L\tmz\r\ 
 
 Trade V eouvnnerce 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Class Book 
 
 580 
 
 Volume 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/tradecommerceOOIitm 
 

 LlV^: 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE. 
 
 BY SIMON LITMAN. 
 
 [Born Odessa, Russia, 1873; A. B., Odessa Commercial College, 1892; Graduate, 
 Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 1899; Student, University of Munich, 1899- 
 1900; Dr. Iur. Pub. et Rer. Cam., University of Zurich, 1901; Lecturer, Ecole 
 Russe des Hautes Etudes Sociales, Paris, 1902; Instructor in Commerce, Uni- 
 versity of California, 1903-1908; Associate in Commerce. University of Illinois, 
 1908-1910; Assistant Professor of Economics, 1910 — ; author of several mono- 
 graphs and periodical articles on labor problems, transportation and commerce.] 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The business world of today is vastly different from 
 that in which the merchant of old performed his work. 
 Were it possible for him to revisit the scenes where in the 
 long ago he plied his craft, he would not only be astounded 
 by the present method of doing the things he did, but he 
 would be considerably perplexed by the many new meth- 
 ods and devices, the obstacles and the problems which today 
 are part of that universal exchange known as Trade and 
 Commerce. He would find that his successor and inheritor 
 — the modern merchant — had replaced the camel, the pack- 
 horse, the crawling cart and the little sailing craft with the 
 locomotive, the steamer, the trolly car and the motor 
 wagon; he would find that miracles were performed by 
 telegraph and telephone, and that altogether his descend- 
 ants were almost complete masters of the technical difficul- 
 ties of former times. But he would also find that the great 
 changes and the great gains have created new problems 
 to meet, new difficulties to overcome and while these may 
 not be as dangerous as those of preceding eras, they are 
 more complex, more subtle. 
 
 A modern merchant need not be a combination of ex- 
 plorer, soldier, sailor, transporter, peddler, banker, whole- 
 saler and retailer, as was the tradesman of old; but he 
 must possess a vast and varied store of special knowledge ; 
 without this he cannot have an intelligent grasp of condi- 
 
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 tmr/9 
 
2 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 tions or ability to act quickly and judiciously, to compete 
 successfully. 
 
 The magnitude of existing commerce, the keenness of 
 today’s competition demand efficiency. Today no one has 
 a monopoly over improved means of intercourse; the same 
 market can be reached, in fact, is being reached from vari- 
 ous quarters, by many manufacturing and mercantile con- 
 cerns. The dealer of old, being alone in the field, had in 
 most instances but to show his goods, to be assured of a 
 sale and of a highly profitable return on his venture, but 
 the merchant of today, having many competitors, must rely 
 mainly upon superior ability. 
 
 By modern merchant, I do not mean the small shop- 
 keeper whose horizon is bounded by the houses which line 
 his street, or the clerk who does not see beyond his columns 
 of figures, but the enlightened merchant, who is a neces- 
 sary auxiliary to the agriculturer and the manufacturer 
 of a country. It is he who under the present economic 
 arrangement, to a very large extent, drives the wheels of 
 industry, he who is responsible for the ceaseless activity 
 in mines and in forests, in blast furnaces and in rolling 
 mills; it is he who leads a nation to its position of indus- 
 trial and commercial supremacy. 
 
 The work of such commercial leaders is not chance 
 work, they cannot be mere experimentalists; they must be 
 fully equipped to perform their functions. Realizing this 
 our most advanced nations promote and encourage com- 
 mercial education. Germany, which was the first to grasp 
 the significance of the quiet work of the school teacher in 
 order to be victorious in war, was also the first to under- 
 stand the necessity for establishing a net work of secon- 
 dary and higher technical commercial schools in order to 
 conquer the world in time of peace. It was Germany that 
 first reared a class of trained manufacturers and merchants, 
 and it was because of their intelligent activity that she, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 3 
 
 a country of comparatively poor resources, has achieved 
 most wonderful results in international trade. 
 
 Commercial education teaches the future merchant 
 where the best and the cheapest raw materials and other 
 commodities needed by his countrymen may be obtained 
 and where goods produced at home are in the greatest de- 
 mand; it familiarizes him with the materials and tools of 
 trade, with the routes of commerce and with the possibili- 
 ties and limitations of modern means of transportation. 
 Commercial education acquaints the merchant with the 
 tariff of his own country as well as with customs laws and 
 regulations of other lands; it gives him a knowledge of 
 the currency, of the systems of weights and measures used 
 by various nations of commercial importance; it instructs 
 him in commercial law, so that he may know how to pro- 
 tect his rights and how to avoid the usually expensive liti- 
 gations; it gives him command over foreign languages, 
 which permits him to approach present and prospective 
 customers in their tongue, thereby winning their confi- 
 dence and making business friends. 
 
 Commercial education teaches, also, the principles of 
 political economy, giving an insight into the relation 
 between different factors of production, into the laws of 
 exchange, showing the interdependence between supply 
 and demand, cost and price, revealing the effects of distri- 
 bution upon consumption and consumption upon produc- 
 tion; finally it develops an aptitude for trade, a desire to 
 work with a spirit of order and initiative, with an under- 
 standing that the work is worth while, that business suc- 
 cess may be achieved without losing the respect of fellow 
 workers in other lines of human endeavor; it develops 
 traits of thrift and of integrity, of consideration for the 
 needs and wants of others, whoever these others may be 
 and wherever they may dwell. 
 
4 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 I. THE COMMERCE OF THE PAST. 
 
 The commerce of the past, whether we consider it, as 
 it was carried on in times of antiquity, in the Middle Ages 
 or during the centuries which preceded the dawn of our 
 modern era, was so unlike the commerce of the present, 
 that its study would for us be impractical unless it were 
 for the purpose of emphasizing the entirely different prob- 
 lems and methods of present-day business. 
 
 The beginnings of trade are lost in antiquity, but we 
 know that in earliest communities barter did not exist, as 
 all worked together, each helping the other, and the prod- 
 uct of joint labor was communal property. When there 
 was a surplus product, a natural desire arose to exchange 
 it for something wdiich the community did not produce and 
 which it seemed worth while to have. 
 
 In its development the first obstacle commerce had to 
 overcome was, as far as we are able to judge, the feeling 
 of antagonism which existed between different communi- 
 ties. For thousands of years they warred against each 
 other; if they met, it was only as enemies to settle their 
 disputes, their real and their imaginary grievances, to sat- 
 isfy their lust for plunder. As the result of their centuries 
 of animosity they could not at first understand any other 
 less antagonistic relation; thus when trade first began, they 
 necessarily approached each other with suspicion and dis- 
 like; it required many centuries of gradual approach 
 before these feelings were eradicated. When a new rela- 
 tion, that of trade, appeared possible, strangers began 
 meeting on the boundary lines of their respective regions 
 bringing their wares for exchange. Hereditary suspicion 
 made it necessary to gather goods intended for exchange 
 on one spot, the market place, in this way permitting a 
 careful inspection of every article as well as a simultaneous 
 transfer of commodities with the transfer of title to them. 
 When more distant communities began to participate in 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 5 
 
 this exchange, there arose a separate class of dealers, who' 
 took upon themselves the work of bringing wares from one 
 locality to another. After this, the overcoming of dis- 
 tances became one of the main considerations of trade. 
 
 The merchant of the past was handicapped by impass- 
 able highways; the forest, the desert, the swamp and the 
 mountain, all conspired against him; nature met him at 
 almost every step with a barrier. Carrying goods from one 
 isolated center to another, sailing the trackless sea in order 
 to reach far-off harbors, were hazardous and laborious un- 
 dertakings; they required pluck and perseverance, induce- 
 ments of unusually large profits and an unlimited amount 
 of optimism; they required also in case of sea traffic, some 
 nautical knowledge on the part of the merchant. The mer- 
 chant of old had no common carriers to rely upon and there- 
 fore he had to provide and to supervise his own transporta- 
 tion facilities. 
 
 On land, in some places a bridle pass permitted the 
 use of pack animals, in others even such a pass did not 
 exist and the muscular strength of man was the only means 
 for carrying the load. Gradually improvements were in- 
 troduced. The pass from continued use became a wagon 
 road; crude vehicles were impressed into service and 
 draught animals supplanted beasts of burden. It is hard 
 for us to realize what a step in advance was the harness- 
 ing of the horse and its employment on the battlefields of 
 commerce. However, even the best draught animal on a 
 first-class road accomplishes comparatively little and is a 
 very expensive medium of transportation, entirely inade- 
 quate for the overcoming of long distances. 
 
 As to sea-commerce, the ocean was the same vast ex- 
 panse that it is today, but the coasts were unsurveyed, 
 light-houses and saving stations were lacking, and the mar- 
 iner merchant on his small sailing craft, had no compass 
 to guide him, no chart to show him the direction of winds 
 and currents, no instruments to warn him of approach- 
 
6 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 ing storms. His journey was largely a matter of chance, 
 its long duration a series of perilous adventures, very un- 
 like the passage of a modern steamer which usually reaches 
 her destination on schedule time. 
 
 Nature’s barriers were not the only ones that the com- 
 merce of the past had to overcome. The trackless roads 
 were unprotected. To the dangers of being lost, of death 
 by starvation because of lack of provisions, was added the 
 risk of attacks from nomadic robbers. In the East, where 
 the first important trading relations occurred, the war- 
 like tribes of the deserts soon learned the value of the 
 merchant’s cargo. Later, in Europe, it was the feudal 
 baron and his hirelings who pillaged and in case of re- 
 sistance assassinated the merchant. On sea, the pirate 
 began his nefarious work at an early era, and it took 
 centuries to exterminate him. 
 
 To meet such conditions the merchants resorted to mu- 
 tual aid and protection. On land they formed caravans, 
 and on sea convoys. The merchant of old united his forces 
 with those of his fellow traders going in the same direc- 
 tion, and by combined strength created for himself that 
 element of comparative security without which no inter- 
 course, no commerce, were possible. Caravans became a 
 regular means for conducting land trade; they developed 
 into a carefully organized system. Those who wished to 
 join a caravan assembled on a certain date, at an indicat- 
 ed spot. A leader was selected to whom all owed implicit 
 obedience. In case of large caravans, a number of sub- 
 ordinate officers were appointed, each having a specific 
 duty to perform; one attending to the proper handling 
 and distribution of provisions, another regulating the ar- 
 rangements for the halt, a third, familiar with the coun- 
 try to be traversed, acting as guide. 
 
 Increased security of the road, greater density of pop- 
 ulation, introduction of modern transportation facilities 
 tended towards eliminating the caravan as a commercial 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 7 
 
 institution; at present it exists but in a few economically; 
 undeveloped countries. Thus the merchants of the north- 
 ern shores of Africa continue to carry by means of car- 
 avan trade cheap manufactured articles of England, Ger- 
 many and Prance across the Desert of Sahara to the peo- 
 ple of Soudan and bring in return by the same means 
 precious stones, pearls, ivory, gold, ostrich feathers and 
 other native products. Thus, also, in connection with the 
 musulman pilgrimages from Beirut and Damascus to Me- 
 dina and Mecca, we have caravans which unite Asia Minor 
 with the trading communities in Arabia. The magnifi- 
 cence and splendor which these caravans presented in the 
 time of the Caliphs have largely disappeared, as the os- 
 tensibly religious aim of the pilgrimages has been over- 
 shadowed by commercialism. Now almost every pilgrim 
 unites a mercantile adventure with the obedience to the 
 Koran and he brings along with his religious zeal and 
 enthusiasm cotton fabrics, hardware and other articles, 
 which he knows will find a ready market in Arabia. In 
 Persia most of the intercourse is also carried on by cara- 
 vans. Having enumerated these few caravan routes and 
 having perhaps omitted a number of less significant ones, 
 we may leave the caravan, this venerable institution of 
 former-day trade. All caravans are doomed to disappear; 
 those yet existing unite some of the most densely pop- 
 ulated districts of the Orient, and the wide-awake mer- 
 chants of England and Germany, realizing the possibilities 
 of these territories, have taken into their service the civil 
 engineer and the surveyor. In many places where but 
 a few years ago the camel reigned supreme, may now be 
 heard the whistle of the river boat or the locomotive and 
 the click of the telegraph. 
 
 For protection at sea the Phoenicians were the first 
 to make use of convoys when their trading relations took 
 them out into the Mediterranean, the Black and the Red 
 seas, and into the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Rome 
 
8 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 succeeded in suppressing sea-piracy, but with the fall of 
 the Roman Empire it reappeared, and in the Middle Ages 
 the danger of capture by pirates became so great that 
 Venice forbade the maintenance of vessels by private in- 
 dividuals. The Venetian Government undertook the or- 
 ganization and management of public convoys which were 
 loaned to the highest bidder. Convoys were maintained 
 by Holland, England, the city of Hamburg, etc., as late 
 as the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The use of convoys had many disadvantages: it placed 
 restrictions upon the length of stay in harbors, amount 
 and character of freight to be carried, place of departure 
 and ultimate destination. Because of these disadvantages 
 and the inability to subdue the pirates, peace treaties were 
 concluded with them in the second half of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Modern shipping knows convoys only in times of war, 
 when naval forces are occasionally used to protect the 
 merchant marine plying between harbors within the zone 
 of hostilities. 
 
 With the development of commercial relations it be- 
 came necessary for the merchants not only to take wares 
 from place to place but also to reside in foreign countries. 
 The necessity for residence became especially urgent in 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 Mediaeval towns lived narrow clannish lives, shut off 
 as they were from the outside world by many natural and 
 artificial barriers. A stranger was regarded as a menace 
 to long-established customs and beliefs, a danger to the 
 economic and social stability of the place. The appear- 
 ance of a foreigner often was a signal for hostile demon- 
 strations. “Down with the intruder!” commanded the 
 masters of guilds and their assistants who considered their 
 interests jeopardized by the coming of the stranger. 
 “Down with the foreigner!” echoed the apprentices and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 9 
 
 the Ignorant crowd offended at the sight of any one whose 
 walk, dress and manner of speech were different from 
 those to which they were accustomed. 
 
 The newcomers were aware of the harsh treatment in 
 store for them; of the distrust and hatred of the native 
 population; of the probability of uprisings during which 
 they would be left to their own resources, the authorities 
 being either unable or unwilling to interfere; they knew 
 of the non-existence of a just, common law which made 
 it certain that in case of dispute with a native their cause 
 would be a lost cause. Knowing this they dwelt abroad 
 in entrenched fortified settlements; these consisted of a 
 single structure, of a group of warehouses, offices and resi- 
 dences in an enclosure, or of a whole section of a city. 
 Such protected places of abode were known as factories. 
 In these, merchants managed their own affairs and admin- 
 istered justice through their own officers, usually sent by 
 the home government. 
 
 Factories obtained certain rights and privileges, such 
 as the right to occupy a portion of a city, the right of 
 self-government, the exemption from taxation and from 
 the jurisdiction of local courts. These rights and privi- 
 leges, including the somewhat doubtful privilege of being 
 always on the alert, always ready to beat off mob attacks, 
 were granted for pecuniary considerations; in some in- 
 stances they were acquired by the force of arms. 
 
 At present, in civilized countries the institution of fac- 
 tories does not exist. German traders do not any longer 
 maintain a fortified colony in the heart of London, nor 
 do the English “ Merchant Adventurers” have their for- 
 tified depots in Hamburg or Antwerp. Such an institu- 
 tion would neither be tolerated by the government of a 
 civilized state, nor is its existence necessary. 
 
 If we wish to find a modern counterpart of an old fac- 
 tory, we must leave the beaten track of commerce and 
 go to the barbaric or semi-barbaric countries of Africa, to 
 
10 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Guinea, to Senegal or Senegambia, where the merchants 
 of today labor under the same difficulties which confront- 
 ed their forerunners in the past; they live, as the others 
 lived, in constant fear of attack by the natives and their 
 only security lies in their own weapons. 
 
 To fully appreciate the position of the merchants of 
 old we must not overlook the almost innumerable tolls to 
 which they were subjected. Bridges were lacking where 
 they were most needed, but many a dry level place could 
 boast of a bridge built for the sole purpose of compelling 
 people to go over it and to give passage money; river 
 beds were not dredged, but ropes were stretched across 
 the streams to force ships and barges to pay for the re- 
 moval of obstructions. Those who were strong enough 
 to exact tolls were limitless in their ingenuity. 
 
 Ostensibly most of the tolls were gathered in order to 
 police the roads and to keep them in good repair; but in 
 reality the merchants received nothing in return for the 
 heavy burdens imposed upon them. Roads were always 
 in a wretched condition, and the complicity of the feudal 
 lords in the crimes of highway robbery excluded the possi- 
 bility of any effective policing. 
 
 In addition to road tolls, every town levied duties on 
 articles brought within its w T alls, and no trader could pass 
 a town without paying these tolls. 
 
 Another hardship imposed upon the trader was the 
 enforced display of goods, i. e., no matter to what place 
 he was bound, all towns along his journey compelled him 
 to offer his wares for sale to their inhabitants. The wants 
 of the consumer were the first considered, which was 
 natural enough, as the merchants were strangers. 
 
 Many regulations were passed so that the people might 
 buy goods at low prices. If the delay in a town meant 
 the impossibility to reach a destination, the ruin of mer- 
 chandise, spoliation, so much the worse for the merchant. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 11 
 
 Under such conditions the risks of mercantile ventures 
 were enormous. There was no insurance, and the indi- 
 vidual trader was the one who bore the losses. 
 
 The high cost of transportation — the result of the use 
 of pack or draught animals on poor highways and the 
 payment of innumerable and excessive tolls confined trad- 
 ing to goods of comparatively small bulk and great value, 
 usually luxuries. 
 
 The slowness with which goods were transported and 
 the lack of proper means for protecting them against at- 
 mospheric influences excluded perishable commodities 
 while quackmires, ruts and pitfalls effectively checked the 
 shipment of breakable wares. 
 
 Thus definite limitations — the result of natural and ar- 
 tificial conditions — were placed upon the commerce of the 
 past. 
 
 II. EXISTING COMMERCE. 
 
 Steam and electricity have united the farthermost cor- 
 ners of the earth and have brought the trading communi- 
 ties of the world together. These powers which increased 
 so marvelously the industrial efficiency of nations, which 
 brought such a wonderful expansion of production, these 
 dynamic agents revolutionized also the means of communi- 
 cation and transportation and made of the whole world 
 one immense market. 
 
 The modern merchant is relieved of the technical man- 
 agement of transportation facilities; he intrusts his goods 
 to a common carrier, to a railroad or to a steamship com- 
 pany, which transfers the commodities with such speed 
 and safety as would, but a few decades ago, have been 
 deemed impossible. The railroad and the steamer not only 
 insure security and despatch but they, also, give regu- 
 larity of service and punctuality of delivery; they permit 
 transportation of great masses of goods at one time and 
 shipment of bulky and ponderous wares. The smoothness 
 
12 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 of the roadbed, the rapidity with which goods are handled 
 at the terminals and moved overland and across the sea, 
 the use of refrigerator cars and cold storage steamers have 
 opened possibilities for the transportation of the most deli- 
 cate and most easily perishable foodstuffs and thereby 
 have created new economic activities in various parts of 
 the world; they have also changed considerably our stand- 
 ards of living. 
 
 The merchant is no longer in doubt as to what it will 
 cost him to bring goods from place to place; he knows 
 the charges beforehand and can make his calculations ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 The risks of the venture are insured. Insurance rates 
 are moderate as the enforcement of law and order has al- 
 most eliminated dangers from the acts of men, and those 
 from “the acts of God” have been minimized by a better 
 knowledge of natural phenomena and by thorough equip- 
 ment to meet adverse conditions. 
 
 The governments of civilized countries protect life and 
 property. By means of legislative enactments, by police, 
 by the administration of justice, the state affords security 
 against brigandage and other wrong doing; without this 
 security present-day commerce would be impossible. The 
 state stands ready to enforce law, and those who conclude 
 business contracts are certain that these contracts will 
 be fulfilled even against the will of those who have con- 
 cluded them in bad faith. On the other hand, business 
 morals are much better than they ever have been; perhaps, 
 because of the fact that modern business men have learned 
 that in this age of rapid transmission of intelligence, hon- 
 esty is really the best policy. However this may be, the 
 majority of merchants have become trustworthy, both in 
 their relations amongst themselves and in their dealings 
 with customers. The maxim: “Let the buyer beware,” 
 has been buried. The best proofs of this are the modern 
 methods of sales by means of sample, pattern, brand, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 13 
 
 trade-mark or by simply designating a grade or standard 
 quality; these methods are necessarily based on reliabil- 
 ity. 
 
 Payments in many instances are deferred. Credit is 
 willingly granted, partially because of an increased con- 
 fidence of man in man, but to a very large extent because 
 credit giving and credit taking have been placed on a 
 much more rational basis. The credit giver can easily as- 
 certain the resources and the character of the credit seek- 
 er. Mercantile agencies collect and disseminate data as 
 to the financial standing of individuals and business firms. 
 Most of the large houses have their credit departments 
 managed by experienced credit men. A national associa- 
 tion of credit men makes it possible to exchange views, 
 compare experiences and discuss all matters of importance 
 to its members. 
 
 The extension of credit either through deferred pay- 
 ments, just mentioned, or through the loan and debt credit, 
 where modern banking facilities are made use of, has stim- 
 ulated business activities and made possible an exchange 
 of commodities reckoned in billions of dollars a year. 
 
 The magnitude of commerce and the impossibility for 
 the unaided individual to deal successfully with its prob- 
 lems has led to the formation of various trade-promoting 
 organizations, such as chambers of commerce and boards 
 of trade, commercial museums, export banks, export syn- 
 dicates and companies, etc. 
 
 Chambers of commerce are associations established by 
 business men for the purpose of advancing local trade in- 
 terests. They are especially influential in large mercan- 
 tile centers, like London, New York, Hamburg, etc., where 
 their main activity is directed towards developing foreign 
 commerce. 
 
 Chambers of commerce are of two types: the French 
 and the English. Those of the French type, which is pre- 
 dominant in France, in northern Germany, in Italy, in 
 
14 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Austria-Hungary and in a number of other European 
 countries, are under strict governmental supervision. 
 Their members are elected by and from the members of 
 the business community where the chamber is established. 
 Membership is limited; the Paris Chamber, the largest in 
 Prance, has only thirty-six members, while in other French 
 cities the number varies from nine to twenty-one. No 
 new chamber of commerce can be organized without the 
 approval of the Minister of Commerce. The chambers of 
 commerce are supported by direct taxes levied upon busi- 
 ness men, and their budgets are verified by the Govern- 
 ment. The chambers have a number of administrative 
 functions, such as supervision over commercial schools, 
 over stock and produce exchanges, etc., and the Govern- 
 ment consults them upon all matters of industry and com- 
 merce, their advice being carefully considered before the 
 passage of laws or administrative regulations bearing upon 
 the subject. 
 
 The chambers of commerce of the English type are 
 voluntary, autonomous organizations with an unlimited 
 number of members. They are supported by member- 
 ship dues and are free from governmental control or su- 
 pervision. They are doing very effective and valuable 
 work for the interest of the localities where they are es- 
 tablished, and those of the chambers which have sufficient 
 influence and power, work for the good of the country at 
 large. Great Britain and the United States have cham- 
 bers of commerce of this latter type. 
 
 Frequently domestic chambers of commerce are es- 
 tablished in foreign centers by merchants who reside 
 abroad or have business relations there. Usually they 
 are voluntary associations, although in some instances they 
 receive financial aid from the home government. The 
 American chambers of commerce in London, in Paris or 
 in Berlin, the Italian chamber of commerce in San Fran- 
 cisco are examples of such institutions. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 15 
 
 In many countries the chambers of commerce unite 
 to form a national organization whose object is to acquaint 
 itself with opinions on matters of general commercial 
 importance, to crystallize these views and to present them 
 to the Government in order to influence legislation. In 
 the United States such an organization is known as the 
 National Board of Trade. Somewhat similar in character 
 and in functions is our Manufacturers’ Association, which 
 holds annual conventions and issues extended reports. 
 
 Many branches of industry and commerce have their 
 own national associations of more or less importance; of 
 this type in the United States are the National Associa- 
 tion of Wool Manufacturers, the Bankers’ Association, 
 the Farmers’ Alliance, etc. 
 
 Commercial museums are of comparatively recent ori- 
 gin. They are usually of a quasi-public character, being 
 established and maintained either entirely by the muni- 
 cipal and state authorities or with their assistance. 
 
 Commercial museums are permanent exhibitions of 
 samples of products from different parts of the world 
 showing what each nation produces and thus what it can 
 offer in the way of return trade. Samples are also col- 
 lected with the object of showing the character of the 
 products consumed in the different markets of the world. 
 By looking over these collections the manufacturer and 
 the merchant can obtain a more or less accurate idea of 
 the competition to be met. Samples are arranged both 
 geographically — by countries, and monographically — by 
 products, and are supplemented by information as to origin, 
 price, industrial value, the latter obtained by laboratory 
 tests, etc., of each article displayed. Samples are kept 
 up to date by frequent renewal, but the cost of collecting 
 them and particularly of keeping them on display is so 
 large that very few of the commercial museums have this 
 feature of the work complete. Commercial museums have 
 gradually added a number of other departments, less ex- 
 
16 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 pensive to maintain, but just as valuable, which in many 
 instances have become more important than the exhibits 
 of samples. The Bureau of Information is the most val- 
 uable of these departments ; it furnishes the merchant with 
 data as to conditions surrounding the sale of goods in for- 
 eign markets; the information given bears upon the cost 
 of reaching a market, the customs and usages of the place, 
 the amount of duties to be paid, if any are levied, the 
 names and standing of business houses, the best methods 
 of packing in order to meet local conditions, etc. 
 
 One of the oldest commercial museums is that of Brus- 
 sels; it was organized in 1880 and is placed under the 
 direct supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 The Philadelphia Commercial Museum in the United 
 States is at present perhaps the largest and the best in- 
 stitution of its kind; it was established in 1894 and is kept 
 up by municipal appropriations, by membership fees and 
 by gifts; at the time of its organization it received also 
 support from the State of Pennsylvania and from the Fed- 
 eral Government. Through its well-planned and systematic 
 work the Philadelphia Commercial Museum has been of 
 great value to American manufacturers and merchants 
 who wished to secure foreign markets. 
 
 Commercial museums do not serve as media for the 
 conclusion of business transactions; they are not interest- 
 ed in specific individual enterprises, neither at home, nor 
 abroad, so that the information they give out is always 
 disinterested, unbiased and as reliable as a careful, pains- 
 taking investigation can make it. 
 
 Export sample warehouses are a device by which a 
 body of exporters aims to bring to the notice of foreign 
 buyers goods they have for sale. These warehouses are 
 located either at home or abroad and those who have 
 charge of them usually act as intermediaries accepting 
 orders and delivering goods. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 17 
 
 Stuttgart was the first city to have an export sample 
 warehouse and the first to establish branches of it in va- 
 rious parts of Germany and in foreign countries. Similar 
 institutions have been organized since in different parts 
 of the world. 
 
 A variation of warehouses are the so-called floating 
 exhibitions, which aim to convey samples of a country’s 
 commercial products from one prospective market to 
 another. 
 
 Export syndicates, an institution peculiar to Austria- 
 Hungary, Italy and Germany, carry an import and ex- 
 port business for their members; these syndicates have 
 agents in foreign countries who keep them informed as 
 to the conditions of the markets, the financial standing of 
 foreign buyers, the opportunities for trade, etc. 
 
 However important the various private and semi-pub- 
 lic commercial associations and institutions may be, their 
 sphere of influence is far more restricted than that of the 
 state, and it is towards the National Government that the 
 merchant looks to a very large degree for guidance and 
 for assistance. 
 
 Nearly every department of the Government performs 
 some valuable work for industry and commerce. In the 
 United States we find that the legislative bodies, the House 
 of Representatives and the Senate, have various stand- 
 ing committees whose duty it is to consider questions af- 
 fecting the domestic and foreign trade of the country; 
 such are, for instance, the committees on interstate and 
 foreign commerce, on foreign relations, etc., of the House, 
 or the committees on commerce, interoceanic canals, Cu- 
 ban relations, etc., of the Senate. 
 
 In the executive branch of the Government the Depart- 
 ment of State has a Bureau of Trade Relations and a 
 Consular Bureau. The department negotiates treaties and 
 is the custodian of those that are in force; it also issues 
 
18 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 instructions to consular officers for reports to be printed 
 by the Department of Commerce and Labor. 
 
 The consular service can be considered as one of the 
 most important single agencies of the Federal Govern- 
 ment established in the interests of foreign commerce. 
 
 Consuls are appointed by the President with the con- 
 sent of the Senate ; they reside abroad in those of the com- 
 mercial and industrial centers where their presence is con- 
 sidered necessary for the benefit of our traders and ex- 
 port manufacturers. Consuls assist merchants by safe- 
 guarding and upholding their lawful interests; they su- 
 pervise shipping by receiving the declarations of captains 
 concerning damages sustained during voyages, by adjust- 
 ing all matters of wrecks and salvage, by examining the 
 papers of every ship which enters the harbor where they 
 are stationed. The consuls certify the invoices of goods 
 shipped to the United States, thus insuring a more cor- 
 rect declaration of values by exporters. They issue cer- 
 tificates of births, deaths, marriages and authenticate any 
 documents of American citizens which need their official 
 seal and signature. 
 
 The main activity of the consuls reaches far beyond 
 these functions. Recently they have emerged from their 
 position of mere supervisors and protectors and have be- 
 come gatherers of information, advisors to importers and 
 exporters and to the home government in matters per- 
 taining to navigation, tariff, legislation, commercial con- 
 ventions and treaties, etc. The consuls are requested to 
 report, as promptly as the occasion demands, upon the 
 economic and industrial conditions and changes in the dis- 
 tricts assigned to them. The reports are published daily 
 and are distributed to business firms and to the press. 
 
 The War Department has charge of the river and har- 
 bor improvements, of geographical explorations and sur- 
 veys; it has control over the island possessions of the Unit- 
 ed States, (particularly the Philippines); it gathers sta- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 19 
 
 tistics of insular commerce, summaries of which are pub- 
 lished and distributed. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture besides benefiting com- 
 merce indirectly by aiding the agricultural interests of 
 the country, aims to extend agricultural export trade 
 through its Division of Foreign Markets. 
 
 The Department of the Treasury administers the 
 tariff, regulates the entry of goods from foreign lands, 
 entertains appeals against the collectors’ assessment of 
 duty upon baggage and tools of trade, looks into applica- 
 tions for the release of seized goods and for the remis- 
 sion of fines and penalties. 
 
 The Department of the Interior, through the upholding 
 of the patent laws, encourages inventions; most of these 
 have commercial value. 
 
 The Department of Commerce and Labor, the latest de- 
 partment organized by the National Government, has for 
 its specific purpose, as the law which created it declares, 
 ‘ 1 to foster, promote and develop the foreign and domestic 
 commerce, the mining, manufacturing, shipping and fishery 
 industries, the labor interests and the transportation facili- 
 ties of the United States.” Its Bureau of Statistics col- 
 lects facts pertaining to the exports and imports of mer- 
 chandise and specie, to the inward and outw r ard movement 
 of tonnage in our foreign trade, as well as the direction 
 and the tonnage of our coastwise and lake shipping. 
 
 The Bureau of Manufacturers “ fosters, promotes and 
 develops the various industries of the United States and 
 markets for the same at home and abroad, by gathering, 
 compiling, publishing and supplying all available and use- 
 ful information concerning such industries and such mar- 
 kets.” The reports of the consuls are sent, through the 
 Department of State, to this bureau. 
 
 Other bureaus of the department regulate and aid ship- 
 ping. The Light-house Board maintains light-houses, bea- 
 cons, fog signals and other safeguards to commerce on the 
 
20 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 coasts and inland waterways. The Bureau of Navigation 
 supervises the merchant marine, deciding all questions re- 
 lating to registry, enrollment, licensing of vessels, their 
 admeasurement, the collection and refund of tonnage tax- 
 es. The Steamboat Inspection Service looks after the con- 
 dition of our steamers and thus contributes to the safety 
 of both persons and capital engaged in business. The 
 Coast and Geodetic Survey conducts investigations and 
 publishes maps and charts of the coasts and harbors, tide 
 tables, sailing directions, etc. 
 
 The Life-Saving Service, organized under the Depart- 
 ment of the Treasury, patrols, through its brave and trust- 
 worthy employes, our coasts. Hundreds of wrecks are 
 prevented, a great deal of property and thousands of lives 
 saved through the heroic work of the life-station keep- 
 ers and their able assistants. 
 
 Lack of space prevents a farther consideration of na- 
 tional means used for the purpose of aiding and promot- 
 ing commerce. It may be said that our great machinery 
 of state with its legislative, judicial and administrative 
 branches is engaged mainly in solving commercial prob- 
 lems, that our political platforms, the messages of our 
 presidents, the bills introduced into our Congresses deal 
 mainly with such subjects as currency, banking, customs 
 duties, the regulation of interstate commerce, the improve- 
 ment of inland waterways, the piercing of canals, irriga- 
 tion and drainage schemes for reclaiming arid or sub- 
 merged land, the reorganization of the consular service, 
 etc. Truly, it is no exaggeration to say that the govern- 
 ments of civilized countries have become great business 
 undertakings whose time and energy is largely devoted 
 to a study and direction of mercantile pursuits. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 21 
 
 III. NATURAL CONDITIONS AS THEY AFFECT 
 INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. 
 
 Both the domestic and the foreign trade of a coun- 
 try depend upon its industrial development. Agriculture, 
 mining, forestry, fishing and manufacturing are the basis 
 of our mercantile activities, and they are all more or less 
 influenced by natural conditions, by physical phenom- 
 ena. 
 
 The farther we advance in civilization the more capable 
 we become of being masters of our destinies; by artificial 
 irrigation we make garden spots of deserts and we gather 
 cereals, oranges and grapes where preceding generations 
 contended unsuccessfully with shifting sands and sage- 
 brush; by boring tunnels and bridging torrents we reach 
 places of isolation and convert them into regions which 
 invite the white man’s labor and ingenuity; by instilling 
 the virility, energy and resourcefulness of the temperate 
 zone workman into tropical lands we break the enchant- 
 ment of enervating influences, by which nature has held 
 in somnolence and ignorance the aboriginal inhabitants; 
 by planting the eucalyptus tree in insanitary localities we 
 make them healthful and habitable, and by resorting to 
 dry farming we open to cultivation millions of acres of 
 arid land. 
 
 But whatever our achievements may be, we necessarily 
 move within certain limits fixed by nature; these limits 
 may be elastic, but they are limits nevertheless, and most 
 of our successes have been won not because we have “ over- 
 come” nature, but because of the fact, that we have a 
 greater insight into her mysterious workings and are now 
 able to turn to our advantage many of her treasures here- 
 tofore hidden and to profitably employ many of her forc- 
 es. 
 
 Climate is one of the most important natural factors 
 which affect production. By climate of a country we un- 
 
22 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 derstand its average atmospheric condition with regard 
 to temperature and moisture. This condition manifests 
 itself in the successive changes from season to season and 
 from year to year. 
 
 Temperature is primarily influenced by latitude or po- 
 sition with reference to the equator, to that part of the 
 earth where the greatest number of sun-rays fall upon 
 a given space and therefore produce the greatest amount 
 of heat. All other things being equal, the nearer a coun- 
 try is to the equator, the hotter its climate. 
 
 The world has been divided climatically into three re- 
 gions, lying to the north and to the south of the equator, 
 and known as tropical, temperate and polar regions. A 
 more minute classification divides the zones into: equato- 
 rial, tropical, sub-tropical, warm temperate, cold temper- 
 ate, sub-arctic, arctic and polar. 
 
 Although temperature, generally speaking, decreases 
 as we proceed from the equator towards the poles, this 
 decrease does not conform, as might be expected, to par- 
 allels of latitude. Halifax, in Nova Scotia, in the 44J° 
 N., is nearly always open to navigation, while Vladivostok, 
 on the eastern coast of Siberia, in the 43° N. is icebound 
 for more than four months in the year. New York, sit- 
 uated in the same latitude as Naples has colder winters 
 than Berlin, which is located more than ten degrees near- 
 er to the pole. The semi-tropical orange may be grown 
 in the northwest of Italy to the 44°, while in the east of 
 the United States, it can not be cultivated higher than 
 the 31° N. 
 
 In order to judge of the climatic possibilities of a local- 
 ity for the raising of crops, a knowledge of the mean 
 yearly temperature is not sufficient. Torrid scorching 
 summers alternating with rigorous winters may make the 
 yearly average in one place equal to that in another pos- 
 sessing a mild equable climate all the year round; but 
 what a difference from the point of view of industry and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 23 
 
 commerce between the two localities! There are greater 
 contrasts between summer and winter in eastern Asia than 
 in the east of America, while western Europe is character- 
 ized by a more even and a somewhat warmer climate than 
 the western parts of the American continents. These dif- 
 ferences have a marked effect upon agricultural and other 
 industrial pursuits in the above-named territories. 
 
 Climatic Belts. 
 
 Tropical regions, because of the excessive amount of 
 heat and moisture which characterizes the greater part 
 of them, are regions of luxuriant vegetation, of jungles 
 and forests with trees of enormous size and thickets of 
 twining and climbing plants so dense that they are al- 
 most impenetrable to man. A tremendous expenditure 
 of energy and labor is required to keep the ground clear 
 and fit for cultivation. If neglected for a short time the 
 soil becomes covered with new growths just as thick, vig- 
 orous and exuberant as those removed. Where this ob- 
 stacle to industry and commerce does not exist, there is 
 another, more formidable one, the desert. The largest 
 deserts of the world, where only an occasional oasis relieves 
 the monotony of sterility, are in the tropics. 
 
