Through one or another of these passes most of the foreign traffic of the state must be carried. To Genoa and Milan it crosses the Alps via the St. Gotthard tunnel, or the Simplon Pass;[75] to Paris it goes by the Rhone Valley; between Vienna and Switzerland, by the Arlberg tunnel; and to Germany or to Amsterdam through the valley of the Main.

As a result of this most excellent system of transportation, Switzerland is thronged with visiting tourists at all times of the year; moreover, it has always been the policy of the Swiss Government not only to provide for them, but also to make the country attractive to them. The result has shown the wisdom of the policy. Indeed, the foreign tourist has become one of the chief sources of income of the Swiss people, and the latter profit by the transaction to the amount of about forty million dollars a year.

About all the raw material used in manufacture must be imported. The cotton is purchased mainly from the United States, and enters by way of Marseille. The raw silk is purchased from Italy, China, and Japan. Coal, sugar, food-stuffs, and steel are purchased from Germany, and this state supplies about half the imports. From the United States are purchased wheat, cotton, and coal-oil.

The manufactures are intended for export. The fine cotton textiles sold to the United States are worth far more than the raw cotton purchased therefrom. Silk textiles, straw wares, toys, watches, jewelry, and dairy products are leading exports. The surrounding states are the chief buyers, and none of them competes with Switzerland to any extent in the character of the exports.

Geneva, situated at the head of the Rhone Valley, is the chief trade depot; it is noted especially for the manufacture of watches, of which many hundred thousand are made yearly. Zurich is the centre of manufactures of textiles and fine machinery. The silk-brocade industry is centred chiefly in this city and Basel.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Why did not France prosper commercially prior to the time of the revolution of 1793?

What are the chief natural advantages of the state in favor of commercial development?

In what ways have the natural disadvantages of Switzerland been overcome?

How has the loss of her colonies affected the industrial development of Spain?

Comparing Spain and Italy, which has the better situation with reference to the Suez Canal traffic?

From the Statesman's Year-Book find the amount of foreign trade of each state.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of each one with the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

Adams's New Empire, pp. 160-168.

Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, Chapter XI.

Procure for inspection specimens of raw silk and also of the choice textile goods made in these states.



CHAPTER XXVIII

EUROPE—THE DANUBE AND BALKAN STATES

The Danube and Balkan states derive their commercial importance partly from the large area in which bread-stuffs may be produced, and also because the valley of the Danube has become an overland trade-route of growing importance between the Suez Canal and the North Sea.

Austria-Hungary.—This empire is composed of the two monarchies, Austria and Hungary, each practically self-governed, but united under a single general government. The greater part of the country is walled in by the ranges of the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains.

The region known as the Tyrol is topographically continuous with Switzerland, and the people have Swiss characteristics. Galicia, northeast of the Carpathian Mountains, the fragment of Poland that fell to Austria at the time of partition, is a part of the great Russian plain. Bohemia, which derives its name from the Keltic peoples, whom Caesar called the Boii, comprises the upper part of the Elbe river-basin. Its natural commercial outlet is Germany, but the race-hatred which the Czechs have for the Germans, retards commercial progress. Hungary is a country of plains occupying the lower basin of the Danube. The Huns are of Asian origin. Austria proper occupies the upper valley of the Danube, adjoining Germany; the country and the people are Germanic.

To the student of history it is a surprise that a country of such diverse peoples, having but little in common save mutual race-hatred, should hold together under the same general government. The explanation, however, is found in the topography of the region. The basin of the Danube is a great food-producing region, and the upper valley of the Elbe River forms the easiest passage from the Black to the Baltic Sea. The topography therefore gives the greater part of the country commercial unity.

The climate and surface of the low plains of Hungary are much the same as those of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Grain-growing and stock-raising are the chief employments. High freight rates, a long haul, and the competition of Russia and Roumania have retarded the development of these industries, however. Bohemia is likewise a grain-growing country, and the easy route into Germany through the Elbe Valley makes the industry a profitable one. Bohemia is also in the sugar-beet area.

There is an abundance of coal in Austria, but most of it is unfit for the manufacture of iron and steel. Steel manufacture, however, is carried on, the industry being protected by the distance from the German steel-making centres. The lead-mines about Bleiberg (or "Leadville") are very productive; at Idria are the only quicksilver-mines in Europe that compete with those of Almaden, Spain. The salt-mines near Krakow are in a mass of rock-salt twelve hundred feet thick.

Most of the manufactured products are for home consumption. American cotton and home-grown wool supply the greater part of the textiles. The flour-mills are equipped with the very best of machinery, and much of the product is for export to Germany and the countries to the south. The manufactures that have made the state famous, however, are gloves and glassware, both of which are widely exported. The sand, fluxes, and coloring minerals of Bohemian glassware are all peculiar to the region, and the wares, therefore, cannot be imitated elsewhere. The gloves are made from the skins of Hungarian sheep and goats.

The railways are not well organized, and the mileage is insufficient for the needs of the country. Ludwig Canal (in Germany) connects the Danube with the Main, a navigable tributary of the Rhine; the Elbe is navigable from a point above Prague to the Baltic; the Moravian Gate opens a passage from Vienna northward; the Iron Gate, through which the Danube flows, is the route to the Black Sea; Semmering Pass and its tunnel is the gateway to the ports of the Adriatic. These great routes practically converge at Vienna, which also is the great railway centre of the empire.

The foreign trade consists mainly of the export of food-stuffs (of which sugar and eggs are heavy items), fine cabinet ware, woollen textiles (made from imported wool), barley and malt, and fine glassware. Much of the German and Italian wine is sent to market in casks made of Austrian stock; the coal goes mainly to Italy. The imports are raw cotton from the United States and Egypt, wool, silk, and tobacco. Coal is both exported and imported. The United States sells to Austria-Hungary cotton, pork, and corn—buying porcelain ware, glassware, and gloves, amounting to about one-fifth the value of the exports.

Vienna, the capital, is the financial centre and commercial clearing-house of central Europe; it has also extensive manufactures. Budapest is the great focal point of Hungarian railways and commerce. Prague controls the coal, textile, and glass trade of Bohemia. Lemberg is the metropolis of Galicia. The states of Liechtenstein, Bosnia, and Herzegovina are commercially under the control of Austria.

The Lower Danube States.—Roumania and Bulgaria, the plain of the lower Danube, are enclosed by the Carpathian and Balkan ranges. They constitute a great wheat-field whose chief commercial outlets are the Iron Gate into Germanic Europe, and the Sulina mouth of the Danube into the Black Sea. The growing of maize for home consumption and wheat for export form the only noteworthy industries. Most of the grain is shipped up the Danube and sold in Great Britain and Germany.

From the Iron Gate to the Black Sea the Danube is held as an international highway, and the control of its navigation is directed by a commission of the various European powers, having its head-quarters at Galatz, Roumania.



In the Balkan Mountains is the famous Vale of Roses which furnishes about half the world's supply of attar-of-roses. The petals of the damask rose are pressed between layers of cloth saturated with lard. The latter absorbs the essential oil, from which it is easily removed. About half a ton of roses are required to make a pound of the attar. Kazanlik, noted also for rugs, is the great market for attar. Galatz and Rustchuk are grain-markets and river-ports; from the latter a railway extends to Varna, the chief port of the Black Sea. From Sofia, near the Bulgarian frontier, a trunk line of railway extends through Budapest to western Europe.

Turkey-in-Europe.—The European part of the Ottoman Empire has long been politically known as the "Sick Man" of Europe, and so far as the industries and commerce of the state are concerned, there is no excuse for its separate existence as a state. Its political existence, however, is regarded as a necessity, in order to prevent the Russians from obtaining military and naval control of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and thereby becoming a menace to all western Europe. Less than one-half the people are Turks; the greater part of the population consists of Armenians, Jews, Magyars, and Latins.

Most of the country is rugged and unfit for grain-growing. The internal government is bad, the taxes are so ruinous that the agricultural resources are undeveloped, and every sort of farming is primitive. In many instances the taxes levied on the growing crops become practical confiscation when they are collected. Much of the cultivable land is idle because there are no means of getting the crops to market.

Grapes and wine, silk, opium, mohair and wool, valonia (acorn cups used in tanning leather), figs, hides, cigarettes, and carpets are the leading exports, and these about half pay for the American cotton textiles, woollen goods, coal-oil, sugar, and other food-stuffs imported. Choice Mocha coffee is imported for home use, and poorer grades are exported. Most of the foreign commerce is in the hands of English and French merchants. Armenians, Jews, and Greeks are the native middlemen and traders.

The native population is subject to the Sultan, whose rule is absolute; most foreign merchants and residents are permitted by treaties to remain subject to the regulations of the consuls.

Constantinople is the capital. Its situation on the Bosphorus is such that under any other European government it would command a tremendous foreign commerce. It is naturally the focal point of the trade between Europe and Asia. A trunk line of railway connects the city with Paris. Salonica is the port of western Turkey, and is likewise connected by rail with western Europe. A great deal of the foreign commerce of the state is now landed at this port.



The chief possessions of the Ottoman Empire are Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia.

Greece.—Greece is a rugged peninsula, no part of which is more than forty miles from the sea. The country is without resources in the way of coal, timber, or available capital. Its former commercial position, in ancient times, was due largely to the silver-mines near Ergasteria, and subsequently to the gold-mines of eastern Macedonia; these, however, are no longer productive.

