammunition, wheat, automobiles, vehicles, codfish, dried fruits, glass, toilet articles, building and kitchen hardware, cement, scientific instruments, iron and steel, enamelled ware, paints and varnish, haberdashers’ goods, cottons, hats, corrugated iron, galvanized iron, tools, condensed milk, stationery, pipe, printing material and presses, electric machinery and supplies, typewriters, nails, screws and rivets.

American fruits are much in demand in Brazil, and an excellent market exists to-day for apples. Potatoes, onions, beets, garlic and other fresh vegetables would also sell well and a lucrative trade in these necessities of life could be developed without any great effort. The refrigerator ships running from the Argentine to New York with meat could carry as return freight these perishable cargoes at a low rate.

Steamship connections between Europe and the United States, with Brazilian ports are numerous and sailings comparatively frequent and as a rule the accommodations are all that could be desired. From New York the Booth line (English) has two steamers a month to North Brazil and Amazon River towns, touching at Barbados, Para and Manaos, with a ship every six weeks to Iquitos, Peru. One steamer goes each month to North Brazilian ports including Parnahyba, Natal and nearby localities. The United States Steamship Line (American) has one vessel monthly for Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, freight being redistributed at these ports for intermediate points. The Lloyd Brazilleiro Line (Brazilian) maintains a semi-monthly service between New York and Natal, and Parahiba; and Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and Santos, with occasional service to other larger ports. These boats do not as a rule carry passengers. They also maintain a service along the smaller coast towns and the rivers leading into the interior of Brazil, even having regular sailings from Asuncion, Paraguay, for Brazilian river towns. The Lamport & Holt Line (English) has weekly sailings from New York to Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, generally stopping at Trinidad and Barbados, West Indies, on their trip north. The Prince Line (British) touch once a month at Rio de Janeiro and Santos, carrying freight chiefly. Other vessels of this line make monthly calls at Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos. Numerous tramp ships also sail from American ports on the eastern coast of the States to Brazil.

Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
Avenida Rio Branco and Opera House, Rio de Janeiro

Brazil has 15,272 miles of railways, federal, state and private, over many of which tickets which correspond to our mileage books are issued, for the convenience of the travelling public. Many new lines are in process of construction or contemplated, and a very decided effort is being made to unite the various main lines by connecting roads, so that the entire republic, including its most remote districts, may be thus reached.

The leading cities, which should be visited for business purposes, are:—

Some of the States and municipalities of Brazil have a special tax for commercial travellers, which varies from year to year, concerning the payment of which arrangements can be best made when on the ground. A small tax is also levied on trade samples, presumably to be refunded when leaving the country. It is advisable to learn how best to handle the situation from travellers with whom you will meet en route. As a rule, all of these are mere matter of detail and can be advantageously arranged, through the proper channel.

III
ARGENTINE

Juan Diaz de Solis in 1508 discovered the Rio de la Plata, otherwise known as the River Plate, while searching for a southerly passage to the Pacific Ocean. In 1525 Sebastian Cabot entered the river and gave it the name it now bears, at the same time erecting a fort near its mouth. A wealthy Spaniard, Pedro de Mendoza, in 1536, in exchange for certain landed rights and governmental privileges, established what is now the present city of Buenos Aires.

It is unnecessary for the purposes of this book to do more than state briefly that the conditions imposed by Spain on all its colonies were outrageously unjust and caused much dissension. Efforts to progress were throttled and the friction between the mother country developed until the conquest of Spain by Napoleon, which gave the many Spanish colonies that had become thoroughly satiated with disgust and contempt for the Madrid Government, a chance to rebel and establish themselves as independent nations. Taking advantage of the condition in Europe and having in mind the successful revolution of the American colonists, the people of Argentine, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile revolted, and after much fighting finally drove the Spanish troops from their shores. May 25, 1810, the people of Buenos Aires declared their independence. A Congress was held in Tucuman on July 9, 1816, the result of which was the more complete unification of the Argentine people under the title of the United Provinces of the La Plata River. The government in 1860 adopted as its national title “The Argentine Nation” by which it now prefers to be called.

Few know that the British had covetous plans upon this really wonderful country and twice invaded it, once in 1806, and again in 1807. After their fleet had bombarded the capital, the troops landed, and were both times thoroughly defeated, some of the English battle flags which were captured still being exhibited in Buenos Aires.

The government of the Argentine Nation is patterned after that of the United States of America, and has a constitution similar in its important features. There are three branches of government, executive, legislative and judicial; the legislative power being vested in a Congress composed of a Senate and a House of Deputies. The executive power is vested in a President and Vice-President elected as those of the United States, each holding office for the period of six years. Of late the Government has been very stable and there have been less tendencies to overthrow the authorized power than in most Latin American countries. By a treaty with Chile in 1881, the great territory of Patagonia, to the south of the Argentine, was divided between these two nations.

Argentine covers an area of 1,153,418 square miles, or about one-third as large as the United States. To be more specific it is as large as Texas, and all of our territory east of the Mississippi. It is bounded on the north by Bolivia, and Paraguay, on the west by Chile, on the south by a portion of Chile and the Atlantic Ocean. Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay, together with the Atlantic Ocean which washes its shores for more than 1500 miles, constitute its eastern boundary. Over 700,000,000 acres of its land is admirably adapted for cattle raising and the growing of cereals, a fact which argues much for its future development and prosperity.

Its population is variously estimated at from 6,000,000 to 9,000,000 but it can with safety be placed at 7,000,000, a little less than 25 per cent. of its inhabitants residing in the city of Buenos Aires, which has 1,700,000 citizens, a rather unusual condition of affairs. The early settlers of the Argentine were of course Spaniards and their descendants form the bulk of the population to-day. There are comparatively few blacks or mixed breeds, slavery having been abolished in 1813, while the Indians and aborigines are scattered along the frontier. Early in its history Argentine encouraged emigration from Europe, using as an inducement the free grant of public lands, which proved especially attractive to the Italian and Spaniard. In fact the preponderance of the Italian in the business and social life, due to this movement has had a noticeable effect on the Spanish language as spoken in this country. From 1857 to 1913 the total of newcomers amounted to 4,781,653, many of whom became landholders and began at once to contribute to the growth and wealth of the country. The population to-day is 7.8 persons per square mile as against 32.31 per square mile in the United States. More than 300,000 persons migrate to this country each year.

The chief characteristic of the physical formation of the Argentine is its vast pampas or plains stretching from the Rio de la Plata to the west, terminating in the foothills of the Andes, or the Cordilleras. Perhaps no part of the earth’s surface has such flat, smooth, treeless plains as here confront the traveller. The climatic conditions, owing to the fact that it extends over thirty-four degrees of latitude, vary from tropical in the north to practically arctic coldness in the south, the seasons being the reverse of ours,—that is, they have winter when we have summer and vice versa. The greater portion of the country is in the temperate zone, the summers being very hot and the winters typified by heavy rains, especially in the eastern portion, diminishing toward the west where there is often much drought. In the extreme south, in what was formerly Patagonia the heavy snows of winter take the place of rains, which together with the warm summers produce a luxuriant growth of grass, especially adapted for the grazing of sheep.

Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
Taking produce to the station, Argentine

The Argentine has for some years been one of the granaries of the world and as its available land becomes cultivated is destined to play a more important rôle in this field. Some idea of its rapid development may be gained from the fact that in 1904, 26,000,000 acres were under cultivation, while in 1913 over 60,000,000 were sown. Wheat is of course its chief cereal, last year over 17,000,000 acres being cultivated. The Argentine Agricultural Department states that for the same period of time there were 12,000,000 acres in corn; 4,000,000 in oats and 15,000,000 in lucerne or alfalfa, proportionately large territories being planted with barley, sugar, grapes, rice, cotton and tobacco.

