— 14 — 



motives) would be attended with the most serious consequences in the 

 thoroughly altered conditions which prevail. This has been sufficiently 

 shown by the example of the Convention of 1895, which was also 

 artificially arranged and which ultimately collapsed in 1898, after 3 years 

 of stress. Under such economic conditions the re-building of the city of 

 Valparaiso on a modern plan is only being slowly completed. More- 

 over, the many opponents of the scheme for the construction of a 

 new harbour have succeeded in causing this project — which is of 

 such extreme importance — again to be deferred for an indefinite 

 period. As a result of the enormous decline in the imports and thanks 

 to the united efforts of the shipowners and Insurance Companies, 

 it has been possible again to restore the necessary order and despatch 

 in the loading and discharging of ships and in the Custom House 

 work along the entire coast; and it is therefore probable that the 

 complaints which have been made on this score for so many years 

 may soon cease altogether. After the settlement of its differences with 

 Peru in the matter of the delimitation of the boundary line, the satis- 

 factory solution of the question of the currency, and the brightening 

 of the prospects of the nitrate industry, a time of vigorous economic 

 revival may again dawn for Chile, notwithstanding the prognostications 

 of the pessimists, who less than a year ago indulged in the darkest 

 prophecies. 



On the subject of the soap business in Cuba, an American Con- 

 sular Report contains a short article which possibly may induce our 

 friends in the toilet soap branch to give increased attention to Cuba 

 as an export market. It is stated that practically all the soap which 

 is used in Cuba is imported, local manufacture being chiefly restricted 

 to the preparation of highly scented toilet soaps. The annual imports 

 of common soap in bars amount to about 9000000 lbs., of which 

 about i2°/ come from the United States, 8o°/ from Spain; and 

 the rest mostly from France. Of toilet soap, about 150000 lbs., in 

 round figures, are imported; of this 5O°/ come from the United 

 States and 45% from France. The imports of all other soap together 

 amount to approximately 325000 lbs., of which 75% are from the 

 United States and 2O°/ from France. 



With regard to the economic condition of Japan and the prospects 

 of German trade in this interesting market, opinions vary profoundly; 

 but it is an undeniable fact that the financial condition of the people 

 of Japan has been seriously injured by enormous increase in taxation 

 during the last few years, and that the purchasing power has been 

 greatly diminished among all classes. The country will also continue 

 to suffer for a long time from the results of the unscrupulous exploit- 

 ations on the part of industrial speculators, to which we have already 

 referred on previous occasions. The prevailing low prices in all its 



