A geography of commerce for academies, high schools, and business colleges;

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Introduction. — Condensed Historic Review vii

I. Commercial Commodities , i

Introduction

Commerce had its crude beginnings in Asia in prehistoric times ; thence it slowly extended throughout the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea ; from them to the rest of Europe ; and in the last four centuries it has spread over the New World, as this has become populated by nations of European descent. Thus also the industrial civilization which has grown with the growth of trade has steadily taken its way westward, completing in recent times and in our own land the circuit of the globe.

Eor long ages the traffic of the ancients, whether from town to town or between different countries, must have been carried on either by the help of navigable rivers, or overland by means of beasts of burden. To the merchants of antiquity the great ocean seemed a barrier, not a help, to commercial undertakings.

With the inland seas the case was different. The Mediterranean in particular, whose borders are so largely peninsular in form, must in very early times have tempted to trading ventures the vigorous and progressive races settled upon its shores.

It is probable that the first great maritime carriers of goods were the Phoenicians, who inhabited the coast country of Syria, at the eastern extremity of this midland sea. From the earliest times they distributed to the rest of the world the wares of Egypt and Babylon. The situation of their country directly tending to give to the Phoenicians the control of early Mediterranean trade. The grain and ivory of the Nile region, and the silks, dyes, and spices of Asia flowed into their hands. The Phoenicians traded to every part of the Mediterranean coast, making many settlements, and founding several important colonies.

The Greeks were never active in commerce, but on the other hand they were the greatest colonizers among the nations of antiquity. Long before Carthage had reached her highest renown the Greeks had founded scores of coast cities, some of which like Marseilles, Naples, and Smyrna, are to this day busy centers of commercial life. A few trading settlements also were made at points advantageous for Grecian commerce, as at the mouth of the Danube and in the delta of the Nile. The Greeks imported hides and timber from the Black Sea region, ivory and grain from Egypt, and spices and wool from their colonies in Asia Minor.

vin A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

About a hundred years before the commencement of our era, Rome had grown to supreme miHtary power. The genius of her people was pohtical rather than commercial. The Romans were, first of all, conquerors and law-givers ; yet the industries necessary to the prosperity of a great population had not failed to develop themselves in Italy, and as the sway of Rome extended over remote regions, it was her policy to adopt and promote whatever of commerce she found existing in them. All the more was this needful because the food supply of Italy had largely to be imported. The tribute levied on the conquered provinces of the Roman empire was really paid in the products of those provinces. Fro7n Western Eiavpe she received grain, cattle, fruits, and fish, besides salt, tin, lead, iron, and copper. The leading imports/r^w tJie East were metal goods, glassware, and marble ; grains, fruits, and spices ; carpets, dyes, and fabrics of wool and silk. When, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the peoples of Northeastern Europe overran the Roman empire, such commerce as had grown up in the ancient world fell into complete decay ; for in that vast and irresistible trespass, the sense of security, on which commerce and the industries that support it always depend, was quite extinguished. For several centuries there was not in all Europe anything that we should call business life. But at length out of this chaos civilization slowly emerged. The northern nations had been Christianized, and the countries of the south had absorbed and assimilated the invading populations.

Early in the thirteenth century several German towns formed a hanse, or league, for mutual benefit and protection. This commercial confederation lasted for nearly four hundred years. It is commonly spoken of as the Hanseatic League, and at one time was composed of more than eighty towns. Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bremen, in close proximity to one another, and favorably situated for sea and river trade, were the chief cities of the League. The Hanse towns conducted the trade of Northern Europe. They established their own warehouses and commercial agents as far west as London, and as far east as Upper Novgorod, near the site of the modern city of St. Petersburg.

From England and The Netherlands the Hanse traders brought linen, wool, tin, hides, and salted fish. From the Baltic countries they got grain, iron, copper, timber, and furs. From Southern and Southwestern Europe they imported wine, oil, salt, and silk. Great quantities of woolens were then made in England, linen and woolen goods in the Lowlands, and silks in France, Spain, and Italy.

