In 1916, the total imports of Guatemala amounted to $6,725,601, and the total exports to $10,618,176, making the total foreign trade equal to $17,343,777. During the year ending July 1917, the United States exported goods to the amount of $5,228,325, and imported $8,668, 573; the United Kingdom imported $86,087, and exported $1,056,795; France exported $149,515; Spain, $75,365; and other countries, $215,601. The Netherlands imported $947,042; Sweden, $245,183; Honduras, $97619; Germany, $91,658, and other countries, $482,014. The value of the coffee exported is about 80 per cent of the total value of the country's exports. During 1915, Guatemala manufactured 11,893, 456 bottles of aguardiente, or brandy, valued ap proximately at $1,200,000 United States gold, and imported wines, liquors and beer to the value of $125,583 United States gold.
The great increase of trade with the United States is due •largely to the European War. Coffee constituted the chief article of ship ment, the value being $6,301,337, followed by bananas, valued at $1,035,427, and hides, over $500,000. Of the imports the share of the United States was $5,228,897, or 77.74 per cent of the total. The chief imports from the United States were cotton goods valued at $952,086, flour amounting to $612,809. The United States supplied also 93 per cent of the manu factures of iron, copper, tin and lead and their compounds; 95 per cent of the industrial and agricultural machinery, and all of the railway material.
For the partial supply of local needs a num ber of small manufacturing establishments are maintained, the chief products being coarse textiles, hats, leather, shoes, pottery, cement tiles, cigars, musical instruments, furniture, agricultural implements and liquors. The salt industry is important on the Pacific coast and there are salt mines in Huehuetenango and Verapaz. In 1915 the production amounted to 12,880,000 pounds.
Communication.— Steamers of the coast wise service between San Francisco and Panama make regular calls at San Jose, Ochs and Champerico. From New York to Puerto Barrios, passengers and freight are carried by two steamship lines. The steamers of the American Fruit Company ply between New Orleans and Puerto Barrios. The Central Railway, the first line built in Guatemala, was completed in 1882 to connect the port of San Jose with Guatemala City. In 1904 the Guate mala Railway Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey; and in 1912, this latter concern affected a union of the principal railways of the Republic, the Central, the Occidental and the Ocos railroads, under the title of the International Railways of Cen tral America. Under this consolidation, the Occidental is considered as a separate road, a majority of the stock of which is in the hands of the new corporation. The International Railways, which have a total length of 520 miles include the line from Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic, to San Jose on the Pacific (270.5 miles) • that from Santa Maria to Mazatenango (63 miles) ; that from Mazatenango to Puerto Champerico (42 miles) ; the branch to San Telipe (9 miles) ; that from Ocos (port) on the Pacific by way of Ayutta (on the National Railways of Mexico) to Vado Ancho (51 miles) ; that from La Union, on the Pacific to Lempa River (84 miles). Several other brandies are projected or actually under con struction. By the railway concessions the gov ernment of Guatemala has the right to pur chase the property at an arbitrary price in some cases, while in others the lines revert to the nation without any payment at the end of a cer tain time. There are some short private in
dustrial lines which are not in the hands of the management of the International Railways, which is closely allied to the corporation which controls the United Fruit Company. The latter has made of Puerto Barrios a good modern port. The Pacific ports of the republic are still mere open roadsteads with very irregular steamship service. The republic had in actual operation in 1916 about 4,300 miles of telegraph and telephone wires, with over 333 offices and stations.
Finances.— The foreign debt is held mainly in England and Germany, and interest on it is already about 18 years in arrears; the total public debt being approximately $17,600,000 gold, of which about $12,000,000 (including ar rears of interest) is the present amount of the foreign debt. The public revenues are de rived chiefly from duties on imports and an export tax on coffee. The budget for 1915-16 was estimated at 60,082,640 pesos paper, or a lit tle more than $3,000,000. In 1916 the republic sustained its foreign credit by an advance pay ment of 4 per cent on the English debt. Guatemala has nominally the silver standard. The present currency, however, is inconvertible paper, which although it circulates freely in the republic, has no fixed value in relation to gold or foreign exchange. The silver peso, divided into 100 centavos and weighing 25 grammes of silver, .900 fine, or say 22.500 grammes fine silver, was adopted in 1870 as the monetary unit. ' It is in reality the unit of account. At present, practically no gold or silver coins circulate. The principal banks— all located in Guatemala City—are the Banco Americano de Guatemala, Banco de Guatemala and Banco Internacional.
Guatemala is administratively divided into 22 departments. The total area of the republic is estimated at 48,290 square miles and the popu lation in 1916 was estimated at 2,119,165. The departments, with their capitals and the popu lations of the latter, are as follows: Full-blooded Indians are much more numerous in Guatemala than in other Central American countries; in fact they, with the Indians of mixed blood, ladinos and mestizos, make up the bulk of the population. The natural increase among these people is indicated in the report of the secretary of public works for 1901, which shows 66,728 births in that year against 35,618 deaths, a gain of 31,110 persons. The total number of inhabitants in 1916 was given as 2,119,165.
Alvarado, P. de, 'Docu mentos Antiquos: copia de dos Cartas de don Pedro de Alvarado' (Guatemala 1913) ; Cosby, J. T., 'Latin American Monetary Systems and Exchange Conditions' (New York 1915) ; Brigham, T., The Land of the Quetzal' (Lon don 1887) ; Donville-Fife, C. W., 'Guatemala and the States of Central America' (London 1913) ; Habel, S., 'The Sculptures of Santa Lucia Cosumalwhuapa in Guatemala' (Wash ington 1878) ; Hewett, E. L., 'Two Seasons' Work in Guatemala' (Archceol. Inst. of Amer ica Bull., Norwood, Mass., 1911); Keane, A. H., 'Central and South America' (London 1911) ; Maudslay, A. C. and A. P., 'A Glimpse of Guatemala' (London 1899) ; 'Munro, D. G., 'The Five Republics of Central America' (New York 1918) ; Niederlein, G., 'The Re public of Guatemala' (Philadelphia 1898) ; Pan American Union, 'Guatemala' (Washing ton 1915) and 'Latin America' (Washington 1916) ; Sands, W. F., 'Mysterious Temples of the Jungle: the Prehistoric Ruins of Guate mala' (National Geog. Mag., Washington 1913); Squier, E. G., 'The States of Central America' (New York 1858).