Commercial Geography Part 30

The easily travelled overland routes between the Mediterranean and North Seas in very early times gave the country a commercial prominence that ever since has been retained. Even before the time of Caesar it was a famous trading-ground for Mediterranean merchants, and the conquest of the country was not so much for the spoils of war as for the extension of Roman commercial influence.

The greater part of France is an agricultural region, and nowhere is the soil cultivated with greater skill. Although the state is not quite as large as Texas, there are more farms than in all the United States, their small size making thorough cultivation a necessity. Much of the land is too valuable for wheat-farming, and so the eastern manufacturing districts depend upon the Russian wheat-farms for their supply. Northwestern France, however, has a surplus of wheat, and this is sold to Great Britain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANCE]

The sugar-beet is the most profitable crop, and its cultivation is aided indirectly by the government, which gives a bounty on all exported sugar. The area of sugar-beet cultivation will probably increase to its limit for this reason.

The French farmer is an artist in the cultivation of small fruits, and the latter form an important source of revenue. Of the fruit-crop, the grape is by far the most important commercially. French wines, especially the champagnes, are exported to a greater extent than the wines of any other country.[72] Most of the wine is sold in Great Britain and the countries north of the grape belt; a considerable part is sold in the United States and the eastern countries. Champagne, Bordeaux, the Loire, and the Rhone Valleys are famous wine districts.

Wine is also imported, to be refined or to be made into brandy.

Cattle-breeding, both for meat and for dairy purposes, is extensively carried on. The meat is consumed at home. b.u.t.ter is an important export, especially in the northwest, where a large amount is made for London consumers. This region produces Camembert and Neufchatel cheese, both of which are largely exported; Brie cheese is made chiefly along the German border. The Roquefort product, made of ewe's milk, is fermented in limestone caves and cellars. All these varieties have a large sale, the United States and Great Britain being heavy purchasers.

The Percheron draught-horse is raised for export as well as for home use; mules are extensively raised for the army wagon-trains of Great Britain and Germany. Sheep are grown for the finer grades of wool, but so much of the sheep pasture has been given to the cultivation of the sugar-beet, that a considerable part of the woollen textiles are now made of wool imported from Argentina. A large part of the eggs and table poultry consumed in London are products of northwestern France.

The coal-fields of the north produce nearly two-thirds of the total amount consumed. Iron ores are found near the German border; they are sent to coal-fields in the neighborhood of St. etienne and Le Creuzot to be manufactured into steel. Both coal and iron ore are deficient. To meet the requirements of consumption, the former is imported from Great Britain, Germany, and Belgium; the latter, mainly from Germany and Spain.

The manufactures of France have a wide influence. From the coal and iron are derived the intricate machinery that has made the country famous, the railways, the powerful navy, and the merchant marine that has made the country a great commercial nation. Because of the great creative skill and taste of the people, French textiles are standards of good taste, and they find a ready market in all parts of the world. In textile manufactures more than one million people and upward of one hundred thousand looms are employed.

The United States is a heavy buyer of the woollen cloths and the finer qualities of dress goods. Inasmuch as these goods have not been successfully imitated elsewhere, the French trade does not suffer from compet.i.tion. The best goods are made from the fleeces of French merino sheep, and are manufactured mainly in the northern towns. The Gobelin tapestries of Paris are famous the world over.

The cotton manufactures depend mainly on American cotton. About two-thirds of the cotton is purchased in the United States, a part of which returns in the form of fine goods that may be cla.s.sed as muslins, tulles, and art textiles. The market for such goods is also general. In the manufacture of fine laces, such as the Point d'Alencon fabrics, the French have few equals and no superiors. The flax is imported mainly from Belgium.

Silk culture is aided by the government, and is carried on mainly in the south. The amount grown, however, is insufficient to keep the factories busy, and more than four-fifths of the raw silk and coc.o.o.ns are imported from Italy and other southern countries.

The chief imports to France are coal, raw textile fibres, wine, wheat, and lumber. The last two products excepted, they are again exported in the form of manufactured products. The great bulk of the imports comes from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and Argentina. In 1900 the import trade from these countries aggregated about five hundred million dollars. The total export trade during the same year was about eight hundred million dollars; it consisted mainly of high-priced articles of luxury.

The foreign trade is supported by a navy, which ranks second among the world's navies, and a merchant marine of more than fifteen thousand vessels. Aside from the subsidies given to mail steamships, government encouragement is given for the construction and equipment of home-built vessels. It is a settled policy that French vessels shall carry French traffic.

