These figures show one or two points clearly—first, the vitality of Brazil, for as one industry has waned another has waxed, exportation values steadily showing increases in spite of the caprices of fortune; it is also plain that for the last fifty years Brazil has exported more than she has imported. In war years, this excess of exports was very much more accentuated, but, although this balance is useful in helping to steady exchange, to pay debts abroad, and to put money into shippers’ and producers’ pockets, it has the effect, when imports are greatly curtailed, of starving the Federal Government, whose revenues are mainly dependent upon import taxes.
The famous “nine principal articles” of Brazilian export were coffee, cotton, sugar, rubber, cacao, hides (of cattle), skins (of goats and sheep), tobacco, and matte (“Paraguay tea”) up to 1916. Other items which displayed marked rises up to 1918 were lard, rice, Brazil nuts, carnauba wax, manganese ore, precious and semi-precious stones, and chilled or frozen beef. Prosperity over all Brazil depends much more upon volume and variety of goods exported than upon prices, for while soaring values put large profits into the hands of the few, great volumes of products mean employment for the field labourer or collector, for transportation companies, and a host of intermediaries. In addition to increased prices, the actual volume of Brazilian exports was larger in the five years 1916–1920, rising from seven million tons in 1911–1915 to nearly ten million tons. This prosperity was due to war calls, several new items appearing on the 1916–20 lists on page [319].
| 1915 | 1914 | 1913 | 1912 | 1911 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee | 17,061,000 | 11,270,000 | 13,267,000 | 12,080,000 | 11,258,000 | bags |
| Matte | 75,885 | 59,354 | 65,415 | 62,880 | 61,834 | tons |
| Rubber | 35,165 | 33,531 | 36,232 | 42,286 | 36,547 | „ |
| Sugar | 59,074 | 31,860 | 5,367 | 4,772 | 36,208 | „ |
| Cacao | 44,980 | 40,767 | 29,759 | 30,492 | 34,994 | „ |
| Hides | 38,324 | 31,442 | 35,075 | 36,255 | 31,832 | „ |
| Tobacco | 27,096 | 26,980 | 29,388 | 24,706 | 18,489 | „ |
| Cotton | 5,228 | 30,434 | 37,424 | 16,774 | 14,650 | „ |
| Skins | 4,578 | 2,487 | 3,232 | 3,189 | 2,798 | „ |
| 1920 | 1919 | 1918 | 1917 | 1916 | ||
| Coffee | 11,525,000 | 12,963,000 | 7,433,000 | 10,606,000 | 13,039,000 | bags |
| Matte | 90,686 | 90,200 | 72,781 | 65,431 | 76,777 | metric tons |
| Rubber | 22,876 | 32,213 | 22,211 | 31,590 | 28,865 | „ |
| Sugar | 109,141 | 69,429 | 115,634 | 138,159 | 54,438 | „ |
| Cacao | 54,419 | 62,584 | 41,865 | 55,622 | 43,720 | „ |
| Tobacco (leaf) | 30,562 | 42,575 | 29,011 | 25,282 | 21,021 | „ |
| Cotton (raw) | 24,696 | 12,153 | 2,594 | 5,941 | 1,071 | „ |
| Cotton seed | 23,564 | 22,649 | 42 | 22,882 | 11,762 | „ |
| Rice | 134,554 | 28,423 | 27,916 | 44,639 | 1,315 | „ |
| Mandioca Flour | 8,660 | 21,834 | 65,322 | 18,745 | 5,370 | „ |
| Beans | 23,000 | 58,607 | 70,914 | 93,536 | 45,817 | „ |
| Brazil Nuts | 9,279 | 24,998 | 6,750 | 16,057 | 9,882 | „ |
| Hard Woods | 125,394 | 103,824 | 179,799 | 64,264 | 82,816 | „ |
| Manganese | 453,737 | 205,725 | 393,388 | 532,855 | 503,130 | „ |
| Meat | 63,600 | 54,094 | 60,509 | 66,452 | 33,661 | „ |
| Lard | 11,166 | 20,028 | 13,270 | 10,235 | 3 | „ |
| Hides | 37,265 | 56,788 | 45,584 | 39,912 | 53,511 | „ |
| Tinned Meat | 1,649 | 25,398 | 17,223 | 6,552 | 856 | „ |
| Skins | 3,966 | 5,166 | 2,215 | 3,046 | 3,840 | „ |
The preponderance today of São Paulo as a producer state is shown by her shipment values—465,212 contos out of the total exports, or about forty-six per cent of Brazilian sales. Next in values come the sales of Minas Geraes, worth 221,000 contos, and Rio de Janeiro state, with about 176,000 contos; Bahia is fourth, with exports worth over 102,000 contos; Pará and Amazonas follow with about 70,000 and 64,000 contos respectively; Paraná, 33,565 contos; Espirito Santo, nearly 30,000; and Pernambuco, with 22,600 contos, are next, followed by Ceará, shipping nearly 19,000 contos’ worth of goods, to Rio Grande do Sul, with sales worth almost 16,000 contos; the only other state shipping over 10,000 contos’ worth of goods is Maranhão.