There is but little land suitable for farming, and not far from one-half the bread-stuffs must be imported. Much of the timber has been destroyed, and this has resulted in a deterioration not only of the water-power, but of the cultivable lands as well. The railway lines are short and their business is local; there are practically no trunk line connections with the great centres of commerce.

The harbors and the natural position of the country are its best remaining resources. The Greeks are born sailors, and the country is in the pathway of European and Asian commerce. Most of the grain-trade between the Black and Mediterranean Seas is controlled by Greek merchants, and the Greeks are everywhere in evidence in the carrying trade of the Mediterranean. The construction of the Corinthian canal has also given Greek commerce a material impetus.

The chief exports are Corinthian grapes—commonly known as "currants"—fruit, and iron ore from Ergasteria. Great Britain, France, and Belgium are the chief buyers of the fruit-crop. The exports scarcely pay for the American cotton, Russian wheat, and the timber products that are purchased abroad. There has been a material growth in the manufacture of cotton, woollens, and silk in the past few years, much of the work being done in households. Athens is the capital and largest city. The Piraeus and Patras are the chief ports.

Servia and Montenegro are stock-growing countries. The former has suffered greatly from misgovernment and the waste of its resources. Wine-cask stock and cattle are sold to Austria, which has five-sixths of its trade. Belgrade is its metropolis. Tobacco and live-stock are exported from Montenegro to Austria.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

On a good map of central Europe trace an all-water route from the mouth of the Danube to the ports of the lower Rhine and the North Sea; what connection have the cities of Ratisbon and Lemberg with this route?

How do the forests of these states affect the wine industry of Germany?

From the Statesman's Year-Book find the amount and movement of the exports and imports of these countries.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the volume of trade of these countries with the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE

Great Canals of the World—p. 4089.

A good map of central Europe.



CHAPTER XXIX

EUROPE-ASIA—THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

The great plain of Eurasia, which borders about half the circuit of the Arctic Ocean, is undivided by topographic barriers or boundaries. It is physically a unit.

Russia.—Russia comprises more than one-half the area of Europe; the Russian Empire embraces about one-half of Europe and Asia combined, and constitutes more than one-seventh of the land surface of the earth. East and west, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, the distance is about six thousand miles. It has a similar position with respect to southern Europe and China as has Canada to the United States.

In latitude the country is unfortunately situated. North of the latitude of St. Petersburg the climate is too cold to grow bread-stuffs; a large part of the country is, therefore, unproductive. The central belt is forest-covered; the southern part, or "black earth" belt, comprises the greater part of the productive lands, and this region is the chief granary of Europe.

Russia is an agricultural country. Maize and rye grown for home consumption, and wheat for export, are the chief products. Flax is a leading export product, and the Russian crop constitutes about four-fifths of the world's supply. Lands too remote from markets for grain-growing produce cattle and sheep, which are grown mainly for their hides and tallow. The wool of the Don is a very coarse textile that is much used in the manufacture of American carpets; that of the arid plateaus of the southern country is a fine rug wool.

Agriculture in Russia is on a much lower plane than in western Europe. Most of the land is owned in large estates. Individual farming is rare, land tillage being usually a community affair. A village community rents or purchases a tract of land, and the latter is allotted to the families composing it, a part of the land being reserved for pasturage. The business is transacted by "elders," or trustees, who exercise a general management and supervision over the "mir," or community.

The methods of farming are not the best, and an acre of land produces scarcely one-third as much as the same area is made to yield in other states. The farming class, or peasantry, was in a condition of serfdom until within a few years. Poverty unfits them to compete with farmers of western Europe; moreover, the laws of land ownership and tenure also serve to discourage farming.

The metal and mineral resources are very great. Iron ore is abundant, and the yearly output of both is greatly increasing. There are extensive deposits in southern Russia, in the Ural Mountains, and in Poland. Coal of good quality is plentiful, and coal mining is encouraged by a heavy tariff on the foreign coal that enters regions where the home product is available. The most productive coal-fields are those of the lower Don River and of Poland.

Gold is obtained in various parts of Siberia and in the Ural Mountains, but scarcely enough is mined for the requirements of coinage. Copper is also mined in the Ural and Caucasus Mountains. More than nine-tenths of the world's supply of platinum is also obtained in the Ural Mountains. The petroleum fields of Transcaucasia have a yearly output a little greater than those of the United States.

The forest area is surpassed only by the timber belt of North America, both of which are in about the same latitudes. This area, within a very few years, is destined to be the chief lumber supply of all Europe. Moreover, the forests, the grain-growing lands, and the iron and coal constitute national resources which are surpassed in no other countries save the United States and China.

The Russian Government has done much to encourage manufactures. Steel-making in the Ural district, in Poland, and in the iron regions of the Don has progressed to the extent that home-made railway material and rolling stock are now generally used. Farming machinery is made in the cities of the grain-growing region. The manufacture of cotton, woollen, and linen fabrics has developed to the extent that the state is becoming an exporter rather than an importer of such goods.

Railway building has progressed under government aid, and about two-thirds of the 37,000 miles of track are owned by the state. The Transsiberian Railway connecting Vladivostok with the trunk lines of Europe was built by the state both for strategic and economic purposes. Large bodies of emigrants are carried into Siberia at nominal rates and are settled on lands that are practically free. The return cargoes consist of Chinese products—mainly silk textiles and tea—destined for western Europe.

A network of railways covers the grain-growing districts; trunk lines, mainly for strategic purposes, extend through Russian Turkestan to the Chinese border. For many years Russia has endeavored to acquire the territory that would afford commercial outlets to the Indian Ocean and into China. In this the state has been thwarted by two great powers—Great Britain and Japan. The construction of canals and the improvements of river-navigation are under government management, and the internal water-ways aggregate about fifty thousand miles of navigation.

The foreign commerce is changing in character as manufactures develop. Wheat, flour, timber products, flax, and petroleum are the chief exports. Cotton, tea, wool, and coal are the leading imports, the first-named coming mainly from the United States. Germany, Great Britain, France, Holland, and the United States are the chief European countries utilizing Russian trade. The commerce between Russia and China is growing rapidly. The Transsiberian railway is its chief northern outlet, and a branch of this road, now under construction, extends through to the leading commercial centres of Manchuria, to Port Arthur. A considerable amount of manufactured goods is sent to Asia Minor and the Iran countries.

The most available ports opening into the Atlantic are on the Baltic Sea, but these are blocked by ice in winter; the best ports are on the Black Sea, but the Russians do not control the navigable waters that connect them with the Atlantic.

Much of the internal trade is carried on by means of annual fairs. The most important of these are held at Nijni, (lower) Novgorod, Kharkof, Kief, and other points. At the first-named fair goods to the amount of $80,000,000 have changed hands during a single season, and the annual fair is the recognized common ground on which the oriental traders meet the buyers of European and American firms.

Unlike the schemes of colonization of other European states, the various possessions of the Czar are practically in a single area, the dependencies being contiguous. The lines between them, with few exceptions, are political rather than natural boundaries.

St. Petersburg, the capital, is the centre of finance and trade. Riga is the port from which most of the lumber is exported; it receives the coal purchased from Great Britain for the factories of the Baltic coast. The harbor of Riga is not greatly obstructed by ice. Archangel has an export trade of lumber and flax during the few months when the White Sea is free from ice. Odessa and Rostof are the grain-markets of the empire. Astrakhan is the centre of trade for the Iran countries, and Baku is the petroleum-market. Moscow is the chief focal point of the railways; and in consequence has become a great centre of manufacture and trade. Warsaw, next to Moscow, is the most important city.

Siberia.—This great territory resembles Russia in surface and climatic features. Like the former "west" of the United States, Siberia is the open "east" into which much of the surplus population of Russia, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries is moving, attracted by fine farming lands. The European emigrant becomes a producer when settled in Siberia, and, at the same time, a consumer of Russian manufactures. In five years more than one million people thus became occupants of the new country in Siberia. Russian trade is encouraged by a heavy tariff on foreign goods brought into Siberia.

Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Semipalatinsk are collecting stations for Siberian products, and each is built on navigable waters. Irkutsk receives the caravan trade that goes from Peking through Urga and Kiakhta, the frontier post of Chinese trade. Vladivostok is the great Pacific outlet and the terminus of the Transsiberian Railway. It is ice-bound in winter. Harbin, in Manchuria, China, is a Russian trading post of great commercial importance.

Bokhara and Khiva are Russian vassal states. The former was acquired chiefly as a trade-route. A railway from Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea extends through Merv, Bokhara, and Samarkand to Kashgar, where it meets the caravan trade from central China. The building of this railway has caused a great development of cotton-growing in these countries, which furnish Europe and America with the choice Afghan, Khiva, and Bokhara rugs.

Transcaucasia, now joined to Russia, is a part of the plateau of Iran. A railway extends across the country from Batum to Baku, connecting the Black and Caspian Seas. Transcaucasia is the petroleum region of the East. It is also noted for the Shirvan, Kabistan, Daghestan, and Kazak rugs which are sold all over Europe and America. The so-called "Cashmere" rugs are not a product of Kashmir, but are made in the town of Shemaka. Kabistan rugs are made in Kuba. Kazak fabrics are usually the sleeping-blankets of the Kazak (Cossack) rough-riders.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

How will the development of the coal, iron, and lumber resources most likely affect the industrial future of Russia?

Discuss the policy of Siberian immigration;—what are its advantages to German colonists?

