The eastern countries of South America are mainly lowland plains. The llanos of the Orinoco and the pampas of Plate (La Plata) River are grazing lands. The silvas of the Amazon are forest-covered. In tropical regions the coast-plain is usually very unhealthful; the seaports excepted, most of the cities and towns are therefore built on higher land beyond the coast-plain.

Venezuela.—The greater part of Venezuela is a region of llanos, or grassy plains, shut off from the harbors of the Caribbean Sea, by mountain-ranges. On account of their pleasant climate the mountain-valleys constitute the chief region of habitation. The plains are flooded in the rainy season and sun-scorched during the period of drought; they are therefore unfit for human habitation.

Coffee is cultivated in the montane region; and cacao in the lower coast lands. Almost every part of the coast lowlands is fit for sugar cultivation, and in order to encourage this industry, the importation of sugar is forbidden. As is usual in similar cases, the domestic sugar is poor in quality and high in price. Among the forest products rubber, fustic, divi-divi,[64] and tonka beans, the last used as a perfume, are the only ones of value. The cattle of the llanos, the native long-horns, furnish a poor quality of hide, and poorer beef. A few thousand head are shipped yearly down the Orinoco to be sent to Cuba and Porto Rico.

The placer gold-mines of the Yuruari country, a region also claimed by Great Britain, have been very productive. Coal, iron ore, and asphaltum are abundant. Concessions for mining the two last-named have been granted to American companies. The pearl-fisheries around Margarita Island, also leased to a foreign company, have become productive under the new management.

The means of intercommunication are as primitive as those of Colombia. Short railways extend from several seaports to the regions of production, and from these coffee and cacao are the only exports of importance. The Orinoco River is the natural outlet for the cattle-region, but the commerce of this region is small. The lagoon of Maracaibo is becoming the centre of a rapidly growing commercial region.

Caracas, the capital and largest city, receives the imports of textiles, domestic wares, flour, and petroleum from the United States and Great Britain. The railway to its port, La Guaira, is a remarkable work of engineering. Puerto Cabello, the most important port, receives the trade of Valencia. From Maracaibo, the port on the lagoon of the same name, is shipped the Venezuelan coffee. Ciudad Bolivar is the river-port of the Orinoco and an important rubber-market.

The Guianas.—The surface conditions and climate of the Guianas resemble those of Venezuela. The native products are also much the same, but good business organization has made the countries bearing the general name highly productive. For the greater part, the coast-plain is the region of cultivation. Sugar is still the most important crop; but on account of the fierce competition of beet-sugar, on many of the plantations cane-sugar cultivation is unprofitable and has been abandoned for that of rice, cacao, and tobacco. Great Britain, Holland, and France possess the country. The divisions are known respectively as British Guiana, Surinam, and Cayenne, and the trade of each accrues to the mother-country. British Guiana is noted quite as much for its gold-fields on the Venezuelan border (Cuyuni River) as for its vegetable products. Georgetown, better known by the name of the surrounding district, Demerara, is the focal point of business. New Amsterdam is also a port of considerable trade. The gold-mining interests centre at Bartica.

Surinam, in addition to its export of vegetable products, contains rich gold-mines, and these contribute a considerable revenue. Paramaribo is the port and centre of trade. Phosphates and gold are among the important exports of Cayenne, whose port bears the same name.

Brazil.—This state, nearly the size of the United States, comprises about half the area of South America. Much of it, including the greater part of the Amazon River basin, is unfit for the growth of food-stuffs.

There are three regions of production. The Amazon forests yield the greater part of the world's rubber supply. The middle coast region has various agricultural products, of which cotton and cane-sugar are the most important. From the southern region comes two-thirds of the world's coffee-crop. There are productive gold-mines in the state of Minas Geraes, but this region is best known for the "old mine" diamonds, the finest produced.

The Amazon rubber-crop includes not only the crude gum obtained in Brazil, but a considerable part, if not the most, of the crop from the surrounding states. The bifurcating Cassiquiare, which flows both into Amazonian and Orinocan waters, drains a very large area of forest which yields the best rubber known. The yield of 1901 aggregated about one hundred and thirty million pounds, of which about one-half was sold in the United States, one-third in Liverpool, and the rest mainly in Antwerp and Le Havre. The price of rubber is fixed in New York and London.

The cotton and cane-sugar are grown in the middle coast region. The cotton industry bids fair to add materially to the prosperity of the state. A considerable part of the raw cotton is exported, but the reserve is sufficient to keep ten thousand looms busy. About three hundred and fifty million pounds of the raw sugar is purchased by the refineries of the United States, and much of the remainder by British dealers.

The seeds of a species of myrtle (Bertholletia excelsa) furnish the Brazil nuts of commerce, large quantities of which are shipped to Europe and the United States.[65] Manganese ore is also an important export, and Great Britain purchases nearly all of it.

The coffee-crop of the southern states is the largest in the world; and about eight hundred million pounds are landed yearly at the ports of the United States. The coffee-crop, more than any other factor, has made the great prosperity of the state; for while the rubber yield employs comparatively few men and yields but little public revenue, the coffee-crop has brought into Brazil an average of about fifty million dollars a year for three-quarters of a century.

Cattle products also afford a considerable profit in the vicinity of the coffee-region. The hides and tallow are shipped to the United States. For want of refrigerating facilities, most of the beef is "jerked" (or sun-dried), and shipped in this form to Cuba.

The facilities for transportation, the rivers excepted, are poor. The Amazon is navigable for ocean steamships nearly to the junction of the Ucayale. The Paraguay affords a navigable water-way to the mouth of Plate River. Rapids and falls obstruct most of the rivers at the junction of the Brazilian plateau and the low plains, but these streams afford several thousand miles of navigable waters both above and below the falls.

