138 COMMERCE AND EXCHANGE 



as an emporium for the Orient, a portion of the port and harbor 

 might be set aside as free territory. There are islands in the harbor 

 which would serve this purpose admirably. Within this free terri- 

 tory goods not the products of the Philippines themselves and not 

 destined for importation into the Philippines could be landed, trans- 

 shipped, etc., and vessels come and go free of restraint. As there is 

 no hope that the custom-houses can be abolished in the islands for 

 years to come, because of the need of revenue, some such plan is 

 necessary to restore Manila to her proper place in Oriental trade. 



The importance of Manila in Oriental trade may be illustrated in 

 another way than by the mere enumeration of her advantages of 

 location and the importance of the local products of her contiguous 

 territory. The fact that the Mexican dollar is the standard coin, 

 so far as there is any standard, in the greater part of Oriental trade, 

 shows the extent of Manila's- former commercial supremacy. For 

 two centuries a steady stream of these coins flowed through Manila 

 at the rate of from 250,000 to 3,000,000 Mexican dollars per annum 

 into her commercial connections. The extent of their dispersion 

 measures very nearly the extent of Manila's commercial influence. 

 That the United States, the only great Occidental nation still using 

 the dollar, should have entered the Orient over the pathway marked 

 out by that coin, is at least auspicious. 



Manila's commerce has responded rapidly to the advantages of 

 American rule. During the first three years of our administration 

 it grew to double that of the best year under Spanish rule, and has 

 grown apace ever since in face of war, with its devastation, pestilence, 

 and terrible agricultural reverses, and in spite of a new tariff and 

 a severe customs administrative law. 



SECTION 2 

 The Trans-Siberian Railway 



The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway took place so shortly 

 before the beginning of Russia's great diplomatic and military 

 struggle for the control of that railroad's best trade termini that no 

 satisfactory data are yet available to show the effects that enormous 

 enterprise will have. Much, too, turns upon the outcome of the 

 present war. It is obvious to the most superficial observer that 

 American and European trade interests in Manchuria and Northern 

 China will be safer under the yellow flag with its blue, green, and 

 red dragon, which, fierce as it looks, stands for the beneficent sway 

 of Sir Robert Hart, than in the claws of the Russian bear, or even 

 under the civilizing empire of the Mikado. But aside from the 

 problematical possible effects of artificial restraints on trade, the 

 Trans-Siberian Railroad will undoubtedly affect the markets and 



