538 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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, + he 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 Medi- 

 terranean. Why has it not affected us more profoundly? Are not geo- 

 graphical 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 in- 

 valuable help of its monetary facilities. Wealthy shipping corpora- 

 tions, 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 for- 

 get that our geographical position is no longer in our favor for steam- 

 ships 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 eys- 



