Problems of the Pacific 



3°9 



iron and steel, machinery of all kinds, 

 especially agricultural, cars, engines, 

 and other material for railways, manu- 

 factures of leather — in fact, nearly every 

 class of manufacture for which we are 

 seeking a market — enter into and make 

 up the grand total of the very large and 

 constantly growing importations. In 

 British India cotton yarns and cloths, 

 clothing, machinery, metals, hardware 

 and cutler} 7 , railway cars and carriages, 

 engines, and mineral oils form the bulk 

 of the imports. In the other countries 

 and islands, whose imports aggregate a 

 large sum, the class of goods imported 

 is similar to those already named, and 

 are almost exclusively of the class for 

 which our people are seeking a market. 

 Upon the map now presented are shown 

 the figures of the commerce of each of 

 the principal countries of the Orient. 



Thus it will be seen that the com- 

 merce, present and prospective, of the 

 Orient and the United States may prop- 

 erly be termed complemental : the Ori- 

 ent produces the articles which we must 

 have, and is in many cases the world's 

 chief producer of those articles, while 

 on the other hand it demands, in ever- 

 increasing quantities, the articles which 

 we produce and desire to sell. 



Having thus shown that the Orient 

 produces the world's chief supply of 

 the articles which we must always im- 

 port, and that its chief importations are 

 of articles which we desire to export, 

 I propose to consider the share which 

 we now have in supplying those arti- 

 cles and whether we are succeeding in 

 the attempt to compete with other na- 

 tions for that trade. 



This may be fairly tested by taking 

 the total imports of those countries at 

 decennial periods and learning the share 

 of those imports which were drawn from 

 the United States and the share drawn 

 from our chief rival for that trade — the 

 United Kingdom. I have chosen for 

 the first measurement of that commerce 

 the year 1S68, because it immediately 



preceded the opening of the Suez canal, 

 which occurred in 1869, and by com- 

 paring the commerce of that year with 

 that of later dates we may at the same 

 time determine, in some degree, the 

 effect of that artificial waterway upon 

 commerce with the Orient. 



In this calculation I have included 

 the commerce of that great semicircle 

 of countries having the Philippines as 

 a central point — China, Japan, Korea, 

 Hongkong, French East Indies, Siam, 

 the Straits Settlements, India and Cey- 

 lon, British Australasia, the Dutch East 

 Indies, and the Philippine and Hawaiian 

 Islands — their total population being 

 about half that of the entire globe. I 

 find that the imports of those countries 

 which were, in round terms, 575 millions 

 in 1868, increased to 760 millions by 

 1880, to 1,025 millions in 1890, and 

 1,260 millions in 1900, while their ex- 

 ports grew from 588 millions in 1868 to' 

 1,275 millions in 1900, their total com- 

 merce having thus considerably more 

 than doubled since the opening of the 

 Suez canal. But this is not all. In 

 this great increase of commercial activ- 

 ity in the Orient, this "awakening of 

 the East," the United States, although 

 at a disadvantage from lack of direct 

 water communication, has made phe- 

 nomenal gains. In 1868 the countries 

 which I have named took less than 

 $8,000,000 worth of their imports from 

 the United States, or less than 2 per 

 cent of the grand total of their imports. 



By 1880 they had increased that sum 

 to over 30 millions ; in 1890 it was more 

 than 60 millions, and in 1900 over no 

 millions, or about 14 times as much as 

 in 1868, and forming 10 per cent of the 

 grand total of their imports, instead of 

 2 percent, as in 1868. At the same time 

 we dealt generously with them in our 

 purchases of their raw silks, and teas, 

 and rice, and sugar, and tobacco, and 

 spices ; and their exports to the United 

 States grew from 22 millions in 1868 to 

 162 millions in 1900. Meantime their 



