12 G. G. Hubbard — TJte Evolution of Coonmercc. 



Britain.* Eighty-seven per cent of these exports and imports 

 are carried in British ships, consigned to English houses which 

 have been established in ever}'- large port in the world, and the 

 ]jroceeds are usually remitted to the London banker. 



Fortunately, our flag never disappeared from our inland waters 

 and from our coasting trade ; for foreigners are excluded from 

 the coasting trade, even where the ports are fifteen thousand 

 miles apart by water. 



The substitution of steamers for sailing ships and of steel for 

 wooden propellers, which took place from ten to twenty years 

 ago on the ocean, is now going rapidly on upon our lakes. Where 

 in 1886 there were but six st6el propellers, now there are sixty- 

 eight; and of 2,225 vessels on the northern lakes, 1,153 are 

 steamers, 902 are sailing vessels. The action of Congress in 

 providing for the construction and equipment of war vessels by 

 competition has led our ship-builders within the last eight years 

 to establish ship-yards and machine shops where the largest 

 ships can be Imilt, and we are how building as large and fast 

 vessels of war as England. Our ship-builders claim that they can 

 construct ships ec|ual in carrying capacity, speed and strength to 

 those of Great Britain, and at no greater cost; though they can- 

 not be run so cheaply because our sailors are better housed, fed 

 and paid than those of other nations. The day will surely come 

 when commerce will make her last movement westward, when 

 America, lying between Europe and Asia, with her boundless 

 mineral and agricultural resources, her manufacturing facilities, 

 her extended sea-coasts, will be the foremost nation and New 

 York the commercial capital of the world. 



Nicaragua Canal. 



From New York to San Francisco by land is about 3,000 miles, 

 by water it is about 15,000 miles ; yet, notwithstanding the 

 'greater distance, freight is constantly sent by Avater. From San 

 Francisco it is about the same distance by water to either New 

 York or London. If a waterway could be opened across the 

 isthmus of Panama from one ocean to the other, the distance 

 from New York to San Francisco would be. diminished more than 



* The exports of the United States have increased 112 per cent, the ex- 

 ports and imports 92 per cent ; the exports of Great Britain 35 per cent, 

 her exports and imports 37 per cent. 



