54 



Year. 



Quantity. 









Bunches. 



1881 







3,500 



1891 







1,133,717 



1899 







2,962,771 



1900 







3,420,166 



All of which were exported to the United States. The export trade 

 is in the hands of the United Fruit Company, a large American cor- 

 poration, organised in the spring of 1899 and incorporated under the 

 laws of the State of New Jersey, with headquarters in Boston, United 

 States of America. The prime movers in this organisation were the 

 Boston Fruit Company, which, together with other important fruit 

 companies, was absorbed by the new corporation. A controlling in- 

 terest was also obtained in the Tropical Trading and Transport Com- 

 pany, a British joint-stock Company which formerly had large inter- 

 ests in Costa Eica and controlled the export trade in bananas from 

 that country, and which went into liquidation in 1900, the United 

 Fruit Company taking over all its interests. The company contracts 

 with the farmers for the latter to deliver their fruit alongside the 

 railway track at certain fixed places. When the fruit has been passed 

 by the company's receivers, the growers receive checks stating the 

 number of bunches and specifying the proportion of <4 firsts" (bunches 

 with 9 "hands" and upwards) and " seconds" (bunches with fewer 

 than 9 " hands"). These checks are afterwards changed by the com- 

 pany for sight drafts on New York, or, if preferred, for the equiva- 

 lent in Costa Bican currency, the rate of exchange being fixed by the 

 company at the commencement of each month. The contracts are 

 made for a term of years, the present price being 26 c. American gold 

 (13d.) for " first" and 13 c. (6Jd ) " seconds." Many of these contracts 

 expire shortly, but the company has already entered into an agree- 

 ment to renew them on slightly belter terms. In addition to their 

 export business, the company owns large tracts of banana lands 

 already in production, or being brought into production. A large 

 proportion of the profits derived from this industry does not remain 

 in the country, but there can be no doubt as to its importance and the 

 Government so fully recognises this that, in September last, Congress 

 enacted that no export duties should be imposed on bananas for a 

 term of 10 years from that date. 



Coffee. 



Coffee is still the staple product and the most important article of 

 export. f lhe year 1900 was a good one for exporters, the average 

 price paid by them to the growers for the berry in fruit being £1 10s. 

 per Fanega (400 litres) as against £1 lis. 2d., per Fanega in i 899, 

 while the prices realised abroad were higher by 1 Jd per lb., the actual 

 figures being : 1899, net average value, 4Jd per lb. ; 1900, net ave- 

 rage value 5|d. per lb. It is true that owing to the fall in exchange 

 the colon was worth more in 1900 than the peso in 1899, but the prin- 

 cipal decline did not take place until April, by which time most of the 

 coffee drafts had been negotiated. Growers complain, however, that at 

 these prices coffee barely pays expenses, and it is possible that, if there 

 be no improvement in the near future, many older farms and also those 



