Much of the business of Colombia is in the hands of the Germans who maintain houses at the port towns and branches at other trade centers in the interior. The English are the next largest investors, followed by the French.
Colombia in 1913 imported goods to the value of $28,535,780 and exported products worth $34,315,252. Of these amounts the United States shipped her 27 per cent., Great Britain 20 per cent. and Germany 14 per cent. Colombia shipped us 55 per cent. of her products, to Great Britain 16 per cent. and to Germany 9½ per cent. Expressed in figures we bought from Colombia $18,861,880 and sold her $7,629,000. It is obvious that we should do a much larger trade with the country, especially when it is practically next door to us. Our trade with her in textiles now is $1,500,000 against England’s $3,500,000. In this one line we should be able to make a 100 per cent. increase.
Colombia exports coffee, gold, emeralds, platinum, rubber, tagua nuts, hides, skins, feathers, bananas, hats, and requires textiles, foodstuffs, flour, kerosene, railway supplies, hardware, machinery, medicines, paper, metals, wines and liquors.
While Colombia per se does not impose a tax in order to do business within her territory, many of the municipalities do. This problem is a matter that can generally be adjusted with the leading police official of the city.
The chief cities are:
| Population | |
|---|---|
| Bogota | 150,000 |
| Medellin | 72,000 |
| Barranquilla | 50,000 |
| Cartagena | 40,000 |
| Manizales | 35,000 |
| Sonson | 30,000 |
| Pasto | 28,000 |
| Aguadas | 27,000 |
| Cali | 27,000 |
| Ibague | 25,000 |
| Palmari | 24,000 |
| Neiva | 22,000 |
| Monteria | 21,000 |
| Yarumal | 21,000 |
| Cucuta | 20,000 |
| Bucaramanga | 20,000 |
Travel is tiresome, cities hard to reach, samples difficult to carry. The country can be thoroughly covered by calling on the trade in Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bogota, Santa Marta, Rio Hacha, Medellin and Bucaramanga. The larger business houses are located at these points and have branches in the smaller cities, to which goods are shipped, and with which they are in close contact.
Colombia may be reached directly from the United States by the United Fruit Company’s ships which stop at all ports on the Caribbean Sea, or one may go direct to Colon and there transship to some vessel, of which there are many plying along the coast.
Buenaventura and Tumaco are the largest ports on the Pacific coast and are in weekly connection with Panama through the medium of small steamers.