Constantinople in the east, and Marseilles and Barcelona in the west, were busy commercial ports in the Middle Ages. Considerable overland traffic between the Mediterranean countries and those bordering on the North and Baltic Seas was carried on through the passes of the Alps and by way of the

IXTRODUCTION. ix

River Rhine. When in 1453, Constantinople was captured by the Turks, trade with the East was ahnost entirely cut off. In 1497 Vasco de Gama discovered the easier and safer sea-route around Africa to India and China. Five years earlier, Columbus had found the " West " Indies. As a result of these remarkable events, the greater part of maritime trade was shifted from Mediterranean to Atlantic waters. Ocean commerce had now begun. Its progress, however, was at first very slow. Throughout the Middle Ages, trade of every kind had been too much disturbed and hindered by wars and tumults to exert its full influence upon society. The European mind was unprepared to take in at once the momentous import of the new discoveries. Thus, for more than a century after the voyages of Columbus, what is now our own country, was still a wilderness thinly peopled by savage tribes.

The Spanish colonization of South America was greatly stimulated by the discovery of its mines of gold and silver, all the more because there was then great scarcity of the precious metals in Europe. With the East Indies, trade could now be carried on without trans-shipment of goods, and without the hindrances and the heavy costs that had formerly been imposed by the Arabs for overland carriage. An era of ship-building, exploration, and colonization began. Great seaports, like Antwerp and London, grew up on the Atlantic coast of P^urope. Industries whose products were available for the new commerce became especially active.

For three-quarters of a century — from 1500 to 1579 — Antwerp enjoyed very great prosperity. To her annual fairs came traders from all the cities of Europe, and the river Scheldt was often lined for miles with merchant fleets. In the seventeenth century, Ainsierdain, Flushi)ig, and other ports of Holland, were busy centers of commerce with the Indies, both East and West.

The Portuguese planted settlements for trading purposes in Brazil, on the coast of Africa, and in the Indian Archipelago. Later the French founded colonies on the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. The Dutch established others in the East Indies and at New York. The English settled the eastern shores of North America, and gained a foothold on the peninsula of Hindostan. In three centuries, European colonies were planted on every coast. Remote seas, subdued by the progress of navigation to the service of man, began to yield their own riches in great abundance. The threads of commerce were weaving together the interests of all nations, and extending a security unknown in former ages.

In our own time the discoveries of gold in California and Australia, the application of steam-power to navigation and overland carriage, and the invention of the telegraph, have revolutionized the commerce and industries of the world.

X A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

Thus, Western Europe has now become a region of manufactures, partially dependent for materials and food on imports from the other continents. A great merchant-marine for conducting international exchanges is therefore a necessity to European life.

The vast benefits which steam locomotion and the electric telegraph have conferred on the world's business, are too obvious to require illustration. It is well, however, to note that the advantages resulting from the great gold discoveries have mainly accrued to the nations luitiiin whose territory tJie gold deposits were found. These advantages were of two kinds : —

1. The increased supply of gold temporarily lessened the value of that metal, and, for the time, correspondingly increased the prices of other commodities, together with the wages of labor engaged in producing them.

2. Ever since these discoveries, England and the United States have been exchanging their new gold for the useful products of other countries, and have to this extent, increased their own real wealth.

The principal European countries, in the order of the amount of their merchant tonnage, are Great Britain, Norway-Sweden, Germany, France, and Italy. Arranged in the order of the value of their commerce, they are Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

It will be seen that Great Britain leads in both tonnage and commerce. No other country is so favorably situated for the control of European trade. A hemispherical map, so drawn as to include the great commercial countries of the world, would show London at its center.

The greatest manufacturing cities of Europe at the present day are those of greatest population, — London, Paris, and Berlin. The greatest commercial ports are London, Liverpool, Hamburg, and Marseilles.

Within recent years, the Mediterranean Sea has been restored to more than

its old importance, as a trade-route between Europe and the East, by the opening

of the Suez Canal.

Note. — What the nations of Europe buy and sell, and with what other nations they carry on commerce, will be fully shown in later chapters.

