Trade and the Flag 25 



vegetables and tropical fruits. Cotton, tea, coffee and sugar are 

 also cultivated. Coal, antimony and the precious metals are 

 abundant. Railroads, transport lines and new industries are 

 being rapidly introduced and the outlook for the material prog- 

 ress of these regions is very promising. But France must solve 

 two great problems before these vast resources can be developed. 

 These are the maintenance of tranquillity among the native popu- 

 lations and the immigration of enough Frenchmen to promote and 

 to manage properly the proposed enterprises. The framework 

 of success has been prepared, but so far the principal actors are 

 still lacking. 92 



Among the French possessions Algeria and Tunis enjoy ex- 

 ceptional prosperity. The commerce of Algeria is largely in the 

 hands of the French. The growth of the wine industry has been 

 very remarkable. 93 The chief export is wine, a fact of especial 

 interest to France since she is the greatest wine-consuming coun- 

 try in the world. Tunis has a better climate and richer soil than 

 Algeria, 94 and is undergoing a great commercial development — 

 greater even than Algeria. Still more prosperity is predicted for 

 Tunis when the great trade route from the Mediterranean to 

 Lake Tchad hiithe heart of Africa is opened up. "French in- 

 fluence in Africa will then receive a commercial expansion that 

 is its due." 93 



There are two factors to be taken into consideration in order 

 to account for the small trade of the French possessions in West 

 Africa (Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Dahomey) as com- 

 pared with the immense area of the country. In the first place, 

 enormous districts of the French possessions are not at all fertile 

 and produce only one marketable commodity — gum from the 



02 Morris, History of Colonization, 1: 454-455. 



93 The Wine Industry in Algeria. 



Year. Gallons produced. 



1S72 4,994,000 



l88o 9,504,000 



1888 60,742,000 



1898 IOO,I94,6oO 



Mansfield, In the Land of Mosques and Minarets, 55~56- 

 91 Cf. Clayton. Lcs colonics francaises, 233. 

 88 Mansfield, op. cit., 62. 



20I 



