326 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
CHAPTER X. 
COMMERCE. 
§ 233. General Advantages——California is now the most 
important commercial state on the shores of the North Pacific, 
and it will continue to hold its present relative position. Near- 
ly all the foreign commerce will be done by San Francisco, 
which has advantages superior to those of any other place on 
the coast between the Isthmus of Panama and Puget Sound, 
or on the coast of Asia. Her only equal, in the waters of the 
Pacific, is Melbourne. Several ports of China and Japan may 
have as much shipping; but the people of those countries are 
only semi-civilized, and we shall take their trade, and make 
them tributary to us. 
In estimating the commercial advantages of California, we 
must consider the yield of our gold, silver, and quicksilver 
mines; the produce of our grain-fields, vineyards, orchards, 
and saw-mills; the mineral resources of Western Mexico; the 
lumber and fisheries of Washington territory and Oregon; the 
gold of British Columbia; the whale-oil and whale-bone of the 
North Pacific; and the industrial products of China and Japan. 
California is in the position to be the common carrier for all 
the countries bordering on the North Pacific. Between Puget 
Sound and Valparaiso there is on this coast no port that can 
prove a dangerous rival to San Francisco. As the population, 
wealth, and industry of this coast increase, and as the foreign 
commerce of China and Japan becomes more extended, the 
trade of San Francisco must continue to grow in at least an 
equal ratio. The increase, in every event, is certain. 