The European colonists who inhabited our Atlantic coast plain at the close of the first century after the settlement, were less than half a million in number. They formed, that is, a population about equal to that of Boston or St. Louis at the present day. To subdue a wilderness and fit it for agriculture was the chief business of these pioneers of Western civilization. They had neither the time nor the facilities to engage systematically in the useful arts, and accordingly some of the necessaries and most of the conveniences of life they imported from the mother country. To pay for these imports, the colonists sent back to England such natural products as fish, tobacco, rice, furs, pitch, tar, and iron ore. Manufactures, in our sense of the term, and on a large scale, did

not become developed till after the close of the colonial period in 1776. Yet here and there, as we learn from early chronicles, some factory industries appeared. In New England, especially, the rigorous climate and thinner soil discouraged agriculture, and turned men's energies in the direction of trade and manufactures. The building of ships served both of these interests, and was, therefore, from the first, an active industry in the coast and river towns. Paper-mills were set up in Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. In almost all the colonies, woolen mills were gradually established. By the middle of the last century, our forefathers had some manufactures of ironware, pottery and glass, paper, leather, woolen, bricks, and cordage.

During the Revolutionary struggle our industries whose products were called for by the necessities of the war, became very active. But with the peace came a reaction ; finished products were again imported, and domestic manufactures fell off, though ship-building and the carrying-trade revived.

Throughout the next twenty years, except for the brief period of the Embargo of 1807, the carrying-trade and the factory industries of the United States were mainly prosperous. The almost continual wars which devastated Europe until the battle of Waterloo in 181 5, threw much of the world's ocean carriage into the hands of American sailors. Steam-power was now being applied to the driving of machinery of all kinds. Coal for use under steam-boilers, and iron for the making of machinery, were imperatively needed. The safety-lamp and the steam-pump had made possible the mining of coal and iron on an extensive scale. The only thing then wanting to insure the rapid growth of cotton manufactures was an abundant supply of the fiber at a cheap rate. This, the contemporaneous invention of the cotton-engine, or "gin," by Eli Whitney, at once supplied. In about ten years, there were 30,000 s])indles in operation in the United States; in 1830, a million and a quarter; and there are now more than ten times that number. Manufactures of IcatJier, iron, wool, paper, and glass were sufficiently developed in the early part of this century, not only to supply all the needs of our own population, but to allow^ of some export.

The second war with Great Britain closely resembled the Revolution in its influence on American industries and trade. It increased the demand for domestic products, because foreign imports and competition were cut off. . While the war lasted, home manufactures were therefore stimulated, and after the peace, they continued in a prosperous condition. To the mechanics and laborers of crowded Europe, America held out tempting advantages, and in 1820, about 8000 of them sought homes in the New World. Those who had xii A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

been employed in factories abroad, found employment in similar factories here ; but the majority were tillers of the soil, and these newcomers, in their search for homes, pushed the frontiers of civilization westward.

With the European peace of 1815, ocean commerce revived, and various nations strove for supremacy in it. The Americans were masters of seamanship, and their disposition for trade kept their merchant fleets busy. Ship-builders vied with one another in constructing vessels of great speed, and in i860, the tonnage of the merchant-marine of the United States had become nearly equal to that of Great Britain. Many "clipper" ships belonged to this fleet. They were then the swiftest sailers ever built. The Civil War in America (1861 — 1865) broke out at the critical time when steam was superseding the sail, and, while our commercial development was hindered by this war, the tradingnations of Europe were adding fleets of ocean steamships to their merchant-marine.

Another advance, almost as momentous in its influence upon navigation, was the change in the material of ship-building. The sailing-ship had been made of wood ; the ocean steamship was now being made of iron. Iron ships are more durable than those made of wood, and, being more rigid, can better bear the strain of heavy steam machinery. In fact, the screwpropeller has been found to be inapplicable to wooden ships of very large capacity. Moreover, iron ships draw less water, and have greater stowage capacity than wooden ships of the same tonnage.

