24 COLONIAL SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD 



in running expenses than those operated by private corpora 

 tions. In nearly all the colonies there are savings banks in con- 

 junction with the post-offices, and the deposits in the savings 

 banks of the colonies amount to more than $300,000,000. 



In the import trade of Great Britain the colonies also prove 

 advantageous from the British standpoint. Over one-fifth of 

 the more than two billion dollars which Great Britain sends out- 

 side of her immediate limits in purchase of supplies is spent 

 among the people of her colonies and thus largely contributes 

 to the prosperity of either British colonists or British capital. 

 That the industries of the colonies are to a considerable extent 

 controlled by British capital goes without saying, and that the 

 expenditure of nearly 500 million dollars of British money in 

 British colonies each year for the products of those colonies must 

 benefit the capital thus employed and so reflect to the business 

 advantage of the home country, whence that capital is drawn, is 

 equally apparent. The total imports into Great Britain from the 

 colonies in 1896 were over 93 million pounds sterling, and in 

 1891 were over 99 million pounds sterling, or, in round terms, 500 

 million dollars, forming more than one-fifth of the total imports 

 into the United Kingdom. 



Considering the commercial side of the recent developments 

 in the relations of the United States with Cuba, Puerto Rico, 

 Hawaii, and the Philippines, three questions arise: 



1. Will these islands in the new relations furnish an in- 

 creased market for our surplus products ? 



2. Will any of them prove a door through which a still larger 

 market may be found for our surplus products? 



3. Will they supply any considerable share of the products 

 for which we have been accustomed to expend money in foreign 

 countries and thus permit its expenditure among our own people 

 or in support of industries represented by the capital of our own 

 people? 



The imports into Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philip- 

 pines under normal conditions have reached nearly or quite 100 

 million dollars arinuallyj and with the developments consequent 

 upon new methods and the inflow of American capital seeking 

 investment would natural!}' materially increase. This, however, 

 is but a small sum compared with the markets offered by the 

 countries commercially adjacent to the Philippine islands and 

 to which the port and city of Manila might prove an entrepot for 

 the distribution of American products. The population of the 



