Foreign Commerce Series 
 
 NUMBER ONE 
 
 Trading With Our Neighbors 
 in the Caribbean 
 
 B* 
 OSCAR P. AUSTIN 
 
 The National City Bank of New York 
 
T^VURING the present year, The 
 *^* National City Bank of New 
 York expects to expand its Foreign 
 Commerce Series by the publica- 
 tion of booklets, similiar to this 
 one, which shall deal with financial, 
 economic and commercial conditions 
 in South America, in the Orient, 
 in South Africa and Australia, and 
 in certain sections of Europe. 
 
Interior of the Havana, Cuba, Branch of The National 
 City Bank of New York 
 
Foreign Commerce Series 
 
 Number One 
 
 Trading With Our Neighbors 
 in the Caribbean 
 
 By 
 
 OSCAR P. AUSTIN 
 
 Statistician 
 Thi National City Bank of New York 
 
 1920 
 
sir 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 THIS pamphlet, covering the countries of the Caribbean Sea, is one 
 of a series of documents of like character which The National City 
 Bank of New York issues from time to time for the purpose of putting 
 into easy and interesting form information concerning countries under 
 discussioM, referring briefly to the history of their development and calling 
 attention to the present day commercial, financial and investment oppor- 
 tunities, more especially concerning exports and imports to and from 
 the United States. This does not suggest that trade between the Carib- 
 bean countries is or can be confined to those countries and our own, for 
 not only do the exports of our neighbors referred to find in large part 
 their market two or three times the distance to American ports, but many 
 of these imports originate in the remotest quarter of the globe. Rice 
 from Japan flows into all the Caribbean ports; Cuba draws from India 
 for bags for its sugar; and dried beef, corn and wheat from the southern 
 ports of South America enter those of the Caribbean. 
 
 In all of this The National City Bank of New York takes its place 
 through the 40 branches it has established throughout the Caribbean 
 district and by means of its comprehensive organization furnishes service 
 for all of these varied trade movements. Nowhere has a branch been 
 established with the purpose of taking business away from other banks 
 and thereby justifying its existence, but only in such cities or ports of 
 sufficient importance as to warrant another bank's establishment. These 
 branches soon become a vital factor in the commercial and financial life 
 of the country where they are located, and such business as comes from 
 competitive institutions does so as a result of more adequate facilities 
 or better service. 
 
 The opportunities in the Caribbean for our exporters and importers 
 are of steadily increasing importance. The vast virgin territory back of 
 the northern part of Colombia and Venezuela holds forest products, 
 mineral and agricultural wealth of great magnitude. Cuba, although 
 producing this year upwards of 4,000,000 tons of sugar, possesses an 
 undeveloped productive power beyond what was dreamed of in the old 
 days of the Spanish dominion when it was little realized what fruitful 
 fields the wilderness would become. Porto Rico produces nearly three 
 times what it did prior to the Spanish war and at that time it was believed 
 that the maximum production had been attained. On the contrary, it has 
 but begun and the development to come in the Caribbean countries will 
 
furnish a stronger contrast than exists today. And so on through the 
 Western, Windward and Leeward Islands and all down the Spanish Main 
 are opportunities for selling, for buying, for development and for pro- 
 ducing the commodities needed for the world's consumption. 
 
 In this development, this exportation and importation, and in the 
 cultivation of closer business relations and friendships, The National 
 City Bank of New York takes an active part and provides for its clients 
 at home and abroad the most efficient credit, trade and general banking 
 facilities furnishing a world wide service through its world wide 
 organization. 
 
 JOHN H. ALLEN, 
 
 Vice-Prwident 
 The National City Bank of New York 
 
I 
 
 The Caribbean and the 
 
 Gulf of Mexico 
 The " American Mediterranean 
 
 > > 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 The Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico 
 The " American Mediterranean" 
 
 THE Caribbean Sea and its companion body of water, the Gulf of 
 Mexico the "American Mediterranean" with its islands and the 
 countries fronting upon it, is an extremely important area, especially 
 to the people of the United States. As a body of water, this area is about 
 fifty per cent, larger than the Mediterranean, with a much larger number 
 of islands and a continental frontage with much greater promise as to the 
 future producing power than that of the Mediterranean of Europe. Its 
 land area, exclusive of United States territory, is 2,000,000 square miles, 
 its population 40,000,000 and its commerce approximately $2,000,000,000 
 annually. 
 
 The Caribbean proper occupies that part of the ocean bed lying im- 
 mediately north of South America and at the east of Central America. 
 Its northern and eastern boundary is considered by geographers as identical 
 with the West Indian Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Porto Rico 
 and the Antilles group. The Gulf of Mexico, which lies immediately north 
 of the Caribbean and occupies the southern frontage of the United States, 
 is, however, so closely related to the Caribbean proper that they may be 
 properly considered in conjunction in a study of the oceanic area lying 
 between North and South America. 
 
 These two bodies of water, nearly identical in size, are in combination 
 about 1,500,000 square miles. The oceanic currents which enter at the 
 eastern end of the Caribbean flow its entire length, passing thence into 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and along its northern frontage move again into 
 the narrow passage between Florida and Cuba, then out into the Atlantic, 
 carrying the warmth of the tropical zone across that great body of water 
 to the countries of northwestern Europe and thus moderating their 
 climate and increasing their products. 
 
 Tropical Currents in the Caribbean 
 
 These warm tropical currents, which enter the Caribbean at the east 
 end, and move through its entire length of 1000 miles, passing thence 
 between the peninsula of Yucatan and the western end of Cuba into the 
 Gulf of Mexico and thence between Florida and Cuba into the Atlantic, 
 are extremely important factors in the producing power of the islands 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 and countries fronting upon both the Caribbean and its sister body of 
 water, the Gulf of Mexico. These great ocean currents, resulting from the 
 action of the trade winds upon the surface of the water during untold 
 centuries, and which trade winds in turn result from the rapidity of the 
 eastern movement of the earth's surface in the vicinity of the Equator, 
 flow across the Atlantic from the southwestern coast of Africa and in a 
 lesser degree from the northwestern coast of that continent, and in that 
 long voyage across the Atlantic in the tropical regions enter the Caribbean 
 at a high temperature, while they are still further heated during their 
 slow passage through that sea and in their further stay in the Gulf of 
 Mexico. 
 
 The presence in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico of this vast body 
 of water at an extremely high temperature, coupled with the presence of 
 air currents from the tropical areas of the Atlantic and charged with a 
 high degree of moisture, gives to the entire land area within or fronting 
 upon the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, unique conditions of produc- 
 tion, a dependable high temperature, coupled with a dependable supply 
 of moisture in the atmosphere. 
 
 Garden Spot of the Tropics 
 
 As a consequence, the score of islands scattered through this American 
 Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and the land area 
 immediately fronting upon that body of water, exceeds that of any like 
 area in its power of the production of many articles of tropical growth 
 which are greatly required by man; making this area, in fact, the Garden 
 Spot of the Tropical World. 
 
 And this unique condition of climate, air currents and producing power, 
 is a permanent one. So long as the earth continues to revolve towards 
 the east and the air currents continue to flow across the Atlantic towards 
 the west, the "American Mediterranean," the Caribbean and the Gulf of 
 Mexico, will give to its adjacent land surface an absolute power to produce 
 untold quantities of certain great products required by man sugar, 
 coffee, cacao, rice, tobacco, tropical fruits, cocoa and other oil nuts, sisal, 
 cotton, rubber, and many important tropical forest products. Untold 
 quantities of these tropical growths, which man now requires in constantly 
 increasing supplies, can be produced in increasing quantities in this area 
 with its unique combination of a fruitful soil, a plentiful moisture supply, 
 and a dependable temperature, created by this never-ceasing flow of trop- 
 
 9 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 ical currents of air and water, accumulating their heat in passing through 
 the Atlantic in the equatorial regions, and distributing them equally and 
 with unfailing regularity to the adjacent land. 
 
 Future Producing Power of the Region 
 
 What wonder, then, that we find this land area, consisting of the West 
 Indian Islands, the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America and Mex- 
 ico having already an annual commerce of approximately $2,000,000,000. 
 And the conditions of today are only the beginning as to the present 
 producing power of this wonderful area lying within or fronting upon the 
 "American Mediterranean." The area of the thirty islands and countries 
 lying within or adjacent to the waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of 
 Mexico is about 2,000,000 square miles, its present population approxi- 
 mately 40,000,000, its 1918 imports $700,000,000, and its exports 
 $900,000,000 in value. 
 
 Its commerce in 1919 will, in view of the large and recent increase 
 in prices of its chief products coffee, sugar, cacao, rubber and hides 
 doubtless show a large gain over 1918 and bring the grand total of its 
 international trade to the two billion dollar line. The imports will 
 approximate one billion and the exports considerably more than one 
 billion. 
 
 Perimeter of the Basin 
 
 The perimeter of this great basin, including and fronting upon the 
 Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, is wholly mountainous except at the north, 
 or the southern frontage of the United States. The mountain chain which 
 stretches across the northern part of South America from the southern 
 boundaries of the Guianas to Venezuela in conjunction with the mountain 
 system of Columbia, include nearly all of those three areas, the Guianas, 
 Venezuela and Columbia, within the Caribbean Basin and that of the 
 Atlantic closely adjacent thereto, though a part of the area of Columbia 
 falls within the head waters of the Amazon. 
 
 At the west, the mountain chain which characterizes all of Central 
 America and extends from the western part of Mexico to the border of 
 the United States, throws nine-tenths of that area within the basin of 
 the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. At the east, the lines of islands 
 known as the Antilles, and more closely designated as Cuba, Jamaica, 
 Haiti, Porto Rico and the Leeward and Windward Islands, are the mere 
 tops of a great mountain chain stretching from the northern coast of 
 
 10 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 South America to within a comparatively short distance of the southern 
 coast of the United States, which, although partly submerged, forms the 
 eastern frontage of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The area of the countries and islands bordering upon, and the islands 
 lying within this body of water (previously approximated at two million 
 square miles), is equivalent to two-thirds of that of the United States, 
 exclusive of Alaska. The population of 40,000,000 is approximately two- 
 fifths that of the United States. Of the region's imports of $700,000,000 
 in 1918, $500,000,000 worth were drawn from the United States and of 
 the exports of $900 ; 000,000, about $650,000,000 worth were sent to the 
 United States. All of these figures are, of course, in very round terms. 
 
 "Submerged Alps" 
 
 Below the surface of this great water area, lies, according to a recent 
 authority, "a configuration which, if it could be seen, would be as pic- 
 turesque in relief as the Alps or Himalayas." Nowhere can such contrasts 
 of relief be found within a short distance. Some deeps vie in profundity 
 with the altitudes of the Andes; some, like the Bartlett Deep, are narrow 
 tracts only a few miles in width, but many miles long and three miles in 
 depth, a border of steep precipices and long ridges beneath the waters 
 which, if elevated, would stand up like the islands of today. Other vast 
 areas of this inland sea are underlain by shallow banks often approaching 
 the surface of the water like that extending from Jamaica to Honduras 
 and the great islands within that area are bordered in places by submerged 
 shelves. 
 
 All of the islands lying within this area, then, are to be regarded from 
 a physiographical point of view, "the tops of a varied configuration which 
 has its greatest relief beneath the sea and is populated by untold millions 
 of animal forms including phosphorescent creatures," and in certain places 
 "dense forests of pentacrini undulate on the bottom like aquatic plants," 
 while on the submerged banks and in the shallows, coral and polyps are, 
 according to a recent issue of the Encyclopaedia Americana "employed 
 as actively now as ever in extracting the lime carried by the sea water 
 to complete their shelves of coral which are so largely a part of the rock- 
 making material in all this region from Yucatan to Porto Rico." 
 
 The importance of this Caribbean area, including that of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, which is really a part of the same body of water, and must, there- 
 fore, be considered in conjunction with it, is of special interest to the United 
 
 11 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 States, which has the largest frontage upon this area and enjoys a very 
 large and constantly growing proportion of this trade. All of the land 
 areas within or fronting upon this body of water are, except as to the 
 United States, tropical; and the United States is the world's largest 
 purchaser of tropical products, while the forty million people within this 
 tropical area consume large quantities of the products of the temperate 
 zone. 
 
 A Highway of Commerce 
 
 As a route for commerce, this great inland sea is unique and of growing 
 importance. Lying between the two great oceans of the world, the Atlantic 
 and Pacific, now connected by the Panama Canal, it is the highway for 
 a very large proportion of the commerce passing by vessel between those 
 great bodies of water which carry the bulk of the world's water-borne 
 commerce, while it now carries also a very large and rapidly increasing 
 proportion of the trade between North and South America. 
 
 Formerly, the vessels entering this sea came only from the Atlantic, 
 completed their tour of the coast cities and emerged again into the Atlantic. 
 Now, however, with the completion of the Panama Canal, they may use 
 the waters of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico as part of a great highway 
 between those two great oceans; also, as circumstance may require, 
 between the ports fronting upon the area in question. Formerly, more- 
 over, much of the merchandise between North America and South America 
 passed back and forth by way of the European ports of the Atlantic, while 
 whatever of traffic occurred between the western coast of South America 
 and the eastern cities of the United States was compelled to utilize our 
 own Pacific ports and transfer its merchandise by rail across the con- 
 tinent or send it long distances around the southern tip of South America 
 and thence to the eastern frontage by the Atlantic route. 
 
 Now, with the Panama Canal in existence, by which the western ports 
 of South America may communicate in an almost direct line with the 
 eastern ports of North America, the traffic routes between the two conti- 
 nents are greatly shortened and the trade consequently greatly increased, 
 as is evidenced by the fact that our trade with the west coast of South 
 America is nearly $300,000,000 per annum as against about $75,000,000 
 a decade ago. The trade with the eastern coast of South America, of which 
 a much smaller proportion now passes by way of Europe than was formerly 
 the case, has also greatly increased. 
 
 Relations between the United States and the Caribbean Islands and 
 
 12 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 countries have always been of a close and most friendly character. The 
 intervention of the United States in the long boundary dispute between 
 Great Britain and Venezuela, culminating in 1895 during the adminis- 
 tration of President Cleveland, followed by other interventions in behalf 
 of that country by President Roosevelt in 1903, are among the many 
 incidents evidencing the genuine friendship of the United States for its 
 immediate neighbors at the south. To this should, of course, be added 
 the intervention in behalf of Cuba during the term of President McKinley 
 which resulted in the establishment of that island as a republic; the inter- 
 vention of President Taft to terminate a revolution in Nicaragua, followed 
 by the retention under President Wilson of forces in that country for the 
 preservation of order and a similar attitude toward the Dominican Re- 
 public and the supervision now exercised over the custom service and the 
 observance of the law in both Santa Domingo and Haiti, while the cordial 
 relationship between the United States and Panama further illustrates 
 this friendly and neighborly attitude of the United States toward this 
 entire area. 
 
 Why Development Has Been Dwarfed 
 
 The chief drawback in the former development of this area has been: 
 (1) Lack of man-power for production; 
 (2) Lack of animal production for transportation; 
 (3) Lack of capital for development. 
 
 All these are now likely to be supplied with much greater rapidity 
 than in the past. The Caribbean area was the first part of America to be 
 studied and explored, yet its progress in the matter of development of its 
 producing possibilities has been extremely slow as compared with other 
 parts of the continent and especially that of the temperate zone, both 
 north and south. The reason for this slow development of the Caribbean 
 area is due to climatic conditions. Labor in the tropics is difficult to obtain, 
 difficult to develop as to its producing power and, therefore, difficult to 
 utilize as a factor in producing the natural products of the land or forests 
 or mines. The enervating conditions in the tropical climate and the 
 ease with which a comparatively small amount of labor will produce the 
 actual requirements of an individual minimize the activities of the average 
 tropical man and thus retard the development of the producing power 
 of the land in agriculture, forestry and mining. 
 
 is 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 The difficulty of transportation is also equally great. The animals 
 which aided man in developing the temperate zone the horse and ox 
 can no more perform full service in the tropics than can man himself, 
 and as a consequence, their service has been lacking both in cultivating 
 the land and transporting products to the water's edge, where it might 
 take ships for the other parts of the world. As a consequence of this lack 
 of producing and transporting power, there has been little incentive to 
 construct railroads to connect the interior area with the water's edge, 
 and in all of the 2,000,000 square miles included within the Caribbean 
 Islands and countries fronting thereon, there now exists but 23,000 miles 
 of railroads or less than those of France, whose area is about one-tenth 
 of that of the countries and islands under consideration. In the absence 
 of the power to develop the soil and mines and forests or to transport 
 their products to a common carrier, there has been no incentive to create 
 the common carriers which would connect the interior with the water's 
 edge. 
 
 Influence of the Internal Combustion Engine 
 
 But now all these adverse conditions have been changed, and chiefly 
 by the lessons that man has learned in very recent years and especially 
 during the war period, to utilize the power of internal combustion engines 
 for transportation on land and through the air, by the automobile, the 
 truck and the flying machine, and also to utilize this same power in farm 
 tractors for cultivating the land and, in a modified form, for the develop- 
 ment of forests and mines. As a consequence, a given quantity of labor 
 may now produce many times that prior to the introduction of this aid 
 to production, and its transportation may be accomplished through areas 
 in which the horse or ox could not prove available, while the flying 
 machine enables exploration in the greatest detail and the study of new 
 and undeveloped areas, and even aids to a considerable extent in the trans- 
 portation of the lighter articles, and the inter-communication between areas 
 which formerly could only communicate by slow and toilsome journeys. 
 
