REPORT OP THE STATISTICIAN. 441 



Tlie external commerce of South America is increasing rapidly. 

 Cliili has nearly doubled her volume of trade in ten years. In round 

 numbers the advance from 1874 to 1883 inclusive has been from 

 $32,000,000 to $73,000,000 in exports, and from $35,000,000 to $50,000,- 

 000 in imports. The increase in exports has been all in the last half 

 of this period, making the favorable balance of trade a source of 

 national prosperity. In the Argentine Republic the advance in ex- 

 ports for the same period has been from $41,000,000 to $60,000,000, 

 and of imports from $34,000,000 to $91,000,000. The agricultural 

 implements and other merchandise brought into the country recently 

 by immigrants as a part of their working capital, and paid for from 

 money brought with them from other countries, does not represent 

 indebtedness. This increase is all since 1881, as the imports of 1884 

 were not exceeded in a single year until 1882, when an increase of 70 

 per cent, resulted in three years. Uruguay shows an increase also 

 from $15,000,000 to $24,000,000 in exports and from $17,000,000 to 

 $20,000,000 in imports. Other countries have made variable rates of 

 advance, the exact data for which are not at present available. 



The United States has as yet only a small share in this commerce. 

 Great Britain has encouraged and ordered the establishment and sup- 

 port of steamshij) lines and fostered railroad communication, and 

 furnished capital for industrial development of these countries, 

 especially the Argentine Republic and Chili, and therefore controls 

 their trade. The London Statist claims for this development a prom- 

 inent place in the consideration of British commercial circles, ''as 

 the bulk of the public debt of those States is held in this country, and 

 as British capital has built and supplied the material of all the rail- 

 ways finished and in course of construction, as well as for nearly all 

 other industrial undertakings in the Argentine Republic and Uru- 

 guay." 



Our trade with all South American countries in the year ended 

 June 30, 1885, included a value of $05,289,956 in imports, and less 

 than half as much in exports, or $27,734,857. Of the imports, the 

 larger part, or $45,263,660, were from Brazil, and included 400,714,346 

 pounds of coffee, worth $30,346,792. Thus we pay more for Brazilian 

 coffee than the value of all exports to South America, and discredit 

 the commercial fallacy that all trade is barter, and that one country 

 will not buy the goods of another unless it can sell its surplus prod- 

 ucts in liquidation of the bill to that particular country. 



The following statement of our trade in 1885-86 is from the official 

 records of the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department: 



