The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-06
OUR FOREIGN TRADE.
HOW SPECULATION AFFECTS THE
PETROLEUM BUSINESS.
Changes Necessary in the Terms of Cora
Shipment-1he South American Trade
congress Observation-Disclosures
Illness of Judge Waite.

WASHINGTON CRY, Jan. o Arthur Liver
more, consul at Londonderry. submits
figures showing that since 1870 there has
been steady decline in the importation al
that port OF Indian corn from the United
States and steady increase of importations
from the Black sea. In 1870 there was i'm
ported from the Black sea 23I3 tons, and
from the United States 67,097 tons
In nine months If 1854 there was
imported % $50 tons from the Black
sea and IS, SOS tons from the United States.
OF the causes Of this, Mr.. Liver
more says. the Greek merchant sells on
what are known as the rye terms, which
are i'll effect that his goods stall be at the
port of consignment OF the quality OF grade
represented, and that any portion found
otherwise shall be submitted to arbitration
for determining the difference to be sub
tracted from the price. The American
dealer, on the other hand sells by the in
spect0r's grading, whose certificate attends
tie bin of lading and bills drawn for the
price.
The consequence is said to be, and may
easily be supposed to be, that a larger pro
portion of damaged cargoes are among those
coming from the United States than among
those coming from the ports of the Black
sea. The loss in the former falls entirely on
the purchaser, who has no remedy, while in
the latter it is deducted from the price by
the award Of the arbtrators
| Mr. Merrill, consul at Jerusalem, com
plains that American petroleum sold in that
market is so poor that it is likely to be driven
| out of use entirely by the Russian article, in
sT,jta IF h. 4tay,'u boj o,,oIifV
At Amsterdam the consul, Mr. Eckstain,
reports that importations Of American pc
| troleum showed an increase of 1900 bar
rels for 1888 over 1882 but at Rotter-
| dam there was decrease of G6,000 bar
rels Mr. Ecstein says: 1T is represented tC
me that transactions in this so important
| article of commerce, and especially SO to us,
| are here being most injuriously affected, and
! that many firms here have stopped opera
| tions therein, in consequence of what are
| termed here irregular and Teprehensible
manipulations indulged in by certain specu
| lators in the article in the United States"
| In accounting for the falling off in i'm
! ports from the United States to the Argen.
| tine Republic, Consul Baker, of Buenos
| Ayles, writes:
! The reason for this must lie in the faci
| that with the facilities for trade which Eu
rope offers to this country, the close inter
| communication by steam which exists, and
| the liberal creiit5 which English
| French and German mannfa turers can
afford to give 10 Argentine dealers il
| is impossible for us to compete witt
them for such supplies, in spite of the fact
| that our goods may be really better and al
the same prices and preferred by the people
| of the Platte river In this state of affair
We shall have to abide our time and waii
| until in the fuilne>S OF our commercial de
| velopment we can afford TO sustain
| a closer communication with Bueno
| Ayres by means of regular lines ot
steamships. Until this shall be con
sunmated it is useless to longer discuss tht
methods by which our foreign commerce
can be increased. III these days of steam
and ocean cables time is the leveier whicl
moves cargoes; and unless we are able t
put down i'll BHenos Ayres invoices of mer
chandise with equal dispatch with the ma
tionS of Europe we need not expect tt
make many inroads upon the monopoly o
the commerce. When it takes from sixty t
eighty days for our sailing vessels to reaci
Buenos Ayres from New York, and only
from twenty to twenty-five for merchan
steamers to reach the slme port from Liver
pool or Antwerp or Havre or Genoa, it i
hardly necessary for Us to inquire why th
importers of the Platte prefer, even wher
other things are equal, to order their sup
plies from the other side of the Atlantic