There were 185 vessels of 318,742 tons and two sailing vessels of 1,737 tons entered the ports of Ecuador during 1915, as compared with 162 steam vessels of 335,561 tons and seven sailing vessels of 12,125 tons during 1914. The exports from the port of Guayaquil in 1916 to the United States included 37,227,400 pounds of cacao, 175,143 pounds of coffee, 1,829,200 pounds of hides, 592,997 pounds of ivory nuts and 121,317 pounds of rubber. Of cacao the United Kingdom took 23,772,000 pounds, of hides 143,730 pounds and of ivory nuts 62,362 pounds. France took 10,095,225 pounds of cacao, 599,938 pounds of coffee, 29,378 pounds of hides and 219,205 pounds of ivory nuts. Spain took 4,242,700 pounds of cacao, 558,956 pounds of coffee, 42,091 pounds of hides, 78,375 pounds of ivory nuts and 10,683 pounds of rubber. Holland took 4,325,000 pounds of cacao and Chile 2,528,834 pounds of coffee. The total exports of the port were 81,756,910 pounds of cacao, 4,645,218 pounds of coffee, 2,044,399 pounds of hides, 1,101,017 pounds of ivory nuts and 132,000 pounds of rubber.
The monetary system is based on the gold standard, the unit of value being the sutra (weight 0.8136 grammes of gold .900 fine, or 0.73224 grammes of pure gold). The value of the sutra is $0.48665, currency of the United States; and the value of $1.00 American in terms of Ecuadorean currency is therefore $2.05484. The actual currency of the republic is gold, silver and banknotes, but the only legal tender is gold. The new coinage consists of the gold condor of 10 sucres, weighing 8.136 grammes of gold .900 fine, or 7.3224 grammes of fine gold, equivalent to $4.866 in currency of the United States, or one pound sterling, English money. (Consult Cosby, J. T.,
The cultivated area is limited, owing to the lack of laborers; nevertheless Ecuador has con siderable agricultural resources. A large vari
ety of crops are grown and the soil is exceed ingly fertile. Ecuador produces more cacao than any other country except the Gold Coast in Africa. It is grown principally in the prov inces of Guayas, El Oro and Manabi. In 1914, 47,210 and in 1915, 40,000 metric tons were pro duced. Over 40,000,000 pounds of tagua (ivory nut) are exported annually. Coffee is cultivated in several districts to the extent of several mil lion pounds a year and considerable quantities are exported. Sugar cane and tobacco are grown on the lowlands of the coast. Of the former about 16,000,000 pounds are produced yearly, an amount which about satisfies the domestic demand. Rice, quina, maize, wheat, barley, oats and a number of medicinal and industrial plants are also grown to supply the home market and some are exported. The rubber tree is plentiful and this industry is growing fast, the rubber exported annually reaching nearly $1,000,000 in value. Alfalfa is cultivated and the pastoral industries are thriving.
Sixty miles of the rail way from Guayaquil to Quito were built before 1880, that is, from the coast to the village of Chimbo, at the base of the cordillera. A com pany organized in the United States completed the road (25 June 1908) ; passenger trains make the trip (297 miles) in two days. The line starts from Duran, across the Guayas River from Guayaquil and ascends the Andes to a height of 11,841 feet, when it descends to a height of about 9,000 feet and continues on to Quito. The gauge is 3 feet 6 inches and the rolling stock consists of about 25 locomotives and several hundred passenger and freight cars. The Central Railway, from Manta on the coast to Santa Ana, is in operation as far as Puerto viejo, 25 miles, and when complete will be 35 miles long. A railway connects Bahia, Caracas and Quito (186 miles). A number of other lines are authorized, among them being a 125 mile line from Ambato to the Curraray River, a line from Ambato to Banos, a line from Quito to a port on the Esmeraldas coast and one from Guayaquil to the coast. The total extent of the telegraph system is 5,482 miles with 204 offices. The Ecuadorian landing-station of the Central and South American Telegraph Com pany's cable is at Salinas, which was declared open as a minor port by executive decree 21 Aug. 1902. Quito and Guayaquil have telephone services; the latter a street car system. There are six wireless telegraph stations — two main ones at Quito and Guayaquil each, one on the coast to the north of Guayaquil and one on the Galapagos Islands and one each at Bolivar and Bahia. A score or more passenger vessels ply on the Guayas River and between Guayaquil and other coast towns. English steamships of the Pacific line and vessels of the Chilean line plying between Valparaiso and Panama call regularly at Guayaquil. There are about 200 post offices in the country and they handle yearly over 6,000,000 pieces of postal matter. The postal service is being gradually extended.