Europe sends its wool buyers to Argentine and Uruguay. I have attended these markets and have yet to meet an American buyer representing any of our woolen cloth manufacturers. We buy much of our wool from European markets, thereby giving Belgians, French, English and Germans who have initiative and enterprise a profit on their business acumen. Is this sensible? It only adds to what each one of us pays for our clothes.
Ecuador’s chief product is cocoa. It is the largest grower of this commodity in the world. The bean is perhaps the richest and most highly flavored and is in great demand in the trade. Europe buys 80 per cent. of this article and although we are the biggest individual users of chocolate on earth, our merchants purchase but 20 per cent. direct. Then England and Germany, and even little Switzerland, turn around and sell us back—at a profit of course—fifty per cent. of what they bought in Ecuador. And we call ourselves merchants! Who exhibits the good judgment in such a transaction?
The linseed of the world is produced by Argentine and India. The small farmer trades it for supplies to the village merchant, who in turn exchanges it for goods with the jobber in the capital or seaport. To these men come the buyers for the Greek firm which practically controls this industry and purchase the seed, and we, the most extensive users of linseed oil in the world, pay our toll and tribute to the able and shrewd men who have their headquarters in Athens. Isn’t there something radically wrong here?
The alpaca gives a fine soft wool. Practically all of this material is bought in Bolivia by Europeans who manufacture the cloth which they afterwards sell us. I cannot understand why some sagacious American has not entered this profitable market.
The seasons in the southern part of South America are reversed, so that they have summer when we have winter, which means that their fruits and vegetables, melons and berries are ripe when we have snow on the ground. The apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, grapes and melons of Chile are as good as our own. A profitable return awaits the one who will forward these goods in refrigerator ships to our big northern markets.
In Colombia and Ecuador large quantities of tagua or ivory nuts formerly grew wild. They are about the size of a goose egg, or slightly larger, very hard and a dead white, protected by a thin black skin. For years no one knew what to do with them. Finally an enterprising German found that they could be converted into buttons. To-day the ivory nut is cultivated for this purpose, and forms one of the leading exports from the countries named; the shipments for 1913 amounted to over $5,000,000. The finished button is sold not only to the Latin Americans, but throughout the world as well.
Brazil is the second largest diamond producing country in the world. English companies have $50,000,000 invested in these mines, which means that the diamonds obtained therefrom pass through the hands of several Europeans before they ultimately reach the wearer in the United States. One State of Brazil—Minas Geraes—has for the past six years been exporting gold to Europe, sometimes as much as $2,000,000 a month, because Germans, Belgians and Englishmen own the mines.
Chile contains the largest known deposits of “caliche”—that is, the earthy material from which nitrate is made. This article is extensively used in the arts, in the production of gunpowder and other high explosives and also as a fertilizer. Last year she exported 50,781,241 quintals, the world’s total consumption for the same period of time being 51,296,489 quintals. I know of but one American house established in these fields. The business is controlled almost entirely by English and German companies.
We should also make a more determined effort to finance municipal and national improvements in these countries. The money lenders of Europe have been quick to take advantage of such opportunities. They proved good investments for them. We should also find them profitable, under the right conditions. In this field there are and will be for years to come great possibilities, especially in electric and gas plants, electric and steam roads, water works, sewers, and sanitations, mines and smelters. The benefits to be derived from such a source of investment are only too obvious. They give our engineers and contractors and all connected with such an enterprise an opportunity to force upon these countries our products and methods, provide permanent employment for many of our countrymen, who in return will create a demand for goods made in America. England leads the world in outside investments of this nature, having over $10,000,000,000 in various foreign lands, $5,000,000,000 of which is in Latin America. The German long ago saw the advantage of following in the footsteps of the Briton and is the second largest investor in such enterprises abroad.
International bankers when making loans to private persons or governments interested in these progressive movements always stipulated that the materials to be used should be purchased from the country which furnished the money for the development. This was a fair and far-seeing business proposition and should serve as a guide for us in our future dealings with these markets.