As an economic principle, this of self-supply is altogether sound, and its extension to the utmost is advisable and beneficial. It will help to eliminate waste; it will perhaps work against over-production and over-competition, both wasteful forces; it will tend to conserve the native resources of the globe, especially in fuel and raw material, which, during the "factory age," have been severely drawn upon and in many instances ruthlessly wasted. To produce a thing where it is to be consumed, we may repeat, rather than carrying it over seas and continents from distant producer to consumer, is a sound economic and sociological principle, so far little recognised.
The growth of such conditions, however, is not likely to be of benefit to trade in general. One of the first branches of manufacture to be affected thereby is the textile industry of Britain and other lands as regards the export trade. It has been shown in these pages that the Latin American countries, in some instances, have now set up their own mills and are manufacturing their own textiles. This is specially true of such countries as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and others, where the production of "piece goods" and other textiles and articles of clothing is being extensively carried out with marked success, and with a corresponding limitation of import. These mills are often worked by water-power, and so are free from the difficult and expensive element of fuel. Labour, moreover, is much cheaper, even if less efficient, than abroad.
The same condition is growing as regards other manufactured articles, and there is no physical reason why the whole of the Latin American States should not manufacture many articles for their own requirements which at present they import. They possess within their own shores all the necessary raw material, except in some few instances.
But do they possess the skill to make these articles? There is little doubt that the Latin American folk, the artisan, the mechanic, the craftsman, are learning the methods of manufacture in many fields. They may not be an inventive folk, but they are an imitative folk, and possessed withal of great patience and painstaking ingenuity.
These last-named qualities are revealed in their ancient native industries. Any one who takes the trouble to examine the examples of these old crafts will often be struck by their beauty and ingenuity. In textile work they excelled. The old tapestries of the Inca and the fabrics of the Aztec, and of the Queches of Guatemala, of the Mayas, and, in brief, all others of the cultured or semi-cultured early folk of Spanish America reveal this, and examples are to be seen in the museums. The Indians of the Andes to-day make their own "tweeds" of sheep or llama wool; also their own felt hats. They weave ponchos of Alpaca wool that are waterproof, so closely are they hand-woven. They dyed these things in beautiful native patterns (often of much archæological interest) with native dyes which in some cases were superior to the imported synthetic dyes of Europe. As a matter of fact, it is unfortunate from a true economic and artistic point of view that these native industries should be displaced by outside products.
Again, such articles as the Panama hat of Ecuador and Colombia show of what the Indian is capable; as did the beautiful jewellery, in precious metals and stones, of the ancient culture-area of Central America, or the exquisite vessels and objects of adornment of the Incas, some of which still exist. The powers in stone-working are seen by the remarkable structures scattered over the whole Spanish American world, revealing the use of the chisel.
There is, however, no need here to labour this argument, but it is more than possible that a marked growth of Latin American craftsmanship will come to being again, under the stimulus of modern needs.
On the other hand, it is not to be supposed that the foreign manufacturer is likely immediately to find the ground cut away from under his feet. There are numerous articles of commerce which the Latin American folk do not, and possibly cannot, make for themselves, or not yet.
Among these matters is the important one of machinery. So far, throughout the length and breadth of the Latin American States, not a single locomotive has ever had its birth, and that in a land where the locomotive is so essential a factor. Nor is bar iron or steel rail rolled anywhere here (except possibly a little experimental work in Mexico and elsewhere). In fact, the manipulation of iron and steel has not yet come to being.