388 



GUATEMALA. 



men in the country, natives and foreigners; 

 and the notes issued are guaranteed by the 

 capital above mentioned, and by the national 

 Government. 



The new bank, established with the pro- 

 ceeds of mortmain properties, was to be opened 

 about the 1st of July. The funds amounted 

 to more than $2,000,000, but not more than 

 one-half had as yet been realized. The prod- 

 uct of the liquidations was to be paid into 

 the bank by half-yearly installments. To begin 

 operations, the bank counted on those for De- 

 cember, 1873, and June, 1874, as well as the 

 cash already on hand, according to the law of 

 consolidation. The opening of the bank was 

 anxiously awaited, and great benefits were ex- 

 pected to accrue to commerce in general. 



Notwithstanding the political disorders of 

 recent years, the financial condition of the re- 

 public is, on the whole, comparatively prosper- 

 ous, and the national credit has been sustained 

 in Europe through very trying circumstances. 



Some failures having taken place in a man- 

 ner to give ground for suspicion, a decree was 

 issued for the imprisonment of such bankrupts 

 as could not prove their failure to be the result 

 of unavoidable misfortune. 



The value of the exports for the year 1872, 

 and the countries to which they were sent, 

 were as follows: 



Countries. Values. 



Great Britain $722,047 38 



France 119,884 96 



Germany 528,340 53 



United States 994,500 55 



Belgium 59,333 97 



Italy 18,122 00 



South America <... 81,521 04 



Central America 126,990 20 



Balize 45,969 56 



Total $2,691,710 19 



The figures of this table, compared with the 

 value of the exports for 18.71, show a differ- 

 ence of some $55,000 in favor of the latter 

 year ; but the average for both marks a steady 

 improvement since 1869 an improvement 

 which was still more flattering in 1873, as is 

 exhibited in the subjoined table of the exports 

 for the septennium ending with that year : 



Years. Values. 



1867 $1,996,405 



1868 2,153,400 



1869 2,497,060 



1870 2,446,925 



1871 2,747,784 



1872 2,691,710 



1873 3,363,061 



Total $17,896,345 



The increase in 1873, as compared with 1872, 

 is here seen to have been about one-third, and 

 far in advance of the average value of the ex- 

 ports for the above septennial period, say $2,- 

 556,621 this result according with the sug- 

 gestion made in the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 

 1873, page 345, concerning a probable marked 

 improvement for .that year. 



The commodities most largely exported in 

 1872 were: coffee, valued at $1,669,553; coch- 

 ineal, $495,880 ; skins, $95,416 ; India-rubber, 

 $124,324. 



The quantities of the principal export staples 

 sent out of the country in 1873 were as fol- 

 lows: 



Articles. Quantities. 



Coffee 15,050,668 pounds. 



Cochineal 1,107,481 



India-rubber 330,312 



Lead 86,890 



Tobacco 53,382 



Sarsaparilla 80,873 



Cochineal, notwithstanding the unusual 

 abundance and excellence of the crop, was 

 sold at such reduced prices for export that 

 many planters have decided to follow the move- 

 ment initiated in 1872 of abandoning the cult- 

 ure of the cochineal insect, and devoting their 

 attention to the production of coffee.* 



The yield of the dye just referred to will in 

 all likelihood prove inferior both in quality and 

 quantity next season, owing to extensive inun- 

 dations which occurred in September in some 

 of the chief producing districts. 



Of all the products cultivated in regular plan- 

 tations in Guatemala, coffee is the most impor- 

 tant ; and, notwithstanding the decline in the 

 price of that berry in European markets of 

 late, planters do not seem to be discouraged, 

 but bestow more and more attention upon its 

 culture from year to year. 



The alluvial soils and deep vegetable loams 

 of Costa Grande, not infrequently mixed with 

 sand and volcanic debris, appear to be remark- 

 ably favorable to the highest development of 

 the plant, both in respect of productiveness 

 and the quality of the bean. The coffee-shrub 

 thrives at almost all elevations in Central 

 America, from the torrid coast-regions of the 

 sea-level, where vegetation is luxuriant to 

 rankness, up to the line of perennial cold ; but 

 it is most prolific on the sea-coast, producing 

 all the year round, so that at any given time 

 the same tree may present the phenomenon of 

 fruit in every stage of growth, from the blossom 

 to absolute maturity. This continuous fructi- 

 fication, which is not limited to the coffee-shrub, 

 is owing to the showers so frequent during the 

 dry season. In the more elevated regions the 

 yield is smaller, but the quality is finer, when 

 not impaired by unseasonable rains about the 

 time of the ripening of the berry. These rains, 

 and a growth of parasitic moss on the stems and 

 branches of the plants, are the only dangers to 

 be apprehended at considerable altitudes. In 

 some parts of the republic the shrub grows 

 exceedingly well on grounds at a height of 

 4,000 and even 5,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Northeast and northwest winds are particu- 

 larly destructive to the trees, being at times so 

 violent as to dry them up and prevent fructifi- 

 cation for that and the following year. A 

 coffee estate of average size contains some 

 100,000 trees; and of good coffee-seed, sown 

 at the proper season usually in September or 

 October and under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances in every respect, not more than 

 75 per cent, germinates. Good plants usually 



* See ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1872, page 373. 



