COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 67 



It may not be out of place here to remark that local dealers who are 

 good judges freely admit the superiority of American cotton goods and 

 even the greater cheapness of certain kinds when quality is considered. 

 For instance, two of the most prominent dealers told me they had sent 

 samples of the best pink and purple Merrirnac prints to Manchester, 

 England, and that they could not have them duplicated there at the 

 American price. 



But this market does not require many goods of such superior quality, 

 and in the inferior grades Manchester can undersell the United States. 

 This may partly be owing to the fact that lower grades of cotton are 

 used there and partly to the other fact that American manufacturers 

 are not such adepts in the art of a weighting n goods. 



If our manufacturers seriously wish to build up trade with Spanish 

 America, they should come in person and see exactly what these coun- 

 tries demand. The writer of this was bred to the dry-goods business, 

 and can assure his countrymen that they can learn very many useful 

 points by personal observation which they would fail to obtain even 

 though they should read a thousand pages of consular reports on the 

 subject of cotton goods, and those things are what they should know 

 in order to compete for foreign business. 



THOMAS ADAMSON, 



Consul- General. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE-GENERAL, 



Panama, July 13, 1889. 



VENEZUELA. 



i 



LA GUAYRA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL BIRD. 

 KIND IMPORTED. 



Owing to the fact that no digested records of imports into Venezuela 

 are obtainable, it is quite impracticable to approximately state the 

 quantity of goods imported. Even though a customs officer should be 

 employed to collate the statistics, it would be impossible to separate 

 the imports of cotton goods from linen and woolen fabrics, and hence 

 any figures he might offer would be unsatisfactory. Ail the staple cot- 

 ton goods in fair quantities are imported into Venezuela. 



WEIGHT. 



The weight of all classes of imported cotton goods is so variable ac- 

 cording to kind and quantity that it is deemed unnecessary to furnish 



