Transportation gives commodities and persons "place utility" and until the establishment, recently, of a splendid system of motor roads, as yet but little used, Venezuela has been lacking in this respect. Natural resources, in the absence of local manufacturers, become worthless without means of transportation to the coast for export. In 1908 there existed but thirteen railroads in Venezuela with a total mileage of 540 kilometers[22] connecting a few of the richest and most accessible regions with the coast, and the year 1920 finds no increase either in number of roads, or in total mileage. Fertile inland regions are still without outlet for their products and vast mineral wealth and forest resources lie untouched, awaiting transport facilities.
[22] Central Executive Council, International High Commission, "Venezuelan Financial and Economic Conditions," and Ency. Brit., "Venezuela."
The Venezuelan coast line extends for 1876 miles and possesses in all 32 ports of various sizes, more than sufficient to handle the potential commerce of the country. The amount of commerce passing through these ports, though steadily mounting, has in no one instance approached the limit. These ports have developed in spite of onerous tariff regulations and other handicaps, because the demand for the riches possessed by the Republic in the shape of natural resources is too insistent to be checked by natural or artificial barriers.
The principal industries are agricultural and pastoral, the most important agricultural products being coffee, cacao, sugar, tobacco, corn and beans.[23] Manufactures are few in number and those existent for the most part flourish mainly by the help of severe tariff discriminations. These manufactures include the following lines: beer, hats, candles, ice, chocolates, matches, cigarettes, boots and shoes, cotton goods, drugs and medicines.
[23] International High Commission, "Zones of Venezuela."
There are several electric plants in Venezuela and a few factories for the manufacture of agricultural implements. On the whole, however, Venezuelan manufacturing is still in its infancy and the country must depend on importation for nearly all her manufactured wares; this flow of importation is conditioned by the nature of the population whose purchasing power, except for the gentry of Caracas and a few of the more advanced cities, is limited, in great part, to the barest necessities of life.
On the whole, the World War had a beneficial effect on Venezuela's foreign commerce. At the outbreak of the war, Europe withdrew her shipping and Venezuela's foreign commerce was hard hit. The year 1914 witnessed a sharp decline, but gradually in the ensuing years the figures mounted until in 1917 they were nearing the pre-war totals, only to fall off sharply in 1918. Advanced statistics for 1919, with no return from the Aduana of Maracaibo, indicate a phenomenal increase both in imports and exports for 1919 over the previous year. The value of Venezuela's total foreign commerce by years, in millions of bolivares, follows:[24]
| 1913 | Bs. 246 |
| 1914 | 184 |
| 1915 | 191 |
| 1916 | 228 |
| 1917 | 239 |
| 1918 | 179 |
| 1919 | 315 |
[24] "Alta comisión internacional," Sección Venezolana, Caracas, 1919; "Memoria de Hacienda," 1919.