PILES IN SPANISH AMERICA. 261 



REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA. 



BARRANQUILLA. 

 REPORT BY VICE-CONSUL WHELPLEY. 



Any community within the United States or Canada, of 3,000 inhabi- 

 tants, would use more files in one year than this consular district, say 

 of 50,000 inhabitants, would use in two. In the United States, in city 

 or country, the merchant, mechanic, farmer, artisan, or citizen of any 

 grade, would consider his household equipment incomplete without his 

 kit of tools, among which the file ranks as one of the most important. 

 Mechanical ability has been very sparsely distributed in this country. 

 Comparatively speaking, there are no agricultural tools or machinery 

 in use, no constructive mechanics, coppersmiths, lock-smiths, brass- 

 fitters, farriers, gas-fitters, plumbers ; no makers of cutlery, fire-arms or 

 labor- saving devices. Every article of iron, steel, copper, or brass must 

 be imported. Outside of the towns, among the gente of the country 

 (the bogas, foresters, herdsmen, etc., that comprise four-fifths of the 

 population), the only use for a file may be to be driven into one of the 

 posts of the ranch as a peg ; or, if a flat file, to be converted into a knife 

 blade at the nearest native smithy. 



The two steam- boat companies navigating the Magdalen a Kiver im- 

 port their own files from England, and being under English manage- 

 ment are unwilling to concede any merit whatever to American tools. 



The company under German management seems to entertain the same 

 idea relative to the superiority of German files. 



I am indebted to Mr. Oswald Berne, the largest dealer in tools, hard- 

 ware, and house-furnishing implements in Colombia, for the following 

 data in regard to the trade in files. His sales, of all sizes, amount to 

 from 4 to 6 dozen a year. He orders 2 dozen of each size at a time as his 

 stock diminishes. He has remnants of stock upon his shelves ordered 

 in 1883. 



He called my attention to a letter from a New York house in regard 

 to some American files shipped to him some months ago, urging the 

 sale at one-third reduction from the original invoice prices, which 

 would still be 12 per cent, higher than English files of the same grade. 



He gets part of his file stock from Germany, at the following prices : 

 8 marks * per dozen for 12-inch flat ; 12 marks per dozen for 14-inch 

 Hat. Discount, 25 per cent. 



English prices are : 21s. Qd. per dozen for 12-inch flat; 30*. per dozen 

 for 14-inch flat ; 33. per dozen, second cut, 14-inch flat; 43*. per dozen 

 for 16-inch flat. Discount, 55 per cent. 



The 12 and 14 inch are the only size called for, and are quoted to 

 illustrate prices in comparison with the Troy company's list. 



1 mark = 23.8 cents. 



