MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. The manufac turing industries are only slightly developed, and are confined chiefly to the production of blankets, coarse cloth, straw hats, ponchos or cloaks, wood en and earthen wares, tobacco products, and leather goods. The transportation facilities are far from adequate. In many parts of the coun try there are merely paths on which trains of pack-mules furnish the only means of transpor tation. The railway lines, all owned by Ameri can and German companies; have at present a total length of about 400 miles. The Guatemala Central Railroad, connecting the capital, Guate mala, with the Pacific seaport of San and with a branch line connecting Santa Marfa with Patulul, is 129 miles long. The Northern Rail way is in operation from Puerto Barrios up the Motagua Valley to Rancho de San Agustin, a. distance of 134 miles. With the completion of the portion (62 miles) from the latter place to Guatemala—a line under construction in 1903 by an American company—the capital will have a direct line of communication between the two coasts. Most of the railway bonds are guaran teed by the Government, and the companies are assisted by annual subventions, as well as by land grants. Puerto Barrios, the chief Atlantic seaport, is connected by steamers with New York and New Orleans. The Pacific ports have direct steam communication with San Francisco and Europe.
The chief article of export is coffee, which goes mainly to Germany, the United States (about one-eighth of the total export), and Great Britain. Besides coffee there are shipped hides
and skins, bananas, rubber, and mahogany. The imports consist chiefly of cotton goods supplied by Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and France; railway materials, and telegraph and electrical supplies, chiefly from the United States; and building materials and iron manu factures, which are also supplied to a large ex tent by the United States. The value of the ex ports of Guatemala for 1899 amounted to $8, 370,555 gold, a falling off since 1896, when it amounted to $10,037,193 gold. The imports for 1899 amounted to $4,117,659 gold, as against $11,429,200 in 1896. The commerce with the United States was for a long time greatly handi capped by the lack of direct steamship lines be tween the Pacific ports of the two countries. The establishment of a direct steamship line between San Francisco and Guatemala in 1900 has been followed by an increase in the United States im ports to Guatemala from $785,462 gold in 1900 to $1,424,814 in 1901. The latter figure, however, still falls short of the exports from the United States in 1896, when they exceeded $3,000,000. The imports from Guatemala into the United States in 1900 amounted to over $2,000,000, con sisting chiefly of coffee, bananas, hides, skins, and rubber.