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BUENOS AYRES

[Illustration: The most prosperous part of South America.]

BUENOS AYRES, the capital of Argentina, is the largest city not only
in South America but in the whole southern hemisphere. The La Plata,
at whose mouth it stands, affords navigation into all the northern
parts of the republic, as well as into the neighbouring states of
Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia. The riverside at Buenos Ayres
is at all times of the year a perfect forest of masts and smoke-stacks
belonging to the shipping that supplies this navigation. Recently, at
a cost of $25,000,000, the river, which here is shallow, has been
deepened and new wharves and docks have been built, and ocean-going
vessels of the deepest draught (which formerly used to be lightened
fourteen miles away) can now unload or be loaded right in the very
heart of the city. The total commerce of the republic amounts to
$200,000,000 or $225,000,000 a year, and of this trade Buenos Ayres
transacts seven eighths in imports and three fifths in exports. The
amount of this trade secured by the United States is about a tenth,
running from $12,000,000 to $24,000,000. In 1896 it was only
$12,500,000. The principal export trade is with France ($24,000,000),
Great Britain ($14,000,000), Germany ($13,000,000), and Belgium. Great
Britain does not buy Argentina wool. The principal import trade is
with Great Britain ($45,000,000), Germany ($14,000,000), France
($12,000,000), and Italy. The Buenos Ayreans are fond of display and
of dress and of ornamentation, and the importations from France and
Italy are principally of goods to gratify this fondness. There is a
considerable exportation of wheat, flour, tobacco, and mate (Paraguay
tea) to Brazil and other South American states. Buenos Ayres is the
centre of the Argentina railway system, which consists of about 9000
miles of road. There are 25,500 miles of telegraph routes. The
national debt amounts to $430,000,000. The provincial debts amount to
about $140,000,000. The taxation amounts to nearly ten per cent. of
the earnings of the people, as against four and one half per cent. in
Canada and five per cent. in Australia.

BRAZIL

Brazil is a much larger and more populous country than Argentina. Its
area (3,209,878 square miles) is as large as that of all the United
States, less half of Alaska. A great portion of this area is of
superlatively tropical richness of production. But, unfortunately, the
most fertile parts of Brazil are the parts least fit for settlement by
white men. The population by the last census is approximately
14,500,000, but less than 4,000,000 of this population are pure
whites. The negroes that were lately slaves number over 2,000,000, and
there are supposed to be about 1,000,000 Indians. Intermediate between
the Indians and negroes and the white population are the numerous
mixed races or half-breeds. Agriculture is the chief industry, but is
of two kinds: the tropical agriculture of the central and south
central seaboard, which is carried on principally by negro and mulatto
labour, and the agriculture of the temperate region of the extreme
south, which is carried on mainly by colonists from Europe, the recent
European emigration being almost wholly directed toward that region.
Almost the whole of the interior of Brazil still remains unsettled and
untilled. The COFFEE yield of Brazil is enormous and is its principal
product. The production amounts to 8,000,000 bags or over
1,000,000,000 pounds annually, which is more than two thirds of the
total amount of coffee used in the world. Labour for coffee
cultivation is scarce and dear, and in the earlier stages of the
production of the berry the Brazilian coffee gets badly treated. But
machinery is used wherever possible, and in the later stages of the
production the Brazilian coffee gets the best attention that skill can
devise. As a consequence the coffee product of Brazil is rising in the
estimation of coffee-users. The shrubs are cultivated under palm-trees
so as to keep them from the intense heat of the sun. Three or four
harvests of berries are obtained in a year. Rio Janeiro and SANTOS are
the two chief centres of the coffee industry. Next to coffee the chief
tropical product is SUGAR, the export of which is about 250,000 tons
annually, principally from Pernambuco. Other products of the tropical
area of Brazil are COCOA and COTTON, from the cultivated coast
regions, and RUBBER and Brazil-nuts, from the dense forests of the
lower Amazon; also DYEWOODS and CABINET WOODS, drugs, and diamonds.
For many years Brazil was celebrated for its diamonds--obtained
chiefly from a town in the interior named Diamantina. The present
diamond production is not large. From the temperate agricultural
region of the south, dried beef, hides, and tallow are the chief
exports. The greatest customer of Brazilian produce is the United
States, which takes $70,000,000 worth. Great Britain is next, with
$35,000,000 worth (in rubber alone in 1896 $15,000,000). Brazil gets
her goods principally from Great Britain, the United States, France,
and Germany--from Great Britain $20,000,000, from the United States
$13,000,000. The imports include almost all articles needed for
domestic and manufacturing purposes--particularly cottons and
woollens, ironware, machinery, lumber, flour, rice, dried meats,
kerosene, butter, and fish. There are, however, 155 cotton factories
established in Brazil, with capital to the value of $50,000,000, and
cotton manufacturing is protected by very heavy duties. But
agricultural machinery and such like manufactures are very lightly
taxed. The principal food of the people is manioc flour (tapioca).

