Trade-Houses, Industries, Professions.
During the year 1891, 20,328 licenses were paid for by trade-houses, industries, professions and work-houses. The nationality of those who asked for their trade patent was:
Among the most important industries, must be mentioned: the Liebig Extract of Meat Company, the saladeros or killing grounds, the spirits, wine and beer manufactures, flour mills, the starch and vermicelli manufactures, the soap, suet and oil manufactures, the gas, electric light and water companies, the match, brick, shoe and wooden shoe manufactures, the tan-yards, saw-mills, etc., etc.
There are in Montevideo a great many important spirit, wine, brandy, beer and match manufacturers; and there are sixteen of them in the departments. The Montevideo manufacturers give an annual product of:
| Alcohol, | 2,000,000 | litres. |
| Beer, | 1,700,000 | " |
| Matches, | 55,000 | grosses. |
| Wine and Spirits, | 400,000 | litres. |
According to the declarations made for the payment of the license tax, the capital represented by the trade houses, industries, etc, is $89,329,539.
The clerks employed by all these houses, manufactures and industries, were 11,639, and the workmen of various nationalities 16,621.
As a demonstration of the industrial importance and progress of the country, among many other establishments, the description of which cannot be made here for want of space, one may mention the great brewery Germania, established under the direction of Engineer J. A. Capurro.
It occupies a magnificent building situated in the "Playa Honda" in front of the Montevideo Bay. Its construction and interior distribution completely corresponds to all the technical necessities required for beer manufacturing. It is provided for night working, with electric light produced by a eight-horse dynamo and 68 lamps.
The establishment was built and is worked by a stock company.
It receives the waters of the River Santa Lucia, the very purest, the same that is drank in the town. It possesses, nevertheless, two immense filters, so as to make the water still purer.
The machinery comes from the renowned German manufacture of Chemnitz; it is 25 horse-power, and can give from 18,000 to 20,000 litres per day. The receiving depositories are two, the first one of a capacity of 12,000 litres, and the second of 8,000 litres; the cooling depositories can receive 9,000 litres every hour and a-half, with a temperature that can go to 14° under naught. The clarifying is made by three filters of the most modern system, without any paper application. The fermentation cellar contains three large tubs of a capacity of 3,000 and 3,500 litres. There are also 6 great cellars, for depositories, with 34 tubs each; 18 of them can contain 5,000 litres each and the other 16, 3,500 litres.
With a compressed air machine they cork 10,000 bottles a day.
The ice depositories are beautiful; they always remain at a temperature of 12 or 20° under nought.
The "Germania" also has many other depositories for the raw materials, empty bottles and casks, another for 5,000 litre tubs, brought on purpose from Germany; a forge, a workshop for cask-making, ten carts and stables for 30 horses, and many offices.
It possesses a quay on the bay for loading and unloading and, during the season of most activity, employs over a hundred workmen and clerks.
This establishment represents a capital of over half a million dollars.
During the season it sells over 200,000 litres per month to nearly 1,500 or 2,000 establishments.
The same society possesses also a starch and an alcohol manufactory. They are very important establishments, provided with the very latest inventions of European and North American manufacture.
In the same conditions are also the Richling and Niding Beer Manufactories.