THE LAND QUESTION AND COLONISATION 



113 



gold pesos, and the other minerals, which in order of importance are 

 copper, coal, iron, gold, etc., only at 61,000,000 pesos. 



It is evident that the production of nitrates preponderates above all 

 other extractive industries ; but its importance in the Chilian economy will 

 be better appreciated in relation to other facts. 



The nitrous region, almost desert and distant from the centres of 

 agricultural production, gives rise to an active internal traflftc to supply 

 its demand for food and other produce. This fact is of great importance 

 as regards the price of agricultural produce and consequently of the revenue 

 from land. In 1910 articles of food brought into the ports by the coasting trade 

 were valued at 206,400,000 gold pesos; of this sum about 99,700,000 gold 

 pesos, i. e. 49% was value of goods for the nitrous zone, which covers an 

 area of scarcely 73,958 square miles and has only 223,000 inhabitants, or 

 7.3% of the population. 



It must be observed that the nitrate industry is one of the chief 

 sources of the wealth of the State to which it contributes in the form of 

 export duties about 40 % of the whole revenue. In 19 12 the State 

 received from this source 185,037,724 gold pesos. 



The produce of the extractive industry is almost all exported, constit- 

 uting about ^/g of the whole value of the exports. 



2. Agriculture. — Second in importance comes agriculture, though 

 in reality less lucrative than manufacturing industry. But under the latter 

 head come all trades connected with agriculture, livestock improvement, 

 utilisation of timber, etc. Agriculture, with the industries connected with 

 it, furnishes the greatest part of the food supply and occupies the largest 

 number of people ; the home trade is chiefly in its produce and it ab- 

 sorbs the largest proportion of the capital invested in the country (57 %). 



3. Mamijacturing Industry. — This is chiefly directed towards the 

 production of food, by the treatment of the produce of agriculture, as 

 shown in the following table for the year 1909. 