RIO JANEIRO

RIO JANEIRO (674,972), the capital and principal city, though a
poor-looking place, is situated on a magnificent harbour--one of the
very finest in the world. About 1500 vessels, with tonnage amounting
to 2,500,000 tons, enter Rio Janeiro with foreign trade annually. Nine
thousand miles of railway have been built in Brazil and 3500 more are
in course of construction, and 12,000 miles of telegraph routes have
been built. Rio Janeiro is the chief railway centre, but other centres
are RIO GRANDE DO SUL, in the temperate regions of the south, and
BAHIA and PERNAMBUCO, in the tropical regions. The public (national)
debt of Brazil is not far short of $1,000,000,000, bearing interest
(a great part of it) at from four to six per cent. per annum.

XII. THE TRADE FEATURES OF CANADA

CANADA, PRACTICALLY AN INDEPENDENT FEDERAL REPUBLIC

The dominion of Canada comprises all that portion of the continent
of North America north of the United States--except Alaska and
Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador. (Newfoundland and the Labrador
coast is a colony in direct relationship to Great Britain.) Canada is
entirely self-governing and self-maintaining, and its connection with
Great Britain is almost wholly a matter of loyalty and affection. It
consists (1) of seven Provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia,
which, in their self-governing powers and their relation to the
general government, correspond very closely to our States; (2) of
four Territories--Assiniboia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca,
which correspond somewhat to our Territories; (3) of four other
Territories--Ungava, Franklin, Mackenzie, and Yukon, which are
administered by the general government; and (4) the District of
Keewatin, which is under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor
of Manitoba. The capital of the whole dominion is Ottawa. Each
province has its own capital.

SIZE, SOIL, CLIMATE, AND POPULATION OF CANADA

The area of Canada is immense. It figures up to 3,456,383 square
miles, which is almost 500,000 square miles more than the total area
of the United States exclusive of Alaska, and not far short of being
equal to the area of all Europe. But almost 150,000 square miles of
this area are taken up by lakes and rivers; and a much greater portion
than this, under present conditions of civilisation, is wholly
uninhabitable, being either too cold or too barren. Yet when all the
necessary allowances have been made there still remains in Canada an
immense area with soil fertile enough and climate favourable enough
for all the purposes of a highly civilised population. Over 900,000
square miles are already occupied, and of the occupied area fully one
half has been "improved." The older provinces are, acre for acre, as
suitable for agricultural pursuits as the adjoining States of the
Union. Manitoba, the "Prairie Province," is almost one vast wheat
field, with a productivity for wheat unequalled anywhere except in the
Red River valley of Minnesota and Dakota. The Manitoba grain harvest
foots up to 50,000,000 bushels. British Columbia is a land of almost
infinite possibilities, not only because of its mineral and timber
resources, but also because of its capabilities for agriculture and
fruit-growing. The Territories are so vast an area that no general
description of them is possible, but it may be said that the great
wheat valley of the Saskatchewan, the sheltered grazing country of
Alberta, and the great wheat plains of the Peace River valley in
Athabasca, are regions adapted in soil and climate to sustain a hardy
and vigorous people. The population of Canada is comparatively small.
It is estimated at 5,250,000. Over 1,000,000 people of Canadian birth
reside in the United States, and the number of Americans residing in
Canada is only 80,000. Out of the 2,425,000 persons who came to Canada
as immigrants in a period of forty years, no fewer than 1,310,000, or
fifty four per cent., came over into the United States. It is stated
that this exodus has ceased, and that if any great movement of
population now exists it is toward Canada.

CANADA'S FOREST WEALTH

Canada, like all new countries, depends for her prosperity upon the
development and exportation of her natural products. These are of four
great classes: (1), the products of her forests; (2), the products of
her mines; (3), the products of her fisheries; (4), her agricultural
products. Canada's forest resources, when both extent and quality are
considered, are the finest in the world. The forest area uncut was in
1891 nearly 1,250,000 square miles, or more than one third of the area
of the whole country. The annual value of the timber and lumber
produced is about $82,500,000. The annual value of the timber and
lumber exported is about $32,000,000. Two thirds of this goes to Great
Britain, and over $9,000,000 in lumber and logs goes to the United
States. Quebec and Ontario have unlimited supplies of spruce for
wood-pulp manufacture, the annual output of which reaches 200,000
tons. The uncut lumber of British Columbia, which includes Douglas
pine, Menzies fir, spruce, red and yellow cedar, and hemlock, is
estimated to be 100,000,000,000 cubic feet.

