and Cuba, as shown by the returns of the last two years, is subjoined to show how their trade has been affected. The quantity exported to the places named was considered as having been very low during the year ending September 30, 1862. To September 30, 1862........ Decrease To England, bbls. To France, bbls. To Cuba, bbls. Total decrease in these countries, 379,150 barrels. Wheat, which found a place in my former annual summary of exports to the value of $396,000, disappears altogether in the present one. The dearness of wheat, and the recall of the Spanish contingent from Mexico, may also account for the decrease in the amount of biscuits and crackers forwarded to the West Indies. In the exports of groceries there has been an increase of 309,740 pounds. Some small portion found customers in France, but nearly the whole of that increase, viz: 289,100 pounds, went to Cuba, in part substitution for the lost market of cereals. Copper plates, for the supply of the sugar boilers of the Spanish Antilles, (and which are not mentioned in the last year's report as consumers of that article,) have been exported thither to the extent of 148,425 pounds, they having, as may be seen by the import table, returned to the Peninsula 40,000 pounds of old copper. Iron ore, obtained from the deposits in this neighborhood, figures as a large increase; this arises from the circumstance of the want of other available articles of export from this place to supply return cargoes for the English vessels bringing coal and other materials for the railways. The ore, owing to its low price, could not be exported hence so long as there were other articles of greater value, such as grain, &c., which could pay a better freight, and is, therefore, a factitious trade, which will probably cease with a more active source of general trade. A continued and material decline has to be reported in the export of calamine (zinc ore) from the Santander fields, and arises from the abundance of cheaper supplies of that mineral in other quarters. The deposits in this vicinity, lying within easy reach, being well nigh exhausted, and the abundant deposits existing at a greater distance from the coast, not being able at the present low price of minerals to bear the cost of raising, carriage, and freight, a continued decrease may be expected, unless the prices should change for the better. The decrease in the exportation amounts this year to about 14,893,000 pounds. Regarding madder, my anticipations of last year appear to be confirmed; 400,000 pounds were then stated to have been exported. This year but 10,025 pounds are found in the return. The low prices at which cereals have been selling throughout the rest of Europe, whilst occasioning an extensive retention of breadstuffs in local deposits, has also had the effect of inducing merchants of this place to divert their disposable capital, and invest them in the shares of newly established banking, credit, and other companies, of which many new ones have during the past year been established throughout this Peninsula. This cause and effect have likewise operated to a great extent to bring about the before-mentioned temporary diminution and disturbance of the true local trade. With the exception of the article of cocoa, the situation of the coasting trade appears to be about the same as previously. No cotton or woollen textiles appear to have been forwarded from Santander to other ports. They go chiefly by railway to the interior, and what little go by sea do not find a place in the custom house returns. Cocoa, sugar, wheat, dried fruits, peas, beans, and grease for railways, are the principal articles in which it will be found that increased quantities arrived coastwise. A decrease was experienced in entries of oil, spirits, iron, preserved meats, wheat, corn, barley, wax, pepper, rice, salt, fish and timber. In the above article of cocoa the remarks made on that subject in reference to the import trade are applicable in this place. The clearances from Santander to other ports exhibit a deficiency during the present year of $1,191,700 in cocoa, which very nearly corresponds with the deficiency of this article in table No. 1. The arrival, however, coastwise amounted to $620,000 against $68,000 in the year ended September 30, 1862. If you deduct from the list of articles in which there occurred deficiencies in the outward-bound coasting trade the item of cocoa, it will be seen that $163,555 remain as the sum of decreases, whilst the sum of increases has been $442,632; leaving a large surplus during the past year of $279,077. The outward-bound coasting trade in iron, codfish and timber has decreased. In regard to the latter article, however, the decrease is rather apparent than real in many articles; because, since January 1, 1863, other ports in Spain have been permitted to receive cargoes direct from foreign vessels, which have previously touched at Santander, but which were formerly conveyed from here by coasting vessels only. A few words will enable me to explain the reason of this. The former regulations provided that the coasting trade should be confined to vessels owned and manned by Spaniards, and declared that no article, except coal, should be conveyed from one Spanish port to another in foreign