But it is the trade and commerce of Buenos Ayres which is the great source of occupation for its extensive population; since, though the importing and exporting part of the business may be chiefly carried on by the foreign merchants, the details are for the most part left to the natives: they collect, and prepare, and bring in for sale, all the produce of the country, and retail the goods imported from foreign countries: nor is it thought at all degrading for young men of the best connexions to stand behind a counter: there they gossip with their fair customers upon a perfect equality, and in dandyism a Buenos Ayrean shopkeeper may be backed against the smartest man-milliner of London or Paris. The mechanics and artisans form also a large class, as may be supposed, in a country where everything is wanted, and no man feels inclined to do much; it is in this line that the European has so decided an advantage over the native from his more industrious habits; for he requires no siesta, and works whilst the natives of all classes, high and low, are asleep: he cannot fail to prosper if he will but avoid the drinking-shops; but he must be resolute on that point, for it is a temptation which he finds at the corner of every street: no less than 600 pulperias are open in the city alone, as appears by the list of licences annually taken out at the police[14]. For everyone who will work there is employment, and as to real _want_, it can hardly exist in a country where beef is dear at a halfpenny a-pound, and where the generality of the lower orders want nothing else. FOOTNOTES: [13] By a return for 1836, it appears that in the _City_ in that year, The Marriages were 412 Baptisms 3211 Deaths 2785 exclusive of those in the hospitals. I have no return from the _Country_. [14] The same list will give some idea of the general distribution of the trades for 1836; it was as follows:-- 358 Wholesale stores. 348 Retail shops. 323 Tailors, shoemakers, milliners, and all handicrafts. 6 Booksellers. 598 Pulperias, or drinking shops. 26 Billiard-tables. 44 Hotels, taverns, and eating-houses. 48 Confectioners and liqueur-shops. 29 Chemists and apothecaries. 76 Flour-shops and bakeries. 44 Baracas, or hide-warehouses. 33 Timber-yards. 13 Livery-stables. 6 Coachmakers. 874 Carts and carriages paid duties. CHAPTER V. CITY OF BUENOS AYRES. Great extent of the City. Public Buildings. Inconvenient Arrangement and want of Comfort in the Dwellings of the Natives a few years ago. Prejudice against Chimneys. Subsequent Improvements introduced by Foreigners. Iron gratings at the windows necessary. Water scarce and dear. That of the River Plata excellent, and capable of being kept a very long time. Pavement of Buenos Ayres.