THE REGIONS AND THEIR RESOURCES
_Topography a Key to Economic Resources--Coast, Sierra, and
Montaña--Cotton in the Coast Zone--Piura’s High Quality--Lima
and Pisco Product--Prices--Increase Probable--Sugar-Cane as
a Staple--Probability of Growth--Rice as an Export and an
Import--Irrigation Prospects--Mines in the Sierra--Geographical
Distribution of the Deposits--Live-Stock on the High
Plains--Rubber in the Forest Region--Iquitos on the Amazon a
Smart Port--Government Regulations for the Gum Industry._
To know the topography of Peru is to understand her economic outlook.
The key to her industrial growth and to the mastering motives of her
national policy is found in the knowledge of the three zones into
which the country naturally divides itself. A lesson in physical
geography is a study of the Peruvian aspect of the Panama Canal.
The zones are the Coast Region, relatively 1,500 miles in length,
varying in width from 20 to 80 miles, and extending from the foot
of the Coast Range to the Pacific; the Sierra, or Cordilleras of
the Andes, including the vast table-lands, averaging 300 miles in
breadth; and the misnamed Montaña, or mountain region, actually
the land of tropical forest, and plains extending from the eastern
slope of the Andes to the Amazon basins. The settlement of the
boundary disputes with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia may
reduce the 500,000 square miles of territory which Peru claims as
her area, yet when the limits finally are fixed this trans-Andine
region will still comprise more than one-half the total extent. Its
wealth is in rubber and the varied products of tropical agriculture.
The Sierra, in the future as in the past, is for the minerals, with
alpaca wools and live-stock as an agricultural addition.
The Coast Zone is for tropical and temperate products. The
principal ones are the vegetable family,--beans, potatoes; the
cereals,--wheat, corn, oats; grapes and the generality of fruits;
rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton. Except in reference to two great
world staples, they may be viewed almost solely in the light of
domestic consumption. Sugar and cotton are on a different plane.
Peruvian cotton production cannot become large enough to affect the
world’s markets, yet it may be a gain to the national wealth in the
quantity which can be raised for export and also for the domestic
spindles. The sands of Piura which stretch from the coast at Paita
back to the Cordilleras have in them possibilities that are yet
barely dreamed. The cotton tree of Piura amazes the beholder when
he sees it in all stages of production,--in bud, in fleecy blossom,
and in seed. The quality surprises the expert. It is finer than
the finest Egyptian and is equal to certain grades of wool. It is
known variously as vegetable wool and as wool cotton. Irrigation
is employed to a limited extent. One ambitious scheme which was
to bring 60,000 acres under cultivation was stopped for lack of
capital. In the Chira valley between 90,000 and 100,000 acres will
be utilized for production when a canal 56 miles long is completed,
and the crop will be increased by 50,000 bales. An American company
experimented on a project of watering the Piura lands by means of
pumps to be driven by electric power from the river Quiros. The
native field-labor in this region is reliable, and probably is as
efficient as that of the negroes on a Mississippi plantation.
Cotton of good quality is raised in the central district of Lima and
in the southern region of Pisco and Ica. While rains are not common
in these districts, the fogs at certain seasons are heavy enough to
be accounted rainfall, and the moisture in the air is precipitated
in quantities sufficient for the product, taken with the somewhat
restricted means of irrigating employed on the plantations. The
cotton plant, no longer the cotton tree as in Piura, is met with
for fifty miles north of Lima, and especially in the neighborhood
of Ancon. The plantations lie under and between the overlapping
sand-hills, side by side with fields of sugar-cane. Cotton is also
grown from the north along the river Rimac to the lower slope of
the Cordilleras.
Farther south from Pisco the region extends as far as the little
port of Cerro de Azul, where an excellent quality is obtained. This
is sent north to Panama for transport across the Isthmus and then
to Liverpool instead of through the Straits of Magellan or around
Cape Horn; but the cargoes will be larger when the Canal is opened
and the expense of transshipment by railway across the Isthmus can
be avoided. The cotton possibilities of the Pisco region are as
yet in their infancy. They will begin to unfold when the projects
for irrigating the great plain of Noco are put into effect.
