50 Minnie Throop England 



land her carrying trade in Asiatic waters. Recently the chair- 

 man of directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Naviga- 

 tion Company at the London meeting announced that there would 

 be no dividend for the year just past because of Japanese compe- 

 tition — an announcement which is " pregnant with meaning and 

 prophetic of greater changes yet to come." 174 When China 

 emerges from the darkness the chances are that she will demand 

 a share of the markets of the world and even take possession of 

 much additional territory. 175 All this simply means that no trade, 

 whether it be between the mother country and her colonies or 

 between two foreign countries, can be regarded as a certain factor 

 upon which reliance can be placed for estimating the value of 

 trade in the future. 



There is also reason to believe that the proportion of imperial- 

 istic trade which is due to political relations decreases as the 

 colony becomes older. The knowledge of world conditions is 

 continually becoming more diffused on account of faster, cheaper, 

 and more efficient transportation which brings all countries into 

 closer relations with each other. The result is that the sentiment 

 regarding the security of a particular flag is becoming less and 

 capital is becoming denationalized. Aside from this, as a colony 

 becomes more prosperous and more secure, foreign capital and 

 foreign trade is attracted to it. Then the need for large gov- 

 ernmental investments decreases as a colony is developed and 

 trade shrinks accordingly. The tropical and sub-tropical colonies 

 are so largely unfit for settlement that, after the first opening up 

 of a colony during which period officers are installed and traders 

 flock in, there is little growth of white population to be antici- 

 pated and therefore trade is not encouraged to follow the citizen. 

 The community of tastes which tends to confine trade to the 

 mother country is also of waning importance. The increase of 

 trade occurs chiefly, not in articles in which tastes differ, but 

 rather in standardized articles such as wheat, cotton, wool, gold, 

 oil, calicoes, yarns and fruit. 170 Besides as a colony becomes 



174 Allen, Things Korean, 254-255. 



175 Jack, Back Blocks of China, 257. 



179 Cf. Caldecott, English Colonisation and Empire, 187. 



226 



