Imports and exports

The island of Madeira imports cereals, woollen, linen and cotton fabrics, olive oil, paraffin, salt, sulphur, grocery and café goods, barrel staves, chemical fertilisers, crockery, glassware, tobacco, machinery, cutlery, etc., and exports wine, sugar, embroidery, wickerwork, butter, eggs, onions, fruit, etc. It re-exports coal.

The values of imports, exports and re-exports through the Funchal customs house (Alfândega do Funchal) in 1908 were 2,012,000 escudos (the Portuguese currency from 1911: 1 escudo = 100 centavos = 1,000 réis), 750,000 escudos and 1,215,000 escudos respectively.

A substantial item among the imports is coal, intended chiefly for supplying the steamships that call at our port. In that same year, 1908, 167,682,031 tonnes of coal were imported and 150,617,881 re-exported.