Brazil and the River Plate in 1868

by William Hadfield

SANTOS AND JUNDIAHY RAILWAY.

This line was inaugurated on the 15th, and opened on the 16th of February, 1866: this road at once commenced to show an extensive traffic, which, augmenting day by day as the planters became convinced of its superiority over ordinary methods, prognosticates most brilliant destinies to it. However, notwithstanding its evident inferiority, the common road still maintains a serious competition with the railway and takes from it a part of the products which are sent to Santos from the interior, inasmuch as, out of 1,004,779 arrobas, at which amount the total traffic is estimated, 611,818 go by the railroad, and 392,961 by the highway. Despite this competition, and the difficulties with which every enterprise struggles at first, however well organised, the gross receipts of the Santos and Jundiahy railway, since its opening, up to the end of 1867, rose to 1,236:423$702, thus giving more than 4¾ per cent. upon the capital employed. It maybe presumed that, when the short life competition referred to is overcome, and when the line is extended to Campinas, taking into account the natural increase of production in a province so favourably placed, the revenue would soon double, thus freeing the treasury from the onus of the guarantee of interest. The Santos and Jundiahy Railway is, therefore, one of those amongst us which promise best; and perhaps it may be considered the first industrial undertaking of the kind, if the serra service, by means of inclines, does not exact a constant outlay which will diminish the revenue.

During the past year the trains of the road transported 176,081 passengers, namely:

1st Class	19,078½
2nd Class	26,033½
3rd Class	130,952
Season tickets	17
Total	176,081

The plan of Engineer P. Fox for the extension of the line to Campinas having received the preference over the other traces presented to the ministry in my charge, the President of the province undertook to promote a company of planters and capitalists to carry this important benefit into effect. The company having the right of preference to the extension of the railway, I instructed our Minister in London to obtain an explicit declaration from the directory renunciatory of its right, in order that there might be no future doubts or reclamations. The directors replied that the company expressly desisted from the right, and, therefore, the association could proceed with its measures for the realisation of its object. In the opinion of Engineer E. Viriato de Medeiros the amount of capital expended up to the 30th of July, 1866, amounted to £2,548,434, but for payment of interest due it was estimated hypothetically at £2,650,000.

The provincial assembly not having empowered the President to pay the interest of two per cent. upon the guaranteed capital, to which the province had bound itself, it was necessary for the national treasury to take upon itself the satisfaction of the provincial promise. It is therefore requisite that the provincial assembly provide in the estimate of this year for relieving the public treasury from the charge upon its already too burdened coffers.

It will be seen from these reports that all the guaranteed railways are exposed to difficulties arising out of the special character of the relations existing between the various companies and the Government, and that Senhor Sobragy, the talented manager of the Dom Pedro Segundo Railway, has been sent to England to try to come to terms with the companies. In my opinion, however, nothing short of the Government taking over the railways, giving in exchange a guaranteed stock, can ever meet the requirements of the case, or bring these concerns out of their present unfavourable position. It would be useless to recapitulate here the causes of their failure. Certainly no fault can be laid to the charge of the Government, which has acted in perfect good faith towards them, and done probably more than any other Government ever did or would do to assist undertakings of this or any other kind. Rashness, ignorance, and bad advisers have led to most of their difficulties, and with such proofs of the mismanagement of railway directors on our home lines no one will be surprised at the unsuccessful result of their management of lines abroad.

As an evidence that railways can be made and properly managed by Brazilians I need only refer to the Dom Pedro Segundo, a line quite as important as any in the country. In separate chapters I have referred to this railway, and also to that in the province of San Paulo.

I believe it would be greatly to the advantage of the rising generation in Brazil if the young men were trained to become engineers, rather than lawyers or doctors, with which the towns and cities swarm. Brazilians are neither deficient in talent nor energy, if properly brought out, and the employés of the Dom Pedro Segundo are chiefly natives. The splendid road to Juiz de Fora furnishes an example of this, and I regret time did not permit me to make another visit there, which Senhor Mariano very kindly urged on me. Had it not been for the heavy expenditure of the Paraguayan war, the railway system of Brazil would doubtless have been much more extensively developed, and the provincial lines now in existence carried further into the interior, as it is impossible the latter can ever be productive of much revenue, or of much national benefit until they are prolonged to the chief centres of cultivation, which, as a general rule, lie upwards of one hundred miles from the coast. The provinces of Pernambuco and Bahia both attach great importance to railway extension to the river San Francisco, but it does not appear from the report of Captain Burton, who lately explored that river, that it is likely to yield so much traffic as is supposed. The want of population is the great drawback to railways, and until this want can be met by emigration of some kind, a large amount of internal wealth must lie waste.

My long detention in the southern part of Brazil and the River Plate prevented me visiting Bahia and Pernambuco, and judging from personal observation as to the state and condition of the railways there, or reporting on the new tramway from Caxioera to the interior, which promises to be of great utility to the country traversed by it, as well as remunerative to the shareholders interested in its future.