This country has been the second largest linseed producing nation of the world, yielding first place to India. Last year nearly 6,000,000 acres were devoted to the growing of this seed alone.

Comparatively little attention is paid to truck gardening or the raising of kitchen vegetables, fruits or berries, and this offers a remarkable opportunity to one versed in the subject. Conditions for growing these necessities are most favorable but have been neglected in the efforts made to develop other sources of revenue.

Tucuman has been the center of the sugar industry, practically all of which is consumed in the country, 43 refineries and plants being devoted to this business. The grapes grown at the foot of the eastern slopes of the Andes, near and around Mendoza, yield 500,000,000 quarts of wine yearly, most all being for internal consumption. Owing to the reversal of seasons here, crops are harvested when ours are being sown.

Recently dairying has developed to a remarkable extent, over 1300 creameries and factories being devoted to the manufacture of butter and cheese, doing a gross business of nearly $9,000,000. Much butter and cheese are shipped to England, Brazil and South Africa. For the first time in its history, butter was exported to the United States last year.

Flour milling was established in the Argentine in the 16th century. Prior to this Chilean flour supplied the demands for this article. To-day in addition to providing sufficient for its own requirements, Argentine ships much of its flour to Brazil, Chile and Europe and has about 800 flour mills in operation, representing an investment of approximately $14,000,000.

From the days of the early Spaniards stock-raising has flourished and will always be one of the chief industries of the land. Not only the Government but individuals as well realize this and co-operate with each other for the purpose of producing the best strains of all breeds of cattle.

There are many “refrigerificos” or cold-storage plants and abattoirs throughout the land and for years Europe received practically all of Argentine’s animal products, her exports in this line alone being approximately $350,000,000 in 1914. Due to the fact that these establishments were operated by British capital, England naturally took most of this meat. The larger American packing-houses have now entered the trade with the double purpose of supplying both their European and American customers from this field and direct refrigerator ships now run from the River Plate to New York City with cargoes of Argentine beef and mutton. The last census showed 30,000,000 beef cattle; 9,000,000 horses; 500,000 mules; 300,000 asses; 90,000,000 sheep; 4,000,000 goats and 3,000,000 pigs.

Nature seems content in having blessed this country with fertile pampas and agricultural lands, consequently there are comparatively few minerals within its territory. There are however some veins of gold, silver, copper and wolfram. Petroleum has recently been discovered, but not in large quantities. There is no coal in the Argentine, but in some sections bogs of peat cover extensive areas and await development.

To the north and in the interior are forests of valuable woods, there being over thirty-three species of commercial value. Quebracho wood is found in the provinces of Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and Corrientes. It is very hard, impervious to moisture and will not rot. Due to these admirable qualities it was formerly used for sleepers for railways but now owing to the fact that it is excessively rich in tannin it is used almost exclusively for the purpose of curing leather. Formerly it was exported in large logs to Europe or to the States and the tanning extracts expressed, but to-day there are many factories in the districts where the wood is grown, devoted to obtaining the tannin directly, thereby materially reducing the cost of the article. Inasmuch as hides and quebracho are products of the Argentine it would seem that the tanning of leather would under proper management develop into a large industry here. The export of tannin for 1914 was over $11,000,000.

Outside of the industries referred to and a few breweries, cigar factories, and apparel factories, wherein goods for local consumption are produced, there is no general manufacturing in the Argentine.

No other country of Latin America is as well provided with railways as the Argentine, nor with as regular and superior access to Europe and the States and all parts of the world. More than fifty steamship lines arrive and depart regularly from the various Argentine ports, all the seafaring nations of the earth being represented. In 1852, one observer counted over 600 vessels in the harbor of Buenos Aires flying the American flag or more than double the number of all the other nations combined. To-day but few are to be seen in the vast shipping of this busy port.

The Argentine Republic stands ninth among the world’s nations in the length of her railways, having about 22,000 miles of track. Many lines are in process of construction or contemplated, the public and the government both realizing that a complete network of railways leading to the ports accelerate the moving of crops and cattle and are absolutely essential to its prosperity. Buenos Aires quite naturally is the principal terminal of most roads, while Santa Fe, Rosario, Bahia Blanca and La Plata are rapidly coming to the front as shipping centers and are providing appropriate facilities for handling trade. It has been said that every railway in the country is extending its lines more and more into the interior, and railway journeys to Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia as well as Chile are now possible. It may be interesting to note that the longest stretch of straight track known to railroad builders is to be found in the Argentine, where the rails run a distance of 175 miles without a curve of any kind.

Wagon roads outside of the larger cities are poor and in bad condition, and much is needed to be done in this respect.

There are many weekly sailings of the most modern and swift passenger ships to Europe, one Italian line making the voyage from Buenos Aires to Genoa in fifteen days. It is also possible to go via Hamburg or England to New York in better ships for practically the same money and in less time than is taken by ships engaged in the direct run from Buenos Aires to New York. The Lamport & Holt Line (British) runs directly from New York to Buenos Aires, with weekly sailings, carrying freight and passengers. The Prince Line (British) and the Barber Line (American but flying the British flag), the Norton Line (British), the American Rio Plate Line (American) leave New York twice a month for Argentine ports. The Houston Line (British) from Boston and New York and the New York and South American Line sail monthly from New York for River Plate ports. The Munson Line (American) from Mobile, Alabama, sends two ships monthly to Buenos Aires. There are many tramp ships from American ports in this trade also.

The docks and facilities for handling goods in Buenos Aires are second to none in the world and are modeled after the famous Liverpool system, having cost over $50,000,000. Steamers unload cargoes directly into the government custom warehouses, on the other side of which are networks of railway tracks from which they can be forwarded to the interior. Each of the large cement-sided canals or basins for the ship traffic is provided with locks or water gates, while the masonry warehouses, buildings and grain elevators extend for miles along the city water front. Yet the business of the port has grown so that there is much congestion, especially at certain seasons of the year and plans are being considered for doubling its present facilities.

By permission of the editor of The Americas
Grain Elevators, Buenos Aires

Much of the impetus in trade circles in this land is due to the presence of the English, Germans and Italians who control the banking, transportation and commercial life of the country. Both the Briton and the Teuton have large sums invested in all kinds of enterprises, the total being estimated at $2,000,000,000. The Italian has developed into the small shopkeeper and farmer. In Buenos Aires alone there are two daily papers printed in English, which serves to give some idea of the extent of the English speaking population in this city. There are also daily papers published in Italian, German, French and Arabic.

Practically all the nations of Europe are represented in the banking business, the United States being the last to enter the field. The English are the strongest and the Germans next.

Argentine is supposed to be on a gold exchange basis, the gold peso being worth one hundred centavos, or in our money 96.5 cents. The gold peso is designated by the sign $C/L, the symbol C/L meaning curso legal, or legal tender. This is practically an imaginary coin, and the money one sees is paper currency, the paper peso being worth 44 per cent. of its face value, or 42.46 cents in United States gold. This is represented in the following manner $M/N, meaning moneda nacional or national money. This paper currency fluctuates slightly each day, being governed by the market conditions. The abbreviations O/S, C/L, and M/N are placed before the dollar or peso mark, as for example O/S $500 or may follow it, as, for instance, $500 M/N.

The Argentine has long been noted for its unfavorable fees charged travellers, each province having a separate tariff, varying according to the commodity one may be selling. They are subject to such changes on short notice that it is useless to give them here, besides the subject has been dealt with elsewhere in this book. Before doing business it is wise to give this matter careful consideration. No duty is charged on samples.

