The financial interest that England possesses in Uruguay is not generally realised. As a matter of fact, the amount of British capital invested in the Banda Oriental amounts to over forty-four millions of pounds sterling, and there are thus only two nations, Argentina and Brazil, that possess a greater share of the total of those funds invested in the South American continent. To the ears of the majority, it must be admitted, the names of Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia sound more familiar than that of the country with which we are at present dealing. Yet in the matter of these investments Chile alone can approach the status of the small Republic on the River Plate, and, indeed, falls behind it only to the extent of a few hundred thousand pounds. Peru, however, is interested to scarcely more than one-half of the extent, while Venezuela, the next in order, cannot lay claim to one-sixth of the amount. A comparison such as this will show the real financial importance that Uruguay represents to England, and, such being admitted, the condition of its commerce must be a matter of proportionate interest. To deal first of all with the general commercial development of the country, the outlook is undoubtedly satisfactory. In order to obtain the broadest possible survey of the situation it is necessary to lump together the national imports and exports. Taking a recent number of five-yearly periods, the results obtained are: $ 1862-68 109,886,156 1869-73 158,468,043 1874-78 148,443,857 1879-83 195,757,038 1884-88 234,618,354 1889-93 261,877,934 1894-98 274,137,052 1899-1903 286,580,824 1904-08 338,009,777 The dollar quoted in this table--and wherever this unit is employed throughout the book--is, it should be explained, the Uruguayan gold dollar, the rough value of which may be estimated at four shillings and twopence. This steady development of commerce is not a little striking in view of the fact that up to the present only a very small percentage of the resources of the country have been brought to bear. It is true that the chief national wealth is likely, in the future as in the past, to remain centred in the rich natural grazing lands. But the progress of agriculture is now such that this branch of industry cannot well fail in the course of a few years to rank as a moderate second in importance to the business of grazing. Moreover, the development of this latter itself is only now being proceeded with in a manner worthy of the great resources that exist. The marked increase in the general commerce that is evident between the years 1899 and 1908 is due to a very large extent to the introduction of modern methods into the estancia life of the country.