CANADA'S MINERAL RESOURCES

Canada is just beginning to realise the largeness of her mineral
resources. The most talked of gold-mines are those of the Klondike
district, the extent of which is still uncertain. Much more definitely
known and almost as productive are the gold-mines of British Columbia
and the newly discovered gold-fields of the Rainy River district in
northern Ontario. More important than the gold-mines of Canada are its
coal-fields. These are principally in Nova Scotia and British
Columbia. The latter province is destined to be the coal-supplying
region for the whole Pacific coast of North America. The yearly output
at present is about 1,000,000 tons; the yearly output of Nova Scotia
is about 2,000,000 tons, principally produced by American capital. In
Alberta there are said to be coal-fields having an area of 65,000
square miles. Iron is found in abundance in both British Columbia and
Ontario. Ontario has in its nickel-mines of Sudbury a mineral treasure
not found elsewhere in equal abundance in the world. Experts have
estimated that 650,000,000 tons of this ore are actually in sight.
Ontario produces petroleum and salt. Silver, copper, lead, asbestos,
plumbago, mica, etc., are found in varying quantities. Canada imports
annually from the United States nearly $10,000,000 worth of coal and
coke.

CANADA'S FISHERIES

The fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and of the shallow waters
bordering on Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have for centuries been the
most productive in the world. The Canadian fishing interest in these
waters is very great. Cod, mackerel, haddock, halibut, herring,
smelts, and salmon, are the principal fish, and the annual "take" is
about $15,000,000. About $2,500,000 worth of whitefish, salmon-trout,
herring, pickerel, and sturgeon are produced annually from the
Canadian lakes. The salmon-fishing of the rivers and great sea-inlets
of British Columbia brings about $4,500,000 annually. About one half
of the total product is exported to Great Britain and the United
States.

CANADA'S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE

Agriculture, including stock-raising, dairying and fruit-growing, is
Canada's greatest industry. Over 23,000,000 acres are under crop and
about 20,000,000 under pasture. Over 3,000,000 acres are under wheat
cultivation. Ontario exports more than twice as much cheese as the
whole of the United States, and her cheese product is recognised as
the finest in the world. Canada exports to Great Britain alone
$15,000,000 worth of cheese annually. In 1896, in Ontario alone, 170
creameries turned out over 6,000,000 pounds of butter at an average
net receipt of 18-1/4 cents a pound. By the cold-storage facilities
provided by the government Canadian butter can be sent even from far
inland points to Liverpool or London without the slightest
deterioration. England buys $6,000,000 worth of Canadian bacon and
hams annually, and Canadian beef is already famous on the London
market. American corn for stock-feeding is admitted to Canada free
of duty and about $10,000,000 worth is imported annually. A great
deal of eastern and southern Canada is well adapted to fruit-raising.
The Niagara-St. Clair peninsula of Ontario is especially famous for
its peaches and grapes.

CANADA'S TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES

Canada has made a great effort in the direction of encouraging home
manufactures, but her most progressive and most staple industries are
those concerned in the conversion of the raw products of the country
into articles of common merchandise. Her steam horse-power in
proportion to population is the largest in the world. The capital
invested in factories as a whole amounts to over $400,000,000, with an
annual output of over $500,000,000. Her total annual importation is
now over $130,000,000. More than half of this is from the United
States. Canada's total annual exportation is about $160,000,000. Of
this over one third goes to the United States. Canada's total trade
with the United States is about forty one per cent. of her total trade
with all countries, and almost equal to her total trade with Great
Britain. Canada's total trade with the United States is exceeded only
by that of Great Britain, Germany, and France, and her import trade
with the United States is exceeded only by that of Great Britain and
Germany.

[Illustration: Trade centres of Canada and trunk railway lines.]

CANADIAN CITIES

MONTREAL (250,000) is the commercial metropolis of Canada. It is
situated on an island in the St. Lawrence River, and, though 1000
miles from the open ocean, the largest sea-going vessels reach its
wharves with ease. It is the headquarters of Canada's two great
railways--the Canadian Pacific system, with its 8000 miles of road,
and the Grand Trunk system, with its 5000 miles of road. Through
passenger-trains run from Montreal to Vancouver on the Pacific coast,
a distance of nearly 3000 miles. Montreal is the centre also of the
great inland navigation system of Canada.

