Page:The empire and the century.djvu/89

 wine, butter, skins, mutton, timber, leather, silver, tallow, beef.

South Africa sends us gold, diamonds, feathers, wool, goat's hair, skins, and hides.

India and Ceylon send us wheat, cotton, silk, indigo, gums, hides, jute, rice, timber, seeds, tea, coffee, gold, and precious stones.

For the Miscellaneous Colonies one would need to offer some such list as the Old Testament gives of the treasures which were poured into the lap of Solomon during the brief period of Israel's prosperity.

Imperial trade is, however, something far wider, far larger than all these movements of exports and imports, these operations of barter and exchange. The British Colonies and possessions not only depend upon the Mother Country for the supply of their industrial wants, they also lean upon her financially, and look to her for the provision of capital for all their great public and private undertakings; and capital is as vitally necessary for the development of new countries as are men and women.

Great Britain is the banker and financial agent of most of her Colonies and possessions. They are bound to her by financial obligations and the daily need of financial facilities. All their public loans are floated, and most of their large private enterprises are financed, in London. The whole fabric of colonial external trade rests upon London as its financial base. In an Empire such as ours London may be compared to the heart. She pumps the life-giving stream of capital through a thousand arteries to every limb of the Imperial body. Great Britain is not only a great trader but the greatest money-lender in the world. And, as is the case with smaller money-lenders, her clients generally take their loans partly in cash and partly in goods. For instance, if a colonial Government borrows in London for any great public works, or if a company raises capital for any large enterprise, a portion of the loan goes out to the Colony in the form of the materials and machinery which are necessary for the execution of such work; it