URUGUAY. 627 



of the company failing to bo in working order within that period, the 

 deposit required by Article 4 will be forfeited to the state, and the con- 

 ion considered as canceled. 



(15) The executive power will make arrangements for the inspection 

 of the companies' operations, and take the necessary steps to secure the 

 compliance with this law. 



In addition to tljis, the subject receives the greatest attention from 

 the rural societies, agricultural clubs, &c. 



Indeed the interest manifested in regard to this trade by the valley 

 of the Plate (chiefly Uruguay and the Argentine Kepublic) is ably sup- 

 plemented by capitalists in England, France, Germany, and Italy; es- 

 pecially by the owners of the many steamboat lines between those coun- 

 tries and the Kivcr Plate Kepublic, as its success would fill their steamers 

 to repletion with freights. 



The Zenoha, for instance, lately carried, at one time, 13,536 carcasses 

 of frozen sheep and 335 quarters of beef, at 3J to 4J pence per pound 

 for the mutton, and 2J to 5 pence for the beef. 



In addition to other meetings in different parts of Europe for encour- 

 aging this trade, the papers allude to one lately held at Hamburg, con- 

 vened by Herr Pedro Beck, at which the matter was thoroughly dis- 

 cussed and a proposition made for an investment of 3,000,000 marks to 

 assist the trade between that port and the river Plate. 



The great struggle now, as to what country shall monopolize this 

 frozen-meat trade, seems to lie between the United States, Australia, 

 New Zealand, the Argentine Kepublic, and Uruguay. 



The transportation of frozen meat has become an undoubted success, 

 and sooner or later, in the opinion of the best-informed parties, will en- 

 tirely supersede that of the transportation of live stock. 



If this be true, the subject becomes of vast importance to the United 

 States, and especially to Chicago, the principal shipping point to Eng- 

 land. My attention of late has been forcibly directed to this point by 

 reading in the papers here of meetings, where this matter, so far as it 

 affected the United States and Chicago, was thoroughly discussed. In 

 point of fact, not only the Governments here (as will be seen from the 

 guarantees by Uruguay of 6 or 7 per cent, to frozen-meat investments 

 above referred to), but wealthy capitalists, backed by the wealth and 

 intelligence of the estancieros (large farmers), are apparently more in- 

 terested at present in devising ways and means to wrest this trade from 

 the United States, Australia, and New Zealand than in any other. In 

 order to do this, they have procured the fullest and most minute infor- 

 mation as to the amount of live stock and frozen meat sent from those 

 countries, where it is sent to, at what prices, freights, &c. For instance, 

 I read not long since of a meeting where it was stated, upon the author- 

 ity of the Times, that the freights from the ranches in the United States, 

 to Chicago, would average 32 shillings per head; from Chicago to New 

 York, a sovereign ; and the cost for shipping a carcass or live beast on- 

 ward to Liverpool is about 50 shillings; that a beast on the plains is 

 worth, roughly, 4, and that, therefore, American fat cattle, dead or 

 alive, would cost in England little less than 10 apiece, and showing 

 by an accurate calculation that the same beast or carcass could be laid 

 down in England for half that price. 



An article from the New York Daily Commercial Bulletin was also 

 commented upon, stating, among other things, that a large amount of 

 jerked beef was annually exported by Argentine and Uruguay, the 

 importations to Brazil and Cuba alone amounting last year, respect- 

 ively, to these countries, to $1,700,000 and $1,143,000; that no attempt 



