96 



CHILE - MISCELLANEOUS 



internal commerce. In the following table we show the state of the foreign 

 trade in 1911 and 1912 : 



Foreign Commetce -"_-.-«^ — »._^^" 



— in millions of gold pesos 



Exports 331 377 



Imports 349 334 



In 1912 the mineral products exported contributed about 336,000,000 

 pesos to the amount, and agricultural products only 40,600,000 gold pesos. 



In 1912, the import amounted, as we see, to 334,000,000 gold 

 pesos, and consisted chiefly of manufactured articles , cotton and woollen 

 fabrics, machinery, industrial oils and paper being the most important. 

 Chile imports, as we have already shown, (§ 5) a considerable quantity 

 of Hve (horned) cattle from the Argentine Republic {in 1912, 10,700,000 

 gold pesos), besides raw sugar from Peru (in 1912, 6,100,000 gold pesos). 



Foreign trade is carried on entirely by sea, except that with the Ar- 

 gentine Repubhc and T3olivia (i) amounting in igi2 to 18,200,000 gold pe- 

 sos (7,400,000 in the case of exports, 11,200,000 in that of imports), and 

 500,000 gold pesos, respectively. 



The following table shows the development of the maritime trade with 

 foreign countries : 



From these figures we may easily understand the vast importance of 

 the shipping interest in the entire economic hfe of the country. The whole 

 national production is directly concerned in it ; fluctuations in prices of 

 freight appreciably influence the returns for production, trade and transport. 

 Agriculture is the most sensitive to the rise or fall in freight rates caused 

 sometimes by fluctuations in exchange and the amount of cargo oft'ered, 



(i) An excellent line of communication bj' land with the Argentine Republic is offered 

 by the Trans-Andean railway. In this way, the distance between Buenos Aires and Val- 

 paraiso may be accomplished in less than two days, but the tariff for goods is very high. 



