The immediate question laid before the American arbitrators is whether or no the plebiscite should be held, and, if so, upon what terms the voting should take place. But it was further agreed, Chile cheerfully accepting a Peruvian suggestion, that if a decision should be reached precluding a plebiscite, nevertheless negotiations should be continued under United States auspices, with a view to another form of settlement.
At the time of writing, a close study is being made in Washington of the historical, political and economic aspects of the situation, and an interval of some months must take place before any decision is announced. But the outlook has undoubtedly been lightened by the very fact of amicable discussions having taken place between the delegate of the two countries, and a newer and more friendly atmosphere promises the lifting of the forty years’ old shadow.
CHAPTER VII
MINING
The Nitrate Industry.—Copper.—Iron.—Gold and Silver.—Coal.—Petroleum.—Borax, Sulphur, Manganese, etc.
International agriculturists did not begin to call for nitrate of soda until the scientific study of soils was seriously attempted and experiments demonstrated the value of this chemical as a crop fertiliser. Young countries may produce grain and fruits from soil that is almost untended, but some soils of special characteristics, and old lands cultivated for two or three thousand years, respond gratefully to the stimulus offered by supplies of nitrogen, phosphate and potash. From the time that this axiom was accepted, the West Coast of South America began to ship the product of her unique deposits overseas in big quantities.
But the nitrate pampas had been known for what they were for several hundred years before the industrial boom of the late nineteenth century; small amounts were used throughout the Spanish colonial period. This employment was confined to the manufacture of fireworks and gunpowder, some of the deposits remaining in the hands of the Viceregal Government and others being operated by Jesuits and other religious orders. The Government chiefly used the “saltpetre” in making gunpowder for firearms, and for blasting purposes in mines of precious metals; as, for example, in the silver mines of Huantajaya, some fifteen miles inland from Iquique. Early voyagers upon the coast noted that the gunpowder of Peru was better than that made in other parts of the colonies, and penalties were inflicted to prevent the illegal extraction of nitrate by unauthorised persons. Juan and Ulloa, writing in 1741, speak of the contraband gunpowder manufacture carried on near the salitre (nitrate of soda) field of Guancarama, and the efforts of the Lima treasury to stop similar use being made of the beds near Zayla. The good fathers of the religious missions had another destination for the explosive; it was used to make the immense quantity of fireworks burnt at times of festival, a custom that is not yet extinct in Spanish America.
A simple method of obtaining the nitrate of sodium from the rocky beds of mixed composition (the caliche) was employed by these early manufacturers, who used chiefly Indian workers. The whitish, hard substance was broken up into small pieces and thrown into huge copper cauldrons filled with boiling water. When the caliche was dissolved the liquor was dipped off with enormous spoons into first one and then another vat, and there it crystallised.
Exactly the same principle is the basis of the modern method. The caliche yields to dynamite charges, successor of the pickaxe; is brought to the nitrate plant (oficina), in wagons instead of being laboriously carried on the backs of Indians; the copper cauldron is replaced by a large tank, and coils containing steam at a high temperature are passed through the water; the liquor is drawn off by pipes at a carefully considered moment, and the final drying process takes place upon prepared cement floors; coal or oil fuel is used instead of wood. There is less waste of material today and the quantities produced are immense: but the ancient empirical nitrate extractors were not very far wrong as regards system.
After independence from Spain, small sales of nitrate to foreign countries commenced, for the manufacture of nitric acid; 800 tons were exported in 1830, but in the four-year period between 1840 and 1844 an average of 15,000 tons was maintained. Shipments rose steadily after the introduction of new methods in 1855, when steam was first used in the dissolving process and the construction of vats was changed from the system of 1812. By the year 1869 nitrate exports had risen to about 115,000 tons a year; in 1873 the figures reached over 285,000 tons; in 1876, to more than 320,000 tons.
After the War of the Pacific left Chile with the Bolivian fields of Antofagasta and the Peruvian beds of Tarapacá in her hands, a tremendous impetus was given to the nitrate industry. Great amounts of foreign capital were brought in, railways and ports constructed. Production rose steadily. In 1884 the export stood at some 480,000 tons; in 1888, about 750,000, while the million mark was passed two years later. The industry suffered from uncertainties at the time of the Balmaceda revolution, when the insurgent leaders held the north, obtaining revenues and preparing armies upon this vantage ground; but after the collapse of the Balmacedistas in 1891 foreign trade was revived, and at the end of the century nitrate shipments had reached about 1,500,000 tons.