A business, small in size, yet of great importance, and restricted to this locality, is the production of oil of petitgrain, a form of orange perfume, much in use in European perfume houses as a base for toilet and flavoring extracts. The essential oil is obtained in the most primitive manner and is always in great demand.
A lace peculiar to the country, called “nanduti” or spider lace, is made by native women, and if properly commercialized might develop into a paying trade.
The growing and curing of “Yerba Mate,” a native tea, used extensively in Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentine and Chile, yields considerable income, but is never destined to become an article of great international commerce. The plant or shrub grows wild. The crop amounts to about 18,000,000 pounds yearly.
Quebracho, a red-colored wood, rich in tannin, is indigenous to the country. It is used for furniture and railroad ties and the extract made from it is employed in tanning leather. In one year, over $4,000,000 of this wood alone was imported to the United States, much of it being used for paving blocks.
Thousands of acres of cabinet and other commercial woods are to be found in the forests, but are without value, owing to their isolation and lack of means of transportation to get them to the markets.
The country has some ore deposits. The principal ones are copper, mercury, manganese and iron. They cannot be developed on account of their remote location.
It therefore follows that the chief industries of Paraguay for years to come will be in the production of raw materials and in the raising of cattle for which its well-watered plains are admirably adapted. It has now about 6,000,000 head of cattle and sheep and two slaughter-houses, killing about 40,000 annually. There are two large American companies engaged in the cattle industry; also one big German firm in the same line.
Paraguay has not invited capital and inducements of this nature need not be expected for some time.
While supposedly on a gold basis, money of this metal exists only as a fiction. The inconvertible paper peso has a fluctuating value, being at times as low as two and a half cents U. S. gold, and as high as five cents U. S. gold, according to the stability of the government and local commercial conditions.
Credits should be extended with the greatest caution.