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Cornell University Library HF1025 .C54 1892 Handbook of commercial aeoaraph' 3 1924 030 179 265 olin x ^ m HANDBOOK I / [,Y OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY BY GEO. G. mnSHOLM, M.A., B.Sc. FELLOW as XH£ BOYAIt QSOGBAfHICAL AKD SIATIgllCAIi gOCIEII£S JVETF EDITION LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. LONDON, NEW TOBK, AND BOMBAY 1897 All rights reierved t-tf lOXB BISLI00RAP3ICAL NOTE. First Kiition, August 1889; Eeprmted May 1800. New Edition, revised. May 1892; Reprinted Jamuiry 1891; Oct. 1896. PREFACE TO THE THIED EDITION The most extensive changes in the present edition of this work are those necessitated by the arrangements for the partition of Africa made since the first edition passed through the press. The pages devoted to this pari of the world have, in consequence, had to be re- written ; but elsewhere the text has been interfered with as Uttle as possible, new matter being added, where practicable, in the form of notes, so as to facilitate comparison with the first edition. The statistics, both in the body of the book and ia the appendix, have been brought up to date where the material was available to me for doing so on the plan adopted in the first edition ;. but in certain cases figures have been left unaltered, when figures for later years, though accessible, would have had precisely the same significance as those originally given. The proofs of the Indian section have been kindly revised for this edition by Col. Sir James Johnstone, formerly Political Agent at Manipur.. Since the appearance of the first edition I have noticed many indications of the prevalence of what seems to me a mistaken idea of the scope of a volume on Commercial Geography. Many appear to think that the main function of such a work is to fu-rnish information as to new profitable markets. Now I do not question that geo- graphical studies may help greatly in arriving at such information ; but the studies carried on with this view must be minute and ex- haustive. To comprehend the whole world in such a survey would require an encyclopaedia, not a volume. A volume' deahng with the subject must, it seems to me, be essentially educational. Its function is to make the mind active and suggestive in matters connected with one's business. The benefit derived from its study is indirect. But the importance of such indirect benefits no one who has reflected on education will be inclined to underestimate. In treating of a cognate topic. Prof. Marshall, in his Principles ef Economics, writes as follows : — ' It must be admitted that the chief benefits which the ordinary workman derives from a good education are indirect. It stimulates his mental activity ; it fosters in him a habit of wise in- quisitiveness ; it makes him more intelligent, more ready, more trust- worthy in his ordinary work ; it raises the tone of his life in working hours and out of working hours ; it is thus an important means towards the production of material wealth, at the same time that, regarded as an end in itself, it is inferior to none of those which the production of material wealth can be made to subserve.' I venture to think that these words are equally applicable, with the necessary changes, to a large part of commercial education, and in particular to the study of Commercial Geography. GEO. G. CHISHOLM. London : April 1892. PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION This book is designed to meet a want recognised by all wbo are interested in adapting our education to the needs of the time. Since its commencement several works have appeared which seek to accomplish a similar object by methods different from those adopted ia the present work. A few words of explanation as to the plan here followed are therefore all the more necessary. I cannot better explain the aim of the work than by adopting the words of Mr. Goschen in the address which he delivered to the students of Aberdeen University on his installation as Lord Eector (Jan. 31, 1888). 1 have endeavoured to impart an ' intellectual interest ' to the study of the geographical facts relating to commerce. It will, I imagine, be generally admitted that Mr. Goschen has not overrated one whit the importance of this intellectual interest with a view to practical success in business ; and it is a consideration by no means to be ignored that in following this road to practical success we give to life one of the elements that make success valuable. To say that in the present work I have endeavoured after intellectual interest is only another way of saying that it has been my aim to make the book really educational. In writing the work I have had three classes chiefly in view — first, teachers who may wish to impart addi- tional zest to their lessons in geography from the point of view of commerce ; secondly, pupils in the higher schools and colleges that are now devoting increased attention to commercial education ; and thirdly, those entering on commercial life, who take a sufficiently intelligent interest in their business to make their private studies bear on their daily pursuits. From what has just been said about the aim of the work, it foUows that this book is not to be regarded as a general work of reference on all that may be included under the head of Commercial Geography. It is not a mere repertory of the where and whence of commodities of all kinds. My wish has been to throw light on the vicissitudes of commerce by treating somewhat fully of the trade in the PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION v more important commodities, and emphasizing the broad features of the trade of different countries, not to encumber the book with a multitude of minute facts. In the selection of details for mention I have sought to single out those ■which are most significant, and most obviously significant, and it is not so much the details themselves as their significance which it is desirable to impress on the memory. The general arrangement of the work is shown by the Table of Con- tents. The sections under the head of Commodities may be regarded as substantially a commentary on the Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom loith Foreign Countries and British Possessions, which forms a nearly complete S3mopsis of the trade of the world. It is this publication that is frequently referred to simply as the ' Annual Statement ' or the ' Annual Statement of British Trade.' In drawing up this commentary, a brief sketch of the leading processes of manu- facture has been given, for reasons that hardly need to be pointed out. These processes have often, as in the case of iron, an important bearing on the geographical distribution of industry. Moreover, there can be no intelligent interest in trade without an understanding of the reasons why certain commodities are produced and exchanged at all, and in many cases the explanation of this involves the knowledge of manu- facturing processes. Take, for instance, the first article entered in the ' Annual Statement ' just referred to under the head of both Imports and Exports — ' alkali.' What interest can there be in this article of trade for those who have no knowledge of the relation of ' alkali ' to such familiar commodities as glass and soap ? It is manifest, too, that the interest of this trade is much heightened when we consider its connection, more or less direct, with the trade in salt, nitrate of soda, sulphur, sulphuric acid, lead, bleaching powder, and other commodities. This illustration serves to show how closely interconnected are many of the facts belonging to the domain of commercial geography. It is for the sake of bringing this into prominence that the present work has been divided into numbered paragraphs, to facilitate cross- reference. Such references are made by printing the number of the paragraph referred to in bold type, thus (275). With regard to the arrangement of commodities depending directly or indirectly on climate, under the heads Products of the Temperate Zone, Sub-Tropical and Tropical Products, I need hardly point out that no hard and fast line can be drawn between the different groups. Commodities have been entered under the heading which refers them to the region in which they are produced commercially in greatest quantity, and in which accordingly they are most characteristic ; but it must not be inferred that there is any absolute limitation in any case to one climatic zone. Vi HANDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY The separate treatment of commodities and countries has involved in some cases a certain amount of repetition, but it must be remem- bered that the same facts are in effect different when regarded from different points of view. It may here be explained that generally under the head of Commodities only the relative ra,nk of countries as a whole in the production of, or trade in, certain articles is considered, the local distribution of industries in particular countries being reserved for treatment under the head of the countries to which they belong. An exception is made in some cases in which local characteristics are an essential part of the explanatian of the predominance of any particular country. As regards statistics, it will be observed that there has been greater anxiety to make figures instructive than to furnish the latest figures procurable. In a work not designed as a year-book, the main thing is to make the figures so far as possible comparable with one another. JVty chief aim in the collection of statistics has been to illustrate tendencies in progress. In the body of the book the statistics given under the head of Commodities are mostly of quantities. In the general tables in the appendix showing the commerce of different countries of the world for certain periods, I have been obliged to use the only common measure available, that of value, with all its defects. It is necessary, however, to warn the reader that in consulting these tables the great defect pointed out in par, 133, and illustrated by the figures on pp. 480-81, ought never to be left out of mind. In making use of these statisiics in the body of the book I have endeavoured to do so in such a manner that what may be learned from them on the assumption of uniformity of prices is all the more manifestly true when actual changes in price are taken into account. In order to remove one of the defects attached to the use of values as measures for comparison — namely, the changes in the relative value of gold and silver or inconvertible paper — the tables have all been made to represent as far as possible gold values. In the case of countries in which a gold standard is not in use, the tables have been drawn up on the basis of the average gold value for each year of the actual currency, so far as the information at my dis- posal allowed. Fm-ther explanations on this head are given in notes to the tables themselves. By adopting this course I do not mean to suggest that a more accu- rate representation is given of the rise and fall of trade in silver-using countries than would be afforded by tables drawn up on a silver basis. In the case of India, for example, it may be objected that the using of gold instead of silver values gives a wholly inadequate idea of the growth of Indian trade; but that is equally true of England (see tlie table compiled from the Report by Mr. Giffen, cited on p. 482). The PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION vu course in question has been adopted solely as affording a more accurate comparison between the commerce of different countries. The plan of giving the average value of imports and exports for periods of five years has been resorted to with the view of showing more clearly the tendencies of commercial development. Such periods seemed long enough to mask what may be called accidental fluctua- tions from year to year, and at the same time they are short enough to show a number of successive stages in recent years. The Maps introduced into this volume have been prepared by Mr. F. S. Weller, F.E.G.S. In those showing density of population and products, the names of products written in itahcs are those of the principal exports. The railway maps are intended chiefly to serve two purposes. Those of the parts of Europe where railways are abundant are designed to show the interruption to communication caused by mountain ranges. Those of parts of the world in which railways are stUl few are intended to show the lines along which traf5&c is already promoted by this means of communication, and the 'routes by which it is expected that traffic is most likely to be developed in the future by railway construction. The names of minerals and some other products which may be expected to assist in giving importance to pro- jected railways are frequently added. With reference to the material I have made use of in compiling the present work, I must in the first place express my indebtedness, direct and indirect, to British merchants and manufacturers. From my in- quiries on the subject of commercial geography I certainly have not derived the impression that, if British commerce has in recent years advanced with less rapid strides than that of some other countries, geographical ignorance on the part of the British merchant can be set down as one of the principal causes. Much of my most interesting material has been drawn from mercantile sources. No single periodical has been of more use to me than the London Chamber of Commerce Journal. The interesting report of the Bombay and Lancashire Cotton Spinning Inquiry, instituted by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, shows how thoroughly ahve British merchants and manufacturers are to the geographical conditions that affect their business. Among the general works to which I am indebted I owe most to Scherzer's Wirthschaftliches Leben der Volker. It is this work that is referred to when ' Scherzer ' simply is cited as my authority. I have seldom been able to acknowledge the precise amount of my obligations to this book, and here I can only say in general terms that I owe more to it than would appear from a comparison of this compilation with the work referred to. The work cited by the name of Andree is the viii HANDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY Geographie des Welthandeb, by Karl Andree, revised and coinpleted by Eich. Andree. British and United States Consular Reports, the Board of Trade Jouriial, and the annual supplements to the Economist giving a review of the trade of the past year, have all furnished me with important information, and I have also derived much from articles and the numerous valuable notes in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, which has devoted special attention to jhis subject. I am indebted to various gentlemen practically connected with different industries for their kindness in reading the proofs of the sections relating to these industries. I have also to thank my friend Mr. P. W. EuDLEE, of the Museum of Practical Geology, who has kindly read over the proofs of the section deaUng with minerals ; but my chief acknowledgments under this head are due to my friend Mr. T. Kiekup, author of An Inquiry into Socialism &g. It is to him that I owe the original suggestion of the work. He also kindly revised the first plan of the work three years ago, and the text owes innumerable improve- ment to his careful reading of the proofs of the more important sections. I have also to express my thanks to Mr. C. H. Lebtb, Fellow of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, for suggestions and corrections relating to the section on the United States, and to Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, one of the Secretaries of the Linnean Society, for his kindness in verifying the authors of species in the case of the scientific names of plants, which have been mentioned to facilitate identification so as to enable those who have access to a scientific library to obtain further information, GEO. G. CHISHOLM. jjondon : July 1889. CONTENTS. Introduction , , 1 Commodities I. (continued)^. PAGE Genekai. Facts eelatino to the Tobacco . 114 Pboduction, Distribution, and Opium 116 Exchange of Commodities . 14 Tea . 118 Climate 14 C. Tropical Products . 122 Soil 21 Coffee 122 Preservation of the Properties Cacao 126 of the Soil .... 24 Bice . . . . 128 Irrigation ... 27 Millets 129 Labonr 30 Minor Farinaceous Machinery . ■ . 34 Products 130 Devastating Agents 34 Sugar-cane 130 Transport . . . . 37 The Sugar Industry . 131 Posts and Telegraphs 46 Cinchona . 135 Commercial Towns . 47 Tropical Vegetable Commercial Countries . 50 Fibres . 137 Language . . . . 50 Caoutchouc 140 Instruments of Exchange 61 D. Products of various Cli- mates 142 Commodities. Vegetable Oils, Oil- seeds and Oil-cake . 142 I. Commodities dependent di- Gums, Besins, and rectly or indirectly on Climate 67 other Vegetable Ex- A. Products of the Temper- tracts 145 ate Zone 57 Spices and Condi- Wheat 57 ments 147 Maize 67 Dyestuffs from the Oats . 69 Vegetable Kingdom 149 Barley 70 Timber 151 Bye . 71 Furs . . . . 152 Buckwheat 71 Living Animals and Pulses 72 Miscellaneous Pro- Potato 74 ducts chiefly of Onions 75 Animal Origin 153 Fruits Wine. 75 78 II. Products of Fisheries . 153 Hops . 83 III. Mineral Products 164 Beet . 84 Coal 164 Flax . 85 Iron 166 Hemp 86 Petroleum, Paraffin, &o. . 174 Wool. 88 Gold and Silver 179 Woollen Manufactures 93 Lead . . . , 180 Silk .... 96 Zinc . . . . 181 Silk Manufactures . 101 Tin 182 B. Sub-tropical Products . 103 Quicksilver 182 Cotton 103 Salt 18.3 Cotton Mao ufact ures 110 Minor Minerals 183 HANDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY IV. Manufactured Articles in ivhich various Mate rials are used 186 Leather . 186 Paper 190 Earthenware and Poroe lain 194 Glass 196 Soap 199 Chemical Industries 199 Minor Manufactured Ar tides and MisoellaneouE Products of Industry 201 COTJNTKIES. Eiirope 204 The British Isles . 207 France .... 238 Belgium .... 240 Holland or the Netherlands 244 The German Empire 246 Switzerland . 259 Austria-Hungary . 262 Bussia .... 270 Boumania . 276 Sweden and Norway . 278 Denmark . 282 Spain and Portugal . 284 Italy ... . 291 The Balkan Peninsula . . 297 Asia . 302 Countries outside of the Mon soon Eegiou . 305 Siberia . 305 Bussian Central Asia . 308 Caucasia • . 310 Turkey in Asia . 310 Arabia . 314 Persia . 315 . 316 Baluchistan . 316 The Monsoon Countries and their Dependencies . 317 India . 317 Ceylon . 327 Indo-China . 327 The Eastern or Malay Archipelago . . 332 China . 334 The Chinese Dependencies 341 Japan . 343 Africa . 347 Egypt .... . 348 Western Mediterranean States 361 Temperate South Africa . 352 Tropical Africa . 359 Atncrica .... . 367 North America . 368 Greenland and the Arctic Archipelago . 370 British North America . PAOE . 370 United States . . 380 Mexico . . • • . 398 Central America . 404 The West Indies . . 405 South America . . 407 South American States . . 408 Brazil . . . • . 408 Colonial Guiana . . 409 Venezuela . . 409 Colombia . 410 Ecuador . 410 Peru .... . 410 Bolivia ... . 411 Chile .... . 412 Argentine Eepublio , 413 , Paraguay . . 415 Falkland Islands . 415 Australasia and Polynesia . 416 Australia . 416 The Australasian Colonies . 422 New Guinea . . 432 Melanesia . 433 Polynesia . 433 Appendix 437 Statistics of Exports and Imports of various countries .. . 438 Average Prices of some of the chief British Imports and Ex- ports 480 British Exports and Imports, 1873-85, declared Value, and Value computed at Prices of 1873 482 Shipping, aggregate Tonnage be- longing to various Countries . 482 Transport, cost of, by rail. United States 483 Ocean Freights .... 483 Precious Metals, Production of . 483 Bar Silver, Price in London, 1873-88 ... . . 488 Standard Coins and Moneys of Account 484 Metric System, Principal Units of 485 Distances in Nautical Miles . 485 Suez Canal Traffic . . .487 Forest Area, per cent., in various Countries . . . . 487 Table showing the Area, Popula- tion, and Value'of Exports of the principal Countries and commercial Islands of the World 488 Table of average Wages in differ- ent parts of the World . . 490 Index 491 MAPS. Fishing Banks of North America Density of Population and Products, Europe . „ „ „ „ British Isles „ „ „ „ France , FACE .161 ,• between p. 204 and 205 „ „ 220 „ 221 „ „ 234 i, 235 Bailways, Italy, abd part of Central Europe ... „ „ 246 „ 247 Density of Population and Products, German Empire , „ „ 248 „ 249 Bailway Connections, North-west of Austria-Hungary 263 „ „ East of Austria-Hungary 265 Bailways, Biver Navigation, and Bainfall, European Bussia between p. 270 and 271 Bailways and Biver Navigation, Spain and Portugal Density of Population and Products, Spain and Portugal „ ,> ., ., Italy Bailways, Balkan Peninsula Density of Population and Products, Asia Bailways, Central Asia .... Bailways, Turkey in Asia, &o. . Bailways and Canals, India Density of Population and Products, India Bailways and Biver Navigation, Indo-China Density of Population and Products, Africa Bailways and Bainfall, South Africa (inset) Density of Population and Products, North America Bailways and Biver Navigation, Canadian North-west, &o, Bailway Map of a portion of the United States Bailways, Mexico and Central America . Density of Population and Products, South America Bailways, South America Bailways, Eastern Australia . 284 286 292 298 302 285 287 293 299 303 . 307 . 313 . opposite 318 between p. 322 and 32S „ ,, oo2 „ 333 „ „ 348 „ 349 „ „ 348 „ 349 „ „ 366 „ 367 opposite 379 . 385 . 401 between p. 408 and 409 418 The World, showing chief Coaling Stations and Telegraphs between p. 436 and 437 NOTE. Names of towns with more than a hundred thousand inhabitants are printed in bold capitals — thus, LIVEBFOOL — but usually only where the most important refer- ence to such towns occurs, and not where the population is otherwise indicated. Indian towns with a population above that number are distinguished on the map of India (opposite p. 318), and they are 'printed in capitals in the text only when a considerable notice of them is added. Boman figures in parentheses after the names of towns state in thousands and in round numbers the amount of the popu- lation. In the case of the more populous countries suoh figures are for the most part given only for towns with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Black figures in parentheses — thus, (275) —are references to paragraphs. Where paragraphs are subdivided into numbered sections' the reference is made in this form (423'9)i which means the ninth section of paragraph 423. HANDBOOK OF COMMEEGIAL GEOGEAPHY. INTEODUCTION. 1. The great geographical fact on whicli commerce depends is that different parts of the world yield different products, or furnish the same products under unequally favourable conditions. Hence there are two great results of commerce : the first, to increase the variety of com, modities at any particular place ; the second, to equalise more or less, according to the facilities for transport, the advantages for obtaining any particular commodity in different places between which commerce is carried on. Among the difficulties of transport to be overcome we here include all the profits necessarily levied in the transference of goods from hand to hand (profits of exchange). ■2. The variety of products in different places is due either to arti, ficial production, whether by cultivation or manufacture, or to origina^ distribution. The original distribution of minerals of economic value is an important matter for consideration in commercial geography, but under this head we must consider, not merely the latitude and longitude of the place of occurrence, but all the varied conditions, local, political, or historical, which help to render mineral deposits commer- cially available. Original distribution under the same provisos is like^ wise the prime consideration in the case of forest products, where the forests have not been planted by the hand of man. 3. In the case of cultivated products, soil and climate are considera* tions of first importance in determining the variety obtaining at different places. But even with reference to such products these are not the sole considerations. Facilities for finding a market, and all the condi^ tions that affect these facilities, have also to be taken into account. 4. The cost, in labour, of bringing goods from one part of the world to another has been greatly reduced since the time of the earliest commerce of which we can get a glimpse. On the whole, there has B 2 INTRODUCTION been a gradual development of the means of transport ; but the rate of development has been very unequal in different regions and at different times, and in our own age it has attained the highest pitch yet reached. As this development has proceeded, the variety of products entering into commerce and obtainable at particular places has constantly in- creased. In the earliest periods the articles in which commerce was carried on on a great spale, involving the longest and costliest journeys, were necessarily such as were of great value in proportion to their bulk. Such commerce supplied chiefly the luxuries of the rich, and commo- dities on which a high value was conferred by religion. Eecords of early Egyptian, Assyrian, and Phoenician trade speak of gold, silver, and precious stones, ebony and fine woods, ivory and inlaid work, in- cense and perfumes, balsams and gums, apes, peacocks, panther-skins, and slaves as the principal gifts of commerce. Indian dyes (indigo) appear to have reached Egypt in the time of the eighteenth dynasty (1700-1475 B.C.) ; Baltic amber was probably brought to Assyria in the time of Tiglath-pileser II. (eighth century B.C.); and Chinese silks are known to have reached the Indus through Afghanistan in the fourth century B.C., though probably without anything being known in the coimtry where the goods were bought of the country in which they originated. The silks were no doubt gradually transferred from tribe to tribe on the route, and in this manner they are likely to have occa- sionally reached the West at a much earlier date. 5. It is not till Eome had reached the height of its prosperity that we hear of a great trade arising in the necessaries of life. Eome first made Sicily a granary for Central Italy during the later period of the Eepublio, and under the Empire grain was likewise obtained from Egypt and Cilicia, Mauretania and Spain. Sea carriage within the Mediter- ranean rendered all these sources of supply easy of access ; but where distant land carriage was added, especially for the materials of an artistic product, the prices demanded were such as only the wealthiest could pay. Varro in the first century B.C. mentions citron-wood along with gold as among the costliest luxuries at Eome, and about the same date as much as 1,400,000 sesterces (10,500Z.) was paid for Alexandrian tables made of thya-wood (the wood of CalUtris qtiadrivalvis) with ivory feet. 6. Coming down to the most flourishing period of the trade of Italy with the Bast, that is, towards the close of the fifteenth century, just before the discovery of the sea-way thither (100), we find that the prin- cipal articles of commerce were raw silk, silk-stuffs, and other costly manufactures, spices and drugs. At Antwerp in 1560, after the sea-way to the East had been fuUy established, and that city had attained the summit of its maritime and commercial prosperity, though the com- modities that were dealt in include leather, flax, tallow, salt fish, timber, corn and pulse, and other articles of general consumption, there is a remarkable prominence of costlier articles, such as wrought VARIETY OF COMMODITIES 3 Silks and velvets, cloth of gold and silver, tapestries, dimities of fine sorts, jewels and pearls, dyes and perfumes, drugs and spices. 7. In Shakspere's time we know from Shakspere himself that sugar, currants, and dates, rice, mace, nutmegs, and ginger, as well as civet and ' medicinable gum,' were all familiar articles in England, and there were among the manufactured products that commerce then supplied Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl. Valance of Venice gold in needle-work. Tobacco, though not mentioned by Shakspere, was already in use in England. Of the articles mentioned, however, some that are now within the reach of every one must have been, at the period referred to, comparatively rare luxuries. Without going beyond Shakspere we get a hint that rice was dear. 'What will this sister of mine do with rice ? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on.' From other sources we learn the cost of some of the other tropical products mentioned. In 1589 a quarter of an ounce of tobacco cost in England lOd., 1 lb. of sugar 20ii. ; and the difference in money value between then and now gives an inadequate idea of the actual difference in cost, for we find from the same source that a pound of sugar then cost (at least in the country) as much as a quarter of veal or mutton.' 8. The contrast between Shakspere's day and our own is striking in many ways. Tea, coffee, and cocoa, besides other minor but still familiar articles, such as sago and tapioca, have all been added, along with a host of others, to the list of mercantile commodities. The price of tropical products has been so reduced that, for example, sugar, coffee, and tobacco have all become necessaries of life even in the Arctic home of the Laplanders. In the trade of the world almost universally the articles of greatest aggregate value have come to be the natural products, raw materials, and manufactured articles in most general use — wheat, rye, and rice, bacon and hams, butter and cheese, cotton and cottons, wool and woollens, iron and iron-wares, besides leather and leather wares, &c. Even in the export trade of India (see p. 467) spices have disappeared from the list of the first nine articles, raw cotton has risen to the first place, and wheat is rapidly rising in rank. One drug only, opium, still takes a leading place among the exports, and this would be of comparatively small importance were it not for one great market (China). In the Chinese export trade, again, silk, though still of great aggregate value, is now surpassed by tea. 9. We thus see that the increasing variety of commodities entering into commerce is in a great measure an increase in the commoner articles of consumption. To get an idea of the extent of the variety that has been attained through the gigantic and complicated commerce of the present day, there is no better method than to examine the price- list of one of the great miscellaneous retail shops now so common- ' Hall, Society m tin MUkabeilian Age, pp. 200-1. B 2 4 INTRODUCTION 10. The equalising leudency of commerce has already been inci. dentally illustrated by the reduction of price of tropical eommoditieg just referred to ; but this tendency needs a little further elucidation. The tendency may be described, .first, as one towards equality jof prices from year to year — in other words, to stability of prices ; .a ten- dency manifested most conspicuously in the case of those commodities the supply of which in any particular region, apart from commerce, is largely dependent on the weather. Between 1641 and 1741 the price of wheat per quarter in England oscillated between 23s. and 76s. ; in the period from 1741 to 1841, between 22s. and 129s., the highest _prices being reached during the period of the Napoleonic wars ; in the period 1842 to 1883 the limits of oscillation were only 39s. and 75s., the latter figure being reached only during the Crimean war. 11. But the tendency of which we are now speaking is, secondly, a tendency towards equality of prices in different regions of production ; a tendency in perfect keeping with that just spoken of, being in fact due to the same cause. Excessive prices in one region are kept down by supplies sent from other regions where the commodity is cheap, and the sending away of the surplus from these latter regions tends to raise the price in them. The effect of this nature attributable to commerce is best recognised by observing the conditions that prevail in places where communications are still very imperfect and commerce consequently limited. Quito, a town in the Andes at the height of nearly 10,000 feet above sea-level, can at present be reached from Guayaquil, the principal port on the coast, only by means of pack- animals, which have to travel a distance of 320 miles. Here, accord- ingly, we find local produce exceptionally cheap, but imported articles excessively dear. Beef sells at from 2tZ. to 2|fZ. a pound, mutton \\d. to 2(^., chickens 6iJ. to 75;^. apiece ; ordinary labourers receive about &d. ; carpenters, stone-masons, and other artisans about Is. a day, find- ing their own food. On the other hand, dry goods, hardware, common cutlery, crockery, and imported furniture are from 25 to 50 per cent, higher than in foreign markets ; and common ironware costs fully twice as much as in the countries from which it is brought.' So also in Turkey, where the paucity of railways and the mountainous cha- racter of the country make communication difficult, wages are com- paratively high in Constantinople, extremely low in distant villages and rural districts. In general, the more complete the system of communications the more nearly equal are prices. 12. Now it has to be noted that while the tendency of commerce is towards comparative steadiness in prices, yet the level towards which the price tends is not the lowest level in any place of production. Merchants sell abroad because they can thus get a better price than at home. It is their quest after higher prices that reduces the in- equaUty under this head in different parts of the world. To them the ' V. S. Com. Reports, 53, p. 49. DISTURBANCES OF EQUALISING TENDENCY OF COMMERCE % advantage of ari extended commerce is this, that the wider the com- merce the greater is their choice of customers. 13. Hence there follows a third great result of the growth of com- merce, namely the development of the resources of different regions to the utmost extent possible under the existing conditions, whatever these may be, and with this development the keenest and most widespread competition, which is, indeed, only another aspect of the same great fact. 14. But in process of this development it becomes apparent that the equalising tendency of commerce on which we have insisted is only a general tendency, which is apt to be masked now and again by disturbances, by great variations in price, due directly or indirectly to the operations of commerce itself. These disturbances may arise from inventions causing a sudden cheapening in the processes of production, such as the great textile inventions or those which gave rise to the modern methods of steel- making (390-94) ; they may arise from the introduction of cheaper means of transport, and the disturbance due to this cause is felt all the more keenly when the cheaper transport is to regions in which there is exceptionally cheap labour or cheap land, and still more when it leads to the rapid settlement of land of unused and extraordinary fertility ; or they may arise from a vast and rapid expansion of the demand for some commodity — an expansion such as is only possible since commerce has come to be pursued on the extensive scale characteristic of the present time. 15. Such disturbances are sure to inflict hardship somewhere. The transition from domestic industry in spinning and weaving to the fac- tory system is too far in the past in our own country for the attendant hardships of that transition to be remembered, or even generally known ; but these hardships are still being felt in some parts of the Continent, as in Germany (586) and Eussia (633). In India we have, first of all, seen hand-spinners and weavers starved out of existence by the commerce in English machine-made cottons, and subsequently a vigorous competition with our own cottons in the East arise from the development of a mechanical textile industry based on the cheap labour of India (259 d). The effects of other causes of disturbance are illustrated in the recent history of the wheat trade, with reference to which see pars. 145-50, where an explanation is attempted of the circumstances that led to the decline of the price of wheat in England- from an average of 45s. \d. in 1882 to an average of 31s. Id. in 1886. The effect of the last of the causes of disturbance referred to at the end, of the last paragraph is seen in the history of the iron trade after 1870. The average price of pig-iron warrants at Glasgow in the years 1869 to 1871 varied between about 53s. and 59s. per ton ; in 1872 the average rose to about 102s., in 1873 to 117s., after which it fell steadily- to about 54s. in 1877.. The sudden rise was due to tlie fact that, vast as our own commerce and industry had already become in 1872, it 6 INTRODUCTION was not yet equal to the demands that were then made on it for the further expansion of commerce by the laying of numerous railways, and the establishment of numerous factories in America and Germany. (See p. 481, n. 2.) But in the subsequent course of iron prices the general equalising tendency of commerce can stiU be detected. The vast demand of 1871 to 1873 led almost immediately to such an increase in the means of producing iron, that when the next great expansion of the demand came about it was met with greater ease and with less oscillation of prices. From 1877 to 1887 the extreme variations in average annual price of pig-iron warrants at Glasgow were only about 40s. and 54s. 6(i. In this case the hardships of the sudden rise were distributed over the wide area in which iron wares were re- quired. In the centres of the iron industry they were felt only in the extreme depression that ensued on the period of exceptional activity. 16. Inevitable as the hardships attendant on such disturbances are, still the improvements that bring about such incidental results are of Value to the world in the long run, in so far as they afford the means of permanently lightening human labour in the production and distri- bution of the means of satisfying human wants. That they do so for an ever-increasing proportion of the inhabitants of the world would appear to follow from the fact to which attention has already been drawn , the increasing proportion of the necessaries of life and the articles of most general consumption entering into the aggregate commerce of the world. The large and quick-saiUng ships, the numberless railway trains, in short all the vast apparatus that now stands at the service of commerce, can be kept working only by transporting commodities consumed in the largest quantity, such therefore as satisfy the wants of the multitude. 17. But if there is any permanent benefit to mankind at large from the development of which we are now speaking, it is worthy of note that the full advantage of this nature is not reaped until every kind of production is carried on in the place that has the greatest natural ad- vantagpes for the supply of a particular market. By natural advantages are meant such as these — a favourable soil and climate, the existence of facihties for conmnmication external and internal so far as these he in the nature of the surface and physical features, the existence of valuable minerals in favourable situations, and especially of the materials for making and driving machinery, these being among the products which are least able to bear the cost of carriage. All these advantages are more or less permanent, or at least such as are exhausti- ble are for the most part liable to exhaustion only by slow degrees. 17 a. Among natural advantages in relation to a particular market is likewise to be included a favourable geographical situation. But mere proximity to the market in question is not to be supposed always to render the situation of a district trading therewith geographically favourable. The advantage of a geographical situation is determined. ADVANTAGES FOR COMMERCE 7 by the facilities for transport, and therefore a distant country that can convey goods by sea is in many cases more favourably situated for some market than one immediately adjoining the market, but able to supply goods only by more or less difficult land-carriage. The tables on p. 483 exhibit the effect that sea-carriage has in neutralising dis- tance, but it is worth while to enforce this fact by a more detailed illustration. The illustration we take is one pertaining to a trade in which, through the nature of the communications and the magnitude of the trade, the disadvantage belonging to the land-carriage is reduced almost to a minimum — the conveyance of raw cotton from Bombay to Oldham. At the end of 1887, a period when the freights between Bombay and Liverpool were not exceptionally low, the cost of carriage of 100 lbs. of cotton between these two ports, a distance of about 7,150 statute miles, was 49d., the additional cost of carriage from Liverpool to Oldham, a di"stance of 89 miles. Id,} Such a fact as this indicates, at least in part, the explanation of the success of British products in many parts of the world where they have to compete with others from nearer centres of production (see 491, 590 a, 688, &c.). Where, however, the mode of transport for districts competing for the same market is the same, there is an advantage belonging to the nearer place of production that cannot be annihilated, although it may be reduced by increasing facilities for transport. The Bombay cotton- spinning mills, for example, have an advantage in freight to China over those of Lancashire, but this advantage becomes less when ship- ping freights are lowered, so long as the other elements in the cost of cotton yarn remain the same, or are not lowered to the same extent. 18. With natural advantages may be contrasted historical advan- tages, which are in their nature more temporary, though they are often in fact very enduring. As most of the advantages of one kind or another fall to be mentioned under the head of the British Isles (488, 489), it is needless to enumerate them here ; but for the sake of illustration it is necessary to indicate a few of those which may be classed under the head of historical. Perhaps the most important of all is a strong government based on just and fixed principles not hostile to industry ; and this, it may be observed, is one of those which may be very enduring in fact, as the disadvantage arising from the want of that condition is very apt to be. Among others are the possession of machinery, of communications, of cheap land, of a skilled population. Machinery where wanting may be rapidly erected, communications rapidly established, cheap land become dearer from settlement; a skilled population may distribute its advantages by migration, as happened in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries' in consequence of religious persecution in the Netherlands and in France, and as is happening now, when the United States and other new countries are ' Manchester Chamber ot Commerce, Bombay and Lancashire Cotton-Spinning Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence and Eeport, pp. 287, 285. ^ JNTRODUCTION having their industrial population recruited and raised in character at the expense of the countries of Europe with the most advanced industrial organisation. 19. Some advantages for commerce and industry being thus essen- tially temporary in their nature, it is necessarily more or less perilous for a country to have its commercial and industrial prosperity based chiefly on advantages of this kind ; and there are numberless examples in history to show the hardship and disaster that may result from the withdrawal of the advantages on which a temporary superiority was based. We may refer in illustration of this to the losses that fell upon Italian commerce after the discovery of the sea-way to the East (122), the prosperity of that commerce being based in a large measure on the central position of Italy — a position which was per- manent only so long as the geography of the world was imperfectly known. We may also refer to the experience of the United Kingdom in the depression that has in recent years affected some of her greatest industries (503-6). It is specially disadvantageous for any country (vhen the temporary prosperity of any of its chief industries is based on a circumstance that must in itself be regarded as disadvantageous ■ — such, for example, as low wages. 20. With reference to the temporary character of certain advan- tages for commerce and industry, it is Ukewise a fact of the greatest moment that, viewed broadly, the commerce and industry of the world have for more than a hundred years been in a transition stage the like of which has not been known since the discovery of the sea-way to the East and of the New World. Communications are being improved, the means of production are being accelerated and cheapened, uncul- tivated lands are being settled, strong governments are being established and extended with a rapidity hitherto unparalleled — with incidental re- sults, as we have seen, not always the most desirable. Commerce and industry thus tend to be governed more and more by purely geogra- phical conditions, which accordingly demand the most careful and detailed examination, an examination much more thorough than can be attempted within the limits of this work. 21. The advantages that may be expected to be reaped when the development of commerce has reached its goal are the enjoyment of the greatest possible variety of commodities at all the habitable parts of the earth (that is, the greatest variety possible for each place), and the utmost attainable stability of prices. When the network of com- merce is complete in its main hnes, when it has only to be gradually and regularly extended or made more intricate with the development of population, the deficiencies in the natural products of one region will be supphed with the least possible delay and at the least possible cost from the surplus that is sure to accrue in other regions. It is true that this will take place only on condition that the region so supplied has something to give in exchange for that which is supplied;. NATIONAL MEANS OF PROMOTING COMMERCE ^ but with reference to this proviso, it is an important consideration that the stability of prices towards which a fully developed commerce tends is in itself in the highest degree favourable to that foresight which is the necessary condition of ensuring that stability. It facilitates a just estimate of the future. Rendering foresight easier it makes prudent conduct more certain of reward, and may be expected, therefore, to render its practice more general among the community. 22. Meantime, however, it cannot be forgotten that, however fast commerce may seem to be hastening towards its goal, it is still very far from having reached that goal. What we now see, accordingly, is the greatest haste on all sides to secure such advantages as may offer themselves for the prosecution of commerce and industry ; we see an extreme phase of competitive and aggressive commerce as between nation and nation, individual and individual. 23. It is only with nations that we have here to do, and we may now note the principal means by which nations, whether through their governments or through other institutions, endeavour to promote their own commerce and industry. 24. As the first of these means may be mentioned protective tariffs; that is, duties levied upon imports upon such a scale as to encourage the production of the goods so taxed in the country itself by the total or partial exclusion of such goods of foreign origin. It is obvious that by this method only certain branches of internal commerce of a country are fostered, and the external commerce of the country is hampered, ^ut it may be pointed out that in so far as such duties may be necessary or may help to establish an industry in a region in which it is fitted by natural advantages to take root and flourish independently of such fostering, the imposition of duties of this nature tends in the direction of the goal towards which commerce as a whole is moving. The direct and immediate efi'ect of high tariffs is, however, opposed to the tendency of the changes in progress referred to in paragraph 20, and especially the rapid multipHcation of means of communication. When efforts of one kind are being constantly made to cheapen the supply of commodities it is scarcely credible that those who consume the commodities wiU always consent to have their price raised by an arbitrary barrier. 25. Bounties — that is, payments made directly or indirectly on the exportation of goods — are another means sometimes resorted to by governments with the view of encouraging native industries ; and with reference to these also it may be said that if it can be proved that a bounty has ever served to establish an industry capable afterwards of being maintained on a self-supporting footing, then a similar plea may be entered in favour of this aid to industry. One of the com- monest forms of bounty now in use is the paying of a subsidy to certain lines of shipping (generally, however, in return for services in the carriage of mails or otherwise). The sugar industry (308) is the 10 INTRODUCTION rtiost important of those which have been affected by bounties in recent years. Great changes in the extent of government interference with trade by way of protective duties or bounties are, apart from war, perhaps the most deplorable, because the most arbitrary, of the dis- turbances of the commercial relations subsisting at any period. 23. Further, governments assist commerce by maintaining officers known as consuls in the principal mercantile towns of foreign countries ; the officers so named being charged with the duty, not merely of looldng after the interests of subjects of the country represented by them in the sphere of their consulardistricts, but likewise with that of furnishing such informaiion as is likely to be of use to the merchants of that country. These reports usually furnish particulars as to the amount of trade carried on in various articles at the most recent date, as to the facilities of communication, shipping, and exchange ; descrip- tions of commodities most in demand, sometimes accompanied by samples of the goods themselves. The name consul is of Latin origin, and the present application of the title originated, with the practice of maintaining such officials, among the trading communities of Italy in the twelfth century. In the Austrian Empire there is an academy under the control of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the education of candidates for the diplomatic and consular services. Being primarily intended for those preparing for service in the East, it is known as the Oriental Academy ; and the course of instruction embraces a legal training, military geography, and tactical science, as well as the teaching of ' Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hungarian, French, Italian, English, Russian, Modern Greek, and Servian.' 27. The establishment of chambers of commerce, or voluntary asso- ciations of merchants in different locaHties, is now almost universal, and similar chambers are now getting estabhshed by merchants of different countries in foreign cities where a large amount of business is conducted. 28. Another method of promoting national commerce now coming into more and more general use all the world over is the establishment of commercial museums, the nature of which will be understood from an account of one of the largest and best institutions of the kind in Europe. That referred to is the State Commercial Museum at Brussels, the first of several erected in Belgium with the aim of furnish- ing Belgian manufacturers ' with the means of practically learning the articles of commerce preferred in various foreign countries, and the conditions under which such articles can be profitably exported. The collection of articles exhibited in the museum has been selected with three objects : 1, exportation ; 2, importation ; 3, packing and prepara- tion of samples.' ' ' The classification adopted is not geographical, but by similarity of produce, apart from nationality. That is to say, that all goods of similar type (say linings) are juxtaposed in order, that manu- ' Cotis. Bep., Ann. Ser, 76, p. 20. NATIONAL MEANS OF PROMOTING COMMERCE ii faoturer, merchant, buyer, and workman may compare the material, skill in weaving, price, dye, finish, and make-up of the merchandise of different nationalities. A manufacturer, say of blankets, is thus enabled to confine his inquiries concerning those textiles, and if he wishes for information in relation to them he rings an electric bell fixed in the case, which intimates to the attendant both who has called for his services, and the register which will be required. The numbers on the patterns correspond throughout with the registers containing data as to origin, price, duty, carriage, packing, season of sale, as also with the catalogue and the duplicates from which cuttings, for imitation, can be obtained.' ' Exhibitions are a kind of temporary comrpercial museum, and floating exhibitions intended to convey samples of a eoantrys commodities to various stations in distant markets are one of the latest means resorted to in different countries with the view of promoting national commerce. 29. In the United Kingdom there are as yet no strictly commercial museums, and at present samples obtained from consuls are sent to the chambers of commerce of the most important towns specially interested in the industries to which the samples belong. The Imperial Institute founded in 1886 will, it is expected, include among other things a complete commercial museum so far as the products of the British Empire are concerned. 30. Teelmical education is another highly important means of advancing national commerce, and one which has also been hitherto comparatively neglected in the British Isles. A royal commission appointed to inquire into this subject issued a valuable report in 1884 ; and though the commissioners were able to refer with satisfaction to the benefits conferred upon industry by the more or less flourishing schools of science and art in London and nearly all the great industrial centres of the United Kingdom, they were obliged to admit that several foreign countries — notably Germany, France, Belgium, and Switzerland — were then as regards this branch of education in a much better posi- tion. The evidence collected by this commission fully confirmed the maxim of Commenius, recognised in one form or another by all scien- tific educationists : ' Let those things that have to be done be learned by doing them.' It furnished strong reasons for making, in accordance with this maxim, the teaching of drawing and the imparting of manual instruction part of general education. All having to use their hands should be taught the use of them by practice. It showed, too, that while in certain cases the teaching of industries seems to be best carried on in direct connection with workshops in which these industries are prac- tically pursued, there are other cases in which industrial success has; been distinctly promoted by the existence of schools in which the course of instruction has a bearing on local industries, although the schools are established on an independent basis. Such examples ' liond. Chamb. of Com. Journ. 1886, Oct. Supp. p. 10. 12 INTRODUCTION are most conspicuous^ in the case of schools of design and schools'^ in which the principles of chemical industries, such as dyeing,- are taught. With regard to the influence of schools of design, the commissioners make special mention of the fact that it is in a great measure owing to the establishment of such schools in Nottingham- and Macclesfield that the manufacturers of the delicate fabrics of these towns (lace and silks) no longer rely on France for designs. Never- theless it is to the mainland that they turn for examples of the most complete arrangements for technical education and illustrations of the most marked effects of technical colleges on industry. At Krefeld, at Chemnitz, at Verviers, at Ziirich, and other places there exist admir- ably organised technical schools ; and though it is not always easy to demonstrate the precise effects due to them, there can hardly be a doubt that the existence of such schools has a good deal to do with the flourishing state of various industries in Prussia, Saxony, Belgium, and Switzerland. The commissioners who visited the Higher Trade Institute at Chemnitz report as follows : — ' In conversations witk employers and foremen, the importance of the weaving school . . , was everywhere acknowledged. One of the employers stated that its influence on the manufacturing industries of Saxony could not be too highly estimated.. We were told that there was not a fancy manufac- turer in the town whose son, assistant, or overseer had not attended some of the classes.' Since the date of this report the central institu- tion of the City and Guilds' Institute, which is intended to fulfil func- tions similar to those of the great polytechnic schools of the Continent, has been opened in London, 31. Commercial education is another means of promoting national commerce of even greater importance perhaps than technical education, and in this respect Germany would appear to be at present admittedly ahead of all other countries. In the special schools of commerce which are found in nearly all the large towns in Germany, thorough instruction is given in the means and methods of business, in com- mercial geography, and above all in modern languages. The result is that the German educated for business is on the average superior in all-round business capacity to his rivals belonging to other countries ; and this, though not the sole explanation, is undoubtedly one of the most important explanations of the abundance of Germans in business centres outside of their own country. An inquiry recently made by the London Chamber of Commerce among business houses in London furnished important evidence on this point. It turned out that no fewer than 35 per cent, of the firms that replied to the circular of inquiry sent to them employed foreigners, principally Germans, and the opinion was strongly expressed by many witnesses that the foreigner was the man best fitted to meet the varying demands of modern commerce. With regard to the teaching of foreign languages in English com- mercial schools, it is probably the case that the fact of the English INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS DUE TO COMMERCE ..13 language itself giving the command of many of the best markets of the world has exercised a prejudicial effect on the desire to learn other languages ; but it is becoming more and more manifest that this defect in EngUsh education will have to be supplied ; and, in par- ticular, it may be pointed out that without a knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese, it will become increasingly difficult for English merchants to retain their hold on the important and growing markets of South America. There is no reason why Germany should permanently retain its advantage in respect of commercial education ; and it is the business of other countries to make that advantage only temporary. 32. Several of these means of retaining and promoting commerce remind us forcibly of the closeness of the bonds with which commerce is steadily drawing different countries together, and of the complicated action and reaction between different parts of the world to which commerce gives rise. The improvement of machinery, of processes of production, of means of communication, the better organisation of industry, the advancement of education in one country, demand similar advances in other countries. New wheatfields in America necessitate improved systems of agriculture and the advancement of agricultural education in England, the introduction of better agricultural machinery into Russia. The perfecting of the processes in the refining of beet- sugar in Germany demands better organisation among the cane-planters of the West Indies and Guiana. The working classes more and more -clearly recognise that any advantage secured for themselves in one country must he extended also to other countries. The United States Consul for Dundee in his report for 1886 states that the longer hours worked in the Calcutta jute-mills were believed to be the deter- mining cause of the depression in the jute industry of Dundee, arising from the competition of Bengal ; and he adds that both employers and employed were consequently anxious that the ten-hours-a-day Factory Act should be extended to India.' On the Continent of Europe an agitation has been going on for some time in favour of international legislation on this subject.^ And in connection with this att^tion should be drawn to the highly important suggestion made by Mr. Wardle of Leek in his report on the silk industry to the Eoyal Com- mission on Technical Education : the suggestion, namely, that ' trades organisations should encourage the display in all museums of fabrics, showing not only the quality, design, and colouring, but also every branch of detail as respects prices paid, and aU costs of production.' ' This,' he states, ' while helping to steady the action of English i;rades' unions, would stimulate the operations and aspirations of ^similar bodies on the Continent.' ' ' V.8. Cons. Reps. 61, p. 418. '' Ibid. 50, p. 393. Early in 1889 the Swiss Government adSressed to .the mann- iaoturing States of Europe an invitation to send representatives to a conference to -.consider the regulation of legislation for the well-being of the working-classes. ' Bepm't of Commissioners, iii. p. Ixxvi. 14 CLIMATE GENEEAL FACTS KELATING TO THE PRODUCTION, DISTEIBUTION, AND EXCHANGE OF COMMODITIES. 33. CLIMATE. Under this head we have to consider here only the main climatic factors affecting the production and distribution of articles of commerce. The commodities whose production is most immediately affected by climatic conditions are those derived from the vegetable kingdom ; but those of animal origin, being directly or in- directly dependent on vegetation, are subject to the same influences. It is, however, climate as influencing vegetation, and more particularly as influencing cultivation, or the bestowal of human labour in promoting vegetation, that we have to keep chiefly in view in consider- ing the effect of climate in the production of commodities. 34. For all kinds of vegetation there is required a certain amount of heat and a certain amount of moisture, the laws regarding the distribution of which over the globe are explained in text-books of geography. In the present work it is enough to call to mind a few leading facts. The most important facts relating to climate to bear in mind for our present purpose are these : — 35. First, as regards temperature, that on the whole temperature decreases from near the equator towards the poles, from lower elevations to higher ; that the chief modifying cause affecting the decrease of temperature polewards is the prevalence of winds blowing from warmer to colder latitudes, and more especially where the temperature of these winds is maintained by warm sea-currents ; that the vicinity of great bodies of water, and especially the sea, has an equalising effect on temperature, but that this effect is nothing like so great as that due to the prevalence of such favourable winds as those just referred to ; that mountains, by obstructing winds, have important effects on tem- perature, sometimes by protecting from cold winds, sometimes by shutting off the beneficent influences of warm ones ; that differences of temperature are the cause of winds, a high temperature promoting rarefaction of the air, and hence tending to bring about an indraught towards the quarter where the rarefaction takes place ; that the trade- winds, which blow more or less from east to west in tropical seas, are primarily due to the high temperature of the tropics, though their direction is determined chiefly by the rotation of the earth ; that HEAT AND MOISTURE 15 evaporation is most rapid where the atmosphere is warm and dry ; that evaporation always tends to bring about a reduction of temperature ; ' that there is greatest loss of heat by radiation where the atmosphere is dry and clear, and that accordingly there are great extremes of heat and cold by day and night in warm regions with an atmosphere of this kind. 36. Secondly, as regards moisture, that the great source, in the first instance the only source, of moisture is the ocean ; that hence for the most part the further inland a region lies the less chance has it of re- ceiving an ample rainfall, unless there are special conditions favourable to the condensation of water- vapour ; that water- vapour is condensed through the lowering of the temperature, and that one of the most fre- quently operative causes in bringing about that reduction of temperature is the presence of mountains, obstructing moisture-laden winds, and thus forcing them to ascend to colder strata of the atmosphere ; that consequently regions on the maritime side of the mountains often have a sufficient rainfall when those on the other side have not ; that in the tropics there is generally a more marked distinction between rainy and dry seasons than in most parts of the temperate zone ; that this dis- tinction is most marked of all in the monsoon regions, in which in winter the wind tends to blow from the land, and in summer (the rainy season) from the sea. The chief monsoon areas are the south-east of Asia, where this character extends more or less far into the temperate zone, and the north, more especially the north-east of Australia. 37. The tropical regions of the earth are those in which on the whole the amount both of heat and moisture is greatest. It is there also that as a rule temperature is most uniform all the year round ; so that, where moisture is sufficient, there is a constant succession of vegetation, and trees may bear fruit at all seasons. Moreover, it is in these regions that cultivation ascends highest on mountain slopes and plateaux, all the crops of different climates being capable of cultivation at different heights on tropical mountains. All these circumstances would appear to be favourable to the production in large amount of articles of value in commerce, and hence to the maintenance of a vast trade between temperate and tropical climates. But the fact is otherwise. The circumstances unfavourable to the production of commercial commodities in the tropics far more than outweigh those which have just been mentioned as favourable to that production. In the first place, where the rainfall is plentiful, the very luxuriance of the natural vegetation, forming dense forests almost impenetrable by man, not to be cleared without the most strenuous labour, and ready to spring up ' The conversion of water into vapour, like the conversion of ice or any other solid into the liquid state, involves the expenditure of heat. That is, heat (in the scientific sense of the term) is used in the conversion, and is not available for raising or maintaining temperature. Meanwhile, of course, temperature may be maintained, and even raised, by external supplies of heat (as from the sun, or a fire). 16 CLIMATE- again in all their former vigour and exuberance ■wherever cleared ground is exposed to neglect, presents an obstacle to cultivation such as is seldom met with in temperate climes.. Secondly, when this obstacle is not found there may be one of an opposite nature. Not- withstanding thfe vast amount of moisture that is sucked up by the air from tropical seas, and is almost always present in considerable quantity in the air of tropical lands, there are vast areas within the tropics in which lit|ile or no rain falls, regions which are either desert from drought, or covered with only a scanty herbage, so that they would reward but poorly the labour of cultivation. Such regions lie either where mountains occur to cut off the moisture from plains and plateaux in the interior, as in the heart of Africa and in Central Brazil, or where the prevailing winds carry the ocean moisture away from the land, as on the west coast of South Africa and South America. In such regions, however, the absence or scantiness of rain is not everywhere due solely to the small quantity of water-vapour in the atmosphere, but largely to the fact that the hot air over the burning plains can retain so much moisture in the form of invisible vapour, and hence on cold clear nights the herbage is often refreshed by plenti- ful deposits of dew. Thirdly, even when aU else is favourable, the climate is of such a nature as to render the inhabitants disinclined to labour. The excessive heat and moisture are enervating, and cause steady labour to be peculiarly irksome even to natives ; and, moreover, the simple wants of the natives are so abundantly supplied by the natural luxuriance of the vegetation, with little labour on their own part, that there is not the same motive to exertion as is presented in other lands. The following picture of native life in the tropics of South America (the United States of Colombia) may be taken as typical to a large extent of tropical life elsewhere : — 37a. ' In the country a man can locate his house in the woods without fear of disturbance, erect the same in one day from the wild growth surrounding him, and soon have a clearing made in which he can grow three crops of corn [maize] in a year. He must not plant more than his children can protect, however, from the wild parrots and animals which like cultivated food. The plantain and banana produce within eight months from the seed, and thereafter without much care yield a continual harvest. The yam and yuca,' a species of potato, yield quickly, and are very hardy. Sugar-cane once planted is always present. With these products growing around him, and the river near to supply him with fish, the native is happy, depending for his meat upon the wild animals he can kill with spears made from the lance- wood of the country, or which he can entrap. . . . His only necessity for money; is to provide salt, rum, tobacco, clothes, and the machete, or long knife, which he uses for every purpose, from picking his teeth tO ' In reality the tuber of a plant belonging to the same genus as manioc, the shrub that yields tapioca (300). CONDITIONS OF TROPICAL LIFE 17 cultivating his lands. The money is gained by working for some rich neighbour, by cutting wood for the river steamers, and catching and drying fish for the city markets, or by cultivating the ground in excess of his own requirements.' 38. From the causes indicated population in most parts of the tropics is relatively scanty, and commercial products, such as coffee and sugar, are mainly grown under the direction of Europeans, or people of European origin (as in India and Ceylon, Java, Brazil, and Guiana). Many of them are the products of hiU slopes at a greater or less eleva- tion, such sites presenting combinations of soil and climate not to be found elsewhere. While the temperature is more moderate than on the low grounds, it has all the uniformity characteristic of the tropics, and is even more constant than in the valley bottoms. For though tempera- ture generally decreases as one ascends from lower to higher levels, there are circumstances in which the opposite is the case. When the upper layers of the atmosphere are greatly chilled, as on clear still nights, the air belonging to them may become so condensed as to become heavier than that of the lower layers, and hence sinks down to the valley bottom, so that frosts occur on the low grounds even in the tropics, while the upper slopes escape. Besides this uniformity of temperature, trees and plants grown on the slopes of tropical mountains exposed to warm ocean winds enjoy frequent and copious supplies of rain, com- bined with the advantage of excellent drainage, so that there is little fear of their roots suffering from excess of moisture. The only danger to be guarded against is, lest the soil should be washed away from the roots at the same time. 39. To Europeans the residence on tropical hills is perhaps more healthy than residence on the low grounds in the same latitudes ; but even at the elevation at which coffee is grown, a tropical climate is for them neither healthy nor agreeable. The enervating effects of the heat and moisture render them unfit for work such as they could en- gage in with comfort in more temperate regions ; and notwithstanding the uniformity of the temperature as indicated by the thermometer, the unpleasant sense of heat often alternates with as unpleasant a sense of cold, for the excessive moisture of the atmosphere renders one sensitive to variations of temperature which would be scarcely felt in a drier climate. Humboldt mentions in one place that he and his companions, after a short residence in the torrid zone, found that their senses had become so easily affected by the slightest change of tem- perature that they could not sleep for the cold on one occasion, even when they discovered, to their astonishment, that the thermometer in- dicated a temperature equal to 71° Fahr. An African traveller mentions that on the Senegal one could not expose oneself in the open air after sunset to a slight lowering of temperature without feeling the sensation of decided cold. In Central Africa, within ten degrees of the equator, the natives keep themselves warm at night by spreading the mats that C 1 8 CUM ATE form tlieir bedding on liollow clay benches heated by fires or glowing charcoal inside, just as is done in China. 40. In the temperate zones not only is the temperature on the whole lower than within the tropics, but the variations in temperature are generally greater. The amount of the variation, however, both by day and night and from season to season, is greatly modified by different circumstances, more particularly in the northern hemisphere, where the great extent of the land surface makes the precise relation between sea and land a matter of peculiar importance. With regard to the distribution of temperature in this part of the world, the most note- worthy fact is that, in consequence of the western shores north of about 40° of both the great land-masses being exposed for the greater part of the year to warm south-westerly winds blowing over warm seas, and the eastern shores exposed to cold north-easterly winds blowing over cold seas, there is in both continents a general lowering of the mean temperature from west to east, and that this lowering of the mean temperature of the year is due chiefly to an easterly increase in the cold of winter, which is to some extent compensated by an easterly increase in the heat of summer. The increase in the extremes of heat and cold is greatest in the eastern or broader of the two great land-masses, and the coldest region of the earth (so far as explored) lies towards the east of Asia, some distance inland, since the sea everywhere has some effect in mitigating extremes of temperature. While the eastern land- mass thus exhibits greater cold and greater contrasts of summer and winter temperature in the east of Asia than are presented in the east of America, its western or E uropean portion, being exposed to warmer winds traversing a warmer ocean than those which visit the western coasts of North America in high latitudes, is characterised by a more equable climate and higher winter temperatures than corresponding latitudes on the latter coasts ; and, in general, we find that when we compare equal latitudes in the west of America and the west of Europe, the latter continent shows the higher temperatures ; but when we make a similar, comparison for the east of America and the east of Asia, the higher temperatures are found in the former. 40 a.- By way of illustrating these great general facts by means of others having more bearing on the production and distribution of mer- cantile commodities, it may be mentioned that the northern limits of various cultivated plants whose range is somewhat rigorously deter- mined by climate, such as the orange (176 a) and the vine (179), are higher in Europe than in the west of North America, but lower in the east of Asia than in the east of North America ; that whereas the whole of the west coast of Norway, extending to beyond 70° N., is at all times free from ice, the northern coasts of the peninsula of Alaska, in about 57° or 58° N., are regularly beset by ice in winter ; but, on the other hand, whereas the eastern coasts of North America are rarely encumbered by ice below the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in about 46° or TEMPERATURE AND, VEGETATION 19 47° N;, ice is to be seen in the Chinese Gulf of Pechiii below lat. 40° ; and, again, Halifax, in Nova Scotia, in 44^° N., is nearly always open, and thus can serve as the winter-port of the Canadian Dominion ; while the Eussian seaport of Vladivostok, in the east of Siberia, to the south of 43° N., is closed by ice for almost a month and a half every year. With regard to cultivated plants, however, it must be men- tioned that those which are able to profit by long and hot summer days during a very short summer can be grown in higher latitudes in Eastern Asia than in Eastern North America. Wheat, rye, barley, and even cueumbers, can be grown at Yakutsk in Eastern Siberia, in 62° N. (the same latitude as the mouth of the Yukon in Alaska, and Frederikshaab in Greenland), the barley and wheat being sown in the first days of May, and ripening about the middle of July--within two months and a half. 41. The land surfaces of the southern hemisphere are too narrow to exhibit the easterly increase in the extremes of temperature, espe- cially since they do not extend into those latitudes in which that increase is most marked. One circumstance is, however, noteworthy regarding the climate of the temperate zone of the southern hemi- sphere, namely that it is generally colder, at least on the land, than in corresponding latitudes of the northern hemisphere ; so that the limit of cultivation of various plants is in a lower latitude to the south than to the north of the equator. A glacier descends in Chile to thO; water's edge in about lat. 46° S., a latitude corresponding to that of the middle of France in the northern hemisphere. The orange is not cultivated for its fruit in Victoria, except in the extreme north-west, in a latitude one or two degrees below that of the southernmost point of Europe. In the South Island of New Zealand, which is in as low a latitude as the northern half of Italy, oats is the principal crop, as it is in Scotland and Ireland. 42. So much as to temperature. Eegarding the other requisite of vegetation, moisture, in the temperate zones we may note, in the first place, that the areas of deficient rainfall are confined to the lower latitudes. So readily is water vapour condensed in high latitudes that scarcely anywhere beyond the parallel of 50° N., except perhaps in a limited area on the confines of Asia and Europe, is cultivation re- stricted from the lack of the necessary rain. For even in the heat of summer the high temperature of the soil leads to the ascent of currents of air, and these carry up with them moisture that soon reaches a level at which it is again condensed by colder currents. Bright days with not infrequent showers consequently characterise the summers from European Kussia to the east of Siberia, to the north of the limit named. But a large part of that region is sterile, or at least in- capable of cultivation, from an opposite reason— the cold and marshy character of the soil. South of the parallel of 50°, on the other hand, there are both in the Old World and the New vast areas which are c2 20 CLIMATE desert or nearly desert from excess of drought, except perhaps in the neighbourhood of mountains which condense the rain, or of rivers which supply water for irrigation (60-63). Adjoining some of these regions of excessive drought there are others again which have the marked peeuKarity of nearly rainless summers, with a maximum of rainfall in winter. In such areas almost all unirrigated vegetation is brought during summer to a standstill. The principal regions so cha- racterised are the tracts immediately bordering on the Mediterranean in Europe, Asia, and Western Africa (in Asia, adjoining the desert of Syria ; in Africa, separated by the Atlas Mountains from the Sahara), the Californian valley (immediately to the north of the Mohave Desert), Central Chile (to the south of the Desert of Atacama), and some parts of Australia. 43. Snow and frost are elements of climate which have an im- portant effect in cultivated regions chiefly in the northern hemisphere. A snow-covering of longer or shorter duration is a regular annual occurrence in higher latitudes (from about 40° or 46° N. according to the locality), except in those western tracts which are most directly exposed to the warm winds from the south-west. The deepest snows in cultivated regions are those which occur in the eastern provinces of the Canadian Dominion, where snow lies on the ground to a depth of from three to five feet (858). Both snow and frost may be regarded, on the one hand, as interruptions to field labour. The latter is also an interruption to communication, from closing navigable rivers, though the former even favours communication by means of sledge-travel- ling. But both must also be recognised as beneficial to the soil, and hence favourable to cultivation. Snow, from being so bad a conductor of heat, though it tends to preserve rigorous temperatures in the air above, protects the underlying soil against these rigours, and, when the time of melting arrives, saturates the ground with moisture, which brings vegetation rapidly forwards. Frost, again, by expanding the water in freezing in every pore of the soil to which it reaches, pul- verises the soil to an extreme degree of fineness, and thus enables the coming vegetation to send its rootlets to a great depth, and obtain in consequence aU the greater nourishment. 44. With regard to the effect that the climate of the temperate zone has upon production indirectly through its influence on man as the producer, it may be said, in general terms, that such influence is the opposite of that exercised by the torrid zone. While not so productive as to make little demand for the labour of man, that zone yields enough in return for labour to serve as a stimulus to exertion, and the change of the seasons, and especially the regular recurrence of winter, braces the nerves and tends to make labour agreeable. Difi'erent parts of the temperate zone have their compensations. The warmer regions, though, with equal advantages otherwise, more productive than the colder, are less stimulating. Even the coldest regions of the temperate zone in INFLUENCE OF THE TEMPERATE ZO.VE 21 wliich cultivation is possible at all are more favourable to health and activity than the countries belonging to the tropics, and are far from being so unpleasant in experience as one is apt to represent them in the imagination. For these regions are not only the coldest, but in winter the driest in the world. The winter air in Central and Eastern Siberia is drier than the air of the driest desert, and with such dryness of the atmosphere fur clothing and a thin tent for a roof are all that is necessary to enable one to pass the night in comfort, even when the temperature is one at which mercury can be chopped into pieces and hammered like iron, at which iron axes are readily shattered like glass, and at which green wood becomes as hard as iron. Lung diseases in such a climate are unknown. Similar accounts are given of the healthiness and comparative pleasantness of the Canadian North-West. 45.- SOIL. In the production of vegetable commodities, the nature of the soil is a circumstance possessing a high degree of importance. The influence which the soil exercises on vegetation is of various kinds. In the first place, the soil supplies a portion of the food of plants. It supplies also substances which may not be themselves converted to any great extent into vegetable tissue, but which serve to carry about the food-stuffs from one part of the plant to another, or to effect the necessary changes on these food-stuffs, from whatever source they may be derived. And, thirdly, the nature of the soil affects the life of the plant by the effect it has upon the temperature of the roots, or other parts of the plant imbedded in the ground ; for some soils are more readily heated than ofliers, and more readily give up their heat to bodies in contact with them. 46. Soils differ from one another in two classes of characters, phy- sical and chemical, both of which are of importance to the vegetation belonging to them. Physically, soils differ from one another in the con- dition of their particles. They may be coarse or fine, porous or com- pact and tenacious. Other things being equal, the fine soils are more fertile — that is, supply food more plentifully to the vegetation living upon them— than the coarse ; for all the food wliich plants derive from the soil enters the small rootlets dissolved in moisture, and the finer the earthy particles the more easily are the necessary substances dis- solved. This is one reason why the soil of deltas is almost invariably remarkable for its fertility, for such soils are made up of the finer sediment carried along by a river. The advantages or disadvantages of porous soils as compared with those which are compact and tena- cious vary according to circumstances. One advantage porous soils nearly always have — that of being light and easily worked by the plough or spade. They are also easily permeated by water, and thus readily permit rain to sink into them, instead of running in great part off the surface, and at the same time favour the rise of moisture from great depths, by the action of capillarity (the action by which liquid diffuses 22 SOIL itself through a lump of sugar). But this may be an advantage for certain plants or in certain climates, and a disadvantage for other plants and in other climates. It is a disadvantage to plants that require the retention of a great deal of moisture about their roots ; and while it may be, and generally is, an advantage in climates in which showers are frequent and the atmosphere moist during the growing season, it is a disadvantage in climates of an opposite character, where it is of impor- tance for the plant life that the moisture in the soil should be long retained within reach of the roots,— that is, that it should neither sink away to a great depth, nor rise up too rapidly and quickly evaporate, thus giving the plants the benefit of the moisture for only a short time. In moist climates porous soils are generally, in virtue of the superior dryness of their superficial layers, more easily warmed than heavy and compact soils, and that not only because water requires a greater amount of heat to raise its temperature to a certain degree than any solid substance, but because of the loss of heat by evaporation (p. 15, n.). Hence light porous soils are generally described as dry and warm, and those of the opposite kind, like clays, as wet and cold. 47. Under the head of chemical composition, the differences chiefly considered as characterising different soils are those in the pro- portion of the substances made use of by plants as food. So great are the natural differences in this respect in different parts of the world, that, to take wheat as an illustration, the soil of one region may yield a crop of 50 or even 70 bushels to the acre, whereas that of another yields, with a climate equally favourable, no more than 12 or 15 bushels, or perhaps even less. 48. The composition of the soil often varies very greatly from local causes within limited areas ; but there are, on the other hand, many wide regions noted for being covered with a soil either characteristically rich or characteristically poor ; and it will be well to refer to some of the more important of such cases. Everywhere, it ought to be men- tioned, the soil is due to the crumbling away of solid rock more or less modified by the vegetable, and even the animal, life that comes to occupy it, and when large tracts are occupied by a soil of similar character throughout it is due to the fact that the rocks that contributed to the formation of the soil were spread over a wide region. Hence large deltas are generally remarkable for their fertility, not only, as above indicated, in consequence of their physical nature, but also because they contain ingredients derived from the whole basin of the river by which they are formed, and hence are likely to contain all the consti- tuents which a variety of plants require as food. For a similar reason, great aUuvial plains hke those of the Ganges and the Po are generally remarkable for their fertility, and so also are those regions which are to be looked upon as the dried-up beds of former lakes, such, for ex- ample, as the basin of the Red Eiver (875), which forms a celebrated VEGETABLE MOULD. VOLCANIC SOILS 23 wheat-growing region iii the United States (Minnesota and Dakota) and the Canadian province of Manitoba. 49. Vegetable mould, the product of decay of vegetable matter, mixed with earthy (mineral) constituents, forms a soil of great fer- tility. The existence of conditions favourable to its formation is there- fore a matter of great importance. In some places it is formed very abundantly in tropical forests, where vegetation is continuous, and the accumulation of vegetable waste proportionately rapid. But it is not readily formed in all tropical forests. If the climate be dry, and the forests rather open, the falling leaves dry up, get hard and crisp, and are easily broken by the wind, so that their elements are dispersed in the form of gases. To this cause is ascribed, in a great measure, the infertility of a large part of Brazil (923), and no doubt the same circumstance accounts for the unproductiveness of a large part of Africa (828). In regions where there is a regular winter accumulation of snow, this covering has, among other important effects, that of burying the fallen vegetable matter and saturating it with moisture so as to favour the formation of vegetable mould. The action of earthworms in promoting the formation of a soil rich in this ingre- dient, by covering the surface deposits with layers of earth brought up from beneath, has been made a matter of almost universal knowledge by the well-kiiown work of Darwin.' 50. Uany lavas or rocks originally poured out from the interior of the earth in a liquid state decompose into a soil of exceeding richness. Soils of this kind form some of the most fertile tracts, not only in Java and Japan, Campania and Eastern Sicily, and other regions where there are volcanoes still active, but in many other regions where there have been no volcanoes within historic times. Among the latter are soils covering considerable areas in Hungary, and the much more extensive tract which forms a large part of the wheat-growing area of Oregon and Washington in the United States, the tract occupying both sides of the Columbia River, where the soil results from the decomposition of a broad basaltic plateau. In some cases, however, so rapid is the decomposition of lava, that some of the vineyards on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius occupy lava fields which came into existence within the present century. 51. Among other soils noted for their fertility occupying extensive ' It is singular that the anticipation of Darwin's observation in abook so popular as Gilbert White's Natural History of Selbome should, apparently, be so little known, and that Darwin himself should have forgotten White's remark. The pas- sage referred to occurs in Let. LXXVII (to the Hon. Daines Barrington), where we read : — ' Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For . . . worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation ... by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves into it ; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass.' 24 SOIL areas in different parts of the world may be mentioned the black soil of Southern Russia (629) and Central Asia (706), the yellow soil of Northern China (764), and the black soil of the Indian plateau, which last differs from all the others previously mentioned in being exceed- ingly stiff and heavy, and owes a large part of its fertility to its being so peculiarly suited to the character of the climate where it is found (247). 52. The soils known as laterites, from being of a red colour like the dust derived from pounding red bricks (Lat. later, a brick), are characteristic of tropical and sub-tropical climates, being due to the extremely rapid decomposition of the rocks under the influence of rapid changes in temperature, and excessive, though, it may be, only occasional, rainfall. They owe their red colour to the presence of iron, and neither in this respect nor in respect of their chemical composition otherwise do they differ materially from soils found in more temperate regions. - What chiefly distinguishes them is their highly porous cha- racter, and the great depth to which they frequently cover the surface. They are found over a large part of the interior of Africa, in India, and some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and in Brazil, and in general they are far from fertile ; not in consequence of any deficiency in the ingredients necessary to plant life, but because their physical character causes them rapidly to dry up when not refreshed by incessant showers. In certain situations, and for certain plants, however (as for the coffee-tree in Brazil, on the hills directly exposed to the Atlantic trade- wind), this kind of soil is a pecuHarly favourable one. 53. In the arid or drier parts of the earth the soil is frequently highly infertile, and even poisonous to vegetation, from the excess of salts found on the surface, due to the fact that the moisture which does penetrate beneath the ground dissolves the salts in the earth, and then, rising up again and evaporating, leaves the salts as an incrusta- tion behind. Vast areas of this description are found in the interior of Asia and South-Eastern Europe, the interior of Australia and South America, and smaller tracts of the same nature exist here and there as patches amidst the fertile regions of California and the Canadian North-West, where they are known as ' alkali spots.' 54. PEESERVATION OF THE PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL. But, however rich a soil may be by nature, sooner or later its fertihty will be impaired by cultivation unless means are taken to prevent this deterioration. The substances that serve as the food of one crop are removed when that crop is carried away and consumed elsewhere, and as the same kind of plant always requires the same kind of food, the fertility of a soil is in general reduced very rapidly when the same crop is grown repeatedly on the same land, and when nothing is done to restore the ingredients that are thus removed. Under a careful system of cultivation two plans are adopted to counteract this tendency PRESERVATION OF THE PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL 25 of the soil to lose its fertility. One is to vary the crops that are culti- vated in succession on the same piece of ground, which spares the land in two ways. First, since different plants withdraw from the soil different substances as food, or at least varying proportions of the same substances, a crop requiring chiefly one kind of food is made to follow a crop which requires chiefly another kind. And, secondly, it is not always necessary to remove from the ground the whole of the cultivated plant, and the parts of the plant not required may be returned to the ground, and help to restore to it some of the ingre- dients required not only by this crop but by crops of other kinds. This method of sparing the soil is what constitutes the rotation of crops. 55. Obviously, however, this method is an imperfect one, and the only way to maintain permanently the fertility of the soil is to re- store to it in the form of manure the ingredients that are withdrawn by successive crops. But here it must be noted that the quantity of mat- ter that has thus to be returned to the ground is small in comparison with that which is carried away as produce of the soil, even though the plant-food contained in the manure is generally a small propor- tion of the bulk of the manure itself. It has been found by experiments made in England in the cultivation of wheat that the use of 200 lbs. of a particular kind of manure made a difference of nearly 600 lbs. in the weight of grain yielded by an acre of land as compared with a piece of land of the same extent, and the same natural qualities of soil, that had borne wheat without manure nine times in succession ; and this difference, it wiU be observed, does not take into account the weight of straw, and other parts of the crop. The reason of this is, that though all plants derive some of their nourishment from the soil, and the amount of their produce is generally more or less governed by the amount of nourishment obtainable from that source, yet in all eases the chief constituents of plant-food are derived either from air or water. The bulk of the tissues of all plants is due to the conversion into soHd matter of elements derived wholly or mainly from water, and another element derived from a gas as invisible and impalpable as the air we breathe, and consisting, in fact, of the very gas that man and all other animals exhale. 56. Small as the total proportion of plant-food derived from the soil is, the constituents of such food are very varied ; but the three essentials to plant-growth most likely to be lacking in cultivated soils are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash ; and hence manures con- taining these substances are most important as articles of commerce. All three are contained in animal excrements, and in animal refuse of various kinds, and these, accordingly, are generally the most con- venient manures to apply to the ground, where mixed farming, part crop-growing and part cattle-feeding, is carried on. The advantage of obtaining supplies of manure is, indeed, one of the chief reasons 26 SOIL Ti^hy such mixed fanning is so generally practised. The name of commercial manures or commercial fertUisers is given to various com- pounds, artificially prepared, containing the above-mentioned ingre- dients along with others, as well as to natural compounds which are found in deposits of greater or less abundance in various parts of the earth, and are worked as minerals, though originally they may be to a large extent of vegetable or animal origin. In such deposits nitrogen is present as a constituent of salts called by chemists nitrates, phosphoric acids in salts known as phosphates, and potash m the form of potassic salts (423-11). The bones of animals, being to a large extent composed of phosphate of lime, are of great value as manure, and that, it should be mentioned, not only on account of the phosphoric acid which they contain, but also on account of the lime itself ; for though this latter substance is not so important as phosphoric acid as a plant- food, it is often of the highest importance as a manure from the fact that, by bringing about certain chemical changes, it helps to make the constituents of plant-food which are present in the soil available to the vegetation. For, seeing that, as already stated, all the elements which a plant derives from the soil enter the rootlets in a state of solution, no element of plant-food is of any use to the plant unless it be first dis- solved ; and among other uses which lime has as a fertiliser this is one of the most important, that it is one of the best materials that can be employed for the sake of imparting solubihty to substances otherwise insoluble. (See 243, 247.) 57. Notwithstanding the manifest advantages of the adequate use of manure in maintaining the value of the soil, its employment in sufiicient quantity to ensure the preservation of a high degree of fertility is far from being general. Manure is, as a rule, but little used, first, where the population is sparse, and, secondly, where the population is poor. The United States and India may serve to illustrate these two cases. Where the population is sparse land is cheap, and the cultivator may find, and usually does find, it more profitable, at least for the present, to derive as large crops as he can from the ground without manure, and begin to cultivate new ground when the first shows signs of being exhausted. Moreover, where the population is scanty, there are for obvious reasons fewer opportunities of obtaining animal manure, which in ^-egions possessing a dense population is the kind most readily available. In the United States, accordingly, what we find is that the use of manure has gradually spread westwards, following in the wake of cultivation. The eastern States, which were those first cultivated, were in the beginning cultivated without manure, and as these lands became partly exhausted, others further west became the chief regions of agricultural production ; but at the same time, as the population, from the development of commerce and industry, thickened in the eastern States, the use of manure to restore fertility to the fields of that region became more and more general. At a recent date (about 1883) THE -USE OF MANURE ay the use of manure was stated to liave reached the longitude of Ohio, and to be beginning in Indiana, and even in Illinois. 58. In India, agaui, though the population is dense, manure is pro- bably, even less used than in the United States; but the principal reason of this is that the employment of manure, besides always involving a certain amount of expense, does not yield its full benefit in the way of increased produce in one or two crops. However necessary it may be, therefore, to maintain the fertility of the land, it cannot be resorted to where the cultivators are too poor, as most of those of India are, to be able to wait and look forward to future years for the reward of an outlay on their farms. ' In many districts [of India] the pastures have been brought under the plough, to the detriment of the cattle. The people can no longer afford to leave sufficient land fallow, or under grass, for their oxen and cows.' (Hunter's ' Gazetteer,' vi. 49.) They are obHged by necessity to content themselves with the small and diminishing returns of unmanured ground. It is the great prerogative of man ' to look before and after ' ; and in agriculture, as iu other pursuits, the condition of continued prosperity is to provide in the present for the wants of a somewhat distant future ; and, whUe increasing wealth will probably result from the exercise of this foresight, the penalty of inabihty to do. this is almost sure to be increasing poverty. 69. In any case, the cultivation of the soil, without taking means to restore the fertility which continued cropping more or less impairs, is a mode of procedure that can only be of temporary advantage to any country, and cannot be of advantage at aU unless it leads to the accu- mulation of wealth, which wiU render possible the restoration of fertility to the soil when exhaustive cultivation can no longer be pursued. Cultivation on the system originally practised in America, involving the use of a greater and greater extent of land to increase the production, is known as extensive cultivation, as opposed to the system of intensive cultivation, which consists in putting more into the land to get more out of it ; and the furtherance of the latter system — that is, the increas- ing use of manure — is always a sign of advancing agriculture and industry in general. The great productiveness of wheat in England (141) is due to the practice of this system. 60. IRRIGATION. As manure is the means of correcting de- ficiencies in the soil, whether these be original or the result of exhaus- tion, so irrigation is the means of remedying one of the great defects: of climate in many regions, the deficiency of rain. The ease with which this remedy can be applied varies greatly according to cu-cumstances. Nowhere is it easier than on the land adjoining those rivers which regularly overflow their banks, like the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, or the Ganges. In such cases, all that is necessary is to provide canals and sluices by means of which the flow of the water over the surface of the land may be to some extent regulated ; and it is likewise a fact 28 IRRIGATION of the highest importance that the irrigation of land so situated is not only exceptionally easy, but also of exceptional value. For a river when highest in flood is always most highly charged with fertilising sediment ; and so rich is this in the valley of the Nile, for example, that for ages past the inhabitants have been completely relieved from the necessity of maintaining the fertiUty of the soil by means of manure (797-798). In the Ganges valley, again, ' embankments are in few places required to restrain its inundations, for the alluvial silt which it spills over its banks year by year affords to the fields a top-dressing of inex- haustible fertility. If one crop be drowned by the flood, the cultivator calculates that his second crop will abundantly requite him.' 61. In other cases, various more or less costly methods have to be employed to render water available. Water may be raised by buckets from wells or rivers. Large tanks may be constructed to store the superfluous waters of one season or period against the deficiencies of another. Great canals may be fed from the higher parts of a river- course, and employed to convey the river-water to the tracts lower down. 62. In some places the structure of the country is such that when holes are dug in the ground to a certain depth water rises freely to the surface often with great force. WeUs so made are called artesian wells. Such wells have been sunk in many regions where the rainfall is deficient. Great hopes are entertained that by this means large areas hitherto wholly or nearly barren may be brought into cultivation, or be made more richly productive. But it has always to be borne in mind that such wells bring to the surface only a small portion of the water that falls upon a given area in the form of rain, and that it is hence im- possible in this way to render the whole of any region characterised by a markedly deficient rainfall fit for agriculture. On the other hand, the water brought to the surface by means of an artesian well, or by any other means, can be much more profitably used in agriculture than an equal quantity of rain. It can be preserved in artificial tanks till the exact period at which it is needed. It is thus kept from sinking into the ground to a great depth, and so becoming lost to vegetation, as happens to much of the rain that falls upon the earth where the soil is highly porous. At the same time it suffers infinitely less loss than generally diffused moisture through evaporation — a matter of pecu- liar importance in those bright and warm regions where irrigation is specially required. For crops of great value it is even sometimes found of advantage to distribute the water to the fields entirely by underground pipes. By the adoption of this method evaporation is almost wholly prevented. Moreover, irrigation water recovered from underground is always more or less impregnated with dissolved earthy matters, which may, indeed, in some cases be injurious to vegetation, but more commonly serve to increase the fertility. 63. It will thus be seen that though irrigation is almost always a ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. TERRACE CULTIVATION 29 costly process, th.e advantages derived from it are correspondingly great. They are chiefly these. (1) The supply of water by irriga- tion is more certain and regular than that by rain even in regions where the rainfall is generally plentiful, and that of itself increases the productiveness of irrigated crops. (2) Irrigation water is gene- rally more or less rich in fertilising ingredients according to cir- cumstances. In India it is found that as a general rule irrigation doubles the weight of crops off the same land. (3) Irrigation by flooding is sometimes of service in washing away noxious con- stituents from the soil. (4) Irrigation often enables valuable crops to be grown in place of inferior ones. (5) It renders cultivation pos- sible in some oases during the whole period of the year for which the temperature is sufBcient in the irrigated region. ' Thus in the southern part of CaHfornia, as well as in Western Arizona, crops may be started at whatever season suits the convenience of the grower, except two months in the year, and this holds true for market-gardens as far north as San Francisco. In Tulare and Kern counties [35°-37° N.] five cuts of alfalfa [lucerne— 472] have been taken off the same field in a single season.' ' In Algeria three crops of potatoes may be grown in succes- sion in one season on irrigated land. Hence it naturally follows that the density of population in irrigated regions often reaches a very high point, even when the bulk of the population depends upon agriculture. In the irrigated portion of the Spanish province of Murcia, for example, the density is nearly 1700 to the square mile, as compared with 85 per square mile for the average of Spain generally. (See also 670 a.) 64. It is one of the chief advantages of terrace cultivation— that is, the cutting of hill slopes into terraced fields rising step-hke above one another — that fields so made are irrigated with great facility. This mode of laying out fields is hence largely practised in the warmer parts of the world, and in some cases a marvellous amount of labour is ex- pended on their original formation. Describing the ascent from Hodeida to Sana in Yemen (716), Major-General Haig writes as foUows : ' The whole mountain side, for a height of 6,000 feet, was terraced from top to bottom. The crops had all been removed ; only some lines of coffee-trees here and there were to be seen, but everywhere, above, below, and all around, these endless flights of terrace walls met the eye. One can hardly conceive the enormous amount of labour, toil, and per- severance which these represent. The terrace walls are usually from five to eight feet in height, but towards the top of the mountain they are much higher, being sometimes as much as fifteen and eighteen feet. They are built entirely of rough stone laid without mortar. I reckoned on an average that each wall retains a terrace not more than twice its own height in width. So steep, in fact, is the mountain, that the zigzag continues almost the whole way to the top.' ^ ' v. S. Census Report (1880), vi. p. 16, of section on California. 2 Proc. B. G. S., 1887, p. 482. 30 . LABOUR 65. LABOUR. The differences in tlie quality of human labour and the condition of the labourers have almost if not quite as much influence on the nature and quantity of the products of industry as the diversities of soil and chmate. Human labour may be broadly divided into slave, or forced, and free labour, the latter being that which is now almost miiversally employed in the production of commercial commodities. 66. There are, however, great diversities in the condition even of free labourers in different parts of the world. The table on p. 490 gives examples of these diversities from one point of view, namely as shown by the money value of the labour ; and it will be observed that the highest wages are those paid in new countries, like the United States and British North America, the Australian colonies, Uruguay, and the Argentine Eepublie, in which the natural resources of the countries are very imperfectly developed but are being rapidly utilised, or, in other words, where land, inherently valuable from the nature of the soil and chmate, is still cheap from the sparseness of the popula- tion, but is in process of becoming dearer through the more or less rapid increase of the population. The lowest wages, again, are paid in tropical countries, and in particular m those regions in which there is an exceedingly dense population dependent mainly on agriculture. In the district of Lucknow, for example, a district of India in which the population seems to have become as dense as it can be, seeing that it is now almost stationary, the rate of wages of ordinary agricultural labourers is only from one-twelfth to one-eighth of the rate for un- skilled labour in Lower Burma, which, considering its natural advan- tages of soil and climate, has a smaller population than any other part of British India, and where accordingly the population has under British rule (747) been rapidly increasing. 67. But the difference in the money wage of labour is far from repre- senting the difference either in the cost of the labour to the employer or the condition of the labourer himself. The highest-paid labour is as a rule also the most efficient, that is, able to produce a greater result within a given time. It is alleged, for example, that a labourer in a cotton-mill in the United States is able to work up 100 lbs. of cotton in the same time as an English operative will work up 67 lbs. and a German one 27| lbs., although the English machinery, if not the German, is as efficient as that used in the United States. ' At the Fama Mill at Tlalpam [Mexico] weavers [in cotton-mills] cannot be got to run more than two looms each, whereas, at the Fall Eiver Factory, in Massachusetts, a good weaver will run six or eight looms. The boys at Tlalpam can manage only 450 spindles each, but at Fall Eiver a quick girl will see to 700.' ' In 1885 there were for every 100 persons employed in cotton factories in the United Kingdom 8,798 spindles and 111 power-looms ; whereas in India, in 1882-83, for the same number of persons employed, there were only 3,085 spindles and 28 power-looma. ' Beport by Consul Jenner, Mexico, May 26, 1886, VARIOUS CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE LABOURER 31 The reason of this difference of efficiency is to be found in various causes. Much is undoubtedly due to difference of race and chmate, but much also to difference in food and dwellings and to difference in intelligence, the highest-paid labourers being those who can afford to live in the best houses and eat the most nourishing food. 68. But, as has just been stated, the condition of the labourer also is very inadequately indicated by the difference in the rate of wages, since the wants of the labourer are very greatly affected by different circumstances, and above all by climate. In a region where the winters are severe, the labourer has to spend more in providing him- self with adequate protection against the weather biy means of good housing, clothing, and fuel than he has to do in a region where the climate is less severe, without being better off in health and comfort than a labourer in the more favoured region. The food required in a temperate climate, and especially one of the colder temperate countries, moreover, is of a much more expensive kind than that suitable to a tropical or warm temperate climate. The account given in a previous paragraph (37 a) of the mode of life of an inhabitant of a country district in Colombia, will serve to give an idea of the requirements of labourers in other parts of the tropics also ; but even in Japan, which lies in the same latitude as the east of the Mediterranean, and has a much severer climate, the farm labourers hve almost entirely on rice, barley, or wheat, beans, pease, and other vegetable food, in summer wear httle more clothing than ' that which nature sent them into the world with,' and in winter a cotton garment or two, with straw sandals and wooden clogs. The whole clothing of a year does not cost him more than six- teen or twenty shillings. It is worthy of being pointed out, however, that those parts of the world in which the highest wages of all are paid are also those in which many of the most important necessaries of life are cheap. Cheap land ensures relatively cheap food and cheap dwellings, which more than make up for the dearness of manufactured articles to the working-man ; and the advantage of high wages is still further increased if fuel also happens to be cheap (which depends upon circumstances), or if the climate is characterised by httle severe wea- ther, as in the Australasian colonies. 69. Even free labour is subject to many restrictions imposed by custom and religion, by government interference, or by the voluntary organisations of the labourers. In all Christian countries custom and religion have established the Sunday as a day of rest ; and though this abstention from ordinary labours on Sunday is probably nowhere rigor- ously adhered to, it is more generally observed in the British Isles and the countries of British origin than elsewhere. In Eoman Catholic countries, and the countries belonging to the Greek Church, the days devoted to religious festivals take a more prominent place in interrupt- ing the ordinary course of labour than they do in Protestant coun- tries. In Mohammedan countries Friday (even in pre -Mohammedan 32 LABOUR times a day of rest in Arabia) is specially devoted to religious services, but it is less rigorously observed as a day of rest than the Sunday in Christian lands. 70. The interference of government with the employment of labour in free countries is in some cases in the form of enactments hmiting the number of hours of work to be exacted in a day ; in other cases in other modes. The Factory Acts in the United Kingdom professedly limit the working-hours in factories only for women and children ; but as almost all factories can be worked only when such labour as well as that of men is available, they have the effect of Umiting the number of hours' work in such establishments absolutely. In Switzerland also the number of hours' work per day in factories is limited by statute ; and in the United States there is an Act limiting the number of hours in the day's work in all government establishments to eight. In Germany a recent Act renders the assurance of workmen against illness compulsory, the employers being required to pay one-third of the premium, and all mechanics and labourers are likewise bound to join an accident insurance company established by the Government. In the United Kingdom a labour bureau has recently been organised for the purpose of collecting information as to wages and employment both at home and abroad. 71. Trade-unions and similar voluntary organisations among la- bourers impose various restrictions on the labour of their members for the sake of what is believed to be the general interest of the body, the efforts of these organisations being directed mainly to the ob- taining of as high wages and as short working-hours as are possible in any given state of trade and industry. Such organisations are most highly developed in countries, like the United Kingdom and the United States, in which manufacturing industry is most highly ad- vanced ; but unions having similar objects have existed at all times in many countries. Among the labourers of China trade-guilds exercise important functions of various kinds. Chinese emigrants carry the system with them into the lands to which they emigrate, and in some cases are thus enabled to obtain a better standing for themselves. In India the caste- system as now developed acts to some extent in the same way. As a trade-union each caste ' insists on the proper training of the youth of its craft, regulates the wages of its members, deals with trade delinquents, and promotes good-fellowship by social gatherings.' (Hunter's ' Gazetteer,' 2nd ed. vi. 197.) 72. The kind of labour known as coolie labour is a form of free labour, but a peculiar one. The labourers known as coolies are emi- grants from India and China who bind themselves to work for a term of years (usually five years) on plantations in European tropical and subtropical colonies. They are entitled to regular wages while their term lasts, and in some cases to a free passage back to their own country when their term has expired. Contracts for the engagement COOLIE, CONTRACT, AND SLAVE LABOUR 33 of coolies in India and China are allowed only under certain regu^ lations, and it has sometimes been found necessary, owing to the treatment to which the coolies have been subjected, for the govern- ment of the country from which they are derived to prohibit such en- gagements with certain colonies altogether. Still worse abuses were sometimes connected with the introduction of Polynesian labourers into Australia (950). 73. Somewhat similar contracts are made even with bodies of European labourers, the chief difference being that in their case the work on which they are engaged is not the tending of plantations, but the execution of some great piece of engineering. At the present time it is Italian labourers that are principally so employed. In Central Europe, ' these labourers are " supphed " to any number by contract agents in Vienna, and they arrive on the ground with some- thing hke the mobility and precision of regular troops.' They were even introduced into the United States, and were very largely em- ployed there in the construction of railways ; but their further intro- duction was prohibited by an Act of Congress in February 1885, which made the importation and migration of foreigners and ahens Under contract illegal. 74. Slave labour in the strict sense of the term is now almost confined to the tropics, and Africa is the only part of the world where slavery still flourishes. At one time or another, however, slavery has been practised in all countries, and even in Europe down to the present century. It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that the system was put an end to in the tropical colonies of European countries, Great Britain having set the example in 1833 by passing an Act for the emancipation of the slaves throughout the British dominions. So far as the production of commercial commodities was concerned, the immediate effect of the abolition of slavery was in many cases disastrous. The freed negroes (for people of African origin formed the slaves in all parts of America) preferred, wherever plenty of land could be had, to live the Hfe described in par. 37 a, instead of working for wages, however high, on plantations. The consequence was, that in Jamaica, for example, the annual value of the exports fell from an average of nearly three millions sterling during the period 1832-36 to less than two millions in the period 1842-46, and only three times during the period 1871-85 has the total value exceeded one miUion and a half. In densely peopled islands like Barbados, where the negroes when liberated were obliged to work in order to gain a living, the efi'ect was not so bad. In other parts of America in which slavery has been abolished subsequently, the effects have varied similarly according to circumstances, being little marked in respect of the quantity of production, at least where there were facilities for re- placing slave by free labour, and especially by the labour of white men. In parts of Brazil, for instance, the recent change from slave D 34 LABOUR to free labour was eagerly welcomed by the entire body of the in- habitants, inasmuch as the work was done ' better, quicker, and with more care ' by free men than by slaves, so that the benefit of emancipa- tion was at once reahsed. 75. There are other forms of forced labour besides that maintained by the system of slavery. The system of serfage, according to which individuals with separate rights and separate property were yet attached to particular estates for the owners of which they were compelled to work, and were usually sold with the estates, subsisted in Eussia till 1861 ; and forced labour for certain purposes is exacted by the Dutch government in the East Indies (757) and was so till recently by the government of Egypt (797). 76. MACHINERY. The nature of the change that has been made in the conditions of production in manufacturing industry through the introduction of machinery is sufficiently illustrated in pars. 254-56, where some account of the influence of modern machinery in the cotton manufactures is given. Here it will be enough to call attention to the fact that the changes due to this cause have all come about within little more than a hundred years, and that this applies even to the most important agriciiltural implements made of iron, which, along with agricultural machinery properly so called, have during the same period effected a parallel revolution in the condition of agricul- ture. The cast-iron ploughshare is an invention little more than a hundred years old (it was patented in England by Messrs. Eansome of Ipswich in 1785) ; and it was after the beginning of the present century that the cast-iron plough came into general use in America, where agricultural machinery of aU kinds is now more extensively used than anywhere else in the world (147). Where fuel is abundant steam is the prevailing means of driving machinery ; but in many parts of the world water-power is largely employed, and in mountainous and hilly districts the water-power which rivers afford is often one of the chief commercial advantages derived from their existence. 77. DEVASTATING AGENTS. In the previous paragraphs we have been considering the various factors that contribute to the produc- tion of commodities ; but it is important to bear in mind that commerce and industry are greatly affected by destroying agents of various kinds. These may be classed under two heads — physical destroying agents, the most important of which are directly or indirectly due to chmatic conditions ; and destructive forms of life, whether vegetable or animal. 78. Among the physical destroying agents, we may mention first, frost, from which most tropical and sub-tropical plants, such as coffee, tobacco (262), cotton (841), &c., suffer greatly when they happen to be exposed to it. 79. In certain regions, and especially in those which have a climate at once warm and arid, hail is often much more destructive than we could form any idea of from the character of the hailstones which PHYSICAL DESTRUCTIVE AGENTS 35 usually fall in England. In such Regions the hailstorms are some- times as big as eggs. In the summer of 1883 a haUst&rm iii the government of Tomsk, in Western Siberia, was reported to have been attended by the fall of stones which killed both animals and human beings ; and in the same summer a still more destructive hailstorm was reported from Iowa, U.S. Its track was four miles tride. ' All vegetation was destroyed in its course. One woman lost her life, and many persons were injured. Twenty-two cattle were killed. The hail fell in some places to a depth of five feet.' At the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886, a corrugated iron roof perforated with large holes made by hailstones was among the articles exhibited in the section devoted to the Cape Colony. 80. To certain crops, and especially those which depend greatly on the amount of blossom that comes to maturity, Uke fruit-trees, cotton, coffee, &c., great damage is often caused by unseasonable wiids ; but more destructive on a large scale than any of the agents yet named is drought. The regions liable to suffer most heavily from this cause are those which lie on the border-line between regions in which an abundant, or at least sufficient, rainfall can always be depended on, and those in which the rainfall is too scanty to admit of settlement without irrigation, but in which the rainfall, though sufficient in most years, is apt from time to time to fail. In the densely peopled regions of India and China that are so situated, the failure of rain has often caused the loss of milUons of human lives ; but in the less populous regions in the interior of North and South America, and in Australia, the destruction caused thereby is confined to sheep and cattle and other kinds of livestock. Between 1883 and 1884 the number of sheep in New South Wales dechned from about 34-4 to about 30-4 millions, mainly from this cause, directly or indirectly, — that is, either by the death of the animals, or their sale to other colonies less affected by drought in that year. 81. Great destruction is sometimes wrought by inundatioils on the banks of great rivers like the Hwang-Ho, Mississippi, and the Ganges, or even hke the Danube and some of its more important tributaries (624;, and on low-lying lands in the neighbourhood of the sea. Stu- pendous embankments have been constructed along the Ganges in Lower Bengal to guard against this danger, but these restrain ' without altogether preventing ' the excesses of the inundations ; and the same may be said regarding the similar works that have been executed in the United States and the Hungarian plains, on the banks of the rivers above named. Among the more memorable excesses of the sea may be mentioned that by which the greater part of the present Zuider Zee was submerged (thirteenth century), and that by which an area of about 3,000 square miles at the head of the Bay of Bengal was overwhelmed, and many thousands of people lost their lives, during a cyclone in November 1876. b2 36 DEVASTATINO AGENTS 82. Volcanic outbursts and earthquakes, though fortunately com- paratively rare occurrences in their more awful forms, may also be mentioned as physical agents which occasionally produce widespread destruction. 83. The livinir destructive agents are probably on the whole more injurious than any of the physical agents above mentioned, inasmuch as many of them are extremely persistent, being very difficult to ex- tirpate, and renewing their attacks on particular crops or on various forms of vegetation year after year. The mere enumeration of such destroyers would fill a volume, and whole volumes have been devoted to accounts of individual pests of this kind, and here accordingly we can only allude to a few of the more important. 83 a. The vegetable pests consist mainly of minute fungi which settle upon various parts of a plant and indicate their presence by the discoloration they produce. Such, for example, are the fungi which produce the disease known as rust in cereals, that known as mildew on the vine (182) and on many other plants, subject to attack each from its own fungus, and the fungus {Hemileia vastatrix) which has done much to destroy the cultivation of the coffee-tree in Ceylon (287). 83 b. Of animal pests, the most destructive, on the whole, are insects. Among these may be mentioned locusts, different species of which infest treeless arid regions in both the Old World and the New, being thus fortunately confined to areas in which there is little cultivation. From time to time, however, they invade cultivated fields, where they arrive flying in thick solid masses, filhng the air, darkening the sun, forming an immense unbroken cloud, which may take more than an hour to pass by, and, when they settle, consuming every green thing to be seen, the working of their jaws meanwhile causing a sound which can be heard at a great distance. Equally sweeping in its de- struction is the insect known in the United States as the army-worm, which is the larva or unwinged stage of a kind of moth, and owes its name to the fact that on the march the 'worms' all 'keep together like an army of soldiers, and usually advance in a straight line.' ' Of grass or young grain that comes in their way they eat up every vestige, but when grain has grown enough to form a head, they eat only the leaves, and then climb up the stalk, cut off the head, and drop it to the ground. Among insects destructive to particular objects of cultivation may be mentioned the Hessian S.y [Cecidomyia destructor, Say), which attacks wheat and barley, and has proved peculiarly destructive in various parts of the United States, so as to lead to the abandonment, for a certain time at least, of wheat cultivation in certain districts ; the Colorado beetle, which wrought great ravages among the potatoes in the United States in many years subsequent to 1861 ; the phylloxera, which has altogether put an end to the cultivation of the vine in several ' Nature, xxx. 243. DESTRUCTIVE ANIMALS 37 departments in France, and has greatly reduced it elsewhere (182). To the lower forms of animal life belongs the parasite which pro- V duces the silk-worm disease (228). Among destructive animals of a higher type may be mentioned, first, sparrows, which have multiplied so rapidly since they were introduced iato Austraha, that they have become a regular plague to the farmer. But a stUl more serious plague, both ia Australia and New Zealand, has grown out of the intro- duction of the rabbit, the multiplication of which has in some instances compelled squatters to abandon their sheep-runs, and cultivators their holdings, and has already caused different Australian governments to expend hundreds of thousands of pounds in efforts to extirpate it, or rather to keep it down, since extermination seems impossible. Rats have proved equally destructive among the sugar-canes of Jamaica. The mongoose, a small but fierce carnivorous animal somewhat hke a ferret, which was introduced into that island with great success to destroy the rats, has since become as great a pest itself through its raids on domestic poultry. In the parts of the Argentine EepubUc that have a similar climate to the pastoral regions of Australia, the native vizcacha, an animal with similar habits to those of the rabbit, is quite as destructive, and has likewise been the object of all sorts of devices to compass its extermination. The preceding paragraphs have dealt with the production of com- mercial commodities, and the circumstances that assist and diminish production. In those which now follow we have to consider those circumstances which affect the exchange of commodities between different districts and countries. 84. TRANSPORT. First of all under this head we have to con- sider the subject of transport. In countries in which the majority of the inhabitants have been familiar from childhood with the most improved means of carriage, it is not easy to realise the difficulties with which commerce has to contend in other parts of the world owing to the want of those faciUties which are so famiHar to us. To enable one to appreciate the benefits which improved means of con- veyance has conferred upon us, it will be worth while to give here some illustration of the primitive and laborious modes of carriage that are still in use elsewhere. These examples will serve at the same time to show the urgent need for commerce that is felt by all human com- munities, seeing that it is not entirely checked even by such difficulties in the way of transport. 85. In Central Africa, in various parts of South-Eastem Asia, even in densely peopled districts of such highly civilised countries as China and Japan, the land-carriage of goods stiU takes place to a large extent by means of human porters, or by vehicles drawn or pushed by men. Probably the severest labour of this kind undergone in any part of the world is that which is endured by the carriers in the tea-trade between the south-west of China and Tibet. The tea has to be- intro- 38 TRANSPORT dueed into Tibet across high mountains, and is parried either on mule->' back or by porters. A mule goes more than twice as fast as a human porter, but carries only half the load, a man's load being on an average nearly 200 lbs., m. some exceptional instances more than 400 lbs. The package is borne on a light wooden frame, which is slung on the back by means of armholes, generally naade of coir (319). Laden thus, the porters halt every few hundred yards to recover their strength, resting their burden meanwhile on a short crutch ; for if they released it from their shoulders altogether, they would have difficulty in taking it up again. ' Travelling six or seven miles a day, and resting in the inns at night, they toil with their prodigious loads over two mountain passes 7,000 feet above their starting-place, along a rudely paved road, where every step of the way must be picked,' making a distance of 120 miles in twenty days or less, and receiving a sum equal to about Is. 6^?. or a little more, according to the number of packages carried. ' 86. In Northern China human labour in the carriage of goods is sometimes aided by sails attached to wheelharrows, the sails being in many cases so rigged that they may be raised or reefed at pleasure. This arrangement serves to allow of an increase of the load, but does not seem to reduce the demand on human labour. ' We have never seen these wheelbarrows without pity,' says Dr. Williamson in his ' Journeys in Northern China ' ; ' the strain to the men who manage them is enormous ; indeed, we have never witnessed human beings under such heavy labour. We met many with 14 bean-cakes on one barrow, equal to seven small donkey-loads, and often saw six bales of cotton on one barrow, though two are considered sufficient for a mule ; but human labour is cheaper than animal.' In Japan there are two kinds of cart-carriage, one drawn by men, and one by a buU or cow. Where human labour is employed, there are usually two men in front and two behind. But, writes the Consul-General of the United States, ' I have seen an old man and a young woman, the latter with a smaE child strapt on her back, pulling a cart-load of wood or coal up steep hills and over sandy plains. Ten to twelve miles a day with a loaded cart is a day's work, and 600 to 700 lbs. an average load for two persons.' ^ For this heavy work a sum equal to from about hd. to lOd. per day is considered good pay. 87. Where the large domestic animals are abundant, it is scarcely necessary to say that by their use the call for human labour in trans- port is greatly reduced. As a beast of burden, in most European countries, and those which derived their civilisation from Europe, by far the most serviceable is the horse, but the ox is still largely used for the same purposes in Central and Eastern Em'ope. In Southern Europe, and the region round the Mediterranean generally, the ass, which thriyes better than the horse on the scanty herbage charac- ■ Baber, Travels and Researches in the Interior of China, pp. 194-95. ^ Reports on Laimir. in Foreign Cozmtries, iii. 333. BEASTS OF BURDEN 39 teristie of that region, is an animal of much more consequence than in the rest of Europe, and hence more cared for and of finer aspect and better qualities ; and in the mountainous parts of that region, the mule is preferred to both on account of its sure-footedness and en- durance. These qualities have secured the introduction of the latter animal, which is frequently mentioned in Homer, into all mountainous countries with a moderately warm and dry climate, both in the Old World and the New. Eeindeer- or dog-sledges are used in winter in the snow-covered regions of Northern Asia,, Europe^ and America. 88. In the most populous parts of Asia and in Central Africa vari- ous breeds of oxen are the principal beasts of burden ; and next to these, in Asia, buffaloes, horses being for the most part neither numerous nor of good quality. In the mountaiaous parts of Central Asia,, ineluding; the Himalayas, a peculiar species of oxen, known as the yak, which is found both wild and domesticated, and is characterised by long fine silky or sHghtly curly hair hanging down from various parts of its body, is used like the mule in Southern Europe. In some parts of the same region goats and sheep are employed for the carriage of light burdens* The Asiatic elephant, which haunts the forests of South- Eastern Asia from the south of the Himalayas to the borders of China> and in the large tropical islands from Ceylon to Sumatra and Borneo, is invaluable as a beast of burden throughout that region, wherever there are no proper roads ;. for though, where roads do exist, it does; not accomplish so much work in proportion to the food it consumes as. either the horse, the ox, or the buffalo, it can make its way across marshes and through forests whieh could not be traversed by any of the other animals mentioned. Throughout India, the catching of elephants is under government supervision, the chief elephant-catching establishment being in Lower Burma. The African elephant is no- longer trained to labour, though it was so by the ancients, and in the north-east of Africa down to the close of the middle ages. (See 831.) 89. In deserts and regions remarkable for their drought, the camel is even more indispensable as a beast of burden than the elephant amidst forests and marshes. Provided with one or two humps of fat,' which serve as stores of food, its stomach lined with hundreds of little cells or compartments capable of holding water, a camel, when well fed and supplied with water at starting, can accomplish immense journeys on the most meagre fare, and without finding it necessary to drink. In extreme cases it can go thirteen days ' without water, and frequently it does so for three or four days. By no other animal is so much merchandise carried such long distances. It is the sole means of commerce between the oases of Northern Africa, as well as, between the North African coast and the fertile territories of the Sudan, and is largely employed in Western Asia. It has also been introduced into Austraha, where it has been employed in exploring ' F. L. James, Tlie Unlcnown Horn of Africa, p. 105.' 40 TRANSPORT the interior. The camel has been called ' the ship of the desert ' ; but, however appropriate this appellation may be in many respects, it is important to bear in mind tliat the load carried by a camel is only equal to that of a very small boat. As a rule the load is from about 330 to 450 lbs. ; so that it would require more than 5,000 camels to carry a burden equal to that of a ship of 1,000 tons. As a matter of fact, a camel caravan usually consists of from one to ten thousand camels, the journey across deserts being made in such large com- panies, not only for the sake of carrying a large quantity and variety of merchandise, but also for the sake of having a sufficiently large body of men to defend the caravan against the robbers by which deserts are usually infested. And robbers are not the only danger to which caravans are exposed. The scorching sandstorms which sometimes occur are equally distressing and perilous. The route, in many places marked by small heaps of stones, is often, when lost, difficult to find. The ship of the desert is, in fact, even more liable to be wrecked than the ship of the sea. Thousands of corpses along the route from Fezzan to Bomu, the shortest of all the routes from the oases of Northern Africa to the fertile regions of Central Sudan, speak eloquently of the perils of desert navigation. 90. The simplest method of making use of animals for transport is to employ them as beasts of burden, like pack-horses, sumpter-mules, and baggage-camels ; but this method is far from being the most efficient. An immense advance is made when animals are employed to draw wheeled carriages. Camels can drag a load about four times as heavy as they can carry, even where there are no roads. They are so used in South Australia, and the same method of employing them has been recommended for some parts of Africa, where the nature of the surface would allow of broad-wheeled carriages being used. For the most part, however, the use of wheeled carriages involves the making of roads ; and, notwithstanding the perfection to which this art was carried by the Eomans, it is a fact rather difficult for us to realise nowadays that it is only within the last hundred years that, on account of the wretched state of the roads, it took two days and three nights' incessant travelling to get from Manchester to Glasgow (Eobert Owen in 1795). About fifteen years before that Arthur Young inveighed against the roads as execrable in all parts of England. In Suffolk he describes one with ponds of liquid dirt, and a scattering of loose flints just sufficient to lame every horse that moves near them. In Lancashire he measured ruts four feet deep.' Such facts as these help us to appreciate the improvements in road-making introduced about the end of last century by Telford and Macadam. 91. In considering the facts just referred to it, must, moreover, be borne in mind that England is a country with special advantages for road-making. In the first place, good road-making material is abun- ' Smiles's hwi of tlie Engmeers : Metcalfe and Telford, pp. 65, 68, 2-16. ROADS AND RAILWAYS 4r dant; greatmarshes have long been drained, It is difficult, therefore, for us to picture to ourselves the condition of countries in which commu- nication is hindered by marshes hundreds of miles in extent, as in Western Siberia and in Hungary, or those in -which there are still vaster plains destitute both of stones and timber (725). Secondly, the physical configuration of England places few difficulties in the way of laying roads in any direction. The importance of this consideration may be perceived to some extent even in the British Isles. A map of Scotland which shows at once the roads and the physical features makes plain to the eye how the surface configuration has governed the direction of the roads, but nothing in the British Isles can give any but a faint idea of the obstacles to communication that arise from this cause elsewhere. Across the Himalayas there is at least one mountain-pass, regularly used for trade, upwards of 18,000 feet above sea-level, and deeply buried in snow even at the height of summer. Some of the passes of the tropical Andes exceed the height of 15,000 feet, and the principal pass across the Chilean Andes, in about 33° S., attains a height of between 13,000 and 14,000 feet (930a). In the moun- tainous region separating the north-west of India from Eussian Central Asia, some of the roads lead through narrow rocky gorges in which passage is afforded by balconies supported on timbers let into the face of the rock, some of these balconies being so long that they oscillate threateningly under the feet of the passer-by. On such routes also robbers are apt to abound (721). 