For many years the energies of the people of the United States have been devoted to developing the resources of the country, somewhat at the expense of the merchant-marine. Though our commerce steadily increases, our foreign carrying-trade has greatly fluctuated in amount, with a marked tendency to decline. In our coast and inland commerce, from which foreign ships are excluded, our carrying-trade has kept pace with the extraordinary growth of our domestic exchanges.

The proper significations of the terms merchant-marine, carrying-trade, and commerce should be observed. It is common to infer from the phrase, "the decay of our merchant-marine," that the foreign commerce of the United States is declining. Commerce is the buying and selling of goods ; the carrying-trade is simply the business of transporting them ; the merchant-marine is the total shipping engaged in this freight business. The Civil War of 1 861- 1865 was injurious to the commerce of our country, cutting off for the time the natural export of cotton and the other staples of the South ; but with the close of the conflict this trade at once resumed its course. During the same four years, however, our Atlantic carrying-trade met reverses from which it has not

recovered. Ocean ventures under our ilag were hazartlous for the tinie, and our carryin<;"-trade fell mainly into l^ritish hands.

The last twenty years have witnessed the industrial development of the Southern States, the opening of the vast wheat-fields of the Northwest, a marvelous extension of the railway systems oi the United States, and an immense increase in our coastwise and lake trade.

Two recent acts of Congress are of great importance, the one to our domestic trade, and the other to our foreign commerce.

1. The former of these is the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Under the Constitution, Congress has power "to regulate commerce bctivecn the States,'^ and the purpose of this law is to cause railway companies which operate lines /// })iorc t/inn one Sfafr to make equable and just rates for transporting goods. Local or individual discriminations on such roads are not now lawful. A Commission of three persons hears and tries complaints against any railway charged with disobeying the law.

2. Treaties of commercial reciprocity have recently been made with several foreign nations. In the winter of 1 889-1 890 an International Congress, composed of delegates from all the republics of the Western Continent, was held at Washington. This Congress directed special attention to the commerce between the United States and the countries to the south of us.

As a general statement, it may be said that we have bought of these countries more than they have bought of us. In other words, our exports to them have paid for only a part of our imports from them. The balance of payment has been made up of European merchandise, shipped to Mexico and Central and South America, which merchandise, in turn, has been paid for by exports from the United States to Europe. But these southern countries have taken manufactures freely from Europe, while we have sent to Europe agricultural products. We, therefore, in effect, have sent breadstuffs, cotton, and provisions to Europe to pay for millions of dollars' worth of imports into the United States from the countries south of us. The question, therefore, arose whether the payment could not be made in full, by exports of manufacturcs to South America instead of by exports aifariii produce to Europe.

Treaties of mutual trade concessions were made in 1891 with Brazil, Santo Domingo, and Spain. They were followed by a considerable increase in our exports to the markets affected, but terminated in 1894 by the enactment of a new tariff law which repealed the act under which they were made. Reciprocity treaties were made with France in 1898, and Germany, Italy, and Portugal in 1900, by which those governments reduced their tariff rates on certain articles from the United States in consideration of a reduction of duty by the United States on certain products of those countries. The number of articles affected by these agreements is, however, limited, and the effect upon trade has not been strongly marked. The most effective reciprocity treaty in the history

XIV A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

of agreements of this kind by the United States is that made with the Hawaiian Islands in 1876, by which sugar, molasses, rice, and fruits from those islands were admitted free of duty into the United States ; and breadstuffs, meats, and manufactures from the United States were admitted free of duty into those islands. Under this treaty the exports from the United States increased from less than one million dollars in 1876 to over nine millions in 1886, over eleven milions in 1896, and over twenty millions in 1900.

Note. — An account of the industries, productions, and exchanges of the United States is given in the chapters which follow.

A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

Chapter I. Commodities Important To Commerce

I. — FOOD SUBSTANCES,

Beef and Beef-Products No other species of animal is of so great service

to mankind as that commonly known as neat-cattle. From the most remote times these animals have been closely associated with the industries of mankind as beasts of burden, in tilling the soil, and in gathering the harvests. Their flesh serves as one of the chief articles of food for nearly three-fourths of the world's population, while milk and other dairy products probably rank next after grain and meat in the order of value. Leather, made from their hides, is used in one form or another by three-fourths of the world's population ; and the horns, hoofs, and hair are utilized in a variety of ways.

