A United States official, writing for goods to his New York druggist, charged him particularly about the packing. The bottles arriving in a pasteboard box were broken. Again he tried with definite instructions and the same result. The next order went to England, where it was properly filled.
The persistence in ignoring expert advice is extraordinary. Agents in South America often send explicit directions as to packing, the size and weight of boxes, etc., without the slightest effect. Goods are dispatched in a 500 or 1000 lb. box to a region where they must be transported on the back of llamas, whose load is 100 lbs. The box is left on the dock or at the railway station; the goods are never used.
New York shippers report that much freight reaches them in a condition impossible to embark on the long journey. It must be refused or repacked. These are curious commentaries on the supposedly superior business ability of Americans. The splendidly bound boxes and bales of British goods are in striking contrast.
On the East Coast transportation by water and rail is general, though not complete. On the West, Chile is well served with railroads, Bolivia’s are rapidly developing, but an enormous region remains, especially in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, where transportation by mules, burros, llamas, and Indians will long continue to be the only methods.
A material factor in securing South American trade where agents are employed is the sending of suitable and competent men. One of our largest houses, noted for the rather superior quality of its salesmen, admitted that they had by experience discovered that some who were very good salesmen here did not succeed there. Precisely why Americans should be so reluctant to follow advice from experts on subjects of which they are ignorant is a puzzle; but it is a fact that the preaching of many men for many years seems largely to have fallen on deaf ears. We should comprehend that South Americans are not ignorant barbarians, that in general they have more culture, often more education, than our business men, that their manners are much better, and that if we desire their business we must adapt ourselves in some degree and treat them with courtesy and not arrogance. To speak of them as monkeys, savages, and dagoes, even so as to be overheard, to commit other acts of unpardonable rudeness in churches and elsewhere, boorishly to inform them that they are half a century behind the times, are acts which might seem incredible but are by no means rare. A man who is thoroughly convinced of his own superiority and who regards the courteous amenities of life practiced by Latin Americans as silly and time wasting, as an evidence of insincerity and of a lack of practical common sense, who fancies himself above the conventions of dress and manners as practiced in the cities visited, and as they are in Europe, who would rush and push his wares is likely to make an unfavorable impression and to learn that more haste is less speed.
It should be obvious that to accomplish much a man must speak the languages of the countries visited. What success would a man speaking no English have in the United States? Spanish is current in all the Republics save Brazil; there it is understood by all persons of education, and may do fairly in the large cities; but for an extended tour or a long stay in Brazil a knowledge of Portuguese is essential.
Two extremes are noticed by the observant traveler in South America, each of which appears objectionable. Some American goods are sold at one-half or one-quarter of the home price; which might cause the disinterested layman to conclude that our tariff needed revising; other articles are sold at double or triple the price at home (not always the fault of the duty), a practice in the long run likely to prove unprofitable. Thus a popular sewing machine was bought a few years ago in Arequipa at one-fourth the price in Boston. White paper made in the United States is cheaper in Chile than in Chicago. On the other hand, in La Paz, shoes worth $2.50 cost $5.50 to $6.00, kerosene oil sold at about $5.00 for a case of 10 gallons, a can of corned beef costs 80 cents; and ham, 60 to 80 cents a lb. The last, put up by a Chicago packer, could be purchased more cheaply at retail from an English firm, having come by way of London, than at wholesale from the Chicago agent on the ground; and the home office would not take a direct order. Whether the price was according to the plans of the home office, or the idiosyncrasy of the agent anxious to make his fortune in a hurry, is unknown. That some agents are arbitrary in their charges might be judged from the fact that boots sold at Mollendo for $5.00 a pair were priced in La Paz at $14.00.
The sharp practice of some salesmen is greatly to the disadvantage of others. The man who sold a snow-plow to some one on the coast lands of Peru on the plea that the climate would change on the completion of the canal no doubt prides himself on his smartness, indifferent to the fact that he has done much to discredit Americans in all that region. Many seem to think that patriotism consists simply in “blowing” about their country; that they might do it a better service by honorable conduct and courteous demeanor does not occur to them.
I have heard that in many places on the plateau, as probably in the interior, it is customary to charge the poor Indians who earn but 50 or 75 cents a day double the already high price which a white man is asked for the same article, a sample no doubt of the justice and fair dealing for which we are told that men are distinguished, but in which women are said to be lacking.
Ten dollars a day has been allowed as a suitable sum for traveling expenses, and one following the railroads and not being burdened with heavy samples might find this sufficient. In the interior where many pack animals must be employed, or with a large supply of baggage to go by rail, and in Brazil and Argentina where heavy license fees must be paid, the fifteen dollars a day asserted by a recent traveler to be necessary may be desirable. It depends, too, a good deal upon the skill and character of the man.