Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/257

* COMMEBCE. 209 COMMERCE. and Augsburg — tlirough which trade flowed in- land, vied with Venice as centres of the Eastern trade. The ports of I'rance and Spain were l)usy distributing centres. At the close of the Mid- dle Ages, Antwerp, having outstripped Bruges and Ghent, became the greatest mart in Chris- tendom. The inventions and discoveries of the fifteenth century transferred the centres of trade successively to Lisbon, Amsterdam, and London. The mariner's compass made distant voyages pos- sible on the open sea. By 14S7 the Portuguese had explored the whole western coast of Africa, and in 145)7 Vasco da Gama passed round the Cape of Good Hope, to land in India in the fol- lowing year. Before the end of the centuiy Co- lumbus had thrice crossed the Atlantic, and Cabot, sent out by England, had discovered North America. Nearly all this daring enterprise had for its prime object the finding of some easy route to the fabulously wealthy East, to India and China. But a centurj- elapsed before the English fixed their first establishment or factory in India. The discovery of the New World, how- ever, was destined eventually to change the course and the nature of trade. From such rapidly spreading exploration and colonization there necessarily arose new wants, new products, new manufactures, and rapidly increasing trade; interrupted more or less by wars, but in the main marching steadily and rapidly on. The nineteenth century witnessed an extension of the commercial relations of man- kind to which there is no parallel in history. The history of commerce in the past century vould be an epitome of the world's economic de- velo]iment during its most intense and active period, and any enumeration of the causes of the tremendous strides which commerce has made must be p.artial. The progress of coloniza- tion in the widest sense, and the improvement of the means of transportation, are primary fac- tors which cannot be overlooked. In the nine- teenth century the greater part of the North American continent was opened up to occupa- tion, Australia and South Africa were peopled by men of white race, while large portions of Asia were brought luider the influence of West- ern rule or Western ideas. This, together with the great increase of population in Europe, has greatly augmented the productive power and con- suming power of widely distant parts of the earth, dependent upon commerce for the supply of their mutual wants. Application of steam to transportation alike by land and by water has intensified the progress of colonization as we have here used the term, and made possible the commerce which has resulted from it. In 1819 the Atlantic Ocean was first crossed by a steam vessel, and regular transatlantic steam communication was inaugurated in 1838. Since then the increase of steam navigation has been rapid, particularly in the last fifty years, until now the greater part of maritime navigation is carried on by steamships. Their far greater bulk and greater speed have led to the gradual dis- placement of the old sailing ships, and have greatly nuiltiplied the potentialities of foreign commerce. The railway has been a factor of the greatest consequence in the development of sea-home traftie. Before its advent it was only the produce of coast regions, or of those parts adjacent to inland waterways, which could par- ticipate in the foreign trade. But the raihoad has utterly changed this condition. Of great importance, too, has been the influence of the telegrapli in transmitting orders and other com- nuniications between distant points without loss of time. These developments have made it pos- sible to transport long distances not only goods whose weiglit formerly debarred them from a l>lace in foreign commerce, but also more perish- able goods which, under the slower transporta- tion of earlier days, could not be handled. Some notion of the rapid development of com- merce can be gained from the statement that the aggregate exports and imports of the United States, which in 1701 were .$43,000,000. reached in 18.50 .$318,000,000, and in the fiscal vear end- ing .June 30, 1900, $2,244,000,000. For a com- parison with earlier dates, we may select a few figures for Great Britain and Ireland, which show the development of commerce in the past three hundred vears : YEARS Imports Exports Combined Imports and Exports 1613 £2,141,151 4.016.019 4.526,579 11,002.000 28,258,000 143,542.850 420.885.695 523,633,486 £2.487,435 2,022.812 6.644,103 12.142.000 34.382.000 116.091.310 327,880,670 354,550,594 £4.628,586 1662 6.038.831 1703 11,170.683 1770 23.144.000 1800 62.640,000 1865 260.234.160 1890 748.766.371 1900 878.184.080 World's Commerce. The aggregate commerce of the world was computed in 1890, for the total of exports and imports, at approximately $17,- f.00,000.000. The following statement, " which gives the figures, so far as they are available, for the trade of 1901. gives some notion of the relative positions occupied by some of the lead- ing nations: IMPOBTS AND EXPORTS COU.XTRIES United .States United Kingdom Germany France Switzerland Belgium Italy (11 months) Austria Spain (11 mouths) Bulgaria Russia (9 months) Canada* Mexico * Brazil (7 months) Argentina Uruguay (9 months) Egypt British India* Cape Colony (11 months) Imports $880, 2.641. 1.420. 909. 211, 425, 320.
 * M6.

148, 13, 205. 190. 65, 49, 109, IS, 75, 296. 87. 421.000 476.000 150.000 907.KOO 937.800 690,800 708.200 587.000 109,400 518.500 556.600 415,000 083.400 117,700 971, 1(K) 797,100 355,700 772,700 749.800 Exports $1,46.-), 1,365, 1.130, 804, 160, 3,52, 249, 883, 117. 15, 272, 177, 70, 94, 161, 22. 77. 367. 44. ,380.900 048.400 738,900 069,800 ,550.600 ,666,800 ,232.100 .507.600 ,078.600 ,974.600 ,048.200 ,039.000 860,400 628.000 846.000 352.400 753.800 642.000 796.600 CoMsrEROE OF THE UNITED STATES. Turning now more especially to the eonunerce of the United States in recent years, we present a few figures showing the origin and destination of imports and exports, and the character of the goods imported. In the following table the fig- ures for lsn.5, the year showing the smallest trade of the last decade of the nineteenth cen- tury, are given for comparison with those of the
 * Fiscal year 1900-01.