 The soil’s fertility is in the main dependent upon rain- 
 fall. The ocean is our source of moisture, and while it is 
 true that the greatest amount of humidity is sucked up 
 by the hot air of the tropics from the tropical sea, and dis- 
 tributed as rain, it is also true that where mountains occur 
 to cut off the ocean moisture from the interior, as is the 
 case in many parts of Australia, Africa and Asia, or where 
 the prevailing wind drives the vapors away from land, as 
 in some coastal regions of America and Africa, a perma- 
 nent drought and a desert is the result. 
 
 However, the larger part of the tropics, because of 
 the high and more or less uniform temperature through- 
 out the year and because of a generally large amount of 
 
24 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 moisture, yield various products which it is either difficult 
 or impossible to raise outside of them, and they yield these 
 products with a fabulous abundance; trees bear fruit all 
 the year round, and one crop of vegetation succeeds an- 
 other almost as fast as it can be gathered. 
 
 The complex life of the civilized man is to a very large 
 extent dependent upon tropical and sub-tropical products. 
 It is only necessary to look over the import list of the 
 United States, England, or Germany, in order to realize 
 the significance of that vast territory which stretches 
 north and south of the equator and, passing the tropics of 
 Cancer and of Capricorn, gradually merges into the so- 
 called temperate zone. 
 
 The United States imports tropical and sub-tropical 
 goods to the value of over $500,000,000 a year; these goods 
 include bark for quinine, as well as other drugs, cabinet 
 woods, cocoa, coffee, cork, dyewoods and extracts, fibers, 
 fruits and nuts, gums, indigo, ivory, rice, rubber, sago, 
 tapioca, spices, sugar, tea, vanilla beans, vegetable oils, etc. 
 
 The need for tropical wares, while not as intense in 
 the past, as it is now, has always been felt. European 
 nations, since the inception of their commerce, sought the 
 trade of the tropical Orient. They established the Mediter- 
 ranean route to the coasts of Syria and Egypt, and thence 
 to the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; they crossed the 
 highlands of the Caucasus and Central Asia, and sent their 
 ships through the .Bosphorus to Trebizond and Batoum on 
 the Black Sea. When all these routes were cut off by the 
 victorious Turks and the Atlantic became the only way 
 they embarked in their frail vessels upon a series of per- 
 ilous journeys in order to find an ocean route to the land 
 of the equatorial sun; and when the ocean route was dis- 
 covered, we may realize how important it was considered 
 from the many wars which were fought for its control. 
 
 At present the routes are open to all, but the tropics 
 themselves have become to a very large extent posses- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 25 
 
 sions of the various commercial nations of the world. 
 Knowing the great wealth which these regions are capable 
 of yielding, England, France, Germany and other coun- 
 tries have taken possession of tropical territory, wherever 
 they have been able to do so, and today the white races are 
 expending in the tropics much money, energy and skill. 
 
 A serious obstacle to the development of such regions 
 is the indolence of the natives. The magnitude of this 
 hindrance may be imagined, when one reflects that about 
 one-third of the world’s population live in tropical colonies. 
 The wants of the natives are few, and these are easily sat- 
 isfied; there is little incentive for exertion; banana and 
 cocoanut grow wild; other staple foods yield quickly and 
 with little effort. On the other hand, the moist heat is so 
 enervating that continuous labor is very irksome. 
 
 Many devices have been used in order to inculcate 
 habits of energy and thrift into the aboriginal inhabitants 
 of the torrid zone. These began with the whip of the 
 slave driver and assumed various forms (culture, system, 
 etc.) until the white man learned that his object could be 
 better attained without cruelty, and therefore more human 
 methods are now used. We try to benefit the native physi- 
 cally, mentally and morally, we raise his standard of liv- 
 ing and educate him, we cause him to have new needs and 
 wants, and we teach him how he can satisfy these by means 
 of application and persistent labor. 
 
 W e surround the native with the railway, the telegraph 
 and the telephone, with dams and ditches, we place steam- 
 ers on his rivers, build piers and warehouses on his harbor 
 sites, we open banks, offices and stores in his settlements, 
 and by means of this peaceful penetration into his terri- 
 tory, we gradually enter into his mind and his heart. This 
 work is not easy, but when once accomplished it is much 
 more effective and certainly much more in keeping with 
 our modern ideas of mercy and justice than the atrocious 
 
26 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 methods which have been used heretofore and which un- 
 fortunately are yet used in some localities. 
 
 The polar regions are the least important from a com- 
 mercial point of view. Their frigid portions are buried 
 under snow and ice for the greater part of the year; dur- 
 ing the sho^t summer months when the soil thaws from 
 ten to fifteen inches, mosses, lichens and a few flowers of 
 brilliant hues but of no economic value make their appear- 
 ance. 
 
 The fish in the lakes and rivers and the fur-covered 
 animals on land sustain the life of the natives, but it re- 
 quires the severest exertion to procure the most necessary 
 food, clothing and shelter. The struggle for this bare ex- 
 istence consumes the strength and energy of the aborigines 
 so that they are not able to lift themselves above the level 
 of sturdy hunters and fishermen wandering from place to 
 place in search of food and erecting primitive huts out of 
 ice, snow or skins. 
 
 It was the search for furs which first attracted the 
 temperate region trader into the bleak valleys and plains 
 inhabited by the Esquimaux and the Indian. The Hudson 
 Bay Company, one of the most important mercantile un- 
 dertakings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 derived its enormous profits from the sale of the skins of 
 the polar bear, the fox and other arctic animals. 
 
 Recently rich mineral deposits have been discovered in 
 many parts of the polar zone, notably in Alaska; these 
 discoveries attract people who under ordinary circum- 
 stances would not venture to go where life is so full of de- 
 nials and hardships. 
 
 The temperate zone lies between the two climatic ex- 
 tremes just described and it offers the best opportunities 
 for the modern man to live comfortably and to pursue his 
 career successfully. The succession of seasons, with snow 
 and frost in winter when the vegetation is dormant and 
 with warmth in spring and summer when the growing, ma- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 27 
 
 turing grains and plants cover the ground, have taught 
 men the value of foresight and saving; it taught them the 
 necessity for sowing in spring, so as to be able to reap in 
 autumn and thus provide for the long winter months. 
 
 The refusal of the soil to yield abundantly unless culti- 
 vated, and the readiness with which it responds to culti- 
 vation gives impetus to activity, while the climatic condi- 
 tions are such as to make work more agreeable than in 
 either the tropics or in the polar regions. In fact, the 
 temperate zone climates, barring some localities and cer- 
 tain periods of the year, are such as to stimulate man to 
 exertion. 
 
 In the temperate regions we find highly developed man- 
 ufacturing industries, concentrated in mammoth establish- 
 ments where steam and electricity applied to modern ma- 
 chinery has increased a thousand fold the productive effi- 
 ciency of man; we find agriculture based upon the knowl- 
 edge of the properties of soil and the methods of improving 
 its fertility; we find the most diversified industrial pur- 
 suits, all interdependent and all tending towards the pro- 
 duction of material prosperity, a necessary basis for the 
 thriving of science and arts; we find gigantic, far-reaching 
 business combinations; we find commerce giving its broad- 
 ening cosmopolitan cachet to every activity, lifting the 
 nations of the world to a better, more enlightened attitude 
 towards each other, uniting the North and the South, the 
 East and the West and showing that we are all “of the 
 same blood.” 
 
 The climate of the belts is by no means uniform through- 
 out their territory, and in each region there are many ex- 
 ceptions to the usual conditions of the zone. 
 
 The following are the chief causes which act as modi- 
 fiers of climate: 
 
 Altitude. — Climate becomes cooler with increased 
 height above sea level, temperature decreasing about 
 1° Fahr., for every one hundred feet of elevation. 
 
2 8 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 On the high plateaus and mountain slopes of equatorial 
 Africa and South America we may find the atmospheric 
 conditions of our temperate belt, while the summits of their 
 mountains rising above 15,000 feet are covered with per- 
 petual ice and snow. 
 
 It was the existence of a high and comparatively cool 
 plateau which permitted the Dutch Boers to penetrate into 
 South Central Africa. They, and then the English, trav- 
 ersed about a thousand miles by land and seized and col- 
 onized a tropical country that lies within but 70 or 80 miles 
 of the ocean behind the Portuguese settlements in the east. 
 The Portuguese, although so near, were not able to pene- 
 trate inland, because they were surrounded by tropical 
 swamps and could do no more than keep within the reach 
 of the ocean. 
 
 Relation of Land and Sea Masses. — Proximity to the 
 sea has an equalizing effect upon temperature. Water 
 heats and cools more slowly than land, and therefore terri- 
 tories near the seacoast are subject to fewer and less sud- 
 den changes, both between day and night and between sum- 
 mer and winter, than more continental land masses. The 
 central parts of the eastern hemisphere are colder and 
 present greater extremes of heat and cold than the central 
 parts of the western, the eastern hemisphere being a broad- 
 er and a greater land mass than the western and thus hav- 
 ing its center farther removed from the sea. 
 
 The surface waters of the ocean circulate, the heated 
 water of the equatorial zone flowing toward the polar 
 regions and the cold water of the polar oceans moving 
 toward the equator. In some parts of the ocean these 
 movements are sufficiently continuous to constitute the so- 
 called currents; these currents as they pass near the coasts 
 influence the temperature of the land. The climate of the 
 United Kingdom is much warmer than that of the Atlantic 
 Coast territory in Canada, because the British Isles lie on 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 29 
 
 the way of the warm Gulf stream while the shores of Can- 
 ada are passed by the Labrador Ice Current. 
 
 Direction of the Winds and Position of the Mountain 
 Ranges. — Winds exercise a paramount climatic influence 
 as carriers of heat and moisture. They bring the warm 
 air of low latitudes to the colder regions of higher and 
 vice versa, their main and most regular course arising 
 from the difference of temperature at the poles and the 
 equator. 
 
 The air above large bodies of water is saturated with 
 moisture; this is particularly true of the air in tropical 
 regions, as the warmer the air the more moisture it can 
 absorb and hold. The winds which blow from the equator 
 are therefore not only warm but also moisture laden. On 
 their way northward and southward (because of the rota- 
 tion of the earth the direction is not exactly north and 
 south), they gradually cool off; in this cooling process the 
 vapor condenses into water and yields rain or snow. 
 
 When an air current meets a mountain range it is de- 
 flected upwards and thus strikes a cooler atmosphere; the 
 condensing process takes place immediately and a heavy 
 rainfall on the windward side of the mountains is the re- 
 sult. The wind which blows over the summits is dr}^ ? and 
 the regions which lie on the other side of the mountain 
 chains are therefore subject to droughts. 
 
 One of the advantages which the new world possesses 
 over the old is in the direction of its mountain ranges. 
 They extend north and south, most of them being on the 
 western borders of the North and South American conti- 
 nents, thus presenting no barrier to the free passage of the 
 moist winds from the equator. In Asia, Africa and Aus- 
 tralia most of the mountains extend east and west; be- 
 cause of this, these continents have many large regions 
 which are either entirely sterile or lack a sufficient amount 
 of rainfall needed for agricultural pursuits. 
 
30 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Forests. — The effects of forests on physical conditions 
 of a country are very great, although it is well to guard 
 against unsubstantiated assertions and indiscriminate argu- 
 ments relative to their far-reaching influence upon climate. 
 Some go so far as to confuse cause and effect, they attribute 
 the great amount of rainfall over the forest regions to the 
 presence of trees, and not the existence of trees to the 
 amount of rainfall and they ascribe every drought that 
 sweeps over a country not to the great cosmic influences, 
 but to forest destruction,, 
 
 The most immediately recognizable action of forests is 
 that upon the amount of moisture in their immediate vicin- 
 ity; this is not because forests produce rain, but because 
 they regulate the movement of rain water. Leaves, 
 branches and trunks retain some of this water and evap- 
 orate it, and the rain which passes through the growing 
 vegetation and falls on the ground meets a thick mass of 
 decayed leaves, twigs and trunks. As it gradually pene- 
 trates into the soil and the subsoil, the roots of trees draw 
 some of it back upward; they then pass it through their 
 trunks and branches to the leaves, returning it into the air 
 in the form of vapor. Thus the forest checks a too rapid 
 evaporation of water and preserves — even in dry weather 
 - — humid air and cool atmosphere. 
 
 The more uniform climatic conditions of the forest pre- 
 vail in its neighborhood, but the extent of this equalizing 
 influence depends upon the species of trees the forest is 
 composed of; narrow-leaved pines and firs have the least 
 effect, broad-leaved trees with dense foliage, like beeches, 
 the greatest; the location of the forest with reference to 
 winds is also of prime importance in this connection. 
 
 The effect of the forest on soil is a well-established 
 fact; the forest cover protects the soil from the disinte- 
 grating action of the atmosphere; the forest maintains 
 stable conditions on mountain slopes by preventing ero- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 31 
 
 sions and wash-outs and the blowing of shifting sands 
 down into the valleys. 
 
 More important from a national point of view than the 
 above-mentioned influences of the forest is its effect upon 
 the flow of streams and rivers. It has been computed that 
 the direct yearly damage by floods in the United States 
 has increased steadily since 1900 from $45,000,000 to $238,- 
 000,000, and the indirect loss is much greater than these 
 figures indicate. It is more than a significant coincidence 
 that the number and the violence of our floods grow with 
 the increased activity of the sawman and the axman in 
 the woods surrounding the head waters of our streams. 
 
 Not every deforestation brings flood, and not every 
 flood can be prevented by a forest, however great and noble 
 this forest may be; but it cannot be denied that many of 
 our woods which have been so ruthlessly destroyed, acted 
 as flood checks by distributing more evenly and over a 
 larger period of time the run-off of rain and snow water 
 which supplied our springs and brooks; this gave the rivers 
 a more steadfast flow; the incalculable value of the latter 
 cannot be overestimated. The speeding freshet, the river 
 risen above its banks, in addition to producing the horrors 
 and losses of destructive inundation tear away and carry 
 down to the sea soil matter, upon which depends the well 
 being and the prosperity of our farming population. It 
 has been estimated that the loss to upland farms through 
 soil erosion produced by freshets equals 500,000,000 a year. 
 The soil matter, stones and other debris accumulate at the 
 mouths, in the lower courses of rivers and in harbors; this 
 necessitates heavy expenditures for dredging, channel cut- 
 ting, bar-building. When the dry summer sets in, the tor- 
 rents subside, the springs and brooks dry out and the river 
 with its supply of water cut off, rapidly falls into its deeper 
 channels and becomes unnavigable. 
 
 Soil. — Plants can not thrive unless the nature of the 
 soil is favorable to their growth. Large crops can be pro- 
 
32 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 duced only on rich soils, soils containing a large store of 
 plant food, of nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. 
 
 Soils differ from one another physically and chemically. 
 
 The physical dissimilarity depends upon the condition 
 of the particles. They may be coarse or fine, porous or 
 compact and tenacious. Other things being equal, fine 
 soils are more fertile, that is, they supply food more plenti- 
 fully to the vegetation living upon them than coarse soils. 
 Porous soils are light and easily worked by the plow or 
 the spade; they permit the sinking of rain deep into them 
 and the rise of moisture from below to the surface (by 
 capillarity); these qualities make porous soils advanta- 
 geous to some plants, coffee in Brazil, and disadvantageous 
 to others, particularly those which require the retention 
 of a great deal of moisture around their roots. Porous 
 soils are usually dry and warm, while compact soils (clays) 
 are wet and cold. 
 
 Soils differ in their chemical composition with regard 
 to those substances which are made use of by plants as 
 food. These substances, besides nitrogen and phosphorus, 
 are potassium, magnesium, sulphur, iron and calcium. 
 Water dissolves them, and when they are dissolved they 
 are absorbed by the roots of the plants. This absorption 
 leads to soil exhaustion, unless something is done to re- 
 store the mineral matter. 
 
 The conservation of soil fertility is one of the greatest 
 problems confronting all nations. Most important meth- 
 ods used for the purpose of solving it are: (1) the rota- 
 tion of crops and (2) the use of fertilizers, either natural — 
 farm manure, or artificial — phosphate rocks, bone ash, cot- 
 ton seed refuse, seaweed, guano, etc. 
 
 TV. LOCALIZATION OF INDUSTRIES. 
 
 Industries are established in places where they can be 
 profitably carried on. The most important economic ad- 
 vantages leading to localization are: favorable climate, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 33 
 
 presence and accessibility of natural supplies, nearness to 
 the sources of raw materials, nearness to fuel, proximity 
 to water, accessibility to markets, supply of labor, supply 
 of capital, characteristics of people, the early inception of 
 an industry. 
 
 Favorable Climate. 
 
 The most evident influence of the climate is that 
 which it exercises upon commodities derived from the 
 vegetable kingdom. The successful growth of these com- 
 modities is dependent upon certain climatic conditions, 
 upon a certain degree of temperature and a certain 
 amount of rainfall at different seasons of the year. 
 Most animals obtain their sustenance from vegetation; in 
 addition to this they are very sensitive to heat and cold; 
 climate therefore affects both directly and indirectly ani- 
 mal life. Now, since most of the industries which supply 
 us with food, clothing and shelter derive their raw mater- 
 ials from either the vegetable or animal kingdoms, we can 
 readily understand the effect which climate has upon the 
 localization of some of the most valuable industrial activi- 
 ties. 
 
 Climate affects, not only the location of agriculture in 
 its various forms (raising of grains, horticulture, viticul- 
 ture, stock raising, dairying, etc.), but, also, the location of 
 a number of manufacturing industries. 
 
 The spinning of the finest cotton yarns has been made 
 possible in Lancashire, England, because of the extremely 
 moist atmosphere there. Germany and other countries 
 have made many attempts to compete with the superior 
 cotton fabrics of Lancashire, but these attempts thus far 
 have been failures because of the lack of suitable climatic 
 conditions in the localities where the competing mills and 
 factories were established. 
 
 The commercial result of this superiority of Lancashire 
 has been the movement of raw cotton from cotton-produc- 
 
 B — IV -—3 
 
34 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 ing regions in the United States, in India, and in Egypt 
 to Great Britain and the shipment by England of finished 
 cotton goods to various parts of the world, where the well- 
 to-do demand a fine grade of goods. The tobacco industry 
 is another illustration of the effects of climate upon local- 
 ization of production and of manufactures. The making 
 of good cigars and of high-grade cigarettes requires a dry 
 climate; on the other hand, the tobacco leaf needs for its 
 successful growth a great deal of humidity; therefore to- 
 bacco leaves are sometimes moved long distances from the 
 places where they are grown to the manufacturing estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 There is another very important climatic effect which 
 must not be overlooked, the effect upon the workman. 
 Where climatic conditions are favorable, where the winters 
 are not too cold, or the summers too hot, the laborer is 
 capable of working more efficiently, and of thus producing 
 better results. 
 
 Extractive industries, like mining, quarrying, or indus- 
 tries which obtain supplies from nature, like fishing, lum- 
 bering, fur and sponge collecting, are necessarily limited 
 in their localization by the presence and accessibility of 
 natural supplies. It is true that men stock rivers with 
 fish, and plant trees, but their efforts are insignificant 
 when compared with the work of nature, and all our in- 
 genuity and resourcefulness have not as yet enabled us to 
 create a coal mine or a marble quarry. 
 
 Nearness to the sources of raw materials determines 
 the location of a number of manufacturing industries. 
 Flour mills generally center in wheat districts, distilleries 
 in corn-producing regions; the making of wine is carried 
 on near vineyards and the canning of fruits and vegetables 
 near orchards and vegetable gardens. The wood-pulp 
 paper industry is established near spruce and poplar for- 
 ests; the pottery industry near clay beds; slaughtering and 
 meat packing in stock-raising localities. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 35 
 
 The reasons for the establishment of manufactures 
 close to the raw materials are, first, the saving on freight 
 charges which bear more heavily upon bulky raw products 
 than upon finished commodities; second, perishability of 
 certain classes of goods: fruits, vegetables, milk, fish, etc. 
 Refrigerator cars overcome to a certain extent this latter 
 difficulty, but refrigerator transportation is expensive. 
 
 Nearness to fuel is another important consideration. 
 Glass manufacturing is established near the sources of 
 natural gas (in Indiana, Ohio), because it requires large 
 quantities of pure fuel. Pennsylvania leads in iron and 
 steel production because of the beds of coal existing there. 
 
 Proximity to Water Power. 
 
 Many manufacturing plants are influenced in choice of 
 locality by proximity to water; such industries as make use 
 of heavy machinery (flour milling, log sawing and planing), 
 utilize running streams for power. The most modern use 
 of water as a motive power is for the generation of elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Accessibility to Markets. 
 
 Service and repair works must be situated in im- 
 mediate neighborhood of their customers. The lock- 
 smith and the plumber, the physician and the lawyer 
 are of comparatively little value unless they are on 
 the spot. But service and repair industries are not 
 the only ones that follow the consumers. Nearly 48 per 
 cent of the manufacturing of the United States is centered 
 in six states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This concen- 
 tration was caused mainly by the fact that when the manu- 
 facturing development of the country began, the bulk of 
 our population lived in these states and thus offered the 
 largest market for the sale of finished products. The in- 
 fluence of the market may be seen in the steady westward 
 
36 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 movement of our center of manufactures; in a general way 
 manufactures follow the movement of the consuming popu- 
 lation. However, the westward movement of manufactures 
 in the United States may be explained by other facts than 
 the movement of the markets. It is self-evident that the 
 American people do not go westward in the capacity of 
 consumers alone; they move as producers, and productive 
 industries necessarily follow them. 
 
 Nearness to raw materials and proximity to markets 
 must not be taken too literally. Good means of communi- 
 cation and transportation shorten distances and thus they 
 play an important role in localizing industries in response 
 to other factors besides geographic proximity, such as pres- 
 ence of skilled labor, accumulated capital, etc. 
 
 The supply of labor is a very important factor. Labor 
 cannot be moved from place to place as easily as a bale 
 of cotton or a barrel of sugar, and industries are not estab- 
 lished with the expectation that labor will come when it 
 is needed. 
 
 The matter of labor supply must be studied very care- 
 fully before enterprises are launched. Improved transpor- 
 tation facilities tend to make labor more mobile than it 
 was in former times. 
 
 Capital, which is needed for most of our enterprises, 
 is available wherever there are chances of secure and prof- 
 itable investment. However, a study of actual conditions 
 shows that capital is not as movable as many of the theo- 
 retical economists consider it. 1 ‘ It is almost as important,” 
 says Mr. Hall in the XII Census, “to have a supply of local 
 capital as it is to have a supply of local labor. Although 
 most large enterprises are now financed from the great 
 financial centers, the plants are located usually in places 
 which have already become industrial centers through the 
 efforts of the people there and by means of their money.” 
 
 Localities which have proved their worth by the accumu- 
 lation and the manipulation of local capital attract out- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 37 
 
 side investments more readily than untried places. The 
 Report of the Industrial Commission cites as one of the 
 causes for the establishment of cotton manufactures in 
 New Bedford, a successful fishing port, the supply of local 
 capital set free by the decline in the whaling industry. 
 The necessary local supply of labor came from the surplus 
 population on the New England farms. 
 
 Characteristics of People. 
 
 The pre-eminent position held by France in the produc- 
 tion of articles of taste and of beauty can be explained by 
 the presence of artistic ability in the French nation de- 
 veloped through centuries of effort and of achievement 
 in this direction. The painstaking, conscientiously atten- 
 tive to details, Germans lead in the production of such 
 things as require careful attention to details (chemicals, 
 dyes, etc.). 
 
 The early inception of an industry gives an unquestion- 
 able advantage to the locality where the particular industry 
 has been established. The continued pursuance of any 
 kind of work develops in the people technical knowledge 
 and skill, which helps materially in competition with 
 other localities. 
 
 Irregular and heavy taxation acts as a disturbing ele- 
 ment, in many instances as an effective hindrance, or a 
 barrier to industrial development. 
 
 Legislative enactments, i. e., protective tariffs, bounties, 
 etc., are often used for the purpose of creating and encour- 
 aging certain branches of industry. Govermental aid has 
 been invoked and successfully applied, especially in the 
 case of manufactures whose rise in a country may have 
 been prevented by artificial (historic) causes. A country 
 may be possessed of undeveloped resources, its people may 
 have latent qualities of character and temperament mak- 
 ing them fit for the greatest achievements in certain lines 
 of industrial endeavor, yet neither the one, nor the other 
 
38 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 may have had opportunities for development. Political or 
 religious dissensions, as was the case in Germany and is 
 yet the case in Austria-Hungary, subjugation to a foreign 
 power — Russia under the Tartar rule — may have acted as 
 checks upon industrial progress. When these conditions 
 are removed, a country may find itself confronted by for- 
 midable, fully developed economic rivals. For the purpose 
 of protecting its newly created industries against power- 
 ful foreign competition the Government imposes customs 
 duties or grants subsidies and bounties. Thus aided and 
 protected the industries may grow, and if there are no 
 natural and permanent causes preventing their successful 
 pursuit, they may soon become capable of holding their 
 own at home and of competing abroad. 
 
 Y. COMMERCIAL ROUTES. 
 
 The influence of commercial routes uniting the nations 
 of the world and bringing the products of one within easy 
 reach of another may be seen at each stage of our daily 
 existence, in the food we eat, in the material and cut of 
 our clothing, in the furnishings of our homes and our pub- 
 lic buildings, in our thoughts and actions when we are 
 at work, and in our recreations when we are at play. 
 
 Great changes have taken place within the last few 
 decades in the social and economic life of the world. It 
 has been customary to explain these changes by referring 
 to the application of physical, mechanical and chemical dis- 
 coveries upon industrial arts. However, this explanation 
 is hardly sufficient as it begets a perplexing question: why 
 have industrial laborers who for centuries fought innova- 
 tions, who attacked and stoned the inventors and destroyed 
 their creations, why have they changed their attitude 
 towards research laboratories and mechanical shops, why 
 have they adopted steam and electrically driven motors 
 and all labor-saving machinery and devices. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 39 
 
 If we attempt to answer this question, we must come 
 to the conclusion that the modem technique of production 
 has been brought about by some extraneous revolutioniz- 
 ing influence. It was the application of modern scientific 
 inventions upon means of locomotion which made impos- 
 sible the retention of old methods of production; it was 
 the commercial route traversed by the locomotive, the 
 steamer and the electric flash which destroyed the long 
 honored shoemaker’s bench and his primitive tools for mak- 
 ing shoes and which substituted for small shops and house 
 industry large centrally located establishments from which 
 great masses of products are yearly distributed to every 
 nook and corner of the globe. 
 
 The sensitiveness of modern business, a demand for 
 goods in one locality makes the whole world vibrate with 
 the news of it; the despatch with which wares are shipped 
 from place to place at short notice, and the small cost of 
 transportation have compelled people to inventiveness, 
 activity, eagerness to adopt every new mechanism which 
 permits them to meet competition and perhaps to reach 
 out for their share in the world’s trade and the profits it 
 brings. 
 
 The network of commercial routes which cross and re- 
 cross the world in many directions and which are so ca- 
 pably managed and used by modern commerce produced 
 many notable results. A line of transportation 4 4 makes 
 the whole world kin.” The possibility to display tropical 
 fruits in the shops of New York and Boston in the midst 
 of severe winter weather and to sell them advantageously 
 has awakened from legarthy many districts in Porto Rico, 
 Cuba, Jamaica and other West Indian Islands, and the 
 introduction to the most remote corners of the earth of 
 ready-made garments, tinned meats and canned fruits and 
 vegetables, of kerosene and various utility articles has 
 transformed the lives of millions. 
 
40 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Our commerce has taken on some remarkable aspects. 
 The shipping of coals to Newcastle is today a reality which 
 has assumed many extraordinary forms. The improved 
 commercial route permitted the shipment of sauerkraut 
 from Chicago to Hamburg, of “Rhine wine” from California 
 to Germany, of potatoes from Maine to Ireland, of cut- 
 lery from Pittsburg to Sheffield and of cotton goods from 
 New England to Manchester. The improved route led also 
 to the migration of thousands of Slavs from the agricul- 
 tural communities of Russia and Austria-Hungary to the 
 slaughtering and meat-packing establishments and to the 
 steel mills of Chicago and has helped to rear our modern 
 cities with their slums, poverty, squalor and degradation 
 on one hand, and splendor, luxury and achievements on 
 the other. 
 
 Another important result of improved means of trans- 
 portation was the settlement of new countries, possessing 
 virgin soil and abundant mineral resources. These coun- 
 tries, by means of steamers, were connected with each 
 other and with the old world. It was this that made it 
 possible for the densely populated districts of northwest- 
 ern Europe to become great manufacturing centers, draw- 
 ing a large part of their food supplies and raw materials 
 from America, Asia, Africa and Australia, and exporting 
 manufactured products in exchange. It led to specializa- 
 tion in the industrial world, with all the benefits which 
 accrue from such a specialization adapted to natural con- 
 ditions and to historic influences. 
 
 Modern commercial routes of national and international 
 significance are either railways or waterways. 
 
 Public Highways. 
 
 Public highways are of enormous value for local traffic 
 and as feeders of railways; because of this their improve- 
 ment cannot be urged too strongly; but for long distance 
 transportation they do not meet our present requirements 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 41 
 
 of speed, safety and cheapness, and they are therefore 
 used only in exceptional cases, where no other facilities 
 exist. 
 
 Common highways are comparatively inefficient be- 
 cause of the great amount of friction between the road and 
 the vehicle, and everything that tends toward eliminat- 
 ing this is of vast commercial value. The greater the fric- 
 tion, the more difficult is the advantageous use of large 
 vehicles and of mechanical motors. 
 
 According to some computations (it is difficult to arrive 
 at exact estimates), if we consider the amount of friction 
 on the canal as 1, it equals 5 on a railway, 33 on a macadam- 
 ized road and 80 on an ordinary highway. The respective 
 efficiency of various roadbeds would perhaps be made 
 clearer, if we realize that if one horse can pull a given load 
 on iron rails, it will be able to move about one-half of the 
 same load on asphalt pavement, one-seventh of it upon 
 good cobble stone, one-twentieth upon an earth road and 
 one-fortieth upon sand. The figures show not only the 
 superiority of waterways and railways over common high- 
 ways, but also the comparative efficiency of the various 
 kinds of highways. 
 
 Most of the ordinary wagon roads in the United States 
 have been neglected. Our vast stretches of sparsely popu- 
 lated territory needed the service of railways; and rail- 
 ways were therefore built with a rapidity unknown in any 
 other part of the world ; but we must not overlook the fact, 
 which is each day brought home to us with greater force, 
 that our commerce and general intercourse are dependent 
 upon public roads, that neither the railway, nor the water- 
 way can replace them in their many important functions; 
 that almost every commodity at some period of its com- 
 mercial existence is conveyed over a public highway (from, 
 to or at the terminals) and that the cost of such transporta- 
 tion bears heavily upon the price of goods. It has been 
 estimated that the bad roads in the United States cost 
 
42 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 the people about $500,000,000 a year; the estimate cannot 
 be substantiated by definite data, but it certainly is very 
 suggestive. It costs less to transport commodities from 
 New York to San Francisco or from Melbourne to London, 
 than it does at some seasons to move them a few miles 
 over many of our common roads. 
 
 Good roads would be of incalculable value to our farmers 
 by giving them a greater period of time for the market- 
 ing of crops and by increasing the number of market places 
 which they could reach; they would help the population 
 of our towns and cities by enabling them to buy farm prod- 
 ucts more cheaply than they do now. Existing road con- 
 ditions compel farmers to market their products at certain 
 times of the year, and all products at the same time. The 
 overstocking of the city market forces the price down to 
 the detriment of the farmer, but without benefiting the final 
 consumer. The produce is bought up by commission mer- 
 chants and speculators in general, and after this is done 
 the price is raised. Good roads would aid in changing all 
 this, as well as in improving the character of farming in 
 many of our rural communities; they would permit the 
 planting of flowers and vegetables, the raising of poultry, 
 etc., in localities which with present conditions of trans- 
 portation are unable to market perishable goods. They 
 would permit the country merchant to replenish his stores 
 as the occasion demands instead of filling his warerooms 
 with merchandise in anticipation of bad weather, thus im- 
 mobilizing his capital, stretching his credit and compelling 
 his customers to use stale goods. 
 
 Good roads would benefit railways by freeing them 
 from unnecessary spasmodic transportation; at present, 
 notwithstanding the fact that railways are spending large 
 sums of money on their rolling stock, they are at times 
 unable to handle the freight, while at other times a large 
 part of their equipment is idle because no produce can be 
 brought to or from the stations. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 43 
 
 When we come to consider the work of improving wagon 
 roads the problem confronting us is: what shall be the 
 character of the improvements? Those technically best are 
 not always the most desirable economically. A steel 
 bridge is a vast improvement over a wooden trestle, and 
 many magnificent steel bridges stand as monuments to the 
 technical skill and to the business acumen of our age, but 
 who would advise constructing a steel bridge over a wide 
 river in order to connect two small village communities 
 lying outside the regular transcontinental traffic? We 
 spend large sums of money to lay asphalt pavements in 
 the residential districts of our prosperous cities, but a ma- 
 cadamized road is all we need and can hope for in rural 
 communities. It is true that to some extent roads create 
 traffic, but this additional traffic can be taken into con- 
 sideration at the time of making improvements; we can 
 estimate it more or less accurately if we know the geo- 
 graphical position of the place, its resources, the density 
 of its population and the character of the people. 
 
 The initial cost of constructing a common wagon road 
 is small as compared with the expense of building a rail- 
 way or a canal, but the cost of maintenance is compara- 
 tively high, and a poorly built road in case of heavy traffic, 
 for which it is not adapted, is a continuous source of out- 
 lay for repairs. 
 
 Railroads and Inland Waterways. 
 
 Steam and electric railroads represent the highest 
 types of land transportation. The part railroads have 
 played in the economic development of the United States 
 and in other countries is too well known to need here any- 
 thing more than general mention. 
 
 The United States possesses over 230,000 miles of rail- 
 roads, which is more than the combined railway mileage 
 of all Europe. In 1908, the American railways carried 
 close to 2,000,000,000 tons of freight and about 900,000,000 
 
44 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 passengers. In 1889 the amount of freight carried was 540,- 
 000,000 tons and the number of passengers was 472,000,- 
 000. The amount of freight carried in Great Britain and 
 Ireland was 297,000,000 tons in 1889, and 444,000,000 tons 
 in 1903; the number of passengers 775,000,000 in 1889, and 
 1,195,000,000 in 1903. Our steam railroads carry fewer 
 passengers than those of England because our electric trac- 
 tion trolley lines are more developed. 
 
 Products of mines represent approximately over 50 per 
 cent of our total freight tonnage, with manufactures as a 
 poor second (about 13 per cent), closely followed by the 
 products of forests and of agriculture. 
 
 Regularity, punctuality and speed are the main charac- 
 teristics cf railway transportation, characteristics essen- 
 tial for the movement of passengers, mail and express mat- 
 ter, perishable goods and all objects which require de- 
 spatch and are able to pay for a quick service. Our rail- 
 roads also carry exceptionally large masses of very heavy 
 and bulky commodities which frequently overtax their 
 carrying capacity. Such transportation of heavy and 
 bulky goods has disadvantages for both the shippers and 
 the railroads. Railroads must charge for this kind of 
 service very low rates, often out of proportion with their 
 efficiency, otherwise the freight will not be moved at all, 
 not being able to stand high transportation charges; but 
 however low the price, it is usually too high for the ship- 
 per, whose cement, coal or iron ore could be moved by 
 means of shallow inland waterways and barge canals just 
 as well as by railways and at a much lower cost. 
 
 Until recently most of the rivers in the United States 
 have been neglected. Our Government appropriates annu- 
 ally, under the River and Harbor Bill, money for the work 
 of dredging river channels and constructing dams and 
 locks, so as to facilitate shipping; but the sums raised have 
 been comparatively small, and a lack of interest in inland 
 waterways was manifested through the second half of the 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 45 
 
 nineteenth century both by public authorities and by the 
 people. 
 
 At the beginning of the railroad era it seemed for a time 
 as though railways would be able to take care of all land 
 traffic. 
 
 The possibility of reaching a desired point and of reach- 
 ing it directly, without being compelled to follow a tor- 
 tuous river course, of overcoming almost any obstacle in 
 the configuration of land, of linking different lines together 
 and thus forming a network of uniform transportation fa- 
 cilities over which cargoes can be moved without the ne- 
 cessity of reloading until they arrive at their place of 
 destination, are some of the advantages of railways. To 
 these advantages may be added the possibility of using 
 railways throughout the entire year, at night as well as in 
 the day time, in summer as well as in winter. 
 
 A heavy snow storm may stop the traffic for a short 
 time, but tracks are quickly cleared and trains are rushed 
 on, through tunnels, over bridges spanning ice-bound 
 rivers, rapids and streams, from the bottoms of valleys 
 to the summits of mountains, passing fields, orchards and 
 deserts, mining camps and factory sites, hamlets, villages, 
 and cities, stopping here and there and speeding on again, 
 bringing passengers and freight across continents. 
 
