How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In this way only was the power of the local authorities vindicated amongst the great body of strong-limbed foreigners who dug the earth, blasted the rocks, drove the engines for the "progressive and patriotic undertaking." In these very words eighteen months before the Excellentissimo Señor don Vincente Ribiera, the Dictator of Costaguana, had described the National Central Railway in his great speech at the turning of the first sod. (I.5.1)
Apparently the local labor force (which consists of a lot of foreigners, it seems) needed to be convinced to affirm the "power of the local authorities." In the previous chapter, Giorgio had been taking up their cause, which ostensibly helped make these foreign laborers inclined to fall into line. Giorgio seems to be a fairly influential guy, in his own sphere.
Quote #2
"The Costaguana Government shall play its hand for all it's worth—and don't you forget it, Mr. Gould. Now, what is Costaguana? It is the bottomless pit of 10 per cent: loans and other fool investments. European capital has been flung into it with both hands for years. Not ours, though. We in this country know just about enough to keep indoors when it rains. We can sit and watch. Of course, some day we shall step in. We are bound to. But there's no hurry. Time itself has got to wait on the greatest country in the whole of God's Universe. We shall be giving the word for everything: industry, trade, law, journalism, art, politics, and religion, from Cape Horn clear over to Smith's Sound, and beyond, too, if anything worth taking hold of turns up at the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in hand the outlying islands and continents of the earth. We shall run the world's business whether the world likes it or not. The world can't help it—and neither can we, I guess." (I.6.81)
This is Holroyd basically musing to Charles about how powerful America is and will be, as well as the influence it's likely to have on Costaguana.