Nearly all the railways are plantation roads, extending from the various ports to regions of production a few miles inland. The most important railway development is that in the vicinity of Rio, where short local roads to the suburban settlements and the coffee-plantations converge at the harbor. About fourteen thousand miles of railway are completed and under actual construction. A considerable part of the mileage is owned and operated by the state, and it has become the policy of the latter to control its roads and to encourage immigration. One result of this policy is the increasing number of German and Italian colonies, that establish settlements in every district penetrated by a new road.

In 1900 the total foreign trade aggregated upward of two hundred and seventy-five million dollars. The imports consist of cotton and woollen manufactures, structural steel and machinery, preserved fish and meats, and coal-oil. Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and France have nearly all the trade. The United States sells to Brazil textiles and coal-oil to the amount of over eleven million dollars yearly, and buys of the country coffee and rubber to the amount of six times as much.

Rio de Janeiro, commonly called "Rio," is the capital and commercial centre. Its harbor is one of the best in South America. Formerly all the coffee was shipped from this port, but the greater part now goes from Santos. Porto Alegre, the port of the German colonies, has also a growing export trade.

Bahia, Pernambuco (or Recife), Maceio, CearÁ are the markets for cotton, sugar, and tobacco, much of which is shipped to other Brazilian ports for home consumption. ParÁ and CearÁ monopolize nearly all the rubber trade. The position of Manaos, at the confluence of several rivers, makes it one of the most important markets of the Amazon basin, and most of the crude rubber is first collected there for shipment. Cuyaba is the commercial centre of the mining region; its outlet is the Paraguay River, and Buenos Aires profits by its trade.

Argentina and the Plate River Countries.—These states are situated in a latitude corresponding to that of the United States. The entire area from the coast to the slopes of the Andes is a vast prairie-region. As a result of position, climate, and surface the agricultural industries are the same as in the United States—grazing and wheat-growing.

Cattle-growing is the chief employment, and the cost per head of rearing stock is practically nothing. For want of better means of transportation the shipments of live beef are not very heavy; the quality of the beef is poor, and until recently there have been no adequate facilities for getting it to market.[66] A small amount of refrigerator beef and a large amount of jerked beef are exported, however. Near the markets, there are large plants in which the hides, horns, tallow, and meat are utilized—the last being converted to the famous "beef extract," which finds a market all over the world.

The sheep industry is on a much better business basis. Both the wool and the mutton have been improved by cross-breeding with good stock. As a result the trade in mutton and wool has increased by leaps and bounds; and nearly three million sheep carcasses are landed at the other ports of Brazil, at Cuba, and at various European states. The wool is bought mainly by Germany and France, but the United States is a heavy purchaser. The quality of the fibre, formerly very poor, year by year is improving.

Wheat, the staple product, is grown mainly within a radius of four hundred miles around the mouth of Plate River. The area of cultivation is increasing as the facilities for transportation are extended and, little by little, is encroaching on the grazing lands. The wheat industry is carried on very largely by German and Italian colonists. Flax, grown for the seed, is a very large export crop. Maize, partly for export and partly for home consumption, is also grown.

The timber resources, chiefly in Paraguay and the Gran Chaco, are very great, but for want of means of transportation the timber-trade cannot successfully compete with that of Central America and Mexico. Workable gold and silver ores are abundant along the Andean cordillera; gold, silver, and copper are exported to Europe. A poor quality of lignite occurs in several provinces, but there are no available mines yielding coal suitable for making steam. There are petroleum wells near Mendoza.

Most of the manufactures pertain to the preparation of cattle products, although a considerable amount of coarse textiles are made in the larger cities from the native cotton and wool. Hats, paper (made from grass), and leather goods are also made. In general, all manufactures are hampered by the difficulties of getting good fuel at a low price.

Transportation is carried on along Plate River and the lower parts of its tributaries. The railway has become the chief factor in the carriage of commodities, however, and the railways of Argentina have been developed on the plans of North American roads. About twelve thousand miles are in actual operation, one of which is a transcontinental line, about completed between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso. Electric railways have become very popular, and the mileage is rapidly increasing.

The import trade, consisting of textile goods, machinery, steel, and petroleum, is carried on with Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium (mainly transit trade), the United States, and Italy. The competition between the European states for this trade is very strong, and not a little has been acquired at the expense of the United States, whose trade has not materially increased.

Buenos Aires is the financial centre of this part of South America. Among its industries is the largest meat-refrigerating plant in the world. The harbor at La Plata is excellent and has drawn a considerable part of the foreign trade from Buenos Aires. Rosario, Cordoba, Santa FÉ, and Parana are the markets of extensive farming regions. Mendoza is the focal point of the mining interests.

Paraguay has a large forest area, but for want of means of transportation it is without value. Even the railway companies find it cheaper to buy their ties in the United States and Australia, rather than to procure them in Paraguay. In spite of the extent of good land, the wheat and much of the bread-stuffs are purchased from Argentina. Tobacco and matÉ are the only export crops, and they have but little value. The Parana and Paraguay Rivers are the only commercial outlet of the state.

Uruguay.—Owing to its foreign population Uruguay is becoming a rich country. The native cattle have been improved by cross-breeding with European stock, and the state has become one of the foremost cattle and sheep ranges of the world. The value of animal products is not far from forty million dollars yearly. These go mainly to Europe, and so also does the wheat-crop.

France and Argentina purchase most of the exports and Great Britain supplies most of the textiles and machinery imported. The trade of the United States is about one-fourth that of Great Britain. Montevideo is the chief market and port. At Fray Bentos is one of the largest plants in the world for the manufacture of cattle products.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

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