The following cities should be visited:

The Argentine exported goods to the value of $468,999,410 in 1913, and during the same time imported goods to the extent of $408,711,966, of which amount less than 8 per cent. came from the United States. England controlled the bulk of the trade with Germany second and France third.

The principal exports are meats and meat products, agricultural products such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, linseed, hay, alfalfa, woods and dye woods, live animals, wool, hides, skins, butter and cheese. It imports foodstuffs, textiles, iron, steel, railway supplies and rolling stock, agricultural implements and machinery, wagons, carriages, automobiles and automobile supplies, electrical apparatus, glass, china, ready-made clothes, hats, shoes, toilet articles, drugs and chemicals, paints and varnish, stockings and socks, silks, kitchen-utensils, enamelled ware, tools, vegetables, fruits, eggs, oils, greases, and coal.

IV
URUGUAY

The first European who set foot on Uruguayan soil was the man who discovered the Rio de la Plate—Juan Diaz de Solis. This was in 1508. He and his associates were immediately attacked by the Charruca Indians, who annihilated the party. Later on Portuguese settlers from Brazil attempted to colonize this land, but they met with repulses, as did also the Spanish colonists who followed them. As a result of the invasion of this territory by Portuguese and Spanish it was claimed by both these countries and became a bone of contention between them for more than two hundred years. The Portuguese colonists were finally routed bodily and their city of Montevideo, founded in 1724, came under control of the Spanish Viceroy. Portugal still persisted in claiming this province and when Dom Pedro made an Empire of Brazil, he also attempted to exercise jurisdiction over Uruguay as well. This ultimately resulted in a war between Brazil and Argentine, in which the Uruguayans rallied to the aid of the Argentinians, defeating the Brazilians. A treaty of peace in which the mediation of England was asked, was signed August 27, 1828, giving Uruguay its independence.

The present government is based upon that of the United States and comprises executives in the persons of a President and a Vice-President, elected for four years, and a legislative body, consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Uruguay occupies an area of 72,210 square miles, or is about as large as all of the New England States. It is virtually an extensive undulating plain, having in its northern section a series of mountain ranges but few of which are higher than 2000 feet. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by Brazil, the Rio Cuareim flowing between the two countries. The Uruguay, dividing Argentine and Uruguay, forms its western boundary while the wide mouth of the Rio de la Plate may be called its southern boundary line.

The climate is extremely temperate and healthful—so much so in fact that it is rapidly developing into a summer resort for Chileans, Argentinians and Brazilians; many of the wealthiest of these nationalities have established seashore homes within its boundaries, especially outside of Montevideo. Extreme summer heat such as one finds in Buenos Aires, is never encountered here, although there are days in winter when it is particularly cold. Snow occasionally falls.

Uruguay has a population of 1,500,000, its people being among the best in Latin America. As in Argentine, the Indians are comparatively few and to be found in remote districts only. There are practically no negroes and mixed breeds. Owing to the influx of English, Italian, and Swiss colonists, the standard of the population is continually rising and its geographical position, salubrious climate and vast areas of tillable land will attract more and more desirable settlers to its boundary. Immigration is encouraged along the most modern and progressive lines.

Uruguay is fortunate in having many navigable rivers, the chief of which are the Rio de la Plate and the Uruguay, giving a total of over 700 miles of water deep enough for ocean-going vessels. One river alone—the Uruguay—has ten ports open for interoceanic trade, the cities on this river being Carmelo, Neuva Palmira, Soriano, Fray Bentos, Neuva Berlin, Casa Blanca, Pysandu, Neuva Pysandu, Salto and Santa Rosa. Mercedes is a large city, on the Rio Negro, and is used as a port of call for ocean-going vessels. There is also Lake Merim on the borders of Brazil on which run small launches.

Uruguay has comparatively few railroad systems and only 1600 miles of railways. There are many projects for railway development however and the completion of the mileage planned will rapidly bring the country to the fore. American capital is now being interested in this field.

While there are some minerals to be found in the mountainous sections, still the country will always be a pastoral one. Mica, gold, precious stones and petroleum are known to exist, yet comparatively little, if anything, has been done along these lines.

Of her 45,000,000 acres of land, less than 5 per cent. is devoted to agriculture, owing to lack of population. There are about 1,700,000 acres of virgin forest lands and over 40,000,000 acres devoted to grazing cattle and sheep.

Wheat is the chief cereal grown, with corn, barley, oats and linseed in the order named. Tobacco has been tried with favorable results.

The raising of cattle of all kinds and the maintenance of slaughter-houses and packing establishments for the purpose of supplying Europe with meat forms the largest industry. One plant alone at Fray Bentos—owned by the Liebig Company and where the extract of that name is made,—kills over 3,000,000 head a year. Very naturally meat by-products are produced and exported in large quantities. Much frozen and tinned meat is exported. Some idea of the enormous size of the cattle industry here may be gained when we are told that at the present time Uruguay has over 9,000,000 cattle, 30,000,000 sheep, 800,000 hogs, 600,000 goats and 430,000 horses.

One of the leading industries is the shearing of wool, all of which is exported. The good climatic conditions, in connection with attention paid to breeding, have resulted in the production of a wool of superior length and texture and as a consequence wool-buyers from Europe are attracted to this market. In 1913 the amount exported reached the enormous sum of $35,875,975.

Despite the fact that Uruguay has no gold coin of its own, it is on a gold basis and its peso, or dollar, is worth almost four cents more than ours, or to be exact, $1.034. This is a decidedly unusual state of affairs for Latin America, and reflects favorably on the financial condition of the country.

There is much English capital invested here, and to a large extent trade is in the hands of Englishmen. Many German and Italian houses are represented and these nationalities are also becoming interested in local enterprises.

Uruguay exports wool, hides, horn, hair, meats and meat products, grease tallow, grain and cereals, the total amount expressed in figures for 1913 being $65,142,000.

In 1913 she imported goods to the value of $50,666,000, the leading items being foodstuffs, iron, steel, glass, china, wooden products, oils, chemicals, medicines, stationery, toilet articles, tobacco, textiles, shoes, hats, and silks.

While commercial travellers are supposed to pay a yearly license of $100, still this can be waived by making the proper connection with some local dealer or commission house.

The following cities should be visited:

Uruguay has from three to five steamships sailing weekly direct for Europe, or the United States.

All vessels leaving either Europe or the United States and calling at Buenos Aires touch at Montevideo the day before arriving at Buenos Aires, as well as on the return trip. Two night lines of comfortable steamers connect Buenos Aires and Montevideo, which are about 110 miles apart. Ample transoceanic and coastwise freight service is also provided.

V
PARAGUAY

Due to the ambitions of one man—Carlos Antonio Lopez—a dictator of the worst type, with Napoleonic designs, Paraguay, one of the finest of South American countries, one with brilliant prospects and holding the greatest opportunities, is to-day the most backward and has the smallest population.

Paraguay was discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 1526. Following him came Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Irala, who in 1536 founded the city of Asuncion, now the capital of the republic. Up to 1810 it was a Spanish colony, being latterly governed by the Viceroy from the home country who resided in Buenos Aires. At that time it was called the Province of Paraguay. It declared its independence from the mother country in 1811, the Spanish Governor-General aiding in the movement. After trying various forms of government it became a republic in 1844, which form of government still exists, the executive power being vested in a President and Vice-President, with a legislative body composed of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

It is impossible in even briefly writing of this really wonderful country to refrain from some reference to the one man, Lopez, whose desire for power resulted in the almost total annihilation of a people. His arbitrary rule embroiled his nation in disputes with much of Europe and the United States, and resulted in a war with Uruguay, Brazil and Argentine. In addition to this internal strife developed in which assassins, murderers and executioners played their parts. When Lopez was finally killed and his power gone, Paraguay’s population, according to Dawson, the well-known historian, had decreased from a “1,300,000 to a little over 200,000, only about 29,000 being men and 90,000 children under fifteen years of age.” There were five women to one man. As a result of this devastation the country never has revived. Recent revolutions have set it back still further and whatever of good may come to this benighted land must be written in the future tense.

