REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



447 



Chili also exports more than enough to pay for imports. Great 

 Britain is again most prominent in the trade, bnt while almost mo- 

 n(^polizing the exports, taking nearly three-fourths of the whole, she 

 supplies less than four-tenths of the requirement of imports, the dis- 

 proportion being $54,000,000 to $20,000,000 and pays $34,000,000 cash 

 beyond receipts for the goods supplied to the Chilians. 



Germany and France come next in prominence of supply, and hotli 

 buy less than they sell, taking orders for goods brought through 

 British mails on British steamships, which bear away the produc- 

 tions of Chili. As in other countries, there is no necessary relation 

 between the exports and imports exchanged between countries and 

 generally marked inequality in the record, each buying what is 

 needed most and selling to countries that need most the goods that 

 are for sale, paying in cash and never in barter. 



The rate of increase of wheat exportation from Chili and the Argen- 

 tine Republic is more significant than the quantity of it. Until 1883 

 only Chili was separately mentioned in the British official publication 

 of wheat importation. It is not large now, but increasing, with 

 abundant opportunity for a tenfold increase in the near future if 

 agricultural enterprise should take this direction strongly. Exami- 

 nation of these records shows that South American wheat received 

 into Great Britain in the past two years was as follows in quantity 

 and value: 



The cotton imports into Great Britain from South American coun- 

 tries, as recorded in official reports, are as follows : 



RAILROADS. 



The railroad enterprise of South America is in its infancy. Peru 

 opened its first line in 1851, Chili in 1853, Brazil in 1854, and the Ar- 

 gentine Republic in 1864. Much more th an half of the present mileage 

 has been built within ten years. In 1877 the aggregate was 4.558 

 miles; in seven years, up to the end of 1884, it was 9,835 miles, an 

 increase of 4,207 miles, or 92 per cent. The increase of the past year 

 is not at hand. The details are as follows: 