From the map accompanying this chapter show how the tributary streams of the great rivers have served to extend Russian commerce through Siberia.

Note the situation of the cities and towns of Siberia with reference to the rivers.

What effect has the high latitude of Russia on its agricultural industries?

From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports and imports of Russia by articles, and also the volume of trade with other countries.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the statistics of trade between Russia and the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

Commercial life in Russia—preferably from the article, "Russia," in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

For a rug of the Caucasus type, see illustration, p. 351; compare the Kabistan with the Persian piece—which has the floral and which the geometric figures?



CHAPTER XXX

THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA

The countries of the Iran plateau extend from the Mediterranean Sea to the valley of the Indus River. The Arabian Peninsula is not a part of it, but its climate and general character are similar. The Iran countries are exceedingly rugged, and a great part of their surface is more than a mile above sea-level. The climate is one of great extremes; the summer hot-waves and the winter hurricanes are probably unknown elsewhere in severity. The greater part of Arabia is an unhabitable desert.



The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp upon the population of the region. They are full of the intelligent cunning and ferocity that mark people living under such conditions of environment. In many parts the sterile soil and arid climate force the sparse population into nomadic habits of life and predatory pursuits. For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for the population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the question. The flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and a few of the river-valleys are highly productive.



Before the Christian era several trade-routes between Europe and the Orient lay across this region, and along the caravan routes there were the usual industries pertaining to commercial peoples. The cities of Sinope, Trebizond, Astrabad, Phasis, Mashad, and Bactra (now Balkh) grew into existence along one of the northern routes. Tyre, Nineveh, Tarsus, Palmyra, Babylon, and Persepolis were founded along one or another of the southern routes. Of these, Trebizond only retains its importance, being a seaport with a considerable trade. The commerce that once passed over this route was crushed out of existence during the invasions by Jenghis Khan.



Of the various industries of the Iran plateau, practically but one extends beyond its borders, namely, the manufacture of the textile fabrics known as Oriental rugs. These are unique; they are made of materials, colored with dyes, and are ornamented with designs that cannot be successfully imitated anywhere else in the world. The filling of the rugs consists of fine wool, selected not only from particular localities, but also from certain parts of the fleece. The dye-stuffs are common to other parts of the world, and their names—indigo, saffron, coccus, madder, and orchil—are familiar. But both the wool and the dye-stuffs possess qualities imparted to them by soil and climate that are not found elsewhere.

The absence of floors, and of the furniture found in European dwellings, make the rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The hearth-rug, the bath-mat, the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the saddle-mat must be regarded as necessities. Religion also has its requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes ornamented with the hands of the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment, whether of the nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have their own designs and methods of workmanship, and the rugs of each are easily distinguished.[76]

For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to convenient shipping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is obtained in this manner. As a rule the rugs are named from the town or district in which they are made. Smyrna and Constantinople are the chief ports of shipment. Many of them find their way to European dealers, but New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The great majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice fabrics, however, bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars. Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a weaver frequently spends several years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than ten cents a day. The factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured product.

Turkish Possessions.—Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish possession formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs, however, to only a small part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the commercial people of the greater part of this region, and although thousands have been massacred because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief power because of their business enterprise.

During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from Constantinople and other coast-points to the interior. One of these extended to Mesopotamia, and became a much-travelled route of the trade which centred at Constantinople. Within recent years German capitalists have built railways along these roads, thereby creating a considerable export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.

Angora and Konieh (Iconium) are important marts. Trebizond is the chief port of the Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with the interior. Smyrna is the chief port of the Mediterranean, and from it are shipped to European and American markets the fruit and textile fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in textile manufactures. Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported to Europe through Beirut, its seaport, with which it is connected by rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. Yafa is the port of Jerusalem. Bagdad is the chief trade-centre of Mesopotamia.

Arabia.—Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by Arab traders, are shipped from the port of Hodeida. Mecca is the yearly meeting-place of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty; it is also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. Aden, the chief coaling-station of the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also a free port, having a considerable trade in American cotton and coal-oil.

Although Arabia itself is practically of no commercial importance, the same cannot be said of the Arabic people. They are keen, thrifty traders, and as brutal in their instincts as they are keen. The commerce which connects the western part of Asia with Europe is largely of their making. They collect and transport the goods from the interior, delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater part of the commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is wholly in their hands, is very largely the key to the situation. A party of slave-dealers makes an attack upon a village and, after massacring all who are not able-bodied, load the rest with the goods to be transported to the coast.

Persia.—Persia is the modernized name of the province now called Fars, or Farsistan. Within its borders, however, the name Persia is almost unknown; the native people call the country Iran. In the times of Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius, Persia was one of the great powers of the world. The cultivable lands produced an abundance of food-stuffs. The mines of copper, lead, silver, and iron were worked to their utmost extent, and the chief trade-routes between Europe and the Orient crossed the country to the Indus River.

The conquest by Alexander the Great changed the course of trade and diverted it to other routes, thus depriving the country of much of its revenue; the invasions of the Arabs left the empire a hopeless wreck. Iran blood dominates the country at the present time, it is true, but the religion of Islam does not encourage any material development, and the industries are now purely local. There is no organization of trade, nor any system of transportation except by means of wretched wagon-roads with innumerable toll-gates. "Turkish" tobacco, opium, and small fruits are grown for export; silk and wool, however, are the most important crops. The former is manufactured into brocaded textiles; the latter into rugs and carpets. There are famous pearl-fisheries in the Persian Gulf.

Tabriz, situated in the midst of an agricultural region, has important manufactures of shawls and silk fabrics of world renown. The Tabriz rugs are regarded as among the finest of the rug-maker's art. Shiraz, the former capital, Kermanshah,[77] and Hamadan are noted for rug and carpet manufactures. Mashad is the centre of the trade with Russia. Bushire and Bender-Abbas are seaports, but have no great importance. Most of the trade with Russia passes through the port of Trebizond.

Afghanistan.—The nomadic tribes that inhabit Afghanistan have but little in common with the British civilization that is slowly but surely closing in upon them, and driving them from routes of commerce. A considerable local traffic is carried on between Bokhara and Herat, and between Bokhara and Kabul through Balkh, all being fairly prosperous centres of population in regions made productive by irrigation.

By far the most important route lies between Kabul and Peshawur, at the head of the Indus River. A railway, the Sind-Pishin, extends along the valley of this river from Karachi, a port of British India, to Peshawur, also in British India near the Afghan border, and the route lies thence through Khaibar Pass to Jelalabad and Kabul. A branch of this road is completed through Bolan Pass nearly to Kandahar.

Kabul, the capital, is a military stronghold rather than a business centre, although it is a collection depot for the Khiva-Bokhara rugs and carpets that are marketed at Peshawur. Kandahar has a growing trade resulting from the railway of the Indus Valley. Herat is the market of the famous Herati rugs. There is no organized commercial system; a small amount of British manufactures—mainly stuffs for domestic use—are imported; rugs and dried fruit are the only exports to Europe and America. The imports enter mainly by way of Karachi, India; the exports are carried to Europe, for the greater part, by the Russian railway.

The importance of Afghanistan is due to its position as a buffer state between Russia and British India. The various strategic points for years, therefore, have been military strongholds. There is an old saying: "Whoso would be master of India must first make himself lord of Kabul." The meaning of this is seen in the history of Khaibar Pass, which for many years has been a scene of slaughter; indeed, it has been the chief gateway between occidental and oriental civilizations for more than twenty centuries. Since the acquisition of India by Great Britain Afghanistan has been under British protectoracy.

Baluchistan.—The general features of Baluchistan resemble those of the other parts of the Iran plateau. The coast has no harbors in the proper sense, but the anchorage off Gwador has fair protection from storms and heavy winds. The few valleys produce enough food-stuffs for the half-savage population. There is but little organization to the government save that which is military in character. The state is a protectorate of Great Britain.

Rug-making is the only industry that connects Baluchistan with the rest of the world. Quetta, the largest town, is a military station controlling Bolan Pass. Its outlet is the Kandahar branch of the Sind-Pishin Railway.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What climatic factors prevent these countries from being regions of great production?

How do climate and soil affect the character of the wool clip?

How do Arabian horses compare with American thorough-bred stock with respect to usefulness?—how do they compare with the mustang stock?

Why is Khaibar Pass regarded as the key to India?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

From a cyclopaedia (or from McCarthy's History of Our Own Times) read an account of the British disaster at Kabul.

Study, if possible, one or more rugs of the following kinds, noting the colors, designs, and warp of each: Bokhara (antique and modern), Anatolian, Kermanshah, and Baluchistan.



CHAPTER XXXI

BRITISH INDIA AND THE EAST INDIES

These countries are in tropical latitudes and in the main are regions of great productivity. A few native states that have resisted annexation and conquest excepted, almost the entire area is divided among Great Britain, Holland, and France.



British India.—The Empire of India comprises an area half as large as the United States, situated on the southern slope of Asia. It covers the same latitude as the span between the Venezuelan coast and the Ohio River; from the Indus to the Siam frontier the distance is about two thousand miles. It includes also settlements in the Malay peninsula.

Excepting the plateau of the Dekkan, and the slopes of the Himalayan ranges, most of the surface consists of plains and low, rolling land covered with a great depth of soil. Through these rich lands flow four large rivers—the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irawadi, which afford a great deal of internal communication. The Himalaya Mountains on the north and the Hindu Kush on the northwest practically shut off communication from the northward, so that all communication in this direction is concentrated at Khaibar and Bolan Passes, the most important gateways by land approach.