92. The advantages of railways for transport, as compared with ordinary carriage-roads, are so obvious that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them. One fact only may be mentioned by way of illustrating the extent of the revolution brought about in modem commerce by the introduction of railways. Whereas wheat may be profitably carried by ran and water a distance of 15,000 miles from the United States to a European seaport, it can rarely be grown with profit west of Lake Michigan, more than twenty miles from a railway, A very few further remarks under this head wiU suffice. It may be worth while to point out that railways, such as we know them, were not altogether a sudden revolution in the mode of transport. Like so many other important inventions and discoveries, they were led up to by previous inventions. Eailways preceded steam-railways, steam-engines preceded steam- locomotives. The first iron railways were made for horse-carriages or trucks used in connection with coal-pits. The patents for Watt's inventions by means of which the steam-engine of modern industry was introduced were taken out between 1769 and 1782, but it was not till 1804 that Trevithick built the first locomotive in the modem sense, and nearly ten years later before Hedley and Stephenson, in- dependently of each other, constructed their improved forms from which the modem locomotive is descended by further improvement. The first steam-railway for general purposes was that between Stockton 42 Transport. and Darlington, opened in 1825. The Liverpool-Manchester line followed in 1830. In the next year ran the first passenger train on the American continent — from Albany to Schenectady in the State of New York ; and in 1835 was opened the railway from Brussels to Mahnes, the first on the mainland of Europe. Ship-railways are one of the latest contrivances proposed for cheapening transport. By these it is designed to carry loaded vessels from one sea to another. The ships' are to be lifted out of the water and transferred to cars, being at the same time carefully poised, so that the weight of the cargo is balanced by external pressure as when the ships are in the water. A railway of this kind is now being laid between the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia. 93. On the routes of railways the structure of the country has in some respects an even more marked effect than upon those of roads; but the circumstance just alluded to, the superior utility of railways when once made, has in many cases justified a greater expenditure in subduing the face of nature in order to make routes for railways where the features of the country did not afford them. Hence it is that railways, besides being made to climb the Andes to the height of 15,600 feet,' have been pierced through the Alps in tunnels of from seven to nearly ten miles in length. La mountainous countries the construction of railways has been greatly promoted by the adoption of rack-railways, and more particularly the modification known as the Abt system, in which the locomotive can use the rack or toothed rail on steep mountain tracks (even with a steeper gradient than 1 in 2), and on level tracks can proceed in the ordinary manner. The first mountain rack-railway was that up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, U.S., designed by Marsh and completed in 1868. 94. One of the most recent devices for the facilitation of land- carriage is the system known as telpherage, due to Prof. Fleeming Jenkin in combination with Profs. Ayrton and Perry. In this system electricity is employed to propel small carriages suspended from a single steel rod supported on posts ; and the system promises to present great advantages for the carriage of small loads, such as may be drawn by horses or on light tramways. A telpher line demands little roadway. It can, in fact, be carried over fields and pasture-lands without inter- fering much with agricultural operations ; and it can easily be constructed over uneven ground, and even across streams, as well as less formid- able obstacles. The first telpher line in England was opened in October 1885 at Glynde, in Sussex. It is rather less than a mile in length. 95. Water carriage has withia the present century undergone as great a revolution as land carriage. The simplest form of water carriage is that in which rafts are allowed to drift down the course of a river. The use of boats on rivers, both for down- and up-stream ' A tunnel has been made at this height for the Lima-Oroya railway, but the railway is not yet completed so far. NAVIGATION^ 43 navigation, must, however, have been one of the earhest of human inventions ; and in some parts of the world, as m Eussia and the valley of the Ganges, the want of roads was long to a large extent made up for by the abundance of navigable rivers. The introduction of railways has in many places greatly diminished the importance of river navigation ; but large rivers on which steamers can be used still form important means of communication (577a, 612a), and especially in countries not yet fuUy opened to modern commerce. If they served no other purpose they would still be of commercial value as tending to keep down rates on competing lines of railway (612 a, 884). 96. Navig^able canals are another invention dating from the un- recorded periods of human history, and they also have had their importance diminished by the introduction of railways, though in some regions they have played an important part in the development of commerce (888). Level countries and regions are naturally those which abound most in canals, and in such, one of the chief uses of rivers is to feed navigable canals, as in more mountainous districts one of their chief uses is to afford water-power. The most important canals of modem times, however, are the ship-canals already con- structed or in progress, connecting different seas (578, 682, pp. 486-87). 97. Marine navigation is the mode of water carriage in which the most important developments have taken place. These developments affect the size of the vessels employed, the range of navigation, the precision with which a course can be laid down and followed, and the power used for propulsion. 98. The navigation of the sea in small boats for trade purposes is not yet quite extinct. The islanders of the Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Archipelago undertake short voyages in a great variety of small boats, and some of the islanders in the trade- wind region of the Pacific regularly set out in fleets of small boats on long expeditions, in which they go far out of sight of land, guided only by the direction of the low waves which constantly prevail ia these regions owing to the action of the steady wind. 99. Such adventurous enterprises unaided by the modern appliances for navigation are,, however, the exception. In ancient times the Phoenicians were the most adventurous seamen, at least in European waters. About 1000 years B.C. their vessels traversed the entire Mediterranean, and even went beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar), possibly as far as the Scilly Isles ; and about the begin- ning of the sixth century b.c. Phoenician seamen in the employment of Pharaoh Necho, King of Egypt, are credited with having made a voyage round Africa. But the most adventurous of their expeditions were mainly coasting voyages. Ancient writers of the first century A.D. mention as something recent the discovery of the use that could be made of the monsoon winds in saihng from the mouth of the Red Sea to India at one period of the year and back at anotlier. It is 44 TRANSPORT at least certain that a trade of this nature was regularly organised within that century ; but even these voyages, were probably not wholly on the high seas. Before the close of the middle ages, however, vessels sailed with the monsoons from the east coast of Africa direct to India and Ceylon. 100. These appear to have been the greatest voyages on the high seas made without the aid of the compass. This instrument, there can be no doubt,, was known to the Chinese at a much earlier date than to Europeans. So far as can be ascertained, it was first known in Europe towards the close of the twelfth century. In the fourteenth century it seems to have been greatly improved by the Neapolitan Flavio Gioja ; and since then it has undergone a long series of im- provements, especially in the present century, when the increasing use of iron in shipbuilding has rendered it necessary to devise methods for neutralising the disturbing effects, of that metal on the compass needle. It was not till sailors became accustomed to this instrument that they became bolder in their ventures. The Portuguese voyages in the fifteenth century, which added greatly to the knowledge of the west of Africa, were still for the most part coasting expeditions. It was in the last decade of that century that Columbus discovered America (1492), and Vasco da Gama the sea-way to India (1497-98) — a dis- covery hardly less important in the history of commerce, on account of the effect it had on the fortunes of the great trading centres of Italy' and Southern Germany (122). 101. It may here be mentioned that it was in the course of the. voyages of the fifteenth century that European navigators first became acquainted with the great ocean currents, and the regular winds, which are so important to sailing-vessels in certain parts of the ocean. It was natural that the name of trade-winds should be given to the most constant of all these winds, the easterly winds, that in the North Atlantic Ocean could always be counted upon, within a greater or less distance of the equator, according to the period of the year, to assist the voyage from Southern Europe to the West Indies. 102. For hundreds of years after the first use of the compass in Europe mariners were stUl without the means of determining with precision their course on the high seas. Improved chronometers, almost as indispensable for this purpose as the compass, date only from 1736. 103. Steam navigation, by which so great a revolution has been effected in sea-carriage, originated, like steam railways, in the present century. Trials of steam-engines for the propulsion of vessels were, indeed, made before the end of last century. But the patent for the first steamboat which proved a success, so far as locomotion was con- cerned, was taken out in 1801 by Symington, and a boat constructed on this patent had a few trials on the Forth and Clyde Canal. The first really successful steam-voyage on a river was that in 1807 from NAVIGATION 45 New York to Albany on the Hudson in a vessel constructed by Fulton, who had previously seen Symington's boat in Scotland. In 1838 was made the first commercially successful steam-voyage across the Atlantic. Six years previously the first sea-going iron vessel had been buUt, and the subsequent history of shipping has shown a constant increase in the proportion of steam- to sailing-vessels in the shipping ) of the world, along with an increasing use of iron and steel, at the ex- pense of wood, in shipbuQdiag (p. 482). 104. Together with the changes just mentioned there has taken place a steady increase in the size and speed of vessels, especially passenger vessels, built for the great routes of commerce. The ships in which the great voyages of discovery were made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were, according to our standard, very small. The largest of the three caravels vnth which Columbus discovered the New World was of only 175 tons burden. Frobisher effected his discoveries in 1576 with a ship of 25 tons and a pinnace of 10 tons, and Drake in 1578 made his second voyage round the world with five ships, of which the largest was only 100 tons. But we must not be misled by these figures as to the average dimensions of the merchant vessels of the period. Small vessels were often purposely chosen for voyages of dis- covery, as being better fitted for the exploration of unknown coasts. Even in the twelfth century, an average-sized merchantman in the Mediterranean appears to have had accommodation below deck for about 250 tons of cargo, besides a considerable cargo above deck. Nowadays, steamers are built of more than 10,000 tons burden ; and so greatly has the speed been increased, that the voyage from Sandy Hook (New York harbour) (to Queenstown has been accomplished within six days, and that from London to Adelaide within four weeks. 105. The increase in the size of steamers has been a necessary result or condition of the increase of speed, for the more rapid rate of progress has been achieved, to a large extent, at the expense of an increased consumption of coal ; so that on a long voyage a large amount of space is required merely for the accommodation of the fuel. But the higher speed is not solely due to this cause. Improvements in the construction of marine engines have in some cases given increased speed with economy of fuel ; and among these improvements, the most important is the invention of the tricompound or triple expansion marine engine, in which the steam is passed in succession into three cyUnders, so as to act on three pistons and utilise its expansive force to the utmost. 106. The introduction of steam navigation has Hkewise led to the shortening of passages in another manner. Sailing-vessels are often compelled to lengthen their course in order to take advantage of favour- able winds ; but steamers, being nearly independent of the wind, can choose their own route, and hence the aim of the navigators of steam- vessels is to sail as nearly as possible on arcs belonging to the great 46 MEANS OF COMMUNICATION circles of the earth connecting the ports of departure and arrival, such arcs being the shortest distance between the two ports. 107. One consequence of all these improvements of recent years has been the reduction of freights, and another the increase in the size and depth of the harbours belonging to the great seaports, or the estabUshment of outer ports for the accommodation of vessels unable to reach older ports in the neighbourhood (550 h, 595). While such changes are brought about, it is obvious that in the competition be- tween different countries, a great advantage belongs to those which are rich in deep and capacious natural harbours. 108. In connection with the transport of goods, attention must also be drawn to the importance of avoiding numerous handlings of com- modities in the course of transit. In the carriage of goods between New York and Guayaquil, on the coast of Ecuador, it is still necessary for the goods to be loaded and unloaded six times before they are landed on the wharfs at the port of destination. They have to be transferred from cart to vessel at New York, from vessel to railway- wagon at the Isthmus of Panama (AspinwaU), from rail way- wagon to lighter and thence to ship at Panama, from ship to lighter and thence to the wharf at Guayaquil. The general tendency of the modern develop- ments of transport has been to reduce the number of such handhngs, and it is obvious that one of the effects of the introduction of railways has been to reduce the necessity for them, the same wagon being able to be sent over thousands of miles on interconnected lines. Illustrations of the modern simplifications in the handling of special commodities will be found under Wheat (147), Petroleum (404, 405), and Sugar (307). 109. POSTS AND TELE&EAPHS. Cheap postage is another of the gains to commerce that have accrued in the present century. The penny post was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1840 ; the general postal union owed its foundation to a conference held at Bern in 1874. The practical use of the electric telegraph dates only from 1846 (more than twenty years later than the introduction of steam railways), but the apparatus necessary for their working is so much less costly than that of railways that the spread of the electric telegraph over the world has been even more rapid than the use of steam for locomo- tion. In 1866 was laid the first permanently successful submarine cable across the Atlantic Ocean, the opposite coasts of which are now con- nected by seven different Hnes. Japan and the east coast of Asia are now connected with the European network, and there are electric telegraphs even in the interior of China. The Cape of Good Hope, Port Natal, and Zanzibar have been brought into communication with Aden and Suez, and thus with the whole telegraphic system of Europe, Asia, and America. Australia has been connected with Asia by way of Java and Singapore since 1872, v(dth New Zealand since 1876, and cables uniting theopposite shores of the Pacific are nowin contemplation. EFFECTS OF INCREASED FACILITIES FOU COMMUNICATION 47 110. The telephone, which has recently proved so important an aid in local communication, first became known in its present form at the Philadelphia Exhibition ia 1876. 111. One effect of all the recent improvements in the means of transport and communication has been to enable places remote from the seat of production of any particular commodity to supply themselves with that commodity more directly than previously. Shipping Hnes have been multiplied to all inhabited coasts ; railways thread their way in most parts of the world, wherever there is even a tolerably dense population ; the wants of any district can be communicated at once to the ends of the earth ; and the consequence is, that goods can be sent in the most direct way, wherever they are needed in sufficient quantity to require special means of carriage. But it is obviously impossible that most articles of commerce can ever be sent from the place where they are produced to the places in which they are used or consumed without changing hands many times, and it is manifestly convenient that the exchange should take place, wherever possible, on a great scale. 112. COMMERCIAL TOWNS. Hence it arises that there are certain places in which it is most convenient for the exchange on a great scale to take place. These are great business centres, com- mercial towns ; and the situation of these towns in many cases shows that there are special conveniences for exchange that have favoured their rise and growth. All towns are more or less centres of exchange. Whatever else they may be, they are places where stores of goods in common request are kept, so that the inhabitants of the district round may be able to supply themselves with these when they wish. But in order that a town may grow up to be a great business centre it must have special advantages of one kind or another for the exchange of goods or a certain class of goods. 113. These advantages may be of very various kinds. The mere fact that a town lies about the middle of a densely peopled district is^ likely to make it in many cases the most convenient place of exchange for the products of that district and the articles brought from more distant parts to be used within it. Hither are brought in large quantity the various products from the parts in which they most abound, and hence they are sent out again in smaller quantities, along with quan- tities of other kinds of goods, to the parts in which they are required. 114. So, too, towns that are situated where the form of the surfacer in the country round about causes a number of roads to converge are likely to grow up into more or less important business centres. If a town is situated in a more or less open expanse enclosed by hilly country through which valleys have allowed roads to be made in dif- ferent directions, it will naturally be the centre of business for the districts to which these roads lead, and its importance as such will probably be in proportion to the productiveness of the surrounding regions. Since from a level country roads will naturally converge 48 COMMERCIAL CENTRES towards passes which lead over hills or mountains, towns are apt to arise, in such situations, at the meeting of hill and plain. In like manner, many towns have grown up at spots where for any reason there was a convenient crossing-place on a river, and many others exist at the confluence of navigable rivers where the nature of the ground is suitable for a site, for the traffic borne on the rivers is there divided. 115. Business towns likewise spring up in many situations in which the circumstances necessitate a change in the mode of carriage. Of this class of towns, seaports are the most numerous examples. Where goods have to be transferred from any mode of land carriage to ships, there must necessarily be a town to accommodate those engaged in this transfer ; and since any seaport may carry on commerce with any other, the importance of such towns will naturally be in proportion to the productiveness of the region for which they serve as an outlet, and the facilities which they afford to shipping. Hence it is that so many of the large towns of the world are seaports. 116. The frequent necessity for change in the mode of carriage' also helps to explain why towns are apt to grow up at the foot of pass- roads, and the same circumstance likewise explains the precise situa- tion of many towns situated on rivers. Many such towns are situated at the highest point to which rivers can be navigated, or can be ascended by vessels of a certain size ; many, where a rapid hinders, or a fall prevents further navigation. To one or other such point goods are conveyed by boats, and a town springs up where they are landed. Other towns on navigable rivers are situated where there is a sudden change in the direction of the stream, because at that point goods must be landed which are not intended to follow the new direction, taken by the river. 117. Since the development of modem industry, many large towns have sprung up in districts where there is abundance of coal, or coal and iron, the mainsprings of modem industry ; and aU such towns are more or less business centres. At the same time, they are often far from being business centres in proportion to the extent of their production. Where numerous manufecturing towns exist on a great coalfield the business of exchange may be centred in one of them that is not pre-eminently itseK a manufacturing town. The great magnitude of the business of exchange in such a region is adverse to the carrying on of manufactures in its business centre, for the cost of land, owing to the requirements of merchants and others for offices &c., becomes so great that it is too expensive to erect large factories. Hence it is that Manchester, in which, according to the estimate of a local manufacturer, is sold pro- bably three-fourths of the cotton-yam spun, and even a larger proportion of the cotton cloth woven in the United Kingdom, is less of a manufac- turing town than many of the smaller towns round about. 118. With regard to the relative importance of towns at the present day, it is necessary to bear in mind that their prosperity is often due FAIRS AND PILGRIMAGES 49 to other circumstances than those which determined their original situation and favoured their early growth- The very fact that a town exists and has attained a moderate size makes it a more or less con- venient centre of exchange, and hence may make it worth while to in- crease its facilities for this purpose. Growing jip, in the first place, it may be, at a point to which roads naturally converged, it became of sufficient importance to have new roads made from it. So in modern times railways have been made to towns because the towns already existed ; and now the prosperity of the town is determined by the rail- ways. In many cases the introduction of railways has favoured some towns at the expense of others, which may before their introduction have had a more favourable site. But the importance of such natural advantages as have been pointed out above is stiU to be seen in situations where towns grow up in new countries before railways are introduced. 119. The great business centres of the present day in populous countries fully provided with the modern means of transport are places in which the staple commodities can be procured at any time, in any quantity in which they are hkely to be wanted ; but it was different in former times, and is still different in less populous and less com- mercially developed countries. In the latter countries it is stiU the custom, as it once was more generally, to hold periodical fairs at certain places at stated times. At these fairs merchants congregate from a greater or less area round in proportion to the importance of the transactions carried on, and the local dealers, in a single journey to the great market, supply themselves with all they are likely to want till the next fair. The places chosen for fairs are naturally in many cases such as present peculiar facilities for communication in several directions. In Eastern countries, great fairs are often at the same time great religious festivals, as at Mecca in Arabia, Allahabad and Hardwar in India, and the place of the fair is determined chiefly on religious grounds. 120. The pilgrimages to Mecca, which form so important a feature of the Mohammedan religion, may here be specially noticed. All Mohammedans, poor or rich, are enjoined by their religion to proceed at least once in their lives to the sacred city of Mecca. The poor live by the way on alms, but most of those who are better off take with them all their possessions, thinking them well spent in accomphshing this object of devotion, or, if they are rich enough to have goods to spare at the end of their journey, hoping to increase their wealth by trade, which the more fortunate of them all the more easily do, since thousands of pilgrims are compelled to part with all that they have left for whatever they can get. In certain cases these pilgrimages have been of use in introducing the products of one region into another. The Arabian coffee-plant, for example, is said to have been introduced into Southern India by a pilgrim on his return home.- 50 -COMMERCIAL COUNTRIES 121. COMMEKCIAL COUNTRIES. The facilities for exchangee that have given to certain towns a high degree of importance as business centres have during certain periods secured a commanding position in the commerce of the world for different nations. One of the chief advantages fpr holding such a position lies in occupying a central situation between the regions with which the great commerce of the world is carried on. In the middle ages the most valuable commerce was that between Eastern Asia and Europe ; and as long as this was carried on through Western Asia or by the Eed Sea, Italy had peculiar advantages for securing the bulk of that commerce. The ships of Genoa and Venice visited all the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and of Western Europe, and the commerce with the heart of Europe was carried on by way of the Alpine passes. It is owing to the former pre-eminence of the Italian cities in this trade that so many places in the east of the Mediterranean have Italian names or names of an Italian form. The name Levant for the east of the Mediterranean is itself a name of Italian origin ; the names Negroponte, Montenegro, and others are Italian ; and Aleppo is an Itahan form of the local name of that town. 122. Before the close of the fifteenth century some of the land routes for commerce with the East had already been closed through political events (697), but the discovery of the sea-way to India round the Cape of Good Hope (100) gave the most serious blow to the Eastern trade of the ItaHan cities. In 1504, a contemporary chronicler records, the galleys of Alexandria returned in February to Venice empty — a thing that had never been seen before, and in the following month those from Beirut were found to be empty likewise. The chronicle is continued till 1512, and speaks constantly of the scarcity of prices in Venice. In 1506 it is specially noted that at a fair in that year the Germans had bought very Kttle. As early as 1504 a project for cutting a sea-canal through the Isthmus of Suez, with the view of regaining for Venice its lost supremacy, began to be urged ; but this project, it is needless to say, was never carried out under Venetian auspices. The trade with Germany still continued, indeed, during the whole of the century, and also the following century ; but it was in a state of decline. At first Eastern commodities were to be purchased at Lisbon, but soon the towns of Flanders and Holland (Antwerp and Eotterdam) secured the bulk of the commerce with Central Europe. But as commerce has grown more world-wide, as the New World and Australia have become more populous and more wealthy, the advantage of situation has come to belong to the British Isles, which are nearly in the middle of the land-surface of the globe. This is far, however, from being the sole advantage which Great Britain possesses as a mercantile country, and hence the nature of this and other advan- tages will be more particularly considered elsewhere. 123. LANGUAGE &c. The language of commerce when carried THE LANGUAGE OF COMMERCE 51 on between peoples speaking different tongues, is generally of a very- mongrel character. In the days when Italian trade was predominant in the Levant, there arose in all the coasts of that region a trade lan- guage, the basis of which was a corrupt Italian, but which borrowed numerous words from the local dialects in different places. This language is known as the lingua franca, and is still spoken in many Mediterranean towns, above all in Smjrrna. The dominant languages of commerce at the present day have all begotten corrupt forms of speech of a similar nature. In Chinese ports a mongrel kind of English is spoken which is known as ' pijin ' English, (pym being the Chinese pronunciation or corruption of business). A ' negro English ' is spoken in many places on the west coast of Africa, another kind of mongrel English in New Guinea. Arabic is spoken with many cor- ruptions, and much admixture of words derived from other languages throughout the Mohammedan world. Chinese, in some form or other, is the prevailing language of trade not only in China itself but on all the coasts of Indo-China, and the Malay language predominates in the Eastern or Malay Archipelago. Spanish is the prevaihng language of the New World south of the United States, except in Guiana and Brazil. The wide predominance of Spanish commerce in former days is still seen in the survival of a few Spanish words in more than one lingua franca of which English or some other language forms the basis. 124. At the great fairs frequented by merchants from many regions in which different languages are spoken, no mongrel speech, however weU established, suffices for commercial intercourse, and there the business of interpreter (often combined with that of broker) is an im- portant one. Andr^e mentions that he knew an interpreter of Nizhni- Novgorod who, besides German, could speak all the Eomance languages, and, moreover, Eussian and Polish, Tatar and Persian, Arabic and Armenian, Hindustani and modern Greek. 125. Where there is neither a common language nor an interpreter available, traders are necessarily reduced to the use of signs ; but this mode of doing business is sometimes resorted to for another reason, namely, to enable business to be transacted in open markets without the knowledge and interference of bystanders. On the Bed Sea Coast a code of signs with the fingers for trade has come into very general use, the signs consisting in touching different parts of the hand and fingers, and being made under a cloth which conceals from parties not engaged in the transaction the nature of the signs made. 126. INSTRUMENTS OF EXCHANGE. Another indispensable means of carrying on trade on a great scale is the existence of some common measure of value. ' Such a common measure, when it is used for no other purpose, or when used chiefly for that purpose, is money. In intercourse with uncivilised peoples it is still necessary in a great many cases to resort to barter — that is, to the exchange of articles that E 2 152 INSTRUMENTS OF EXCHANGE, are intended for other purposes than media of exchange. Thus on the west coast of Africa, pahn-oil, rubber, and other products are bought with cotton-stuffs, rum, and muskets ; on the Senegal gum is bought with printed calico ; in the interior of Africa Dr. Junker found that he could buy a sheep or a goat with a yard of white cotton ; in many parts of Africa coloured beads, which are worn as ornaments, are a very common means of purchase. In the interior of Borneo the price of a picul (ISSj lbs.) of gutta-percha is ' an old Tower musket, a piece of white cotton shirting, and a small quantity of salt.' In the old trapping days of the Hudson's Bay Company, at the time when beaver- skins were of great value in Europe, a trade gun would buy from the Indians as many beaver-skins as could be piled up on each side of it. Even in a civihsed country like Persia, we are informed that ' in the Eesht trade money seldom passes ; the goods are bartered against Russian or English piece-goods.' (For. Off. Papers, Ann. Ser. No. 113.) 126 a. One of the less obvious inconveniences of this mode of carrying on trade is the fact that the articles used as a means of purchase are in many cases accepted only over a very limited area. The equipment required for an expedition into one part of the interior of Africa may be different from that required on an adjoining route. On the one the natives will take, it may be, chiefly cotton goods ; by another, only beads and copper wire. The coloured cloths and beads that find favour in one division of the Mozambique coast of Africa are not to the taste of the inhabitants of another part, and for one district in this region a peculiar kind of native hoe has to be manufactured. 126 6. But even where trade is carried on by barter the need for some common measure of value soon comes to be felt, and hence some article of exchange in very general use is adopted as a standard with which the other articles of barter are compared. Thus, in Western Africa a piece of cotton-cloth of about six yards in length has come to be very generally recognised as a unit of value, and as one yard forms a smaller unit, a piece of cloth of that size is usually made up into six folds. 127. The articles that have been and are used as money in different parts of the world are very various. Of all non-metallic kinds of money, that which has come into most extensive use is the cowrie- shell [Gyprma moneta), which is very largely used in the trade of Africa and Southern Asia, as well as ia the islands of the Pacific. The home of this shell is the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and ship- loads of it are conveyed from the Maldive Islands, the Philippines, and other island groups, to the European ports which carry on trade with the African tribes among which this kind of money circulates. In New Guinea a small kind of cowrie is threaded in hundreds on slips of cane, and these slips serve as money. On the island of Yap, in the Western Carolines, the money takes the highly inconvenient form of huge discs of aragonite, a form of carbonate of lime, quarried, MONEY S3 it is said, two hundred mile's away, in the Pelew Islands., In ancient Mexico the currency of the country consisted of 'bits of tin stamped with a character like a T ; bags of cacao, the value of which was regu^ latcd by their size ; and, lastly, quiUs filled with gold-dust/ Even on the Atlantic coast of the United States at the present day, oysters are stated to be used as money ia a certain district on Chesapeake Bay, an oyster forming the regular subscription for a daily newspaper. 128. Of all forms of money the most convenient, and those in most general use, are gold and silver or other metallic coins, and the coining of metals is in all civilised countries one of the prerogatives of the government. Coins are seldom made of any one metal. For con- venience of manufacture various alloys are used, but aU coins on their issue from the mint ought to possess a definite weight of the prin- cipal metal in their composition, whether gold, silver, or copper. The proportion of that metal to the total weight of the coin is called the fineness of the coin, and it is on the amount of that metal that the Value of the coin depends, 129. The value of a coin does not always depend solely on the amount of fine metal which the coin itself contains. Coined money is of two sorts, which are called respectively standard money and token money. The former is that in which the fine metal used is the standard metal of the country — that is, the metal which ultimately fixes the value of all the coins used in the country. In order that any particular metal should form a perfect standard, the conditions that must be fulfilled are these. The metal in question must be re- ceived for coinage in unlimited quantities by the State, and coins made with that metal must be made unlimited legal tender ; that is to say, payment in such coins must be declared to be a valid discharge of any debt, however large. If gold, therefore, is the standard metal of any country, any gold company can take as much gold as it raises to the mint of that country, and receive in exchange the same quantity of gold in the form of coin, with a small reduction, it may be, for the expense of coining. In these circumstances, it is obvious that the Value of the gold is represented exactly by the value of the equivalent coin, and the value of the coin will rise and fall with the value of the gold. 130. It is otherwise, however, with token money. The value of the fine metal in such money is fixed by law in relation to the value of the standard metal. The non-standard metal is not received in unlimited quantity for coinage at the mint ; and when the money made with it is merely a token money, it is not made legal tender except in payment of small sums. Thus in the United Kingdom, in which gold is the' standard, silver coins are not legal tender above the value of 40s., and copper coins not above Is. In some countries both gold and silver coins are made legal tender in unlimited quantities, but this law is to a large extent nullified by the limitation of the silver coinage issued 54 INSTRUMENTS OF EXCHANGE by the mint. Where silver or copper coins are mere token money, they represent in coins a greater value, and sometimes a much greater value, than that of the fine metal contained in them. At the average price of silver in 1886 the English mint could buy for 3s. ^\d. enough silver to make silver coins to the value of 5s. %i. 131. Such variations in the value of silver compared with that of gold make it necessary to take the value of silver into account in com- paring the value of the commerce of a country having a silver standard ■with thai of another having a gold standard, when the values are ex- pressed in the standard money of the respective countries. In the table on p. 483 the average value of silver in London per ounce is given for each of the years from 1873 downwards, along with the fine weights of the standard coins of aU the countries that are of much importance com- mercially, the gold- and silver-standard countries being distinguished from one another. When the variations in the price of silver are great they are the chief cause of the fluctuations in the rate of exchange be- tween gold- and silver-standard countries, — that is, the fluctuations in the amount of the coinage of the one country that is taken as equivalent to a certain amount in the other. 132. Though in gold- standard countries it is customary and natural to speak of fluctuations in the price of silver, it must not be supposed that gold does not vary in value. Where it is the standard of a country, it is true that its value, expressed in the coinage of that country, cannot vary. But it is obvious that a change in the value of silver in relation to gold (such as we have just been speaking of) is a change in the value of gold in relation to silver ; and in silver-standard cou.ntries it is as natural to speak of changes in the price of gold as in gold- standard countries it is to speak of changes in the price of silver. 133. Moreover, everybody is familiar with the fact of variations in the price of commodities. Now in gold-standard countries there are not only variations in the value of these commodities in relation to gold, but also in that of gold in relation to them. Where there has been a greater or smaller change in one direction (whether a rise or fall) of all or nearly all commodities, it will be right to say absolutely that, whatever the cause may have been, there has been a change in the value of gold. When distant dates are compared (intervals of a generation, or one, two, or three centuries, for example) it is nearly always found that such a change in value has occurred. This is not the place to elucidate the nature and cause of such changes, but it is important to bear in mind that, whereas statistics of commerce in which values are expressed in the same standard coin afford a more or less satisfactory means of comparing different countries at the same period, they are far from being so satisfactory as a means of comparing the commerce of the same country at widely different dates. The sum of 5,000,000^, in 1800 is a very different thing from the same sum in 1880. PAPER MONEY 55 134. We must here refer also to the fact that money in the form of coin is used only to a very limited extent in the discharge of pecuniary obligations, whether the parties belong to the same country or to differ- ent countries. The equivalent of coin in paper is the more usual mode of payment in the case of aU but small transactions, and the proportion of debts discharged in this way is generally greater in pro- portion to the commercial development of the country in which the transactions occur. 136. Whatever the form of a paper circulation may be, its efficiency as a perfect substitute for coins depends on the fact of the holder of the paper being able to obtain the equivalent in coin whenever he wishes it. In payments made within the bounds of any particular country, the most usual substitutes for coin are bank-notes and cheques. Bank-notes are promises of a bank to pay ; cheques, orders to a bank to pay, made by persons who have money at their credit in the banks on which the orders are made. In large transactions, payment is very often made in the form of a bill of exchange, which is a demand upon a merchant to pay at a certain date a certain sum of money for goods which he has received. Such a demand is usually presented to the merchant on whom it is drawn for his acceptance, which he signifies by his signature, and when accepted by him it becomes a valid claim against him. The details in connection with the ixse of bills of exchange are far too numerous to be mentioned here ; but it is necessary to state that it is usually in connection with such biUa that the rate of exchange between different countries is spoken of. Bills of exchange are very generally made use of in settHng debts between persons belonging to different countries, because they are a, cheaper method of doing so than using coin for the purpose. If coin, or bullion, whether gold or silver, were sent, the cost of its carriage would have to be paid for ; it would have to be insured, and other expenses would have to be incurred. It is obviously, therefore, a cheaper method for ia, merchant who has a claim against him in another country to send over an equivalent claim which somebody else may have on some one in that country. He buys that claim in the form of a bill of exchange, and the price which he has to pay for it varies according to circum- stances. It varies according to the credit of the person or persons who accept responsibility for the bill, according to the date at which it becomes due (being obviously of less value if payable three months after date than if payable at sight) ; and even with the ' best ' bills — that is, those secured in the most satisfactory way by the credit of the re- sponsible parties — it varies according to the state of trade between dif- ferent countries. When the bills procurable in one country, A, against another country, B, are greater in value than those in B against A (which is equivalent to saying, when A has exported to B a greater value than B to A), A will have more bills than are necessary to meet the claims of B. Those holding such bills in A will, accordingly, be unable to get S6 INSTRUMENTS OF EXCHANGE as good a price for bills as those in B who hold bills on A. They will be glad to sell them at as good a price as they can get, for they run the risk of being unable to find a customer for them, and hence being obliged to bear the expense of having coin sent over to them in dis- charge of their claims. Holders of biUs against A in B, on the other hand, will find that there is a great demand for their bills on the part of persons who fear lest they may have to bear the expense of sending coin over in discharge of their debts, and wiU therefore ask as high a price as they find they can exact. 136. Eeaders must be referred elsewhere for fuller information on these matters, but enough has been said to make three facts of impor- tance manifest : first, that the rate of exchange for the equivalents of the same coins may be different in one country from what it is in the other (which, in fact, it usually is) ; second, that there may be differences in the rate of exchange between countries having the same standard coin (as England and Australia) ; and third, that in normal circum- stances the extreme limit of fluctuation in the rate of exchange for biUs payable at sight, above or below the exact equivalent of the coin- age of the one country in the coinage of the other, must be the cost of transmitting the coin itself. For it is obvious that no one would pay for a bill wherewith to discharge a certain claim in money more than it would cost him to send the necessary coin or bulHon. 137. The rate of exchange between different countries is further complicated when the currency of a country is in the form of incon- vertible paper money, — that is, where the government of the country issues notes professing to be of the value written upon them, and makes them legal tender for any amount in transactions between the inhabitants of that country, but refuses to give coin in exchange for them on demand. In such cases the paper money always circulates at a greater or less rate below the value of the coin which it professes to represent. Tables of the more important standard coins and moneys of account and of the principal units of the metric system of weights and mea- sures are given on pp. 484 and 485. 57 COMMODITIES. I. Commodities dependent Dieectlt oe Indirectly on Climate. A. Products of the Temperate Zone. 138. "WHEAT. This, the most valuable of all the grains of tem- perate climates, has been cultivated from the remotest antiquity. The remains discovered at the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland belong- ing to the Neohthio period, or New Stone Age, show that at that time, long before the beginning of written history, as many as five different varieties of wheat were already in cultivation. The crop early acquired an important place as an object of agriculture in all parts of the tem- perate zone ia the Old World where the climate was favourable to it, and gradually extended its domain at the expense of other crops which in certain regions were more easily grown, but • which yielded a less valuable grain. Though in the New World wheat, Hke most other grain crops, was imknowii in the time of Columbus, its cultivation has since spread there to such an extent that Europe now makes up by supplies obtained thence the greater part of her own deficiency in this cereal. In Australasia also this grain is now in general cultivation, and in fact there is no part of the world with a suitable climate and a sufficient population where wheat is still unknown. 139. A crop so valuable, so widespread, and so long in cultivation could not fail to exhibit a great number of varieties and to show the result of past care in improved quality. The varieties of wheat culti- vated at the present day yield larger grains than those of the ancient Lake-dweUings. The number of the varieties now grown is probably in a literal sense countless, new varieties being constantly produced. Very often these varieties, as in the case of other culti- vated plants, manifest strong local preferences, and do not flourish ex- cept in particular regions. The seeds of English wheat fail in India ; and, on the other hand, the wheat-growing region of Northern India, in which the crop has to ripen during the cool season (729, 734) before the advent of the scorching heats of summer, has developed varieties of wheat which ripen in a shorter period than those of colder climates, but which piae and dwindle when an attempt is made to grow them in England. Not only does the behaviour of the crop under cultivation thus vary in different regions, but there is also a difference in the com- position of the grain derived from crops grown in different parts of the world. 140. The best soil for the cultivation of wheat is one in which clay predominates, but which is not too stiff and heavy. As regards S8 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE climate, wheat demands a higher temperature than any of the ordinary cereals of the temperate zone except maize, so that its northern limit lies to the south of those of oats, rye, and barley. Further details of inter- est regarding the soil and climate best adapted for wheat are given in the following paragraphs, extracted from the report ia the Tenth Census of the United States. 140 a. ' As regards soils, we may say in a general way that light' clays and heavy loams are the best for wheat. On the one hand, very heavy clays often produce good crops, both as to yield and as to quality ; and, on the other hand, the lighter soils may yield a good quaUty— it is simply smaller in quantity. The best crops, however, come from moderately stiff soils, but any fertile soil will produce good wheat if all the other conditions are favourable. . . . ' Good wheat-lands agree in this : that they are sufficiently rolling for natural drainage, are at the same time level enough to admit of the use of field machinery, and are easily tUled, admitting the use of Hght field implements in their tillage, and thus allowing of a very large production of grain in proportion to the amount of human labour employed. . . . 140 h. ' For commercial as well as agricultural success, climate is an aU-controUing condition. Wheat is normally a winter annual. For a good crop the seed must germinate and the young plant grow during the cool and moist part of the year, which season determines the ultimate density of growth on the ground, and consequently mostly determines the yield. It ripens in the warmer and drier parts of the year, which season more largely determines the quality, plumpness, and colour of the grain. In cHmates with winters so cold that all vegetable growth is suspended, we have two distinct classes of varieties, known respectively as spring and winter wheats. ... In California, and in similar climates, as in Egypt, this distinction does not exist in respect to their cultivation, although the varieties partake more of the character of winter wheats than of spring, both in their mode of growth and in the character of the flour made from them. 140 c. ' But in all climates, and whatever variety may be grown, the crop must be sown and have its early growth in a cool part of the year. Wheat branches [' tillers '] only at the ground, and produces no more heads than stalks, and it only sends out these branches early in its growth or during cool weather, and when the growth is comparatively slow ... A cool, prolonged, and rather wet spring is tlierefore best for the ultimate yield of the crop. . . a warm, rather dry, rapidly growing, and early spring . . . diminishes the yield *, there are then fewer stalks, and the heads are fewer. . . . 140 d. ' In a country of cold winters, for good crops it is better that the ground be continuously covered with snow. Bare ground, freezing and thawing, now exposed to cold and dry winds, and now to warm sunshine, is exceedingly destructive to wheat- It ' winter-kills ' in WHEAT: CLIMATE, RELATIVE PRODUCTION 59 two ways : it may be frozen to death by cold, dry winds, or, as is more often the case, particularly in soils rich in vegetable matter, it ' heaves out,' and by the alternate freezing and thawing of the surface soil the roots are lifted out of the soil and the young plant perishes. . . . 140 e. ' The idear climate for wheat is one with a long and rather wet winter, with but little or no frost, prolonged into a cool and rather wet spring, which gradually fades into a warmer summer, the weather growing gradually drier as it grows warmer. 140/. ' The quality of the grain is largely determined by the climate, a hot, dry, and sunny harvest-time being best for wheat of the first grade. . . . The wheat of sunny climates — those of California, Egypt, Northern Africa, and similar countries— has always ranked high for quality. . . . The particularly bright character of American grain depends upon the climate rather than upon the soil. The sunny cli- mate of the whole United States south and west of New England is favourable for this, and feom the time of the first settlement of the colonies the bright colour of American grain as compared with that of Northern Europe, particularly that of Great Britaia, has been remarked.' ' 141. The following table gives some typical illustrations of the diflferences in the average yield of wheat in bushels per acre in dififerent parts of the world : — Countries. Bushels, Countries. Bushels. Countries. Bushels. England' 29 Austria' Hungary' 15f U. States 12i Belgium 241 15^ Ontario 18 Holland 25 Bussia 8 Manitoba 20 Prance 18 Italy 12 South Australia n Germany 18^ India 7-13 New Zealand. 26^ It will be observed from the preceding table that the country which stands highest in the list is England, and that next to it are either those countries which, like England, have a dense population and a system of agriculture that has been undergoing continuous improve- ment for generations — countries, accordingly, in which manure is cheap relatively to the value of the land, or those countries or regions which are possessed of an extremely rich soil only recently brought under cultivation. Two cases of an exceptionally low produce per acre are worthy of special notice as illustrating the effects of different causes. In South Australia, which is the chief wheat-growing colony of Austra- lasia, the low out-turn is to be ascribed mainly to the climate, which has but a scanty rainfall (959), and is hence unfavourable to the tiller- ing of the wheat and the filling of the ear, but, it may be added, is warm and sunny, and hence highly favourable to the quaUty of the ' Tenth Census of U. States : Statistics of Agriculture, Cereals, pp. 63, 64. '^ The cultivation of wheat in Scotland and Ireland is not sufiSciently general to afford an instructive return for a table such as this. ' Exclusive of Hungary. ' Compare 614. 6o , PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE grain. In Russia the low outturn is mainly due to the backward stat6 of cultivation, for the soil on which much of the Eussian wheat is grown is one of the best in the world (629), and the rainfall is gene- rally sufficient. In both countries, however, the amount of the crop varies very greatly with the rainfall, which is over-abundant in neither. In 1885-6 the average yield in South Australia was estimated at only 3| bushels per acre, and the rise in the average British import of grain from Eussia in 1886-88 (p. 62, Table II.) was due solely to the large Eussian harvests of 1887 and 1888, which led to a very great increase in the amount of the export to England in the three years 1886-90. 142. The superiority of wheat as a food-grain for man depends- chiefly upon the quality of the bread made from the flour, which is generally regarded as more palatable than any kind of bread made from other grains, even though these may be little, if at all, inferior to wheat in nutritive properties; but this superiority is so generally recognised that it is difficult for us to realise the fact that wheatea ]bread was a rarity even in some parts of England within the last hundred years. It is still a rarity, at least for the poorer classes, over a large part of the European mainland, though it is now coming more and more into use even among the poor. This result is solely due to the rapid extension of commerce within the present century, during, which Europe, while constantly increasing its consumption of wheat relatively to population, has been growing less and less able to supply it's own wants ,in this- article, and thus becoming more and more dependent on suppHes from elsewhere. The consequence is, that the international commerce in wheat and wheat flour has not only come to exceed that in all other grains, but has grown to a magnitude rivalled only by that in a few other articles, such as cotton and wool, the two great clothing materials of the world. The great wheat-importing countries are those of the west of Europe, in which manufacturing industry is so highly advanced that there is a relatively large popu- lation dependent on supplies from abroad ; and the United Kingdom stands at the head of the list, taking the largest share of the wheat export from all the great wheat-exporting countries ; so that an account of the British wheat trade will serve to give a general view of the wheat supply of the whole world. 143. In the early part of last century England could not only supply all her own wants in wheat, but in good years could even spare more than a quarter of a milhon bushels for export, and it was only towards the close of the century, after the great development of the cotton manufactures had begun, that the importation of grain became a regular necessity. The amount of the import continued on the whole to increase notwithstanding the existence of import duties, which were generally fixed on a scale which imposed a very high duty, when the price of wheat sank to a point which was then considered, very low. In those days the chief supplies for the United Kingdom WHEAT: BRITISH IMPORTS 6i •were derived from France and other countries belonging to the con- tinent of Europe. From February 1, 1849, a uniform import duty of one shilling per quarter was established, and on June 1, 1869, even this was abolished, both wheat and flour being admitted into this country from that date duty free. Meanwhile the dependence of the British Isles upon foreign wheat has been steadily increasing, and their sources of supply have become more widespread.- It has been estimated that shortly after the middle of the present century the United Kingdom produced on an average between 70 and 80 per cent. of all the wheat consumed in the country, whereas on . the average of recent years the proportion of home-grown wheat ' to the total consumed has sunk to Uttle more than 30 per cent. 144. The following tables present in a general view some of the most important facts relating to the British import trade in wheat and wheat flour during three periods of five years from 1871. The countries from which our supplies were derived are mentioned in each of the tables in the order of their importance during the last period of five years. The British export trade in wheat, it may be mentioned, is trifling. A small quantity even of home-grown wheat is sometimes exported, but the whole of the British and foreign wheat exported to foreign countries from the United Kingdom in 1885 amounted to less than three quarters of a million cwt. 145. In considering the meaning of these tables, the facts of leading importance which they bring to light, it wiU be convenient first of all to pay attention to the total amount of the import. The. total import on an average of the five years 1876-80 was more than 25 per cent, in excess of the average for the preceding five years, and that for 1881-85 more than 21 per cent, above the average for 1876-80. This rate of increase, it need hardly be stated, is much more rapid than J. Total British Import of Wheat, whether as Grain or Fldur, Icwt ■of flour being reckoned as eqtial to 1- - cwt. of wjieat. Country of Origin Annual arerage in millions of cwts. Percentage of total 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1870-80 1881 6 1886-90 Atlantic Ports ■ 44-S4 36-50 S7-'I3 24-00 ^9-4 . 4i-S ■ 35-4 31-61 Pacific Ports . S-26 7-26 i3-9S 12-04 iO-4 ii-S ^S'1 15-85 Total U. States 20-10 33-76 41-08 3604 39-8 53-3 53-5 47-46 India .... 0-70 3-06 9-44 9-21 1-4 4-8 123 12-14 Bussia . . . 11-84 8-00 8-96 14-46 23-4 12-6 11-7 19-04 Germany . . 4-62 4-92 4-20 3-10 9-2 7-8 5-5 4-08 Australasia . 1-08 2-36 4-00 1-84 2-2 3-7 52 2-42 British N.Amer 3-74 3-80 2-68 3-24 7-4 6-0 3-5 4-27 Aust.-Hungary 0-46 1-38 1-98 211 0-9 2-2 2-6 2-78 Others. . . 7-95 6-03 4-44 5-93 15-7 9-6 5-7 7-81 Total . . . 50-49 68-31 76-78 75-93 100-0 100-0 100-0 100-00 62 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE II. Import of Grain Separately. Couutiy of Origin Annual average in millions of cwts. Percentage of total 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-6 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 Atlantic Ports . Pacific Ports . 4-90 21-70 6-70 16-80 1205 10-36 10-41 29-2 11-2 41-1 12-7 28-3 20-S 18-33 18-62 U. States. . . India .... Bussia. . . . Australasia . . British N. Amer. Germany . . . Others . . . 17-70 0-70 11-76 0-94 3-24 3-55 5-87 28-40 3-08 7-89 2-18 3-33 3-62 4-30 28-84 9-44 8-86 3-70 2-17 2-07 3-76 20-77 14-27 9-21 1-77 1-96 2-09 5-84 40-4 1-7 26-8 2-1 7-4 8-1 13-5 53-8 5-8 150 4-1 6-3 6-8 8-4 49-0 160 151 6-3 37 3-5 6-4 37-15 25-53 16-48 3-16 3-50 3-74 10-44 Total. . . 43-76 52-80 58-84 55-91 100-0 1000 100-0 100-00 III. Import of Plour SeparaU Country of Origin Annual average in millions of cwts. Percentage of total 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 Atlantic Ports . Pacific Ports . 1-64 0-29 3-84 0-45 s-24 1-32 10-92 1-27 30-3 3-4 43-2 3-3 57 5 10-6 68-13 7-91 _ U. States . . . Germany . . . Aust.-Hungary . British N. Amer. Australasia . . Others . . . 1-93 0-85 0-32 0-39 0-12 1-78 4-29 1-04 1-09 0-36 0-12 1-59 9-76 1-69 1-56 0-41 0-24 0-68 12-19 •91 1-59 •92 •06 •36 35-9 15-8 6-0 7-2 2-0 33-1 50-5 12-2 12-8 4-2 1-5 18-8 68-1 11-7 10-9 2-9 1-7 4-7 76-04 5-68 9-91 5-75 0-37 2-25 Total . . . 5-39 8-49 14-34 16-02 100-0 100-0 100-0 100-00 IV. Ratio of Floiir from the TJ. States to whole British Import (drain and Flour) 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 Atlantic Porta. . . Pacific Ports . . . 3-2 0-7 6-1 0-9 10-7 2-4 17-98 209 Total .... 3-9 70 131 20-07 the rate of increase of population, and it betrays an increasing de- pendence upon foreign -wheat, due not merely to an increasing use of ■wheat per head, but still more to the diminution in the wheat pro- duction at home. The vast supplies of wheat brought from abroad have led, in the first place, to a lowering of the price of wheat, the mean of the yearly averages of the price of the imperial quarter of ■wheat having sunk from rAs. Gd. in 1871-75 to 47s. 6d. in 1876-80, WHEAT: BRITISH SOURCES OF SUPPLY 63 to 40s. 1^. in 1881-85, and to 31s. Qd. on the average of the two years 1886 and 1887.' This has led to a steady contraction in the area de- voted to wheat, which in 1860 occupied about 4,000,000 acres in the TJnited Kingdom, but on the average of the five years 1871-75 only about 3,740,000 acres ; on that of 1881-85, about 2,830,000 acres. A further decline followed, but there has been a rise from 2,359,000 acres in 1886 to 2,663,000 acres in 1888. (Comp. Table I. p. 61.) 146. If we now look at the sources of supply as shown in Table I., we observe, in the first place, that the seven countries individually mentioned in that table furnished in each of the periods more than 85 per cent, of the total import, and that this percentage is a rapidly increasing one. It will be observed, too, that during the last of the three periods, that of 1881-85, two countries, the TTnited States and India, furnished together nearly two-thirds of the whole import. These, then, are now the two great competing countries in the British wheat market, and it is important to consider the nature of the condi- tions under which they are enabled to compete. M7. These conditions present in the two countries a curious and interesting contrast. In the United States, the chief circumstance favouring the cheap production of wheat and other grain crops is the vast extent of arable land relatively to the number of the inhabitants, and the consequent cheapness of the land. One result of this cheapness of the land is that the average size of farms in the United States is considerable (in 1880, 184 acres ^), and that a large proportion of the farms belong to those who cultivate them. The farmer is thus able to support himself from the produce of a considerable area, for which he very often pays no rent, and is therefore able to content himself with a relatively small profit per acre. Moreover, a large part of the wheat-growing land in the United States has only recently been brought into cultivation, so that the soil is still unexhausted, and little or no expense is required for manure. In addition to these advantages, the country is admirably provided with means of commu- nication, both in the form of natural waterways and in the form of railways and canals (884-8). Against these advantages, it is to be noted that all kinds of labour in the United States are highly paid (p. 490) ; but this, again, is outweighed by the fact that the labourers are highly intelligent and efficient, that they are consequently able to use the most improved kinds of agricultm'al machinery, which in countries with an ignorant peasantry are often of no practical service, or can be introduced only slowly and with difficulty ; that the farmers are generally rich enough to be able to buy or hire the best machinery ; and that the arable area of the United States embraces vast expanses of level land on which such machinery can be turned to the best account. 'American competition,' it has been said, 'is not merely a ' See page 65, note 1. ^ Of which on an average 71 acres consisted of improved, 63 of unimproved land. 64 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZON& competition of land, soil, and climate ; it is a competition of thai methods and the men.' Among these methods, those of handling the grain in transport should be specially noticed. From the farms the wheat comes in sacks, but on reaching the railway it is chiefly dealt with in bulk. It is carried in railway -wagons specially constructed for the purpose, capable of holding from 350 to 700 bushels (9^ to 19 tons), or, on the great canals, such as the Erie Canal (888), in boats with a capacity of from 100 to 250 tons. 148. In India, on the other hand, the chief circumstance favouring' the cheap production of wheat is the cheapness of labour. The climate in those parts of India in which wheat cultivation is chiefly pursued and most rapidly extending, the North-West Provinces and the Punjab, is on the whole as favourable to the growth of wheat as in the United States, though in some parts irrigation is necessary in consequence of insuflScient rainfall. Land, however, is dear ; and though it is true that many of the wheat-growers own the land which they till, and some of them do not even pay land-tax to the Government (733), yet the effect of the Searness of the land is shown in the small size of the average farm throughout India, which is only about one-twenty- seventh of the average size in the United States (733, 147). But the extreme cheapness of labour — that is to say, either the low price of hired labour, or the scanty livelihood which the poor Indian with the aid of his family, working with the rudeSt implements, is content tO' derive from his miserable holding — balances all these disadvantages' so far as competition with America in the British wheat-market is concerned., 149. But with regard to this competition, it is worth while to note; that Table I. brings out another point of importance. The figures printed in thick type in the third column of that table indicate those countries which increased their percentage of the total supply of wheat for Britain in the period 1881-85 as against 1876-80 ; and it will be observed that India and the Pacific ports of the United States are those which exhibited the most remarkable increase in the percentage in the period in question, whereas the percentage of the supply derived from the Atlantic ports of the United States shows a very considerable decline. During the whole of the decade from 1881 to 1890 there was, in fact, in the United States as a whole, a tendency even to a contraction of the wheat area, notwithstanding the rapid settlement of the agricultural region, and in some quarters the cry for protection against Indian com- petition has even been heard. It follows from this that the keenest competition in the British market is at present between India and that part of the United States which exports its produce by the ports on the Pacific — that is, pruicipally, California, Oregon, and Washington, where there has been a rapid extension of agriculture within the last ten or fifteen years. To these, however, must be added one region which sends its produce to the Atlantic ports, namely, the rich valley WHEAT: BRITISff SOURCES OF SUPPLY (,$ of the Red River of the North (875, 892), which extends into the Cana- dian province of Manitoba. It is a valley with a deep, black, finely pulverised soil (46), rich in organic matter (in some samples 4"8 per cent.), and lying in a part of the continent where the ground every year receives the beneficial influences of snow and frost (43 : compare, however, 858). As to Oregon and Washington, see 60. 15D. In all these regions the conditions are peculiarly favourable to wheat-growing. In some parts 30 bushels of wheat to the acre is said to be a common yield without manure, and there are said to be well- authenticated cases of even 70 bushels to the acre. So great are these advantages that they fully make up for the disadvantage of the long distance from the European market. In some cases wheat grown at a distance of 500 miles from the port of shipment has traversed before reaching its destination a route of more than 15,000 miles, that is to say, a length equal to about five-eighths of the circumference of the globe at the equator. 151. It is the produce of these fertile regions, together with that of India, which seems to have had the principal effect in lowering the price of wheat and driving that grain out of cultivation in the United Kingdom within the last few years. Now it is to be noted that, fertile as these regions are, they are bound sooner or later to meet the same fate as land similarly treated elsewhere in America has already under- gone, namely, to become gradually less productive unless more expense is incurred in maintaining their fertility. The most favourably situated spots in these parts of the world have already been utiHsed. Any further lowering of the price of wheat to any great extent through their pro- duce is accordingly not to be anticipated. Nor does India seem likely to bring about this result.' That country, it will be observed from Table I., has developed its export trade in wheat to the United ' The preceding remarks on the tables in par. 145 have been left as they stood in the first edition. The period 1881-85, to which they refer, is now found to be in several respects a remarkable one in the history of the British wheat trade. Table I. shows that it had the highest average of the four periods for which particulars are there given. But that is not all. The Return to the Souse of Commons relating to Grain and Flour, No. 137 of 1886, supplemented by the figures for later years, shows that the next period, 1886-90, is the first in which there was not a rise, and.indeed, a substantial rise, in the average import of wheat and flour into the United Kingdom in the successive periods of five years from 1831-35, the first of such periods for which all the data are furnished in that return. The figures, estimated by the rule adopted in the Agricultural Beturns of the United Kingdom,' (80 flour to 100 wheat), for the twelve sufcessive periods, in millions and decimals of a million owts., are as follows :— 2-86, 6-49, 8-16, 16-96, 20-11, 23-59, 34-65, 37-27, 50-49, 63-31, 76-78, 75 93. An upward tendency in the price of wheat has at last shown itself. The lowest yearly average was in 1889— 29s. 9i. per imperial quarter. In 1891 it was 37s. This rise greatly stimulated imports ; but, in spite of that, the import from India in that year (13,000,000 cwts.) was not very much in excess of the previous maximum of 1885. That from the United States did not even reach its previous maximum of 1887 (total wheat and flour in 1887, 49-1 million cwts.; in 1891,41-3) ; but no doubt we shall see in future years part of the effect of the present rise in prices. . F 65 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE Kingdom very rapidly since the period 1871-75 (more particularly since 1873, when the Indian export duty on wheat was abolished) ; but it has already begun to feel the competition of America, so that the amount of its export is affected to some extent by the amount of the American crop. The increase in the imports from that country also, accordingly, may be expected to be more gradual for the future, and not such as to lead to any great fall in prices, unless other causes combine to bring this about. Down to 1890 inclusive the maximum import thence was that of 1885—12-18 million cwts. 152. Table III., which shows separately the import trade of the United Kingdom in wheat-meal and flour, in the same manner as the entire trade in wheat in any form is exhibited in Tabla I., also has one or two points of interest to which attention should be called. In the first place, it will be seen that the great bulk of the flour imported into the United Kingdom comes from the United States, and chiefly from the Atlantic ports, and Tables 11. and III., -together show that not only an increasing percentage of the import of flour is derived from that country, but that an increasing percentage of the whole import of wheat in any form comes as meal and flour both from the Atlantic and the Pacific ports (see Table IV.). The meaning of that is that the growth of the milling industry in the United States (902) is one of the elements in the competition between the Britigh farmer and his American rival, inasmuch as not only is the profit on the grinding retained in the country producing the grain, but the product can be sent abroad more cheaply in proportion as the weight of the flour is less than its equivalent m grain. It will also be noticed on comparing Tables I. and III. that the bulk of the import from Austria- Hungary is in the form of flour. The Hungarian millers are, in fact, noted for the unsurpassed, if not unequalled, quality of their flour, due to the excellence of then- wheat, the perfection of their machinery, and the elaborateness of their methods, but paftly also, it would seem, to the dryness of the climate ; for it has been found that, even from Hungarian wheat, flour of equal quality cannot be made in the moist climate of Great Britain by the same methods and machinery. 153. Besides the countries mentioned in the preceding tables, wheat is imported into the United Kingdom from Chile, EgJ'pt, Turkey, Roumania, since 1883 the Argentine Republie and many others. Being thus supplied with wheat from all parts of the world, both in the northern and southern hemispheres, the British Isles receive these supphes more or less all the year round, the date of the arrival being dependent not only on the time necessary for transport, but also on the date of the harvest, which varies greatly in so many latitudes and cUmates. The following table, the particulars of which, except in the case of North America, are mainly derived from Scherzer, shows that WHEAT, MAIZE 67 there is not a month in the year in which a wheat harvest does not take place in some part of the world (eomp. p. 486) : — Date of the Wheat Harvest in Various Countries. January . . . Australia, New Zealand, Argentine Eepublic, Chile. February . . . India. March .... India, Upper Egypt. April .... Mexico, Cuba, Lower Egypt, Syria, Persia, Asia Minor. May .... Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis ; the northern parts of Asia Minor, China, Japan, Texas, Florida. June .... The Mediterranean peninsulas and the South of France ; Cali- fornia, Oregon, Utah, and the greater part of Central and Eastern United States Territory south of 40° ; Afghanistan, Japan. July .... France, Austria-Hungary, Southern Eussia, the northern parts of the United States of America, Ontario, and Quebec. August .... England, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany ; the eastern parts of the Dominion of Canada. September . . Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Eussia. October . . . Finland, Northern Eussia. November . . Peru, South Africa. December . . Burma, South Australia. 154. With regard to the total trade in wheat of other European countries than the United Kingdom, it is worthy of note that there are only five — Eussia, Eoumania, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Servia — which, according to recent statistics, exhibit an excsES of exports over imports in this commodity ; and among these, Eussia's share amounts to about three-fourths of the whole. Not long ago France and Spain also exported in good years a considerable excess of wheat and wheat-flour, but both these countries are now to be reckoned among the countries that import more wheat than they export. A large part of the French import of wheat, like that of other Mediterra- nean countries, is now derived from India, the hard wheats of that country finding the readiest market in that region, since these yield the flour best adapted for the making of the tubular paste known as mac- caroni and vermicelli, which are favourite forms of wheaten food in Italy and o^er Mediterranean countries. 155. Taken as a whole, Europe stiU produces much more wheat than any other continent, so far as can be ascertained from statistical data. According to the figures compiled by the late Mr. Neumann Spallart, the average production of all European countries, except Turkey, for the years 1883-84 was about 1,276 million bushels, against about 835 million bushels for the aggregate production of the United States and British North America, India, Australasia, Egypt, Algiers, Chile, and Japan. 156. MAIZE is the only grain-crop which was introduced into the Old World from the New, and it owes the name of Indian corn, by which it is frequently known in England, to the fact that it was the only cereal of importance cultivated by the American Indians r2 6S PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE before tLe discovery of that continent by Europeans. Being a vei-y pro- ductive crop— for it yields, under equally favourable conditions, fully twice as much grain to the acre as wheat — its cultivation spread very rapidly in the tropical and some of the warm temperate parts of the Old World when it became known there, but apparently much more rapidly in Africa, and even in the East of Asia, than in Europe ; the reason of this, no doubt, being that the countries which were at that time most advanced ia agriculture and industry were those in which the climate is least suitable for its cultivation. 157. Among other countries from which the cultivation of maize is excluded by the character of the climate is England, where the sum- mer is not sufficiently long, warm, and sunny. The ideal climate for this grain is ' one with a summer 4| to 7 months long, without frost, the middle portion hot both day and night, sunny skies, sufficient rains to supply the demands of a rapidly growing and luxuriant crop, falling at such intervals as to best provide sufficient moisture without ever making the soil actually wet.' ' It is thus essentially a summer crop, and one that requires summer rains ( or irrigation), though not very heavy and frequent rains. It is therefore unsuited to those coun- tries which, like California, Chile, and most of those round the Medi- terranean (42, 470, 889 3), though admirably adapted for the growth of wheat, are characterised by summers of remarkable dryness. It was this circumstance that seems chiefly to have caused the slow pro- gress of its cultivation in Europe (except Portugal), although it was gradually found to be very well adapted to the central parts of that continent, including Northern Italy, and above all to the eastern parts (Eoumania, with the adjacent parts of Eussia), where the greater part of the rainfall of the year occurs in summer, and where the summers are at the same time remarkably sunny. The same characteristics render the climate of the greater part of the United States eminently suited to this crop, which is in fact the principal corn-crop of the country ; so that when a native of the United States speaks of ' corn ' simply, it is always maize that he means, just as an Enghshman means by the same word wheat. Among the Australasian colonies maize is by far the most important grain-crop in Queensland ; and in New South Wales, though it covers a smaller area than the wheat- crop, it generally yields a considerably larger quantity of grain. 158. The quantity and value of the maize imported into the United Kingdom (chiefly for the feeding of horses and cattle) are next to those of wheat among grain-crops. More than half the entire import is usually derived from the United States and British North America ; but Eoumania, which above all other countries in Europe devotes itself to this crop, is supplying an increasing proportion, generally from one-fourth to one-third of the whole. Other countries from which it is imported in considerable quantity are Eussia, Turkey, and Egypt. \ Tenth Census of the United States : Statistics of Agriculture, Cereals, p. 92. MAIZE, OATS 69 159. In the British Isles maize is used as httman food only to a very limited extent, and chiefly in the form of the so-called ' com-fiour ' ; but in many of the countries in which it forms a staple crop, it is used in this way much more largely and in various forms. In the United States the heads of green (unripe) maize form a favourite vegetable, the grains being eaten like peas in this country along with meat, and a preparation known as hominy — a kind of pudding made from coarsely ground maize meal — is much liked. In Kexico maize is stUl, as it always has been, the principal food of the people, being coarsely ground at home and made into a kind of cakes called tortillas, which are eaten warm. The polenta, which forms a chief part of the food of the inhabitants of Italy, except in the extreme south, is gene- rally made from maize-meal ; and so too is the mamaliga of the Rou- manians. In Transcaucasia, the heads of maize are cooked under the name of kukums. Various kinds of beer and spirits are also made from maize, which is now used to some extent even by English beer- brewers. 160. OATS. This crop can be cultivated with advantage over a wider range in latitude and on a greater variety of soils than wheat ; but the climate best suited to it is one that is moister and has cooler summers than that best adapted for the latter crop. Such climates produce grain of better quality for all the purposes for which oats are grown, and, moreover, produce a much greater weight of grain per bushel, the variations in this respect being much greater than in the case of wheat. Whereas wheat does not often weigh much more or much less than 60 lbs. per bushel, oats grown in one place may weigh 50 lbs., in another place only 26 lbs. per bushel. This circumstance is all the more important since there are also great variations in the amount of meal yielded by oats, only the best qualities yielding as much as half their weight. Oats are consequently grown chiefly in the more northerly and moister parts of Europe ; but still, being more easily grown than wheat, the quantity of oats produced exceeds that of wheat ia almost all European countries, except those bordering on the Mediterranean, the dry and warm summers of which are wholly un- suited to this crop. It is by far the most important crop in Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, and Scandinavia. Even Germany, Switzerland, and Eussia produce more than twice as much oats as wheat ; and in Belgium and Austria-Hungary the quantity of each is nearly equal. In France and in England it is much less than that of wheat. Taking the United Kingdom as a whole, we find that oats is the only corn- crop which shows a slight increase in the average acreage occupied by it in 1881-85 as compared with 1871-75 ; an increase chiefly due to the extension of its cultivation in England in consequence of the extreme depression in wheat. The increase was still greater on the average of the two years 1886-87. Among British possessions, it is the chief cereal crop in Canada, and the rival of wheat in New Zealand. 7b' PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE 161. In those countries in which it is chiefly grown, oats generally form a large part of the food of the people. In Scotland it constituted, in the shape of oatmeal porridge, oat-cakes, and other forms, the chief food of the people as late as the end of last century ; but it is mainly as provender for horses that oats are grown, this grain being proved by experience to be the best of all for that purpose. In ancient times the grain was not much grown — no doubt in consequence of its un- suitableness for the climate of the countries round the Mediterranean, where the civilised nations of antiquity had their seats. It is not mentioned in the Bible, but it was cultivated in a small way in Italy, as food for horses, as early as the beginning of the Christian era. In Central Europe, nevertheless, it was a grain of much greater antiquity, for it is found among the remains of the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland, but not, according to Prof. Heer, among remains of as great age as some of those which include grains of wheat. The total quantity of oats imported into the United Kingdom is on the average less than a fifth of the total quantity of wheat and flour. The countries from which it is chiefly derived are Eussia, Sweden, Germany, Holland, and British North America, Eussia alone supplying the greater part. 162. BARLEY. This is in several respects a highly remarkable crop. By some writers it is believed to be the most ancient of culti- vated grains. Several varieties of it (including two of that kind which is known in England as here or bigg, having six instead of two rows of grain in the ear) have been found among the remains of the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland. Its range in climate is wider than that of any other cereal, cultivation having led to the development of some coarse varieties which ripen their grain within a shorter period than the hardiest varieties of oats. Hence, of all cereals it is that which reaches farthest north in latitude, and highest up on mountain slopes. In Norway it is cultivated even in 70° N. On the other hand, it flourishes well in any soil and under any climate that is suited for wheat, and it is in such climates that the best barley is grown. Thus it happens that it is the associate of oats in the northern countries of Europe which are on the whole too cold for wheat, and the associate of wheat ia the southern countries of Europe and the other countries round the Mediterranean, which are too dry in summer for maize, but where the barley, like the wheat, is of excellent quality. In England, as distinguished from the rest of the British Isles, it is the principal corn- crop after wheat, and, as it has suffered less than wheat under foreign competition, the quantity of wheat now grown in England is not much • greater than that of barley. In the United States, the State that grows the largest proportion of barley is California, which, like the Mediterranean countries, has a climate unsuited both for maize (except on irrigated land) and for oats. 163. Barley appears to have been the chief bread-plant of the ancient BARLEY, RYE, BUCKWHEAT 71 Hebrews, Greeks, and Komans, no doubt because it was the most pro- ductive of the grains suited to the Mediterranean cHmate, for the quantity of grain which it produces to the acre is much greater than that of wheat (in England about one-fourth greater). Barley-bread •was once common in Scotland, where it is still used to some extent, and it is Hkewise pretty largely eaten in Scandiaavia ; but nowadays barley is principally grown for the sake of the beer made from malt, that is, from barley-grain which has been allowed to sprout and then killed. It is for this reason that it is so largely grown in England ; 5ijid for the same reason it is a very important crop in Germany (where the quantity produced annually is on an average almost equal to that of wheat), and in the State of New York in the United States. In Scotland and Ireland it is chiefly used in the making of whisky. The quantity of barley imported into the United Kingdom is on the average about the same as that of oats, and the countries from which it is chiefly derived are Russia (which generally supplies at least two-fifths of the whole), Eoumania, Turkey (including Asia Minor, which is noted for the quality of its barley), and Algeria. 164. RYE. This is the kast familiar of all the grain-crops which are grown in Britain at all, but there is probably no other cereal except wheat that is cultivated so largely on the mainland of Europe as a bread-plant. Its great recommendation is that of all the bread- plants it flourishes on the poorest soil and in the most inhospitable climates, where, indeed, it thrives best ; and it is hence a great boon to the vast tract stretching from Holland, through Northern Germany „ into Central Eussia, which is mainly covered by a poor, sandy soil. Throughout that region, as well as in Switzerland, Denmark, and Southern Scandinavia, it is the prevailing bread-plant. In Eussia and in Switzerland it is more abundantly produced than any other grain whatever, and even in the Austrian provinces outside of Hun- gary there is more rye grown than wheat. In the United Kingdom only a very small fraction of the arable surface is occupied by it. In the United States the rye-crop is nearly equal to that of barley ; but though its cultivation appears to be extending, the use of the grain in the making of bread is diminishing in that country, the straw, which is largely used for packing, and making certain kinds of paper and pasteboard, being there regarded in many places as the most valuable part of the crop. Formerly, however, it was otherwise (888). Eye is imported into Great Britain only in very small quantity, and almost entirely from the Continent of Europe. 165. BUCKWHEAT. This is a grain-crop unknown to the agri- culture of the United Kingdom, but ranking next in extent of cultiva- tion after those already mentioned, both in Europe generally and in the United States and British North America. It does not belong, like most of the grain-crops, including all those already mentioned, to the great family of the grasses, but is an ally of some of our common 72 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE .ZONE weeds, such as snake-weed and persicaria, and a more distant ally of the common dock or sorrel. It is a native of Eastern Asia, and was introduced into Europe only at a late period. Its French name, sarrasin, appears to indicate that in that country it first became known through the Saracens or Arabs. The grain is said to be very nutritious, and the crop has these recommendations, that it can be grown with hardly any cultivation on the poorest soils, especially, hke rye, on very hght, sandy soils, and that its sowing-time is late (in the United States from May to the middle of August), which often allows of it being sown to replace another crop that has failed. But against these advantages there are to be placed the great disadvantages that its yield is very uncertain, and that the very ease with which it can be cultivated encourages slovenly habits of cultivation. The only countries in Europe in which there is a considerable extent of ground under this crop are Eussia and France. These two countries supply the bulk of the small British import. 166. PULSES. This is a general term rather vaguely used for certain pod-fruits — that is, fruits (in the botanical sense of that word) having large seeds enclosed in a long seed-vessel, the most familiar examples being peas and beans. The vegetable forms which have this kind of fruit are extremely numerous, and comprise lofty trees as well as tender plants ; but the term pulse is confined to such as supply seeds or pods capable of being used for food by men or cattle. For the most part, the pulses of commerce are derived from green plants often weak-stemmed, but we may include under this head the fruit of two trees, the carob, or locust, and the mezquite. 167. The chief pulses of commerce are common peas and beans, chick-peas, and soya-beans. Peas are those suited to the coldest climate, and are largely cultivated everywhere in the less warm parts of the temperate zone, but not confined to these parts. They are largely imported into Great Britain, chiefly from British North America and the United States, the former region, which is the more northerly, supplying by much the greater share. Many varieties of the commoa bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, Linn.) are cultivated, some suited to one climate, some to another ; some grown solely as food for horses and cattle, others eaten by man. The largest imports of beans into this country are from the warmer parts of the temperate zone, and espe- cially from Egypt and other Mediterranean countries. Egypt alone always supplies more than half the whole import into the United Kingdom. The average acreage under beans and peas in the United Kingdom in the period 1881-85 shows in each case a decline of more than 100,000 acres as compared with the period 1871-75, and since then there has been a further decline in beans. Chick-peas {Cicer arietinum, Linn.) are not of sufiicient importance in the commerce of Great Britain to be separately entered in the ' Annual Statements of Trade,' but they are an important product and article of trade .i;i TVLSES 73 Southern Europe and Northern Africa, Etnd also in India,' whero the crop is known as gram. In Spain they are one of the chief articles of diet of the people, and from Spain they are exported in large quan- tity to the Spanish colonies. In the caravan trade of Northern Africa they have an important place, and, besides forming an important article of local trade and consumption in India, they are exported thence also, chiefly to Mauritius and Ceylon. In warm countries, where butcher-meat is little consumed, this and other pulses are in fact au almost essential part of the regular diet, since they supply elements of food not contained in sufficient quantity in grain and fruits. It is for this reason that soya beans are largely consumed in two other warm countries, China and Japan, as well as in India. According to DecandoUe this bean is indigenous in Cochin-China, Java, and Japan. It is now very extensively cultivated throughout Eastern Asia, and is made (along with other pulses) into a great variety of pre- parations for use as human food. Soya, an extract from soya-beans, is also exported to Europe, and especially to England, to be used as an ingredient in soups and sauces, but much of the so-called soya is manufactured in Europe itself from various mushrooms. Oil can also be expressed from the beans, and in some parts of Central Europe the cultivation of this bean as food for cattle has been tried. 168. Among other pulses of more or bss importance in agriculture and commerce are lentils, vetches, and lupines, all of which are cul- tivated for their pods in Southern Europe, and the Mediterranean region generally ; lentils also in India. Lertils are celebrated for the nutritions character of their seeds, and the meal derived from them is the basis of the invalid food advertised under the names of Ervahnta and Bevalenta arabica. In Central and Western Europe vetches and lupines are cultivated solely for use as green fodder, lupines being a crop of special importance in certain localities, from its being adapted to very light, sandy soils. 169. The long flat dried pod of the carob-tree sold in our shops under the name of locusts, and sometimes called St. John's Bread, from the fact of its being supposed by some to be the locusts stated in the New Testament to have been eaten by John the Baptist in the wilderness, is the fruit of a tree (Ceratonia siliqua, Linn.) belonging to the Mediterranean generally, but specially abundant on the Island of Cyprus. The pods have now become a very considerable article of export from that island, and are largely sent to England to be used for cattle-fodder. So rich are the Cyprus carob-pods in sugar that a Bweet juice can be exti'acted from them capable of being used in pre- serving fruits, as well as for the other purposes to which sugar is applied. Mezquite is the name of several species of American trees of the genus Prosopis, producing a sweet pod something like that of the carob-tree. The most widely distributed species {Prosopis dulcis, Kunth), to which the Spaniards gave the name of the carob (algarrolq). ?4 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE after the similar tree of their own country, has pods nearly or quite two feet in length ; but this is rather a tropical tree than a tree of the temperate zone. The species to which the name mezquite is given in North America {P-juliflora, DC, and P.^wSescews, Benth.) have smaller pods, which, as well as the beans contained in them, are much relished by cattle. They are abundant in the north of Mexico and in the United States from Texas to Cahfornia, and are spreading with great rapidity in Western Texas, especially since forest fires have become less frequent. 170. POTATO. This important plant is one of the gifts of the New World to the Old. The cultivated species, which is known to botanists Rs Solanum tuberosum, Linn., and is hence a member of the same genus as our common weeds the woody nightshade and the bitter- sweet, is a native of the high and dry regions of the Andes from Chile to Venezuela, and its introduction thence into other countries has proved of immense importance on account of its extreme produc- tiveness, its easy cultivation, and its remarkable powers of acclimatis- ation, varieties of this plant being capable of cultivation from the tropics to the farthest limits of agriculture, even beyond the polar limit of barley. There is much uncertainty as to the date of its intro- duction into Europe, and into particular European countries. It is believed to have been known in Spain in the first half of the sixteenth century, but Italy is said to have been the country into which it was first introduced (about 1560), and it was certainly cultivated in that country before 1600. It is commonly said to have been introduced into Ireland by Sir Walter Ealeigh from Virginia in 1586, but this statement is certainly not accurate as it stands. It is certain that it was not Sir Walter Ealeigh that introduced any plant from Virginia about that time, though colonists originally settled in America by Sir Walter Raleigh may have done so ; but it is not at all certain that the potato was the plant then introduced — and, even if it was, it is not to be inferred that the potato was originally a native of Virginia. It is certain, too, that the plant first known in England as the potato was not that which is now so called, but the batatas or sweet potato. 171. Whatever may be the truth as to the date of introduction, we know that it was long before the potato rose into favour as an object of agriculture in most European countries. In Ireland it was earlier cultivated than in Great Britain. In England its cultivation did not become general till last century, and it was only in the latter half of that century that it came to be cultivated on a great scale in Germany (where its cultivation is now more widespread than in any other country on the European mainland), as well as in France, Austria, and Hungary. It even required the exercise of the autocratic powers of Frederick II. of Prussia to effect its introduction into the sandy districts of Pomerania and Silesia. In North Germany the potato is said now to make up five-sevenths of the food of the working-classes, POTATOES, ONIONS, FRUITS y; as it is known also to be the staple article of diet with the peasantry of Ireland. The highest production per head is that of Ireland, equal on an average to rather more than half a ton ('55 of a ton for the period 1879-88), and in this respect Germany comes next with an average production of rather less than half a ton per head. 172. Owing to the great bulk of this commodity compared with its value, the foreign trade in it is carried on mainly, if not solely, with neighbouring countries. The greater part of the import into the United Kingdom is from the Channel Islands, France, and Germany, the total value in 1887 nearly a million sterling. In that year the Channel Islands, where the' cultivation of early potatoes is rapidly increasing— above all, in Jersey, which is already almost one large potato-:fi«ld — supplied nearly two-fifths of the whole import in quantity, and more than half the value. Malta is the most distant locality the import from which is mentioned in the * Annual Statements.' 173. One great objection to the cultivation of the potato, it may here be mentioned, is its liability to disease, which in some years, as in 1845-46 in Ireland, has caused great distress in those countries which depend mainly on this root. It has been suggested as a remedy for this evil to introduce the cultivation of other species of potato (Solanum), which might prove better suited to the moist climate of Western Europe than that which is a native of the dry regions of the Andes. Two species in particular have been recommended for that pur- pose, and have been more or less successfully subjected to experiment with the view of testing their suitability, both for separate cultivation and for crossing with the ordinary potato. One of these is S. maglia, Schlecht, a native of the moister parts of Chile as far as 44° or 45° S. ; and the other S. commersoni, Duval, a native of Uruguay and the Argentine EepubHc, where it grows in rocky situations at a low level. 174. ONIOHS are the only other vegetable the import of which into the United Kingdom is considerable enough to be separately entered in the ' Annual Statements.' They are largely imported from various European countries (above all, Holland), as well as from Egypt &c. Other vegetables^turnips, mangold, carrots, and parsnips, &c. — are for the most part of too little value in proportion to their bulk to bear the expense of distant transport, and hence are chiefly produced at home, turnips alone occupying in the United Kingdom an area four- fifths as large again as that devoted to potatoes. The total value of the import into the United Kingdom under the general head of ' Vege- tables ' in 1887 was less than that of both potatoes and onions sepa- rately ;. and even with the addition of pickled vegetables (imported mainly from Holland, but probably to a large extent of other origin) less than that of potatoes. 175. FRUITS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE, including nuts and edible seeds. Of all the familiar fruits suitable to a climate like that of England, the only one that enters so largely into the foreign com- 76; PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE' ZONE incree of the country as to be separately mentioned in the ' Annual Statements of British Trade ' is the apple, which is largely imported from the Continent of Europe, and still more largely from North America, including both the United States and the British possessions. Australasia has recently begun to contribute a portion of the supply. Notwithstanding the fact that there are nearly 200,000 acres in Great Britain' occupied by fruit-trees (chiefly apple-trees), the value of the import of apples in 1890 was nearly half as great as the value of that of oranges. There is also a considerable import of plums and prunes from France. 176. But the bulk of the fruit-trade of the United Kingdom is in Southern fruits — so called from the fact of their being imported into Great Britain and the countries of Central and Northern Europe generally, chiefly from the peninsulas bordering on the Mediterranean. The principal fruits comprised under this designation are oranges and lemons, grapes, currants and raisins, figs, almonds and edible nuts, chiefly walnuts and chestnuts. Some of these products, Uke the orange and fig, reach their northern limit near the southern coasts of Europe, whereas others advance far into Central Europe; but, in the case of the British Isles at least, the chief imports of all of them are from countries that border at some part on the Mediterranean, though most, if not all, of them seem to have been originally introduced into that region from other parts of the world. 176 a. The orange [Citrus aurantium, Eisso) is believed to be a native of China, where the tree is still cultivated with great care in the southern half of the empire. From China it -had already spread to other parts of Southern Asia before the discovery of the sea-way to that part of the world (100), and from some part of Southern Asia it was introduced into Europe by the Portuguese in 1548. It is now cultivated in several varieties in a great many places in the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the whole earth, reaching in Europe its most northerly limit owing to the pecuharly favourable climate of the Medi- terranean region (468). Its northern limit in North America ex- tends in the west (in California) to about lat. 37° N., in the east to about 31|° N, In Europe its northern hmit rises in Western Portugal to about 40° N., and then, except in the valley of Andalusia, merely skirting the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, ascends to its highest, about 44° N., in the north-west of Italy. In Asia it begins in the west about lat. 37° (a degree and a half south of Smyrna), and sinks in the east to about 34^. In the southern hemisphere, the limit is about 35° S. The other species of the genus of commercial importance are the lemon (C limo7ium, Eisso), the smaller-fruited lime [G. limetta, Eisso), and the large thick-rinded citron [G. medica, Eisso). The last species was the first to be introduced into Europe (not long after the beginning of the Christian era), and owes its distinguishing name to the fact ' The extent in Ireland is not staled in the ' Irish Agricultural Eeturns.' SOUTffERii- FRUITS 77 that it was known to the Eomans as a tree abundant in Media (the tract on the south-east of the Caucasus). All the species appear to be native in India. Varieties of the citron ripen their fruit in Tyrol to the north of 46°. A hardier species of the genus is the kumquat of Japan (C. japonica, Thunb.), which is grafted on a wild stock that remains uninjured by frost, and which is hence recommended for culti- vation in those parts of the United States in which the ordinary orange could not be grown with success. It yields a small fruit resembhng the orange in flavour, though slightly bitter. 176 b. More than half the entire quantity of oranges and lemons imported into the United Kingdom is derived from Spain, Italy (and, more particularly Sicily) ranking next as a place of origin. France derives a considerable share of her supplies from Algeria (especially Saida, south of Oran). The United States import oranges chiefly from, the West Indies and South America (especially Brazil) ; but, in addi-- tion to the imported supply, produce large quantities of this fruit within their own borders (894). As regards quality, the Maltese, Jaffa, Azores (St. Michael), and West Indian oranges are the most celebrated, the, last being considered by some to surpass those of all other places. In India the oranges of Nagpur and the Khdsi Hills have a high reputa- tion, in the Argentine Republic those of Tucuman. Limes are grown for export, and for the making of Hme-juice, more abundantly on the West Indian island of Montserrat than in any other place. 176 c. Figs can be cultivated in the Mediterranean region over a somewhat wider range than the orange, the tree which produces this fruit not being so sensitive as the orange to frost ; but as a matter of fact they are grown for export mainly in the eastern part of tlie Medi- terranean, and above all in Asia Minor, in the district lying to the north of those to which the orange is confined. The valley round Smyrna, which carries on no orange cultivation, produces figs of pecu- liarly fine quality. Greece also produces excellent figs, both 00 the islands and the mainland; and so also does Southern Italy. The necessity of cheap labour for packing the figs, which, as everybody knows, are exported almost exclusively as a dry fruit, is no doubt an obstacle to the cultivation of the fig, especially in those regions which are suitable also for the more valuable orange. 176 d. Grapes are of course produced wherever the vine is grown (179), but they are exported as a fruit chiefly from those districts which do not produce a grape suitable for wine-making. Large quan- tities of eating-grapes are grown in this country, and elsewhere beyond the hmit of regular vine-culture, in hot-houses or under glass ; and they are also imported from Spain (especially the south-east), Portu- gal, France, and other countries. Raisins and currants are dried grapes. The former are imported into this country chiefly from Spain and Asia Minor, all other countries furnishing less than a tenth of the total British supply. (See also 894, 956.) Sultana raisins are made 78 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE from a seedless grape largely cultivated in Asia Minor and on some of the adjacent islands. Currants are the dried form of a still smaller seedless grape obtained from a variety of vine whicli appears to be one of the most exacting of all plants as regards soil and climate, and one that exhibits in the most marked manner the effect of local influences. The currant-vine is almost confined to the Kingdom of Greece, and its product is the most valuable of all the exports of that kingdom. But even in Greece its domain is limited, and it is observed that, however carefuUy the vine may be cultivated, it is impossible to get an equally good fruit in all the different districts in which it is grown. The smallest, but sweetest and best flavoured currants are grown on the islands, and on the mainland it is observed that the best qualities are grown only at the head and on the south shore of the Gulf of Corinth. It was on this gulf, in the neighbourhood of the town of Corinth, of which the name currant is a corruption, that this variety of the vine was first cultivated on the Greek mainland. 176 e. Almonds, walnuts, and chestnuts — all, it would appear, originally products of the interior of Asia Minor, in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea — ^have all spread far west, and more or less north. Almonds are now chiefly imported from Italy, Morocco, and Spain, but are also produced in considerable quantity in Prance ; and walnuts and chestnuts have penetrated much farther into the heart of Europe. These last two are not separately entered in the ' Annual Statements,' but they make up a large part of the unenumerated nuts used as fruit which are imported into this country chiefly from Spain and France. Among other Southern fruits more or less important in commerce are the prickly pear, the black-spotted pear-shaped fruit of a cactus, introduced into Southern Eurc^e from the drier parts of tropical America ; the black mulberry, the pomegranate, and the pistachio nut. With regard to several of the fruits here spoken of, it may be men- tioned that the foreign tralde connected with them represents only a very small portion of th^ whole trade to which they give rise, seeing that in the countries in which they are grown, some of them, such as oranges, grapes, prickly pears, and figs, are not mere luxuries, as they are with Northern peoples, but make up an essential and important part of the food of the people, and thus are the staples of a very large local trade botb by sea and land. 177. WIllE. From a geographical point of view, and more par- ticularly, as will appear further on, from the standpoint of commercial geography, the vine as the source of that fermentedjuice which maketh glad the heart of man is one of the most interesting of all economic plants. Its original home seems to have been somewhere in Western Asia or the south-east of Europe. According to Hehn, the region from which it spread is the luxuriant country to the south of the Caspian Sea, part of the ancient Media. ' There in the woods the vine, thick as a man's arm, still climbs into the loftiest trees, hanging in wreaths THE VINE: LIMITS OF CULTIVATION ^9 from summit to summit.' ' But it appears to be indigenous as far east as Afghanistan and as far west as the Carpathians.^ 178. How early the must, or juice of the grape, was converted into wine we know from the Hebrew Scriptures ; and the virtues of this pro- duct in process of time caused the spread of vine-culture wherever civili- sation advanced along the shores of the Mediterranean, as well as east- wards through the drier parts of Asia. By Europeans the vine of the Old World was introduced into America, where, however, there are native species {yitis labrusca, L., &c.), now cultivated as wine-plants. The spread of vine-cultivation is still going on, and the vine thus rapidly extending over the whole domain suitable to it throughout the world. 179. The limits set to its cultivation by climate are somewhat rigorous ; for though there are many varieties of the vine, as of all cul- tivated plants, there are none adapted — like some varieties of maize; for example — to a comparatively short summer. A nioderately high temperature, extending far into the autumn, is essential to the matur- ing of the grape so as to make it fit for wine-making. In Europe, a mean temperature of about 60° Fahr. in the month of September is one of the conditions of successful cultivation ; and it is this fact chiefly which explains the form which the northern limit of the vine as a wine-plant assumes both in the Old World and the New. In Western Europe, where the temperature is subject to moderating influences both in summer and winter (35), the northern limit is in about 475° N., a little to the north of the mouth of the Loire, but it gradually rises eastwards as the summers get warmer, until in the east of Prussia, in the Province of Posen, it reaches its highest latitude anywhere in the world, about 52| or 53° N. As we go still further east the summer in equal latitudes gets shorter though warmer, and hence the September temperature declines. Consequently the wine-limit gradually sinks to the shore of the Sea of Azof, where it is lower than in the west of France. The extremely sunny character of South-eastern Eussia causes it, however, once more to rise a degree or two, but it again sinks in Asia to about 40° or 41°. The corresponding limit on the American Continent has a similar form, but exhibits the advantage belonging to Europe in respect of climate (40 a). It begins in California about 37° N., rises to above 42° N. in the Canadian Province of Ontario, but declines again slightly in the United States. In the southern hemi- sphere the limit is about 40° S. 180. But while the range of cultivation of the vine is thus limited on the north and south, it is important to observe that the habit of the plant gives it one great advantage within those limits. The roots of the vine- stock penetrate the soil to a great depth ; and this fact, besides placing > Hehn's Wanderings of Plants and Animals, p. 73 (Eng. ed.). ' Eemains of vine-leaves have been found in prehistoric tuffs at Montpellier, and elsewhere in the South of France, and grape-pips round the Lake-dwellings of Switzerland, and fossil relics both of the vine and fig {Ficm carica) have been found in the Quaternary travertine of Milianah in Algeria. 8p PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE the roots beyond the reach of frost, which is important in those region^ in which a summer of sufBcient length is succeeded by a winter of great severity (as in some parts of Eussia and Central Asia), enables it to draw on deep stores of moisture, and thus without irrigation to flourish and to continue to produce its tender leaves, even in those parts of the Mediterranean in which the summers are nearly rainless and almost all other vegetation is then at a standstill (42, 470). 181. Lastly, with respect to the range of the vine as a wine-plant, it is to be noted that the limits above described are not fixed solely by cHmate. They are fixed partly by commerce. They are not the limits within which the vine can grow and yield grapes whose juice can be made into wine, but the limits within which wine of tolerable quality can be produced — that is, wine sufficiently good to have a com- mercial value. In former times the vine was cultivated as a wine-plant in the valley of the Severn, and in several of the southern counties of England ; and on the mainland of Europe, in the provinces of East and West Prussia, and even in Courland in a higher latitude than it is now grown ; but the yield in such places was very uncertain and the quality of the wine inferior, so that the cultivation of the vine was abandoned there when the advance of commerce cheapened the wines obtainable from more favoured regions, 182. The amount and quality of the wine obtainable from grapes in different places vary greatly from different causes. In the first place, the fruit of the vine is greatly affected by differences in the soil and climate. A sunny climate without excess of rainfall is that which is best adapted to it, and hence it is often grown, especially in the more northerly districts, on hill-slopes exposed to the sun, the slope favouring the draining away of superfluous moisture. The excess of summer rains prevents the cultivation of the vine for wine-making in monsoon countries (3B) such as India and China. The best soil for the vine is one both warm and retentive of moisture, that is, one that retains enough moisture without being wet ; and it is, no doubt, the combina- tion of these characters that makes chalky and other limestone soils so suitable for viticulture. But, secondly, the preparation of wine of high quality from the must is an industry that demands great skill and many expensive appliances, and consequently is practised on a great scale only where the industry is of long standing, and where the state of industry is sufficiently advanced to afford the necessary fcapital and labour. And, thirdly, the vine is subject to many diseases, some of which have at times committed such ravages in vineyards as greatly to reduce, and occasionally almost to extinguish, the wine in- dustry in certain districts. A fungus {Oidium Tuckeri, Berk.) has since about the middle of the present century committed extensive ravages in the Meditsrranean region, and almost destroyed the once famous vineyards of Madeira. Since about 1863 the vines of France and many other countries have suffered even more severely from an insect Mill, galls. Germany. ... 80 Boumania and the "I „„ Balkan Peninsula J Bussia .... 40' United States Mill, gal's. Algeria . . Cape Colony Australia . . . . 41-8» . . 3-7* . . 2 IVmS: AVERAGE PRODUCTION, PRODUCTION IN FRANCE 8i enemy, the now well-known phylloxera. In France alone upwards of a million acres of vineyards were reported to be infected by the dis- ease due to this insect in 1885, and more than 2,000,000 acres had already been destroyed. Numerous vineyards have been replanted with American vines, not so liable to the attacks of the insect. Since 1874, the date at which its attacks began to tell most cruelly, the net reduction in the area of the French vineyards amounts to rather more than a million acres. 183. The following table will serve to indicate at least roughly the relative place of the countries named in the wine-production of the world ; but with regard to France it may be mentioned that in 1875, the year preceding the ten years the average of which is given in the table, the amount of wine produced reached a higher total than had ever been attained before in that country, or probably anywhere else, being considerably more than double the average here given : — Average Anntial Wine-Producticm of Different Countries. Mi'l. galls, France .... 940 Italy 600 Spain 485 Austria-Hungary . 160 Portugal .... 90 184. France does not only take the first place as regards the quantity of its wine-production. Its most celebrated wines — such as the clarets or Bordeaux wines, from the best vineyards of the basin of the Gironde ; champagne, grown on the chalk hills'of the old province of that name, and especially on the western slopes of those hills ex- posed to the warm rays of the afternoon sun ; and burgiindy, named from another old province — are among the best of aU wines. The last- named is grown at its best on the ' golden ' slopes of the C6te d'Or, where that range looks down on the warm valley of the Doubs, a valley sheltered from cold northern blasts by the Vosges Mountains and the heights, of the Faucilles. France, as it has the largest wine-produc- tion in the world, has also the largest export trade in this commodity. Until the ravages of the phylloxera began there was only a trifling import to set against this large export, but since 1880 the wine imported into France has exceeded in quantity the amount exported, and the amount of the import is now regularly between two and three times that of the export. There is not, however, the same difference in value, the imported wine being chiefly an inferior commodity from Italy and the north-east of Spain. The explanation of this large import ' is twofold. First, the fixed habits of the people lead to a larger con- ' Estimate of Neumann-Spallart, taken from Besobrasof's Mudes sur Viconoviie nationale de Russie, St. Petersburg, 1886. The estimate includes the production of Trans-Caucasia, where the greater part is produced. Other much higher estimates are given. ' Estimate (rounded) of Dr. Wm. MaoMurtie for 1880. See Ausland, 1884, p. 327. 'See paragraph 186. ' In 1875. Q 82 -PRODUCTS OF TSE TEMPERATE ZONE sumption of wine per head in France than in any other country, and hence demand an increased import when the amount of the home pro- duct is diminished ; and, secondly, France retains the reputation which it has long had in foreign countries, and especially in England, for its light wines, and hence imports a great deal of wine to re-export it as French, or to mix with wine of native production intended for export. A considerable proportion of the wine now exported as French is even made from imported raisins, or is an entirely artificial product. 185. The wines of Italy, though some of them were celebrated in classical times, no longer enjoy any special reputation (see 670). Some of the Spanish wines have long been in high repute, especially in England, the most noted being those strong southern wines which take the name of sherry (formerly sherris) from the town of Jerez de la Frontera, near the seaport of Cadiz, in which district the best sherry is stOl produced as it was in the days of Falstaff. A greater quantity of wine, however, is produced in the north-east of Spain, in the provinces of Barcelona, Zaragoza, &c. The wines of Fortugal are chiefly grown in the basin of the Douro, and that which, is exported is shipped at Oporto, chiefly for England, where it is known as port. Of the wines of the Austrian Empire the most celebrated are those of Hungary, grown chiefly on volcanic soil. Fine liqueur wines (sweet and syrupy) are a speciality of the Hungarian production. The cele- brated Tokay of Northern Hungary owes its reputation to the favour- able soil of a particular range of hills, and to the care with which the juice of the grapes of these vineyards has long been treated. Germany, though only sixth on the list in respect of the quantity of wine which it produces, is noted for the fine quality of the vmtage of some of its valleys, and above aU those of the warm valley of the Middle Ehine, between the Vosges and the Black Forest, and the valleys of its tributary streams, the Moselle and the Neckar. The celebrated Taunus wine is grown on the slopes of the hills that shut in on the north the valley of the Middle Ehine just mentioned. 186. In the United States the cultivation of the vine is far from having attained the extent that might have been expected from the vast area which they afford with a suitable climate ; but this branch of agriculture is now receiving more attention, especially in California in the west and New York in the east. The light Californian wines are the only ones that have yet attained a reputation in this country. In Algeria the spread of the vine-culture since 1878, when it was in its infancy, has been very rapid. The production given in the table on page 81 is that for 1887. The vine was introduced into the Cape Colony in 1653, soon after the arrival of the first European settlers, and it has been found to be very productive — according to a table given in the Handbook of the Colony, published in 1886, from two to four times as productive as in any other part of the world. The quality of the grapes is also excellent, but few Cape wines are suffi- WINE, HOPS 83 ciently carefully made to bear a high reputation Jn European markets. In order to raise the character of the wine industry of the colony, the Cape Government has within the last few years bought one of the most celebrated vineyards of the colony (the Great Constantia yine- yard, near Gape Town), with the view of making experiments and giving instruction in viticulture. The Australian production of wine is increasing, and several light wines of that origin have already found favour in the home market. Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia are the chief colonies in which it is grpwn, and Victoria, which produces about half the entire quantity, is that which has shown the most steady advance in wine-production since 1871. 187. The British trade in wine is effected by the existence of a customs duty which varies according to the proportion of spirit con- tained in the wine. The countries from which the greater part of the British import (in 1887, more than six-sevenths of the quantity and nearly nine-tenths of the value) is derived are France, Spain, and Portugal, France alone in 1887 having supplied about two-fifths of the quantity and more than half the value. A considerable proportion of the wine imported (about 8 per cent, on an average) is re-exported, being sent to all parts of the world. The quantity of wipe retained for home consumption in the United Kingdom, relatively to popula- tion, steadily declined from "56 gallon per head in 1876 to '36 gallon per head in 1886. For the sake of comparison it may be mentioned that in France the consumption in 1876 was rather more than 30 gallons per head ; but that, it must be remembered, was the year after the unparalleled vintage of 1875. In the year following the rate was reduced to 28 gallons, and there has been a still further decline since. 188. HOPS. A slender- stemmed twining and climbing plant culti- vated for the sake of its clusters of small greenish flowers, which are used as a seasoning for beer, to which they impart a bitter flavour. In cultivation it is allowed to twine round upright poles. There are two kinds of flowers on different plants, one which can and one which can- not produce seeds, and it is only the former that can be used for the purpose mentioned. The countries in which the plant is most largely cultivated are England, Germany, the United States, and Austria, England and Germany together always furnish more than half the total production of the world. On the average of the three years 1885-87 the share of England in the total yield was rather greater than that of Germany, on an acreage only about four-sevenths of the German acreage. Notwithstanding its large production the United Kingdom regularly imports an amount equal to one-third of the home produce or more, the export being trifling. This fact might be expected to lead to still further increase in the extent of this crop, but the obstacle to any great extension consists in the fact that the crop is a very exhausting one, requiring to be grown only on the richest soil. It is hence confined to only a few localities. In England a 2 84 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE it is mainly grown m Kent, but the best quality is grown round Famham, in Surrey, where the upper greensand, a geological formation very rich in mineral manures (423'11), comes to the surface. Besides Kent the principal counties producing this crop are Sussex, Hereford, and Hants. It is not grown at all in the northern counties. Besides being grown only on rich soil, the crop is in England generally very plentifully treated with manure, so that the average quantity produced to the acre in this country is very much greater than the average produced anywhere else. The imported hops are mainly from the Continent of Europe and the United States, the latter country having recently risen to the first place among those from which our supplies are directly derived. It is probable, however, that a large amount of the German crop reaches us through Belgium and Holland, so that the whole import originally derived from Germany may still rival that of the United States. In Germany hops are chiefly grown in Bavaria, and above aU in the division of Middle Franconia, in the west of that kingdom, north of the Danube. Of late this crop has extended very rapidly in Alsace-Lorraine. In Austria the chief hop-growing province is Bohemia, where some districts are specially celebrated for the ex- cellence of their produce. The hop as a cultivated plant was intro- duced into England from Belgium (Flanders) only in 1525. 189. BEET. The common name for several varieties of a species of plants called botanically Beta vulgaris, Linn., and largely cultivated. They have large broad leaves and long tap-roots, and it is principally for the sake of the latter that they have been introduced into agriculture. One variety is extensively grown in this country, under the German name of mangold or mangel-wurzel, as food for cattle, like the turnip. Requiring a hotter and drier climate than this latter crop, it is mostly grown in the southern and eastern parts of England, and, being very sensitive to frost, it is banished from those parts of the island in which the summers are short or the situation too exposed. 190. Another, and now a much more important variety, has in the course of the present century become the great rival of the sugar-cane in the production of sugar. This variety is now cultivated over a very large and steadily increasing area in Central Europe, including the west and south-west of Russia. Experiments have been made with its cultivation in the east of England, but this variety requires even a warmer climate than the last, and so far the success of these experi- ments has been limited. Beyond the confines of Europe the cultivation of sugar-beet has proved successful only in very few places. Through- out the wide area of the United States, with all its variety of climates, one small part of California is the only spot in which, after repeated failures, it has proved a commercial success. Quite recently its cul- tivation is said to have proved successful in Yezo, and government encouragement is now being given to its cultivation in New Zealand. See the Sugar Industry (304-308). FLAX AND LINSEED' 85^ 191. PL AX. Flax is a plant remarkable for the variety of useful' products which it yields, as well as the variety of uses to which these products can be- put, and hence is well called by botanists Linum usitatissimum — linum being the Latin for ' flax,' and usitatistsimum signifying ' most useful.' The most important of these products is the fibre of the bast, or inner bark of the stem, which is tall and slendes like that of the cereals, but not unbranched. The fibre, which is from eight to upwards of fifty inches in length, is itself called flax, and from the earliest times has been spun and woven into a fabric known as linen (from the Latin name of the plant). Manufactured flax fibres have been found in the remains of the pre-historic Lake-dwellings of Switzerland, The oldest of all surviving vestments, the wrappings of the Egyptian mummies, are probably linen. The seed (linseed) is also of great value as yielding an oil largely used in mixing paints, and, in its greatest purity, in making varnish (328). The crushed cake that remains after pressing out the oil is an excellent food for cattle, and the seeds when ground afford the linseed-meal which is so much used medicinally. The tow, which is composed of the shorter fibres of the flax, those not used for weaving, is spun into twine and cords, and linen rags furnish the best material for paper-making. 192. Flax is grown through a wide range of climate. It thrives both in India and in the colder parts of Eussia, but the chief commercial value of the crop arises only from one of its two products, either fibre or seed, not from both together. Where, as in India, the best seed (for oil) is grown, the fibre is nearly valueless ; and where the fibre is good, as in Eussia, the seed is of less value. In Europe flax is grown most ex- tensively in Russia, from which more than three-fourths of the entire British import of the fibre is derived ; and though it is also largely grown in all the countries of Central Europe and in Northern Italy (especially round Cremona), it is only in Eussia that this branch of agriculture has of late years been extending. In Great Britain flax is now but little grown, but flax of excellent quality is still grown in large (though diminishing) amount in the north of Ireland, in the whole of which island it is a culture of great antiquity. 193. The soil best suited for the growth of flax for the fibre is one that is tolerably firm and moist. This latter circumstance is what renders the flat surface of Eussia and Ireland so well suited for its growth. But there are other conditions besides soil and climate which have an important influence on the extent of flax cultivation. Flax is one of those crops which require the employment of a good deal of labour on the field before the fibre is ready for the factory. For the unprepared flax straw there is in England no market, and to be made ready for the market the flax has to undergo a number of processes which are apt to make extensive demands on the labour attached to a farm at a time when it is much needed for other pur- poses. In tlie first place, instead of being cut like grain, flax has to 86 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE be pulled up by the roots. Next it must be rippled— deprived of its seed-vessels by means of an iron comb. After that the straw has to be softened and otherwise altered in character by a process called retting. The straw has then to be broken, and afterwards to be scutched, or subjected to the action of a machine with revolving blades, which gets rid of the woody core of the fibre. When scutched the flax fibre is at last ready for the market. 194. It is the labour required for these processes that chiefly prevents the cultivation of flax in England and Scotland ; but in view of the fact that the plant is quite suited for our climate, that the average value of the import of flax-fibre, linseed, and oil-cake (chiefly from linseed) into the United Kingdom is about 10,000,000Z., and that other branches of agriculture are declining in this country, an effort is now being made to extend the growth of flax among British farniers by making them acquainted with recently invented modes of saving labour in the operations above mentioned. It has likewise been sug- gested that facilities should be afforded to the growers for selling the flax in the straw as is done on the Continent. In the United States flax is extensively cultivated, but almost exclusively for seed, the cost of labour for the preparatory processes being, no doubt, as in Great Britain, the chief cause preventing its cultivation for the fibre ; for that country is one of the most important in the world for hnen goods, and a linen manufacture, based on imported fibre, is developing there very rapidly. 195. Of the different flax products imported into the United Kingdom, that which has the greatest aggregate value is linseed ; but the amount of flax fibre, including tow, annually imported is itself equal to the produce of 500,000 acres, or about four times the acreage under this crop in Ireland. This betokens an extensive linen industry, the chief seats of which are in the same part of Ireland as that which produces the raw material. Oh the Continent this industry is most highly developed in Germany (where Westphalia is most noted for the quality of its linens), Austria (especially Bohemia), and Belgium. 196. Lawns and cambrics are among the special fabrics made from flax. The latter is named from the French town of Cambrai, where the manufacture is still carried on. The Canvas of sailmakers, formerly, as the name indicates (197), made from the hemp-fibre, is now, in the United Kingdom at least, made chiefly from flax. 197. HEMP {Cannabis sativa, Linn.) is a plant the bast of which yields a fibre similar to that of flax, only coarser and stronger. It is hence used chiefly (in England almost solely) for ropes and cordage, and the fabric woven from it, which takes the name of canvas, from the Latin name of the plant, is principally used in making sails. The finer kinds of fibre are, however, used in making a cloth similar to linen, and hemp yam, like linen yarn, is frequently combined with other yarns in weaving. Like flax, hemp is adapted to a wide range of climate ; but the soil and chmate best suited to it, when grown for HEMP, NEW ZEALAND FLAX, ESPARTO, NETTLES 87 the sake of the fibre, are similar to those required for flax, and the mode of cultivation and after-treatment of flax are likewise suitable in the case of hemp. Hence the countries of chief production are the same. Russia stands first as regards quantity, but Italy, which comes second in quantity, has the reputation of producing the hemp of the finest quality (that grown round Bologna). In the United Kingdom hemp is even less grown than flax. In Ireland an inconsiderable quantity is produced, and in Great Britain its production is almost confined to the low alluvial lands of Lincolnshire, the clay flats of Holderness, and a few similar localities. In India hemp is very extensively grown, but chiefly for the sake of various stimulants derived from the plant (744 a). 198. The term ' hemp ' is also applied to a number of other fibres, some tropical, some extra-tropical in their origin, adapted to the same uses as the true hemp fibre. By far the most important of these is that known as Manilla hemp, a tropical product (317), and among other tropical products so called are sunn-hemp, deceani-hemp (319), and sisal-hemp (316). Among plants belonging to temperate climates, the so-called New Zealand flax {Phormium tenax, Forst.) is now sometimes more appropriately called New Zealand hemp, seeing that the fibre is much better adapted to the purposes of hemp fibre than to those of flax fibre. In this case the fibre is derived from the leaves, which are long and narrow like those of the yellow flag or iris. The plant grows very abundantly in New Zealand and is very easily culti- vated, and as the leaves can be cut thrice a year without destroying the plant, it might be expected that the supply of the fibre would be plentiful. But the use of the fibre in manufactures is impeded by the difficulty in freeing it from a gum by which it is invested. Hence, excellent as the fibre is when prepared, the total amount exported from New Zealand or used in native manufactures is quite insignifi- cant compared with the corresponding amounts of hemp and Manilla hemp in the coimtries of their production. 199. Of other fibre-yielding products of the temperate zone, the most important are the common nettle [Urtica dioica, Linn.) and esparto {Stipa tenacissima, Linn.). The bast fibres of the former were pretty extensively used in spinning and weaving on the continent of Europe before the great expansion of the cotton industry about the be- ginning of the present century (254-56), and their use has recently been revived to some extent in Germany and elsewhere. The cloth made from it is known as grass-cloth, in the making of which, however, the tropical or sub-tropical fibres ramie and China-grass (318, 318 a) are the materials principally employed. The esparto plant is a kind of grass, the fibres derived from the leaves of which are used in Spain in making ropes and cordage as well as in plaiting. But the commercial importance of this plant is chiefly due to its use in paper-making (437, 440). - 88 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE 200. WOOL. Wool is the name given to a kind of hair found in greater or less quantity on almost all mammals, on a few of which it forms the principal covering of the body. From ordinary hair it is distinguished by two important properties. First, while a hair is almost quite smooth on the outside, each fibre in wool is covered with minute overlapping scales, the edges of which are turned in one direction hke those of the slates on a roof. These scales are, however, extremely minute, so that they cannot be discerned by the naked eye or by the touch, unless a woollen fibre be drawn between the fingers in the direction opposite to that in which the edges of the scales are set. Second, each fibre of wool is finely crimped or curled, so that when drawn out it becomes greatly lengthened, return- ing again to its original length when the strain is removed. It is the spring due to this curl which imparts to woollen fabrics that elasticity which distinguishes them from those made from cotton, linen, and other fibres. Another distinguishing property of wool is its power of felting — that is, of becoming matted in such a manner as to be capable of being made into a kind of cloth without weaving, but merely by rolling, beating, and other processes. This probably results from the fact that the scales and curls of the fibres get caught by one another BO firmly that they cannot be easily detached, but the precise ex- planation of this property is not understood. It is certain at least that the felting quality of wool is not in proportion to the relative number of scales, for some wools that have a great number of scales to the inch do not felt at all well, and others which have exceptionally few scales felt easily. 201. The animal that furnishes by far the largest proportion of the wool of commerce is the domestic sheep, the woolly covering of which is almost entirely a product of domestication. Several different species of wild sheep are indeed known, one of these, the mouflon, still surviving in a few of the mountainous parts of Southern Europe ; and some of the species of wild sheep which inhabit the elevated regions of Central Asia are known to produce, like other natives of the same part of the world, considerable quantities of winter wool. Buc no wild species of sheep possesses the well-known woolly fleece, which is one of the principal products for the sake of which the domestic sheep is reared. When the sheep was first domesticated it is impossible to say. This must have taken place at a period beyond tlie reach of history. The pictures on the ancient Egyptian monu- ments bear witness to the fact that the people of that country pos- sessed the domestic sheep at a very remote period, though there are no pictures of this animal so old as some of those of the horse and ox. 202. In all countries suited for rearing it, the sheep is now the most numerous of domesticated animals, and in most of these it is chiefly for the sake of the fleece that it is reared. The climate best WOOL: REGIONS OF PRODUCTION gg; adapted to tlie sheep as a wool-produeer is one that is comparatively dry and equable, or at any rate free from extremes of cold. The grassy tracts of the Mediterranean countries are accordingly peculiarly favourable to it (42, 470), and it was in that region that the merino! sheep, the variety which now produces the finest wool in aU parts of the world in which it thrives, originated.' This' variety, "which is: characterised by its dense and soft fleece, and fine but strong and very curly fibre, was first known in Noithern Africa, and was thence introduced into Spain about the middle of the fourteenth century. In Spain, which even in Eoman times was renowned for the excellence of its fleeces, the variety was still further improved by careful rearing. In the seventeenth century the finest cloths of Western Europe were all made from Spanish wool, and Spain retained its reputation for wool till long after that period. At the present day, however, Spanish wool, owing to the neglect which the sheep-rearing industry along with all others experienced for centuries in Spain, is far eclipsed by the produce of other countries, and in quantity it takes a very unimportant place in the commerce of the world. 