The United States has been for many years the greatest single purchaser of Brazilian materials, generally taking rather more than one-third of all exports, Europe taking nearly all the rest, with South America also buying an appreciable share, amounting to about five per cent of the total. The coffee trade is that in which the United States is most largely concerned: for the last six years Brazilian exports of coffee have averaged over fourteen million bags, and of this the United States has been taking about one-third, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands accounting for another third, France taking from one to two million bags, and the rest of Europe absorbing the remainder. The United States, purchaser of a billion dollars of tropical and sub-tropical products in 1915–16, is an eager taker of Brazilian hides and skins, an export markedly stimulated since the European War began, important shipments coming from Rio Grande do Sul among other cattle states; she has, during the last two years, apparently been able to receive larger quantities of all Brazilian products, and perhaps the most salutary trend, for both the United States and Brazil, has been in the great quantities of raw materials taken by the northern country. These materials are the breath of life to the manufactures, and nothing is better for Brazil than increased volumes of such exports.
During 1915 the United States bought, reckoning in dollars, nearly $107,000,000 of Brazil’s total exports of over $255,000,000, while Great Britain took $31,000,000, France $29,000,000, Sweden $23,000,000 (chiefly coffee, and, in view of the disappearance of direct sales to Germany, in all probability transferred to the Central Powers), and the Netherlands $16,000,000; sales to the Argentine were nearly $13,000,000, while Uruguay took about four and a half million dollars’ worth of goods. Apparently, trading between Brazil and her South American neighbours on the same side of the Andes has been greatly increased during 1916, Argentina buying unprecedented amounts of sugar, as well as maintaining her imports of matte. During 1915, the total sales of Argentina to Brazil were worth over 89,000 contos, or something like $22,000,000, of which nearly $20,000,000 were accounted for by wheat and wheat flour. At the same time Brazil sold to the Argentine 42,226 contos’ worth (say $10,560,000) of goods, of which nearly 70 per cent was accounted for by matte sales, with 15 per cent of tobacco.
Brazilian imports show important changes in places of origin since the European War; formerly Great Britain was by far the greatest seller to this country, supplying nearly a third of the total goods purchased. In 1911 the order in importance of countries selling to Brazil were Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France, Argentina, Portugal, Belgium; in 1912 and 1913 the same order was maintained, but with Germany increasing her sales at a greater rate than Great Britain, while the United States also showed gains.
In 1914, with the outbreak of war, England still retained her top place, but with reduced values, while the United States drew second, Germany third and the Argentine fourth. In 1915, the United States sold more goods than any other country, and Great Britain came second, maintaining her command of the market in cotton piece goods in a remarkable manner, and holding over half of the coal sales in the latter item until 1916, when United States’ sales replaced the Welsh coal, whose export was then prohibited. Development of South Brazilian coal fields also helped to supply the home market to an increasing degree. During 1921–2 Britain recaptured much of her coal sales, and the share of the United States fell almost to pre-war conditions, from top place (81%) in 1920.
In U. S. currency, Brazil imported nearly $146,000,000 worth of goods in 1915, the United States selling about $47,000,000, England nearly $32,000,000 worth, while Germany’s former average of fifty-two millions was reduced to two. Many of these changes were due to the abnormal war situation, and while it could not be expected that the United States would retain an advantage due to the elimination of competitors, she was still the greatest supplier of goods in 1920, selling over twice as much as her nearest rival, Britain, or goods worth $52,000,000, in comparison with Britain’s $25,000,000. The European countries organized for overseas trading are making strenuous and determined efforts to regain the commerce built up by the transportation lines and development work financed from Europe; although they awaited the end of the war to renew these efforts. Probably the best recommendation of the United States to a large share in Brazilian imports lies not in commissions and reunions, but in her extensive purchases of Brazilian raw material.
Broadly speaking, nearly sixty per cent of Brazilian imports are manufactured goods. Large quantities of machinery, steel rails, locomotives, etc., are usually imported every year for the construction work needed in a vast and young country. Over twenty-four per cent of the total purchases are of foodstuffs with wheat and wheat-flour largely preponderant: last year one-fifth of the total imports of Brazil were credited to these two items. About ten per cent of Brazilian purchase money is paid for coal. Financial stringency due to abnormal conditions has cut down Brazilian imports in a salutary manner—and fortunately for Brazilian merchants and retailers, stores were at the outbreak of hostilities largely overstocked by the unprecedentedly large purchases of 1913, when $326,000,000 was paid for imports.