Growth of oiir internal Commerce. 11 



ing new markets for their niannfactures. are planting colonies, 

 France in Cochin China, Germany on the eastern and western 

 coasts of Africa and the islands of the Pacific. Portugal, aroused 

 to a new life, is determined to hold her remaining possessions in 

 Africa ; Russia is steadily adding to her dominions in Asia, and 

 her railway from the Caspian sea to Samarcand has opened 

 in western and a part of central Asia a market for her manufact- 

 ures and commerce hitherto supplied by Great Britain. 



United States. 



The United States is the only nation that has become great 

 without colonies and without foreign commerce and shipping. 

 Its vast extent of territory, where the east and west, the north 

 and south, are separated more widely than the colonies of Tyre 

 and Sidon or of Carthage and Rome from the mother countries ; 

 the great variety of climate, the fertile soil, its varied occupa- 

 tions and manufactures, and a widely distributed population, 

 have created an enormous inland commerce and given that trade 

 and wealth Avhich other countries find in commerce and exchange 

 with their colonies. Our population, wealth, internal commerce, 

 exports and imports have increased at a more rapid rate than 

 those of any other nation in a similar period. This is, not due 

 in any great degree to immigration, for our population has in- 

 creased in no greater ratio since this immigration commenced 

 than before, and experts believe that it would have been as large 

 and more homogeneous without immigration. We had at one 

 time a large foreign commerce, and our merchants were the first 

 to establish direct trade with China and the East Indies ; the 

 Stars and Stripes were seen floating on every sea and fl3dng in 

 every harbor, and for years we were the second maritime nation 

 of the world. 



The commerce of the world passed from Avooden sailing ships 

 to side-wheel steamers, to iron and then to steel j^ropellers ; 

 ' England Avas a Avorker in iron and machinery of every kind, we 

 AA'ere not. The civil Avar came and hastened the clay Avhich Avas 

 sure to come. Our shipping faded aAvay faster than it had 

 arisen, while that of Great Britain increased as rapidly as ours 

 decreased. This Avas not OAving to a decrease of our foreign 

 trade, for during the last tAventy years our exports and imports 

 have increased more than tAvice as rapidly as those of Great 



