530 Transactions. 



abroad in large number to acquire the most modern education. 

 The awakening of China has been long foretold. China has 

 been going to awaken for fifty years past, but it would appear 

 that at last we are now in the presence of the realisation. If, 

 as appears now almost inevitable, the Chinese evolve in the same 

 way as the Japanese have done, the industrial development of 

 China is likely to be of the stupendous order. Labour and 

 capital will find a greater reward in utilising the mineral and other 

 resources for manufacture than in intensifying the culture of 

 the land. It has been so in Japan, where with the growth of 

 manufacture has also come a great improvement in the condi- 

 tion of the workers. The rise in wages that has characterized 

 recent years has of course been no local phenomenon, but a 

 general feature associated with widespread prosperity and a 

 universal rise in average prices. In Japan, however, the rise in 

 wages is remarkable, though they still remain small compared 

 with those paid in many other countries. As in Europe the 

 average welfare of the people is being maintained, and even ad- 

 vanced, in spite of growing numbers, by the increasing adop- 

 tion of manufactures, so in the East, as the stagnation of Eastern 

 civilisation is gradually lifted, will the industry of the teeming 

 millions of Asia seek the same welfare by the same means. 



The Future. 



The full effect of these tendencies in the future it is given 

 to no man to foresee. We have seen how many nations are 

 already dependent on others for supplies of food and raw 

 material, and how rapidly this dependence is growing. To 

 the greater part of Europe must be added Japan, and in the 

 near future probably China and possibly India. Later on 

 the United States will reach the same economic stage. The 

 United States is rapidly fulfilling the destiny clearly foreseen 

 for her by List when he wrote, in 1844, " For the same causes 

 which have raised Great Britain to her present exalted position 

 will (probably in the course of the next century) raise the 

 United States of America to a degree of industry, wealth, and 

 power which will surpass the position in which England stands 

 as far as at present England excels little Holland. In the 

 natural course of things the United States will increase their 

 population within that period to hundreds of millions of souls. 

 . . . The naval power of the western world will surpass 

 that of Great Britain as greatly as its coasts and rivers exceed 

 those of Britain in extent and magnitude." Development has 

 not been quite as rapid as List expected, but the vision of 

 List must be realised in the near future. What then will be 

 the position of the younger nations that have started later in 



