The success or failure of a business venture in Latin America depends materially on the character of the representative sent to these marts of trade. Never having seen or heard of you or your goods, it is most natural for the foreign merchant to make his deductions from your emissary.

The typical ambassador of commerce for South American fields should combine elegance of dress and courtliness of manners; be a linguist; a scholar; a diplomat; a philosopher; always a student and a business man as well. He should continually bear in mind that his visit is unsolicited—that in a sense he is an aggressor, an intruder, and above everything he should conform to the usages that custom has established in this part of the world.

European merchants and their travellers, with the hope of strengthening their position have spread about the unwarranted idea that the Yankee is tricky in all his dealings and this condition must at all times be combated not theoretically but obviously and practically. Be frank with prospective customers. Do not try to load them up with goods. Keep your agreements to the letter. Live up to your contract even if you lose money by doing so. Follow exactly whatever shipping instructions are given.

After an initial visit to a possible client it is advisable to develop his social side. Ascertain to what clubs he belongs and get put up at them, so that an opportunity may arise to see him after the cares that infest the day are gone. You will find the Latin American a gentleman, a past master of the art of etiquette, a Chesterfield in matters of decorum and an agreeable companion. He, like ourselves, has his weaknesses. Find what they are and cater to them. He will be responsive, after he gets to know you. The amount of flattery that he will stand for and assimilate is beyond belief. The Spanish language is especially equipped for the purpose and provides means for raising to its nth power the superlative degree. Do not for a moment get the idea that you are dealing with a child, for though, like the Chinaman, he presents a bland exterior, he is uncannily wise. He knows his line and prices and market conditions. Existing in a world of little excitement, few amusements, and one foreign mail per week, his mind is not diverted and he unconsciously concentrates and becomes a specialist in his business. Having always lived thousands of miles from markets he has learned to prognosticate trade developments years ahead.

He expects to talk to you in Spanish excepting in Brazil where the language is Portuguese, and he will tell you that 100,000,000 people all over the world speak in this tongue; that European salesmen converse with him in this tongue. Obviously, if you can discuss affairs with him in his own idiom you are on the road to success. He often speaks French too, and if you cannot talk in the language of the Dons he will ask you to do so in that of the Gauls. Only in the largest establishments of the big seaport towns will one find merchants with an employe or two familiar with English. It is therefore obvious without a knowledge of Spanish a salesman in this territory is hopelessly and seriously handicapped. In fact he is inefficient. Europeans recognizing the importance of this employ only representatives speaking the languages of the countries wherein they travel. I recall meeting a German in Assam talking fluently the native tongue and later ran across him in Arabia conversing in Arabic in the market place. Americans have never been linguists, but in our business lexicon there should be no such word as “impossible.”

I remember an American traveller for an oil machinery house startling those in the dining room of the leading hotel in Lima, Peru, by pointing to the menu and alternately grunting and squealing aloud. He could not talk Spanish. In a few moments the place was in an uproar. Some thought he had gone crazy; others that he was insulting the Peruvians or the proprietor of the hotel. The head waiter rushed to me and asked that I ascertain what the trouble was. Imagine my surprise when my countryman in explanation of his barnyard impersonation said: “I was trying to tell these durned fools that I wanted ham.” Incidents like these are never forgotten; always magnified when told and invariably hurt us seriously, socially and otherwise. This little affair happening in a foreign country where news is scarce was talked of in the hotels, clubs and cafés, printed in the journals and illustrated in the comic papers. Americans were always referred to by each narrator as uncouth and the story gone into with great detail and precision. Grandparents in Peru one hundred years from now will be telling this yarn to their grandchildren.

I have long ago ceased to wonder at the lack of common sense exhibited by some large American houses in selecting the type of man they employ for Latin America. I recall one well known concern in this country sending a man to sell carbon paper and typewriter ribbons who spoke only English. Of the man personally I will only state that by nature he was the very antithesis of everything he should have been. Calling upon the leading jobber in his line in Bolivia who spoke only Spanish he found it impossible to do business, and undertook to tell his prices by yelling them, a method in vogue among those who have command of one language and who seem to feel that if you can repeat loudly in a crescendo voice, and with great precision, what you have to say your hearer will ultimately by some occult means understand. In the midst of this vocal exercise by the American, a German happened to drop in, also desirous of selling the dealer goods, and kindly offered to interpret for the Yankee, which suggestion was eagerly accepted. The gentleman from the Fatherland was also selling typewriter supplies and I heard him afterwards telling his friends in the hotel with much gusto how he handled the matter. I shall not try to repeat the conversation. It was humiliating for me to think what a fool my fellow citizen had allowed himself to be made. When the American said “These ribbons are $4.00 a dozen,” the German translated: “These ribbons are $8.00 a dozen.” The American salesman told me afterwards that he had written his house that they could not compete with European prices in this market and I am certain that this concern will never again be tempted even to consider Latin American possibilities. These two cases strikingly serve to illustrate the importance of being familiar with Spanish, or the language of the country wherein you are expected to sell goods.

