From Germany and Holland the imports, generally speaking, are of a more substantial kind again. German cloths and linens, and printed cottons from the Rhine, were at one period introduced in considerable quantities. A branch of the Rhenish Manufacturing Company was set up in Buenos Ayres in 1824, for the sale particularly of the latter articles, and the low prices at which, for a time, they were sold threatened to interfere with the demand for similar goods of British manufacture; it turned out, however, that the prices in question did not remunerate the company, and the establishment, not answering, was broken up:—the German printed cottons have been quite driven out of the field by British goods of the same description.
From the Netherlands arms, especially swords and pistols, are brought; and Holland sends gin, butter and cheese, and Westphalia hams, for all which there is a large demand amongst the natives. This trade is chiefly from Antwerp, which is the principal market for the sale of the Buenos Ayrean hides on the continent.
The importations from the Baltic consist of iron, cordage, canvas, pitch and tar, and deals.
The Mediterranean trade is principally in Sicilian and Spanish produce, of which the most important items are the cheap red wines of Sicily, the common wines of Catalonia, brandies, olive oil, maccaroni, and dried fruits, and used to be chiefly carried on in British shipping, and through British houses at Gibraltar:—latterly, however, a great part of these importations have been in Sardinian vessels, from twenty to thirty of which now visit Buenos Ayres annually, instead of three or four, as was the case ten years ago; in amount this trade is fully equal to that from France, or from the north of Europe. Had Spain at an earlier period recognised the independence of the new states, she, instead of foreigners, would undoubtedly have reaped the advantages of this trade. Nor would this have been all: the habits of the people, the customs they had been brought up in, not to speak of international ties and connexions,—all would have most forcibly tended to an active commercial intercourse between her ci-devant colonies and Spain, which would have been of vast importance to the latter:—as it is, she has waited till those habits, and customs, and ties have passed away, and till a new race has grown up destitute of those kindred feelings which naturally animated the last generation, if not hostile to her from the disastrous effects produced by her long and obstinate refusal to recognise their political existence.
Spain must now take her chance in competing with other nations, with the disadvantage of being the last in the field. The cheapness, however, of her wines will always ensure a large demand for them, especially the common red wines of Catalonia. There is also still some demand for Spanish serges, and silks, and velvets, the sewing silks of Murcia, and Spanish snuff; but, as most of these articles can be imported from France of as good quality, and at lower prices, the sale of them is very limited:—great quantities of paper also were formerly introduced from Spain, but it is now brought from other countries, especially from Genoa, of a quality which is preferred, and at lower prices. The annual importation of Spanish and Sicilian wines is from 10,000 to 12,000 pipes, and about 1000 of brandy.
The trade with the United States was long a very unnatural one, the principal article of import from thence being flour, of which the average importations for several years amounted to above 50,000 barrels.
It is not, perhaps, to be wondered at that the larger profits of cattle-breeding should for a time have superseded the pursuits of agriculture, but the inconvenience and evils of an habitual dependence upon any foreign country, particularly upon one at such a distance as North America, for the daily bread of a whole population, became at last so manifest that the legislature found itself called upon to interpose to put an end to it, and to pass such enactments as were necessary to foster and protect the agricultural interests of the native proprietors. The consequence has been that the province of Buenos Ayres, which is capable of producing as good wheat as any country in the world, has again commenced growing not only a sufficiency for the consumption of its own population, but for exportation; and in the last two or three years both flour and corn have been articles of shipment from the River Plate, chiefly to Brazil.
If we except the flour, the principal articles of import from the United States for several years were the coarse unbleached cloths of their own manufacture, called "domestics," of which, for a time, very large quantities were sent to the Spanish-American markets; indeed the very low prices at which these goods were long sold brought them into great demand in almost every part of the world where they were admitted, although now, I believe, like the printed goods from Germany, they can with difficulty compete with similar manufactures made at Manchester. Their other imports into Buenos Ayres consist of spirits, soap, sperm candles, dried and salted provisions, tobacco, furniture of an ordinary though showy description, and deals.
From the returns laid before Congress it appears that the amount of the direct trade between the United States and the river Plate from 1829 to 1836 was as follows, calculated at the rate of five dollars per pound sterling:—