Taken as a whole, the advantages of Peru as a cotton-producing
country are a suitable climate, the alluvial soil of the valleys,
the facilities for irrigating the sandy plains, and a sufficiency
of fairly cheap labor. The price of the land is a fraction of the
value of similar soil in Egypt. An official publication of the
government places the yield per acre at 630 pounds, of which 250
pounds is lint cotton.
The Peruvian cotton is free from boll weevil. When that pest was
ravaging the Texas plantations, a thorough inquiry was made by
Minister Dudley under instructions from Washington, and the universal
experience of the cotton-growers established that their fields
never were visited by it.
Gins for baling the product are imported both from England and
the United States. Encouragement has been given the manufacturing
industry in Peru by the cotton production. Some of the factories
have paid fair returns, though, as in the case of Mexico, capital
went into mills somewhat heedlessly and in advance of the demand
which could be created for the manufactured goods. Factories, making
chiefly the cheaper calicoes, are in operation at Lima, Ica, and
Arequipa, where the natives prove satisfactory mill-hands. Part of
the manufactures find a market in Bolivia. The total exports of the
manufactured goods for a given year were $110,000, while the imports
for the same period reached $2,240,000. The exports of raw cotton
in the present state of production are approximately $1,500,000 to
$1,600,000 annually.
What is known as the hard cotton, rough, is produced in the Piura
region, and in the dry years varies from 20,000 to 30,000 bales
of 200 pounds. The moderate rough, chiefly from the Ica district,
amounts to 40,000 bales. The hard cotton with some of the moderate
rough goes to the United States, but the greater portion of the
latter is shipped to Havre and Liverpool. The production of the
Egyptian, or soft cotton, is about 80,000 bales per year. It is
governed by the American price, usually with a premium of 1 to
2 cents per pound over New Orleans middling. The home factories
consume 25,000 bales, the bulk of the balance going to Liverpool,
though Barcelona obtains 6,000 bales and Genoa 2,000.
From these figures it will be seen that the Peruvian production is
about 150,000 bales, or 30,000,000 pounds. An estimate by a leading
authority of the increased production when idle lands are brought
under cultivation by means of irrigation is 375,000 Peruvian bales
(160,000 American), or 75,000,000 pounds. Other authorities double
this estimate.
Peru has produced sugar for many years, and the industry has had
the usual ups and downs, but it has capabilities of increase. About
125,000 acres were under cultivation in 1905, and 25,000 persons
found employment on the plantations and in the mills. Both natives
and Chinese coolies form the field hands. The production for export
in recent years has varied from 100,000 to 125,000 tons, and it
is gradually advancing to 200,000, reflecting the decrease of
the beet-sugar crop in Europe and some enhancement of the price,
though that is subject to the customary fluctuations. The average
production may be placed at 140,000 tons, of which between 20,000
and 25,000 tons are consumed at home.
The raw sugar exported in the period from 1900 to 1905 inclusive
ranged in value from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 annually. The
by-products, particularly the _aguardiente_, or cane rum, add
substantially to the value of the staple. The alcohol, in addition
to the local consumption, finds a profitable market in Bolivia.
The production of sugar-cane per acre in Peru is in the proportion
of 56 quintals of sugar from 700 quintals of cane. The plantations
are in the valleys of the streams which flow from the foot of the
Coast Cordilleras to the ocean. Though the sugar industry is an
old one and though partial irrigation is employed, it is doubtful
if Peru’s present product is more than a fraction of what the soil
can yield under universal irrigation. The cane-producing area is
not confined to the coast. In the valley of Chanchamayo in the
inter-Andine region are productive regions, and also in the valley
of the Apurimac River in southern Peru. It may reasonably be said
that within the next quarter of a century, provided the material
development of the country goes forward without interruption, Peru
will be producing 400,000 tons of sugar-cane, the major portion of
which will be freighted through the Panama Canal to New Orleans or
Brooklyn refineries at lower rates than can be had by shipments
through the Straits of Magellan. Of the output some goes down the
coast to Chile and some up the coast to San Francisco, a relatively
small quantity around Cape Horn to Liverpool, and a large quantity
across the Isthmus for transshipment to New York. The freight via
the Straits is about 23 shillings per ton. The Canal is a positive
factor in Peruvian sugar production.