Cattle are reared for different objects. In thickly inhabited countries milkproducing qualities are most desirable, while in grazing countries beef-producing qualities are sought. The cattle interests of the United States are greater than those of any other country,^ Our dairy interests alone represent an investment of twenty times the bank capital of the country. The number of milch cows in the United States is estimated at 1 7,000,000, with an average yearly yield of 350 gallons of milk each. The quantity of butter made is nearly 1,500,000,000 pounds, and of cheese 300,000,000 pounds annually. In 1900 the value of the dairy products was estimated at $590,000,000, — a sum exceeding the value of the wheat crop. The value of the beef, butter, cheese, leather, and other products of beef, exported from the United States is annually more than $50,000,000.^

^ The number of cattle slaughtered and dressed for market in Chicago, the center of the American beef business, is aimually about two millions.

- The total export of provisions, including meat and dairy products, in 1902, was ^196,959,637. In 1902 over 500,000 cattle were inspected by the government for export. Averaging about 1,400

I

The other chief beef-producing countries are the Argentine Republic and Uruguay. In Europe, dairy-products and beef are exported by The Netherlands, Denmark, and Ireland.

Fish. — Fish are found in abundance and variety in nearly all waters, salt and fresh. Commercially, the salt-water fisheries are of much the greater value, and the important ones are few in number. The banks off the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are the most prolific fishing-grounds, and are yearly visited by about 5000 vessels. The largest fleet of these vessels hails from the United States. The other countries represented are Canada, Great Britain, F'rance, and Norway. The fishing-banks next in productiveness are those of North Norway, and in the vicinity of Iceland. The North Pacific Ocean, in the vicinity of Alaska and the island chains, also contains valuable fishing-grounds. The Japanese have a considerable fleet in the northwestern part of this ocean, but along the American coast fishing is less vigorously pursued. Since 1 898, however, many vessels have been added to the fleets sailing from San Francisco, Puget Sound, and British Columbia.

Codfish, the most abundant of salt-water food-fishes, are caught on all great banks, as are also halibut. Mackerel are caught in the north Atlantic near the shore. These three species are the only salt-water fishes of great commercial value. The young of the herring and menhaden are caught in abundance on the coast of Maine, and canned as " sardines." Red-snappers, croakers, and shrimp are taken in the Gulf of Mexico. Shad and salmon are salt-water fish that run into fresh water to spawn. Shad abound in the rivers of the Atlantic

pounds each, these cattle represent 700,000,000 pounds live weight, of which about 420,000,000 pounds would be available for food. But this is by no means the whole of our contribution to the world's supply of beef. In the same year the exports of fresh beef were 301,000,000 pounds, valued at ^29,000,000, and the exports of canned, salted, and other cured beef amounted to 115,000,000 pounds, valued at $9,000,000. In all, the weight of beef shipped abroad, live, slaughtered, and packed, exceeded 1,000,000,000 pounds. Most of the cattle for e.vport were taken from the States of the West. Iowa is the greatest dairying State, producing about one-tenth of the product of the whole country, but the beef supply comes mainly from the ranges still farther West.

The total number of cattle in the United States is estimated at nearly 52,000,000. About 1,365,000 square miles are devoted entirely to the rearing of cattle, being mainly the Trans-Mississippi pastures of the buffalo herds at the beginning of the century. The large supplies of fresh beef formerly drawn from New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, come to market no longer; but, instead, the supplies for eastern cities and for export are mainly drawn from the far Western States and Territories. This is because, as the value of land rises, it becomes less profitable to employ it in cattle-raising, especially in competition with the beef from the far West ; but as cattle are growing relatively scarce, and the consumption of beef increases in prosperous times, higher prices must be expected. The export of fresh beef is of comparatively recent development, and is due solely to improved means for ocean transportation.

slope, and salmon in the rivers of the Pacific coast. The leading salmonfisheries of the world are along the Columbia River and the numerous rivers of Alaska. Salmon abound also in Okhotsk Sea ; but these fisheries are not developed.

