carried chiefly by foreign vessels, and the
coasting trade is also open to them. Three or four foreign companies
maintain a regular steamship service to Valparaiso and other Chilean
ports. The shipping entries at all Chilean ports during the year 1904,
both national and foreign, numbered 11,756, aggregating 17,723,138
tons, and the clearances 11,689, aggregating 17,370,763 tons. Very
nearly one-half this tonnage was British, a little over 18% German,
and about 29% Chilean.

_Commerce._--In the aggregate, the commerce of Chile is large and
important; in proportion to population it is exceeded among South
American states only by Argentina, Uruguay and the Guianas. Unlike
those states, it depends in great part on mining and its allied
occupations. The values of imports and exports (including bullion,
specie and re-exports) in pesos of 18d. during the five years
1901-1905 were as follows:--

Imports. Exports.
Year. pesos. pesos.

1901 139,300,766 171,844,976
1902 132,428,204 185,879,965
1903 149,081,524 210,442,144
1904 164,874,928 232,493,598
1905 188,596,418 265,209,192

The principal imports comprise live animals, fish, coffee, mate (_Ilex
paraguayensis_), tea, sugar, wood and its manufactures, structural
iron and steel, hardware and machinery, railway and telegraph
supplies, lime and cement, glass and earthenware, cotton, woollen and
silk manufactures, coal, petroleum, paints, &c. Import duties are
imposed at the rates of 60, 35, 15, 5 and 25%, and certain classes of
merchandise are admitted free. The higher rates are designed chiefly
to protect national industries, while wines, liquors, cigars and
tobacco are admitted at the lowest rate. The 25% rate covers all
articles not mentioned in the schedules, which number 2260 items. The
duty free list includes raw cotton, certain descriptions of live
animals, agricultural machinery and implements, metal wire, fire
engines, structural iron and steel, and machinery in general. The
tariff is nominally _ad valorem_, but as the rates are imposed on
fixed official valuations it is essentially specific. The duties on
imports in 1905 amounted to 91,321,860 pesos, and in 1906 to
103,507,556 pesos. The principal exports are gold, silver, copper
(bars, regulus and ores), cobalt and its ores, lead and its ores,