Now contrast Brazil with the three southern countries of South America. A great change is apparent corresponding to the more tropical character of the climate. Cereals and vegetables drop out of the list of exports, as do minerals. Animals, though still important, hold no such place as in Uruguay and Argentina in proportion to the popula tion. On the other hand, food products derived from tropical planta tions become enormously important. About $354,000,000 of the $415,000,000 in this part of the table of exports must be ascribed to coffee alone, with smaller amounts for sugar, yerbe mate, and cocoa. Leaves and fibers, chiefly tobacco and cotton, also become prominent. In Brazil there is likewise a moderate amount of India rubber, which is classed as a forest product in the table, although in the East Indies it is rapidly becoming a plantation crop which might be placed with cotton and tobacco.
In the Andean countries of Ecuador and Peru, just as in Brazil, the effect of the tropical climate is evident in the plantation food products, chiefly cocoa in Ecuador and sugar in Peru, and in the leaves and fibers, which here mean chiefly Peruvian cotton. All the main exports of vegetable products from the Andean countries come from their warm lower portions. Only in the exports of minerals, which are chiefly the copper, petroleum, and silver of Peru, do we see the effect of the moun tains. These countries, like practically all others, have many minor exports, but here we are considering only the main articles which are produced in sufficient surplus to be important for world commerce.
Passing on to the northern countries cf South America the table shows that in Venezuela and Colombia plantation food products assume almost as preponderating a place as do animals in Uruguay. Coffee is by far the chief export ($77,000,000 in 1919), with cocoa coming second in this group and bananas third. In the small Central American countries the same conditions are 'still more marked. Finally in the islands of Cuba and Jamaica the plantation system reaches its highest development, for there the exports are practically all plantation products, either foodstuffs among which sugar is far and away the most important, or tobacco. The high development of plantations in the northern parts of Latin America is partly because of the tropical climate and Partly because this region is so near the densely populated parts of the United States where the demand for such products is great. In Mexico plantation products still play an important part, for sisal fiber accounts for about $40,000,000 among the group called " leaves and fibers," while sugar figures among the exported food products. Minerals, how ever, rise to great importance. just as they do far to the south in Peru and Chile. Petroleum accounts for about half the mineral exports of Mexico, but most of the other important minerals aside from coal and iron are well represented.
The Contrasted Imports of North and South.—In the matter of imports the countries of Latin America show the same marked contrast as in exports. This is evident in the following table which shows the approximate annual imports per capita.
The people of Argentina and Chile buy large amounts of clothing, for they are comparatively well to do, but have few factories. The Cubans and Jamaicans buy only a little over half as much, not merely because in their warmer climate they need less variety, but because they are not so well off. On the other hand, the farmers and cattle
raisers of the southern countries do not need so much machinery and metal wares as do the sugar planters of the northern islands with their mills, tramways, and other appliances. When it comes to food, the people of the far south are practically self-supporting. Aside from sugar and coffee, the imports are luxuries which are not essential to existence. The islanders, on the contrary, do not raise enough to support themselves. They are so busy producing sugar, tobacco, and cocoa that they must import about four times as much food per person as do the Argentinians and Chileans. In other words the people of the southern countries of South America display a healthy economic system in which they feed themselves, send staple food supplies to other countries, develop simple manufactures, and run their own business in such a way that gradually they are likely to become more and more independent of other countries. As one comes north in Latin America, however, the plantation system becomes more and more firmly estab lished. The people do not raise enough food for themselves, they largely produce luxuries or products of secondary importance rather than necessities, they depend on outsiders for guidance and capital in their simple manufacturing, and their dependence on other countries becomes steadily greater.
The Distribution of the Tropical Commerce of the United The importance of the trade between tropical countries and those of higher latitudes is steadily growing. This is natural in view of the dif ferences in the products of the two regions and the increasing demand of prosperous manufacturing regions for raw materials and luxuries from warm countries. The way in which the tropical trade of the United States is distributed among the various continents and the extent to which it increased from 1913 to 1919 appears in the following table: In 1913-14, during the last normal year before the war, the United States sent $22,200,000 worth of goods to tropical Africa, an amount which was nine-tenths of 1 per cent of our total exports. In 1921, when conditions were settling back to normal but were still a good deal disturbed, this country sent $39,700,000 worth of goods to tropical Africa, an amount which was the same percentage of the total as in 1913-14. If Europe had been in a normal condition in 1921 and had been able to buy as much as usual, Africa's percentage would probably have been less, so that our exports to Africa are relatively falling off. On the other hand the imports of tropical products from Africa rose from $4,300,000 to $16,300,000, but even in 1921 amounted to only 0.6 per cent of the total, so that the trade of the United States with tropical Africa is almost negligible. In columns I and J, imports and exports have been added together, while the last column shows the percentage by which the actual value of the total trade with the United States increased from 1913 to 1921. Since prices in 1921 were more than 60 per cent higher than before the war, a percentage of 53 in the last column means that the total trade of the United States with tropical Africa in 1921 was essentially the same as in 1913, with perhaps a little falling off because of hard times in the later year.