ure, weight, and value, but he must be an accurate judge of credits and know all the side tricks. One mistake which our manufacturers make so frequently that it has become a very grave matter, is the custom of giving exclusive agencies with reckless haste, and with practically no investigation of what advantages might result from other methods of sale. Assured of the financial responsibility of some successful firm of foreign merchants offering cash up to 75 or 80 per cent on consignment, or even full payments, they will sign a contract for an exclusive agency, without any effort to find out whether there is an ulterior motive behind the proposition. A $5,000 order now and then-just enough to make a show of progress and to keep the manufacturer contentis a very cheap way of keeping a superior article out of the market. In one order many "nice American styles can be obtained." The copying of American styles is as well understood here as the American copying of Paris styles. A clever foreigner may want an exclusive agency for the sole purpose of learning these styles and suppressing competition. In one case I have in mind, where a buyer was referred to the European agency of an American house, the sale which was finally transacted through this very agency was of a foreign adaptation of the American article and not the article itself. The "special agent" will sometimes serve his principal in this fashion, instead of allowing him to adapt his goods to the foreign demand by keeping him informed of the particular needs of the market. MARSHAL HALSTEAD, BIRMINGHAM, August 13, 1898. Consul. INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES IN SPAIN. The effect of the war upon Spanish trade is clearly manifested in the returns for the month of June, 1898, compared with the same month of the previous year. There was a decline of 51,000,000 pesetas ($9,843,000) in importations, while the export trade produced. an increase of but little over 9,000,000 pesetas ($1,737,000) worth of goods, principally in raw material sought after from abroad on account of the low value of the peseta. But now that the war is over, the making of commercial treaties between America and Spain ought to be considered. Not only should products be exchanged, but various commercial enterprises should be organized. I desire to call attention to the superior quality of olive oil which is produced in certain districts of this Province of Valencia. Unfortunately, a lack of the spirit of enterprise, as well as an ignorance of trading principles, has kept this product of Valencia practically unknown to the world. Spanish manufacturers who traded only in their own country or exported to their former colonies have, through fear of competition, adulterated their excellent olive oil with inferior peanut oil; thus not only discrediting themselves, but also the reputation of their products. Soil and labor are cheap in this country, and, above all, money is cheap. Spanish money can be bought at almost half its par value, foreign exchange being at a premium of about 80 per cent. With a comparatively small capital a company might be organized which would own its olive trees, factories and other buildings, and produce a pure and excellent quality of the best refined olive oil, which, if judiciously managed and widely. advertised, would soon establish a popular brand and easily compete with oils from other countries, on account of its quality and the exceedingly cheap cost of production. Aside from the natural resources of the country, the time is favorable for a wider introduction of the products of American industry. Lack of capital is not always the principal obstruction to Spanish enterprise; utter incapacity of management is more frequently the difficulty. I have time and again during my twenty years' residence succeeded in introducing American manufactures, the superior workmanship of which was thoroughly recognized and appreciated, but which were soon ruined by ignorant handling and misuse. French capital is already in the field. While Spanish money is cheap and every industry embarrassed through want of proper management, Frenchmen have recently purchased factories and bought up railroads and tramway lines, which they run upon their own account and with their own material, returning handsome profits. upon their investments and giving this people a practical example of the energy of other nations. Concessions have been granted to men here who are financially unable to work them, and who would be eager to sell if a purchaser could be found. Opportunities are still abundant to open mines and start steam and electric railways, telephone companies, and electric-light plants in various parts of Spain, and these enterprises would be remunerative, if managed upon an intelligent basis. These opportunities should be seized before the country has recovered from its present inertia. VALENCIA, August 14, 1898. THEODORE MERTENS, CALCIUM CARBIDE AND ACETYLENE IN FRANCE. In reply to an inquiry from the editor of a New York publication in regard to the production of acetylene gas from calcium carbide in France, Consul Thackara, writing from Havre, August 4, 1898, says:* There are no official statistics bearing upon the annual output of calcium carbide, so that the amount furnished yearly by the different manufacturers has to be estimated. These estimates vary from 1,000 to 5,000 tons per year from each factory, depending upon the demand and the number of hours each establishment works. There are ten factories at present engaged in the manufacture of carbide of calcium in France. Two are at La Bathie, and one at each of the following places: Séchilienne, Froges, Chapareillan, Lancey, Notre Dame de Briançon, St. Béron, Bellegarde, and Crampagna. Four factories are undergoing construction. They will be situated at St. Etienne de Maurienne, Epierre, Serres, and Chute du Giffre. They will be able to produce, when running at their full capacity, from 2,500 to 3,000 tons per year. The wholesale price of carbide of calcium in France is from 350 to 400 francs ($67.55 to $77.20) per ton, exclusive of cost of packing. The cost of packing is 4.50 francs (87 cents) per iron drum containing 50 kilograms (110 pounds), 6 francs ($1. 