203. The country which first bore' the palm from Spain for its wool was Saxony, into which the merino sheep was introduced towards the middle of the eighteenth century. Upon the rearing of this variety the Saxon sheep-owners bestowed the greatest care, and in consequence of that care, rather than because of any superiority in climate, the so- called ' electoral ' ' wool rapidly attained the first place in the market. Silesian wool, produced in the Prussian province of Silesia, soon came to rival it from the same cause, and another rival is sometimes found in Bohemian (Austrian) wool. With regard to English wool, it must be explained that wools generally are classed in two great divi- sions (214), adapted for different purposes, the length of fibre or staple having been formerly the distinguishing character between the two, and it is mainly the long-stapled variety for which English wool has a reputation. The English breeds of sheep which take their names from the counties of Leicester and Lincoln are among the finest of the ' long-stapled ' class. To illustrate the effect of local conditions on the quality of sheep's wool, an effect which is very marked in many parts of the world, it may here be mentioned that, while these breeds pro- duce in the counties named, and in Yorkshire and Notts, a highly lustrous wool, their fleece rapidly loses in brilliancy in other counties (see 962 c). In the Middle Ages wool was by far the most valuable of the English exports. It is still the principal agricultural export of the United Kingdom, and within the last twenty years or so this export has increased greatly m absolute, and still more in relative, amount, as is shown by the following table : — ' So called because in the eighteenth century Saxony was an ' electorate '—that jB, its ruler was one of the princes entitled to vote in the election of the emperor of the old German empire. go PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE. Period British wool, average annual amount in millious of lbs. Percentage exported Production Export 1871-75 ■ 1876-80 1881-85 1886-90 159 152 133 135 9-44 11-78 17-79 21-32 5-9 7-7 13-4 15-8 204. The following table, giving an estimate' at different dates of the production of wool in different parts of the world, will serve to show where the tendency is upwards and where downwards, at least so far as the wool of international commerce is concerned : — Production in mil'.ions of lbs. 1873 1879 1885 1800 165 470 175 193 248 49 125 153 450 233 289 226 51 120 136 450 330 385 356 50 123 138 450 322^ 511 272 91 160 European Mainland United States Australasia EiverPlate^ Cape of Good Hope Other sources (so far as received into Europe and N. America) Total 1,425 1,522 1,830 1,944 Estimated clean wool after washing . . 827 861 993 1,061 205. The last line in the preceding table indicates a circumstance that greatly modifies the value of these figures for comparative purposes. The wool on the sheep always includes a varying proportion of grease and dirt, which must be removed before the wool is ready for use. Each fibre of the wool has a natural covering of grease, which is known as the yolk, and which on the living animal has the important property of preventing the wool from becoming felted. Occasionally the wool is scoured before export, but this practice, which is apt to result in the felting of the wool when packed in bales for long voyages, is becoming rarer. More frequently the fleece is washed to get rid of the dirt, the yolk being still retained. Very often, however, the wool is exported in its natural condition. The amount of clean wool, that is, the amomit of fibre available for manufacturing purposes, thus varies greatly according to the difference of practice in this respect, as well as according to other circumstances affecting the condition of the wool. The following figures (based on the estimates of Messrs. Helmuth Schwartze & Co.) consequently afford a more satisfactory comparison of the yield of wool in the three chief wool exporting regions of the ' For 1873, 1879, and 1885 by Mr. A. Sauerbeck, in the Jmr. Stat. Soc. 1886, p. 608, for 1890 by Messrs. Helmuth, Schwarze & Co. ' Aigentine JJepublic and Uruguay. " North America. Pf^OOZ: AUSTRALASIAN, S. AMERICAN, AND S. AFRICAN gi world, or will at least serve to indicate the caution with which esti- mates of the production and consumption of wool in different countries must be received : — Average Anrmal Imports of Wool into Europe and North America in millions of lbs Prom 1871-76 1876-80 1881-85 1886-90 AustiaJian Colonies , raw 207 285 370 461 clean 116 14s 182 227 -p.c.' S5-7 50-9 49-2 49-2 Biver Plate . . . raw 226 243 306 323 clean 75 ^3 109 120 ^p.e. 33-3 34-1 35-3 37-1 South Africa . . . raw 52 50 63 81 clean 33 32 32 43 =p.c. 63-7 tJfl 60-6 33-3 As the number of sheep in the Eiver Plate region is nearly the same as the aggregate number in the Australasian colonies, the pre- ceding figures show that the yield of wool per sheep in the former must be very much less than in the latter. If the figures in the last column may be assumed as approximately correct, then the average yield of a River Plate sheep must be little more than one-half of that of an Australasian. 206. This productiveness of the sheep in the Australasian colonies is the result partly of climate, partly of careful management of the stock. Merino sheep were introduced into Australia about the close of last century from the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards from England, and care has been taken to propagate them. They have thriven admirably, and certain parts of Victoria and New South Wales now produce a wool unequalled for softness and lustre, and at the same time, unlike the original merino, very long in staple. This wool now commands the highest price in the London market, which is the great wool-market of the world. 207. Besides the differences already noted there is a remarkable diflference in the destination of the Australian and South African wool, on the one hand, and that of the Eiver Plate. For the former ■wool the one great market is the British Isles, which derive from the colonies in that part of the world a steadily increasing proportion of the wool required for the home manufactures. Of the whole of this raw material now required more than twice as much is now imported from abroad as is produced at home, and of the imported wool that of Australasian origin increased from an average of 60 per cent, in tho ten years 1866-75 to about 70 per cent, in the ten years 1881-90. If we compare the total imports of Europe and North America as estimated by Messrs. Helmuth Schwartze & Co. with the British imports as given in official tables, we find that during the period 1881-87 the United ' In the calculation of percentages fractions of millions are taken into account. 92. PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONK Kingdom received about 94| per cent, of the whole Australasian and South African wool, whereas the proportion of the Eiver Plate wool which it received was less than 4 per cent. The chief markets for the latter wool are the mainland of Europe (France, Belgium, and Germany) and the United States. This is partly, no doubt, because the United Kingdom is so amply supplied by her own colonies ; but it is partly due to the fact that the Eiver Plate wool, besides being dirty, from the nature of the pastures contains a considerable admixture of seeds and other vegetable debris, so that it requires special machinery to deal with it. Such machinery has been more generally erected on the mainland of Europe than in the British Isles, and by means of it French and Belgian manufacturers spin yarns which are used to make soft all-wool fabrics of high quality, such as have only lately begun to be rivalled by British productions. 207 a. A few years ago London was almost the sole market for Aus- tralian wool, but in recent years wool markets have been established with great success in the chief Australian capitals. One result of this- is that an increasing proportion of the wool from this part of the world is sent direct to Antwerp, Marseilles, Hamburg, and New York. Down to 1888 inclusive the largest number of bales of colonial wool sent direct to foreign ports was 94,000, or 5*8 per cent, of the total import into Em-ope and America ; iu the 1891 season it was 298,000 bales, or 15J per cent, of the total. 208. In the United States the wool is mostly of inferior quality,' but efforts are now being made to improve it. The Cape of Good Hope, though not to be compared with the United States or the La Plata region as regards the total amount of wool produced, yields a large quantity relatively to population, and it, together with the other British possessions in South Africa, comes next after Australia in the amount of wool supplied to the British market. Several attempts were made to introduce fine-wooUed sheep from Europe from about 1790 downwards, and about 1812 the rearing of merinos was fairly, established in the colony. The South African wool is neither so fine nor so long in the staple as that of Australia. Among the other countries from which the British Isles obtain- supplies of wool the most important are India (whence the wool obtained" is generally of poor quality, and used chiefly for making blankets), Russia, Germany, France, HoUand and Belgium, Turkey, and Egypt. 209. The principal animals besides the sheep yielding materials for the woollen manufacture are the goat, the alpaca and vicuna, and the camel. The fibre derived from aU of these is more nearly allied to wool than to hair, though there are gradual transitions between the properties of the one and those of the other fibre. 210. Of the varieties of goat, those most famous for their wool are the Angora goat and the Cashmere goat. The former is a native of the steppes of the interior of Asia Minor, and its wool, known as WOOL: AT.PACA, VICVl^A, -CAMEDS HAIR 93 mohair, is remarkable for its length, fineness, softness, and silky appearance. The goat has been introduced with great success into South Africa, and mohair has long been an important export of Cape iColony. The Cashmere goat is the animal that furnishes most of the material for the costly Cashmere shawls, so called from having been first made in the kingdom of Cashmere or Kashmir. The material used in the manufacture is not the ordinary covering of the goat, but a fine downy under-covering which grows in winter on this and other animals (such as the yak) belonging to the higher slopes of the Himalayas. 211. The alpaca is an animal closely allied to the llama, and, like it, a native of the lofty plateaux of the Andes. It has long been domesticated for the sake of its wool, which is remarkably soft and elastic. This wool, though long used in spinning and weaving by the Peruvians, was at first found to be unsuited for spinning by the pro- cesses now used in the great manufacturing countries ; but the diffi- culties in the way of its being so used were at last (about 1836) over- come by Mr. (afterwards Sir Titus) Salt, of Bradford, who thereby founded an important industry. The wool of the vicuna, another ally of the llama and alpaca, is of even more value than that of the latter animal, but, since the vicuiia is found only at elevations above 13,000 feet, it is not domesticated, and the supply of wool from this source is consequently small. 212. Camel's hair, formerly used chiefly for making painters' brushes, is now employed in the manufacture of coarse shawls, carpets, and various other fabrics, the yam made from it being usually mixed, however, with other yarns. The material has become a considerable article of export from some of the northern ports of China. 213. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. In point of antiquity the origin of the spinning and weaving of wool belongs to the same remote period as the industry in cotton and linen. In point of extent the wooUen industry is, in temperate countries at least, the great rival of the cotton industry, and in most of them is the more important of the two. In temperate and cold countries, in which close-fitting gar- ments are worn, wool is much the most suitable material for clothing, not only because it is a bad conductor of heat, and woollen clothes con- sequently retain the heat better than others, but also because moisture is less readily absorbed by the wooUen fibre, and perspiration more readily passes through woollen tissues than through tissues of another kind. Where, as in the tropics, and in warm countries generally, clothes are worn more loosely, this circumstance is of less consequence. It is natural, therefore, to find that in all temperate countries, except China and Japan (775 a, 788), wool is the principal clothing material, and its use is further promoted by the fact that such countries also fur- nish the raw material of the manufacture ; and since, besides clothing, woollen fabrics are required for a great variety of other purposes, the ■great extension of the industry follows as a matter of course. 94 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE 214. The treatment of wool in manufactures is in many respects like that of cotton, but some differences require notice. First of all the wool has to be thoroughly freed from the yolk or natural grease which invests it, since that would prevent it from taking the dyes, and otherwise interfere with the processes which it has to undergo. Dye> ing may follow, and then the fibres may be oiled artificially to make them more easily workable. The nature of the next steps depends upon the use to which the wool is to be put, or more particularly upon the kind of yarn that is to be made from it. Formerly all long-stapled wools (203) were combed, or so treated that the fibres were laid as nearly as possible parallel to one another, and were then spun into a kind of yam known as worsted, which is used in hosiery and in the manu- facture of fabrics which have not to undergo the process of fulling. All short-stapled wools, on the other hand, were carded and spun much in the same way as cotton, and the yarns so made were the only ones capable of being used in making milled or fulled cloths, in which advantage is taken of the felting property in wool to thicken and shrink the cloth after weaving, and afterwards by means of teasels to raise the nap of the cloth in such a way that, in the most highly finished fabrics, a uniform surface is presented to view without any appearance of the intercrossing of fibres that takes place iu weaving. All kinds of wool were therefore formerly divided into combing and carding or clothing wools, according to the purpose for which they were fitted. Machines have been invented capable of combing wools having a staple as short as one inch, and, on the other hand, wools with a staple of as much as five inches long may be used in making milled cloth. Wools are still divided into combing and carding or clothing wools, but the former term is no longer synonymous with long-stapled, the latter with short-stapled wools, and the distinction as between wools is no longer so absolute as it once was. But the distinction between worsted yams and carded or olotMng yarns still holds good, and it is to the industry concerned with the latter that the term ' woollen manufacture ' is specially applied. 214 a. Among the principal varieties of woollen cloth in the special sense of the term are : (1) broadcloths, so called from the great width of the web, the finest quality of cloth; (2) cashmeres, a fine thin twilled fabric, much used for ladies' dresses ; (3) tweeds, a fabric of looser texture than broadcloth and less highly milled, first and still mostly made in Galashiels and other towns belonging to the Tweed basin, chiefly used for men's clothing ; (4) doeskin, a strong twilled cloth also used for men's clothing. Blankets, flannels, Scotch bonnets, and some kinds of shawls also belong to the wooUen manu- facture in the narrower sense of the term. 215. The name worsted is said to he derived from the parish of Worstead in Norfolk, which may therefore be presumed to have been one of the places where the making of worsted was first practised,. WOOL, MANUFACTVUES OF 9S Merinos and serges are among the chief kinds of worsted fabrics made entirely of sheep's wool, but such fabrics are perhaps the exception among those in which worsted yarn is used, at least in the United Kingdom, this kind of yarn being mixed more frequently than carded yarn with yarns made from other materials. The fibres chiefly used for mixing with that of the sheep are mohair, alpaca, and vicuna wool, and camel's hair. Hosiery and the making of carpets may also be classed as departments of the worsted branch of the woollen industry, though the best carpets (Turkey, Brussels, Axminster, &c.) are made on a groimd of strong linen or hemp, and only inferior kinds (such as Kidderminster, Scotch, &c.) entirely of wool. 216. Besides woollen and worsted yam another kind originally derived from wool is now employed in the woollen industry in the production of a coarse but cheap kind of woollen cloth. The raw material in this case is obtained by tearing up cast-off wooUen clothing and woollen rags into fibres, which can be re-spun into a yarn, not very strong indeed, but capable of being woven. This material is known as shoddy when made from fragments of loose texture, and mnngo when made from the remains of finer fragments, such as old dress-coats, tailors' clippings, and the like. This industry, besides using up all the available woollen rags of British production, has given rise in England to a large import trade in rags of this nature. 217. In the middle ages woollen manufactures attained their highest development in Flanders, which had the advantage of being within easy reach of abundant supplies of wool, especially from England, and beiag able to send its manufactured products to the best markets by sea, river, and land. In the middle of the twelfth century Flemish woollens were already worn in France and Germany. A writer of the thirteenth century says that all the world was clothed in English wool wrought in Flanders. It was from Flanders that English kings at different times introduced artisans into England with the view of improving the wooUen manufactures of that country. Towards the close of the eleventh century this was done by William the Conqueror; it was again done by Edward III. in the first half of the fourteenth century, and again by Henry VII. towards the close of the fifteenth. 218. England had already begun to export considerable quantities of woollen cloth ia the sixteenth century, but the cloth was often, if not mostly, undressed and undyed, these finishing processes being performed in Holland as late as 1603, and for the finest fabrics down to the middle of that century. Early in the following century the wooUen industry of England had risen to such importance that woollen manufactures formed upwards of 40 per cent, of the value of the exports, and about 1780 this industry is spoken of as having ' long been the glory of England and the envy of other nations.' Soon after that it began to share in the improvements brought about by the 59.6 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE introduction of machinery into the cotton manufactures (254), and the English woollen manufactures consequently greatly exceeded those of any other country ; but the more rapid rate of growth of this industry as compared with cotton in foreign countries is pretty plainly indicated by the tables on pp. 488, 440, 442, which show, on the one band, the rapid increase in the percentage value ' of the wool export among the total exports of foreign and colonial produce from the United Kingdom, as against a more nearly stationary percentage in the import of that commodity, and, on the other hand, a regular decline since the period 1866-70 in the percentage value of the exports of woollen manufactures, as against a steadier percentage value in those of cotton. This is what might have been expected in the case of a commodity which is chiefly used, in its manufactured as well as its original form, in the countries in which modern manufacturing machinery has been most largely introduced, and in which at the same time the raw material of manufacture is supplied to a greater or less amount at home. In 1885 the factories engaged in woollen, worsted, and shoddy manufactures in the United Kingdom employed under 300,000 persons, or less than three-fifths of the number em; ployed in the various branches of the cotton manufacture. About the same date both France and the United States were estimated by Neumann- Spallart to exceed the United Kingdom in the consumption of wool ; but as an additional indication of the misleading nature of such estimates (205) it may be mentioned that in 1885 the number of spindles employed in the British woollen industry was 6'28 millions, in the French 3'27. WhUe Great Britain consumes mainly colonial and home wool, nearly 53 per cent, of the wool imported into France for home consiunption in 1887 was from the Argentine Eepublic, Uruguay, and Belgium— the last, no doubt, also Eiver Plate wool. The United States manufacture (under the protection of high duties) chiefly for the home market. 219. In certain parts of the European mainland it is now customary to have wooUen yarns, as weU as wool and woollen fabrics, ' con- ditioned,' — that is, tested as to weight, measurement, and condition in recognised establishments for the purpose. The submission to this test is voluntary, but so general is the practice that at Eoubaix (540), where there is one of the largest of these establishments, the amount of yarn conditioned increased from less than 200,000 lbs. in 1858 to about 63,000,000 lbs. in 1887. A prejudice exists against British yarns in some quarters from the fact of their not being subjected to such a process of testing. 22 D. SILK. Next to wool silk is the most important of animal pro- ducts used in weaving. The great bulk of the silk of commerce is de- rived from an animal called the silkworm, but which in reality is the caterpillar stage of a kind of moth, whose favourite and best food con- ' Comp. prices, p. 480. SILK; ITS NATURE AND PRODUCTION 97 eists of the leaves of the white mulberry {Morus alba, L.). It is hence called Bomhyx mori, or the mulberry bombyx. In the body of the silk- worm the substance that becomes the silk fibre exists in the form of two jelly-like masses, which harden on exposure to the air. When the worm is about to pass into the still condition which answers to the chrysalis of a butterfly, it sends out this substance by two minute open- ings at its head, and the two streams, at once uniting, form an extremely fine thread, which the worm coils round it, so as to form what is called a cocoon. From the cocoons the silk of commerce is directly obtained, but the thread of a single cocoon is much too fine for use in spinning and weaving, and hence in reeling off the fibre the threads from several cocoons are united, individual threads being sufficiently adhesive to make this an easy matter. For the finest qualities of silk fibre, the product of from five to seven cocoons is used ; for coarser quaUties, the product of eleven or twelve, or even twenty or more. 221. After being reeled off from the cocoons the silk is made up into hanks, and in this condition fornis the raw silk of commerce. The outer husks of the cocoon and a part of the sUk in the interior are iii- capable of being reeled off, and in addition to that numerous fragments of thread remain as refuse after the process of reeling. These are ex- ported from silk-producing countries under the names of husks, knubs, and waste, and such material is now largely employed in the manu- facture of silk fabrics, especially in the United Kingdom. Cocoons also are exported, but generally in comparatively small quantity ; for since 100 lbs. of cocoons yield only about 9 lbs. of raw silk, it is obvious that the carriage of the silk in the latter form must be much more economical than in the form of cocoons. 222. Since mulberry-leaves form the principal food of the silkworm, the animal can be reared in all climates in which the mulberry thrives. Silkworms are usually reared under cover, the trees being stripped of their leaves in order to supply them with food, and the animals can thus be protected from cold and other influences of the weather that might be injurious to them. The range of climate suitable for silk- worm-rearing is consequently a wide one. As a matter of fact, how- ever, this industry is almost confined to the Old World, and indeed to Asia and Europe, notwithstanding that there are many regions else- where in which the climate is all that could be desired for the purpose. This limitation in the range of production arises from the nature of the labour connected with the industry. The tending of the silkworms previous to the spinning of the cocoons, and the subsequent operations necessary to prepare the raw silk for the market, demand not only a considerable amount of labour, but likewise the utmost carefulness and delicacy on the part of those employed. Silk-rearing is therefore generally confined to those parts of the world in which the labourers are not only content with low wages, but have inherited from previous generations a capacity for watchfulness and delicate manipulation, 98 PRODUCTS OF THE' TEMPERATE ZONE and liave been trained in these habits from a very early age. It is chiefly in the long- civilised countries of Eastern Asia that this com- bination is to be found. In Europe the higher cost of the labour is compensated partly by its superior efficiency, partly by the better organisation of the silk-rearing establishments, and partly by the near- ness of the most lucrative markets. In the United States, however, the high wages obtainable in other pursuits do not allow of the rearing of the silkworm developing to any great extent, although it is carried on in California and some other districts. The same reason banishes the industry almost wholly from the Australian colonies, which have a climate well suited for the mulberry ; but, seeing that the labour required for the rearing of silkworms, though demanding a great deal of attention, is of a very light nature, it is not at aU improbable that this may soon come to be an important branch of domestic industry on many an Australian farm, where the women can be relieved of work of a heavier kind. 223. In aU probability it was in China that attention was first given to the rearing of silkworms, and that silk manufactures were first carried on, and it is that country in which the production of silk is still most extensive. Chinese history ascribes to Se-ling-she, the wife of Shin-nung, who lived about 2700 B.C., the honour of having discovered the art of spinning and weaving silk ; for which discovery she has been canonised, and is still in China worshipped as a saint. The discovery was all the more important, because at that time, and for thousands of years afterwards, cotton, which now furnishes the principal clothing-material in' China, was unknown in that country ^ When the latter fibre was introduced from India, in the second half of the 13th century a.d., it rapidly, displaced the use of silk on account of its cheapness, and the silk industry fell into neglect, A revival, however, began to take place after du-ect commerce by sea with the nations of Western Europe was fairly developed ; and it is principally the foreign demand for silk that has caused the rapid re-extension of silk-production in China within the last two hundred years. The total production of silk from the mulberry moth under domestication in China is estimated to be more than twice as much as that of all the countries of Europe, but more than two-thirds of the production is for export. Th°, rearing of the silkworm is generally distributed over the empire, but it is principally carried on in the middle provinces (about latitude 30° to 35° N.), and in the southern province of Kwang- tung. In addition to the produce of the carefully reared and tended mul- berry moth, there is a large amount of silk obtained in China (in all about one-fourth of the whole product) from various other moths, and from the mulberry moth in a state of nature. About one-eleventh of the total export of silk from China is classed under the head of wild and coarse silk. SILI^: PLACES OF PRODUCTION 99 224. Next to China, the country which produces the largest amount of silk, both for home consumption and for export, is Japan, the export of which country is from one-third to one-half of that of China. 225. In India the rearing of the mulberry silkworm appears to have been introduced as early as the sixth century of our era, but the industry is far from having attained the importance which it possesses in China and Japan. The mulberry is chiefly cultivated in Bengal, where the East India Company made special efforts to foster the pro- duction of silk as far back as 1767. Soon Bengal silk became an important article of export, and the production of silk was further stimulated by the fact that the Company itself erected silk-factories in the province. Since then the rearing of silkworms has been a sta- tionary if not a declining industry in India, and the export of raw silk scarcely balances the import. In India, also, considerable quantities of silk are obtained from other moths, one or two species of which are sometimes domesticated, though for the most part they are left to themselves. These ' wild ' moths are principally found in Assam, the Central Provinces, and the more sparsely peopled region in the west of Bengal. The general name of tussur silk is given to their produce, and most of the silk so called is distinguished by its natural fawn colour. 226. The export of silk from the Eastern Peninsula is trifling, though there also there must be a large local production. More im- portant is the export of Persia, where the rearing of the silkworm, now principally carried on in the narrow strip between the Elburz Mountains and the Caspian, is said to have been introduced about the same time as it was into India. In an earlier period the Persian silk was widely celebrated, and was the foundation of an extensive trade with Western Europe, but at the present day almost its whole export is received by Eussia. Of other Asiatic seats of silkworm-rearing the principal are Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Syria. 227. Herodotus (fifth century B.C.) is the first European writer who is known to have mentioned silk. In the early days of the Eoman Empire (the first century B.C.) silk had already come into use as a material for garments worn by the rich, and before the commence- ment of the Christian Era the raw material had been imported into Italy, where it was woven into tissues. But it was not till the sixth century a.d. that Europe was able to make a beginning with the rearing of silkworms. Justinian, who was at that time emperor of the East, and his consort Theodora encouraged th« new branch of agriculture, of which Greece, and more particularly the Peloponnesus, became the principal seat. The peninsula just named is said to have obtained its modern name of Morea from the Greek word for a mul- berry-tree. Greece continued to be the principal seat of silkworm- rearing in Europe down to the twelfth century ; but meanwhile silk- worms had also been introduced by the Arabs into Sicily and Spain, and during the Arab (Moorish) domination in Southern Spain the H 2 100 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE production of silk was very extensively pursued. In all tliG places just mentioned the rearing of the silkworm has since sunk to a sub- ordinate place compared with that which it has achieved in other parts of Europe. It still flourishes, indeed, in Murcia and Valencia in Spain, in various parts of Greece, and in other parts of the Balkan Peninsula ; but the total estimated production of all these regions does not amount to one-tenth of that of Italy, which now furnishes, on an average, three-fourths of the silk produced in Europe. And now in that country the great silk-producing region is not the island into which the silkworm was first introduced, but the great plains of the North, Lombardy, Piedmont, and Venetia, in many parts of which the long rows of mulberry-trees, stript bare of their leaves in summer, are a speaking reniinder of the nature of the industry pursued in the neighbourhood. 228. Next to the Italian production, that of France, chiefly carried on in the valley of the Rhone, is the largest in Europe. Between 1874 and 1885 the amount of the French production was on an average only about one-fourth of that of Italy, but twenty years previously to the earlier date the production of France exceeded the Italian, having been five- or six-fold its present amount. In 1856, however, the busi- ness of silkworm-rearing ui Prance began to be adversely affected by the outbreak of a disease among the worms ; and the ravages of this disease, which at a later date spread to Italy, Spain, Greece, and even the silk- countries of the far East, were such as to bring down the silk-production in France in 1876 to less than a tenth of what it was in 1853. Since 1876, however, matters have begun to improve, chiefly in consequence of an important service rendered to the industry by science. The distinguished French chemist Pasteur, being appointed by the French Government to inquire into the nature and origin of this disease, discovered that by examining the moths with the aid of the microscope it was possible to distinguish those which laid healthy eggs. Since then the microscope has been recognised as an indispens- able instrument in the rearing of silkworms ; and while France baa been able thereby to check the ravages of the disease, other countries which received it later have had the means of checking its spread before the evil attained the dimensions that it did in PYance. Besides the countries already mentioned, the only European country which produces any considerable quantity of silk is Austria-Hungary, where the industry is chiefly pursued in the southern half of Tyrol, (valley of the Adige), but is rapidly extending in the Mediterranean provinces and southern Hungary. Small quantities are also produced in Eussia, Germany, and Switzerland. 229. The total production of silk in Europe on the average of the five years 1881-85 was about 8,000,000 lbs., and, in addition to this home supply, about 13,000,000 lbs. had to be imported annu- ally to meet the wants of the silk- manufacturing industry. SILK MANUFACTURES lor 230. SILK MANUFACTUEES. The silk fibre as it is wound from the cocoon ^ being a continuous thread, does not require to go through the processes necessary in spinning wool, cotton, and other fibres. The making of true silk yarn is known as throwing, and con- sists merely in giving the fibre a slight twist which enables it to combine better with other fibres. For stronger fabrics several fibres of raw silk are united, being twisted into a fine cord. The processes undergone by sUk waste (221) to convert it into yarn are essentially the same as those adopted in spinning the other fibres mentioned above. The yarn so made is distinguished as spun silk from the thrown silk made by the other process. 230 a. Of the specially named fabrics made from silk, the chief are satins and velvets^ the former being tissues so woven that almost the only threads appearing on the outer or ' right ' side of the tissue are weft threads, which present a uniform glossy surface ; the latter, tissues in which the outer surface presents to view a short soft pile, made by passing the warp threads over fine wires, which are after- wards drawn out. The loops then remaining are either left as they are, in which case the tissue is called pile velvet, or cut to form cut velvet. This fabric is now imitated in cotton and mixed tissues. 231. Though Italy appears to have been the earliest seat of the silk-manufacture in Europe, and though during the middle ages this branch of industry developed to a high pitch in Venice, Lucca, Genoa, Bologna, and other Italian towns ; though, too, that country, as we have seen, stands far ahead of all others in Europe in the production of the raw material, in the manufacture of silk fabrics it occupies only the fifth place among European coimtries, ranking even after Eussia in the value of the products of this class which it turns out. In the reeling and throwing of silk, however, it stands first, and the silk exported from the country, forming, as may be seen from the table on page 461, more than one-fourth of the value of the total exports, ia mostly in the form of thrown silk. 232. In silk manufactures France now surpasses all other countries in Europe to such an extent that the value of its products is about three times that of the country which stands second, Germany. The centre of the industry in that country isLyons, and the history of the industry in Lyons and the regions round offers some very interesting illustra- tions of the influence of political events, of inventions, and of fashion on the prosperity of manufactures, and the commerce depending upon manufactures. The silk industry of Lyons began to flourish after th& capture of Milan by Francis I. of Prance in 1515, that monarch hav- ing then induced several silk artisans of Milan to settle in Lyons. Encouraged by that monarch, and at a later date by Henry IV., and. favoured by the extension of silkworm-rearing in the valley to which Lyons belongs, the industry rapidly rose to a position, of great injport- 102 PRODUCTS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE ance, and the first blow inflicted upon it was due to the persecution by later French kings of the Huguenots, or French Protestants— a persecu- tion which drove many of the French silk- workers out of France, and sowed the seeds of the industry in many other parts of Europe, even in Eussia. From this blow, however, it revived, and about the be- ginning of the present century it received a great impetus from the invention in Lyons of the celebrated apparatus named, after its inventor, the Jacquard loom, for the weaving of figured patterns. 233. Originally invented for use in the making of silks, in which tasteful patterns greatly enhanced the value of tissues worn only or chiefly by the rich, this apparatus has since been applied to looms con- structed for the weaving of other fabrics (linen, &c.) ; but its principal appUcation is still probably in the silk industry, to the development of which, especially in France, it has greatly contributed. More recently the silk industry in that country has passed through a crisis, due in a great measure to the effect of another invention upon fashion. Since the sewing-machine has come into general use, the fashions of ladies' dresses have become more elaborate and more changeable, so that there has been much less demand for the fine and costly but lasting tissues which used to be the glory of the French looms. Silks of an inferior and less durable quality, and mixed fabrics having the appearance of silk, have been more sought after ; and since the looms of Germany and Switzerland were more speedily adapted to meet the wants of this new taste, the French industry suffered greatly in the competition. Quite recently, however, the French manufacturers have begun to adapt themselves to the new requirements of the trade. 234. The German silk industry is carried on more or less in all the manufacturing regions of the country ; but Krefeld, in the Prussian Province of the Ehine, is the town which has its name most completely identified with this branch of manufacture. In Switzerland, Ziirich and Basel are the chief seats of the manufacture, the former being most noted for its silk cloths, the latter for its ribbons. At Lyons, Krefeld, and elsewhere there are conditioning houses for silk similar to those for wool already referred to (219). 235. In the United Kingdom the silk manufacture is not nearly so highly developed as the other branches of the textile industries, and in the silk industry proper, that is, the industry in which thrown silk as distinguished from yarns spun from silk waste is employed, a great deohne has taken place within the last twenty or thirty years. Of this decline there are several explanations. In the first place, the British Isles have not the advantage, like the chief silk-manufacturing countries of the Continent, of being able to produce any of the raw material as an article of commerce. Moreover, since the opening of the Suez Canal it has become less of a market for Eastern silk (see 697, and pp. 438, 442). The industry has thus developed with more vigour in some of the regions in which the supplies of the raw material were more ready. SILK MANUFACTURES 103 to hand; and when the duty on silks in this country was abolished, under the treaty with France in 1860, the British manufacturers found themselves completely beaten even in the home market by those of France. On the other hand, foreign markets^-above all, the United States — have been cut off or limited by high customs duties. But the most serious cause of the decline of British silk manufactures in recent years seems to have been the superiority of continental manufacturers in dyeing and finishing silk goods, and especially in the process known as ' weighting ' — a process by which the bulk and weight of such fabrics are greatly increased in dyeing. Pure silk is capable of absorbing a surprising amount of certain compounds, especially the salts of iron and tin, thereby becoming, in fact, something else than silk while still retaining a silky appearance. ' I have known,' says Mr. Wardle, of Leek, speaking of certain French manufactures, ' blacks of 100 oz. per lb. [that is, containing only 16 oz. of pure silk out of 100] so fine in appearance as to deceive the best judges — better-looking, in fact, than the average of English or German dyes of one-third their weight.' The foreign superiority in dyeing and finishing, and even in weighting, is to a large extent directly traceable to the influence of technical schools connected with the silk industry (30, 234). It need hardly be men-- tioned, however, that the heavily weighted silk fabrics are of inferior quahty, and that there can be no healthy trade in silks until manu- facturers and dealers are bound to sell these goods for what they are— - stating the amount of weighting which each fabric contains. The spinning of silk waste and the weaving of ' spun ' or sehappe silk have been growing in England, while the silk industry proper has been languishing. They are carried on chiefly in the seats of the great textile industries of the country (Yorkshire and Lancashire), not in the counties in which the original branch of the industry has long been pursued (Derbyshire, Cheshire, North Staffordshire, and Warwick- shire). The silk plush so largely used nowadays is all made of spun silk. 236. Under the protection of a high duty, the silk manufacture has advanced with rapid strides in the United States since about the same time as it began to decline in England, and already the total value of the silk manufactures of the United States exceeds that of the United Kingdom. The chief seat of the manufacture is Paterson, in New Jersey, within fifteen miles of New York, jB. Sub-tropical Products. 237. COTTON. Cotton consists of the tufts of woolly fibres which envelop the seeds of a shrubby plant. When the seed-vessel has opened, the tuft swells out to the size of an apple, and remains for a time firmly held by some of the withered parts of the plant, which partly close in upon it, but remain open enough for the cotton to be I04 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS easily picked. The seeds are of about the size of small peas slightly flattened. Of all the products of a sub-tropical climate cotton is commer- cially the most important, and its importance dates back to the earhest times of which there is any record. The first mention of it is found in Indian books written more than eight hundred years before the Christian Era. The first European writer who is known to have men- tioned it is Herodotus, who wrote in the fifth century B.C., and speaks of a tree which he knew by repute as growing in India, and bearing instead of a fruit wool like that of sheep.' 238. The wide diflfasion of the plant in pre-historic times is even more remarkable. While most of the chief cereals, along with flax and hemp, were introduced from the Old World into the New, and the New World gave to the Old maize, tobacco, and the potato, cotton was found by the earUest explorers, from Columbus to Cook, growing almost everywhere in the area in which it is now found. 239. At the present day its cultivation is almost universal in tropical and sub-tropical regions, but it is in the latter that it attains its widest extent. The United States, India, Egypt, and Brazil are now the most important places of production for this commodity so far as international commerce is concerned, and China is a very large pro- ducer of cotton for home consumption. In all these countries except India and Brazil, the districts where cotton is chiefly grown lie outside of the tropics, and in India, the cotton districts, though mainly tropical, are generally at least one, and often two thousand feet or more, above sea-level. 240. The cotton-plant is not, however, everywhere precisely the same. The genus Gossypium, to which all the cotton-plants properly so called are referred by botanists, is a genus containing several cul- tivated species, which differ in size, in the colour of their flowers, and, what is most important from a commercial point of view, in the length, strength, and fineness of the fibres forming the tuftSi The species most widely cultivated in the Old World is G. her- baceum, Linn., which grows to the height of about four or five feet, and produces a soft and silky wool composed of fibres of moderate length, that is, from about one inch to an inch and a half long. It is a native of India, Indo-China, and the Eastern Archipelago, and has been introduced into the Mediterranean countries, including Egypt. The principal cultivated cotton-plants of America are of two species, G. barbadense, Linn., and G. hirsutum, Linn., and are both believed to be of American origin. The former is that- known as Sea Island cotton, from the fact that in the United States it was first cultivated on the string of flat islands which line the coast of Georgia and South Carolina ; and it is that which produces the cotton with the finest quality of 'staple,' as it is called — in other words, that which has ' One cotton-plant, probably Oossypium arboreum, was certainly known at a very remote date in Egypt. See Parlatore, Le specie dei eotoni, p. 16. COTTON: DIFFERENT SPECIES, CLIMATE 105 the longest, finest, and strongest fibres, and which in the mass has the most beautiful appearance. The length of the staple in this species may be as much as two and a half iuchw. If allowed to grow on from year to year this species of cotton may attain the height of from fifteen to twenty feet ; but being, like other species of cotton, cultivated as an annual, that is, grown every year from seed, it is seldom allowed to grow to a greater height than two or three feet. The colour of its flowers is yellow. This species appears to thrive best on a slightly saline soil and where there are saHne ingredients in the atmosphere. It has been successfully introduced into Egypt, Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, and some maritime districts of Queensland ; but it loses its qualities to some extent when grown on the interior uplands of the United States. The other American cultivated species, probably of Mexican origin, is known as (?. hirsutum, Linn., from the fact that the seeds themselves are more or less covered with very short hairs. It is the cotton which flourishes best in the inland and generally more elevated parts of the American Continent, and hence known as Uplands. It is the species which covers by far the greater part of the cotton area of the United States, and accordingly its product, which has a staple of moderate length and quality, is that which is generally known in the European markets simply as American cotton. 241. As regards climate, all the species of cotton-plant require for their successful cultivation a long summer free from frost, and with a moderate but not excessive amount of moisture. The cotton-plant is generally reckoned among those which prefer a dry warm soil, but it will put up with considerable differences in soil under diverse chmatic conditions. To frost it is peculiarly sensitive ; and as it generally requires about seven months to mature, this fact alone has a great in- fluence on the extent of its domain. It wiU tend to lower its northern hmit in latitude on the east as compared with the west side of the great land-masses of the northern hemisphere (40), in the interior of a continent as compared with the regions nearer the seaboard (35), in arid regions where the nightly radiation promotes night frosts (35) as compared with those in which a moister atmosphere prevails. 242. In the United States the cotton-plant is for the most part confined to the south-east. At the date when the returns were col- lected for the last census report (that of 1880) there was little cotton grown to the west of 99° W., and little to the north of 37° N. This region is that in which copious summer rains prevail (889 B) ; but the areas of greatest production are at a considerable distance from the sea-coast, the rainfall in the maritime strips being generally excessive, except for soils of the lightest character. The total area of the cotton region of the United States was estimated at the last census at upwards of 700,000 square miles, or about eight times the entire area of Great Britain ; but the belts of greatest production, those in which more tlian one-fifth of the surface was occupied by cotton, were two com- ;io6 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS paratively narrow strips, one extending chiefly along the left bank of the Mississippi from Memphis to Vicksburg, and the other sweeping round from about 34° N., 89° W., to 32° 20' N., and 85° 30'W. (m the State of Alabama). The Mississippi strip is included in what is known as the Yazoo bottom, one of the tracts subject to inundation by the river. The Tensas bottom, a similar tract lower down on the right bank, also has a large proportion of its surface under cotton, though in the census year the ratio was smaller than in the Yazoo bottom. The total area under cotton was equal to less than 23,000 square miles, nearly one-fifth of the entire cultivated area of the United States. 243. On the uplands and the Mississippi ' bottoms,' where cotton is chiefly grown, the soil is generally rich in lime ; and it is found that the extent of this branch of cultivation and the productiveness of the plant tend to increase, other things being equal, in proportion to the abundance of this constituent of the soil. 244. Throughout the United States cotton is generally planted in rows, the individual plants pretty wide apart to allow of hoeing and weeding, and, in all the moister parts at least, the earth is ridged up on both sides about the roots to facilitate the escape of any excess of moisture. To a rather dry climate the cotton-plant has a certain power of adapting itself, from the fact that its root is a long tap-root which can penetrate, where the soil is not too stiff, to a considerable depth in search of moisture. Hence it is superabundance of moisture rather than excessive drought that has chiefly to be guarded against in the cotton region of the United States. Among other things that have to be attended to in careful cotton-cultivation is, as in all other cases, the selection of the seed (139) ; and, secondly, seeing that the product for the sake of which the plant is grown is an appendage of the seed or fruit, the treatment of the plant in such a manner that this will be produced in greatest abundance. Hence the bush is not allowed to grow too luxuriantly, but is prevented from producmg too much leafage and stalk by pruning, and where necessary by topping, that is, removing an inch or two from the end of the stem. The time of sowing in the United States (and also in Egypt) is March or April ; the time of picking, from August to the end of the year, or, in the absence of frost, even later. 245. Manuring is not as yet widely practised in the growth of cotton. As in other branches of agriculture in the United States (57), the tendency is still to take up new land for cotton- cultivation when the old begins to fail. But in the older cotton States, and above all in Georgia and the Carolinas, the use of manures for cotton has been rapidly spreading since the civil war of 1861-65, and has been practised in some cases with such marked success as to make it likely that it could be adopted with profit to the cultivator, as well as lasting benefit to the soil, even in those districts where new land ca,n still be easily COTTON: IN THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA 107 obtained, and that it is chiefly ignorance and custom that prevent the adoption in these regions of a more advanced system of agriculture. And in connection with this subject there is one fact of the highest importance in the cultivation of cotton, namely, that the commodity of greatest commercial value furnished by this plant is one that takes away from the soil comparatively little of its fertilising ingredients ; BO that if everything else were regularly returned to the soil, cotton, instead of being one of the most exhaustive of crops, would be one of the least exhaustive. It is the seed that withdraws from the soil most of the important constituents, potash and phosphoric acid (56) ; so much so that the removal of one crop of cotton-seed impoverishes the soil to the same extent as the removal of ten crops of cotton-wool. Now it is an important fact that, though the oil derived from cotton- seed is becoming yearly an article of greater commercial value (327), the cake that remains after the expression of the oil contains most of the fertilising constituents of the seeds ; and from inquiries made at the last census of the United States, it would appear that cotton- oil-cake is by far the cheapest fertiliser which could be obtained in America. The cake may be used as manure either directly or by giv- ing it as food to animals kept in cotton-fields. Of the other manures used in the cultivation of cotton, the most important besides stable manure are phosphatic nodules, which are found in beds along the coast strip of South Carolina, and kainite (42311). 246. In India the mode of cultivating cotton presents some curious and interesting contrasts to that practised in America. The period of the year during which it is grown is the same, since it is dependent on the rains of the south-west monsoon (36, 729). But in the region of India where cotton is principally grown on a large scale for export, a region lying mainly on the peninsular plateau behind the Western Ghdts, which drain the rain-clouds of most of their moisture (36), the total rainfall is comparatively scanty, seldom more than thirty inches during the period when the cotton is grown. Beyond this region cotton is grown, in extra-tropical India, chiefly in the North-West Provinces and the Punjab, where the rainfall is even scantier, but where there are extensive areas under irrigation. 247. On the table-land of India the scantiness of the rainfall is made up for by the peculiar character of the soil, which, from its colour and from its being so admirably adapted for the growth of native cotton, is generally known as the black cotton-soil. It is derived from the decomposition of the basaltic rocks which cover so large a portion of the peninsular area of India. It is of great fertility, and is said to have borne crops for thousands of years without manure. In one important point this soil agrees with the best soils of the cotton region in the Mississippi valley, namely, in the presence of lime. Soft nodules of kunhur, containing carbonate of lime in the proportion of from 50 to 80 per cent., are scattered through it. But the character- ■log SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS istic wliicli renders it of such peculiar value in a region with so dry a climate is its remarkable tenacity of moisture. Instead of allowing the rain to sink away like the best cotton-soils of America, it becomes during the rains a tenacious mud. In dry weather the whole surface of the ground where this soil occurs becomes seamed with inter- ramifying cracks, between which the soil forms hard lumps, which still, however, retain water imprisoned in their spongy cells. Hence, dry as the climate is, and notwithstanding the rapidity with which evaporation takes place on the surface, wherever this soil prevails irrigation is not required for cotton-culture. On the other hand, there is no necessity, as in America, for growing the cotton in ridges. For the most part the seed is sown broadcast, and often mixed with the seeds of other crops. The crowding of the plants is thought to be even an advantage, as tending to retard evaporation from the soil. 248. The yield per acre of cotton in India is everywhere much less than in the United States. At the date of the American census report the average throughout the cotton area of the United States was not far short of 200 lbs. of cotton-wool per acre, or more than three times the average in India, which hardly anywhere produces as much as 100 lbs. per acre. This difference is, no doubt, largely due to the inferior cultivation of the latter country generally, but is probably chiefly to be explained by the fact, that whereas in India manure is even less used than in the United States, the former country has not, like the latter, vast areas of new land to turn to when the old is more or less exhausted. Of late years the quality of Indian cotton has been greatly improved, through more care being bestowed than formerly on its picking, and keeping it free from dirt after being picked. 249. In E^ypt, the cultivation is necessarily confined to the delta and the part of Middle Egypt where the system of irrigation allows of moisture being supplied at intervals to the plant through the seven months required for its growth ; and it is hence of modem introduc- tion (799). In this country, the plant for which in the United States an excess of moisture is so much drea'ded may be seen flooded from time to time without injury, the remarkable dryness of the atmosphere promoting rapid transpiration, and thus preventing excess of moisture in the tissues of the plant. The rich soil gives a higher average return than even the United States, the yield for the whole country exceed- ing' 300 lbs., sometimes approaching 500 lbs., per acre ; and the quality is such that Egyptian cotton brings, on the average, a considerably higher price than the average of any other great cotton-producing country. The area under this crop in Egypt amounted in 1884-85 to about 1,350 square miles, or about one-seventh part of the entire culti- vable extent. 250. At the present day these three countries, the United States, India, and Egypt, furnish to the United Kingdom considerably more COTTON: SOURCES OF SUPPLY 109 than nine-tenths of its total supply of raw cotton, although about a century ago the supply from each of these sources was either nothing at all or relatively insignificant. During the period 1786-90 the British West Indies furnished more than 70 per cent., the Mediter- ranean countries 20 per cent., Brazil about 8 per cent, of the total British supply ; while the share of the United States and India to gether was under 1 per cent., and Egypt contributed nothing at all to the import from the Mediterranean. In the period 1886-88, on the other hand, when the total import had swollen from less than 250,000 lbs. to about 1,750,000,000 lbs., the share of the United States had risen to 75 per cent, of the whole, that of the East Indies to 12 per cent., and that of Egypt to 9J per cent., while the share of Brazil had sunk to 2J per cent., and that of the British West Indies to insignificance. Brazil is thus the only country which still retains any great importance as a cotton- producer among those which had most importance a hundred years ago. Of the other countries from which Great Britain derives supplies of cotton the only ones that need be mentioned are Turkey (chiefly Asia Minor), Venezuela, Colombia, and- Chile. It is a more problematical matter to form an estimate of the share which the three present leading cotton-producing countries take in the total cotton-production of the world ; but an attempt to do so has been made by Mr. Ellison, author of ' The Cotton Trade of Britain.' From this work it would appear that the three countries named may be credited with the production of four-fifths of all the cotton grown, the United States alone being estimated to produce more than half (2,800 out of 5,000 million lbs.). 251. Now it is to be noted that it is to commerce alone that we owe the extraordinary development of the cotton-production in the United States and Egypt, and the great extension of this branch of cultivation in India. Of the cotton grown in Egypt almost the whole is exported to Europe, and so also is a large but decreasing part of that grown in India ; ' and of that grown in the United States, the great bulk is despatched either to Europe or to the manufacturing region in the north-east of the United States (903). 252. The form in which the cotton is exported is that of bales, or large bundles of cleaned cotton, that is, cotton- wool freed from its seed by a process called ginning ; and it is an interesting fact, illus- trative of the variety of circumstances that affect the development of commerce, that the early extension of cotton-production in the United States was due to the invention of an improved process for effecting this purpose. Previously the process of getting rid of the seed was a laborious one, and hence one that demanded on economical grounds the cheapest available labour; and in 1792 so little was it thought probable that the United States would ever grow any considerable ' Of that received at Bombay in 1886 nearly 71 per cent, was sent to Europe, in 1891 less than 53 per cent. no SUB-TROPICAL rRODUCTS quantity of cotton, that, in a treaty concluded with Great Britain in that year, the United States Government agreed to a provision which forbade the export of cotton from the United States to this country. In 1793 the invention of the saw-gin by Eli Whitney (an invention since then greatly improved upon) imparted such a stimulus to the cultivation of cotton in the United States, that that country rapidly became the chief source of supply of raw cotton in the world. The growth of cotton in India and Egypt received a great impetus from the scarcity of the raw material due to the civil war in America in 1861-65, and the effects of that impetus are still felt in both countries. Inventions by which the processes of manufacturing cotton were cheapened have likewise been, as is well known, among the chief causes that contributed to the vast development of the commerce in this commodity in various forms ; and it is a fact of great consequence in the history of British commerce that all the more important of these inventions originated in England. 253. COTTON-MANUFACTURES. The early history of the cotton- manufacture in Europe is far from being fully known. The Arabs are said to have introduced the cultivation of the plant into Spain in the eighth century. It is an ascertained fact that in the middle of the fol- lowing century cotton-manufactures on a pretty extensive scale were carried on in the Moorish towns of Cordova, Grenada, and Seville.* Augsburg is known to have exported cotton fabrics of its own manu- factm-e in the fourteenth century. The first recorded importation of cotton into England was in 1298, for the making of candle-wicks (a manufacture, it must be remembered, of much greater relative impor- tance in days when candles were the chief means of artificial lighting than now). In 1352 we find the first mention of Manchester cottons, but the fabrics so called were in reality mixtures of wool and cotton or linen and cotton. Pure cottons the English weavers were unable to make till centuries later. The use of cotton in manufactures extended very slowly. Between 1697 and 1749 the import of the raw material into England remained almost stationary, and there can be no doubt that about the latter date, and for some years after, the manufacture of cotton goods on the Continent was greater than in England. A change in this respect was brought about by the inventions that took place in England towards the end of last century, and revolutionised first the cotton industry, and ultimately textUe industries of aU kinds. 254. Without entering into details, for which we have no space, it is impossible to give an idea of the nature of these inventions, but a few dates are worth noting. In the first place, it may be mentioned that the most ancient method of spinning was by means of a distaff and spindle, the former an implement for holding the fibre to be spun, the latter for receiving the spun, that is, the more or less twisted fibre ' It is no doubt to this fact that cotton owes its name, which is of Arabic origin. COTTON MANUFACTURES AND MACHINERY in that forms the yarn. This arrangement was superseded by the spin- ning-wheel, the origin of which is uncertain. Not improbably it was used in the East long before it was known in Europe, but several forms of it appear to have been invented on the European mainland in the sixteenth century. Before the great era of inventions this machine had become common to the whole continent. The spinning- jenny of Hargreaves, invented in 1764, patented in 1770, was the first machine by which more than two yarns could be spun at once. The water-frame of Arkwright (so called because soon after its invention water was used as a motive power in driving it) was an improved device for the same purpose, patented in 1769. In its improved form it is known as the throstle. The mule of Crompton, a sort of cross between the jenny and the throstle, patented in 1779, was a much better contrivance than either, and is the machine most extensively used for spinning to the present day. These three machines changed in a great measure the condition of the cotton industry in Great Britain. The spinning-jenny was, indeed, an instrument that could be used in domestic spinning, and the chief effect of its invention was that the old spinning-wheel was thrown away into lumber-rooms, and the jenny adopted in its place, with the result of greatly increasing the output of yarn in each family. Arkwright's machine, however, was one more suitable for working in large factories ; and factories began to multiply when, in 1785, it was declared that Arkwright had no claim to the patents which he had obtained, so that any one might adopt the inventions that had been patented in his name. The result was, that whereas in the old days of the spinning-wheel the weaver might have to spend the morning in going about to half a dozen cottages to obtain yarn enough to employ him for the rest of the day, there was now so much yarn produced that the supply greatly exceeded the demand. The hand-loom weavers were unable to use up the yarn that was produced. 255. The next step was the invention of the first power-loom by Mr. Cartwright, a clergyman having little knowledge of mechanics, and none of weaving. His first machine was patented in 1785, and an improved form in 1787 ; but even this second form had to be improved upon by further inventions before it 'could be made prac- tically useful, that is, capable of weaving cloth as rapidly and cheaply as a hand-loom. 256. Since that date a new spinning-machine known as the ring- spinning-frame has been invented. It was first put in operation in the United States about 1832, but has only recently been applied with success in the United Kingdom, where, however, it is rapidly growing in favour for certain kinds of yarn. In all machines, improvements in detail are almost uninterrupted, and all processes conducted by machinery have been greatly accelerated by the introduction of steam- power to drive the machines. This was first applied in the oottoiXr 112 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS industry by Arkwright in 1790. In the case of spinning, the result of the' change since the time of the early inventions is illustrated by the follow- ing facts. When the hand- wheel was still in use it required six or eight spinners to keep a weaver employed, and the earnings of a family amounted to only a few shillings per week. Even the mule was first employed as a domestic machine, and the earnings of a farmer in spinning were raised in some cases to as much as 6L per week. The steam-driven mules of the present day contain about 1,000 spindles or more. They are erected in pairs, and each pair is managed by a man, a youth, and a boy ; and the outturn of the two machines per week of 56J hours amounts to about 1,700 lbs. of a yarn of medium fineness, at a cost of about -f^. per lb. in wages. So rapid in their working are the looms now constructed that the best machines are capable of throwing the shuttle across the web more than 200 times a minute, and at an exhibition at Oldham in 1884 one was shown which was capable of doing so 400 times a minute, or nearly seven times a second. 257. All these inventions were extensively applied in England a con- siderable time before they were introduced on the Continent of Europe. In applying them England was peculiarly favoured by its abundance of coal and iron, and its admirable situation for commerce (494). Moreover, the wars which raged on the Continent of Europe fi-om about the time when these inventions began to take effect down to 1815 interfered with the development of industry on the Continent much more than in Great Britain. The consequence was, that England became pre-eminently the seat of the cotton industry, and even in 1801 manufactured more cotton than the entire Continent of Europe. The value of cotton goods exported from Great Britain was officially estimated in 1785 at less than a milUon sterling; in 1815 it was estimated at upwards of twenty-two millions. To show the effect which the development of this single industry had upon the growth of British commerce, it may be mentioned that in the former year the value of the cotton export was little more than 5 per cent, of the whole value of the exports ; in the latter year, about 38 per cent, (comp. 218). 258. Since then the volume of the British cotton industry has gone on increasing with but slight fluctuations. The rate of that in- crease since 1843 is indicated by the quinquennial averages of imports of raw cotton and exports of cotton goods given in the appendix. But though these figures show a general increase in volume, an im- portant change has been going on in the destination of the manufac- tured goods, owing, on the one hand, to the rapid introduction of spinning and weaving factories into the European Continent and the United States, and, on the other hand, to the gradual cheapening of the machine-manufactured cotton by improvements in machinery and the increase in the facilities for communication with the far East. The COTTON MANUFACTURES t\i first of these circumstances is steadily lowering the proportion of woven goods and yam taken from us by the Continent and the United States ; the latter, by enabling the goods of England to compete even with the cheap hand-labour of India and the East, has led to a great increase in the proportion of manufactured cotton goods that are sup- plied to these markets. In 1820 the Continent of Europe received more than the half of the total quantity of cotton fabrics exported from Great Britain, the United States (which then had less than one- fifth of the population contained by them in 1880) received nearly one- tenth, and Eastern Asia Uttle more than one-twentieth ; in 1880 the Continent of Europe received scarcely one-twelfth, the United States less than one-fiftieth, and Eastern Asia (chiefly British India) more than one half of the whole. Of yarn Great Britain still supplies large quantities to the Continent of Europe, but the proportion of the whole amount manufactured declined from 95 per cent, in 1820 to 48 per cent, ia 1891 ; while Eastern Asia, which in 1820 received no appre- ciable quantity of British yarn, received in 1891 83 per cent, of the amount produced. (See, however, 259 a.) The relative decline in the cotton industry of Great Britain as compared with the Continent of Europe and the United States is likewise shown by the following figures, giving the proportion retained for home consumption in three great cotton-manufacturing regions of the world at different dates : — Great Britain Contiinent Korth Ataerica 1821-25 - 55-8 33-4 10-8 1881- 85 40-0 36-3 23-7 1886-90 87-4 38-0 24-6 The figures for the intervening periods show that on the whole the advance has been most rapid in the United States. 259. So far, the development of the cotton industry on the Continent of Europe and in the United States has deprived the United Kingdom chiefly of the market which these countries themselves afforded. In some cases, however, British cotton tissues have not held their own, even in neutral markets, and that, it is unfortunately necessary to add, on account of their bad reputation, deserved or undeserved. This reputation is due to the employment of an excessive amount of size in their manufacture. Size is a mixture containing starchy and fatty matters and other ingredients, necessary to facilitate the working of the yarns in« weaving. For many years it has been the practice in the making of cheap cottons to add also a certain amount of china clay (423 -17 a), and the amount of this ingredient is sometimes so great that the fabric, though showy when new, wUl not bear washing. Now it is true that in one of the largest markets for British cottons, China, such cheap goods are bought by people who know very well what they are buying, and who use them for funeral wrappings, for the making of padded garments (775 a) that are never washed, and other purposes. In India and in various other markets also there is a demand for I 114 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS cheap goods such as can be supplied only by excessive sizing. Never- theless, there is plenty of evidence to show that such fabrics have in many places lowered the credit of British manufactures, and created a preference for the products of American looms. (Comp. 503 and p. 475.) It is a further objection to the practice in question that when china clay is used in excess it is necessary, in order that the yarns may retain the clay, that the weaving-sheds should be steamed to such an extent as to injure the health of the workpeople.^ 259 a. A formidable rival in cotton-spinning by machinery has sprung up in India since about 1876. The cheapness of labour there is a complete set-off to its inferior efficiency ; and notwithstanding the greater cost of machinery, coal, and other elements of production, the advantage of having the raw material at hand enables Indian cotton-mills not only to command the home market for certain yarns, but also to export these yarns in rapidly increasing amount to China, Japan, and other Eastern markets. The yams made in Indian mills are the coarser kinds, for which alone the native cotton is suited. But it is these yarns for which the East affords the chief market. Between 1876-77 and 1890-91 the cotton yarn exported from India to China (including Hongkong) and Japan increased year by year from 7'9 to 161'2 millions of lbs., whereas that from the United Kingdom to these parts fluctuated greatly, and never reached 48 million lbs. From the beginning of the last decade down to 1891 inclusive the total British export of cotton yarn has been stationary in amount. In the southern States of the American Union a development of cotton- spinning under similar conditions to those which hold in India has taken place in recent years. The number of spindles there employed in cotton spinning rose from 559,320 in 1879-80 to 1,213,346 in 1886-87,2 and this has checked the growth of cotton- spinning in the north-eastern States of the Union in the same way as the rise of the industry in India has checked the development in England. 260. TOBACCO. The tobacco of commerce consists of or is obtained from the dried and otherwise prepared or ' cured ' leaves of several species of a genus of plants known to botanists as Nicotiana, and now cultivated more or less in almost all parts of the world that have a warm enough summer. The use of tobacco in smoking and other ways is due to the presence in the leaf of a principle known as nicotine, which enables it to act as a stimulant and narcotic, but which, being an active poison, is capable of exercising most injurious effects , if swallowed. The species of tobacco most usually cultivated is the N. tabacum, Linn., which grows to the height of from four to six feet, and produces several clusters of beautiful pink flowers. 261. The tobacco-plants are all natives of America, and the use of the leaf in smoking was widespread in that continent at the time ' In 1889 an Act was passed to prohibit excessive steaming. ^ In India the number of cotton spindles increased from 1,461,590 in 1879-80 to 2,934,637 in March 1890. See also 792. TOBACCO 115 of its discovery, in 1492. The practice was quickly adopted by the European discoverers, and by them was introduced into Europe, where, notwithstanding the prohibitions and denunciations of popes and crowned heads, it spread, at first slowly, afterwards more rapidly. In Europe the plant is said to have been first cultivated for its ordinary uses in Holland in 1615, but it soon extended to other countries. The increasing fondness of the people for the enjoyment of this luxury induced governments to encourage the cultivation for the sake of raising a revenue out of it. In Great Britain the cultivation of tobacco was forbidden at an early date for the sake of encouraging it in Virginia, where it became an important object of agriculture and article of commerce almost immediately after the foundation of the colony. In Ireland, the cultivation of the plant was allowed tiU the reign of William IV., when an Act was passed prohibiting it there also, for the sake of the convenience of raising the revenue ; and both in England and Ireland the prohibition was continued till 1886, when the cultiva- tion of the plant was again allowed under certain conditions. In Mohammedan countries the use and cultivation of tobacco spread all the more rapidly in consequence of the fact that the Mohammedan religion prohibits the use of wine and spirituous liquors. 262. Like maize, barley, and potatoes, tobacco is adapted to very diverse conditions. It can be grown anywhere in the tropics, and has been cultivated with success even in some of the counties of Scotland. The period within which it comes to maturity varies according to circumstances, and the hmitation of its range arises principally firom the necessity of protecting it during growth against frost. This is particularly necessary in the early stages, when a single white frost is enough to spoil the whole crop ; and this is one reason that recommends the usual practice of sowing the seed in small beds, from which the tobacco is afterwards planted out in the fields, for in these seed-beds the seedlings can be sheltered from frost by being covered with dried leaves or some other light material. 263. Adaptable as tobacco is to a great variety of conditions, it exhibits in a peculiar degree the effect of this diversity in the differ- ences of the characteristic qualities of the product. The tobacco obtained from a variety of the plant adapted to one soil and climate is widely different from that which is obtained from a variety adapted to a different soil and chmate. These diversities are well illustrated within the wide area of the United States, in which Wyoming was the only region that had no tobacco-cultivation down to the date of the census returns of 1880. The chief tobacco States of the Union are, however, Virginia and Kentucky, between about 36° and 38° N. 264. At the present day the total tobacco-production of the United States is by far the largest in the world, and that country furnishes nearly 80 per cent, of the tobacco imported into the United Kingdom. Next in quantity of production ranks British India ; but the quality of I 2 ii6 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS pative-cured Indian tobacco is generally so inferior that it is net relished by Europeans, and the quantity of tobacco imported into Great Britain from India is comparatively trifling ; but a few large esta- blishments under European management have now been set up in India for the curing of tobacco, and these are said to furnish an article ^ual to the best American sorts. Cuba, Brazil, the Philippine Islands, Asiatic Turkey, and Japan are the other non-European countries of most importance for the quantity or quality of the tobacco which they produce. Cuba is, above all, noted for the quality of its cigars, which take the name of Havanas, from the place of export. The high reputa- tion of the cigars bearing this name was originally due to the aromatic quality of the tobacco grown in the district known as the Vuelta Abajo (to the west of Havana) ; but now, it is said, not one-half of the so-called Havanas of commerce are made even from Cuban tobacco, large quantities of tobacco grown elsewhere being imported into Cuba to be manufactured into cigars, and then re-exported as genuine Havanas. In particular, Cuba receives large supplies from the Philippine Islands, the tobacco of which (' Manilla ') is likewise remarkable for its aromatic flavour, but has hitherto received very indifferent treatment in the islands in which it is produced. An improvement in this respect began, however, after the abolition of the government monopoly in tobacco in the Philippine Islands on the 1st of January, 1882. 265. In Europe, the chief tobacco-growing countries in the order of the quantity produced are Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, the Balkan Peninsula, and France ; and Hungary enjoys the reputation of producing that of the best quality. All these countries supply more or less of the British demand for this commodity. Under the new regulations permitting the cultivation of tobacco at home, several crops were grown in 1886 in Kent and other English counties, and the ex- periment is said to have been a success so far as the quality of the tobacco is concerned ; but commercially the attempt to revive the cultivation of tobacco in England proved a failure. All but a small percentage of the tobacco imported into the British Isles is unmanufactured, the duty on manufactured tobacco (including snuff) being considerably in excess of that on the unmanufactured article. 266. Relatively to population, the highest consumption of tobacco is in the Netherlands and Switzerland, in both of which countries it is upwards of 6 lbs. per head per annum. Next come Belgium, the United States, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Denmark. The average consumption in the United Kingdom is not a fourth of that in the Netherlands, and little more than a third of that in Germany. Besides being used as a luxury, tobacco is used to a small extent in medicine, and more largely as a sheep-wash for the destruction of insects which infest the fleece. 267. OPIUM. Opium is the hardened juice of a cultivated species OPIUM 117 of poppy calTed Papaver somnifenvm, Linn., wMch is believed by some to be only a variety of the wild species P. setigerum, DC, a native of the shores of the Mediterranean, Whether this be so or not, there is reason to believe that the cultivated form has existed in India for a period not far short of three thousand years. The cultivated poppy grows to the height of from three to four feet, and produces a seed- vessel in the form of a round capsule the size of a small apple. In this are contained numerous small seeds embedded in a considerable quan- tity of juice, which exudes when the capsule is punctured or broken, and hardens on exposure to the air. Usually the wall of the capsule is pierced by scratching, and the operation is repeated at regular inter- vals from four to eight times in the course of a season, the hardened juice being afterwards carefully picked off on each occasion. Opium is chiefly used as a stimulant or narcotic, and is either swallowed in small quantities or smoked (by itself or in prepared mixtures), or taken in the form of certain preparations made from it. Of these the most important are laudanum, which is made by soaking opium in spirits of wine, and solutions of morphia, which is the narcotic prin- ciple of opium. In the two latter forms epium is mainly used as a medicine, being of extreme value as a means of alleviating pain and as a remedy for certain diseases. 268. It is in India that opium is chiefly grown as an article of foreign commerce, and in British India its cultivation is a monopoly of the government, which derives from this article in one way or another an annual revenue of about ten millions sterling. The two districts in which it is grown are, the valley of the Ganges, round Fatna and Benares, and a fertile table-land further west, corre- sponding to the old kingdom of Malwa, still chiefly under native chiefs, both lying between about 24° and 26° N. The former district is under British rule, and there the government makes annual contracts with those who are willing to cultivate it, these contracts always obliging the growers to sell the whole crop to the government at a fixed rate, according to quality. Opium grown in the native States pays a large duty on crossing the British frontier. The principal part of the opium revenue is derived from the opium exported chiefly to China, but a considerable revenue (about ooe-tenth or one-eleventh of the whole) is derived from the opium consumed in India itself, which is known as excise opium. Opium is most largely used as a stimulant in China, and that country consequently receives the largest import of this drug. In China itself the cultivation of opium, in spite of official restrictions, has spread and is spreading very rapidly, but the product is mostly of inferior quality to that imported from India. 269. Outside of China and India, opium is chiefly consumed in Mohammedaft countries, where it has come into pretty general use p,s a substitute for wine and spirituoua liquors (261). Persia and ii8 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS Asia Minor are hence the principal countries of Western- Asia in which this drug is cultivated, and in both it forms an article of export. The export of Asia Minor is next in quantity to that of India, and in quaUty the product of this region surpasses that of any other part o£ the world. In the countries of Western Europe opium is chiefly used in medi- cine, and the English supply is mainly derived from Asia Minor (Smyrna). In the United States many of the people of European origin are said to have learned from the Chinese immigrants the practice of using opium as a stimulant, and the practice is believed to be rapidly spreading. 270. TEA is the name given to the dried leaves of one or more shrubs or trees allied to the camellia. The tea-plant generally grows to the height of from three to eight feet, but sometimes much higher. One variety, which grows wild in Assam, and is by some regarded as the primitive stock from which all other tea-plants are derived, attains the dimensions of a large tree. The name of the plant and its product is Chinese, which is due to the fact that it was in China that the plant was first cultivated, and that Europeans first became acquainted with it. Even in China the plant is said to have been unlmown till the middle of the fourth century of the Christian Era, and it did not come into general use in that country till four or five centuries later. The first European who is known to have mentioned it is the traveller Pinto, who visited Canton in 1544. As late as 1664, the English East India Company, when it wished to make a present of some tea to the King of England, had to buy a smaU quantity for the purpose from the Dutch (who bought it from Chinese merchants in the Eastern Archipelago), and when it was first imported into England, in the year following (1665), it was sold at the rate of 3L per pound. 271. Tea is one of the hardiest of all subtropical plants. Severe frosts, such as it is exposed to in Northern China (40 a), check its growth and diminish its yield, but do not kill it. The plant is hence suited for a wide range of climate, but the chmate best adapted for it is that which is warm, moist, and equable throughout the year. Like the cotton-plant the tea-shrub requires regular supplies of moisture dur- ing the summer months, but is easily injured by an excess of moisture settHng about its roots ; so that the ground on which it is grown ought to have good drainage. All these conditions are best obtained on the slopes of mountains within the tropics or in sub-tropical regions, and it is in such situations that tea is chiefly grown up to an elevation which varies with the latitude. 272 . The soil best suited to the tea-plant is said to be virgin forest soil, a light, rich, friable loam containing a good supply of vegetable mould or humus, or of organic matter in some other form ; and such soils are also most readily obtained in the situation just described. The pre- sence of iron either in the soil or subsoil is believed to be always desir- TEA: CONDITIONS OF CULTIVATION 1x9 fible, and hence reddish soils are preferred to others which are equally suitable in other respects. It is noteworthy that, unlike cotton (243, 247), tea is chiefly grown, in the principal countries of its production, on soils that are remarkably poor in lime. 273. But the successful cultivation of the tea-plant depends not merely upon soil and climate. In its preparation for the market tea de- mands a good deal of hand- treatment, so that it can be profitably grown as a marketable commodity only in those parts of the world which, besides having the other conditions suitable, have a plentiful supply of cheap labour. It is for this reason that China, India (including Ceylon), and Japan are still the principal countries of its production. Down to 1885 China suppUed about five-sevenths of the total tea-exports of the world ; but tea cultivation is spreading very rapidly in India and Ceylon, at the expense of China. In 1888 the aggregate import of tea into the United Kingdom from India and Ceylon for the first time exceeded in amount that of Chmese origin. 273 a. The following account of the cultivation and preparation of tea in China is given by Prof. Douglas in his work on that country. The plant is grown from seed about the size of hazel-nuts, which is gathered in the winter months and dried in the sun. ' In the begin- ning of the following spring the seeds are moistened and dried again, until they begin to sprout, when they are lightly covered with earth. As soon as the plants have grown four or five inches in height they are transplanted to the plantations, where they are arranged in rows at a distance of two or three feet apart [usually on the slopes of hills having a southerly aspect]. No manure is used in the cultivation, but great care is taken to keep the ground clear from weeds. The blossom is white, and is not unlike the orange-flower, and blooms in Novem- ber. The plant itself, which is an evergreen, is allowed to grow to heights varying with the necessities of the plantations. In high and exposed positions the plant is kept low, that it may avoid injury from storms and wind, while in more sheltered places it reaches the height pf six or eight feet.' The first crop of leaves is gathered from it at the end of the third year, but care is taken not to exhaust the plant by stripping it too closely. Thrice in the year the leaves are picked — in the third, fifth, and eighth month. The best leaves are the young ones, and as the youngest are first picked, the earliest gather- ing is the best. Women and children are mainly employed in this work. Having been first dried in the sun, the leaves are then trodden out by naked-footed labourers, in order to break the fibres and extract the moisture. This done, they are heaped up and allowed to heat for some hours, until they have become a reddish-brown colour. They ' Where shelter is not afforded by the lie of the ground, it is important to plant quick-growing trees round the plantation for the purpose. In India, Australian eucalypti and some of the larger kinds of cinchona are those which are chiefly recommended. 120 SUB-TROPICAL PRODUCTS are next rolled up by the hand, and are afterwards again exposed td the sun, should the weather be propitious ; but if not, they are slowly baked over charcoal fires.' The object of the rolling is to set up a pro- cess of fermentation, which, after it has proceededin sufficient length, is checked by the drying. With the drying or baking process the preparation of the leaves for the market is complete, ' and they pass from the hands of the growers to those of the native merchants. By these purchasers they are care- fully sifted, the leaves of different sizes and ages are separated, and the stems and damaged leaves are removed. They are then thoroughly dried in iron pans over slow fires, and are shipped to Europe and America.' Green tea ' is not dried in the sun, but is fried, and is rubbed with the hands instead of being trodden on.' 274. The introduction of tea-cultivation into India was due to government incentive. Experimental plantations were started by the Indian government on the hills of Assam, and at different points on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, between 1834 and 1849, and a grant of land was made by the government to the first private tea- company formed in India, in 1839. It is only since 1851, however, that tea-planting in India has been a marked success. 274 a. The single province of Assam contains more than half the total area of Indian tea-plantations, but tea is also extensively grown at various points on the Himalayan slopes, in Bengal, the North- West Provinces, and even in the Punjab, and also on the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India, and to a very small extent in Lower Burma. In Northern India the Umit in height of profitable cultivation is mostly about 3,500 feet above sea-level, but on the Nilgiris the best elevation is from 4,800 to about 5,600 feet. 275. There are three main varieties cultivated in India — the Chinese plant, which yields a comparatively weak tea, and furnishes a small yield ; the native tea of Assam ; and a cross between the two, which last is most in demand among the planters. The method of cultivating and preparing tea in India is much the same as in China, except that the bushes while bearing (that is, during the southern monsoon, March to November — 729) are picked about once every ten days, and that the rolling is sometimes performed by machinery. The average yield of an acre under tea in India varies in different localities from about 100 to 400 lbs. per acre, the average for the whole of India being in 1882 somewhat under 300 lbs. 276. Since the beginning of the present decade, the cultivation of tea in Ceylon has been extending with extraordinary rapidity in con- sequence of the recent failure of the coffee-plantations (287). The soil and climate have been found to be admirably suited to the shrub, which has yielded in some localities as much as 1,000 lbs. an acre; and the cheap coolie labour, no longer required on abandoned coffee- plantations ; affords the means of preparing the product for the market TEA: PLACES OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 121 at the smallest possible cost. The rapid growth of tea-production in Ceylon is shown by the following figures, which give in milhons of lbs. and decimals the amount of the export for each of the years 1883-90 — 1-67, 2-39, 4-37, 7-85, 13-8, 23-8, 34-3, 45-8. In 1891 the British im- port from Ceylon was 62,073,000 lbs. The year 1883 was the first in which the export exceeded one million lbs. Machinery for rolling is in very general use in Ceylon, and to this the high quality of Ceylon tea is partly ascribed. 277. Into Japan and Korea the cultivation of the tea-plant is said to have been introduced early in the ninth century a.d., and the former country has now an export trade in this article which ranks next in quantity and value after that of India. Almost the whole of this export is taken by the United States. 278. The cultivation of tea has Hkewise been tried with more or less success in Java, the United States, Brazil, Trans-Caucasia, Jamaica, Natal, and Madagascar. The first plantation on Java was formed in 1827, and after that date the area under cultivation extended considerably, but of late years it has shown a tendency to decline. The high price of labour in the United States generally makes tea unfit for cultivation as a marketable commodity, though it is grown for home use on a small scale on many of the farms in the Southern States, and on a somewhat larger scale in Cahfornia. Tea of excellent quality has been grown among the German colonies of Southern Brazil, but, so far, this is little more than an experiment. The experiments that have been made in tea-cultivation on the western seaboard of Trans- Caucasia have been quite satisfactory as regards the suitability of the climate. The shrubs grown there have attained normal dimensions, arrived at full maturity, and produced excellent seeds ; but a beginning is only now (1891) being made with the laying-out of tea-plantations for com- mercial purposes. 279. Outside of Asia, people of English and Eussian race are by far the greatest consumers of tea. Of the total amount exported from all countries in one year, the United Kingdom takes not far from one half, Russia less than one-fourth, America (chiefly the United States and Canada) about one-sixth, and Australia and New Zealand one- eighteenth. The rate of consumption per head of population in the United Kingdom is about 5 lbs. a year ; and this proportion is even exceeded among the people of Australia and Xew Zealand, who have the same habits as the people of the home country, and have the means of gratifying their wants more widely diffused. The Dutch, who were the first to introduce tea into Europe, still consume a considerable amount relatively to population, and so also do the Belgians ; but in other European countries outside of Russia the consumption is insig- nificant. C. Tropical Products. 280. COFFEE. The coffee of commerce consists of the seeds (the so-called ' beans ') of several species of trees or shrubs, chiefly of one species known to botanists as Coffea arahica, Linn., which if left to itself grows to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet, but in cultiva- tion is frequently kept down to the height of from three to eight feet in order to facilitate the gathering of the fruit. The seeds are enclosed in dark cherry-red pulpy berries, each of which usually contains two. The best soil for the coffee-tree, as in the case of tea, is said to be virgin forest land rich in vegetable remains, the accumulations of past ages. A warm and moist climate is required for it, but the heat must not be excessive. An almost ideal climate for coffee is found in Yemen (716j, the home of the original Mocha coffee. Here, winter and summer aUke, a thick mist ascends every morning from the low grounds on the coast to the slopes on which the coffee is grown. About mid- day the plantations themselves become enveloped in mist, which lasts tiU after the time at which the greatest heat of the day is usually experienced elsewhere, and then disappears. So regular is this occur- rence that in certain places there are scarcely twenty days in the year on which the mist fails to rise. By night, on the other hand, the air ascending from the hot plains helps to prevent an excessive lower- ing of the temperature, so that we have as it were a ' hothouse culture with natural self-regulating arrangements.' ' 281. Where coffee is grown near the equator it must generally be cultivated either under the shelter of trees better fitted to stand ex- treme heat, such as bananas, erythrinas, or cacaos, or at elevations of 3,000 feet or upwards ; in Ecuador and BoUvia, even at the height of 8,000 feet. On the other hand, it cannot stand continued frost ; and though the coffee-tree has to endure occasional frosts in Paraguay and Natal, in most coffee-growing countries the mean temperature of the coldest month is above 62° F., and the mean minimum temperature about 42^°. On this account, its range in latitude is more contracted than that of tea (271). Coffee, indeed, is not grown to any great extent outside of the tropics, although the most important place of produc- tion at the present time, the coffee-region of Brazil, lies just beside the outer limit of the torrid zone. The extreme limits of coffee-cultivation are about 24|° N., and 30° S. 282. Even within the torrid zone, the cultivation of coffee, though practised in almost aU countries except China and the greater part of the Eastern Peninsula, is generally restricted to comparatively limited ' Eduard Glaser, in Petermann's MiUeiltmgen, 1886, p. 34. COFFEE: PREPARATION, ORIGINAL HOME 123 areas' ; the i-eason of which is that coffee is a product grown almost solely as a mercantile commodity, that is, for consumption outside of the regions in which it is produced, and, at the same time, is one that demands a large amount of labour in preparing it for the market. Till quite recently its cultivation in Brazil was carried on mainly by means of slaves ; and in Java most of the coffee is grown in govern- ment gardens by forced labour. Certain families are selected to keep the gardens properly cultivated, to take all risks of cultivation, and to dehver the produce to the government at a fixed rate for a certain weight. On private plantations native labourers get from ^d. to lOi. a day as wages, though they sometimes earn as much as Is. 4i. when working by the piece. 283. The preparation which the coffee-beans have to undergo before they are ready for the market consists in their separation from their coverings and the processes of drying and ' curing.' In making the finest kinds of coffee the berries are, first of all, pulped, or stripped of the outer pulpy covering, in a machine specially devised for the purpose. The curing process which then follows consists in exposing the beans to the sun for six or eight days ; and as the beans after being pulped are extremely sensitive to injury from rain or dew, great care must be taken during this stage to protect them from these influences, In consequence of this, both in Brazil and Java the great bulk of the coffee-berries are dried unpulped, it being found difficult to get the necessary care bestowed on drying the pulped berries by the labourers of these places. The coffee so made is of inferior quality. "When cured the beans are, in most coffee districts, sent to coffee-works erected in the larger towns or the seaports to undergo further processes of preparation. First, the beans have to be hulled or peeled — that is, divested of two coats in which each of the beans after pulping is still wrapped. The machinery required for this is too expensive to be found on ordinary plantations. The last processes that have to be performed before the coffee is ready to be put in bags for shipment are winnowing, grading, and sorting, the beans being sorted not only according to quality but also according to size, since beans of the same size can be more equally roasted before being ground. 284. The use of coffee as a beverage appears to have been very limited till within the last two or three hundred years. The oldest work known to have collected traditions regarding the origin of the practice is an Arabic manuscript belonging to the year 1587 ; and from this it would appear that the original home of the coflFee-tree is to be found in the southern parts of the highlands of Abyssinia, where it is undoubtedly a native. Thence it was introduced into South-Western Arabia, and through the Arabs it became known to Europeans. It is to this fact that the tree owes its specific name of wrdhica, while the generic name, and the ordinary name of the plant and its product, is derived from that which was given to it by the Arabs, and this again 124 TROPICAL . PRODUCTS is possibly derived from Kaffa, the name of one of the highland dis- tricts of Abyssinia, whence the tree was originally brought. The intro- duction of coffee into Arabia must have taken place at least as early as the eleventh century, but even in the middle of the sixteenth century the beverage was still unknown at Constantinople. About a century later still (in 1652) the first coffee-houses were started in London, and these soon became favourite resorts of the wits and men of letters of the time ; but in England the drinking of coffee was gradu- ally given up to a large extent in favour of tea, which was introduced even more recently (270). On the mainland of Europe, on the other hand, coffee has come more and more into favour, especially among the nations of Teutonic race ; and it is also largely consumed among the people of the United States, Relatively to population, the largest consumption of all is in Holland, which is a natural consequence of the extensive commerce between the home-country and its coffee- growing possessions in the East. In that country the total consump- tion of coffee has amounted in recent years to nearly 20 lbs. per head ; in Belgium it is about half that amount ; in Germany, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland and Denmark, it is generally upwards of 5| lbs. per head ; and in the United States the consumption per head amounts to nearly 8 lbs. Li the southern countries of Europe (except Turkey) and in Russia (where, as in England, tea is the favourite beverage of a non-intoxicating nature) the consumption is very small, but of late efforts have been made by the Brazilian coffee-growers, with the encouragement of the Russian government, to extend the use of coffee in the Russian dominions, and coffee -exhibitions have been held in Russia with that ohject. The total consumption of coffee all the= world over is still rapidly increasing. The average amount of the total annual export from all coffee-growing countries in the years 1852-62 is estimated to have been about 315,000 tons ; in 1862-72 372,000 tons ; in 1872-82, close upon 500,000 tons. The averaga production in 1884-88 was estimated at about 640,000 tons. 284 a. The following table shows the proportion of this total furnished by the principal coffee-producing countries : — Per Cent, of Total Export — Per Cent, of Total Production, 1884-83 1862-62 1862-72 1872-82 Brazil 52-0 47-4 50-8 Brazil .... 63-1 Java 201 16-7 14-3 Dutch E. Indies 10-3 Ceylon 8-7 12-4 7-5 Central America 80 Hayti 4-0 4-0 5-4 San Domingo . 4-2 Venezuela .... 3-9 3-9 5-2 Venezuela . . 3-3 British India . . . 1-7 4-2 3-6 Porto Eioo . . 2-5 Sumatra and Celebes 3-6 3-6 30 British India . 2-0 94-0 92-2 89-8 93-4 285. Brazil, which now, as the table shows, ranks first, has gained COFFEE m BRAZIL, JAVA, CEYLOIT 125 importance on account of its coffee-production only within the present century. The tree was introduced into Northern Brazil early in last century, but not till about fifty years later into the region where it has since flourished so well. The coffee-producing region in Brazil lies between about 21° and 24° S., and is divided into two zones, one of which is traversed by a system of railways connected with Eio de Janeiro, and the other with a system connected more directly with the more southerly seaport of Santos. The height at which the tree is grown is, in general, from about 600 to 2,500 feet above sea-level. The soil is the characteristic red soil of Brazil (52), and, for coffee- growing as for tea-growing (272), it is thought that the redder it is — that is, the richer in iron — the better. The cultivation and general treatment of the tree is in general very defective, chiefly in conse- quence of the difficulty of obtaining labour. Where the trees are planted on the slopes of hills, no terraces are formed, and hence there is an enormous loss of soil through the denudation of the hill-slopes by the rains (920). When the harvest-time arrives, the labourers, instead of picking the ripe berries as in Java, strip the branches, thus carrying away ripe and unripe berries indiscriminately. On the other hand, every care is taken in the final preparation of the cured berries for the market, the best machinery being found on the plantations for the purpose, since it is now the great aim of the Brazilian planters to reduce the necessity for hand-labour as much as possible. On this account the Brazilian coffee, which was formerly little esteemed in the markets of the world, has been steadily rising in value. 286. The introduction of the coffee-tree into Java dates from 1650, when it was carried by the Dutch firom Arabia. On that island the coffee-plantations are generally at the height of fi:om 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level, and there the coffee-trees have the advantage of a soil rich in vegetable mould, which is absent in Brazil (49). There, too, the trees are generally cultivated with care, but the after-prepara- tion is often defective, and especially on the government plantations, for the families of native labourers, by whom these plantations are cultivated, have neither the skill nor the requisite machinery to prepare it properly, and are, moreover, tempted to hurry over the preparation in order to secure their pay. In the early years of the present decade about two-thirds of the coffee grown in Java was grown on govern- ment plantations, but the produce of these plantations has since then greatly declined, while that of the private plantations has been pretty steadily and rapidly advancing. 287. In Ceylon, the cultivation of coffee (which was introduced into the island, when it was in Dutch hands, in the seventeenth century), after rapidly extending during many years, has during the past decade been rapidly declining^. This is partly due to the fact that during the prosperous period for coffee-growers plantations had been established too rashly, and in many cases in unsuitable situations. 126 "TROPICAL PRODUCTS- but chiefly to the ravages of insects and fungi {83 a). Many coffee- plantations are now being abandoned in favour of tea, and in 1888 the extent of the coffee-plantations of Ceylon was less than 80,000 acres, against about 270,000 acres in 1877. The export declined from 100 miUion lbs. in 1877 to 14| millions in 1888. 288. The figures in the table in 284 a show a more satisfactory state of things in India. The cultivation of coffee is said to have been introduced into that country about two centuries ago, by a native Mohammedan on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca ; but it is only since about 1840 that it has spread with any great rapidity. It is now increasing every year, principally among the virgin forests on the eastern, and therefore more sheltered, slopes (729) of the Western Ghdts, to the south of about 15° N. The most desirable elevation on these mountains is from 2,500 to 3,500 feet above sea-level. The tree is also cultivated on much lower ground further east, but it is nowhere grown with success in Northern India. 289. Among the minor areas of coffee-production, those which have shown the greatest increase since the middle of the present century are Mexico and Central America (more particularly Costa Rica and Guatemala). During the ten years 1872-82 the average annual export of Central America (which at the middle of the century was very trifling) even exceeded that of British India. The African export is likewise rapidly increasing ; and here it may be mentioned that the State of Liberia gives name to a species of coffee (C. liberica, Hiern.) noted for the large size and excellent flavour of its berries, and valuable also from the fact of its being suitable to unsheltered low grounds even in equatorial regions,' and being not so readily attacked by the fungus which has ravaged the plantations of Ceylon. It has, for that reason, been introduced into Ceylon and other coffee- growing countries. In Africa coffee is grown as far south as Natal, the most southerly of aU coffee-producing lands. Egypt, which, when coffee was first introduced into Europe, was one of the principal sources of supply, now furnishes coffee no longer ; and the Arabian export is relatively small. Jamaica, Colombia, Surinam, the Philippine Islands, and the Sandwich Islands all produce more or less coffee, which can also be grown on the eastern slopes of the highlands of Queensland. 290. CACAO. Cacao, or cocoa, as it is more frequently but rather unfortunately called, is the product of a tropical American tree Thco- hroma, cacao, L., not to be confounded with the coco-nut palm (319, 331). The form in which it enters into commerce is that of cacao-beans or chocolate nuts, which are the seeds contained, to the number of thirty to fifty, in a red or green fleshy fruit from six to ten inches in length. These beans or seeds, which form an important article of diet among ' Liberian coffee can stand temperatures of over 104° P., whereas the highest temperatures to which the Arabian coffee can be exposed with safety are from b?-* to 94° F, CACAO 127 ths natives of tropical America, are composed to the amount of half their weight of a fat known as cacao butter, which has the valuable property of never becoming rancid, however long it is kept. Being rather difficult of digestion, however, this fat is generally removed, as far as possible, in preparing the well-known cacao-powder or cakes of chocolate. Among the constituents that remain are flesh-forming compounds, on account of which cacao is highly esteemed for its nutritiousness, and a principle closely allied to that found in tea and coffee, which renders the beverage made from it highly agreeable as a stimulus to the nervous system. 291. Before entering into commerce the cacao-beans have, like those of coffee, to undergo a preliminary treatment, and the quality of the article depends greatly on the care bestowed on the necessary processes, the price of well-prepared beans being often more than double that of beans prepared in a more slovenly fashion. The first process is one for setting up fermentation, which removes a disagree- able bitter flavour, destroys the power of germination in the seeds, and prevents mustiness. The best cacao-beans are fermented for a period of five or seven days, by placing them in a heap along with plantain or other green leaves — a process during which so much heat is developed that the hand cannot be held in the heap for an instant. Afterwards the beans are dried in the sun, and they are then ready for shipment. When roasted and split, or broken, these beans form the ' cocoa nibs ' of the shops. 292. The cacao-tree succeeds best under a higher temperature than coffee, and requires a great deal of moisture. It therefore generally grows nearer the equator than coffee, and mostly on low grounds. The district which produces the largest quantity of this product, the low grounds of Ecuador, in the neighbourhood of Guaya- quil, is within two or three degrees of the equator ; and those which rank next in this respect — the Island of Trinidad, the part of Venezuela in the neighbourhood of Caracas, and IfDrthem Brazil — are not more than eleven or twelve degrees from that line. Cacao is, however, also grown in Mexico, not far from the tropic of Cancer ; and latterly also in the Island of Cuba, where it is grown partly as a shade for coffee- trees. The cacao-tree has been introduced into the Old World, but it is not cultivated there to any great extent. 293. Cacao became known in Europe early in the sixteenth century, and hence before either tea or coffee ; but Spain, where it first became known and acquired favour, is the only European country in which it is preferred to all similar beverages. There it is regarded almost as a necessary of life, as tea is with us, which makes it appear surprising that it is only quite recently that any serious attempts have been made to cultivate the tree as a commercial enterprise in the Spanish island of Cuba. The consumption of cacao per head in Spain and Portugal is about six times as much as in any other European country. France 1 28 TROPICAL PRODUCTS comes next in this respect, and Spain and France are the chief seats of the manufacture of chocolate. 294. £ICE. Bice is the characteristic grain-crop of the plains in the monsoon area of the tropical and sub-tropical parts of South- E astern Asia (36, 697). There are many varieties of this crop, some of which require very different conditions from others ; but those which are most abundantly produced not only demand a high summer tem- perature, but have to be grown in fields capable of being flooded at certain stages of their growth ; and it is these conditions which are afforded in the great river deltas and low-lying seaboard tracts sub- ject to inundation during the summer rains of the area referred to. The fields in which the rice is grown are embanked to retain the water as long as may be needed, and where not sufficiently level by nature are carefully levelled by art ; and if the rains or the overflow of rivers are not sufficient to inundate the fields, the necessary water must be furnished by irrigation. The amount of flooding required or capable of being endured varies at different stages of growth. ' While the seedlings are in an early stage of growth, two inches of water are ample ; but when the stem is strong, high floods are almost unable to drown it.' ' During flooding growth is astonishingly rapid, as much as nine inches having been known to be added to the height of the stalk in twenty-four hours. Of the numerous varieties of rice some ripen at one period and others at another, so that it is said to be possible for the owner of an estate in Bengal, with a mixture of soils suited to different varieties, to have as many as five crops in the year. Two rice-harvests in the year are almost universally obtained in Bengal, and frequently two crops are taken from the same field. 295. From the highly peculiar conditions under which rice grows, it follows that where grown at aU it is grown to the exclusion of almost every other crop ; and outside of the regions above indicated, where the surface and climate are specially adapted to this form of agriculture, the cultivation of rice is for the most part locally restricted to small areas presenting exceptional facilities for artificial inundation. There are, indeed, certain varieties of rice, known as upland or hiU rice, which thrive on a drier soil, and in India often ascend to an altitude of 8,000 feet ; but these varieties make up only a comparatively small proportion of the rice-culture of any country. 296. Yet, notwithstanding this local restriction of the rice-crop, it is probable that no other grain forms the staple food of so large a part of the human race, for there is, it is said, no other crop which yields so large an amount of food from a given area of land ; and hence the lowlands of Asia adapted to this crop are the most densely peopled parts of that continent, and among the most densely peopled areas of the world. Nevertheless, the statements made as to the number of people living chiefly or almost entirely on rice are mostly exaggerated. ' Hunter's Gazetteer of India, 2nd ed. vol. vi., p. 485. RICE: CONSUMPTION AND COMMERCE 129 Sometimes it is asserted that these make up fully one-half, more commonly about one-third, of the human race ; but the probability is that even the lower of these estimates is much too high. 297. Japan, the Philippine Islands, the Suuda Islands, and Indo- China are probably the regions in which the great bulk of the entire population live mainly on rice. In India and China there are certain regions, and these in many cases the most populous, where rice is likewise the mainstay of the inhabitants. Still it is estimated that, if we take British India as a whole, only about one-third of the popula- tion is rice-eating, and, since the native States lie mainly outside of the regions suitable for rice-cultivation, it may safely be inferred that a much smaller proportion of the inhabitants of these States live on rice. Probably 75,000,000 is as much as can be allowed to the rice- eating population of the entire peninsula, including Lower Burma. In China, again, rice is the great food-crop only in the south and east, and probably 260,000,000 (three-fifths of an assumed population of 430,000,000) will be much more than enough to allow for the rice-eating people of that country ; and allowing 85,000,000 for the rice-eating populations of Japan, Indo-China, the Eastern Archipelago, and Africa, we get only 430,000,000 as the total population depending chiefly upon this grain. 298. Relatively to this vast consumption, rice does not enter very largely into the commerce of the world. The great countries of Asia for the most part supply their own wants as regards this commodity within their own borders, and the trade in rice is hence principally a home trade. The density of population in most of the great rice- producing regions of the world does not allow of any great surplus for the commerce with Europe and America, and the supplies for these parts of the world are mainly obtained from one comparatively small district. Lower Burma, which is the least densely populated of all the great rice-growing regions of the world. Of the total exports of rice from British India, between GO and 70 per cent, is from Lower Burma, although the rice-fields there do not cover one-tenth of the area of those of Bengal. In some years Japan has ranked next after Lower Burma in the amount of rice which it has supplied to Europe, but as a rule the Japanese export is exceeded by that of Bengal and Madras. Besides these countries CocMn-China and Siam are the only ones that furnish any considerable supply to Europe. Eice is grown here and there in Southern Europe (615), in Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venetia) to a pretty large extent, so that, as the table on page 461 shows, rice is among the principal Italian exports of home production. In the United States rice cultivation (894) has declined. 299. MILLETS. This name is given to several grain-crops, the most important of which are tropical. The two kinds most largely grown are the Great Millet {Sorghum vulgare. Pars.) and the Spiked Millet (Pennisetum typhoideum. Rich.). They are both among the leading crops of India. Great Millet is also largely K 130 TROPICAL PRODUCTS grown in Africa under the name of durrah. It is sometimes known as Guinea corn. Neither product enters largely into the commerce of the world. A species of sorghum is pretty largely cultivated in the United States and elsewhere for green fodder. (See also 309.) 300. MINCE FAEINACEOTIS PEODTJCTS. Tapioca is derived from the long tubers of the manioc plant {^Jatrapha Mamhot, L.), a native of Brazil, but now largely cultivated elsewhere in the tropics of the Old World as well as the New. The tubers, before being subjected to heat and pressure, are highly poisonous, but the meal, a granular substance derived from them, and known as tapioca or cassava, according as it results from slightly different modes of treatment, is wholesome and nutritious. This meal forms a staple article of food among the people of Brazil, but it is imported into this country chiefly from the West Indies, and from the East Indies by way of Singapore. Sago is obtained from the pith of palms of the genus Sagus, principally S. Bumphii, WiUd,, and S. laevis, Eeinw., largely cultivated in the eastern half of the Eastern Archipelago, including Borneo, whence it is imported by way of Singapore in sacks made out of the leaves of the palm itself. So easy is the cultivation of the palm, and so simple the mode of preparing the sago from the pith, that ten days' labour is estimated to suffice for the obtaining of food enough from this tree to last a man for a year. A single family is able to attend to a plantation containing 400 trees. West Indian sago is the produce of oycads. Arrow-root is derived from various sources. That which is distinguished as the true arrow-root is obtained from the rhizome of Maranta aruiidinacea, L., a native of tropical America, but now cultivated also in the Old World. This arrow-root is chiefly obtained from Jamaica and the Bermudas. Other kinds are derived from India and elsewhere. 301. SUGAE-CANE. The sugar-cane belongs botanically, like the cereals, to the family of the grasses, but its seed or grain is com- mercially of no value, and the plant is cultivated solely for the sake of the juice which is found in its stem, and which yields sugar. It is a tall plant, growing to the height of from ten to fifteen feet, and some of the stalks attain a thickness of more than an inch. Every year these stalks are cut down just before flowering, but the root-stock is perennial, and continues to throw up fresh shoots every year in sufficient quantity to be remunerative for thirty years in succession. This is one advantage which it has over its great modern rival, sugar-beet (190), and it hke- wise surpasses this latter sugar-plant in the ease with which it can be grown, and in the relative amount of sugary juice afforded by a given weight of raw material, as well as in the relative amount of sugar capable of being derived from the juice. In cultivation the sugar- cane requires hardly any attention, and an acre of ground under this plant is calculated to yield on an average not far short of twice as much juice as one under beet. The range of the sugar-cane in latitude is wider than that of coffee, but not so wide as that of tea. In the northern hemisphere it is grown successfully to the north of lat. 37° in the south of Spain, and in the southern hemisphere, in Natal, to about lat. 30°. A moist soil being required for sugar-cane, the situa- tion in which it is grown is very different from that of tea or coffee, and more like that adapted for rice, the cultivation of which has in many cases given place to sugar. SUGAR-CANE AND SUGAR-REFINING 131 302. Originally a product of Eastern Asia (probably of Indo-China and the valley of the Ganges), the sugar-cane became generally known in the West only in comparatively recent times. The cane itself, and the knowledge of the mode of extracting sugar from it, would appear to have been introduced by the Arabs first into Egypt, and then, in the ninth century, into Crete, Sicily, and other islands of the Mediter- ranean. Subsequently it was introduced into Spain, which is now the only part of Europe where, under the protection of the government, it still flourishes. At the present day the cultivation of the cane is spread over aU tropical and many sub-tropical countries, including the islands of the Pacific, and the chief area of production, so far at least as the commerce of the world is concerned, is now in America (Lhe West Indies, Guiana, and Brazil). In India the total production for native use (in a scarcely refined condition) is enormous, probably three times as much as that of Cuba,; but the production for export is sur- passed by that of many other countries. In the Old World, Java, the Philippine Islands, China, Mauritius, and Egypt are the chief exporters of cane-sugar. 303. THE SXIGAB, INDUSTRY. Sugar, now the cheapest of all luxuries, and, indeed, regarded as a necessary of life by the very poorest in almost all parts of the world (8), was a substance unknown to the classical nations of antiquity. There could be no more signal illustration of the results of the development of commerce and the stimulation of agricultural and mechanical industry due to commerce. Even about four hundred years ago refined sugar, in the form of the white crystalline substance with which we are familiar on our tables, was still an unknown article. The invention of the process of refining sugar into the form known as loaf-sugar is ascribed to a Venetian about the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. As late as the beginning of last century sugar was still a compara- tive rarity in Europe. At that date the total amount consumed in the Continent in one year is estimated to have reached only about 50,000 tons. Now the amount annually consumed in the United Kingdom alone is more than twenty times as much. The consumption all the world over is still rapidly increasing. 304. The effect of this growing demand has been to bring to light new sources of supply, to improve the system of agriculture employed in producing the crops from which the new supplies are obtained, and, above all, to lead to the perfection of the processes by which the sugar is extracted from the plant. Down to the present century the sugar- cane was almost the sole source of supply of the sugar consumed in Europe. The presence of sugar in heet-root was discovered by a Berlin apothecary named Marggraf, as far back as 1747. Before the close of the same century another Berlin chemist, named Achard, devised a method of extracting the sugar from beet ; but the first attempts to do this were not commercially successful. At a later date K 2 132 'TROPICAL PRODUCTS great improvements were introduced in the method of extraction by the French Comte de Chaptal, and after 1820 the making of beet-sugar became .firmly established as a'.branch of national industry in various countries in Europe. Since then sugar-beet has become every year a more formidable rival to sugar-cane, and in considering the develop- ment of the sugar industry it will be instructive to compare the relative advantages of these two rivals. 305. On the side of sugar-cane there is the advantage of easy culture and relative richness in sugar (301), and likewise the fact that it is grown in tropical and sub-tropical climates where labour is at its cheapest. Beet suffers under the disadvantage of requiring high cultivation (more especially plentiful supplies of potash manure), of requiring to be re-planted year by year, of being less rich in sugar, and ■of being grown where labour is relatively dear, at least in comparison with the countries of the sugar-cane. On the other hand, beet has the advantage of being grown where population is dense, and where accordingly the market is close at hand both for the raw material used in the refineries and also for the manufactured product ; where, too, in consequence of that density of population, manure is abundant, or the advanced state of commerce renders it easily procurable ; and where the abundance of capital, and the consequently low rate of interest on money, favours the erection of the best machinery for dealing with the raw material ; and it has hkewise this other important advantage, of yielding a refuse material of much higher value than that obtained from the sugar-cane. The canes after being deprived of their sugary juice are chiefly used for fuel ; but the refuse beet, the beet-pulp, as it is called, is a valuable food for cattle — a circumstance of special im- portance in thickly peopled countries. The mention of these conditions affecting the cultivation of sugar-beet enables one to understand why the plant cannot be cultivated with success in all parts of the world in which the climate is suitable. It is enough to point out that in the United States, for example, agricultural labour is relatively much dearer than in Europe, the interest on money in most of the regions in which beet could be grown is much higher, and cattle-food relatively of much less value. See, however, 180. 306. As aflfecting the competition between sugar-beet and sugar- cane at the present time, probably the most important factor in deciding on which side the general advantage lies is the superiority of the methods and machinery for extracting sugar from the beet. In the case of the sugar-cane, the stems of the plant are as a rule merely crushed between rollers which still leave in the cane a considerable proportion of the juice. The juice that is pressed out is boiled and otherwise treated, part of the substance then forming the crystals of sugar, while the remainder flows away in the form of a syrup known as molasses. From the country of production cane sugar is usually exported in an unrefined condition, in which it is called raw sugar. SUGAR.REFINING 133. and the raw sugar is further treated and refined, more syrup flowing away during tliese further processes. In the case of sugar-beet, the; roots containing the sugar are first treated in one of two ways, either of which extracts from their substance a larger proportion of the juice contained in them than is usually derived from the sugar-canes. One method is to subject them to the action of powerful presses ; but a still better method is that known as the diffusion process, the invention of a German named Robert, but improved and first made practically useful in France (by Charles, and afterwards by Peret of Eoye). According to this process slices of the beet-root are subjected to the action of hot water either in a number of different tanks or in one continuous cylinder, but in either case in such a manner that the water ultimately gets thoroughly saturated with juice. The after-treat- ment of the beet-juice differs in some respects from that of cane-juice, but is in general similar. The general result of the improvements that have been brought about in tlie cultivation and treatment of sugar-beet in Germany, where this branch of industry is most highly developed, is such that whereas in 1836-37 18 cwts. of beets were required to produce 1 cwt. of raw sugar, only between 10 and 11 cwts. are now needed for that purpose. A part, but only a small part, of this improvement is to be ascribed to the advance of agricul- ture increasing the proportion of sugar present in the beet. By far the greater part is due to the more complete extraction of the juice. 307. The method of diffusion is now beginning to be tried in some places (as in Java) with the sugar-cane, though till lately the cane- growers rehed solely upon the greater richness of their raw material. The cane-growers are now, however, everywhere feeling the increasing severity of the beet competition, for the production of beet-sugar is advancing with much more rapid strides than that of sugar from the cane. Though, if we take the production of India ' and China into account, the total amount of sugar produced from the cane musti be considerably in excess of that derived from beet, yet, if we look only to that which enters into the commerce of the Western World (Europe and North America), beet, according to the best estimates that could be formed, had already overtaken the cane in 1885. Beet- sugar still makes up only about half the raw sugar imported into the United Kingdom, but in most other European countries the consump- tion of beet-sugar prevails. In order to meet beet competition an economy has been effected by a change of system in some cane-grow- ing districts. Instead of each planter extracting the sugar from his own cane, different estates are connected with a single sugar-factory, the juice from the canes being pumped through pipes leading to ' The total production of sugar in British India is roughly estimated at about 2,000,000 tons, but the export of all kinds of sugar from India (partly palm sugar) does not reach 100,000 tons. 134 TROPICAL PRODUCTS reservoirs belonging to the factory. This is knowia as the usvm or factory system. 308. Here it should be mentioned that there are few industries the pursuit of which has been more generally affected by government regulations. Though in England the duty on sugar was abohshed in 1874, most other countries raise a portion of the revenue in some way or other from this indispensable commodity, and in some cases the duty is so imposed as to stimulate native production and export. In Germany there is, besides a customs duty on imported sugar, an excisa duty upon the beets employed in the native manufacture. When sugar is exported from Germany, a drawback is allowed at a rate which presumes a certain yield of sugar from a given weight of beets employed in the manufacture ; but the yield so allowed for is considerably under that which is generally obtained. This law has had a double effect. It has, in the first place, encouraged the export of sugar whenever the yield of sugar from the beet has exceeded the amount allowed for by the law, for the drawback then becomes equivalent to a bounty upon export. The drawback is made upon a greater amount of beet than has actually been used in the manufacture, and has had duty paid upon it. This fact has consequently stimulated the improvement of the processes of extractioil, since the greater the amount of sugar ex- tracted, the greater did the value of the bounty become. A similar law was long maintained in Austria-Hungary, and it is under the stimulus of these laws that the processes of extracting sugar from beet have been carried to so high a pitch in these countries. Diffusion machines are much more generally used in these countries than elsewhere, not less than 90 per cent, of the sugar-houses in both countries being said to use them. Similar laws long prevailed in France and Belgium. In Eussia a bounty was directly paid on exported sugar till July 1886, but now the pohcy of allowing a draw- back on exports sufficient in amount to favour exportation is pursued. In recent years the tendency of legislation in western Europe has been to reduce the bounty, direct or indirect, on the export of sugar. In 1888 the articles of a proposed convention designed to put an end to these bounties, were adhered to by representatives of most of the European Powers largely concerned in the production or refining of sugar, but the convention was never ratified. Germany and France, however, have since passed laws greatly modifying their fiscal system with respect to sugar. In Germany the new law, which comes into force on August 1, 1892, imposes an excise duty on sugar made from beetroot grown within the empire, and provides for the remission of this excise duty on exported sugar only when the sugar destined for exportation comes direct from the manufactory. As a transition measure, however, small direct bounties are to be paid on all exported eugar for five years, beginning with the date just mentioned. In France the presumed yield of sugar from a given quantity of beet has SUCAK, CINCHONA. fjj been raised for revenue purposes in recent years. Moreover, part of the sugar-duty is now levied on the refined sugar, and the drawback on export as regards this part of the duty is only equal to the amount of the duty. Austria has since 1888 levied the sugar-duty on the manufactured article, but now grants a direct bounty on exports. In Spain a high customs duty has, with the view of promoting the culti- vation of the sugar-cane at home, long been levied on imported sugars, even on those of her own colony of Cuba ; but in 1892 the duty on colonial sugar becomes extinguished. In the United States the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 provides for the encouragement of sugar- refining in the country by raising the duties on refined sugar, and admitting raw sugar duty-free, and compensates the home producers of raw sugar by a direct bounty. 309. Besides the two great sugar-producing plants, sugar is obtained in greater or less quantity from various other sources. In the eastern parts of the Canadian Domiaion and in the north-eastern States of the Union, sugar is largely obtained from a juice which flows out on tapping the trunk of various species of maple, and above all the sugar- maple {Acer saccharinum, Linn.). From this source is obtaiued a small proportion of the native-grown sugar of the United States. In the same country a species of sorghum (299) is used in making sugar, but in general all that is obtained from it is a sugary syrup or molasses. Experiments in the making of sugar from this source have been long continued at Fort Scott, in Kansas, and they are said to have proved at last so far successful as to ensure an economic profit. Maize also has long been experimented on with the view of obtaining this article from its stem. In tropical countries sugar is largely obtained from various species of palms — in India from the Indian date-palm, the Palmyra pahn, the coco-nut palm, and the sago-palm. 310. Relatively to population, the United Kingdom and the British Colonies in Australasia are by far the largest consumers of sugar. Next follows the United States ; and Cuba, the Argentine EepubKc, and Brazil are aU estimated to have a larger consumption of sugar per head than most of the States of continental Europe. 311. CUTCHOirA. Cinchona is the name of a Linnfean genus of tropical trees,' several species of which yield a bark invaluable in medicine ; so that no other commodity enters so largely into the commerce of the world solely on account of its medicinal uses. The bark is used medicinally in the form of extracts, the best-known of which is quinine, or compounds made from these extracts. The medical uses are very various, but it is chiefly as affording a sovereign remedy for the malarial fevers incident to tropical cHmates that this bark is so highly prized. The species of Cinchona, which number about fifty, are all natives of the eastern slopes of the Andes, from about 7° N. to 22° S., occupy- ing, generally in scattered groups, a belt of from about 3,000 to 10,000 136 TROPICAL PRODUCTS feet above sea-level, a belt in which they are exposed to copious rains (920), enjoy a tolerably constant temperature (37), and plenty of sun- shine. The species most valued for their bark, among which are Cin- chona succirubra, Pav., yielding the red bark of commerce, G. calisaya, Wedd., and C. ledgeriana, Moens, jdelding the more valuable yellow bark, and C. officinalis, L. , flourish best when grown within eight or ten degrees of the equator at the height of from 4,000 to 7,000 feet above sea-level, where the mean temperature is from about 55° to 70° F. In higher latitudes they are, of course, confined to a lower elevation. 312. The great value of this bark has led to numerous attempts to introduce the trees into other parts of the world than those to which they were originally confined, and some of these having been remark- ably successful have caused great changes in the chief sources of supply, and within recent years have led to a great teduction in the price of the bark. Originally the region from which it was introduced into Europe belonged entirely to the domain of the old Empire of Peru, and subsequently to the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru ; and hence it became known by the name of Peruvian bark, which is still very frequently applied to it. After the establishment of the various South American republics, that of Colombia furnished the chief supply. The first attempt to introduce the tree into the tropical parts of Asia were made by the Dutch. The first tree was introduced into Java in 1852, and a few years later the cultivation of the cinchona was a successful government industry on that island, where it is now prosecuted by private individuals as well as the government. To India the tree was brought direct from South America, by Mr. Clements Markham, in 1860. A government cinchona plantation was soon after estabhshed on the Nilgiri Hills, and a second was afterwards set agoing in Daqiling, in lat. 27°, on one of the rainiest parts of the Himalayan range. These establishments, however, did not greatly affect the European supphes of the bark, since almost all their produce is used in India in the form of a cinchona febrifuge. Besides the government establishments, private plantations have been set up in India in the southern part of the Western Ghats and on the mountains of Travancore. 