 If to the fascinating romance of railways, we add the 
 large profits which they yield, we can easily understand 
 why they not only attracted public attention and absorbed 
 the technical ability of the world, but why they also com- 
 manded the purse of the capitalist, and why, with their 
 coming, the river and the canal were relegated to a second 
 place. But the steel rail and the locomotive gave such an 
 impetus to industry and commerce, opened to the toil of 
 man so many fields of activity, in such widely scattered 
 localities that they are no longer able to cope with the re- 
 sultant traffic, notwithstanding they endeavor to meet the 
 requirements of an ever-increasing commerce. Less than 
 
46 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 25 years ago the average capacity of our freight cars was 
 10 tons, and the capacity of locomotives was 20 to 30 of 
 such cars to the train. At present we have cars holding 
 up to 50 tons and locomotives drawing from 80 to 90 of 
 such cars loaded to their full capacity. But for their own 
 good and for the good of the country, railways must be 
 relieved of a certain part of this traffic. 
 
 In Europe this has been understood earlier than in 
 the United States, and the river and the barge canal play 
 there an important role in land transportation. 
 
 It is true that inland waterways may to some extent 
 act as competitors of railways; they may keep the freight 
 rates down, but water competition is not so dangerous as 
 the early railway promoters and operators pictured it to 
 themselves. High-grade traffic seeks the railway and is 
 both capable and willing to pay the charges; improved 
 waterways tend to increase the tonnage of this high-grade 
 traffic by permitting the development of many natural re- 
 sources and deposits which cannot be touched when the 
 high cost of transportation prevents their shipments to 
 the manufacturing plants. 
 
 The Pacific and the Atlantic coasts of the United States 
 are at present connected by five great transcontinental 
 lines: Union and Central Pacific, from San Francisco to 
 New York, via Omaha; Southern Pacific, from San Fran- 
 cisco to New York, via New Orleans; Atchison, Topeka and 
 Santa Fe, from San Diego to New York, via Chicago; 
 Northern Pacific, from Seattle to New York, via St. Paul; 
 and Great Northern, from Everett to New York, via St. 
 Paul. 
 
 The railways of the United States are private corpora- 
 tions; recently they have been consolidated to such a de- 
 gree that practically all important lines have passed to 
 the control of a few groups of financiers. 
 
 In many countries (Germany, Eussia), railways are 
 owned and controlled by the state. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 47 
 
 Inland waterways are divided into natural and arti- 
 ficial waterways. The natural waterways include inland 
 lakes and rivers, even when the latter are improved by 
 dredging their channels, shortening their windings or by 
 other constructions for the benefit of navigation. Arti- 
 ficial waterways are canals. These are of two general 
 classes: those constructed to connect separate waterways 
 and those built to overcome obstacles to navigation pre- 
 sented by a river or a lake course. Most of the canals in 
 the United States belong to the second class, a notable 
 exception to it being the Erie Canal connecting the Hudson 
 River and the Great Lakes. This canal is being enlarged 
 at an expense of $100,000,000 by the State of New York, 
 and when the improvements are completed, it will be able 
 to accommodate mechanically propelled barges of 1,000 
 tons capacity. 
 
 The relative cost of transportation on various inland 
 routes is approximately as follows: 25 cents per ton mile 
 on our common roads; between 7 and 8 mills on our rail- 
 ways; about 3 mills on the Erie Canal. In 1907 at “The 
 Soo” canal freight was carried into and out of Lake Super- 
 ior at 8-10 of one mill per ton mile and the rate on coal 
 from Pittsburg to New Orleans was only 1-3 of one mill 
 (via Ohio and Mississippi rivers). 
 
 There are in the United States 287 streams navigated 
 for an aggregate of 26,226 miles, and 45 canals with a mile- 
 age of 2,189, besides numerous abandoned canals. 
 
 The Ocean. 
 
 The ocean is the great highway of international trade. 
 In many instances it is the only connecting road between 
 nation and nation, as well as being the freest and the 
 cheapest of all means of transportation. 
 
 Railways require an expensive artificial roadbed, the 
 expense varying with the configuration of land and the cost 
 of acquiring the right of way if the territory to be crossed 
 
48 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 belongs to private individuals and corporations; common 
 roads must be improved before they can be used exten- 
 sively and advantageously for light and heavy traffic; 
 rivers require dredging, canalization, etc., but the ocean, 
 the vast, deep ocean, requires no preparatory work and is 
 ever ready for service. In addition to this, it offers un- 
 rivaled opportunities for using the most powerful motors 
 and the largest vehicles that modern skill and ingenuity 
 are able to devise; this leads to the utmost utilization of 
 both space and power and is the reason of the cheapness 
 of the ocean freight rates. These rates are less than land 
 rates because it costs less to give the service and because 
 of the fact that agreements, combinations and consolida- 
 tions are so much easier effected in case of railway than in 
 case of ocean transportation. 
 
 It requires comparatively little capital to enter as a 
 competitor for a share of the world’s traffic on sea; the 
 roadbed is given by nature, the harbors are open to all, 
 terminal facilities being usually provided by municipali- 
 ties, states or private corporations, if individuals own the 
 water front; the vehicle is the only item of expense. If 
 one contrasts this with years of arduous labor and the 
 tremendous investments of capital involved in the con- 
 struction of a transcontinental line, one will realize why 
 railway transportation tends to monopoly, while water 
 transportation is open to the play of free competition. 
 
 Traffic agreements amongst ocean carriers have been 
 frequently concluded, but they are usually unstable. The 
 incentive to cut rates and thus obtain a temporary ad- 
 vantage of increased traffic is too tempting for many of the 
 ship owners to withstand, especially in dull times, and then 
 there is the ever-present possibility of new competitors 
 entering the field. There is no bar to the ship owner’s 
 transferring his activity from one ocean route to another; 
 there is nothing that can keep the individual ship from 
 entering any harbor where there is freight and offering her 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 49 
 
 services, irrespective of conferences and agreements 
 amongst companies which do the work regularly. 
 
 Ocean commerce is maintained by steamers and by sail- 
 ing vessels. 
 
 The sailing vessel is to a very large extent dependent 
 upon winds, currents and weather conditions in general; 
 this has an important bearing upon her usefulness. The 
 steamer, with a much greater power of guidance and re- 
 sistance, is influenced in her course by different factors 
 than those which influence a sailer. The desire to save 
 time 'and fuel leads the steamer to go in more or less 
 straight lines, deviations being made only to avoid rocks, 
 icebergs and very thick fog. Therefore, the sailing ves- 
 sel crosses the sea more slowly than the steamer, not only 
 because her speed is usually unequal to that of the latter, 
 but also because of the fact that she can seldom use the 
 shortest distance between two points; her movements are 
 more or less lateral, and she is often compelled to go 
 hundreds of miles out of her course in search of favorable 
 or to avoid unfavorable conditions. This makes the sail- 
 ing vessel, in addition to being slow, a nondependable me- 
 dium of transportation, unfit for such traffic as requires 
 speed and punctuality. Few of our business transactions 
 can stand delays and uncertainty of deliveries. This ex- 
 plains why sailing vessels, notwithstanding their compara- 
 tively cheap rates, are being rapidly displaced upon all 
 seas by the more expensive steamers. 
 
 The sailer’s rates are lower than those of the steamer 
 because the cost of her construction is small, her motor 
 power is provided by nature, and as machinery occupies 
 an insignificant part of her space, practically all of her 
 room is available for freight. Only about 5 per cent of 
 the carrying capacity in a sailing vessel is lost, as com- 
 pared with an approximate loss of 35 per cent in a steam- 
 er. 
 
 B — IT— 4 
 
50 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 The respective position of the steamer and the sailer 
 as carriers of freight (passenger traffic has passed to the 
 steamer entirely) may be judged from the following fig- 
 ures. In 1875 the gross tonnage of sailing vessels was 
 14,523,000 tons; that of the steamers 5,226,000 tons; in 1904 
 the sail tonnage fell to 7,812,000 tons, and the steam ton- 
 nage increased to 27,900,000 tons. The data do not show 
 the exact proportion of the work done by the two carriers, 
 as the efficiency of the steamer, because of the rapidity 
 with which she delivers cargoes and is ready for new ser- 
 vice, must be placed much higher than the efficiency of 
 a sailer; it is usually considered as 4 for steam to 1 in 
 favor of sail. If we take the matter of respective efficiency 
 into account, we come to the conclusion that in 1904 not 
 more than about 5 per cent of the world’s shipping was 
 done in sailing vessels. 
 
 The present most conspicuous uses of the sailer are 
 in the lumber coasting trade in America and in other parts 
 of the world, in the carriage of grain from Pacific Coast 
 harbors to Europe, and of nitrate of soda from Chile; but 
 even in these cases sailers are losing ground; specially 
 constructed steamers to meet the requirements of this 
 traffic are driving them from their last field of regular 
 activity, leaving for them only spasmodic trade over long 
 distances. 
 
 The sailing vessel is often a desirable vehicle for goods 
 on hand sold for future delivery, A long voyage is then 
 welcome because it saves storage expenses at either or 
 both terminals. 
 
 Steamship transportation may be divided into regular 
 (line) and irregular (charter) traffic. 
 
 Those parts of modern commerce which require punc- 
 tual and regular deliveries, such as the shipment of high- 
 grade goods, of mail and express matter, cannot depend 
 upon the spasmodic services of a chartered ship. These 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 51 
 
 articles, just as passengers, require definitely known dates 
 of departure and arrival, the keeping up of a schedule. 
 
 Line traffic is maintained between harbors which by 
 the amount and character of their shipping warrant such 
 a service (New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San 
 Francisco, London, Liverpool, Hamburg, etc.). It entails 
 many expenses not to be found in the charter traffic. The 
 maintenance of a schedule is costly as the vessel must de- 
 part upon a certain date, whether she is fully loaded or 
 not, and if she is loaded before time, she must wait for 
 her scheduled date. Harbors indicated in the schedule 
 must be entered, whether the cargoes warrant this or not. 
 Because of these conditions extensive advertising cam- 
 paigns are conducted, especially in order to attract pas- 
 senger (tourist and emigrant) traffic. The notice in the 
 newspaper, the magazine article, the chromo, the illustrat- 
 ed booklet, the luxuriously appointed office, the persua- 
 sive agent are some of the expenses of line traffic not char- 
 acteristic of charter transportation. To these we may add 
 the greater cost of constructing liners and larger expense 
 of operating them (more numerous crews, greater con- 
 sumption of coal, etc.). On the other hand, the superior- 
 ity of the line traffic service commands a higher freight 
 and passenger rate. 
 
 Charter Traffic. — Amongst the hundreds of the world’s 
 ports, there are comparatively few whose commerce is suf- 
 ficiently large, diversified and evenly distributed through- 
 out the year to keep line steamers busy. Most of the har- 
 bors have only a few commodities for shipment, and these 
 only at certain seasons of the year. Goods shipped from 
 these harbors are usually raw or half-finished materials, 
 inexpensive, heavy and bulky. This traffic is carried on 
 by independent cargo boats, called tramps, which are char- 
 tered by the shippers as the occasion warrants. The traf- 
 fic is known as charter traffic. The difficult work of bring- 
 ing ships to the cargoes and providing cargoes for ships 
 
52 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 evolves upon ship brokers and steamship agents, and is 
 made possible only through a careful organization. A 
 chain of correspondents in all countries keeps the steam- 
 ship agents posted of the requirements of the widely scat- 
 tered harbors and of the whereabouts of the thousands 
 of tramp steamers which rove the seas in quest of freight. 
 
 Ship owners when making contracts consider possibili- 
 ties of return cargoes and make their charges according^. 
 The amount of freight moved to and from a point is not 
 always the same in both directions. This often necessi- 
 tates the sending of ships to places where no return freight 
 may be procured. Shipments offered by the near-by ports 
 are then considered. A ship owner may accept freight 
 at a certain rate from Liverpool to Paraguay, because he 
 can get a cargo from Argentine to the United States and 
 from the latter place to Europe. If no cargo can be pro- 
 cured, vessels, for the purpose of sea-steadiness, must carry 
 ballast. Modern large steamers have compartments for 
 water ballast, which insures quick loading and unloading, 
 the operation not interfering with any other work on the 
 steamer; but most of the cheaply constructed charter ves- 
 sels lack such compartments, and thousands of tons of 
 stone and sand are carried by these steamers from port 
 to port. Because of the necessity for carrying ballast any 
 freight is considered better than none, and ships are will- 
 ing to take it at any price. Coal is frequently such freight; 
 the transoceanic shipments of coal have been made possi- 
 ble by the uneven distribution of traffic in both directions. 
 Vessels can be chartered at a rate of from 7 to 8 shillings 
 a ton from Newcastle or Cardiff to San Francisco, because 
 of the return cargo of wheat from the last-named harbor, 
 wheat paying for the same distance from 40 to 50 shill- 
 ings a ton. Japan exports coal notwithstanding her need 
 for it at home and its comparatively poor quality, because 
 Japan is an importer of bulky freight and has only light 
 cargoes for return shipments. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 53 
 
 Ocean Routes. — Ocean transportation is similar to land 
 transportation in that it has both main routes and branch 
 lines or feeders. 
 
 The chief ocean route is the one leading from eastern 
 North America to western Europe. Its trunk line con- 
 nects New York and other Atlantic ports of the United 
 States and Canada with the harbors of Great Britain, Ger- 
 many and France. This North Atlantic trunk route has 
 a number of feeders from and to the ports of the Mediter- 
 ranean and Baltic Sea in Europe and the Gulf of Mexico 
 and the Caribbean Sea in the United States. 
 
 The route second in importance to the North Atlantic 
 is the one to the Orient via the Mediterranean and the 
 Suez^ Canal. It connects the eastern part of the United 
 States and western and southern Europe with India, the 
 East Indies, China and Japan. Sailing vessels are barred 
 from this route because of the unfavorable winds in the 
 Mediterranean, the rocks, narrow passages and calms in 
 the Red Sea, and the high tolls at Suez. 
 
 The South African route is used for trade with South 
 Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The route is often 
 called Good Hope Route because it curves at the Cape 
 of Good Hope around the African continent. It is an es- 
 pecially good sailing track, in view of the regularity of 
 the prevailing winds in the tropics, and of all the sail- 
 ing lines, this is the most extensively used. 
 
 A route around South America (Cape Horn Route) 
 connects the Pacific coast of North and South America 
 with the Atlantic coast of America and Europe. 
 
 The Pacific Ocean route unites western North America 
 with eastern Asia. Following the great circle (which be- 
 cause of the spherical shape of the earth is the shortest 
 distance between two points), it skirts the ocean at a high 
 latitude; only those steamers which call at Hawaii pass 
 farther south into mid-ocean and thus add considerably to 
 their distance, more than 800 miles. The lines originate 
 
54 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 at Puget Sound, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego 
 in the United States and Manzanillo in Mexico and con- 
 verge at Yokohama, radiating from there to other Japa- 
 nese ports, to Manila, or to the mainland of the Asiatic 
 Continent. 
 
 The Pacific coast-Australasian trunk line leads from 
 San Francisco, Puget Sound and Vancouver to the ports 
 of Australia and New Zealand (Melbourne, Sydney, Auk- 
 land, etc.). The course is either via Honolulu or via Tahiti 
 in the Society Islands. 
 
 The enumerated routes are the main avenues of the 
 world’s commerce, but they are far from giving a com- 
 plete idea of all ocean lines, uniting the hundreds of sea- 
 ports, lines running into and overlapping each other. 
 
 Ship Canals connecting great bodies of water and of 
 sufficient depth and width to accommodate modern steam- 
 ers are few in number and of comparatively recent con- 
 struction. The oldest of these artificial waterways is the 
 Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red 
 Sea; it was completed in 1869. The canal is the longest of all 
 the existing canals, its total length being 90 miles. It was 
 enlarged in 1896, and its present dimensions give it a depth 
 of 31 feet (at low water) and a width at the bottom of 
 108 feet and at the surface of 420 feet. The proposed 
 new enlargement, necessitated by the ever-increasing size 
 and draught of the steamers, will increase the depth to 
 34.5 feet; the work is now in progress. The cost of the 
 canal in its present form is about $100,000,000. The num- 
 ber of vessels that passed it increased from 486 with a 
 gross tonnage of 655,000 tons in 1870 to 3,441 with a gross 
 tonnage of 13,700,000 tons in 1900. The canal has no 
 locks, being at the sea-level its entire distance. Pas- 
 sages are made at night as well as in the day, electric 
 lights being installed throughout the length of the canal. 
 The tolls charged are slightly over $2 per ton. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 55 
 
 The great commercial significance of the Suez Canal 
 lies in the fact that it saves nearly 3,000 leagues on the 
 voyage from the harbors of western Europe to the East. 
 Its effect upon shipping to and from the countries of the 
 Orient (India, China, Japan) was immediate and decisive; 
 because of it, the steamer replaced the sailing vessel in 
 the oriental trade, and goods instead of being on the road 
 the larger part of the year reach their destination in a 
 few weeks. 
 
 The Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, completed in 1895, connects 
 the Baltic and the North seas; it lies within German terri- 
 tory. The length of the canal is 61 miles and its depth 
 29 1-2 feet. Although constructed chiefly for military pur- 
 poses (to strengthen the German navy), it benefits com- 
 merce by making it possible for the merchant vessels to 
 dispense with the route around Denmark. Its tonnage 
 approximates 5,500,000 tons a year. 
 
 The Corinth Canal, the least important of the now ex- 
 isting canals constructed to shorten ocean routes, was com- 
 pleted in 1893. It is four miles long and connects the 
 Gulf of Corinth, in Greece, with the Gulf of Aegina. Al- 
 though the tolls are only 18 cents per ton, the traffic is 
 much smaller than was estimated, most of the larger ships 
 preferring the open sea route. The bottom width of the 
 canal is only about 68 feet and its depth is a little over 
 26 feet. The cost of construction was $13,750,000. 
 
 The Panama Canal, when completed, will have a far- 
 reaching effect upon the shipping and the commerce of 
 the world. It will shorten considerably, the routes con- 
 necting the Pacific coast of North, Central and South 
 America with the Gulf and the Atlantic ports of Mexico, 
 the United States, and Canada, as well as the routes con- 
 necting the Atlantic seaboard with China, Japan and 
 Australia. As projected, it will have a depth of 35 feet 
 and will cost close to $200,000,000. 
 
56 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Of the canals built for the purpose of extending an 
 ocean route from the sea inland the most recent and most 
 important is the Manchester Ship Canal, constructed at 
 a cost of $75,000,000. It is 35 1-2 miles long and has a 
 depth of 26 feet at low water; the depth is being increased 
 at present to 28 feet. The canal made Manchester a sea- 
 port. 
 
 The Sault St. Mary’s Fall Canals, one belonging to the 
 United States, another to Canada, connect Lake Superior 
 with Lake Huron. The registered tonnage of steamers 
 that passed the canals in 1900 was close to 20,000,000 tons, 
 or considerably larger than the Suez Canal tonnage. 
 
 Other ship canals are the Willard Canal between Lake 
 Ontario and Lake Erie, around Niagara Falls, in Canada, 
 the Elba and Trave Canal, in Germany, and the Cyonstadt 
 and St. Petersburg Canal, in Russia. 
 
 VI. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CENTERS. 
 
 Modern cities are centers for collecting, manufactur- 
 ing, storing and distributing commodities; therefore, their 
 sites are determined by those factors which lead towards 
 localization of industry and commerce in a particular ter- 
 ritory and by those elements which tend towards concen- 
 trating the work upon a limited area. The causes of local- 
 ization were considered in IV ; as to the concentration of 
 industry, and the growth of cities, they are brought about: 
 
 (1) by the complexity of modern manufacturing processes 
 requiring large establishments and complicated machinery, 
 
 (2) by the demand for masses of cheap goods of a stand- 
 ard type and quality the sale of which is made possible 
 and profitable only through large outputs from mills and 
 factories employing many laboring hands, (3) by the im- 
 provements in the means of transportation which break 
 up small local industries, giving a decided advantage to 
 those centers where goods may be produced cheaply. Im- 
 proved means of locomotion are perhaps responsible for 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 57 
 
 the growth of cities more than any other single factor. 
 In addition to permitting the distribution of city products, 
 they supply urban populations with the necessary provis- 
 ions (milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, fish, etc.) and encour- 
 age and facilitate the spreading of residential districts 
 by keeping them in touch with the centrally located busi- 
 ness sections. 
 
 In most cities there is a close inter-relation of the in- 
 dustrial and commercial activities; mills and factories 
 bring with them offices for the sale of goods, as well as 
 a body of brokers or intermediaries between buyers and 
 sellers; they make necessary warehouses for storing mer- 
 chandise, shipping agencies, insurance companies and 
 banks; the country inn becomes a large hotel, the small 
 accommodation shop a department store; wholesale and 
 retail districts make their appearance; and thus we have 
 a modern city, with huge railway terminals, newspaper 
 offices and theaters, educational and philanthropic insti- 
 tutions; a city with all its ceaseless activity, drawing upon 
 the resources of the surrounding localities, which fall with- 
 in the sphere of its influence, exchanging the goods of 
 these localities for products of other regions both at home 
 and abroad. The size of the city is largely determined 
 by the size and the economic value of its hinterland, its 
 tributary territory. 
 
 A modern city is primarily a center of exchange, and 
 if some of our towns developed from manufacturing cen- 
 ters, in places where abundance of fuel and raw materials 
 made their existence possible, most of the largest cities 
 of today were not influenced either in their birth or in 
 their growth by these factors. 
 
 The leading cities of the United States, with the ex- 
 ception of Washington — our national capital, are located 
 either on the seacoast (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
 Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, or on 
 the Great Lakes and the navigable ports of the Mississippi 
 
SIMON LITMAN 
 
 and Ohio rivers (Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, 
 Buffalo, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Pittsburg). 
 In other countries we find the same conditions : the largest 
 cities are either near the open sea or on the banks of navi- 
 gable rivers or lakes. 
 
 Some of the inland towns grew because they were locat- 
 ed at a place where numerous railways met, just as some 
 of the older cities owed their prosperity to the fact that 
 they were established at places where a number of over- 
 land trade routes crossed or converged. Indianapolis and 
 Denver are good illustrations of the first case, Vienna and 
 Paris of the second. 
 
 A number of other causes have led to the building of 
 cities on their present sites. Proximity to water power 
 has caused the establishment of a number of towns in New 
 England and in the North Atlantic States; strategic rea- 
 sons called for military stations and posts, and under their 
 protection trading centers developed; a convenient posi- 
 tion in a prosperous agricultural community or in any 
 other productive region may act as a stimulus towards 
 creating a local social and business center, etc. 
 
 Good harbors are of paramount importance to a na- 
 tion. Such harbors must not only be advantageously sit- 
 uated on an indented coast line, sheltered from adverse 
 influences but they also must be properly constructed and 
 effectively managed. Without such harbors the commerce 
 of a country is sorely handicapped. There is a correlation 
 between the ship, a unit of transportation, and the harbor, 
 her terminal. Harbors are the work of nature and man; in 
 some places nature 9 s contribution is of such character as 
 to make the work of man comparatively easy; nature pro- 
 vides a spacious bay with a safe entrance to it; it gives 
 depth of water, exemption from sands and rocks, freedom 
 from heavy tides and dangerous winds. But in no in- 
 stance has a modern seaport developed and assumed a 
 commanding position in international trade by relying upon 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 59 
 
 natural advantages alone. Nearly all harbors require more 
 or less heavy expenditures to fit them for shipping; they 
 require permanent waterfront improvements, extensive 
 piers, electric and hydraulic cranes for loading and un- 
 loading, warehouses and elevators; most of them demand 
 also the extending and deepening of channels leading to 
 and from the harbor, and this latter demand becomes more 
 and more urgent because of the increased size and draught 
 of the sea-going steamers. 
 
 The harbors of the past were all situated on navigable 
 rivers; they could be easily located at some distance from 
 the sea, because the small dimensions of the ships per- 
 mitted their penetration inland; a fortunate circumstance 
 since land transportation was both inadequate and costly. 
 As ships increased in size many of the river ports lost 
 temporarily their significance, the approach to them being 
 too difficult, too slow and for many vessels altogether im- 
 possible. However, recently large sums of money have 
 been spent by some river ports for improving their chan- 
 nels; this has led to their renewed shipping activity, and 
 there are no harbors whose trade has increased so rapidly 
 during recent years as the trade of some of these river 
 ports. Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Liver- 
 pool, London, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Portland have, 
 by perseverance, well-applied labor and the expenditure 
 of millions of dollars, placed themselves in the front rank 
 of the shipping cities of the world, notwithstanding their 
 situation on capricious, irregular rivers, with shifting 
 sands and other dangers to navigation. 
 
 There is only one part of the ocean traffic which the 
 river port cannot command; this is the transportation of 
 passengers and the shipment of mail and express mat- 
 ter. Modem Atlantic “ greyhounds” are built to break 
 speed records, to act as advertisements to companies pos- 
 sessing them; they are too costly to lose time in slowly 
 ascending and descending rivers. To meet the require- 
 
60 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 ments of these steamers, harbors were built on sites as 
 near as possible to the open sea; in most instances these 
 newly created ports are outports (annexes) of the main 
 harbors located more inland — for example, Queenstown 
 an annex of Liverpool, Luxhaven of Hamburg, Bremer- 
 haven of Bremen, etc. 
 
 The river port (Hamburg, Liverpool, etc.), the bay 
 harbor (Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco, Boston, Rio de 
 Janeiro, Sydney, Southampton), and the combination of 
 the river and bay port (New York) possess the advantages 
 of being protected by nature from sea storms. Open road- 
 stead harbors lack this protection; they are located on the 
 ocean shore, facing the open sea; most of these harbors 
 are to be found in Central and South America, in Africa 
 and in southern Asia, where the climate is very even. If 
 climatic conditions are unfavorable such harbors require 
 artificial breakwaters, in order to provide quiet anchor- 
 age for steamers. Dover in England, Boulogne in France, 
 San Pedro in the United States are examples of such har- 
 bors. In the case of open roadsteads freight must be un- 
 loaded into barges, lighters and other craft, as the steam- 
 ers do not dare approach the shore; this entails loss of 
 time, expense of extra handling, danger of injury to goods, 
 etc. 
 
 In a modern harbor, facilities for receiving and for- 
 warding freight must be such as to enable an expeditious 
 handling of goods. Every hour of inactivity in harbor 
 is a serious loss to capital invested in the ship; therefore 
 steamers strive to incur as little delay as possible in the 
 operations of loading and discharging freight. To hasten 
 this work various hoisting apparatus and other mechanical 
 appliances are placed at the service of the ships. 
 
 Harbor accommodations depend largely upon local 
 conditions. As most of our leading harbors are situated on 
 rivers, their facilities are influenced by river tides. If the 
 tides are moderate, not exceeding 10 to 12 feet, quays on 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 61 
 
 the river banks and tidal basins with entrances always 
 open may be used, as in New York, Hamburg, Calcutta; 
 if the tides are great (from 15 to 40 feet), closed docks 
 are essential; such docks are artificial harbors enclosed 
 in solid masonry and with water-tight gates; without docks 
 the draught at low water is insufficient in such harbors 
 to float even small craft. London, Liverpool, Hull, Havre, 
 Antwerp, Portland had to construct closed docks at a con- 
 siderable expense. In this respect, American harbors have, 
 with a few exceptions, better natural advantages than 
 those of Europe; consequently, they do not require the 
 expenditure of such vast sums of money as have been and 
 are being spent on the seaports of Great Britain, France, 
 Germany, Belgium and Holland. 
 
 VII. CHARACTER, IMPORTANCE AND CHIEF 
 COURSES OF THE LEADING ARTICLES 
 OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 
 
 International commerce has grown since the beginning 
 of the last century from $1,400,000,000 in 1800, to approx- 
 imately $28,000,000,000 in 1908, an increase of 2,000 per 
 cent. This total includes the whole world, economically 
 undeveloped as well as highly civilized countries, and as 
 the first scarcely participate at all in foreign trade, we may 
 realize how surprisingly large has been the commercial 
 growth of the world’s leading nations. 
 
 Commerce has grown not only absolutely, but also rela- 
 tively; it has grown much more rapidly than population, 
 and the per capita share in international trade has risen 
 for each and every inhabitant of the globe from $2.30 in 
 1800 to about $17 in 1908, or more than sevenfold. 
 
 Any attempt to enumerate the commodities which en- 
 ter into this vast foreign trade would lead us to the fill- 
 ing of pages with names, many of these strange and un- 
 familiar scarcely known outside of the physical or chemical 
 laboratory, or the machinist’s shop; other names repre- 
 
62 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 senting the leading staples of our every-day life, the bread- 
 stuffs and foodstuffs which appear on the table of the 
 rich and the poor alike. Innumerable as are these articles 
 in name they are no less varied in character and useful- 
 ness. A study of the world’s imports and exports shows 
 that some of the commodities shipped from land to land 
 are dainty and beautiful, embodying the artistic skill of 
 the maker; others are coarse and unattractive, their rec- 
 ommendation being their utility and their price. 
 
 Goods are not barred from foreign commerce because 
 of weight, bulk or perishability. The ore of the iron mine 
 may be found with the fruit of the tropical tree and the 
 skin of the polar bear. Modern means of transportation 
 have not only made shipments possible but they have also 
 led to the standardization of the needs and wants of the 
 people. An article produced in one locality may find a 
 market not only in its immediate neighborhood but 
 throughout the civilized world, and even the semi-civilized 
 regions are being rapidly brought under the leveling in- 
 fluences of the straw hat, the calico shirt and the high- 
 heeled shoe. 
 
 Imports and exports of different countries do not nec- 
 essarily correspond to a country’s excess in production 
 over the needs of its population. It may be generally true 
 that exports are from the surplus, but the term surplus 
 is misleading, unless we remember that a need is commer- 
 cially considered only when there is purchasing power 
 back of it. Each year trading nations produce ever-in- 
 creasing quantities of goods intended solely for export. 
 The United States makes shoes to be sold in Paris, in Berlin 
 or in Tokio, while thousands of its own people are in 
 need of footwear. Russia ships millions of bushels of 
 wheat to Germany and to England, while her peasants 
 starve because of a diet of herbs and roots, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 63 
 
 Shipments of goods are sometimes used as a means for 
 paying international debts, and such shipments may take 
 place whether or not there is a surplus at home. 
 
 Of importance to foreign commerce is the relative po- 
 sition of the places of production and consumption within 
 a country. A foreign market may be more contiguous and 
 of much easier access than a domestic one to the produc- 
 ing center of a country; on the other hand a domestic mar- 
 ket may be much nearer to a foreign center of produc- 
 tion; in such cases there are exports of articles abroad 
 from one section of a country and imports of identical 
 foreign articles into another section. 
 
 In connection with international trade the time ele- 
 ment in the production and in the consumption of commod- 
 ities must also be considered. Many seasonable goods 
 are produced at one period of the year in some parts of 
 the world and at another period in others; this is partic- 
 ularly true when comparing the northern with the south- 
 ern hemisphere and the temperate with the tropical re- 
 gions. When winter blasts sweep over Europe, Canada 
 and the United States, the warm rays of summer sun shine 
 upon the fields, orchards and gardens of Australia, New 
 Zealand and the West Indies; their cereals and fruits 
 mature, are harvested and sent to northern markets. 
 
 No civilized country can withdraw from international 
 trade. Self-sufficiency is no longer possible even for such 
 nations as the United States, which occupies half of a 
 continent and can seemingly produce all that men desire. 
 We have tasted of fhe fruit of foreign lands, we have 
 learned to know and to like things produced under for- 
 eign skies. The needs and desires of men are not stopped 
 by an artificial, political frontier; high tariff duties may 
 temporarily hinder international trade, but it develops in 
 spite of these duties and becomes every year a more im- 
 portant factor in the economic life of each nation. 
 
64 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Goods shipped from land to land are either finished 
 commodities which appeal directly to the final consumer 
 or raw materials of commerce and semi-manufactured 
 wares. The manufacturing industries of a country no 
 longer necessarily depend upon the domestic supply of 
 raw material and fuel. Not mileage, but cost of transpor- 
 tation, is the commercial measure of distance; the ocean, 
 being the cheapest highway, brings foreign lands close 
 together, placing the iron ore from Spain alongside of the 
 blast furnaces of Germany and feeding the cotton from 
 Georgia or Texas to the spindles of England and France . 
 
 There are different ways of classifying the wares of 
 commerce: one way is to divide them into raw materials, 
 semi-manufactured goods and finished commodities. The 
 first two form the objects of trade between producers, 
 wholesale dealers and manufacturers, and from the point 
 of view of both quantity and value they are very impor- 
 tant articles of foreign commerce. Such commodities are 
 being exchanged in amounts which a few decades ago 
 would have been totally impossible, and both the world’s 
 industry and its commerce depend to a very large extent 
 upon their shipments. The technique in handling them 
 is different from that attendant upon the handling and 
 disposal of finished goods . 
 
 Another classification is a classification into products 
 of the vegetable, the animal and the mineral kingdoms. 
 However great may be the theoretical value of such a sub- 
 division it is of comparatively little benefit to the practical 
 business man, unless it is used as a basis for many sub- 
 classifications, often necessitating the overlapping of one 
 kingdom into another. Textiles, for instance, are made 
 from vegetable fibers, such as cotton, jute and hemp, as 
 well as from the wool of sheep and the thread of silk 
 worms. Textiles compete more or less with each other, 
 woolens with cottons and cottons with silks, and there is 
 every reason from a business point of view to consider 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 65 
 
 the silkworm and the cotton plant together, notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that the silkworm belongs to the same king- 
 dom as the horse and the ox. 
 
 A few other classifications have been attempted, the 
 most interesting and valuable of which is the classifica- 
 tion into: groceries, (colonial goods and others), agricul- 
 tural products, mineral products, textiles, manufactures 
 (other than textiles). 
 
 In determining what are the leading commodities of 
 international trade, we must consider not only the quan- 
 tity and the cash value of goods imported and exported, 
 but also the economic importance of each article. Some 
 goods from the point of view of tonnage and of dollars 
 may seem insignificant, yet they may supply an impera- 
 tive material need and therefore they must be considered 
 side by side with wares that give commercial statistics 
 their imposing array of figures. Before the beginning of 
 the last century the wares of commerce were either colo- 
 nial goods or textile fabrics; both of these were used chiefly 
 by the wealthy; they were highly priced articles (only 
 such could stand the cost of transportation), and they 
 were entirely unaccessible to the great bulk of the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Existing commerce is international in the fullest mean- 
 ing of this word; it supplies not only the whims of a few 
 w T ith costty wares from distant lands, but masses of peo- 
 ple with necessities and comforts, transporting and ex- 
 changing w r heat, corn and cotton fabrics, kerosene and 
 lumber, as well as pearls, ivory and silks. 
 
 In the following pages are considered some of the prin- 
 ciple articles of foreign commerce. 
 
 Groceries. 
 
 Wheat is perhaps the most important of all the articles 
 moved in international trade. Because of its palatability 
 and its great nutritive value, wheat is the chief grain used 
 
66 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 for bread making in western Europe and in North Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 Wheat thrives in temperate climates, growing in almost 
 every region of the north and south temperate zones, its 
 northern limit being somewhat lower than that of rye, bar- 
 ley or oats and higher than that of corn; its cultivation 
 is carried on to some extent within the tropics, in places 
 where climate is cool in winter. Wheat needs coolness 
 and moisture when it begins to grow and warm, dry weath- 
 er when it matures. 
 
 Europe is the largest wheat-growing continent, pro- 
 ducing close to 2,000,000,000 bushels a year, or more than 
 half the total output of the world; but Europe never pro- 
 duces enough to supply her needs in this cereal. Russia, 
 Austria-Hungary and Roumania export comparatively 
 large quantities to other European countries, but these 
 exports are not sufficient to cover the demand and the 
 main vast tide of wheat, flowing each year with an almost 
 clock-like regularity, goes from the thinly settled grain 
 fields of the United States, Canada and Argentina to the 
 empty storehouses of western Europe. No commercial 
 travelers are used to push the wares, no advertising cam- 
 paigns are conducted, as the buyers seek the sellers; small- 
 er tides of wheat go from India to Great Britain and from 
 the Pacific Northwest and California to China and Japan, 
 whose people have been living for thousands of years on 
 rice but who are gradually being converted into wheat 
 eaters. The production of wheat is not and because of 
 natural conditions cannot be a rapidly expanding indus- 
 try; therefore the ultimate benefit that would accrue to 
 the white man from converting the hundreds of millions 
 of the yellow race to wheat eating, is very doubtful. The 
 United States is the leading producer of wheat, followed 
 closely by Russia, the two countries yielding annually 
 from 1,200,000,000 to 1,400,000,000 bushels (the amount 
 fluctuates considerably from year to year). 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 67 
 
 Next in importance as a wheat producer is France, 
 whose output considering the size of the country is re- 
 markably large and suggestive of future possibilities for 
 other countries. France produced in 1908 — 310,000,000 
 bushels to Russia’s 569,000,000 and Germany’s 138,000,- 
 000. Argentina with its output of close to 200,000,000 bu- 
 shels for a population of 6,400,000 is a very valuable fac- 
 tor in the world’s wheat trade. British India produces 
 somewhat more than Argentina, but her exports, because 
 of home consumption, are much smaller. 
 
