credit system, because they know that the farmer—and every Argentine is something of a farmer—is accustomed to buy on credit, paying punctually at the end of every year. Thus it is, that not one Argentine importing house, that buys and sells on credit, has failed during the late intense crisis that visited the country. Crops did not fail, cattle and sheep did not fail, and these are the true savings banks of the Republic. From them it is that the people draw the money to pay their honest debts. Extravagance and wild speculation may cause a decline in the value of bonds and make the premium on gold reach the hundreds, producing a financial crisis for the time being; the country is none the poorer for it, but on the contrary, it learns a good lesson and applies itself to produce the capital which it has tried to create by speculation. This the Argentine Republic has done, being now able to export products amounting to as many millions of gold dollars as the paper money exports of former years.

The imports of 1889 and 1890, were divided as follows:

While the total reduction of imports, from one year to the other, amounted to $22,329,072, there was an increase of over $12,000,000 in the importation of construction materials for building railroads, etc. In food substances, wines, and liquors, there was a decrease of $5,000,000, owing, presumably, to a considerable increase in the home production of these articles. In cloth and ready-made garments, the decrease amounted to about $3,000,000, which would seem to indicate an increase in their home production. The same can be said of the importation of wood and its products (reduction, $4,707,446), skins and their products (reduction, $798,087), metals and their products (reduction, $1,602,149), glassware, earthenware, etc. (reduction, $2,523,123), and other articles under the miscellaneous items, the reduction of which amounted to $1,350,023. The increase of $250,000 in the importation of live animals, all of which are of pure blood, is also worthy of note.

The following statement gives the countries from which the imports of 1890 and 1891 came and the amount corresponding to each country:

As can be seen, nearly half of the total imports came from Great

Britain.

United States Consul Baker, of Buenos Aires, furnishes the following tables of imports and exports for 1891:

While there is not much difference [says Consul Baker] between the values of the exports of 1890 and 1891, in the matter of quantity the returns show that there was a decided increase. Thus the exports of wool in 1891 were 20,000 tons more than in 1890, and of wheat 68,000 tons more in 1891 than in 1890, and so with other items. The shipments of agricultural products are especially

worthy of note, on account of the rapidity with which during the last few years they have come to the front. A good wool season now and a large wheat crop in the coming harvest will do wonders in pulling the country through its

troubles.

As to trade with the United States, Consul Baker says:

The movement of trade for the last year [1891] between the United States and the Argentine Republic exhibits a very remarkable collapse. Compared with 1889, there is a decrease of $16,868,035, and with 1890, a decrease of $7,708,093. Indeed, our commerce with this country has gone back to the figures of twenty years ago. As a matter of some interest at this time, I give a table of trade with the Argentine Republic from 1872 to 1891, inclusive:

Of the prospect for developing United States trade, Consul Baker says:

From present appearances, I think for 1892 exports to the United States will quite reach the figures of 1890. The Argentine Republic, however, is a country which, for the most part, produces only raw materials—the bulk of its exports, as we have seen, consisting of wool, hides, skins, etc. If the United States have no market or an uncertain market for such articles or its fiscal laws are such that it

will not pay to ship them to our ports, it is out of the question that our country can have a very large or a very reliable trade with the River Plate. During all the twenty years that I have been at this port, I have persistently sought to impress upon our Government the importance of this fact, and have in my reports time and again suggested that modifications of such restrictions, thus stimulating a freer exchange of products, was "the key which would open a large reciprocal trade between the United States and the Argentine Republic." I can only reiterate what I have heretofore so often said, and I do so at the request of American merchants dealing with the River Plate, in the hope—which they express—that something may be done to ease up the situation and give them the chance of a market for Argentine wools in the United States. There is no doubt that it would have a marked effect upon our commerce with this country-not merely in respect to the amount of shipments from here, but, what is more important to us, in the increase of the imports hither of our manufactured goods. It is well said that "business begets business," and the opening of our markets to the wools of this country would have a direct effect, not only in strengthening our commercial relations with the people of the Argentine Republic, butwhat is always desirable-in promoting their good will and bringing them, socially and politically, nearer to us.

Upon the general subject of Argentine trade, Consul Baker makes the following statement:

So far as the present prospects of the Argentine trade are concerned, it is the general impression among business men that the situation will continue to improve. From the depths of the depression which for the last two years has quite overwhelmed the external as well as internal commerce of the country, those engaged in mercantile pursuits are beginning very perceptibly to emerge. Though trade continues, and may still longer continue, restricted, at least it is moving on better and safer lines than it was before the crisis. If commercial confidence has not yet been fully returned, at least it some time since passed its aphelion, and Argentine credit is already once more freely discussed and canvassed in business circles. The tables of imports show that the reckless overtrading of late years has given place to much greater conservatism. A year ago, it was difficult for importers and merchants to know whom to trust, and all business was implicitly done on a cash basis; the banks restricted their discounts to the minimum, and even "gilt-edged" paper was neglected in the market. Now, once more, there is a very unmistakable movement for the better in commercial circles, and the exchange is again the crowded resort of those who buy and sell. Everybody seems impressed with the idea that the worst is over, and