1 877.] 
Present Condition of Chile . 
3S7 
happy state of things could not, of course last for long, 
and from various causes the trade with California col- 
lapsed as suddenly as it had arisen. The exports to 
that country which in 1850 had reached 2,445,868 dollars 
(upwards of 1,500,000 in flour and wheat alone), and 
which made up nearly one-half of the entire exports for 
the year, had fallen to 275,763 dollars in 1855, and further 
fell to 178,484 dollars in 1858 ; the breadstuff's exported to 
San Francisco in the latter year only amounting to the 
insignificant sum of 15,000 dollars. But at the very time 
when the Californian “ Eldorado ” was eluding the grasp of 
the Chilean producers, a fresh but likewise transient outlet 
was opened to them by the Australian gold discoveries. This 
trade only lasted from 1853 to 1859, but in 1855 the exports 
represented no less a sum than 2,698,911 dollars, of which 
2,541,692 dollars, or £508,000, was the value of the wheat 
and flour. Meanwhile equally remote and unforeseen causes 
were combining to assure to Chile a valuable and far 
steadier customer in Peru, which, in the last century sent 
wheat to Chile, and raised an abundance of grain, cattle, 
potatos, and other kinds of food, but had by degrees 
negleCted her production, and taken to tropical husbandry, 
such as cotton and sugar-cane planting. The war in the 
United States for a time made cotton planting so lucrative 
as to turn Peruvian capital yet more in that direction. 
Thus Chile, which from the first year of which her statistics 
furnish any record, had supplied her neighbour with an 
average value of 250,000 dollars of breadstuff’s, now found 
an outlet for five times that amount. The general conditions 
of the trade with Peru have been completely reversed in the 
last thirty years, as will be seen from the following figures : — • 
1S45. 1863. 1874. 
Dollars. Dollars. Dollars. 
Imports from Peru . . 1,474,880 701,297 1,947,770 
Exports to ,, 674,552 2,619,386 6,016,413 
The development of the export trade with England has 
been even more surprising, for in 1874 th e breadstuff's sent 
to this country had reached 6,457,945, the general exports 
in the same year figuring for 22,259,730 dollars. 
Mineral Exports . — Passing over the trade in live stock, 
and a few agricultural productions of comparatively minor 
importance, we must devote a brief space to the mineral 
produce of the country. In the thirty years between 1844 
and 1873 this amounted in value to the large sum of 
£73,888,018, from which, however, we ought to subtract 
2D 2 
