Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/875

 COMMERCE 823

dairying, and the production of hay, grain, and the fruits and vegetables to temperate climes. The staple produce of Ecuador is cocoa. The production of cocoa beans was in 1915, 769,750 cwts. ; in 1916, 1,079,250 cwts. ; in 1917, 68,359 cwts. ; in 1918, 37,507 cwts, and in 1919, 22,474 cwts. The largest cocoa estate in the country has been taken over by an English company. Coffee is also grown ; the exports in 1919 were 3,729,451 lbs. Rubber plantations have been formed in the Ralzar and Tenguel districts and in Manabi and Esmeraldas, with more than a million trees. The rubber exports in 1919 amounted to 886,373 lbs. But rubber is rapidly declining on account of the destructive methods employed in its collection. Other products are tagua (ivory nuts\ tobacco, the annual yield of which is about 3,000 lbs ; and sugir. Mangrove bark (for tanning), alligator skins, and kapok (silk cotton tree fibre, Bomlax ceiba) are exported in small quantities.

Ecuador is auriferous. At Pillzhum in Ca&ar rich silver ore is found, but is not now worked. Petroleum is found ; the oil-fields of Santa Elena are being worked by two British Companies. The country is known to be also rich in copper, iron, lead and coal ; and sulphur exists in great quantities in the Chimborazo district and in the Galapagos Islands.

Excepting the inter- Andean plateau and a few arid spots on the Pacific Ecuador is a vast forest. Roughly estimated, 10,000 square miles on the Pacific slope extending from the sea to an altitmle of 5,000 feet ou the Andes, ami the Amazon Basin below the same level containing 80,000 square miles, nearly all virgin forest, are rich in dyewoods, cinchona trees, and other valuable timber.

Panama hats are made almost exclusively in Ecuador, the principal centres beiug Monticristi, Jipijapa and Cuenca. The Government of Ecuador attempted to monopolise the hat business for its own people by placing a heavy export duty on " paja toquilla," but large quantities of the material still go to Peru ; and Payta, Peru, where little " toquilla " is grown, is a strong competitor of Eucador in the manufacture of Panama hats. There are flour mills, 13 sugar works, breweries, and chocolate factories.

Commerce.

The value of imports and exports for five years is given as follows in sterling (10 Sucre's = £1) : —

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

Imports. Exports

£ 1,730,070 2,653,306

£ 1.919.7S8 3,615,163

£ 2,094,090 3,355,S01

£ '. 1,60

,1.53

£ .901 4,316,70;'

In 1919 the chief exports were cocoa 2,949,1042. ; tagua, or ivory nuts, 431,855?.; hats, 343,5262.; coffee, 126,230/.; hides, 119,5312.; rubber, 4*5, 24 62. The chief imports in 1919 were woven goods, 582,2232. ; food-stuffs, 438,3392.; machinery, 220,2072. ; clothing, 51,9232. Of the imports in 1919, the value of 1,681,2772. was from the United States; 378,1262. from Great Britain ; 65,7762. from Peru ; 63,9142. from France.

The chief articles of import from Ecuador into Great Britain (according to Board of Trade returns) in 1919 consisted of cocoa of the value of 887,0042.; hides, 97,5732. ; straw hats, 109,5392. The chief exports of British produce to Ecuador in 1919 were cotton goods, to the value of 147,3412. ; woollens, 31,5562. ; iron, wrought and unwrought, 16,9562.