The list of the Lloyd’s vessels presently received notable additions. At the outbreak of war a large number of German and Austrian steamers took refuge in Brazilian ports, and there lay for two and a half years, idle and rusting. After Brazil’s entry into the conflict many of these ships were brought into use, seventeen being added to the national fleets, while twenty-eight were chartered to France. By the middle of 1922 France had returned these vessels in first-class condition, and the bulk of them were permanently added to the Brazilian mercantile marine, the Lloyd counting forty ex-German steamers out of her total fleet of one hundred and two. Brazil’s claim for the price of the coffee seized by Germany at the beginning of the war, for the four Brazilian vessels torpedoed, and the maintenance of about seven thousand German sailors, is offset by the value of these merchants ships. Smaller Brazilian lines are the Amazon River Steam Navigation Co.; the Cia. de Navegação de Maranhão; the Cia. de Navegação Bahiana; the Empreza Brasileira de Navegação; the Lloyd Nacional; and the Lloyd Transatlantico Brasileiro. The service to Brazil performed by the home-registered lines is proved by statistics: for out of 24,736 vessels calling at Brazilian ports during 1920, 19,542 were under the flag of Brazil. It is true that the size of the ships was comparatively small, the tonnage of nearly 25,000,000 being divided between 15,000,000 “Foreign” and 10,000,000 Brazilian, but the low average is due to the small boats employed in various riverine services. The Brazilian merchant service is the largest in South America and performs invaluable interstate transport work. CHAPTER V INDUSTRIES THE COFFEE INDUSTRY OF BRAZIL