a year in freight on their coffee, through this abundance of foreign shipping. The present American line of steamers between New York and Rio is a help to our export trade to Brazil, but has small influence on freight from Brazil. Brazil's imports amount to eighty million dollars a year, of which the United States contributes nine millions. Our chief export to that country is flour; but we also send much kerosene, many locomotives, and other machinery. People ask, "Why don't we export more goods to Brazil?" Partly because the Brazilians have not the money to buy more, partly for lack of more frequent communication, and partly because they can get suited better elsewhere. There are, I repeat, twenty steamships a month arriving in Brazil from Europe to one that arrives from the United States, and goods can be got there more cheaply from Europe than from the United States. There is at Rio an American who sells the planters much machinery for hulling coffee, but who manufactures his machines in Scotland, because he can do so cheaper than in his own country. Rio consumes thirty thousand barrels of flour a month, mostly American. The bread is all made by bakers, and, though very good, it is not likely the consumption will increase rapidly, unless times become flush. The finances of all the South American countries are so depressed, their currency so depreciated, and their need for high import taxes so imperative, that we should not entertain extravagant ideas of beneficial reciprocal relations with them.

American manufactures generally have a good name in Brazil, and it stands our manufacturers in hand to continue to put conscience in their goods. A contrary course will soon wind up any trade. Brazilian importers sometimes say the Americans have such a great home market

that they don't wish to trouble themselves about exporting to foreign countries. The Brazilians have been accustomed to rather long credits, and the general impression is, that Europeans have been more ready to indulge them in this regard than our people. Americans intending to begin an export trade with Brazil, no matter how excellent their goods may be, must expect at first to make some sacrifice. It is as much as the Brazilian consignee can do to sell goods whose mark and quality are well known. It is more than he can be expected to do to urge upon customers goods of an unknown character. He will not do this, and an exporter, introducing an article whose name and character the Brazilian merchant is unacquainted with, must be content to sell it at some loss till it gets favorably known. After that he may expect to establish a remunerative trade.

Can any benefit be secured through a reciprocity treaty? The Brazilians appreciate the great advantage their country derives by the extensive import of their coffee into the United States free of duty. Most other countries, including Great Britain, impose an import tax on coffee, rising all the way from three cents to fourteen cents per pound, which last is the rate imposed by France. Its admission free of duty into the United States is substantially a donation of several million dollars a year to the treasury of Brazil, she having thereby been able to collect an increased export tax from it, amounting, imperial and provincial together, to eleven per cent. This has helped her, probably, in spite of her bad finances, to lately procure two of the most powerful ships of war that are anywhere afloat, and which are better than any the United States possesses. Although there has not been much expression of gratitude for these benefits, Brazil

would now, I am sure, promptly negotiate with the United States a reciprocity treaty, which would ameliorate our trade with her in some degree; but her financial situation is so straitened that she could not and would not grant us those benefits which ordinarily we would have a right to expect, and which would correspond with the advantage we afford her in admitting coffee free.

The tendency of Brazil to develop home manufactures under her high protective tariff will naturally cause a decline in some articles of our exports, and yet our exports as a whole may continue to increase. The number of her cotton-mills is steadily increasing. There are cotton-mills in the city of Rio run by steam with imported coal, that are paying well. A cotton-mill at Macaco, an hour by railway from Rio, which was burned some time ago, has recently been rebuilt, and has eight hundred looms in operation. It has water-power, and facilities for steampower in dry weather. It makes not only common white cloth, but colored and mixed cloths for men's cheap clothing, and is earning very handsome profits. Already there are many cotton-factories in the country, and their number is sure to increase. Manufacturing activity in Brazil will make an increased demand for machinery. As an example, there has lately been a large company formed in the province of Minas-Geraes for the manufacture of lard, which has sent to the United States an agent to purchase machinery for the equipment of the factory. Indeed, it seems reasonable that, in proportion as the industrial skill and activity of the Brazilians increase, will their general power of consumption likewise increase. Let a cottonfactory be started in a place which is now a solitude: the hundreds of operatives which it will assemble, and who will help to form the village around it, will soon

begin to wear shoes and stockings instead of going barefooted as they have been accustomed to do. Their wants will increase, and the receipt of regular wages will develop among them a power of purchase which before was almost a blank. Manufacturers help to civilize, and civilization makes trade.

I am aware of the deep interest that is felt in the United States in respect of the increase of our export trade, and especially the increase of exports to Brazil—by far the most populous and important of the South American countries. While it is desirable that every pains be taken to expand our export trade with Brazil, the situation of our trade with this country is not, however, so unfavorable as some persons have been led to suppose. We buy from Brazil about thirty million dollars' worth of coffee, eight million dollars' worth of rubber and sugar, hides, and other products amounting in all to upward of fifty million dollars, and in time of high prices sixty million dollars per annum. None of these things which we buy of Brazil are for vanity and show, but they are all useful and good for our people, because they are important elements in our industrial and social prosperity. The coffee is cheap and good, and gives cheer to the tables of the rich and poor alike. The rubber which we buy is worked up by our ingenious artisans to the great profit of our industry. Now, because Brazil in return buys only nine or ten million dollars' worth of our goods, does it prove that we are doing a losing business with her? May we not be doing a trade with her that is actually quite profitable to our people? Is it not something such a case as this? A is a large manufacturer of pianos, which he sells in different markets at a good profit. He buys the larger share of his wood and material of B, because he

can buy it cheaper of B than of any one else. Now, because B does not take his pay in pianos, is there any ground for A complaining that his trade with him is unfavorable? The circumstances are not exactly the same, but the principle is much the same, in respect of the balance of trade between the United States and Brazil.

Diplomatic and consular officers, if competent and properly sustained, can be useful in promoting trade and friendly relations. One of our ablest American Secretaries of State, Mr. Marcy, in a report to Congress, said: "The object of diplomatic missions is to adjust differences and conduct affairs between governments in regard to their political and commercial relations, and to furnish the Government at home with information touching the country to which the mission is accredited, more full and more accurate than might be obtained through the ordinary channels, or more promptly than the same information might otherwise be received." That our Government may not make an improper demand on a foreign country, and one that it will be obliged finally to recede from with loss of credit, it is of the utmost importance that it be supplied with information, in case of some sudden emergency, of a perfectly reliable character. Its representatives abroad, therefore, both diplomatic and consular, should have that position and consideration, in the places where they are employed, that they would have ready access to the very best sources of information, so that they could truly and promptly report to their Government in any sudden emergency. Access to such information requires friendly social relations with the leading and most influential people; relations which can only be maintained by character and a hospitable style of living. Unfortunately, our American diplomatic and consular