346 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
marine, necessitates less material movements in 
the medium of exchange in payment for goods 
on the part of those concerned in the transac 
tion and more firmly entrenches each in the 
other’s business and friendly relations. 
The various countries comprising Latin 
America are in no sense manufacturing ones. 
They possess few if any factories or plants and 
these are usually devoted to the perfection of 
some local necessity, such as wines, cigarettes, 
cigars, soap, sugar, and other articles for per 
sonal use or consumption. They are however 
the largest producers of raw materials the 
world knows. Due to our shortsightedness as 
a nation, we have allowed the European 
merchant and manufacturer to take these 
products from Nature’s laboratory, elaborate 
the finished article therefrom and during each 
stage of its perfection, from its origin to its 
completion, we have paid a profit, not to one, 
but to several enterprising foreigners. 
The Latin Americans—in fact no nation— 
will buy from us for sheer love or their high 
regard for us as a people, or even from dire