BRAZIL. 



101 



Commerce. The products of Brazil are more 

 various than those of any South American 

 state, due to her great diversity of soil. The 

 hilly lands near the coast and in the neighbor- 

 hood of the province of Rio de Janeiro are the 

 center of the coffee industry; the sugar es- 

 tates are mostly on the eastern border of the 

 province of Pernambuco ; farther north and 

 in the valley of the Amazon, where the soil is 

 annually overflowed to a depth of three feef, 

 India- rubber is the principal product; and to 

 the south, in the province of Sao Paulo, where 

 lie the more elevated lands, and where the soil 

 is lighter than that devoted to cane, the farms 

 yield cotton as their almost exclusive product. 

 All along the coast, from Bahia and the lake 

 district of the province of Alagoas to the Rio 

 Grande, tobacco is the leading industry; while 

 on the vast plains of the interior cattle-raising 

 is carried on on an extensive scale, and the val- 



leys of the Paraguay and the Parand yield the 

 valuable mate tea. The cities of Para, Pernam- 

 buco, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro are the prin- 

 cipal ones from which these various products 

 are exported. Due to the immensity of the 

 Brazilian territory, and to the difficulties of 

 overland communication, almost every one of 

 these staple products has its own port, lying 

 in its own district, through which it reaches 

 foreign markets. 



The following table exhibits the foreign trade, 

 expressed in milreis : 



The recent coastwise trade has been as fol- 

 lows: 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 

 YEARS. Milreis. 



18Sl-'82 158,254,400 



1S82-'S3 139,497,100 



1883-'84 131,350,900 



Average 143,033,800 



The "Diario Official," of July 1, 1885, pub- 

 lished the figures relating to coffee exportation 

 during five crop years, ended June 30 : 



FROM RIO. 



FROM SANTOS. 



The shipments of sugar from Pernambuco The American trade with Brazil exhibits 

 were as follow : these figures : 



The crop of 1884-'85 was short. The total 

 shipments of cotton from Pernambuco in 1885 

 were 134,377 bales. 



The hide shipments from Rio Grande do Sul 

 were as follow : 



The decrease both in imports and exports is 

 due chiefly to the decline in prices ; in bulk 

 the trade both ways has been rather on the in- 

 crease. 



Coal. A mining engineer and staff have gone 

 to Desterro, Santa Catharina, with the view of 

 developing the important coal-basin in the lo- 

 cality. It has been ascertained that the coal 

 is suitable for gas and for burning in locomo- 

 tive and marine engines, while the mines are 

 in proximity to districts from which an exten- 

 sive domestic supply should be drawn. The 



