70 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



a deficiency of over 10,000,000 florins a year in her East India pos- 

 sessions. The budget for 1898 shows an expense etat of 146,150,164 

 florins, which is met by a revenue from all sources of but 135,204,203 

 florins. 



This is the richest part of the Malay world, and for centuries has 

 been in the possession of Europe's most enlightened people. The 

 results, if the per-capita unit of imports and exports is taken as a 

 criterion, are not different from those shown in the account of the 

 Philippines, governed for centuries by Spain. The loss of their 

 colonies is ascribed to the oppressive rule which the Spaniards exer- 

 cised. The Netherlands, devoting all their efforts to the development 

 of the resources of the islands, at least during the greater part of this 

 century, do not show much better results. The imports 2;er 

 capita of the Dutch possessions are $1.80, and the exports $2.63. 

 The imports of the Philippines are $1.50 and the exports $2.63 

 per capita. 



From this we may be permitted to deduce that the Malay Islands 

 are not likely to prove a more thankful field for cultivation by our 

 traders than to the extent indicated in the trade reports set forth 

 above. 



Under the conditions here delineated, it would be inviting all 

 the risks and dangers connected with expansion and colonization, 

 while nothing is to be gained in a commercial sense that can not be 

 realized by the means now in our hands. 



All the ends of trade can be attained without territorial expan- 

 sion. The trade in the hands of peoples under English sovereignty 

 is open to all commerce on equal terms'. Not even the sovereign 

 country, except in the recent concessions by Canada, receives a prefer- 

 ence. The protection of the British flag is tendered gratis to the 

 colonies and dependencies. The imports of these countries cover 

 about one half of the trade of all the world, outside of Europe 

 and the United States. Though they have but 4.67 per cent of 

 the population, the Anglo-Saxon colonies do sixty-nine per cent 

 of the trade of all the colonies and dependencies of the British 

 Empire. 



South and Central America absorb about one fourth — 24.6 per 

 cent of imports and 26.Y per cent of exports — of the world's trade 

 here summarized. The colonies peopled by Anglo-Saxon popula- 

 tion and the Latin- American states together, though but 7.3 per 

 cent of the inhabitants, do an importing trade of 57.4 per cent of 

 the trade of the world here reviewed. The countries trading under 

 the protection of the British flag and the Latin- American states com- 

 bined have about seventy-three per cent of that trade among them. 

 All this trade, as w^ell as by far the greatest part of the rest, is incon- 



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