Above San Fernando there are no towns on the banks of the Atabapo, though many native villages. To the south-east of the capital is the wide savannah of Santa Barbara, capable of supporting a vast number of cattle. Farther south the banks are forest-covered, and when the head of navigation is reached at Yavita the route across to Pimichin lies between giant trees, which have attracted the attention of many travellers. The watershed here between the two rivers has no great elevation, and it would be possible to excavate a canal and so provide a far shorter waterway between the two great river systems. Whether such a project will ever seem to be justified is another matter.
The great hindrance to progress over the whole of the Amazons territory is at present lack of population, for with less than two persons to the square mile it is impossible to do much towards developing the country. Apart from their natural lack of enthusiasm, the Indians have for over a century been neglected as far as education is concerned, and whether judicious action in this direction on the part of the Government would be possible or profitable one cannot say. The general tendency of the authorities is rather towards colonisation by Europeans, with due regard to the protection of the Indians. However its development may eventually come about, there is no doubt of the great possibilities of the territory, pastoral, agricultural, and mineral resources being alike abundant and untried.
CHAPTER XVI
THE DEVELOPMENT OF VENEZUELA
Commerce—Early history—Pearls and gold—The Guipuzcoana Company—The republic—Years of struggle—Separation from Colombia—Guzman Blanco—British, American, and German trade—Opportunities—Currency—Banking—Banco de Venezuela—Banco Carácas—Banco de Maracaibo—National Debt—Natural resources—Large returns on capital—Coal—Iron—Salt—Asphalt and petroleum—Sulphur—Copper—Gold—The Llanos—Stock-raising—Possibilities of the industry—The Venezuelan Meat Products Syndicate—Agriculture—Coffee—Cocoa—Sugar—Tobacco—Cotton—Rubber—Tonka-beans, balatá, sernambi and copaiba—Fisheries—Pearls—Industries—Chocolate—Cotton-mills—Tanning—Matches, glass, and paper—Cigarettes and beer—Arts and sciences—Academy of History—Universities—Surveys.
The gradual advance of Venezuela into a position of real importance in the commonwealth of nations can hardly be considered to have commenced till the country took approximately its present political boundaries and organisation, since before that time the movement in commercial dealings with the outside world had been fitful and very retrogressive.
The casual coincidence of some of the colonial and republican provinces prior to 1830 is, however, a sufficient excuse for a brief review of the course of such development as took place between the discovery of South America and the final severance of Venezuela from Colombia.
As has been seen in the sketches of the early history of Venezuela, the pearl fisheries of the Caribbean Islands were the lure which first attracted a band of settlers who, however unworthy of the title of pioneers or merchants, were nevertheless the first traffickers who carried the produce of the New World to Europe. The value of the pearls exported in the early years of the sixteenth century appears to have been very great, and equal to, if not in excess of, all the produce and merchandise shipped annually from the colony of Venezuela in the closing years of Spanish rule. After the destruction of the pearl fisheries by the reckless and extravagant exploitation of the conquistadores, the value of the exports varied according to the quantity of gold and precious metals extorted from the Indians, and little trading was carried on.
As the easily accessible stores of gold decreased, the Court of Spain sought to acquire gain in a not entirely new fashion from the colonists by selling them to the Compañía Guipuzcoana in 1728, which, at first but a chartered company with special privileges, soon obtained a monopoly, and became by its extortions the cause of the first attempt at revolt on the part of the captaincy-general. At length their rights were abrogated in 1778, and the commerce of the colony was at liberty again to develop in a normal fashion; though the continued arbitrary opening and closing of the ports to foreign nations could not but render any advance very fitful. In 1796 the imports into Venezuela during one of the “open” periods reached a total of over £600,000, and in 1810 the increasing quantity of tropical produce transmitted to the East was nearly one million pounds in value.
Though, under the republic, the commerce of the country has greatly increased, the twenty years following the Declaration of Independence were a period of great industrial depression. For the first ten years or so the war with Spain practically put a stop to ordinary trade with foreign countries; during the joint administration of the three provinces of Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador in the Great Colombia of Bolivar, Venezuela suffered in all departments of her life, until at last the union was severed in 1830, and from that date it is possible to compare the progress of Venezuelan commerce with that of other nations; for convenience this has been expressed in a diagram, the solid line corresponding to exports and the dotted line to imports. The zenith of Venezuela’s prosperity in the seventy years was reached during the Presidency of Guzman Blanco, the figures for the present day being far below these. The excess and growing excess in value of exports over imports is natural in a country rich, as Venezuela is, in easily won agricultural and mineral resources but poor as yet in manufactures and shipping; and that this is so may be readily seen from the detailed table of exports and imports for 1909-1910 given in [Appendix B].