313. But it is the Ceylon plantations which have had most effect on the international commerce in this drug and on its price, and that since the beginning of the present decade. Down to that date Colombia still remained the chief source of supply of this bark for the London market (which is the most important of all as regards this commodity) ; but so rapidly was cinchona-cultivation extended in Ceylon that the British imports of the bark from that colony increased from 7,452 cwts. in 1881 to upwards of 115,000 cwts. in 1886. During the same period the import from Colombia sank from upwards of 70,000 cwts. to 686 cwts. ; and whereas in 1881 the 70,000 cwts. imported from Colombia were valued at upwards of 1,000,000Z., the 106,000 cwts. imported in 1886 from Ceylon were valued at only 565,000?. It is CINCHONA: VEGETABLE FIBRES 137 true that the South American bark (no longer mahaly from Colombia) still bears a relatively high price, no doubt because it is only the best kinds of American bark that compete with the Ceylonese product at all. The great lowering of price has, however, at last checked the spread of cinchona cultivation in Ceylon. Since 1886 the supply of bark from that colony has declined both absolutely and relatively. 314. Among other parts of the world into which cinchona cultiva- tion has been successfully introduced are Jamaica, where G. officinalis thrives admirably on the Blue Mountains, at the height of 5,000 feet and upwards, and Madeira, in about 33° N., the highest latitude at which its cultivation has yet proved a success. The G. succirubra succeeds on that island at an elevation of about 500 feet. Unsuccessful attempts to introduce cinchona-cultivation have likewise been made in Algeria, Italy, the United States, and New South Wales. Bolivia seems to be the only South American State in which the systematic cultivation of the tree has been attempted. In that country extensive plantations have been laid out at different places, but the recent extension of the cultivation of Ceylon appears to have depressed the industry in that rather inaccessible country. 315. TROPICAL VEGETABLE FIBRES. Of these the most im- portant (apart from cotton) is jute, which is derived from the bast chiefly of two species of a genus of plants known to botanists as Corchorus. These are slender-stemmed annuals, from about eight to twelve feet high, cultivated in India, Ceylon, and China, to a less extent in some other tropical countries, as well as Syria and Egypt, In these last two countries the species known as G. olitorius, Linn., is cultivated chiefly as a vegetable. The cultivation of the plant on a great scale for the sake of the fibre is almost confined to the northern and eastern parts of Bengal. It is grown on every variety of soil, but by preference on the alluvial sand-banks thrown up by the rivers, for which situation it is peculiarly adapted by the fact that, except in the early stages of growth, it can stand heavy flooding without injury. The fibre, which is extracted from the stem by retting (193), among other processes, has long been woven into cloth caUed gunny-cloth by native hand-loom weavers, the cloth being chiefly used for the making of sacks and packing for cotton, coffee, and other native products. Till about 1835 the use of this material in weaving was almost con- fined to India; but about that date it began to be imported into Dundee, where it has risen to be the chief article used in spinning and weavmg, especially since the Crimean war (1854-56) temporarily reduced the Eussian supplies of flax and hemp, on which the industry of that town to a large extent depended. For a time Dundee was the only seat of jute-factories, but the industry has since spread to other towns of the United Kingdom (especially to such as are also engaged in the linen industry), and still more recently the prosperity of the Dundee jute-manufactures has been a good deal checked by the 138' TROPICAL PRODUCTS establishment of factories on the Continent and in India itself. The> Indian factories are almost all confined to Bengal, and indeed to the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta, jute being the Bengal industry which rivals that of cotton in Bombay. The figures in the Appendix (p. 467) indicate how this industry has grown ; but it must be remem- bered that, ia addition to the products of this manufacture exported to be used abroad (one-third of the whole in Australia), there is probably nearly an equal quantity of gunny-bags exported from India as wrap- pings for native products. Both in India and in Europe gunny -bags and other coarse packing-materials are still the chief product of the jute-factories ; and hence the United States, which export such enormous quantities of raw produce, take about half the amount of jute-manu- factures exported from Great Britain, and Brazil and the Argentine Eepublic likewise import large quantities. Eecently, jute yarn, either alone or in combination with other yarns, has been employed in the manufacture of various other fabrics, such as carpets, furniture- coverings, curtains, and even plushes and velvets. Being capable, under proper treatment, of being made highly lustrous, like the flax fibre, it is particularly well suited for being mixed with silk. 316. A rival to jute in the American market has recently sprung up in the fibre known as henequen, or sisal hemp,' derived mainly from the thick fleshy leaves of the Agave, sisalana, Perrine, a native of Yucatan, where it is now largely cultivated, partly also from other species of Agave, including the maguey (912). Henequen has also been introduced into British Honduras and the West Indies. The export of this fibre from Mexico, chiefly to the United States, has now reached a value of more than 1,500,000Z. ; and as a sack made from this fibre, though stronger than a jute sack, costs only lOd. in New York, a,nd weighs only about two pounds, while a jute sack costs Is. and weighs from three to three and a half pounds, it is likely to go on increasing. The fibre is also largely used for cordage. Formerly a great obstacle to the use of the Mexican fibres in manufactures arose from the difficulty of extraction from the leaf, but this has been over- come by the invention of a machine for the purpose. 317. Next in importance to jute among tropical fibres in European Commerce is Manilla hemp, so called from the chief place of export (761). It is obtained from the long leaves of Musa textilis, Nees, a tree belonging to the same genus as the banana and plantain, found wild on the Moluccas and Philippine Islands, and cultivated chiefly on the latter. The fibre is from six to nine feet in length, and, being separated from the leaf entirely by the ill-paid hand-labour of the natives, is very cheap ; and since, though more difficult to work and more brittle than hemp fibre, it is capable of being made uito ropes of great tenacity and endurance, it is very largely exported for the ' So called from Sisal, the port of export in Yucatan before the railway was laid from Merida to the present place of export, Progreso (see map, p. 401). CHINA GRASS 139 purpose. Great Britain alone annually receives tbis product direct from the Philippines to the value of more than 500,000Z. A large amount is also imported by way of Hong-Kong and Singapore. The finer fibres are woven by the natives of the Philippine Islands into delicate tissues, and in Europe they are likewise used (often in combination with silk) in making curtains, coverings for furniture, and other fabrics. 318. In Eastern countries (India, China, Japan, and the Eastern Archipelago) fibres derived from the bast chiefly of two varieties of Bahrrmria nivea, Hook., a species of plants belonging to the nettle family, have been used from the earliest times in spinning and weaving. The fibres, which are known in India as rliea, in the Malay Islands as ramie, and to Europeans by the name of China grass, are pre- eminent amongst vegetable fibres for strength, fineness, and lustre, * and produce an almost silky-looldng fabric, called China cloth or grass cloth, which in China is very generally used for the making of summer clothing. Factories for the manufacture of this cloth have now been erected in various European countries, including the United Kingdom, and the plant is now cultivated with success in North Africa, Southern and Central Europe (in France, even in Normandy), and above all in Mexico (912 a). 318 a. Of all fibre plants China grass is that which seems likely to grow most rapidly in importance for weaving within the next few years. In some trials it proved to be more than twice as strong as Russian hemp, and, being not easily injured by moisture, it is well suited for the making of ropes. Its various qualities render it fit for being used in making, besides ships' cable, all sorts of woven fabrics, from the coarsest to the finest — sail-cloth, table-Hnen, ' alpaca,' velvet, and even lace and cambric. The chief obstacle to its use at present is its high price, arising from the difficulty with which the fibre is separated. The slow hand-labour of the Chinese workman suiBces to produce only about 2 lbs. of fibre per day. The construction of machines for the extraction of the fibre has received much attention in recent years, particularly in France. Several machines have been invented for thft purpose, and one or two have been in operation experimentally for some years, but the practical success of any of them has not yet been, proved.^ If this success were achieved, the production of the fibre would soon be rapidly increased, for the ease with which the plant can be cultivated is another point in its favour. The plant is perennial, continuing to grow where it has once taken hold, and spreads of itself so rapidly that a single clump is said to be capable of covering sixty acres in three years. Moreover, its leaves furnish a pulp for paper- making, and the refuse after the extraction of the fibre is an excellent fodder for cattle. ' Kew Bull. No. 18, p. 146. ' Kew Bull. No. 23, p. 273. Sse also Foreign Office Papers, Annual Series, No. 270, p. 3, I40 TROPICAL PROD tic TS 319. Of other tropical or Bub-fropical fibre-plants it will be sufficient to enume-' rate some of. the more important, since none of them has, so far at least, attained any considerable place in international commerce. A leguminous or pod-bearing plant, Crotala/ria jwncea, Linn., yields from its bast the sunn -hemp of India. In the same country the Hibiscus cannabimcs, Linn., a member of the same family as the cotton plant, is largely cultivated, especially in the north, for its fibre, which is also obtained from the bast, and is knowij as Seccani or gambo-hemp. Several trees belonging to the same family furnish a soft silky wool, which, like the true cotton, is an investment of the seeds, but which, being too short for spinning, is used for stuffing cushions and other similar purposes. These are known as silk cotton trees, and the most important are Bombax Ceiba, Linn., a native of tropical America, Bombax malabaricum, DC, a native of India, and Eriodendron anfractu- osum, DC, a native of India and the Eastern Archipelago, from which latter region the product of this tree has been introduced into commerce by the Dutch under the name of vegetable down. The fibres of the leaves of the screw-pine, Pandanus odoratissirrms, Linn., a native of Southern Asia, Madagascar, and the islands of the Pacific, enter into commerce under the name of vicua, or vacoua, as a material for coarse sacking. Those from the outside of the stem of the palm known to botanists as Attalea funifera, Mart., are exported from Brazil, under the name of piasaava, as a material for brushes and brooms. Another palm-tree, the ubiquitous coco-nut palm, furnishes, among its numerous other products, the fibre called coir, which is commercially by far the most important of all these minor fibres. The fibre forms a thick matting on the outside of the nut, and is exported from all tropical countries as a material not only, like the piassava, for brooms and brushes, but also the making of door-mats, and even for the making of stair-carpets, and various other purposes. 320. CAOUTCHOUC OR INDIA RUBBER. Both names are of interest. The first is a South American name, and hence suggests the region whence the first knowledge of the substance was introduced into Europe, and whence still come the chief supplies. Europe first became acquainted with the substance and its use in South America through a paper read to the French Academy by La Condamine in 1736. For more than eighty years after that almost the sole use of the substance in Europe was for the purpose which the second name suggests, namely the rubbing out of pencil-marks. At the present time it would be difficult to say how small a fraction of the consump- tion of caoutchouc that use represents, so that this second name is a constant reminder of the way in which a great industry may grow out of small beginnings. The ' India ' prefixed to the term ' rubber ' in- dicates the source from which the chief supplies of the material were got when its use was limited. The first important extension of the use of caoutchouc was due to the invention in 1823 by Mackintosh, of the waterproof fabric named after him. A still greater extension followed when Goodyear in America in 1842, and independently Hancock in England in 1843, discovered the method of hardening caoutchouc by treating it with sulphur. This is known as the pro- cess of vulcanising. A small proportion of sulphur (5 to 7 per cent.) incorporated with the caoutchouc makes the compound adapted for a great variety of mechanical purposes, such as nearly everybody is- JNDIA RUBBER I4I "more o"r less familiar witb. A larger percentage (30-50) makes the hard black compound known as ebonite, used for a number at other equally familiar purposes. 321. Caoutchouc is the coagulated juice derived from a variety of trees, all tropical. By far the largest supply is obtained from the tree known as Siphonia elastica, Pers., or Hevea brasiliensis, Miill.-Arg., a native of the Amazon Valley. It is known in commerce as Para rubber, from the place of export (923). Another Brazilian tree, Manihot Glaziovii, Miill.-Arg. (an ally of the shrub yielding tapioca), furnishes Ceara rubber, wJiich owes its commercial name to the province from which it is derived. In Central America, caoutchouc is obtained from Gastilloa elastica, Cerv. ; in India, from a species of fig, Ficus elastica, Eoxb., the produce of which enters into commerce mainly through the province of Assam, and is hence known as Assam rubber ; in Borneo, from a species of Willughbeia ; in other parts of the Eastern Archi- pelago, from Urceola elastica, Eoxb. ; in Africa, from various species of twining plants belonging to the genus Landolphia. Everywhere caoutchouc is at present obtained on the ' robber ' system, trees being destroyed to furnish the juice, and no cultivation being resorted to to replace the loss ; but the tree famishing the Ceara rubber (at present the smallest quota of the whole supply) has been recommended for cultivation in India on account of its hardy character and adaptabiUty in respect of chmate. 322. The total supply of caoutchouc is estimated by Scherzer at about 20,000 tons annually, of which about half is supplied by Brazil. The countries taking the lead in the trade and industry connected with the substance are the United States and the United Kingdom. Of the two, the United States stands first in the consumption of the raw material, that country having the advantage of being nearer the chief sources of supply in South and Central America, and likewise of supplying the bulk of the commodities required by the caoutchouc gatherers, namely flour, dried codfish, and various other ' foodstuffs.' The annual export of manufactured articles of caoutchouc and gutta- percha together from the United States is, however, only of about one* sixth of the value of those of caoutchouc alone from the United King- dom, which indicates a much larger home consumption in the former country of goods made from caoutchouc. This is due in part perhaps to a much more miscellaneous development of the industry in the United States than in the United Kingdom, but largely also to the more general use of certain articles made from this substance, as, for instance, ' rubber ' shoes, which are looked upon as almost indis- pensable in America in rainy weather. 323. Gutta-percha is the hardened juice of several other tropical trees, but the chief supply in this case comes from the East Indies, especially the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies, Singapore being the chief place of export to Europe. The tree that yields the bulk 142 PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES of the supply is known to botanists as Dichopsis Ouiia, Benth. Another Jdnd is derived from another member of the same botanical family, the Sapotacese, namely from Sapota Mulleri, Blume, a native of Guiana. Gutta-percha is used for many of the same purposes as caoutchouc, and is capable in many respects of similar treatment. Mixed with carbon, it can be readily vulcanised like caoutchouc, by the addition of sulphur, either to the soft or hard state. It is very largely employed in the maldng of telegraph cables as an insulator in which the wires are embedded, and as England has almost a monopoly of this industry, the gutta-percha trade of the United Kingdom receives a great stimulus therefrom. D. Products of Various Climates. 324. VEGETABLE OILS, OIL-SEEBS, AND OIL-CAKE. Almost all vegetable oils are extracted from tlie fruit or seed. The plants supply- ing oil vary widely in their character, ranging from small herbs to tall trees. Almost all of them belong to warm countries, that is to say, either to tropical lands or the warmer parts of the temperate zone, or if they are not confined to these regions, are in them of most importance for their oil, 325. The uses of vegetable oils are various. Some, such as olive- oil, ground-nut oil, poppy, sesame, and cotton-oil, are largely used as table oils, for cooking, preserving, &c. ; others, including rape, cotton, and olive, are used for lighting ; others, such as rape, hemp, and palm- oil, are employed in lubricating machinery ; others are used in medicine and perfumery ; others in making candles ; others, known as drying oils, of which linseed is the most important, in mixing colours for painting, as well as in various manufactures ; very many of them in the manu- facture of soap (455), which is rapidly becoming the chief use of almost all vegetable oils, except drying, and some of the table oils, seeing that for the other purposes for which oils are required in greatest quantity, lighting and lubricating, vegetable oils are being displaced by the cheaper petroleum products (400). 326. Among vegetable oils, the first place may properly be given to the product of the olive. It is perhaps exceeded by linseed as regards the quantity of merchandise which it supplies to international com- merce ; but it is probably the vegetable oil of which the greatest quan- tity is produced, seeing that there is an immense consumption of it in the populous countries of Southern Europe in which the tree is grown. The olive, originally a native, in all probability, of Western Asia, is a tree that grows to the height of from twenty-five to forty feet, and pro- duces clusters of oval fruit an inch or more in length, greenish, whitish, violet, or sometimes almost black in colour, and having a ' stone ' inside enveloped by an oily pulp. The tree issuitedratherto a warm temperate than a sub-tropical chmate, and the site best suited to it is that which VEGETABLE OILS: THE OLIVE 143 has a dry, and above all a gravelly limestone soil, and is well sheltered. These requirements are presented in many parts of the Mediterranean region (including Portugal), throughout which (except in Egypt) the tree is highly characteristic. Both in Italy and Spain it is estimated to cover about 3 per cent, of the entire surface, and in the latter coun- try extensive forests composed of it alone cover the southern slopes of the Sierra Morena. 326 a. In the Black Sea region the distribution of the olive illus- trates in an interesting manner the influence of climate. The tree is absent from the south of Russia, except on the southern slopes of the Yaila mountains in the Crimea, which afford the necessary protection against cold northerly winds. Under the shelter of the Caucasus Mountains it occurs in Trans-Caucasia, where it grows both wild and under cultivation in many districts, even some such as, on the whole, are characterised by heavy summer rains. As such rains are in general prejudicial to the tree, it is probable that its occurrence is local, many of the mountain spurs that diversify the surface of this region affording also shelter from the rainfall derived from the Black Sea. Ill the north of Asia Minor the olive thrives admirably along the whole coast from Trebizond to Samsun, and in ancient times extended to Sinope ; that is, it occupied the whole of that part of the coast looking north-eastwards and participating in the shelter afforded by the Caucasus Mountains (see map, p. 313). It is excluded, how- ever, from that part of the coast which looks north-westwards, and is liable to be swept by cold winds from southern Eussia.' 326 6. Outside of the regions considered in the preceding para- graphs, the tree may be grown in many parts of the world, but there are few of these in which olive-oil is an important product. The tree thrives in Mexico, and also in Peru and other parts of South America, where it was introduced as early as 1560 ; but in these parts its fruit is said to be unfit for use in the extraction of oil. In the United States the tree is not, as yet at any rate, of any importance, but inquiries have been made at the instance of the government of that country with regard to its successful cultivation in the countries to which it belongs. The attempts to grow it as an oil-yielding tree have been more successful in South Australia than anywhere else outside of the Mediterranean region, and there the planting of the tree is extending rapidly. The olive has also been successfully intro- duced on the hills of India, but there it does not yet count among the oil-producing vegetable forms. 326 c. The production of olive oil in Italy, both for home use and for export, is greater than in any other country. In quality, however, the Italian oil is for the most part reckoned inferior to that of France (the Provence oil), but this is due chiefly to the treatment of tho berries, the best oil being that obtained from berries plucked fresh from ' Tchihatohef, Klein-Asien, p. 70. 144 PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES the tree and subjected to a pressure not severe enough to force any oil out of the stone and kernel. Sometimes, indeed, the berries are first stoned in order to ensure the production of an oil of very high quality. The oils of Lucca and hilly districts in Tuscany are unsurpassed even by those of Provence, and excellent oil is produced also in some other parts of Central and Northern Italy, where the olive is not, indeed, so abundant as in the South, but is better treated. The export of Italian oil is chiefly to France, which consumes much more oil than it produces, and has itself little or no export of this commodity. The United Kingdom derives olive-oil more largely from Spain than Italy, and the other countries from which it is chiefly brought to England are Turkey (including Asia Minor and Syria, in some parts of which ohves are very abundant), Morocco, and Tunis. There is more in- ferior oil imported into the British Isles than into France, for in this country the oil is less used than in Prance as a table oil. The inferior kinds are much used in the making of soap. 327. Olive oil is now very largely adulterated with cotton-seed oil, which can scarcely be distinguished from it in flavour, and is, indeed, often substituted for the genuine product of the olive. Cotton-seed is chiefly exported from Egypt, and most largely to the United Kingdom, where the refining of the oil has become a great industry at Hull. In the United States this oil is very largely employed as an adulterant of lard. 328. Linseed, rape-seed, and the sesame of commerce are the three principal oil-seeds furnished by India, and they are all exported for the most part before the extraction of the oil. Linseed, as already intimated, is merely another name for flax-seed. More than three-fourths of the whole import of this article into the United Kingdom is derived from British India, the Argentine Bepublie and Russia affording the principal supplies from elsewhere. The useful property of drying on exposure to the air, a property already referred to as rendering this oil the most important of those employed in mixing colours for painting, as well as in making varnishes, adapts it for many other uses, which help to give it a very important place in the arts. When treated with sulphur it forms what is called linoleum, which is a soft substance capable of being used for many of the purposes of india^ rubber or gutta-percha. Dissolved and mixed with colouring-matter, it is then employed to cover various textile fabrics with a waterproof varnish, thus forming the so-called wax-eloth ; but it is probably now most extensively used in the making of linoleum floorcloth, which consists of ground cork and linoleum mixed together and pressed upon canvas. S29. Bapeseed is the seed of two or three species of the cabbage genus (Brassiax) extensively grown in Europe as well as India. The oil made from it was formerly the chief lighting agent in North and Central Europe ; and colza oil, which is that derived from Brassica rapa, var. oleifera, DC, is still of great value for use in lamps. It is now more largely used as a lubricant, and even for this purpose is likely to be displaced in course of time by paraffin and petroleum. 330. The sesame of commerce is the seed of a herb which was grown for its oil both by the Egyptians and Babylonians of ancient times, as it now is in India and Asia Minor. The oil is called in India til or jinjelly, and is used as a table oil as well as for lighting. The seed is the richest in oil of all the important oil-seeds, yielding oil to the amount of more than half its weight.. The beniseed of Weat OILS, GUMS, RESINS 145 Africa is derived from a member of the same genus. Poppy-seeJ, which yields an oil used for cooking and for mixing colours, as well as in soap-making, is exported chiefly from India, the bulk of the export going to Trance. From India France also derives some of the ground-nnts, Arachis hypogtsa, L., the oil obtained from which is now employed in that country for the same purposes as olive-oil ; but by far the largest snppUes of this commodity are obtained from the tropical parts of West Africa ; a portion also from South Africa. The cultivation of this plant is, how- ever, increasing very rapidly in India, and in several of the French tropical colonies, in consequence of the rising demand. The ground-' nuts ' are in reality pods, which are so called because they bury themselves under ground to ripen. Castor-oil, which is expressed from the seeds of a tropical tree or shrub belonging both to the Old and the New World, enters into commerce chiefly in the form of the oil, and only to a small extent in the form of oil-seeds. India is the chief source of supply. The oil is used in soap-making as well as in medicine, and for other purposes. In China it is used as a table-oU. 331. Two palm-trees yield large supplies of oil. That which yields the oil generally distinguished as palm-oil is the tree known to botanists as Elceis guineensis, Jacq., that is, the Guinea oil-tree — a name by which it is very appro- priately designated (833). Like the product of the next tree, palm-oil is largely used in soap- and candle-making, being combined with stearine (358 b) for the latter purpose. Another important use of this oil is in ihe tin-plate trade. The iron sheets, before being tinned, are dipped in a hot bath of this oil to prevent oxidation. Coco-nut oil is expressed from the kernels of the coco-nut, and is imported into England chiefly from Ceylon and Uadras, The dried kernels of the coco-nut also enter largely into commerce under the name of copra, being exported from all parts of the world where the coco-palm is abundant, and forming the staple of the extensive trade which the Germans have established on many islands of the Pacific. 332, Oil-cake is a general name for the masses of crushed seeds that remain after the oil has been pressed out of them, and it is now very largely used in the feeding of cattle, which it fattens very rapidly ; frequently also as a manure (Z4S). It is chiefly derived from linseed, rapeseed, and cotton-seed. In 1887 about four-fifths of the British import under this head was from the United States, where flax ia grown mainly for its seed (193), and cotton-cake is likewise abundant. 833. Of the ethereal, essential, or volatile oils, — that is, oils that can be evapo- rated and recondensed without changing their nature, — the most important is the oil or so-called spirit of turpentine, obtained by distillation from the resin of various firs, pines, and other cone-bearing trees. It is very largely used to dissolve resins (334), and in the making of paints and varnishes, as well as for cleaning. Almost all the British import is from the United States. VEGETABLE WAXES, see Wax (361). 334. eiTMS, BESINS, AND OIHEB VEGETABLE EXTBACT8, exclusive of those used chiefly as Drugs, Narcotics, Tans, or Dyes, and vegetable Waxes. Besin is a general name for a variety of substances, which are all originally fluids in the tissues of plants, but which become solid, which are all more or less clear or translucent, though generally with a tinge of colour, which are all inflammable and insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and the essential oils, such as oil of turpentine (338). They generally exude in a fluid state from the stems and branches of trees, but are sometimes found in hollow spaces in the wood, or lying in the ground where the trees yielding them have grown. Gums resemble resins in appearance and origin, but differ in being soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol and essential oils. 334 a. The resin which forms by far the most important commercial commodity, so far as quantity is concerned, is that which is entered in the ' Annual Statements ' of British Trade as rosin. It is used in the making of paper (435), and soap 146 PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES (455), and for many other familiar purposes. It is the substance that remains behind from the distillation of turpentine after the oil of turpentine has been separated, and hence is imported, like the latter commodity, mainly from the TJnited States. From Eussia and Sweden, the European countries which have the greatest abun- dance of cone-bearing trees, comparatively little rosin or oil of turpentine is exported ; but, on the other hand, these are the chief sources of supply for wood-tar and pitch, which are obtained from the timber of the same group of trees, by burning it in covered pits in such a manner that no flame is produced. From tar, creasote, an excellent preservative of timber, is made by aoomplicated process. The export of tar from the United States is comparatively small, though there is a large production of the article for home use. Burgundy pitch, which is used as an external application in medicine, is properly a kind of resin obtained by treating the natural resin of the silver fir (common frankincense, as it is called), and when genuine is principally imported from the Continent of Europe ; but the substance so called is now largely manufactured from rosin or turpentine. 334 6. The other resins of commerce are principally used either in the making of varnishes and lacquers, or for burning as incense. The chief of those employed for the former purpose are dammar, the product of a cone-bearing tree (Dammara orientalis, Lamb.) which grows in the Eastern Archipelago ; kauri gum, the resin of the New Zealand pine, which is another species of Dammara (D. aits- tralis. Lamb.) ; copal, obtained from various tropical trees ; and sandarach, the product of a cone-bearing tree belonging to Algeria and other parts of North Africa. Kauri gum is principally derived not from trees still standing, but is dug in large lumps out of the earth over a large part of the North Island of New Zealand, where forests of this tree formerly existed. It forms the finest of all resins for varnishes. Copal (frequently known as gum copal) is obtained both from the Old World and the New. The best sort is said to be that derived from a tree growing in the West of Africa (Angola and Benguela), but it is also obtained from the East of Africa, India, the Eastern Archipelago, the West Indies, and South America. Mastix, the product of a species of Pistaoia which grows in various parts of the Mediterra- nean region, but above all on the Island of Chios, is now not so much used in the making of varnishes and lacquers as formerly, but is still largely consumed in the Levant as a material for chewing to cleanse the teeth and strengthen the gums, as well as in other ways. Dragon's-blood, a red resin which exudes from several trees belonging to the tropics of the Old and New World, is imported for the colouring of varnishes and for use in making wood-polishes. 335. To the list mentioned in the last paragraph may be added amber, which is nothing else than the resin from certain extinct cone-bearing trees. Though chiefly employed in the making of a variety of ornamental articles, amber is also used in making varnishes. It is principally obtained on the Baltic coast of Prussia, between the Frisches Haff and the Kurisches Hafli, whence the article, which was very highly valued in antiquity (4), was conveyed by several routes to the civilised countries round the Mediterranean. At the present day amber seems to be most valued for ornamental purposes in China, where it is regularly imported in considerable quantity. The substance is occasionally obtained at various points on the shores of the Mediterranean, and more regularly on the coasts of China and Siam. Some kinds of copal are, however, frequently substituted for the true amber, and sold as such, being hard enough to be applied to the same purposes as the genuine article. 336. Of resins used to bum as incense, the most important are olibanum, or the true frankincense, the product of various species of trees belonging to the genus Boswellia, natives of Africa, Southern Arabia, and India ; myrrh, the product of species of Balsamodendron belonging to the same regions ; and benzoe, derived from he bark of a tree called Styrax Benzoin, Dryand., which grows in Indo-China GUMS, SPICES, AND CONDIMENTS 147 and the Eastern Archipelago. This last substance is largely used not only in the ceremonies of the Boman Catholic Church, but also in the religious services in Eastern Asia ; in India and China it is also employed in the making of cos- metics, and by the rich to fumigate their rooms. In Japan it is mixed with tobacco for smoking. 337. The gum arable of commerce is derived from various species of Acacia growing in different parts of the world. The best kind is imported into Europe, most largely from Northern Africa, chiefly by way of Egypt and Senegal, and, according to Schweinfurth, is mostly derived from the Acacia senegalemis. Ait. {A. Yerek, Guill. et Perott.), a tree found throughout the Sudan from the west to the east of Africa, and also in the arid portion of India immediately to the north- west of the Deecan Peninsula. The trade in that portion of the gum which is in- troduced into Europe from the Senegal region is in French hands, and is imported into other countries mainly from Prance. The A. arabica, Willd., which grows over the whole region occupied by the former species, and also in Southern Arabia, supplies a portion of this gum ; and so also does the A. gwinmifera, Willd., a native of the countries lying to the north of the Desert of Sahara. Large quan- tities of inferior gum are exported from the African ports on and near the Bed Sea, but these reach this country chiefly through Bombay, and hence are entered in the ' Annual Statements ' of British Trade as from the British East Indies ; for, notwithstanding the fact that both the Sudanese trees yielding gum grow also in India, and a useful and strong adhesive gum is obtained from the A. Catechu, Willd., which is more widespread in India, and is mentioned elsewhere (428) as supplying a tanning and dyeing material, the export trade in native Indian gums still awaits development. Among other sources of supply of this commodity are South Africa, where it is obtained from the A. horrida, Willd., and Australia, where it is chiefly derived from the A. pycnantJia, Benth., which supplies also a powerful tanning bark (427). The only other important gum of commerce — not counting the so-called gum- lac (362)— is gum tragacanth, the product of several species of Astragalus belong- ing to the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. It is principally exported from Smyrna, in Asia Minor, and is used as a vehicle for applying discharges (chemical agents for removing colour) in calico-printing, as well as for other purposes. 338. SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. The most important spices are all products of the torridzone. Only three — pepper, ginger, and cinnamon — are entered separately in the ' Annual Statements ' of British Trade, and the order in which they have been mentioned indicates their relative importance as British imports. Usually more than three times as much pepper as ginger is imported, and about twenty times as much pepper as cinnamon ; and the values of the several articles give a still higher ratio to the excess of the import of pepper over that of the other two. 339. Under the name of pepper several different articles are sold in the shops. Peppercorns and black and white pepper, which make up the great bulk of the pepper of commerce, are all derived from one species, a twining and climbing plant, Piper nigrum, Linn., belonging to Southern India, the Eastern Archipelago, and the Eastern Peninsula, and largely cultivated in those regions for the sake of its spice, which is the most generally used of all spices, both among rich and poor. The peppercorns are the whole berries, and black and white pepper the same, ground, with this difference, that to make white pepper the peppercorns are first deprived of their outer skin by steeping them in water for several days. Ninety per cent, of all the pepper imported into this country comes from the Straits Settle- ments, but the principal part of this import is the product of Sumatra, Borneo, and Siam, collected at Singapore. A considerable quantity, however, is the product of the Straits Settlements themselves, and most of the remainder is derived from the 1.2 14S PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES Malabar coast of India. Another species of Pipe* (P. lowgwn, Linn.) produces long pepper, which is the dried unripe Iruit of that shrub ; a native of the same regions as the last, but extending to a more northerly latitude. Cubebs are the berries of another species (P. Cubeba, Linn.) belonging to the same region, and a fourth species, the betel (P. Betel, Linn.), furnishes the leaves which are used along with areca-nut (p. 465) and other ingredients to compose the favourite stimulant chewing mixture of the people of India. Cay f nue pepper is the product of a totally different plant, being the ground pods of different species of Capsicum, one of which has smaller'pods, used entire in picWing, under the name of chillies. Origin- ally natives of South America, they are now grown in tropical countries in the Old as well as the New World, and even in the warmer parts of the temperate zone, as in Spain and Hungary. The United Kingdom is the great market for all kinds of peppers, and re-exports on an average about two-thirds of her whole import. 340. Ginger, a spice known to the ancient Greeks and Eomans, and much liked in the middle ages, is the dried root-stock of a plant known to botanists as Zingiber officinale, Bosc, a native of South-Eastern Asia, but now largely cultivated also in the West Indies and the British settlements in West Africa. Almost all the British imports of this commodity are from parts of the British Empire— princi- pally the British East and West Indies. The West Indian article has the higher average value. 341. The cinnamon of the shops is the product of two different trees, in both cases the bark (ground or unground) of the smaller twigs. One of these, the dearer and better of the two, is derived from the Ciniiaviomum zeylanicum, Nees., or Ceylon cinnamon, and is distinguished in commerce as the true cinnamon, although it seems probable that the cassia lignea of commerce, the product of the Latirus cassia of Linnaeus, was the cinnamon of the ancients, the so-called true cinnamon not having been discovered tUl the thirteenth oentury of the Christian Era. The Ceylon cinnamon is very exacting as to soil and climate, and hence is restricted to limited areas. It is the product of this tree alone that is entered as cinnamon in the ' Annual Statements,' and aU but a small fraction of the import of this commodity into Great Britain is still derived from Ceylon, though the tree is also grown on the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and has been introduced into the West Indies and South America. The Laurus cassia is much more widespread, growing wild (as well as cultivated) in the tropical and sub-tropical parts both of the Old and New World ; but the greater part of the cassia lignea of commerce is obtained from China. The total annual produce of cassia in the world is estimated at half as much again as that of cinnamon. 342. Of the unenumerated spices of the ' Annual Statements ' two of the most important are cloves and nutmegs (including mace), both produced chiefly on the Moluccas or Spice Islands, but imported into this country mainly by way of Singa- pore. Cloves are the flower-buds of Caryophyllus aromaticus, Linn., dried before opening ; nutmegs are the kernel of the fruit of another tree, Myristica moschata, Willd., and mace the investment of that kernel. Both trees are natives of the Moluccas, to which the Dutch for a long period confined them, retaining for them- selves the monopoly of the trade in these spices. Both trees have now, however, been introduced into other parts of the world ; both of them into the Straits Settle- ments and British India ; and the clove-tree into many parts of the torrid zone, both in the Old World (Zanzibar &o.) and the N-ew. 342 a. The greater quantity of the remaining unenumerated spices are derived from the British West Indies, and among those having this origin the most im- portant is pimento, or all-spice, the unripe dried berries of the Pimenta officinalis, Lindl., which is cultivated chiefly on the Island of Jamaica. Among the minor spices in European trade may be mentioned cardamoms, which are, however, the most valuable of all Indian condiments. They are grown to such an extent on the SPICES AND CONDIMENTS:- DYES 149 mountains of Southern India, tbat the name' of Cardamom Hills is given to the range forming the background of the native State of Travancore. Vanilla is the pod of a twining orchid originally belonging to Uexico and Soutbi America, but long since successfully introduced into the tropics o£ the Old World, including the Islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, vfhioh now rival Mexico in, the production of this commodity. Cummin, the seed of a plant native to. the Upper Nile regions, but introduced at an early age into Southern and Eastern Asia, was an important spice in ancient times and in the middle ag«e, but now plays little, if any, part in European commerce. Star-anise, the seeds of a tree (Illicvwm, verum, Hook, f.') belonging to Southern GhinSr is imported into Europe in considerable quantity as a flavouring for spirits. Ihe ebi«f spices and condiments grown in European countries are fennel, caraways, coriander, aniseed,, and mustard. 843. DYE-STTirrS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. Some of the most important of these are extracted from the heart-wood of certain trees, and the woods yielding them (chiefly the products of tropical countries) are imported into industrial countries in considerable quantity under the heading dye-woods. In the ' Annual Statements ' of British Trade there is only one wood of this class suf- ficiently important to be separately enumerated, this being logwood, a wood of a dark-red colour yielding an eixtract which is largely used in dyeing blue, brown, and black. It is the wood of the Hcematoxykm campechianum of LinnieuB, a lofty tree which owes its specific name to the fact that, it is very abundant in the district of Campeachy in the Mexican province of Yucatan. It is, however, chiefly imported from the West Indies and British Honduras. The dye-woods not separately enu- merated are imported into this country in largest quantity from Central America, which of late years has been furnishing greater and greater supplies of this class of merchandise. One of the principal dye-woods so entered is fustic, a wood yielding a yellow colouring-matter, but chiefly used in combination with other materials to produce differently coloured dyes. It is the product of a tree known to botanists as Maeiura Unciorm, Don, and is now exported mainly from Nicaragua under the name of mora-wood. Another yellow dye-wood, the product of BMis CoUnus, Linn., a tree of the same genus as those which yield the sumach of com- merce (429) and the Japanese wax (361), is imported under the najne of fustic from Southern Europe, and is sometimes, owing to a misapprehension, distin- guished as young fustic. Next in importance to fustic among the, dye-woods of Central America is the red Brazil wood, the product of Ccssalpima brasiliensis, Sw., and imported also from Brazil and other parts of South America.. A still finer red dye-wood is the camwood of commerce, the product of BapMa mtida, Afzel., a native of Western Africa. A species of Ctesalpinia (C. SAppan, Linn.)! belonging to India and the South-East of Asia yields a yellow dye from its wood. Sappan wood is exported to some extent for the sake of this dye, though from India it is chiefly the dye itself that is exported. Besides the so-called young fustic there is one other dye-wood of importance derived from the temperate zone, the quer- citron of the United States of America, thia being the ground bark of a species of oak {Quercus tinetoria, Willd.), used in tanning, as well as in dyeing. It imparts a bright yellow colour. 344. The substances of vegetable origin entered as dye-stuffs in the ' Annual State- ments ' are either parts of herbs from whi^h dyes may be extracted, or extracts used in dyeing, whether derived from herbs or fiom the wood of trees.. Of, such dye-stuffs by far the most important is indigo, the fine blue dye obtained chiefly from a shrub Indigof&ra Uneioria, Linn., a native oi the tropical parts of SouthrEastern Asia, but now largely grown also in the tropics of the New World, as well as in Africa, and even in Trans-Caucasia. The d^e is derived from all parts of the plant, which ' See Kew Bull., No. IS^paZS.. l'5o PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES is cut down just as the flowers begin to appear. This dye is mostly imported in cakes from India, where the plant is estimated to cover an area (chiefly in the north : see map, pp. 322-23) about equal to that under oats in England. Next to India, our largest supplies are obtained from Central America (especially San Sal- vador). Besides the species above mentioned other species of Indigofera (some of them natives of the New World) also yield indigo, and attention has recently been called to a species, probably different from that of India, growing in West Africa and furnishing a dye of a very high quality. The same dye is likewise derived from plants belonging to different genera, among which is the woad-plant {Isatis tinctoria, Linn.), which was at one time cultivated for its dye in Britain, and still more largely in Germany, but has been rapidly going out of cultivation since the large supplies of indigo began to be obtained from India. 345. The other dye-stuffs of vegetable origin separately enumerated in the 'Annual Statements ' are madder, and safflower, besides cutch, gambler, myrobalans, and sumach, which are also used in tanning (427-29). Madder is entered as madder, madder-root, garancine, and munjeet, garancine being the colouring-prin- ciple extracted from the madder-plant, and munjeet Indian madder (Buhia cordi- folia, Linn.). The European madder (Bubia iiwcfontm, Linn.) was formerly grown pretty extensively in various parts of the mainland of Europe, being the principal source of certain dyes, chiefly red, but also yeUow ; but the discovery in 1868 of the method of preparing similar dyes much more cheaply from coal-tar products (463) has greatly reduced this industry. There is still, however, a demand for madder dyes, inasmuch as these are more lasting than their coal-tar rivals— a fact which may perhaps again lead to an increased use of the former. Safflower {Garthanms tinciorius, Linn.), a plant with large yellow flower-heads, from which a red and a yellow dye are obtained, is another dye-plant which has been adversely affected by the invention of the coal-tar dyes, but it is still cultivated for its dye all over India, as well as in a few places in Europe. 346. The only other dye-stuff not of mineral origin separately entered in the British ' Annual Statements ' is cochineal, a red-colouring matter obtained from the dried bodies of an insect (Coccus cacti, Linn.), belonging to the same genus as that which yields the lac of India (368), and the same genus as the kermes insect which lives on the kermes oak in the Mediterranean region, and yields another red dye, the ' scarlet ' of the Bible. Cochineal is chiefly imported from the Canary Islands, where the plant on which the insect feeds (Opuntia coccinillifera, Linn.), is largely grown for the sake of this product. 347. Of the dye-stuffs not separately enumerated in the British tables, one of the most important is annatto or aruotto, a. reddish-yellow dye chiefly used for silks, and therefore (232) more largely imported into France than any other country. It is derived from the fruit of a tree (Bixa orellana, L.) belonging to tropical America, and into France is chiefly imported from Guadeloupe. Two lichens may be mentioned yielding dyes of some importance. One of these, Lecanora tartarea, Ach., is obtained to a small extent from the rocks of Scotland and Wales, but more abundantly from Sweden and Norway, and is used as a red dye under the name of cudbear. It also is specially suited for silk-dyeing. The other, archil or orseille (Boccella tinctoria, DC), grows on tropical rocks and trees, and is imported from the Canary Islands and various parts of the tropical regions of Africa and America. It is stated to be one of the products most abundant in the Congo basin. From it two dyes are obtained — a pui-ple-red dye and a blue dye — the latter of which is distinguished as litmus, and, among other uses, is employed to colour papers used by chemists as tests for acids, which change such papers from blue to red. Under the name of yellow berries the fruits of trees of the buckthorn genus (Rhamnus imfectorius, Linn. Ac.) are imported in considerable quantity from Smyrna for the sake of a yellow dye which they afford. Gamboge, the hardened sap of a tree be- DYES, TIMBEJi 151, longing to the Eastern Peninsula and Eastern Arcliipelago, Garcinia mcn-ella, Desv., and turmeric, an extract from the underground stem of Curcuma longa, Eoxb., a plant belonging to the same regions and also to China and India, are im- ported as yellow dyes, but are more used in the making of coloured varnishes and for other purposes in the arts than for dyeing fabrics. Turmeric is used, like litmus, to colour test-papers employed in chemistry. 348. The dyes already mentioned include only a very small number of those which can be extracted from members of the vegetable kingdom. In India it is said that over three hundred dyes and taus are known to the nativ f , and the majority of these are believed to be in regular use. But the use of most vegetable dyes is rapidly giting way before those already referred to as made from products of coal-tar. 349. TIMBER. Most of the timber of commerce is obtained from firs and pines. It is exported in the form of logs, deals, deal ends (deals less than six feet in length), planks, and hoards ; sometimes in the form of shooks, that is, sets of staves for barrels. The four European countries which export an excess of timber are Eussia, Sweden, Norway, and Austria-Hungary; and the United Kingdom is the country which has the greatest excess of imports. In America, Canada and the United States are about equal in the value of their timber exports. In all of the exporting countries mentioned, fir and pine predominate, but oak is a very large export from both the American countries named, as weU as from Central Europe. Elm, beech, walnut, maple, are among the other important timber-trees of the temperate zone, and the spotted wood of the New England sugar-maple (309), known as bird's-eye maple, is highly esteemed for cabinet work. 350. Mahogany is the wood of Swietenia mahagoni, L., a large tree belonging to tropical America, including the West Indies. The best quality is obtained from the Island of Hayti ; inferior sorts from Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, and British Honduras. When grown on marshy ground, like most of that of British Honduras, the timber is compara- tively soft and of poor quality. Teak, the only other timber specially mentioned in the ' Annual Statements ' of British Trade, is of the highest value for shipbuilding and in construction generally, being as hard and durable as oak, and having at the same time this advantage over oak, that while the latter timber is said to promote rust, teak contains an oil which tends to preserve iron by preventing rust. It is chiefly imported from Burma (748), but is largely grown in other, parts of the East Indies, including Java. Ebony is a name given to the wood of various trees. The hardest, blackest, and most valuable kind is the product of Diospyros ehenum, Koe., a native of India. Rosewood is another name given to several different kinds of timber, the best being derived from various species of Caesalpinia ; the best of all, it is said, from Ccssalpinia brasiliensis, Sw. The term cedar is used with equal laxity, being applied to a number of trees whose wood is thought to resemble that of the true cedar of Lebanon in colour or appearance or both. The cedar of Lebanon furnishes none of the timber of com- IS2 PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES merce. The white cedar is derived from Juniperus oxycedrus, L., Cupres- sus thyoides, L., and other trees; the red cedar (used in making pencils) from Juniperus virgiwiana, L., and /. bermvdiana, L. Most of the cedarwood of commerce comes from the West Indies and Central America. 351. FURS. The fur trade has some peculiar features. It is tho most valuable of those which depend for the greater part of their supplies upon the hunter, including the seal-fisher. It is a trade that deals in the skins of a great variety of different animals of all sizes and differing greatly in value, and hence its products are collected ia a few great markets where merchants and manufacturers can supply themselves with the kinds best suited to their own special market or branch of industry. The regions from which the furs are collected are almost exclusively the temperate and cold parts of the world, the finest sorts beiag all from the colder regions, where the animals are provided by nature with a thick covering to protect them against the severity of the climate. Only a few monkey skins, together with skins of lions, tigers, leopards, and other carnivorous animals, are derived from regions in which the climate is tropical or subtropical, though the chinchilla is obtained from such latitudes in South America, but at an elevation at which the climate is temperate, or even cold. Most of the furs come, as a matter of course, from the northern hemi- sphere, where there is the greatest area of land in the latitudes from which they are derived. The furs derived from North America and the adjacent seas are collected to a large extent at the New York market, but in still greater quantity reach the London market, which also receives large supplies from the southern hemisphere as well as from Europe. The furs of Siberia and Northern Eussia are principally collected at Nizhni-Novgorod ; but the greatest fur-market of the world is that of Leipzig, which receives supplies not only from the great markets already mentioned in the east and west, but also direct from almost all the minor markets in different parts of the globe. This pre-eminence it owes to its central situation, not only as regards the sources of supply, but also as regards the region in which furs are mostly worn, fur garments being more in demand in Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe, where the winters are rela- tively mild (468), They are also largely worn by the well-to-do classes in China (775 a). 352. To enumerate all the animals that contribute a share to the fur trade would be to mention nearly all the land mammals belonging to the colder parts of the earth, as well as a good many of those belonging to more temperate regions, and several marine mammals. Among those which supply the greatest number of skins to the trade are squirrels, hares, rabbits, musk-rats (a kind of beaver belonging to North America), coypus (a beaver-like animal whose skins are imported, under the name of nutria skins, mainly from the region round the Eiver Plate in South America), cats, and seals, all of which are, it is estimated, slaughtered FUJiS 153 for their fur to the number of at least a million annually ; but among those which yield the furs of greatest value are the sable (from Eussia and Siberia, and from North America), the stoat or ermine (from Europe andAsia), the sea-otter (from the west coastof North America), theblack or silver fox, and the true fur seal. The coat of the blubber-seal (358 c) is of but little value, and the true fur seal, which yields the valuable sealskin of commerce, is a species belonging to a group distinguished from other seals by the possession of external ears. This species is obtained chiefly on the Pribylov Islands, two small islands in Behring Sea, where they come annually to breed. Under the regulations of the Government of the United States only 100,000 may be killed there every year. The species is also hunted by Canadian sealers in Behring Sea, but the right of the Canadians to do this is contested by the Government of the United States. 353. The fur trade of British North America was for a long time the monopoly of a company called the Hudson's Bay Company, which was founded in 1670, and had conferred upon it the exclusive right of capturing fur-bearing animals, and buying furs in the entire region draining into Hudson's Bay. A still wider range of territory was brought within their monopoly at a later date, and remained so till 1860, when the company's claims were again reduced to the tract embraced by the original grant. This also was sold in 1869 to the Dominion of Canada, though the company still retained in its posses- sion certain stations and a portion of the land. During the enjoyment of its monopoly enormous profits were made by the company, which purchased by means of beads and cheap trinkets the furs of animals trapped or otherwise captured by native Indians and brought by them to their agents. Now there are several other fur-companies operating in the same region. The Eussian fur trade has been from the first to some extent in the hands of the Eussian government, a portion of the revenue of the Siberian provinces being paid in the form of sable, squirrel, and other skins. Large numbers of skins are now derived from the Australasian colonies, but these are chiefly rabbit-skins of little value (83 h). The skins of kangaroos and other marsupials, however, supply a somewhat more valuable commodity to the fur trade. 364. IlVIire ANIMALS AND IIISCELI.ANEOTJS FBOSUCTS chiefly of Animal Origin. The oiily living animals which form important articles of commerce are the larger domestic animals. Into the United Kingdom oxen and bulls are imported in largest number from the United States, cows mostly from Denmark, and calves from Holland ; sheep and lambs are chiefly brought from Germany, Holland, and Denmark ; swine mainly from HoUand, and horses from Denmark and Germany. The imports from Holland may probably be to a large extent of German origin. 355. Meat derived from animals is imported in large quantities into the United Kingdom both salted and fresh. Beef, whether fresh or salted, is derived mainly from the United States and British North America, but by means of iced chambers it can be brought even from the Australasian colonies. In the case of mutton New Zealand and the Aigeutiue Republic are now, in consequence of the perfecting of 1S4 MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS the preserving processes, the chief sources of supply. Pork, bacon, hams, and lard are derived mainly from Horth America, including the United States (892) and the British colonies. Poultry and game, on the other hand, are derived mainly from the adjacent parts of the European Continent ; but it is noticeable that Holland, though it supplies us with considerable quantities of poultry, furnishes us with only a small quantity of eggs. France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia are, in fact, the only European countries of importance which show a large excess of exports over imports in the case of this commodity ; whereas the United Kingdom, Germany, and Holland have an import many times as large as their export. The United Kingdom, indeed, while exporting eggs to only an insignificant extent, imports this article to a much greater amount than the aggregate import of all the other countries mentioned, and that notwithstanding the fact that Great Britain derives immense quantities of eggs from Ireland. The majority of eggs imported are, of course, those of domestic fowls, but the gathering of eggs from coasts and islands frequented by sea-birds, principally in northern seas, is an important source of liveUhood in many places. It is so on the Shetland and Faroe Islands, on many parts of the Norwegian coast, on the islands of Texel and Sylt, in Holland. Here it may be mentioned that it is not merely for food that eggs are imported. They have various important uses in the arts. The white of egg (egg-albumen) is employed in book-binding and the finish- ing of fancy leathers ; as a clarifying agent in sugar-refining and in the preparation of wines ; in the making of one kind of photographic paper, and for other purposes. Egg-albumen is largely manufactured in Eussia. The yolk of egg is employed in making the finer kinds of tawed leather (431), Butter, like eggs, is imported into the United Kingdom chiefly from adjacent countries — Denmark, France, Holland, and Germany. Holland supplies most of the imported butterine, or margarine, as it is now called ' — that is, a preparation made from suet and other animal fats with the addition of a little milk. Cheese, which suffers no injury from a long voyage, is supplied to us mainly by the United States and British North America, which together furnished in 1891 more than three-fourths of the whole quantity imported into this country. Of the import of this article from the European mainland, by far the greater part comes from Holland ; but large quantities of the finest kinds of foreign cheese are originally made in France, Switzerland, or Italy. 356. Of animal products not used as food, the only ones of sufficient importance as mercantile commodities to be entered in the trade returns of the United King- dom are bones, ivory, horns and hoofs, hair and bristles, feathers, sponges, tallow, isinglass, whalebone, and animal oils and wax, along with which it is con- venient to treat of honey. Bones are employed in making a great variety of useful and fancy articles, and bone-ash is a common ingredient in the compositions used in the manufacture of pottery (445). Being in a great measure composed of phos- phate of lime, bones are likewise largely employed in the making of manures (433' 11). For manufacturing jpurposes they are chiefly imported from Brazil, the United States, and France ; and for use as manure, chiefly from the East Indies and the Argentine Bepublic. 357. Ivory is the dentine or tooth-substance forming the tusks of elephants, hippopotamuses, walruses, narwhals, and other animals. Elephant ivory is distin- guished by its lozenge-shaped curvilinear markings. Hippopotamus ivory is denser and harder than that of the elephant, and of a superior and more enduring whiteness, but the solid pieces of this kind of ivory are all small, so that it can be used only in making small articles — at most in making the handles of surgical instruments, for which it is highly prized. Walrus ivory is inferior to that of the hippopotamus, - The value of the margarine, avowed as snch, imported into the United Kingdom in 1887 approached 382. Iron, it must here be explained, is rarely to be found pure. It has almost always to be extracted from ores, which vary greatly in their richness and the nature of the other substances with which the iron is combined. The ores have to be smelted or reduced to a metallic condition by heat and chemical action, and most of the iron then sinks to the bottom of the furnace and is run off into moulds. This is what is called pig-iron or cast-iron, and is never pure. It always contains a considerable proportion of a substance called carbon, of which pure charcoal is one of the forms ; sometimes it contains substances much more injurious to its quality, the most prejudicial being sulphur and 168 MINERAL PRODUCTS phosplioras. Even the carbon is injurious to some extent, and renders cast-iron brittle and unfit for use in the making of anything which has to stand a severe strain. It is for this reason that cast-iron is converted into wrought or malleable iron by driving out almost all the carbon it contains. This is usually done by a process called puddling, which consists in remelting the cast-iron on the hearth of a furnace, and stirring it about when molten with a rake, which causes the carbon to escape and get burnt up in the intensely heated air of the furnace. As the carbon escapes the fluid becomes pasty, and the iron is then brought away in large lumps, and afterwards hammered into rude slabs called blooms, and rolled out to form bars, sheets, &o. 383. The material so formed is very tenacious, and tolerably bard, but for some purposes not suflBciently hard. For the making of weapons, and cutlery of all sorts, a kind of iron is required which be- sides being very tenacious must also be flexible, elastic, and very hard ; and for these and other purposes iron is converted into steel, which is nothing else than a form of iron containing a small proportion of carbon. All iron containing more than '2 andlessthan l'5per cent, of carbon is now spoken of as steel, that which has no more than '75 per cent, being referred to as mild or soft steel. The hardest steel has about 1'2 per cent, of carbon. When there is more than 1"5 per cent, of carbon the substance takes on the properties of cast-iron. 384. The history of the iron industry consists in a gradual series of improvements in the methods by which all these processes are carried on. Only a few of the great steps in advance can here be men- tioned ; but with reference to these it ought to be explained that the most important of these improvements, associated with the names of certain inventors, are in many cases only slight modifications of methods which in the course of the gradual development of this indus- try had been previously suggested ; modifications, however, which were just what was needed to make the methods practically useful (comp. 92). 385. In ancient times, when the methods of working iron were very defective, good iron could be made only from the best ores, and hence districts containing ores of fine quality had the principal trade in iron. During the early history of Greece certain tribes inhabiting the northern slopes of the tableland of Asia Minor, to the west of Trebizond, among others the Chalybes, seem to have carried on a large trade in iron for this reason, and from them the Greeks derived their word chalybs for hard iron or steel. To the Eomans were known many de- posits of iron ore, including the rich ores of Bilbao, in the north of Spain. Eemains of Eoman ironworks are found in various parts of Great Britain, but so imperfect were even their methods of smelting, so small a proportion of the iron was obtained from the ore, that the slag or refuse material from the smelting-furnaces of the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, suppUed at a later period the only ore required for the furnaces of that region for a period of between two and three hundred IJiON: SMELTING 169 years. At the same time, so expensive were these old Roman methods, that, according to an experiment made by the Austrian Count Wurm- brand, if these same methods were practised at the present day a ton of iron could not be made for less than 200L (Comp. table p. 481.) 386. Down to a comparatively recent date one reason of the limited and costly production of iron was that wood or charcoal was the only fuel used in smelting ; and this fact had an important effect both on the geographical distribution of the iron industry, and the aspect of those regions in which that industry was long pursued. Iron could be smelted only in the neighbourhood of forests, and in process of time forests were cleared in feeding the furnaces. The forest from which the Weald takes its name perished in supplying fuel to the iron-fur- naces of Kent and Sussex, the last of which was blown out early in the present century. An English parliamentary report of the year 1719 makes strong complaint of the devastation wrought by the ironworks in the counties of Warwick, Stafford, Worcester, Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Salop. About twenty years later the English import of foreign iron was computed at about 20,000 tons annually — 10 per cent, more than the home production (380). The greater abundance of wood in Germany as compared with England was one important reason why the iron industry of the former country was greater than that of the latter even as late as the earlier part of last century. 387. Coal was first used with practical success in the smelting of iron by Dud Dudley (son of Lord Dudley) in 1619, but the practice was then followed only by himself, and it was not till 1738 that the process was perfected by Abraham Darby, of Coalbrookdale. Though a great economy in fuel is effected by this means, coal, even in the im- proved furnaces of the present day, does not make so pure an iron as charcoal, inasmuch as it usually contains sulphur and other ingredients more or less noxious. In Sweden and Russia, the two European countries richest in forests, charcoal is still used in iron smelting-works, and to this fact the high quahty of Swedish and some of the Eussian iron is partly due. 388. A further economy in the use of fuel is effected by the employ- ment of coke, which is, besides, a better form of fuel for the purpose, as containing no sulphur (382), and in the United States by the employ- ment of petroleum and natural gas (898). Besides coal or other fuel, it is necessary in the case of most kinds of iron ore to put into the smelting- or blast-furnace along with the ore a certain quantity of a material intended to facilitate the reduction. The material so employed, called a flux, is generally limestone or lime ; and consequently facilities for obtaining this mineral form an important geographical factor affecting the prosperity of the iron industry in different places. For some kinds of ore, as for that called red hematite, which contains 56-70 per cent, of iron, this is not always required. Most kinds of ore, too, require to be roasted previously to being put in the blast-furnace — 173- MINERAL PRODUCTS an operation performed in kilns or by laying out the ore in a heap' mixed with coal in the open air and setting fire to the heap at the end from which the prevaiUng wind blows. In the case of blackband iron ore (491), there is generally enough matter of the nature of coal in the ore to render the addition of coal unnecessary in roasting. The effect of the roasting is to reduce the bulk of the ore which has to be put into the blast-fumace, and at the same time to remove by burning most of the sulphur and other substances that can be volatilized. For red hematite this operation is considered unnecessary. 389. After the introduction of coal and coke in smelting, the next great step in the economising of fuel was due to the invention of the hot-blast, that is, the practice of raising the air used in blowing the smelting-furnaces to a high temperature before introducing it into the furnace. This invention, due to Mr. Neilson of Glasgow, was first applied in 1828, and enables the same quantity of fuel to smelt more iron than could be done with a cold-blast. The saving by this means is not so great as was at first claimed, but has been increased by raising still higher the temperature of the blast. About 1870, in the best- constructed furnaces the blast had a temperature of only about 800° F., but at the present day it is sometimes raised to as high as 1650° F. Blast furnaces have also been enlarged and improved in construc- tion. The waste gas which used to be seen burning at the top of the furnaces is now utihsed to heat the boilers of the engine employed to work the blast and the hot-air stoves — an idea which originated in France in 1814, though it has been applied in a sufficiently simple matter only since about 1860 (first in South Wales). By all these means the consumption of coal has been so greatly reduced that; whereas in 1796 six tons of coal were required to produce one ton of iron, two tons of coal (one of coke) now suffice for that production. 390. The next great developments of the iron industry have been due to the various modern inventions which have done so much to cheapen the production and extend the use of steel as compared with wrought-iron. The old method of making steel by the process called cementation is still the best, and indeed the only method by which steel of the quality required for makhig good cutlery can be manu- factured. This method consists in sealing up bars of iron in fireclay troughs along with a quantity of charcoal, in which the bars of wrought- iron are imbedded, each separated by a layer of charcoal from the others, and exposing them thus to a high temperature for a week or ten days, according to the quahty of steel required. At the end of the period the iron is found to have combined with the requisite amount of carbon, but to have become porous and rough on the surface, on which account it is known as blistered steel. This, after being condensed by hammering and rolling, and fused in crucibles, forms the finest kind of cast steel. The process, from its nature, ia obviously a costly one. IRON: STEEL-MAKING 171 - 391. There are now many methods of producing cast steel on a large scale, and three of these are sufficiently widely practised to have a geographical interest. The first of these is that which is associated with the name of Sir Henry Bessemer, being employed in the pro- duction of what is called Bessemer steel, although the method as now practised in most of the great iron-countries involves an important improvement introduced by Mr. Mushet. The steps taken in this method are the following. Molten pig-iron is run into a large pear- shaped vessel called a converter, made of wrought-iron, and lined with a thick coating of some material not readily acted on by fire, and havuig a flat bottom, and a mouth at the narrow end. The Uning- material generally used is known as gannister, a kind of sandstone which is ground to powder and moistened, when, after being heated, it forms a very compact, non-crumbling mass, extremely difficult to melt. In the bottom of the converter there are a number of small holes through which cold air is blown with an amount of force strong enough to prevent the molten iron from faUing through, and the air in passing through the iron burns the carbon which it contains, as weU as the sihcon, another substance which is always present in greater or less amount, and is highly injurious when the amount is great. So rapid is the combustion that the heat caused thereby is great enough to keep even malleable iron molten. This converter is the invention of Mr. (now Sir Henry) Bessemer. When the carbon is all consumed the converter is turned on pivots into a horizontal position, and a compound of iron containing the necessary proportion of carbon for conversion into steel is added, and is then thoroughly mixed with the iron by a short repetition of the blowing. As origin- ally devised this process was found to be unsatisfactory, except in the case of a few ores. The resulting product was very brittle, and Mr. Mushet's improvement consisted in adding the carbon in a com- pound containing manganese, which serves to correct the fault to which this brittleness is due. The compounds employed are spiegel- eisen and ferro-m'anganese, which are made from certain iron ores rich in manganese, such as are found in Styria, Westphaha, the Urals, Sweden, and elsewhere. When the ore used in making the pig-iron put into the converter itself contains a sufficient amount of manganese, the use of spiegeleisen or ferro-manganese is not neces- sary. The amount of iron that may be converted into steel in a single converter at one time by this process varies from three to ten tons, according to the capacity of the converter. 392. Another process widely used for the purpose is that known as the Siemens-Martin process, which in so far resembles the Bessemer process that molten pig-iron is first deprived of carbon by means of air, and the necessary amount of carbon is afterwards restored by the addition of molten spiegeleisen or ferro-manganese, but differs in this, that the operations are performed in a different kind of furnace, in 172 MINERAL PRODUCTS which the air employed to remove the carbon plays over the molten metal instead of being blown through it. 393. Even with the improvement of Mushet these two processes are not applicable to all kinds of pig-iron. Neither of them removes phosphorus if the pig-iron happens to contain it ; and as steel is ren- dered brittle by even a very slight proportion of this ingredient (less than ^-^jj part being enough to render it unfitted for many purposes for which steel is required), the original processes can be applied only to iron made from ores in which phosphorus is not contained, or is present only in very small amount indeed. Such ores aro known comprehensively as Bessemer ores. In the Old World, the only ore from which iron of this quality can be made in large quantity is the hematite, which occurs in the north-west of England, and is found also to a limited extent in the Prussian province of West- phalia, in Styria (616), and in Sweden, but the only other generally available sources of which are the island of Elba, the north of Spain, and Algeria. So long, therefore, as no process was known for making cast steel on a large scale so as to overcome the above-mentioned drawback, the geographical distribution of these ores was obviously greatly in favour of the English iron and steel industry, for not only did England herself possess stores of the valuable ore in the most convenient situation, but ores from Italy, Spain, and Algeria could be landed after a sea- voyage close beside the blast-furnaces of Newport and Middlesbrough, whereas on the Continent a railway journey, or at least a transhipment to river or canal boats, was in most cases necessary to bring them to the districts where the iron industry is pursued. Hence, in Germany, for example, ores could be sent for this purpose no farther inland than the iron-working districts in the neighbourhood of the Bhine (Essen and the surrounding towns — 581 a). 394. It was accordingly a discovery of the highest importance for the future distribution of the iron and steel industry when a method was devised by which phosphorus could be removed from the pig-iron in the process of converting it into steel. A practicable method of doing this was invented by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Gilchrist of Middles- brough, in association with others. The method consists in using for the lining of an ordinary Bessemer converter a composition which, while serving the other purposes of the lining, has such a chemical action as to remove any phosphorus that may be present in the iron poured into the converter. Lime is mixed with the lining to serve as what chemists call a ' base,' with which the phosphorus, quitting the iron, may combine; and the process is hence known as the basic process. If the proportion of phosphorus be too great to be removed by that means alone, additional lime is added in some form in the converter along with the metal. This process was first practically applied in 1879, and besides making the ores extracted round Middles- brough (the Cleveland ores) for the first time available for the manu- IRON: AMOUNT OF PRODUCTION «73 facture of cast steel. The process is also applied to the making of ingot iron, and has enabled the mainland of Europe to compete with the United Kingdom in the iron industry more keenly than hitherto. 395. The general result of aU these inventions has been so greatly to cheapen steel that this product is rapidly taking the place of wrought-iron in almost all the uses to which the latter substance ia applied ; and so successful have they proved that it seems Hkely that the puddling process will soon be a thing of the past. 396. In recent years various compounds of steel with other metals have been made experimentally. The most promising of these is nickel-steel, which has already got beyond the stage of experiment. The compound so called contains a small proportion of nickel, and is much tougher and stronger than ordinary steel. Manganese steel, which contains from 12 to 14 per cent, of manganese, has extraordinary tenacity, but appears to be too expensive a product for ordinary use. See also 423 (3). 397. From the nature of the iron industry as now pursued, it follows as a matter of course that it is most largely developed in those countries which stand first in commerce and manufacturing industry generally. This industry may, indeed, be taken as a pretty good index of the position held by the chief countries of the world in these respects ; and hence the following table, relating to the iron-production of the five countries which produce the largest amount of iron, has an interest not confined to the iron industry alone. From this table it will be observed that the United Kingdom has been losing ground relatively to the other four countries. The increased rate at which it has lost ground in the last periods is probably to be partly ascribed to the effects of the Thomas-Gilchrist invention, though this has had nothing to do vnth the gigantic growth of the industry in the United States, where the basic process was first applied to any great extent in 1890. In that year the production of iron in the United States from ores of every origin (native or foreign) for the first time exceeded that of the United Kingdom : — Country Average annual production of pig-iron in miilions of tons Percentage of total of five countries 1871-76 1876-80 1881-85 1880-90 1871-76 1876-80 1881-85 1886-00 TJ. Kingdom . , U. States . . . Germany' . . France. . . . Belgimn''. . , 6-46 2'24 1-93 1-23 0-58 6-66 2-56 2-15 1-49 0-49 8-10 4-30 3-36 1-87 0-70 7-69 7-08 4-12 1-67 •77 52-0 18-0 15-4 9-9 4-7 49-9 19-2 16-1 11-1 3-7 44-2 23-5 18-3 10-2 3-8 3G-0 33-2 19-3 7-9 3-6 Total . . . 1243 13-35 18-33 21-33 100-0 100-0 100-0 100-0 397 a. The following table indicates the rapid extension of the basic process : — ' See 590 a, ' Since 1889 inclusive Austria-Hungary has surpassed Belgium, ■ 174 MINERAL PRODUCTS TJiousands of Tons of Steel and Ingot Iron made the Basic Process. Total With less than 017 per cent, of carbon 1885-86 1890 1889-86 1890 United Kingdom Germany, Luxemburg, and i Austria-Hungary . . . ) France Belgium and elsewhere . . . 258 884 123 49 503 1,695 241 164 160 650 77 37 351 1,253 176 112 Total 1,314 2,603 924 1,892 398. Eelatively to population Sweden has a large iron industry, due to the great abundance as well as to the excellence of its ores, and to the plentiful supply of charcoal fuel for smelting. (See p. 487.) The other European countries in which there is a considerable in- dustry in iron are Austria-Hungary and Eussia. The iron industry of Spain, notwithstanding the great wealth of the country in iron ores, is, like the other industries of that country, in a very backward condition. India and many of the colonies possess abundance of iron ore ; but this industry, in which the value of the ore counts for little, and capital and science for a great deal, has little chance of being rapidly developed in new countries. 399. PETROLEUM AND ITS PRODUCTS, with other allied substances. Petroleum, which means rock-oil, is a general name given to oils which flow freely or are pumped from holes bored in the earth. From the crude oil as it issues from the earth numerous pro- ducts having a great variety of uses are made by distillation and other processes, these products differing from one another in weight and fluidity, as well as in other properties. The names given to these products are variously used in different places, which is the source of a good deal of confusion. In the United States, which is at present one of the chief sources of supply of this oil, the name of petroleum oil is given to a light kind of oil which is that most abundantly produced for use iu lamps. The name kerosene is generally applied to the same oil in India, China, and the Colonies. Heavier kinds of oil, to wliich various names are given, are better adapted for heating purposes, and heavier oils still are very abundantly produced for use as lubricators for machinery. These heavy oils are what are generally known in the United States as paraffin oils, but in England this name had previously been given to an oil prepared from a different material for lighting (408), and hence in this country the light petroleum of the Americans is fre- quently sold as paraffin oil. In the Eussian territory of Trans-Caucasia the name of astatki is given to a comparatively thick residue which re- mains after the lighter oils have been removed, and is now largely used as fuel both for land and marine steam-engines in the neighbouring parts of Asia and Europe. " ' rETROIlEUM 175 400. The products that have now been mentioned are by far the most important of those derived from petroleum, and their importance is increasing every day. The illuminating oils derived from petro- leum, together with the British paraffin oil, are fast driving vegetable and animal oils out of the field in almost all parts of the world. Even in the olive refineries of Italy, where, as in the other Mediterranean countries, olive-oil was the only lighting agent known in ancient times, the refiner now finds it cheaper and better to use petroleum for light than the product of his own olive-groves. As a lubricating agent petroleum is equally victorious in competition with oils of vegetable and animal origin, the heavy oils used for that purpose being less liable than other oils to spontaneous combustion, and not so apt to become gummy and adhesive, in consequence of which they remain longer efiicient. Hence, even where not used alone for the purpose, they are frequently mixed with other kinds of oil to correct such defects as those just indicated. 401. Among the more important of the petroleum products ob- tained in less quantity are gasolene, a very fluid oil used in making an inflammable gas ; benzine and benzol, employed as a solvent in the making of india-rubber and gutta-percha goods ; parafiin, a white waxy-looking solid ; vaseline and other ointments, largely used in medicine ; and rhigolene, the most volatile of aU petroleum oils, some- times used in medicine to cause local insensibility from the cold which it produces by the rapidity of its evaporation. Naphtha might also be mentioned among petroleum products, but of all names used in connection with the petroleum industry this is perhaps the one that hn s the most diverse senses. Sometimes it is employed as a general name for any oil fit for burning that escapes from the ground ; in the United States it is applied to certain grades of oil made from crude petro- leum, and it is also applied to an inflammable fluid obtained from wood; 402. The petroleum industry on a great scale is entirely of modern,; and indeed of comparatively recent origin, and has attained its present dimensions in consequence of the abundance of the supplies that have' been discovered in certain regions, the great utility of its products, the ease with which it can be extracted from the earth and transmitted long distances in pipes, and the consequent cheapness of its products. The existence of petroleum was known even to the ancients, being mentioned by Herodotus, Plutarch, and PUny ; but the great develop- ment of the industry has taken place since the two great oil-fields already referred to, that of Trans-Caucasia and that of the United States, began to be worked. These two regions are now the two great rivals in the petroleum trade. 403. The Trans-Caucasian oil-fields belong to a larger region, ex- tending from the Crimea in the north-west along both sides of the Caucasus, and along the northern frontier of Persia to Merv and Sarakhs in the south-east, a region in which petroleum is known to exist at many points ; but there are two small districts, one near tlie 176 MINERAL PRODUCTS Caspian Sea and one near the Black Sea, both on the south side of the Caucasus Mountains, in which the supply of oil in this region is peculiarly abundant. One of these is the district round Baku, on the peninsula of Apsheron, which juts eastwards into the Caspian Sea. In this district, which is by far the richer of the two, inflammable oils have been known to exist from a very remote period, and gases burning constantly as they escaped from the earth were visited for ages by Persian fire-worshippers ; but it was not till long after this territory finally passed from Persia to Eussia, in the beginning of the present century, that any attempt was made to utihse commercially its wealth in oil. Of late years, however, its working has been taken in hand in good earnest, and its production has increased with great rapidity. In 1832 the district produced only 48 barrels of crude oil. In the ten years from 1881 to 1890 the amount produced increased steadily from 80 to 239 miUion poods, equivalent, at the rate of 5"32 gallons to a pood, to an increase of from 160 to 1,271 million gallons. No other part of the world yet known contains such a large proportion of free-flowing wells (that is, wells from which the oil does not need to be pumped), or individual wells producing so large a quantity of oil in a given time. More than one of the Baku wells has been known to yield of itseK upwards of 1,000,000 gallons per day for several days together. With such force does the oil sometimes issue at the first rush from a new boring that the whole boring-apparatus, weighing a ton and a half, is blown away. 404. The crude oil from the wells is run by means of pipes directly into the refineries, whence the products are conveyed either in car- riages made in the form of tanks, on the Trans-Caucasian railway, to the ports of Batum and Poti on the Black Sea, or to specially constructed tank-steamers which navigate the Black Sea and the Volga. Similar steamers are employed to convey the oil from the Black Sea to distant ports. 405. The petroleum district in the west of Trans-Caucasia, though not so rich as that round Baku in its suppUes of oil, has the advantage of possessing a pipe nearly fifty miles in length, by which the crude oil can be transmitted to refineries erected at the port of Novorassisk, which possesses the finest natural harbour on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. A company has been formed for the purpose of construct- ing a similar pipe-line from the Baku region to the Black Sea. The pipe is intended to be capable of transmitting 1,200,000 gallons of refined oil daily. 406. The petroleum industry of the United States is of comparatively recent origin, but up to the present date is one of much greater magni- tude than that of Eussia. It is, however, much less progressive. In 1882 the amount of crude oU produced exceeded 2,000 million gallons, but in the following year there was a great decline in the production, which did not again attain so large an amount till 1889, when it rose to nearly 2,500 million gallons. PETROLEUM \Ti 406 a. The great oil region of the United States is a strip of about 160 miles in length, and 40 miles broad in the middle, stretching from south-west to north-east in the west of Pennsylvania and New York. Oil was observed on the surface of the ground within this region as far back as 1819, but the first company for utilising the oU was formed in 1853, and at first the only method of collecting the oil was by spread- ing cloths over the ground to soak it up. Oil was first reached by- boring in 1859, and it is since then that the oil industry of the United States has sprung up. Now there are about 20,000 wells in districts scattered all over the region, with about 4,000 miles of pipes, which run their products into great central refineries, and thence to the great oil-markets. "What are called Pipe Line Certificates are issued to the proprietors of the oil-wells in proportion to the amount of crude oil which they run into the pipes for refining. Petroleum is now largely used in and near the oil region in iron-smelting and working, glass- making, and other industrial operations. (See also 898.) Even as late as 1885 this region produced nineteen-twentieths of the petroleum of the country, but the production in Ohio and California has increased of late ; in Ohio so rapidly that the product of the oil-fields of that state was in 1889 equal to more than half of that of Pennsylvania and New York, and more than a third of that of the United States generally. 406 h. Fnlly half the refined oil produced in the United States is exported, and the markets are scattered all over the world, as is only natural in the case of a commodity having such important uses. Hitherto the markets of Europe, almost all countries belonging to which import more or less American oil, have taken the largest share of the whole American export, and it is these markets that are now Ihreatened by the rapid development of the Trans-Caucasian oil-fields. Since the beginning of the present decade Eussian petroleum has been finding its way into all European countries, and since 1887 it has been rapidly displacing American oil in India. 407. Besides the regions already referred to, many other parts of the world produce petroleum, though few in sufiicient quantity to give it great commercial value. In Europe, the principal districts producing mineral oil lie on the outer slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, in Austrian Galicia, and Boumania, both of which produce a consider-: able quantity of petroleum by very rude methods. Germany and Italy have also been known for some time to possess petroleum wells, and a well has recently been discovered in Prance. In America, Canada has large supplies of petroleum, principally in the Province of Ontario, and these are important for the home demand, though they yield little for export. The West Indies, and also Venezuela, Peru, and other South American countries, likewise supply petroleum in' greater or less abundance. In Asia, Burma has long been known for its mineral oil, a£fording as it did the chief supply before the great 178 MINERAL PRODUCTS development of tKe oil-fields of Trans-Caucasia and the United States ; and petroleum is also worked in China and Japan. Mineral oils have likewise been discovered in considerable quantity at various points in the east of New South Wales, and in New Zealand, but these are mostly obtained from rocks similar to those which yield the paraffin oil of Britain. 408. The paraffin oil of Britain is a substance essentially similar to petroleum, and has the same uses, the lighter kinds being employed for illumination, the heavier for lubrication. Instead of gushing out of the earth, however, or being pumped out, it is extracted by distillation from solid minerals ; that is, the solid minerals are heated tiU the oils evaporate, and the oils are then re-condensed in separate chambers. The founder of this industry was Mr. James Young, who, while en- gaged in working a natural petroleum which flowed from the sand- stone roof of a coal-mine, at Alfreton in Derbyshire, conceived the idea that the oil might be profitably extracted from coal. This led to experiments, and in 1850 to his taking out a patent for the extrac- tion both of oil and the solid substance paraffin from coal. These substances are now chiefly obtained from bituminous shales, and the principal seat of the industry is a district extending from Linlithgow- shire through Midlothian to the west of Fife in Scotland, where these minerals are very abundant. After distillation the solid paraffin crystallises in the process of cooling, and is afterwards compressed and refined. It is chiefly used in making candles, which rival wax candles in the brilliancy of their light. It is from bituminous shales, which are very abundant in New South Wales, that the oil there called kerosene is obtained — an oil used in that colony both for burning in lamps, and for mixing with coal in making- coal-gas. 408 a. Ozokerit or earth-wax is a natural product resembling solid paraffin. It occurs in large quantities near the Caspian Sea, but the chief commercial supplies are drawn from Drohobycz and other places in Austrian Galicia (see map, p. 265). It is very difficult to refine, but yields a peculiarly fine kind of wax very suitable for making candles of a high melting-point. The Hght given by such candles is as 10 : 7"5 of that from sperm, and as 10 : 7 of that from wax candles. 409. Asphalt is a solid or nearly solid substance which results from the thickening of petroleum through the absorption of oxygen, and is hence met with in nature either as a superficial layer above deposits of petroleum exposed to the air, or entirely occupying the place of such deposits so exposed. Its chief use is in paving, for which purpose the asphalt of the Val de Travers in the Swiss Jura (canton of ITeur chatel) is the most valued material. It is also obtained in the canton of Vaud, and in Germany, France, Italy, and some other European countries. Algeria likewise supplies a considerable quantity of this substance to Great Britain, and a still larger quantity is obtained from the British West Indies (Barbados and Trinidad). Among other ASPHALT, GOLD, SILVER 179 places where it is found are the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea (hence anciently sometimes known as the Asphalt Lake) and Venezuela. 410. GOLD AND SILVER. The following table, based on esti- mates for the year 1884, published by the director of mints of the United States of America, shows in order of importance in respect of the total production of the precious metals the countries and parts of the world which in that year produced as much as 100,000Z. worth of either gold or silver. The figures represent millions and decimals of a million sterlmg. G. = Gold ; S. = Silver ; T. = Total. G. G-3 s. 10-0 T. 16-3 G. s. 2-1 T. 2-2 G. s. T. •4 tJnited States Germany . . Africa . •4 Australasia . 5-8 5-9 Chile . . . 1-1 1-1 Peru . •4 •4 Mexico. . . •2 5-6 5-8 Colombia . . •8 ■2 1-0 Japan . •2 •2 Bussia . . . 4-5 4-5 Venezuela •7 •7 Canada •2 •2 Bolivia. . . 3-3 3-3 Austria-Hung. •2 .4 •6 Brazil . •1 ■1 Since this estimate was made the chief changes in the sources of supply have consisted in the development of the gold-fields of the South African Eepublic, and the silver deposits of New South Wales (957a). In 1889 the value of the gold produced in Africa (principally South Africa) was estimated at 1,683,000Z. The Australasian pro- duction of silver now exceeds 1,000,000Z. in value. A small amount of gold is now produced in Merionethshire, Wales. See also p. 413. 411. Gold generally occurs either in alluvial deposits (into which it has been washed by the degradation of the rocks from which the deposits are derived) or in quartz-veins in the free state. Often it is associated with various metallic sulphides, chiefly iron and copper pyrites, either in quartz-veins or in other forms in which these ores occur, but it is seldom worth extracting except from quartz-veins. AUuvial gold occurs in the form of larger or smaller pieces (nuggets) scattered amidst the detritus. Hitherto it is estimated to have formed at least nine-tenths of the gold produced in the world ; but it is the characteristic of alluvial deposits wherever found to be rapidly ex- hausted, the supply being kept up by the discovery or working of new fields. From quartz-veins gold has to be obtained by stamping or crushing, a process involving more expensive machinery than is used in digging for alluvial gold ; but quartz-veins are sometimes capable of being profitably worked to a depth of 2,000 feet or more. 412. Silver ores generally occur in veins, or irregular deposits. But with regard to the occurrence of this metal, it is important that the silver-lead ore (415) sometimes occurs in great quantity in large 'pockets' or cavities in limestone rocks, which are very pro- ductive for a time, but are soon exhausted. It is from such chambers that the greater part of the silver of the United States is now obtained, and the production of the United States, having first been raised by this fact to an enormous extent, has now begun to show a less rapid N 2 iSo MINERAL PRODUCTS rate of increase. It is since the discovery of the famous Gomstoek lode in Nevada in 1859 that the United States rose into importance as a silver-producing country. Already the deposits first discovered are becoming exhausted, and it is only by new discoveries that the silver-production of that country has been kept from declining. 413. Another matter of importance -with reference to the produc- tion of silver is that a large proportion of the silver of the world . — 43 per cent., according to an estimate of Professor Eoberts-Austen for 1883 — is derived from the desilverisation of ores worked for other metals, principally lead and copper. It is by the desilverisation of copper ore (at Mansfeld in the Harz) that a large proportion of the silver of Germany is produced. 414. LEAD. The consumption of this metal has greatly increased within the present century in consequence of its use for the smaller gas and water pipes, and in various branches of the arts, as in lining the chambers used in making sulphuric acid (460) ; also, unfortu- nately, in consequence of the largely increased demand for it for the purpose of making shot of all kinds. The chief countries of its pro- ductioa are Spain and the ITnited States, which are now rivals of one another in the total amount produced. Germany ranks third, and there the production of ore and metallic lead has been steadily in- creasing of late years, whereas in the United Zingdom, the country which ranks fourth in the total amount produced, there has of late years been a decline. The United Kingdom has, however, the largest trade in lead, importing both ores and metallic lead, and exporting metallic lead and articles manufactured therefrom, both of native and foreign production. Spanish ores are now principally treated in Spaiu itself, though Spain still supplies to other countries lead ores of a valu- able kiad. The value of ores of lead varies greatly. In 1887 the countries that furnished the chief suppUes of this ore to the United Kingdom were Peru, Greece, Algeria, Turkey, Chile, and France, in order of quantity, but Peru, Turkey, ChUe, France, Spain, Algeria, in order of value. 415. There are various industries subsidiary to that in lead. The most important of these is the extraction of silver (413), a small pro- portion of which is nearly always contained in galena, the chief lead ore, a compound of lead and sulphur. White lead, which is very largely used in making painters' colours and in making the glaze on earthenware, is a carbonate of lead or a compound of lead and carbonic acid. Litharge is a compound of lead and oxygen, and is a yellowish substance used in making the glaze on earthenware and for other pur- poses. One form of this is called massicot, and from it is made by heating another compound called red lead or minium, which contains a greater proportion of oxygen, and is largely used in the making of flint glass and porcelain, as well as in making red paint. 416. COFFER. This metal is found in many if not in most LEAD, COPPER, ZINC. igi: countries of the world, sometimes pure (the native copper occasionally forming huge masses), more frequently in the form of ores, which vary greatly in richness. In 1867 Chile, the northern half of which is intersected in every direction by veins of copper, contributed two- thirds of the entire copper-production of the world ; but owing to the discovery of rich deposits of copper in other regions less remote from the great markets of the world, its share of the total copper-produc- tion has been greatly reduced. As late as 1880, however, it still stood first in the hst of copper -producing countries, but it has now been outstripped by the TTnited States, and has to compete with Spain for the second place. Germany ranks next in order, and then the Austrahan colonies, especially South Australia. Among the other countries which have a copper-production of some importance are Eussia, France, the United Kingdom, Cape Colony, Venezuela, Sweden, and Norway. 417. The production of copper in England from native ores has greatly decHned since about 1840, but there is a large import of foreign ores and ores which have undergone some preliminary treat- ment into this country, where it is converted into pure copper, chiefly at Swansea (516). Altogether, Great Britain has the largest trade in copper in the world. The greater part of the import of impure copper is in the form of regulus and precipitate of copper, both of these being copper ores partially refined, but by different methods of treatment. Copper in these forms is chiefly imported from Spain and the United States. Eaw copper ore is chiefly imported from Vene- zuela and the Cape Colony ; and there is also a large import of metallic copper, unwrought, from Chile and the Australian colonies. 418. Being an excellent conductor of electricity, copper has had its use greatly extended of late years in making telegraph-wires for underground communication and marine cables. It is one of the in- gredients in the two important alloys known as bronze and brass, the former composed of copper and tin (a very hard compound), and the latter of copper and zinc. 419. ZINC. This metal was first known in Europe only as an import from China and India, where it had long been employed in the manufacture of brass. It is only since about the middle of last century that the methods of extracting the metal from the ore and treating it after extraction have been discovered in this Continent. Prussia (681 V) and Belgium (557) are now the two European countries which produce the greatest quantity of this metal, chiefly from ores found in the countries themselves. They are estimated to furnish together about four-fifths of the production of Europe, fully two-thirds of that of the world. In the United Kingdom, zinc ores are produced chiefly in the counties of Denbigh, Cardigan, and Cumberland, and the Isle of Man. Ores are likewise imported from various Eiiropean countries, but the main import of this metal is in the form of crude i82 MINERAL PRODUCTS zinc, or spelter, chiefly from Germany, Holland, and Belgium ; that from Holland, and part of that from Belgium, being, no doubt, of German origin. From the same countries there is also a large import of articles manufactured from zinc. A large quantity of zinc is like- wise produced in the United States (chiefly Illinois). 420. TIIT. The tin-mines and other deposits of Cornwall and the adjacent parts of Dsvonshire, which perhaps supplied the Phoenicians with tin three thousand years ago, continued to be almost the sola source of supply of this metal till within the last two hundred years or so. The region just referred to is still the only important place of production in Europe, but important deposits of the ores of this metal are now known to exist in many other parts of the world, and the United Kingdom now imports much more tin than it produces. The principal sources of this import are the Straits Settlements (756 a) and New South Wales. The bulk of the import from the Straits Settlements is the produce of the islands of Banka and Billiton, be- longing to the Dutch East Indies, the tin exported thence reaching the United Kingdom chiefly by way of Singapore. Besides New South Wales all the other Austrahan colonies except West Australia produce more or less tin. Tasmania also yields supplies of this metal ; and in South America, Bolivia, Peru, and other countries are known to be rich in tin ores, though at present, owing to their isolation, they furnish little to the commerce of the world. That which is furnished by Bolivia is chiefly exported through the Argentine EepubHc. Tin ore is met with either in veins (or lodes) in the rock, or scattered about in alluvial deposits. The former is called mine-tin, the latter stream-tin. The stream-tin, being generally near the surface, is naturally the easiest to obtain where it is abundant ; and it is the abundance of such deposits in New South Wales and the Straits Settlements that makes these districts so important sources of supply at the present day. Tin is mostly imported in the metallic state. One of the chief uses of tin is to cover sheets of iron with a coating which serves as a protection against rust, and thus to form tin-plate, which on an average makes up more than one-sixth of the total value of the British exports of iron and steel (513/). 421. aUICKSILVER, or mercury, the only fluid metal, has long been principally obtained in Europe from the Spanish mines of Almaden in the Sierra Morena, which were worked even under the Romans. In 1887 Spain furnished more than four-fifths of the total quantity of this metal imported into Great Britain. The other Euro- pean countries which produce much of this metal are Italy (from mines in Tuscany and Venetia) and Austria-Hungary, chiefly from the long- celebrated mines of Idria in Camiola. Since 1850, when the cele- brated mines of New Almaden in California were opened, large quantities of mercury have also been produced in the United States, the mines of which country have in many years furnished more than QUICKSILVER, SALT, MINOR MINERALS 183 those of Spain and Austria together. The export from the United States is not proportionately large, and since 1877 there haa been a great decline in its total value. Quicksilver is also produced in Servia, Russia, China, Mexico, and Peru. The uses of mercury are various. In its pure state it is chiefly employed in the making of scientific instruments; Combined with other metals, it forms what are called amalgams, which are soft and easily fusible. An amalgam of mercury and tin was once largely used in the silvering of mirrors, but is now generally replaced by electro-deposits of silver. In mining for silver and gold these metals are frequently extracted by employing mercury to form amalgams with them, and the large amount of mercury required for this purpose in the extensive silver-mines of California and Nevada, near the chief seat of the United States' production of quicksilver, is one great cause of the smallness of the export feom the United States of the latter metal, 422. SALT. This product, so universally used and so widely dis- tributed, is more an article of local production in almost aU countries than an article of international commerce. It is obtained, as is well known, both from deposits on the land (rock-salt and brine-pits) and by the evaporation of sea- water. In the production of salt the United Kingdom stands far ahead of all others, with an annual yield of upwards of 2,000,000 tons, and is followed in order by the United States, India, Germany, Eussia, France, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Portugal. The United Kingdom has by far the largest consumption of salt per head, which is in a great measure due to the use of this mineral in the arts (457-58). The chief salt-exporting countries are the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Portugal is noted for the exceUenee of its bay-salt. In tropical countries with an excess of rain, there is apt to be a deficiency of salt, and hence India imports (almost entirely from the United Kingdom) between 300,000 and 400,000 tons annually. 423. milTOB MINEEAIS. Among these the following have some commercial importance : — (1) Antimony, employed to give hardness to softer metals in various alloys, more particularly in the making of type-metal, bell-metal, and Britannia metal, and also used by itself in the making of concave mirrors for astronomical purposes ; produced in Great Britain from ores obtained principally from Japan and Borneo (Sarawak). (2) Manganese, an indispensable constituent of certain com- pounds of great importance in the making of steel (391). One of its ores, known as tlie black oxide of manganese or pyrolusite, is also largely used in the manu- facture of bleaching-powder (461), and in glass-making as a deoolorizer. This ore is obtained from various parts of the world, but at present is most abundantly im- ported into Great Britain from Chile and Trans-Caucasia. A manganese ore suitable for the making of ferro-manganese (391) is worked in the county of Merioneth and elsewhere in Great Britain. In the United States ores of this metal are worked chiefly in Virginia, Georgia, and Arkansas. Eecently the metal manganese has come to be used in various alloys. With copper it produces a very tenacious kind of bronze ; with copper and zinc, sometimes with the addition of a little iron and nickel, a substance resembling nickel. (See also 386.) (3) Chromium, a metal occurring in nature chiefly l84- ' MINERAL PRODUCTS in the form bf cliromate of iron or chrome iron ore, which ■ is used in small- quantity in making a kind of steel of great tenacity, and m. the manufacture of bichromate of potash from which various pigments are derived. The ore is produced in the island of Unst in Shetland, and occurs elsewhere in Scotland. It is imported into Great Britain from Bosnia and the south-west of Asia Minor (see map p. 313). In the United States it is produced in Calfomia, but that country also is mainly de- pendent on foreign supplies. (4) Arsenic is another metal chiefly used, not by itseir but in one of its compounds, with oxygen — the so-called arsenions acid, which is largely manufactured in Germany, England, and elsewhere for the sake of the green colouring-matter it affords for wall-papers and for other purposes. (6) Bismuth, chiefly used to give increased fusibility to various metallic alloys, and in the manufacture of certain colouring-matters, is produced on both sides of the Erzge- birge (that is, in Saxony and Bohemia). The whole production of the world is estimated at less than 100 tons. (6) Platinum, a rare metal, intermediate in price between gold and silver, but indispensable in the chemical arts on account of its resistance to heat and acids, which renders it the best material for making crucibles and vessels required for certain purposes. It is obtained chiefly in the Ural region in Eussia. (7) Nickel, sometimes used, among other purposes, for coining; formerly produced mainly in Germany, but now more abundantly in New Cale- donia. There are also large deposits in Ontario, already mined chiefly for American use. The metal is now finding greatly increased use in steel-making (896), as well as in plating. (8) Cobalt, in one of its forms found associated with nickel, and hence now also largely imported from New Caledonia. It is also now used like nickel to form a coating on other metals, but its principal use in the arts is in the form of the oxide (compound with oxygen), which is used as a blue colouring-matter for pottery and glass, and in that of smalt, which is finely ground glass coloured with this oxide, and is used in colouring paper, (fee. (9) Aluminium is a metal valuable for its lightness, bright colour, its resistance to the action of the air even in the presence of moisture, and the excellence of its alloys. Among these may be mentioned that with copper known as aluminium bronze, which is said to be in every respect except price the best of all metals for philosophical instruments. Till lately the metal was made only by expensive processes from two compounds found in nature, one called bauxite, which is obtained from the south-east of France, Styria, Ireland (Co. Antrim), and elsewhere; and one called cryolite, obtained from the west of Greenland. A cheaper process for making this metal and its alloys has recently been introduced in the United States ; and this process, from the novelty of its character, is one of great interest from a metallurgical point of view. The ores of the metal are treated, with or without other metals, in a furnace in which an intense heat is produced by electricity, in the same way as light and heat are produced in an electric lamp. Still more recently works have been started at Oldbury near Birmingham in England for the manufacture of aluminium by another process which is expected greatly to reduce the cost of the metal. In this process hydrochloric acid and caustic soda are among the materials employed, and carbonate of soda is one of the bye-products of manufacture. The hydrochloric acid is obtained from neighbouring glass-works, which take back the carbonate to be reconverted into caustic soda (457). (10) Sulphur, used in making sulphuric acid (460), in vulcanising (320, 323), and also as a remedy for certain vine-diseases ; ex- ported as such chiefly from Sicily, and as a constituent of iron pyrites (a compound of sulphur with iron, often along with more or less copper), chiefly from Spain and Portugal. (11) mineral Manures. Among these the most important are : — (a) Potash salts, including kainite, produced chiefly at Stassf urt (582) in Germany, and exported either as found or after various kinds of treatment. (6) Nitrate of soda, a product of Chile, used both as a manure and in the arts (4S7). (c) Phosphate of lime, produced moat abundantly in S. Carolina, U.S.; also produced in the province VARIOUS 'MINOR MINBRALS 185 of LiSge, Belgium ; in the form of apatite in Canada and Norway, and in an impure form in England (Cambridgeshire and one or two other counties) ; and in that of phosphorite, jn Spain (Estremadura). (d) Guano, properly speaking an animal product, since it consists of the droppings of birds accumulated through ages in regions where there is little or no rain to wash away the deposits so formed. It is, however, worked as a mineral, and may be described as an earthy phos- phate rock. Formerly it was obtained chiefly from islands on the west coast of Peru, but these deposits have now been exhausted, and it is now chiefly derived from the west coast of Chile (930), and in smaller quantity from various islands on the west coast of Cape Colony, in the West Indies (Aves Islands, Sombrero, &c.), and in the FacH: (Maiden, Fanning, and others). ^)^) Basic slag, or the refuse of the basic process of steel-making (394), which contains from 30 to 35 per cent. of phosphate of lime, and when finely powdered can be used with advantage as manure without further treatment. The production of steel and iron by this process in 1887 (397 a) would yield about half a million tons of this manure. (12) Soraz, a compound of boracic acid and soda, formed in nature in many parts of the world with a very dry climate such as Tibet, parts of China and Persia, the western strip of Peru, the States of California and Nevada in the United States, and also manufactured from boracic acid obtained by concentration from springs in the south of Tuscany. It has very varied uses in the arts. Among the most important are its employment in the making of enamel and glazes for pottery, and in the making of certain kinds of glass, ithe borax serving to some extent as a substitute for silica (450). (13) Nitrate of potash. See 737 a. (14). Graphite, popularly known as ' black; lead,' a substance familiar from its domestic uses as well as its use in the making of lead pencils, but also very largely used in the making of crucibles, type-metal, and for other purposes. Formerly the best kind was obtained from Borrowdale in Cumberland, but the island of Ceylon is now the chief source of supply (745) : see also 700. In Germany it is produced at Fassau in Bavaria, in the United States at Ticonderoga in the State of New York. (IS) lithographic stone is known to occur in various places, but the best stones are all obtained from the quarries of Solenhofen in the neighbourhood of Donauworth in Bavaria. (16) Grinding and polishing substances, (a) Buhrstones, the stones used in the old kind of com-nulls, now to a large extent superseded by those in which steel rollers are employed ia the manufacture of flour. The best specimens of this kind of stone are obtained in the Paris basin. (6) Grindstones, produced at Newcastle, at Wickersley (eight miles east of Sheffield), and elsewhere in England, at various places on the Bay of Fundy in the Canadian Dominion, and in Ohio and Michigan in the United States, (c) Infusorial earth or tripoli powder, a fine silicious earth used in polishing metals, glass, &c., and now also in the manufacture of dynamite, found not only in Tripoli, from which it takes one of its names, but more abundantly in Germany, on the Luneburg Heath, between the Elbe and the Aller, and also in Scotland, France, Maryland, U.S., and elsewhere. A large deposit has recently been discovered near Stavanger in Norway. (17) Gypsum, produced in England chiefly in the counties of Nottingham and Derby. (18) Clay. The varieties of clay which have chief commercial value are china-clay and fire-clay, (a) China clay is largely worked in the British Isles, in the east of Cornwall and the south-west of Devon. Besides being used in the making of porcelain (444) it is employed in the making of paper (435), and cotton size (259). (6) Fire day, used in making fire-resisting bricks, crucibles &c., occurs in many places. In Great Britain the deposits chiefly worked are those found on or near coalfields (South Staffordshire, Glamorgan, Durham). l86 COMMODITIES IV. Manufactured Aeticies in which vaeious Materials ARE USED. 424. LEATHER. Leather consists of the skins of animals pre- pared in various ways. Its manufacture has given rise to an extensive commerce in articles of different kinds : first, in the hides and skins which form the raw material ; second, in the substances used in treating this raw material ; and, third, in the manufactured product — leather, and articles made from leather. 425. The hides used in the industry are derived from a great Variety of animals. The great majority of the larger mammals whose skins are not of more value for furs contribute to it more or less. Even aquatic species add their share to the leather-makers' materials. From the skin of the white whale, or beluga, of the Arctic Seas is made a kind of leather which is sold under the misleading name of porpoise- skin, and, being of great strength and very impervious to water,, forms the best material for shooting-boots and some other purposes. The skin of the manatee and dugong, the two mammals which feed on aquatic plants in tropical and sub-tropical seas and rivers, is likewise used by the leather-maker. Even the skin of some animals outside the class of the mammals — for example, the crocodile — is likewise em- ployed. But the animals which furnish by far the largest proportion of the hides of commerce are the domesticated species — the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and pig — which are kept in such large numbers wherever men are found above the lowest stage of barbarism. Hence all parts of the world supply more or less of this material. It might be ex- pected that the comitries which would afford the greatest quantity of hides and skins for export would be those which possess vast areas of pasiure-land but at the same time contain only a scanty population, such, for example, as the Australasian ajid South African colonies, and the temperate parts of South America. All these, it is true, do export large quantities of this commodity, but the country from which the United Kingdom derives the largest supplies thereof is British India, in which country, as will be seen from the table on p. 467, hides and skins rank sixth or seventh in value among the exports. From the same quarter the United Kingdom derives large quantities of leather, and the Indian supplies of this commodity are increasing at a more LEATHER: TANNING MATERIALS jS? tapid "rate than those of the raw material. Not one-half the quantity supplied in one form or another by India is imported on an average into the British Isles from the Argentine Eepnblic, Uruguay, and Brazil together. In these facts one cannot fail to see the effect both of the low value of labour in India, and of the intimate commercial relations between this country and her great Eastern dependency. Most of the hides and skins imported from the United States and the Australasian colonies, the parts of the world that rank next after British India in supplying us with material for the leather industry, come to us ready tanned. So also does the small supply obtained from Canada, but the large supply which comes from South Africa is all sent in the form of raw hides. Such hides are preserved for and during transport either by being steeped in brine, and are hence called wet, or by some process of drying. The raw hides from the East Indies and South Africa are mostly dry, those from America and Australasia wet. 426. Tanning is the principal process resorted to in converting hides into leather. It consists in saturating the hides, after some preliminary cleaning and dressing, with a solution which alters the chemical character of one of the constituents of the hide, and renders the hide firm and durable. Nearly always this solution is derived from some vegetable substance, the bark or some other portion of a tree or other plant, which yields the necessary principle called tannin, or tannic acid, a very powerful astringent. Substances containing this principle have been discovered to exist in the native vegetation of almost all parts of the world, and the discovery of the art of making leather by means of them was very early made, and appears to have been made independently in many different regions. The processes of tanning are represented on the oldest Egyptian monuments, and the North American Indians knew how to make a pliant and excellent leather before the discovery of America by Europeans, Nevertheless the art is said to be still unknown throughout a large part of Central Africa south of the Sudan. 427. About fifty years ago oak-bark was the agent almost exclusively employed in tanning in Great Britain ; now it is only pne out of fifty or more competitors, and there is a large import of various tanning- substances from many parts of the globe. Of these, however, there are only five or six imported in sufficient quantity to be separately enume- rated in the British tables of trade. The headings under which they are entered are bark, cutch and gambler, myrobalans, sumach, and valonia. Under the heading bark are included not only different kinds of oak-bark, larch-bark, and others, which, besides being pro- duced at home, are largely imported from the mainland of Europe,, but also others, imported from elsewhere. The bark imported from the United States is chiefly that of the hemlock spruce, the principal tanrling-a,gelit both there and in Canada. In both countries, however. '^188 MANUFACTURED ARTICLES "bark from native oaks (343) is used for the best leatlier. A stilJ larger quantity is imported from the Australian colonies. The bark of that origin is chiefly derived from various species of Acacia, the best being that of the Acacia pycnantha, Benth., or black wattle, as it is called in Australia — a bark that yields nearly a third of its weight of tannin. 428. Cutch and gambier, though associated in the trade returns of the United Kingdom, are quite different products, but they are both ex- tracts made by boiling and evaporating, and both obtained from the East Indies, though not from the same region. Cutch, or catechu, is extracted from the chopped wood of a kind of acacia {Acacia catechu, Willd.) abundant in the forests of India and Burma, and is more used in dyeing than in tanning. Gambler is extracted from the leaves of a shrub {Uncaria Gambier, Roxb.) belonging botanicaUy to the Cin- chona family (311), a native of the Malay Peninsula and the Eastern Archipelago, and is imported from Singapore. It is also used in dye- ing, and in China is much used for chewing, along with betel-nut. Having the tannin concentrated by the process of extraction, one ton of gambier will go as far as six tons of oak-bark in tanning. Attempts are now being made to introduce the shrub into the West Indies. 429. Ittyrobalans are the principal of the numerous substances used in India for tanning. They are the fruits principally of two species of trees of the genus TerminaUa abundant in Indian forests. Sumach consists of the powdered leaves and young twigs chiefly of one species of shrub (EfcMSConorm.L.), and is imported from the Mediterra- nean, and above all from Sicily, where the best quahty is cultivated. Valoniais the name given to the acorn-cups of a species of oak which grows in the Levant. It is imported mainly from Smyrna, and is used in dyeing as well as tanning. Of other vegetable substances used for tanning the best-known perhaps is divi-divi, which consists of the twisted pods of a leguminous tree known as Casalpinia coriaria, Willd., a native of South America. The best is imported from Eio Hacha, in the United States of Colombia, but the tree has now been introduced with success into India, whence supplies may be looked for in future years. Cutch and gambier are at present the principal tanning-materials imported in the form of extracts ; but the making of tannin extracts being easy, and their transport, of course, much less costly than the bulkier substances from which they are made, the preparation of such extracts for export from other sources is increasing. 430. Attempts to tan with mineral substances have been made for about a hundred years, and within the last fifteen or twenty years these attempts have been crowned with a certain measure of success, the best results having been attained by means of compounds of the metal chromium, 431. For certain purposes skins are made into leather without LEATHER igg tanning. A soft flexible kind of leather suitable for gloves &c. ia made by a process called tawing, in which alum and other salts are the principal substances employed. Washleather, or chamois leather, is made by working oil into the cleaned skins. 432. Of tanned leathers that undergo a special treatment the most important kinds are morocco and russia leather. Morocco leather when genuine is made from goatskin, is always coloured on one side, and on that side has the well-known roughened surface imparted to it by means of a stamp, generally of boxwood. It takes its name from the country where it was first made, and where it is still largely manu^ faetured — a country which, like all other mountainous countries border- ing on the Mediterranean, has a great abundance of goats. By the Moors it was introduced into Spain, where Cordova and other Moorish cities acquired celebrity in connection with this product, so that the name of cordova leather or cordwaiu came to be applied as a general term for Spanish goatskin leather. About the middle of last century the manufacture was introduced into Alsace, and since then it has been carried to all other industrial countries, and it has consequently declined in Spain, which for centuries supplied fancy leathers to all the rest of Europe. 433. Russia leather is distinguished by its peculiar odour, which has this advantage, that it is so disagreeable to insects that the presence of a few books bound in this leather in a book-case is said to be enough to preserve the other volumes from their attacks. The odour is due either to the leather being tanned with the bark of the Eussian birch, or to its being treated with a kind of oil made from the bark or the bark and roots of that tree. This kind of leather is still a specialty of the Eussian leather industry. 434. The countries in which the manufacture of articles from leather is most highly developed are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. In quantity of production and amount of export Germany stands first, which is a natural enough consequence of its central position in a populous continent, together with the advanced state of its industrial organisation generally. The raw materials of the manufacture, like those of the paper industry, have to be collected from all quarters from among a dense population, and thus can be most abundantly and cheaply supplied to factories that are centrally situated. (See 440.) Coloured leathers are the specialty for which Germany is chiefly noted in this branch of industry. France comes next to Germany in the extent of its leather-manufacture, and it stands pre-eminent in the amount of its glove-manufacture, even if not without a rival as regards quality in this department. It is also noted for its lacquered or patent leather, a product which was first made in that country about the middle of last century. Both of these countries have an export of leather manufactures of more than twice the value of that of the United Kingdom, and an export against which there is IQO MANUFACTURED ARTICLES to be set only a trifling import. In the case of the United Kingdom on the other hand, the value of the import of leather-manufactures equals or exceeds that of the exports, the most valuable item among the imports of this kind being gloves, chiefly from France, Belgium, and Holland, the latter no doubt largely of German origin. Of the British exports of leather-manufactures, the most important, next after boots and shoes, are saddlery and harness (made chiefly from pigskin), these being goods for which British leather-manufacturers have a high reputation. The United States, as is natural in the case of a country which has such a vast area devoted to the rearing of domestic animals to draw upon for the raw material, has a very large industry in leather, (903), but the home demand is so great that the value of the surplus that remains for export is less even than that of Austria- Hungary, and is exceeded by that of the import of leather goods. Of this import only a trifling proportion is supphed by Great Britain. 435. PAPER. Paper is made chiefly from vegetable fibre reduced in water to a pulp so fine that the particles of fibre can scarcely be felt. Nowadays a certain proportion of China clay (444) is often added to the pulp, and, when not in excess, it improves the inferior qualities of paper. The pulp, after being bleached by means of chloride of lime (461), is ready for paper-making, and for this purpose is kept by constant stirring as nearly as possible of an equal consistency throughout. When the paper is made by hand, as some of the best kinds still are, a frame called a mould, consisting of a piece of fine wire gauze bordered by a raised rim, is introduced into the pulp by a workman, who with the aid of another light frame withdraws as much of the pulp as is necessary to make a sheet of paper. The Water quickly drains through the wire gauze, leaving the vegetable fibres to form a thin moist film. This film when dried by various processes forms paper ; not, however, paper that can be written on, but that soft porous kind which is used as blotting- or filtering-paper- To be made capable of receiving ink without allowing it to run it must be immersed in size (the essential ingredients in which are rosin and alum), and various other operations are necessary before writing- or printing-papers have the appearance and finish that belong to them when sold. 436. Machinery fbr paper-making was first successfully applied early in the present century. All such machines consist in contrivances for feeding a supply of paper-pulp equally to a revolving endless band or apron of fine wire gauze, and passing it thence to a similar apron of felt or flannel, and afterwards to pressing-rollers &c. So perfect is the machinery used nowadays, that from pulp constantly supplied to the machine a continuous roll of paper of any length (sometimes miles long) can be delivered from it in a finished state, either entire or cut up into sheets. The printing of newspapers is now done to a very large extent on the uncut roll. 437. In the manufacturing countries of Europe and America the PAPER 191 vegetable fibre for paper-making is very largely used in the form of rags, that being the form in which the most useful fibres for the purpose, linen and cotton, can be obtained cheapest. The best kinds of paper, at least in Western countries, are stiU made from linen rag's ; but the supply of these is totally inadequate to meet the requirements of paper- makers, and hence not only cotton but also woollen rags are likewise employed, and vegetable fibres are now largely used in other forms. In particular, a kind of grass called esparto or alfa, which covers im- mense areas in the arid regions of Southern Spain and Northern Africa, from Tripoli westwards, is now imported into Great Britain for paper- making in much greater quantity than rags ; only, in comparing the amounts of these two materials imported, it is necessary to bear in mind that whereas Unen or cotton rags yield about half their weight in paper, esparto yields only a.bout one-sixth of its weight in that form. Wood-fibre, chiefly in the form of sawdust cemented into sheets, is now also extensively used for paper-making, and this no doubt accounts for the large import of paper-making material into this country from Norway and Sweden. The refuse of jute-manufactures likewise affords an important material for this industry, which can also utilise directly a whole host of vegetable fibres, some of which — for example, the bast fibres of the baobab — are of great value for special purposes, such as the making of paper for bank-notes. In China and Japan, where the paper-makers excel the best European workmen in the making of some very delicate but strong papers, the material chiefly used is the inner bark of a tree known as the paper mulberry {Bromsonetia papyri/era, Vent.), the leaves of which can be used in feeding silkworms. The strength of this paper is due to the fact that in making the pulp the long bast-ceUs are not broken and torn as in European pulping- machines, but merely softened and separated by beating. In taking up the pulp in the mould the cells are made to lie in one direction, and the paper may be strengthened by taking one or more additional dips, in which the cells are made to lie in other directions. Gums are used to make the cells of the pulp adhere. Thick papers are made capable of being used for many of the purposes of leather, and recently the Japanese have made a very strong kind of paper from seaweed. 438. When we consider the immense consumption of paper in forms with which every one is famihar, and the great variety of the purposes to which paper is now applied, we can realise to some extent the importance of this invention in the history of mankind. It has often been pointed out that, without some cheap material to make books of, the invention of printing would have been almost fruitless, and it is often added that, had there only been some cheap material on which to print, the seemingly obvious art of printing would have been invented long before the fifteenth century — with very important results, perhaps, in the way of preserving ancient classical literature. The force of the latter observation is perhaps a good deal weakened by the 192 MANUFACTURED ARTICLES fact that the Chinese, who are said to have known how to make paper from the pulp of vegetable fibre at least as early as the beginning of the Christian Era, never invented the art of printing at all in the only form in which it is of historical importance, that is, printing with movable types. But the truth of the other observation as to the necessity for a cheap material for printing on in order to give its fuU value to the invention of movable types cannot be called in question. The history of the art of paper-making is therefore of peculiar interest.' 439. The art does not seem to have been discovered independently in the West. From China it spread into Central Asia, and a paper- factory was established at Samarkand early in the eighth cen- tury, A.D., when that town was in the hands of the Arabs. By the Arabs it was introduced into Spain, and it is certain that hnen rags had come to be used for the purpose before the close of the twelfth century. It was probably for this reason that a small district situated to the south of Valencia in Spain, which had been celebrated in Eoman. times for its flax, was equally celebrated in the twelfth century for the excellence of its paper, which was exported thence both to the East and West. The art, if not first practised, was at least first firmly established in England in 1588, when a paper-mill was erected at Dartford in Kent, which county has always been noted for its excel- lence in this branch of industry. Into Scotland, where it is chiefly carried on in the counties of Mid and East Lothian, it was not intro' duced till near the close of the seventeenth century. Everywhere this industry is carried on, as might be expected, by the side of clear streams, which supply the water required for making and washing the pulp. 440. Among European countries, the United Kingdom and Germany are the two rivals in the consumption of paper relatively to population, both of these countries being estimated to use upwards of 13 lbs. of paper per head in a year ; whereas France, which comes next in this respect, is estimated to consume less than 10 lbs. The production of paper in Germany, however, greatly excels that of the United Kingdom — excels it in a much higher ratio than the population of Germany exceeds that of the British Isles. This superiority in the amount of the production in Germany is, no doubt, due to the greater abundance of the raw material, Germany lying in the centre of a' populous continent from which rags may be collected without any break in. the mode of carriage, Germany supplies the largest share of imported rags for paper-making in Great Britain, and for its own paper industry makes use of little esparto, its abundant suppHes of rags, ' Parchment (859) and papyrus rolls were the ancient substitutes for paper. The latter were made by causing the thin inner skins found at the bottom of the stems of a kind of rush which grows in the Egyptian delta to adhere together at their edges. The process is obviously a laborious one, so that the roU could not but be costly, yet Egypt carried on a large and lucrative trade in this article, and vast thickets of papyrus grew where there are now fields of cotton, maize, rice, (Sic. PAPER MANUFACTURE, CONSUMPTION PER HEAD 193 and now also of wood-pulp both of native and foreign origin, enabling the paper-makers to dispense with the other material. Wood- pulp has become a paper material of great importance in Germany, which is herself rich in forests and surrounded by countries as rich or richer in that respect. Esparto is still cMefly used for paper- making in Great Britain, where the mode of so using it was patented by Mr. Koutledge in 1856. Eags now make up only about 20 per cent, in value of the British import of paper-making material. 441. The large production of paper in Germany leads to a large export of paper and paper manufactures from that country. All other leading countries belonging to the mainland of Europe, except Eussia and Spain, export, like Germany, more paper than they import ; and the fact that Spain, which exports so much of the raw material for this manufacture, and a raw material so bulky in proportion to the manufactured article made from it, should be an exception in this respect, is a striking indication of the backward state of industry and the room for development in that country. The import of paper and paper manufactures into the United Kingdom in 1887 was about 40 per cent, larger in amount than the corresponding export, but was less than 10 per cent, greater in total value, showing that the article ex- ported is generally of high quality. The exports of this kind from the United Kingdom consist in fact mainly of writing and printing papers, for which this country has long been justly noted. 