British India is one of the most populous regions of the world; the average population per square mile is about one hundred and eighty, a density considerably greater than that of New York State. The entire population is about three times that of the United States. Nearly all the food-stuffs grown are required for home consumption; indeed, dry years are apt to be followed by a shortage of food-stuffs. Years ago famines followed any considerable deficiency of crops, but since the completion of the admirable railway systems the necessary food-stuffs are quickly shipped to the district where the shortage occurs.

The Hindus constitute about three-fourths of the population. Along the northern border there are many peoples of Afghan and Turkic descent; in Burma there is a considerable admixture of Mongol blood. An elaborate system of social castes imposed by the teachings of Brahmanism has made the introduction of western methods of education and civilization somewhat difficult to carry out. The educational system of the dominating Brahmanic caste, although of a very high order, does not fit the people to cope with the commercialism of western civilization.

Five-sevenths of the population are engaged in agricultural labor. Rice, wheat, millet, meat, and sugar are the chief food-crops. Of these, rice and wheat[78] only are exported; the others are required for home consumption.

The articles grown for export are jute, cotton, opium, oil-yielding seeds, tea, and opium. No meat is exported, but hides form a large item of foreign trade.

The jute is used in the manufacture of rugs and grain-sacks. It is cultivated mainly in the delta-lands of the Ganges-Brahmaputra. A considerable part of the product is now manufactured in India and in China; some is also shipped to California, to be made into wheat-sacks; perhaps the larger part is sent to Dundee, Scotland, where it is woven into textile fabrics. The choicest product is used to mix with silk fibre, or is employed in the manufacture of rugs and coverings.

Cotton cultivation is rapidly taking first rank among the industries of India, for which the conditions of soil, climate, and market are admirably adapted. India stands second in cotton-growing, and the area of production is gradually increasing. Most of the crop is exported to Europe for manufacture, although there is an increasing amount sold to Japan. Great Britain is the largest purchaser, and the cotton goods manufactured at Manchester are reshipped in large quantities to India.

Owing to the low wages paid for labor both in the fields and the mills, cotton manufacture is a rapidly growing industry in India. In many cases the yarn is manufactured in India and then sent to China to be made into coarse cloth. Some of the mills are equipped with machinery made in the United States.

Tea has become one of the most important crops of India. It is grown mainly in Ceylon and Assam, and is said to have grown wild in the latter state. The quality of Indian tea is regarded as superior to the Chinese product, and Indian teas have therefore very largely supplanted those of China, in British consumption.

Silk cultivation and manufacture have been growing rapidly in the past few years; a considerable part of the product is "tussar," or wild silk. The silk rugs of India are not equalled anywhere else in the world. Wool is a product of the mountain-regions, but is almost wholly used in the manufacture of rugs and coverings.

The British occupation of India is commercial rather than political. India furnishes a most valuable market for British manufactures; it supplies the British people with a large amount of raw material for manufacture. The general government is administrative only so far as the construction of railways, irrigating canals, and harbors, and the organization of financial affairs are concerned.

There are about two hundred and fifty native states included within the territory of British India. In addition to the native ruler, a British governor or magistrate carries out the administrative features of the British Government. For administrative purposes most of the native states are grouped into eight provinces, or "presidencies."

Bengal.—The states of Bengal, mainly in the valley of the Ganges River, produce most of the rice and wheat. Calcutta, the capital of the empire, is a comparatively young city. The Hugli at this point is navigable both for ocean and river craft. The situation of the city is much like that of New York, and it is therefore finely adapted for commerce. Railways extending from the various food-producing districts and from other centres of commerce converge at Calcutta. The city is not only the centre of administration, but the chief focus of commerce and finance as well.

Bombay.—Bombay includes a number of states bordering on the Arabian Sea. The city of Bombay is built on an island of the same name. Its situation on the west coast makes it the most convenient port for the European trade that passes through the Suez Canal. The opening of the route gave Bombay a tremendous growth, and it is destined to become a great commercial factor in Indian Ocean trade. It is also a great manufacturing centre for cotton textiles. Ahmedabad, an important military station, is also an important centre of cotton manufacture and wheat-trade.

Sind.—The native state Sind includes the greater part of the basin of the Indus. Its importance is military and strategic rather than commercial. The ability of Great Britain to hold India depends very largely on British control of the Indus Valley and the passes leading from it. The Sind-Pishin Railway traverses the Indus Valley from Karachi to Peshawur. Haidarabad, one of the largest cities of India, is the centre of an agricultural district. Karachi, the port near the mouth of the Indus, next to Khaibar Pass, is the most important strategic point of India, and one that the Russians for more than a century have been trying to possess.

Punjab.—The states of the Punjab are mainly at the upper part of the Indus. Amritsar is an important centre for the manufacture of silk rugs and carpets. A large number of these are sold in the United States at prices varying from two hundred to six thousand dollars. The designs for these textiles are often made in New York. Peshawur is important chiefly as a military station.

Burma.—British Burma includes the basin of the Irawadi River. The uplands are wheat-fields; the lowlands produce rice. Mandalay is a river-port and commercial centre. Rangoon is the seaport, with a considerable ship-building industry that results from the teak forests. Although the Irawadi is navigable for light craft, railways along the valley have become a necessity; these centre at Rangoon.

The province of Madras is one of the most densely peopled parts of India. The chief commercial products are cotton and teak-wood. Madras, its commercial centre, has a very heavy foreign trade in hides, spices, and cotton. The cotton manufactures are extensive. A yarn-dyed cotton cloth, now imitated both in Europe and the United States, has made the name famous.

Kashmir.—The native state Kashmir, situated high on the slopes of the Karakorum Mountains, is known chiefly for the "Cashmere" shawls made there. The shawls are hand-woven and represent the highest style of the weaver's art. The best require many years each in the making; they command prices varying from five hundred to five thousand dollars. This industry centres at Srinagar.

Other British States.—The Straits Settlements are so called because they face the Straits of Malacca. They include several colonies, chief of which are Singapore, Penang, and Malacca. The Straits ports are free from export and import duties, a regulation designed to encourage the concentration of Malaysian products there—in other words, to encourage a transit trade.

The policy has proved a wise one, and the trade at the three ports—Singapore, Penang, and Malacca—aggregates about six hundred million dollars yearly. About two-thirds of this sum represents the business of Singapore. Tin constitutes about half the exports, a large share going to the United States. Spices, rubber, gutta-percha, tapioca, and rattan constitute the remaining trade. Rice, cotton cloth, and opium are the imports.

The Federated Malay States, situated in the Malay peninsula, and the northern part of Borneo are also British possessions. Their trade and products are similar to the rest of the Malaysian possessions.

Dutch East India.—The Dutch possessions include nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago and the western part of New Guinea. Of these, Java and Sumatra are the most important. They are divided into "residencies," and the administering officers exercise control over the various plantations. In addition, there are numerous private plantations. The colonial administration is admirable.

Cane-sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco, and tea are the chief products. The sugar industry has been somewhat crippled by the beet-sugar product of Europe. Java and Sumatra coffees are in demand all over Europe and the United States. Sumatra wrappers for cigars find also a ready market wherever cigars are manufactured. The cultivation of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, has proved successful, and this substance is becoming an important export. The islands of Banka and Billiton (with Riouw) yield a very large part of the world's supply of tin, much of which goes finally to the United States. The mother-country profits by the trade of these islands in two ways: the Dutch merchants are practically middlemen who create and manage the commerce; the Dutch Government receives an import tax of six per cent., and a small export tax on nearly all articles except sugar. Batavia is the focal point of the commerce.

Siam.—This kingdom is chiefly important as a buffer state between French and British India, and little by little has been pared by these nations until practically nothing but the basin of the Menam River remains. The administration of the state is progressive, and much of the resources have been developed in the last few years.

Rice and teak are the leading products. The rice is cultivated by native laborers—much of it by enforced labor—and is sold to Hongkong, British India, and the more northerly states. It is collected by Chinese middlemen, and by them sold to British and German exporters. The teak-wood business is managed by British firms. The logs are cut by natives, hauled to the Menam River, and floated to Bangkok; there they are squared and sent to European markets. Pepper and preserved fish are also exported. The Menam River is the chief trade-route, and Bangkok, at its mouth, is the focal point of trade.

French India.—The French control the region south of China, called French Indo-China, together with various areas in the peninsula of Hindustan; of these Pondicheri and Karical are the most important. Indo-China includes the basin of Mekong River, and rice is the staple product. The most productive rice-fields are the delta-lands of the Mekong, formerly known as Cochin-China.

From these lands more than half a million tons of rice are exported, the product being sold mainly at Hongkong and Singapore. Pepper is also an export of considerable value. France, China, and the Philippine Islands are the final destination of the rice export. The imports are mainly textiles, machinery, and coal-oil from the United States. The machinery pertains chiefly to the manufactures of cotton and silk textiles. On account of cheaply mined coal, there is a considerable growth of this industry. Saigon is the business centre and port at which the Chinese middlemen meet the European merchants and forwarders.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What have been the chief effects of the British occupation of these countries, so far as the natives are concerned?

What is the position of Khaibar Pass with respect to the commerce of India?

How has the building of the Sind-Pishin Railway strengthened British occupation of India?

Singapore and Batavia are the two great focal points of trade in the East India Islands. At the former all trade is absolutely free; at the latter there is both an import and an export tax. What are the advantages of each policy?

