Ships and Cargoes : 195 



fashions, all kinds of equipment for ladies' wear such as hats and 

 hosiery, gloves, perfumes, etc., special foods and wines, etc. 



Switzerland sends clocks, watches and watch machinery, precision 

 machine tools, toys and music boxes, etc., cheeses and chocolates, etc. 



The list could be extended to many countries and many products. 

 Of course over the centuries changes have taken place. In the begin- 

 ning America and Canada shipped abroad raw materials and bulk 

 agricultural products. In exchange the Western nations bought from 

 Europe nearly all their finished or processed or manufactured prod- 

 ucts. As the American countries grew they set up their own proc- 

 essing and manufacturing plants and did an increasing amount 

 of work on their own materials. This was often crude work but 

 avoided shipping charges and duties and sold at reasonable prices 

 compared with imported articles. Gradually American manufactures 

 supplanted many foreign imports, a process that was encouraged 

 and speeded up at times of hostility, crisis or war — which was 

 often enough. In the nineteenth century America in part reversed the 

 previous theories of trade by taking a lead in the quantity production 

 of low-cost manufactured articles that could compete in world trade. 



By the first quarter of the twentieth century a view or theory had 

 grown among economists and historians that Atlantic trade and 

 travel was, for the most part, made up of east and west passages fol- 

 lowing recognized bands of latitude and that this condition was 

 more or less inevitable and likely to continue. Furthermore, it was 

 supposed that this trade was competitive in character in most stages 

 such as raw materials, processed goods and manufactures. 



Now in mid-century their views require revision, at least with re- 

 spect to their absolute and irrevocable character. East and west trans- 

 atlantic trade is as brisk and lively as ever and probably necessary to 

 the health and welfare of both shores. It has not fallen apart but to it 

 there has been added, year by year since the close of World War II, an 

 increasing Atlantic trade between North America and the Caribbean 

 and North America and South America. Trade flows in both direc- 

 tions but is not quite equal. In this trade the northern countries sup- 

 ply manufactured goods of all kinds and the southern countries send 

 raw materials or raw or easily processed agricultural products. There 

 is variability from year to year, but in favorable years, if the north 

 and south trade of the Pacific ports is added to that of the Atlantic 

 ports, the total in volume and value begins to rival transatlantic trade 

 between Europe and America. Thus a new dimension and a new pat- 

 tern have been added to the fabric of Atlantic trade. 



