Commercial Prize of the Orient 



From "China's Open Door," by Rounsevelle Wildman. Copyright, 1901, L,othrop Publishing Company 



Transportation in China. Camel Train Outside the Pekin Wall Military Gate 



A modern train of cars carries as much as 5,000 camels 



west, part of the trade for northern 

 Europe going by the way of the Medi- 

 terranean and Atlantic and a part by 

 land by the way of Nuremburg, Leip- 

 zig, Cologne, and other cities of the 

 interior. 



While all this was happening there 

 came out of the Orient itself a move- 

 ment which resulted in a great enlarge- 

 ment of the trade with that section. It 

 was the one occasion, prior to the sec- 

 ond half of the century just ended, in 

 which the Orient has shown a disposi- 

 tion to extend its trade relations with 

 the Occident. The Mohammedan Em- 

 pire, originating in the western part of 

 that section which we still designate as 

 the Orient, expanded rapidly in all direc- 

 tions until its boundaries reached the 

 Atlantic Ocean on the west and India 



and China on the east, while its influ- 

 ence extended even farther eastward. 

 This of itself might not have been of 

 such material importance, but when it 

 is considered that the Mohammedans 

 were naturally a commercial people, and 

 that Mohammed himself commended 

 commerce and agriculture as ' ' both 

 meritorious and pleasing to God," it is 

 not surprising that their area of control 

 and influence stimulated commerce be- 

 tween Europe and the most distant parts 

 of the earth. The products of Spain, 

 Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, and south- 

 ern Russia were carried from the West 

 to Mecca, Damascus, Aden, and other 

 cities of the East, and were there ex- 

 changed for the products of Persia, In- 

 dia, China, and the islands of the Indian 

 archipelago. Slaves, tiger skins, cotton 