From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of the United States with these countries.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

From a cyclopaedia, preferably the Encyclopaedia Britannica, read the following topics:

Caste Lord Clive Rattan Pepper



CHAPTER XXXII

CHINA AND JAPAN

The relative position of China, Russia, and Japan is not unlike that of continental Europe and Great Britain, and the struggle for supremacy in the Japan and Yellow Seas is about the same as that which in times past took place in the North Sea. In the latter case France and Holland were the disturbing powers; in the former, it is Russia.

The Chinese Empire.—A comparison of the Chinese Empire with the United States shows that the two countries have about the same position and extent of latitude. There is also about the same proportion of highlands, arid lands, and fertile lowlands. The similarity of the two countries in geographic conditions is very marked.

The fertile lowland in the east and southeast is one of the most productive regions in the world, and forms the chief resource of the country; on account of its productivity it is densely peopled. The arid and mountain lands are peopled mainly by cattle-herders and nomadic tribes.

China is essentially an agricultural country, and the farms are held in much the same way as in the United States, but the holdings are so small that agricultural machinery is not required for their cultivation.

Wheat, millet, and pease are grown throughout the lowlands wherever they can be cultivated. The cultivation of rice is confined mainly to the coast lowlands. The amount of food-stuffs produced, however, is scarcely sufficient for home consumption; indeed, a considerable amount is imported, and the imports year by year are increasing. This is due not so much to the density of population as to want of means of transportation of the soil products from inland regions. It is often much cheaper to import food-stuffs from abroad than to transport them, even from an adjoining province.

Tea is extensively cultivated, and China exports nearly one-half of the world's product; the total amount produced is considerably more than half. Most of this goes to Great Britain and Canada. Raw silk is an important product, and the mulberry-tree is extensively grown. Cotton is one of the most general crops in the southern part of the empire, especially along the lower Yangtze. It is a garden-crop, however, and nearly all of it is consumed.

The mineral wealth is very great, and with proper management will make China one of the most productive and powerful countries in the world. Coal is found in every one of the provinces, and the city of Peking is supplied with an excellent quality of anthracite from the Fang-shan mines, only a few miles distant. It is thought that the coal-fields are the most extensive in the world. Iron ore of excellent quality is abundant, and in several localities, notably in the province of Shansi, the two are near each other.

Foreign capitalists are seeking to develop these resources in several localities. The Germans have obtained mining concessions in Shantung peninsula, and these involve the iron ore and coal occurring there. The Peking syndicate, a London company, has also obtained a coal-mining concession in Shansi.



For the greater part the manufactures are home industries.[79] Until recently most of the cotton cloth was made by means of cottage looms, and the beautiful silk brocades which are not surpassed anywhere else in the world are still made in this manner. Porcelain-making is one of the oldest industries, and to this day the wares sold in Europe and America are known as "china." Straw carpet, or matting, and fans for export are also important exports.

The mill system of manufacture is rapidly gaining ground, however, and foreign companies find it economical to carry the yarn made in India from American cotton into China to be made into cloth. In the vicinity of Shanghai alone there are nearly three hundred thousand spindles. This phase of the industry is due largely to the factor of cheap labor; the Chinese skilled laborer is intelligent; he does not object to a sixteen-hour working-day at wages varying from five to twenty cents.

There is no great localization of industrial centres, as in the United States and Europe. Each centre of population is practically self-supporting and independent from an economic stand-point. The introduction of western methods, however, is gradually changing this feature.

All industries of a general character are hampered for want of good means of transportation. The empire is traversed by a network of unpaved roads; but although these are always in a wretched condition, an enormous traffic is carried over them by means of wheel-barrows, pack-animals, and by equally primitive methods.

The numerous rivers form an important means of communication. The Yangtze is now available to commerce a distance of 2,000 miles, and the opening of the Si Kiang (West River) adds a large area that is commercially tributary to Canton and Hongkong. The most important water-way is the Grand Canal, extending from Hang Chow to Tientsin. This canal is by no means a good one as compared with American and European standards. It was built not so much for the necessities of traffic, as to avoid the numerous pirate vessels that infest the coasts. Junks, row-boats, house-boats, and foreign steam craft are all employed for traffic. The internal water-ways aggregate about fifteen thousand miles in length.



Of railways there were less than three hundred and fifty miles at the close of the century, the most important being the line from Tientsin to Peking. About five thousand miles are projected and under construction by American and European companies. A branch of the Transsiberian railway is under construction to Port Arthur. Telegraph and telephone lines have become popular and have been extended to the interior a considerable distance. There are upward of twenty thousand miles of wire communication, the most important, in many respects, being a direct overland line between Peking and European cities. Inasmuch as there are no letters in the Chinese language, the difficulties in using the Morse code of telegraphy are very great. In some cases the messages are translated into a foreign language before they are transmitted; in others, a thousand or more words in colloquial and commercial use are numbered, and the number is telegraphed instead of the word.

Most of the business between the natives and foreigners is carried on by means of middlemen, or "compradors," and these include both the commission merchants and the native bankers. They are intelligent, thrifty, and trustworthy. They are the most capable merchants in Asia, and have few if any superiors among the merchants of western nations. A very large part of the retail trade of the Philippine Islands is carried on by Chinese merchants.

The Chinese Empire consists of China and the five dependencies, as shown in the following table:

- - - CAPITAL OR STATE POPULATION CHIEF TOWN - - - China proper 380,000,000 Peking Manchuria 7,500,000 Kirin Tibet 6,000,000 Lassa Mongolia 2,000,000 Urga Jungaria 600,000 Kur-kara-usu Eastern Turkestan 600,000 Yarkand - -

The five dependencies are mainly arid, unproductive, and sparsely peopled. Their chief importance consists in the fact that they are "buffer states" between China proper and European states. They produce little except meat, wool, and live-stock.

China proper is divided into provinces, each governed by a viceroy appointed by the throne. All business with foreign powers is transacted through a Foreign Office, the Wai-wu-pu (formerly the Tsung-li-Yamen). The government business is managed by a Grand Council whose members are advisers to the throne. The government is controlled mainly by Manchu officials.



Until within a few years China nominally allowed no foreign traders within her borders; recently, however, about forty cities, commonly known as "treaty ports," have been opened to the trade of foreign countries. Goods going inland any distance are required to pay a "liken" or internal tariff at the border of each province.

Several concessions of territory within recent years have been forced from China by foreign powers: thus, Great Britain has Hongkong Island (with the peninsula of Kaulung) and Weihaiwei; Germany has Kiaochou on the bay of the same name; France has Kwang chau wan harbor. These concessions carry with them the control of the port and surrounding territory. The German concession includes the right to mine coal and iron, and to build railways within a territory of much larger extent. At the close of the war between Russia and Japan, the latter acquired Port Arthur, the gateway to Manchuria.

Whatever may be the political significance of the opening of the treaty ports and the granting of the various concessions, the effect has been to increase the trade of the United States with China about twenty-fold. The imports from the United States consist mainly of cotton and cotton cloth, coal-oil, and flour. The chief exports to all countries are tea, silk goods, and porcelain ware. Most of those sent to the United States are landed at Seattle or San Francisco. Great Britain, through the port of Hongkong, has a larger trade than any other nation. Japan and the United States have most of the remaining trade.

Peking, the capital, is politically, but not commercially, important. The part occupied by the foreign legations is modern and well kept. Tientsin, the port of Peking, is a larger city, with much more business. Canton, the largest city of the empire, and Hongkong, are the commercial centres of nearly all the British trade. Most of the American and Japanese trade centres at Shanghai. Niuchwang, on the Manchurian frontier, is important mainly as a strategic point. Macao, a Portuguese possession, is the open door of Portugal into China.

The inland divisions of the Chinese Empire have but little commercial importance. Musk, wool, and skins are obtained from Tibet, into whose capital, Lassa, scarcely half-a-dozen Europeans have penetrated. The closed condition is due to the opposition of the Lamas, an order of Buddhist priests. Mongolia is a grazing region that supplies the Chinese border country with goats, sheep, and horses. It also supplies the camels required for the caravan tea-trade to the Russian frontiers. Eastern Turkestan is mainly a desert. Kashgar, the metropolis of the fertile portion, is the exchange market for Chinese and Russian products. Most of the mineral known as jade is obtained there. Manchuria is a grazing and wheat-growing country, exporting food stuffs and ginseng into China. Harbin, a Russian trading post, is connected with Peking and with European cities by railway.



Korea, formerly a vassal of China, became an independent state after the war between China and Japan, this step being forced by Russia. The country is a natural market for Japanese manufactures, and in turn supplies Japan with a considerable amount of food-stuffs. Chemulpo is the chief centre of its commerce.

Japan.—Japan is an insular empire, the commercial part of which has about the same latitude as the Atlantic coast of the United States; the empire extends from Formosa to Kamchatka. It is sometimes called the "Great Britain of the East," and the people are also called the "Yankees of the East." Structurally, the chain of islands consists of ranges of volcanic mountains. The abundant rains, however, have made many fertile river-valleys, and have fringed most of the islands with coast-plains.

Since the opening of Japan to foreigners the Japanese have so thoroughly adapted themselves to western commercial methods that they have become the dominating power in eastern Asia. Their influence has been greatly strengthened by a treaty for defensive purposes with Great Britain. A most excellent army and a modern navy make the alliance a strong one. The Japanese are better adapted to mould the commercial policy of China than any other people.