TORONTO (200,000), the capital of the province of Ontario, is the
second city of Canada. While Toronto has a great local trade and many
important manufactures, it is specially noted as an educational
centre. QUEBEC (80,000) is the oldest city of Canada and one of the
oldest upon the continent. HALIFAX (50,000), the eastern terminus of
the Canadian railway system, has one of the finest harbours in the
world. WINNIPEG (35,000) is destined to be the centre of the great
inland trade of Canada.

XIII. THE TRADE FEATURES OF THE UNITED STATES

THE CHARACTER OF OUR EXPORT TRADE

Having reviewed the industrial and trading conditions of the other
great commercial nations of the world, it should now remain for us to
review these conditions in the United States. But the United States is
so large a country, and its trading and industrial interests are so
diversified and extensive, that it would be impossible for us in the
limits of our space even barely to touch upon all these interests. So
that with respect to the "Trade Features of the United States" we
shall simply confine ourselves to one part of the subject--namely, the
character, extent, and importance of our foreign trade. And we shall,
further, have to restrict ourselves in the main to our exports. These
will be found to be principally not manufactures, but the products of
our great agricultural, mining, and forest industries. The total value
of the manufactures of the United States amounts in round numbers to
the immense sum of $10,000,000,000 annually, a sum considerably more
than a third (it is thirty five per cent.) of the total value of the
annual manufactures of the world. But only a very small portion of
this vast output is exported. The greater portion of it is used to
sustain the still vaster internal trade of our country, a trade which
amounts to more than $15,500,000,000 annually, an amount not far short
of being one third of the total internal trade of the world, and not
far short of being twice the internal trade of Great Britain and
Ireland, the country whose internal trade comes next to ours. Our
exports, therefore, are not in the main manufactured goods, but
breadstuffs, provisions, and raw materials, the production of our
farms, our plantations, our forests, and our mines. But principally
they are the products of our farms and our plantations, for with the
exception of cotton we do not export much raw material. Nearly all the
raw material we produce (other than cotton) we use in our own
manufactures. And even this is not enough, for in addition we have to
import considerable quantities of raw material for our manufactures
from other countries, the principal items being raw sugar, raw silk,
raw wool, chemicals of various kinds including dye-stuffs, hides and
skins, lumber, tin, nickel, and paper stock.

OUR EXPORT TRADE IN DETAIL

Our total exportation for the twelve months ended June 30, 1898,
amounted to the unprecedented sum of nearly $1,250,000,000
($1,231,329,950).[4] This is an amount almost a quarter of a billion
dollars greater than ever before, the only years when the export even
approximated this amount being 1897 and 1892, when the exportation was
slightly over a billion dollars in each case. Of this exportation the
sum of $855,000,000, or seventy one per cent. of the whole, was for the
PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE, the principal items being (1) "breadstuffs,"
including wheat and wheat flour, corn and cornmeal, oats and oatmeal,
rye and rye flour, $335,000,000; (2) cotton, $231,000,000; (3)
"provisions," including beef and tallow, bacon and hams, pork and lard,
oleomargarine, and butter and cheese, $166,000,000; (4) animals,
including cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs, $47,000,000; (5) raw tobacco,
$23,000,000; (6) oil-cake, $12,500,000, and (7) fruits and nuts,
$9,000,000. The exports of the products of our mines amounted to only
1.6 per cent. of the total export, or scarcely $20,000,000, the
principal items being (1) coal and coke, $12,500,000; (2) crude
petroleum, $4,000,000, and (3) copper ore. The exports of the products
of the forest amounted to only three per cent. of the total export, or
$38,000,000, the principal items being (1) sawed and hewn timber, logs,
lumber, shingles, and staves, $28,500,000, and (2) naval stores,
including resin, tar, turpentine, and pitch, $9,000,000. The exports of
the products of our fisheries amounted to only $4,500,000, or less than
one half of one per cent. of the total exports. The exports of the
products of our manufactures, according to the official returns,
amounted to $289,000,000, or twenty four per cent. of the total export.
But this sum included many items which represent raw natural products
converted merely into material for subsequent manufacture, as, for
example, pig- and bar-iron, planed boards, sole leather, ingot- and
bar-copper, cotton-seed oil, and pig- and bar-zinc. The principal items
in the true "manufactures" list are (1) machinery, including
metal-working machinery, steam-engines and locomotives, electrical
machinery, pumping machinery, sewing-machines, typewriting-machines and
printing-presses, and railway rails, hardware, and nails, $65,000,000;
(2) refined petroleum, $50,000,000; (3) manufactures of cotton,
$17,000,000; (4) vegetable oils and essences, $12,000,000; (5)
agricultural implements, $7,000,000; (6) cycles, $7,000,000; (7) paper
and stationery, $5,500,000; (8) furniture and other manufactures of
wood, $5,000,000; (9) tobacco and cigarettes, $5,000,000; (10)
fertilisers, $4,500,000; (11) boots and shoes, harness, and rubber
shoes, $3,500,000; (12) telegraph, telephone, and other instruments,
$3,000,000; (13) bags, cordage, and twine, $2,500,000; (14) books and
pamphlets, $2,500,000; (15) sugar, syrup, molasses, candy, and
confectionery, $2,000,000; (16) spirits, including brandy and whisky,
$2,000,000; and (17) clocks and watches, $2,000,000.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] For the year ending June 30, 1899, the total exportation amounted
to $1,204,123,134.