Peru imports rice for her own consumption and exports it for
foreign consumption. The great rice fields are in the north, in
the Lambayeque valley, and from this district in one year 4,100
tons were exported. But much larger imports came from China. The
industry is capable of development, yet chiefly with a view to local
consumption. The normal expansion of this agricultural industry
would appear to be in fully supplying the home demand and then in
cultivation for the export trade.
Cotton, sugar, rice,--all call for an artificially watered soil.
Irrigation is ancient in Peru. No new system for intensive
cultivation and for ordinary crops can be expected to surpass the
marvels secured by the Incas. Whether the ruins of the artificial
waterworks be those still observed at Cuzco, the ancient seat
of empire, or in the great passes of the Central Cordillera now
traversed by the railway, or the old aqueduct at Chimbote, the
wonder does not lessen. Can the moderns do as well as the ancients?
They must do better. While they may not excel the Inca system of
aqueducts and of packing water up the perpendicular slopes of the
mountains, they may surpass them in inducing production in the arid
plains. The topography and hydrography favor artesian wells in some
sections and in others complete systems of irrigating ditches. The
artesian wells may tap those lost rivers which, starting from the
Cordilleras, dry up and reach the sea through subterranean channels.
The arid tracts are fertile, probably due to the damp which is
retained for a certain depth underground.
Peru has a very excellent irrigation law, the practical workings
of which are satisfactory and from which good results have been
obtained. The government has given wise attention to this subject.
The future growth of the Coast Region in wealth and population
may be said to be largely one of irrigating ditches and artesian
wells.[7]
7 On this general subject United States Consul Gottschalk quotes
C. Reginald Enock, an English engineer, as follows:
“Peru possesses a valuable element in the yet undeveloped hydraulic
power which exists on both the eastern and western slope of the
Cordillera of the Andes. The source of this water supply is the ice
cap above the line of perpetual snow which crowns the summit of the
range and the continual and exceedingly heavy snow and rain storms
of the high plateaus. All along this vast chain, from Ecuador to
Chile, there exists a series of lakes, practically astride the summit
of the Andes, at altitudes varying from 12,000 to 17,000 feet above
sea-level, and these, together with the streams to which they give
rise, form the source of enormous hydraulic energy. The volumes
of water which descend upon the Pacific side are not necessarily
very great, but they are numerous and constant, and their fall is
exceedingly rapid.
“As an example, the river Rimac, which rises in the ice cap of the
Cordillera, at an elevation of more than 17,000 feet, debouches on
the coast at Callao, with a course not more than 80 miles long. This
river is already used as motive power for generating electricity for
the railway between Lima and Callao, and could furnish constant and
unlimited power over any portion of its course. Similar conditions
exist, more or less, with the numerous other rivers and streams
all along the 1,500 miles of Pacific littoral belonging to Peru.”
The treasure beds of the Andes, as they have been exploited for
centuries, are in the Sierra, though the output of the precious
metals in the Coast Region has been great. The Department of
Ancachs, which comes down to the sea, has enormous mineral wealth.
The district lies within the two Andean chains which parallel
the Pacific, and which are known as the White Cordillera and the
Black Cordillera, the latter being nearer the coast. Raimondi,
whose studies and surveys were the basis of much subsequent
exploitation, estimated that this Department could supply for export
700,000 tons of minerals annually for an indefinite number of years.
Silver, gold, and copper are the chief sources of mineral wealth.
In the Cerro de Pasco district, since control was secured by the
American syndicate, the copper output is more important than the
silver production. Yet it is doubtful whether, notwithstanding the
possibilities of the nobler metals, Peru has not more to hope from
coal as a new industry during the next few years and especially
during and after the Panama Canal construction period, than from
gold and silver.
