THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA. 
311 
drive the United States from a natural market, I will 
state several facts which an intelligent reader may inter¬ 
pret for himself. 
The largest mercantile houses in Guatemala are Ger¬ 
man ; Americans of the North are absent. When it was 
suggested to the agent of one of the largest cotton-mills 
in New England that the cases in which its cloths were 
usually packed for market could not be handled in a coun¬ 
try provided only with mule transportation, the Yankee 
agent thought it not worth the trouble to pack in smaller 
bales, as did the English and French manufacturers. 
Eeady-made clothes are cheaper in France, and shoes in 
Germany and France. If I want barbed wire for my 
fences, corrugated iron for my warehouses, or rails for my 
tramways, my English correspondent can deliver all these 
to me on my wharf at Livingston much cheaper than I can 
buy any of these manufactures of iron in protected New 
York. England, from her experience in her tropical colo¬ 
nies, knows how to prepare merchandise, and what sorts are 
needed for the trade with tropical America; she buys the 
crop of mahogany, logwood, and coffee, and saves exchange 
by selling her own products, and at the same time sup¬ 
ports her own vessels in the carrying trade. If it were not 
for the fresh fruit which the United States needs, there 
would probably not be a single line of steamers between 
these countries; for on the Pacific side Guatemala is merely 
a way-station. Finally, the sarsaparilla goes to England, 
and is there manufactured into extract or syrup for the 
use of the immense establishments of patent medicines 
in the United States. 
Now let us see what Guatemala contributes to the 
needs of foreign nations; and I give a table of exports 