vessels; and even in regard to coal, foreign vessels, in order to enjoy the privi lege, were required to be loaded exclusively with that combustible, and no other. But by the new tariff, all artificial manures, hydraulic limes, coal from whatever source, baggage, building lumber and ores may be conveyed to other Spanish ports by foreign vessels. They may, therefore, come here, partially unload their cargoes, when consisting of these goods, and proceed with the rest to other Spanish ports, in which case their cargoes do not appear under the head of coasting trade. Of this privilege the Norwegian timber vessels, especially, have not been slow to avail themselves. Foreign vessels may take an entirely new cargo of the above articles from one Spanish port to another. INTERNAL TRADE. The general traffic to the interior by the Isabel 2d railway, a main artery of communication, is as follows: Several causes account for this decrease, of which three are the most prominent first, the cessation of the flour and grain traffic, which, as mentioned last year, produced a large portion of the receipts; secondly, the destruction by heavy floods at the close of 1862 of a large bridge which entirely stopped the traffic of goods for about two months upon the first half of the road; thirdly, the diversion, by the greater completeness of the line across the Pyrenees, in the direction of Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Pasages, of a large proportion of the traffic. The principal articles brought from the interior were: ALTERATIONS IN THE GENERAL REGULATIONS OF CUSTOMS. My last annual report explained the nature of the restrictions in importation and exportation to which the ports of Spain were subjected by the laws, without reference to their capabilities. They remain very much the same as then stated. Rivadesella, in the Asturias, however, therein mentioned as having greater natural advantages for trade than Gijon, a port which, nevertheless, has the privileges annexed to a first-class port, has since been elevated from the fourth class to the third class, and is now authorized to import building lumber, tar, and pitch, rawhides, tow, rigging, dyeing materials, machinery, fire-bricks, and refractory clays, and to export articles to America. San Vicente, within the province of Santander, has also additional privileges of importation conceded to it, but mainly for the benefit of mining companies for working the zinc deposits near it. On the 1st day of January, 1863, a new tariff of customs duties came into The exaction of town duties is abrogated on the following articles of pro- Cloves.. Cinnamon, Ceylon. Sugars refined within the Peninsula and Balearic isles are to pay 85 cents. per 220 pounds, payable on departing from the manufactory. These equivalent duties are to be allowed by the treasury to the various townships wherein such goods may be received for consumption. The principle adopted in making the new tariff seems to have been to preserve, as far as possible, the old rates of duties by assigning to the goods duties calculated at the same amount, according to the metric scale, and likewise to simplify the old tariff by compressing the 1,222 general articles, and 56 on foreign manufactured cotton, which it contained, into 736 items of general articles, and 56 on foreign manufactured cotton, without, however, releasing the grasp of the custom-house officers. In two respects the alterations have been more complete, namely: the substitution of equivalent duties for town dues on the articles of consumption, before adverted to, and the reduction to some extent of the duties upon iron, in order to stimulate manufactures, and to meet the progress effected by the modern element of national advancement. Railways. The following approximate comparison will explain the nature of these reductions: The weight 220 pounds is used as being nearly equivalent to the 100 kilogrammes, which is the basis of the weight taken by the new tariff as a standard of charge in the greater number of articles mentioned in the accompanying list. Wrought, drawn, or hammered, in bars 1 inch thick and upwards. 50 51 Wire, thick, from Nos. 1 to 14, Eng. scale, and wire for seating. 52 Carding wire, No. 6 and upwards 569 Cast iron, in ordinary small manufactures and tubes, not exceeding 572 Cast or wrought, fine polished, lacquered, or ornamented with iron 575 In hoops, plates, or straps for cask or other use, although with a 220 4 55 576 575 In sheets of 3 or more lines in thickness, angles for construction of 579 580 581 583 584 In scythes In small springs for machine or other uses Drawn in tubes.. In chains for rigging or similar uses 240 Bedsteads 316 Ordinary and cementation, in bars and sheets for carriage springs, Pounds. Amount. 319 Hammered, drawn, or wrought in bars, of whatever size, except strap iron... 220 42 320 Wire, from Nos. 1 to 26, and in chains, for mines, pulleys, &c.. 321 Carding wire..do.... Cast iron, in manufactured objects, without cutting or varnish. 220 2.00 326 Wrought or cast, in polished, fine, or japanned manufactures, stoves, &c., although ornamented, &c.... Sheets of inch and upwards in thickness bored, bent, planed, 220 2.00 (This item is included in No. 324, above.) (Included in Nos. 326 above.) |