Of the 24,000 miles of railway, about 2,000 miles are owned by the state. The rivers are connected by ca.n.a.ls, and these furnish about 7,000 miles of navigable waters. As in Germany, the water-routes supplement the railway lines. Practically all lines of transportation converge at Paris.

_Paris_, the capital, is a great centre of finance, art, science, and literature, whose influence in these features has been felt all over the world. The character of fine textiles, and also the fashions in the United States and Europe, are regulated largely in this city.

_Ma.r.s.eille_ is the chief seaport, and practically all the trade between France and the Mediterranean countries is landed at this port; it is also the focal point of the trade between France and her African colonies, and a landing-place for the cotton brought from Egypt and Brazil.

_Havre_, the port receiving most of the trade from the United States, is the port of Paris. _Rouen_ is the chief seat of cotton manufacture.

_Paris_ and _Rheims_ are noted for shawls. _Lille_ and _Roubaix_ are centres of woollen manufacture. _Lyons_ is the great seat of silk manufacture.

=Italy.=--Italy is a spur of the Alps extending into the Mediterranean Sea. From its earliest history it has been an agricultural state, and, excepting the periods when it has been rent by wars, it has been one of the most productive countries in the world.

Wheat is extensively grown, but the crop is insufficient for home consumption, and the deficit is imported from Russia and Hungary. A large part of the wheat-crop is grown in the valley of the Po River.

Flax and hemp are grown for export in this region; and corn for home consumption is a general product. Cotton is a good crop in Sicily and the south, but the amount is insufficient for use and must be made up by imports from the United States and Egypt.

Silk, fruit, and vegetables are the staple products that connect Italy commercially with the rest of the world. About a million people are concerned in the silk industry, and Italy is one of the foremost countries in the world in the production of raw silk. Most of the crop is produced in northern Italy; western Europe and the United States are the chief buyers. The silk of the Piedmont region is the best in quality.

Fruit is the crop next in value to raw silk. Sicilian oranges and lemons, from about twenty millions of trees, find a ready market in Europe; the oranges come into compet.i.tion with the California and Florida oranges of the United States, in spite of the tariff imposed against them by the latter country. Olives are probably the most important fruit-crop. Both the preserved fruit and the oil are exported to nearly every civilized people. Much of the oil is consumed at home, very largely taking the place of meat and b.u.t.ter. Lucca-oil is regarded as the best.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALY]

The grape-crop is enormous, and the fruit itself is exported. Some of the fruit sold as "Malaga" grapes throughout the United States during winter months comes from Italy. Chianti wine, from the vineyards around Florence, has. .h.i.therto been regarded as an inferior product, but the foreign demand for it is steadily increasing. The Marsala wines of Sicily are largely exported.

Among mineral products the iron deposits in the island of Elba are undoubtedly the most valuable, but they are yet undeveloped to any great extent. The quarries at Carrara produce a fine marble that has made Italy famous in sculpture and architecture. Much of the boracic acid used in the arts comes from Tuscany, and the world's chief supply of sulphur comes from the neighborhood of Mount Etna in Sicily. Of this Americans buy about one-third.

On account of the lack of coal, the manufactures are restricted mainly to art wares, such as jewelry, silk textiles, and fine gla.s.sware. The Venetian gla.s.sware, the Florentine and mosaic jewelry, and the pink coral ornaments are famous the world over. Within recent years, however, imported coal, together with native lignite, have given steel manufacture an impetus. Steel ships and rails made at home are meeting the demands of commerce. Goods of American cotton are made for export to Turkey and South American countries.

Raw silk, wine, olive-oil, straw goods, sulphur, and art goods are exported. Cotton, wheat, tobacco, and farm machinery from the United States, and coal, woollen textiles, and steel goods from Great Britain are the chief imports. Most of the foreign trade is with the nearby states. The raw silk goes to France.

Since the unification of Italy the railways have been readjusted to the needs of commerce. Before that time the lines were wholly local in character; with the readjustment they were organized into trunk lines.

They enter France through the Mont Cenis tunnel; they reach Switzerland and Germany by way of St. Gotthard Pa.s.s; they cross the Austrian border through Brenner Pa.s.s.

_Rome_, the capital, is a political rather than an industrial centre.

_Milan_, the Chicago of the kingdom, is the chief market for the crops of northern Italy and a great railway centre. It is also the market for raw silk. _Genoa_, the princ.i.p.al port, is the one at which most of the trade of the United States is landed. _Naples_ monopolizes most of the marine traffic between Italy and Great Britain. _Leghorn_ is famous for its manufacture and trade in straw goods. A considerable part of the grain harvested in the Po Valley is stored for shipment at _Venice_--not in elevators, but in pits. _Palermo_ is the trading centre of Sicily.