Paraguay is almost an inland country, having but one outlet to the sea in the Parana River. Its 196,000 square miles of territory is bounded on the north by Brazil and Bolivia; on the west and south by Argentine, and on the east by Argentine and Brazil. The Paraguay River runs directly through its territory from south to north dividing it into two sections, Western Paraguay, or the Chaco, and Eastern Paraguay. It is well watered with many small streams, while toward the north and east are mountain chains.

The climate of Paraguay is so equable that the country is sometimes called the “Sanitarium.” The two seasons are the rainy and the dry. It never snows in this land and flowers in great variety and a riot of color bloom constantly. The southern two-thirds are in the Temperate Zone, the northern one-third in the Tropic Zone.

The population is estimated at 800,000, over 100,000 of which are wild Indians, the remainder being largely of mixed blood, negro predominating. There have been some sporadic attempts to encourage immigration, which have not resulted in any great movement in this direction, owing to the instability of the government and the backward condition of the people as well as to the general isolation of the country.

Travel in Paraguay is most primitive. There are few roads and most of the commerce is carried by bullock carts on almost impassable trails or by pack train over narrow paths. But one railway, having a total length of about 250 miles, ekes out a homeopathic existence, running from Asuncion, the capital, to Ville Encarnacion. Many railways must be built to open the country. One can go by rail from Asuncion to Buenos Aires in two days, the trip requiring a ferry-age from Posadas to Ville Encarnacion. The Trans-Paraguayan Railway now in course of construction will do much to develop the country. Communication with the outside world via Montevideo or Buenos Aires is maintained by river steamers, requiring from five days to a week to make the trip to Asuncion, which is about 1100 miles from the Argentine capital.

Interior of a gentlemen’s hat store, Asuncion, Paraguay

A country store in Colombia

From Asuncion it is possible to go into the interior or even to Brazil, on light-draft steamers, the Guyara Falls, 1300 miles above the capital, stopping navigation of the Parana River at this point.

The Paraguay River is navigable for vessels of twelve-foot draft to Asuncion and for smaller vessels 700 miles farther.

Most of the commerce of Paraguay is carried in lighters drawn by tugs, and these emissaries of trade are to be met on all the rivers and waterways of this country.

There are several lakes, navigable for small craft, but of no importance from a commercial standpoint.

While both the climate and the soil warrant one in stating that Paraguay is susceptible of high agricultural development, little has been done in this regard, outside of locally producing the few vegetables and fruits required for home consumption. Sugar-cane, tobacco, tropical fruits and cotton would thrive in this country. Each one of these staples has been successfully raised, the cotton being something like our own famous Sea Island brand.

A business, small in size, yet of great importance, and restricted to this locality, is the production of oil of petitgrain, a form of orange perfume, much in use in European perfume houses as a base for toilet and flavoring extracts. The essential oil is obtained in the most primitive manner and is always in great demand.

A lace peculiar to the country, called “nanduti” or spider lace, is made by native women, and if properly commercialized might develop into a paying trade.

The growing and curing of “Yerba Mate,” a native tea, used extensively in Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentine and Chile, yields considerable income, but is never destined to become an article of great international commerce. The plant or shrub grows wild. The crop amounts to about 18,000,000 pounds yearly.

Quebracho, a red-colored wood, rich in tannin, is indigenous to the country. It is used for furniture and railroad ties and the extract made from it is employed in tanning leather. In one year, over $4,000,000 of this wood alone was imported to the United States, much of it being used for paving blocks.

Thousands of acres of cabinet and other commercial woods are to be found in the forests, but are without value, owing to their isolation and lack of means of transportation to get them to the markets.

The country has some ore deposits. The principal ones are copper, mercury, manganese and iron. They cannot be developed on account of their remote location.

It therefore follows that the chief industries of Paraguay for years to come will be in the production of raw materials and in the raising of cattle for which its well-watered plains are admirably adapted. It has now about 6,000,000 head of cattle and sheep and two slaughter-houses, killing about 40,000 annually. There are two large American companies engaged in the cattle industry; also one big German firm in the same line.

Paraguay has not invited capital and inducements of this nature need not be expected for some time.

While supposedly on a gold basis, money of this metal exists only as a fiction. The inconvertible paper peso has a fluctuating value, being at times as low as two and a half cents U. S. gold, and as high as five cents U. S. gold, according to the stability of the government and local commercial conditions.

Credits should be extended with the greatest caution.

In 1913 Paraguay exported $5,462,000 worth of materials, chiefly fruit to Argentine, as well as yerba mate, timber, hides, dried beef, quebracho, lace, and tobacco. Most of her exports were taken by the neighboring republics, and by them reshipped to the markets of the world. No exports to the United States for 1913 are given, but in 1912 they amounted to only $593. Germany is her largest European creditor, last year taking over $1,198,686 of her products.

Paraguay in 1913, imported $7,671,551 in textiles, foods, hardware, fancy and toilet goods, shoes, hats, liquors, drugs, clothes, steel and iron, of which amount the United States contributed $181,367 as against Germany’s $989,898 and England’s $963,418.

Commercial travelers are supposed to pay a duty proportionate to the business they do. As a matter of fact, no effort is made to collect this tax and the local merchant generally protects the traveler visiting him from such exploitation.

The following cities should be visited:

Owing to its situation it is necessary in order to reach Paraguay to go by train or boat from Buenos Aires, or by boat from Montevideo; the journey from Buenos Aires is the quickest and most comfortable.

All goods intended for Asuncion or other points in the country are trans-shipped at either Buenos Aires or Montevideo, arrangements for which can be made with the lines running from Europe or the United States direct to either of these ports. Or your customer in Paraguay will instruct you to ship his order through some agent whom he will specify in his shipping instructions, who will attend to the routine detail to forward the consignment.

VI
CHILE

After Pizarro had conquered Peru he dispatched Diego de Almagro with an army, instructing him to explore and take the territory to the south, or what is now Chile. He was unable to accomplish the task. In 1540 Pizarro sent another expedition under Pedro Valdivia, whom fortune favored and who penetrated to what is now the city of Santiago, which he founded in 1541. For more than 100 years the warlike Araucanian Indians made repeated attacks on settlers in this territory, the Spaniards having great difficulty in conquering them. A treaty of peace was concluded in 1640.

When the revolutionary movement in South America started against Spain, Chile on September 18, 1810, declared her independence, and became the scene of much fighting, finally on April 5, 1818, defeating forever Spanish power and becoming absolutely independent.

A republican form of government was adopted, the executive power being vested in a President, and the legislative in two houses, a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

The Republic of Chile has 292,580 square miles, with a ragged coast line of 2,627 miles, and varies in width from 90 to 248 miles. It is bordered on the north by Peru, the east by Bolivia and Argentine, the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.

Two almost parallel ranges of mountains, the Cordillera de la Costa and the Andes, run from north to south, with a valley over 500 miles long and 40 wide spread between them. In this chain of mountains are more than 30 extinct volcanoes from 11,700 to 21,340 feet in height.