442. In the consumption of paper relatively to population the United States are ahead even of Great Britain and Germany, making use, it is calculated, of upwards of 18 lbs. per head per annum, which is no doubt chiefly due to the wide circulation of newspapers in that coimtry, and hence speaks volumes not only for the advanced state of popular education, but also for the general diffusion of ordinary " comforts among the people. To meet this large consumption there is not only an extensive native industry, supported to a large extent (as might be expected) by the importation of foreign rags, but also a large import of manufactured paper, notwithstanding the existence of a customs duty upon this commodity. Esparto is but little, if at all, imported into the United States, probably because it is too bulky a commodity to bear the expense of so long a journey. 443. Paper manufactories on the European model have been erected in the principal countries of Eastern Asia, and in India those set up in the neighbourhood of Calcutta and Bombay have already almost extinguished the hand-made paper, strong though coarse, once largely made by the Mohammedans of that country. Of the factories of this kind in Japan one, at Tokio, is a government establishment, and the vellum paper exhibited at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 by that establishment was pronounced to be of wonderful strength and texture, and the best and most remarkable exhibit of paper manufac- ture that had come under the notice of the judges. 194 MANUFACTURED ARTICLES 444. EAETHENWAEE AND PORCELAIN. The simplest form of manufactured article made from earth, or rather from clay, is a brick dried in the sun, and we may be sure that this is one of the earliest of human inventions. Bricks of this kind are still made in Egypt and other parts of the Old World where fuel is scarce and sun- heat by day quite or nearly constant, and also in those parts of the New World which have a similar climate, being known in the latter regions, which were formerly to a large extent under Spanish rule, by the Spanish name of adobes. It was but a small step to the burning of bricks by artificial heat. The potter's wheel, by means of which mere steadiness of hand enables a workman to mould moist clay into a perfectly round form, is hkewise an invention of great simplicity and great antiquity. The method of glazing pottery is a less obvious dis- covery, and must have been due, like a host of other inventions, to some fortunate accident. The oldest specimens of earthenware that have come down to us are unglazed. Yet the art of glazing was known to the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, and Etruscans, all of whom are noted among the nations of antiquity for their productions in pottery. Improvements in the potter's art were made" by the Arabs during the period of their highest civilisation. By them the making of painted earthenware with a finely glazed or enamelled surface seems to have been practised before it was known to any European people. But the finest of all kinds of earthenware, the kind known as porcelain, was originally a Chinese invention, referred by Chinese chroniclers to the time of a dynasty which reigned in China from the second century B.C. to the first a.d. In Europe, however, this earthenware was unknown till the thirteenth century, and does not seem to have become widely known till it was introduced by the Portuguese about 1500, which accounts for the fact that the name of porcelain (together with its equivalents in other European languages) ■♦ is one of Portuguese origin. It was two hundred years later still before the art of making porcelain became known in Europe, where it was discovered independently. An inferior kind of porcelain was made at St. Cloud in 1695, but the true or hard porcelain, as it is called, was first made about 1709 by a German alchemist of the name of Bottcher, who discovered it to be the product of a mixture of sand with kaolin or china clay (423'18), a fine kind of clay resulting from the wearing away of granite rocks under the action of the weather. Immediately after this discovery a porcelain factory was set up at Meissen in Saxony, where it is continued to the present day. Efforts were made to keep the art secret, but it gradually spread to other countries, and is now carried on in aU countries which have a highly developed manufacturing industry. 445. For the manufacture of ordinary pottery many kinds of clay wiU sufiice provided that they are free from iron, which causes the clay to fuse during the process of baking. Other ingredients are also EARTHENWARE AND PORCELAIN 195 used, such as burnt and powdered flint and phosphate of lime, the latter often in the form of bone-ash (356), The decorations on- ordinary pottery are painted on the unglazed ware, and are afterwards protected by a glaze composed of various ingredients fused together by a second baking. The glaze on porcelaiu is merely a thin coating of glass, and the painting is added on the glaze by means of pigments composed of finely powdered coloured glass, after which the articles in this case also are again put into a kiln to be fired. An unglazed kind of earthenware under the name of terra cotta is moulded into statuary and other kinds of ornamental articles, and unglazed pottery is ex- tensively used in the south of Europe, in Africa, and Asia. 446. In England the manufacture of earthenware generally re- mained in a backward condition till after the middle of last century. Its chief seat was Burslem, in North Staffordshire, a place well suited for this branch of manufacture on account of the great variety of clays found round about it, as well as the abundance of coal in the vicinity ; and it is a good illustration of the tendency of particular branches of manufacture to persist in places where they have once been established, that this district (the ' Potteries ') still continues to be the centre of the English manufacture of earthenware and porcelain, now that this branch of industry has attained greater dimensions in England than in any other country in the Western world, and clays and other raw materials have to be brought to the district from more or less distant parts. The finer kinds of kaolin for the manufacture are obtained (in the British Isles) solely in Cornwall and Devon, but are worked up into porcelain in Staffordshire, because it is cheaper to send kaolin to the Potteries, where there is abundance of coal and most of the other materials required for the purpose, than to bring the coal and other materials to the districts that fiirnish the kaolin. 447. The first great improvements in English pottery were due to Wedgwood, who was born at Burslem in 1730, and since his day the art has been brought in this country to such perfection that the English wares of this kind are unsurpassed if not unrivalled by those of any other part of the world. Besides the products of the Potteries, in the local sense of that word, England is noted for its ornamental stone- ware (the hardest and heaviest kind of earthenware) made chiefly in London (Lambeth). Altogether the United Kingdom exports (besides' clay and articles described as manufactures of clay) earthenware and porcelain to the value of three or four times the value of its import, the exports being sent chiefly to the United States, the Australasian Colonies, and British North America. 448. Next to the United Kingdom Germany nas the largest in- dustry of this kind as well as the largest export, and Prance comes third. Formerly Meissen (588), in Saxony, and Sevres, near Paris, vied with one another in producing the most beautiful coloured porce- lains known, but English porcelain now has a place in the first rank. o2 i9& MAWUFACTURED ARTICLES 449. In the East, China is still noted for its porcelain, which it ex- ports to a considerable amount (chiefly from Amoy) ; and so likewise is Japan, into which the art was introduced from China. It may be noted in conclusion that hardly any other branch of in- dustry has so many names relating to the geography and history of the art in general use in connection with it. In English porcelain is very commonly known by the appropriate name of chinarware, and kaolin as china clay. The name of majolica was given by the Italians to painted and enamelled earthenware which they appear first to have become acquainted with as a product of the island of Majorca, and from the ItaUan has been adopted into English. Faience is a name for the same kind of ware derived from the Italian town of Faenza, where it was first made in Italy. Delft is the name of another kind of painted and enamelled ware first made at the town of that name in Holland, and painted blocks of this kind of ware are generally known as Dutch tiles. 450. GLASS. Glass is a substance made by melting together various ingredients, of which silica is always the chief, and is the only one that enters into the composition of all kinds of glass. Silica is one of the most widely diffused substances in nature, and is found in various forms, quartz and flint being the most familiar of those in which it is met with in a compact state. In thin pieces of either of these mine- rals the somewhat glassy appearance is at once apparent. A still com- moner form of silica is sand or sandstone, both of which are originally deposits of the sea, or of rivers or lakes. Most commonly they are both impure, discoloured, it maybe, by iron, or mixed with lime or other in- gredients ; but sometimes they consist of nothing but siHca, and such pure sand or sandstones afford the best material for glass-making, the sandstones being first ground into sand. In England various deposits of sand, at Lynn in Norfolk, at Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight, at Hastings, and Leighton Buzzard, have in turn been noted for the ex- cellence of the material which they afforded for glass-making. In France the most famous deposits employed for the purpose are the sandstones of Fontainebleau, but at the present day the United States claim to possess, in the west of Massachusetts and elsewhere, the finest of all glass-sands. 451. Along with silica there is always fused in the making of glass some alkaline substance, either soda or potash. Glass made solely f-om soda is found in course of time to be perishable, and hence, in the making of most kinds of modern glass, lime is added to render the glass more lasting. Soda is chiefly used in the form of carbonate of soda and sulphate of soda, which are largely manufactured for the purpose (457-58) ; but for making some of the commoner sorts of glass, as bottle-glass, common salt is sometimes employed. Potash (459) is generally used in the form of carbonate of potash (the pearl-ash of commerce), sometimes in that of nitrate of potash or saltpetre (737 a). GLASS-MAKING 197 The glass macle from potash is the freest from any tinge of colour, but that made from carbonate of soda, besides being nearly colourless when the other ingredients are pure, is easier to work in the state of partial fusion in which glass is usually treated. For ordinary purposes, accordingly, this substance is preferred. Potash is used either with or without lime in the manufacture of some of the best kinds of glass, such as Bohemian glass and English flint glass (crystal). In making this last kind of glass, lead (generally in the form of red lead — 416) is used instead of lime, rendering the glass softer and more' fusible and lustrous. The use of lead is an English invention of last century, Besides these ingredients various others are used for special purposes, as to remove colours' which some impurities in the materials em- ployed in making the glass might impart, or to give he colours desired to coloured glass. In the making of bottle-glass, the colour of which is an unimportant consideration, a great variety of ingre- dients are employed. In Germany some kinds of rock, such as basalts, trachytes, granites, &c., which contain a certain quantity of soda and potash along with from 65 to 75 per cent, of silica, and are easily fusible, have been employed with success in glass-making. 452. In the process of manufacture glass, after the fusion of the materials, is worked at a high temperature, which maintains it in a soft and somewhat pasty condition, and it is frequently re-heated. The implement chiefly used in the manufacture is the blow-pipe, by means of which balls of the glass paste are blown out into hollow forms. To make bottles and similar articles, almost all that is necessary is to blow the glass in moulds of the proper shape. When flat sheets are required, there are two ways of making it from blown glass. By one method the hollow ball after being blown out is transferred to the end of an iron rod, and an opening being made opposite the end of this rod the piece of glass is twirled round and round continuously, and gradu- ally made to open out into a flat sheet, with a thick lump in the middle (the bull's-eye). The glass so made is what is known as crown-glass. By another method, now more largely used, a long cylinder is made by blowing and twirling the blow -pipe, and the cylinder being crat open by a straight line is made to open itself out and fall flat on a table. Only the best kind of glass, made from the most carefully selected materials, is capable of being rolled out into sheets by means of steel rollers. Glass so made is called plate-glass. Flint-glass is the kind best adapted for being cut and engraved in the cold state. 453. All kinds of glass before being ready for use have to be an- nealed, or to undergo some equivalent process for enabling them to stand ordinary usage at ordinary temperatures. If suddenly removed ' For this purpose manganese is chiefly used, bttt. when in excess this substance itself imparts an amethyst hue to the glass. igS MANUFACTURED ARTICLES from the temperature of the glass-works into the open air, they woulS be so fragile as to break at the slightest shock. The process of anneal- ing consists in cooUng them slowly and equally, so that no difference of strain in different parts of the glass is brought about by differences of temperature. In 1875 a process of making hardened or toughened glass was made known by M. de la Bastie, a French engineer ; and for articles treated by this process, which consists in immersing hot glass, 01? articles made from it, in an oil bath at a temperature of nearly 600° F., annealing is unnecessary. When the treatment is successful the glass is made so hard that it does not break even with pretty- rough usage, but various objections to it have prevented this kind of glass from coming into extensive use. More recently another process of hardening glass was brought into use by Mr. F. Siemens of Dresden. By this process, which, in its most effective form, is adapted only to sheets of glass of the very best quaHty, the sheets are placed, still hot, between plates of cold metal, and thus cooled rapidly but equally. The strength of sheet and plate glass may thus be increased eight times. The same manufacturer has succeeded in making hard cast glass in forms suitable for railway sleepers, tramway rails, grindstones and floor-plates, the glass so treated being run into moulds made of a mixture which becomes heated and conducts heat at the same rate as glass. By using potash or soda in excess, a kind of glass can be made which is soluble in water, and this soluble glass, as it is called, is used for various purposes, among others as a protective coating against the action of the weather on calcareous building stones. 454. The invention of glass took place in prehistoric times. It was known at a very early period in Egypt, but the oldest piece of transparent white glass of which the date is known is a vase found among the ruins of Nineveh and now preserved in the British Museum. It has inscribed upon it the name of Sargon, an Assyrian king who reigned about the close of the eighth century B.C. In ancient times the Egyptians and Phoenicians were the two peoples most noted for their glass-making, for which both Egypt and Phoenicia supplied excellent sand, the former near Alexandria, the latter in the bed of the small river Belus (now the Naman), which enters the sea near Acre. The alkali in Egypt was obtained from the Natron (soda) Lakes situated to the west of the delta. In Italy the making of glass does not seem to have been practised tUl about the beginning of the Christian Era, and there is no positive evidence of window-glass having been used there before the third century a.d. In modern times the Venetians first acquired celebrity for the beauty of their glass manufactures, the art having been practised there in some form or other from a date not long subsequent to the, foundation of the city. Glass- making is now pursued on or near all the most productive coalfields. Belgium, which has local supplies of sand as well as coal, and manufactures soda com- pounds from imported materials (457), is the headquarters of window- SOAP, SODA 199 glass manufacture in Europe, and also makes excellent mirror-glass. (See also 519, 620, and above all 898.) 455. SOAP. Soap as a commercial product is a chemical compound resulting from the action of soda or potash, on various fatty or oily substances, and hence, besides being an important commodity (unknown to the ancients) in its manufactured state, is the cause of a large trade in the various fats and oils that enter into its composition, as well as in the alkalies mentioned. Hard soaps are those made with soda ; soft, those made with potash. In the making of common yellow soap a large quantity of rosin (334 a) is added, and in the making of trans- parent soaps spirit is used. Glycerine is a bye-product of the soap manufacture. The fatty substances principally used in the manu- facture of soap m the United Kingdom are tallow, coco-nut oil, palm (including pahn kernel) oil, and cotton-seed oil ; but in the South of Europe the staple ingredient of this nature is olive oil, along with which are now used, in addition to the vegetable oils just mentioned, ground-nut oil, oil of sesame, and a great number of others (325). Even the grease from sheep's wool (206) can now be employed in this industry. 456. CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES. Of these only the most im- portant can here be noticed, and only so far as to explain the large consumption of certain commodities. Details as to processes must be sought for in works on chemistry. 457. The commodities entered in the British Statements of Trade under the head of alkali represent perhaps the largest of all such industries, namely, those concerned with the preparation of carbonate of soda and caustic soda, which are chiefly used in the manufacture of glass (451) and soap (455). As usually made in Great Britain by the process known as theLeblanc process (patented in France in 1794), the materials employed are common salt, carbonate of lime (generally in the form of hmestone), coal, and sulphuric acid. Common salt is in chemical language chloride of sodium, that is, a compound of the metal sodium with chlorine, which when free is a gas ; and in order to be converted into carbonate of soda, the sodium, or rather the oxide of sodium, has to be brought into combination with carbonic acid. This union is effected by different stages. First, sulphuric acid is made to act on the common salt, by means of which sulphate of soda or salt cake and hydrochloric acid are obtained, the latter passing off as a gas. Next, the sulphate of soda is converted into carbonate of soda, and in this stage the burning of coal and carbonate of lime is necessary to furnish the carbonic acid. The product obtained is an impure carbonate of soda which is known as black ash and is sufficiently good for use in soap-making ; but for the making of glass and some other purposes the carbonate of soda has to be purified. In the process of soap-making black ash is converted into caustic soda (a compound containing nO carbonic acid) by treatment with quickhme. -200 MANUFACTURED ARTICLES 458. This process or series of processes has recently begun to be superseded by another, called the Solvay process, in which common salt is converted into carbonate of soda by means of the carbonate of ammonium. A solution of ammonia is mixed with the salt, and car- bonic acid then passed in as a gas. A further process enables the ammonia to be recovered and used over again. This method of making carbonate of soda is simpler than the first, and yields a soda highly valued by glass-makers for its purity. It has been very largely prac- tised in Germany, to the injury of the older alkali manufacture of the United Kingdom. The export of alkali from the United Kingdom reached its maximum down to 1891 inclusive in 1883, when it amounted to 347,350 tons. 459. Potash, another of the alkalies largely used in the manufacture of glass and soap, is mostly made by the burning of vegetable matter, and the chief exporting countries are Canada, Eussia, and other timber- producing countries. In France it has long been made from the grease of wool, which is in general a waste product. (See, however, 455.) 460. Sulphuric acid, which is employed in a great many industrial operations, but most largely in the manufacture of soda as above de- scribed, is chiefly made on a commercial scale from nitrate of soda (930), and sulphur or iron pyrites, which is a compound of iron (often with more or less copper) and sulphur. The sulphur or iron pyrites is burned, and the resulting vapour acted upon (in leaden chambers) by nitric acid vapours obtained from the nitrate of soda, which is heated along with a quantity of the very acid (sulphuric) which the subsequent operations are intended to produce. Arrangements are made for recovering the nitric acid so that it can be used over again with httle waste. Nitrate of potash (saltpetre) may be used instead of nitrate of soda, cheapness being the ground of preference. 461. The hydrochloric acid obtained in the first stage of the manu- facture of carbonate of soda by the Leblanc process (457) is utilised in the manufacture of bleaching powder, which is a compound of chlorine and lime. Manganese, in the form of the black oxide of manganese, is employed to free the chlorine from the hydrochloric acid, and the chlorine is then passed into chambers containing powdered slaked lime. Arrangements are made for recovering the manganese used in this process so as to use it again. (See also 423*9.) 462. Ammonia, which is used in the Solvay process of making carbonate of soda, can be made by various methods, but where gas- works exist it is most cheaply obtained as one of the bye-products of the destructive distillation of coal in the gas manufacture. 463. A much more important bye-product of the gas manufacture is coal-tar, which was at one time applied only to the same purposes as wood-tar, preserving ropes, timber, &c., but is now used to an enor- mous extent in the making of dyes of almost every hue. The first dye made from a substance extracted from coal-tar was a violet shade COAL-TAR DYES, ALUM, MINOR PRODUCTS 201 iio which the name of mauve was given. It was accidentally, dis- covered in 1856 by Dr. W. H. Perkin, in the course of an investigation made with a different purpose, and was at once applied industrially in the celebrated dye-works of Messrs. Pullar at Perth. Soon other shades of a similar origin were discovered, and now almost all shades can be imparted to fabrics by means of dyes extracted from one or other of the products of coal-tar. At first this branch of industry was mainly carried on in Great Britain, the land of its birth, and the country most abundantly supplied with the raw material ; but it is a noteworthy fact that in recent years the chief seat of the industry has been transferred to Germany, no doubt in consequence of the more general diffusion of technical and scientific education in that country. About 1885 it was estimated that Germany produced on an average about six times the quantity of dyes from coal-tar produced in the United Kingdom ; and what is stiU. more striking, Germany derives from Great Britaia a large proportion of the aniline and benzene, the two principal coal-tar products required as raw materials for the pro- duction of these dyes. 464. Alum, which is largely used in the sizing of paper, dyeing, calico-printing, painting and the preparation of colours, the tawing of leather and other industries, is prepared by several processes from clay or slate. 469. UllfOS UAinrFACTnilED ABTICLES AND HISCELLANEOTJS ?S0- STTCTS OF HUMAN' INDTTSTBY. Under this heading are mentioned all those articles of human handiwork in the widest sense of that term which are of sufficient importance to be enumerated separately in the 'Annual Statements of British Trade,' but which are not noticed in previous paragraphs, or found in the tables of British trade on pp. 438, 440. A few others are added which are of more import- ance in the trade of other countries than in that of the United Kingdom. Those articles which in recent years have reached an average value of one million sterling in the import or export trade of Great Britain are printed in black type, an I or an E being added in parenthesis after the name of the article to indicate whether it is the import or export that attains that value. Other articles are named in italics, and an I or E after the names of these indicates whether the import or export is in excess. Where neither letter is added there is no great excess on either side. The principal origin of imports or destination of exports is sometimes given, along with one or two other particulars of interest, but with regard to the products of British industry generally it is enough to say that most of them are very widely scattered among foreign countries and British possessions. 466. Arms and Ammunition (E.), the manufacture of which is chiefly centred in this country at Birmingham and Newcastle. Bags, empty, (E.) : the export of this article has greatly declined of late years, chiefly in consequence of the develop- ment of the jute industry in India (318, 738). Beer (E.). Beer is chiefly made from barley, and especially malted barley (168) ; but almost any kind of grain is capable of being used for the purpose, and hops (188) are employed to impart a bitter flavour. Among the imported beers specially named in the ' Annual State- ments ' are mum, which is made from wheat malt ; and spruce beer, made from the leaves of the spruce fir. Saki, a kind of beer, made from rice, is an important article of local trade in Japan. Biscwit and Bread (B.). Bleaching Materials : 202 MANUFACTURED ARTICLES see 4G1. Books (E.), principally sent to Australia and the United States. Germany is the only other country whose export of books rivals in value that of Great Britain. Buttons and Studs not of metal (I.). Candles : see 325, 331, 368 6 and c; 361, 408, 408 a. Cement (E.). The export under this heading is mainly hydraulic cement, so called because it hardens underwater. It is made from lime, sand, and certain clays burnt. Two kinds differing in colour are distinguished in commerce, Portland cement and Eoman cement, the former owing its name to its resemblance to a kind of limestone quarried, among other places, on the Isle of Portland iu the county of Dorset. Clay, Miscellaneous Manufactures of. Clocks and Watches (I.), chiefly from France (to a large extent of Swiss origin— 601, 606), Belgium, and the United States. Confectionery, the import chiefly from Holland and France ; in the export tables this commodity is included under pickles. Cordage, twine, Sc. There is a considerable import from the British East Indies ; no doubt in consequence of the large use made of Manilla hemp (317), coco-nut fibre (319), and other tropical materials in this branch of manufacture. Embroidery and needlework (I.), chiefly from Belgium, no doubt of Swiss origin (606) : the exports under this heading are included under haberdashery and millinery (see table, p. 440). Farinaceous substances and manufactures thereof (I.), chiefly from Germany and the British East Indies. Fire-crackers, a considerable export from China. 466 a. Plaited goods made from various materials form more or less important articles of commerce in several countries. Baskets, made chiefly from the twigs of various species of willow, are a speciality of German manufacture. Wicker-tvork of many kinds is made from rattans, the stems of -"".rious species of Calamus, be- longing to tropical Asia, whence they are imported, chiefly by way of Singapore. Straw hats and various other straw-plaited goods are a considerable export from Italy, and especially Tuscany, where that industry has existed since the sixteenth century. Spring wheat straw is used for the purpose, the wheat being sown thickly so as to grow long and slender stalks. In Belgium straw for plaiting is largely grown in particular districts with a soil very rich in lime, which imparts to the straw great suppleness, strength, and whiteness (comp. 566). In England, Luton in Bedfordshire is the principal centre of straw-plaiting. It is also a leading industry in China and Japan, where plaited straw is made up into straw-braid for trimmings and exported in that form. In Spain plaited goods are made in large quantity from esparto (199, 437), and Panama hats, remarkable for their lightness, durability, and elasticity, are made from the midrib of the leaves of a kind of screw-pine (Carlodovica palmata, Euiz. et Pavon.), a native of the tropical forests of South America, whence they ai'e largely exported to the West Indies, and even in gome years in considerable number to Europe. Flowers, Artificial (I.), mainly from Prance. Furniture (E.) Hats or Bonnets (E.) Implements and tools (E.), the export under this heading consisting to a large extent of agricultural implements. Lace and articles thereof (I.) : there has been a large increase in this import since 1880, in consequence of improvements in machinery on the mainland of Europe. Lacquered wares, an important export from Japan (787). Lucifer matches and vestas (E.) : the British export of this commodity is exceeded by that of Sweden, the vast forests of which (p. 487) supply abundance of raw material ; for the same reason there is a large export from Norway ; China appears to have the largest import of this article (see also 792). Mats and matting, a considerable export from China, where rush or reed mats are a speciality. Medicines (E.). Musical in^trumejits (I.), chie&jirom Germany, Holland, and France. Painters' Colours (E.) : there is also a large import, chiefly from Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Perfumery (E.) Pickles, Confectionery, &c. (E.). Pictures and drawings by hand (I.), chiefly from France. Plants, shrubs, trees and flowers, roots (I.), chiefly from Holland. Plate, gold and silver; the foreign trade of trifling value. Saddlery and hatrness : see under LEAIHEE MINOR PRODUCTS 203 (434), Ships : see p. 482. Spirits (I.). The total import of spirits into the United Kingdom varies in value between two and four millions sterling, against which there is an export of less than one million sterling. The place of origin of the imported spirit is different according to the nature of the spirit. All spirits are obtained by distillation from liquors previously fermented, or, in other words, which have been made to yield alcohol, and it is the alcohol more or less pure that is separated by distillation, and forms the principal ingredient of the spirit. To furnish the fermented liquor, any substance from which sugar is obtainable can be used, and hence all kinds of grain and farinaceous substances like potatoes, as well as grapes and other fruits, can be employed for the purpose, the flavour differing somewhat according to the substance used in fermenting, and often being modified by the addition of other substances. The principal spirit imported into the United Kingdom is brandy, which is, properly speaking, the spirit distilled from wine, but is now made very largely from other liquors, a certain flavour being added, by means of the lees of wine, dried fruits, &a. This kind of spirit (so far as it is imported) is stiU derived almost entirely from France, the chief source of our wine supply ; but the brandy made in France is now, since the ravages wrought in the French vineyards by the |)hylloxera (183), only to a small extent made from wine, most of the material for French spirits being obtained from molasses, beets, and potatoes. Bum is distilled from molasses and other juices of the sugar-cane or bye-products of sugar-manufacture, and is hence mainly imported into this country from Guiana and the British West Indies. Geneva or gin is, properly speaking, a spirit distilled from grain and flavoured with juniper berries, and is chiefly imported from Holland. The true flavour is often imitated by means of oil of turpentine. Of the spirits not separately enumerated among the British imports the largest quantity comes from Germany, where potatoes are the raw material chiefly employed. The spirit of British manufacture chiefly exported from the United Kingdom is whisky, which is made for the most part in Scotland and Ireland from various kinds of grain, but chiefly from barley malt. Of the kinds of spirit which do not enter to any great extent, if they enter at all, into British trade, the chief are arrack or raki, and sUbovitz, or sUvoviUa. The former is made from rice, and is a considerable article of export from the British and Dutch East Indies, the latter from plums, and is chiefly manufactured in the south-east of Europe : in Eoumania, Servia, and other countries adjoining the Lower Danube. The countries in which ardent spirits are most largely consumed are chiefly northern countries with a rather severe climate. In Bussia the average annual consumption of spirits per head is estimated at nearly two gallons ; in Scandinavia and Denmark this rate is approached or exceeded ; in Great Britain it has been in recent years about one gallon, notwithstanding the existence of a very high customs and excise duty on this commodity. Almost all Arctic traveUera agree in stating that the natives of those regions are willing to do almost anything for a glass of spirits. 466 6. Stationery not paper (E.). Tartar or argol is a bye-product of the wine-manufacture, being deposited on wine casks in the form of a hard crust. It is used chiefly for the manufacture of tartaric acid, which, besides being employed in the making of various effervescing drinks and for domestic purposes, is largely used in calico-printing as a means of preventing certain parts of the fabric from retaining coloured impressions. Tartar, the raw material, is chiefly exported from the wine- producing countries, but tartaric acid is most largely manufactured in Great Britain, the United States, and Germany. Telegraph wires and apparatus (E.), an export of very variable amount. Toys (I.), chiefly from Germany and Holland. Umbrellas and parasols (B.). Yeast, a bye-product of beer-brewing, used to pro- mote all kinds of fermentation and in baking, imported in the dry form under the name of German yeast. 204 EUROPE. 467. Europe, the smallest of the continents, is, taken as a whole, tlie most densely peopled (see map). In considering this superior density of population we must take into account the size of the con- tinent, its situation and outline, and its history. 468. The difference in the size of Europe as compared with Asia makes it impossible for it to have such vast tracts as the latter con- tinent, remote from the sources of moisture, the essential condition of fertility and cultivation, or rendered unfit for cultivation by the dura- tion and the rigour of frost. The situation and outline of the con- tinent are peculiarly favourable to its climate. The whole area, except a small fraction in the north, lies within the temperate zone, and the great irregularity of its outline causes it to enjoy in a higher degree than any other continent the mitigating effects of the sea on extremes of heat and cold (35). Its westerly sitaation is of even greater im- portance in this respect (40), and its southern peninsulas have a peculiarly warm and equable climate, not only in consequence of the moderating effect of the Mediterranean Sea on the temperature, but also because these peninsulas are to a large extent protected from cold northerly winds by mountain-barriers on the north. 469. In temperate Europe there is the same increase in extremes of temperature from west to east as in other parts of the north tem- perate zone, and this is true to a certain extent even of the countries belonging to the Mediterranean region (684). Besides these penin- sulas, or the greater part of them, nearly the whole of France and the British Isles, and the whole of Belgium and HoUand, are outside of the area in which the mean daily temperature sinks below the freezing-point for at least one month in the year. On the other hand, the area in which the mean daily temperature is above 50° Fahr. for at least eight months in the year is almost confined to the Mediter- ranean region, although it includes also the west of Prance from about the Loire southwards. In the east of Eussia the area in which there is at least one month with a mean daily temperature above 68° Fahr. extends as fe.r north as the latitude of the Orkney Islands. 470. By far the greater part of the area of Europe has a sufficient rainfall for cultivation, so that south of the region in which the tem- perature puts a limit on agriculture, almost the whole of the lowland JB*6tvevv,p.204-fiatd. ZOS. -L>.,narnnn.-f . Orct^L ^ Co.. Zun/Joii..JS-e-if Yorlc- ci-.Bonibaj: CLIMATE, POPULATION, VEGETATION 205 area, and even in the far south land at the height of between two and three thousand feet, is capable of being tilled. The deficiency of rainfall prevents the pursuit of agriculture chiefly in the south-east of Eussia (628) and in the interior of Spain (667). But though the rainfall is thus generally distributed, and occurs everywhere more or less all the year round, it is most abundant at different places daring differ- ent seasons. The west, and above all the north-west, is the region in which autumn rains prevail, the east that in which there is a predomi- nance of summer rain, but the Mediterranean peninsulas are the only region in which there is a marked deficiency of rain during any particu- lar season. There the rains are chiefly winter rains, and the middle of summer is remarkable for its drought, to the south of about 40° N. almost rainless (42). 471. The great fact in the history of Europe which helps to explain the high density of population in that continent is the long duration of its advancing civilisation, together with the remarkably rapid strides taken within the last hundred years in consequence of the great mecHanical inventions which have taken place in Europe. In civilisation, however, this continent was preceded by Asia and north- ern Africa (Egypt). In the earhest glimpses that we get of the com- merce between Western Asia and Southern Europe we find the latter region supplying only the produce of their herds and forests — hides, wool, wood, wild honey, cattle and sheep, besides male and female slaves ; and the articles received in return are ready-made clothes, iron and other metal tools, weapons, images, boxes of bronze and vessels of glass. The commerce thus carried on by Asia with Europe seems in fact to have been not unlike that carried on partly by Europeans, partly by Arabs, with the people of Africa at the present day. 472. Many of the cultivated trees and plants now thoroughly characteristic of certain parts of Europe are known, or appear to have been introduced into that continent within historic times. The olive, the cypress, and the laurel, the evergreens now so characteristic of the Mediterranean peninsulas, and so well adapted to stand the dry summers of that region, seem all to be of Asiatic origin, though intro- duced at a very early date. The olive began to clothe the hills of Sicily as far back as the seventh century B.C. Of Oriental origin also is lucerne, the equally characteristic fodder-plant of that region, the deep-rooted ally of the clover which survives the driest summers (eomp. 180) and has hence been introduced into many other parts of the world with a similar climate to the Mediterranean. Prom Asia also came the fig, mulberry, almond, walnut, chestnut, and apricot, all before the birth of Christ. The mulberry of the ancients, however, was the black mulberry, the sycamine of the Greeks, the white mulberry (220) being a much later arrival from the East. From Asia likewise came at various dates, mostly after the beginning of the Christian Era, rice, cotton, and several members of the orange genus (citrons. 2o6 EUROPE lemons, and oranges proper ; and after the discovery of America agaves and cactuses, potatoes, maize, and tobacco, were added to the vegeta- tion and agriculture of this continent. 472 a. The chief cereals of Europe, however, seem all to have been cultivated there in prehistoric times. Wheat and barley as well as two kinds of millet are proved by remains found beside the Lake- dwellings of Switzerland to have been cultivated in the later Stone Age ; but the evidence of language would appear to show that many of our common cultivated plants, including cabbages, peas, vetches, parsley, and onions, were introduced into cultivation in Qentral and Northern Europe directly or indirectly from Italy. '^ 473. At the present day Europe is to a larger extent a manufac- turing region than any other continent, but the predominance of manu- factures is characteristic only of certain countries. As is shown by the tables on pp. 440, 445, 446, 447, the British Isles, Prance, Germany, and Switzerland, all have manufactured goods as the leading export of native origin, and to these must be added Belgium, if not Holland, though the mode in which the commercial statistics of these countries are pre- pared does not make this evident. In all other European countries the chief exports are still products of the soil, the forest, or the sea. One of the most important facts in the commercial history of the con- tinent within recent years is the extent to which its agriculture has been affected by the rapid development of commerce in grain with many parts of the world in which wheat and other crops are produced under exceptionally favourable conditions (146-51). 207 THE BRITISH ISLES. 474. The British Isles lie in the north-west of Europe, between the parallels of 50° and 60° N. To be more precise, the fiftieth parallel of latitude runs a little to the north of Lizard Point in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, and the sixtieth through the southern end of the mainland of Shetland. 475. Surface, England, Of the countries which make up the British Isles England is that which has the greatest proportion of the surface available for production or purposes subsidiary to production. According to the most recent agricultural returns, more than three- fourths of the entire area of land and water was under crops or grass or lying fallow, and when it is considered that about 4J per cent, of the surface was occupied by woods, and that a large area is taken up by towns, factories, roads, and railways, it will be seen that the area occupied by unproductive hill and moorland is very small indeed. 476. The hills and mountains of England are chiefly in the north and west. The hilly country leading up to the Cheviots, and the tablelands of the Pennine Chain, ' the backbone of England,' as it has been called, which runs from north to south from Cumberland into the heart of Derbyshire, cover a considerable extent of ground, and, though almost entirely productive, are fit, so far as agriculture is concerned, for little else than sheep-pastures, so that in these districts the population is even now very sparse, except where manufactures are carried on. Other extensive tracts with a poor soil for agriculture lie in the south-east, chiefly in the districts covered with chalk hills and downs— Salisbury Plain and the Marlborougli Downs in Wilt- shire, the North and South Downs, the Chiltern Hills, the tableland of Northamptonshire, and the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Eiding. If England depended upon agriculture alone or mainly, the existence of these and other tracts would always tend to keep down the average density of its population, 477. But in view of the nature of the chief industries of the country, it is a matter of more importance that the high grounds of England interfere comparatively little with the facilities for locomo- tion. On all sides there flow down from the hills navigable rivers of greater or less length. In relation to internal communication the most important of these are the Ouse (Yorkshire), Trent, and Mer.sey, ao8 THE BRITISH ISLES the Thames and the Severn with their tributaries. The Ouse is navi- gable for barges throughout its length, and its most important tribu- taries are navigable likewise or have been canalised ; and so little of a barrier to communication is presented by the Pennine Chain that three lines of canals have been laid across it, bringing into connection the ports of Goole and Hull on the east, and those of Liverpool and Preston on the west. By the valley of the Aire a canal, which has a branch to Bradford, ascends by way of Leeds and Skipton, to descend on the Lancashire side by way of Burnley and Blackburn to Preston. By that of the Calder another line of canals ascends by way of Wake- field and Halifax, to descend by Eochdale to Manchester, where the Irwell becomes navigable. The third canal forms a more direct com- munication between the opposite sides of the Pennine Chain, joining Manchester with the Calder Canal by way of Ashton and Huddersfield. 478. From these particulars it might be inferred as a matter of course that canals in the lower regions of England are even more numerous, which is in fact the case. The Trent, the Mersey, the Thames, and the Severn are aU interconnected by inland waterways, natural or artificial. The Trent itself is navigable for small sea-going steamers as high as Gainsborough, the Thames for vessels of two hundred tons as high as Hampton, and the Severn for vessels drawing six feet as high as Stourport. The Berkeley Ship-canal, which con- nects Gloucester with the estuary of the ' sandy- bottomed Severn,' enables vessels drawing more than ten feet to ascend to that town, avoiding the windings and shallows of the river. In 1887 the Trent Navigation Company obtained an Act to increase the depth of the river as high as Gainsborough. 479. The canals of England are mainly works of last century and the early part of the present. Since railways were introduced (92) their value has been considerably diminished. They are not without importance for the carriage of minerals, but aU the canals of England together do not carry as much coal as a single railway passing through a coal-mining district — not even as much as the small Taff Vale Eail- way in South Wales. The benefit of the English canals to traders is considerably reduced in consequence of the fact that many of the more important of them have been acquired by railway companies ; and merchants and manufacturers are consequently agitating for having the canals released from this control, or having new inland waterways created, better adapted for the wants of modern traffic, to be kept independent of railway management. The existing canals are mostly of too small capacity to meet the demands of the present time. The canals now in progress or projected are all intended to accommodate larger vessels. One ship-canal of the largest capacity is now in pro- gress (507 c), and among the projects are two for equally commodious ship-canals, one to connect the Bristol with the English Channel, and the other through the peninsula in the north-west of Cheshire (524). SURFACE AND COMMUNICATIONS log It is also proposed to render the canal between the North Staffordshire Potteries and the Mersey available for vessels of large burden, and to make Birmingham accessible for smaller ships from the Mersey, and Sheffield from the Humber. (See also 483.) The railways and canals of the British Isles all belong to private companies, but are to some extent under the control of a commission appointed under an act passed in 1888. Among other provisions of this act is one prohibiting any railway company, director, or officer of a railway company from using any of the company's funds, without express statutory authority, to acquire any interest in a canal. 480. What has been said regarding the construction of canals implies that, in railway construction the obstacles presented by the physical features of the country were of still less consequence relat- ively to the much higher value- of the new means of transit. It is worth while to point out, however, that the outline of England was no less favourable than the character of its surface to its being rapidly intersected by railways. For it is obvious that the value of a railway, even for inland communication, is much enhanced by being connected with a seaport, and the form of the country is such that a short railway suffices to establish such a connection with any part of the interior. Among the more remarkable railway works of England are the tunnel under the Severn below Chepstow, i\ miles long, and that under the Mersey, connecting Liverpool with Birkenhead. 481. In Wales the proportion of hilly and mountainous country is much greater than in England, and the area of land under crops or grass or in bare fallow is rather less than three-fifths. The ranges of the Welsh hUls are, however, short, and there are many openings allowing an easy passage for railways. 482. Surface, Scotland, Scotland is the most mountainous part of the British Isles, and its northern half has hills and mountains so closely packed together, that even yet there are few roads leading through the narrow and sparsely peopled valleys between them (91). Long the only road across the Grampians — that is, the mountains lying immediately to the north of the Central Lowlands — was that which leads up the vaUey of the Garry, a tributary of the Tay, and down a tributary of the Spey to the valley of that river. This road is now accompanied by a railway, which is continued near the east coast to the most northerly towns of the country (Wick and Thurso). Of the entire surface of Scotland less than one-fourth is under crops or grass or in bare fallow, and the greater part of the land fit for crops is con- fined to the small area already referred to as the Central Lowlands, an area roughly definable as bounded by two parallel lines, one stretching from Stonehaven in Kincardineshire to the Firth of Clyde opposite Greenock, the other from Duiibar in Haddingtonshire to the middle of the Ayrshire coast. In this lowland area there lies, more- over, most of the great mineral wealth of Scotland, and therefore most p 210 THE BRITISH ISLES of its manufacturing industry ; so that this region, which has at all periods of Scottish history been the most densely peopled part of the country, now contains a greater proportion of the population than fiver. Here, consequently, the Scottish railways are most closely laid, Scotland now possesses two of the most remarkable railway bridges in the world, the Tay bridge at Dundee, the longest of all (3,593 yards, or a little more than two miles) opened in 1887, and the Forth bridge at Queensferry, a few miles above Edinburgh, 2,765 yards, or more than a mile and a half long, opened in 1690. 483. The most important of Scottish canals is the Forth and Clyde Canal, which enables small sea-going ships to pass from Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth to a place on the Firth of Clyde a little above Dumbarton. This canal it is now proposed to replace by one deep enough for large ocean vessels. A ship canal with a minimum depth of 17feethas been constructed through the long narrow valley called Glen More or the Great Valley, which connects Loch Linnhe and Loch Ness, and divides the Highlands of Scotland into two sections. It is called the Caledonian Canal, and is noteworthy as a work of engineer- ing, but is not much used for the purpose for which it was designed — namely, to allow sea-going ships of moderate size to avoid the stormy passage through the Pentland Firth. 484. Surface, Ireland. The larger part of Ireland is a plain, with greater stretches oi nearly level country than are to be seen in any. other part of the British Isles. The hiUs and mountains are chiefly near the corners of the island, and being from their nature thinly peopled, and not situated so as to separate more densely inhabited areas, present no serious obstacles to communication. The flatness of the country has facilitated the construction of both canals and railways. The Shannon, the longest river in the British Isles, has been partly canalised, and has been made navigable to the head of Lough Allen, that is, not far from its source ; and it is connected by canals with Dubhn by two routes, and with Belfast. The Grand Canal proceeds from Ballinasloe, on the Suck, a tributary on the right bank of the Shannon, to Dublin by way of TuUamore ; the Eoyal Canal from a point further north by way of Longford and Mullingar ; with Belfast the connection is by way of Loughs Erne and Neagh. A branch from the Grand Canal proceeds southwards to Athy, the limit of navigation on the Barrow, which enters the sea at Waterford Harbour on the south. Several light railways are in course of construction in the more sparsely peopled, including some of the mountainous, districts of Ireland, under an act passed in 1889. 485. It is partly owing to the flatness of the surface in Ireland, where the natural drainage is in consequence insufficient, that the extent of bog and marsh land is so large, making up one-twelfth of the entire surface. But it must be remembered that in aU parts of Europe human industry applied to drainage works and cultivation has CLIMATE, COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES 21 1 been necessary to conquer bog and marsh, and in Ireland, as in other parts of the world in which the climate is sufficiently moist, the ex- tent of waste due to this cause increases where agriculture is neglected. In Ireland too the extension of bog and marsh is promoted by the fact that the situation of the island causes the climate to be particularly moist (40). The barren mountain land, woods and water of Ireland being also deducted, there remains three-fourths of the surface available for agriculture, including the rearing of live-stock. 486. Climate. The mildness and equableness of the climate of the British Isles as a whole have already been explained and illustrated under more general headings (35, 40, 468). The special advantages of the climate of the British Isles with regard to production are that it is favourable to active exertion throughout the day all the year round, and even for the most part stimulates to active exertion ; that the mildness of the winter causes little or no interruption to field labour in any of the parts best suited to agriculture, and its comparative freedom from heavy snowfalls causes little interruption to communica- tion ; and that, for some reason or other, the climate seems to be imfavourable to the existence of insect pests which infest the crops of England elsewhere, while, nevertheless, it is seldom unfavourable either to crops or domesticated animals. For the sake of comparison with other countries it is well to remember that the average annual rainfall at Greenwich (in one of the drier parts of Great Britain) is about 25 inches. 486 a. The length of the shortest day (sunlight) varies from about 65 hours in the extreme north to eight hours in the extreme south. In the more thickly-peopled region the shortest day in the year is about 6| hours in length (in the latitude of Dundee). It is to be remembered also that the shortness of the day is to some extent compensated in the high latitudes to which the islands belong by the length of the twilight. 487. Commerce. The table on p. 488 shows that the foreign commerce of the British Isles is much greater in value than that of any other country in the world, and greater also per head than that of most other countries in which there is a population of great density. This shows that for foreign commerce this country must have peculiar advantages of one kind or another, and we must there- fore consider what these advantages are. First of all it will be well merely to enumerate these advantages, as well as the disadvantages under which this country labours, and afterwards to examine more particularly the nature of those which require elucidation. 488. The advantages are (1) a favourable climate ; (2) the abundance of coal and iron and some other raw materials ; (3) the efficiency of British labour ; (4) the fact that nearly all the great mechanical in- ventions by which modern industry^has been revolutionised originated p 2 «i2 THE BRITISH ISLES in this country, whicli thus got the start of other countries in their application ; (5) the abundance of capital ; (6) the concentration of population in our industrial regions, facilitating the organisation of industry, including the minutest subdivision of labour ; (7) the com- pleteness of the internal communications ; (8) the nearness of the coast on both sides ; (9) the abundance of seaports ; (10) the geo- graphical position ; (11) the magnitude of the shipping ; (12) the extent of the British colonial and other possessions ; (13) the extent to which the English language is spread over the globe ; (14) the long estab- lishment of our commercial relations with the best markets of the world ; (15) the free trade policy that has prevailed in this country for more than a generation. 489. The disadvantages that have to be placed on the other side are (1) the dearness of land arising from the density of population and the great development of industry, a disadvantage necessarily most experienced in the great centres of industry ; (3) the higher rate of wages paid in Great Britain compared with those paid by its chief rivals in manufacturing industry ; (3) the government restrictions on labour; (4) the backward state of education, and especially of technical and commercial education, ia the United Kingdom compared with the point reached in this respect by some of its rivals ; (6) the irrational spelling of the Enghsh language ; (6) the want of a decimal coinage and system of weights and measures ; (7) the high tariffs of many coun- tries of the world. 490. It scarcely needs to be pointed out that the advantages and disadvantages above enumerated are not mentioned in the order of their importance. Of the advantages those from 1-6 are such as affect the production of articles of commerce, and the remainder, those which pertain to their distribution ; and of the former Nos. 1 and 2 may be reckoned as natural advantages, Nos. 4, 5, and 6 advantages mainly due to historical causes (17). No. 3, the efficiency of the British artisan, is partly to be looked on as a natural advantage arising from the climate, partly an historical advantage, due to the acquired skill resulting from the experience of generations and from fomiliarity with a gradual and constant series of improvements in industrial operations. ('See 257, and comp. 92 and 384.) 491. With regard to the advantage of ihe climate it is unnecessary to say more ; but in relation to the second of the advantages enume- rated above, wealth in coal and iron, it is necessary to point out that the advantage we possess arises not only from their abundance, but also from the fact that important supplies of both are found quite •close to seaports, and that the coal necessary to the smelting of the iron is at no great distance from the iron ores, often on the very spot. The great coalfield of Durham and ITorthumberland is bisected by the estuary of the Tyne, to which belong the seaports which first carried on a great trade in coal, and is in immediate proximity to Sunderland COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES 213 and various minor ports. The southern end of it, moreover, is close beside the iron deposits of Cleveland in the North Eiding, the district which in 1887 produced more than a third of all the iron ore obtained in the kingdom. On the other side of the country the coalfield of Cumberland includes the seaports of Maryport, Workington , and White- haven, and lies close to the rich iron ores (red hematite — 388, 393) of South Cumberland and North Lancashire. The great coalfields of lancashire and Yorkshire and the adjoining counties to the south are in a narrow part of the country; having ready access to the ports of Hull and Grimsby on the east, as well as Liverpool on the west (493). The South Wales coalfield embraces the fine natural harbour of Swansea, and is in immediate proximity to the seaports of Cardiff and Newport ; and the Bristol coalfield is close beside the seaport to which it owes its name. The coalfield of South Wales has given rise to a vast iron industry through the fact of its having possessed great beds of ironstone, though these are now worked only to a limited extent, in consequence of the facility with which less refractory ores can be im- ported from abroad. In Scotland the coalfields are likewise close to the sea, and likewise rich in iron. In the west the Ayrshire coal- field extends to the ports of Troon and Ardrossan ; in the Clyde basin the coalfield extends below the port of Glasgow, and the ports of Grangemouth, Alloa, Burntisland, Dysart, Leith and others are either upon or in close proximity to coalfields further east. The black band ironstone found in some parts of these coalfields (as in Ayrshire and the Clyde basin) yields a very fine quality of iron, and is itself for the most part so rich in coaly matter as to reduce considerably the expense for fuel in the operations preliminary to smelting (388). Limestone and gannister, two other minerals of great importance in the iron industry (388, 394; 391), are also abundant in Great Britain, and in some cases on or near the beds of iron ore. 492. The importance of such advantages in Great Britain has been dwelt on at some length, because they are hitherto unparalleled throughout the world, and go very far to account for the pre-eminence enjoyed by this country in manufacturing industry. It must be noted, however, that the advantages referred to are confined to Great Britain, and do not reach to Ireland. The most productive coal-mines of Ireland are at a considerable distance from the coast, in the north of the county of Kilkenny, and at a great distance from the only iron- producing district in Ireland, in the county of Antrim. The Irish coal, moreover, is of inferior quality, and the total production of coal and ' iron in Ireland is not equal to one per cent, of the total production of these minerals in Great Britain. 493. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of the advantages enu- merated on pp. 211-12 require no special elucidation, though it may be pointed out that (5) and (6), the abundance of capital, and the advanced organisation of industry, are in part a consequence of (4), 214 THE BRITISH ISLES that is, of the United Kingdom having got the start of other countries in modem mechanical appHances. They both accordingly represent modes in which the fact of being first in the field helps in maintaining a position of priority. With regard to the eighth of our advantages, the nearness of the coast on both sides, it is hardly necessary to explain how this may place a manufacturing region within easy reach of many more markets than are accessible to one that has outlets only in one direction. The precise nature of this advantage is well illus- trated by the trade of some of our seaports. Though Lancashire, on the west side of the Pennine Chain, is the great seat of our cotton manufactures, HuU exported in 1885 nearly as great a value of cotton yarn as Liverpool, Hull and Grimsby together much more than Liver- pool ; the eastern ports of Great Britain collectively always export more than the western ports collectively. The reason of this is apparent from the table on p. 440, from which it will be seen that continental nations are among our chief customers for cotton yarn, and these are most easily reached from the east side. The woollen manufactures, again, are mainly carried on to the east of the Pennine Chain, but the woven fabrics are much more largely exported from Liverpool than from any other port, though woollen yarns are exported thence only to a Hmited extent. (See the table already referred to.) The abundance of sea- ports, the ninth of the advantages enumerated above, is what enables the advantage just illustrated to be utilised ; but it is obvious that it is an advantage also in another way, in the extent of the accommodation it provides for shipping. No doubt such accommodation can some- times be provided artificially, as in most cases it needs to be improved artificially, but there is an enormous advantage in respect of cost where facilities are furnished by nature, at a great many different points. In the British Isles there are more than twenty seaports with a depth of at least 25 feet at high water, and most of these are situated in the vicinity of the great seats of production. In view of the increasing size of the shipping of the present day (104) this large number of deep harbours is a matter of peculiar importance. 494. The tenth of the advantages named on p. 211-12, the geo- graphical position of the British Isles, is of great moment in more ways than one. In the first place the ' silver streak ' is a natural bulwark of the highest value. It enables the kingdom to place its chief reU- ance for defence upon the navy, which makes a much less heavy drain upon the working population than the vast armies which continental nations are obliged to train and keep on foot. Secondly, it is of great importance to British commerce, as has already been pointed out (122), that our islands lie nearly in the middle of the land surface of the globe, or, what is of more consequence, occupy a somewhat central position among the nations that carry on a great commerce at the present day. It was of no importance to us that America lay on our west, until America began to rear a population more or less dependent COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES 215 on foreign commerce. The effects of this central position with respect to the distribution of our own products will be understood readily enough from the illustration already given of the advantage of having seaports on different sides ; and another important eflfect is well illus- trated by the table on p. 442, from which it wiU be seen that on an average about one-fifth of the total value of the British exports re- presents articles that have been collected from various parts of the globe, to be as widely distributed again in other parts. (See 697.) The wool of Austraha and South Africa is sent by us to Germany, France, the United States, and other manufacturing countries ; raw cotton is brought hither from India, America, and Egypt, and redistributed on the continent of Europe ; silks are imported from France and sent to Austraha along with the numerous products of British industry destined for the same market, and so on. A great variety of articles of Eastern origin are exported from the British Isles to the United States (see p. 443, n. 1). This export of products of foreign and colonial origin is additional to the goods that are merely transhipped in British waters. The aggregate value of such goods declined on the whole from nearly 14 millions sterling in 1872 (a year of high prices, p. 481) to less than 10 milUons in 1887. 495. The importance of (12) the British colonial and other posses- sions to our commerce is brought out very clearly in all the statistical tables relating to the United Kingdom in the appendix (pp. 438-448). The tables on pp. 439 and 441 reveal the fact that in all the quin- quennial periods from 1861 to 1885 the different members of the British Empire collectively have furnished a larger proportion of imports of the United Kingdom than any one foreign country, and that their importance as a market for British produce and manu- factures is still more striking, inasmuch as in all the periods for which figures are given they received more than one-fourth of these com- modities, in the last two of them more than one-third. The steadily increasing magnitude of British commerce with the Australasian colonies (including New Zealand) deserves special attention. They now stand (p. 441) third in the list of countries receiving British produce and manufactures, and show a steady increase in the proportion of these commodities taken by them since the period 1866-70. In the supply- ing of British imports they take the fourth place, and the percentage of the total furnished by them has increased steadily since the period 1861-65. It will be observed from pp. 439, 442 that the staple com- modity of the Australian colonies, wool (207), now holds by far the most important place among the exports of foreign and colonial origin, and since the period 1856-60 has shown a wonderfully rapid increase in actual and relative value ; and when we consider the bulky nature of this article, the extent to which it has in consequence promoted the development of shipping to that distant region by routes which touch many other great markets, it is easy to perceive that this single branch 2i5 THE BRITISH ISLES of trade must also have had an important indirect effect on British commerce. Still it can hardly be questioned that this branch of British trade is seriously threatened by the increasing use of the Suez Canal route for the commerce with Australia (p. 487), and by the establishment of independent wool markets in the colonies (207 a), which is not unlikely to lead to the multiplication of direct steamship lines to the mainland of Europe. In quite recent years there has been a rapid iaarease in the direct import of Australian wool into Antwerp, which offers greater facilities than London for the economical discharge of cargoes. 496. With regard to (13) language, in order to realise the import- ance of this factor one has only to think of the rapid increase of an English-speaking population, not only in the more important British colonies, but also in the United States. 497. The nature of the advantage numbered 14 on p. 212 needs no further elucidation; but with refersnce to the last, the free trade pohcy of this country, it is necessary to explain that in including this among the list of our advantages for foreign commerce it is not in- tended to prejudge the question whether a free-trade poHcy is or is not in all circumstances the wisest in the interests of the country gene- rally. Undoubtedly, however, every customs' duty, whether a violation of the principle of free trade or not, is adverse to foreign commerce. 498. Of the disadvantages against which this country has to contend in its foreign commerce the first mentioned on p. 212, the dearness of land, is a necessary result of the development of our industries. The second, the higher rate of wages, if considered by itself, cannot but be looked upon as a disadvantage in the struggle for cheapness into which the competition for foreign commerce in a large measure resolves itself; but it must not be forgotten that in considering the cost of labour the relative efficiency of labour has always to be taken into account, and it is contended by many who have had adequate opportunities of ascertaining the facts that, as com- pared with the continental workman, ' the English workman, notwith- standing his shorter hours and higher wages, is to be preferred.' 499. The backward state of education, and especially of technical and commercial education, in this country is a more serious disadvan- tage, but its effects have been considered elsewhere (30, 31). In rela- tion to this, it is, however, important to point out that one of the most serious hindrances to advancement in education is the fact that the English language is burdened with a mode of spelling in favour of which not one argument of weight can be advanced except the fact that it exists and is difficult to get rid of. ' English spelling,' says Max Miiller, ' is a national misfortune, and in the keen international race between all the countries of Europe, it handicaps the English child to a degree that seems incredible till we look at statistics.' ' As ' Contemiporary Beview, Nov. 1879, p. 381. COMMERCIAL DISADVANTAGES 217 a hindrance to the acquisition of the English language by foreigners, and more particularly to its spread among people to whom it would be an advantage to make the language their own, as among the non- English-speaking inhabitants of the United States and Canada, it is a check on the extension of British commerce in another way. 500. The want of a decimal coinage and system of weights and measures is beginning to be felt more and more among the mercantile class as an evil, not only on account of the needless difSculties thus thrown in the way of education, but also as an impediment in ordinary businssc transactions. 501. But of all obstacles to the extension of our commerce, the greatest perhaps consists in the high tariffs of many foreign countries, and it is of course none the less so because these high tariffs act in the same degree, or even a greater, as a restriction on the develop- ment of the commerce of the countries maintaining them. 502. So much with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of this country in relation to foreign commerce ; but we must bear in mind that the greatest possible advantages are exhaustible, and, however vast the commerce of a country may be, it is necessary to that coimtry's prosperity, in so far as it depends on foreign commerce, that that commerce should go on increasing, and the increase keep pace with the growth of the population. Enormous as the advantages of the British Isles may be, if British commerce has been pushed too far on the strength of merely temporary advantages, other nations wiU be apt to gain at British expense. There will be a difficulty in main- taining the distance ahead to which British commerce has reached. 503. Now the tables in the statistical appendix furnish many indications that in some respects the United Kingdom has not been holding its own in later periods, and it is important to note some of the main heads under which this is true. The relative decline in the woollen industry as indicated by these tables is considered elsewhere (218). The table on p. 443 shows also a decline in the average value of the raw cotton imported into the United Kingdom for home con- sumption from 1866-70 to 1876-80, and a rise in 1881-85 to a point little above that reached in 1861-65 ; but certain countries with new and rising textile industries, such as Italy and Russia, show a steady increase in the value of the raw cotton imported for domestic use ; the United States exhibit a constant rise in the value of the exports of their cotton manufactures, and there is a marked decrease in the value of the cotton yam exported from the British Isles in 1881-85 as compared with 1871-76. Prom the period 1866-70 there has been a steady decline in the value of the British export of linen manufactures as well as linen yam, a decline accordingly which went on during the period 1871-75, within which there was a great inflation of prices affecting many articles, and linen among the number (p. 481). Against this there was an increase in the value of the import of fiax into 2i8 THE BRITISH ISLES the United States, the chief British market for hnen goods, frortl 1,189,000 dollars annually in the period 1876-80, to 1,542,000 dollars annually in the period 1881-85, and that notwithstanding the fact that that article is there subject to duty. Of the products of the British textile industries, only jute and silk manufactures show a pretty steady increase in the value of the exports ; and it is to be noted that the increase in the value of the exports of silk goods is balanced by a steady decline in the value of the net imports of raw silk (235), and that there has been a steady and pretty rapid increase in the export of raw jute during the whole series of quinquennial periods from 1861-65, while the import of this commodity for consumption at home has been stationary or declining since the period 1871-75. 504. Now all these facts seem to point to at least a relative decline in the great textile industries of the United Kingdom, an increasing severity in the competition of foreign countries. France has become its severest competitor in woollen manufactures, Germany and the United States have increased their competition in silks, the United States carry on a severe competition in linen and jute manufactures, in the latter branch all the more since they have begun to utihse for similar purposes to jute the sisal hemp of Mexico (316). Various countries are developing cotton manufactures for local consumption, if not for export, and this is necessarily more or less to the prejudice of the staple manufacturing industry of Great Britain. 505. Along with these facts relating to the textile industries of the United Kingdom brought to light by the tables in the appendix, the table on p. 440 renders prominent another noteworthy fact, that throughout all the periods from 1843-45 to 1881-85 there has been a rapid and almost uninterrupted rise in the value of the British ex- ports of machinery and steam-engines. The only decline was in 1876-80, immediately after the great leap in 1871-75, and if there were the means of comparing quantities under this head, it would be found no doubt that in these two periods also there was an advance from the earlier to the later. Among all the exports of commodities of native origin there is none in which the rise in value is so great from the period 1848-45 downwards, and none in which the advance in this respect is at all comparable with that of machinery, except those of iron and steel and coal, cinders and fuel. 506. Such facts as these are all in keeping with what has been noted regarding the relative decline in textile manufactures. They all tend to show that other nations are developing textile manufactures at the expense of the United Kingdom, and more or less with the aid of machinery and fuel supplied by that country. And in this there is nothing surprising. It is a state of things ' due in a great measure to the enormous prosperity we enjoyed for so many years, drawing population into our towns and stimulating early marriages, without a thought of what was to happen when we had taught other nations RECENT INFLUENCES AFFECTING BRITISH COMMERCE 219 our arts, and they were to compete with us not only abroad, but at home, and in all our colonies and dependencies.' ' It is true that the development of native manufactures in foreign countries is in some cases aided by protective duties, but this is not the sole circumstance to which their progress is due. We cannot put out of sight the fact that, however great the advantages of the United Kingdom may be for the carrying on of manufacturing industries and foreign commerce, these advantages were necessarily relatively much greater at a period when the British Isles had coalfields more or less developed, and other countries had not, when these islands had already effected the change from domestic and hand-labour in spinning and weaving and other countries had not, than at a time when these changes have been brought about in other countries or are in rapid progress. Hence it was in- evitable that foreign countries, and especially those provided by na- ture with coalfields or abundant water-power, should gain upon the United Kingdom in the great branches of industry to which modern machinery is chiefly applied ; and though to us this may be the cause of temporary hardship, the result, as has been already hinted (16), must be regarded as on the whole satisfactory,^ as tending in the direc- tion of that equal distribution of industry and comparative stability which, we hope, it is the mission of commerce to realise.^ 507. The local distribution of British manufacturing industries presents many points of interest, some of them purely geographical, some historical. In the case of the greatest of these industries, that of cotton, it is a noteworthy fact that it is almost wholly confined to a few locaUties in the west of Great Britain and the north-east of Ireland. In England the spinning and weaving of cotton are almost restricted to the west side of the Pennine Chain, mainly to that part of Lancashire which Ues to the south of the Kibble ; in Scotland, to Glasgow and other manufacturing towns in the west. The reason for this distribution is geographical. In the first place this is a region of cheap coal (491). But, secondly, both for the spinning and weaving of cotton a moist climate is of great importance, and in districts where ' Sir Theodore Martin, in a letter to Lord Brabazon, published in the Standardly March 28, 1887. '^ Ou4he advantages of a more equal distribution of mechanical industry see some -wise remarks in George Combe's LecPwres on Popular Education, 2nd ed., pp. 63-7. ' In the additional columns furnished in the tables on pp. 438-443, giving the averages for the period 1886-90, the most notable facts are another decline in the value of the raw cotton imported for home consumption (p. 443), a decline in the value of the export of cotton manufactures (p. 440), and a still more marked decline in that of cotton yarn (259 a), a further decline of considerable amount in the value of the linen exports (both tissues and yarn) ; and, on the other hand, a continuation of the rise in value of the export of machinery and steam-engines, and an even more marked increase in the value of the export of coal. The value of the iron and steel manufactures exported is the same as in the pre- ceding period. Compare note on p. 254. 220 THE BRITISH ISLES the manufacture is carried on, dry weather, and especially cold and dry weather, adds considerably to the expense of the operations ; for where the air is too dry the yarn is liable to become brittle through losing its natural moisture, and all the more likely is this to result when, as on cold days, the temperature of the spinning-' mill ' or weaving-' shed ' is much above the temperature of the air outside. So important is this factor in the cotton industry that the failure of cotton factories started in other parts of England has been attributed in some cases to no other cause. Even the shelter of a hill against dry east winds is considered a matter of high pecuniary value. Why the parts of the British Isles just referred to should be specially moist will be readily understood from what is stated under general headings as to the effect of high grounds on moisture-laden winds (35) and the prevalence of such winds from the south-west in this part of the world (40). 507 a. In England the town whose name has been most closely associated with the cotton industry from an early date is MAN- CHESTER (including SALFORD, 700). This is one of those towns which owed their original importance in a large measure to the fact of their lying in a plain just on the border of hill country, a position which, as already explained (114), naturally leads to the convergence of roads from many parts of the plain as well as from one or more valleys among the hills. It is hence natural to find that a town has been situated in this position from a very early date. Manchester (the ancient Mancunium) was already ia existence in the time of the Eomans, and in the early part of the fourteenth century it became known as a manufacturing town through the settlement of Flemings here. But the first materials of its textile manufactures were wool, a local product, and linen yarn obtained from Ireland. It is uncertain when cotton was added to these, and though Manchester cottons aro spoken of even in the fourteenth century, it was not tiU long after that pure cotton fabrics were made there, or anywhere else in England (253). Since the great inventions of last century, Manchester has grown with the cotton industry, the trade in cotton goods and yarns having been always centred here (117). In 1774 Manchester and Salford together had a population of httle more than 27,000 ;' at the census of 1801 the joint population of the two townships had risen to 84,000. (Compare 254.) In 1891 the population within a radius of twelve miles of Manchester Exchange was upwards of 1,600,000. 507 6. Among the surrounding towns engaged in the cotton in- dustry are Oldham, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, and other towns which have enriched the bleak Lancashire moorlands to the nortlr. and east of Manchester, Stockport and Hyde in Cheshire to the south, and Glossop in a Derbyshire valley south-east of Manchester: all situated on the great coalfield west of the Pennine Chain ; and further north are the seaport of PEESTOBT, and the towns of BLACKBURN, SttAvetn/.jt Z20 and' 227. Longirujins . Green, as well as water-power and excellent grindstones (423-16), and these latter circumstances appear to have determined the special branch of industry for which Sheffield has become famous all the world over, the making of cutlery. Though iron is obtainable in the district round Sheffield, the town early began to import from Sweden (387) the best DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIES: STE&L, MACHINERY, ETC. 227 Ihaterial iot making cutlery, as it still does; but Sheffield has in recent tinles added other important departments to its iron -working, more particularly the making of armour-plates for ships of war, and of steel rd,ils. 513 /. Many other tOwnS in England are known chiefly in con- nection with one or more branches of the iron and steel industry* Middlesbrough and Barrow manufacture great quantities of rails. ■Warrington, on the Mersey, in Lancashire, produces iron wire, &c. The making of tin- and ziuc-plate, which furnishes the most important export to the United States under the head of ironwares, is scattered over all the industrial towns of the South Wales coalfield (Swansea, Llanelly, Cardiff, Newport, Neath, Monmouth, Pontypool, Aberavon, &G.). The making of machinery for textile manufactures is carried on mainly, if not wholly, in some of the towns in which these manu- factures form the staple industry. CottoU- spinning and weaving machinery is made at the two Lancashire cotton-spinning towns of Oldham and Bolton. In the same towns machinery belonging to the woollen industry is also made, but the great machiae -making town for all departments of the worsted industry in particular is Keighley, in the Aire vaUey, a little to the north-west of Bradford. Machinery for the manufacture of elastic webbing is made at Leicester. 513 g. Steam-engines and railway-carriages are made at Man- chester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, DarHngton, and several smaller towns, where different railway Companies have established such works for their own lines. The London and North-Western Eailway has an establishment of this kind at Crewe in Cheshire, the Great Western at Swindon in North Wilts, the Great Northern at l^oncaster, the Midland at Derby, the Cambrian at OsWestry, the Glasgow and South- Western at Kilmarnock. In the selection of such places the companies have obviously been guided by the desire to find a place on their own line where land was cheap, rather than places in the vicinity of coal and iron supplies, 'which they can carry themselves at a minimum of cost. Agricultural implements are made in many towns belonging to the eorn-growing districts, as a^t Grantham, Gainsborough^ and Lincoln. 514. SMpbuilding may now also be considered as mainly a branch of the iron industry. Not very many years ago the Thames was the chief seat of this industry in Great Britain, and it was the change from wood to iron as the material for shipbuilding that gave the decisive blow to the industry on the Thames, which had already begun to find a keen rival in the Clyde. This latter river is now the chief seat of shipbuilding in the world— of shipbuilding in . all its branches., including the making of marine engines. Shipbuilding yards succeed one another for miles below Glasgow, and are met with at other places lower down, especially at Dumbarton and Greenock. Next to the Clyde in shipbuilding comes the Tyne, and then the e2 228 THE BRITISH ISLES 'i^ear ; and shipbuilding is also carried on to a less extent at various places on the Tees, at "West Hartlepool, at Hull, Liverpool, Barrow- in-Eumess, Southampton, &c. 515. Coal and Coke, the next articles to iron and its products among British exports of domestic origin, are chiefly exported from CARDIFF, Newport, and Swansea, the outlets of the S. Wales coalfield, and the Tyne ports (NEWCASTLE and N. and S. Shields), SXTJSDER- LAND, and Hartlepool, the outlets of the Northumberland and Durham coalfields. The excellence of the smokeless coal furnished by the eastern part of the South Wales coalfield as fuel for steam-engines has caused Cardiff to outstrip Newcastle in the export of coal to foreign countries, but Newcastle and Sunderland still rank first among the ports which supply coal in coasting vessels for domestic use, their convenient situa- tion for the supply of London being much in their favour. 516. Next to coal among British exports of native produce and manufactures comes copper, with the various articles made out of that metal. As far back as the time of Queen Elizabeth, Swansea had a large business in the smelting of copper ores brought from Cornwall and Devon, the only English counties where this metal is found in great abundance. This business stiU continues, but nowadays not only copper ores, but also those of silver, zinc, lead, and sulphur, are brought hither from all parts of the world to be smelted, and more or less of the resulting metal is re-exported as British produce. Llanelly, in Carmarthenshire, shares in the industries of Swansea. In tho making of articles from copper alloys, brass, bronze, &c., Birmingham takes the first place, as it does in all kinds of hardware ; but Bother- ham, on the Don, is also noted for its manufactures of brass. 517. Among British ores, lead and tin are now of more importance than copper, and both of them, being comparatively easy of treatment, are smelted chiefly in the neighbourhood in which they are produced. Lead is obtained most abundantly in the Isle of Man, the west of Durham, and other northern districts ; tin chiefly, Hke copper, in Cornwall and Devon. The vessels which take to South Wales the copper ores of these counties bring back thence supplies of coal for the smelting of the ores of tin. 518. The making of earthenware and porcelain is another in- dustry which involves a great consumption of fuel, and is hence carried on in this country, mainly on coal-yielding districts. It is explained elsewhere (446) why the making of the greatest variety of earthenware has come to be carried on mainly in the North Staffordshire district called the Potteries, the district to which Burslem, Stoke, Hanley, New- castle-under-Lyme, and Etruria belong. Worcester and Derby have long been noted for their porcelain. Stourbridge makes a very hard kind of stoneware from fireclay (423-18) found in the neighbourhood. 519. Glass also is made, for the same reason, chiefly on or close to the coalfields, at St. Helens in Lancashire, at Birmingham, at Dudley DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIES: GLASS, PAPER, LEATHER 229 and Stourbridge in Worcestershire, at South Shields, at Glasgow, and elsewhere. As common salt is the chief material used in the making of the ' alkali ' (457) required in this manufacture, this product is largely made in the neighbourhood of the chief salt-yielding districts of England. Of these by far the most important is that in the valleys of the Weaver and Wheelock in Cheshire, with the towns of Northwich, Middle wich, Winsford, and Sandbach, and next to that Droitwich in Worcestershire, and a district of South Durham opposite Middles- brough. The chief seats of the alkali works of the country are Widnes, at the head of the estuary of the Mersey on the Lancashire side, and Flint, both near the Cheshire salt district ; and works of the same kmd exist on the South Durham salt district, at South Shields, St. Helens, Swansea, &c. A large bed of salt has recently been discovered by boring in Walney Island, opposite Barrow. 520. A few of the British industries in which a cheap supply of coal is of less importance than other requirements may now be noticed. Li the manufacture of paper a supply of pure water is for the most part essential, and hence this industry is mostly carried on in districts that still contain pure streams. From the first introduction of paper-making into this country, the chief seats of the industry have lain in Kent (at Maidstone and elsewhere), and the manufacture is also largely carried on by the streams of Derbyshire and Mid Lan- cashire (Darwen, Bacup, &c.), on the Kennet in Berkshire, and in Midlothian. Dyeing (at least in the case of the more delicate shades) requires the same condition, and, where associated with bleaching, pure air is necessary over and above. It is hence characteristically an in- dustry of small rather than large towns. Perth is the seat of some of the chief dye-works in the kingdom ; Dumbarton, Alscrington and Bacup, carry on turkey-red dyeing. Sugar-refining is carried on principally .at three seaports — London, Liverpool, and Greenock. 521. The making of shoes is the leading industry in Northampton, and is among those of Leicester and Stafford ; that of gloves is carried on at 9, great many small towns in agricultural districts, where labour is cheap, as at Worcester, Hereford, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, Taunton and Yeovil in Somersetshire, Great Tbrrington in Devonshire, Chester, &c. The making of hand-made lace is an industry in a similar position, still pursued at Honiton in South Devon, where it has been practised since the time of Charles I. 522. Seaports, On the average of the period 1884-88, the ten fol- lowing seaports — London, Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow, Folkestone, Leith, Newhaven, Bristol, Newcastle, and Southampton — received nearly 84 per cent, of the total value of the imports of the United Kingdom. The first four of the seaports just named are also first in the value of their exports, Liverpool, however, ranking under this head before London. Next to these four in order of the value of their exports are Grimsby, Southampton, Harwich, Goole, Cardiff, and Newcastle ; and 230 THE BRITISH ISLES these six seaports, together with the first four, despatched on the average of the same period nearly 90 per cent, of the exports. 523. First in rank among the British seaports still stands LONDON (4,200), as it always has done, having received during the period men- tioned 35^ per cent, of the imports in value and despatched 30 pe? cent, of the exports. The situation at the head of ocean navigation on a river which allows ocean vessels to ascend far into the interior of the kingdom, and which has its mouth directly opposite another great estuary on the Continent of Europe, gives it a commanding position for continental trade, and all trade carried on hy Eastern and Southern routes, whether through the Suez Canal or round the Cape of Good Hope. It is hence the chief place of reception for East Indian and Australian commodities, and it is this circumstance mainly that makes the port so predominant in the import trade. The fact of its being the capital of the country, and the most populous city in the world, likewise contributes to enlarge its commerce. As a port Londoii includes the whole of the Thames to Tilbury and Gravesend, and the foreign trade of ftueenborough, on the Isle of Sheppey, is likewise included among the imports and exports of London. The Tilbury Docks, opened in 1886, are the deepest docks of the port, 38 feet ; and they have 54| acres of water-space, with 5,230 yards of quayage. The following table shows that London at a recent date ptiU held the first place among the seaports of the world, even when foreign or foreign and colonial trade alone is taken into account : — Date Port Millions of tons entered and Qleared Yalue oJ I. and B. in mil. £ Date Porli Millions of tons entered and oleai-ed With cargoes With cargoes and in ballast With cargoes With cargoss and in ballast 1890 1889-90 1890 1889 1890 London . , New York . Liverpool . Eotterdam. Hamburg . 12-56 12-16 10-53 11-44 9-10 13-48 12-28 10-94 196-4 2130 1889 1890 1890 1889 1890 Marseilles . Cardiff . . Tyne . . Antwerp , Genoa . . 6-45 6-41 5-84 5-22 8-82 8-41 8-16 6-72 With respect to London, it must not be overlooked that this port has a larger coasting trade than any other in the world. Inclusive of this trade the number of vessels that entered the port with cargoes and in ballast in 1890, nine times as many as at Liverpool, was equal pn an average to 1 every 10| minutes. 524. LIVERPOOL (520 ; parhamentary borough, 585) has risen to a high rank among the seaports of the world only -within the last two hundred years. Early in last century it was a small place ; its chief trade was with Ireland, and in that trade it had rivals in Preston and Chester, which were equally well suited for the small ships then in use. Its importance rose with the development of the cotton and SEAPtiJiTS 231 Woollen manttfaetureS of the region lying behind it, its fine estuary affording the only accommodation for the increasing shipping necessary for the marine transport of the products of those industries. The increase of population in the New World, and the altered relations of England with the New World, brought about by the development of the material resources there, have Ukewise contributed greatly td promote the rise of this port. Though the Mersey, as a mere harbour, is capacious enough to admit all the fleets of the world, the building of docks and quays has been necessary for commerce, and the six or seven miles of continuous docks on the Liverpool side of the Mersey present a sight unparalleled elsewhere. The port of Liverpool also includes the docks on the Cheshire side of the Mersey at Birkenhead. The aggregate water-space of these docks is nearly 533 acres, or about one-sixth leSs than a square mile, and the length of quays is upwards of 34 miles. The great drawback of the port is a sandbank at the mouth of the Mersey, which prevents the entrance of large vessels at low tide. To overcome this defect the con- struction of a ship-canal from Birkenhead to a point on the Cheshire coast outside of the sandbar has been proposed. 525. HULL (200), lying as it does on the east or continental side of the island, is one of the older ports of England, though its antiquity does not reach back to Eoman times. It is said to have been founded by King Edward L, who here built a town, which was called King's town. Hence the full name of the town, Kingston-upon-HuU, Hull being properly the name of a small river which enters the Humber at the place where the town stands. It still retains a large trade in fish, which had ' strangely enriched the town ' in Camden's time, but this commodity is now greatly exceeded by many other items in its very varied commerce. Its chief trade continues to be with the continent of Europe, and especially with Hamburg and Bremen. Grimsby, on the Lincolnshire coast, has a similar trade'. 526. GLASGOW (660'), now the fourth port in the kingaom in respect of the value of its imports and exports, has had a history in many respects similar to that of Liverpool. It has risen into import- ance only with the development of the New World and modern manu- facturing industry, and the accommodation that it afi'ords for mer- cantile shipping has had to fee provided artificially to even a greater extent than in the Mersey. Its first lucrative trans-oceanic trade was with the southern ' plantations ' of North America and the West Indies, whence tobacco and sugar, then much more' valuable com- modities than they are now, were imported. This trade began in 1718, when the first Glasgow vessel (of 60 tons burden) crossed the Atlantic, and in the course of the next fifty years Glasgow beat all its Enghsh rivals in the tobacco trade. The Clyde, however, was then ' Inclusive of the additions made to the municipality since the census of 1891, but exclusive of several populous suburbs still outside of the municipality. 232 THE BRITISH ISLES but a small river. Little more than a hundred years ago it was still fordable twelve miles below Glasgow, Then came the modern in- ventions which made coal and iron so all-important, and the fact that these minerals are found together in the immediate vicinity of Glasgow made it worth while to convert the river into ' a great channel of the sea, bearing on its waters the ships of all nations, and of the deepest draught.' The tidal docks on the lower harbour have a depth of from 27 to 31 feet at high water, and the total length of quayage belonging to the port is 6|- miles. Glasgow, at the same time, is a great manu- facturing town, surrounded by smaller ones, but the industries carried on there are so varied that none can be singled out as specially characteristic, except the shipbuilding of the Clyde. Greenock, the only other port of any consequence on the Clyde, has a comparatively small export trade, and the only commodities imported by it in great quantity are raw sugar, which is refined in the town, and iron ore. 527. Southampton, the chief commercial port on the south coast, is one whose commerce and shipping, like those of the other southern ports, reach back to an early date. A Eoman station existed on the small tongue of land between the Itchen and Test, on which the town is situated, BRISTOL (220') is the only western seaport noted in the early commerce of England. Owing to the shallowness of the upper part of the estuary of the Severn, it served as an outlet not only for the populous region immediately to the east of it, but also for the Severn valley, and after the settlement of the New World it was one of the first seaports to secure a large share of the trade in tobacco and sugar. At the present day its import trade continues large, but its exports are comparatively insignificant. As to Cardiff, see 515, 523. 528. Leith owes its importance to being the port of EDINBURGH (260). It has an import trade in many respects similar to that of Hull ; but as Eduiburgh is not to any great extent a manufacturing town, and there are no other great manufacturing towns for which Leith serves as an outlet, the exports here also are comparatively small — larger, however, than at Bristol, seeing that some of the products of the West come here for export to the mainland of Europe, 629. The direct foreign trade of all Irish ports is small, and especially under the head of exports. DUBLIN (265^), BELFAST (255'), Cork, Waterford, Limerick, and Londonderry all import directly con- siderable quantities of wheat and maize ; Belfast also of flax ; but no Irish port has exports to foreign countries amounting to one million sterling in value. Even the linens of Belfast are sent to the United States and elsewhere mainly by way of Liverpool and Glasgow. On the other hand, the Irish ports carry on a large trade with Liver- pool, Glasgow, Fleetwood, Milford Haven, and other British ports, to which they send cattle, swine, butter, and other native produce, and whence they receive British and foreign commodities. ' Pari, borough, 286. ' Pari, borough, 280. » Pari, borough, 275. «33 FEANCE. 530. The area of France, including Corsica, is about seven-tenths larger than that of the Britiah Isles, the population about one-twelfth greater. The density of population is thus less in France than in the British Isles, but in France the population is more equally distributed. 531. Surface. The greater part of the mainland of France is made up of plains, gently rolling land, or broken hilly country offering little hindrance to communication. Lofty mountains, the Pyrenees (655) and the Alps, form the land frontier on the south and south-east. As yet the sole railway from France across the Alps is that which connects the valleys of the Isere and the Dora Eiparia by means of the earliest of the longer Alpine tunnels, the so-called Mont Cents tunnel, opened in September 1871. Even the French Jura and the Vosges, on the eastern frontier, reach a much greater height than any British mountains, and obstruct to a considerable extent the communication with the countries beyond the frontier. (See map, pp. 246-47.) But the chief highlands within the French frontier are those of the so-called Central Plateau, which is really situated more to the south-east. These highlands have an average height of from 2,500 to 3,000 feet. On the east they are bordered by the Cevenues, which sink abruptly down to the Ehone valley ; towards the west they are crowned by the remains of the old volcanoes (the puys) of Auvergne ; and they are traversed by profound river valleys opening to the north and west. The climate of the surface is bleak and the soil unproductive, but this is to some extent compen- sated by the richness of some of the valleys. This is particularly the case with the expansion of the valley of the AUier called the Limagne (round Clermont), which the volcanic dust (50) blown hither by the prevailing south-west winds from the mountains of Auvergne has helped to make one of the most fertile tracts of France. Altogether, the Central Plateau is a sparsely peopled region, but even its most thinly peopled districts are to be compared rather with theless populous parts of Wales and the North of England than with the Highlands of Scotland. 531 a. The level tract between the Adour and the Garonne on the south-east, embracing the maritime downs of the Landes, contains fven less fertile land than the Central Plateau, and here also popula- tion ia scanty and railways are wide apart. Corsica is highly moun- 234 FRANCE tainous, and, like other mountainous islands, has its population chiefly on the coast. 532. Internal navigation. The rivers of France are much more important as means of internal communication than those of England. Even the shortest of its great rivers, the Dordogne, is rather longer than the Shannon, and the Seine (with its tributaries, the Oise, Marne, Aube, and Yonne), the Loire, Dordogne, and Garonne, and the Saone, the chief tributary of the Ehone, as well as minor rivers, flow through plains and valleys presenting few obstructions to navigation for the f^reater part of their course. The impetuous Bhone, though navigable from Lyons, has its course impeded by sandbanks and other obstruc- tions. The importance of the navigation naturally afforded by the rivers is shown by the canal connections between the rivers in the east and west. The Marne and EMne Canal, which crosses the northern or lower end of the Vosges at the height of about 1,100 feet, and unites the Ehine navigation to that of the Seine, begins at a point on the Marne about 300 miles above the mouth of the Seine. The Burgundy Canal, which connects the navigation of the Seine and Ehone by means of the Yonne and Saone, begins on the former river at a point about 275 miles above the mouth of the Seine, and ends on the latter rather more than 300 miles above the mouth of the Ehone. It crosses the Cote d'Or at the height of 1,230 feet, and passes Dijon. The Canal du Centre connects the Loire about 400 miles from its mouth, with a lower point on the Saone, passing to the north of the Central Plateau at a height of about 1,000 feet at the summit. The Ehone and Ehine Canal quits the Saone near the point of entrance of the Burgundy Canal, and enters the Ehine valley through the opening known as the Burgundy Gate, between the southern end of the Vosges and the western slopes of the Jura. The Canal du Midi connects the' Garonne at Toulouse with the Mediterranean at Cette, traversing at the height of 625 feet the opening known as the Passage of Naurouse, between the southern base of the Central Plateau and the northern spurs of the Pyrenees. (Sec 549.) All the rivers mentioned are navig- able from the points where they are joined by canals, but in some cases the navigation is assisted by lateral canals below the points of junction. The most important of these lateral canals is that on the Garonne below Toulouse, 120 miles in length. On all these canals the navigation is of considerable importance, but the chief inland naviga- tion in France is in the north between the basins of the Seine, Somme, and Escant (Scheldt), where the flatness of the surface has favoured' canal construction, and where there is a large amount of heavy traf&c, 533. As regards climate Prance has all the advantages of a westerly maritime situation, together with a more southerly latitude than the British Isles, and it is therefore to be expected that France should excel this country, as it does, in respect of the abundance and value of its agriculttiral products. Betn-eav p..d3^ Oncl 236. Lcnqmans , G'-eat,!i: th,J.oiu}on.,NftfYu' li ,'C-Jii>mJnt-> FSVftllerrR.G.S, AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS 235 534. Less than one-fifth of the surface of the country is occupied by mountains, about a fourth by plateaux. This leaves more than one -half for the lowlands, which, it is true, are not everywhere fertile (531a), but nevertheless contain a large proportion of fertile soil. Though the ratio of the total surface of France to that of the British Isles is only 1"7 : 1, the extent of corn-crops in France has in recent years been more than 3^ times as great as in the United Kingdom. The wheat-crop of France is next in amount to that of the United States among all the countries of the world for which statistics are ob- tainable. On the average of the ten years 1877-86 it was estimated to form nearly one-fourth of the whole wheat-crop of Europe. And in addition to wheat and other British crops France produces large quantities of maize, besides the less valuable rye and buckwheat. 535. Besides corn-crops France produces all the ordinary.Bidtish g^een-crops, potatoes and mangold each covering more than twice as great an area as in the British Isles ; the vine, the most valuable of all the French crops (184), still covers, notwithstanding the devasta- tions of the phylloxera, an area as large as that occupied by wheat and barley together in the TTnited Kingdom ; the average of sugar- beet greatly exceeds the British average of mangold ; and large areas are occupied by olive-yards, mulberries, for the rearing of silkworms, Oolza, hemp, and flax, though the last-mentioned crop is smaller than that of Ireland. Tobacco is likewise a product of no little impor- tance, though the total acreage occupied by it is less than half of that devoted to hops in England. 536. Where French agriculture is inferior to British is in the amount of produce of crops common to both countries relatively to acreage. If an acre of wheat were as productive in France as ia Britain, then the total wheat crop of France would be at least 6^ times instead of little more than 3| times that of the British Isles. A steady improvement in French agriculture is, however, shown by the fact that in every decennial period from 1821-30, when the average yield of wheat per acre was 13^ bushels, there has been a rise in the average down to 1881-83, when it amounted to 18 bushels (141). 537. The mineral wealth of France is greatly inferior to that of Great Britain, and the inferiority is most serious in the case of coal. The coalfields, though small, and not very productive, are, however, scattered over different parts of the country, and the central region — that, accordingly, which is furthest from supplies of sea-borne coal — has the greatest number of centres of local supply. The most productive coalfield is a continuation of that of Belgium, and the chief centre of production close beside Valenciennes. Next in productiveness are those on or near the eastern side of the highlands which border the basins of the Ehone and Saone on the west— round St. Etienne in the middle, round Creuzot further north, and at Alais in the south. The great bulk of the iron ore produced in France is obtained front 23^ FRANCE the basin of the Moselle in the extreme north-east of the country. Other deposits are worked round Creuzot and elsewhere. Sea-salt is obtained from salt-pans on the western Mediterranean coasts and on the coasts of the Bay of Biscay ; rock-salt, near Nancy, in the north- east. 538. One consequence of the wide dispersal of the French coal- fields, is the fact that the localisation of the great French manufac- turing industries is governed more by the position of local supplies of raw material and the conveniences for obtaining supplies from abroad than is observable in other coimtries where the supply of fuel is more concentrated. 539. PARIS (2500), the capital of the country, is, like London, too large to be specially identified with any particular industry, but is the seat of a large number, more particularly those concerned in the production of articles of luxury, such as are in greatest demand in a large capital. Jewellery and perfumery, furniture, porcelain, glove- making and the making of fashionable boots and shoes, and a great variety of fancy ware, are all notable Parisian trades. The celebrated porcelain work which gave name to Sevres porcelain is now carried on at St. Cloud, immediately to the north of Sevres, on the left bank of the Seine, to the west of Paris proper. The central position of Paris in the great northern plain of France, just below the junction of the Marne and Seine, has been in favour of its acquiring and retaining the rank of capital, and the fact of its being the capital and being so centrally situated makes it without a rival in the country in trade and population. It is a walled town surrounded by forts. Paris may even be included among the sea- ports of France, for the Seine has been canalised to Paris to a sufficient depth to allow of direct sea communication with London. 540. The woollen industry is chiefly carried on in the north, where there are the principal supplies of native wool, and where supplies of foreign wool are most easily obtained from the Eiver Plate and from England by way of Dunkirk and Havre, as well as the Belgian port of Antwerp (207, 207 a). The principal markets for wool in France in the order of importance are ROUBAIX, Tourcoing, Reims, Fourmies, and Amiens. Eoubaix, Tourcoing, and Fourmies are all close to the northern frontier and are most directly supplied by way of Dunkirk; Keims lies beside the sheep-pastures of Cham- pagne, a region similar to the English downs, which has fostered a trade in wool and woollen-manufactures at Eeims from a very early period. Amiens, on the Somme, is almost equally accessible from the ports of Havre and Eouen in the south and Dunkirk in the north. All these towns are also noted for their woollen manufactures, those of the closely adjoining towns of Boubaix and Tourcoing including carpets. Sedan on the Meuse, in the north-east, is anothefr old manu- facturing town engaged in the same industry, fostered by the sheep- MANUFACTURES, -SEAPORTS 237 pastures of Ardennes. Elbeuf, on the Seine above Eouen, and Louviers, a little to the south-east, are noted for their woollen (as distin- guished from worsted) cloths ; and Troyes, on the Upper Seine, has long been noted as the chief seat of French hosiery. 541. The silk-manufactures still have their chief seats in the valley of the Ehone, where they first grew up in consequence of the introduction of the silkworm (232). LYONS (430), the second town in France in point of population, the birthplace of the inventor of the Jacquard loom (232), is the town whose name is most intimately associated with this industry in all its branches. It lies at the con- fluence of the Saone and Rhone, partly on the left bank of the latter river, partly on a small alluvial flat between the two, and immediately overlooked by the hills which skirt the right bank of the Sa6ne. Next in importance to Lyons in connection with this industry is ST. ETIENNE, which supplies Lyons with coal. St. Etienne manufactures chiefly ribbons. Both it and Lyons have excellent water for dyeing. Avignon, on the Rhone below Lyons, and other towns in the valley are also engaged in the silk industry. 542. LILLE (200), the largest manufacturing town of the north, has linen, cotton, woollen, and other textile industries, the first- mentioned branch being favoured by the fact that the part of France to which it belongs, with the adjoining part of Belgium, produces the best flax in Europe (555). To the south-east of Lille, on the Escaut, stands Cambrai, which gives name to cambric. 543. In the cotton industry the manufacturing towns of Normandy are pre-eminent, and above all EOUEIT. Further north the chief cotton-market is St. Quentin, to the south of Cambrai. In the east, cotton-factories have been established at Senones, St. Die, Epinal, and other places west of the Vosges since the transference of the busy cotton-manufacturing district of Alsace to Germany in 1871. 544. Creuzot is the town whose name is most associated with the making of machinery, locomotives, and other railway material, because these industries, in addition to the smelting of iron, are the great staples on the basis of which the town has grown into importance within the last fifty years ; but such industries are also largely carried on at Paris, Lille, and other large towns. 545. Limoges, on the Vienne, is noted for its porcelain and earthen- ware. Both coal and kaolin (444) are obtainable at no great distance, though they lie in different directions from the town. Glass is made on the coalfields of the north and centre ; paper at Angouleme in the west, and Annonay in the east ; watches at Besancon in the Jura. ■ 546. The principal French seaports in the order of their impor- tance are Marseilles (623), Havre, Bordeaux, Dunkirk, Rouen, St. Nazaire, Cette, Dieppe, Boulogne, Calais. 547. The priority of MARSEILLES (400), distant as it is from the capital and the great northern seats of industry, is due to the fact of z^S FRANCE its being the only first-class port belonging to the Rhone valley. The Ehone delta itself is too marshy, the mouth of the Ehone too encumbered by sandbanks, to have afforded a favourable situation for the rise of a port, and hence Marseilles was founded on the nearest place on the coast where nature had furnished the conditions which the delta of the Ehone denied. Ever since its foundation by a body of Greek colonists from Asia Minor, in the eighth century B.C., it has been a great seat of commerce and shipping. The Ehone valley, besides being itself rich and productive in various ways, affords access to the plains of Northern Prance and Belgium through the valleys of the Loire and the Seine tributaries along the routes indicated by the position of the canals already named (532), to the Middle Ehine valley by the Burgundy Gate between the Vosges and Jura, to the tableland of Switzerland by way of Geneva though the narrower opening between the Jura and the Alps. The advantage of some of these connections has, however, been considerably reduced by the piercing of the Alps by railway tunnels ; and especially by the construction of the St. Gothard tunnel, which gives to Genoa (675) a shorter route to Antwerp than that from Marseilles. And here we see one disadvantage for France in the position, of the Central Plateau and the adjoining highlands to the north. The only railway that crosses the Cevennes from the Ehone valley does so in numerous tunnels and with many steep gradients, altogether by a route too costly and devious to be suitable for through traffic. The through traffic from Marseilles mainly ascends the valley of the Ehone and Saone as high as Dijon before turning north-westwards, and it is the indirectness of this route that causes Genoa to have the advantage over Marseilles which it now possesses. There are, however, proposals at present for short- ening the route from Dijon to Antwerp, and thus restoring to Mar- seilles the advantage of which it has been deprived, 548. The position of Marseilles causes its trade to be chiefly with the Mediterranean and the East, and this is one of the ports benefited by the opening of the Suez Canal (697). Among its chief imports are wine from Italy and Spain, wheat, oil-seeds, sugar, coffee, pepper, and other Eastern products. Among its local industries may be men- tioned particularly the refining of oil and the making of soap, stimu- lated by the local supplies of olives, and the import of olives from Italy and of various oil-seeds from India and the East generally, as well as from Africa. There is also a large manufacture of maccaroni from hard wheat imported from Italy. Marseilles is the bead-quarters of the great steamship company known as the Messageries Maritimes, which carries on an extensive commerce with the East and the Pacific. > 549. Cette, on the west of the Gulf of Lions, has mainly a local importance through being the terminus of the Canal du Midi. Even this importance is at present threatened by the serious consideration of an old project for the construction of a ship-canal from Bordeaux SEAPORTS AND MINOR INLAND TOWNS 239 to tlie Mediterranean by Narboune (south-west of Cette). This canal, 330 miles in length, would effect a gain of 1,350 miles on the ocean route round Spaia and Portugal. 550. The commerce of France on the western and north-western coasts is in the aggregate much greater than that on the Mediterranean, but is divided among a greater number of large seaports. HAVRE, or Le Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, founded in 1509 by Louis XII., has grown to be ' the haven ' of Paris since its harbour was extended and improved by his successor Francis I., and since the elder seaport of Harfleur, a little higher up, declined through the silting up of its harbour. It is the chief seat of trade with America, and hence the chief place of import of North American cotton, tobacco, wheat, animal produce, &c., and one of the chief places of import of South American wool. Through the deepening and straightening of the Seine to Kouen, which, since 1887, can be reached by vessels of 2,000 tons burden, Eouen has gained part of the shipping of Havre. The tonnage of the vessels that ascended to Eouen increased from 708,000 tons in 1887 to 1,075,000 in 1888. 550 a. In the north it has latterly been exposed to the keen rivalry of Dunkirk, the only French port on the North Sea, a port which in recent years has been the most rapidly rising of all French ports, in consequence of its being so favourably situated for the supply of the northern manufacturing towns with their imported raw materials (above all South American wool), and for the export of their manufac- tured products, including iron, beetroot-sugar, and oils. 650 6. BOEBEAXrX (250), on the Garonne, a httle above the place where the estuary of the Gironde is formed by the confluence of the Dordogne, has long been the chief place of export of French wines. For vessels of the largest class it has an out-port in Pauillac, on the left bank of the Gironde (107). St. Nazaire, at the mouth of the Loire, has, like Pauillac, grown in importance through the introduction of large shipping, and also through the silting up of the Loire at NAITTES, which it has now almost completely superseded as a seaport. A ship canal to Nantes is now in progress. 551. The five naval stations of France are Cherbourg, on the English Channel, nearly opposite Portsmouth ; Brest and Lorient, in Brittany; Eochefort, on the Bay of Biscay; and Toulon, on the Mediterranean. At all of these there are government dockyards, and there are private shipbuilding yards at all the chief commercial ports. 652. Of the inland towns of France not connected with any special industry the most worthy of mention are TOULOUSE, on the Garonne, at the confluence of the Canal du Midi (532) ; Orleans and Tours, on the Loire ; Angers, at the confluence of the Mayenne and Sarthe. Dijon and Macon are important centres of the trade in burgundy wine, Beims and Epernay of that in champagne. 240 BELGIUM. 553. The surface of Belgium is made up of a tableland intersected by deep river-valleys in the south-east, sloping down to low flat plains, partly below sea-level, in the north and west. The plains afford admirable facilities for inland navigation both by river and canal (96, 532) ; and even the Meuse, which traverses the tableland, is navi- gable to beyond the Belgian frontier. 554. The high density of population shown for Belgium in the map on pp. 220-21 is pretty uniformly distributed over the greater part of the country. Only the province of Luxemburg, in the south-east, on the tableland of the Ardennes, has a density of population low enough to be compared with that of the English county of Hereford. Another district of low density is that called the Campine, on the north-east — a sandy plain, formerly heathy or marshy, but now reclaimed, and pro- ducing excellent butter — the best, it is said, in Belgium. This high density of population is due, as in England, both to advanced agriculture and to the great development of manufacturing industries, the latter being favoured by abundance of the minerals most essential to modem manufactures, as well as by admirable faci- lities for transmarine and inland commerce. 555. Three-fourths of the surface are in crops, bare fallow, and grasses, the principal crops being vrheat, rye, and oats. Wheat, including spelt, usually occupies about II per cent, of the surface, as against 13 per cent, in England ; rye covers fully as large an area, and oats nearly as much. Among the minor crops are beet, including sugar-beet, buckwheat, and flax. Flax is grown mainly in the district drained by the Lys, a left-bank tributary of the Escaut, and the fibre obtained from it has long been known for its excellent quality, which is due to the circumstance that the district named is remark- ably free from lime salts, in consequence of which the water of the Lys is peculiarly well suited for the cleansing of the fibre. 656. At the last agricultural census of Belgium 86 per cent, of the surface in cultivation was cultivated by the owners themselves. Most of the landed properties are small, but small farming is even more general than small property-holding, the size of the majority of the holdings being about as small as those on the plains of Bengal (733). The productiveness is greater than in France (141), and this is not due to natural fertility, except . in the rich polders or embanked areas reclaimed from the sea. NATURAL AND MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS 241 55 7. The mineral wealth of Belgium consists chiefly in coal, iron , and' zinc. The place which this country holds relatively to others in the production of these is indicated elsewhere (376, 397, 419). The region of production may be described as occupying the valleys which intersect the Belgian plateau from the eastern frontier near Aix-la-Chapelle to about the middle of the Franco-Belgian frontier, the principal valleys in this respect being those of the Sambre and Meuse, more especially that part of the Meuse valley which continues the line of the valley of the Sambre. Geologically, this strip is formedby a series of carboni- ferous strata lying on the north-western margin of a Devonian pla- tean which extends eastwards into Germany. The carboniferous area is occupied by a large proportion of productive coalfields, the chief coal-mining regions being round Mons, in Hainaut, near the French frontier, and round Charleroi in eastern Hainaut. Iron ores are chiefly found in the more easterly provinces of Namur and Liege, and zinc is obtained at Moresnet, close to the eastern frontier between Verviers and Aix. There are also productive lead-mines near Verviers. The iron ore production in Belgium is only about one-tenth of the amount consumed. This deficiency is, however, of less moment on account of the proximity of the very abundant iron ores of the grand-duchy of Luxemburg (570) and the north-east of France (537). 558 The manufactures stimulated by the existence of this mineral wealth are numerous and varied, and it is worthy of notice that the textile manufactures which predominate are those which are likewise favoured by local supplies of raw material, namely linen and woollen. It will be observed from the table on p. 449 that linen (including hemp) and woollen yams are the chief special exports that may be classed under this head, and the former branch is fostered by the advantages for flax-growing already referred to, the latter by the sheep-pastures of the Ardennes (540), as well as by the large supplies of wool obtained from the Eiver Plate (207). The spinning and weaving of linen are carried on chiefly at Ghent, Tournai, Courtrai, and other western towns (in Flanders) in or near the flax-growing region. The town most noted for its woollen cloth is Verviers (Li^ge), which lies close to the Ardennes and the coal-supplies of Li^ge. GHENT is the centre of the cotton-manu- factures. BRUSSELS (400, including suburbs), the capital of the country, has numerous industries but is not specially a manufacturing town, though it may be here mentioned on account of its lace. 558 a. Verviers presents a remarkable instance of the persistence of an old industry, its woollens having been noted as far back as 1432. It also exports very large quantities of woollen yarn, or a hybrid between woollen and worsted yam (314), and of washed wool, the last branch of the industry being due to a local advantage turned to account by science and common sense. A committee having ascer- tained that the presence of lime in water is prejudicial to the scouring of wool, a dam was constructed across a small stream in the neigh- R 242 BELGIUM bourhood which flows over slate and sandstone, and the water of which is free from the noxious ingredient. By that means an abundant supply of suitable water was obtained. 559. Next in rank to textile manufactures in the aggregate among Belgian mechanical industries, stand those connected with the work- ing of iron. Among these the making of machinery is first in impor- tance, and the chief seat of this branch is LIEGE with its suburb of Seraing. 559 a. The situation of Liege is highly characteristic of the eastern towns of Belgium generally. The antiquity of the place is shown by the fact of its having been known to the Eomans under the name of Lugdunum Batavorum, and during its whole history it has been an important centre of trade. This ancient importance is ex- plained by the features of the surrounding country. Li^ge lies, like Namur, Verviers, Huy, and other important towns in the east of Belgium, in a narrow valley of the south-eastern plateau. It hes, how- ever, just where the valley of the Meuse, to which it belongs, begins to open out in the left so as to afford free communication in various directions towards the west and north, and where also the valley of the Ourthe opens a way to the south through Belgian Luxemburg, and that of the Vesare, eastwards by way of Verviers and Aix-la- Chapelle to the Ehine. Its position may hence be compared with that of Manchester and Leeds, and all the more nowadays, when the mineral wealth of the neighbourhood is so iiliportant (507 a, 508 a). 560. The glass-works of Belgium (454) lie mainly on the coalfields, which have also given rise to extensive potteries, chemical works, &c. 561. The industry and commerce of Belgium being in many re- spects similar to those of the United Kingdom, a comparison of tables pp. 438, 440, and pp. 448, 449 is instructive under several heads. In the export tables the same upward tendency will be observed in both under the head of machinery ; in both will be noticed a sudden spurt in the period 1881-85, but the advance in Belgium in that period is relatively smaller than in the United Kingdom (29'4 against 56'6 per cent.). Under the head of wrought-iron &c. Belgium does not keep pace with the United Kingdom, and under that of coal it is decidedly losing ground, notwithstanding that the chief market of the former lies just beyond the southern frontier. On the other hand, Belgium shows a steady advance in the export of linen and hemp (chiefly linen) yarn, against a steady decline during the last four periods in the United Kingdom ; and under the head of woollen yarn, the position of Belgium has been maintained better than that of the United King- dom — a fact which is partly accounted for by the circumstance that the chief market for such yarns is on the continent of Europe. In the import tables of the two countries now under comparison, the most striking fact is that in both grain has within the last ten or twenty years come to occupy the first place on the list, but in the case of Belgium it is to be noted that the large import is partly counter- INLAND COMMUNICATIONS, SEAPORTS 243 balanced by a large export of grain, whereas the export of British grain is quite insignificant. 562. For the distribution of the products of its industry, and the reception of products of other countries, no country on the European mainland has greater natural advantages than Belgium, among -which may be mentioned this, that the extreme flatness of a large part of the country enables even the roads to compete with the railways. At Liege may often be seen laden wagons from Brussels, which is sixty miles, or from Antwerp, which is seventy-two miles distant. Horse and steam tramways, as feeders of the railways, are numerous. On the land side, Belgium lies close to some of the most populous parts of the surrounding countries, and in Antwerp it possesses a seaport vying in situation with that of London (523). 563. Like London, ANTWERP (210, with suburbs 250 ; in 1846, 100) lies on a tidal river, the Scheldt, a little above the head of a deep estuary. It stands on the right bank of the river, and is strongly for- tified. It has th« advantage over London of having a much more com-' plete system of inland navigation subsidiary to its transmarine com- merce, so that in 1887, when the total tonnage of the marine shipping entered and cleared approached 4,000,000 tons in either direction, the tonnage of inland navigation that arrived and the tonnage that de- parted both exceeded 2,500,000 tons. This navigation chiefly belongs to the Scheldt and its tributaries and the Lower Meuse ; but an im- portant canal intended to connect this port with the Ehine is now in progress, and has already been completed through the whole breadth of Belgian territory, where it is known as the Campine Canal. In former days Antwerp reached the height of its prosperity in the six- teenth century (6). It afterwards declined from political causes, but since the navigation of the Scheldt was made free in 1863 it has once more risen to a high rank among continental seaports, and for a time outstript its Dutch rival, Eotterdam (523). Its further progress is impeded, however, by the difiiculty of the navigation of its estuary, and the high dues that have in consequence to be levied on shipping to meet the expense of maintaining and marking the navigable channel. Now, it is not merely a Belgian seaport, for here Germany despatches its iron and steel, Italy its eggs and fruits ; here, too, the United States send grain and petroleum ; the countries on the Eiver Plate, wool and cattle products, for use in various European countries. (See also 495. j 564. GHENT, at the confluence of the Lys and Scheldt, is made a seaport by means of a ship canal from the estuary of the Scheldt, a canal that admits vessels of 2,500 tons burden (I75 feet draught). Ostend, which lies amongst the downs on the south-west, is the only other Belgian seaport of importance ; but Bruges, one of the older rivals of Antwerp, though now a decayed and quiet but picturesque town, may still be ranked as a seaport, inasmuch as canals, capable of being used by small sea-going ships, connect it with Ostend on the west, and Sluis, within the Dutch frontier, on the north. k2 344 HOLLAND, OE THE NETHEELANDS. 565. The Hngdom of the Netherlands proper, that is, the State that lies to the north of Belgium, is mainly an agricultural and com- mercial country. It has no highland region, and none of the mineral wealth that characterises the highland region of Belgium. In the eastern provinces of Drenthe, Overijssel, and Gelderland a large part of the surface is marshy and occupied by peat moors, which consider- ably reduces the area available for crops and pastures. The whole extent of land capable of being so utilised is little more than three- fifths of the entire area ; but, on the other hand, a large part of the agricultural region is of very exceptional fertility. This is especially the case with those parts, chiefly in the provinces of Zeeland and Holland proper, which lie below the level of the sea and have beeni regained from the sea by centuries of labour. Prom the nature of the case these tracts can have no natural drainage, and there are other extensive areas which, though above sea-level, yet lie so low that they cannot be drained by ordinary means. Hence polders — that is, enclo- sures surrounded by dykes or embankments and provided with pumping- machinery — form the characteristic scenery of the most populous parts of the country. The soil of such areas is naturally moist, and thus best fitted for rich pasture glasses, so that horses and cattle are very numerous, and the cattle yield abundance of milk. Hence it is that butter takes so high a place among the special exports of Holland (p. 451), and that cheese also is an important Dutch commodity. The western provinces above mentioned, together with the northern pro- vince of Friesland, are those which are most noted under this head. The other crops of Holland are similar to those of Belgium, even sugar-beet and tobacco being among the number, though the latter occupies a very limited extent of ground. 566. In manufacturing industry Holland formerly had a high reputation. The absence of minerals, however, is adverse to the carrying on of manufactures by machinery. Nevertheless, cotton, linen, and woollen spinning and weaving by modem methods are all largely pursued. The chief cotton and Unen manufacturing towns of Holland, Enschede, Almelo, Heugelo, &c., are situated in the south-east of the province of Overijssel, where the cotton industry was established before the close of last century. Linen manufactures and many others are carried on at Tilburg, in North Brabant. COMMERCE AND SEAPORTS 245 567. In foreign commerce Holland has stood in the front rank of nations from the very beginning of its separate existence, and among the facilities for foreign commerce, the waterways, natural and artificial, have greater importance in Holland than in any other Euro- pean country. In 1885 the length of river and canal navigation waa more than twice as great as the length of railways. (See 96.) 568. The seaports of Holland have not as great natural advantages as their Belgian rival'Antwerp, but no pains or expense have been spared to enable the two chief ports, Amsterdam and Eotterdam, to meet tha requirements of modern commerce. AMSTERDAM (870), on the Ij, near its old mouth in the shallow Zuider Zee, was formerly difficult of access for large ships. Communication with the sea was first facUitated by the construction of the North Holland Ganal to Helder, at the entrance to the Zuider Zee ; but as ships became larger this proved inadequate, and finally a direct communication with the sea was made by means of the North Sea Canal, which is 26 feet in depth, and brings Amsterdam to within a distance of about fifteen miles from the new harbour of Ijmuiden. This canal was completed in 1877, and the shipping of Amsterdam has in consequence increased very rapidly since that date. Between 1879 and 1886 the number of ships that entered and cleared at the port rose from 4,013, measuring rather more than three miUions of cubic metres, to 5,942, measuring six and a quarter mUhons of cubic metres. 569. ROTTERDAM, on the Maas, is a port Hable to be obstructed by the copious deposits of sediment brought down by the Ehine, the lower course of the Maas being now the direct continuation ef what is actually the main arm of the other river. The mouth of the Maas is too shallow to be entered by large vessels, and the first route to the sea constructed for them was a canal through the island of Voorne, entering the Haringvliet at HeUevoetsluis. Now this has been superseded by the 'New Waterway,' which enters the sea to the north of the mouth of the Maas. Opened in 1872, this new route was at first too shallow to allow large vessels to ascend without dis- charging part of their cargo, but it has since steadily been deepened, and can now be used by vessels drawing 23 feet. The minor ports of Holland are Schiedam, Harlingen, Dordrecht, Groningen, and Vlissingen (Flushing). The last is the port on the mail route from England to Holland and North Germany. Harlingen, in Friesland, on the Zuider Zee, has a considerable trade with England. 570. Luxemburg, of which the King of the Netherlands is grand- ■ duke but not king, Hes to the south-east of Belgium, forming part of the same tableland and belonging to the same geological formation to which the adjoining parts of Belgium and Germany belong, and sharing likewise in the same mineral wealth. It forms a part of the German Customs Union (571a). 246 THE GEEMAN EMPIEE. 571. The German Empire, being very little larger than France (including Corsica), has an area rather more than 70 per cent, greater than that of the British Isles, hut a population less than 30 per cent, more numerous. This shows a smaller density of population on the whole; but, as in France, though there are areas in which the conden- sation of population is very great, the distribution of the population is rather more uniform than in Great Britain. 571a. As a commercial unit the German Empire, or rather the Zollverein, or Customs Union, the affairs of which are now under the control of the Imperial Parliament (the Beichstag), includes the grand- duchy of Luxemburg in addition to the whole territory of the empire. Till October 1888 the old Hanse towns of Hamburg and Bremen re- mained outside of this union, but since that date the same Customs duties have been levied at these places as at the other ports of the empire and on the outer frontier of Luxemburg. 572, Surface. The great plain which makes up North and the greater part of East Germany is for the most part of but slight fer- tility, and endowed with little mineral wealth, except here and there salt. It is thus on the whole a region of low density of population. The greater part of it is not relatively more populous than the south and west of Ireland, the more densely peopled areas within it being chiefly those on the lower parts of the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula, and on the area (including Berlin) between the Elbe and Oder where these two rivers approach one another between lat. 52° and 53°. 673. The remainder of the empire consists mainly of hilly country and tablelands, and has for the most part a density of population as high as that of the south-east of England, with a few smaller tracts in which the density reaches or approaches that of the English and Scotch manufacturing districts. This higher density is due partly to the more fertile soil and more favourable climate of the sheltered valleys, partly to mineral wealth and manufacturing industry. In the south-east of the western half of the empire, a region occupying fuUy the half of Bavaria, and composed in large part of a bleak tableland with a poor soil, and without mineral wealth (except once more salt), has as sparse a population as the greater part of the plain. The height of this tableland is about 1,000 feet lower than that of France (Munich, 1,700 feet). BeUvc-en., p. 240 aricL 247 LoTu-pnaj\s\. lypeeiL& Cfe^>' York SBoirLhaj--. RSWeler.F.RG.S. CLIMATE, NATURAL PRODUCTS 249 Scheme is iiow on the point of being carried out for connecting the Baltic with the mouth of the Elbe below Hamburg by means of a ship canal without locks, and having a depth of 28 feet — thus capable of admitting the largest vessels. Its terminal point on the east side wiU be the same as that of the Eider Canal. When completed it will cause a saving in distance of 237 miles, ia time of three days for sail- ing-vessels, and 22 hours for commercial steamers, from the mouth of the Elbe, and a saving of greater or less amount for all North Sea ports to the south of the Tyne. 579. In respect of climate Germany is less favourably situated than France, not only through being further north, but also through being further east (40), and on account of the high elevation of a large part of the south-west (35), that is, the region with the best climatic posi- tion both in latitude and longitude. Only in the valley of the Middle lUiine (the plain, namely, between the Vosges and the Black Forest) and those of the Neckar and Moselle, are there seven months in the year with a mean daily temperature above 50° F., and only in the Middle Ehine district is there one month with a mean daily temperature of 68° F. or more (comp. 469). On the other hand, except in the valleys men- tioned, there is a regular increase from west to east in the duration of the period with a mean daily temperature below freezing-point. In a large part of the east this period lasts for at least four months. 