The distance between Santos and S. Paulo is about seventy-nine kilometers, but the company owns branches, and there is a duplication of the track, the result of reconstruction and the choice of a new route for the Serra ascent in 1901, which brings the total length of line owned to one hundred and fifty-three kilometers; the old track may be seen below the new one on the hillside, and is being electrified with a view to renewed activity as a freight carrier. The enormous volume of Paulista coffee seeking an outlet by the line—17 million bags in 1915–16—is a strain upon capacity in the busy season; the exports of S. Paulo are also developing in a new direction with the entry of Brazil into world markets with chilled beef, and refrigerator cars are monthly increasing in traffic over the road. The capital of the company, whose headquarters are in London, is six million pounds sterling, and up to the year of war in Europe a dividend of fourteen per cent was regularly paid: in 1914 twelve per cent was paid, and in 1915 there was another drop to ten per cent, chiefly consequent upon the fall in Brazilian currency which caused heavy losses when earnings counted in milreis were turned into sterling for remittance to Europe. Lowered exchange has caused serious embarrassment to most companies operating in Latin America with foreign capital, especially the transportation companies whose rates are fixed, and it was loss on this account rather than reduced business which brought gloom into railway and street-car circles in 1915. [Illustration: _The São Paulo Railway._ Operates between São Paulo City and the port of Santos, and is the great coffee-carrying line. Above, Estação da Luz, S. Paulo City. Below, part of track traversing the steep Serra do Mar, showing tunnels blasted through granite. ]