354  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

i

Brazil  is  the  second  largest  diamond  producing ­
  country  in  the  world.  English  companies ­
  have  $50,000,000  invested  in  these
mines,  which  means  that  the  diamonds  obtained ­
  therefrom  pass  through  the  hands  of
several  Europeans  before  they  ultimately
reach  the  wearer  in  the  United  States.  One
State  of  Brazil—Minas  Geraes—has  for  the
past  six  years  been  exporting  gold  to  Europe,
sometimes  as  much  as  $2,000,000  a  month,  because ­
  Germans,  Belgians  and  Englishmen  own
the  mines.
Chile  contains  the  largest  known  deposits  of
“caliche”—that  is,  the  earthy  material  from
which  nitrate  is  made.  This  article  is  extensively ­
  used  in  the  arts,  in  the  production  of
gunpowder  and  other  high  explosives  and  also
as  a  fertilizer.  Last  year  she  exported  50,781,-241
  quintals,  the  world’s  total  consumption
for  the  same  period  of  time  being  51,296,489
quintals.  I  know  of  but  one  American  house
established  in  these  fields.  The  business  is
controlled  almost  entirely  by  English  and  German ­
  companies.