The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-06-05
BRAZIT8 FINANCIAL STATUS.
Sort Crops and small Exports Lead
TO Depressed Conditions

Sort Crops and small Exports Lead
TO Depressed Conditions
. The financial condition Of Bahia. Brazil
/ has caused II w. Furuiss. the United
States Consul at that place. to forward to
the State Department special report on
that subject Mr. Furniss says the open
ing OF the new century marked the com
/ mencement Of the greatest financial crisis
ever known in that section. ard that its
effect viii be felt for some time to come
This is attributable" the Consul says
to several reasons. extending over a pc
Rod of two or three years. First the
lonS-continued drought in the aSriCul-
tural regions cut short crops for horne
consumption and necessitated the irnpor-
tation of food stuGs from neighboring
States, reducing the income Of the section
by diminishing the exports which are its
mainstay- Whole sections became depop-
uIateG, cattle and even people died BY the
wayside in search of food and water and
the State and local governments had to
contribute for the support of the desti-
tute-
The second reason is the Federal Gov
eminent financial policy In its attempt
to elevate the gold value of the paper cur
rency it has materially decreased the pa
per value Of the exported products: and
with the lowering of the gold prices Of
coffee, sugar cocoa, tobacco. etc 1t often
costs the producer more to gather his
crop and get it to market than he can
hope to receive, while his money BUYS lit
tie more than Of old
Thus, in 1895 the value of the rnfIrefs
was II cents in United States money.
while today it is worth % cents more
taan double; but meantime food. house
rent, board, clothing, etc, have not de-
creased > per cent, and in many instances
the necessities Of life have remained the
same in milreis as they were when the
milreis was worth but II cents and the
prices had been raised to correspond with
that value
Not only has the native felt this. but
the foreigner. whose mode Of life IS quite
different, has suffered even more As
noted by the Brazilian Review Cf April
., 1871, actual living expenses, exclusive of
clothing cannot be reduced below S5aGaG
refs, or an equivalent today Of $50. per
month with ordinary shoes ut $50 90 so
and clothing from $3.50 Up. and other
things IN proportion.
Added to all of this have been the con-
staHtIy increasing federal tax =. until now
almost everything one purchases. Inc'ud-
ing hats, shoes. jeIlies. pickles. mans. I'M
essaTy 70 pat stamps on price cards dis
played in stores. on calendars containing /
any advertisement, on bills posted on
fences. on drafts. checks. recslpts. and gn
documents, to say nothing az the increase
in the already high tariff on imports
which went into effect on January l. 1851
raising the portion Of the DATES payable in /
sold from Is to y per cent
AS the financial condition of the Union
has apparently improved under these
measures, so in the same ratio has the
financial condition Of this State and dis (
trict grown worse
Two Of The three native banks shut /
their doors on January % 1901. and al
though much effort has been made 10 re-
open them their future IS probIenatIcaI f.
These two banks had d combined canftaI +.
OF R,5g9 100000 reis (s3.f25 .G0O. and were /
Of great benefit in this section. IN that
from them loans could be arranged and
advances obtained much more advantage
ously than with the two foreign banks. 4
winch devote themselves almost entirety
70 transactions in exchange and coIlec- /
tons, and loan only against gilt-edga con-
Veruble security
The banks have recently proposed q /
way OF settling with depOSitors. One Of
IeTS TO pay per cent per annum interest
ga ---l amount ned, issuing Z cert #ficsfa /
Tor the same and per cent priacfDaI nor
annum- The other offers . per cent inter
est on the amount held issuing a certzf-
cate for the same and paving nothing on
principal for five years. and then pavine,
. per cent semi-annuaIly. PROVIDED the
Dahk mas earned sufficient to allow it IN
case these plans are adopted. the hanks
VIII reopen. and in one instance nearly
enough signatures have been received To
permit this. the depositors Dreferrfne, tbfe
lltS fLlyI 70 forced liquidation, which would
Yield very Httle. 0-iN
II was thought that the only ren7a faf7.,
Li1 i've banE. one Of the oldest in prszf} 7
and having a canftaf' of q IN 90, - L1tsl1iI
StaIid the strain especially as the rarrIa /
il<td such unlimited confidence in ftG y,ras {
..''tt ana directory In January At tho Z
JiIne OF the failure Of the other barl-S - +
eotdte came To tn" aid Of the one rrrr1-fr
-lS "y DoIT9WlnE from the Federal Gov /
= NM NJ 2"l5."'. hEputhccating its e1-1ort
"uts Tor the same. and T.avfre- ~ .
amount IN the bank TO satisfy the Sfa+e,s
l'l'- ltL.TleSS- But It. too. closed its doors
On ApfH j. 1881 It IS thought that mis-
bahk VIII He able 10 resume. shorty -
made. 'sli-5
As a great number. if not all or 80
In+IcHaHlS- both importers and eyDor+.re
are elJHer dIrectl- or Indirectly concerned /
iH these failures. 1t cannot but have n /
most serious erect upon all financial on
eFatIons, ana il hshUores our INGREDIENTS
dition Of their customers here Fasl~.. On
g.-