 The United Kingdom is the largest importer of wheat, 
 a yearly production of approximately 55,000,000 bushels be- 
 ing barely enough to cover the needs of the population 
 for about three months in the year; for the rest of the 
 time Great Britain lives on foreign wheat. Wheat is 
 imported into the Kingdom all the year round, the date 
 of the arrival depending upon the time necessary for 
 transport and upon the date of the harvest, which varies 
 in different parts of the world, Australia and Argentina 
 harvesting wheat in January, India in February and 
 March, Mexico in April, the United States and southern 
 Russia in July, etc. 
 
 Wheat is classified as “hard” or “soft,” soft wheat 
 containing a large percentage of starch and used for mak- 
 ing flour, hard varieties having more gluten or protein 
 and suitable for making such foods as macaroni. Accord- 
 ing to the season of sowing, wheat is classified into “win- 
 ter” or “spring,” the latter being a more northern variety. 
 Winter wheat is sown in autumn and harvested in early 
 summer, spring wheat is sown in the spring and harvest- 
 ed in late summer. Wheat manifests local preferences, 
 so that a variety which may grow advantageously in the 
 Dakotas may fail in India and vice versa. 
 
 Rice is, next to wheat, economically the most impor- 
 tant cereal, as it is the principal food of at least a third of 
 humanity, a larger proportion of the world’s population 
 
68 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 living on rice than on wheat. Rice does not figure promi- 
 nently in international commerce; this is due to two facts 2 
 first, rice is not the staple of the commercial nations, sec- 
 ond, it is mostly consumed at the places of production. 
 
 Eice is almost universally cultivated in Asia, the only 
 exception being the northern portion of the continent. The 
 Chinese Empire, British India and Japan are the lead- 
 ing rice-producing countries. China and Japan, notwith- 
 standing their large production, barely meet their home 
 demand; British India exports considerable quantities, 
 more than half of the rice in the world’s commerce com- 
 ing from there. Japan exports some of the better grades, 
 importing an inferior article from India and China. In 
 Africa rice is grown principally in Egypt, but some is cul- 
 tivated also along the eastern and western coasts of the 
 continent, as w T ell as in Madagascar. Rice is raised in some 
 parts of Europe, particularly in Italy. The United States 
 produces about half of the rice it consumes, the other half 
 being imported from eastern Asia. 
 
 Rice needs a great deal of moisture and a very warm 
 climate; it thrives best in tropical and sub-tropical re- 
 gions, in places of abundant rain fall or where there are 
 facilities for artificial inundation. Rice is richer in starch 
 than any other cereal and it is very nutritious. 
 
 Corn cultivation is carried on in many countries, but 
 only in a few is it an industry of great importance. In 
 the United States, corn is the largest single crop, amount- 
 ing at present to about 2,600,000,000 bushels a year, which 
 is more than 3-4 of the total corn production of the world; 
 other countries producing corn more or less extensively 
 are Mexico, the Central American Republics, Austria- 
 Hungary, Italy, Spain, southern France and Egypt. 
 
 In Europe corn is known under the name of maize, 
 the word corn being used to denominate any kind of 
 grain; i e., wheat, oats, barley, etc. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 69 
 
 Considering the enormous amount of corn produced, 
 comparatively little of it is being exported from the Unit- 
 ed States. Corn does not enter prominently into foreign 
 commerce, the reason for this being its low price in pro- 
 portion to its weight and bulk, which makes its transpor- 
 tation over long distances too expensive. However, the 
 indirect consumption of corn abroad in the form of meats 
 is very great; it forms an element of the slaughtering busi- 
 ness, being used as a fodder for cattle, as it contains a 
 larger percentage of fats than other cereals. This is its 
 only use in Europe. Canned corn may be found in large 
 cities frequented by American tourists, but it is very ex- 
 pensive and its sales are limited. The United States 
 raises large quantities of an edible variety, known as 
 sweet or sugar corn. Mexico, Central America and Egypt 
 also raise considerable quantities of this variety. 
 
 Corn is a warm weather plant, being easily damaged 
 by frosts. 
 
 Rye is cultivated extensively on the mainland of Eu- 
 rope and next to wheat is the principal food of the people 
 in many parts of the continent. The rye crop of the world 
 approximates 1,500,000,000 bushels a year, the greatest 
 amount of this (about 85 per cent) being produced in Rus- 
 sia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. Russia’s yield is 
 more than half of the world’s output. 
 
 Rye can be grown on poorer soil and in colder climates 
 than wheat and it requires little care. 
 
 Rye does not figure prominently in foreign commerce. 
 Russia is the only country exporting considerable quanti- 
 ties of it to Germany and to Holland; some rye is also 
 shipped from Hungary and Roumania. 
 
 Barley can be cultivated both in colder and in warm- 
 er latitudes than any other staple cereal. Most of the 
 barley is grown in Europe, where it can be grown from 
 the northern parts of Scandinavia to the southern ex- 
 tremities of Italy; in very warm regions it thrives on 
 
70 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 mountain sides, climbing the slopes higher than other 
 cereals. 
 
 The total barley crop of the world exceeds 1 , 000 , 000 ,- 
 000 bushels; Russia, Germany, the United States, Austria- 
 Hungary and Great Britain are its largest producers. 
 Russia, the United States, Roumania, Turkey and Algeria, 
 are exporters while the United Kingdom and Germany 
 are the largest importers. 
 
 Ground or “ pearl” barley is edible and is being used 
 for culinary purposes; barley bread is used in Scotland 
 and in Scandinavia. Barley however is cultivated mostly 
 for the making of malt, used in the production of beer. 
 Barley is also used to some extent as horse feed. 
 
 Oats is a hardy plant capable of thriving in a cooler 
 and moister climate than wheat. It is grown particularly 
 in the northern parts of Europe, largely near the Baltic 
 coasts of Germany and Russia. Oats is used mostly as 
 horse feed, although ever-increasing quantities of it are 
 being consumed by people in the form of breakfast foods. 
 
 Hops are the dried fruits of a vine and they are used 
 as a seasoning for beer, giving to the latter a bitter flavor. 
 They are cultivated in beer-producing countries, in Eng- 
 land, Germany, Austria and the United States. The value 
 of the latter country’s imports and exports are about 
 equal. England is one of the largest importers of hops, 
 most of our shipments going to that country. 
 
 The potato is one of the most universally grown edible 
 roots. Large areas are devoted to its cultivation in va- 
 rious parts of the world, in the majority of cases with very 
 satisfactory results; enormous quantities of the tubers are 
 raised in Europe and in the United States. 
 
 Potatoes do not play an important role in international 
 trade; like tomatoes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, cucum- 
 bers, asparagus and other vegetables, they are mainly con- 
 sumed near their places of production; their small exchange 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 71 
 
 value in proportion to their bulk forbidding distant trans- 
 port. 
 
 In North Germany and in Ireland the potato forms the 
 largest part of the diet of the working classes. Germany’s 
 yield of potatoes in 1908 was 45,538,000 tons, thirteen times 
 as large as her yield of wheat or barley. The next largest 
 producers and consumers of potatoes after Germany are 
 Russia, Austria-Hungary and France. There are two 
 varieties of potato; the Irish or white potato and the yam 
 or sweet potato. Besides being used as articles of food, 
 potatoes yield alcohol as well as the greater part of the 
 starch for commercial and technical purposes. The Unit- 
 ed States is both an importer and exporter of potatoes; 
 our imports in 1909 (an exceptional year) reached 8,385,- 
 000 bushels. 
 
 Pulses or leguminous vegetables are extremely nutri- 
 tious and therefore hold an important place as foodstuffs. 
 They are consumed in considerable quantities in all parts 
 of the earth, the leading commercial varieties being com- 
 mon peas, beans, chick peas, and soy beans. 
 
 Peas are cultivated in Great Britain, in north central 
 Europe, in Canada and in the northern parts of the Unit- 
 ed States; beans require somewhat lower latitudes. 
 
 By cultivation the bean has been made to vary in size, 
 taste, color and composition; the varieties are sold under 
 different names, such as kidney beans, marrowfat beans, 
 haricot beans, etc., but they are all derived from the same 
 ancestral stock. The lima bean and the soy bean belong 
 to a different species. 
 
 The United States imports and exports both beans and 
 pease; the exports are insignificant; the imports in 1909 
 reached the value of about $5,000,000, forming the largest 
 item in the list of imported vegetables. 
 
 Pulses enter foreign commerce mostly dried. 
 
 Fruits for table use have risen recently to a promi- 
 nent position in foreign trade. The use of specially con- 
 
72 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 structed ears and steamers with provisions for ventilation 
 and cold storage, the rapidity with which distances are 
 overcome permit shipments of such delicate foods as fresh 
 grapes, peaches, cherries and apricots. Grapes are ex- 
 ported from southern Africa and Australia to northern 
 Europe, bananas from the British West Indies, Central 
 America and Cuba to the United States and Great Britain. 
 The value of our imports of bananas alone exceeds $11,- 
 000,000 a year; in 1909 the total value of our entire im- 
 ports of fruits and nuts was $31,110,000; these imports, 
 in addition to bananas, included lemons, currants, grapes, 
 olives, dates, figs, raisins, oranges, walnuts, almonds, cocoa- 
 nuts, etc. The United States exports to the United King- 
 dom, Canada, Germany and other countries, apples, apri- 
 cots, oranges, peaches, pears, prunes and raisins; in 1909 
 the value of exports exceeded $16,500,000, a large part of 
 which consisted of green or ripe fruit. 
 
 Canned Goods. Many fruits and vegetables, as well as 
 meats and fish are pickled, dried or canned for trade; this 
 last process has been rapidly gaining in popular favor, 
 especially in the United States. The advantage of canned 
 goods is their safety against decay. At present almost 
 everything edible is canned, from fresh buns and bread to 
 frog’s legs and bird’s nests. Special orchards, gardens, 
 and farms, both in the United States and other countries, 
 are devoted to the raising of vegetables and fruits for can- 
 neries. An idea of the magnitude of the industry may be 
 gained from the fact that in 1908 the United States used 
 more than 1,200,000,000 cans; besides greens it consumes 
 a part of the catch of our fishermen and some of the prod- 
 uct of the meat packer. Tinned goods are of special value 
 to the white man in arctic and in tropical regions; he 
 fails to find there those foods which experience of centu- 
 ries makes him consider essential to his well being; he can 
 get these foods only by resorting to the products of the 
 cannery. An important item in the handling of canned 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 73 
 
 goods is that the contents of the cans must he fresh and 
 wholesome. A new and attractive label is not sufficient, 
 and it is easier to gain a bad reputation than a good one. 
 Stale goods are no longer saleable even in remote regions. 
 
 Sugar is one of the most important vegetable commodi- 
 ties. It is mainly obtained from either sugar cane or sugar 
 beets; the first is a perennial plant grown easily and abun- 
 dantly in the tropics and sub-tropics, the second is a prod- 
 uct of careful cultivation in temperate regions. In 1908 
 the amount of cane sugar produced was 7,218,000 tons, of 
 beet sugar 6,980,000 tons; these figures indicate a change 
 in the relative position of the two varieties. Since the 
 introduction of beet sugar on the continent of Europe less 
 than seventy years ago, the industry has been growing at 
 a rapid pace, finding a good market for its products in 
 the densely populated areas at home as well as in Great 
 Britain and the United States; in these two latter coun- 
 tries the large consumption is so disproportionate to the 
 home production that they are a coveted prize for export- 
 ing nations. Ever since the eighties of the last century, 
 there was no year when the tonnage of beet sugar has not 
 exceeded that of cane sugar. It has been a typical illustra- 
 tion of an economic struggle between the man of the trop- 
 ics and the man of the temperate regions. On one side 
 there was fertile soil and favorable climate, but the man, 
 indolent, unaccustomed to long sustained work, unable to 
 submit to discipline and ignorant of system; on the other 
 sandy plains and gray skies, but the man persevering, un- 
 ceasingly planning and toiling, co-ordinating his actions to 
 those of others. The result was inevitable. However, mod- 
 ern methods and machinery are being introduced in the 
 cane fields of Cuba, Hawaii, Java and Brazil; people of 
 ability and knowledge are being drawn to these regions, 
 and the sugar cane may soon show its strength as the com- 
 petitor of the beet. 
 
74 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 England is the largest per capita consumer of sugar, 
 approximating 94 pounds a year; a part of this sugar is 
 consumed in the making of jams, jellies, etc., which are 
 exported. The per capita consumption in the United States 
 is 77 J lbs., in Denmark 74 lbs., in Germany 41 lbs., in 
 France 36 lbs., in Russia 21 lbs., in Italy 8 lbs. 
 
 Beverages. 
 
 Tea. — The average annual export of tea from tea- 
 producing countries is 1,100,000,000 pounds, valued at 
 $100,000,000. 
 
 China exports the largest quantity of tea, but India 
 exceeds it in the value of the product exported. This is 
 largely because many inferior grades are shipped from the 
 first-named country. Ceylon is third in the list of export- 
 ers, followed at quite a long distance by Japan, Java and 
 Formosa. 
 
 The greatest tea importer in the world is the United 
 Kingdom, her imports averaging 260,000,000 pounds a 
 year; Russia follows with an average import of 126,000,000 
 pounds. In 1909 the United States imported close to 115,- 
 000,000 pounds, about half of which quantity came from 
 Japan. Tea is consumed in more or less large amounts in 
 Canada, Australia, as well as all over Europe. 
 
 Within recent years teas from India and Ceylon have 
 been displacing the Chinese varieties in the world’s mar- 
 kets, but just as the producers of the sugar cane are mak- 
 ing strenuous efforts to recover some of the ground lost, 
 so also are the Chinese tea manufacturers and merchants 
 striving to improve their position by introducing modern 
 methods of cultivation and manufacture. 
 
 Teas are classed commercially, according to their color, 
 into green and black, the difference being due to the meth- 
 ods of curing the leaves. Green teas are made by drying 
 the leaves rapidly, with little exposure to the air; black 
 teas are dried slowly and mainly in the sun. According 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 75 
 
 to the method of preparation, teas are classed as Basket- 
 fired, Pan-fired, Imperial, Gunpowder, etc.; according to 
 quality, dependent on the age of the leaf when it is picked, 
 as ‘ ‘ Pekoe” (the youngest), “ Oolong,” “Fouchong,” etc. 
 The buyers consider also the district where the tea is pro- 
 duced: Japan, India, Formosa. 
 
 Tea is a very hardy sub-tropical plant and is suited 
 for a wide range of climate; it thrives best in warm, moist 
 places with equable temperature throughout the year. As 
 the preparation of tea for the market requires a great deal 
 of manipulation by hand, its growth is profitable only in 
 those places where there is an abundant supply of cheap 
 labor. 
 
 Australia is the largest per capita consumer of tea (7.1 
 pounds); the consumption in England is 6 pounds, in the 
 United States 1.3 pounds, in Russia 1.25 pounds, in Ger- 
 many 0.13 pounds. 
 
 Yerba Mate is a Paraguay tea used extensively in 
 South American republics; it grows in Paraguay and in 
 Brazil, the exports of these two countries reaching into 
 many millions of pounds. 
 
 Coffee is cultivated principally in Brazil, which pro- 
 duces about three-fourths of the world’s total supply; other 
 coffee-growing countries are Venezuela, Colombia, the 
 Central American republics, Java, Mexico, and the West 
 Indies. Brazil, with a total production of about 18,000,000 
 bags (of 120 pounds each), controls the world’s markets. 
 
 Coffee is classified according to the places of production 
 or shipment, as Rio, Santos, Guatemala, Mocha, and J ava. 
 The name Mocha is given to coffee produced in Arabia, and 
 Java to that raised on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo 
 and Celebes. However, a great deal of what is now sold 
 as Mocha and Java is grown in other countries, its flavor 
 being the only claim to the name. 
 
 The stimulating effect of coffee is due to the presence 
 of an alkaloid — caffeine. Theine, the alkaloid of tea, is 
 
76 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 
 practically identical with caffeine. The quantity contained 
 is small (0.6 to 1.8 per cent), varying with the species of 
 coffee. 
 
 The United States is the chief consumer of coffee, im- 
 porting annually about 1,000,000,000 lbs., or more than one- 
 third of the world’s commercial crop. Next in importance 
 as coffee consumers are Germany, France, Austria-Hun- 
 gary, Holland, Belgium and Great Britain. The greatest 
 per capita consumers of coffee are the Netherlands, the 
 United States and Belgium. 
 
 Cacao— the product of a tropical tree (not to he con- 
 fused with the cocoanut tree), is used either as a bev- 
 erage or for the making of chocolate. It contains fat, 
 nitrogenous matter and starch, and has therefore great 
 nutritive value. The chief producers of raw cacao are 
 Ecuador, Brazil, Trinidad, Venezuela and the island of San 
 Thome (in Africa); less important are Cuba, Porto Rico, 
 Haiti, Jamaica, other West India Islands, and the Gold 
 Coast of Africa and Ceylon. The total world’s crop ex- 
 ceeds 150,000 tons. Cacao may be found in the import 
 list of every commercial nation, and it seems to be gaining 
 in favor as a beverage. This is particularly true of the 
 United States, whose imports of cacao rose from 63,000,000 
 lbs. in 1903 to 129,854,000 lbs. in 1909, or more than doubled 
 themselves. Spain and Portugal are the largest per capita 
 consumers of cacao. 
 
 Alcoholic Liquors. 
 
 Wine. — The grape vine needs a moderately high 
 temperature during summer and far into the autumn; 
 otherwise, it does not mature so as to make it fit for wine 
 making. The limits of cultivation are fixed not only cli- 
 matically, but also commercially; many regions have given 
 up wine making because of the inferior quality of the wine 
 produced; this has taken place in southern counties of Eng- 
 land and in the provinces of eastern and western Prussia; 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 77 
 
 their wine industry succumbed to the competition of better 
 grade wines, produced in other localities. 
 
 The finest and largest vineyards are those of France, 
 Italy and Spain, these three countries producing about 
 1,800,000,000 gallons a year, or 85 per cent of the total out- 
 put of the world. Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Germany, 
 Russia, Bulgaria and Roumania are the next largest pro- 
 ducers, in the order named. The output in the United 
 States is comparatively small and confined to the states 
 of California and New York. In 1909 our imports of spark- 
 ling (champagne, etc.) and still wines exceeded $12,000,- 
 000 . 
 
 Each district raises wine peculiar 'to it, peculiar in 
 its flavor and other characteristics; there are as many vari- 
 eties of wine as there are localities raising the grape. 
 
 Grapes are cultivated also as a dessert fruit and for the 
 making of raisins ; the latter industry is confined to Malaga 
 and Yalentia in Spain, to certain districts in Asia Minor, 
 to Greece and to California. 
 
 Beer is made mainly from malted barley, but almost 
 any kind of cereal may be used for the purpose. Hops are 
 added to impart a slightly bitter flavor. Two countries 
 rise above all others in the amount of beer produced and 
 consumed; these countries are the United Kingdom and 
 Germany; Belgium excels them in the per capita consump- 
 tion of beer (150 quarts a year), and Denmark nearly ap- 
 proaches them (90 quarts). The more prominent of the 
 other beer-consuming countries are the United States, the 
 Australian Commonwealth, and Switzerland. The United 
 States imports about 7,000,000 gallons of malt liquors, ex- 
 ports little. 
 
 Animal Products. 
 
 Domestic animals, particularly cattle, take an important 
 place in foreign commerce; but the shipments of live cattle 
 have decreased considerably since the introduction of re- 
 
78 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 frigerator cars and cold storage steamers made possible 
 transportations of fresh dressed beef. Live animals are 
 shipped mostly for slaughtering or for breeding purposes. 
 The leading cattle raisers are the United States, Russia, 
 Argentina, India and Australia. Sheep are exported par- 
 ticularly from Australia, Argentina, the United States, 
 Canada and Russia, these five countries possessing the 
 largest amount of sheep. Horse meat is consumed to some 
 extent in France and in Germany, but the most significant 
 value of horses lies in their use as draft animals in all the 
 temperate regions of the world. The United States is next 
 to Russia the possessor of the greatest number of horses. 
 Comparatively few live hogs are transported from country 
 to country; the same is true of all other domesticated ani- 
 mals, like goats, mules, asses, etc. 
 
 Meat Products. — Wholesale slaughtering and meat 
 packing for export are important industries in the United 
 States, in Argentina and in Australia. The products are 
 shipped to all parts of the world, but the leading markets 
 are Great Britain and the manufacturing states in the 
 northwestern section of Europe. Meat products comprise 
 fresh, salted, pickled and canned beef, bacon, ham and 
 pork, tallow, lard, oleo oil, sausage and sausage casings. 
 The chief exporters of mutton are Argentina and New 
 Zealand. 
 
 Dairy Products. — Butter, cheese and condensed milk 
 figure prominently in foreign trade. The United States 
 imports close to $6,000,000 worth of cheese, mainly from 
 Italy, Switzerland, Holland and France. Canada, one of 
 the leading cheese producers, exports large quantities of 
 cheese to Great Britain. Until recently trade in butter 
 was confined to shipments between adjacent countries, but 
 since the introduction of cold storage, butter can be sent 
 long distances without impairing its quality and flavor. 
 In Europe, Denmark, France and Holland have developed 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 79 
 
 dairying to a high degree, and they export much butter, 
 particularly to England. 
 
 Poultry and eggs figure largely in foreign commerce. 
 Great Britain is one of the leading markets, and "Russia 
 one of the main sources of supply; over 1,500,000,000 eggs 
 are annually exported from the latter country; these are 
 sold, however, mostly on the continent of Europe and not 
 in England, which imports better grades from Denmark, 
 northern France, Canada, etc. The United States’ exports 
 of poultry and eggs approximate $2,000,000 annually. 
 
 Fisheries. 
 
 If under the head of fisheries one includes the commer- 
 cial production of all the marine animals used as food, such 
 as oysters, lobsters, etc., one finds that the most valuable 
 fish catch is furnished by the United States and by Great 
 Britain, other fish-yielding countries being Canada, New- 
 foundland, Russia, France, Norway, etc. 
 
 Most of the fish is consumed fresh, in the districts ad- 
 jacent to the places of their production, near the seacoast 
 or close to rivers and lakes. International commerce in 
 fish, although large, does not give it an especially prom- 
 inent place in either imports or exports of the leading com- 
 mercial nations. 
 
 Norway and Newfoundland export most of their catch, 
 the largest importers being Spain, Portugal and Italy, 
 where the consumption of fish during the lenten season 
 is very great. The catch of Germany is insufficient to sup- 
 ply her home demand and she is one of the leading fish- 
 importing countries. 
 
 Herring is one of the world’s most widely distributed 
 and most valuable fishes. In nearly every country which 
 has extensive fisheries some variety of herring is caught; 
 on the eastern and western coasts of North America it is 
 known as sea herring, the shad, the river herring, and the 
 “American sardine;” on the shores of Europe the same 
 
80 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 varieties with the addition of the pilchard and the “ white 
 bait” are caught. Herrings abound also in the waters of 
 Siberia, Korea, Japan, the Philippine and the East Indian 
 Archipelago; in the rivers and on the coasts of India, in 
 Australia and New Zealand. 
 
 The “Grand Banks” of the coast of Newfoundland fur- 
 nish cod and haddock. Codfish are mostly dried and cured; 
 so prepared they find a ready market in Spain, Italy, 
 Erance, Austria-Hungary, in Central and South America 
 and in the West Indies. Countries exporting cod, besides 
 Newfoundland, are Canada, the United States and Norway. 
 
 Salmon are caught mostly on the Pacific coast of North 
 America, from Alaska to Oregon; some of the fish are 
 shipped refrigerated as far as the eastern markets, but by 
 far the largest part of the product is canned. 
 
 Sardines, not young herrings, but real sardines, are 
 caught on the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portu- 
 gal, also in some parts of the Mediterranean Sea. France 
 exports millions of cans of sardines put up in olive oil. 
 
 Other varieties of fish extensively used are sole, hali- 
 but, mackerel, shad, trout, bluefish, whitefish and stur- 
 geon; the latter fish is valuable, not so much because of its 
 meat, as because of the roe, which is prepared and salted 
 and in this way is put on the market under the name of 
 caviare. Caviare is made in Russia (on the shores of the 
 Caspian and Black seas), also, in some parts of Germany 
 and in the United States (on the Great Lakes, on Dela- 
 ware Bay and in Oregon). 
 
 The value of the United States’ imports of fish (in 1909 
 — $12,403,000) is double of its exports; most of the fish 
 comes dried, salted, pickled, smoked or canned; more than 
 half of the exports is canned salmon. 
 
 Oysters. 
 
 About 35,000,000 bushels of oysters are produced annu- 
 ally, two-thirds of which amount is credited to the United 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 81 
 
 States, where oysters represent the most valuable product 
 of the fisheries. In the United States the oyster is an 
 article of general consumption, while in Europe it is a lux- 
 ury. European oysters come from the shores of the Atlan- 
 tic (England, France and Spain), and the North Sea (Hol- 
 land and Germany). The product is brought to the market 
 either fresh or canned. 
 
 American oysters are considered amongst the best in 
 the world; the demand for them is very large, and as the 
 natural supply is insufficient to meet it, oyster culture is 
 carried on extensively, especially in the states of New York, 
 New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia; the shell fish has also 
 been transplanted to the coasts of California and Oregon. 
 
 i 
 
 Spices and Condiments. 
 
 Spices and condiments, in their aggregate, form an im- 
 portant item of international trade. They are used exten- 
 sively for the purpose of making articles of food more pala- 
 table or digestible. Some spices, like mustard or caraway 
 seeds, grow in most parts of Europe, America and Asia; but 
 the majority of spices are products of tropical and sub- 
 tropical regions and therefore must be shipped long dis- 
 tances to the places of consumption. The most commonly 
 known varieties are pepper, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, 
 cinnamon and vanilla. In 1909 the United States’ imports 
 of spices exceeded 78,000,000 pounds, valued at $5,348,000. 
 
 Narcotics. 
 
 Tobacco, first discovered in America, is grown in nearly 
 all parts of the world. However, for a successful cultiva- 
 tion it requires warm summers and a total absence of 
 frosts, when it begins to grow. There are innumerable 
 varieties of tobacco, the many gradations in .quality and 
 flavor being due to differences in soil, climate, method of 
 cultivation; further, the same plant produces different 
 classes of leaf, some suitable for pipe tobacco, others for 
 
 B — IV— r 6 
 
82 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 the manufacture of cigarettes, etc. The stems or midribs 
 are used for snuffs, for making sheep-dip and for fumigat- 
 ing purposes. 
 
 Commercially tobacco is classified according to the 
 place of production or of export, i. e., Virginia, Turkish, 
 Havana; according to the use for which it is intended, as 
 pipe, cigar, chewing and cigarette classes, each class being 
 subdivided into types, dependent upon color, flavor, 
 strength, elasticity of the leaf, etc. 
 
 The United States leads in the production of tobacco; 
 it exports inferior kinds to the extent of about 300,000,000 
 lbs., and imports better grades from Cuba, Sumatra, Egypt. 
 The total average annual production of tobacco is consid- 
 erably over a million tons, valued at $200,000,000, the pro- 
 ducers being the United States, India, Cuba, Russia and 
 the Dutch colonies in the East. 
 
 The largest per capita consumers of tobacco are Hol- 
 land and Belgium, with an average annual consumption of 
 6.2 lbs.; the United States has an average of 5.4 lbs.; Ger- 
 many 3.4 lbs.; the United Kingdom 1.9 lbs.; Russia 1.1 lbs. 
 
 Opium is used extensively as a narcotic in China and 
 throughout the East in general. Opium is the dried juice 
 of the white poppy and its production is particularly im- 
 portant in India, China, Persia and Asiatic Turkey. 
 Opium, besides being a narcotic has medicinal value as the 
 source of morphine. In 1909 the United States imported 
 about $2,000,000 worth of crude opium for medicinal pur- 
 poses and close to $1,000,000 worth of the drug prepared 
 for smoking, the latter mainly for the use of the Chinese 
 residing in this country. 
 
 Fibers. 
 
 The cultivation of fiber-yielding plants, the rearing of 
 fiber-producing animals and the manufacturing of the ma- 
 terial furnished by both into threads, ropes and yarns, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 83 
 
 dress goods and underwear, mattings and carpets are 
 amongst the world’s most important industries. 
 
 Vegetable fibers are obtained from leaves and leaf 
 stalks (Manila hemp), from the bast of plants (flax, jute)', 
 from fruit (cocoanut), from plant hairs (cotton), from 
 stems (broom corn, rattan). 
 
 Cotton is cultivated throughout the tropical and warm 
 temperate regions of the earth. Over three-fifths of the 
 fiber is grown in the United States, other important pro- 
 ducers being India and Egypt. These three countries sup- 
 ply the most of the world’s commercial demand. In Europe 
 small areas under cotton are found scattered in Spain, 
 Italy, Turkey and Greece. In Asia some cotton is grown 
 in China, Japan, Persia and Asia Minor, everywhere al- 
 most entirely for local consumption. Cotton is cultivated 
 also in Central America, the West Indies, Mexico, Brazil, 
 and Peru, as well as in many parts of Africa. On the 
 latter continent the culture of cotton is being encouraged 
 by the governments of the colonizing nations, i. e., Ger- 
 many, France and England. 
 
 The cotton plant yields a soft fiber which surrounds 
 its seeds, and from which yam for fabrics and ropes is 
 woven. The fiber is also used for making nitro-cellulose, 
 the commercial products of which are explosive celluloid 
 and artificial silk (mercerized cotton). Cotton yarn is the 
 chief material for the making of underwear and clothing. 
 Cottonseed oil is manufactured for table and kitchen use, 
 for the making of soaps, candles, etc. The oil cake is a 
 good cattle food and fertilizer. 
 
 There are numerous varieties of raw cotton, their qual- 
 ity depending upon the length of the fiber, its softness, 
 strength, regularity and color. 
 
 Upland or American cotton grown in the Atlantic States 
 is the most generally used variety; sea-island cotton raised 
 along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia and on the 
 adjacent islands is the most expensive of all cottons, be- 
 
84 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 cause of the comparative length of the fibers, their soft- 
 ness, etc.; Egyptian cotton is of fine quality and is highly 
 valued in European markets; some Egyptian cotton is im- 
 ported into the United States, in 1909 about 68,000,000 
 pounds. 
 
 Indian cotton is short and of inferior quality, though 
 lately more care is being bestowed upon its picking and 
 the keeping it free from dirt after it has been picked. 
 
 The cotton exchanges of the United States recognize 
 thirteen distinct grades of cotton, determined by the de- 
 gree of color and the amount of foreign matter. These 
 grades range from “ ordinary’ 9 and “ strict ordinary” to 
 “middling” and “fair.” Discolored cotton is designated 
 by the word “tinged” or “stained” following the grade. 
 Tinged cotton is only slightly discolored; stained ranges 
 from a light yellow to a deep red. 
 
 The basic grade in all markets is middling, white cot- 
 ton; by this grade the quality of all others is measured; 
 it is a fleecy cotton containing only a small amount of 
 impurities. Fair cotton, the highest grade recognized by 
 the markets, is very bright, white and clean. The classifica- 
 tion of Indian cotton varies somewhat from ours. 
 
 In 1909 the amount of exports of unmanufactured cotton 
 from the United States was 4,448,000,000 pounds valued 
 at $417,390,000; of this amount the United Kingdom took 
 1,833,000,000 lbs., Germany 1,219,000,000 lbs., France 549,- 
 000,000 lbs. and Italy 283,000,000 lbs. Outside of Europe 
 the only purchaser of our raw cotton of any importance 
 is Japan, to whom we sold in 1909 — 105,000,000 lbs. 
 
 A rather disappointing condition is revealed by the 
 figures showing the export of the cotton manufactures 
 from the United States; in 1909 their value was about 
 $32,000,000, very little indeed for a country raising within 
 its territory about 66 per cent of the staple and exporting 
 such tremendous quantities of raw material. The exports 
 of cotton manufactures and yam from England approxi- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 85 
 
 mate $500,000,000 a year; this latter country has the larg- 
 est number of cotton spindles, about 53,000,000, and in 
 1908 consumed 20.4 per cent of the world’s mill supply of 
 cotton; the United States consumed about 23.9 per cent; 
 the smallness of our exports shows the importance of our 
 home market for the products of our cotton mills and fac- 
 tories. In addition to the domestic output the United States 
 uses from $60,000,000 to $70,000,000 worth of imported cot- 
 ton manufactures, about one-half of the imports consist- 
 ing of laces, edgings, embroideries, etc. Germany con- 
 sumes about 8.5 per cent of the world’s cotton, British 
 India 8.2 per cent, Russia 7.9 per cent, France 5 per cent. 
 
 Seventy-five per cent of the raw cotton used by Great 
 Britain comes from the United States, 18 per cent from 
 Egypt, 4 per cent from India and 3 per cent from Brazil. 
 Raw cotton is the largest single import of Germany, the 
 United States supplying 2-3 of the amount, British India 
 and Egypt the rest, and manufactured cotton is Germany’s 
 principal export; in 1908 it exported $108,000,000 of cotton 
 fabrics. France occupies the third place as an exporter of 
 cotton goods. Probably the most interesting development 
 in the cotton-manufacturing industry of Europe during the 
 last decade, paralleling somewhat the activity in our 
 southern states, is the rise of Italy as a cotton manufac- 
 turer. Since 1900 it has increased the number of its spin- 
 dles from 1,940,000 to 4,181,000 and its consumption of raw 
 cotton from 2,375,000,000 pounds to 5,135,000,000 pounds. 
 
 Flax is next to cotton the most important vegetable 
 fiber. It thrives in various climates, its area of cultivation 
 extending from British India to northern parts of Russia. 
 The plant is grown either for seed or for fiber, good seeds 
 usually meaning poor fiber and vice versa. 
 
 Russia is the leading producer of flax, more than one- 
 half of the world’s supply coming from that country. 
 Russia’s importance as a linen manufacturer is, however, 
 far smaller than that of England; the latter has ten times 
 
86 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 as many spindles as the first-named country. Germany, 
 France, Austria-Hungary have also extensive linen manu- 
 factures, though their production of flax is insignificant 
 as compared with that of Russia; Austria-Hungary, the 
 next leading flax cultivator, produces about one-tenth of 
 the Russian output. 
 
 Flax is the strongest of plant fibers, being at the same 
 time soft and pliable; it has been supplanted by cotton for 
 many purposes, not because of the superiority of the latter 
 material but because of its cheapness. Probably the best 
 flax is that grown in Belgium, out of which the famous 
 Brussels and other laces are made. The preparing of flax 
 fiber requires a large amount of trained hand labor and 
 the countries where labor is cheap have, therefore, a de- 
 cided advantage over those where it is expensive. 
 
 Indirectly flax (linen rags) is used for the making of 
 some of the best grades of paper. In 1909 the United 
 States imported $2,542,000 worth of flax. 
 
 Hemp fibers are tougher than those yielded by flax; 
 they are used mostly for the making of ropes, twine and 
 fishing lines, as well as for manufacturing of carpets and 
 rugs. The fiber furnishes also a substitute for flax in the 
 production of all grades of linen but the finer. 
 
 Manila hemp, cultivated in the Philippines, is the 
 strongest rope fiber in common use. 
 
 Sisal hemp, the principal article of export from Yuca- 
 tan (Mexico), yields fibers less strong and not so long as 
 those of Manila hemp; the fibers are much used for the 
 making of rope, brushes and in the manufacture of sack- 
 ing for cotton. 
 
 Russia produces more hemp than all the rest of the 
 world; the plant is cultivated also in Italy, France, Hun- 
 gary, Germany, the United States, Algeria and in the 
 warm parts of Asia. 
 
 i 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 87 
 
 Hemp seeds yield hemp oil similar in nature to linseed 
 (flax) oil; like the latter it is used mainly in soap and in 
 paint making. 
 
 The value of the United States’ imports fluctuates from 
 $18,000,000 to $26,000,000 a year, most imports coming from 
 Manila and Mexico. 
 
 Jute is a native of India where it is extensively grown; 
 it is also cultivated in comparatively small quantities in 
 China, Formosa and Malaya. The plant succeeds best in 
 a hot, damp atmosphere. Jute fiber is used for the manu- 
 facture of gunny bags, burlap cloths, cotton baling, cord- 
 age, twine, carpets, upholstery fabrics and curtains. The 
 waste material goes into the paper-making industry; it is 
 known under the name of jute butts. 
 
 In 1909 the United States imported jute and jute butts 
 to the value of $7,156,000. 
 
 The United States’ imports of flax, hemp and jute man- 
 ufactures are about double in value those of its imports 
 of the raw materials; in 1909 these imports were valued 
 at $49,312,000, as against $65,108,000 in 1907 and $54,467,- 
 000 in 1908. 
 
 Animal Fibers. — Wool is the chief animal fiber used 
 in the making of textiles; before the advent of cotton it 
 was the leading material of the textile industry. Wool 
 is a kind of hair forming the covering of sheep and of a 
 few other mammals. It differs from ordinary hair by hav- 
 ing minute overlapping scales and by being wavy and 
 crimped. The curl of the wool imparts elasticity to all 
 woolen fabrics, which distinguishes these from those made 
 from cotton, linen or any other fibers. 
 
