It is clear from these figures that British trade with Salvador was something considerable and well worth maintaining, having at that time approached near that of the United States of America, in spite of the great geographical advantage which the latter country possessed—and still, of course, possesses—over Great Britain or any other European country. Let us now glance at the position of affairs a few years later:
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS BY COUNTRIES, IN GOLD DOLLARS ($4.85 = £1).
| Imports. | |||
| Year. | Country. | Amount. | Percentage. |
| $ | |||
| 1904 | England | 1,304,576 | 36·1 |
| Germany | 404,422 | 11·2 | |
| United States | 1,002,437 | 27·8 | |
| Other Countries | 898,642 | 24·9 | |
| Exports. | |||
| Year. | Country. | Amount. | Percentage. |
| $ | |||
| 1904 | England | 1,482,319 | 22·4 |
| Germany | 958,533 | 14·4 | |
| United States | 1,103,030 | 16·6 | |
| Other Countries | 3,091,563 | 46·6 | |
It will be observed that Great Britain in 1904 actually led in the Republic's trade with foreign countries; but nevertheless the Foreign Office deems this fact so unimportant that it will not trouble to publish a syllable concerning the commerce of that Republic, for the information of the industrial and trading world.
The average total of the foreign trade of the Republic of Salvador may be taken as $10,600,000 (gold), or, say, £2,120,000, with a balance of $2,250,000 (gold), or, say, £450,000, in favour of the Republic. And it is when we come to analyze the imports from foreign countries that we recognize how closely Great Britain and the United States run together, and how greatly we have to fear our keen American rivals as competitors. For the year 1909 we see that—
| Great Britain sold to Salvador goods worth | $1,438,613.90 |
| United States sold to Salvador goods worth | 1,344,315.79 |
| A trifling balance in favour of Great Britain of | $94,298.11 |
—or, say, £18,859. Our principal trade was in cotton, both manufactured and yarn; while the United States took premier place in flour, hardware, drugs and medicines, boots, shoes, machinery, and agricultural implements. In these latter goods no country can touch the United States for cheapness and general novelty; but it is only fair to add that the goods are "made to sell," or, in other words, they are "cheap and nasty"—a fact which the purchasers are finding out for themselves. Until British manufacturers export something considerably cheaper than the implements and farm machinery that they supply at present, the Americans will continue to hold this market. The Germans barely as yet have made much impression with their agricultural implements. Although upon some of the fincas which I visited—mostly owned or managed by Germans—I came across some ploughs and reaping machines from the Fatherland, I was frankly informed that they were entirely unsatisfactory, and were about to be discarded in favour of some United States machines which had been offered "at one-half the price paid for the German inventions."
STATEMENT OF EXPORT TRADE TO JUNE 30, 1910.
| Country. | Value of Exports. | Country. | Value of Exports. |
| $ | $ | ||
| Germany | 1,410,693.10 | Austria-Hungary | 388,035.33 |
| United States | 1,358,868.85 | Great Britain | 352,843.73 |
| France | 1,043,402.71 | Spain | 164,907.21 |
| Italy | 584,312.60 |