The Lloyd had a marked advantage after the War started in being able to offer neutral transportation for passengers and freight, and while as a matter in which all Brazil was interested the charges for coffee carrying were long kept at a low level, there has been during the last year a natural tendency to raise general rates under tempting conditions. When the British Government’s Statutory List went into force in Brazil, about March, 1916, the British boats serving the Amazon were unable to carry rubber shipped by firms of Teutonic ownership; the Lloyd thenceforth remained the sole carrier of German-shipped rubber, and it appears reasonable to suppose that this fact had something to do with the Lloyd’s price of transportation to New York rising to fifty-four cents per cubic foot while Booth’s were charging their British and their neutral customers but thirty-four cents. All South American services made big money while these rates held, and for the Lloyd palmy days were especially opportune after a long season of poor returns. In common with the Central Railroad, it has been in the past an instance of a non-paying governmental company, but with drastic reforms and present good management it is in an enviable position. Sea communication between Brazil and the rest of the world is carried on mainly by European steamship companies: good work is also done by the fleet of the Lloyd Brasileiro, which in addition to serving most ports of the country maintains a busy tri-monthly passenger and freight service to New York. Japanese vessels call at south Brazilian ports, as also do ships of the Australasian trade; the most conspicuous laggard in the shipping world was formerly the United States. In sailing-ship days American shipping was busy in these waters, but the lines were gradually displaced by more enterprising service from Europe; before the war the harbours of Brazil sheltered fine ships of the Royal Mail, Lamport and Holt, Booth, Harrison, Hamburg-American, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Transportes Maritimes, the Sud-Atlantique, of Italian and Austrian lines, Scandinavian, Belgian, Dutch—every flag was common but that of the United States, and when this entered it was at the stern of an oil tanker or a sailing vessel bringing lumber. The lines connecting with Europe were many; sailings to New York were few; service from New York direct to Brazil was still rarer, for the European lines created a dexterous commercial triangle by which merchandise of European origin came across the Atlantic to Brazil in ships which discharged their hardware and textiles, took on a load of coffee and hides for New York, there discharged the Brazilian goods and re-loaded with North American grain or cotton and with this steamed across the Atlantic home again.