The petroleum deposits are in the north between Tumbez and Paita,
around Talara, Zorritos, and Cape Blanco. Several of the English
companies were not very successful, owing to bad management. The
French company seemed to have the promise of better results. No
contention is made that the oil is not there. In 1905 the output
of the districts of Amotope and Tumbez was placed at 12,000,000
gallons. The supply which is now obtained is utilized as fuel on
the railways and in many of the smelters. The value of the annual
production is approximately $750,000.
Government data regarding mining often are tinctured with the
enthusiasm of the private prospector, yet for guidance the
distribution of the minerals as they are given in official
publications may be quoted. I have not undertaken to present
the complete statistics of production, not only because they
are confusing and unsatisfactory, but also because local and
temporary conditions destroyed their value as an index of the
normal output.[8] An example of this was afforded by the practical
suspension of silver and copper mining in the Cerro de Pasco
properties of the American syndicate until the new railroad could
be completed and the smelters built and put in operation. But for
the prospector and the capitalist the preliminary information that
is desired may be accepted in the form adopted by the government,
that is, the geographical distribution of the minerals:
Gold--Paucartambo, La Mar, Union, Angaraes, Cajamarca, Otuzco,
Luya, Huamachuco, Arequipa, Aymaraes, Huamalies, Carabaya, Sandia,
Tayacaja, Ica, Huanuco.
Gold Washings--Marañon, Inambari, and nearly all the rivers that
flow from the eastern side of the Andes.
Silver--Hualgayoc, Recuay, Yauli, Huancavelica, Pallasca, Pataz,
Cailloma, Castrovirreyna, Cerro de Pasco.
Copper--Huaylas, Huaraz, Camana, Yauli, Cerro de Pasco, Ica.
Mercury-Cinnabar--Huancavelica, Chonta, Dos de Mayo, Puno.
Iron--Piura, Larez, Calca, Huaraz.
Sulphur--Tumbez, Paita, Chancay, Huaraz, Huarochiri, Cangallo,
Arequipa, Camana, Moquegua, Tarata.
Coal--Huamalies, Dos de Mayo, Yauyos, Huarochiri, Canta, Tarma,
Huaylas, Cerro de Pasco, Caylloma, Puno, Recuay.
Petroleum--Tumbez, Lambayeque, Piura, Puno.
Lead--Yauli, Huarochiri, Pallasca, Huari, Chilete (Ancachs).
8 The mineral output for a recent year when there was little
activity was placed at the following figures:
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
| | Kilograms | Value in |
| | | pounds sterling |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
| Gold | 1,078 | 145,205 |
| | | |
| Silver | 170,804 | 580,000 |
| | | |
| Copper | 9,496,583 | 477,000 |
| | | |
| Lead, chiefly in | 1,302,365 | 5,141 |
| argentiferous minerals | | |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
The production of borax was 2,466 tons; crude petroleum, 25,440
tons, and its by-products 11,639 tons.
The Peruvian mining-code and the corps of engineers which is
maintained under it are of very great value. The annual tax on
_pertenencias_, or mine claims, is 15 _soles_ ($7.50), but in
the administration of the law frequent complaint is made of the
encouragement given to claim-jumpers. Unlike most other countries
of South America, Peru lays no export tax on minerals except gold.
The future of the mining industry depends so largely on cheapening
and increasing the facilities of transportation, that it will be
better understood in connection with the explanation of the Peruvian
railway system and the plans of the government for further railroad
development.
Live-stock or grazing may be said to be one of the industries of
the Sierra, but in relation to the foreign commerce of the country
it does not promise to be an appreciable source of national gain.
Sheep-raising--alpacas, vicuñas--is of the high plains. With the
increase in the population at these altitudes through mining
settlements, the flocks are not likely to grow extensively. The
vicuña, not being domesticated, is more apt to recede before the
advance of civilization. Such growth as the live-stock industry
may have in the Cordillera region may be looked upon chiefly as a
means of supplying local consumption. The exports of hides and wool,
while not necessarily stationary, do not indicate a heavy increase.
