The increase in the importations across the cordilleras in 1850 arose from the demand for dried fruits in the California market, to which the flour and other agricultural products of Chile were, for the first time, sent in extraordinary quantities. The statistics for 1851 do not distinguish between foreign and national vessels employed in commerce that year, nor the value of the coasting trade in naturalized products. Assuming the population of the country at one and a half millions, each individual will have consumed foreign importations in 1851 to the value of $17.03. Expenses of Collecting the Revenue. Of the goods imported, those paying ad valorem, specific, or other duties, are shown as follows: Commerce of Chile with Foreign Nations. Only vessels are enumerated which arrive from the countries to which they belong. The trade with Austria, Prussia, Portugal, Russia, The ordinary rates of interest being from three fourths to one per cent. per month, and the peaceful condition of the country for ten to fifteen years offering security to foreign capitalists, it is reasonable to infer that shippers have allowed a large part of the gradually accumulating balances against Chile to remain invested there. There is another mode in which a part of the $11,000,000 may be explained away. The value of imports is not the cost at the place of shipment, and shown by the invoices, but that of appraisers at the port of entry; so that a merchant who brings goods into the market which have cost him $100, and for which sum only he is responsible to the foreign creditor, finds himself subjected to duties on a valuation of $130 to $150, his shipment entered at the custom-house books at that amount, and an apparent deficit of $30 to $50 thus created. Supposing only fourteen per cent. to have been added to the invoice prices, and the whole indebtedness disappears. However, most of the houses having large transactions only receive goods on commission, and of course are accountable to shippers for the market value of their consignments; their charges for sales, guaranty, &c., being seven and a half per cent. These firms have agents at many of the ports and interior towns on the western side of the continent, and their business is so profitable that partners are able to retire with handsome fortunes after twelve or fifteen years. Being almost without factories of any description, Chile is dependent on foreign nations for every supply except food; and even of this its yerba mate, coffee, and sugar are all imported. Proportionally to its population, more of the last is consumed than in almost any other country; the quantity introduced in 1850 being 13,600,850 pounds, and 2,281 pounds of sweetmeats, or 9 pounds for every individual.* On the other hand, except with its immediate neighbor, Peru, its isolated position has prevented its agricultural products from being brought into trade; and it was only when the discoveries of gold in California hurried a living tide to the auriferous region that its cereals and dried fruits found a market proportioned to their abundance. Even within a very few years North American flour has had preference in the markets of Valparaiso and Lima; the mills of Chile being so far behind the age, that large quantities were annually imported at handsome profits to the shippers. At the same time good wheat could be purchased, in the provinces immediately south of Santiago, as low as six reals (a real is 12 cents) the fanega of two and a quarter bushels; and as late as the close of 1849 it would only command from seven to nine reals, according to quality. With wheat at such prices, the new and extensive mills introduced by Americans at Santiago and Concepcion, and which were wholly managed by American operatives, soon drove flour made by their fellow-countrymen at home from the Chilean and Peruvian markets. To send it from the eastern coast of the United States to California, it had to cross the equator twice, exposing it when in bulk, as ordinarily prepared, to almost certain loss by heat; and, on this account, Chile has not only the advantage of one transit, but is on an average sixty days nearer the market to be supplied. Early appreciating these facts, at the commencement of 1850 three wealthy speculators made a monopolizing arrangement with the millers at Santiago and Concepcion, which would enable them to control the California market,-one of them, an American just retired from office, writing such an account of the quantity, quality, and cost of wheat in Chile over his ex-official signature as would deter shippers in the United States from attempting competition. The unfairness of the statement, and its object, were so transparent to those who knew of his participation in the speculationa fact perhaps forgotten in writing his letter for the press-that it was at once pointed out to the government at home. But the evil somewhat corrected itself in the course of a year, though not before each of the trio had netted above $30,000. Finding that the eastern States of the great confederation were sending no flour to their infant sister on the Pacific, and that its price had risen enormously at home, the haciendados (farmers) as the original producers of the staple began to believe themselves entitled to at least a small portion of the wealth flowing into the coffers of millers and speculators; and, their demands growing *21,025 pounds of sweetmeats were exported during the same year. 1 even more rapidly than the advance in California, at the beginning of 1852 wheat could not be bought for less than twenty-four reals the fanega. Thinking the haciendados would be forced to sell-as they would have been almost anywhere else-millers were unwilling to buy in quantity on such terms, and they took very little more than met the immediate home consumption. But they were doomed to be disappointed. The producers, for the first time, saw a chance of making fortunes by their estates; and