580. This difference in climate results in a difference in the nature of the crops. In Germany, notwithstanding the greater area, the extent of land under corn-crops is fully one- twelfth less than iu France, and the crops grown are less valuable than those of the latter country. Wheat (including spelt) has in recent years occupied about 4^ per cent. of the surface ; rye, the chief bread-plant, nearly 11 per cent. ; oats about 8 per cent. Among green crops by far the most important in extent of ground occupied are potatoes, which cover 5^ times as large a surface as in the United Kingdom (171). Though vine-cultivation reaches in Germany the most northerly limit in the world (179), the extent of ground in vineyards (chiefly in the sheltered valleys of the south-west) is less than one-sixteenth of the area so occupied in France. In the same region orchards abound, and a limited quantity of maize and tobacco is grown, but the only two crops in which German agri- culture takes the first place on the mainland of Europe for quantity are sugar-beet (190) and hops (188). As to German wool see 203. 581. In mineral produce, on the other hand, Germany takes a very high place, ranking amongst European countries next after the United Kingdom in total value of production, and outstripped only by the United Kingdom and Belgium in the production relative to area and population. Among the minerals, coal (376) and iron (393-97), as in the other two countries named, are the first in importance. The chief coal-basins are that of the Ruhr, on the right bank of the Ehine, in the provinces of Bhineland and Westphalia, that of the Saar (a right 2SO THE GERMAN EMPIRE bank tributary of the Moselle) in Ehineland and Lorraine, both of these lying on the outskirts of the same plateau of ancient rocks as that on the margin of which the coalfields of Belgium are situated (557) ; that of Zwickau and Lugau, in the kingdom of Saxony, at the base of the Erzgebirge ; that of Upper Silesia, in the extreme south- east of the province, and extending also into the Austrian province of Galicia and into Poland, and that of Lower Silesia, a smaller coalfield to the south-west of Breslau. lignite (373) is abundant in Prussian Saxony and the Thuringian States, where it has given rise to a large paraffin and mineral oil industry, and Ukewise furnishes fuel for the numerous sugar-refineries of the district. 581 a. Iron ores abound not only in Westphalia, the Ehine Pro- vince, and Alsace-Lorraine, and in Upper Silesia, but also in Nassau, Hesse-Darmstadt, Thuringia, and other parts ; but, as usual, the smelting of the ores is carried on mainly on the great coalfields, and above all in the basin of the Ruhr, which is the only one accessible to sea-borne ores. In many of the towns on and near this coal-basin all branches of iron and steel-working are carried on. Between the river Eulir and the Emsoher lies Essen, with the vast works of Krupp ; about 20 miles to the south lie Remscheid and Solingen, the chief seats of the making of cutlery and steel weapons in Germany. The facilities for inland navigation in the Ehine basin are of par- ticular importance for the carriage of such heavy commodities as coal and iron ores ; and to increase these facilities, the construction of a canal from Dortmund in the Ruhr basin to the present limit of the Ems navigation, a canal which would thus bring the Euhr basin into water-connection likewise with the Lower Weser and Elbe, has been sanctioned. It has also been proposed to deepen the Moselle so as to cheapen the carriage of the iron ores of Lorraine to the same basin. 581 h. Zinc (419) and lead (414) are obtained in Silesia and the Ehine Province, the latter also elsewhere. In Silesia, the centre of zinc (calamine) production is Konigshiitte (see map, p. 263) ; in the Ehine Province, near Aachen, close to the zinc-producing district of Belgium (557). Copper is produced chiefly in the Harz, at Mans- feld (413), silver at Mansfeld and at Freiberg in Saxony. 583. The chief salt-producing district in Germany is in the Prussian province of Saxony, and among the salt-mines of this dis- trict, those of Stassfurt are of pecuhar scientific interest as well as economical importance. Lying above an exceptionally pure deposit of rock-salt (containing 98 per cent, of chloride of sodium — 457) there lies a bed of mixed ' potash salts,' found here for the first time free in nature. At first these potash salts were merely treated as waste products, but since 1860 they have been made the basis of various chemical industries, and have made Stassfurt the seat of a greater number of chemical factories than are probably to be found on an equal space anywhere else in the world. From the salts aa MANUFACTURES 251 'they are found in nature are extracted carbonate of potash (451, 459), used in soap-making, dyeing, bleaching, glass-making, calico-printing pigment-making, pottery, &c. ; sulphate of potassium, used in an impure state under the name of kainite, which contains also a certain proportion of magnesium salts, as a fertiliser (42311), and for other purposes ; nitrate of potassium, for gunpowder-making, glass-making (451), pickling; &o. ; various compounds used in photography, such as cyanide, bromide, and iodide of potassium, besides a great variety of other substances. At the neighbouring town of Schonebeck, on the Elbe, are the largest salt-works in Germany. 583. Among the manufacturing industries of Germany not directly depending on its agriculture and mining, the most important is that of woollens, and next to that silks and cottons. ' These and other branches of the textile industry have their chief seats on and near the great coalfields, the Euhr basin especially being as thickly studded with manufacturing towns as Lancashire or the West Eiding of York- shire. The adjoining towns of BAEMEN and ELBEE.FELD here carry on aU branches of the textile industry, but above all woollens and sUks, Barmen being specially noted for bindings, braids, and trimmings. ZREFELD, west of the Khine, is next after Lyons the most important place in Europe for the manufacture of silks and velvets, and, like Lyons, has the industry favoured by the excellence of the water for dyeing. (See also 30, 234.) AACHEIf (Aix-la-Chapelle), on a smalli detached coal and iron field to the south-west, is the chief seat of the. manufacture of woollen (as distinguished from worsted — 214) cloth in Germany. The cotton industry, along with other textile manu- factures, is also very highly developed in Alsace-Lorraine, at Miil- hausen, Kolmar, Gebweiler, and other places in the valley of the; Middle Ehine, where the industry had already taken firm root before this district was acquired from France, and where coal, though not found in the immediate neighbourhood, can easily be conveyed from the coalfields at no great distance, and can be supplemented in the towns at the foot of the Vosges by the water-power afforded by the mountain streams (76). 584. CHEMNITZ, 'the Saxon Manchester,' a great seat of cotton and other textile industries, as well as of the manufacture of machinery (30), is the centre of the manufacturing region connected with the Saxon coalfield ; and BRESLAU, Gbrlitz, and Liegnitz are the chief manufacturing towns of Silesia ; Gbrlitz, which lies in one of the districts that acquired for Silesia so great a reputation for its wool (203), being specially noted for its woollen-manufactures. Hosiery flourishes chiefly in Saxony and Wiirtemberg (STUTTGART &c.). 585. In cotton and woollen spinning Alsace is the principal com- petitor of England, but in spite of protection has not yet been able to crowd out English goods, almost all the finer numbers of cotton and woollen yams being still imported from England. This circum- 252 THE GERMAN EMPIRE stance is all the m6re remarkable from the fact that Eiigland has still' to import from Germany the material for the finest of all woollen yams, and is an evidence of the superiority that England still retains in the manufacture of spinning-machinery. As regards the supply of raw cotton, Germany is still, like other European countries, to a large extent dependent on the Liverpool market. The policy of forming an association to buy in a German market, and thereby securing for that market a sufficiency of custom to enable it to compete with Liverpool, has, therefore, been urged upon the German cotton-spinners. The wool used in the German wooUen-factories is, as in France, largely of South American origin (207). 586. With regard to the textile industries of Germany in general, and more especially the silk industry, it is a noteworthy fact that the weaving branch is still to a very large extent a domestic industry, employing hand-looms, and that the transference from domestic to factory labour is now being accomplished at the cost of great hardship to the domestic weavers. According to a return of the United States Consul at Krefeld in 1884, about 90 per cent, of the fine silk, half silk, velvet, and plush goods manufactured in the district was then still made on hand-looms, and the weavers kept poverty at bay only ' by unremitting toil such as the indomitable German artisan vriU endure year in and year out.' In Silesia the condition of the hand- loom weavers would appear at the same date to have been even worse than in Krefeld. ' The home weaver,' writes another consul of the United States,' who works steadily for at least eleven hours, assisted by one of his children as spooler, earns about one dollar forty-three cents [about six shilUngs] per week.' At the census of occupations in Germany in 1882 more than a fourth of those engaged in textile industries carried on their trade domestically. In these circumstances, writes one of the consuls here cited, any change would be for the better ; yet he adds that the hand- weavers are fighting for their industry to the bitter end. That a change for the better has been already brought about where factory labour has been adopted may be fairly inferred from the report of an English consul writing from Diisseldorf in 1886, who says : ' The general material welfare of the people of these provinces [Westphalia and the Ehine- land] is better — to judge by appearances, with exception perhaps of the few years immediately after the Franco-German war — than it has ever been in the memory of man ; they are decidedly better fed, better clothed, and better housed, also better educated, than at any former period.' 587. Even yet, however, the organisation of labour for textile and some other industries is inferior in Germany to that which has been attained in Great Britain through the longer course of industrial de- velopment in the latter country, and the concentration of industry and greater subdivision of labour that have thus been brought about; MANUFACTURES, COMMERCE 253 Technical" processes in Germany are still imperfectly specialised. The artisans may as a rule be individually fitted for a greater variety of vrork than those of England, but their labour in each department is less efficient than that of the English artisan, who is trained to per- form particular operations v?ith the utmost celerity consistent with exactness. To this cause is due in a large measure the inferior value, and hence the lower wages, of German as compared with English labour. (Compare, however, 690 i^ 588. Among other notable German manufacturing industries may be mentioned the clockmaking of the Black Forest ; the porcelain manufactures of Meissen, which has the royal factory of ' Dresden ' china, of Zwickau, and Berlin ; the making of pianos in BerHn, Stutt- gart, Leipzig, and Dresden ; and of scientific instnunents in many university towns, but chiefly in Munich. The chief seats of chemical industries in Germany besides Stassfurt (582) are Elberfeld and Barmen, Bonn, Berlin, Leipzig, Stuttgart. 589. The foreign commerce of Germany shows a more remarkable development within the last twenty or thirty years than that of any other European country. Comparing the earliest with the latest- periods for which figures are given in the statistical appendix under the head of imports from different countries, we find that Germany has increased its percentage in nearly every case in which its share in the commerce is important enough to be mentioned at all. In the com- merce with Spain it has gained 9-08 per cent., in that of Italy 6'16 per cent., inthatof Eoumania 7'48per cent., in that ofPrance 3'37 per cent., in that of Holland 6-61 per cent., in that of the United Kingdom Oil per cent., in that of Norway 2"38 per cent., in that of Sweden 6'03 per cent., in that of the Argentine Eepublic 3'14 per cent., in that of Uruguay 3'26 per cent., in that of Chile 6"96 per cent., in that of the United States 1'34 per cent. There is a loss in percentage only in the commerce of Belgium and Eussia — in the former case to the ex- tent of only •&! per cent., in the latter 3'15 per cent. The fact that on a comparison of the same periods under the same heading the United Kingdom is found to have lost ground in every country except Holland, New Zealand, the Argentine EepubHc, and Chile, that. in the case of Holland the gain of the United Kingdom is greatly inferior to that of Germany (Prussia), and in Chile is also inr ferior, though not to the same extent, shows that Germany is becom- ing or has become a formidable rival in many foreign markets. The evidence of consuls and others seems to bear out a similar relative advance in the commerce of Germany as compared with that of Eng- land in other countries also, as in Japan, Asia Minor, Morocco, and the Pacific. It is of course to be borne in mind that the percentage facts above given have a very different significance in proportion to the volume of the trade of different countries, and that the relative loss of the 254 THE GERMAN EMPIRE United Kingdom in some of the cases mentioned is an unimportant consideration in face of the absolute gain in the commerce of some countries with a much greater volume of trade. Still the relative in- crease on the one side and decrease on the other, as above shown, is a fact not to be overlooked in the comparison between Germany and the United Kingdom, and one, therefore, which deserves a little examina- tion.' 590. Of the causes that have led to the commercial advances of Germany some are obvious. The most important, perhaps, is the development of the mineral resources of Germany and of the modern methods of industry to which these resources give hfe (506). The consequent accumulation and cheapening of capital has facilitated the advance which this development first promoted, and an enormous stimulus was given to the advance by the vast acquisition of capital in the shape of the French indenmity after the close of the Franco- German war of 1870-71. 590 a. Another important factor contributing to the commercial development of Germany has been the construction of the Alpine tunnels, which have so greatly facilitated the communication with the Mediterranean. One example may serve to illustrate the value of this factor. In 1880, before the opening of the St. Gothard tunnel, the quantity of iron and steel in plates and bars of 5 millimeters (0'2 inch) or more in thickness imported into Italy from the United Kingdom was nearly 60 per cent, of the total under this head (the largest under the general head of iron and steel), that from Germany 2 per cent. In 1890 the proportion derived from the United Kingdom was less than 22 per cent. ; that from Germany more than 52 per cent., and more than nine-tenths of Germany's share was introduced by land. Under the head of simply worked articles in iron and steel the share of Italy's import supplied by the United Kingdom increased in the same period from 32-1 to 35-8, that from Germany from 13-6 to 21"8 per cent. 590 h. None of these causes of the development of German com- merce is of a nature which this country could have prevented, or which it would have been the interest of this country to prevent if it could. The advantages which Germany derives from the development of • These remarks of the first edition are baaed on the comparison of the figures stating the average for the years 1881-5 in different countries. The most note- worthy facts revealed by the columns for 1886-90 in the tables for Germany, on p. 446, are these : First, there was in that period a cessation of the rapid expansion of the export trade as exhibited in the two previous columns, though the forward movement was still continued. Second, there was a return to the large excess of imports which characterised the periods 1872-5 and 1876-80. On looking at the individual items in the two new columns we notice a large rise in the export of the principal textiles — silks, woollens, and cottons ; a large rise also under leather- wares, coal, and paper ; but only a small rise in the case of sugar (see 305-8). In the column for imports we note a rise under nearly all heads, but specially large under those of the raw materials of the textile industries ; a decline, however, under the head of grain and flour. Comp. note 3 on p. 219. FOREIGN COMMERCE, SEAPORTS 255 na.tive resources and improved communications abroad are of a kind that must be shared directly or indirectly by all countries with which Germany has dealings. 590 c. In Spain the increasing value of the imports from Germany is chiefly explained by the growing demand in that country for German potato spirit with which to adulterate Spanish wines. In many other cases the success of Germany is due to its supplying cheap and com- paratively worthless articles, which in the meantime are sufficient to meet the ignorant demands of the countries that import them. In Brazil and other South American States the extension of German commerce is largely attributed to this cause. 590 d. But there is another cause of the recent commercial success of Germany which it is of the highest importance for other countries to consider, namely, the advanced state of the higher education, and especially commercial and technical education in Germany. The effect of this in the growth of the chemical industries of Germany is referred to elsewhere (458, 463), but there are numerous witnesses to its immediate effects in promotmg German commerce, inasmuch as it places at the command of German merchants large numbers of men well qualified by their knowledge of foreign languages, of products and industrial processes, and of business routine, to act as travellers, and yet content with a salary which would be looked upon as wholly in- adequate by persons possessing the same qualifications in this country even when such are to be had. 591. The recent territorial acquisitions of Germanyin Africa and the Pacific have not yet had time to have much effect on German commerce. 592. For the despatch and reception of its transmarine exports and imports Germany is largely dependent on foreign ports — those of Belgium, Holland and Prance, Italy and Austria. None of its own seaports is so conveniently situated for the commerce of the chief mining and manufacturing region of the west as Antwerp or Eotter- dam. There are very few German seaports with a sufficient depth of water for ships of the largest size. The only two with a depth of more than 25 feet are those of Bremerhaven, the outport of Bremen, on the Weser, and Cuxhaven, the outport of Hamburg. At Hamburg itself at high tide, with a medium depth of the water in the Elbe, the depth is barely 23 feet ; and the only other German ports with a depth of 23 feet are Swinemiinde, the outport of Stettin, on the Oder, and Danzig-, at the mouth of the Vistula. Bremen proper is now a seaport without ships, since even small sea-going vessels now ascend the Weser no higher than Vegesack, about ten miles below Bremen. 593. The principal other German seaports are Emden, at the mouth of the Ems, the westernmost of all, and the Baltic ports of Liibeck and Travemiinde, on the inlet that receives the river Trave, Rostock on the Warnow, Stralsund, opposite the island of Eiigen, Anklam on the Peene, the western influent of the Stettiner Haff, Stettin itself, 2S6 ' THE GERMAN EMPIRE Koniffsberg on the Pregel (Prisches Haff), and Memel, at the north- ern extremity of the Kurisches Haff. These have a depth at the medium state of the water of from 13 feet (Konigsberg) to about 20 feet (Stettin). Between the mouth of the Oder and Danzig, on a coastline of about 250 miles, there is no seaport of any consequence. Kiel is an important station of the German navy, and Wilhelmshaven on the Jahde, west of the mouth of the Weser, is solely used for this purpose. 594. Of all the German seaports, by far the most important at the present day is HAMBURG (325), including Cuxhaven, the rank of which among the seaports of the world is indicated in par. 523. Like Liverpool, however, Hamburg has risen to a dominant position among seaports only in comparatively recent times. English and Dutch settlers, after the discovery of the sea-way to the East (100), first made it an active scene of shipping, but the chief impetus to the development of its trade was given only in last century, when the North American war of independence opened to it various colonial ports. With the develop- ment of American ancUother trans-oceanic commerce that has since taken place, Hamburg has steadily risen in population, wealth, and commerce, its admirable water-communications upwards as well as downwards greatly favouring its growth. By means of the Elbe- Havel-Spree navigation (577), all the traffic, except tea and fine goods, between Hamburg and Berlin is carried on in barges and steamers. The navigation is maintained by the government, and there is no charge except for lock-dues. (See also 612 a.) Since 1883 great har- bour-works have been constructed at the port, with the view of enabling large ships to draw up alongside of the quays instead of having to dis- charge their cargo into flat-bottomed barges. ALTONA, the Prussian seaport immediately adjoining Hamburg, has a similar trade. 595. BEEMEN' down to the fifteenth century was the chief German port on the North Sea, and though now outstripped by Hamburg, its outport of Bremerhaven is the only other German seaport with a large American and trans-oceanic commerce. Liibeck, before the commence- ment of trans-oceanic commerce the most important of all German seaports, began to decUne in the fifteenth century, and only recently has begun to show any revival. During the fourteenth century one of its rivals was Wismar, on the coast to the east, but this port has sunk into complete insignificance, and its commerce has passed to the still more easterly port of Eostock. STETTIN derives a good deal of its import- ance from its being the nearest seaport to BerUn, as well as from its connections with the populous region of Upper Silesia. A project has been sanctioned for connecting this port with Berlin by a canal capable of being used by sea-going ships. The eastern ports SANZIQ, KONIGSBERG, and MEMEL all have a large export trade in tim- ber, grain, flax, hemp, potatoes, and other agricultural products, partly of Russian origin, but the import trade of Konigsberg and CHIEF INLAND TOWNS 257 Memel is greatly hampered in its development by the Eussian customs duties. 596. All the Baltic ports are subject to the inconvenience of being closed by ice in winter, and the interruption of traffic from this cause is of course (40) longer the further east the port lies. 597. The following are the chief inland towns of Germany in the order of their population : — Berlin, the capital of the empire, with a population in 1890 of 1,580,000, Breslau (335), Munich (850), Leipzig (295), Cologne (280), Dresden (275), Magdeburg (200), Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Hanover, Dusseldorf, Niirnberg, Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Elberfeld, Strassburg, Barmen, Krefeld, Aachen, Halle, Brunswick, all with above 100,000 inhabitants. Among others of smaller size are Dortmund, Mannheim, Essen, Miilhausen (French, Mulhouse), Fosen, Mainz (Mayence), Augsburg, Kassel, Erfurt, and Karlsruhe. Of these towns, Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart, Brunswick, and Karlsruhe, besides Berlin, owe part of their importance to the fact of their still being local capitals ; and to these may be added Strassburg, which is the seat of the local government of Alsace-Lorraine. Frank- furt-on-the-Main, moreover, was at one time in a sense the capital of Germany, and Hanover the capital of a separate kingdom. It is chiefly to its rank as capital, together with its central position in the German plain, that BERLIN, which is a town of comparatively modern growth, owes its commercial importance. Like other large capitals, it is the seat of many industries (the making of machinery of all kinds being that for which it is most noted), and since the establishment of the German Empire it has become the centre of banking and exchange in succession to Frankfurt-on-the-Main. 598. Local conditions have made BRESLAU an important centre of commerce from an early period. It arose at the only convenient crossing-place of the Oder for a considerable distance up and down (114), and as far back as the twelfth century it is mentioned (under the name of Wratislaw) as the chief city of Silesia. For seven centuries it has been the place where the industrial products of the West have been exchanged for the agricultural products of the East, and the commerce of this nature has been greatly increased by the modern developments of industry in consequence of the existence of two coal- • fields as well as other mineral deposits in the vicinity. It has hence become the place of convergence of all the south-eastern railways. (See the map on p. 263.) Six per cent, of the inhabitants are Jews. 599. MUNTCH, though situated on an inhospitable plateau, was already the capital of a Bavarian duchy in 1255, but only grew into importance after Bavaria became a considerable state, about the beginning of the present century. The size which it had already attained at the time of the introduction of railways naturally caused it to be selected as a railway centre, and the commercial advantages 258 GERMANY which it derives from that circumstance are all the greater from the fact of its being the most convenient place of division of the commerce •which passes across the Alps by way of the Brenner. One important line of railway proceeds from Munich north-westwards by way of Augsburg and Frankfurt to the most populous region of the Ehine basin ; another northwards to Saxony and Berlin by way of the Naab valley (which in earlier times helped to give a now lost importance to Eegensburg or Eatisbon on the Danube) ; a third north-eastwards to Prague. It has hence to a large extent superseded not only Augsburg, but also Eegensburg and Ulm. Modem commercial routes pass through the latter places without conferring on them any special im- portance. 600. Of the other inland towns mentioned above, and not already particularly noticed, that which is of most interest on commercial grounds is NURNBEEG', and the interest in this case arises from the fact of its being an old industrial town whose manufacturing industry was chiefly maintained in earlier periods by its favourable situation for trade. It lies in a basin surrounded by hills, through which, however, there are openings in all directions which have made it a natural point of concourse for all south-west Germany. Other natural advan- tages, on the other hand, it lacked. Special privileges were granted to it by the Emperor Frederick II. in 1219, expressly because it had neither vineyards nor shipping and lay upon the most sterila soil ('auf rauhestem Boden'). In the Middle Ages it was the chief manufacturing town in Germany, and though in modem times it has been eclipsed by other manufacturing towns with greater advantages according to modern requirements, it has never lost its character as an industrial and commercial city. The characteristic manufactures of the place are such as might be expected from its history and posi- tion, being those which demand httle material and little expenditure of mechanical power, but much skill on the part of the workmen. Besides the making of toys, material for which is supplied by neigh- bouring forests, and pencils made with graphite (423-14:) from Passau and elsewhere, various kinds of artistic metal- work furnish the chief employment of the industrial population. The early importance of the town is indicated by its having long been known in England under an English form of name — Nuremberg. 259 SWITZERLAND. 601. From a commercial point of view this little country is in some respects very remarkable. With little coal and little iron, it is pre- eminently a manufacturing country in the modern sense of the term, manufactured articles forming the bulk of its exports, raw materials and food supplies the bulk of its imports. Situated in the heart of Europe, it sends its silks and cottons and its watches to the United States and South America, the British and Dutch East Indies, China, Japan, and Australia. Even to the United Kingdom it has managed in recent years to export cotton manufactures of one kind or another to the value of more than one million sterling. 602. A land of mountains, a land in which five-sevenths of the surface is divided between the Alps and the Jura, it has a population as dense, on the whole, as that of Ireland, and there is not a single district in the most mountainous canton in which the density of popu- lation is as low as in the county of Sutherland. 603. The nature of the surface presents great obstacles to internal communication between the populous tableland and various parts of the more sparsely-peopled region, and also to communication with the frontier countries on the east and south. Hot till the present century was there any carriage-road across the Alps, but now the Swiss Alps possess some of the finest mountain roads in the world. The first constructed was that made by Napoleon across the Simplon for the passage of his ' cannon ' from the valley of the Upper Ehone to the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy. This was completed in 1805, and by the year 1830 the road across the St. Gothard between the valleys of the Reuss and Ticino, and those across the Bernardino, Spliigen, Maloja, and Julier passes had been added (see map, pp. 246-47). The St. Gothard road, the most important of all on account of the direct communication which it establishes between the most populous parts of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, has now been to a large extent superseded by the railway which pierces the St. Gothard group in a tunnel nearly ten miles in length (completed in 1882). By means of this railway the continental ports on the North Sea have been brought to within a distance of three days for goods traffic from ports on the Mediterranean. The mountain track of this railway is a single line, but the tunnel is wide enough (about 26 feet) for two lines, and the track is now being doubled along the whole route. So far this is the only one of the great Alpine tunnels (575) constructed within b2 26o SWITZERLAND Swiss territory, but among the projects now agitated with the pro- spect of being speedily carried out is one for piercing a railway tunnel through the Simplon, which would reduce 'the distance between Paris and Milan by about 120 miles. Other projects for Swiss mountain railways are likewise under dis- suasion, and one of the schemes ardently advocated with this view is the adoption for goods traffic of the principle of tooth-wheel railways, which has already been applied on certain tourist-railways. 604. The climate of the Swiss tableland allows of the same crops being grown as in the adjoining parts of France and Germany. Wine ie produced most abundantly and best in quahty in the south-west (the canton of Vaud). The holdings of the Swiss peasantry are mostly the property of the cultivators, and very small. Only about one-fourth of the number of Swiss households possess no land. Agriculture, however, is not highly developed, and it is in a large measure on this account that the produce of the food-crops comes so far below the requirements of the country, being scarcely sufficient to supply half the population. The yield of wheat per acre is only about one-half of what it is in England. The only branch of agriculture that yields a con- siderable surplus for export is cattle-rearing, which is pursued not only in the valleys, but also, in the summer, on the well- watered ' slopes of the Alps up to the height of about 9,000 feet. Cheese and condensed milk are the chief export products furnished by this indus- try. The former is sent in large quantity to many countries, even to the United States, and the latter is now a very important article for the supply of shipping. 605. For the prosecution of its manufacturing industries and handicrafts Switzerland, though suffering from the disadvantages above indicated, has certain advantages of its own, the principal being the abundance of water-power afforded by the torrents of the Alps, and the abundance of cheap skilled labour, to keep up the quality of which the government has done so much in the way of providing for efficient teclmical education (30). The manufactures and handicrafts in which Switzerland particularly excels are those in which the value of the labour, or the whole cost of elaborating the raw material, is high in proportion to that of the material itself, so that the cheapness. of Swiss skilled labour tells all the more proportionally in the final value of the product. The recent success of this country in the silk industry has been largely owing to the dexterity with which cheaper materials, principally cotton, have been worked up along with the more costly < silk, which, moreover, is one of the raw materials the supply of which has been greatly cheapened through the construction of the St. Gothard railway leading direct to the great silk market of Italy. In cotton-spinning, Switzerland produces a greater quantity of fine yarn in proportion to the number of its spindles than any other country except England, and the cotton fabrics for which it is chiefly celebrated are trimming^s and embroideries. MANUFACTURES, CHIEF TOWNS 261 606. The chief centres of the silk industries of Switzerland are ZUrich and Basel, the former producing mainly plain and iigured fabrics, the latter mainly ribbons. The weaving is still mostly done by hand. The cotton manufactures are mainly carried on in the north-east, in Zurich and the adjoining cantons, but there are numerous bleaching, dyeing, and printing establishments in the canton of Glarus, in some of the deepest Alpine vaUeys. SCachine embroidery is pursued chiefly in the cantons of St. G^l, Appenzell, and Thnrgau, St. Gall having been noted f©r its hand-embroideries (mostly on linen), as well as its linen manufactures, as far back as the thirteenth century. The embroidery machine was introduced into St. Gall in 1840, and it is since then that the industry, which is still, however, almost entirely domestic, has grown to its present magnitude. The variety and rich- ness of the patterns have been enhanced through the introduction of the sewing-machine about a quarter of a century later. Watch-lnaking is principally carried on in the Swiss Jura, in the sterile valleys of which the wages of the workers, who are trained from their childhood to some special branch of this industry, are so low that Swiss watches, even when made by hand, can compete in the United States with the watches there- made by steam machinery. Formerly hand labour was exclusively employed in Swiss watch-making, but in recent years the keenness of foreign competition has led to the estabhshment of fac- tories equipped vrith all the appliances necessary for making entire watches by mechanical processes. The chief seats of the industry are Locle and La Chaux de Fonds in Neuchatel, Bienne, St. Imier, and Porrentmy in Bern, but the watches are known by the name of Geneva, which is one of the chief centres of the trade in this article. 607. None of the towns of Switzerland had at last census, 1888, a population of 100,000. The capital of the republic is Bern, on the Aar-, but the three most populous towns are Zurich, Geneva, and Basel. These also have the most commanding situations com- mercially — Basel, on the German frontier at the head of the plain of the middle Ehine (579) ; Geneva, near the French frontier, in the narrow opening formed by the Ehone valley between the Alps and the Jura ; Zurich, the centre of a highly populous region, and a place of conver- gence of railways of great importance smce the- construction of the St. Gothard line, which runs thence southwards; and the eastern line through the Arlberg tunnel (see map, pp. 246-47). Both these lines, it may here be mentioned, are of special value for the intro- duction of the grain supplies ©f Switzerland, the former carrying Indian wheat, and the latter Austrian and Roumanian, which were pre- viously introduced by an expensive roundabout route by way of Munich-. ■262 AUSTEIA-HUNGAEY. 608. The Austro-Hungarian empire, exclusive of Bosnia, has an area almost exactly equal to twice that of the British Isles. It is divided into two nearly equal sections, the Cis-Leithan portion, com- prising most of the outer provinces, and the Trans-Leithan, or Hungarian portion, comprising the inner provinces along with Transylvania and a strip of coast-line extending from Fiume to the mainland of Dalmatia. The most populous area of the empire is along the northern frontier, and more particularly in the north-west, where the density is from 300 to 400 to the square mile. The whole empire forms a single customs union, in which Bosnia and Herzegovina (679) and the independent principality of Liechtenstein (between Switzer- land and Vorarlberg) are also included. 609. The obstruction to communication caused by some of the mountains upon and within the frontier has already been referred to in speaking of the communications of Germany (574, 575) and Switzerland (603, 607). The Brenner line serves as the direct route between the populous part of Bohemia and Northern Italy ; and that by way of Udine, in Venetia, and Klagenfurt, in Carinthia, across the Semmering Pass, on the frontier of Lower Austria and Styria, is as yet the shortest route between Northern Italy and Vienna. Hitherto no railway has been constructed across the Stelvio Pass at the head of the valley of the Adda, the route followed by the shortest carriage road between Vienna and Milan (see maps, pp. 246-47 and p. 263). 610. Down to the present day the Carpathian Mountains, separating Hungary and Transylvania from Galicia, Eussia, and Eoumania, have much longer intervals uncrossed by rail than the Alps, but this is not because they are more difiScult to cross, but because the more populous regions on the opposite sides yield for the most part similar products, and the wide intervening belt with a sparse population yields little merchandise besides timber (see map, p. 265). 611. The communications with Trieste, the chief seaport of the Cis-Leithan provinces and of the Austrian empire, are still defective. The hne proceeding by way of Laibach and Gratz across the Semmer- ing to Vienna, and sending off a branch to Buda-Pest, is enough for these capitals, but there can be little doubt that the commerce of this port would be greatly increased if a direct line were made northwards through Gorz up the valley of the Isonzo and then across the Niedere MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 263 Tauern, thereby establishing the shortest practicable connection ■with the dense industrial population of northern Bohemia and southern Germany (see map, pp. 246-47). 611 a. Since the 1st of August, 1889, the system of zone tariffs for passengers has been in operation on the Hungarian State railways. According to this system the fare is increased only at intervals of several miles ; on the Hungarian railways, for example (on which the system was first tried), for passengers going beyond the second station, only at intervals of 10 to 16 miles. A zone tariff was subsequently adopted also on the Austrian State railways, and on the 1st of January, 1891, a similar system was introduced on the Hungarian State rail- ways for goods. 612. As in Germany, the rivers in Austria-Hungary form an im- portant auxiliary to the means of communication, and as by far the p= la 1* 16 18 ZO te ^ Je T * / ( * / 3 ^^^ 50 V^^o-V^ \q wK ( 50 vX *^-T«^l6m Wbram ) ^ '■^-J^^fCx. iLxv BRiiM^^ ^ S ..r— /S! S^GP^^vj^ A . Vrg«^ i7^>^ '"' "T? ^^ Jl_ 1* 18 Kn^lub l^a 7nanu&tO»t KfLLura i ScaJ« ?^W*«J EIAd ai 60 00 X,G.O00.0OO greater part of the empire belongs to the basin of the Danube, it need hardly be said that the rivers of that basin are the principal navigable streams. The Danube itself is navigable for steamers throughout its whole length within the limits of the empire ; and notwithstanding the existence of several obstructions to the navigation the Danube Steamboat Company of Vienna maintains a successfiil competition with the railways. By river goods are carried from the western frontier to Buda-Pest in about a day and a half, as against about one day required by ran, but the steamboat company is able to reduce the cost of carriage to a low enough point to make up in some cases for the difference in time. The most serious impediment to navigation in th© 264 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Danube occurs just where the river quits the Austro-Hungarian frontier at the rapid known as the Iron Gate — a barrier which, before the introduction of steam, few vessels ventured to cross at all, and by which during low water, sometimes during the whole period from July to March, a large number of steamers of the Danube company are condemned to absolute idleness. Works for the regulation of the river at this place were authorised by the Austrian government in the sprmg of 1888. Of the tributaries of the Danube, the Theiss, whose tortuosity has been greatly reduced by canahsation, is navigable for steamers to Tokay ; the Drave to the confluence of the Mur ; the Save to Sissek at the confluence of the Kulpa. 612 a. Though the Elbe proper begins to be navigable only at the confluence of the Moldau, the navigation of that river may be said to begin at Prague, for the Moldau is navigated from that place by the steamers of the Austrian North-West Steamboat Company, which maintains regular communicatiou with the Middle Elbe and with Hamburg. The importance of this route even for the trade of Vienna, where a very large part of the foreign commerce of Austria is centred, is well illustrated in the recent development of the trade in cheap furniture made at Vienna from bent wood. This commodity, which is now sent to the most distant markets of the world, and is shipped to Western Europe, America, and Austraha from Hamburg, can be sent to that port by the Elbe for 3s. per 100 kilos (one-tenth of a ton), and the competition of the Elbe route has reduced the cost of carriage by raU to 4s. or 5s. 613. As to climate, the inner lowlands are more especially subject to those extremes of temperature which become more characteristic as we go eastwards. With the exception of the maritime tracts, even the warmest parts of the empire have at least two months in the year in which the mean daily temperature is under the freezing point, and all the lowlands of the Hungarian section have three or four months in which the mean daily temperature is above 68° P. North of the Carpathian Mountains the summer temperature is more moderate, and in the eastern part of the empire it is only within that system that a summer temperature lasts long enough for the cultivation of the vine. On the pusstas, or vast Hungarian plains east of the Danube, so great is the summer heat, and so rapid consequently the evaporation, that though there, as in most other parts of the empire, summer is the season of greatest rainfall, these plains, which in winter are a succession of morasses or storm-swept snow-wastes, present during the hot season the appearance of withered deserts. 614. The distinguishing features of surface and climate of the Cis- and Trans-Leithan sections of the empire cause them to differ also in their characteristic productions. In both the area under corn crops is very much greater than in the British Isles, but in the Cis-Leithau AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 265 or Austrian section, the chief corn crops are rye and oats, in the Trans- Leithan, or Hungarian, wheat and maize. The latter section, with an area only about j'^^ larger than that of the United Kingdom, has had in recent . years more than 2-|- times as great an area under wheat. Relatively to acreage the produce of wheat was till lately less than one-half of that of the United Kingdom, but the great demand for Hungarian wheat and flour (152) has stimulated Hungarian agricul- S3 LiJn^t.'uii^ £a«C o^CrccrutuA. 24 , ^•'' ^g" „ ^ ^u«a«^o-'g-'n. faat Natural SceJw 1:6,000,000 CSWaUaiEElAa ture, with very satisfactory results as regards the methods pursued and the outturn. Manure is becoming more largely used. Among other kinds, that derived from basic slag (423-11 e) has been employed with considerable success. The consequence is that the average yield per acre of Hungarian wheat has greatly risen of late years. The average given in par. 141 (15^ bushels) is for the period 1880-84, as in 2C6 AUSTRIA-HUXGARY the case of the Austrian or Cis-Leithan section of the empire. This shows an advance of more than 5 bushels per acre, as compared with one of little more than 3 bushels in the Austrian section, since the period 1869-76, and on the average of the period 1884-88 the Hungarian yield rose to 18^ bushels, a further advance of nearly 8 bushels. Among other signs of advancing agriculture is an increas- ing use of agricultural machiuery, small cultivators uniting to pur- chase machiaes. The great majority of landed properties in Hungary, it may here be stated, are under 45 acres in extent. Great attention has been paid in recent years to improving the breeds of the more important domestic animals, including the pig. In the Alpine pro- vinces of Cis-Leithan Austria the relative number of cattle is larger, for cattle-rearing is pursued as in Switzerland (604). In the production of wheat the Ai^trian Empire as a whole ranks third among European countries. 615. Among other agricultural products of both sections of the empire are sugar-beet, wine (183, 185), hops, tobacco, flax, and hemp. Sugar-beet is grown chiefly in the Austrian section, most abundantly on the cretaceous rocks of Northern Bohemia, and the same province is noted forits hops (188). Wine is grown chiefly on the slopes of the Alps of the southern Alpine provinces, and on the Hungarian hills west of the Danube. In the fertile district of the Banat, in the south-east of Hungary proper, even a little rice is grown along with abundance of wheat, maize, and fruit. As to silk production, see 228. The tables on pp. 458 and 487 show tha importance of the forests of the empire. 616. The minerals of the empire are both varied and abundant. Coal and iron are both plentiful, but the chief deposits of these two minerals are widely separate from one another, and those of iron ore are in the very heart of the Alps. True coal is mostly found in the provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. In Bohemia the princi- pal fields lie to the north-west of Prague and in the neighbourhood ol Pilsen, in Moravia near the north of the province. In the Alpine pro- vinces the amount of coal is insignificant, but lignite (373) abounds among the recent tertiary rocks in the east of the Alps, and especially in the Styrian valley of Eainach, which opens from the right into that of the Mur below Gratz. In northern Styria, at Eisenerz, a httle to the south-east of the northerly bend of the Enns, is the chief Austrian deposit of iron ore. The Erzberg, that is, ' Ore mountain,' situated at this place, is almost one entire mass of an iron carbonate, and the ore, which has been mined for 2,000 years, is obtained from open-air quarries. More valuable kinds of iron ore (Hmonite and siderite) are produced in the north-east of the neighbouring province of Carinthia, which ranks next to Styria in the production of iron ore. The smelting of iron is carried on most largely in the same two provinces, and next to these in the northern coal-yielding provinces, where much foreign ore is smelted. MINERALS AND MANUFACTURES 267 617. Salt is abundant in the north-western Alpine provinces (in the Salzkammergut, in Upper Austria, at Hall in Northern Tyrol, below Innsbruck, and at Hallein in Salzburg, above the town of Salzburg) ; but the richest salt-mines of the empire are those of Wieliczka, in the west of Galioia, near Cracow. In the Trans-Leithan section of the empire, the province of Transylvania is very rich in salt, which at many places crops out on the surface as rock salt. 617 a. The valleys of the last-mentioned province are likewise rich in gold, which is produced more abundantly in Austria-Hungary than in any other European country. Silver, likewise, is largely produced, though Austria is now far surpassed in the production of this metal by Germany, and the principal locality of production is no longer the Erzgebirge, but the neighbourhood of Pribram, east of Pilsen, and accordingly more in the heart of Eohemia. Both gold and silver are also produced at Schemnitz in Northern Hungary. Idria, in the west of Carniola, yields quicksilver. 618. The regions in the neighbourhood of the chief coal supplies, northern Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, which have long been the principal seats of manufacturing industry, have naturally remained so under the changed conditions due to the application of machinery. Woollen and linen manufactures, both sustained at one time princi- pally by local supplies of the raw material, now make great demands for raw material on distant countries. Cotton and jute manufactures have likewise sprung up (315). Woollen manufactures flourish chiefly at Reiehenberg, in the extreme north of Bohemia, at Brunn and Iglau in Moravia, and Troppau in Silesia. Trautenau in Bohe- mia is noted for its linen yams. Pilsen and many other smaller towns carry on a variety of textile industries. 619. The working of iron and steel in all forms is chiefly carried on in the neighbourhood of the principal iron fields. First in rank among the towns specially devoted to these branches of industry is Steyr, in Upper Austria, a town that has direct railway communication, chiefly by the vaUey of the Enns, with Eisenerz and the northern side of the Erzberg (616) ; and second, perhaps, is the larger and otherwise more important town of GIIATZ, which lies in a small ex- pansion of the valley of the Mur, and which, besides having direct railway communication with the southern side of the Erzberg, can obtain supplies of lignite from the neighbouring valley of the Kainach (616). Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia and the nearest import- ant town to the iron region of that province, has likewise a large iron industry, besides manufactures of other kinds. 620. Glass-making, which was introduced into Bohemia from Venice in the sixteenth century, and for which Bohemia has acquired and long retained a ' high reputation, especially as regards the treat- ment of crystal, is pursued chiefly at Eger and other places near or belonging to the Bohemian Forest, where the geographical conditions 268 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY are as favourable to it now as they always have been. The forest supphes not only fuel but potash (451), and since siUcate rocks have come to be used in glass-making (451) this material is also obtained from the forest, and coal, as already indicated, is at no great distance. Porcelain is made, among other places, near Karlsbad, on the river Eger, where there are deposits of kaolin (444). Sugar-refining is carried on in Bohemia and Moravia in the districts where the beet is grown (615). Vienna and Filsen are noted for their beer. 621. Manufactures of various kinds are carried on in the three most important capitals and most populous towns of the empire, Vienna, Buda-Pest, and Prague. VIENNA (in 1890, including sub- urbs, 1350), situated on the Danube at the point where it quits the narrow valley between the Alps and the northern tableland, is the capital of the empire and the chief centre of trade. Among its manu- factures, those of silks, machinery, and fancy wares may be singled out as most worthy of note. BUDA-PEST (500), lower down on the Danube, in a position strengthened by the spurs of the last hills skirted by the river before it traverses the Hungarian plains, is the capital of the Trans-Leithan section of the empire and the centre of trade for the surrounding plains and lowlands. Flour-milling (152) is its most important manufacturing industry. PRAG-UE is the capital of Bohe- mia, a province which is marked out by nature in the mast unmistak- able manner, and in which a dense population has existed from a remote period, and in that province it occupies a situation which a variety of physical features combine to fix as that of the political and commercial centre. It lies near the middle of the province, at the head of navigation on the Moldau for boats of considerable size, about the place where the steeper ascent to the highlands of southern Bohemia begins, and at the meeting-place of roads from gaps in the mountains on the east and west (114, 574). 622. In the Trans-Leithan section of the empire manu^eturing industries in the modem sense of the term are scarcely developed at all except in the capital. This section being, as we have seen, mainly agricultural, and a region in which even agriculture has only recently begun to advance under the stimulus of cheapened communication with distant markets, does not even yet afford a market for manufactured products at aU corresponding in value to its population. The peasants are poor, and wear chiefly coarse woollen fabrics, strong enough to last for years or almost a lifetime, and many of them simply sheep- skins with the wool turned inwards. But there can be no doubt that advancing agriculture will steadily increase the requirements of the people. 623. Seaports. For distant commerce by sea Austria-Hungary has only two ports, Trieste and Fiume, the former belonging to the Cis- Leithan, the latter to the Trans-Leithan section of the empire. To- SEAPORTS AND JNLAND TOWNS 269 gether they carry on less than one-third of the foreign commerce of the country. TRIESTE, at the head of the g,ulf of the same name opening off the Adriatic, had the privileges of a free port till July 1891. It is the seat of the Austrian Lloyd, a company formed in 1832 with the same purposes as the English Lloyd ' (p. 482), but organised also as a steam- ship company in 1836. It is now one of the three principal shipping companies belonging to the Mediterranean, the others being the French Messageries (548) and the Italian Navigazione Generale.^ Its trade is principally carried on with the East Indies, Venice, Turkey, Egypt, and the Levant generally. Fiume, at the head of the stormy Gulf of Quarnero, ten or twelve years ago had but a small trade, but through the improvements made in the port by the Trans-Leithan government, it has become, since about the beginning of the present decade, the chief place of shipment of Hungarian grain and flour, as well as the seat of a large export trade in timber and other products. Its import trade is of less magnitude. Pola, in the south of Istria, is the naval station of the empire ; Zara, Sebenico, Spalato, and Cattaro, on the Dalmatian coast, are mainly fishing towns, their trade being limited through the want of communications, though all except the first have admirable natural harbours. 624. Of the inland towns of the empire, besides those which have been already mentioned as seats of manufactures, the chief are Cracow in the west, LEMBERG in the east of Galicia, Szegedin, Temesvar, and others on the Hungarian plains, Klausenburg and Kronstadt in Transylvania. Cracow and Lemberg both lie on the great route from west to east along the northern base of the mountains of central Europe, and at places of divergence of important roads across these mountains. Szegedin, the town next in population to Buda-Pest in the Trans- Leithan section of the empire (it had at last census nearly 75,000 inhabitants), stands on the Theiss a little below the place at which that river is joined by its greatest tributary, the Maros. Having been almost wholly destroyed by an overflow of the Theiss in March 1879, it has been protected by the construction of embankments on a still larger scale than those which formerly confined the river at this place. > That is, for the registration of ships and their classification according to seaworthiness. * The headquarters of which are at Genoa. 210 EUSSIA. 625. The surface of Eussia, though mainly made up of one vast plain, and thus presenting scarcely any of the obstacles to communication such as we have had chiefly to consider in the case of the countries already treated, offers difficulties of another kind, and these natural diffi- culties together with other causes have prevented Eussia from acquiring to this day anything like adequate facilities for transport, and especially by land. The marshy character of a large part of the surface and the want of road-making material (both stone and wood being entirely absent throughout large areas in the south) have stood in the way of the construction of roads. For half the year the substitute for roads is, as usual in such regions, tracks formed by the repeated passage of wheeled vehicles, and apt to be rendered scarcely passable by bad weather. In winter a better substitute is found in the use of sledges. 626. It is true that the deficiency of roads is to some extent made up for by the abundance of the natural waterways and the ease with which they can be and have been connected by canals. The great majority of the rivers are navigable nearly to their source, many of them for a great distance by steamers. Nevertheless this means of communication is attended by various drawbacks, which will best be illustrated by a few particulars. 626 a. From Tver, the head of steam navigation on the Volga, the direct distance from the mouth of the river is less than 900 miles, the distance by river is about 1,650 miles. Before the introduction of steam navigation so slow was the rate of progress that it was a matter of months to accompHsh the distance between Tver and Astrakhan, and even since steam navigation has been introduced the average rate of speed of the post and passenger steamers down stream is only about 14 miles an hour, up stream about 11| miles, so that if these rates were steadily kept up through the whole route about five days would be consumed in the passage between those two places in descending the river, about six days in ascending. The time taken by a tug in drawing a train of cargo-boats must of course be much longer. 626 h. Further, no Eussian river-port is on an average free from ice for more than ten months in the year. Warsaw, the head of steam navigation on the Vistula, has on an average 305 days in the Betn'eerv p . ? 70 and, 271 Longmans. Greerv-^ Co^ Loruiotv.IfeM'Yarh&Bomha^. F.S.WeaerRR.G.S. MEANS OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION 271 year ice-free ; Kherson, at the mouth of the Dnieper, in the latitude of La Rochelle in France, only 280 days, Astrakhan, in about the same latitude, only 264 days. Ribinsk, the chief grain-port of the Upper Volga, has only 219 days ice-free, St. Petersburg 218, and Archangel, at the mouth of the Northern Dwina, only 177 days, or less than half the year. For other examples see the accompanying map. 626 c. On the Dnieper, the principal waterway to the Black Sea, rocky rapids impede the navigation for a distance of 23 miles on that part of the river which flows from north to south (between Alexan- drovsk and Ekaterinoslaf ) in the great bend which the stream makes to the east. Though artificial channels have been constructed since 1853 to avoid these rapids, ' they are regarded by all vessels, except undecked flat-bottomed barges, as mere traps, and carefully avoided in descending,' and no cargo boats ever ascend. Rapids also impede the navigation of the Dniester and Bug, and, above St. Petersburg, the much more important navigation of the Neva. The navigation of the Volga, again, is liable to be obstructed by sandbanks which accumulate rapidly where any impediment occurs in the way of the current. 626 d. There are other drawbacks still. The Volga, which with its tributaries affords more than 7,000 miles of inland navigation, does not furnish any direct connection with the ocean. Goods intended for the sea are Unded at Tsaritsin, at the point where the river turns south-eastwards to the Caspian, and are transferred by rail to the Don, a river that can be navigated only by steamers of very shallow draught. The Northern Dwina, a fine deep river, flows through a sparsely-peopled region, but in one respect it may be regarded as all the more important on that account as a natural waterway, since only by such means was it possible to develop in such a region an export trade in timber and timber products, flax and other commodities, such as its waters carry. / 626 e. But notwithstanding all these drawbacks the inland naviga- tion of Eussia is of high importance, and is the cause of a considerable annual outlay on the part of the Eussian government. Many thousands of river vessels are constantly moving between the Neva and the Volga, and many of these are of more than 1,000 tons burden. Of the projects for new canals now being urged forward the most im- portant perhaps is that for a canal between the Don and the Volga, to put an end to the interruption that now exists between the navigation of the Volga and the outside world. 627. The extent of the water communication in Eussia helped to delay the laying of railways. Down to the close of the Crimean war there were only four railway lines in the country, but since that time railways have been made from Moscow (the centre of the railway system) to all the chief ports except Archangel, to various points on the western frontier where connections are made with foreign lines, to Vladikavkaz, at the end of the only pass road across the central 272 XUSSTA Caucasus, and to Orenburg, near the European frontier south of the Urals. A detached line of railway follows the principal trade route across the Ural Mountains, from Perm at the head of steamboat navigation on the Kama, to Tyumen in Siberia (701, 702). Kazan is now getting connected with the Russian railway system at Nizhni-Novgorod. The railway to Samara is being continued north-eastwards to Zlatoust, the centre of iron-miaing in the Urals (see map, pp. 270-71 : comp. 888 a). 628. Regarding the climate of Russia the reader may be reminded that the country lies in that part of Europe where the extremes of tem- perature are greatest and the rainfall on the whole least (40, 470). About half the entire area, in the north-east, east, and south-east, has a total rainfall for the year of less than 20 inches. On the whole, the extremes of temperature are greatest and the rainfall least in the south- east — say beyond a Hne indicated by the position of Odessa, Saratof, and Orenburg (see map). 629. The nature of the climate puts a limit to cultivation both in the north and the south-east, and the whole of the arable land of Russia proper makes up only about 26 per cent, of the surface. A northern zone, the tundra, with only reindeer pastures, is followed to the south by a second zone chiefly occupied by vast forests, that again by a third, in which forests give place more and more to agricultural land, and finally disappear altogether. The region of black-earth, a soil of unsurpassed fertility which is spread over southern Russia in larger or smaller patches from the frontier on the south-west to the hiUs west of the Volga, is that on which by far the greatest quantity of the corn crops of Russia proper (excluding Finland and Poland) are grown. Altogether this soil is estimated to cover one- fifth of the total area of Russia proper, but a large part of this area in the east extends into the region of those steppes which are so arid in climate as to be habitable only by nomadic tribes (Tatars and others). Formerly these tribes were misubdued marauders whose plundering incursions prevented the extension of Russian agriculture southwards, but nowadays the part of the black-earth zone adapted by its climate for agriculture is acquiring a larger and larger share of the agricultural population of the country. Poland, which has a separate adminis- tration from Russia proper, lies mainly outside of the black-earth zone, but has long had a much better system of agriculture than that of Bussia. 630. Agriculture in Russia is practised under conditions in some respects peculiar. Down to 1861 the majority of the peasants were serfs attached to the properties of large landowners, but since the emancipation of the serfs in that year the land has become in a large measure the property of the peasantry, and especially in the arable districts. But this peasant property is for the most part not held individually, but is the common property of the ancient village com- mmiities or mirs, and is subject to re-division among the members AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS 273 of the mir according to rules which vary in different places. In 1878, the latest date for which particulars as to the distribution of land in Eussia are obtainable, about 54 per cent, of the arable land of Eussia proper was held by these communities. The existence of these com- munities operates to some extent as a check upon migration and emigra- tion, since a member of a mir loses his rights by a prolonged absence ; but this fact in some parts of the country has been unable to counteract the attractions of towns where manufacturing industries are springing up, or of regions where the fertihty of the soil makes agriculture more profitable than in the district quitted. 631. The table on p. 463 shows sufficiently well that Russia iS' in the main an agricultural State, but it does not serve to give any idea of the relative importance of different crops in the production of the country. Rye is produced to an amount about four times as great as wheat, and the second of the corn-crops in importance is oats. In the total production of wheat, Eussia (on the average of the ten years 1877-86) ranks next after France among European countries. Wheat and most other grains are exported chiefly from the Black Sea, but it maybe mentioned, as an additional illustration of the importance of the Eussian waterways, that a great deal of the wheat of the eastern pro- vinces, and even those pretty far south, where wheat is principally grown , is carried by the Volga up to Eibinsk, 'the Eussian Chicago,' and thence forwarded by water, or in winter by rail, to St. Petersburg. As to Eussian flax, hemp, sugar-beet, and wine, see pars. 192, 197, 190, and 183 respectively. Cigar tobacco is grown round Samara. 632. Though agriculture and forestry form the basis Of by far the greater part of the export trade of Eussia, the mineral wealth of the country is enormous, and its mining and manufacturing industries are rapidly extending. Coal and iron are both abundant. Coal is found principally in four localities, (1) west of the TJral Mountains in a district to which a branch line proceeds northwards from the Perm- Tyumen railway, (2) in a district to the south and south-west of Moscow, (3) in the south-west of Poland, and (4) in the valley of the Donets, a right-bank tributary of the Don. The last-mentioned field is the largest of all, covering altogether an area of 10,500 square miles — not much less than the aggregate area of the coalfields of the United Kingdom (376). Lying, however, in a sparsely-peopled district, it has only recently begun to be opened up, but its development is now going on rapidly, and its yield increased from about 750,000 tons in 1885 to nearly 3,000,000 tons in 1888. Iron ores are obtained not only in the district of the Urals already referred to (627), but also in several dis- tricts to the south of Moscow, in the south-west of Poland, and at Krivoi Rog, about 100 miles N. by E. of Kherson. Krivoi Eog, Briansk, west of Orel, at the head of navigation on the Desna, and one or two places in the south-west of Poland, are the centres in which the iron and steel industries are now most rapidly developing. Gold, T 274 RUSSIA platinum, and copper are found in the neighbourhood of Ekaterinburg* east of the Urals ; mercury, about 100 miles north-west of the Sea of Azof ; salt in the area below sea-level, north of the Caspian, and in the Crimea — in both districts chiefly from brine-lakes. The principal brine-lakes are those of Baskunchatski and Elton, in the Caspian region, 633. The textile industries are advancing with great rapidity, and factories are rapidly superseding hand labour in the districts in which such industries have flourished longest as handicrafts, namely in Moscow and the populous district round, and in the Polish and Baltic provinces. As a manufacturing town, LODZ, in Western Poland, has advanced in recent years with extraordinary rapidity, having increased its population from about 29,000 in 1860 to upwards of 150,000 in 1887, mainly through the rise of cotton and woollen factories. In the Baltic provinces the chief cotton-manufacturing town next to St. Petersburg is Narva, where the rise of factories has been stimulated by the existence of water-power, as in Poland and near Moscow it has been by the vicinity of coal-supplies. Cotton-manufactures are the most important of all Russian manufacturing industries, and next in order are those of wool. The table on p. 462 shows the increasing percentage value of both of these raw materials among Russian imports, and so far have the industries in these materials developed that Russia is already independent of foreign supplies of yam except in the case of the higher numbers. Next to cotton and woollen products the most important manufactures of Russia in point of value are those of machinery, the other two great textile industries of hnen and silk coming next. The linen industry of Russia, which being nourished by the abundant local supplies of flax (192), furnished till about 1820 an important export, is now only slowly recovering from the blows inflicted on it by the introduction of machine-made linens in other countries. The linens, formerly coarse, though strong, are now not to be distinguished from those of Western manufacture. All kinds of industries are pursued at the three chief towns of the country, ST. PETERSBURG (900), MOSCOW (750), and WARSAW (450). 634. The principal seaports on the Baltic and its arms are St. Petersburg, with Kronstadt, Reval, and Riga, the first three on the Gulf of Finland, the last on a river entering the gulf to which Riga gives name. Till the middle of 1885 Kronstadt was the port of ST. PETERSBURG for all large shipping, but a canal (now being deepened to 22 feet) was then opened through the shallow end of the gulf to St. Petersburg, and from that very year the great bulk of the shipping was transferred to St. Petersburg, notwithstanding the deficiency of its harbour accommodation. The harbour of Reval has also been deepened and extended, and in recent years it has rapidly developed into a great cotton-port, importing large quantities of this material direct from the United States. RIGA is also having its accommodation for shipping improved, by the regulation of the Diina. Its port for large shipping CHIEF TOWNS. FINLAND 275 is Dunamiinde, at the mouth of that river. The minor Baltic ports (exclusive of those of Finland) are Liban, Pernau, and Windau, the first of which (the farthest south) has a very considerable trade. 635. On the Black Sea the chief port is ODESSA, the harbour of which, being on the sea itself (east of the Dniester), is not so apt to be closed by ice as the river ports. Here also deepening is going on, and the harbour has already in some places been deepened to 22 feet. It is the headquarters of the Eussian Steam Navigation Company. The shipping both of the port of Xicolaief, on the Bug, and Kherson, on the Dnieper, has to cross the Ochakof Bar, the water in which has now been deepened by dredging to 20 feet. Works are in progress for providing a channel of 22 feet all the way to Nicolaief, the shipping of which is now developing rapidly. Sebastopol, in the Crimea, is a rising commercial port, and among other minor Black Sea ports are Akerman (on the inlet that receives the Dniester), Eaffa, or Feodosia, and Kerch, the last of which had at one time a good deal of business in lightening ships before crossing the bar at the Straits of Kerch or Tenikale. The channel across this bar is now being deepened to 22 feet, and at present another entrance to the Sea of Azof is being made by piercing the Isthmus of Ferekop at the north of the Crimea. The chief ports on the Sea of Azof are Taganrog, Azof, Rostof, Berdiansk, and Mariupol, this last being the rising port of the Donets coaliield. Astrakhan, the chief Caspian seaport, is the centre of the important fisheries of the Caspian Sea and the Volga (sturgeon, &c.— 370). Archangel: see (6266, 626 tZ). 636. Among the chief inland towns besides those already men- tioned are KIEF, on the Dnieper, centre of the Eussian sugar-refining, and with important leather manufactures ; SARATOF, on the Volga, a centre of the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco ; KHARKOF, a centre of trade and industry ; Orenburg, on the Ural, the starting- point of caravans to the East. 637. Large periodical fairs are still characteristic of the inland, and even to some extent of the foreign, trade of Eussia. The chief are those of Nizhni-Novgorod (confluence of the Oka and Volga), Poltava, Kharkof, Kief, all three in the south-west. The great fairs of Nizhni- Novgorod, the most important of which is held annually in August, are international, Asia and Europe there exchanging products. The value of the goods sold at the fair sometimes amounts to about 20,000,000Z. Irbit, east of the Urals, north-west of Tyumen, is the seat of fairs of great importance to the Siberian fur-trade. 638. FINLAND is a part of the Eussian Empire which has a sepa- rate (parliamentary) government. Its inhabitants are mainly confined to a strip on the south, and even there the density of population is small. The products are similar to those of the neighbouring parts of Eussia. The capital and chief port is Helsingfors. The principal ports on the Gulf of Bothnia are Abo, Bjorueborg, and Vasa, t2 276 EOUMANIA. (See Maps, pp. 204-5, 270-71, and 298-99.) 639. This country is made up of two portions, which, though very far from equal in area, must be treated separately ; a section on the left of the Danube formed of the old principalities of Moldavia and ■Wallaohia, and the Dobruja, on the right bank of the Danube. The former section may be described as a continuation of the Galician plateau in the northern or Moldavian portion, and of the Eussian plain in the southern or WaUachian portion. The climate and products are similar to those of the adjoining part of Eussia! The nature of the foreign commerce is shown, on p. 459, and here it may be added that the Boumanian export of maize is the largest in the world next to that of the United States. With regard to communications, the effect of the barrier presented by the Carpathians has already been referred to (610). On the Lower Danube great improvements have been effected by a European commission appointed in terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1856. The Sulina mouth of the river has been straightened and deepened to such an extent that even in years of very low water there js always a depth of at least 15|^ feet in the main charmel as high as BraUa, Much dredging is required to maintain this depth, for the swift and turbid rivers that flow into it from the north, especially the Sereth ajid Fruth, sometimes form large shoals in it with great rapidity. As to the Danube navigation higher up, see 612. The freedom of navigation for all sea-going vessels, of whatever nationality, is upheld by international treaty. The principal Danubian ports in 'Eoumania are Galatz, situated at the point where the Danube on receiving the Sereth turns eastwards, and BraUa (Ibraila), at the next bend of the river higher up. The former is the natural port for northern Eoumania, the latter for southern Eoumania, including Buka- rest. At present the commerce of Galatz is the more important, but that of Braila is growing at its expense. Above Braila, the value of the Danube for Eoumanian commerce is somewhat impaired by the low and marshy character of the river bank, which affords few good sites for towns. Besides BTJKAREST (220), the capital, the chief inland towns are Tassy, the capital of Moldavia, Ployeshti, and Kraiova. THE DOBRUJA 277 640. The Dobruja is made up to the extent of about two-thirda of its area of uninhabitable and unhealthy marshes, mainly belonging to the delta of the Danube. The remainder is habitable and to a large extent fertile land, but so far the province is mainly pastoral in its character. Wool is annually produced in it to the amount of more than 8,000,000 lbs. A railway crosses the province from Cherna- Toda, on the Danube, to Eustenji, its chief port. The port of Man* galia is further south. 878 SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 641. These two countries fall to be treated of together, not because they happen to acknowledge the rule of one king (though otherwise independent), but because they both occupy the Scandinavian penin- sula, and hence have certain great physical features in common. The greater part of this peninsula is made up of a high tableland furrowed by deep and narrow river valleys. The surface of this tableland rises from about 1,000 feet in height ia the north to upwards of 3,000 feet in the south, and, as increasing height thus takes away the advantage of a more favourable latitude, it presents everywhere a desolate aspect, almost the only vegetation being heaths, mosses, and lichens. The lowlands of the peninsula are chiefly in the east and south, and hence Norway has by far the largest proportion of tableland ; its cultivable lowlands, indeed, are confined to a few valleys in the west, with a rather larger area round Christiania Fjord. Hence the total area under crops and grass in Norway, notwithstanding that it has a more favourable chmate than Sweden (40 a), is only 4 per cent, of the surface, as against 12 per cent, or more in Sweden ; and hence, too, the inferior density of population in the former country as compared with the latter. 642. The rivers of the peninsula are for the most part too much obstructed by rapids to be of any great use for navigation, but some of their valleys are long enough and direct enough to greatly facilitate communication between the more populous districts on different sides of the plateau. A railway has been laid from Trondhjem, nearly due southwards, to Christiania, by the vaUey of the Glommen and the side of Lake Mjosen, which Ues to the west of an easterly deviation of the Glommen. Another railway has been laid from Trondhjem eastwards across the tableland, from the eastern base of which it descends south-eastwards to Stockholm. A third railway across the tableland, now in progress, is noteworthy as being in a higher latitude than any other railway in the world, the greater part of its route from Lulea, near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, to the head of the Ofoten Fjord, being within the Arctic Circle. This railway has been constructed to provide an outlet for the rich ores of the ironstone mountain of Gelli- vara, as well as for other deposits of iron ore further north, and owing to the contrasts of climate already referred to, while providing a COMMUNICATIONS, PRODUCTS 275 shorter railway journey to the eastern seaport during the summer half of the year, in which alone that port is open, will, when completed, furnish an outlet on the western side to a port open all the year round. 643. Though the rivers of the Scandinavian peninsula are of little service to navigation, the lakes of the lowland region of Southern Sweden are of high importance in this respect. Lakes Wener and Wetter, and other smaller lakes, together with the navigable portion of the Gota Eiver, are all connected by a sMp-eanal nine feet in depth, and water-communication is thus estabhshed between the opposite coasts of Southern Sweden. 644. The products of the two kingdoms are in some respects similar, and their nature is in some degree illustrated by the tables of exports on pp. 452-24. From those tables it will be seen that in both timber forms the most important of the exports. In Sweden, the forests cover more than 39 per cent, of the surface ; in Norway, about 21 per cent. ; and the two countries together furnish about two-fifths of the timber exported by European countries. The timber is chiefly that of pine and fir, and is valued on account of its hardness and durability, qualities which are due to the closeness of the annual rings in consequence of the shortness, of the summers. Wood-pulp for paper- making (437) is among the timber products of growing importance both in Sweden and Norway, and in both eountriea the abundance of wood has also given rise to a large manufacture of lucifer matches. The com and green crops of both kingdoms are much the same as in Great Britain, but in both parts of Scandinavia oats and barley predominate. It will be observed from the tables, that Norway is to a greater extent than Sweden dependent on foreign supplies of grain, and that Sweden has, even a large export of oats and a considerable export of barley to put against its import of rye and rye-meal. An- other agricultural export of importance in Sweden is butter. The statistical tables show that this is rising both in absolute and relative value among the exports, and increasing attention is being given in Sweden to the improvMaent of the methods of dairying. Dairy schools have been established ; and it may also be mentioned here, as an illustration of the importance of this industry in Sweden, that the cream-separator is a Swedish invention. 645. The tables both of import and export on pp. 452 to 454 like- wise bring into prominence the- distinguishing differences in the produc- tions of the two kingdoms. The export tables reveal in the plainest manner the mineral wealth of Sweden, and the extensive development of the Norwegian fisheries. As regards mineral wealth, the import tables betray in both a deficiency of coal, though this fuel is found in Sweden in the part of Scania (Schoonen), adjoining the north end of the Sound. The chief mineral region of Sweden, however, is in the east of the country, on both sides of the Dal Eiver. Most important of all are the iron-mines of Dannemora,, which have made Sweden 28o SWEDEN AND NORWAY famous for its iron for hundreds of years (513 e). The Lnlea-Ofoten railway may he expected greatly to extend the trade in Swedish iron ore, for it will enable the ore of Gellivara, which contains 70 per cent, of iron, to be brought to the furnaces of Great Britain at the same cost as the Basque ores (660), which contain only 50 per cent.' In the southern mining region Sweden also produces copper, at Falun, west of Gefle, and silver and lead at Sala, west of Upsala. 646. Norway is not altogether without minerals, for it has valuable copper-mines at Koros in the valley of the Glommen and elsewhere, and silver-mines at Kongsberg, about thirty miles west of Christiania Fjord ; and among its minor minerals may be mentioned deposits of apatite (423'llc) at various places near Stavanger, and a valuable deposit of infusorial earth (423'16 c) containiag from 85 to 95 per cent, of pure silica near the same town. 647. Bergen, on the west coast, north of 60°, is the centre of the Norwegian herring-fisheries, and those of cod are mainly carried on in spring, on a shallow bank surrounding the Lofoden Isles. ' This is the emporium of the north Norwegian, his field and his shop, from which his family and house are supplied, and without it Nordland and Finnmarken would boast few other inhabitants than seals and sea- birds ' (358 c). The importance of the whale-fishery,^ including the bottle-nose fishery, of Norway is indicated by the export of train oil ; but it must be remembered that the local supply of oil for illumination thus obtained is of peculiar value in countries which have such long winter nights as Norway and Sweden. At Bergen, Christiania, and Stockholm, the shortest day is less than six hours long ; at Trondhjem and Hemosand, only about four hours. (Comp. 486 a and 738.) The necessary illuminant is obtained in Sweden by importing mineral oil, but in Norway the home-made train oil enables the inhabitants to a large extent to dispense with the imported article. 648. The absence of raw cotton from the list of chief imports of Norway shows the undeveloped state of the textile industry in that country as compared with Sweden. The chief industrial towns in the latter country are STOCKHOLM (205), the capital, Gothenburg, and HorrkOping. 649. Seaports. The chief seaport of Sweden is Gothenburg (Gote- borg) — the port mostly directly accessible from Great Britain and France, as well as Hamburg, fi:om which Sweden obtains most of its coffee, and Bremen, from which it obtains most of its tobacco (see p. 453). Malmb, from its situation, naturally has a large trade with Denmark and Germany. Halmstad, on the Kattegat, is a rising port. Its harbour is now being deepened to 17 feet. On the Baltic and its arms, the chief seaports besides Stockholm are Gefle, Norr- ' In the natural state. Dried at a temperature of 212° F., the Basque ores con- tain from 55 to 60 per cent, of iron. " Sophus Tromholt, Under the Bays of the Aurora BoreaUs, vol. i. pp. 18-19. SEAPORTS 281 kbping, Christianstad, Soderhamn, Sundsvall, Hernosand. Only ruing still testify to the former commercial importance of Wisby (Visby), on the island of Gottland. Nearly all the towns in Norway of any importance are seaports. The chief are Christiania (the capital) and Bergen ; among the others are Drammen, Tonsberg, Christiansand, Stavanger, Christiansund, Trondhjem, and in the far north Tromso and Hammerfest. The ship- ping table on p. 482 indicates the importance of the wooden shipping of Norway. This seems only natural when we consider the abun- dance of timber for building-material, the large number of good and constantly open harbours on the coast, inviting to a sea-faring life, and the scantiness of the means of subsistence on the land, of which there is so small an area available for cultivation (641). 282 DENMAEK. 650. The islands belonging to this kingdom, namely Seeland, Fyen, laaland, Falster, &c., between the Kattegat and the Baltic, and the island of Bornholm, further east in the Baltic, are for the most part fertile and well peopled. The eastern haK of the peninsula of Jutland hkewise contains much fertile land and numerous good seaports, but the western half is largely composed of barren sand-hills, and is bordered by a line of dangerous sand-downs, without any good seaport, though the small seaport of Esbjerg, ia the south-west, maintains a trade in cattle with Great Britain. Seeing that so much of the trade of the country is carried on with Great Britain and the western ports of Germany (see p. 455), the importance of having a good port on this side is obvious, and a Danish commission was appointed to inquire into the feasibility of any scheme for providing one. The commis- sion recommended the construction of a ship-canal through the Liimfiord, in the north, and a port at its western end. The channels separating the islands necessarily interrupt to some extent the railway communication, but the railway-trains are ferried across the channel between Seeland and Falster, and in that way the shortest communication between Copenhagen and Germany (Rostock) is effected. 651. The tables on pp. 454-55 show that Denmark is essentially an agricultural and especially a cattle-rearing country. The impor- tance of butter among the exports has made the Danish legislature jealous of the reputation of this commodity, so that it has empowered the Minister of the Interior to forbid the exportation of artificial butter whenever he shall find it necessary. The import tables show how largely Denmark is dependent on foreign manufactures, but the interest taken in the development of local manufacturing industry is shown by the flourishing condition of the Copenhagen Institute for the Encouragement of Danish Industry. During a large part of the year the institute holds monthly exhibitions, allotting free space to exhibitors, and promotes Danish industry in other ways. The only Danish manufacturing industry that has a reputation out of the country is glove-making, for which the numerous live-stock of the country furnish raw material. 652. A country like Denmark cannot be expected to have many SEAPORTS, DEPENDENCIES 283 large towns, and COPENHAGEN (812') has a population about ten times as large as any other in the country.* Besides being the papital, it is the chief seat of industry and of commerce. The Sound, on which it stands, is the shortest route between the Baltic and the Kattegat, and hence the site of the town — partly on the mainland of Seeland, partly on the smaller island of Amager — is well suited for a ' merchants' haven ' (Danish, Kjobenhavn). Elsinore, at the northern end of the Sound, has ceased to be a place of much importance since the Danish tolls collected here on vessels passing through the Sound were abolished by international agreement in 1857. Vessels of the largest size have to make use of the Great Belt (between Seeland and Fyen), the deepest of the channels connecting the Baltic and the Kattegat. The chief Danish ports on the east of Jutland are Aarhus and Aalborg, the latter on the Liimfiord. 653. The Faroe Islands north-west of Scotland are dependencies of Denmark, and so also is the larger island of Iceland. The in- habitants of both maintain themselves chiefly by sheep-rearing, fishing, and the collecting of eggs and eider-down. The inhabitants of Iceland are only about 70,000 in number, or about 1^ to the square mile. The chief seaport of the island is Beikjarik, on the southern part, of the west coast. • Inclusive of the suburb of Frederiksberg, on the island of Seeland, the population in 1890 was about 360,000. ' With the exception of the suburb of Copenhagen mentioned in the previous note. 284 SPAIN AND POETUGAL. 654. The Iberian Peninsula, which is made up of the two countries named at the head of this chapter, has, with the islands belonging to these two countries, an axea rather less than twice as large as that of the British Isles, but a population only about three-fifths as great as that of these islands. It will be observed, moreover, from the map (pp. 286-87) that this population is chiefly settled round the circum- ference of the peninsula, so that there remains a large area in the interior with an average density about equal to that of the least densely peopled counties of Scotland. (See map, pp. 220-21.) 655, This low density of population is partly explained by the cha- racter of the surface, which is very mountainous and unfavourable to internal communications. The Pyrenees, which separate the peninsula from France, are as yet uncrossed by any railway between those which pass round their extremities ; and on these latter, it may be mentioned, there is an interruption to traflBc, arising from a difference of gauge between the French and Spanish railways, this difference being main- tained as a defensive precaution. The Pyrenees are continued west- wards by the Cantabrian and Asturian Mountains ; and though the coast on the north is populous and rich in seaports, only five of these seaports, including Corunna, are connected with the interior by rail. A distance of about 43 miles lies between the crossing-places of the two railways through the Basque provinces, namely that which goes to the port of St. Sebastian, and thence to the French frontier, and that which goes to the fort of Bilbao. There is an interval of 62 miles in a direct line between the crossing-place of the latter line, and of that to the port of Santander, a further interval of 81 miles to the crossing-place of the hne to Gijon, and one of 84 miles to that which enters Galicia by the valley of the Sil, and then divides, sending out one branch along the Minho, and another north and north-west to Corunna. (See map, pp. 284-85.) South of these mountains the greater part of the peninsula is occupied by a tableland, with an average height of about 2,700 feet in its northern, and about 2,600 feet in its southern half, and this tableland is bordered everywhere, except in the west, by mountains and steep slopes presenting obstacles to railway construction, while the rarity of the population, and in many parts the absence of natural Metire^rn, y . 284 onA 28S Z.oru^rru2ns . GT-(ien,. 28G ortd 287. X^nffmxijis. Gre.en.<& Co,Londmi^,l^e.'H'ybT-h,,StBoTnhc^: F.S.Weller.F.^R.Gi IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS ■ 2^^ been used for this purpose m the most admirable manner, in some cases since the time of the Eomans, in others since that of the Moors. The water of theEbro is being increasingly turned to account in this way, and that of the Imperial Canal is of more service for irrigation than navi- gation. The huertas (gardens) of Valencia and Murcia, the former nourished by the waters of the Jucar and Turia or Guadalaviar, the latter by those of the Segura ; the huerta of Elche, in which every drop of the summer waters of the Vinalapo is used up in supplying a grove of date- palms planted by the Moors ; and the vega of Granada, fed by the Jenil, a tributary of the Guadalquivir, are all renowned throughout Europe. At Lorca, in the south of Murcia, ' the water is in the hands of a large number of proprietors, who may or may not be holders of land, and it is sold by pubUc auction every morning during the irriga- ting season. . . . Each peasant buys the amount he requires for the day, and pays for it in advance, and the proceeds are divided amongst the various proprietors of the water. The average value of a cubic foot of water per second per annum, in this place, is 2,300Z.' • The total area of irrigated ground in Spain is upwards of 4,400 square miles, more than twice that of the county of Norfolk. 659. The irrigated ground is used for the cultivation of vegetables and garden fruits of all kinds — oranges, mulberries, rice, and in some places for maize. Maize, however, is chiefly grown in the rainier provinces of the peninsula — that is, in Portugal and the north-west of Spain, where it forms the staple food of the people. The chief places of production of cork and esparto (440) are shown on the map (pp. 286-87). The more fertile parts of the Spanish tableland produce excellent wheat, which about ten years ago was an important export, though in recent years the import of this commodity has come to exceed the export both of wheat and wheat-flour. Among the crops more specially characteristic of Spanish agriculture are chick-peas — which enter into the daily food of the people of all classes, and are exported in consider:- able quantity to the Spanish possessions — onions, and garlic. Oranges, the principal sub -tropical fruit of Spain and Portugal, are confined to land at no great distance from the coast. Figs, almonds, cactuses, pomegranates, and carob-trees are also largely cultivated, and in the southern provinces even bananas, cherimolias, and other tropical fruits. Under the protection of favourable fiscal laws, the cultivation even of sugarcane has been attended with no little success (though not un- mixed success) in the provinces of Granada, Malaga, and Almeria. As to wine, wool, and olives, see pars. 183-85, 202, 326 respectively. 660. The mineral wealth of Spain is very abundant, and has been renowned for ages, though even yet it is far from being fully developed. Iron ore exists in immense quantity in the Basque provinces, and above all in the province of Biscay (Vizcaya). Bilbao (385), the port from which the ore is dispatched, exports a greater quantity of iron ore than any ' Higgin's Commercial and Itidustrial Spain, pp. 92, 93. 288 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. other seaport on the mainland of Europe. Mnrcia ranks second among the provinces of Spain in the production of iron ore, Cartagena being the place of export for valuable iron ores mined a few miles to the north-east. In the south of Spain excellent iron ores are mined near Marbella, and exported thence (see map, pp. 284-85). All these places furnish ores rich in iron (the proportion varying from about 53 to 63 per cent, in the ore dried at a temperature of 212° F.'), and sufficiently free from phosphorus to be used in making Bessemer steel by the ordinary process (393). Other parts of Spain produce iron ores of lower quality. 660 a. Lead is obtained at linares, on the outer slopes of the Sierra Morena, south of the Puerto de Despenaperros, and also among the mountains to the north-west of the seaport of Almeria. The great copper-mines are those of Eio Tinto, in the west of Andalusia ; and Huelva, at the mouth of the river, is the place of export. Silver is found not only associated with lead at Linares, but also in other forms in several other places. Almaden, in the south-west of New Castile, has the principal quicksilver (cinnabar) mines in the world except those of the United States. Zinc-blende and calamine are also among the more important Spanish ores. Coal exists in large quantity, but unfortu- nately not in many cases in convenient situations, and the production is as yet only small. The total area of the coalfields is estimated at 5,500 square miles, of which about 1,050 square miles belong to the mountainous province of Asturias, or Oviedo, in which are the principal mines. A railway from the centre of the coal-mining region runs to the port of Gijon. Bay-salt is largely produced on the southern coasts both of Spain and Portugal, and rook-salt is also abundant. Near Cardona, in Catalonia, there is an entire mountain of this mineral. The bay-salt produced in the lagoon or estuary of the Sado, in Portugal, and exported from Setubal (the St. Ives of English seamen), which stands at the mouth of that estuary, is recognised as the best salt in Europe. Phosphorite, a valuable manure (423"llc), is found ia large quantity in Estremadura, and is exported to Portugal. (See map, pp. 284-85.) 66L The situation of the chief seats of Spanish manufacturing industry has been determined more by conveniences for commerce than by local supplies of coal or coal and iron. BARCELONA (250), which is now the chief seaport of Spain, and has been so at more than one period in Spanish history, has long taken the lead among manu- facturing towns, as Catalonia, the old province to which it belongs, has done among manufacturing provinces. Next in importance to Catalonia in this respect are the Basque provinces, where the existence of several seaports has long maintained an active commerce, where the abundance of iron ore has developed a large iron industry, and where the water-power of the Cantabrian Mountains is likewise used in driving modern machinery. The smelting and manufacture of iron are also ' Comp. p. 280, n. 1. MANUFACTURES: SEAPORTS 2S9 largely carried on in the province of Oviedo in the neighbourhood of the coal-supplies, and to that province belongs the government factory of artillery &c. at La Trtibia (a few miles west of the town of Oviedo). The southern seaports of Seville, Malaga, and Cartagena have all recently risen into important seats of industry of various kinds. 662. Among locally characteristic industries may be mentioned esparto-plaiting, carried on in the provinces which produce this grass, and silk-spinning and weaving in Valencia and Murcia, where the silk- worm is principally reared. Toledo, on the Tagus (one of the old capitals of Spain), is still noted for the sword-blades which in former times made the name of the city almost a synonym for a sword. The leather industry, so renowned when the Moorish kingdom of Cordova was at the height of its glory, has now declined. 663. AU the chief seaports are named on the map, pp. 284-85, and from this also may be learned which of them have direct com- inunication with the interior. Those which have the best natural harbours are Barcelona, Cartagena, Malaga, and the ports on the west coast of Galicia. The harbour of Barcelona, protected by the fort of Montjuich, has been made deep enough to admit the largest Vessels, and quays for the accommodation of these have been pro- vided at the suburb of Barceloneta. The harbour of Tarragona has been artificially formed at some distance from that of its ancient Boman predecessor Tarraco, the ancient harbour being now choked with sand. The harbour of Cadiz, which, together with the position of the town at the entrance to the fertile valley of Andalusia, made this a seaport in the earliest times, is accessible only to small coasting vessels, but outside of the harbour there is a fine roadstead. The harbour of Huelva, though wide and deep enough to accommodate a large fleet of the largest vessels, is obstructed by a shifting bar at the mouth of the Eio Tinto, but this bar can be crossed by specially constructed vessels of as much as 8,000 tons burden. The opposite port of Falos is historically interesting as the place of departure of Columbus on the voyage in which he discovered the New World. SEVILLE has been made a seaport for large vessels, and is main- tained as such only by dredging, 663 a. All the ports on the north coast are liable to be obstructed by bars, due to the accumulation of sand caused by a current which creeps eastwards along the coast. The importance of the port of Bilbao has led to the expenditure of large sums of money to remove this defect. The river Nervion, on which Bilbao stands, has been canalised, and the depth of water on the bar increased to an average of twenty-two feet at spring tides, eighteen at neap tides ; but this has been effected only by making the navigation channel extremely narrow and difficult. Improvements now being made on the port of Pas- ajes (east of San Sebastian) are likely to make this a great port of entry at the expense of Bilbao. 233 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 664. The chief Portuguese seaports on the west coast are OPORTO,- LISBON (200), and Setubal ; on the south coast, Faro and OlMo. At present a new harbour for Oporto is being constructed at Leixoes, three miles north of the mouth of the Douro, in order to avoid the bar at the mouth of the river already referred to ; and on the land side the communications of Oporto have lately been improved by the con- struction of a railway to Salamanca, which reduces the distance by rail to Paris to 1,031 miles, or 283 miles less than from Lisbon to Paris. The estuary of the Tagus forms an admirable natural harbour for Madrid (410 miles distant by rail), but vessels of the largest size have to lie in mid- stream at the port ; and a bar at the mouth of the river makes the entrance dangerous without a pilot. Here also im- provements are in progress. 665. HADRID (500) owes its importance solely to its being the political capital of Spain and to its central position, VALLADOLID is the chief centre of trade for the northern half of the Spanish table- land (Leon and Castile).. 665 a. Gibraltar, a fortress on a commanding rock at the east of the strait of that name (at this place nearly 18 miles, at its narrowest about 8 mUes wide), has been in the hands of the British since 1704, The Spaniards complain of the smuggling alleged to be carried on across thg British frontier. " 291 ITALY. 666. The area of Italy is about one-twelfth less than that of the United Kingdom, but the population nearly one-fifth smaller. The density of the population is thus less on the whole, but, as the map shows, the density is nearly everywhere high. Enclosed on the north and north-west by the Alps, and washed almost everywhere else by the sea, the country has well-defined natural boundaries. The hindrance to communication presented by the Alps and the nature of the communications now established across and through this barrier have already been considered (575). Many passes across the Apennines, which are continuous with the Alps in the north-, west, and stretch through the entire peninsula, have facilitated the construction of railways, and, as is shown on the map, pp. 246-47,, there are now several lines completed or ia progress connecting the principal railways on opposite sides of the peninsula. These last, it will be seen, keep for the most part close to the coast-line, that on the east being continued along the south coast to Eeggio, on the Strait of Messina. On the eastern side the railway, running north- wards, forks at Rimini, and one main line proceeds north-westwards, with remarkable directness till it crosses the Po at the old bridge-town of Piacenza ; passing through a number of old towns of more or less note, Forli, Faenza, Imola, Bologna, Modena, Eeggio, each lying at the outlet of a valley of the Apennines (114). This railway-line marks pretty well the boundary between the foot-hills of these mountains and the great plain which stretches between them and the Alps. The other main line still keeps near the coast as far as Ravenna, and then sweeps round the low and marshy region extending from the delta of the Po to the mouth of the Eeno, crosses the Po near Ferrara, and passes through Padua to Venice. The marshy region just referred to includes the lagoons called the Valli di Comacchio, which are of im- portance for their production of bay-salt and their eel-culture. 667. The navigable rivers of Italy are nearly all confined to the great northern plain. The Po is navigable for boats to Turin, for steamers to Valenza, seven miles below the confluence of the Sesia ; the Ticino is navigable from its issue from Lake Maggiore ; the Adda from its issue from Lake Como, the Adige from a little below Botzen in Tyrol (Austria), the Bacchiglione from Vicenza, the Brenta from d2 292 - ITAL 7 Padua. In the peninsnlar portion of the country the only navigable rivers are the Amoandthe Tiber, the former being navigable by boats to Florence, the latter by steamers to £ome, and by smaller boats sixty miles higher up. The position of a projected ship-canal across the south of Italy is shown on the map, pp. 246-47. 668. The climate of Italy has the characteristics of that of the Mediterranean in general, but if we make a comparison with Spain and Portugal it is important to observe that Italy lies further north than the Iberian Peninsula, that the Italian Peninsula is narrower, and that the surface is more irregularly mountainous. Whereas nearly half of the Iberian Peninsula hes to the south of 40° N., in Italy the only parts to the south of that line are the southern half of the Island of Sardinia, the whole of Sicily, and portions of the smaller peninsulas of the mainland. These southern portions of Italy have a climate Uke that of Southern Spain (667), and in particular are distinguished by the same degree of drought in the summer months. The greater part of Italy, however, is blessed with a much greater rainfall than Spain, for whereas in Spain the edges of the tableland serve to cut off rain to a large extent from the interior, the mountains of Italy promote the rainfall, especially since they descend to the sea on both sides. Even the plain on the north of the Apennines is not deprived of rain through the intervention of these mountains, since the rain-bearing winds are forced to ascend still higher by the loftier ranges of the Alps. The glaciers of these mountains likewise help to maintain the volume of the innumerable streams which descend from them, and thus increase the supply of water for irrigation, which has been carried out on a more extensive scale in Italy than anywhere else in Europe. The irrigated area in the Po basin is about equal in size to the counties of Lincoln and Norfolk combined. 669. Altogether, the cHmate and soU of Italy are sufficiently good to allow of the existence of a large population directly dependent upon agriculture. The area occupied by corn-crops is about twice as great as in the United Kingdom, over and above the area under vineyards, olive-yards, fruit-trees, flax, and hemp, pasture-grasses, &c. The principal corn-crop is wheat. It covers from four to five times as great an area as in the United Kingdom, but the only Italian wheat that is noted for its quality is that of Apulia, in the south-east, where there is grown a hard wheat well adapted for making maccaroni. Maize, the second Italian corn-crop in extent of acreage, furnishes the chief food of the people throughout a large part of the country (159). As the maize that falls to the lot of the poorer classes is often mildewed, the use of this standing dish is blamed as the cause of a disgusting disease known as pellagra, very prevalent among the Italians. The recent rise of an import trade in cheap Indian wheat suitable for making maccaroni may therefore be of importance to the Italian people through providing them with a more wholesome diet. 20 IP 16 ITALY, mtt the adjacent parts of AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. Density of PoptdatLon and Producte. 50-100 XOO-ISO 150-200 200-300 300 -500 -Abora 500 "n ^ to +lie squajceMilfi. / y -^- 12 LarLrfxtude Jl.asl 14^ of Green^oh- 16 Lviujmans, (irnnS Ch. l.„iu!o,^.!.'e.,f l scouring action of th&tide has been so much increased that the channel has been deepened from about 16/ to about 30 feet, and the adjoining part of the lagoon has likewise s>teadily increased, in depth. Chioggia is the port at the south end of the lagoon to which Venice belongs. Brindisi is not of much coneecfuence as a com^mercial port, but is well known throughout the world as the place for taking up and landing passengers and mails on the laild route to and from the Isthmus of Suez and the East. NAPLES (500), the most populous townin Italy, has a deep and spacious harbour enclosed by moles. At this port also the imports, consisting mainly of cereals and a variety of manufactured articles, are of three or four times the value of the exports, among which the chief are animals and animal products, hemp and flax. Fiumicino, founded in 1825, a little to the north of the mouth of the Tiber, is one of the ports of Rome, but does not rival the older but ' age ITALY more distant port of Civita Veochia {' Old Town '). The port of Civita Vecchia is an artificial creation, and the harbour is still in need of improvement. It has already been deepened in part to 21 feet, but rocks at a depth of \1\ feet have not yet been removed from its bottom. GENOA has a fine natural harbour, but the growing commerce has necessitated improvements and enlargements. FAXERMO^ the chief Sicilian port, has not so good a harbour as its ancient predecessor Panormus, the modern town, in consequence of a rise of the coast, covering part of the site of the ancient harbour. Dredging and blasting are now being carried on to deepen the present harbour. Most of the Sicilian ports export large quantities of oranges and other fruit. Palermo is also the chief place of export of Sicilian sumach and manna. MESSINA exports large quantities of wine-lees ; Marsala is the chief place of export of wine ; Girgenti, Licata, and CATANIA are the chief ports for sulphur. For the names of other seaports see the map, pp. 246-47. 678. Besides Eome, the capital, the chief inland towns are Milan, Turin, and Florence. ROME (300) owes its pre-eminence more perhaps to historical than to geographical circumstances ; but its situation is not without geographical advantages, some of which must have been of more importance ia early times. It lies about midway between the extremes of the kingdom, on the chief river of the peninsula (667). To make it a seaport the Itahan government has adopted a project for connecting the city with the sea by a canal 33 feet in depth, and with a width of more than 260 feet (507 c). The lower part of the town is Hable to be inundated by the Tiber, but great embankments are now in progress to prevent such disasters. MILAN (325), the former capital of Lombardy, has become a great seat of trade, chiefly in consequence of its central position in one of the most fertile parts of the great northern plain. The Alpine passes approached by the roads along the banks of Lakes Maggiore and Como confer additional importance on it, and this importance has been further enhanced by the St. Gothard railway. It is the centre of the trade in sUk, a great seat of silk and other industries, and is noted for its cutlery. TURIN, the former capital of the kingdom of Sardinia, for a short time of the kingdom of Italy, is situated on the Po, where it passes round the base of a bastion of the Apennines, and just in face of the valley of the Dora Biparia, which leads up to two of the most frequented Alpine passes of the middle ages, the Mont GenSvre and Mont Cenis passes. It is the valley now traversed by the Mont Cenis railway on the eastern side of the Alps. FLORENCE, the former capital of Tuscany, lies at the head of the most considerable and fertile plain of that province, closely begirt by hills. BOLOGNA : see 666, 672. 678 a. Malta and Gozo are two densely peopled British islands to the south of Sicily. Valetta, on Malta, is an important fortress and coaling station. The prevailing language is a debased Arabic, that of the upper classes Itahan. Early potatoes (172) are the chief comnjercial product. 397 THE BALKAN PENINSULA. 679. Under this name we include the greater part of the region lying to the south of the Danube and Save. Together with the adja- cent islands belonging to Greece and to European Turkey (and among these Crete), the total area, exclusive of the Austrian province of Dalmatia, is about one-fourth larger than that of the United King- dom. Comprised in this area are European Turkey, the kingdoms of Greece and Servia, the principahty of Bulgaria, with Eastern Boumelia, the principahty of Montenegro, and the provinces of Sosnia and Herzegovina, under Austrian administration. 680. The population, except near the chief towns and on some of the islands, is scanty. The surface, including that of the islands, is highly motintaiuous, the most considerable extent of lowlands being those which border the Danube in the north of Bulgaria. The Save and the Danube form an important Une of communication on the north — how important, may be gathered from what has already been said elsewhere (612), as well as from the fact that a sea-going steamer has accomplished the voyage to a port in the east of Servia. The other rivers of the peninsula are of little importance for navigation, and the irregularity of the surface throws great obstacles in the way of inland communication by roads and railways. Two great routes are marked out by nature as lines of communication between the Danube near Belgrade and ports on the south coast. One of these ascends the valley of the Morava to the frontier of Servia, crosses a low-water parting (1,750 feet) between that valley and the valley of the Vardar, and descends the latter to the port of Salonica. The other branches off from this route eastwards at Nish in Servia, ascends the valley of the Nishava, and crossing a water-parting 2,400 feet in height, ultimately gains the valley of the Maritsa, in which are the most extensive lowlands of the peninsula away from the Danube. In the lower part of this valley the route divides. One branch con- tinues south-eastwards to Constantinople, and the other keeps to the valley of the Maritsa, and touches the jiEgean Sea at the port of Dede Agach, a little to the west of the mouth of that river. Railways have now been laid along all these routes. The last section on the line between Belgrade and Constantinople was opened in August 1888, before which date the shortest route between Constantinople and Western Europe continued to be that by sea to Varna, in Bulgaria, and 298 THE BALKAN PENINSULA thence by rail, crossing the Danube at Eustchuk, A branch from the direct railway to Constantinople strikes northwards about midway between Adrianople and Philippopolis, and then turns eastwards to YamboU on the Tunja, as yet the nearest railway terminus to the Eastern Eoumelian port of Burgas. 681. In view of the difiBculties of the ground and the paucity of the population, it seems likely that these railways will long remain the only through lines between the north and south of the peninsula. The railway up the valley of the Yardar has, indeed, been continued north-weStw'ards across the Shar Dagh as far as the Ibar Eiver in Novi- bazar, but beyond that the difficulties are in the meantime too great to hold out the prospect of a speedy connection with the railway that has already been constructed up the valley of the Bosna to Serayevo. A carriage-road made by the Eussians has since 1879 crossed the Balkans at the Shipka Pass (4,000 feet), but the descent from this pass on the southern side is too abrupt for a railway, even though the route on which it occurs is in other respects highly advantageous, connect- ing as it does the towns on the Lower Danube (Nikopoli, Sistova, Eust- chuk) with the valley of the Maritsa, and passing through some of the most productive parts of the peninsula. Surveys are at present being made with a view to a projected railway across a more easterly pass. See map, pp. 298-99, which shows also the railways open or isrojected in Greece. 682. A ship-canal 26 feet in depth is now being pierced through the Isthmus of Corinth, not merely for the purpose of effecting a saving in time (about half a day) in the voyage between the east and west of Greece, but also to enable ships to avoid the often dangerous voyage through the rocky waters in the neighbourhood of the Island of Cerigo. There is likewise a project for deepening the now shallow strait between the island of Santa Maura and the mainland, so as to make it passable by ships, and thus save four hours on the voyage between Corfu and Patras. 683. Of the inland works of engineering now in progress, those now approaching completion for the draining of Lake Topolias or Kopais are of high importance. When completed they will add nearly 100 square miles of excellent soil capable of irrigation to the cultivable land of Greece. Similar land adjoining now yields from 1,600 to 1,800 lbs. of cotton per acre (comp. 248, 249). 684. Notwithstanding the peninsular character of this region, and its southerly latitude, the climate, in accordance with the easterly position, is one of great extremes. In summer the temperature is as warm as in Italy, but in winter by far the greater part of the peninsula has more than a month of mean daily temperatures below the freezing- point. The districts in which such temperatures prevail longest are naturally those northern plains and high valleys which are more or less directly exposed to the cold winds from Eussia. B etweeii- p. 29 S ojiJ. S99 Loi-ujrnxuw . G-reerv^ Co,T.ondo7v.I^fwTorhSBa7n.ha^. F. S.WelLer, ER.U.: AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS 399 685. The principal commercial products of the peninsula are nearly all agricultural. Cereals form the chief article of export from Bosnia, Bulgaria and Eastern EoumeHa, and Turkey ; animals, and above all pigs, fed on the mast of beech-forests, from Servia ; currants (see table p. 447) from Greece. Of the cereals, maize predominates in Bosnia and Servia, wheat in the rest of the peninsula. Among special agricultural pursuits the most noteworthy is that of the cultiva- tion of roses, for the sake of producing the valuable perfume known aa attar of roses. This industry has long had its chief seat at Eezanlyk, which lies on the Upper Tunja, near the foot of the Shipka Pass, in a liigh valley sheltered by the Balkans on the north, and by a minor range on the south. Eecently attempts have been made to start the same industry among the Ehodope Mountains, in the south of Eastern Eoumelia. Orchards, in which plum-trees predominate, abound in Bosnia and Servia, and furnish a leading article of export from both. Wool is an important product in Turkey. Wine, tobacco, and silk are produced more or less everywhere, and the export of Bosnian and Servian wine (chiefly for mixing with other wines), though as yet small, is steadily increasing. The cultivation of currants and figs in Greece is referred to elsewhere (176 c, d), but here it may be men- tioned that the large export of currants to France indicated in the table on p. 447 is due chiefly to the use of this fruit in wine-making. The honey of Hymettus (to the east of Athens), so celebrated in ancient times, is still an important article of commerce. 686. Like most mountainous countries, the Balkan Peninsula is rich in minerals ; but owing to the defectiveness of the communications, as well as the sparseness of the population, the mineral resources are as yet very inadequately developed ; Greece, in which valuable minerals are found close beside the sea, is the only country belonging to the peninsula in which the mineral products take a leading place among the exports, and even in that country the working of the mineral deposits has been recommenced only in recent years. The chief minerals of the country are the silver-lead and manganiferous iron ore of Laurium (at the south-eastern extremity of Attica) and the iron ores of the Island of Seriphos. Among the minor minerals of the country is the celebrated statuary nlarble of the Island of Paros. The working of the iron-mines at Samakof, at the base of the Eilo Dagh, in the south-east of Bulgaria proper, seems to be now on the point of being abandoned ; but in recent years various attempts (some successful) have been made to give commercial value to the varied mineral resources of Servia and Bosnia, Silver-lead, iront copper, and coal mines are aU worked with success in Servia. Of the coal- mines some are situated eight miles from Chupria, the head of steam navigation on the Morava, others near the eastern frontier (see map, pp. 298-99). In Bosnia the most successful mines are those of salt and ciirome. In Turkey an extensive bed qf coal discovered near 30O THE BALKAN PENINSULA the Salonica end of the Belgrade-Salonica railway is now under ex- amination. 687. The manufactures throughout the peninsula are almost entirely of merely local importance. The making of carpets in Turkey (at Salonica and elsewhere) is the only branch of manufacturing industry that furnishes an export of any consequence. To stimulate the growth of certain manufactures, the Turkish government has resorted to the plan of offering to establish monopoHes for a term of years under certain conditions. 688. The chief countries with which the foreign commerce of the different parts of the peninsula is carried on are the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and France. In the case of Greece the table on p. 447 shows the relative importance of these coimtries both in imports and exports. In Turkey, the United Kingdom takes the first place among the countries which furnish the imports, but it is rivalled by France among those which receive the exports. In Bulgaria, Austria and the United Kingdom are the chief rivals, the Austrian trade being favoured by the Danube, while the British trade has to be carried on mainly by the southern and eastern ports, among which last may be included, however, the Roumanian port of Braila, on the Danube, by means of which a considerable portion of the foreign commerce of Bulgaria is conducted. It is expected that the intro- duction of British goods into Servia and South-Western Bulgaria will be greatly facilitated now that the great trunk railways of the penin- sula have both been opened. Part of the commerce of the north-west, including part of that of the interior of Servia, is carried on by the Save as far as Sissek (at the confluence of the Kulpa), and thence by rail to Fiume. The great bulk of the trade of Servia is with Austria. 689. The following is a list of the chief seaports of the Balkan Peninsula :-(l.) In Turkey, CONSTANTINOPLE (875), on the strait of the same name ; Bodosto, on the Sea of Marmora ; Gallipoli, at the imier end of the Dardanelles ; Dede Agach and Salonica, on the ^gean Sea ; Prevesa, at the mouth of the Gulf of Arta, on the Ionian Sea ; and Durazzo (the ancient Dyrrhachium), on the Adriatic ; Candia (Mega- lokastro) and Canea, on the Island of Crete. Scutari in Northern Albania was at one time a seaport accessible to large vessels, but the Boyana, the outlet of Lake Scutari, has been obstructed by deposits brought down by an arm of the Black Drin, which now joins it, to such an extent that sea-going vessels can no longer reach it at all. (2.) In Greece, Volo, on the gulf of the same name, the port of Thessaly ; Piraeus, the port of Athens ; Nauplia, Marathonisi, and Ealamata, on the three guHs of the Morea ; Patras, on the Gulf of Corinth ; Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zante, on the three Ionian islands of the same name, and Syra, or Hermupolis, on the Island of Syra, among the Cyclades. (3.) In Bulgaria, Yarna. (4.) In Eastern Boumelia, Burgas. (5.) In Montenegro, Antivari and Dulcigao. SEAPORTS AND CHIEF INLAND TOWNS 301 890. Of the Turkish ports it need hardly be stated that CONSTAN- TIITOPLE is by far the most important. The date of the oldest com- mercial settlement on the site occupied by the town is merely a matter of conjecture, but it is certain that the peculiar advantages of the situation must have attracted the attention of maritime nations at a very early period. A gently rising piece of ground, forming a penin- sula between the Sea of Marmora on the south, the Bosporus' on the east, and the magnificent natural harbour of the Golden Horn on the north-east, afforded an admirable site for the nucleus of a great city, and the situation between two seas and two continents, together with the harbour, fitted it to be a great seaport. The defective govern- ment and the degraded state of civilisation in the regions on which its commerce depends prevent it from attaining a rank among the sea- ports of the world answering to these natural advantages. It is note- worthy regarding the commerce of the port that the exports are to a very large extent of Asiatic origin. Mohair, which forms the chief export, is entirely brought from Asia Minor ; so also are yellow berries, gum tragacanth, and a large part of the wool, seeds and cereals, galls, &c. The carpets exported from Constantinople are to a large extent brought from Persia and the Caucasus, as well as Asia Minor. The shipping between the Sea of Marmora generally and the ^gean is a good deal hampered by the heavy charges levied by the tug-boats used in towing vessels through the Dardanelles. Next in importance to' Constantinople among Turkish seaports is Salonica, for the reason abeady indicated (680, 688). 691. Of the Greek ports, PirsBus, Patras, Corfu, and Syra are the chief, Pirseus ranking first in the value of the imports ; Patras, the chief place of export of currants, first as regards exports. Patras, Corfu, and Syra are free ports, and the last-mentioned is on that account, as well as on account of its excellent harbour and central situation in the ^gean, a great place of call for vessels trading with the Levant. 692. The chief inland towns of the peninsula are Adrianople, at the confluence of the Maritsa and Tunja ; Philippopolis, higher up on the Maritsa, capital of Eastern Eoumelia ; Sofia, capital of Bulgaria | Belgrade and Nisli in Servia, the former the capital of the kingdom, and an important fortress and river port at the confluence of the Danube and the Save ; Serayevo, the capital of Bosnia ; Mostar, that of Herzegovina; Athens.that of Greece; Larissa, the chief town of the vale of Thessaly in northern Greece ; and Yanina, in the largest plain of southern Albania, The importance of Nish is likely to be greatly increased in the near future, since it is now the meeting-place of three commercial routes, one from the ports of Constantinople and Dede Agach, one from Salonica, and one from Fiume by the Save. ' A project is now under consideration for constructing a railway and foot bridge across the Bosporus, which is here about one mile wide. 302 ASIA. 693. Asia is the largest and most populous of the eontineuts, but its population is very unequally distributed. Though, taken as a whole, Asia has a much smaller population relatively to area than Europe (about 46 as against 90 to the square mile), four countries in the south-east of Asia, namely India, Java, China, and Japan, with an aggregate area equal to about five-sixths of that of Europe, have a population about twice as great as the population of that continent. (See the accompanying map.) The explanation of this difference in the distribution of the population is to be found mainly in differences of chmate ; and these differences, again, are due to situation and superficial configuration. 694. The vast size and the shape of the continent necessarily have the effect of placing the central areas at a great distance from the sea, the chief source of moisture (36) ; but it is to be noted that the existence of another continent continuous with it in the west, and a third lying to the south-west, has an important bearing on the climate of Asia. The European continent receives, to the loss of Asia, the bulk of the moisture brought by south-west winds fi:om the North Atlantic Ocean, and the continent of Africa has a detrimental effect on the Asiatic rainfall in two ways. First, being situated in latitudes in which there is great rarefaction of the air on the land, and consequently a strong indraught of air from the sea, it diminishes the influx of sea air into the neighbouring parts of Asia (35). Secondly, it prevents such sea- winds as do blow over the south-west of Asia from being as heavily charged with moisture as otherwise they would be. Eence it is that the monsoons (36) b^in, we may say, to the east of the Indus, and hence, too, that these seasonal winds are so all- important in relation to the climate and production of Asia. 695. The superficial configuration of the continent intensifies the contrast between South-eastern and Central Asia. The Himalayas, the loftiest mountain range in the world, arrest the summer monsoons of India, or at least deprive them of nearly all their moisture. North of these mountains, the tableland of Tibet, varying from about 10,000 to 18,000 feet in height, spreads out northwards to the Altyn Tagh and Han-Shan Mountains, and on the east and south-east breaks up into numerous mountain ranges, which also help to deprive the 3etMretn.p.302 atui,303. ij/,KUis. Oceeri * .'Ij, Uauirm.^c-.fYiirh.AHc.nubaj. FS.'VBller.I'RSS. CLIMATE: COMMERCE WITH EUROPE 303 ■southern monsoon of moisture. Still more effectually deprived of this essential of life are the lower tablelands to the north, varying from about 2,200 to upwards of 4,000 feet in height, and extending to the mountains of Siberia and Central Asia. 696. Climate. Outside of the monsoon region there is probably not one million square miles, or, say, only about one-tenth of this section of the continent, in which the total rainfall of the year amounts to as much as 16 inches (486). The areas in which that amount is exceeded lie chiefly in the parts traversed by mountains in the south-west (Western Persia, Caucasia and Armenia, Asia Minor) and in Siberia, in the middle and upper parts of the basin of the Yenisei, and in that of the Ob from about lat. 56° to 62°. 696 a. In the drier parts of the continent there are various proofs that at one time the climate was moister than it is at present, and in some of these districts the population was in consequence at one time more numerous. The Sea of Aral is rapidly diminishing in size. Lake Sary-Kamysh, once a lake of 4,400 square miles in extent between that sea and the Caspian, is now divided up into three sepa- rate lakes, the aggregate area of which is less than 200 square miles. A series of maps dating back to the year 1784 show that within the last hundred years or so the lakes between the Irtish and Ob about 56° N. have aU shrunk in dimensions, in some cases from an area of 300-500 square miles to groups of small ponds one or two miles wide. In the basin of the Tarim (Eastern Turkestan) numerous ruins and old river- eourses testify to the fact of there having been in that region a much greater extent of habitable and inhabited land in former centuries than there is now. In the Thur, or Indian Desert, there are likewise beds of rivers long dried up, seeming to show ' that the waters of the Indus, or of some of its branches, once flowed through it, fertilising what is now a wilderness.' ' 697. The monsoon region in the south-east of Asia has, however, from the very dawn of history been a populous and productive part of the continent, and its commodities have been all the more valued in Europe from being the products of a warmer climate, and hence of a different nature from those native to the West. Indian spices, drugs, and dyes, and Chinese silks, together with precious stones, have been eagerly sought after by European merchants since the time of the Eomans, and some of them found their way to the Mediterranean even in the time of the Phoenicians. The favourite routes by which these commodities were exchanged for European goods differed at dif^ ferent periods. In the time of the Eomans Egypt was the transit land for Indian and other Eastern products, and it was in a large measure this circumstance that gave to Alexandria its ancient commercial importance. In the time of Justinian (sixth century a.d.) the Persians had the monopoly of the silk trade. Chinese silks were received ■ Hunter's Gazetteer of India, 2nd ed. xiii. p. 262. 304 ASIA either at ports on the Indian Ocean, or by land routes through the Tarim basin by Yarkand, and the Pamir and Kashgar, and the Terel? or other passes across the Tian-Shan Mountains (see map, p. 307). About the middle of the seventh century the overthrow of the Persian dynasty of the SassanidsB by the Mohammedans destroyed the Persian monopoly of the Eastern trade. Soon the Eed Sea route came to be preferred once more for Eastern commerce, though it had a rival in the Persian Gulf. By the former route the Eastern goods were some- times landed on the western shore of the Eed Sea and carried to Cairo or Alexandria ; sometimes they were conveyed across the Isthmus of Suez ; and sometimes from ports on the eastern shore of the Eed Sea through Syria. By the Persian Gulf route commodities reached the Mediterranean by Damascus or Aleppo. In the fourteenth and part of the fifteenth century another route was much frequented — that, namely, through the southern portion of what is now European Eussia. That region was then in the hands of Tatar tribes, who for a time maintained friendly relations with the merchants of Italy. The Venetians and the Genoese had colonies on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. From Tana (now Azof), on the Don, the commerce of the East and West followed by preference the route by Astrakhan, and then round the north of the Caspian to the valley of the Amu, and up that vaUey across the Bamian Pass through Kabul to India, or across the Amu and the Sir^ and then by way of Dzungaria to China (see maps pp. 307 and 313). Early in the fifteenth century the Black Sea and Caspian routes became greatly hampered through political events, and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 finally restored to the Syrian and Egyptian routes all their early importance for Eastern trafiic. This they retained till the discovery of the sea-way to India (100), at the close of the century. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 has been the means of restoring the early pre-eminence of the Eed Sea route. The rapid increase in the amount of commerce carried on by that canal is shown in the table on p. 487. To British shipping and commerce in particular this canal has been of the highest conse- quence, through the opening of shorter sea-routes to India and other Eastern dependencies of the empire, as well as to Australia (see p. 486). It is true that the canal has at the same time again enabled Mediter- ranean sea-ports to supply themselves directly with many Eastern commodities which they formerly received indirectly from London and other British ports ; but it is noteworthy that, as shown in the table, on p. 442, the Suez Canal traffic has not yet had much, if any, effect in diminishing the aggregate value of the commerce for which Great Britain is the intermediary. This is, no doubt, chiefly to be accounted for by the important place which Australian wool takes in this com^ merce (495), 3^5 COUNTEIES OUTSIDE OP THE MONSOON EEGION. 698. SIBEBIA. This region, composed mainly of a vast plaia in the north and west, and of tablelands and mountainous country in the east and south-east, and extending in all over an area of nearly 5,000,000 square miles, was acquired by Russia mainly in the seventeenth cen- tury, and its colonisation has been going on ever since. Deported criminals and political offenders form a large element of the popula- tion, but free settlers are arriving from Eussia in greater and greater numbers. These settlers are chiefly Russian peasants, whose prin- cipal inducement to emigrate is the hope of obtaining larger pieces of land in place of the small holdings (generally little more than five acres in extent) into which most of the peasant properties of Eussia are parcelled out. The total settled population of Siberia amounts to about 6,000,000, two-thirds of whom are in Western Siberia, which isj roughly speaking, synonymous with the basin of the Ob. The principal settled area is shown by dots on the map, pp. 302-3, and it must here be explained that even in that area, the population can be estimated to exceed ten to the square mile only if we assume that the native nomadic population is about as numerous as the colonists. Outside of that region the settlers are mainly confined to the neighbourhood of the chief roads and the borders of the rivers. The chief native tribes are the Kirghiz and Buryats, both of which form a compact population, with all the signs of enduring vigour. 699. Agriculture is the principal occupation of the people, and grain has already risen to the rank of the chief export. The whole of the southern belt as far as 60° N. is described by Eussian authorities as being more or less fit for cultivation, though large parts of this tract will first have to be cleared of forests, and other areas are at present marsh-land. In estimating the value of this region, however^ the deficiency of rainfall indicated in par. 696 must be taken into account ; but, on the other hand, it is to be remembered that during half the year, when the temperature is below freezing-point, there is little loss of moisture by evaporation, that the rainfall though scanty occurs chiefly in the summer months (the season of growth), and thaj; the high temperature and bright suns of the Eastern summers make up for their short duration (40). North of this cultivable region the chief products are those of the forests, including furs (351), and still farther X 3o6 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION north lie the tnndras, in which the only article of value in commerce is the fossil ivory referred to in par. 357. 700. The mitteral wealth of Siberia is likewise very abundant. Siberia produces at least three-fourths of the Eussian gold (410), the chief goldflelds being at the present time in the east — in Transbaikal, in the basin of the Amur, and in that of the Olekma, a right-bank tributary of the Lena. These goldflelds are all alluvial, and owe their preservation in a large measure to the ground frosts that have held them bound since the Ice Age. Graphite abounds in the mountains in the south of the Yenisei basin, but owing to the competition of other more accessible sources of supply (42314) this mineral is now little worked. The country also contains untouched veins of silver, and enormous deposits of iron ore, lead, and copper, besides coal. One coalfield, containing also iron ore, and partially covered by forests, covers an area of upwards of 16,000 square miles in the upper part of the basin of the Tom. 701. The chief obstacle to the commercial development of Siberia is the deficiency of commTinications. The great navigable rivers, the Lena, Yenisei, and Ob, draining into the Arctic Ocean, and the Amur, draining into the Pacific Ocean (Sea of Okhotsk), afford with their numerous navigable tributaries a large extent of waterways. To com- plete the line of water communication between Lake Baikal and the Urals, a canal is being made in about lat. 58° N. connecting the basins of the Yenisei and Ob, and the railway to Perm across the Urals now begins at Tyumen, the limit of navigation on one of the western tribu- taries of the Tobol. But this route is impeded by rapids on the Angara, the outlet of Lake Baikal ; it is stopped by ice for five and a half or six months in every year ; it is at best a very circuitous route ; and, lastly, it carries the principal products of Siberia to a land which abounds in similar products, and in which, accordingly, they have a smaller value than they would have elsewhere. On this account it is especially unfortunate for Siberia that its chief navigable streams open into seas so long closed by ice that it is extremely difficult to establish commu- nication by sea with their mouths. Eepeated attempts have been made to utilise this route for commerce with the west of Europe, and on October 21, 1887, a British ship reached Yeniseisk, on the Yenisei ; but though one or two cargoes of Siberian products have been brought back from the Arctic shores of Siberia to Liverpool, it cannot be said that the possibility of making regular use of this route has yet been made out. Since then a scheme has been promoted for bringing the basin of the Ob into connection with the outside world by means of a railway from Obdorsk, near the mouth of the Ob, across the northern part of the Urals to the Arctic Ocean (see map, pp. 270-71). 703. The map opposite shows the route of the great postal road of Siberia, and the chief towns situated upon it. Along this road wheeled vehicles pass in summer, and sleighs with greater rapidity in winter. 307 3o8 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION A concession for a railway from Tyumen to Vladivostok has been granted by the Eussian government, and it is expected that a railway between these two points will be begun in 1890. If consttucted, it will no doubt serve political as well as commercial purposes, but from a commercial point of view it cannot be considered so promising a scheme as a railway which should connect Eussia directly with the productive regions of China. The portion of this railway belonging to the Ussuri valley, in the extreme east, is now being urged forward. 703. Of the towns on the postal road named on the map, Kiakhta, on the frontier opposite the Chinese (Mongolian) town of Maimaohin, a little to the east of the Selenga, is worthy of note as the seat of a considerable trade with China, which exchanges tea made up in the form of bricks for furs and other Siberian products. Since the export of tea from China to Western Europe has begun to decline (273), the Chinese have pushed this overland trade. The export of brick-tea rose pretty steadily from about 10,000,000 lbs. in 1874 to upwards of 65,000,000 lbs. in 1888 (the maximum down to 1890 inclusive). The chief towns of Siberia not on the great postal road are Yakutsk, a centre of the fur trade on the bend of the Lena that brings that river nearest to the Sea of Okhotsk ; Yeniseisk, on the Yenisei ; Bamanl, on the Ob ; Semipalatinsk on the Irtish. (See also 637.) 704. RTTSSIAN CENTRAL ASIA. To the south of Western Siberia the greater part of the territory west and north of the Chinese, Indian, Afghan, and Persian frontiers is either directly under Russian administration or under Eussian influence. There stiU remain the two semi-independent khanates of Ehiva (now confined to the west bank of the Amu) and Bokhara, which includes, in the south-east, part of the district of the Pamir. This district, which contains the head- waters of the Amu, is sometimes called the Pamir Plateau, but it is, in fact, a series of lofty plateaux, in some places more than 15,000 feet in height, furrowed by valleys in the west, but descending on the east with remarkable abruptness to the plains of Eastern Turkestan. It is a region difficult of access from all sides, and yet one across which there are commercial routes that have often attained a high degree of importance in the commerce between Eastern Asia and Europe (697). It has only a scanty population of pastoral tribes. The greater part of it belongs pohtically to Afghanistan. 