Jacques W. Redway

“ There is scarcely a country in the world that does not yield something or other to civilized peoples. There is scarcely a household whose furnishings and contents do not represent an aggregate journey of several times around the earth. A family in New York at breakfast occupy chairs from Grand Rapids, Mich.; they partake of bread made of wheat from Minnesota, and meat from Texas prepared in a range made in St. Louis; coffee grown in Sumatra or Java, or tea from China is served in cups made in Japan, sweetened with sugar from Cuba, stirred with spoons of silver from Nevada. ”

“ COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER I GENERAL PRINCIPLES Commerce and modern civilization go hand in hand, and the history of the one is the history of the other; and whatever may be the basis of civilization, commerce has been the chief agent by which it has been spread throughout the world. Peoples who receive nothing from their fellow-men, and who give nothing in return, are usually but little above a savage state. Civilized man draws upon all the rest of the world for what he requires, and gives to the rest of the world in return. ”

“ Mining cannot be an industry in regions destitute of minerals; the miner must therefore go where the mineral wealth is found, without regard to climate, soil, centres of population, or topography. But two things are required—the mineral products and the means of getting them to the people—that is, ready means of transportation.
A century or more ago, each centre of population in the United States was practically self-sustaining. Each grew its own food-stuffs, and manufactured the articles used in the household. ”

“ Thus, the discovery of gold in California was the first step in making the United States a world power. The acquisition of so large an amount of gold caused an industrial expansion that hurried the Civil War, and led to the manufacture of iron and steel both for agricultural machinery and railroad transportation. This, in turn, brought the country so closely in touch with the affairs of China and Japan, that European and American diplomacy in eastern Asia are a common concern. The commercial position of Great Britain is very largely due to her iron mines. ”

“ A moment's thought will make it clear that before an ordinary meal can be served there must be railways, steamships, great manufacturing establishments, iron quarries, and coal mines, aggregating many thousand millions of dollars, and employing many million people. A casual inspection, too, reveals the fact that all of the substances and things required by mankind come from the earth, and, a very few excepted, every one requires a certain amount of manufacture or preliminary treatment before it is usable. ”

“ CHAPTER IV CLIMATIC CONTROL OF COMMERCE In its effect upon life and the various industries of peoples, climate is a factor even more important than topography. Of the 53,000,000 square miles of the land surface of the earth, scarcely more than one-half is capable of producing any great amount of food-stuffs, and only a very small area can support a population of more than one hundred people to each square mile. ”

“ Not only are the seeds of certain species the chief food of nearly all peoples, but the plants themselves are the food of most animals whose flesh is used as meat. Wheat, maize, and rice are used by all except a very few peoples; and about all the animals used for food, fish and mollusks excepted, are grain eaters, or grass eaters, or both.
The grasses of the Plains in Texas, the Veldt in South Africa, and the hills of New Zealand by nature's processes are converted into meat that feeds the great cities of western Europe and the eastern United States. ”

“ In a few mills armor-plate and ordinary plate for steel vessels form the exclusive product. The diversity of the product has led to the organization of great corporations, each of which controls half-a-dozen or more plants, the transportation lines necessary to carry the product, the ore quarries, and the fuel-mines.
The wonderful development of the steel industry in the United States is due to the use of labor-saving machinery, and to the superb organization. The wages paid for labor are higher than those paid in European steel-making centres; the cost of living is not materially greater. ”

“ For this reason the question of transportation is just as important to a community as the industries of agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of no use unless they can be transported to the people who want them; nor can peoples remain in unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are brought to them.
The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or all of three ways—namely, by animal [Pg 42] power, by railway, or by water. Thus, the cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by wagon from the plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing ”

“ Because the railway is an absolute necessity, and because it has power given neither to individuals nor to other corporations, it is a settled policy that both the State and general Government should have the power to regulate its rates, and should in every way prevent unjust discrimination. ”