 These new conditions will not only themselves greatly stimulate the 
 producing power of the Caribbean area but will at the same time, through 
 the aid which they render in the production of articles greatly demanded 
 the world over, attract capital from the temperate zone, both for the devel- 
 opment of new industries and the construction of transportation lines to 
 connect the interior with the seaboard. As a consequence of these new 
 conditions and of the lessons learned during the war as to the possibilities 
 of the internal combustion engine, the whole tropical territory seems likely 
 
 14 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 to be the next section of the globe to receive the attention of man from the 
 standpoint of new producing power and utilization of capital accumulated 
 in the temperate zone. And of all the tropical areas, this fronting upon the 
 Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico seems most likely to receive prompt 
 attention, since its high producing power per acre or per square mile is 
 already recognized and also by reason of the fact that its products are of a 
 class of merchandise especially demanded in comparatively near areas 
 sugar, coffee, cocoa, India rubber, balata, tobacco, sisal, cocoanuts, and 
 other growths suited for the productions of vegetable oils, timber of a 
 high grade, dye woods, fruits and also great possibilities in the production 
 of food animals, especially cattle. 
 
 Growth of Our Trade With Caribbean Countries 
 
 The growth of trade between the United States and the land area 
 fronting upon the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico has been rapid, especially 
 in recent years. It totalled in 1900, $195,000,000, in 1910, $392,000,000, 
 in 1919, $1,005,000,000. The imports from the countries in question 
 were in 1900, $100,000,000, in 1910, $223,000,000, in 1919, $520,000,000, 
 and the exports to those countries and islands in 1900, $95,000,000, in 
 1910, $169,000,000, and in 1919, $485,000,000. 
 
 Not only is our trade with the countries in question growing rapidly, 
 but the share which we supply of their imports is steadily increasing in 
 practically all cases. The share supplied by the United States of the 
 imports to Cuba, as shown by the official figures of that government, 
 was in 1914, 58%. in 1918, 76%; of Santo Domingo in 1913, 62%, in 1918, 
 93%; of Haiti in 1913,59%, in 1919,90%; of Mexico in 1913, 48%, in 
 1919, 85%; of Colombia in 1913, 28%, in 1919, 49%; of Venezuela, in 
 1914, 43%, in 1918, 50%, in Costa Rica, in 1914, 53%, in 1918, 61%; 
 Guatemala, in 1913, 50%, in 1918, 66%; of Honduras, in 1914, 79%, in 
 1918, 82%; of Nicaragua, in 1914, 62%, in 1918, 71%; Panama in 1914, 
 41%, in 1918, 87%; of Salvador (which, while not fronting upon the Carib- 
 bean, is so closely associated with the other Central American countries 
 as to justify its inclusion in this discussion), in 1914, 41%, in 1918, 65%. 
 
 These facts as to the producing power, present and prospective, of 
 the land area touching the waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico 
 are especially important to the United States, both as to the present and 
 in the future. All of this area just described the islands of these tropical 
 waters and the lands fronting upon it produces, almost exclusively, 
 
 15 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 tropical growths : sugar, coffee, cacao, tobacco, fruits, nuts, sisal, cotton, 
 rubber, balata, cabinet woods, dye woods, cocoanuts, and many other 
 oil nuts and seeds, as well as many other articles which the temperate 
 zone demands must have, in fact. In exchange they must have certain 
 temperate zone products, meats, bread-stuffs, clothing, and manufactures 
 of all kinds, for the manufacturing industries do not thrive in the tropics. 
 As a consequence of this condition, the Caribbean countries must look to 
 some part of the temperate zone as a market for their products and also 
 as a market in which to buy their requirements of food and clothing and 
 manufactures, and they naturally prefer to sell their goods in the nearest 
 possible markets and to purchase their requirements in the nearest possible 
 markets. 
 
 U. S. Is the Caribbean's Great Marketplace 
 
 Such a market for their products and for supplying their requirements, 
 they find in the United States, the nearest temperate zone area, one already 
 densely populated, the United States having already a population of over 
 100,000,000 with a high per capita consuming power arid large produc- 
 tions of those articles which the tropics must have wheat, corn, meats, 
 cotton goods and miscellaneous manufactures. Not only can vessels from 
 their ports reach the mainland of the United States in a few hours' time, 
 but rail cars loaded in any part of the United States now pass by car 
 ferry to Cuba, the largest island in that body of water, without breaking 
 bulk, and after unloading their goods in that island, load again with Cuban 
 products, pass the loaded cars into the United States and discharge their 
 freight thousands of miles into the interior, without breaking bulk en 
 route. This system can easily be extended to the other islands. Similar 
 conditions exist as to rail merchandise passing by rail across the Rio 
 Grande into Mexico, thence into Central America; while steamships 
 from every port of the United States, whether on its eastern or western 
 coast, now pass through the Panama Canal, touching any port of this 
 great tropical area. 
 
 It is not surprising then, when we study the trade relations of the 
 temperate zone United States, with these extremely tropical areas of the 
 Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, to find that nearly three-fourths of 
 the trade of that area is already with this country. The exports of the 
 thirty islands and countries touching the waters of the Caribbean and the 
 Gulf of Mexico (exclusive of the United States frontage), aggregated 
 in the year 1918, $900,000,000, and 70% of that was sent to the United 
 
 16 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 States. Their imports aggregated in that year $700,000,000 and 71% 
 thereof was drawn from the United States, and the trade with the United 
 States is rapidly growing. 
 
 Cuba, for example, which sold to us less than $100,000,000 worth of 
 merchandise in 1909, sent us $400,000,000 worth in 1919. Our sales to 
 her in exchange grew from $43,000,000 in 1909 to $270,000,000 in 1919. 
 Haiti and Santo Domingo sent us in 1909 $4,000,000 worth of merchandise 
 and in 1919 nearly $25,000,000, and our sales to that island meantime in- 
 creased from $7,000,000 in 1909 to $35,000,000 in 1919. 
 
 The Central American States, fronting upon the Caribbean, sent us 
 in 1909, $12,000,000 worth of merchandise and in 1919, $45,000,000, and 
 we sold to them (exclusive of the material sent to our Canal Zone) 
 $8,000,000 in 1909 and $25,000,000 in 1919. Colombia sent us in 1909 
 $7,000,000 of her products and $38,000,000 in 1919, and our sales to her 
 increased from $4,000,000 in 1909 to $20,000,000 in 1919. Venezuela 
 sent us in 1909, $8,000,000 worth of her products and in 1919, $30,000,000, 
 and our exports to her meantime grew from $3,000,000 value in 1909 to 
 $13,000,000 in 1919. 
 
 Our next door neighbor, Mexico, which fronts upon both the Carib- 
 bean and the Gulf of Mexico, sent us in 1919, $48,000,000 worth of mer- 
 chandise, and despite the unsettled conditions which have prevailed in 
 that country in recent years, increased it to $148,000,000 in 1919, while 
 our own sales to her increased from $50,000,000 in 1909 to $131,000,000 
 in 1919. 
 
 The Region Is Also Buying From Us More Heavily 
 
 Not only has the purchasing power of these Caribbean Islands and 
 frontages greatly increased in recent years, but the share of their imports 
 which they are taking from the United States has also increased. Ten 
 years ago, Cuba was taking but about one-half of her imports from the 
 United States; now she takes 75%. 
 
 In the Central American group the share taken from this country then 
 ranged from 30 to 68%; now it ranges from 60 to 90%. Colombia, which 
 took 34% of her imports from the United States in 1909, took 50% from 
 us in 1919. Venezuela took 29% of her imports from us in 1909 and 50% 
 in 1919. Haiti, which took 64% of her imports from us in 1909, took 
 90% of the greatly increased importation in 1919. The Dominican 
 
 17 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 Republic increased the imports which she took from us from 56% in 1909, 
 to 93% in 1919. On our own side, we also increased our purchases from 
 all of these islands and countries, for with the growth in demand for tropical 
 products, either as food or manufactures, we are leaning more heavily 
 than ever before upon our neighbors in this immediately adjacent territory. 
 
 Exchanging Raw for Finished Products 
 
 Still another reason for a desire on our part to trade with the Carib- 
 bean countries, lies in the fact that they turn out what we most desire 
 to purchase, manufacturing material and tropical foodstuffs, and take 
 from us what we most desire to sell manufactures. We are not anxious 
 to sell our natural products. Our wheat, and corn, and meats, and raw 
 cotton, and copper, and timber sell themselves. The world wants them 
 and comes to our doors begging for them. 
 
 The class of products which we especially desire to sell is manufactures, 
 for up to the beginning of the war we had only begun the exportation of 
 manufactures, while Europe, with its old manufacturing facilities, was 
 controlling its world markets for manufactured products; but with the 
 enormous increase in our outturn of manufactures, we have developed a 
 desire to find markets abroad, and this class of markets the tropical 
 world opens to us and especially the nearby tropical areas lying within 
 or fronting upon the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. A close exam- 
 ination of our trade with them shows that manufactures form more 
 than 80% of the total merchandise sent to them. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that the business public of the United 
 States, the manufacturers, the farmers, the exporters and importers, the 
 people engaged in transportation, and the people supplying funds for all 
 these industries the banks have become intensely interested in con- 
 ditions present and prospective of the industries, transportation and finance, 
 in the countries referred to. This interest in our nearby tropical neighbors 
 is evidenced by the fact that The National City Bank of New York has 
 established within the countries and islands above mentioned no less 
 than forty branches within the last five years. 
 
 18 
 
II 
 
 The Caribbean Countries. 
 
 Their Production, 
 Population, Commercial 
 
 Characteristics and 
 Business Opportunities. 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 The Caribbean Countries 
 
 Their Production, Population, Commercial Characteristics 
 and Business Opportunities 
 
 THE discussion which follows presents in condensed form the more 
 important facts regarding the score of islands and countries lying 
 within, or bordering upon, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. 
 Statistical statements regarding their commerce, and especially that 
 with the United States, for a considerable term of years, are presented in 
 tables following this discussion regarding their respective characteristics 
 and the opportunities which they respectively offer for commerce and 
 industrial development of a character likely to increase commercial 
 opportunities. These discussions, covering so large a number of countries 
 and islands, are necessarily in condensed form, though further details 
 which may be desired can be had by application to the Statistical Depart- 
 ment of The National City Bank of New York. The discussions as to the 
 respective countries and islands are presented, as a matter of convenience 
 for reference, in alphabetical form. 
 
 Antilles The entire group of islands occupying the eastern frontage 
 of the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico area is frequently designated 
 as the Antilles, and this title is sub-divided by including as the Greater 
 Antilles the islands of Cuba, Haiti, Porto Rico and Jamaica, while the 
 chain of smaller islands and islets stretching from Porto Rico southward 
 in a semi-circular form to the coast of South America is designated as the 
 Lesser Antilles. This second group is further sub-divided into Leeward 
 Islands and Windward Islands. 
 
 This designation of the islands of this great American sea as the 
 Antilles came into use immediately following the discovery of America 
 by Columbus. For a long time before the actual discovery of the New 
 World, the charts purporting to represent world conditions gave to this 
 then unexplored section of the globe an undefined land area under the 
 title of Antilia, figuring sometimes as a continuous body of land and 
 in other cases as an archipelago, and fluctuated in the various charts 
 in its relation to the other land bodies, but was pictured as somewhere in 
 the mid-ocean between the Canaries, off the west coast of Europe, and 
 India. 
 
 20 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 When, however, the actual discovery of America was announced, 
 first its islands and then the adjacent continental lands, the entire area 
 was referred to as the Ant ilia and was so pictured upon world charts, 
 but when a further exploration developed the fact that the area first touched 
 consisted of a chain of islands, the entire group received the designation 
 of the Antilles, and later when its details were known, the total was 
 sub-divided, the larger islands being designated as the Greater Antilles 
 and the smaller islands the Lesser Antilles. 
 
 The entire number of islands and islets in the chain stretching from 
 Porto Rico to Venezuela is several hundred but those inhabited and of 
 sufficient importance to be considered from the commercial standpoint 
 are a score in number. 
 
 The Leeward group, the northerly half of the chain, includes our 
 own recently purchased Virgin Islands, which lie just off the eastern 
 coast of Porto Rico; then, following the chain southward, the islands 
 of St. Kitts-Nevis (with Anquilla), Antigua (with Barbuda and Redonda), 
 Montserrat, Guadeloupe and Dominica. 
 
 The Windward group, which stretches still further south to within a 
 short distance of the coast of Venezuela, includes Martinique, Santa 
 Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Tobago and Trinidad, lying 
 still further south and very near to the coast of Venezuela, are not usually 
 classed as a part of the Windward group. 
 
 Practically all of this chain of islands and islets stretching from Porto 
 Rico to Venezuela is British territory, except our own Virgin Islands 
 and the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which lie at about 
 the center of the chain, Guadeloupe falling within the northern group 
 known as Leeward, and Martinique in the more southerly group known 
 as Windward. 
 
 The area of the Leeward Islands as a whole is about 1,000 square 
 miles, and that of the Windward Islands approximately 750 square 
 miles. The population of the Leeward group is about 150,000, and of the 
 Windward about 200,000. 
 
 The importations of the Leeward group amount to about $5,000,000, 
 and those of the Windward Islands to about a like sum, while the exports 
 are in each case about equal to the imports, making the total trade of 
 this Lesser Antilles group about $20,000,000 per annum, of which approxi- 
 mately one-half is with the United States. 
 
 21 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 Trinidad and its adjacent island of Tobago, which by some is assumed 
 to be a part of the Lesser Antilles chain, lies immediately off the coast 
 of Venezuela, and, strictly speaking, is not a part of the Lesser Antilles, 
 and is, therefore, discussed elsewhere, especially as its population and 
 commerce are far greater than those of the entire Lesser Antilles group. 
 
 Bahama The Bahama Islands "Bahamas," as they are usually 
 Islands termed consist of a group of twenty inhabited and many 
 uninhabited islands forming the northeastern boundary of 
 the great body of water designated as the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. 
 They are the most northerly part of that chain of islands stretching from 
 the southeastern coast of the United States to the northeastern coast of 
 South America, which chain forms the eastern boundary of the great 
 inland seas lying between North and South America, and bounded on 
 the west by Central America. This little group of islands, the northern 
 end of the chain stretching from eastern Florida to northeastern Ven- 
 ezuela, lies immediately off the southeast coast of Florida. The area of 
 the entire group is about 4,400 square miles, and its population 60,000. 
 
 Their industrial and producing power is, however, large in proportion 
 to the number of inhabitants, since their products are all of a class greatly 
 in demand by the temperate zone world, and lying within a very short 
 distance of the great consuming markets of the United States. Sisal, 
 cotton, cocoanuts, pineapples, oranges and other tropical fruits are among 
 their important products, the sisal industry being looked upon as especially 
 important and promising a great future since the adjacent territory of the 
 United States and Cuba require large quantities of material in the pro- 
 duction of which sisal may be used, including bagging, in the production 
 of which sisal is proving an increased factor. Sponge fishing is also an 
 important industry in these islands. 
 
 The most important island in the group, New Providence, with a 
 population forming about one-quarter that of the entire group, lies about 
 fifty miles off the eastern coast of Florida. Its chief city is Nassau, the 
 seat of a United States consul, and is closely connected by steamer with 
 the ports of Florida, while, in turn, the other important islands of the 
 group are in touch with Nassau, the capital of the group which forms 
 the British colony of Bahamas. 
 
 The total commerce of the Bahamas, is about $2,000,000 per annum, 
 of which a very large proportion is with the United States. The States- 
 
 22 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 man's Year-Book for 1919 states that 84% of the imports are from 
 "America,** chiefly from United States, and of the exports 72% to "Amer- 
 ica," chiefly United States. The future possibilities of this area as to its 
 producing power and, therefore, commercial importance, is evidenced 
 by the fact that only 400,000 of the 3,000,000 acres in the habitable 
 parts of the islands has yet been granted by colonial authorities, implying 
 that the present producing power may easily be greatly increased with 
 the newly developed methods of cultivation and inter-communication 
 which have recently come to the entire tropical world as indicated in the 
 general discussion of the future of the Caribbean area. The merchandise 
 forming the imports of the United States from the Bahamas includes 
 sisal, cocoanuts, fruits, sponges and the products of turtle fishing. Canning 
 factories, recently established in the island for canning pineapples and 
 other fruits, send most of their products to the United States. 
 
 The merchandise sent from the United States to the Islands consists of 
 cotton goods, flour, machinery, rice, meats, boots and shoes, furniture 
 and miscellaneous manufactures. Of the shipping entered and cleared 
 in the last year for which figures are available, 484,000 tons were American 
 and 45,000 tons British. The total value of the shipments from the Ba- 
 hamas to United States aggregate about $1,500,000, and the value of their 
 purchases from the United States about a similar sum. 
 
 Barbados Barbados Island is the most easterly of the entire West 
 Indian group. It is a British colony with soil especially 
 adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane, also cotton, tobacco, coffee, 
 indigo and arrow root. There are numerous sugar mills, and the fishing 
 interests are also of considerable importance. 
 