Owing to its extreme length Chile possesses many climates. To the north it is dry and hot, the central portion being decidedly temperate with changing seasons, almost like California, while in the south the temperature gets lower, and rains increase. To the extreme south there is much snow and cold with but little vegetation.

Valparaiso

There are practically no negroes in the 3,500,000 of Chile’s population. Some writers estimate that 25 per cent. of the inhabitants are Germans, or of German descent, this nation having many business men and large colonies in the Republic, especially toward the south and around Valdivia. Perhaps 50 per cent. are descendants of the Araucanian Indians by the early Spanish explorers. There is a large percentage of English; it is estimated that in Valparaiso, a city of 250,000, there are at least 20,000 Anglo-Saxons. The French and Italian colonies are also quite numerous.

Chile ranks third in South America in her railways, possessing a total of 3800 miles, nearly 2000 of which are owned by the Government. A longitudinal railway, designed to run practically the length of the country—2132 miles—from north to south, is in process of construction. It will be connected with the coast and the hinterland by roads crossing it at right angles, and is designed to develop the entire country and to be of strategic value in transporting troops. Two new trans-Andean roads are contemplated in addition to the one now running from Los Andes to Mendoza, one to operate about 300 miles north of Santiago—the other to cross 400 miles to the south of the capital. Other lines from the smaller ports to the longitudinal road are proposed, in all over 3000 miles being projected. Of the roads maintained by the government, it might be said that they are run at a great annual loss, a condition which may operate materially against the country’s prosperity at some near date. Many of the privately owned roads are used only in connection with the nitrate industry.

Chile has many small rivers varying from 25 to 150 miles in length arising in the mountains and rushing to the sea. Most of them are dry a greater part of the year, but during the rainy season become raging torrents. With the exception of a few in the southern part of the country, they are not navigable, but by a proper system of conserving and storing their water might be made useful for generating power or light.

Her extensive coast line gives Chile 59 ports on the Pacific, most of which are open roadsteads and at certain times of the year positively dangerous, loading and unloading of vessels being done by means of lighters, ships being obliged to lie from one to two miles off the land. The principal ports from north to south in the order named are Arica, Pisagua, Iquiqui, Tocopilla, Antofagasta, Taltal, Caldera, Carrizal, Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Talcahuano, Coronel, Valdivia, Puerto Monte, Ancud, and Punta Arenas, the most southerly city on this continent and one of the big fur markets of the world.

Chile is to-day spending millions of dollars on the modernization of her leading ports so as to properly safeguard life and property, but it will be years before this work is finished.

Primarily the wealth of Chile comes from her nitrate beds and her mining possibilities. There are about $150,000,000 invested in the nitrate industry alone—$55,000,000 being English and $51,000,000 local. American capital is little represented in this line. The exports in 1913 amounted to 60,500,000 quintals, a quintal being 101.41 pounds; the value in money was $98,239,569. Iodine is one of the by-products in the manufacture of nitrate, and is controlled by a combination or trust, $1,876,277 worth being exported last year, the United States taking 183 tons, England 65 tons and the remainder of Europe 264 tons.

The nitrate beds run a distance of 450 miles south of the Camarones River, at an altitude of 4000 to 5000 feet and from 10 to 20 miles inland. Many theories have been advanced as to these deposits, the one generally accepted being that these fields were once the bottom of some sea elevated by a titanic upheaval. The beds vary in width from a half to five miles, and the “caliche” or strata of earth bearing the nitrate is usually covered by sand and dirt varying from a few inches to 10 feet. This is blown out by dynamite, separated by washing and boilings from foreign matter, then bagged and shipped. A more desolate spot than a nitrate “officina,” as these reduction plants are called, would be hard to imagine. No trees or vegetation are to be seen and even water has to be carried for miles in cars for operating the machinery and for other uses. Authorities differ as to the extent of the deposits, some alleging they will be worked out in 20 years, while others claim there is sufficient supply available for 200 years. Nitrate is used extensively in the arts, for manufacturing gunpowder and explosives and for a fertilizer in agriculture.

Copper is found in great profusion, $7,947,307 worth being exported last year. One of the largest copper mines is owned by the Braden Copper Company, an American concern. In 1913 its average daily production was 30 tons of bar copper. Machinery is being installed which is intended to double this output. Chile at one time contributed one-third of the world’s supply of this metal and mineralogists state that there are yet great bodies of high grade ore awaiting the discoverer.

Coal is found throughout the south of Chile, one coal field alone being estimated to contain 1,862,000,000 tons. Over $7,500,000 is invested in this enterprise.

Iron ore of excellent quality and freeness from sulphur is found in large quantities. An American company is largely interested in developing this market, and contemplates investing $6,000,000 in their property.

There are silver and gold, deposits of salt and borax, as well as cobalt, nickel, mercury bearing ores, tungsten, zinc, graphite, sulphur and alum. All of these await proper development as they exist in paying quantities.

Much of the territory, which resembles California in scenery, climate and formation, is given over to agriculture. Over 600,000 tons of wheat were harvested in 1912 with 71,000 tons of barley, 50,000 tons of oats and 40,000 tons of corn. Some authorities claim Chile to be the fourth largest wine producing country of the world, most of its vintage being consumed locally.

Stock raising is increasing, especially to the south, where sheep are profitably grazed. The latest census gives the number of cattle at 1,900,000, sheep 5,000,000 and goats 300,000. Much wool from three to four-inch staple is produced, last year 20,563,833 pounds being exported. Dairying is rapidly growing. Bee culture is becoming a permanent industry, there being 90,000 hives in Chile in 1913. Much honey and wax are exported.

There are millions of acres of virgin forests of valuable hard woods in the south, the north being a barren, treeless country. The chief trees are the Chilean oak, the rauli, elm, cypress, pine, cherry, laurel and of late the eucalyptus is being propagated extensively.

Some industries such as shoe factories, canneries, breweries, distilleries, sugar refineries, cracker bakeries, and the like exist but their products are for local consumption.

The fruits of Chile, such as the cherry, peach, pear, apple, nectarine, plum, apricot and melon, are the equal of ours. Inasmuch as the seasons here are reversed, these luscious fruits would reach our markets during winter, and this could be developed into a profitable trade.

Chile exports nitrate of soda (nitrate), copper, iodine, wheat, borate of lime, iron, gold, silver, wool, hides, woods, honey, and wax.

She imports bottles, cars and rolling stock, cement, cotton goods, glassware, iron and steel manufactures, such as wire, nails, pipes, corrugated iron, hardware, tools, locomotives, mining and agricultural machinery, mineral waters, paper, petroleum, rice, sacks, tinned salmon, thread, tea, woolen goods, shoes, and hats.

Chilean money is unstable and fluctuates from day to day, the paper peso or dollar being worth from 17 to 36 cents, according to variations in exchange. A gold peso exists fictitiously for trade purposes, being estimated at 18 pence or 36 cents U. S. gold. When this mark “$” is followed by the word oro the amount is understood to be gold. If however this abbreviation is used “m/c” it means “moneda corriente” or the paper money.

Chile has for a long time talked of changing its currency and making it staple. The sooner this is done the better for the country. Such a movement has been greatly retarded by men who have made money due to the fluctuations in currency.

Both the English and Germans have large interests here, and as a consequence do the bulk of the exporting and importing business with Chile. Imports in 1913 were $122,075,994 as against $139,878,201 of exports. India shipped to Chile $3,500,000 worth of jute bags for nitrate in 1913, and stands seventh in the list of countries sending goods here, the United States being third with $16,806,341 to its credit as against England’s $38,616,886 and Germany’s $33,189,070.

Commercial travelers are not required to pay a license. The authorities are very liberal about admitting samples.

