The Surplus of Revenue over Expenditure in both Republics may appear to remain always so small as only just to have avoided conversion into deficits. It should, however, be recollected that these countries are constantly engaged in carrying out Public Works which are necessary to the fuller development of their natural resources; such, for instance, as the very important new Port Works of Buenos Aires and Montevideo and the great Argentine systems of irrigation. Were the excess of Revenue greater it would still be spent, and wisely spent, on National Public Works and Improvements; which are the best assurance of its future which either country could make. An instance of the rapid Commercial progress of the River Plate Countries is the fact that whereas in 1872 there were but four Banks in Argentina, in 1913 there were 143. The latest (1914) Commercial and Industrial Census of the City of Buenos Aires shows that the number of Commercial (chiefly wholesale and retail trading) establishments in that City has increased from 17,985, as shown by the previous Census of 1904, to 29,600—an increase of 65%—while the number of Factories and Manufacturing establishments which in 1904 was 8,877 was in 1914 11,132—an increase of 25%. The motive power employed in these last-mentioned establishments has increased during the same period from 19,458 h.p. to 194,411 h.p.—an increase of 900%—while the number of persons employed has increased 112%. An amusing but characteristic note is struck by comparison of the figures representing the annual sales of flour and tobacco respectively, the former being nearly $48,000,000 (paper) and the latter nearly £44,000,000 (paper). Not such a great difference between the money spent in Buenos Aires on flour, much of which is exported, and on tobacco, which is all home consumed! Another is that nearly 1% of the whole population of the City consists of Medical Men; Brokers and Commission Agents (clubbed together and classed as professional men by the Census) run them very close, with Builders a good third, and the rest, in the sporting sense, nowhere. Most of the wholesale and retail traders are Italians, Spaniards and Argentines, in this order; the Italians being in both cases nearly three times and the Spaniards nearly twice as numerous as the Argentines. After them come French, Russians (chiefly Jewish), Levantines and Egyptians (locally known as “Turcos”), Uruguayans, German, British and other nationalities in commerce; and French, Russians, Levantines and Egyptians, Belgians, Danes and Portuguese and other nationalities as Manufacturers. A good many establishments of both classes are, however, shown to belong to Argentines and foreigners in partnership. It is due to the compilers of the Census to remark that they have treated “Jews” as pertaining to a separate nationality, though therefore there is possibly some confusion under the heading “Russians.” CHAPTER X