Return of imports in the province of Santander from October 1, 1861, to October 1, 1862-Continued.

14,452,784 159, 340

Peas and beans.......do.......

Coasting trade of the province of Santander, Spain, from October, 1861, to Ootober, 1862.

Mr. R. C. Hannah, United States consul at Santander, communicates the following official order, published on the 4th day of June, 1862 by the direction of the collector of customs in Santander :

“Foreign vessels shall be entitled to carry on the business of coasting trade with cargoes of minerals, hydraulic limes, building lumber and material, and

artificial manures."

H. Ex. Doc. 63-15

VALENCIA. GEORGE KENT, Consul.

OCTOBER 1, 1862.

Such is the local situation of Valencia, and its relative position in regard to other and more commercial powers, that any details relating to our limited marine and mercantile intercourse must be comparatively unimportant, for the purposes of your department, in the matter of information to be communicated to Congress. In addition to this consideration, I labor under the disadvantage, from my brief official residence at this port and the absence of any record of annual reports from my predecessor, of being unable to speak as to the comparative increase or decrease, for the year or years past, in the amounts of most of the principal articles of import and export.

The principal articles of import, constituting the trade of this consular district, may be designated as guano, railway iron and coal, sugar, tobacco, and chestnut staves. In regard to the first of these articles, which forms a large portion of the imports in American vessels, and comes, as is well known, mainly from the Chincha islands, I would observe, that it is a monopoly of the Peruvian government, consigned to a particular house here, for sale and distribution through this and other provinces of Spain, a good deal being transhipped, in small Spanish vessels, from this port to Barcelona, Tarragona, Denia, and other ports. The comparative increase in the guano trade may be tolerably well estimated from the fact that, since April last to the present time, there have entered and discharged at this port twelve large American vessels, in all 10,129 tons measurement, registered tonnage, bringing, in the aggregate, 15,655 tons of guano, or thereabouts, at an average paying freight of $20 a ton; whereas in the entire year of 1861, and, indeed, up to May last, I find record of but five or six American guano vessels, of about half this tonnage and freight, at the lower average rate of $16 a ton. More American vessels than foreign have of late been employed.

Of railway iron, which comes entirely from Great Britain, there has been but one arrival, and that of about six or seven hundred tons, in any but foreign vessels since the 1st of April. For the year prior to that time, I find record of three or four of our vessels freighted with this material, to the amount of about 2,000 tons. The import of coal in American vessels has been very small; none since April, except about 75 tons in the vessel referred to, freighted principally with iron.

Of sugar, principally from Cuba, I have known none imported this season in American vessels. Of staves, the quantity has been very limited; none since April, and these making a part of the cargo of two or three tobacco vessels. Of tobacco-almost entirely a government monopoly, quite so in its manufacture, and the only staple product of the United States of any considerable consumption here-there have been no arrivals since April last. There were two, before that, in the months of February and March, respectively, of perhaps 1,000 tons, and four or five the year preceding, of probably an aggregate of 3,000 tons. The records to which I have had access are not explicit in discriminating the respective proportions in weight of the tobacco and staves, or other component parts of the particular cargoes, nor the amount of foreign tonnage employed.

I cannot learn that there is any established rate of freight to the United States, so limited is the direct commerce between the two countries; but I presume about eight dollars a ton might be the average rate. I have known from ten to twelve dollars a ton paid for such a bulky article as wool, to New York or Boston, while the solid article of lead (often serviceable for ballast) has been carried for from three to five dollars.

The article of gunpowder is about the only article the importation of which is entirely prohibited, but various discriminating duties, amounting almost to a prohibition, are imposed on many articles in favor of the Spanish flag.