The times., 1899-12-04
TRADE OF THE TROPICS
Growth of Americas Commerce
With Southern Islands.


States for the Products of sunny
Countries - Statistics Prepared by
the Treasury Department New
Prosecutions May Become Rich.
The commercial possibilities which await
the tropical island territories which have
come into closer friendship with the United
States during the past year, in supplying
permanent and growing market in this
country, are suggested by a compilation
just made by the Treasury Bureau of Sta
tistics of the importation of tropical and
subropical products into the United States
during ten months of the present year CON-
pared with that of the corresponding months
of the preceding year.
They amount TO the surprisingly large
sum of $2S0 OO0, GOO during the 300 days in
question, or an average of over $1,000,oOo
for each business day of the year, showing
that for the full year the total viii reach
more than $500 OGO,OOO.
This compilation it is proper to add in
c!udes raw silk, tea, and rice and the
ElA-elAA ~ OlS1LlOH u sugar III kOt LtiJ4bALS
which is manufactured from beets; but
even if these be omitted, the total which
would be clearly entitled to be classed as
tropical products, would exceed $3.50, ,000, ,000
annually. Sugar, coffee, india rubber
hbres, tropical fruits and nuts, cacaO, to-
bacco of the finer grades. spices, gums,
indigo, dyewoods, and cabinet woods form
the important features of this large
Importation, and all of them are articles fol
which the United States is absolutely de-
pendent, with the possible exception Of
sugar. upon other parts of the world, and
for the present, at least, for the large pro-
portion Of sugar
Curiously. all of these articles can be
produced and are now produced TO a greater
or less extent in the islands in question.
Sugar, as everybody knows, is produced
in large quantities in Cuba, Porto Rico,
Hawaii, and the Philippines. OF our sugar
importations in the ten months just ended,
Cuba has furnished $50 600, GOO pounds; 9TH
er West Indies, 514, ,000, 600 pounds; the
Hawaiian Islands, 534 600 goo pounds; the
Philippine Islands, 80 000 600 pounds; while
the East Indies have in the present year
furnished a larger share of sugar impor-
tatiOns than any other single part of the
world. the total number OF pounds from
the East Indies alone being, for the ten
out Of total OF 1851 756, 9S1 pounds.
Coffee, of which our importations are
growing constantly and rapidly, amount
ing TO about $4,000 000 pounds annually,
as against an average of about 10000 900
in the earlier years of the decade, is sue
cessfully grown in all of the islands in
question, and at one time was a very i'm
portant crop in Cuba as well as at present
in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philip
pines,
Fibre, of which the importatlons in the
present year will amount to $40 GOO 600 in
value, can readily be grown in all of the
islands, the Philippines already supplying
that most important feature Of our fibre
importations, manila hemp, which alone in
the present year win amount TO about
$4,000, 600 in value.
While two or three Of the larger items
of tropical and subtropical imports, rub
beT silk, and tea, are not produced in any
considerable quantities in the islands in
question at present, experiments which
have been made in those islands, especially
in tea and silk, indicate at least that their
production is possible and may prove en-
tiTely practicable with further experiment
Even without these items the list of i'm
pOrtations of tropical products which il is
well known can be produced in these ISL
ands suggests the possibility that fully
SZuu,uUU,uuU winch the united states mas
been heretofore eXpending outside her own
territory and population for products which
her people must have and do not produce
can. in no distant future, be distributed in
these islands in exchange for their supplies
whose production viii doubtless be stim-
Ulated by the Introduction of American
capital and American methods,
The following table shows the imports
OF tropical and subropicaI products into
the United States in the ten months end
ing with October 1888 compared with
1898, arranged in the order Of magnitude:
Ten mos. ending Oct. g.