These figures are remarkable for the fact that they show inter alia that Germany had in the course of twelve months ousted France from first place on the export list, and had supplanted her by an extraordinary amount of advance. To prove this I give the official figures for the first half of 1909, and which are as follows:
| $ | |
| France took goods value | 1,062,674 |
| Germany goods value | 837,040 |
| United States goods value | 636,721 |
| Italy goods value | 352,122 |
| Spain goods value | 281,961 |
| Great Britain goods value | 111,312 |
It would therefore appear that, while Germany increased her trade with Salvador from $837,040 in 1909 (six months) to $1,410,693 in 1909-10 (twelve months), France showed a decrease over the same period of from $1,062,674 to $1,043,402. Great Britain's position is so inferior as to need no comment whatever.
It will be noticeable that Germany was in 1910 the best customer to the Republic, and took fully four times as much of her produce as Great Britain. The greatest amount was represented by coffee, as will be seen from the subjoined particulars of the class of articles which were exported, as well as from the values which I add:
| Article. | Value. | Article. | Value. |
| $ | $ | ||
| Coffee | 4,661,440.98 | Tobacco (manufactured and leaf) | 9,638.67 |
| Gold, silver, lead | 560,569.64 | Lumber | 3,773.07 |
| Sugar (brown) | 222,379.47 | Rice | 3,312.23 |
| Indigo | 107,936.72 | Deerskins | 2,837.63 |
| Balsam and balsam seed | 39,187.97 | Hat palms | 2,723.21 |
| Cattle and hides | 36,167.46 | Miscellaneous | 23,247.92 |
| Rubber | 23,491.58 | ||
| Total | 5,696,706.85 |
Front of Sergeants' School, San Salvador.
That the Germans mean to thoroughly exploit the Republic of Salvador, moreover, and if they cannot secure a holding in one branch of trade they intend to try in another, or in a dozen others, is abundantly clear. In the month of September, 1909, a Treaty of Commerce between the Republic and Germany was celebrated, and so far the results have been very encouraging. Out of 463 steamers and 89 sailing vessels which visited the different Salvadorean ports last year (1909-10), during the first nine months there were 153 German, as against 245 United States, 79 Salvadorean, 74 Honduranean, and not one British bottom.