294  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

American  countries  are  almost  entirely  under
the  domination  and  control  of  the  European
financier,  the  English  being  paramount,  followed ­
  by  Germans,  French,  Italians  and  Spanish, ­
  in  the  order  named.  Throughout  Brazil,
Argentine,  Uruguay,  Paraguay,  Chile,  Bolivia, ­
  Peru  and  Ecuador,  in  all  the  larger  cities
and  ports,  as  well  as  in  the  interior  and  isolated
towns,  where  business  is  to  be  had,  may  be
found  branches,  agencies,  or  representatives
of  banking  houses  of  these  nationalities.
They  keep  their  fingers  on  the  pulse  of  trade,
know  mine  outputs,  crop  prospects,  cattle
productions,  stability  of  governments,  possibilities ­
  of  revolutions  or  political  unrest,  the
condition  of  business—in  a  word  everything
that  has  any  bearing  on  banking  or  that  could
by  any  possibility  reflect  on  the  money  market.
Taking  all  these  elements  into  consideration
together  with  the  important  factor  of  the  question ­
  of  supply  and  demand,  they  decide  the
price  of  exchange  each  day  or  how  much  a
merchant  having  a  foreign  obligation  to  meet,
must  pay  for  the  necessary  sum  to  liquidate  his