Within two days European wheat rose from 28 to 301⁄2 francs ($5.40 to $5.88) a centner (110 pounds), and American wheat rose from 26 to 291⁄2 francs ($5.01 to $5.68) per centner. In a very short time the common bread (half white flour), largely used by the masses, rose from 4 to 51⁄2 cents a pound. When the honest laborer gets 40 cents a day and he finds his loaf of bread suddenly increased in price about 25 per cent, he stops to think how it has happened; and when he learns that it is because Europe can not get American wheat at the usual price, he begins to realize what an effective and important part America is playing in his daily life. As seen above, the amount of wheat that the United States furnishes to Switzerland is not large-not one-fifth what it should be; but, in spite of that fact, the present state of war has sent the price of bread up 25 per cent in the Alpine Republic, besides causing serious and bloody riots in Italy, helping to put a state of siege over all Spain, setting the masses of Germany grumbling, disclosing the fact that 14,000,000 Russians are in need of bread, and awakening solicitude and unrest in France-all because the United States holds, and for many decades will hold, the balance of power in breadstuffs. JAMES T. DUBOIS, ST. GALL, May 14, 1898. Consul-General. BUTTER MARKET OF GREECE.* Butter is imported into Greece from Turkey, Russia, Roumania, Austria, Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland, and Italy, and perhaps in small quantities from other European countries. As there is very little, if any, really good butter in the markets of Greece, there are no popular brands other than the cheap, salted butter, partly of home production. Greece is now producing what is considered a good quality of cheap butter. The best butter is usually sold in an unsalted and partially worked condition. By "partially worked," I mean that the butter has not been properly or sufficiently handled or worked after leaving the churn or separator to remove all the milk. Butter in this state is soft and liable to spoil easily. A person accustomed to the good dairy and creamery butter of the United States can not relish it. The average wholesale price of salted butter for cooking purposes, in casks or tubs, is about 25 cents a pound. Danish butter sells at about 95 cents and Italian at $1 a kilogram (2. 2046 pounds); prices, of course, varying with supply and demand. The rate of import duty on butter for cooking purposes is 121⁄2 cents and on butter for the table 27 cents per oke (2.84 pounds). *This report was made in answer to an inquiry from a New York exporting firm. Advance Sheets have been sent to inquirer. The aggregate value of the butter imported annually into Greece is about $104,000. The creamery butter of the United States could and would undoubtedly become a popular brand here if the price could be fixed low enough to compete for the trade. Most of the inhabitants of Greece are very poor, and but few can afford to use high-priced articles of diet. Whether the butter exporters of the United States could afford to ship butter here and sell it at a price low enough to make it popular, is more than I can answer; but, there being such a scarcity of good butter in this market, it seems to me that a good brand, with a reasonable price and proper handling, ought to sell well in Athens at least. The butter importers of Athens are: P. Thanopoulos, S. M. Papayianrakos, G. Goulidmos, P. Clarako, and G. Pittas. Of Piræus: D. Repas, S. Anastasopoulos, and S. Papaleonardes. DANIEL E. MCGINLEY, ATHENS, April 18, 1898. Consul. SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE STATISTICS. I transmit the following tables of statistics relative to Cape Colony and Natal: Exports of colonial products from Cape Colony, 1897. |