150 COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



some other classes of goods, is what keeps them out of this market, 

 but it seems to me that I have seen better muslin retailed for 5 cents a 

 yard in Chicago and St. Louis than that which retails here at 7 and 8 

 cents a yard. It appears possible, therefore, that American muslin could 

 compete here with the English and German goods if the proper effort 

 were made to push it into the trade. The market is here, and it re- 

 mains with American merchants and manufacturers to say whether it 

 shall be monopolized by England and Germany without a vigorous 

 effort at competition. While I have received circulars and letters from 

 American manufacturers of other goods who are showing a disposition 

 to get into this market, I have never seen any evidence that the cotton 

 manufacturers desired to place their products in this archipelago, 

 where there are over 7,500,000 who, as a rule, wear nothing but cotton 

 clothing. 



At present there is not a single house here that imports American 

 cotton goods direct from the United States; those that come here are 

 usually shipped from England or are brought in by the captains of sail- 

 ing vessels who have a piece or two, sometimes, to give or sell to friends 

 here who want something better than can be had in the stores at about 

 the same price they would have to pay to a Chinese peddler for English 

 or German cotton. 



Spanish cottons would be quite as scarce as American were it not for 

 the fact that they are admitted free of duty, for their price to the im- 

 porter, I am told, is very little, if any, less than that of the latter, and 

 their quality is not as good generally. 



-German and Swiss muslins and ginghams have a better reputation 

 here than those of any other country, as it is believed that they hold 

 their color better. 



The " American drill of English manufacture, 77 just referred to, comes 

 in pieces of 30 yards, 31 inches wide, weighing 11 pounds, and costs 

 $1.87 J per piece, Manila currency ; the duty of 96 cents per piece added 

 runs the total wholesale cost up to $2.83 J. American goods of the same 

 weight cost, I am told, at least $1 more per piece. There are shirtings 

 of English and German make that cost $3.50 per piece laid down here; 

 American goods of the same grade, it is asserted, cost $4.50 per piece. 

 An English importer tells me that a good American brown cotton*drill, 

 30 inches wide and 40 yards long, weighing 14 or 15 pounds, would have 

 a large sale here if it could be bought for from $4.31J to $4.37J per 

 piece. 



THE RETAIL TRADE. 



Excepting the half-dozen large retail dry goods stores on the Escolta, 

 the principal business street of Manila, and a few little shops kept by 

 natives in San Fernando, the entire retail trade in cotton goods is in the 

 hands of the Chinese. They occupy little shops or dens, perhaps 8 feet 

 wide and 10 deep, against the three walls of which are piled or stored in 

 compartments their stocks of English and German cotton fabrics. Some 