OUR EXPORTS AND THOSE OF GREAT BRITAIN COMPARED

The significance of these figures descriptive of our export trade will
be better understood from a few comparisons. Our total exportation for
the year 1897-8 was, as said before, in round numbers, $1,250,000,000.
For the year previous it was over $1,000,000,000. The exportation of
Great Britain for the year 1896 was $1,500,000,000. For the year 1897
it was almost the same amount. For the year 1895 it was
$1,450,000,000. But whereas our exportation of breadstuffs,
provisions, animals, fruit, etc., and of raw materials, such as
cotton, lumber, ores, etc., amounts to probably 77 or 78 per cent. of
our total exportation, while our exportation of manufactured goods
amounts to not more than 22 or 23 per cent., the exportation of
breadstuffs, provisions, raw material, etc., which Great Britain makes
is not more than one sixth, or 17 per cent., of her total exportation,
while her exportation of manufactured goods is five sixths, or 83 per
cent., of her total exportation. For example, Great Britain's export
of textiles alone amounts to over $500,000,000 a year (for 1896
$526,647,525), while our total export of textiles, including cottons,
woollens, silks, and fibres, is not more than $19,000,000 a year.
Great Britain's total export of hardware and machinery amounts to over
$250,000,000 a year; our total export of these articles does not
amount to more than a third of this sum. On the other hand, Great
Britain's total export of raw materials of all sorts is not more than
$100,000,000 a year, while ours of cotton alone is almost two and
one-third times that sum. And while Great Britain exports no
breadstuffs or provisions to speak of, our exportation of these
articles (including animals) amounts to the enormous sum of
$855,000,000 a year.

OUR IMPORTS AND THOSE OF GREAT BRITAIN COMPARED

[Illustration: Export trade of the United States and Great Britain
compared.]

Similar differences with respect to our import trade and that of Great
Britain are observable. Our imports do not amount to more than from
$600,000,000 to $800,000,000 a year. For the year ended June 30, 1897,
they were $765,000,000. For the year ended June 30, 1898, they were
$616,000,000. The imports of Great Britain, on the other hand, amount
to over $2,000,000,000 a year. For the year 1896 they were
$2,210,000,000. For the year 1897 they were $2,225,000,000. But, while
our imports, with the exception of coffee, sugar, tea, fruits, and
fish, consist chiefly of manufactured articles, such as woollen goods,
cotton goods, silk goods, and iron and steel goods, with only moderate
amounts of raw material (for example, hides, skins, and furs,
$41,000,000; raw silk, $32,000,000; raw wool, $17,000,000), Great
Britain, besides importing coffee, sugar, tea, fruits, and fish, the
same as we do, and manufactured goods to a far greater amount than we
do (not less than $500,000,000 annually), imports likewise an enormous
quantity of raw material for her manufactures, all duty free, and a
still more enormous quantity of breadstuffs, provisions, etc., also
all duty free. For example, for the year 1897 her imports of raw
materials for her manufactures were not less than $750,-000,000,
while her imports of duty-free food products were not less than
$825,000,000. The difference between the two countries, therefore, so
far as their foreign trades are concerned is simply this: The United
States is an immense exporter of food-stuffs, and also of raw
materials for foreign manufacture; but for the raw materials for her
own manufacture she depends principally upon her own products. In
comparison she is only a moderate exporter of manufactured goods.
Great Britain, on the other hand, is an enormous importer and consumer
of food-stuffs and also of raw materials for her manufactures. She, in
fact, depends very largely upon other countries for her food products
and her raw materials, and obtains them wherever she can, very largely
from the United States. She is also an enormous exporter of
manufactures.

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