Extremely sensitive and quick to appreciate a kindness, it pays to study the social usages among Latin Americans and to live in conformity therewith when among them. It is, for example, considered good taste to walk always on the side of the street next the curb, to take off your hat and stand uncovered as the funeral of peon or plutocrat passes, to bow generally to those present as you enter a streetcar or café and to salute them similarly as you depart, while gentlemen always raise their hats when they meet. The observance of these frivolous niceties marks the gentleman, the failure to do so the man, and the yawning abyss between these two degrees of masculinity to the Latin American mind cannot be bridged.

Generally speaking every Latin American is named after some saint and observes the festival of this canonized individual both socially and religiously. Ascertain what day this is and always send some little remembrance. It creates an intimacy hard for us cold-blooded northerners to understand. Never forget church and national festivals. Both of these are dearer to the impulsive natives than are our own and are celebrated more elaborately. It pays to keep a memorandum book for this purpose, noting data of this nature, so as to be always in close personal touch with customers and prospective clients. Little cards and other appropriate souvenirs from the north commemorating these events are highly cherished as well as deeply appreciated and erect invisible and effective barricades about the sympathetic Latin, sufficient to repulse the attacks of other salesmen.

Religion and political conditions should never be discussed. The Latin American is almost always superstitiously religious and intensely political. To take the wrong side of a theological argument may land you in the hospital while an error in judgment on a political problem may mean jail. Both are places to be avoided in these lands. Besides such arguments always serve to make one decidedly unpopular and materially hurt business prospects.

Religious processions are frequent in the streets. They excite curiosity and are often amusing viewed from our standpoint. Do what the populace does as they pass: kneel or raise your hat, otherwise get away from the scene as quickly as you can. Many clerical parades have been turned to riots by some foolish foreigner failing to observe these suggestions.

With but few exceptions, hotels in Latin America are terrible. Toilet and bathing accommodations are poor, the cooking vile and the dishes unpalatable, while the beds are intolerable. Vaults in American cemeteries are far preferable as residential quarters in comparison with some rooms I have slept in in this part of the world, especially in the small towns and villages of the interior. Conditions become rapidly worse the farther away one gets from the larger cities, and as one penetrates out of the way places hammocks and your own food supplies are to be recommended. It would be almost impossible to describe the primitiveness which exists in this part of the Western Continent away from the beaten path. Travel facilities are execrable. Trains are slow and late and accommodations decidedly bad. Steamers are small and stuffy and not safe. River boats are provided with few if any conveniences. Going up the Magdalena River in Colombia from Barranquilla to Bogota, a journey of about ten days, the traveller formerly had to provide his own sleeping accommodations and this was wise, and it always showed good judgment to carry tinned food and bottled water.

Appointments are more often honored in the breach than in the observance, more often forgotten or delayed than kept. Business for no apparent reason is deferred to “mañaña” (to-morrow). Time is not considered by our friends residing in the vicinity of the equator.

These and many more heart-breaking conditions will confront you every day of your trip through Mañaña land. Be a philosopher. Don’t grumble. You came for business. These delays and deprivations are only incidents in the game; they make the reaching of the goal all the more of a victory. Grit your teeth and forge ahead. If fleas and mosquitoes and bedbugs bite, don’t revenge yourself on your possible customer, by telling him what you think of his country and countrymen. Learn to smile. It helps more here than elsewhere.

Be a student from the day that you sail from America to the day that you hand in your last expense account. It will improve you mentally and help your firm financially. Study the needs of the various countries through which you pass. Observe what the people require. Listen to suggestions from all sources. European successes in these markets were greatly advanced by giving the people just what they wanted. Yours will come in the same manner. Remember that a vast majority of the population whom you will meet are either Indians or of Indian origin. Their tastes are sure to be primitive, to incline to gaudy colorings and lack practicability. Remember, too, that they are paying the bills. If they want the things that offend your educated, æsthetic eye, forget it and explain to the house why they should make them as desired. It is always easier to follow styles in vogue for centuries than to create new ones and foist them on the public.

