364 



NA TURE 



[August 8, 1907 



tions of geography and commerce from an historical point 

 of view, which at least gives one the opportunity of con- 

 fining oneself to less debatable ground than is entered on 

 when one ventures on prophecy, that " most gratuitous 

 form of error," as it is styled by George Eliot. That 1 

 shall be able to keep wholly free from debatable matter 

 is more than I can hope, but it is my intention to try to 

 avoid it as much as possible by illustrating my subject 

 chiefly by reference to the broad, familiar facts of com- 

 merce considered in the light of geographical and other 

 implications that may be described as obvious — obvious, 

 and yet perhaps not unimportant and not unworthy of 

 having attention specially called to them ; for, after all, 

 the obvious is obvious only to those who are looking in 

 the right direction and with the proper focus, not to those 

 who are looking another way or far beyond what is 

 immediately before them. 



.As the first of these obvious considerations I may point 

 out that unquestionably the foundation of commerce is 

 the mutual advantage to be derived from the exchange of 

 coiumodities produced in different places. Geographical 

 relations are therefore of necessity implied in commerce. 

 But those who carry on commerce have always aimed at 

 tile greatest possible advantage to themselves, and the 

 commerce that has always attracted the greatest attention 

 is that which has resulted in the greatest additions to their 

 wealth. Peculiar importance therefore belongs to the geo- 

 graphical relations between regions which in any given 

 circumstances lead to the most profitable exchanges. 



But before applying this consideration there is another 

 point which must detain us a little. In speaking of wealth 

 as I have just done I am aware that I have made use 

 of a term which economists recognise as one requiring a 

 great deal of exposition to prevent misunderstanding, and 

 there is not the slightest doubt that in the history of com- 

 merce it has led to great misunderstanding, and therefore 

 it is necessary, without entering upon an economic dis- 

 quisition on the subject, to consider the meaning of the 

 term " wealth " sufiiciently to indicate the way in which 

 that misunderstanding has arisen. For this purpose it will 

 be most convenient not to give one of the highly abstract 

 definitions of wealth which a modern political economist 

 will give us, but to go back to the more concrete con- 

 siderations set forth by Adam Smith, who tells us that 

 " the wealth of a country consists not in its gold and 

 silver only, but in its lands, houses, and consumable 

 goods of all different kinds."' Now no definition of 

 wealth is given by economists which excludes this last 

 form of wealth, but the misunderstanding to which I refer 

 arises from the fact that this form of wealth is apt to 

 be overlooked. It may happen that a country or region 

 produces a great abundance of consumable goods in pro- 

 portion to its population, and hence from this point of 

 view be entitled to be regarded as wealthv, and vet may 

 not be a country or region that attracts much attention 

 by its wealth. What has always attracted attention to 

 wealth, and what has caused wealth to have an important 

 effect in directing the main streams of commerce, and 

 commerce to have an important effect, direct or indirect, 

 on hi.story, has been the accumulation of much wealth 

 in few hands, .so that a comparatively small number of 

 people in a community have enjoyed, directly or indirectlv, 

 the command of a great deal of labour, have had the 

 means of providing themselves with commodious and 

 luxurious houses, with a variety of other comforts, 

 luxuries, and splendours, and over and above that the 

 means of so directing labour as to add still further to 

 their wealth. Such conditions may exist where the great 

 bulk of the population are extremely poor. 



Now, it happens that wherever a great abundance of 

 consumable commodities is produced on a relatively small 

 •jrea there is always in that area a greater or smaller 

 number of Individuals in whose hands much wealth is 

 concentrated. It is for economists to explain how this 

 comes about, or has come about, but it is a fact of the 

 utmost importance for geographers to bear in mind in 

 considering the relations of commerce and geography. 



The existence of a relatively dense population may be 

 due to different causes, such as a great abundance of 

 agricultural products, the carrying on of mining or manu- 

 ' "Wealth of Nation!!," book iv., ch. i. 



