Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/74

52 At the end of 1920 the total of American capital in Bolivia may have been $15,000,000. American interests have lately made arrangements to finance and build the railways that will connect the Bolivian system with that of northern Argentina, which now ends at the frontier.

Brazil.—According to Frederick M. Halsey, American capital was already becoming a factor in the development of Brazil at the time of writing his report. He said: “Cattle raising and meat packing, mining, and other fields of enterprise have attracted the attention of American financiers, and the National City Bank, with its several Brazilian branches, has assumed considerable importance. American investors hold bonds of the city of Sao Paulo, notes of the Brazilian Traction, Light & Power Co., and a few other Brazilian securities. The Brazil Railway, although incorporated in Maine, was practically wholly financed abroad, as were most of the Farquhar-Pearson enterprises. There is probably $50,000,000 of American capital in Brazil, although this figure is simply an estimate.”

Since then, a good deal of American money has been put into meat packing, public utilities, the coffee business, iron and manganese mines, etc., and at the end of 1920 the total American investment in Brazil may easily have been $75,000,000. However, as in the case of Argentina, there has not yet been so much interest in this country as there has been on the west coast of South America where the mines have been more attractive. Brazil has important deposits of iron and manganese ore, but as yet they have been scarcely developed.

Chile.—The principal American investment in Chile