632 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Januarv 2, 1882. 
are more than fifteen or sixteen years old ; they are all 
exceptionally fine trees, and until attacked were in full 
bearing, loaded with fruit — one tree dropped more than 
100 nuts in sis months. 
The insects exhibit no preference for any particular 
variety of coconut tree, they attack them indiscrimin- 
ately — the ones nearest those eaten bare becoming vict- 
ims without distinction, for the trees attacked by them 
here are of many very different varieties. — D. R. Smith. 
BRAZIL: INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE. 
(Rio Cruzeiro, 17th July 1881.) 
Invited by the minister of agriculture to state his 
ideas and to give information to the members of the 
Centro da Lavoura e Commervio, merchants and import- 
ant coffee planters with reference to om- principal pro- 
duct in its principal consuming market, Sr. Salvador de 
Mendonea expressed himself as follows at the conference 
held on the 15th, inst : — 
He believes that so serious a competition is being 
developed to Brazilian coffee in the North American 
market that, if we do not at one provide against it, we 
will in the near future see ourselves vanquished by 
similar products, if not entirely excluded by them from 
that market. 
Beginning with a recapitulation of the history of the 
movement of American capital for the enterprises in Mexico, 
he said that this movement dates from five years back. 
Even before the international exposition at Philadelphia, 
the North Americans said that the continuous and large 
balances which they paid to Brazil, of whom they bought 
so much and to whom they sold so little, induced them 
to seek other countries which would export products 
similar to our own in exchange for products of the 
United States. 
He added that the existing triangular commerce, by 
the regimen of which the English steamers cany the 
Brazilian coffee to the United States ports and there 
receive bills of Brazil, aggravated the situation still more, 
for Brazil went to supply herself in Europe with the 
manufactured goods which she could buy in the United 
States. 
It was calculated that for the service alone of trans- 
port and liquidation of the commerce between the two 
American nations England was receiving annually 12J°/ 0 
on about 100,000,0001, the total amount of that 
commerce. 
Looking around, the country which the capitalists of 
the Union first fancied as capable to substitute us, was 
Mexico. On her they fixed their views ; they spoke of 
incorporating companies for the culture of coffee, under 
the superintendence of General Escobedo, in a zone of 
Mexico which the North American capitalists, interested 
in the enterprise, insisted should be annexed to the 
Union. The difficulty in realizing this latter condition, 
the substitution of the Grant administration by that of 
Hayes, more rational and less adventurous caused the 
promoters of the movement to stop. 
Studying the conditions of our economical relations 
with the United States, and endeavoring to remove the 
causes of discontent which had been manifested and 
which endangered the possession of the best market 
for our coffee, the Brazilian consul general in the United 
States saw that the remedy was in the development of 
the • relations and in the facilities which should be 
granted in order to put the commerce of the two 
coin. (lies on a footing of exchange of then products 
ai far as practicable. But as it is not given to human 
intelligence and human power to direct or change at 
will the laws of economy, Sr. Salvador de Mendonea 
repeated to the men in the United States who were 
capable of influencing the opinion of those interested, 
that, as booh as the North Americans would bring to 
Brazil better and cheaper manufactures than the similar 
European ones, they would exclude the latter from our 
markets. They objected that without direct steamer 
communication such competition was impossible ; that 
there were goods which required to be delivered to the 
consumer in a fixed time, and others which required 
rapid transport ; that neither the transport by sailing 
vessels nor that by English triangular steamship line 
could satisfy these necessities; that the result of the 
existing conditions was that the English continued as 
forced intermediaries in the sale of many North American 
products. As an example they pointed out what occurred 
in the commerce in butter and cheese ; Brazil was im- 
porting those articles on a large scale, England wa» 
supplying them on a large scale to Brazil ; but as 
England was not producing them in sufficient quantity 
for her own home consumption, she bought them in the 
Uuited States. A pound of superior butter was costing 
in New York 20 cents or about 400 reis, and as it was 
worth 1$200 in Bio de Janeiro, the difference of 800 
reis remained in the hands of the intermediaries for 
freight, packing, salt and duty (the whole of which cost 
about 200 reis), England gaining 100 per cent which 
the consumer paid and the producer did not receive. 
As soon, however, as the project of a direct line of 
American steamers appeared, the Brazilian consul gen- 
eral called to this enterprise the attention of the 
imperial government who very rightly subventioned it. 
When this act of the imperial government was known, the 
Americans, to whom those interested in the estrange- 
ment of the two countries were continually talking of 
the ill will on the part of the empire towards the 
republic, seeing how promptly we here complied with the 
wishes for direct communication expressed in the presenta- 
tion speech of then minister, Mr. Hilliard, not only 
stopped the import duty of 2 cents per lb. on coffee, 
proposed in the message of the President to Congress in 
the autumn of 1877, but promoted a special message 
of the same President, accompanied by an able report 
of Mr. Evarts, recommending a subvention to the es- 
tablished line. Only the special circumstances in which 
the administration was placed, in the face of a demo- 
cratic opposition majority in both houses of Congress, 
caused until now the non-success of that recommendation. 
Two years passed without modification of this state 
of things, though already better for us, when the return 
of General Grant from his voyage round the world, 
coinciding with the superabundace of United States 
manufactures seeking markets, and with the abundance 
of capital in Wall street seeking employment, caused 
the plan of enterprises in Mexico to be taken up again. 
Then, almost by intuition, there sprang up companies 
for railroads, coffee culture and immigration to the 
neighbouring republic with North American capital. ; 
Continuing on this point Sr. Salvador de Mendonea 
showed the systematic organization of this undertaking 
and manifested his opinion that its results will be fatal 
to us if we do not prepare ourselves for tins serious 
competition. With abundance of capital and labor, which 
we lack ; with the perfected machinery which the invent- 
ive North American genius will supply them, and which 
we do not generally possess ; with the proximity of the 
consuming market from which we are comparatively 
distant, we have already sufficient against us in order 
to see in Mexico a very serious competitor. 
If we add to this that, in the near future, when the 
requhements of consumption are supplied and the front- 
ier between the two countries is abolished, a duty on 
all coffee entering the United States by water may well 
be imposed ; then it is clear that om- product will be- 
come virtually excluded from that market. 
The two advantages on which, under these circTnJj 
stances, we can still rely in tins struggle, are the 
following : 1st, our soil has the privilege, which nobodf 
can take from us, of producing coffee with double the 
fertility of the Mexican soil and of producing coffee ot 
strong' qualities which it will be difficult to substitute 
by others in the present principal consuming centre j 