With a population of more than half that of the United States, occupying an area not larger than the State of California, every square foot of available land must be cultivated. Yet the Japanese not only grow most of the food-stuffs they consume, but are able to export rice. There is scant facility for growing beef cattle, but fish very largely takes the place of beef. The cattle grown are used as draught-animals in farm labor. Ordinary dairy products are but little used.

Rice, tea, and silk are the staple crops. Rice is grown on the coast lowlands, the west or rainy side[80] producing the larger crop. The Japanese crop is so superior that the larger part is exported, while an inferior Chinese grain is imported for home consumption. The quality of the Japanese rice is due to skilful cultivation.



Tea has become the staple crop, and is cultivated from Formosa to the forty-fifth parallel. Tea-farms occupy nearly every acre of the cultivable hill-side areas in some of the islands, and the soil is enriched with a fertilizer made from fish and fish refuse, dried and broken. Most of the tea product is made into green tea, and on account of its quality it commands a high price. Formosa tea is considered the best in the market.

Silk culture is confined almost wholly to the island of Hondo. The raw silk is of superior quality, and the exported material is used mainly in the manufacture of ribbons and brocades. A limited amount of cotton is grown, but the staple is short, and its cultivation is not profitable except in a few localities.

Among the forestry there is comparatively little timber suitable for building purposes, and a considerable amount of timber is purchased from the mills of Puget Sound. Bamboo is largely employed for buildings. Camphor is the product of a tree (Camphora officinarum) allied to the cinnamon and the sassafras. It is cultivated in the island of Kiushiu. The best gum, however, is now obtained from Formosa, and this island now controls the world's supply. The camphor product is a government monopoly leased to a British company.

The lacquer-tree (Rhus vernicifera) grows mainly in the island of Hondo. The sap, after preparation, forms the most durable varnish known. Black lacquer is obtained by treating the sap with nutgalls. Lacquered wooden-ware is sold all over Europe and the United States. The lacquered surface is exceedingly hard and water-proof; it is not affected by climate.

Gold, porcelain clay, silver, copper, and petroleum are mined. The gold and silver are used both for coinage and in the arts; the clay has made Japanese porcelains famous. The copper comes from the most productive mines of Asia; a considerable amount is exported, but much is used in the manufacture of Japanese bronze goods. Coal is mined, and this has given a great impetus to manufacture; iron ore is deficient, and steel must be imported. The quantity of petroleum is increasing yearly, and is becoming an important factor in the world's product.

Manufacturing industries are giving shape to the industrial future of the country. The cotton-mills alone employ seventy thousand people and keep more than one million spindles busy. More than one million operatives are engaged in textile manufactures. Much of the cloth, both cotton and silk, is still woven on cottage looms. The cotton cloth is sold mainly in China and Korea; the surplus silk textiles find a ready market in the United States. The best straw matting used as a floor-covering is now made in Japan and constitutes a very important export.

Three thousand miles of railway aid the internal industries of the country; several steamship lines to Hongkong and Shanghai, and one or more each to Vladivostok, Bombay, San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, Australia, and Vancouver (B.C.) carry the tea, raw silk, and manufactured products to Europe and America. Much, if not most, of the steamship interests are owned by the Japanese, and the lines are encouraged by government subsidies. France and the United States buy most of the raw silk. The latter country purchases most of the tea, sending coal-oil, cotton, leather, and lumber in return. Great Britain and Germany sell to the Japanese a large part of the textiles and the machinery they use. The exports to the United States are consigned mainly to San Francisco, New York and Seattle.

Tokio is the capital; Yokohama is the chief port for American traffic, and the market for most of the foreign trade. Most of the trade between China and Japan centres at Nagasaki, which is the Japanese naval station. Osaka and Kioto are the chief centres of cotton and textile manufactures.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

How has the policy of seclusion affected the commercial development of China?

What has been its effect on the social life of the people?

How did the cultivation of opium in India become a factor in the opening of China to foreign trade?

What is meant by "treaty ports"? Make a list of those shown on the map of eastern China.

Name two Chinese statesmen who have been factors in the relations between China and the United States.

Compare the position of Japan with that of the British Isles with reference to commerce.

What advantages has Japan with reference to latitude?—what disadvantages with reference to cultivable lands?

From the Statesman's Year-Book find the leading exports and imports and the volume of trade of these states.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the leading articles of trade between these states and the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

From a cyclopaedia read the following topics: The opium war, Commodore Perry's expedition.



CHAPTER XXXIII

AFRICA

Africa is in a state of commercial transition. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the partition of its area among European nations left but few of the names that formerly were familiar. At the beginning of the twentieth century the British, French, and Germans controlled the greater part of the continent, although the Portuguese, Belgians, Italians, and Spanish have various possessions.

The partition of Africa was designed for the expansion of European markets. The population of Africa is about one hundred and seventy million, and the continent is practically without manufacturing enterprises. The people, therefore, must be supplied with clothing and other commodities. In 1900 the total trade of Africa with the rest of the world was about one and one-third billion dollars, of which the United States had a little more than two per cent., mainly cotton cloth and coal-oil.

Egypt.—The Egypt of the maps is a region of indefinite extent so far as its western and southern boundaries are concerned; the Egypt of history is the flood plain of the Nile. From the Mediterranean Sea to Cairo the cultivable area is not far from one hundred miles in width; from Cairo to Khartum it varies from three to seven or eight miles wide.



The food-producing power of Egypt depends on the Nile. In lower Egypt a considerable area is made productive at the ordinary stage of water by means of irrigating canals, but in upper Egypt the crops must depend upon the annual flood of the river, which occurs from June until September. During this period the river varies from twenty-five to forty feet above the low-water mark. In the irrigated regions three crops a year may be produced; in the flooded lands only one is grown.

In order to add to the cultivable area two great engineering works have been constructed. A barrage and lock control the flow of water at Assiut; a huge dam at Assuan impounds the surplus of the flood season. These structures, it is thought, will increase the productive power of the country about one-fourth. Rice, maize (an Egyptian variety), sugar, wheat, and beans are the staple crops.

Rice is the food of the native people, but the crop is insufficient, and the deficit must be imported. The wheat, maize, and beans are grown for export to Europe, the last named being extensively used for horse-fodder. The sugar-growing industry is protected by the heavy yield and the cheap fellahin labor. The raw sugar is sent to the refineries along the Mediterranean. Onions are exported to the United States.

The cotton-crop is an important factor, and in spite of its own crop the United States is a heavy purchaser of the long-staple Egyptian cotton, which is used in the manufacture of thread and hosiery. The cultivation of tobacco is forbidden by law, but Egyptian cigarettes are an item of considerable importance. They are made of imported Turkish tobacco by foreign workmen. There is a heavy export duty on native tobacco exported, and the ban on the inferior native-grown article is intended to prevent its admixture with the high-grade product from Turkey, and thereby to keep up the standard of the cigarettes.

Egypt is nominally a vassal of Turkey, paying to the Sultan a yearly tribute of $3,600,000. Great Britain's is the real controlling hand, because the Suez Canal is Great Britain's gateway to India. By a purchase of the stock held by a former Khedive, Great Britain secured financial control of the canal, a necessary step from the fact that more than half the trade carried through the canal is British commerce.

The country is deficient in the resources that make most nations powerful. There is neither coal, iron, nor timber available, and these must be imported. Great Britain supplies the first, and Norway the last. Some traffic is carried on the Nile, but railways have been built through the crop-lands. One of these threads the Nile Valley and will become a part of the "Cape to Cairo" route.

Alexandria is the port at which most of the Egyptian commerce lands. Cairo, the largest city of Africa, derives its importance from its position at the head of the Nile delta. It is a favorite winter-resort. Port Said and Suez are the terminal ports of the Suez Canal; their commerce is mainly the transit trade of the canal.

Other Independent States.—Most of the independent states of Africa are in a condition of barbarism and have but little importance to the rest of the world. Abyssinia has the natural advantages of gold, iron, pasture-lands, and forestry, and the possibilities of cotton cultivation. Valuable mining concessions have been granted to foreign companies. Ivory, coffee, and gold are shipped to India in exchange for textiles. A railway from the coast is under construction, but all the traffic is carried by mule-trains, mainly to Harrar.

Morocco has an admirable strategic position at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, and is most likely, in time, to become a possession of Spain. There are exported, mainly to Great Britain, beans, almonds, goat-skins, and wool. The goat-skins are sumac-tanned and are still used in making the best book-binding leather. Only a small part of the so-called Morocco leather of commerce is genuine. There are no railways; caravan routes from the Sahara cross the country. Tangier and one or two other ports are open to foreign trade. Coal-oil is the only import from the United States.

The state of Liberia was established for the benefit of freed slaves from the United States. The products are those of tropical Africa, including caoutchouc. Coffee cultivation is extensively carried on, and coffee is the leading export. Monrovia is the chief centre of trade.

North African Possessions.—French influence is paramount in northern Africa. Algeria and Tunis are both French colonies, and the caravan trade of the Sahara is generally tributary to French trade. The region known as the Tell, a strip between the coast and the Atlas Mountains, is the chief agricultural region, and the products are similar to those on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The ordinary grains are grown for home consumption, but the macaroni wheat crop is manufactured into macaroni paste for export. The fruit-crop, especially the olive, date, and grape, and their products, is exported.

