the loss being apparent in both imports and exports. The trade with Germany continues to expand, the increase recorded being over 9 per cent. There has also been a steady increase in the trade with Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Belgium, but a failing off in the trade with France and Russia, the imports from the latter country declining considerably, owing to smaller receipts of kerosene oil. The value of the imports of cotton goods was about 150,000,000 rupees ($48,000,000), of which the United Kingdom furnished about 94 per cent, but about $4,000,000 less than the previous year. Of this vast trade the United States got only the small sum of $32,000. In previous reports, I have called the attention of our cotton manufacturers to this market, with its vast population whose principal clothing is cotton; and the above figures show the magnitude of the trade and the possibilities of the expansion of our exports by proper efforts. There was also, during the year, a large trade in metals, railway supplies, machinery and millwork, hardware and cutlery, liquors, woolen goods, apparel, provisions, drugs, etc.; chemicals, paints and colors, carriages, bicycles, glass and glassware, stationery, umbrellas, and paper and pasteboard; the imports in these lines amounting to over $35,000,000. While these were the principal imports, there was a large trade in many other classes of merchandise. This immense trade is gradually slipping away from the United Kingdom-which has practically controlled it for the past hundred years as shown by the loss of about 8 per cent last year, and is going to other countries. As stated before, with the present direct communication with India, saving time and expense of transshipment, our enterprising manufacturers can secure a good share of this trade. CALCUTTA, June 15, 1898. R. F. PATTERSON, CANAL AND RAILWAY CONTRACT IN MADA GASCAR. I transmit herewith a clipping from the Journal Officiel, with translation, which may be of interest. The French Government has granted a concession to a French company, which has begun work. If completed, the distance between here and Tananarivo will be shortened 50 per cent; facilities will also be afforded for the transportation of passengers and freight to the various distributing points on the south and west coasts of the island. The Government at present expends annually 600,000 francs ($115,800) for transportation to the capital. The country through which the railroad is to pass is very mountainous, which will make the expenditure great; but the completion of the road will do much in opening this terra incognita. TAMATAVE, June 2, 1898. M. W. GIBBS, Acting Consul. The decree, after the formal preamble, reads: ARTICLE I. The agents of the French Company of Madagascar are authorized to enter private domains, to make the surveys necessary for the work of constructing a canal from Tamatave to Andevorante and a railway from Tamatave to Ivondro, works which were the subject of the treaty of October 6, 1897, ratified by the Minister of the Colonies and the said company. ART. II. The entrance of the agents of the French Company of Madagascar into houses without permission of the owners or of their representatives is forbidden. In other closed domains, entrance can not be effected until five days after notification to the owner, or, in his absence, to the agent of the property, the delay extending in default of a known agent, from the day of the notification to the owner, made at the office of the administrator of the province. This delay having expired, if no one presents himself to give the required permission, or if anyone opposes it, the agents are authorized to enter with the assistance either of the commissary of police, or corporal of gendarmes, or any qualified representative of public authority. ART. III. No tree can be cut down, or any damage to property done, before an amicable agreement has been reached as to the extent of the injury; or, in default of this agreement, until witnesses for both sides have been heard in order to arrive at a correct estimate of the damages. In this latter case, the final decision will be given by the Government. ART. IV. The provisions of article 8 of decree 148, November 20, 1896, concerning temporary occupations, apply to the recovery of indemnities which may be due to the proprietors by reason of injuries due to the operations of the French Company of Madagascar. ART. V. The present decree shall be posted in the chief towns of the provinces of Tamatave and of Andevorante, in place of the usual announcements, during ten days at least before the commencement of the surveys in each of these administrative districts, and should be presented at every requisition. ART. VI. Persons who, after the prescribed formalities have been complied with, resist the entrance of agents of the French Company of Madagascar into their domains shall be prosecuted in conformity with the laws, without prejudice to action for damages, which may be brought by the said company. ART. VII. The attorney-general, the chief of the judiciary, the director of public works, and the administrators, chiefs of the provinces of Tamatave and of Andevorante, are charged, each in his own jurisdiction, with the execution of the present decree. Given at Tananarivo, the 9th of May, 1898. No. 2169. THE FRENCH BUREAU OF FOREIGN COMMERCE. The French Bureau of Foreign Commerce, whose organization was reported in a former report* from this consulate, has recently been enlarged and its duties defined. A council of administration, consisting of twenty-seven members, and a board of directors composed of nine members, the latter under the direction of the president of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, were appointed on June 30, and a few days later the names of two hundred and seventeen members appeared in the Paris press. At present, these three bodies form the National Bureau of Foreign Commerce, from whose intelligence and activity France expects the opening of new and extensive channels for the products of her fields and workshops. It is contemplated that one division of this bureau will devote its attention to continental commerce, and the other, and abler one, to the colonies and the Orient. This plan may be said to be patterned after Russia, which has two foreign ministries-one for the Orient and the other for continental Europe. The French Bureau of Foreign Commerce will be in close connection with all the boards of trade in France, its colonies and protectorates. There will also be colonial bureaus, one of which was recently organized in Tonkin. It is composed of French citizens and natives