Chapter I: Preface

The quiet industrial struggle through which the United States passed during the last decade of the nineteenth century cannot fail to impress the student of political economy with the fact that commercial revolution is a normal result of industrial evolution. Within a period of twenty-five years the transportation of commodities has grown to be not only a science, but a power in the betterment of civil and political life as well; and the world, which in the time of M. Jules Verne was eighty days wide, is now scarcely forty.

The invention of the Bessemer process for making steel was intended primarily to give the railway-operator a track that should be free from the defects of the soft, wrought-iron rail; in fact, however, it created new industrial centres all over the world and brought Asia and Africa under commercial conquest. The possibilities of increased trade between the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific Coast States led to the building of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways. But when these were thoroughly organized, there unexpectedly resulted a new trade-route that already is drawing traffic away from the Suez Canal and landing it at Asian shores by way of the ports of Puget Sound. It is a repetition of the adjustment that occurred when the opening of the Cape route to India transferred the trade that had gathered about Venice and Genoa to the shores of the North and Baltic Seas.

In other words, a new order of things has come about, and the world and the people therein are readjusting themselves to the requirements made upon them by commerce. And so at the beginning of a new century, civilized man is drawing upon all the rest of the world to satisfy his wants, and giving to all the world in return; he is civilized because of this interchange and not in spite of it.

The necessity for instruction in a subject that pertains so closely to the welfare of a people is apparent, and an apology for presenting this manual is needless. Moreover, it should not interfere in any way with the regular course in geography; indeed, more comprehensive work in the latter is becoming imperative, and it should be enriched rather than curtailed.

In the preparation of the work, I wish to express my appreciation of the great assistance of Principal Myron T. Pritchard, Edward Everett School, Boston, Mass. I am also much indebted to the map-engraving department of Messrs. The Matthews-Northrup Company, Buffalo, N.Y.

J.W.R.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1

II. HOW COMMERCE CIVILIZED MANKIND 7

III. TOPOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF COMMERCE 17

IV. CLIMATIC CONTROL OF COMMERCE 29

V. TRANSPORTATION--OCEAN AND INLAND NAVIGATION 39

VI. TRANSPORTATION--RAILWAYS AND RAILWAY ORGANIZATION;
PUBLIC HIGHWAYS 62

VII. FACTORS IN THE LOCATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS 81

VIII. THE CEREALS AND GRASSES 88

IX. TEXTILE FIBRES 105

X. PLANT PRODUCTS OF ECONOMIC USE--BEVERAGES AND
MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES 127

XI. GUMS AND RESINS USED IN THE ARTS 141

XII. COAL AND PETROLEUM 147

XIII. METALS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 159

XIV. SUGAR AND ITS COMMERCE 185

XV. FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS 193

XVI. SEA PRODUCTS AND FURS 203

XVII. THE UNITED STATES--THE SEAPORTS AND THE ATLANTIC
COAST-PLAIN 211

XVIII. THE UNITED STATES--THE NEW ENGLAND PLATEAU
AND THE APPALACHIAN REGION 219

XIX. THE UNITED STATES--THE BASIN OF THE GREAT LAKES
AND THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 227

XX. THE UNITED STATES--THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS AND
TERRITORIAL POSSESSIONS 247

XXI. CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND 261

XXII. MEXICO--CENTRAL AMERICA--WEST INDIES 267

XXIII. SOUTH AMERICA--THE ANDEAN STATES 275

XXIV. SOUTH AMERICA--THE LOWLAND STATES 285

XXV. EUROPE--GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY 295

XXVI. EUROPE--THE BALTIC AND NORTH SEA STATES 310

XXVII. EUROPE--THE MEDITERRANEAN STATES AND SWITZERLAND 320

XXVIII. EUROPE--THE DANUBE AND BALKAN STATES 335

XXIX. EUROPE-ASIA--THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 343

XXX. THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA 349

XXXI. BRITISH INDIA AND THE EAST INDIES 358

XXXII. CHINA AND JAPAN 367

XXXIII. AFRICA 381

XXXIV. OCEANIA 391