296  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

and  friends,  an  opportunity  of  learning  our
prices  and  terms.  And  so,  not  content  with
giving  the  foreign  financier  a  chance  to  make
money  on  our  export  trade,  we  also  aid  our
greatest  competitors  by  supplying  prices  and
information  to  defeat  our  commercial  purpose.
Some  mercantile  houses  in  the  larger  of
these  countries  maintain  for  their  own  use  accounts ­
  in  New  York  against  which  they  draw
when  liquidating  bills  in  the  States  and  do  a
general  banking  business  as  well,  including
the  cashing  of  drafts  and  selling  of  exchange.
Obviously  only  a  large  business  concern  could
afford  to  do  this  and  their  natural  tendency
is  to  sell  direct  exchange  on  New  York  as
high  as  the  European  banks.  The  dealer  with
small  capital  or  the  foreign  merchant  is  invariably ­
  for  one  reason  or  another  forced  as  a
general  rule  to  do  business  through  the  European ­
  banker  when  in  need  of  American  exchange. ­

In  both  Venezuela  and  Colombia,  their
nearness  to  the  United  States,  a  direct  steamship ­
  service  to  our  leading  ports  and  the  fact