37 1 



facturing industries, the concentration of the administra- 

 tion of a great dominion, or the pursuit of commerce 

 itself. Where it is due to any cause but the production 

 of great quantities of the necessaries of life foodstuffs 

 must be imported in large quantities, and where the pur- 

 suit of manufactures is the cause, or one of the chief 

 causes, then the importing of raw materials is entailed. 

 Where these are most advantageously found there also 

 much wealth is likely to be accumulated in few hands. 



further it is to be noted that where a comparatively 

 small number have the cominand of much wealth there 

 is sure to be a demand for things of such value that they 

 can be bought only by the wealthy, things that are more 

 or less rare, such as precious metals, jewels, gems, ivory, 

 fine woods, ornamental skins and feathers, manufactured 

 goods of rare materials or of fine quality, as well as, in 

 many places and in most periods of history, slaves. Such 

 trade is necessarily liinited in amount, but puts great 

 profits in the hands of those who carry it on with success, 

 and for that reason attracts attention. 



With this class of goods may be associated certain 

 others that may be regarded as intermediate in position 

 between those which are bought only by the wealthy and 

 those which are not merely generally consumed but also 

 very widely produced. Amongst these may be mentioned 

 salt, the consumption of which is universal, but the pro- 

 duction of which, away from the seaboards of the warmer 

 latitudes, though in a sense widespread, is strictly con- 

 fined to scattered spots. \ more interesting example is 

 that of spices, one of which, pepper, has from a remote 

 period been very generally consumed, but in still smaller 

 quantity than salt, and for that reason has been able to 

 bear still higher transport costs. For ages these costs 

 were very high, for various reasons, amongst which were 

 risks both numerous and great, but the profits of those 

 who were successful in the trade were proportionately 

 high. 



Peculiar importance in commercial geography is thereby 

 given to the relations between the regions that yield or 

 yielded spices and those in which they were consumed at 

 a great distance frorii the place of origin, and one of the 

 most important facts in human history is that for many 

 hundreds of years an extremely valuable trade in these 

 commodities was carried on between India and the 

 Mediterranean. Spices no doubt were less talked about, 

 less prominent as symbols of wealth, than gems and 

 jewels, fine woods and ivory, but they formed the basis 

 of a larger trade, which was in the aggregate probably 

 more profitable than that in the still more costly wares. 



The geographical relations between India and the 

 Mediterranean necessarily determined the routes followed 

 by this traliic. These routes were singularly few. They 

 were practically confined for the most part to minor 

 variations in two main routes, one by way of the Red 

 Sea, the other by the Persian Gulf. At more than one 

 period of history, in very early times in the days of the 

 splendour of Assyria and Babylonia, and again in the 

 flourishing days of the Caliphs of Baghdad, the Persian 

 Gulf route had a peculiar advantage in the existence of 

 the large and rich populations that afforded an inter- 

 mediate market ; and another important fact in the rela- 

 tions of geograpliy and commerce, one that has had vast 

 effects on human history, is that the physical conditions 

 of the area between the head of the Persian Gulf and the 

 Mediterranean are and throughout human history have 

 been such as to make the most convenient outlet of that 

 route some point or points on that seaboard which in 

 ancient times was known as Phoenicia. Between that sea- 

 board and the Euphrates the desert is sufficiently narrowed 

 to be most easily crossed. The most favoured outlets on 

 this seaboard were not always the same. They varied in 

 different circumstances, which gave a different geographical 

 value now to one point, now to another. But on these 

 variations, interesting and instructive as they are from 

 a geographical point of view, there is no time to enter 

 on this occasion, and it will be enough to call attention 

 to a very interesting paper by the late Elis(5e Reclus 

 entitled "La Phdnicie et les Ph^niciens," dealing with 

 this and other matters connected with the geographical 

 basis of Phoenician commerce and industry, a paper too 

 that is apt to be overlooked, inasmuch as it was con- 



NO. 1 97 I, VOL. 76] 



