COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



39 



ing bouse a few days ago will give an idea of the range of weights, per- 

 haps iu better form than I could otherwise state it : 



There is also the same variety in widths and lengths that there is in 

 weights. The favorite width, however, is 32 inches, and the favorite 

 length is 20 yards to the piece, this being the size which finds the most 

 buyers among the people of the interior of the country. Except where 

 otherwise ordered, the American cottons sent here are in pieces of 40 

 yards. But there will be found in stock here cotton textiles of all 

 widths, all lengths, and all weights that are known to the trade. 



HOW PURCHASED. 



It may be said, with reference to all commercial transactions in this 

 country, that credit is the rule rather than the exception. And the 

 trade iu cotton goods is not one of the exceptions. All cottons bought 

 in Europe are purchasecj on credit. The usual credit given by the cot- 

 ton mills of England is six months, and the importers from France, 

 Germany, and Belgium have a corresponding credit. While, however, 

 six months is the specified time, it is no unusual thing for such bills to 

 run unpaid for twelve and eighteen months; indeed, in many cases the 

 manufacturers quite wait on the convenience of their Argentine custo- 

 mers for their money. Perhaps the reason for this is the fact that the 

 mercantile firms doing business here are, in many cases, branches of 

 established houses in the business centers of the Old World, or are the 

 immediate agents, if indeed not part owners, of manufacturing estab- 

 tablishments in England and France. They are thus enabled to obtain 

 their goods at times and in quantities to suit the trade, accompanied 

 by the most favorable terms and credits. Besides this many wholesale 

 houses in Buenos Ayres now have agents in Europe who, in consider- 

 ation of the business put in their hands, give an open credit in propor- 

 tion to the amount of business done ; and in this way a large trade which 

 used to be transacted by importers does not now pass through 'their 

 hands at all. Owing to these facilities for obtaining credit Argentine 

 merchants are very independent, and they have no trouble in obtaining 

 even more cotton goods than the trade calls for on pretty much their 

 own terms. A case was related to me the other day where an English 

 manufacturing company had waited two years on a house in thiscity for 

 the payment of its overdue bills, and finally sent out an agent to collect 