 The climate best adapted to sheep raising is one that 
 is comparatively dry and free from extremes of cold. The 
 countries having the largest number of sheep are Australia 
 and Argentina; the first had at the end of 1907 — 88,000,000 
 heads and exported 584,750,000 pounds of wool; the sec- 
 ond with 77,580,000 heads exported 308,000,000 pounds, a 
 
88 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 somewhat larger proportion of sheep being raised for mut- 
 ton in Argentina than in Australia; the other important 
 sheep-raising countries are the United States and Russia, 
 the total wool output of the four named nations equaling 
 about two-thirds of the world’s supply. The rest of the 
 wool clip is distributed amongst a great number of coun- 
 tries; in 1908 the United Kingdom had 31,000,000 heads 
 of sheep, which yielded 133,700,000 pounds, an amount en- 
 tirely inadequate for the needs of her textile industry; 
 the latter used about 428,000,000 pounds of imported wools; 
 France, Uruguay, British South Africa, Spain, British 
 India, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy are some of the 
 other important wool producers. Raw wool is the largest 
 single import of France; $116,000,000 worth of it was im- 
 ported in 1907. 
 
 Wool is classified according to the length of the fiber 
 into long-stapled and short-stapled varieties, the breed of 
 the sheep having a great deal of influence upon the staple; 
 the other distinguishing characteristic of various wools is 
 the degree of their coarseness or fineness. The merino 
 sheep, introduced into Spain from northern Africa and 
 from there exported for breeding purposes to other coun- 
 tries, produces the finest wool, soft, strong and curly; the 
 fiber is short and is used in making the finest yarns and 
 fabrics. The majority of the wools of the United States, 
 the United Kingdom, France and Australia are long and 
 coarse; they are designated commercially as “ combing,” 
 to distinguish them from the merino or “ clothing” wools. 
 The name “ combing” has been given to them because, be- 
 fore being spun into yarn they are combed, in order to 
 lay the separate fibers parallel to each other; the short 
 staples are “ carded,” the process tangling the fibers in 
 all directions. 
 
 In 1909 the United States’ imports of unmanufactured 
 wool (clothing, combing and carpet), amounted to 266,000,- 
 000 pounds, valued at $45,000,000; in the same year $18,- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 89 
 
 100,000 worth of woolen manufactures were imported; the 
 exports are small, approximating $2,000,000 annually. 
 
 Great Britain, France, the United States and Germany 
 lead in the manufacture of woolen goods, consuming about 
 4-5 of the world’s supply of wool; as their production of 
 raw wool does not exceed 1-5 of the world’s clip, they de- 
 pend upon imports of vast amounts of the raw material 
 from Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, etc. 
 
 Silk. — The production of raw silk is confined to areas 
 suitable for the cultivation of the mulberry tree, mulberry 
 leaves forming the principal food of the silkworm. Next 
 to wool, silk is the most important of animal fibers used 
 in weaving. The range of climate for silk culture is large, 
 as the mulberry tree can grow in various regions and silk- 
 worms are reared under cover protected from cold and 
 other climatic influences. However, the production of raw 
 silk is as yet limited to very few localities, the principal 
 of which are China, Japan, India, Italy, France and other 
 countries bordering the Mediterranean. 
 
 China produces about 27 per cent of the world’s supply 
 of raw silk, Japan approximately the same amount and 
 Italy 25 per cent, the three thus producing close to 80 per 
 cent. 
 
 The geographic distribution of silk culture depends not 
 only on climate but also on the character and price of labor. 
 The raising of the worm and the preparing of raw silk for 
 the market require a large amount of hand labor, labor 
 watchful and delicate and yet satisfied with small returns 
 for the work done. 
 
 The United States and France lead in the manufac- 
 ture of silks, each importing raw material to the value of 
 about $80,000,000 a year; Japan supplies the greater part 
 of the American imports; considerable quantities come 
 also from Italy and China. All silks manufactured in the 
 United States are consumed in the country, the exports 
 being less than $1,000,000, while the imports of silk manu- 
 
90 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 faetures exceed $30,000,000 a year; about one-half of the 
 latter amount is furnished by France. Silk textiles are 
 the most valuable single item in the export list of France, 
 with cotton textiles as a close second; in 1907 the exports 
 of silks were valued at $72,000,000. 
 
 Other silk-manufacturing countries are Great Britain, 
 Switzerland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Italy; 
 the silk manufactures of the latter country are gaining 
 in importance, although they are not as yet commensu- 
 rate with the position of Italy as a producer of the raw 
 material. 
 
 Hides and Skins are used for the manufacture of 
 leather. As none of the chief leather-producing countries 
 have enough of these raw materials to supply their home 
 demand, hides and skins form an important item of ex- 
 port trade from South America, Mexico, Australia and 
 India, where stock raising is carried on extensively; the 
 importers are the manufacturing countries of Europe and 
 the United States. The latter country imports goat skins 
 chiefly from the East Indies and South America, but also 
 from Europe, cattle hides and sheep skins; these products 
 form one of the leading imports into the United States; 
 in 1909 their value was $78,500,000. 
 
 Vegetable Oils. 
 
 Vegetable oils are obtained from the fruits and the 
 seeds of many plants; the most important commercially 
 are olive oil, palm oil, cocoanut oil and peanut oil. The 
 imports of olive oil into the United States exceeded $5,000,- 
 000 in 1909; most of the oil came from Italy and France. 
 Olives, from which oil is derived grow most abundantly in 
 southern Europe, in Mexico and in California. 
 
 Volatile Oils. 
 
 Essential or volatile oils are used in medicine, for flav- 
 oring purposes and in perfumery; the most valuable of 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 91 
 
 these oils are attar of roses, mint, wintergreen, pepper- 
 mint, caraway, sandalwood, bay, sassafras, bitter almonds. 
 Camphor is a solid essential oil obtained from camphor 
 trees. Most of the camphor comes from Formosa, though 
 some is produced in Japan, in China and in Borneo. 
 
 j 
 
 Dyes. 
 
 Dyes are of vegetable, animal or mineral origin; the 
 first two are extracts, the last is an artificial chemical com- 
 pound, produced chiefly from coal tar. Some of the best 
 known dyes are: Indigo, logwood, madder, etc. Indigo is 
 obtained from the juice of the indigo plant, growing in 
 India, Ceylon, Java and Central America; artificial indigo 
 is manufactured from coal tar, the product competing suc- 
 cessfully with natural indigo; logwood is derived from a 
 tree growing in Central America and in the West Indies; 
 madder is a powder made from the roots of a plant, culti- 
 vated in southern Asia, in central Europe, etc. Coal tar 
 dyes are manufactured most successfully in Germany; from 
 there they are sent all over the world. 
 
 Medicines (Drugs). 
 
 The crude substances which yield medicines are called 
 drugs; they are of vegetable, mineral or animal origin, 
 mostly of the first. Vegetables having medicinal proper- 
 ties are scattered all over the world, many of them having 
 strong local affinities. As to the demand for drugs, it 
 comes from every latitude and longitude, from every town 
 and hamlet where man suffers pain; therefore medicinal 
 substances play an important role in international trade. 
 Drugs are derived from barks and roots, seeds and leaves, 
 twigs and flowers of various plants and trees; quinine, for 
 instance, is obtained from the cinchona bark, the tree being 
 extensively cultivated in Java, India and Ceylon; coca 
 comes from the leaves of a bush growing largely in the 
 Andes Mountains, in South America; aconite is derived 
 
92 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 from the roots of a plant thriving in the Pyrenees, the 
 Alps and some of the mountains of Germany and Austria, 
 etc. 
 
 Woods. 
 
 Woods are divided into needle leaved or coniferous 
 which are often called “soft woods,” and broad leaved, 
 known as “hard woods.” A few varieties of coniferous 
 trees are hard (yellow pine), just as a few broad-leaved 
 trees are very soft (cottonwood, poplar, linden). The larg- 
 est amount of commercial lumber is obtained from conifer- 
 ous trees: pines, firs, hemlocks, redwoods, spruce; the last 
 is used extensively in the manufacture of paper; other va- 
 rieties of needle-leaved trees are: larch, cypress, white and 
 red cedar, etc. 
 
 Broad-leaved trees are more widely distributed than 
 coniferous trees. They are classified as close grained: 
 maple, birch, sycamore, holly, beech; and open grained: 
 chestnut, hickory, elm. 
 
 Mahogany, indigenous to the West Indies, Central 
 America and some parts of South America and Africa, 
 is one- of the most valuable furniture woods. It is chiefly 
 desired for its color, firmness, durability and the beauti- 
 ful polish it is capable of receiving. Other tropical trees 
 used in furniture making are rosewood, ebony, teak. 
 
 Almost every commercial nation imports and exports 
 wood and its manufactures. The United States is a heavy 
 importer and exporter, shipping logs, hewn and sawed tim- 
 ber, boards and planks, shooks and staves to Great Britain 
 and other European countries, to Argentina, Canada and 
 Australia. The imports of the United States comprise lum- 
 ber from Canada, wood pulp from northern Europe, cabinet 
 woods from Mexico, Central America and Africa. Great 
 Britain is the largest single buyer of wood in the world’s 
 markets, importing each year to the value of about $125,- 
 000,000. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 93 
 
 Rubber. 
 
 Rubber is the juice of certain tropical trees and vines. 
 The forests of the Amazon River valley furnish more than 
 half of the world’s supply, the other rubber-yielding 
 regions being Mexico, Central America, the East Indies 
 and Africa. The United States and Great Britain are the 
 largest importers of crude rubber; they manufacture an 
 endless variety of substance depending upon rubber as raw 
 material, such as waterproof cloth, shoes, boots, tires, tub- 
 ing, hose, combs, brushes, electrical instruments, etc. In 
 1909 the imports into the United States were valued at 
 $64,700,000; the exports, consisting mostly of rubber manu- 
 factures, are small, not exceeding $7,500,000. 
 
 Rubber is graded commercially, according to the coun- 
 try or district of origin, and to the degree of its cleanli- 
 ness; crude rubber contains more or less large quantities 
 of dirt, sand, bark, etc. 
 
 Gutta-percha, a product similar to rubber, is found in 
 the East Indies, Malay Peninsula and a few other semi- 
 tropical countries. 
 
 Fuels and Illuminants. 
 
 Coal is a heavy and bulky material and because of this 
 it does not enter very prominently into foreign commerce. 
 The leading exporters of coal are Great Britain, Germany, 
 the United States and Belgium. The shipments from the 
 United States in 1909 equalled 11,888,000 tons valued at 
 $37,316,000; about f of our exports went to Canada, most 
 of the rest to Mexico, to Cuba and other West Indian mar- 
 kets. The largest proportion of the European trade in 
 coal is also conducted with neighboring countries, English 
 exports going mostly to France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, 
 Spain, Russia, Denmark, and German exports finding 
 their markets in Austria-Hungary, Holland. Switzerland 
 and Russia. 
 
94 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 However, English coal crosses the Mediterranean and 
 the Atlantic, going more than half way around the world 
 and supplying the demands for fuel in Egypt, Argentina, 
 Brazil and South Africa. Exceedingly cheap freight rates 
 make such shipments possible. The United Kingdom is 
 the greatest importer of bulky freight ; her exports, on the 
 other hand, consist of manufactured goods. Many vessels 
 leaving England have therefore a choice between carrying 
 ballast or coal as ballast substitute; they naturally prefer 
 the latter, the freight they charge helping them to pay the 
 expense of running the ship. That most of the coal is 
 moved across the seas as ballast substitute, may be seen 
 also in comparatively large exports of coal from Japan, 
 a country ranking low as a coal producer, but whose im- 
 ports, like those of England, are more bulky than its ex- 
 ports. The United States, notwithstanding the abundance 
 and cheapness of coal in the country, has not become an 
 important coal exporter because vessels leaving American 
 harbors have always at their disposal, cargoes capable of 
 standing higher cost of transportation than coal. 
 
 Coal is the most important mineral. Its value as a 
 generator of power cannot be overestimated. To use the 
 eloquent words of Prof. Jevons, it is “the material energy 
 of the country — the universal aid — the factor in everything 
 we do, with the aid of which almost any feat is possible 
 or easy and without which we would be thrown back into 
 the laborious poverty of early times.” Coal pulsates 
 through mills and factories, entering into the blast fur- 
 naces, driving the engines, the steam hammers and the 
 spindles; it turns to smoke and ashes, but as it burns it 
 vitalizes every mechanism with which it is brought into 
 contact, it transforms inertness into creative forces which 
 move and shape the life of humanity. 
 
 There are many varieties of coal whose commercial 
 value depends upon the amount of fixed carbon they con- 
 tain. The most important of these varieties are bituminous 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 95 
 
 coal (soft) and anthracite coal (hard) ; the latter contains 
 very little moisture or volatile matter and because of the 
 presence of a high percentage of carbon — over 85 per cent 
 — it has a great heating power. 
 
 Petroleum is a liquid bituminous substance belonging, 
 like coal, to the group of hydrocarbons and being, like 
 the latter, the product of decomposition of organic matter. 
 The obtaining of petroleum is practically confined to two 
 countries : the United States and Russia. In 1907 the total 
 production of petroleum in the world was 262,000,000 bar- 
 rels (of 42 gallons), of which amount the United States 
 produced 166,000,000 barrels and Russia 61,000,000 barrels; 
 more or less valuable oil fields exist also in Austria-Hun- 
 gary, Roumania, Japan, Peru, Canada and on the islands 
 of Sumatra, Java and Borneo. The crude oil of the United 
 States, especially that coming from Ohio, Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia, yields large quantities of illuminating oils (about 
 75 per cent), while the Russian crude oil yields less than 
 half of this amount. Russian crude oil and the oil obtained 
 west of the Mississippi River in the United States (Okla- 
 homa, California, Texas) are particularly useful as fuels. 
 
 The United States and Russia produce far in excess 
 of their home consumption and ship vast quantities of oil 
 abroad. In 1909 the value of the exports from the United 
 States was close to $106,000,000, most of which consisted 
 of illuminating and lubricating oils; the buyers of our oil 
 are scattered all over the world, in Europe and in Asia, in 
 Central and in South America, in Africa and in Australia. 
 
 Metals. 
 
 Iron is found in all parts of the world, but in many 
 places it is not mined because of distance from coal and 
 limestone, necessary for smelting, poor means of transpor- 
 tation and lack of capital. The leading producers of iron 
 are the United States, England and Germany. Iron in 
 its natural state is combined with other mineral sub- 
 
96 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 stances and is known as iron ore; from this ore pig iron 
 is made by means of smelting in a blast furnace. 
 
 Cast iron is pig iron remolten and shaped in sand 
 moulds. As it contains many impurities (sulphur, phos- 
 phorus, silicon, carbon), it is brittle. 
 
 Wrought iron is made from pi g iron; the latter under- 
 goes several processes of remelting in order to remove the 
 impurities. Wrought iron is rolled or hammered into bars, 
 sheets and other forms. Because of the expense of manu- 
 facture it has been largely superseded by certain grades 
 of steel, which is for most purposes just as satisfactory 
 and not so high priced. The most important processes of 
 steel manufacture are the Bessemer and the open hearth. 
 
 The United States exports some iron ore and some pig 
 iron and large quantities of iron and steel manufactures; 
 the latter comprise rails, sheets and plates, wire, builders’ 
 hardware, locomotives, typewriting and sewing machines, 
 cash registers, pipes and fittings, stoves, etc.; the total 
 value of these exports declined from $181,500,000 in 1907 
 to $145,000,000 in 1909. 
 
 Copper is found pure or in the form of ores. The 
 United States is the leading copper producer, yielding about 
 400,000 tons, or more than half of the world’s output. In 
 1907, Mexico was second in importance, followed by Spain 
 and Portugal, Japan, Australia, Chile and Germany; the 
 latter country imports large quantities of the metal. In 
 1909 the value of the United States’ exports of copper in- 
 gots, bars, plates, etc., was $85,300,000. 
 
 Copper is an excellent conductor of electricity and the 
 demand for it has greatly increased in recent years follow- 
 ing the growth of electrical industries. 
 
 Bronze is a compound of copper and tin, brass a com- 
 pound of copper and zinc. 
 
 Tin is obtained mainly — more than three-fourths of the 
 world’s supply — in the Straits Settlements (Malay Penin- 
 sula and the neighboring islands). It is found also in 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 97 
 
 Bolivia, Australia and in Cornwall, England. There are 
 no large tin deposits in the United States, and most of the 
 metal used is imported from Great Britain and the Straits 
 Settlements. Tin is used mainly for the making of tin 
 plates (sheet iron dipped in molten tin). 
 
 Zinc is found chiefly in Germany, Belgium and the 
 United States. Galvanized iron is made by dipping sheet 
 iron in melted zinc. 
 
 Lead is mined in the United States, Mexico, Spain and 
 Germany; the production in the United States is not suf- 
 ficient to cover the home demand and large quantities are 
 imported from Mexico. 
 
 Gold is found in most parts of the world, but the rich- 
 est gold fields are those of the United States, South Africa 
 and Australia. The chief use of gold is for the making 
 of coins, because of its peculiar characteristics: malleabil- 
 ity, corrosiveness, value in comparison to bulk, the diffi- 
 culty of counterfeiting, etc. Most civilized nations have 
 adopted gold as their standard currency. Gold is also 
 used in the jeweler’s art, in dentistry, and for ornamental 
 and decorative purposes. Gold is shipped from country 
 to country to settle fiscal balances. 
 
 Silver is the second most valuable precious metal. It 
 is used for coinage and in some countries as a monetary 
 standard. Its reliability in this latter respect is impaired 
 by fluctuations in value. Like gold, silver is used for many 
 industrial purposes. France leads in the manufacture of 
 gold and silver wares. 
 
 Various other metals — platinum, quicksilver, alumi- 
 num, etc. — are found in different parts of the world and 
 are objects of international trade. 
 
 VIII. COUNTRIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS. 
 
 Economically w T e may classify the countries of the world 
 into three groups: 
 
 (1) Those whose economic activity has achieved the 
 highest degree of efficiency. They produce on a large scale 
 
 B— IV 9-7 
 
98 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 macliine-made goods both for home consumption and for 
 export and their financial and commercial relations con- 
 nect them more or less closely with other countries. They 
 appear as competitors in the world’s markets. 
 
 (2) Those whose manufacturing industries have pro- 
 gressed sufficiently far to satisfy most of their home de- 
 mand for factory products, but whose share in interna- 
 tional trade in these products, as far as exports go, is com- 
 paratively small. 
 
 (3) Those whose industrial activities are mainly of 
 an extractive character; they produce raw materials and 
 semi-finished commodities, and their manufactures are 
 either made by primitive methods at home or imported 
 from abroad. 
 
 It is difficult to draw a demarcation line between these 
 groups and it is just as difficult to assign some countries 
 to any one of them; but such a classification permits one 
 to view each country from a definite and a commercially 
 significant standpoint. 
 
 The most important countries belonging to the first 
 group are the United States, Great Britain, Germany and 
 France; to these we may add Belgium, Netherlands, Switz- 
 erland and to some extent Austria-Hungary and Italy. 
 
 The United States is at present the greatest manufac- 
 turing nation of the world. According to the census of 
 1905, the value of our manufactured products was equal 
 to $16,866,000,000. The estimated value of the manufac- 
 tures of England in 1904 was $5,000,000,000; of Germany 
 $4,666,000,000; of France $3,500,000,000; of Austria-Hun- 
 gary $2,000,000,000; of Russia $2,000,000,000; of Italy 
 $1,750,000,000; of Belgium $750,000,000. 
 
 The total value of manufactures entering international 
 trade is, in round figures, $4,000,000,000, of which the Unit- 
 ed States supplies but $500,000,000, or 12J per cent of the 
 total. 
 
 In the second group of our division we may place 
 Russia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and other Eu- 
 ropean nations not enumerated. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 99 
 
 The countries of Southern and Central America, Asia, 
 Africa and Australia belong to the third group. Their 
 industries are in a formative period, some having advanced 
 farther than others, but all showing the same character- 
 istics: the export of breadstuff s, foodstuffs and raw ma- 
 terials, and the imports of manufactures. 
 
 Europe. 
 
 The chief manufacturing nations of Europe are grouped 
 in the northwestern part of the continent; these are Great 
 Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzer- 
 land. Agricultural pursuits are predominant in the south 
 and in the east: in Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Rou- 
 mania and Russia. 
 
 The first-named countries, washed by the Atlantic 
 Ocean and the North Sea, possess many of the necessary 
 elements which go towards making industrial and com- 
 mercial greatness; if these elements are not found in the 
 superabundance of natural resources (many materials be- 
 ing imported), then they are contained in the personal 
 characteristics of their people, who are industrious, re- 
 sourceful, inventive, daring in their colonial and commer- 
 cial enterprises. 
 
 All these countries of dense population, whose ener- 
 gies are largely used for manufacturing and commerce 
 as the most profitable and in some instances the only pos- 
 sible pursuits, import considerable quantities of food, raw 
 materials and partially manufactured wares. 
 
 The countries of the south and of the east of Europe 
 export cereals, other foodstuffs and raw materials. There 
 are notable exceptions to this general statement; for in- 
 stance, certain rapidly developing manufacturing indus- 
 tries of Italy and Austria and the gradual transition of 
 Russia from a purely agricultural to an agricultural-manu- 
 facturing state, but the classification given is of value, 
 because it indicates the main characteristics of trade and 
 commerce in two vastly different sections of Europe. 
 
100 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland leads 
 
 the commercial nations of the world in the quantity and 
 in the value of its foreign commerce. Its insular position, 
 almost in the center of the northern, continental part of 
 the world, near the markets of Europe and on the passage- 
 way between European countries and North America, has 
 to a very large extent contributed to its commercial sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 The climate of the British Isles is mild and equable 
 and most of their soil can be used for purposes of agri- 
 culture, the highlands of Scotland having the largest 
 amount of unproductive area. Notwithstanding this the 
 population of Great Britain finds its chief occupation, not 
 in agriculture, but in manufactures, shipping and com- 
 merce, and the wealth of the country is based not so much 
 upon the labors of the husbandmen as upon those of the 
 coal-miner, the worker in the mills and factories, and the 
 sailor. 
 
 England’s agriculture is of a most intensive character, 
 but it produces far from a sufficient amount to support 
 its population; consequently, England imports wheat and 
 other cereals. Great Britain with its large army of in- 
 dustrial laborers and a comparatively small number of 
 farmers, with its free trade policy which keeps the price 
 of grain down and thus favors a large consumption of this 
 staple, has been for a long time a converging point for 
 thousands of cargo laden ships, which unite its harbors, 
 its factories, its mining camp with the wheat fields of 
 the new and the old worlds. 
 
 Great Britain is, also, one of the best consumers of 
 foreign raw materials, its own comparatively small terri- 
 tory not providing a sufficiently broad foundation for the 
 huge superstructure of its blast furnaces and rolling mills, 
 cotton and woolen factories, etc. Some materials like cot- 
 ton, for instance, cannot be produced in England at all; 
 others, like iron ore, are not present in sufficient quantity 
 or lack the necessary qualities; others could be obtained 
 at home, but it is more profitable to import them and to 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 101 
 
 devote the capital, the energy and the skill of the country 
 upon elaborative processes, thus adding many fold upon 
 the original investments represented in the purchase of 
 the raw material. 
 
 The chief exports of Great Britain and Ireland are cot- 
 ton, woolen, linen and jute manufactures and yarn, coal, 
 metals, machinery, hardware and cutlery; the principal 
 articles of import include grain and flour, meat and dairy 
 products, raw cotton and wool, wood and timber, petro- 
 leum, sugar, tea and coffee, fruits and hops, eggs, tobacco, 
 etc. 
 
 France with a territory less than Texas has almost as 
 many farms as the United States; this goes to show that 
 the acreage of individual farms is small there. 
 
 One-half of the French soil is arable ; the soil is fertile 
 and productive, and grain fields, yielding abundantly to 
 close methods of farming, cover one-fourth of the repub- 
 lic. Wheat is the largest crop, but notwithstanding the 
 size of the wheat yield, from 30 to 35 millions of bushels 
 are annually imported. Next to wheat, oats is the leading 
 crop. 
 
 Sugar beets are raised extensively on the plains of the 
 North, France being one of the largest beet sugar pro- 
 ducers. Of importance are the crops of chestnuts, wal- 
 nuts, olives, plums, cider, apples and mulberry leaves. 
 
 France leads the world in wine production; grapes are 
 cultivated mostly in the southern and eastern provinces, 
 whose soil and climate are well adapted to the industry. 
 French wines, because of their superior quality and their 
 reputation, find a ready market in Great Britain, in all 
 north European countries, in the United States and other 
 American republics as well as in the Orient. 
 
 The fishing industry of France employs close to 100,- 
 000 people, herring, oysters, sardines, mackerel, sprats and 
 tanny fish being the main products. 
 
 While France has important coal beds, they do not 
 yield a sufficient amount for the needs of the country and 
 it imports large quantities of this mineral from its neigh- 
 
102 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 bors, Belgium, Germany and England. Iron ore is plen- 
 tiful, but in many cases it is far from the coal deposits; 
 the most important developments in the production of iron 
 and steel have taken place at Creuzot and St. Etienne, 
 where the two minerals are found in proximity; the other 
 two important iron and steel centers are Marseilles and 
 Bordeaux, their location permitting the use of waterways 
 for the transportation of coal and iron. 
 
 France excels in the making of wares requiring artis- 
 tic skill, but in the production of cheap commodities, which 
 are the result of the extensive use of modern machinery 
 and of elaborate business organization, it is far behind 
 Great Britain, Germany and the United States. 
 
 Manufactures of gloves and other fancy leather goods, 
 of jewelry, perfumery, porcelain, millinery and dresses 
 are some of the characteristic industries in and around 
 Paris, the capital of the country and its intellectual and 
 financial center. 
 
 Textiles, if we include under this heading, the making 
 of cloths, lace, ribbons, etc., employ close to 2,000,000 per- 
 sons; the goods are noted for their fine texture and supe- 
 rior quality. 
 
 The principal imports of France are wool, raw silk and 
 raw cotton, coal and coke, oil seeds, timber and wood, ce- 
 reals, hides and furs, wine, ores; the chief exports con- 
 sist of silk, cotton and woolen textiles, raw wool and yarn, 
 raw silk and yarn, wine, leather and leather goods, linen 
 and clothes, skins and furs, chemical products, cheese and 
 butter, sugar and spirits. 
 
 Germany. — Since the establishment of the German Em- 
 pire in 1871, the country has undergone a tremendous 
 transformation. Out of agricultural states torn by politi- 
 cal conflicts, there has emerged a united people, conscious 
 of its strength, full of vigor and of belief in its destiny. 
 The nation of scientists and philosophers, poets and musi- 
 cians, of sturdy peasants tilling the sandy soil and of 
 soldiers trained on bloody battlefields has turned its at- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 103 
 
 tention to industry and commerce; the results are mar- 
 velous. 
 
 The struggles of the past with man and nature have 
 laid their impress upon the character of the German 
 workingman. He is deeply in earnest in whatever he does, 
 steadfast and thrifty. He knows how to utilize to the ut- 
 most every resource at his disposal, to turn to advantage 
 every opportunity. Through his toil little plains, covered 
 with scrub pine were transformed into grain fields, or- 
 chards and gardens; shallow unnavigable streams were 
 canalized and impressed into the service of commerce; in- 
 dustrial centers were planted in the midst of seemingly 
 valueless stretches of barren land. 
 
 The German Empire is a confederation of twenty-six 
 states, occupying 211,000 square miles in the central part 
 of Europe. Its position in the north temperate zone makes 
 it a country of forests, fields and pastures. Scientific 
 methods of cultivation have reduced the percentage of un- 
 productive soil to about one-twentieth of the total area, 
 arable land equaling 48.7 per cent, hay and pasture 20.3 
 per cent and forests 25.7 per cent. 
 
 The chief cereal crops of the Empire are rye, oats, 
 wheat and barley, the first two leading; Germany because 
 of its climatic conditions and the nature of its soil (poor 
 and sandy in most parts of Prussia), is more adapted to 
 the raising of hardy plants, like rye and oats, than to the 
 cultivation of wheat. Notwithstanding high duties, large 
 quantities of the latter are imported, the imports gaining 
 in volume and value because of the rapid growth of popu- 
 lation and its concentration in industrial and commercial 
 centers. 
 
 Besides cereals, the products of the German soil con- 
 sist of potatoes, hay, clover, sugar, beetroot, wine grapes, 
 hops, tobacco and fruits. 
 
 Germany is rich in minerals, her output being now 
 larger than that of any other country in Europe, except 
 Great Britain. The mineral deposits include coal, iron 
 ore, copper, silver, lead and zinc. 
 
104 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 The forests supply fuel, as well as material for build- 
 ing purposes and for a great number of manufacturing 
 industries. The chief woods of Germany are oak, beech, 
 spruce, walnut and birch. 
 
 Manufactures are varied; the most highly developed 
 are iron and steel, textiles, sugar refineries, breweries, pro- 
 duction of chemicals, of leather goods, etc. 
 
 Raw materials and foodstuffs constitute the largest 
 item of imports, the first representing about 50 per cent, 
 the second 35 per cent of the total; manufactured commod- 
 ities, particularly textiles, metallic wares, machines, chem- 
 icals, colors and leather goods, predominate in the ex- 
 ports. 
 
 The United States leads in the value of imports, fol- 
 lowed by Russia, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France 
 and Argentina. Most of the exports go to Great Britain, 
 the United States, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland and 
 Russia. 
 
 Austria-Hungary is pre-eminently a country of tillers 
 of the soil and raisers of stock, agricultural industries giv- 
 ing employment to over one-half of the population of Aus- 
 tria and more than two-thirds of that of Hungary. Aus- 
 tria, however, because of its vast store of mineral wealth 
 has a number of manufactures, the most important of 
 which are textiles, metal working, machine making, glass 
 industry, sugar refining, and brewing. The population in 
 many of the industrial districts of Austria is possessed of 
 artistic ability, has deftness and skill, and the products 
 of her factories (Bohemian crystal and porcelain, etc.) com- 
 pete favorably with those of any other country; but manu- 
 facturing in general has been greatly retarded. The eco- 
 nomic life of the country has been hampered by antago- 
 nism amongst the various nationalities comprising the dual 
 monarchy, by race animosity, hereditary distinctions and 
 jealousies, church influences, etc. 
 
 Labor is cheap and because of this, new methods and ma- 
 chinery are introduced very slowly, both in the field and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 105 
 
 in the shop; the flour milling industry is a notable excep- 
 tion; Hungarian mills use the best mechanical appliances 
 and produce flour of high quality which is sought by other 
 European nations. Oats, rye and barley are the principal 
 crops of Austria, while the Hungarian plains produce much 
 wheat and corn. Other agricultural products of the Empire 
 include beet sugar, tobacco, wine, grapes. Good grades of 
 wine (Tokay from Hungary) are exported, but imports 
 exceed exports. Poultry raising is an important commer- 
 cial item, over two billions of eggs being exported annually. 
 
 A valuable economic asset are the forests; so also are 
 the pastures and meadows on which graze millions of cat- 
 tle, horses and sheep. 
 
 Most of the commerce of Austria-Hungary is carried 
 on with adjoining states, the value of exports from and 
 imports into Germany being about one-half of the total 
 foreign trade of the Kingdom. Great Britain is the next 
 best customer of Austria-Hungary, followed by Italy, Rus- 
 sia, Turkey and Roumania. 
 
 Foreign commerce of Austria-Hungary suffers because 
 of lack of seacoast, its only outlet being a narrow strip 
 on the Adriatic. 
 
 The chief exports are sugar, eggs, wood and woodwork, 
 corn flour, wheat, glass and glassware, cattle, leather goods 
 and coal; the imports consist of raw cotton and wool, cot- 
 ton and woolen goods, silk and silk manufactures, hides, 
 skins and prepared leather. 
 
 Switzerland — a small inland country of lofty snow cov- 
 ered mountains, deep green fertile valleys, beautiful lakes, 
 streams and waterfalls — has achieved a high position as 
 a manufacturing and commercial nation; this, notwith- 
 standing the fact that it lacks mines of coal and iron, has 
 no seacoast and is hedged in between mountainous walls. 
 
 One-half of the country lies above the zone of agricul- 
 ture and only one-sixth of the area can be cultivated. 
 Switzerland imports considerable quantities of wheat, 
 
106 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 partly to supply the needs of her own population, partly 
 for tourist trade. 
 
 Dairying is the most important branch of Swiss agri- 
 cultural and pastoral industries; it prospers because of the 
 abundance of hay and pasture lands on the mountain 
 slopes, pastures kept perennially green by the melting 
 snow. Switzerland exports cheese, condensed milk and 
 milch cows; imports beef cattle. 
 
 Manufactures are carried on either in small factories 
 or as hand crafts and rely for their competitive qualities 
 upon the skilled, technically educated and at the same 
 time inexpensive labor. The chief industries are textiles 
 (fine silk and cotton fabrics, trimmings and embroideries), 
 watch making, wood carving, production of chemicals, of 
 leather goods, of scientific instruments, metal works and 
 straw plaiting. 
 
 The chief imports of Switzerland are cereals and other 
 food substances, silk and cotton goods, raw materials; the 
 exports are nearly. all manufactures: silk and cotton tis- 
 sues, metals, etc. 
 
 Switzerland each year attracts thousands of tourists 
 from the United States and Europe, who enrich her to the 
 extent of many millions. 
 
 Most of the Swiss manufactures find purchases in the 
 near-by markets of Germany, France, Austria-Hungary 
 and Italy; considerable quantities are shipped to the 
 United States; in 1909 the value of the latter was $23,830,- 
 000, while the imports from that country were only $75,000. 
 
 Belgium with a territory of 11,373 square miles has a 
 population of about 7,500,000, thus being one of the most 
 densely populated states in the world. About 49 per cent 
 of the area is arable land, 26 per cent is hay and pasture, 
 16.5 forest and the rest is unproductive. 
 
 Oats, rye, wheat and potatoes are the leading crops, but 
 the amount of breadstuffs produced does not cover the 
 home demand and wheat is an item of import. Sugar 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 107 
 
 beets are grown in large quantities, and some sugar is ex- 
 ported; flax and hemp are also farm products of some im- 
 portance. Poultry is raised throughout Belgium and fur- 
 nishes eggs and young fowls for the markets of England 
 and northern France. 
 
 The chief industries of Belgium are mining and manu- 
 facturing. Belgium has rich coal deposits, mining annually 
 over 23,000,000 tons of coal; one-fourth of this amount is 
 exported to France, the rest is consumed at home. The 
 quantity of iron ore found in the country is insufficient for 
 its industries, and ore is therefore imported. Abundant 
 coal supply, dense population, skilled labor and available 
 capital make Belgium a pre-eminently manufacturing and 
 commercial state. 
 
 The chief exports from Belgium are machinery, iron 
 and steel, flax, woolen and cotton tissues, diamonds (re- 
 exportation after cutting), glass, raw hides, sugar, while 
 imports consist of wheat, timber, raw wool, flax, cotton, and 
 colonial goods. 
 
 France, Germany, Great Britain, the United States and 
 the Netherlands are the leading exporters from and im- 
 porters into Belgium, the United States shipping wheat, 
 corn, cotton, meats, petroleum, tobacco, to the value of 
 $45,093,000 (figures given for 1909). 
 
 The Netherlands is mainly an agricultural and a com- 
 mercial country. A large portion of its surface is marshy, 
 but the land that is arable, is very fertile; this is particu- 
 larly true of the area that has been reclaimed from the 
 sea. The soil is moist there and excellent breeds of cattle 
 graze on its rich pastures, yielding abundantly milk, either 
 sold directly or manufactured into butter and cheese. 
 
 The principal crops are rye, potatoes, oats, wheat, sugar 
 beets and pulses. Truck gardening and the growing of 
 flowers furnish articles of export to many large cities of 
 continental Europe and Great Britain. 
 
108 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Mining is of little importance owing to the lack of nat- 
 ural deposits; this absence of minerals hinders the manu- 
 facturing development of the country. Cotton, linen and 
 woolen factories, sugar refineries, brewing and distilling 
 (curagao, gin), the making of earthenware, furnish some 
 products for export. 
 
 The Netherlands stands in the front rank as a com- 
 mercial nation, being the fifth country in the value of its 
 foreign trade; a great deal of this commerce is transit from 
 and to Germany. 
 
 The Netherlands imports and exports large quantities 
 of iron and steel, copper, cereals, flour, etc.; the exports 
 of her home products consist mainly of butter, cheese, 
 meats, sugar, oleomargarine and flax, while the imports 
 for home consumption are cereals and flour, coal, mineral 
 oil, coffee, etc. Most products are shipped to Prussia 
 (50.3 per cent in 1907), Great Britain and Belgium; the 
 United States, taking 3.9 per cent of the total exports, occu- 
 pies the fourth place; 10.9 per cent of imports for home 
 consumption come from the United States. 
 
 Sweden occupies the eastern part of the Scandinavian 
 Peninsula. Forests cover about one-half of the land area 
 of Sweden and their products form a staple export. Only 
 9 per cent of the country is under cultivation and about 
 3 per cent is pastures and meadows. The chief crops are 
 oats, rye and barley; considerable quantities of com and 
 flour are imported. 
 
 Mining is one of the leading departments of Swedish 
 industry, particularly mining of iron ore. In 1907 — 4,480,- 
 000 tons of iron ore were extracted; however, metallurgical 
 industries are not developed, and most of the ore (3,521,000 
 tons) is exported either to Great Britain or to Germany. 
 
 Timber and woodwork furnish the chief articles of 
 export, other articles in the order named being minerals, 
 metal goods and machinery, live animals and animal prod- 
 ucts, paper, etc. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 109 
 
 The imports consist of coal and other minerals, metal 
 goods and machinery, raw textile material and textile 
 manufactures, cereals, colonial wares. 
 
 The principal countries with whom Sweden trades are 
 Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, the United States, Nor- 
 way. 
 