19) per drum of 100 kilograms (220 pounds), and 11.50 francs ($2.22) per drum of 200 kilograms (441 pounds). The drums, when empty, are taken back by the manufacturers at the invoice price. The carbide of calcium manufactured in France is guaranteed to give 300 cubic liters of gas per kilogram. The output is constantly increasing, and the supply is fully equal to the demand. The retail price of the article is from 55 to 60 francs per 100 kilograms ($10.615 to $11.58 per 220.46 pounds), not including packing. There are two villages in France completely lighted by acetylene by the Société Franco-Espagnole du Gaz Acétylène, of No 81 Rue St. Lazare, Paris. They are Alzonne, in the department of Aude, a town of 1,506 inhabitants, and Saurat-par-Tarascon, in the department of Ariege, a place of 3,024 inhabitants. The ordinary method of introducing acetylene gas into towns, up to the present time, has been the same as that used by the coalgas companies. For the privilege of furnishing gas to consumers at certain rates, the municipality usually demands of the contracting company that the lighting of the city itself shall be virtually free. * Report was forwarded to inquirer August 19, 1898. It is claimed by the French acetylene-gas companies that the installation of a gas plant in each particular house has become so simple that the consumers will not pay an increased price for gas on account of the free city lighting, but prefer to have their own plants, thus having their light at a reduced cost and independent of the city plant. It is estimated by the gas companies that a cubic meter of acetylene gas costs 38.6 cents, but the lighting power being fifteen times that of coal gas, the same unit of light is obtained with a consumption of acetylene gas fifteen times less than that of ordinary gas. Hence, taking 30 centimes (5.79 cents) as the price of a cubic meter of coal gas, there results an economy of 50 per cent in the lighting power in favor of acetylene gas. A large consumer of calcium carbide informs me that as long as the American manufacturers do not furnish a better article of calcium carbide than they are now doing, and continue to insist upon payment in advance, there will be little chance of importing any from the United States into France. A NEW GERMAN COMMERCIAL BUREAU. An organized effort to obtain information, gather statistics, etc., has been projected in this Empire. It is under the direction of very able economic writers, has, as far as I can find out, imperial encouragement if not protection, and is very active in obtaining and disseminating useful knowledge. Its object is to assist the Imperial Government in making satisfactory commercial treaties. Incidentally, it publishes works on subjects along the lines of its labor. It has put forth four already, each remarkable for the grasp of the subject with which it deals. The first covers the British Empire and German Competition; the second, Germany and the Commercial Policy of the United States of America; No. 3 deals with the Policy Necessary to Pursue in Making Trade Treaties. Although not numbered among the organization's publications, Dr. Vosberg-Rekow's work, The Reform of the German Consular System and the Opening of Chambers of Commerce in Foreign Countries, has in it so much of what the organization is aiming to obtain and is so often advertised by the books they have sent out, that it might well be numbered 4 in the series. It would pay to have these books translated into English. They are full of facts whose significance affect us as much as, if not more than, they do this Empire. The one dealing with the United States is divided into six parts, each dealing with a particular phase of the general subject. Part I takes up our territorial possessions and their importance as factors in the growing power of the United States as a competitor of Europe; part 2 deals with the United States protective system; part 3 is given to the Dingley bill; part 4 to the Prussian-United States commercial treaty of 1828; part 5 deals with pan-America; part 6 contains. propositions for defense. The work of this bureau is well calculated to aid the Empire's industrial efforts. Taken in connection with recent actions regarding the gathering of statistics of production, it makes a system of census taking as perfect as any ever organized. CHEMNITZ, August 6, 1898. J. C. MONAGHAN, Consul. RAILWAYS IN COLOMBIA. Consul Madrigal writes from Cartagena, July 10, 1898: I inclose the annual report of the Cartagena-Magdalena Railroad Company for 1897. This company has now bought seven river steamers, with a total tonnage capacity or displacement of 950 tons. Two more are being built, with a capacity of 600 tons. It already owned three steamers of 700 tons, and will now, after the completion of the two steamers being built, have a tonnage capacity of about 2,250 tons, besides several tugs. Goods can now be shipped direct from this port to the company's warehouses at Honda, the port La Dorado being some 600 miles from here. EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF CARTAGENA-MAGDALENA RAILROAD COMPANY.* During the year 1896, both the through and local traffic increased rapidly, and it is to be regretted that this increase did not continue during the past year in through traffic as it has in local traffic. The lessened business caused a decrease in earnings of $33,226 (Colombian currency), which was more than met by a reduction in operating expenses of $77,569. The causes for this falling off in the through business are almost solely due to the lack of river-carrying accommodations, the fleet of the Compañia del Dique having been wholly inadequate for the proper performance of the service required of it. During the year the Compañia Fluvial de Cartagena was organized for the purpose of operating steamboats on the Magdalena River, and has, in the last few months, put three boats into the service: Alicia, of 300 tons; Helena, of 300 tons; and Dorotea, of 100 tons. This enterprise has been taken in charge by the Cartagena Company. The great advantages gained by the Cartagena route from the improved and *The full text of the report is filed for reference in the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department of State. |