Esparto grass, for making paper, was formerly an important export, but the increasing use of wood-pulp for this purpose has had the effect of increasing the grazing area, and therefore the wool-crop. Date-palms grow in great profusion, and the excess forms an important export, going to nearly every part of Europe and the United States. A large part of the crop, however, is consumed by the Arabs. Sumac-tanned goat-skins, for book-binding leather, are also exported.

The colonies must import coal. Manufactures are therefore restricted to the preparation of the fruit and food products. Sponges are an important product. Railways provide the necessary transportation for the crops. Algiers, the metropolis, is a finely built city and a favorite winter-resort. Oran is the shipping-port for grain and esparto grass. Biskra is the market for dates.

The caravan trade of northern Africa is considerable, and the greater part converges at Tripoli, to which not far from ten thousand camel-loads of merchandise are brought annually. This trade is carried on mainly by the Arabs, who cover the region from Timbuctu to Lake Chad. They bring ivory, ostrich feathers, gold, goat-skins, and slaves. In return they carry cloth, fire-arms, ammunition, and various commodities to the negro villages of the Sudan. The district is a possession of Turkey. Its chief exports are esparto grass, sponges, and dye-stuffs.

Central Africa.—Central Africa is divided among the chief European powers. Great Britain and Germany divide the lake-region and the Zanzibar coast. On the Guinea coast the French are an additional factor. The trade of these regions consists of an exchange of tropical products—palm-oil, rubber, ebony, camwood, ivory, and hides—for cloth, tobacco, fire-arms, beads and trinkets, and preserved foods. Most of this trade is carried on by companies holding royal charters.

The Kongo State is a semi-official corporation of this character, the King of the Belgians being its chief executive officer. The active administration is carried on by agents of the company. The chief of each tribe or village is required, under penalty, to furnish a certain quota of crude rubber and other products; and between the agent and the Arab slave-driver the natives have little to choose.

The Kongo River is the outlet of the state, and to facilitate the transportation of the products, railways have been built, or are under construction, around the rapids. This region is about the only remaining source of elephant ivory, but most of the supply consists of the tusks of animals long since dead. A fleet of steamboats carries the commercial products to the coast. Stanley Pool, at the head of the rapids, is the chief depot for collection. Ocean steamships ascend the river to a point above Boma, the place of administration.

Nigeria and Ashanti are British possessions on the Guinea coast,[81] having a trading company organization. Sierra Leone is an organized colony, a product of which is the kola-nut. British East Africa is important for strategic purposes, inasmuch as it includes the upper Nile basin, a territory sometimes known as the Egyptian Sudan. Akra is the trading port of Nigeria, and Khartum of the upper Nile Valley. Zanzibar is the metropolis of the east coast.

The French possessions include a large territory at the mouth of the Kongo, the western part of the Sahara, and the islands of Madagascar and Reunion. In German East Africa the commercial development has been substantial, and large plantations for the cultivation of tropical products are in operation. A railway from the coast to the lake-district is under construction. Mombasa is its commercial outlet.

The Italians have nominal possession of a territory facing the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and also of the peninsula of Guardafui. Their actual possession, however, is restricted to the island and trading-post of Massawa. Their attempts to conquer Abyssinia have been unsuccessful.

Cape of Good Hope and the South African Colonies.—Up to the time of the Suez Canal, Cape of Good Hope was a sort of half-way house between British ports and India, and this position made it commercially important. Even at the present time more than fifteen hundred vessels, many of them in the Indian Ocean trade, call at the chief port of the colony every year.

Agriculture is the chief industry of these colonies, though not the one yielding the greatest returns. Enough wheat, maize (or "mealies"), and fruit are grown for home consumption, but the climate is too arid for any excess of bread-stuffs. The aridity is a resource, however, in the matter of wool, the superior quality of which is due largely to the deficient rainfall. As a matter of fact the whole country is a great grazing veldt; wool, a very fine quality of Angora mohair, hides, and cattle products are exports.

From December to March the fruits ripen, and these, especially the grapes, are carried in cold-storage vessels to British and other European ports. The wine is likewise of excellent quality and is becoming an export of great value. Both the fruit and the wine are similar to those of Australia and California.

The business of ostrich farming is in the hands of several large companies, and, next to the wool-crop, ostrich plumes are the leading product. There are about a quarter of a million birds, and each produces about one pound of feathers. The ordinary quality of plumes varies from five to ten dollars a pound; very choice plumes command as much as two hundred dollars a pound. London is the chief market for them, but most of them sooner or later find their way to the milliners of the great cities.

The diamond-mines of Griqualand West furnish practically the whole of the world's supply. The mines are operated on a most thorough business system, and the output of rough stones is carefully regulated to meet the demand. All wholesale dealers know the output from year to year, and no more stones are put upon the market than the number required to meet the demand. All the Kimberley mines are now consolidated under one company. The yearly output does not vary much from twenty million dollars' worth of stones. The stones are marketed from Kimberley, but London dealers buy most of them.

The mines that for several years produced more gold than any others in existence are in the Transvaal.[82] Other undeveloped mines in the territory of Rhodesia are known to be extremely rich in precious metals; indeed, there is much evidence that the famous mines of Ophir were in this region. Copper ore is an important export.

The industries of Natal colony do not differ materially from those of Cape of Good Hope. The rainfall is sufficient for the growing of sugar-cane, and sugar is an important export to the mother-country. The colony has productive coal-mines, and these are destined to become an important resource.

The home government has encouraged railway building, and a trunk line through Rhodesia affords an outlet to the ports of the south coast. It is the policy of the mother-country to extend this road along the lake-region and the Nile Valley (known as the "Great Rift") to the Mediterranean Sea. This plan when carried out will give Great Britain a practical control of the trade of eastern Africa. The imports are mainly textiles, machinery, and steel wares.

Cape Town is the most important centre of trade in South Africa. A considerable trade, however, is carried on at Port Elizabeth and at Durban, the port of Natal. Kimberley is the seat of the diamond-mining interests, and Johannesberg of the gold-mines.

Germany and Portugal divide the southwest coast. Walfisch Bay is the outlet of the former. Portuguese East Africa is an outlet for the trade of the Transvaal region, with which it is connected by rail. The port Lourenco Marquez has a fine harbor.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Has the partition of Africa been an advantage or a disadvantage to the native races of the continent?

What advantages will accrue to Great Britain from the Cape to Cairo railway?

Compare the basin of the Kongo with that of the Amazon with respect to climate, products, and civilization.

From Commercial Africa prepare a list of the exports and imports between the United States and the various African countries.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

Statesman's Year-Book.

Commercial Africa—pp. 3679 and following.

From a cyclopaedia read the following topics: Ivory, Suez Canal, Gibraltar, Livingstone, Diamonds, Canary Islands.



CHAPTER XXXIV

OCEANIA

Oceania, the island division of the world, includes Australasia and the great groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the larger islands are regions of great productivity; others are important as coaling-stations; still others have positions of great strategic value.

When it is considered that more than half the people in the world live on the slopes of the Pacific Ocean, and that they depend on the metal-working and manufacturing people of the Atlantic slopes for clothing and commodities, it is apparent that the commerce of the Pacific Ocean must reach enormous proportions.

For this reason the various island groups of Oceania have been acquired by Europeans, and from the moment of their occupation their commercial development began. The great majority of these groups are within the limits of the sago-palm, bread-fruit, cocoanut, and banana, and these yield not only the food-stuffs of the native people, but the export products as well. Copra, or dried cocoanut meat, is the general export. It is marketed in Marseille, London, and San Francisco. Sago is prepared from the pith of a species of palm. Considerable quantities are also exported, and it is used as a table delicacy. The banana is the food-stuff upon which many millions of people must depend. In spite of their small aggregate area, the food-producing power of these islands is very great.[83]

On account of its central position, Honolulu, the capital and chief port of Hawaii, is the most important mid-ocean station of the Pacific. It is almost in the direct line of traffic between the Pacific ports of the United States and Canada on the one hand, and those of Australia, Japan and China on the other. It is also in the route of vessels that may hereafter use the American isthmian canal in going between European and Asian ports.

In the cultivation of export products native Malay labor is almost always employed, inasmuch as Europeans cannot bear out-of-door labor in the tropics. The natives are generally known as "Kanakas," and there is not a little illicit traffic in their labor. Chinese and Japanese coolies are also employed as laborers.

The Commonwealth of Australia.—The commonwealth of Australia consists of the various states of Australia together with Tasmania. Their position corresponds very closely to that of Mexico and Central America, and the climate and products are not unlike. A considerable part of Australia is a desert, and a large area is too arid for the production of bread-stuffs; the eastern coast, however, receives abundant rains.

Australia produces nearly one-third of the wool-clip of the world. On account of the climate, the quality of the wool, much of it merino, is excellent. More than half the clip comes from New South Wales. Two-thirds of the wool goes to Great Britain to be manufactured; nearly all the rest is purchased by France, Germany, and Belgium. Less than two per cent. is sold to the United States.

Since the introduction of cold-storage plants in steamships, Australia has become a heavy exporter of meat. Areas long unproductive are now cattle-ranges; mutton constitutes the heaviest shipment. Inasmuch as the transportation is almost wholly by water, the cost is very light, and the mutton can be sold to London dealers at less than four cents per pound.



Wheat is grown mainly for home consumption. Grapes for wine and for raisins are good-paying crops in Victoria and New South Wales. Both products find a ready market in Great Britain. Australian claret is a strong competitor of California claret for public favor, and the two are similar in character. Cane-sugar is grown in the moist regions of Queensland; it is the chief supply of the commonwealth and the neighboring islands. The forests produce an abundance of hard woods, but practically no building-timber. Jarrah wood paving-blocks are an important export. British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon supply much of the building-timber.

