Travel along the coast and to the cities located on the railway lines is comparatively convenient and comfortable although very expensive. In the interior and from the beaten paths it is difficult and filled with hardships.
Living is high—much more so than in the larger cities of the States or Europe. Hotels are far from the standard one is accustomed to in towns of corresponding size, throughout the world—a statement equally true of all Latin America.
At first the monetary system of Brazil may confuse one, its currency being on the gold exchange basis. A milreis is the unit of value and while it is subject to fluctuation, may for all practical purposes be reckoned as worth .33⅓ cents, or three milreis as the equivalent of a United States dollar. The symbol for the unit is $ and the value of our dollar would be expressed thus 3$000. A conto, or about $333.33 would be written 1000$000. The banking of Brazil is chiefly controlled by the British, while Germany is their closest competitor, both France and Italy being represented each by a bank. The National City Bank of New York has recently established a branch in Rio de Janeiro, with sub-agencies throughout Brazil, so that direct exchange on New York may now be bought.
Brazil imported in 1913, $326,428,509 worth of goods, of which sum the United Kingdom supplied $79,881,008; Germany, $57,043,754; United States, $51,289,682; France, $31,939,752; Argentine, $24,293,712.
In the same period of time she exported goods to the value of $315,164,687, the United States taking about one-third of the total amount or to be exact, $102,652,923; Germany, $44,392,410; United Kingdom, $41,701,815; France, $38,685,561; Holland, $23,252,700.
The United States should do a much larger trade with Brazil owing to a preferential duty allowed our nation due to the fact that we are the largest consumers of her leading staple—coffee. According to government decree No. 9323, of January 17, 1912, flour imported from the States pays 30 per cent. less duty than if imported from any other land, while dried fruit, condensed milk, typewriters, rubber articles, and supplies, scales, refrigerators, cement, corsets, school furniture, windmills, watches, desks and printing inks, pay 20 per cent. less duty than similar articles imported from other countries.
Brazil exports coffee, rubber, hides, skins, cacao, tobacco, salt, cotton, sugar, woods, nuts, precious and semi-precious stones and gold. She imports foodstuffs, shoes, machinery, textiles, building woods, ammunition, wheat, automobiles, vehicles, codfish, dried fruits, glass, toilet articles, building and kitchen hardware, cement, scientific instruments, iron and steel, enamelled ware, paints and varnish, haberdashers’ goods, cottons, hats, corrugated iron, galvanized iron, tools, condensed milk, stationery, pipe, printing material and presses, electric machinery and supplies, typewriters, nails, screws and rivets.
American fruits are much in demand in Brazil, and an excellent market exists to-day for apples. Potatoes, onions, beets, garlic and other fresh vegetables would also sell well and a lucrative trade in these necessities of life could be developed without any great effort. The refrigerator ships running from the Argentine to New York with meat could carry as return freight these perishable cargoes at a low rate.
Steamship connections between Europe and the United States, with Brazilian ports are numerous and sailings comparatively frequent and as a rule the accommodations are all that could be desired. From New York the Booth line (English) has two steamers a month to North Brazil and Amazon River towns, touching at Barbados, Para and Manaos, with a ship every six weeks to Iquitos, Peru. One steamer goes each month to North Brazilian ports including Parnahyba, Natal and nearby localities. The United States Steamship Line (American) has one vessel monthly for Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, freight being redistributed at these ports for intermediate points. The Lloyd Brazilleiro Line (Brazilian) maintains a semi-monthly service between New York and Natal, and Parahiba; and Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and Santos, with occasional service to other larger ports. These boats do not as a rule carry passengers. They also maintain a service along the smaller coast towns and the rivers leading into the interior of Brazil, even having regular sailings from Asuncion, Paraguay, for Brazilian river towns. The Lamport & Holt Line (English) has weekly sailings from New York to Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, generally stopping at Trinidad and Barbados, West Indies, on their trip north. The Prince Line (British) touch once a month at Rio de Janeiro and Santos, carrying freight chiefly. Other vessels of this line make monthly calls at Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos. Numerous tramp ships also sail from American ports on the eastern coast of the States to Brazil.
