Before I take my leave of the reader, I want to say a word for the creation of a line of fast ships making the journey between France and South America. So little space remains to me that I cannot treat the subject as I should like. The case is simple; formerly the French line was very popular, but it has allowed itself to be entirely outdistanced by other companies who have built more rapid boats while we continue to send our old vessels over the sea. The contract held by the Messageries Maritimes expires in 1912. By some culpable negligence no steps have been taken to improve the service or even to continue it. The matter cannot rest there. If we are to enlarge our dealings with South America, it is of capital importance to France to have a service of rapid boats fitted up on the most comfortable of modern lines.
I shall venture to make a brief extract here from a report that I got my friend Edmond Théry to make out for me, since his authority in matters economic is universally known.
For the last twenty years there has been a prodigious increase of production and public wealth in the two Americas. This fact accounts for the enormously increased proportion of travellers to Europe drawn from North America, Mexico, Brazil, the Argentine, etc. The proof is that the luxurious hotels springing up anew almost daily in Paris and on the Riviera to cater for this class of customer are always crowded.
Brazil and the Argentine Republic have more especially profited by the rise in value of their land. In the course of the last ten years, from 1900 to 1909, their working railways have gone up from 14,027 kilometres to 19,080 in Brazil, and from 16,563 to 25,508 kilometres in the Argentine Republic.
These 13,998 kilometres of new lines (46 per cent. increase since 1900) have opened the door to agriculture, cattle-breeding, forestry, in immense and hitherto desert regions, and the results of this may be traced in the increase of their foreign trade:
Foreign Trade of Brazil and the Argentine Republic in Ten Years.
| 1900 | 1909 | Total increase in 1909. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millions of Francs. | Millions of Francs. | Millions of Francs. | Per Cent. | ||||||
| Brazil— | |||||||||
| Imports............ | 634 | 935 | 301 | 47 | |||||
| Exports............ | 836 | 1,606 | 770 | 92 | |||||
| Total........ | 1,470 | 2,541 | 1,071 | 73 | |||||
| Argentine Republic— | |||||||||
| Imports............ | 567 | 1,514 | 947 | 167 | |||||
| Exports............ | 773 | 1,987 | 1,214 | 157 | |||||
| Total........ | 1,340 | 3,501 | 2,161 | 161 | |||||
Thus during a short period of ten years the exports—i. e., the surplus of home-grown articles after supplying the needs of the country—have increased in value by 770 millions of francs, 90 per cent., for Brazil, and 1214 millions, or 157 per cent., for the Argentine Republic. As for the total value of the foreign trade of the two countries, it has risen 1071 millions of francs for the former and 2161 millions for the latter: in other words, an average of 107 millions of francs per annum for Brazil and 216 millions for the Argentine.
These startling figures show clearly enough the importance of the economic advance the two countries are making, and we may say that French capital has built up this prosperity.