The high protective tariffs of the Latin American countries at the same time tend to raise enormously the price of imported articles and to foster the industries of the countries themselves. In Brazil the national manufacturing industries have grown very considerable under this system of economic fostering. None is more striking than the cotton-weaving industry, and we are already in sight of the time when the country will cease to import English or other foreign cotton goods, except perhaps certain special kinds. This, of course, is sound economics (however unpleasing it may be for British manufacturers). Brewing and soap-making are other industries that have similarly prospered in the Republic. But, so far, factories are few, comparatively, though there is some useful decentralization of manufacture. One finds tiny factories in small struggling villages where their presence might have been unsuspected, industries brought about by the immensity of distance, the high cost of carriage, which soon exceeds the value of the finished product, and thus Nature has here provided a sort of natural protective zone; factories being established where customers exist, and for the purpose of serving them, rather than for the object of sale beyond their borders. Each small factory has its own circle of customers, under these circumstances, and can rely upon its market close at hand. It enjoys a monopoly of its peculiar region. Apart from any defects to which such a system may give rise, this may be regarded as a valuable condition, and, if preserved, may avoid in Brazil the serious evils which in some European countries, such as England, over-centralization of manufacture has given rise--a philosophy to which, however, English people have not yet awakened. Similar conditions exist as regards agriculture: the dispersal or decentralization of industry is necessarily accompanied by the dispersal or decentralization of agriculture. Food products are grown where they are to be consumed. Each hamlet, and indeed each family, has its own fields of maize, manioc and often sugar-cane. The village is enabled not only to provide itself with employment and with manufactured articles, but with foodstuffs, and, in the future, this circumstance might give rise to an intensive general settlement and contentment. For trading conditions it may have its adverse side. But the question is how far trading should be encouraged as against economic settlement. * * * * *