Latin America has always been a hotbed for disease. Be abstemious in eating and drinking. Alcoholic beverages should be taboo, inasmuch as they unnecessarily heat the system. Water supplies are inefficient and often polluted. Your drinking water should be boiled; if good water is not obtainable otherwise drink some reliable mineral water. Remember that plague comes from the bite of the flea, and yellow fever and malaria from the bite of the mosquito, so avoid as much as possible the places where these pests are to be found. Daily baths are apt to remove danger from flea bites and sleeping under a net minimizes the possibilities of contracting yellow and malarial fevers. Personal hygiene should always be observed. In twenty years of the roughest and toughest travelling up creeks and down tropical rivers, through forests heavy with dew, across barren, wind-swept plains, over mountains, in high and low altitudes, by exercising these suggested precautions I have had only one serious illness, yellow fever. Conditions have vastly improved since I first began my trips and are getting better every year. With judgment one could now take a journey all over Latin America without any physical dangers or serious illness intervening, and with less risk than he would be liable to encounter on a trip between New York and Chicago.

From a perusal of the requirements necessary for a salesman in this territory, and I may add that I have not overcolored, or underestimated them, it is apparent that the right man will be difficult to find. If a house cannot see its way clear to enter this field with the right kind of a representative, it had better remain out of it altogether or combine with several concerns in allied lines and send one high grade man to represent them jointly. It is extremely doubtful if any one could do justice to more than five firms in such a venture. The plan adopted by European houses is to send a capable young man to one of the countries and let him live there until he has acquired the language, the customs of the people and their ways of doing business. Then they put him on the road. This serves to demonstrate the thoroughness which marked every step of the European conquest of these markets. Our American public schools are now instructing pupils in Spanish and Latin Americans are coming to this country to acquire English in increasing numbers right along, so that the possibilities are that within a few years these conditions will change for the better. To-day, however, the efficient, competent and reliable salesman for Latin America is so rare and so much in demand that he can practically name his own salary.

Nearly every country in Latin America requires that a license to sell goods must be taken out by the salesman before he can do business within its territory, and as a result there has arisen much cause for complaint. As a rule these taxes or fees are entirely too high and out of proportion to those charged anywhere else in the world, thereby creating a natural tendency to evade the law by every possible means. In some localities runners about the hotels stand in with the authorities and for a small sum provide guests with the necessary paper entitling them to sell goods, while in other places the law is practically ignored.

The right to collect this tax in many countries is sold yearly by the municipal authorities for a lump sum to some individual, who always endeavors to collect as much as he can from the concession. Beware of the person who holds this right. He has at his beck and call a score of petty employes about the city and around the hotels who report your movements to him, and the result is generally disastrous to you, especially if you try to do business without his permission.

In the Argentine republic for example each province has a fixed fee for this purpose and the total sum, if paid, would eliminate the profits from the average amount of your sales. Failure to pay generally means a term in jail.

The merchant’s yearly taxes in many countries includes the right to sell goods by travelling salesmen and if he is approached properly by a non-resident representative will allow him to take advantage of his business foresight and use this permit, thereby giving a legitimate and legal opportunity to omit paying these obnoxious charges. By observing these suggestions and the exercise of diplomacy and good judgment, little need be feared from the authorities in this connection.

Before entering a foreign country for the first time, it is well to obtain letters of introduction to leading merchants and especially to government officials. They prove wonderfully beneficial and are highly successful in smoothing out the rough places which are sure to be met with in the paths of business. It generally pays to act implicitly on the advice given by responsible people living in the land wherein you are a pilgrim, for they are well acquainted with local idiosyncrasies, and can suggest the exact spot where a small tip will facilitate matters materially.

Be sure to cultivate the acquaintance of the high grade old time traveller whom you will be certain to meet sooner or later on your trip. You will find him pregnant with pertinent and useful suggestions, which will do much toward making your initial trip a success. Years of experience in the Latin American school of business have given him a marvellous amount of wisdom, which you will always find him willing to dispense if you are the right kind and not trying to impress the world with your superior knowledge.

Both as a matter of courtesy and as a good business proposition be sure to call on the American consular officer whom you will always find at the port. He is in touch with the local merchants, is generally well informed as to market conditions and can give you many practical suggestions. He also has a line on the financial standing of most dealers throughout his territory.

Be sure that your order blanks are printed in triplicate and in Spanish for all countries except Brazil where the language is Portuguese. Ample space should be provided under the captions “Terms”; “How Packed”; “How Invoiced”; “How Shipped.” When possible, I have always insisted on the buyer signing the order and filling in with his own handwriting the spaces referred to. There can be no cause for refusal to accept the goods, if you have complied with the written conditions of the merchant. Very naturally when the order has been signed the merchant should have a copy, another sent to the house, while you retain the third one for your personal files and for future reference.

