The Statistical Bulletin covering the imports and exports of the Argentine Republic for the first three months of the present year has just been issued.

The figures given show a highly encouraging development in the volume of our exportations to this country and also a marked decrease in the extent of our purchases of Argentine products.

In order that the ratio of increase or decrease shown in the trade of all the principal countries may be seen at a glance, I have prepared the following table, covering both imports and exports. The

values given are for the first three months of the present year, and (The Argentine dollar equals 961⁄2 cents in

are in Argentine gold.

United States currency.)

Increase or decrease in the imports and exports of the Argentine Republic for the first quarter of the calendar year 1899, as compared with the same period in 1898.*

This increase in the trade of the United States with this country has been generally commented upon by the press of this city. The Argentine press have used the figures showing our decreased purchases here, given out by the Bulletin, as an argument in support of the well-known Argentine contention that our wool tariff operates unjustly against the wools of this Republic. In an editorial commenting upon the figures given in the Bulletin, one of the English papers of this city says:

It will be noticed that the increase in the import trade is equally divided between England and the United States, all other nations remaining practically stationary,

*A report from Consul Mayer, of Buenos Ayres, dated May 9, 1899, in regard to Argentine trade in the first quarter of 1899, gives figures in full of the imports by countries, as follows: