THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 17 



Germany,* and Portugal. In the latter country, tlie owners and 

 cultivators of the soil seem to be in a remarkably unfortunate 

 condition. The Portuguese farmer, despite heavy protective 

 duties, finds himself unable to successfully contend with the in- 

 creased import of cereals, mainly from the United States. The 

 olive-oil industry, formerly flourishing, is so no longer, through 

 the alleged extensive use of American cotton-seed oil as a substi- 

 tute ; while the demand for Portuguese wines, which for a time 

 was increased by the bad vintages of France, is being impaired, 

 and possibly threatened with destruction, by the continually in- 

 creasing supply in the French markets of cheaper and more 

 suitable wines for mixing purposes from California, the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and Australia. In addition, the copper-mines of 

 Portugal have suffered severely in recent years from the cheaper 

 supplies of American copper. In the Canary Islands, where the 

 soil is most cheap and fertile, and the vegetation of both the 

 tropic and temperate zones flourishes in great luxuriance, the 

 land question has also become of as much importance and em- 

 barrassment as in less favored countries. The former great re- 

 munerative industry of these islands was wine, " canary " ; but 

 this, by the impairment of the vines, has become of little account. 

 These islands also formerly furnished the world with a large 

 supply of cochineal, for the production of which they have spe- 

 cial advantages; but since, through the discovery and use of 

 aniline dyes, cochineal, which was once worth $1.75 (7s.), will 

 now command but 12 cents (sixpence), this industry has become 

 depressed. Curiously, also, a comparatively extensive export of 

 potatoes from these islands to the Spanish West Indies is dimin- 

 ishing through a competitive exportation of the same vegetable 

 from the United States. So that there seems to be nothing left 

 for the land proprietors and cultivators in this locality to do, ex- 

 cept to resort to the method, so much in favor at the present 

 time, of taxing each other for their mutual benefit ! Over large 

 portions of the West India Islands, great quantities of excellent 

 land, advantageously situated as regards facility of communica- 

 tion with other countries, under exceptionally healthy climatic 

 conditions, and much of which has been formerly under high 

 cultivation, has been absolutely abandoned, or is in the rapid 



* One of the largest landholders of Austrian Silesia thus recently expressed himself: 

 " A few years ago my estates admitted of the profitable cultivation of wheat ; but the 

 price of wheat, through the competitive supplies of the United States, and in spite of 

 high protective duties at home, has declined to such an extent that the cultivation is no 

 longer profitable. The same is true in respect to the domestic (Austrian) growing of 

 cattle. Latterly, the encouragement of the beet-root sugar production, by the granting of 

 bounties by the state on its exportation, has given an opportunity for labor and proved re- 

 munerative ; but if the state should abandon the bounty system, which is not improbable, 

 my land, as a source of income, seems likely to become valueless." 



VOL. XXXIII. — 2 