If possible always carry your samples in one or more cases. Clothes should never be packed with them, but in separate trunks. Now and then you will find officious and over energetic customs officials. Treat them with courtesy, even if they irritate you. Remember that they can make you endless trouble and that they may understand any caustic remarks you may venture to make in English. As a rule, however, these officials are very considerate. If you are selling shoes, it is wise to bring only one sample of each pair. If you carry a line of silverware, have each sample sawed in half. This will at once remove suspicion from you as far as the customs are concerned.

If you are to travel the West Indies, Central America and the northern countries of South America, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, light clothes should be relied upon. Remember too that in the highlands and mountainous districts of these countries it is often cool, especially at night, and a light overcoat is therefore advisable. In the highlands of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, heavy clothes are always worn. The climate of Southern Chile, Argentine, Uruguay and Paraguay is much like our middle States, excepting that the seasons are reversed, their winter corresponding to our summer and vice versa. A trunk packed for a complete trip for all of Latin America should therefore include both summer and winter clothing.

It is wise to pay much attention to the style and nature of your correspondence. American business men for years have been concentrating and condensing their thoughts—saying in a few words the same thing that formerly were expressed in pages. The Latin American has not yet practiced this conservative method of expressing himself and as a result his correspondence is voluminous and he indulges in word paintings that are picturesque and unique but not practical. If you are not as excessive in this respect as he is, the chances are, unless he knows you exceedingly well, that he will construe your letters as brusque and far from courteous. His letters will be filled with the sentimental phrases of past ages. This is his idea of politeness and should be your guide in addressing him. You cannot be too verbose in your communications. He comes from a race noted for its grandiloquent declamations and this typical characteristic, this desire to figuratively gild refined gold, add a perfume to the violet and a whiteness to the lily, means much to him. It is one of his ways of estimating your educational worth and of calibrating your standing as a gentleman. I know of no better exemplification of this than a comparison between the flowery way Latin American letters are terminated and our own. It is more personal, more deferential and more impressive to sign yourself, “Your attentive and secure servant who kisses your hand,” than briefly and harshly, “Yours very truly,” yet the former method is the one in which practically all letters close coming from these sunny lands.

Bills, catalogues, price-lists, in a word all “literature” should be in the language of the country for obvious reasons and in having these translated be sure to employ only experienced and able translators. Nothing paves the way for so much ridicule as poorly expressed and badly produced business documents, for the keen eye of the Latin notes errors with great precision. Efficiently produced and artistically printed materials of this nature impress one in these lands and help materially in giving you and your firm a high standing in the minds of the native merchants, while poorly got up pamphlets and the like open his flood gates of criticism and prejudice both against you and your goods. All weights and measurements should be in the metric system.

Be sure always to bear in mind that first-class mail to Latin America, excepting Panama, Mexico, Cuba and Porto Rico, cost five cents an ounce or fraction thereof and three cents for each additional ounce or fraction thereof; all printed matter, one cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. Be careful therefore to put full postage on all correspondence, otherwise your mail will be delayed and its recipient subjected to a series of fines for your sin in short postage which will have the effect of hurting your cause. Mistakes of this kind are unwarranted and you should caution the house and the one in charge of the mail to put proper postage on letters. Latin American merchants always look upon letters short-posted as a shrewd Yankee plan to make them pay part of the expenses of your establishment. From their point of view this is not far from right either, for they are never guilty of this fault so very prevalent among Americans.

If you have no fixed address instruct your correspondents to send all mail in care of the consul of the United States of America, at each port where you intend stopping. Remember that consuls are to be found only at seaports. To address a letter Care of the Consul for the United States of America, Bogota, Colombia, would practically mean that you would never get the letter, for the reasons that these officials are found for example in Colombia, at Barranquilla, Savanilla, Santa Marta, and along the seaboard. It is unwise to send mail in care of the General Delivery. Later on after you have been over the territory and established friendly relations with some dealer or merchant, mail may be sent in his care.

Passports are unnecessary in Latin America.

Funds should be carried in the form of Letters of Credit. It is wise to take one of these in Dollars and Cents and the other in Pounds Sterling, as there will be many opportunities to use one of these advantageously in selling exchange when the other cannot be so employed. This all depends of course on the local demands for foreign exchange, and before buying money, it is wise to ascertain which letter of credit can be used more profitably. The saving which can be made in the course of a long trip in closely watching the price of money and buying when conditions favor you, is worthy of your best attention.