No. 204.
Mr. Stevens to Mr. Fish.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, September 27, of the report from the Department of State in relation to the condition of the commercial relations between the United States and the Spanish American States, accompanied by an official circular giving me instruction, without “unnecessary delay,” to communicate to the Department of State any suggestions which I may deem useful in aiding the President more “fully to comply with the request contained in the Senate resolution” for information on the subject specially considered in said report. Presuming that you desire the response to your request may reach your Department prior to the opening of the approaching session of Congress, in view of the uncertainty of the mails between this country and the United States, I improve the earliest opportunity, somewhat hastily, to prepare my communication in season to go in the next steamer which leaves Rio de Janeiro for New York.
I regard the resolution of the Senate, and your able and suggestive report, highly opportune. The exigencies of the commercial and maritime interests of the United States demand that a prompt exercise should be made of all the legitimate agencies of the Government, with the view to bring South America into closer relations with our country. The causes which have deprived the United States of their due proportion of the trade of the Spanish American states are lucidly presented by you and need not be repeated in this connection. What I have to [Page 279] state in respect to the commercial interests of the countries of the Rio de la Plata can be considered, with sufficient definiteness for all practical purposes, under two heads. What is there here to attract the commercial and maritime efforts of the citizens of the United States? What important step is immediately necessary in order that the United States may secure a larger proportion of the commerce of the Rio de la Plata countries?
In respect to the first inquiry, it would be just to say that the natural resources of these countries and the present aggregate of their productions and trade are too imperfectly understood in the United States. True, the unsettled civil and political condition of these countries for many years has greatly lessened the bulk of their productions and commerce, and these unfavorable influences are still operative. But in these regards there has been an obvious improvement, comparing decade with decade. It is fair to presume that a much better future is not distant for the increase of South American population, products, and commerce. The Rio de la Plata countries are beginning to feel the impulse of the railroad and the organized capital and industries which this powerful agency of modern civilization always creates in its path. Already in the Argentine Republic more than a thousand miles are in operation, or will soon be completed. Already Buenos Ayres has a population of 200,000, and is a city of rapidly growing importance as the commercial center of a vast and fertile territory. Uruguay has a soil and climate unsurpassed, Montevideo, so often the theater of political revolution, has made rapid progress within the past few years, and is to-day a city of large wealth and nearly 100,000 people. Its location, so near the mouth of this vast system of rivers, which drains a country capacious and productive enough to feed two hundred millions of people, is one of the best for commerce on the South American continent. Though still in the midst of a political convulsion, Uruguay has caught the railroad impulse from her Argentine neighbors. An important concession has just been made to a wealthy English company for the building of a railroad through nearly the entire length of the republic, striking the Uruguay River at the best point, which, when completed, cannot fail largely to increase the trade, wealth, and population of Montevideo. Unmistakable railroad logic, by its shorter lines, tends to bring the products and exchanges of the entire country of Uruguay, Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and the Argentine States of Entre Rios and Corrientes to Montevideo. The entire amount of the commerce of the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries is far from being inconsiderable at present. In 1869 the aggregate exports and imports were nearly $100,000,000 by the gold standard of the United States. The railroads already in operation and those building, the steamboat lines now engaged in the interior navigation, and others Soon to be organized, necessarily must largely increase the business of Buenos Ayres, and make the commercial points of augmented importance to the maritime and commercial interests of foreign nations. England, Prance, Belgium, and Italy have evinced their watchful foresight by establishing their lines of steamships, placing the Rio de la Plata countries comparatively near Europe. These steamships arrive weekly at Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, laden with the fabrics of European industry, and depart as often, freighted with the products of these countries. These steamers afford the European merchants admirable mail accommodations, and prompt and regular delivery of freight. Thus the nations which operate these lines of steamers have secured the principal part of the trade of this portion of South America. These English, French, Belgian, and Italian [Page 280] companies have now running to Montevideo about forty iron steamers, ranging in size from nine hundred to three thousand tons each. Thus European merchants and manufacturers reach these countries ten or fifteen days ahead of the manufacturers and merchants of the United States. Trade in these days will not wait. Ten days behind-hand is fatal. There has been made as decisive a revolution in trade by steam and iron, as in the methods of war. A few hours and days are everything. Celerity promptness, and regularity are absolute masters of commercial opportunities and enterprises. Who better capable of appreciating these truths than the business men of the United States? But to win what legitimately belongs to ns, Government must help.
Not a single American steamer plying to the Rio de la Plata. No mail accommodations worthy of the name. All persons here dealing or attempting to deal with the United States, say the most reliable way they have of sending and receiving their letters is via Europe. The American monthly steamer from New York to Rio stops 1,030 miles short of Montevideo, and 1,160 miles short of Buenos Ayres. The Brazilian post office at Rio de Janeiro is a “dead box.” Why should not the commercial center of Brazil be the southern limit to American trade in the opinion of the Rio officials? Yet why should Rio de Janeiro be made an exchange depot of the Rio de la Plata trade at the expense of the commercial interests of the United States? England, France, Belgium, and Italy have provided against this “obstruction” at Rio. The European steamers make through transit to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres; their pursers all mail agents and carriers of samples of European fabrics and machinery, and the European consuls serve as postmasters. My suggestion, then, is for Congress to immediately grant aid to establish direct steamship and mail connection with Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. Until the present contract with the New York and Rio company shall have expired, it may be expedient to subsidize a line to run from Buenos Ayres to Rio de Janeiro in connection with the New York line. As soon as the United States contract with the New York and Rio de Janeiro company shall have terminated, there should be a continuous line from the United States to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. Experience and financial figures conclusively prove that with the latest improved steamboat machinery, swift steamers can be run the 6,200 miles from New York to Montevideo at less expense than a line of the same tonnage, driven by the machinery and with the models of 1860, can be run the 5,200 miles from New York to Rio de Janeiro. The extreme unwisdom of the Rio de Janeiro obstruction is therefore obvious.
Shall the manufacturers, merchants, mechanics, and ship-owners of the United States be excluded from the markets of the Rio de la Plata? Or shall they at once be put in possession of the latest improved methods of transit?