 The area, 166 square miles, already supports a comparatively dense 
 population approximating 200,000, fully 75% of the area being now 
 under cultivation and including 35,000 acres under sugar cane, producing 
 about 55,000 tons of sugar. There are about 325 sugar works which, 
 under normal conditions, send a great proportion to the mother country, 
 Great Britain, but recently an increased share has been sent to the United 
 States, and also the share which the United States supplies of the imports 
 into that island has increased. Our total exports to Barbados have grown 
 from $1,452,000 in 1911 to $3,750,000 in 1919, and consists, as in most 
 tropical countries, of manufactures, meats and flour. Lying as it does at 
 the extreme east of the West Indian group, its trade with the United 
 States has been small in proportion to the total, smaller than in the case 
 
 23 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 of those islands lying nearer to our own ports. The share of its trade with the 
 United States will probably materially increase with the recent establish- 
 ment of direct steamship lines between the ports of the eastern frontage 
 of the United States and the eastern frontage of South America. 
 
 Colombia Colombia is one of the largest and most rapidly de- 
 veloping countries of the tropical section of South America. 
 Fronting in part upon the Caribbean and in part upon the Pacific, its 
 transportation facilities with other parts of the world have been greatly 
 increased by the opening of the Panama Canal, and as a consequence, 
 commerce has greatly increased and the development of its producing 
 powers shows a large increase. 
 
 Large sums of foreign capital, especially British and American, have 
 been recently invested in the mineral and other industries of the country, 
 and its future possibilities are very great, especially in view of the fact 
 that there are yet large unoccupied areas with unlimited possibilities, 
 both agricultural and mineral. Its mineral products include platinum, 
 gold, silver, copper and petroleum. 
 
 Colombia's area is estimated at about 441,000 square miles, with a 
 coast line of 300,000 miles about equally divided' between the Caribbean 
 and the Pacific. The population is estimated at slightly more than 
 5,000,000 exclusive of 30,000 uncivilized Indians. The capital, Bogota, 
 has a population of about 140,000 and lies 8600 feet above the sea. The 
 chief commercial cities of Colombia, aside from Bogota, are Barranquilla 
 on the Caribbean, Cartagena also on the Caribbean frontage, Buena- 
 ventura and the adjacent city of Cali on the Pacific frontage, Medellin 
 in the interior but connected by rail with the navigable waters of the 
 Magdalena. Bogota has about 150,000 population, Barranquilla about 
 50,000, Cartagena about 40,000, Medellin 50,000, Buenaventura and Cali 
 in combination about 25,000. The National City Bank has branches at 
 Bogota, the capital, Barranquilla as the most- important commercial 
 centre on the Caribbean frontage, and Medellin, the most important 
 commercial centre of the mining regions, in the interior. 
 
 The commerce of Colombia has increased materially during the war 
 period. Its total exports in 1918, the latest for which figures are available, 
 was $38,000,000, and the imports $22,000,000. Seventy-two per. cent, 
 of the exports are sent to the United States and 50% of the imports 
 drawn from United States. Our own figures of trade with Colombia 
 
 24 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 show an increase of imports from there of $7,485,000 in 1910 to $28,268,000 
 in 1919, while our exports to Colombia have grown from $3,980,000 in 1910 
 to $13,441,000 in 1919. 
 
 Colombia's industrial and commercial future is full of promise. 
 With great mineral possibilities in platinum, gold, silver, copper and 
 petroleum, and great possibilities in cattle growing and tropical agricul- 
 ture, she needs only capital for the development of railroads and the 
 industries and additional labor for the operation of the mines and haciendas 
 and the railways to move their products to the water's edge. 
 
 Costa A tropical country fronting upon the waters of the two 
 Rica greatest oceans of the world, the Atlantic and Pacific, produc- 
 ing tropical growths of all kinds and also important minerals, 
 and lying within easy reach of the greatest markets of the world and upon 
 trade routes which extend to every part of the globe, has great oppor- 
 tunities industrially and commercially and, consequently, financially. 
 Such a country is Costa Rica, with an area of 23,000 square miles or 
 about equivalent to the state of West Virginia and population of about 
 a half million. It lies immediately north of the Republic of Panama, and, 
 therefore, is within a comparatively short distance of the great trade 
 routes diverging from that Canal to every port of the world, and especially 
 in close touch with the ports and markets of the United States. 
 
 It is divided into two distinct sections by the great mountain range 
 which extends through the entire area known as Central America. Prob- 
 ably three-quarters of the land capable of use from the agricultural 
 standpoint, lies east of this range and, therefore, is distinctly tributary 
 to the Caribbean, though the fact that the Pacific frontage is considerably 
 longer than that upon the Caribbean more equally divides the actual 
 producing area between the Caribbean and Pacific frontages. 
 
 Its most important port on the eastern frontage is Limon, which is 
 connected by rail with the capital city, San Jose, about 200 miles in the 
 interior, with a population (including" suburbs) of about 50,000, and in 
 turn, connected by rail with Punta Arenas on the Pacific frontage about 
 100 miles distant. The population of Limon is stated at about 7,000 
 and that of Punta Arenas about 5,000, while other cities include Cartago, 
 with population of 13,000, Heredia 8,000, and Alajuela about 6,500. 
 
 Coffee, fruits (especially bananas), corn, sugar cane, rice and tobacco 
 are the principal agricultural products, while the live stock industry is 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 important and has great possibilities as to the future. The areas lying 
 between the central mountain range and the Caribbean and Pacific front- 
 ages offer important opportunities for stock raising and the number of 
 live stock, as stated in the last official record, is 350,000 cattle, 65,000 
 horses and 75,000 swine, while the goat industry is of considerable im- 
 portance in view of the fact that the importation of goat skins into the 
 United States alone now exceeds $75,000,000 per annum. It is in the 
 banana and coffee industry, however, that Costa Rica especially excels 
 from the agricultural standpoint, and our own importations from that 
 country included in 1918, 21,000,000 pounds of coffee valued at over 
 $2,000,000; over $4,000,000 worth of bananas and considerable quantities 
 of hides and skins, India rubber, cabinet woods, manganese and copper. 
 
 Large areas have, within a comparatively recent period, been cleared 
 and devoted to the banana industry, this development having been chiefly 
 through activities of American capital, notably the United Fruit Com- 
 pany. About 100,000 acres are devoted to the banana industry producing, 
 in the latest year for which statistics are available, over 10,000,000 bunches, 
 valued at over $5,000,000. A large proportion of these bananas pass to 
 the United States ports of New Orleans, Mobile, New York and Boston, 
 and also in a lesser degree to ports of Europe, especially Great Britain. 
 
 The coffee industry holds second rank in importance while the possi- 
 bilities as to the mining industry are looked upon as important, especially 
 gold and silver mining on the Pacific slope. Several districts are suriferous, 
 and mining is carried on in the districts of Abangarez, Barranca and 
 Aguacata, while deposits of manganese ore in the Pacific province of 
 Guanacaste are of a very considerable importance and now form an 
 important factor in the export trade. 
 
 The total commerce of Costa Rica is now approximately $20,000,000 
 per annum; imports are about $7,000,000 and the exports $13,000,000. 
 About 75% of the exports are sent to the United States and over 60% 
 of the imports taken from the United States. 
 
 Cuba A detailed description of conditions in Cuba, in which The 
 National City Bank has twenty-five branches, is presented in a 
 special publication recently issued by the Bank under title of "Cuba 
 Review of Commercial, Industrial and Economic Conditions in 1919," 
 which may be had on application to the Bank. It shows that the com- 
 merce of Cuba in 1918 totaled $673,000,000; the imports alone aggregated 
 
 26 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 $302,000,000, of which 76% were taken from the United States, and the 
 exports $371,000,000, of which 72% were sent to the United States. While 
 complete figures of Cuban trade in 1919 are not yet available, those at 
 hand suggest that it will exceed $800,000,000. 
 
 Sugar, of course, is the principal product, and Cuba is now clearly 
 the world's largest sugar producer with a total output of approximately 
 4,000,000 long tons, or practically 25% of the entire world sugar output 
 as against 11% of the world output prior to the war. Tobacco is also an 
 important agricultural crop, while live stock, timber and minerals are 
 also extremely important. The principal articles sent to the United 
 States are sugar, tobacco, iron ore, copper ore, hides, skins and bananas; 
 and the principal articles imported from the United States include meats, 
 condensed milk, flour, cotton cloths, boots and shoes, machinery for the 
 sugar plantations and factories, mineral oil, materials for railways, and 
 miscellaneous manufactures. 
 
 The total exports from the United States to Cuba have grown from 
 $26,000,000 in 1900 to $270,000,000 in the calendar year 1919, and the im- 
 ports from $31,000,000 to $418,000,000, The population of the island 
 is stated at 2,628,000. Large sums of American capital are invested in 
 sugar plantations, railways, mines and other industries, the total having 
 been estimated at approximately $500,000,000. Railway cars loaded in 
 any part of the United States may now discharge their freight in and 
 part of Cuba and return laden with Cuban products, which are passey 
 to the United States without breaking bulk, through the use of the car 
 ferry steamers plying between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. 
 
 Dominican The Dominican Republic, or Santo Domingo as fre- 
 Republic quently designated, which occupies the eastern portion 
 of the island of Haiti, is not only of great importance 
 at the present time in the production and commerce of the Caribbean- 
 Gulf of Mexico area, but gives great promise of further development in 
 soil, climatic conditions, characteristic products, industry of the people, 
 stability of government, and the investments of foreign capital. All 
 suggest for the Dominican Republic a future similar to that of the Cuban 
 Republic, whose prosperity is a marvel of not only the Caribbean area 
 but of the entire tropical world. 
 
 With an area of 19,000 square miles, a population of three-quarters 
 of a million, and soil and climatic conditions similar to those of Cuba, 
 
 27 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 its possibilities in production of sugar, tobacco, cacao, cocoanuts, coffee, 
 cattle raising, minerals, and timber are important, and of constantly 
 growing importance, as is evidenced by the fact that the value of mer- 
 chandise exported from the Republic has advanced from $3,568,000 in 
 1897 and $6,896,000 in 1905 to $10,470,000 in 1913 and $22,400,000 in 
 1918; while the imports, which measure the purchasing power, have 
 advanced from $9,000,000 in 1913 to $20,000,000 in 1918. Equally im- 
 portant is the fact that the share of the United States in its trade is steadily 
 advancing. Of the total imports of $20,000,000 in 1918, no less than 93% 
 were drawn from the United States, and of its exports of $22,500,000, 
 83% were sent to the United States. 
 
 Not only are the products of the Dominican Republic of a type now 
 greatly in demand sugar, coffee, cacao, cocoanuts, tobacco, and live 
 stock products but the prospect as to their more plentiful production 
 is good since an exceptionally large proportion of the area is available for 
 cultivation as evidenced by the assertion of The Statesmen's Year Book 
 that "of the total area, 18,045 square miles, about 15,500 is cultivable." 
 Sugar growing, it adds, "is a flourishing industry." 
 
 Our own trade with the Dominican Republic has grown very rapidly 
 and especially since the establishment of the United States receivership 
 of customs and adjustment of its indebtedness in 1905. 
 
 The chief cities are Santo Domingo, the capital, founded by a brother 
 of Christopher Columbus, with a present population of about 25,000; 
 Santiago, 15,000; Puerto Plata and San Pedro de Macoris about 12,000 
 each; La Vega approximately 8,000; Samana, Sanchez, Azua, Monte 
 Cristi and San Francisco de Macoris with populations ranging from 
 4,000 to 5,000 each. 
 
 Branches of the International Banking Corporation, owned by The 
 National City Bank, have already been established in the cities of Puerto 
 Plata, Sanchez, San Pedro de Macoris, Santiago de los Caballeros and 
 Santo Domingo City. 
 
 The United States government has evinced a friendly attitude toward 
 the Dominican Republic, intervening on several occasions to prevent 
 domestic dissensions and warfare, and in 1905 entered into an arrangement 
 with the Dominican Government for the adjustment of its comparatively 
 large indebtedness, taking charge of the custom houses and applying 
 the receipts to payment of interest on the actual indebtedness and such 
 
 28 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 additional sums as might be available for reduction of the principal of 
 the debt. The foreign claims against the Republic were about $20,000,000 
 but were, in many instances, found excessive and materially reduced, 
 the indebtedness at the present time standing at about $13,000,000 al- 
 though rery considerable expenditures have been made in the meantime 
 in the developing process especially roads and other transportation 
 facilities. The railways, which aggregate about 100 miles in length, 
 are in part owned by British companies, and in a small part by the 
 Dominican Government. 
 
 Sugar growing is the most important of the local industries, the crop 
 of the sugar year 1919-20 being estimated at 180,000 tons as against 
 85,000 tons in 1912-13. Considerable sums of American capital have been 
 embarked in the sugar and other industries of the Island in recent 
 years. 
 
 The future of the relations of the United States with the Dominican 
 Republic are promising. The population originally, to some extent, 
 was resentful of the intervention on the part of the United States, but is 
 now recognizing its value as based upon entirely unselfish motives, and 
 reports from those in close touch with the people of the island indicate 
 that "friendly feelings and appreciation will come" in the immediate 
 future. 
 
 "The Dominican administration,'* according to a recently published 
 review of conditions in the Republic, "is strongly in favor of 
 closer trade relations between the two countries" and has, it is 
 understood, already made recommendations to Washington with a 
 view to securing special consideration for Dominican products entering 
 the United States in return for similar special considerations for American 
 goods entering that Republic, and it would not be surprising if some 
 arrangement, similar to that in effect between the United States and Cuba, 
 should be the outgrowth. The writer adds, however, that care must be 
 exercised by those interested in retaining the large measure which we now 
 have in the Dominican trade in view of the fact that "European manu- 
 facturers who were, during the war, forced to abandon the field, are again 
 sending in their representatives with a view to regaining their former 
 position." Statistical statements showing the character of the trade 
 between the United States and the Republic are presented on another 
 page of this publication. Manufactures and foodstuffs are our chief 
 exports to Santo Domingo, and the trade is growing rapidly. 
 
 29 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 Dutch The Dutch possessions in the area under consideration 
 West include Dutch Guiana, which is described under the general 
 Indies heading of the Guianas, and the group of islands known under 
 the general title of Curacao. The group includes the islands 
 of Curacao, with an area of 210 square miles; Bonaire, 95 square miles; 
 Aruba, 69 square miles; St. Martin, 17 square miles, partly belonging to the 
 Netherlands and part to France; St. Eustache and Saba, about 5 square 
 miles each, making the total area of the Dutch colony designated as 
 Dutch West Indian Island Colony or Curacao 403 square miles, with a 
 total population of 60,000, of which about 35,000 are on the island of 
 Curacao. The group lies about 70 miles off the northern coast of Venezuela 
 and about midway between Caracas and Maracaibo. 
 
 The imports, prior to the recent increase in prices of sugar, coffee, 
 cocoa and other articles of this character, were approximately $3,000,000 
 per annum and the exports slightly less than that sum, but both have 
 materially increased since the war period. The trade of the islands is 
 very largely with the United States and our own imports from them in 
 1919 were $3,127,000, and our exports to them $1,915,000. 
 
 French The French possessions within the area under consideration 
 West include two islands Guadeloupe and Martinique usually 
 Indies designated the "French West Indies," and the section of 
 South American mainland known as French Guiana, des- 
 cribed in the general discussion of the Guiana territory. 
 
 Guadeloupe, situated in the Lesser Antilles, consists of two islands 
 separated by a narrow channel. Their joint population is about 215,000. 
 The imports of 1917 were $7,650,000 and the exports $9,450,000. Most of 
 the trade is with France, with which it is in direct communication by means 
 of two steam navigation companies. 
 
 The island of Martinique, which lies still further south in the Little 
 Antilles chain, has an area of 385 square miles and a population of about 
 200,000; imports $11,100,000 and exports $16,450,000. It is closely 
 connected with the mother country, France, by the same steamship 
 lines which operate between France and Guadeloupe. 
 
 Sugar, rum, cacao, tobacco, coffee, citrus fruits, hides and cabinet 
 woods are the products of the islands and their trade is chiefly with France. 
 Our own imports from the islands were, in 1919, but $56,000, though the 
 exports to them have greatly increased during the war and totalled in 
 
 30 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 1918 $5,357,000, and in 1919 $8,781,000, consisting chiefly of flour, meats, 
 food oils, cod fish, cotton cloths and miscellaneous manufactures. 
 
 Guatemala Guatemala, which lies at the extreme northern end of 
 the Central American group of countries, is thus in very 
 close touch with the ports of the United States, and especially by reason 
 of the fact that it fronts upon both the Caribbean and the Pacific. Vessels 
 from her eastern ports touch New Orleans or Mobile with a sailing dis- 
 tance of but about 1,000 miles, and her western ports lie nearer to San 
 Francisco than do any of the Latin- American ports except those of western 
 Mexico. Her trade, therefore, is of special importance to the United States. 
 It aggregates, in round terms, $20,000,000 per year, and quite naturally 
 a very large percentage is with the United States, her nearest neighbor. 
 Of her exports in 1918, 72% were sent to the United States; and of her 
 imports 66% were drawn from United States. 
 
 The producing power of Guatemala includes a larger number of ar- 
 ticles than is the case with many other of the tropical areas under dis- 
 cussion. The great mountain chain which stretches from Mexico through 
 the entire Central American area divides here into two distinct sections, 
 leaving a broad valley in the interior, considerably elevated above the 
 ocean, and, therefore, with a comparatively temperate climate and capable 
 of producing certain temperate zone products, while the sections fronting 
 upon the Caribbean and the Pacific, respectively, have more of the 
 tropical characteristics. Wheat, corn, beans, and other temperate zone 
 products are successfully grown in the more elevated regions, coffee on 
 the mountain slopes, and in the sections fronting upon the Caribbean and 
 Pacific grow sugar cane, bananas, cocoanuts and other distinctly tropical 
 products. 
 