The exports of hides are $750,000 per annum, and of wools, chiefly
alpacas, $2,000,000.
The world does not yet fully grasp the possibilities and limitations
of the Amazon rubber production, but the Peruvian government has a
proper conception of it and has enacted legislation both to secure
the development of the gum forests and to preserve them from heedless
destruction. The rubber region within Peruvian territory has its
main extension in the Department of Loreto and in the provinces of
that interior country, but the area reaches almost to Cuzco and Lake
Titicaca. All of it is within the Montaña, or forest region. In the
Loreto district the population does not exceed 100,000 inhabitants,
if it reaches that number. The productive forests lie along the
banks of the rivers. The crude rubber that is of the best quality
is known as _jebe_. The coarser article is called _caucho_. The
_jebe_ is obtained from the incisions made in the tree, while the
_caucho_ is the sap that is had from cutting down the tree which
produces it and then extracting the milk. It is claimed also that
the rubber tree can be sown and cultivated, but for many years, or
until the supply grows scarcer, this effort is not likely to be
made.
It is the aim of the authorities to prevent wanton waste and to
preserve the trees. These are not allowed to be cut down. Two
forms of contract are adopted. Under the first form the government
leases to the grantees a certain number of acres for the term of
ten years on condition of receiving a royalty approximately of 1
cent per pound in addition to the export duty. Under the second
form it leases the rubber walks (_estradas_) of groups of 150 trees
at an annual rate of about 10 cents plus another 10 cents for each
2½ acres (1 _hectare_) on which they are situated. A decree was
issued in 1900, in pursuance of the law passed two years previously,
fixing the manner in which the _estradas_, or rubber groves, could
be located. Land in the forest region can be bought outright, can
be located under rental, or acquired under contract of colonization.
[Illustration: A Farmhouse in the Forest Region]
Iquitos is the centre of the rubber trade for Peru, and substantially
all the product now goes out from it to the Atlantic coast under the
name of Para rubber; but with the completion of the central highway
or transcontinental railway much of the product unquestionably will
come to the Pacific coast and pass through the Panama Canal. In
1858 Iquitos was founded by the Peruvian government as a strategic
outpost. In 1885, the year in which the rubber exploitation began,
it was an obscure settlement. In 1905 its population was 20,000,
and it was agitating municipal sanitation, electric lighting, and
inviting bids for sewers. It is the third port of Peru in point of
its foreign commerce, which amounts to $3,575,000 to $4,000,000.
The exports of rubber from Peru for the year 1904 were $2,142,000,
and they passed almost entirely through Iquitos. Since a contraband
commerce is carried on in order to escape the export tax, the full
production in a stated year is not obtainable. The quantity exported
ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 tons each year. The exports are divided
about equally between Havre and Liverpool.
When Bolivia settled her controversy with Brazil over the Acre
territory, she transferred a boundary dispute with Peru. The latter
country and Brazil, after some threatening passages of diplomatic
arms, agreed on a _modus vivendi_, and that the extent of rubber
territory belonging to each Republic should be fixed by arbitration.
This dispute did not relate so much to the territory contiguous to
Iquitos as to the Yavari River frontier. This basin has an annual
known production of 1,500 tons and a large contraband output. The
southern districts as yet are in the initial stages of exploitation.
The Inambari River basin, including the Marcapata valley, is an
almost virgin field.
The Peruvian government, having adopted effective measures for the
protection of the rubber forests from prodigal destruction, also
has sought to aid the various private enterprises by supervising
the supply of labor. This is a much more difficult problem. The
native Indians and the _cholos_ are hardly numerous enough to meet
the needs of the industry in its present state, and both persuasion
and compulsion are exerted in order to force them to work. Its
ultimate solution and the full exploitation of the rubber wealth of
Peru must rest on the colonization of the trans-Andine region, and
a gradual transformation into tropical agriculture of the districts
which are not rendered unfit for habitation and cultivation by the
annual high-water overflows of the Amazon’s affluents. But for
this river region, as for the other regions of Peru, there is no
artificial aid which can compare with the Panama Canal.