they were resolved to have their share of the Californian profits. There are several estates larger than some of the European principalities, and no small farmers, who are dependent on certain sales of products to obtain other supplies, as in the United States and Europe; indeed, in many cases proprietors are wholly unable to spend their annual incomes. Moreover, as the loss by insects or deterioration is very trifling, they can well afford to hold back a crop unless their own price is offered. For this reason, except the quantities demanded for the country, grain remained stored until, from the superabundant crop of 1851 in the United States, flour could not only be shipped to California again, but a cargo in search of a market was actually sold in Valparaiso at a very liberal advance. The haciendados had made a blunder, and it may prove a most unfortunate one. They can cultivate wheat advantageously at from twelve to thirteen reals the fanega; but by forcing the price to more than double that sum, as they did at last, they induced North American millers to seek means to combat the heats of the equator. The success of the Yankee in whatever he undertakes has become proverbial; and by kiln-drying his flour, if he has not effectually excluded the product of Chile from the California market, his clipper-ships have rendered him a formidable competitor for its profits. One of the reasons alleged for the high prices which began in 1850 was the old song, "short crop;" but, from conversation with several haciendados who produce extensively, the fact that 53,251,300 pounds of flour and 7,306 fanegas of wheat were shipped to a market it had not been accustomed to supply, and my knowledge of a national characteristic which would prevent even new wheat-fields from being brought under cultivation, I give little credit to the plea. It is quite probable there was a scarcity at the close of 1850, and before the new crop was harvested; but it arose from the temptations to shipments, not from niggardliness of the soil, or from diseases of the plant. The total amounts of flour and wheat exported during the year were 64,359,600 pounds of the former, valued at $1,892,548, and 181,125 fanegas of the latter, worth $360,728. During the same period, the quantity of biscuit furnished vessels in the harbors for their own use and shipment abroad was 1,874,300 pounds, at a valuation of $74,952. After wheat, the two agricultural products that have assisted most in paying national indebtedness are barley and beans; the former yielding for exportation 109,469 fanegas, equal to $216,388; and the latter 51,225 fanegas, equal to $136,737. The product of the haciendas that has been the most universally received in part payment, is hides; the aggregate of which shipped in 1850 was 57,605, producing $143,395; and this is nearly the whole sum that the surface of the earth offers to nations beyond Cape Horn. Some 70,740 pounds of salted beef ($15,518) are also sold to shipping, and the horns and hoofs of cattle likewise go; but these are trifling matters. Of charqui (sun-dried beef) there were 89,075 pounds, suet and tallow 59,225, and tallow candles 65,500 pounds. Allowing each pound of charqui to represent three of undried beef, and that the number of hides exported represent two thirds of the actual number slaughtered, as each head of cattle will weigh about 600 pounds, we have for a minimum home consumption about 45,700,000 pounds of fresh beef. With such multitudes of cattle as some of the haciendas possess, one would expect to find ample supplies of butter and cheese for exportation; yet such is so far from being the case, that, strange as it may appear, there are estates with many thousands of heads where there is not only no butter for family use, but sometimes not even milk. At the same time, there is no country where better wool could be produced at a less cost, or which has greater water-power at command than this, southward of the thirty-third parallel; yet, from absolute negligence in the care of sheep and subsequent mismanagement of the staple, its market value is scarcely half that of the best qualities of cotton in North America, and the amount shipped is very trifling in value. Want of enterprise and confidence in each other prevent the establishment of manufactories, and the country spends $850,000 annually for woollen goods which could be made quite as well at home from their own sacrificed material. Wheat, flour, biscuit, barley, beans, cattle, and wool, form an aggregate value of $2,963,296, leaving $7,791,080 to be obtained from other sources. Fortunately, nature has (or is creating, as mineralogists may decide) a treasure within the earth apparently sufficient to liquidate the deficiency arising from the indisposition or indifference of its lords to profit by the advantages its surface offers; the silver mines of Atacama, and the copper deposits of Coquimbo and Aconcagua, being treasuries almost rivalling Californian productiveness and abundance. The values of the metals exported from these districts in 1850 were: Forming an aggregate of $7,093,868, which very nearly equals the deficiency. To these must be added $733,165 of coined gold and silver. But, during the same period there was imported $1,777,634 in gold and silver, either in bars or coined; leaving an excess of introduction equal to $1,044,469 clear gain, in addition to its export of minor produce. This year, however (1850), seems to be the only one in which the balance of trade has been in favor of Chile. The yield of the mines constituting so important an item in payment for importations, it is clearly proper that their products should be exhibited for the same years as are embraced in the commercial tables. * Relaves. This is the residuum after amalgamation, which often contains a large per-centage of silver not extractable with mercury. † Old copper. The table does not embrace the gold sent to the mint to be coined; which was— |