Bolivia has a complete code of legislation governing the production and export of rubber, including the imposts to be paid. The gum trees are national property, and neither natives nor foreigners have the right to exploit them without special license, preference being given the one whose discovery claim is filed first. In the Territory of Colonias, which included Acre, each person was permitted to acquire 500 trees, while companies could acquire 1,000.
Of Bolivian agricultural products for export, coffee is entitled to a chief place. Its cultivation is carried on chiefly in the district known as the Yungas, or hot lands, but the shipments for the world’s consumption cannot be large in competition with Brazil and other countries. Coffee is exported to northern Argentina and to Chile with profit. The European shipments of late years have been unimportant, notwithstanding that the excellent quality of the exported product had given it a trade standing. With the coffee lands given railroad transportation, the Yungas product, whose flavor is as fine as that of Arabia, may regain its foreign market.
It is a question whether coca is a blessing or a curse to Bolivia. This is the plant from which cocaine is had, and from the similarity in name is often confused with cacao, or chocolate. The natives have chewed the leaves for hundreds of years, and the students of racial atavism profess to see in its qualities stupefying effects which have brutalized the existing Indian race. It is, however, an important agricultural industry. The shrub grows from two to eight feet high. It is cultivated in the lower plains of the eastern slope of the Andes at heights varying from 1,100 to 5,300 feet. Its cultivation is the leading industry of the Yungas district, in which there are many fine plantations. A plantation lasts from thirty to forty years if handled with care and intelligence. The last year for which figures were given, the coca product was placed at 3,450,000 kilograms (7,890,000 pounds), valued at $1,250,000. The government taxes the production, and draws considerable revenue therefrom, since the home consumption is so common. The exportation is through the ports of Mollendo, Arica, and Antofagasta, and also through Argentina by way of Tupiza. France is the chief buyer. The exports amount to 556,275 kilograms on an average each twelvemonth, but the foreign market is uncertain, and in some years the quantity sent out of the country is much smaller.
Gathering Coca Leaves in the Yungas
Sometimes it is forgotten that when the British government secured the cultivation of the cinchona tree in Ceylon and India, the quinine industry was not entirely transplanted from Peru and Bolivia. Annually from 250,000 to 325,000 kilograms, or 715,000 pounds, of cinchona bark are shipped through the ports of Mollendo and Arica. In the eastern Andine region 6,000,000 trees are said to be under culture, there being a large number of the groves on the broken mountain-sides at altitudes of 3,200 to 6,500 feet. The Bolivian product gives from 30 to 32 grammes of sulphate of quinine for each kilogram, and, it is claimed, is superior to other South American bark.
Cotton-growing without question has a future in the Santa Cruz and Chimoré region. It has been claimed that this district can produce 375,000,000 kilograms,—at least, this was the pretension of some enthusiastic railway promoters. They estimated that one hectare, or 2½ acres, would grow 1,600 plants, each of which would yield two pounds of ginned cotton, and that 50,000 families could be colonized in this region who would cultivate each six months 15,000 pounds. While experienced cotton-growers smile at these fanciful figures, the experts who have studied the possibilities of the soil and climate in this region credit it with undoubted cotton capabilities. It is another illustration of Bolivia’s varied resources and of her similarity to Mexico.
CHAPTER XXI
BOLIVIAN NATIONAL POLICY
Panama Canal as Outlet for Mid-continent Country—Railways for Internal Development—Intercontinental Backbone—Proposed Network of Lines—Use Made of Brazilian Indemnity—Chilean Construction from Arica—Human Material for National Development—Census of 1900—Aymará Race—Wise Governmental Handling of Indian Problems—Immigration Measures—Climatic Variations—Political Stability—General Pando’s Labors—Status of Foreigners—Revenues and Trade—Commercial Significance of Treaty with Chile—Gold Legislation—A Canal View.