“ But although the great mountain-systems are unhabitable, or at least sparsely peopled, they have a very definite place in the economics of life. Thus, the great western highland of the United States diverts the flow of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the central plain, and gives to the region most of its food-growing power. In a similar manner, moisture intercepted by the Alps and the Himalayas has not only created the plains of the Po and the Ganges from the rock-waste carried from the slopes, but has also made them exceedingly fertile. ”

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

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

“ For instance, manufacturing industries require power, but not fertile soil; therefore the manufacturing industries seek nearness to fuel or to water-power, and a position available for quick transportation.
Farming does not require any great amount of natural power; on the contrary, level land having a great depth of fertile soil is the essential feature. The farmer must therefore look first of all to conditions of topography and climate, and secondly to the means of transporting his crop. ”

“ THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA
The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp upon the population of the region. [Pg 350] They are full of the intelligent cunning and ferocity that mark people living under such conditions of environment. In many parts the sterile soil and arid climate force the sparse population into nomadic habits of life and predatory pursuits. For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for the population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the question. ”

“ The 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 ”

“ Such instances of the readjustment of centres of population have been common in the past; they will also occur in the future. In nearly every case the readjustment results from economic causes, the opening of new lines of transportation, the lowering of the cost of the production of a commodity, the discovery of new economic processes—all these cause a disturbance of population, and the latter must readjust itself to new and changed conditions. ”

“ THE GRAIN CROP—MODERN METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING
[Pg 90]
Of the one and one-half billion people that constitute the world's population, more than one-third, or about eight times the population of the United States, are consumers of wheat-bread; and this number is yearly increasing by twelve million. Moreover, each individual of this aggregate consumes yearly very nearly one barrel of flour, or about four and one-half bushels of wheat. In other words, it requires somewhat more than two billion three hundred million bushels of wheat each year to supply the world's demand. ”

“ They are keen, thrifty traders, and as brutal in their instincts as they are keen. The commerce which connects the western part of Asia with Europe is largely of their making. They collect and transport the goods from the interior, delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater part of the commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is wholly in their hands, is very largely the key to the situation. ”

“ Rubber from the Amazon forest is the most valuable vegetable product, but a considerable amount of cinchona bark and ivory nuts are also exported.
The mines, however, are the chief wealth of the state and give it the only excuse for its political existence. They produce silver, tin, copper, gold, and borate of lime. Inasmuch as a large part of the ore and ore products must be transported by llamas and mules, only the richest mines can be profitably worked. With adequate means of transportation, the mines should make Bolivia one of the most powerful South American states. ”

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

“ Rye will grow in soils that are too poor for wheat; its northern limit is in latitudes somewhat greater than that of wheat, also. It is an ideal crop for the sandy plain stretching from the Netherlands into central Russia, and this locality produces almost the whole yield. The world's crop is about one and a half billion bushels, of which Russia produces nearly two-thirds. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Japan grow nearly all the rest. It is consumed where it is grown. In the United States the yearly product is about twenty-five million bushels, about one-tenth of which is exported to Europe. ”

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

“ The agricultural interests of the state are developed to their utmost; two-thirds of the bread-stuffs, however, are purchased from the United States, the plains of Bohemia, and Russia. Cherries, apples, grapes, and other fruit are cultivated in every possible place, and as these can be delivered to any part of western and central Europe within a day, the fruit industry is a profitable one.
Cattle are bred for dairy purposes, but those for beef must be very largely imported, Austria-Hungary and Italy selling the needed supply. ”

“ The Beginnings of Towns and Cities.—The "country town" of agricultural regions in many ways is the best type of the centre of population engaged in receiving and disbursing commodities. The farmers living in their vicinity send their crops to it for transportation or final disposition. The country store is a sort of clearing-house, exchanging household and other commodities, such as sugar, tea, coffee, spices, drugs, silks, woollens, cotton goods, farming machinery, and furniture for farm products. ”