The present chapter could hardly be more usefully completed than by adding the latest trading returns to hand from the Republic—up to July, 1911—which provide the figures for the whole of the year 1910. These show that what has been so long threatened has actually occurred—Great Britain has lost to the United States its first place upon the Imports List; while upon the Exports List, it stands fifth. Here let the statistics speak for themselves:
| 1908. | 1909. | 1910. | ||
| Imports: | $ | $ | $ | |
| United States | 1,287,452 | 1,344.316 | 1,346,598 | |
| Great Britain | 1,539,047 | 1,438,614 | 1,165,993 | |
| Great Britain | +251,595 | +74,298 | -180,605 | |
| Exports: | $ | $ | $ | $ |
| United States | 2,046,398 | 1,838,302 | 2,280,156 | +441,854 |
| Germany | 1,038,305 | 955,888 | 1,584,627 | +428,739 |
| France | 1,417,428 | 1,146,316 | 1,097,118 | -49,198 |
| Italy | 374,434 | 440,163 | 609,674 | +209,511 |
| Great Britain | 449,167 | 440,359 | 480,737 | +40,278 |
Thus, from having a surplus of trade in Salvador over all other countries in 1909 to the value of $74,298 (as against $251,595 in 1908), we show a loss of $180,605 in 1910. While the United States, Germany, and Italy all showed an increase in their purchases from Salvador of considerable amounts, Great Britain records the contemptible advance of $40,278! We may well echo Syrus's maxim: "Heu, quam difficilis gloriæ custodia est!"
CHAPTER XII
British fire apparatus—Story of a British installation—Coffee and sugar machinery—Cane-mills—Fawcett, Preston and Co.'s installations—High reputation enjoyed by British firms—United States coffee equipment—German competition—Methods of German commercial travellers—Openings for British trade—Effect of Panama Canal—A libel upon Salvador manufacturers—Salvador Chamber of Commerce.
View of the picturesque town of Marcala.
There are, on the other hand, certain classes of machinery and appliances of British manufacture which can be met with not only in practically every part of the world, but which no amount of foreign competition would seem to seriously affect. Among these specialized manufactures may be included, coffee and sugar machinery and fire-engines. The latter stand, indeed, quite alone as effective and universally known features of British construction, and I do not in any way exaggerate when I state that in no part of the world to which I have been—and that is equivalent to saying "everywhere upon the face of the habitable globe"—have I failed to see some kind of fire-extinguishing apparatus, old or new, of British manufacture. In the Central American States the reputation of such appliances stands very high, as was exemplified at the time of one of the several serious conflagrations which have afflicted San Salvador, and which occurred some four years ago, when a great portion of the capital city was for a time in jeopardy of destruction. One of the principal churches was actually destroyed, and this so affected the people that the Government determined to invest in fire-engines and necessary appliances.