Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/546

538 what international jealousies and heartburnings has the same rivalry not fostered! For all the trading peoples know how vital is that traffic.

In the earliest days of commercial venturings the Eastern trade focused at Alexandria, afterwards at Constantinople and the Italian 'factory' stations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Barbarous upheavals in Central Asia interrupted the current at times, but only as temporary dams. Then came Vasco da Gama's voyage round the Cape and its sequels—the diversion of the rich merchandise of the Orient from the Italian ports and from the Eastern Mediterranean to the sea-coast cities of the Atlantic. Out of the relentless scramble of the Atlantic nations for this, the grandest of the trader's prizes, the English came out bloodily triumphant and the British have remained the dominant shippers ever since. But when the Suez Canal was trenched through, a geographical reversal followed: the merchant's chief path may be said to have left the Cape circuit and to have regained the old line, with immensely added facilities, to debouch upon the Eastern Mediterranean. Why has it not affected us more profoundly? Are not geographical canons outraged by the great steamers passing by the French and Italian ports to find distributing centers in these islands? I think that theoretically it is so, even admitting that the foreign harbors are more difficult than ours. Practically only a few industries have suffered; the volume of our trade has increased greatly and it still remains easily preeminent. One of the chief explanations I believe to be this: Geographical considerations were defeated, for the time at any rate, by the excellence of our banking system when the Suez Canal was opened. The wealth of the country, then as now, instead of being separated and divided into isolated patches, was accumulated in the hands of bankers and was readily and easily available for commercial enterprises. So the necessary steamers—huge, and of special Hue— were built at once by our companies and launched into the Eastern trade before their rivals could begin to stir. This country had the invaluable help of its monetary facilities. Wealthy shipping corporations, once fully organized and successful, have great power, by reason of their reserves and resources, to hustle and ride off the attacks of weaker less experienced competitors. Supposing this great change had but just occurred—our advantages, though still distinct, would have been less remarkable. And in the future international trade jealousy will be keener and the competition even more severe. We must not forget that our geographical position is no longer in our favor for steamships plying from the East, and, as in the immediate past, we must throw away no chances, but seek to make up for that admitted defect by foresight, by education, by maintaining and constantly adding to our experience, and by defending and supporting that admirable