 Coffee is the most important single product of agriculture, as is evidenced 
 by the fact that it usually forms about four-fifths of the value of the 
 merchandise exported, the other principal exports being bananas, hides, 
 sugar and small quantities of rubber. The great plateau of the interior 
 lying between the two mountain chains offers great possibilities in live 
 stock growing, especially cattle and horses, the total number of cattle 
 in this small republic, no larger than our state of North Carolina, being 
 about 750,000, horses and mules 125,000, sheep 450,000, swine 200,000, 
 and goats 60,000, bringing the total live stock in this apparently small 
 area to nearly 2,000,000 and illustrating its possibilities as a contributor 
 of foodstuffs to the markets of the United States. In addition to this, 
 
 31 
 
100" 
 
 s T 
 
 ackson Mo 
 
 M E.__X\ ..!._.:.., Q 
 
 Guate^ialaP 
 
 Branches of the National City Bank of New York 
 Branches of the International Banking Corpcration 
 
 Map of the Caribbean region, showing branches of The National Ci 
 
GUlANAf - FRF> j rHl 
 
 \ ' WC *1 ! DUTCH 
 
 / S GUIANA VGUIANA/ 
 
 ' 
 
 Ban% of New York and of the International Banking Corporation 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 its strictly tropical products are greatly in demand with us, especially 
 coffee, sugar, bananas, cacao, India rubber, hides and cabinet woods. 
 
 Her principal imports are cotton cloths, manufactures of iron and 
 steel, manufactures of leather, and foodstuffs, a very large proportion 
 of which she draws from the United States. 
 
 The possibilities as to the minerals are also considered very great, in- 
 cluding gold, silver, copper, iron and lead mines, but conditions of trans- 
 portation have up to this time rendered their development comparatively 
 difficult, especially as they exist in most cases in the extreme interior of 
 the country. One railway line crosses the interior area of the country 
 from Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean frontage to Guatemala City, the 
 capital, a distance of 200 miles, and runs thence westward to the port of 
 San Jose de Guatemala on the Pacific frontage, a distance of 75 miles. 
 The company owning and operating this route, the International Railway 
 of Central America, has also under construction several short north and 
 south lines which are to connect with the railway system of Mexico at 
 the north and extend southward into the adjacent republic of Salvador, 
 thence through Honduras and Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Panama, 
 thus placing Guatemala on a continuous railway line connecting the 
 United _ States through Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nica- 
 ragua, Costa Rica and Panama with its Panama Canal, from which lines 
 will extend still further south through southern Panama into Colombia, 
 and perhaps eastward into Venezuela. The total length of the railways 
 in Guatemala is over 500 miles, owned chiefly by United States and 
 German capital. 
 
 The trade of the United States with Guatemala has grown rapidly, the 
 exports to that country advancing from three-quarters of a million dollars 
 in 1900 to $6,000,000 in 1919, and the imports from Guatemala increasing 
 from $2,400,000 in 1900 to $11,100,000 in 1919. The principal cities are 
 the capital, the City of Guatemala, which had at the date of its earthquake 
 disaster in 1910 about 90,000 inhabitants, and is being rebuilt as rapidly 
 as circumstances will permit; Coban, which lies about ninety miles north 
 of the City of Guatemala, 31,000; Quezaltenango near the Pacific frontage, 
 29,000; Totonicapan, the capital of the most densely populated province 
 of Guatemala, 28,000; and Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean frontage is 
 especially important as the point at which shipments by steamer on the 
 Caribbean are transferred to the railway lines, extending to the capital, 
 Guatemala City, and thence to the Pacific frontage. 
 
 34 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 The The Guianas, British, Dutch and French, which will be 
 
 Guianas respectively considered in the discussion which follows, are, 
 in fact, only a small part of the South American territory 
 originally bearing the title of "Guiana." Originally, the area designated as 
 "Guiana"or "Guianas" was that occupied by a certain great group or tribe of 
 natives calling themselves "Guianas," occupying the northeastern section 
 of the South American continent extending from the Amazon at the 
 south to the Orinoco at the north, and stretching westwardly from the 
 Atlantic to the Negro Rio and upper Orinoco Rivers. That vast area, 
 1200 miles from east to west and 800 miles from north to south, 
 comprises about 700,000 square miles known a couple of centuries ago as 
 "Guiana" or "Guianas." 
 
 This was subsequently subdivided, the northwestern section falling 
 to Venezuela, the southeastern section to Brazil and the central section, 
 bounded on the south by the Humac and Acarai Mountains and on the 
 west also by a mountain chain, is now known as British Guiana, Dutch 
 Guiana and French Guiana, British Guiana occupying the western, 
 Dutch Guiana the central and French Guiana the eastern sections, each 
 having an ample ocean frontage and extending southward to the moun- 
 tain chains above named. These three areas, British Guiana, Dutch 
 Guiana and French Guiana, are, as the names imply, colonies of Great 
 Britain, Netherlands, and France, respectively, and are administered by 
 governors and other officials appointed from those respective govern- 
 ments. 
 
 The capital and chief city of British Guiana is Georgetown, often 
 called "Demerara," with a population of about 60,000 and, as indicated 
 above, is its chief port, having the benefit of the navigation on the Demerara 
 River and the hundred miles of railway running along the coast and con- 
 necting with the port of New Amsterdam. Dutch Guiana's capital and 
 principal port is Paramaribo, having several waterways extending into 
 the interior and served by small steamers and a limited railway service. 
 The population of Paramaribo is about 45,000. The capital of French 
 Guiana is Cayenne, with a population of about 15,000, depending chiefly 
 upon river transportation for its connection with the interior. All of these 
 chief port cities and capitals of the Guianas Georgetown, Paramaribo 
 and Cayenne are in close steamship connection with other ports of the 
 world, lying, as they do, within a comparatively short distance of the 
 United States on the north and in the tracks of all steamship lines con- 
 necting the ports of United States with those of eastern South America. 
 
 35 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 British Guiana has an area of about 90,000 square miles, a population 
 of slightly more than 300,000, imports ranging from $15,000,000 to 
 $18,000,000, exports ranging from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000, and about 
 100 miles of railway. 
 
 Dutch Guiana, officially designated by the Netherland government as 
 "Surinam," has an area of about 46,000 square miles, a population of about 
 100,000, imports about $3,000,000 per annum and exports about $3,500,000. 
 It has also several small islands lying immediately off the coast, including 
 Curacao, with an area of about 200 square miles and population of 35,000, 
 and several smaller islands with a much smaller population than that of 
 Curacao. 
 
 French Guiana, or "Cayenne" as it is sometimes officially designated, 
 lies immediately east of Dutch Guiana, and has an ample ocean frontage. 
 Its area is 32,000 square miles, population 50,000 and its chief port Cay- 
 enne. The remainder of the original Guianas area, now included in Vene- 
 zuela at the west and Brazil at the south, no longer bears any official title 
 to designate it as once a part of the great Guiana area which, according 
 to geographers of a century ago, was Guiana. The imports of French 
 Guiana aggregate about $2,000,000 per year and the exports about 
 $2,500,000. 
 
 The three political districts retaining that name, British Guiana, 
 Dutch Guiana and French Guiana, have thus an aggregate area of about 
 170,000 square miles, a population of 450,000, or if the uncivilized Indians 
 were included, about 500,000. Their imports aggregate about $23,000,000 
 and their exports about $30,000,000. 
 
 In physical geography the three Guianas present many common 
 characteristics. The great warm water current, already described, which 
 sweeps across the southern Atlantic just below the equator and reaches 
 South America carrying all the moisture that air can carry, crosses 
 the Guianas which lie only 3 north of the equator, thus giving them a 
 peculiar climatic condition of extreme heat and a plentiful, if not excessive, 
 supply of moisture at a high temperature, this condition being practically 
 continuous during the entire year. 
 
 As a consequence, its rivers, which flow down from the mountains at 
 the south and west, most of them flowing almost directly north, bring 
 great quantities of soil from the upper regions and have developed, in 
 conjunction with the waters of the ocean a "fluviomarine" deposit ex- 
 
 36 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 tending inland and gradually rising to a height of ten to fifteen feet above 
 the sea. This "fluviomarine" deposit varies in width from twenty to 
 fifty miles and has ridges of sand and shell. By draining and diking of 
 these lands, plantations have been formed along the coast and up the 
 rivers which are large producers of sugar, coffee, cacao, cocoanuts, rice, 
 bananas, gutta percha, indigo, rubber, balata, cattle and cotton, while cer- 
 tain important metals and minerals, including diamonds, gold, silver, iron, 
 phosphates, manganese ore, mica and bauxite are found in greater or 
 less quantities in the interior and give promise of large importance with 
 the application of the necessary capital and labor for their development. 
 The sugar possibilities are very great. 
 
 Our own trade with the Guianas now aggregates about $10,000,000 
 per annum, chiefly exports. The total exports of the United States to 
 British Guiana will average between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000 per 
 annum, to Dutch Guiana about $1,500,000 per annum and to French 
 Guiana $1,000,000, while the imports from British Guiana run below a 
 half million dollars, those from Dutch Guiana in 1909 were nearly $1,000- 
 000, and those from French Guiana extremely small. These colonies 
 produce many articles for which the United States offers a large market, 
 including sugar, cacao, coffee, capra, India rubber, balata and gutta 
 percha, and their requirements are of the class of materials produced in the 
 United States cotton cloths and other miscellaneous manufactures, 
 flour, meat and mining machinery. 
 
 Haiti The Republic of Haiti, which occupies the western part of the 
 island of Haiti, is smaller in size than its sister Republic of Santo 
 Domingo, which occupies the eastern end of the island, the Haitian Re- 
 public being 11,100 square miles as against 19,300 square miles in the 
 Dominican Republic, but has a population estimated at 2,500,000 as against 
 an estimated population of 725,000 in the Dominican Republic. The 
 principal products of Haiti are, up to this time, those of agriculture coffee, 
 tobacco, cotton, sugar, cacao, hides and skins, honey while forest pro- 
 ducts, including logwood, are of very considerable and growing importance. 
 The mining possibilities are looked upon as important and include, ac- 
 cording to a recent issue of the Statesman's Year Book, gold, silver, iron, 
 antimony, copper, tin, sulphur, coal, kaolin, nickel, gypsum, limestone 
 and porphyry, which, it adds, up to this time have been but little worked, 
 though some effort has been made to work copper mines within the last few 
 years and concessions have been granted for mining coal, iron and copper. 
 
 37 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 The exports in 1917 (a year in which ships were scarce) included 
 47,434,000 pounds of coffee, 4,896,000 pounds of cacao, 8,382,000 
 pounds of cotton and 56,760,000 pounds of logwood. The chief imports 
 are cotton goods, sacks for coffee and cacao shipments, flour, lard, 
 kerosene, iron-work and machinery. The value of the imports in 
 1917 was $10,000,000, of which $9,000,000 or 90% were from the 
 United States, and the exports $13,000,000, of which $3,500,000 or 
 27% were to the United States. The sugar possibilities have had less 
 attention than those of the Dominican Republic, and the output for the 
 1919-20 season, as estimated by Willett and Gray, 5,000 tons as against 
 3,300 in 1918-19. Several sugar centrales have been recently established 
 with prospect of a material increase in the output in the near future. 
 
 Port-au-Prince, at the head of the great Bay of Gonaives, which opens 
 upon the Windward Passage, separating the island of Haiti from the island 
 of Cuba, is the capital and chief city, having a population of about 120,000, 
 and is the principal seaport of the Republic. 
 
 Cape Haiti, another important port, has an estimated population of 
 25,000; Jacmel, 20,000; Aux Cayes about 15,000. 
 
 A railway is now under construction to connect Port-au-Prince with 
 Cape Haiti, about 165 miles by the proposed railway line. The principal 
 towns are connected by the government telegraph system. A cable line 
 runs from Port-au-Prince to Cape Haiti and thence to Santiago de Cuba, 
 Puerto Plata in Santo Domingo, and to South America, while a close 
 cable connection with the United States is obtained through the Cuban 
 land and cable lines by way of Santiago de Cuba and wireless to Haiti. 
 
 A treaty between the Haitian government and that of the United 
 States provides for the cooperation of the United States government in 
 administration of Haitian finances and maintenence of order, thus 
 assuring stability of government and safety to investment of 
 capital in the development of the great agricultural and other industrial 
 possibilities of the Republic, and is described as "a virtual protectorate 
 by the United States over Haiti." Considerable sums of American capital 
 have been invested in the construction of railways, and the prospect of 
 the development of an important sugar industry, which in the past has 
 received comparatively little attention, is extremely good. 
 
 Honduras The Republic of Honduras is one of the largest of the 
 
 Central American republics, with an area of 44,000 square 
 
 miles, though in population it is materially less than others having a smaller 
 
 38 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 area. The total population of the Republic of Honduras is stated at 
 562,000. Its imports in 1917 were $6,300,000 of which $5,100,000 or 82% 
 were from the United States, and the exports were $5,400,000, of which 
 $5,000,000 or 93% were sent to the United States. This large percentage 
 of its trade with the United States is not surprising when we study the 
 geographical position of Honduras, which is one of the northernmost 
 republics of the Central American area, being on the direct route of vessels 
 passing between the Panama Canal and the southern and eastern ports 
 of the United States. Its area is only slightly less than that of Nicaragua, 
 which lies at the immediate south, or Guatemala, which lies at the im- 
 mediate west, and its population is materially less than that of Nicaragua 
 and but about one-quarter that of Guatemala. 
 
 The capital, Tegucigalpa, has a population of about 30,000, and the 
 other principal cities and towns, La Esperanza about 12,000; Santa Rosa 
 11,000; Nacaome 8,500. Tegucigalpa lies in the interior, reached by 
 motor road from Trujillo, the chief northern port of the Republic, and also 
 from Choluteca on the Pacific frontage, for Honduras has the advantage 
 of a double frontage, a long line on the Caribbean and a short but important 
 frontage on the Gulf of Fonseca upon the Pacific. There is a railway 
 running along the northern frontage connected with Tegucigalpa and 
 Puerta Cortez, and is proving an important factor in the development of 
 the banana lands along the northern frontage, for the banana and cocoa- 
 nut industries are among the most important of the Republic. 
 
 The cocoanut groves, extending from the Ulua River to the Cuero 
 River, a distance of about sixty miles, have about 30,000 bearing trees, 
 while coffee of fine quality is grown, and the industry is increasing. Cattle 
 raising is also one of the chief agricultural interests of the Republic, the 
 number of cattle ranches being stated at about 1600 and the total number 
 of farms 3700, total number of cattle 490,000, and of horses and mules 
 90,000. Bananas, cocoanuts, coffee, hides, rubber, cattle, logwood, mahog- 
 any, corozo (a palm nut) and sugar are the principal exports, and cotton 
 goods, machinery and miscellaneous manufactures are the chief imports. 
 
 The little territory of British Honduras lies at the north, fronting also 
 upon the Caribbean but separated from the Republic of Honduras by the 
 Gulf of Honduras and a narrow belt of Guatemalan territory which gives 
 to Guatemala a frontage upon the Caribbean. The distance between the 
 northwestern border of the Republic of Honduras and the southeastern 
 border of the colony of British Honduras is about fifty miles "as the crow 
 
 39 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 flies," but a much greater distance if the sinuosities of the coastly frontage 
 of Guatemala separating the two Hondurases were followed. 
 
 The area of British Honduras is small compared with that of the 
 Republic of Honduras, only 8600 as against 44,000 square miles of the 
 Republic, and the population of British Honduras 43.000 as against 
 562,000 in the Republic of Honduras. The British area has total imports 
 of about $2,600,000 as against $6,300,000 into the Republic of Honduras; 
 the percentage of the imports drawn from the United States is practically 
 identical, 89% in the case of British Honduras and 82% in the case of the 
 Republic of Honduras; the exports of British Honduras are $2,600,000 
 of which 75% were to the United States, and those of the Republic $5,400- 
 000, of which 73% were to the United States. 
 
 The possibilities of developing power production in both these areas 
 are very great, and therefore, like possibilities in the development of 
 commerce, for their possible products are in all cases of a class demanded 
 by the temperate zone section of the world coffee, India rubber, cacao, 
 indigo, bananas, live stock products and valuable timber. 
 
 Jamaica Next in importance among the West Indian Islands after 
 Cuba, Porto Rico, and Haiti, is the island of Jamaica, a 
 British colony since 1655. The British West Indian possessions as a whole, 
 fall into six groups first, the Bahamas; second, the Barbados (both of 
 which have already been discussed); third, Jamaica with Turks Islands; 
 fourth, Trinidad and Tobago; fifth, Leeward Islands; sixth, Windward 
 Islands. They are all a part of that chain of islands forming the eastern 
 boundary of the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico Basin. 
 
 Jamaica lies nearer to the centre of that basin than any other island 
 of the great group. It is immediately south of the eastern end of Cuba, 
 immediately west of the island of Haiti, and immediately east of the Mexican 
 Peninsula of Yucatan. Its area is much less than that of Cuba or the 
 island of Haiti but slightly more than that of Porto Rico. The area is 
 4,200 square miles, the population 894,000, the imports in 1917 $16,200,000, 
 of which $8,100,000, or just 50%, were from the United States; the exports 
 were $12,000,000, of which $3,400,000, or 28%, were to the United States. 
 
