Trade and the Flag 17 



a difficult language as the Chinese. 58 The trade of Turkey goes 

 to other countries than England because of " the wretched educa- 

 tion in modern languages with which most Englishmen are 

 afflicted " — a disadvantage not suffered by German and Austrian 

 commercial travellers. 59 China's trade with Chinese Turkestan 

 suffers because Chinese officials either are or pretend to be ignor- 

 ant of the language of the possession and as a rule employ Mo- 

 hammedan interpreters. 60 On the other hand, trade is encour- 

 aged between China and Manchuria because Chinese is the 

 working language of that colony. 



Trade is influenced by banking and monetary conditions. It 

 is true that with primitive peoples trade is still carried on to 

 some extent by means of barter, but such trade is necessarily 

 very limited in character. Business is certainly encouraged be- 

 tween countries having the same monetary standard, and the 

 extension of branch banking has been of great value in further- 

 ing commerce. The banking facilities of the West Indies have 

 had something to do with the large trade between the United 

 States and those Islands. 01 Now, since banking interests in the 

 colonies are usually to a large extent under the control of citizens 

 from the mother country, trade receives another encouragement 

 to follow the flag. These colonial banks are always of great ser- 

 vice to the trader in the home land. If the shipper has any doubt 

 as to the purchaser's reliability, he writes to the bank for infor- 

 mation. If he wishes the aid of a colonial lawyer or broker, he 

 writes to the colonial bank. If he visits the colony, he secures 

 a letter of introduction from the home bank to the colonial one, 

 and presents himself for advice as to the best openings in busi- 

 ness or as to efficient methods of developing trade. That the 

 United Kingdom, therefore, has an " Imperial banking system " 

 which centers in London is a matter of great commercial impor- 

 tance. Many of the colonial banks also have branch offices in 



M Cf. Wilder, " China," in U. S. Consular Reports, September, 1907, 76. 

 r,!> .Miller, Travels and Politics in the Near East, 495-496. 

 80 D easy, In Thibet and Chinese Turkestan, 331. 



61 Cf. discussion of paper by Flux, " Flag and Trade," in Journal of 

 Royal Statistical Society, 62 : 532. 



193 



