120 



CHILI. 



A review of this last table likewise shows 

 the increase of the entire foreign trade of the 

 republic in the first fifteen years to have been in 

 the ratio of 2 to 1, and of about 2 T V to 1 in 

 the other fifteen years ; and that the mean an- 

 nual increase during the latter half was nearly 

 8 per cent. 



It is, however, to be kept in view that the 

 great excess of the exports over the imports is 

 due to the immense quantities of money- gold 

 and silver coin, and bank-notes, especially the 

 last sent out of the country. The value of the 

 coin exported in 1844 was $155,370 ; in 1854, 

 $945,817; in 1864, $936,844; and in 1873, 

 $1,849,956 ; and, in the thirty years 1844-'73, 

 $19,883,992, or an average of $666,356 per an- 

 num. The total value of the mining produce 

 of every description exported during the same 

 thirty years, reached $369,440,092, of which 

 $135,983,641 was for copper in bars. 



The decline in the exportation of agricultural 

 produce in 1873 is not attributable to any 

 dwindling in the productiveness of the country, 

 but to a decreased demand in the markets 

 hitherto chiefly dependent on Chili, and now 

 drawing their supplies from other foreign 

 sources or from home industry. For instance, 

 in 1868, the Argentine Republic and Uruguay 

 took Chilian wheat to the amount of $235,- 

 695, and flour to $649,734; while in 1873 they 

 imported but $33,443 worth of the former, and 

 $119,153 of the latter article. Both of those 

 Plate republics now export wheat, Uruguay 

 having sent wheat and flour to Brazil of the 

 value of $151,200 in 1872. 



Besides the causes of depression just referred 

 to, there were others of a different character,- 

 such- as the financial crisis, which proved so 

 disastrous in the United States in 1873, and 

 whose effects were sensibly felt in every mer- 

 cantile community on the globe. 



Notwithstanding the abundant yield of the 

 coal-mines of Coronel and Lota, which in 1872 

 reached 3,087,000 metrical quintals, prodigious 

 quantities of that article are still brought from 

 England to Chili. The imports, in 1872, amount- 

 ed to $418,483, and to $1,006,529 in 1873, spite 

 of the enhanced price of coal in that year 23, 

 33, and even 45 shillings per ton. What more 

 convincing proof could be adduced of the indus- 

 trial prosperity of the republic, of the develop- 

 ment (unprecedented in South America) of her 

 manufactures, founderies, and railways, aud of 

 steam navigation on her coasts ? 



Respecting exports, the following changes 

 are to be noted : Those to France decreased 

 2.18 per cent. ; to Belgium, 10 per cent. ; to 

 Ecuador, 86 per cent. ; and others too unim- 

 portant to be mentioned. Those to Great 

 Britain increased 3 per cent. ; to Germany, 1.57 

 per cent. ; to the United States, 2.25 per cent. ; 

 to the Argentine Republic, 79 per cent. ; to 

 Bolivia, 70 per cent. ; to Brazil, 66 per cent. ; 

 and to the Cape of Good Hope, 87 per cent. 

 Peru, Polynesia, Colombia, and Uruguay, re- 

 ceived, with but slight difference, the same 

 amounts as in 1872. 



Interior maritime commerce is still increas- 

 ing rapidly, the excess of last year over 1872 

 $7,010,598, an increase of 20 per cent. being 

 superior to all its predecessors.. During the 

 first quinquennium, 1864-' 68, the total value of 

 the coasting-trade amounted to $149,150,720; 

 and during 1869-'73 to $183,628,799, an in- 

 crease of 23 per cent. This trade amounted, in 

 the decade 1864-'73, to $332,779,519. 



Here follows a statement of the shipping 

 movements at all the Chilian ports : 



The movement of the port of Valparaiso may 

 be thus stated : 



Vessels. Tons. 



~ ., j Sailing-vessels. . . 989, aggregating:. . . 432,945 

 Entered ^ stoam " erB 595 ' 541,581 



rn *.,! J Sailing-vessels. . . 980 

 Cleared Stean f er8 596 



421,494 

 540,249 



Total 8,160 1,536,318 



The Chilian merchant navy comprised, in 