 The share which it gives of its trade to the United States is less than 
 that of most of the other countries or islands herein under discussion for 
 the simple reason that it is distinctly a British colony with officers ap- 
 pointed by the British government, and the natural trend of trade and 
 
 40 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 business matters, including administration and the development of the 
 territory, is with the mother country, Great Britain. This is also 
 characteristic of the other distinctly British territories in the Caribbean 
 area, that a larger proportion of the trade is with the mother country 
 than is the case with those republics of independent governments which 
 are entirely free from influence of a governing power in other parts of the 
 globe. The mother country quite naturally desires that as large a share as is 
 practicable of the commerce of its colonies shall be with the governing 
 country. As a consequence of these conditions, the trade of the United 
 States with Jamaica and other British islands in the Caribbean the Lee- 
 ward and Windward groups, Tobago, Trinidad, the Bahamas and Barbados, 
 is in less proportion to their respective totals than that of the Central 
 American states or the other countries and islands in question having their 
 own form of government and free to direct their trade as natural condi- 
 tions suggest. 
 
 Our own figures of trade with Jamaica extend back only to 1911, prior 
 to which date the trade with Jamaica was included in the general classi- 
 fication "Other British West Indies." The imports into the United States 
 from Jamaica during that period, 1911 to 1919, had somewhat diminished 
 in value, having been in 1911 $6,243,000; in 1913, $5,291,000; in 1917, 
 $4,240,000; ifi 1918, $3,283,000; advancing, however, to $5,173,000 in the 
 calendar year 1919. 
 
 Our exports to the Island are, however, larger than the imports there- 
 from, and have shown a steady increase in the period for which records 
 are available. The total exports to Jamaica in the fiscal year 1911 were 
 $4,380,000; in 1913, $5,287,000; in 1916, $6,484,000; in 1917, $8,075,000; 
 in 1918, $7,834,000; and in the calendar year 1919, $11,106,000. This 
 gain, especially during the war period, is doubtless due, in part, to the 
 heavy fall-off in exports from Great Britain, the conditions and difficulties 
 of shipping, and the high freight rates. The fact that the bulk of our 
 exports to Jamaica consists of manufactures suggests that the trade with 
 Jamaica in this particular is participating in the general expansion of our 
 export trade in manufacture. 
 
 Sugar, coffee, bananas, cocoanuts, cocoa and live stock are the principal 
 products of Jamaica, practically all of them being of a character required 
 in the United States. Sugar and coffee are among our largest imports, 
 while there is a large and steadily growing demand for her other products 
 bananas, cocoanuts and cocoa. 
 
 41 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 Of the one million acres under cultivation and care, of which 285,000 
 are under actual tillage and 736,000 under pasture, sugar cane occupies 
 38,000 acres, coffee 32,000, bananas 68,000, cocoanuts 36,000 and cocoa 
 14,500. The fact that all of these articles are required in large quantities 
 in Great Britain and that the policy of the British Government is to 
 supply to its colonies as large a share of their imports as practicable, 
 renders the United States' share in the trade of Jamaica materially less 
 than in that of most of the West Indian islands. Her imports from the 
 United States in the year 1918 were $8,100,000 or about 50% of the total 
 as against 76% supplied by us in the imports of Cuba, 90% in those of 
 Haiti and 93% in those of the Dominican Republic. Jamaica's exports 
 in 1919 were $14,000,000, of which about 28% were sent to the United 
 States. Her facilities for trade with the mother country are especially 
 good in view of the fact that she lies comparatively near to the trade 
 route between the Panama Canal and northern Europe. 
 
 The Turks and Caicos Islands, which are a part of the Bahamas group, 
 are for governmental purposes a dependency to the government of Ja- 
 maica. Their most important products are salt, sponges and fibre. 
 
 The population of Jamaica is 894,000 and that of the Turks and Caicos 
 Islands about 6000. 
 
 Mexico Mexico has so large a frontage upon both the Caribbean 
 and Gulf of Mexico, and has also such great industrial, com- 
 mercial and financial possibilities that the limited space allotted to this 
 study of the Caribbean frontage is insufficient to present the facts in their 
 proper detail. The lack of detailed information at the present moment, 
 due to internal conditions, would scarcely justify an attempt to present 
 more than the principal general facts. 
 
 The area of Mexico, 767.000 square miles, is one-quarter of that of the 
 United States exclusive of Alaska, and forms, in fact, over one-third of 
 the entire area (2,070,700 square miles) of the islands in and countries 
 fronting upon the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, exclusive, of course, 
 of the United States. Her population, 15,500,000, is more than one-third 
 that of the entire area under discussion, and her possibilities as to agri- 
 culture, mining, oil production and other important lines are so great 
 as to justify the assertion that with permanent peace and a stable govern- 
 ment, her development commercially, industrially and financially will be 
 very rapid. 
 
 42 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 Her total foreign commerce, which amounted to only $70,000,000 in 
 1890; $100,000,000 in 1900; $175,000,000 in 1910; $210,000,000 in 1913; 
 was considerably over $300,000,000 in 1919. Our own trade figures of 
 imports from and exports to Mexico in the calendar year 1919 aggregate 
 $280,000,000, exclusive of the precious metals, and the further fact that 
 we imported $63,000,000 worth of silver from that country in 1919, and 
 $51,000,000 in 1918, indicates that Mexico's silver industry is still very 
 important despite the disturbances which have materially reduced the 
 output of its silver mines. Silver, copper, gold and other minerals, rubber, 
 sisal, coffee, cocoanuts, bananas, cattle hides and goat skins were the 
 most important of Mexico's exports prior to the development of the great 
 petroleum industry in the great oil fields fronting upon the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The exports of mineral oil alone were in 1919 apparently about $50,- 
 000,000, since our own imports of crude oil from that country in the calendar 
 year 1919 were $26,290,000 and are understood to be approximately 
 one-half of the total amount produced for exportation in that year. Our 
 own importations of sisal (a substitute for hemp) coming almost exclu- 
 sively from Mexico were, in the calendar year 1919, $40,000,000 in value 
 and in 1918 $55,000,000. We also received from Mexico in 1919 over 
 $5,000,000 worth of coffee and $10,000,000 worth of hides. 
 
 A country which can, after the several years of internal strife which has 
 recently characterized conditions in Mexico, send to the United States 
 alone in the calendar year 1919, $63,000,000 worth of silver, nearly 
 $5,000,000 worth of gold, $40,000,000 worth of sisal, $26,000,000 worth 
 of petroleum, $5,000,000 worth of lead, nearly $6,000,000 worth of coffee, 
 $20,000,000 worth of copper, $10,000,000 worth of raw cotton and $10,- 
 000,000 worth of hides, with numerous other small products of her in- 
 dustries, has very great future possibilities under conditions of peace and 
 the facilities for the development of her great mineral and agricultural 
 power, while her importing power will, of course, develop in proportion 
 to the value of her products turned out. 
 
 Her railroads also have a far greater length than any of the other 
 countries (other than the United States) fronting upon the Caribbean 
 and Gulf of Mexico. Her total mileage at the latest available date was 
 16,000 miles, her telegraphs 60,000 miles of wire. Her climatic belts ex- 
 tremely tropical in the lower levels fronting upon the waters of the Carib- 
 bean, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, sub-tropical at a greater 
 altitude, and temperate in the greatly elevated table lands give to her 
 
 43 
 
TRADING IN THE- CARIBBEAN 
 
 great area untold possibilities of agricultural production, as is apparent 
 from the figures above quoted, and the possibilities and probabilities as 
 to her mineral wealth are also very great. 
 
 Coupling these with an industrious population of 16,000,000 and 
 important transportation facilities both as to ocean shipping and rail- 
 roads, the future of Mexico as a great commercial, industrial and financial 
 country needs only the assurance of internal peace and the stability of 
 government which will assure financial cooperation from the areas and 
 countries able to supply this needed factor in her future development. 
 Details of our trade with Mexico and of its general trade are presented 
 in the statistical statements which are appended. 
 
 Nicaragua Nicaragua, like her sister republics of Central America, 
 is especially fortunate in lying within very easy reach of 
 the world's greatest market for tropical products, the United States. 
 Clearly it is distinctly tropical in its products, which include coffee, ban- 
 anas, pineapples, cocoanuts, oranges, plantains, cocoa, cane sugar, cattle, 
 mahogany, dye-woods, gums, India rubber and medicinal plants of 
 tropical growth. Its area, 49,600 square miles, is about equal to the 
 state of Louisiana. Its population is about 700,000. 
 
 Its trade with United States is large in proportion with the total. 
 About one-half of its exports are sent to our ports and nearly three-quarters 
 of its imports taken from us. Our own figures of trade with Nicaragua 
 show a large increase in the exports to her since 1910 when they totalled 
 $1,250,000, advancing to $3,170,000 in 1916, $4,378,000 in 1918 and 
 $6,694,000 in the calendar year 1919. Our imports from Nicaragua 
 advanced from $1,322,000 in 1910 to $5,496,000 in 1919. Our imports 
 from Nicaragua included in 1918, the latest year for which details are 
 available, $2,129,000 worth of coffee, $520,000 worth of hides, $341,000 
 worth of bananas, $923,000 worth of mahogany and $111,000 worth of 
 India rubber, while our own exports to that country were, like those to 
 most of the tropical areas, flour, meats and miscellaneous manufactures. 
 
 The future of Nicaragua, as a producer of tropical and sub-tropical 
 products, has great possibilities. Only a very small proportion of its area 
 is as yet under cultivation, although it lacks labor and transportation 
 to make it one of the most productive of the countries under consideration. 
 It has in the interior an elevated table land capable of producing many 
 important sub-tropical growths, and the unusually broad area between 
 
 44 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 the mountains and the Caribbean, as compared with many other of the 
 countries fronting upon that body of water, makes a very large section 
 of the eastern frontage available for the production of bananas, rubber 
 and certain other products requiring a distinctly tropical and moist 
 climate. 
 
 The chief drawbacks at the present time are the lack of labor, trans- 
 portation facilities and capital. The entire length of railroads in the 
 Republic is, at present, but about 200 miles. Transportation from coast 
 to coast is supplied by steamer service on Lake Nicaragua, lying in the 
 interior, which is connected by river and rail with Greytown on the 
 eastern frontage and San Juan del Sur on the west. The chief cities are 
 Managua, the capital, situated on the southern border of Lake Managua 
 and having a population of 35,000; Leon, the former capital, has a 
 population of about 60,000; Grenada 18,000; Matagalpa 16,000. 
 
 Panama Panama's greatest importance to the United States and, 
 in fact, to the world, lies, of course, in her possession of the 
 passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal, 
 and especially so in view of the fact that the Canal was constructed through 
 her territory on a strip of land granted in perpetuity to the greatest com- 
 mercial, financial power on the American continent, the United States. 
 The terms of this grant included the payment to Panama by the United 
 States of $250,000 annually, which proves quite important as an income 
 to a Republic of 32,000 square miles with a population of 450,000. The 
 Canal traffic and the business connected therewith also bring to Panama 
 many persons familiar with the possibilities of tropical industries and 
 equipped to make investments in such lines, and consequently the pro- 
 ducing power and commerce have rapidly increased during the last few 
 years, since her establishment hi 1903 as an independent Republic. 
 
 The capital, Panama, on the Pacific coast, has a population of about 
 70,000; Colon on the Atlantic coast, 30,000. 
 
 Panama is, of course, especially fortunate in a close steamship connec- 
 tion with the ports of the United States, both Atlantic and Pacific, and 
 also with other ports of the world, and it is not surprising that the com- 
 merce of this comparatively small Republic has grown to $12,000,000 and 
 that her producing power has been greatly increased through the in- 
 vestments of American and other foreign capital. 
 
 Coffee, cocoa, India rubber, sugar, tobacco and live stock are the 
 
 45 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 principal industries and in many cases they are being developed through 
 supplies of capital from the United States, the number of coffee trees 
 already reaching about 500,000; cocoa trees about 100,000; rubber planta- 
 tions with about 40,000 trees, cane sugar with an estimated output of 
 about 4,000,000 Ibs.; while the live stock industry, which is especially 
 prosperous, includes about 250,000 head of cattle. Practically all of the 
 exports of Panama go to the United States, and a very large proportion 
 of the imports are drawn from the United States. Of the trade of 1918, 
 the latest for which figures are available, 99% of the exports were sent to 
 the United States and 87% of the imports drawn from the United States, 
 these figures being exclusive of the traffic of the Canal Zone, 
 
 The utilization of the Panama Canal as a route for world traffic was 
 somewhat delayed by the war but is now growing with great rapidity 
 and the success of the Canal is assured, and thus the prosperity of the 
 Republic through which it passes and to which it will continue to draw 
 attention from all parts of the world. Its importance as a producing 
 area and a trade and transportation centre for representatives of all parts 
 of the world, led the International Banking Corporation to establish, 
 early in its history, branches at the City of Panama on its Pacific frontage 
 and Colon on the Caribbean. 
 
 Porto Porto Rico, which came under the control of the United 
 Rico States just twenty years ago at the close of the war with Spain, 
 illustrates, in its present condition, the benefits which stable 
 government can bring to a tropical area lying at the doors of a great 
 temperate zone country requiring tropical products. Its commerce, 
 which is, of course, an "index number" measuring its general prosperity, 
 has grown from $20,000,000 in the year prior to United States' occupation 
 to $160,000,000 in 1919, or eight times as much in 1919 as in the year pre- 
 ceding her annexation to the United States. 
 
 With the assurance of stable government controlled, directed and, 
 where necessary, financed by the government of the United States, capital 
 both in this country and elsewhere was willing and ready to develop 
 the industrial and producing powers of Porto Rico, and her products for 
 exportation grew from $10,000,000 in value in 1899 to approximately 
 $80,000,000 in 1919, while imports increased correspondingly. 
 
 This wonderful gain in the industries of Porto Rico during the twenty 
 years of her close relationship with the United States is a proof of the 
 
 46 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 general economic condition which assures to tropical areas a ready market 
 for their products in cases where they lie immediately adjacent to tem- 
 perate zone areas with large purchasing and consuming power as is the 
 case with reference to Porto Rico. The United States, for example, has 
 increased its importation of tropical and sub-tropical products from less 
 than $300,000,000 in the year in which Porto Rico was annexed to ap- 
 proximately two billion dollars in 1919. 
 
 The sugar lands of Porto Rico, which were looked upon at the time 
 of its annexation as having reached practically their full producing capacity, 
 now turn out six times as many pounds of sugar as was the case at date of 
 annexation. The sugar turned out by the cane fields of Porto Rico in 
 1917 was a billion pounds, the total to the United States alone being 
 942,000,000 pounds, and while the quantity in 1919 was slightly less, 
 the value of the 1919 shipments was slightly in excess of those of 1917. 
 
 Porto Rican tobacco, which steadily grew in favor in the United States 
 with a closer acquaintance, aggregated in value sent to us alone in 1919 
 $10,813,000 against $7,346,000 in 1917, and the production is now very 
 much greater in both quantity and value than in the early period of its 
 new relationship with the United States. 
 
 Porto Rican coffee holds very high rank with those who have made 
 an intimate acquaintance with it so much so that Spain, Cuba and France, 
 which were well acquainted with it under Spanish rule, take a very large 
 proportion of the annual crop, the quantity exported from the island 
 having been in 1918 over 40,000,000 pounds. 
 
 These improvements in the producing power of Porto Rico have been 
 due, in a very large degree, to the aid which the government has rendered 
 in developing transportation facilities as well as other aids to production 
 and commerce. In the twenty years under American administration, 
 permanent public improvements have been developed, including $6,500,000 
 expended on roads and bridges, $4,220,000 upon public buildings, $4,- 
 917,000 on irrigation systems, a total expended for these three great aids 
 to the industries of the Island of $15,626,000, while sums expended in 
 other lines such as water works, sewers, lighting systems, etc., aggregate 
 a very large sum. 
 
 These developments, under governmental administration, of trans- 
 portation, irrigation, public buildings and other facilities of this character 
 have encouraged private capital to investments in, or loans on behalf of, 
 
 47 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 the great industries notably sugar, tobacco, fruits, live stock and min- 
 ing and large sums of capital from continental United States are now 
 represented in the great sugar and tobacco works and other industries 
 of this character which have been so largely increased during American 
 occupancy. 
 
 The immense increase in industrial business since its annexation to the 
 United States is illustrated by the fact that the number of business cor- 
 porations registered in the office of the Executive Secretary has increased 
 from fourteen in the year of annexation, 1899, to 386 in 1919, of which 236 
 were domestic and 150 foreign corporations, sixteen in this grand total 
 being banks and including branches of The National City Bank of New 
 York at San Juan, the capital and principal business centre on the northern 
 frontage, and Ponce on the southern frontage of the island. 
 
 Summing up the situation in Porto Rico at the present time as compared 
 with that at the date of her annexation to the United States twenty years 
 ago, the manager of The National City Bank's Branch at San Juan, Mr. 
 Burt O. Clark, says: 
 
 The two decades of progress made by Porto Rico under the American 
 flag taken altogether constitute a record which cannot be equalled by 
 any people anywhere in the world in the same length of time. It is a 
 record creditable alike to the Porto Ricans themselves and to the great 
 free Republic to which they owe allegiance. Much of it is due to the 
 liberality and generous aid of the great American government and people, 
 but most of the credit is due to the splendid cooperation of the Porto 
 Ricans themselves. Without their cooperation, little of this progress 
 could have been made. 
 
 But the people of the Island have eagerly availed themselves of every 
 opportunity offered them for improvement. With patriotic devotion 
 to their Island and with a real aspiration for progress, they have made 
 a quick response to all the changes that were necessary for develop- 
 ment. In politics and government, in education, in commerce and 
 industry, in social and moral improvement, they have offered their co- 
 operation and aid to the forces that have made for betterment. This is 
 the simple truth as to the past, and this is the best augury for the 
 future. 
 
