48 Minnie Thro op England 



touched upon is the fact that after the mother country has built 

 up a large trade with her colonies, no assurance can be given 

 her that she will retain the advantage. The trade of the world is 

 ever in a tumultuously dynamic condition. So delicate are the 

 adjustments, events of seeming insignificance may cause great 

 shiftings in the currents of commerce. (1) The disturbance may 

 be brought about by a cheapening of transportation, its greater 

 efficiency, or by the opening up of new routes. The opening up 

 of the Suez canal not only disturbed trade in Syria and adjoining 

 countries but caused a world readjustment. 163 Similar results 

 may be expected from the opening of the Panama canal. 164 (2) 

 Discoveries and inventions may cause a new product to displace 

 an old and staple one and thus upset established trade ar- 

 rangements. Yucatan has discovered a plant which is said to 

 make as good rope as now comes from Manila. Liquid fuel, 

 a residue from the petroleum wells of Netherlands India, is now 

 being used by many Dutch steamers. 165 During the phylloxera 

 period in France the taste of the consumer had changed and an 

 invention of a manufactured product broke into the sale of 

 French wines. (3) Changes in the area of crop culture, which 

 cause shiftings of trade, are occurring continuously. During 

 the French phylloxera troubles, vine-growing was started or 

 developed in Italy, Spain, Hungary, southern Russia and Al- 

 geria. 166 Tobacco is being raised in Europe to prevent European 

 dependence upon the United States. Tea is being tried in Texas 

 and Mexico. Cocoa plants are being grown in Samoa. The 

 United States is cultivating the silk worm instead of leaving 

 the industry to the Orient. The United States in turn must, in 

 the future, face an active competition in the cotton trade of the 

 world. German colonial enterprise in the cotton trade is meet- 

 ing with good success so that Togoland and German East Africa 



163 Cf. Guy, "French Colonial Expansion in the Nineteenth Century," in 

 International Monthly, 4: 516-517. 



164 Cf. Masuda, Japan, 122; U. S. Monthly Consular Reports, February, 



1 90S, 137- 



165 U. S. Monthly Consular Reports, February, 1905, 54. 



1M Lebon, " The Situation of France in International Commerce," in 

 International Monthly, 3 : 257. 



224 



