BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-13

astorishment at seeing on page 80 the
END of that section, concerning the
country which produces more than
three-quarters Of all the coffee in the
world.
=. Looking through those eight pages l
was still more astonished to find in
them many grave errors and misstate-
ments, as, for instance: The we1lknown
fact is that Brazilian coffee is exported
entirely in its natural condition, only
dried; yet the very first paragraph in
that section says that also in Brazil
coffee is colored artifcially, by methods
some of which may be harmless, but
some of which are poisonous.
Another instance of the statement
that coffee-raising extends from the
Amazon River to the Province of St.
Paulo, and from the ocean to the re-
motest western provinces. In Brazil
there are no provinces: there are states.
And, as matter1of fact, coffec-raising,
of any account industrially, is limited
to particular territory in the state of
st. Paulo and in part of the states of
the Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes and
Espirito Santo; and, in very small spots,
in the state of Bahia and Ceara, from
which, however, the exports are nil.
If the coffee-producing territory of
Brazil were as stated on that page Is,
its extent would not be 643,4o square
kilometres, as therein stated; it would
be more than 100000 square kilom-
etreS.
Another one, in regard to coffee, is on
page 70 wherein is stated that exports
from Santos (state of ST. Pau1o) are
generally one-half as much as from Rio
de Taneiro And still another, on page
%, namely, that the whole export bust
ness of Brazilian coffee is in the hands
of forty-6ve commercial houses. The
actual facts are: In the city of Rio de
Janeiro alone there are more than fifty
commercial houses who constantly ex-
port coffee, and Santos always exporis
more than twice as much coffee as Rio
de Janeiro.
Any attentive reader can find in
every one of the said eight pages head
ed "Rrazil," besides these, many other
grave misstatements, that must be fatal
to any opinion based on such alleged
information, and this appears strange
indeed, in the case of an official publica.
ton, under the responsibility Of the
International Bureau of American Re-
publics recommended by the same
bureau for the guidance of the Inter
national Congress to be soon convened.
In the same book varions plans or
projects for the protection of coffee and
for enhancing its value are presented
and these refer to best methods to pre-.
vent overstocking of the coffee mar
kets, to stop of the distribution and
consumption. The best of all said
plans of projects is that by DR. F. de
Assis Brazil, Brazilian minister at Was
hington, introduced at a. meeting of a
Rio Janeiro society, when be made a
grand oration in support of the propos-
ed measure, discussing exhaustively the
importance to Brazil of the market of
the United States of America; the po-
wer of the coffee roaster; the consump-
tion of coffee; frauds against the constr
mers; the Exchange in New York, and
the game against the producers. Yet,
its own author admits that it will not
be easy to form an international agree
ment of coffee countries for the insti-
tuition of central assembly, composed
of delegates Of all such American coun-
tries, with authority to determine every
year the maximum quantities of coffee
which every one of the same countries
will be. permitted to export; and, if that
were possible, the next difficulty would
be to find a way for a just apportion-
rnent of the losses Under such an agree
ment by overproduction.