 Norway, of whose total area 75 per cent is unproductive, 
 is a high tableland of forbidding desolate aspect, with 
 mosses and lichens as its only vegetation; over 20 per cent 
 are under forests, mostly the coniferous pine and spruce; 
 the rest, less than 4 per cent, is under crops and grass. 
 
 Fisheries are very important, the main catch consisting 
 of cod, herring and mackerel. Practically all the ports of 
 Norway are fishing ports. The population of Norway has 
 always been necessitated to depend upon the sea as its 
 means of support, the country’s barren soil and its rigor- 
 ous climate preventing agricultural, pastoral or any other 
 industrial pursuits. 
 
 Norway possesses a very large merchant marine, the 
 largest in the world in proportion to its population; Nor- 
 wegian steamers and sailers may be found on most seas 
 carrying the goods of many nations. 
 
 The chief exports of Norway are timber and wooden 
 goods, fish, paper; imports consist of breadstuffs, particu- 
 larly rye, of tallow, oils, tar and rope, coal, metals and 
 metal manufactures. 
 
 Denmark occupies the peninsula of J utland and a few 
 islands between the North Sea and the Baltic. Of the total 
 area about 40 per cent is under cultivation and 40 per cent 
 in pasture and meadow. 
 
 Dairying and poultry raising are the most important 
 occupations, and butter, eggs and meats form the chief 
 items of its export trade. The production of milk, butter 
 and cheese is placed on a most scientific and sanitary basis, 
 and these products find a ready market wherever they are 
 sent. The same is true of the egg industry, controlled by 
 
110 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 co-operative organizations whose members are pledged to 
 deliver none but freshly laid eggs. 
 
 Oats, barley and rye are the leading cereals raised, the 
 latitude being somewhat high for the successful cultivation 
 of wheat; beet roots are grown and in 1907 about 53,000 tons 
 of beet sugar were produced. 
 
 Manufactures are few and of comparatively little sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 The chief imports consist of cereals, provisions, metals, 
 hardware, coal, textile manufactures and colonial goods. 
 
 The United States’ exports to Denmark have fallen 
 from $23,384,000 in 1907 to $17,522,000 in 1909, while the 
 imports show an increase: $1,125,000 in 1907 against $1,625,- 
 000 in 1909. 
 
 Italy, although surrounded by the sea (Mediterranean) 
 has hot and dry summers in the central and southern parts 
 of the country, necessitating artificial irrigation. In the 
 north, the rainfall is abundant and evenly distributed 
 throughout the year; it is there that agriculture reaches 
 its highest development. About 70 per cent of the Italian 
 soil is classified as productive. 
 
 The southern latitude of the country and its varying 
 altitude (the Apennines traverse the peninsula and the 
 Alps cap it) permit the growth of tropical as well as of 
 temperate region crops. The latter, like wheat, are not 
 sufficient to supply the home demand. 
 
 Olives, oranges, lemons are extensively cultivated and 
 large quantities of olive oil and citrus fruits are exported. 
 
 The leading single industry of Italy is the production 
 of raw silk, large quantities 'of which are bought annually 
 by European and American silk manufacturers. 
 
 Italy produces a great deal of wine, inferior in quality 
 to the French wines, but forming an important item of 
 export. 
 
 The country is not rich in minerals; some infer- 
 ior grade coal L (lignite) is mined, but most of the fuel 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 111 
 
 must be imported. Sulphur is found in Sicily, and is ex- 
 ported to the extent of approximately $6,000,000 a year. 
 Of great value are the quarries of Italy, yielding some of 
 the best marble for artistic purposes. 
 
 Manufactures have been undeveloped because of the 
 high price of coal, practically all of which must be imported; 
 but they are becoming an important factor in the economic 
 life of the nation. Water power is abundant and it is 
 being rapidly harnessed to serve industry and commerce, 
 manufactures finding, in a densely populated country like 
 Italy, adequate labor supply and good local markets. Es- 
 pecially marked has been the growth of textile industries 
 (silk, cotton, woolen, linen), and the production of chemi- 
 cals. 
 
 The exports, except those enumerated above, consist of 
 cotton and silk tissues, raw hemp, cheese and eggs, fresh 
 and dried fruits, nuts (figs, almonds, etc.), rice, straw and 
 straw hats, raw and sculptured marble, alabaster and coral. 
 
 The chief imports are raw cotton, coal and coke, boilers 
 and machinery, wheat, wrought iron, steel and other metals, 
 railway carriages, scientific and electrical instruments, tim- 
 ber, silk and wool, hides, coffee, etc. 
 
 Most of the imports come from Great Britain, Germany, 
 the United States, France, Austria-Hungary and Russia; 
 the exports go to Switzerland, Germany, the United States, 
 France, Austria-Hungary, Argentina. 
 
 Spain and Portugal occupy the Iberian Peninsula. 
 Spain is by far the largest of the two kingdoms both in 
 area (190,050 square miles) and in population (about 20,- 
 000,000). About 80 per cent of its soil is classified as pro- 
 ductive, and is devoted to cereal raising, gardening, fruit 
 growing, grape and olive culture, and grazing. 
 
 Spain is rich in minerals, but the mineral resources are 
 only partially developed, the most important minerals 
 mined being iron, copper, coal, lead, zinc and mercury; 
 
112 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Spain supplies about one-half of the world’s output of 
 quicksilver. 
 
 The greater part of Spain is tableland surrounded every- 
 where but in the west by mountains and possessing some- 
 what unfavorable climatic conditions; high temperature 
 coupled with inadequate rainfall prevents the growth of 
 little other vegetation except herbs and shrubs. However, 
 artificial irrigation opens possibilities for the cultivation of 
 fruits and vegetables, nuts and cereals, and many parts 
 of Spain are thus irrigated. The northwest of Spain, with 
 a greater rainfall, produces corn, while some of the more 
 fertile parts of the plateau yield excellent wine. 
 
 The only valuable product of Spanish forests is cork. 
 
 Spanish wool (short staples) is considered as the best 
 in the world. 
 
 Manfactures of more than local significance are metal- 
 lurgical works, cotton and woolen mills, paper mills and 
 glass-making factories. 
 
 The exports are minerals, glassware and pottery, metal 
 and metal manufactures, foodstuffs, etc.; the imports con- 
 sist of cotton and its manufactures, machinery, vehicles 
 and vessels. 
 
 Portugal. — Over 43 per cent of the area is unproductive 
 and 17J per cent is under forests; the remaining territory 
 is pasture and land devoted to the cultivation of cereals, 
 pulses, and fruit. 
 
 The main cereal crops of the country are corn and wheat. 
 Wine is produced both for domestic consumption and for 
 export; the same is true of olive oil, oranges and figs. 
 
 There is considerable mineral wealth in Portugal, but 
 valuable mines remain unworked because of lack of fuel 
 and of good transportation facilities. 
 
 The imports consist of iron and steel manufactures, cot- 
 ton and woolen goods, coal, codfish, sugar, hides and skins; 
 the exports are wine, corn, preserved fish, fruits, copper 
 ore, etc. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 113 
 
 The Russian Empire occupies one-seventh of the land 
 surface of the globe and has a population of over 150,000,- 
 000. The entire region presents a great compact land mass, 
 stretching from the Baltic Sea and the frontiers of Ger- 
 many and Austria-Hungary to the Pacific, and from the 
 Chinese Empire, Persia and the Black Sea to the Arctic 
 Ocean. It lies within the temperate and frigid zones. 
 
 Russia in Europe is topographically a great plain, the 
 only mountains being the Caucasian and the Crimean in 
 the south and the Ural in the east 
 
 The northern part of the country is swampy, frozen for 
 most part of the year, with no vegetation but moss and 
 lichens; farther south is the forest belt of firs, pines and 
 oaks, yielding valuable material for building purposes. 
 
 South of this belt lies the monotonous expanse of 
 Russian steppes and fields which, although open to the 
 winds sweeping from the north and subject occasionally 
 to severe droughts, are capable under proper system of 
 cultivation, of producing abundantly oats, rye, barley, 
 wheat, and other cereals. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ignorance and the lack of energy 
 on the part of the Russian peasant, even at present, the 
 black earth of Russia makes the country one of the lead- 
 ing breadstuff producers in the world. 
 
 Besides cereals, flax, hemp, potatoes, sugar beets and 
 tobacco are raised in different parts of the Empire. 
 
 Russia possesses millions of horned cattle, sheep, horses, 
 goats and pigs, yielding large quantities of milk, butter and 
 cheese, tallow, wool, hides and leather, hair and bristles. 
 
 Poultry raising furnishes billions of eggs both for home 
 and for foreign consumption; about 55,000,000 eggs are 
 exported annually. 
 
 The mineral resources of Russia are vast and varied, 
 and the mining industry is steadily increasing in impor- 
 tance. The chief minerals mined are gold, platinum, silver, 
 coal, copper, iron ore, zinc, lead and petroleum. 
 
 B — IYe—8 
 
114 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Manufactures have become sufficiently prominent an 
 element in the economic life of the country to supply most 
 of the home demand for finished goods; undoubtedly the 
 demand for such commodities is not so proportionate to the 
 size of the Russian population, if a higher standard of living 
 should prevail. A deep gulf exists between a compara- 
 tively insignificant part of the Russian people living in a 
 few large cities and the great, inert, widely spread mass 
 of the moujiks (peasants). The first strive for material as 
 well as intellectual progress, they live the full life of civi- 
 lized men, while the second exist with needs and wants that 
 do not pass beyond the narrow walls of their huts and the 
 patches of ground they cultivate. 
 
 The government of Russia is paternal; it owns and oper- 
 ates two-thirds of the railway system, most of the tele- 
 graph and telephone lines, valuable mines; it buys all the 
 alcohol required for national consumption and sells the 
 liquor consumed by the people. One-third of all the land 
 and two-thirds of the forest are still under its immediate 
 control 
 
 The leading manufactures of national importance are 
 cotton, linen and woolen fabrics, the products of sugar re- 
 fineries, of breweries and distilleries; mills are centered in 
 Poland, in and around Moscow and in a few other industrial 
 districts of Russia. Of the fisheries the most important and 
 valuable are those of the rivers and of the Caspian and 
 Black seas. 
 
 The imports of Russia consist of cotton, wool, hides, 
 leather, chemicals, colors, coal, coke, unmanufactured met- 
 als, tea, coffee, alcoholic beverages, fish, fruits and nuts, 
 machinery, metal goods and textiles. 
 
 The exports enumerated in the order of their value are: 
 cereals and flour, timber and wooden goods, flax and hemp, 
 eggs, dairy produce, petroleum, furs and feathers, sugar, 
 fowls and game, bristle and hair, wool; some manufactures 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 115 
 
 are exported, principally to Asia, but they play a small 
 role in Russia’s export trade. 
 
 The exports to the United States in 1907 were $7,727,- 
 000, as compared with $290,000,000 to Germany or $228,- 
 000,000 to Great Britain. Germany leads in imports (in 
 1907 — $311,000,000), followed at a great distance by the 
 United Kingdom ($114,000,000) and the United States 
 ($53,000,000). 
 
 The Balkan countries occupy the Balkan Peninsula and 
 some of its contiguous territory. They consist of Rou- 
 mania, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, European Turkey 
 and Greece. In all of them agricultural and pastoral pur- 
 suits predominate; mining, although the mountainous ter- 
 ritory is rich in minerals, is little pursued, and manufac- 
 tures, barring the making of carpets in Turkey, are of a 
 purely local character. 
 
 Roumania raises large crops of corn and wheat, the 
 first for home consumption, the second for export; barley, 
 rye, oats, hemp and colja are some of the other crops. The 
 chief minerals found are petroleum and salt. The exports 
 consist of cereals, animal products, wood and mineral fuel, 
 imports of textiles, metal w r are, chemicals and drugs, etc. 
 
 Bulgaria. The soil of Bulgaria south of the Balkan 
 Mountains is fertile, the climate warm, and such products 
 as grapes, cotton, tobacco, rice, roses (attar of roses ex- 
 ported) are cultivated; the northern portions of the king- 
 dom produce wheat and present excellent pasture land for 
 large herds of sheep, cattle and horses. Agricultural meth- 
 ods are primitive. 
 
 Servia resembles Bulgaria in its topography, climate, 
 products and the occupations of its people. It exports 
 prunes and preserved plums, corn, wheat, barley, meat, 
 hides, eggs; it imports textiles, iron and steel, machinery, 
 sugar and salt. 
 
 European Turkey is but a fraction of the Great Otto- 
 man Empire. Its industrial development has been retard- 
 
116 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 ed because of political conditions, and it is expected that 
 the overthrow of absolutism and the rule of the Young 
 Turks will have a stimulating effect upon industries and 
 commerce. Turkey with its tributary states has an area 
 of 1,565,000 square miles and a population of 35,000,000; 
 it includes Asia Minor, Armenia and Kurdistan, Mesopo- 
 tamia, Syria, extensive coast strips in Arabia, Tripoli and 
 Egypt. The soil of the Turkish possessions is fertile and 
 the climatic conditions are good. Tobacco, cereals of all 
 kinds, cotton, grapes, nuts, almonds, olives, all varieties of 
 fruit grow abundantly. Coffee and silk plantations are 
 being extended. The large forests contain firs, pines, oaks 
 and cedars. Of the minerals the most important are copper, 
 coal, zinc and lead. 
 
 Greece, the most southern of the Balkan countries, 
 raises subtropical products, figs, olives, wine and currant 
 grapes, silks, honey and tobacco. Currants are the chief 
 article of export. 1 
 
 North America. 
 
 Alaska, a territory of the United States, occupies the 
 northwestern part of North America. The area of the 
 territory is about 590,000 square miles, and the population 
 approximates 64,000. Alaska has considerable timber re- 
 sources, mostly spruce, hemlock and cedar; but the lumber- 
 ing industry is not developed. Mining, and seal and sal- 
 mon fisheries are the leading occupations of the people. 
 The output of gold reaches $20,000,000 a year; copper 
 is the next important mineral extracted; there are also 
 deposits of tin ore, lead, coal, petroleum, gypsum, and 
 marble, some of which are worked. The annual catch of 
 salmon is valued at $9,000,000. 
 
 The southern parts of the territory, especially near the 
 coast, are not unsuitable for agricultural pursuits; the cli- 
 mate there is more equable than on the eastern coast of 
 the continent. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 117 
 
 Canada is the most important of Great Britain’s colo- 
 nies of settlement. In territory it is somewhat larger than 
 the United States, but a considerable part of the country, 
 being too far north, lies in a zone unfit for agricultural pur- 
 suits. Vast tracts of land in the more southern regions 
 have favorable climate and fertile soil; they are well adapt- 
 ed to the growing of temperate region cereals : wheat, oats 
 and barley, as well as for stock raising and dairying. The 
 eastern (Atlantic coast) and western (Pacific coast) parts 
 of Canada have copious rains, while the climate of the 
 Great Central Plain is continental, with wide ranges of 
 temperature and comparatively little rainfall. 
 
 About three-fourths of the population of Canada are 
 farmers, agriculture being carried on in all the Canadian 
 provinces. Cereal raising is particularly prominent in Sas- 
 katchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec; these are rap- 
 idly becoming great wheat-producing regions of the world; 
 in the interior west are the live stock ranches with their 
 herds of cattle and sheep; the chief occupations in British 
 Columbia are mining, cereal and fruit raising and fishing, 
 while in the east (Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Sco- 
 tia) diversified farming and dairying are carried on, large 
 quantities of butter and cheese of excellent quality being 
 produced. The latter forms an important item of Canadi- 
 an export. 
 
 The forest belt of Canada extends in an unbroken line 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific and gives the coun- 
 try the largest forest area possessed by any nation in the 
 world; spruce, pine, balsam fir, maple, hemlock are the 
 chief varieties, to which may be added such hardwoods as 
 birches and aspens. 
 
 Besides yielding timber and other tree products, the for- 
 ests of Canada have a commercial value as the hunting 
 ground of the trapper, Canada being one of the main pro- 
 ducers of furs. 
 
118 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 The principal minerals mined are coal, copper, nickel, 
 silver and gold, lead, asbestos and petroleum, the first five 
 being by far the most important. 
 
 Fisheries are a valuable economic asset of Canada, sal- 
 mon, cod, herrings, lobsters and mackerel being the prin- 
 cipal catches. 
 
 There are about 16,000 manufacturing establishments in 
 Canada situated mostly in Ontario and Quebec; in 1905 the 
 value of the products reached $718,000,000. 
 
 The exports of Canada consist of wood and wood pulp, 
 wheat and wheat flour, cheese and butter, bacon, silver, 
 gold, copper and coal, cattle and sheep, various fish, fruits, 
 hides and skins, furs and leather; the imports are iron and 
 steel manufactures, coal and coke, textiles, provisions, tea, 
 spirits, oils, glass, etc. 
 
 The bulk of Canadian imports is furnished by the 
 United States, this notwithstanding a preferential tariff in 
 favor of British products. In 1906 the value of imports 
 from the United States was $176,000,000, from the United 
 Kingdom $69,000,000; in the value of exports conditions 
 are reversed; Great Britain having taken in 1906 $133,000,- 
 000 of Canadian products, the United States $98,000,000. 
 
 Newfoundland is politically a British colony distinct 
 from the Dominion of Canada. Fishing is the chief indus- 
 try and dried cod is the principal item of export, other arti- 
 cles exported being seal oil, canned lobsters, iron ore, and 
 copper. Fine pine forests exist in the northern part of the 
 country, and large saw mills have been established. 
 
 The imports include textiles, flour, salt pork, coal, hard- 
 ware and machinery. 
 
 The West Indies. — Of many West Indian Islands only 
 two, Cuba and Haiti, the latter divided between two states, 
 are independent; all the other islands are colonies of Euro- 
 pean nations: Great Britain, France, Denmark and Nether- 
 lands. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 119 
 
 The islands, extending between the Atlantic Ocean on 
 one side and the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico on 
 the other, vary in size from Cuba, which has an area of 
 44,000 square miles, to tiny rocks just rising above the sea. 
 The climate is tropical, most of the land fertile. 
 
 Cuba, the largest and richest of the West Indies, is well 
 adapted to the cultivation of all tropical fruits and vegeta- 
 bles ; its staples are sugar cane and tobacco, although cacao, 
 coffee, corn, potatoes, bananas, pineapples, oranges are also 
 grown. 
 
 The forests of Cuba contain valuable cabinet woods, 
 such as mahogany, cedar, dyewoods, fibers, gums, resins 
 and oils. The mineral resources include iron ore, copper, 
 manganese, asphaltum and salt. 
 
 Of the cultivated area more than half is under sugar, 
 and about one-tenth under tobacco. These two products 
 form the bulk of the Cuban exports, the other items being 
 minerals, fruits and wood. The imports consist of manu- 
 factures: textiles and others, iron and steel goods, provi- 
 sions. 
 
 The United States is the principal market for Cuban ex- 
 ports and it supplies about one-half of the island’s imports, 
 other importing countries being Great Britain, Spain, Ger- 
 many and France. 
 
 Porto Rico, a colony of the United States, is separated 
 from Cuba by the island of Haiti. It produces large quan- 
 tities of sugar and coffee for export, its other products be- 
 ing those of diversified farming. 
 
 The forests of Porto Rico contain cedar, ebony, sandal- 
 wood and other building material as well as dyes and medic- 
 inal plants. 
 
 The British West Indies include the Bahamas, Jamaica, 
 the Bermudas. 
 
 Besides fruit growing, collecting of sponges is one of 
 the resources of the Bahamas, while Jamaica produces sug- 
 
120 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 ar, rum, coffee and ginger. The Bermudas manufacture 
 and ship millions of bags to the United States. 
 
 The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern and larger 
 part of the island of Santo Domingo or Haiti; the Republic 
 of Haiti occupies the western part. The island, the second 
 largest of the Antilles, lies between Cuba and Porto Rico, 
 and, because of numerous mountain ranges, plateaus and 
 valleys, it has a variety of climate and products, nearly all 
 of the fruits of the tropics and many of the temperate zone 
 growing there successfully. Agriculture is the leading oc- 
 cupation in both republics and the chief exports are cacao, 
 sugar, coffee and tobacco. Imports consist of cotton, iron 
 and steel, wheat flour, rice, provisions, oils, vegetable fibers. 
 
 The foreign trade is carried on mostly with the United 
 States, Germany and France. ' 
 
 Mexico is the third largest of the American republics 
 as regards population (13,600,000) and the fourth largest 
 as regards territory (767,000 square miles). 
 
 The situation of Mexico, partly in the temperate and 
 partly in the tropical zone and the varying altitudes of its 
 valleys, plateaus and mountain slopes, give it a diversity of 
 climate and products. 
 
 Mining is the leading industry, Mexico having abundant 
 deposits of silver, gold, copper, lead and other metals. It 
 is estimated that the value of mining properties held by 
 foreign companies and individuals reaches the amount of 
 $350,000,000. 
 
 Corn is the chief cereal crop; other products of the soil 
 include cotton, henequen, wheat, sugar and molasses, coffee, 
 beans and woods. 
 
 The extensive forests of Mexico contain timber suitable 
 for building, and for furniture making, dyewoods, medicinal 
 plants, rubber trees, etc. 
 
 The bulk of the country’s exports consists of raw mate- 
 rials, minerals, henequen, coffee, cacao, vanilla, tobacco and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 121 
 
 sugar. Imports are machinery and apparatus, provisions, 
 textiles, animal substances, chemical products, etc. 
 
 The United States is the best market for Mexican prod- 
 ucts and is, also, at the head of its list of importers. In 
 1909 the value of exports to the United States was $47,712,- 
 000, and the value of imports from there $49,793,000. 
 
 Central American Republics. 
 
 Guatemala, the northmost of the Central American re- 
 publics, lies, barring a small strip along the coast, at an 
 altitude from 4,000 to 11,500 feet. The mountain range 
 which traverses the territory forms seyeral fertile valleys, 
 well adapted for the growing of both subtropical and tem- 
 perate region products. Coffee is the chief article of pro- 
 duction and export, other commodities exported being 
 hides, bananas, sugar, rubber, woods and chicle, used in the 
 making of chewing gum. Imports consist of textiles, iron 
 and steel manufactures, electrical material and apparatus, 
 provisions and beverages. 
 
 Germany is the best customer for the Guatemalan prod- 
 ucts, while the United States occupies the first place as an 
 importer. 
 
 Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated 
 of all the American republics. As in Guatemala, coffee is 
 the leading article of production and of export, with miner- 
 als as second. Other exports are cacao, rubber, sugar, in- 
 digo, tobacco, “ Peruvian balsam” and bananas. The prin- 
 cipal imports are cotton, silk and woolen manufactures, 
 hardware, flour, etc. The forests of Salvador contain cabi- 
 net and hardwoods, mahogany, cedar, walnut, dyewoods, 
 gums and resin but these resources are but little exploited. 
 
 The United States takes the largest amount of Salva- 
 dor’s exports, though it is exceeded by Great Britain in the 
 value of imports. 
 
 Nicaragua has the same characteristics of topography 
 and climate as the other Central American republics. A 
 
122 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 mountain range crosses its territory reaching a consider- 
 able height and giving it varying altitudes; a diversity of 
 climates and products is the result. 
 
 Coffee, bananas, gold, rubber, mahogany, cedar, cattle, 
 hides and cocoanuts are amongst the chief exports. 
 
 The mountains contain many minerals and precious 
 stones; the forests consist of various species of trees fur- 
 nishing oils and extracts used for medicinal purposes. The 
 United States leads both as an importer into and an ex- 
 porter from the republic. 
 
 Honduras with fertile valleys, magnificent grazing land 
 for cattle and mountains possessing large mineral resourc- 
 es has not been as yet adequately developed. 
 
 The exports of the country consist of bananas, coffee, 
 cocoanuts, mahogany, rubber, sarsaparilla, silver, hides and 
 cattle; the imports include textiles, iron and steel products, 
 machinery and foodstuffs. The United States has the bulk 
 of the Honduras foreign trade. 
 
 Costa Rica grows coffee, tobacco, sugar, rice, cacao, in- 
 digo. Its forests yield rubber, cocoanuts and bananas. The 
 latter form the chief item of Costa Rico’s exports, followed 
 by coffee, gold and silver; some cacao, woods, hides, skins 
 and tortoise shells are also exported. Imports are fabrics, 
 flour, live stock, machinery,, 
 
 The United States is the leading importer into and ex- 
 porter from Costa Rica. 
 
 Panama.e==The Isthmus of Panama, which connects Cen- 
 tral and South America, comprises the Canal Zone and the 
 recently formed Republic of Panama. The latter has fer- 
 tile soil and climatic conditions favorable to the growth 
 of tropical products. The mountain slopes are covered with 
 dense forests of cabinet, building and dye woods, and the 
 plains offer excellent pasture ground. Deposits of coal, 
 copper and gold are known to exist, but they are not mined. 
 
 Exports consist of bananas, hides, rubber, cocoanuts, in- 
 digo, cacao, pearls, mahogany. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 123 
 
 South America. 
 
 Argentina has an area of 1,136,000 square miles and an 
 estimated population of 6,400,000, of which about 1,150,000 
 live in the capital of the country — Buenos Aires. 
 
 About one-third of Argentina may be used for agricul- 
 tural or pastoral industries, the remaining two-thirds being 
 mountain, lake, river or arid regions. In 1908 of the avail- 
 able area only one-seventh (39,500,000 “acres) was under cul- 
 tivation. Wheat, corn, linseed, flax and oats are the leading 
 crops and they figure prominently in the export trade of 
 the country. 
 
 Argentina has large quantities of cattle and sheep; stock 
 raising is carried on under careful governmental regula- 
 tion, the most scientific methods of selection and breeding 
 being applied; the products of the slaughtering and freez- 
 ing establishments are shipped across the Atlantic to Great 
 Britain and other countries. 
 
 The republic presents a variety of climate and products, 
 ranging from tropical in the north to arctic in the south; 
 however, the largest part of its territory lies within the 
 temperate zone, the latter fact explaining to some degree 
 the economic conditions in Argentina and its present rapid 
 industrial development. 
 
 Upward of $1,200,000,000 of British* capital is invested 
 in the country, particularly in railways and government 
 bonds. 
 
 Sugar, tobacco and grapes are grown, but these indus- 
 tries are yet in their infancy. Mineral resources are not 
 exploited because of lack of available capital, poor means 
 of transportation and high cost of fuel. 
 
 The chief imports of Argentina are textiles, iron and 
 other metals, cars and carriages, building materials, pot- 
 tery, foodstuffs and beverages. Great Britain occupies a 
 commanding position both as a purchaser from and a seller 
 to Argentina, about one-half of the foreign trade of the re- 
 
124 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 public being with the United Kingdom. In 1908 Argen- 
 tina’s commerce amounted to $639,000,000 of which $273,- 
 000,000 were imports and $366,000,000 exports; the United 
 States furnished about one-seventh of the first and took 
 about one-thirtieth of the latter. 
 
 In Uruguay most of the land is used for pastoral pur- 
 poses, cattle breeding (7,000,000 heads) and sheep raising 
 (18,000,000 heads) being the chief occupation of the people. 
 
 Agricultural industries are not very important but the 
 area under cultivation is being gradually extended. The 
 leading crops are wheat and linseed; some wine is produced, 
 also tobacco and olives. 
 
 The exports consist mainly of animal products, while 
 the imports include raw and manufactured materials, tex- 
 tiles, foodstuffs, beverages, etc. The imports from the 
 United States are smaller than those from Great Britain, 
 Germany or France. In 1909 the total of our trade with 
 Uruguay was about $7,000,000 divided almost equally be- 
 tween imports and exports. 
 
 Paraguay. — Stock raising, because of abundance of good 
 grazing land is carried on extensively; hides, jerked beef 
 and other animal products are exported. Yerba mate, or 
 Paraguay tea, tobacco and oranges are also articles of ex- 
 port. Immense forests furnish valuable timber, both hard 
 and soft, some of which is shipped to the neighboring coun- 
 tries and to Europe. 
 
 The chief imports are textiles, provisions, hardware, 
 spirits and haberdashery. 
 
 Trading relations with the United States are insignifi- 
 cant, averaging $100,000 a year. 
 
 Brazil, with a territory about equal to that of the Unit- 
 ed States and a population approximating 20,000,000, is a 
 pre-eminently agricultural country. 
 
 Coffee is by far the principal crop, furnishing the chief 
 article of export. In 1908 the enormous quantity of 1,116,- 
 000,000 pounds was exported, valued at $115,000,000. Oth- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 125 
 
 er crops include cacao, mate, tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, all 
 of which contribute to the foreign trade of the country. 
 Cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables are grown for home 
 consumption. 
 
 The wealth of the Amazon forests has been hardly 
 touched, the only areas exploited to any extent being those 
 under rubber trees; rubber is shipped to all parts of the 
 world, the value of the rubber export being about one-half 
 of that of coffee. 
 
 Pastoral industries, notwithstanding an abundance of 
 grazing land, are in an undeveloped condition; however, 
 live stock is being introduced and native breeds are being 
 improved by crossing them with foreign animals. As yet 
 Brazil imports butter and cheese, but this will hardly 
 last much longer. 
 
 Very little fuel is mined, but because of the wider appli- 
 cation of electricity to manufacturing a number of fac- 
 tories have been recently established which produce many 
 commodities formerly imported. They include the making 
 of cottons, shoes, hats, clothing, candles, soap, furniture, 
 beer, etc. 
 
 The chief imports of Brazil are wheat and wheat flour, 
 coal, cotton, fabrics, codfish and wines. 
 
 Brazil’s best customer is the United States which in 
 1909 took $98,000,000 worth of its exports; American ex- 
 ports to Brazil fall far below those of Great Britain or 
 Germany; in 1909 they were $17,527,000. 
 
 The Guianas (British, Dutch and French) are of little 
 value commercially. The most important of the three is 
 British Guiana with rich gold deposits and extensive sugar 
 plantations and factories. Besides gold and sugar, its ex- 
 ports consist of diamonds; the imports are provisions, tex- 
 tiles, machinery, hardware. Trade is carried on mostly 
 with Great Britain; the United States ships to British Gui- 
 ana kerosene, fish and breadstuffs. 
 
126 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 The products of French Guiana are cocoa, phosphates, 
 various woods, rosewood essence and hides. The colony is 
 a penal settlement for French convicts sentenced to hard 
 labor. 
 
 Dutch Guiana produces sugar, rum and molasses, cacao, 
 bananas, gold, coffee, rice. 
 
 The imports of the French and Dutch Guianas are simi- 
 lar to those of the British. 
 
 Venezuela. — The surface of Venezuela is naturally di- 
 vided into three zones : the agricultural, the pastoral and the 
 forest. Cereals, coffee, cacao, sugar cane grow in the first 
 zone; stock raising is carried on in the second, and in the 
 third, rubber, tonka beans and other tropical products are 
 grown by the inhabitants. 
 
 Venezuela is rich in metallic and non-metallic minerals; 
 especially abundant are deposits of copper, silver, iron and 
 gold. 
 
 Manufacturing industries are few, and therefore finish- 
 ed commodities are the chief item of import. 
 
 The United States and France have the largest share 
 of the Venezuelan exports; Great Britain excels both 
 countries in the value of imports. 
 
 Colombia is rich in minerals and mining is carried on 
 extensively, gold and silver mines being the most impor- 
 tant; other minerals found are copper, platinum, lead, mer- 
 cury, emeralds, etc. Several departments (provinces) have 
 rich deposits of coal, petroleum, as well as of iron, limestone 
 and fireclay. The area under cultivation is small, the coun- 
 try’s development being retarded by poor roads and in- 
 adequate transportation facilities. Tobacco and particu- 
 larly coffee plantations furnish commodities for export. 
 The rubber tree grows wild, and very little is being done 
 with its product; dye and cedar woods are also abundant, 
 but unexploited. 
 
 Colombia has numerous cattle, goats, sheep and swine, 
 and exports large quantities of hides; other exports besides 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 127 
 
 coffee and tobacco are ivory nuts, minerals, cotton and cot- 
 ton seed, and asphalt. 
 
 Valuable pearl fisheries are on the coast. 
 
 The chief imports are flour, lard, petroleum and cotton 
 goods from the United States, sugar and potatoes from 
 Germany, textiles from Great Britain. In 1909 the United 
 States imported from Colombia about $7,000,000 worth, 
 while its exports were $3,679,000. 
 
 Bolivia. — The greatest part of the population of about 
 2,000,000 consists of Indians (57 per cent), and of mixed 
 races (27 per cent). More than one-fourth of the people 
 are engaged in agriculture which is, however, in a back- 
 ward condition. Wheat, corn, barley, potatoes are raised 
 for domestic consumption; coffee, coca, quinces for export 
 (mostly to Chile and Argentina). 
 
 The mineral wealth of Bolivia is widely distributed and 
 abundant: it includes tin, silver, copper, lead, zinc, anti- 
 mony, bismuth, the first being the most important in the 
 list of Bolivian exports. In 1908 it was shipped abroad to 
 the value of $13,800,000 out of total exports amounting to 
 $17,514,000. In the same year silver and shipments totalled 
 $2,802,000. 
 
 Rubber is being produced and exported, but the industry 
 is not in a prosperous condition. 
 
 Cattle, sheep and llamas graze in large numbers on fine 
 pastures, but very few animal products are obtained. 
 
 Chief imports are textiles and heavy made cloths, pro- 
 visions, wines and spirits, hardware, Great Britain furnish- 
 ing the bulk of these goods. The share of the United States 
 in the foreign trade of Bolivia is small. In 1909 the imports 
 from the United States equalled $138,000; the exports were 
 valued at $793,000. 
 
 Ecuador, so called because of its situation under the 
 equator, has an area of 420,000 square miles and a popula- 
 tion of only 1,500,000, most of which is of Indian or of mixed 
 
 blood. 
 
128 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Ecuador may be divided into three zones, dependent up- 
 on the altitude of the place. The lowlands are hot, as hot 
 as the equatorial sun can make them, while the peaks of the 
 Andes Mountains, towering from 19,000 to over 20,000 feet 
 above them are covered with perennial snow; between these 
 two extremes lie the plateaus of various elevations (from 
 6,000 to over 9,000 feet), possessing a temperate climate, 
 adapted to the cultivation of wheat and other cereals. 
 
 Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people, cacao 
 being the leading commercial product; in 1908 it was ship- 
 ped abroad to the extent of 64,000,000 pounds, valued at 
 $6,400,000, furnishing more than half of the total export 
 trade. Other important items of export are ivory nuts, 
 coffee, rubber and “ Panama” hats; the latter are made 
 almost exclusively in Ecuador, they range in price from 
 $1 to $125 and may be found for sale in every part of the 
 world. 
 
 The mineral resources of the country have been only 
 slightly exploited because of lack of capital and of trans- 
 portation facilities. 
 
 Imports consist of textiles, food products, coal, iron, 
 hardware and machinery, liquors, clothing, etc. 
 
 In 1909 exports to the United States were $2,730,000, 
 imports from there $1,850,000. France excels the United 
 States in exports from Ecuador, Great Britain in imports 
 into that country. 
 
 Peru, with a population of about 4,500,000, over 55 per 
 cent of whom are Indian, 25 per cent mestizos, 2 per cent ne- 
 groes and 2 per cent Chinese, the rest being white, covers 
 over 670,000 square miles and may be divided into three 
 distinct zones: (1) the dry, extending along the coast to 
 the foot of the Andes Mountains, in which practically noth- 
 ing can be cultivated without irrigation; (2) the region be- 
 tween the mountain ranges, consisting of extremely fertile 
 plateaus, on which are bred cattle, alpacas, sheep and llam- 
 as; (3) the eastern slope of mountains covered with vast, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 129 
 
 luxuriant forests consisting of many useful woods and me- 
 dicinal plants. 
 
 Coffee, sugar cane, cotton, cacao and rice are the prin- 
 cipal agricultural products, each contributing more or less 
 to the export trade of the country; other products grown are 
 tobacco, wine grapes, olives, ramie and corn. 
 
 The mineral resources are vast and varied and they are 
 at present one of the greatest items of national wealth, the 
 mines producing gold, silver, copper, coal and iron. 
 
 India rubber and chincona bark are the main forest 
 products.. An important branch of industry is the exploita- 
 tion of the guano deposits of the republic; in 1907 about 
 80,000 tons of this product were exported. An excellent 
 grade of wool, sought by foreign markets, is furnished by 
 the alpaca, a native animal of Peru. 
 
 The imports include minerals, metals and machinery, 
 wheat, timber. 
 
 Great Britain occupies a leading position in the for- 
 eign trade of the country, followed by the United States, 
 Germany and Prance. 
 
 Chile extends over more than thirty-eight degrees of 
 latitude, occupying a narrow strip of land of an average 
 width of only 90 miles. It lies between the Andean Moun- 
 tains and the Pacific Ocean. The northern part of the 
 country consists of vast nitrate beds and other more or less 
 desert land containing many mineral resources and yield- 
 ing copper, gold, silver, iron. The central division of the 
 republic, because of its climatic conditions, is pre-eminent- 
 ly agricultural, while extensive forests furnishing various 
 kinds of cabinet and other woods abound in the south. 
 
 Mining, due to the extensive deposits of nitrate of soda, 
 occupies the first place amongst the industries of the coun- 
 try, over 2,000,000 tons of the product being exported annu- 
 ally. In the exports of 1908, mineral products were repre- 
 sented by over $99,000,000 while vegetable products were 
 
 D— IV— 9 
 
130 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 less than $9,000,000 and animal products equalled but $6,- 
 
 091.000. 
 
