COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 43 

 HOW WE MAY YET SECURE THE MARKET. 



In a report which I made to the Department nearly ten years ago I 

 offered some suggestions in reference to the cottons trade with this coun- 

 try, which, though they seem to have been neglected then, may per- 

 haps have more weight now, and I therefore venture to repeat them: 



To secure a strong and permanent foothold in this market it is necessary that the 

 American cotton manufacturers should do something more than send samples or ask 

 consuls for information. The field is a large one, and it needs to be worked. The 

 manufacturers should unite together and send an agent or agents here, not necessa- 

 rily to sell or even to solicit orders, but to " spy out the land ; " to obtain exact in- 

 formation in regard to the wants and demands of the market, the kinds of fabrics 

 best suited to the trade, the number af yards to the piece, and the proper widths, the 

 most satisfactory weights per yard, with such other points as experts in the business 

 fully understand. Consuls, of course, are ready and willing to atf'ord their country- 

 men all the assistance in their power, but it is not all of them who are sufficiently 

 acquainted with the details of the business to be able to decide on the qualities of 

 different fabrics or report on the most approved trade-marks. Our cotton mills, I 

 am satisfied, can ultimately have the trade of the Argentine Republic in their own 

 hands, to a very great extent, if they will quietly and systematically work for it; but 

 to effect this it requires time, and, it may be, the expenditure of a little money for the 

 expenses of agents to secure the " points" which the manufacturers must possess to 

 work intelligently. Even then, however, almost an indispensable prerequisite to 

 securing the Argentine market for cotton fabrics (as indeed for nearly all descriptions 

 of dry goods) is the establishment of a direct line of steam-ships with tbe River 

 Plate. I have referred to this subject so often that I hesitate further to enlarge upon 

 it. It is next to impossible for American manufacturers, even with better goods to 

 sell, to compete with the English market on equal terms without the advantage which 

 sure and quick intercommunication affords. Since the opening of the ocean cable 

 such large stocks of merchandise are not required to be held in this market. They 

 are ordered by cable as they are needed, ami the saving of time and the dispatch 

 with which orders can be tilled in England and other maritime countries of Europe 

 will still give those markets the preference. When the fleet of ocean steamers by 

 which Europe is connected with tLe River Plate can put down at this port goods 

 ordered by cable in from twenty to twenty- five days, merchants here, however well 

 disposed they may be, will hesitate about sending orders to the United States, know- 

 ing that they can not be filled except by sailing vessels, which require from sixty to 

 ninety days to make the voyage. 



Should an American line of steamers be put on direct to the River Plate, in my 

 opinion it would not be long in working great changes if not a revolution in our 

 trade, and especially our cottons trade with the Argentine Republic. Not only from 

 selfish considerations, however, for the development of our foreign trade, but from a 

 broad, political point of view, in its influence ic strengthening, confirming, and en- 

 couraging this Republic in tbe promising career which is before it, it is to be hoped 

 that our Government may see its way clear to assist such an enterprise. Our inter- 

 est in the political prosperity of the South American Republics, nearly all of whose 

 business associations are now monarchical instead of democratic, should prompt us, if 

 possible, to bind our own to the Republics of the River Plate by the strong bonds of 

 a mutual reciprocal trade. Commerce is the great civilizer and political missionary 

 of the world, and the ideas and methods by which the United States have advanced 

 to their present commanding position among the nations of the earth, if brought 

 into close contact and communion with this country, could not fail to act and react 

 most favorably upon its commercial, industrial, and political destinies. In no other 

 way could we better spread and propagate the principles and ideas which have built us 



