Okay, so, as you all know, we've been in a worldwide economic depression since 1873. I am not the only president that needs to look after the economy of their country and make sure that we don't fall into complete ruin. We need revenue right now to get through this. As the magnamious president I am, I've been kind enough to let Chilean-owned companies export nitrate that they have extracted on our seacoast. Crazy, right? Well, actually, Bolivia settled with Chile in 1874 and we got Chile to relinquish any claims they had on our territory in exchange for us not increasing taxes on exports. Clearly this worked in our favor because that land is just filled to the brim with resources that we can exploit, but now five years later, we are in need of money.

So I did what I had to do and imposed a 10 cent export tax on the Chilean Compañia de Salitres y Ferrocarril. I didn't think they would make such a big deal out of it. I mean, it's just 10 cents, right? It's not like the Chilean government owns the company anyway. Buuut, as you have probably guessed by now, the Chilean government under President Aníbal Pinto threw a fit. I mean, sure, we talked a bit and it was fine for a couple of months but I grew sort of impatient. They had no problem settling with Argentina at the same time and they're clearly not even close to being prepared to use any force to get their will through, so I guess I became a bit bold. I demanded the company to start paying the taxes and told them that we'll confiscate their property and sell it at public auction if they didn't do it. They refused. What was I supposed to do? Go back on my threat? So recently, in January 1879, we confiscated the company property. Again, Chile got mad at us.

Am I in the wrong for looking after my people and our economy in the midst of this deep crisis? I'm hoping to get this solved before the scheduled public auction on February 14 (CHA-CHING am I right?), but you never know with these stubborn Chileans.