Gold has been the chief mineral product since the settlement of the country. The mints convert the metal into coin. As a rule the value of the exports exceeds that of the imports, and the excess swells the amount of metal exported. The most productive mines are in the district of Ballarat. Coal is abundant on the east coast, and a considerable part is sold to California, and more to Asian ports. Tin is extensively mined in Tasmania.

More than fifteen thousand miles of railway have been built to carry the traffic of the country. Most of them were built by private corporations, but on account of financial difficulties and poor service they were acquired by the government. The policy proved a wise one.

Great Britain encourages the trade of her colonies, and gets about three-fourths of the traffic of the commonwealth, the imports being manufactured goods. Of the foreign trade the United States has about half, nearly all of which is landed at San Francisco and Puget Sound. Wool, cattle products, and coal are exported to the United States, and the latter sends to Australia structural steel—mainly rails—printing-paper, and coal-oil.

Melbourne is the largest city. Sydney is the port at which most of the ocean trade is landed. Brisbane, mainly a coal and a wool market, is connected with British Columbia by an ocean cable. Steamships by way of the Suez Canal generally call at Perth and Adelaide. Hobart and Launcestown are the markets of Tasmania.

New Zealand.—This colony is one of the most prosperous and best administered states in existence. The cultivable lands produce enough wheat for home use, and an excess for export. Cattle and sheep are the chief resource, however, and pretty nearly everything—meat, hides, wool, horn, and bones—is exported. Dairy products are not forgotten, and under the management of an association, these are of the best quality.

New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), a kind of marsh hemp, yields a fibre used in making cordage. The kauri pine furnishes the chief supply of lumber. A fossil kauri gum is collected for export; it makes a varnish almost equal to Japanese lacquer. Gold is mined, and there being no mint, all the bullion is exported. The only manufactures are those which are connected with the meat export and the dairy industry. The exports noted more than pay for the manufactured goods. Most of the trade is carried on with Great Britain. Wellington, the capital, and Auckland are the centres of trade.

New Guinea.—This island, one of the largest in the world, is somewhat larger than the State of Texas, or about one-third larger than Germany or France. The gold-mines first led to the exploration and settlement of the island, but it was soon apparent that the agricultural resources were even more valuable, and it was divided among the British, Germans, and Dutch.

The western part of the island is distinctly Asian in character; the eastern and southern parts resemble Australia. Coffee, rice, and tobacco plantations have been established in the former; grazing is the chief industry in the latter. Ebony and bamboo are among the forest products.

British Possessions.—The Fiji Islands are among the most important British possessions. They number about eighty habitable and twice as many small islands. Sugar is the chief export product, and it goes mainly to Australia and New Zealand. Cocoanuts are also a large item of export trade. Suva is the chief trading-port.

The Tonga Islands are nominally independent, but are practically a British protectorate. Among other British possessions are Cook, Gilbert, and Ellice archipelagoes, and Pitcairn Island.

German Possessions.—The Samoa Islands are perhaps the most important German possession, and German planters have made them highly productive. They were formerly held under a community-of-interest plan by Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. A joint commission awarded the greater part of the territory to Germany. In addition to the ordinary products, pineapples and limes are exported. Most of the trade is carried on by way of Australia. Apia is the trading-port.

Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon, Marshall, and Caroline groups have also been acquired by Germany. The last named was purchased from Spain at the close of the Spanish-American War.

French Possessions.—New Caledonia, together with Loyalty Islands, Fortuna, and the New Hebrides group, have great wealth in the matter of resources. New Caledonia, a penal colony, has productive mines of chrome iron ore and copper. It is the source of a considerable supply of nickel and cobalt. A railway to the coast has been built for the carriage of these products.

Tahiti is the principal island of the Society group, and under the missions long established there, the natives have become civilized. In addition to the usual trade, sugar and mother-of-pearl are important exports.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

How will the commerce of the Pacific be changed by the construction of an isthmian canal?

What has been the effect of the Australian wool-clip on the cloth-making industry of England and Germany?

How will the acquisition of Hawaii and the Philippine Islands affect the commerce of the United States?

From Commercial Australia find the trade of the United States with the Commonwealth.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

From a cyclopaedia read the history of Australia as a convict colony.

Commercial Australia.



APPENDIX

TRADE OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Sells Buys Country Imports Exports to U.S. from U.S. Argentina $110,000,000 $161,850,000 $10,000,000 $11,000,000 Australia 201,000,000 224,000,000 5,263,000 28,164,000 Austria- Hungary 335,486,000 383,748,000 10,000,000 6,844,000 Belgium 428,651,000 352,850,000 14,920,000 51,444,000 Bolivia 5,845,000 15,618,000 22 120,000 Brazil 97,330,000 165,461,000 64,914,000 11,517,000 Canada 181,238,000 177,443,000 42,482,000 105,790,000 Chile 46,916,000 61,201,000 7,474,000 4,507,000 China 203,421,000 124,528,000 18,126,000 18,176,000 Colombia 10,695,000 18,487,000 4,811,000 2,924,000 Cuba 66,584,000 63,278,000 46,664,000 27,007,000 Denmark 111,542,000 75,549,000 797,000 15,500,000 Ecuador 6,541,000 7,509,000 1,578,000 1,590,000 Egypt 75,366,000 77,754,000 8,867,000 1,321,000 France 843,255,000 774,497,000 81,315,000 78,406,000 Germany 1,290,254,000 1,054,685,000 99,970,000 184,679,000 Greece 26,782,000 18,100,000 1,447,000 286,000 India, British 264,318,000 392,025,000 47,172,000 5,647,000 India, Dutch 67,755,000 100,632,000 32,309,000 1,653,000 India, French 36,576,000 30,513,000 ... 118,000 Italy 331,668,000 265,270,000 27,631,000 34,046,000 Japan 127,397,000 124,209,000 36,855,000 21,163,000 Mexico 64,036,000 77,583,000 17,273,000 83,722,000 Netherlands 815,442,000 695,763,000 17,273,000 83,722,000 Norway 83,255,000 43,616,000 ... ... Peru 11,276,000 21,890,000 2,911,000 2,312,000 Philippine Islands 30,279,000 23,215,000 4,421,000 4,027,000 Portugal 62,497,000 30,546,000 3,642,000 4,454,000 Roumania 41,878,000 54,041,000 101,000 31,000 Russia 269,493,000 375,276,000 7,236,000 6,506,000 Spain 161,867,000 129,399,000 7,041,000 16,786,000 Sweden 143,363,000 104,878,000 4,370,000 11,521,000 Switzerland 202,651,000 161,458,000 16,035,000 233,000 Turkey 103,110,000 64,876,000 2,437,000 184,000 United Kingdom 2,540,265,000 1,362,729,000 155,292,000 598,767,000 United States 903,321,000 1,355,482,000 ... ... Uruguay 24,497,000 28,674,000 1,975,000 1,481,000 Venezuela 8,457,000 17,962,000 6,610,000 2,737,000



INDEX

Acapulco, 269

Acre, 281

Activities classified, 4

Adams, 220

Aden, 354

Adjustment to environment, 86

Afghanistan, 355

Alaska, 254

Alberta, 265

Alexandria, 384

Alfa, 124

Algeria, 385

Alpaca, 111, 115

Altitude, effects of, 32

Aluminium, 179

Amazon River, 53

Amber, 146

Ambergris, 204

American Indians, 86

Amritsar, 362

Amsterdam, 318

Anaconda, 250

Anchovy, 207

Angora wool, 115

Anthracite coal, 224

Appalachian region, 222

Arabia, 354

Argentina, 291

Arid region of U.S., 240

Arkwright, 108

Asian Rivers, navigation of, 53

Asphalt, 157

Assiniboia, 265

Astrakhan, 347

Athens, 341

Atlanta, 239

Atlantic coast-plain, 213, 221

Attar-of-roses, 338

Australia, 392

Austria-Hungary, 335

Bagdad, 354

Baku, 347, 348

Baltimore, 217

Baluchistan, 357

Banca, 181, 364

Barbados, 273

Barley, 101

Barmen-Elberfeld, 308

Batavia, 364

Bauxite, 179

Beef, exports of U.S., 244

Beet sugar, 186, 303, 321

Beginnings of cities, 82

Belgium, 313

Belgrade, 341

Bengal, 361

Benzine, 156

Bergen, 312

Berlin, 308

Bermuda, 273

Bessemer-steel boilers, 63

Big tree, 198

Billiton, 364

Birmingham, Ala., 165, 225

Birmingham, Eng., 302

Bismarck Archipelago, 397

Black walnut, 199

Blende, 182

Bluefish, 206

Boers, 86

Bogota, 277

Bohemian glass, 336

Boise City, 250

Bokhara, 347

Bolivia, 280

Bombay, 362

Bosnia, 337

Boston, 215

Boxwood, 200

Brass, 178

Brazil, 288 nuts, 289

Breakfast, travels of a, 1

Bremen, 308

Brenner Pass, 66

Brick tea, 134

Bridgeport, 221

British Columbia, 265 India, 358

Bronze Age, 181

Brussels, 316

Budapest, 337

Buenos Aires, 293

Buffalo, 225

Bulgaria, 338

Burlington, 237

Burma, British, 362

Burr clover, 34