136 COMMERCE AND EXCHANGE 



enumeration and which suggest many important problems and con- 

 siderations. These changes affect primarily the markets for Ameri- 

 can and also for European goods in the Orient and the routes of 

 travel between the Far East and the markets for -Oriental wares. 

 They are: (1) The acquisition of a trading-base in the Orient by the 

 United States; (2) the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad; (3) 

 the expansion of steam-carrying trade on the Pacific and the definite 

 determination of the fate of the Panama Canal ; (4) the opening 

 of China; (5) certain important changes in the conditions of the pro- 

 duction of several of the great commodities of the world's trade. 



SECTION 1. 

 The Acquisition of a Trading-Base in the Orient by the United States 



Chief, in many respects, among these changes is the advent of the 

 United States in the Orient by the acquisition of the Philippines, of 

 Hawaii, and of other islands in the Pacific. That this is an event 

 of first-rate importance is easily realized when we consider but for 

 a moment the significance of the Philippines in the past history of 

 Oriental trade. Manila has been in the past, and can again become, 

 a great commercial emporium. In 1573, when the Spanish acquired 

 Manila, there was no safe and economical route from Eastern Europe 

 to the Orient. Long and tedious as was the Spanish route by 

 galleons to Acapulco, across Mexico, and then across the Atlantic, 

 it was far less difficult than the older routes via Archangel or Northern 

 Russia and Central Asia. Moreover, Manila was, by virtue of its 

 location and of the local products of its immediate environment, 

 a natural emporium for the collection of some of the most precious 

 wares then or since known to commerce. Conveniently located 

 between China and the Spice Islands, with India also near at hand, 

 Manila had the additional advantage of being a collecting and dis- 

 tributing point for certain local wares which had, long before the 

 advent of the Spaniard, served as a lure to bring the Chinese and 

 other Asiatic traders to her harbor, and which in turn helped to 

 obtain the wares that Europeans sought. With silver from Mexico, 

 and by way of enforced " tribute," the Spaniard bought or collected 

 from the natives of the Philippines, rice, palm-oil, abaca and other 

 fibers, fine straws and cane, dye-woods and lumber needed in China, 

 and bartered these for the silks of China, the fine woven fabrics of 

 India, and the spices from the islands to the southwest of the Phil- 

 ippines, which the Chinese traders brought. 



As a mere depot for southern Asiatic wares Manila has since lost 

 her original monopoly, and must now compete with Singapore and 

 Bangkok, and what is more important than either or both of these, 

 with the aggregate storage capacity of the many smaller treaty ports 