Most of the sulphur is shipped from _Catania_. _Brindisi_ and _Ancona_ are shipping-points for the Suez Ca.n.a.l route.

=Spain and Portugal.=--The surface of these states is too rugged and the climate too arid for any great agricultural development. Less than half the area is under cultivation; nevertheless, they are famous for several agricultural products--merino wool, wine, and fruit. The merino wool of the Iberian peninsula has no equal for fine dress goods; it is imported into almost every other country having woollen manufactures. A considerable amount of ordinary wool is grown, but not enough for home needs.

The fruit industry is an important source of income. Oranges, limes, and lemons are extensively grown for exports; among these products is the bitter orange, from which the famous liqueur curacao, a Dutch manufacture, is made. The heavy, sweet port wine, now famous the world over, was first made prominent in the vineyards of Spain and Portugal.

Malaga raisins are sold in nearly every part of England and America. The olive is more extensively cultivated than in any other state, but both the fruit and the oil are mainly consumed at home--the latter taking the place of b.u.t.ter. Raw silk is grown for export to France.

Although a larger part of the peninsula must depend on the American and Scandinavian forests for lumber, there is one tree product that is in demand wherever bottles are used--namely, cork. The cork is prepared from the bark of a tree (_Quercus suber_) commonly known as the cork oak,[73] which grows freely in the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPAIN AND PORTUGAL]

Metals and minerals of economic use are abundant. Iron ore is sold to Great Britain, France, and Germany. Since the Spanish-American War, however, there have been extensive developments in utilizing the coal and the ore which before that time had been sold to other countries.

The undeveloped coal and iron resources are very great, and must figure in the payment of a national debt that is near the limit of bankruptcy.

The state, however, is entering a period of industrial prosperity.

The most available metal resource is quicksilver. Of this metal the mines in Almaden produce about one-half the world's supply. The working of these mines is practically a government monopoly, and the income was mortgaged for many years ahead when Spain was at war with her rebellious colonies.

Both Spain and Portugal are poorly equipped with means for transportation. The railways lack organization, and freight rates are excessive. Not a little of the transportation still depends on the ox-cart and the pack-train. The merchant marine has scarcely more than a name; the foreign commerce is carried almost wholly in British or French bottoms. The imports are mainly cotton, coal, lumber, and food-stuffs--these in spite of the fact that every one save lumber might be produced at home.

Wine and fruit products, iron ore, and quicksilver are leading exports.

Of these the United States purchases wine and raisins for home consumption and lace and filigree work for the trade with Mexico. Spain has a considerable trade in cotton goods with her colonies, the Canary Islands, and the African provinces of Rio de Oro and Adrar.

Portugal likewise supplies her foreign possessions--Goa (India), Macao (China), and the Cape Verde and Azores Islands--with home products. The chief Portuguese trade, however, is with Great Britain and Brazil.

_Madrid_ is the capital of Spain. _Barcelona_ is the chief commercial centre. _Valencia_, _Alicante_, _Cartagena_, and _Malaga_, are all ports of fruit and wine trade. _Oporto_ has been made famous for the port wine that bears its name. Probably not one per cent. of the port now used, however, comes from Oporto, and not many Malaga raisins come from Malaga.

=Switzerland.=--This state is situated in the heart of the highest Alps.

The southeastern half is above the alt.i.tude in which food-stuffs can be produced, and probably no other inhabited country has a greater proportion of its area above the limits of perpetual snow. A considerable area of the mountain-slopes affords grazing. The valley-lands of the lake-region produce a limited amount of food-stuffs, but not enough for the spa.r.s.e population.

Politically, Switzerland is a republic, having the position of a "buffer" state between Germany, Italy, France, and Austria-Hungary.

Racially, the state is divided among Italians, French, and Germans; as a matter of fact, however, the old Helvetian spirit, which not even Caesar could destroy, is still a great factor in dominating the people; this, with their montane environment, gives the Swiss a very positive nationality.

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.

Goats are raised for their hides, and the latter are converted into Morocco leather. Of the dairy products, cheese is in many respects the most important; Gruyere cheese is exported to nearly every country. On account of the long distance from populous centres milk cannot be transported; much of it is, therefore, condensed, and in that form exported.

A peculiar feature of the dairy industry is the fact that it is constantly moving. The dairy herds begin to pasture in the lowlands as soon as the snow melts, and as fast as the snow line recedes up the mountains the cattle follow. The milk is converted into b.u.t.ter and cheese wherever the herds may be, and the second crop of gra.s.s below them is cut and cured for winter forage.