While Dutch money is used, American, English, French, German and other currency is received at the current rate of exchange. There are no government banks, but each merchant has credits in the United States or Europe and buys and sells exchange against it.
The total exports of these islands are less than $1,000,000 yearly, $300,000 representing coal brought from the United States and resold to steamers. Many straw hats made from fibre imported from Venezuela and Colombia are exported, the yearly production being about $350,000. Aloes to the extent of $70,000 and dividivi, a dye wood, to the value of $25,000, with hides, skins, and a native lace are the chief exports. Aruba ships some phosphate rock and has one small gold mine in operation. Much smuggling is done into Latin America.
This group imports about $2,000,000, $500,000 coming from the United States, $250,000 from Holland and the remainder from the leading European nations. They require flour, rice, beans, onions, garlic, corn-meal, condensed milk, medicines, oil, candles, tinned foods, soups, hams, cottons, shoes and hardware.
No duty or fees for travelers are charged.
The “Red D” (American) Steamship Line has a ship a week from New York to Curaçao, and the other islands can be reached by coasting boats from this port.
The Danish West Indies consist of three small islands in the Caribbean sea, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John, their total area being 138 square miles, with a population of about 25,000, mostly negroes, a few mulattoes and some European officials. St. Thomas, the largest in the group and about 26 miles from Fajardo, Porto Rico, is used as a coaling station for Hamburg-American ships in the Latin American trade. Its imports of $1,000,000 in 1913 are chiefly accounted for by one item—coal from the United States amounting to $550,000. Much bay rum is distilled here. The Panama Canal may revive the trade of this island, owing to its location in the lane of steamship travel.
St. Croix, with 14,000 people in its 81 square miles of area, raises sugar and cotton. They also make considerable rum.
The United States in 1913 exported $600,000 of St. Thomas’s $1,000,000 imports and $550,000 of St. Croix’s $800,000 worth of imports.
No fees are charged in these islands for commercial travelers.
American money is used here as much as Danish. There are no banks, merchants maintaining credits in New York or European markets from the sale of their exports and drawing against them. English is spoken universally.