 In agriculture, primitive methods are mostly used, 
 though modern machinery is being imported in increasing 
 quantities. Wheat and barley are the chief cereals culti- 
 vated; other products include excellent wine, fruits and 
 vegetables. The soil is very fertile in many parts of Chile, 
 and the opening of the country through irrigation and bet- 
 ter transportation facilities, which now are under way, will 
 undoubtedly lead to the development of many agricultural 
 pursuits, suited to the conditions of the county. 
 
 Manufacturing industries are mostly of a local charac- 
 ter; a few, however, have achieved national importance; the 
 manufactures consist of chemical and metallurgical works, 
 textile mills, leather and shoe factories, breweries and wi- 
 neries, etc. 
 
 Chile imports coal, machinery and tools, cotton fabrics, 
 oils and colors, provisions, paper, beverages. Great Britain 
 has the largest share of Chile ’s foreign trade, Germany be- 
 ing next, and the United States occupying the third place. 
 In 1909 the exports from Chile to the United States were 
 $13,712,000 (as compared with $18,287,000 in 1907), and 
 the imports from the United States equalled $5,466,000 
 ($10,195,000 in 1907). 
 
 Asia. 
 
 English Colonies. (A) India had in 1901 a population of 
 
 over 232,000,000 of which 192,000,000 were engaged in ag- 
 riculture. The number of British born did not exceed 
 
 100.000. The leading crops of the country are rice, wheat 
 and other cereals, pulses, cotton, oil seeds, opium, tobacco, 
 sugar cane, tea and coffee. The climate is tropical with the 
 exception of the high altitudes in the northern provinces 
 where the Himalaya and the Hindu-Kush Mountains 
 stretch as a barrier between the Indian Peninsula and the 
 rest of the Asiatic Continent. Rainfall is very unevenly 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 131 
 
 distributed; in order to farther agricultural pursuits, a 
 splendid system of artificial irrigation has been established 
 in many sections of India. 
 
 All manufactures, until recently, were hand crafts; 
 these manufactures consisted of cotton fabrics, carpets, 
 shawls, wood and ivory carving, etc. At present there are 
 a number of cotton and jute factories, India possessing 
 about 6,000,000 cotton spindles, half a million of jute spin- 
 dles and giving employment close to 400,000 men. Of lesser 
 importance are woolen and paper mills, breweries, etc. 
 
 The main obstacle to rapid industrial development is 
 the difficulty of weaning the Indian away from stereotyped 
 industrial methods; the work of teaching him the use of 
 appropriate tools and labor-saving devices is going on unre- 
 mittingly, and the results of this work may be seen in many 
 parts of India. 
 
 The chief exports in the order named are : raw and man- 
 ufactured cotton and jute, rice, oil seeds, hides and skins, 
 tea, wheat, opium, lac, raw wool, rubber, spices, rattan, 
 etc.; the leading imports consist of cotton manufactures, 
 metals, machinery, hardware and cutlery, railway equip- 
 ment, oils, provisions, apparels, chemicals and drugs, glass, 
 spices. The largest part of the import and export trade 
 of India is with the United Kingdom, Germany occupying 
 the second place both in the value of imports and exports. 
 The United States has a small share of Indian commerce; 
 in 1909 the exports from India to the United States were 
 $43,500,000 while the imports from the United States ap- 
 proximated $8,370,000; this does not represent more than 
 two per cent of the total imports of the country. 
 
 (B) Ceylon is a very prosperous island off the coast 
 of India, its chief products consisting of tea, graphite, co- 
 pra, cinnamon, cacao and cocoanuts. Rice is the leading 
 article of import; other imports being coal and coke, cot- 
 ton goods, spirits, etc 0 
 
132 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 (C) The Straits Settlements are important because of 
 their geographic position on a route to and from China and 
 Japan. The ports of the colony are free from duties and 
 most of their trade, centered in Singapore and Penang, 
 is transit trade. Domestic exports consist of tin, which 
 comes from the adjacent mainland and islands, gums, 
 spices, copra, and tapioca. 
 
 (D) Northern Borneo is tropical in its climate and pro- 
 ducts, the leading of which are tobacco, sage, pepper, woods 
 and rubber. 
 
 French Colonies are all concentrated in Indo-China and 
 consist of Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam and Tonkin, 
 They are rich in resources, but at present these resources 
 yield comparatively little. The chief export is rice which 
 amounted in 1907 to 1,405,000 metric tons, valued at $30,- 
 000,000. Other exports are fish, pepper, hides, coal, cot- 
 ton, rubber, and sugar. 
 
 Dutch possessions embrace some of the best East India 
 Islands: Java, Madura, South Borneo, Celebes and the 
 Moluccas. J ava is perhaps the most forward economically 
 of all the tropical possessions of European nations; it pro- 
 duces tremendous quantities of cane sugar; until recently 
 this was the only product of its vast and intensively worked 
 plantations. At present coffee, tea, cacao, cinchona, tobac- 
 co are also extensively cultivated and add to the wealth 
 of the island. The islands possess deposits of coal, tin, 
 and mineral oil. 
 
 The United States’ Colonies comprise the Philippine Is- 
 lands having an area of 125,000 square miles and a popula- 
 tion of 7,650,000, mostly of Malay origin; the two largest 
 islands are Luzon and Mindanao. 
 
 The chief products are Manila hemp, sugar, coffee, rice, 
 copra, tobacco and indigo. Agriculture is carried on by 
 primitive methods and with antiquated implements ; means 
 of transportation are insufficient, and farm animals scarce. 
 However, conditions are being gradually improved through 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 133 
 
 the efforts of our Bureau of Agriculture, which maintains 
 experimental farms on the islands, distributes seeds, roots, 
 and plants adapted to cultivation, combats destructive in- 
 sects, etc. 
 
 Large forests of valuable hardwoods, dyewoods and 
 gum cover the interior of the islands; the forests are under 
 the supervision of the Forestry Bureau, which frames rules 
 for their protection and working. 
 
 Mineral resources are as yet undeveloped, but prospect- 
 ing is now being vigorously conducted, and many deposits 
 of lignite (inferior grade of coal), iron, gold, copper, lead, 
 etc., have been located. 
 
 Asiatic Russia may be divided into Caucasus, lying 
 partly in Europe, partly in Asia, Siberia, and Central Asia. 
 
 (A) Caucasus is rich in minerals, especially petroleum, 
 which forms its largest product. The cultivation in Trans- 
 caucasia includes raw silk, cotton and grapes. Native man- 
 ufactures consist of carpets, embroideries and weapons. 
 
 (B) Siberia consists of three sections: tundras in the 
 north, forests in the middle and agricultural region in the 
 south. The latter, traversed by the Transsiberian railway, 
 is being gradually colonized by peasants from European 
 Russia; it offers good opportunities for the raising of ce- 
 reals and other hardy crops of the north temperate zone. 
 Siberia is very sparsely populated and its industrial de- 
 velopment has hardly begun. It possesses rich mineral 
 deposits, rivers stocked with fish, forests overrun by fur- 
 bearing animals and full of valuable timber; comparative- 
 ly few of these resources are as yet utilized. 
 
 Agriculture is the leading industry; large quantities of 
 butter and cheese are exported to Europe. 
 
 (C) Central Asia is in its western part a desert with 
 an occasional, at times large and beautiful, oasis and with 
 possibilities of irrigation; in its eastern portion it is well 
 watered, and its fertile valleys with their black soil attract 
 ever-increasing numbers of Russian immigrants. The alti- 
 
134 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 tude of the country permits the raising of cotton, grapes, 
 figs, in addition to cereals and vegetables. . 
 
 The commerce of Asiatic Russia with the United States 
 is comparatively small. For 1909 it did not exceed $ 2 , 500 ,- 
 000 . 
 
 Independent Asiatic States. (A) China has an area by 
 one-third larger than that of the United States and an esti- 
 mated population of 434,000,000 people. It is essentially 
 an agricultural country, wheat, barley, corn and other cere- 
 als, pease and beans being cultivated in the northeast, rice, 
 tea, sugar, cotton and indigo in the south. Because of re- 
 strictive measures, the cultivation of the opium poppy, 
 which played such an important role in the commerce of 
 the past, is being gradually discontinued. 
 
 China is a country of vast mineral resources, as yet 
 developed but little. The coal fields of China are considered 
 by some authorities to be the largest in the world. Rich 
 deposits of iron ore, many in proximity to coal, are known 
 to exist; other minerals mined to some extent are tin, lead, 
 copper, and silver. 
 
 Most of the manufactures of China are handicrafts. 
 The chief manufacturing industries are textiles (silk and 
 cotton) and the making of porcelain or glassware. 
 
 The exports consist of raw and manufactured silk, tea, 
 cotton, beans; the imports, of cotton goods, rice, sugar, 
 kerosene, opium, metals, etc. 
 
 (B) Japan occupies a chain of long, narrow, much in- 
 dented islands, extending from Kamchatka in the north 
 to Formosa in the south. Its position with regard to the 
 Asiatic Continent and to the commercial nations of the 
 world is somewhat similar to Great Britain’s position in 
 Europe, and it is to this position, as well as to the fact 
 that almost every part of Japan is within easy reach of 
 sea traffic, that we may attribute the country’s recent in- 
 dustrial and commercial development. With an area a 
 little larger than that of California, J apan supports a pop- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 135 
 
 ulation of 47,000,000 and this notwithstanding the moun- 
 tainous, volcanic character of the land, but one-sixth of 
 which is tillable. Its soil yields abundantly to intensive 
 cultivation, climatic conditions being on the whole favor- 
 able to the growth of both the cereals of the temperate 
 zone and the economic plants of the tropics. Japan pro- 
 duces large crops of rice, wheat, barley and rye, rice being 
 the main foodstuff of the population and by far the most 
 important cereal crop. Of the industries producing for 
 export, cotton growing, silk raising and tea growing are 
 the most prominent, silk furnishing more than one-fourth 
 of the exports. 
 
 Japan has rich mineral resources; the yield of copper, 
 coal and clay is so large that notwithstanding the demands 
 of the rapidly growing domestic manufactures consider- 
 able quantities of these minerals are exported. Japan 
 mines also iron, sulphur, petroleum, antimony, gold and 
 silver. 
 
 The forests of J apan contain many valuable woods and 
 its waters are full of fish, the fishing industry giving means 
 of livelihood to over two millions of people. 
 
 The Japanese are skilful artisans and their work com- 
 pares very favorably with that of Great Britain, the United 
 States and Germany. The main exports of Japan are raw 
 silk and silk manufactures, cotton yarn and cotton shirt- 
 ings, copper, coal, matches, earthen ware, straw goods, 
 camphor. 
 
 The imports of Japan include raw cotton and cotton 
 manufactures, iron and steel, rice, sugar, oil cake, wool and 
 woolens, wheat and wheat flour. Great Britain heads the 
 list of the importers with the United States as a good sec- 
 ond, followed by British India, China and Germany. 
 
 (C) Korea is a purely agricultural country, producing 
 rice, wheat, beans, tobacco and cotton in its southern parts; 
 barley, millet and oats in the north. Methods of agricul- 
 ture are primitive and means of communication poor. 
 
136 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 A few gold mines are being worked; other minerals 
 known to exist in abundance are iron, coal and copper. 
 
 The exports include rice, gold, beans, hides; the imports, 
 cotton goods, iron and railway material, timber, silk goods, 
 tobacco, petroleum, etc. 
 
 <D) Siam. — The chief produce of Siam is rice, con- 
 sumed in large quantities at home and forming the staple 
 article of export. Other products are salt, pepper, dry 
 fish, cattle, and sesame; they all contribute to the export 
 trade of the country. Hemp, tobacco, cotton and coffee 
 are produced for local consumption. Dense forests of 
 Upper Siam furnish teak. The mineral resources of the 
 country are large and varied, they include gold, rubies, 
 tin, coal, iron, manganese and zinc. 
 
 (E) Persia contains an area of 628,000 square miles, 
 a vast portion of which (about one-third) is desert. Ter- 
 ritories adapted to agriculture produce wheat, barley, 
 rice, fruits, tobacco, cotton and silk. 
 
 The mineral resources of Persia are considerable, but 
 poor means of transportation and scarcity of fuel and water 
 hinder their development. 
 
 Persia exports fruits, raw cotton, woolen hand-made 
 carpets, fish, raw silk; it imports cotton, sugar, tea, petro- 
 leum, woolens, flour. 
 
 Russia is the heaviest importer into Persia, followed 
 by the British Empire, Turkey, France, China. Most of 
 the exports go to Russia. 
 
 (F) Afghanistan, barring a number of fertile valleys, is 
 an absolute desert. Commerce is' carried on mostly with In- 
 dia and consists of exports of horses, cows, foodstuffs, 
 drugs, tobacco, and of imports of manufactured goods. 
 
 Africa. 
 
 British Possessions. (A) British West Africa. — The 
 
 leading products of this colony are palm oil and palm ker- 
 nels, rubber, cocoa, ivory, ostrich feathers, live stock and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 137 
 
 hides, cotton, gum, copal, earth nuts, fruits and drugs. 
 There are rich mineral deposits, as yet undeveloped. The 
 imports to the value of $41,000,000 in 1907 consisted of 
 cottons, spirits, hardware, tobacco. The exports about 
 equalled the imports and included palm oil, palm kernels, 
 gold, rubber, cocoa, etc. 
 
 (B) British East Africa produces on its lowlands rice, 
 corn and other plants requiring a mild warm winter; on 
 the highlands, wheat, barley and coffee are cultivated. 
 Cocoa, cotton and tobacco are being successfully intro- 
 duced and promise to increase considerably the economic 
 value of the colony. The mining resources are unsurveyed; 
 iron is found in most districts, gold in a few places, and 
 here and there lie untouched deposits of copper, mica, 
 graphite, limestone, opal and carbonate of soda. On the 
 uplands large pastures are available for cattle raising, and 
 the forests in the coastal region yield rubber, gum, copal, 
 figs, olives, bamboo, castor oil, beans and good timber. The 
 leading exports are hides and skins, ivory, rubber, copra, 
 grain and wax; the imports consist of textiles, cereals, 
 provisions, iron and steel wares. Foreign trade is small 
 and is carried on mostly with Great Britain. The share 
 of the United States in this trade is not over $1,500,000 
 annually. 
 
 (C) British South Africa comprises the richest parts 
 of the African Continent. In it are included Cape Colony, 
 Natal, Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, Transvaal, Basuto- 
 land and a few other possessions and protectorates. 
 
 At present gold and diamond mining is the greatest 
 source of attraction for the European capitalists and set- 
 tlers; it is carried on very intensively with all modern ma- 
 chinery and furnishes the chief item of exports, valued at 
 hundreds of millions a year. Kimberley is the leading 
 diamond-producing center of the world, supplying 98 per 
 cent of all the diamonds entering into commerce. Trans- 
 
138 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 vaal yields vast quantities of gold and silver. Other min- 
 eral resources of South Africa are copper, coal, and iron. 
 
 South Africa may be divided climatically into (1) a 
 coastal region which is a lowland with a warm and in many 
 places moist climate, (2) a middle district of somewhat 
 higher altitude, with a drier and a more healthy climate, 
 well adapted to the raising of w 7 heat, barley, corn, oats 
 and other cereals, and (3) a high inland plateau, where the 
 air is exceedingly dry and the rainfall very scanty. The 
 coastal region produces sugar, cotton, tobacco and wine. 
 The dry plains of the interior are used for a sheep-raising 
 industry, after mining the largest source of the country’s 
 wealth. Manufacturing establishments include flour mills, 
 breweries, tobacco factories, etc. The exports consist of 
 gold and diamonds, wool, ostrich feathers, angora hair, 
 hides, skins and coal. The imports are largely textiles, 
 foods, drinks, iron and steel goods, leather and leather 
 manufactures, etc. 
 
 By far the largest amount of trade is carried on with 
 Great Britain. The exports to the United States are in- 
 significant, and the imports from there are also compara- 
 tively small; in 1909 the first were valued at $1,700,000, 
 the second at $7,300,000. 
 
 French Possessions. (A) Algeria. — The chief occupa- 
 tion of the Algerian population is agriculture. The crops 
 consist of wheat, barley, oats, corn, potatoes, beans. Or- 
 anges, dates, bananas, figs, almonds and many other fruits 
 grow abundantly and are shipped to France by fast steam- 
 ers crossing the Mediterranean between Algiers and Mar- 
 seilles in twenty-four hours. The production of olive oil and 
 the making of wine are of importance and add considerably 
 to the exports of the colony. The mines of Algeria are 
 worked for iron, zinc, silver, lead, copper and coal. The 
 forests are cut for firewood and for industrial purposes; 
 in some of them are found cork oak trees. Extensive 
 fisheries yield sardines, sprats, anchovies, tunny-fish, etc. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 139 
 
 The main exports are wine, sheep, wheat, barley, olive 
 oil, cork, phosphates, zinc ore, fruit; the main imports, 
 cottons, clothing, linen, machinery and other metal works, 
 woodworks, sugar, etc. France monopolizes almost the 
 entire foreign trade of Algeria, over 80 per cent of the im- 
 ports coming from France and about 70 per cent of exports 
 going to that country. 
 
 (B) Tunis adjoins Algeria and like in the latter colony 
 the chief industry of the people is agriculture. The prod- 
 ucts resemble those of Algeria, being wheat, barley and 
 oats, olives and wine, oranges, lemons, almonds, alfalfa and 
 cork. Mining is steadily increasing in importance; the 
 minerals mined are copper, lead, zinc and phosphates. 
 
 Cattle is the largest item of export, phosphates being 
 second and olive oil third in value. The imports are cotton 
 goods, metal work, hardware and machinery, wheat, flour, 
 sugar. More than one-half of the commercial relations is 
 with France. 
 
 (C) French Congo, French Somali Coast, French West 
 Africa and the Sahara are of lesser significance commer- 
 cially, than either Algiers or Tunis. A very valuable col- 
 ony is the Island of Madagascar, whose vegetable products 
 include rice, cotton, cacao, vanilla, and whose mineral re- 
 sources contain gold, copper, sulphur, graphite and lead. 
 Ninety per cent of the imports are from France. 
 
 German Colonies consist of Togoland, Kamerun, Ger- 
 man Southwest Africa and German East Africa. They 
 are all situated in the tropical part of the continent, and 
 as yet have been very little developed. The exports are 
 palm oil, palm kernels, rubber, copra, ivory, cotton, cocoa, 
 animal products. The imports comprise cereals, meat and 
 provisions, iron and iron works, cotton. 
 
 Portuguese Colonies embrace an area of 793,980 square 
 miles, the greater part of which is of comparatively little 
 economic value. The one thousand miles of coast line of 
 Angola are marshy, malarial and devoid of good harbor 
 
140 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 sites; the same is true of the coast of the Portuguese East 
 Africa and of Guinea. The chief products are rubber, 
 the supplies of which are however becoming exhausted, 
 cotton, the growing of which, although it could be made 
 remunerative, is neglected, sugar, cocoanuts, beeswax, 
 ivory, mining products and animal products. The chief 
 imports are textiles, iron works, alcoholic liquors; the lead- 
 ing exports comprise coffee, rubber, ivory, wax, various 
 ores and dried fish. The trade is largely with Portugal. 
 The Portuguese possessions also include a few small is- 
 lands: Cape Verde, Prince’s and St. Thomas. 
 
 Belgian Possessions consist of Congo, which state lost 
 its fictitious independence and freedom in 1907, the year 
 of the annexation to Belgium. The area of the colony is 
 estimated at 910,000 square miles, the population at from 
 9,000,000 to 20,000,000; the number of Europeans approx- 
 imates 3,000, more than half of which are Belgians. The 
 chief products are rubber, ivory, palm oil, copal, gold, cof- 
 fee and cacao. The imports include cotton (the largest 
 single item), provisions, alcoholic liquors, arms, ammuni- 
 tion, machinery. Most of the trade is carried on with 
 Belgium. 
 
 Italian Dependencies extend on the coast of the Red 
 Sea for a distance of 670 miles and include an area of 88,500 
 square miles. Abundance of pasture land permits the rais- 
 ing of camels, oxen, sheep and goats, whose products sup- 
 ply only local trade. Scarcity of water necessitates works 
 of irrigation before agriculture can be carried on success- 
 fully. Pearl fishing is an industry of some significance. 
 Italy exercises a protectorate over a part of Somaliland 
 along the east coast of Africa. 
 
 Tributary States of Turkey. (A) Egypt, although trib- 
 utary to Turkey, is occupied by Great Britain, which man- 
 ages its finances and supervises and regulates its com- 
 merce. The fertile part of the country lies on both sides 
 of the river Nile, the waters of which are used for irrigat- 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 141 
 
 ing purposes. The fertility of this region is so great that 
 it permits the raising of three crops a year: cereals in 
 winter, cotton, sugar and rice in summer, corn, millet and 
 vegetables generally in autumn. Wheat, corn and cotton 
 are the main crops, raw cotton being by far the largest 
 item of export from the country. The imports consist of 
 textile and metal manufactures, wood, coal, provisions. 
 Great Britain is at the head of the list of exporters from 
 and importers into Egypt. In 1909 the United States re- 
 ceived from Egypt goods to the value of $11,200,000, while 
 its exports to Egypt were about $1,300,000. 
 
 (B) Tripoli lies along the Mediterranean. Its prod- 
 ucts are scanty. Barley is the chief food of the people. 
 The leading industry in the inter or is herding. The coastal 
 climate and soil permit the cultivation of dates, olives, 
 oranges and lemons, small quantities of cocoa being ex- 
 ported. Other items of export are esparto grass and 
 sponges. 
 
 Independent African States. (A) Morocco lies in north- 
 ern Africa, along the shores of the Atlantic and the Medi- 
 terranean. It occupies a part of the continent nearest to 
 Europe and because of the extreme fertility of its shore 
 region has decidedly a promising future. A despotic form 
 of government hinders industrial and commercial develop- 
 ment. The interior of the country is a high plateau with 
 scanty rainfall, where only an occasional oasis permits agri- 
 cultural pursuits. The exports consist largely of the prod- 
 ucts of herding: hides, skins, wool, oxen, etc. They in- 
 clude also a few cereals, barley particularly, nuts and fruits. 
 The imports are cotton manufactures, sugar, tea, flour, iron 
 and hardware, etc. The trade is carried on mostly with 
 Great Britain, France and Germany. 
 
 (B) Abyssinia is a mountainous tropical country; its 
 lowlands are adapted to the growth of the coffee tree, the 
 sugar cane and the coffee plant; its mountain slopes and 
 plateaus can yield the fruits of southern Europe and the 
 
142 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 wine grape, while its higher altitudes are either covered 
 with valuable forests or are suited for the cultivation of 
 the temperate zone cereals. Abyssinia is rich in minerals, 
 especially gold, copper, iron, coal, sulphur, and salt, and 
 its pastures support large herds of horses, oxen and sheep. 
 
 The exports consist of coffee, hides, skins, wax, ivory 
 and gold; the imports of cotton and w^oolen fabrics, carpets, 
 hardware, arms and ammunition. The share of the United 
 States in this trade is very insignificant. 
 
 (C) Liberia lies on the western coast of Africa. It has 
 magnificent forests of mahogany, rosewood, dyewood and 
 medicinal shrubs, but the forests remain unworked, and 
 the fertile soil of this small negro republic is scarcely cul- 
 tivated. It exports some coffee of inferior quality, rubber, 
 palm oil, cocoa, ivory, ginger, cain-wood; imports cottons, 
 provisions, boots, hardware, dried fish. Great Britain and 
 Germany are the leading importers and exporters. 
 
 Australia. 
 
 The Commonwealth of Australia, a colony of Great Brit- 
 ain, occupies a landmass situated entirely in the southern 
 hemisphere and separated by vast stretches of open sea 
 from all the great commercial nations of the world. It 
 lies between the tenth and the fortieth degrees of latitude 
 and its human, vegetable and animal life are therefore 
 under the constant influence of the tropical and subtropical 
 sun. 
 
 The Australian Continent is somewhat smaller in size 
 than Europe, but this vast territory has a population of 
 only 4,200,000 (December, 1907), by far the largest pro- 
 portion of which live in New South Wales and Victoria. 
 Other states composing the commonwealth are Queensland, 
 South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. 
 
 The interior of Australia is practically rainless, most 
 of the rain brought by the southeast trade winds being 
 deposited on the eastern mountain slopes and on the coast. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 143 
 
 Not adapted to agriculture, many parts of the interior pre- 
 sent good pasture land and support millions of sheep and 
 cattle, Australia being the principal sheep-raising country 
 on earth. 
 
 Copious rains fall on the northern coast of Australia; 
 the forests found on this coast abound in cabinet and other 
 useful woods; the southwestern coast has comparatively 
 little rainfall. 
 
 Before the coming of the European settlers, Australia, 
 because of its isolation from the rest of the world, had its 
 own peculiar trees, roots and grasses, animals and birds. 
 They were sufficient to satisfy the simple needs of the 
 natives, but the white man, in order to be able to live the 
 life of a civilized being, was obliged to import cereals, 
 fruits and domesticated animals from the old continent; 
 using the sailing vessel and the steamer, he overcame that 
 natural barrier which the ocean presents to the migra- 
 tion of animals and plants. At present Australian soil 
 yields wheat, corn, barley, oats, potatoes, pumpkins and 
 melons, as well as bananas, pineapples, oranges, coffee and 
 tobacco. 
 
 After wool growing, mining is the main source of Aus- 
 tralian wealth and the most important industry from the 
 point of view of foreign trade. Australia has rich depos- 
 its of gold, copper, silver, lead, tin, coal and bismuth; in 
 1907 it exported about $47,000,000 of gold bullion and spe- 
 cie, also considerable quantities of the other above-men- 
 tioned minerals. 
 
 The animal industry in addition to wool furnishes for 
 export butter, tallow, skins and hides, mutton, leather, beef, 
 living animals and tinned meat. 
 
 Wheat and flour are also items of considerable export, 
 wheat with a value of about $24,000,000 being the third 
 in the list (in 1907). 
 
 The imports into Australia are much smaller than its 
 exports and consist of metal manufactures, machinery and 
 
144 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 implements, cotton, linen, woolen and silk goods, apparel, 
 iron and steel, timber, tea, spirits, oils and tobacco. 
 
 Australia trades mainly with the United Kingdom; in 
 1909 the imports from the United States were $24,077,000, 
 while the exports to that country equalled $13,973,000, the 
 first representing approximately one-eleventh of the Aus- 
 tralian imports, the second one twenty-seventh of its ex- 
 ports. 
 
 New Zealand lies about 1,200 miles east of Australia and 
 consists of two large and a number of small islands. Two- 
 thirds of the surface of New Zealand is suitable for agri- 
 culture and grazing, the rest is under forest or barren. 
 
 New Zealand is mountainous in many parts, and min- 
 eral resources are abundant, especially gold and coal, both 
 of which are extensively mined and add considerably to 
 the wealth of the islands. 
 
 The colony, however, is firstly a pastoral country, wool, 
 frozen meat, butter and cheese, sheep skins, pelts and tal- 
 low furnishing the leading items of export, and the animal 
 industry being the most firmly established and the most 
 rapidly growing industrial pursuit of the people ; the num- 
 ber of sheep in New Zealand exceeds 20,000,000, and in 
 1906 the wool clip was 175,000,000 pounds, while approxi- 
 mately 4,274,000 animals were exported as frozen mutton 
 and lamb (226,856,000 pounds). 
 
 The chief crops are oats, wheat and barley; the whole 
 amount produced is consumed at home, the total value of 
 grains exported showing great fluctuations, but averaging 
 less than one million dollars annually. 
 
 An interesting item of exports are rabbit skins, their 
 number reaching 17,000,000 in 1893 and has been declining 
 since; it amounted to 5,454,000 in 1906; the colony regards 
 with satisfaction the decline in exports of this commodity, 
 as it indicates the gradual abatement of the rabbit pest. 
 
 Manufacturing industries comprise meat-freezing plants, 
 butter and cheese factories, sawmills and planing mills, 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 145 
 
 tanning and wool-scouring establishments, grain mills, 
 clothing, boot and shoe factories, breweries, etc. 
 
 The principal imports are clothing and textiles, tobacco, 
 fruit, paper and printed books. 
 
 Great Britain leads both in the value of exports from 
 and imports into New Zealand; next in importance, but 
 far smaller than the first, are the trading relations with 
 Australia, the United States occupying the third place. 
 In 1909 New Zealand’s exports to the United States were 
 $2,847,000, and the imports from that country $5,463,000, 
 —an insignificant amount considering the total foreign com- 
 merce of the islands; the latter approximates $180,000,000 
 a year. 
 
 Oceania. — Throughout the vast expanse of the Pacific 
 Ocean are scattered thousands of islands, some isolated and 
 others grouped together. The islands are tropical in char- 
 acter, sugar cane, cocoanut, banana and breadfruit being 
 their staple products. Sugar and copra (dried meat of 
 the cocoanut) are exported from the islands, also vanilla, 
 mother of pearl, etc. Imports consist of cotton goods, 
 hardware, machinery, provisions. 
 
 Most of the islands are under the control of the United 
 States or some European nation (Great Britain, Germany 
 or France). With the exception of the Hawaiian Islands, 
 the trading relations of Oceania with the United States 
 are unimportant, both imports and exports being below 
 $1,000,000 a year. 
 
 Possessions of the United States. — The Hawaiian Is- 
 lands have a total area of 6,450 square miles and a popula- 
 tion of 180,000. The islands lie in the torrid zone, are 
 mountainous and volcanic, but their soil is highly fertile 
 and well adapted to the raising of sugar, rice, coffee, hemp, 
 bananas, pineapples, etc. In 1908 the exports from Hawaii 
 to the United States amounted to $41,640,000, of which 
 $38,600,000 was for raw sugar, the rest for refined sugar, 
 
 B— IV— 10 
 
146 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 fruits, coffee and rice. The value of shipments from the 
 United States to Hawaii was $15,300,000. 
 
 Besides Hawaii the United States owns in Oceania the 
 island of Guam, having an area of about 200 square miles 
 and a population of 11,500, and the island of Tutuila, with 
 an area of 54 square miles and a population of 3,800. The 
 American flag has been hoisted also on many smaller Pacif- 
 ic islands, some of them uninhabited. These islands are of 
 very little commercial value at present. 
 
 IX. THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Both the absolute and the relative figures showing the 
 industrial and commercial development of the United 
 States tell the most wonderful story of inventiveness, ener- 
 gy, pluck and perseverance ever displayed by civilized man 
 in the conquest of a continent. 
 
 The continent with all its vast resources existed, but 
 it was a wilderness, and it took years of adaptation, of 
 strenuous life on the frontier, of struggles with exuberant 
 and stubborn nature, before the dismal forests gave way 
 to the ax and the saw, before the mountains began to yield 
 their wealth of minerals, before the immense plains became 
 cultivated fields, and the silent banks of lakes and rivers 
 seats of busy mills and factories, throbbing with ceaseless 
 activity, never stopping, never ending. 
 
 It took years of planning and daring, before railroads, 
 starting from the settled East, and crossing mountains and 
 deserts, opened up empires in the North, in the South and 
 in the West, making out of widely segregated territories, 
 the abodes of nomadic Indians, a powerful Unit, a coun- 
 try which today stands as the embodiment of the greatest 
 economic efficiency and prosperity known in history. 
 
 Our development has been particularly phenomenal in 
 the last few decades. With the close of the Civil War 
 ended the first chapters of our industrial life. With slavery 
 gone in the South and the power to organize forces and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 147 
 
 to lead them on to victory developed in the North, there 
 began a new economic era. The captain of war became 
 the “ captain of industry,” and the fertile soil, the rich 
 mine, the virgin forest surrendered to him their wealth 
 with a bountifulness unknown in any other country. 
 
 Aided by a climate generally favorable to the growth 
 of economic plants and to the active work of man in the 
 field and in the shop, we have become the foremost amongst 
 the world’s nations in almost every line of endeavor: in 
 agriculture and in mining, in manufactures and in com- 
 merce. 
 
 However, granting all praise due to our industrial 
 leaders and to the rank and file of our laborers, it is well 
 to remember that they were aided in their enterprises by 
 the superabundance and variety of natural resources. 
 They were able to do constructive work unhampered by 
 the necessity to economize, to utilize to the best advantage 
 every foot of ground in the field. They were as lavish in 
 their use of these resources, as Nature was of her gifts, 
 with the result that frequently the use became an abuse; 
 they looked upon natural factors as inexhaustible. But 
 that time has gone by. The Nation is being gradually 
 awakened to the realization of the fact that every tree 
 which is being cut without replacement and every ton of 
 coal or iron that is being wasted, hastens the day when 
 there will be no trees to cut and no minerals to mine. 
 
 The problem of the conservation of natural resources 
 brought recently to the front by our Federal Government 
 is of more than academic significance, it is of vital impor- 
 tance to the continued prosperity of the Nation. 
 
 Our practice has been vast prodigality. It paid and it 
 pays to waste, describes the industrial method of our peo- 
 ple. It paid to work only the rich streaks of ore, leaving 
 poorer grades unutilized, in many instances rendering 
 them unavailable for ourselves and for future generations; 
 it paid to exploit the fertility of our soil, there was so 
 
148 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 much good land at hand and refertilization is a tedious 
 process; it paid to cut forest after forest and never to 
 plant a single tree. But even the greatest treasure comes 
 to an end; we must realize that unless our ruthless exploita- 
 tion stops we will soon be ‘ 4 paid in full.” 
 
 But waste is not confined to the United States, and 
 very often it is nothing but apparent waste. Frequently 
 in order to economize on labor, we are justified in wast- 
 ing other factors of production, less valuable. The boasted 
 intensity of cultivation and the marvelous yields per acre 
 in many instances are made possible only by hard cheer- 
 less work long before sunrise and hours past sunset, work 
 on week days and on Sundays, work of adults and of chil- 
 dren. Fortunately, intelligent tillage of the soil does not 
 require this kind of cultivation; through use of fertilizers, 
 scientific rotation of crops, irrigation, etc., the yields per 
 acre have been raised to a considerable degree; they 
 reached the average of 30 bushels per acre in England, 28 
 bushels in Holland and Belgium, 24 bushels in Germany 
 and 19 bushels in France. The yield in the United States 
 is 14 bushels, while in Italy it is 12 bushels, in Russia 8 
 bushels and in India 7 bushels. 
 
 Our agricultural experiment stations are doing excel- 
 lent work in introducing better methods of agriculture; 
 many a depleted soil has been brought back to its former 
 productivity and many an abandoned farm has been re- 
 gained, through the intelligent efforts of our agricultural 
 chemists. Each state has from one to two experiment sta- 
 tions. Bulletins, containing valuable information to the 
 grain and stockraiser, to the horticulturist, to the dairy- 
 man, etc., are issued periodically. 
 
 In Washington a number of bureaus act as farmers’ 
 aids and advisers. The most important of these are the 
 Weather Forecast Bureau, the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
 the Entomological Bureau and the Bureau of Chemistry. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 149 
 
 The prognostics of the Weather Forecast Bureau, based 
 upon observation of air currents, atmospheric pressure, 
 etc., are of inestimable value. The Bureau of Plant In- 
 dustry has a force of experts searching for new plants 
 and seeds capable of thriving in various parts of the United 
 States; it was through the instrumentality of this bureau 
 that sorghum, tea, rice, mangoes, etc., were transplanted 
 from the Orient to this country, and that new and better 
 varieties of figs, grapes, watermelons, radishes, cotton and 
 wheat were introduced. The Entomological Bureau dis- 
 covers helpful and parasitic insects; it tells how to nourish 
 the first and how to exterminate the second. The Bureau 
 of Chemistry determines the fertility of any given piece 
 of land, the kind of crops it will grow best and the kind 
 of fertilizers it needs. 
 
 Agriculturally, the United States is usually divided into 
 six great sections, in each of which certain staple prod- 
 ucts are predominant. These sections are as follows : 
 
 (1) The New England and New York Section, charac- 
 terized by diversified farming and dairying. 
 
 (2) The Com and Winter Wheat Belt, stretching from 
 the Atlantic in the East to Nebraska and Kansas in the 
 West and from the 35° to the 43° of latitude. 
 
 (3) The Spring Wheat Belt, extending north of the 
 43° of latitude and consisting of the states of Wisconsin, 
 Minnesota and the Dakotas. 
 
 (4) The Cotton Belt, extending south of the 35° to the 
 Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic in the East to Texas 
 in the West. 
 
 (5) The Wool and Live Stock Belt, embracing the Great 
 Western Plateau in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, 
 Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. 
 
 (6) The Pacific Coast Region, characterized by grain 
 and fruit growing. 
 
150 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Agriculture. 
 
 Vegetable Products. — The most important branch of 
 
 agriculture in the United States is the raising of cereals. 
 Cereals represent more than half of the total value of the 
 country’s crop and more than half of the land under cul- 
 tivation is devoted to the production of grains. The North 
 Central Division extending from the Alleghanies in the 
 East to approximately the one hundredth degree of longi- 
 tude in the West is the great grain-producing belt. In this 
 region are the states of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and 
 Nebraska with their stupendous output of corn; here are 
 the two Dakotas, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana leading in 
 the production of wheat, here also is harvested about three 
 quarters of the country’s crop of oats and most of her 
 barley and rye. The other section of the United States 
 where cultivation of cereals is carried on very extensively 
 is the Northwest. 
 
