MALT AND BEER IN SPANISH AMERICA. 343 



ascertained after diligent inquiry and patient investigation, I respect- 

 fully submit to the Department, believing they convey the information 

 sought for by its circular of December 15, 1889. 



T. T. TUNSTALL, 



Consul. 

 UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



San Salvador, February 22, 1890. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



REPORT BY CONSUL BAKER, OF BUENOS ATRES. 



I am in receipt of the circular of the Department of State, requesting 

 information in reference to the malt and beer business of the Argentine 

 Republic, with a view to its bearing upon the American trade. 



THE ARGENTINES NOT ORIGINALLY BEER-DRINKERS. 



In reply, I may premise that the Argentines, like the people of the 

 United States, were not primitively drinkers of beer, but have acquired 

 the beer habit rather through their associations with the people of the 

 Old World. Indeed, until within comparatively recent years, they have 

 been noted for their proclivities in favor of wine; and, aside from what 

 the country produced, the quantities, especially of the light table wines, 

 yearly imported from France, Spain, and Italy have been one of the 

 marvels of the Buenos Ayres custom-house. 



RECENT CHANGE IN THE DRINKING CUSTOMS. 



With the advent, however, of European and especially German im- 

 migrants, a change in the drinking habits of the people has been grad- 

 ually effected, and Argentines now-a-days call for their "schoppe" and 

 drink it with genuine Teutonic gusto. Whereas ten or fifteen years ago 

 the importations of malt liquors were so insignificant as to attract no 

 attention, now they figure for quite an item in the custom-house returns. 

 As for manufacturing malts or beers in any systematic or scientific 

 way, until recently they possessed neither the requisite knowledge nor 

 produced the necessary materials. Now, however, breweries of large 

 capacity and the most approved appliances are to be found in different 

 parts of the country. 



PRIMITIVE BEERS OF THE COUNTRY. 



I do not mean, of course, that heretofore no fermented liquors were 

 made in this country, nor that the natives confined tbeir potations 

 exclusively to wines. Beer-drinking and beer-making, such indeed as 