705. The western part of Eussian Central Asia consists mainly of plains and low tablelands, mostly desert. Throughout the region, indeed, cultivation keeps for the most part to the neighbourhood of the mountains (36), and where carried on at a distance from the mountains it is only by the favour of rivers which have gathered volume enough in the mountainous region to reach a considerable distance into the plains. Three rivers reach large salt lakes. These are the 111, which enters Lake Balkhash through a swampy delta, the Sir, or Jaxartes, and the Amu, or Oxus, which flow into the Sea of AraL RUSSIAN CENTHAL ASIA 309 The Zerafshan, the Murghab, and the Heri Rud, on the other hand, all dry up in the sauds. Cultivation is carried on where possible along the banks of these rivers and their tributaries, and where the nature of the ground admits of it large tracts are irrigated hy means of their waters. The area of the Merv oasis, which uses up the water at the end of the Murghab, is about 1,700 square miles, that is, less than that of the county of Lancaster ; but the actually cultivated portion of this is scarcely one-third of the whole, say, about as large an area as that of the county of '\Yorcester. Besides Merv, the principal oases are Khiva, fed by streams drawn from the Lower Amu ; Bokhara, at the end of the Zerafshan ; Samar- kand, higher up on the same river, so that an extension of this oasis involves a diminution of the water-supply for Bokhara ; TASHKENT, watered by streams on the right bank of the Sir ; Khojent, and Khokand, on or near the Sir, higher up. 706. The valleys lying among the eastern mountains, the valley of the Ili, that round Lake Issyk Kul (both in Semirechensk), and the upper valley of the Sir (Ferghana), are not only plentifully watered, but blessed with a black soil as rich as that of Southern Eussia ; and to these valleys, accordingly, Eussian immigrants are rapidly streaming. 707. The Sir and Amu serve as means of carriage for the products of the region, but the commercial development of Eussian Central Asia has been greatly promoted by the construction of a railway from the port of Usunada, on the Caspian, along the base of the mountains in the north-east of Persia, thence by the oases of Tejen, Merv, Charjui (where the railway crosses the Amu), and Bo- khara, to that of Samarkand. A branch railway is to be laid to Krasnovodsk, a better port north-west of Usunada. 708. The chief product which this railway will serve to transport from Central Asia, including Northern Persia and Afghanistan, is cotton, which is cultivated throughout the region. It was calculated that by the year 1890 the area on which this railway will draw might be expected to furnish upwards of one hundred million pounds of raw cotton (about one-third of the total import of Eussia).' 709. The extension of Russian rule and influence in Central Asia has taken place cliiefly within the last fifty years ; and though this advance is regarded with jealousy in ths British Isles on poUtical grounds, it ought never to be forgotten that the establishment of Eussian authority in these regions has been in some respects highly salutary, and, what is of special importance with reference to the subject under consideration in this book, Jiighly favourable to pro- duction and commerce. ' According to the latest reports (1891), this anticipation would appear to have been fulfilled. Moreover, the inferior cotton which was formerly exclusively culti- vated in Central Asia is now being rapidly superseded by American cotton, and the cotton of this origin is now said to equal that of America. An experiment with, cotton from Central Asia has even been made by a French factory. ,310 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION 710. CAUCASIA. The region so called comprises all the Eussian territory on both sides of the Caucasus, and, thus includes part of the tableland of Armenia. The richest part of this region is that which occupies the series of valleys between the chain of the Caucasus and the tablelands to the south. It is not only that part which has the climate most favourable to vegetation (a region, accordingly, of forests, vineyards, cornfields, and pastures), but also that which contains the bidk of the enormous mineral wealth of the Caucasus. Commercially, the mineral product at present of most importance is petroleum (403), but manganese is largely obtained in the government of Kutais (on the Black Sea), copper in that of Elizabetpol in the east ; and there are vast suppUes of rich iron ore both in the east and west, hitherto almost untouched. A coalfield in Kutais, containing excellent coal, has now been connected by a branch line of railway with the main line which traverses the series of valleys from Baku on the Caspian to Poti and Batum on the Black Sea. On the Armenian tableland there are enormous suppUes of rock-salt. Among agricultural products may be mentioned wool (some of fine quality), which is exported mainly to France (Marseilles). The chief town in Caucasia is Tiflis, on the Kur. It is connected by a road through the gorge of Dariel with Vladikavkaz, the terminus of the Eussian railway system on the north of the Caucasus. Baku, the centre of the petroleum district, is now beginning to rival Tiflis in population and trade. A fair recently established here has had a great effect in promoting commerce between Eussia and Persia. The main Hne of communication between Baku and the west has been improved by the piercing of a railway tunnel under the Suram Pass (on the water-parting between the Kur and the Eion), where the gradient is so steep that trafSc was greatly hindered. Batum, by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), was made a free port, and sealed wagons containing goods not intended for Eussian consumption were formerly allowed to pass over the Trans-Caucasian railway duty- free, but these privileges were abolished in 1886. (See map, p. 313.) 711. TURKEY IW ASIA. This includes Asia Minor, part of Armenia, Syria and Palestine, Mesopotamia (including Irak Arabi), and extensive coast-strips in Arabia. 712. Asia Minor is a tableland about three thousand feet in height, skirted by valleys and plains, some of which almost vie in fertiUty and beauty with the huertas of Spain. The surface of the tableland is for the most part arid, and in great part desert. Even the largest rivers of the peninsula (the KizU Irmak, Sakaria, Gedis Chai) are too scantily supplied with water to be of much service as means of communication. Though the descent from the tableland to the valleys is in many places abrupt, there are numerous openings through which roads and railways could be constructed, and numerous remains of old Eoman roads testify to the more advanced state of civilisation attained here in ancient times. The tableland is most closely shut off from the lowlands by the range of ASIA MINOR 311 Taurus in the south-east, and hence the pass through these mountains known as the Cilician Gates, leading down to the valley of Adaua (712 a), is a physical feature worthy of special note. 712 a. On the tableland trade is carried on chiefly by camel caravans, but in the valleys there are several railways starting from different points of the coast. Three railways ascending three valleys about the middle of the west coast bring the produce of these valleys to the port of SMYRNA, the chief port in the peninsula. A short line proceeds from Scutari opposite Constantinople to Ismid (the ancient Nicomedia), at the head of one of the gulfs of the Sea of Marmora, and another railway starts from another of these gulfs for Brussa, which has for centuries been a centre of silk-produetion and of the working of silk both of local and distant origin. In the south-east of the penin- sula a railway from Mersina to Adana, on the Seihun (ancient Sarus), was completed in 1886. This railway opens up a valley of remark- able fertility, noted now, as in ancient times, for its extraordinarily abundant crops of wheat, and proved by trial to be excellently suited for the production of cotton, raw silk, sesame (330) and other products. 712 b. Among the projected railways of the peninsula may be mentioned one that has often been discussed, and now at last seems to have a nearer prospect of realisation — a railway continuing the short line already existing from Scutari to Ismid right across the north of the peninsula to Diarbekir oir the Tigris, and to proceed thence down- wards to Bagdad. This is a Une which, besides affording an outlet for many agricultural products, including the mohair (210) of Angora and the northern provinces, would render available a large amount of mineral wealth — salt-mines in the north, and the salt lake of Tuz Gul in the middle of the tableland ; rich copper-mines near the Euphrates, on the direct route to Diarbekir. (See map, p. 313.) 712 c. The port of SMYRNA possesses a fine natural harbour, which remains in the neighbourhood of the town as commodious as ever it was, though the approach to it was in danger of being blocked by the deposits poured in by the Gedis Chai (Hermus) on the north. This danger, however, has recently been removed by diverting the mouth of that river westwards. The railway up the valley of the Gedis Chai now reaches as far as Alashehr (ancient Philadelphia), which is hence the starting-point of camel caravans. The nature of the products of the peninsula arid its waters is indicated by the chief exports of Smyrna, the first ten in the order of importance being as follows :— raisins, valonia, cotton, opium, figs, barley (of excellent quahty), liquorice, carpets, wool, sponges. The absence of oranges may be noted. The rarity of orange-culture in the peninsula is, in fact, one ot the indica- tions of the easterly increase of cold in winter, frequently referred to (40, &c.). It has already been mentioned that a considerable proportion of the products of Asia Minor reach Western Europe by way of Constan- tinople (690), being sent thither from the Black Sea ports of Trebizond, 3t2 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION Samsun, Sinope, and Bregli, as well as from Scutari andlsmid.' From Trebizond an important inland trade is carried on by way of Erzerum (717) in Armenia to Mesopotamia and Northern Persia, and a railway from Trebizond to Erzerum is now among the projects which it is intended to carry out as soon as circumstances allow of it. Kbarput, to the south of the Eastern Euphrates, about sixty miles north by west of Diarbekir, is another important centre of local trade. 713. Syria, like Asia Minor, is a province presenting munberless indications of the decline following npon misgovemment. The popu- lation is estimated to be less than a tenth of what it once amounted to. The soil, in many places remarkably fertile, is to a large extent im- paired by neglect ; terraces for cidtivation on the hill-sides have been allowed to fall into ruin ; and the general neglect has injured even the climate. The agricultural products are those characteristic of the Mediterranean generally ; but the silk of the Lebanon, the tobacco of Latakieb, and the oranges of Jaffa may be specially mentioned. Soap- making is a locally characteristic industry, iaasmuch as the materials are supplied by the oUve-tree and soda-yielding plants which grow on the many stretches of saline soil (455). 713 a. The chief port is BEIETJT, which has taken the place of the ancient Tyre and Sidon, whose shipping has been destroyed by the rise of the coast. Like all the other Syrian ports, Beirut has no harbour, but it has a tolerably good roadstead, and it now has the advantage of a road across Mount Lebanon, and through the breach in the Anti-Lebanon, made by the Barada, the river of Damascus. It is hence the port of DAMASCUS, which is now, as it always has been, the great centre of the caravan trade north, east, and south across the deserts. Beirut now has a rapidly growing trade and population. A considerable trade is also carried on at the ports of Acre, Caiffa, and Jaffa, south of Beirut, and Tripoli, Latakieh, and Alexandretta, or Iskenderun, to the north. The last -mentioned is the port of ALEPPO, which, in the days when a large part of the trade of the East was carried on by way of the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates valley, was a commercial centre of the first rank. Like Venice and Genoa, it received a great blow through the discovery of the sea-way to the East, and, unUke these two cities, it has lost still more of its trade through the opening of the Suez Canal (697). 714. Cyprus, the island in the angle between Syria and Asia Minor, is tributary to Turkey, but has been under British adminis- tration siace the Treaty of Berhn in 1878. Cultivation is extending, and the export of wine (chiefly for mixing), carob beans, wheat, sesame, and other products is increasing. Wine is principally cultivated round Limassol, on the south coast. Locusts form the great plague of the island. More than 1,300 tons of locusts' eggs have been collected and destroyed in a single year, at an expense of about 12,000Z. The capital of the island is Levkosia, or Nicosia, in the middle of the great plain 313 314 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION which stretches from west to east. The chief port is Lamaca, on the south coast. 715. Mesopotamia. This region is in the south wholly dependent upon irrigation, and neglect of the works for the purpose — a neglect chiefly due to the absence of a sufiBciently strong government to defend the settled population against the plundering Arabs of the desert — has led to an even more striking decline than in Syria and Asia Minor. It is estimated that in the sixth century a.d., when the Persian dynasty of the Sassanidte was in full vigour, the extent of alluvial soil between the Tigris and Euphrates under cultivation was about ec[ual to the area of Great Britain. At the present time the extent of land so utilised is beheved to be equal to only about two- thirds of the area of Yorkshire. If only security could be guaranteed, an area of 46,000 square miles, more than half the area of Great Britain, could still, it is calculated, be regained for cultivation (chiefly of wheat). No doubt the required security will be in some measure conferred if the projected railway to Bagdad (712 V) is actually con- structed. Till this railway is constructed there is no better means of communication than camel caravans and river boats. Ocean-going steamers ascend to Basra (Bussorah) on the Shat-el-Arab, river- steamers to Bagdad on the Tigris, and smaller boats to the still important town of Mosul, opposite the site of the ancient Nineveh. On the Euphrates, navigation is much obstructed by mills and other artificial hindrances, but boats can reach Birejik about lat. 87°. 716. ARABIA is made up mainly of desert tablelands upwards of 3,000 feet in height. The coast is everywhere Bordered by a strip of flat country, generally arid and fiercely hot, and the only parts that have even a fair supply of rain are the mountainous tracts in the south-west (Yemen) and the south-east (Oman). Yemen, the Arabia Felix of the ancients, has mountains rising to upwards of 10,000 feet in height, and has an ideal climate for coffee- culture (280). Even under Turkish rule the terrace cultivation of the mountain sides is admirable (64). The oases in the interior are the home of the Arab race in its purity, the typical region of the fleet desert horse, the camel, and the date-palm. Politically, Arabia is divided. The peninsula of Sinai belongs to Egypt, the remainder of the west coast to Turkey, and to the same Power belongs a strip called El Haza, on the Persian Gulf, extending to the bay situated to the south of the Bahrein Islands. The remainder of the east coast belongs to the most powerful native ruler, the Sultan of Oman. Aden, on the south coast, near the Strait of Babelmandeb, has belonged to the British since 1839, and is annexed to the Presidency of Bombay (British India). Possessing an admirable natural harbour, it has at different periods been a great entre-pdt in the trade between Asia, Africa, and Europe, and since the opening of the Suez Canal its importance in this respect has greatly increased. The site it occupies is nevertheless so sterile ARAB/A, PERSIA 315 that all provisions, firewood, and even -water, have to be imported. In Yemen the most important town is Sana, which lies at the height of about 7,500 feet in the interior ; and the port of Hodeida, in direct communication with this town, is the busiest seaport on the Eed Sea. The port of Mocha, further south, gives name to the coffee of Yemen. In the Turkish province of Hejaz, the chief town is Mecca, to which, as well as to its port, Jedda, the Mohammedan pilgrimages (120) give a grea,t deal of mercantile importance. The capital of Oman is Kaskat. In El Haza, the harbonr of Eoait, near the head of the Persian Gulf, may be mentioned, as it has been proposed as the terminus of more than one of the projected railways from the Persian Gulf to Northern Syria. 717. PERSIA, like Arabia, is largely made up of tablelands more than 3,500 feet in height, and in the east these are in a large measure desert. Mountains in the west and north promote a larger rainfall, which, even where insufficient of itself for cultivation, as it mostly is, at least feeds numerous streams that can be used for irrig^ation, or supplies moisture which can be drawn from the heart of the mountains by tunnelled canals (karezes). Through the misgovemment of despotic rulers, however, production and commerce are in an extremely back- ward condition. The means of communication are very imperfect. From the capital, TEHERAN, situated at the base of the Elburz Mountains, there now runs one short railway (opened in 1888). At that date there were only three or four fair carriage-roads. Even from Teheran to TABRIZ, the chief city in the north-west, goods have to be carried the greater part of the way by pack-animals, though this is on the route by Erzerum to Trebizond (712 c). 718. An important road now in progress, if not already completed, is a continuation of the southern road from Teheran to the Karun, the only navigable river in Persia. The importance of this road will be understood when it is considered that the Trebizond-Tabriz route is impracticable in winter ; that the navigation of the Karun, now greatly obstructed by shoals, is capable of being much improved; that the Karun enters a branch of the Shat-el-Arab at Mchammera, a com- modious port at which vessels of large draught can approach close to the shore ; that the valley of the Karun, though at present thinly peopled, is one of remarkable natural fertility ; that already, notwith- standing the badness of the communication vdth the interior, more than half the value of the imports of Persia enter byway of the Persian Gulf, and that the road to the Karun would, it is said, afford an outlet for a bed of excellent steam coal in the south-west of the country. The navigation of the Karun as high as Ahwaz, where a rapid occurs, was thrown open to foreign vessels in 1888. (See map, p. 313.) 719. Besides Mohammera the chief Persian seaports in the south £|,re Bushire (Bender Bushire), which has only an open roadstead, and is connected by a wretched road with Shiraz, and Bender Abbas 3l6 COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE MONSOON REGION (Gombroon), at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, opposite the island of Ormuz, which was made an important seat of trade by the Portu- guese in the sixteenth century. The principal Persian seaports on the Caspian are Enzelll (the. port of Resht) and Balfrush, 720. The chief export products of Persia are opium, tobacco (both grown in the best quahty round Ispahan), silk, wine (of Shiraz), cotton (see 708), boxwood (from the Caspian provinces), gums (in- cluding gum tragaoanth), and various drugs and dyes; wool (chiefly from Khoraasan) ; among manufactured articles, carpets. 721. AFGHANISTAN resembles Persia in surface, climate, and products, and is, like it, cultivated where irrigation can be practised, in the neighbourhood of the mountains ; barren or nearly barren elsewhere. The richest valleys are in the north — those of the Kabul Eiver and the Heri Eud. On the former river stands Kabul, the capital, which has been connected with Peshd,war by a carriage-road through the Ehaibar Pass since the temporary occupation of the town by the British in 1879. On the Heri Eud stands Herat, the centre of a weU-irrigated and fertile valley, about 120 miles in length by about twelve miles in width. Besides the road above-mentioned there are no roads for wheeled carriages, and goods are carried on beasts of burden, chiefly camels, through close and craggy defiles and narrow stony valleys, among bare mountains, or over waste plains. The Fovindas, or Afghan traders, are a peculiar class. 'At once agriculturists, traders, and warriors,' they ' spend their lives in carrying on traffic between India, Khorassan, and Bokhara, with strings of camels and ponies, banded in large armed caravans, to protect themselves, as far as possible, &om the ever-re- curring exactions on the road. Bullying, fighting, evading, or bribing, they battle their way twice a year between Bokhara and the Indus.' 722. The trade with India is carried on principally through the Khaibar and Gomul (or GhwaUri) passes leading into Punjab, the latter pass forming the route both from Ghazni and Kandahar. From Kandahar into Sind the route is by the Bolan Pass, through which, as well as the Nari Pass further east, there is now a railway from British India, traversing the British districts of Pishin and Sibi. Across the Hindu Kush Mountains west of Kabul traffic is mostly carried on by the Bamian Pass, upwards of 12,000 feet high. By this route raw silk and silk fabrics of Bokhara and various Eussian products are brought into India. The return trade in Enghsh fabrics has been greatly reduced since Central Asia came under Eussian influence. From Afghanistan to Sind there is a growing trade in wool. (See also 704.) Baluchistan is composed mainly of arid and unproductive tablelands inhabited by sparsely scattered tribes. Its government is now, how- ever, practically under British control, and hopes are entertained of greatly increasing the trade between India and eastern Persia by a caravan route recently opened through northern Baluchistan to Meshed,. the chief centre of trade in the north-east of Persia (Khorassan). J«7 THE MONSOON COUNTEIES AND THEIE DEPENDENCIES. 723. INDIA. There is no part of the world better marked off by nature as a region by itself than India, exclusive of Burma. It is a region, indeed, full of contrasts in physical features and in climate, and one that has never been, strictly speaking, tinder one rule ; but the features that divide it as a whole from surrounding regions are too clear to be overlooked. On the north it is bounded by the Himalayas, the loftiest mountains in the world ; on the west, as we have already seen, it is bounded by mountains and deserts ; and on the east and north-east it is not only bounded by mountains, but lofty mountain chains and deep valleys follow one another for hundreds of miles. Elsewhere the boundary is the sea. 724. Within the mountains a vast plain, from about 150 to more than 800 miles in width, sweeps round from the delta of the Gang^es and Brahmaputra in the east to that of the Indus in the west. The peninsular portion to the south of these plains is mainly made up of tablelands varying in elevation for the most part from about 1,500 to •2,500 feet. On the west this tableland advances close up to the sea, and is bounded by the mountains called the Western Ghats ; but on the east its boundary is generally at a greater distance from the coast and is more winding. The name of Eastern Ghats is sometimes used generally for the whole of this boundary, sometimes restricted to its southern portion. The dense population shown in map (pp. 322-23) is for the most part confined to the plains, but is prevented by climatic and other circumstances from extending over their whole area. 725. In the plains communication is naturally easy. The scarcity of stone in the great plains of the north has been an obstacle to the maldng of good metalled roads, but the rivers of the Ganges basin mostly furnish good waterways, and the flatness of the surface has greatly facilitated the construction of railways. Of these there is now a tolerably dense network in the middle of the Ganges basin, where they have almost superseded water carriage, except in the casfe of heavy goods. In the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, which furnishes an unsurpassed system of water communications, the net- work of railways is not so close, and the Brahmaputra still forms the 3i8 MONSOON COUff TRIES: INDIA main highway to the north-east. A line of steamers regularly plies up and down it as far as Dibrugarh, about fifty miles below the angle made by this river on entering Assam. The Indus, owing to frequent shiftings of its bed and accumulations of sand, is not so easy to navi- gate, but steamers can ascend as high as Multan on the Chenab. 726. In the peninsular portion of India the nature of the surface has placed special difficulties in the way of communication between the coast and some of the richer plains or depressions of the tableland in the in- terior. The rivers in times of flood are too impetuous, at other seasons most of them are too scantily suppHed with water, to be navigable except near their mouths, and even where they are navigable higher up their navigation is impeded by rapids occurring where they break through the mountains bordering the plateau. Not only so, but they mostly break through these mountains in gorges too narrow or country too wild to be easily traversed by roads or railways. On looking at a physical map of India one might expect the valley of the Narbada, con- tinued by that of the Son, a tributary of the Ganges, to form a natural line of communication between the Gulf of Cambay and the valley of the Ganges ; but it is prevented from doing so by the existence of rugged forest country on the lower part of the Narbadd, and a region so wild that it is stiU imperfectly explored in the upper two-thirds of the valley of the Son. Hence the railway that now passes through the most fertile expanse of the valley of the BTarbada, between the Vindhya Hills on the north and the Satpura Hills on the south, enters this valley by a diagonal route from Bombay, and leaves it near the head of the valley of the Son, then striking north-eastward to AUahabad, at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna. 727. So, too, a series of fertile depressions of the tableland is cut off from the coast by wild and difficult country on the lower part of the Tapti, and this region is hence reached by a branch of the same railway that proceeds from Bombay to the valley of the Narbadd. To gain the surface of the tableland, this railway has to cross a pass called the Thai Ghat, more than 1,900 feet in height ; and communication between Bombay and Madras, across the Decuan, as the southern part of the tableland is called, is now (since 1863) effected by means of a railway up the Bhor Ghat, a pass about a hundred feet higher than the former, and much more difficult. The carriage-road up this pass, completed in 1830, itself a remarkable engineering achievement, formed the first good means of communication between Bombay and the interior. 728. A third railway now crosses the Western Ghats about the middle, serving to connect the Portuguese port of Goa with the fertile district of Dharwar, and through that with Madras ; but south of this there is no other railway across the peninsula tUl we come to the remarkable depression known as the Palghat Gap. This important physical feature lies immediately to the south of the Nilgiri Hills, a group of small but high plateaux in the south of the Decean, at the To face p.328 F.S:Wcllcr.F.R.G.S. COMMUNICATIONS, CLIMATE 319 angle where the Western and Eastern Ghats approach nearest to one another. The highest elevation of the gap is little more than 1,000 feet ahove the sea, and the opening which it forms is all the more striking from the fact that it separates mountains rising to nearly 9,000 feet in height both on the north and south. The southern mountains extend to the southern extremity of the peninsula, occupy- ing the greater part of the native States of Cochin and Travancore. Through the gap between them and the Deccan runs the railway from Madras to CaHcut. (See the map opposite p. 318.) 729. As regards climate, the Indian year is divided into three seasons — the hot, the rainy, and the cool ; but these names are appro- priate only in certain parts, particularly in the north-east and along the western coast. The hot season is from March to May inclusive, the period that embraces the change of the monsoons from north-east to south-west, but before the ' bursting ' of the south-west monsoon — ■ that is, before the southerly winds begin to be accompanied by rain. During this period the highest temperature is in the heart of the Deccan. The rainy season lasts from June to October inclusive, and during this period the western slopes of the Western Ghats, the hills of Assam, and in the east of the Himalayas, and even the plains of the Ganges delta, are deluged with rain, and the greater part of the north- east receives a fairly abundant rainfall. The part of the Deccan immediately behind the Western Ghats, however, has a very moderate and precarious rainfall, and so too have the plains in the north-west. A large part of the Indus valley is almost rainless. Where the rains are abundant the temperature is mitigated, but in the arid region just referred to this is naturally the hottest period of the year. The cool season, or the season of the north-east monsoon, lasts from November to February inclusive, and this is the rainy season for the south- eastern plains ; but the amount of rain that then falls is only one-third or one-fourth of that which falls on the best-watered plains in the north during the rainy season. This season is naturally coolest in the north-west, where the highest latitudes are reached ; and even on the plains there are genuine winter temperatures by comparison with the extreme heat of summer. In this region, in the latter half of the cool season (January to about March) there is a recurrence of rains. 730. The amount of rain that falls varies in India, as everywhere else, from year to year ; but it is an important fact that, whereas in a country like England the variations in the rainfall may increase or diminish the abundance of a crop, in a large part of India the variation may be such that in one year there is an ample supply for a good crop, in another a rainfall wholly inadequate to produce any crop at all. It is this area of uncertain rainfall that is liable to be visited by famines, and hence irrigation has to be practised not only in those parts of the country in which there is always a deficiency of rain, but also in those in which it is doubtful whether the rain may be sufficient or not. 320 MONSOON COUNTRIES: INDIA Even where the amount of the rain is sufScient for the requirements of the crops irrigation is in many cases demanded by the mode in which the rain falls. The north-east monsoon, on which the southern plains (Madras) chiefly depend for rain, is remarkable for the fact that rain falls for the most part in bursts, and generally at night. 'I have known,' says Sir Arthur Cotton, ' a fall of ten inches in one night, and a fortnight after twelve in another' — half a year's supply in two showers. Accordingly Madras and the Deccan generally are dotted with thousands of tanks or reservoirs for irrigation- water, except in those portions, chiefly lying in the north-west of the Deccan, which are covered with the black soil described in par. 247. 731. These tanks, however, usually contain httle, if any, more than one year's supply, and hence are inadequate to meet the uncertainties arising from recurring years of drought. In certain places, however, there is a natural storage of water underground that can always be made available by means of moderately deep wells. The whole of the plain along the base of the Himalayas has constant supplies of fresh water at a greater or less depth, and the middle portion of it has these supplies near enough to the surface to be easily reached, while not having a copious enough rainfall to enable it to dispense with irrigation water. ' Hence, between Delhi and Benares, the upper stratum of the alluvial plain is riddled like a sieve with water-holes or wells ten to fifty feet in depth.' ' 732. The greatest irrigation works are canals led from rivers. In some cases such canals are merely laid so as to carry off the surplus water of times of flood. These are known as inundation canals, and canals of this kind were much used by the natives before the British occupation. But works of much greater magnitude have since been made under British rule, in the form of canals, into which is led nearly the whole body of water belonging to a river for a greater or less distance. The Ganges Canal, exclusive of distributing channels, is 1,000 miles in length. The total length of canals under government supervision is upwards of 28,000 miles, and the area irrigated by them is equal to that of Belgium. It will be noticed on the map opposite p. 318 that there are no irrigation canals on the Lower Ganges, where they are not required (729) ; none on the area between the Ganges and the Gogra, for the reason stated in the previous paragraph ; and few on the upper parts of the rivers of the Deccan, where the depth of the river valleys below the surrounding country (726) does not generally admit of this mode of irrigation. These canals serve also for navigation. The Buckingham Canal is a salt-water canal forming an inland waterway from the mouth of the Godavari to Madras, and about fifty miles further south. 733. As might be inferred from the table of exports on p. 467, India is almost exclusively an agricultural country. At the census of 1881 ' Statistical Atlas of India. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 321 the number of persons directly supported by agriculture made up 72 per cent, of the male inhabitants engaged in some specified occupa- tion. The holdings are mostly small, on an average about five acres each. In Bengal the Famine Commissioners in 1880 reported that two-thirds of the peasant holdings were only about half that size. The land furnishes the chief source of the revenue of British India. The land-tax is the first liability on the land. In some provinces it is generally paid by the actual cultivators (the rdyats), who are small proprietors ; in other cases, by larger landowners from whom the cultivators rent their holdings. 734. For the most part two crops are reaped in the year, but not usually from the same land. In the area of the summer monsoon rains, one crop is generally sown in the early weeks of the monsoon. (June and July), and reaped in October and November ; the other is sown at the end of the monsoon and reaped from January to March. The latter, accordingly, is the winter crop ; and as the winter throughout the north-western half of India is at least as cool as the summer of Northern Europe, wheat, barley, and linseed are among the winter crops of the region wherever the duration of cool weather is long enough to ripen them. A line drawn from the Tdpti to the upper waters of the Mahanadi may be held to mark approximately the southern limit of wheat cultiva- tion. The chief region of production of this cereal is in the Punjab and the North-West Provinces, that is, far in the north ; but just to the north of the headwaters of the Mahanadi there lies a rich plateau which is now being rapidly settled, chiefly in consequence of the growing demand for wheat for export. Previously this plateau (Chhatisgarh), notwithstanding its natural fertiUty, had remained but sparsely peopled on account of its isolation, for it is ' landlocked on every side by deep forests or hill passes, and remote from all centres, whether of Eastern or modem Western civilisation ' ; but it was first connected by rail with Bombay by way of Ndgpur, and it is now (since March 1891, when the Bengal-Ndgpur Railway was opened) traversed by the shortest railway route (1,273 miles) between Bombay and Calcutta. (See the map opposite p. 818.) Rdipur, the trading centre of the Chbattisgarh plateau, is 564 miles from Calcutta, 709 from Bombay. 735. Although wheat, as shown on p. 467, has rapidly risen in value as an export crop in recent years, it cannot be considered one of the characteristic crops of Indian agriculture. The crops that may be described as universal in India are millets, pulses, and oil seeds ; and except on the best- watered plains, suitable for rice-growing, and m parts of Northern India where a stronger grain is required, millets and pulses, along with garden produce, form the bulk of the food of the agricultural population. The most extensively grown unirrigated crop in India is the great millet (299), here known as jodr ; the millet next in importance is the smaller spiked millet, or bajra ; and the Y 322 MONSOON COUNTRIES: INDIA principal pulse is, as in Spain, the chick-pea or gram. In all, fourteen cereals are cultivated, and nine different kinds of pulse. The oil seeds most extensively grown are sesame, linseed, castor- oil, mustard, and different kinds of rape. The largest export under this head is that of linseed (328). 736. The chief places of production of the other exports named on p. 467 are indicated generally on the map, pp. 322-23, but in some cases more precise information may be of interest. Opium (268) cultivation has its chief seats in the valley of the Ganges round Patna and Benares ; and in Central India, in the region corresponding to the old kingdom of Malwa. Cotton (246-48) is mainly grown on the southern tableland, and above all in that series of fertile plains opened up by the railway that ascends the Tapti valley — that is, the plains of Khandesh in Bombay, and of Northern Berar, both lying on both sides of the Tapti, and those of the Wardhd, in the west of the Central Provinces. It is hkewise largely grown on many other parts of the tableland — wherever, indeed, there is found the black soil referred to in previous paragraphs 247, 730. Eegarding rice, jute, indigo, and tea cultivation and export, nothing need be added to what is stated in pars. 294-98, 315, 344, 273-75 ; and among the vegetable and animal products not mentioned in the table, reference may also be made to coffee, cinchona, silk, pepper, and lac, aU of which are likewise treated of separately (288, 312, 225, 339, 362). With respect to the export of hides and skms, it should be explained that cattle are the chief beasts of draught and burden in the greater part of India, but that in the wet plains of Eastern Bengal they give place to buffa- loes. The great cattle-rearing region of India is a belt extending from Cutch, through Eastern Eajputana and the Punjab, to Kashmir, a belt in which the rainfall is not so excessive as to wash away all the saline constituents which are found to be so essential to the health of cattle. 737. The mineral wealth of India is tolerably abundant, but there are obstacles to its development in the face of foreign (chiefly British) competition. There are some extensive and numerous small coalfields ; but the most extensive, in the. west of Bengal and the east of Central India, hes in a region imperfectly explored and not easily accessible, and the bulk of Indian coal is able to do only from one-half to two- thirds of the work of imported English coal. The most productive coalfields he in valleys belonging to the basin of the Hugh, where about four-fifths of the coal raised in India is produced. Of these, the coal- field round Einiganj, about 120 miles north-west of Calcutta, is the chief. On the tableland three important coalfields are now connected with the Indian railway system. One is that of Umaria, east of Jabalpur ; another that of Warora, in the Wardhd valley ; and the Bei»ve^iT, J J i,2 a-T^ 323. FS-flcflep, FRGS, MINERALS, MANUFACTURES 323 third that of Singareni, in HaidardbAd. Another coalfield in the east of Assam is connected by rail with Dibrugarh (725). See also 376. 737 a. Iron ore is widely scattered over the mountainous and hilly parts of the country, and with the profuse employment of charcoal for smelting the natives make ore of excellent quality. But this expen- sive mode of working has, in the districts most accessible to foreign commerce, been almost superseded by the import of European iron and iron wares. (See the Imports Table, p. 466.) Attempts have been made to introduce the modern processes of smelting into India, but so far they have mostly met with failure. The chief obstacles in the way of success are the difficulty of finding the ore, flux (limestone), and fuel together (388), and the inferiority of native coal for smelting. Silver, though the standard metal of the country, is nowhere found in India, but gold is mined to a considerable amount. The chief mines are in the Wainad district among the Western Ghats close to the Nflgiri Hills, and in the east of Mysore (Kolar). Copper is abundant in the Himalayas from Kumaun to Darjiling, and is likewise found elsewhere. Salt in India, as in aU vegetarian countries, is a necessary of life more urgently required than in countries in which more animal food is consumed. It is obtained by evaporation all round the coast, and also firom inland salt lakes in the arid region in the west, and is quarri-ed in the form of rock-salt in the Salt Hills in the north of the Punjab. It is also imported (422). The duty on it is an important source of revenue to the State. Another mineral of commercial impor- tance is saltpetre (that is, nitrate of potash), the plains of India being almost the only part of the world that affords a natural supply of this ingredient of gunpowder. It is obtained mainly in Northern Bengal, mingled with other saline substances, from which it has to be sepa- rated. The industry concerned in its preparation has decHned from various causes, one being the reduction in the price of saltpetre due to its being prepared from other substances, as from Chile saltpetre, that is, nitrate of soda (423-11 &). 738. Not only in metal- working, but also in various other branches of manufacture, the Indian handicrafts have suffered greatly from European competition, as the table of imports on p. 466 pretty clearly shows. Cheap Manchester cottons, and more recently the products of the native cotton-factories of Bombay (259 a), have told heavily on the old hand-spinning and weaving. Even the fine muslins of Dacca (Bengal) and Madras, for which India has long been celebrated, have almost become a thing of the past. In the maldng of various articles of luxury and art, however, Indian artisans still excel. Silk- factories worked by steam have been started at Bombay, but the mak- ing of richly figured silks by hand is still carried on to a large extent in Murshidabad (Bengal), Benares (North- West Provinces), Ahmadabad (Gujerat), Trichinopoli (Southern Madras), and other old towns of note. Cashmere shawls are still made both in Kashmir and the Punjab Y 2 324 MONSOON COUNTRIES: INDIA (Amritsar, Ludhidna, and elsewhere). Indian carpets and rugs are articles of export, and so also are a variety of articles skilfully wrought in ivory, gold and silver, copper and brass, but the quality of many of these articles has been greatly injured through the want of taste in European purchasers. The cotton and silk factories and the jute- factories of Bengal (315) are an illustration of the growth of the modern spirit of commerce in India, which is shown also in the rapid increase in the number of native joint-stock companies. It may here be added that in the Bombay factories work can be carried on aU the year round without artificial Ught. (Comp. 486 a, 647.) 739. It will be observed from the table on p. 466 that one of the striking features of Indian foreign commerce is the large excess of imports of bullion and specie. The very high proportion to the total value of the imports of other kinds of merchandise which this excess reached in the periods 1860-65 and 1866-70 is easily explained by the large remittances of specie in payment of the cotton imported from India in such large quantity during the American civil war and in the years immediately subsequent ; but it is obvious that the continu- ance of a greater or less excess under this head points to the steady accumulation of specie (chiefly silver) in the country. Another noticeable fact is, that even when the excess of the import of treasure is added to the value of the import of merchandise, the Indian imports are still far below the exports in value. The explanation of this difference is found in the necessity of exporting, either in treasure or in goods, enough not only to balance the imports, but likewise to pay the home charges of the Indian government, pensions, and the cost of carriage of exports. 740. The foreign sea-borne commerce of India proper (exclusive of Burma) is almost confined to four seaports — Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and Kardchi (Kurrachee), and more than 80 per cent, of the whole falls to the share of the first two. CALCUTTA (with suburbs, 840), on the Hugh, an arm of the delta of the Ganges, is the last of a succession of ports which have flourished on the same stream. The others, aU of which stood higher up, have declined in consequence of silting, and the same fate is averted from Calcutta only by great engineering works. Founded in 1686, the town was made the seat of government of Bengal in 1772, and of British India in the year following. 741. BOMBAY (including suburbs, 800) — ^by far the most im- portant seaport in the west of India, and the rival of Calcutta in commerce and shipping — is likewise a town of recent origin, and a port that has had great predecessors in the same district. The predecessors of Bombay as a seaport Were Broach, near the mouth of the Narbadd, and Surat, near the mouth of the Tapti ; and the history of the three illustrates in an interesting manner the relation between physical features and commercial development. Broach is the oldest of the three. SEAPORTS 32s Under the name of Barugaza it is one of the oldest Indian seaports known in commerce with the east or west. Yet it seems always to have had a poor harhour, very difficult to approach. Its difficulty of access is at least mentioned as far back as the first century a.d. But in days when vessels were very small, and navigation slow, the shal- lowness of the river-mouth and the delay in entering were of very little consequence, and the mouth of the Narbadd has the advantage of possessing high banks out of the reach of flooding, and being contig- uous to a highly productive region. SUEAT shares with Broach the last-named advantage, and it has much better accommodation for shipping. The Swally (SuwaU) Eoads, north of the mouth of the Tapti, afford a safe anchorage even for large vessels from October to April, though it is dangerous for such vessels during the prevalence of the south-west monsoon. The banks of the Tapti, on the other hand, are low and hable to inundation, a disaster which has more than once overtaken the town. The advantage of the harbour, how- ever, began to prevail in favour of Surat m the sixteenth century, when direct commerce with Europe had begun. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English established factories (that is, trading stations) here, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Surat was the greatest seat of foreign commerce, and, latterly at least, the most populous town in India. BOMBAY, built on a small island, now con- nected, along with another larger island (Salsette) behind it, with the mainland, has the immense advantage over both its predecessors of possessing a harbour safe for large ocean-steamers in all weathers ; but it had the misfortune to be backed by mountainous country, which cut it off from the more productive regions beyond. In 1661 Bombay Island was acquired by Charles II. from the Portuguese, and in 1687 the East India Company, to which it had previously been handed over, transferred thither, from Surat, the headquarters of their possessions ; but it was not till after the establishment of the im- proved commtinieations with the interior mentioned above (727) that Bombay rose to the commanding position it now holds in the commerce of India. Its two famous predecessors are now visited only by coasting vessels, but the inland trade of Surat is still important. 742. Karachi stands on a small bay to the west of the mouths of the Indus, and has been provided with a splendid harbour. Its wheat trade especially has recently grown with remarkable rapidity, and is now exceeded only by that of Bombay among Indian sea-ports. Most of the other seaports of the west coast have only fair-weather harbours — safe during our winter months, but rendered dangerous by the heavy surf during the prevalence of the south-west monsoon. The harbour of Goa (Portuguese) is an exception, and though the trade of this place has greatly declined, it will probably revive now that it has been connected by rail with the interior as shown on the map opposite p. 318. 326 MONSOON COUNTRIES 743. The south-east coast does not possess, or did not possess till recently, a single safe harbour or navigable river-mouth. Ships anchor off the shore at several roadsteads, and goods and passengers have generally to be landed in flat boats through surf. At MADRAS (450) a harbour was nearly completed in 1881, when it was in great part destroyed by one of those irresistible hurricanes by which both sides of India are liable to be swept, especially at the change of the monsoons (May and October). The voyage from Madras to Europe or the reverse is consiaerably lengthened by the necessity of passing round the island of Ceylon, which is nearly connected with the mainland by a string of islands and a shallow bank known as Adam's Bridge. Only one channel, called the Pambam (Paumben) Passage, across this ' bridge ' has been sufficiently deepened to allow of its being used by good-sized coasters, and though dredging is still going on it is doubtful whether it can ever be made navigable for large ocean-going vessels. The minor Indian seaports are Chittagong, on the north-east side of the Bay of Bengal ; Cocanada, at the end of one of the canals of the delta of the Godavari ; and Tuticorin, in Southern Madras, on the Gulf of Manar. 744. The landward foreign trade of India (not included in the tables on pp. 466-67) has a total value of from three to four millions sterling each way, including the trade with Kashmir and Upper Burma. The trade through the western passes, which makes up about 20 per cent, of the whole landward trade, has already been considered (722). The situation of many of the chief towns of India besides those mentioned in the text, and of the French possessions (Pondichery, Earikal, &e.) and Portuguese possessions (Goa, Daman, Diu), is shown on the map opposite p. 318. 744 a. Kashnur is the westernmost of the States traversed by the Himalayas, and is mainly composed of lofty mountains. It includes, however, the lovely valley of the same name lying, at the height of rather more than 5,000 feet, in a latitude corresponding to that of Northern Morocco. SRIITA6AE., on the Jehlam in this valley, is the largest town in the State and the centre of trade, the whole volume of which is also equal to about 20 per cent, of the landward trade of India. From Srinagar there are several routes, both south to the Punjab (the chief route being that leading to Amritsar and north to the valley of the Indus ; and from Leh, in the valley of the Indus in the east of Kashmir, a trade-route diverges northwards to Eastern Turkestan, across the highest pass in the world so crossed. This is the well- known Karakoram Pass, 18,500 feet in height — that is, upwards of 6,000 feet higher than Leh, and upwards of 14,000 feet higher than the towns of Eastern Turkestan (781). The chief articles of import into India from or through Kashmir are shawl- wool (210) ; charas, an intoxicating drug made from hemp ; borax, and the precious metals. The exports, INDIA, CEYLON, INDO-CHINA 327 as in the case of all the other frontier States, include both European and Indian products. < 744 h. The native State of Nepal, the populous parts of which lie south of the main range of the Himalayas, and have many routes to the Indian plains, absorbs more than half the landward foreign trade of India. The chief imports therefrom are food grains, oU seeds, timber, cattle, and horns. From Khatmandu, the capital, two routes branch over the central range of the Himalayas, and by means of these a small trade is carried on with Tibet. 744 c. With Sikkim, Bhutan, and the north-eastern States beyond the frontier of Bengal and Assam, the trade is very trifling, but hope is entertained of developing a considerable trade with Tibet by a series of easy passes known to exist in Sikkim. These passes, about 13,000, 14,000, and 15,000 feet high respectively, would afford communication with the most productive part of Tibet (782), and on the Indian side are within a short distance of the railway to DarjiUng. 745. CEYLON. This island, a British Crown colony, aoout half the size of England, is mountainous in the south, a level wooded plain in the north. The south-west, which, as the map, pp. 322-23, shows, is the most populous region, gets the benefit of rain from both the south-west and north-east monsoon. Here the plains and lower hill terraces are covered with coco-nut plantations and rice-fields, belonging to the natives (Sinhalese), and the higher mountain terraces (below 5,000 feet) are occupied by the plantations of Europeans, the nature of which is indicated by the table on p. 465. (See also 276, 287.) The labourers on these plantations are mainly immigrants from Southern India, most of whom come only for the season, though some of them have formed permanent settlements for themselves on the dreary eastern coast. The northern plains are arid and require irrigation. Nowadays they are very scantily peopled, but remains of gigantic reservoirs and other extensive ruins show that at one time the population in these parts was much denser. The island has many minerals, but at present a very pure graphite (containing more than 90 per cent, of carbon) is the only one of commercial importance. The chief seaports of the island are COLOMBO, which is connected by rail with the European plantations, and Point de Galle on the south coast, the latter being chiefly a port of call frequented by ocean- steamers. On the east coast there is a fine harbour at Trincomali, but its situation at a distance from the chief seats of production causes it to be of little value for trade. 746. INDO-CHINA, also caiied the Eastern Peninsula and Further India, is the peninsula between India and China. It is now divided between Great Britain, Siam, and France, besides a few small native States, chiefly in the minor peninsula, called the Malay Peninsula. The British territory is made up of the former empire of Burma (which, as regards administration, forms part of British India), together with the Straits Settlements and protectorates; the French, of Lower J28 MONSOON COUNTRIES: INDO-CHINA Coohin-China, Cambodia, Annam, and Tong-king. The northern part of the interior, which is very mountainous, is occupied by Shans, partly belonging to British and partly to Siamese and French territory, but practically in a large measure independent. 747. The mountainous character of a large part of the country, the existence of numerous extensive swamps in the more level tracts of the interior, and the defectiveness of the communications, go a long way to account for the low density of population shown on map pp. 802-3, but among other causes have been devastating wars, inroads cc robber bands from the mountains, and other consequences of the want of strong government. Since Lower Burma has been in the hands of the British, there has been a constant stream of settlers southwards and westwards, as well as of emigrants from India proper into that territory, and population, production, and commerce have rapidly increased. Owing to the scantiness of population relatively to the resources of the territory at the time of the British occupation Burma is to some extent in the position of a new country. ' There is plenty of good land to be had for the asking, on payment of a moderate tax.' ' This leads, when security and a market are ofifered, to the rapid occupation of the land for the raising of export produce, principally rice (298). 748. With regard to the commnnieations of the peninsula, it is note, worthy that some of the chief rivers are very defective as waterways. Above the large delta in Tong-king the Song-koi is navigable for steamers to within the Chinese frontier ; but the longest river of the peninsula, the Mekong, has its navigation greatly impeded by rapids, the lowest of which are situated to the south of the Siamese- Cam- bodian frontier. The Menam is navigable for steamers only to the confluence of the two main headstreams, which meet to the south of 16° N., and of these the eastern one is the only one navigable by boats. Timber (teak and sappan wood) is floated down the 'western branch from Eaheng. The Salwin is scarcely navigable at all except at the mouth, and of all the rivers of the peninsula the Irawadi is the most important for its navigation. This river is regularly navigated by steamers as high as Bhamo, in about latitude 24° N., a distance of about 900 miles, but there the further progress of steamers is impeded by rapids. The Kyendwin, the chief tributary of the Irawadi (right bank), is also navigated by boats, but is ascended with no little diffi- culty on account of the strength of the current, which makes it a matter of three weeks to reach a point about 250 miles up. The Irawadi and Kyendwin are of high importance for the convey- ance of the agricultural produce of the valleys, and the fact that they flow for the greater part of their course between ranges of forest-clad mountains gives them great value as carriers of timber. It is this circumstance that makes Burma the chief source of supply of teak. Although great forests of teak cover the Western Ghats in India proper, ' Sir Ch. Bernard, in Scot. Geog. Mag., 1888, p. 74. MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 329 and forests of other kinds abound in other parts of that country, Burma furnishes about 90 per cent, of the timber export (chiefly teak) of British India, and by far the greater part of that export comes originally from Upper Burma. 749. The impediments to navigation in the greater part of the peninsula are not made up for by the existence of roads. The de- ficiency of labour and rcad-metal, and the obstructions arising from forests and swamps, are among the hindrances to the making of roads, so that where there are no navigable rivers goods are mostly carried laboriously and expansively on the backs of elephants, oxen, ponies, and other beasts of burden, or by human porters. Carts are an ex- ception. In some places carriage has already been cheapened by the construction of railways, and there are now various projects actively promoted for the extension of this means of transit. The chief rail- ways already in existence are two starting from Eangoon, the prin- cipal port of Burma. These railways have been constructed on oppo- site sides of the Pegu Yoma Mountains, which separate the valleys of the Irawadi and Sitang, the one proceeding to Prome, an important town on the Irawadi, and the other northwards up the valley of the Sitang past UANDALAY, the capital of Upper Burma. Saigon, the chief port of Cochin-China, has been connected by rail with Mytho, on one of the main arms of the Mekong delta, although the Saigon river is Ukewise connected with the larger stream by a natural navig- able channel uniting these two ports. A railway from BAlfGKOK, the capital of Siam, to Khorat, an important town in the interior, has been begun. (See map, pp. 332-33.) 750. Of the projected railways three may be mentioned as of special importance. One is a project to connect the railways of Burma with those of India proper by means of a Hne between the valley of the Brahmaputra in Assam and the upper part of the Irawadi valley, to which region the railway to Mandalay would then be continued. A suitable route for this Une across the dividing mountains has already been explored. The two other projects have each a two-fold aim — not merely to increase the facilities for transport within the peninsula itself, but likewise to open a way to the rich provinces in the south- west of China (763, 768). One of these proposed lines is designed to run from the Siamese port of Bangkok northwards to the Chinese fron- tier ; the other (proposed by the French) is intended to ascend the valley of the Song-koi towards the same point. The Siamese Government has already given its sanction for the construction of a line from Bangkok to CHIENG-MAI, or Zimme, which lies in a fertile valley on one of the routes suggested for the northern Une ; and if this line is actually con- structed it is proposed to connect it with a branch to the British port of Maulmain. For this purpose the necessary hne would be short, but would have to be laid across two mountain passes through dense forest in a region directly exposed to very heavy monsoon rains. 330 MONSOON COUNTRIES: INDO-CHINA 751. EANGOOIT, the cMef port of Burma, as already mentioned, stands on the Rangoon Eiver, an arm of the Irawadi delta, but one which is not navigable directly to the Irawadi itself, although in the rains there is a navigable connection with that river. Two-thirds in value of the exports of Burma are shipped from this port. The minor ports of Burma are Bassein, on a western arm of the Irawadi delta ; Akyab, on the Bay of Bengal, the port of the division of Arakan ; Maulmain, at the mouth of the Salwin, the chief port of the Tenas- serim division ; Mergui and Tavoy, still smaller ports on the still narrower parts of Tenasserim further south. Maulmain, like Eangoon, can be kept open for large vessels, but much dredging is necessary at the former port to keep the approach free from obstructions. 752. Besides rice and teak the products of Burma include cutch, rubber, petroleum, coal, gold, jade, and rubies; Petroleum has long been a commercial product of some importance both in Lower and Upper Burma. It is obtained both from islands on the west coast and in the Irawadi valley. Three coalfields are known in Upper Burma, that supplying the best coal being in the valley of the Ky end- win. Gold, jade, and rubies are all products of the northern parts of Upper Burma. The Burmese jade forms the chief supply of that; mineral in the markets of China and Japan, where it is of great value.' The ruby mines of Burma (at Mogok, a high valley to the east of the Irawadi, about half way between Mandalay and Bhamo) furnish the only rubies of the finest colom- to be found anywhere. 753. BANGKOK (500) is a bad port. A bar at the mouth of the Menam necessitates the discharge of cargo from large ships in the Gulf of Siam, and the river itself would, according to Colquhoun, prove unsuitable for ocean-steamers even if the bar were removed by dredging. 754. In Annam the chi6f harbour and port is the Bay of Tourane, which lies about half a degree to the south of Hue, the capital of the province. In Tong-king the chief place of import at present is Haiphong, on the delta of the Song-koi, but as navigation is there impeded by a sandy bar, the fine natural harbour of Hongay in the north-east of the province, a harbour already connected with the delta, by canals, has been recommended by a French Commission as the starting-point of the proposed railway up the valley of the Song-koi. This selection is further recommended by the fact of there being de- posits of good coal in the neighbourhood. The chief export ports of Tong-king are Hanoi and Nam-Dinh. Hanoi, near the head of the delta of the Song-koi, is the capital of the province. 755. Among the minor products of Tong-king may be mentioned uidigo and cotton, both of which are increasing in importance. The indigo of the province threatens, it is said, to rival that of Bengal. 756. The Malay Peninsula is the name of that part of Indo-China which projects south-eastwards nearly to the equator. It is highly THE MALAY PENINSULA 331 mountainous, and clothed with dense tropical forests, but at its northern end, at the Isthmus of Kra (between 10° and 11° N.), there is a gap separating the mountains of this peninsula from those of the main body of Indo-China. This gap is only about 100 feet in height at the highest part, and it has often been proposed to pierce this isthmus by a ship-canal, which would shorten the route from Calcutta to China by 660 miles, and that from Burma to Bangkok by 1,300 miles. The route for a canal has been surveyed, but the project has, for the present at least, been abandoned. 756 a. The peninsula is partly under British rule, partly divided among a number of small States. The States in the north acknow- ledge a certain allegiance to Siam, but those in the southern half are more or less under British influence. The island of Singapore in the extreme south, the small territory of Ualacca on the west coast, and the island of Penang, with one or two smaller islands and the patch of mainland called Province "Wellesley further north, form the British Crown colony of the Straits Settlements. The remainder of the south- west is occupied by three States under British protection — Perak, Selangor, and Sungei Ujong. The British influence in the States of the south-east, except Pahang. which is also now a British protec- torate, is not so well defined. The natives of the peninsula are Malays, whence the name ; but the Malays are being ousted in trade and industry by settlers from abroad of a more enterprising temperament. These are mostly Chinese and Indians, the latter mainly from Southern tidia, and known in the peninsula as Klings. Guttapercha and many other tropical products are obtained from the forests and plantations, but the chief export product is tin, for the mountains running through the peninsula and reappearing in islands further south (759) are the richest part of the world in this metal. The largest supplies of tin in the peninsula are at present obtained from Perak, in the north-west of the British region. 756 6. The Straits Settlements, however, derive their chief im- portance not from local products, but from their favourable situation for local and oceanic shipping. Malacca, founded by the Portuguese (Albuquerque) in 1509, was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the chief centre of commerce in the far East. In the middle of the seventeenth century it became a Dutch possession, and in 1824 was ceded by the Dutch to the British. Meantime, however, it had de- teriorated as a port by the silting-up of its roadstead, and it was rapidly eclipsed by the port of Singapore, which was founded in 1819, on the island of that name, by Sir Stamford RafSes, who justly esti- mated the unrivalled advantages of its situation. Singapore is now, therefore, the great entrepot of the East, and is becoming more and more an entrepot for local commerce, as distinguished from a calling- place for large ocean-steamers. Penang, which also has an excellent 332 MONSOON COUNTRIES: THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO harbour, lias likewise far distanced Malacca in commerce, its rise being favoured among other things by the fact of its being the outport of Perak. The total value of the trade of Singapore (export and import) now exceeds 20,000,000L ; that of Penang, 10,000,OOOZ. ; while that of Malacca is now little more than 1,000,000Z. 757. THE EASTERN, OR MALAY, ARCHIPELAGO embraces aU the islands in the south-east of Asia, with the exception of those be- longing to China and Japan, as well as of New Guinea and the islands immediately adjacent. The islands are almost entirely in the posses- sion of European Powers, and the greater number belong to the Putch. To the Dutch belong the Great Sunda Islands of Sumatra, Java, and Celebes, with the greater part of Borneo ; all the Lesser Sunda Islands, except the north-east of Timor, which is Portu- guese; and theirs also are the Moluccas which lie between Celebes and New Guinea. As regards commerce Java and Madura are the most important islands of the whole group. The possession of a rich volcanic and alluvial soil, combined with facilities for irrigation, confers great natural advantages, and these, together with the efficient system of government pursued by the Dutch, have enabled these islands, though only about equal in area to England exclusive of Wales, and thus con- taining less than one-fifteenth of the land belonging to the whole archi- pelago, to support more than half the population of the group. The density of the population in the islands approaches that of England, and the number of the inhabitants is stiU increasing with great rapidity. The great staple product of Java is coflEiee, but, as in Ceylon, this branch of cultivation has latterly been giving place to that of other tropical products, principally tea and cinchona. On the plains the cultivation of sugar-cane has latterly been rapidly extending, especially in the district round Surabaya, the chief eastern port. Many of the coffee and cinchona plantations belong to the Government, and are either cultivated for the Government by natives (286), or are rented by private planters. The produce of the Government plantations is for- warded to the Netherlands by the Dutch Trading Company, fomided at Amsterdam in 1824, and is there sold by auction. Formerly a large surplus revenue was thus derived by the Dutch Government, but in recent years various causes, the chief of which has been a great fall in prices (p. 480), have led to this surplus being swept away. 757 a. BATAVIA. on the north coast in the west of Java, is the capital of all the Dutch possessions in the East, and has a trade similar to that of Singapore, Its harbour having, like that of Malacca, become silted-up, a new harbour (Tanjong Priok) has been constructed six miles away. On the hills to the south of Batavia, at the distance oi about thirty miles, stands the charmingly situated town of Buitenzorg, a sanitarium for Europeans, and the seat of a palace of the Governor- General of the Dutch East Indies. 758. Besides Java the only islands belonging to the Dutch that T.oTi^rruiTi.s . GietmS Ok Lot, .■ioro.ITe'yi'Ttyrhi& Bombay. E^T^Tai^sm^ THE DUTCH POSSESSIONS. BRITISH BORNEO 333 need be mentioned on account of their agricultural commercial products are Sumatra, Celebes, Bali, and the Moluccas. Sumatra is a large island with a backbone of mountains in the west and an alluvial plain about 600 miles in length and from 60 to 110 miles in width on the east. This plain is, however, to a large extent marshy and thinly peopled, and the chief commercial product is coffee, obtained from the slopes of the western mountains. In the north-east, however, round Deli, the soil has proved to be admirably adapted for the cultivation of tobacco, which is hence rapidly extending here and leading to the neglect of this crop in other parts of the Dutch East Indies, The chief ports of Sumatra are Padang and Benkulen on the west coast, and Palembang on a navigable river traversing the eastern plains. The surplus products of Celebes are obtained mainly from the peninsula of Menado in the north-east, where there is a rich volcanic soil, producing coffee and now also cacao. A considerable quantity of coffee is also produced in Bali. Macassar, in the south-west of Celebes, has a fine roadstead, and on that account, as well as because of the other advantages of its situation, is a place of great commercial im- portance. 758 a. The Moluccas, or Spice Islands, are still noted for the spices, especially cloves and nutmegs, to which they owe their name. Cloves are chiefly cultivated in Amboina, and nutmegs in the Banda Islands, to which these two products were at one time absolutely restricted. Both Amboina and the Banda group lie to the south of Ceram. The small islands of Temate and Tidor, to the west of Gilolo, were each formerly the seat of a powerful sultan, and Temate is still the centre of local trade in these Eastern waters. 759. Besides agricultural produce the Dutch East Indies are of commercial importance from their mineral wealth. So far the tin of the islands of Banka and Billiton, which form the continuation of the tin-bearing region of the Malay Peninsula, is the only mineral that has attained any great value in commerce ; but coal is very abundant, and steps are at present being taken to develop one or two of the coalfields. The most promising coal deposits for the immediate future are those of the Ombilien coalfield in Sumatra, in a mountainous dis- trict forty miles east of Padang. A part of this coalfield has been proved to yield coal nearly equal to that of Cardiff for steam, and a railway and harbour works are about to be constructed for the sake of placing this coal on the market. Coal is also found at many places in Borneo at no great distance from the coast, both within and without the Dutch boundary. (See the map, pp. 332-33). 760. The whole of Northern Borneo is now under British protec- tion. It is made up of a section in the north-east subject to the British North Borneo Company ; another, to the south-west, to the native Sultan of Brunei ; and a third, Sardwak, still further to the south- west, to a rajah of British family. Both the sections under British 334 MONSOON COUNTRIES rule are prosperous, and settlers are pouring into them from the adjoining territory of Brunei. In British North Borneo there is besides coal a goldfleld, which is approached by a navigable river ; but the chief articles of commercial value are at present jungle pro- duce — rattans, guttapercha, camphor, rubber, &c., besides timber. Cultivation is, however, receiving attention. Sago plantations have been formed, and those of tobacco are extending even more rapidly, since the soil is well suited to the growth of that valuable kind of tobacco used for cigar-wrappers. There is an admirable natural harbour at Sandakan on the east coast, with 26 feet of water on the bar at the lowest spring-tides, and the cUmate is said to be healthy. Twelve miles to the south are the famous birds'-nest caves of Gomanton, which yield an important export. Sarawak is said to furnish more than half the total sago produce of the world. The small island of Labnan to the west of the native State of Brunei is a British Crown colony. It has a good port and rich coal deposits, which, however, cannot apparently be worked at a profit. 761. The Philippine Islands, along with the island of Palawan and the Sulu Archipelago, belong to Spain. The great bulk of the population of these islands mhabit Luzon, which is accordingly the only island of great commercial importance. The chief commercial products are Manilla hemp (317), sugar, tobacco and cigars, and coffee. The com- merce in these articles is not as yet promoted by railways, but a scheme for a railway about 120 miles in length, connecting the two bays on the west side of Luzon and running through the chief hemp and sugar districts of the island, has received a government guarantee, and the con- struction of the railway is stated to have been begun. The southern terminus of the railway will be MANILLA, the capital of the colony. Chinese immigration and industry have added greatly to the produc- tiveness of the colony in recent years. 762. CHINA. As is shown by map, pp. 302-3, this vast country is the only part of the mainland of Asia besides India with a population of high density. Trustworthy returns as to the population of the different provinces of the empire are wanting, but there can be no doubt of the general fact that the most extensive region in which the density is above the average of the whole is the great plain in the east, which stretches from the mountains in the north of Peking to those south of the Yang-tse-kiang. This plain thus extends, roughly speaking, through ten degrees of latitude, from about 30° to 40° N., and its greatest width is about the parallel of 35°. It extends every- where to the coast except in the province of Shantung — that is, 'the Eastern Mountains' — the province which juts out ia the peninsula between the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili. (See map pp. 332-33.) 763. Another region of high density is in the south-east, forming the province of Kwang-tung, which is largely composed of a deltaic alluvial plain. And in the west there is a third region of exceptionally high CHINA: SOIL AND COMMUNICATIONS 335 density of population in the east of the province of Se-chwan and the north of Yiin-nan, where, besides great mineral wealth, there is a peculiar red soil of extreme fertility. CHEN G-TU-FU, the capital of Se-chwan, is a town estimated to possess a milhon of inhabitants. West of the great plain, China is for the most part elevated and to a large extent moun- tainous, but even the elevated regions are in some places capable of supporting a numerous population. This is so, for example, in the region of the red soil just referred to. Where that soil is found culti- vation can be pursued to a great height up the mountains ; and, accord- ing to Captain Gill, the Chinese in eastern Se-chwan will cultivate the hill-sides wherever the slope is not greater than 30°, which, he re- marks, is about the steepest a man can walk up unaided by his hands. 764. The northern half of China again is covered, vast hollows to a great depth filled, with a peculiar yellow spil known as loess, which is also of remarkable fertility, and rewards cultivation even at great heights. Richthofen, who has described this soil in great detail, states that in the region where it prevails he has seen a plateau at the height of 7,000 feet above sea-level covered with fields and villages, This soil is light and easy to work, but it has one great drawback. Its pro- ductiveness, though often very great, is very uncertain. The soil is so porous that water runs through it with great rapidity, and crops are thus liable to suffer from drought unless refreshed with frequent showers or supplied with water by irrigation. And so it happens that a region which when rain falls with sufficient frequency yields the most abundant crops, may in other seasons have its crops entirely destroyed, though the rainfall may have been plentiful enough for soils of an- other kind. Irrigation, therefore, is practised tliroughout this region wherever the structure of the ground admits of it, and lands that can be irrigated are in some places of ten or twenty times the value of ' dry ' fields. Many parts of China are, like certain parts of India (731), pitted with wells like a sieve, every field having one. 765. Communications throughout the great plain of China are natu- rally easy. Inland navigation is carried on both by riveis and canals, and one great canal, 700 miles long, runs through nearly the whole length of the plain. Commencing at Hangchau, at the head of the inlet, to the south of the estuary of the Yang-tse-kiang, it crosses both that river and the Hwang-ho, and terminates at Tientsin, the inland port of Peking. Not being kept in proper repair, however, this canal is no longer navigable throughout its length. Navigable rivers facilitate the communication between tlie great plain and the province of Kwang-tung. Two streams, each navigable nearly to its source, leading on different sides up to an easy mountain pass, called the Meiling Pass, on the northern frontier of the province named, connect the provinces of Kwang-tung and Kiang-si (the route from Canton to Kiukiang) ; and two others similarly connect Kwang- tung through Hu-nan with Hu-pe (the route from Canton to Hankau). 336 MONSOON COUNTRIES: CHINA 766. Between the east and the west of China, however, communi- cation is not so easy. Three great rivers, the Hwang-ho or Yellow Eiver in the north, the Yang-tse-kiang in the middle, and Si-lriang or West Eiver in the south, cross the country from west to east, hut only the second of these is of great service for navigation. The Hwang-ho, well called ' China's sorrow,' is too rapid, too much obstructed by shal- lows, and too shifting in its course to be easily navigated, especially above the limit of the plain ; and, on the other hand, it is liable to cause terrible destruction by sudden changes of its bed in its course through the plain. At certain periods it has entered the sea by a north-easterly course to the Gulf of Pechili, at others by a south-easterly course to the Yellow Sea. By a change of this nature in September 1887 at least one million human beings are estimated to have perished. In January 1889 the river was again brought back to its previous course by which it entered the Gulf of Pechili. 767. The Yang-tse-kiang is an admirable watercourse as far as the town of Ichang in about \\\\° E. — that is, for about 1,000 miles from its mouth. Thus far steamers can ascend, and even ocean-going steamers can reach as high as HANEATJ, and there get loaded with tea and other products for Europe and America. Beyond Ichang, however, a series of difiScult rapids impede the navigation for about 100 miles ; and as the mountain tracks between Ichang and CHUNGKINO, the great river-port of Se-cwhan, are likewise extremely difficult, that rich province is in a large measure shut off from communication with the great eastern plain. Such commerce as is maintained with tnis region mostly follows the river route . It is carried on in boats of four or five to about ninety tons or even more, and the journey up between the ports above mentioned occupies from three weeks to about fifty days, accord- ing to the state of the river, being longest when the river is high. The journey down takes from four to ten days. The packages of goods for this water trade have to be made of sufficiently small size for them to be readily lifted out, as at the most dangerous parts of the rapids the boats have to be emptied and dragged up. The freight for a pack- age of shirtings of about \\ cwt. is from 10s. %A. to 12s. (Comp. 17 a.) 768. This obstruction to communication is all the more serious from the fact that the provinces thus shut off from one another are mutually deficient in commodities which the others supply. Eich as the soil of Se-chwan is, it is not suited to any great extent for cotton, which in Chma is mainly grown on the loess. On the other hand, Se-chwan is one of the richest of aU Chinese provinces in silk, and both it and Yiin-nan are well adapted for opium. Eastern Se-chwan and northern Yiin-nan, moreover, might be described as one enormous coalfield, and yet the coal used in the river- steamers at Ichang is imported from Japan. Salt, copper, and the precious metals are also among the pro- ducts that this part of Western China yields in abundance. COMMUNICATIONS, FOREIGN COMMERCE 337 Hence it is that, notwithstanding the existence of these obstructions to navigation, the river traffic on this section of the Yang-tse-kiang is very active. Not less than 6,000 boats are estimated to traverse this route each way in the course of the year. Yet, if we take the average cargo at 25 tons, this large trafifio represents only about 125,000 tons either way— a small commerce for regions so populous and so much in need of each other's products. Small steamers specially constructed could, it is said, pass the rapids, but the experiment has never been tried in consequence of the opposition of the Chinese Government. Under a convention concluded in 1890 British steamers are to be allowed to make the passage, provided a Chinese steamer has first done so. 769. The third of the great rivers above mentioned, the Si-kiang^, is navigable more or less for the greater part of its course, but rapids impede the navigation at many places. These hindrances, however, are not of the same consequence commercially as those which occur in the course of the Yang-tse-kiang. 770. The tables on p. 468 exhibit the nature of the foreign com- merce of China, but it must be remembered that, in accordance with what is stated in the note on that page, they are far from exhibiting its whole extent. A very large amount of traffic is carried on in native junks. In its intercourse with foreign countries the Chinese Govern- ment still shows a great deal of jealousy of foreign encroachment— a feeling that cannot be regarded as unnatural in view of the unjustifiable treatment that China has undergone at the hands of foreign Powers, and more particularly Great Britam. Foreign merchants and foreign shipping are restricted to certain ports, known as treaty ports ; but of these there are now so many that this limitation is no longer any serious disadvantage, at least so far as shipping is concerned. The following is a list of the treaty ports, which are enumerated approxi- mately in the order of their importance, in proportion to the amount of commerce carried on at each : — Shanghai (350), Hankan (Hankow, 700), Canton (1,500), Chifu, Swatau (Swatow), Amoy (300), CMnkiang (130), Ningpo (150), Fuchau (Foochow, 600), Kiukiang, Niuchwang (in Manchuria), Tientsin (1,000), Wuhu; Tamsui, Kilung, Taiwan, and Takau (Takow, 100), aU four on Formosa ; Kiungehau (200), Pakhoi, Wenchau (500), Ichang, and Chungking (250). (See map, pp. 332-33.) By far the most important of these, especially for im- ports, is Shanghai; and besides Shanghai all those at which the foreign trade in foreign bottoms amounts to one-tenth in value of that of Shanghai are in thick type. The populations given in parentheses for all the treaty ports with more than 100,000 inhabitants are only vague estimates. A large part of the foreign, and especially the British, trade of China is centred at the British Crown colony of Hong-kong, an island situated immediately to the north of the entrance to the estuary of the Si-kiang. Macao, at the south of that estuary, is Portuguese. 338 MONSOON COUNTRIES: CHINA 771. Another restriction on the commerce of China tells on both natives and foreigners, alike — namely, the levying of taxes at inland stations on the frontiers of the different provinces. 772. But the chief obstacle to the development of the foreign commerce of China is the almost complete absence of the great modem means of internal communication and of production. Both have hitherto been regarded by the Chinese authorities with noted dislike, chiefly, it would appear, from dread, partly from contempt, of the foreigner. A short railway from Shanghai was opened by Europeans in 1876, but in the following year it was acquired by the Chinese Government, and it then ceased to be used. There are various signs, however, that the views of the Chinese authorities on these matters are at last undergoing a change. Both the material and intellectual results of Western civilisation seem now to be on the point of making way in China, as they have already been doing for many years in Japan. The electric telegraph is already at work in the country, and connects remote inland cities with the capital. A Chinese viceroy has erected a college at Tientsin for the instruction of Chinese youth in foreign science. Short railways have already been con- structed under official sanction, and great railway schemes are pro- jected. Arrangements have already been made for carrying on the manufacture of Bessemer steel (391) on a large scale in the east of the province of Kwei-chau, where there exist facilities of various kinds for the prosecution of the industry. 772 a. It is probably safe to say that there is no country in the world in which the consequences of such changes are likely to be more momentous. When we consider the great density of the popu- lation, the advanced state of civilisation, the character of the in- habitants — the most industrious, energetic, and enterprising people of Asia, or at least of the Asiatic mainland — the character of the climate, which is much more favourable to energy than that of India, and above all the vastness of the undeveloped resources, we may fairly anticipate even greater results in China from the introduction of European methods of production and transport than those which we have witnessed in India. What the precise nature of these results will be it is impossible to foretell, but it is worth while to look at some of the geographical conditions that are likely to affect the ensuing de- velopment. 773. In the first place, it is important to bear in mind that China possesses vast stores of undeveloped mineral wealth, and above all of coal. The whole area of the coalfields of China is estimated to be perhaps twenty times as great as that of all the coalfields of Europe. These coalfields exist in many places where there is already a dense population, and much of the coal is of excellent quality. One coal- field about seventy-five miles north-east of Tientsin is already being vorked on the European system, and has been connected by rail with DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 339 a navigable river. Other small coalfields exist in tlie viciiiity of Peking. A small coalfield, containing excellent bituminous coal, lies in the west of the mountains of Shan-tung, and only a railway is required to supply all the ports of China with cheap coal from this source. But the great coalfields of China he further in the interior. One of these (that of Se-chwan and Yiin-nan) has already been referred to (768). Others occupy the province of Shan-si, at the height of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea-level (see map, pp. 332-33). The south-east of this province forms one of the most remarkable mineral regions in the world. The anthracite here found is very pure. In superficial extent about 13,500 square miles, the deposit is the largest of the kind 'known to exist. While the average aggregate thickness of the coal-seams is at least 40 feet, almost everywhere there is to be seen a seam of from 15 to 20 feet, mostly one from 20 to 30 feet in thickness. So frequently does the productive part of the coalfield crop out on the surface, that along one liae about 200 mQes in length an opening might be made direct into a seam of great thickness almost anywhere. The stratification seems to be undisturbed, and in many places it is nearly horizontal. Along a line, the limits of which are indicated on the map (pp. 332-33) by two crosses, there crops out a seam of from .20 to 30 feet in thickness, with an easterly slope only just sufficient for dramage, and into this levels could be tunnelled for miles to the west, so that once a railway had been constructed to the surface of the plateau the wagons could be run into the mines and loaded with coal for Peking or Shanghai direct. Moreover, this coal- field is rich in the most excellent iron ores, as well as in potter's clays.' 774. Now when we consider that the introduction of railways into India has been foUowed by the introduction of European machinery for manufactures, and that the manufactures have been carried on with marked success, in circumstances much less favourable than those which exist in China, it is not possible to doubt that in the latter country also European machinery will rapidly follow in the wake of railways, and perhaps with a success even more signal than in India. It may therefore well be doubted whether the development of China may not be to some extent a danger to Europe. There is at least no reason to anticipate that the opening: up of the country will lead to a period of unbroken prosperity for British merchants and manufacturers. If one of the first results of the introduction of railways into China were to be the excessive stimulation of textile and other manufactures in Europe and America, there is reason to fear that this apparent prosperity would be followed sooner or later by a period of continued and increasing adversity, if not disaster. 775. What has been said regarding the distribution of population and natural wealth in China affords some indication of the routes likely ' See the full account of this coalfield in Eiohthofen's China, vol. ii., pp. 439- 40, and 473, &c. z 2 340 MONSOON COUNTRIES: CHINA to be followed by the first great railways in the country. Govern- ment sanction is said to have been granted to a scheme for a railway from Peking (500) to Shanghai, one therefore which would run through the whole length of the eastern plain. Various other routes have been suggested. One of the most important of these is from Peking south-westwards to the valley of the Hwang-ho, thence westwards up that valley and that of the Wei-ho, as far as the meridian of 105° E. or thereabouts, and then north-westwards to Suchau, and the outlying parts of the province of Kan-su. In proceeding from Peking to the vaUey of the Hwang-ho, the railway might either traverse the plain east of Shan-si, in which case it would pass through only a small outlier of the northern coalfield, marked by a separate cross on the map, or, by a more difficult route, through the main part of the coalfield. 775 a. But it may be pointed out that the coalfield is not the only special advantage of this route for the development of commerce. It is probable that a great deficiency among Chinese products would be supphed by a railway following this route. In China proper there are very few sheep, and few animals of any kind yielding wool. Hence woollen garments are scarcely worn. But it must be remembered that the winter climate of a large part of China is very cold (40, 40 a), rendering the use of warm clothing necessary. According to the present habits of the people, while cotton, China grass, or silk fur- nishes the material for the summer garments, the winter clothing of the rich consists largely of furs, that of the poorer classes of cotton ■padded and quilted. There can hardly be a doubt, however, that if woollen garments were sufficiently cheap they would form a suitable winter wear, and might in time come to be preferred to the padded clothes now worn. Now the western portion of the railway at present under consideration would pass through a region thinly peopled indeed, but well adapted for sheep-rearing, and we have the example of Aus- tralia and the Argentine Eepubhc (205) to show us how rapidly a large trade in wool can be developed under suitable circumstances by a scanty population. It is not unlikely, therefore, that the establish- ment of cotton-mills on the coalfield of Shan-si would be followed by the rise of wooUen-mills, supplies of wool being obtained from the interior tablelands of Asia within the borders of the Chinese Empire. There is already a small but rapidly growing export trade from Tientsin in wool brought from Ean-su, as well as across the mountain passes in the extreme north of China proper. A third advantage which would belong to this railway route as a means of bringing about a closer communication with Eussia has already been referred to (702). 776. If this railway were constructed a branch would probably be laid from the old capital of China and still important town of SI-NGAN-FTJ ' (? 1,000), on the Wei-ho, to the valley of the Yang- ' All who read German and can obtain access to Kichthofen's China should PROJECTED RAILWAYS; CHINESE DEPENDENCIES 341 tse-kiang ; but this branch would have to cross a mountain pass about 4,000 feet high immediately to the south-east of the town mentioned. 777. A second railway route of great importance would be ono connecting the lower valley of the Yang-tse-kiang with the province of Se-chwan. In the first instance the railway would probably start from Hankau, the head of ocean navigation; and if a good route were found for such a railway, the commerce following this route would in all likelihood be of much greater volume than that which would be carried by small steamers, even if it were proved that the rapids could be ascended by that means. Various schemes have Uke- wise been urged for getting access to Se-chwan from the south by way of Burma or Siam. The routes to the southern frontier of China from the province of Se-chwan are all, however, extremely difficult. In this region a broken plateau, nearly conterminous with Yiin-nan and western Kwei-chau, ' having an average height of about 5,000 feet, and no communication by water with the plains that encompass it on the north, south, and east,' a plateau so broken as to have ' no level surface whatever, except an occasional lake basin,' extends for ten degrees of longitude between Indo-China and the Yang-tse-kiang.' In these regions the three best routes have been examined by Europeans and declared virtually impracticable for railways; and though it is true that they have not been surveyed by professional engineers, there seems little probability that any one of them is likely to be able to compete with a railway in the valley of the Yang-tse-kiang. 778. A third important railway route that has been urged is one from Canton up the valley of the Si-kiang to the mineral-yielding dis- tricts of Yiin-nan. 779. THE CHINESE DEPEBTDENCIES. China proper is bordered on the north-east, north, and west by various territories more or less directly under Chinese rule. Manchuria is the most important of these. It lies to the north-^ast, and is drained partly by the Liau-ho into the Gulf of Pechili, partly by the Sungari and its tributaries belonging to the basin of the Amur. The population was till recently scanty, but the southern province is being rapidly occupied by Chinese settlers, and is now in almost all essential respects a part of China proper. The capital is MUEDEN (200), on a tributary of the Liau-ho ; the chief port Niuchwang, a rising treaty port. Even the northern provinces, however, have a considerable population, and have several important towns. Among these are Kirin on the Sungari (the valley of which is now receiving many immigrants), and Tsitsihar on its tributary the Nonni. Both places can, it is said, be reached by steamers, though there is no regular steam navigation on either river. read his account of the geographical importance of the site of Si-ngan-fu (Hsi- ngan-fu) in vol. ii., pp. 681-82. ' Report by Mr. F. S. A. Bourne, of a Journey in South- Western China (China No. 1, 1888 [C.-5371]), p. 10. 342 MONSOON COUNTRIES 780. Kongolia, west of Manchuria, is a tableland, occupied mainly by pastoral tribes, surrounding the desert of Gobi. Kaimachin, one of the chief seats of trade between China and Kussia (703), lies on its northern frontier 781. Chinese, or Eastern Turkestan, occupies the basin of the Tarim, and is separated from MongoHa by part of the Chinese province of Kan-su. It also is a tableland with a desert in the interior, but the oases at the base of the mountains which enclose the tableland are highly cultivated. The region has been so vividly described by a recent traveller that no apology is needed for quoting his words : — ' If you could get a bird's-eye view of Chinese Turkistan,' he says, ' you would see a great bare desert surrounded on three sides by barren mountains, and at their bases you would see some vivid green spots, showing out sharp and distinct like blots of green paint dropped on to a sepia picture. In the western end, roimd Kashgar and Yarkand, the cultivation is of greater extent and more continuous than in the eastern half, where the oases are small and separated from each other by fifteen or twenty miles of desert. These oases are, however, extra-: ordinarily fertile ; every scrap of land that can be cultivated is used upj and every drop of water is drained off from the stream and used for irrigation.' * The height of the oases above sea-level is somewhat more than 4,000 feet. Eashgar and Yarkand still maintain a caravan trade with China^ and they are the centres of the trade carried on across the passes of the Pamir — a trade which was very valuable at the time when sUk and other Chinese commodities were conveyed by that route to Europe (697). 782. Tibet, a lofty tableland, or series of tablelands, traversed by mountains, and bounded on the south by the Himalayas, is very scantily inhabited, and most of the inhabitants are confined to the valley of the Brahmaputra (Sanpo). It is tributary to China, but pays only a shght allegiance to the Chinese Emperor. The actual ruler is the Grand Lama, the head of a peculiar form of the Buddhist rehgion. He resides at Lhassa, a town about 12,000 feet above sea-level. The country produces fine wool, including cashmere wool, and if communi- cation were free a large trade might be developed with British India in exchange for Indian tea (85) and woollen cloths and other British and Indian manufactures. Hitherto, however, the rulers of Tibet have prohibited all direct intercourse with British India. 783. Korea, the mountainous peninsula between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, is, Hke Tibet, only a loose dependency of China. Since 1883 four Korean ports have been opened by treaty to foreign commerce. These are Chemulpo on the west coast, Fing-yang (pro- bably Phyong-yang on the Tai-dong E. in about lat. 39° N.), Fusan on the south-east, and Wonsan, or Yuensan, on Broughton Bay on the east coast. Chemulpo is the port of the capital, SE-UL, or Hanyang. Ginseng, a ' Lieut. Younghusband, in Proc. K. G. S. 1888, p. 498. KOREA ; JAPAN 343 drug highly valued by the Chinese, is exported as a monopoly of the king. Gold, in dust and bars, and hides are among the other chief exports. Of the import trade by far the largest share falls to Great Britam, which sends chiefly cottons. 784. JAPAN. This is the European name of an insular empire in the east of Asia. The native name is Nipon, a name sometimes erroneously restricted to the mam island of the group, this island being properly called Hondo or Honshiu. Adjacent to Honshiu on the south and south- east are Kiushiu and Sliikoku, and these three islands contain to the south of lat. 38° N. the great bulk of the Japanese population. North of the Strait of Tsugaru hes the large island of Yezo, which also belongs to the Japanese Empire ; and to this empire belong hkewise the Kurile Islands, between Yezo and Kamchatka ; the Eiu-kiu (Lu-chu) Islands, south of Kiushiu ; and the more distant Benin Islands to the south-east. 785. The entire group is highly volcanic, containing upwards of fifty active, besides numerous extinct, volcanoes. The surface is thus extremely irregular, but the mountain peaks, ia accordance with the usual character of volcanic mountains, rise to a great height above the general elevation of the highland ranges, thus leaving low and comparar tively easy passes between. Good roads, nevertheless, scarcely exist, One difficulty in the way of their construction and maintenance is presented by the character of the climate and the natural drainage. During the rainy season (36) the copious rams that deluge the moun- taui slopes cause frequent destructive floods on the banks of the nume- rous short rivers that descend on both sides. Almost aU roads are then nearly impassable ; moreover, wheeled vehicles are comparatively rare. Where they do exist they are generally drawn either by men or oxen. Goods are for the most part carried on the backs of men or the small native horses. The consequence is that the cost of transport is generally high, and in many parts puts a check upon production. Eice, the most valuable and the most extensively grown of all Japanese grain-crops, will not bear a carriage to market of more than one hundred miles on the best country roads, or more than twenty-five miles on inferior roads (comp. 149). Hence it happens in some cases that at some distance from the sea-coast, where the local market is limited, even good soils remain uncultivated, whereas near the coast even dune-sand, and certainly very poor soil, may be made to bear crops. It may be expected, therefore, that the extension of the railway system that is now going on (791) will lead to a very considerable increase of production. 786. The productive area of Japan is hmited by the very irregular character of the surface. Less than 30 per cent, of the surface is reckoned as productive, and about 12 per cent, (less than one-eighth) of the entire surface is devoted to agriculture, including pasture. By far the greater part of the agricultural area is under tillage, and by dint of assiduous spade husbandry, and the very careful utilisation of manure 344 MONSOON COUNTRIES: JAPAN (chiefly domestic manure and fish-refuse), the small cultivated area ia capable of maintaining in the three larger islands south of Yezo a population averaging upwards of 300 to the square mile. In some favoured districts the production is very abundant. Near KIOTO (250), the old capital, it is not uncommon to obtain 70 bushels of rice to the acre as a summer crop from the same land that had produced 40 bushels of wheat to the acre as a winter crop. In favourable years rice takes a high position among the exports (297-98). 787. Besides rice, the principal food-crops are wheat, barley, and soya-beans. Uulberries, from which are obtained the principal export product of the empire, silk (220), are planted in more than three-fourths of the provinces, everywhere in rows, allowing of space for other crops between. Tea, the second export product in value, is grown chiefly between lat. 84' N. and 36° N., that is, in the south of Honshiu ; and the lacquer-tree {Rhus vemicifera DC), that is, the tree that furnishes the material employed in lacquering, one of the most celebrated of old Japanese industries, is cultivated mainly in the northern part of the same island, between 37° and 89° N. Camphor, which forms one of the more important among the minor exports of Japan, is also one of the ingredients used in the art, since that substance serves as a diluent for the lacquering material. 788. Japanese agriculture leaves little room for live stock. Sheep have only recently been introduced in small numbers experimentally. The number of horses is about a million and a half, that of cattle one million, as against nearly two millions of the former and upwards of ten millions of the latter in the British Isles, which have a rather smaller population. Japan is thus altogether without, or very poorly supplied with, some important products. It has no native wool, no milk, butter, or cheese, and a comparatively small supply of leather, which has to be replaced for different purposes by various other materials (437). 789. The mineral wealth of the empire is great, but needs develop- ment. There are only two minerals in which the empire is really rich, but these are the important ones — coal and iron, the situation of the chief supplies of which is shown on map, pp. 302-3. The coal pro- duction is rapidly increasing, especially in the south-west. On the island of Tezo alone the area of coal is two-thirds as much as the area of coal of equal thickness in the British Isles, and a railway has been laid for the purpose of bringing the coal to the coast. The growth of the iron industry is hindered by the fact of there being no coal in the immediate vicinity of the deposits of the ore. Charcoal is hence still used in smelting, and the product is consequently dear, though of good quality. In recent years the production of iron has been steadily decreasing. That of silver, on the contrary, has been steadily rising. Copper and antimony are among the Japanese exports, and abundance of kaolin furnishes the raw material for the ancient and celebrated porcelain industry of the country. DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 345 790. In all departments of Japanese industry human labour is assisted only by the most primitive tools and appliances. In agricul- ture even the plough is rarely used. The deep and careful tillage of the ground is effected by means of the spade and other hand imple- ments ; and where the plough is used, it is an implement that merely scratches the surface, and is incapable- of making anything like a furrow. No carts are used in farming, not even the Chinese barrow. Everything is carried. A primitive hand-mill is the only apparatus used for grinding flour. Flour is, indeed, not much used. Bread was unknown till it was introduced by the Portuguese, and even yet is made only to a very limited extent in the form of cakes. All kinds of manufacturing industries were till recently almost entirely domestic, as they still are mainly, some kind of handicraft being practised in nearly every Japanese household. 791. Great changes are, however, being brought about, in conse- quence of a change m the attitude of the Japanese Government towards the civilised nations of the West. Down to about 1868 the Japanese Government was as averse to intercourse with European nations as that of China; but at that date a great change took place in the government of the empire, and the authorities that have since con- trolled the State have shown themselves eager to place the nation abreast of Europe and America in science and the arts. In consequence of this the modem methods of transport and production are being rapidly introduced. The first railway, from Tokio to Yokohama, was opened in June 1872, In 1891 a railway already ran along nearly the whole length of the main island on the east side. From TOEIO, the capital, it proceeds south-west by NAGOTA and EIOTO (the old capital ; 280) to the ports of OZAEA and KOBE, and thence onwards near the coast. Northwards from Tokio it runs by Sendai to the bay and port of Aomori on the north coast. The mountainous character of the surface hinders railway construction across the island, but two railways now connect the opposite coasts. 792. The first native steamship company was estabhshed in 1874. Kachine cotton-spinning factories have been established with great success. At the beginning of 1888 the number of spindles in these factories (including those not yet working) was under 200,000 ; in June 1891 the number actually at work was more than 800,000. The effect that this development must have on the import of cotton-yarn from England and India is obvious. It must be remembered that Japan, like India, has the advantage of producing the raw material, its own production of raw cotton being equal to nearly fifteen-sixteenths of its requirements. Cotton-weaving mills have not been successful ; yet, owing to the superior wearing qualities of the productions of the native domestic looms, the import of cotton piece-goods into Japan has shown a nearly continuous decline since 1879. In Japan, as in China, winter garments are mainly padded, but among the upper classes, and 346 MONSOON COUNTRIES: JAPAN even among the richer tradespeople, the use of European woollen garments is coming more and more into favour, and an attempt (hitherto unsuccessful) has been made to establish woollen manufactures with modern machinery in the country. Foreign paper-mills have also been set up (443) ; and a striking illustration of the power of Japan to compete with Europe in manufacturing industry has been furnished in the match trade. Japanese matches, made by foreign machinery, are now supplanting Swedish in China, and even in Siam and the Straits Settlements. 793. Eestrictions are still placed on the commerce of Japan with foreign countries and the settlement of foreigners in the empire. As in China and Korea, foreign vessels are admitted only to certain ports, known as treaty ports, and foreigners are allowed to settle without special permission only within a short radius of these ports, where the foreign consuls are allowed to have a certain jurisdiction. The most important of these are YOKOHAHA, with the adjacent Eana- gawa (the residence of the consuls), on the Bay of ToMo ; the adja- cent towns of HIOGO and KOBE, on a bay to the south of Kioto, with which they are in communication by rail ; and Nagasaki, on the south- west coast of the island of Kiushiu. All of these have deep and spa- , cious natural harbours. Nagasaki, being in the vicinity of coal-mines, is now much frequented as a coaling station, and has a large export of coal. Deshima, an artificial islet close to Nagasaki, was the seat of a Dutch factory or trading- station as far back as 1641. TOEIO (1,400), itself is also a treaty port, but its harbour is shallow. The same defect impedes the growth of foreign commerce at OZAEA (475), which lies opposite to Hiogo-Kobe on the same bay, and is frequented by great numbers of native craft. Bfiigata, the only treaty port on the west coast, has its shipping stopped for haK the year by the strong surf that beats along the whole of this flat and dangerous coast during the prevalence of the winter monsoon. Hakodate, on Tsugaru Strait, is the treaty port of Yezo, and has only a small foreign trade. This large island, though said to have 25 per cent, of its surface fit for agriculture, has a severe climate, and at present has only a scanty population on the coast, chiefly engaged in fishing (salmon, herring, cod), though there is now, as already intimated, also a mining population. The island is now officially known as the Hokkaido, or Northern Colony, and the Japanese govern- ment is endeavouring to develop its resources. 793 a. On Feb. 11, 1889, a further approximation to the civiUsation of the West was made by Japan in the proclamation of a constitutional form of government ; and the Japanese, having already assimilated their criminal code to the codes of the West, and having a civil code in preparation, is now naturally desirous of getting rid of consular juris- diction in the treaty ports. In return the Japanese are ready to throw open the whole of their territory to foreign settlement. 347 AFRICA. 794 This continent, though not the least populous either in respect of the absolute number of the estimated population or the average density, is that which is of least importance as regards its contribution to external commerce. This is due partly to natural un- productiveness, which does not favour density of population over any large area ; partly to the backward state of civilisation ; and in particu- lar to the fact that throughout a large part of the interior population and production are kept down by misg^ovemment, internal wars, and, above all, the practice of slavery ; partly to the fact that in no other continent have European influences, and especially European modes of production and transport, made so little headway. 795. The natural unproductiveness of the continent is in a large measure attributable to the want of rain. Africa lies as a whole in latitudes where the atmosphere is always able to retain large quantities of vapoiu: uncondensed. Its surface, Uke that of Spain, is made up mainly of plateaux with bordering mountains, so that the interior is in most parts reached only by winds that have been deprived of the greater portion of their moisture. The only regions with fairly abun- dant rainfall are certain parts of the equatorial region, narrow strips on the east and south-east coast, and part of the north coast in the, neighbourhood of the Atlas Mountains. There are vast regions in the north-east and south-west entirely desert, or nearly so, except where capable of irrigation. As is shown on map, pp. 848-49, the only district possessing a really high density of population is a small part of Egypt, in the north-east. 34& COUNTEIES AND EEGIONS OP AFEICA.- 796. EGYPT. This country is nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire, but it has an independent government, which is at present practically under the control of Great Britain. The country extends from the mouths of the Nile to Wady Haifa, in about lat. 22° N. In the east it extends to the Eed Sea, and includes the peninsula of Sinai ; and in the west the boundary is an indefinite line passing through the great Libyan desert. The habitable area, however, is almost confined to the tract capable of being irrigated by the waters of the Nile — that is, to the Nile Delta, and a valley, varying from ten to fifteen miles in width, lying between deserts on both banks of the Nile. Hence, though the distance in a direct line from Wady Haifa to the shore of the Mediterranean is about 680 miles, equal to the distance from the Scilly Isles to the northern extremity of the Shetland Islands, the entire area fit for cultivation is less than 10,000 square miles, or about two-thirds larger than Yorkshire ; and on this area is crowded a population of about 8,000,000, almost wholly depen- dent on agriculture. 797. What enables this highly-productive agriculture to be main- tained is the regular annual rise of the water in the Nile, a rise now known to be due to the summer (monsoon) rains (36) on the lofty Abyssinian mountains and on the plains further south. The river begins to rise about the 26th of June. It grows turbid and red with the fertilising mud which it carries in suspension. By the month of September it has reached the top of its banks and begins to overflow, except where restrained by artificial dykes. A normal rise at Cairo is about 25 feet ; if the rise exceeds 27 feet there is danger to the em- bankments, and day and night these are watched by the able-bodied male population, ready to fortify or heighten them under the direction of engineers. The labour required for the maintenance of the irriga- tion works was formerly exacted from the people by the government. 798. In Upper Egypt, that is, from the southern frontier to Slut (Assiut), in about 27° N., the sole method of irrigation still practised is the old method of the Pharaohs, the method described by Shakspere in the words which he puts into the mouth of Mark Antony — They take the flow o' the Nile By certain scales i' the pyramid ; they know, By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth. Settretrvp. 348 omdU 3-*ft Lurujnton.v t',H-Yovl- .S-i'-'rrJ'OY. F.S.W"Bller.FR.G.S. EGYPT: IRRIGATION AND PRODUCTS 349 Or foison, follow : The higher Nilus swells. The more it promises : as it ebbs, the seedsman Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain, And shortly comes to harvest. The scales or gauge by which the rise and fall of the river are measured are not, it is true, in the Pyramids, but otherwise this description is as accurate as it is graphic, and it is only necessary to add that the country on both banks is divided up into basins by embankments reaching to the hills on both sides, that these basins are gradually filled through canals and sluices, and then emptied at the end of a period of seventy days or so. By this method of irrigation the soil is condemned to sterility for half the year, during which it is either under water or baked to a degree of hardness which makes it impossible to grow anything. By it, too, only such crops can be grown as ripen within a short period — beans, lupines, clover, millet, wheat, barley. 799. The more valuable crops, cotton, maize, sugar-cane, require a longer period to mature, and hence in Egypt demand a system of perennial irrigation — that is, a system by which water can be supplied all the year round. This system, in which high embankments are erected to confine the river in fiood, and high -banked canals to conduct the water to the irrigable basins, has been practised on a large scale only since the first half of the present century, and is still confined to Lower and middle Egypt— that is, to the Delta, and the region between the Delta and Siut. A portion of Middle Egypt is still irrigated on the old system. 800. Besides the land immediately adjoining the river. Middle Egypt includes in its productive area a detached district known as the Fayum, which lies to the west, a httle above the head of the Delta. For three thousand years this district has been fed with water by the Bahr Ynsuf, a channel led from the Nile a little below Siut. The Bahr Yusuf ' is 270 miles in length, and is also employed in irrigating the basins along its route. Within the present century another canal, called the Ibrahimiyeh Canal, starting at Siut, has been constructed for the irrigation of Middle Egypt, and it is from the upper part of this canal that the Bahr Yusuf is now directly supplied. 801. The full supply of water obtainable from a normal rise of the Nile is required for the area of land already under cultivation in Egypt, and famine is threatened to a greater or less extent both when the rise is exceptionally low, and when it is so high as to overtop the artificial embankments and thus destroy the crops growing under their pro- tection. The regulation of the river thus requires the constant atten- tion of the government. At the head of the Delta there exist vast works to control the level of the river, and since the government of ' Eiver of Joseph. Its construction is popularly attributed to Joseph the Israelite. 3SO ' COUNTRIES OF AFRICA: EGYPT the country has been under British influence these works have been greatly improved. The whole of the delta and the part of Egypt to the north-east of Cairo and the south of Zagazig have been made independent of the state of the Nile. However low it may be its water may be led to the fields. Great works, now in progress and expected to be finished ia 1893, wiU, it is anticipated, confer the same benefit on Upper Egypt. The area capable of being irrigated has like- wise been increased, and vast projects are entertained for its further extension. One proposal is to make use of a natural depression called the Baian Basin, to the south-west of Fayum, as a reservoir for surplus water during high Nile, another to pond up the Nile at Assuan, far in the south. Under British control great drainage operations have also been carried out, in consequence of which it is expected that in a few years an area of between 600,000 and 700,000 acres (1,000 square miles) belonging to the lagoons in the north will be reclaimed. And while all this has been in progress forced labour has been abolished.' 802. The Nile, besides being the great means of irrigation, is of importance as a waterway. It is navigable without impediment as far as the rapids at Assuan, in about lat. 24° N., the ' first cataract.' The second cataract occurs at Wady Haifa — that is, on the southern frontier. At high water both of these rapids can be navigated easily enough, but above the Egyptian frontier there are many other ' cata- racts ' and obstructions to navigation which on certain stretches cause the land route to be preferred (829 a). Prom the western of the two chief arms of the Nile in the Delta a navigable canal, the Mahmudieh Canal, about ten feet in depth, proceeds to Alexandria ; and another canal proceeds eastwards fi:om the important town of Zagazig, on one of the minor arms of the Delta to the Suez Canal, and sends a branch southwards from Ismailia to Suez. It is Ukwise joined by a canal from Cairo. The Suez Canal (697) lies entirely in Egyptian terri- tory. In Lower Egypt there are numerous lines of railway, and one railway ascends the left bank of the Nile as high as Siut. 803. The nature of Egyptian commerce is shown in the tables on p. 464. The bulk of the foreign commerce is concentrated at ALEX- ANDBIA (230), the ancient port at the north-western extremity of the Delta. Minor ports are Bosetta and Samietta, near the mouths of the arms of the Nile which take their names from these towns. Bars obstruct the mouth of the river at both places. The capital is CAIBO (375), at the head of the Delta. Its suburb of Bulak is a busy river-port. 804. In the desert belonging to Egypt, west of the Nile, there are several oases, each with a few thousand inhabitants. The most im- portant are that of Siwah (ancient Jupiter Ammon), which is the furthest west, and Ues to the south of the Libyan plateau in the lati- tude of Fayum ; and that of Khargeh, in about 25^° N. ' ' In 1890, for the first time perhaps in all history, there was no corvfie in Egypt.' See Parliamentary Paper, Egypt No. 3 (1891). From the point of view of commercial geography this paper (price 4|(i.) relating to a typical irrigatei country is of special interest. TRIPOLI, ALGERIA, TUNIS 351 805. WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN STATES.— A. The vast area, mainly desert, between Egypt and Tunis forms the Turkish province of Tripoli. It includes, besides Tripoli proper, the oases of Fezzan (the chief of which is Murzuk), to the south of Tripoli proper, and the plateau of Barka, with a small strip of cultivable land east of the Gulf of Sidra. The navigation along the coast (700 or 800 miles in length) is dangerous on account of the numerous sandbanks and the want of harbours. Tripoli is the only seaport of consequence, and is the centre of a caravan trade across the Desert of Sahara. Its only important exports of local origin are a.lfa or esparto grass (199) and sponges (358 a). A small trade is carried on at Bengazi, the port of Barka. 806. — B. Algeria and Tunis. The former has been a Frencli colony since 1830, the latter a French protectorate since 1881. Both are traversed by parallel chains of the Great and Little Atlas, but the principal cultivated area has a different relation to these mountains in the two dependencies. In Algeria the region best fitted for cultivation is a strip of lowland, or land at moderate elevation, between the coast and the Little Atlas, a strip known as the Tell ; and the region between the Great and Little Atlas is a plateau producing little besides alfa grass. In Tunis the chief area of cultivation is a valley between the two chains of the Atlas, namely, the valley of the Mejerda, a river which regularly overflows its banks during the winter rains (42), irrigating and fertilising the neighbouring plains. The climate and products of both Algeria and Tunis are similar to those of southern Italy and southern Spain. In both wine is a product of growing importance and great promise (183, 186). 806 a. Since the occupation of Algeria by France, repeated efforts have been made to increase the French element in the population by the planting of colonies. Land confiscated from the native Arabs and Berbers (Kabyles) has been granted to the colonists on varying terms, and villages have been erected for them in many parts of the country. The results have not been altogether satisfactory. At the last census (1886) the French element still formed little more than 5 per cent, of the population, and at the same date there were nearly as many Europeans of other origin (Spaniards, Italians, and Maltese) ; and it is a notable fact that it is only among the latter immigrants that the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate. French rule has, however, done much for the development of the resources of the colony, though at a considerable annual cost to the mother country. Thousands of miles of excellent roads have been made, and upwards of 1,200 miles of rail- way. Harbours have been constructed. New land has been brought imder cultivation by the sinking of artesian wells (62). The security now afforded is inducing an increasing number of natives (especially the Kabyles) to change a nomadic for a settled mode of life. Whereas in 1830 Algeria was almost a waste, in 1887 the area under cultivation 3S2 COUNTRIES OF AFRICA i ALGERIA, TUNIS was considerably greater than in Egypt. The region south of the Atlas, the Biled-ul-jerid, or Land of Dates, is occupied by nomadic Arabs. Far to the south the oases of Wargla and Golea also belong to Algeria. 806 b. The rising exports of Algeria are wine, sheep, and wool, early potatoes (which now cover about a third of the cultivated area, and are nearly all exported to France), grapes and other fruit, tobacco and olive oil. The export of grain (wheat and barley), which formerly took the first place, has of late years suffered greatly from Indian com- petition. In the exports to the United Kingdom from both Algeria and Tunis alfa grass takes the first place ; but the trade in this article has been considerably affected by the increasing use of wood-pulp in paper- making (437). The only mineral as yet of great commercial import- ance in either Algeria or Tunis is the iron ore obtained from the mines of Ain STokhra, in the east of Algeria near the port of Bona, and those of Benisaf in western Algeria (see map, pp. 284-85). In Tunis the forests on the hill slopes north of the Mejerda are rich in cork-oaks, and another species of oak which has a valuable tanning bark. They hence promise to be of increasing commercial value. At present the leading exports from Tunis are olive oil and cereals (wheat and barley). The bulk of the Algerian exports go to France, those of Tunis to Italy. The United Kingdom supphes a large proportion (in the case of Tunis the largest proportion) of the manufactured goods which form the chief articles of import into both regions. 806 c. The principal ports of Algeria, in the order from west to east, are Gran, Algiers, Bougie, Philippeville (the port of Constan- tine), and Bona. Tunis has nothing but open roadsteads for large vessels, which have consequently to load and unload with the aid of lighters. The town of TUN'IS itself, the most populous town either in the protectorate of Tunis or Algeria, and the chief seat of the foreign commerce of the protectorate, is situated at the end of a very shallow lagoon, and vessels trading with this port have to load and discharge in the roadstead of Ooletta, at the narrow mouth of this lagoon. This is now the mcist serious drawback to the development of the trade of the protectorate. The construction of a deep harbour at Tunis is therefore contemplated. Susa, Sfax, and Cabes, on the east coast, are the ports chiefly frequented in the commerce with the interior of Africa, inasmuch as caravans that ascend the valley of the Mejerda are obstructed on their way southwards by the shotts, or string of shallow salt lakes, that extend for about two hundred and fifty miles inland, to the south of the mountains. These shotts lie below the level of the Mediterranean. It has been proposed to let in the waters of that sea to cover the depression which they occupy ; but the project has been abandoned as unlikely to prove remunerative. On the north coast, the chief roadstead is that of Bizerta at the mouth of a lagoon. MOROCCO 353 807. — C. Morocco is a Mohammedan empire in the north-west of Africa. It inclades, as a loose dependency, the oases of Tuat in the south-east, which are separated by upwards of one hundred miles of desert from the nearest cultivable parts of Morocco proper. The surface of Morocco proper is highly mountainous. The High Atlas traverse the country from south-west to north-east, and are connected at the north-eastern extremity with a coast range known as Er Rif. The chief permanent rivers of the country flow through the lowlands and plains in the angle between these ranges, and in that area lie also the chief towns — Morocco (the present capital) in the south, and FEZ and Mekinez in the north. All of these lie at the base of the moun- tains (36), the western plains being extremely arid. South, of the Atlas, the rivers, such as the Wady Draa, are temporary, containing water in their lower courses only when the snow is melting on the mountains. 807 a. In relation to foreign commerce Morocco can be described only as a country of possibilities. The government, one of the most fanatical in the world, regards all Christian nations with aversion, and even disdain, and these feehngs are shared by the great body of the Mohammedan population. Foreign commerce consequently is in no way encouraged, and the export even of some of the most valuable commodities (such as esparto grass) is kept down by high export duties. There are no railways, no wheeled carts, no internal navi- gation. All goods have to be carried on the backs of animals, chieily camels. There are only two tolerable ports opened to European trade, Tangiers, on the Strait of Gibraltar, and Mogador, the port of Morocco, in the south. Among the minor ports, Rabat has a good river harbour, but obstructed by a bar ; SaflB, only an open roadstead. The harbour of Tetuau, on a river entering the Mediterranean, requires to be cleared of sand. Of all the ports, Tangiers is the most thriving. Being the residence of the chief representatives of foreign Powers, it is the place where there is most security for Christians. It is, indeed, the only place in the empire in which Christians are allowed to acquire land and house property. A telephone exchange exists here, and permission has lately been granted for the laying of a telegraph cable to Gibraltar. 807 b. In consequence of all these hindrances, the whole annual value of the foreign commerce of this country, with about 9,000,000 inhabitants, is about 2,000,000Z. (imports and exports combined). Such foreign commerce as does exist is mainly with England and France, and is carried on chiefly through the intervention of native Jewish merchants. Germany is making great efforts to acquire a larger ,proportion of the trade. The chief exports are maize and other grains, wool, oil, and other agricultural products ; but some native manu- factures, such as fez caps and leather (432), are exported to various parts of North Africa. 807 c. With regard to the possibilities of Morocco, it must be A A 354 COUNTRIES OF AFRICA mentioned that the country has a soil luxuriantly fertile, rivers Well adapted for irrigation, and, it is believed, great mineral wealth (notably rich copper deposits in the south). Even internal navigation by mesons of the rivers is practicable. By dredging, it is said, the river Sibus might be made navigable as high as Fez. 808. TEMPEEATE SOUTH AFEICA. By far the greater part of this area no^w belongs in some way or other to the British Empire. The territory that may be so regarded is made up partly of British colonies, partly of territory under British protection, partly of districts declared to be within the sphere of British influence. 809. Cape Colony includes as a self-governing colony almost all the area south of the Orange Biver, together with the district of Griqua Land West, north of that river ; and it possesses as dependencies all the dis- tricts between the Great Kei River, which forms the eastern boundary of the colony, and Natal. To it also belongs the whaling-station of Walvisch Bay, on the west coast, about one degree north of the Tropic of Capricorn 810. Throughout the colony there is a general rise of the surface from the coast to the interior. From the south coast the ascent is made in well-marked terraces, the innermost of which form tablelands of about 3,000 feet or more in height. These tablelands are known by the Hottentot name of karroos. The Great Karroo, which is in most parts at least seventy miles in width, lies to the south of a series of mountain ranges which traverse the interior from west to east, The edges of the tablelands and the ranges of mountains just referred to are broken by numerous notches and gaps which have facilitated the construction of roads and railways. (See map, pp. 348-49.) 811. The eastern parts of the colony, which are exposed during the southern summer to rain-bearing winds from the Indian Ocean, and the coast strips in the extreme south, are the only districts that receive plentiful supplies of rain. The karroos are subject to pro- longed droughts, which cause them at times to present the appearance of hard, bumt-up deserts ; but, on the other hand, they are occupied by a vegetation singularly adapted to a climate of this nature — able, that is to say, to survive, though in a withered condition, the want of rain for months, and even years, so that in a week or two after the occurrence of rains the surface becomes green with herbs and bushes or richly coloured with multitudes of flowering plants. In such a climate, however, cultivation, and even the rearing of live-stock, are pbviously impossible without irrigation. Throughout the greater part of the north-west the annual rainfall is altogether insigniiicant. The rivers aiccordingly are extremely shallow. The Orange, though longer than the Rhine, is navigable only for boats, and that only a few miles up. Even the east of the colony is practically without navigable rivers. (See the map of S. Africa, pp. 348-49.) 811 a. Attention is bestowed by the government on irrigation ; but CAPE COLONY 355 In the north-west the scantiness of the rainfall presents a great diffi- culty. At Van Wyk's Vley (see map) a large irrigation reservoir has been constructed at little cost at a place where about 150 square miles could be irrigated from it ; but in two successive years the rainfall of the district was only four inches per annum ; and so rapid is the evapo- ration that a rainfall of half an inch in twenty-four hours does not increase the water in the reservoir unless it immediately follows a previous rain. So dry is the air in the interior, that deal-boards made from apparently the driest wood at Cape Town or Natal sometimes lose a tweKth of their width by shrinking, and wagon-wheels fall to pieces unless their tires are tightened in due time. 812. The nature of the chief export products of the colony is shown in the table on p. 471, from which it will be seen that diamonds now occupy the first place in the list. The centre of the diamond produc- tion of the colony is Kimberley, where the gem was first discovered in 1867. Since then the production of the diamond-fields in the neigh- bourhood has risen to such an extent as to place the Cape Colony first among the diamond-producing countries of the world. Copper, the only other mineral that appears amongst the exports, is obtained from the mines of Ookiep in the north-west, which furnish a very rich ore, and are now connected by a railway (worked by mules) with Port Nolloth. Coal is mined at stations on the railway from East London, situated on the innermost tableland. (See map.) 813. Wool has for a long period been the chief agricultural export of the colony. The great wool-rearing region is that of the karroos. It will be observed from the table on p. 471 that during the three periods for which averages are given there has been a decline in the value of the wool exported from the Cape, and a dechne is also found to have taken place, though not to the same extent, when we take quantity instead of value. The quantity of wool exported from the Cape doubled in the period 1858-64, attained its maximum in 1872, and in 1885 was little more than two-thirds of what it was in the maximum year. But though it is true that in the years preceding 1885 severe droughts had considerably diminished the number of sheep in the colony, this reduction of the export is not to be wholly ascribed to a diminution of production. A large part of the wool exported from the colony is produced outside its borders, and since the working of the Griqua Land West diamond-fields a large trade has been developed with the east coast through Natal, and an increasing proportion of South African wool appears to be exported by this route. (See 205.) 814. The ostrich feathers exported from Cape Colony are mainly derived from domesticated birds, this colony having been the first part of the world where ostrich-farming was attempted. The industry began about 1864, and was greatly stimulated by the perfecting of an incubator for ostriches' eggs in 1869. The trade is liable to be affected by great fluctuations in price. Whereas in 1880 the average value of A A 2 3S6 COUNTKIBS OF AFRICA a pound of feathers was 8Z. 8s., in 1885 it had sunk as low as %. 6s. %d. 815. Among agricultural products which do not take a leading place among the exports are wine (186), grapes,' and other fruit, and all kinds of cereals belonging to temperate chmates, maize (mealies) being very largely cultivated in the east. In this part of the colony, nevertheless, there is a large import of grain ; for it is here that the native Bantus, or EafSxs, who at the last census formed two-thirds of the population, and are now multiplying in South Africa with almost if not quite unparalleled rapidity, chiefly predominate. These natives in some cases form excellent labourers on farms belonging to Europeans, but for the most part prefer to cultivate indolently maize and other crops on their own land. 816. Since 1885 the foreign trade cf the Cape Colony has been greatly stimulated by the working of the goldfields of the South African RepubUe (821), and the transit trade thereby created has been promoted by the action of the Cape government in providing for a rebatement of customs duty on imported articles which are re-exported at certain ports on the northern frontier. 817. The dependencies of Cape Colony in the east, known collec- tively as British Eafiraria, or the Transkeian Districts, are occupied by Bantu tribes engaged in similar pursuits to those within the frontiers of Cape Colony proper. 818. Natal is a self-governing British colony between British Kaf- fraria in the south and Zulu Land and the South African Eepublio in the north, and separated from Basuto Land and the Orange Eiver Free State in the interior by the highest part of the Kwathlamba or Draken- berg Mountains. As its surface rises rapidly in elevation from the coast to the interior, its climate may be said to change from sub-tropical to temperate in the same direction. Near the coast are grown sugar- cane, arrowroot, coffee, and other tropical and sub-tropical products, and sugar is an important export. Further inland are grown the temperate cereals, and sheep and cattle are reared. Wool is the chief export, but it is largely of foreign origin (813). Here also there is a large and rapidly increasing native population. The capital is Pietermaritzburg, situated at the height of about 2,200 feet, in the interior ; the chief seaport Durban, on the fine natural harbour of Fort Natal. From Durban a railway has been laid inland as far as Ladysmith, at the base of the Drakenberg Mountains, the place whence the road across the De Beer's Pass enters the Orange Eiver Free State. This railway is now being continued along the base of the mountains just named by way of Newcastle to the frontier of the South African Eepublic. The importance of this railway is due not merely to the fact that it facili- tates communication with the interior States named, but also to this, that the same coal-measures as are worked in Cape Colony crop out ' Grapes are in season from December to March, and could, it is said, be shipped in immense quantities. Kew 2J«H.,No. 13, p. 16. NATAL AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE SOUTH-EAST 357 again along its route under the mountains. They are already worked at Newcastle. 819. The maritime part of Zulu land is under British authority. This territory produces excellent hides, but commercially it suffers from the want of a good seaport. St. Lucia Bay, the only important indentation on the coast, is worthless as a harbour. Amatonga Land, which extends northwards from Zulu Land to the Portuguese territory round Delagoa Bay, and includes a small island at the mouth of that bay, has been brought within the sphere of direct British influence by a treaty concluded with the native chief in 1888. From, a commeroial point of view this territory is at least promising. It is said to be healthy, is traversed by permanent rivers nia.vigable for barges and small steamers up to the mountains at its back, and capable of being connected at little cost by canals ; and it has in the south-east an inlet which has the rare advantage among South African seaports of being unencumbered by an outside bar, and which could be easily made into an excellent seaport by establishing a navigable channel connecting it with the inland navigation. On one of the navigable rivers of this district coal has been discovered. 820. Delagoa Bay, the southernmost part of Portuguese territory in East Africa, does not afford the facilities for commerce which it might be thought to do from its appearance on the map. It consists almost entirely of extremely shallow flats traversed by only narrow and tortuous navigable channels. The entrance to the seaport of Lorenco Marques at its head is obstructed by a bar within the bay, and vessels frequenting the port have to load and unload by means of Hghters. Moreover, the flats surrounding Loren9o Marques have the reputation ' of being very unhealthy except for a short season (June to September), but this reputation is said to be greatly exaggerated. Notwithstand- ing all drawbacks this port has acquired considerable importance lately from the fact of its being the starting-point of a railway on the shortest route to the recently developed South African goldfields (821). The railway has already been laid to beyond the Portuguese frontier. 