 It seems easy to predict that, barring untoward and unexpected 
 events, the next two decades will see even more wonderful progress and 
 development. Porto Rico derives its income from the soil. But by grow- 
 ing sugar cane, tobacco, etc., the inhabitants have been adopting the 
 logical course. If the world's market should become such as to make the 
 growing of the above mentioned products unprofitable, the Island could 
 
 48 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 find other sources of income; for instance, as a tourist resort. No country 
 in the tropics can boast of roads such as Porto Rico's. The motorist 
 could spend months here and find new points of interest daily. The 
 climate is superb, the island lying directly in the path of the trade winds. 
 One very high class hotel has recently been established. 
 
 The present need is good passenger steamships. 
 
 A very large proportion of the foreign trade of Porto Rico now occurs 
 with continental United States. Nearly 90% of the merchandise leaving 
 that Island goes direct to the ports of continental United States and 93% 
 of the merchandise entering the Island is from the United States. The 
 character of the merchandise sent to the United States is, as already 
 indicated, chiefly the products of the soil sugar, tobacco, fruits and 
 coffee while the merchandise drawn from continental United States 
 includes rice, flour, meats, and dairy products, vegetables, mineral oil, 
 and manufactures of all classes, especially cotton cloths, iron and steel in 
 various forms, boots and shoes, paper, and miscellaneous manufactures, 
 while the fact that the value of this merchandise from our own farms 
 and factories sent to Porto Rico has grown from approximately $3,000,000 
 at the date of annexation to $27,000,000 in 1910, $31,000,000 in 1915 and 
 $68,000,000 in 1919, illustrates the growth of the purchasing power and, 
 therefore, the prosperity of the Island under the beneficent influence 
 of a close relationship with a great temperate zone section supplying it a 
 market for its tropical products and thus increasing its producing and 
 purchasing power and the inter-relation of the industrial and financial 
 interests of the two areas having the mutual relationship of the tem- 
 l>erate zones and tropical areas. 
 
 Salvador While the Republic of Salvador is not strictly a Carib- 
 bean territory, since it fronts only on the Pacific, yet the very 
 fact that it is a part of that important and rapidly developing area, Cen- 
 tral America, and closely associated with the Caribbean frontage of that 
 peninsula, justifies its inclusion in this discussion. 
 
 It is the smallest in area of the Central American states, but its popu- 
 lation is larger than that of any of the group with the single exception 
 of Guatemala. The area is but 13,176 square miles but the population is 
 1,271,000. Its population per square mile is far greater than that of 
 any other political division of continental America, though materially 
 less than that of certain islands in the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico area. 
 The population of Salvador per square mile is 96.5 against 35.3 in the 
 
 49 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 United States, exclusive of Alaska; 20.2 in Mexico; 8.1 in Brazil; 7.2 in 
 Argentine and 2.2 in Canada. Certain of the islands of the area under 
 discussion, however, are much more densely populated than Salvador, 
 the population of Haiti being 225.8 per square mile and that of Porto 
 Rico 362.8. 
 
 Coffee is the most important product of the busy population whose 
 chief occupation is agriculture and its market is chiefly the United States. 
 In fact, Salvador sends about two-thirds of her total exports to the United 
 States and takes about two-thirds of her imports from us. Her chief 
 routes of commerce with the United States are, naturally, by way of the 
 Pacific coast ports and the Panama Canal. The exports in 1917, the 
 latest year for which details are available, include $21,000,000 worth of 
 coffee; $1,000,000 worth of indigo; $1,000,000 worth of sugar and con- 
 siderable values in rubber, hides, hemp and silver. The imports, which 
 amounted in 1917 to $2,500,000, consist of manufactures of all kinds, 
 especially cotton goods, iron and steel manufactures and flour. 
 
 Trinidad The island of Trinidad and its little outlying island of 
 Tobago, attached to Trinidad for governmental purposes, 
 lie immediately off the coast of Venezuela at the mouth of the Orinoco 
 and are separated from the mainland by two narrow channels, one entitled 
 Dragon's Mouth, and the other Serpent's Mouth. It is a British colony, 
 discovered by Columbus in 1498. and belonging to Spain until 1797 when 
 it was seized by the English and confirmed in its possession by the treaty 
 of Amiens in 1802. 
 
 Its area is 1860 square miles, and that of the outlying island of Tobago 
 114 square miles. The population is estimated at 380,000. The capital, 
 Port-of-Spain, on the northwest side of the island, is described by Lip- 
 pincott's Gazetteer as "one of the finest towns in the West Indies." Its 
 population is given in the Statesman's Year Book of 1919 as 60,000. 
 Port-of-Spain is the seat of a branch of The National City Bank of New 
 York. 
 
 The imports of Trinidad in 1917, the latest year for which figures are 
 available, were $23,310,000 and the exports $25,792,000. About one-third 
 of the trade is with the United States, the remainder being chiefly with 
 Great Britain, though the fact that its exports consist largely of asphalt, 
 utilized in all parts of the world, gives to this class of exports a wider 
 field of distribution than with any other articles. The exports, stated 
 
 50 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 in order of their relative importance, were in 1917, cacao $8,100,000; 
 sugar $7,100,000; asphalt $675,000; cocoanuts $450,000; copra $510,000; 
 petroleum, crude, $1,700,000. 
 
 The petroleum fields are receiving much attention; considerable 
 sums of British capital have been invested in their development and a 
 considerable part of the product is now being exported in the refined 
 state, including lubricating oil, illuminating oil, and naphtha. 
 
 The imports are manufactures of all kinds, especially cotton goods, 
 iron and steel manufactures and miscellaneous merchandise, and there 
 has been, especially during the war, an increasing demand upon the United 
 States. Our exports to Trinidad and Tobago were, in 1918, $6,564,000; 
 in 1919, $7,777,000. The imports from the island, consisting largely 
 of cacao, which alone amounted in 1918 to $5,123,000; cocoanuts, $522,000; 
 copra, $350,000; asphalt, $403,000; and hides, $102,000. Our exports 
 to the Island comprise a very large number of articles including, in 1918 
 flour, $354,000; cotton cloths $375,000; oil well machinery $133,000; 
 pipes and fittings, $351,000; meat and dairy products, $973,000. 
 
 Venezuela Venezuela ranks third in area and population among 
 the countries and islands of the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico 
 area under consideration in this discussion. Its area, 394,000 square 
 miles, exceeds that of any of the countries in question, except Mexico and 
 Colombia, and its population, 2,828,000, is also in excess of any of the 
 countries and islands in question, other than Mexico and Colombia. 
 
 In variety of products and possibilities of future development, it also 
 holds very high rank. Lying as it does in the track of the trade winds 
 which sweep across the Atlantic in the areas of extreme heat, the air 
 current, which moves steadily westward across the Atlantic the year 
 round, reaches Venezuela carrying all the moisture that air can carry, and 
 gives to practically all parts of her large area a dependable climatic condi- 
 tion one of extreme heat with a plentiful and seldom excessive supply of 
 moisture and assures regularity of production so far as relates to climatic 
 conditions. The character of the soils in practically all parts of the 
 country is also favorable to regularity and quality of tropical growths. 
 
 The surface of Venezuela consists of three distinct zones agricultural, 
 pastoral and the forest zone. Coffee, cacao, sugar cane, cotton, corn and 
 beans are the principal products of the strictly agricultural zone, which 
 lies within a comparatively short distance of the Caribbean frontage 
 
 51 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 and in the valleys of the great rivers, while the more elevated section of 
 the interior maintains large stocks of cattle, horses, sheep and goats, but 
 with * very great opportunities for further enlargement, especially as to 
 cattle and the beef supply, while the forests are of great value and im- 
 portance, contributing, as they do, India rubber, balata (a gum resembling 
 rubber), vanilla, tonga beans and many other forest products of this 
 character. 
 
 The area under coffee alone is estimated at 200,000 acres and the 
 number of coffee plantations about 33,000, while the number of cocoa 
 plantations is about 500 and the out-turn a very considerable factor 
 in the production of the country. The number of sugar plantations is 
 estimated at about 11,000. They are reported extremely prosperous and 
 are turning out increasing quantities of sugar, the product having been 
 stimulated by the recent advance in selling values. New sugar centrales 
 have recently been established on the lakes of Maracaibo and Valencia, 
 and others in the immediate vicinity of Caracas. 
 
 The live stock of the country is estimated at: cattle, 2,000,000; sheep, 
 180,000; goats 1,665,000. The live stock possibilities are very great, 
 especially in the interior, and have great promise, as is illustrated by the 
 recent establishment of new slaughtering and freezing establishments 
 which are expected to add materially to the prosperity of the industry 
 and the exportations of the country, though there are still great possi- 
 bilities open to investment of capital in this line, the comparatively 
 unoccupied area available for the live stock industry being still very large. 
 
 The mineral industries are also important and include gold, copper, 
 petroleum, asphalt and many other minerals and metals. Salt mines in 
 various sections of the country are now operated by the Government, 
 the gross revenue in the first year of the governmental administration 
 having been 6,377,000 bolivars (the value of the bolivar being 19.3 cents). 
 The petroleum industry is of very considerable importance at the present 
 time and the future is looked upon as very promising, large sums 
 of capital British and otherwise having been invested in oil lands and 
 in the development of production. 
 
 The railroads of the country, about 600 miles at the present time, 
 represent largely British and German capital. The telegraph system is 
 about 6,000 miles in length, and the telephone about 15,000 miles of lines. 
 
 Ocean transportation facilities are good. Lying as it does in the direct 
 
 52 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 route of vessels passing between the United States and South America 
 either as to the eastern or western frontages, and also those exclusively 
 engaged in the trade of the Caribbean, the facilities of Venezuela for inter- 
 communication with the United States are exceptionally good, while its 
 proximity to the trade route between Europe and the Panama Canal gives 
 it special facilities for comparatively close relationship with Europe on one 
 hand, and the Pacific trade on the other. Its most important requirements in 
 the matter of transportation are capital for the development of the trans- 
 portation routes of the interior, especially railroads of which it has at 
 present only 600 miles, for a country with a total area of 394,000 square 
 miles. The fact that an exceptionally large portion of the area of Venezuela 
 is productive in agriculture, forestry or minerals, suggests that an enlarge- 
 ment of her rail and river transportation power for the interior would be 
 of extreme value, especially in view of the fact that the ocean transporta- 
 tion facilities are, as above noted, exceptionally good, and large markets 
 demanding all classes of her possible products, lie within a comparatively 
 short distance by ocean steamship. 
 
 The fact that the imports into the United States from Venezuela 
 have grown from $6,701,000 in the fiscal year 1910 to $32,111,000 in the 
 calendar year 1919, and that the exports to that country have grown 
 from $2,797,000 in 1910 to $14,429,000 in 1919, illustrates the rapid 
 growth of her trade and the interest of the United States therein, and 
 accounts for the fact that The National City Bank of New York has 
 established branches at the cities of Caracas, the capital, with a population 
 of nearly 100,000; Ciudad Bolivar, near the mouth of Venezuela's principal 
 river, the Orinoco, with a population of approximately 20,000; and Mara- 
 caibo, at the entrance to Lake Maracaibo, with a population estimated 
 at 60,000; all of them connected with the interior by rail and water 
 transportation. 
 
 Virgin This title applies to a group of islands lying immediately east 
 Islands of Porto Rico and forming the beginning of the chain of islands 
 and islets known as the Lesser Antilles. The general term 
 Virgin Islands applies to a group of 36 islands, about one-half of them 
 inhabited; a part of them belonging to Great Britain, while the more 
 important islands of the group St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John now 
 belong to the United States, having been purchased in March, 1917, 
 from the government of Denmark. The sum paid for them by the United 
 States government was $2.5,000,000, which, according to an estimate of 
 
 53 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 the National Geographic Magazine, was at the rate of $295 per acre as 
 against an average of 27c. an acre paid for the Philippines and 2c. an acre 
 paid for Alaska. 
 
 The value of these three islands, especially to the United States, lies 
 chiefly in the fact that they include two very important harbors available 
 for naval and strategic purposes, and lying off the eastern end of our island 
 of Porto Rico and upon the main route of approach to our Panama Canal. 
 The report of the Secretary of State, upon which President Wilson recom- 
 mended to Congress the purchase of these islands, remarks that "there 
 can be no question as to the value of St. Thomas' harbor as a naval port, 
 with its circular configuration, ample roadsteads, protection from pre- 
 vailing winds and seas, and facilities for fortifications, and moreover, the 
 advantages of a naval base off the entrance of the Panama Canal and 
 near the island of Porto Rico is self-evident." 
 
 The importance of St. Thomas has also been recognized by commerce 
 and commercial carriers, as there are already in the harbor six 
 large cargo docks which can be touched by vessels drawing up to 31 
 feet, also a floating dry dock with a maximum lifting capacity of 3,000 tons, 
 excellent ship repairing and coaling facilities which are of importance not 
 only to the United States' vessels but also to the vessels of other countries. 
 
 The island of St. Croix has also a well protected harbor, though the 
 entrance is less satisfactory than that of the harbor of St. Thomas. While 
 the island of St. John has at present no satisfactory harbor, engineers 
 have expressed the opinion that an indentation upon its coast known as 
 "Coral Bay" has, with proper development, possibilities quite equal to 
 that of St. Thomas. 
 
 The area of the three islands which have thus come into permanent 
 ownership of the United States, is stated by the Statistical Abstract of the 
 United States at 149 square miles, the area of the island of St. Croix 
 being about 90 square miles, St. Thomas 35 square miles and St. John 
 25 square miles. The population of the three islands in 1917 was 26,051. 
 
 Both Danish and English are taught in the public schools, which were 
 established by the Danish government, and attendance has been made 
 compulsory. The chief language of the islands is English. 
 
 The chief products are sugar, coffee, cotton, cocoanuts, citrus fruits, 
 bay rum, and food animals, especially cattle, while unofficial reports 
 indicate considerable possibilities as to iron and copper, which thus far 
 
 54 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 
 have not been developed by any systematic efforts at mining. The chief 
 exports are sugar, cotton, coffee, rum, hides and citrus fruits, and the 
 chief imports are flour, cornmeal, meats, dairy products, cotton cloths 
 and coal. The bulk of the trade of the islands is, of course, with 
 the United States and Porto Rico, their near neighbor, our own exports 
 to them having been in the calendar year 1919, $1,804,000 against $1,640,- 
 000 in 1918 and $1,885,000 in 1917. Our imports from the islands were, 
 in 1919, $1,593,000, chiefly sugar; in 1918, $1,138,000; and in 1917, 
 $928,000. 
 
 The possibilities of the sugar industry are considered of very con- 
 siderable importance, and Brigadier-General Mclntyre of the United 
 States Bureau of Insular Affairs is quoted as stating before the committee 
 of Congress that the sugar plantations of the islands, although producing 
 less at present than formerly, could be developed to a production of about 
 100,000 tons of sugar annually. 
 
 The other islands of the Virgin group are under the British and French 
 and include about thirty- two islands with a total area of about 58 square 
 miles, only a portion of them, however, inhabited, the latest estimate 
 of the population of the entire British portion of the group being 6,112. 
 The chief British islands are Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost- 
 Van-Dykes. Cotton, sugar, citrus fruits and cocoanuts are the chief 
 products. The exports of 1917 were $44,000 and the imports $60,000. 
 
Area, Population, Imports and Exports 
 
 States of the Islands and 
 
 the Caribbean Sea 
 
 Mexico .... 
 
 Area 
 Sq. Miles 
 
 767,200 
 :a 
 48,300 
 44,300 
 8,600 
 13,200 
 49,600 
 18.700 
 32,400 
 
 435,000 
 394,000 
 89,500 
 46,000 
 32,000 
 
 44,200 
 11,100 
 19,300 
 3,400 
 100 
 4,200 
 200 
 
 2,000 
 4,400 
 
 200 
 700 
 500 
 700 
 400 
 400 
 100 
 
 Population Year 
 15,502,000 1918 
 
 2,119,000 1918 
 562,000 1917 
 43,000 1917 
 1,271,000 1918 
 700,000 1918 
 441,000 1917 
 450,000 1918 
 
 5,473,000 1918 
 2,828,000 1918 
 314,000 1918 
 92,000 1917 
 49,000 1917 
 
 2,628,000 1918 
 2,500,000 1917 
 725,000 1918 
 1,246,000 1918 
 26,000 1918 
 894,000 1917 
 187,000 1917 
 
 377,000 1917 
 60,000 1917 
 
 6,000 1917 
 128,000 1917 
 178,000 1917 
 212,000 1917 
 193,000 1917 
 58,000 1917 
 5,000 1917 
 
 Total 
 Imports 
 
 $117,100,000 
 
 6,600,000 
 6,300,000 
 2,600,000 
 6,000,000 
 6,000,000 
 5,600,000 
 7,800,000 
 
 22,000,000 
 14,900,000 
 16,300,000 
 3,100,000 
 2,400,000 
 
 302,200,000 
 10,000,000 
 20,200,000 
 63,400,000 
 2,000,000 
 16,200,000 
 10,000,000 
 
 23,000,000 
 2,300,000 
 
 200,000 
 e4,500,000 
 e4,500,000 
 8,000,000 
 10,500,000 
 2,500,000 
 2,000,000 
 
 Imports 
 From U. S. 
 
