Entry of North American interests into Brazil has been steadily increasing for the last ten years, and was hastened after the outbreak of the European War; there has been noticeable since then much more energy on the part of individuals and small firms. Before 1914 the bulk of United States work done in Brazil was part of the international campaign of such big firms as Standard Oil or the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Oil has its rivals in other companies, also with depots on the coast, but the Singer machine has almost a South American monopoly; locomotives, cars, elevators, most of the typewriters, electrical equipment, and quantities of agricultural machinery, are sold by American houses with branches in Brazil. Agricultural, printing and shoe machinery of United States origin also seems to make good sales. In 1915 the National City Bank of New York opened branches in Santos, Rio and S. Paulo; the United States Steel Corporation started a line of freight steamers, and was followed by a number of new lines. The two great Light and Power companies of Rio and S. Paulo are Canadian, but some of the capital, equipment and personnel are from the U. S.; one of the two existing packing-houses is Chicagoan in capital, equipment and personnel. Several of the allied enterprises of the Brazil Railways Company are American managed and equipped, as the lumber mills at Tres Barras and the cattle company, as well as part of the transportation lines. The Brazil Railways is the largest American-registered company in Brazil, but is rather an example of how not to do things in South America, for although a few interests, as those cited above, are doing well, the company as a whole is in the hands of a receiver. The time is probably past when money could be obtained in Europe by persons registering a company in a second country to spend it in a third, and what is most needed now is continued and genuine development work actually financed from North America. Most of the United States firms with agencies in Brazil are sellers, but among the purchasers are several coffee-importing houses and, with the eclipse of German traders, the greatest rubber dealers, while the past year has seen American agents coming to Brazil to increase takings of manganese, precious stones and hides. _The State Debts_ The figures given below are in round numbers only, and are without the additions which the Funding loans entail; all sums are in pounds sterling: