Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . hen the mail contractwas withdrawn, and the consequence was, that for four yearsAve had only the most irregular and unreliable communicationwith Brazil. I, for instance, being then in Para, two thou-sand five hundred miles from New York, received my lettersby way of England, Portugal, and Pernambuco, about tenthousand miles around ; they were ten or twelve weeks oldwhen they reached me ; indeed some of them never didreach me, at all. Imagine the difficulty of carrying on busi-ness under such circumstances ! PROFIT AND LOSS. 505 Ever since the John Roach l
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . hen the mail contractwas withdrawn, and the consequence was, that for four yearsAve had only the most irregular and unreliable communicationwith Brazil. I, for instance, being then in Para, two thou-sand five hundred miles from New York, received my lettersby way of England, Portugal, and Pernambuco, about tenthousand miles around ; they were ten or twelve weeks oldwhen they reached me ; indeed some of them never didreach me, at all. Imagine the difficulty of carrying on busi-ness under such circumstances ! PROFIT AND LOSS. 505 Ever since the John Roach line was established, our tradewith Brazil has been increasing, slowly and steadily ; just asit should in a healthy growth. So I believe that the lineought to be encouraged, unless it can be plainly shown thatit is unworthy of encouragement. To those who urge thatother vessels would be driven ofif by the subsidized line, itmay be answered, that sails can no longer compete withsteam directly; the English steamers would beat them, if the. Loading a Ship with Coffee, at Rio. American ones did not. Sailing vessels must take their trueplace of floating storehouses and trading ships. Most ofthose in the Rio commerce are now owned, wholly or in part,by their captains ; these men often buy a portion of theircargo outright, and so get the importers profits as well asthe freight dues ; or, frequently, they bargain to carry a loadof coffee for some merchant, who takes advantage of the longpassage when he is expecting a rise in prices. The sailing-captains welcome this new steamer line, because it secures S06 BRAZIL. regular mail communication, and helps them to regulate theirpurchases.* Many people are not aware that we have indirect tele-graphic communication with Southern Brazil. A cable fromEurope runs to Pernambuco, and thence to Rio ; it was pro-jected by an English company, and has been in operation forfive or six years. Of course, the cofiee- and sugar-merchants,and shippers general
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbrazild, bookyear1879
