THE PROBABLE EFFECT OF THE PANAMA 

 CANAL ON THE COMMERCIAL GEOG- 

 RAPHY OF THE WORLD 



By O. P. Austin 



HAT will be the effect of the 

 Panama Canal upon the com- 

 mercial and travel geography 



of the world? Will it change travel 

 routes, stimulate commerce, and bring 

 the people of great land-masses into 

 closer relationship? 



The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, short- 

 ened the travel distance between western 

 Europe and eastern Asia by 3,400 miles, 

 and in doing so opened new highways of 

 travel and traffic, multiplied interchanges 

 of merchandise, and developed closer re- 

 lations between the Occident and the 

 Orient. The Panama Canal will shorten 

 travel routes between New York and 

 Yokohama by 3,750 miles ; between New 

 York and Shanghai, about 2,000 miles ; 

 between New York and Australia, about 

 3,000 miles, and between New York and 

 western South America by from 3,500 

 to 7,000 miles. It will also reduce the 

 distance from Europe to western South 

 America by 3,000 miles and to western 

 North America by more than 5,000 miles. 



Will it also divert travel and traffic 

 from the present established routes, stim- 

 ulate commerce, and develop closer rela- 

 tions between the people of the countries 

 thus brought closer together? 



International commerce doubled in the 

 30 years following the opening of the 

 Suez Canal, and business and personal 

 inter-relationship between the Occident 

 and the Orient was increased in like pro- 

 portion. Will similar results follow the 

 like shortening of trade and travel routes 

 by the Panama Canal ? 



WHAT DETERMINES STEAMSHIP ROUTES 



Highways of travel on the ocean are 

 influenced by surrounding conditions just 

 as are those on land. The shortest dis- 

 tance between two given points is not al- 

 ways the best on the ocean any more 

 than is the case on a continent or island. 

 True, the ocean surface gives a level 



"road-bed'' for a direct line of travel, 

 while a route over a land surface must 

 make frequent detours to obtain even ap- 

 proximate levels for moving great quan- 

 tities of merchandise. 



But there are other important condi- 

 tions which affect the ocean route. Plen- 

 tiful freight supplies, present and pro- 

 spective, interchangeability of the prod- 

 ucts of the countries forming the termini 

 of the routes, "way stations'' on such 

 routes, plentiful coaling stations, and 

 cheap coal of a quality suitable for steam- 

 ship engines, and even favorable winds 

 and ocean currents are among the fac- 

 tors contributing to the success of routes 

 of travel upon the ocean. 



Argentina, for example, has ample 

 supplies of freight, but steamship lines 

 do not develop rapidly between that 

 country and the United States because 

 most of the Argentine products are sim- 

 ilar to our own, and there is no reason 

 why she should send her wheat and corn 

 and pork to this country, which has a 

 surplus of those articles. Cuba, the 

 world's greatest producer of cane sugar, 

 sends little if any of it to Europe, be- 

 cause that part of the world produces 

 from beets all the sugar it requires. Eng- 

 land, the world's greatest coal exporter, 

 sends no coal to the United States, which 

 has unlimited supplies of her own. So, 

 shortening of distances between great 

 sections will not develop steamship busi- 

 ness unless the products of the two sec- 

 tions are of such character as to justify 

 exchanges. 



In some instances, however, steamship 

 routes adjust themselves to locally ad- 

 verse conditions. The steamer which 

 carries wheat and corn and meat from 

 Argentina to Europe may bring the silks 

 and woolens and laces of Europe to the 

 United States and then return to Argen- 

 tina loaded with agricultural implements, 

 iron and steel manufactures, and mineral 



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