THECUBAREVIEW 19 



Advantage Favors United States to Capture Trade. 



In many foreign markets home manufacture excludes certain lines of imports or 

 renders their sales of little importance. There is no such bar in Cuba except in the 

 case of sugar, matches, cigars, and possibly a few other articles. The question be- 

 comes one chiefly of the foreign competition to be expected. The nearness of the 

 island to the United States and special shipping facilities lessen the necessity of cold 

 storage and other extensive plants for American trade as compared with similar 

 markets in South America and various other countries. 



Fairly clear ideas as to the probable limits of a country's trade are likely to be 

 of value in determining methods to be chosen. Figures alone as to the area and 

 population of a country are unsafe as a guide to market conditions even for ordinary 

 staple products. The fact, for instance, that there is one automobile to every 14 

 people in a certain State is of no value as to the probable market for automobiles in 

 Cuba, in the Scandinavian countries, or in other agricultural States with but small 

 elements of population corresponding to the great farming classes in the United 

 States. 



Studying the Demands of the Market. 



Undue stress has sometimes been placed upon the making of goods to suit the 

 customer. Some of the current trade literature is giving emphasis to this subject 

 and to the view that payment must correspond to the customer's wishes or practices. 

 Only a part of these contentions are well founded. The American manufacturer 

 more than any other has sought to standardize his products and in so doing has 

 lessened the cost of production and consequent selling price. In tools, machinery, 

 automobiles, and many other products there has been a distinct gain in the matter 

 of repairs, supply parts, etc. Buyers in many countries on a large scale have shown 

 a willingness to put aside long established preferences and practices and to take new 

 and improved merchandise where its good qualities have been properly demonstrated, 

 prices being reasonable. No fact in the history of trade is more obvious than 

 this one. 



Important cases arise when climatic or other fixed conditions must be taken into 

 account. Thus the moving machine suited for the well-fed team and the heavy clover 

 and timothy of a Mississippi Valley farm had to be changed to suit the slow-walking 

 team of cattle and the short wiry grass of certain European countries. So a disk 

 plow is the only type suited to the soil of a considerable part of the farm land of 

 Cuba. The prevalence of certain forms of insect life in the Tropics have a direct 

 bearing on the kind of wood to be used in building and in furniture and in the selection 

 of live stock for these climates. 



So in a country where fuels are expensive, as in Cuba, the problem of economy 

 of fuel in cooking stoves and in the generating of steam for railways, factories, etc., 

 is of importance. In clothing for both sexes in Cuba and in other tropical countries 

 regard must be had to actual conditions as they exist. Here are fundamental ques- 

 tions quite different from those of an improved tool, a different shaped shoe or hat, 

 a change of style in a tile flooring, or a new kind of breakfast food, and other similar 

 matters which the trader has changed on a wide scale in all parts of the world. 



Regarding the question of terms of payment, the Cuban market presents no 

 special problems. Banking connections between the island and the United States 

 are good and satisfactory arrangements for payments can ordinarily be made. 



In Cuba, as in other countries, trade is likely to be sensitive and easily diverted 

 from this or that market. Our competitors have sometimes profited by the actual 

 or apparent indifference of the American trader as to whether he sells in a foreign 

 market, an indifference largely due to a home market all but boundless in its de- 

 mands. The value of tact on the part of salesmen of well-conducted correspondence, 

 prompt shipments, care in packing and marking, and in the correction of errors when 

 they occur — all these are matters sure to enter the trade of Cuba as into that of 

 other markets. 