In luu'oi^e, cod, halibut, haddock, and herring are the leading fish. Sardines are caught off the coast of France, Spain, and Portugal, and near the islands of the Mediterranean Sea.

Other salt-water live products are oysters, clams, and lobsters. The most extensive shell-fish beds in the world are along the coast of the United States. Chesapeake Bay is the principal seat of oyster-dredging ; but there are valuable beds on the coasts of New England, Long Island, and New Jersey, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Large beds of oysters have been planted o\\ our Pacific coast. In Europe most of the oysters come from the coa.sts of P' ranee and Plolland, Lobsters are caught along the coa.sts of New England and Canada in North America, and of Scotland, Ireland, and Norway in Europe.

The inland fisheries of many countries furnish valuable food supplies ; but, owing to the fact that the fish cannot be transported far, they are of little commercial value. In the United States the white-fish of the Great Lakes are of considerable commercial consequence. The sturgeon of the Volga River in Russia are the most important product of the inland fisheries of Europe.

Fish-culture is now carried on by nearly all leading nations, and valuable food-fish from one part of the w^orld are transported to other parts and planted in exhausted fisheries.

The fisheries of the United States are more valuable than those of any other nation, and give employment to 150,000 men. Massachusetts and Maine carry on nearly one-half of the general fisheries, though New York, Maryland, and California have considerable fishing-fleets. These include both shore and deep-sea fisheries. The salmon fisheries of Oregon are of great value, though in Alaska there are rapidly developing the most extensive salmon fisheries ever known. In 1901 Alaska exported nearly 100,000,000 pounds.

Nearly all the sperm-oil of commerce, and most of the whale-bone and whale-oil, is got by the steam-whalers. The most valuable of whale fisheries are off the northern and western coasts of Alaska.

The most important and extensive oyster-beds in the world are in Chesapeake Bay, and along the coast of Virginia. These are natural beds. In several places along the coast, artificial beds have been planted, particularly on the shores of New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massa-

A GEOGRAPHY OF COMMERCE.

chusetts, and these are now second in value to the Chesapeake Bay beds. Oysters have been planted on the coast of California with some success.

Pork and Pork-Products. — Swine have always been a source of food supply in Europe and Asia. In warmer countries the flesh is not considered wholesome. In Europe the raising of swine is confined mainly to Great Britain and the Balkan states. But rearing swine and curing pork is a greater industry in the United States than in any other country. Owing to the fact that our staple crop, Indian corn, affords the best food for these animals, American pork is superior to that of Europe, as corn makes the flesh harder. The leading pork-producing States are, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Nebraska, and Texas. For the year ending March i, 1902, the number of hogs packed in Chicago was 7,636,000 ; in Kansas City, 3,427,802 ; while the total number packed and marketed in the country was more than 30,000,000.

MIUPONS OF DOLLARS n an eo 90 120 150 180 210 240

ILLINOIS

KANSAS NEBRASKA NEW YORK INDIANA MISSOURI

Slaughtering and Meat Packing in the Six Leading States, Value of Product ; 1900.

The value of the exports of hog-products from the United States in 1902 was 127,000,000. This includes bacon, ham, salted and pickled pork, lard, and lard-oil.

Barley. — Barely was formerly used for food in northern countries, where it was supposed that wheat would not grow. But wheat has very generally superseded it, both as a crop and as food. Barely is cultivated in the western part of the United States, and in Canada, and forms a small export.

Cocoa. — The cocoa-tree, grows mainly in America, to which continent it is indigenous. Cocoa is an important article of commerce in the Spanish American nations, the United States, and Spain. In its various forms the products of this tree are called nibs, shells, cocoa, chocolate, broma, etc. The greatest consumers of the beverages made from the cocoa-seed are the Spanish and Portuguese, who have long preferred them to either coffee or tea. The manufacture of chocolate is an increasing industry in France, from which country our own supply of this product is chiefly derived. We take cocoa, shells, and leaves from South America and the West Indies to the annual value of about $3,500,000.