821. BasTito Land, the Orange River Free State^ and the South African BepubUc (or the Transvaal), and Swazi Land occupy table- lands of from 8,500 to 5,000 feet or more in height, lying within the mountains forming the western frontiers of the territories just described. Basuto Land is a British Crown colony ; the Orange Eiver Free State (capital, Bloemfontein) and the South African Ee- pubUc (capital, Pretoria) are both Dutch (Boer) republics, the latter placed under British control as regards its external relations. Swazi Land is under native rule, but has numerous white settlers. They all produce wool, hides, and grain, and the most important of the goldfields, to which reference has more than once been made, are situated within the South African Republic. Three goldfields have 3S8 COUNTRIES AND REGIONS OF AFRICA acquired some celebrity. One, called the De Eaap goldfield, with Bar- berton for its centre, is situated near the eastern frontier ; another, called the Witwatersrandgoldfield, with Johannesburg for its centre, a little to the south-west of Pretoria ; the third round Klerksdorp, near the southern frontier, 120 miles south-west of Witwatersrand. The railway from Delagoa Bay is now being continued to Pretoria. 822. Bechuana Land is a vast territory (about half as large again as Great Britain] situated to the north of Cape Colony, and to the west of the other South African territories already described. It was annexed to the British Empire in 1885, and is now divided into a British pro- tectorate in the north and west, and a Crown coluny in the south- east. The west is chiefly occupied by the Kalahari Desert, but the Crown colony is well adapted for maize-cultivation, as well as cattle- rearing, and contains many tracts suitable for settlement by Europeans. Its capital is Vryburg. Palapye, the present capital of the pro- tectorate, hes a Httle to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn, about 70 miles to the east of Shoshong, the former capital. 823. Matabele Land, extending northwards from the eastern part of Bechuana Land to the Zambezi, was brought by treaty within the sphere of direct British influence in 1888. It reaches far within the Tropic of Capricorn, but may be included in temperate South Africa, inasmuch as it embraces a large extent of tableland from 4,000 to 5,000 feet in height, with tracts healthy for Europeans. The table- land extends to within one degree of the Zambezi. Gold exists at many places in this territory. The British South Africa Company, which obtained a royal charter in 1889, here has its principal field of operations. The charter empowers the company, among other things, to acquire rights of government, but reserves to the Crown the right of assuming dominion if it sees fit. In 1890, in accordance with arrangements made with the native ruler, a British settlement was formed in Mashona Land, a region containing several more or less promising goldfields, subject to the Matabele chief, lying in the north- east of Matabele Land proper. Fort Salisbury, situated at the height of nearly 5,000 feet, a httle to the north of 18° S., and about 30° 48' E., is the chief station of the settlement. The company has laid a railway northwards from Kimberley to Vryburg, and beyond Vryburg in the direction of Mafeking about 100 miles further north. Ultimately it is intended to continue this railway by Palapye to Buluwayo, the residence of the Matabele chief, 450 miles north of Mafeking. The settlers round Fort Salisbury, however, have a much shorter means of communication with the sea eastwards through Portuguese territory (838). 823 a. West Africa between the Cape Colony and lat. 18° S., with the exception of Walvisch Bay (809), is under German protection. At present this region has hardly any commercial products, but it is well adapted for cattle-rearing. Arid as the climate is, the underground stores of water are said to be very abundant. TROPICAL AFRICA 359 824. TROPICAL AFRICA. This is the part of the continent that yields least to commerce, and it affords little prospect of yielding much more in the near future. Oil and oil-seeds, ivory, rubber, gums, and spices make up the bulk of the exports from these regions, and the total value of all of them, especially of the last three, is insignifioanli. These products, moreover, are largely, if not mainly, obtained by the system known to the Germans as ' robber-economy,' the system that destroys what furnishes the product, so that one has to penetrate to a greater distance inland in search of commodities of which the regions first visited have been denuded. The regular cultivation of products for export is confined to very limited areas. 825. The causes of this state of matters are various. In the first place, there is only a comparatively limited area in which there is a strong settled government. Among native states, those in which the authority of the government is most firmly established and civilisa- tion most highly advanced are the states of western Sudan between the Niger and Lake Chad, more particularly the great Haussa States of Oaudu, Sokoto and Adamawa, together with Bornu. You may travel, according to Mr. J. Thomson, as safely through the Haussa States as through Great Britaia. Throughout the region the climate is, for AMca, eminently healthy. The air is dry and exhilarating, though the temperature is high. The soil is much more fertile than is commonly the case in Africa. The rains are adequate. The fields are consequently well cultivated, and produce abundance of durrah (299), maize, cotton, and other crops. The horse, camel, ox, and donkey fiourish. There are large towns, with a population in some cases of as much as 150,000. The people are expert in many handicrafts, including the working of brass and other metals. They are fond of voluminous garments, and dehght in adorning even their horses with sUks and velvets, tassels, and tinkling bells. 825 a. Here it may be noted that these states are all Mohammedan, and that it is apparently since the introduction of Mohammedanism that the comparatively advanced civilisation just described has been developed. Mohammedanism has, in fact, hitherto proved the most powerful civilising agent in Central Africa. Its influence is still spreading, and it has already conquered the whole area from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean as far as 6° N. lat., and in some parts even farther south. 826. On the other hand, the slave-trade, as practised at the present day by the Arabs, the people among whom Mohammedanism arose, is perhaps the chief hindrance to the establishment of settled govern- ment in Central Africa, and the second great obstacle to the develop- ment of trade with that region. Throughout the greater part of this region Arabs carry on the trade in ivory and the trade in slaves hand in hand. They go wherever ivory can be accumulated, and when they have collected their store of this valuable commodity they seize or 36o COUNTRIES AND REGIONS OF AFRICA purchase natives to serve as bearers, and finally to be sold as slaves. Outside of the more firmly governed region just described there are few parts of Central Africa not subject to be harassed by their raids. 827. Thirdly, the climate of Central Africa is an obstacle to its development. The climate, like that of all tropical regions, is ener- vating and unfavourable to labour. On all the lowlands malaria pre- vails, and it is not even absent from the tropical plateaux. Among Europeans this causes an appalling mortality, and even natives do not escape it. 828. Fourthly, the soil of Central Africa is generally far from fertile. Large areas of the plateau of Eastern Africa are hopelessly barren. The fertile volcanic soil in the neighbourhood of Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro, east of Lake Victoria Nyanza, is quite an exception, and even there the coimtry is burnt up for eight or nine months in the year. Vast areas in the Congo basin and elsewhere are covered with that insatiably thirsty soil known as laterite (52). 829. Fifthly, the means of communication with the interior are very defective. On the north, the great desert of Sahara intervenes between the Mediterranean and North Atlantic seaports and the Sudan, and in the east there are deserts of greater or less width everywhere north of the equator, between the coast and the more fertile highlands of the Nile basin. 829 a. The navigation of nearly all the great rivers is inter- rupted by rapids and falls. It has already been mentioned that the second of two rapids on the Nile occurs just on the Egyptian frontier. Higher up there are several other rapids to be passed before reaching Khartum at the junction of the Blue and the White Nile, and some of these are so dangerous for vessels of considerable size that the desert route is generally preferred for long stretches in this direction, aU the more since in some cases, in consequence of the wide bends in the upper NUe, that route allows of a shortening of the distance. Above Khartiun steam navigation can be pursued to a httle above Lado in lat. 5° N., but on this part of the route another obstruction is apt to occur in the form of dense accumulations of vegetation (ambatch), and still higher up mora falls and rapids block the way to the great lakes. 8296. The lower half of the Senegal is navigable for gunboats, but the upper half is obstructed by numerous difficult rapids, some impassable for the greater part of the year. 829 c. The unbroken navigation of the Niger basin is of much more importance than that of any other African river except the Nile, regard being had to the situation of the most productive regions belonging to it. Vessels of 600 tons can ascend for seven or eight months in the year as high as Babba, a little above the confluence of the Benue ; and though it is true that there navigation is wholly in- terrupted by a long series of rapids with a fall at their head, the Benue, TROPICAL AFRICA, MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 361 ■which traverses the southern part of the Haussa States, is navigable to about 13° E., that is, for nearly the whole of its westerly course. Above the falls of the Niger just referred to, large and swift canoes (manned by from forty to fifty men) can navigate that river for hundreds of mUes. 829 - 00 rH M oo <£ 00 of CO 03 ^ ^ 2 •Tj s S TO !d s o Q Q o g. o 1 00 CT o >3 tx ■3|S J o o o .2 111 p. M 03 »-t t Ill § a " 00 U5 o W p^ c3 o o o o : :: :: s c 1-1 ^ ^° ■« •^ •* (M W5 O o H 00 CD >o m t- ■c- ira 05 t- T-t IN (N (M (N eo eo CO « CO CO CO co" 1 ■3 1 1 ■ 1 g i !25 : : = ■§ o " s EH " - Z E "S ■g a U3 ■ lo ci> <£> iH tH CS IC ^ O Oi CO CO *& »- t-H t-T ©if J 1 • 1 -- .2 >a Id g " ■ 1 • g •J 'c3 (3 « • P3 ! " — ' 1 il a o o a 'o 1-1 "o I-:? •I d o C9 >a EH 1^ S « 3 g g « £ 1 ^ ;a ^ A f-i OS 02 1 s o ? ■^ 1 a 5 = = - -4J eg 1 ^ S 3 O « > fM CM CQ & « P^ d 1 P4 Is ^•9 •P^ 5 HS cl> a; ^ O.S Is- § O IQ rl v^ g =5 g >.. £ 01 - c3- £-2g ^■" flj . W W !-• g^S g 's 'S -^ M c3 .tr iri 03 0) to S CO 376 DOMINION OF CANADA fall in the price of wheat ; but even when we adopt more satisfactory methods of arriving at the condition of the Canadian wheat-trade the result is much the same. Taking quantities instead of values, we find that the total export of wheat and flour in the period 1886-90 was only about two-thirds of that in the period 1871-75. On the other hand, whereas the Dominion in 1871-75 imported for home consump- tion much more wheat and flour than it exported, in 1886-90 its import of these commodities for home consumption was equal to only a small fraction of the Canadian wheat and flour exported. 867 (X. No minerals appear in the export table, but the mineral resources of the Dominion are in fact very great. In the meantime, however, the mines and quarries in operation furnish products chiefly for home consumption. The minerals of most importance com- mercially at present, or likely to be so in the immediate future, are coal (in the three forms of Ugnite, bituminous coal, and anthracite), .gold, silver, copper, iron, and apatite. The coalfields are enormous in extent, though as yet worked only where there are special facilities for commerce, as in the neighbourhood of Seaports (in the north of Nova Scotia, and in Vancouver Island, British Columbia), and at various points on or near the route of the Pacific Railway, a region in which it is very abundant. The British Columbia coal is important as the only good coal as yet worked on the Pacific coast. Gold is chiefly produced, like coal, in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, and both of these provinces likewise have the advantage of possessing iron ores in close proximity to coal. The silver deposits, situated about the western end of the Canadian shores of Lake Superior, are likely to prove of great commercial value now that the Pacific Eailway has been laid through the district. Apatite (423' lie) is found in great quantity in the west of the province of Quebec, and north of Kingston, Ontario, and is a rapidly growing export. 868. The import table A. may be usefuUy compared with the corre- sponding table for the United States (p. 474). With regard to the origin of the iron manufactures, it may be mentioned that bar and sheet iron, wire, cutlery, and edge-tools are mainly derived from the United Kingdom, most of the others mainly from the United States, or from the United Kingdom and the United States in almost equal pro- portions. The tea and coffee consumed in the Dominion were both imported chiefly through the United States till after the opening of the Canadian Pacific Eailway (846). From the United States Canada also gets large supplies of refined sugar. 869. Since 1879 the foreign commerce of the Dominion has been greatly affected by the increase of the customs tariff, with the view of developing local manufacturing industries. At the census of 1881 the manufacturing industries in which most capital was invested in Canada were, naturally, those which consisted in subjecting the raw mate- rials of the country to the simplest processes, preparatory to sending MANUFACTURES: PROVINCES AND TOWNS 213 the products to a home or foreign market. Flour-milling stood first in the list, saw-milling second, the making of boots and shoes, and ■other industries connected with leather, third. Since then other manufactures have been greatly developed, a striking indication of which is furnished by the increasing consumption of coal. Though the internal production of coal more than trebled between 1868 (the first complete year after the establishment of the Dominion) and 1886, the consumption increased within the same period nearly five-fold. 870. Provinces and Towns. — (1) Nova Scotia, a province including both the peninsula of that name and the island of Cape Breton to the north : in all about two-thirds of the size of Scotland. The fertile land, less than half the entire area, is mainly situated in the interior. The valley of Annapolis is the most favoured district in respect of soil and chmate, and is above aU noted for its apple orchards. The fisheries of this province furnish the bulk of the Canadian export of fish (363, 365). The capital, Halifax (40)', on the east coast, is situated at the end of a fine natural harbour, which, being in most years free from ice all the vidnter through, makes HaUfax the chief winter port of the Dominion. It is the principal naval station of British North America, and the only place in Canada where British troops are stiU quartered. The city and harbour are defended by fortifications. 871. (2) Prince Edward Island, about the size of the county of Nor- folk, in the bay of the Gulf of St. Lawrence between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. From the nearest point of New Brunswick it is distant nine miles. Capital, Charlottetown (10), on a large, deep, and well-sheltered harbour. 872. (3) New Brunswick, rather less than Scotland in size, very rich in forests, and also possessing valuable fisheries. The capital is Fredericton, a small town at the head of navigation for steamers, on the St. John Eiver ; but the largest town and chief seaport is St. John (28), occupying a fine harbour on the Bay of Fundy, at the mouth of that river. The harbour is open aU the year round. 873. (4) ftuebec, on both sides of the St. Lawrence, mostly east of the Ottawa, a province twice the size of Great Britain, but the popu- lation of which is mainly confined to the small area above indicated (856). The winter is long, snow generally covering the ground (some- times to a depth of more than three feet) from December to April ; but the summer is warm enough to grow not merely the ordinary crops of the British Isles, but also maize and tobacco. The majority of the inhabitants of the province are of French origin, and, unhke the people of France, are increasing in numbers with great rapidity. The capital of the province is ftuebec (63), situated at the conflu- ence of the Charles Eiver with the St. Lawrence. Once the head of the navigation for large vessels, it has had its growth checked by the deepening of the river above the town, and by other causes ; for though ' The populations are estimates for 1885. 378 BRITISH NORTH AMERICA trans- Atlantic passengers generally prefer to land or start here, goods show their usual tendency in favour of water carriage without tran- shipment as far into the heart of a country as possible. This circum- stance has accordingly favoured the rise of Montreal, now the chief seat of commerce in the Dominion, UONTREAL (220) stands on an island in the St. Lawrence, 160 miles (by river) above Quebec. Since the deepening of the river it can be reached by vessels of 3,000 tons burden, and is the present head of navigation for the larger class of ocean steamers. (See also 859, 864.) 874. (5) Ontario, more than half as large again as Great Britain, is the province to the west of Quebec, extending along the north of the great lakes. The populous region, which is the most southerly part of the whole of the Dominion, has a much shorter winter than that of Quebec, and in the extreme south even wine is grown. Barley, the only grain exported in large amount from Canada to the United States, is an important crop in this province, which is also the place of origin of most of the horses exported to the latter country. The wheat area in the province declined pretty steadily from 1'96 to 1"38 million acres between 1881 and 1887, but this was compensated by a great increase in the number of horses and horned cattle. The capital is TORONTO, near the west end of Lake Ontario, on which it has a fine harbour. It is growing as rapidly as Montreal. At the census of 1881 its population was under 90,000, but at that of 1891 it had increased to more than double that number. Another thriving town is Hamilton, at the extreme west of the same lake. The chief inland town is London, Kingston and Port Arthur have already been referred to (862, 860). Ottawa (32), the seat of the Dominion government, stands on the river of the same name, about ninety miles above its confluence with the St. Lawrence. It is the centre of the lumber trade of the province. 875. (6) Manitoba, the rich, flat wheat-growing province in the west, is about two-thirds the size of Great Britain, It encloses the lake of the same name, and the greater parts of Lakes Winnipeg and Winni- pegosis. The capital is Winnipeg (26), situated at the confluence of two navigable rivers, the Red River (884a), which flows northwards from the United States through one of the richest wheat valleys in the world, and the Assiniboine, which comes from the west. This town is now also the place of convergence of numerous railways, and is hence rapidly increasing ia size as the centre of trade for the great wheat-fields of the west. Notwithstanding the climatic disadvantage mentioned in par. 858, the area under wheat in the province has increased year by year from 51,000 acres in 1881 to 917,000 acres in 1891— m the latter year equal to about two-fifths of the wheat acreage in Great Britain. 876. (7) British Columbia, four times the size of Great Britain, occu- pies the dry tableland of the Eocky Mountains, with the moist, mild strip of coast, and the islands to the west. The principal wealth of CANADIAN NORTH-WEST; NEWFOUNDLAND ; BERMUDAS 379 tins province consists in its minerals and forests. The discovery of gold first brought a rush of settlers here in 1856. As to coal see 867 a. The forests of the coast range, composed of gigantic pine and fir trees, are among the grandest in the world. The capital is Victoria (14), on a beautiful harbour at the south-east end of Vancouver Island. Van- couver, which has excellent harbour accommodation at the mouth of Burrard Inlet, and New Westminster, near the mouth of the Fraser Biver, are the two western termini of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 877. The North- West Territories and the Provisional Districts. The area to the west of Hudson's Bay and the province of Manitoba as far as the frontier of British Columbia is known generally as the North- West Territories. It contains as yet but a small settled area, but settlement is rapidly going on along the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the course of the North Saskatchewan Eiver (863); Four areas have been marked out under the name of provisional districts. They are (1) Assiniboia, to the west of the southern part of Manitoba ;. capital, Regina. (2) Saskatchewan, north of Assiniboia ; capital, Battleford. (3) Alberta, to the west of both the previously named districts ; capital, Calgary ; finely situated at the meeting-place of two streams at the base of the Eocky Mountains. Having rich grasses, this district is pre-eminently the cattle and dairy region of the west. (4) Athabaska, north of Alberta, not yet settled. The nama of Keewatin is given to an unsettled district to the north of Manitoba. (See the map opposite.) The region to the north Oi. these provisional districts at present, produces for commerce nothing but furs, but, according to a report, recently presented to the Canadian Parliament, it has resources which hold out vast possibilities for the future, even though we may have to regard this future as somewhat distant. It has a climate fitted for- the growth of potatoes over an area more than seven times as large aa Great Britain, and over nearly half of that area fitted for the oultiva-^ tion of wheat. It has enormous deposits of coal, lignite, and petro-. leum, and it has in the Athabaska, Mackenzie, and other rivers 2,750 miles of inland navigation, with only two serious breaks. No doubt an area with these advantages must sooner or later possess a large population, but it must be remembered that the possibility of rapid occu- pation by agricultural settlers depends on the ability of the region to pro- duce crops for very distant markets in competition with other regions. 878. B. Newfoundland, a British colony to which belongs not only the island of that name, but also the dreary coast of Labrador. The island is about one-fourth larger than Ireland, but it contains at pre- sent only a small population, chiefly of fishermen, settled on the coast. Capital, St. John's, on the east coast. (See also 363, 372.) C. The Bermudas, a group of small islands about 750 miles to the south of Nova Scotia, producing tropical and temperate fruits, and frequented by invahds for the sake of their equable climate. 38o UNITED STATES. 879. The territory belonging to the United States, exclusive of Alaska, extends over an area of about three million square miles, or more than thirty-three times the area of Great Britain. The out- lying territory of Alaska, north-west of the Canadian Dominion, has an area more than six times as large as that of Great Britain, and is traversed by a magnificent river, the Yukon, navigable for steamers to beyond the Canadian frontier, but produces commercially little besides furs (352). All but a smaU fraction of the population of the United States is of non-American origin, being composed either of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Europe, or of descen- dants of African negroes originally introduced as slaves on the southern plantations. It is chiefly to this cause, and to the fact that the development of the population has from the first depended in a great measure on commerce with Europe, that, as shown in the map, pp. 366-67, the density of population is greatest in the east, and above all in the vicinity of the great seaports from Massachusetts Bay to Chesapeake Bay. 880. At the present time there is no other region in the world with so vast a field for immigration under the now existing economical conditions, and hence no other dominion has its population steadily reinforced by so abundant a stream of foreign settlers. In the ten years 1877-86 the total number of immigrants was upwards of 4,200,000, and in one year (1882) the number approached 800,000. In two years the number of immigrants from Europe exceeded 600,000. The United Kingdom has usually furnished the largest contingent of this immigrant population from the earliest date from which statistics are obtainable, but since about the middle of this century the German quota has in most years approached, and occasionally exceeded, the British. A large number of the non-European immigrants are from Canada, and hence in the first instance Ukewise of European origin. The immigrants of a different stock are mainly Chinese, who enter by the Pacific ports, and are regarded with great disfavour by the bulk of the population, on account of the cheapness of their labour, and the entire difference in their habits from those of people of European stock. The further immigration of Chinese has recently been prac- tically prohibited. The negro population, though not recruited by UNITED STATES: POPULATION AND GOVERNMENT 381 immigration, is multiplying rapidly by natural increase (excess of births over deaths), but the smaU native Indian population is dwindling away or becoming absorbed. Since the extension of railways and the improvement of other means of communication facihtating commerce over great distances, large numbers of this immigrant population have settled in the fertile lands or the mining centres of the western States, which are likewise attracting a still greater number of inhabitants from the earlier settled States in the east. At the last census (188C) of the State of Iowa (a State west of the Mississippi) it was found that less than half of the population of the State had been bom within its borders, about one-third of the inhabitants had been born in States east of the Mississippi, and more than one sixth (17"7 per cent.) were foreign born. These facts illustrate a movement that has been steadily in progress from an early period (one might say from the first settlement of the area now under cultivation), a movement by which, it is calculated, the centre of population of the United States has advanced about one degree of longitude, or more, westwards at every decennial census since 1810. 881. In relation to the commerce of this vast region, it is highly note- worthy that there are special circumstances both in the history of the country and in the physical features of its territory, that have favoured the unity of its government. In consequence of this unity there is free trade here, as in the Dominion of Canada, from ocean to ocean ; and though the individual States have each legislative powers within certain limits, there could be no more striking illustration of the importance to commerce of the central government than the passing, in February 1887, of the Interstate Commerce Act, which may be briefly described as an Act prohibiting local and individual preferences on the greater highways of commerce throughout the length and breadth of a territory four-fifths of the size of Europe. The seat of the general government is WASHINGTON (in 1880, 160 ; in 1890, 280). 832. If we look at this unity of government from an historical point of view, there are several important considerations to bear in mind. The separate ' plantations ' or colonies that ultimately formed the first United States grew up independently from several convenient starting places, like the Australian colonies and the republics of South America. They grew up under English influence indeed, and with a common language, but this would not in itself have sufficed to make them one, and it was perhaps fortunate that when they had become strong enough, they were united in a common war against the mother country ; fortunate, too, that, when that war was over, the common burdens which it entailed necessitated a common government, and that the great state thus formed held such a preponderance in the middle of the continent that it easily acquired in course of time all the present territory by purchase or conquest. And it was likewise fortunate that, when the practice" of slavery in the Southern States 382 UNITED STATES threatened a permanent division, the North should have been strong enough, in virtue of its more rapid development by immigration, to conquer the South by mere force of wealth and numbers (1861-65). In the course of this war the slaves of the Seceding states were declared free by proclamation of the President of the republic, and immediately after the conclusion of the war an amendment to the Constitution of the United States abohshing slavery throughout their territory was duly adopted. 883. Physically the circamstance most favourable to union is the fact that the central region is one great plain communicating freely with other plains and lowlands in the east, and in the west sloping imperceptibly up to the tableland which forms the base of the Eocky Mountains, and that this great central plain is traversed by some of the grandest navigable rivers in the world. 884. The Mississippi is continuously navigable for steamers of considerable size to the rapids below the Falls of St. Anthony, on the parallel of 45°, that is, to within four degrees of the northern frontier. It traverses a region in which the products of temperate and tropical climates are brought closer together than in any other part of the world, and before the introduction of railways formed the principal channel of communication between districts with the diverse wants due to diversity of production. Even yet, it need scarcely be added, it is of high importance as an auxiliary and rival means of communi- cation. ' During the navigation season of eight months more freight is floated on the Upper Mississippi [St. Louis to the rapids] than any of the three great trunk lines of railroad carry in a year, and "at about one-third the rate.' ' In further illustration of the importance of the Mississippi navigation it may be mentioned that a ' tow-boat ' (or steamer used for propeUing cargo-boats) has been known to proceed down the river to New Orleans, pushing before it thirty-two barges with a total cargo of 20,000 tons— an amount that it would take a hundred railway-trains, each consisting of twenty ten-ton trucks, to transport.' 884 a. The Ohio, the tributary which joins the Mississippi on the left bank from a populous region in the north-east, is navigable, with only one interruption, for large steamers for six or eight months in the year, as high as Pittsburgh (in about the same latitude as New York), where the river is formed by the union of two other navigable streams. The one interruption referred to is in the form of rapids, avoided by a short canal at LOUISVILLE, and for small steamers these rapids are not insurmountable. The Cumberland and the Tennessee, on the left of the Ohio, and the Wabash, on the right, have like- wise considerable stretches of navigable water. The Red River, the Arkansas, and the Missouri, the great right-bank tributaries of the Mississippi, are also all navigable for hundreds of miles, the Missouri ' Repent on tlus Internal Commerce of the United States for 1887, p. 27. ' Ibid., p. 5G7. PHYSICAL FEATURES AND COMMUNICATIONS 383 for more than two thousand miles, steamers being able to ascend it uninterruptedly to the Great Falls, about 100 miles below the gorge known as the Gate of the Eocky Mountains. In the same great plain, but outside of the basin of the Mississippi, the Red Biver of the North, which flows northwards into Canada, is navigable for steamers to Fargo, a point about 200 miles in a direct line from the limit of continuous navigation on the Mississippi. 885. The Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Bocky Mountains, and other chains in the west, form an interruption to com- munication in this, among other ways, that they cause the rivers which cross them to have their navigation interrupted by rapids. It is partly on this account, partly on account of their smaller size, that the rivers of the Atlantic coast are of less importance than those of the great plain as navigable streams ; but it must be remembered that some of them (the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and James River) are of great value to commerce, as forming, like the rivers of the British Isles, fine harbours in their estuaries ; and even the upper navigation of the Hudson, a broad, deep river, navigable for large steamers to the latitude of the CatskUl Mountains, for smaller ones to the falls at Troy, is of great importance, all the more because it has the greatest of all American seaports (New York) at its mouth. 886. The Columbia River, the principal navigable stream belonging to the Pacific drainage of the United States, has its navigation fre- quently interrupted by falls and rapids, and so too has its chief United States tributary, the Snake River. On the main stream, the lowest interruption of this nature is the Cascades, 165 miles from the mouth, and at the present time costly works are in progress to enable naviga- tion to be continued past this obstruction. 887. The obstacles presented to the laying of railways by the great mountain chains in the east and west are less perhaps than might have been expected from the extent and height of the moun- tains. The gradual slope of the ground up to the base of the Eocky Mountains has facilitated- the laying of railways to the foot of the passes, and several routes have been discovered along which railways eould be advantageously laid across these and other western moun- tains. A comparison of the three most important of these routes with the great Canadian route is given under Canada (864) ; and here it may be added that the Californian valley, physically the most isolated of all the more productive regions of the United States, is now con- nected by rail with the rest of the country by lines laid across the mountains on the north, east, and south. Eastwards runs the first of all transcontinental railways of America, the Union and Central Pacific, which was completed on May 10, 1869. Northwards, a Hne of railway (completed in 1887) connects the Californian valley with the railways, terminating in Puget Sound. Southwards runs the Southern Pacific Eailroad, which directly unites San Francisco and ,84 UNITED STATES New Orleans, and on the one side has a connection with another railway or series of railways leading across the Eocky Mountains to St. Louis, the great port on the middle Mississippi, on the other side con- nections with Mexico (see map opposite p. 379, and the map on p. 401). 888. In the case of the Appalachian Mountains (that name being now used as a general term for all the momitain ranges in the east), it is an important physical feature of the United States that in the north-east, precisely where population is densest, mineral wealth most abundant, the connections between east and west most im- portant, that system breaks up into a great number of smaller moun- tain ranges with many gaps between them, facihtating railway and canal construction. To this region belong several of the most im- portant canals of the United States, among others the Erie and Champlain canals. The Erie Canal serves to connect the navigation of the great lakes with New York, starting from Buffalo, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, and proceeding eastwards to Troy and Albany on the Hudson. It was opened in 1825, and the fact that it was the means by which wheaten bread first came into general use ' in a large part of the eastern States, which was ill-fitted for wheat cultivation,'^ will serve to give an idea of its importance at that date. To indicate its continued importance at the present day it may be mentioned that in the seven months during which it was free from ice in 1886 (a period rather longer than usual), upwards of 45 millions of bushels of grain and flour, that is, much more than half an average wheat-crop of the United Kingdom, was conveyed by this route from Buffalo to New York. The Champlain Canal connects the eastern end of the Erie Canal with the head of Lake Champlain, and thus completes the waterway between New York and the St. Lawrence. In the southern part of the Appalachian system, that to which the name of Alleghany Mountains is sometimes confined, the ranges are higher and more continuous, and there is still a stretch of about 400 miles with only one railway across it, and immediately to the west of that stretch there Hes one of the most sparsely peopled districts of the eastern States. 888 a. The region just referred to is shown in the eastern part of the railway map on the next page. The chief aim of this map, however, is to illustrate the peculiar economic conditions of the United States as compared, for example, with Russia. The map is on the same scale as that of Eussia (pp. 270-71). It embraces most of the area of the United States in which the products are similar to those of Eussia. This area is everywhere relatively less populous than the most productive parts of Eussia, and yet it has a railway network incomparably more intricate than that of the European country with ' In place of rye-bread. ^ In 1886 the New England States, containing about ^ or j^,- of the popula- tion of the country, produced only ^Js of the wheat-crop. COMMUNICATIONS: GREAT DIVISIONS RAILWAY MAP or A PORTION OT THE UNITED STATES. Katnral Scale I :I8,000,000. a corresponding industry. The difference between the two in this respect speaks eloquently of the feverish haste with which the products of America are forwarded to distaht markets. The existence of this network, constructed at a time When population was sparse and land cheap, must of necessity be of the Utmost consequence to the country as population grows denser. 889. With regard to its climate and ptodUotions the territory of the United States may be divided into four regions, two east and two west of the meridian of 100° W; A. The North-east. — Nortli of the Ohio and Delaware Bay, com- prising, among others, the New England States. In this region the inhabitants are almost aU of European origin, and the products are similar to those of Europe. The eastern portion of it is the most densely peopled part of the United States, 'and that in which manu- facturing industries are most highly developed. B. The South-east, a region in which tobacco and cotton are grown as staples, and in which negroes form a large proportion of the popula- tion, in the States on both sides of the Lower Mississippi even out- numbering the people of European descent. The rainfall of this region, at least in the south-east, is much heavier than in the former, and occurs mainly in summer, the prevailing winds having a monsoon character (36). C. The region between 100° and 120° W. (mostly tableland), com- prismg an area of about 1,200,000 square miles, may be described as the arid region of the United States, inasmuch as throughout its extent, except in the neighbourhood of mountains (36, 717), and near the northern frontier, the rainfall is too scanty for agriculture without irrigation. This region is, however, rich in metals. D. The Pacific Coast. In this section of the United States the climate is very moist on the mountain slopes, especially in the north, but in the plains is comparatively dry, and south of about 40° N. it re- sembles that of the Mediterranean region, the summer nearly rainless, c a . 386 UNITED STATES the winter mild. Gold, which first attracted a large population to thig part of the world, is stUl an important product, but the fine Californian valley, watered by the Sacramento in the north and the San Joaquin in the south, now teems with wheat, barley, wine, and southern fruits, and excellent wheat is also grown on both sides of the Columbia Eiver (50). On the mountains the forest scenery is highly remarkable. Dense forests of giant conifers cover the slopes, and a great timber trade has grown up round Puget Sound (Washington). 890. The products and deficiencies among the products of the United States will be most conveniently studied in detail with reference to the tables on pp. 474-75 and 476-77,' which exhibit the chief features of the foreign commerce. But in examining these tables from this point of view, two considerations must be borne in mind. In the first place, the foreign commerce of the country is greatly affected by the maintenance of a customs tariff calculated to foster native industries, in consequence of which there is an immense amount of manufactur- ing industry for home consumption of which these tables give no idea. Secondly, it must not be inferred that because certain agricultural products are largely imported into the United States, they are unsuited to the climate. The high price of labour ia the country excludes or limits the cultivation of certain products, such as sugar (305), tea (278), and raw silk (222), for which the climate of the United States in some part of their territory is in no way unsuited. Cane-sugar is grown in the swamps of Louisiana bordering the Gulf of Mexico, but nowhere else to any great extent. The total amount of sugar pro- duced in the country is on an average equal to less than one-tenth of the requirements for consumption.^ 890 a. Notwithstanding the development of native manufactures just referred to, the inference that would naturally be drawn from the ' During the American Civil War (1861-65), and after that period down to 1879, the currency of the United States consisted of inconvertible paper, which circu- lated at a varying discount. While that currency lasted, the export tables were made up partly in terms of the value of the paper dollar, partly in terms of the gold value, and from the annual reports of the trade of the United States it is impossible to tell what proportion is entered on the one basis and what on the other. It seemed accordingly not worth while to calculate the quinquennial averages for the exports of that period in the same way as has been done for other countries. Instead of that the calculation has been made for individual years in accordance with the average value of the paper dollar for the year. The figures got by this method must be somewhat inaccurate for the reason just stated, but they are at least a nearer approximation to the truth than if the conversion had been made at the usual rate. The averages for the total value of American commerce fiven on p. 475 are based on the gold values given in the Statistical Abstract for the Fnited States. '' In 1890 Congress passed an Act knovm as the McKinley Tariff Act, which will probably have a great effect on American foreign trade. Its general design is an attempt to protect and promote the industries of the United States by duties on competing articles of foreign production, reduction of duties on raw materials em- ployed in the manufactures of the country, and remission of duties on articles that have been used in the country in the manufacture of exported commodities. Sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides are admitted free under this Act, but the President is authorised to reimpose duties on these commodities, when derived from tountries which do not offer due favour to the products of the United States. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 387 table of special exports on p. 475, that the United States as a whole are pre-eminently an agricultural country, is a true one. At the census of 1880, out of the whole population above 10 years of age enumerated as having any Occupation, the proportion engaged in agriculture was 44-1 per cent., as against 22 per Cent, engaged in manufactures and mechanical and mining industries. At the same date nearly three-fourths of the agricultural holdings were occupied and cultivated by their owners. Since that date the number of hired farms is believed to have become relatively more numerous. 891. The chief crops of the United States, maize, wheat, oats, cotton, barley, rye, buckwheat, tobacco, are all treated of separately elsewhere, but some further particulars may be most appropriately given in this place. 892. The order in which the crops have now been mentioned is the order of their importance as regards the extent of ground which they cover. In all the leading crops of the United States,, a westerly movement of the centre of production, corresponding to that of the centre of population (880), has been going on for many years back. In the case of maize and wheat the following table exhibits this ten- dency to some extent even for the short period between 1880 and 1886 :— Tahle showing in order the seven States which produced the largest quantitij of maize and wheat, in 1880 and 1886 respectively. MaJZG Wheat 1880 1886 1880 1886 Illinois Illinois Illinois Minnesota Iowa Iowa Indiana Ohio Missouri Missouri Ohio Indiana Indiana Kansas Michigan California Ohio Indiana Minnesota Iowa Kansas Nebraska Iowa Dakota (N. & S.) • Kentucky Ohio California Ulinois In the case of maize it will be observed that the States maintain their relative importance better than in the case of wheat, but the westerly movement is indicated by the rise of Kansas and Nebraska (respectively fourth and sixth on the list in 1886). With regard to wheat, it must be mentioned that Minnesota, which in 1886 had risen to the first place, and Dakota, which had risen to the sixth, share in the Eed Eiver Valley the peculiar suitability for wheat-growing which has already been referred to in pars. 149 and 875. What is indicated, therefore, in the case of wheat is not merely the westerly movement of the centre of production, but the influence of specially favourable conditions in that valley and on the Pacific coast (149). Since the census year (1880), the unfavourable circumstances affecting the cultivation of wheat generally (145-9) have caused the area under wheat in the United States as a whole to remain practi- cc2 388 UNITED STATES cally stationary, the area under maize growing all the more rapidly. The extent of land now occupied by this crop is nearly twice as great as that under wheat, and its produce is about five times as much as that of the latter. The much smaller export of maize than of wheat is due to the fact that the bulk of the former crop is employed in the United States in feeding swine and other animals, so that the export of bacon, hams, and lard, as well as maize, may all be regarded as representing this branch of American agriculture. 892 a. The wood export of the United States takes place from Puget Sound (889 D), Pensacola, New York, and various other ports. Pensacola, 55 miles east by south of Mobile, is the chief place of export of pitch-pine from the sandy ' pine-barrens ' of Florida and the neighbouring States. 893. The living animals exported from the United States are chiefly cattle, and these, as well as cheese, are mainly the produce of the States east of the Mississippi, and near the northern frontier west of that river ; and it is in these regions that this branch of agriculture is most rapidly developing. It is in the western States and territories, however, that sheep are multiplying most rapidly, the drier climate there prevaihng being favourable to the rearing of that animal. 894. With regard to the agricultural deficiencies of the United States, which the import table on p. 474 betrays, attention may be drawn to two, sugar and fruits. Sugar, it will be observed, has held the first place among the imports of the United States from the earliest period entered in the table, 1861-65 ; the cause of which is already explained in par. 890. The ordinary fruits of the colder tem- perate cUmates flourish in the United States as well as in any part of the world, and are produced in suificient abundance to leave a surplus for export. The imported fruits are principally those of the Mediterranean region, oranges, figs, grapes, currants, raisins, &c. ; and of the first mentioned of these, a large supply is home grown in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as in irri- gated fields in California. In Cahfomia, also, the production of raisins (begun in 1877) has increased so enormously in recent years that the demand for foreign raisins has been greatly reduced, A great deal of rice is grown m the swamps of South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. At one time, indeed, there was a considerable export of rice from the United States to England, but this export has almost been extinguished (298). In 1880 the production of rice in the United States was little more than half of what it was in 1850. 895. Of the mineral products of the United States, the only one that takes a leading place among the exports, besides the precious metals, is petroleum, or mmeral oil ; but these items give no idea of the extent of the mineral resources of the United States. The fact is that, besides the precious metals and petroleum, the United States now produce more iron and copper than any other country in the MINERAL PRODUCTS: COAL, IRON 389 world; and in the production of coal they stand second (376). In order of value in 1886, the nine leading minerals produced in the United States were coal, iron, silver, gold, lime, petroleum, building- stone, copper, and lead. 896. Coal iss produced both in the form of anthracite and bitu- minous coal, as well as hgnite. The total production has been in- creasing with very rapid strides. The production of 1886 was more than three times that of 1870, and more than seven times that of 1860. Of both the principal forms of coal, the chief producing State is Pennsylvania, which yields 60 per cent., or more, of the total quantity produced in the country. Anthracite is produced in severa? small fields in the east of the State, the centre of the region of pro- duction being about 200 miles from New- York and 125 miles from Philadelphia. Access is afforded to the productive region by thf valley of the Delaware, with those of its tributaries, the Schuylkill and the Lehigh, and in all of these valleys there is water communica- tion (by canal or river), as well as, of course, abundance of railways. Bituminous coal is produced chiefly in the west of Pennsylvania, the large manufacturing town of Pittsburgh being situated about the centre of production. To this region belongs most of the coal used in making coke in the United States ; the- principal centre of coke- maMng being Connellsville, about 40 miles south-south-east of Pitts- burgh. The bituminous coal region of Western Pennsylvania likewise extends into the adjoining States of West Virginia and Ohio, in the latter of which large quantities of coal are produced in the neighbour- hood of the Ohio Eiver. Further west another productive coal region extends from the west of Indiana through Illinois to the east of Iowa ; and Illinois is the Stat© that ranks after Pennsylvania in the total amount of its produc- tion. Among the Appalachian ranges in Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and northern Alabama, are other coalfields with a rising production, and many others are scattered over- different parts of the United States territory. 897. The iron ores of the United States are likewise very abun- dant and very widely distributed. Many of them also are of excellent quality. In the year preceding the last census year (that is, in 1879) more than one-fourth of the whole of the produced ore contained a sufficiently small amount of phosphorus to be capable of being used in maldng Bessemer steel (391). But the chief supplies of ore are at a great distance from the smelting fuel. Nowhere in the country are the best steel-making- ores found in proximity either to anthracite or bituminous coal ; and in some parts of the Lake Superior region, which in recent years have yielded fully two-fifths of the iron ore produced in the United States, even timber suitable for making char- coal is almost wholly wanting. 897 a. The principal ore deposits of the Lake Superior region lie 390 UNITED STATUS in four districts, in the neighbourhood of Marquette, on the south shore of the lake in Michigan ; among the Menominee Hills, to the south of Marquette ; in the Gogebic Bange, parallel to the southern shore near the western end (in Michigan and Wisconsin), and in the Vermilion Range, in the north-east of Minnesota. It is in a large measure the development of these and other mineral areas, together with the development of the wheat region of the Bed Eiver VaUey (892), that has led to the increase of traffic through the Sault St. Mary Canal (860), the tonnage passing through that canal having increased nearly four-fold in the ten years between 1877 and 1886. Next in importance to the Lake Superior region for its production of iron ore, is a district in eastern Pennsylvania, closely adjoining one of the fields of anthracite, and near the same region there is hkewise a large production in the north of New Jersey. Abundant supphes of excellent ore are hkewise found to the west of Lake Champlain, in the State of New York, and in the east of the State of Missouri south of the Missouri Eiver. 898, For smelting, the general rule prevails in the United States, as elsewhere, that the ore is brought to the fuel, rather than the fuel to the ore; the cost of carriage being relatively less in the more valuable commodity. It is for this reason that the great centre of the iron industry of the United States is PITTSBURGH, which in the early stages of the industry had the advantage of local supplies of ore as weU as coal ; and has likewise the advantage of being situated where two navigable streams unite to form the Ohio. Some of the local supplies are long ago exhausted, and their total amount is scanty, hut Pittsburgh still has the advantage of fuel in a higher degree than any other town in the United States ; for not only is it within easy reach of the Connellsville coke, but it is likewise one of the great centres of the trade in petroleum (406), and more recently it has begun to make use of the best of all fuels for iron-working, natural gas, which issues from the ground apparently in inexhaustible quantity within a radius of from twelve to twenty miles, and is conveyed to the city by pipes. The result is that Pittsburgh produces about one-third of the pig-iron made in the United States, and, moreover, that a town whose two chief industries are Ln iron and glass carries on these industries in an atmosphere almost as clear as that of the surround- ing country. The chief supplies of ore to Pittsburgh are now neces- sarily brought from the Lake Superior region, but considerable quan- tities are hkewise derived from Eastern Pennsylvania, that is, from the immediate vicinity of the anthracite region. In the making of glass the employment of natural gas is as beneficial to the quality of the product as in the making of iron, and from the same cause, the absence of sulphur (382, 387-88). At a trial of window-glass made from coal and from gas-fuel at Pittsburgh it was found that newspaper print could be read through eighteen sheets of gas-made glass placed MINERAL PRODUCTS: IRON, PRECIOUS METALS 391 behind one another, whereas nothing could be seen distinctly through six sheets of similar coal-made glass. 898 a. Next to Pennsylvania in the production of pig and rolled iron, and the larger iron manufactures, comes Ohio, whose coalfields are easily supphed with Lake Superior ores ; and then Illinois, which is readily accessible to supplies of the same ores in the north, and has large coalfields in the south-west within easy reach of the ores of Missouri. But the region in which the iron industry of the United States is most rapidly developing is on the coalfield of northern Alabama, which is situated in the very midst of enormous supplies of iron ore, lying in limestone valleys which supply abundance of flux (388). From the combination of these advantages, together with that of cheaper labour than in other iron- working districts of the country, this is the district ia which iron, and ordinary articles in iron, can probably be produced cheapest, and hence there is here growing up with rapid strides a town of Birmingham, with similar associations to those of the Birmingham of older and wider fame. It is this district that might be expected to compete most keenly ia foreign countries with the iron-producing districts of Great Britain ; but it is an im- portant element in the comparison, that its centre lies, roughly speak- ing, about four hundred miles by rail from the seaport of New Orleans, about three hundred from that of Pensacola, on the Gulf of Mexico. The existence of coal, iron ore, and limestone, as well as timber, round Seattle on Puget Sound (see map opposite p. 379) is favouring the rise of an iron industry there which will be of importance to countries on the Pacific. 898 b. In New England, which in colonial days, along with other parts of the Atlantic coast, supplied pig and bar iron to the mother- country, the making of pig-iron is almost extinct, but some of the cities still retain a reputaticai for their manufacture of iron and steel articles of high quality, such as tools and cutlery. It is in the Atlantic States that most of the imported iron ore (nearly aU of high quality, from Spain, Algeria, Elba^ and Cuba) is utUised. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of the United States for carry- ing on an export trade in iron and iron products (except with Canada, and to a smaller degree with other parts of America), the rapid expan- sion of the iron industry is easy to uaderstand in view of the great development of the American railway system, and the extensive use of machinery of all kinds. And the fact must not be omitted that the United States carry on a large and widespread export in certain finished articles containing iron, such as agricultural implements, sewing-machines, type-writers, &c. 899. The precious metals of the United States are chiefly produced among the mountains in the west ; gold principally on the Californian side of the Sierra Nevada ; silver principally in the Eocky Mountains, in Colorado and Montana (in which latter State mines of remarkable 392 UNITED STATES richness have recently been worked at Butte City), and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, in the State that takes its name from that range. As to the production of quicksilver see 421, 900. Lime and building stone are too widely diffused for their occurrence to be particularised, and the petroleum production of the United States is treated of elsewhere (406). The copper production of the peninsula of Keeweenaw, which juts north-eastwards into Lake Superior (State of Michigan), formerly made up at least 60 per cent, of the whole production of the United States, but in recent years great quantities of copper ore have been produced likewise in the south-east of Arizona, and, still more recently, the mines of Butte City, Montana, have made that State a rival of the Lake Superior region in the production of copper. The chief lead-producing centre of the United States is Leadville, among the Bocky Mountains in Colorado, a town which likewise pro- duces large quantities of gold and silver. Among other important economic minerals of the United States may be mentioned the phosphate rock of South Carolina, which forms a valuable manure. Natural gas occurs, not only in the part of western Pennsylvania already referred to, but also in many other places ; the places of most abundant production next in order being in Ohio, about fifty or sixty miles to the south of the west end of Lake Erie, and in Indiana, near the middle of the eastern frontier. 901. There is only one metal of importance in which the United States are almost entirely deficient, aad that is tin. Tin ores are indeed known to exist among the Black Hills (Harney Peak), in the west of South Dakota, but it has not yet been proved whether these can be economically worked. Hence the large import of tin and tin,plate ; the latter being a much-needed commodity in consequence of the large employment of tin packing-cases for America^ products of agriculture. 902. With regard to the manufacturing industries of the United States in general, it is noteworthy, in the first pla,ce, that they are tg a very large extent carried on with the aid of water-power. The total amount of water-power theoretically available in the United States has been estimated at upwards of 200,000,000 horse-power on an average throughout the year. The amount actually in use at the time of the last census, for manufacturing purposes, was rather less than 1,250,000 horse-power, but that was equal to nearly 36 per cent, of the total power so employed. In the utilisation of this fgrm of power, the State of New York stood first, Massaohusetts second, Pennsylvania third, and Maine fourth ; whereas in the power of all kinds used in manufactming, Pennsylvania stood first. New York second, Massa- chusetts third, and Ohio fburth. Among the manufacturing towns which benefit by the presence of water-power (in some cases called into existence by its presence) may be mentioned Lowell, Fall Eiver, ^^ 'Waltham, io Massachusetts ; Nashua, in New Hampshire ; Paterr 'MANUFACTURES 393 son, in New Jersey ; and Troy, in New York : the last being one of a group of manufacturing towns (including West Troy, Lansingburgli, and Cohoes) which have grown up round the falls that interru;^t the navigation of the Hudson (885). In flour-milling (152) water-power is used to a very large extent. The Falls of St. Anthony, on the Mississippi Eiver, have been the chief means of making Minneapolis (Minnesota) one of the largest wheat -markets, and probably the greatest flour-grinding centre in the world. Numerous flour-mills are driven by the Falls of the Genesee at Eoohester (New York). In the rising wheat regions nearer the Pacific seaboard, the Spokane Falls in the State of Washington and the Falls of the Willamette above Oregon City, in Oregon, will probably develop a similar industry in the future. 902 a. Secondly, though American labour is dear (see p. 490), there are eompensations to the manufacturer in the quality of the labour It boasts of being the most efficient in the world, and in respect of the rapidity with which work is done the boast appears to be well- founded. But though the best productiojis of American industry (kept up in a large measure, it must be remembered, by streams of immi- grants from the most advanced seats of European manufactures) will bear comparison with any in the world, this rapidity is sometimes haste, and hence attended with imperfect workmanship. Sound and serviceable, but not highly finished, js the character of the products of many an American workshop. 902 h. Thirdly, American machinery is unsurpassed. It is uMer- going constant improvement, through the inventiveness for which the American workman is well known, and which is partly the result of his higher education and higher intelligence, partly the proverbial off- spring of necessity. 903. At the census of 1880, the following were the eight leading industries as regards the total value of their products : (1) The grinding of grain ; (2) the making of leather and articles in leather, including boots and shoes ; (3) the making of preparations of flesh ; (4) the making of iron and steel ; (5) woollen manufactures ; (6) the sawing of timber ; (7) the making of cast-iron articles and of machinery ; (8) cotton manufactures. As to the general character of the leading industries, the same remark as was made regarding those of Canada applies here (869). The seats of the iron industries have already been discussed. All industries employing highly skilled labour, apart from the iron industry, are mainly carried on in the regions where the. settlements are oldest, the population densest, the manufacturing towns most accessible to immigrant workmen from Europe — that is to say, in Hew England, and the vicinity of the great seaports of New York and Philadelphia. In the making of cottons and the factory producn tion of boots and shoes, Massachusetts in 1880 took the lead to such an extent that in the case of cottons it produced nearly half, in that of boots, and shoes much more than half the total value produced in the United 394 UNITED STATES States ; in the maniifaeture of woollens it had a rival in Pennsylvania, and in that of ready-made clothing New York headed the list. Cotton manufaotures are now springing up somewhat vigorously in some of the cotton-growing States, as in Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Alabama (259 a). In the case of the woollen manufactures the in- fluence of the presence of the raw material as well as a local market is seen in the fact that even in 1880 they were carried on to a consider- able extent in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and even Wisconsin and Missouri. With regard to the commerce of the United States in the manu- factured goods mentioned ia the tables on pp. 474, 475, see the sections on wool (218), cotton (258-9 a), silk (236), flax (194, 503). See also indiarubber (322). 904, The following list contains the names of some^ of the chief manufacturing towns of the United States, with the specialties for which they are most noted, those being omitted which are mainly concerned with the simplest treatment of raw materials : — - Town Population State Chief Industry 1880 1890 Boston . . 360,000' 450,000' Massachusetts Clothing, sugar 3Liowell , 60,000 78,000 Cottons Worcester . 60,000 85,000 Iron ; boots and shoea FallEiver . 50,000 75,000 Cottons Lynn . . . 40,000 56,000 Boots and shoes Lawrence . 40,000 45,000 Woollens and cottons Manchester . 33,000 44,000 New Hampshire Cottons, silks Providence . 105,000 132,000 Ehode Island Jewellery, iron wares Hartford . 40,000 53,000 Connecticut Iron wares New York'* - 1,200,000 1,515,000 New York Clothing Brooklyn^ . 570,000 806,000 ,» Sugar Jersey City ^ 120,000 163,000 New Jersey Sugar Newark^ . . 140,000 182,000 ,, Leather Paterson^ . 50,000 78,000 ), Silk Albany . . 90,000 95,000 New York Iron wares Troy . . . 57,000 60,000 ,» Iron Utica . . . 35,000 44,000 11 Clothing Syracuse . . 50,000 88,000 )i Clothing Bochester . 90,000 134,000 Clothing, boots and shoes Philadelphia 850,000 1,050,000 E. Pennsylvania Woollens, clothing, sugar Beading . . 45,000 59,000 „ Iron Soranton 45,000 75,000 Iron Baltimore . 330,000 435,000 Maryland Clothing Pittsburgh . 160,000 240,000 W.Pennsylvania Iron, glass Allegheny . 80,000 105,000 1] Leather, iron Wheeling . 80,000 35,000 West Virginia Iron Cincinnati . 255,000 300,000 Ohio Clothing Cleveland . 160,000 260,000 ,, Iron Denver . . 37,000 107,000 Colorado Smelting & metal-refining ' All the figures are somewhat rounded. - AU these towns are in the immediate neighbourhood of Nc-w York Harbour* CHIEF CENTRES OF TRADE 39S 905. With regard to the towns named in this list it must not be supposed that their importance as manufacturing towns is in propor- tion to the population. PITTSBTJKGH, with the contiguous town of Allegheny, is probably the most populous centre dependent mainly upon manufacturing industry ^including trade due to that industry). Fall River and Lowell are the chief seats of textile manufactures. The large towns of the United States, and those which are most rapidly increasing in population, are the great commercial cities (112-18), that is, either seaports with a large foreign commerce, or inland towns which collect the produce of the West to forward them to the seaboard, or to minor centres of distribution. 906. On a railway map of the United States the great and growing centres of inland trade may be distinguished by the close convergence of railways towards them. Three such centres may be recognised at a glance — Chicago, St. Louis, and the adjoining towns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the former at the Falls of St. Anthony, as already stated, the latter just below the rapids which succeed the falls. (See tha map at the top of p. 385.) CHICAGO (Illinois, in 1880, 500 ; in 1890, 1,100), situated at the head of Lake Michigan, is the chief lake-port, not only in the United States, but in the world. Of the products of the West, grain and animals, especially hogs to carry on the great business of pork-packing, it stiU receives about four times as great a quantity as any other American city, though for certain grains it is already outstript by one or two rivals. ST. LOUIS (Missouri, in 1880, 3S0 ; '90, 450), situated a little below the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi, at the lowest place on which the latter river is crossed by a bridge (a fact which itself causes; railways to converge here), has long been the chief town on one of the great high-roads to the east. MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL hav& grown up more recently since wheat-growiag became widespread in the north-west. Tiie mills of Minneapolis have already been noticed (902). St. Paul carries on a great miscellaneous business. CINCINNATI (Ohio, in 1880, 255 ; '90, 300), situated at the north of the great northerly bend of the Ohio River, is the town that first had its name specially associated with the business of pork-packing, though it is now ecUpsed in this respect by more than one western town besides Chicago. Favoured, however, by excellent water communications, both above and below, as well as by railways, its general business and importance have continued to grow. Among minor railway centres may be mentioned INDIANAPOLIS (Indiana) ; MILWAUKEE (Wisconsin), on the western shore of Lake Michigan, the second in importance of the ports on that lake and a great focus of German immigration ; OMAHA (Nebraska), on the Missouri, a little above the confluence of the Platte or Nebraska Eiver, at the crossing place of the Rreat line of railway from New York to San Francisco; and KANSAS CITY (Missouri), at the confluence of the Kansas River with the Missouri. 396 UNITED STATES 907. The towns most rapidly increasing^ in population in the United States are mostly situated in the West, and chiefly engaged in handling western products. The case of CMcago has long been known. About 1830 a place containing only a few huts, it had in 1880 a population exceeding half a million, and in 1890 it had become the second city in the United States in respect of population, number- ing 1,100,000 inhabitants, or upwards of 50,000 more than Phila- delphia. Minneapolis and St. Paul, which in 1880 Lad each a population of less than 50,000, both had in 1890 one of more than 100,000, together elcse upon 300,000. The site of Omaha was first marked out for settlement in 1854. At the census of 1880 the town had a population of 30,000 ; at that of 1890, 140,000. Kansas City had in 1880 a population of 66,000, in 1890 one of 133,000. Milwaukee and Detroit during this interval had a growth almost parallel to one another. They each increased from a population of about 116,000 to one of about 205,000. The population of Denver in Colorado increased in the same period from under 40,000 to upwards of 106,000. Duluth in Minnesota, the Lake Superior terminus of the Northern Pacific Eailway, had in 1875 a population of 2,500, in 1890 one of about 30,000. Being the lake-port for the United States portion of the Eed Eiver Valley, its receipts of wheat are already in excess of those of Chicago. It is likewise a place of shipment for some of the iron ores of north-eastern Minnesota (897 a), and it has already started smelting works for the silver, copper, and lead orea of the region traversed by the railway above mentioned. The rapid growth of all these centres of trade is in keeping with the rapid rise of the state of Minnesota in wheat-production, and those of Nebraska and Kansas in the cultivation of maize, as shown in the table in par. 892 ; for, although Kansas City lies within the frontier of Missouri, its name indicates the state on which its commerce and industry really depend. 908. The chief seaports of the United States, in the order of their importance in respect of the tonnage of shipping entered and cleared in foreign trade, on the average of the five years 1881-85, are Hew York, Boston (Massachusetts), San Francisco (California), Philadel- phia (Pennsylvania), Baltimore (Maryland), New Orleans (Louisiana), Portland (Maine), Savannah (Georgia), Charleston (South Carolina), Galveston (Texas), Mobile (Alabama). New Orleans and the last four are the chief cotton ports. In respect of the amount of its foreign commerce. New York is without a rival, for on the average of the years mentioned the tonnage entered from foreign countries at that port was 48 per cent, of the whole ; that cleared for foreign countries, rather more than 46 per cent. (See also 523.) The population of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore is stated in 904. The only others with more than 100,000 inhabitants are San Francisco (iri 1880, 234 ; '90, 300) and New Orleans (in 1880, 216 ; '90, 242). SEAPaRTS AND SHIPPING 397 Among the minor seaports of the United States may be mentioned Newport (Ehode Island), WASHINGTON (D. C), Richmoiid (Virginia), a great tobacco port, Wilmington (North CaroUna), Fensacola (Florida), chiefly a timber port, Wilmington (Southern California), Portland (Oregon), a great wheat port of rising importance ; Tacoma (Wash- ington), on Paget Somid, one of the termini of the Northern Pacific Eailroad. The fisheries and fishing stations of the United States are treated of elsewhere (363, 364). 909. The foreign shipping at American seaports is mainly nnder foreign flags, the United States flag being represented on the average of the five years 1881-85, by barely 20 per cent, of the whole. By far the largest share belongs to the British flag ; those of Germany, Nor- way, and Italy coming next after ihat of the United States itself. The chief reason of this inferiority of the native flag in foreign com- merce is the fact that no vessel is allowed to be registered as belong- ing to a United States owner unless built in the United States ; and since iron and steel have so largely replaced wood in ship-building, that country can no longer build ships so cheaply as the United King- dom or Germany. The building of wooden ships is a rising industry on Puget Sound. 910. And here it may be stated that this inferiority in the shipping of the United States is part of the explanation of the large excess of exports over imports, which the table on p. 475 shows to have existed in the last two quinquennial periods, oven when the small excess of im- ported bullion and specie is taken into account. The cost of trans- marine carriage must be borne to a larger extent by the United States than by foreign countries, and this extra cost is represented by the excess of exports.' This, however, cannot be regarded as the whole explana- tion of the difference there brought out. No doubt part of the ex- planation is likewise to be found in the unrecorded import of specie, brought by the increasing number of immigrants,^ and possibly also the figures now under consideration indicate that there is no longer an excess of money imported for investment in the United States, but that, on the other hand, there is now an excess repaid to foreign countries by way of interest on investments. ' To give a rough idea of how much this item may amount to, it may be men- tioned that if we take the freights from New York and San Francisco respectively, to Liverpool in Jan. 1885 (p. 483), to have been the ruling rates for the Atlantic and Pacific ports to England for the whole year, then the amount of freight for wheat alone exported to the United Kingdom in that year would be about two millions sterling. Now, if we suppose the carriage of this to be divided between American and foreign shipping, in the same proportion as these share in the carriage of the trans-marine commerce of the United States generally, then two-fifths of the whole would be oa-ried by American and foreign shipping equally, and the cost equally divided, the remaining three-fifths by foreign shipping only, and the cost, namely, 1,200,0002., borne solely by the United States. == If we suppose all the immigrants of the five years 1881-85 to have brought with them on an average 101., then the total import under this head would reach an annual average of close upon 5,000,0002, 398 MEXICO AND CENTEAL AMEEICA. 911. MEXICO. Mexico is a coiintry with a government somewhat similar to that of the United States. Its territory, though between eight and nine times the size of Great Britain, is in the north a con- tinuation of the arid and desert region in the south-west of the United States, and the densest population is found on the narrower portion to the south of the Tropic of Cancer, and more particularly on the table- land of Anahnao (see map, pp. 366-67). It wiU be observed from the map on p. 401 that all the chief towns situated on this tableland are upwards of 6,000 feet above sea-level. Further north the general elevation sinks to between 8,000 and 4,000 feet. Everywhere in pro- ceeding from the coast to the tableland of Mexico, that is, everywhere north of about latitude 18J° N. (see the map on p. 401), one has to ascend a height of more than 8,000 feet within a distance of from 50 to, 200 miles in a direct line, the ascent being greatest and most rapid where the population is densest and communication with the seaboard of most importance. The tableland, moreover, is bordered by mountains, which causes the ascent to be higher than is iudicated by the elevation of the towns Ijdng on its surface. On their outer slopes these mountains present to view an extremely diversified surface. Numerous minor spurs enclose larger or smaller valleys at different elevations. The general height of the mountains to the south of the tableland sinks as the mainland narrows to the isthmus of Tehuantepec, from which another mountainous region rises as the mainland widens again on the other side. The greater part of the isthmus is under 1,000 feet in height, and in the lowest section across it the highest elevation is below 800 feet. The two peninsulas of Mexico contrast with one another in their superficial features. Yucatan consists almost entirely of low plains, and is nowhere above 1,000 feet in height. Lower California is a miniature repetition of the mainland of Mexico in so far as it consists of an interior tableland bordered by low coast strips. 911 a. As might be expected from the character of the surface just -described, the difficulties of communication have long been one of the chief obstacles to the development of the country. A few years ago travellers bound from the capital to Acapulco, on th-e Pacific Coast, were known to proceed first to Vera Cruz, thence by sea to New York, from New York to San Francisco, and thence again by sea to Acapulco, rather than attempt the land journey of 300 mUes. Till January 1, MEXICO: SURFACE AND COMMUNICATIONS, CLIMATE 399 1873, when the railway from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz wag inaugurated, there was no railway communication between the inte- rior of the tableland and the sea. Before reaching the plain of Mexico this line has to ascend to a pass upwards of 8,200 feet in height within a distance of about eighty miles in a direct line from the coast. Where the gradient is heaviest on this line only about ten loaded wagons can be drawn up at once. On the surface of the tableland railway con- struction naturally presents fewer difficulties, and it will be seen from the map (p. 401) and the notes printed on it that there are now three different routes by which the city of Mexico is connected with the railway system of the United States. The first of these railways constructed was the Mexican Central, which forms the direct communication with San Francisco, and was opened in 1884. Though railway construction is easier on the tableland than between the tableland and the coast, yet the heights given on the map for some of the chief towns show that the surface even there is far from being level or even presenting a tolerably uniform slope. It is crossed and re-crossed by mountains and valleys, especially in the south, and here and there has somewhat extensive relative depressions. In consequence of this inequality of surface the National Railway (see map) soon after leaving Mexico chmbs to the height of nearly 10,000 feet above sea-level before de- scending into a valley situated about 1,200 feet higher than that of Mexico. The Central Eailway passes through Zacatecas at the height of somewhat more than 8,000 feet, reaches a still higher elevation further north, afterwards descends to a valley about 3,700 feet in height, to rise again to a height of more than 4,500 feet, and then to descend once more to the height of 3,700 feet on the frontier. 912. The climate and vegetable productions of Mexico vary greatly according to the height and the situation. The low-lying coast strips on both sides of the tableland are mainly marshy tracts with a hot malarious atmosphere such as characterises tropical coasts in most other parts of the world. The hot region, in which bananas and other tropical fruits, sugar-cane, coffee, cacao, tobacco, and vanilla, are the principal objects of cultivation, and forests, yielding valuable cabinet and dye-woods, clothe the mountain slopes, extends upwards to about 4,000 feet above sea-level. Between about 4,000 and 4,500 feet is the belt which forms pre-eminently the temperate region, where the climate is that of an eternal spring, and all the products of the warmer part of the temperate zone, including tobacco, flourish luxuriantly. In a wider sense the temperate zone reaches upwards to a height of about 7,000 feet, the elevation at which forests of pines and firs, characteristic of the cold region, become predominant. The so-called cold region, which includes the southern and higher parts of the table- land, is, however, cold only by comparison. Eeal winter temperatures are experienced only at places situated at exceptionally high elevations. The prevailing crops on the tableland are maize (which furnishes, 400 MEXICO along with a kind of beans, the staple food of the great bulk of the; population), wheat, barley, and other cereals, and the agave or maguey (the so-called American aloe), from the juice of which is obtained the favourite Mexican drink called pulque. 912 a. As regards rainfall, the whole of Mexico is characterised by the tropical alternation of dry and rainy seasons, the latter occur- ring in the summer of the northern hemisphere. On the lowlands and mountain slopes bordering the tableland these rains are abundant, but on the surface of the tableland they are in most parts scanty (36, 657, 729). Only in the south of the tableland are they sufficiently, copious to maintain a vigorous vegetation. As one approaches the tropic of Cancer the rainy season becomes shorter and the amount of the rainfall at any period scantier. Irrigation becomes absolutely necessary for cultivation. Still further north the climate is even drier. The spiny shrubs and herbs characteristic of arid regions generally constitute almost the sole vegetation. Artesian wells (62) have to be sunk to supply the locomotives with water. Only the valleys and hollows above referred to allow of sufficient accumulations of water to render cultivation and the rearing of live-stock possible by irrigation. Some of these hollows, however, produce excellent wheat and other cereals as weU as cotton. An extensive relative depression of great productiveness is traversed by the International Eailway in the hundred miles before its junction with the Central. This promising region is; known as the laguna district. The peninsula of Yucatan is too far from the condensing influence of the mountams (36) to enjoy a copious rainfall, so that the characteristic vegetation consists of fibre-plants, which thrive in a dry chmate, and which are now furnishing a more and more important article of export. The tableland of Lower California is of the same arid character as the mainland in the same latitude. 913. Hitherto the wealth of Mexico ia minerals, and above all in silver, and to a less extent in gold (410), has furnished the most im- portant Mexican exports. It is these commodities that could best bear the heavy cost of transport. In recent years, the precious metals have made up on an average about seven-tenths of the total value of the exports. The map opposite shows that Mexico has other minerals, but none of them have yet attained a high degree of commercial imports ance, there being difficulties in the way of their working. Improved communications are required for the working of the petroleum and coal fields marked in the east. A few petroleum wells have been sunk, but were it not for the protection afforded by heavy import duties it is probable that there would be no prospect of commercial success in this project, even though the petroleum line (150 miles in length) is within a distance of from five to fifteen miles of the coast. The coal-fields lie parallel to the petroleum area, but at a height of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level. The deficiency of workable coal is indeed one of the chief obstacles to the development of Mexican commerce and 401 S D 402 MEXICO industry. On the southern railways wood is very largely used for fuel, and the most easily available supplies of this fuel are getting rapidly diminished. The northern railways are in a large measure supplied with fuel from a coalfield outside the border of the map — the Sabinas coalfield, which is traversed by the International Eailway, in about lat. 28° N. This coalfield is of considerable extent, but at the depth yet reached by the mines it does not furnish a good steam-coal. Another coalfield is known to exist in the north-west of the country, ia the basia of the Eio Yaqui, about 100 mUes from the coast. The iron marked at Durango is in the form of a mountain of ore of imusual purity. The moxmtain, upwards of 8,500 feet in height, is more than six times as high as GeUivara (645), but does not cover so great a superficial area. Hitherto this valuable deposit has not been utilised, but it will be seen from the map that a railway to Durango is now projected, and this may render it possible to carry the ore to be smelted on the Sabinas coalfield. Fine marbles and other beautiful buUdiug materials are also among the minerals of Mexico. 913 a. The Mexican exports next in value to the precious metals are dye-woods and fine cabinet woods, fibres, chiefly henequen (see map and 316), vanilla, coffee, tobacco, hides, and medicinal roots. Sugar and cotton are grown mainly for home consumption. The im- ports are such as characterise undeveloped countries generally — textiles, leather wares, iron wares, and other manufactured goods. It is to be noted, however, that a large amount of raw cotton is imported from the United States, many cotton factories having been estaUished to make use of the abundant water-power on the outer slopes of the mountains, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz. The table on p. 473 shows the relative importance of different countries in the foreign commerce of Mexico. It will be observed that the United Kingdom shows a considerable decUne relatively to the United States in the last period. This decline is due mainly to the construction of the railways establishing connections with the railway system of the United States. The effect of these connections is more noticeable stiU when we follow the growth of the export trade by the northern frontier year by year. From the year 1881-82 to the year 1885-86 there was an increase every year in the value of this trade, the value in the latter year being more than twenty-fold that of the former. These northern railways were all mainly constructed with United States capital, whereas the first railway, from Mexico to Vera Cruz, is an Enghsh line, and has proved to be mainly in the interest of British commerce. 913 h. The traffic carried by these northern railways is mainly through-trafiSc originating in or destined for the more populous por- tions of the tableland. The nature of the climate and the scantiness of the population are obstacles to the development of commerce with the parts of Mexico nearer the United States frontier. But it is to be borne in mind that there are other parts of the world in which a large commerce is carried on by a relatively scanty population, and wool, the COMMERCE, SEAPORTS 403 commodity of most commercial importance among those which can be produced by a small population, is one for which the northern parts of Mexico would appear to be well suited, wherever there is a sufficient amount of water. The neighbouring parts of the United States, with a similar cHmate, have at any rate shown themselves to be well adapted for the rearing of sheep with a fine fleece. No doubt fine-woolle'd sheep could be reared as well on certain parts of the tableland of Mexico as on the interior pastures of Queensland in corresponding latitudes, if proper attention were given to this branch of industry. The success of the industry commercially would probably depend, however, on the extent of available land sufficiently well watered, and it would probably, moreover, be more greatly promoted by the completion of the projected railways from Tampico (see map) than by the northern railways. Railways north and west of Tampico of 400 miles in length (no longer than one of the railways already laid through the pastoral districts of Queensland) would place that port in communication with many of the more productive parts of the Mexican tableland, and, if wool could be produced there in considerable quantity, would enable that com- modity to be carried direct to the great markets of Europe, instead of through a region in the United States producing the same commodity to the wool-markets of that country. If such a commerce could be developed it would obviously greatly stimulate the development of all the other natural resources of the northern parts of Mexico. TiU lately Mexican commerce was hampered by the right of the individual States to levy customs duties on their frontiers, but this right was abolished by a decree of the Central Government in November 1886. 913 c. Of the seaports of Mexico the most important is Vera Cruz, where the bulk of the foreign commerce of the country (especially in the import trade) is still carried on. Harbour works for the improve- ment of the port are projected* The numerous projected railways shown in the map on p. 401 will no doubt when completed confer increased importance on several other seaports, both on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast. Tampico, it will be observed, already has railway communication a certain distance inland, but the growth of trade at this port is hindered by a bar on which there is only about nine feet of water. Matamoras, on the shallow- Eio Grande (northern frontier), was an important cotton port during the American civil war, and retained a small shipping trade till the opening of the northern railways, but this trade has now almost ceased. Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, has an excellent natural harbour. It is the place from which a galleon used to be dispatched annually laden with silver for the Crown of Spain. Some Pacific steamers call here regularly, but the amount of trade is very limited, and will probably continue to be so as long as the projected railways connecting it with the interior remain uncompleted, Salina Cruz, south of Tehuantepec, is the sea- port intended to form the Pacific terminus of the projected isthmus D d2 404 MEXICO. AND CENTRAL AMERICA railway, which would open up a region on the north clothed at present with dense tropical jungle, but with a rich soil capable of producing rice, sugar-cane, coffee, and other tropical products, and on the south , an open country suitable for grazing. Guaymas, a port on the Gulf of California (outside the map, in lat. 28° N.), has a good natural harbour directly connected with the railway system of the United States by a Une of railway passing through several productive hollows in the province of Sonora. 913 Dur. Miurban/ fPortNataij Fcv. Fc^'cJj iufi,. FiaichaL GaX. Gah/GStorL Gih- Gibraltca- Gui^.Guu^mas Alntirevi ati ons X Ha}o.Bahoaajbe> X Kl. KiburtQ X llal. Hd7ifaa> Eras Sntsnovodsk- T^ Ht^. Bamhxirff Hob.jffofcart Han^Bono hiluj Iq. Iquiqjjue' KcL. KarAehi' fB^urrachae/J X. . LonSoni Us. LishoTv JjO. Itoancla, jCy*- Lyttetton, Ma.. ManiBct Maa. Macassar'' Mad. Madt^is Map. MarseiUes Maran.Maraniuxm Mart. Martinifjiie' Mc^ Mt^otte M. Madrid Mail, Mauritiua Mel. MeihournB Mob. Mobile Mojm Momhosa. MoTuMontr&il Moz. Mozambique. My. Montevideo X Jfix. Naruxiino X ^ag. Nagasaki JVegr. Negapaiam X Sel. JVeW- .X -'Vew. JVewcastZe .^„ 'T^ y^.O.2f»tv0rUcais Mos.Nossibt^ N.V. iVew York Ob. Oboch Oi. Odessa Or. Orarv Ot. Otago (BarhourZhjnedin.] P. Paris P9' BLPena-Blcmca, Pan. -Pcurowio. Ber. Pernambuxuy X -PA.. Phdadeiphia. Part.Pordand PaAGa>.P.a»Gall& PSUx-PortEUeabeOv P.NolO'ortN-ollolh PPr. PortaiLprince, 1 Que. yuebet fj Qud'. Qnxiimarte, Lj Bang.Jiangooji. f Ksu. iJio de. Janeiro Ro . Hosario S.Z.cSierra Leone. S.r. Sar..Frc Sani. Santiago de. Cuba, STPe.t. S*Pe*e/'sbu7-^ Si. Singapore, S^CaihSantcLCaihej-ina. Sm. Sniyrna. Sto. StockhahrL Sn SaigoTi Sur. SurahtLya, S.J, S^ Johns Syd. Sj'Jn^' SfX. SPLoui^ Sz. Sii 5*M. SfiWiWjxieZ, X Tat^. Ten.. TenerOTe Ter. Terceirct Tif. Tiflis Tri. Trinidad Trux,. TrincximaiL' Trip. Tripoli T^i,. "'■ ■ Va.. Valentia, 140 160 E.of Gr.180 Wof Gr. I60 140 #o J^OTigni&ns, &reen,A €o,LondoT3ur^e'vliork>^^£'tfTnh(^. F.S.WelW-ERG.S, APPENDIX. ABBREVIATIONS. A.-H. . . Austria-Hungary. Hamb. . . Hamburg. Alia.. . . Australasian Colonies. Hoi.. . . Holland. Am. . , . America. Ind. . . India. A.B. . . Argentine Eepnblic. It. . . Italy. B.B.I.. . British East Indies. Jap. . . Japan. Bel. . . . Belgiixm. Jav. . . Java. Ben.. . . Bengal. Mad.. . Madras. B. N. A. . British North America. Nor.. . Norway. Bom. . . Bombay. Ph. I, . Philippine Islands. Braz. . Brazil. Port. . Portugal. Biu-. . . . Burma. Bus.. . BuBsia, B. W. I. . British West Indies. S. Af. . South Africa. Cent. Am. . Central America. Sp. . . Spain. Cey. . . . Ceylon. Sp. W. ] . . Spanish West Indies Ch. . . . China. Swe. . . Sweden. Den. . . . Denmark. Swit. . Switzerland. Eg. . . . Egypt. Trip.. . Tripoli. Fr. . . . France. Tur. . . Turkey. For. W. I. Foreign (non-British) West U.K. . United Kingdom. Indies. Urug. . . Uruguay. Ger. . . ■ Germany. U.S.. . United States. Gui. . , Guiana. General Commerce = Gross Imports and Exports. Special Commerce = Imports of Articles for home consumption, and Exports of Native Produce and Manufactures. (All articles that have paid customs duty are often included under the head of Special Commerce.) In the tables of imports and exports, the entries in the last column under the heading Principal Countries of Origin, Principal Destinations, or Principal Articles, refer to the most recent period or the most recent year for which returns were available at the timo of the construction of the tables. The percentages in these tables are in most cases calculated on more precise Tolueo than those given in the tables. Black type indicates high relative importance. 438 APPENDIX. ■a a PhIh; !^ 53 00* 09 r m w Q tj "^ f^ fe >i" fj - .-pL, r g ^ ■S S r>» § J 02 W ■—4 I— 4 fq pq ^ C4 >b^O cb«3(?lCQC^(faC<1 •^ f*i<0 cb «3 -^ CO W CI Cfl fH A iH AiHtHOO O >0'QS CO cp pcdoaooos cs ?b rji Tt( CT M CO (N ri tH tH tH tH iH O O O G^ 50 '^ W3-^-^{Ncboa»H»H(NiH CO w o OS cq cq O iH »H O tH iH (p ®* CT THCpCOCTt-Oi^OSt^CO ihlM'^CqWcboOTHTH CO CD . 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'^Pfe °- a-g S>-!2 >oOHh ^ p.MaSffl3 a-S gca Sj3 5?^ III .2 • a S «■- II m a a o <1Ph- 440 APPENDIX i 1 a 1 1 >4 s ^' ^i 1 1. £S d d |i if Po . i ■§■ " -< ' i^ t' :^ 1 § ea g . ■§ S »T ' 1 1 a "S , g fe'i -g «J "2 « ^ oq 5 P s» & T -d Sm if S r .2«« ^ d ^P ^ ^^ <^ '"' «ri -4 >o« ^Coo « OrH cj eg ^ JO 11 % « gmos ■*HO «3CO COM b. t- COM -Jl p 9 » «D ^ 00 00 C4 ^n" »U3 »o ■* «« 6i ;^ ^^ A. ;h ;h o o a Eh ea 5:3 o 00 1 oo osww nsrH t^c» -<»cao >}4«O00eD loaoop s S; ^S*" gcb «s« eo w «3 ;h ;h,:^ Ah 6 o o I iH ^.HOO ^iM «psp Opr-< oiioeoas «ascooo =1 Sim 1 « !3J3S CQu> n^ mm ^3 iH e4>-i iH O O O It ^ ftSWM C,«, cpcp qop o» M pes p p m p 0» £5SU ^ t> eq 91 es ^ is rt M,l* ^ o o 6 "? 1 ►- «BCpoo O00> .H^. b-US »-i CO om e^ o >H 00 SS I& WOO ^•b mo4 •;f4t< « .H moi 04 o o o 00 e4 eO rH 1^ o =? WSOSlI am ooeo ecia >Qt^t.-« nracoo p X CD cpt-^ V3b- T^p b-w •Jiprnp »<.H eOCO CDlO (oco-*©* eodwe* eo . iO ^- wot OIfH i-HiH w 2 CO Q o>e<9 yS opo •#:»< 85 S pS ? 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S S^» fiao 6Ah ^m riB 1 ;^w 1 1 1 1 S 1 1 1 d o =1|| =ll|tiill Jlllilll|lilsii ■5 ^' O ■^ «ra yrvi p rj' ©i eo -ilJ 10* I Si-.i •as la 8« Is ■^s .■S?a «bS »-!i :5f pi^m APPENDIX 441 II « 5 ^ S -g »1i^Mls li A'^i » . lis § III ^JlP'l^. ll iilllll ill I ^il o -^oTrSd^o ii^ooS-S^„^.gdSd^donggpd r-I.HPHi-lf-lrHi-lr1rHr-lC404e4e)e«e4e4C4GOrHOMOonoou3e4e4oa9Ti4N.c4t.eocoentsoAO'^c4e4umi-i DeoTtob>t««oe4iob>o^^>^co^oowuao hOOOtHOOOO IOi-40i-IOrHOOOO ^•^ CO -f}) a» COr-l ^ b- ^>f«^(» tH OCO ^O CO OO CO 64 CO O b- 00 U3 ^t~ too TOi O «3 lb 03 ■^fta i^ iH C^toMO Wi^OrH ■it* "H Ah O Ort oo ' ' oo to -* oo 9 ■>«< 64 "^OO d09<7qqpeQ^a>iaci -to C4C4 C4000 O OiH ' Q 04 t> e> 00 c0 oa ra CO cq >M CO ' eo.-(r-( r-t I Tf eo (o 00 I I o» I ' OiH o Ah ' ' O ' o *H 04 CO -^ la CO b^ 442 APPENDIX o H p 2; 1^ :zi s < c^ sz; r/1 x*^ ;z; h-i -j^ rvi M M H o P^ N O fe F" o b; r/1 rn P H H Ph u O H 1 m tJ "o 2 si a: ^rH r ,- - a ■3 Ph r-i w co-^ U3cdl>Q60SO^CQC0 1-1 iH iH tH tH Is §•1 -CDCDOSCDOSt-CDCD CD CO s OD W CO OqCTCTiHiHOOOO O tH § CD t- IC CO WaCNCO'^THrHCOCSOD Os -* COMfMiHi-HiHCTOO o tH t>J CO (N 1^ 1 W5 OS OS CO COlOiHOt-imcDCDCD CO W CD CO CO •* COClCOpHiHrHliSOO iH OS CO ;—) iH tH o ff^n OS OS-*}) CO OOOSCTOOOCOt-b-'^ »0 O 5E (M CO l> w CTt-(-*OOiH. 00 -^ OSCONlMrHOSOTPfN - iH (O (M *? t^CO OS (Ml«W3lOCOt-t-t>r-( rH ■^ CO cfl s « W) C O to CO CO tH Oa ^ 00 t* o 1-1 CQ 00 osTfC0t-O5-*i-HO5 o o t- to o co ■* •* OOOOSCOeOUSiHCOiH t- cs "^ o (D CO Ol CO oa T-IO»HOOOC0OO 6 CD CO i-< 1-H U3 CD eo CO ■«s iH OS 00 a6<^Oi-^Meo-ft" 1 . P4 APPENDIX 443 Q} CO sa fl J " ■*! a « g "s a a II ol^ - I» oT "S o S a a % :- i g S^|a ^ t 1 I IlliiJ i a fl ^^1 l^ls-ss |§s III iPlll^P^ iH c4 eo - CO oi c5 rH cq CO o U3-^C0 '^>O!DC0»CCTCDQ0C0THa» gg COCT!35^00»'«*-^CN(MiHi-liHO *"* lO CS(M050ir-"<#C»OirH10Cl'^t-0 .M C0'*T-|vOC5(N-*rHiC'*i-'3»r3'*O C0Om^OO-*-*(M(MiHiHiHiH 1 "a *"* i-H iH iH >. iH iH g cq-rH-^co-^-^-^coc^oooooom -^ COCflCO ■^Ot-Crat^'^.-lrHOSCOCO ■? s C0i-(C*CSiHrHC0-<*CTCQrH.HiHO ft o ■? COOTWa'SJOiinWOSeOtXDi-ICTGO s (MOaor^050iot-(05t^-*c- (MTj(0-2oI>VO-(MuatHi-(iH(NrHO • to • •s g ...g«.....S.'S» 1 ■ ■ ■§ i^'V t 1 s 0[i,p-=jWHo«>c^ado5o^-i«« , H « O Ph IH W P3 Hi ««! Ci^ I— I a I— I Ph fq O t^ O 1—1 f-l a Q fi EH <1 DQ H Ph O P^ I— I fH J2i COrHOOWi-HiHiHr-CO CO ■^OOCqeOiHrHiHO t-CDt>iHCaOOiHO « ''^ (M I CO o o ' O tH O Ph P^ H H^ W O P3 O fl 444 APPENDIX o "l" CpTH»piH00Tj)OC0OOCDOi-l ca t-OGOCOCC^H^CO^tlWW.HM i CpCpi>W3-^«Q0COCDTt(Q0»O(M CO OTb-cbcb-^-^oBMTOmAiAifH s m»p«oeos« c g ««I>Q010^M(N«3-^,14O;h g t CpCC>QO'«^OeOrtti-)COOOSQOC« s t-OQ0OTH«b'^CilTH'^»H6iH o CI 1 M I> t- OS OS OS M 00 1 , 1 g CD 1 t- i-t lb c» « At TH eb 1 1 l-l (N , « Q0«5«O t>iH -^ O 1 1 , o U3 1 xoudo mtN-^ n I 1 § w3c©a3mootoeoMco 00 rn GO mi>-<^ou:)i>oo^^c(ir-it^ H s rH iH iH iH O § ■? iHOcOCDOOCOOOSCflTlt-^O'* ho OSCOC00500Si-(«Dt*rocOOOCO Td 9 g lCTtl(NrHa)l>l>OCD5DC0WW CO 1 " iH iH iH iH 00 iH 1 o (NOOOSCOOOq-^CQCOOsOCOCD S 00 b- a N rH r-i M a ■^ iH f^, C/J S| 7 lOCOCOt-fNTlfCOliSCCCilfMinpH 1 TffCSlOt-t-O5«O00t-t-rHC0 o% 1 1> !,; 00«-^«30DOeO«OlOCliHrH iH E] i-( tH iH 3 c; d > ? 00 CT i>- 00 ea CO iH eo M ^1 ; W3 1 00 '^cb(N'^acDt>coosOTHC;ico r-) tH tH rH ■e g r--S: J '3 o :1s. EQ >4 (D ^'^ a OS- ■3-3.1 III Is ■*s „ to Sid rrt ^"^ « fell •S -t^ iS ^11 «il 8 -M 2 «-<■ CJOt-TjHt-OOTfl'^'^CO COTHOSOSU3MU5Tj*eo;0 WrH»OOaOI>OOt*OOCD '^o6sa)i>-i>T*(-^ro:b oscD;ct>-OD^o APPENDIX 445 ^ 1 coocoososoososostNcqcooo OD Ot-t-OTOTTHOlWmoSINiMO r-i S ot-t--*-*-«mm««iN«6 o s °? tOlOt-MffiXNUSt-OJOSOi-Olt- pj oo Ost-CO-^-^mC^CIOJiHTHCOO •? t-rtOrtcpi>-tp^«>gj(Nm!p s T-1 ^ to>oei500t-OD-*m-*(Meii>pi> oo>ooo-*(N>oea!«>-*?>'P»P« 53 O-^ODWffllOrHiHi-lcqf-ICTO -' a> OQ0W3«0r-ll0IMt0055D"^t0-^ eo ri, (S!Doco-*-*oa>m-*0(Nrt -*(io«5«io-*mi«-^m«.H )^ I-l ■a i~ioei50tt>c*(M>H nS OTmop»tp-*rt0«OSmiHlOtOrH OrHOOOlNOTlltDOJtOCOtpO W3 cc fe moa5>i5!bi>Mmmo !-■ CO 1-1 rH 1-1 1-f t e oocotoos«»>o««OTOinei> > • S(MC-to.Ha>qpc-i>«'-?'o=cp 0««!(NISliHIMi-lC<<0 lA I-ll-l T-H 05 m ■* iM ■* -* a> M CO to to to to i-t a)'MO-*0«g5I>-«lTHtptp33 o 00 O>ijCT>«5t0«'-l'-l'-l"''-'=^'=' T-1 iH tH T} • J ■» .5 . . i ■ s . .1 1 % 11 IJI 1 i 1 "s i^ •^SE?'s5 -"s --ss. 1 §■3 ^lli-s^sili •§ ^ »HCQco-^w5«Di>o6oso^CTm 09 '2 ^ !>. Sa-gSs ^§.ga CO . 1>> - s r-l d UK. 1 ^ Hill 1^ 1 d, ilili -is !=i ^- 0) „- " 3 a o Ol OSOtCOOMDOS'^as s UD»r3CO(M"*-=tCD (M-"* 1 to OOi-*-rt(rHa Ttioeofficoeoio^ r^ CQCOCDCOOOOt-CQ iij og cboSOODODTttiAn s d 1-4 T-l p^ >r OOeOOSiO(N»0« « t-OiWOOiOrtteO O50D'i"i)t->o'^ s COOCO«D05rHC003 00 oaoDif-wcbfr-dDio Ol 1 s i • • •^ M (D & •S--I1I-- t 1 p pq O P m li< KH 02 g a4 i-iCT05-^>oedi>od 446 APPENDIX GEKMAN EMPIKE.— SPECIAL IMPOETS. Avemge Value in Millions A. Principal Articles Sterling Percentages 1872-6 76-80 1881-5 '86-90 1872-5 •76-80 1881-5 •86-90 1. Grain and flour . 19-92 29-31 18-81 15-04 10-9 16-5 12-1 8-6 2. Wool, raw . 9-78 1105 9-87 12-05 5-3 6-2 6-3 6-9 3. Cotton, raw 10-76 9-40 9-48 11-84 5-9 5-3 6-1 6-8 4. Cotton and woollen yarns 6-34 6-99 7-72 3-6 4-5 4-4 3. Animals (excluding horses) . 5-70 7-19 6-28 4-79 31 4-0 4-0 2-7 6, CofEee 8-39 8-73 6-22 8-97 4-6 4-9 4-0 5-1 7. Silk, raw, and co- coons 5-02 5-58 6-23 7-71 2-7 3-1 4-0 4-4 8. Hides, raw 4-82 4-07 4-77 4-44 2-6 2-3 3-0 2-5 9. Petroleum . 3-09 3-70 B-02 3-68 1-7 2-1 19 21 10. Horses 2-33 2-83 2-92 3-67 1-2 1-6 1-8 21 11. Tobacco, leaf and manufactured 4-19 4-01 2-79 3-82 2-3 2-2 1-8 2-2 12. Flax .... 2-15 2-15 2-17 1-86 1-1 1-2 1-4 11 13. Coal .... — 1-30 1-14 2-30 0-7 0-7 1-3 Average total value 181-5 176-8 155-6 174-8 SPECIAL EXPORTS. Average Value m Millions Sterling Percentages A. Principal Articles 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-9C 1872-5 '76-80 1881-5 '86-90 1. Woollen manufactures (from 1880) . — 8-55 8-88 9-31 — 6-1 5-7 6-9 f Sugar, total 2. J Sugar, raw, from 1874 58 3-33 8-50 8-60 0-5 2-3 5-5 5-4 0-36 2-46 6-6o 5-63 0-3 1-1 4-3 3-6 ( Sugar, refined, from '74 0-22 0-S7 l-SS 2-91 0-2 0-6 1-2 1-9 3. Silk manufactures . 2-97 4-63 8-45 9-42 2-4 3-3 5-4 6-0 4. Animals (excluding horses) 4-34 6-21 6-05 2-80 3-6 4-4 3-9 1-8 5. Iron,pigandunwrouglit ('72 and '73, '80) . 2-17 3-21 5-45 — 1-8 2-3 3-5 — 6. Leather wares (ex- cluding gloves) 1-78 2-55 4-67 5-64 1-5 1'8 3-0 3-6 7. Grain, flour, potatoes. &o 12-15 12-19 4-2G 2-67 10-2 8-8 2-V 1-7 8. Cotton man-afactures (from 1880) . ' . 2-73 3-65 7-34 — 1-9 2-4 4-0 9. Coal ('72 and '73, '80) 4-71 2-35 3-12 4-89 3-9 1-7 2-0 3-1 10. Machinery (including locomotives) . 1-28 1-92 2-80 2-84 1-0 1-4 1-8 1-8 11. Cotton and woollen yarns 2-93 2-95 3-03 — 2-1 1-9 ly 12. Paper (from 1880) . — 1-61 2-12 3-14 1-1 1-4 2-0 Average total value 119-2 138-7 155-0 158-2 1 APPENDIX U7 1 S OS o OS ic CO t* ic in CO s. t> CO.H30W3VOIH (MiHO M M 1 H 1 1 CO CD OS iH ■rf O H Q >^ !R J3 O a ll i.f o §'§§1 -l^^g^ CO CD CO do a> Til Tji TO IN (N TO H U •5^ . . . a) • . 0) 3 . .-S . . 1 [usiv ufad od nufa c» ri • ca • ■ 6 Cereals (ex Cotton ma Building w Minerals Woollen m Sugar Cofiee 448 APPENDIX CO tH l> op t- « « a> i> ib Th n n OS O CO CO Cil m C4 94 63 m -* « o t" « OS OS o to eb cb 04 (N « i> CO cq CO C4 n 01 (N oa OS ^ cq CO C4 us C3 Tt< *b O) (N OS O h 04 04 iH iH fH OS OS CO OS t- O CO «*< £2 SS Z^ CO US CO CO cp O t- ^ "?* ?> '=P m CO 04 A O *H O r-( iH -H iH cQ^t^^ooor^ »ocpcoo4 C464tHiHO^O OOrHi-1 a 2 "2 OJ •■^ CO aj r^-s a ° fl § «j a K — I O OS Tf( -^Ji C4 t- CS OS »C3 CD CQ t>- t* Wa fl o 00 W5 O '« O «3 tH 1^- Tt< U3 0^ •w . <* ... a,-, •■isa • • fl 1^ o • "ti .3 3 ■ 63 d £ *^ * 'rs ^ WO ■ O fl o W « CO Tji w -pt- S COWS00VOt-C*'^t>WSC0t* 2 to CO OOt-OTOS'flOJ^ricbNi-t I-l be .s 1 %. .a ■3 t» CO ■5 OlrHCDlO'-tiHOCOCOCOOl s ooat-osooeraocpasocfl 7 00 rtiTticscocDcocqcDcoeor-* OOi-HlMkOCOfMrHOOCpcp e CD OOItHiHOOOWiHOO CD (M 1 OCaiHOOOOOOOO 1 ■s CD ST <§ ' ■ 1. Grain, all kinds (from 1 2. Coal and coke 3. Flax . . . . 4. Linen and hemp yarn 5. Machinery . 6. Woollen yarn 7. Glass and glass wares . 8. Hides, raw , 9. Iron, wrought, wire, rai 10. Zinc, unwrought . 1 1 . Eaw sugar . m p^ Fl eS 0) CQ ^ •a C3 ■a 13 « a w s" "3 Qi ts m "3 to oT I \l £ y §g -ii TO £ o nr) a '« *-> Ph Ooq »H « CO -"^ "? to -* rH QD CO 00 cq S O Oi t* CO CO iH iH rH S Ci CO ■<:t< tH rH (N CD 00 r^ O "^ CO Ol iH (N COO O t- CD CO CO 00 CO 05 -rf) rH CO rH rH rH "? 05 t- CS 00 i* o l>- C* OS t- O rH Cfl co rH iH rH ■ (B . ■ a e3 ■w • • s ■ ■5 . 60 ' a,-, 1^ ?, Of— g ■c 0^ d a m'^ o Ph PCS iH rH Ol CO -* G O 45° APPENDIX s i OWt5oscp»pir-cqoi>.i>ioiOTf(co 3 OSr-l9ffprHTj(MTtlO'^WOi-lTtft» 1 COiHXhb-WBIVr-riHCpifflMpCOiHaO to 3 ooaO\lOCOCOWiHOO 00 00 i t>moot-ti5(s-*i-iou5-Hr-(rHiHOOrHO CO CO 2 1-t 1 1 1 wire, &o. . a '63) 1. Iron bars, hoops, and plates 2. Iron wares, including nails, Total mdnufaciured won . 3. Drugs : Peruvian bark (fron 4. Wheat (from '63) 5. Coffee, raw . . , . 6. Sugar, raw and clayed 7. Coal .... 8. Bioe .... 9. Eye (from '63) . 10. Cotton yarn 11. Pig iron 12. Tallow and lard . 13. Baw cotton . 14. Timber U3 CDCO -.^CDOCi i-( CT (N iH CO OS -^Jf » t- CD CO l> cb »b S CO t-CD tHCO t* s »0 Ol CD CO (M -# -* t> CO IT- 00 CD u S t> 3 B U3 CO tM C* W3 CO CO lO »0 OS CO CO 05 o CSrH CO -* iH CO iH COi-t rH » o *r CD XO CD W 0» (M w O CO 1-1 CO i-l »o ;*! tH O i-( CO t- »H -H 1 m 00 C^OOO I> ^ CD OS t- t> -+< t- O -* O CO O iH i-H Cq ^ -t^ ,S !M ■" -B -is o a - B IV O .^ Q ;x. CO r2 i-H(N«Ti1iOCOt> C0050T-l(MeO « OS t- (M IC ■^ CO *0 CO * '* (M >0 W3 ^ CI iH op CO CO CO iH to ^ W CO CO CO '^ -S H "? C5 iH Oi JO <4-< o rii CO O t- lO (M CO -:!< t- ■^ CQ r-I ^ -^ iH Si t- ti. iH ^ O lO UO to '■ii cs CO (M iH "? uo eo OS o OD UO O CO S M CO (N r-1 rH c 3 .... t H a 5 Prussia United Kingdom . Belgium Dutch East Indies G G 2 452 APPENDIX. NOEWAY.— GENEEAL IMPOSTS. Average Value in Millions Sterling PercentagCE il. Principal Articles 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 14-5 1. Bye and rye meal 1-25 1-86 1-27 14-6 15-7 2. Woollen manu- factures . 0-66 0-51 0-62 ! 7-8 5-9 71 3. Coal . 0-34 0-32 0-39 40 3-7 4-5 4. Coffee . 0-59 0-56 0-38 6-9 6-5 4-4 5. Barley 0-37 0-36 0-82 4-4 4-2 3-G 6. Butter 0-20 0-30 0-29 : 2-3 3-4 3-3 7. Cotton manufac- tures 0-32 0-26 0-27 3-7 30 31 8. Iron wares . 0-32 0-27 0-28 3-7 3-1 2-7 9. Wheat and wheat meal 0-19 0-20 0-23 2-2 2-4 20 10. Hides and skins . 0-22 0-18 019 2-5 2-0 2-2 11. Iron, wrought and unwrought 0-28 0-16 0-19 2-7 1-9 2-2 Average total value 8-55 8-67 8-79 1. German Empire 2. United Kingdom 3. Sweden 4. Denmark 5. Bussia and Fin land 6. North America Percentages 1874^6 1876-80 1881-5 26-65 29-48 7-25 11-16 9-75 1-23 27-58 26-89 8-34 10-81 10-85 1-82 2903 26-20 1102 919 8-79 3-22 Principal Articles Eye and rye meal, coffee Woollens, cottons, coal Iron and iron wares, butter Flour, butter Eye, barley, and wheat NOEWAY.— GENEEAL EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-5 1873-5 46-1 160 15-9 5-3 0-3 1-2 1876 60 1881-5 1. Wood . 2. Cod, dried or split . 3. Herrings 4. Train oil 5. Lucifer matches . 6. Salted fish (other than cod and her- rings), sprats, and lobsters 2-70 0-94 0-93 0-31 0-02 0-07 1-96 1-08 0-71 0-30 006 0-09 1-99 1-15 0-65 0-29 0-09 0-09 35-4 19-5 12-9 5-5 1-2 1-7 31-3 18-1 10 2 4-5 1-4 1-4 Average total value 5-86 5-54 6-38 APPENDIX 453 NOEWAY.-GENEEAL EXPOETS. 1 B. To Percentages Principal Articles 1874-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. United Kingdom . 2. German Empire . 3. Sweden 4. Spain . 5. France 29-84 16-64 12-15 7-92 8-21 31-69 16-29 11-29 9-55 7-94 33-25 13-35 12-04 10-29 7-77 Wood, herrings Train oil, fish Salted fish Dried cod Wood SWEDEN. — GENEEAL IMPOETS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). A. Principal Articles Average Yalue in Millions Sterling Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-4 1873-5 1876-80 1881-4 1. Woollen manufactures . 2. Bye and rye meal . 3. Coal, coke, &c. 4. Coffee .... 5. Cotton, raw 6. Sugar, raw 0-98 0-99 0-81 0-98 0-54 0-56 0-94 1-01 0-70 0-87 0-49 0-52 1-20 1-12 0-85 0-65 0-65 0-61 7-4 7-5 61 7-4 4-1 4-2 6-5 70 4-8 6-0 3-3 3-6 7-1 6-6 5-0 3-8 3-8 3-6 Average total value 13-2 14-44 17-00 Percentages of Total Value B. From Principal Articles 1873-5 1876-80 1881-4 1. Germany 21-26 22-00 27-29 Coffee, spirits, tobacco 2. United Kingdom . 32-82 28-76 26-21 Coal, cotton, woollen and cotton fabrics 3. Denmark 16-51 18-31 17-09 Wheat and wheat^flour 4. Russia and Finland 8-89 10-20 9-24 Eye and £ye-meal, butter 5. Norway . 5-15 5-29 6-31 Salted fish 454 APPENDIX SWEDEN. — GENEKAL EXPOETS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). Average Value in Sterling MUlions Percentages A. Principal Articles 1873-5 I8rG-8D 1881-4 1873-5 1S7G-80 1881-4 1. Wood .... 5-28 4-90 5-41 47-2 42-3 40-1 2. Iron (pig, bar and blooms) 1-82 1-22 ■1-40 16-3 10-5 10-3 3. Oats .... 1-64 1-73 1-29 14-6 14-9 9-5 4. Butter .... 0-35 0-47 0-77 3-1 4-1 5-7 6. Iron (bolt, hoop, &c.) . 0-34 0-35 0-57 3-0 30 4-2 6. Lucifer matches . 0-24 0-32 0-44 2-1 2-8 3-3 7. Animals (cattle, sheep and swine : cattle and swine only for period 1881-4) . 39 0-33 0-41 3-5 2-8 3-1 8. Paper .... 0-14 0-27 0-42 1-2 2-4 3-1 9. Barley .... 0-25 0-26 0-20 2-2 2-3 1-5 10. Steel .... — 0-15 0-19 1-3 1-4 Average total value 11-18 11-59 13-48 B. To Percentages o£ Total Value Principal Articles 1873-5 1876-80 1881-4 1. United Kingdom . 2. France . 3. Denmark 4. Germany 5. Norway . 53-94 9-62 11-82 6-87 3-32 51-98 12-65 10-61 6-86 3-35 48-91 12-58 11-52 7-78 4-00 Wood, rod, and other iron Wood, rod, and other iron Butter, wood Iron, wood, matches Buttons DENMARK.— GENEEAL IMPOETS. Average Value Average Value of Gross Im- Percentages of of Bxcess of ports in Millions Total Value Imports over A. Principal Articles Sterling Exports 1874^8 1878-82 1874-8 1878-82 1874-8 1878-82 1. Woollen manufactures 0-93 0-96 7-58 7-38 0-81 0-80 2. Cotton, linen, and hemp manu- factures .... 0-80 0-78 6-54 6-00 0-73 0-70 3. Iron and steel wares 0-83 0-77 6-79 5-92 0-73 0-68 4. Sugar, refined and unrefined . 0-68 0-70 6-54 5-38 0-57 0-60 5. Timber and firewood 0-84 0-61 6-87 4-70 0-83 0-60 6. Coal 0-65 0-63 5-30 4-80 0-58 0-57 7. Baw cofEee .... 0-68 0-54 5-64 4-16 0-36 0-38 Average total value 12-27 13-0 APPENDIX . 455 DENMAEK.— GENEEAL IMPOETg. B. From Percentages o£ Total Value 1874-5 1876-80 1881-4 German Empire .... United Kingdom .... Sweden United States Bussia 36-23 26-39 11-31 1-43 3-69 37-51 23-73 11-01 4-55 4-58 36-71 23-16 ■ 12-95 5-98 4-46 GENEEAL EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value of Gross Exports in Millions Sterling Percentages of Total Value Average Value of Excess of Exports over Imports 1874^8 1878-82 1874-8 1878-82 1874-8 1878-82 1. Swine 2. Butter 3. Homed cattle .... 4. Barley 5. Wheat meal and flour 6. Horses and foals 0-88 1-66 1-26 0-85 0-71 0-86 1-12 1-33 1-17 0-94 0-66 0-54 9-33 17-60 13-36 9-01 7-53 3-82 10-97 1303 11-46 9-20 6-46 5-29 0-85 1-41 107 0-80 0-70 0-28 1-08 1-05 1-03 0-91 0-65 0-47 Average total value 9-43 10-21 A To Percentages of Total Value 1874-5 1876-80 1881-4 United Kingdom .... German Empire .... Sweden ....... Norway United States 40-82 30-95 13-38 9-25 •14 40-15 32-21 14-08 7-42 •28 88-36 31-87 14-86 6-86 1-68 POETUGAL.— SPECIAL IMPOETS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions - Sterling Percentages 1873-5 1 1876-30 1881-5 18/3-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. Wheat .... 2. Cotton manufactures 3. Sugar, raw 4. Woollen manufactures . 0-40 0-76 0-43 0-38 0-78 0-63 0-44 0-29 0-95 0-63 0-41 0-34 6-4 10-3 5-8 5-2 10-8 8-4 5-8 8-8 11-6 7-7 5-1 4-1 Average total value 7-38 7-55 8-15 4S6 APPENDIX POETUGAL.- SPECIAL IMPOETS. B. Prom Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-2 1. United Eingdom 2. United States .... 3. France 4. Germany 51-36 4-60 ■ 14-65 2-45 44-27 ■ 10-64 ' 14-16 ■ 3-81 41-47 1511 11-54 7-07 POETUGAL. — SPECIAL EXPOETS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1 1881-6 1873-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. Wine .... 2. Cork .... 3. Animals (excluding liorses and mules) . 2-21 0-26 0-36 2-06 0-33 0-35 2-54 0-55 0-46 41-4 4-9 6-8 40-7 6-5 6-9 48-7 10-5 8-7 Average total value 5-33 5-07 5-22 £. To Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-2 1. United Kingdom 2. Brazil 3. France 4. Spain 55-70 11-26 4-65 6-41 50-26 20-95 7-02 6-26 45-51 20-81 11-66 6-71 SPAIN.— GENEEAL IMPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Valne in Millions Sterling Percentages 'Principal Gauntries oi Origin 1876-80 1881-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. Eaw cotton 2-76 303 12-6 10-1 U.S., Eg., Tur. 2. Brandy and spirits . 0-79 1-85 3-6 6-2 Ger. 3. Wheat . 0-59 1-49 2-7 5-0 Sue. 4. Timber and building materials 0-93 1-37 4-3 4-6 Swe. 5. Woollen manufac- tures 0-88 1-14 4-0 3-8 rr. 6. Sugar 1-00 1-15 4-6 3-8 Sp. W.I., Ger., Ph. I. 7. Machinery 0-67 1-12 30 3-7 U.K., Fr., Bel. 8. Tobacco . 0-95 1-08 4-3 3-6 U.S., Ph. L 9. Codfish . 0-66 1-03 3-0 3-4 Nor., B.N.A. 10. Coal and coke . 0-78 0-99 3-5 3-3 U.K. 11. Iron, -wrought and unwrought . 0-56 0-82 2-5 2-7 U.K. 12. Linen and hemp yarn 0-88 0-73 4-0 2-4 U.K. Average total value 21-81 29-86 APPENDIX 457 SPAIN.- GENEEAL IMPOETS. 1. France ■ 2. United Kingdom .... 3. United States 4. Germany 5. Spanisli W.I., and Philippine Islands 6. Belgium 7. Sweden and Norway Percentages of Total Value 1873-5 23-47 35-28 10-68 -83 9-37 2-il 2-85 1876-80 31-14 24-74 1&-78 3-57 7-86 3-62 2-81 1881-4 27-21 20-90 11-62 9-91 6-53 4-35 3-08 GENEEAL EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentage? Trincipal Destinations 1876-80 1881-6 76-80 1881-5 1. Wine 6-55 12-02 31-5 43-6 Fr., U.K., Sp. W.I. 2. Lead in blocks, bars, &c. ... 2-12 1-78 10-2 6-4 U.K., Fr. 3. Iron ore . 0-73 1-70 3-5 6-2 U.K.,Pr.,Hol.,Bel.,U.S. 4. Copper ore 1-42 1-03 6-8 3-7 U.K. 5. Baisins 0-99 0-87 4-7 31 U.S., U.K. 6. Oranges . 7. Copper regulus 0-42 0-77 2-0 2-8 U.K., Fr., U.S., Ger. 0-54 0-76 2-6 2-7 U.K., Fr. 8. Cork 0-47 0-57 2-3 '20 • Port., Fr. 9. Wheat flour 0-73 0-39 8^5 1-4 Sp. W.I. 10. Esparto grass 0-31 0-33 1-5 1-2 U.K. Average total value 20-76 27-52; B. To 1. France 2. United Kingdom .... 3. Spanish W.I. and Philippine Islands 4. United States .... 5. Argentine Eepublio Percentages of Total Value 1873-6 20-01 36-61 15-68 3-87 3-50 1876-80 26-56 36-19 15-38 2-99 2-62 1881-4 40-47 29-07 11-27 3-16 2-52 4S8 APPENDIX AUSTEIA-HUNGARY.— SPECIAL IMPORTS. Principal Articles Average Value ' in Millions Sterling Percentage of Value 1876-80 1881-6 1876-80 1881-6 i. Eaw cotton 2. Grain . . . ' . 3. Eaw wool (from 1879) . 4. CofEee .... 0. Tobacco .... C. Hides and skins 7. Leather and leather wares 8. Woollen manufactures . 9. Cotton yam 10. Animals (except horses) . 11. Silk and floss silk . 3-07 3-50 2-93 2-61 1-92 1-44 1-64 1-64 1-56 2-29 1-23 3-98 3-62 302 2-37 2-11 1-78 1-59 1-58 1-45 1-39 1-43 6-6 7-5 6-0 S-5 4-1 3-1 3-5 3-5 3-3 4-9 2-6 7-7 7-0 6-8 4-6 4-1 3-4 3-0 30 2-8 2-7 2-7 Average total value . 46-86 51-52 SPECIAL EXPORTS, Principal Articles 1. Grain (from 1878) . 2. Sugar and molasses . 3. Wood 4. Animals (except horses) 5. Woollen manufactures 6. Flour and meal 7. Leather and leather wares 8. Glass and glass wares 9. Wool (from 1879) . 10. Wooden wares (from 1877) Average total value Average Value ' in Millions Sterling Percentage ol Value 1876-80 1881-6 1876-80 1881-5 6-50 5-78 11-6 9-5 3-88 6-37 7-1 8-9 3-40 4-74 6-2 7-8 4-24 3-60 7-8 5-9 1-99 225 3-6 3-7 3-12 2-22 5-7 3-7 1-40 1-72 2-6 2-8 1-27 1-66 2-3 2-7 1-72 1-67 30 2-7 106 1-43 1-9 2-3 54-61 60-45 ' In these tables the florin is converted at the rate of 12 to the pound, the rate of exchange between London and Vienna having varied within narrow limits above and below that during the two periods to which the tables relate. See p. 484, n. 4. APPENDIX 4S9 EOUMANIA.— GENEEAL IMPORTS. i. Principal Aitiolea Average Talue in Millions Sterling Percentages 1879-80 1881-4 1879-80 1881-1 1. Woollen tissues . , 2. Cotton tissues 3. Boots and shoes . 4. Clothes .... 0-6X 0-94 0-30 0-33 1-17 0-81 0-56 0-41 6-0 9-2 30 3-2 9-8 6-8 4-7 3-4 Average total value 10-20 12-0 A From Percentages o£ Total Value 1874-5 1876-80 1881-4 1. Austria-Hungary .... 2. United Kingdom .... 3. Germany 4. France 39-68 25-94 4-98 13-97 51-43 17-07 8-85 8-86 46-16 19-43 12-46 8-85 GENEEAL EXPOETS. A, Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1879-80 1 1881-4 1879-80 1881-4 1. Maize 2. Wheat .... 2-30 3-06 2-66 2-29 25-1 33-4 31-0 26-7 Average total value 9-15 8-56 ■ B. To Percentages of Total Value 1874-5 1876-80 1881-4 1. United Kingdom .... 2. Austria-Hungary .... 3. France 4. Germany 11-32 33-68 12-18 014 17-79 36-44 9-75 0-47 38-58 33-72 9-64 1-45 46a APPENDIX EH O I— I a < EH 0) «o M 1 ur. H., Ger. r., Swit. d., Am. fl'-' P H '. " w a •3 -a 1= ■3 5 Pi S n MM P r^ CM CO-^lCCDt-OOOsO iH lO OD (M •.CQO(MOt--^rHiH CO 00 CD CD O) NhlC ICCQCO(M(M«-W5l>Q0t*Tt)C* ? 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S'i'S: « 00 te c- -3 CD Si ir- [> " 03 -^ W C* ICO fl ^ ^ pq tM P3 "3 « -APPENDIX 463 3 ■s 3 § -a 1 i CO CO t*l>OS(NO'OCOOO«OSt- 1 O5CD0000CO'5*U5i-IQ0MC- to § « CO tH 2 CO CO -^ibiHtHTH->OTH'^6s»hl6s (N GO i-t 1 1 .s ! 1 to So 00 ■^a5OSrHOJ0«>lO.HC500 00 U3 CO 00 05 ■? s OQOas:DCDO\OOOCD0 •* (N iH 1 ■S '^ s rK CO Irt t- < t- CO rH . ■3 3 ® f! rn^eq -* t .1. CO 00 CD CO it tH w CD g 3 CO CO tH ^ T CD Tft W3 N t- CO CO ^ TO t- 00 -* IH CO CO a ? 0.9 13 & . . fi a t3« -o ■TJ S S c -S a C.5 ■a fe 23 iH IN m ^ 464 APPENDIX EGYPT.— IMPORTS.' A. Principal Articles. Average Talue in Millions Sterling Percentages Principal Countries of Origin 1875 1-59 0-99 0-15 0-20 0-19 0-13 0-02 76-80 '81-5 •86-90 1876 •76-80 '81-5 '86-90 1. Cotton manufactures 2. Coal S.Wood , 4. Wool manufactures. 5. Indigo . 6. Wines and spirits . 7. CofEee . 1-19 0-64 0-16 0-21 0-18 013 0-11 1-64 0-72 080 0-27 0-27 0-24 0-25 1-39 0-45 0-37 0-21 0-21 0-23 0-25 27-2 17-0 2-5 3-4 3-3 2-3 0-3 20-2 10-9 2-7 3-5 30 2-2 1-9 18-9 8-3 3-5 31 31 2-8 2-8 17-2 5-5 4-6 2-6 2-6 2-8 31 UK. r.K. U.K , Tur. A.-H., TJ.K. B.E.I. Fr.,A:-H.,It. Xur., B.E.I. Average total value >'? r-rae 5-85 5-90 8-69 8-09 ... ■ --- W B. From Percentages of Total Talue 1874-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-99 1. United Kingdom'' . 2. Turkey . 3. France and Algeria 4. Austria-Hungary . 55'15 1-51 19-97 9-80 46-98 13-88 16-48 10-94 38-92 20-79 12-93 11-57 39-06 18-78 10-66 9-94 SPECIAL EXPOETS. 4. Principal Article Average Talue in Millions SterUng Percentages Principal" Destinations 1876 1 •76-80 1881-5 '86-90 1875 •76-80 '188I-6 '86-90 1. Cotton, raw 9-22 7-60 8-26 7-98 66-4 58-3 65-1 69-3 U.K., Bus. 2. Cotton seed 1-29 145 1-61 1-40 9-3 11-1 11-9 12-1 U.K., Fr. 3. Beans . 0-58 0-72 0-73 0-52 4-1 5-5 5-8 4-6 U.K., Fr. 4. Sugar . 0-52 0-75 0-46 0-48 : 8-7 5-8 3-6 4-2 It., U.K. 5. Wheat . 1-08 0-89 0-35 0-20 7-8 6-8 2-7 1-7 U.K., Fr. 6. Gums . — 0-21 0-15 0-ooe — 1-6 1-2 0-05 7. Eice . — 0-16 0-14 0-]0 1-3 1-1 0-9 Tur. Average tota value 13-89 13-03 12-69 11-5 B.To Percentages of Total Talue 1874-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. United Kingdom . 2. France and Algeria. 3. Bnssia . 4. Italy . 5. Austria Hungary . 6. Turkey . 75-01 10-80 1-50 3-06 5-81 8-04 66-51 10-26 5-72 5-45 3-46 6-66 64-86 8-53 8-18 6-48 4-71 4-60 64-06 8-26 8-68 6-55 6-68 3-23 Goods in transit are included previous to the year 1884. Including British Possessions in the Mediterranean. APPENDIX 46S CEYLON.— IMPOETS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). Average Value in Millions Percentages Sterling' (Eupee Values) A. Principal Articles 1S71-6 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Eioe and paddy" . 1-81 1-87 1-63 1-59 34-4 390 42-0 39-3 2. Specie and bul- lion 0-96 0-68 0-42 0-41 18-2 141 110 10-1 3. Cotton manufac- tures 0-81 0-59 0-38 0-85 15-5 121 9-8 8-6 4. Coal and coke 0-19 0-15 0-29 0-42 3-7 3-2 7-5 10-4 Average total value 5-25 4-83 3-89 4-04 EXPOKTS (INCLUDING BULLION AND SPECIE). 4. Principal Articles' Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages' . (Rupee Values) 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Coffee . 2. Coco-nut oil 3. Cinchona bark* . 4. Tea' . 3-16 0-21 328 0-23 1-26 0-28 0-28 009 0-56 0-31 0-17 0-96 71-7 4-7 73-8 6-2 43-4 9-9 10-0 4-6 18-2: 100' 5-4 31-4 Average total value 4-40 4-44 2-90 3-06 ' Down to 1872, inclusive, the accounts of the commerce of Ceylon wefe kept in sterling. For the years 1873-75 the official rate of conversion, 1 rupee = Is. lO.^t?., has been adopted. In the case of India the official rate of conversion, 10 rupees = \l., has been adopted down to 1870. For the following yfears iil India, and for the years 1876-85 in Ceylon, the rupee has been converted at the average rate of ex- change on London, namely : — Year . 1870-1 1871-2 1872-3 1873-4 1874-5 1875-6 1876-7 1877-8 Pence . 22-5 23-1 22-7 22-3 221 21-6 20-5 20-8 Year . 1878-9 1879-80 1880-1 1881-2 1882-3 1883-4 1884-5 1885-6 Pence . 19-8 20-0 20-0 19-9 19-5 19'5 19-3 18-2 Year . 1886-7 1887-8 188g-9 1889-90 1890-91 Pence . 17-44 16-9 16-4 16.-5 18-5 For Ceylon the figures in the Colonial Abstract which have been obtained by conversion at rates approximating to these have been adopted for 1886-90. " Paddy = ride in the husk. ' The exports next in value to the four mentioned below are graphite {423-14), cinnamon (341), and areca- or betel-nuts (339). Areca-nuts are the fruit of a palrU, Areca Catechu L., cultivated not only in Ceylon, but also throughout tropical India, and in other parts of the monsoon region of Asia. * Insignificant till 1880. " Insignificant till 1884. irH 466 APPENDIX. i s % '-5 (S ® ^\b do « oj (N « o 0* b».a5 cc) C4 C4 (N >n W l^ttoCSOtM OS CO CO ^^^ i) (N (N tH Al ws 's^ ^ ^ to 1 CO tNiVO (M -Ttt %%^^ l« 1 1 ^ ^ n 1 CO 1 J. CO CO cb db 1 s a cbiijsieqoooo OS l> r-t CD ©•■g 00 CO O *5* CO O i-H iO CO ^ >0 ag's § rS'S'S '5 •to -^ E^ ¥^ C^ S -*^ -f3 • ■H .S -im K « tfi •H TJ ^ 1-H CO cS y -s ? Jd s s ^ CQ ■s 00 ^ i s i i^ JS-o 3 .H t>>oa i 1 «5 a .a 1 CD -* a" ll ■3 ft a 1 1 T3 o CO CD a f 1 1 1 1 ■HIS eW r, o Sv ■s ti •s 3 1fl ^ CQ fH t^?i .a " t-" u S « o S 3 fl pq p:< p:, 111 lij APPENDIX 467 1 1 A CpcpWOO«THCp»« 00 T-i iH tH r-l tH Cfl f-l 3 s 1 Til (M iH 1 i a '§ > 1 iH in CO 1 CD CD CO 05 10 2' 00 COOOCOiHMit-0005 iH W CO 10 ! 11 C4 vH 10 iH AlOmiHOiHOiHO CD 1 1 1. Raw cotton 2. Opium 3. Rice (including paddy) 4. Oil-seeds , 5. Wheat G. Jutei 7. Hides and skins . 8. Indigo 9. Tea .... 1 % 1 'S m Hi V =9 i -Sm di I '^0 tQ ClO % Srrt M i d ■3 te, oil- ms an cotton cotton hides aufact eeds, i wheal at 1. d (3 ^TTi - ea " r^ a Ah ■:;" ill a --i %■% Cotton, whea Opium, cotto Oil-seeds, wh Rice, cotton. Cotton, oil-se Jute and jute Cotton Rice, wheat. Rice Cotton, oil-se Gnnny-liagB, rH (M lOO t* 00 OS iH cq CO tH tH rH rH \ U5T(l0JI>00Ot-05>0e-* O:W3(MG0rHiACOt-Q0»O(M'<#a3 a)Tli(J3'^0DT)1'^«lOTM(NT(*O s m rH ■». ih t*00C0t(5<:0-*O-HlmOC0cqrH s *< rH -^ 1 h I lAeOtfe fOrH'eD:D-^rH«rHWS(M (MO'O^CO.OlCfiQMOOt—CNCD ^ -^ Nh^b t-TtlCq«3CT0Tj<00 rH „ to GO rH rH t* m CO OS CO C4 CO 1 l'00rH»OCS»r3CCOrHO(M ^ Ci 1 ' vt-o M fH TO fH -^ Ttl \. . — , • tic S" C 5 ..St 6C s a • W^ ■ .1 • - • • • • United Kingdo China (includin China iexclvdi Song Kong . France Straits Settlem Italy ■United States Austria-Uunga Egypt . Coylon Belgium Australasia . p «? i~\ (MIM ->*»OCC>l>QOOSOrHCTCC rA r~^ y-\ 7-\ " 5" 3.§ SiS ^1=5 o '»S "^^ a 00 °ri CO OJ o l-l f « "CO « QJ ■♦^ ^ gCD •~* -, CO §•23 © en rH « "^ a " r. O o •r' « So a^ . -^ n n X p< 1-H g ■* 5 tu jd ;3° -7J > H h2 as S S 468 APPENDIX CHINA.— IMPOETS. (excluding hong KONG.') Average Value in Milaous Sterling " Percentages 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1876-80 1881-5 1886-80 1. Opium 2. Cottons 3. Metals 4. WooUens 9-32 5-90 119 1-44 7-83 6-87 1-31 1-26 7-06 9-37 1-54 1-16 42-4 26-8 5-4 6-S 35-0 30-7 6-8 5-6 26-1 34-7 5-7 4-3 Average totals . 21-98 22-38 27-01 EXPOETS. Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1876-80 1881-6 1886-90 1876-80 . 1881-6 1886-90 1. Tea . 2. Silk and silk goods Bilk, raw dk thrown Silk, piece goods . 10-01 8-32 6-3S 1-33 8-74 6-48 4-S1 1-16 7-27 7-78 477 1■6^ 46-7 38-8 30-7 6-2 46-2 34-2 24-1 6-i 33-9 36-2 22-2 rs Average totals . 21-41 18-92 21-46 IMPOETS. Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Hong Kong .... 2. United Kingdom . 3. India 4. Japan 5. United States 6. Continent of Europe . 36-89 29-98 24-17 3-92 074 0-94 36-67 25-26 26-49 4-54 2-03 1-69 37-70 24-35 22-98 5-06 3-64 2-82 53-86 22-39 8-65 5-63 3-39 263 EXPOETS. Percentages 1873-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. United Kingdom . 48-79 39-55 32-55 18-59 2. Hong Kong .... 15-54 21-26 25-24 35-39 3. Continent of Europe (exclud- ing. Russia) 10-53 13-79 12-82 14-89 4. United States 10-71 10-90 12-43 977 5. Eussia in Asia 3-12 5-07 5-07 5 44 6. Australasia .... 3-19 2- 53 2-79 2 37 ' The returns are exclusive of the trade in native junks before June 1887. ^ Eate of conversion of the tael : — Year 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 188-2 1883 Value 6s. IIM. 6s. 6j. llirf, 6s. 74 5s. O^d. 6j. 6W. 5j. 8irf. 6».7J-} 6-3 0-3 18-9 4-4 4-4 4-3 6. Eice 7. Copper . 8. Seaweed and T Seaweed jelly ^ / ' 9. Camphor 10. Mushrooms . 11. Sumach taUow 12. Tobacco 4-8 3-8 2-9 0-7 0-9 1-4 2-8 3-4 3-3 2-4 20 10 0-7 0-6 B. Principal Destina- tions Value in Mmions Stg. Percentage Principal Articles to eact Country (1887) 1881-5 1887 1881-5 mi 1. United States . 2. France 3. China . < 4. United Kingdom 5. Germany . 6. India and Siam 7. Canada Total . 2-35 1-47 105 0-68 3-41 1-61 1-68 0-55 0-15 f 0-07 1 O-ll 390 24-4 17-4 11-3 Each a little more than 1 per cent. 41-6 18-4 20-5 6-7 ] 1-8 0-9 1-4 Silk, tes, camphor, sulphut. Silk, rice, porcelain, and fandy ware. Copper and copper coins, sea animals, mush- rooms, seaweed. Eice, silk, camphor, anti- mony. Eice, camphor, porcelain, and fancy ware. Eice, fancy waie. I'ea, silk. 6-03 8-18 ' Down to 1887 Inclusive, Japanese imports, with the exception of those from Chinaaftd the East Indies were entered in the Customs returns of Japan at the values at which they were invoiced in the oointries of origin, converted Into yen at the uniform rate of 4;88 yen to the £. The figures in this table represent these values reconverted, except in the case of China and the Bast Indies, the values for which are calculated on the basis of %s. 9d. to the yen for 1881 to 1883, 3j. ed. in 1884 and 1885 and 3i. 2d. in 1887. These rates of conversion are adopted for the whole it the export tables. CSee'PoreignOfflcePaperB,AnnualSeries, Nos. 200anrt426.) _ ■ ' The imports from India and China are largely of British origin, = Japanese isinglass. 470 APPENDIX CANADA.— GENEEAL IMPORTS. Average Value A. Principal Articles in Millions Sterling Percentages Principal Countries of Origin 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Iron and steel, 1 all kinds 3-80 1-92 318 2-97 149 101 13-1 12-8 U.K., U.S. 2. Woollen mnfs. 2-98 1-62 1-82 2-06 11-7 8-6 7-5 8-9 U.K. 3. Cotton „ 219 1-51 1-77 0-96 8-6 8-0 7-3 4-1 U.K., U.S. 4. Coal OCO 0-68 1-70 1-67 2-3 3-6 7-0 7-2 U.S. 5. Wheat and flour 1-56 1-74 1-44 0-77 6-1 9-2 5-9 3-3 U.S. 6. Sugar 1-03 1-08 1-08 109 4-0 5-7 4-4 4-7 U.S., W.I. 7. Tea 0-88 0-66 0-73 0-69 3-4 3-5 3-0 30 U.S. Average total value 25-56 18-92 24-26 23-23 CANADA.— GENERAL EXPORTS. A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages Principal Destinations 1872-6 1876.80 1881-5 1886-90 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Timber . 2. Animals . 3. Barley and rye 4. Wheat . ., . 5. Cheese . ~-i . 6. Dried fish 4-69 0-50 0-73 1-24 0-60 0-57 3-44 0-74 1-14 2-06 0-84 0-69 4-50 1-68 1-67 1-58 1-49 0-72 4-00 1-98 1-19 0-97 1-83 0-59 26-5 2-8 4-1 7-0 3-4 3-2 20-9 4-5 6-9 12-5 5-1 4-2 22-6 8-5 8-4 7-9 7-5 3-6 21-6 10-7 6-4 5-2 9-9 3-2 U.K. U.S., U.K. U.S. U.K. U.K. W.I., Braz. Average total value 17-7 16-5 19-9 18-53 IMPOSTS EXFOBTS B. Prom Percentages £. To Percentages 1872-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1873-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. U.S. 2. U.K. 3. Ch.&Jap. 39-11 52-94 0-81 50-44 42-17 0-71 44-33 42-93 1-68 42-68 37-25 2-01 1. U.K. 2. U.S. 3. S.Am. . 48-15 42-10 1-27 53-17 36-26 0-88 48-37 42-68 1-13 47-16 44-55 1-43 NEWFOUNDLAND. IMP0ET3 EXPORTS From Percentages To Percentages Principal Articles 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1836-90 U.K. U.S. . British Posses- sions . 37-30 25-31 34-42 28-67 36-67 28-32 27-15 35-40 23-45 37-28 U.K. Braz. Port. 30-68 18-98 14-25 37-03 22-41 12-14 25-34 22-15 20-34 23-76 21-18 19-15 Train oil and blub- ber, dried fish ) Dried / codfish Aver. val. 1 in m. stg. / 1-43 1-49 1-63 1-33 — 1-35 1-27 1-38 1-20 APPENDIX 471 JAMAICA.— EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1871-5 1876-80 1881-6 1886-90 1871-6 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Fruit ' 2. Sugar 3. Bum . 4. Coffee 5. Logwood . 0-52 0-28 0-23 0-13' 0-45 0-25 0-26 0-18 0-45 0-23 0-16 0-12 0-31 0-25 0-21 0-25 0-30 38-3 20-8 17-4 100 31-7 17-9 18-7 12-8 31-8 16-3 111 8-5 19-2 15-2 12-6 15-1 18-4 Total 1-35 1-41 1-41 1-63 > Bananas and oranges. 2 1871-4. IMPOETS. B. From Percentages 1871-5 1876-80 1881-6 1886-90 1. United Kingdom . 2. United States 3. British North America . 58-15 25-74 1264 5310 30-22 12-62 54-35 30-92 11-18 55-98 32-79 8-36 EXPOETS. A To Percentages 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. United Kingdom . 2. United States 3. British North America . 81-17 9-95 0-92 75-87 14-87 1-37 52-61 26-00 10-98 37-42 47-65 2-14 CAPE COLONY.--EXPOETS. Principal Articles Average Value in Millions Sterling Percentages 1871-6 1876-80 1881-6 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1. Diamonds . 2. Wool 3. Ostrich feathers 4. Copper ore 5. Angora hair 2-80 0-20 0-27 0-07 2-56 2-20 0-57 0-28 0-14 3-24 1-88 0-89 0-38 0-25 4-05 1-98 0-44 0-68 0-30 65-7 4-6 6-4 1-8 39-8 341 8-9 4-3 2-1 42-7 24-8 11-8 50 3-2 45-7 22-3 4-9 7-6 3-4 Average total value 4-26 6-44 7-60 8-86 472 APPENDIX AEGENTINE EEPUBLIC— SPECIAL IMPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value Percentage s% Total ■ 1876-80 1881-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. Gotten manulaotures . 2. Wine 3. Sugar 4. Spirits and liqueurs . 5. Coal . . ' : . 6. Olive Oil (not bottled) 1-11 0-96 0-74 0-36 014 0-16 1-42 1-28 0-89 0-35 0-30 0-23 13-2 11-3 8-8 4-2 17 1-9 9-3 8-0 6-8 2-3 1-9 1-5 Average total value 8-41 15-21 B. Prom Percentage of Total Value Principal Articles 1873-4 1876-80 1881-6 1. tTnited Kingdom 2. France;; 3. Germany . 4. TTnited States . 6. Belgium e. Italy . . . 28-00 2403 4-35 7-17 3-84 6-04 26^23 20-38 p-06 ?-73 B-52 5-84 34-60 18-04 8-19 7-49 6-34 4-54 Cottons and other textiles, iron and iron wares, coal Wines and spirits, woollens, refined sugar Cottons and woollens Wood and wooden wares, iron and iron wai-es, petroleum Textiles, iron and iron wares Olive oil, rice and other food- Bt^fE3 SPECIAL EXPOETS. A. Prindpal Articles Average Value Percentage of Total 1876-80 1881-5 1876-80 1881-6 1. Unwashed wool ^ . • . a. Dried ox-hides .... 3. Dirty sheep-skins" 4. Beet salted and hung . 6. Baited ox-hides . . , . 6. TaUow 7. Wheat ...... 8. Plax 4-12 1-04 0-88 0-53 0-62 0-69 0-06 , » 6-30 1-23 I-Ol 0-63 . 0-62 0-49 0-40 a-34 43-6 H-0 >3 6-G 6-« 7-3 0-6 481 9-4 7-r 4-8 4-7 3-r 30 2-6 Average total value 9-44 13-10 B.la Percentage of Total Value Principal Articles 1873-4 1876-80 1881-5 1. Pranoe. 2. Belgium 3. United Kingdom 4. Germany . 6. United States . 6. Italy . . . 18-25 32-32 16-94 1-37 7-62 23-47 27-67 10-84 3-29 6-99 3-26 30-49 21-29 11-34 8-76 6-09 3-03 Wool, sheep-skins Wool Hides, grain, flax, wool Wool Hides, skins, wool Dried ox-hides, sheep-skins, wool ' In 1886, 47 p.c. of total to Prance, 24i p.c. to Belgium, 17 p.c. to Germany, " In 1886, 70 p.c. of total to Prance. " Insignificant. APPENDIX MEXICO.— EXPORTS. 473 Percentage of Total Value (See p. 488) 1873-5 1878-80 1882-4 1886-8 1. rnited States .... 2. United Kingdom .... 3. France i, Spain .,..,. 38-51 36-41 16-61 2-65 1-69 41-31 34-17 17-20 2-65 2-85 44-49 39-85 7-88 3-50 3-06 59-43 26-05 9-54 1-40 4-18 95-87 9808 98-78 99-60 BEAZIL, Ratio per cent, of the five cliief articles of Export to the total value of the five at different dates Coffee 1841 1861 1861 1871 1881 61-6 57-1 78-0 57-9 71-5 Sugar 34-5 27-6 11-0 16-0 14-7 Rubber . 0-6 1-8 3-6 5-1 6-7 Tobacco . 1-9 3-0 2-5 4-3 4-2 Cotton . 11-4 10-5 4-9 16-7 2-9 Percentage of the trade of Bio Janeiro with the principal foreign countries in the period 1879-84 IMPORTS EXPORTS United Kingdom 41-0 France. . . 17-0 Germany . . 9-0 United States . 8-3 Uruguay . . 7-4 Portugsi . . 6-6 United States . 66-0 United Kingdom 10-5 France. . . 10-4 Germany Portugal Belgium . 9-5 3-2 . 8-0 The rate of exchange per milreis varies so greatly that it is difficult to give any estimate of the value of the trade of Brazil in sterling. See p. 484. CHILE.— IMPORTS. Percentage of Total Value Principal Articles 1874-6 1876-80 1881-5 1. United Kingdom . 2. Germany 3. France . 4. United States 5. Argentine Republic 43-05 10-29 19-51 5-59 5-33 36-69 12-42 18-87 6-40 8-33 41-11 18-38 15-69 6-22 6-11 Cottons, coal, iron Refined sugar, woollens Woollens, wine, refined sugar Animals 83-77 82-71 87-51 EXPORTS. Percentage of Total Value Principal Articles 1874r-5 1876-80 1881-5 1. United Kingdom . 2. France . 3. Germany . . 4. Peru . 6. United States 60-57 6-21 2-24 16-03 1-36 66-31 7-41 3-86 7-84 2-94 73-92 6-68 6-80 4-66 3-25 Kitrate of soda, copper, guano, silver ore Nitrate of soda, copper Kitrate of soda Wheat Nitrate of soda 86-41 87-36 94-31 474 APPENDIX Tfl H M --^ O H f^ (J fcH w K 03 h^l ft < ^ M <1 W ?5 ^ O W 3 ^*^ ^q 1 P 1 W rn W 1^ H -*) H H l> OQ r/3 p Q ^ g X P n i> o CO « do «b ■* W Til CO CO t- b- o o> ^- n e -^ OS o o »b -rp o op 05 IN th w >p eq IN m iH iH tH ip CO fH lis b- t- Ui o CO CD t" t" 00 Oi C4 tH n O O I> ^ OS Tjl -^ lis O) w Cfl -^ o cp t- c4 iH n o o a •C Ph -r-t cp CO b- 09 US OS US us -* m IN t» o i> us us iH iH « O O iH O US US OS IN O o OS »\O-«*cDC0C0C0C0(Mi-li-l CO «--W5-W3O^ ]05C0 £ om'Eo'OTHibcacq'^cb ItHw '"' ^rH ta USCOO'^COIOCOCOQOO |CT*?» CO (N "3QOt-OTMOi-lODeO m s «b'*6N'bot»65o 2 CO CT >■ »H iH •^ i> (M(M'«^"^"*COtHW3CDiHI>OCO K rHO.SO'OCOt-COQO'^rHcraOSKS o Atifi csfflaeboTtiWTO-^OfHo S •5 ^pH iH 02 &? p H OS 0\ O i-H CO -^ OW O ,-<*<« CO s « |2 s (fq t> Nhffl30« iH iH « m ' tH O to U3 A O GO iH CO ■* CO OS O CD CO L_) o t^coottoot^eoososfM cqco ■* iH 6 Tti ©» 6| tH 006 iHTt* '.HO g rr^ ' ' ' ' .H OO ■* (M TO 03 to 1 r-t rH t- « to CT o o 1 bo S rt iH -^ 1-H s o -* 1 m s (N O 1 rH s a g CD 05 t- 1 OS 1 -* CD 1 O iH 00 CD tH 1 »«i W3 CO 00 SO K" « 1 =P 00 m OS ' 00 Si) W3 CO -5 g U3 O CO 1 CO CO (N us CO rt 1 O -' CD CO iH "? tH (N 1 rH s iH IN 1 t- iH U3 "* o 1 cq CO Tj< 1 OS do o ' s (M S<1 ' a ' ' ' *. .2 (0 eie). ie, bu spec speci ., ^r§i uding bullion anc ding bullion and of foreign origin) mports of bullion xports of bullion 1 ■35 g- " gS'^o'S ^.s-a M m [ imports L exports uding ar age exceE age exces HH 00 OS c5 rH IN rH CO 3 CO t- 00 r-i ^ CO TH o 00 O CO CD OS OS r~ OS CO (N CD o CO •R ^ (M >o •« d -* -* »o CO CD CO S "* 05 t> iH r* m « « iH IN C<) IN rH (M iH iH O o "f IM (M -* ■* ■* oa on » C» o o rH IN O ■^ O 05 00 CT o (M o o 00 »o CO iH tH 00 lO 00 S iH 00 oo E- CD CO en IN IN IN rH rH tH iH ^ o o |j o ■* CO CB fM CD O CD 05 eo r- m CO i(^ nn •* ■r^ ^ OS CO -* c- O CD tH t- en CD -^ CO CO r-l lO t- Oi CO ft CO o a5 05 O tH rH en «3 S »0 >-* CO 00 rH APPENDIX 477 XD. H ■< 1— ( CD -CO CT CO CO W3 t> CO -^ OS tH OS t* D- t* OS '^ M rH O 1-1 rH O O O O O O O 00 lO CO Cil Cq iH OS CM CO W « CD 00 O CD(MU3(M-«4fCOiHOtHTt( fHTHOiHOOOOOO »0 »(5 CO OS W3 O ^ (M '^ I OS I t> CO o '^ fN r- ID (N CO t^ fl 2 «) .3 ca a- ^ 3- o M W 3 Pi _ .a I f-i rt ■v-i r*^ ■♦a en e3 H d o fe •« ta ^ rHtHT-(rHrHiHiHi-4i-H 478 APPENDIX NEW ZEALAND.— IMPORTS. (Values in Millions Sterling.) A. Principal Articles Average Value Percentages 1871-5 1876-80 1881-6 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 'l88e-90 1. Drapery ' . 2. Iron and iron- mongery^ . 3. Sugar . 4. Tea . 5. Stationery and books 6. Coal . 0-83 0-47 0-37 0-21 013 0-19 0-97 56 0-50 0-23 019 0-23 1-04 0-66 0-54 0-23 0-21 016 0-54 0-56 0-39 0-18 0-19 Oil 130 7-3 5-9 3-3 20 2-9 13-0 7-6 6-7 31 2-6 31 13-2 8-5 6-9 3-0 2-6 21 8-5 8-8 6-1 2-9 2-9 1-7 Average total value . 6-37 7-43 7-84 6-30 B. From Percentages of Total Value Principal Articles 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 United Kingdom Victoria . New South Wales . United States . All British Possessions All Foreign Countries 59-2 24-3 6-9 2-2 61-0 16-8 9-9 4-2 33-6 S-4 65-0 11-8 7-6 50 27-5 7-3 65-77 9-27 7-38 5-25 All the chief articles Drapery, tea, sugar, leather, stationery Sugar, timber, bone manure, tea Railway plant and iron wares EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles Average Value Percentages 1871-5 1876-80 1881-5 1886-90 1871-5 1876-80 1881-6 1886-9!) 1. VSTool . 2. Gold . 3. Wheat. 4. Kauri gum . 5. Preserved meats . 2-62 1-88 0-13 013 Oil 3-33 1-27 0-39 0-15 0-50 3-10 0-94 0-63 030 0-23 3-53 0-83 0-37 0-34 0-77 44-8 32-3 2-2 2-1 1-8 55-3 211 6-4 2-5 8-1 46-1 13-9 9-4 4-4 3-4 43-6 10-2 4-6 4-2 95 Average total value . 5-83 6-02 6-75 8-09 B.To Percentages of Total Value Principal Articles 1871-5 1876-80 1B81-6 1886-90 United Kingdom Victoria . New South Wales . United States . All British Possessions All Foreign Countries 65-3 22-9 6-5 3-2 78-1 12-8 4-7 1-0 i9-4 2-5 72-9 8-9 8-5 5-4 20-4 6-7 72-03 8-37 10-29 4-71 All the chief articles Gold, oats, cheese Oats, gold, butter, horses, cheese, preserved meats, cattle Gold (to west coast), kauri gimi (to east coast] ' Exclusive of apparel and slops and haberdashery. ' Exclusive of railway material, but inclusive of hardware and cutlery. APPENDIX 479 AUSTEALIAN COLONIES.- EXPOETS. (Values in Millions Sterling.) A. Principal Articles TICTOEIA- NEW SOUTH WALES ' Average Value Percentages Average Talue Percentages 1876-80 1886-90 187G-80 1886-90 1877-80 1886-90 1877-80 1886-90 1. Wool . 2. Gold^ . 3. Coal and coke 5-92 3-79 5-42 2-38 40-7 26-1 43-0» 18-9 6-70 1-30 0-62 9-16 211 1-07 49-0 9-5 4-5 45-6^ 10-5 5-3 Average total value 14-5 12-60 13-7 20-10 EXPOETS. A. Principal Articles QOEENSLAiSrD ' SOUTH AUSTEALIA ■ Average Value Percentages Average Value Percentages 1876-80 1886-90 1876-80 1886-90 1876-80 1886-90 ■1876-80 1886-90 Wool ... Gold (dust and bars) Wheat and flour Copper and copper ore (chiefly copper) Sugar 1-36 111 0-18 2-25 2-39 0-63 37-8 30-7 4-9 38-3 35-3 93 2-10 1-78 0-49 1-93 1-36 0-30 41-7 35-3 9-7 29-4 20-7 4-6 Average total value B-60 6-76 5-03 6-58 ' Inclusive of border tra,ffic. The inclusion of border traffic, which, to a large extent, represents a mere transit trade (the wool and other products taking the shortest road to the sea), renders these tables somewhat misleading, and import tables would be still more misleading. The nature of the imports for home consumption is sufficiently well indicated by the table under New Zealand, which may be taken as typical for new countries generally. " Including specie. ' In 1886 more than 90 per cent, of the whole was exported to the United Kingdom. < In 1886 27 per cent, of the total export of wool was to Victoria, and 12 per cent, to South Australia. " By sea only, but including the river Murray trade in certain articles. 48o APPENDIX AvEBAGE Prices op Beitish Imports and Expoets op certain Commodities in THE UNDEB-MENTIONED YbARS. I. IMPORTS. Years Wlieat Maize Bice Raw Sugar Refined Silgar Tea Coffee TJnmanfd. Tobacco per cwt. per cwt. per cwt. per cwt. per cwt. per lb. per cwt. per lb. Extreme *. t. I. s. i. i. £ d. years 9-20 to 6-29 to 9-02 to 20-29 to 28-67 to 14-61 to 2-65 to 7-33 to 1354-1870 16-76 10-14 14-64 35-14 45-98 19-88 3-97 12-00 1871 11-84 7-69 10-19 25-10 36-15 16-44 3-15 8-09 1872 12-43 7-09 10-00 26-20 36-35 16-78 3-54 8-24 1873 13-01 7-06 9-92 23-97 33-84 16-67 4-42 7-72 1874 12-15 8-46 10-33 22-42 30-70 17-00 6-03 8-34 1875 10-61 7-95 8-95 21-16 30-33 16-73 4-73 8-63 1876 10-43 6-39 9-06 20-92 29-45 16-42 4-68 8-36 1877 12-49 6-47 10-55 25-73 33-79 16-98 4-83 8-05 1878 10-99 6-04 10-48 21-47 29-26 15-29 4-66 6-73 1879 10-56 B-43 10-15 20-22 27-39 14-68 4-40 7-20 1880 11-08 6-00 9-52 21-71 29-23 13-47 4-44 7-04 1881 11-04 6-22 8-64 21-72 28-93 12-82 3-87 6-85 1882 10-67 7-15 7-98 21-U 28-67 12-58 3-81 7-67 1883 9-81 6-53 8-20 20-10 27-22 12-46 3-51 7-63 1881 8-41 6-89 8-14 16-51 20-89 11-78 3-30 7-87 1885 7-83 6-39 7-82 13-89 18-16 12-06 3-19 7-92 18868 7-55 4-91 7-48 1307 16-70 11-77 3-27 7-23 Years Refined Petroleum Copper Ore Tin Crude Zinc Guano Nitrate Windov of Soda Glass Rags 1 1 Esparto Paper per gal. ner ton per cwt. ,)er ton per ton per cwt. per cwt. per ton per ton jer cwt. Extreme d. £ £ £ £ s. i. £ £ s. years 15-82 to' U-44to 4-02 to 17-62 to 9-15 to 10-96 to 14-00 to 16-77 to' 4-49 to" 51-33 to' 1854-1870 35-91 18-93 6-37 29-74 12-58 20-08 16-29 20-92 9-66 5C-I5 1871 16-59 13-65 6-34 20-55 11-11 15-59 14-95 16-53 8-63 51-22 1872 16-85 17-23 6-92 20-30 10-12 15-31 17-27 16-76 7-98 56-33 1873 14-30 16-54 6-70 23-38 11-41 14-68 18-76 17-03 8-47 60-80 1874 11-10 14-91 4-91 22-21 12-00 12-00 17-46 17-06 8-42 63-09 1875 9-62 13-78 4-33 22-57 11-30 11-99 16-79 17-34 8-04 47- n 1876 13-74 12-38 3-77 22-58 11-62 11-47 15-80 16-61 8-23 48-64 1877 12-66 10-10 3-49 20-49 10-88 13-62 14-69 14-97 7-60 49-92 1878 9-70 8-65 3-13 18-64 10-16 14-88 13-71 15-19 6-93 49-51 1879 7-68 8-69 3-41 10-62 9-15 14-02 14-12 15-33 6-77 37-40 1880 8-15 9-37 4-45 18-94 10-06 15-32 14-36 16-24 7-19 30-02 1881 7-96 7-81 4-61 16-40 9-73 14-64 14-60 14-80 6-83 36-18 1883 6-92 0-73 6-33 16-93 8-64 13-27 15-73 14-31 7-09 35-29 1883 7-39 10-34 4-69 15-70 9-76 11-41 15-69 14-08 6-74 3:)-02 1884 7-75 11-10 4-07 14-69 9-10 9-64 13-90 13-46 6:29 30- *9 1885 7-44 7-04 4-28 14-11 9-70 9-92 13-63 13-16 6-98 29-93 1886 7-04 6-85 4-81 14-32 7-81 9-94 12-68 12-45 6-51 31-21 Years Cotton Elax Haw Silk "Wool Hewn Wood Hides, ■ »ry and Wet per cwb. per cwt. per lb. per lb. per load per cwt. £ s. «. i. £ ■ 2-65 to 39-04 to . 13-85 to 13-66 to 2-91 to 2-62 to 1854-1870 9-79 60-63 26-66 18-02 4-35 4-06 1871 3-62 46-96 21-62 13-32 2-82 2-99 1872 4-24 62-28 21-43 14-61 2-91 3-42 1873 4-01 49-95 20-97 14-76 3-24 3-53 1874 3-62 48-76 16-80 14-71 3-22 3-63 1875 3-47 63-05 15-36 15-41 2-87 3-48 1876 3-02 65-29 19-18 14-64 2-90 3-13 1877 : 2-93 49-37 20-06 14-38 2'81 3-09 1878 ' 2-80 48-01 17-65 13-90 2-45 2-93 1879 2-76 46-25 17-42 13-66 2-10 2-8 < 1880 2-94 46-13 17-04 13-66 2-47 3-12 1881 2-92 41-04 16-98 13-87 2-57 3-18 1882 2-93 38-73 16-64 12-27 2-62 3-15 1883 2-91 30-92 16-20 12-08 2-61 3-18 1884 2-36 40-73 14-79 12-09 2-39 3-19 1886 2-86 41-62 14-07 10-05 2-40 3-15 1886 2-49 41-62 13-73 9-08 2-16 2-90 lSC3tol870. ' 1861 to 1870. For later years see the SlalUlical Abstract for the United Kingdom. APPENDIX. 481 II. EXPORTS. (British Produce and Manufactures.) Tears Alkali Salt Soap Candles Plate Glass Coals Pig and Puddled Iron Extreme per owt. per ton per owt. J. per doz. lbs. i. per sq. foot t. per ton per ton years 7-58 to 8-98 to 24-71 to 7-19 to 2-04 to' 7-09 to 44-93 to 1840-1870 11-04 14-94 33-19 11-87 2-67 10-18 85-06 ipn 8-37 10-47 27-14 7-78 1-95 9-63 61-08 1872 11-17 14-15 26-04 7-89 2-29 16-51 100-86 ' 1873 12-32 18-77 26-45 8-04 3-01 20-49 124-66 " 1S74 10-45 16-00 25-35 8-26 3-06 16-98 94-67 1875 9-16 14-75 24-74 8-00 2-62 13-10 72-80 . 1876 8-15 12-35 24-53 7-60 2-22 10-80 62-47 1877 r-73 11-10 24-45 7-73 2-22 10-06 67-34 1878 7-00 12-31 2t-15 7-64 1-85 9-35 63-62 1879 6-34 11-50 22-64 6-81 1-58 8-63 51-50 1330 6-96 11-49 22-47 6-80 1-62 8-76 63-04 1881 6-14 11-64 22-48 6-52 1-52 8-83 56-38 1882 6-14 11-90 22-40 6-60 1-53 8-99 66-45 1883 6-12 12-84 22-98 6-72 1-42 9-20 52-14 18S4 6-37 12-91 22-99 6-66 1-45 9-18 46-40 1885 5-87 14-59 23-50 6-14 1-27 8-33 43-66 18S8 5-73 14-61 20-03 5-40 1-09 8-32 43-17 Tin, Un- Tinned Copper, Lead : Pig. Cement Cotton Cotton piec3 goods Wool : Sheep wrought Plates TJnwrought Pipe Yarn Plain Printed and Lamb's per owt. per ton per cwt. per ton per cwt. per lb. per yd. per yd. per lb: Extreme £ £ £ £ 6. i. d. d. d. years 3-04 to •23-47 to' 3-73 to 17-24 to 2-43 to' 10-44 to 2-79 to 4-01 to 11-40 to 1840-1870 6-64 26-71 6-96 24-88 4-12 28-80 5-79 6-32 23-39 1871 6-70 24-25 3-78 19-27 2-44 18-66 3-33 4-71 16-64 1872 7-47 32-24 4-81 20-45 2-45 13-87 3-51 4-92 19-86 1873 6-83 32-77 4-68 23-75 3-04 17-76 3-45 4-78 21-18 1874 6-24 30-21 4-40 2i-63 2-98 16-79 3-22 4-69 21-92 1875 4-67 26-64 4-40 23-17 2-61 14-66 3-13 4-77 21-14 1876 3-06 21-81 4-13 22-55 2-56 13-19 2-83 4-43 18-63 1877 3-68 19-80 3-73 21-49 2-58 12-86 2-83 4-31 17-73 1878 3-32 17-60 3-49 18-74 2-56 12-47 2-76 4-18 19-87 1879 3-60 17-81 3-17 15-42 2-49 12-33 2-65 3-91 14-39 18^0 4-52 20-48 3-41 17-41 2-50 13-25 2-73 3-79 16-57 1881 4-80 17-11 3-28 15-72 2-37 12-39 2-65 3-68 15-26 1832 5-24 17-51 3-57 15-45 2-34 12-96 2-71 3-73 15-20 1883 4-88 17-47 3-38 14-07 2-31 12-25 2-61 ' 3-62 12-71 1834 4-27 16-45 2-94 12-58 2-25 12-24 2-47 3-60 10-94 1885 4-43 14-84 2-40 12-25 2-20 11-68 2-33 3-47 9-55 1886 5-03 14-16 2-19 13-35 2-02 10-84 2-21 3-18 10-07 Years Woollen and Woollen Linen M. mufactures : Sails and Sailcloth Jute Manu- Silk Manu- Boots and Worsted Yarn Cloths,