Applying the same kind of reasoning to tropical South America it appears that the exports of the United States to the part of South America north of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay increased from 1913 to 1921, but imports from these regions showed a relative decline from 7.2 per cent to 6.6. The net result was that the total volume of business (both exports and imports), between the United States and the tropical part of South America remained nearly steady just as did the African business, for the increase in prices accounts for the seeming gain of 51 per cent.
The high figures for the business of the United States with the tropi cal parts of Asia and North America indicate that southeastern Asia and the East Indies on the one hand, and Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies on the other hand, are the great sources of tropical products for the United States. They are likewise the chief sources for Europe. Moreover, there was a real increase in the trade of the United States with these two regions, as is indicated by the large per centages in the last column. If we exclude from the North American figures an increase of about fifty million dollars in the importation of petroleum from Mexico, on the ground that petroleum is not in any special sense a tropical product, the figure for North America in column K becomes 102. This means that while the actual volume of the trade of the United States with Africa and South America remained almost stationary from 1913 to 1921, the volume with Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies increased about one-fourth, while with Asia the increase was even larger.
Why Commerce with South America Increases more Slowly than with other Tropical figures given in the preceding table show that while in 1913-14 the total trade of the United States with tropical South America ($198,700,000) exceeded that with tropical Asia ($183,300,000), in 1921 the figures had been reversed ($299,400,000 for South America against 5379,600,000 for Asia). In view of the rela tive nearness of tropical South America to the United States and the constant attempts during the last few decades to stimulate South American trade, these facts present one of the most important business problems for both the United States and South America. A study of the relative importance of the tropical products imported into the United States in 1913 and 1920 will help in understanding this.
Among these products sugar and molasses are already so widely used that a rapid increase in production is not needed. The increase of 44 per cent in imports from 1913 to 1920 was largely due to the disturbances of the Great War which caused this country to refine sugar for countries that formerly bought from Central Europe. The growth in the demands of the United States can be supplied with comparative ease by open ing new plantations in Cuba and the other parts of the West Indies and Central America where the industry is already well established, and where there is a fairly large labor supply. The demand for coffee, the main tropical import from South America, increased rapidly perhaps because of prohibition, but it is doubtful whether this will continue. On the other hand, the increased use of automobiles and the utilization of rubber in many other industries is causing the demand for rubber to increase enormously in spite of fluctuations from year to year. Formerly
nearly half the world's rubber came from Brazil, but most of it was from wild trees. To supply the present demand huge plantations are needed, and these have been established in the East Indies not only because the climate is favorable but because of the large supply of fairly good labor. Moreover, trade and investments follow the flag, and European flags fly all over southern Asia and the East Indies.
The need of the United States for fibers such as hemp and sisal for use in making rope and twine has not increased much more rapidly than the population during the past twenty years. The same is true of the demand for tea, and spices, while the demand for bananas, rice, and indigo has actually diminished. Certain other products including. cabinet woods and ivory are imported in smaller quantities than formerly because the easily available supply is depleted. The tropical articles for which the demand is increasing—and will apparently continue to increase significantly—are rubber, vegetable oils made largely from pahn nuts, cocoa and chocolate, gums, nuts (especially coconuts), dyewoods, and quinine. South America might supply all of these, but they demand steady plantation labor. South America has a labor supply which is both poor and scanty. The Indians, as we have seen, are not good workers. The Negroes and the mestizos or mixed Spanish and Indian stock are generally considered more competent but cannot be relied upon. They work today and loaf tomorrow, which is one reason why tropical Africa and South America play so small a part in the world's misiness. The best tropical labor in the world appears to be that of he rice-raising and millet-raising people of southeastern Asia and he East Indies,—the Hindus, Chinese, Malays, Javanese, and others. the 20,000 Hindus brought by the British to Jamaica and the 130,000 n British Guiana are among the why the production of those 'egions is relatively large. The Asiatics and East Indians are perhaps tot so strong man for man as the Negroes and Latin Americans, but hey are more docile, easier to handle, and as the result of living for ;enerations in regions of dense population are much more steadily ndustrious. Since southeastern Asia contains a vast reservoir of rela tively reliable tropical labor while South America contains a much smaller supply of less reliable labor, South America is at a disadvantage for all plantation products which can stand long transportation. In the old days when it was a question of finding wild rubber, wild gums, wild quinine, the Indian was as good as the Hindu, but now when transpor tation is cheap and plantations are the order of the day, the Hindu, the Chinese, and the East Indian labor supply is a great asset. Thus the supply of plantation products for the United States tends to come more and more either from southeastern Asia because of the labor supply, or from Central America and the West Indies because of nearness plus tt labor supply poorer than that of Asia, but better than that of tropical South America.