The following cities are worth visiting for trade purposes:

Chile may be reached by taking any line from New York to Buenos Aires, then crossing via the Trans-Andean road to Santiago or Valparaiso, or by any line of steamers sailing for Colon, thence via train to Panama from where English, German, Chilean or Peruvian steamers sail weekly, touching at all the leading coast ports. There are also English and German ships direct from Europe, which pass through Smythe Channel on the southwest coast of Chile and touch at all its ports on both the outward and return voyage.

VII
BOLIVIA

Bolivia, the fourth largest of the South American republics, extending over an area of 708,195 square miles, is without a seacoast, having lost control of her ports on the Pacific Ocean as a result of the war between Peru and Chile. This country occupies as much territory as all of the states east of the Mississippi, excepting those of New England, or is as large as the combined areas of California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Utah and Nevada, and is bounded on the north and east by Brazil, the south by Paraguay, Argentine and Chile, while her western boundary is made up by Peru and Chile.

After Pizarro discovered Peru, he organized an expedition, explored Bolivia, and annexed it to the Spanish crown, which controlled its destinies until all of Latin America revolted against the home government. In 1809 the Spanish authorities were deposed and independence declared in 1825, as a result of the Battle of Ayacucho, fought on Dec. 9, 1824, when the Spanish forces were totally defeated.

Simon Bolivar, the hero of the rebellion against Spain, drafted its constitution which provided for a President, two Vice-Presidents, and two houses of Congress—composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

Although Bolivia is entirely within the Tropic Zone, it is blessed with a variety of climates, due chiefly to its altitude. There are two seasons, the rainy from December to May and the dry covering the remainder of the year.

Owing to some gigantic convulsion of Nature, ages ago, what evidently was the bottom of the ocean was forced upward, and now forms an enormous plateau over 500 miles in length, covering more than 60,000 square miles, at an average altitude of 12,000 feet. This is a comparatively barren stretch of land with little vegetation, but is extremely rich in mineral deposits.

Running north and south, and at the east and west sides of this vast plateau are two ranges of the Andes, the distance between them being about 85 miles. In addition to these main ranges are many others which criss-cross the country in numerous directions. In but few, if any, countries of the world is there to be found such a wealth of scenery, Bolivia possessing three of the highest peaks in this hemisphere, namely Illampu, Sorata and Illimani, the sentinel of La Paz, whose snowcovered peak towers into space 22,500 feet.

As may be surmised the climate in the plateau and mountain regions is cool and invigorating most of the year, but extremely warm in the summer, while as the land descends toward Brazil and the upper Amazon region it becomes milder until it reaches tropic warmth.

On account of the high altitude of Bolivia, the traveler generally has attacks of what is known locally as “puno” or “sirroche”—or in plain English, mountain sickness, owing to the rarity of the atmosphere. While it is exceedingly unpleasant and may cause palpitation of the heart, shortness of breath, bleeding at the nose and ears, and other disagreeable symptoms, it seldom results fatally. Rest until acclimated and the use, under a physician’s direction, of some heart stimulant, are all that is necessary to restore the patient to his normal state. Stout persons are apt to suffer more than others and should exert themselves as little as possible. Compressed oxygen is carried in most of the passenger trains to give immediate relief in case of danger from mountain sickness, the train crew being instructed as to its administration.

The population of Bolivia is estimated at 2,300,000, but no census has ever been taken, and it is doubtful if it has more than 1,500,000 inhabitants. Fully fifty per cent. of its people are docile, full-blooded Indians, living the most primitive life and speaking their own dialect with a few head men familiar with Spanish, which is the official or state tongue. The Beni, or white Indians of Bolivia, are a rather warlike race and have maintained their tribal laws, the control of their lands and customs, independent of all attempts to subjugate them. In fact, the Bolivians stand in awe of them. There are about 500,000 “cholos,” the native term for half-castes or mixed breeds, 250,000 whites of Spanish descent and perhaps 10,000 foreigners,—that is Americans and Europeans engaged in business.

Bolivia has been the scene of a remarkable railway development encouraged by the government. There are to-day about 900 miles of road in actual operation, about 400 miles in the process of construction and nearly 2,500 miles, plans and estimates for the completion of which are under consideration.

These railways maintain three arteries of commerce with the Pacific coast from the interior, and reach the ocean via Lake Titicaca at Mollendo, Peru; at Antofagasta, and also at Arica in Chile, the last named being the shortest and most direct route from the coast to the capital at La Paz, a distance of 274 miles, and only recently completed, requiring about 14 hours for the journey. To go to La Paz via Mollendo, or via Antofagasta is much longer in distance, requiring two days’ time, but repays the traveller in the magnificence of the scenery encountered all along the line.

Roads are in process of construction from Potosi to Sucre, in order to afford an outlet for the products of the mines located in this vicinity, and from Uyuni to Tupiza near the border line of Argentine, so that direct communication can be had with this country as well as Chile and Peru. Other roads are being built from Oruro to Banderani and Oruro and Cochabamba, also from La Paz to Yungas, from Yungas to Puerto Panda and from Cochabamba to Chimon. The government also intends building roads from Yacuiba to Santa Cruz, and thence to Puerto Saurez. Connecting lines will be built to the famous Mamore-Madeira R. R. in Brazil.

There is a perfect net work of rivers in Bolivia, located chiefly in the northeast and southeastern sections, many of which are navigable for light draught vessels and lighters. It is estimated that the Paraguay, Beni, Itenes, Mamore, Pilcomayo, Paragua, and other streams give a total water transportation of more than 11,000 miles. These streams, however, can be used more advantageously as commerce carriers toward Brazil, Paraguay and Argentine than to the West Coast countries. Various projects have been suggested for dredging them and providing locks so as to develop the territory drained by them, but it is doubtful if the next century will see this work started, although it is feasible.

Lake Titicaca is the highest body of navigable water in the world, the steamers which operate on it having been brought from Europe in sections and erected on its banks. It is one of the largest lakes in this hemisphere, covering an area of more than 4,000 square miles and being 160 miles long and 30 wide. While the steamers which ply on its surface carry passengers, they also bring all of the freight into or leaving the country via the port of Mollendo in Peru.

Bolivia may rightly be called the mineral storehouse of the world, for locked within the heart of her many mountains are untold riches, the tons which she has contributed to the universe being microscopic in proportion to what remains. Her inexhaustible dried lakes of borax and salt, glistening like snow in the pure air of the high elevation, have been scraped for centuries without apparently reducing their supply. There are many rich deposits of gold, silver, copper, tin, antimony, bismuth, borax, zinc, wolfram and coal.

In the production of tin, Bolivia ranks second, the chief producer being the Malay Peninsula. Tin forms about 70 per cent. of the total export of Bolivia, amounting in value to over $23,000,000, Great Britain taking about 90 per cent. of the output of the mines and selling it to the other nations of the world. There are yet enormous unworked deposits of this metal in this land.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood
Lake Titicaca at Puno, Peru, with native balsas in the foreground. Balsas, which are made of reeds lashed together, are used for carrying freight and passengers

Bolivia is one of the largest bismuth producing countries of the world and the third in the production of copper, and is rich in antimony and wolfram. In 1912, the latest available authentic data, she exported the following amount of metals:

If the forests of Bolivia as well as the territory sloping toward Brazil were more accessible, much of value would be added to its products. This land is especially adapted for grazing and agriculture as well as the growth of medicinal plants and trees.

In 1912, Bolivia exported rubber to the value of over $6,000,000.

It gives to the pharmacopœia the following drugs: aconite, arnica, belladona, some camphor, cocaine, digitalis, ipecac, jalap, quinine, quassia, sarsaparilla, tamarind, tolu and valerian.