 Corn is the most valuable of the crops in the United 
 StateSo In 1907 the production of corn equalled 2,592,000,- 
 000 bushels, valued at $1,337,000,000. There is scarcely 
 a state in the Union which does not grow corn, but only 
 in a few of these states does the raising of it constitute 
 the chief agricultural pursuit; these states are Iowa, Illi- 
 nois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana and Ohio; they 
 form what is known as the corn belt of the country, yield- 
 ing about 90 per cent of the total crop. 
 
 Wheat is after corn our leading crop; conditions most 
 favorable to its growth are found in the north central and 
 northwestern regions, which raise far in excess of their 
 home demand and sell their surplus to the northeastern, 
 southern and Rocky Mountain states, as well as to foreign 
 countries. In 1907 the production of wheat was 634,000,- 
 000 bushels, valued at $554,000,000. 
 
 Wheat and corn growing in the United States have 
 been characterized by an extensive system of cultivation 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 151 
 
 which has necessitated the continuous taking up of new 
 land. But this last cannot be done indefinitely. Our do- 
 mestic demand for wheat increases rapidly from year to 
 year, while most of the fertile ground has already been 
 occupied. Because of this, improved methods of agricul- 
 ture, intensive farming based upon a careful, intelligent 
 use of the soil seems to be the only permanent solution 
 of the problem confronting us as producers of breadstuffs. 
 
 Oats. — The United States raised in 1907, 754,000,000 
 bushels of oats, valued at $335,000,000. Oats are grown 
 mostly in the states bordering on the Great Lakes, Wis- 
 consin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, New York and 
 Pennsylvania being the largest producers. 
 
 Barley, rye and buckwheat are of comparatively little 
 importance in our agricultural economy, particularly the 
 last two cereals. In 1907 our crop of barley was 154,000,- 
 000 bushels, of rye 31,500,000 bushels and of buckwheat 
 14,300,000 bushels. Barley is grown principally in Cali- 
 fornia, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin; rye in Wiscon- 
 sin, New York, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Michigan; 
 buckwheat in New York and Pennsylvania. 
 
 In addition to these cereals we raise rice (in the Caro- 
 linas, Texas and Louisiana), millet, etc. 
 
 Cotton. — The raising of cotton is of the utmost signif- 
 icance in the economic life of the United States. The 
 growing of it is restricted to the South Central and South 
 Atlantic states. Hardly a cotton plant is to be found north 
 of the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude or west of the 
 one hundredth degree of longitude. Immediately after the 
 War of Secession attempts were made to grow cotton farth- 
 er to the north or to the west of the indicated area, but 
 they all proved unsuccessful, because of unfavorable cli- 
 matic conditions. Within the limits of the southern states, 
 the cultivation of cotton seems to tend towards concen- 
 tration in the most favorably situated localities, receding 
 southwestward. The chief cotton-producing states are 
 
152 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas and 
 Arkansas. The total crop in 1907 equalled 5,303,000,000 
 lbs., valued at $551,500,000. 
 
 Sugar —In the production of sugar the United States 
 does not occupy a very prominent place. However, there 
 are few agricultural industries that have developed as 
 rapidly within the last few years as this branch of farm- 
 ing, and the future is very promising, particularly for the 
 growth of the sugar beet. The main cause which prevented 
 the United States from raising beets was the intensity of 
 cultivation this branch of agriculture requires; this is a 
 temporary cause, which disappears with a greater density 
 of population and with a more pressing demand upon the 
 products of the soil. Our beet-sugar crop equalled in 1907, 
 967,000,000 tons, valued at $23,895,000. The chief beet- 
 sugar producing states are those in the North and in the 
 West, California, Michigan, Nebraska and Utah being in 
 the lead. 
 
 As to the sugar cane, its production is almost entirely 
 confined to the State of Louisiana; the proximity of Cuba, 
 Porto Rico and other West Indies, the small cost of bring- 
 ing the product from the rich sugar plantations of the 
 Hawaiian and the Philippine Islands, the dangers of unex- 
 pected frosts, all act as checks upon the development of 
 the industry. In 1907 the amount of sugar cane produced 
 w r as 544,000,000 tons, valued at $28,800,000. 
 
 Tobacco. — The United States leads the world in the pro- 
 duction of tobacco; the states of Kentucky, North Carolina 
 and Virginia yield nearly three-fifths of our total output; 
 other large producers are Tennessee, Ohio, Maryland and 
 Wisconsin. About one-third of the tobacco produced is 
 exported, most of which is of an inferior grade ; some tobac- 
 co is imported, the importations coming chiefly from Cuba 
 and Turkey, and representing high-grade goods. The dif- 
 ference in the quality of tobacco imported and exported 
 may be judged from the fact that in 1909 we exported 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 153 
 
 334,000,000 lbs., valued at $29,800,000, while our imports 
 were 33,290,000 lbs., valued at $18,000,000. In the United 
 States, Connecticut produces the most expensive qualities 
 of tobacco. 
 
 Hay is the principal forage crop of the United States; 
 in 1907 our output was 63,700,000 tons valued at $743,500,- 
 000. It may be noticed that in 1907 the value of the hay 
 crop was greater than that of the cotton or of the wheat 
 crop. Hay grows most abundantly in the corn belt, in 
 the dairying states of New York and Pennsylvania, and in 
 California. 
 
 Flax and Hemp. — Flax-growing is carried on in the 
 United States for the seed and not for the fiber. The 
 United States ranks first amongst the flaxseed-producing 
 countries, but the few linen factories which we have in the 
 East must depend on foreign material. More than four- 
 fifths of the total acreage under flax is in Minnesota and 
 the two Dakotas. 
 
 Hemp is cultivated almost exclusively in Kentucky; the 
 crop is small. 
 
 Live Stock and Dairy Industries. 
 
 The raising of live stock occupies a mosi prominent 
 place in American agriculture. 
 
 The principal grazing regions of the United States are 
 found in the semi-arid West, though cattle and other do- 
 mestic animals are raised more or less throughout the en- 
 tire agricultural portion of the country. 
 
 On January 1, 1909, the total value of farm animals 
 exceeded $4,520,000,000; this included 71,000,000 head of 
 cattle, 20,640,000 horses, 56,000,000 sheep, 4,000,000 mules 
 and 96,300,000 swine. In the number of cattle, of swine 
 and of mules the United States leads the world. In the 
 number of horses, Russia, credited with 25,000,000, exceeds 
 the United States, but the Russian horse is generally small- 
 er and weaker than the American animal. With regard 
 
154 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 to sheep, the United States is surpassed by Australia, Ar- 
 gentina and Russia. The supply of goats and asses is com- 
 paratively small, due chiefly to the fact that there is little 
 need for these mountain-bred animals in the greater part 
 of the country. 
 
 In the United States, as in most of the other countries, 
 live-stock raising for beef is an industry distinct from 
 dairying. 
 
 The largest number of heads of cattle is found in the 
 North Central States; next in importance is the South 
 Central division, then the Western and the North Atlantic. 
 Texas has about one-seventh of the number of cattle; it 
 is followed by Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois. The 
 great center of live stock production is west of the Miss- 
 issippi River; it coincides to a large degree with the corn 
 belt; cattle from other parts of the United States are fre- 
 quently sent into this section to be fattened before their 
 delivery to the slaughtering houses. 
 
 Slaughtering and Meat Packing have shown a remark- 
 able development since 1850, when the value of their prod- 
 ucts was $11,980,000; in 1905 it reached $913,915,000. Over 
 55 per cent of the industry is carried on in the Central 
 States and about 19 per cent in the Western division, leav- 
 ing but 26 per cent for the Middle, New England, Southern 
 and Pacific states. Illinois occupies by far the most im- 
 portant place in the industry; in 1905 it furnished about 
 35 per cent of the products. Kansas, New York and Mis- 
 souri are next, in the order named. Meat packing is con- 
 centrated in a few cities, Chicago, Omaha and Kansas City 
 being the most important. In 1905 the number of animals 
 slaughtered was 7,147,000 beeves, 10,875,000 sheep and 
 30,978,000 hogs. 
 
 One of the leading items of export from the United 
 States is meat products; their total value in 1909 was 
 $163,000,000; it included fresh, salted, pickled and cured 
 beef, hams and bacon, pickled pork, lard, canned meats. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 155 
 
 Great Britain is our best customer, taking over one-half of 
 the exports. 
 
 Dairying is developing most rapidly. The best condi- 
 tions for the industry exist in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota 
 and Illinois, also in the central parts of Nebraska and 
 Kansas. The total number of milch cows in 1908 was 18,- 
 000,000 head and the value of the dairy products approxi- 
 mated $59,000,000. In New England dairying has re- 
 placed general farming. 
 
 Sheep Raising. — Many sheep are slaughtered for table 
 purposes, but the principal value of the animal lies in the 
 wool it furnishes for textiles. Montana, Wyoming and 
 New Mexico are the leading sheep-breeding states. 
 
 The domestic clip of wool is not sufficient to supply the 
 needs of our manufacturers and about one-fifth of the 
 quantity consumed is imported. Carpet wools form the 
 largest proportion of imports. 
 
 Lumber and Timber Products. 
 
 The timber industry is widely distributed; in this re- 
 spect it differs from other industries of similar magnitude 
 which are more or less concentrated in particular sections 
 (iron and steel industry, textiles, slaughtering and meat 
 packing, etc.). 
 
 Since 1900 important changes have taken place in the 
 lumber industry. In 1905 Washington advanced from 
 fifth to first place, passing Michigan, Wisconsin, Minne- 
 sota and Pennsylvania. Louisiana rose from ninth to 
 fourth place, while Indiana dropped from seventh to six- 
 teenth and Ohio from eighth to twenty-first place. 
 
 The growth of the industry has been most rapid in the 
 Southwest and on the Pacific coast, while a substantial de- 
 cline has taken place in the Great Lake region. The Cen- 
 tral States also have shown a decrease in their output, par- 
 ticularly in the logging industry, the raw material of which 
 is standing timber; this is due to a very natural cause: the 
 
156 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 practical exhaustion of merchantable timber in continuous 
 bodies in these states. The as yet comparatively impor- 
 tant sawmill and planing-mill industries of Ohio, Indiana, 
 etc., are supplied with material from Kentucky, West Vir- 
 ginia and other neighboring states. Lower grades of 
 timber are being cut in ever-increasing quantities. 
 
 Another significant development has been the general 
 increase in the value of log stumpage; in some instances 
 the increase has been very large; it extends to all species 
 of timber and is due, not so much to the present shortage 
 in the supply of material as to the fact that the available 
 timber land is being rapidly bought up and withdrawn 
 from the market in anticipation of the time when the sup- 
 ply will not equal the demand. 
 
 The bulk of the lumber product of the United States 
 is consumed at home. However, there has been an in- 
 crease in the value of unmanufactured woods exported. It 
 rose from $11,000,000 in 1870 to $45,000,000 in 1905; rec- 
 koned in the percentage of total production the exports 
 constituted 5.3 per cent in 1870 and 7.8 per cent in 1905. 
 The most marked increase has been in the exports to Eu- 
 rope. Our imports consist of pine lumber from Canada 
 ($22,000,000 in 1905), and of cabinet woods, chiefly ma- 
 ‘hogany, from Haiti, Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico and Central 
 American States. 
 
 Mineral Resources. 
 
 The mineral resources of the United States are abun- 
 dant, accessible and widely distributed. Upon their abun- 
 dance has been to a very large extent based the rapid ex- 
 pansion of the nation’s industrial life. Just as the United 
 States has outranked all the other countries in the produc- 
 tion of minerals, so also has it outranked them in all those 
 activities which are created and supported by mineral 
 wealth. 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 157 
 
 The most important metallic and non-metallic mineral 
 products of the United States are coal, iron, copper, clay, 
 petroleum, gold, stone, cement, natural gas, lead and zinc. 
 The total output of minerals for 1907 exceeded $2,000,000,- 
 000, as compared with $365,000,000 in 1880, $605,000,000 
 in 1890 and $1,107,000,000 in 1900. These figures show the 
 extraordinary rapidity with which the mineral resources 
 have been exploited during the last decades. Of the grand 
 total fuels (coal, petroleum and natural gas) approximated 
 $788,000,000, structural materials (clay, stone, cement, 
 lime, etc.) nearly $306,000,000, metallic products (iron, cop- 
 per, gold, silver, lead, zinc, aluminum, tin, etc.) $903,000,- 
 000. The rest was composed of abrasive materials (grind- 
 stones, quartz, emery), chemical materials (phosphate 
 rock, salt, sulphur, borax), pigments (zinc white, barytes) 
 and other miscellaneous products (glass sands, mineral 
 waters, precious stones, talc, etc.). 
 
 The value of mineral production in the United States 
 as compared with that in other countries is indicated by 
 the fact that during 1907 the country produced 63 per cent 
 of the world’s petroleum, 55 per cent of the world’s copper, 
 52 per cent of the phosphate rock, 46 per cent of the steel, 
 43 per cent of the cement, 40 per cent of the iron ore, 40 per 
 cent of the coal, 33 per cent of the lead, 30 per cent of the 
 silver, 27 per cent of the zinc and 22 per cent of the world’s 
 gold. 
 
 The mineral beds of the United States are not equally 
 distributed throughout the country. Pennsylvania has 
 been for a long time and is yet the leading state in the 
 production of minerals, nearly one-third of the mineral 
 output of the Union coming from this state; but the centers 
 of production shift and it is difficult to foretell how long 
 our banner state’s supremacy will last. The primacy in 
 quantity of petroleum produced passed within the last two 
 years from Ohio to California and from California to Okla- 
 
158 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 lioma; within a year (1907-8) Colorado has taken the place 
 of Montana in silver, and Idaho that of Missouri in lead. 
 
 Our most important coal-producing states are Pennsyl- 
 vania, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Iowa and 
 Colorado; the largest supplies of iron ore come from Min- 
 nesota, Michigan and Alabama; copper is mined in Mon- 
 tana, Arizona and in the Lake Superior regions; lead in 
 Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Missouri; zinc in Missouri, Kan- 
 sas and Colorado; gold in Colorado, California and Alaska; 
 silver in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Idaho. Mineral 
 deposits are worked in other parts of the country, but the 
 enumerated states lead in the production. 
 
 The Iron and Steel Industry. — In 1905 the value of the 
 products of our iron and steel industry was $906,000,000, 
 as compared with $207,000,000, their value in 1870; dur- 
 ing the same period the output in tons increased from 
 3,264,000 to 34,845,000, or more than tenfold. Pennsyl- 
 vania leads in the production, followed by Ohio and Illi- 
 nois; in 1905 these three states produced 78.5 per cent of the 
 total value of the country’s output; other important iron 
 and steel producing states are New York, Alabama and 
 New Jersey. 
 
 Textiles. 
 
 The census reports include under textiles material 
 which provides substantially the entire clothing of the 
 people in the United States, the only exception being leath- 
 er footwear, the hats and bonnets of women and the sum- 
 mer straw hats of men. Not only hosiery, underwear and 
 material for all the outer garments, but also a large class of 
 articles of purely ornamental value, like ribbons and laces, 
 are considered under the category of textiles. Under tex- 
 tiles are included also carpets, bed coverings, toweling, etc. 
 In the grouping of industries according to the value of 
 products, “ textiles” rank third ($2,147,000,000 in 1905), 
 “food and kindred products” being the first and “iron and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 159 
 
 steel and their products” second in rank. If we consider 
 the number of wage-earners employed, textiles occupy the 
 first place; in 1905 they gave employment to 1,156,000 
 hands. 
 
 The three most important fibers used in textile manu- 
 factures are cotton, wool and silk. The United States may 
 be ranked first amongst silk-manufacturing countries, sec- 
 ond in cotton manufactures (the United Kingdom first) and 
 probably fourth in woolen fabrics (the United Kingdom, 
 France and Germany being the three leaders). Our flax 
 and jute industries are not of great importance. 
 
 The most significant fact in our textile manufactures is 
 the continued growth of the cotton-manufacturing indus- 
 try in the southern states. As our census bulletin on tex- 
 tiles for 1905 puts it, “no fact relating to the industrial 
 progress of the country is more interesting, more impor- 
 tant or more significant to the student of social and eco- 
 nomic conditions in the United States than the vigor, the 
 persistency and the success of the South in introducing 
 this branch of manufacture. Combined with the growth 
 in the South of the manufacture of iron and steel it marks 
 an industrial revolution in one part of the country.” The 
 progress of the southern states may be judged from the 
 fact that within a brief period of five years, between 1900 
 and 1905, they increased the number of their spindles from 
 4,298,000 to 7,508,000; the increase in the New England 
 States for the same period has been from 12,851,000 to 
 13,911,000. The cotton-manufacturing industry has never 
 been established on a large basis either in the middle or 
 in the western states. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New 
 Hampshire and Connecticut lead as cotton manufacturers 
 in the Northeast, North Carolina and Georgia in the South. 
 
 Southern mills have the advantage of raw cotton at 
 their doors; also of abundant fuel and cheap labor; unfortu- 
 nately, some of the southern superiority is based upon an 
 extensive use of child labor. Southern manufactures find 
 
SIMON LITMAN 
 
 160 
 
 a market near by, ever-decreasing quantities of calico, 
 gingham, shirtings being shipped from New England south- 
 ward. 
 
 American spinners produce a much larger quantity of 
 coarse and medium yarns and a much smaller amount of 
 fine fabrics than the spinners of Great Britain, Germany 
 or France. 
 
 The export of cottons from the United States is grow- 
 ing, although our position as an exporter of these tissues 
 is far from being satisfactory. China is the largest con- 
 sumer of our cotton fabrics. 
 
 Miscellaneous Manufactures. 
 
 In 1905 the value of chemicals and allied products ex- 
 ceeded $1,000,000,000, half of which amount was manufac- 
 tured in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
 Ohio and Illinois. 
 
 The making of vehicles for land transportation aggre- 
 gates $640,000,000; the leading producers are Pennsylvania, 
 New York, Illinois and Indiana. 
 
 The tanning, currying and finishing of leather is car- 
 ried on most extensively in the states of Pennsylvania, 
 Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York and New Jersey. 
 
 The production of boots and shoes is mainly concen- 
 trated in New England, particularly in the State of Massa- 
 chusetts. New England’s manufactures are more than 
 half the total output by the United States. New York, 
 Ohio and Missouri are next in importance as producers 
 of leather footwear. 
 
 New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin and Penn- 
 sylvania lead in the making of wood pulp and paper; the 
 value of this industry’s products increased from about 
 $10,000,000 in 1850 to over $188,000,000 in 1905. 
 
 A remarkable growth has taken place in the printing 
 and publishing business. In 1905 it reached nearly $500,- 
 000,000 as compared with $15,000,000 in 1850; this shows 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 161 
 
 an enormous increase in the amount of books and period- 
 icals, as well as an increase in the use of printed matter 
 for business and social purposes. 
 
 The production of ready-made clothing is one of our 
 most important industries. In a grouping of ten manu- 
 factures which in 1905 reported a value of products ex- 
 ceeding $300,000,000, clothing occupied the fifth place, only 
 four industries showing a higher value of products, these 
 being slaughtering and meat packing, iron and steel, foun- 
 dries and machine shops, flour and grist mills; the five in- 
 dustries following the production of clothing were lumber 
 and timber, printing and publishing, cotton manufactures, 
 woolen manufactures, the making of boots and shoes. The 
 total value of products contributed by this group of ten 
 industries amounted to $6,165,000,000 or 41.5 per cent of 
 the entire value of products contributed by all of the in- 
 dustries embraced in our census classification. Some of 
 our other important manufactures are furniture making, 
 shipbuilding, production of rubber goods, manufacture of 
 structural material (cement, etc.), clay manufactures 
 (bricks, sewer and drain pipes, etc.), glass making. 
 
 X. THE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF THE UNITED 
 STATES WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 The United States’ exports are much larger than its 
 imports; in this respect it differs materially from other 
 great commercial nations: Great Britain, Germany and 
 France, whose balance of trade shows each year an excess 
 of imports over exports. The latter countries have large 
 and manifold investments and an insignificant indebted- 
 ness abroad; they can, therefore, draw upon foreign coun- 
 tries for the needed supplies of raw materials and food- 
 stuffs without any drain upon their finances. The visible 
 cargoes entering their ports represent payments of debtor 
 nations. Hundreds of millions of dollars are thus paid to 
 their capitalists who own stocks and bonds in various rail- 
 
 B— IV— 11 
 
162 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 way and industrial enterprises in every part of the world, 
 to their shipowners, whose steamers and sailing vessels 
 ply every sea and carry most of the foreign trade cargoes 
 to their insurance companies, etc. 
 
 The United States on the other hand has little capital 
 invested abroad. Until recently all of its accumulated 
 wealth was able to find exceedingly profitable investments 
 at home in the development of its natural resources; it 
 owes vast sums of money to foreign investors ; it has prac- 
 tically no merchant marine engaged in international trade 
 and it spends through its tourists fortunes in Europe and 
 in other parts of the world. Most of its foreign trade sur- 
 plus, therefore, does not create a favorable balance in its 
 favor, but merely offsets the payments due to foreigners; 
 it represents also its gradually increasing investments of 
 capital in foreign countries. 
 
 How true this is may be seen from a study of the move- 
 ment of gold from and into the United States. Notwith- 
 standing a “ favorable” balance of trade in the last few 
 decades reaching lately from $450,000,000 to $600,000,000 
 a year, the excess of gold imports over gold exports was 
 never higher than about sixty million dollars a year; dur- 
 ing the same period American bank balances abroad have 
 not been growing very rapidly either. When in the fiscal 
 year just ended (June 30, 1909), the exports dropped off 
 without a corresponding decrease in imports, leaving the 
 country with a trade balance of about $350,000,000 in its 
 favor, it was compelled to ship over $47,000,000 of gold to 
 pay for imports. 
 
 It is well to remember that there is nothing in itself 
 apprehensive either in the excess of imports over exports 
 or exports over imports; a study of the actual conditions 
 under which such excesses occur is necessary in order to 
 arrive at a. correct judgment. 
 
 The exports from the United States consist mostly of 
 raw and semi-finislied commodities and of breadstuffs and 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 163 
 
 foodstuffs, either in crude conditions or partly manufac- 
 tured. 
 
 Taking the last fiscal year (1909) as an illustration we 
 find that crude materials for manufacture represented 
 about 32 per cent of our total exports, their value being 
 $521,000,000; raw cotton was the leading item on the list, 
 it was valued at $417,000,000, an increase of about 75 per 
 cent over the valuation in 1900. 
 
 Last year we exported foodstuffs to the value of $438,- 
 000,000 (about 27 per cent of the total); amongst foods 
 exported, meat and dairy products occupied the first place, 
 with breadstuffs as a close second. The latter led our 
 exports in 1900; their value fell from $262,000,000 in that 
 year to $160,000,000 in 1909. The decline is indicative of 
 the future development of our foreign trade. We are ap- 
 proaching the time when most of the foodstuffs now ex- 
 ported from this country will be retained for home con- 
 sumption. Our area available for tillage has been nearly 
 all occupied ; on the other hand, our population grows rapid- 
 ly and tends towards concentration in industrial and 
 commercial centers. This condition will necessarily lead 
 to a decrease in the exports of agricultural products, which 
 for so long a time have sustained the foreign credit of the 
 United States and have kept its balance of trade favor- 
 able. 
 
 Our exports of semi-manufactured products equalled 
 $230,000,000, leaving $442,000,000 or 27 per cent of the total 
 for manufactures ready for consumption. The latter 
 amount represented but a small fraction (not over 12| 
 per cent) of all the manufactures entering into interna- 
 tional trade; this shows clearly in what direction our en- 
 ergy must be applied if we wish to keep our commerce 
 at the high mark which it has reached. 
 
 Turning to the list of imports we find that the United 
 States receives large quantities of foodstuffs. Most of the 
 foods imported are not necessities, but more or less lux- 
 
164 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 uries, comprising such articles as coffee, sugar, cocoa, 
 fruits and nuts, spices and condiments, etc.; they repre- 
 sented in 1909 over 25 per cent of the total imports into 
 this country. 
 
 The imported manufactures ready for consumption are 
 mostly commodities of superior quality and finish, articles 
 of taste and of beauty or wares embodying the latest dic- 
 tates of fashion; high-grade silks and other textiles, gloves, 
 perfumery, diamonds, ribbons, embroidery, millinery are 
 some of the finished goods received from abroad. In 1909 
 the combined value of these imports reached 27 per cent 
 of the total. 
 
 The remainder of our imports (about 48 per cent) con- 
 sisted in 1909 of crude materials and other goods for use 
 in manufactures; amongst these we find raw silk, hides, 
 rubber, chemicals, dyes, etc. 
 
 In 1909 sugar was the largest single item of import, 
 followed by manufactured silks and coffee; hides, skins and 
 » India rubber were next in importance. 
 
 Europe is our best customer. In 1909 it took from us 
 goods to the value of $1,147,000,000. This commerce with 
 Europe grew without any serious efforts on the part of 
 the American people to foster it. The empty storehouses 
 of Europe 'seek our wheat and flour, and their mills and 
 factories buy eagerly the products of our cotton planta- 
 tions and our copper mines because of the large profits 
 they make on their original investments. The United 
 Kingdom is our leading purchaser; our exports to this 
 country exceed $500,000,000 a year and are more than 
 double of our exports to Germany, our next best buyer. 
 Our sales to France equalled in 1909 about $109,000,000, 
 and to Netherlands $95,000,000; in the case of the latter 
 country the figures are somewhat misleading as a large 
 part of their imports are transshipments, mostly to Ger- 
 many. A study of our export trade to other European 
 countries shows that Italy, with a gradual development of 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 165 
 
 its manufacturing industries, has been taking an ever-in- 
 creasing amount of American raw materials; the value of 
 its imports from the United States rose from $36,700,000 
 in 1900 to $58,500,000 in 1909. Our exports to Belgium 
 were $45,000,000. The least important of our European 
 customers are the agricultural states of Europe: Spain, 
 Russia, Austria-Hungary, etc. 
 
 In 1909 North America imported our merchandise to 
 the value of $310,000,000, the remaining continents having 
 taken a comparatively small share of our exports: South 
 America $76,500,000, Asia $71,800,000, Oceania $41,390,- 
 000 and Africa $17,035,000. Considering the vast quanti- 
 ties of manufactured goods imported by these continents 
 and our dependence upon them for many of our imports, 
 the showing is very poor. 
 
 In 1909 our imports from Europe were valued at $654,- 
 322,000, from Asia at $197,548,000, from South America at 
 $163,878,000, from Oceania at $27,062,000 and from Africa 
 at $15,108,000. 
 
 The United States has but a small share in the trade 
 of the oriental countries, whose imports amount to nearly 
 two billion dollars each year. More than one billion dol- 
 lars’ worth of these imports is represented by goods which 
 the United States could easily supply. The- Orient has 
 been taught to use many occidental products; it imports 
 textiles, iron and steel manufactures, household utensils, 
 agricultural implements, foodstuffs; the market is large 
 and because of the size of the tropical and subtropical pop- 
 ulation and the wealth of natural resources which it can 
 send in exchange for purchases, it is a market full of pos- 
 sibilities. The market occupies a vast section of the world 
 stretching westward from southern China in Asia to Mo- 
 rocco in Africa, a section covering the greater part of the 
 two continents and containing within its confines more 
 than half of the world’s population. With the exception 
 of trade with Japan and northern China, whose geographic 
 
166 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 proximity to our western shores gives us an advantage oil 
 distance, the United States supplies but one per cent of 
 the total imports of the Orient. 
 
 Many reasons have been advanced to explain the suc- 
 cess of the European and the failure of the American busi- 
 ness men in the oriental commerce; the most important 
 of these are as follows: our manufacturers and merchants 
 do not study the habits and requirements of the people in 
 the Orient, the usages and the local conditions of their 
 markets ; they offer for sale surplus products made for the 
 cities and farms of the United States, but entirely unsuited 
 for tropical regions. European manufacturers send agents 
 into these countries to learn the needs and wishes of their 
 prospective customers; they establish banks which facili- 
 tate the extension of long credits demanded by tropical 
 tradesmen; they connect by direct steamship lines their 
 shipping centers with the harbors of the Orient and thus 
 are able to deliver goods quickly and on time. On the 
 other hand, our merchants enter the field with no agents 
 to represent them, no banks to permit the opening of ac- 
 counts and the granting of credits, no steamers to allow 
 a speedy fulfillment of contracts. 
 
 In packing goods our shippers disregard the possible 
 effects of long sea voyages and of rough handling of mer- 
 chandise in countries where labor-saving devices and ma- 
 chinery are unknown and where the most primitive meth- 
 ods of transportation exist. Many of our consignments 
 must be subjected to repacking at the place of arrival, on 
 the shore, because the boxes and bales in which they come 
 are too heavy and bulky to be moved farther inland; fre- 
 quently our products come in a condition unfit for con- 
 sumption, because proper precautions are not taken to pro- 
 tect them against atmospheric and other harmful influ- 
 ences. 
 
 We send English circulars, quoting prices in dollars 
 and cents for quantities expressed in American weights 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 
 
 167 
 
 and measures and we expect that these circulars will he 
 read by people unfamiliar with our language and our 
 monetary system. These circulars are discarded as soon 
 as they reach their destination. 
 
 Many other reasons of a similar nature could be as- 
 signed for our failures to win markets where markets must 
 be won, won in the face of competition. The remedies are 
 near at hand. 
 
 1. Our business firms should be personally represented 
 by agents whose object should be the study of local con- 
 ditions and peculiarities; then our selling campaigns could 
 be more intelligently and more vigorously conducted. 
 
 2. We should be willing to grant a more liberal sys- 
 tem of credits, a system more in keeping with require- 
 ments in the desired market. 
 
 3. We should send more complete, more varied and 
 better lines of goods. 
 
 4. Careful attention should be given to proper pack- 
 ing. 
 
 5. Shipping directions should be strictly complied 
 with. 
 
 6. We must provide better means of communication 
 and transportation. 
 
 7. Our advertising matter should be written in the 
 language of the people for whom it is intended. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Governmental Publications. 
 
 Department of Commerce and Labor. 
 
 The Department of Commerce and Labor publishes most of the information 
 bearing upon industry and commerce. The publications are issued by several 
 bureaus, or divisions of the department and include the following: 
 
 The Annual Report on the Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United 
 States, containing a mass of detailed information as to the movement of mer- 
 chandise into and from the United States and in Interstate Commerce ; 
 
 A monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance in which besides the regular 
 statistical data may be found valuable monographs on special topics, such as : 
 Great Canals of the World, Colonial Administration, Commercial China , Com- 
 viercial Japan, Commercial Cuba, Warehousing Industry, etc.; 
 
 Statistical Abstract of the United States; 
 
168 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Consular Reports: (a) Daily, of special value to business men and to news- 
 papers; (b) Monthly, being a reprint of those daily bulletins which are consid- 
 ered of more permanent value; the reports contain also communications which 
 do not find their way into the daily bulletins; (c) Special Consular Reports; 
 some of the topics treated are on Winning Foreign Markets, Industrial Educa- 
 tion, Tariffs, Merchant Marines, etc.; 
 
 The Census. In 1902 a permanent Census Bureau was organized which issues 
 each year a number of bulletins; most of those recently published deal with the 
 manufacturing Census of 1905. The bureau published comprehensive volumes on 
 Mines and Quarries, Telegraphs and Telephones , Street and Electric Railways, 
 etc. A general census of the United States is taken every ten years; it is a 
 gigantic investigation covering every step in the social and economic life of the 
 Nation ; 
 
 Publications of the Bureaus of Labor and of Immigration; 
 
 Bulletins and Reports of Fisheries. 
 
 Other Departments of the Federal Government. 
 
 The Mineral Resources of tne United States is issued by the Geological Sur- 
 vey of the Department of the Interior. 
 
 Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, published annually, contains 
 valuable articles on agricultural subjects from a technical and from a commercial 
 point .of view. 
 
 The various bureaus and divisions of the Department of Agriculture, such 
 as the Bureau of Animal Industry, of Plant Industry, of Soils, of Entomology, 
 the Forest Service, the Bureau of Statistics, issue numerous bulletins and reports ; 
 they discuss such topics as : Useful Fiber Plants , Beet Sugar, Cotton, etc. 
 
 Reports of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department deal, amongst 
 other things, with economic conditions in the Philippines and Porto Rico. 
 
 The Report of the Secretary of the Navy contains information about our 
 Merchant Marine. 
 
 The Annual Report of the Postmaster General considers the transmission of 
 commercial intelligence, the parcels post and the free rural delivery, second class 
 mail matter, etc. 
 
 Congress. 
 
 Amongst Congressional Documents of special interest are the Merchant 
 Marine. Commission Report, published in 1905, and the Report of the Industrial 
 Commission (1900-1902) ; the latter is a most thorough piece of work in 19 vol- 
 umes, and shows clearly the economic status of the United States at the close 
 of the nineteenth century. Vol. VI deals with the distribution of farm products and 
 Vol. XIX (the Final Report), gives an excellent resume of the laborious and 
 tedious investigation. 
 
 Bulletins of the International Bureau of the American Republics are of great 
 value to those interested in the trade conditions of Mexico and of Central and 
 South American republics. The information submitted is most carefully com- 
 piled and unbiased; it aims to be accurate and up-to-date. Our Secretary of 
 State is the ex-officio chairman of the bureau and its Governing Board is com- 
 posed of ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of the Latin-American 
 republics. 
 
 The official publications of the British Government cover more or less the 
 same ground as the works published in the United States; the most interesting 
 of these publications for the student of commerce are : the Miscellaneous and 
 Annual Series of the Diplomatic and Consular Reports of the British Foreign 
 Office, the annual reports on the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign 
 Countries and British Possessions, the Statistical Abstract for the United King - 
 
TRADE AND COMMERCE 169 
 
 dom, the British Statistical Abstract for Foreign Countries, and the publications 
 of the British Board of Trade; the work of the last corresponds to that of the 
 Department of Commerce and Labor in the United States. 
 
 General Works, Manuals, Special Treatises. 
 
 There is a number of texts on Political and on Commercial Geography; 
 of the first, the best single volume is that of H. R. Mill, The International Geog- 
 raphy (New York, 1907); of the second: Chisholm, Handbook of. Commercial 
 Geography (London, 1909). The text books on economic geography, published 
 in the United States, are all high-school manuals; Adams’ Commercial Geography 
 (New York, 1909), and Trotter’s Geography of Commerce (New York, 1906) 
 are perhaps of somewhat more advanced character than the books of Redway, of 
 Gannett, Garrison and Houston or of Rocheleau. 
 
 The general aspects of commerce in the past are brought out most clearly 
 and systematically in Clive Day’s, A History of Commerce (New York, 1908), 
 which is the best general treatise on the subject, bringing the discussion down 
 to the beginning of the twentieth century. W. C. Webster’s , A General History of 
 Commerce (Boston, 1903), covers the same ground. 
 
 Commercial Products, their Origin, Geographic Distribution, 
 Preparation and Uses: 
 
 Freeman and Chandler ; World’s Commercial Products (London, 1907) ; only 
 products of vegetable origin are considered. 
 
 Ch. R. Toothaker : Commercial Raw Materials (Boston, 1906). 
 
 /. Yeats: The Natural History of the Raw Materials of Commerce (London, 
 1872 ). 
 
 Communication and Transportation: 
 
 J. Russell Smith: The Ocean Carrier (New York, 1908). 
 
 J. Russell Smith: Organization of Ocean Commerce (Philadelphia, 1905). 
 
 Emory R. Johnson: Ocean and Inland Water Transportation (New York, 
 1906). 
 
 Emory R. Johnson: Railway Transportation (New York, 1909). 
 
 D. Owen: Ports and Docks (London, 1903). 
 
 Altmaier: Commercial Correspondence (New York, 1904). 
 
 Resources and Economic Activities of the United States: 
 
 Pierre Leroy Beaulieu: The United States in the Twentieth Century (New 
 York, 1907). A thoughtful digest of the XII Census by a French economist; it 
 brings out many valuable data, contained in our official reports, and draws inter- 
 esting conclusions. 
 
 W. R. Lawson: American Industrial Problems (New York, 1903.) A sug- 
 gestive review of the various factors which have contributed to the industrial 
 and commercial growth of the country, followed up by a consideration of a few 
 typical industries, from the British viewpoint. 
 
 The Making of America (Philadelphia, 1901-6). A compilation of articles 
 by various writers, in most instances authorities on the subjects they treat. Vol. 
 IV deals with Trade and Commerce, Vol. V with Agriculture, Vol. VI with 
 Mining and Metallurgy. 
 
 One Hundred Years of American Commerce, edited by Chas. Depew (New 
 York, 1895), in two volumes; similar in character to the preceding work. 
 
 One of the best books for reference purposes is the annually issued States- 
 man’s ■ Year Book ; it gives the latest available data as to the area, population, 
 shipping, production and commerce of every country in the world. 
 
 Very suggestive for the student of foreign commerce are F. A. Vanderlip’s, 
 Business and Education (New York, 1907), and Harold Bolce’s, The New Inter- 
 nationalism (New York, 1907). 
 
170 
 
 SIMON LITMAN 
 
 Technical Side of Modern Business; Forms and Practice: 
 
 Hooper and Graham: Modern Business Methods (London, 1904), Vol. T. 
 Home Trade, Vol. II. Import and Export Trade. 
 
 Gambaro and Gault ; Lessons in Commerce (London, 1904 ). 
 
 Cordingley : A Counting House Guide (London, 1904).