Trade and the Flag 41 



by colonial trade. Yet there is some truth in the English charge 

 that the French would rather that their colonies would remain 

 undeveloped than have them developed by other trade than their 

 own. The English, on the other hand, believe that if their 

 colonies prosper the mother country will get her share of the 

 benefits. 



The third obstacle to the development of tropical commerce 

 is more difficult to surmount than the two just mentioned. It is 

 the lack of a reliable labor supply. Authorities differ greatly as 

 to the difficulties in the way of the solution of this problem. The 

 importance of the question none deny. The economic history of 

 the tropics for the last two or three centuries is chiefly an account 

 of the efforts of landowners to secure an adequate labor supply. 

 Since the abolition of slavery the sources of labor have been free 

 negroes and imported laborers, chiefly Chinese and East Indians. 

 Theoretically there are four possible sources of labor supply for 

 the tropics : white, negro, East Indian and Chinese. Yet until 

 the white man gives more promise of being able to live even a 

 quiet and nonstrenuous life \n the tropics, it is of little use to 

 consider him as a possible source of labor supply in developing 

 tropical colonies. 141 Ireland says that in " no part of the tropics 

 can manual labor be performed by white men, and it has always 

 been found that, in places where the laboring classes are com- 

 posed of colored men, only the very highest occupations will be 

 taken up by white men. A natural limit is thus set to the pro- 

 portion of white men which can be supported by any community 

 in the tropics." 142 According to Bigelow the white man has never 

 shown any great taste for arduous manual labor in the tropics, 

 yet one reason why he has not attempted this is the simple one 

 that his services have had a greater economic value if devoted 

 to the superintendence of black labor than if he attempted the 

 heavier work. White sailors, he says, keep on with their work 

 in the tropics the same as in cooler climates and "' soldiers fight 

 as well in India as in Northern China." The excessive mortality 



Cf. Ireland, Cliina and the Pozvcrs, 15. 

 Ireland, Far Eastern Tropics, 17. 



217 