Cabinet woods, such as ebony, mahogany, rosewood, satinwood and cedar are to be found in great profusion. Fruits of the tropical and temperate zones flourish. Coffee and cocoa are largely grown.

Bolivia is one of the few countries of the world without a national debt, a remarkable condition of affairs, more especially for a Latin American country, and its monetary system is on a gold basis, the unit being the boliviano, worth about 39 cents in our currency.

English capital is largely invested in the various mines and railways but the greater portion of the mercantile business, especially in the crude drug line, is in the hands of Germans, who shipped to the Fatherland over 83,000 pounds of the 100,000 pounds of quinine exported last year.

In 1913 Bolivia exported tin, rubber, silver, copper, bismuth, cocoa, wolfram, zinc, lead, hides, alpaca-wool, medicinal and crude drugs to the value of $36,551,390. Her imports during the same time were $20,600,000, comprising iron, steel and railway building materials, textiles, machinery, arms and ammunition, foodstuffs, toilet goods, glass ware, and medicines.

Bolivia is one of the countries where the travelling salesman is sure to be obliged to pay a tax; the porters, hotel employes and others assisting, on a commission basis, of course, the person who has this concession. The fee which amounts to about $115 can often be “side-stepped” by arrangement with the local merchant with whom you may desire to establish a connection. Under no circumstances let it be known that you are a travelling man until you have perfected your plans with regard to this problem.

The following cities should be visited:

Bolivia may be reached via the three cities referred to, namely Mollendo, Antofagasta and Arica, these places being ports of call for all vessels. Both the Peruvian and Chilean steamship companies, as well as the European lines, touch here also. It is to be expected that some of the larger lines from New York will arrange a service passing through the Panama Canal and calling at these places, thereby saving the long trip around the Horn, or the trans-shipping at Colon and Panama.

VIII
PERU

Recent archæological finds warrant some authorities in claiming Peru to have been the home of a highly civilized and cultured people 25,000 years before Christ. The race which inhabited the land then were the Chumus, the progenitors of the Incas, whom Pizarro found when his expedition arrived in Peru from Panama in 1532. The Incas had a socialistic form of government, were able engineers, good surgeons, noted agriculturists and really a wonderful people. The treatment of this docile and intellectual nation by the invading Spaniards is one of the darkest pages of history.

Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, the capital of Peru, in 1535, was appointed by the Crown governor of the newly acquired territory and was assassinated in front of his palace in 1541.

The great wealth which Peru, through her rich mines, contributed to Spain, warranted that country in making this possession a viceroyalty, the viceroy at one time governing all Spanish possessions in South America from Lima.

The movement for independence from Spanish control, started early in the last century, found many adherents in Peru and after several reverses the yoke of Spain was thrown off July 28, 1821, a congress organized in 1822, representing a republican form of government and the first president inaugurated in 1823.

In 1879, over a question of boundary lines, Peru became involved in a war with Chile, lasting five years, the result being the defeat of Peru and the invasion of its capital. As a consequence, Peru ceded one of its richest provinces, Tarapaca, outright to Chile, and the territories of Tacna and Arica conditionally for ten years, at the end of which period a vote was to be taken in these provinces, and the inhabitants were to decide under which country they preferred to remain. The Chileans, despite the repeated requests of Peru, have failed to observe this condition of the peace treaty and these territories with all their wealth still are under the control of the conquerors. The methods employed by the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine have been used here by Chile, and the chances are that this district will always remain in the hands of its present governors.

A President and two Vice-Presidents, together with a legislative body of two branches, a Senate and a House of Representatives, control the destinies of Peru.

Peru contains 687,600 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil and Bolivia, on the south by Chile, its western boundary being washed by the waters of the Pacific for its entire length of 1600 miles. For purposes of comparison Peru covers as much territory as Texas, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

Three mountain ranges run through this country between which are found extremely fertile and productive plateaus, the scene of much of the country’s agricultural development. The land from the coast to the foothills of the Andes is as a rule barren, and were it not for the Humboldt Current which runs close to the shore and cools it, would be exceedingly tropical. On the eastern slopes of the Andes, as they stretch toward Brazil and Bolivia, there is a wealth of verdure, vegetation and virgin forests, due to the heavy rains and the tropical sun’s action. This comprises three-fourths of Peru’s territory. The table-lands are cool and enjoy a temperate climate. From June to November, the days are marked by a fine drizzling rain, particularly along the coast but for the rest of the year rain coats and umbrellas are not needed.

Peru claims a population of 4,500,000 but I seriously doubt if it will reach 3,500,000. Of this number fully half are unlettered, ignorant Indians, lacking in ambition, requiring few necessities and living most primitively. One-fourth are half-breeds, the descendants of the conquerors and the Incas. About two per cent. of the population are Chinese. Here it may be noted that many archæologists and anthropologists believe that the early settlers of Peru came from China, across the stepping stones in line with the finger of Alaska which points toward Asia, and by degrees wandered down the western coast of America, finally establishing a government near what is now the city of Cuzco. Perhaps 15 per cent. are pure white. There are nearly 50,000 Europeans and Americans located throughout Peru. Italians and their descendants are most numerously represented, followed by Germans and English.

Peru has no navigable rivers on her west coast, the many streams which empty into the Pacific being dry or very low except during the periods of heavy rains. Properly husbanded their water power could be effectively used. To-day they serve for irrigation and near some of the larger cities, such as Lima and Callao, have been advantageously used for generating electric light and power for tram systems. On the eastern side of Peru there are about 3500 miles of navigable rivers for light-draft vessels, drawing 8 to 15 feet, all of these streams ultimately emptying into the Atlantic.

Iquitos with 20,000 inhabitants, on the Amazon, 2500 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, is the center of the rubber industry, and is more accessible from New York than from the capital of the Republic, Lima.

Peru has 1840 miles of railway, 1300 being standard and 500 narrow gauge. Nearly 3500 miles of road have been surveyed and are in various process of construction. Nominally about 1200 miles of these roads are owned by the Government but are operated and controlled by the Peruvian Corporation, Ltd., an English organization, whose presence is very much in evidence in Peru, and which also operates a line of steamers on Lake Titicaca. Under the present contract with the government this concern is to control the railways under it until 1973, a certain percentage of the profits to go to the State, and another portion to be utilized in railway extension.

The Peruvian Corporation, it should be stated, was organized by Europeans holding Peruvian bonds on which it was impossible to collect the guaranteed interest, due to the mismanagement of the government as well as the outcome of the war with Chile. This corporation took over and cancelled the indebtedness in return for certain privileges among which was the right to exploit the railways.

To Henry Meiggs, an American from San Francisco, Peru and the world is indebted for the completion of what are the most marvelous railways on the globe. By a series of twists and turns, which include 65 tunnels and 67 bridges, it climbs to the highest point in the world ever reached by a railway, 15,665 feet above sea level in a distance of 138 miles, to what is locally called “the roof of the world.” Some idea of the rapidity of the ascent may be gained when I state that in the first twenty-five miles from Lima the train ascends 2800 feet above the sea, while it reaches 5000 feet twelve miles further on its journey.

Another wonderful road runs from Mollendo through Arequipa and on to Puno, at the edge of Lake Titicaca, passing through the most magnificent scenery and ascending to an altitude of 14,665 feet. There are numerous Americans employed in the management of the Peruvian railways and practically all the rolling stock comes from the States.

The many mountains paralleling the coast make railway construction a difficult and expensive problem. It is possible that this will have much to do with the retarding of the progress of mine development, inasmuch as many of the mineral deposits are almost inaccessible due to their interior location.