appointed by the governor of Tonkin, and its duties are to find new openings for French trade and to improve the commerce of the province. If a locality is discovered where it is believed a new industry would thrive, where a railroad should be opened or a river dredged, the subject will be thoroughly investigated, and in due course of time, a report upon it will reach the Bureau of Foreign Commerce at Paris. The exclusion of all competition with France, her colonies and protectorates, is evidently one of the means to be used to advance French interests. At a meeting of the chamber of commerce of Haiphong on April 28, 1898, a committee appointed to consider a question of customs tariffs reported that "it would endanger the future of the colony to favor, in too large a measure, the Chinese commercial element to the detriment of the European or of the Anamite." "European” here means French, and "Anamite" means French interests in Anam. The report, which was adopted, declared that no obstacle should be thrown in the way of the Chinese purchasing such special articles of consumption as originate in their country, "provided that similar articles are not produced in Europe or Anam." "We have *See CONSULAR REPORTS NO. 210 (March, 1898), p. 323. applied," says the report, "the same principle to European products destined for the European population of our colony." That is to say, everything needed in Tonkin which is not produced there or int France must pay a duty. It may be accepted that this principle will be applied wherever France gains a foothold. One of the distinct purposes of the new Tonkin commission will be to create a body of natives who, by their commercial and moneyed importance, will offset the influence of the powerful mandarin class who stand in the way of every form of progress and constitute an almost insurmountable barrier to commercial development. It is altogether probable that the trade of Russia and China will receive the most attention from the newly appointed commission. The proclamation recently issued by Russia, granting free trade to the world for the next ten years in machinery, to be used in the mines of Siberia and the Ural, will be very liberally interpreted here, and under its provisions, a variety of machinery will be manufactured for the Russian markets. In response to the complaint that the French, as the only European ally of Russia, do not receive a fair share of Russian patronage, it is now announced that French firms will be permitted to compete with Russian firms for the furnishing of Government supplies. Within the last week, it has been announced that a very large reduction has been made in the Russian duties on portable engines with thrashers, fertilizers, and agricultural chemical products, and the duty entirely removed from many agricultural implements or parts of them. The manufacturers of France are preparing to reap the utmost possible benefit from these concessions. France has invested in manufactories in Russia, and there is now considerable talk of further investments in the same direction. A recent French publication, entitled La Russie Industrielle, is attracting the earnest attention of the business men of this city. I quote from it a table giving the importations into Russia for the year 1896: France Germany Total......... $656, 439 15, 792, IIO 2, 854, 148 1,646, 502 20, 949, 199 Agricultural machinery was imported to the value of $4,223, 282. Of this sum, Germany is credited with something over $1,500,000; England, $1,750,000. Germany is also credited with $2,391,185 for locomotives "à systême compliqué," and England with $1,879,802. The larger part of the total comes under the designation of “ machinery of all kinds." French investors in Russia have entered very largely into railroad enterprises. I can find no precise figures on this subject, but it is generally stated that citizens of France have placed several hundred millions of dollars in Russian railroads. The author of La Russie Industrielle says that "English locomotives have dominated the Russian market, encountering no obstacle on the part of the Russian or other foreign makes." Locomotive works under joint Russian and French management have recently been established. in Nikolaieff, southern Russia, with a capital of $100,000. An American firm is reported to meet with no competition in the manufacture of steam pumps, which are pronounced to be the best make and "infinitely superior to domestic productions.” American piping is also credited with monopolizing the market. Next among American manufactures comes agricultural machinery, McCormick in the lead. A great future is promised in Russia for French agricultural machinery, some stress being laid upon the fact that the bank advances to farmers money for the purchase of implements, provided their land is free from mortgages. In the cement industry, small shops, indifferently equipped, compete with outside producers; a fact cited as indicative of a probable opening for French cement. In imports of cotton yarn for weaving, England stands first, followed by Germany and France. France is advised by La Russie Industrielle to send specimens of her machinery and whatever her manufacturers purpose to introduce into the Russian market, to the great fair held annually at Nizhni Novgorod. Russians will not buy upon hearsay. They want to see what is offered them. They are not satisfied with descriptions or drawings, however perfectly they may set forth the merits of an article. While they regard a description or a cut as possibly correct, this will not take the place of the absolute proof of the senses; and if they are favorably impressed, the object will be sure to find a market among their 126,000,000 inhabitants. French manufacturers know that the Russian will take no risk in selecting machinery with which to develop the rich deposits of manganese, tin, copper, lead, silver, zinc, salt, coal, and iron which are found in Siberia and the Ural, and they will display the best products of their mechanical industry at the Nizhni fair. Some nations have done better than this in establishing factories and mills in Russia. Belgium's investments of this kind aggregate about $60,000,000, and Germany's $2,500,000. Americans are spoken of as "men who imitate the others without showing so much intelligence." Americans are credited, however, with having founded the Mining and Metallurgical Company of NicopolMarioupol, with a capital of $2,200,000, for the purpose of producing manganese, while there are numerous other enterprises in Russia owned by Americans not referred to in this book. The French point to many elements of wealth in the lands of |