 $93,200,000 
 
 4,200,000 
 5,100,000 
 2,200,000 
 3,900,000 
 4,500,000 
 3,900,000 
 6,400,000 
 
 10,500,000 
 7,200,000 
 7,300,000 
 1,500,000 
 500,000 
 
 230,000,000 
 9,000,000 
 18,800,000 
 58,900,000 
 1,600,000 
 8,100,000 
 2,700,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 1,200,000 
 
 100,000 
 1,500,000 
 el, 500,000 
 3,500,000 
 3,500,000 
 
 Imports 
 From 
 U. S. 
 85 
 
 66 
 82 
 89 
 65 
 71 
 60 
 87 
 
 49 
 50 
 43 
 47 
 22 
 
 76 
 90 
 93 
 93 
 80 
 50 
 27 
 
 31 
 50 
 
 50 
 33 
 33 
 40 
 35 
 
 Central Ameri< 
 Guatemala 
 
 Honduras 
 
 Brit. Honduras.... 
 Salvador 
 
 Nicaragua 
 
 Costa Rica 
 
 Panama . 
 
 South America 
 Colombia 
 
 Venezuela 
 
 Brit. Guiana 
 Dutch Guiana 
 French Guiana.... 
 West Indies 
 Cuba 
 
 Haiti 
 
 Dom. Republic.... 
 Porto Rico 
 
 Virgin Islands 
 Jamaica 
 
 Barbados 
 
 Tobago and 
 Trinidad 
 
 Bahamas 
 
 Turks Islands 
 and Caicos 
 
 Leeward 
 
 Windward 
 
 Guadeloupe 
 
 Martinique 
 Curacao 
 
 Cayman 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 2,060,700 39,267,000 
 * Percentage of total imports from U. 
 
 $697,200,000 $497,800,000 *74 
 S. t Percentage of total exports to U. ' 
 
 e estimated. 
 
 56 
 
[iid the Share Thereof with the United 
 Countries Fronting Upon 
 nd Gulf of Mexico 
 
 Total 
 Exports 
 
 Exports Exports 
 to U.S. to U.S. Year 
 
 Revenue 
 
 Expenditure 
 
 Debt 
 
 133,000,000 
 
 $175,000,000 
 
 91 
 
 1914 
 
 $75,798,000 
 
 $75,687,000 
 
 $62,000,000 
 
 11,300,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 72 
 
 1916 
 
 3,332,000 
 
 2,273,000 
 
 54,000,000 
 
 5,400,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 93 
 
 1917 
 
 4.102,000 
 
 4,102,000 
 
 1,598,000 
 
 2,600.000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 75 
 
 1917 
 
 642,000 
 
 623,000 
 
 920,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 8,300,000 
 
 65 
 
 1917 
 
 4,851,000 
 
 4,934,000 
 
 1.783,000 
 
 7,800,000 
 
 3,800,000 
 
 48 
 
 1916 
 
 2,302,000 
 
 1,981,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 11,400,000 
 
 8,100,000 
 
 72 
 
 1918 
 
 4,265,000 
 
 4,250,000 
 
 5,890,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 2,900,000 
 
 99 
 
 1918 
 
 3,594,000 
 
 3,594,000 
 
 3.699,000 
 
 37,700,000 
 
 24,700,000 
 
 72 
 
 1918 
 
 17,179,000 
 
 16,499,000 
 
 4,317,000 
 
 19,700,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 60 
 
 1917 
 
 8.515,000 
 
 8,515,000 
 
 67,000 
 
 16,900,000 
 3,500,000 
 2,500,000 
 
 570,600,000 
 13,000,000 
 22,400,000 
 74,300,000 
 1,300,000 
 12,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 1,500,000 
 100,000 
 
 266.000,000 
 3,500,000 
 19,400,000 
 65,100,000 
 1,200,000 
 3,400,000 
 
 7 
 48 
 5 
 
 72 
 27 
 83 
 88 
 99 
 28 
 
 1917 
 
 3,582,000 
 
 3,582,000 
 
 4,832,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 1918 
 1914 
 1918 
 
 62,760,000 
 5,724,000 
 3,163,000 
 
 70,951.000 
 6.164,000 
 2,953,000 
 
 
 13.000,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1917 
 
 5,120.000 
 
 5,343,000 
 
 18.478,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 3 
 
 1917 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 2.219,000 
 
 2,623.000 
 
 25,000,000 
 
 7,500,000 
 
 30 
 
 1917 
 
 5,343,000 
 
 5,343,000 
 
 7.600,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 200,000 
 05,000,000 
 
 01,000,000 
 
 0100,000 
 01,600,000 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 33 
 
 1917 
 
 1917 
 1917 
 
 423.000 
 
 50,000 
 934,000 
 
 530,000 
 
 45,000 
 964,000 
 
 248,000 
 
 1,265,000 
 
 04,500,000 
 10,000,000 
 16.000,000 
 1,000,000 
 1,000,000 
 
 01,500,000 
 
 83 
 
 1917 
 
 1,046,000 
 
 1,095,000 
 
 1,674,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16,000 
 
 18,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 $622,800,000 f?9 
 
 57 
 
TRADING IN THE CARIBBEAN 
 TOTAL IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 
 
 of the 
 
 CARIBBEAN ISLANDS AND COUNTRIES AND THEIR 
 TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES 
 
 From 1900 to 1918 
 
 From Official Reports of the Countries Named 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1913 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1913 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 Total 
 Exports 
 
 $1,010,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 900,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 1,100,000 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 ,400,000 
 
 ,600,000 
 
 ,900,000 
 
 ,700,000 
 
 ,500,000 
 
 5,800,000 
 
 m5,100,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 010,700,000 
 
 BAHAMAS 
 
 Exports 
 
 % to 
 
 Total 
 
 to U.S. 
 
 U.S. 
 
 Imports 
 
 no data 
 
 
 
 $1,600,000 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 375,000 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 I 600,000 
 
 46.2 
 
 1,900,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 45.4 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 58.3 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 1,100,000 
 
 68.7 
 
 2,300,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 72.2 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 BARBADOS 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 500,000 
 400,000 
 400,000 
 300,000 
 
 d700,000 
 300,000 
 
 d600,000 
 
 54.5 
 
 28.3 
 
 10.2 
 
 8.5 
 
 8.9 
 
 5.2 
 
 13.7 
 
 3.0 
 
 56 
 
 5,100,000 
 
 4,600,000 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 6,600,000 
 
 6,300,000 
 
 6,200,000 
 
 m6,200,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 11,100,000 
 
 Imports 
 from U.S. 
 
 no data 
 
 n 
 n 
 
 $1,400,000 
 1,300,000 
 1,400,000 
 1,900,000 
 2,000,000 
 
 %from 
 
 U.S. 
 
 73.7 
 72.2 
 77.7 
 82.6 
 84.2 
 
 1,700,000 
 1,600,000 
 1,900,000 
 1,900,000 
 1,700,000 
 1,900,000 
 
 cl, 900,000 
 2,700,000 
 
 c3,900,00e 
 
 33.3 
 34.7 
 29.2 
 8.7 
 27.0 
 30.6 
 30.6 
 7.0 
 35.1 
 
 CUBA 
 
 1900 
 
 47,700,000 
 
 31,400,000 
 
 65.8 
 
 64,800,000 
 
 26,500,000 
 
 40.9 
 
 1905 
 
 110,200,000 
 
 95,300,000 
 
 86.5 
 
 94,800,000 
 
 43,000,000 
 
 45.3 
 
 1910 
 
 150,900,000 
 
 129,300,000 
 
 85.7 
 
 103,700,000 
 
 50,600,000 
 
 48.8 
 
 1913 
 
 165,200,000 
 
 122,600,000 
 
 74.2 
 
 132,300,000 
 
 75,900,000 
 
 57.4 
 
 1914 
 
 173,300,000 
 
 144,100,000 
 
 83.2 
 
 118,200,000 
 
 68,800,000 
 
 8.2 
 
 1915 
 
 235,500,000 
 
 194,600,000 
 
 82.6 
 
 140,900,000 
 
 90,500,000 
 
 64.2 
 
 1916 
 
 356,600,000 
 
 241,800,000 
 
 67.8 
 
 248,300,000 
 
 149,600,000 
 
 60.2 
 
 1917 
 
 *355,900,000 
 
 255,300.000 
 
 71.7 
 
 256,100.000 
 
 206,800,000 
 
 80.7 
 
 1918 
 
 270,600,000 
 
 266,000,000 
 
 98.3 
 
 302,200,000 
 
 230,000,000 
 
 76.1 
 
 (a) Civil war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 
 (b) 1899 (g) 1906 (/) Fiscal year 1914-15 (3) 
 
 (c) Exports of U. S. (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 (r) 
 
 (d) Imports of U. S. 
 
 00 Fiscal year 1899-1900 
 
 CT) 1909 
 
 (/) 1899 (k) Fiscal year 1909-10 
 
 * Figures from U. S. Statistical Abstract. 
 
 Fiscal year 1913-14 
 Fiscal year 1912-13 
 ri) Estimate 
 (o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 (s) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S. 
 
 58 
 
T R 
 
 A D I N 
 
 G IN THE CAR 
 
 I B B E A N 
 
 
 
 CURACAO 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Exports % to Total 
 
 Imports 
 
 % from 
 
 
 Exports 
 
 to U.S. U.S. Imports 
 
 from U.S. 
 
 U.S. 
 
 1900 
 
 no data 
 
 no data no data 
 
 no data 
 
 
 1905 
 
 $400,000 
 
 $1,300,000 
 
 
 
 
 1910 
 
 j300,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 
 
 
 1913 
 
 9,200,000 
 
 1,900,000 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 1915 
 
 900,000 
 
 $500,000 55.5 1,900,000 
 
 $1,200,000 
 
 63.8 
 
 1916 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 800,000 80.0 2,500,000 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 68.0 
 
 1917 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 <f760,000 76.0 2,500,000 
 
 dl,800,000 
 
 
 1918 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 
 
 
 
 1900 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 3,700,000 61.7 3,200,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 40.2 
 
 1905 
 
 6.900,000 
 
 4,500,000 65.2 2,700,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 71.7 
 
 1910 
 
 10.900,000 
 
 7,700,000 70.6 6,300,000 
 
 3,700,000 
 
 60.6 
 
 1913 
 
 10,200,000 
 
 5,500,000 53.5 9,000,000 
 
 5,600,000 
 
 62.2 
 
 1914 
 
 10,600,000 
 
 8,600,000 81.1 6,700,000 
 
 4,500,000 
 
 67.2 
 
 1915 
 
 15,200.000 
 
 12,000,000 78.9 9,100,000 
 
 7,400,000 
 
 81.3 
 
 1916 
 
 21,500,000 
 
 18,300,000 85.1 11,300,000 
 
 9,200,000 
 
 81.4 
 
 1917 
 
 22,400,000 
 
 17.900,000 80.0 17,400,000 
 
 14,300,000 
 
 82.2 
 
 1918 
 
 22,400,000 
 
 19,400,000 86.6 20,200,000 
 
 18,800,000 
 
 93.1 
 
 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 
 
 1900 
 
 a3,300,000 
 
 no data a2,000,000 
 
 no data 
 
 
 1905 
 
 014,400,000 
 
 7,100,000 49.3 09,100,000 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 38"5 
 
 1910 
 
 *17,600,000 
 
 7,700,000 43.7 *17,000,000 
 
 4,600,000 
 
 27.2 
 
 1913 
 
 33,400,000 
 
 18,900,000 56.6 26,300,000 
 
 7,600,000 
 
 28.9 
 
 1914 
 
 32,600,000 
 
 18,000,000 55.2 21,800,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 33.1 
 
 1915 
 
 31,600,000 
 
 18,700,000 59.2 17,800,000 
 
 9,300,000 
 
 52.3 
 
 1916 
 
 30,800,000 
 
 26,600,000 86.2 28,900,000 
 
 14,300,000 
 
 49.4 
 
 1917 
 
 32,200,000 
 
 427,600,000 85.7 23.900,000 
 
 cl2,600.000 
 
 52.7 
 
 1918 
 
 37,700,000 
 
 24,700,000 65.5 22,000,000 
 
 10.500,000 
 
 47.7 
 
 
 
 COSTA RICA 
 
 
 
 1900 
 
 *5,900,000 
 
 3,000,000 50.8 *5.700,000 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 29.8 
 
 1905 
 
 *8,100,000 
 
 3,800,000 47.1 *5,200,000 
 
 2,700,000 
 
 51.7 
 
 1910 
 
 8,400,000 
 
 5,100,000 60.7 7,900,000 
 
 4,100,000 
 
 51.9 
 
 1913 
 
 10,300,000 
 
 5,300,000 50.8 8,700,000 
 
 4,500,000 
 
 51.2 
 
 1914 
 
 10,900,000 
 
 4,900,000 44.9 7,600,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 52.6 
 
 1915 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 4,900.000 49.0 4,500,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 66.6 
 
 1916 
 
 11,100,000 
 
 6,800,000 61.3 6,600,000 
 
 4,700,000 
 
 71.2 
 
 1917 
 
 11,400,000 
 
 8,100,000 71.1 5,600,000 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 60.0 
 
 1918 
 
 12,600,000 
 
 d 9, 100,000 72.2 *4,800,000 
 
 c2, 100,000 
 
 43.7 
 
 
 
 GUADELOUPE 
 
 
 
 1900 
 
 63,600,000 
 
 no data 63,700,000 
 
 no data 
 
 
 1905 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 
 
 
 1910 
 
 4,600,000 
 
 " 3,200,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 (a) Civil 
 (6) 1899 
 
 war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 (*) 1906 (/) Fiscal year 1914-15 
 
 (q) Fiscal year 
 
 1913-14 
 
 (c) Exports of U. S. 
 
 /J\ T _ _f TT O 
 
 (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 
 
 (r) Fiscal year 
 
 1912-13 
 
 Imports of U. S. (*) 1911 
 
 (j Fiscal year 1899-1900 
 (/) 1899 
 
 * Fimrttfrom U. S. Stalitiieal Abitract. 
 
 (f) 1909 
 
 (k) Fiscal year 1909-10 
 
 (n) Estimate 
 
 (o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 
 (5) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S 
 
 59 
 
T It 
 
 A D IN 
 
 G IN 
 
 THE CAR 
 
 I B B E 
 
 A N 
 
 Guadeloupe (continued) 
 
 
 Total 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 to U.S. 
 
 % to Total 
 U.S. Imports 
 
 Imports 
 from U.S. 
 
 %/rom 
 U.S. 
 
 1914 
 
 $4,600,000 
 
 no data 
 
 $3,200,000 
 
 $900,000 
 
 28.1 
 
 1915 
 
 4,900,000 
 
 $40,000 
 
 3,800,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 36.8 
 
 1916 
 
 8,100,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 4,800,000 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 50.0 
 
 1917 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 80,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 43.8 
 
 1918 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GUATEMALA 
 
 1900 
 
 *7,800,000 
 
 <Z2,400,000 
 
 30.7 *3,100,000 
 
 1,100,000 
 
 35.5 
 
 1905 
 
 *8,200,000 
 
 2,900,000 
 
 34.9 6,800,000 
 
 3,100,000 
 
 44.8 
 
 1910 
 
 n8,500,000 
 
 dl,800,000 
 
 21,2 4,300,000 
 
 2,700,000 
 
 62.7 
 
 1913 
 
 14,100,000 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 27.7 9,800,000 
 
 5,100,000 
 
 52.0 
 
 1914 
 
 12,800,000 
 
 4,900,000 
 
 38.3 9,400,000 
 
 4,900,000 
 
 52.1 
 
 1915 
 
 11,600,000 
 
 6,900,000 
 
 59.5 5,100,000 
 
 3,800,000 
 
 74.5 
 
 1916 
 
 10,600,000 
 
 8,700,000 
 
 82.1 8,500,000 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 61.2 
 
 1917 
 
 7,800,000 
 
 n6,200,000 
 
 79.4 9,000,000 
 
 c6,800,000 
 
 75.6 
 
 1918 
 
 *9,700,000 
 
 ^8,000,000 
 
 82.4 57,000,000 
 
 c5,200,000 
 
 74.2 
 
 GUIANA, BRITISH 
 
 1900 
 
 09,400,000 
 
 d3,800,000 
 
 40.4 06,400,000 
 
 cl,900,000 
 
 29.9 
 
 1905 
 
 9,400,000 
 
 2,700,000 
 
 28.7 7,200,000 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 30.5 
 
 1910 
 
 9,300,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 10.8 8,300,000 
 
 2,300,000 
 
 27.7 
 
 1913 
 
 10,700,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 2.7 8,200,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 21.9 
 
 1914 
 
 12,600,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 3.2 7,700,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 23.4 
 
 1915 
 
 16,000,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 3.1 8,800,000 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 25.0 
 
 1916 
 
 18,000,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 10.0 10,500,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 29.5 
 
 1917 
 
 20,700,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 3.9 13,900,000 
 
 5,900,000 
 
 42.4 
 
 1918 
 
 16,900,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 5.9 16,300,000 
 
 7,300.000 
 
 44.8 
 
 GUIANA, DUTCH 
 
 1900 
 
 /2, 200,000 
 
 dl,200,000 
 
 54.5 /2,500,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 20.0 
 
 1905 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 d600,000 
 
 33.3 2,600,000 
 
 c500,000 
 
 19.2 
 
 1910 
 
 2,600,000 
 
 <*400,000 
 
 15.4 2,900,000 
 
 c700,000 
 
 24.1 
 
 1913 
 
 3,800,000 
 
 d800,000 
 
 21.1 2,900,000 
 
 C700.000 
 
 24.1 
 
 1914 
 
 2,600,000 
 
 (21,000,000 
 
 38.5 2,600,000 
 
 c700,000 
 
 26.9 
 
 1915 
 
 2,800,000 
 
 d600,000 
 
 21.4 2,200,000 
 
 c600,000 
 
 27.2 
 
 1916 
 
 3,400,000 
 
 2,100,000 
 
 60.5 3,100,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 47.0 
 
 1917 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 42.8 3,100,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 47.0 
 
 1918 
 
 2,800,000 
 
 d600,000 
 
 21.4 3,000,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 46.6 
 
 GUIANA, FRENCH 
 
 1900 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 d40,000 
 
 3.3 1,900,000 
 
 c200,000 
 
 10.5 
 
 1905 
 
 1,900,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 2.1 2,200,000 
 
 c200,000 
 
 9.1 
 
 1910 
 
 j2,200,000 
 
 <J20,000 
 
 .9 2,400,000 
 
 c300,000 
 
 12.5 
 
 1913 
 
 2,300,000 
 
 d30,000 
 
 1.3 2,400,000 
 
 c300,000 
 
 12.5 
 
 1914 
 
 2,100,000 
 
 
 2,100,000 
 
 c300,000 
 
 14.3 
 
 1915 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 d50,000 
 
 2.3 2,000,000 
 
 c500,000 
 
 25.0 
 
 1916 
 
 2,100,000 
 
 d30,000 
 
 1.4 2,100,000 
 
 C500.000 
 
 23.8 
 
 1917 
 
 2,600,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 3.8 2,400,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 22.0 
 
 1918 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 <Z20,000 
 
 1.0 2,600,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 30.7 
 
 (a) Civil 
 (b) 1899 
 
 war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 (*) 1906 (0 Fiscal year 1914-15 
 
 (q) Fiscal year 1913-14 
 
 (c) Exports of U. S. 
 