Unlike Chile, Peru has many natural harbors, affording protection against storms, Mollendo, Salaverry and Eten being the only ones really dangerous to shipping and life. The ports from north to south are Tumbez, Paita, Eten, Pacasmayo, Salaverry, Chimbote, Huacho, Ancon, Callao, Pisco, Mollendo, and Ilo. The docks at Callao, the leading port, are quite modern and capable of receiving the largest vessels.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood
Oroya Line, Peru

Peru’s products are chiefly mineral and agricultural.

Her mines have long been famous, producing gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, bismuth, lead, quicksilver, tungsten, antimony, molybdenum, vanadium and borax. Her petroleum fields are a source of much revenue. Her guano industry is being revived by protecting the birds which frequent the islands and by restricting the working of these deposits. Sugar cane, cotton, and rice are profitably raised.

The forests of the eastern section are rich in cabinet and medicinal woods.

Copper is the leading metal mined, the production in 1912 being valued at $9,625,000, while the amount of silver extracted in the same period was $5,152,412. Vanadium, used for hardening steel, exists, the deposits being larger than in any other locality. More than $500,000, or 70 per cent. of the world’s output, was exported in 1912. The bulk of these industries is controlled by American capital and many Americans are employed.

There was mined in Peru in 1912, 268,000 long tons of coal, 254,088 of which came from the mine owned by the American companies operating at Cerro de Pasco and was used chiefly in the smelters. Geologists estimate that there is a carboniferous area in this country of approximately 40,000,000 tons of coal.

Peru is fortunately rich in being the possessor of petroleum fields yielding a high-quality oil, much of which goes to the States and Europe for purifying. One local refinery has a capacity of 300,000 gallons per month. The Standard Oil Company owns some of these properties, but the largest holders are British and Italians. In 1912, 214,947 metric tons of oil were produced. The national line of steamers are oil burners.

In 1913 Peru exported over $51,000,000 worth of cotton and $7,500,000 of sugar; $2,000,000 of vicuna, alpaca, llama and sheep’s wool; $500,000 worth of cocaine and $3,000,000 worth of rubber. Much coffee, tobacco, and cocoa are grown, most of which is used for home consumption.

Peru’s crops are produced chiefly by irrigation, the watersheds on the mountain sides being of great advantage in this connection.

Cotton is manufactured into cloth in mills situated at Lima, Arequipa and Ica. There are also woolen mills but they do not come anywhere near supplying the local demand and much is imported.

Panama hats are largely produced, in 1911 the exports in this line reaching the enormous sum of $2,147,668. Some twenty-five factories in the Cuzco valley are devoted to the production of cocaine, the world’s supply largely coming from this section. The cattle and wool growing industries are capable of much greater development.

Peru is on a gold basis, the sole being the unit of value. This is a silver coin and is designated thus “$.” Ten soles ($10) equal a gold Libra or pound, worth a pound sterling or $4.8665 U. S. gold and expressed thus “Lp.,” meaning Libra Peruana, or Peruvian Pound. A sole contains 100 centavos, or cents.

Peru’s exports in 1912 were $45,871,504, and her imports $25,066,354, the bulk of the business being done with the United Kingdom, the United States being second. Within the past five years the exports from and imports to the States have materially increased and are rapidly approaching those of our greatest competitor, England. This is due perhaps to the development of the mining industries, under the control of American capital. In 1910, England shipped Peru $8,134,189 worth of goods to our $4,484,214 and Germany’s $3,842,855. In 1912 the figures were as follows, England $6,800,708, United States $5,763,423 and Germany $4,557,698. Undoubtedly the figures for 1913, when available, will show a decided further gain for us.

Peru exports copper, gold, silver, mercury, vanadium, bismuth, cocaine, quinine, wool, sugar, petroleum, hides, hats and guano, and imports textiles, mining machinery, oil machinery, pipe, railway supplies, windmills, corrugated iron, tools, hardware, flour, canned goods, shoes, electric supplies, typewriters, mineral waters, wines and liquors.

The bulk of invested capital is English, but in this line the Americans are forging to the front. Germans, Italians, and French are chiefly interested as merchants throughout the country.

There are no taxes or restrictions placed on commercial travelers and samples are admitted duty free.

If you are handling mining machinery or devices for use in mines or petroleum fields, it is apparent that the localities where these industries thrive should be visited personally. Many of the mines have company stores located in their holdings that are worthy of calls, while others maintain purchasing agents in Lima for this purpose. Inquiry of local authorities will give all the information necessary, otherwise the following cities should be visited:

Cuzco, with a population of 26,000, is hardly worth a visit for business purposes, but is interesting for its historical associations. It was the ancient metropolis of the Inca Empire. Mostly all of its buildings were of stone, set together as wonderfully as the Pyramids, their joints being so perfect that a knife blade cannot be inserted between them. Streets crossed each other at right angles, and were paved with naturally colored stones, forming intricate patterns and geometrical designs, which can still be seen. There was an imposing temple dedicated to the sun, whose walls were studded with gold plates. Water from the mountains ran through the city streets, while around the entire town were fortifications many of which yet remain. Its civilization was of the highest order.

Iquitos, 20,000, should only be visited from Mañaos in Brazil. It is a good business town.

Peruvian ports can be reached via the Straits of Magellan and Smythe Channel from New York or via Colon and Panama. There are direct European steamers from England and Germany weekly, with connections for Panama, either through their own lines or via the Chilean or Peruvian National steamers, both of which make all the ports along the coast. There are also tramp and freight boats from San Francisco which carry passengers, but for personal comfort this service is not to be recommended.

To get to Iquitos, take the river boats from Mañaos, Brazil.

IX
ECUADOR

Sebastian de Benalcazar, a lieutenant of Pizarro, on December 6, 1534, was the first European to enter the Kingdom of Quito, the seat of government of the Caras Indians. The Spaniards controlled this territory at different times from Lima, Peru, or from Bogota, Colombia, as conditions warranted.

In 1809 the Ecuadorians attempted to throw off the yoke of Spain, but were unsuccessful in establishing their independence from the Mother Country until May 24, 1822, when General Sucre defeated the Spanish forces at Pichincha, as a result of which Ecuador entered a union, fathered by the Great Liberator, Simon Bolivar, and comprising as its other states Colombia and Venezuela. Internal dissension which grew resulted in the dissolution of this trinity of republics, and on August 14, 1830, Ecuador proclaimed herself an independent republic, adopting a constitution similar to those in vogue in Latin America. The executive power is vested in a President and Vice-President, the legislative in a National Congress composed of two houses—a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

Ecuador has an area of 116,000 square miles, or about as big as the combined areas of Missouri and Arkansas. The Galapagos Islands, which at one time the United States tried to acquire by purchase for a coaling station, lying 750 miles to the westward, with an area about 2500 square miles, also belong to this country.

Ecuador is wedge-shaped, bounded on the north and east by Colombia, on the south by Peru while the waters of the Pacific lap its western shore line.

The climate is diversified, running all the gamuts of change from tropic, semi-tropic and temperate to cold. The tropical region, as may be surmised, starts at the coast line and continues to the foothills where it gradually changes to semi-tropical at 6000 feet, and to cold in the fertile plateau on which Quito is situated at about 9000 feet. Above this in the mountains it is always much colder. The Equator passes across the northern tip of the country near Quito, while two ranges of the Andes run parallel throughout its length for 520 miles, embracing some of the highest peaks in the system, Chimborazo being 20,498 feet high and Cotopaxi 19,613. The plateau between these ranges averages 65 miles in width and has a mean altitude of 8250 feet.