 / J\ T _ _ _* TT O 
 
 (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 
 
 (r) Fiscal year 1912-13 
 
 (t) 1911 
 
 Imports of U. S. 
 
 (<?) Fiscal year 1899-1900 (J) 1909 
 (/) 1899 (k) Fiscal year 1909-10 
 
 * Figures from U. S. Statistical Abstract. 
 
 n) Estimate 
 
 o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 
 s) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S. 
 
 60 
 
T R A D I N 
 
 G IN THE CAR 
 
 I B B E A N 
 
 
 HAITI 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Exports % to Total 
 
 Imports 
 
 %/rom 
 
 Exports 
 
 to U.S. U.S. Imports 
 
 from U.S. 
 
 U.S. 
 
 1900 $11,200,000 
 
 rf$l,200,000 10.7 $5,800,000 
 
 C$3,100,000 
 
 55.5 
 
 1905 *5,000,000 
 
 1,200,000 23.4 *3,900,000 
 
 2,700,000 
 
 70.9 
 
 1910 *11,000,000 
 
 500,000 4.8 6,100,000 
 
 4,200,000 
 
 69.3 
 
 1913 17,300,000 
 
 800,000 4,6 8,700,000 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 74.7 
 
 1914 516,200,000 
 
 dl,200,000 7.4 7,600,000 
 
 6,400,000 
 
 84.2 
 
 1915 513,700,000 
 
 rfl.500,000 10.9 4,300,000 
 
 3,800,000 
 
 88.4 
 
 1916 513,500,000 
 
 d3,700,000 27.3 10,300,000 
 
 8,800,000 
 
 85.4 
 
 1917 13,000,000 
 
 3,500,000 26.9 10,000,000 
 
 9,000,000 
 
 90.0 
 
 1918 518,400,000 
 
 d6,800,000 36.9 10,400,000 
 
 c9, 100.000 
 
 87.5 
 
 
 HONDURAS 
 
 
 
 1900 1,300,000 
 
 1.000,000 76.9 1,200,000 
 
 1.100,000 
 
 91.6 
 
 1905 *2,900,000 
 
 2,500,000 87.2 *2,500,000 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 63.1 
 
 1910 2,600,000 
 
 2,000,000 87.7 3,000,000 
 
 2,100,000 
 
 68.2 
 
 1913 3,300,000 
 
 2,900,000 87.9 5,100,000 
 
 8,500,000 
 
 68.6 
 
 1914 3,400,000 
 
 3,000,000 88.2 6,600,000 
 
 5,300,000 
 
 80.3 
 
 1915 3,900,000 
 
 3,000,000 76.9 5,900,000 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 88.1 
 
 1916 715,900,000 
 
 5,600,000 94.9 5,900,000 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 88.1 
 
 1917 5,400,000 
 
 5,000,000 92.5 6,300,000 
 
 5,100,000 
 
 82.0 
 
 1918 *5.800,000 
 
 </5,300,000 91.3 *6,100,000 
 
 c5,000,000 
 
 81.9 
 
 
 HONDURAS, BRITISH 
 
 
 
 1900 1,300,000 
 
 350,000 26.9 1,200,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 58.3 
 
 1905 1,800,000 
 
 960,000 53.3 1,900,000 
 
 960,000 
 
 50.5 
 
 1910 2,000,000 
 
 1,700,000 85.0 2,800,000 
 
 ,300,000 
 
 46.4 
 
 1913 3,100,000 
 
 2,400,000 77.4 . 3,100,000 
 
 ,500,000 
 
 48.4 
 
 1914 2,900,000 
 
 2,400,000 82.8 3,000,000 
 
 ,500,000 
 
 50.0 
 
 1915 2,200,000 
 
 1.800,000 81.7 2,100,000 
 
 ,100,000 
 
 52.4 
 
 1916 2,500,000 
 
 1,400,000 56.0 2,700,000 
 
 ,600,000 
 
 59.3 
 
 1917 2,600,000 
 
 1,800,000 69.2 2,600,000 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 89.0 
 
 1918 2,700,000 
 
 d2,600,000 96.3 2,800,000 
 
 c2,300,000 
 
 82.1 
 
 
 JAMAICA 
 
 
 
 1900 8,700,000 
 
 n4,800,000 55.1 5.400,000 
 
 712,200,000 
 
 40.0 
 
 1905 6,100,000 
 
 8,700,000 60.6 8,200,000 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 42.6 
 
 1910 12,500,000 
 
 6,800,000 54.4 12,700,000 
 
 5,800,000 
 
 45.7 
 
 1913 10,800,000 
 
 6,800,000 63.0 13,800,000 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 47.1 
 
 1914 14,100,000 
 
 8.600,000 61.1 12,500,000 
 
 5,900,000 
 
 47.2 
 
 1915 10,800,000 
 
 5,100,000 47.2 11,300,000 
 
 6,100,000 
 
 54.0 
 
 1916 13,700,000 
 
 4,500,000 32.8 15,100,000 
 
 8,700,000 
 
 57.6 
 
 1917 12,000,000 
 
 3,400,000 28.3 16,200,000 
 
 8,100,000 
 
 50.0 
 
 1918 012,100,000 
 
 <f3,100,000 25.6 016,000,000 
 
 c7,500,000 
 
 50.0 
 
 
 LEEWARD ISLANDS 
 
 
 
 1900 1,500,000 
 
 no data 1,800,000 
 
 no data 
 
 
 1905 600,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 P 
 
 
 1910 2,700,000 
 
 9 2,800,000 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 (a) Civil war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 
 <b) 1899 
 (c) Exports of U. S. 
 (d) Imports of U. S. 
 
 If) 1906 (/) Fiscal year 1914-15 
 (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 
 (*) 1911 (n) Estimate 
 
 (q) Fiscal year 
 (r) Fiscal year 
 
 1913-14 
 1912-13 
 
 (e) Fiscal year 1899-1900 
 CO 1899 
 
 CO 1909 (o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 (ft) Fiscal year 1909-10 (s) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S. 
 
 * Fifuret from U. S. Statitiical Abttraet. 
 
 
 61 
 
 
 
TRADING IN THECARIBBEAN 
 
 Leeward Islands (continued) 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Exports 
 
 % to 
 
 Total 
 
 Imports 
 
 %/rom 
 
 V 
 
 Exports 
 
 to U.S. 
 
 U.S. 
 
 Imports 
 
 from U.S. 
 
 UM, 
 
 1913 
 
 $2,800,000 
 
 $400,000 
 
 14.2 
 
 $2,700,000 
 
 $900,000 
 
 33.3 
 
 1914 
 
 2,900,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 20.7 
 
 2,900,000 
 
 850,000 
 
 29.3 
 
 1915 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 20.0 
 
 2,800,000 
 
 430,000 
 
 15.4 
 
 1916 
 
 5,500,000 
 
 n900,000 
 
 16.4 
 
 3,100,000 
 
 n700,000 
 
 22.6 
 
 1917 
 
 5,300,000 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 33.1 
 
 4,200,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 35.7 
 
 1918 
 
 05,300,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 33.9 
 
 04,400,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 40.9 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1913 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1913 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 1900 
 1905 
 1910 
 1913 
 1914 
 1915 
 1916 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 5,200,000 
 
 5,700,000 
 
 8,400,000 
 
 11,800,000 
 
 15,700,000 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 *3,400,000 
 
 *4,600,000 
 
 7,700,000 
 
 5,100,000 
 
 4,600,000 
 
 5,300,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 7,800,000 
 
 17,700,000 
 1,800,000 
 5,400,000 
 3,800,000 
 3,300,000 
 5,500,000 
 5,600,000 
 3,000,000 
 
 8,600,000 
 39,900,000 
 38,000,000 
 49,100,000 
 43,100,000 
 49,400,000 
 66,700,000 
 81,100,000 
 74,300,000 
 
 MARTINIQUE 
 
 no data 
 
 n 
 
 5,000 
 5,000 
 
 4,800,000 
 2,800,000 
 3,700,000 
 4,300,000 
 4,500,000 
 6,500,000 
 10,900,000 
 
 NICARAGUA 
 
 1,100,000 
 1,700,000 
 1,600,000 
 2,700,000 
 2,400,000 
 3,100,000 
 3,700,000 
 5,000,000 
 3,800,000 
 
 28.2 
 49.9 
 34.2 
 35.1 
 47.1 
 67.4 
 69.8 
 83.3 
 48.7 
 
 PANAMA 
 
 3,400,000 
 
 *3,400,000 
 
 *2,900,000 
 
 5,800,000 
 
 4,100,000 
 
 3,200,000 
 
 4,800,000 
 
 6,400,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 State of Colombia 
 
 800,000 
 1,500,000 
 4,600,000 
 3,300,000 
 3,100,000 
 5,400,000 
 5,500,000 
 2,900,000 
 
 4.5 
 
 83.5 
 82.5 
 86.6 
 93.9 
 98.1 
 98.2 
 96.7 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 10.000,000 
 
 11,400,000 
 
 10,200,000 
 
 9,300,000 
 
 9,200,000 
 
 9,200,000 
 
 7,800,000 
 
 PORTO RICO 
 
 5,700,000 
 26,400,000 
 26,400,000 
 40,500,000 
 34,400,000 
 42,300,000 
 61,100,000 
 73,100,000 
 65,100,000 
 
 78.7 
 66.2 
 69.4 
 82.5 
 79.8 
 85.6 
 91.6 
 90.3 
 87.6 
 
 9,400,000 
 38,800,000 
 30,600,000 
 36,900,000 
 36,400,000 
 33,900,000 
 39,100,000 
 53,500,000 
 63,400,000 
 
 no data 
 
 2,300,000 
 3,100,000 
 5,700,000 
 
 850,000 
 1,900,000 
 1,600,000 
 3,200,000 
 2,600,000 
 2,600,000 
 3,900,000 
 5,000,000 
 4,500,000 
 
 5,600,000 
 5,600,000 
 6,400,000 
 6,300,000 
 7,000,000 
 6,700,000 
 7,100,000 
 6,400,000 
 
 7,400,000 
 23,600,000 
 23,300,000 
 33,200,000 
 32,600,000 
 30,900,000 
 35,900,000 
 49,500,000 
 58,900,000 
 
 51.1 
 
 47.7 
 52.3 
 
 25.0 
 55.3 
 55.3 
 55.2 
 63.4 
 81.2 
 81.3 
 78.1 
 75.0 
 
 56.0 
 56.0 
 56.1 
 61.7 
 75.3 
 72.8 
 77.2 
 82.1 
 
 78.7 
 60.8 
 76.1 
 90.1 
 89.5 
 91.2 
 91.8 
 85.1 
 92.9 
 
 Fiscal year 1913-14 
 Fiscal year 1912-13 
 
 (a) Civil war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 
 (6) 1899 (g) 1906 (/) Fiscal year 1914-15 
 
 (c) Exports of U. S. (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 
 
 (d) Imports of U. S. (*) 1911 (n) Estimate 
 
 (e) Fiscal year 1899-1900 (j) 1909 (o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 
 (./) 1899 (k) Fiscal year 1909-10 (s) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S. 
 
 Figures from U. S. Statistical Abstract. 
 
 62 
 
T R 
 
 A D I N 
 
 G IN THE 
 
 CAR 
 
 I B B E 
 
 A N 
 
 
 
 SALVADOR 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Exports % ^ 
 
 Total 
 
 Imports 
 
 % from 
 
 
 Exports 
 
 to U.S. U.S. 
 
 Imports 
 
 from U.S. 
 
 U.S. 
 
 1900 
 
 $9,100,000 
 
 $700,000 7.7 
 
 n$5,000,000 
 
 $700,000 
 
 
 1905 
 
 *5,600,000 
 
 1,225,000 21.8 
 
 *4,300,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 3L2 
 
 1910 
 
 *7,300,000 
 
 2,300,000 31.2 
 
 *3,700,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 36.0 
 
 1913 
 
 9,400,000 
 
 2,700,000 28.7 
 
 6,200,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 40.3 
 
 1914 
 
 10,800,000 
 
 2,700,000 25.2 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 40.6 
 
 1915 
 
 10,300,000 
 
 1,800,000 17.5 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 2,600,000 
 
 66.6 
 
 1916 
 
 66,700,000 
 
 61,100,000 91.6 
 
 39,100,000 
 
 35,900,000 
 
 91.8 
 
 1917 
 
 16,700,000 
 
 5,700,000 34.1 
 
 6,800,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 22.1 
 
 1918 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 8,300,000 69.2 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 65.0 
 
 TOBAGO and TRINIDAD 
 
 190f 
 
 12,600,000 
 
 3,900,000 30.9 
 
 12,200,000 
 
 2,900,000 
 
 23.7 
 
 1905 
 
 12,100,000 
 
 3,400,000 28.3 
 
 12,800,000 
 
 3,300,000 
 
 25.8 
 
 1910 
 
 16,900,000 
 
 4,500,000 26.6 
 
 16,300,000 
 
 4,200,000 
 
 25.7 
 
 1913 
 
 25,300,000 
 
 6,800,000 26.9 
 
 24,400,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 16. 
 
 1914 
 
 13,100,000 
 
 5,400,000 . 41.2 
 
 14,000,000 
 
 4,100,000 
 
 29.3 
 
 1915 
 
 16,600,000 
 
 8,200,000 49.3 
 
 14,900,000 
 
 4,400,000 
 
 29. 
 
 1910 
 
 20,900,000 
 
 7,200,000 34.6 
 
 17.800,000 
 
 6.200,000 
 
 34.8 
 
 1917 
 
 25,800,000 
 
 7,100,000 27.5 
 
 23,000,000 
 
 7,000.000 
 
 31.0 
 
 1918 
 
 *27,000,000 
 
 d7,100,000 26.3 
 
 *20,800,000 
 
 c6,600,000 
 
 31.7 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 1900 
 
 14,400,000 
 
 5,500,000 38.2 
 
 8.300,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 30.1 
 
 1905 
 
 A 15, 600,000 
 
 4,800,000 30.8 
 
 A9.300.000 
 
 2,800,000 
 
 30.1 
 
 1910 
 
 18,000,000 
 
 <f6,700,000 37.2 
 
 12,500,000 
 
 c2,800,000 
 
 22.4 
 
 1913 
 
 29,500,000 
 
 8,500,000 28.8 
 
 18,200,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 38.S 
 
 1914 
 
 21,500,000 
 
 9,400,000 43.7 
 
 14,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 42.8 
 
 1915 
 
 23,400,000 
 
 13,200.000 56.4 
 
 13,500,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 59.3 
 
 1916 
 
 22,700,000 
 
 11,800,000 51.9 
 
 20,600,000 
 
 13,000,000 
 
 63.1 
 
 1917 
 
 *23,200,000 
 
 13,100,000 54.7 
 
 *20.200,000 
 
 15,100,000 
 
 68.0 
 
 1918 
 
 19,800,000 
 
 (212,000,000 60.6 
 
 14,900,000 
 
 c7,200,000 
 
 48.3 
 
 (a) Civil war raging; figures are those of Barranquilla only available. 
 
 (6) 1899 
 
 (c) Exports of U. S. 
 
 (d) Imports of U. S. 
 
 (e) Fiscal year 1899-1900 
 (/) 1899 
 
 () 1906 
 
 (h) Fiscal year 1904-5 
 1911 
 1909 
 Fiscal year 1909-10 
 
 Fit urtt from U. S. Statittical Abttract. 
 
 (/) Fiscal year 1914-15 
 (m) Fiscal year 1915-16 
 
 (n) Estimate 
 (c 
 
 (<?) Fiscal year 1913-14 
 (r) Fiscal year 1912-13 
 
 (o) Fiscal year 1917-18 
 
 (s) Estimate based on import or export figures of U.S .